It was an incredibly ornate altar. It was too dark to make out the details clearly, but various patterns including flames were embossed across its surface. And a spear was planted in the very center of that altar. It was red. A single unified metal spear with no distinction between the blade and the shaft. Yong-ho stepped forward as if possessed. Katarina, startled by the movement, cried out. “Family Head!” “Got it.” Before she could stop him, Yong-ho seized the spear. And then, impossibly, he drew it free. Katarina held her breath. If arrows rained from the walls, she would throw her body to block them. If flames engulfed Yong-ho, she would do the same and become his shield. If neither was possible, she was prepared to at least die alongside him. But nothing happened. Only after pulling it out did Yong-ho realize what he had done, and he flinched a beat too late, but thankfully he didn’t drop the spear in his hand. A brief silence followed. Yong-ho looked back and forth between the inert spear and the altar, then turned to Katarina with a peculiar expression. Katarina shrieked like a thunderbolt. “Mammon’s Servants!” At the sharp cry, Yong-ho nearly dropped the spear. Instead of looking at Katarina, who was panting with eyes that looked ready to pop out of her skull, he examined the spear in his hand from top to bottom. “A… servant? It’s a spear.” “N-no, sir. It is unmistakably a bright crimson spear with a unified blade and shaft… Ammon, the Crimson Demonic Spear.” Katarina stepped a little closer to Yong-ho. She watched the red spear in his hand with tense eyes and spoke. “Ammon, the Crimson Demonic Spear, is a weapon Lord Mammon used in life. The spear itself is a demon… and a very high-ranking one at that.” Katarina was dead serious. Yong-ho looked back at the spear in his grip. “So you’re saying it’s a demon in the shape of a spear?” “Yes. A-and…” “And?” “There is a legend.” Katarina paused there for a moment. Without taking her eyes off the Ammon in Yong-ho’s hand, she continued. “If anyone other than Lord Mammon touches Ammon, the hellfire of judgment will, Family Head!” Katarina’s words hadn’t even finished when… A massive crimson conflagration erupted from the tip of the spear and swallowed Yong-ho whole. Yong-ho couldn’t even scream. In an instant, the world around him was engulfed in flames. It was as if the enormous blaze had devoured not just Yong-ho but the entire world. He thrashed. He rolled on the floor as if he’d seen it done somewhere before. A few seconds passed. Then Yong-ho suddenly realized something. It wasn’t hot. Even though his body was clearly covered in flames, it didn’t hurt. Yong-ho stopped thrashing and looked at himself. His arms and legs, situated within the billowing fire, were completely intact. What on earth was going on? And with everything around him burning, what had happened to Katarina? Yong-ho turned his head urgently. But he couldn’t find Katarina. His body froze under an overwhelming pressure. Someone was watching him directly behind him. It was a massive eye. Red, so red, and it was burning. Seated in the heart of the hellfire, it looked down at Yong-ho. Why do you not burn? A grown man’s voice resonated inside his head. It was deep and rough, carrying an oppressive presence that seemed ready to crush the entire world. The eye drew closer to Yong-ho. Yong-ho still couldn’t move. He exhaled raggedly and met the eye head-on. The eye watched him in return. It felt as though its gaze was licking across his entire body. A colossal mass of mana. Yong-ho intuited it. That eye was Ammon, the Crimson Demonic Spear. Perhaps this entire space was something Ammon had created. Ammon observed Yong-ho. And at some point, he laughed. It was impossible for eyes to laugh, but that was what Yong-ho felt. The man’s wild laughter echoed in his mind.

[I see. So that’s it. You carry the power of the Seven Deadly Sins. At last, at last, one who has inherited the power of 'Greed' has appeared!]

It was rapture. It was fanaticism. At the same time, it was a brutally intense emotion.

[But you’re still a novice. I slept for so long that even my patience has run dry.]

The man’s laughter died down as abruptly as it had come. The eye drew even closer. The massive red eye filled Yong-ho’s entire field of vision. Yong-ho breathed. He tried desperately to keep breathing and force out a voice. Ammon laughed again. It was a slightly different kind of laughter from before. And it was far from a sneer.

[I shall accommodate you for now, novice.]

The eye turned to flame. It swallowed Yong-ho once more. The entire world blazed along with it. “Family Head!” “Gah!” Yong-ho exhaled sharply. He opened his eyes at the same time and saw Katarina rushing toward him. Without a second thought, he jerked back reflexively. He was still burning. The Crimson Flame bloomed across his entire body. “Family Head!” Katarina shouted again. Yong-ho thrust his hand forward to stop her. Then he caught his breath. The flames subsided. The fire that had erupted across his body vanished in an instant, as if it had never been. “Haa… hah… ha…” Cold sweat ran down his spine. After confirming that Katarina had stopped in place, fidgeting anxiously, Yong-ho turned his gaze. He looked at the spear clenched in his right hand. 'It changed.' The once-dazzling bright crimson spear had become a crude metal spear with no ornamentation whatsoever. The color was now a dark red, different from before, and it was shorter as well. Yong-ho’s eyes took on an emerald glow. He examined the spear with the Authority of Evolution.

[Name: Ammon][Race: ???][Main Attribute: Flame / ???][Evolution Proficiency: 0/100][??? Specialization | ★★★★★★ (6)][??? Specialization | ★★★★★★ (6)][??? Specialization | ★★★★★☆ (5.5)]

There were far too many question marks to make out anything properly, but one fact was certain. The servant Ammon in the form of a spear. The beloved spear of King of Greed Mammon, who had once been one of the Seven Deadly Sins and ruled a quarter of the Demon World. “It degenerated, so it matched itself to my current level?” Yong-ho murmured quietly as he withdrew the Authority of Evolution. A bitter smile formed on his face before he knew it. Frustration, competitive spirit, and countless emotions he couldn’t put into words churned inside his chest. “Family… Head?” At a timid call from in front of him, Yong-ho finally turned back to Katarina. She had gone beyond anxious fidgeting, she now looked on the verge of tears. After watching her stand there awkwardly for a moment, Yong-ho spoke. “You can come closer now. And… you were right. It seems to be Ammon. Though it looks like he’s gone back to sleep.” The moment Yong-ho gave permission, Katarina had been about to rush forward, but his last words froze her in place. She looked at Ammon in Yong-ho’s hand with eyes that mixed astonishment and emotion. “As expected! As expected of our Family Head!” It was heavily condensed, but he could roughly guess what she meant by that. So Yong-ho chuckled and feigned a bit of composure. Even though it had degenerated, one of 'Mammon’s Servants' had voluntarily entrusted itself (?) To Yong-ho. Moreover, once Yong-ho grew stronger, it would be possible for Ammon to regain his original power. It seemed Ammon had chosen to degenerate with that very intention in the first place. 'Was that feeling because of this spear after all?' The side effect of 'Greed,' one of the Seven Deadly Sins. It was hard to see it as simple luck with money. It might have been too big a leap, but perhaps Ammon himself had been calling out to Yong-ho. 'Either way.' He had obtained Ammon, so now it was time to figure out how to get out of this room. Yong-ho looked at Katarina again. Without realizing it, he furrowed his brow. “Ahh, Family Head. As expected of our Family Head. To obtain Ammon. Good heavens. You overcame that hellfire of judgment.” It felt like he was looking at Elligoth, not Katarina. She was melting like someone drunk on something, and it looked like tears of emotion might come pouring from her eyes at any moment at any moment. “Katarina.” “You’re truly the best. Long live our Family Head! Long live the Mammon Family! Our Family Head is the best.” She really did seem genuinely moved. Yong-ho called out to her once more. “Katarina.” Calling her with some force had an effect, Katarina startled and looked up. Yong-ho gave her an order for her own sake. “Act calm.” The order threw Katarina into an even bigger panic, but she eventually managed to produce something resembling a cool, composed expression. Yong-ho met the look in her eyes that seemed to ask 'L-like this?', and was satisfied that Katarina had calmed down. He spoke, letting Ammon, which looked to be just over a meter long, dangle. “Alright. Let’s think about how to get out of here.” And it was the exact moment Yong-ho finished speaking. The floor, walls, and ceiling shook all at once. Yong-ho stumbled momentarily, quickly lowered his stance, and exchanged a look with Katarina. The vibration didn’t stop. Something like debris began falling from the ceiling. “Maybe it’s because you pulled out Lord Ammon, I mean, Ammon?” Katarina spoke with an anxious face, and Yong-ho looked around. The vibration grew stronger and stronger. It felt like the room itself would collapse at any moment. In his urgency, Yong-ho tried thrusting Ammon back into the altar, but the vibration didn’t stop. If anything, it only grew more violent. Yong-ho shone his flashlight around. He could see what looked like an entrance, but it was sealed shut. There was no time to think. Yong-ho grabbed Katarina’s wrist with his free hand and ran to where they had first fallen. He shone the flashlight again at the hole where he and Katarina had landed. It looked to be roughly two to three meters across. The fragments falling from the ceiling were growing larger. It felt like the walls would crumble or the floor would break apart at any second. How were they going to get out? Would the plan he had just come up with even work? Yong-ho didn’t hesitate. He pulled Katarina’s arm, brought her face close, and shouted. “Katarina! Do you trust me?!” “I trust you!” Katarina answered without hesitation. Even in the emergency, there was no wavering in her eyes. Yong-ho grinned. He gave a single nod, then set Ammon down on the ground. He placed his freed hands on Katarina’s thighs. He gripped them firmly. Katarina flinched. Green Ghost Fire bloomed in Yong-ho’s eyes. The Authority of Evolution. Yong-ho’s mana dug into Katarina’s body.

The ceiling caved in and, simultaneously, the walls and floor collapsed. And in that moment, Katarina kicked off the ground. It was an agile movement, like a falcon taking flight. Yong-ho hung on Katarina’s back, his body limp after exhausting all of his mana. A makeshift rope fashioned from Yong-ho’s shirt was the only thing binding the two of them together. Katarina, gripping Yong-ho’s legs firmly, kicked off the wall. She leaped diagonally, kicked off the opposite wall, and launched herself again. Agility Specialization evolution. It was a choice made possible because Katarina’s Evolution Proficiency was full from repeated sparring sessions with Trient. It was a gamble. Carrying Yong-ho on her back, let alone doing so bare-bodied, up walls that rose tens of meters in succession was unreasonable no matter how she looked at it. But Yong-ho bet on Katarina anyway. Katarina didn’t stop. She moved like a hawk. It was a movement that for her before she evolved would have been unimaginable. She defied gravity. She kicked up the wall. But at some point - Katarina swallowed a groan. The continuous movements made it feel like her legs and ankles would snap. Even so, she gritted her teeth. She kicked off the wall once more. And this time, she couldn’t reach the opposite wall. She didn’t have enough strength. They were so close now. Just a little more and they’d make it! “Uwooo!” Yong-ho seized that moment. He drove Ammon into the wall with everything he had, as if his limp state had been a lie. It was a fleeting moment. Even though Yong-ho’s body had been strengthened over the past few days, driving Ammon deep into the wall mid-leap, and in an exhausted state at that, was unreasonable. But it was enough. Katarina moved once more. She didn’t miss the opening Yong-ho had created. She kicked off again from the wall, this time with every ounce of strength she had. A Family Head and a Bound Familiar did not have an ordinary master-servant relationship. As if reading Katarina’s thoughts, Yong-ho pulled Ammon free at just the right moment. “Aaaaah!” Katarina screamed. Twisting her body in midair, she gathered every last ounce of strength and kicked off the opposite wall. She launched herself through the air. They tumbled across the 'floor'. Yong-ho and Katarina rolled tangled together, and only after slamming into the entrance of the secret passage did they stop rolling. This time too, Katarina was on the bottom and Yong-ho was on top. “Ha, ha.” “Hah, ha…” For a moment, neither of them could say a word. They just breathed. And then, without knowing who started it, they both laughed. They were alive. They had escaped. They had made it out safely! “Katarina.” Yong-ho called out to her, his body sagging, and, instead of groaning about the weight, Katarina answered in a low voice. Both of them were drained of all strength. They wanted to rest like this for a moment. But that was out of the question. The instant Yong-ho reached the 1st Floor, the 'control range' - his connection with the Dungeon’s Soul was restored. The Dungeon’s Soul, which had been in a state of panic during the Family Head’s absence, cried out in a loud voice.

[The dungeon is under attack!]

Yong-ho’s eyes went wide. Together with Katarina, he scrambled to his feet.