Dungeon Odyssey [EN]: Chapter 61

Dungeon Journal – Episode 62

#24. Loot

[The battle is over. The dead have been crushed and returned to where they belong.]

Along with the battle termination message, various notifications popped up, but Kim Jin-woo cleared his head with a shake. Dealing with a few undead wasn’t even worth celebrating as a victory.

“Surely, this isn’t all.”

Even if he was running low on military options, the cunning Valishus couldn’t possibly be out of tricks.

Now that they were truly on the verge of reaching the Graveyard, if he had any hidden cards, this was his last chance to use them.

Yet, despite this, there was no sign of anything stopping the Nagas’ advance, which made Kim Jin-woo uneasy.

“Slow down the march and focus more on reconnaissance.”

Rickshasha and the long-range scouts scattered in all directions at his command, thoroughly searching the vicinity.

“Show yourself, Valishus. This may be your last chance.”

Kim Jin-woo slowed his rapid advance, as if waiting for something, muttering under his breath.

As if the undead had heard his words, the entire underground began to tremble suddenly.

Whoooooooo!

Kieeeeeek!

The sudden sound of wind was eerily reminiscent of a flute.

Darkness, already thick in the underground, began to coalesce, growing so large that it filled the entire passage.

[The Parasite has sensed danger.]

[Death energy fills every direction.]

[Death energy, the energy of the negative dimension, frightens the living simply by its existence. The Nagas are affected by the death energy.]

[The Nagas, accompanied by the Invincible Commander, have successfully resisted the death energy.]

[But the death energy still does not dissipate.]

Even without the flashing warning messages, it was clear that something bad was happening. The oppressive energy, stinging his skin, and the unusually dark shadows warned him of impending doom.

[The underground is like a vast cemetery. Everywhere beneath the surface, every handful of soil is stained with blood, and every corner echoes with dying screams. Artificially concentrated death energy in such a place will never bring good results. Disperse the death energy quickly, or something terrible will happen.]

The warnings repeated. The densely packed death energy began to approach the Nagas from the front and rear of the passage, threatening them.

“Stop the darkness from gathering!”

At Kim Jin-woo’s command, the Naga Dragon Knights tightly wrapped their tails around the necks of the Guardian Dragons.

The six-legged Guardian Dragons stomped their feet in unison, stepped forward, and opened their mouths wide.

Red flames flickered inside their massive jaws, large enough to swallow most creatures whole, before erupting in a torrent.

Kieeeeeek!

The darkness shrieked and writhed as dozens of flames, recklessly unleashed in the narrow passage, struck it.

“Again!”

Ortega also stepped forward, unleashing flames.

The darkness receded in the face of the crimson flames, but only for a moment, before reforming with an even more vivid hue.

Even as the higher-ranking Naga mages and the remaining Naga Dragon Knights frantically tried to dispel the darkness from the rear, they could only manage to keep the death energy at bay.

The Guardian Dragons strained until they coughed dryly, but in the end, the darkness coalesced into a single, massive mass.

[Extremely concentrated death energy has met countless deaths in the underground, finally opening the Gate of the Dead to the mortal realm.]

[The deep-seated resentment of the underground, deepened over countless ages, has begun to take form.]

[The most terrifying beings, constantly hating and despising the living, the Army of the Dead, has been summoned.]

The solid underground floor cracked open, and bony hands, yellowed with age, burst forth. These hands multiplied into dozens, then hundreds.

And when they all revealed themselves, the underground had become another hell.

“Prepare for battle!”

The Nagas, already prepared, raised their spears and swords in unison, bolstering their morale.

“Sweep them away!”

No sooner had his words ended than the higher-ranking Naga mages, who had been chanting spells in advance, began to cast their incantations, and the Naga shamans began to hum their songs.

[The battle has begun.]

[Every death in the land of the dead means eternal torment. They will covet the flesh of their former comrades and envy their souls. All the fallen will be incorporated into the Army of the Dead.]

None of the messages that appeared before him were trivial. But Kim Jin-woo remained cold, encouraging the Nagas.

[The Commander’s unique ability, ‘Domination of the Battlefield,’ has been activated.]

[The collective combat ability of the Nagas has increased. The Nagas will listen to your every whisper and try to follow it.]

[The Nagas’ formation becomes even more solid and resilient.]

The moment the message ended, the Nagas formed an even more solid formation and met the Army of the Dead.

The Naga Dragon Knights trampled the rattling bodies of the dead as they charged forward, followed by the Naga mages’ ice spells. The Warrior’s Shield crushed skeletal remains, and the Fighter’s Axe turned them to dust.

It was truly overwhelming power, but the battle was fierce nonetheless.

The dead, relentlessly charging until completely pulverized, and the vicious curse that turned them against their comrades with bloodshot eyes at the slightest injury, constantly tormented the Nagas.

Moreover, the most terrifying thing was the endless stream of dead crawling out from under the ground. Although they were pathetic figures with creaking bones, their numbers were endless.

So when the battle finally ended, the Nagas were all exhausted and sprawled out.

[The battle is over.]

[The Nagas have shown incredible strength against the endless Army of the Dead. The Nagas were like judges. But the Army of the Dead was by no means weak. Many Nagas have fallen.]

[The long-range scouts have been annihilated. They were unlucky.]

[Three Naga Warriors and six Fighters have fallen.]

[Two Naga High Mages have fallen.]

[One Naga Dragon Knight has fallen.]

As all the Nagas collapsed in exhaustion, Kim Jin-woo had to frown as he looked at the casualty reports filling his vision.

“Rickshasha!”

“Here I am.”

Rickshasha’s appearance was a mess, perhaps because she had been caught up in the battle without even being able to use her stealth abilities. Kim Jin-woo gave her a sharp look.

“It will be difficult, but there are no remaining scouts. I ask you to scout the Land of the Dead.”

Although they had won, the Army of the Dead was not an easy opponent.

Their tireless persistence, the terrible curse that made them turn on their comrades at the slightest injury, and the endless stream of dead would have annihilated most armies.

Valishus, who commanded such immense power, couldn’t possibly be unscathed, even if he was called the King of the Dead.

So, instead of reorganizing the Nagas, Kim Jin-woo increased their marching speed.

As he had expected, the Graveyard, which would normally be covered in all sorts of death energy and dangerous auras, was just an empty maze.

“There are no traps.”

At Rickshasha’s pale-faced report, Kim Jin-woo led the Nagas to the Owner’s Room where Valishus would be.

“So, you are the king of the Nagas.”

Upon arriving at the Owner’s Room, Kim Jin-woo found the King of the Dead, Valishus, sitting on his throne as if he had been waiting for him.

Valishus, covered in stitches, looked utterly exhausted.

As Kim Jin-woo had expected, Valishus seemed to have poured an immense amount of energy into opening the Gate of the Dead.

As evidence, his flesh crumbled and fell as he spoke, and his eyes had lost their light and faded. Valishus was weakened beyond comparison to when he had been seen at the auction house.

“To think that the King of Gluttony was in league with you. I was manipulated by you from beginning to end, how frustrating, how frustrating.”

Kim Jin-woo frowned at Valishus, who was lamenting as if complaining about his fate.

“I regret not fighting you here instead of opening the Gate of the Dead…”

Valishus, moving his completely ruined lips, suddenly stopped speaking and tumbled to the floor.

It was because Kim Jin-woo had suddenly approached and slammed his head against the floor.

Even though Ichigo, who had once reigned as the King of the Dead, was in an excessively pathetic state, Kim Jin-woo seemed satisfied with his appearance.

“It’s disgusting to see a loser sitting on a throne and rambling on.”

While Valishus was still reeling from the humiliation he had never experienced before, Kim Jin-woo seized the bone throne and crossed his legs.

“Losers don’t talk. Isn’t that right?”

He smiled coldly and clicked his tongue as he looked at the maze’s core.

“You even drew on the dungeon’s energy.”

A displeased look appeared on his face as he looked at the core, which was dimly lit as if it would go out at any moment, unlike the cores of other mazes.

“It’s a pity that I couldn’t even use my trump card prepared for you,” Valishus said, spitting out the words. But Kim Jin-woo was not looking at Valishus, who was shouting as if vomiting blood.

“This is a mess. The intact maze is completely unusable.”

A sudden voice interrupted. Valishus, whose energy was weakened, hadn’t noticed and turned around in surprise.

“Y-you are?”

“I regret meeting you again like this, Valishus-nim [Valishus-sama, a term of respect].”

The one who appeared in the Owner’s Room was the Black Merchant’s fence.

“Let’s save the greetings for later and take care of what we need to do first.”

Kim Jin-woo said without any surprise, as if he had known about the fence’s appearance from the beginning.

“Let’s settle the accounts as promised beforehand.”

What kind of promise had they made beforehand? Valishus looked dazed, unable to grasp the situation.

“It seems we’ll be taking a loss again this time.”

“I kept all my promises to you. I didn’t touch the maze for you, who would be saddened by the disappearance of another maze in the underground. It’s Valishus’s fault that the core is in that state, not mine. So, shouldn’t we settle the score as originally planned?”

The fence grimaced at Kim Jin-woo’s words.

“How is it that intact mazes get destroyed whenever the Baron is involved? I’m already worried if there will be any mazes left on the 9th floor later on.”

As he had felt before, the fence’s attitude of cherishing the maze to an excessive degree for a mere merchant was unnatural. But he didn’t bother to point it out and pry into it.

He would find out eventually, and it didn’t seem like the fence would give him a proper answer even if he asked now.

“First, the maze’s core. It’s a Rank 5, but its condition is like that, so it’s impossible to get its full value. It seems he pushed himself too hard at the end, using up the core’s source, so it’s completely broken. At this rate, I’m worried about how much it will cost to revive the maze.”

The fence was calculating the value while looking at the dimly lit maze core. Kim Jin-woo’s face was indifferent.

“And there are still about 70 remaining undead in total, a chimera made from the corpse of the Dragon King, and the Blood Mark Chimera… Let’s see.”

Valishus belatedly realized the situation as he watched the fence, who was raising his short fingers and calculating this and that as if appraising the value of a product, and he burst into anger.

“How dare you!”

But the fence coldly ignored Valishus. The fence, who had been humbly bowing, straightened his back and looked at the King of the Dead as if he were a lowly beastman slave.

Enraged by that fact, Valishus gathered his last strength and approached the fence with staggering steps.

“Then, what about the last remaining thing, um, what are you going to do with it?”

“How much would you give if you paid the price?”

Valishus, who had approached right in front of the fence, forgot his anger and stiffened as he saw the fence’s cold eyes looking at him.

“The vessel of life force is broken, and the body itself is insignificant, so I don’t think I can give you much. Well, the choice is up to the Baron, so I just have to pay the price and receive the goods, right?”

Belatedly, Valishus was able to realize what the last remaining item the fence was talking about was. The moment he realized that, Valishus collapsed to the floor as if he had crumbled.

“Hmm, but it’s not right to sell the one who was called the King of the Dead at a cheap price.”

“Then what are you going to do?”

At the fence’s question, Kim Jin-woo looked at Valishus, who was sitting on the floor in a daze, and then made a decision.

“Then let’s do this.”