Dungeon Hunter - Chapter 70

Chapter 70: Episode 19. Monster Combat (1)

When the auction was over, I had about two million points left in my pocket. I’d had about seven million at the beginning of the auction, so I had spent about five million points during this auction.

Thanks to my large amount of points, I could dominate the auction and take all the important items.

The items that I had purchased included Astral Code, the Statue of the Goddess of Abundance, Tears of the Moon, Smile of the Sun, the Secret Potion of the Wiseman, the corpse of the Earth Dragon, Indolence, and exactly five more items.

Demons responded in very different ways to my taking the twelve items. They were astonished, strongly curious, hostile, jealous, and annoyed. Of course, none of them showed hospitality.

An auction was a competition.

However, they couldn’t compete because of me.

I was a nobody who suddenly appeared in the auction and boasted his tremendous wealth. This nobody had dominated the auction and pressured his opponents with his overwhelming wealth. No demon could strike back. There were several interesting items and monsters in the auction, but as soon as I bid, I became the winner. The only tool that one could use in the auction was points, and no one could compete with me.

As a result, everyone became jealous of me, Randalf Bruciel. Many demons couldn’t bid higher than I did, so they ended up missing the items. A lot of them were mad and cursed my name.

‘They must have thought of me as a newcomer who was just lucky enough to earn a lot of points last time.’

I smiled.

I was okay with them thinking of me that way.

In fact, most demons would look at me as exactly what I described myself.

Thanks to my highest-level monster, Giante, and the dispute with Ariel, other demons looked at me as a somewhat superior nobody, instead of a lowly one. Unlike the first year, I made my name known to other demons.

No demon had been as influential as I was in the second auction. Plus, there were more auctions to come in the future. There would be a third, fourth, and so on. Every year, I would become more influential than the year before. In the end, I would show my true worth.

Now, demons couldn’t predict that a catastrophe was nearing. They weren’t taking any of my actions seriously.

However, as I pressured them slowly, they would start to suffocate. Only then would they look back and find their mistakes. They would wonder where everything had started and what their mistakes were. At that point, the demons would realize that the gap between us had started to grow at the first auction. In the beginning, the gap was small, but it grew dramatically, like a snowball rolling down a hill.

I was now rolling that snowball. How large the snowball would be solely depended on my performance. I was preparing to increase the gap between other demons and me, and I planned to take them over in one fellow swoop. So far, everything had been quite successful.

Anyway… the part of the auction that showcased a hundred new items was over.

However, the Auction of Devildom wasn’t over yet.

There were still leftover items that weren’t sold during the first auction.

Such items were too good to be thrown out, but they weren’t as good as the items that were auctioned off.

A market that only sold the leftover items opened. The items were piled up like odds and ends.

There were hundreds of leftovers that could be categorized into dozens of different categories.

The leftovers were displayed in a line outside of the castle. The location was a public place where everyone could purchase items “freely.”

“The Fork of Vinhorong! This is the celebrated fork that was used to eat a dragon’s eye!”

“I’m selling a bunch of Selene, a flower that contains a strong poison.”

“Fifty Orcs from the Strong Stone Tribe are ready for you!”

Of course, the salesmen were all Spirits of Darkness. However, all of them had low ranks, and I couldn’t find any spirits of the same rank as Devorong.

All of the ones gathered here were workers.

These items couldn’t be presented in the auction, and indeed, I couldn’t find anything good. The best I could find was a Rare-grade item. The quality of the monsters was similar. I couldn’t find anything above an intermediate monster.

The demons, who were excited at first, slowly lost interest. Unlike the auction house, the area wasn’t sectioned into different halls. As a result, different factions were checking on each other more frequently.

Direct combat was prohibited.

Therefore, demons tried to keep an eye on each other by looking at their accompanying monsters.

Except for a handful of demons, most demons had brought high-level monsters.

Some monsters couldn’t be purchased from the shop of everything. The owners of such monsters had customized them like Adol Ruff had. They could also have received the monsters as a reward for accomplishing quests, or they could have had anomalies birthed in their dungeons due to pure luck.

The monsters that accompanied the demons were the elites of the elites in their respective dungeons. Undeniably, the demons were proud of their monsters.

However, Ufa and his gang were an exception.

“Sugoof, why did you bring an Ogre when you’re a duke?”

First of all, Fagan Grewoolly hadn’t been allowed to participate in the Auction of Devildom from the beginning. His absence left only two dukes in Ufa’s faction, and one of the two was in a bit of trouble.

When Ufa asked him, Sugoof Valhula hardened his face.

He had tried to destroy the United Kingdom using Shades and Shadow Sinners.

Had his plans worked out, Sugoof could have earned many points, meaning he could have been more competitive during the auction. Unfortunately, his plan didn’t work, and he was nothing more than a poor demon.

Sugoof had brought an Ogre, so anyone could tell that he was broke. Any duke would bring a monster that was better than an Ogre. Perhaps it could have been somewhat better if the monster was a Two-Headed Ogre, but Sugoof brought a normal Ogre! A Two-Headed Ogre and a regular Ogre were both high-level monsters, but there was surely a gap between the two.

However, Sugoof had excuses.

“I’m sorry.”

Of course, he thought it was unfair, but he couldn’t tell those excuses to his boss.

How could he tell Ufa that he had lost to awakened heroes, mere humans?

He’d had perfect plans, and he deployed all of his monsters to carry them out. Unfortunately, his plans completely failed, and all of his monsters were destroyed. As a result of this failure, he blew up 500,000 points. Such a large loss was why he couldn’t help but remain so passive during the auction.

Sugoof thought that perhaps he had underestimated awakened heroes.

The thought of recovering from the loss was giving him a terrible headache.

“None of you are good enough.” Archduke Ufa clicked his tongue.

He didn’t like either of his dukes, Sugoof and Groggy.

Ufa didn’t know the reason, but the monsters that his demons had brought looked somewhat inferior to those in other factions. Some of his demons were dumb enough to bring intermediate monsters. It wouldn’t have been a surprise if one called his faction the weakest out of the four.

The weak would die, so a demon had to look strong to survive. If he or she wasn’t strong enough, he or she had to at least pretend to be strong. Pretenses were the reason that accompanying monsters were important; they could make the owner look stronger than he or she actually was. However, Ufa and his demons were losing this game from the start. It was no surprise that Ufa didn’t look happy.

The reason why Ufa’s monsters were so poor was the complete failures of the Monster Waves that Ufa’s demons had initiated. The Devil Hunter attack unit and their unit leader, Randalf Bruciel, were the cause of the failures. Unfortunately, no demon knew that the attack unit was involved in the Monster Waves, so Ufa and his demons couldn’t help but remain nervous.

A demon came in front of Ufa and puffed up his chest confidently.

“Sir Ufa, do not be troubled. I am here for you.”

When Ufa saw the demon, his concern melted away slightly.

“Bizart. Yes, you are on my side.”

It was Bizart Mendam, one of the three dukes working for Ufa and the cleverest of them all. Among Ufa’s demons, only Bizart had brought “King Wyburn,” which was a high-level monster at level five.

King Wyburn’s size was tremendously large, as it was 15 feet long. It felt as though it could cover the sky. King Wyburn was a good hidden card to change the momentum, since there were less than five demons whose monsters were in the same league.

“I, Bizart Mendam, will go after those who look down upon us, and I will execute them myself.”

“I believe in you.” Ufa finally looked more relaxed.

At the same time, Bizart scanned Ufa’s demons.

Now that Ufa, the top dog, approved of his authorities, Bizart became cocky. He had proved himself to be the best out of Ufa’s three dukes, and he had earned Ufa’s trust. Of course, other dukes, such as Sugoof Valhula, couldn’t help but frown.

“My lord Ufa, are you going to let them go?” Groggy stepped in.

His face was still red from the humiliation he had suffered in the early rounds of the auction. During those rounds, he purchased the Sword of Darkhan and Cursed Yeti after a tight competition, but he realized that he was tricked afterward. He couldn’t control his anger, and his body was still shaking with rage.

Everyone knew why Groggy was mad.

Ufa’s demons and the other demons started to stare in one direction.

They were looking at the one and only neutral demon. They thought about the demon’s name… Wasn’t it Randalf Bruciel? That demon was collecting all kinds of items from the market. It seemed that his budget was almost unlimited.

Groggy spoke up. He was so angry that one could see his veins sticking out of his neck.

“That demon looks down on us, but he’s nothing but a piece of cake for us to take care of. If we let him be, other demons and factions will look down on us, too.”

Ufa had also hired a setter for the auction.

Unfortunately, his opponent’s budget was way too large, and he was crushed by the overwhelmingly large difference in their points. In the end, Ufa lost so much.

Other factions knew about his loss, too. Anyone who was clever enough would know that Ufa’s plan had failed during the auction.

Ufa swept his hand across his jaw.

“Even I can’t be rude in front of the Fairy King of Darkness. I don’t wish to pick a fight with anyone, so I must respect the rules.”

He thought about the Fairy King of Darkness, who was one of the pillars of the World of Spirit.

His rank was equivalent to that of an archduke in the Devildom.

No one could simply ignore a request from such a powerful individual.

Groggy shook his head.

“Don’t worry. I clearly heard what the Spirit of Darkness was saying. It was the same spirit who guided us. He said that starting this year, they are allowing duels between demons.”

He had heard this information not long after he was forcefully summoned to the Devildom and fought with the “demon.”

At that time, the Spirit of Darkness who was guiding Groggy told him that duels between monsters were okay.

“Then why didn’t they make an announcement about that policy?”

“I’m guessing that if they did, everyone would try to fight each other, and the spirits didn’t want that. Perhaps they’ll announce the policy once some demons start fighting each other.”

Ufa started to consider what Groggy had said.

However, he knew what monster was backing Randalf.

“Groggy, you cannot beat Giante with your Dark Warrior. I know this for a fact because I killed an adult Giante in the past.”

Giante was one of the highest-level monsters, and they were about to go extinct. The number of Giantes was very small, and some demons didn’t even know of their existence. However, Ufa had fought a Giante in the past.

The gap between Giantes and Dark Warriors was so large that at least a couple dozen Dark Warriors were needed to combat a single Giante.

Groggy’s body began to tremble.

“But…”

“I know what your concerns are. I appreciate you giving me important information, and I also will not let that demon look down on us.”

After making a conclusion, Ufa continued to speak. “Bizart, Giantes are vulnerable to air assaults. Your King Wyburn has a chance.”

Although Giante was one of the best monsters, it had its weaknesses.

Ufa was confident that if they focused on Giantes’ weaknesses, they might have a chance.

Bizart, standing next to Ufa, dropped his head. “I’ll go and teach this b*stard a lesson.”

I was at the outside market, busily walking around the sea of odds and ends. It was hard to find good items.

I normally wouldn’t have cared about the outside market. However, what Devorong secretly told me after the auction had me interested.

I thought about the moment when I talked with Devorong few hours earlier.

‘The outside market is now open. Take a careful look around it.’

‘Is this also one of the Fairy King’s tests?’

‘You got it again. However, this is not a test. The Fairy King is very satisfied, and he left you a present there.’

‘You’re kidding me.’

‘The Fairy King wants to maintain a good relationship with you, Mr. Randalf Bruciel. You are the one and only balance breaker. We needed to conduct some tests to make sure that you were eligible. Please do not be mad.’

He admitted that changing the list of items was indeed a test.

When Devorong had said that I was the balance breaker, he must have been referring to the relationships between the four factions and me.

It seemed that the Fairy King wanted to break the balance between the four factions.

Otherwise, there was no need to use the term balance breaker.

The Fairy King must have thought that I would become an exceptional being. He must have wanted to exert his influence on me and the rest of the world when I became one. Nothing was free, after all. When the Fairy King was showing such hospitality, there was a reason.

In addition, the Fairy King couldn’t do anything about the four factions. They were already well-established and had achieved everything. The factions didn’t need any help from the Fairy King. Even if the Fairy King did help one of them, his help wouldn’t matter much to them.

The Fairy King must have thought that helping me would be different.

‘Are you going to try to control me with this present?’

I had a hard time trying not to laugh.

I vaguely speculated the Fairy King’s intentions. However, I never knew my assumption was indeed his intention.

The Fairy King didn’t know me very well.

It was true that I had very bad relationships with the four factions. On top of that, I was all by myself. Had the Fairy King thought that I could never compete with the factions without his help? Had he thought that I would look for help from him?

It was nonsense. Of course, getting help from the Fairy King would be helpful, but I would be able to conquer other factions by myself.

The Fairy King was underestimating me.

‘There is no reason to not accept the present if he is willing to give it to me.’

I shrugged my shoulders and concentrated on finding the “gift.”

I would take what was given to me. Of course, I couldn’t guarantee that I would pay it back.

I opened my Mind’s Eye and looked at every corner of the market.

The prices of the items in the market were cheap. I didn’t hesitate to purchase items that looked useful, and I still had quite a few points left. I had spent less than what I thought in the auction, so I could afford to purchase a few more items.

By the time I took a tour around the market, someone came in front of me.

“Randalf Bruciel, I challenge you to a duel.”

It was Bizart Mendam!

Bizart, one of Ufa’s demons and a duke, was looking at me arrogantly. By his side was his monster, King Wyburn