‘What?!’

Kang Chul-In found it difficult to swallow Dorian’s words. 

There was no dungeon within the Laputa territory.

There was an underground prison, but it was just a small prison, not reaching even 300 square meters.

And it was even harder to believe that it would only pop up when they were flying.   

“Oh, then is it not a dungeon?”

Dorian changed his words.

“I mean, there is a quest tab that popped up, but I can’t really see it. It says I don’t have the permission to.”

“A quest tab?”

“It says that only the Lord of the Laputa territory can see it.”

Kang Chul-In was interested in what Dorian’s words meant.

‘Only I can see it? It must be a hidden quest then.’

Within Pangaea, there were some rare occasions and instances where a hidden quest would pop up. And it would seem that this time was one of those cases.

“Can you show it to me?” Kang Chul-In said.

“ ‘Course!”

Dorian opened his quest tab and showed it to Kang Chul-In.

• The Final Safehouse, ‘The Royal Palace’
• (Unknown)

Aim: (Unknown)

Reward: (Unknown)

Difficulty: (Unknown)

• This quest is only doable by the Lord of the Laputa territory.
• (Unknown)

(Unknown)

It was said that Dorian did not have the permission, and everything was filled with unknowns.

‘Maybe it’s a jackpot.’

Looking at this unidentifiable quest, Kang Chul-In thought that this might be a very lucky chance for him.

 These kinds of quests would have rewards that were great, no beyond great and would be a jackpot even out of jackpots. And not only this, only the Lord of Laputa could complete the quest.

“Lord of the Laputa territory, Kang Chul-In’s quest tab.”

Kang Chul-In spoke the command words.

Swish!

And the quest tab in front of Dorian’s disappeared, while a quest tab in front of Kang Chul-In had appeared. The one in front of him however, had no ‘unknowns’.

• The Final Safehouse, ‘The Royal Palace’
• Investigate the ruins of the Ancient Kingdom!

Aim: Clear ‘The Royal Palace’

Rewards: Exp. +3000 / +2 Levels / Ticket of Territory Enrichment / Needle of the Empress (Epic Item) 

Difficulty: Immeasurable (Epic)

• The Quest is only doable by the Lord of the Laputa Territory
• The Quest is doable by the allies of the Lord of Laputa, but the rewards will only go to the Lord.

Be careful, unfamiliar one.

That if you are not the true Lord and owner of Laputa, you shouldn’t challenge this quest.

Only, only the ‘True Lord of Laputa’ will be able to finish this quest… fake Lord, face death for challenging the might of the ancient royal family.

“This is some bull**** they’re spouting.”

Kang Chul-In grimaced, as if he were unsatisfied with the contents of the quest.

“Milord, why are you so angry?”

Lucia spoke calmly towards Kang Chul-In, trying to calm him down. 

“This stupid quest told me not to challenge it if I am not the true Lord and owner of the Laputa territory. It even warned me saying that I could just be the fake, false Lord.

This made all of the high ranking official’s faces of Laputa go grim.

“Where can one see such a stupid, ignorable quest like this?!”

And Nilus’s rage was especially great.

“The whole of the Pangaea continent is milord’s territory, how can there be such an ignorable quest like this?!”

Although Nilus was going overboard with this matter, what he said was true.

No matter who saw it, Kang Chul-In was the rightful owner and Lord to the Laputa territory.

“It’s been a long while since I’ve been so angry.” Kang Chul-In roared in a low voice.

“Dorian.”

“Yeah?”

“This quest, where have you received it? StartTell me from when you said that there was a dungeon at the bottom of my territory.”

“Oh, so...’

Dorian lifted up the dog.

“It’s thanks to this guy over here. He is...”

“The S rank unit, ‘Seeker’. Is he not a ‘Treasure Seeker’? You probably named him ‘Lucky’, so we will go over that story.”

Kang Chul-In answered quickly.

“Huh? No it’s not…”  

Dorian shook his head.

“..What’s not?”  “He is an S rank unit and he also is a seeker, but his name isn’t ‘Lucky’. This guy’s name is Jack! Like from ‘Jackpot’, ya know?”

 It seemed like Dorian picked the same unit from the Random Unit Selection, yet had named his unit differently.

“Isn’t that right, Jack?”

“Bark, Bark!”

“Well anyway, continue on with the story.”

Every single minute, every single second was important. There was a 6 day time limit for when he had to hand in all of the Talking Tree saps in.

“Well, it wasn’t really much. Since there were no traces of kidnapping, I could only rely on Jack to help me. I tried to take the clothes and shoes of the kidnappees, and tell Jack to follow after the people who had been kidnapped. And as a result… Well, do you have a map here?”

Listening to Dorian’s request, Timothy handed a map of the area.

“Thanks.”

And after thanking Timothy, Dorian pointed at the Northwestern Region of Laputa. 

 “Here.”

It was towards the outermost regions of where the Talking Tree saps were being harvested, and was near a cliff.

“Because of the fact that there is a cliff here, it’s a place that requires equipment and gadgets used for climbing, and it’s also where the tracks of them stopped. So…”

“The kidnappees suddenly teleported, or started flying there?”

Kang Chul-In finished the sentence.

“Yes, you’re right. And if not for that, there were would be a bunch of corpses lying at the bottom of the cliff.”

“If it were done by monsters, there would be blood.         It seems like you’ve gone down there before.”

“Yes, you’re right.”

“And what happened?”  

“Well, everyone that’s gone inside has died.”

Dorian spouted some terrifying words to hear from his mouth. 

“From the entrance to 300m in it’s only 5 meters wide, and all of the monsters there are level 30. So many of them there. And looking at the direction of it, it’s right under your territory.”

300m inside is just the beginning of a dungeon. And if the monsters at the beginning and the outskirts were all level 30, that meant that the monsters in the inner regions would have to be at least level 40 or higher.

“I went inside once, and nearly died because of the monsters inside. I had to run away from there without even talking a single look back.”

“Did the monsters have any special characteristics or traits?”  

“Hmm… Well, they were quite peculiar. Wooden dolls, Plush dolls, Wax Dolls. All of them were really well made and cute, but they were also all ridiculously powerful.”

Dorian seemed to take being chased by those cute monsters as a loss of pride, and spoke sourly.

“I mean, those monsters aren’t even ogres or minotaurs, they’re just stupid dolls…”

Dorian continued to complain, but Kang Chul-In was too focused on what Dorian had said before to listen to his incessant complaining.

‘This boss monster is absolutely terrifying. The distance from the dungeon entrance is over 5km long. To charm and control the minds of the children from that distance… That’s some terrifying mind control ability. And if it had to use Telekinesis to lift the children up from the cliff, then that’s even worse. And not only that… If the monsters at the front were dolls… It’s a very high-class esper type, a Puppeteer.’

It seemed like this boss monster was a hard nut to crack.

‘At least level 45, and level 50 at worst case scenario? There’s a high probability that it’s a named unit too.’

A puppeteer was a ridiculously rare class, and there was almost a 99% chance that the ones with this class was not a monster, but an NPC instead. And there was also a high chance that they were like Nilus, with very high stats too.

“Chul-In. Oi, Kang Chul-In.”

Dorian suddenly spoke to Kang Chul-In, who was working hard to figure things out.

“Ah.”

And Kang Chul-In finally stopped thinking, and turned to face Dorian. 

“You listening?”

“Yes, I am. Continue.”

“Hmph… don’t think you are.”

“Quickly.”

“Looking at the fact that there were no corpses at the entrance, or blood stains, there is a high possibility that they were dragged further into the cave.”

“Obviously.”

“Is it obvious?”

“Listening to your story, this dungeon’s boss, or at least some mid-way boss or guardian of this dungeon is a puppeteer with some tremendous Telekinesis. And these Puppeteers…”

Kang Chul-In spoke as if disgusted.

“Love to play with people in ways that they want. Turning them into their own slaves to do their bidding.”

“I.. Is that so.”

“Or…”

“Or?”

“In some extreme cases, they rip out the innards of a human, and plant  inside machinery inside themir instead, for fun. No matter which type it is, they both are crazy; and need to be stopped.”

“Those damnable bastards!”

Dorian said loudly, not masking his displeasure.

“Well, thanks anyway for the information.”

Kang Chul-In nodded his head.

“Then what shall I get ready?”  “Ready?”

“Don’t we need to get ready in order to beat that stupid guy up? He seems powerful, and I don’t think we can just dive in headfirst without any sort of plan.”

Dorian said something that was worth listening to.

“You’re going to join in raiding the dungeon?”  

“Of course I am! There’s a stupid psychopath in the middle of my friend’s territory, and you want me to sit still? There’s no way in hell I’m doing that! I’m going in too! A man is nothing without his integrity!”

Dorian showed his integrity and showed his will to help. 

 “Well, even if you do help, there are no rewards for you here. Looking at the quest, there will only be rewards for me, the owner of Laputa. Will you still participate?”

Kang Chul-In asked again.

“Reward? Peh. INTEGRITY!”

Despite Kang Chul-In telling Dorian there would be no rewards, Dorian still decided to participate. 

‘Hmph, you’re always that same guy.’

Dorian was the same as he was in Kang Chul-In’s past life, and due to this attitude of his, he was always dragged around by not just Kang Chul-In, but others too.

Otherwise, there was no way that a level 150 adventurer would raid a dungeon in the middle of the Land of a Lord that was level 20. 

But even after Dorian realized the truth of the things there, he told himself ‘well, I guess these kinds of things happen’. And that was the problem about him. His nature was just too kind.

“Very well.”

Kang Chul-In nodded his head. 

“If you want to take a loss that much, I guess I’ll let you taste it.”

Although other things were uncertain, one thing that you could trust about Dorian was his skill. And not only that, he even had Jack by his side now. There was no way that they would get lost in the dungeon now.

“Milord, I wish to follow you too!”

Lucia held her hands up, reacting quickly.

“Of course.”

To Kang Chul-In, Lucia was good help, due to her ridiculously high defense she had.

“Your highness, please don’t forget about this old one!”

Nilus also wanted in the expedition.

“Milord! Even the children of the territory of Laputa have disappeared; it wouldn’t make sense for I, Podolski to not join in!”

Podolski also volunteered to go.

“Milord, I’ve had no chances to prove myself! Please, please give this James a chance to show his worth in battle!”

Even the Knight commander James applied himself to go. After all, he was a titled and esteemed commander of the knights, and due to the fact that he had no chances to fight, his whole body was pent up with fighting will.

“Dorian, Lucia, Nilus, James, and me. The raid will be done by the five of us. According to Dorian, the dungeon was only 5m wide. An elite squad of small numbers would be better.”

Kang Chul-In chose the line-up without hesitation.

“M-Milord!”

Podolski, who wasn’t included in this line-up, made a crying face.

“How could you do this to poor Podolski…”

“The children are gone. The civilians right now are frightened, and it is no position for someone like you to leave, as you will have to keep the territory security in check.”

“Oh…”

“You showed your worth well back in Dorado. Just rest for this one time.”

“Yes, milord.”

Podolski nodded his head.

“Commander of the White Lion Knights, Michael hear me." 

Kang Chul-In looked back at Michael, who was still waiting for his punishment. 

“Yes, milord..”

“Although failing your duty as patrol was your fault, it is also true that sometimes, things just happen.”

“M-Milord….”

“It is also partially my fault that I didn’t realize there was a dungeon within our territory, and therefore I will give a punishment befitting of your faults.”

“Thank you, milord!”

Michael bowed his head graciously.

“Commander Michael, as well as his knights from now on will patrol the Laputa territory and defend it against invaders until the day that Lord Kang Chul-In comes back from the dungeon expedition. Is that clear?”

Kang Chul-In gave a punishment that couldn’t really count as a punishment.

“M-Milord!”

“However.”

Kang Chul-In spoke.

“While I’m gone, you have to protect the territory with all of your might. No matter whether an army of monsters, a dragon, outside forces, you will have to take responsibility for the territory and defend it.”

Everyone in the hall was surprised at Kang Chul-In’s words.

Of course they were surprised.

Although it was a ‘punishment’ it was more of a sign of trust, due to the heavy responsibility given to them.

Especially to the knight group who had already failed in their duty once. It was a very rare thing to do as a lord.

“M-MILORD!”

Startled, Michael’s face turned red out of embarrassment and emotion, and didn’t know what to do.

“Since you understand, I will trust you.”

Saying this, Kang Chul-In disappeared deep into the Lord’s hall. To Michael, it was a heaven-sent blessing and opportunity.