179 Lord Moloch

After the capture of Mechataur, Jin walked off with Peppers towards the next area and left Mr Derpy to guard the bridge so that they could focus on fighting the next boss. Although Jin hoped that it would be the final boss.

"Another Gate, another boss I guess." Jin pushed the giant iron double door gates open with relative ease. They looked heavy but when Jin pushed it, he realised they were just for show. A bright shining light shone onto Jin as he opened the gate and Jin half-expected the dungeon to have ended. Unfortunately though, he realised that he celebrated too early.

"Welcome Summoner." A man was talking to him while sitting on a large metallic throne. He was accompanied by two costumed minotaur guards who were waiting to pounce on Jin at their lord's signal. The more Jin tried to observe the man on the throne, the weirder he thought the Lord of this place was.

Yes, it was a man on the throne. But there was a stuffed minotaur plushie on top of his head that covered his eyes. The plushie also seemed to be animated as it yawned when the man greeted Jin but no matter how the man moved, the plushie was always covering his eyes.

"Come closer Summoner, I am rather impressed by how fast you managed to enter the last part of the fortress. I am Lord Moloch." Moloch spoke quite gently but his voice had a tone of authority to it.

In addition, whenever Moloch moved his hand, a massive stone minotaur statue behind his throne also moved along with him like a puppet. Jin gradually began to appreciate how impressive the statue was when he came closer to the throne. It was decorated with various precious metals carved into it and… what seemed to be two auto-tracking laser ray guns that followed Jin when he approached the throne.

Not only that, but there were two guards wearing black sunglasses along with a full formal suit, acting similarly to a modern secret service guard... with a twist. Why a twist? Both were not just minotaurs, they were mino-centaurs. The had the body of a horse but a humanoid upper body that resembled that of a minotaur. They stood tall guarding each side of the throne.

As for Lord Moloch, who was sitting on the throne, he was surprisingly humble with his attire. All he wore was a casual shirt with its sleeves folded up along with some skinny long pants. Of course, there was also that stuffed lazy cookie brown minotaur plushie that moved around his head while covering Moloch's eyes no matter how much he moved.

"I'd like to ask a few questions. Would you mind answering? Oh, and I hope you don't mind standing as you answer since most of the maids that I have hired have disappeared after battling with your monsters." Lord Moloch was hinting at something and Jin knew that either this lord demon had an ulterior motive and that was why he was stalling for time or he was just plain curious.

"Sure, go ahead Lord Moloch." Jin smiled as if he was greeting a customer but in his mind, he sent a voice transmission to Peppers to be on the lookout for anything suspicious, including anything magical.

"Please, just call me Moloch." The lord demon smiled as he clapped his hands in joy. "First question, are the minotaurs that disappeared safe?"

"Yes, they are," Jin answered truthfully.

"Then, I believe they are under your command now?" The minotaur lord asked as he now leaned back on his throne and crossed his legs.

"Yes, they are," Jin replied truthfully yet again.

"I see. Your purpose for coming here? To get the tribute or to capture the entire fortress? Summoner…?" Lord Moloch realised he had not asked for Jin's name.

"Jin. And the primary purpose of this trip was to get the tribute. The secondary objective was the monsters and before you ask, yes, if possible, I wanted to capture you too, still do, to be frank." Jin took the initiative to answer, which caused the guards to take their weapons out and prepare for a fight. However, Moloch stopped them with a gentle lift of his left hand and placed his head atop his right arm as he started to slouch over his throne. Although he seemed lazy, Jin felt that he was actually interested in the conversation.

"Excellent, I can sense that you are not lying to me. So. Let's assume that you manage to capture me. What will happen to me? Will I have to swear eternal fealty to you? Will I have a choice in matters or will I be forced to do your bidding? Do I have any off days? Can I do whatever I like?" Moloch continued to ask a barrage of questions and it felt like Jin was going through a job interview with the demon.

"Once you are captured by me, I will provide you with suitable housing and free food. All your servants would still be under your command but all of you would automatically pledge your unwavering loyalty to me. Hence, in a way, yes, you have to do things my way but since we can have civil conversations, we can discuss things through, negotiate your "contract", so to speak. Off days are… subjective to nature. You will understand once you enter my command." Jin answered all of Moloch's questions in a clear-cut manner, which made Lord Moloch ponder for a moment.

"I wonder what would happen if I were to be relieved of this post here." Lord Moloch talked to himself before he leaned forward and the plushie that once seemed lazy began to stare at Jin. It was as if Lord Moloch was actually the plushie rather than the man that was talking.

"If you are wondering, yes. This toy. This plushie is the real me, Lord Moloch. My king, Baal, reduced me into a plushie for losing the tribute a countless number of times to adventurers. I told him that I prefer to do desk-related administrative stuff but he would rather use me as musclehead, sitting on this pathetically small throne and guarding the tribute area." Moloch answered.

"So being fed up with King Baal, I decided to carve a place of my own liking. Since the dungeons would be targeted and King Baal would not want to send further reinforcements to protect this place, I decided to do things my way. At the very least, I am having some fun before I get killed by the high-level adventurers."

"Therefore, I have a proposal for you. Capture me. Release me from my servitude to King Baal. I'll serve you instead... though there is a condition. I want you to take this fortress and transform it into a proper town fortress. That's all I want: to be a proper lord."

"What do you mean a town fortress?" Jin asked and Moloch raised an eyebrow. "You don't know what a town fortress is despite being so proficient in the art of summoning? Sorry, I assumed you had a lot of experience with dungeons." Moloch was surprised until Peppers started explaining to Jin.

"Creating a dungeon town fortress means that you are creating an actual town while defending it from monster enemies. It is actually the reverse of a dungeon fortress, which is what you were fighting in. Monsters and willing adventurers can come into this town to resupply. They can choose to settle down, live a life, and defend the area. In short, it's like a neutral area for monsters and adventurers to coexist in peace."

"Then why would monsters want to attack this place? I am sorry, Moloch, I am more of a… bookworm that specialises in catching monsters…not really a -" Jin was a little embarrassed until Moloch stepped in.

"No need to apologise. I understand how you feel. Sometimes, you just get too engrossed into something that you just do not want to care about other stuff. I think you and I have much alike." Moloch's human puppet grinned.

"Monsters attack because they A) Want the fortress for themselves. And B), Instead of a tribute, taking over a town fortress means that you get full access to the dungeon's resources. So if they win against the whole town, the monsters would get to utilise the entire dungeon's resources and be the Lord of this area. I don't really know why adventurers cannot attack town fortresses but that's just how things work."

"Actually not exactly, records show that adventurers do attack dungeon town fortresses if they posed a threat against their daily life. However, in most cases, they do not do it because they treat dungeon town fortress as havens. If you include an adventurer guild, all the more they would not attack the area. Not to mention, they would also help defend against monsters that raid the area. Hence, they do not really have a problem staying in an area where monsters come to them." Peppers was delighted to provide them with an answer.

"Wait, then how come you want me to create a town fortress if only monsters can rule as lordship…Oh... Oh! OH! I get it now!" Jin realised Moloch was rather crafty. He did not want to be under the command of his old king and wanted to have an independent place under his own rule. He would then give the benefits of the town fortress to Jin even though he was merely an adventurer. Besides Moloch might have known that he would against Jin. Why fight when you can just join?

"So, how shall we do this? Do you want to let your new Master continue reigning the current fortress by beating you up or shall we get into the more complicated stuff?" Jin summoned Sebastia, Mer, and Yem out of his phone and they immediately knelt in front of Jin instead of their former master. Moloch grinned and showed Jin to his meeting quarters.

A power play by Jin but one that was necessary to discuss the terms of surrender for Lord Moloch… Though Jin felt Moloch was actually pretty excited about it and would not take much persuading.

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