Dungeon Odyssey [EN]: Chapter 97

Dungeon Journal – Episode 98

# 98

Dungeon Journal

“The species isn’t fixed. From the four-armed monkeys to the three-headed snakes, you can find all sorts of creatures from the 6th floor. However, the only difference between them and other creatures is the bizarre tattoo they have.”

“A tattoo, you say…”

“A tattoo in the shape of wide-open eyes. That’s the only common trait among the creatures called ‘Sentinels’.”

With that, Lee Jun-young spent a long time explaining how the beings called ‘Sentinels’ tormented the human armies during the last war.

“It seems the Development Bureau isn’t planning to just sit back and watch this situation unfold. The moment the Sentinels reappeared, peace was already out the window.”

“But if you think about it, weren’t the humans the first to violate the armistice? Isn’t digging through the underground on such a large scale provoking the underground world?”

Before he knew it, his words sounded like he was blaming the humans, and Kim Jin-woo flinched and shut his mouth.

Fortunately, she didn’t seem to notice anything strange and didn’t pay much attention.

“That’s true, but the government is keeping a close eye on whether the Sentinels might come up to the surface again like before. It’s unlikely that war will break out so easily, but the way things are going these days, it’s definitely unsettling.”

After roughly grasping the situation on the surface from her words, Kim Jin-woo sighed, looking troubled.

“Jin-woo, please take care of yourself.”

“You too, Jun-young.”

After her worried farewell, he headed to Baek Seonsaeng’s appraisal office.

“A war might break out. I can’t believe those horrible creatures have reappeared.”

Neither Lee Jun-young nor Baek Seonsaeng mentioned the fact that the surface dwellers had provoked the underground first. Kim Jin-woo felt that it was a terrible contradiction, but he didn’t voice it.

As soon as Kim Jin-woo returned to the underground after leaving Baek Seonsaeng’s appraisal office, he was visited by the black marketeer again.

“Now that the situation on the 5th and 6th floors has been roughly sorted out, I’m planning to move soon.”

The surface dwellers were making a fuss about the chaos in the underground, but in the underground, they were saying that the situation was finally stabilizing. He was going back and forth between the surface and the underground in such a short period of time that his head was starting to hurt, so he just listened to the black marketeer’s words without saying anything.

“We’re scheduled to depart in three weeks, so please prepare accordingly. I’ll come to pick you up again on that day.”

With that, the black marketeer, who only said what he had to say, was about to leave the labyrinth. The way he didn’t even mention the Watcher made it seem like he knew this would happen from the start.

“The surface is prepared to go to war.”

As he said that to the back of the black marketeer, the black marketeer answered without even turning around.

“War, you say?”

“Their wariness of the Watcher is no joke. In the worst-case scenario, they were prepared to go to war.”

Despite his concerns, the black marketeer remained calm.

“There won’t be another great war like before.”

“Why?”

The answer was so confident that Kim Jin-woo almost nodded without realizing it. When he asked why, the black marketeer answered after a moment of silence.

“As long as they remember that day of the armistice, no surface dweller will ever be able to march towards the underground.”

He wondered what he meant and pondered the words from just now several times, but the black marketeer started to move again.

Kim Jin-woo stared blankly at his back, at his confident gait that never looked back.

“What the hell happened that day?”

He couldn’t easily ask in that atmosphere, so he sent the black marketeer back as he was, and stared at the empty darkness for a long time.

***

[The labyrinth’s upgrade is complete. The labyrinth’s grade is upgraded from grade 1 to grade 2. The locked facilities have been newly activated.]

[You can now summon Wraith Laborers through the Wraith Altar.]

The Mirror Wraith’s Labyrinth was being upgraded smoothly.

Now, there was no need to worry about not being able to find the funds to upgrade the labyrinth, and there was no need to worry about the labyrinth being exposed and attacked.

Naturally, the Mirror Wraith’s Labyrinth grew steadily.

[The labyrinth’s upgrade is complete. The labyrinth’s grade is upgraded from grade 2 to grade 3. The locked facilities have been newly activated.]

After two upgrades in a relatively short period of time, the Mirror Wraith’s Labyrinth rose to grade 3.

“Hmm, should I watch a little longer?”

So far, there was no significant difference from the existing labyrinth. The only somewhat unusual thing was that the presence of the Wraith Laborers coming and going through the labyrinth was strangely non-existent.

Except for that, the Mirror Wraith’s Labyrinth was just like any other ordinary labyrinth.

As it is now, the Brocade Frog’s Nest was more useful.

The five-colored frog soldiers summoned after reaching grade 3 had poor combat abilities, but they were quite useful in that they used poison that paralyzed the enemy’s body.

As a result of testing, the poison had the effect of freezing the muscles even for Naga Warriors and Fighters, as well as Dharma Dragon, so there might be a place to use the Brocade Frogs after all.

However, the Big-Headed Dwarves were truly useless.

Even the workers couldn’t do their jobs properly because of their relatively short limbs compared to their large heads, so there was no need to mention the uselessness of the summons that came out after that.

However, that situation was reversed the moment the Mirror Wraith’s Labyrinth reached grade 4.

This labyrinth, which earned the title of Mirror Wraith’s Pond, changed a lot as soon as it reached grade 4.

The most unusual thing was that there were only two summons created until reaching grade 4. Except for the Wraith Laborers, no other summons were created, which was quite embarrassing.

□Mirror Wraith (Low-Grade) (70)

*These incorporeal wraiths are like the reflections of themselves that the living saw before they died. They are terrible beings that plunder everything from those they kill. They can take on the abilities and appearance of their victims.

(Even if the being did not die by their hand, the Mirror Wraith can steal some of the dead person’s abilities by absorbing the intact corpse.)

(The abilities and appearance of victims beyond the wraith’s grade cannot be stolen.)

(Summonstones are required to arbitrarily grow the wraith. They will have the same abilities as the summon in the summonstone. But it is unknown what the point is of sacrificing a summon to transform a wraith.)

When he threw a 9th-floor creature that he had captured among them as a test, it wasn’t long before one of the wraiths reproduced the appearance of the sacrificed creature as it was when it was alive.

Kim Jin-woo, who watched the scene, was able to realize the value of the Mirror Wraith. If there were only beings to steal abilities from, they would show endless changes.

Of course, it was somewhat disappointing that they had to wander around the labyrinth aimlessly in a form that was not much different from the Wraith Laborers until then.

“Still, this is really amazing.”

Although they couldn’t steal the abilities of opponents beyond their grade, he looked satisfied as he looked at the Mirror Wraiths.

“Croak!”

However, on the other hand, there was nothing particularly different about the Brocade Frogs. He had hoped that the paralyzing poison would turn into a deadly poison as the grade increased, but the venom emitted by the five-colored frog soldiers still only had a paralyzing effect.

It seemed that he would have to grow this one a little more before he could decide on its future course of action.

On the other hand, the Big-Headed Dwarves’ labyrinth was still useless. So, he stopped the labyrinth’s activities and extracted the core as it was.

“Still, it’s a bit unsettling to synthesize it like this.”

The fact that what he held in his hand was the source of the only Big-Headed Dwarves in the underground made his mind complicated. If he used the core for synthesis as it was, the Big-Headed Dwarf clan itself would disappear from the underground.

So, after much deliberation, he used this troublesome core as an experimental material for enhancement. It was natural for the high-ranking Naga mages to be excited.

[Enhance the heart of the Big-Headed Dwarf.]

[Finely chopped labyrinth fragments are required.]

[Would you like to attempt to enhance the core using the fragments of the abandoned labyrinth?]

“I will.”

If there was no big change this time, he decided to erase the Big-Headed Dwarves from the underground.

[The heart of the Big-Headed Dwarf has been enhanced.]

“What? Is that it?”

There was no further explanation. A single message that appeared with a short flash, that was the end of the enhancement work.

The only slight difference was that the core of the Big-Headed Dwarf labyrinth, which had been emitting a dull light that was unlike the highest-grade Down Gem, was now emitting a very slight glow.

Looking at it, it seemed that the enhancement effect was not completely absent.

“No!”

Kim Jin-woo firmly stopped the high-ranking Naga mages who had approached and were trying to enhance it again while he was distracted for a moment.

If the enhancement effect was not significant, there was no need to bother with the troublesome core.

Even if it was significant, it would be more profitable to enhance other useful cores than to enhance the core of the Big-Headed Dwarf labyrinth, which was not very good from the beginning.

Realizing this belatedly, he gathered the cores and fragments that were laid out on the desk in the laboratory. The Naga mage next to him smacked his lips in disappointment, but he ignored it.

“No, if you had something like this, you should have told me sooner!”

It was unexpectedly the black marketeer who took care of the troublesome core.

If the black marketeer, who valued labyrinths, might value even this useless race, he did.

“No, they’re really useless. Their limbs are short, but their heads are too big, so they can’t do anything.”

Still, Kim Jin-woo couldn’t inflate the value of the core with lies that would be exposed soon, so he honestly told the situation, and the black marketeer made a strange expression.

“Ah…….”

Come to think of it, the Big-Headed Dwarf clan’s appearance was just like the black marketeer’s. Except for the red skin and pointed ears, there was not much difference between the Big-Headed Dwarves and the Imps [a type of small, mischievous fairy].

Unintentionally, it seemed that he had made a personal attack on the short arms, legs, and big head. He coughed awkwardly with an embarrassed face.

“There is no useless race in this world.”

Looking at him, the black marketeer clicked his tongue and changed his expression.

“Do you know that there are far more races disappearing than races being newly born? The birth of a new clan is a joyous event in itself.”

He always felt this whenever the black marketeer said these words, but the Black Merchant was definitely not an ordinary merchant group.

Otherwise, there was no way that a merchant who should be pursuing profits would value everything in the underground so much.

As he narrowed his eyes and looked at the black marketeer, the black marketeer coughed for no reason.

“If you have anything like this again, please call me anytime. I’ll come running right away.”

He was worried that he would be nagged for valuing the labyrinth, but fortunately, the black marketeer didn’t seem to have thought about synthesis.

Without nagging him much, he took the core of the labyrinth that he had received from him and returned, cherishing it like a precious treasure.

***

After the black marketeer left, Kim Jin-woo repeatedly pondered how to utilize the Mirror Wraiths.

If he had the right materials, he could create an all-weather, all-purpose army, but he was frustrated because he couldn’t find any useful beings right now.

“Ah!”

In the meantime, Kim Jin-woo suddenly remembered the countless corpses he had handed over to Valishus during the last war, and he slapped his knee, finally realizing a potential solution.