171. Reentering the Unknown Dungeon

“Kuwuhhh!”

“Kuuhung!”

“Have you two been well?”

The first to greet me when I arrived in the demonic realm were my summoned creatures.

Each let out a deafening howl and looked at me.

As if having sensed my magical energy signature, Belkoseu hurriedly ran towards me.

His expression was filled with shock.

“Ah…. What reason brings you here…..”

“Ah, sorry, Belkoseu. I didn’t make the promise to do something like this.”

“Even in human time, a day hasn’t even passed yet! But why…..”

“Hey, I said I’m sorry. Forgive me this time. I really won’t be even near the demonic realm after this. But what is all that over there?”

“I shall trust you again once more. But are you asking what that is? It’s the stones I’ll be sending to Earth.”

“You think I’m really asking that because I’m not aware? What I’m asking is, how did you manage to gather so much in such a short time, or as you put it, less than a day in human time.”

“Kuhuhu. I’ve informed you already. I’m pretty much the Demon King.”

Belkoseu’s competence surprised me.

He had carried out my task perfectly as instructed by piling a mound of bloodstones near the Gate.

Similar to a mound of sand you’d see at a construction site, the amount of stones were insane.

Thinking about it, I realized that he would’ve used his Authority to do so.

After all, he had lured monsters with high ranking such as the Lich King before.

Out of the Authorities he possessed, it was likely that one of them would allow him to control monsters weaker than him.

“Did you use an Authority to do this? Is it an ability that allows you to bring monsters to you?”

“Yes, that is correct, Mighty Human. As you are aware, I have obtained a considerable amount of offensive capabilities by hunting with you, Demon King.”

“That’s right. Originally, the plan was to have you face Jamon and Ladin. That’s why I helped you grow stronger.”

“By using the newfound strength and my Authority, what task would be easier than this.”

“As expected. I have quite the eye when it comes to monsters.”

“You honor me. But for what reason have you returned to the demonic realm?”

“Ah. It’s because I have business with the Unknown Dungeon.”

“Huh? The Unknown Dungeon….. What is that…..”

“Ah, you monsters don’t call it that, right? Well, a week will do. So don’t worry about it and just keep doing what you were doing before. I won’t be bothering you.”

“I understand.”

“Wait. You should follow me.”

“Huh?”

“If you come and work through some hardship for a couple of days, you’ll get enough stones to play for awhile. Let’s go together.”

“Ah….. I understand.”

“Hey, you three! Let’s also go together. You’ve done it before, right? Treasure hunting.”

“Kuwuhhh!”

Leaving behind only King Suwoo at the Gate, Belkoseu and the 3 Devil Avatars followed me to the search for the Unknown Dungeon.

Since the Avatars could be shrunk down in size, I put them in my pocket, and since Belkoseu could move quite quickly, movement wasn’t an issue.

Karin had said that the location I’m searching for, which was the starting point of all monsters, was impossible to arrive at, no matter the method.

Technically, I could arrive at this place by sacrificing dozens of lives in the dungeons within portals that were now gone to open a gateway to the Unknown Dungeon.

However, that method was not only difficult, but nearly impossible.

However, when I became the Demon King, I learned that Karin was wrong.

I didn’t know if the other Demon Kings before me knew how to do so.

The one thing I was sure of was that I, who was able to use all of the powers of a Demon King, knew how to do so.

Since I had hunted by traveling through all of the demonic realm, I had been pretty much everywhere here.

Despite the massive size of the demonic realm, I could use Warp to travel it far easier than I could Earth.

“It’s not far from here. You can read my magical energy signature, right?”

“It’s doable.”

“Right. Since you can’t go through the Warp, you need to run here.”

“Kuhu……”

“Hurry up. See you then.”

“Yes, yes…..”

****

The edge of the demonic realm.

There was a deep cave that I could not see the end of.

This edge was where the entrance of the Unknown Dungeon was.

Without a single moment of hesitation, I ran towards the edge.

-CRASH!

“Damn. I still have difficulty controlling my strength.”

As soon as I kicked off the ground, I arrived at the edge.

To be honest, because I wasn’t experienced with my newfound strength, I had landed with a massive crash.

It was a massive crash, but the entrance to the Unknown Dungeon didn’t budge, let alone even splinter.

Did I need to yell open sesame or something?

However, there was a much easier way to do so.

I just had to forcefully open the entrance using my strength.

However, I had to refrain from using any of my human’s strength, and instead had to rely completely on my magical energy.

“Since I’ve not done this before, I’m not sure if it’ll work…..”

-CRACK!

“Whew…. It’s not as difficult as I thought it would be.”

Almost as if I had temporarily become part of the demonic race, my entire body was covered in magical energy.

After that, I posed as if I was tearing apart the very air.

Only after I did so did light come from what I had thought was the end of the tunnel.

Below me, I could see countless monsters waiting.

It was as if I was looking down at the Unknown Dungeon from an aerial vantage point.

“Was the one who dropped the King’s Marbles named Allos? Well, it won’t matter if I just kill em all.”

Throwing my body in, I went into the dungeon.

Since the floor was muddy like a swamp, falling from that height made me sink all the way down to my knees.

“Ah….. How uncomfortable. I had forgotten this.”

Before beginning the hunt, I returned the Avatars in my pocket back to their original size.

I didn’t need to move myself.

It was enough with just these summoned creatures alone to turn this entire place into a wasteland.

However, as you know, artifacts only dropped if the monsters lost their lives by a human.

If these Avatars, which are categorized as monsters, roamed around the dungeon, the marbles wouldn’t drop no matter how hard they tried.

To each of the Avatars that were roaring, I took out one of the King’s Marbles that was stored in my armor and showed it to them.

“Remember the treasure hunt we did before?”

“Kuuhuh!”

“Right. What you searched for last time were jewels, but now you’ll be searching for these. Understood?”

“Kururu! Kwuhul!”

“Right. The two of you find the marbles, and blue, you take care of the jewels and stones. Everyone, to your places.”

“Mighty Human!”

“You’ve arrived pretty quick. Come down.”

“Understood.”

-glop.

“Ugh…..”

“Ah, I forgot to tell you about that. Either way, I’ll be leading the charge and taking them down. You just need to follow me and pick up the bloodstones. Easy, right?”

“Yes. But how will I be able to pick up all the stones that these monsters drop…..”

“Don’t worry about that.”

Mana flowed out from my hand and inflated like a balloon.

It didn’t take long for me to make a giant mana bag.

Originally, it was meant to be a shield made from mana, but right now, it was just a sack.

Since I could increase or decrease the size as I willed, this bag should be able to store as much as I needed.

It felt as though I had obtained Karin’s dimension pocket.

“You can just put them all here.”

“Yes. Then please relax as you rest elsewhere while I take care of this.”

“It sounds like to me that you to want help? Let’s begin.”

“Yes, Mighty Human!”

****

“Jong Ho, where did the young master go?”

“Dunno….. After coming back to Earth and leaving with the commander, I’ve not seen him either.”

“Aren’t you worried at all? It’s been a week, you know?”

“What? Worry? So-Hyeon, you should worry about those that need worrying. You chose the wrong person to do so. If you have the time to do that, you should worry about your future husband.”

“Mother must be worried….”

“Hoho. Look how kindhearted my daughter-in-law is.”

“See? Even mother isn’t worried at all.”

“The day that he left, he visited me early before dawn.”

“The young master?”

“Yes. It hasn’t been that long since he came back, but he told me that he needed to leave again for a bit once more.”

“Didn’t he say where he was going?”

“I didn’t even ask. He’ll be back soon. I can tell from just the look in his eyes. It won’t be long till you also understand what I mean by that.”

“It’s so strange…. Karin.”

“Kel! You called, Ms. So-Hyeon?”

The look that Karin gave So-Hyeon was that of fear.

On his first day on Earth, due to him blabbering at her without much thought, Karin had to go through a great amount of humiliation.

After all, what followed his blabbering were swearing and threats at which he had never heard or seen before in his hundreds of years of being alive.

He even thought that he would really die.

Without exaggeration, in Karin’s eyes, So-Hyeon was the equivalent of Jamon.

Hearing Karin’s disciplined response, Se-Hyeon spoke.

“You said that you are a monster, right?”

“Yes! That is correct!”

“And the young master is a Demon King, right?”

“That’s correct! Keruruk!”

“Where is the young master? Find him now.”

“Kehel…. Right now, it is difficult.”

“Whew… Be thankful that you’re here with mother right now. Tsk!”

“Keruk! After my body was changed to that of a human, it’s very troublesome for me to use that Authority.”

“Hey hey, So-Hyeon, you’re going to scare the kid to death. Please stop asking him.”

“I did nothing of the sort. I’m just worried about the young master is all.”

“Don’t worry and wait just a bit longer. I’m sure that he’ll open the door to his room at any given moment while yawning, as if nothing was wrong.”

“Even so…..”

-click.

“Haahm. Sleep well, everyone?”

“Mother, please forgive just how disrespectfully I’ll be acting right now. It seems that my little brother can’t be a gentleman.”

“Hoho. Son, had a good trip?”

“Yes, I’m back. But what’s going on that’s got you all excited from the morning?”

“Young master, are you okay?”

“Yes. As you can see…. Karin, why is your expression like that?”

“Keruu…. Min-Cheol…. I think I should go back to the demonic realm. Keruk. It’s too scary here.”

“Pfft. Min-Cheol, he’s just kidding so pretend you didn’t hear him. Either way, where were you fighting all this time before coming back here?”

“I had some business to take care of in the demonic realm….”

“Ugh!”

“My baby…. Did you….”

“Ah…. No, mother. It’s because I suddenly smelled something foul.”

“Darling, why are you suddenly…. Ugh! Hey, you! Kim Min-Cheol, wash yourself right now, you hear? Were you rolling in a field of manure for a week? Whew. Karin, let’s open the window.”

“Kehel! I smell the scent of corpses on Min-Cheol’s body! Hurry and wash yourself!”

“Why all the ruckus. I don’t smell… Ugh!”

The horrendous smell had been so imprinted on my body for the past week that no matter how much I washed myself, it wouldn’t come off.

After bathing sever times, I returned to Jong Ho and spoke.

“Hyung-nim, can you call for either the commander or Ho Jin hyung-nim?”

“Why?”

“It’s because I brought some bloodstones when I visited the demonic realm.”

“Why are you troubling yourself with all that when you can have Belkoseu do it instead.”

“Using cars to collect all of it will be a struggle, so please hurry.”

“Right. Honey, where is my phone?”

“It should be in the young master’s room? You said that you’ll be charging it and left it there.”

“Right.”

-click.

“Holy shit! What…. What is all… What is all this!”