Chapter 165: Overwhelming Power (1)
A week had passed since Kaiwan joined them as a dungeon spirit.
She proved herself competent by actions, not words. Moreover, she showed her competence not in combat but in other areas.
“Even at a glance, the dungeon has grown so big suddenly. I think I have to take care of lots of stuff in it.”
In fact, she was once the master of the House of Mammon before she was a powerful spirit of the arena. She was the legendary master that transford the House of Mammon on the verge of collapse into a powerful one that other masters were afraid of.
Accordingly, her know-how about dungeon managent was unrivaled, dwarfing Yong-ho. She had as many as ten years of experience in managing a dungeon.
Moreover, she was extrely efficient. She served as the master in a harsh environnt where she could not waste even small resources. Any items that would be considered trash to others were valuable resources for a great use.
Ophelia also admired the way she took care of her work flawlessly. Ophelia was also a pretty good manager, but a dungeon was different from a tavern. Obviously, the way Kaiwan managed the dungeon was more efficient.
Yong-ho humbly accepted this unexpected result. Honoring his father’s advice that the president didn’t have to be an expert, which his father used to tell him when he went out for chicken delivery, he had Kaiwan—a de facto dungeon manager.
In his opinion, he felt he made a good decision on it.
Kaiwan was his dungeon spirit, so he didn’t need to worry about her betrayal.
One week passed.
Yong-ho, who welcod back Skull, Tigrius, and Rikum, who returned from the western area, held a conference in which all the key mbers of the Mammon family participated.
The eting place was the room of the Demon King, which had been moved to the first floor of the Labyrinth of Greed. On the left and right of the large table in front of the throne were the vassals of the Mammon family.
Right next to his right side was Eligos, the butler, and Ophelia, the manager of the Free City. And next to them were Tigrius, the manager of the Randolt dungeon, and Rikum, the garrison commander of the House of Mammon, and Burgrim, the chief of the workshop.
Yong-ho looked to the left. Catalina and Kaiwan were seated nearest to him. With her long ears drooping, Catalina was at a loss what to do, and Kaiwan was gently hugging her as if she was so cute.
It was a familiar scene for Yong-ho. Before he knew it, he recalled Elune and Sitri that he had seen in his mories of the House of Mammon. He smiled bitterly and rolled his eyes when he also recalled Ophelia’s reminder that he was the demon king.
Seeing Catalina and Skull next to her, he felt relaxed sohow.
He did not ntion the impending threat of the King of Gluttony, the most important issue at the mont because it was sothing he would not forget, let alone one that he would keep in mind all the ti. He felt those dungeon spirits of the House of Mammon, not those under his direct control, had better not know about it.
“I think it is the most important thing to increase the dungeon’s soul, naly Lucia’s control, in order to take over the fourth floor, our new target.”
It was Kaiwan who first presented her opinion. Normally, she talked informally to Yong-ho, but in a public place like this, she always used honorifics.
The fourth floor of the Labyrinth of Greed.
Among Mammon’s 12 Spirits, “eight-handed Baruna”, which was Cancer, passed away a long ti ago like Elune. Besides, she did not leave her surrogate behind like Elune.
Because of this, Yong-ho could take her recognition for “free,” like Scathach said, but it wasn’t necessarily good for him. Since he didn’t get Baruna’s recognition through a legitimate process, he could make his Godly Energy near perfect, but he could not properly use her power.
The power of “eight-handed Baruna” was that of creation. According to Scathach, Baruna used the power of creation to work miracles, such as creating sothing from almost nothing. It was the power befitting the builder of the Labyrinth of Greed.
When a dungeon spirit to succeed Baruna’s position erged soday, she would be able to revive the power of creation again, just like Skull and Catalina succeeded Baphot’s death and Elune’s justice respectively. Because of this, Yong-ho could put aside his lingering affection for the power of creation for now.
The reason Kaiwan emphasized the need to take control of the 4th floor of the Labyrinth of Greed was because of the facilities there.
The fourth floor of the Labyrinth of Greed was a workshop. Moreover, it was truly huge. Since it was a semi-automated factory, it was possible to mass-produce high-quality equipnt as long as there were enough materials.
“The facilities on the 4th floor are amazing.”
“If you can use those facilities, I bet you can make weapons that are several tis better than now.”
“It will be possible to produce traps that are more powerful than the existing ones. There are lots of blueprints left behind.”
Burgrim wrote down those sentences on the board in an enthusiastic handwriting style.
His eyes were shining as if he was very excited, but it didn’t last long. Recalling the problems that engineers faced all the ti, Burgrim presented his own opinion timidly.
“If you can increase the budget and the amount of essence a little more...”
Yong-ho couldn’t answer imdiately. So, he heard the opinions of the next dungeon spirit. This ti, Rikum said, “We need to purchase additional battle wagons and various equipnt. If we can add specialized troops, such as large-sized warrior horses for transportation, we can greatly increase our military strength.”
In fact, when very powerful masters started a war, they usually deployed various kinds of dungeon spirits. For example, a Mountain Giant, which played the role of a turret by throwing huge rocks, a giant golem that could be called a tank itself, or a large flying spirit that could carry dozens or more at a ti.
Although Yong-ho had the power of evolution, it was difficult for him to raise large-sized spirits in a short ti. This matter was a little different from training the skeletons that made up the skull unit.
Instead of answering imdiately, Yong-ho heard another dungeon spirit’s opinion.
Eligos said a little timidly, “It would be nice if we can add a working golem to the silver mine in the dungeon of the Abigail family.”
He used the expression ‘it would be nice’ instead of ‘it is necessary.’
It was because he took into account the fact that Yong-ho would need a significant budget to handle the requests that they already made.
Yong-ho finally looked at Skull. Skull also presented its opinion with a sincere voice.
“Skull Skull.”
Yong-ho nodded at Skull’s ssage. Other dungeon spirits didn’t make the mistake of asking him what Skull just said to him.
Yong-ho knew he had a way to solve all these problems at once.
Although his action plan was different from the original one he had in mind, he had to change it because the situation changed.
At first, he thought it was the best way to attack the arena and the Labyrinth of Greed, but it wasn’t. Since the price for it was fascinating, the risk was also big, so it took a considerable amount of ti to attack the two places.
Where could he confront the King of Gluttony and his soldiers?
The location should be a dungeon. Even at the risk of damage, this ti, he needed to fight in the dungeon of the House of Mammon. And Yong-ho was thinking of using not only the House of Mammon but also the Labyrinth of Greed.
A demon king was the strongest when he fought in his own dungeon. He could use the mana of the dungeon through dungeon souls, and he could make use of the geographical advantages available through various traps installed in the dungeon.
So, Yong-ho needed to get ready to fight in the dungeon. To do that, he needed to refurbish the dungeon.
There was only one way for him to get both the budget for a stronger dungeon as well as the experience of the dungeon spirits in a short ti.
Yong-ho said briefly and clearly, “We’re going to attack the eastern area.”
**
Stravadi, one of the two masters that divided the eastern area, claid to be a strategist.
He was a Nagaraja with a snake’s eyes and heart. Just like any Nagaraja, Stravadi was cool.
His brave decision to divide the eastern area was motivated by his cold-heartedness.
Through his expedition to the north, Stravadi strengthened his friendship with his rival and his most powerful ally, Sargatanas. Sargatanas was no longer a stranger to him. He was the husband of Stravadi’s only daughter, and the heir to inherit everything from Stravadi one day.
The eastern area was no longer two. It was one. Besides, he obtained a huge amount of loot in the process of occupying the northern area. He also took the essence of the northern masters to his heart’s content.
Embrio died, and the western and northern areas were devastated. Agares, who ran wildly in the areas, was not seen any longer.
But there was only one problem. It was the House of Mammon in the south.
It was a very simple situation. If he defeated the master of the House of Mammon, there would be no enemies in the southern area. It was also possible to unify the area for the first ti since that great Mammon.
However, there was one thing that made him anxious. He could not evaluate the power of the House of Mammon properly.
He kept an eye on the clash between Embrio and the Mammon family.
Of course, he had secretly dispatched a spy to monitor their fighting and report back. He wanted to find out how much damage Embrio would suffer.
However, the spy did not return. To his embarrassnt, all of the spies he dispatched were entangled in the battle and lost their lives.
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