Dungeon Odyssey [EN]: Chapter 185

Dungeon Journal – Episode 186

# 186

Dungeon Journal

70. Trap

Kim Jin-woo seemed to be waiting for something, but he wasn’t simply idling.

He left the labyrinth after a long absence and headed for the deepest levels.

Kkeueueueung.

Almost immediately, the Moais, who were rampaging across the 9th floor as if they owned it, noticed him. But these twisted monsters didn’t dare attack him recklessly. They only made suppressed noises and watched him warily.

“In the past, I would have swept them all away on sight, but now you’re like watchdogs guarding my Great Labyrinth.”

Kim Jin-woo smiled, a look of satisfaction on his face, and plunged into the midst of the Moais. In the narrow cave, the Moais screamed and thrashed, desperate to get away from him.

“Kieeeeek!”

Eventually, they began scratching and biting their own kind, throwing them in front of him – a truly pathetic display.

“Heuik!”

The Moai who was thrown like that looked at him, buried its head on the floor, and trembled.

They were like rabbits thrown to a predator.

It was a far cry from the ferocious monsters who would bare their teeth at even the counts of the deep layers [Counts are powerful nobles in the dungeon hierarchy].

It wasn’t that Kim Jin-woo was so strong that he couldn’t be compared to those counts.

But his level of existence was different.

Having ascended to High Lord and awakened by realizing the true name of the One-Eyed Lord, his presence was already worthy of being called the King of the Underground. Even the Moais, who lived by instinct alone, couldn’t dare to oppose him recklessly.

Thus, Kim Jin-woo was able to escape the 9th floor without a single fight.

The first thing that greeted him when he arrived on the 10th floor was Boreas’s Labyrinth in ruins.

Boreas had barely endured the Moais’ offensive with the support of the 9th floor, but Kim Jin-woo ascended to the Great Labyrinth and lost contact, leaving him to fight a lonely battle.

In the old days, he would have been able to endure it, but the situation was worsened by the fact that the 9th floor’s forces had swept away the labyrinths of the barons near the entrance, who were still fighting the Moais.

However, the title ‘Boreas of the Cutting Wind, the foremost warrior of the 10th floor’ wasn’t just for show. Boreas’s Labyrinth, though a mess, was still holding off the Moais’ offensive.

***

“Block them!”

Boreas was fighting a desperate battle, waiting for reinforcements that weren’t coming.

“We can’t hold them anymore!”

Even his loyal and courageous subordinates had lost much of their fighting spirit, a testament to the ferocity of the battles.

“Damn it, in this case, at least Boreas-nim [Nim is an honorific suffix in Korean]!”

A few warriors of the Cutting Wind shouted at Boreas as if spitting blood.

“No. I will stay and fight with you.”

“If only Boreas-nim survives, our Cutting Wind Warriors will…”

“Take the core and escape!”

The warriors of the Cutting Wind, who never knew how to retreat, were so desperate that they considered the end. The situation was dire.

The proud Winter Castle had already been breached, and the Moais were freely roaming within. All of the hundreds of Cutting Wind Warriors were dead, and only a few dozen remained.

Even those were exhausted from the continuous battles and injured, so it was only a matter of time before Winter Castle fell.

Boreas didn’t turn to his subordinates’ words but gripped his curved sword tightly. He gestured to the subordinates who were trying to push him back again, and said with a firm face.

“There are no more Down Jams left.”

At Boreas’s words, the warriors of the Cutting Wind, who were desperately fighting the Moais while urging him to retreat, looked at him in disbelief.

“But, surely there was one top-grade Down Jam…”

“I already used it to summon troops.”

At his words, the warriors dropped their weapons, despair etched on their faces.

“Why…”

“Loyal warriors are dying before my eyes, and you want me to think only of saving myself!”

Sparks flew from Boreas’s eyes.

“I am a proud warrior!”

Gripping his curved sword, he stepped to the forefront, pushing aside the warriors, and shouted.

“I am the Baron of the 10th floor, and the lord of Winter Castle! Where would I go if I ran away? Would a humiliating escape even suit me in the first place!”

The Moais were swept away by the curved sword he unleashed with a roar full of anger.

“I am Boreas of the Cutting Wind!”

Dozens of Moais were cut in half by the sword energy of the curved sword, but it was only a matter of time before the ranks were filled again. Boreas swung his sword again.

“I will not run away!”

But he, too, was exhausted from the two months of continuous battles, so the subsequent attacks only cut down three or four Moais, unlike the first time.

“We will be with the king!”

The warriors of the Cutting Wind jumped out in unison and quickly surrounded him. Thanks to the indomitable will shown by their lord, the warriors’ morale rose, and their blades mercilessly swept away the Moais.

The narrow passage was soon filled with the corpses of the Moais, and through the passage, more rotten monsters rushed in.

The bloody battle continued, but as time went on, the warriors of the Cutting Wind were at a disadvantage.

The accumulated fatigue couldn’t be overcome with fighting spirit alone, and the Moais’ malice was greater than their fighting spirit.

Eventually, the warriors of the Cutting Wind, who were surrounding Boreas, were surrounded by the Moais one by one and disappeared from sight.

“Euaaaaaa!”

Boreas let out a blood-spitting scream as he watched his subordinates being torn apart by the mindless monsters.

“You irresponsible bastarddd!”

He recalled the support troops that never came and poured out curses.

If they had allied with the nobles of the 10th floor from the beginning and fought the war together, they wouldn’t have been pushed back this far. No matter how corrupt they were, the nobles of the 10th floor had potential.

But the moment he was charmed by the conqueror of the 9th floor and ignored the nobles of the 10th floor, this future was already destined.

He belatedly realized how foolish he had been in the underground world, where it was common to swallow what was sweet and spit out what was bitter.

And the price of that realization was the death of his loyal warriors and the destruction of Winter Castle, so he poured out his resentment towards someone with his last strength.

“You son of a bitch!”

The Moais were swept away by the blow he unleashed with his last strength.

But as had been the case until now, the Moais quickly gathered again, and he waved his weakened hand, resisting to the very end.

“Keuk.”

The curved sword stopped moving as it dug halfway into the flesh of a huge Moai.

“Kuaaaaa!”

Perhaps realizing that the strong enemy’s strength was completely exhausted, the Moais rushed in fiercely. The sight of the monsters rushing to tear off even a single piece of his flesh was grotesque.

Looking at that sight, Boreas showed a face that was more regretful than fearful.

“It was quite fun, though.”

Whatever had happened, the oath of loyalty had disappeared.

But even so, he enjoyed the time when he roamed the underground world with the conqueror of the 9th floor.

It wasn’t as boring as dealing with the rotten barons of the 10th floor, and he didn’t waste time playing mind games like the cunning counts of the 11th floor.

At least when he was with the conqueror, it wasn’t boring.

Perhaps that’s why, even as death approached, he looked at the rushing Moais and wished he could go back to that time just once.

“Eat shit.”

The Moais covered him like a tidal wave the moment his hands, which had been resisting to the very end, drooped.

“Kuaaaaaaak!”

But the messenger of death he had expected didn’t come. Instead, the conqueror he had been waiting for so much came to find him.

“I’m too late, Boreas.”

Boreas, who had said that if he met him again, he would throw away the etiquette of lord and vassal that they had once shared and pour out a barrage of insults, couldn’t bring himself to say any insults when he saw the conqueror.

“I’m sorry.”

It was because that shamelessness, that confidence, of saying sorry with a face that wasn’t sorry at all, was so welcome.

“Damn it, coming so late.”

The only thing he managed to say was a complaint that sounded like a whine.

“Thanks to you, all my subordinates are dead, and I’m all alone. What are you going to do now that you’ve come?”

But unlike his words, the lord of Winter Castle, who always had frost on his face, was twitching his lips.

***

The relationship between lord and vassal had already become invalid when Kim Jin-woo ascended to High Lord and abandoned the position of noble, but Boreas still didn’t hesitate to call him king.

“I lost all my subordinates and almost died, but Your Majesty looks very well.”

Although he didn’t show the same courtesy as before, nor was he polite, Kim Jin-woo treated him the same as before. The proud warrior of the Cutting Wind was worth it.

“I’m sorry. I had my own circumstances.”

Boreas didn’t seem to be very interested in the reason why he was late. He was quite interested in the presence that Kim Jin-woo was showing right now, regardless of the circumstances.

“What on earth happened while I wasn’t looking…”

Boreas, who had even fought a duel between nobles, was quite surprised by Kim Jin-woo’s transformation.

After all, it was only a year ago that they had fought a fairly equal battle. Although he had fallen into the relationship of lord and vassal, he had never abandoned his pride in himself, who had fought equally with the lord, the commander of the victorious army and the conqueror.

And at this moment, his pride became a fierce fighting spirit and grew rapidly inside him.

“I see, you are no longer my subordinate.”

Kim Jin-woo said as if he had just realized something new at the blatant display of fighting spirit. Boreas looked venomous because Kim Jin-woo’s statement was so brazen.

“I already know, so there’s no need to explain further. Let’s do it again.”

The curved sword, which had been dulled by the flesh and blood of the Moais, began to regain its sharpness. His eyes, which had been loosened by fatigue, were filled with boiling fighting spirit, and his body, which had been drooping, regained its vitality.

“Are you going to make the same conditions as before this time?”

“Everything of the loser.”

“Belongs to the winner.”

“According to the laws of the underground world!”

Boreas roared fiercely and raised his momentum. But as a result, he wasn’t able to swing the curved sword he had gripped with such momentum even once.

“Keueuk.”

It was because the opponent’s momentum suddenly began to press down on him.

He hadn’t shown any particular killing intent or fighting spirit, but the opponent was a huge mountain in itself.

Boreas was slowly being crushed by the overwhelming level of existence. It was no use resisting with all his might.

At some point, he was already kneeling, just like that time when he had promised to submit.

“Nice to see you again, Boreas. It’s good to see you again like this.”

The great commander of the victorious army, the one and only conqueror, his lord who had now ascended to High Lord, smiled.

***

Boreas headed to the 9th floor with the core of Winter Castle in the top-grade Down Jam he had received from Kim Jin-woo.

In fact, he had a lot of concerns about letting Boreas leave. Now that he had ascended to High Lord, he was desperate for every single seal [A seal likely refers to a loyal subordinate or powerful ally].

But Boreas was too good of a warrior to simply take the seal and throw him away.

Although they were violent, the warriors of the Cutting Wind were proud and courageous, and now that the Nagas had disappeared, they were an irreplaceable force.

Thus, Boreas was able to have his value proven and safely head to the 9th floor, but there was no guarantee that the same luck would come to the other nobles.

And Kim Jin-woo melted into the darkness of the underground world to find the nobles who had survived on the 10th floor.