Dungeon Odyssey [EN]: Chapter 47

Dungeon Journal – Episode 48

# 48

Dungeon Journal

“What? Someone’s over there, staring this way?”

“Must be one of the nobles from the underground. It was bound to happen eventually.”

The participants murmured, watching the vampire walk with unwavering steps, as if it had all been predetermined. Some whispered that the Black Merchant might have been teasing the participants with an item that already had an owner.

“It seems the owner has been decided! The vampire has stopped walking!”

The vampire, having stopped right below the VIP room, shone his red jewel-like eyes and raised the corners of his lips.

“Congratulations to the lucky winner!”

Kim Jin-woo, listening to the excessively cheerful host, looked up at the vampire staring at him with a complicated expression.

***

After that, Kim Jin-woo couldn’t remember how the auction proceeded.

There was nothing to be disappointed about since it was obvious that only the monsters of the underground would be interested in whatever came next, but he couldn’t help feeling complicated.

“Well, well, it seems the Baron is blessed with the fortune of the underground.”

The black marketeer, who hadn’t shown his face at all during the auction schedule except for the first day, appeared and offered his congratulations.

Beside the black marketeer was a dazzlingly beautiful vampire woman.

“Why me?”

Who was he asking? As the black marketeer rolled his eyes, the vampire woman tried to step forward. But Kim Jin-woo raised his hand to stop her.

“I wasn’t talking to you.”

Saying that, his gaze was directed straight at the black marketeer.

“Did someone who gave me the Baron’s seal interfere?”

“What are you talking about…?”

He narrowed his eyes at the black marketeer, who tilted his head as if he didn’t understand.

“It’s too coincidental. It’s my first time at the auction, but I was chosen as the owner, surpassing all the other contenders. It’s so coincidental that I’d rather think someone deliberately interfered.”

It didn’t make sense that the consignment item was handed over without payment, or that the item chose its owner.

“That can’t be. You’re overthinking it. I’m sorry to say, but you are just one of the many masters of the underground. I don’t think there’s any reason to go to such lengths to plot something.”

But the black marketeer’s words also had some persuasiveness. There was no one who would benefit from singling out just one of the many masters of the underground to plot something.

Nevertheless, Kim Jin-woo couldn’t easily accept it.

He had an identity that the other labyrinth owners didn’t have. He was the only human among the labyrinth owners.

“And one more thing, there’s a price to pay. Her former owner doesn’t want her to be unhappy. If there’s a problem with her safety, there might be… quite a troublesome situation.”

Kim Jin-woo frowned at the black marketeer’s repeated words and said nonchalantly.

“I don’t like it. There’s no need to take such a risky and unpleasant gift.”

The black marketeer probably didn’t expect him to refuse. He was flustered and hurriedly tried to take back his words.

“The person who entrusted her to us wouldn’t want her to be abandoned like that. They might be very upset, or even angry.”

“Is that a threat?”

The black marketeer looked tearful at Kim Jin-woo’s somewhat sharp words.

“Why are you doing this again? Every time you act like this, my heart drops.”

Having been rejected once before when he made a confident investment proposal, the black marketeer seemed to have given up trying to guess his thoughts.

“There are too many things to worry about to accept. But it turns out that instead of her dedicating herself to me, I have to protect her. Is there any reason to do a deal where I only lose without gaining anything?”

His words were logical in their own way, so the black marketeer couldn’t easily refute them. In the end, the black marketeer gave up and asked openly.

“What do you want?”

“Now you’re talking.”

Seeing Kim Jin-woo respond as if he had been waiting for it, the black marketeer sighed once again.

***

“Ugh, meeting the Baron is so costly that I’m afraid to meet him.”

“You’re saying things you don’t mean. You must be getting something out of it, so you keep coming.”

Kim Jin-woo said firmly to the black marketeer’s grumbling.

“Anyway, it was a good deal this time too. Keep up the good work in the future.”

The black marketeer sighed deeply at his taunting words.

“Is it over?”

At that moment, a languid and seductive voice whispered in his ear. The vampire’s voice, which he heard for the first time, was terribly attractive.

“Ah, were you bored of waiting? The Baron is very thorough and cautious, so….”

He was probably cursing him inwardly, but the black marketeer was praising Kim Jin-woo.

Come to think of it, the black marketeer was using honorifics for the vampire, who was just a commodity.

He was once again convinced that the vampire had not chosen him for ordinary reasons.

“It’s not bad. I didn’t want to serve a monster who was only strong.”

“Hmm….”

Dizzying. Kim Jin-woo’s eyes twitched at the fascinating voice that made him look at her face without realizing it.

“Well, I’ll be on my way since the deal is done.”

The black marketeer, sensing the atmosphere, left the VIP room, even taking the Suin [beast-person] assistant with him.

“Then, are you going to accept me now?”

A voice that couldn’t be refused, but Kim Jin-woo instead steeled himself.

“Honestly, I still have doubts about why you chose me, but I can’t refuse since I received something.”

The vampire smiled brightly once again at his sharp words.

“You’ll know everything about me a little later anyway, why are you already impatient?”

He straightened his expression and asked at her somehow strange and eerie words.

“I don’t think you’ll answer, but I’ll ask anyway. Why did you choose me?”

“If you’re worried about some kind of backroom deal, you don’t have to worry.”

She approached with an elegant gait.

“The Black Merchant seems to be interested in the new owner’s outing, but I’m not interested.”

“What?”

“They told me that. If the new owner returns to the surface, follow them by any means. And tell them everything you see and hear.”

As expected, there was an ulterior motive. The black marketeer’s hypocritical face, who had been talking about taking a loss, came to mind.

“But don’t worry. I don’t care about those things anyway. Right now, I’m just….”

Her pale face with unusually red lips, she licked her lips seductively and said.

“Just imagining what human blood tastes like makes my whole body tingle.”

As he was looking at her flushed face, a message window popped up in front of him.

[The vampire Angela wants to join.]

[Once, vampires were the limbs of the most noble beings in the underground. But after a long time, even that noble name is no longer left, and now they are just wanderers who leave to find their own masters. Angela has been waiting for more than decades to find her master. She seems to like the new owner very much.]

[To accept her as a subordinate, you must perform a blood ritual.]

[Please think carefully about whether to accept the vampire Angela. Vampires are the most beautiful and seductive beings in the underground, but they are also very obsessive and tenacious.]

As he was looking at the message window that popped up, Angela was licking her red tongue, having come closer at some point.

“Will you accept me?”

[Will you accept the vampire Angela? If you are going to accept Angela, give her blood.]

Looking at Angela’s face, which was looking at him with a blissful expression in front of him, he called Dominique.

“Dominique.”

‘Yes, I’m here.’

Dominique handed him a treasured sword he had obtained from this auction. He grabbed the blade tightly with his hand. Blood flowed down the sword in an instant.

“Ah….”

Angela knelt down under the blade he held out and exclaimed. With a face anxious not to miss even a drop of blood flowing from the tip of the sword, she received and drank the blood.

[The blood ritual with the vampire Angela has been completed. She will never leave your side from now on.]

[The master’s blood is the source of life for the vampire. Vampires who have not been given the master’s blood for a certain period of time lose their vitality and eventually wither and die.]

[As a price for the ritual, you share a part of each other. Angela shares the master’s life force, and you have priority to share ‘some’ of Angela’s abilities.]

Even though the ritual was already completed, Angela was still greedily devouring his blood with a blissful expression. Kim Jin-woo, who was watching the strangely erotic scene, withdrew the sword.

“Plea, please….”

Where did her initial dignified and elegant attitude go? Angela trembled and begged.

But Dominique had already bandaged his hand and given first aid.

“I’ll think about it again next time, depending on what you do.”

At his words, she gasped as if she was disappointed.

***

A day had passed since he obtained Angela.

Kim Jin-woo, who had already obtained everything he needed through the deal with the black marketeer, was able to comfortably watch the show called the auction from the position of a spectator.

The general participants, who had been arguing in the hall, had lost their motivation due to the successive high bids that had been pouring out of the VIP room today and were focusing on looking at the products.

Because it was the last auction, quite a few rare items that were rare even for the underground nobles came out.

“Many people were disappointed yesterday because the vampire found its owner. But today, there are products that are no less than yesterday, so please look forward to it!”

Kim Jin-woo, who was watching the host who started to make a fuss again before introducing the last product, was shocked to see the product that came up on the stage.

“Now, it’s a being that is really rare in the underground!”

The ‘product’ that was chained and taking each step with despair,

“Born and raised in the underground! The first product to be put up for auction in 10 years! Its name is ‘Underground Dweller’!”

Was none other than a Dungeon Baby.