Dungeon Odyssey [EN]: Chapter 141

Dungeon Journal – Episode 142

# 142

Dungeon Journal

Rickshaasha remained expressionless despite Trindal’s ranting. Occasionally, she furrowed her brow, lost in thought, and each time, the corpses scattered on the floor suffered further. If the Knights of the Void weren’t made of metal scraps, she would have been covered head to toe in blood.

“User.”

“I know.”

Still unable to compose himself, Trindal frowned at Rickshaasha and User’s conversation. Regardless, Rickshaasha and User continued their exchange.

“The energy is depleting rapidly.”

“It’s as if…”

“The Underworld is absorbing our power.”

At User’s words, Rickshaasha nodded and suddenly turned around.

“After the Knights of the Void, it’s the Guardian Dragons.”

Unlike the Dragon Knights, who still seemed relatively intact, the Guardian Dragons had bulging black veins. User sighed.

“Cut them down.”

At Rickshaasha’s unwavering command, the Dragon Knights hesitated. Though loyal and brave, it wasn’t easy for them to cut down their counterparts, the Guardian Dragons.

But in the end, they had to slay the completely corrupted Guardian Dragons with their own hands.

***

“After the Guardian Dragons, it was the Nagas.”

At User’s words, Kim Jin-woo asked with a grave expression.

“Then, are these all that survived?”

He hadn’t expected an easy mission from the start. That’s why he had ordered a safe return over the mission’s completion.

But beyond that passage, there seemed to be too many things he didn’t know. Thirty precious Dragon Knights had been sacrificed, and even half of the Under Elves hadn’t survived.

“This lowly race is foolish and has wasted the King’s precious soldiers! Punish me!”

Rickshaasha, who had been kneeling from the start, begged for forgiveness, hitting her head against the floor.

“How distracting. Your mission was to report what happened, not to damage the innocent floor.”

Perhaps due to the confusion in his mind, Kim Jin-woo, who would normally have been concerned for her well-being, reacted irritably. Rickshaasha stammered, looking flustered.

“The world beyond the passage was nothing but malice. Even a shred of darkness, a strand of silence, clung to my body, greedily sucking away my strength.”

User cleverly interjected. Kim Jin-woo, who had been glaring at Rickshaasha with annoyance, turned his head again to listen to his report.

“You can’t even know what it is.”

He said, stroking his rough chin with a serious expression.

“I cannot know what it is. But I am certain that it is not friendly to us.”

Indeed, even the loyal Naga Dragon Knights had been corrupted and turned their swords against their comrades, which showed how great the malice was.

“One mystery has been solved.”

He realized the reason for the blind madness of the enemies he had seen so far.

The moment the reason why they were so full of malice, why they tried to destroy and kill everything without even caring for their own bodies, was revealed.

He had solved only one question, but an even bigger question arose.

“Hmm.”

User had clearly felt as if his entire body’s energy was being depleted just by standing still.

In fact, he had returned in just two days, having lost more than 70% of his slime [Slime is a form of energy]. Moreover, the Under Elves who barely returned were so emaciated that they looked like Valishus’s failed experiments.

Rickshaasha’s bluish face was like a corpse.

“You’ve worked hard.”

Kim Jin-woo clicked his tongue and praised their efforts. Although they had given him even greater worries, it couldn’t be said that the reconnaissance had been unsuccessful.

So he bestowed five Down Gems, which were now precious even on the 9th floor, to User.

“Get your strength back quickly.”

At his words, User expressed his gratitude with his whole body and returned to his labyrinth. Rickshaasha, who was still lying on the floor, trembled as his gaze reached her.

“It was your intention to hold User back and explore the vicinity. Although you disobeyed my orders, the results were fruitful, so both the punishment and reward will be nullified.”

Even as he said that, Kim Jin-woo felt sorry for Rickshaasha’s gaunt face and took out a precious Summoning Stone and threw it to her.

Of course, the other Under Elves were only given one of the lowest-grade Down Gems each.

The situation on the 9th floor was not good enough to replenish everyone’s energy.

***

After Rickshaasha disappeared with a dejected face, Kim Jin-woo fell into *gomin* [Korean: 고민, meaning deep contemplation] again. Dominique offered various opinions from the side, but there was not much result due to lack of information.

Time passed like that.

For some reason, Angela still hadn’t found the whereabouts of the Down Gems leaked to the surface. He was beginning to wonder if Mr. Baek had noticed something strange.

But since there was nothing particularly suspicious, Kim Jin-woo had only ordered Angela to keep an eye on Mr. Baek a little more.

In the meantime, Rickshaasha once again caused a commotion, saying that she would spy on the other side of the passage again.

Kim Jin-woo eventually nodded at her insistence that only Under Elves, not Nagas, could endure for a relatively long time.

“Don’t overdo it. Your value cannot be compared to the Dragon Knights.”

Rickshaasha had been raised by feeding her Summoning Stones. She had brought hundreds of Under Elves and increased the power, and now she was active in reconnaissance, assassination, and various other fields.

He didn’t want to put her on dangerous missions repeatedly, but the secret hidden beyond the passage was important enough to take such risks.

Perhaps the clue to end this war, which might be just a waste without any gains, was there.

“I will keep it in mind, again and again!”

Kim Jin-woo turned his head away, feeling burdened by Rickshaasha’s face, which was smiling brightly, touched by a trivial word, even after being severely scolded a few days ago.

Rickshaasha left again. She was with twenty Under Elves she had selected. He guessed that she probably wouldn’t return unless she got close to the secret at least.

Rickshaasha returned sooner than expected. She returned to the fortress in less than three days after leaving.

This time, too, less than half of the original number of people returned. But the results were incomparable to before.

“This lowly race has brought the only being who has not lost their mind among the beings I met beyond.”

Rickshaasha brought a man whose skin was as dry as tree bark. Surprisingly, the man was from another Underworld.

The man did not have the fiercely flashing red eyes that they usually had, nor the hideous, bulging dark blue veins and tendons, but rather scarred skin.

At Rickshaasha’s gesture, the man hesitated and approached, kneeling before him and bowing his head.

“I want to hear your story.”

The man, intimidated by Kim Jin-woo’s oppressive gaze as he sat on the throne, hesitated and opened his mouth. Hearing the man’s voice, he turned to Rickshaasha with an unusually stiff face.

“What is he saying?”

It was not uncommon for beings to use human languages. The other party also had the intellectual ability to speak human languages.

But that language was a kind of language that Kim Jin-woo did not know.

Just as the creatures of the Korean Underworld spoke Korean, the man naturally spoke in a foreign language. And Kim Jin-woo was ignorant of foreign languages.

Fortunately, Rickshaasha was able to communicate with the other party. If he was a being from the Underworld, he could use the language of his own race, not human languages. Fortunately, the man’s race was not so different from the Under Elves.

***

“Ugh.”

A groan came out involuntarily.

“Therefore, the other side is in a situation that can be called hell.”

Rickshaasha said, watching Kim Jin-woo’s reaction with a face as if she had committed a sin.

“Hell…”

He quietly repeated the word hell.

Her words were by no means an exaggeration. If all the man’s words were true, the situation beyond was a terrible situation that was not enough to be called hell.

“It’s more serious than I thought.”

Dominique, who was listening from the side, finally let out a groan.

“If this is just serious, then the current war is just child’s play.”

Morrigan said nervously from beside her. Not only Morrigan, but everyone gathered here unanimously talked about the seriousness of the situation.

That’s how shocking the man’s words were.

“I’d rather call it a nightmare.”

Kim Jin-woo felt the same way.

“So, is there no hope for that side at all?”

Rickshaasha translated his words into her race’s language. The man, who had a face as if he was about to suffocate in the serious atmosphere, answered after a long time, stammering.

“More than half of all Underworlds have already been transformed into Moai [Corrupted creatures of the Underworld], and even those who remain are trembling in fear of being contaminated at any moment, so every day is hell.”

Moai was a word that referred to the corrupted creatures of the Underworld. They said that they were deprived of their energy and eventually contaminated by the malice floating in the Underworld, and they hated the living and craved their flesh. In that unquenchable hunger and desire, they were going down the path of self-destruction.

The numerous enemies who had crossed the passage were the Moai. But the biggest problem in the current situation was not the Moai.

“If we don’t solve the Down Gem problem, this side will be the same.”

Strangely enough, the Underworld where Down Gems were depleted was swallowing up the Underworld’s creatures. That terrible malice was the real problem Kim Jin-woo had to worry about.

He opened his mouth after a long time of *gomin* [Korean: 고민, meaning deep contemplation].

“Tell the Counts of the Deep Layers about this fact.”

It was not a problem that could be solved alone. The depletion of Down Gems was a problem that was happening not only on the 9th floor but in all Underworlds, and even if the enemies were driven out in this war, it would never be a victory if the problem was not solved.

“No, maybe the Counts already know that. Even so, we need to check. If we’re lucky, they might have a solution.”

The Counts of the Deep Layers, whom he would have to step on someday, still needed to maintain a cooperative relationship. Now that the Black Merchant and the Dark Merchant had disappeared, the cooperative relationship with them was even more urgent.

“Will they readily give out information?”

At Dominique’s concern, Kim Jin-woo replied with a firm face.

“Tell them I will receive the debt from a year ago. Then they won’t be able to ignore it.”