Dungeon Odyssey [EN]: Chapter 250

Dungeon Journal-250

# 250

Dungeon Journal

Chapter 251

The screams and commotions had ceased. Only the nauseating stench of blood lingered. In the end, the Ursus [a race of bear-like creatures], unable to withstand the Tarus’s [a race of bull-like creatures] relentless attacks, were annihilated.

Crunch, crunch.

There was no roar of victory. Instead of excited shouts, only the sound of chewing meat and crushing bones echoed. The Tarus quietly performed their victory ritual.

Kim Jin-woo watched the gruesome scene and turned his head away. Even he, who prided himself on having seen all sorts of things growing up in the underground, found the Tarus’s meal a sight he couldn’t stomach.

Just then, a Tarus messenger who had not participated in the ritual appeared and spoke to him.

Perhaps the excitement of the battle hadn’t yet subsided, but the messenger’s attitude, sputtering and roughly chattering away even though he couldn’t understand the words, was quite overbearing.

Whether it was because his excitement hadn’t died down or whether it was the true nature of the Tarus, Kim Jin-woo frowned at the stark contrast to the rather polite attitude they had shown to appease the Great Labyrinth until now.

But only for a moment. He feigned a tired expression and pretended to listen attentively to the Tarus messenger. Now was the time to play the role of an easy mark who had luckily defeated the Satyrs [creatures that are part human and part goat] and was ripe for exploitation.

“Ugh.”

But the Imp girl, who was supposed to translate, was bent over, busy vomiting up the contents of her stomach.

The Tarus messenger, who had been ranting for a while, belatedly noticed this and made a fierce expression.

“Growl.”

The Tarus, who had raised one foot high as if to stomp the Imp girl to death, belatedly suppressed his anger and growled.

Having been threatened, the Imp girl, who hadn’t even wiped the vomit from her mouth, hurriedly began to translate.

“Ugh, first, they thank you for your ‘slight’ assistance in this victory.”

The Tarus’s attitude, puffed up with arrogance after their overwhelming victory against their arch-enemies, was truly insolent.

They spoke with a semblance of courtesy, but they couldn’t hide the condescending attitude within.

It seemed that the Great Labyrinth’s assistance in this battle hadn’t been very impressive, and they were clearly disappointed.

Kim Jin-woo did not complain as he watched the Tarus messenger belittle his and his subordinates’ assistance and act haughtily.

“They said that if they had been serious, the Satyrs wouldn’t have lasted half a day…”

“Indeed, you are reliable. Seeing your performance today, I have no choice but to believe those words. Tell them that.”

He even went so far as to agree with the Tarus’s assessment that even his and the Great Labyrinth’s victory against Luyang was nothing more than a fluke.

The Imp girl gave him a dumbfounded look even in her dazed state, but he showed no change in expression, as if he had decided to be completely brazen.

After that, the Tarus messenger spent a long time embellishing his own achievements. Thanks to that, it took quite a while to get to the point.

“Although they achieved an overwhelming victory, their losses were not insignificant, so they cannot give you all of the promised rewards.”

As expected, one’s heart cannot remain the same when entering and leaving the bathroom [a Korean idiom meaning people change their minds easily]. The Tarus messenger drastically reduced the promised additional rewards as if it were only natural, without showing any signs of apology.

“But if you show a more active role in the next battle than you did today, they promise to reward you several times more.”

Once a promise is broken, what’s stopping them from doing it again? Kim Jin-woo did not protest as he watched the Tarus spout nonsense with a straight face. He thoroughly played the part of the weakling.

The Tarus messenger was very pleased with this sight, and after exchanging what could be described as either threats or negotiations, he came to a conclusion on his own and disappeared.

“Um.”

Angela, who came up to him belatedly, looked at her master with a worried expression.

“Are you alright?”

“What do you mean?”

“With Master’s personality, you can’t possibly be feeling good about some mere messenger, not even the Duke himself, acting so presumptuously.”

It seemed she was worried that he was suppressing his anger. But contrary to her concerns, he was not angry in the slightest.

“Of course not. I was rather hoping they would act even more arrogantly.”

Kim Jin-woo recalled the conversation he had just had.

There was no way a mere messenger could freely decide to increase or decrease the rewards. Nor was it possible that they had reported the situation to their master and received new instructions in the meantime.

In the end, everything had been decided before the battle even began.

And the reason was obvious. The Tarus were testing him to see how he would react.

He didn’t know what they were trying to achieve, but he knew that, unlike the simple-minded Ursus, they were quite cunning.

“I wonder what conclusion they’ve come to.”

Judging by their reckless attitude, he could guess how they had come to their conclusion, but he remained vigilant.

***

The stakes grew even higher.

The defeated Ursus came out with even more troops, and the Tarus also increased their numbers accordingly. And another battle took place, and the Ursus were defeated once again.

Although they had won, unlike the first battle, this time it was a rather fierce engagement. As a result, when the battle ended, the Tarus messenger simply requested, rather forcefully, that more troops be deployed more actively, rather than loudly boasting as before.

Of course, the promised rewards were not paid this time either.

“Now they’re completely treating me like a subordinate.”

But it wasn’t enough yet. He wanted them to despise him and his subordinates even more.

He desperately wanted them to downplay the victory against the Satyrs as a miracle based on luck and to look down on him.

“Should I get hurt a little in the next battle or something?”

His summons, including Morrigan, looked at him with dumbfounded faces at his jest.

***

Several more battles, both large and small, followed, and the Tarus gained that many victories.

As expected, the Tarus became increasingly arrogant and acted completely insolently as the days went by.

They no longer hesitated to deviate from the battlefield they had initially promised and pursued the Ursus, even expanding the battlefield to the vicinity of the Great Labyrinth.

The Tarus messenger also completely changed his attitude.

Unlike the early days, when he showed some caution and pretended to be wary of him, he later treated him as if he were his own subordinate.

“A guy who isn’t even the Duke himself!”

Morrigan was naturally angry, and the other summons also seemed unable to contain their rage.

For them, whose everything was their master’s glory, the Tarus’s disrespect was a disgrace and humiliation.

“It’s not far off now.”

But each time, Kim Jin-woo calmed them down with a cold smile. It was such a chilling smile that even Morrigan and Heimdall, who were furious, felt a chill down their spines.

Although it was a situation he had intended from the beginning, it was excruciating to keep watching the little puppies running around without knowing the terror of a tiger [a metaphor for the Tarus’s arrogance before the true danger is revealed].

With the Tarus becoming more and more insolent as the days went by, even he, who had already decided to play along, was slowly reaching the limit of his patience.

But no matter how bad he felt, it couldn’t compare to the Ursus, who had lost tens of thousands of their kin in successive defeats.

“We need to make the game bigger.”

The Ursus messenger, who had secretly come to see him, was clearly suppressing his anger.

“At this point, you’d think they’d consider an all-out war, but those suspicious bull bastards aren’t showing any signs of moving.”

“That doesn’t matter. If we increase the size of our forces, they’ll have no choice but to match it.”

Kim Jin-woo shrugged at the firm answer that left no room for negotiation.

“10,000. I’ll deploy exactly 10,000 more. And there will be no further deployments.”

The losses they had already suffered amounted to 25,000.

It was such an enormous number that it was hard to even fathom if you hadn’t seen it with your own eyes. Yet, the Ursus said they had the capacity to sacrifice 10,000 more troops.

It was a daunting number for him, who had only a few thousand troops, and whose forces consisted largely of summons of inferior quality compared to the polar bears and bulls.

“After that, it’s your role. I trust you’re not thinking of just reaping unearned benefits while our clan sheds blood forever.”
The Ursus messenger repeatedly urged him to somehow incite the Tarus to decide on an all-out war once the battle was over, since he had followed his plan so far.

“I don’t know if it’s too hasty to do this when the real ones haven’t even come out yet. If you get impatient for no reason, even the sacrifices your clan has made so far could become meaningless.”

Despite his concerns, the polar bear was adamant.

“We’ll take care of that.”

“You have a plan?”

“If we send out our elites, they won’t stand still either.”

Seeing them take such a strong stance even while accepting the damage to their elite forces, it seems that they are also starting to feel burdened by the accumulating losses.

“Alright. I’ll take care of it from then on.”

Only then did the Ursus return with a satisfied expression at Kim Jin-woo’s confident words.

***

“When you think about it, even if they’re not fools, they should know that this plan is revolving too much around Master, don’t you think it’s strange?”

Angela asked with a suspicious look after the Ursus messenger had left.

She tilted her head, saying she didn’t understand why the Ursus would follow a plan that relied so heavily on him, even while accepting such great damage.

There was some validity to her words. Although the damage they had suffered so far could somehow be recovered, the balance of power, which had been neck and neck, would tilt to one side if their elite forces were damaged.

If he betrayed them and really sided with the Tarus to plot against them, they would be inviting a crisis upon themselves.

If you think about it even a little, there are one or two things to be suspicious about. Nevertheless, the fact that they decided to follow his plan must mean that they had their own reasons.

“Well.”

Kim Jin-woo pretended not to know and acted suspiciously, but he seemed to know something. Angela easily noticed this fact and hoped he would tell her the reason.

“What part of my plan appealed to them?”

“What do you mean…”

“Successive victories, the Tarus are careless and wage an all-out war. Or, even if they are not careless, they are made to think that they will seize the opportunity to win when they have the upper hand. Do you know what these two have in common?”

Instead of answering, Angela quietly waited for his explanation.

“No matter what happens, the final battlefield is predetermined.”

Angela still couldn’t understand his words. Kim Jin-woo smiled at her face as if he was enjoying it.

“Don’t you get it?”

“No. Not at all.”

Angela readily admitted that her thoughts did not reach the level of the Dukes’ scheming and waited for an answer. He didn’t seem to want to keep her waiting any longer and immediately replied.

“From the beginning, the Ursus didn’t care about my cooperation. All they wanted was just.”

Kim Jin-woo slowly pulled his right fist towards his chest and covered it with his opposite palm.

“For the Tarus to walk into their own grave.”