[Shanteya’s point of view]

 After we parted ways with Master, we were brought to a special room where fighters waited for their turn in the arena. For now, there were only the three of us here, but I was made to understand that on the other side of the coliseum was another room just like this one. They were placed like this in order to avoid foul play from either side.

Of course, there would be no such thing from the three of us. We waited patiently for our turn to enter the ring and then proceed just as Master instructed us.

Ayuseya was the first to go and lost at her third opponent. It wasn’t a fair battle from our point of view. The draconian was quite strong, and her opponents barely had the power of a Master Rank Adventurer. She was actually troubled after her first win because she didn’t intend to win so fast, but the man whispered something dirty to her. The slap was not even at 5% of her full power, but it was more than enough to send him flying into the wall. On her next win, it happened again, but this time, it was just her being unable to fully control her abilities.

When it was time to lose, she tried her best not to resist the enemy’s attack, but she was instinctively defending herself, making her practically immune to his blows. As for his speed, that man was slow, very slow. Losing this battle took some effort from her not her foe.

Then came my turn. Having practiced how to control my power on monsters as well as through my daily routines as a maid at Fellyore Academy, I was rather used to controlling the huge boost I received from Master’s buff. I knew how to properly lose a battle without raising any suspicion. When I saw the opportunity, I let myself get hit and tossed out of the ring.

Nanya had no intention whatsoever to lose. She was a bit annoyed with the merchant, but the main reason was probably her pride. She just couldn’t allow herself to lose in front of a weakling like Groatak. She merely played with him like an adult would with a child. Halfway through the battle, the former adventurer already knew he wasn’t facing someone he could defeat. When Master gave the signal, the demoness showed no mercy towards him, but she abstained from ripping his arms off and beating him with them senseless.

The bet was won, and we left the coliseum. Master agreed to pick up the slaves another day, but for now, he wished only to get his money. Deroak emptied all of his coffers to hand him 458 goldiettes, but he was missing a lot. He confessed to having made the bet without actually having the capability to pay out. There was also the matter of what to do with his current stock of children.

Regarding the latter part, Master proposed the following deal: he would take only 200 goldiettes from him, but in a written document, the merchant would promise to free all the children and take them under his care until they were old enough to fend for themselves. This could be either at the age of 18 or 20. He would also promise to use the remaining 420 goldiettes he owned Master to offer them all they needed from clothes, food, shelter, and even help with their future jobs. The promise was written in two copies, one of which was kept by Master himself, the other left with Deroak.

Afterwards, we left the store and went out to eat, since it was past the last hour when Tannaor still served food. Our day ended with a stroll through the city to look for the library. We found it, but it was closed at this hour, so we had no other choice but to return to our inn.

That night, we all slept together in Master’s arms. His kisses were tender and sweet, but he didn’t go any further with either Nanya or Ayuseya. The draconian was more assertive than before, she was the first to jump in Master’s embrace.

While we were sleeping, I felt a sudden movement and woke up to find Master getting up from bed. It was still dark outside, and I didn’t feel an enemy’s presence.

“Master? Is something the matter?” I asked as I rubbed my eyes.

Ayuseya let out a yawn and woke up as well. The only ones still sleeping were Nanya and Tamara, with the first using the latter as a body pillow.

“Nothing’s the matter, I’m just going out for a small walk. You can go back to bed.” he replied in a calm tone of voice.

Something felt a bit off about him, so I looked over at the draconian to see if she was feeling the same thing, but she shrugged and went back to bed.

Maybe it’s just my imagination… I thought and then laid back down.

Master left the room and closed it with his [Telekinezy] spell. It has been a while since he last used that one. Actually, he barely used any spells after he turned into his humanoid form.

For a few minutes, my mind kept trying to find something wrong with him, almost as if I was trying to discover an impostor who replaced my beloved Master. In the end, I gave up because I found this course of action to be a bit too ridiculous even for me.

Maybe there’s something wrong with me? I thought as I curled up on my side of the bed.

 

[Illsyore’s point of view]

 I woke up on a cold floor staring up at a gray marble ceiling.

The hell? was the first thing I thought after opening my eyes.

I clearly remembered falling asleep with Ayuseya and Nanya nearly strangling me with their affection, so what I was supposed to be feeling right now were the comforting breasts of my wives not a cold, hard, marble floor. There was something really strange going on around here, and I had a feeling I wasn’t dreaming.

Lifting my hands up, I looked at my fingers and flexed them to check the feeling I had. There was nothing out of the ordinary as far as I could tell, so I got up and started to look around. It was a long corridor lacking any sort of sunlight or decoration. It looked awfully familiar to a dungeon, but that couldn’t be right… There were no dungeons around Elora as far as I knew.

Thankfully, my eyes were far better than normal human ones and the crystals of my body had a greenish glow if I focused Magic Energy in them. In any other situation, the glow wouldn’t be noticed, there was no need for it, but I had to use it in order to see in the pitch-black darkness around me. In a way, I was my very own flashlight.

At first, I thought about expanding my Dungeon Territory, but if I was in a dungeon, and its Core was stronger than me, then I would end up immobilized as a result of the shock of having my territory shattered. If I was the one more powerful, then the Dungeon Core here would end up shattered to bits and pieces, and I wouldn’t be able to get any information on how I ended up here and where exactly was ‘here’.

The place was rather clean, there was no dust on it, so it was either built recently or an army of maids cleaned up this place regularly. It could also be enchanted with self-repair and self-cleaning attributes.

Thinking about that last option, I approached the wall and placed my hand on its surface to see if there was a flow of magic in it. The moment I did so, I jumped back in shock.

I couldn’t believe it… this place… this corridor…

“This was built by me? My Magic Energy is inside this place? HOW?!” I shouted in surprise.

One thing was certain, I didn’t get THAT drunk from two tankards of mead. That drink had some alcohol in it, but it was far from being enough to get THIS body in a state in which I forgot I built a freaking corridor in the middle of nowhere.

Shaking my head, I tried to feel the energy again, but there was no change. The flow of Magic Energy from the enchantments placed on this wall resonated with the one inside of my body perfectly. This was built by me or with my Magic Energy.

Maybe I should expand my Dungeon Territory a bit… I thought and with a gulp, I released it.

There was no other Dungeon around me, so I continued to stretch it bit by bit, slowly, until it suddenly grazed over another territory. I stopped and pulled it back out of reflex.

“There’s another Dungeon here?” I said and then looked over to my left, from where I felt the foreign presence.

I merely grazed its territory, so no battle occurred between us, but it was enough so I could tell it was far weaker than me.

Wishing to see how far this dungeon expanded and how deep I was underground, I closed my eyes and flew out of my body in my ghostly form. My first objective was to see if there were any dangers around me such as monsters or traps, which I would have to get rid of. I flew at both ends of the corridor, but I found nothing, not even a pebble, let alone a maze or a monster, only a pair of stairs leading to the next floor. This place was probably in the process of being built.

From here, I flew up in a straight line, passing directly through the floors in order to reach the surface as fast as I could. The journey took a minute or so, but when I was out, I found myself in the middle of the forest around Elora, but I was at about 20 or so minutes of running at max speed from it. To be frank, the capital looked like a dot on the horizon. I’m surprised I even saw it.

Well, I returned to the dungeon and looked around for a bit. The place didn’t have any of my usual traps with AGLMC Lasers, Magnets, Electric Discharges, or other stuff like that. It pretty much held onto the typical spikes and springs versions, but the mazes were rather complex and held a huge number of powerful monsters. The difference between the floors built by me at Fellyore Academy and this one was the amount of powerful monsters. At floor 30, I already encountered monsters over level 100, wearing enchanted armors and weapons. Overall, it was a dungeon meant for a party of Godlikes. If they had here the traps I had placed in my dungeon in Shoraya, then this would automatically be a dungeon meant for Supremes.

As I continued, I noticed that it was fairly decent decorated with all sorts of small statues, pedestals, wall carvings, and stuff like that. The monsters also moved in organized groups, but all of them were summoned, and there were no nests for them. This meant that once they were killed or their circles destroyed, they would be gone for good.

What I was surprised to find out was that at every 10 floors, there was a special room where there were no monsters or traps, and the walls were enchanted with a repelling spell that kept it safe from the dangers on that floor. From all points of view, that was the typical safe room for adventurers, something I would never build in a billion years.

Why should I?

If the purpose of a dungeon was to push adventurers to their limits and consume them, it was normal and natural to kill them as fast and quickly as possible.

But then again, if they were too scared to advance, then they wouldn’t reach points where I could trap them and drain them of their Magic Energy. So, safe rooms were a good thing from time to time.

I didn’t stay to look at this room for too long, it was basically empty, so I returned to my body and with my Dungeon Territory spreading at a few meters around me, I began to make my way towards the core installed in this place.

Everything from traps to monsters was pretty much useless against me. I was too overpowered for this place, but I felt reluctant about destroying them, so I advanced carefully, trying to avoid triggering anything dangerous on my way there. It took me about half an hour or so until our territories touched each other again. I immediately retreated mine because I didn’t wish to destroy him or her.

“Well, let’s see now…” I said as I looked around.

I still had a little bit to go until reaching the Dungeon, so I proceeded with caution, mostly because I didn’t wish to destroy the traps and monsters here. It was strange to walk like this, alone, through a dungeon filled with my Magic Energy, but at the same time feeling as though nothing here was powerful enough to even scratch me.

Of course, I was worried about the fact that I built this dungeon somehow and sometime but staying here and waiting for my wives to come rescue me was out of the question. The one who could answer my questions was none other than the Dungeon Core present here.

What’s certain is that the Darkness is behind this… I thought after taking a turn.

I jumped over a spike trap and continued to walk slowly, sticking close to the wall. My mind went back to the time I last spoke with the minds trapped inside my Inner Mind. Throughout the years I spent there, I learned that not even one of them could be trusted. Their memories held pieces to a very big puzzle, but their knowledge was fragmented. Even the Primordial was the same, but at the same time, I knew that if they wanted, they could affect my body. The fact that Darkness couldn’t take control of my body was probably a lie, which was what worried me the most. Basically, I couldn’t trust myself to keep control over my physical form in a moment of danger. The fact that I was currently in this strange dungeon was the first and biggest proof I had in regard to this theory.

As I followed the wall, I was suddenly met face to face with a King Minotaur covered in steel-plated heavy armor. I gulped, and he glared at me. For a moment, I thought a battle was inevitable, and I would certainly end up killing the monster, but something unexpected happened. The King Minotaur walked past me without a care.

I stared back at him for a long moment.

What just happened? Why wasn’t I attacked? I thought.

If I could guess, maybe the monster recognized me as its summoner. The other option was that he understood I was far stronger than him. Either way, I was free to walk all the way to the Dungeon Core without wasting any energy by killing every single mob monster that appeared before me.

The room itself was simple at first sight, but a closer look revealed countless runes and symbols carved into the walls. They all represented words from a language I had no knowledge off. Either that or a bad painter tried his luck in this place.

No matter how much I would stare at the walls, I wasn’t going to learn anything from them, so I turned my sight towards the tiny, fist-sized white crystal in the middle of the room.

The Dungeon Core… I thought.

“Are you my father?” the voice of a child whispered.

I froze.

“No matter how much I drank last night, I’m pretty sure I wasn’t THAT drunk!” I replied.

“You are not?” the child asked.

There was no need to look around for a child in that room, the one who spoke was clearly the Dungeon Core.

“No, Luke, I’m pretty sure I’m not your father.” I nodded.

“Luke? My name is not Luke, I… I don’t have a name. But the Magic Energy in this place is yours, isn’t it?” he asked with a voice so quiet it showed both his insecurity and fear.

“Huh? Well, I have no idea why it’s like that either… Erm, how old are you anyway?” I asked.

“I was just born…” he replied.

“Huh?” I squinted my eyes at him.

“I am a Demigod Dungeon… The value of my level is only at 1.” he told me.

“A level 1 Demigod Dungeon… Well, this is interesting. And you say you don’t have a name, right?” I asked furrowing my brow.

The fact that he was just born and he could speak normally didn’t bother me that much. Actually, just because he was a Dungeon, I wasn't expecting him to be able to communicate with me like this. If anything, that was the weird part about this because I, for one, had reincarnation as an excuse for knowing certain things, but what about this fellow?

“Yes… Will you give me a name?” he asked.

Erm… What in God’s name am I supposed to do now? I thought while scratching my right cheek and showing him an awkward smile.

“You don’t want to, do you?” his voice was so sad it broke my heart.

“No! No! No! I’m thinking… I’m thinking… Erm, so Luke is out of the question. Certainly not Bucket Head. Poltergeist? Nah, Tuna Fish? What the hell’s wrong with my naming sense?!” I scratched my head with both hands.

“Tuna Fish sounds nice…” the child said.

“NOPE! Out of the question!” I immediately denied it.

“…” he didn’t reply, and I kept thinking about it.

A few minutes later of making circles in the room and after exhausting almost all the letters of the alphabet, I told him a possible name.

“How about Deusur?” I asked.

“Deusur… Deusur… I like it!” he replied.

If I could see his Inner Mind expression, I was sure it was that of young boy smiling brightly.

“So tell me, Deusur, do you know how you were born?”

“Don’t you know?”

“No… that info is a bit… blurry for me. Ahaha… ha…” I laughed quite awkwardly.

“I was born with some basic information copied from my father’s database, and I know that Core Rooms like this one, which are built by other Dungeons, become a beacon for newborn Dungeons. When we are completely formed, we are teleported from our mother’s womb into one of these rooms and start our new life.” he explained.

“So… you are telling me that wherever I build a Core Room which I then leave uncovered by my Dungeon Territory, which I presume is the condition, there, a new Dungeon can be born?” I was a bit shocked by this new piece of information.

“Yes.” he replied.

In other words, all those Core Rooms I built back in Shoraya Kingdom may have found themselves brand new Dungeon Core by now and infested the area with spawned monsters and mazes. I may have unwillingly just created a major problem for the humans living there, but at the same time, this meant that the room I built back in the desert was the same.

I gulped.

“What about dungeons that had their core destroyed?” I asked.

“If the room is still there, untouched, in two weeks a new core will appear, which will absorb the former Dungeon’s remains as well as any other dead monsters there. It can receive a small boost, but it will take a while before it gains the power of the previous resident.” the little core explained.

“Ugh…” I lowered my head.

“What’s wrong?” Deusur asked curiously.

“Nothing, I was just wondering if this is a good thing or a bad thing…” I said.

“Why is it bad? Don’t Dungeons have a right to be born?” he asked, and it was a rather good question, but at the same time a puzzling one for me.

Technically speaking, I was born as a human who was reincarnated in the body built by Tuberculus and then rebuilt with the help of some wacky spell. In other words, I wasn’t born naturally in this world, so I had no idea of how exactly Dungeons were born.

“Of course, they have a right to be born, it’s their attitude towards other species what worries me…” I replied.

“Attitude? What do you mean?” he asked innocently.

“Well… how do you see… humans for example?” I asked.

“I don’t know what humans are.” came the unexpected reply.

“OK, what about demons?”

“It doesn’t sound familiar…”

“Dwarfs? El’doraw? Elf? Nekatars?”

“I don’t know them… I know only how I was born, a few spells, and what I need to survive. I don’t even know any other language other than the Dungeon Language.” he told me.

“I see… wait what? Dungeon Language?” I blinked surprised.

“The one written on the walls and which we use to speak right now.” he explained, but it was only then when I realized that I wasn’t speaking Shorayan, English, Romanian, or any other language I had heard of.

It was strange though, this one felt more familiar and easy to understand than any of the previous ones. Curious about it, but at the same time a bit shocked, I walked over to the right wall. After looking at the symbols on it for a while, I pointed at a strange character that looked like a chair with a bar crossed through it.

“That’s the syllable ‘Ne’, right?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“And that’s…’Ro’?”

“Yes.”

“N. S. A. T. Ke.” I began to point at them one after another.

“Yes, you are correct about all of them. You are acting a bit weird. It’s like this is the first time you’ve seen it?” he told me.

“It is…” I replied as I continued to stare at the wall filled with an unknown language of which I appeared to know every single detail about.

“Weird… From my father’s information, I thought all Dungeons were born with the basic information I hold…” he told me.

True, this language was literally new to me, but at the same time, it felt like an integral part of me, which was weird.

Is this a side-effect of being a Dungeon? I wondered.

“Maybe not all… Erm, do you know who your father is?” I asked, but then I remembered how he greeted me.

“No.”

“Yeah, I forgot… Sorry. But you said you know these things from your father, why are you sure it’s from your father and not your mother?”

“I don’t know… it’s… I just know. It’s the same how I know you are a Dungeon and not a human or anything else…”

In other words, it was an instinct of sorts, but his last words made me feel a small pain inside. I knew I wasn’t a human anymore but being told this by a floating crystal still… hurt a bit.

“Well… What did you learn from your father about how to survive?” I asked.

“When beings wearing armor and wielding swords enter my dungeon, I’m supposed to kill them and absorb their Magic Energy. This is the best way to grow fast, but at the same time keep myself safe.” he revealed something very interesting.

If all Dungeon children were like him, then it was possible that they weren’t born evil but rather they became like that after adventurers came in and attacked them time and time again. Fear and lack of understanding would naturally force them to take an antagonistic position towards any adventurer.

Dungeons were living beings born from parents and who were forced to grow up without their love and attention… This in itself made me pity them, however, those who ended up enjoying this sort of violent behavior towards humans and any other intelligent species would naturally end up a target, an enemy that needed to be destroyed.

Wait… does this mean that Dungeons can be thought to be good? Can the relationship between adventurers and Dungeons be a peaceful one rather than a violent one? I thought while I looked at this young child before me.

“Deusur, what’s the first thing you know you have to do when you meet an adventurer?” I asked him.

“I kill him and absorb his Magic Energy or else I’ll be killed.” he explained calmly.

Typical for a Dungeon… I thought.

“What if… What if he’s not here to kill you?”

I tried something.

“I don’t understand… Aren’t ALL of them out to kill me?”

“No…” I shook my head.

“How can you tell?” he asked me.

“It’s hard… very hard basically. Just like you, they believe you are out to kill them, but both of you have emotions.”

“If they are like me, then… why do they wish to harm me?” he asked.

“Because they don’t know… or they do and are evil.” I tried to answer.

“Evil?” the word was probably a bit strange for him.

“Outside of these walls, out there, there’s a human city. Inside, a lot of humans live and some of them aren’t as bad or evil as the others. Out of greed or hate, some will wish to destroy you. Those individuals, you are free to defeat and… kill, but there are also those who have no such intention and merely wish to get stronger here or farm materials for their crafts.” I started to explain as best as I could.

Maybe there was a better way to say these things, but at the moment, these were the only words that came to mind.

“How can I tell them apart?” he asked.

“Watch how they behave, not how they look. Erm, as you grow and experience, interact with them more, you will know. There will be times when they will betray you, other times when you will be the one mistaken about them, but if you have patience and continue to believe that there are people out there with the intent of being friendly towards you, not hateful and fearful of you, or with evil and greedy intentions towards you, then you will certainly find them. You just need have faith in yourself that you will meet them… eventually.” I explained using a calm and gentle tone of voice.

“I don’t think I understand… I only know that I have to protect myself from them.” he replied after a moment.

He was certain he could do it, and since his father never shared this sort of information with him, it was natural for him not to immediately believe that it might be a bit wrong. Thinking about it, even I would be skeptical if some stranger told me all of these things out of the blue. Maybe I approached this matter in the wrong way?

“The only thing I can say is that you will know in time. You just need to live your life and experience new things… The only thing I can do to help you is to give you a small Magic Energy boost, would you like that?” I asked.

“Yes.”

With his approval I placed my hand on his tiny Crystal Body. In that moment, I realized just how small and fragile he was. If I clenched my hand too hard, he would crack and die. There was not even a single layer of Magic Armor on him. Even a pebble tossed by a child could harm him. It was really hard for me to believe that someone this small and fragile could one day become a powerful existence capable of threatening veteran adventurers.

Thus, I began to pour Magic Energy inside him, letting it flow at a steady rate, but not more than I could easily regenerate. After the first few seconds, the Crystal Body expanded by a little. Then, as I infused more energy in his body, he grew in size and become stronger and stronger with each passing moment.

I probably gave him around 60000 points of Magic Energy by the time I felt like it was time to stop. His body was now a big crystal with a radius of a half a meter. His territory expanded past this room and probably reached the very edge of this dungeon. He probably gained quite a few levels as well.

“I feel amazing… Thank you.” Deusur said after a while.

Smiling, I patted his Crystal Body as I would a young child's head and then told him “Just be careful how you use this energy.”

“I will!” he replied happily.

“As for the adventurers and everyone else who visits your dungeons, I don’t know… put them to a test or ask them directly? You will figure out a way, but yeah… if you feel like they would represent a danger towards you, don’t let them near this chamber, protect yourself, alright?” I told him.

“I will!”

“Then… I guess I should be going too…”

“Go?” he was surprised by my words.

“Yes.” I nodded.

“Why?” his tone of voice was really sad.

“I have people waiting for me, friends and family. I’m also on a journey, which I have no idea where it will take me… I may never get to see you again, or maybe I will. Who knows?” I smiled softly.

“I don’t like this…” he said with a low voice.

“I know, but even if I am far apart, I’ll still be your friend. If you become a good Dungeon, I might hear about you and come visit you. Maybe if you grow strong enough and get your own body, maybe you will come to me?” I laughed.

“How will I find you?” he asked a bit puzzled.

“You will look for my academy, a Magic Academy ruled by the Godlike Dungeon Illsyore. If I succeed in my quest, you will hear of me, if not…” I looked down as I thought about the possibility of being consumed by The Darkness. “If you don’t, then don’t look for me and try to find your own happiness in life.” I smiled softly and patted him again.

“What happens if I don’t become a good Dungeon?” he asked as I got up and walked towards the door.

“Then, the humans will conquer you… and you will never get to see me again. You will be like all the other Dungeons who only wish to destroy rather than learn to help and coexist with other species no matter how hard it may be for them at the beginning.” I replied with a bitter smile.

Even I wasn’t at that point, so maybe asking this of a child like Deusur was a bit… too much?

“But you promise to always be my friend?” he asked me.

I looked down for a moment and then I thought of something. The laser in my left palm fired at an empty spot in the wall and carved the following words: ‘Illsyore este prietenul lui Deusur.’ in the language that didn’t exist in this world. Under it, I wrote in Shorayan the translation: ‘Illsyore is the friend of Deusur.’

“The bottom text is written in Shorayan, the land where I was born in this world. It says the following words: Illsyore is the friend of Deusur. The upper text is a secret language known only by me to prove the legitimacy of this message.” I turned around and showed him a smile.

“Thank you… friend.” he said and, in that moment, I felt a strange reaction in the Magic Energy of his Dungeon Territory.

Any feeling of hostility and angst was completely removed from it, at least towards me. It was incredible, something I didn’t know was possible.

“Take care, Deusur, my friend.” I said and then made my way out of that dungeon.

No monster attacked me, and no trap was activated when I stepped on its trigger, just like it happened to Nanya when she first entered my dungeon as my wife. The only difference was that I had no control over them, but I knew I wasn’t in any danger around them.

Once out of the dungeon, I ran as fast as I could back to Elora and prayed to the gods that my wives weren’t in the mood to scold me about returning late in the afternoon.