Dungeon Maker

It was morning.

Yong-Ho woke up without getting a wake-up call from the Spirit of the Dungeon and immediately walked out of his bedroom.

"Good morning, Master."

Eligor was standing in the throne room and greeted Yong-Ho like usual. Yong-Ho smiled in response.

"You've certainly changed."

"It's all thanks to you, Master."

His behavior remained the same, but his appearance had changed.

He now looked younger.

It was too much to say that his youth had been restored, but there wasn't any other suitable expression.

Muscles were now visible on his straight back. His upper body, which used to look dry now looked like a hard rock, and the fine wrinkles on his face were reduced by almost half.

[Name: Eligor (M)]

[Race: Red Demon]

[Class: Spirit (Low Rank)]

[Attributes: Fire Level 0 / Darkness Level 1]

[Main Stats: Strength / Stamina]

[Evolution Rate: 0/100]

[Strength - Level 0 | ★★☆ (2.5)]

[Stamina - Level 1 | ★★☆ (2.5)]

[Ability - Level 0 | ★☆ (1.5)]

[Mana - Level 0 | ★☆ (1.5)] -> Upon evolution, advancement routes will open

[Possible Evolution Race: Red Demon | Beast]

Eligor's evolution information used to be as bleak as the Goblins, but now, there was far more than before.

The potential value for each evolution route had increased by a small amount and a new ability specialization had appeared.

And the evolutionary route was the Red Demon.

Although Yong-Ho could only see a silhouette, it was enough to give Eligor's outer appearance after he evolved. All of his muscles would significantly develop and his horn would grow much bigger. It was highly likely that he would evolve into a strength-based spirit, which fitted well with the name.

Currently, Eligor, like the Kobold, wasn't a combat spirit. However, once he evolves and advances, then he could become a member of the combat group.

"I'm going to wash up. Let's start after breakfast."

"Yes, Master."

Currently, there was no proper water supply in the House of Mammon's dungeon. However, if the dungeon continued to develop then it could be installed, but that was still a long way off.

Yong-Ho finished washing his face from a pot in the corner of the throne room. While he was drying his face with a towel that the Kobold had handed him, Catalina walked out of her bedroom still half asleep.

"Good morning...Master."

Yong-Ho showed Catalina to the pot and then headed back to the center of the room. On top of the wide mat, Eligor and the Goblins were busy preparing breakfast.

The Treant had taken root inside the room that was in front of the throne room while the Salamander, who was lying next to it, ate its breakfast through absorbing the dungeon's mana.

Skull, who was always rolling around somewhere in the throne room, had already absorbed mana, so he was just rolling around near the door.

After finishing breakfast, Yong-Ho handed the Kobold a pancake meant for the Princess Ant since she was an omnivore. After clearing up his thoughts for a second, Yong-Ho immediately walked out of the throne room.

The Dungeon Market's package was going to be delivered today.

It would be a disaster if Foras attacked before the package was delivered. Even if he arrived right after the delivery, it would still be an issue.

He needed at least a few hours. At least a day, if possible.

He needed time. Even just a few hours difference could help him significantly.

The distance from the throne room to the dungeon entrance was a lot further than before. The linear displacement hadn't changed much, but that was because they had used a different design.

A few minutes after waiting at the dungeon entrance. As if he had timed it, the courier from the Dungeon Market suddenly knocked on the door.

The courier was a young demon with red skin. He wore an eye-catching white uniform and baseball cap, which was a symbol of the Dungeon Market.

Attacking the courier was regarded as equivalent to attacking the Dungeon Market itself. The Dungeon Market Association was the pillar of the demon world's economy and fighting against them would be burdensome even for the six kings, so in a way, a courier's uniform was also like an invincible armor.

"Please sign the recipient's name."

Since he had already delivered packages to them several times before, his face was familiar. After signing the paper that the courier handed him, Yong-Ho took a step back.

The courier snapped his finger, with a slightly bored look upon his face.

Yong-Ho didn't know how he did it, but the packages suddenly floated into the dungeon's entrance room and started to stack on top of each other. There were several boxes as large as the package the Treant was delivered in, so the room quickly became quite cramped.

"Thank you."

After the delivery had been completed, the courier politely bowed and exited the dungeon.

After the courier left, Yong-Ho and the other spirits then started to move to the packages.

"I'll open them."

Everyone started to get excited when Yong-Ho began to open the packages. Catalina, Eligor and even the Goblins had excited expressions on their face. Skull, however, still looked indifferent about it.

The Clay Golem and the Rock Golem were in the first two boxes. Despite the fact that they were in a crouched position, they both seemed to be just as big as the Treant.

The Goblins looked at the Golems with widened eyes and Eligor continued to smile as if he was extremely satisfied by what he saw.

All the rest of the boxes contained materials for the traps that he ordered, except the one box that contained food and various materials.

As soon as Yong-Ho finished registering the Clay Golem and the Rock Golem, Eligor spoke.

"We'll begin working right away."

Since they were in a rush for time, there was no reason to wait. After Yong-Ho gave the order, Eligor commanded the Goblins and the new Golems to carry the materials and immediately begin installing traps in the nearest room. Since the materials were so abundant, the Treant, Salamander, and even Skull joined in.

Only Yong-Ho and Catalina were left after the other spirits began to work. Yong-Ho still had work to do and since Catalina was his guard, she had to stay beside him.

"So these are the Dungeon Meerkats."

Yong-Ho opened a box that was half a meter in size on all sides. Inside were two meerkats as big as a person's forearm. The way they stood up on their feet and stared up at Yong-Ho looked quite cute.

'They're similar to the ones I saw on the Discovery Channel.'

The only difference was that unlike the meerkats in his world these ones had pointy ears, not rounded ones.

Yong-Ho registered the pair of Dungeon Meerkats as spirits and then used the Power of Evolution to check their stats.

[Race: Dungeon Meerkat]

[Class: Spirit (Low Rank)]

[Main Stats: Agility]

[Evolution Rate: 0/100]

[Agility - Level 0| ★☆ (1.5)]

[Possible Evolution Race: High Meerkat]

Seeing the name of the evolution race gave him an odd feeling, but only for a moment.

He examined the silhouette of them after evolving, but it didn't seem like there wasn't much of a difference in their outer appearance.

"It says here that the Dungeon Meerkats usually stay outside of the dungeon during the day and then sleep in their burrow, beside the dungeon entrance, at night. Hmm… it looks like they aren't on watch during the night."

As she read the information provided in the package, a frown appeared on Catalina's face. However, Yong-Ho thought about it positively. At least they would alert everyone while the sun is up.

Considering that they didn't have any alert system before, this was a great improvement.

"Then I'll take them outside of the dungeon."

Catalina placed the information leaflet in her inner pocket and reached out her arms towards the meerkats. Both of them jumped into her arms as if they recognized her.

It was a nice sight, but Yong-Ho looked at the large dungeon entrance instead.

It was a large door without any shape.

Yong-Ho suddenly spoke up.

"Can I… go outside too?"

After he was crowned as the owner of the House of Mammon,

Yong-Ho had never stepped outside of the dungeon. It was because there was a high chance that the air of the demon world could be harmful to him since he was still half-human.

However, the Yong-Ho of today was different. He was now fully awakened as a demon and had twice absorbed the spirits of his enemies. Both his body and mana had become incomparably stronger than his previous self.

"Uh… well in your current condition…"

Catalina sounded like she agreed, but she was still unsure which made her nervous. Her long ears and tail were dropping, too.

Smiling, Yong-Ho patted her head. He then shrugged his shoulders, took a step forward, and spoke.

"I'm sure nothing big will happen if it's just for a moment. Let's go."

Nodding her head, Catalina rushed ahead of Yong-Ho towards the door. Yong-Ho gave the order to the Spirit of the Dungeon, who opened the door.

A wilderness appeared before them with a red sky and dry wind.

The southern land before him used to all belong to the House of Mammon of the past.

Yong-Ho took a deep breath. Along with Catalina, he stepped out of Mammon's dungeon.

He gazed at the sky and ground of the demon world.

***

In dungeon battles, defending a dungeon was several times more advantageous than offense.

And that advantage was enough to change the outcome of the battle.

The attacker had no way of knowing what form the dungeon's defense would take. Nor was it possible for them to know what kind of traps were installed and what spirits were hiding.

It was different from defending a stronghold, which at least had an observable outer appearance that could aid the enemy.

The inside of a dungeon was a complete mystery.

The attacker had to take a huge risk.

However, the attacker wasn't unconditionally always at a disadvantage.

Although each dungeon had a different layout, the defender's dungeon would become the stage of the dungeon battle.

If one were to compare it to a castle, then it would be like the attacker had stormed the walls and invaded the inner part of the castle.

The attackers required the wisdom and experience that could find and destroy traps.

It had already been nearly seventy years since Foras took the position as owner.

Over those long years, Foras protected his dungeon well and defended against several outside attacks.

However, despite that, he still didn't have that much experience in dungeon combat.

The battle carriages that carried Foras's spirits traveled through the wilderness. Foras was sitting in the leading carriage and quietly closed his eyes to organize his thoughts...

Foras was old.

Demons lived off mana and given that their outer appearance and life expectancy differed from demon to demon, it was difficult to assume their age.

But still, Foras was old.

Other than slight wrinkles and a white beard, Foras didn't possess any other sign of aging, however, he himself knew that truth more than anyone else.

To pass the throne down to the next generation. To protect the dungeon.

To lay down the groundwork for his dungeon's success.

For now, he decided to think only of that.

Foras preferred hand-to-hand combat. Most of the combat spirits he commanded were Orc soldiers and their strength lay in melee combat.

And that was why Foras tried to take as many spirits on the battle carriages as he could. Sorcerers were an essential part of dungeon combat and Foras didn't have many of them.

He was sure there must have been a change in the House of Mammon.

The two owners who inherited the dungeon after Kaiwan were weak in both body and mind. Even if the rumors about the last owner committing suicide were false, the owner was too weak to defend against his reconnaissance group.

Perhaps it was something that Kaiwan left.

Or a new owner had ascended.

Either way, it was not something that he couldn't overcome. It had been over ten years since Kaiwan went missing and during that time, the dungeon had declined. Even if a new owner had ascended, there wasn't enough time or resources for them to develop the dungeon above a certain level.

'We'll defeat them through overwhelming force.'

Although the House of Mammon was nothing more than an empty shell, the history of the dungeon itself was very old. If they got lucky, then they might have been able to obtain a spirit to help the dungeon's development. There was still a high likelihood that a lot of Kaiwan's legacy remained.

Kaiwan's younger brother, the owner from two generations ago, and his descendant, the previous owner, both worshiped Kaiwan for resurrecting the House of Mammon from the ashes. They probably didn't even consider selling Kaiwan's inheritance.

A dry wind blew.

Even considering the time that they would rest before going into combat, the dungeon battle would occur in just a few hours.

Foras opened his eyes. He faced the wind blowing from the south.