A week had passed since Kaiwan joined them as a dungeon spirit.
She proved herself petent by actions, not words. Moreover, she showed her petence not in bat but in other areas.
"Even at a glance, the dungeon has grown so big suddenly. I think I have to take care of lots of stuff in it."
In fact, she was once the master of the House of Mammon before she was a powerful spirit of the arena. She was the legendary master that transformed the House of Mammon on the verge of collapse into a powerful one that other masters were afraid of.
Accordingly, her know-how about dungeon management was unrivaled, dwarfing Yong-ho. She had as many as ten years of experience in managing a dungeon.
Moreover, she was extremely efficient. She served as the master in a harsh environment where she could not waste even small resources. Any items that would be considered trash to others were valuable resources for a great use.
Ophelia also admired the way she took care of her work flawlessly. Ophelia was also a pretty good manager, but a dungeon was different from a tavern. Obviously, the way Kaiwan managed the dungeon was more efficient.
Yong-ho humbly accepted this unexpected result. Honoring his father's advice that the president didn't have to be an expert, which his father used to tell him when he went out for chicken delivery, he had Kaiwan—a de facto dungeon manager.
In his opinion, he felt he made a good decision on it.
Kaiwan was his dungeon spirit, so he didn't need to worry about her betrayal.
One week passed.
Yong-ho, who weled back Skull, Tigrius, and Rikum, who returned from the western area, held a conference in which all the key members of the Mammon family participated.
The meeting place was the room of the Demon King, which had been moved to the first floor of the Labyrinth of Greed. On the left and right of the large table in front of the throne were the vassals of the Mammon family.
Right next to his right side was Eligos, the butler, and Ophelia, the manager of the Free City. And next to them were Tigrius, the manager of the Randolt dungeon, and Rikum, the garrison mander of the House of Mammon, and Burgrim, the chief of the workshop.
Yong-ho looked to the left. Catalina and Kaiwan were seated nearest to him. With her long ears drooping, Catalina was at a loss what to do, and Kaiwan was gently hugging her as if she was so cute.
It was a familiar scene for Yong-ho. Before he knew it, he recalled Elune and Sitri that he had seen in his memories of the House of Mammon. He smiled bitterly and rolled his eyes when he also recalled Ophelia's reminder that he was the demon king.
Seeing Catalina and Skull next to her, he felt relaxed somehow.
He did not mention the impending threat of the King of Gluttony, the most important issue at the moment because it was something he would not forget, let alone one that he would keep in mind all the time. He felt those dungeon spirits of the House of Mammon, not those under his direct control, had better not know about it.
"I think it is the most important thing to increase the dungeon's soul, namely Lucia's control, in order to take over the fourth floor, our new target."
It was Kaiwan who first presented her opinion. Normally, she talked informally to Yong-ho, but in a public place like this, she always used honorifics.
The fourth floor of the Labyrinth of Greed.
Among Mammon's 12 Spirits, "eight-handed Baruna", which was Cancer, passed away a long time ago like Elune. Besides, she did not leave her surrogate behind like Elune.
Because of this, Yong-ho could take her recognition for "free," like Scathach said, but it wasn't necessarily good for him. Since he didn't get Baruna's recognition through a legitimate process, he could make his Godly Energy near perfect, but he could not properly use her power.
The power of "eight-handed Baruna" was that of creation. According to Scathach, Baruna used the power of creation to work miracles, such as creating something from almost nothing. It was the power befitting the builder of the Labyrinth of Greed.
When a dungeon spirit to succeed Baruna's position emerged someday, she would be able to revive the power of creation again, just like Skull and Catalina succeeded Baphomet's death and Elune's justice respectively. Because of this, Yong-ho could put aside his lingering affection for the power of creation for now.
The reason Kaiwan emphasized the need to take control of the 4th floor of the Labyrinth of Greed was because of the facilities there.
The fourth floor of the Labyrinth of Greed was a workshop. Moreover, it was truly huge. Since it was a semi-automated factory, it was possible to mass-produce high-quality equipment as long as there were enough materials.
"The facilities on the 4th floor are amazing."
"If you can use those facilities, I bet you can make weapons that are several times better than now."
"It will be possible to produce traps that are more powerful than the existing ones. There are lots of blueprints left behind."
Burgrim wrote down those sentences on the board in an enthusiastic handwriting style.
His eyes were shining as if he was very excited, but it didn't last long. Recalling the problems that engineers faced all the time, Burgrim presented his own opinion timidly.
"If you can increase the budget and the amount of essence a little more..."
Yong-ho couldn't answer immediately. So, he heard the opinions of the next dungeon spirit. This time, Rikum said, "We need to purchase additional battle wagons and various equipment. If we can add specialized troops, such as large-sized warrior horses for transportation, we can greatly increase our military strength."
In fact, when very powerful masters started a war, they usually deployed various kinds of dungeon spirits. For example, a Mountain Giant, which played the role of a turret by throwing huge rocks, a giant golem that could be called a tank itself, or a large flying spirit that could carry dozens or more at a time.
Although Yong-ho had the power of evolution, it was difficult for him to raise large-sized spirits in a short time. This matter was a little different from training the skeletons that made up the skull unit.
Instead of answering immediately, Yong-ho heard another dungeon spirit's opinion.
Eligos said a little timidly, "It would be nice if we can add a working golem to the silver mine in the dungeon of the Abigail family."
He used the expression 'it would be nice' instead of 'it is necessary.'
It was because he took into account the fact that Yong-ho would need a significant budget to handle the requests that they already made.
Yong-ho finally looked at Skull. Skull also presented its opinion with a sincere voice.
"Skull Skull."
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