《Core of Metal, Heart of Blight》


 Chapter 1 - The Birth of Evil

    Amidst the ravaged fields, a consciousness stirred. Despite the mind still being foggy after the awakening, Its senses snapped to life within moments of It regaining a semblance of higher thought. Immediately, the surrounding area was stripped bare before Its mind¡¯s eye. Exact layout and texture of the landscape were observed, categorized, and filed within the being¡¯s memory. Mutilated half-rotten bodies whose bits and pieces covered the ground as far the It could sense were thoroughly examined down to the shattered bones and deemed potentially useful. Tears in bent metal plating that was wrapped around some of the corpses and trenches dug into the earth were matched to sharp appendages of metal that were either strewn between the corpses unattended or tightly clenched in hand of bleached bone and decaying flesh.


    After surveying Its initial surroundings, the being tried to extend Its senses even further but was met with a sharp spike of pain. Changing the course of action, It looked below instead of sideways, and found that the soil, too, was tightly packed with buried bodies. Of course, they were analyzed as well and added to the rapidly growing catalog of resources available to the newly woken entity.


    Reconnaissance completed, but unsure of what to do next, the mind turned onto itself, digging through the acquired information in hopes of finding anything of use. Examining and discarding memory after memory, the being was too engrossed in the process to notice movement in Its environment. A rusted sword, covered in notches and chipped at the edges, was shoved aside by a passing breeze, causing it to fall from atop a mound of bodies it was resting on.


    The decrepit weapon slid down, clanking against armor and body alike, before finally finding its new resting place in someone¡¯s gutted stomach. The pile of bodies and metal shuddered after being disturbed in such a rude manner, before promptly collapsing. Armored bodies rolled in every direction as various weapons gleefully took this opportunity to stab, pierce, and tear flesh one last time.


    The vibrations, as well as the sudden change in Its surroundings, immediately attracted the mind¡¯s attention. Surprisingly, this time It found something that wasn¡¯t there before as far as Its memory as concerned.


    There, half-concealed by a corroded breastplate, a tiny gem of sickly green color found its resting place between someone¡¯s ribs, held in place by what remained of lungs and muscles. Intrigued, the mind focused all of Its being on the gemstone, recording every neatly cut edge and polished surface into Its imaginary archive.


    The gem itself didn¡¯t seem very special, a trimmed octahedron that looked rather oddly among all the blackened blood and rusted metal. After some consideration, the entity realized that It didn¡¯t spot even a single gem anywhere else within Its field of perception, which made this one unique.


    Following some deeply ingrained instinct that It wasn¡¯t even aware It had, the mind willed Its newly acquired treasure to be protected. It was special, after all, because losing it would leave It with no other items such as this one. There was no calculation or grand plan behind the action, It simply deemed it irrational to not protect something that was irreplaceable.


    Surprisingly, it worked, and the entity watched with renewed curiosity how bone melded together and flesh stitched itself back in one piece, securely hiding the precious stone within the confines of rotten meat.


    Its job done, the consciousness returned to browsing Its memories in search of something to do. This time, however, the process was going much slower than before. Pausing, the entity switched Its goal to finding the reason for Its inefficiency. Almost right after, It came to the conclusion that the gem wasn¡¯t protected enough. Seeing the corpse piles scattered all over the fields, It quickly matched them to the cause of the gem being revealed. Especially after another one collapsed under Its own weight, swords, and spears whistling through the air once again.


    The mission established, It still wasn¡¯t sure how exactly the gem was supposed to be protected. Metal scattered all over the place, while sturdy, clearly wasn¡¯t good enough judging by its current state of existence. Building another pile of bodies atop the gem was a viable idea, but not without its flaws. How to prevent the mound from collapsing and damaging the stone? How to make one in the first place, considering that It had no way of interacting with Its environment?


    Or did it?


    Recalling Its previous desire to secure the gemstone, It decided to give the plan a chance and tried to will the bodies to move. This time nothing happened. Undeterred, It continued attempting to impose Its will on the still corpses. Somewhere along the line, the mind felt Its surrounding change in some way It couldn¡¯t comprehend, but It filed the question for later in fear of breaking concentration and continued willing the bodies to move.


    After a couple more shifts in Its vicinity, the being finally decided to pause Its current project and analyze the rather distracting occurrence. It turned out that every once in a while, something changed about the items around It. After careful observation, It reached the conclusion that there were two phases to the world around It, one of which caused the objects to heat up, and the other to cool down.


    Satisfied with the feeling of a successfully performed analysis, It returned to Its former obsession. The desire to protect the gem was growing with every ¡®cycle¡¯ and Its inability to provide said protection was only amplifying the need.


    After cycles upon cycles of intense focus and maddening hunger for positive results tearing and clawing Its mind, after scrutinizing every dot of energy that composed both flesh and metal and every instance of interaction between the two It could find, progress was finally made.


    It sensed something. A barely perceptible, fleeting feeling of an ephemeral substance brushing against Its consciousness. Invigorated, It latched onto this feeling and greedily devoured every bit of information It could find. How it felt, how it behaved, the way it interacted with the gem and the environment. The resulting knowledge caused the entity to fill Its mind with an anguished cry of frustration before getting to the long-desired work.


    The newly discovered energy was everywhere. It danced in the air, seeped through the earth, latched on to flesh, and hid in armor and weapons. But above all else, it was practically radiating from the gem. There was so much of it that the entity nearly shut itself down from a roiling cocktail of emotions that arose when It realized how much information It had missed.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    Instead, the re-energized mind went into overdrive. It quickly discovered that the energy emanating from the gem could be easily controlled and directed. Wasting no time, It tried to coat the gem itself in this energy but only ended up saturating the body around it. Fortunately, it turned out that protecting the stone was easier this way.


    Following the mind¡¯s will, the body twitched before shakily lifting itself up. Unsecured pieces of armor dropped down from the rising corpse like rain, striking the metal that rested on the ground. Eager to finally quench the burning desire to protect the stone, It ordered the puppet to curl on itself, thus encasing the gemstone in even more layers of flesh and metal. Observing as the body dropped back on the ground and followed the given order to the letter, It turned Its will to the other bodies.


    One by one, the corpses were saturated with energy and commanded to pile themselves atop the first one. At one point, It noticed that the energy coming from the gem was diminishing, It attempted to use the energy contained in the Its environment, but failed miserably. So It settled on leading the ¡®free¡¯ energy into the core of the rapidly growing pile of flesh and metal first, where it was quickly converted into similar but different energy that It could use.


    Engrossed in playing with Its new toys, the entity reached further and further into the fields of death, until every single corpse that It could observe was on the way to Its precious stone. There were some difficulties, however, because the bodies refused to attach to each after the mound reach some critical point, and continuously ordering them to grab and hold each other was too much strain on the young mind. So, It directed Its influence to the one other thing It was intimately familiar with ¨C metal.


    On their way to the final destination, every corpse was ordered to pick up as many metal items as it could carry and deliver them to the core. There, flesh was merged with flesh, and resulting openings and air pockets were filled with rusted steel. Weapons and armor pierced the bodies, firmly locking them in place, as those dots of energy It found during Its earlier attempts to protect the core were linked together. Soon, the fields were clear of corpses, revealing dried blood and mutilated, blackened earth.


    The being, however, felt nothing but pride at the sight of a rising monument to death. The pile quickly became a hill that, over the course of several dozens of cycles turned into a small mountain. Snapped spears and broken swords were intermixed with remains of various banners, some of which were still fluttering in the wind as if begging the winds to rip them out of their new home. Decaying flesh was weaved into the armor that once protected it, and bones were elongated and restructured to reinforce each individual ¡®cell¡¯ of the united undead organism from the inside.


    Finally, Its new home was complete. By now, It couldn¡¯t refer to the gem as anything but ¡®Core,¡¯ and this masterpiece as ¡®home.¡¯ For the first time since Its awakening, the entity felt satisfied. The fields were cleared and It had done everything in Its power to protect the designated Core. It was finally at peace.


    Except it wasn¡¯t.


    Its instincts were screaming at It to slumber, Its mind felt so oversaturated with energy that it was about to shut down on its own. And yet, something prevented the desired outcome. Groggily, It carefully observed the fields once more, but nothing caught Its attention. It did the job perfectly, using all available resources to complete the mission. So what was the problem?


    The desire to shut down began to intensify, akin to the time when It wanted to protect the Core. With rising desperation, It buried itself into the mental archive, trying to find something, anything, that could help. Eventually, It determined that the problem didn¡¯t come from the ingrained instincts, like the first time around. This time, the fault was truly on It.


    Feeling the familiar hunger to do something start to prod at Its mind, the being tried Its best to separate itself from any and every distraction, and focused on the task at hand. Cycles went by until It could barely prevent the feeling of hunger overwhelming Its mind. Salvation came from one of the older observations that It made when It first awakened.


    The ground, It realized. There were still corpses left underground. With a gleeful wail unheard by anything but the entity itself, It commanded Its puppets to dig.


    The mountainous construct shuddered. Metal snapped and was reconnected, bones shattered and were repaired, flesh tore and was fused back, as the colossus of death lifted itself on hundreds of appendages. The earth cracked as dozens of them were lifted and the weight redistributed. Crooked fingers twisted at unnatural angles, continuously breaking and rebuilding bone, as arms reached deep into the walking mountain and returned holding an entire arsenal.


    Winds picked up and the earth trembled and cried as thousands of corpses ravenously tore into the ground, searching for their buried kin. The moment a body was unearthed, It immediately directed Its energy to take over it. Arms from below rose to clasp the arms from above, as bodies were pulled and absorbed into the new home.


    Despite the progress It was making, however, the desire to sleep didn¡¯t disappear. Natural instincts clashed with a conscious mind that yearned for perfection, and the latter managed to prevail time after time. But It was aware that soon It would be too weak to resist, so time was of the essence.


    After unearthing every body It could sense below the Core, It ordered the amalgamation of corpses to move above the next batch of buried bodies. That was a mistake. After moving the Core, It sensed Its field of perception shift in accordance with it. Which, in turn, revealed more of the field of fallen bodies, further fueling Its desire to finish the job as well as it could. The command to stop moving and drop down followed immediately after that realization.


    The entity ignored another earthly groan as it frantically searched for answers. Absentmindedly, It ordered the newly discovered corpses to join Its masterpiece. As the new additions were heading towards the Core, one of them happened to stumble into one of the trenches that scarred the fields. Undeterred, it clawed at the walls of its improvised prison, until Itordersr one of the nearby bodies to help it out.


    The event did give one idea though.


    Inspired, the entity restructured some of the construct¡¯s innards to allow more flexibility, and ordered it to dig once more. Except this time, instead of holding itself above the excavation site, the corpse mountain oozed into the wounded earth. It shrank in size until only a tiny portion of it was located above the ground, the rest branching in every direction below the surface, connecting to and collecting every corpse the entity could sense.


    A small mound of bodies was the only thing that remained visible to the outside observer, not unlike to piles that were originally scattered across the fields. Urged by a sudden flight of fancy, It twisted fused and twisted the corpses into a column. A column that was higher than the corpse piles, it noted.


    After some consideration, It decided to add a practical side to Its decoration, willing a few spears to extend from the sides, and ordering corpses to drag themselves to the spear tips. Now, if It needed to survey the fields outside of Its perception, It could simply send out these puppets instead of uprooting the whole construct.


    Satisfied at last, the entity allowed Its instincts to take hold and was promptly pulled into the center of the massive underground undead complex where the glowing gem of sickly green was kept in safety.

 Chapter 2 - Establishing Foundations

    It awoke to a steady clanking beat that resonated within Its mind. The memories rushed back, filling up the gaps in the dazed consciousness and bringing the entity¡¯s attention back to the real world. Absentmindedly, It ran maintenance on the underground complex, checking up on the inner workings of the undead colossus. When everything turned up working just as well as it was before, It brought Its gaze to the Core in order to investigate the distracting noise.


    Surprisingly, a pocket of free space formed around the Core and stretched all the way to the surface, ending up as a tiny opening at the base of the speared column. More than that, for some reason, It didn¡¯t feel any aversion to the weakened defenses of the Core. Perhaps the fact it was buried underground and covered in an army¡¯s worth of corpses and metal somewhat put Its instincts at ease?


    Mentally pushing the issue at the back of Its mind, the entity focused on something much more intriguing. Hovering right beside the glowing Core was something that wasn¡¯t present before, and yet it felt as if it definitely belonged here.


    A small, at least compared to the fused bodies around it, being was connected to the walls of the ¡°room¡± by thin segmented tendrils that extended from its back, huge compound eyes staring intently at the gemstone in front of it. Its insectoid body looked like someone dumped a bucket of acid on scrap metal and left to rot in the daylight for several weeks. Despite the color, it had a sleek body shape, somewhat reminiscent of a fly or a praying mantis. Eight gaunt limbs extended from its main body, the upper four consisting of two curved blades and two grasping claws, and the lower four being taloned legs bent backward.


    The newest arrival didn¡¯t evoke any hostile responses from the entity, so It decided to simply observe for the time being. The silent staring contest between a sapient stone and a metallic-looking bug-thing continued for a while, but eventually the It got tired of doing nothing and willed the Core to be absorbed deeper into the mass of flesh and metal.


    As It started to shift Its attention to the surface in search of things to spend Its time on, the newcomer moved. And with it, the walls. The entity stared at once more bared Core in bedazzled confusion. Just to be sure, It yanked the Core again, only to witness the same outcome come into fruition.


    Time after time It tried to force the walls to stay still, and each time It failed miserably. The little bug-thing inevitably followed after the Core, its tendrils ripping their hooked ends out of the flesh and using them to move in the appearing corridors. Pausing, the entity decided to try a new approach to the issue at hand. Instead of commanding the undead, It sent an order directly at the pest, hoping it would leave already.


    The outcome, however, differed greatly from what It expected. With a sudden buzz, the thing twitched and a soft green glow emanated from between its segments for a few seconds. When the light show was over, it skittered over to the Core, circling it a couple times, and took its final position right above the gemstone.


    ¡°Dungeon Terminal #001, reporting for duty,¡± a monotone voice echoed inside the entity¡¯s mind, ¡°Initiating [Greeting Protocol], please stand by.¡±


    Curious, It patiently waited for the situation to develop. Whatever this thing was, it provided plenty of entertainment to keep It busy. Eventually, the visitor twitched again before its body language changed completely. Rapid jerking movements were replaced with the smooth grace of a predator, its tendrils now bending and twisting fluidly without pauses.


    ¡°Welcome to the world of Guralia, Young Dungeon,¡± the same voice resumed speaking, ¡°I am your Dungeon Companion, more commonly known as a Dungeon Fairy. My purpose is to get you accustomed to the world you have found yourself in, as well as inform you of the set rules. You may now ask your questions. End [Greeting Protocol].¡±


    A world? Dungeon Fairy? Rules? The entity was beyond confused. But still, knowledge was knowledge, and it appeared that communicating with this thing was currently the easiest way to get it. Besides, the thought of spending all of Its time on gathering corpses seemed rather bland and, to be honest, boring, so maybe this ¡®companion¡¯ could give some suggestions on what to do? Eager, It pushed Its thoughts into the metallic fairy, causing it to freeze once more. Fortunately, it didn¡¯t break, since it restarted its motions shortly after.


    ¡°Analyzing response¡­ Analysis Complete: Dungeon incapable of proper communication. Solution: Direct Data Download.¡±


    The creature leaned into the Core and hugged it with all eight limbs. Immediately after, It sensed a ¡®package,¡¯ for a lack of better word, brush against Its mind. Curious, It absorbed the offered information, Its memories swiftly filling with countless languages, letters, and pronunciations. Practically salivating at the free knowledge, It quickly cataloged the data and focused on the fairy with something akin to adoration. The little thing was already proving itself extremely useful.


    ¡°Scheduled Response: You may now ask your questions.¡±


    ¡°heLlO? CAn YoU hEAR ME?¡±The entity did Its best to put the acquired information to good use right away.


    ¡°Affirmative.¡±


    Huh. This method of communication was rather convenient, It had to admit. It also didn¡¯t hesitate to ask the next question.


    ¡°WhaT aRE You?¡±


    ¡°Your Dungeon Companion, more commonly known as a Dungeon Fairy. Because Dungeons are naturally rejected by Grualia, a piece of their consciousness is forcefully separated and imbued with the World¡¯s Will in order to properly integrate the new Dungeon. My purpose is to get you accustomed to the world you have found yourself in, as well as inform you of the set rules.¡±


    Fair enough.


    ¡°What aM i?¡±


    ¡°A Dungeon Core, more commonly referred to as a Dungeon. An extraterrestrial entity that has invaded Guralia for an unknown reason.¡±


    So It was a Dungeon? Interesting. What was truly disappointing was that the fairy too had no idea why It was here. Slightly disappointed, but not deterred, It continued prodding the creature for more answers.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.


    ¡°Where am I?¡±


    ¡°Grualia.¡±


    That was it?


    ¡°Where am I?¡±


    ¡°Grualia.¡±


    Annoying. It could finally put Its emotions into proper definitions, and the one It felt right now was definitely annoyance. Regardless, this strain of conversation was clearly a dead end. It took some time going over the answers It has already received before coming up with a new question.


    ¡°What are the rules?¡±


    ¡±Dungeon Rules are a set of laws that all Dungeons must follow. Rule One: Do not spread your influence above the surface. Rule Two: Do not inflict True Death onto Heroes. Rule Three: Those chosen by Gods must be allowed passage to their God¡¯s realm after their death. Rule Four: The Dungeon Core must be accessible from the surface. Violating any of the Dungeon Rules results in termination through Hero Quests.¡±


    Its thoughts stilled. It wasn¡¯t allowed above ground? Reacting within a moment¡¯s notice, the structure towering above the corpse-littered fields was swiftly pulled into the earth, leaving a flat mass of compressed dead bodies with a hole in the middle of the improvised ¡®pool.¡¯ Seconds ticked by as It awaited the mysterious Hero Quests to come and terminate It, but when no such thing happened, It returned to the interrupted conversation brimming with suspicion.


    ¡°No Hero Quests came. Did you lie?¡±


    The entity closely observed as the fairy froze for a split second, then continued shifting in place as if nothing had happened. It also seemed to not notice the swarm of decaying hands detaching themselves from the walls behind it and reaching towards the creature¡¯s back without making a single sound.


    ¡°Negative. Only Rule Four is actively enforced by the World¡¯s Will. The integrity of Rules One through Three is upheld by the Gods and sapient races. Lack of Hero Quests indicates that the trespassing was not observed.¡±


    It cautiously mulled over the bit of important data, as the undead just as quietly returned back to their places. If only Rule Four was actively enforced, then It still could operate above the surface, as well as those other two things It had currently no interest in. But the inability rise from underground would cut Its possible things to do in half, which would¡¯ve been disastrous. Fortunately, It just had to be extra careful not to get caught. Or deal with those Hero Quests, whatever those were, in one way or another.


    The other real problem was Rule Four, which It had to ability to resist. Despite spending quite some time trying to take the control back over the walls of Its hideout, there always remained an opening. Hopefully, the Core was safe with defenses already in place. If not, It could always come up with more.


    ¡°What is the Core?¡±It hoped that the companion was aware that the Core was the same gemstone that the creature was currently sitting on. Luckily, Its worries were for naught.


    ¡°The Core is the Nexus of a Dungeon¡¯s consciousness. Should the Core perish, the Dungeon will cease to exist.¡±


    Cease¡­ to exist? The concept was confusing to It. How could ¡®not exist¡¯? It was here, It was thinking. How could It stop? If It were to cease existing, It would to ¡®not think.¡¯ But It was always thinking. Did that mean It will never ¡®cease to exist¡¯?


    ¡°What is ¡®cease to exist¡¯?¡±


    ¡°Cessation of existence means oblivion. Immediate cancelation of all thought processes and following shut down of the physical body. Death.¡±


    It shuddered. Death sounded uncomfortable. Something about the word itself was off-putting. Whatever it was, It knew that It did not want to die. Or to stop thinking. Thinking was something It enjoyed, and if this ¡®death¡¯ would prevent It from doing so then it was only natural It resisted, right? Fortunately, the entity was now aware that Its existence was linked to the Core, a fact that justified Its former obsession with protecting It. However, Rule Four had just become Its greatest enemy. It was quite simple to determine that this World¡¯s Will was hostile to Dungeons like itself. Rule Four was the only one directly enforced, as well as the only one that guaranteed the possibility of It dying.


    Even if It buried Its Core as deeply as It could, there would always be a passage remaining. A passage for something to reach Its Core and destroy. Something on the surface was actively seeking to bring death to It, presumably those ¡®Gods¡¯ and ¡®sapient races¡¯. If so, they would find It¡­ displeased.


    ¡°What are Gods and sapient races?¡±


    ¡°Sapient races are species of beings that possess higher thought and populate Guralia alongside non-sapient races such as animals. Gods are spiritual entities composed of magic and faith that rely on sapient races for sustenance, providing various support in return.¡±


    That barely answered anything. But fine, It has already learned that asking the same question leads to the same answer. It just had to find out for itself. Done questioning the fairy, for now, It dismissed the small creature and considered what to do next.


    If It disregarded the Rules and continued to spread above the surface, It would eventually be noticed. Perhaps It could deal with the Hero Quests and protect Its Core. Perhaps not. It came to the conclusion that It desperately needed more answers, answers that could only be acquired through direct research. Which in turn met getting those Hero Quests in the first place. A recursive loop.


    ¡°What are Hero Quests?¡±It couldn¡¯t believe It forgot to ask such a simple thing. Even if this fairy wasn¡¯t as useful as It hoped, it could still provide immense assistance.


    ¡°Hero Quests are Quests given to Heroes. An epic version of Quests given to Adventurers.¡±


    ¡°And what are these Adventurer Quests? Who are Adventurers?¡±


    ¡°Adventurer Quests are Quests given to Adventurers. Adventurers are members of sapient races who take Quests. Greatest Adventurers become Heroes.¡±


    ¡­Fascinating.


    In any case, Heroes and Adventurers seemed to be similar to each other, so perhaps It could conduct Its research on Adventurers first and only then move to Heroes? Yes, that sounded like a splendid idea. So, It needed Adventurers to come to It. Supposedly by taking a Quest. The only question remaining was how to lure said Adventurers? It needed more information, way more information than It had right now.


    It needed to conduct reconnaissance.


    ¡°Can you go to the surface?¡±


    ¡°Negative¡±


    Only one way left then, no matter how risky. With a minor burst of will, several corpses rose up from the mass of flesh and started moving away from the Core. They moved slowly, due to the changed bone structure that resembled a cytoskeleton, which better maintained the integrity of the bodies, but drastically reduced their flexibility. Bits of blades and pieces of armor were left inside the bodies just in case. It wasn¡¯t sure in what case exactly, but It wanted to be prepared.


    Its field of perception expanded as the scouts distanced themselves from the Core, just as It hoped. Unfortunately, the only new things in sight were more corpses and metal. Unable to resist the temptation, It ordered more bodies to rise with the sole purpose of collecting their kin and adding them to the Dungeon.


    Meanwhile, the entity began with restructure Its newly identified Dungeon with fanatical fervor. Rock was shattered and stone was ground to dust, as the undead abomination dug into the soil. Tunnels were being collapsed and created, numerous dead ends formed for no other reason than to confused whoever dared to seeks Its destruction. Beneath an inconspicuous hole in the ground, if one ignored the primordial soup of rotting flesh and rust around it, an entire labyrinth was being created.


    Only one entrance which also served as an exit. Only one Core that lied at the very back of the sprawling complex. Only one way to get from that entrance to said Core. All enclosed by walls made of cracked skulls, broken bones, decomposing flesh, and cold sharp metal, all ready to pounce at anything with enough audacity to tread these halls.


    If this Dungeon had to have a passage to the Core, then so be it. But that passage was going to spell doom for anyone and anything that dared to wish Its Core destruction. If they wanted to bring death to It, it was only fair for It to bring death to them, right?

 Chapter 3 - First Contact

    This was getting very boring, very fast. All the undead sent in a circle to scout the area showed the same view whenever It checked up on them: devastated plains, seas of corpses, and oceans of tools of war. Cycle after cycle did the corpse puppets walk in search of anything of interest, yet nothing was found. The entity found itself in a literal dead zone.


    Turning Its attention to the fairy wordlessly hovering above the Core, It spoke with something akin to frustration, ¡°I need to get out of here. If the Heroes will find my Core regardless of where I am when the time comes, it is of vital importance to make use of that time with maximum efficiency. I can¡¯t afford to waste cycles by doing nothing. Companion, is there a way to relocate the Dungeon?¡±


    ¡°Processing. Under usual circumstances, the answer is Negative, but considering the unique structure of this Dungeon, digging should be possible.¡± The creature buzzed after a few seconds of silence, its distorted voice echoing through the empty tunnels.


    The option was worth considering. On one hand, it meant abandoning the painstakingly created fortifications that It has already established over the past few cycles. On the other, not doing so could result in Its death further along the line. It wasn¡¯t even much a decision to be made.


    The ground shuddered as the undead began to untangle themselves from the walls and dig into their former resting places. Since It didn¡¯t know which direction to focus Its efforts in, It could only slowly expand everywhere until the scouts picked up anything of value. Worth noting was the fact that as an army the undead were digging much faster than as a single construct. That particular bit of useful information was definitely going into the ¡®research later¡¯ category. It wondered what other differences could there be between a single unit of undead, and several combined together.


    The surveillance perimeter on the surface kept spreading further and further apart as the underground web of tunnels slowly continued to expand. Eventually, the entity got bored of doing nothing while the puppets did all the work, and decided to make good on that test It wanted to perform.


    Three units of the newly dug up corpses were dominated and brought before the Core. Strictly speaking, It could¡¯ve done what It wanted in any part of the Dungeon, but the finesse gained from the proximity to the Core was always welcome. Also, conducting Its first true experiment at Its very heart felt appropriate somehow.


    The bodies were separated into two groups, one of one and one of two. The former was ordered to just stand still and act as a way to compare the result of the test. The latter, however, were faced with the brunt of the entity¡¯s curiosity.


    The two corpses were ordered to stand back to back, their armored torsos clanking against each other, and not a second later their flesh rippled. And not only flesh. First, their breastplates fused and expanded to envelop both bodies at once. Then, their spines were shattered and reassembled into one, organs and muscles following to compensate for the new height. Unlike the first time It created the moving mountain of corpses, It was now carefully observing and analyzing the inner structure of Its puppets. Most of the organs had already complete decayed, but even the partially remaining once held no clue as to their purpose. What It saw were simply lumps of rotten flesh, but at least their relative locations were recorded and replicated in the manifesting construct.


    An extra pair of legs was considered unnecessary and was disassembled, its materials aiding in the strengthening of the other pair. Otherwise, the undead would probably collapse under its own weight, It mused. The second pair of arms, however, was kept as well as the second head. The latter provided some additional field of vision, since it was located on the ¡®back,¡¯ and the former could be used to carry more weapons. Finally, whatever armor remained on the former duo melted like ice under the sun and moved to encase the creature in segmented armor. Special care was given to the protection of joints after they were labeled as weak points. Energies or not, if something physically couldn¡¯t move, then it couldn¡¯t move.


    The resulting abomination towered over its unmodified kin, being almost twice as tall. Still rusty armor covered a significant portion of its body, leaving only bits and pieces of muscle visible to the world, as well as four emerald lights that shined from within the two helmets. A spear whose tip was remade to resemble a sword both in length and width was tightly clutched in the front pair of hands, while a sword and a shield were held by the creature¡¯s back. Due to the sheer size of the undead, both weapons, too, had to be modified in order to fit, becoming a great sword and a tower shield respectively.


    Observing Its finished creation with a fair share of satisfaction, the entity realized that It had completely forgotten the reason for this test in the first place. The newly created undead clearly wasn¡¯t meant for digging, it was designed to protect the Core. Was the experiment considered a failure then?


    It mentally shrugged and fused a couple more copies of Its newest minion just in case. Unfortunately, when It tried to make the fifth one, the now-familiar energy traitorously escaped Its grasp. No matter how many times It tried, the number of four-armed undead didn¡¯t exceed four, coincidentally. When It asked the fairy for a solution to the problem, or at the very least a reason, It was told that the Core was too weak to support more ¡®greater undead.¡¯


    It turned out that a Core could grow just like the Dungeon, but instead of digging it had to be exposed to something called Essence, a form energy, or mana as it was apparently called, that was possessed by sapient races. In other words, It had to get the Essence from adventurers or any other sapient race that decided to visit Its Dungeon.


    Another bit of information was the fact Its puppets, undead, were divided into three basic tiers: lesser undead, greater undead, and True Undead. The first type was basically unmodified corpses of whatever have you and could be maintained in any numbers as long as one had the mana necessary. The greater undead were the ones that possessed any semblance of higher mental function, such as, for example, coordinating two bodies fused into one. These ones required finesse much more than they did raw mana, which explained the current limit.


    Surprisingly, the moving mountain of undead was considered lesser, because each ¡®unit¡¯ was made to perform its own function without interacting with any other. A literal mass of roiling undead flesh was deemed to need any advanced mental capacities to function as it did. It was somewhat confusing and definitely worth looking into, but for now the entity decided to allow the mystery slide. Perhaps this knowledge could be used later to avoid the limit on ¡®greater undead.¡¯


    Finally, True Undead were the most interesting. They were essentially a sapient race all on their own, as they, by definition, had to retain all of their mental functions in order to be considered ¡®True.¡¯ Curiously, since they could maintain themselves, there was no strict limit on them either, one just needed to ensure their loyalty one way or another. Unlike lesser and greater undead, obeying the creator¡¯s every command wasn¡¯t ingrained in their very being, which complicated things. Just another puzzle to solve later on.


    Ordering all four of Its new creations to stand guard near the Core, just in case, the entity waited. And waited. And waited, until It got bored again.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    The four singular units were called up and then subjected to an attempt to replicate Its first achievement on a smaller scale. Instead of melding the undead in any particular fashion, It just made them stand close to each other and then welded their bodies together into a mass of decay and rust. The resulting ooze wobbled on the spot, seemingly mindless of its surroundings. Though, considering that it was successfully created in the first place, it was likely a lesser undead, which gave a reasonable explanation for its lack of awareness.


    Since there were no threats in sight, creating more puppets of such nature was meaningless, and the entity ordered the ooze to wrap around the Core for lack of better things to do. To Its frustration, a small portion of the Core remained exposed to the world, solidifying the fact that the World¡¯s Will was very diligent when it came to enforcing Rule Four.


    The Dungeon briefly pondered on what else It could keep Its time occupied with when the feedback coming from the scouts that¡¯s been showing the same picture for a while finally seized Its attention.


    One of the undead units was currently approaching a massive rock formation, a mountain, that towered above the ravaged fields like a lonely giant amongst grass. Its gloomy peak ripped the thunderous clouds apart and vanished into the dark skies, ominous crackling of lightning bolts echoing across the plains.


    What really attracted the entity¡¯s attention, however, was a barely noticeable cave at the base of the stony titan. Without hesitation, all nearby scouting units were redirected to the newfound site. It took about a cycle to gather a big enough group to be capable of reporting back in the case of emergency, and the twenty-odd undead were sent to investigate. Them being lesser undead, stealth was out of the question, and the moment they crossed the entrance, panicked shouts resounded from within the depths of the cave.


    The entity had no idea what all the screaming meant, but, fortunately for It, the Dungeon Fairy came to the rescue, ¡°Translating. Translation Complete. Language Identified: Low Common. Installing Language Module. Installation Complete.¡±


    The moment Companion said ¡®complete,¡¯ a burst of information tore into Its mind and unfolded into glorious knowledge. Immediately, all the yelling started to make sense.


    ¡°Get the Lord Mage, you maggots, we can¡¯t take on this many without casualties!¡± A gruff voice rose over the fearful cries, instantly squelching the panic, ¡°You, rookie! Get Albert and Todd in here, we could use our heavy-hitters! The hell are you waiting for, go-go-go!¡±


    Before the scouts could provide a better picture of what was happening beyond the darkness of the cavern, a stick with a sharpened piece of metal attached to it flew out and blew one of the undead¡¯s head right off its shoulders. The rest of the body collapsed shortly after the severed appendage hit the ground.


    The entity stilled for a moment to take in the unwarranted hostility, before expressing Its displeasure in the form of ordering Its undead to charge in. Perhaps whatever Its opponents were, they were trying to protect a Core of their own? If that was the case, then perhaps It could sympathize with their action, but not without confirming or denying Its assumption first.


    The darkness, which was revealed to be some sort of black smoke, not a simple absence of light, vanished from Its sight after the scouts crossed some invisible border.


    Right in front of them, illuminated by several torches lining the walls, were two lines of humanoid organisms, one right behind the other. They were all extremely similar to the undead under Its command, except a lot less decomposed, and with better equipment. The metal on them didn¡¯t even have rust, imagine that!


    The front line was mostly composed of trembling bodies clad poorly stitched leather armor that looked ready to fall apart that tightly held onto their swords with knuckles white from pressure. The back line was made up of three individuals, each carrying an arc of wood with a familiar stick-metal combination attached to a string of some sorts.


    The three in the very middle of the formation, however, immediately attracted the entities attention due to being visibly distinct from the rest. Right in front of the first line was a scarred organism almost as twice as large as every other occupant of the cave, individually of course. The leather armor had plates of metal woven into it for extra protection without restricting the wearer¡¯s mobility, and the spiked mace looked ready to crush skulls. What really grabbed attention, was a massive crooked scar that ran horizontally across the man¡¯s face.


    Flunking the supposed leader from both sides were two slightly smaller humanoids, but still tall and intimidating enough to whip the rest into obedience with their mere presence. Both of them carried a wooden shield laced with stripes of metal, and a great sword that was easily held aloft with one hand.


    ¡°Stand your ground, men! We¡¯ve survived these plains before, and we¡¯ll live through them now! Lord Mage is coming any minute now, we just need to hold them off,¡± The small fleshy mountain crouched and gripped the mace with both hands, ¡°All survivors get a drink on me, so you better not die to these filthy zombies!¡±


    Interesting, so these undead were called zombies? The entity recorded the information and, as the newly-named zombies rushed the lines of defenders, mentally addressed the fairy.


    ¡°I¡¯ve been getting flashes of new data recently. Your work?¡±


    ¡°Affirmative. With the introduction to sapient species, I am allowed to transfer information labeled [Common Knowledge]. The installation is underway.¡±


    Dismissing the companion, It returned to watching the fight. The entity was slightly disgruntled about the Dungeon Fairy doing something without Its permission, but It decided to let it slide this time. The battle was of much greater interest anyway.


    The two sides have already engaged in melee by the time It directed Its attention back to them, so It witnessed the sight of zombies throwing themselves at the humans with exactly zero self-preservation. Rusted swords and daggers were used about as often as bare hands, the sole purpose behind every attack being to shove the pointy end as deep into the living flesh as possible. The undead were ravenous, tearing into the men with reckless abandon, clawing, stabbing, and biting all the way through.


    In return, they were met with practiced strikes, well-aimed arrows, and, in one particular instance, brutal decimation via a spiky sphere of steel. Despite shaking like leaves at first, the humans got their wits together, supported by the nigh-constant screaming from the scarred man, and the silent presence of the two shield-bearers.


    One of the zombies was cleaved right through with a greatsword, but its remains twitched at such a time that they tripped one of the front liners. Losing his balance, the man stumbled deeper into the undead side of the clash and was soon dragged in screaming, surrounding zombies swarming him in a matter of seconds.


    A few more undead were picked off by the flying arrows before the formation finally broke and three zombie managed to slip past the defenses and right into the bowmen¡¯s faces. A yell from behind was all the warning the fighters had before their back line went quiet. Now, they were forced to watch to sides at the same time, trapped in an unintentional pincer maneuver.


    Through it all, the mace was dancing across the battlefield, swatting aside heads and tearing through bones. At least five of the zombies fell prey to the gigantic man, and around seven more were injured to the point of non-functionality, mostly through complete removal of their limbs. In other words, the leader alone took out more than half of the scouting squad, though not before more than half of his own unit was brought down as well.


    The last remaining zombie lunged at the scarred man¡¯s back, but was intercepted by a swift flash of a blade, hitting the ground in two cleanly separated chunks. That didn¡¯t quite finish it off, however, so it still managed to see a shape stepping out of the deeper recesses of the cave and onto the illuminated ground, before its feedback was ended in a burst of fire.


    ¡°That,¡± The entity pondered on how to accurately describe the situation, ¡°Was pointless. Twenty zombies wasted, little to no information gained. Those¡­ humans. They owe me.¡±


    After a short mental command, a unit of hundred zombies was gathered on the surface and sent in the mountain¡¯s direction. Meanwhile, the remaining puppets all gathered facing the same direction underground, and started to dig. Despite the initial waste of resource, the situation could still be turned into a beneficial one.


    If the surface zombies arrived in time to catch the humans, It would gain resources, data, and a base potentially close to adventurers and other sapient races. If the humans left, but the corpses remained behind, It could study them and acquire some valuable insight, as well as get a new base. If the cave was empty, however, the entity could still establish itself close to civilization. It was perfect.


    ¡°Now,¡± It echoed to the unresponsive fairy, ¡°We try again. This time, with better results.¡±

 Chapter 4 - Taking Root

    The small army marching on the surface quickly outpaced the legions digging underground. After all, it was much easier for the tireless undead to make their way through empty air then through solid ground. The chaotic clanking of their damaged armor freely echoing across the open plains.


    What the entity didn¡¯t think about but welcomed nonetheless was that by moving the Core, it encompassed new parts of the corpse-littered fields. What once started as a squad of hundred undead swiftly grew the more distance they covered. One hundred became two, then three, and, by the time It could see the mountain again, the army grew to five times its original size. By that time, however, they went so far ahead that the newly raised dead couldn¡¯t immediately join the original squad. Unsurprisingly, this caused a new horde to begin forming above ground, this one firmly keeping well within the Core¡¯s distance.


    It was risky but, considering how the so-called Gods have ignored one army on the march, It hoped the second one wouldn¡¯t make much of a difference.


    The mountain was approaching fast, the claps of thunder around it weaving into the beat of metal boots to create a beautiful symphony. The entity found itself so entranced by the melody that It completely missed the remaining way to reach Its destination.


    Even though the Core, and the second horde, were still a fair distance away from the cave entrance, the first army pulled into the now tiny opening without hesitation. As more and more undead entered the cavern, It was surprised that nobody greeted them like last time. There were no lines of defenders, no giant humans with swords, nothing. Not even corpses.


    It would¡¯ve been disappointed if not for the unceasing incoherent screams that blasted out of cave depths like a literal wall of force. Some undead even seemed to flinch back slightly the moment they passed through the familiar barrier of black smoke.


    Regardless, after cramming as many units as possible within the first ¡®room¡¯ of the cave, the army continued to march forward, filling any and all empty spaces with dead, yet moving, bodies.


    The admittedly small tunnel soon started to get more and more spacious, up until it expanded into a ginormous cavern. A moderately-sized opening far up high allowed extremely thin rays of sunlight to provide illumination, in addition to the torches lining the walls. Numerous walkways stretched along the sides of the massive cave, each sporting several entrances deeper into the mountain with walls of black fog preventing anyone from seeing through.


    And right in the middle of the cavern, a trench was torn into the ground, like an unfading scar. It was no result of a minor earthquake, that seemed impossible as the wound split the rock in half and even light seemed too afraid to reach deeper into the gaping abyss.


    Right on the edge of the chasm, a small campfire was burning, shadows dancing on the fabric of the tents gathered around it. The last piece of what would make, perchance, a nice painting was the gaggle of people running around in panic. The currently diminished group of humans was clearly freaking out, decibels flying in every direction only getting louder when the undead started to pull into the cavern. The trio that stood out before were like islands of relative calm amidst a sea of terror, the two shield bearers standing pale as snow but standing nonetheless.


    At least they weren¡¯t bawling on the ground like one of the younger fighters, his cries were particularly annoying.


    What was even more interesting, was that now the entity could distinctly see the shape It could only glimpse last time. A tall thin figure wrapped in a midnight black robe was silently observing the encroaching zombies, its hood pulled up to completely conceal the face.


    The entity was a bit downcast after It realized that no corpses produced by the previous encounter were in sight but that was fine, It was about to make some more.  One unheard command later, and the undead army half a thousand strong charged at the disorganized humans.


    Unlike last time, the scarred man¡¯s screams did absolutely nothing to take control of the situation, and the undead horde crashed into the disarrayed humans like a tsunami into a wooden harbor.


    It took a couple minutes, but the outcome was already determined the moment It realized that the humans didn¡¯t leave the cavern. When the tide of corpses reached the hooded one, however, It felt a felt something akin to a poke against the energy gathered in the undead. Confused, It allowed whatever just transpired to resolve, curious to see the result. To Its utter surprise, of the zombies stopped giving It visual feedback the very next second.


    The connection was still there, and It was convinced that reclaiming control over the rogue undead would be a matter of a second or two, but the meaning of what just transpired opened some interesting possibilities.


    Since It could feel a barely visible string of familiar emerald energy stretch from the rebellious zombie to the cloaked man, It could safely assume that these humans were capable of manipulating mana as well. Or at least some of them could.


    The ¡®Lord Mage,¡¯ judging by how the others called him even while being ripped apart bit by bit, used the now-allied zombie as a meat shield against its kin, flinging balls of fire out of seemingly nowhere into the mass of the dead. They proved to be surprisingly effective, the resulting blast waves and gouts of flames decimating the zombies by dozens. Mostly because there were so many of them crammed into so little space but still.


    Unwilling to lose more units than necessary, the entity seized control over the renegade zombie, causing the Lord Mage to stumble and gasp in pain. The surrounding undead quickly capitalized on the moment of weakness due to Its direct order, and brutally locked the man down, pulling down his hood to reveal a bald gaunt face and stabbing whatever they had in hands through his limbs in order to pin them down.


    A similar fate awaited the pair with greatswords and the mace wielder since all of them attracted the entity¡¯s attention due to standing out from the rest of their squad. Needless to say, the remaining humans were lined for slaughter.


    At least until the entity reconsidered Its actions, leaving five of the fighters alive but disabled in a similar manner to their leaders. It needed resources both dead and alive, after all.


    It ignored the fearful yells of the survivors and the way Lord Mage¡¯s eyes widened when the undead left the remnants of the squad alive, switching Its focus to the Core and using all of Its processing power to increase the digging efficiency.


    The Dungeon reached the mountain before the current cycle could shift, ordering the diggers to create a tiny opening from the underground tunnels into the cave entrance. The next part was pretty simple, all of Its undead were ordered to unearth themselves and populate the newfound cavern, while the Core itself was transported by the corpse ooze through the opening created earlier. That way, the Core technically never entered the surface. It wasn¡¯t sure if the Core rising above ground would attract more attention from the Gods but It decided to play it safe.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    The appearance of easily double the undead already present in the cavern was enough to make all but the interesting four to pass out.


    Correction, the remaining three, one of the shield bearers couldn¡¯t hold it together went limp on the cold stone floor, his eyes rolling into the back of his head.


    The only one reacting differently from the rest was Lord Mage, as instead of the crooked grimace like the one marring the scarred man¡¯s face, a jagged grin widened on his face with every new zombie appearing before his eyes.


    When the four greater undead arrived through the entrance, he outright chuckled before turning to his fellow humans using whatever remaining freedom his locked down position allowed him.


    ¡°Well, gentlemen,¡± A relatively young hoarse voice echoed over the clanking armor, ¡°It¡¯s been a pleasure. As a form of condolence, please accept this piece of knowledge: whatever is about to happen¡­ It¡¯s going to be good.¡±


    ¡°Screw you and your knowledge, you bloody madman!¡± The scarface snarled at the hooded man, his fingers desperately wiggling in an attempt to reach his mace, ¡°My boys and I followed you to escape from that shithole of a country, not to get eaten by a fucking army of undead! Who, tell me, who thought it was a good idea to settle in the Deadlands, huh?! ¡®The Empire would never look there,¡¯ you say, well guess what? They didn¡¯t need to, with all the corpses crawling around! So come on, use your mumbo jumbo and get us of out here just like you promised, you mage freak!¡±


    The young mage only sneered in response and turned away from the enraged man. In a bout of anger, the giant man screamed as he gave it his all to grab the spiked club and show the snot-nosed bastard of a brat not to ignore him. Before he could even touch the leather bound handle of his weapon, however, steel flashed and his wrist fell on the ground, motionless. The nearby zombie lifted up its sword and retained its former position, still as a statue.


    The injured man managed to suppress a cry of pain as he watched his rugged stump bleed out. His eyes swirled towards the blade that wounded him, widening at the sight of a jagged rusty surface. Of course it was in such a terrible state, who would expect zombies of all things to maintain their equipment. Still, it meant his injury was infected right now, and even if he were to stop the bleeding, he was doomed without a skilled healer. Not that he had any hopes of surviving this encounter anyway.


    Meanwhile, the surrounding undead suddenly started to move, immediately gaining the attention of every conscious being present. The zombie horde swiftly separated into two halves, creating a passage leading from the entrance to the cavern and ending right near the campfire, on the edge of the abyss.


    The sound of countless tiny legs striking the stone spread across the cave, as if hundreds of beetles were drumming on a steel plate. Out of the darkness, a fluid shape slowly emerged into the light, a viscous mass of rotting flesh and shattered armor, pieces of which were producing the skittering noise when hitting the ground. Hovering right above it, was a small metallic creature with hooked tendrils extending from its back that plunged into the rock below in order to allow it to move.


    The new undead oozed its way in between the ranks of zombies until it stopped right in front of the captives. From within the depths of decaying flesh, a deep monotonous voice drilled right into the ears of its unwilling listeners, causing the men to violently flinch.


    ¡°What, is within the trench?¡± The mass of the liquid undead vibrated in conjuncture with the voice, seemingly speaking with its whole body.


    About a minute later, when the entity realized that It wouldn¡¯t receive an answer, the robed mage cleared his throat and croaked out, ¡°Y-your Dark Majesty, please allow this lowly servant to aid you! I¡¯m sure that a Necromancer of your caliber could use the news from outsides the Deadlands, and I possess plenty of such information!¡±


    ¡°Not, a Necromancer,¡± The entity thought it was safe to say that bit of information out loud, as, from the fairy¡¯s explanations, Dungeons weren¡¯t necessarily hated on their own, ¡°Dungeon. You, didn¡¯t answer the question. What, is in the chasm?¡±


    Several gasps could be heard as well as the sound of a few bodies hitting the floor. It seemed that the just-awaked humans decided it was the safest to lose consciousness again. The formerly decommissioned shieldbearer, however, didn¡¯t pass out this time, only fearfully observing the towering ooze.


    ¡°¡­a Dungeon, I can¡¯t believe it¡­ But, you brought an army of undead above the surface, that doesn¡¯t make any sense! Dungeons are supposed to stay underground, or deep within mountain ranges or something!¡±


    ¡°Answer, the question.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know! I just picked this place as a base because of its proximity to the Empire, while also being located in the Deadlands!¡± The sweat forming and immediately dripping onto the floor from the visibly terrified man. The air of confidence and superiority he exuded vanished into nothingness after he understood that there was a sapient will behind the army of undead, ¡°I planned to raise a horde of undead and ravage the Empire with it, that¡¯s all!¡±


    ¡°What?!¡± All of the remaining humans gaped at the mage before the sound of grinding teeth could be heard, especially from the scarred man, ¡°You said we¡¯d stick to raids until we could raise enough money to travel to the Baronies! We never agreed to attack the Empire!¡±


    ¡°Well it¡¯s too late now, Lord Mage,¡± One of the bound shielders, which the entity just noticed looked absolutely identical to each other, sneered, ¡°We¡¯re all about to become dead meat here, so you better say prayers to your God! Oh wait, you don¡¯t have one, do you? Even your freaky kin know better than to deny their Gods, but you¡¯re oh so special, you godless trai-!¡°


    ¡°Shut it, Albert,¡± The other man said to his twin, ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter now. Nothing does.¡±


    As the humans bickered with each other, the entity was deep in thought. The was some ¡®Empire¡¯ near this mountain, a country by the sound of it. Which meant civilization. Adventurers. Also Heroes, but mainly Adventurers. This place really was perfect, especially with that chasm looking so inviting, so¡­ safe.


    Every single lesser undead with the exception of the slime burst into motion, instantly silencing the humans. Like a single well-oiled machine, rotting hands clasped each other, and the zombies began to lower the fellows into the abyss one by one. The men watched, speechless, as dozens of undead disappeared into the darkness, driven by the monumental will of their creator.


    Eventually, the entire trench was covered in zombies clutching to each other along the walls, solid rock becoming all but invisible behind the curtain of swarming undead. The entity, meanwhile, felt Its puppets reach the bottom of the chasm and, after confirming the safety of the location, ordered the ooze to come down. Flowing between the net of zombies, the carrier of the Core finally reached the absolute darkness of the bottom a few minutes later.


    Mentally shuddering in content, It willed some of the zombies to fuse with each in the likeness of Its first creation, ensuring that the trench was truly under Its control. The job done, It merged the ooze into the construct, exponentially increasing its size, and stationed the four greater undead around the earthly maw for additional protection.


    After that, It raised the recently fallen humans and commanded them to form a separate group for later examination. Then, some of the remaining lesser undead were ordered to surveil the passages within the cavern, while still leaving some more to look over the captured humans. Every other puppet was sent outside with the sole purpose of gathering more corpses and bringing them into the cavern to be animated.


    Having run out of things to do indirectly, It returned Its attention to the prisoners. Seeing the zombies around them suddenly turn to stare directly at them, the humans flinched. One of the younger unmarked ones whimpered under his breath, but the entity still caught the whisper.


    ¡°Please, Relios, I don¡¯t want to die¡­ I, I¡¯ve been your devout follower, wasn¡¯t I? Save me, please, save me¡­¡±


    Filing this ¡®Relios¡¯ away for later, the entity discovered some strange feeling roiling within Its mind at such a pitiful sight.


    ¡­Pitiful¡­


    Yes, It guessed It could sympathize with the young being. It, too, didn¡¯t want to die. Hearing the shuffle of feet approaching, the youth fearfully turned his head, almost breaking the neck in the process, and came face to face with a half-exposed skull. The shrill instantly attracted the attention of the rest of the living occupants of the cavern, so the entity decided to address all of them at once.


    ¡°Do, you wish to live?¡±


    ¡°Yes, anything!¡± The young man was echoed by the mage and a bunch of other, causing the three giant men to scoff in disgust.


    ¡°Do, you fear death?¡±


    ¡°Y-yes¡­¡± This time, they sounded unsure. Doubtful.


    ¡°Then I have a deal to propose¡­¡±