Dungeon Hunter - Chapter 155

Chapter 155: Chapter 49. The Fifth Auction of Devildom (3)

It was the same spirit who had always greeted me at the original Auction of Devildom. Seeing as he was already waiting by for me, it was clear that he had heard from someone else in advance.

This had turned out well.

This year’s auction had changed in many aspects.

There were limits to trying to figure it all out by myself.

Since he was acting as a guide, he must have had some information.

He was just the right person to relieve my curiosity.

“Have you been well?”

“How could I? It was really a pity that I couldn’t see you last year. In fact, seeing as I got the role of your guide with much difficulty… I didn’t have any fun.”

The Spirit of Darkness let out a deep sigh. His expression seemed to be sincerely sad.

“Now that I think about it, I haven’t seen the person acting as a guide change before.”

“Hyuck hyuck! I’m just telling you this now, but before the Auction of Devildom began, the competition for this role was very fierce, eh? Since it’s possible to increase your ‘level’ with the scraps that fall from here. Usually, the rule is not to change whoever acted as a guide if none of the auction participants die. Although there were several implied requests for me to change when you continued to prove your worth after the third year…”

“The following year, I disappeared.”

The Spirit of Darkness briefly reacted, then nodded his head.

“Right, exactly. Deboron said he couldn’t find you through the ‘system.’ This kind of thing usually only happens when the person in question is dead, eh? I was also quite heartbroken. But now… can it be, ohhh—”

Like a young girl that had fallen in love, his face broke out in a blush.

“For Randalf, I would have no regret with changing this form. Hyuck hyuck! Do you happen to like succubi or elves?”

A dirty joke. An elf or a succubus, coming towards me laughing, “Hyuck hyuck!” It was disgusting to even imagine.

“This is trivial talk. Instead of that, I saw a message that said that Spirits of Water and Spirits of Fire will be participating in the separate auction. How did that happen?”

“Aaah… well, that…”

The Spirit of Darkness hardened his expression. It was apparent that this didn’t agree with him. I held out quietly, and then the Spirit of Darkness continued to speak.

“Do you know of the news of the spirits who were monitoring around the Underworld from middle earth, who were then caught by other spirits?”

“I do.”

The story went that as a result of the change that occurred when they summoned the cruel commander Maxium, the Spirits of Darkness moved, and in that series of events, they raised the suspicions of other spirits. I remembered overhearing it.

“Among them, the Fire and Water spirits put the most intense pressure on us, the Spirits of Darkness. So around this time last year, the secret of the Auction of Devildom was revealed, too. If there’s one kind of silver lining, it’s that the two Spirit Kings requested a deal in exchange for an oath to secrecy.”

“Was that participation in the Auction of Devildom?”

“That’s not it. They showed interest in the system created by the Demon God. However, we also don’t know much about the system. Just that we use the authority given to us as a means of performing a few tests, that’s all, and in the first place, the deal itself wasn’t validated.”

The system of the Demon God… no one had figured that out yet. There was also nothing revealed in the previous life about its true nature, or by what course it was activated.

No one had even tried to dig up that information. It was because the system itself was already complete. But the other spirits could have also seen this from a different perspective.

“Well, then?”

“First of all, in the case of the contract, it was successful as an excuse to buy time. But then, just a few months ago, suddenly the Spirit Kings decided that they will participate in the auction. Though they will be confined to the separate auction, and not the main auction…”

That was all. It seemed that he didn’t know any more detailed information.

“Adonis. He accepted my proposal, but at the same time, he’s after something else, isn’t he?”

It was a very obvious deduction. He wouldn’t have made this decision suddenly just because of me alone. The risk was too great for that. He wasn’t such a naive person to do something that could lead to his “downfall” merely to obtain the Quintessence of Origin.

The thought suddenly occurred to me that he had responded to my proposal because he had something else he wanted to achieve from it.

“What’s the number of demons participating in the auction?”

“There are 54. Hyuck hyuck, it’s a little pitiful for the fifth year of the auction.”

Even until the third year, the number of demons who had been there, except for those that I had killed, had all been normal. And yet, in just two years, their number had definitely been reduced.

“What about their average point values?”

“It was originally three million, but… one day, the starting point skyrocketed by 700,000 points, hyuck hyuck!

“And this is the contract related to the separate auction. As the Demon God’s stamp is imprinted on it, by no means feel any pressure.”

The stamp of the Demon God. It could only be used by those who had permission, and I’d heard that even they were under great restrictions. However, contracts that were impressed with the stamp of the Demon God carried absolute legal authority.

I scanned the contract that the Spirit of Darkness held out to the end.

Guaranteed anonymity. Protection for items. Promises of secrecy and other things were written on there, and even so, it seemed like the kind of contract the Spirits of Water might have offered.

There was nothing exactly strange or ambiguous that I could see. As I stared at the spot where the Demon God’s stamp was imprinted and Adonis’ name was written, I bit down on my finger until it bled, then imprinted my stamp.

Immediately after that, I rolled up the parchment and handed it back to the Spirit of Darkness.

“The contract has been completed. Now, shall we take a look at the items you will sell at the separate auction? We run the auction, so we need to set the opening prices and things like that in advance.”

I unlocked my magical pouch.

Exactly ten things. I laid out the items I was going to sell at the separate auction on the floor.

Upon seeing the items, the Spirit of Darkness opened his eyes widely for some time.

“Whaa…!”

At the same time, he let out an exclamation and was unable to close his mouth.

As soon as we had roughly sorted things out, the Spirit of Darkness acting as a guide spoke to me.

“There’s something else that has changed from last year along with the participation of the Water and Fire Spirits. It was possible before in the main auction to see the items before it started, but it is not now. I hope you understand. It’s for security reasons.”

“Well then, are we going straight to the auction?”

“That’s not the case. Given the extent of things that have changed, don’t we need to give time to each person to adjust? You’ll be given free time for about half a day.”

I furrowed my brows. If I looked simply at the fact that everyone was being given a half-day of free time, it didn’t seem like a big deal, but when I dug into it, there was a serious problem.

Demons. One couldn’t say that they got along well with elemental spirits. It would be more accurate to say that they ignored each other, but this was because there was hardly any opportunity for them to interact. There was absolutely no reason for them to easily get along with each other.

That wasn’t all… If anyone was planning to carry out other actions, there was now enough free time to do it. Even if someone had planned to do something, up until now, there hadn’t been time to do it. Usually, the auction started immediately, and when it ended, everyone went back to their dungeons and repeated this pattern.

“The time is for adjustment in name only.”

Demons were always antagonizing each other. Things were moving quickly, unlike in my previous life. According to the rules, only fights with monsters were allowed, but even that was something that the spirits had instituted.

What was more, there was a precedent of Ufa putting up Fagan Grewoolly as a sacrificial lamb for participation in the Auction of Devildom.

If they could kill the center of the opposing faction… it was no big deal to discard one of the demons under their command.

“This will lead to mass confusion.”

Tsk! I just clicked my tongue. In more ways than one, there was no hope that this year’s Auction of Devildom would proceed normally. It could be that this kind of occurrence was what Adonis was hoping would happen.

“Hyuck hyuck! Randalf, I’m going to go attend to the procedures of the auction. Well… come and find me when your free time is over.”

The Spirit of Darkness opened the door and left. I could see the high-level spirits that were standing guard near the door.

“My Dungeon Master. How will you proceed?”

The brilliant Krithli seemed to have roughly evaluated the situation correctly. Though this would probably be her first time, she didn’t show any awkwardness.

“What seems like the best way to proceed?”

There wasn’t one exact accurate answer. There was a good chance that acting rashly could only bring harm.

I asked Krithli. It wouldn’t be bad to act just on my opinion alone, but Krithli could offer an opinion that I hadn’t thought of.

Then, after briefly considering, Krithli opened her mouth.

“If I put together what I know and draw a conclusion… it seems that meeting in secret with the spirits first would be best.”

“With the spirits?”

Secret meetings with spirits. That was unexpected. I was just thinking of going to check on Ariel Diablo.

Krithli lightly cleared her throat and spoke.

“There’s a good chance that the demons still don’t know of your survival. Yet if they do know… they’ll definitely try to come and pull a trick during this half-day. Pandemonium especially will definitely make an appearance.”

“So you’re saying I should meet with the spirits to prevent them from pulling off something like that?”

I am strong. But I’m limited by my solidarity. I can’t take on one faction completely by myself.

Even so, I was skeptical.

As long as they weren’t Spirits of Light, they wouldn’t be greatly opposed to me, but there was a good chance that they would ignore me even if I went up to them.

Then, Krithli spoke confidently.

“My Dungeon Master, the blood that flows within me is well-matched with them. Please, leave this to me.”

Jinma Dragon Ahojin and Dark Elf Higher Sheila!

The two strongly carried the characteristics of fire and water.

And there was no one who could match her significant sociability.

It was definitely… a sensible idea.

Since a method had appeared, there was really no need to reject it.

“Good. I’ll follow your idea. But I’ll choose whom we have a secret meeting with.”

“My Dungeon Master. I shall do as you say.”

Krithli thoughtfully lowered one of her knees.

Two steps. In the past, I had only allowed her to come within three steps of me, but her increased strength in the training room was enough to satisfy me, so I allowed her to come within two steps of me.

“First, I’ll see the Spirits of Fire.”

“I will obey your wishes.”

Spirits of Fire.

These were the ones who had been sent to the lands that the Spirits of Darkness possessed, and so, they must be of a similar level to them.

Furthermore, the Spirits of Fire generally had brave personalities.

They would be able to understand us more than the Spirits of Water.

It wasn’t difficult to find the Spirits of Fire.

We just had to look for places where the fire mana was concentrated and go there.

If there was one thing that was odd, it was that while going through the enormous castle, we didn’t meet one demon. In any case, it seemed that everyone who arrived at the Auction of Devildom just received a basic explanation and immediately went to meet their factions.

“The Archdukes aren’t idiots, either, so…”

Using the auction as a point of transition, it was clear that they intended to discuss and form their plans. Since I acted as an individual and not part of a faction, I could move one step faster than all of them.

“Security is pretty lax, too.”

The thing that was more suspicious than everything else was the truly low level of security in the castle. Unlike usual, I hardly saw any Spirits of Darkness. Although the other elemental spirits were in the inner part of the castle, they appeared to have taken this measure with the intention to be spectators and nothing more.

“My Dungeon Master, is the inside of the castle usually this quiet?”

“No. It’s much quieter than usual.”

“Somehow… I can feel spite in several places.”

That was right. There was no one I could trust here besides Krithli. This was the case for the spirits and other demons. They would obviously have nothing but ill will towards me.

Soon, Krithli and I arrived at the place where the Spirits of Fire were staying.

They were on the other side of a door equivalently large to the auction house.

—Can that information be true?

—This… is an unforgivable problem…

—They say that “Kerpy” will come as a representative.

—That begging wench?

—I find their motive for even sending Kerpy is very suspicious.

—First the fighter…

—Quiet. A visitor has come.

It was loud inside the room.

But before I knew it, it became quiet, as though someone was holding them back.

Creeeak.

I turned the handle and opened the door.