I Raided the Demon’s Treasury

Chapter 73

‘The children… must be back.’

In the spawning grounds of the deep sea.

From its very depths, a woman pondered this thought.

No, could she even be called a woman anymore? Her once-luscious hair had completely fallen out, and her once-smooth skin had shriveled into a pitch-black dryness.

To anyone who saw her, she would appear more like a mummy than a living being.

Only the pulsating spawning membrane holding hundreds of eggs testified that she was ever once a ‘queen.’

‘How many years has it been?’

In the days when she existed in the tower, she was far from the monstrous figure she had become.

The queen who ruled over the sea of the tower—a queen who commanded an entire floor.

Every monster on the floor, and even the players who ventured to climb it, had to bow their heads and kneel before her.

Yes, that was until that incident happened.

‘Because of that bastard…!’

Around the time she came to rule over an entire floor, she wasn’t satisfied with that alone and coveted the seat of a Constellation.

She forced those who believed in other Constellations on her floor to believe in her instead, annihilating those who refused.

As followers grew and her status expanded, reaching the level of transcendence, the Constellation worshipped by the aquatic beings descended directly onto her floor.

Leviathan.

Even with just a fragment of that presence descending, she couldn’t withstand it for even a fraction of a second and lost all her power.

With just one attack.

The once-familiar gentle waves turned into a tsunami filled with the Power of Envy, and in that moment, all her strength vanished.

Leviathan was expelled from the tower, but she was cast out along with Leviathan as well.

Stripped of her power, she was even cursed by the Demon God of Lust, who came to bid her farewell.

As a result, she was doomed to a lifetime of spawning, and her children no longer saw her as their mother.

They followed their instincts, and instead of protecting her, they kept her imprisoned.

Unaware that they too were merely being used by the tower.

And so, she had been suffering here for an eternity.

Until now.

“…So this is the spawning grounds.”

‘Who’s there?’

A voice came from the entrance.

I thought it was noisy outside, and indeed it seemed like an attack was happening.

But who? How did they get here?

Various questions arose, but those weren’t what mattered now.

‘Finally, the time to end this curse has come…!’

I could use that human to end this long curse, annihilate the aquatic species that followed the Constellation, and ultimately crush the Envy Constellation.

It was time to trample on Leviathan.

By using the human to break the curse and the hidden jewel, it was definitely possible.

“Are you… human?”

Squeezing out all the strength she had accumulated, a grotesque voice escaped her lips as soon as she finalized her plan.

* * *

The voice came from inside the spawning membrane, which was connected to the innermost part of the cave.

Moving towards the voice, I saw a figure that looked like a dried-up mummy.

“Are you the one who spoke to me?”

“Yes. Please don’t stare so intensely. I am ashamed of my horrid appearance.”

Contrary to her grotesque voice, her tone was incredibly soft.

However, I did not let my guard down.

“What are you?”

“…You’re quite impatient, aren’t you?”

“If you have nothing useful to say, I’ll end this right here.”

I tightened my grip on my spear.

She was, after all, the boss monster of this dungeon.

Having faced countless boss monsters while climbing the tower before my regression, I knew better than to trust a monster.

Moreover, I had just collapsed the ceiling of the dungeon and slaughtered numerous monsters. As the boss monster, she would surely be aware of that.

Talking to someone who had killed her monsters, her own offspring, in such a manner? She must have an ulterior motive.

“Just wait a moment, please.”

“If this isn’t interesting, I’ll stab you immediately, so you’d better say something worthwhile.”

I pressed my spear against her skull.

The only reason I hadn’t struck yet was simple.

‘I might be able to get a clue about Leviathan.’

I desperately needed a lead on Leviathan who seemed an insurmountable obstacle. Even if it wasn’t about that, if she offered a decent reward, I might consider listening.

Useful equipment was always in short supply.

Listening intently, her first words made me flinch.

“A demon turned me into this.”

A demon.

I wasn’t sure yet which demon she was referring to. It could have just been a metaphor.

But given her position and the various sources I had investigated before my regression, I could deduce that the demon she spoke of was ‘Leviathan’.

Sensing my interest, she continued her story.

“Once, I ruled the ‘Sea of Radiance’ on the 40th floor of the tower.”

The story that followed was about her life before her current state.

Although it pained her to admit it, she said she had protected numerous monsters from players who slaughtered them indiscriminately, endured the unreasonable demands and insults of the Constellations, and more.

It felt like listening to a well-crafted novel.

Her narrative was so seamless that I almost got lost in the story without realizing it.

But then…

‘It’s a lie.’

I soon realized.

Not a complete lie, but a lie based on truth.

The demon she referenced was what typical players considered the root of all evil, yet I knew better.

Even if it was called a demon, it wouldn’t curse a floor’s ruler without reason.

Moreover, I recalled several historical texts I had read before my regression that paralleled her story.

‘The Black Sea Queen, Estrosha.’

Dea Vackandel Estrosha. A tyrant who turned the Sea of Radiance into a realm of blood and darkness.

Ultimately, she betrayed the Constellation that had protected the sea, sought its place, was cursed by a god, and expelled from the tower.

Historical texts couldn’t be trusted entirely, but they were certainly more reliable than the foolish lies she was currently spewing.

As much as I wanted to plunge my spear into her for her smooth lies, I restrained myself.

I needed to at least extract some information about Leviathan’s whereabouts.

“So, where is this demon located?”

“Are you really going to help me? You must be such a righteous warrior! Surely, my survival this long was destined for our meeting!”

“Enough. Just tell me the location.”

“Could you lift my curse first? Then we can go together…”

“No, you tell me the location first. I have to see it with my own eyes to believe it.”

I had no intention of freeing her in the first place.

She hesitated for a moment, but the queen trapped in this dungeon by a demon’s curse had no choice.

“East. Head east, and you’ll find corrupted merfolk who have sold their souls to serve the demon.”

A small, concealed smile appeared on my face.

Following the monsters only to find nothing but their lairs instead of Leviathan’s had left me feeling quite lost, but thanks to her, I had a direction.

“Do you have anything to give me?”

“Give… what?”

“I’m going to meet the demon for your sake. I’d need some decent equipment, wouldn’t I?”

“…I keep some gear for my minions in the back room.”

“Not that. Something capable of opposing the demon.”

Now that I knew the destination, there was nothing more to pry from her.

So I pressed her, hoping to find any hidden items that might be in the dungeon.

But perhaps my more relaxed demeanor had made her suspicious?

Her voice began to grow anxious.

“Th-There is a hidden room.”

“Oh? Where is it?”

“Only I can access that room. If you lift my curse first, I’ll present you with the finest equipment myself.”

“Really? And how do you lift the curse?”

At Se-woon’s question, a flicker of hope appeared on her withered face.

“It’s simple! Just break the shackles on my arm and hold my hand!”

I turned to examine the shackles she mentioned.

They were blue cuffs of an unknown material. Although I wasn’t sure of their exact function, they seemed to be continuously draining her life force.

If I were to break those shackles and hold her hand as she instructed…

‘She’d likely drain all my life force instead.’

I would become a mummified corpse in her place.

This is confirmed beyond doubt.

She wasn’t some tragic queen condemned by a demon and trapped in the depths.

She was a prisoner.

A heinous criminal cursed by a demon, condemned to an eternal curse within the spawning grounds.

“No thanks. Just tell me how I can get the equipment.”

“As I said, only I can open it! So you need to lift the curse first…”

“Ah, so you figured it out.”

“…Pardon?”

I suspected, but it was now clear she wouldn’t willingly give up any more information. It didn’t seem like the guards she worried about would show up either.

If that’s the case…

“You, you can feel pain even in that state, right?”

“Wh-Why are you asking that?”

– Opened the Treasury of Greed.

[ Grad Empire’s Torture Techniques ]

– A method that applies psychological pressure or physical pain to extract confidential information from an enemy. It contains hundreds of techniques, said to have been practiced exclusively in the Empire’s underground prisons.

Swish.

Se-woon sheathed the spear on his back.

From now on, the spear wasn’t needed.

Bubbling!

“They say the moment of greatest pain for a creature is when their body is engulfed in flames, right?”

Water began to boil on Se-woon’s hand.

Since fire magic couldn’t be used underwater, he improvised by raising the temperature of the water to an extreme level.

Even if he couldn’t sear the skin with flames, boiling the skin with hot water was perfectly feasible.

Bubble!

“Or perhaps it’s when they’re submerged and can’t breathe. No, in your case, maybe you can’t breathe without water?”

The water swirling in Se-woon’s hand disappeared, replaced by a round bubble of air.

“Warrior, please, let’s talk instead…”

“Oh, don’t worry. Given your current state, I’ll leave life-threatening torture for last.”

Finishing his sentence, Se-woon pulled out dozens of sharp spines from his Subspace Pouch.

Monster spines.

Having dealt with the monsters of the fifth wave and entered the sea immediately after, he hadn’t handed these materials over to Go Vhang-seok yet.

Who’d have thought these materials would be used this way?

“Ah, and do take your time in responding.”

“What do you mean…”

“Since it’s my first time trying these techniques, I want to experiment with as many methods as possible.”

“Y-You, you’re…”

“Understood?”

Thunk!

“Ahhhh!!”

In the deepest part of the spawning grounds under the sea, the queen’s scream echoed loudly. But outside, where the wreckage had left everything in disarray, the other monsters—scattered and scrambling to avoid the debris—couldn’t hear a thing.