Dungeon Maker

First, the size of the ants.

At the entrance of the mine, there were 10s, maybe 100s of Crazy Ants.

All were working ants. They made up most of the ant colony.

Yong-Ho thought about that once more.

He wondered how many of the Crazy Ants there were at the mine.

Maybe that’s where all the of the Crazy Ants were.

Just because a room is inactive doesn’t mean that room itself disappears. The flow of mana is disconnected and the entrance is the only thing that disappears.

The Crazy Ants have been living by using the inactive room and thanks to that, Yong-Ho was able to activate the other rooms around it and also hunt a couple of the ants that were in there.

And Yong-Ho started thinking.

The amount of Crazy Ants that were crawling around were too little.

Even if they figured out the number of Crazy Ants and the distance between the mine and the throne room was far, it was odd how they never appeared in the room.

The area that they work in was smaller than what he had imagined.

They might have been working in the opposite direction of the throne room, but Yong-Ho believed that it wasn’t really possible.

There were two reasons.

First, the records of Kaiwan, the King of Distortion.

The previous owner gave up on retaking the mine, but the owner from two generations ago was extremely attached.

According to the records that the previous owners wrote, the size of the mine wasn’t that big.

Since the demon world wasn’t perfectly created, it was a gold mine that was created within the dungeon. It was definitely different from the gold mine that’s in Yong-Ho’s homeworld, Earth.

The depth of the mine was only 100 meters deep. On top of that, the amount of gold he’ll be able to obtain was different than ordinary mines. Lumps of gold was stuck in various areas of the mine.

Anyways, according to the record, the room was too small for 10,000 ants to be living in. There’s a possibility that they dug up additional space in the mine, but he didn’t think they created a large space. That was connected to the second reason.

Secondly, the Crazy Ants’ habits.

According to the information that the dungeon shop gave to the Spirit of the Dungeon, the number of Crazy Ants ranged anywhere from 10s to 100s. When thinking about the available food and mana, there was a limit to how many of them could live in the mine.

One Queen Ant controls all of the Crazy Ants and like the other monsters, depending on their situation, they decided on the number of ants that would live in the mine.

‘If the Crazy Ants at the entrance of the mine were all of them.’

There were probably around 200 ants.

With that number, it was possible to retake the mine. Even if he had a lot of mana potion, Yong-Ho wouldn’t be able to do it by himself, but he had the salamander.

Yong-Ho stopped in front of the room that was located in front of the entrance of the mine. He didn’t give them a separate command, but Catalina, Skull and the salamander got into their fighting stance.

While coming here, they went up against nine Crazy Ants and Slimes.

It wasn’t that much. It was hard to think that there would be 100s of ants inside the gold mine.

Yong-Ho waved his finger into the air. The Spirit of the Dungeon answered.

“I’ll activate the entrance room to the gold mine.”

“Good luck, master”

The amount of time it took to activate the room was shorter this time, probably because it was already activated once. A couple seconds later, an ordinary door appeared, just like the other rooms.

There was a group of Crazy Ants beyond this door. He wasn’t sure if it was his instincts, but he thought he could hear the ants crawling around in the room.

Yong-Ho tightened his grip on Aamon and stood on the right side of the door. The salamander stood on the left, as instructed.

Catalina and Skull stood in front of Yong-Ho and each grabbed a door handle.

And after exchanging eye contact.

There was no reason to delay any longer. Catalina and Skull opened the door at the same time and Yong-Ho and the salamander kicked off the ground.

It was dark again. As soon as they opened the door, the sound of Crazy Ants crawling around the room filled their ears.

Yong-Ho only thought about one thing. As soon as he stepped, he raised Aamon into the air and released fire.

It was different from the other times. It wasn’t a single fire and it wasn’t a wave of fire that would disappear into the air. Yong-Ho wanted something that was similar to a flame thrower. He wanted it to shoot out like a pillar and light all of them on fire!

Booooooooooom!

The fire exploded. Aamon consumed almost half of Yong-Ho’s mana and released green flames.

It lit the dark room. The green fire was the only thing that filled his sight. The wave extended out and enveloped the Crazy Ants and Slimes.

There weren’t any screams. But, Yong-Ho could feel it. After shouting, he raised Aamon towards the ceiling.

Fwooooooosh!

The ceiling was on fire. Instead of expanding the fire, he decreased the strength of the wave, but the Slimes and Crazy Ants were weak against fire, so this amount of fire was more than enough.

A foul smell filled the room.On the opposite side of where Yong-Ho was, the salamander was spitting out fire and burning everything that it saw.

The salamander’s fire was larger and stronger. However, when comparing to Yong-Ho’s fire, it was more of a one time thing. After releasing a large amount of fire, it started gasping for air and Yong-Ho waved Aamon once again. He felt the remainder of his mana being used for this attack.

“Catalina!”

Yong-Ho yelled and Catalina immediately reached for his belt and took out a mana potion. She quickly got rid of the cork and poured it into his mouth.

It tasted like one of those sports drink. When the blue liquid slid down his throat, he felt a new power rising from somewhere deep within him. Aamon’s fire was getting weaker, but now it became stronger. It was bigger and stronger than before!

‘The effects of the mana potion!’

It didn’t stop at just refilling his mana level. It was temporary, but it increased Yong-Ho’s mana.

He couldn’t tell by how much, but he was sure that it got stronger.

Aamon consumed a lot more mana. And it released a stronger fire in response.

Half of his mana disappeared within seconds this time too. But, it was very effective. It not only covered the Crazy Ants and Slimes, but it revealed the covered ceiling, which lit up the room. About 20 Crazy Ants died because of Yong-Ho’s fire.

Yong-Ho rolled his eyes. The mine’s entrance. Like before, soldier ants started appearing and they were at least three times bigger than the working ants.

“Run!”

Yong-Ho commanded and the salamander, who was catching their breath, started crawling at a fast pace.

Catalina opened one more bottle of the mana potion and poured it into Yong-Ho’s mouth and as soon as his mana was recovered, Yong-Ho sheathed Aamon. The fire that filled the room disappeared, but the Crazy Ants didn’t react right away. The burnt smell not only filled Yong-Ho’s nose, but everyone that was in the room.

“Skullllllll!”

Skull ran behind the salamander. Yong-Ho and Catalina both ran towards the mine entrance and checked the size of the Crazy Ants that remained in the room.

About ⅔ when compared to the first.

There was still a good amount of ants left. Yong-Ho and the salamander’s fire were pretty strong, but the room itself was pretty big.

Yong-Ho breathed in again. During that short time, the distance to the gold mine shortened and soldier ants were approaching them. The Crazy Ants felt threatened and they started crawling on the wall and on the ceiling.

And once again.

Catalina and Skull lowered themselves. Yong-Ho waved Aamon into the air and used the remaining of his mana on Aamon. If he didn’t have the mana potions, he wouldn’t have thought about doing this.

The large fire even surprised Yong-ho. The green fire expanded out into the ceiling, wall and ground and it consumed the Crazy Ants once again. He didn’t allow one Crazy Ant to touch him.

The Red Lotus Demon Lance, Aamon.

One attack will burn the world and evaporate the ocean!

It might’ve not been an exaggeration. Aamon’s true strength could be stronger than that.

It gets stronger the more mana it consumes. It released a stronger fire.

If Mammon used it, how strong would the fire be? What kind of fire would Aamon release after consuming the mana of a king that controlled 1/4th of the demon world?

Yong-Ho gritted his teeth as the fire started dying. Catalina grabbed the third mana potion.

And the salamander opened its mouth wide open. It released a large fire pillar in front of them.

It annihilated the soldier ants and it even broke through the gold mine. Crazy Ants started crawling out of it and he offered to let them die fair and square.

Yong-Ho consumed the third mana potion. Mana filled within him once again. The effects of the potion repeated because he was able to feel his mana getting stronger.

‘Editor note: So that some of you don’t get the wrong idea here. He isn’t ignoring the warning Sitri gave him. He is just using his mana so quickly that taking the full potion is mostly safe for him to do.’

‘It’s dangerous.’

It was helpful. Yong-Ho gritted his teeth and endured the pain in his body. The consumption of his mana at one time and refilling his mana again was making him tired. His mana was getting stronger and the mana felt like knives that stabbed his body.

Yong-Ho kicked off the ground again. He ran towards the entrance of the mine.

Almost half of the Crazy Ants died. There weren’t a lot of Slimes and the ones that were alive didn’t bother attacking Yong-Ho’s group.

This situation will only last for a couple of seconds. He only had one mana potion left.

The salamander was tired and turned around towards the mine’s entrance. Even though it was breathing heavily, it continued spitting out fire towards the ants. And in order to protect the salamander, Skull grabbed the hammer and stood still.

“Skulllll!”

Skull yelled at Catalina and Catalina answered with her eyes. The salamander and Yong-Ho passed Skull and threw themselves into the mine.

Their goal was to strike the Queen Ant, who was probably located in the deepest part of the mine!

“Dungeon Facility: I’ll try activating the gold mine!”

The Spirit of the Dungeon yelled hurriedly. Yong-Ho looked to the front. Catalina’s flashlight alone wasn’t enough to light the entire room. The sound of something crawling in the dark was getting louder.

Yong-Ho calmed himself down. He held himself back from sheathing Aamon and started running. Yong-Ho couldn’t see it in the dark, but Catalina was different. Having the characteristics of a Dark Elf, she was able to see through the dark.

Catalina remained calm. There was no need to waste her mana because she was feeling scared and anxious.

A couple of seconds. It was short, but it felt like a really long time.

“Dungeon Facility: Activation successful! Mana will be supplied!”

The Spirit of the Dungeon yelled. The ceiling lit up thanks to the mana and got rid of the darkness.

At the same time, Yong-Ho waved his finger. He displayed the dungeon map to see if it was possible to include it among the rooms he’s currently controlling.

“Master!”

During the time he was looking at the map.

Catalina yelled. Yong-Ho instinctively pulled out Aamon. He looked to the front.

“Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

With the scream, the Crazy Ants started moving around. They crawled on the ceiling and walls, while some were charging from behind Yong-Ho and Catalina. It was like they were trying to crush them to death.

Yong-Ho didn’t think about it. He grabbed Catalina’s waist with his left hand and pulled her into his chest. When the Crazy Ants covered them, he struck Aamon into the ground.

Greed’s fiery road.

The wave swept the inside of the gold mine.

<Recapturing the Gold Mine #1> End.