Chapter 134: Sword of the House of Mammon (1)
It had already been a few months since Embrio, the Demon King of Wolves, mobilized his forces in the north.
Embrio fought constantly throughout that period.
As a result, he unified the northern region and destroyed the western region.
The outcomes of the wars were different. Although they were invaded by Embrio’s forces, the results were different in each region.
Most of the dungeons in the north survived. Not all the heads of houses there were annihilated. Many of them survived by going under his command.
On the other hand, the western region was thoroughly destroyed. To put more pressure on the Western Owners’ Alliance, Embrio destroyed the heart of the dungeons that he already attacked.
The destruction of the dungeon meant the collapse of their livelihood. Moreover, Embrio erased not only the dungeons but also the ‘estates’ of the heads of houses from the map.
Only ruins remained in the western region. Most of the heads of houses there were killed.
Residents there, who lost their houses, had no choice but to become refugees or bandits to survive.
Embrio accepted most of those refugees to use them as human shields in the next war.
On the day the Western Owners’ Alliance collapsed, the last dungeon in the west, the House of Bern, fell.
After greedily swallowing the heart of the dungeon, Embrio mobilized his forces into the only city left in the western region.
The battle, which left total ruins behind, had a bad effect on Embrio’s forces as well. Their fatigue was different from it when they unified the northern part.
But Embrio didn’t want a pause in the attack. Although he occupied the western region right after destroying the northern area, he became impatient and greedy.
The situation drove him into a corner. The turbulence that Embrio himself created by starting the war was no longer playing its role. The eastern and southern regions were virtually unified under different flags. Instead of fighting each other like those in the northern region, the heads of houses united as one like the Western Owners’ Alliance to block Embrio himself.
Of course, Embrio could stop advancing any more and go back. If he led his troops back to the north, those in the east and the south would not dare to make the mistake of raising up an army to challenge him first.
However, Embrio could not take over the southern area if he gave up now. It was also against his own ambition, and the King of Gluttony would not allow it.
The timing could not be better if he decided to attack the southern area.
The confrontation between the King of Pride and the King of Envy, which was intensifying in the northern part of the demon world, diverted the kings’ attention from the south to the north.
Even the King of Gluttony, who was the strongest supporter and enemy of Embrio, was no exception.
So, now was the golden opportunity for Embrio to attack the southern region.
It was a once-in-a-lifetime chance for Embrio to unify the southern region for the first time since the great King of Greed, Mammon.
‘The problem is the eastern part.’
It was the eastern part where there were the most heads of houses. But only two of them shared the power of all others there, and Embrio could not ignore their power.
Embrio wondered why they didn’t attack the northern region while he was fighting the Western Owners’ Alliance?
The reply to his question was simple. They were waiting for the Western Owners’ Alliance to fall into Embrio’s hands.
Then what would they do next?
‘If I attack the southern region, they will immediately advance to the north,’ Embrio thought.
Obviously they read each other’s intentions too well.
It was highly likely that the heads of houses in the eastern part struck a deal with those in the southern region.
In other words, those in the south would be an anvil for their counterparts in the east, while those in the east would be a hammer for their counterparts in the south.
Embrio smiled lightly. If that was the case, he would carry out what they wanted.
‘Let me attack the southern region.’
He was going to attack it as fast and as strong as possible. While the forces he left in the north were blocking their counterparts in the east, he would lead his army to destroy the southern area. After occupying the south, he would advance straight into the east to smash them.
It would have been difficult for him to make the same decision as this if he had to wage a war in the human world, not the demon world.
Why? It was because of the problem of military supplies.
The western area, which had been thoroughly destroyed, could not serve as a supply base properly. If Embrio penetrated into the southern area to attack the eastern part, it was evident that the supplies route would be unusually long.
It was too unstable to make up for the supplies by plundering in the enemy’s area.
No matter how well the soldiers fought, they couldn’t fight without eating.
However, they could solve this problem in the demon world.
The solution was to keep the dungeons in the south instead of destroying them as they did in the western region.
This didn’t mean that they would solve the problem of supplies by consuming the food in the dungeons under their control.
They were going to use the Dungeon Market.
By using the newly acquired Dungeon Market as a transport destination, they were going to purchase grains from the Dungeon Market.
In addition to grains, they could supply not only military equipment but also dungeon spirits as much as they wanted, if they had the funds.
As everyone in the demon world admitted, the Dungeon Market’s delivery was fast and accurate. Moreover, even six kings could do nothing about the Dungeon Market. The heads of houses in the southern or eastern area could not obstruct Embrion’s deal with the Dungeon Market.
Embrio had enough money. The number of goods he collected in the process of destroying the dungeons and cities in the west was truly enormous.
He realigned his focus in the last city of the western region. Then he ordered Bizarro to move his troops to the south as the advance party, who a former house head was now serving as his trusted general.
Embrio’s forces began to move.
Finally, his army launched an attack on the south.
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As expected, Bizarro’s advance party used the crossroads where the House of Randolt was located as the attack route. Since Embrio planned to take the dungeons in the southern region under his command, Bizarro’s decision was a natural choice.
Bizarro, the Demon King of Rain, was a practical man. He knew how to use those refugees from the western region as human shields in the war.
There was no plausible declaration of war or a magnificent speech to raise the morale of his forces.
Bizarro advanced his troops into the dungeon of the House of Randolt.
A cruel battle began.
Screams and howls filled the dungeon.
Since dozens, rather hundreds of lighting fixtures cleared the darkness in the dungeon, the unfolding scene was harrowing all the more. Nothing could hide the tragic casualties everywhere.
However, the dungeon of the House of Randolt, which had been thoroughly fortified recently, embarrassed Bizarro’s forces. A typical dungeon would have been already occupied, but a series of defense zones of the dungeon delayed their advance.
The poison that arose from the floor melted the flesh of the advance party. The numerous javelins shooting from the corridors turned the forcibly mobilized ‘arrow shields’ into something like hedgehogs.
Goblins and Kobolds, pushed to the forefront as ‘arrow shields’, cried out in fear, but they had nowhere to run away amid the arrows raining down on their heads. The Lizardmen, the backbone of Bizarro’s forces, didn’t hesitate to behead the runaways.
Bizarro used the reckless method of destroying all the traps of the dungeon by using these ‘arrow shields.’ Funny enough, however, this method worked quite well.
The durability of the traps wasn’t supposed to last forever. Bizarro’s forces blocked the holes where the odor of the piled-up corpses was leaking out, and the javelins flying from the wall did not harm Bizarro’s forces, who used the bodies of the killed goblins and kobolds as shields. Luckily for Bizarro, all the available javelins in the dungeon ran out.
To make matters worse, the flames of the traps operated by mana had the same limits. Each time they shot the flames, poor kobolds and goblins were burned in droves, but the number of their shots was limited.
The mana of the dungeon was not unlimited.
Bizarro sacrificed nearly three hundred goblins and kobolds in breaking through the traps in the dungeon. As a result, he succeeded in neutralizing most of the traps.
Bizarro, the commander of the raid, did not even enter the dungeon of the House of Randolt. Positioning himself outside the dungeon along with his own men, Bizarro compiled the real-time information about the fighting results and drew a dungeon map of the House of Randolt.
It was literally a messy dungeon. The shape of a dungeon differed according to its master, but its width and depth were usually the same.
As an experienced head of a house, Bizarro could find out the size of the dungeon on the House of Randolt almost accurately. That was why he swore at its previous owner, astonished by the dungeon.
The House of Randolt made more than 70% of its entire area as a defense area. Except for the dungeon spirits’ living space for food, clothing, and shelter, there were virtually no other facilities.
But it was almost over now. Although he sacrificed three hundred out of the seven hundred soldiers he led, he could neutralize almost all of the dungeon traps. The only thing left now was the gathering ground, the final defense zone of the dungeon.
Bizarro was sure of victory. So, he looked at the dungeon map comfortably.
He waited for the victory news from his men inside the dungeon.
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