Dungeon Odyssey [EN]: Chapter 82

Dungeon Chronicle – Episode 83

# 83

Dungeon Chronicle

Episode 83

“What treasure did you steal?”

Getting angry was one thing, but figuring out a plan was the priority. And to come up with a plan, I needed to know what treasure Ortega had stolen.

At the question, Ortega just rolled his big eyes, unwilling to answer easily.

“Ortega!”

Unable to watch any longer, Kim Jin-woo raised his hand and smacked Ortega’s head. The Drakon let out a bizarre shriek and collapsed on the floor.

“Right now, because of you, the Invincible Mercenary Corps, or whatever they’re called, are camped outside the labyrinth. Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t hand you over to them.”

At his almost threatening words, Ortega belatedly grasped the gravity of the situation and stammered an explanation.

“I… what I took was the labyrinth core that Krasto possessed. It was in a fist-sized mana [magical energy] jam, but I lost it while wandering around the 9th floor.”

‘Good heavens! That Drakon didn’t just steal the labyrinth core, he stole Krasto’s home!’

Dominic shouted, aghast as he grasped the situation. And Kim Jin-woo, unable to contain his anger, smacked Ortega’s head once more.

“Don’t tell me the reason that mercenary corps is wandering around without a base is because of this half-wit Drakon?”

‘I can’t know for sure, but it’s not impossible.’

As Dominic said that with a pale face, Kim Jin-woo kicked Ortega’s huge body, which was trembling as it lay collapsed, several times.

***

The Invincible Mercenary Krasto was a giant twice as sturdy as the Naga gatekeeper. A muscular giant with a reddish glow, with two heads on his broad shoulders, one on the left resembling an old man, and the other on the right resembling a young man.

“I am Krasto, leader of the mercenary corps. I have heard much about the Commander of Conquest’s reputation. Pleased to meet you.”

Among them, it was the old man’s head that was speaking now. The young man’s head had his eyes tightly closed and was motionless, as if he were asleep.

“I had no intention of invading your territory. However, I have come with a purpose, so please forgive my intrusion.”

Contrary to the worries he had before coming here, Krasto was surprisingly neither hostile nor fierce. He maintained a consistently gentlemanly attitude, not crossing the line, to the point where Kim Jin-woo, who had led the Nagas expecting a battle, looked ridiculous.

“Before that, I want to ask something. I am looking for a Drakon. A Drakon that is not yet fully grown, whose appearance is plausible, but is actually no better than a half-wit.”

A half-wit Drakon definitely sounded like Ortega. Among those famous Drakons, there couldn’t be another one as lacking as Ortega.

He thought about playing dumb, but Kim Jin-woo soon changed his mind.

“His name is Ortega. Is he perhaps here?”

So he answered Krasto’s question truthfully.

“If you mean the Ortega full of bluster, he is in my territory.”

“So the rumors were true. There was a rumor that the villain contributed to the Baron’s miraculous victory. I ask just in case, do you have any intention of handing him over to me?”

At the direct question, Kim Jin-woo glanced behind him and then looked back at Krasto.

“I will ask one thing. If I do not hand over that troublemaking Drakon, what do you intend to do?”

Krasto’s eyes lit up with amusement. In the meantime, Kim Jin-woo quickly scanned the opponent’s forces with his eyes.

There were as many as forty giant soldiers as large as Krasto, and none of them seemed to be below hero level.

It wasn’t that they couldn’t win in a fight, but according to what he had heard on the way, the mercenary corps’ strength wasn’t all of it.

Another hundred mercenaries were staying some distance away from the border, which made his head ache.

“Well, what do you think?”

At Krasto’s words, the atmosphere on both sides changed sharply. The giants rumbled lowly as if threatening, and in response, the Nagas flashed their eyes, making fierce wind noises.

“Well, there’s no helping it. I can’t start a war over that one troublemaker.”

The tension that had been stretched taut disappeared in an instant at Krasto’s words, which he spoke after a long pause.

Even Kim Jin-woo stared at Krasto with a dumbfounded expression at the unexpected answer, but Krasto shrugged his shoulders and continued.

“Did the Baron think that I would risk a war for that insignificant guy, or did you think we would compete to see which is real between Invincible and Conquest?”

What appeared on the old man’s face was pleasant amusement.

“If I had any intention of doing that, the Baron would have had to deal with the head sleeping next to me, not the head speaking now.”

Krasto’s behavior of talking as if he were talking about someone else was rather absurd. Come to think of it, the head with the face of a young man was now even snoring as he slept.

Kim Jin-woo still couldn’t shake off his bewilderment and quietly stared at the bizarre sight.

“I roughly know what you were thinking. But mercenaries are beings who move for money; they don’t fight without a price.”

Krasto’s mercenary philosophy, which was thorough in its own way, was fortunate for Kim Jin-woo this time. He was somewhat relieved, but still asked Krasto with a face full of vigilance.

“Then did you come all the way here just to say that?”

“Could that be? Didn’t I just say it?”

Krasto said that and grinned.

“Mercenaries don’t move without a price.”

***

Krasto went back. Krasto, who had disappeared with his mercenary corps, saying that he would kill time somewhere on the 9th floor until something happened, left a deep impression.

“What a mischievous fellow.”

Dominic suddenly spoke to Kim Jin-woo, who still looked bewildered.

‘Who on earth could it be?’

Krasto said himself that he had come to cooperate with the Nagas, but he never revealed who the client was.

“Someone who knows that I will advance to the depths, and someone who has the financial resources to pay the Invincible Mercenary Corps. But it’s not Anatolius. That iron-faced Count would have made a fuss about everything.”

He thought about it carefully, but still couldn’t come up with an answer.

“I don’t know whether to like this or worry about it.”

Krasto said that he had no intention of getting involved in trivial wars. He said that they would only step in when it came to the depths or beyond, and that he would even choose his own opponent, so he could be said to be a rather difficult mercenary to handle.

‘It’s certain that they are useful people. Although it will be quite a while before we use them.’

The Invincible’s power, which had never lost even against the armies of the deep nobles, was quite attractive.

Nevertheless, the fact that he couldn’t simply welcome their joining was because he didn’t know the identity of the client.

“Ugh, I thought I was going to lose ten years of my life.”

However, there was one person among them who was purely happy, and that was the troublemaking Drakon, who had almost become the spark of war.

“I heard the underground is small, but what are the odds of meeting here?”

Kim Jin-woo, whose mood was twisted by the blatant expression of joy, kicked the Drakon from behind.

“Ugh! Why, why? Didn’t everything work out!”

Kim Jin-woo gave Ortega, who had regained his spirit in the meantime after avoiding the crisis, a ferocious look.

“I need to hear what you were doing before you came here. What other accidents did you cause?”

Kim Jin-woo said that and strode forward, tripping Ortega, who had gotten up, and knocking him down again.

“Of course, I have to hit you a bit before that.”

Even when he was a clueless novice dungeon owner, Ortega couldn’t beat Kim Jin-woo.

But now that the labyrinth had become stronger and he had grown rapidly, and had even received all sorts of amplification effects, there was no way he could beat him now.

“Before coming here, on the 10th floor! Ack!”

It was a problem that Ortega quickly confessed his past, but Kim Jin-woo’s fist was much faster.

“What did you do on the 10th floor?”

Kim Jin-woo continued to press Ortega, stepping on his body. The Drakon’s untimely screams echoed in the Naga fortress.

***

Kim Jin-woo, who was about to head back to the surface after resolving the underground affairs, suddenly remembered a being he had forgotten and turned back.

[Angela.]

[Yes, Master.]

Angela, who had been attached to Yoon-hee’s side 24 hours a day to monitor Yoon-hee, who had changed since the party hall had risen to level 5, looked very happy at the long-awaited call. With a bright smile, she rushed into his arms as soon as she saw him.

Kim Jin-woo, who was quietly watching her rubbing her cheek against his chest like a kitten, subtly pushed her shoulder away and brought up the matter at hand.

“How is Yoon-hee?”

“Hmm.”

He had greeted her with great joy, but her master didn’t seem to be impressed at all.

The eyes that didn’t waver even at the fleshly assault of a trembling beauty didn’t have any excitement or joy in them. Perhaps feeling sorry for that, Angela quickly made a sullen face.

Still, she didn’t forget to report.

“It’s definitely as you said, Master. Yoon-hee has definitely recovered.”

“What is the basis for saying that?”

“Being dazed is no different from before, but she is thinking now. She acts before someone instructs her, and occasionally shows emotions.”

Angela’s words were not surprising at all. On that day when the party hall was upgraded, he had clearly seen Yoon-hee’s thoughtful face.

“But I can’t figure out why she doesn’t speak. Does Angela think her change will be harmful to us?”

“I don’t know. Unless she is my source, there is no way to know what a human being, whose insides cannot be known, is thinking.”

Kim Jin-woo, who was nodding, asked with a stiff face.

“Then you can know what I’m thinking?”

“I don’t know what you’re thinking. However, if your emotions are extremely biased to one side, I can vaguely know what you’re feeling. For example, you seem to be displeased right now.”

There was no way he could feel good about the fact that someone was looking into his mind. Kim Jin-woo’s face sank coldly.

“Don’t misunderstand. If you are displeased, I am also displeased, and if you are happy, I am also happy. And I don’t know why. I just cry and laugh according to your emotions, and if you are displeased even with that, I will be really sad.”

Looking at her face, which was full of sadness, Kim Jin-woo relaxed his expression.

After all, he had gained a lot through her, so it seemed okay to put up with one minor inconvenience.

With a somewhat softened face, he urged her to continue the explanation.

“Continue.”

“When the Invincible Mercenary Corps visited the territory, Yoon-hee was definitely worried about something.”

At the time, he didn’t have the energy to pay attention to Yoon-hee because he was worried about Krasto. So Kim Jin-woo didn’t know what kind of expression Yoon-hee had at that time.

“Worried?”

“Yes. She was definitely depressed by a whirlwind of conflict, worry, regret, self-blame… words cannot express it.”

“You said you don’t have the ability to look into other people’s thoughts, but you know quite a lot.”

At his words, Angela said with a slightly sad face.

“Vampires can’t know the joy that others feel at all. We can’t even distinguish between smiling and crying faces. The world I haven’t looked into through you is only half the world.”

Perhaps that’s why vampires are so obsessed with their masters, Kim Jin-woo thought she looked a little pitiful. But he didn’t bother to express such thoughts on the outside.

Angela craves her master’s love, but she wasn’t so lacking in pride that she wanted pity.

“And as such, I am sensitive to the negative emotions that others feel.”

“Is that so.”

Kim Jin-woo, who was looking at Angela with complicated eyes, was lost in thought and opened his mouth after a long time.

“Where is Yoon-hee now?”

“She’s in her residence as always. No matter how much change there is, her basic lifestyle itself hasn’t changed.”

Kim Jin-woo nodded at Angela’s answer and then froze.

“Master?”

His eyes, with a deeply frowned expression, were looking at the air.

[Yoon-hee, the owner of the Festival Land Party Hall, has attempted to open a portal to the party hall. However, the portal will not open without the Baron’s permission.]

[Would you like to allow the connection to the portal?]

Kim Jin-woo, who had checked the message that appeared in front of him, jumped up and said.

“Take me to where Yoon-hee is!”

Angela, who had sensed that something unusual was happening, turned into black mist instead of answering and flew through the labyrinth. Kim Jin-woo followed behind her.

[Yoon-hee has repeatedly attempted to open a portal to the party hall. However, the portal has not been opened due to the lack of the Baron’s permission.]

[Would you like to allow the connection to the portal?]