Dungeon Maker

Chapter 13 The Heart of the Dungeon

Laws certainly existed within the Demon World. However, one could not expect the Demon World to have the relatively peaceful enforcement of a civilized lawful nation.

No, even in advanced countries, ruthless violence often replaced pacifistic enforcement.

Survival of the fittest.

The right of the strong.

In the Demon World, the fist was mightier than the law.

It didn't matter to low-rank spirits like goblins. They were content with just living at the bottom of the pyramid.

However, it was a different story for a demon king and his servants.

They had to become strong to survive. It was a necessity, not a choice.

***

"Whew... Ha..."

Yong-Ho breathed heavily while sweating. His body had strengthened considerably after awakening as a demon, however, he wasn't the equivalent of a superhero.

The room that he was in was located in front of the throne room.

Yong-Ho leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes. He had learnt a technique from Catalina, that he was now using, which involved circulating mana around his body.

A demon king's body was essentially just a huge chunk of mana. Just by circulating the mana within his body he was able to somewhat restore his fatigue.

'Aren't they tired?'

Yong-Ho opened his eyes again and looked straight ahead with a bitter smile. A confrontation was in full swing between his guard, and combat instructor, Catalina, and rank two-spirit Treant, who had emerged as the core of the dungeon's defense.

"You'll never beat me if you continue like that."

Catalina teased in a casual manner. Her opponent, the Treant, had planted itself in the center of the room before them.

Catalina's provocation seemed to carry more of an impact given the contrast with her usual clumsy demeanor.

Her attacks were both fast and precise. Yong-Ho was honestly not confident if he had the ability to dodge her attacks. Moreover, she had to contend with not just one, but four vines.

However, Catalina maintained her smile. Rather than backing away from the vines and keep her distance, she rushed towards them. The ease at which she skilfully dodged the vines looked as if she were a feather being carried along with a gentle breeze.

As the distance between them lessened, the Treant struggled to continue its attack. Then after leaving the ground Catalina suddenly disappeared. At least that's what it seemed like in the eyes of Yong-Ho and the Treant.

Then a single breath later.

Catalina reappeared. She appeared behind the Treant and gently tapped the Treant's body with the sheathed dagger in her hand.

"That makes it 10 wins and 0 losses to me."

If the Treant either grabbed or touched Catalina with its vines then it won.

Whereas Catalina won if she touched the main body of the Treant whilst being able to dodge all the vines.

The rules were rather simple, and just like Catalina had said, this was her 10th victory.

Catalina span around with a smile plastered on her face while the Treant shook its branches with fury. She then politely curtsied to Yong-Ho, who was watching from the corner. She acted as if she were a magician that had just finished their performance

Although Catalina was quite clumsy, that was just confined to her personality and not her abilities.

The House of Mammon was still considered a family despite its downfall. Catalina was the guard of the family and had the skills to match it.

'But, why I am in a bad mood?'

No, to be exact it wasn't a bad mood. Rather it seemed to be that he strongly sympathized with the Treant.

Even though Catalina had retained her calm demeanor, her ears continued to flutter excitedly as if she were eagerly awaiting for Yong-Ho to compliment her. However, Yong-Ho instead looked at the Treant, who was sagging its branches in defeat and made a pledge to himself.

'I must... No, I will evolve your vines. Cheer up, Treant. Next time, you'll catch her.'

However, before that Yong-Ho had to evolve himself first.

It had now been six days since he had become a demon king.

Yong-Ho had been learning the basics of combat from Catalina for the past three days. It wasn't easy to learn since he had never fought before in his previous life, but that didn't mean that he shouldn't put in the necessary effort.

"Have you gotten used to the training?"

After he finished wiping away his sweat with the provided water and walked out the room, Eligor greeted Yong-Ho with a smile. Eligor had brought with him a change of ordinary clothes for Yong-Ho, that he had bought from the dungeon market, that was specially made for human-like demons. Though the clothes were just a bland gray in color, with no additional designs, Yong-Ho accepted them graciously and promptly changed into them.

"Somewhat. Moving my new body around is kind of enjoyable."

"I was concerned about how Catalina was going to train you... but it's a relief that you're so capable. This is indeed a blessing from Mammon.

It seemed that Eligor had the same thoughts as Yong-Ho, in that they didn't have much faith in Catalina's abilities outside her skill in combat. Yong-Ho smiled bitterly and followed Eligor to the throne room to see how the Goblins were getting on with their work.

There were currently a total of four goblins in the dungeon.

Jon was the one who specialized in strength, while Ron specialized in stamina.

The two additional goblins that he had recently purchased specialized in either agility and intelligence, although he hadn't yet evolved them to save mana.

He didn't yet know which evolution pathway was the most effective, so he decided to do some more testing.

"The first place we need is, of course, a warehouse for resources."

The first task that Yong-Ho had set for the Goblins was to build a resource warehouse. Although it was called a warehouse, in reality, it was just another room, which after activation, would be the place where they would store all their various resources.

Eligor started to explain while pointing to various uncut stone and timber.

"In a way, the dungeon itself is just another spirit. It's incapable of being improved through the reliance of just mana alone. Many additional materials are required to improve its facilities, such as wood, stone, metal and other similar materials. The dungeon market does sell these materials, but it would be better if we could obtain them from nearby."

They needed to save as much as possible.

Yong-Ho asked after looking at the materials again.

"What do you think we should build after the warehouse."

"It's up to you to make the decision, but personally I would recommend a prison."

"A prison?!"

A prison was one of the last things he had expected Eligor to recommend, so he may have replied a little loudly. Eligor calmly elucidated.

"Yes, I wouldn't be exaggerating by saying that there isn't a dungeon in existence that doesn't have a prison."

Certainly, the games that he had played with dungeons had prisons in them as well. Indeed, it seemed rather strange to even consider a dungeon without a prison, almost self-contradictory in fact.

"No, but still. Do we really need a place to look up prisoners?"

He wondered if he would really be able to catch a prisoner at the moment, and on top of that, he already had a lot of people to take care of.

Eligor laughed brightly.

"Oh oh... so you're not planning to leave any prisoners alive. You are indeed a worthy demon king, master. This old spirit has been touched."

Yong-Ho frowned instead of further contemplating what Eligor had just said. Eligor continued.

"A prison's role isn't just about locking up your enemies. It's also used for punishing spirits who have misbehaved. You need both the carrot and stick to control those feeble spirits like the goblins.

Yong-Ho briefly thought about how Catalina and the goblins would start to cry if they were locked up in a prison, and then nodded in agreement. He still wasn't sure if it was an absolute necessity, but Eligor knew far more about dungeons and the demon world than him so it was right to trust his judgment.

"Okay, then let's begin the construction. Also, collect all the data on the types of pitfalls and dungeon facilities that can be created with our current available resources. I'll check it when I come back."

Eligor briefly wondered what he meant by 'come back', but only for a moment. He soon asked back with a bright expression.

"Are you going to start today?"

There's nothing wrong with starting early. I've already told Catalina to get ready. Since we're just starting it probably won't be that dangerous."

Most of the facilities within Mammon's dungeon were inactive. The activated parts didn't even combine up to more than 10%, and considering that the entirety of the dungeon was underground, the current dungeon was literally just the tip of the iceberg.

That was why exploring the dungeon was a priority. If he were to acquire the hidden inheritances of the House of Mammon.

"It's a bit odd that I have to risk my life to explore my own dungeon.'

None of the previous owners had been able to completely revive the dungeon because it was so large.

Dungeon exploration was indeed dangerous. There was a lot of hidden inheritance with Mammon's dungeon, but at the same time unknown traps existed as well.

High risk, high return.

Yong-Ho had made the decision to restore the House of Mammon to its full power.

'Of course, I'm not planning to overdo it from the start.'

First, he was planning on reactivating the areas that the previous owners had discovered to grow his mana pool, and gain experience to evolve. After he got stronger, he could then explore further.

"If that's the case, then there is a place that you must visit first. It's now been six days since the dungeon has been running again, so I'm sure it's regained its form."

Yong-Ho tilted his head with a curious expression on his face.

"Regained its form? What are you talking about?"

Eligor laughed softly. Yong-Ho had been informed about it from the first day he had ascended the throne of the Mammon family.

"It's the core of the Mammon dungeon. I'm talking about the Heart of the Dungeon."