WeTried Translations

Translator: Yasi

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◈ The Precious Demon King

Chapter 16: Growing the Dungeon

Once again, Kim Junyong found himself lying in his nephew, Yu Jihun's, room. His mood was great after enjoying chicken and beer for the first time in a while.

"Let's open the reward."

Bel's Scale. Ever since the order mana core formed, he had been able to properly receive rewards.

< Bel's Scale is confirming the reward. >

< You acquire a large amount of mana. >

A vast amount of mana poured in, equivalent to raw experience itself. His mana shot up to 312 in an instant.

"Damn, this thing is totally busted."

Wasn't this a relic that granted bonus experience? Hunt monsters to gain experience. Then, settle order points earned to get even more experience.

"If I just send Remi out to hunt..."

The experience Remi gained would go directly to her, but the order points would be settled to Kim Junyong, the Arbiter of the Scale.

"This is basically auto-farming."

< Bel's Scale expresses concern over improper usage. >

"Damn, should I try summoning more demons? If I get that Earth guy to grant them hunter status and run them through the grind, I could farm infinite experience."

< That does not qualify as virtuous conduct. >

"Too bad."

Kim Junyong smirked. He wasn't desperate to acquire mana.

In the modern world, stepping outside meant being surrounded by people. Their negative emotions were an almost infinite source of black mana.

Compared to Belhaim, where you could walk for days without seeing another soul, Seoul was a gold mine for a black mage.

"Ah, what a fulfilling day."

Kim Junyong fell asleep, enjoying the tipsy feeling. There was no intermediate settlement to wake him at sunrise, so he slept soundly.

"Ughhh, what time is it?"

It was 10 a.m. when he checked the clock. Unsurprisingly, there was no one around when he stepped outside.

There was a note on the dining table.

[ Heat up the kimchi stew. There's rice in the cooker and side dishes in the fridge. Help yourself. - Noona ]

"Leftovers after two days, huh."

Kim Junyong called for Remi. She glanced around, then removed her hand from her sword hilt.

"Why did you summon me?"

"To eat."

"..."

Remi made a sullen face.

"Where's the food?"

"You have to make it."

"..."

She squinted at Kim Junyong.

"What?"

"I'm a sword."

"I know."

"...Call a servant."

"My sister doesn't have a housekeeper."

"Then hire one."

"Why bother?"

"Hmph."

Whoosh.

"Wow, she really ditched me just to avoid cooking."

Left alone, Kim Junyong let out a helpless chuckle. Oh well, he could eat by himself.

Click-click-click-clack!

He turned on the gas stove and reheated the kimchi stew. Too lazy to make side dishes, he just scooped out some rice.

Bubble, bubble.

He sat at the table and took a spoonful.

"Slurp. Ahhh!"

As expected, it tasted the way he remembered. Speaking of kimchi stew, it reminded him of the demon chef. Maybe because he was the Demon King's chef?

"...Honestly, that guy could cook."

Kim Jangmi's stew was more authentic, but if he had to be honest, the demon chef's knockoff version was better.

Ah, now that he thought about it, he had collected the demon chef's soul, hadn't he? He would try to summon him later in the dungeon.

He quickly finished his meal and left the apartment. Just as he had learned, he called a taxi through an app and headed to the house.

The house he had inherited, his sister's apartment, and the clinic were all relatively close together. The taxi ride was short.

"We've arrived."

"Thanks, have a good day."

After greeting the driver and getting out, he felt oddly proud of how well he was adjusting to civilian life.

"I'm pretty much a Seoulite now."

He climbed the hill, which had a different atmosphere than the evening before, and arrived at the front of the house.

[ Yujin Restaurant ]

The yard and both floors had been renovated into a restaurant. There wasn't much left of the original house's charm.

Meow.

Since there hadn't been any tenants for some time, stray cats had claimed the place as their hangout spot.

He passed through the overgrown yard and entered the first floor.

"Wow, no one has cleaned it up at all."

Dust-covered tables and chairs filled the space. All the yard furniture had been brought inside, making it look like a storage room.

"Hmm."

After a quick survey, he went up to the second floor. Except for the bathroom and a small kitchenette for washing cups and such, the rest of the floor appeared to be one open space. The second floor was the same; all the walls that had once divided the rooms had been removed.

"I can clean this up and use it."

With the entire second floor wide open, it seemed like it could be used as a large studio.

"Should I use the first floor for storage, then?"

The entire dungeon would essentially be his subspace, but he figured he should have at least one storage room for valuables.

When he reached the roof, he saw that the old rooftop room had already been torn down. This place even used to have tenants.

"Oh, right! The basement."

Digging through his memories, he recalled the basement. He went down into the yard and headed toward the back of the building, where he saw a staircase leading underground.

"Wow, just as I thought."

His memory had been correct.

Thunk–

He broke the padlock and opened the door. A rush of acrid dust and damp, moldy air swept out.

Apparently, the restaurant hadn't used this area either. It had clearly been abandoned for years.

"This will do."

There were no windows or bathroom, but since it was just a storage room, he was satisfied. A sealed space like this was just what he needed. He would make it his personal subspace storage room.

Kim Junyong went back up to the second floor and summoned Remi. She eyed the cat perched on the wall and asked.

"Shall I cut it down?"

"Hand me that thing that dropped from the Death Knight."

Flash.

From her demon-only subspace, Remi pulled out a bundle. Ignoring the jewels, Kim Junyong grabbed the old sword.

It was the sword that the Death Knight Oran had used as the dungeon core.

Since creating a new one was too much trouble, he decided to use this one instead.

Flash.

He infused it with mana, activated it, and stabbed it into the floor.

Vmmmm.

The mana core expanded, swallowing space and extending its influence. Feeling the link between his consciousness and the space itself, Kim Junyong grinned.

"Done."

Now this house was his dungeon. It wouldn't disappear unless he, the boss, was eliminated.

Ring–

Just as he finished, his phone rang. He thought it might be his sister, but the number was unfamiliar.

"What? Who's this?"

[ Ah, Hyungnim! It's me! ]

"...Earth?"

[ That's right, it's me. ]

"Why are you calling?"

[ Come on, Hyungnim. What do you mean, 'Why'? You can't just throw up a dungeon out of nowhere like that! ]

Kim Junyong scowled.

"What, it's my dungeon. Do I need your permission now?"

[ Jeez, if Hyungnim isn't careful, the demon bastards could use your dungeon as a waypoint and pour in. ]

"So what? I would just rack up points on autopilot."

Would that be like auto mob-farming? Earth groaned.

[ Hyungnim. It's not that simple. This is actually a serious problem. ]

"Then what am I supposed to do?"

[ I'll convert Hyungnim's dungeon into a base. How does that sound? It'll be a space protected by divine power. Functionally, it won't be any different from a dungeon–just one on our side. ]

"A base? Is that necessary?"

[ I'm telling you, the Metaverse is getting riddled with holes. This is basically handing the Demon King's army a foothold. ]

Kim Junyong frowned at Earth's pleading tone, but he agreed. He didn't want Earth to be destroyed either.

"It's still the same as a dungeon, right?"

[ Gosh, of course. You even get base perks–it's better, actually. Though, there are some restrictions... ]

"Like what?"

[ Hyungnim can't expand the space arbitrarily. It uses divine power as a resource. ]

That was a significant limitation. Was he really supposed to live like a tenant in his own house, unable to hammer in a single nail?

"So you're asking me to rent my own house."

[ Come on, Hyungnim. Technically, all of Earth is mine. ]

"Now I don't feel like cooperating."

[ Please, just this once. This really isn't a simple issue. ]

To God Earth, this was a serious crisis.

[ Just help me out this time. I don't have much to offer now, but once I'm stronger, I'll share some power. ]

"Power? You mean divine power?"

Now that was tempting.

[ Yes. ]

"Okay."

Kim Junyong agreed immediately. His curiosity and impulsiveness had taken over without fail.

[ Thank you, Hyungnim. Gah, using this much power is going to blow another dungeon...Help the humans out if you get the chance. ]

"Just make the change."

[ Got it! ]

Flash–

The old sword, activated with chaos mana, now flashed with golden light. Kim Junyong's eyes gleamed as he watched.

"Wow."

Divine power. The longing for power he didn't yet possess stirred within him.

[ It's done, Hyungnim. I really have to go before Earth breaks down. See you next time! ]

The call ended abruptly, as he really seemed to have no time to spare.

"Hmm."

As Kim Junyong assessed the dungeon, he furrowed his brow. Surprisingly, nothing else had changed except the shift in energy from chaos to divine power.

The link between consciousness and space remained. This meant that he could still treat the entire dungeon as a subspace.

Ding–

A notification pinged. When he checked his phone, he saw that there was an app update.

[ Demon Realm Subjugation ] ver. 1.2

"What kind of lazy name is that?"

He opened the app to see what had changed. The interface was still minimal, but one new menu had been added.

[ Enter Demon Realm ]

[ Dungeon Map ]

[ Demon Realm Forum ]

[ Owned Base ] (1)

When he opened the base tab, there was only one entry.

[ Junyong-hyungnim's House ]

Did that guy really go with that name?

"So what perks does a base come with?"

[ Move to the base? ]

"Huh?"

Out of curiosity, he pressed it, and poof–Kim Junyong's body teleported in front of the dungeon core.

"..."

He went down to the first floor and pressed it again.

Poof.

He reappeared in front of the dungeon core on the second floor.

"...Nice."

This made him want to study divine power even more. The power of creation...

Anyway, now that the dungeon–no, base–was established, maybe it was time to furnish it as a proper living space.

* * *

Dungeon Management Division. This was usually one of the most laid-back divisions in the Hunter Management Bureau, but today was different.

"The grace period for Gangseo D-13 has been shortened by two days!"

"Same for Gwacheon C-38!"

Dungeons had a set time in which they had to be conquered.

This time limit was displayed on the Demon Realm Subjugation app. To conquer a dungeon, hunters had to defeat the boss before time ran out.

Failure meant a dungeon break. Demons would be summoned to Earth.

This had been the law of the world for the past twenty years. But then, it began to falter.

The anomalies started a few days ago. Dungeons began randomly losing small amounts of time.

The affected dungeons and the amount of time lost were random.

Due to this, two dungeons had already erupted in South Korea. Globally, the number was 48.

That happened just yesterday. And today.

"Oh god! D-99 dungeon break! Dungeon break!"

"Suwon B-3 dungeon break in 1 hour! Conquest is impossible. Issue an evacuation order immediately!"

The time-shortening phenomenon was happening again.

One occurrence might be an exception, but two were a pattern. They had to prepare for a third occurrence.

"Update the list by dungeon size and remaining time! For those with less than a day remaining, contact the guilds with conquest rights and instruct them to move immediately!"

While they were reassessing the current dungeon situation, an assistant manager urgently came looking for the team leader.

"T-Team Leader!"

"What? Is another one erupting?"

"No, but what should we do about the A-2 dungeon?"

A-rank dungeons contained high-risk demons that South Korean hunter teams were incapable of conquering.

"Daejeon A-2? Wasn't that already assigned to G7?"

G7. The seven heroes who protected Earth. Officially known as Guardians–there was a reason they came to be recognized as national-level hunters.

Only G-rank hunters could conquer A-rank dungeons without casualties.

"Their scheduled arrival time and the break time are cutting it really close."

"What?"

"Shouldn't we confirm the G7's schedule?"

Assuming everything proceeded as planned, they would have four hours to spare.

However, it would be a serious problem if they arrived four hours late or if the dungeon's timer was shortened by more than four hours.

An unprecedented eruption of an A-rank dungeon–it had to be stopped at all costs.

Ding–

Just then, a notification pinged on every hunter's phone.

[ Demon Realm Subjugation app version 1.2 has been released. ]

"What is this?"

Massive changes had begun sweeping through the hunter world yesterday and today.

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