Chapter 192: Rude Awakening (3)

They saw a weird monster in the shape of a dog head carrying a girl on its shoulder and jumping into the dungeon in a hurry, but they didn't care much. Anyway, the dungeon would be smashed away today.

Trigon landed on the ground.

The Dungeon Meerkats alerted the House of Mammon immediately.

Rikum, the garrison commander in charge of the dungeon defense, ordered the Black Orc squadron to arm themselves immediately. The orcs, who were on a contingency standby, grabbed their weapons and ran toward their defense position.

Assistant butler Jun ran into the hallway to command the evacuation of non-combat dungeon spirits. John, Ron, and Jon, the remaining three of the Goblin Rangers, escorted Jun.

It happened less than a minute after the alarm went off.

The moment when the Trigon landed in front of the dungeon of the House of Mammon, a new voice echoed in the minds of the Mamon family spirits.

[As of now, all the members of the House of Mammon enter a special defense posture.]

[All dungeon spirits, please follow the direction. ]

[Let me remind you of the message again.]

[As of now, all the members of the House of Mammon enter a special defensive posture.]

It was Lucia's order.

Most dungeon spirits only had fragmentary information about their special defense posture. However, garrison leader Rikum and assistant butler Jun were different. There was clearly a sense of strong tension on their faces.

Special defensive posture meant virtually abandoning most of the defense facilities on the first floor.

They could not defend the enemy only with the forces on the first floor.

And there was virtually nothing they could do except to buy their time.

A special defensive posture was triggered only in such circumstances.

Rikum immediately corrected his order given to the Black Orc Squadron.

He ordered not only the troops who had already departed for their defensive positions but also the orcs who were in a defensive posture to retreat. Their gathering place after withdrawing was not the first floor, but the final gathering place located on the first floor of the Labyrinth of Greed.

Jun tried to overcome his fear.

Rikum clenched his fists, getting intensely tense.

The current master of the House of Mammon was the owner of the southern land.

There was no enemy within the southern area that could make the dungeon spirits of the House of Mammon so nervous and tense like this.

It meant that the enemies who appeared now were from outside.

And there was only one among the outside attackers that could mount a sudden attack against the south.

Rikum gnashed his teeth. He got the ominous delusion out of his mind. He hit the ground only to follow his master's order.

***

Coming inside the dungeon hurriedly, with Yuria on its back, Baduk was aghast at the loudly ringing alarms. Moreover, a girl's constant voice confused Baduk even more.

'What the heck is a special defense posture?'

Obviously, Baduk heard something like it before but couldn't recall it well. Back then, Baduk only remembered the taste of the chicken it had shared with Yuria. The seasoning was so delicious.

However, Yuria was a little different. When entering the dungeon first, she lost her mind like Baduk because of the big fuss over the alarm, but she got more nervous because of the baby Dungeon Meerkat that she held in her arms. The girl's voice ringing in her head made a difference.

Yuria blinked. But she wasn't sure if she was right, so she frowned.

Right at that moment, she heard a voice once again as if to quench her curiosity.

[Yuria?]

[Can you hear me?]

"Lucia!"

Yuria was now convinced. Forgetting the fear of the three-headed beast, Yuria shouted at Lucia happily. Startled by Yuria's sudden movement, Baduk barely managed to keep balance. A baby Dungeon Meerkat stood tall on the head of Baduk and looked everywhere.

Lucia shouted repeatedly.

[Just run ahead! Go straight and then downstairs along the ramp you're seeing! You know sister Scathach's garden, right?]

"Yeah"

Yuria nodded vigorously. After calming down Baduk that was struggling impatiently, she pointed her finger in the direction Lucia gave her. Baduk, who immediately read her mind, responded, "Bark! Bark!"

[Run!]

"Alright! Run, Baduk!"

Yuria beckoned to Baduk again. Once it became clear what it had to do, Baduk was not confused anymore. Then Baduk began to run at a tremendous speed as if to show off its evolution achievements.

Several minutes later, when Yuria and Baduk just entered the ramp, the door of the House of Mammon opened. The Ten Warriors stepped into the dungeon.

***

Sabnak raised his head. He stared at the ceiling lights still shining even though the enemy stormed into the dungeon.

The lighting wasn't just turned on at the entrance room. It continued along the corridor.

Sabnak could understand somehow that their defense against the enemy penetrating through the air was poor. But he could not help but express doubts about the fact that they didn't block the lights, the most basic of the dungeon defense readiness.

It wasn't something he could simply ignore as the lack of their basic defensive posture. He couldn't persuade himself that the man who managed the dungeon of the master so poorly had defeated Embrio. If so, this kind of shabby defense must have been deliberately put in place.

'Is this a trap?'

The lighting that continued through the dark corridor was also a signboard, such as 'Come this way', or 'Follow our guidance'.

Some of the Ten Warriors were impatient while others were prudent. Elder Lich Bfrost, who was on the prudent side, showed his intentions with his red eyes. What he meant was that they needed to summon the troops from now on even if they consumed some mana.

Sabnak agreed. Lich, in the shape of a mummy, summoned three groups of demons by using the three rings on his fingers as a medium.

Each of them was a demon trained in attacking dungeons only.

Hellhounds were useful for finding the way and tracking down enemies.

Demon Deu, a spirit-type giant, was useful for destroying traps.

The Cannibal ghost, Bug Bear, had strong magic resistance and regeneration power.

Since each group led at least ten members, they filled the corridor in no time.

Bfrost, who watched them quietly, took out the bone meals from his pocket and sprinkled them on the floor. Skeleton Warriors were summoned from each bone piece. As a result, dozens of Skeleton Warriors were put together immediately. Since they were summoned through bone fragments, they were disposable objects that would disappear when their time limit ran out, but Bfrost could consume them without feeling any burden.

After confirming the powerful Bone Golems standing up among the Skeleton Warriors, Sabnak advanced the troops again, headed by Hellhound.

The straight passage continued longer than expected. There were only a few corners, but there weren't even threadbare traps or scouts along the way.

Since their defense posture was so poor, Sabnak rather felt tense and nervous this time. Moreover, the lighting above his head continued to get on his nerves.

Hellhound, who he installed as the scout, barked loudly and made him turn to it.

Sabnak noticed a forked passage. One was a side road and the other was a downward ramp. As if to temp them, the lighting was only on the ramp side.

The Ten Warriors exchanged their gazes with each other. Then, they looked at their leader for direction. Sabnak nodded. As a matter of fact, he was getting so impatient right now. Sabnak released his power, hoping that all these deceptions by the House of Mammon were not just its master's bluffing.

Five horns strong enough to be equal to almost six horns.

Following Sabnak, the other six also released their mana in succession. Even the weakest had five horns. Indeed, they were too powerful to be sent to occupy just one dungeon.

It took some time for the summoners to regain their composure, amazed by the menacing posture of the Ten Warriors who showed their strength in succession.

Hellhounds, who recovered quickly as they were the farthest from the dungeon spirits, took the lead this time and headed for the ramp. Then the undead army that Bfrost summoned followed them.

How long had it been since they started going down the ramp?

When they went down the ramp only a couple of minutes, something unusual occurred.

Instead of the blurry lights pouring from the black ceiling, a bright, brilliant sunlight rained down on them.

That wasn't all. A fresh wind blew over them. There was a rich breadbasket in front of them.

Well-ripen golden rice plants were swaying in the wind like waves. On one hand, the fragrant scent of fruits was carried along with the wind.

Only

It was a beautiful and heartwarming scene, but the only thing that the army of the King of Gluttony led by Sabnak could feel now as they felt totally out of place and bizarre.

Hellhounds hesitantly stepped into the rice fields. Like a necromancer, Bfrost, who deeply pressed the pitch-black robe over his eyes, summoned the Skeleton Warriors in succession as if he was anxious.

The Skeleton Warriors he summoned already numbered over 300. No matter how disposable they were, summoning them required consuming lots of mana materials, but Bfrost kept feeling that they were not enough for an unknown reason.

Even though the troops led by Sabnak were close to 400, they didn't feel the vast rice paddies were not crowded at all. It was such a vast area.

Sabnak had seen numerous dungeons as the King of Gluttony's right-hand man, but it was his first time seeing this kind of dungeon. He couldn't even imagine that he could see the sky and the sun, let alone feeling the fresh breeze inside the dungeon.

But the troops of the House of Mammon didn't yet appear.

Sabnak prepared a new summoning technique. Bfrost moved the door scroll of space with his left hand so that he could use it at any time.