An hour... a day... maybe a week or more... I had no idea how much time went by without me noticing.

It felt like I was in some sort of trance from which I could not escape on my own, or maybe I was once again experiencing that moment of stopped time I did when I fought against Dankyun. The difference was that now I wasn’t as aware of myself as I was back then.

Like a college student during exam period, I dozed on and off. I was unable to control the state of my own consciousness. It slipped out of my grasp as fast and easy as I was able to grab hold of it again. Meanwhile, my entire existence was being molded together with The Darkness to form a new being... a full Dungeon. All of its memories, all of its knowledge, all of its experience now flowed into me and became mine to do as I wished.

Whenever I was able to just barely open my eyes, I found myself staring at a big, black mass of unknown substance. For some yet unknown reason, I didn’t like it, so with intention alone, I erased it and then slipped back into my unconscious state.

How many times did this event repeat itself?

How many times did I linger in such a strange state, unable to reach out to the world outside?

How many times did I panic then came to understand that what was happening to me was, in a sense, normal?

All of these three questions could have been answered with a single word: Eternity.

But this apparently never-ending turmoil and grind of black masses while slipping in and out of consciousness would eventually come to a stop.

When it did... I found myself in a world of light. Unlike the darkness before, which spread to every corner of my sight, this time, I saw a clear white light, not too bright and not too dim. If I were to compare it, I would say it was similar to floating inside a gigantic white room during daytime.

I immediately understood that this beautiful scenery before me was, in fact, the true form of my Inner Mind. The memories of the past Dungeons that once made up The Darkness confirmed this as well. None of them ever possessed an Inner Mind filled with darkness, it always held some type of bright color. Only the most depressed of them had a darker color, but never black.

“Indeed, this is its true form...” I said to myself.

Blinking surprised by the sound of my voice, I touched my throat and then looked at my hands. I recognized them as my own.

“This... this is my Humanoid Dungeon Body... Did my manifestation in my Inner Mind changed to this?” I wondered as I continued to check myself.

The big crystal on my chest confirmed it, but unlike in the real world, this one held inside it a pure-white fog. It was impressive, but at the same time understandable. After all, according to the memories of my Dungeon parents whose bodies had formed my own, the color theme was something that could be changed at will. It merely a matter of preference.

But then I remembered something the Dungeons once told me about how they administered and micromanaged everything in my body from breathing to my complex spells. It made me curious, so I decided to head there and check it out for myself.

“Background Programs.” I said.

Immediately, I changed location and appeared before a big cube covered in a bright shining light. Unlike before, when I was pulled or flew to such a location, this time, I was teleported there, which was a bit surprising. According to the memories of the Dungeons, this was doable only and only when I tried to access those delicate inner functions of mine. It was similar to accessing the admin panel on a highly restricted computer.

The shining cube in front of me represented all the known Magic Energy Control programs as well as Matter Control programs. In other words, it was the software that was able to control and use the hardware, meaning my body and my abilities. Everything from the fine tuning of my most powerful spell to the simple act of breathing was stored inside this place, which was accessible only by me. These programs allowed me to do simple actions without worrying every time about what muscles to tense, how hard, until when, where and how to move, and other basic stuff like this.

It was then when I realized another big difference between Organics and Dungeons, the latter while needing this cube thing in order to do anything, the Organics used their subconscious mind to accomplish the same things. When it came to simple stuff like walking and breathing, they didn’t even need to bother how to do those things. They all came naturally to them, but for me, everything had to be defined in this strange cube.

For casting known spells or creating new ones, it could be said that Organics had various standard auto-run programs to help them with them, while I had to create every program from scratch. Even then, I would encounter various errors and flow inconsistencies that would ultimately lead to the failure of said program. The good thing was that I didn’t receive a blue screen in mid action. In more human words, I would stumble on my own feet.

Of course, there were various templates I could use, but if I wanted to modify anything, I would either need to rewrite the program from this cube or struggle a bit on the outside world with trial-and-error runs. Eventually, the self-learning ability would kick in and a template for what I was trying to build would be formed.

This offered me the undisputed ability to create new spells, modify existing ones, and change a lot of things about the way I worked. On the other hand, I couldn’t just leave everything to this cube and hope it would work out. My job in making anything new would most likely consist in the tedious work of coming to understand the entire process. From this point of view, Organics had the advantage of taking it easy if they wanted to.

Either way, the current cube in front of me was already fine-tuned with everything I needed. Apparently, this process of adjusting it took place during those moments of slipping in and out of consciousness. The black mass I was constantly removing were stubborn errors of some form.

Either way, this also meant that I had all of my powers and abilities fully unlocked. As such, I decided it was the perfect time to check my status.

 

[Do you wish to switch to [Instinctual Mode] or keep [HUD Mode] Y/N]

 

This troublesome message popped up, but by selecting either mode, I was able to get some information on it.

 

[Instinctual Mode]: Allows the user to operate in a similar fashion to Organics. This Mode removes the ability to see the user’s ability to see or request status. It grants the ability to change numerical status values into sensations. Removes pop-up messages.

[HUD Mode]: Basic Mode of all Dungeons. It changes the details of the world into numerical values that can be displayed on status screens. All new or important actions are displayed through pop-ups. It offers an automatic use of certain spells and abilities.

 

Basically, it was just matter of how I preferred to experience the world around me, but when it came down to creating new spells or modifying existing ones, I was required in both cases to return to the cube and add the changes directly into those specific programs.

For now, I decided to use [HUD Mode] and check my own status.

 

[Name]: Illsyore (Nickname: Illsy; The Black Death; The Destroyer; The Darkness; Bastard who makes women cry; Worshiper of Panties; Unstoppable Pervert; Sex Maniac; Blasphemer; Corrupter of Innocent Maidens; Corrupter of Apostles; Brainwashing Pervert; Inn Destroying Pervert)

[Species]: Dungeon Lord

[Sub-Species/Race]: Godlike

[Level]: 1

[Strength]: 4760

[Agility]: 3890

[Intelligence]: 5480

[Magic Energy]: 38400

[Magic Energy Regeneration]: 275 Magic Energy Points per Second

[Bond of Trust II]: Inactive > Activate? Y/N

[Allegiance]: Holy God of Big Boobs!

[Spouses]: Ayuseya Drekar Pleyades, Mad Destroyer Nanya Demonarkiar the 2nd, Shanteya Dowesyl

[Slaves]: Tamara

[Pets]: None

[Minions]: None

[Available points]: 0

[Skills] > List all skills? Y/N

[Available skill points]: 0

 

Well...

“WHAT THE HECK’S UP WITH THOSE NICKNAMES?!” I shouted as hard as I could while pointing at the holographic screen in front of me.

Honestly though, some of those things were nothing but ridiculous and blunt lies!

Since I was already next to the cube that held all the information in my body, I decided to cheat and delete the ‘inconvenient’ details from the nickname list and leave only ‘Illsy’. Everything else was a nuisance I would rather not have it be shown to me every time I opened this menu.

Worshiper of Panties... Unstoppable Pervert, who in the bloody hell nicknamed me like that?! I wondered, but unknown to me, in another part of my Inner Mind, a certain demoness sneezed.

Leaving aside this embarrassing matter, I noticed something else in that weird status of mine. First of all, the stats themselves were ridiculously high, then the +1500 at the end vanished. I thought that was a bonus offered by me changing to the Godlike, but maybe after fully accepting myself as a Dungeon with Human past life memories, that value somehow became a part of me?

The second thing I noticed was the Sub-Species/Race thing. It appeared that in the eyes of a Dungeon these two words were interchangeable, but from what I remembered from them, the words Race and Sub-Species weren’t actually used by them that often. The term they used was ‘Variant’ and just like I did with those annoying nicknames I could always change it if I wanted to.

“Sub-Species is the biological correct form, while Race is the social term... Maybe Variant is indeed the best one out of these three?” I wondered as I stared at my status screen.

According to the memories of the Dungeons, there were some countries in the past that used only the term ‘sub-species’, while others focused on separating everyone into their specific ‘race’. Things like ‘purity of the race’ popped up here and there but didn’t last long. They eventually pissed off a Dungeon or a Supreme and the rest was history. On the grand scale of genetic evolution, it was actually a very illogical and stupid thing to cling on to, especially since what they called ‘race’ was only dependent on a single biological phenotype variable, which in most cases vanished over several thousands of years or even less. That was why Dungeons used ‘Variant’ and let the Organics bother with details like Race or Sub-Species. This didn’t mean, however, that there weren’t any Dungeons who would set their [HUD Mode] to show those words instead.

“Yeah... I don’t want to be dragged into any sort of political nonsense in the future, so I’ll change it to Variant as well.” I decided.

Thus, now it displayed:

 

[Species]: Dungeon Lord

[Variant]: Godlike

 

It looked much better and for some reason removed all the tension behind those other words. Sub-Species felt derogatory, while Race felt too connected to the principle of Racism I knew of from my time on Earth. Considering the many species here, holding prejudice against your own kin was rather stupid, but then again... One must never underestimate the illogical and unreasonable individuals in any form of society.

“Well, that being settled, what’s with this thing... [Bond of Trust II]?” I wondered.

Clicking on it, I activated the details:

 

[Bond of Trust II]: A buff-type organic enchantment that is generated by a being’s Soul. It’s way of functioning is by turning Divine Energy generated by a Soul into Magic Energy that is used to reinforce the bodies of certain individuals. This type of Buff appears only when the Will of the Universe comes in agreement with the path of the individual’s Soul. It can be applied on: Spouses, Slaves, Pets, and Minions. It increases their Basic Stats values with a certain Percentage of the Basic Stats of the Individual they had bonded with. At the same time, the Individual they have bonded with will receive a certain Percentage of their Basic Stats.

Maximums: Spouses: 100%; Slaves: 50%; Pets: 30%; Minions: 10%

Minimum: 0% (Inactive)

Received: 0% (Inactive) – 30% (Maximum)

 

I ogled my eyes at the screen and gulped. That was one hell of buff, but more importantly, it worked outside of the normal Dungeon Parameters. In other words, it wasn’t something I could create with this cube of mine. It was something granted to me by the Will of this Universe. If by some chance I were to jump into another Universe, this Buff would vanish. It was that sort of situation.

“Is this the rumored cheat skill a reincarnated individual receives or maybe I just fulfilled certain conditions? Hm, something tells me it’s the later. If it was the first, then I would have met the Gods of this world first. They would have told me to do something here like save the world or cheerleader or something like that, then I would have been sent into this body, overpowered everything in sight, and ultimately led a happy-go-lucky life. That sort of situation, right?” I said out loud after I read the description several times to make sure I wasn’t mistaken about it.

For now, I kept it inactive, my total stat points without any Buff applied were already to the point where I could slap a Supreme into the ground like I would with a fly. I also had ALL of my spells unlocked, and I could only imagine how powerful a single [Fireball] spell would be if infused with 38000 Magic Energy points. For now, I wasn’t fighting ancient gods or anything like that, and I was still a mere Level 1.

Oh, speaking of which, Levels in Dungeon eyes were a bit different from an RPG. They were sort of a Kill Counter and Skill Experience meter. Certain abilities and skills were usually locked for young Dungeons because they wouldn’t be able to handle them and might end up self-destructing. Thus, when they reached higher levels, they would automatically unlock. There were some complicated formulas in the cube, which determined just how much one needed to level up and what could be converted to experience and what couldn’t.

Fortunately, I didn’t have that problem... or so I thought.

Clicking on my level, I received this message:

 

[This is the Holy God of Big Boobs speaking! Oh? Can I write now? Cool! Ahem! Well, congratulations on settling the score with THE DARKNESS! But, this much power might be too much even for you to handle, so I took the liberty of changing your settings a bit and turning your Level to 1. Your abilities aren’t locked, you can still fire anything you like, meaning that unlike for regular Dungeons, you have no Level Requirement to use inherited skills. Nonetheless, the Red Skills are those for which, in theory, you hold a rather low level for. This means that if you want to experience the joy of Leveling Up, you can do so. At the same time, nothing really stops you from just exterminating everything in sight with your most powerful spells. If you are asking why I did this, well... I thought you might enjoy this sort of experience. PS: Don’t forget about Zoreya, she’s dying out there, you know? Oh, do you mind if I get a good squeeze of Shanteya’s big bosom? Those lovely hills are to die for... wait, why are you looking like that? Did you just curse me?! I’m your god, you know?! I’m sad now...]

 

It felt like a Real Time conversation, so I closed the window before I got too annoyed and decided to go on a rampage against that pervert. To think this was the first time this god ever spoke to me, and it was in this fashion. I wanted to change my Allegiance now. Maybe Melkuth had a free spot?

Either way, I had no idea how he did that thing, but I was glad my skills weren’t locked... again, it just meant that I could enjoy a proper [Level Up] experience if I so desired to. Meh, it didn’t sound so bad. My basic stats would increase as I grew older and Magic Energy stabilized better within me, so it didn’t really matter what I did eventually.

“Oh crud, I almost completely forgot about Zoreya!” I panicked and immediately left the cube area.

On my way out, I flew past my wives.

“Hello! I’m all good now! Talk to you later! Gotta run!” and I left them there staring at me dumbfounded.

 

[Shanteya’s point of view]

I have no idea what just happened, but from what I could tell, The Darkness was gone...

The abyss-like Inner Mind of Illsy turned in the blink of an eye into a serene, calm, and endless pure-white landscape. Just by looking at it made me feel safe and relaxed like never before. I felt... at home.

The shadows that previously restrained all of our movements were now gone, but we had nowhere to go. We were simply floating around in this endless space.

“Nya~! Tamara likes this floaty-floaty feeling! Nyaaa~!” the nekatar tried to swim around.

Looking at her, I noticed the collar around her neck had turned white, making it less visible to the naked eye.

The collar is visible here? I suddenly realized.

Maybe I was wrong, but looking down at my ring finger, I saw the tattoo I received when I accepted to become Illsy’s wife, but instead of a black, ominous wedding ring, it was a beautiful, shining gold one. When I checked, Nanya and Ayuseya’s changed as well.

What’s the meaning of this? I wondered.

It was then when I felt a familiar presence approaching me. We all looked in the same direction as if pulled by a magnet. Who we saw was none other than... Illsy...

“Hello! I’m all good now! Talk to you later! Gotta run!” he said and flew past us.

“Huh?! What was that?! You useless husband of mine get back here and kiss me if you won!” shouted Nanya a bit disgruntled, but just like me and the other two, she was shedding tears of joy.

Our Illsy is back... He won... He won! I thought as I wiped my tears and smiled.

“We can wait...” Ayuseya said in a calm tone of voice.