Dungeon Maker
chapter-23

Since they’ve already walked down the path that led to the gold mine, it was easy.

There were only two Grunge Slimes because they’ve already “cleaned” this area.

“Great. We haven’t been to this area before. Everyone keep your guard up.”

Jon’s eyes widened as he tightened his grip on the bamboo spear. The Kobold that was in front of him did the same.

Catalina closed the distance between her and Yong-Ho and Skull stretched out his shoulders.

Yong-Ho continued talking.

“Kobold will be the advance guard. Jon and Skull take care of the sides. Catalina and I will be in the center and support.”

Skull and Jon moved the sides. Kobold flinched when Yong-Ho told them that they would be the advance guard and expressed that they didn’t want to, but when Yong-Ho and Catalina glared at them, they walked towards the front of the group.

After organizing the group, he continued searching by going to the right of the door that led to the gold mine.

While walking through five rooms in a row, they didn’t encounter any dungeon monsters. Kobold and Jon must’ve felt relieved because they seemed more laid-back.

Yong-Ho opened the dungeon map in the air. He nodded his head.

‘Are the Crazy Ants and the Slimes just in the gold mine?’

If that was the case, then it’s understandable why those dungeon monsters weren’t here.

But, if they keep walking, they’ll reach the armory. Seeing as how there weren’t any dungeon monsters here, there’s a high chance that there weren’t a lot of monsters here, like the Crazy Ants and Slimes.

“Master?”

Catalina carefully called out when Yong-Ho stopped and stared at the map. Instead of answering, he looked forward. He slightly closed his eyes and answered.

“I’m sure. I can sense something from this direction too.”

Greed was reacting stronger than the gold mine and started wanting the new target.

Forward.

It wasn’t that far.

They walked through another room. And Yong-Ho had a hunch. He raised his hand and stopped all the spirits.

“Wait for a moment. It might be the next room.”

Kobold and Jon knew exactly what Yong-Ho was talking about. They were no longer relaxed and kept their guard up.

Catalina looked at Yong-Ho without saying anything. Yong-Ho and Catalina’s eyes met for a moment and after tightening his grip on Aamon, he walked towards the wall. After waiting with the spirits right beside the door, he commanded Kobold to open the door.

The Kobold was sweating and was hesitant, but Jon was poking them with the bamboo spear, so they didn’t have any choice. With slightly red eyes, they looked at the door and quickly moved to open the door.

“The room has been activated!”

Right after the Kobold opened the door, the Spirit of the Dungeon provided mana into the inactive room. The light made the darkness disappear.

And moments later.

Yong-Ho looked at Catalina when there wasn’t any reaction regarding the room. Catalina pulled down the hood and after she pricked up her ears, she nodded.

Yong-Ho waited for Catalina to wear her hood again and opened the door completely. He entered the room along with Skull and Jon.

Unlike the other rooms, this room was pretty big. The area was three times larger than ordinary room and the length of the room was long. A large iron door was attached at the end of the room.

“The armory’s door is the same as the recorded description.”

Catalina spoke as she looked at the door that had the shape of a wolf devouring the moon. The Spirit of the Dungeon spoke as well.

“I can feel a strong energy beyond the door. Be careful, master.”

Yong-Ho also felt it. That’s why he decided to concentrate on the flow of the mana. Green flames blossomed out of Yong-Ho’s eyes as if he was using the Power of Evolution.

The demon world was created by mana. Until small creatures became demons, they all had their own mana.

Each mana had different characteristics.

The color and attribute.

Through the Power of Evolution, Yong-Ho was able to read a spirit’s potential. The skill also revealed the color and the attributes of their mana.

Because of that, Yong-Ho did more than feel the flow of the mana. It was possible for him to look at the color and the attribute.

Beyond the iron door.

It was like the Spirit of the Dungeon had mentioned. There was a feeling of strong mana. The mana was stronger than the large demon he encountered before.

Heat. Flame. Sharp yellow.

It rose up in-between the iron door. It created a whirlpool and that flow became faster.

Yong-Ho yelled.

“To the side!”

Kobold and Jon, who were extremely nervous, quickly threw their bodies to the right wall. Yong-Ho pulled Catalina by her waist and went to the left wall and during all of this, Catalina stretched out her hand and pulled Skull, who was standing there with a blank expression.

And an empty space was created.

Rumble!

The heat wave was moving at a fast rate. With a loud boom, the iron door became dented and it burned the yellow smoke.

A pillar of flame.

The Kobold and Jon were shaking in fear. Skull’s jaw dropped and Yong-Ho inspected the room beyond the dented iron door. Catalina yelled.

“Salamander!”

Yong-Ho saw it as well. The thing that was burning within the darkness looked like a large lizard. Yellow flames enveloped its entire body and because of that, flame was a better description than a living thing.

Yong-Ho quickly asked.

“Is it a spirit or something? Does it not have an actual body or something?”

In a game that Yong-Ho enjoyed playing, a salamander usually appeared as the Spirit of the Flame. Catalina quickly answered.

“It’s not completely a spirit. It’s close, but it’s an Evil Spirit of Fire that lives by devouring mana!”

After Catalina yelled, she jumped off the ground. Yong-Ho quickly stood up straight. It was because the salamander started moving.

‘Just one enemy!’

There wasn’t a lot. Just one. The flame that burned the air was terrifying, but if fire was their only weapon, then there were ways they could defeat them. Yong-Ho tightened his grip on Aamon.

“Roar!”

The salamander roared and at the same time, released fire from its mouth as it walked out of the armory. The length of the salamander was probably four meters long.

With an opponent like that, there was nothing Jon and Kobold could do. Yong-Ho exchanged glances with Catalina again. The spirit that belonged to the dungeon and the owner understood each other just with one glance and they both started running in opposite directions.

“It’s this side!”

Catalina jumped off the ground and yelled as if they were provoking it. With Yong-Ho on her back, she jumped from the ground to the wall to the ceiling and back to the ground.

Catalina’s agile movements made the salamander focus on her. The salamander ran towards Catalina and spit out fire. Like a real lizard, their movements were extremely fast.

Catalina didn’t scream. Even though she was known as the clutzy knight, she was still the knight of the House of Mammon and was the most trustworthy soldier within the dungeon. Instead of shaking in fear, she focused on their movement. She used her crossbow and attacked the salamander.

However, despite her attack, the salamander didn’t care and didn’t slow down at all. The arrows pierced through the salamander’s body, but it wasn’t enough to pierce through its thick skin.

“Catalina!”

Yong-Ho yelled. Catalina kicked off the wall without any hesitation and widened the distance between her and the salamander. Her attention was now on Yong-Ho.

“Master!”

She yelled without realizing. She didn’t have a choice.

Yong-Ho ran towards the salamander. As if he were charging with a lance, a green flame started emitting out of Aamon. It wasn’t holding back and the flames resembled a wild animal.

“Roar!”

The salamander turned its head towards Yong-Ho and spit out fire. Since they were so close, dodging was difficult. However, that wasn’t a problem. Yong-Ho wasn’t thinking about dodging it in the first place.

“Roaaaaaar!”

At the same time, the salamander roared. The green flame that Aamon was releasing ran straight through the fire that the salamander spit out. The flame ate the fire.

It was a gamble. And he succeeded. The distance between Yong-Ho and the salamander closed immediately. Aamon pierced through the salamander’s side.

“Roaar!”

The salamander roared and moved violently. Not just from its mouth, but flames were released throughout its entire body. It was hot. The flames were so hot that it would easily melt metal. However, Yong-Ho didn’t step away. Aamon’s fiery path was blocking Yong-Ho within the fire, Yong-Ho twisted Aamon and pushed it into the salamander.

‘Move!’

It was tiring even after his body became stronger after becoming a demon. Yong-Ho used all of his strength to push it in and the heavy salamander let out a painful scream and pushed him to the side.

“Skullll!”

It was an unexpected assist.

The large, sturdy hammer drew a beautiful line. It fell vertically and fell on the head of the salamander that was rolling around in pain.

The salamander was the Evil Spirit of Fire. Due to the shock that it received, it couldn’t come back to its senses. On top of that, Skull didn’t stop attacking it.

“Skkkkkkulll!”

Skull crazily swung the hammer and was targeting the salamander’s head. Yong-Ho was trying to corner the salamander into a wall, but all he could do was watch Skull with a blank face.

“S-Skull is bigger help than Catalina?!”

Yong-Ho expressed his thoughts without knowing and Catalina flinched. Because she wanted to be helpful, she jumped off the ground so that she could win superiority over Skull.

However, Catalina didn’t really have much to do.

Fire was the monster’s strongest weapon, but it was blocked by Yong-Ho and on top of that, they were feeling groggy because Skull kept on hitting their head. It was impossible for them to swing their tail and release fire.

Catalina walked up next to Yong-Ho and unsheathed her dagger, however, she didn’t know where she should use it.

Also, Skull raised the hammer high and roared as if telling Catalina to hear them.

“Skkkkull! Skkkkull!”

Yong-Ho watched them and couldn’t help but laugh. He used all of his mana at once in order to defeat the salamander, but thanks to Skull, they were able to win easily.

‘Shall we finish it?’

Aamon was still pierced into the salamander’s side and after taking it out, he looked at it. Maybe it’s because they were groggy, but their fire was really weak and they just looked like an ordinary lizard now.

LIke with the giant, he had to absorb the salamander’s spirit. In order to do that, he had to kill the salamander first.

Yong-Ho’s eyes turned cold. He wasn’t hesitant about killing a creature that was alive, but he was greedy about absorbing its spirit. He gulped without knowing.

He felt pleasure when absorbing it. His mana increased because of it.

Yong-Ho raised Aamon. And right before it pierced into the monster, Catalina grabbed Yong-Ho’s arm.

“Pl-please wait, master.”

Catalina froze in place after saying it. His expression became scary after she interrupted him from killing and absorbing the spirit.

But, it was only for a moment. Yong-Ho regained his consciousness and started catching his breath. After shaking his head once, she spoke.

“What is it, Catalina?”

Yong-Ho was normal. As a spirit that belonged to the dungeon, grabbing the owner’s arm and interrupting him was considered rude.

Catalina let out a sigh of relief and gulped. She spoke while pointing towards salamander.

“The salamander is an evil spirit that’s been misused. If you train it right, it’ll definitely become a Rank Three spirit. It already lost and I’m sure they’ve realized that their fire is no match against yours, so I’m sure it’s possible for you to train them.”

There was some information in the middle that he didn’t understand, but he understood the general concept.

Now that he thought about it, Eligor did mention something about training the dungeon monsters in the prison.

Yong-Ho looked at the salamander again.

The salamander was definitely a strong spirit. If Yong-Ho didn’t have Aamon, then there’s no way he would be able to fight them. It wasn’t odd for the previous owners to give up on finding the armory because of them.

And he’ll be using the salamander as his subordinate.

Only

Yong-Ho sheathed Aamon. He did what Catalina had suggested.

“Good job, Catalina. You managed to get the salamander’s attention during the battle. You’re definitely my knight.”

When he petted her head while complimenting her, her ears started flapping.

“It’s nothing. It’s my job as the knight.”

The way she glanced over at Skull was cute.

Yong-Ho did his best to contain his laughter and called over Jon and Kobold, who were standing in the corner. Now, it was time for them to fulfill their actual goal.

“Okay, let’s empty out…no, let’s check.”

Yong-Ho commanded and the spirits followed Catalina’s lead.