Dungeon Hunter - Chapter 27

Chapter 27: Episode 8. Auction of Devildom – 1 – (1)

I left the dungeon and headed to the guild right away.

I had been away only a week, but Kim Yongwoo looked like he was disappointed that I didn’t even try to contact him once.

“Master. I know I’m just a mere servant, but I wish you’d contacted me and let me know what was going on…”

I showed no emotion in the office of the Guild Master.

“I go whenever I want to go, and I do whatever I wish to do. It is my choice to contact you or not, it is not my duty to report to you.”

Kim Yongwoo agreed reluctantly, “…Yes, you are right. It wouldn’t be strange if you were gone with the wind because you have the power to break the wall if you wanted to do so.”

Although awakened heroes were becoming stronger, Kim Yongwoo knew what he saw in the dungeon was not something that could happen. This guy had killed a high-level monster as if he was getting rid of dust. He looked like a God of War.

He could get whatever he wanted, and he could go wherever he wanted to go. Kim Yongwoo was sure that simply having this guy in the guild was the greatest luck.

He couldn’t complain without being careful not to upset him.

I knew what Kim Yongwoo was thinking as well. Kim Yongwoo was very wise when it came to worldly affairs. He was passionate enough to jump into a fire to get whatever he wanted.

I laughed and answered, “I know what you are worried about, but don’t fret. As long as you don’t betray me and the attack unit I lead, I will act as a member of the Guild of Heaven’s Will. At least on the surface.”

“Haha…of course. Master, as I told you so many times, don’t say a terrible thing like me betraying you. The idea terrifies me,” Kim Yongwoo moaned as he tried to soothe his arms from goosebumps.

He was truthful.

As long as he is not approached by a stronger thing than me, Kim Yongwoo would be loyal. There was no such devil in this world, so I could be sure of his loyalty.

“Nothing happened while I was gone, right?”

When I asked, Kim Yongwoo nodded and answered, “There was something. A lot of foreign awakened heroes went on a raid to the dungeon and nobody came back. Four other guilds sent their attack units to the dungeon, and Congress is trying to pass a regulation about the awakened heroes. What would you like to know more about?”

“Nothing interests me, really.”

Well, more than 1,000 awakened heroes from overseas came to my dungeon. It was impossible to be discreet.

I’d swept 500 of them away, so I knew all about it. That was a secret; if I didn’t talk about it, nobody would know about that.

Kim Yongwoo answered as if he knew, “I thought so.”

“Take this.”

I handed a folded parchment to him.

When Kim Yongwoo took parchment and unfolded it, he was frowning. “Is this a picture of shit?”

“Correct.”

“Huh. It looks like real poop. Is it an art piece of something like that? Those artists would draw a line and tell us its art…it is an alien concept for me.”

“It’s not an art piece.”

Who would draw poop on parchment when it was not even art!

Kim Yongwoo looked quite impressed.

Kim Yongwoo thought, ‘My master is not a regular person.’

Kim Yongwoo asked me with his serious face, “What is this then?”

“This is a safety zone where no monsters can invade. Isn’t it attractive?”

“Huh…?” Kim Yongwoo was blinking his eyes with confusion.

He didn’t know how to react to this.

Nobody knew there was a safety zone inside the dungeon.

It was not a matter to take lightly.

I understood that so I answered him casually, “That building is placed on the third floor of the dungeon. None of the monsters will approach the building.”

“Wait. The third floor?”

I couldn’t understand why Kim Yongwoo was surprised.

With the power that Kim Yongwoo had seen from me, he should know that it wasn’t difficult for me to go to the third floor of the dungeon.

Since he looked surprised, that meant he was underestimating my power. I had to click my tongue.

“Why are you surprised?”

“So…so you mean you found a way to the third floor? Fighting all the Orcs?”

“The path was not too complicated.”

“Wow. I knew you are a great master. Would you mind sharing the map with us?”

“If I didn’t want to, I wouldn’t have even mentioned it.”

“Oh!” Kim Yongwoo clapped once.

Soon he started to calculate the situation with a smile.

Going up to the third floor first and taking over the safety zone would be amazing.

He had difficulties calculating the full benefit of it.

It was a chance he couldn’t miss.

“Take it over before anyone else. You will get a lot of benefits out of it.”

“Of course! This…this will create another huge fuss.”

The safety zone in the dungeon was an important spot.

It was a place where the heroes could rest without the threat of monsters in the dungeon.

That would be the place where he could make his own guild even more influential.

If he could take it over before any other guilds, the Guild of Heaven’s Will would stay as the top guild like now. Maybe it would become the top guild in the world.

“We are leaving in a week. I will take Yoo Eunhye. You fill up the rest of the ten members.”

It was an order to organize a unit to clear the second floor.

It would be a highly selective team, but I decided to take Yoo Eunhye with me.

Yoo Eunhye was still training, so I wanted her to experience different things.

“Noted. This building really looks like….shit.”

I didn’t answer.

It was Lyhee’s design.

Lyhee had an aesthetical sense of a different world.

‘Maybe one day, she will be understood.’

There might be people with the same taste as her.

Kim Yongwoo was looking at the parchment, impressed by the value of the information. Soon he sighed murmuring, “this really looks like…”

He looked at it again with eyes glaring from desire.

<hr />

After a week, we organized an attack unit of 12 members, including me and Yoo Eunhye.

It was almost the same members as the team that had cleared the ground floor, and it took only five days to clear the second floor.

When the news about treasures, Rare level items, magical items, and the safety zone spread, awakened heroes started to go crazy again.

Four guilds, including Dambi and Mythril, started to clear the ground floor, but the achievement of the Guild of Heaven’s Will was too grand. Nobody knew about other guilds.

The safety zone.

A sanctuary from monsters’ attack.

Since all the awakened heroes walked into dungeon risking their lives, the safety zone was the most special place for them.

They could avoid all injuries inside the safety zone.

The dungeon was huge, and having rest was the most important thing. They could also keep their luggage and items there. Heroes started to believe there would be changes around the safety zone.

Four other guilds set up their own strategy to do something about it. They advertised their achievements through media and tried to keep their reputation, but that was it.

The Guild of Heaven’s Will was still the top guild in Korea. The news about them attracted more awakened heroes from other countries to come to the dungeon.

I was able to recover all the points I had used and earned 1,500,000 points in two months. I was sure I was the only devil who had this amount of points.

Not even Dukes of Archdukes could compete.

They had half of it if they were lucky.

My confidence in my points was higher than ever.

I was able to use my points to change the world.

I thought that was unnecessary, so I saved my points for later.

I had a good reason for that.

When one year has passed since I was summoned to this life, a message window appeared out of the blue.

[You will be summoned to the Auction of Devildom in 30 minutes. You can bring one monster with you.]

I couldn’t help but smile.

Finally, the Auction of Devildom that I’d been waiting for was about to happen.

<hr />

The Auction of Devildom.

It was the name of the auction house managed under the name of the Dark Lord.

During the auction, we could find items, skills, or monsters that can’t be found in the shop. With luck, it was possible to purchase incredible items at a ridiculously low price.

It was a festival of points.

They put only 100 items to bid during the auction.

There were some useless items among them, but in general, those items were incredible value and quality.

Of course, there was the starting price for the balance.

A few years before my death in my former life, the top monster, 5Lv Balrog, was at the auction. The starting price was around 39,000,000 points.

The Magic Dragon that I really wanted to buy started at 15,000,000 Points. It was out of the league of most of the devils, and Balrog didn’t sell at all. The Magic Dragon was bought by a Duke who spent all the points that he’d collected for five years.

It was strangely balanced.

This was the very first auction.

‘This is the biggest chance.’

Death Bringer, the creator of this game, was not a generous person.

That was my thoughts in my former life.

Everything about the Auction of Devildom was kept secret.

Nobody knew there was an Auction of Devildom until there was a summoning message.

So naturally, no devil collected points for the auction.

But, I did.

I collected 1,500,000 points.

Compared to my former life, it was not a huge amount, but considering it had been only one year, it was a considerable amount of points.

The Auction of Devildom was set based on the fact that no devil was prepared, so it was possible that the prices were set very low.

If I was lucky, I could buy the upper hand out of this auction.

It wouldn’t be an impossible dream to become one of the top devils out of 72!

My eyes were glaring with passion. My expectations and anxiety rose up.

The gate of dimension opened, and I was summoned to a place. When I opened my eyes, I was standing in a room that was huge and empty.

‘So here I am.’

It was in the Devildom, but it didn’t belong to the Devildom.

It was another side of the Devildom that was ruled by the fairies of darkness.

It was the epicenter of their territory. This place was ruled not by the Dark Lord, but by the king of the fairies of darkness.

Neigh!

Next to me, Inferno was ready to move.

I decided to take Inferno with me, so it was summoned.

I looked around.

There was nothing inside; there was just a huge gate in front of me. It was a lousy gate made of roughly cut logs.

Squeak.

Soon the door opened, and an old, small man greeted me.

“Are you Randalf Bruciel?”

“Are you a Gnome?”

“Khahaha. The last one I have corrupted was a Gnome.”

The fairies of darkness corrupted others to take their forms. I’d asked him because there were other fairies other than fairies of darkness.

I nodded. “Got it.”

“So, you are Randalf Bruciel, correct?”

“Correct.”

“Follow me, I will take you to the auction.”

“Before that, I want to see the items.”

It was possible to see the auction items before the auction started. It was not a secret auction; the fairies wanted to provoke devils to get higher bidding prices.

The fairies of darkness wanted points from the devils. They were doing this to collect points to upgrade their own levels.

It was like Lyhee, who belonged to the Dungeon Core, becoming a fairy king.

“It is not too difficult…Khahaha. Do you have enough points? You will need points to get your things.”

“I have enough.”

“Ok, I will lead you.”

The fairy of darkness didn’t explain anything else and started to guide me.

I hopped on my Inferno.

The castle was massive beyond anyone’s imagination. It was huge, so I had to move on Inferno.

The fairy of darkness was super fast. They were spiritual figures, so they didn’t have a physical presence. They were faster than any physical beings.

We were running for a while.

There was a fuss around me.

“How dare a fairy of darkness mock me, who is under Archduke Ufa’s command!”

“Archduke Ufa or Archduke Gupa, I don’t care. I only serve my fairy king.!”

“Why did you summon me here without asking? I should meet the fairy king myself. Do you think you can survive having us as your enemy?”

“So, the name of the devil god…”

“How dare you use the name in vain!”

“Huh! Right.”

The fairy of darkness made himself huge. He started to have an absolutely gigantic presence.

The top-level fairy of darkness!

It was hard for devils to fight against it, so the devil seemed overwhelmed.

‘Groggy?’

The Marquis of Devildom, Groggy.

He was one of the entourages of Archduke Ufa, who was destroyed by his own mistake in my former life. He was not that different from me from my former life; we just headed in different directions.

He was drawn to pleasure and filled up his dungeon with Succubuses. He was eventually killed by awakened heroes and had to face the worst death among devils.

It was quite an impressive death, so I remembered him.

“I’m glad my customer is cooperative. Hahaha.”

The fairy of darkness that looked like a Gnome laughed.

“Are you one of the top-level fairies?”

“No, I’m just a high-level fairy. It is my dream to be at the top level. Khahahaha!”

When I checked with my Mind’s Eye, I was able to confirm that.

His Abilities were lower than mine but were not a level that could be ignored.

The top-level fairies had a similar level of abilities as dukes.

Anyways, at least this world was ruled by the fairy of darkness.

They were not easy opponents to a count.

Since there were not many top-level fairies, it seemed like those top ones were allocated only to a handful. It was clear that Groggy had met the right one.

I tried to ignore Groggy and followed the fairy.

When I followed the fairy to the basement, there was a door that was almost 20m high.

The door was open, and there were 100 auction items ready for the auction.

There were monsters as well. They were items too; items to enhance the dungeons.

Krathra, the monster I wanted to buy, was on the list as well, but I found someone who made me surprised.

‘She is…?’

There was a female devil looking at the items on the auction.

When I saw her, it was so shocking I almost felt like my soul left my body for a moment.

‘Archduke Ariel!’

The devil I would never able to forget.

The final winner of the war in the former life.

She was strong enough to be called a God of War.

I didn’t expect to face Ariel here.

I opened Mind’s Eye with anticipation.

Name: Ariel Diablo

Occupation: Archduke of Devildom(Dungeon Master)

Title :

<ul>

The Descendant of Dark Lord(Epic, Mana+10)

Weapon Master(Ex U, All Abilities+2)

</ul>

Abilities :

Power 73(+2), Intelligence 74(+2), Speed 79(+2), Strength 71(+2), Mana 75(+12)

Potential(372+20/500)

Others: One of four Archdukes. Ruler of the Under Hell, master of eighteen devils.

Skills: Weapon Cheat(Ex U), Kotodama (U), Tornado(Epic)

[Comparison]

Ariel Diablo

Power 75, Intelligence 76, Speed 81, Strength 73, Mana 87, Potential(372+20/500)

Randalf Bruciel

Power 81, Intelligence 66, Speed 76, Strength 82, Mana 90, Potential(379+16/500)