Dungeon Hunter - Chapter 132

Chapter 132: Episode 40. The Wind Blows (1)

“We have to do something about your appearance,” Torium told me as he busily brought in some items. “If they find out that you’re alive, things will get complicated…”

I realized that the items were cosmetics.

“I didn’t know you know how to do makeups,” I spoke as Torium looked for a brush.

“There are a lot of things to do besides storytelling. I’ve done makeups for clowns as a side job.”

Torium was quite ambidextrous. Jeff only knew how to use swords.

‘Makeups…’ I thought.

It was not a bad idea.

I had not recovered my original strength yet, and there was no need to make the situation more complicated. It was hard to distinguish a foe from a friend.

I had temporarily left the system, and I wasn’t sure if the relationship between Maxium and I would be the same as it was before.

Therefore, it would be wise not to utter a single word to Torium and Jeff about my relations with Maxium in the past. After all, talking about the commander was a taboo here.

‘I need some time to understand the situation,’ I reflected.

I did not know much about this world.

All I knew so far was that this world was fake and that the Hell Lord created this place.

It was impossible to guess other information based on the few facts which Torium told me. Therefore, I needed to experience this world myself and come up with a plan.

“I don’t think we can hide my heart beating.”

Makeups could not cover sounds. Every noise a living thing made would sound awkward in this world.

Then Torium shook his head.

“No worries. I can also solve that problem.”

“You’re one confident man.” Indeed, I was impressed.

Torium took out a small bottle from his pocket. The bottle was filled with red blood.

“This is the blood of Thunder Bird. Applying this blood can silence noises. It’s something like a noise barrier.”

“Noise barrier?”

“There’s something called noise barrier.”

I did not know much about it. I only knew that such a thing existed, and humans used it.

“Hmm… Tell me more about the barrier later. I’m quite curious as a storyteller. Anyway, if you apply the blood on your body over time, you may be able to silence the sounds that your body makes.”

“What about breathing?”

“It doesn’t matter. We also breathe from time to time. It’s a habit that we used to have.”

Torium cleaned up the makeup tools and looked at me for a moment, studying how he would transform me. Then he spoke again.

“I will begin now.”

Then he started brushing my face.

‘It’s another kind of swordsmanship,’ I surmised as Torium worked on my look.

The makeup applications were so sophisticated that I felt as though I was watching a man practicing swordsmanship.

The process took about an hour to finish.

When Torium was done, he wiped off the sweat on his forehead.

“It’s all done. Unless someone is really careful, they may not notice the difference. However, you have to fix your makeup slightly every day. And you also have to almost redo it every week.”

He handed me a mirror.

I took it, examined my new look, and nodded.

My face was purple like an undead, but I appeared strong.

“Is this it?”

“Jeff has some work to do. He should be coming soon.”

Torium organized his makeup tools and waited. Then someone climbed the mountain and showed up.

It was Jeff.

He was holding a tool that seemed rectangular, and he was swinging along the way.

“Freaking mercenaries! Why can’t they just let me borrow it? Five branches of Jellim is such a rip-off!”

Jeff was walking towards us, and he was swearing. The undead looked very annoyed.

“What’s that?” I asked, eyeing the thing on his hand.

Then he handed it to me, which was covered in a piece of cloth.

“Take it. It’s a valuable seal, so don’t lose it.”

“It’s the Seal of Mercenaries,” Torium elaborated on Jeff’s explanation.

I took the seal and looked at it carefully.

The seal was carved from a stone, and it had a shape of a fingernail engraved in the middle.

The reason that they gave me the seal was simple.

“You want me to be a mercenary…”

“As I told you, time is frozen in this world. Everyone knows everyone’s faces and names, and it’s so easy to tell who the outsider is. Mercenaries are the only outsiders allowed in the Underworld. We don’t have any choice.”

“I like it.”

I held the seal. In fact, I was quite interested in this job. Mercenaries were not bounded to one place, and they were destined to move from places to places. I was doing the same thing back in Devildom.

Torium must have thought that I would refuse to take the seal.

When I took the offer, Torium heaved a sigh of relief and continued, “The seal goes on the left side of your chest.”

The other side of the seal was sticky. It seemed that I simply had to put it on. I put the seal on the left side of my chest and looked at Torium.

“You’re quite outgoing.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The way you treat me.”

Jeff and Torium were not hostile to me from the beginning. I suspected their intention at first, and I exposed my swords, the Rage and the Sword of the Emperor, to them on purpose. They were curious but were never greedy about them.

I had given them nothing in the past 20 days. I had only told them some stories and done some duels. Even though they had received nothing from me, they were putting much effort to help me. There had to be some hidden intentions behind their hospitality.

“The reason is…,” Torium began and then paused, looking unsure. Then he barely continued, “The reason is…because I believe that you’ll be able to finish my story.”

“Out of curiosity as a storyteller?”

“I wanted to see something real. Everything here is fake, even my stories. If I could see something that’s real in this fake world, I can do anything.”

“So that’s the treasure house…”

“I don’t have any other ways. And…I believe that it would be the end of my long journey.”

He looked very tired.

If the Hell Lord created this world, I could not even imagine how old this place had been.

I could only guess that it was very, very old.

“Do you wish to die at the end of this journey?”

I was quite curious if he was helping me to die.

Torium laughed.

“I’m already dead. I want to rest. In fact, everyone here is a walking dead. However, none of them can rest because each one of them has their ‘wish’. Only those who couldn’t realize their wishes are left in this world.”

Torium had hopes.

He bet his everything on me.

I was a living person that suddenly appeared in this world.

Torium saw how quickly I was recovering, and he had hopes on me.

The dead man’s eyes were burning with passion.

I slowly begin talking to him.

“Then it will be a journey to die.”

“I already told you that I am dead. Dying twice sounds awkward, but, if you insist, we can put it that way.”

When we finished talking, I put the Rage and the Sword of the Emperor back in their respective sheaths and turned around.

“Let’s go.”

“Do you know where you’re going?”

“Guide me.”

“…”

We arrived at a barren land.

All I could see was dust and dirt.

I could see a quite large town, which had about 200 houses. The houses were made out of stones.

“It’s very quiet here.”

I silently looked at the town and spoke.

The town seemed desolate. I couldn’t find anyone.

“By now, everyone would have moved to their lord’s castle.”

“Are they preparing for war?”

“You’re correct. We don’t have any children in this place, and there’s no need to stay in the town.”

I nodded.

Just like what Torium said, the undead were dead. They had been dead for a long time, and I did not expect any of them to have given birth to a child. I also thought that there were no genders for the undead.

“I’m just curious,” Torium interrupted. “Can you change the way you speak? I mean, your tone.”

“Why do you ask such a question?”

“The undead need to respect their lords.”

“I’ve never changed my tone before.”

I kept my tone even in front of Death Bringer, the demon god. I could not change my tone all of a sudden. If I had to talk in a different tone, I would rather remain silent.

I was quite stubborn about this issue, and Torium knew me.

“Then…please stay silent. Jeff and I will do the talking.”

Jeff, who was standing next to us, nodded in compliance.

The lord of this area seemed to be selective.

The lord’s castle was large. It was not as large as my dungeon, but it could hold up to 2,000 people. The guard checked the faces of Torium and Jeff, and he opened the gate.

It was not long after we entered the castle that we heard people murmuring.

“Shit! Have you forgotten Commander Magdalene’s nickname? It’s the Stubborn Magdalene. If he wants something, he’ll do whatever he can do to get it. And he’s one of the best commanders out there, not to mention his 10,000 soldiers.”

“Then are you going to run away? Are you out of your mind? You can’t just forsake this land! We have spent 50 years changing this land!”

“Our enemies are very strong. One of them is Dullahan Soulram, and he’s no ordinary zombie like us.”

“But didn’t the lord get promoted to a Ghoul? He also has many skeleton soldiers.”

We were at the center of the castle.

Almost a thousand undead gathered in the field.

Next to them was the lord, who was quietly watching their discussion.

The lord was a Ghoul, which was an elevated version of a zombie. There were two skeleton soldiers next to the lord.

Torium explained the scene to me.

“This is how our discussion works. Top 20 undead in the town discuss the current issues and plans on that table, which you can see right there. A discussion lasts about half a day usually…”

“Jeff! You son of a bitch! Why are you so late?” one of the participants of the discussion said as he approached us.

He looked like a strong zombie. Jeff scratched his chin.

“Wait a minute. I would like to introduce someone to you…”

The zombie looked at the seal that was on my left chest. Then he continued to speak, “Introduce? Ah, I see. I’ve never seen this guy before. Is he a mercenary?”

“He’s pretty good. You’ll find that out if you fight him.”

“I can’t really trust mercenaries. All of them fled when the war broke out. They said we had no hope. However, they were arrogant before that.”

“Well, that’s because you have only seen novice mercenaries. This one, right here, is an experienced mercenary.”

“Jeff, can I mark your words?”

“Yes, mark my words. I, Jeff, the one for a hundred, guarantee that this guy is real!”

“If you insist, I will fall for it.”

“Trust me, you filthy one.”

The two spoke in the most inelegant tones. However, from the conversation, I could tell that Jeff had a good reputation in the town.

“Come here. You just have to watch, okay? If you say anything in a threatening tone, nothing is going to work out. Just stay back and observe how things work.”

Jeff took my hand and started guiding me to another place.

On top of the table was a large map, which marked the location of the town and those of the enemies.

Clap!

The undead accompanying us clapped and tried to change the mood.

“Our enemy is Dullahan Soulrem. He leads about a thousand soldiers. There are 900 regular zombies, 90 skeleton soldiers, and about 10 skeleton wizards. Then there is the Dullahan Soulrem, which is a millenion. They will arrive at our lands in about three days. And we have a little over 500 soldiers. Most of them are zombies. Any ideas?”

“Ah… We only have one option as I told you: It’s defense! We don’t need to drink or eat. Just hold our position!”

“Don’t you know how cunning Soulrem is? He’ll easily penetrate our thin walls!”

“Well then, we have to prepare traps!”

The undead could not come to an agreement.

However, I ignored the heated discussion and looked at the map, which was on the table.

Unfortunately, the map did not show the entire Underworld, only the areas near the town. However, it did show the routes the enemy would come through.

‘The monsters would be comparable,’ I thought.

Dullahan was a high monster of level one.

It would be a hard fight, but it won’t be impossible to win.

I could not gather any more information because no message window popped up. However, my gut feeling told me that we had chances against Dullahan.

If the leader was Dullahan, the rest of his soldiers would even be worse.

Swing!

I took out Rage and swung it.

Then I pointed out an area on the map using it.

“What the heck are you doing?”

Everyone became silent.

Their eyes were on me, including those who were around the table, the undead who were watching us, and even the lord.

I grabbed Rage.