Dungeon Odyssey [EN]: Chapter 299

Dungeon Journal-299

# 299

Dungeon Journal

Episode 300

My expression darkened at her dismissive attitude. However, Kim Jin-woo calmly waited for Catherine to stop laughing.

“Sorry, sorry. I just suddenly burst out laughing.”

She finally spoke after a long while, but even as she apologized, she couldn’t quite suppress her laughter.

“What’s so funny?”

He couldn’t hold back any longer and asked. Catherine narrowed her eyes as she replied.

“You’re still talking about integrating the surface and the underground; it’s just too funny.”

What was she talking about? Wasn’t the biggest task currently assigned to the underground the integration of the surface and the underground? But she acted as if she didn’t care about such things.

He wondered if she was bluffing, so he quietly observed her, but there was no sign of exaggeration on her face.

“You still haven’t gotten to the heart of the matter, have you?”

“Speak plainly.”

The Celestial Giant Lord and the Beast King’s expressions were no different from Catherine’s. Kim Jin-woo felt as if he alone was missing something important, and he pressed her with a more subdued voice.

“Well, I don’t feel like explaining it to you.”

The Wailing Lord, who had been obediently answering questions until now, was no more. Having revealed her true colors, she didn’t seem to have much intention of giving him information.

“More than that, shouldn’t you be thinking about how to survive here?”

There were as many as three High Lords hostile to him gathered here. Angela was on his side, but his most powerful weapon, the Authority of Greed, was practically sealed.

Catherine was well aware of this fact, so she maintained a relaxed expression throughout.

“It doesn’t seem like the situation is as bad as you’re worried about.”

“You think so?”

Catherine was grinning, but her eyes gleamed ominously, making her look eerie. The moment he saw her expression, he knew that the opponent’s preparations didn’t end there.

“You won’t be able to exert your full strength because you’re worried about the Night [likely referring to a dark entity or influence] taking over your body, and your lovely vampire won’t be able to actively help you because she has something to protect. On the other hand, we still have some reserves. It sounds like a typical villain’s line, but we haven’t revealed our true power yet.”

In this world where killing and being killed is commonplace, it was common not to reveal one’s fangs rashly until one was confident of cutting off the opponent’s breath. Therefore, it was not entirely false that the Celestial Giant Lord and the Beast King had reserves and were passively engaging in battle.

But despite that, Kim Jin-woo laughed.

His expression, with one corner of his mouth twisted up, didn’t look like someone in a crisis at all, and he seemed inexplicably relaxed.

“Laughing? In this situation?”

Perhaps that was why Catherine’s expression, which had been relaxed all along, cracked. She glared at him with a dry face devoid of laughter.

“You’ve been looking far ahead and preparing for a long time, surprisingly. I’m truly impressed.”

How long ago had she foreseen the current situation? The meticulousness in preparing such a massive army that it seemed like almost all the nobles who survived the restoration had gathered, and the cunning underlying all the actions she had taken to approach him and win his favor, were truly admirable.

“It seems that what makes a High Lord great isn’t their power, but their ability to deceive and trick others.”

It wasn’t an empty compliment. Just like the Lord of Depravity, these guys were second to none when it came to stabbing others in the back.

It was impossible to easily believe a single word they uttered, wondering how many thoughts they held in their heads, so the High Lords were all more full of lies than truth.

“But you guys are forgetting one important fact.”

The trap prepared by the Wailing Lord and the other High Lords was ominous, but the more it was, the thicker the twist on Kim Jin-woo’s lips became.

That, in turn, made Catherine and the other High Lords uneasy. A look of vigilance appeared on her face, and the Beast King’s expression turned heavy.

The Celestial Giant Lord, perhaps because he had already been through a rough time, looked noticeably anxious.

“What are we forgetting?”

The Celestial Giant Lord couldn’t stand it any longer and pressed him nervously. But he didn’t seem to have any intention of answering right away, and leisurely looked at the High Lords.

It was truly enjoyable to see them so elated that they had trapped him. So he couldn’t help but laugh again.

“Instead of wasting time, it’s better to proceed as planned. I have a bad feeling about this.”

Kim Jin-woo’s eyes gleamed. He realized that Catherine was the leader of this group from the way the Beast King urged him, unable to contain his impatience.

“Wait a moment.”

As expected. At her word, the Beast King reluctantly agreed and stepped back, albeit with a dissatisfied expression. The only thing that differed from his expectations was that her leadership was more strongly effective than he had thought.

“Tell me. What are we forgetting?”

Kim Jin-woo paused for a long time before answering Catherine’s question.

“If deceiving and backstabbing others is your specialty as High Lords…”

Kim Jin-woo’s gaze suddenly turned beyond.

“…you shouldn’t forget that I’m also a High Lord, should you?”

No sooner had he finished speaking than fierce roars and thundering footsteps began to be heard from afar. It was coming from quite a distance, but the noise was already deafening, even though the actual entities were not yet visible.

“T, this is!”

The Beast King sniffed the air with his long, wolf-like nose and cried out as if screaming.

“The Scourge Clan is approaching!”

Before he could even finish speaking, a sinister and foul energy began to spread from afar.

The most ominous energy in the underground was the stench emitted by the Scourge Clan, who could be said to be the natural enemies of the High Lords.

Kuaaaaaak!

Before the High Lords could even grasp the situation, their elite troops, whom they had carefully moved to the rear, screamed.

The solid ranks cracked, and a black army filled the void as if water had seeped in.

At first, small monsters that were merely hideous seemed to appear, but soon, massive beasts appeared that made one wonder why they hadn’t been discovered sooner.

“You, could it be!”

At the appearance of the Scourge, Catherine turned to look at Kim Jin-woo.

“If your specialty is backstabbing, my specialty is turning the tables.”

It was utter chaos. The High Lords’ armies, unprepared for the sudden attack from the rear by the Scourge, were thrown into confusion and swept back and forth.

“You should go back, shouldn’t you? No matter how elite they are, they can’t win against so many Scourge without the Lord’s help.”

The situation was perfectly reversed. Now it was Catherine and the High Lords who were in crisis. They gnashed their teeth as they watched the Scourge Clan, who had already gathered in droves and were trampling on the elite summons.

“To bring in the Scourge, you must be crazy!”

Kim Jin-woo pretended to pick his ear at the Beast King’s angry roar.

“Just as you brought in the nobles, I simply found a useful helper.”

At his brazen reply, Catherine spoke with a face as if frozen solid.

“Nobles and Scourge are different. Nobles are controllable pawns who move according to profit. But the Scourge are just monsters who only destroy and devour. Nothing will be left in the underground after they sweep through.”

The Beast King and the Celestial Giant Lord exchanged glances for a moment before leaving. They rushed straight to where their summons were and began to fight against the Scourge. But only the Wailing Lord did not leave her spot.

“So?”

Kim Jin-woo retorted at her rebuke.

“So what?”

“Do you even know what you’ve done? If you can’t stop the Scourge, the underground will wither and die…”

“No, you’re the one who doesn’t seem to understand.”

Kim Jin-woo cut her off.

“What does it matter to me if the underground withers and dies?”

“Are you saying you don’t care what happens to the Nagas [a race of serpent-like beings] and the Great Labyrinth that you cherish so much?”

He clapped his hands as if he had realized something great. But in the end, he only made absurd noises.

“Now I understand. What you were misunderstanding.”

“What?”

“I didn’t lure the Scourge here just to create chaos.”

It seemed that Catherine thought he had ‘lured’ them to the battlefield to escape the immediate crisis.

“They are not ghouls who smelled something and rushed over.”

The Scourge’s rampage, who had gathered in droves, showed no signs of calming down easily, and the High Lords’ damage continued to accumulate over time.

The Beast King and the Celestial Giant Lord desperately tried to stop them, but because there were so many, it was no different from blocking a part of a collapsing dam with the palm of one’s hand.

“They are guests who came at my invitation.”

Catherine, who had completely lost her composure in the urgent situation, gnashed her teeth.

“That’s ridiculous…”

“What’s ridiculous? They agreed to a deal with me, and they simply came to find me as promised.”

The patchwork monsters were indeed terribly tenacious. But the Scourge were several times more persistent than that. They tore apart the huge monster again when it regenerated, and shredded its flesh to pieces.

Rather, they were even more excited and rampaged like jackals who had found a lump of meat that didn’t shrink no matter how much they tore at it.

“They are not someone you can make a deal with. All they want is destruction. It’s not too late now. Let’s stop them together. We can solve our problems again later.”

Her proposal was so terrible that it was beyond terrible; she was so desperate.

“Why? They answered my call as promised. Now it’s my turn to keep my promise with them.”

Kim Jin-woo said that and raised his hand. The Celestial Giant Lord, who had been struggling with the Scourge for a long time, overlapped with his fingertips.

“Ah, no!”

Catherine screamed as if tearing her throat. But he smiled and waved his hand. At the same time, the spiers of Valhalla began to shine all at once.

Bang!

A roar echoed, and Mjolnir [Thor’s hammer, a weapon of immense power], which had been silent, howled once again.

“Kuaak!”

The Celestial Giant Lord, who was suddenly struck directly by dozens of lightning bolts, screamed. But the solid body of the Giant King endured it this time as well, as it had done before. But he couldn’t avoid being stiffened for a moment.

And the Scourge did not miss that brief gap.

“Devour them, Scourge.”

The moment he finished speaking, a red giant appeared from somewhere and crushed the Celestial Giant Lord, and dozens of Arlongs [likely a type of monster or creature] rushed in, biting his limbs and gnashing their jaws.

“He is the first sacrifice I promised you.”