Dungeon Odyssey [EN]: Chapter 56

Dungeon Journal – Episode 57

# 57

Dungeon Journal

“What’s all this commotion? Go check it out.”

Song Jong-cheol frowned as he spoke, and one of the men disappeared.

“It can’t be that hard to stop them, so why all the fuss?”

“These days, the Seekers aren’t listening, probably because of the labyrinth. We even circulated an official letter under the association’s name asking them to refrain from underground exploration, but it’s still like this…”

“Tsk, they’re all blinded by greed…”

In fact, when you think about it, the reason he himself entered the underground wasn’t any different from the other Seekers, yet he spoke so brazenly. But everyone here was like his hands and feet, holding positions in the association, and no one pointed it out.

“Anyway, what are we supposed to do with this?”

They stared at the altar and stone table for a long time, touching them here and there, but there was no reaction. They were now in the Owner Room, which could be called the heart of the labyrinth.

However, an unactivated Owner Room was just an empty stone chamber with nothing special about it.

“Just touch something, anything. Do you want to stay here forever?”

At Song Jong-cheol’s command, the association executives quickly bustled about, sweeping and touching the stone table and walls indiscriminately.

[Fortunately, it seems we’re not too late yet.]

Kim Jin-woo and Angela, who had infiltrated unnoticed in the meantime, watched Song Jong-cheol’s group and spoke in a tone of exasperation.

[They’re clinging to something that was never meant to be theirs. It’s frustrating just watching them.]

Kim Jin-woo nodded at Angela’s telepathy.

If you are chosen, you will be forcibly drawn into the labyrinth and become its owner, whether you want to or not. Kim Jin-woo himself was like that, and so was Yoon-hee.

That meant that no one inside was chosen by the labyrinth.

“Ugh, is the labyrinth discriminating against people now?”

Angela asked as she watched Song Jong-cheol, unable to contain his frustration, burst into anger.

[What are you going to do? Are you just going to keep watching?]

[I need to find an opening first.]

Since Kim Jin-woo and Angela were not chosen by the labyrinth either, they were in the same situation as Song Jong-cheol’s group, needing to find a way.

“Creatures have attacked outside!”

At that moment, a Seeker from the association who had gone out to check the situation returned and reported.

“What? Creatures? How many of them attacked with our men there!”

“They are cloaked creatures. Like camouflage or something, the outside is a mess right now.”

[Pfft. Creatures, he says. I guess he’s talking about us.]

Angela mocked Song Jong-cheol’s group, finding their exaggerated reaction amusing.

“Did they find them?”

“No, not yet. Some of the guys who are free are searching every nook and cranny, but they can’t seem to find them.”

“Why are you doing your job like that? This isn’t the lower levels. How can you only do this much with that many people on the 4th floor?”

“Well… it’s not easy because the Seekers are making such a fuss…”

The Seeker flinched at Song Jong-cheol’s outburst.

“Wait, if they didn’t find them outside, doesn’t that mean they crawled into here?”

Indeed, it was a judgment worthy of an experienced dungeon delver [someone who frequently explores dungeons]. As Song Jong-cheol said this, the association executives all drew their weapons and glared around.

[Looks like we’re about to get caught.]

Angela seemed to find the current situation amusing, her voice bright and out of place.

“Go outside and bring in anyone with detection abilities.”

Song Jong-cheol scanned the surroundings with sharp eyes and gave instructions. In the meantime, Kim Jin-woo, who had made a decision, called Angela.

[Yes?]

[Can you buy me some time?]

Angela immediately understood what he meant and smiled without anyone noticing.

[What should I do? Is it okay to take out a few of them?]

The content was brutal, which didn’t match her refreshing tone. Come to think of it, Angela’s presence had been unusually excited since a while ago, as if something was up.

[Don’t underestimate them. Even though they look like that, they’re the ones who survived and climbed up from the underground. What you see now isn’t all there is to them.]

[Well, they don’t seem that special compared to Master. Their life force is murky, and they don’t seem that strong.]

Kim Jin-woo frowned, feeling like he had heard her smack her lips for some reason.

[We don’t have time, so stop chatting and go cause a ruckus. Try not to show yourself if possible.]

[Yes, I’ll try.]

He wanted to stop her because he had a feeling she was going to cause trouble, but Angela’s presence had already disappeared from the surroundings.

“You need to come out here for a moment!”

It wasn’t clear what Angela had done, but the outside quickly became noisy, and a Seeker who had gone out to check the situation urgently called for Song Jong-cheol.

“What now?!”

“Well… some of the guys are acting strange!”

“What’s so strange about them?”

“They’re attacking their own allies with crazy eyes! Hyun-woo is injured, and Byung-woo and Jin-sik are also hurt!”

“You crazy bastard!”

Song Jong-cheol cursed and was about to leave the Owner Room, but he turned around and said.

“Just in case, you and you stay here and guard it. Don’t let our hard work benefit someone else.”

Song Jong-cheol’s caution, not letting his guard down until the end, was indeed worthy of the Seeker Association’s reputation. But Kim Jin-woo glanced at the two remaining Seekers and gave a cold smile.

“Isn’t this the labyrinth’s curse? That’s right. The previous owner also died suddenly, and this time, some of the guys suddenly went crazy. It’s kind of eerie, isn’t it?”

The Seekers, standing with their backs to the stone table, looked pale as they talked while checking the situation outside. They seemed to have misunderstood the commotion caused by Angela.

“I wonder if we got caught up in something unnecessary…”

“Why are you stopping mid-sentence?”

The Seeker who turned his head when his companion suddenly stopped talking saw a flickering shadow, widened his eyes, and then collapsed.

“Hoo, am I getting too strong?”

He only intended to knock them unconscious, but the sight of the two men, who were not ordinary Seekers but experienced dungeon delvers, foaming at the mouth and collapsing, was rather absurd.

But only for a moment. Kim Jin-woo, who quickly hardened his expression, examined the stone table.

The dungeon emblem was so faint that it was difficult to tell whether it was there or not unless you looked closely, and even then, it was so blurry that you couldn’t even tell what emblem it was.

[The core of the labyrinth, which has lost its owner and its activity has been suspended, has been discovered. It will not be activated until it finds a new owner.]

Kim Jin-woo placed his hand on the stone table, thinking he had a clue, and the message reappeared.

[Failed to imprint. The labyrinth that lost its owner refused the imprinting process.]

He wondered if it would work, but it didn’t. A new solution appeared before his eyes as he pondered whether to forcibly tear off the stone table and take it with him.

[To extract an unactivated core, you need a top-grade Down Gem.]

[However, even if you succeed in extracting the core of the labyrinth, it does not mean that you have ownership of the labyrinth. The labyrinth will always try to choose its own owner.]

There was no need to think about it. If it was a top-grade Down Gem, he happened to have the Blood Mark’s heart.

He took out the Blood Mark’s heart from his chest and brought it to the stone table. The dungeon emblem, which was faintly engraved on the stone table like a stain, disappeared into the red gem as if it were being sucked in.

[Successfully extracted the core of the unactivated labyrinth.]

[The core of the labyrinth will be dormant inside the Down Gem until it finds a suitable owner.]

[The labyrinth that lost its core completely ceases to function.]

As soon as the message ended, the air in the stone chamber sank as if representing the labyrinth that had lost its life.

[Master!]

[It’s over! Let’s go!]

At Angela’s telepathy, who had returned just in time, Kim Jin-woo immediately jumped out of the stone chamber.

“I told you to check the mental state of the guys properly! Damn it! I told you not to let guys with shaky minds enter the underground! How many times have I told you that they’ll cause an accident!”

“To be honest, how many of the guys who came up from the underground maintain their sanity…”

“Is this bastard talking back to me? You’ve grown a lot, haven’t you? I’m Song Jong-cheol, Song Jong-cheol! Where are you talking back to me!”

Song Jong-cheol, who was furious, and the association executives returned to the stone chamber and widened their eyes when they saw the men lying on the floor, foaming at the mouth.

“You bastards! Hey, check if anything’s missing, and you, check on the guys!”

Song Jong-cheol, sensing something strange, quickly assessed the situation and looked around the stone chamber.

“Nothing is missing or changed.”

“It’s not that nothing is missing, it’s that you don’t know what was there in the first place, so you’re saying nothing is missing.”

Even Song Jong-cheol himself, while looking at the stone table, did not notice the missing dungeon emblem.

“Anyway, look for it more! Blocking the Seekers is only going to work for a day or two! We need to settle this before that, or we’ll end up getting nothing and just getting cursed at, so take care of it!”

Kim Jin-woo had already taken the core, and the labyrinth was just an empty shell, but Song Jong-cheol, who had no way of knowing this, only scolded the association executives.

***

The numerous Seekers they encountered on the way to the surface were still searching for the labyrinth.

Kim Jin-woo felt a little guilty, feeling sorry for them as they wandered through the dark underground world with dirty faces, but he soon ignored it.

After all, none of them were chosen by the labyrinth. If there were, the labyrinth would have already drawn them in and forcibly completed the imprinting.

He went back up, checking to see if anything unusual had happened on the other floors, but there were no other special features.

“So this is the surface!”

Angela, a vampire, spread her arms as if enjoying the sunlight on the surface, her appearance extremely foreign.

“Wow!”

But that was just Kim Jin-woo’s impression, knowing her identity. The numerous Seekers coming and going through the gate couldn’t take their eyes off her.

An exotic beauty with platinum blonde hair shimmering in the afternoon sun and an endlessly refreshing smile was not something you could easily see.

“Is she a foreign Seeker?”

“Wow, my heart is really pounding.”

Fortunately, most of the Seekers had been heading to the underground for a long time, so the gate was somewhat deserted compared to usual, but it was still true that attention was focused on her.

Kim Jin-woo frowned and quickly went over and put the hood over Angela’s head.

Since she was no different from a human in appearance, there was nothing to hesitate about, but he was uncomfortable with her inhuman beauty attracting too much attention.

But she soon pushed the hood back and enjoyed the sunlight. It seemed she really liked the sunlight touching her cheeks.

“Just a little more!”

Kim Jin-woo put the hood back on her once again, her appearance making her identity as a vampire even more ambiguous.

“Later. We have plenty of time anyway.”

“Later? Are you going to bring me again?”

The Seekers glared at Kim Jin-woo with fierce faces as they saw her clinging to him as if begging. But all he had to do was look around once, and they quickly turned their heads and pretended not to notice.

The dungeon delvers, who had just finished exploring the underground and hadn’t calmed down their wildness, had a chilling look in their eyes, though the person in question didn’t know it.

It wasn’t a look that the Seekers who hadn’t even participated in the labyrinth exploration could handle.

“Hmm. It seems that not all surface dwellers are like Master. The Seekers I saw down there and the humans on this land are all insignificant.”

She whispered in his ear, close to him as he put on her hood.

“I guess it has to be Master.”

It was a sweet voice that would have made the heart of any man drop, but Kim Jin-woo pulled the end of the hood as if he was annoyed.

The Seekers ground their teeth without Kim Jin-woo knowing as they watched Angela being dragged away by the end of her hood.

Kim Jin-woo, who had unknowingly earned the resentment of the Seekers, didn’t care what others said.

When he arrived home, Angela was fussing about, saying she was going to look around every corner.

“So this is where Master lives on the surface. I’m so touched…”

“Portal.”

Kim Jin-woo, cutting off her words as she babbled as if she was touched by something so special about the house that had been converted from a warehouse, immediately opened the portal and pulled her in.