Dungeon Maker Chapter 17

< Dungeon Defense #2 >

“We were lucky.”

That’s what Yong-Ho assumed.

The day after the first battle.

After accepting the Kobolds’ surrender, Yong-Ho fainted and after a long rest, he was able to wake up. Maybe it’s because he rolled around a lot, but raising his body while lying down caused his muscles to scream out in pain.

They were really lucky.

They wouldn’t have been able to win if he didn’t obtain Aamon before the battle.

If the Skeletons didn’t intercept in time, they would’ve lost.

‘I’m crazy.’

He thought about when he ran towards the hammer.

Did Yong-Ho have an aggressive side? Or was it a change that occurred when he awakened as a demon king?

Anyways, they won. They survived.

His horizon widened after experiencing it himself.

First, Aamon. It was still a red lance, but it was definitely placed beside Yong-Ho.

And Catalina and Eligor.

“Master!”

“You’ve awaken.”

He didn’t see them when he woke up, but they somehow knew and were now standing before his eyes. They both had a similar expression.

Like babies looking at their mother?

‘Catalina looked cute, but Eligor was a bit…’

Yong-Ho chuckled at the thought and when the two saw him, they reacted to it. It seemed like they  understood it as him being in a better condition.

Yong-Ho extended his hand out towards Catalina.

“You did well yesterday. And I’m sorry, but could you get me some water?”

“Please wait a moment.”

Catalina quickly answered and went to grab a cup and kettle. Yong-Ho turned his attention to Eligor.

“How long was I out for?”

“You were in bed for a day.”

“No wonder why my lower back hurts.”

Yong-Ho rolled his shoulders after answering Eligor. Catalina came back and handed Yong-Ho the cup of water.

“Here you go master.”

“Thanks.”

He felt a lot better after drinking the water. After drinking the entire cup of water, he felt a bit lightheaded and after briefly closing his eyes, he asked.

“What happened after the battle?”

“The remaining four Kobolds are locked up in the prison. The corpse of the low-level demon family has been stored in an empty room. Oh, we also collected the weapons that they used.”

Yong-Ho’s eyes widened at Eligor’s answer.

“Stored? The corpses?”

Why did they store the corpses? Did the corpses turn into a Zombie or a Skeleton in the demon world?

‘That means free soldiers, so is it...a good thing?’

Eligor interrupted Yong-Ho’s imagination. He had a very serious expression.

“Even though you obtained the spirit, there’s still a good amount of mana left in that body. The dungeon currently doesn’t have that facility, but...later when the Mana Room has been created, you’ll be able to drain out the mana.”

Eligor had been serious and stern from the beginning. He was wanting to take everything that he could from the enemy.

“Oh...okay.”

But, draining out mana from a corpse?

Yong-Ho did feel uncomfortable about it, but decided to keep it to himself. The dungeon wasn’t in the best condition to quibble over it and it might be common sense to do this in the demon world. 

On top of that, Eligor wasn’t done talking.

“Also, it’s a bit of a high-rank facility, but...later, when a Magic Room has been created, you can reuse the corpse by turning them into either a Zombie or Skeleton.”

It was true.

Yong-Ho briefly looked at it from a human’s point of view, but quickly dismissed it.

He couldn’t build it right now anyways. It’s something he could think about later.

“And the weapons you’ve obtained?”

“The quality of the cape and hammer are very good. A magic was cast on the cape to help maintain the temperature and a simple strengthening magic was casted on the hammer, so it’s very sturdy.”

“And the others?”

“We collected all the money that they had. It may be possible to purchase a Rank Two spirit.”

Eligor kind of smiled cunningly.

Yong-Ho did the same and continued asking.

“Any casualties?”

“All the spirits are safe. It’s all thanks to you that the battle ended the way it did.”

“Thanks to this battle, the spirits’ loyalty and respect has increased tremendously.”

As soon as Eligor finished talking, the Spirit of the Dungeon spoke. Not only the spirits, but the Spirit of the Dungeon seemed to like him more after that battle.

‘I’m sure it’s obvious from the expression.’

Yong-Ho looked at the Catalina that stopped being the cool-headed spirit and Eligor that’s always crying. He closed his eyes after taking a deep breath. He tried circulating the mana.

Maybe it’s because he started out with a small amount of mana, but his mana level increased a lot. It felt like the mana that was circulating within him increased by two folds.

‘This is because I obtained the spirit.’

Yong-Ho felt joy by the fact that his power increased and then took a deep breath. 

‘It’s weird that I don’t feel anything.’

Even though they were a demon family, a person died. However, he didn’t feel guilty about it.

‘It was so that I could live. They tried to kill me.’

That’s what Yong-Ho told himself. And purposefully calmed himself. As long as he didn’t kill without reason, it was fine. He decided to leave it at that.

After he finished circulating his mana, Yong-Ho opened his eyes. Catalina and Eligor looked at Yong-ho quietly. It seemed like they tried to stay as quiet as possible since he was concentrating.

Yong-Ho showed with his action what he was going to do. Green flames blossomed out of his eyes.

   [Name : Chun Yong-Ho (M)]

   [Race : Half Human / Half Demon - Demon King]

   [Element : Fire / Darkness]

   [Development Rate : 50/100]

Even if it was small, the amount of stars that Yong-Ho had increased. The Seven Deadly Sins category wasn’t shown before, but now, Greed was next to it.

‘Is it because I obtained the spirit?’

He saw things he couldn’t see before. The same applied to the “level” that was attached to the categories.

This time, he looked at Catalina.

   [Name : Catalina (F)]

   [Race : Half Succubus / Half Dark Elf]

   [Main Elements : Wind / Darkness Secondary Elements : Thunder / Water / Earth]

   [Main Stats : Succubus - Charm / Mana Dark Elf - Agility / Skills]

   [Development Rate : 25/100]

   [Succubus : Charm Level 0 ★★★ (3)]

   [Dark Elf : Agility Level 2 ★★★☆ (3.5)]

   [Hybrid Level 0 ★★★☆ (3.5)]

   [Succubus : Mana Level 0 ★★★☆ (3.5)]

   [Dark Elf : Skills Level 1 ★★★ (3)]

She had more changes than Yong-Ho. The category that stood out the most was agility because it had “Level 2” at the end.

‘She did evolve once...probably means it was level one before, right?’

If that’s the case, then it made sense why the skills level was at one. She was a soldier that was fast and specialized in using a dagger.

‘The amount of stars changed too. Since her agility was developed, did her other stats change a bit as well?’

Yong-Ho nodded his head since it was a reasonable change and then looked up. A bitter smile appeared on his face when he noticed two boxes of light that he’s never seen before appear.

   [Shadow Elf]

   [Succubus]

Catalina was a half Dark Elf and half Succubus, so she had the choice on how she wanted to advance.

It wasn’t an easy decision. It was a “promotion” that could be decided after the next development, but he needed to see the information regarding the different advancements.

After deactivating the Power of Evolution, he lightly nodded his head and looked at Eligor.

“You said that if I get stronger, then the Heart of the Dungeon will get stronger too, right?”

“Yes, that’s correct. Not only that, but Catalina, me and the other spirits will be affected by your growth.”

“I wonder.”

The relationship between the owner and the spirits wasn’t a master and servant relationship. It was more direct and intimate. If the owner was the head, then the spirits were the hands and feet that the owner commanded.

“Did you find out anything from the Kobolds?”

Eligor answered as if he was waiting for Yong-Ho to ask.

“They’re known to be scared and cowardly, so as soon as their leader died, they did start talking, but you can’t believe every word that they’re saying. While we’re talking about this...how about building a torture chamber after the prison?”

“Torture chamber?”

“Yes, it’s used to punish the spirits, but it’s also needed when we need to question the prisoners. If it’s built right next to the prison, it’ll be very effective. The prisoners will be able to watch the other prisoners getting tortured.”

Eligor looked at Yong-Ho and was waiting for him to compliment him.

It happened last time when he mentioned prisons, but Eligor looked excited while talking about it.

Yong-Ho closed his eyes for a moment. He imagined Catalina crying while being tortured by Eligor.

‘No, this is too dangerous.’

When he changed his target from Catalina to the Skeleton, he felt more calm.

Prison and torture chamber.

They were horrible facilities, but the prison was already built, and if they had to continue fighting, then a torture chamber would be necessary.

Yong-Ho pushed aside on making a decision and asked Catalina.

“How strong were the group that invaded recently?”

“I don’t want to belittle your victory, but…”

Catalina carefully spoke. That was basically her answer.

“So they weren’t that strong. That’s probably why they rushed.”

He knew they were skilled in fighting. If that’s not the case, there was no reason for them to have that bloodthirsty expression.

However, out of all the weaklings that targeted Mammon’s dungeon, they were the weakest.

They waited for the protective shield to weaken and out of all the weaklings, they were the ones that attacked first.

“Will there be more weaklings attacking the dungeon?”

A frown appeared on Yong-Ho’s face as he mumbled quietly. Even though he just woke up after passing out from the battle, he didn’t have a lot of time. He had to decide on how he was going to defend the dungeon from the future enemies.

‘I have two options.’

One. Evolve the spirits.

Two. Delay the development and strengthen the dungeon facilities using that mana.

Both choices had pros and cons.

If they evolved them, then the quality of the soldiers will increase. However, the dungeon wasn’t in the greatest condition, so they had to be careful when fighting the enemy.

Strengthening the dungeon’s facility was good in the long-run. Even though he couldn’t increase the power right away, developing several spirits into different levels at once was impossible.

In the end, he had to do both.

However, he had to pick the best one right now.

Yong-Ho looked back and forth between Catalina and Eligor. It was short, but he made his decision.

< Dungeon Defense #2 > End.

Chapter end