Dungeon Predator (WN)

Wyvern wings were engraved on Alaka Cave's soul stone.

"Here, take it."

Kang Oh placed a single gold coin in Ogura's hand, and snatched the soul stone. Then, the soul stone radiated intense light.

[You bought the soul dungeon, Alaka Cave, with one gold.]

[You have become the dungeon's master.]

"Go on." Kang Oh waved Ogura off.

Ogura bit his lip, sporting a humiliated expression on his face.

"Oho, what's with that look? Are you planning revenge or something?"

"No... I am not," Ogura replied with a forced smile.

Kang Oh beamed. "Come and find me whenever. Make sure you come with that SS-rank weapon and equipment too."

'I'll give you a warm welcome.'

"Ahem." Ogura coughed uncomfortably, used a return scroll, and disappeared.

"What are you going to do if the Lash Guild comes at you at full force? They might come with several thousand, no, tens of thousands."

Sephiro was such a worrywart.

"That won't happen. They have to protect their guild headquarters, their other dungeons, and their businesses. If they do come at us with everything they got, then we can just run away."

"I really hope that doesn't happen. Anyway, how will you deal with the soul dungeon? Will you sell it?" Sephiro asked.

"Let me take a look at the dungeon first."

Kang Oh softly gripped the soul stone and whispered, "Dungeon Management." Then, the Dungeon Management window popped up.

'Hoh.'

The dungeon reward was 3,000 gold, wyvern skin, teeth, and claws. Because the gold reward was so high, the dungeon had to have been expanded twice already.

After all, expanding the dungeon increased its rewards significantly. It also yielded quite a substantial amount of wyvern materials.

'I should keep this one.'

The soul dungeon offered him 3,000 gold every month. That was 9 million won ($9,000 USD) every month! As he thought, a dungeon master was superior to a landlord!

Moreover, wyvern skin, teeth, and claws were popular materials. Especially wyvern skin, as it was often used to create leather. Its demand was high, so it sold for quite a lot.

However, the dungeon had an extremely high maintenance fee.

[Maintenance Fee: 1,000 repel points.]

[Next Expansion: 5,000 repel points.]

If he wanted to reap the rewards, then he would need to attract people here, like he did with Moss Cave and the Beast's Tower.

'Hmm.'

Kang Oh thoroughly read over the dungeon's information. Monsters around level 350 spawned within Alaka Cave.

It was mostly filled with Spiked Lizards. They were around 1 meter in size, and could shoot the sharp spikes that surrounded their bodies.

Glowing Insects, Steel Rock Puppets, Gyuts (rat-faced monsters), etc. also appeared within the dungeon.

The hunting difficulty was normal, but the monsters didn't offer much experience or loot. It wouldn't attract players, who looked for dungeons that offered good experience, proficiency, and loot.

Kang Oh opened the dungeon's map, and looked for minerals, medicinal herbs, rock salt, etc.; anything that could draw players here.

His face brightened.

'You can find Wind Stones here.'

Fire Stones, Earth Stones, Lightning Stones, etc. contained an elemental spirit's power. A Wind Stone was no exception.

These elemental stones were essential when creating elemental weapons, equipment, or accessories. However, there wasn't a large supply of them, so it wasn't easy to procure them.

What if you could mine those elemental stones, albeit a small amount of them?

'Alright, let's go with this.'

Most players possessed the support skill, Mining. Thus, Alaka Cave could become a dungeon where people hunted and found Wind Stones if they were lucky!

This would be Alaka Cave's main selling point from now on.

Seeing Kang Oh's smiling expression, Sephiro said, "Have you decided what you'll do with it?"

"I'm going to keep it. The rewards are good."

"What are they?"

"Wyvern materials."

"Does it also give you a lot of gold?"

"How did you know?"

"Your mouth is wide open. You only do that when you get your hands on a lot of money."

"Hum-hum." Kang Oh wiped his chin with his sleeve just in case he was drooling.

"I'll let you know if I need any wyvern materials," Sephiro said. 'This works out well for me.'

"Me too." Eder quickly raised his hand.

"Sure, if you pay for it." Kang Oh grinned.

"C'mon, aren't we friends?" Sephiro elbowed his side.

"Who are you again?"

'I won't give you a discount!' Kang Oh pledged.

* * *

Bam!

Lash's guildmaster, Ogura, slammed his fist on the table. As if that wasn't enough, he kicked the table's legs, and threw everything on top of the desk.

"You bitch, you bitch! You stupid bitch!" he violently cursed.

He had never been humiliated like this before.

'How dare you!?'

He thought of Kang Oh, who humiliated him so thoroughly, with bloodshot eyes.

Grr.

Ogura gritted his teeth. It felt like he'd turned the heater on full blast on a hot summer day. He was boiling with rage.

"Uaaahk!"

He threw another tantrum.

Crack!

Nothing in the room was left unscathed.

"Haa, haa." Ogura breathed haggardly.

"Have you calmed down?" his vice-captain, Valdesar, carefully asked.

"Calm? Really!? Do I look calm to you!?" Ogura yelled. "Bring me that bastard right now! I said right now!"

It was as if his angry voice could break through the wall.

"How?" Valdesar asked calmly.

"What?"

"How could we possibly beat Kang Oh, who's ranked 2th?"

"We can overwhelm him with sheer numbers. Take all of our guild members and catch him!"

"Guildmaster, please calm down." Valdesar remained as calm as possible.

"How do you expect me to calm down when I suffered such humiliation?" Ogura yelled once more.

Bam!

He slammed his fists onto the table.

"I heard this from an acquaintance."

"What's this all of sudden?"

"Hercules."

"Hercules?"

"I heard that Kang Oh was the real reason that the Hercules Guild, one of the 5 great guilds, collapsed."

"What? What are you talking about?"

"I heard this from someone who was doing well in the Hercules Guild. He told me that everything was Kang Oh's fault."

"Tell me more."

"While the Hercules Guild was waging war, Kang Oh stole their allies' soul dungeons. He also stole some of the Hercules Guild's soul dungeons."

"He's got balls. So what happened?"

"He used those soul dungeons as a bargaining chip. Kang Oh traded those stolen soul dungeons in exchange for the allied guilds' loyalty. He also got the Storm Guild involved."

"Is that true?"

"It is. We tracked the previous owners of those dungeons, and confirmed that it was Kang Oh."

"Hoh. So Hercules fell due to Kang Oh?"

"He had a huge role in it. And he's not just a normal solo player either. He's close with the Storm Guild, Helena and the Witch's Forest, Bart, etc."

Storm, Helena, Bart... He couldn't underestimate any one of them.

"Damn it." Ogura slammed the table again.

If he provoked him, what would stop him from destroying his guild like he did with Hercules? He recalled Kang Oh's unassailable strength and suddenly got worried.

"Will we... be ok?"

"We have to stay out of his way for now."

"You want the Lash Guild to bow to just one player!?" Ogura clenched his fist. It became so red that it looked like it'd burst.

"Guildmaster."

"What?"

"We'll get our chance."

"What are you talking about?"

"I heard rumors that Kang Oh's relationship with the Empire Guild isn't good."

"Is that so?"

Ogura's face brightened. He somewhat knew what Valdesar was trying to say.

"Dukeram and Kang Oh fought sometime ago."

"They did."

"The Empire Guild, which took control of the three eastern kingdoms, will soon come for Kang Oh. After all, their motto is to pay back twice what they're owed."

"If things go well, then we won't have to lift a finger." Ogura grinned. 'Just thinking about him getting ripped to shreds again and again makes me feel good.'

"So we have to steer clear of him for now. We can't be the ones that make the first move."

"Hoo, I got it." Ogura nodded his head.

The Lash Guild had decided to stay out of trouble.

* * *

Kang Oh let Sephiro and Eder go, and then reorganized Alaka Cave. First, he bought guardians that would earn him some repel points.

[You have spent 1,000 gold to transform a Spiked Lizard into a guardian.]

[The Spiked Lizard has transformed into the Poison Spiked Guana.]

The Spiked Lizard, which previously walked on four legs, now walked on two. It resembled a Lizardman now, and wielded hook-like weapons in both hands.

[You have spent 800 gold to transform a Steel Rock Puppet into a guardian.]

[The Steel Rock Puppet has transformed into the Tough Rock Puppet, Bark.]

The glossy puppet became even larger. It was originally around 2 meters tall, but now it was more than 3 meters tall. At the same time, its body became larger, and eyes, a nose, and a mouth appeared on its once empty face.

[You have spent 800 gold to transform a Gyut into a guardian.]

[The Gyut has transformed into the Brainy Mers.]

The rat, which sported an evil smile, held a square box in its hands. It seemed like it could set up a trap just once. That square box was probably the device necessary to set up the trap.

"Repel any intruders." Kang Oh commanded.

'Next is...'

He had 314 repel points left. Kang Oh invested all of it into making the dungeon a more attractive hunting ground.

[You have spent 100 repel points.]

[For 1 month, monsters yield 20% more experience.]

[You have spent 100 repel points.]

[For 1 month, monsters respawn 200% faster.]

[You have spent 100 repel points.]

[For 1 month, the resources and materials found within Alaka Cave have increased by 1.5 times.]

Finally, he reorganized the dungeon itself.

He created vacant lots where adventurers could rest, and made the complicated roads much simpler than before.

'I'll slowly add the traps as I go.'

When people started trickling into the dungeon, he would start adding traps to gain even more repel points.

Finally, he checked the Steel Armored Wyvern, Wakaiser. It was level 400, and possessed stats comparable to a similarly leveled boss.

It had one eye-catching trait: its Poison Breath. Plus, it could fly low to the ground and stab its enemies with its steel wings.

'Unless you're a high ranker, you won't be able to beat it easily.'

He didn't feel the need to reinforce Wakaiser. Plus, he didn't have the repel points to do so even if he wanted to.

Kang Oh smiled satisfyingly and closed the Dungeon Management window.

"Take care of it for me." Kang Oh passed Wakaiser the soul stone. It had somewhat recovered from its previous beatdown.

Kyaha!

Wakaiser nodded its head. Although it couldn't speak, it seemed to understand his command.

It swallowed the soul stone and rubbed its head against Kang Oh's body.

"Let's get along." Kang Oh petted Wakaiser.

Gyaa!

It cried out happily.

"Ah, that's right. Where's the transfer magic circle?" Kang Oh asked.

Wakaiser pointed behind the waterfall.

Now that he looked a little closer, there was some dim light coming from behind the waterfall. It was probably coming from the transfer magic circle.

'Good. Now it's time to promote it.'

Kang Oh logged out. Then, his vision turned black as if he'd turned off the TV.

* * *

The world's largest video-sharing site, Youtube.

Kang Oh had a channel there. He hadn't uploaded any new content lately, so he lost half of his subscribers, but he gained many more after rising to rank 2. So he actually had more subscribers than before.

"Hum-hum-hum." Jae Woo hummed and began editing the footage of him slaughtering the Lash Guild's elites.

"Add special effects when they get hit, and use Noir for the background music."

"Yes, Master."

If he told it what he wanted, the AI would edit the video by itself. Of course, it was much worse than a video edited by a professional editor.

In exchange, it was much simpler and easier!

Jae Woo clicked 'upload video'. He uploaded the video of him slaughtering the Lash Guild, and placed his cursor over the title.

'What should I call it?' Kang Oh stroked his chin and thought about it.

He wondered whether there was a title that had a lot of impact. Jae Woo bit his finger since he couldn't think of anything.

Then, he heard the word 'liberation' from the opening of his door.

'Liberation?'

Jae Woo opened the door, and saw his mother watching TV. She was watching a documentary commemorating Korean independence.

'Liberation!'

That was exactly what he was looking for.

[Dungeon Liberation Movement Part 1 - Alaka Cave!]