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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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“Do you have a location in mind for the dungeon?”
“Not really? I did dig underground at my residence, but if there’s a better place, I’ll move there.”
Since Mutre was here, I wanted to secure the underground of Kuman’s mansion if possible.
It was a three-story scale, with fairly solid armaments, and if there were any remaining slaves, it didn’t seem bad.
‘I can have them manage this and that.’
It wouldn’t be difficult if I used Baldur, who was pushed into a corner over there.
Securing food would be a bit challenging, but there was enough to hold out for a while.
“If that’s the case, how about the underground of the lord’s mansion?”
“Hmm? Why there?”
‘Is there something there?’
I don’t know exactly since I had no reason to go there.
“That’s the best place. It’s isolated from here, but it’s not difficult to break through. You just need to help me a little.”
“But Kuman’s mansion has a three-story slave quarters in the underground?”
“I know. I was involved there too. You’ll know when you see it yourself.”
Since there was nothing to lose by checking it out, I nodded at his words.
“If you say so, then fine.”
In the meantime, Athena and Kayla returned, and both reported that the entrance had properly collapsed.
“Then finish cleaning up here first, and Athena, go bring Thea.”
Athena nodded at my words.
She must have been very anxious, having been left alone in this situation.
“I’ll leave Baldur to you.”
As expected, Kayla answered my words.
She had suggested the idea, and there was no one else to manage him except her.
I handed over the means to control Baldur, which Athena had given me.
Rather than handing it over out of concern for controlling Baldur, it was closer to handing over authority.
After assigning tasks to each of them, I followed Mutre to the basement of the lord’s mansion.
At Mutre’s request, I used the skeleton to dig a groove and started digging a tunnel by adjusting the power of Dark Bolt.
“Is this level of power enough?”
“Yes. It’s perfect.”
In the meantime, there seemed to be quite a commotion on the surface, as the ceiling shook from time to time.
“You don’t have to worry. It absolutely won’t collapse with this much.”
Seeing Mutre’s confident appearance as a dwarf, I roughly nodded and focused on the work.
After about an hour of using minor spells and recovering, Athena and Thea found me.
“You dug a lot in the meantime.”
“You’re not using the method you used for the backdoor?”
“I don’t have any gems.”
Although it was possible if Athena or Kayla cooperate, the efficiency wasn’t good, and it would be faster for me to just use magic like this.
“Here are the gems.”
Athena handed me two gems and said,
“I found them after searching Kuman and the lord.”
It was precious, but it seemed they had more.
‘Then did the lord originally have two gems?’
Honestly, I was a bit surprised by this.
Of course, I had no intention of using Dig with this.
Gems are consumables.
Even if they regenerate, there is a limit, and it’s a waste to use gems just to use the Dig spell when there are other methods.
‘I used them before because there were circumstances.’
It was a necessary situation. But not now.
“I’ll keep them for now.”
“I found a lot of other things too. There were precious metal accessories, and a decent amount of gold coins. If you combine what came from the two of them, it’s over twenty.”
She wondered why the lord had accessories when he didn’t even have a wife.
They seemed to be for women.
By the way, Kuman didn’t have a wife, let alone children.
“And remember the artifacts we borrowed before? I took those too. Other than that, some food?”
“They took quite a lot while running away.”
While Athena and I were talking, Thea was looking at the specter and skeleton with a slightly curious expression.
It seemed Athena had already explained to her that I was a warlock, and fortunately, she didn’t seem to have any particular fear towards me.
She had to find out around this time anyway.
“Inha.”
Just then, Thea approached me and spoke.
“Do warlocks not use mana?”
“I don’t use it, but usually they do. To be precise, they use transformed mana.”
“Then… can I become a warlock too?”
Athena had a displeased expression, but she didn’t interfere for now.
It seemed there had been some conversation between the two.
“Sister said I can’t become strong. So she told me not to do dangerous things. She said it’s because I was sick before due to a curse, and it’s dangerous to use mana.”
“That’s true.”
“Then, if I don’t use mana, it should be fine… Especially if I became like that because I was cursed, it doesn’t seem like black magic would have a bad compatibility…”
“First of all, it’s possible if it’s just about being able to do it.”
Athena’s expression had become quite stiff.
Rather than hatred towards black magic, it felt like she was adamantly opposed to Thea becoming a combatant.
“It’s not that what you said is wrong either. If you’re worried about mana contamination, you can become a warlock who uses mana, which is contaminated mana.”
Thea’s expression brightened at my words.
“But you can’t. Don’t do it.”
Athena and Thea’s expressions switched at my words.
“It’s just that I’m a special case, the life of a warlock is miserable in their words. I know it well because I’m a warlock. Especially… it’s hard to resist the temptations of demons. You get influenced a lot too.”
That’s how it usually is.
In the first place, obtaining magic in the Middle World was a very difficult task.
‘All sorts of inefficient methods are prevalent.’
The best thing is to contract with demons from the Demon Realm and receive magic by paying them a price.
At least when using magic, there aren’t many problems, but training is truly hell.
There were many who couldn’t train due to the lack of magic.
‘For me, it’s an unlimited supply though.’
However, Thea isn’t such a special case.
Of course, there is a way for me to supply magic.
Since I know all kinds of black magic, teaching magic isn’t a difficult task either.
As long as she has talent in mana, it would not be hard to raise her.
Even if she doesn’t have talent, given the nature of black magic, I could make it possible for her to at least enter the path.
However, I still opposed it.
“If I help, you can become a warlock without contracting with demons. Then, as long as you don’t approach them first, you can avoid the temptations of demons. But even I can’t do anything about the unique influence of magic.”
“The unique influence of magic?”
“Yes. Magic is originally the power of demons, not the power of humans. I’m a special case, so it’s different, but this is an extremely brutal and dangerous power. So when you come into a lot of contact with magic and use a lot of magical power, humans are bound to be influenced to some extent.”
This is the same for other races as well.
A representative example is the dark elves, one of the races that frequently use black magic.
“Elves are generally rational in personality. By the way, that applies to dark elves too. However, only those who haven’t learned black magic.”
Dark elves were known to have more violent or emotional personalities compared to elves.
This was all the result of being influenced by magic.
“That’s why it’s even more so for humans. I’ll say it again, but I’m a special case.”
At least, as the level gets higher, one becomes less influenced by magic.
They protect themselves through mental fortification.
Still, it doesn’t mean that the personality that has already changed returns to how it was, it just means it doesn’t get worse.
This influence was clearly a factor in the warped personalities of warlocks.
Thea’s mouth closed at the mention that her mind could be influenced by magic.
No matter how much she wanted to become stronger, she didn’t seem to want to go that far.
“Thank you for telling me. …I’ll give up on black magic.”
“Yeah. You made a good decision.”
Athena sighed as if in relief.
Then, as if she suddenly remembered something, she said,
“Then if we frequently come into contact with magic through you, could our personalities change? Like becoming violent.”
“Temporarily. Unless you directly use magic or magical power, it’s rare to become like that permanently. If you’re influenced for a long time, you’ll eventually change though.”
Since Athena seemed a bit worried, I immediately added,
“Those who have awakened mana have resistance, so you and Kayla won’t have a problem. You’re not directly using it either. Moreover, I’m properly controlling it, so Thea won’t be affected either. And for that to happen, I really have to deliberately pour out magic. Small amounts aren’t a big issue. Don’t worry unnecessarily.”
If I was going to do that, it would be more effective to just use magic once.
“I see. There’s no way you would do something that would harm us anyway. Sorry.”
“You don’t need to apologize.”
Since my magic had recovered quite a bit, I followed Mutre’s instructions and dug a path, and Athena and Thea watched me.
Kayla seemed busy controlling the slaves, including Baldur, so these two seemed to have nothing to do in comparison.
After about an hour of additional work.
Rustle.
The basement of the lord’s mansion and the secret passage were connected.
“…Wow.”
I could immediately understand why Mutre had strongly recommended this place.
“This… rather than a basement, isn’t it just a hideout?”
“That seems to have been one of the purposes.”
Although it wasn’t a three-story scale like Kuman’s mansion, it wasn’t far behind.
It had a total of two floors, with the upper floor feeling almost like a warehouse, while the lower floor was literally no different from a hideout.
It felt like a house built just for people to live in.
‘There are several rooms too…’
There was a separate dedicated well, a bathroom, a toilet… It was possible to just hole up and live here.
Moreover, on the upper floor…
“They said there was no food, but they took out all of their own.”
Some of the byproducts of the Giant Ant that I had handed over were even here.
It made me think that the lord who couldn’t escape in the previous round might have survived here for years.
At that time, the food situation wouldn’t have been as bad as now, so the stockpiled food must have been tremendous.
Athena and Thea, who checked the interior with me, also seemed surprised.
Especially the somewhat luxurious appearance despite being underground seemed a bit shocking.
“It’s much better than our house. I thought that house was very good, but it can’t even compare.”
‘This much is really nothing special though…’
Perhaps because they had lived with so little, even this much was quite shocking to them.
Still, it was a bit unexpected that Athena was surprised, since she must have been to Kuman’s mansion before.
“You’re saying we’ll be staying here?”
“Probably. Mutre, just in case, check the passages connected to the surface here too.”
Quite some time had passed, so the vibrations that rang out from time to time had almost died down.
It seemed like the massacre on the surface had effectively ended.
According to Mutre’s inspection, the passages above were blocked, probably because the building itself had collapsed.
‘There’s no artifactual or magical treatment. That’s a bit disappointing.’
It means the convenience is a bit lacking.
Still, it’s satisfactory enough.
Honestly, it could be said to be beyond expectations.
‘I should use the 2nd floor for residence and the 1st floor as my lab.’
It was the opposite of how it had been until now.
Usually, I made the lab in a deeper place, but here, the upper side seemed better due to the structure.
I planned to secure the underground of Kuman’s mansion and create a training space for Athena and Kayla.
‘There are many useful things on the 3rd floor there.’
Especially Kayla, she must have lived there before, so she might even like it.
‘There are quite a few useful things.’
While I was examining the interior, the conversation seemed to have ended, and Kayla and Baldur were waiting for me at the entrance.
“…I will serve you as my master. Please call me whenever you have a task for me.”
He seemed to be trying to accept the current situation willingly.
“I’ll have you manage the slaves. I’m planning to secure the basement of Kuman’s mansion as well, are there any remaining slaves there?”
“…There are. Probably quite a few. They abandoned all the unprofitable ones and left.”
“Tsk. We’ll have to secure them as soon as possible.”
If something happens while they’re scared inside, there will be a loss of personnel.
The secret passage, the basement of the lord’s mansion, and the basement of Kuman’s mansion.
The space that fell into my hands was very large.
‘It seems I made a good decision listening to Kayla.’
Managing this much space would be a huge waste of manpower.
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