Dungeon Odyssey [EN]: Chapter 277

Dungeon Journal-277

# 277

Dungeon Journal

278. The Usurper’s True Name

Mimir, who had been babbling to save his life, stopped and stared at Kim Jin-woo.

“What do you mean…?”

“Just as you heard. I am one of the fragments the Wandering Lord left in the Underworld.”

Mimir barely managed to utter a word, his eyes darting around, disbelief and horror slowly spreading across his face.

“I, I thought the Lord inherited the name of the One-Eyed Lord…”

“That’s not wrong either.”

Now Mimir wore a completely blank expression and began to mutter like a madman.

“It can’t be. It just can’t be. The vessel of the Wandering Lord bearing the name of the One-Eyed Lord! That’s absolutely impossible!”

In truth, the name he inherited wasn’t just that of the One-Eyed Lord, but there was no need to tell him that.

All that was needed to continue the conversation was a fragment of the Wanderer.

“Whether you believe it or not, the truth doesn’t change, no matter how hard you try to deny it.”

“Th, then the mask going to the Lord was also…”

At Mimir’s words, Kim Jin-woo remembered the Hypocrite’s Mask, which he had completely forgotten, and reflexively rummaged through his pockets.

“D, don’t take it out!”

But he soon had to stop his hand, as Mimir, pale as a sheet, frantically stopped him.

“I, if everything the Lord says is true, you mustn’t wear that mask!”

Mimir, his face pale, fearlessly approached and clung to his hand.

“When fragments meet, the larger piece devours the smaller one. Just like the Lord absorbed the fragments of the old lords.”

The fragment of the One-Eyed Lord, Ustus, had given its power and vanished, and the same was true of the Radiant Lord’s fragment.

“Don’t even think about testing it, trusting in the power of the High Lord. No matter how much power the Lord possesses, the result won’t change. Fragments are just like that.”

Mimir warned him several times with an unusually serious tone.

“Could that have been the plan from the start?”

Kim Jin-woo frowned, recalling the messages that particularly urged him to wear the mask.

If he had trusted the message’s recommendation and worn the mask then, it would probably be the Wandering Lord, not himself, standing here. The moment he realized this, he felt the anger and hatred he had barely managed to contain rising again.

Although he had avoided having his body stolen, nothing had changed. He had to live his life carrying a bomb that could explode at any moment. He unintentionally gained a weakness.

That fact made him extremely uncomfortable, and he gripped the mask in his pocket tightly.

“Feels awful.”

His expression turned fierce at the feel of the mask, which didn’t budge even under the grip that could turn solid rock into powder.

“It seems something we don’t know is happening.”

Mimir still looked uneasy, but he hadn’t forgotten his situation, and soon told him everything he knew.

“The Usurper planted seeds in the Underworlders born in the Depths, and thanks to that, Underworlders who wouldn’t have survived in this harsh Underworld environment were able to survive.”

The dungeon babies of the Depths, who survived in the harsh environment that couldn’t be compared to the Lower Floors, each possessed special abilities thanks to the seeds planted by the Usurper.

“But I don’t understand. Isn’t the Usurper the one who ended the ancient era? Why would the Usurper scatter the seeds of the High Lords, who could be called enemies, everywhere? I just don’t understand.”

“Because the Usurper and the High Lords weren’t enemies in the first place.”

“Yes?”

Mimir frowned, not understanding what this sudden statement meant. But Kim Jin-woo just muttered to himself, whether Mimir was curious or not.

“But I can’t be sure of that anymore.”

The reason the High Lords had to leave the Underworld was a promise to fulfill a grand plan, and they finally fulfilled that promise by facing their own deaths.

But the Usurper was not. If the Usurper had really kept the promise, the Underworld couldn’t be in this state.

“A Lord’s True Name encompasses the origin of their existence. Having been called the Lord of Betrayal for so long, it seems the Usurper has forgotten his true name.”

Mimir hesitated, opening and closing his mouth several times before asking.

“What exactly did you see there?”

Kim Jin-woo stared at Mimir without answering. Hatred and madness swirled beyond his deeply sunken eyes, and Mimir, startled as if he had seen something he shouldn’t have, lowered his head and stammered.

“I, I asked something unnecessary. You don’t have to worry about it…”

“I saw the Twilight.”

Mimir’s eyes widened. He raised his eyes in surprise at hearing an answer he hadn’t expected at all, and then opened his mouth again in surprise at the content.

“And I saw fragments of a broken dream.”

“What does that mean…?”

“What the old lords wanted was a more perfect world.”

Kim Jin-woo was no longer looking at Mimir. His eyes were blurred as if they were directed somewhere beyond.

“They wanted to unite the divided and fragmented world into one, and they willingly gathered their strength.”

He recalled the memories of the past that Holidscarf had shown him.

“But they failed. As a result, a terrible disaster befell the Underworld. The sun and moon, which faintly illuminated the Underworld, began to tilt. And eventually, the Twilight came to the Underworld.”

A past story that Mimir might also know.

“The lords were severely wounded, but they were finally able to overcome the Twilight. But that wasn’t the end. The tilting moon and sun eventually fell, and ‘Night’ came to the Underworld.”

But it was also an ancient secret that Mimir didn’t know.

“The lords, having exhausted all their strength, could not overcome the Night, and were killed by it. Only the One-Eyed, the Wandering, and Benevolence survived.”

They could have driven out the Night, but in return, the One-Eyed lost even his remaining eye, and the Wandering had his feet cut off. Only the High Lord of Benevolence could preserve his power.

“The real tragedy began then.”

Instead of being grateful for the sacred sacrifice of the old lords, the survivors rushed to take the Radiant Blood flowing from their bodies.

The One-Eyed and the Wandering, who had suffered irreparable wounds, were too exhausted to protect their power and bodies from the madness of the survivors.

The Lord of Benevolence alone was not strong enough to handle so many people.

“Benevolence could not bear to see the greed of the maddened filling their bellies with the sacred power of the lords. So he chose to unite them into one and become their leader, and made the lords’ powers into seals and personally put them on the hands of the betrayers. By doing so, he prevented the lords’ powers from completely melting into the betrayers.”

The powers of the lords who had met their deaths were thus finely divided and scattered throughout the Underworld.

But whenever they returned, they could regain their powers by taking the seals from the hands of the betrayers, so their names were not completely lost.

“Thus, nobles were born in the Underworld. Benevolence became the Lord of Betrayal, the Usurper, and waited and waited for the lords to return.”

Mimir could only gape, his face filled with astonishment and disbelief.

“All of this is a disaster that began with the wandering’s ideals, the only lord who saw a different world and suffered from a fever.”

Kim Jin-woo clutched his chest, feeling the mask in his pocket wriggling.

“And this terribly foolish and selfish ghost could not abandon his delusion until his body was torn to shreds in the end.”

His eyes, which had been dreamy as if wandering in a dream, suddenly turned cold.

“The disaster is not over yet.”

After a long time, Mimir finally opened his mouth.

“Then the Wish Stone flowing into the Overworld is…”

“That’s right. It was planned from the beginning.”

The very existence of the Wish Stone, which can be said to be the mystery of the Underworld itself, blurs the boundary between the two separate worlds, the Overworld and the Underworld.

Also, by using the excuse of having the Wish Stone stolen, they could start a war and save the Overworlders to use as vessels for the lords, killing two birds with one stone.

“Why the Overworlders of all people…?”

“Great power sometimes becomes shackles that bind oneself. One of the reasons the past plan failed was because the Overworld did not tolerate the existence of the High Lords.”

But if those High Lords were born by borrowing the bodies of Overworld beings, then the Overworld would no longer be able to deny and reject the High Lords.

“Even at this moment, the disaster is approaching.”

He didn’t want to admit it, but he couldn’t deny that he had also contributed. Due to a strange compulsion, he had moved the Labyrinth to the Overworld, and the Labyrinth that had advanced into the Overworld would have a significant impact on blurring the boundary between the Underworld and the Overworld, even if it wasn’t as much as the Wish Stone.

His mouth tasted as if he had chewed on sand, and he frowned deeply.

“Now, after the remaining two, the 3rd and 4th Restorations, whether we like it or not, the boundary between the Underworld and the Overworld will collapse, and the world will become one.”

He didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing, as he wasn’t the Wanderer himself. But that’s why he decided to stop the Restoration.

That was the only way he could take revenge on the lords who had treated him like a puppet.

“Mimir.”

“Yes, Lord.”

Mimir had a blank look on his face, perhaps because he had heard so many shocking facts in a row, but he didn’t miss the subtle expectation in his voice and quickly composed himself.

“I’ll give you one last chance.”

“Just tell me.”

Looking at Mimir, who was bowing his head, he said.

“Find the Wish Stone that flowed into the Overworld. Find the Wish Stone and bring it back to the Underworld.”

Mimir did not answer easily. After all, it would not be easy to find the Wish Stone that had flowed into the Overworld, not the Underworld.

“I already know that you have ties to the Overworld, so use all your abilities to complete the mission. That is the only way you can live.”

“I will.”

Mimir, looking a little embarrassed, replied that he understood with a somewhat unreliable face.

“But before that.”

Kim Jin-woo looked at Mimir and brought up the real reason he had come here.

“Fulfilling your duty comes first.”

Mimir, not knowing what he meant, blinked his eyes, and then belatedly exclaimed, “Ah!”

“Open the Eternal Warehouse!”

Mimir was the keeper of the Eternal Warehouse, before being a black merchant and a messenger of the Usurper.