Dungeon Maker
chapter-20

There’s a saying that a rich man never goes flat broke.

The House of Mammon wasn’t an ordinary “rich family.” When Mammon was alive, he controlled one-fourth of the demon world and it was safe to describe them as a royal family.

Because of that, it took a long time for the House of Mammon to collapse and during that time, there were families that became pretty famous.

Kaiwan, the Devil of Distortion who was the owner three generations ago experienced this.

“They say that Kaiwan had a very adventurous personality. They spent a lot of time exploring the dungeon and achieved many great things. During his time, within the first floor of the dungeon, they activated 80% of it.”

The day after they were attacked.

When Yong-Ho encouraged the spirits…all he did was compliment them on how well they did, but all of their eyes were filled with tears like Eligor. It’s what Eligor told Yong-Ho after he looked at the Kobolds that were locked up in the prison.

Yong-Ho remembered his conversation with Catalina and asked.

“Do you mean the owner that discovered the arena?”

“Oh, I see that you’ve already been informed.”

“I heard it from Catalina. She doesn’t know where it’s located though.”

Eligor nodded at his comment. He quickly looked around and quietly answered him.

“Yes, Kaiwan did make the location of the arena a secret. I believe he did that in order to block the spirits from entering it and challenging the arena.”

Even though it was a discussion between the owner and their closest spirit, there wasn’t anyone here to eavesdrop on their conversation. In order to talk more about this, Yong-Ho sat on the throne.

“And then?”

Eligor looked around once more. He approached Yong-Ho and spoke quietly.

“He didn’t hide all the things that he discovered.”

The way he smiled made him look cunning. Pushing aside his thoughts about Eligor’s expression, Yong-Ho became very interested.

Yong-Ho quickly asked.

“What kind of facilities are they?”

“There’s a variety of them. But, the most important ones are probably the armory and the gold mine.”

“Gold mine?! There’s a gold mine within the dungeon?!”

Yong-Ho’s eyes widened and raised his voice without knowing. Instead of looking around, Eligor smiled brightly and answered.”

“Yes, that’s right. It’s different from the gold mine in the human world, but I know for a fact that there’s a gold mine. If my assumptions are correct, there’s still a good amount of gold.”

Yong-Ho wondered what this dungeon didn’t have, but he tried his best to calm down first.

Gold mine.

A place filled with gold.

It was good. If he found it, he knew the dungeon’s condition would improve a lot.

But at the same time, it was odd.

“But why was it deactivated when the previous owners were here?”

It was hard to believe that it was because of the spirits. It was the gold mine that Kaiwan found and activated.

Did the spirits of the House of Mammon not acknowledge the previous owners?

A frown appeared on Eligor’s face. It was similar to Yong-Ho’s assumption, but his answer was different.

“It’s because of the dungeon monsters.”

Dungeon monster.

The beasts of the demon world that live in the dungeon.

The demon world wasn’t like the human world. The demon world was flexible because there was a lot of mana and because of that, the dungeon, sky, ground and even space itself moves around unexpectedly.

Not only that, but the mana that exists in the demon world evolves small bugs and animals into evil spirits.

That’s how dungeon monsters were born.

The beasts enter inside the dungeon due to the movement and through mana, they’re evolved into evil spirits.

If they were to be compared to the human world, they were like the bugs and rats that appear inside the house.

Ordinary owners took care of these dungeon monsters very easily. If the dungeon monsters couldn’t be taken care of, then they’ll request the dungeon shops to send Dungeon Cleaners to get rid of the vermin.

However, the House of Mammon couldn’t do either.

There were two big reasons.

First. Mammon’s dungeon’s distinct characteristics.

Ordinary dungeons don’t have a lot of spaces that are inactive. New spaces are usually created in ordinary dungeons and after filling it with mana, the room is activated. A room with an actual entrance and lighting that’s created from mana. They create those rooms and expand the spaces.

However, the House of Mammon’s dungeon was known to have an extremely large space and unlike the ordinary dungeons, there were a lot of empty rooms that didn’t have mana, meaning they were inactive.

When compared to the human world, these inactive spaces were like really deep caves or an underground construction site. For evil spirits and dungeon monsters, these areas were the ideal living spaces for them. There were a lot of dungeon monsters that were grown naturally and among them, there were strong monsters.

Second, the dungeon didn’t have enough money to use a Dungeon Cleaner.

Anyways, there was only one choice.

The previous owners couldn’t handle the dungeon monsters, so they had to give up on the gold mine and the armory.

“It’s like getting kicked out because of the vermin…”

Yong-Ho’s voice sounded dispirited, which made Eligor bow his head. His face was already red, but because he was embarrassed, it turned more red.

“I’m not trying to make an excuse, but I heard that the dungeon monster that appears at the gold mine is pretty tough. It’s recorded that there’s a lot of them and that they’re very strong.”

Yong-Ho just nodded his head. It wasn’t Eligor’s fault that the dungeon monster took away the gold mine from the dungeon. Eligor glanced at Yong-Ho and spoke again.

“It might be difficult to try to take back the gold mine now. But the armory…if the armory can be obtained, it’ll increase the dungeon’s strength tremendously. And someday, you’ll be able to obtain the gold mine, which was the dream of the previous owners.”

Evolve the spirits and arm them with the weapons that are in the armory.

It wasn’t a bad idea. During the last battle, after the Goblins made the traps, they grabbed the bamboo spears and started fighting.

‘I am interested in the gear that Kaiwan found in the arena.’

Yong-Ho made up his mind. He stood up and thought of the saying, strike while the iron is hot.

“Bring Catalina. We’ll begin the search right away.”

Eligor’s eyes sparkled.

The day after that discussion.

Yong-Ho sighed deeply after escaping the flashback by opening his eyes.

In order to activate the inactive rooms, he needed 10 mana. Currently, Yong-Ho’s maximum mana level was 180 and since the dungeon’s daily mana production volume was 50, he could activate a maximum of 23 rooms if he decided to use every ounce of his mana.

Of course, Yong-Ho wasn’t going to do that. His mana was needed for the dungeon facilities and he needed to save some in case of another attack.

When thinking about that, the number of rooms he can activate in a day decreased a lot and since he might have to fight, the progress of the search slowed down as well.

‘At least my experience level is increasing a lot.’

Yong-Ho activated the Power of Evolution and looked at himself. The development rate increased from 50 to 80.

With a bit more experience, he’ll be able to evolve.

Since there were a lot of examples, he was able to better understand the mechanism of this skill.

The development rate was equivalent to the experience points within a game.

The stronger the spirit was, the harder it was to fill in the development rate and the weaker the spirit was, the development rate filled up even from the smallest task.

Yong-Ho looked at Skull, who was currently lying on the ground.

[Name : Skull]

[Race : Skeleton Soldier]

[Main Elements : – ]

[Development Rate : 40/100]

[Bone Strength Level 0 | ★ (1)]

[Physique Level 0 | ★ (1)]

[Mentality Level 0 | ★ (1)]

‘The available routes are Skeleton Warrior and Skeleton Archer.’

After deactivating the Power of Evolution, he looked at Catalina, who was currently resting beside him. After noticing him looking at her, she quickly took out a map and laid it on the ground.

“I’m very sorry about this, but the records of the previous owner aren’t perfect. However, I’m sure that it’s somewhere around this area. If it’s you, I’m confident that you’ll find it.”

At first, she spoke like a child because she thought she was in trouble, but as she talked more, her eyes started to sparkle.

It seemed like she was putting her money Yong-Ho’s luck in wealth, which was one of skills.

“So you’re using your owner, huh?”

When Yong-Ho made that comment after clicking his tongue, Catalina looked like she didn’t know what to do. It was the reaction he was expecting, so he chuckled and lightly pinched her cheek. He stood up from his seat.

“Since we’ve rested, let’s head out. If it’s not forward, then it’s to the left.”

Yong-Ho mumbled to himself and looked around the room. He closed his eyes and extended his hands out in different directions.

‘Trust my instincts.’

He was stimulating his luck in wealth.

To be exact, Yong-Ho was able to satisfy his ‘greed.’

He opened his eyes. He looked to the left.

“That way.”

He immediately started walking.

&

While Yong-Ho was exploring the dungeon with Catalina and Skull.

Eligor, who was a butler and was also an important spirit to the dungeon, took the Goblins and was focused on the construction work.

As Eligor explained many times to Yong-Ho, the dungeon in the demon world wasn’t just a geographical feature, but a large spirit.

Because of that, the facilities within the dungeon were also known as the dungeon’s internal organs.

Mana is used to activate the rooms and by using the dungeon’s mana and ingredients, better facilities are created.

These facilities are managed by using mana and it was possible to move their location within the dungeon.

After the first battle, instead of evolving the spirits, Yong-Ho decided to focus on strengthening the dungeon.

The distance between the dungeon entrance and his room increased and secured the rooms so that a variety of facilities can be created. For the facilities that have already been installed, he changed their location to increase their defense.

The “central road” was known as the dungeon’s spine and Eligor widened the space in the road to the prison a bit. He made space in order to create the new torture chamber.

He really wanted to increase the size of the prison.

The prison within the dungeon wasn’t just used to lock enemy spirits and torture them.

A high-quality prison that’s been made with a good amount of mana and ingredients will forcefully drain out the mana from the prisoners.

The prison can also be used as a breeding farm where they can retrain the dungeon monsters and turn them into spirits.

That’s why the prison is considered an important facility. It can be used in many different ways.

‘The torture chamber is also another important room.’

Eligor created torturing tools with joy. Since the ingredients were pretty ordinary, he couldn’t make a stylish tool like the Iron Maiden, but one could torture a prisoner with just a chair and knife alone.

Eligor decided to be satisfied with the smallest things.

“Butler, butler. Feels good. Feels.”

Jon was bringing the ingredients that were going to be used for the torture room and he saw Eligor’s expression. Eligor answered with a warm smile.

“Ha ha. How could I not be in a good mood? The dungeon is improving day by day.”

As soon as he finished talking, Eligor thought about Yong-Ho during the first fight.

” Ha ha. His bedroom must be made as quickly as possible so that we’re prepared for the successor that’ll be born in the future.”

“Successor? Bedroom? What’s the connection?”

Jon tiled his head and asked with a confused expression, but Eligor didn’t answer. He kept this imagination to himself and looked at the Kobolds that were locked up.

“You guys shouldn’t worry so much either. You’ll be tortured once the torture chamber is complete. After I confirm your honesty by torturing you, I’ll make sure you change into the House of Mammon’s servants.”

He then raised a log that had nails pierced all around it. The Kobolds quickly raised their voices.

“Woof, woof!”

Only

“Woof, woof!”

“Oink, oink!”

They were saying that they’ll swear allegiance right now, but Eligor didn’t understand. No, it’s possible that he knew from their desperate looks, but chose to ignore it.

“Ha ha ha. Okay, okay. You just have to wait a bit longer.”

Eligor had a warm smile on his face as he placed the log down. He looked ahead with a calm expression.

“I hope the master returns soon.”

If it’s Yong-Ho, he’ll definitely be able to find the armory.

Just thinking about him made Eligor smile and this time, he picked up a very sharp knife. The Kobolds’ cry was music to his ears and he focused on his work again.