Dungeon Maker

Whether the Princess Ant involuntarily became independent of the Queen Ant or not, she now had a new task.

To build a new colony.

The moment the Queen Ant died, the Princess Ant's consciousness, which was like a frozen seed, started to grow little by little like a budding flower.

However, the time it took to grow the bud was too short.

With a blank face, the Princess Ant started nibbling the pancake a little and it was difficult to find traces of consciousness.

Just like the Queen Ant, the Princess Ant looked similar to a human. The color of her hair looked like gold silk and she had mysterious green eyes that didn't have scleras, the white section of an eye.

Perhaps twelve-years-old. The Princess Ant looked like a girl of that age and her antennas started to flinch.

The Princess Ant instinctively turned her head.

Not only the Kobold, but other spirits started approaching in a group.

The Princess Ant waited while blinking her eyes. A nasty smell filled the nose. Blood, dirt and other things were mixed into the smell.

Just because she had a weak consciousness, didn't mean her basic instincts weren't working. The Princess Ant cowered like a beast filled with fear. And then, the one that had a familiar smell appeared. It was the Kobold.

"Woof, woof!"

The Kobold seemed excited about something because he started wagging his tail excitedly. The Kobold quickly approached the prison cell and burst open the locked door. He walked up to the Princess Ant and grabbed her hand.

"Woof, woof!"

He was asking her to come out, but just like Eligor, all she heard was the Kobold barking. On top of that, she couldn't make an assumption of what the Kobold wanted based on his actions and expression.

The Princess Ant looked at the Kobold with a confused expression and turned her head. The foul smell arrived.

Eligor, the one with red skin, arrived with green Giants. Not only that, but he brought a large tree that the Princess Ant had never seen before and creatures with small frames that had green skin.

"Woof, woof!"

The Kobold glanced at Eligor and forcefully pulled the Princess Ant's arm. In the end, the Princess Ant stood up and clumsily walked out of the prison cell.

As soon as she walked out, Eligor placed the Orcs into the prison cell. The Orcs had an unsatisfied expression since their hands were tied, but since the Orc with the scar on his eye walked in without a word, they didn't really rebel. After they followed them in, they sat on the ground.

For the Princess Ant, it was quite a large prison cell, but for the Orcs that had a larger frame, it looked small since seven of them were in there.

As always, the Princess Ant looked around with a blank expression. Eligor momentarily looked at her and spoke.

"Take her to the dorm for now."

"Woof, woof!"

The Kobold barked happily and pulled the Princess Ant's arm.

The Princess Ant had no choice but to move to an unfamiliar place.

Eligor watched the entire process and let out a deep sigh. Rikum, the Orc with the scar on his eye, was sitting in the innermost part of the cell and Eligor spoke to them.

"Please rest for a bit. I'll be right back."

Rikum wasn't sure if he should believe what Eligor said, but Rikum nodded. Unless they were thinking about escaping, they wouldn't gain anything by creating conflict.

"At least give us some water."

"Okay. We'll bring you some water."

Eligor exited the prison cell with Jon and Ron. After setting its roots in front of the prison entrance, the Treant watched the prison with a serious and stern expression.

The fight came to an end. Eligor, the Goblins and all the other spirits were exhausted.

But now wasn't the time to relax.

***

Yong-Ho passed out on the bed made out of straw.

He knew everyone was exhausted, but he had no choice. He thought that letting Eligor take care of the rest and then passing out on the bed was pretty irresponsible, but he couldn't resist.

No, he couldn't think at all.

That's how tired he was.

He fell asleep as soon as he closed his eyes. He didn't have any thoughts.

How much time has passed?

"We'll rise up again. You trust me, right?"

The voice belonged to a girl. They had ash gray hair and narrow shoulders.

Yong-Ho wasn't aware that he opened his eyes, but he saw it. His mind was blank, but he saw a clear image of them.

He had seen the beautiful girl with ash gray hair before.

Kaiwan, the owner from three generations ago.

The Demon of Distortion.

In front of the beautiful girl, a boy with a weak face was standing there.

The boy looked at Kaiwan with a longing look and then nodded his head.

Yong-Ho didn't have to think long as to who that boy was. This was the first time that he saw him, but Yong-Ho knew.

It was a small amount, but the blood of Mammon was flowing within that boy.

'The owner from two generations ago.'

The younger brother of Kaiwan. After Kaiwan went missing, he inherited the House of Mammon and he lost most of the things that Kaiwan succeeded in obtaining.

According to the record, he was naturally born with a weak body.

That seemed to be true because underneath his muddy gold hair, he had a really pale face. His longing expression looked like he didn't have any energy. It looked like he wouldn't even be able to run properly with his thin arms and legs.

Kaiwan patted her younger brother's head. She hugged him as if she found him to be loveable. This was the first time he saw her soft and warm expression since she barely displayed that side of herself.

Kaiwan and her younger brother disappeared.

Instead of an old, worn out room, a small study appeared.

Kaiwan was sitting in front of a desk. She wasn't a little girl anymore.

She was a woman with a fierce look.

She could be compared to a snake. She also looked like a leopard. The red leather clothes that she was wearing gave off that feeling even more.

She was writing something with a tired look.

It wasn't really a big room. It had a desk, a bookshelf and on both sides of the room, instead of books, there were documents stacked on top of each other. It looked like Kaiwan's office.

While wearing a pair of glasses, she was writing something with a feather pen and the hand that was repeatedly on the abacus was now under the desk. She leaned into the back of the chair like some sort of laundry.

Her left hand.

A familiar ring was on her ring finger. It was the ring that contained the Power of Distortion. It seemed like she had placed a part of her power into the ring so that she could use it right away during combat.

After taking a short break, she closed her eyes shut and took out a thick, leather book that was placed inside of a drawer. It must've been another empty notebook because she started writing as soon as she placed it on the desk.

'Is it a journal or something?'

Sometimes, she would draw inside it. Since Yong-Ho was fixed diagonally behind Kaiwan's left side, he couldn't see in detail what she was writing, but Kaiwan's expression looked okay. She even displayed a small smile on her face from time to time.

He heard someone knocking on the door. Kaiwan quickly placed the journal she was writing into the drawer and stood up. She opened the door and greeted the person that knocked.

It was her younger brother. Kaiwan grew up into a woman, but her brother was still a boy.

The two exited the office and Yong-Ho saw their backs as they walked further away from him. He heard their voices, but it sounded like an auditory hallucination.

"Are you going to the arena again?"

"It'll be quick. I'll bring even more awesome items, so look forward to it."

The two became more distant. They passed through familiar hallways.

And then darkness.

The view in front of him changed again.

It was the armory.

The placement of the items were different from what Yong-Ho saw, but he immediately knew.

Kaiwain kissed her ring. She placed the ring in a small box and whispered something in a low voice.

He couldn't hear it. The box was closed and darkness filled his view.

This was probably the last memory the ring had.

Yong-Ho opened his eyes. He rolled off the bed and landed on the floor.

"Ack."

The bed wasn't that high, but since it was elevated, it was still painful. On top of that, since he fell while sleeping, it was an unexpected surprise, so it's obvious that it would hurt a lot more.

"Office."

Yong-Ho mumbled without knowing. He unconsciously raised his left hand and looked at Kaiwan's ring.

A shape of a wolf eating the moon.

It was old, but it was still a beautiful, silver ring.

He suddenly felt Kaiwan's power. And he had a hunch as to how he was able to dream of Kaiwan's dream.

Mana, the important element to a demon.

Many thoughts and memories were left within the mana.

He thought about Kaiwan's face. He still felt that she was a ferocious figure, but he felt a little more comfortable because of the warm smile he saw when she was with her younger brother.

Kaiwan's office.

If he found the office. And if he found Kaiwan's journal that was sitting inside the drawer.

His thoughts ended there. The voice of a worried girl filled his mind.

[Master, are you awake?]

[How are you feeling? You're not hurt anywhere, are you? Can you hear me clearly?]

It was the Spirit of the Dungeon.

Yong-Ho was able to come back to reality. His body felt heavy and he lowered the arm that was raised.

It felt like he was rooted into the ground. Even though he was just lying there without doing much, but really didn't want to do anything.

But he had to get up.

"How long has it been?"

[31 hours have passed.]

Yong-Ho closed his eyes and let out a groan after hearing her answer. A day and a half had passed. The fact that he woke up sooner than the time he recaptured the gold mine was somewhat of a comfort.

Yong-Ho raised his upper body while releasing another groan. His voice was really dry and since he wouldn't be able to speak properly, he looked for water. After gulping down the water right out of the kettle, he continued with the next question.

"And the Orcs? What about the other spirits? Catalina and Eligor are safe, right?"

The water helped him wake up, which caused him to ask one question after another. The Spirit of the Dungeon calmly replied.

[The dungeon spirit, Catalina, and the other spirits are all safe.]

[Skull and the Rock Golem are injured, so they're currently unable to move, but there isn't a problem with their life as spirits. They're currently waiting in the throne room.]

[The Orcs are quietly sitting in the prison cell.]

[But, we must hurry with cleaning things up.]

"Cleaning things up?"

[We have to get rid of the Orc corpses of the Orcs that are in the passageway.]

[And I also recommend changing the dungeon layout.]

[Regarding the carriages that the attackers rode here, Eligor moved them to the dungeon entrance room for now.]

[Since the spirits are currently in the process of recovering, no other tasks have been given other than this.]

They won, but the damage on this side was pretty big. As of right now, the only ones that are able to work were probably Eligor, Kobold and the Goblin Rangers.

[And…]

"And?"

[Because your mana has gotten a lot stronger this time, I was able to grow a level as well.]

[Dungeon's Step - If the rank itself increases, I'm able to take care of a lot more things within the dungeon. I'm able to maintain a lot more dungeon facilities as well.]

[Please don't forget to visit the room where my main body is, the Heart of the Dungeon.]

He remembered briefly hearing Eligor talking about this.

When Yong-Ho's face started glowing, the Spirit of the Dungeon somehow knew and continued talking.

[But everyone is exhausted, so you don't need to rush.]

[Master, you should rest more too.]

He could feel that she was really worrying about him through her desperate voice.

But he couldn't just rest. Like she had mentioned, they needed to clean up as soon as possible."

"But first."

Yong-Ho placed his hand on his forehead. The small horn that was placed in the center of his forehead felt out of place for some odd reason.

It was the power he obtained after a tough fight. There was a need to properly test it out.

Yong-Ho instinctively took a deep breath.

He activated the Power of Evolution.