VIP Chapter 213: “I Want Your Heart”
Will was startled by her sudden plea.
“Demon materials are quite useful. Demon wings are great for poisons, and their horns can be used as luminous products in dark dungeons. As for their tails, they’re mostly made into adult toys. If you insist, a demon’s heart has decent resistance and can carry black magic…”
Seeing no reaction from the two, she rambled on, as if reciting a prepared speech, listing item after item.
How pathetic!
It was hard to imagine a Dungeon Empress stooping to this extent.
At least, most of the Empresses Will had met sat on their thrones, waiting for adventurers to approach them for a life-or-death battle.
But…
He looked at the Lucifer before him, who still retained a shred of her empress dignity, sitting upright with her arms crossed.
Her expression, her gaze, her words, all seemed like she was tugging at their sleeves, looking up with tears in her eyes, asking if they, as adventurers, could just stay a little longer.
Was this dungeon truly so desperate for adventurers that they had to offer materials?
“You’re really trying hard to please us.”
“So… interested in taking some? In exchange for the number of times you’ve conquered this Dungeon.”
“Well.”
For Will, he was already going to take demon items from here, so he definitely wouldn’t leave empty-handed.
However, he was thinking about what in here would actually be useful.
Before he could say anything, Shuna, behind him, spoke up again:
“Let’s go back to the first question, as it’s related to the dungeon’s ultimate secret.”
“Shuna? You seem to have thought of a question.”
“Mhm.”
She nodded.
But Will felt that in the few minutes of thought just now, she seemed to have changed.
The most prominent change was…
Her voice was a little cold.
She walked forward, stepping past Will, and stood before him.
Black stockings covered half of her legs as she stood straight, her right hand tense, never leaving the dagger.
But this time, Will understood; she was placing her hand on the dagger with the mindset that “if the Empress before her doesn’t tell the truth, she’ll force her with strength.”
After seemingly contemplating something, she calmly posed the following question:
“What do you mean by needing to obtain energy from adventurers’ battles for the dungeon to expand downwards?”
“Literally.” Lucifer spread her hands. “If no one challenges the dungeon, I, as the Dungeon Emperor, cannot open the door to the next blank floor.”
“The doors within the dungeon are physical, opened by force? And require authorization?”
She asked urgently.
“That’s right.”
“So, you’re actually excavating in blank floors?”
“Not entirely. Blank floors provide ‘materials’ and ‘personnel’ for us Emperors to arrange as we please. That’s why each dungeon’s characteristics match its Emperor’s style.”
“What happens when dungeon monsters are killed?”
“As long as this dungeon isn’t destroyed, I, the Empress, can bring them back – in fact, monsters below a certain low level are mass-produced.”
“What about you? If you die…”
“Someone actually cares about whether we live or die. I don’t know, perhaps… I’ll disappear, or perhaps you’ll see me again in some dungeon one day.”
“How many adventurer challenges are needed to open the next door?”
Each word came out like a rapid-fire bullet.
Shuna, filled with curiosity, fired off a series of questions about the inner workings and operations of the dungeon.
Some things Will had heard about in the original work, and some were things he was hearing for the first time.
She dug up almost all the dungeon’s secrets, with this Empress, who was not stingy with her answers, before her.
Upon hearing this question, Lucifer sighed and, unlike before, didn’t give a quick answer.
“…It’s been ‘stagnant’ here for a long time. You are the first visitors in three months.”
“So, you can’t answer this question either, can you?”
“Yes. I don’t know.”
Shuna like this made Will even more convinced of his previous guess.
Her current obsession with the internal situation of the “dungeon,” and her cold, indifferent, and rational questioning method.
It was very similar to Xiu.
Even exceeding the usual “God-Attuned” obsession with dungeons.
It wasn’t quite like the cheerful and lively Shuna from before.
“So, up until now, the reason dungeons welcomed adventurers’ clears was because you wanted to explore further, right?”
“Mhm.”
“Which means, it’s different from what we adventurers know. We and you are not ‘enemies.'”
“We are enemies. Because clearing a dungeon yields more materials. If your clearing progress catches up to our development progress, you will perish.”
“If, from the perspective of ‘exploring what lies at the depths of the dungeon’?”
“I… have never heard of such a perspective. You didn’t just want to obtain the resources you desired from such a natural source of goods?”
“Then, last question.”
Shuna didn’t directly answer her question but immediately moved on to the next topic.
“Go ahead.”
“Does the dungeon have an end? What is there?”
“…”
Lucifer, who had been smiling all along, dejectedly pulled up her coat, which had slipped to her elbow, to cover the red mark Will had left on her shoulder.
After the rapid exchange of questions and answers quieted down, Will felt a little awkward.
“I don’t know.”
After a long pause, Lucifer finally uttered this.
It was evident that the series of questions had made her impatient.
“I have no more questions. As I said, it’s the last one.”
After Shuna finished all her questions, she seemed to have emerged from her previous state.
Will saw a rare smile on her face again.
Something was wrong.
This made Will want to…
“So, you came just for this.”
“I thought you genuinely wanted to experience the Tenth Demon City, at least to get some demon materials…”
“Even… to stay a little longer.”
“It seems I was being too presumptuous.”
“I’m truly sorry, but there really is nothing here that can satisfy you. If there’s nothing else, you may leave.”
Lucifer looked like a child who heard their parents returned from a trip, expecting to be visited, only to find out they just came back for an item left at home.
Although Will knew he shouldn’t treat an Empress who looked like a child as a real child, she did look somewhat pathetic.
Heh heh.
This is where Will, the number one child-soother, makes his entrance!
Isn’t this perfect?
He did indeed enter the Tenth Demon City because there was something he wanted to obtain from here – “important materials”!
Unlike Shuna beside him, who had coldly asked irrelevant questions.
“No, no, no, little Lucifer, I do have one thing, and it’s only found here, and it’s the only place I can get it.”
“Who are you calling little!”
Lucifer looked up and saw Will squatting by the bed, looking up at her.
“G-Guest, wh-what do you want, just say it, you-you don’t have to be like this…”
“I…”
Will had just thought that among the things she mentioned, there was indeed one item that would be perfect for Treya’s sword.
That is—
He reached out and placed his hand directly over Lucifer’s left chest.
“I want your heart.”
