Dungeon Odyssey [EN]: Chapter 23

Dungeon Journal – Episode 24

# 24

Dungeon Journal

“Master!”

Kim Jin-woo, stepping through the portal, frowned at Dominique, who was calling out to him as if she had been waiting.

“Are there enemies right now…?”

“I know! What’s the situation?”

Clutching the rattling bundle, he asked as he dashed towards the gate. Dominique, wagging her tail busily, explained to him.

‘The enemy numbers thirty-two! Currently, the Naga gatekeeper and the mage are barely holding on, but they might collapse at any moment! If the patrolling soldiers return, we might stand a chance, but as it is, even maintaining the status quo is difficult!’

At the urgent tone, Kim Jin-woo said with a face as hard as stone.

“The Naga soldiers won’t be coming back.”

The Naga soldiers were the first to engage the enemy.

The fact that they hadn’t returned and the enemy had reached the gate of the labyrinth was obvious without even looking.

Unless the enemies were carrying out a diversionary tactic, the Naga soldiers must have been annihilated.

His stomach churned, but this was no time to be lost in thought.

‘But if the soldiers don’t return now, we won’t be able to overcome the disadvantage with our already insufficient forces!’

“I’ll go straight to the gate, so Dominique, gather the Naga workers.”

‘Yes? Why the Naga workers…?”

“There’s no time! Hurry!”

At the firm tone that allowed no room for argument, Dominique bit her lip and disappeared.

“Damn it.”

Time was always short. If this went well, he would make sure that he would never be caught off guard like this again.

He steeled himself and kicked off the floor with all his might.

***

“Kuaaaaak!”

The Naga gatekeeper’s roar shook the entire passage. The force of it was so fierce that even the Naga warriors assisting the gatekeeper from behind were startled.

But to the enemies, it seemed to be nothing more than a loud shout.

The Dragonkin [a humanoid race with draconic features] standing before the gatekeeper paid no heed to the gatekeeper’s roar and blindly threw punches.

Each time, the gatekeeper’s shield, which was no exaggeration to call a city gate, was dented and crushed.

“Itkkum!”

The clear voice rang out at that moment. A cold air blew in, and the passage beyond the gate froze solid.

“Kyak!”

The Dragonkin, who almost lost his balance and fell, screamed neurotically and stepped back. The Naga gatekeeper’s massive glaive [a polearm weapon with a single-edged blade] slammed down on the spot where the Dragonkin had been standing just moments before.

“This is…”

Kim Jin-woo, who had arrived at the battlefield, frowned at the situation, which was even worse than he had expected.

The Naga gatekeeper’s shield was so broken that he could see through it, riddled with holes, and his whole body was covered in blood.

The Naga mage was sitting on the floor, constantly chanting something, and his condition looked very bad.

“Get out of the way!”

He gritted his teeth and shouted, rushing forward with the momentum of his run. Passing the Naga warrior, he snatched the club from his hand and leaped over the gatekeeper.

The Dragonkin, who had regained his posture and was running towards him again, roared fiercely at him.

The golden scales looked incredibly hard, and the entire body, covered in scales, was covered in muscles that could be called armor. The fist with its many protrusions came flying, and its momentum was different from what it looked like from afar.

Kim Jin-woo’s eyes changed. The black pupils that had been shining in the darkness began to burn blue. At the same time, his aura changed.

And at that moment, the club that Kim Jin-woo swung collided with the Dragonkin’s fist.

“Kkeuak!”

The Dragonkin screamed, clutching his right hand. The Dragonkin’s right hand, which was retreating with his big eyes tightly closed and even tears in his eyes, was completely shattered.

“You close your eyes?”

Kim Jin-woo looked at the Dragonkin with a dumbfounded expression.

It was absurd that the Dragonkin would close his eyes and run away with only a slightly injured fist in the midst of a desperate battle where life and death were decided in 0.1 seconds, and his neck hadn’t even been cut off.

‘Master!’

Just in time, Dominique arrived and called out to him. Kim Jin-woo, who was about to take a step and rush at the Dragonkin, regained his senses and surveyed the situation.

The Dragonkin had already hidden himself in the ranks of the enemies, and the club in his hand had completely disappeared from the head down.

It was somewhat difficult to continue the momentum, and after hesitating, Kim Jin-woo returned to the inside of the gate.

‘I’ve brought all the Naga workers!’

The Dragonkin seemed to be the leader of the enemies, and the battle had temporarily subsided. Kim Jin-woo, watching the two groups of monsters facing each other and fiercely growling, unpacked the bundle.

Dominique looked at the dark, metallic bundles with a puzzled expression.

‘This is…? ‘

“It’s a human weapon. They call it a shotgun.”

This was the method he had come up with after rejecting the black marketeer’s offer. If it was a shotgun loaded with slug rounds that could even take down a bear, even a Naga worker would be able to exert some ability.

There were still many other useful things left in the bundle, but Kim Jin-woo only took out the shotguns and distributed them to the Naga workers.

“Point the end towards the enemy. And when I give the order, pull that part on your finger hard.”

Because the battle wasn’t completely over, he had to be satisfied with just getting the Naga workers into position.

“Stand in a line in front. Don’t forget to pull the finger when I give the order.”

The workers were not very intelligent, but they seemed to have no problem with that, and they hissed.

“But Dominique.”

‘Yes?’

She, who had been shining her eyes as if the shotguns in the hands of the Naga workers were amazing, raised her head sharply at Kim Jin-woo’s voice.

“Is that guy the Anakstus, the King of Kyoryong [Korean word for Dinosaur]?”

He asked, watching the Dragonkin, whose tattered fist had completely healed, step forward.

‘No. Kyoryong are brave, but they’re not that imposing. He’s not a Kyoryong, he’s a Drakhan.’

“But what’s such a great guy doing here?”

In reality, he was a guy who had shed tears when one of his hands was shattered, but Kim Jin-woo couldn’t afford to underestimate him, as he was born strong.

‘It happens sometimes. There are those who challenge the master of the labyrinth and hope to become the master of the labyrinth.’

“How do other owners deal with this kind of situation?”

‘They usually ignore it. In the first place, what do owners lack that they would accept a wandering challenger? There’s a difference in power, so if the owners are determined, they can handle those wanderers with just their subordinates. It’s not a frequent occurrence.’

“But we have so few forces that we’re being underestimated and attacked.”

He guessed the unspoken words of Dominique and shook his head, stepping forward.

“Dominique.”

“Yes, Master.”

“That Drakhan looks strong at first glance.”

‘Drakhans are descendants of dragons. Now, their blood has been diluted considerably, but that alone makes them incredibly strong. It’s probably going to be a tough fight.’

The image of him closing his eyes and running away with only one hand shattered came to mind.

Anyone who lives in the underground should have the tenacity to not flinch even if they lose an arm or an eye. But now, Kim Jin-woo couldn’t find any of that tenacity in his opponent.

He was an amateur, a rookie.

‘If you can talk to him, giving him a suitable price and sending him back is one way to go.’

Dominique, who had been hesitating, brought up the story with difficulty. But Kim Jin-woo took a step forward instead of listening to her to the end.

‘Master?’

“You may be right. But you know what.”

A strange light settled in his eyes.

“No matter how I think about it, I don’t think we’re going to lose.”

With that, he raised one hand.

“Ready!”

The Naga workers standing in a line firmly grabbed their shotguns, and

“Fire!”

At the signal, they fired.

Bang!

The sound was closer to an explosion than a gunshot, and the Naga workers who pulled the trigger trembled in surprise.

“Again!”

But at Kim Jin-woo’s command, the workers quickly regained their senses and took their positions.

“Fire!”

Once again, an explosion erupted, and a pungent smell of gunpowder spread.

“Kuaaaaak!”

“Kieee!”

Even the creatures of the underground, whose skin was so tough, couldn’t withstand the power of a 12-gauge shotgun. The creatures with holes in their hard carapaces screamed.

Of course, that didn’t mean that the creatures would fall down with a single slug round, but some of them were unlucky enough to be hit in a vital spot and screamed.

After several shots, the shotgun shells finally ran out. As soon as the clanking sound was heard, Kim Jin-woo pulled the Naga workers back and called the Naga gatekeeper and warriors to the front.

‘Master, what is this…’

“This will be the power of our labyrinth in the future.”

Kim Jin-woo smiled at Dominique, who was stunned by the roar and power of the shotgun, and then charged forward with the Nagas.

“Attack!”

As soon as Kim Jin-woo’s command fell, the Naga mage, who had regained his strength, summoned cold air.

In an instant, the floor became a slippery ice rink, and the enemy creatures, who had stood firm against the shotgun fire, lost their balance and fell down all at once.

Kim Jin-woo and the Nagas pounced on them.

“Kuaaaak!”

The Drakhan’s eyes flashed as he watched his subordinates, who were rolling on the floor, have their heads smashed and torn apart by the Nagas’ shields.

The Drakhan rushed towards the gatekeeper, who was trampling the creatures most brutally.

No, he was about to rush. If Kim Jin-woo hadn’t blocked him, the Drakhan would have torn apart the gatekeeper’s tattered shield.

But Kim Jin-woo didn’t let the Drakhan run wild.

“I’m your opponent, you lizard bastard.”

In the meantime, he slipped between the Drakhan’s legs and cut off the Drakhan’s thick thigh.

The blade rattled and bounced off the hard scales, but it wasn’t completely ineffective.

“Kyak!”

The Drakhan, shocked by the impact on his thigh, screamed and stopped his stomping steps.

The enraged Drakhan swung his fist with all his might.

The Drakhan’s fist boasted such tremendous power that it could even turn the gatekeeper’s thick shield into rags. But that was it.

The opponent seemed to be unable to use his power properly.

No matter how strong the attack was, it was useless if the opponent didn’t get hit, and Kim Jin-woo deftly twisted his body to avoid the fist. And he immediately slashed his sword.

Clang!

But the attack was not effective on this side either. If the opponent’s attacks were constantly ending in vain, then this side’s attacks were not even making a scratch.

Come to think of it, the Drakhan’s scales were lying down longer than before. The fist that was shattered in the first exchange also had a subtly different shape.

Unlike his aggressive appearance, he felt subtly defensive.

Clang! Clang!

The noise of metal clashing, he tried to insert the sword diagonally into the reverse direction of the scales, but it didn’t work. Rather, he almost lost his weapon when it got caught in the scales that popped up.

Kim Jin-woo quickly laid the blade down, pulled out the sword, and ran across the floor to the back of the Drakhan.

“Heop!”

He was happy to have caught him from behind for a moment, but the Drakhan’s weapon was not just his hard fist. A tail as big as the torso of an average adult male rushed in with a rattling sound.

Kim Jin-woo barely avoided the attack and flew his body to cut the Drakhan’s armpit.

“Kyak!”

He didn’t make a wound, but it seemed that he wasn’t without pain. At the fierce scream, Kim Jin-woo shone his eyes and slashed his sword like crazy.

The Drakhan resisted fiercely, swinging both fists at the relentless attacks of stabbing, cutting, and piercing.

But Kim Jin-woo dodged all those attacks like a ghost and pounded on the opponent’s body. In the meantime, the blade of the sword, which he had bought from the black marketeer at a high price, began to be ruined.

Nevertheless, Kim Jin-woo did not stop slashing.

A sense he had forgotten for a while, that sense was slowly coming back to life. As the swordsmanship continued, the offensive became more intense and smooth, and the movements became as agile as those of a beast.

And at some point, Kim Jin-woo’s aura changed once again.

Finally, the unique ability of the Dungeon Baby in the depths, which had been dormant for the past 10 years, was awakened.