Dungeon Maker

"We were lucky."

That was the belief that Yong-Ho held.

It was the day after the first battle.

Shortly after accepting the Kobolds' surrender, Yong-Ho collapsed out of exhaustion, and only after a long rest was he able to wake up again. Perhaps it was all the rolling around he had done, but even just slightly raising his body, while lying down, caused his muscles to scream out in pain.

They had incredible luck.

Winning would have been near impossible if he hadn't obtained Aamon right before the battle.

Furthermore, if the Skeleton hadn't intercepted in time, they also would've lost.

'I'm crazy.'

Young-Ho thought about when he threw himself towards the hammer wielded by the giant.

Did he always have such an aggressive side? Or perhaps it was a change caused by him awakening as a demon king?

Regardless, they had won. They had survived.

His mindset had widened considerably after experiencing the turmoil of yesterday's events.

First, he checked Aamon. It was still in the form of a red lance and was laying right beside him.

Then he looked at Catalina and Eligor.

"Master!"

"You've awakened."

He didn't see them when he woke up, but they somehow knew and were now standing right before him. They both wore a similar expression.

Almost like babies looking at their mother?

'Catalina looked cute, but Eligor looked a bit…'

Yong-Ho chuckled at the thought, as the two of them reacted gleefully to him waking up. It seemed they interpreted it as him being in a better condition.

Yong-Ho extended his hand out towards Catalina.

"You did well yesterday. And I'm sorry, but could you please get me some water?"

"Please wait a moment."

Catalina quickly answered and went to grab a cup and a pot of water. Yong-Ho then turned his attention to Eligor.

"How long was I out for?"

"You've been in bed for a full day."

"No wonder my lower back hurts."

Yong-Ho stretched back his shoulders while answering Eligor dejectedly. Catalina, who had just come back, extended the cup of water towards Yong-Ho.

"Here you go, master."

"Thanks."

He suddenly felt a lot better after drinking some water. After drinking the entire cup, he felt a bit lightheaded and briefly closed his eyes, before continuing to inquire with Eligor.

"What happened after the battle?"

"The remaining four Kobolds are locked up in the prison. While the corpse of the low-level demon has been stored in an empty room. Oh, we also collected their weapons."

Yong-Ho's eyes widened at one of Eligor's answers.

"Stored? The corpse?"

Why did they store the corpse? Can corpses turn into a Zombie or a Skeleton in the demon world?

'That would mean free soldiers, so is it...a good thing?'

Eligor interrupted Yong-Ho's wild imagination. He wore a very serious expression.

"Even though you obtained the spirit, there's still a good amount of mana left in the corpse. The dungeon currently doesn't have the facility, but...later when the Mana Room has been created, you'll be able to drain out the rest of the mana."

Eligor wore a stern expression throughout his explanation. He wanted to take everything he could from the enemy.

"Eh...okay."

But, draining out mana from a corpse?

Yong-Ho did feel quite reluctant about it, but he decided to keep that thought to himself. The dungeon wasn't in a good enough condition to argue over such triviality and furthermore, extracting mana was probably a common sense in the demon world.

Moreover, Eligor wasn't done talking.

"Also, it's a pretty high-rank facility, but...later, when a Magic Facility has been created, you can reuse the corpse by turning it into either a Zombie or a Skeleton."

So, it was true.

Yong-Ho briefly examined the possibility of increasing his forces with the bodies of his enemies from a human's ethical point of view, but quickly dismissed it.

He couldn't build the facility right now anyway. It was a matter he could think about later.

"What about the weapons?"

"The quality of the cape and hammer are in excellent condition. Magic was cast on the cape to help maintain the temperature and a simple strengthening spell was cast on the hammer, so it's very sturdy."

"Anything else?"

"We collected all the money that they had. It may even be possible to purchase a Rank Two spirit."

Eligor smiled a little insidiously.

Yong-Ho mimicked his expression and continued to ask.

"Any casualties?"

"All the spirits are safe. It's all thanks to you that the battle ended this cleanly."

[The recent battle has greatly increased the spirits' loyalty and respect.]

As soon as Eligor finished talking, the Spirit of the Dungeon spoke up in a soft manner. Not only the spirits, but it seemed that even the Spirit of the Dungeon seemed to admire him more after that battle.

'Well, it's kind of obvious from their expressions.'

Yong-Ho looked up at Catalina, who had stopped trying to maintain a cool-headed persona and the ever blubbering Eligor. And after taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and started to circulate his mana.

Perhaps it was because he had initially started out with such a small amount of mana, but his mana level had increased a significant amount. It felt like the mana circulating within him had almost doubled.

'This is the result of absorbing a spirit.'

Yong-Ho, who was joyful about his increase in power, took another deep breath.

'It's strange that I feel fine.'

Even though they had killed someone, he didn't feel guilty about it.

'It was so that I could live. They tried to kill me.'

That's what Yong-Ho told himself, to consciously calm his mind. As long as he didn't kill without reason, it was fine. For now, he decided to leave it at that.

After he finished circulating his mana, Yong-Ho opened his eyes. Catalina and Eligor were quietly staring at him. It seemed that they were trying to stay as quiet as possible since he was concentrating.

Yong-Ho's expression made them aware of what he was going to do next. Green flames blossomed out of his eyes.

[Name: Chun Yong-Ho (M)]

[Race: Half Human / Half Demon - Demon King]

[Element: Fire / Darkness]

[Evolution Rate: 50/100]

[Strength - Level 0 | ★☆ (1.5)]

[Stamina - Level 0 | ★★ (2)]

[Mana - Level 0 | ★★ (2)]

[Charm - Level 0 | ★☆ (1.5)]

[Agility - Level 0 | ★ (1)]

[Skill - Level 0 | ★★ (2)]

[Seven Deadly Sins | Greed]

Though it was only by a small amount, the number of stars in some of Yong-Ho's evolutionary routes had increased. Furthermore, the Seven Deadly Sins category, which was empty before, now had the name Greed next to it.

'Is it because I absorbed that demon's spirit?'

He could now see things which weren't visible before. The same applied to the "level" that was attached to each of the specializations.

Then he examined Catalina.

[Name: Catalina (F)]

[Race: Half Succubus / Half Dark Elf]

[Main Elements: Wind / Darkness | Secondary Elements: Lightning / Water / Earth]

[Main Stats: Succubus - Charm / Mana | Dark Elf - Agility / Skills]

[Evolution Rate: 25/100]

[Succubus : Charm - Level 0 | ★★★ (3)]

[Dark Elf : Agility - Level 2 | ★★★☆ (3.5)]

[Hybrid - Level 0 | ★★★☆ (3.5)]

[Succubus : Mana - Level 0 | ★★★☆ (3.5)]

[Dark Elf : Skills - Level 1 | ★★★ (3)]

She possessed more changes than Yong-Ho. The most noticeable change was the category of agility because it now had the words "Level 2" next to it.

'She's only evolved once… which probably means that it was level one before, right?'

If that was the case, then it made sense why her skill level had only increased by one. Catalina was a combat specialist who excelled in the agile use of a dagger.

'The number of stars has changed too. Since her agility has been developed, has her other stats changed a bit as well?'

Yong-Ho nodded his head since it was a reasonable change and then slightly raised his eyes. A bitter smile appeared on his face when he noticed two boxes of light that he's never seen before appear.

[Dark Elf]

[Succubus]

Catalina was a half Dark Elf and half Succubus, so she was given a choice on what race she wanted to evolve into.

It wasn't an easy decision. The 'race evolution' could only be decided after the next evolution, but before that, he needed to acquire further information regarding the different advancements.

After deactivating the Power of Evolution, Yong-Ho lightly nodded his head and looked towards Eligor.

"You told me that if I get stronger, then the Heart of the Dungeon will get stronger too, right?"

"Yes, that's correct. Not only that, but the dungeon spirits like Catalina and me will also be affected by your growth."

"I wonder."

The relationship between the owner and the spirits of the dungeon couldn't be explained by just a simple master and servant relationship. It was much more direct and intimate than that. If the owner was the head, then the spirits were the hands and feet that the owner commanded.

"Did you find out anything from the Kobolds?"

Eligor immediately answered as if he had been anticipating Yong-Ho to ask.

"They're known to be scared and cowardly, so as soon as their leader died, they started to talk, but you can't just believe every word they're saying. So that's why since that we're on the subject...how about we build a torture chamber after the prison?"

"Torture chamber?"

"Yes, it's used to punish the spirits, but it's also necessary when we need to interrogate any prisoners. If it's built right next to the prison, it would be very effective. The prisoners would be able to watch the other prisoners getting tortured."

Eligor looked at Yong-Ho with shining eyes as if he was waiting for him to compliment him.

It was similar to when he talked about prisons, Eligor always seemed to look strangely lively when talking about the subject.

Yong-Ho closed his eyes for a moment. He imagined Catalina crying while being tortured by Eligor.

'No, this is too dangerous.'

He changed the subject of the torture from Catalina to the Skeleton and felt calmer.

Prison and torture chamber.

They were horrible facilities, but the prison had already been built, and if they had to continue fighting, then a torture chamber would also become necessary.

Yong-Ho pushed aside on making a decision and asked Catalina.

"How strong was the group that invaded recently?"

"I don't mean to belittle your victory, but…"

Catalina carefully chose her words. Though that basically gave him his answer.

"So they weren't that strong. That's probably why they rushed in."

He knew they were quite familiar with combat. If not, then they wouldn't have had such a bloodthirsty expression.

However, out of all the weaklings that targeted Mammon's dungeon, they were the weakest.

They waited for the protective shield to weaken and out of all the weaklings, they were the first to attack.

"Will there be more groups of their strength attacking the dungeon?"

A frown appeared on Yong-Ho's face as he quietly mumbled. Even though he just woke up after passing out from the battle, he didn't have a lot of time. He had to prepare on how to defend the dungeon from any future enemies.

'I have either one of two options.'

One. Evolve the spirits.

Two. Delay the evolution of the spirits and strengthen the dungeon facilities using that mana.

Both choices had pros and cons.

If they evolved the spirits, then the quality of the soldiers would increase. However, given the current condition of the dungeon, which could be overcome by the enemy simply charging in a straight line, they had to be extremely careful.

Strengthening the dungeon's facility was good from a long term perspective. Even though he could increase the power of the spirits right away, evolving the spirits by several levels at once was impossible.

In the end, he had to do both.

However, he had to pick the best option.

Yong-Ho looked back and forth between Catalina and Eligor. After a short but deep consideration, he made the decision.