Dungeon Maker

Chapter 216: Alliance (3)

As if to change the atmosphere, Yong-ho opened the envelope of the Queen of Fury’s handwritten letter. When he opened it, there appeared a video just like it did last time.

It was a pretty short video this time, too. In the video message, the queen, with her face a bit blushing, said she would look forward to meeting him in person after expressing her wishes that both of them could build a solid alliance on the occasion of their summit. It looked like she was expressing such wishes for the sake of formality.

‘No matter how much you look at her, she looks suspicious.’

Kaiwan signaled to Catalina with a glance after checking the queen’s blushed face through narrowed eyes. Catalina nodded as if she agreed.

Ophelia said, “If you look at the military relations of the King of Violence, Queen of Fury, and the King of Gluttony, it is likely that the King of Violence and Queen of Fury have already established an alliance. Perhaps, the reason why the Queen of Fury is so anxious to form an alliance with us hastily is because she wants to build a perfect southern alliance.”

The King of Violence and Queen of Fury did not keep each other in check. Their armies were sharply monitoring the movement of the King of Gluttony’s forces.

Yong-ho nodded, recalling what he heard from Sitri about those “purists” born in the demon world. If the southern alliance was really formed, Yong-ho would have nothing to lose.

“It’s not just for our alliance with the Queen of Fury. We need to take control of the unclaimed land in the north as soon as possible,” said Tigrius.

He spoke, opening the entire map of the demon world illuminating in the air.

“The reason the Queen of Fury and the King of Violence don’t move their troops yet is because they don’t know that the King of Gluttony was dead. Before they take action, we must take control of the unclaimed land first, so we can be ready to fight with them for hegemony over the territory of the King of Gluttony.”

Although the King of Gluttony and his Ten Warriors were killed, there were still many troops active in the king’s territory. In order to confront them and claim their credit with respect to the Queen of Fury and the King of Violence, it was necessary for Yong-ho to build up a formidable army.

“We don’t have to occupy all of the territories of the King of Gluttony. We can just take part of the territory and hand over the rest to the Queen of Fury or the King of Violence because we don’t have to share our border with the north. It is also not a bad strategy for us to use the forces of the Queen of Fury or the King of Violence as a shield.”

Tigrius agreed to Ophelia’s idea.

Nodding once, Yong-ho looked at the map of the demon world quietly and said naturally, “Ophelia, gather intelligence about the other kings. In particular, I need some more intelligence about the three kings—King of Pride, King of Envy, King of Lust.”

The three kings in the north were far too far away. That was why Yong-ho didn’t gather intelligence about them actively until now. He had to change it from now on. Now that he defeated the King of Gluttony and stood on par with the six kings, the enemies that he had to confront were the three kings in the north.

“I will follow your order,” Ophelia replied right away. Her heart was full at that moment.

The three kings in the north were clearly burdensome and formidable. However, assuming Yong-ho’s fight against them itself testified to the growth of the House of Mammon.

Strong confidence in Yong-ho’s victory and pride filled Ophelia’s heart.

“Let’s get back to our main topic and discuss how to overwhelm the kings of the north. What do we need the most right now?”

He looked back at his subordinate spirits gathered in the reception room.

Kaiwan replied, sitting on his right, “I think it is the means of transport.”

Kaiwan used the power of distortion on the map of the demon world that Tigrius made with magic. He drew a line from the southern tip of the unclaimed area where the House of Mammon was located to the northern tip of the unclaimed area bordering the territory of the King of Fury. At a glance, it was quite a long distance.

“As we all know, the northern area has been virtually devastated. It is no exaggeration to say that there is almost none who can dare to challenge the Mammon family’s power. I think even a handful of Yong-ho’s subordinate spirits here can rise up and suppress the northern area. But we need infantry in order to occupy and rule the north if our goal is not to destroy it simply. Right now, we absolutely need the means of transportation with which we can move our troops within a short period of time,” said Kaiwan.

Like Kaiwan said, destruction and occupation were different. No matter how strong an individual was, there were clear limits to the area that this individual could control.

“How do you usually move troops?” Yong-ho asked.

Opelia replied to his question casually, “If our troops are more than several thousands, we have no other choice but to march. But I hear that if our troops number several hundreds, we can use vehicles such as a giant flying spirit.”

“Oh, I see.”

Actually, Yong-ho guessed so. He had seen a section on the means of transportation in the catalog of the Dungeon Market.

The catalog showed a giant flying spirit like a mixture of an insect and reptile that could hold hundreds of units in its arms, an enormous sky whale that could carry a large number of troops on its back, and a sailboat flying in the sky.

There were obviously various means of transportation. To be honest, Yong-ho coveted all of them. But the problem was the budget. Since he continued to invest freely for the growth of his subordinate spirits, the shortage of the budget was tight.

Although he had never mentioned the budget problem, Ophelia and Kaiwan already knew what he was agonizing because they had the same concerns.

However, they didn’t agonize long. An unexpected voice whispered in the air.

[If you have a budget shortage, there is a solution.]

Everyone’s eyes turned to the flames of the red lotus in the air.

Aamon asked Yong-ho, [My master, you have secured up to the 6th floor of the Labyrinth of Greed. If so, what do you think is the remaining facility?]

Each floor of the Labyrinth of Greed quickly came to his mind.

The Garden of Life was on the first floor and the gateway to the Labyrinth of Greed is on the 2nd floor. The third floor was a gambling hall and the fourth floor was the workroom. The fifth and sixth floors were an armory and a prison, respectively.

Then, what was the remaining facility there? Wasn’t it a must in any dungeon?

“The treasure storage.”

Yong-ho uttered unwittingly, and Aamon made his flames burn more intensely as if he was laughing heartily.

[The 8th floor of the Labyrinth of Greed.]

[A place guarded by Richard, the Leo Warrior.]

[Right there on the 8th floor, there is the treasure storage of the great King of Greed.]

Mammon’s treasure storage.

A bright smile was on everyone’s face instantly.

***

“But why is the 8th floor being mentioned more instead of the 7th floor?”

It was long after they first talked about the treasure storage that Yong-ho raised the question about the 8th floor. In the meantime, he not only wrote a reply to the Queen of Fury but even saw Gardimundi off in person.

In fact, if he took a step back and thought about it, there was nothing strange. The treasure storage was just on the 8th floor. So what? There was no correlation between Yong-ho’s success in securing up to the 6th floor and the floor layout of the Labyrinth of Greed.

However, the reason why he expressed doubts about it was because Aamon did not explain about the 7th floor at all. While he was securing up to the 6th floor, Aamon always mentioned the next floor he had to challenge without any additional explanation.

Aamon kept delaying the answer to his question, saying that he would know it soon.

And it was exactly as Aamon said. It wasn’t long before Yong-ho, who reached the 7th floor with his subordinate spirits, knew why Aamon did not explain about the 7th floor.

‘Well, is it just as I suspected?’

Smiling bitterly, he looked at the large door located in front of the stairs leading from the 7th to the 8th floor. An impressive bull’s head with a towering horn was embossed on the steel door, which was very magnificent, and the word ” Mammon’s Arena” was written on the wall next to it.

“What the heck?! Are you disappointed?”

“Oh, not really.”

Yong-ho, shrugging his shoulders in front of Gusion, who was making a sullen expression, looked around once more. He was now standing near the entrance to the arena. It was the “real entrance,” not the one he used to come and go, led by a guy wearing a beast mask.

The interior of the corridor was as large as the door. First of all, the ceiling was high, and the corridor was nearly ten meters in width.

On the left and right of the corridor, there were stone statues that were carved so precisely that any visitor could be mistaken that they were real.

Yong-ho was convinced when he saw a statue of a beautiful woman with ferocious eyes located in the middle of a giant steel cow and somehow pitiful Centaurus. They were the stone statues depicting the floor masters of the arena.

He alternately looked at Gusion and his stone statue at the end of the corridor.

At that moment, he broke into laughter before he knew it.

“Is this the feeling I have when I come through the main gate of the arena?”

The shapes of the floor masters of the arena were not limited to humanoids.

The corridor lined with dozens of stone statues, including several monsters and giants, was very magnificent. Any timid visitor seemed to get cold feet even when they stepped in the arena.

Following Yong-ho’s gaze at his stone statue, Gusion laughed cheerfully.

“Yeah, the passage through which you used to come and go was like a doghole, compared with this.”

Yong-ho felt disgusted at his description of the passage as a doghole.

Tilting his head, he looked behind Gusion’s back. He saw a familiar arena over there.