Dungeon Maker

There are many types of power.

When people mention power, many think of physical strength.

An overwhelming violence that lets one fulfill their desire, even through force.

The law of the jungle was used in the demon world.

That’s why violence alone was enough to go against most powers.

But it was not all power.

It couldn’t be applied to everything.

Physical strength and mana was included in the violence.

Powerful strength.

Supreme mana.

In that case, what other powers were there?

To Embrio, having power meant being able to fulfill whatever you desired.

Imposing your will onto others. And then fulfilling it.

Beauty was another amazing power.

There’s a lot of stories of men acting foolishly in order to capture the heart of a beautiful woman.

It’s being able to instigate the other’s desire and make them follow.

It’s being able to accomplish your own desire through beauty.

Being intelligent and having the ability to speak well was another power.

They were like sharp fangs and they were more than enough to stab the opponent.

Embrio acknowledged it.

Those were definitely powers. But they were low-class powers.

They were bound to fall in front of overwhelming violence.

They weren’t worth much when going against violence.

It could sound really ignorant and simple-minded. But that was reality. Embrio watched so many strong figures fall because of violence.

The power that was in front of them was like that too.

Embrio was standing on a destroyed free city. And he was inside a small and cozy house that was located in the center of the city.

A really old woman was sitting in front of him. She had the power of wisdom and experience. She lived a very long time and during that long time, she made her wisdom and experience her power.

She was an advisor and was like a library of knowledge that knew the world’s secrets.

She didn’t have a way of resisting Embrio’s violence. It was because she didn’t have any knowledge that could make Embrio kneel or anxious.

No, even if she did have something, Embrio wasn’t the type to easily surrender.

The demon world was large and there was a limit to her knowledge. The old woman lived in the free city in the southern region and there was probably another who had just as much knowledge as her.

The old woman knew that very woman. That’s why she didn’t rush in making a deal. She surrendered in front of Embrio’s violence and told him everything he wanted to know.

“The Seven Deadly Sins. The seven sins. Some call it a fragment of the demon kings and others say that it’s the demon kings themselves.”

She spoke in an exaggerated tone, just like other fortune tellers, but it didn’t bother him. Embrio quietly listened and the old woman continued talking.

“The one that controls the demon world has always been the one that had one of the sins. But in that case, what is sin? What kind of power did it have that the ones that had it were called kings?”

There was no need for an answer. The large wolves that were circling around Embrio started growling and the old woman quietly laughed.

“Each of the sins have a power that goes along with the name. But no one knows in detail what kind of power they are. They only make assumptions. For example, lust has the power to tempt the other person and wrath has the power to make others mad.”

Wrath, Pride, Greed, Gluttony, Lust, Envy, Sloth.

“But that’s not all. Depending on how it’s used, the skill can provide an immense amount of power, but the Seven Deadly Sins…their real power is a lot more pure and essential.”

The old woman stopped talking for a moment and looked at Embrio. Many fortune tellers used this method in order to raise the listener’s expectations.

Embrio looked at the old woman with an indifferent expression. She closed her wrinkly eyes.

“The King of Violence…they’re a great king that exists in the demon world and out of the dragons, he can be considered as the most powerful being. Because of that, he’s able to stand next to the other kings despite not owning a sin. It’s because he has the Dragon Heart, which is a large and powerful lump of mana in the demon world.”

Out of the six kings that ruled the demon world, he was the only one that didn’t own a sin.

Despite just having superhuman powers, he was able to stand next to the other kings.

The old woman predicted the end. It was a future that had already been decided right when Embrio entered and destroyed the city. She couldn’t go against Embrio’s violence with the power that she had and as someone that lived a long life, she chose to have a neat ending.

“Embrio, you’re the King of Violence. You’re not a dragon. You also don’t have a sin. That’s why…you can’t be a king. You won’t be able to sit on the throne.”

The old woman placed a small pipe in her mouth. She inhaled the smoke and Embrio left the house. The wolves gave her her last moment.

He couldn’t become king because he didn’t have a sin.

Embrio shook his head. He wasn’t sure if it was a useless resistance, but he denied it.

There was someone that became a king even though he didn’t have a sin.

The fact that he was the greatest dragon in the demon world wasn’t important.

Embrio looked towards the south.

He gazed at the edge of the demon world.

***

“Sugar, I need sugar…”

After interpreting Kaiwan’s journal all night, Yong-Ho lay down on top of the desk.

He definitely obtained results.

First, his reading comprehension had improved a lot.

There was a saying that it’s best to learn a language in bed. Learning from the opposite sex isn’t the best. It meant that in order to quickly learn a language, one needed to have the will and interest to learn it.

Interpreting Kaiwan’s journal was pretty fun.

Peeking into another, especially a girl’s journal, wasn’t the fun part. Yong-Ho wasn’t that low. Never, never.

It was a strong denial, but regardless, Kaiwan’s journal was pretty entertaining.

Yong-Ho thought of Kaiwan’s journal as a treasure map. The more he interpreted it, the more he learned of the location of the treasure, that was the thought he had, so of course it was entertaining. On top of that, it was a journal, not some document.

It was funny how he was trying to interpret the sentence, despite not knowing much about the alphabet, but Kaiwan had quite nice handwriting. There wasn’t really a reason to write long sentences, but since she mostly wrote short sentences, it was very readable. And the various comments that popped up were refreshing and witty. Unlike her outer appearance, she actually might’ve been a cheerful woman.

‘And she cherished her little brother the most.’

It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that half of her journal was about her little brother. If he didn’t know before, then he would’ve mistaken Kaiwan as his mother, not an older sister.

After Kaiwan went missing…How would’ve Kaiwan reacted if she found out about her little brother’s life?

She was like his mom and as someone he looked up to, he was losing her inheritance day by day.

The disease in his weak body would die with him and he didn’t even get the chance to resist.

Kaiwan was younger than he had imagined.

Saying that she was more like a child was fitting.

‘Same age as me…Maybe one or two years older.’

Kaiwan didn’t write in her journal every single day. Sometimes she would write every day and other times, she would write a few times a week.

After reading the information on the first page, he realized that this was her fifth and last journal.

If he assumed that one journal contained two years worth of entries, then it meant that she disappeared in her early 20’s.

A little girl in her teens became the owner of a falling family. And for 10 years, she managed to overcome all sorts of difficulties and helped the family rise up.

He was able to get an idea of how strong Kaiwan was. But he was sure that Kaiwan was a lot stronger than Yong-Ho’s current power.

Yong-Ho looked at Kaiwan’s ring, which was on his left hand, and raised his upper body. He only managed to interpret the beginning of the journal and after closing it, he placed a large piece of paper in front of him.

Yong-Ho used the map that was drawn in the journal as the base and drew Kaiwan’s journal.

He stopped midway and since it was a blueprint that would contain his future plan, there was no rule that said that the sections that were currently hidden would appear on the map. On top of that, the layout of the dungeon changed because of the two previous owners and since Yong-Ho reorganized the dungeon, it was safe to say that the dungeon was totally different.

But Yong-Ho still found a way.

No matter how much he reorganized the dungeon, there are parts that he couldn’t change.

The dungeon’s entrance, water source and gold mine were fixed locations.

Yong-Ho used the distance between the entrance and the gold mine as the base and drew the dungeon map so that it was the same scale as Kaiwan’s map. And by overlapping the two, it filled the dungeon map’s empty space.

The spirit training ground.

Library.

Magic research laboratory.

The official torture chamber and large prison that Eligor loved so much.

The arena that Yong-Ho wanted wasn’t drawn on the map. But Yong-Ho remembered the information about how Kaiwan targeted more than 80% of the first floor.

There weren’t a lot of empty spaces in Kaiwan’s blueprint.

If the arena existed on the first floor, then that meant that the arena entrance was located somewhere in the empty area.

A general outline of the map and the directions.

He had a good idea of what he needed.

“Sorry.”

When she died, no, disappeared, she was about the same age, so he spoke as if he was talking to a friend.

Yong-Ho lightly tapped the journal on the palm of his hand. Instead of reading more of Kaiwan’s secrets, he stood up from his seat.

“Please call Eligor, Catalina and Rikum into the throne room.”

“Yes, Master.”

“And…at least wash your face before leaving. You have a handsome face.”

Lucia spoke and Yong-Ho chuckled. He touched the prickly beard on his chin.

***

“So…what you’re saying is that you’re going to explore…your own dungeon?”

Rikum thought it was strange and his expression showed it.

It was understandable because it was like the house owner wanted to explore his own house.

Yong-Ho felt embarrassed, so he spoke after clearing his throat.

“Rikum, as you know, the House of Mammon’s dungeon is old. The facilities that Kaiwan created are hidden in the darkness. What I’m saying is that I need to find those.”

There were only four people that knew the truth about how the House of Mammon’s dungeon was a labyrinth.

It was Yong-Ho, Catalina and Eligor.

And Sitri as well since she’s the one that told him the truth.

There wasn’t a need to tell Rikum about the secret. And he felt bad for thinking this, but he didn’t trust Rikum as much as Catalina or Eligor.

“Oh, so that’s what you meant. Understood. Then shall I call the others?”

Kaiwan was sort of like a free pass. Rikum nodded after understanding Yong-Ho’s goal and then asked.

Yong-Ho shook his head.

“No, it’ll only be me, Catalina, Skull…and Salami and Spot. Rikum, take the others and help with the dungeon’s defense.”

Exploring a dungeon gave them the opportunity to fill the development rate. Catalina and Skull were the main guards of the dungeon, so he couldn’t leave them behind.

Yong-Ho decided to take the Salamander, Salami, because he wanted to quickly evolve it, his personal greed was involved in the decision making. He decided to take Spot to use him as a messenger and scout.

“Understood, Master. As you wish.”

Rikum showed respect towards Yong-Ho.

Yong-Ho looked back at Eligor.

“The Princess Ant…Yuria will be fine without Spot, right?”

“It’ll be fine. She mostly spends her time in her room anyways. She has been learning small tasks from Jun, but…even though she’s good with her hands, she does tend to space out a lot.”

Yuria spent her time in the breeding farm, which was located near the gold mine.

Since she was still young, she wasn’t able to create a colony of Crazy Ants, but after mining all the gold in the gold mine, Yong-Ho was planning on building a new colony.

‘The problem is that I don’t have a way of filling her evolution rate.’

This was an issue that he could resolve after the training ground was successfully built.

Yong-Ho talked to Eligor once more.

“After moving Bugrim to the workshop…give him something to do. We need to check to see if he has the will to work.”

“I understand. I’ll ask him to create shelves or chairs.”

He hadn’t confirmed it yet, but it seemed that ever since a professional had entered the dungeon, Eligor, the housekeeper of the dungeon, looked quite happy.

They had managed to complete the urgent tasks.

After recalling Ophelia and Endelyon, Yong-Ho wanted to take Eligor with him as well, but he managed to stop himself. For Eligor, there were far more important things than him evolving.

“Okay. Let’s prepare for the exploration and meet back here in 10 minutes.”

After Yong-Ho spoke, Catalina quickly answered and stood up. After Skull answered, he started rolling on the ground as if he had nothing to do.

Ten minutes later.

He let Spot, who was overfilled with excitement, lead the way and Yong-Ho walked out of the throne room with the rest of the spirits.

The official exploration to find Kaiwan’s inheritance had begun.