Dungeon Maker

[Name: - (F)]

[Race/Position: Crazy Ant / Princess Ant]

[Class: Demon (Low Rank)]

[Charm - Level 0 | ★★ (2)]

[Emotion - Level 0 | ★☆ (1.5)]

[Mana - Level 0 | ★★ (2)]

[Stamina - Level 0 | ★ (1)]

[Attributes - Level 0 | ★☆ (1.5)]

Maybe it's because she hadn't yet been registered as a spirit, but when compared to the Goblins that he saw for the first time in the Virtual Space, there were a lot of sections that weren't shown.

'She's definitely still a kid.'

Perhaps because she was still a young princess, her evolutionary potential was quite low. However, she had a lot of evolution routes and since her current ability was quite low, her initial growth rate would be quite large.

'What's emotion?'

He had a rough idea, but he wasn't sure.

Yong-Ho waved his finger into the air and checked the other evolutionary routes of the Princess Ant one by one. Although there was a slight difference, there was a silhouette over the Princess Ant that looked slightly more mature than her current self.

'Will she grow up once she evolves?'

There must be an evolutionary route after she evolves because there were two boxes of light above the Princess Ant's head. He could probably confirm it after registering her as a spirit.

Yong-Ho deactivated the Power of Evolution as he briefly thought about the Queen Ant. He had heard someone behind him.

"Did you call for me, Master?"

"I was out for quite long, wasn't I?"

Yong-Ho turned around as he jokingly asked. Eligor answered with his usual warm smile.

"You came back just in time. You've been overdoing it, so you should get some rest."

It went along quite smoothly. Yong-Ho waved at the Kobold again and then left the prison with Eligor. He continued to speak to him as they walked towards the throne room.

"How's construction coming along?"

"We've finished installing the basic traps. However, we don't have enough materials for the more advanced traps yet, so we just cleared the ground so that we can quickly install them when we finally get the materials."

Traps and spirits were the two essential pillars of dungeon defense.

The dungeon facilities and traps were like the walls of a castle, while the spirits were like the soldiers that protected it.

Yong-Ho decided to focus more on developing traps and the dungeon facilities.

If the castle walls were strong, then even the weakest soldiers would be able to fend off invading enemies.

They arrived at the throne room faster than expected. Catalina was waiting for them in front of the throne room and she opened the door for them as they entered the room.

Yong-Ho walked across the large room and sat down on the throne, lightly stretching his body. He asked Eligor, who was standing next to him.

"What do I need to buy?"

"First of all, I created a budget sheet based on the traps that you ordered us to build."

Eligor took out a piece of paper from his inner pocket and gave it to Yong-Ho. It was a list of materials that they needed in order to build the various traps.

"And this is an assumption that I made regarding the gold mine's current worth."

The second document contained the depth of the mine, the amount of gold that was currently there, the quantity of gold they'll be able to obtain in a month, and the total worth of the mine based on all of the previous information.

The dungeon's gold mine was similar to the ones from the human world, yet quite different.

The fact that there was gold in the mine was the same, but the mining method was different.

In the human world, it was normal for people to go into a mine and continue to dig until they found gold, but in the dungeon's gold mine, mana was used to mine the gold instead.

Once the mine was registered as 'Dungeon Facility: Gold Mine' then they could freely choose to activate or deactivate the room. After it has been activated, mana was continuously poured into it and gold was mined automatically.

On the surface of the mine, lumps of gold were created, just like crystals. The mana automatically mines the gold until the reserves were exhausted and then it repeats the process.

That was why the gold mine needed someone not to mine but to collect the gold.

When Kaiwan didn't collect the lumps of gold, the Queen Ant, who devoured various ores and mana, had eaten nearly all of it, so Yong-Ho had no choice but to produce new gold.

After reviewing Eligor's report, Yong-Ho gave the list of materials as well as various other details to the Spirit of the Dungeon. They were the essential materials that he required from the "bargaining" session that he would soon have with Sitri...

'Mana potion.'

Sitri was right. No matter how high quality the weapons were, if there wasn't any magic cast on them, then trading in twenty weapons definitely wasn't enough to purchase one bottle.

Since the mana potion was an item that could recover mana instantly and even strengthen it too.

But Sitri had readily given Yong-Ho four bottles of mana potion.

Sitri called it a 'fair trade,' but Yong-Ho didn't agree.

In some ways, it was more of a debt.

"You know, when I first ascended the throne."

"Yes, Master?"

Eligor and Catalina both looked at Yong-Ho. Yong-Ho asked Eligor.

"Was it just a coincidence that Sitri was used as the witness?"

In order for Yong-Ho to ascend to the throne, there needed to be three witnesses present, but since they couldn't call anyone, they decided to contact the Dungeon Market and ask them to send someone.

It was something he heard from Catalina when he first ascended to the throne.

He thought nothing of it until now. However, Sitri's behavior made him think that it wasn't purely a coincidence. Crucially, the fact that she was close to Kaiwan, the owner from three generations, was proof.

Eligor answered after a short pause.

"It was the will of the owner from two generations ago. For Sitri to visit the House of Mammon when it was on the verge of collapse. That she should help at least once…"

She was definitely someone that visited the House of Mammon often. Yong-Ho continued to ask.

"The previous owners never saw Sitri?"

"When the previous owners took the throne, Sitri visited them once."

Given the current information, it was highly likely that she also participated as a witness in Kaiwan's ceremony.

Yong-Ho touched his chin.

"How did the previous owners treat her?"

"They didn't treat her in any special way. From what I understand, when the previous two owners visited the Virtual Space to trade, they never saw her."

The previous two owners were walking down the path of ruination.

Did Sitri not help them?

Sitri expressed feelings for Kaiwan. In Yong-Ho's eyes, she still had an attachment towards her.

Kaiwan. The owner from two generations ago and the previous owner. Yong-Ho himself.

Yong-Ho organized his thoughts. He consciously hit the handle of the throne and spoke loudly.

"Right, they say to strike while the iron is hot. Let's get started."

Bright expressions appeared on both Catalina and Eligor's faces as he spoke in a cheerful manner. Yong-Ho looked at Eligor.

"But before that."

Yong-Ho closed his eyes and instead of connecting to the Virtual Space, he stood up. He placed his hand on top of Eligor's shoulder.

"I said I'd evolve you when I came back, right?"

Yong-Ho activated the Power of Evolution. Eligor's evolution rate took a while to fill up, but it was finally at a hundred.

Eligor looked at Yong-Ho nervously and replied in a slightly quiet tone.

"I ask that you evolve my stamina."

"Your reason?"

"My body has been starting to ache lately…"

Yong-Ho smiled at his practical reasoning. Catalina, who had now experienced it twice, looked at Eligor excitedly.

"Close your eyes and relax your mind and body."

Eligor closed his eyes and relaxed his body. Yong-Ho grabbed Eligor's shoulder and gathered his mana. Catalina's eyes gleamed with interest as she watched.

Yong-Ho closed his eyes. He poured the Power of Evolution into Eligor.

***

Yong-Ho opened his eyes. He had already visited the Virtual Space several times before, so it now felt familiar to him.

"Oh…"

However, when he looked around, he couldn't see Sitri. All he could see before him was a white space stretching infinitely in every direction.

[Welcome to the Dungeon Market's Virtual Space.]

[Please select your desired trade.]

Letters of light, which he had not seen before, appeared before him.

Yong-Ho hesitated slightly since the message looked like something he saw on an ATM machine. But he turned his attention to the list under it.

And at that moment.

The letters of light split into two, revealing a darkness behind. It looked as if a savage beast had ripped it apart.

Sitri appeared from within the darkness and as she entered the white space, the darkness disappeared as if it had never existed.

"Valuable customer, why didn't you contact me ahead of time."

He smiled bitterly when he heard Sitri's comment.

"Is there a way for me to contact you?"

"Well, if I'm in charge of the House of Mammon, then I should've provided you a method to contact me."

Sitri leisurely replied as she flicked her finger. A comfortable chair appeared behind her and Yong-Ho.

"It's nice to see that you're safe. I assume that you were successful in recapturing the gold mine?"

"I succeeded thanks to you."

"Then, I guess you're here today to do a trade."

Their conversation flowed naturally. Yong-Ho was now able to remain level headed in front of her, perhaps because he had already seen her a few times now.

"I would like to purchase some items with the gold mine as collateral. Also…"

"Also?"

"I wish to pay the proper amount for the mana potions."

Sitri didn't answer immediately. She slightly opened her eyes as if she was peering into Yong-Ho's mind. She then spoke with a faint smile on her face.

"I guess you really liked them."

Yong-Ho didn't disagree. The mana potions were extremely useful. The fact that they recovered his mana within seconds was more important than how they strengthened it. When he thought about how Aamon released a stronger fire the more mana he had, it was an incredibly valuable item which helped increase Yong-Ho's fighting strength.

And he received four of them.

He was unsure of his relationship with Sitri, so he considered the four bottles of mana potion as debt.

Sitri lightly stretched her shoulders.

"It is important to be aware of an item's worth. If you were trying to obtain them purely out of instinctual desire… then I don't think I could properly call it greed. I've said this in the beginning, but I'm starting to like you even more."

Kaiwan was the same. This sharp child was no different.

Sitri didn't reminisce. She looked at Yong-Ho in the present.

"But just as I said on that day, it was a fair deal. And the piece of information was more important than you think. So don't worry about it. I won't be providing you with anymore mana potions from now on anyway."

Sitri straightened her back. She changed the subject.

"Let's talk about the gold mine. I'm sure you obtained the value of the mine's current worth, right?"

"We've estimated the mine to be worth about this much."

Yong-Ho didn't show any regrets. He waved his finger into the air and showed Sitri the information memorized by the Spirit of the Dungeon.

"Hmmm. There's more leftover than I expected."

Kaiwan, the King of Distortion, disappeared shortly after she found the gold mine.

Not long after Kaiwan's younger brother ascended to the throne, the Crazy Ants started to inhabit the gold mine, so there was still some gold left in the mine.

"Your current estimation is quite reasonable. But you can't purchase items at this value. There will be a slight calculation. Plus we have to actually inspect it from our side as well."

Pawnshops, where they lent money based on the value of an item, didn't exist in this world.

Furthermore, in terms of stability, the House of Mammon's current gold mine wasn't the best. It was because they had to prepare themselves to defend the dungeon soon.

Within moments, Eligor's estimation of the worth of the mine had dropped by almost half. However, Yong-Ho didn't care. After accepting it calmly as if it was in the expected range, he once again raised his finger in the air.

"The items that we would like to purchase are as follows."

The list included materials that Eligor requested for the traps and various items for their livelihood in the dungeon.

"You still have a fair amount of money left. Will you be using the remaining money to purchase a spirit?"

Of course, Yong-Ho had been considering purchasing a spirit. However, there was something else he had to purchase first.

Yong-Ho leaned forward slightly. He spoke while slightly narrowing the distance between him and Sitri.

"I want to purchase information."

"Are you talking about information on Foras?"

Sitri asked back immediately as if she was really interested.

Yong-Ho pulled his body towards the back of the chair.

He, of course, wanted to know about Foras and his spirits. However, what Yong-Ho truly wanted was something more fundamental than that.

"Why does Foras want to attack the House of Mammon? Why is he now making his move? That's what I want to know."

The House of Mammon was quite weak when the last two owners were alive, but Foras hadn't done anything then. So, why was he making his move now? Was it simply because the previous owner had died and the shield had weakened?

The Imp had told him that if the Orcs failed, then Foras would bring an actual army and attack the House of Mammon's dungeon.

Foras had made a firm decision to attack. And there had to be a reason as to why he was now making his move.

Sitri slightly opened her eyes again. A wide grin appeared on her face as she looked at Yong-Ho.