《I was reincarnated as a Magic Academy!》 Chapter 1: Im a WHAAAT?! Ah!~ Life¡­ So beautiful and yet so fragile. A bit of a sad way to start a story isn¡¯t it? However~ Guess who just died? Yes, me! The MC of the story! Oh? Nope, I didn¡¯t get hit by a truck¡­ Ahem! Let me tell you about my mortal life before I ended up as whatever the hell I am right now¡­ So, I was born as a boy in your typical hard-working family. No, I¡¯m not Japanese, I¡¯m Romanian. Good ol¡¯ politically corrupt Romania! Well, enough with the unimportant details¡­ I grew up quite normal. I wasn¡¯t bullied, I wasn¡¯t the bully, I wasn¡¯t the hot guy in the class nor the disgusting guy who kept digging for gold up his nasal cavity. I was¡­ average. I went to an average High School. I studied at the University Politehnica Bucure?ti and became a sales manager at a sweets company. What? Not everyone who goes there ends up as an engineer. Even if we get the diploma, many of us wandered off in completely unexpected directions, but that¡¯s life. Anyway, to escape my boredom, I bought a good computer and started to play games. Aaand I played a lot¡­ I mean seriously, my collection was impressive! Good ol¡¯ Seasonal Sales! Hm? A few of you are wondering if I ended up as a creepy old otaku? More or less¡­ My snickering during certain anime scenes crept out my girlfriend major time! Nonetheless, before this pure angel flew into my arms, I achieved the condition to become a wizard! In other words¡­ 30 years old virgin¡­ So how did I die? Well, while Alina was out shopping with her mom for a dress, since we were supposed to go together to a friend¡¯s wedding, I was inside my private room playing Ultrademons 3. The game appeared a month before, and it was amazing! Well, 2023 tech does wonders when it comes to graphics, unfortunately, I wasn¡¯t rich enough to own a VR set. While I was playing, I suddenly heard a loud bang and died¡­ And there I was, waiting for my beautiful¡­ huh? I didn¡¯t finish the story? Tch¡­ stupid author. So, the reason why I died, huh? I found that out AFTER I died from two souls who kicked the bucket around the same time as me. While I was playing, an accident took place in front of my apartment building. A taxi driver smashed into a police car. The drivers died instantly, but the criminal the officers caught survived without a scratch. The bastard rushed into my apartment building after he stole the guns and ammo from the two officers in the car, one who was heavily injured and the other dead. He picked a random door, shot the lock, entered the apartment, emptied the fridge, made a few calls and then he found me. I didn¡¯t hear him since I was playing with my headphones on. I¡¯m never buying noise canceling headphones again! Anyway, he panicked and well did the most stupid thing imaginable, he shot me point blank in the back of my head. I¡¯m sorry man, I really am¡­ said the taxi driver who was apologizing to the cop. ¡®What about me?!¡¯ I wanted to scream, but I abstained. It wasn¡¯t their fault the criminal was a lunatic¡­ Sigh, but what now? Children¡­ come! a voice called to us. A bright light appeared before me. Without a worry, I went closer to it. I didn¡¯t have many regrets, I wished I could have finished my game and more importantly¡­ propose to Alina, my girlfriend. Sigh¡­ I guess it was time to meet my pretty Valkyries. I was an orthodox christian, but the idea of beautiful war maidens coming to greet me to take me to Heaven sounded nice¡­ Ah~, my beautiful Valkyries! The light vanished and there was darkness around me¡­ Huh? What? Where? Where are my Valkyries? A cute angel chick would be good as well¡­ I¡¯m not picky¡­ Erm? Hello? I shouted, but there was only darkness around me. ¡°Is this it?¡± I heard the voice of a stranger, a man, coming from everywhere. It startled me. Hello? Can you hear me? ECHO?! I shouted, but nothing¡­ ¡°Ah! This is it! Chant this¡­ here¡­ er no, here¡­ I think.¡± said the man again. This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. He sounded old, like really old. Erm¡­ I heard some weird chanting and then suddenly an explosion. ¡°ARGH!¡± the old man groaned in pain. ¡°Quick! Cut them off before they spread throughout the academy!¡± shouted another man. ¡°The imp! Kill the imp there!¡± shouted another while sounds of sword clashing and monsters screaming were heard from everywhere. I started to get worried. What¡¯s happening? I asked myself. I listened to the battle, but they were either chanting some weird words or slashing at something. The sounds were strangely familiar to what I previously heard in my games, but honestly speaking, where was I? Hell? Heaven? Was I resurrected as the cleavage of a beautiful elf maiden? Nah! Considering my luck, there was a chance I got resurrected as an old guy¡¯s butt crack! Sigh¡­ 99 bottles of milk on the wall~ 99 bottles milk! You take one down, you toss it around, 98 bottles of milk remain on the wall! I started to sing while I was listening to a background that sounded like strange battle between a party of heroes and a bunch of monsters. After I reached the 46th bottle, the sounds ceased. Hm? ¡°Should we break it? It might be safer that way¡­¡± said one of the men there. Oh, I confirmed something meanwhile, there were no women in their party, just grumpy men. I had a bad feeling about this¡­ ¡°No! Absolutely not! We can do this, just focus¡­¡± said the old man again while heaving. He must have gotten tired after all that chanting. Suddenly, things went silent, and I didn¡¯t hear anything. Hello? Anyone? Banana! CAT! God? Mommy? I started to shout, but nothing and no one replied. I sighed again and waited¡­ Then it happened. A bright light cast off the darkness, and I opened my eyes¡­ but what greeted me wasn¡¯t the beautiful bouncy mountains of an elf maiden but the grizzly white beard of an old man. ¡°AAAARGH!¡± I shouted. ¡°AAAA!¡± the others shouted. ¡°AAAA!¡± I shouted. ¡°AAAA!¡± the others shouted. ¡°AAAA!¡± I shouted. Then we stopped¡­ ¡°Where are my Valkyries? Where am I? Who are you all?¡± I started to ask and tried to move, but I was stuck. I looked down, but what I saw weren¡¯t my legs but some strange symbols carved into the floor tiles and what looked like the bottom of a floating green giant crystal. ¡°Huh?¡± I gasped. ¡°Oh! You see! I told you it would work!¡± said the old man with the ridiculously long beard. ¡°Hmph! I still say we should smash it.¡± said the big guy with a big sword and dressed like your typical big, brawny warrior. ¡°Nonsense! Anyway, please excuse us, Lord of the Dungeon! I am the High Mage Tuberculus! This here are my associates, Berserker Warrior Angius and Master Tamer Paladinus the Third!¡± he declared all of a sudden. ¡°Erm¡­¡± I looked left and right, but it appeared as though he was talking to me. ¡°Me? Lord of the Dungeon? What dungeon? Are you guys sane?¡± I asked and tried to tilt my head, but no chance¡­ I couldn¡¯t move. ¡°Oh my, did we actually break it?¡± asked Paladinus the something. ¡°Impossible!¡± stated Tuberculus. They looked at the chant one more time, it was written on an old fashioned scroll, then they looked back at me. They kept exchanging glances, making me feel quite uncomfortable. ¡°So, erm¡­¡± I tried to speak. ¡°You are the Lord of the Dungeon. Or to be more exact, the core of a dungeon we made artificially from various destroyed dungeon cores. Hm, I believe we might have made a mistake somewhere, it appears you don¡¯t know who or what you are¡­ That is troubling. For now, try to adjust to your current environment. We will return in a few hours and try to answer any questions you may have, although, please don¡¯t summon any monsters? OK?¡± he ended his explanation with a typical forced smile the politicians on the news usually showed. ¡°I think so¡­¡± I replied, but his words did over 9000 damage on my sanity. ¡°Then we will be back before you know it!¡± and just like that I was left alone in a completely trashed room. ¡°Lord of the Dungeon¡­ me? I¡¯m a what now?¡± I said about fifteen minutes after they left. Aaand that¡¯s how I began my second life as the core of a dungeon, the only problem was that I wasn¡¯t exactly in a dungeon¡­ ________________ From the Author: Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this chapter and let me know what you think about it in the comments below! You can read the latest chapters at: dragomircm.com I will try to add the rest of the chapters in the following days. Chapter 2: My stats, my race, my... god? And there you have it, folks! I¡¯m the core of a dungeon, an entity also known as Lord of the Dungeon, but my job isn¡¯t to manage a dungeon but a school and the countless noisy brats running around inside it¡­ I can already feel a terrible unending headache just waiting to happen. The guy said something about summoning things¡­ Hm, I wonder what he meant by that and more importantly, what am I even supposed to do like this? I asked myself and curiously, I turned around. Although I had no neck to speak of, I could easily turn my ¡®head¡¯ in the direction I desired by simply thinking about it. As I tried to look around the room in the hope of finding a mirror or some sort of reflective surface so maybe I can figure out how I looked like, I noticed that I could turn a full 360 degrees without a problem! The place, unfortunately, was completely trashed. Where once stood a tall bookcase, now laid only a pile of broken pieces of wood with the body of a dead goblin cut in half on top of it. Next to the window was what I thought to have once been a desk, but it was now only a desk shaped charcoal as a result of a big fire. Hm, considering all the paper and scattered books around the place, I was surprised this whole room wasn¡¯t turned to ash. There were also a couple of tentacle looking things. They had spikes and suction cups on them like the tentacles of an octopus, but what would something like that be doing here, on dry land? Sushi? I wondered. It was then when I looked back at the creature on top of the destroyed bookcase. A goblin? How do I know that? Is it because of my gaming experience? Well¡­ technically speaking, a green looking, long eared, small humanoid with a club is usually depicted as a goblin in many stories. Urk¡­ Guess I¡¯m not in Kansas anymore¡­ or anywhere else on Earth for that matter. I thought and let out a long sigh. Looking around the trashed room, I began to ponder whether or not I could change the channel or have a better look at some of the surviving books scattered around the place. I couldn¡¯t recognize the letters, but I was curious about them. Maybe they had a map of the world or a picture with a hot naked elf chick! My hopes were on the latter option. It was then that my vision detached itself from my ¡®body¡¯. It was like looking around with a free camera in a game. It was amazing! But then I saw it: my body¡­ It was a big floating green crystal sitting in the middle of the destroyed room. ¡°Guess I won¡¯t need to find an engagement ring anymore¡­ but would ¡®that¡¯ even be possible like this? Meh¡­ probably not. The ¡®advantages¡¯ of a reincarnation as a floating rock¡­¡± I said as I looked at the container of my soul and mind. With a sigh, I continued to float around the room, but it was quite messy too. I wonder if I can pick up anything? I thought as I remembered some interesting web novels I once read. In those stories, the main character could easily pick up things with his mind. Without further ado, I approached a random book and concentrated. If I had a forehead, you could see the countless wrinkles forming as a result. The book didn¡¯t budge though. I sighed and gave up after the fifth try. As I was staring at the book, I suddenly felt like I could separate it from everything else, like some sort of special item, but I didn¡¯t know what to do with it. Burning a hole into the floor with my stare didn¡¯t sound like a good idea, and I seriously doubted I could do it, so I switched my focus to something else. Thinking about what I could do, the best thing for now was to wait for the geezers to return. Maybe they had an idea or some sort of instructions manual, The Dummy¡¯s Guide for being a Dungeon Lord, first edition. ¡°Wish I had a status menu like you do in a game. That would be nice. Sigh¡­¡± as I said that, I closed my eyes and then I heard a small ¡®beep¡¯ inside my mind. ¡°Hm?¡± I grumbled and opened them again, although, technically I had no eyes to speak of. In front of me was something akin to a status screen in a game. ¡°Great¡­ now, I¡¯m delusional too!¡± I said and sighed heavily, but nonetheless, I looked at the window that popped in front of me. [Name]: <> (Do you wish to pick a name now? Y/N) [Species]: Dungeon Lord [Race]: (Do you wish to choose your race? Y/N) This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. [Level]: 1 [Strength]: 0 [Agility]: 0 [Intelligence]: 135 [Magic Energy]: 670 [Magic Energy regeneration]: 0.1 points per second [Available points]: 0 [Alternate bodies]: 0 Max 1 [Skills] > List all skills? Y/N [Available skill points]: 10 [Allegiance]: Holy God of Big Boobs! [Spouses]: None [Slaves]: None [Pets]: None [Minions]: None ¡­ ¡°What¡­ the¡­¡± I said as I looked at my so-called stats. I think I can sort of approve of the whole Allegiance thing, but I have a feeling it¡¯s placed there more as a joke than anything. I do like big breasts and even my girlfriend, well¡­ past life girlfriend has a nice pair, but I¡¯m not particularly obsessed with the bosom of a woman! I thought, but I couldn¡¯t shout out my frustration. It was too embarrassing even if I was just a simple dungeon core. Suddenly, I realized something very important. I couldn¡¯t remember my own name. I think her name was Alina, but what was mine? Cal¡­ Ke¡­ Andy? Carl? Minion? Urgh¡­ No matter how hard I tried, I couldn¡¯t remember. It must have been because of my passing through the reincarnation cycle thing, but it made me wonder why I didn¡¯t forget about advanced technology or stuff like that. My own name vanished from my memories, but the rest was there. ¡°A price maybe?¡± I asked myself. After a few more minutes of trying to remember, I decided to switch my attention towards the menu in front of me. It seemed like a joke, so I decided to mess around with it. ¡°Race. OK! Let¡¯s see the list!¡± [Available Races]: Easy Normal Difficult Ancient Legendary Heroic Demonic Ancestral Demigod Godlike I was surprised both by the names and the number of options. Although, it was a bit strange that the first three sounded more like a difficulty choice, but then again, maybe as a dungeon core, my race was my difficulty. Well, seeing the shiny ¡®Godlike¡¯ there, I decided to pick that one. A window popped up in front of my eyes. [Are you sure about this choice? It cannot be reversed.] ¡°Yes.¡± [Are you really, really sure about this?] ¡°Yes¡­¡± [Are you really, really, really, really, really, really sure about this?] ¡°Yes! Yes! YEEEEEES!¡± I shouted. [Race]: Godlike [New Skills Added] [Base Stat Points Increased] [Magic Energy and Magic Energy Regeneration Increased] [New Stats Added] ¡°Hm¡­ interesting, but unimportant for now. Next stop! Choosing my name!¡± I said and if I could grin, I was with my mouth all the way to my ears. In every game, the most important decision laid in how to name your character. I always wanted something that sounded cool, but easy to write, eventually pronounceable by most people. ________________ From the Author: Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this chapter and let me know what you think about it in the comments below! :) You can read the latest chapters at: dragomircm.com I will try to add the rest of the chapters in the following days. :) Chapter 3: Summoning a Holy Item! Three hours... That was for how long I tried to choose a name for myself. I went from normal and plain ones to names I previously heard only in mangas or animes. Although it was hard to accept the truth, but my naming sense was quite bad. [Lil''Kitty-chan] was my last attempt and after a few seconds of imagining the rest of my new life using such a name, I became mortified and dropped it. Sigh... maybe I should leave this for later? And with that last thought, my decision was set in stone, well... crystal in my case. After choosing the race [Godlike], I remembered being told that I got new skills. Thus, without further ado, I opened my status menu and selected my skills. Instead of that menu, another window appeared. It was a simple list with selectable options: [Skill list] Type: [Attack] [Defense] [Construction] [Summoning] [Unique Skills] Attack! I shouted in my mind like a ten years-old kid pretending to be some kind of hero in a children''s game. [Attack Skills] Type: [Magic] [Martial Arts] [Traps] Hm.... Magic. I selected. [Magic Skills] Elementary: [Temperature Control] [Gas Flow Control] [Fluid Flow Control] Intermediate: [Fireball] [Make Slave] For a level 1 Dungeon Lord, these magic skills weren''t half bad, or at least, that was what I believed. Since there weren''t others of my kind I could ask or compare myself with, I presumed I was normal or maybe at the very least bellow average. If every Dungeon Lord had the opportunity to select the Godlike race and begin with such skills, I doubted I was even in the first top 1000 beginners. I was the last one to join the game, so most likely, I had an awful lot to catch up with. With a sigh, I closed this window and went for the [Construction] skills. [Construction Skills] Elementary: [Create a Room with walls] [Create a Ceiling] [Destroy created Areas] Intermediate: [Create Furniture: ] [Create a Door: ] for 10 skill points.> I accepted and got the Intermediate version of it. <[Create a Room with walls and ] for 20 skill points.> I accepted and then went to details. [Create an Imagined Room with ]. It was simple in design and just the right size to hold in place eight Power Crystals in the shape of lens with a diameter of 75cm. Let¡¯s see now¡­ If I¡¯m correct, then this thing is as powerful as an industrial cutting laser! I thought as I placed the box on a block of dirt and then pointed it at a simple 10 cm thick stone wall I created for target practice. After pulling the lever, I saw the beam of white light focusing in only one point on the wall. In but moments, it went through it. It was a success! But it still needed to be improved upon. Later on, I wanted to test out the possibility of stimulating the light emitted and amplified by the crystals through an electric current created between two crystals of Lightning element. The possibilities were limitless, unfortunately my knowledge on Earth¡¯s tech was mostly at general level. I had an idea of something, but not the whole picture. Putting my side project aside, I began to focus on actually building my dungeon. Without a need to worry too much about Magic Energy, I started to create the first room. It was going to be the entrance and as simple as it could be: a straight line corridor. I wanted the first level to be mostly a puzzle and agility course. At the first intersection, the door leading forward was a sliding wall. Using [Create a Action Mechanism] skill, I made a small magic piston through which I could open or close the door. The options in the Type category were quite amazing, but also rudimentary and simple. The piston, as far as I could tell, worked through small crystals capable of emitting strong magnetic fields upon activation. This way, when I pulled the lever in Off position, the piston retracted and when it was in On position, it extended. Unfortunately, there was nothing similar to an engine in there. [Magic Thread] was akin to cabling and wiring in modern-day electronics, but it had another special attribute, which so happened I discovered when I connected two levers at the same time to a piston. Depending on the position of the lever. If both were Off, both needed to be On to activate the piston. Connecting them in different positions resulted in the same effect, basically, I had to activate each lever, nor matter it¡¯s initial position. This helped me a lot. The first door of the level needed to be opened by activating two levers placed on the left and right side of the main corridor, but I didn¡¯t make it too easy to get to. The adventurers had to cross three pressure-activated traps. On the left were spike traps and on the right were wall arrows. The jump wasn¡¯t easy either, over 3 meters in length, but then again, these guys had magic and all sort of stuff. I didn¡¯t need to be worried about it being too easy. I had to make it harder. What should I do next? I wondered. With an evil smirk, I used the [Create a Moat of filled with Liquid] to create a 1 meter deep, 3 m wide, 8 m long stone moat filled with hot boiling lava. The only way to get across was by jumping on three small platforms just 10 cm high above the lava. One wrong step and down they went! It wasn¡¯t enough though, I had to make something more. On the last platform, hidden behind a small stone was a button mechanism. Unless the adventurers found it and pushed it, the next door wouldn¡¯t open. Not enough¡­ I thought and then looked through the types on the action mechanism. I found . It was a small green crystal which sent small Magic Energy pulses every few seconds. With a grin on my lips, I created three more pistons and connected them to the platforms on top of the lava, which I made them able to slide in and out of the walls just as the pistons were activated. The power source was a simple power crystal. To it was connected the timer crystal, and to that, the pistons. The activator for the power source was a small button set up behind the door at the entrance. When the door opened, the whole system activated. When it was closed, the system remained dormant. Off to the next room! I thought. Here, I created a 20 m deep perfectly square hole. The bottom was filled with deadly sharp metal spikes. On top, I created a 40 cm wide platform that spanned all across the room in a maze-like pattern with dead ends and all. Not enough¡­ I thought and then went to add something else. There were three exits out of that room, but only two would lead to the next part of my dungeon. One was on the right and the other in front of the lava corridor, on the other side of the room. The one on the left led to a bonus room. Unable to calm my itch, I plastered the walls of the room with Wind and Fire traps activated by different timers. Even if the adventurer had a perfect balance, he had to watch out for the powerful gusts of wind created by the Wind Traps. They were powerful enough to blow him off the edge and send him into the deadly spikes bellow. If that wasn¡¯t enough, the Fire traps were sure to heat him up like a dragon¡¯s breath. I even added some Arrow traps triggered by walking on certain dead-end paths. There¡¯s something missing¡­ I said to myself and for a moment, I thought about adding timed Lasers. Nah¡­ I know! Flying monsters! I thought and then quickly looked at the types of monsters in my [Create Basic Summoning Circle for monster]. I could summon: Imps, Wolves, Snakes, Rats, and Harpies. The amount of Magic Energy poured could determine their number and their strength. I created an empty room in the top right corner and placed a circle on the floor there. I connected it to the button in the lava corridor. Now, as soon as someone pressed that button, harpies would be summoned inside the room, ready to attack the adventurers who already needed to be wary of the timed traps. Perfect! I thought with a smile. With that, I proceeded to my next room, the one on the left, the extra room. I created three more circles there, two for imps and one for a harpy. They had enough Magic Energy in them to summon ten of each. I also added a treasure room filled with arrow traps. It was annexed to this one through a simple door. The treasures, however, were nonexistent. I think I need to collect the loot off of dead adventurers. Or maybe I could steal it with Colly Tos. Nah! I¡¯d just end up with all of Nanya¡¯s panties¡­ I thought and left it like that, but just as I was about to fly away, I turned around and decided to do something else. Why not? I thought and looked at the [Summon a Mini Boss (Rank 1)] skill. I could cast it now. There were enough rooms for one, apparently. Maybe the Magic Academy¡¯s buildings were also included as rooms? ¡°Sher Nar!¡± I said and in front of me, right next to the harpy circle, appeared a 2 m tall Minotaur with metal horns. It was level 16, apparently, but it also wielded an Iron Sword in each hand. The name it was automatically given was Cowie. I tried not to laugh. I didn¡¯t look at its stats and flew away to the next room. The monster I summoned wouldn¡¯t move from there until an adventurer would step in. Afterwards, I went to the left room. I added four imp summoning circles, a Poison Gas Trap, and a Laughing Gas Trap. If I can make them laugh uncontrollably, they won¡¯t be able to concentrate on fighting the imps or curing themselves from the poison. I just hope these two don¡¯t mix together and nullify each other¡­ I thought as I created the corridor towards the exit. I didn¡¯t like the idea of the possible adventurers just having a pleasant walk to the next, therefore, after I turned the corridor into an abrupt slope, I added at the end a boulder trap just like in those movies with the guy with the hat and the whip. The exit was at the bottom of the next slope. If the adventurers didn¡¯t get squashed by it, they would reach the exit. Of course, I didn¡¯t make it easy there. The only way to get to the next level was by jumping off and landing in a four meters deep pool. The heavy adventurers would just drown unless saved by their comrades. There! I said after I was done with it. Only one thing was left: illumination, but I decided on using it only in the Mini Boss room. If they were adventurers, then surely they knew a light orb spell or at the very least brought a torch with them. With an accomplished smile on my face, I flew out of the dungeon and headed back to the academy. It was already night time when I was finally done with the first level, and I was certain I would be praised by Nanya for it, but before I showed it to her, I wanted to finish the second level as well. That one would take more time, and I wanted it to be complex and deadly. I can¡¯t wait to get started on the second level! I thought happily. ________ Note from the Author: Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it! :) Chapter 15: The wrong definition of Easy That night, I slept like a baby. Shanteya may have been part of the reason, given how I used her Holy Mountains as a comfy pillow, but it was also because I built that dungeon floor. If it was the old me from before my reincarnation, I would have probably stepped away from the task and declared myself satisfied only with repairing the Magic Academy while complaining that I didn¡¯t have a computer with me. The following day, I was woken up by Shanteya¡¯s morning kiss, which I received wholeheartedly. Her lips were soft and molded perfectly with mine. Strangely though, while I welcomed the kiss and didn¡¯t feel like I was betraying Alina with it, when it came down to go for more, I felt my heart getting pierced by the horrible spear called ¡®guilt¡¯. Before going off to build my dungeon, I took Shanteya¡¯s list and began to repair all the broken things around the academy. The upgraded versions of my repair skills helped me a lot, and I was done faster than I thought possible before. While flying around, looking for anything that looked heavily damaged, I heard a mesmerizing sound coming from the garden behind the school, not far from the forest. I recognized it immediately as the gentle tune of a violin. Back on Earth, I often enjoyed listening to a certain hyperactive dancing girl violinist. Some of her songs were quite energetic and just what I needed when the ambient game music didn¡¯t cut it. This one, however, was far from energetic, it was calm, gentle, and held a sort of a sad, longing tune to it. I never heard anything like it before, it was pleasing to the soul. The one playing it was a draconian girl. Her height was above that of a normal human, an incredible 2.15 m tall. The tip of a long, golden scaled tail decorated with big pink ribbons could be seen popping out from under the hem of her white dress. The dress she wore was filled with yellow frills, a design suitable for a noble lady or a very rich merchant¡¯s daughter, but all that extra fabric hid away her well proportioned chest. It was bigger than Shanteya¡¯s but for her height, it looked like a double D on a human woman who was 1.70 m tall. There were no wings on her back as far as I could tell. Her eyes were closed, as she listened to the beautiful tune she created, so I couldn¡¯t see their color, but knowing how other draconian students looked like, they were certainly slit. Three golden scales decorated each of her cheeks, right under the eyes. The farthest one from her nose was the biggest, while the closest was the smallest. A few golden scales were on her forehead as well, ending in a rather big diamond shaped one. She had a pair of pointy, curved horns placed right behind her pointy ears. They resembled the horns of a Greater Kudu antelope, but not as long. Her facial features were quite beautiful as well, and her long, red hair flowed gracefully over he back. If I didn¡¯t know any better, I would think I was looking at a princess scene from a movie. Was she a student here? I asked myself as I admired the scene peacefully. She probably played for a few good minutes, but each second was truly captivating. When she was done, she lowered the instrument and looked up at the sky. Blood-red was the color of her eyes and a gentle smile adorned her lips. Who is she?¡­ I thought. A few moments later, she packed her violin and left the area. I kept a mental note on where I found the draconian lady and then left. In terms of distance, my dungeon was at around 1km away from the academy¡¯s main building. ¡°Now, to start working on the second floor!¡± I said with a smirk. The excitement from yesterday returned, and I couldn¡¯t wait to start carving into the ground and carefully place my traps. I was like a young child who was given a new toy to play with, but this need, this desire to build deadly dungeons came from somewhere within me. It was a newly acquired feeling, most likely an instinct belonging only to dungeons. Before I started on this one, I decided to first draw a map of it. How large it was going to be? How complex? What sort of traps will there be inside? What sort of bosses? Where should I place them? Those were all questions I was dying to answer, and one after another, I did. First off, it was going to be extremely big, 1 km by 1 km or maybe even more, then it was going to be very complex, an actual labyrinth with 50 cm thick walls covered in something partially reflective. After that, I was going to make another door that opened only if the adventurer pulled two levers located in different puzzle rooms. Of course, the next system of levers would be located in Mini Boss rooms at opposite corners, so the adventurers were forced to literally travel all over the labyrinth more than once. To make it even harder, I decided to camouflage these triggered doors in such a way that it would have been impossible to detect without them first being opened. The final room was going to be a big, circular one with an actual boss inside. I just had to make sure I figured out a way to make tracking aglmc laser¡­ The purpose of this floor was to stress out and annoy the adventurers as much as possible! I remembered the time from my previous life, when I played through some guy¡¯s labyrinth made in a sandbox voxel game, and it was frustrating to find the exit. The corridors were narrow, the walls made out of a dark-colored block, there were traps all over the place, and even some annoying mobs that kept chasing after me. I hated that labyrinth so much, I refused to finish it, but right now, I wanted to make something even more annoying and frustrating than that. Yes¡­ no mercy¡­ I thought to myself as the feeling of creating something so dastardly evil brought me close to a state of pure euphoria. As soon as the plans were made, I began experimenting with various trap structures and walls. That day was spent only on that sort of research. Of course, I also tried out a few ways to get the lasers to move, but failed miserably in all of them. I returned during the afternoon. The academy was quiet, and there were no signs of danger within my territory. The only monsters around were over 6 km away. I had no reason to bother myself with them. With nothing else to do, I searched around for Nanya and Shanteya, whom I found taking a bath. A nasty little devil told me to take a peek, but I fought desperately against his temptation, although, I was also curious if the draconian lady I saw earlier was there as well. ¡°How was the bath?¡± I asked after Nanya walked out. She was wearing a large towel covering her chest and bottom. A smaller one covered her hair, but I couldn¡¯t see her tail. ¡°Illsy?¡± she asked a bit surprised. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I didn¡¯t peek. I waited patiently here, outside of the bathroom.¡± I told her, but just then, a busty human woman with short brown hair walked out in Eve¡¯s costume and headed for her own room. Both I and Nanya looked at her surprised. ¡°That¡¯s not my fault¡­¡± I told her. ¡°I know¡­ She¡¯s one of our¡­ let¡¯s say problem students.¡± said Nanya, letting out a sigh. ¡°Problem students?¡± I asked curiously. ¡°Yes. They are actually special students rather than problem ones. They barely attend any classes and don¡¯t care about learning anything here, but since they are rich and can pay a more expensive tuition, that idiot Tuberculus allows them to do as they please. This is the case of that girl¡­¡± she replied, but that didn¡¯t explain why she was streaking. Wait! Does this mean I can actually look at naked girls walking around without fearing Nanya¡¯s punches? Maybe that¡¯s why Tuberculus keeps trying to sneak inside? I thought and seriously considered paying the dormitory more visits. ¡°Don¡¯t even think about it!¡± the teenage looking girl glared at me. ¡°What? I have no idea what you mean¡­¡± I said trying to play the innocent. ¡°Illsy!¡± she squinted her eyes and showed me a clenched fist. I gulped. ¡°Alright¡­ I won¡¯t do it.¡± And that was how I was stopped from paying extra visits to the dormitory. Thinking about it, though, it wasn¡¯t that I was afraid of Nanya hitting me, but I just didn¡¯t want to stay on her bad side. She was cuter as a friend. ¡°Won¡¯t do what, master?¡± asked Shanteya when she came out. Just like Nanya, she was covered in a towel, and it was sticking close to her forms, offering me plenty to fantasize about. Oh, the irony! I could fantasize, but I couldn¡¯t touch! ¡°Nothing! I just dropped by to say ¡®hi¡¯!¡± I said with a smile, while my eyes were glued to her Holy Mountains. Good thing I was invisible to them. ¡°If master wishes to got to bed already, master need not wait for this one. Tonight, I will sleep at Nanya¡¯s. She offered to teach me the [Fireball] spell. However, if master wishes me to join him¡­ I won¡¯t say no¡­¡± she explained, but her last words were spoken in a rather shy manner, increasing her cuteness points. Nanya was eyeing me suspiciously. Well, to be more precise, the ghost next to me. ¡°In that case, I¡¯ll be on my way. Good night, Shanteya! Good night, Nanya!¡± I said before I left. ¡°Good night, master!¡± said Shanteya with a small bow. ¡°Good night, Illsy!¡± said Nanya. Upon returning to my room, I decided to head straight to bed. It felt a bit lonely, but I put up with it. The following day went peacefully just as the day before. I didn¡¯t find the draconian lady this time, but I was able to complete the first puzzle room and a small part of the labyrinth. In order to make the walls have the effect I desired, I decided to make them out of polished steel with an undulating surface instead of a straight one. Just casually flying through that small section made me feel a bit confused. The constantly changing shapes reflected on the surface of the walls combined with the many twists and turns made the maze quite confusing. I pitied the poor adventurers who would end up in my labyrinth. The downside of making nearly 3 m tall metal walls with shiny surfaces was the magic energy cost. Besides the room¡¯s initial cost, the time I spent designing it in my imagination took a while. I didn¡¯t want the walls to be copies of the previous ones, but actually show to be handmade, meaning accepting imperfections in sizes here and there. The good part about it was that it confused the brain even more. Usually, a human¡¯s mind would try to detect similarities in patterns and select certain parts as guiding marks for backtracking later. Small adjustments to the walls can lead the human into believing he already saw his mark and in some cases even cause him to forget entirely how his original mark looked like. Of course, this didn¡¯t apply to those with photographic memory. They were the only ones who could detect small differences in the walls and thus navigate properly, maybe even better. That night, I returned quite late and found Shanteya dozing off next to my crystal body. After I absorbed her, we slept peacefully until the following day. I continued to work like this for the next couple of days. Sleeping with Shanteya became a regular thing, and her morning kisses were as delicious as ever. It was starting to become a habit, or maybe I just got used to her presence in my arms? Either way, most of my focus went into building the labyrinth. Speaking of which, one day, I came across a discussion between Rufus and one of his students. It caught my attention because they were talking about the difference between a Maze and a Labyrinth. In my mind, they were synonyms, but not according to what Rufus was saying. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it ¡°Labyrinth is the more popular and widely used term for what a Dungeon Core usually creates inside their dungeons. However, there is a clear distinction between the two. A maze allows multiple paths to be taken from the entrance to the exit, while the labyrinth only one.¡± explained Rufus. Thinking about what he said, my dungeon was part maze, part labyrinth, and part deadly¡­ It didn¡¯t actually fit in any category. Should I bother myself with the name? Erm¡­ nah! Dungeon Labyrinth it stays! I decided and flew away. Three days later, I was able to find the pretty draconian lady while she was in the middle of playing her violin. I listened to her song together with two other students who so happened to pass by. When she was done, she returned to the dormitory. As far as I could tell, she was one of the special students Nanya mentioned. Just like that, two weeks passed by since I first began building the second floor of the dungeon. Day after day, I mostly did the same things, meaning waking up in Shanteya¡¯s embrace, getting a morning kiss from her, flying around the academy to fix whatever was broken the day before, flying to the spot where the draconian lady was playing the violin, flying over to my dungeon, continuing building until late in the evening, returning to my crystal body, and sleeping together with Shanteya. Only once in a while did I get the opportunity to go and chase off some monster or some bandits who got too close to the Academy. In regard to everything else, nothing interesting happened, however, I was starting to wonder how the people in this world lived like, but all in due time. The day after I finished the second floor of my dungeon, Nanya and Tuberculus arrived in my chamber and requested an audience. ¡°Illsy, I heard you finished your dungeon! Nihihi!¡± said the teenage looking girl with her hands on her hips and showing me a bright smile. ¡°Yes, just the first two floors.¡± I replied a bit surprised by her sudden appearance. ¡°How many rooms?¡± she asked me. ¡°Erm, around 40 rooms? Some more closed off than the others, why?¡± I asked. ¡°Around 40? Sounds good enough for two weeks.¡± she rubbed her chin as she pondered about something. Is there something strange about the number of rooms? I asked myself. ¡°Very well! We¡¯ll go in today! It will be me, Tuberculus, Rufus, and Angius! It shouldn¡¯t take us too long to prepare. We won¡¯t need much because the first two floors are never that hard to finish.¡± she said with a satisfied smile. ¡°Huh?¡± I looked at her surprised. ¡°Is that a no?¡± she asked squinting her eyes at me. She really wanted to go in. ¡°Of course not! Please! I just need to go and build¡­ erm¡­ a pair of stairs or something to get in and out at the end¡­¡± I told her. ¡°Do that. When you are done, let me know, and we¡¯ll head inside! Nihihi!¡± she laughed. With that said, she walked out of my room and went to let the other teachers know about their upcoming new adventure. I guess she got really bored these past two weeks¡­ I wonder if she¡¯ll just speed run through my dungeon in two hours or less? I thought and then let out a heavy sigh. My biggest worry laid in the amount of destruction three Emperor rank adventurers and one Godlike would do to my poor dungeon. With a heavy sigh, I flew towards my dungeon to begin preparing it to welcome its very first visitors. Building the stairs was the easy part, but then I had to check all the power crystals, all the traps, all the [Magic Thread] connections, all the summoning circles, all the four mini bosses, and the final boss room. The hardest part was probably making sure the puzzles worked and that there weren¡¯t any mistakes in the labyrinth¡¯s paths. If I wasn¡¯t able to fly and have a dungeon¡¯s perception, I might not have managed to finish the job in just three hours, but when I was done, I was sure everything was perfect. The second floor had total surface of 1 km by 1 km. It had two mini boss rooms in the lower left corner and the top right corner, one mini boss in the top left corner, two puzzles, and countless mini rooms with monster summoning circles in them. Accessing the final boss room meant finishing the two puzzles, killing the three mini bosses, pulling the levers inside their rooms and then finding the now open room in the top middle of the floor. Inside, they would find the stairs leading up to the first floor, where they would find another maze, but this time, with undulating reflective steel walls. Upon reaching the end of it, they would come across the drop hole leading to the final boss. The were also countless trigger traps scattered throughout the entire floor, most of them spike or gas. Back on the first floor, I built a pure mini maze filled with snakes, imps, and gas traps. At the end of it was a 10 meter drop into a small pond in the room of the last boss, a three meters tall, giant axe wielding, black-furred, four-handed, red eyes, level 37 Minotaur. The three mini bosses on this floor also had a higher level than the one on the first floor. They were level 30. My best guess was that the level increased with the floor number or maybe the size and number of monsters in it. Of course, the room was equipped with nine aglmc lasers activated by a timer and moved around by a couple of pistons. The Minotaur was ordered and trained by me to know when to retreat to the center so the lasers didn¡¯t hit him. Target locked wasn¡¯t available yet for me, but I was thinking of trying to train goblins or some other minion to do it. ¡°We¡¯re ready!¡± declared Nanya. She was wearing a leather robe, covering her pants and boots. On her hands, she wore a pair of steel gauntlets, but nothing to protect her head. Next to her was Tuberculus, who didn¡¯t look any different from his usual appearance. Rufus was the same as always, wearing his long brown robe and reading from a book. Angius was wearing his former adventurer armor made out of a monster bear¡¯s hide. It was quite durable. Looking at this party, I began to worry for my poor dungeon. Three Emperors and a Godlike were about to waltz inside and make a mess of what I began building over two weeks ago. ¡°I¡¯ll show you in.¡± I said with a long sigh. ¡°No, Illsy! You¡¯ll stay out here! We want to go in test it without you showing us the way around! It will be more fun this way! Nyahaha!¡± said the over-energetic Nanya. ¡°Alright, but please be gentle with it¡­¡± I begged. ¡°How difficult would you consider it is?¡± asked Rufus without raising his eyes out of what he was reading. ¡°Easy? Maybe?¡± I replied. ¡°Sigh¡­ We will be back in a few hours¡­¡± he said and closed the book. ¡°Come on, old friend! It¡¯s been years since we last went together to explore a dungeon!¡± Tuberculus patted him on the back and showed him a big smile. ¡°I suppose.¡± replied the man. ¡°Let¡¯s go, you old bones!¡± shouted Nanya, who dashed inside. I gulped as I watched the powerful adventurers enter my little dungeon. ¡°Will they be alright, master?¡± asked Shanteya. ¡°I¡¯m more worried about my dungeon¡­ They will wreck it! I¡¯m sure of it! And there¡¯s no little guy with a hammer to jump all over the place to fix it up!¡± I groaned. ¡°A goblin?¡± she asked. ¡°No¡­ a video game character¡­ ah, never mind!¡± I sighed. Two days later, they finally came out. I was honestly starting to get worried, believing I messed up with the [Magic Thread] or the complicated passages in the labyrinth. Even Shanteya and the other teachers expressed their concerns about it, but I still felt their life signs inside, so they weren¡¯t dead at least. ¡°Illsy¡­ What in the name of all the known gods was that?¡± Nanya asked me with a raised eyebrow when she stepped out of the dungeon. Her robe was in tatters, she was missing a boot and there were signs of hardened lava between her toes. There were multiple holes in her leather armor, well what was left of it anyway. Most of it looked like it got burned off, revealing quite a bit of her beautiful white skin. There were no scars on her, though. Behind her, she was carrying three unconscious grown men. One of them was Tuberculus, but his clothes were singed black. He was missing his hat, eyebrows, beard, and top hair. He looked similar to a catholic monk. On his behind were a few arrows from my traps. Next to him was Angius with countless bite marks on his body, he had no boots, and singed eyebrows. Rufus was no different. There was no sign of his books, but he had a lot of bite marks, and his clothes were in tatters, however, he still had his boots on. ¡°Illsy¡­ YOU CALL THAT EASY?!¡± she shouted at me. I gulped. ¡°Erm¡­ wasn¡¯t it?¡± I asked innocently. ¡°I nearly got my tail cut off by some weird beams of light! And seriously? LAVA? LAVA on the FIRST floor? And what was with that complicated maze! I nearly went mad trying to find my way through there! Rufus started speaking to the walls, Angius was crying, and Tuberculus got lost the very second we got there! Plus, what was with the rat room? And a SNAKE maze? Illsy, if I wasn¡¯t a Godlike adventurer with powerful magic armor, I would have died MORE than once just at the FIRST FLOOR!¡± she shouted at me. ¡°But I seriously thought it was easy¡­¡± She squinted her eyes at me. ¡°Erm¡­ Oopsie?¡± I said with a smile. ______ Note from the Author: Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, also here''s how the two levels of his dungeon actually look like: I know, it¡¯s a bit ugly, but this is the sketch I used for Illsyore¡¯s dungeon. This is the first floor. A=Arrow Trap, S=Spike Trap, W=Wind Trap, F=Fire Trap, B=Boulder, I=Imp, H=Harpy, MB=Mini Boss, L2=Access to second floor. _______ Second floor: This is the second floor. Signs are the same: I=Imp, R=Rat, H=Harpy, W=Wolf, MB=Mini Boss, B=Boss. If you want to play the game, just know that you first need to go through the two puzzle rooms before going through Imp Attack room. After passing that room, you must go to each Mini Boss room, pull the levers there and then go to where L1 is marked on the top middle of the map. You switch to the first floor map and look at the TOP maze, pass through that and you reach the Floor Boss room on the Second Floor room! Simple and easy right? :) Chapter 16: Nanyas secret! Shanteya helped Nanya take the unconscious men back to the academy¡¯s infirmary. Using [Telekinezy], I picked Rufus up and followed close behind them. I was certain I wasn¡¯t free of their future sermon, but taking care of the injuries of those three teachers came in first place. As for what happened to my dungeon during those two days, I had to postpone it for the following day in order to find out. Will they make me destroy it? I thought while looking down at the ground. Hm? I noticed something peculiar in front of me, it was Nanya¡¯s round behind. There were two holes in her pants, revealing part of a forbidden temptation. Hm? I stared intensely at those revealed patches of skins, while her cute behind swayed left and right as she walked. I don¡¯t see her panties¡­ My perverted imagination saw the golden opportunity and began to weave all sorts of reasons and fantasies as to why she wasn¡¯t wearing any. By the time I realized that it was going in all sort of weird directions, I was at 20 cm away from her cute round bottom. Shaking my head, I tried to get rid of those thoughts, but at the moment, I was a bit too excited from seeing Nanya wearing a tattered armor that revealed enough skin to make a man howl. The idea that she might be wearing only THAT brought a whole new batch of perverted thoughts into my useless noggin. ¡°I wonder if she¡¯s actually wearing any?¡± I said out-loud without even realizing. ¡°Master?¡± asked Shanteya confused. ¡°Nanya. Panties.¡± I replied. ¡°Ara?¡± the el¡¯doraw looked over at the teenage looking girl. Her cheeks went red, her fists clenched in anger, and she ordered ¡°Illsy, fly in front of us. NOW!¡± I gulped and did as told. Me and my big mouth¡­ If I didn¡¯t say anything, I could have continued to enjoy the view¡­ I thought and let out a long sigh. After we reached the infirmary, I placed down Rufus in one of the empty beds and went to call Paladinus and Zertan. They needed to know the state their colleagues were in. Honestly speaking, I felt a bit bad that they were in such a bad shape, but at the same time, I was glad that my little dungeon managed to cause trouble for Emperor ranks right from the first floor. Once the other teachers arrived there, they began to brew some potions to give them, but Paladinus was trying hard to abstain from laughing when he looked at Tuberculus¡¯ face. Without hair on top of his head, beard, and eyebrows, he looked rather funny. My only guess as to how he got like that was that he tried to grope Nanya when she wasn¡¯t looking, and he got tossed face-first into one of my fire traps. While they were doing that, I remained there and watched over them. ¡°Nanya?¡± I asked timidly. ¡°What is it, Illsy?¡± she asked with a sharp tone of voice, without turning around. Yup, she¡¯s pissed¡­ ¡°Erm¡­¡± I looked at Paladinus and Zertan, they weren¡¯t listening to us. ¡°I could heal them with my divine aura¡­¡± I told her. ¡°Divine aura?¡± Nanya asked raising an eyebrow. ¡°I have a healing one, but they need to be close to my crystal body. Listen, I¡¯m really sorry about what happened¡­ I didn¡¯t mean to harm any of you like that. I actually thought you were going to speed run through my whole dungeon in a matter of hours, maybe less¡­ I¡¯m sorry.¡± I said with a sincere tone of voice. Nanya remained silent for a moment and then let out a long sigh. Turning around, she looked in my direction. ¡°Illsy, we¡¯re not mad at you¡­ Actually, it¡¯s our fault for overestimating our abilities, especially Angius over there. He¡¯s supposed to be a Berserker Warrior, but he came dressed up like a mage.¡± she scratched the back of her head. ¡°You are quite a powerful Dungeon Lord, and that dungeon, even if I nearly got fried by it, is incredible! It really puts an adventurer¡¯s abilities to the test, but it¡¯s far from what our fledglings at the academy can handle. Actually, I¡¯ll bet an entire month¡¯s worth of my homemade cookies that none of those kids will manage to get past the lava corridor! A quarter of them will barely be able to get past the arrow and spike traps! Nyahaha!¡± she laughed. Paladinus and Zertan looked back at her. ¡°So, I failed, right?¡± I asked and looked down at the floor. It was obvious I got too excited with building my very first dungeon and ended up turning it into something too dangerous for the students at the academy. Most of them were barely at Beginner rank, while the rest a weak Intermediary or Advanced rank. Why didn¡¯t I see this obvious fact? I asked myself as I thought how all of my work was going to go to waste now, but then Nanya said something to raise my spirits. ¡°Regarding the dungeon for the students, yes. Most definitely! I don¡¯t want any of our students entering that sadistic death trap! However, it wasn¡¯t for nothing. We can use dungeons like that one to test out various adventurers. Under your careful supervision and with me or an Emperor rank teacher acting as a guide for them, they will be able to assess their own skills before going to challenge a dungeon on another continent, which will show a clear intent of turning them into mince meat.¡± she smirked. ¡°That¡¯s a good way to pay our bills, you know? It¡¯ll also make the academy much more famous! Emperor rank adventurers don¡¯t really have a place to test out their skills, especially since the Great Paramanium Empire declared the Ancestral Dungeon to be under their protection. The strongest one here, in Sharoya Kingdom, is currently you, but the official one is a level 228 Demonic and is currently located right next to the ocean. It¡¯s the only underwater dungeon on the continent, but far weaker when compared to the one in Paramanium.¡± she explained shaking her head. ¡°Is that so?¡± I blinked a bit surprised. ¡°Yes, and I want you to continue building more levels for that dungeon of yours, but next time we go inside, you¡¯ll go with us and warn us of traps and such. At the same time, I want you to build a couple of others which mimic different dungeon races of various difficulty levels. I¡¯ll be there to guide you through on what you are and aren¡¯t allowed to add to them, so don¡¯t worry about going overboard again! Although, I¡¯ll be honest with you, Illsy! I¡¯m actually a bit curious about what sort of dungeon you would be able to build when you reach level 100 or 200! Nyahaha!¡± she laughed again and showed me a bright smile. Huh? What? I thought. Nanya¡¯s suggestion took me by surprise. I was expecting her to be mad at me or even force me to destroy my dungeon, but instead, she wanted me to keep working on it and even build others. I was left speechless. ¡°Is Illsyore¡¯s dungeon that hard?¡± asked Paladinus who drew a black, swirly mustache on Tuberculus¡¯ face. ¡°Yup! It¡¯s a real nightmare! It¡¯ll get your adventurer blood boiling and make you scream for your mommy before you reach the end! Nihihi! Ah! But if you want to try it out, wait until Illsy fixes what we broke inside of it.¡± said Nanya with a big grin on her face. ¡°Broke? What did you break?¡± I asked a bit worried. ¡°Nyahaha! I lost count after the 20th trap!¡± she declared pushing her chest forward as if she was bragging with what she did. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. ¡°20? Ha¡­ ha¡­ my poor dungeon¡­¡± I sniffled and tried not to think about what I was going to find when I went there the following day. ¡°Oi! Paladinus!¡± called out Nanya to the old adventurer. ¡°Hm?¡± he turned around to look at her. ¡°You forgot the monobrow!¡± she said placing a finger between her eyebrows and then showing him a smirk. ¡°How could I forget?! By the gods! How shameless of me!¡± said Paladinus. I blinked surprised and wondered what they were talking about, but then I saw the 40 years-old man using a small brush dipped in black ink to draw a straight line on Tuberculus¡¯ face. Really? Your friend is laying there half singed because of me, and you are drawing a monobrow and a swirling mustache on his face? I thought, but upon a closer look, I found it to be quite funny and let out a small giggle. ¡°Won¡¯t he be mad when he wakes up?¡± I asked. ¡°Nah! It¡¯s not the first time! Besides, it¡¯s his fault for putting so little Magic Energy into his armor!¡± declared Paladinus, who added the same type of monobrow to Angius as well. ¡°Nanya, you also mentioned it before, but what¡¯s this magic armor you are talking about?¡± I asked surprised. In that moment everyone who was awake there gave me a strange look, even Shanteya. ¡°What? Did I say something weird?¡± I asked. ¡°Illsy? You really don¡¯t know about Magic Armor?¡± she asked me. ¡°Erm¡­ no? Is it a spell?¡± I replied. ¡°No, it¡¯s¡­¡± Paladinus tried to explain, but Nanya raised her hand up, and he stopped. ¡°Illsy¡­¡± she said and took a deep breath ¡°Magic Armor isn¡¯t a skill or spell, it¡¯s the act of infusing one¡¯s body with their own Magic Energy. It acts as a barrier against any type of attack, be it magical or physical in nature. It can help you survive where it¡¯s too cold to stand or too hot to even try. It can even purify the air you breathe in and make sure you don¡¯t inhale poison, but this is for more advanced users.¡± she explained calmly. ¡°Huh? So, that¡¯s why all of your clothes are burned, but you don¡¯t have any injuries on your body?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes! You got it! I even fell in the lava and didn¡¯t melt away! Nyahaha! But those fools over there underestimated the number of attacks and monsters in the maze and ended up like that. The last boss was a bit of a surprise though¡­ It was what you would usually find on the 30th or 40th floor of the Ancestral Dungeon.¡± she told me with a laugh. Nanya seemed to be in a good mood. It was a bit weird, especially seeing how mad she was at me when she walked out of my dungeon. Guess her advanced age wasn¡¯t just for show. She looked like a teenager, but she was still a 543 years-old Storm Witch. Wait a second¡­ Didn¡¯t she say back then that she was an Emperor Rank? I thought and blinked surprised. ¡°Nanya¡­ erm, back when we met¡­ You said you were a 543 years-old Emperor Rank Storm Witch, but you are actually a Godlike?¡± I asked her a bit cautiously. I just remembered! It¡¯s not a very polite or good idea to ask a woman her age, but¡­ I thought and gulped. ¡°Ara? Did I say that?¡± she asked scratching her cheek. ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°543 years-old? A Storm Witch? Pfft! BUHAHAHA!¡± Paladinus burst into a loud laughter, which woke up Rufus. ¡°Bananas! Rats! No! I shall conquer the chair and stalk the bathroom! Eh? Pigeons?¡± and after his incoherent babbling, Nanya threw a book at his face, knocking him out and sending back to his weird dream. ¡°Was that necessary?¡± I asked. ¡°Not really, but any of you have a problem with that?¡± she asked raising an eyebrow. Shanteya and Paladinus shook their heads, and I just blinked surprised. ¡°OK, so¡­ if you aren¡¯t what you said you are, then what?¡± I asked. Nanya let out a long sigh and revealed her tail. It was the same one I saw back then, it even had the same red ribbon tied as a decoration on the tip and untouched from the ordeal in the dungeon. ¡°I¡¯m not a human.¡± she said bluntly. ¡°You don¡¯t say?¡± I said it mimicking a certain well known meme. She raised an eyebrow. It was my only warning. ¡°I am, indeed, a Godlike rank in buff magic. As for my age, I¡¯m 147, not 543¡­ the numbers should have been a dead giveaway that I was lying.¡± she shrugged calmly. As for what I am, well¡­ let¡¯s just say it¡¯s complicated! Nyahaha!¡± she laughed and waved her tail. Upon closer look, I noticed it was covered in smooth V-shaped black scales and tapered towards the end. The red ribbon felt a bit off, though. ¡°You¡¯re never going to tell us what you are, huh?¡± Paladinus asked. ¡°It¡¯s secret!¡± she showed him the tip of her tongue. Cute! I thought for a moment. Looking at her tail and remembering how some stories I read back on Earth went, I was inclined to believe that she was probably of a very special secret race, maybe one discriminated against by the inhabitants of this continent? Either way, Nanya was still far older than me and probably anyone else in that room, but if I were to guess, I would say she was a human hybrid of some sort. Knowing that didn¡¯t make me see her in any way different. I had no problems with Shanteya being an el¡¯doraw either, after all, I was sleeping in her arms almost every night now. ¡°But yeah, don¡¯t tell anyone about this.¡± she smiled back at me, but she held a bit of a sad gaze in her eyes. I wonder if she¡¯s worried that people will look at her differently if they find out what she actually is? I thought and told her with a calm voice ¡°I won¡¯t.¡± ¡°Thank you.¡± she showed me a bright smile. After that, we returned to nursing the three old men back to health. Zertan¡¯s potions did the job and as long as Nanya didn¡¯t decide to play whack-a-mole with them, they would all stay conscious. To my surprise, I found out that despite the terror they went through in my dungeon, they didn¡¯t bear any grudges. On the other hand, Paladinus had to leave quickly when Tuberculus and Angius discovered his work of art. With this, the incident regarding the first time ever exploration of my dungeon was over. There were no casualties except Tuberculus¡¯ beard and eyebrows, but their sacrifice was not in vain, probably¡­ maybe¡­ yeah, it was. At the very least, I got to see a bit Nanya¡¯s bare booty! Arrr! _______ Note from the author: Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it! :) Chapter 17: Did I just enslave a royal princess? Waking up in Shanteya¡¯s soft bosom was the best! Holding her so close to me, hands wrapped around her, cuddling her like a soft body pillow was absolutely divine. Her round behind also felt nice every time my hands slipped a little lower than they should have. Although I knew she wouldn¡¯t have minded if I let myself go with the flow, I restricted my perverted actions from going too far. Staying in Shanteya¡¯s embrace made me feel calm, relaxed, at peace. Although I feared that I might lose that important feeling once I went and did it with her, that wasn¡¯t the reason why I hesitated. I may have been a fool, or I may have thought as I should have, but I believed that when it was time to do that sort of thing, the feeling of love had to be mutual. Wasn¡¯t it more natural and more beautiful if I felt the same way for her as well? Indeed, the wolf inside me was itching to have a go, but my heart remained empty when it came to the feeling of love. Maybe it wasn¡¯t there because I also believed that part of Shanteya¡¯s willingness was thanks to the slave bond between us, but then again, wouldn¡¯t that conflict with [Bond of Trust]? This debate wasn¡¯t a recent one though. Ever since Shanteya started sleeping with me, I kept pondering if I should start a relationship with her or not. Technically speaking, I was dead in my previous world, so there was nothing between me and Alina anymore. Even if she reincarnated into this world after she died on Earth, hopefully from old age, there wasn¡¯t any guarantee that she would remember us and try to find me here. Chances were she wouldn¡¯t even know I was here. Then again, we weren¡¯t married back on Earth, we were just¡­ together. I never proposed to her¡­ That was probably my only regret from that world, but if things would have continued as they did no matter my choice in life, then moving on would have been harder for Alina. In that situation, she wouldn¡¯t have lost a boyfriend, but a fiance or maybe a husband. I didn¡¯t want to put her through something like that and when I thought about it that way, my behavior towards Shanteya and Nanya ever since I reincarnated into this world was certainly disrespectful, perverted, and certainly not that of a faithful husband or lover. While my mind struggled with those thoughts, I looked up at the sleeping Shanteya. She looked so relaxed as if everything that happened to her in the assassin¡¯s guild was nothing but a very bad dream. Maybe I should stop my perverted actions and act like a refined gentleman? I thought, but then I found myself burying my face in her comfy bosom. When I do that, it¡¯ll be the first sign of the apocalypse¡­ To be honest, even when I was with Alina, I still gazed around at the round behinds and bouncing Holy Mountains of other beautiful women. When it came to touching them, it was another matter though, I was completely loyal to her. When thinking about what I felt for Shanteya exactly, it was hard to put my finger on it. There was a sort of ¡®like¡¯ feeling there, but there was no ¡®love¡¯. Her physical aspect was delightful to gaze upon, with or without clothes, and I didn¡¯t mind the fact that she wasn¡¯t a human. I was a Dungeon Lord if I were to put it that way. When it came to the excitement I felt when looking at a woman¡¯s body, it was there, but the reaction stopped just a little below my bellybutton, meaning it didn¡¯t go all the way down. No one raised the flag. That area was a complete dead zone. The fear of being impotent was the biggest one ever, but while I was crying in self-pity, I remembered something about myself. My REAL body was actually a BIG GREEN CRYSTAL. There was no flag there¡­ In my Inner Mind, I looked like a normal human, but it felt like I was missing all the right nerves down there. Putting the two and two together, I realized that it might also have something to do with my current body. I could only hope that once I got a humanoid form, things would change, but not even Nanya knew how a Dungeon Lord gained the ability to change their crystal body. Maybe there were certain conditions I had to fulfill, such as level or age? Thinking about age, I had the mind of an adult, but the body of a young core, no older than a month or so. If age was a factor, then certainly, I was too young. Still¡­ body age wasn¡¯t a reason for me to have such a strange heart, one that liked and protected, but couldn¡¯t reciprocate the love of another. Am I broken? I asked myself as I looked at my cute slave. I kept thinking about it for a couple more minutes until Shanteya woke up. Good morning, master¡­ she said with a sweet voice as she opened her eyes and then gently stole my lips. I think you are getting better at this¡­ I said after she pulled back. Because master is the only one to accept my kiss. Back in the assassin¡¯s guild, the kiss was considered a woman¡¯s deadliest weapon. No man touched our lips, so¡­ master is also the first. she said shyly. I blinked surprised. First? I asked like an idiot as if I didn¡¯t know what she meant. The first one I wished to offer my lips to without being forced to take his life. she told me. I smiled and kissed her again. She closed her eyes and accepted my lips. Shanteya¡­ I asked after I pulled back. Yes, master? she smiled. Do you know at what age a Dungeon Core or Lord is considered to be an adult? I asked. Adult? I don¡¯t think I understand, master¡­ she said frowning her brow. When their body matures? Erm¡­ how many years have to pass after a dungeon is born until their coming of age ceremony? When are they old enough to drive and get drunk? I asked thinking the last remark more as a reference from my previous world. As a side note, my 18th birthday back then was spent on a hospital bed thanks to appendicitis. Hm, I don¡¯t think you need to be a certain age to drive a carriage, ride, or fly, just to be tall enough to get up on the saddle, however, I do believe dungeons below Ancestral are believed to be mature, or rather challenging, when they are at least level 75 and have over 20 floors to offer in their dungeon. If we are to go by these terms, master would still be considered rather young? she told me and patted the top of my head like one would do with a kid. Ugh¡­ I only have two floors, and I didn¡¯t check my level since I started building two weeks ago¡­ I sunk my face in her breasts. They were comfy. Worry not, master! With only two floors, your dungeon is strong enough to face Emperor rank adventurers! I believe you are quite challenging already, master! she told me with a bright smile. Thanks, I guess? I replied. Then, master, I will be heading off now to check on the teachers. she told me and released me from her embrace. I will go check on the damage they did to my dungeon¡­ Two floors huh? I wonder if in dungeon terms I¡¯m still just a kid? Maybe that¡¯s why? I thought as I release Shanteya from my Inner Mind. With a respectful bow, my cute el¡¯doraw slave left, and I flew out of my crystal body. This is frustrating¡­ I thought as I kept thinking about my current situation. Why am I bothered by my past life relationships anyway? This is supposed to be a free start! I grumbled to myself. Stopping in midair, I looked back at the academy and saw the students happily minding their own business, Tuberculus was heading to the dormitory together with Paladinus, who kept laughing at him. Things appeared to be going back to normal, but most importantly, none of them had past lives to worry about. I¡¯m sort of envious about them¡­ I thought and then let out a long sigh. Instead of heading back to my dungeon, I looked around at the scenery and tried to relax, to clear my head for a bit. Going to work with a troubled mind was never a good idea. Low work performance was the most likely result. When classes started, I was still there. All the students gathered inside to partake on their lessons. I wondered how Rufus and Angius were going to teach like that. Getting closer to the building and taking a peek at their classes, I saw the students barely abstaining from laughing, especially at Angius¡¯ monobrow. Paladinus used some really hard to wash off ink. Speaking of which, Tuberculus took a day off. I doubt anyone could keep a straight face if they saw their teacher with a badly drawn monobrow and swirly mustache like some 80s villain. At least Nanya¡¯s classes were going smoothly. Who can hate the teenage girl? Or rather, would anyone have the guts to do it? I asked myself as I took a peek at her. In that moment, I heard the lovely tune of a violin. The gentle play was one I knew well and followed it to the one who played it. The beautiful draconian lady was there. She was smiling and enjoying the song she shared with the vibrant nature around her. Even the birds and a few critters were listening to her. It was truly like a fairy tale picture, the only difference was that the dragon wasn¡¯t the one attacking, but the one playing. When she was done, I opened my mouth and said: ¡°That was beautiful¡­¡± She jumped and looked around frightened, holding her violin to her chest. Her eyes scanned her surroundings, but there was no one there besides me. ¡°Sorry, I didn¡¯t mean to startle you¡­¡± I said, and she blinked surprised. She followed the sound of my voice up in the clear sky. ¡°I¡¯m sort of invisible¡­ Rest assured, I¡¯m not someone suspicious! Ah! Wait¡­ that¡¯s exactly what someone suspicious would say. Erm, I¡¯m the Dungeon Lord who takes care of the Magic Academy and by no means a ghost or an assassin! Just ask Nanya! She¡¯ll tell you! Erm, you can also ask Shanteya, she¡¯s my sl¡­ maid.¡± I said, almost having a slip of tongue there. The draconian lady didn¡¯t say a single word, just blinked surprised and looked my way with her red, slit eyes. I wonder if she¡¯s confused? Maybe she¡¯s scared? I would start running and screaming like a little girl if something like this happened to me¡­ Hm, now that I think about it, ever since I came here I was unusually calm about the whole reincarnation thing. I didn¡¯t freak out much¡­ Huh? What is she doing? I thought and noticed she bent down and took out a small blackboard the size of a student notebook. With a piece of white chalk, she wrote something on it and then showed it to me. ¡®Hello. Teacher Nanya mentioned you.¡¯ after a moment, she erased it and wrote again. ¡®She told me not to be scared of you, but if you steal my panties, I should let her know.¡¯ Steal her panties? Why would I? Ah the Colly Tos¡­ ugh¡­ What is Nanya telling these girls? I thought. ¡°Don¡¯t worry¡­ that was just the mistake of a spell, Co¡­¡± I stopped immediately. ¡°That was close! Whew!¡± I exhaled in relief. The girl started writing again. ¡®Were you listening to me play?¡¯ she lifted the blackboard up and hid behind it, peeking from above while her tail decorated with big pink ribbons coiled in front of her. ¡°Erm, yeah. It was quite beautiful. Astounding actually! You really have talent for it. Well, it¡¯s not the first time I dropped by¡­ I came whenever you played. I found it really pleasing to listen to.¡± I confessed, but it wasn¡¯t something worth hiding anyway. ¡®Thank you. It¡¯s a bit embarrassing to play in front of others.¡¯ she wrote. ¡°Why? You have a real talent there! And you are beautiful too! I doubt there would be a fool who wouldn¡¯t listen to you play!¡± I told her, and I actually believed those words. Her violin play wasn¡¯t something to joke about. It could win countless contests and the hearts of many classical music lovers. ¡®Beautiful? No. I have red hair and eyes.¡¯ she wrote quickly, but I already saw her cheeks turning pink. She was embarrassed. ¡°I actually find those features quite attractive! Hahaha!¡± I said with a laugh. ¡®You are weird.¡¯ she wrote. ¡°Maybe? But anyway, why don¡¯t you speak?¡± I asked curiously. She was about to write something, but she quickly erased it. ¡°If you don¡¯t want to tell me, it¡¯s alright.¡± I told her, I didn¡¯t want to force the poor girl. She shook her head and then wrote down her message. ¡®I¡¯ve been cursed. If I talk, I¡¯ll feel a horrible pain.¡¯ I read the message and looked at her for a long moment. What is it with the people of this words and curses of silence? I asked myself. ¡®Thank you for listening to me play. You can come again.¡¯ she told me and then packed her violin carefully. Now that I looked at it a bit carefully, it wasn¡¯t an expensive piece, but rather something quite simple and worn out. Even so, I could tell it was treasured. She handled it carefully just like one would a most valued and fragile treasure. ¡°Wait¡­¡± I said when I saw her about to go. She tilted her head and looked back at me. ¡°I may be able to help with that curse¡­ Do you want me to give it a try?¡± I asked. After placing the violin case down, she wrote on her blackboard: ¡®Thank you, but I know it¡¯s impossible to remove. Father tried and failed.¡¯ ¡°Sigh, well¡­ I can understand why you would be hesitant about it, however, I have proof! Do you know Shanteya, my maid?¡± I asked her with a big smirk on my invisible face. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. She nodded. ¡°Well, you heard her talk, right? I was the one who made it possible for her to talk again. So, what do you say? Want to give it a try? I mean, what is there to lose?¡± I tried to persuade her. If one were to ask me why I tried so hard to help her and not simply ignore her, I could probably toss in the excuse that it was payment for listening to her play, but that wasn¡¯t it. I just wanted to help the girl because I had the power to do so. It was one of those things: If you had the power to fly, would you save a complete stranger from a burning building or let them fall and smash into the ground? Well, I would save them. You could even call it a whim. ¡®Will it hurt?¡¯ she asked me after a long moment of hesitation. ¡°If it will, you can tell Nanya.¡± I said. ¡®Teacher Nanya, who is she to you?¡¯ she asked, but then quickly erased what she wrote. I blinked surprised at the question. Maybe she was just curious as to why the teenage-looking teacher had so much influence on me? It was a good question though¡­ Hm, I never thought about it¡­ Isn¡¯t she my friend? She¡¯s also one of the first people I met in this life, but¡­ is that it? I asked myself and in that moment, I felt a thump in my heart. It was the touch of an emotion, one which I knew well. It¡¯s like¡­ back then¡­ with Alina¡­ I thought, but before I got to look more into that sensation, I saw the draconian lady lifting the blackboard up with something written on it. ¡®Very well. I¡¯ll believe you.¡¯ ¡°Ah! OK. Thon Or Non!¡± I chanted the voice command for [Make Slave] spell. The draconian lady didn¡¯t wait too long to accept the spell, but she flinched when the slave tattoo collar formed around her neck, shining just like it did with Shanteya. It didn¡¯t last long, but when it was over, she carefully touched her neck, looking for any peculiar injury. ¡°Absorb with all the items on her.¡± I said and then she vanished. The only thing left there was the violin case, but I absorbed that too. I looked around for any leftover items and then flew back to my crystal body. Once there, I entered my Inner Mind and looked for her. She was awake and appeared to be quite curious in regards to where she was. Ah! There you are! I¡¯m Illsyore, the Dungeon Lord. It¡¯s a pleasure to finally meet you face to face! I offered her a polite bow and a typical greeting. She nodded in reply and showed me a small smile. It was obvious she wasn¡¯t expecting any of this and looked at me a bit confused, probably because I looked like a typical human peasant in those clothes of mine. Well, it didn¡¯t really matter to me. I¡¯m going to fix you up now. I thought and with that being said, I opened her status screen. [Name]: Ayuseya Drekar Pleyades slave of [Illsyore] [Species]: Hybrid of Draconian and True Dragon [Race]: Gold [Level]: 24 [Strength]: 37 [Agility]: 24 [Intelligence]: 194 [Magic Energy]: 970-691 (279 max usable) [Magic Energy regeneration]: 0.1 points per second [Available points]: 0 [Skills] > List all skills? Y/N [Available skill points]: 0 [Allegiance]: Omniak Drekar Gladarash, God of the Ancient Dragons [Spouses]: Politically Engaged to Dankyun Alttoros [Slaves]: None [Pets]: None [Minions]: None [Unique Stats] > Show list? Y/N Yes [Unique Stats] [Curse of a Thousand Generations] . Years remaining: 7> Do you wish to remove this? Y/N [Curse of Absolute Silence] Do you wish to remove this? Y/N Someone really doesn¡¯t want you talking. This is absurd¡­ But seeing all of this¡­ why did you enroll at a Magic Academy? I asked as I looked back at her. ¡®To flee from Dankyun. I don¡¯t like him. He is a bad man.¡¯ she wrote on her blackboard. If he comes here and tries to do anything to take you back, I¡¯ll send him straight to my dungeon! I said with a confident smile. ¡®Thank you.¡¯ she wrote down. I decided then to remove the [Curse of Absolute Silence]. [Removing [Curse of Absolute Silence] will cost 2700 Magic Energy Points. Do you wish to proceed? Y/N] Yes. The Magic Energy was removed from my pool, and I immediately felt tired and a bit drowsy. It was the effect of the sudden drop of Magic Energy, although, it wasn¡¯t that bad. I waited for a couple of minutes to regenerate what I used up, then I selected the other curse. [Removing [Curse of a Thousand Generations] will cost 6490 Magic Energy Points. Do you wish to proceed? Y/N] Do me a favor, will you? After I remove this curse, let me sleep for 10-15 minutes or so and then wake me up. This will require quite a bit of magic energy. I explained to her carefully. She nodded in reply. Alright, here it goes¡­ I said and then selected Yes. My magic pool was immediately drained, leaving me with no more than 1180 Magic Energy Points. From what I experienced in the past, I already knew what sort of side effects to expect. They hit me like a rock. From head to toes, my whole body was simply numb, my head felt heavy, and I could barely keep my eyes opened. There was still quite a bit of Magic Energy left there, so I was hoping I wasn¡¯t going to faint, but the tiredness was incredible. I struggled hard to keep myself awake while Ayuseya had no idea what was happening to me. In general, most mages avoided spending so much, but because of that curse, there was no way out of it for me. True, I could have refused, but after reading those details, there was no way I would have done such a thing. To punish a thousand generations for the mistake of only one? Who would see such a heinous thing as just? Who would dare say that the yet unborn soul must pay for the crimes of their families? Maybe because I was born as a Romanian in the 21st century of Earth that I couldn¡¯t accept such a thing. Maybe in this world curses of such magnitude and for countless future generations were a thing of the norm. Honestly speaking, I didn¡¯t care. I saw it as unfair, unjust. In the end, I couldn¡¯t keep myself awake and fainted¡­ When I woke up, I was in a rather strange position. I was looking at an upside down draconian lady blushing strongly. My right cheek stung, and I had a strange regret lingering in my heart as if I was just denied something good. What happened? I asked as I resumed a normal floating position. Ayuseya turned red like a tomato and immediately looked away. It wasn¡¯t anger, but embarrassment. ¡®You touched me.¡¯ she wrote. My brain began to turn its gears, and I remembered that first time with Shanteya. Did I by chance unconsciously hugged you when I fainted? I asked tilting my head to the left. If I did that, it was quite normal for a lady like herself to react that way. Well, Nanya would have probably punched me in the face, and Alina would have punched me in the gut, but out of all of them, Shanteya was the only one who actually reacted affectionately. ¡®Yes. But I didn¡¯t mind.¡¯ she wrote. Huh? I blinked confused. She erased the words and wrote something else on the blackboard. ¡®I let you hug me for a quarter of an hour. You were just sleeping.¡¯ ¡®But¡¯ ¡®A moment ago you touched my chest and squeezed.¡¯ ¡®Sorry. I just reacted.¡¯ I what? I¡­ I what? Touched¡­ squeezed? I said a bit shocked and then looked at my hands. So that¡¯s what that feeling a moment ago was? A single word was written on her blackboard now, which my mind translated as: ¡®Ecchi¡­¡¯ I had to say though, Ayuseya looked rather cute with her tail coiled in front of her and looking at me with shy upturned eyes all the while hiding her face behind that small blackboard. It could really make one¡¯s heart skip a beat, but not mine, unfortunately. Well, in any case, both of your curses are now removed. You should be able to speak freely. Just try it out! I told her with a big smile. Blinking surprised, she quickly shook her head, making her beautiful red hair wave around her. ¡®I¡¯m afraid. What if¡­¡¯ she quickly wrote on the blackboard. The pain of a 1000 flesh eating worms attacking your throat and death through the torture of being eaten alive if you cast magic right? That¡¯s gone. Trust me! If you feel anything, like I said before, tell Nanya! I laughed and showed her a confident smile. Nodding once, Ayuseya placed her blackboard next to her and then took a big gulp of air. She closed her eyes and spoke. T¡­ Thank¡­ Thank you¡­ and clenched her hand, gripping on her frilly dress. See? Nothing happened, your curse was removed and so is the other one! I told her after a minute had passed. You mean¡­ you mean that the curse¡­ the curse that plagued the royal family of the Teslov Kingdom for generation is gone too? she asked with tears in her eyes. I had a deja vu from when I first cured Shanteya. Did I attract cute, cursed, mute girls by any chance? Yup! That one is gone as well! Hm? Wait, what? You are what now? Royal family? I asked surprised. A strange chill ran down my spine, and I prayed I misheard that. Yes, my name is Ayuseya Drekar Pleyades, one of the three children of King Greytusk Pleyades of Teslov Kingdom. Pleased to meet you, Dungeon Lord Illsyore. she said with a gentle smile. When she said that, I remembered something Nanya once told me, that my very existence as a Godlike Dungeon Lord could shift the fragile political balance on both the Allasn continent and Tohrya. Taking that into consideration and the fact that Ayuseya here was an actual royal princess from the Teslov Empire, the very one I saved from the assassin¡¯s attack unless there was another one I wasn¡¯t aware of yet, I may have if not surely just tossed my big crystal behind in a continental sized trouble. Well, even if I knew that beforehand, I would still have probably tried to help her out, but probably went through Nanya and the other teachers first. Wait a minute¡­ Did I just enslave a royal princess? Sigh¡­ I really need to find that ¡®Common sense for dummies¡¯ book¡­ I said. Erm, yes? she replied with a cute smile. _________ Note from the Author: Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this chapter as well! :) Chapter 18: Of monsters and Nanyas panties With the esteemed princess cured of her ridiculous curses, I released her outside of my Inner Mind. Just like Shanteya, she appeared right next to my Crystal Body. I had to say, she was surprised with the sudden change of d¨¦cor from the beautiful gardens outside, to the darkness in which I lived and then to the typical study room, which once was the principal¡¯s office. ¡°Are we inside your dungeon?¡± was the first thing she asked me. ¡°No. This is inside the academy.¡± I replied before going out of my crystal body. ¡°This¡­ This is how you look like?¡± she asked when she laid eyes on the real me. ¡°Yes. I make for a fine engagement ring don¡¯t I? Hahaha!¡± I laughed. Ayuseya let out a soft giggle as well. ¡°Then, I will be on my way. Thank you, Dungeon Lord Illsyore. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll ever be able to repay you for your kindness.¡± she told me with a polite bow. I was taken aback a bit by her gesture because from what I knew, someone of royal blood never bowed down to anyone lower than them in status. Then again, that might have applied only to the humans on the Allasn Continent. ¡°No, there¡¯s no need to repay me, princess, I just did what I thought was normal. Is¡­ Is it that strange to see a dungeon helping others?¡± I asked while scratching my invisible right cheek. The dragoness looked at me for a long moment before she nodded. ¡°Yes. I have never heard or seen a dungeon such as you. It¡¯s almost like¡­ like you defy the very nature of a dungeon. No, you reject it! Healing a complete stranger, curing a maid, repairing the Magic Academy and even letting others live in your territory without consuming their magic by force¡­ A dungeon like you is unheard of.¡± she told me with an honest look in her eyes. ¡°Are others dungeon like that?¡± I asked a bit curiously. So far, none of the teachers, not even Nanya told me anything about how other dungeons behave. I knew they were regularly explored by adventurers, and the really strong ones were kept like something akin to a national treasure, but how they behaved or if one of those was actually a Dungeon Lord as well, I didn¡¯t know. Just from what I heard from Ayuseya, I could already presume that neither Nanya nor Tuberculus wished to share anything about it. Why didn¡¯t they tell me? I asked myself before listening to the princess¡¯ words. ¡°No.¡± she shook her head slowly ¡°Low level dungeons are extremely aggressive and merciless with any intruder on their territory. High level ones are less aggressive, but highly dangerous as you go lower on their floors. Even communicating is a near impossible feat with most dungeons. The ones who usually agree on communicating with adventurers do so only when they realize that they are far weaker than them. They try to strike a deal with them just like it happened with the Ancestral dungeon in Paramanium and the Demonic one here in Sharoya when a party of Supreme rank adventurers approached them. After they conquered most of the floors, the dungeon contacted them and negotiations were in motion.¡± she explained. ¡°So¡­ I really am strange, ain¡¯t I?¡± I asked showing a forced invisible smile. ¡°Different, but in a good way. You are powerful, yet you don¡¯t abuse your power. You are smart, yet you don¡¯t try to control or take advantage of us.¡± she explained. ¡°Then, if you knew I could be dangerous, why did you accept my help offering? I could have lied to you and kept you as a slave forever, right?¡± I asked. ¡°It was a dangerous gamble, but one which I knew I need not worry about. You had plenty of opportunities in the past week to turn all of us into slaves or worse. I know you probably built a dungeon somewhere, but from what I know, you left dungeon-building for last and prioritized fixing up the Magic Academy. You even joined Nanya to protect us from assassins when you could have easily used them to get rid of us or gain leverage through imprisonment. But most importantly, you showed to be worried towards the teachers when they ventured into your dungeon. Instead of boasting of how great it was, you apologized. If this doesn¡¯t make you special and wonderful, then I don¡¯t know what does, Dungeon Lord Illsyore.¡± she explained calmly how I, an entity they should have feared, gained the trust and respect of the students through simple deeds I saw as normal to do for any man in my position. ¡°Thank you¡­¡± I said. ¡°Then, I should be going now. Thank you once more, Dungeon Lord Illsyore.¡± she smiled and turned towards the door. ¡°Wait, I forgot to cancel the slave contract. Thon Or Non.¡± I chanted. Ayuseya kept her eyes closed for the few moments when the spell worked on the tattoo around her neck and removed it without a single trace left. My second slave was now free, but I never did wish to make her submit to my will. It was a simple temporary status. ¡°Thank you. Have a good day.¡± ¡°I have a feeling, I should be the one thanking you though.¡± I told her before she left. With Ayuseya gone, I thought back about what she said, and it made me feel a bit better. I was special when compared to other dungeons in the sense that I didn¡¯t wish to harm those living on my dungeon territory. As for why Nanya didn¡¯t tell me that, it did bug me a little bit. Maybe she believed that if I knew, I would turn against her? Something along the lines of: I need to hold onto my dungeon pride, so I will attempt to act like other dungeons? It¡¯s a bit foolish though, no matter how you look at it¡­ Unfortunately, these thoughts of mine didn¡¯t remove the feelings of doubt and worry growing inside my heart. A bit of distrust towards Nanya was there as well. No! I should stop thinking like that! Ugh¡­ I thought, but it was hard to slap myself back to my senses. I decided to fly off and look for her instead of focusing on such ideas. Those were just some preconceived thoughts my own fears gave birth to. I didn¡¯t know Nanya¡¯s point of view or had all of the variables of the equation yet. Thus, it was useless to judge the teenage-looking teacher without further proof to sustain her guilt. ¡°Ah! Nanya!¡± I said when I saw her walking through the corridor on the second floor of the main building. One of her students was walking behind her, carrying a bunch of scrolls, it was a 20 years-old human man with a prince charming sort of look to him, but he also wore a pair of big glasses. ¡°Illsy? What are you doing here?¡± she asked me, trying to find the location of my voice. ¡°I was looking for you!¡± I said. No, not yet¡­ I thought just as I was about to ask her why she didn¡¯t tell me about how the rest of the dungeons were actually really mean and violent towards people. ¡°Hm? Well, here I am! What can I help you with?¡± she asked showing me a big smile and holding her hands on her hips. ¡°I¡­ Erm¡­ I was wondering if you could help me out with those new dungeons and erm¡­ er¡­ leveling up?¡± I asked as I ¡®skillfully¡¯ gave a reason for my visit. ¡°Of course! Colin, take those materials to Rufus. Illsy, follow me.¡± she immediately gave the orders. I followed her back to one of the empty classrooms. After getting in, she took a seat on the teacher¡¯s desk and looked towards the chairs in front of her. ¡°Let me check your level first.¡± she said and then pulled a small back, diamond-shaped dice from her pocket. There were no numbers on it, but it did make me wonder about how she was planning on finding out my level with that thing. After pouring a bit of magic energy in the dice, she placed it on the table, and it began to shine in a golden light. In the next moment, a number appeared on all of its faces: 53. Is that really my current level? I asked myself surprised, but there was something else tickling my curiosity. ¡°What¡¯s that thing, Nanya?¡± I asked her. ¡°Hm? This? It¡¯s a small magic device any adventurer who goes to explore dungeons should have. It tells you the level of the dungeon. This way, if you randomly encounter one on your travels, you can either take the chance and try to conquer it or report it back to the adventurer guild. There are many who will pay good money to find new dungeons.¡± she explained as she lifted the dice up and looked at all of its faces. ¡°Hm, I didn¡¯t know that¡­¡± I said and then, thinking it might be a good opportunity, I asked her. ¡°Nanya, do I behave like other dungeons?¡± I asked after I prepared myself for any answer. Please don¡¯t lie to me. Please don¡¯t lie to me. Please don¡¯t lie to me¡­ I thought. ¡°Hm¡­¡± she placed the dice down and looked up at the ceiling. ¡°You are one of a kind if I were to say, not only because you are a Godlike, but because of how friendly you act.¡± she said. ¡°Friendly?¡± I asked. ¡°You have yet to try to seriously kill any of us and instead strive to help us. That¡¯s not something any of the other dungeons would do. Actually, that¡¯s not something even most adventurers would do! Other dungeons would kill first and ask questions later. If anyone survives, they are used either as batteries for the dungeon or tortured to death to find out their skills and maybe try to learn them.¡± she showed me a soft smile, and my heart skipped a beat. ¡°Th-Thank you¡­¡± I said. I was really glad to hear those words. Like I guessed, she didn¡¯t tell me, until now, not because she was trying to hide it from me but because I never did ask her about it. ¡°Anyway, you are just a mere level 53, so today we¡¯ll go hunting! I¡¯m going to go talk with Rufus and Angius. We¡¯re going to need their help too.¡± she told me with a bright smile. ¡°Today?¡± I asked a bit confused. ¡°Yup! While we¡¯ll be hunting for monsters, we¡¯ll get some of their parts as loot, and I¡¯ll tell you about what you need to build for your new dungeon. In general, I believe it will need to be only three floors deep and mimic a level 20 Normal Dungeon. Anyway, as long as I don¡¯t forget, I¡¯ll tell you more about it!¡± ¡°Alright. What should I do meanwhile?¡± I asked. ¡°I don¡¯t know, dance?¡± she shrugged and left. I laughed. We were to meet three hours later, but meanwhile, I took a look at my status and saw what level 53 brought me, especially in the skill department. [Name]: Illsyore (Nickname: Illsy) [Species]: Dungeon Lord [Race]: Godlike [Level]: 53 [Strength]: 0+1000 [Agility]: 0+1000 [Intelligence]: 135+1000 [Magic Energy]: 7670 [Magic Energy Regeneration]: 25 Magic Energy Points per Second [Available points]: 530 [Available skill points]: 270 First of all, the level itself surprised me, but maybe spending two weeks nearly depleting my magic energy all the time and focusing on building the best dungeon I could think of really paid off. There was also the part about restoring the Magic Academy and absorbing the Magic Energy residue left by the students after they used up their energy. That¡¯s a lot¡­ I thought to myself, but I had the feeling leveling was going to be a bit harder from then on. Hm, first things first. 66 points in my Intelligence should be enough to grant me a stable Magic Energy pool of 8000 points. And then, I wonder¡­ Increase Magic Regeneration by 5 points per second. I thought while looking at my status window. [125 Points are needed to increase [Magic Energy Regeneration] by 5] Y/N I chose Yes. Now, I had only 339 points left. Every point in [Magic Energy Regeneration] would cost me in the future 25 points. It was quite a lot, but then again, I never knew when such incredible stats could save my life. Also, the idea of having so much and then suddenly vanishing because of one reason or another also crossed my mind. Losing over 500 points wasn¡¯t a joke in any game. I wonder what I should do with the other points? I thought and for now, I decided to dump them as follows: 189 in [Strength] and 150 in [Agility]. I would then add points until I had 200 strength and any extra point afterwards would go into intelligence until I gained enough to reach 10000 Magic Energy Points. As for the skill points, I had 300 of them. I decided to upgrade the following skills: [Create Basic Summoning Circle for monster] > [Create Basic Summoning Circle for monster] [Summon a Monster (Rank 1)] > [Summon a Monster (Rank 2)] [Summon a Mini Boss (Rank 1)] > [Summon a Mini Boss (Rank 2)] [Summon a Boss (Rank 1)] > [Summon a Boss (Rank 2)] Total cost: 40 Skill Points, but [Summon a Random piece of Equipment Currently Worn by Adventurers] was already at Advanced Rank for some unknown reason. Maybe it was one of those mandatory skills I leveled up regardless of my will? Now, I had access to [Summon a Selected piece of Equipment Currently Worn by the Selected Adventurer] It was also the only spell without a change in the voice command. It was still Colly Tos. Another spell I wished to upgrade was [Telekinezy]. I placed 30 points in it, and I gained [Telekinezy 2] and [Telekinezy 3]. They cost me a bit more magic energy, but the second one allowed me to grab things at a distance, while the third one allowed me to grab multiple things at the same time. Regarding the cost, it was only 75 Points to activate the third one and then 5 Points per minute for every single Item I grabbed at the same time. It was quite handy and far more efficient than the simple version of it. All those points I spent brought my current status to the following values: [Level]: 53 [Strength]: 189+1000 [Agility]: 150+1000 [Intelligence]: 201+1000 [Magic Energy]: 8000 [Magic Energy Regeneration]: 30 Magic Energy Points per Second [Available points]: 0 [Available skill points]: 200 The last points were a bit hard to choose regarding what to pick, so I left them for another day. With that matter settled, I flew around the academy, fixing a few things left and right until it was time to meet with Nanya, Angius, and Rufus. They were waiting for me behind the academy. This time, Angius came wearing his warrior armor, which looked sturdy and well plated. A big two-handed sword was kept in a scabbard on his back. After what happened in my dungeon, he decided not to take any more chances. Rufus was dressed the same as before. He was more of a scholar than an adventurer, after all. ¡°Nyahaha! Are you ready?¡± she asked me with a smirk. ¡°Yes. But¡­ pfft! Angius? What¡¯s with the pink eyebrows?¡± I asked trying to abstain from laughing too hard. His eyebrows were back, but they were bubblegum pink in color. When I first saw him, I tried hard not to laugh, but I could barely bear it. Seeing this tough looking warrior with weathered plated armor and a big two-handed sword on his back inspired fear and strength, but then you saw his pink eyebrows and found yourself trying hard not to burst into a loud, uncontrollable laughter. ¡°Sigh¡­ Paladinus added a small spell to Zertan¡¯s hair restoration potions. For two days, me and Tuberculus will be walking around with pink hair.¡± he replied unamused. ¡°Tuberculus too? Pfft!¡± I said. Paladinus, you troll! Puhahaha! I laughed hard in my mind and tried my best not to let those laughs slip out. ¡°Nyahaha! It¡¯s true! The old geezer looks like he was dunked into a barrel of cute!¡± Nanya laughed without holding back. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. Paladinus will pay for this, eventually.¡± said Angius calmly. ¡°These¡­ pranks between them is an old thing. Usually, Paladinus does something to Angius or Tuberculus and then the two of them gang up to play a bigger prank on him.¡± explained Rufus. ¡°Then, Illsy, please use [Telekinezy] on us and fly towards the river north of here!¡± she requested. I did as told and flew as fast as I could in that direction. My maximum flight speed like that was at around 50km/h (~30mi/h), the equivalent of a hawk, but far from an airplane. I had yet to find a way to move faster in that form. It was a bit of an annoying limitation, but something I could live with. Meanwhile, the three teachers were having fun while being carried by my power, especially the cute teenage-looking girl with steel gauntlets and leather armor. We arrived at our destination after about 10 minutes of flying in a straight line. Looking back, we were quite far from the Academy and outside of the area I usually scouted and kept safe for the students. We were literally in the middle of the wilds, more than 10 km away. Since it was like that, leaving Shanteya behind to guard my crystal body was the right decision to take, although, I never saw the reason of all the extra protection. I highly doubted anyone would dare to attack the academy while we were away. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. ¡°About here should be fine.¡± said Nanya as she pointed at a random spot in the middle of the forest. I approached the ground and released my [Telekinezy] spell on them. My magic energy didn¡¯t drop at all, the cost of the spell¡¯s constant use was below the rate of my Magic Energy regeneration. For one minute, the spell consumed 15 points because I was carrying multiple objects, and my regeneration was at 30 points per second right now. ¡°Illsyore, can you detect any monsters?¡± asked Rufus as he looked back at me. ¡°Erm, let me see¡­ There are about 14 all around us, one of which seems to be stronger than the rest.¡± I said. At first, I thought this perception of mine was resumed only at what I felt around my real body, but I came to understand that it was, in fact, focused around the location of where my mind was. This meant that I had to be really careful when going off for long hikes because I would be unable to detect any danger around my real body. Lately, I¡¯ve been thinking about hiding it somewhere, but when I thought about it, keeping it there was also seen as a form of trust towards both the students and the teachers. It was something like how a pet showed his belly to those he trusted or didn¡¯t see as enemies willing to harm him. It¡¯s just that I wasn¡¯t a pet, I was a Godlike Dungeon Lord who didn¡¯t want to end up dead or alone because I behaved like a villain with my only friends in this world. ¡°We should go towards the nearest one and pick them up one after another. I¡¯ll send one of my summoned monkeys to spy on the big one. If it¡¯s worthy of a hunt, I¡¯ll let you know.¡± he said and then began to chant a long summoning spell. It was a bit different from the one he used back at the drinking party. ¡°UKI!¡± shouted the little fellow. The monkey was barely half a meter tall, with a red Mohawk and color changing fur. It left as soon as it received its orders from its master. ¡°I thought you were a warrior?¡± I asked. ¡°Can¡¯t a warrior like monkeys and use spells?¡± he asked with a raised eyebrow. ¡°Of course they can¡­¡± I said and looked away. His expression was killing me. I need to remember to go and see Tuberculus after this! I want to see how the mage looks like with pink hair, beard, and eyebrows! I thought with a snicker. ¡°Illsy! Over here! I spotted our first target!¡± called out Nanya from afar. When did she get over there? I asked myself and flew over. ¡°That one?¡± I asked after I approached her. It was a wolf the size of a cow, with a white and blue colored mane. A spiraled horn adorned the wolf¡¯s forehead, but it seemed to be alone. ¡°That¡¯s a Dayuk, a horned wolf.¡± said Nanya. ¡°Alright¡­ Erm, how should I kill it? Should I summon 20 Ice Spears or use a Fireball the same size I used on the assassins?¡± I asked. Nanya looked back at me and raised an eyebrow. ¡°Do you want to vaporize him or what?¡± she asked. ¡°Erm, no¡­¡± I replied with a low, timid voice. ¡°Just one ice spear is enough to kill it, but aim it properly.¡± she warned me. Aiming wasn¡¯t a problem, so I cast a simple Ice Spear. It worked better than I had expected. The wolf yelped once and then fell on the ground. It was a critical strike straight to the heart. ¡°That was easy¡­¡± I said to myself. ¡°What did you expect?¡± Nanya asked as she made a sign to Angius and Rufus. ¡°To deflect it or something¡­¡± I replied. ¡°This is not an Emperor rank, just a simple high Advanced one.¡± she told me. Meanwhile, the other two teachers joined us, and we approached the wolf. Rufus examined its horn while Angius took out a big knife and a small pink crystal. ¡°What are you two doing?¡± I asked them. ¡°Angius is skinning the wolf, and Rufus is taking the horn, claws, and teeth. Meanwhile, we¡¯ll go hunt some more.¡± Nanya replied in their stead. ¡°Hm, speaking of which. Can you absorb the carcasses?¡± she asked. ¡°Yes, but I will need to return to my crystal body back at the academy to take them out.¡± I replied. ¡°I see¡­ Hm. If absorb is no good, then you should use [Telekinezy] to bring them here. While they work, we will hunt other monsters, and you¡¯ll bring the bodies back here.¡± she said with a smile. ¡°What about the remains afterwards?¡± I asked. ¡°Oh? The bones and meat? We will take what we need as basic materials, but the rest is going to be left here.¡± she explained. ¡°Won¡¯t the remains turn into a zombie or zombies?¡± I asked thinking about the classic take on what happened to monster and human remains in most fantasy stories on Earth. ¡°Only if you don¡¯t purify them. If you do, they become a feast for the bugs and animals in the forest.¡± she explained. ¡°Even then, you actually need an area with a high concentration in Magic Energy. If it¡¯s something like a graveyard, then chances for the remains to spawn a zombie increase exponentially.¡± explained Rufus. ¡°That¡¯s why we always bury our dead in areas lacking in Magic Energy, but from time to time, a powerful magic creature or a dungeon will appear and infuse the ground with enough to create a zombie spawning point.¡± added Nanya. ¡°I understand¡­ Thank you.¡± After that, we hunted a few more Dayuks, but we also came across a pack of Goblins. I was quite surprised when I saw the creatures, they were as tall as a man, with ears longer than Shanteya¡¯s, and a face that looked like an infestation of tumors that had sulfuric acid poured over it. They wore clothes made out of animal furs, and their weapons were long thick clubs made either out of wood or bone. Nanya was the one who took care of the Goblins. She jumped in the middle of them and showed her unrelenting and ruthless strength. At first, they were startled and tried to fight back, but after she killed three of them in less than three seconds, fear started to take control of them. They tried to flee, but Nanya didn¡¯t let any of them go. She showed an inhuman speed as she chased after them and threw her powerful punches at them. The moment her steel gauntlets connected to their bodies or weapons, her explosive force was witnessed by everyone. Their flesh was made mincemeat out off, and their bones shattered to a million pieces. The impact area simply exploded because of her punch, while any weapons that stood in her way were completely destroyed. One of the goblins took a hit to the head and was decapitated. Thanks to her magic armor, the blood spilled on her simply flowed by without leaving a trace on her young body. While all of that happened, I simply watched from a distance and realized just how foolish I was for trying to think up some complicated strategies like I did in my games. Actually, I felt utterly useless when I saw Nanya¡¯s destructive power. It looked almost like the Goblins were ridiculously weak, however, I saw the effects of one of their attacks on the bark of a tree. The club struck it with such a power that it shattered its surface and left a few cracks in the trunk. On the other hand, I was the one to take down the Dayuks and another monster called Orkarin, which was a 10 meter long snake with crystal spikes on it¡¯s head. Using [Telekinezy], I picked up all the bodies and returned them to where Rufus and Angius were. The goblins were stripped of their armor and weapons, but we had no use for their bodies. After Nanya cast [Purify] on them, we left them to rot or become some other monster¡¯s food. By the time it was 6 PM, if I didn¡¯t misjudge the sun¡¯s position, we managed to hunt down most of the monsters in that area. Thanks to the bodies piling up too fast, I had to move some of them in order to evenly scatter them around on a large area. This was meant to keep the area from becoming a monster graveyard and risk creating an undead spawn point. ¡°This is going good, you leveled up another 4 levels. You are now level 57.¡± said Nanya as she checked the black dice. ¡°That¡¯s good, isn¡¯t it?¡± I asked. ¡°Yup!¡± she said while leading the way towards the most powerful monster in the area. ¡°But I¡¯ve been wondering¡­ If you can use that black dice thingy, can¡¯t they use it as well?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes.¡± she said. ¡°Then why still pretend I¡¯m a level 250 Heroic?¡± I asked. ¡°Ah! You are still saying that, right? That was just something temporary I came up with on the spot. Technically speaking, only me, Rufus, Tuberculus, and Shanteya know you are a Godlike. The others assumed you are at least an Ancestral, and the students see you as a powerful Demonic or Heroic one. None of them know of your dungeon, yet. As for the Dungeon Level Detection Stone, only me, Rufus, and Tuberculus have one. As for the students, as soon as I discovered you are a Godlike, I checked their bags and confiscated all the stones I could find.¡± she explained. ¡°I guess a thank you is in order, but how did Tuberculus and Rufus found out?¡± I asked. ¡°One day, Tuberculus got a nasty paper-cut and was on his way to the infirmary to complain about it, but when he passed by your room, his finger healed up immediately. He understood it was a healing aura, but didn¡¯t see it as something special. They are pretty common among Dungeons who enslave adventurers. The final proof came from your incredible dungeon labyrinth and the ability to cast magic without chanting at such a low level. Rufus simply asked me after he saw the dungeon, and I told him. The others never asked.¡± she replied honestly. ¡°Erm¡­ If they ask, you are just going to tell them?¡± I asked a bit surprised since I could clearly remember how during the first few days she warned me not to tell them something like that. ¡°Yes. It¡¯s already clear that you are a friendly Dungeon Lord, an unprecedented case until now. If they find out you are a Godlike, it won¡¯t mean much to them, it¡¯ll just answer a bunch of questions they previously had. Well, Paladinus is going to be annoyed that Tuberculus found out before him, but that will be about all. Although, I won¡¯t tell any of the students about you and if they happen to find out, I¡¯ll use every means necessary to shut them up, especially if they aren¡¯t of the good kind.¡± she shrugged and then lifted a hand up. We reached the monster. It was located in a small clearing about one km away from where Angius and Rufus were. ¡°That¡¯s big¡­ An Urkin?¡± she said as she looked at the thing. It was very tall, maybe at least 6 meters tall, with a mane made out of sharp, long spikes, with more of them covering its entire back. A pair of two long, curved tusks sprouted from its lower jaw, and it had sharp claws capable of slicing with ease through an average human. Its pair of big, black eyes scanned the surrounding area for food or something to fight. It was a terrible beast. Luckily, the wind was blowing towards us and not the Urkin, otherwise it would have caught the scent of fresh kill and charged in Angius and Rufus¡¯ direction. ¡°Illsy, watch out. That thing is levels above what we fought until now.¡± she told me in a whisper. ¡°What rank?¡± I asked. ¡°High Master or maybe Emperor Rank.¡± she told me. ¡°What were the others we fought?¡± I asked her. ¡°Between Advanced and Master, but it¡¯s not the rank that¡¯s the problem, it¡¯s the fact that this is part of the megafauna of monsters, in other words, it¡¯s a boss.¡± she explained. ¡°A boss?¡± I asked surprised. ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Erm, we have a bit of a problem¡­¡± I told her once I noticed something in the far. ¡°What?¡± she asked me as she looked at me with a furrowed brow. ¡°I didn¡¯t focus on it until now, but on the other side, there are a couple of students¡­ They are friendly. Since I was constantly looking for monsters, I didn¡¯t detect them earlier¡­¡± I told her quickly. This is bad¡­ really bad. I thought as I remembered how I was told that most students barely ranked up to intermediary. ¡°What? Damn! Quick! Use some diversion magic on the beast, afterwards, I¡¯ll attack it and finish it off quickly¡­ I wanted to let you do it, but it appears we have no choice. The students¡¯ safety is our priority, although, why in the name of all that¡¯s holy are they here?¡± she grumbled and then prepared to jump out to attack the Urkin. ¡°Alright!¡± I said and quickly placed myself in front of the Urkin. Diversion magic¡­ Diversion ugh¡­ Which one is the best? I thought as I selected the monster as my target. ¡°Erm¡­ Er¡­ COLLY TOS!¡± I shouted. The creature jumped back, but instead of a deadly attack, a pair of pure white panties appeared above the Urkin and slowly floated down on top of the beast¡¯s huge nose. It blinked surprised and looked curiously at the silky fabric. It even took a few sniffs and wagged its spiky tail in delight. ¡°Each and every one of you¡­ STOP SNIFFING MY PANTIES!¡± shouted Nanya with a strong blush in her cheeks. The beast perked its ears up and received a full-on, max-power attack from the teenage-looking girl, who, unfortunately for me, was wearing pants that day. ¡°Gyao?¡± the beast wasn¡¯t even able to dodge and was sent flying into a pair of nearby trees. If this world had something like HP, I think it went down from 100% to 25% with just that single punch, but it wasn¡¯t dead yet. Without a second to lose, I targeted the monster and shot five ice spears at it. They pierced the monster¡¯s body and killed it instantly. The good part was that we defeated the boss, the bad part was that Nanya¡¯s panties was an unfortunate victim of our battle. ¡°Illsy, you idiot¡­¡± she said with a low voice, puckered lips, and upturned eyes before she went to pick up the tattered remains of her panties. ¡°Sorry?¡± I said with a bit of a confused feeling. I am sort of happy it happened, but I also feel bad about it¡­ I thought as I looked down at Nanyas¡¯ bottom. There wasn¡¯t a Holy Item covering her cute behind now. ¡°Teacher Nanya.¡± a male voice was suddenly heard from behind the trees on the other side of the small clearing where we fought the monster. We both turned our heads and looked at the one who spoke. It was an el¡¯doraw boy with black hair cut short, black eyes like Shanteya, but purplish skin with tones of dark red. It was changing towards a darker color, almost as if it could reflect his emotions. ¡°Who are you?¡± she asked sharply. ¡°I am Keltaru Dowesyl, one of Princess Ayuseya Pleyades¡¯ ten guards!¡± he declared proudly. Wait, what? Dowesyl? I thought when I heard him. ¡°So? What are you doing here? Classes aren¡¯t over.¡± Nanya told him and crossed her arms at her chest. ¡°You stole my prey, teacher Nanya! That Urkin was supposed to be mine!¡± ¡°Meh, don¡¯t you know the rule? First come, first served?¡± she shrugged indifferently. ¡°That is a foolish rule created by foolish adventurers! I am of noble blood and a guard of a royal! It is clear that I should take down the best prey!¡± he declared hitting his chest with his fist. ¡°Excuse me?¡± Nanya asked raising an eyebrow, and I do believe I saw a vein pop. ¡°For this inexcusable offense, I challenge you to an official duel! We shall cross swords tomorrow at noon!¡± he shouted and then turned around and left the scene just like that. Both me and Nanya were simply too dumbfounded by his words to say anything before he left. ¡°Did he just?¡± I asked just to be sure. ¡°Yup. Sigh! Another fool¡­¡± she shook her head. ¡°Wherever I go, there¡¯s always a big idiot who thinks they can challenge a Godlike rank adventurer like me! At least, this one didn¡¯t ask me to be his wife¡­ I lost count at the idiots who tried to drag me in their beds!¡± Nanya said while rubbing her forehead, trying to calm down the installed migraine. What? Someone tried to force her into his bed? Who would dare to¡­ hm to force Nanya in my bed, maybe¡­ No? No! Bad brain! Bad! I shook my head to get rid of the perverted thoughts. ¡°Maybe I can talk to Princess Ayuseya about this?¡± I asked after a moment. ¡°Why do you think she would listen to you?¡± she asked me. ¡°Oh, I just enslaved her earlier this morning and cured her of her two curses.¡± I happily said with a smile on my lips and then that tiny, lonely neuron in my head shouted: YOU IDIOT! I gulped when I realized my error. ¡°You did¡­ WHAT?!!¡± her shout was probably heard throughout that humongous forest because it even scared away a couple of monsters. ¡°Erm¡­ Er¡­ It was because she had big boobs?¡± I tried to find an excuse for myself. That was probably the worst thing I could have said in my own defense¡­ I thought while my face turned into that of the awkward seal meme. Nanya looked down at her own chest and then back at me. Three veins popped, and she was red from fury. I gulped again. ¡°Dungeon Lord Illsyore, this is what we are going to do. We are going to take this Urkin, RIP out its spikes, SKIN it, PULL OUT its tusks and teeth, then we are going to head back to the academy and if by then I haven¡¯t calmed down, I¡¯m going to have a VERY long discussion with you about WHY you shouldn¡¯t go around removing IMPOSSIBLE to remove curses from foreign royalty. You got it?¡± she asked with a forced smile while showing me a small rock she picked up. With a single clench of her hand, the rock turned to dust. I gulped. ¡°Yes¡­¡± I said with a weak voice. I¡¯m so dead¡­ I thought. ________ Note from the Author: Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this chapter as well! By the way, I do read all of your comments, and I''m happy to see so many of you like this original fiction so far. I would like to note that most if not all of them already have been answered in later chapters or will be answered in later chapters. :) At the moment of this post, the novel is at 35 chapters. Chapter 19: The consequences of my actions... The Urkin was stripped of all noteworthy materials, including the eyes and brain, which was no bigger than a baby¡¯s fist. Angius and Rufus received the report of the battle from me, while Nanya kept watch from far away. I made sure to leave out the small detail of her missing panties and what happened with me and Ayuseya that morning. The sun had set by the time we were on our way back to the academy. Although I carried all three of them with my [Telekinezy] ability, only Nanya seemed to be in a bad mood. Angius and Rufus were talking about the bountiful harvest as well as how they could use the many materials for their classes. From what I heard, Zertan would be very pleased to get his hands on the Urkin¡¯s organs, but for what reason, even they didn¡¯t know. After were arrived at the academy, Rufus and Angius returned to their rooms, while Nanya stayed back and waited until they were gone. I knew I was supposed to receive a long sermon from her, but instead of hearing how mad she was, there was a graveyard silence between us. The teenage-looking teacher was staring at the ground with her hands crossed at her chest. She wore a difficult expression on her face as if something serious was troubling her. I was standing right there, in front of her. A few minutes passed before she finally said anything, but her words weren¡¯t a scold, but a simple question. ¡°Illsy¡­ did the Teslov princess ask you to rid her of her curses?¡± There was no point in lying to Nanya, and I didn¡¯t wish to upset her anymore, so I spoke honestly. ¡°No¡­ She was playing the violin in the gardens, and I happened to listen to her a couple of times. When I finally introduced myself, she didn¡¯t mention anything about them. It wasn¡¯t until I asked her why she was using the blackboard to speak that I found out. Since I really enjoyed listening to her play, I couldn¡¯t bear to know that such a talented player was robbed of her voice because of a stupid curse, so I offered to try to remove it for her. She actually didn¡¯t believe me at first and was very skeptical. Actually, she didn¡¯t even expect that I would try the family one. In the end, I cured them, but I don¡¯t see what the big deal is. I cured Shanteya as well.¡± I shrugged. They were just a bit costly. Honestly speaking, I¡¯m wondering why the kingdom¡¯s priests weren¡¯t able to do it. If they worked together, maybe they could have gathered the required Magic Energy? I thought calmly, but I had no idea just how serious and important the removal of any sort of curse was. ¡°Illsy, I wasn¡¯t joking when I said those sort of things are impossible to remove.¡± she told me with a serious expression on her face. I gulped. ¡°What do you mean? I know they are costly, but¡­¡± I said. ¡°Costly? Illsy, even if a thousand priests gathered to undo a curse like that, it still wouldn¡¯t work. The previous kings of the Teslov empire tried various things to have themselves or their children free of it!¡± she retorted. ¡°But¡­ what about dispels or purification spells?¡± I asked a bit confused by her words. If what she was saying was the truth, then it was impossible for them not to have tried such methods. ¡°They tried it¡­ but there¡¯s no spell capable of removing something like that. It¡¯s said that the 78th king actually tried black magic to remove it, but all he ended up doing was slaughter half of the mage population of the country and reduce the duration of the curse by 200 generations. Because of him, the Paramanium Kingdom was able to launch a preemptive strike and take over most of their territory. At that time, it was called The Great Draconic Teslov Empire, but after that king¡¯s mad act and the ensuing war, it became the Teslov Kingdom, vassal of the Paramanium Empire.¡± she explained. As I listened to her story, a chill ran down my spine. I was finally able to understand a little bit about what I had just done. By freeing Ayuseya, I may have just given the Teslov Kingdom the perfect opportunity to gather its forces and reforge its past strength. ¡°But that¡¯s just one family, shouldn¡¯t the army hold stronger generals and warriors?¡± I asked with another gulp. ¡°That is true, but no draconian general would listen to a weak king. It¡¯s instinctive for them, unlike it is for humans. That was why most of their generals and powerful warriors left the kingdom in search of other places where they could gain their fame and glory. Because of that, only peasants, craftsmen, and merchants form now most of the population. Very few warriors remain. There is no dungeon there either, making the country¡¯s worth quite low. Actually, the only reason why Paramanium allowed its existence so far was because many of its strongest adventurers and generals arrived from there. Even if Paramanium¡¯s population is mostly human and elf, the draconians are the third. Teslov obeys every order given by Paramanium and as long as no powerful king or queen is given the seat, then they have nothing to fear.¡± explained Nanya, showing him a serious look in her eyes. ¡°So, because I freed Ayuseya of her curse¡­¡± I said softly. ¡°You may have triggered a possible war. Because you are on Shoraya lands, Paramanium might attack both us and Teslov. The draconians could even rebel against Paramanium and seek to join their new leader. If that happens¡­ the Allasn and Tohrya continents will turn red from war.¡± she explained gravely. ¡°Wait, that can¡¯t be¡­ I mean, she¡¯s just one person¡­¡± I said a bit shaken when I heard the word ¡®war¡¯. ¡°One person, but she is also a possible future queen, no¡­ because you removed her curse, she¡¯s going to become a queen. Her children won¡¯t bear the curse, and the bloodline of the Pleyades family will grow strong again. The draconians warriors will return and will seek to join her. She isn¡¯t just some simple draconian, Illsy, she¡¯s a royal.¡± she explained. I gulped. ¡°Still¡­ I don¡¯t regret it. Maybe that family curse was too much, but the [Curse of Absolute Silence] was something I had to remove¡­¡± I said shaking my head, but deep down, I realized that if word got out of Ayuseya¡¯s recovery, the academy¡¯s peace would crumble to dust. There was the possibility of locking her up in my dungeon and keeping her as a secret, but I wasn¡¯t that kind of a monster. Erasing the gentle smile of a girl just because I feared the dangers that smile would bring me wasn¡¯t something I could accept. Besides, maybe for this exact reason it was why I received the opportunity to become a Godlike. If I didn¡¯t accept it back then, Shanteya¡¯s assassination group would have managed to accomplish their goals, and I would have evolved normally. Then again, I wouldn¡¯t have saved Shanteya from her torture within her former guild, and Ayuseya would have been killed right under my eyes. Thinking of those possibilities made my stomach clench. Without my Godlike abilities, this Magic Academy would have gone through many terrible times. I did many things because I thought them to be simple or easy, but maybe that was exactly what allowed the students to live in peace here. Without a Dungeon Territory as big as mine, Nanya and the others may have had a hard time keeping bandits and monsters away. While I was thinking about those things, Nanya asked me ¡°[Curse of Absolute Silence]? That¡¯s terrible¡­ But removing something like that isn¡¯t as politically troublesome as removing the other one. A High Priest or an Emperor Ranked mage with at least Master Rank in Healing can remove it with a bit of help. The poor girl was probably in pain for weeks after she was forced to drink something like that. Of what type was it? A thousand flesh-eating worms? A thousand parasites? Man-eating fish or birds?¡± I blinked and looked at her a bit surprised. Those are some nasty variants indeed¡­ I thought and then replied ¡°Flesh-eating worms.¡± ¡°That¡¯s the worst¡­ Poor girl. I can¡¯t imagine the pain she had to go through when she was fed that concoction¡­¡± said Nanya as she shook her head. ¡°Do you think her fiance might have been the one who forced her to drink it?¡± I asked as I remembered what Ayuseya told me about him. ¡°Fiance?¡± she asked raising eyebrow. ¡°Yes, someone by the name of Dankyun Alttoros?¡± I replied. In that moment, something changed in Nanya. The air around her turned cold, and I could feel a deadly killer intent being emanated from her. I moved back a bit, although I had no reason to do so. She clenched her fists, and her expression turned into one of anger. ¡°That bastard actually did it¡­¡± she cussed. ¡°Someone you know?¡± I asked. ¡°Unfortunately, I do¡­ He is a backstabber who stole a Supreme Spell Scroll from me when we were exploring a dungeon on the Sorone Continent. We were both Emperor Rank back then, and I had no idea what he was actually like. At first, he seemed nice, I even started to like him a bit, but when we reached the last room, he intentionally triggered a trap in the dungeon. It killed half of our party and gravely injured the rest, except him. I managed to survive somehow, but my fellow comrades didn¡¯t¡­ Long story short, he left me to die in that dungeon and ran away with all the treasure, including the ancient scroll we were initially after, a very rare Supreme Spell Scroll.¡± she told me through grinding teeth. ¡°Supreme Spell Scroll?¡± I asked. ¡°To gain a Supreme skill, you can do it in two ways: either you stumble upon one in the form of a scroll or you discover one through intense training. A Supreme adventurer can make a scroll with that skill if he knows how. Unfortunately, you need to be at least a superior Godlike rank to hold enough power to even attempt to learn what¡¯s written there.¡± she explained and then closed her eyes, trying to calm down a bit. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. ¡°But how did that man become Ayuseya¡¯s fiance?¡± I asked. ¡°The Pleyades royal family marries their children only to draconian Supremes. In exchange for their power to protect the throne, they are granted access to the national treasury and can act as high nobles. In our days, many view their words as equal or greater than that of the current king.¡± she explained. ¡°That¡¯s a bit messed up¡­¡± I said. But wait¡­ if that guy is Ayuseya¡¯s fiance, then he¡¯s a Supreme? I asked myself. ¡°To think he became a Supreme¡­ That bastard! I wonder when he learned it? No, even if he is ranked as one, he might just be a lower Supreme.¡± Nanya mumbled to herself. ¡°Then this is really bad¡­ Did I just¡­ Did I just condemn this country to war and turned Ayuseya into a target of the Paramanium Empire? I just wanted to repay her for her beautiful song. I never intended for any of this to happen¡­¡± I said as worry began to sink its dark tendrils into my heart. ¡°Those are just the worst-case scenarios, Illsy. But, don¡¯t worry, now that I know this, I¡¯m not going to let that bastard do as he pleases! After the duel is over, we¡¯re going to have a little chat with Princess Ayuseya. What¡¯s important right now is to get her out of Dankyun¡¯s grasp and make sure your secret as a Godlike doesn¡¯t leave this academy.¡± she said as she bit her nail and looked at the ground. She was seriously thinking about the dire consequences my act of kindness may have brought upon the students of this academy and maybe the entire continent as well. War wasn¡¯t something to joke about no matter the world. Pain, suffering, and destruction were the perfect ways to describe both sides. ¡°I understand¡­ meanwhile, I¡¯ll try to grow stronger. I¡¯ll fix my dungeon tomorrow and start building the third level. I¡¯ll make it even hard, just in case we might need to use it as a refuge¡­¡± I said. ¡°You should start thinking about defending your core as well.¡± she suggested. ¡°An enclosed room deep underground?¡± I asked. ¡°You will be an easy target there. Just like there are magic items that can tell your level, there are also items that can detect your core. They are very rare, but not impossible to find.¡± she explained. ¡°I see¡­¡± ¡°For now, go and rest. We¡¯ll continue tomorrow and don¡¯t be late for my duel! You need to learn the difference between a Godlike ranked adventurer and a lower one just as badly as that kid does! Good night, Illsy.¡± she told me. ¡°Good night, Nanya¡­¡± I replied as I watched her make her way back to the dormitory. After that, I returned to my room, where Shanteya was waiting for me, sitting down on a chair and reading a book. ¡°I¡¯m back¡­¡± I said. ¡°Welcome back, master.¡± she replied with a smile and laid down her book. That night, it was a bit difficult to fall asleep. My mind was filled with all sorts of worries, but Shanteya¡¯s bosom managed to free me of some of them. One thing was clear though: a Godlike dungeon and maybe even Demigod ones can remove impossible curses or remove various afflictions cast upon a mortal¡¯s body. Even I wasn¡¯t that much of an idiot to haven¡¯t noticed such a thing from the conversation I had with Nanya. The following day, I woke up early, but Shanteya didn¡¯t mind. While she kept guard on my crystal body, I went to check my dungeon. Just in case, I raised the points she received through [Bond of Trust] from 10% to 20% of my total stats. My poor dungeon was a complete mess. Most of the traps on the first floor had been completely destroyed. My Magic Energy drained quite fast from the repair skills I kept using. The second floor was an even bigger mess. I found half melted walls, bent ones too, Tuberculus¡¯ face imprinted on one of them, probably because he did something to a certain teenage-looking girl, and most of the summoning circles were completely destroyed. The puzzle rooms had been cleared normally, so I just had to reset the puzzles there. One of the weirdest things I found was an imp who was infatuated with Angius¡¯ boot and did all sorts of nasty things to it, which I would rather not describe. I calmed down the imp with a 200 Magic Energy Points [Fireball]. The repair of the area was done afterwards. At the very least, my bosses were still alive, but the first minotaur had his head buried in the ceiling. The others were beaten severely, and the final boss was cowering in a corner. The aglmc lasers had been destroyed by pieces of the floor that had been thrown at them. There was a lot to repair there, but I was done before the clock struck noon, and I even gained another level. Before I left, I created the entrance to the third floor and used up half of my magic energy to expand the room as much as I could. For this one, I wanted to make a lava floor with many platforms filled with traps. Normal adventurers had no chance there, but powerful ones with a good leap skill could jump from one platform to another. Spring traps and harpy spawns were supposed to be the main annoyances. After this chamber, I was going to start building something more complicated and use as many traps as I could. I even planned on creating a spawn room filled with magic circles, but all in due time. For now, I had to go to Nanya¡¯s duel. At noon, the teenage-looking girl was standing in the middle of the training ground with her hands crossed at her chest and wearing a grumpy expression on her face. There were many students who gathered there to watch the show, including the other teachers. Princess Ayuseya and a few other draconians were there as well. They had gathered around her, but I couldn¡¯t tell if they did so because she was royalty or because they found out about her curse. As for the requester of the duel, the young el¡¯doraw was waiting patiently for the moment when he was to declare the start of the duel. As far as I could guess, they were waiting for the right time to do so. ¡°Did I miss anything?¡± I asked while I approached Nanya. ¡°No. We were waiting for you.¡± she replied. ¡°Sorry, I was busy repairing my dungeon.¡± I told her. ¡°Yes, no worries. I was the one who insisted on waiting for you anyway because over the past few weeks, I realized that you don¡¯t understand the difference between a Godlike and another rank bellow it. This battle will make it clear. I¡¯m a superior Godlike rank, and he¡¯s an inferior Master rank.¡± she told me with a calm look in her eyes. I can¡¯t argue with that. She¡¯s right¡­ I told myself. ¡°Shall we start now?¡± asked the man. ¡°Yes.¡± replied Nanya. Looking around, I saw that Shanteya wasn¡¯t there. She remained next to my real body, protecting it from any idiot who thought a beautiful busty maid couldn¡¯t fight back. I forgot to check, but I was pretty sure all of her stats at that point were above 300 and almost at 400. ¡°In the name of Keltaru Dowesyl, I challenged teacher Nanya to an official duel of might! If I win, I shall receive the Ukiran¡¯s harvested materials and a formal apology from her! If she wins, I shall be the one to apologize!¡± he declared, but the rewards were a bit in his favor rather than Nanya¡¯s. ¡°I accept. Let¡¯s get this over with.¡± said Nanya waving her hand as if she was getting really bored with all of those details. ¡°Very well, but I¡¯ll warn you, unlike the others, I¡¯m a Master rank adventurer!¡± he declared confidently. ¡°Is he serious?¡± I accidentally asked while raising an eyebrow. ¡°Unfortunately, yes.¡± said Tuberculus, who was also watching the official duel. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t we do something to stop it?¡± I asked out of curiosity to see if there was anything we could do, but there was no way Nanya would lose or severely injure the poor fellow. ¡°And miss the fun? No. Besides, Illsyore, you might not know this, but sometimes young nobles need to be made aware of the limitations of their own powers before they run off and do something incredibly stupid.¡± said Tuberculus with a sigh. ¡°Such as venturing into a deadly dungeon or challenging an adventurer willing to land the killing blow?¡± I asked. ¡°Or worse. If they are knights or guards, they could endanger their master by choosing to fight when they could just as easily flee from the battle.¡± his last words were spoken with a heavier tone as if he was remembering something similar from his own past. If worse comes to worse¡­ can I even flee from this academy? I asked myself as I saw the young el¡¯doraw taking up a battle stance, while Nanya didn¡¯t even move from her spot. Thus, the duel between the two began. ___________ Note from the Author: Thank you for reading this chapter! I hope you enjoyed it! :) Chapter 20: The duel with a Godlike petite teacher With a fast swipe, the sword cut through the air, aiming for Nanya¡¯s neck. She didn¡¯t even flinch, merely pulled her head back and let the dangerously sharp blade pass by without so much as even grazing her delicate skin. With a turn of his wrist, the el¡¯doraw boy changed the course of his sword and brought it down on her again. It was a bit of a difficult move to do and even I could see the decrease in speed and power. Nanya leaned to the left and turned her upper-body clockwise by just a bit. Her eyes were closed and hands still crossed at her chest. The dangerous blade just slid over the tip of her nose and continued its way to the other side. A gush of a wind formed as a result of the slightly inclined flat side of the sword. Nanya¡¯s long, black hair fluttered a bit, but she still didn¡¯t move from her spot. Everyone was watching the scene with curious eyes and held their breath in suspense. We knew that if we blinked even once, we might risk missing a strike or even the culmination of the duel. ¡°You¡­¡± growled Keltaru. Nanya ignored him. Jumping back a few meters, he pointed his hand at her and chanted the spell for [Fireball]. That spell is like the basic of basics in every world, huh? I thought as I remembered how many novels and games used it as the beginner spell for every mage player and character. Nanya looked at him with a half-opened eye, but didn¡¯t attack him. She waited for the entire duration of the cast. Next to me, Tuberculus let out a sigh. ¡°He¡¯s taking his sweet time casting it, isn¡¯t he?¡± I asked as I watched him. ¡°If you can¡¯t use instant chants or partial chants, it¡¯s better to rely on a vanguard whenever you are about to use it, otherwise, you are easy bait for any opponent.¡± he explained. 7 seconds lasted the entire chant. In all that time, Nanya could have finished him off countless times. If it was me, I would have charged [Ice Spear] with 5000 Magic Energy Points and then launched it at him right before he finished chanting. Eh? I forgot to upgrade this one¡­ I should do it when I have the chance¡­ I thought while I watched Keltaru take aim at Nanya and finally released the spell. It was one of about 100 Magic Energy Points if I were to go by size alone. The Fireball flew through the air and slammed into Nanya¡¯s forehead. The spell exploded, creating a shock wave of hot air and sending sparks all over the place. Tuberculus put it all out before the entire area caught fire. Keltaru smirked confidently as if he had just accomplished something great, but Nanya only had her head tilted back a little with no visible damage seen on her body. When the smoke cleared up, he was able to see her as well. ¡°What? How can that be?¡± he asked himself. Ah! The wild typical question appears! I thought in my mind. Opening her eyes, Nanya looked back at Keltaru and showed him an evil smirk. ¡°Come on, kid! I¡¯m still waiting for you to get serious! You are seriously wasting my time like this!¡± she shouted back at him. The taunt worked and clenching his hand on the hilt of his sword, Keltaru let out a combat yell and dashed towards Nanya. Dust was raised behind his feet, and it was clear no normal human could match him in speed, but she didn¡¯t show even the slightest concern regarding his impending attack. ¡°YAAA!¡± shouted the boy. I watched as he drew close and aimed his sword at her neck. Move Nanya¡­ I thought. Indeed, I was worried for her safety, I feared the attack would go through, but for her, it was another story. Without showing even the slightest sign of fear, wearing that defiant smirk on her lips, and looking straight into his eyes, Nanya didn¡¯t move from her spot. Then, it happened. Keltaru struck¡­ A loud sound was heard, and everyone froze as they watched the scene unveil before their very eyes. Nanya stood still. The blade passing over her shoulder. Her eyes locked onto the boy¡¯s. Keltaru huffed from the effort, trying to recover the energy he lost during his attack. The sharp sword was stopped at a distance of only 1 cm away from her neck. No blood dripped on Nanya¡¯s small neck. Not even a strand of hair was cut by the blade. She didn¡¯t even budge a single millimeter from her spot. ¡°Are you done?¡± she asked and grabbed the sword with her bare hand. He tried to pull back, but he couldn¡¯t move it. ¡°H-How?¡± he asked with a trembling voice. In front of his attack, Nanya didn¡¯t even dodge, she received it with all of its might, but there was no effect. His attack was completely and utterly useless against her. I held my breath, we all did. The blade cracked and shattered under Nanya¡¯s grip. Keltaru froze when he saw this, but it was just the beginning of her merciless onslaught. ¡°Fufu! My turn!¡± she said and then opened her fist, the shattered pieces of metal fell on the ground. With an evil smirk on her lips, she then grabbed Keltaru by his face with her other hand and gave him a powerful kick in the chest. The hit was so powerful, it immediately shattered his magic armor and cracked one of his ribs. Letting go of his face, she jumped back by kicking him in the sternum. Another crack was heard while he was launched two meters behind. ¡°Ugh!¡± he groaned and grimaced from the terrible pain while his magic armor was slowly restoring. ¡°Oi! Oi! Don¡¯t go soft on me now! You said you wanted a real duel, right? You said you wanted to challenge a Godlike ranked adventurer? Haaa?¡± she spoke with a tough guy¡¯s accent and then dashed towards him. The boy glared at her and tried to stand up, but she jumped, and with a roundhouse kick struck him in the left cheek. His magic armor was shattered again, his bones cracked under the force of the impact, and he was sent him flying into the crowd of students, but before he reached them, Nanya jumped in front of him and stopped him mid-flight by punching him right in the stomach. His body couldn¡¯t handle it and vomited his last meals. A bit of blood dripped from the corners of his mouth, but she had yet to be done with him. Grabbing him by the collar of his clothes, she tossed him back in the ¡®ring¡¯. He smashed into the ground quite badly, one of his hands twisted in a weird way. ¡°Hurk! Ugh¡­ It¡­ It hurts¡­¡± he muttered gasping for air and trembling from the shock his body was going through. ¡°Oi! Oi! Is this all you have? I haven¡¯t even unsealed my power yet!¡± she said with a smirk as she landed on his back, cracking a few more of his ribs. ¡°P-Please¡­¡± he begged, now with tears in his eyes and barely able to breath. ¡°Sorry, I can¡¯t hear you! You have dirt in your mouth!¡± she told him and then stomped on his head, forcing the el¡¯doraw boy to literally eat some dirt. In the process he broke one of his teeth, cut his upper lip, and broke his nose. His blood tainted the ground in red, but even after all of that, none of the teachers or students dared to stop the fight. It was an official duel, meaning the participants asked for a beating or to beat someone else. Out of curiosity, I looked through the crowd to see their reaction to the scenes unfolded before them. Most of them were watching seriously. It was a lesson they wouldn¡¯t receive anywhere else. It was a testament of one¡¯s true strength and proof of their own weakness. Very few turned their heads away from the beating Keltaru was receiving from Nanya. The sweet, 15 years-old looking teacher with a petite body was a real monster when you compared their strength, and they understood that better than ever. As for the one who was the el¡¯doraw¡¯s master, Ayuseya, she was looking unfazed at the battle, but I could see it in the way her hands clenched the frills of her dress, she wanted to put a stop to it, she wanted to save the young guard. ¡°You lost, kid.¡± said Nanya calmly as she stepped off of him. Trembling and spitting blood, the boy tried to get up, but the pain was too much. One of Ayuseya¡¯s guards, a draconian girl who looked rather young but quite tall rushed to his side. Tuberculus let out a sigh and stepped forward to heal the boy as well. ¡°Listen up you stupid brats!¡± Nanya shouted loud enough for all of the students there to hear her ¡°What you saw today was a battle between a Superior Godlike Rank Adventurer and a Low Master Ranked Adventurer, actually no, he¡¯s barely a Medium Advanced! Tch! I can see most of you have no idea what I¡¯m talking about, but just to make things clear. Illsy, make me two blocks of granite, one 6 meters tall and the other 15 meters.¡± she said and pointed at where she wanted them. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. Using [Create a Room] advanced version, I raised two blocks of granite of exactly those sizes. They were clean cut and as hard as they could be. ¡°Good! Now, listen up! I want you all to drill it in your empty noggins before I smash you all into the ground!¡± she shouted. With the last remark, she threw a glare at Keltaru, who was being healed up by Tuberculus. ¡°Ranks as an Adventurer are classified by two things! Your ability to actually cast or use a skill of a certain rank and how strong you are in general!¡± she turned towards the two blocks of granite I created and tapped with her palm on the side of the first one. ¡°This block is 6 meters tall, 6 meters wide, and 6 meters thick. If you can punch this right in the center of any face and make a crack go all the way to the opposite one, then you can be considered a Lower Master Rank!¡± she declared. Doesn¡¯t sound too hard. I think Shanteya could do it¡­ I thought to myself as I looked at it from a few meters away. Still, if I were to ask a human from Earth to do something like that, he would immediately ask me if I drank too much or ate something bad. In this world, however, magic allowed people to do many impossible things, such as how Nanya and Keltaru fought just a moment ago. It was like watching a real-life anime, but ten times as intense. ¡°I¡¯ll demonstrate.¡± Nanya said as she faced the cube. Stepping back, she clenched her fist and then jumped. Her strike was powerful and precise, right in the center of the cube¡¯s face. A wave of air was pushed away and countless cracks covered the first half of the cube, but on the back, only one crack appeared. ¡°If you want to be a Lower Emperor Rank, you need to be able to do the same for this cube, here.¡± Nanya said as she walked over to the big one with a side of 15 meters and patted it. Stopping right at the middle, she then took a step back and jumped over seven meters in the air. Just as she did with the one before, she punched the face of the cube, right in the center, and I do believe I may have heard a sonic boom. The shock wave spread farther this time. The cracks on the front size were bigger and larger, a small crater even formed in the spot where she struck the block of granite, however, just as it was with the other one, only a single crack managed to reach the other side. Nanya showed to be able to easily crack a 15 meters thick block of granite. I could only gulp when I saw her strength and that was just the Lower Emperor Rank, meaning that all the teachers at the Academy were powerful enough to at least do that. Are they actually monsters? I asked myself. ¡°Now, Illsy. Make another cube with a side of 6 meters or repair that one.¡± she told me. ¡°Alright.¡± I replied and after erasing the cube, I created another on exactly the same. My repair skills could repair only the walls, meaning that the inside would have remained cracked. ¡°Tuberculus, did you heal the boy?¡± asked Nanya. ¡°He still needs to rest.¡± ¡°Can he walk and talk?¡± she asked. ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Good. Keltaru!¡± she shouted. ¡°Y-Yes.¡± came the boy¡¯s weak reply. ¡°Tell us all right now! Can you come here and crack this thing?¡± she asked knocking on the freshly made block of granite. Keltaru looked down and clenched his fists. ¡°N-No¡­ but I can use [Lightning Dash]¡­¡± he replied. ¡°Big deal! Boy, if you can¡¯t even crack this, you have no right to call yourself a Master Rank! Actually, you won¡¯t even call yourself an Advanced Rank from now on! Until you can crack this thing open in one strike without using a skill or buff, you are just a Higher Intermediary Rank! Do you understand, Keltaru Dowesyl! That¡¯s what I want from you as a result of losing this official duel!¡± Nanya demanded without remorse. ¡°Yes¡­¡± he replied looking down and ashamed to have lost both the duel and his rank. ¡°Good! Now, let me tell you something. When the guild and ranks were made, they usually used big blocks of granite to test out initiates. Now, we use enchanted walls. Usually, breaking one of these things sets you at the Lower Rank, but it¡¯s never wise to assume it even if you can. Many Adventurers do and when they end up facing Mediums or Highers of the same rank, they lose! They die!¡± she said as she jumped on top of the 6 meters tall block and took a seat on the edge. ¡°A few generations after the introduction of ranks, someone came up with the idea of setting points of strength to differentiate between individuals. Special magical items in any guild can tell you your exact number. So, if a regular human has around 10 points of strength, how much do you think a Lower Beginner Rank needs to have?¡± she asked raising an eyebrow. Nobody answered, they just looked at one another and tried to guess, but none dared to speak up. ¡°Sigh¡­ 25! Yes, 25 means the Lower Beginner Rank! After that, we have Intermediary at 50, Advanced at 100, Master at 175, Emperor at 300, Godlike at 500, and Supreme at 800.¡± she explained and they all began to whisper among each other, trying to figure out how many points they had or maybe even guess Nanya¡¯s. So, Shanteya is close to a lower Godlike, but past Emperor because of my boost. Hm, does that mean that if I continue to level up and add points in strength as well as give her the 50% boost, she will be able to reach Supreme values? I asked myself while trying to do a bit of basic math in my mind, however, it hit me then. The values of my own stats when compared to what Nanya just said. Wait a second¡­ WHAAAT?! I¡¯m over nine¡­ I mean I¡¯m over 1000! I shouted in my mind, a bit baffled by what I realized. ¡°By the way, my current points in strength, unbuffed, are set at 886.¡± she told them. Keltaru gulped when he realized the astonishing difference between them, and that was without taking into consideration other skills or combat experience. ¡°You all know what Magic Armor is, right? You infuse your own body with magic and gain protection against enemy attacks or even allow your body to perform otherwise impossible tasks. Well, once you go past Master Rank, the defensive power of your Magic Armor reaches ridiculous values. That was why I didn¡¯t even need to move when he attacked me earlier. Even if he used [Lightning Dash], I still wouldn¡¯t have had a need to do so! A Master Rank alone is needed to wipe you all out! An Emperor is overkill¡­ As for me, well¡­ let¡¯s be serious, I¡¯m a Superior Godlike.¡± she told them with a harsh and cold tone of voice. A heart clenching silence fell among the students. Nobody dared to say another word, and Keltaru certainly learned his lesson the hard way. On the other hand, I was wondering if I was stronger than Nanya or weaker. Going by what she just told us, I was stronger, but stats weren¡¯t everything. If I were to go by skill rank alone, I was Advanced, and she was Godlike. Actually, I had no idea how an Advanced Rank skill differed from a Master Rank skill and then a Emperor Rank one, let alone a Godlike Rank skill. ¡°Princess Ayuseya, I need to have a word with you regarding your guard¡¯s foolish behavior.¡± Nanya said as she jumped down from the block. ¡°Wait! Whatever I did, there¡¯s no point in¡­¡± Keltaru spoke out, but Nanya only needed to throw him a glare to force him to shut up. ¡°Keltaru, you should have learned by now that when you are under the employ of a master, your actions are thought as your master¡¯s actions. Your failure is thought as your master¡¯s failure.¡± explained Tuberculus as he placed his hand on his shoulder to stop him from running over. ¡°Ku¡­¡± he clenched his fist and looked ashamed at the ground. Poor lad¡­ I thought. Looking over, I saw Ayuseya writing something on her blackboard. ¡®As you wish, teacher Nanya.¡¯ ______________ Note from the Author: Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it! :) One more chapter and two more side stories until this Arc ends! Hope you will like them! :D Also, the length of the chapters varies because they were originally posted on my website, where each part/chapter has around 3000+, 4500 max words. Some chapter have around 4 parts, while others 1 or maybe 2. Once more I''m going to remind you: just send me a message if you have a question about the story. :) Noting if you want a spoiler or not. It''s highly unlikely I''ll answer in the comments below, especially if the answers could contain spoilers for other readers. Chapter 21: Ayuseyas fate and Illsyores madness While the teachers dispersed the students and Tuberculus led Keltaru to the infirmary, I followed Ayuseya and Nanya. They entered the main building and then went up the stairs until they reached my room. Upon opening the door, Shanteya offered the two a short bow and placed herself between them and my crystal body. ¡°Illsy. You are here, right?¡± Nanya asked. ¡°Yup!¡± I replied. ¡°Good. Do you understand now the differences between ranks?¡± she asked me with a calm voice. ¡°Yes, I do¡­¡± I replied. ¡°Good.¡± she nodded. Ayuseya remained quiet and looked between Nanya and Shanteya. It was quite possible that she had yet to figure out the reason as to why she was called over. Tuberculus, the headmaster of the academy, wasn¡¯t there and neither were any of the other teachers. Her options varied between being scolded for not holding her guard on a short leash, her recent activity at school, and of course, her curses. ¡®Was I really called over because of Keltaru?¡¯ she wrote down on the blackboard. Nanya looked at it for a moment and then removed it from her hands. She placed it down on the shelf of the nearby bookcase. ¡°You don¡¯t need that now, do you?¡± she asked and turned around to face Ayuseya. The draconian princess blinked surprised and acted as though she had no idea what she was talking about. ¡°She knows¡­¡± I said. When Ayuseya heard me, she let out a long sigh. ¡°Indeed, it would have been hard to keep it away from your woman.¡± she remarked. ¡°Yes¡­ Wait, what?¡± I replied and looked at her confused. I think I misheard that last part¡­ I thought. ¡°Wha-wha-what are you talking about?! I-I¡¯m not his woman!¡± retorted Nanya, who turned red as tomato. Shanteya looked with big eyes at her and covered her mouth with her fingers to hide her surprise. ¡°Yes, Nanya, you should come clean now. That night of hot passion under the moonlight¡­ Ah! It was divine! Or-or did you just use the poor little me?¡± I said with an exaggerated tone of voice. ¡°ILLSYYY!¡± she shouted at me, looking all cute and furious at the same time. I want to tease her more, but I fear she might shatter me into a billion pieces¡­ I thought. ¡°Hahaha! Sorry! Sorry! I couldn¡¯t abstain!¡± I said. ¡°Mou!¡± she puffed her cheeks and crossed her hands at her chest. ¡°Me and Nanya are just friends, for now.¡± I said with a smile, but she threw me a glare my way after the last remark. Shanteya let out a sigh of relief. ¡°I see¡­ Then, I¡¯m guessing I¡¯ve been called here because of the curse? It matters not, I wished to have a word with Illsyore after the duel was over anyway.¡± she spoke calmly. ¡°You aren¡¯t mad about your guard being beaten up like that?¡± I asked curiously. ¡°He was the one who challenged a Godlike to a battle. Although I was worried he might be killed by our teacher, in the end, it was a good lesson for his ego.¡± she answered while looking over at Nanya. ¡°The foolish boy was the one who asked for it. But we¡¯re not here to talk about Keltaru, we¡¯re here because of your two curses.¡± Nanya said and quickly returned the conversation back on its track. ¡°Of course, Illsyore has my gratitude for removing them for me.¡± Ayuseya made a soft bow with her head. ¡°Yes. You are putting Illsy at great risk!¡± she declared. ¡°I know, he did me a great favor, one which I don¡¯t know if I will ever be able to repay.¡± ¡°You aren¡¯t a simple draconian woman! You are the princess of Teslov Kingdom! That idiot Dankyun is also your fiance!¡± Nanya glared back at her. Ayuseya squinted her eyes when she heard that man¡¯s name. ¡°It¡¯s a political engagement. I had no say in the matter. Regardless, I¡¯m well aware that my current status and bloodline may bring trouble because the curse was removed, but I do not intend to let Illsyore become a target.¡± she declared calmly. ¡°I don¡¯t believe you!¡± Nanya glared at her. ¡°What¡¯s there not to believe?¡± she asked raising an eyebrow. ¡°I think you knew about him! Maybe you heard about how Shanteya was cured and decided to give it a try! Maybe you decided to use your violin to trick the blockhead!¡± she accused. ¡°Hey! That blockhead can hear you!¡± I protested. ¡°I did no such thing! I didn¡¯t even know of Illsyore¡¯s ability until he actually cured me! I never hoped I would be freed of those curses in my entire lifetime!¡± she defended herself. ¡°You are lying.¡± declared Nanya. ¡°I am not.¡± ¡°You two do realize you are a Godlike and a princess right?¡± I asked. ¡°For what reason did you even come here anyway? If it¡¯s about asking Illsyore to come back to your country, not happening scaly!¡± said Nanya shaking her head. ¡°How rude! Even if I did come here for such a thing, it¡¯s ultimately Illsyore¡¯s choice! He is a sentient being like all of us! He can think and judge by himself! Even if you are a Godlike Rank or a teacher at this academy, you have no right to trap him like this!¡± declared the princess. While I was completely ignored, lightning bolts were being thrown between their glares, and it was quite comical to see the 2.15 m tall dignified Ayuseya arguing like that with the 1.56 meters tall Nanya, who looked like an angry 15 years-old teenager. Regarding chest size, it was like comparing basketballs to tennis balls. Shanteya was probably around soccer ball level. ¡°Enough with defending the crystal ball, why did you want to come here?¡± Nanya asked. Technically speaking, I believe I¡¯m a polyhedron¡­ I thought. ¡°To request Illsyore to make me his temporary slave and let me hide inside of him. In a couple of days, Dankyun will be arriving at this academy, and I don¡¯t wish to return with him.¡± she stated. Say what now? I asked in my mind. ¡°D-Dankyun? He¡¯s coming here?¡± Nanya asked clenching her jaws and fists. In a single moment, the atmosphere changed to a rather serious one. ¡°I received word two weeks ago that he is on his way to this academy as we speak. Up until a day ago, I considered giving up the fight. With the curse he placed on me and the one from my family, there was no way I could fight against him. He¡¯s also a Supreme. No one would dare to take my side. Even the Paramanium Empire has his back.¡± she explained calmly as she closed her eyes. ¡°Then you just have to run away from here and lead that piece of garbage away from here!¡± said Nanya with a clenched jaw. ¡°Run? Where could I possibly run to? He¡¯s a Supreme¡­¡± she asked and lowered her eyes for a moment. ¡°I don¡¯t know, and I don¡¯t care. As long as you swear on your life to never mention how you got the curses removed, you can recover your strength, maybe even build up a resistance somewhere. I don¡¯t want this academy or Illsyore to be mixed up in your little political struggle!¡± she stated with a sharp look in her eyes. ¡°It¡¯s not up to you to decide that.¡± said Ayuseya calmly, ignoring her glare. ¡°Oho? And why¡¯s that?¡± she asked with an annoyed smirk. ¡°Like I said, Illsyore is the one who is to decide.¡± she looked over at my crystal body. Nanya clicked her tongue. ¡°Ugh¡­ That¡¯s a tough one. So what would we accomplish if I were to allow you to hide you in my Inner Mind?¡± I asked. ¡°By hiding inside of you, Dankyun will completely lose track of me. After all, no one has heard of a dungeon absorbing another living being like that. When I was inside of you yesterday, my guards lost all track of me. It¡¯s like a completely different dimension in there. I¡¯m sure he won¡¯t have any way of reaching me.¡± she explained. ¡°That sounds logical, but what if you run away as Nanya said?¡± I asked. ¡°If I do, he will be able to track me down and drag me back to Teslov sooner or later. Once there, he will marry me by force and then kill me or use me as his toy. I may be a princess, but I am a princess only in name. My kingdom is too weak and won¡¯t go against him or Paramanium. I dare say I may be among the last generations of royals. What¡¯s more, even if I die, he will technically still remain as a part of the royal family, granting him access to my country¡¯s funds and army.¡± she explained. ¡°If it¡¯s that easy to take over your country, why hasn¡¯t anyone else done so until now?¡± I asked. ¡°What makes you believe they haven¡¯t? Many Supremes married into my family and controlled the country from the shadows for as long as they desired to. There were times when we were forced to marry even Emperor ranks to keep our family alive. Some even remarried other members of my family after their spouses died. The Teslov Kingdom had been lost the moment my ancestor was cursed. To the outsiders, we appear to be powerful, but inside, we still exist only because of the Paramanium Empire¡¯s whim. For example, Dankyun has been forced upon my family by the fourth prince of the Paramanium Empire. Father wasn¡¯t even ALLOWED to negotiate the terms of the deal. The only good thing that comes out of this is that as long as Teslov wags its tail in front of Paramanium, then Teslov is safe from outside threats.¡± ¡°Basically, you survived until now only because you were too weak to be considered of any sort of threat.¡± I said. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°Exactly, but with my curses removed, you have given Paramanium the best reason to conquer Teslov and completely exterminate my family¡­¡± Ayuseya closed her eyes for a moment. ¡°I don¡¯t care! You are from the other side of another continent! This is Sharoya, why should we even be bothered by what happens to your kingdom? It¡¯s not like a massacre is going to occur! It will be just your family that gets wiped off!¡± growled Nanya. ¡°Nanya, knock it off!¡± I raised my tone a bit. She flinched and looked towards me. ¡°Sorry, it¡¯s just that if you are dragged into this political mess, it will never end. Not only will this academy be in danger, but you as well¡­ If that bastard Dankyun were to find out what you can do, he won¡¯t hesitate to attack this place. I know it, I¡¯ve seen how despicable that man can be! If Princess Ayuseya¡¯s words spoke the truth, then surely he will try to pull her out of here, marry her, then kill her just to get his hands on the Teslov Kingdom¡¯s power. If that¡¯s his plan, then he won¡¯t stop no matter what! I¡¯m not going to just stand around idly and watch as he destroys this academy just because of one foreign princess!¡± explained Nanya, but in my eyes, she was angrier about Dankyun coming over here than the draconian princess¡¯ fate. If Ayuseya left the academy, then he would have no reason to come here. Unfortunately, if that happened, she would surely end up with a fate worse than death. I couldn¡¯t let that happen. ¡°I understand¡­ I apologize¡­¡± said Ayuseya as she lowered her head. ¡°I may have been a bit unreasonable.¡± she looked down at the floor. If I chase her off¡­ what will happen to her? What can I do to prevent this? I thought and tried to push my single neuron to run faster on that squeaky hamster wheel, but nothing popped in my mind. I never was one who could understand politics, the implications behind a certain decision, the weight those in power had to carry, but at the same time the corruption they faced. If I were to take as an example Earth, then the fight for the good of mankind was slowly losing against corruption and inhumanity, but this was another world. Here, the blood of a royal could weigh more than an entire army. Equality wasn¡¯t something a peasant could dream about. Maybe just at this academy such morals and status differences were partially ignored. Is this why Nanya wants to defend this academy? Sigh, but maybe she also holds some feelings for me, otherwise, why would she struggle so hard to push Ayuseya away from me and the academy? Or does she fear that much this Dankyun fellow? Ugh¡­ this is hard. My words could mean someone¡¯s death¡­ My decision could endanger me and everyone else here! I thought, and for once, I was glad none of them could see the frustration on my face. ¡°So, Nanya, what do you want me to do?¡± I asked after a long moment. ¡°I want her gone from this place, but only after she swore on her life to never mention where she got cured!¡± she replied sharply. ¡°What do the other teachers want?¡± I asked. ¡°If they knew¡­ they would wish to stay out of another kingdom¡¯s political struggle. They would give Ayuseya away.¡± she answered. It¡¯s true. That¡¯s the most logical and easiest thing to do¡­ I thought. ¡°Shanteya? What do you believe I should do?¡± I asked and both Nanya and Ayuseya blinked surprised when they heard me asking the opinion of a maid. ¡°I will stand by whatever master chooses.¡± she replied calmly and without a doubt in her heart. ¡°Hm¡­¡± With all of them having said their opinions and knowing what the other teachers might think about it, I began to analyze the situation to try to come up with a good solution. I stayed quiet for more than half an hour, thinking back and fourth at what I could do. ¡°Did he break?¡± asked Nanya at one point. ¡°No.¡± I replied shortly. Although I thought hard about it, the options were quite simple: 1) hide Ayuseya and pray to the gods that Dankyun doesn¡¯t know she was there; 2) kick her out of the academy and feign innocence when Dankyun asks about it; 3) kill her either through a direct spell or a trap in my dungeon. Least to be said that number three was out of the question from the get go, but I did wonder if there was any way to actually fake her death. The idea made my inner detective think about various things I could do to cover her tracks. With my ability to create and destroy a room, I could simply create any sort of fake crime scene and then pretend like it really happened, but a murder scene on my territory would be rather suspicious, especially since I can detect when a student¡¯s life sign goes off. It would also be hard to create a fake killer and poison wouldn¡¯t pass Zertan that easily. There was also something Ayuseya said that caught my attention: the fact that when she was inside of me, her guards lost track of her. Thinking about it logically, it meant that they had some spell or magic item to track her down from a distance. That might have been exactly how Dankyun found her, and the only reason he didn¡¯t chase after her, until now, was because he didn¡¯t really care where she went. I did remember that in some mangas and novels, in various fictional worlds, couples and friends could make use of various ways to track each other and know if they were still alive or not. Usually, all they needed for that spell to work was a drop of their blood. Thus, number two went down the drain. Even if we lied to Dankyun, he would still be able to find her. Sooner or later, she would end up in his grasp, and that was about it for Ayuseya, however, why Nanya preferred this option was quite clear. It would stir any political attacks away from the academy and subsequently: me. In the end, she would end up dead, and I didn¡¯t see how her promising she won¡¯t tell about me solved a possible truth serum problem. Have Ayuseya gobble that up, and they could even find out what sort of naughty play she liked more. In other words, choosing this option meant leaving Ayuseya to the fates, and I highly doubted they would spare her of the torture Dankyun probably had in store for her. After all, he was the bastard who made her drink a potion made out of the remains of 1000 flesh-eating worms. I was left with option number one. Choosing to protect and defend her, but I couldn¡¯t keep her inside me for an endless period of time. Eventually, I would need to let her out and then Dankyun would know. I needed something else¡­ something to keep his filthy hand off of her and solve the political mess that followed if he got his hands on her. My friend once told me that when you end up in a hole too big to get out off, sometimes the best solution was to dig down until you knocked at Hell¡¯s door. The devil would be too annoyed by the light you let in and kick you back on the surface. Of course, that would end up causing you more problems, it might even put you face to face with the devil, but sometimes, life meant exactly that, biting hard and grabbing the ropes of insanity. That being said, what would be the most stupid thing to do right now? What would be the most annoying thing for Dankyun? What would piss off all the kingdoms at once? Hm¡­ Let¡¯s try the insane route! Worse-case scenario, I¡¯ll just reincarnate again! So damned be politics and sanity! Muhahaha! I thought and then an evil smirk appeared on my lips. Of course, I didn¡¯t go crazy, I just turned off my fear of the illogical and accepted the absurd. I looked upon my current life as I would a game and added the funny option no one would usually think about, that one thing no one expects you to say or accept as a possible option to begin with. ¡°I reached a conclusion and it has nothing to do with cats, bananas, or Nanya doing a strip dance for me! But it has something to do with the chicken that crossed the road to find the plebeian toad that ate the mushroom of the octopus in a cow shrinking ray paradoxical dance machine! But don¡¯t let the chair hear you, he might be plotting with the pigeon to take over the world!¡± I declared proudly, although my words didn¡¯t make any sense at all. The hell did I just say? I thought to myself after a second. ¡°What?¡± the teenage-looking girl showed me a ¡®what the¡­¡¯ expression on her face, brow furrowed, right eye squinted, and head pulled back a bit. I think it worked¡­ they are confused. I thought. ¡°Now, you shall answer me carefully or else I¡¯m going to Colly Tos you every day! I want you to say Yes or No, honestly! This all about instinct! There¡¯s no need to think too much, actually you won¡¯t have time! Kukuku!¡± I let out an evil snicker. ¡°Alright¡­¡± said Ayuseya a bit confused. Here goes nothing¡­ I thought. ¡°Well then! Will you¡­¡± dramatic pause ¡°not not not not not not not not not not not NOT marry me?¡± I asked and then started counting ¡°5¡­ 4¡­ ¡° ¡°Yes!¡± replied both Nanya and Ayuseya at the same time. ¡°Huh?¡± I blinked surprised. I wasn¡¯t expecting Nanya to answer. [Mad Destroyer Nanya Demonarkiar the 2nd is now your Spouse] [Abandoned Princess Ayuseya Drekar Pleyades is now your Spouse] Oh crud¡­ This stupid system! This was actually possible? In that moment, a yellow light enveloped their ring finger on their left hands and black tattoo rings made out of tiny, microscopical magic symbols appeared instead of wedding rings. _______ Note from the Author: Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! This is the last chapter of the Second Arc: Building a dungeon and meeting a princess! After this one, there will be two Side Stories, and the Third Arc will begin! :) Side Story (2): A night of "terror" at the Magic Academy! [Nanya¡¯s point of view] Now that I remember, this small event actually took place not long after Illsy made Shanteya his slave. I have to say though, when I first saw that el¡¯doraw woman, my mind went straight to the size of her chest. She had a lovely bosom, but it irked me for some reason. Maybe it was because in my current form I was of a smaller size? Well, at that time, I pretended it didn¡¯t bother me too much, but on the inside was another story. I raged for a few minutes. Well, what could I do? I hated losing, especially when it came to womanly charms. I¡¯d show you if I wasn¡¯t sealed! was what I usually thought whenever I saw one of the girl students pushing their breasts forward as if to spite me. In my current form, I had a small cup and so what?! At least, I wasn¡¯t flat, but among all of them, there was someone I just couldn¡¯t forgive! She surpassed me even in unsealed form! It was the distinguished guest from the Teslov Kingdom and also the target of the assassins back then, Princess Ayuseya Pleyades! Sigh, but she was a draconian¡­ Their kind, thanks to their abnormal height, usually had a chest big enough to feed seventeen families! She was a monster! Anyway, leaving my personal frustrations aside, as it so happened, back then, I was letting Shanteya sleep in my room. With Illsy making me her master as well, the el¡¯doraw assassin was forced to listen to my every command. I made sure of that during the interrogations, however, I also ended up pulverizing a certain sorry excuse for a man, who was also the headmaster of the academy! He dared to ask for Shanteya¡¯s three sizes! That day, I also found out that Illsy¡¯s slave collar or rather neck tattoo was impossible to take off. We literally tried everything on it, including a special rare crystal I found in a dungeon. That thing could shatter a usual slave collar to pieces and even get rid of certain debuffs in a matter of seconds. Well, when we used it on Illsy¡¯s tattoo, the rare crystal was the one that shattered. It was astonishing, none of us ever saw something like that before. Zertan and Paladinus were a bit curious about it, so they took their sweet time studying it. Every day or so, they agreed to study Shanteya¡¯s slave tattoo. After that incident, we realized that it might be a bad idea to let Illsy wander off into our library. Nothing stopped him from going there, but if he could learn something like Colly Tos or [Telekinezy], then certainly, he could learn other spells too. Tuberculus took immediate action and removed from the academy¡¯s grounds any scroll or book containing a Master Rank or above spell. We had no idea what were the Dungeon Lord¡¯s intentions, so we had to make sure we could get rid of him, just in case. When I first met him, I was surprised by his rather friendly behavior, COMPLETELY DIFFERENT from that of any other dungeon I faced until then. Usually, it went something like: ¡°Muhahaha! You shall die, you pathetic cur!¡± and ended with: ¡°Please don¡¯t kill me! Please!¡± On the other hand, Illsy was something along the lines of: ¡°Erm¡­ I swear to whatever you¡¯re praying to, I¡¯m not a pervert! But, can I have your panties? It¡¯s for erm¡­ research purposes.¡±, but I had no idea with how it was going to end. I never heard in my entire life of a perverted Dungeon Lord like him! But one thing I knew for certain was that other dungeons weren¡¯t friendly at all, especially Godlike ones, they were the most self-centered, egoistical bastards I had ever had the unfortunate luck of meeting with in my entire life! Arara? I kind of strayed away from the story. As I said, this event took place a short while after Illsy made Shanteya into his slave and the council of teachers cleaned up the library and school grounds of any powerful spells or books capable of offering Illsy an advantage over us. We kept all of them in a special crystal necklace Tuberculus always carried hidden under his clothes. There were many things stored in there, many treasures, including the loot we got from our most recent dungeon run. As we suspected, Illsy¡¯s hunger for knowledge grew, and he even attended some of our classes. All the teachers agreed beforehand to keep their lessons as simple as possible, but at the same time, try to make them longer than usual. It was all good, especially since the students got used to actually using the Beginner and Intermediary ranked spells. Tuberculus made sure to tell Illsyore not to get close to the library and not absorb any of the books there, but even if he did, there was nothing of actual value left in that place. Or so we thought¡­ Unfortunately, there was one scroll the old geezer forgot to hide in his crystal, but it was most likely because only an idiot would dare to use it. Besides that one, there were also a bunch of other useless scrolls too, so it was also highly likely that it just slipped through their diligent search. Either that or some well-endowed draconian student happened to walk by and cast [Mesmerize] on Tuberculus while he was working on it. [Scroll of Internal Freedom] was the respective scroll¡¯s name. As for what it did, it was quite simple. If cast upon a sentient being, the spell would release their most hidden desires and morph them in a bad way. In case of Dungeon Cores, it could allow them to move freely, but it didn¡¯t specify how. There were missing portions of the description, but the method of curing the person who had it cast upon them remained. Surprisingly, it wasn¡¯t another spell, but a potion made out of some rather special and rare ingredients. In other words, this scroll was meant to be used as a prank rather than as something useful, however, we never expected that Illsy was going to use it on himself in the belief that it would grant him the ability to move around freely. Technically speaking, it worked, but as far as I saw it, the cost was too high¡­ ¡°Come out! Come out! Wherever you are!¡± he called out to us. It was close to midnight. Me and Shanteya were hiding from him in an empty classroom, behind the teacher¡¯s desk. Meanwhile, Illsy¡¯s crystal body was floating around with my panties, which he Colly Tosed away, worn on his top tip like some funny hat. Yup! Me, a Godlike Rank adventurer, was hiding from a perverted Dungeon Core under the influence of a prank spell! I was debating between shattering the fool or frying Tuberculus. ¡°What¡¯s wrong with Master?¡± asked Shanteya as she looked at me worried. ¡°Idiocy at its best, that¡¯s what¡¯s wrong with him¡­¡± I replied with a growl. I was wearing my robe, so it was a bit breezy down there. ¡°But is it alright for us to hide like this?¡± she asked me. ¡°Shanteya, darling, your master used on himself a spell written on an old scroll in the belief that he could make himself a body, unfortunately, that was sort of a¡­ prank spell. Now, he is nothing but a perverted idiot with no care in the world. If you go out there, let¡¯s just say¡­ you will need a new set of clothes.¡± I tried to explain to her. Ever since Illsy cured her, I have noticed she was extremely devoted to him. Normally, slaves didn¡¯t give a dime about their masters. If they had the opportunity to flee from their grasp, they would do it without further thought. Shanteya¡¯s loyalty was rather ridiculous from that point of view. I could even dare to say that if that idiot Dungeon Lord, who is currently wearing my panties for a hat, would think about taking full advantage of the el¡¯doraw¡¯s loyalty, he would end up becoming quite a formidable foe. Fortunately, so far, he never showed any such intent, and he actually treated her more humanely than any other slave master out there. For him, she was an equal, not a slave. ¡°If that is Master¡¯s wish then¡­¡± she began to speak up, but I placed my hand over her mouth and pushed her back, my small chest pressing on top of her big melons. ¡°Sh!¡± I tried to silence her. She was surprised and tried to wiggle herself out of there, but I kept her still. ¡°Come out, come out Nanya-chan! I promise I won¡¯t peek¡­ hehe¡­ too much.¡± said Illsy like one of those old perverts I often saw at a royal¡¯s castle. After he flew away, I let out a sigh. It was a good thing the students were in another building. Gods forbid if he stepped in there and went full whacko-pervertus-stupidus on them¡­ Yup, the academy¡¯s reputation would go down the drain, and I¡¯d probably not find another teaching job for a century or two¡­ I shuddered when I thought of the worst-case scenario. ¡°Listen, Shanteya. Right now, Illsy is under the effects of a spell. That¡¯s not the real him! If he wakes up from that and finds out that he did some nasty things to either of us¡­ well mostly you, if he tries anything with me, I¡¯ll shatter him into a billion pieces.¡± I shrugged, but she furrowed her brow at me. She didn¡¯t like the situation in which Illsy turned to dust. ¡°Anyway, if he wakes up and finds out what he did, he will regret it, and it will most likely depress him a lot. The situation between all of us will end up becoming quite awkward. What would happen if he stops talking to you or completely avoids you? He would consider himself the one who should be blamed for those acts and maybe even hide himself from us. You wouldn¡¯t want something like that to happen to your beloved master now, would you?¡± I asked while exaggerating everything as much as I could. I highly doubted any of those things would happen, but I had to scare Shanteya a bit and make her willingly join my side. It was for her safety as well¡­ actually, it was for the safety of all women on the academy¡¯s grounds. As Illsy was right now, he was the enemy of all women! The el¡¯doraw looked at me for a long moment. With a furrowed brow and biting her lower lip, she nodded. ¡°Good! Let¡¯s¡­¡± I notice her blinking and looking up. ¡°Sigh¡­ he¡¯s right behind me, isn¡¯t he?¡± She nodded quickly, forcing her long ears to wiggle cutely. ¡°Kukuku! What lovely bottom!¡± the perverted crystal said as he used the [Telekinezy] spell to peek under my robe. A vein popped on my forehead. I turned around and grabbed him by one of his edges. ¡°Illsyyy! Don¡¯t you have a wall to fix over there?¡± I growled and threw his crystal body towards the other side of the classroom as hard as I could without breaking him. He crushed right through the wall and tumbled down into the next room. Only a few small cracks appeared on his body, but nothing he couldn¡¯t fix with his insane Magic Energy pool. ¡°Master!¡± shouted Shanteya, worried that I broke the idiot. ¡°He¡¯s fine! I noticed he used Master Rank Magic Armor, so that much shouldn¡¯t have done too much damage to him.¡± I told her as I grabbed her hand and made a run for it. ¡°Magic Armor? But Master never used such a thing before.¡± she asked surprised as she followed me. ¡°Yes. It¡¯s because of that stupid spell. I think he uses it unconsciously. If he actually used it consciously and of a higher rank too, we would have been in quite the predicament. Well, let¡¯s just pray he never does.¡± I replied while we fled from the scene of the crime. We took upon hiding in Zertan¡¯s alchemy classroom. I locked the door behind us and hoped it would last long enough for me to finish up the potion that would cure Illsy. ¡°What are you looking for?¡± Shanteya asked while I was rummaging through the ingredients. ¡°Kelgar¡¯s tongue, Urkin¡¯s eyes, and three Dayuk horns¡­¡± I muttered while looking over the recipe of that thing. ¡°Those are some very expensive ingredients.¡± said Shanteya as she helped me search. ¡°Not really¡­ All of those creatures can be found in these mountains.¡± I said as I picked up the jar with the last pair of Urkin eyes. ¡°How do you know the recipe?¡± she asked me. I lifted the scroll up and showed it to her. ¡°Illsy used the spell at the top to enchant his crystal body. It did offer him the ability to move around freely, but the cost was a messed up version of his inner desires.¡± I explained. ¡°What do you mean?¡± she asked me with a furrowed brow. ¡°It basically makes you do things you wouldn¡¯t usually do¡­¡± I blinked surprised. Something vanished from around my chest. ¡°Like use an idiotic spell to steal someone¡¯s panties and bra¡­¡± I growled. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. ¡°But look! Doesn¡¯t it say here ¡®inner most desire¡¯?¡± she asked while pointing at the description. ¡°I repeat, this is a prank spell. Don¡¯t believe the description. A real mage would look at the words in the spell first rather than what¡¯s written there.¡± I explained and then placed the scroll on the table. ¡°But why add the cure as well?¡± she asked me. ¡°The cure, in general, is always real. After being tricked by the description, you would think twice before using the recipe here, now imagine how funny it would be the moment when the victim actually realizes that all along, the cure was right under their noses.¡± I explained to her. ¡°Sigh¡­ Then Master used this believing the description and ended up casting something weird. Does this mean that he can do it again? What if he casts that thing on us?¡± she asked me a bit worried. ¡°Impossible. This here was a Magic Scroll. The spell is written so it can be used only with the magic infused in the scroll. Illsy already used it, so unless someone infuses it with Magic Energy, it¡¯s pretty much useless. Even so, after a couple more uses, the paper will be destroyed.¡± I told her and then turned around to add the horn of the Dayuk. This one needed to be turned into a fine powder, an easy task with my level of strength. ¡°Then, is this the same one he used?¡± she asked me. ¡°Yes. Right before I found you, the idiot was running around the hallway screaming that he did it. He was waving around the scroll with his [Telekinezy] spell. When he found me, he dropped the scroll and used Colly Tos on me, immediately. While he started stretching my panties, I nabbed the scroll and ran away from him¡­¡± I told her, although, I wasn¡¯t too happy with the last part. ¡°You ran away?¡± she asked raising an eyebrow. ¡°Call it a hunch, woman¡¯s intuition, survivor¡¯s instinct, whatever¡­ I just knew I had to run away from him¡­¡± I said as I added the powder to the potion. A few more stirs and a couple of other ingredients later, it was finally done. The cure was ready. ¡°What are we going to do now?¡± she asked. ¡°Hm¡­ I order you as your master to use this potion on Illsyore when I tell you to. Got it?¡± ¡°Yes, mistress.¡± she nodded. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Shanteya, but this is the only way to make sure you won¡¯t go against me.¡± I told her. ¡°I understand. I also desire to help Master, so it¡¯s alright.¡± she replied with a small smile, but I could tell. Every time I gave her an order, she wasn¡¯t as happy and eager as she was when Illsy gave it. For safe measure, I took a small Potion of Forgetfulness with me as well. It was something Zectan concocted in his free time. When sprayed on a sentient being, it would erase their memories for the past 24 hours. The downside of it was that you couldn¡¯t use it too often. The effect simply dropped by half with every use, and it was rather expensive to make, but I was certain Zertan wouldn¡¯t mind. ¡°Alright! I¡¯m going to go ahead, you stay here and follow me after one minute has passed! Got it?¡± I told her. ¡°Yes, mistress.¡± she replied. With the plan set in motion, I opened the door and was just about to go out when a small imp jumped on me. ¡°Kya!¡± I screamed as I fell on my rump. ¡°Ahn~! Stop it!¡± I said when the little bugger began to feel up my chest. ¡°I SAID STOP IT!¡± I growled and slapped it as hard as I could. It died instantly, but three of Zertan¡¯s alchemy tables were destroyed completely as a result of its body slamming into them. Three more imps entered. ¡°Shanteya! Take care of them!¡± I shouted at her. ¡°Yes!¡± she replied and engaged them in battle. No matter what, she was still a former assassin, meaning that she was quite deadly when she put her skills into action. After I got back up on my feet, I ran out and saw four more ugly imps looking at me. I wasn¡¯t in the mood to play with them, so I struck them relentlessly. After that, more and more imps kept attacking me. It was easy for me to guess that Illsy was the one behind them all, especially since they were trying to undress me rather than kill me. ¡°As if I¡¯d let you!¡± I shouted as I knocked one through the floor. The little bastard was pulling on my robe a bit too hard. When I finally reached the library, I found Illsy summoning imp after imp, creating a real army of them. They were placed in lines and forming squads of five each. I couldn¡¯t see any weapons on them, so they should have been rather easy to defeat. ¡°My minions! I command thee! Bring me Nanya¡¯s clothes! Bring me her bras! Bring me her panties! And with them, we shall conquer the world! Muhaha¡­¡± BONK! ¡°What do you mean conquer the world with my panties! You stupid crystal ball!¡± I shouted after I threw a book from a nearby desk at him. ¡°Ah! Our Queen! Minions! Attack!¡± he shouted, and the imps came running at me. ¡°Oh really?¡± I said with a forced smile and struck my palm with my fist in a threatening way. ¡°ABUGA!¡± screamed the first imp. I hit it with a punch right in the head and sent it crushing into the floor. The next one, I grabbed him by his red tail and tossed him into another. They went flying into the wall. I felt like it was a waste of my strength, but somehow, pulverizing each and every one of them made me smile. ¡°Keh! Stupid imps!¡± I spat as I finished the last one. The only one left there was the big crystal idiot, but then it happened¡­ ¡°Colly Tos! Colly Tos! Colly Tos!¡± he shouted. ¡°KYA!¡± I screamed as I was left naked. The last one seemed to have summoned a pair of frilly white panties, a bit bigger than mine. Ah! Those are Shanteya¡¯s! Wait, now¡¯s not the time for this! I thought and covered my body with my hands. ¡°You stupid idiot!¡± I shouted. I was really embarrassed. To have a lady like myself in nothing but her birthday suit, it was degrading! How dare that crystal ball do that to me! ¡°Hehe!¡± he was laughing like an idiot and then pushed me with my back on the cold floor. ¡°Kya! What are you¡­¡± I asked as I looked at him hovering over me. ¡°Oh, Nanya! You look absolutely divine!¡± he complimented me. My heart skipped a beat. ¡°Meanie¡­ let me go.¡± I squirmed and looked away from him. What was going on? ¡°And miss out on this perfect opportunity? Never!¡± he declared as I felt the pressure of his spell moving over my body like the hands of a pervert man. ¡°Get off!¡± I used a bit more strength and released myself from his [Telekinezy]. ¡°But what am I doing, my beloved?¡± he asked me. ¡°Who¡¯s your beloved! Stop! Ahn~! Don¡¯t touch me there!¡± I accidentally let out a moan, he was touching my tail. ¡°A weak spot?¡± he asked, and I was certain he was grinning on the inside. My tail was rather sensitive, especially at the tip, that¡¯s why I always kept it hidden, but I had no way to hide it now and he¡­ he¡­ ¡°Ahn~! Stop it~ Please¡­¡± I let out soft moans as I tried to get a hold of myself. ¡°How cute! That¡¯s why I love you, my dear Nanya!¡± he squealed. He what? I thought and blushed hard. ¡°Idiot! Don¡¯t¡­ Don¡¯t stroke the tip¡­ please¡­¡± I begged of him, but he was reluctant to comply, and what was with that confession of his? He loves me? No¡­ No¡­ That¡¯s just the potion talking. Ara? Wait a second¡­ Why is a Godlike like me¡­ Ahn¡­ Why is a¡­ aaah~ I tried to think. ¡°WILL YOU KNOCK IT OFF!¡± I shouted and slapped him hard. The magic armor was broken, and he was sent rolling down the floor to the other side of the room. ¡°I see¡­ dancing chicken unicorns¡­¡± he muttered before fainting. ¡°Huff! Huff!¡± He made me lose my composure, I was red like a tomato, feeling embarrassed, and breathing hard. Mou! That idiot! I thought as I walked over to my clothes. ¡°Shanteya! Are you here?¡± I called out after I put on my robe. ¡°Yes!¡± she replied as she ran into the room huffing and puffing as well. There was imp blood on her hands and clothes. ¡°You have the potion?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes!¡± she replied and showed it to me. ¡°Go and sprinkle it on him.¡± I said and looked at his crystal body. Although I was still embarrassed, his words still floated around in my mind. I knew they weren¡¯t true, but why would he even say something like that? Was it a trick? I shook my head and took out the potion I snatched from Zertan¡¯s class. ¡°By tomorrow, he will be back to normal, and we¡¯ll be safe of this¡­ this side of his.¡± I told Shanteya after she sprinkled the potion on him. I could already see it being absorbed by his huge crystal body. ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± she asked me when she saw me sprinkle the second potion on him. ¡°It¡¯s a little something to make sure he doesn¡¯t remember what happened. It will be our little secret, right Shanteya?¡± I showed her a smile that read ¡®don¡¯t you dare tell a single living soul about this!¡¯. ¡°Yes.¡± she nodded. Tossing the vials away, I took a seat in front of the big oaf who acted like a jerk that night. ¡°What a joke¡­ A dungeon to actually say those words¡­¡± I muttered to myself. ¡°Mistress Nanya¡­ did you¡­ did you by any chance?¡± she was trying to ask me something, but looking at her flustered expression, I could vaguely guess what was wrong. ¡°Your panties should be over there.¡± I pointed at the back where the frilly fabric remained untouched on the floor. After she left, I looked back at Illsy, who was most likely sleeping at that moment, and let out a long sigh. ¡°Love huh? What a stupid thing to say. It must be the spell.¡± I shook my head. ¡°Dungeons can¡¯t love¡­ ¡° I let out another sigh. ¡°Heh, what¡¯s so good to love about me anyway? You have Shanteya if you want someone¡­ Why me, Illsy? Honestly¡­ I don¡¯t think I can love you even if I tried, not after what happened with¡­¡± ¡°Mistress Nanya, should we take Master back to his room?¡± asked Shanteya. I stood up and showed her a smile. ¡°Yup!¡± Keh¡­ What foolish thoughts¡­ I¡¯m not going to let myself end up like that again. I thought as I picked up Illsy¡¯s crystal body and followed the el¡¯doraw. After that night, he returned to normal and didn¡¯t remember a single thing that happened to him the day before, but he never did try to sneak again into the library. He instinctively avoided it. ________ Note from the Author: Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this side story! :) Just one more left before we start Arc 3. Side Story (3): What do you mean LAVA on the FIRST FLOOR?! [Nanya¡¯s point of view] ¡°Nyahaha! A dungeon! A dungeon after such a long time! Feels like the good ol¡¯ days, doesn¡¯t it?!¡± I laughed as I gave Tuberculus a pat on the back. I was so excited to finally be able to explore an unknown dungeon after so may years that I didn¡¯t care if it was one with 400 floors or just two! Illsy said it had only two, so we were expecting to finish it in two hours or so, maybe three if we looked around a bit more and made a complete map of the place. ¡°You always were the first one to get excited from the little things.¡± commented Rufus with his usual monotone voice. I swear, that man only showed excitement when he found a new book! He and Zertan made a perfect match, the other was happy only when his plants bloomed. Well, I didn¡¯t let his words keep me from having fun. I was quite curious as to what sort of bosses we would meet and how complicated he made the whole thing. So far, we were just descending on a pair of very long stairs. This alone was quite unusual. In most cases, the first dungeon was a building or a cave on the surface. I never heard of an underground one, but then again, Illsy was a Godlike Dungeon Lord. There were a lot of things to expect from him. ¡°When will these stairs ever end?¡± grumbled Angius. ¡°The center of the world?¡± I joked. ¡°Ugh¡­¡± he groaned. When we finally reached the last steps, we arrived at a big, empty room made out of granite. It was the first one, so we weren¡¯t expecting to face too much in there. None of us was on guard. ¡°Any signs of life?¡± I asked. ¡°None from what I see¡­ Is this just an empty room?¡± asked Angius as he scanned the room with his eyes. ¡°Sigh¡­ First room and no trap? Maybe giving it two hours to clear was a bit too long? How about half an hour?¡± commented Rufus in his usual monotone. Apparently, he got bored and pulled out his book from his bag to continue reading. I simply shrugged and moved on. He was there with us only as an extra, just in case there was a mechanism that required multiple triggers to be activated at the same time. In general, those sort of traps could be found from the third floor down in certain dungeons. Normal dungeons usually didn¡¯t have anything on the first floor, barely a summoned creature or two, in rest, they created small habitats for random wild animals. Even normal villagers could venture into them up to the first two or three rooms without worrying too much about it. ¡°A hallway¡­¡± said Tuberculus when we walked out of the room. We paid extra attention to where we stepped, but the area was clear. Still, it was getting a bit exciting. A few moments later, we arrived in front of a big empty wall with two passages leading to our left and right respectively. ¡°Toss a coin and pick a side?¡± asked Angius. ¡°Left. Always go left.¡± I said and went on that path without bothering myself to listen to the result of the coin toss. Following the path, we encountered the first trap. Three spike traps were laid in front of us with a clear dead end on the other side. ¡°Now what?¡± asked Angius. ¡°Are you wearing your Magic Armor?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes, why?¡± he replied and threw me a questionable look right before I kicked him in the behind and sent him flying to the other side of the traps. He slammed into the wall and fell down on the floor with a groan. ¡°See anything there?¡± I asked. ¡°Stars¡­¡± he replied as he pointed up. After returning to his senses, he looked around and saw a lever on the wall. He wasn¡¯t so sure about just pulling it like that, so after he checked for traps, he used his boot and tossed it on top of it. The lever went down, and no other trap was activated. Nothing happened though, and the spike traps were still active. ¡°It must be a fake.¡± he told us. ¡°Keep it like that.¡± I told him. My gut was telling me that there should be another lever at the end of the other corridor. Angius returned by making a power leap over the traps. He had enough strength to reach Medium Godlike Rank, but only in strength. Because of that, his Magic Energy couldn¡¯t reach the point where he could attempt to learn Godlike skills, but if he were to train his noggin long enough, he had a good chance of being able to. On the other side was a similar path, but this time, Angius didn¡¯t need my help to get across. He pulled the lever in a similar fashion, and we heard the gate opening up behind us. ¡°It must have been a concealed gate.¡± said Rufus. ¡°But those appear only after the 30th floor.¡± noted Tuberculus. I had to agree with him, the dungeon¡¯s first few rooms were quite unexpected, but they were fun! Walking over to the opened door, we stopped and stared at the sight before us. ¡°That¡¯s lava, isn¡¯t it?¡± I asked. ¡°Yup, lava.¡± replied Angius. ¡°Those are timed platforms above the lava, right?¡± I asked. ¡°Yup, timed platforms.¡± replied Angius. ¡°Fascinating.¡± said Rufus, who finally put away his book. Lava, in any form or shape only appeared after floor 50, and it was quite rare too. Few dungeons made use of it, yet right in front of us, at the very first floor of the dungeon, we were staring at a pit of lava over 6 m in length. The only way across appeared to be by jumping on the timed platforms, but the door on the other side was hidden as well, and there was no lever in sight. We stared at it for over a quarter of an hour, trying to figure out how to get across. Angius went back to the first room to see if we missed anything, but he couldn¡¯t find anything. ¡°Maybe it¡¯s an optical illusion, and the other side only appears to be blocked by a wall?¡± asked Tuberculus. ¡°You might be fooled by that, but not me¡­¡± I replied. Well done, Illsy. This is quite hard. I thought, but I was sure to scold him as soon as we went back. This wasn¡¯t a dungeon for students barely handling beginner rank spells. Actually, even Master Rank adventurers would have had a problem with it. ¡°A hidden lever, maybe?¡± asked Rufus. ¡°Could be. I¡¯ll give it a try. My Magic Armor can withstand the heat of the lava better than yours.¡± I offered. ¡°Please do, but look carefully for anything popping into view.¡± Tuberculus told me. I nodded and prepared myself for the first jump. When the platform appeared, I went for it. They retreated fast, but I was faster. Keeping my eyes open, I searched for the button, but didn¡¯t spot anything. When I reached the last platform, I jumped from it to the end. I couldn¡¯t hold onto the wall, so I jumped from it to the other one. I jumped once more and landed on the second platform. From it, I took a powerful leap and reached the starting location. ¡°Well?¡± asked Tuberculus. ¡°Nothing¡­¡± I told him. It was frustrating, but I didn¡¯t give up. I tried three more times, but the result didn¡¯t change. ¡°The Dungeon Lord sure built a surprisingly tough level. This isn¡¯t something our students can handle.¡± said Rufus. ¡°I doubt they can even get past those traps back there.¡± said Angius with a sigh. Looking back at the lava pit, I got angry and struck the wall. Because of the strength I put in the hit, the crack spread quite a bit, and the area where my fist touched the granite stone shattered. Somewhere on the other side of the pit, a small rock fell on the platform. I blinked and looked surprised at it. Could it be? I asked myself. With a smirk on my lips, I decided to give it a try. I timed my jumps well and reached the third platform. There was a hole in the wall and right behind it, a button. I grinned. ¡°Found it!¡± I shouted and pressed it immediately. I thought I was safe, but then the platform slid from under my feet, and I dropped into the hot lava. ¡°KYA!¡± I screamed. My Magic Armor was fading fast. When someone fell into lava, they usually got stuck in it like they would in quicksand. If they didn¡¯t get out of there fast, it would stick to them and eat at their armor. Even for Supremes lava was annoying, but nothing they couldn¡¯t handle. At least, it wasn¡¯t enchanted with a Magic Energy absorption ability. I pushed hard into it and jumped up, I struggled to reach the other side. It was getting to my boots, and it was getting hard to move, but I pushed it around me. Using my strength, I jumped up and landed on one of the platforms. I was safe, but my Magic Armor decreased considerably. ¡°Huff! Huff! Lava? Lava on the first floor? Seriously?!¡± I complained while breathing hard. ¡°Nanya¡­ you lost a boot.¡± said Tuberculus while he pointed at something burning in the pit. ¡°Mou!¡± I puffed my cheeks. ¡°Hahaha! This is rich! Godlike Nanya lost a boot on the first floor!¡± laughed Angius. ¡°Grrr!¡± I growled but let it go and sighed ¡°Angius?¡± I said looking up at him with a smile. ¡°Hm?¡± he looked at me. ¡°You stink! Take a bath!¡± I grabbed him by a boot and tossed him into the lava. ¡°Ah!¡± he screamed. ¡°Hot! Hot! Hot!¡± he swam back to us as fast as he could and got out of the lava with the help of the other two. He had only one boot now, and his robe was a bit singed at the edges. I grinned. ¡°I thought I was going to die¡­¡± he glared at me and started cleaning the lava off his clothes. ¡°It could have been worse.¡± I shrugged. ¡°How so?¡± he asked raising an eyebrow. I showed him a big smirk and turned towards the opened door. ¡°Onward to glory and fame!¡± I said pointing at it. They sighed and followed me on the timed platforms. Illsy¡¯s dungeon was really fun, but certainly quite dangerous. I was curious about what we would find in the next section. Ten minutes later¡­ ¡°Harpies¡­ Flame traps¡­ Spike traps¡­ Arrow traps¡­ Wind traps¡­ Deadly chasm with spikes at the bottom¡­ ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! THIS IS THE FIRST FLOOR!¡± I shouted at the top of my lungs. We didn¡¯t move away from the platform at the entrance. We were timing the traps and trying to figure out the path we needed to take. There were three rooms in there, but probably only one was real. Unfortunately, we couldn¡¯t figure out which one was which. They all looked identical. Meanwhile, Angius and me were fighting the harpies. ¡°Indeed. This is something for the 100th floor and beyond!¡± said Tuberculus. ¡°I pity the poor bastards who would dare enter this dungeon¡­ And he said this was easy?¡± said Angius as he parried a harpy and then struck it hard with his fist. The monster was thrown into the roof and then left to drop in the chasm below. ¡°Have you figured it out?¡± he asked. ¡°Yes, just one moment¡­ there!¡± said Rufus as he showed him a small parchment with the map of the platform maze in front of him. ¡°Good. Left?¡± he asked. ¡°Yup! It¡¯s always left!¡± I smirked. It wasn¡¯t left¡­ The path led to a mini boss room. I smacked the brute once and sent it flying straight into the ceiling. It was very weak when compared to me, but against a Master Rank, it was a monster. There were also a bunch of imps and harpies that spawned and attacked me. I used [Fireball] to destroy their circles. With the room cleared, it was time to leave, but I noticed a treasure room. I grinned at the idea and rushed into it only to be welcomed by a bunch of arrow traps. There was nothing in there. After we got out of that room, we went for the right side. We didn¡¯t find any sort of treasure there, but we did find a bunch of imps and gas traps. Our Magic Armor was quite high, so we weren¡¯t bothered by the stench. We destroyed the imp summoning circles and walked out of there. We reached a slope. After reaching the corner, we heard a click. ¡°What was that?¡± I asked. Looking back, I saw a big boulder and gulped. I was the first to run to the end. Rufus and Angius followed, only Tuberculus was the slowest to act. ¡°Huh? UGYA!¡± he screamed as the boulder went over him and then rolled with him. ¡°Stop¡­ this¡­ thing!¡± he managed to mutter as he rolled down after us. If it wasn¡¯t for his Magic Armor, he would have ended up as a squishy meat paste. ¡°The exit!¡± said Angius and jumped ¡°Huh? AAAH!¡± he screamed and then I heard him hit every wall until he reached the water bellow. As for Tuberculus, I stopped him alright. I stopped at the wall, turned around and punched the boulder as hard as I could. It wasn¡¯t enchanted, so it was shattered by my punch. The old man got tossed into the ceiling, then bounced off it and dropped down behind me. ¡°Ugh¡­ the world is spinn¡­ BLEARGH!¡± he vomited. ¡°Ew!¡± I grimaced and walked past him. ¡°I think Angius is drowning.¡± said Rufus as he looked down the hole leading to the next floor. ¡°Join him.¡± I said pushing him over the edge. ¡°Huh? AH!¡± he screamed. I grabbed Tuberculus by the left leg and jumped in after them. The water was cold as ice, and I quickly swam up. After tossing the old geezer on dry land, I went after Angius. Rufus handled himself pretty well and dog paddled to the shore. ¡°Whew! I thought I was going to die!¡± said the warrior after spitting out some water. ¡°Boulder trap? That was unexpected¡­ His traps are a mix of complicated and deadly ones with simple ones. I don¡¯t even know what to expect next¡­¡± I said with a sigh. To make a comparison to other dungeons, Illsy¡¯s was simply crazy. For example, the Ancestral dungeon in the Paramanium Empire had a simple plant and bug first floor. There were about fourteen chambers in total and continued to the second floor, where you could find rats and some snakes. The difficulty increased in monsters and number of chambers, but usually, the traps were after the first ten floors. The first trap that Ancestral dungeon employed was a simple spike trap. The first mini boss was at the 20th floor, but by then you also got arrow traps. The things Illsy added weren¡¯t even met from the 50th level up, but going by their complexity, I¡¯d bet my money on the fact that he could rival the 120th floor with his first one alone. It made me shiver only to think about what I would find at the second floor. ¡°What¡­ What¡¯s this?¡± asked Rufus surprised. We were currently sitting in front of 3 m high metallic walls with an undulating pattern on them like waves on a lake. They were beautiful to look at, but that beauty was what made them dangerous. If that was a maze, then surely¡­ it was going to be hard to complete. The reflection on its sides made it very hard for regular adventurers to go through. The dungeon¡¯s floor was already past Master Rank adventurers, it was going steadily through the Emperor Ranks and pressing into Godlike Ranks. At the very least, there weren¡¯t any enchanted walls or traps. Those might have been more dangerous than anything else in there. ¡°What does it look like? A maze.¡± I told him. ¡°Technically speaking, it could be a labyrinth.¡± commented the old man. I shrugged. ¡°We should continue.¡± I told them. We were way past five hours now. ¡°Let¡¯s rest here for a bit, Nanya.¡± said Angius. ¡°Ah! My books!¡± shouted Rufus. ¡°What?¡± I asked surprised. ¡°My books are gone! I must have dropped my bag up there!¡± said the man as he looked up the shaft leading to the first level. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we¡¯ll have Illsy get them for you when we return.¡± I told him with a smile. ¡°Sigh¡­ very well¡­¡± he took a seat, and it was decided to take a moment to rest. What a ridiculous dungeon¡­ I thought to myself as I looked at the reflective walls. It was quite amazing, but also very very dangerous. None of our students could finish even the first level. If they dared to try it, they would only end up as corpses. This dungeon was that dangerous. Angius and Tuberculus slept for three hours, replenishing their Magic Energy and healing their wounds if they had any. Me and Rufus kept watch, but it was mostly me, seeing as how the man was more worried about his own books than anything else. Although I heard some wolves howling at one moment, only three imps dared to attack me. Unlike the ones I had to fight during Illsy¡¯s moment of insanity, these ones went for the kill. They were easy to defeat, but they were certainly tougher than the ones we battled with until then. Monsters in dungeons usually increased in power depending on the floor¡¯s number and the dungeon¡¯s level. The other factor was the dungeon¡¯s experience with adventurers. Thinking about it from that point of view, this dungeon only had two floors. I checked and Illsy was barely level 53, not even 100 yet. At the first floor, we were supposed to meet no monster, maybe a few rats in the last rooms, but that was about it. On the second floor, we were supposed to meet wild animals: rats, panthers, boars, and maybe wolves. There weren¡¯t supposed to be any traps or lava pits. Harpies and imps were for floors past five. Actually, harpies were in general found only after the fifteenth floor, but what was more disturbing was a first floor boss. The Minotaur was strong and certainly not something anyone barely entering the dungeon would expect. Basically speaking, Illsy¡¯s dungeon was abnormally dangerous, complex, and powerful. None of the rules we knew about dungeons applied to him. I was starting to believe it was a characteristic of Godlike Dungeon Lord, but it wasn¡¯t that¡­ I remember venturing into one together with mom when I was little. The first levels were identical to regular ones. The difference started from the 15th floor, which was similar in complexity and danger factor to the Ancestral one at the 50th level, then it got even harder. Could it be that I¡¯m mistaken? Mother is beyond any of the Supremes on the third continents, but still¡­ Sigh¡­ Maybe it was that easy because I was together with her? I thought as I waited patiently for the others to wake up. I pulled my legs to my chest and tried to push away the dark thoughts which told me Illsy was trying to kill us. Angius was the first to wake up, then was Tuberculus. After a quick breakfast, we prepared to head deeper into the dungeon. ¡°It¡¯s just the second floor, right? How difficult could it be to navigate this maze?¡± asked Rufus with a smile. ¡°It¡¯s probably quite small. Dungeons never rely on long complicated mazes.¡± said Tuberculus almost certain about it. ¡°I don¡¯t like those walls¡­¡± grumbled Angius. I agreed with a nod. There was something strange about them. Those reflections and wave patterns weren¡¯t placed there just for decoration. They were certainly meant to mess with our heads. ¡°Shall we?¡± asked Tuberculus as he took the lead. We all followed him and ventured deeper into the dungeon. As usual, we took the left path and even when we heard wolves and imps on the other side, we stuck with it. The maze, however, didn¡¯t prove to be easy at all. Rufus got a headache after the first half an hour. Tuberculus tried to map it, but it proved rather difficult. I was the only one who didn¡¯t look at similarities and differences in the walls. They were meant to make you take those in consideration, to mess with you. ¡°If any of our students reached this place, they would have ended up lost in here until they were met with¡­¡± a powerful flame doused Angius from the top of his head before he could finish his words. ¡°Puha!¡± he puffed out smoke. ¡°Fire traps? From the ceiling?¡± I asked surprised. ¡°Everyone! Be careful! There may be more of these concealed traps!¡± shouted Tuberculus right before an imp jumped on him. He punched it hard, and we raised our guard, but nothing attacked us again. Was it the only one? I asked myself. ¡°This dungeon isn¡¯t for Master Ranks¡­ How could a Heroic Dungeon build something like this? It¡¯s impossible¡­¡± said Rufus as he shook his head. It¡¯s simple¡­ he¡¯s not a Heroic but a Godlike. I thought. If Rufus decided to ask me later about the truth, I feared I wouldn¡¯t be able to hide it from him. Out of all of us, he was the only one who could guess Illsy¡¯s identity just by looking at his actions and this dungeon. We pressed forward, but we were on guard of traps. I destroyed any I could find, but after one hour of walking around, we finally reached the exit. Or so we believed¡­ Upon entering the room, we were faced with a wide floor and a plaque at the end. On it was written the following riddle: There once was a forest, That stood as a merciless test For all those who claimed to be the best! But merciless as it may be, Three beasts offered to guide your way: The Lion was the strongest. The Wolf followed next. The Duck was the weakest, Yet always tried its best. The Lion was the smartest. The Wolf was the hungriest. The Duck was the luckiest. They all go with you, but only one may lead the way. Pick the right one, and in your favor, fate shall sway. Choose the wrong one, and you won¡¯t see the next day. ¡°Hah! The Dungeon Lord knows how to rhyme!¡± said Angius, but that wasn¡¯t the most important thing we should have noticed. This was a puzzle room, something that appeared only starting from floor 150 in EVERY dungeon, yet here was one at the second floor. It was also of a type I had never seen before. The floor was paved with mixed up square tiles. Every tile had the face of an animal mentioned in the riddle: a lion, a wolf, and a duck. On the other side of the room was a door. At first glance, it looked like we could just skip it. The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°Why a Duck?¡± was what Rufus asked. ¡°Be careful¡­¡± I warned them. It took us about three hours to figure out the riddle because we had no idea what a lion was. At first, we thought it might have been one of the beast folk, but I never heard of a beast of the duck kind, although the wolves were quite numerous. In the end, we made it to the exit. We couldn¡¯t skip it either, the door didn¡¯t budge when I jumped to the other side. We couldn¡¯t just randomly step on things either. When we jumped on the wrong tile, it triggered either a trap or proved to be loose, and we would fall on a spike trap. Tuberculus was the one who tested this out. We actually spent a longer time there because we wanted to analyze the way the puzzle room was made and what it meant by ¡®you won¡¯t see the next day¡¯. After we walked out of there, we were faced with another maze. It was getting quite frustrating and annoying, especially after imps riding on top of wolves attacked us out of nowhere. Even Tuberculus gave up on his map, the maze was too confusing. At the very least, he did manage to find the entrance to this floor three times and the first puzzle room two times. It was then when Angius, in his frustration, took his map and ate it. The man literally ate the map poor Tuberculus was trying to draw. A bit later, while going past the room where we destroyed the summoning circles for rats, imps, and wolves, Rufus attacked a wall with a powerful [Fireball], melting it off. We all jumped when we heard the blast, but we soon realized it was a false alarm. ¡°I thought I heard someone¡­¡± he told us. That was the first sign. He HEARD, he didn¡¯t SEE. At the end of the day, when we were too tired and frustrated to go on, we stopped in front of the entrance to the next puzzle room and set up camp. We didn¡¯t pack much, so our food was kind of scarce. None of us suspected Illsy¡¯s dungeon to be so hard. I was starting to believe he was intent on killing us. All those traps, the enemies chasing after us through the reflective walls, the optical illusions which drove us mad, they were chipping down at our patience and raising our frustration levels even higher. I slept for only four hours, but when I woke up, they were all discussing what I feared the most: the fact that Illsyore was planning to kill us. ¡°I don¡¯t see it any other way¡­ This dungeon is too dangerous even for Master Ranks.¡± said Tuberculus. ¡°I told you, you can¡¯t tame a Dungeon Lord! We have to destroy him once we reach the surface!¡± said Angius as he made a fist as struck the floor. ¡°I agree¡­¡± said Rufus. ¡°I don¡¯t.¡± I said as I approached them. Of course, all the evidence pointed at Illsyore being a mastermind villain who wanted to kill us in a cruel way by torturing us with his traps just like any other dungeon out there, but when I imagined actually destroying him, I remembered how he acted when he was under the effects of that stupid spell scroll. There was a bit of doubt in my heart, something that told me he was innocent and maybe, just maybe, all of this was a misunderstanding. What if this is the only type of dungeon he knows how to build? He was quite convinced this was an Easy dungeon¡­ It makes me wonder what he understands by Hard or Nightmarish. I thought as I looked at the three teachers who doubted me. ¡°Why? You¡¯ve seen it too, right? Lava? Harpies? Traps? This maze? Everything is made in such a way to mentally torture us, drain our Magic Armor and then kill us.¡± commented Angius. ¡°Indeed¡­ this isn¡¯t normal.¡± said Rufus. ¡°Sigh¡­ If he wanted to kill us, he would have come over and shot us with his spells while we were sleeping or trapped us in this maze by blocking the exit. It would have been an easy feat for him.¡± I explained, but there was something else that created doubt in my heart regarding his evil intentions. That thing or rather her was Shanteya. Why save the el¡¯doraw and heal her if he was evil? I asked myself. Illsyore¡¯s trial wasn¡¯t over yet. Once we got out of there, we were determined to investigate the matter thoroughly. They were determined to destroy him if they found him guilty of conspiring against us. With a new weight on our chests, we entered the second puzzle room. This one was a bit simpler. All we had to do was pull some levers in the right combination. The problem was that if we were mistaken, traps were activated all around us. Rufus was in charge of figuring out the combination, while we defended him from the attacks of the traps. We allowed ourselves to stand in front of them because they weren¡¯t enchanted. Illsyore wasn¡¯t able to enchant traps judging by what we faced so far. Fortunately, Rufus knew what he was doing, and figured out the combination in just four tries. With a smile on our lips, we left the room. The maddening maze continued, and we pushed forward. Four hours later, we found the entrance to the next room. Illsyore made this section of the floor in a way that required us to finish both puzzle rooms if we wished to find and progress further into the dungeon. It was stressing, annoying, and curses for the dungeon lord kept flowing one after another. This room looked empty at first, but when we reached the center, countless imps spawned all around us. We were quick to act and defeated the first wave. I rushed ahead and destroyed the summoning circles one after another. No traps were activated in this room, and we were able to proceed forward after we killed the last imp. The endless maze continued¡­ For hours and hours we traveled through the endless, confusing, and maddening paths of Illsyore¡¯s torture floor. The traps, imps, and occasional rats harassed us constantly, lowering our Magic Armors and pushing our tempers to the edge. Angius even started to punch the metal walls to relieve himself of the stress. At one point, we reached what looked like the entrance to another room. We hesitated at first, but Rufus was the one who stepped in front of us and opened the doors. What we found there was another trap, but hidden in another form. Countless giant rats flowed out and jumped on Rufus. ¡°Rats?¡± I asked as I jumped back. ¡°Rats! RATS! GET THEM OFF!¡± shouted Rufus as he struggled with them. ¡°Kill them!¡± shouted Angius. Rufus chanted the [Fireball] spell and aimed it at the rats, but just when he was about to release it, two of them jumped on him and bit his nose. The spell failed and was shot at Angius instead of the room filled with rats. ¡°Ugh!¡± the warrior groaned. His armor shattered for a moment, and the fire burned his eyebrows. He raised it up before it spread, but the damage had been done. At least, he didn¡¯t look into the flame when it struck him, otherwise, he would have gone blind. ¡°Argh! This burns!¡± he complained as he squashed a rat and rubbed his smoking forehead. ¡°GET THEM OFF!¡± shouted Rufus as he ran away from us. ¡°Stop!¡± I shouted. The rats chased after their prey, but I knew I couldn¡¯t run off after him. ¡°Go after him, I¡¯ll destroy the summoning circles!¡± I shouted at the other two. Tuberculus fired a few [Ice Spear] spells, killing off a few of the rats and then went after Rufus. Angius followed behind him, while I jumped inside the room. ¡°You stupid rats!¡± I shouted as I attacked the floor with my fist, shattering the granite and cracking the circles. Three of them went out in one hit, but four of them jumped on me. I rolled to the side and then smashed the fourth. I jumped again and smashed two more, five to go. The rats didn¡¯t hesitate and continued to attack me, they stopped going after the others and made me their main target. It didn¡¯t matter, I was going to kill them all! Once I got rid of the last circle, I attacked the rats, and only after that did I go after my friends. I found Tuberculus groaning from a terrible burn to his face. Apparently, Rufus hit him at point blank with a fireball and singed his beard, mustache, and eyebrows. The poor bastard even managed to step into a fire trap and got the top of his head burned off as well. It was a bit funny to look at him, but it was no laughing matter. I picked him up and followed the trail of dead rats. Rufus was in one of the small imps summoning rooms we cleared earlier. He was punching a few rats with his bare hands, but his Magic Armor was gone. If he stepped into a trap, he was done for. Angius was backing him up, fighting ten other rats. ¡°Nanya? You have a soft¡­ UGYA!¡± said Tuberculus, but he didn¡¯t have time to finish his words. For massaging my bottom with his hand, I cooled off his face by smashing him into the cold steel wall. Leaving the perverted geezer there, I joined the fight. Their hands and clothes were stained from the blood they spilled. Unlike them, I was clean because I focused more Magic Energy into my Magic Armor as we traveled through the maze. Maybe they forgot about theirs? ¡°This is impossible! This is madness!¡± shouted Angius as he looked around. ¡°No! This is Illsyore¡¯s dungeon! But indeed, this isn¡¯t something you would see at the second floor of a regular one¡­ If the students entered instead of us¡­¡± I shook my head and refused to think about what would have happened. ¡°We should press forward! The exit can¡¯t be far.¡± I said. ¡°I don¡¯t care any more, Nanya, I will destroy this Dungeon Lord! He did it on purpose! I¡¯m sure of it!¡± he pointed his blood-stained sword at me. He was furious. ¡°Easy there¡­ we still¡­¡± I stopped and blinked surprised. Something was missing. The feeling was one I knew quite well¡­ Illsyore used Colly Tos again. My anger was spiking. Even if it was accidental, even if it was a misunderstanding, even if he didn¡¯t mean it, to leave me pantyless in this dungeon¡­ Once we got out, it was decided: Illsyore was dead! [A few minutes before Nanya lost her panties.] [Shanteya¡¯s point of view] ¡°Shanteya? Are we done with the right wing?¡± asked Master as he looked over the list I made with all the things broken by the students. ¡°Yes, Master!¡± I replied with a smile. ¡°That¡¯s about it then! Hm, I wonder what I should do now?¡± he asked himself. ¡°Whatever Master wishes.¡± I said. ¡°That would get me killed¡­¡± he said, and I tilted my head to the left. Again, I couldn¡¯t understand what Master meant. There were also many times when Master¡¯s words were a bit confusing, especially when he used weird ones. ¡°I think I¡¯ll upgrade Colly Tos!¡± he said and then something appeared above him. ¡°Ah, crud¡­ Nanya¡¯s going to kill me!¡± When I looked up at the item, it was a pair of pink panties with small frills around the edges. I jumped up and grabbed them. Indeed, they belonged to mistress Nanya, but I still found it a bit hard to believe that a spell with a random effect could have such pinpoint accuracy on her. ¡°Do not worry, Master, I¡¯ll take care of it and clear your name.¡± I told him with a respectful bow. Many people at the academy asked me these past few days why I was so servile and respectful to a Dungeon Lord, especially the teachers, but for me, it was a question of how someone couldn¡¯t be when they had been healed, cured, and saved all at once without even requesting a single copper coin in return. Master even wanted to free me as soon as I was healed, but it was I who didn¡¯t desire to be freed of him. With a kind and gentle master like him, how could I even think about leaving his side? Of course, the fact that I was sleeping with Master was still our little secret. ¡°Really? That will be great!¡± he said with a cheerful voice. I smiled gently and returned to sweeping the floor. Meanwhile, Master took to upgrade his spell to the next tier. It was quite amazing that he could do that with any of his skills without being trained by a master of that respective skill. For everyone else, that was the usual path they had to take. Maybe it¡¯s something specific to his species as a Dungeon Lord? I wondered. ¡°Done! Now I have [Summon a Selected piece of Equipment Currently Worn by the Selected Adventurer]!¡± he announced. ¡°Congratulations, Master!¡± I told him. ¡°I¡¯m going to give it a try.¡± he said. ¡°Master, please don¡¯t summon mistress Nanya¡¯s garments. She¡¯s in the middle of a dungeon at the moment.¡± I warned him. It would have been bad if he accidentally summoned her armor, especially since she had nothing to use to cover her bottom. ¡°Nah! I¡¯m targeting you!¡± he said. I blushed. ¡°Me, Master? If you wish to.¡± I said and stood still in front of him. He concentrated for a moment and then shouted ¡°Colly Tos!¡± What vanished weren¡¯t my panties or clothes, but Nanya¡¯s panties I had in my pocket. The pink piece of fabric appeared between us and softly fell on the ground. ¡°Master?¡± I asked with a forced smile. I was a bit upset that he didn¡¯t take something of mine. ¡°I swear I was targeting your apron! This stupid spell must be broken¡­¡± he grumbled. ¡°It certainly is outside of what I would call common sense.¡± I told him as I picked up the pink panties from the floor. ¡°Well, it could have been worse.¡± he said. ¡°How so?¡± I asked raising an eyebrow. ¡°I could have summoned Tuberculus¡¯ underpants¡­ Ugh, that would be just nasty!¡± he sounded as though he was afraid of something like that happening. ¡°Knowing you, Master, you would probably completely undress all the pretty girls in your dungeon territory before your spell even touched a man, or it will just refuse to be cast.¡± I told him. ¡°Indeed! This spell is more of a pervert than I am!¡± he declared. I sighed and returned to sweeping the floor. ¡°Speaking of which, do you know what this thing is? I found it the other day on the floor. I think one of the students may have dropped it.¡± he told me. ¡°What, Master?¡± I asked as I turned around and looked at what he was talking about. With the help of his [Telekinezy], he was holding a small bottle with a bit of brown liquid at the bottom. I recognized it immediately as the same one Nanya used during that night. ¡°That¡­ that¡¯s a potion master.¡± I said with a gulp. Normally, I would have told him the full truth, but unless he asked me for details, there was no need to worry about the slave tattoo around my neck working against me. ¡°Hm, a potion huh? Must be from Zertan¡¯s class. How can I find out what it does?¡± he asked. ¡°You can find out by asking Zertan, but unless you are an alchemist or herbalist, it¡¯s quite doubtful that you would be able to find out without testing it on yourself or someone else.¡± I told him, which was true. ¡°Hm. I wonder¡­¡± he said and then I saw master move the bottle towards his crystal body. ¡°Master?¡± I asked. ¡°A drop shouldn¡¯t hurt right?¡± he said and then I saw him let on drop fall on him. I blinked surprised and for a moment nothing happened. ¡°M-Master?¡± I asked. ¡°Huh? Shanteya? When did you get here?¡± he asked me. ¡°What¡¯s this? Maybe one of Zertan¡¯s? Meh, off in the trash bin with it.¡± he said and tossed the bottle with the remaining drops inside the basket I usually used to collect the dust and dirt. It was probably because he used only a drop of the potion, but Master couldn¡¯t remember anything about what happened in the past three hours and didn¡¯t ask me about it either. I decided to keep quiet regarding that matter, but I did ¡®randomly¡¯ mention about what he shouldn¡¯t do if he ever happened to find an unknown potion. He was lucky it wasn¡¯t a poison¡­ [Back in Illsyore¡¯s dungeon] [Nanya¡¯s point of view] We moved away from the massacre scene and set up camp in one of the dead ends of the maze. The rooms were all filled with blood and monster remains. I didn¡¯t sleep, and neither did Angius. Rufus muttered something in his sleep from time to time, and I applied some ointments on Tuberculus¡¯ burns. Once we were awake, he could heal himself. I believe Zertan had a hair restoration potion of sorts. ¡°The Dungeon Lord is a monster¡­¡± said Angius at one point. ¡°A pervert maybe, but¡­ we really don¡¯t know yet. He said it was easy. Just think about it for a moment, Angius, what if he doesn¡¯t understand what Easy means?¡± I asked him, although, I had no idea why I was taking up his side, especially after he Colly Tosed me. I should have let the stupid Dungeon Lord rot in a ditch somewhere! I let out a sigh and tried to think about something else. Our current situation was a bit depressing, but we went through worse. This dungeon just took us a bit by surprise. We got used to the peaceful life as teachers and forgot our time as adventurers even if it was just for a moment. As a result, we got our behinds handed to us on a silver platter. I dare not think what would have happened if any of the traps we faced so far had been enchanted. After Rufus and Tuberculus woke up, we had a small breakfast and then headed off, hoping we would reach the end in the following hours. We didn¡¯t want to think of the possibility that we were currently in only the first quarter of the dungeon. It would have been a nightmare if that was true. In the end, we reached the room of a mini boss. It was another Minotaur, but to our surprise, it was even stronger than the one we met a floor above us. Actually, the difference was rather ridiculous. Such bosses shouldn¡¯t be at the second floor but at the 30th or a lower one. We defeated them easily, but I couldn¡¯t understand how it was possible to see such diversity in difficulty in just two floors. It only made me wonder what sort of dungeon Illsyore could build if we let him reach 100 or more floors. Could a group of Supreme ranked adventurers even be able to pass the 20th or 50th floor? That was a difficult question, but there was something else we found in that mini boss room that made Angius punch the walls and Rufus to talk with his shadow. Behind the unconscious Minotaur laid a lever. ¡°ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!¡± shouted Angius. ¡°He wants us to find another lever in THIS maze?!¡± he shouted. ¡°Easy there, we don¡¯t know if that¡¯s true or not. Maybe the exit wall opened up somewhere else.¡± I said, but I feared he was telling the truth. Judging by how this floor was structured so far, Illsyore seemed intent on mentally torturing his victims. It was already starting to show its effects on the three humans, but with me was a different story. I kept myself on the edge and didn¡¯t lower my guard ever since I entered this dungeon. Mother once told me that only a fool ventured in a dungeon unprepared. Sigh¡­ Maybe I should have listened to her¡­ I thought as I walked over and pulled the lever. No trap activated, and we didn¡¯t hear any sliding wall. I looked around for a few more seconds and then I told them ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡± We left the room and continued to search for the other levers. Since we didn¡¯t have anymore patience, we sped up our pace a bit. Now, we were running through the maze and ignored most of the weaker traps. We only needed to be careful of the spike traps. Two hours later, we took a break to recover both our breath and Magic Energy. It was then when something strange happened. Tuberculus spotted a small imp, and he was about to attack it, but Angius stopped him. ¡°Let me see if I can tame it.¡± said the man with a smirk. I raised an eyebrow and watched the man as he was starting to chant. In my mind, the following equation was being processed: Illsyore*Perverticus stupidicus+Imp+Angius¡¯s spell=? I have a bad feeling about this¡­ I thought and watched the scene. When the warrior finished casting the spell, he aimed it at the imp and let it rip. For a few seconds, it appeared as though it didn¡¯t work, but suddenly, the imp dashed towards Angius. ¡°Agugagaga!¡± he screamed with his tongue out. ¡°I order you to stop!¡± shouted Angius. He was expecting the little imp to stop and bow down to him, but instead it¡­ well¡­ ¡°Angius? Is that imp humping your boot?¡± I asked. The man was simply shocked by the little thing¡¯s strange behavior. He didn¡¯t want to admit he failed so miserably. ¡°I don¡¯t understand¡­ what¡¯s happening to it?¡± he asked as he tried to shake the little thing off. ¡°I don¡¯t know, but you two look like a cute couple.¡± I smirked, and he glared at me. ¡°This is not a joke!¡± he declared. I shrugged. It was pretty funny to me. The others weren¡¯t paying attention though. ¡°Get OFF!¡± he shouted and kicked the imp away, but it returned to humping his boot. Annoyed, he took off his boot and tossed it to the other side of the corridor. ¡°Mine! Mine Mine!¡± screamed the imp as it ran after the boot. The critter snatched it and fled from our sight. I couldn¡¯t help it and burst into a loud laughter. ¡°My¡­ My boot¡­¡± said Angius when he realized what he had just done. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, the stench alone will probably kill the imp in no time at all!¡± I said with a smile as I patted his shoulder. ¡°Ugh¡­¡± he looked down at his toes. He was barefooted now. We continued our journey through Illsyore¡¯s maze. However, we had no idea that was just the first of three mini bosses we had to fight before reaching the last boss. The maze felt endless, the undulating reflections on the walls fooled us countless times. Rufus started seeing enemies with every step we took. He even shot a few fireballs at me and Angius, but we dodged them splendidly. Tuberculus remained quiet most of the time. He was still sane, but in a bit of a pain. He did heal himself, so he wasn¡¯t in any immediate danger. Unfortunately, Illsyore was losing favor with each step we took deeper into that infernal maze. They truly believed he was trying to kill us. Their main proof was the fact that he said it was an Easy dungeon. Indeed, I couldn¡¯t deny it¡­ he should have told us the truth, but what if¡­ what if he actually didn¡¯t know the difference between Easy and Insane? Hours later, we finished off the last mini boss. I pulled the lever behind him, but nothing happened. ¡°Wha-what?¡± said Angius. ¡°It can¡¯t be¡­ there¡¯s more?¡± asked Tuberculus as he dropped to his knees. ¡°ARGH!¡± screamed Angius as he lifted his sword up and used his slashing skills on the walls in the room. The floor trembled from his strikes. He was enraged. ¡°I¡¯m going to KILL HIM! I¡¯m going to DESTROY HIM!¡± shouted Angius. ¡°Wait¡­¡± I said, but I couldn¡¯t stop him. The man rushed into the maze, chopping down the walls with his sword, not caring if he broke it or not. I was certain that once his Magic Energy was depleted, the weapon would shatter into a billion pieces. If in that moment, he stepped on a trap, he could end up dead. ¡°Tch!¡± clicking my tongue, I rushed after him. He was fast, but not as fast as me. ¡°STOP!¡± I shouted at him. ¡°AARGH!¡± he screamed while hitting the walls. One of the lost imps appeared before him, but it didn¡¯t have the chance to attack. As soon as Angius spotted it, he squashed it like a bug. The red blood of the imp touched his armor and skin, showing that his Magic Armor was fading rapidly. I had to hurry. ¡°STOP IT!¡± I shouted and then struck him in the back of his neck. It was an instant knock out. He dropped to the ground. ¡°You idiot¡­¡± I said catching my breath. Tossing him over my shoulder, I went back to get the other two. The newly opened entrance was probably farther from there. I just prayed it wasn¡¯t a combination lock, meaning that I had to run between the three boss rooms to find out what lever had to be up and which had to be down. It would have been a real nightmare to walk between the them like that. Most of the monsters had been slain by us, but these walls were what made things extremely confusing. The maze was so big and with so many twists and turns, it was a nightmare. Tuberculus and Rufus weren¡¯t in the mood to keep going, but I pulled them with me. We couldn¡¯t take a break now. Thanks to Angius¡¯ rampage, there were plenty of walls that had been taken down. I decided to use them and stick to the north side of the maze. If I searched every section like that, there was a chance for me to find that blasted hidden door. That was how we found the other rooms. Not even one hour later, I stumbled upon it. I saw a pair of stairs leading up. ¡°Finally!¡± I told myself. With a smile on my lips, I rushed over there together with Tuberculus and Rufus. We were happy to have finally found the exit. I was hoping to see the sky, the grass, the trees, but what I found was something horrifying¡­ ¡°What¡¯s this? Illsyore¡­ you didn¡¯t, did you?¡± I said as I saw the new maze ahead of us. I couldn¡¯t believe it. We had ANOTHER maze ahead of us. It was terrifying. Is there no end to this place? How could he build something like this? How could he think the students could go through this nightmare? I thought as I dropped to my knees. ¡°This is it¡­ he really wants to kill us.¡± said Tuberculus. There was no way to say it wasn¡¯t like that. Everything pointed in that direction. ¡°Hisss!¡± ¡°What was that?¡± I asked. Looking ahead, countless snakes were rushing our way. I gulped and got up. Even I was getting angry. If I unseal my power¡­ If I do it¡­ I thought as I looked at the dirty ribbon on my tail. ¡°I¡¯ll kill him¡­ I¡¯ll destroy him¡­¡± I thought as I rushed at the snakes and pounded them into the ground. My friends were currently in danger with their Magic Armor so low. I couldn¡¯t let even one of those snakes get to them. I struck them fast and pulled them towards me until every last one of them was dead. I doubted Illsyore started using wild animals for this maze, so I looked for their spawning circles. After destroying them, I returned to the entrance. The walls here didn¡¯t go straight then cut to a sharp corner. It was a new type of maze I never seen before, undulating and letting the walls slither like a snake on the ground. Fortunately, it was much smaller, and I didn¡¯t encounter any bosses, just imps and snakes. Once we reached the end, we jumped down through another hole and fell in a small pond. Angius went straight to the bottom, but the cold water woke all of them up, and we swum up to the surface. ¡°Where¡­ Where are we?¡± asked Tuberculus with a cough after he dragged himself out of the water. ¡°The final boss room¡­¡± I said as I saw the large room and huge Minotaur in front of us. It was three meters tall, covered in black fur, red eyes, and wielding a giant axe. That wasn¡¯t a boss for a second floor, that was one for the 30th floor and beyond. I was certain of that because I once fought against one. Illsyore just broke the common sense of dungeons¡­ again! I thought as I looked at the monstrosity. ¡°GRAARGH!¡± the beast growled and then struck the floor with its hoof. The ground trembled, announcing the beginning of the final battle. ¡°Fan out!¡± I shouted. Rufus, Angius, and Tuberculus did just that. Although they were still waking up from their trance, they weren¡¯t that out of it. The battle began, and I was the vanguard. Something as this boss wasn¡¯t really a problem for me. As soon as it struck the ground, I slapped him once and sent him into a nearby wall. The others didn¡¯t join and instead focused on replenishing their Magic Armor. After the beast got up, it ran back to the center, ignoring us, but it was certainly grinning back. ¡°It¡¯s a trap!¡± I shouted. We all raised our Magic Armor and prepared for the attack. A few hatches opened from above, and we were ready to defend ourselves against an arrow attack, but instead, nine beams of light shot out and moved across the floor. I rolled to the side and jumped over one of them. I didn¡¯t want it to touch me, but Tuberculus got hit by one. It lowered his Magic Armor at an incredible speed and forced him to dodge. When it shattered, it burned his robe, but luckily not his flesh. The same happened to Angius, and only Rufus dodged before he got hit by them. I clicked my tongue and struck the floor with my fist. A tile was dislodged. I picked it up and tossed it at one of the beams of light. Something cracked or got smashed, judging by the noise, but there were no more beams shooting out of there. ¡°Nanya! Behind you!¡± shouted Tuberculus. It was too late, the Minotaur took advantage of the moment and rushed at me. I was struck by his axe and sent flying into the wall. A part of my Magic Armor went down, and I fell on top of two beams of light. They lowered my armor even more, but I rolled away before it was completely gone. My clothes were smoking a bit from one or two places, but nothing dangerous yet. ¡°What a room¡­¡± said Angius as he dodged another beam of light. I got up and started tossing the pieces of floor at the hatches. The Minotaur noticed me and charged at me again. I stopped his rampage with a single hand and kicked him in the ribs. Grabbing him by one of his horns, I tossed him over my shoulder and sent him flying into the wall. Two of those beams managed to hit me from behind at that moment, and I smelled the burning fabric. I dodged and then cracked the floor again. Using the pieces, I tossed them at the hatches and broke whatever was shooting at us. The boss was knocked out by my last hit, so all I had to do was destroy those things. When it was finally over, we let out a sigh of relief. I couldn¡¯t believe we just went through that fight at the second floor of a dungeon. If I told anyone about this back at the guild, they would have laughed at me and said I was making it up. No one would believe us if we were to tell them of what sort of dangers this dungeon held. At that moment, only one thought crossed my mind. If we actually took his dungeon seriously and prepared beforehand, or at the very least went in together with him, then we wouldn¡¯t have had so much trouble¡­ Ara? Didn¡¯t he offered to guide us through? If he wanted to kill us, then¡­ then why offer to be our guide? the revelation struck me hard. The idiot actually doesn¡¯t know what an Easy dungeon is, huh? I started to laugh. It was a bit shameful of me to think that for the past two days even I was beginning to think about destroying Illsy. He was just born, of course he had no idea what was what. With so much Magic Energy to spare even I wouldn¡¯t have wasted my time with petty little floors filled with wildlife. ¡°An exit! Look!¡± shouted Tuberculus. ¡°Finally! We¡¯re out! Hurry! We must go and destroy his core before he attacks the school or tries to go for our life again!¡± shouted Angius. What? Wait a minute¡­ I thought when I saw the idiots running towards the stairs. I ran after them. The stairs first went down, but then they went up a long way. Right there, at the exit of the boss room, next to a wall was a message written on a granite plaque. Thank you for testing out my dungeon. I¡¯m sorry if it was too easy for all of you, I¡¯ll try my best with the next floors! And if it¡¯s no good, let me know how to make one so it wouldn¡¯t be a danger for the students. Illsyore. After reading it, I blinked surprised. All this time, the Dungeon Lord thought it was too easy and that we might be disappointed with it? And now those idiots were trying to kill him? I clicked my tongue and rushed after them. I wasn¡¯t going to let them touch Illsy. Not on my watch! If he really wanted to kill us, then where was the black fog? Where was the evil intent?! I screamed in my mind as I realized the fact that the most important proof was missing. Whenever a dungeon was mad, angered, or desired to kill anyone, a black fog would rise on its dungeon territory to limit the sight of the adventurers. The stronger it was the more powerful the traps and the monsters were. We saw it countless times in other dungeons, but it was completely missing from Illsy¡¯s. It was a wonder neither of us noticed it until then. Maybe we got too used to the idea that we were living inside a non aggressive Dungeon Lord¡¯s territory? ¡°You idiots! I said STOP!¡± I shouted and then struck Angius in the back of his head sending him crashing into the stairs. I punched Tuberculus in the stomach and slapped Rufus into the wall. They were all knocked out. ¡°Huff! Huff! Huff!¡± breathing hard, I picked them up and walked up the stairs. I was going to explain everything to them after they got their medical treatment and woke up. Once the idiot trio was calm and relaxed, I was sure they were going to listen. In case they didn¡¯t, they could always be my punching bags until they did. Light¡­ we¡¯re finally out¡­ I thought. Chapter 22: Two rings to lock me in Hell... or Heaven? There was graveyard silence in my room as everyone looked at the black tattoo rings now decorating Nanya¡¯s and Ayuseya¡¯s fingers. It didn¡¯t take a genius to realize what they symbolized and even the little gears in my noggin were having a hard time turning around in an attempt to process the information. While back on Earth I didn¡¯t even gather the courage to pop the question to Alina, in this one, I was able to ask two different women of different ages, nationalities, and species to marry me. I realized the impossible! I achieved the unthinkable! I achieved every man¡¯s nightmare and dream at the same time! Unfortunately, it didn¡¯t happen because I was madly in love with both of them, it was because of a simple joke, an honest insane mistake. ¡°So¡­¡± I said trying to break the silence. Nanya looked at me. Showing me the tattoo ring around her finger, she asked ¡°Illsy? What is this?¡± ¡°Erm¡­ a hand?¡± I replied, and she glared at me. Oh, she¡¯s mad! I thought. ¡°I believe¡­ this is a marriage contract?¡± asked Ayuseya. ¡°Marriage? I¡¯m too young to be married!¡± complained Nanya, but her words only made me squint my eyes at her. You are over 100 years old! I shouted in my mind. ¡°But¡­ he asked not to marry him, right?¡± asked Ayuseya. ¡°Technically speaking¡­ no.¡± I said. ¡°You actually asked us to marry you? Are you mad?¡± asked Nanya. ¡°Is that a trick question?¡± I asked. ¡°Illsy!¡± she frowned. ¡°I do not deny the banana!¡± I told her and as a result, they all blinked surprised. I had a feeling the crazy act wasn¡¯t working anymore. ¡°Sigh¡­ Can you please take this off? The last thing I want is to be married to an insane, big, floating crystal.¡± said Nanya as she crossed her hands at her chest. ¡°I don¡¯t mind.¡± said Ayuseya. While Nanya¡¯s opinion was understandable, Ayuseya¡¯s took me by complete surprise. Who would have thought that a draconian princess would say such a thing? Seriously though, someone in her political situation, despite the minor details about a mad fiance¡­ ex-fiance, should think twice before agreeing to marry like that, and by no means I was to be blamed for asking the question! Still, the joke was over, and it fulfilled its initial purpose of getting them to stop arguing, although, wouldn¡¯t a 2000 Magic Energy [Fireball] have sufficed? ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll take it off now¡­ or try to.¡± I said with a sigh. ¡°Good!¡± said Nanya with a big smile. ¡°Aw¡­¡± Ayuseya looked dejected. I stared at those rings and thought hard about what I was supposed to say in order to take them off, but thinking about it logically, I didn¡¯t cast a spell or anything, I actually asked something as a joke. That being said, I wondered how exactly I could take off those rings. ¡°Let¡¯s see¡­ Erm¡­ Will you two divorce me?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes.¡± they said at the same time, but nothing happened. ¡°Hm¡­ Do you, Nanya, wish to divorce me?¡± I asked again. ¡°Yes!¡± she replied with a raised tone of voice. We waited, but nothing happened. ¡°Do you, Nanya, wish to unmarry me?¡± I asked. ¡°I don¡¯t think that word exists, but yes.¡± she told me, and nothing happened again. I opened my status menu and looked around at my skills for a hint regarding what I was supposed to do with this marriage thing, unfortunately there was nothing there and no matter how many vocal commands I tried, how many questions I asked, there was no reaction from their rings. They were stuck there for good. ¡°I¡­ I don¡¯t think I can take them off.¡± I said after more than an hour of trials and errors. ¡°Guess I¡¯ll end up a young widow!¡± said Nanya with an annoyed smile as she punched her palm with her fist. ¡°Wait now, don¡¯t do anything you might regret! I¡¯m the father of your future children after all!¡± I said with a dignified voice while on the inside, I prayed to all the deities out there to stop her from shattering me to a billion pieces. ¡°Honestly Illsy¡­ How can you say something like that when you are using my panties for a hat!¡± she shouted at me. ¡°Huh? What panties?¡± I asked a bit confused. Moving out of my body, I took a look around and right there, on top of my head, was the frilly white fabric Nanya usually wore. I recognized it immediately, but I had to ask myself why it was there in the first place. ¡°Seriously, that spell is beyond broken¡­¡± I muttered as I squinted my eyes at it. Using [Telekinezy] I picked them up and returned the holy fabric to its rightful owner. Nanya snatched them out of my hand and threw a glare my way. ¡°But I do believe this settles it. Illsyore is now our husband even if we want it or not.¡± said Ayuseya as she looked at Nanya. ¡°And tell me, what¡¯s wrong with being a widow?¡± she asked raising an eyebrow. ¡°Maybe nothing, maybe everything, but do you really desire to become one without first giving Illsyore a chance? What¡¯s wrong with being his wife?¡± she asked calmly and rather relaxed. ¡°Yes, yes! Widow bad! Chance at marriage good!¡± I said quickly like a bloke who forgot how to use verbs. Nanya took another look at her ring and then glared back at me. It felt like it would take her quite a while to come to terms with the current situation, but she didn¡¯t seem to be fully against it either. A clear proof of that was the fact that I was still alive. On the other hand, Ayuseya was the complete opposite. As for Shanteya, she remained quiet and didn¡¯t say a single word about, but she didn¡¯t look at me either. She was my trusty maid, but I had to be really dense not to see her fidgeting about the fact that she missed the opportunity to say yes as well. I never thought I would be THIS popular! I thought to myself, however, the problem remained, there was no way to remove the rings on their fingers. Unlike the tattoos from the [Make a Slave] spell, these ones appeared to be permanent. ¡°Erm, maybe Tuberculus or the others know something about it? Or maybe we need a priest?¡± I asked. Shaking her head, Nanya denied both options. ¡°We mustn¡¯t tell Tuberculus about this. Ayuseya is an important political guest¡­ It would be easier to destroy you, Illsy, than to undo the spell.¡± she pointed out. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. I gulped. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t let them, rest assured.¡± Ayuseya stood in my defense. ¡°Maybe, but what about the other countries? The higher ups as they say? We don¡¯t command armies or have Supremes to vow for us¡­¡± she explained with a sigh. ¡°Huh?¡± I said. ¡°As Nanya said, I am a political guest. My stay here cannot be for an indeterminate period of time. My marriage to you would stir up quite a lot of problems within this country as well as mine. There are many nobles out there who just can¡¯t wait to point a finger at one of foreign royal blood to bring them down. To avoid those bothersome situations and unneeded trouble, we can employ the used of an army or Supreme Rank adventurers. Having an army would help us declare the independence of this territory. Having the vows of protection from two or more Supremes guarantees our safety. As of yet we have none, but there is the third option. If I am hidden from Dankyun¡¯s gaze, and he leaves this academy alone, then Illsyore can focus on building a dungeon and expand his territory. At the same time, we can make allies of all the noble children at this academy. With their help as well as a powerful dungeon, we can gain the favor of the Shoraya higher nobility or even that of the royal family itself. Once it¡¯s found out that I am married to Illsyore, we can invoke that favor and request their protection. I¡¯m sure they would be more than willing to accept a friendly dungeon on their territory if we offer certain services in return.¡± explained Ayuseya. ¡°Indeed, a bunch of political hogwash, but that is a possibility and probably the best one yet¡­ but¡­¡± Nanya said, and with a sharp gaze looked back at the draconian princess ¡°this is all good only and only if Dankyun doesn¡¯t discover you, and this leads us back to our original topic.¡± I gulped and asked ¡°But now, there is a good reason for me to hide her, right? If I don¡¯t, this Dankyun fellow will most likely kill me to free Ayuseya from the marriage contract, and I would pretty much like to keep my crystal hide intact, thank you!¡± Nanya only looked at Ayuseya and appeared to have ignored me. There was a real lightning storm going on between the two of them, and I had no way of stopping it without using brute force, which I rather not do. After a minute or so, Nanya let out a long sigh and closed her eyes. ¡°Well?¡± I asked. A few moments later, she opened her eyes and looked straight at my crystal body. With a calm tone of voice, she began to give out instruction on what I was to do from now on. ¡°Fine, but Illsy, you have to build more levels to your dungeons in the following years. Make it have at least fifty levels. Make them harder than the current ones. We also need to teach you how to enchant walls and stuff. I think I had a few books on that. You also need to build multiple other weaker and smaller dungeons all over the place. It will increase your value in the king¡¯s eyes. We must absolutely not tell the idiot teachers about this. They are already upset about you for your so called ¡®easy¡¯ dungeon floors. As for your core, you need to start using Magic Armor on it, expand your territory to double, no, triple the current size. You also need to do something about this room. Guard yourself with something, but keep your core here. Nobody will complain about it being guarded, but if it¡¯s hidden, they will doubt your loyalty towards us.¡± When she suggested to make my dungeon a bit harder and with more floors, I couldn¡¯t help but let a grin form on my lips. Various devious ideas were already forming in my mind. I didn¡¯t know what it was, but the idea of building something incredibly complex, deadly, and insanely annoying brought a smile of delight on my face. I did wonder what she meant by enchanting walls, but what caught my attention was something else. ¡°Magic Armor? I think I remember you mentioning something about that¡­ Well, in that case, I¡¯ll just need your guidance on how to do it, sensei Nanya!¡± I said with a smile. ¡°Wait, isn¡¯t that a bit too much even for him? Other dungeons take countless years to make even one dungeon. For him to make more than one and in such a short time¡­¡± said Ayuseya furrowing her brow and looking at both of us a bit confused. ¡°Nyahaha! No need to worry about that, Illsy is a Godlike, not a Heroic!¡± the little girl said with a big smirk on her face. ¡°G-G-Godlike?!¡± the draconian shouted. ¡°Sssh! Not so loud!¡± said Nanya putting her hand over the woman¡¯s mouth. ¡°That would explain the large amount of Magic Energy consumption as well as why he was able to cure me, but I thought of him to be an Ancestral or maybe a Demigod, certainly not a Godlike!¡± said Ayuseya, who was pretty shocked by the truth. ¡°Sigh. Anyway, keep quiet about him, and I¡¯ll make sure to keep the teachers silent but listen, Ayuseya. If you do or plan to do anything to Illsy that will lead to his destruction or harm, I will hunt you down and skin you alive! You have my promise as a Godlike adventurer on that!¡± she threatened her and even I could feel the killer intent she was emanating. ¡°The same applies to you too, Nanya.¡± retorted the princess without even flinching in front of her. ¡°Something tells me coming back late at night from a drink with the guys will be ten times more difficult to explain now¡­¡± I sighed heavily. From then on, I would need to focus more on building my dungeon, creating new ones, and also developing new ways to lead the poor fellows who ventured in there on the brink of insanity. Unfortunately, at that time, I had no idea what sort of danger was heading my way¡­ [Dankyun¡¯s point of view] ¡°Master Alttoros, we should reach Therion by the end of the day.¡± replied Fellian, one of my four Emperor Rank commanders. I didn¡¯t reply to his words, merely looked out in the far. Was there a need to reply to one such as him? An Emperor Rank was nothing but a maggot when compared to me as for the 40 Master Rank Soldiers behind me, they were even lower than that. Why it was so? Was that even a question needed to be asked? I was a Supreme Ranked draconian engaged to the royal princess, Ayuseya Pleyades, so of course they were nothing but maggots when compared to me! In this world, power was what ruled the weak. Your adventurer rank could decide both your social status and the amount of people you could crush under your foot. As such, one who was Supreme had to stay in the highest ranking position. That was why the Pleyades royal family married only to this Rank. They represented the power and authority their bloodline of the kings could never hope to achieve. But while I was a symbol of their strength, Ayuseya was nothing but a stepping stone for me to gain a power even a Supreme didn¡¯t hold and yet was offered nonchalantly to someone weaker than even a Beginner Rank adventurer. That was the power of a king! The power to rightfully command armies and mountains of gold without worrying of maggots barking up at you or other Supremes trying to challenge you to a battle. For me, Ayuseya was the ticket to legally and politically gain that power. When thinking about that, one had to wonder: what sort of purpose did those 44 men accompanying me could possibly have for one such as me? I was stronger, faster, and smarter than all of them put together. Naturally, I could decimate them in but a few moments, but even maggots were worth something when employed properly. My current desire was simple: it was to retrieve my puppet, the pathetic little woman who held the bloodline of the kings. I knew for a fact that she couldn¡¯t escape me. The reason for that was the small golden plaque hanging around my neck. It was a gift from the High Priests of Teslov, who blessed our engagement and cast a special spell on us. It allowed me to always know her exact location. The plaque was proof of that, and nothing could break the spell except for another High Priest. However, how could she speak to one when her throat was cursed as well? Writing was a possibility, but a High Priest or anyone of a high noble rank would only see it as an insult and quickly dismiss her before she had a chance to tell her tale. I closed my eyes and remembered the moment I poured down her throat the potion made from the remains of 1000 flesh-eating worms. She struggled and screamed in pain from the burn, but even now, all I saw in her was nothing but an inferior being who was blessed only with the blood in her veins. Anything else was worth throwing at the trash! What use does a princess have who cannot speak nor fight? She¡¯s a shame to our entire kind, one which I was willing to rectify. Hm? Who could even dare to stop me, a Supreme? I thought as a smile formed on my lips. Opening my eyes, I looked up at the sky, but the smell of something burning reached my nose. Blinking surprised, I looked down and saw the gold plaque smoking. ¡°What¡¯s this?¡± I asked as I pulled it off. The smoke intensified and covered the entire plaque. I stopped the horse and watched in horror as the symbol of my engagement with Ayuseya as well as my only means of tracking her turned into a pile of ash. How could this be? Someone broke the spell? NO! That can¡¯t be¡­ There¡¯s no way a High Priest could possibly be here! I shouted in my mind. The sight of the smoke angered me. ¡°Master?¡± asked Fellian. I unsheathed my sword and cut him and his horse in half. His Magic Armor was second highest among all the Emperor Ranks following me, but against my might, only a strike was enough to shatter it. What impudence to disturb me! Nonetheless, his death served me well to quench a part of my anger. The others saw this, but none dared to move or comment. They knew all too well what would happen to them if they did. ¡°I want the best scout out of all of you to go ahead to the Magic Academy Fellyore! Find out what you can about Princess Ayuseya and whoever else worth mentioning is there!¡± I ordered firmly. One man approached me, but he kept a good distance out of my blade¡¯s reach. The dead body of his former commander was warning enough for him. ¡°Understood, Master!¡± he said and punched his chest. ¡°You are to return by the time I desire to leave Therion.¡± I declared. ¡°Yes, Master!¡± he replied and hit his horse with his spurs. The beast neighed once and galloped past me. As I watched him head off, only one thought crossed my mind I wonder what sort of man dared to make ME his enemy? _______ Note from the Author: Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this chapter and if you have any questions, feel free to send me a message! If you already read the rest of the Arc on my website, please don''t drop any spoilers in your comments! Chapter 23: Inner turmoils After Nanya and Ayuseya walked out of my room, I was left alone with Shanteya to think about what I had just done, besides the obvious fact of marrying a foreign princess and someone with the title of Mad Destroyer. That being said, I had the feeling I could select my own title as well, unfortunately, I had yet to discover where exactly the list with all of them was hidden. Maybe the title appeared depending on the number of people aware of that specific title? Either way, that wasn¡¯t what troubled me at the moment, it was the whole Dankyun fiance thing. No matter how I looked at it, my grave had been dug, and I was half-buried in it. My intent wasn¡¯t to make a target out of myself for three kingdoms with Supremes under their rule, however, I wasn¡¯t willing to let Ayuseya end up dead or abused either. ¡°Sigh¡­¡± I looked outside the window and thought back at what I did and said. Half way through, it appeared as though I managed to confuse myself as well, but the idea worked: pretend to be insane in order to get them to look at another possible solution. There was also the small factor of their will. Could that marriage thing had even worked if there wasn¡¯t a true intent from both of us? Then again, how can a dungeon even get married? Ugh¡­ or rather why? I thought as I watched the sun slowly go down. ¡°Master, is there something troubling you?¡± asked Shanteya. ¡°Hm? I¡¯m just wondering if I made the right choice or if I just confused and pushed myself into a deeper mess¡­¡± I replied. ¡°I believe it¡¯s too early to give a reply to such a question, but in the end, do you regret your choice?¡± she asked me. Regret? Hm¡­ no, I don¡¯t think so. No matter how hard I think about it, there¡¯s no sign of lingering regret in my heart, regarding the decision. Maybe it would be right to say that it felt¡­ right? Do I actually want to be married to them? Erm, no¡­ wait¡­ that¡¯s not true. Maybe the actual regret comes from my previous life¡­ I mulled over my own feelings and thoughts for a few minutes. ¡°I think¡­ I think I feared that I was going to lose them without doing anything. Still, they aren¡¯t my lovers, why would I have such possessive thoughts about them? Did I believe I could change the situation into a better one, maybe¡­¡± I said as I looked over my thoughts and decisions one last time. ¡°If you feared you would lose them, then maybe Master holds feelings for them even Master isn¡¯t aware of yet?¡± she asked. ¡°Feelings? But¡­ I just barely know the two. I¡¯m not exactly their species either, and we haven¡¯t gone on dates! When I asked that silly question, I only saw it as a joke and maybe a temporary thing to get Dankyun off Ayuseya¡¯s back and out of her panties, but¡­ isn¡¯t this a bit too much? What if they loved someone else? What if¡­¡± I said as I started to realize that I may have just turned their entire lives upside down. ¡°Master!¡± said Shanteya with a raised tone of voice. I blinked surprised and looked over at her. I was starting to panic, and she pulled me out of it. ¡°Master, sometimes it¡¯s not our minds that make the decision. It¡¯s not our hearts that have a say in the matter. I don¡¯t know if Master heard about this, but it¡¯s being said that our souls have the ability to listen to the voice of the gods, that¡¯s why when we do something neither our minds nor hearts may have wanted, that¡¯s the decision of our soul after listening to a god¡¯s advice. Maybe that¡¯s what happened to Master? Maybe through thinking, you wouldn¡¯t have ever reached a decision, maybe by listening to your heart, it would have taken too long for you to realize what you had to do. That¡¯s why your soul made a decision for you¡­¡± she spoke to me with a soft tone of voice, which calmed the panic in my heart. I listened to her words, but part of it sounded like something taken out of a preaching book. I couldn¡¯t understand how my soul could take hold of my heart and mind or even why it would do so in the first place, maybe what she was talking about was intuition? It happened before in my other world, and not only to me, but to many others as well. When our thoughts didn¡¯t make sense and our hearts were distracted, we simply tossed both of those in the garbage bin and went by intuition. That was how I ended up with Alina, but still¡­ marrying them in one go? Wasn¡¯t that a bit too exaggerated? I let out a sigh in defeat ¡°Maybe¡­¡± ¡°If Master doesn¡¯t regret what he did or believes what he did was wrong, then Master did the right thing. At least, that¡¯s what I think.¡± she showed me a small smile. ¡°I guess so¡­ Let¡¯s leave it at that for now. Hm, but you also wanted to say yes, right?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes¡­¡± she blushed and looked down. With her ears turned red and a shy gaze in her eyes, she showed me a little bit of her cute side. ¡°Thank you, Shanteya. Even though I know that with [Bond of Trust] I can increase your strength tremendously in the case of an upcoming battle, it appears that this marriage thing isn¡¯t something to be taken lightly. I wouldn¡¯t want to pull you into this when both of us aren¡¯t 100% sure about it. However, I promise you that if I¡¯ll ever reach the point of wanting you by my side as my wife forever, I will make sure to properly ask you, not turn it into a joke as it happened with Nanya and Ayuseya. Honestly speaking, I¡¯m a bit glad you didn¡¯t answer¡­ at least now, if our relationship will develop up to that point, I¡¯ll be able to ask in a manner you deserve. If not, you¡¯ll be free to search for the man you truly wish to spend your life with.¡± I told her. Looking up, she blinked surprised. Her cheeks were already red from how embarrassed she was, and with her pink lips partially parted, the el¡¯doraw looked quite cute like that. ¡°I understand, Master. Then, if it¡¯s alright with you, Master, when that time comes, I shall call you by your name¡­¡± she said with a soft smile. ¡°You can call me even now if you want, but¡­¡± I let out a heavy sigh. ¡°If you think it¡¯s better that way, then sure.¡± I replied with an invisible smile. After our small conversation, we went to bed, and I tried to forget about my thoughts regarding how I may have messed up that day. I slept like a baby until the following morning. Shanteya woke up early, but didn¡¯t disturb my peaceful sleep, she let me enjoy my dreams in the comfort of her bosom and waited patiently until I opened my eyes. Once up and awake, I increased the bonus stats she received from my [Bond of Trust] to 50%, the maximum allowed for a slave. I told her to start training on getting used to the sudden change, but preferably outside of everyone¡¯s eyes. The first thing I did that day was to try to add Magic Energy to my crystal body to increase my Magic Armor. It worked perfectly on the first go. Just like Nanya and Ayuseya said, it was something that came naturally to me. I actually felt much better when surrounded by it. I had no idea how much I had to add, so I left it at 2000 Magic Energy points and then added 2000 more to my Territory. After that, I flew off to my dungeon. It was time to build the third floor. While flying there, I kept adding more Magic Energy to my territory, expanding it constantly. Regarding what I wanted to do with this floor was quite easy. First off, I destroyed the stairs leading outside of the dungeon and built another drop point, but instead of water, I used poison. My choices, unfortunately, weren¡¯t very varied. I had to choose between Aconitum infused water and Lead infused water. If I were to guess the reason for that was because I was aware only of these two from my past life. Poisoning and methods of killing humans weren¡¯t among my top researching subjects back at the university in Bucharest. The weird part was that I had poisonous gas traps, but that may have been because I read a book on simple, poisonous traps. ¡°Hm, maybe I should ask Nanya for a book on poisons from this world or maybe Shanteya could teach me? She was a former assassin, after all.¡± I thought as I looked around my skills before starting to build a very deep and large room filled with lava. I had to work in layers. First, using the moat skills, I made the floor of the room. It was at least three meters deep, just enough to make sure that even draconians had problems getting out of it. After that, I raised the room to a decent height, almost six meters above the lava, in order to make jumping out quite hard. It also had to be quite spacious, huge actually. In the middle, I added two poles close to each other. Each had a diameter of 1 meter. One was going to be triggered by a lever, and the other was going to just stay there. Both poles had a metal tip with sharp steel blades around it. It was hard to hang on top of it and even harder to land or jump from it. Technically speaking, lava reached temperatures of over 1000¡ãC even 2000¡ãC, I had to make the spikes able to withstand those high temperatures with ease. That¡¯s why I surrounded them with a layer of tungsten, which could survive almost double those temperatures. Of course, that was only at the base. Inside, I made sure to add four copper pipes capable of leading the inside temperatures all the way down to the earth or up at the ceiling. The entire room was covered with copper radiators on the outside wall in order to make sure it dissipated the heat gathered inside. On a side note, the lava on the first floor was starting to harden, and the walls showed deterioration signs. Using my repair skills, it restored the walls, but didn¡¯t reheat the lava. I had to add it again with the moat construction skill. On the first half of the room, I created timed platforms like the ones on the first floor, but here, I added a few on the ceiling as well. There were many jumps which would require quite a bit of strength to get across, but the adventurer could also aim for grabbing one of the sliding platforms from the ceiling, they were fitted with a metal bar good for grabbing onto. If they aimed for that and didn¡¯t time their jump right, they would go straight down into the lava moat. At the end of this jumping puzzle, there was a small lever hidden behind a room filled with poisonous gas and arrow traps. Once pulled, the second pole was raised from the ground and could be used as a second jumping platform. On the other half of the room, I added two big poles made just like the other two, but the difference was that they had platforms on top, four to be exact. Each of those platforms was rigged to a spring. Once the adventurer jumped on them, he would be catapulted into metal spiked walls or onto another catapult. I made two that simply bounced him around left and right like a ping-pong ball. The only way the adventurer could safely get across was by grabbing the edge and not triggering the traps, a very hard thing to do. The last pole, placed in the middle, on the same line as the first two poles, had a single spring platform, and it was designed to throw the adventurer into the last part of the room, which was spiraling tube with sharp blades and aglmc lasers creating a net of death and doom. It was absolutely wonderful! That could only be described as an Adventurer Minced Meat Generator! When I was done with it, I was very tired from the entire Magic Energy spending business, but just then, I sensed someone entering my dungeon. Surprised and worried at the same time, I rushed over to them. Because I was tired, I didn¡¯t focus on recognizing whose energy was, so I flew over there, thinking it was a student who got lost. ¡°Huh? Nanya? What are you doing here?¡± I asked when she came into view. She was standing in the middle of the platform labyrinth in the second room, but the harpies weren¡¯t attacking her, and none of the traps triggered. It was like she wasn¡¯t there at all. ¡°Oh? Illsy! I came by to see how you are doing and also to give you some books. I convinced the old geezers to give me some, but they are quite rare, so you should be careful with how you handle them.¡± she told me and patted the leather bag on her side. ¡°I¡¯m doing fine, thank you. Books? But wait a second, why aren¡¯t my harpies attacking you or the traps activating?¡± I asked. Did something happen when I repaired them? I asked myself as I looked at the [Magic Thread] connections to the power crystals, but there was nothing wrong with them. ¡°I don¡¯t know. As soon as I entered, the traps and doors simply activated or deactivated at my will. For example¡­¡± she pointed her hand at one of the fire traps, and it immediately spewed out a jet of flames. ¡°See? It must be because of your ring. Maybe the dungeon recognizes me as allied to its master?¡± she hypothesized. ¡°I think more like the wife of the master, otherwise, it should have reacted the same back when you first ventured into this dungeon.¡± I said as I looked at the timed fire trap and then back at her. ¡°Hm, well it¡¯s good to know that I don¡¯t need to worry about your traps when coming down here. Anyway, here are the books. All three of them are about enchanting.¡± she said and opened her bag. ¡°This one is about various room enchantments found in an old Demigod dungeon. The dungeon doesn¡¯t exist anymore, but one of the Supreme adventurers who ventured inside wrote about it in detail.¡± she picked up the book and offered it to me. I absorbed it. ¡°This one is about trap enchantments. It uses similar spells we use on weapons, even Master Rank adventurers can mimic it, but they have a lower number of uses than those found in a dungeon.¡± she gave it to me and pulled out another book. ¡°This one was written by Tuberculus. It¡¯s about item enchantment. Using the spells written here, you can give various properties to a weapon. It lasts for only one use, unlike Godlike made items or dungeon made ones.¡± she explained. ¡°I see¡­¡± I said as I absorbed that one as well. ¡°I¡¯ll need to get back to my crystal core in order to learn them.¡± ¡°Good! Let¡¯s head back then.¡± she told me with a smile. ¡°Still, I can hardly believe how simple it was to reach this place when all the traps were deactivated¡­¡± she said as she looked at one of the harpies leisurely flying around us without showing even the slightest desire of attacking her. Before we headed back, I checked around the dungeon for one last time to make sure there wasn¡¯t anyone else who sneaked inside, and once Nanya was out, I sealed the entrance to keep intruders out. ¡°Nanya, you said Godlike made items back then. What did you mean by that?¡± I asked. ¡°You don¡¯t know? You actually don¡¯t know?¡± she asked me with a stupefied look on her face. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°Erm¡­ no?¡± I replied. ¡°Sigh¡­ Well, it¡¯s you we¡¯re talking about. I shouldn¡¯t be surprised. Anyway¡­¡± she sighed again and scratched the back of her head. ¡°Beginner spells usually represent basic skills anyone can do. Intermediary skills¡­ erm, let¡¯s take [Fireball] and [Ice Spear] for example. At Intermediary, you have the basic version, afterwards the spells grow in complexity and power until it reaches Master Rank. At Emperor Rank, you have what we call Fusion Skills. Basically, they are a combination of two spells. An Emperor Rank [Fireball] with [Ice Spear] fusion is basically a big fireball with a spiked iceball in the middle, or which shoots ice spears randomly. The reverse, meaning an [Ice Spear] with the [Fireball] fusion is actually an ice spear covered in normal fire or liquid fire, depending on the spell. At Godlike, you enter a different category of skills, the creation skills. A Godlike skill is any skill capable of creating a permanent item, not a summoned one. In general, you just need the right materials to make it, but if you managed to improve the spell quite a bit, then you need not worry about materials, anything you can grab is transmuted into what you desire. These skills are also called Stolen Skills because they resemble a Dungeon¡¯s ability to create items or rooms. Here¡¯s something I made.¡± she explained and showed me her steel gauntlets. Being items created through her Godlike skill, they were quite powerful when compared to their standard version. ¡°But I can¡¯t create items¡­¡± I told her, and in that moments, she stopped in her tracks. ¡°What? That¡¯s not possible! That¡¯s absolutely not possible, Illsy! It¡¯s a basic skill¡­¡± she told me a bit shocked by what I told her. ¡°Erm, nope, I don¡¯t have it.¡± I said as I looked through my skills again. ¡°This is a bit bad¡­ A dungeon is usually valued because of that skill. If you can¡¯t make items¡­ Urk, I don¡¯t want to think about that. Illsy, promise me you won¡¯t tell this to anyone else, alright?¡± she showed me a rather serious look in her eyes. ¡°OK¡­¡± I replied. ¡°I¡¯ll make them for you when we need to, but it would be best if you learned yourself¡­ Maybe your level isn¡¯t high enough? We should go and hunt more for you¡­ I¡¯ll even feed you some of my Magic Energy, but we need to get you that skill.¡± she was quite serious and worried about this. ¡°I understand. I¡¯ll do my best.¡± I told her. ¡°Good¡­¡± she let out a sigh and then continued to walk. ¡°What about Supreme skills?¡± I asked. ¡°Those are mass area destruction skills. They are primarily a combination of multiple lower ranked skills but with a more devastating area effect.¡± she explained. I gulped ¡°What do you think Dankyun¡¯s skill is?¡± ¡°Probably [Fireball Storm]. As far as I remember, it had a range of 1km radius and could cast down fireballs of 1 meter to 3 meters diameters. They also exploded upon impact, so it¡¯s quite a dangerous spell¡­¡± she told me, but just by listening to the description of that spell made me realize what sort of monsters the Supremes were. A single attack like that could decimate the entire academy. It could quite literally wipe off the map the entire area. As for a dungeon¡¯s ability to survive that, I guess that could only be possible if it had many many levels to hide under. That being said, wasn¡¯t I in danger by staying above the ground? ¡°Still, that¡¯s not the most powerful one. I guess it¡¯s categorized as weak.¡± and with that she dropped the bomb right on top of me. ¡°You¡¯re telling me that there are Supreme ranked adventurers out there with an area destruction skill categorized as strong or incredibly powerful?¡± I asked a bit shocked. ¡°Yes. But as I said, these are Area spells. The reason why it¡¯s called weak is because those fireballs can defeat Master Ranks, maybe even some Emperor Ranks, but that¡¯s about it. If you cast it inside a dungeon, you can instantly kill all the monsters in there and maybe destroy all the traps, but only for one floor.¡± she explained, and I could breathe again. Even so, that was a terrifying power. They could just destroy a floor, wait for their Magic Energy to recharge and then restart the whole thing, however, it appeared that humanoids regenerated slower than I did. Curious about that, I asked Nanya ¡°How often can they cast that spell?¡± ¡°Hm, it depends on their mental fatigue. While Magic Energy may regenerate fast, if the individual doesn¡¯t have the concentration need for it, then it will be hard to cast. The only exception to that appears to be you¡­¡± she raised an eyebrow and looked up at me. I flew to her left, and her eyes followed me. ¡°Sigh, I see¡­ hm? Can you by any chance see me now?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes¡­¡± She turned her gaze to the path ahead. ¡°Is it because of the ring?¡± ¡°Mhm. You look like a floating orb of light, it¡¯s kind of hard not to spot you. I don¡¯t even need to ask if it¡¯s you or not, I just feel it¡­ If I ask in my mind, the answer comes back: It¡¯s my husband.¡± she told me. ¡°Hm. That¡¯s interesting. So, are you upset about me making you my wife?¡± Asking that question felt like crossing a tightrope above a swamp filled with hungry crocs. Nanya shook her head ¡°No. I guess it¡¯s just fate, maybe? Honestly, I would have preferred something romantic, maybe after a few years of dating and knowing more about each other. A ¡®not not¡¯ joke was a bit harsh. Hehe!¡± she laughed a bit. Her answer was rather quick, showing that she may have given it some thought, they both probably did. It was a major change in their lives, one which was cast down upon them by chance. Rather than fate, I think it was me who had to be blamed. Who knew a simple question was enough to close the deal? If Ayuseya really wanted to go with the plan, I was expecting some more planning, thinking, eventually a way to fool Dankyun and set her free, not a magic tattoo ring. ¡°I¡¯m sorry¡­¡± my voice was low and apologetic, although, deep inside, I still remembered Shanteya¡¯s words about me doing the right thing even if it may not look like it. ¡°I won¡¯t deny it, Illsy. I¡¯m a bit afraid of this future¡­ I may be a Godlike, but before that, I am woman who is now married with someone she doesn¡¯t share a mutual love with. Who knows? Maybe I¡¯m just cursed when it comes to love?¡± she said with a rather sad tone of voice. Those words hurt and dug deep inside my heart, pointing out at what I had done. I knew myself, I wasn¡¯t the type who would deliberately cause a woman to be hurt like that, but in the end¡­ that was what I did. A mutual love, huh? I guess¡­ I may have made a mistake¡­ I thought to myself as I silently followed her through the forest. What woke me up from that state was the silent tune of a violin. Looking up and perking up my ears, I recognized the song. It was one Ayuseya played often. Ah! Speaking of which, what about her? Chased out of her home, hunted down by her fiance, cursed, threatened, and now the victim of my stupid joke¡­ Maybe she doesn¡¯t show it, but it could be that she hates me now? What if the draconian tradition asks for the husband to be loyal? Does she consider sharing me as being unfaithful? Wait, before that¡­ How does she see this marriage? Aaand I¡¯m back to the other question¡­ Does she hate me for forcing her into this marriage? I asked myself as I followed the sound of her violin. I stopped before coming into view and looked back at Nanya. ¡°Can you do me a favor, please?¡± I asked her. ¡°It depends. But a fair warning, I¡¯m not going to give you my panties.¡± she replied tilting her head a bit to the left. ¡°I¡¯ll use a certain spell on you if I want them, but it¡¯s not that¡­ Can you¡­ can you go over there and ask Ayuseya what she thinks about her current situation¡­ no, what she thinks about me and this marriage? I¡¯ll be out of view¡­ ¡± I requested, but I couldn¡¯t hide the worry hidden in the tone of my voice. ¡°Sure.¡± she nodded and showed me soft smile. Nanya walked past me, and I stayed as far away from them as I could. I tried to keep myself hidden from Ayuseya¡¯s sight, but at the same time in hearing reach. Since it was getting dark, the male fireflies were showing off their lights and flying around the place. Bathed in the light of the rising moons, surrounded by the small flying insects, and wearing a delicate yet simple white dress, Ayuseya was calmly playing for the forest. It was a soft tune, slow, and peaceful. It reminded me of a late serenade dedicated only to the stars above. Without disturbing the beautiful scene, Nanya approached the draconian princess and waited patiently for the song to end. Once the last note was played, she approached her. ¡°As I would expect of a royal princess. That was beautiful!¡± said my teenage-looking wife. ¡°It¡¯s a simple song, and my talent is just one among many shining stars out there. I would only fade away if I were to be placed on the same stage.¡± said the other wife, taking a small bow in front of Nanya. ¡°Maybe, who knows? What¡¯s the song called?¡± she shrugged and then asked. ¡°Midnight Tears, by Lorence Astunov.¡± she replied with a smile. ¡°Lovely, but a bit sad. Is it because of the marriage with a certain perverted crystal ball?¡± she asked bluntly. I¡¯m not a ball, I¡¯m a polyhedron¡­ I think I may be a bit of a pervert, but I won¡¯t admit it! I muttered in my mind. ¡°No¡­¡± she replied shaking her head and then looked up at the moons, ¡°It¡¯s just a small song to lament the countless misfortunes I was met with throughout my life.¡± I guess marrying with me counts as the biggest one yet? I wondered. ¡°You¡¯ve been chased out of your country, turned into a puppet princess, forced into a marriage with a man you didn¡¯t love, cursed, targeted by assassins¡­ and now married to a perverted dungeon core.¡± said Nanya, enumerating only those few events we knew about so far. ¡°Hm, there are a few more things that happened to me back in my country as well.¡± she said with a smile. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you fight back?¡± ¡°The curse of the Pleyades family isn¡¯t one to joke about. It made us incredibly weak¡­ I think among the top ten most horrible things I experienced was being poisoned. At that time, the el¡¯doraw boy you fought with the other day was the one who saved me.¡± she placed her violin inside its case, carefully so as to not damage it by accident. ¡°What about Illsy?¡± Nanya popped the question. I gulped and perked my ears up, listening to Ayuseya¡¯s answer. The draconian woman didn¡¯t reply immediately, she kept looking down at her violin and gently moved her pointing finger across it¡¯s edge. ¡°Illsyore¡­¡± she said and looked back at Nanya. The draconian princess showed her a soft smile ¡°At least, he asked me¡­ even if it was a ¡®not not¡¯ joke¡­¡± she looked down ¡°With Dankyun, I had no say in the matter, I was his the moment Paramanium decided so¡­ I just had to nod and act like a good girl. With Illsyore¡­ with him, I was allowed to experience the beauty of having such a question addressed to me. Part of the reason I said yes was because I longed for a normal marriage as well, with a partner who could love me and not care of how cursed I was¡­¡± she confessed. ¡°So, deep down, you wanted to have a normal marriage, huh? Guess the same applies for me as well, although, brutes such as myself rarely get the loving dolt.¡± said Nanya shaking her head. ¡°Hehe, maybe Illsyore will prove to be the one?¡± ¡°Nyahaha! He does have the dolt part, but he¡¯s missing the other! Guess we both lucked out.¡± said Nanya and shook her head. That hurts, you know? I thought, but I couldn¡¯t deny those words. I know already, Nanya, that unlike Shanteya, you don¡¯t see me as anything but a¡­ Wait, how do you see me, exactly? I thought to myself. ¡°You need not worry about me if you wish to give him a chance. I¡¯m not going to stand in your way. For me, just knowing that I can talk freely and that my curses had been lifted is enough. Asking for love would be too much.¡± said Ayuseya shaking her head. ¡°You are giving up on him?¡± asked Nanya. ¡°No, I¡¯m giving up on me. I¡¯m too broken to feel a passionate love for another¡­ Besides, I understand he asked the question out of pity for my situation. If I can survive this trial, that¡¯s enough for me, but if by chance he¡­¡± she stopped and looked down at her violin for a silent moment ¡°No, even married, I won¡¯t expect to be loved by him¡­¡± she shook her head and showed Nanya a sad smile. I watched them head off as they continued to talk about less depressing things. Meanwhile, I stayed behind in that small clearing, watching the fireflies dancing around me. ¡°I¡¯m an idiot¡­¡± I said and then let out a sigh. ¡°They are hiding their pain behind a smile, and I just added more pain to it by getting them married to someone they don¡¯t love¡­¡± I looked up at the moon and didn¡¯t move for another half an hour before I finally returned to the academy. _____ Note from the Author: Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it! :) Chapter 24: New skills, new dungeons, and a sandwich! Despite the troubling thoughts floating around in my mind when I went to bed, I did manage to sleep quite well. If I were to guess, it was most likely thanks to Shanteya¡¯s soft, bouncy chest. Her embrace was soft, and her lips were delicious every morning I woke up by her side and every night I went to bed with her. Although I was married to Nanya and Ayuseya, I felt like my heart longed more for the el¡¯doraw slave than them, but it might have been just because she spent more time together with me, I trusted her, and most importantly, she was completely loyal to me. After letting her out, I prepared myself to learn the three books Nanya lent me the other day. I didn¡¯t forget to ask Shanteya to teach me about poisons either, but since my way of acquiring the data for now was either through tedious study or some books, she decided to go to the library and search for some appropriate manuals I would have otherwise missed or considered as useless. Asking Zertan for some research material was also a possibility, but a rather troublesome one considering his usual grumpiness. One thing was certain though, learning enchanting wouldn¡¯t have been possible if I was a weaker type of dungeon. The amount of Magic Energy one of them required was above the roof! 4550 points for the [Enchant Room] one, 3750 points for the [Enchant Trap] one and 6640 points for [Enchant Item]. I felt like fainting after learning the last one. Considering what Nanya said about when enchanted traps actually appeared in certain dungeons, I could only suspect it was my low level to blame for the high Magic Energy cost of the books. The last one, I blamed on Tuberculus¡¯ ugly writing. While I was at it, I decided to take a look at my stats and change some of my skills, especially these three new ones. [Level]: 59 [Strength]: 189+1000 [Agility]: 150+1000 [Intelligence]: 201+1000 [Magic Energy]: 8000 [Magic Energy Regeneration]: 30 Magic Energy Points per Second [Available points]: 60 [Available skill points]: 260 As I initially desired, I added 11 points in strength and turned it into a round number of 200. I knew it was probably a bad idea, seeing as how I didn¡¯t have a body yet, but it just irked me when I saw the uneven number. That was how some gamers were. Even though it didn¡¯t feel like a good idea, we tried to make our stats have a nice even feel to them. No odd numbers were allowed! The feel of a 999 or 1000 in the stats just felt awesome for some reason. As for the rest of the points, I added 24 points in [Intelligence] and kept 25 for [Magic Energy Regeneration], but I didn¡¯t add those right away, if I did, I would only gain 1 Magic Energy point per second. This led my final stats to look like this: [Level]: 59 [Strength]: 200+1000 [Agility]: 150+1000 [Intelligence]: 225+1000 [Magic Energy]: 8120 [Magic Energy Regeneration]: 30 Magic Energy Points per Second [Available points]: 25 [Available skill points]: 260 Now, I had to look at my skills. Of course, I went for enchantments first. The first ranks offered random enchants, and I didn¡¯t like that. [Enchant Room] > [Enchant Room with Enchantment] [Enchant Item] > [Enchant Item with Enchantment] Another weird voice command¡­ I thought as I squinted my eyes at the skill. The targeted item was Shanteya¡¯s dress without the apron, shoes, and undergarments. The system took everything as a separate item. Upon discovering this, my gamer¡¯s instincts irked me to make a set, but there was something else I wanted to do, something I couldn¡¯t help doing. ¡°Upgrade [Enchant Item with It was then when I realized that in order to create an Emperor skill, I could have ANY skill at Improvement level 5 and a Master Skill of Improvement level 5. Now it makes sense why Nanya described an Emperor Rank skill that sounded like a combination of [Fireball] and [Ice Spear]. I thought as I looked at the message. I suspected this from the moment I saw the message regarding the requirements for the next Upgrade. The upgraded [Fireball] skill to Master Rank and what Nanya described didn¡¯t match at all. In other words, I can make an incredible amount of Emperor Rank skills by fusing them together, but wasting so many skill points didn¡¯t sound so exciting to me. I chose the only two skills I had at Improvement level 5: [Explosive Jagged Ice Spear X4] and [Seeker Fireball X18]. The result cost me 150 points and the skill I obtained was the following: [Infernal Glacier X10] I gulped when I read the description. It sounded quite dangerous and honestly speaking, I couldn¡¯t wait to test it out. Curious about it, I chose the option to upgrade this one as well, just to see what the requirements were. <[Infernal Glacier X10] cannot be upgraded further in Crystal Core Form.> Huh? Then¡­ What if I were to ask¡­ I thought and with a gulp, I looked at the last part of the message. ¡°Upgrade Crystal Core Form.¡± I said. Nothing happened. ¡°Improve Crystal Core Form.¡± I tried again, but with the same result. ¡°Make a New Body.¡± SERIOUSLY?! I screamed in my mind. I let out a long sigh and decided to simply relax and enjoy the fact that I acquired an Emperor Rank Skill. Tomorrow was testing time for the skill. That night, I fell asleep with a pleased smile on my lips. If it was because of Shanteya¡¯s bosom or the new skill I obtained, I didn¡¯t know, but the following day, I was planning on continuing gaining levels and maybe debate with Nanya and Tuberculus about how I could gain a new body. _______ Note from the Author: Thank you for reading this chapter! I hope you enjoyed it! :) Chapter 28: Nanyas pranks That night, I had a really weird dream. I was back in my old world, at my parents¡¯ apartment in Romania. Alina was there as well, but I couldn¡¯t see her face very well. I couldn¡¯t see how either mom¡¯s or dad¡¯s, they were all blurry, but I recognized the place. The photos of the old me were up there on the shelf, commemorating various moments of my life. Suzi, their cat was yawning on the floor, looking as bored as always. It had a white fur with a small black spot on the back. For some weird reason, it kept staring at me with its slit brown eyes. My parents were talking with me, and Alina was trying to say something as well, but there were no words coming out of their mouth. It was as though I was deaf. In my hand, I was holding an old phone, but on it was a picture of me together with Nanya, Ayuseya, and Shanteya at the beach. I was right in the middle of them, smiling happily, and they looked rather tempting and beautiful in those swimsuits. ¡°You left me alone¡­¡± was what Alina said at one point and showed me a picture of her in a wedding dress. She was standing in front of a typical orthodox altar, letting the white veil cover her face. I couldn¡¯t see it, but somehow, I knew she was shedding tears of sadness. At first, I didn¡¯t notice anything wrong with the picture, I thought of it as a cosplay picture or something like that, but it wasn¡¯t. She was standing in an actual church, and the most disturbing detail about it was the white marble cross placed right next to her. On it was written a blurry name, my name. That was my cross. ¡°Just like you left me, you are going to leave them as well¡­¡± she said and then pointed at the picture of me and the girls at the beach. A chill ran down my spine, and it was in that moment when a strange darkness took hold of me and swallowed me whole. I was left floating inside my Inner Mind, crying and trying to break free of it. I panicked and tried to push the darkness away, but it didn¡¯t budge¡­ I wasn¡¯t strong enough. ¡°I¡¯m going to kill you and them as well¡­¡± I heard Dankyun¡¯s voice. ¡°I¡¯m not going to let you!¡± I screamed back at him, but I couldn¡¯t reach him. I was left floating in the darkness, listening to Dankyun¡¯s laughter and hearing Shanteya¡¯s, Nanya¡¯s, and Ayuseya¡¯s screams. My whole body shivered and feared their dreadful fate. Among them, I also heard the battle cries of the teachers at the academy and the screams of the students. Speaking of which, I didn¡¯t really interact with them much, did I? I couldn¡¯t even name one or two¡­ When I woke up, I was shivering and breathing hard. Seeing myself surrounded by the darkness of my Inner Mind confused me, and for a moment, I thought I was still in that dreadful nightmare. In the end, it was Shanteya¡¯s warm embrace that calmed me down. Letting out a sigh, I looked up at her. She was still sleeping, showing me a gentle and peaceful expression on her face. It felt like nothing could ever bring harm to her, but then I remembered the awful screams from my dream, and the fear of losing her resurfaced. I squeezed her tight in my arms and pushed my face in her chest, taking in her warmth and listening to the soft beats of her heart. I don¡¯t want to lose either of you¡­ I said in a whisper. Although I felt the need to close my eyes and go back to sleep, I resisted the temptation because I didn¡¯t want to risk returning to that dreadful nightmare. [Ayuseya¡¯s point of view] For the past two days, I stayed away from Illsyore. He didn¡¯t call me out to sleep with him either. The only company I had during that time were my tears and books. After letting go of my mother¡¯s letter, I didn¡¯t try to look at it again. I didn¡¯t feel the need to do so, I couldn¡¯t bring myself to do it either. In a way, I was waiting all this time for Illsyore to return and kick me out in Dankyun¡¯s claws. That was all it would take to be rid of me. As for this marriage¡­ It was strange, but in this world, the black ring didn¡¯t exist. For a while, I was wondering if it wasn¡¯t just some illusion cast down upon my mind, a simple spell meant to enslave me to his will, but if that was so, why didn¡¯t he act like it? I didn¡¯t feel like returning to him, but running away felt even harder. My future was uncertain or rather predisposed only to pain and darkness. The one thing I never thought about was suicide¡­ Even though life treated me so badly, suicide was something I never considered as a possibility or means of escaping this torment. What would have been the use of it anyway? Letting out a sigh, I spread my arms and looked up, or where I thought was up. It¡¯s Illsy¡¯ fault¡­ I said. I really wanted to trust this Dungeon Lord. I really wanted to think that this marriage could be the actual thing I always dreamed about, but I had no definite proof towards it being so. How can I test him? I thought and then looked over at my book collection. There were many stories in which I could find a source of inspiration, but many of them required me to be outside of this place. It wasn¡¯t like there was no way, but the only question floating through my mind was: What¡¯s the first step I need to take? [Dankyun¡¯s point of view] Breakfast, as always, was edible, but rather pathetic for one of my rank. The thought of killing the cook crossed my mind, but alas, a good one was hard to find around these parts. On the bright side of things, the tea was made by me, and it was delicious even if the assortments were rather limited. There was no doubt about this academy being the most boring place where I could spend my time. The academy was filled with nothing but pathetic weaklings of all kinds and of all species. Only the beast folk was missing from here, but they were forbidden to ever leave their continent. Nanya was the only one I could somewhat view as a possible threat, the rest could be annihilated with a single punch. Still, while I appeared to be doing nothing, I was actually charging up my Supreme Skill. Once I left this dump, a small ¡®accident¡¯ was going to happen, and all of a sudden, the academy was going to vanish. The bothersome bureaucratic and political nonsense was going to be handled afterwards. I had many pawns to use as a scapegoat if the blame for this whole thing hinted towards my direction. Meanwhile, my two el¡¯doraw assassins were keeping me informed of what happened outside the dungeon¡¯s territory. So far, there was no actual proof to support either theory. In other words, Ayuseya left this place, but at the same time she didn¡¯t. The dungeons were too small and too weak to offer a possible shelter, but until those two finished searching every nook and cranny on this territory, I had no intention of making the first move. My soldiers were already instructed on what to do. As for the draconian students enrolled here, I planned on luring them to my side. There was no need for them to study in such a place. It would only bring to shame the name of our species. Of course, if they refused, the punishment would come later. When I was young, a draconian adventurer once told me: ¡°We are the most powerful and perfect species out of all of them! We are descendants of gods and demigods! We are the first to conquer a dungeon! We are the oldest and the wisest! To see a species like the humans or any other hold more power than us is a disgrace and a shame a true draconian must try to rectify at all cost!¡± I kept those words true in my heart ever since, and I was constantly shown proof after proof that my kind was stronger than any other. At the same time, I noticed that I was better even than my fellow draconians, I was stronger, faster, and smarter! Gaining the rank of Supreme was merely a formality I had to go through in order to achieve greater power. But now,¡­ now I deserved more! Ayuseya was going to be a good stepping stone for me to achieve it. Afterwards, it would be rather easy to get rid of that pathetically weak royal family that kept relying on others for strength. They don¡¯t deserve the royal blood flowing through their veins, and I was intent on removing every last drop of it! As for my soon to be bride, with or without her, there many ways to gain the throne. Thinking about it logically, there was no need for me to exhaust so much energy only on this one. If I waited another 10 or 20 years, I was sure another woman was going to be born in the royal family, and I could take her. This time, however, I was going to make sure she didn¡¯t try anything stupid. Even I had to admit that the trick she used to get out of our engagement was completely unexpected, but even so, just a minor setback for one such as me. I wasn¡¯t called a Supreme for nothing. The only ones who could actually try to stop my plans were the other Supremes in this country, but none of them had either the strength or will to do so. Together, let¡¯s say they could, but in the end, I would certainly come out victorious. Besides my sword, I had my armor as well. It was¡­ a very useful tool for all sort of situations. Then, I had my rings, my amulet, and spell crystals like the one I was using now to charge my Supreme Skill. When the time was right, I could activate them and use them without expending even one drop of my own Magic Energy. These spell crystals were some rather interesting artifacts. Although usable only once before the Magic Energy inside them was depleted, they could become a real game changer, depending on the skill infused in them. They had their own limit of capacity, and they were rather hard to charge. Few had the patience to go through the painstaking process of supplying one with Magic Energy. For a Supreme Skill, it could even take up to a few days to charge, which made my wait for Ayuseya to get out of her hiding hole not a waste of time. I did wonder from time to time if Nanya had any, but it was rather doubtful. These things were expensive to both make and buy. There was also another reason as to why she wouldn¡¯t have any. That woman would surely refuse to use something that was once a part of a dungeon¡¯s core. As such, while no one was looking, I was charging up my spell crystal. I had few others as well, including one with [Flight] and another with [Invisibility]. Although I didn¡¯t have these skills personally, paying a Godlike or Emperor Rank adventurer to charge them up wasn¡¯t considered a waste at all. Of course, I did pay for them, especially when they did a good job with it. The only condition I had was for them to be draconian. In the end, my schedule at this so-called Fellyore Magic Academy was rather simple: I woke up in the morning, had my breakfast, then I charged my crystal until noon. After that, I listened to the reports of my men and those of the assassins. I had my lunch, then continued with another session of charging my crystal. While I did that, I summoned some of the draconian students over and persuaded them to join my cause and leave this pathetic place. ¡°Hm, I guess I¡¯ll be able to finish this by tomorrow evening?¡± I said as I took a sip from my tea. It wasn¡¯t bad, but next time I was thinking of adding a leaf of Ratgrey. [Illsyore¡¯s point of view] The nightmare kept me awake for a good couple of hours before Shanteya woke up. I tried to get back to sleep, but I simply couldn¡¯t. I kept my eyes closed and listened to my el¡¯doraw¡¯s heartbeat. The soft thumps were like a sweet melody, and her calm breath reminded me of the fact that I was safe, in her arms, and not facing Dankyun in a battle of life and death. In all honesty, I hoped he would leave quietly, but something told me it wasn¡¯t going to be so. If the cliches from my world worked here as well, then without a doubt, he was expected to do something to stir trouble. Somehow, someway, he was going to cause us to fight. Maybe it¡¯s all in my head¡­ I thought at times while I pondered about the many possibilities. At the very least, I managed to calm down enough to greet Shanteya in the morning with a smile. After our morning kiss, I released her from my Inner Mind and allowed her to sneak off into the forest, where she would resume her massacre of the local fauna for my constant leveling. I had no idea how this would affect Nanya and Shanteya, but until they allowed me to check their statuses, I couldn¡¯t do a thing about it. Technically speaking, I didn¡¯t need approval, but I wanted to be polite about it. I forced myself a bit, but I managed to finish the escape tunnel for the students. No one had any idea where or how long it was. The enchanted walls would keep it lit and safe from whatever was going to happen above. In short, the war preparations were going smoothly. This took for about five and a half hours, give or take ten minutes. I worked without stop and made it as fast I could, always making sure never to go overboard with my Magic Energy consumption and at the same time use as much as I could. Upon returning to the academy, it was already noon. With a yawn on my lips and waiting for my Magic Energy to be replenished, I looked around for anything I needed to fix. Finding Nanya or Tuberculus was an added bonus. ¡°Nothing seems to be out of place¡­ and no soldiers are misbehaving.¡± I said as I was floating around. When I spotted Dankyun, I stopped and approached him slowly. Tuberculus was there too. As far as I could tell, the two of them were having a ¡®calm chat¡¯ about something. It wasn¡¯t polite to eavesdrop, but I was invisible, so it didn¡¯t matter. ¡°Absolutely not!¡± said the old headmaster. ¡°It¡¯s not a matter that needs to be debated, the draconian students themselves agreed with this after I had a nice talk with them yesterday.¡± Dankyun explained without even looking at the old man. With his chest puffed up like that and his hands behind him, I had the impression I was looking at a noble with a stuck-up attitude, but maybe I wasn¡¯t that far off from the truth. He didn¡¯t even want to show the smallest sign of respect to those around him. ¡°Even so, I have a responsibility to uphold towards their parents! Even if they are draconian, to suddenly enlist them in your troops, that¡­ that¡¯s¡­¡± ¡°That¡¯s an honor. For someone who is below Master Rank to participate in combat and training sessions with those of Master Rank and higher is a true honor! Also, do remember that I am a draconian Supreme who is engaged to their princess. I don¡¯t believe they would stumble upon such a great opportunity again any time too soon or at all.¡± he explained, but just like before, he didn¡¯t look at Tuberculus. ¡°These students aren¡¯t ready! They are too weak and too young!¡± the old man still tried to get him to change his mind, but Dankyun wouldn¡¯t even hear of it. I listened to them for a little bit longer, but the draconian was determined not to change his decision, or rather he saw no reason in listening to Tuberculus¡¯ opinion. It wasn¡¯t a matter of being right as much as it was about him not being of the same species as him. Back in Romania, such a gaze in a man was hardly seen. In general, Romanians simply didn¡¯t care about skin color and country, however, there were exceptions there as well. I saw these sort of eyes in the people often tagged as xenophobic or racist in movies or on the news. These people saw others as either ¡®things¡¯ below them or simple enemies for the simple fact that they existed. If I were to think about it carefully, there was a high chance that racism and speciesism were more common and thought about as normal in this world which resembled Earth¡¯s medieval period. Human rights, Draconian rights, Elf rights, El¡¯doraw rights, and those of any other sentient species felt a bit on the missing side. It wouldn¡¯t have been strange if I was the only one withholding such morals about equality. Should I simply ignore this sort of behavior? I asked myself as I flew away from Dankyun. When I looked around, I saw some students of different species laughing together. Interesting how laughter was a common thing for all species and so was crying, pain, love, and any other emotion. This made me remember something someone once told me. I think it went like this: We speak of sentient artificial intelligence and sentient alien life outside of Earth as though they are enemies which we must hate for the simple fact that they are not human. However, what makes a human, human? Is it the bones and flesh of our bodies or is it our minds and souls? I believe it¡¯s the latter, for once we speak of flesh, there are many differences even within our species to make us hate each other to no end. Of this, we see proof in the racism and xenophobic behavior many display for no other reason than just the fact that other people look different. Therefore, I believe that in order to perceive without prejudice those different than us from their very basic physical construction, we must remember that if we have the same soul, emotions, and even thought patterns, then we are pretty much the same. I thought, but I had the feeling these weren¡¯t his exact words. Anyway, he was right. My experience alone in this world could confirm these words. Despite me, Shanteya, Ayuseya, Nanya, Tuberculus, and the many others at this academy being different from the point of view of our species to the locations of our births, we could still live together on the same plot of land without jumping at each other¡¯s throats. Honestly speaking, I had yet to witness any fights between students, or one of them spouting speciesist remarks at someone. Aside from them, I was a rather curious case because as far as I knew, dungeons were jerks in general. I know for certain that it doesn¡¯t matter how you are born. I was a human before, so simply hating or discriminating against someone just because they don¡¯t have a body like mine is wrong. Our souls are more or less the same¡­ It¡¯s certainly not right¡­ Dankyun¡¯s views are wrong, I¡¯m certain of it! I thought as I shook my head. If he saw the draconians as superior to humans or other species, it was wrong. Maybe it was biologically correct, but morally, it wasn¡¯t. Unfortunately, I couldn¡¯t do anything about it in that moment. These were things which were strongly embedded in society. To be able to change any of those, I had to become a very powerful being someone had no way of contesting against. Does this mean that I want to teach? The sudden thought popped in my mind, and I blinked surprised. I didn¡¯t mind the idea, but was there a way to do something like that? I could speak to them of the things I knew from my previous world, but I wasn¡¯t an expert in any of those, and I had no idea if there were similar examples in this world to which the students could relate to. I let the thought go and flew off to find Nanya. The teenage-looking teacher was minding her own business guarding the students from the soldiers. I had no idea what happened to those I punished before, but she most likely handled it with care, seeing as there was no fuss about it afterwards. ¡°Nanya, are you bored yet?¡± I asked as I approached her. Thanks to the little perk of her being my wife, she spotted me immediately and raised an eyebrow in reply. ¡°That bad, huh?¡± ¡°Things are a bit too quiet for my liking. Dankyun is behaving too¡­¡± she expressed her concern on the matter as she looked towards the temporary camp set up by the soldiers. ¡°Tuberculus was having a chat with him a moment ago. Something about him pulling the draconian students to his side?¡± I informed her. ¡°Hm¡­¡± she looked down and rubbed her chin. ¡°You think he¡¯s up to something bad?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a bit hard to say. The Dankyun I know was a fake he created just to steal my sword. The real one is still a mystery, but one thing I know for certain is that he views draconians as the best species out of all of them. He would be far more inclined towards listening to one of his own than a human or elf. After that, I know that he dislikes those weaker than him and shows somewhat respect towards those more powerful than him.¡± ¡°Basically, if you are human and weaker than him, you are completely ignored. If you are weaker and a draconian, you have one shot at being listened to, but the weaker you are, the more likely it is that he will look down on you?¡± I asked. ¡°Sort of, but to add to your words, if you are weaker than him, you are looked down upon no matter the species.¡± she shook her head and sighed ¡°I can¡¯t believe a man like him is a Supreme.¡± ¡°Aren¡¯t others much worse than him?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes, Paramanium Draconian Supremes are the worst bunch, but they won¡¯t move without being ordered to. Those could be just rumors, however. I have yet to meet any of them. The only Supremes I know are those of Shoraya, Dreziurne and Pendaros, who are lower Supremes. They are quite kind towards others. I also know that the third continent has far more Supremes, but I never met any of them personally.¡± she let out another sigh and looked up at me. With a smirk on her lips she then told me ¡°Let¡¯s pull some pranks on Dankyun¡¯s soldiers!¡± ¡°Huh? Are you sure about this? Won¡¯t they get mad?¡± I asked. ¡°Let them, but as long as they don¡¯t find out who pulled the pranks, everything will be alright!¡± she gave a thumbs up. ¡°Very well.¡± Between the two of us, she had to be the stealthy one. I was already invisible and mostly undetectable as long as I didn¡¯t open my mouth. Nanya sneaked up inside their camp and hid in one of the bushes. The soldiers occupied most of the back garden, making a mess of all the bushes and flower patches. 17 tents were raised all over the place, and roles were assigned to each and every one of them. While a part of them slept, the other kept watch. This way, they didn¡¯t need to worry about surprise attacks. They had a cook, a few who cleaned the messy armor, some who handled the weapons and sharpened them, while the three commanders beneath Dankyun was handling the training of the weakest of them. If I didn¡¯t know better, I would say I was looking at an army camp in the middle of a war zone. They were on the ground of a Magic Academy, they shouldn¡¯t have acted so strictly and cautiously. The air around the place was really tense. Even I could feel the pressure these soldiers had to deal with, but they could all be possible enemies, so feeling pity for the pranks we were about to play on them was out of the question. The first one Nanya had planned was what I would call a classic. The target was the cook, who was currently in the middle of preparing a large batch of soup. ¡°Extra spicy Tongue Blister Pepper.¡± she said with a smirk as she pulled it out of her pocket. I squinted my eyes at the small black pepper. It didn¡¯t look that dangerous, but knowing Nanya, there was a high chance I was wrong about it. ¡°What do you want to do with it?¡± I asked. ¡°Not me, you!¡± she grinned and offered me the thing. ¡°Huh?¡± I blinked surprised. ¡°Take it over to the pot and squeeze the seeds out of it. Those are extra hot! Then drop the rest in the barrel of water over there.¡± she pointed at the pot and then at a big barrel not far from it. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! Speaking of which, where did they get all of that stuff? I didn¡¯t remember them carrying around huge barrels and pots of that size. ¡°Alright.¡± I said and using [Telekinezy] I picked up the black pepper and flew over there. The mission was accomplished quickly and then I returned to Nanya. She was giggling about it. ¡°How long will we have to wait?¡± I asked. ¡°We¡¯ll hear the results.¡± she smirked and then moved away from there. The next target was one of the guards who kept bragging about how beautiful his wife back home was. Even I was getting curious about her when I heard him. ¡°She be as gentle as a moon¡¯s ray, as beautiful as a lily, and supple as a noble maiden! Ah! Me beloved is waiting fo¡¯ me, and I can¡¯t wait to snuggle up in her arms! Did I tell you about the time¡­¡± he said and the other guard rolled his eyes. ¡°YES! More than a hundred times already! Even the rocks are bored with it already! And I swear to the God of War, if you dare say the story of how you met her for the first time again, I¡¯m going to grab you by the tail and toss you to the first Dayuk pack I see!¡± retorted the other guard, trying his best not to unsheathe his sword and swing it at his neck. ¡°Aw, I thought you like it!¡± he said looking a bit down. The draconian threw him a glare and then looked away, trying to focus on his job. Meanwhile, not that far away from where those two were, me and Nanya were listening to the whole thing while laying low behind a thick bush. ¡°So¡­ what exactly are we going to do to them?¡± I whispered to her. ¡°Ssh! I¡¯m thinking¡­¡± she said squinting her eyes and furrowing her brow. Nanya was trying to concentrate. On the other hand, I could only think of banana peels and some stuff I saw on TV or over the net. Just thinking about them, I realized they really weren¡¯t that funny. Some were rather scary and bad, while others would have ended up quite bad if the ones being pranked had some sort of weapon on them. ¡°Should I try to Colly Tos their pants away?¡± I asked a bit bored. ¡°Illsssy¡­¡± Nanya looked up at me with a glare, while a pair of pink panties floated down from above. ¡°Sorry.¡± I said, and she snatched them from the air. ¡°Hm.¡± she squinted her eyes at me. ¡°Target the skinny one and try to use that spell on him, but this time, FOCUS!¡± she glared and crossed her hands at her chest. ¡°Alright¡­¡± I looked over at my new target. I concentrated on stealing only and only his pants. If he didn¡¯t have a [No Steal] enchantment on him, then it would work. ¡°Colly Tos!¡± I said after I focused really really hard. Something appeared in front of me and fell down on the ground. It was white and certainly not a pair of pants. Looking at Nanya, I saw that she was still dressed and her pair of panties was in her right hand, so it certainly wasn¡¯t hers. I knew what Shanteya was wearing, so she was off the list too. ¡°What is this?¡± I asked as I used telekinezy to pick the piece of cloth and lift it up in the air. It was huge, even bigger than Nanya was. I wondered if it was a blanket or something. ¡°What is this thing?¡± the teenage-looking asked just as surprised. ¡°A flag? A bed sheath?¡± I asked as I lifted the thing by the other end. It was indeed over 2.5 meters in length, but it couldn¡¯t be¡­ could it? ¡°AH! Me wife¡¯s treasured panties is be missing! It was me lucky charm! Did I drop it?¡± I heard the skinny draconian say as he searched through all of his pockets for the giant piece of cloth I was holding in my telekinetic hands. ¡°Oh for the love of¡­ I¡¯m going over there, and don¡¯t you dare come close to me!¡± said the other guard annoyed beyond his limit. Nanya was trying hard not to laugh. ¡°Hehe! I know draconian women are huge, but this is ridiculous!¡± I wasn¡¯t laughing. I was frozen in both fear and shock. I was holding in my hands a pair giant panties. They weren¡¯t even of the cute kind, they were plain, really plain. Taking a deep breath, I folded the panties back into a ball and then tossed them back at the skinny guard. It was direct hit in the head, which made Nanya barely contain her laughter. ¡°Me lucky charm! Huh? Where did come from? Did a god send them my way? Oh, bless be the heavens!¡± said the draconian man, hugging the pair of giant underwear. The soldier didn¡¯t bother trying to find out where they came from, so as soon as he was out of our sight, Nanya burst into a loud laughter. ¡°It¡¯s not funny!¡± I groaned. ¡°Hahaha! But Illsy! I can¡¯t stop! BUHAHAHA! That¡¯s one broken spell! Even when you focused on only one item, you managed to get the only thing of any connection to a female, a pair of giant panties! BUHAHAHA! I guess size doesn¡¯t matter!¡± she laughed rolling on the ground. ¡°I can¡¯t help it! The spell is broken! Also, I have a weight limit¡­¡± I complained. ¡°Hooo? What if Ayuseya reaches that size?¡± she asked with a big grin. ¡°I¡¯ll invent the treadmill.¡± I replied quickly. ¡°Trea¡­trelmilg? What¡¯s that?¡± she asked blinking surprised and tilting her head to the left. ¡°A magic device that helps you lose weight.¡± I squinted my eyes at her. ¡°Hahaha! What¡¯s up with that? Just buy a weight losing potion! Also, don¡¯t you know? Being fat means you''re rich. Some nobles even have competitions to see who has the biggest belly! I saw a human noble once who was fatter than his pregnant wife, who was in the 9th month! Buhahaha!¡± she continued to laugh. Weight losing potion? I better learn how to make those before they invent fast food. I¡¯ll make a killing! Sell food on one end of the dungeon and the weight losing potion on the other. Perfect! Still¡­ belly size competitions? I thought as I looked at the giggling teenage-looking teacher. ¡°Alright, wifey, what¡¯s the next prank we¡¯re going to pull?¡± I asked trying to change the subject. ¡°Oh, right! We¡¯re going to put oil on the handles of their swords!¡± she smirked. ¡°Isn¡¯t that dangerous?¡± I asked. ¡°Who cares?¡± she shrugged and walked off. ¡°Pfft, giant panties¡­¡± With a sigh, I followed her back to the other side of the soldier camp. We hid behind one of the tents and using my [Telekinezy] spell, I managed to pour the slimy, slippery oil on the hilts of the swords placed tip down in a barrel. I could still grab them without a problem, though. The last thing we did before we left was to pour itching powder on the training grounds and mix it up with the mud there. Every tumble the soldiers took would end up sending them in a itching frenzy. Once we were done, we sat back and enjoyed the show¡­ ¡°AARGH! Too hot!¡± shouted the first victim who dared to taste the effect of the Tongue Blister Pepper. Nanya was giggling already, seeing him head straight for the barrel of water. ¡°THIS IS HOTTER!¡± he screamed as he ran left and right, trying to extinguish the flames in his throat. His only solution ended up using magic. Using a spell that summoned a water ball, he shot it up in the air and stood right under it when it fell down. It wouldn¡¯t extinguish the flames in his throat, but it was good for a temporary reliever. ¡°Watch out!¡± screamed one of the soldiers who used the sword with the slipper handle. The blade flew through the air and stabbed the ground between the feet of one of them. The man was ¡®this close¡¯ to ending up unable to sire children. Seeing this, he fainted a moment later, causing a great explosion of laughter from Nanya. The other soldiers were also laughing, both at the unfortunate fellow and the ones trying to grab the handles of the swords. Over at the training grounds, two serious looking draconians were trying to measure their strengths against each other. It was going to be a wrestling competition, the perfect thing to get them all dirty and covered in itchy mud. Even I was waiting to see the funny result. After a few tumbles, the men started to scratch like crazy. They went out of the ring and jumped straight in the pond in front of the gazebo. The itching dust was quite strong, but the water weakened the effect. Of course, no one suspected the two of us to be the actual pranksters, and instead, the draconian soldiers blamed one another. It even ended up with a battle between a few, which their commanders broke up shortly after. Those weren¡¯t the only victims of our pranks, but the end result was more or less the same, draconians itching all over, screaming ¡®HOT!¡¯, and grown males barely able to hold a sword in their hands. ¡°Well, that was fun! Nihihi!¡± said Nanya with a smirk. ¡°I suppose.¡± I replied. We were walking through the forest, going around the camp to head back to the academy. ¡°And you with those giant panties! That was really funny!¡± she laughed. ¡°Don¡¯t remind me, I¡¯ll get nightmares¡­ Speaking of which, who invented panties anyway?¡± I asked. ¡°Who knows?¡± she shrugged ¡°Maybe the God of Panties?¡± she snickered. It was a joke, I knew that, but there was something like the God of Big Boobs, so maybe¡­ Nah! It can¡¯t be! I shook my head and firmly denied the existence of such a god. ¡°Do you think they will find out it was us behind those pranks? I¡¯m surprised no one heard you laugh like that.¡± I looked back at her. ¡°Oh that? I used a spell that silenced all sounds around me. It¡¯s not a perfect stealth spell, but for something like this was enough. As long as they didn¡¯t hear or sensed our presence, we have nothing to worry about. Besides, what are they going to do? Point a finger and complain?¡± she shrugged as if it was nothing. True, if they did try anything, Nanya alone was powerful enough to finish off all of them. In my case, it was just a matter of casting a 5000 Magic Energy Points spell of any of those I had at my disposal. Still, not all of the soldiers were there. I knew some were searching my other dungeons, and no one managed to find my secret dungeon yet, but they did destroy all magic summoning circles and traps they found. They were trying to weaken me. That was what it felt like. For a dungeon, traps and monsters were their weapons. ¡°What are you going to do now?¡± I asked Nanya when we arrived at the academy. ¡°I¡¯m going to go back there and pretend like nothing happened. What about you? How¡¯s that thing we talked about progressing?¡± she asked. ¡°It¡¯s going good, one part finished, the rest almost done. ¡®You know who¡¯ is helping me level.¡± I replied. ¡°Good! Good! With a bit of luck, maybe this bastard will leave without causing too much of a fuss! Nihihi! Also, you didn¡¯t forget to strengthen your Magic Armor did you?¡± she asked me with a raised eyebrow. I stopped in my track and gulped. I knew there was something important I kept forgetting, but I couldn¡¯t put my finger on it. ¡°Oopsie¡­¡± I said. ¡°Don¡¯t you oopsie me! Go and strengthen it! Now!¡± she glared at me. ¡°Yes! Oh, and Nanya?¡± I said when I reached the entrance. ¡°What?¡± she asked raising an eyebrow. ¡°Colly Tos!¡± I smirked, and her panties appeared above me. ¡°Bye bye!¡± I said and then quickly flew away from there. ¡°ILSSY!¡± she shouted as she snatched her panties back. She didn¡¯t give chase after me, only sighed and put them back on. The soldiers weren¡¯t the only ones who ended up getting pranked. Once in my room, I strengthened my crystal body, infusing it with as much Magic Energy as I could without fainting. Nanya did say not to foolishly charge it, but I had the feeling the stronger and bigger my armor was, the better. It always was the case for heroes in manga and anime. The more energy they put into something, the stronger it got, however, I did try my best to strengthen and focus it. With that done, I moved off to Shanteya. By now, she managed to stockpile quite a lot of monsters. I absorbed the mountain and gave her a quick ¡®Hello!¡¯, after that, I moved towards my dungeon. There was no time or need to chat, she was busy killing off a tribe of Goblins. The construction of my dungeon proceeded nicely. I managed to finish about 70% that day, but looking at it as a whole, this level was far deadlier than the ones before. The hardest part was the lava traps. Basically, it was a corridor of pressure traps that dropped hot lava from above. It was a one-time use type of trap, which I had to reset in a very troublesome way. Once the lava hardened, that path was blocked, and they had to go back through another trap filled corridor in order to reach the next section of the maze. The giant panties gave me an interesting idea though. I built a primitive type of treadmill, which was basically a combination of roller pins covered with a leather belt. The trouble came from trying to make them spin fast. I had to make a batch of oil and enchant it so that it didn¡¯t get dirty and wouldn¡¯t spill off whatever was rubbed on. Once I finished the whole installation, I realized I could simply enchant the roller pins and the band to move very fast without the oil. I let out an annoyed groan when I realized that. Nonetheless, I finished the trap by adding sharp metal spikes on each end of the treadmill and a couple of piston triggered sharp giant axes. Anyone going through there would need to be very very agile or have a powerful Magic Armor, otherwise, they would end up in pieces or skewered. Another thing I decided to add to every section of that maze was a gas trap. The air was poisonous for all of them, but I would have three different supply routes. Basically, I made pipes going through the ground and popping up under various tree roots or inside hollowed trees. This way, they were very hard to find and plug. There were multiple paths leading to my room, but all of them extremely dangerous. Unfortunately, I had no way to escape from there. If Dankyun or any other enemy reached me, it was going to end up as a battle to the death between us. Honestly speaking, I had no idea how powerful and dangerous this dungeon was going to be. I wanted to be more creative with it, and although my mind moved in the direction of advanced quantum physics and mechanics, I had absolutely no idea how to make black holes or gravity controllers. I couldn¡¯t even make a car if I wanted to. Thinking about it, I might have been extremely lucky with the Inconel super-alloy. If I didn¡¯t need to research it for my bachelor¡¯s degree back at the Politechnic University, I might have ended up with regular steel or iron walls. Then again, did I make it or was it already stored inside of me by the previous dungeons? If so¡­ how could those dungeons know how to make a super-alloy discovered only in modern times of Earth? I pondered about this matter while waiting for my Magic Energy to recharge. The mental fatigue was clear towards the end of the day when I accidentally built a tilted wall instead of a normal one. I was tired and simply had no drop of desire left in me to build anything anymore. It was a bit annoying that I was so slow at building stuff and had no way of building in bulks. The idea of a copy-paste method sounded good, but unlike the case with the tunnel, I had to focus on minor details on this one. Exhausted, I left the dungeon when it was starting to get dark outside. I flew straight to Shanteya, I picked her up, absorbed the pile of monsters and then flew back to the academy. If there was anything left to fix, it was going to be left for the following day. I only desired to slip back into the comfort of my Inner Mind and fall asleep. I¡¯m sooo tired¡­ I groaned as I flew into Shanteya¡¯s arms. Then please, rest well, Master. she said and let me cuddle up to her. Erm¡­ Illsyore? I heard Ayuseya¡¯s voice coming from behind me. [Dankyun¡¯s point of view] ¡°Miss Zoraya Del¡¯argo, I presume?¡± I asked as I looked at the young lady who entered my room. It was already dark outside, but even in the faint light of the candles in my room, I could still see her beautifully shinning green scales covering her tail and cheeks. She was a bit shorter than me and rather thin around the waist and chest. Her green eyes were like a pair of perfectly carved emeralds. Unfortunately, she was of a low noble origin. You could say that I saw it as a wonder how she managed to reach Fellyore Magic Academy. Despite everything, this place was rather far away from her home back in the Teslov Kingdom. ¡°Yes, Milord.¡± she replied with a polite bow. At least she knows a bit about manners. I thought as I looked at her. ¡°Do you know why you have been called here?¡± I asked her looking straight into her eyes. She gulped, but didn¡¯t run away from my gaze. I frightened her. ¡°No, Milord.¡± she shook her head. I tilted my head a bit to the left and waved my tail up and down next to me. Her eyes fell on my dark-brown scales and then looked away, thinking that I didn¡¯t notice her frightened gaze. ¡°I called you here to offer you the possibility of joining my people. You will be trained by my Emperor Rank and Master Rank commanders. You will receive all the appropriate gear you will need to function as a soldier in my unit, however, if you desire a more ¡®away from the battlefield¡¯ job, I can guarantee you something back at the Imperial Academy in the Paramanium Empire or the chance to work under a close associate of mine in the Teslov Kingdom¡¯s capital, in the palace or outside of it, depending on your choosing.¡± I explained the deal with a calm tone of voice. ¡°T-That¡¯s mighty generous of you, Milord¡­¡± she said blinking surprised at me. ¡°Indeed, it is. All that I ask of you is to renounce your loyalty towards Princess Ayuseya Pleyades and the royal family. Swear to serve me and only me, and I will make sure to turn your future into a bright one. What do you say?¡± I asked with a smirk. No draconian in their right mind would refuse to work under me. These misguided fools were of my own species, and I had the right to make sure they didn¡¯t stray from the right path. Promising power and riches were usually the best ways to motivate a change in their loyalties. Even so, there were those few fools who believed the alternative was better¡­ ¡°B-But Milord, I can¡¯t betray the royal family¡­ They are¡­¡± she started speaking, but the rest of her words were simply cut off for me. ¡°Enough.¡± I said lifting a hand up, and she closed her mouth. I closed my eyes and rubbed my temples in the futile attempt of chasing away the headache these idiots were causing me. Why couldn¡¯t they see what a pathetic bunch the royal family was? Why did they still retained their loyalty towards a dying cause? I simply couldn¡¯t understand. I couldn¡¯t comprehend this preposterous thing! Ugh! Either they are all idiots or the princess told them something to turn them against me. I thought as I looked at the young lady awaiting for me to speak again. ¡°Do you know what a Generation Curse is?¡± I asked her as I moved a hand away from my left temple and looked with one eye at her. ¡°N-No, Milord.¡± She was frightened of me. Good! ¡°Let me teach you then. A Generation Curse or Supreme Curse as others call it is a curse that affects your entire bloodline starting from your generation and going further to the next ones. Basically¡­¡± I released the other temple and leaned back on my chair. ¡°If I were to curse you, then you and your children and their children would receive this curse instantly. Can you follow what I¡¯m explaining?¡± I asked. ¡°Y-Yes, Milord, but I¡­¡± she tried to speak again, but I silenced her by lifting my hand up. ¡°You need not say a word, just listen.¡± I took a deep breath and looked into her eyes ¡°A generation curse is stronger the more generations it can engulf. The one on Princess Ayuseya for example is for 1000 generations.¡± she blinked surprised. Of course, not many knew all the details behind the royal family¡¯s curse. ¡°The interesting part, however, consists in the specific effects of these Generation Curses. The one on the Pleyades family forces them to die at extremely young ages and renders them extremely weak. They are so weak that even a human peasant could kill them. Do you understand?¡± I asked. ¡°Y-Yes, Milord.¡± she replied, but I could see her shivering already. ¡°Now, do you still wish to serve a princess that is bound to die in a few years from now?¡± I asked and pointed at her. ¡°I-I¡­ I¡­¡± she trembled and looked down for a moment. Be a smart girl and pick the right choice. I thought. ¡°I do.¡± she replied. ¡°Is that so?¡± I leaned back in my chair and looked up at the ceiling. ¡°So far, I only managed to persuade three students to join me, which have already been sent to be trained by my soldiers. To think that out of all of them, only three picked the right choice¡­ Sigh! Disappointing¡­ so disappointing.¡± I said out loud, but it didn¡¯t really matter if she heard me now. ¡°Mi-Milord?¡± she spoke with a trembling voice. ¡°I¡¯m bored of this game. If you don¡¯t want me to kill you right now, undress. Refuse, and I¡¯ll kill you and your entire family and friends.¡± I ordered her. If she didn¡¯t wish to join me, at the very least she could be useful to please me for a night. In my eyes she was nothing but a traitor anyway¡­ ______ Note from the author: Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it! :) If you have any questions, please send them in a PM. Chapter 29: And so it begins... Lifting my head up from my el¡¯doraw¡¯s chest, I looked back at the draconian princess. My eyelids were heavy, but I wasn¡¯t so tired as to not notice the beautiful sight displayed before me. Ayuseya was wearing a partially transparent pink nightgown that barely covered her chest. Her usually hidden body was up to display now, letting me savor every bit of it, except for her nether region, she was wearing panties. Her golden scales could be seen through the fabric, letting me known of their presence on her belly; hips; lower part of her chest, right above the last ribs; under her knees; tibia; arms; and collarbone. With her tail wrapped in front, looking down a bit shyly, and a strand of her long, red hair flowing over her right cheek, Ayuseya was a pretty sight to behold. My mouth opened involuntarily, and Shanteya closed it for me. What¡¯s this? I asked taken aback by this pleasant surprise. I¡­ she was startled by my question and looked at me with her red draconic eyes. Hm? I tilted my head to the left and tried desperately to remove all the naughty thoughts in my head. I¡­ I heard¡­ well, you see¡­ erm¡­ she looked around, trying to avoid my gaze. Knowing what happened before, how she cried, and her complicated situation in general, the only valid reason I could think of for her showing up dressed like this was in order to appease to me with her body. Because she yelled at me and cried after what happened before, maybe she thought that I was upset or mad with her. All of this was only to appease me, yet it only made me feel like a villain taking advantage of an innocent girl. Letting out a sigh, I scratched the back of my head and thought a bit about how to approach her now. It was clear that Ayuseya wasn¡¯t like Shanteya, otherwise the skill [Bond of Trust] would have appeared after that night together. Listen, Ayuseya, I¡¯m not mad nor upset with you. As I said, I may have done something bad back then, I apologize. I said and bowed my head to her. There is no need to force yourself to appease me if you don¡¯t want to. I¡¯m not going to touch you in an improper way. I haven¡¯t even touched Shanteya that way yet. Nanya is out of the question because she never entered my Inner Mind. I continued to talk with my head bowed down in front of her. As someone born and raised in Romania, I saw no need to stay in such a posture, but I read somewhere that when you apologized and showed your submissive side to the woman you might have upset, as a man, you would have a slim chance of being forgiven instantly. Of course, I read about that on a meme post, so the credibility of the advice was doubtful. T-Then¡­ what do you wish of me? she asked with a trembling tone of voice. I gulped and looked up at her. My eyes moved quickly to lock with her own, but it was hard not to notice the tempting allure of her barely hidden body. To feel comfortable and safe around me, not threatened¡­ I don¡¯t wish you harm. Erm, I guess despite being husband and wife according to that ring, we can¡¯t jump straight to being lovers. I¡¯m sorry, I made a mistake! So, how about just being friends for now? Honestly speaking, the first sign of trust I offered you is by bringing you here, in my Inner Mind. Is there anything else I can do? I said and showed her a wry smile. [Ayuseya¡¯s point of view] When I put on this nightgown, I knew I was exposing myself way too much. I never felt so embarrassed in my entire life. One of my maids suggested in using this on Dankyun since it appeared to be a popular form of seduction noble draconian women used to catch the attention of their husbands after a long time of being neglected by them. I never intended to use it for that man, it revealed way too much, however, I wasn¡¯t trying to hide myself from Illsyore¡¯s gaze. I knew that if there was even a slim chance of success for my plan, then I had to do this. If the old me saw myself right now, appearing before a Dungeon Lord wearing nothing but this poor excuse of a nightgown, I would have certainly refused to accept such a thing. A shout of anger would have been the first thing to escape my lips, however, without Illsyore, I would have never been able to shout again. So, what went on through my mind when I decided to approach him like this? What sort of mad thoughts pushed to expose myself to him like a woman in the Red District? Looking at my current status, I had no power and no allies of significant strength. The one after me was a Supreme, and I accidentally married a Godlike Dungeon Lord. I didn¡¯t need an explanation to understand just how powerful Illsyore could become when he already showed abilities and a power that far surpassed the oldest dungeons on this continent. The question was if he had enough time to become strong enough to battle Dankyun and his small army on equal grounds? Unfortunately, at this point, the only one who could offer me a helping hand was Illsyore. Considering the danger, considering the threat, he should have chosen to discard himself of me rather than try to stand and fight in a battle that had no connection with him to begin with. Despite knowing that, despite the fact that I should have begged and asked him on my knees to help me, here I was, standing before him with the intention of testing him. My mind spoke of reason, of shaking off my pride, but my heart as a woman wanted to see just what sort of man my fate had been tied to. I still found it hard to believe that as a dungeon, he wished to help me. I still couldn¡¯t believe that as a man, he wouldn¡¯t touch me or take advantage of me. He defied the very rules and logic most men went by in this world. What if¡­ What if Illsyore has the same plans as Dankyun and wishes to use me for his own benefit? was the question plaguing my mind. It was strange, but I really wanted to see, I really wanted to believe that maybe¡­ maybe I could trust him. I knew it was a foolish way to try to see this, but that was how I wanted to test him. That was what my instincts and feelings were telling me to do: put the steak in front of the wolf and see if he can abstain or not. Even so¡­ it ended up like this. Illsyore was standing in front of me, bowing his head and not ordering me or trying to blackmail me into submission. He didn¡¯t scold me for asking too much. He didn¡¯t scrutinize my idea and thoughts, no¡­ he merely apologized for something he needed not apologize in the first place. I was the one at fault¡­ I was the selfish one, yet he was the one saying ¡®sorry¡¯. Do you even understand your position now? I asked softly. He looked down for a moment, furrowing his brow and thought hard. Erm¡­ Maybe? he replied with a forced smile. You could order me to do anything you wish. You could order Shanteya to hold me down. You could do anything you desire to us, yet¡­ I stopped midway and looked down. Was it a good idea to say such things to him? I would never do such a thing! he replied adamantly as he shook his head. I blinked surprised and turned my gaze between him and Shanteya. Master speaks the truth¡­ here, in his Inner Mind, we are free of the chains of those spells. said Shanteya as she pointed at her neck. I blinked surprised once more as I saw no black tattoo around her neck. The symbol of her enslavement was gone, but how could that be? Were you freed? I asked. No. Look, you have no ring either, right? she pointed out, and I remember it was so. In other words, you are free here to follow your own will. I can¡¯t interfere with it. I can¡¯t order you to do anything, and I¡¯m more vulnerable here, next to both of you than I am outside. he said. His words sounded like a preposterous lie. That can¡¯t be true! No one would put himself in such a terrible danger in front of someone they wanted to control! If they did¡­ I stopped my words and covered my mouth. It was only then when I realized what this meant. Illsyore¡¯s actions were a mirror of his own thoughts and feelings. I initially believed this place was something similar to a prison he made, a secret place where he could freely control us as he desired, but if this was actually the place where he was most vulnerable, then by showing me this side of his, he put himself in a greater danger than any Dungeon Lord would ever dare to. I wasn¡¯t someone who trusted him, yet he dared to trust me, to believe that I wasn¡¯t going to harm him, that I wasn¡¯t going to hurt him. Tears gathered at the corners of my eyes, but I wiped them off before they had the chance to flow down my cheeks. With a smile on my lips, I looked back at him and nodded. Being friends sounds good. I like that¡­ We can be friends. I told him. That¡¯s great! he said with a cheerful smile. Do you plan on sleeping with us tonight? asked Shanteya. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. I remembered my embarrassing outfit and the reason why I came here. It made me giggle. I do not wish to give Illsyore any wrong ideas, so I¡¯ll excuse myself for tonight. I said with a nod. Aw, too bad. he seemed a bit disappointed. Let¡¯s take this one step at a time, shall we? I told him, and he nodded in reply. I left him and Shanteya alone. For me, it was too early to think about sleeping in the company of a man even if it already happened, but back then, I believed other things, now I knew that Illsyore could be my friend, and he didn¡¯t wish me any harm. It wasn¡¯t much, but it was a first step towards building a mutual trust. I could start trusting him little by little, and in time, maybe our relationship would change. [Illsyore¡¯s point of view] Although Ayuseya still didn¡¯t trust me enough to activate [Bond of Trust], it still was an improvement and big difference from being hated. I feared that thanks to my reckless behavior, I might have ended up antagonizing her towards me. In the end, my fear was for naught, she agreed to start off as friends. It was the normal way of starting a relationship if I were to say so myself. What happened with Shanteya was indeed sudden, but her circumstances and history allowed this sort of sudden change. She was raised as an assassin in a guild that heavily discriminated against women. Her curses and pain were all removed by me, and without a second thought, I welcomed her in my arms. I enslaved her, but then I wished to free her. Everything I did was what I believed would have been normal to do back in Romania or any other modern civilized country, but in this world, such freedom and will to help others was rarely encountered. Maybe they were used to people taking advantage of them, or maybe that was the first intention believed everyone to have. Either way, I was an oddity from this point of view, but I had no intention of changing myself. As I tried to fall asleep in Shanteya¡¯s arms, I thought back at how people may have acted in medieval times on Earth. Many movies and stories depicted the age in a rather romantic and adventurous way, but I remember there were others that showed the cruelty of that time. Nobles were above the peasants. Being born in the right family was important if you wanted to move up in society. In modern times, you could even become the president of the country if chose the right path, but in medieval times, others chose it for you. If people were used to such laws and the cruelty otherwise believed to be unacceptable, unreasonable, and unthinkable in the XXI-st century, then I was certainly seen as someone strange, with wrong morals and principles even, but was it really like that? No matter how I looked at it, my way of thinking was better. My mind and maybe even my personality were the product of hundreds of years of moral debates, countless wars, millions of sacrifices, and the constant evolution of society and science. Is there a way to offer what I know to this world? I asked myself before falling asleep. The following day things proceeded as usual. I woke up around 6:00 AM, released Shanteya and sent her off to kill monsters. For the first two hours, I focused on increasing the size of my dungeon territory and checking the escape tunnel I build the day before. I managed to add another 1.4 km to my territory. This time, however, I didn¡¯t forget to strengthen my armor before heading off. It was a routine I had to get used with, but still a rather boring one. I found it more interesting to build stuff. If there was one thing I wasn¡¯t able to talk with either Nanya and Tuberculus the day before was about how I could build my body. It slipped my mind yesterday, maybe because of how busy I was with the dungeon and the tunnel, or it could have been the whole pranks session. Speaking of which, once I finished checking up on the tunnel, I saw Nanya up and about in front of the academy. I flew over and approached her. ¡°Good morning, Nanya.¡± I said. ¡°Ah! Mornin¡¯ Illsy! I was actually looking for you!¡± she said with a grin. ¡°Huh? OK?¡± I raised an eyebrow. ¡°Right when I went to bed last night, I remembered that I have some stink bombs in one of my chests!¡± she showed me a small green ball wrapped up in dried green leafs. ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± I asked. ¡°A stink bomb! Toss it on the ground, and it will burn the nose of everyone around it! Nyahaha!¡± she laughed. ¡°Let me guess, I¡¯m going to be the one doing all the tossing?¡± I asked. ¡°Of course!¡± she nodded. ¡°Alright, I¡¯m in.¡± I shrugged. What could be the harm in it? I thought. ¡°Great! Let¡¯s go!¡± I smiled and followed her, but just then, I felt something terrifying and a message appeared in front of my eyes. ¡°Huh?¡± I said shocked. My first reaction was to check up on Shanteya, but she was safe, I could still sense her life sign somewhere in the forest. That meant there was someone else here who died, but what worried me were the words: ¡®designated as ally¡¯. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± Nanya asked tilting her head to the right. ¡°Someone¡­ someone just died¡­¡± I said. ¡°What? Who? Who died, Illsy?¡± She looked up at me with big eyes and clenched fists when she heard the shocking news. Gulping, I tried to identify who that designated lifeform was. ¡°Show me the data on the designated ally. Show last known location. Show me anything¡­¡± I said as I selected the words in that message. > I selected the option, and a green, transparent arrow pointed me in her direction. ¡°Zoraya Del¡¯argo¡­¡± I told Nanya. She followed me around the academy and towards the dormitory, while I followed the arrow. The direction it took us was none other than Dankyun¡¯s room. Once I stopped in front of it, Nanya didn¡¯t wait, she kicked the door down and locked eyes with the criminal. ¡°Ah! Nanya, what a surprise! I was just done with this¡­ traitor.¡± he spoke calmly as he used a piece of cloth to wipe off the blood of his victim from his hands. The draconian man was dressed in his usual armor, but the only missing parts were the gauntlets, which were left on the side of the king-sized bed his left. This was a room reserved for those of a high noble rank. Although barely decorated, since it was usually left to the taste of the students, there was one detail in this room that made it stand out from the others, a newly added piece of decoration. The floor was painted with the spilled blood of the draconian student. The nearby walls, table, and curtains were stained as well by the thick, red fluid. At Dankyun¡¯s feet laid the disturbing detail: the body of the student Zoraya Del¡¯argo. There was no doubt about who the killer was. As for how she died, I could tell through a simple look at her remains. She was naked, with red whipping marks on her body. Her arms had been ripped out of her body and tossed aside. The slim tail covered in green scales was cut in half, and there was a gaping hole in her chest. This sort of damage wasn¡¯t done by magic or a tool, but by the bare hands of the Supreme standing next to her with a nonchalant smile on his face. The monster wasn¡¯t fazed at all by the horrible deed he had committed. The draconian girl suffered a terrible fate, a death she didn¡¯t deserve, and once again, I was confronted with the cruelty of this world and the madness of this man. I heard of this type of people back in my world, the psychiatrists called them psychopaths, but I had the feeling Dankyun suffered from megalomania as well. Although I didn¡¯t know if he suffered from any other mental problems, these two were clear so far. The worst part was that this individual who found pleasure in killing was a Supreme. ¡°Nanya, this¡­¡± I said, but when I looked down at her, I saw her anger. Her fists and jaws were clenched tight, and her entire body was tense, she could barely keep herself from jumping forward and attacking him. Actually, that might have been her intention because I saw a black aura similar to my black fog, forming around her, it was the first time seeing her like this, and she was scary. ¡°Oh? Little Nanya is upset? Hm¡­ Here.¡± Dankyun leaned down and grabbed the dead girl¡¯s head. Stepping on her chest, he decapitated her with a strong pull. ¡°Catch!¡± he then tossed the head at us. I used [Telekinezy] and caught it instead of Nanya. ¡°You¡¯re a monster¡­¡± I said as I looked at the expression of horror left on the girl¡¯s face. The dark fog was now released on my territory as well. This man, this monster, I couldn¡¯t forgive¡­ I couldn¡¯t allow him to live. Would Nanya even stop me now if I attacked him? No¡­ she was the first to attack. ¡°DANKYUN!¡± she growled and jumped towards him. ______ Note from the Author: Thank you for reading this chapter! I hope you enjoyed it! :) Chapter 30: The cries of my spells With a speed greater than what the human eye could see, she dashed towards Dankyun, who noticed the incoming danger and lifted his hand up to block the first strike. He didn¡¯t even flinch when he received the blow. The shockwave was so powerful, it shattered the window behind him into a billion pieces and then the impulse sent him flying through it. The frame was blown apart, and the wall cracked because of his sheer size. Even after such a powerful hit, he still didn¡¯t receive any damage and landed calmly on his feet. Nanya walked over to the hole in the wall and jumped after him. Meanwhile, I was left holding the head of the poor girl who died because of him. Looking down at her contorted expression of fear and pain, I cringed and closed my eyes for moment. She didn¡¯t deserve this¡­ I thought and flew over to her torn body. After placing the head down, I went outside, where a full-blown battle was taking place between the draconian Supreme and the Godlike teenage-looking teacher. The loud noises of their clashing strikes echoed on the walls of the dormitory and the nearby academy building, alerting both the soldiers and teachers of the ongoing battle. I flew above them and watched as Nanya tried to get in close enough to land a strike with her steel gauntlets on his vital spots, but Dankyun¡¯s sword was too fast and blocked each and every one of them. Behind him, I could see the effects of her force. The shockwaves rustled the grass and scared off any small animal or bug hiding in the area. The students in the dormitory were already trying to get out of there, heading off to the academy building where the other teachers were expecting them. Being an observer in this battle wasn¡¯t to my liking, and I prepared myself to engage Dankyun as well. I wasn¡¯t planning on stealing Nanya¡¯s kill, but I wanted to help her out as much as I could. ¡°Shellur Sou Yar!¡± I chanted and cast four [Explosive Jagged Ice Spear X4]. Sixteen Jagged Ice Spears formed around me and flew towards Dankyun. He jumped back and slashed the five closest to him. Two missed, hitting the ground at his feet. Another two managed to land a direct hit, but they didn¡¯t even scratch him. As for the rest of the spears, they kept chasing after him until he swallowed them up in a wind tornado, but just like before, I didn¡¯t hear him cast the spell. I found it incredibly strange that he could do such a thing, but I knew it wasn¡¯t technically impossible. As long as someone figured out how to properly control the flow of magic in his mind and focused on the chanting words, there was no problem in using any sort of spell. Unfortunately, I was far from attaining and using such a skill. As soon as he finished casting the wind tornado, I saw Nanya jumping towards him. She used the voice command for [Fireball] and another spell I could only describe as a directional lightning strike. Dankyun slashed her first spell in half, nullifying it, but he didn¡¯t notice the second one and received the full hit. His armor, however, remained undamaged. That was when Nanya charged in at him again, trying to strike him down with her fists. While she was keeping him busy, I didn¡¯t hesitate and charged up 500 Magic Energy Points into a [Fireball]. The students were too far from a possible impact area, but the damage would certainly be considerable. I just hoped Nanya dodged in time. ¡°Ashur Nav Es!¡± I shouted, and my spell was launched at Dankyun. ¡°Hmph! Pathetic!¡± said the draconian, who kicked Nanya in the chest, sending her crashing into the wall of the dormitory. Before my spell hit, he turned around and slashed it in half, causing a Magic Energy instability. Although the spell didn¡¯t detonate, the mass of fire spilled over the ground around him just like water would out of a popped balloon. The flames singed the ground, leaving nothing but ashes behind. I watched stupefied at how easy it was for Dankyun to destroy the attack that took the life of 24 assassins. Once more, I realized the actual difference in skill and power between ranks. I couldn¡¯t compare Dankyun, a Supreme, with those assassins, who at most were Master Rank. Nanya coughed and got up from the ground. The wall behind her crumbled down, leaving behind a hole. Glaring at him, she lifted her hand up and shouted ¡°Erater Elf Es!¡± In that moment, fifteen Jagged Ice Spears formed around her and then flew at the smug draconian. He jumped out of the way, letting two pierce the ground, while he used his sword to deflect and destroy the others. Only one managed to pierce through his defense, but it was deflected with ease by his armor. I had no idea what it was made out off, but it did the same to my Explosive Jagged Ice Spears. They were deflected, and they didn¡¯t even detonate upon impact. For a moment, I even thought I shot a dud. ¡°It appears this isn¡¯t what I would call a fair fight. There¡¯s an invisible partner helping you, isn¡¯t there?¡± asked Dankyun with a confident smirk on his face. ¡°Why? Why did you kill her, Dankyun?!¡± shouted Nanya at the man. ¡°Hm? Oh? That little twerp? It¡¯s simple. I deemed her to be a traitor towards me and the draconic kind. We have no need for the likes of her.¡± he shrugged calmly. ¡°What? A traitor? How could Zoraya be a traitor? You are lying, you pile of donkey manure! She was a simple girl who wanted to become a healer and return to her village! She never had any intention of joining the army! Grrr!¡± shouted Nanya, letting out a growl at the end. It sounded animalistic, but it just proved how angered the teenage-looking teacher was. ¡°Oh, such filthy words! Alas, I can¡¯t expect more from the likes of you. As for that draconian, I can guarantee that she was indeed a traitor to her kingdom and species! I did ask her, after all, if she knows where Ayuseya might be, and she dared to reply that even if she knew, she would never tell me! I felt insulted! Besides, it¡¯s in the interest of the Teslov Kingdom for me to find her as quickly as I can. Gods forbid if something were to happen to her in this kingdom because she withheld precious information from me! That¡¯s why I declared her a traitor. At the very least, I offered her the touch of a man before I killed her. Do not worry, I¡¯ll let her family know of her¡­ betrayal. They will certainly fall from their noble status because of this, but I do believe it¡¯s a rather fitting punishment for the likes of her, don¡¯t you think so?¡± he asked as he looked down at the tip of his sword. ¡°You are a madman!¡± I declared before Nanya could open her mouth, while the black fog of my killing intent spawned from the ground all over my territory and focused its darkest parts around Dankyun. No matter what he said, me and Nanya already knew the truth, and that girl did nothing to deserve such a cruel fate. Dankyun did this only to satisfy his twisted thirst for blood, one which would be poured down all over my friends and those I cared about in this world if we didn¡¯t put a stop to him. ¡°Me? A madman? That¡¯s a bit absurd! I¡¯m just concerned for the well-being of my species! The draconians are far more advanced and powerful than humans, elves, or the pathetic beastfolk on the third continent! Yet, we are degrading ourselves constantly by working with them and even helping them¡­ Ugh! That¡¯s why, I merely offered to all of those misguided draconian students the possibility of becoming my underlings and learning from the best of the best the proper ways one such as them should behave! Instead of seeing the generous offer I extended towards them, they dared to refuse and in that girl¡¯s case even disobey my orders as a Supreme and future member of the royal family! That¡¯s the very definition of betrayal!¡± he declared as he glared towards Nanya, since he wasn¡¯t able to see me. ¡°Dankyun, you are the very definition of despicable and mad!¡± retorted Nanya. I couldn¡¯t argue with that. ¡°Too bad! I never asked your opinion anyway!¡± he smirked and charged at her. Nanya jumped back, but she was too slow. His hand moved faster than the eyes could see, and slashed her with his sword. It went straight through her magic armor and connected to the physical one. Sparks flew in all directions and Nanya went flying towards the dormitory. I didn¡¯t even have time to react. One moment I saw her jumping back, and in the next I saw Dankyun right in front of her. The windows on that entire left wing were shattered into tiny pieces, and the entire building shook. The side of the dormitory between the first and second floor was heavily damaged by the impact of her body into the floor between them. Luckily, the structure wasn¡¯t made out of concrete, so it was cracked and shattered with ease, dampening some of the impact. Unfortunately, it put that entire side of the structure in danger of collapsing. Most of the damage was where Nanya hit the building, leaving the upper room and the one bellow partially visible. Inside was a total mess, with pieces of the walls having smashed into the furniture and glass from the broken windows scattered all over the place. As for Nanya, she stopped close to the last room, falling down on the ground with an ¡®oomph¡¯. The barely hanging wall collapsed on top of her, partially covering her up with rubble. As far as I could tell, she was still alive, but after such a powerful blow, I suspected she had at least one or two cracked ribs. ¡°Nanya!¡± I shouted instinctively, but instead of rushing there, I targeted Dankyun and created a barrage of [Seeker Fireball X18]. ¡°Zir Navian Esy!¡± One after another, big fireballs of at least half a meter in diameter went after him. The draconian saw the incoming attack and immediately tried to dodge and block them, but I was in control of each one of them. After the first two were slashed in half by his sword, I began to take advantage of their explosive effect and used it as an AOE. I ordered the fireballs to explode right when they touched his Magic Armor or at a few centimeters away from the edge of his sword. The first ones took him by surprise, tossing him back a meter or so. The next ones, he tried to cut them, but the effect was the same, however, still far from causing any sort of damage to him. Actually, I couldn¡¯t see even a single scratch on his armor, but the battle was far from over. My Magic Energy pool was far from depleted, and I had yet to use my Emperor Rank Skill. My only worry was him using his Supreme Skill. ¡°What pathetic attacks! But I will say that they amuse me a bit! I¡¯m guessing you are the one attacking, Dungeon Lord?¡± he asked with a smirk as he kept avoiding or receiving the explosions from my fireballs. I didn¡¯t answer. I focused on the battle, hoping that it would offer Nanya enough time to recover. ¡°Nya Nya Niku!¡± I shouted the voice command for creating a trap. Under Dankyun¡¯s feet, a spike trap formed, but since it didn¡¯t have the enchant of ignoring a part of the Magic Armor, it simply threw him in the air when it triggered. ¡°Spike traps? Against me? Really?¡± he laughed. ¡°Eshun Naer Es! Jend Ashur Elf Es! Zir Navian Esy!¡± I shouted the voice commands for [Wind Scythe], [Explosive Jagged Ice Spear], and [Seeker Fireball X18]. The first one cut the air and slammed into him, sending the draconian flying towards the academy, the jagged ice spear flew through the air and aimed at his back. He turned around in midair and slashed it in half, but I detonated it and tiny ice spikes pounded his Magic Armor. I finished by bombarding him with seeker fireballs in a randomized pattern. He defended himself from a few, but for the rest it was nearly impossible to do so. ¡°Serus kar!¡± I chanted the voice command for [Telekinezy] and targeted Dankyun. I tried to surround him with this spell, but I couldn¡¯t get a good grip on him because his Magic Armor was too dense. Putting more Magic Energy in this spell didn¡¯t work either. He was still trying to figure out where I was, completely ignoring my attacks on him, but I was invisible to everyone except Nanya and Ayuseya. With no alternative left, I tried to surround him with my spell entirely. It worked, and I slowed down his fall. ¡°What¡¯s this?¡± he asked surprised. It didn¡¯t seem like he recognized the spell. Turning around, I pretended I was baseball player and used Dankyun as a ball. I tossed him as hard as I could towards the forest on the other side of the academy. His body went flying through the air at an incredible speed, breaking the sound barrier and creating a sonic boom. The shockwave spread around, and the next thing I saw were the effects of his body slamming into the trees. He passed straight through a couple, shattering their barks into tiny pieces and breaking in half a couple of others. My initial intent was to fly over to assess the damage and give the finishing blow, but then I heard one of his soldiers. ¡°Kill them all!¡± he shouted. Looking down, I saw the students and teachers fighting against Dankyun¡¯s army. The three commanders were holding off the teachers, while the soldiers were trying to break inside the school. Concentrating on the group of misbehaving draconian men, I created a hole under them and then summoned lava on top. It wasn¡¯t much, just enough to block the entrance to the academy. I wasn¡¯t going to let them kill the students. ¡°AAARGH! It burns!¡± screamed one of them. ¡°Get back! It¡¯s the Dungeon Lord!¡± shouted another as he jumped out of the hole. I probably killed some of them, but the rest backed away. Just to be sure, I created a few more arrow traps next to the windows of the academy, letting them trigger the moment they got too close. Creating enchantments would have been too hard on me in that moment, so I hoped the teachers and students would be able to handle the soldiers now. An alternative was to use the AGLMC Lasers on the rooftop, but pinning them down one after another would have taken too much time. I had to go and kill Dankyun. Curse my lack of Magic Energy and lack of sure-kill traps! I thought as I checked how much I had left. I didn¡¯t even focus on the couple of levels Shanteya gained for me until then. After closing my status window, I looked over at Dankyun. A moment ago, he was there, but then he disappeared. He was heading fast towards Nanya, who only now managed to get out of the rubble. The wound inflicted on her wasn¡¯t that dangerous from what I could see, but she was bleeding a bit and holding her chest with one hand. Worst-case scenario was that her injury was internal. ¡°Watch out! He¡¯s coming!¡± I shouted at her as I flew over. I tried to create some sticky traps between him and her, but he simply jumped over them. ¡°HA!¡± Nanya tried to punch him, but he avoided the blow and grabbed her hand. Turning around, he slammed Nanya in the ground and punched her in the stomach. I shot a powerful [Seeker Fireball] at him, but the moment he saw her, he moved Nanya in the way, and I had to divert it towards the dormitory. The right wing of the building was engulfed in its flames. ¡°Let¡­ go!¡± she tried to hit him in the stomach with her knee, but it didn¡¯t go through his Magic Armor. Lifting her up with one hand, Dankyun laughed. ¡°So pathetic! I can¡¯t believe you are so pathetic, Nanya! Hahaha! And this Dungeon Lord is even more ridiculous! Does he actually believe a Supreme like me can be harmed by these pathetic attacks of his? Hahaha!¡± he laughed and then punched Nanya in the stomach, making her spit blood. The black fog on my territory showed just how terrifying my killing intent was in that moment, but there was nothing I could do except to attempt to fuel my Emperor Rank Skill with all of my Magic Energy and risk fainting because of the use. ¡°Nanya¡­¡± I said. I closed my eyes for a moment. Dankyun is going to kill Nanya at this rate¡­ He¡¯s going to kill her and then me¡­ then Ayuseya, then Shanteya¡­ I thought and unwillingly let the draconian princess inside me hear my thoughts as well. [Ayuseya¡¯s point of view] When I heard his voice, a shiver of fear went down my spine and ended at the tip of my tail. I looked up and saw a strange moving painting surrounded by a red lightning frame. On it, I saw Dankyun holding the young teacher who was also Illsy¡¯s first wife. I gulped and held a tight fist to my chest. This won¡¯t end well¡­ I thought. Looking down, I noticed that I was still in my night gown. After I woke up, I didn¡¯t really bother to change, I didn¡¯t feel the need to, but I also didn¡¯t desire for Dankyun to see me like this. Illsy could, he was my friend and my husband, but not that draconian bastard. Sigh. Why didn¡¯t I stay with Illsy last night? Me and my royal pride¡­ Ugh! I wonder though¡­ was that my last chance to feel his embrace? I thought as I flew towards my dresser. As for why I thought that Illsy was going to give me up to him? It was simple¡­ In order to save himself. In order to save Nanya. In order to save Shanteya and this school, that was the only possible logical choice, the only way to appease Dankyun. But what if he doesn¡¯t want to do it? I thought and stopped, looking down at the white dress I wished to wear. It was simple and plain. Do I want Illsy to sacrifice himself for me? I asked myself. Shaking my head, I denied such a thought and took out the dress. I can¡¯t let it come to that! I can¡¯t have Illsy killed because of me! If he lets me go, it will take a while before Dankyun realizes the connection between us. Illsy can use that time to flee from here¡­ Yes, that¡¯s how it¡¯s going to be¡­ I told myself, trying to shake away any fear I had of my tragic future. [Nanya¡¯s point of view] I couldn¡¯t even react when Dankyun attacked me¡­ The pain I felt was terrible. The best way to describe it was the feeling of being impaled in the gut with a thousand needles. The sword¡¯s blade was stopped by the hidden chainmail layer of my armor. Although on the outside it looked like plain, old leather armor, all of its layers had powerful damage reducing enchantments on them. My belt held a healing one, so I was recovering faster than normally possible, but I still had to infuse a good amount of Magic Energy in my body to stop my hemorrhaging innards. When I got out of the pile of debris, I was aware of the battle taking place at the academy. Tuberculus and Paladinus were most likely on the front lines, trying to hold those soldiers off. The three commanders were the bigger problem, but in rest, they could all be handled with ease. As for me, my problem was Dankyun. I wasn¡¯t expecting for him to be so powerful. No, he wasn¡¯t powerful, but his armor and sword were out of the ordinary. They greatly boosted his abilities and had an increased protection factor. With certainty, they allowed him to go past 1200 strength points. I suspected he had even more in Agility, but not that much in intelligence. If only those points actually reflected how smart one actually was and not how powerful his magic attacks could be. One thing I knew for certain was that my sword alone could increase its user¡¯s base Strength by another 500 points. If his armor could do something similar, then there was no way of winning against him, but I highly doubted he was able to fully activate that ability. Chances were he could only use the sword at 25% of its true potential, but even then it was incredibly dangerous. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! Honestly, this was looking very bad. I could barely stand thanks to his blows. My armor was barely hanging there. My gauntlets were broken. Three ribs were cracked, and one lung was crushed as far as I could tell. I was healing, but that stopped after he punched me in the stomach. In short, I was done for¡­ I was an idiot for charging at him like that¡­ I can¡¯t believe I let myself ruled by emotions. If only I tried to first release my seal and then attack him. Then I might have stood a fighting chance¡­ I thought as I felt Dankyun¡¯s claws clench tight around my throat, cutting off my air supply. I¡¯m sorry Illsy¡­ I closed my eyes. [Illsyore¡¯s point of view] Nanya was dying¡­ I had 4865 Magic Energy points. I had only one target. It was now or never¡­ ¡°Neru Am Ur.¡± I whispered the chant. The magic energy poured into the spell, and I didn¡¯t stop until it automatically cut itself off. This was at 465 Magic Energy Points. I then released the spell in Dankyun¡¯s direction. Around me, 220 Infernal Glacier spears formed, each of them was far stronger than the original version, but what this meant exactly, I didn¡¯t know. I only wanted to kill Dankyun. I released all of them with him as the prime target, and they all flew as fast as they could in his direction. Noticing the imminent danger, he released Nanya from his grasp and jumped back, they followed him at perfect angles unlike the [Seeker Fireball] and [Jagged Ice Spear]. The [Infernal Glacier] spears followed my exact directions: left, right, up, down, left, left, right, wherever I looked and thought of them flying. ¡°Annoying little things!¡± said Dankyun before he tried to cut one of them. The arrow exploded on impact, splashing the liquid fire on him. I couldn¡¯t tell if it did any serious damage on his Magic Armor, but he tried to get rid of it quickly. This distracted him for a moment, and another managed to hit. After that, he was bombarded by a good number of them, hammering at his physical armor and Magic Armor. I had no idea how much damage he actually took, but I could see his physical one crack, and I was certain he was pouring a lot of Magic Energy in his magic one too. Can I win with this? I asked myself. 78 of those Infernal Glacier spears struck him, and 142 were left. He jumped to the left and four of those arrows struck the ground, leaving a huge crater there. One managed to touch the rooftop of the dormitory and detonated, ripping off a good chunk of it. Now, the whole thing was half in flames and dangerously close to crumbling down. Another of those spears hit a tree, and it simply cut through it before it impaled itself at the root of the one behind it. The spear exploded, and the liquid fire engulfed the area, setting it ablaze. These misses weren¡¯t because of the spell itself. To blame was my lack of focus and inability to keep control over all of them at the same time. I was barely staying awake. Each of my eyelids felt like it was being pulled down by the weight of an entire tank. My whole perception felt sluggish, and I found it extremely hard to focus. It reminded me of that time in college, when I had to take a Mechanical Engineering exam and I didn¡¯t sleep for over two days straight trying to get my report and homework done in time. My grade was mostly dependent on those two, so I had to finish them. Thanks to those sleepless nights, I felt like a zombie during the entire exam. I just wanted to get it over with and crash down in my bed. Thinking about it, you could say I had a decent amount of training from my student years in regard to keeping my eyes open for such a long time. Even so, in these hellish conditions, I was keeping control over 130 something Infernal Glacier spears that flew at high speeds through the air. ¡°Dungeon Lord, you are such a persistent little bastard!¡± said Dankyun after he was tossed to the side by the explosion of one of those spears. A dangerous fire was already spreading through the forest, threatening to burn it to the ground, but I didn¡¯t care, I focused only on getting rid of Dankyun. I needed only one of those spears to land a direct hit on his flesh, and it would have been enough to kill him. Four more went through the trees and aimed for his feet. He couldn¡¯t dodge those. Two more cracks appeared on his armor. Another eight exploded behind him, above his waist, while two in front of him, at his feet, causing him to fall over. Another crack appeared on his armor. I couldn¡¯t take it anymore. ¡°AAARGH!¡± I groaned and screamed, sending ALL the remaining 100 spears at him. With every last drop of my focus and energy, I aimed them all at his head and chest. If only one would land a direct hit, it would be my victory! ¡°ARGH!¡± screamed Dankyun as he tried to defend himself from the sudden avalanche of attacks. The explosions soon followed, spreading liquid fire all over the place, pouring over the trees, dirt, and rocks. Infernal flames spread all over the place, burning to a crisp anything they touched. The rocks melted, the dirt was singed, everything around Dankyun was burning. Everything¡­ except Dankyun. ¡°No¡­¡± I said with a trembling voice when I saw him still standing in the middle of all that fire. He was breathing hard, his armor was in tatters, pieces of it were falling on the ground, but he only had a small cut on his left cheek. Nothing else, he wasn¡¯t dead¡­ ¡°How dare¡­¡± he said, and I blinked surprised ¡°How dare you injure me!¡± he shouted at the top of his lungs. ¡°What?¡± I couldn¡¯t believe it. He can still fight¡­ I thought. ¡°I¡¯m going to murder you!¡± he screamed and then took a small purple crystal from his left pocket. ¡°Repair.¡± he said, and the crystal turned from purple to transparent. Under my astonished gaze, I saw his armor being repaired by the magic in that crystal. It returned to its initial condition as though it was brand new. There wasn¡¯t even a single scratch on it anymore. It was like my attack didn¡¯t even happen. ¡°No! You can¡¯t do that! That¡¯s cheating!¡± I shouted. ¡°Cheating? Hah! Any self respected Supreme and Godlike adventurer uses these things. Well, anyone except that STUPID Nanya! She never wanted to touch a dungeon¡¯s crystal even after it was processed into this!¡± he shouted with a smirk and pulled out another crystal, this time a brown one. ¡°Rejuvenation!¡± The spell in the crystal vanished, turning its color from brown to transparent, and Dankyun¡¯s wounds were all healed up in the blink of an eye. It was natural to think that a respectable adventurer always had a potion of some kind at hand to heal their wounds and restore their energy, but even I knew their reaction wasn¡¯t instant. No, that has to be a spell of some sort¡­ Maybe he can store spells inside those crystals. I thought as I looked at him in horror. Was there anything else I could do at that point? I could barely keep my eyes open thanks to how tired I was, and there was no way I could cast another spell so soon. I needed at least a half an hour or so to recover completely, but if I closed my eyes now, it was certain I wouldn¡¯t wake up for more than an hour or so. Whatever I did, I had to stay awake and head back to my crystal body. Before anything, I had to send it inside my dungeon, where it could be protected. That was my only chance, my only way of survival. I hated it, but there was no other way. ¡°Replenish Magic Energy.¡± said Dankyun behind me. Those blasted crystals healed him and restored him to full strength. I didn¡¯t even know such things existed let alone that he had so many of them. I hated my lack of knowledge of this world, but this wasn¡¯t the time to complain about it. Although I flew as fast as I could towards my crystal body, Dankyun was the first to get there. He aimed his sword at the Inconel cage, and for a moment, I thought he was going to break through it in one slash, but the blade stopped in the first layer. The shockwave cracked and shattered the outer walls, revealing the metallic shine of my barrier. I need to hurry! I thought as I rushed inside to prepare my laser defense. ¡°Interesting. A metal that can actually resist my strike?¡± he said when I passed by him. ¡°Serus Kar¡± I gave the command for [Telekinezy]. The lasers in my room moved and aimed at him, while the electric Power Crystal was activated. I waited patiently and watched Dankyun as he prepared a second strike. He wanted to cut straight through the metal walls, but they were far stronger than he initially believed. At the very least, I found out that a super-alloy was strong enough to stop super-psychopaths, at least for a while. The blade fell on my Inconel walls and slashed through the first two layers, but not the third one. Since there wasn¡¯t any sort of electric isolation between them, the electric power from my Power Crystal was unloaded through his sword and into his body directly. He screamed once and jumped back. ¡°That hurt!¡± he complained. The electric charge wasn¡¯t powerful enough to do him any real harm, but it did stop him long enough for me to apply [Repair Room] skill. The cuts in the Inconel metal walls were repaired in the blink of an eye, but this constant use of my Magic Energy wasn¡¯t helping me at all with my exhaustion. I¡­ I need to hold on¡­ I thought. Illsy, if you want to stop him, you have to offer me to him¡­ That¡¯s the only chance we have to make him stop this madness! said Ayuseya from deep inside my Inner Mind, but I didn¡¯t wish to let him do so, I denied such thoughts. No¡­ never¡­ I told her. I was so tired, I could barely speak or think properly. I must¡­ I must stay awake¡­ I thought and closed my eyes for a moment only to be woken up by another loud noise. Dankyun tried again to cut through my walls, but the electric charge and the thickness of the enchanted Inconel alloy kept him at bay. He cursed and struck the walls again. The whole cube I was in trembled from his strikes. What¡­ What was I trying to do here? I thought. The fatigue was so great, I even forgot the reason why I went back to my crystal body. Oh, yes¡­ escape¡­ I remembered and looked down. Paladinus and ten other students were standing right under me. I couldn¡¯t let my body drop, or I would risk crushing them or the teacher accidentally attacking me. I had to think of something else or tell them to move away, but sending out my voice felt so hard. ¡°You are really starting to get on my nerves, Dungeon Lord!¡± shouted Dankyun, and I felt him move away. What¡¯s he up to now? I thought as I watched him from afar. A moment later, my entire room shook and the students screamed in fear. I blinked surprised. For a moment, I thought he released his supreme attack, but the only area affected was my Inconel cage. Focusing a bit, I realized why that was so. The fake walls covering it have been blown apart by a powerful Fireball Dankyun attacked me with. The metal survived the high temperatures, but this only pissed off the Supreme even more. The draconian came charging at me, slashing my cage with his sword as hard and as fast as he could. A few pieces flew off and then reappeared when I repaired it, but I couldn¡¯t keep up with his damage. Strike after strike, he pounded the super-alloy until it finally gave in and allowed Dankyun to slip in. ¡°Finally¡­¡± he said with a huff. He was inside. Dankyun got passed my Inconel shell and stood just a few meters away from me. I cursed in my mind and turned ON the AGLMC Lasers around me. Six beams of concentrated and amplified light struck the draconian, eating away at his Magic Armor. If a Master or Emperor Rank stood in that place, I doubted they could have withstood more than a couple of seconds of continuous attack. ¡°What¡¯s this?¡± asked Dankyun as he looked at the strange beams. He jumped to the left as soon as he realized how fast they were depleting his Magic Armor. My beams followed him wherever he jumped, but it was hard to pin him down. The laser moved too slow to catch up to him, a grave miscalculation on my side. I cursed in my mind again and tried to pin him down, but he started laughing at my attempts. The electrified floor didn¡¯t even seem to bother him. ¡°How about this?¡± he asked, and he pointed his hand at me. Instinctively, I created an Inconel wall in front of me with the [Make a Room] skill. It blocked my beams, but then I heard something exploding on the other side, and a powerful flame engulfed he entire room. My Magic Armor withstood the heat until it came to pass, but the wall was bent towards me like a giant wrecking ball just hit it from the other side. Dankyun laughed. As I tried to prepare my AGLMC Lasers, I saw the wall being cut into pieces by his sword. He was standing just a step away from me. Release me, Illsy! shouted Ayuseya. No! I told her. ¡°Eshun Naer Zer!¡± I chanted, and a powerful gust of wind pushed Dankyun back. I aimed my lasers at him again. The beams were kept on him only for a second before he jumped out of the way. Release me! It¡¯s the only way! Please¡­ said Ayuseya. She was begging me now, but I found it odd. Didn¡¯t she want to run away and be free of Dankyun? No¡­ I can¡¯t¡­ I said. The constant use of my spell was draining my Magic Energy quite fast. One of the AGLMC Lasers lost power, and the beams on the others were getting weaker. ¡°Hm? Is it over already?¡± asked Dankyun with a smug look on his face. He jumped forward and slashed in half one of my lasers. The pieces were scattered on the floor. I tried to focus the beams on him, but the draconian moved out of the way. My movements and thoughts were sluggish. I could barely even keep my eyes open. It was starting to hurt, but I knew I couldn¡¯t afford to fall asleep or faint. There had to be something I could do, something I didn¡¯t notice, something I didn¡¯t think of until then. Illsy, please¡­ If you really see me as a friend, then please¡­ give up on me. said Ayuseya. I can¡¯t¡­ you are my friend¡­ Dankyun will harm you. I replied as I saw him slash in half another laser. The bastard was having fun stripping away my last pieces of defense. I didn¡¯t even notice when he destroyed the Electric Power Crystal. Illsy, you¡¯ve done all that you could, but Dankyun will kill you at this rate. He will kill Nanya and everyone else here¡­ If you release me from here, maybe I can convince him not to do it. Maybe I can at least try to save you¡­ All of this was my fault to begin with. I thought Dankyun would go away peacefully, that he would leave once he saw I wasn¡¯t here anymore¡­ I was wrong. I¡¯m sorry¡­ That¡¯s why, please, release me! Once I¡¯m taken by him, you can run away and grow stronger, or you can rebuild and maybe, one day, come to my rescue, but now¡­ you are too weak Illsy¡­ You are too weak to face someone like Dankyun¡­ said Ayuseya, but I couldn¡¯t understand even half of what she said, her words were muddled with my own thoughts and fatigue. Dankyun destroyed my last laser. The remains of my defense were all scattered about. There was nothing I could do to stop him from destroying me, nothing except releasing Ayuseya, but how could I do that when it would certainly spell her doom? Unfortunately, I couldn¡¯t think straight with how tired I was. I couldn¡¯t resist anymore. My Magic Energy was barely in the hundreds now. It was hard to keep my eyes opened, and it was hard to think about anything at all. Even Dankyun was saying something, but I couldn¡¯t understand a word he was saying. Ayu¡­ se¡­ ya¡­ I¡­ I¡­ the thought barely formed. Illsy, it¡¯s the only way¡­ You¡¯ve done enough. You tried your best¡­ she said something else besides these words, but I wasn¡¯t able to hear them. It was hard to focus. In front of me, Dankyun lifted his sword up and was prepared to land the final strike, the killing blow on me. Ayuseya¡­ I release you¡­ Those were my last words before everything went black, and I fainted¡­ _____ Note from the Author: Thank you for reading! :) I hope you enjoyed it! Next three chapters will be up tomorrow. Chapter 31: I do as I please for I am a Godlike! [Ayuseya¡¯s point of view] Illsy¡¯s voice was so weak. He was trying as hard as he could to survive Dankyun¡¯s onslaught, pushing himself beyond his limits to the point of breaking and fainting. In all my life, I had never seen another man try so hard for me, but seeing him in pain, seeing him suffer like that made my heart feel strangled by needles of pain. How can I let you suffer like this, Illsy? I said, but he didn¡¯t reply. I kept begging him to release me. It was the only way to win against that monster or rather¡­ to make him back away. Dankyun was a madman, a monster with unreasonable power. No one could win against him. Tears flowed down my cheeks without me even realizing it. They were tears of fear for what could become of the gentle Dungeon Lord who helped me when most would have fled away. My heart was hurting because I saw him in pain, because I saw him suffering when he had no reason to¡­ Or maybe¡­ maybe I didn¡¯t see his reason. Illsy, it¡¯s the only way to stop this madman. Please! You¡¯ve done enough. You tried your best, but this¡­ I told him and shook my head I don¡¯t want you to die because of me, Illsy¡­ I don¡¯t want this. I don¡¯t want to see Dankyun kill my¡­ I stopped. What was Illsy for me again? A guardian? A helper? A servant? A friend? Or more? The answer to this was whispered by my heart, and those were words I never believed I would say towards a dungeon. Illsy, I don¡¯t want to see Dankyun kill the one I could one day¡­ I could one day come to love. I looked up at him, and it was then when I heard his final words. Ayuseya¡­ I release you¡­ Such a weak voice whispered those words that I almost didn¡¯t hear them. My body was enveloped in a bright light, and I closed my eyes. The next thing I felt was a sting in my left cheek and the pull of the earth under my feet. I was back outside. ¡°Ayuseya?¡± asked Dankyun confused. Opening my eyes, I saw the sharp edge of his black sword. The glowing red runes covered it and spread a malicious aura all around it. What I felt on my cheek was the cut of his weapon. Luckily, Dankyun had a good enough control over it to stop his hand before he took my head off. Even though I was bleeding, I looked him in the eyes. There were still tears in mine. ¡°What¡¯s this?¡± he asked and pulled his sword back. ¡°Dungeon Lord! Answer me!¡± he shouted, but no answer came from Illsy. Looking back, I saw the green crystal just floating there without a single reply coming from it. Illsy was probably sleeping, exhausted from spending so much Magic Energy. He fought bravely, and for such a young dungeon, it was an incredible feat to injure a Supreme Ranked draconian like Dankyun. If I can buy him enough time, he¡¯ll become stronger than him¡­ I thought as I touched his flat crystal surface. I opened my mouth to speak, but I remembered Dankyun didn¡¯t know I could talk again. For now, it has to stay as a secret. I have to make him believe that he still holds that power over me¡­ I clenched my fist and looked back at him. ¡°Why don¡¯t you answer!¡± he said and lifted his sword up, but I stepped between them. ¡°What¡¯s this?¡± he furrowed his brow. I shook my head and then pretended to write something in my palm, to let him know that I didn¡¯t have my blackboard with me. ¡°What are you trying to say, woman?¡± he asked coldly. The way he spoke made it clear just how low I was in his eyes, but I didn¡¯t let it bother me. I made the sign again, hoping he would understand. ¡°You want to say something, but you need something to write on?¡± he asked raising an eyebrow. I nodded. ¡°Fine. Here!¡± he said and took out a storage crystal. It looked like a small quartz pendant, but it was one of the best out there capable of storing an impressive amount of loot inside. High ranked adventurers and military commanders found them indispensable in their missions. From inside, he took out a small blackboard and some piece of chalk similar to mine. He handed it over, but kept his sword pointed at the crystal behind me. ¡®Dungeon Lord is asleep. No magic left. I asked him to help me.¡¯ I quickly wrote. ¡°What? Then that¡¯s the reason why he¡¯s not answering anymore? Wait, but what do you mean you asked him to help you?¡± he squinted his eyes at me and pointed the tip of his sword at my neck. ¡®I¡¯m afraid of you. I don¡¯t want to be with you.¡¯ I wrote. ¡°Hm? I don¡¯t think you have a choice here, little princess. If you don¡¯t become mine, your body will be offered to the ¡®Ball¡¯ in a year from now, wouldn¡¯t it? We need to preserve the line, don¡¯t we?¡± he smirked at me. A shiver ran down my spine, and my body trembled a bit. ¡®I don¡¯t want that.¡¯ ¡°The other choice is me. At the very least, I can guarantee that our child will be strong and beautiful!¡± he replied with an overwhelming confidence, but the thought of having to sleep with this man disgusted me. ¡®You won¡¯t harm me, anymore?¡¯ I asked even if I knew the truth. ¡°Of course not!¡± he lied through his teeth. ¡®Then I will become yours. I¡¯m just afraid of pain.¡¯ I showed him the message and then erased it. ¡®Everyone here acted on my orders. Please, forgive them.¡¯ ¡°Is that so? This would explain a few things, especially those draconian students. Very well, I¡¯ll stop the attack, but you are coming with me right now. As soon as we reach Teslov, we will get married and I¡± he dropped on a knee and took my hand into his. ¡°I will show you a night to never forget.¡± he kissed the back of my hand and showed me a wicked smile. Shivers went down my spine of hate and fear, but I kept myself strong. I didn¡¯t want Dankyun to be my first man, but there was no other choice now. Illsy had to survive¡­ I nodded and smiled back. My heart was hurting so bad in that moment. It was horrible. Behind me was the Dungeon Lord who treated me with gentleness and love, and in front of me was the monster who took me away from him. Why was it so hard to believe Illsy? If only I stopped thinking about how other dungeons think and behave¡­ If only I stopped comparing the two¡­ I thought as I got up, helped by the man who was to take me away from Illsy. ¡°Oh! If they acted under your orders, then does this Dungeon Lord follows Nanya¡¯s or the headmaster¡¯s orders. I blinked surprised. Illsy didn¡¯t follow the orders of anyone, at least not how Dankyun believed. He simple followed along with their suggestions and requests. I don¡¯t believe I heard anyone say: ¡°I order you¡± to him. It was possible that I wasn¡¯t there when that happened, but I was pretty certain he acted independently. ¡®Tuberculus¡¯ I wrote on the blackboard. ¡°I see. To make sure we don¡¯t get any strange surprises on the way, we¡¯ll take him along as well. Hm, they must be under us.¡± he said and then looked down. Taking my hand, he pulled me over to the hole in the wall. I had to make sure where I stepped to avoid the sharp pieces of cut metal and broken crystal scattered everywhere. After we stepped out of Illsy¡¯s room, Dankyun stopped in the middle of the hallway and stomped on the floor hard. The force caused it to crack and form a hole in that place. He grabbed my hand and jumped down, dragging me with him. I almost screamed, but I stopped myself just in time. ¡°What¡¯s this? D-Dankyun?¡± said Paladinus, who pointed his sword at us. ¡°Cease your fight, I found what I was looking for, and I¡¯m going to leave this place peacefully. However, if you insist on fighting me. I will take you on and end your pathetic life.¡± he declared without even the smallest sign of remorse. ¡°H-How can we be certain that you won¡¯t attack us?¡± he asked with a trembling tone of voice. ¡°You are still alive, aren¡¯t you?¡± he replied with a raised eyebrow. Meanwhile, I looked behind them and noticed the other students who were looking surprised at me. Of course, nobody knew where I was, and they all believed I ran away or hid outside of the academy. Now that I was here, their gazes turned quickly from surprise to accusation for the trouble I brought upon them. I looked down, ashamed of this, but it was a truth I couldn¡¯t run away from. Dankyun came to this academy because of me. The one responsible for disrupting their peace and quiet was me. I called the storm over. Paladinus put his sword away and allowed the draconian Supreme to pass through. The moment one of the soldiers who tried to get in saw him, he spread the word to the others, and the battle outside stopped. The students formed a path for us, and we walked through, baring the weight of all their gazes of fear and hate they cast down upon us. Between the two of us, Dankyun was the only one who appeared to enjoy the stir he caused. ¡°What¡¯s the meaning of this?¡± asked Tuberculus, who stepped forward. ¡°Are you the one in control of this academy and the Dungeon Lord upstairs?¡± he asked. ¡°¡­¡± the old principal looked at me first and then said ¡°Yes. I thought I made that clear already.¡± ¡°Just checking. I¡¯m here to inform you that this¡­ peaceful visit has come to an end. I will depart together with Ayuseya today. You will come with us to make sure we safely reach the next town. Do I make myself clear?¡± Dankyun asked. ¡°Yes¡­¡± Tuberculus replied clenching his staff and lowering his eyes. It was their complete defeat. Even if he wanted to, he knew he couldn¡¯t go against Dankyun¡¯s words. ¡°Very well! I¡¯ll let my soldiers know of this as well. We shall depart in about an hour or so. Oh! And your forest is in flames. I would put that out if I was you. As for Nanya, she¡¯s somewhere in a pile of trash near the dormitory.¡± he said it as if it wasn¡¯t important, but with it, he practically declared that if anyone dared to go against him, they wouldn¡¯t come out unscathed. ¡°We understand¡­¡± said Tuberculus. ¡°Good!¡± With that being said, we walked over to the exit, which was being blocked by piles of furniture. Dankyun didn¡¯t bother digging his way through it, he unsheathed his sword and walked over to the room next to it. With four fast and powerful slashes, he cut a big hole in the wall and kicked it over. We went through and were greeted by his soldiers. It appeared some of them were injured, but they didn¡¯t suffer any significant losses. They still were in a pretty big number as far as I could see, however, none of them greeted or bowed down to me as their princess. Their loyalty was only to Dankyun, but that much was to be expected. As soon as he gave them the orders, the soldiers picked up the camp and prepared the horses. They finished packing in about an hour after he ordered them to, just as he said. Meanwhile, I stood by Dankyun¡¯s side. He didn¡¯t let me out of his sight even for a moment. Since all of my stuff was still inside Illsy, I had nothing to pack. ¡°It¡¯s time to go, Princess Ayuseya.¡± he declared and offered me a seat on his horse. I nodded and smiled like a good little trophy wife. I hope Nanya and Illsy will be alright¡­ I thought as I looked back at the academy. ¡°I¡¯ll take these. You won¡¯t need them for now.¡± he told me and took away the blackboard. Again, I smiled and nodded at him, letting him do as he pleased. The headmaster joined us shortly after. He was packing light, just enough for a trip to the city and back. Dankyun placed him between his commanders, and we departed like that, without saying good bye or even looking back. The journey was going to be slow. At a pace that would take at least eight or even ten hours until we reached Therion city. For most of the time, I tried to ignore everyone around. To ignore their presence because I could feel Dankyun¡¯s arms around my waist. They were strong and kept me still as if afraid I was going to run away from him with the first chance I got. It reminded me of that night with Illsy, when he pulled me in his embrace. His arms weren¡¯t strong, but they weren¡¯t weak either. Illsy was gentle and didn¡¯t worry I would run away. If I believed I would feel better, he would let me do it. If I wanted to pull back, I could. His kiss was so soft, his lips so gentle¡­ Illsy pulled me close because he trusted me. Illsy was caring and didn¡¯t force his smile¡­ Sigh. I made a mistake didn¡¯t I? I thought and then looked up at the branches above us. Each step we took brought us farther and farther away from the only man who was true to me, but I was too much of a fool to recognize his worth. No¡­ I was scared of him. I shook my head. I was scared of how honest he was. Isn¡¯t that foolish? I looked down at Dankyun¡¯s hand around my waist. It was so different from his, but my heart clearly knew which one it desired. I closed my eyes and let my thoughts fly back at the times I spoke with Illsy, at his words, at his touch, at his gaze, at his gentle presence. Speaking of which, he never did make his fog of darkness appear until Dankyun got here. He was a dungeon who didn¡¯t want to kill. My foolish dungeon lord husband¡­ I said to myself. Those simple words made me smile. It made wonder what I could have gained if I didn¡¯t act so foolishly. It made me wonder what it could have been if Dankyun simply didn¡¯t exist. Maybe I wouldn¡¯t have met Illsy at all. Guess that¡¯s the only thing I can thank Dankyun for¡­ He made me flee from Teslov and meet Illsy, but now¡­ I thought about my future with this monster. He was going to be the first one to touch me at night, the one I would wake up next to, the one whose children I would bear. My fists clenched tight around the reins. I didn¡¯t want that to be my future. I hated it¡­ We stopped after three hours to let the horses rest and eat something. Dankyun¡¯s commanders gave each of them a stamina potion diluted in water and some hay. Meanwhile, we took the moment to eat something, but I wasn¡¯t given the same food as the soldiers. I received dried hare meat and some fruits. This small stop lasted for only twenty minutes and then we were back on the horses. We moved fast because Dankyun wanted to leave Illsy¡¯s territory before he waked up. Even if he did, with me and Tuberculus as hostages, he wouldn¡¯t attack them. Besides, I told him not to until he grew stronger. Another three hours came to pass. Nothing changed, and we were almost at the edge of Illsy¡¯s territory. As for how I knew this, it was rather strange, but I simply felt it. It was the same feeling one would have upon getting ready to leave their own home. I didn¡¯t know how much more we had until we went past it, I just knew it was getting close. In an effort to try to forget Illsy and accept my new life, I tried to close my eyes and stop thinking about him. Flashes of him smiling, embracing me, kissing me, the moment of our embrace, they all returned to me with increased stubbornness each time I tried to push them away. I could clear my mind for a moment, but then I thought about him again and my heart was starting to beat fast and my stomach to feel funny. I couldn¡¯t take Illsy out of my mind. Did he curse me? I thought, but then I let out a sigh. I knew what that was. Only I could have the luck of falling in love with a man after I left him, but I think¡­ I believe he is a man worth falling in love with, especially when looking at the alternative, Dankyun. Sigh¡­ If there is any god out there, please, listen to my prayer and make sure Illsy and the rest are safe. Please¡­ I looked up at the sky. ¡°We¡¯re not that far now, princess.¡± said Dankyun, believing that I was just bored with the journey. Of course, this man only knew the quiet and easy to bully Ayuseya. Illsy knew and cared more for the real me. Nothing to do now¡­ nothing but wait and¡­ I thought, but then something hit me and made me fall off the horse. Dankyun jumped back and caught me before I hit the ground. All the soldiers stopped in their tracks. ¡°What happened?¡± he asked surprised, but he was holding me too tight. It hurt. I shook my head. ¡°It looked like she was hit by something.¡± said Tuberculus who pulled his horse close. ¡°Hit by something?¡± Dankyun furrowed his brow and looked at the trees around us. His first reaction was to search the surrounding area for a hidden enemy. He even made a sign to two of his soldiers to check it out. They did as ordered and jumped off their horses. While they searched, the other soldiers made a wall around us. Even I was confused by what was happening. ¡°I don¡¯t believe it¡¯s someone from my academy.¡± said Tuberculus, making sure he didn¡¯t ignite Dankyun¡¯s wrath again. ¡°It better not be.¡± I gulped and waited patiently on my knees for something to happen, but the forest was silent. A second attack never came, but everyone still held their guard up, since they couldn¡¯t explain what happened to me. Even I didn¡¯t know. ¡°There¡¯s no one in the forest, master.¡± said one of the soldiers after they returned, but it was only then when I noticed what they were. The two soldiers were actually two very beautiful el¡¯doraw women. Their dark skin that changed with their emotions, dark hair, and long pointy ears like Shanteya¡¯s defined their species, but they were wearing similar armor as the regular soldiers had on them. It was a surprise to see he had followers of another species. ¡°Either they left or the Dungeon Lord came after us. I doubt this to be the case though, but I¡¯ve seen him use a spell capable of grabbing someone no matter how powerful their magic armor was.¡± he told us as he pulled me up and looked back on the road. I don¡¯t think Illsy is here¡­ I thought as I looked around for a sign, but there was nothing up there between the branches of the trees or up in the sky. ¡°Move with caution.¡± ordered Dankyun and pulled me up. It hurts¡­ I thought, but I could only wince and follow him. I made two steps and then I bumped into an invisible wall. It was applied only on me, the others were unaffected by this force. ¡°What¡¯s this?¡± asked Dankyun surprised. I shook my head. I had no idea either. He waved his hand around, but there was nothing there, however, when he pulled me towards him, I bumped into a flat surface. There was something there, but none of us knew what it could be. ¡°How strange.¡± said Tuberculus rubbing his chin. ¡°What¡¯s the meaning of this old man?¡± asked Dankyun as he unsheathed his sword and pointed it at him. ¡°There¡¯s no need to get violent, I have no idea either. It¡¯s the first time I¡¯m seeing such a peculiar barrier.¡± he replied calmly. ¡°Tsk! Have you two ever seen or heard of anything like this before?¡± he glared at the two el¡¯doraw women. They looked at each other for a moment and then looked back at him and shook their heads. I was starting to get the feeling that it was another of Illsy¡¯s mysterious abilities. If he could dispel my curses, who knew what else he could do. Not good! I¡¯m thinking about him again! I closed my eyes and tried to get him out of my mind. ¡°Princess Ayuseya? Are you feeling alright?¡± Dankyun asked. He startled me, and I quickly opened my eyes. My reply was a forced smile and a nod of my head. After that, I looked around and touched the barrier, trying to see where it might start or end, but it went from the ground up, all the way to the sky. Neither going left nor right helped. It was like a giant invisible wall. ¡°Hm, I wonder¡­¡± said Dankyun as he took out a Dungeon Level Detection Stone. Where he stood, the stone didn¡¯t react, but as soon as he stepped over to my side, the rock activated and showed the number 86. Illsy was leveling quite fast, but how could that be possible? ¡°That accursed Dungeon Lord! He bound you somehow to his Dungeon Territory! AAARGH!¡± Dankyun screamed and punched a tree. The trunk couldn¡¯t handle such force and cracked in the middle. The ground shook, and part of it was uprooted. After another moment, the whole tree came falling down because of the crater left at the base. The two el¡¯doraw women jumped up and kicked the tree at the same time, changing its fall towards the other side. I watched surprised as they cut down with their bare hands a tree over 20 meters tall and with a thick trunk of over 1 meter in diameter. It was amazing, but at the same time frightening. In my entire life, I could barely snap a branch in half let alone cause a tree of that size to fall down in one hit. I gulped and looked at him. ¡°What did he do?¡± he asked and glared back at me. Do? What is he¡­ I thought, and I looked down. The black tattoo ring came into view, reminding me that I was one of Illsyore¡¯s wives. I was a Godlike Dungeon Lord¡¯s wife. Is this¡­ Is this the reason? I thought and then looked up at Dankyun. He noticed the ring. ¡°What¡¯s this? WHAT¡¯S THIS?!¡± he shouted and grabbed my hand so tight that it hurt. ¡°Stop this. Please, you are hurting the poor girl.¡± Tuberculus tried to help me. ¡°You stay out of this old man¡­ Actually¡­¡± he looked over at him and saw that he was out of the dungeon¡¯s territory. With a smirk on his lips, Dankyun snapped his fingers and one of the el¡¯doraw appeared behind him. Tuberculus didn¡¯t have the time to react, and the woman stabbed him in the back with a knife. She pulled it out and then kicked him in the wound, sending him flying off the horse and onto the ground, away from us. Tuberculus groaned and tried to get up, but the woman moved fast and struck him hard in the middle of his chest, breaking through the armor he had put up and sending him flying into a nearby tree. His red blood stained the trunk and ground below. Looking at my surprised face, Dankyun told me ¡°What? I never intended to let him live. He was going to die either now or in half an hour or so from now.¡± he then looked back at the two women and spoke calmly. ¡°Stab him one more time and toss him somewhere over there. Oh, but not in the heart. I want him to suffer. If the bleeding isn¡¯t going to kill, the poison will.¡± he ordered and the el¡¯doraw did as told. I saw with horror how the woman walked past Dankyun, and without any remorse stabbed him with the same dagger right in his stomach and then dragged him away by his hair, while he squirmed in agony. There was no doubt about it, the headmaster, the old man who welcomed me kindly to his academy, was going to die now. I felt bad for him and wished there was some way I could help him, but in front of Dankyun and his army, which not even Illsy could defeat, what was I to do? My body trembled with fear just from the mere thought of it. I tried to calm myself down, to appear unshaken and dignified in front of them, but when Dankyun crouched down in front of me, my heart shrank. He looked into my eyes and then touched the cheek he had cut earlier, now healed of any wound. My fear of this monster was as clear as day to anyone who gazed upon me. ¡°Now, I¡¯m going to give you your board and chalk, and you are going to tell me what exactly that Dungeon Lord did to you and how I can undo it.¡± he smiled. A chill went down my spine. How can I lie to him now? This wasn¡¯t part of my plan¡­ This¡­ I thought as I looked at him in fear. ¡°Here you go.¡± he offered me the blackboard. ¡°I¡­ I don¡¯t need it.¡± I said and looked back at him. It¡¯s over anyway¡­ I thought. ¡°W-What?¡± he said surprised. Even the soldiers looked surprised at me. Everyone knew I was a mute, including Dankyun, who was the one who cursed me in the first place. It was obvious that this wasn¡¯t something he expected to happen. One thing was removing the engagement between us and another to remove the curse I couldn¡¯t even tell anyone about. I smirked. ¡°There is someone there with a greater power than yours, Dankyun¡­¡± I told him. Even if he defeated Illsy once, I still considered the dungeon far stronger than the monster before me for the simple reason that in my eyes, Illsy had everything Dankyun lacked: kindness, compassion, modesty, and most importantly¡­ love. Maybe it was foolish to believe so, but I honestly didn¡¯t care anymore. ¡°Princess, I¡¯m glad you can talk, but how?¡± he asked with a forced smile, but his annoyance was at its peak. He was shaken by this, he even ignored my words, but maybe I could use his moment of confusion towards my advantage? It was a long shot, but I had to try. If this works, he should start fearing this ¡®someone¡¯ who can easily remove such extreme curses because they might surpass him as a Supreme. If it doesn¡¯t, then I¡¯m dead anyway. I can¡¯t leave Illsy¡¯s territory, and now I am free of my curses. There is no reason for my country to wish to marry me off to him now, and he knows that. I thought and with a gulp, I told him the following words: ¡°Yes. The curse you put upon me was removed in a matter of seconds.¡± ¡°S-Sec-Seconds?!¡± he stuttered. ¡°And so was my family¡¯s curse.¡± I added and squinted my eyes at him. All the soldiers around me began to whisper among themselves when they heard this. Even the two el¡¯doraw women who returned from dumping Tuberculus somewhere in the forest had a similar reaction. It was already known that not even the best healers on all three continents could do anything to remove this curse, but here I was proclaiming it was gone. The proof for it was the fact that I could speak, proving that my other curse had been removed. Still, it made me wonder just how many of all those around me actually knew I had two curses instead of one. For Dankyun, it was clear, but the others were just following orders. ¡°BUHAHAHA!¡± he burst into a loud laughter, silencing all the voices around him. I blinked surprised and took a step back from him. He was laughing like a madman. ¡°You¡­ Haha! You say you got rid of your curses?¡± he asked after he stopped. ¡°Y-Yes.¡± I replied. ¡°So¡­ if you were to return, the kingdom would be saved as they say, right? I mean you would be able to strengthen the royal family again. Sigh! This is a good day! A good day indeed!¡± he said with a smile as he looked up at the sky. For a moment, I thought my plan succeeded. If in his eyes, I stopped being a disgrace and instead became a proper draconian princess, maybe he would stop with his mad behavior and actually try to work with me to restore Teslov to the glory of the old. Unfortunately, I forgot that Dankyun may have had different plans in regard to how he could restore the power to the throne. ¡°I see, then¡­ You cured your curses¡­ I see, then¡­ I just have to kill you and take another princess as my wife.¡± Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Those words spoken with a frightening calm sent shivers down my spine all the way to the tip of my tail. I took a step back, I wanted to flee, but the soldiers formed a wall behind me. ¡°What¡¯s this? You would betray your princess?¡± I asked. ¡°They never were yours to begin with, Princess Ayuseya.¡± said Dankyun as he approached me. ¡°Why would you do this, Dankyun? Why?¡± I asked as I clenched my dress. My hands were trembling, and my heart was beating faster than ever. I was staring death in the eyes, and there was no way for me to escape its terrible claws. ¡°I simply hate the current royal family, and I want the throne.¡± he shrugged and then pointed his black sword at me. ¡°I have just one final question. What do you want your last words to be?¡± he asked with a smile. My final words? How cruel¡­ I thought and closed my eyes for a moment. Yes, those would be right if they were supposed to be my last words¡­ I opened my eyes and smiling at him, I said ¡°I have just two things to say. Dankyun, you¡¯re an idiot, and the man I love is Illsyore.¡± ¡°How foolish.¡± he shook his head and then prepared to attack me. I closed my eyes. This was it¡­ No matter how hard I tried to run away from him, no matter how fast I was, no matter where I went and who tried to protect me, Dankyun always managed to catch up to me. Maybe this was my fate? At least, I would die knowing I said those words which set my heart free of any pain and heavy chains¡­ ¡°Ayuseya?¡± I heard his voice, but I couldn¡¯t believe it. ¡°Ayuseya? Are you alright?¡± I heard it again. No doubt it was Illsy¡¯s voice. I opened my eyes, but instead of the forest, I saw the metal room where his crystal body was. Shanteya and Nanya were here as well, but what was important was that Illsy was here! ¡°I¡­¡± my voice wouldn¡¯t come out. My eyes swelled with tears, and without caring who saw me, I jumped forward and embraced that big green crystal. ¡°Illsy!¡± I cried. ¡°Yes! I¡¯m here¡­ I¡¯m¡­ Don¡¯t worry. You¡¯re safe, Ayuseya.¡± he spoke to me with a kind and gentle voice. [Illsyore¡¯s point of view] An hour or so before I summoned Ayuseya back to the academy, I woke up from my sleep. NO! Ayuseya! I screamed and reached out for her, but she wasn¡¯t there anymore. Everywhere I looked, all I could see was the darkness of my Inner Mind, but Shanteya wasn¡¯t there to greet me as usual, causing me to be confused and scared for a moment. Was it all just a nightmare? I wondered as I tried to settle down my breath and fast beating heart. It felt too real to be a dream even if the last part was incredibly hazy. The only way I could be certain of this was to look for Ayuseya inside the darkness of my Inner Mind. My fear and worry came from the last thing I said before I fainted. Those words I said were strongly imprinted in my memory. Ayuseya? Are you here? I shouted, but no reply was returned. The light in the distance that normally appeared when I checked to see where she was didn¡¯t appear. Ayuseya wasn¡¯t in my Inner Mind¡­ No! No! No! It can¡¯t be! I said shaking my head. I tried to deny the possibility that I had failed and now Dankyun took her away, so I stepped out into the real world. Indeed, it wasn¡¯t a dream. My room was a mess. The signs of my struggle and battle with Dankyun were visible everywhere. The remains of the AGLMC lasers I used as a last means of defense were scattered on the floor, shards of power crystal were mixed up with pieces of the steel cases and cut Inconel walls. Wear no boots and you were bound to get one stuck in your foot. Looking up, I saw the big hole in the wall through which the draconian Supreme made his way inside, letting the light of the sun flood my room, reflecting on all the shards scattered on the floor. Despite all of this destruction, despite remembering that last moment before I fainted when Dankyun was about to slay me, I was still alive and without a single scratch on my crystal body. Ayuseya stopped him¡­ I thought, but knowing this only made me angry. In the end, I wasn¡¯t able to keep my promise. I gave Ayuseya to that monster and even if I was to blame it on the fatigue and lack of focus, that was nothing but a simple and pathetic excuse. I was the one who released her in the end, right in front of the lion¡¯s jaws. But what if I died? I asked myself. I shook my head. I didn¡¯t even want to think about that possibility. Opening my status window, I looked at my Magic Energy pool. It was full, but there were still traces of mental fatigue left, although not as bad. There was another thing I noticed: my divine auras. Why didn¡¯t they affect Dankyun? I wondered. [Divine Protection] What do Heroic and Godly attacks even mean? Emperor and Godlike? I thought and then looked at the other. [Divine Aura] When Dankyun entered, I was focused more on my defense than I was on infusing the [Divine Aura] with magic energy¡­ It was probably so weak that he didn¡¯t even feel it. I thought as I tried to remember the whole battle, but there were only bits and pieces there. My memory was hazy, only the last moment before I fainted was as clear as day. With so little Magic Energy left there was no way for me to hope this ability would do any sort of significant damage to him. I probably made a terrible mistake by fighting him here, but he took us unprepared, both me and Nanya. Guess this proved to show the difference between real life and the countless games I played where the hero always managed to find some way to win. It was then when I remembered how badly injured the teenage-looking teacher might have been, and here I was lamenting about being a poor excuse for a hero and losing my first fight. ¡°So what? I¡¯m going to win the next one!¡± I told myself as I flew away. Even if it was really hard to believe in those words, I tried to remember a good advice my parents gave me: ¡®Whenever you face a problem in your life, no matter how big or small it is, always tackle it with the mentality that you will be able to solve it or get over it in the end. Believing the opposite will only weigh you down and push you further away from success.¡¯ In other words, it was more efficient to think you would win in the end than worry about losing before the battle even started. That was how I had to think and keep thinking, but it was easier said than done. Inner fears were hard to get over even when you had the power of a Godlike Dungeon. As I flew through the academy towards where I sensed Nanya¡¯s life force, I didn¡¯t even pay attention to the state the students and teachers were in. Maybe I also didn¡¯t desire to witness the aftermath of the battle just yet, so I simply flew past, ignoring everything except that pulse of light I knew was my wife. ¡°Nanya!¡± I shouted when I entered the classroom. This place was also wrecked. The windows were barricaded with the desks and chair, in an attempt to keep the soldiers away. There were no signs of any of them being broken though, meaning they didn¡¯t attempt to get in through here. The classroom was on the opposite side of the academy from the back entrance where the soldiers tried to force their way in. In that entire place, there was only one desk standing like before, the teacher¡¯s desk, and next to it was the Godlike Ranked woman. ¡°Illsy?¡± she asked surprised and quickly turned around. Her armor looked terrible, and her blood stained it where she got injured by that bastard, Dankyun. It looked like a nasty cut, but she didn¡¯t seem to be bleeding, however, I had to check. I was worried. ¡°Nanya! You¡¯re alive! I¡¯m so glad! Are you alright? Are you bleeding? Anything broken? Are your panties still on?¡± I asked worried while flying around her like a pesky firefly. She showed me a soft smile and said ¡°Hehe! I don¡¯t think that last question was needed, but I¡¯m alright, Illsy. Tuberculus left me a healing crystal, and I¡¯m back to 100%. Unfortunately, I took quite the beating¡­¡± she let out a sigh. ¡°Tuberculus?¡± I stopped in front of her. ¡°Yes. Hm? You just woke up, didn¡¯t you?¡± she asked looking at me and tilting her head a bit to the left. ¡°Yes¡± ¡°I see¡­¡± her eyes looked down at the floor, holding a bit of sadness in them ¡°Then you don¡¯t know, do you?¡± ¡°Know what?¡± I asked surprised and then a chill ran down my spine. Oh no! Did something happen to Ayuseya? Did Dankyun kill her? I thought. ¡°Dankyun and his army of jerks took Ayuseya and left one hour or so after the battle with you was over. For some reason, he thought you took direct orders from Tuberculus, that you are under his control or something, so he took him as well just to make sure we didn¡¯t try anything stupid. After they reach Therion city, he¡¯s going to let him get back to the academy¡­¡± she looked up at me. ¡°I don¡¯t think Ayuseya is coming back¡­ ever.¡± Hearing that was a bit of a shock. I was glad to know Dankyun left, but hearing that he took both Tuberculus and Ayuseya with him was a bit too much. I wanted to somehow get my draconian wife back, and I could easily do that by going over and absorbing her, but then they would kill the old man. ¡°I can¡¯t do anything, can I?¡± I asked. ¡°No¡­¡± she shook her head and then looked back at the desk. There were two crystals there, one was white and the other was brown. They were the same as the ones Dankyun used to recover his strength from our battle. If it wasn¡¯t for those crystals, I could have won. ¡°What are those?¡± I asked. ¡°These go by a lot of names¡­ Magic Crystals, Spell Crystals, and Spell Containers are the most commonly used.¡± she picked up the brown one ¡°Tuberculus left them here for me. Apparently, I need to use them in case anything happens¡­¡± she told me. ¡°What do you mean?¡± I asked, but I had the feeling I wasn¡¯t going to like the answer. ¡°He left me a note saying that in case Dankyun changes his mind about letting him go, he¡¯s returning these two to me. One contains [Rejuvenation] and the other [Teleportation], but there¡¯s too little Magic Energy in it, and I don¡¯t know where it can take us.¡± she explained. ¡°So, if he dies¡­¡± I said. ¡°It could be Dankyun¡¯s way of ¡®thanking us¡¯ for his stay here. Maybe he believes that if he kills him, you will go berserk and kill us.¡± she picked up the crystals and placed them in her pockets. ¡°What do we do now?¡± I asked. ¡°Let¡¯s get back to your room¡­ Where¡¯s Shanteya?¡± she asked me. Spreading my focus towards her life force, I found out that she was inside the academy, standing guard in front of the door leading to my room. Paladinus, Angius, and Rufus were there as well. ¡°She¡¯s already there¡­¡± I said and then followed Nanya. Did I fly by her without realizing? I asked myself. As we walked back there, we saw the devastation left behind by Dankyun¡¯s soldiers. Many of the students showed signs of injury and bleeding. Those who could stand were trying to fix the academy to the best of their abilities, basically they moved the rubble out of the way and cleared the furniture blockades. Some of the regular teachers were injured as well. They were barely Master Rank adventurers. One was a Beginner, but they all had a role here at the academy. The weakest of them were the cooks. There were two of them. It was hard to admit, but during the time of my battle with Dankyun, a few other students died as well, killed by the soldiers who managed to slip in or by stray shots. Dankyun¡¯s commanders were probably much stronger than initially believed and took the old adventurers by surprise. Real life wasn¡¯t like an anime where the strong could easily jump in front of a bullet and stop it with their teeth. It was possible that the students were simply unlucky. Even friendly fire was a possibility, but I had no doubt the teachers did their best to keep all 420 of them safe. ¡°Nanya! Finally! Tell this mad woman to get out of the way, or I¡¯ll make her!¡± warned Angius as he pointed his sword at Shanteya, but she wasn¡¯t even flinching. ¡°You won¡¯t even be able to touch her. I guarantee it.¡± said Nanya with a sigh. ¡°How do you know that?¡± I asked curiously. ¡°You told me the reason.¡± she replied calmly without giving any insight on my [Bond of Trust] skill. ¡°Oh!¡± ¡°I doubt it! This girl is barely a Master Rank! You were the one who tested her!¡± shouted Angius. ¡°Maybe you should calm down a bit?¡± asked Paladinus. ¡°Calm down? The academy is a mess! One of my students died, and it¡¯s all this Dungeon Lord¡¯s FAULT!¡± he shouted. ¡°Master is not to blame for the destruction caused to your academy. He defended it.¡± Shanteya said. ¡°No! He took in that draconian princess and put all of us in danger! Ever since you and your buddies tried to assassinate her, everything¡¯s gone wrong! I knew it! I simply knew we shouldn¡¯t have gone along with Tuberculus¡¯ idea! Now look at us!¡± ¡°I agree. None of this would have happened if the Dungeon Lord wasn¡¯t here.¡± said Rufus. ¡°You too, huh?¡± said Nanya as she squinted her eyes at them. ¡°There¡¯s no doubt about it! The Dungeon Lord is to blame for this mess, that¡¯s why¡­ erm¡­ that¡¯s why¡­¡± Paladinus was trying to say something, but he was hesitating. ¡°That¡¯s why what?¡± asked Nanya raising an eyebrow. ¡°That¡¯s why we decided to destroy his core!¡± shouted Angius, but as soon as he said that, Shanteya moved in. With a kick faster than he could react to, she sent him flying into my Inconel wall. He coughed, but she got in close and punched him in the chest, shattering his magic armor. Before he had a chance to recover, Angius had a knife at his neck. ¡°I dare you to say that again.¡± said Shanteya calmly, but her killing intent was so strong I could practically feel it, and Angius could as well. ¡°Calm down, Shanteya, he¡¯s not going to do it.¡± said Nanya. The el¡¯doraw didn¡¯t retreat. ¡°Indeed.¡± I said. ¡°A supreme can barely cut through my walls, and if they wanted, they could have used the back door. I mean there¡¯s a big hole in the wall right over there!¡± I said, but I forgot I was invisible. ¡°Nyahaha! True!¡± Nanya seemed amused by this. ¡°Even so¡­ we don¡¯t want the Dungeon Lord as part of our academy. It¡¯s wrong. He¡¯s a dungeon after all. Nanya, you of all people should understand this!¡± said Paladinus. ¡°I understand, alright¡­ I understand that Dankyun scared all of you so much that you are all running away with your tails between your legs! Illsy didn¡¯t do anything wrong! He actually protected all of us from day one of his birth! He didn¡¯t attack us nor showed the tiniest bit of killing intent towards us! Even now when you are blabbering like fools that you want to get rid of him, he still hasn¡¯t raised his black fog! He saved two poor girls from a fate more horrible than death, and instead of acknowledging all of his effort and kindness, you are thinking about killing him off? Now here¡¯s a question. Why in the name of all of your PATHETIC gods could you ever think that I would ever LET YOU harm Illsy?¡± she shouted back at them, showing that even though I wasn¡¯t raising my killing intent, she had no problems in displaying it. Shanteya didn¡¯t move away from her target either, and the teachers looked at each other for a moment. Rufus appeared to be ashamed of what they were trying to do, but he still felt like it was my fault. Angius was glaring back at Shanteya, and Paladinus was clenching his fists. ¡°Even so, I still don¡¯t believe it¡¯s right for a Dungeon of ANY kind to be part of a Magic Academy! It¡¯s not natural! It¡¯s not normal¡­ he¡¯s a Dungeon Nanya, you have to understand this. He¡¯s not like us¡­¡± he tried to appeal to her. ¡°Then get out of here before I slash your throats open and drain you of your cowardly blood!¡± she growled in reply. ¡°Nanya, you can¡¯t just¡­¡± Rufus tried to say. ¡°GET OUT!¡± she shouted. ¡°Nanya¡­¡± I said as I stepped in front of her. ¡°Calm down, please.¡± I smiled. She blinked a bit surprised and then groaned and rubbed her forehead with two fingers. ¡°Illsy, they are being jerks for nothing.¡± she said. ¡°I know, but stuff like this doesn¡¯t vanish overnight.¡± I said, speaking of what I knew from the way humans on Earth saw other people different than them. ¡°Still¡­¡± she shook her head and gave up. ¡°Now then, gentlemen, if you wish to live on my Dungeon Territory, I have no qualms with it, and I promise I will help you however I can. However, if you desire to harm me or my friends, I¡¯ll deep fry you in lava and send you to Mars with a kick in your behind. I may not have been able to beat Dankyun now, but you three are no threat to me.¡± I said with a smile. ¡°What? Are you joking with us Dungeon Lord? What makes you think we will listen to you?¡± asked Paladinus. ¡°Mars?¡± asked Nanya a bit surprised, but I didn¡¯t bother explaining now. If she was going to ask about it later, I saw no reason in not telling her. ¡°Because I¡¯m a Godlike Dungeon Lord and you three are merely Emperor Rank Adventurers who weren¡¯t even strong enough to protect the students while I was fighting with the Supreme Rank adventurer Dankyun. Because until now, I played along with your whims thanks to Nanya, Shanteya, Ayuseya, and a bit thanks to Tuberculus as well. Because I showed you I have no ill intention towards any of you and when I let you into my dungeon, I could have killed you with extreme ease if I desired to, but I didn¡¯t.¡± I told them calmly. ¡°G-Godlike?¡± said Rufus with a trembling voice. ¡°Yes. He¡¯s a Godlike.¡± confirmed Nanya. ¡°I don¡¯t believe it!¡± shouted Angius from under Shanteya¡¯s dagger. ¡°Too bad, but that¡¯s the truth. Now, if you want to leave this place, there¡¯s an escape tunnel under this building. It will take you to the edge of my territory, which is over 17 km in radius around my Crystal Core. You have two options. Take that path and reach a nearby city or risk meeting with Dankyun again. What will it be?¡± I asked. The teachers looked at each other for a moment and then replied. ¡°Is it safe?¡± asked Rufus. ¡°I guarantee it.¡± said Nanya lifting a hand up. ¡°Then, we¡¯ll take the escape tunnel, and we¡¯ll bring the students with us. This isn¡¯t a Magic Academy anymore¡­ this is a dungeon.¡± said Paladinus clenching his fists. ¡°Very well. I¡¯ll open the path for you.¡± I said with a smile. Shanteya moved off Angius, but she didn¡¯t take them out of their sight. With the two girls defending my core from them, I flew a level bellow and created a path to the escape tunnel. Some of the students were surprised by the sudden ramp that appeared in the middle of the hallway, but Paladinus, Rufus, and Angius calmed down the spirits and led all of them through. The moving process took about half an hour. Surprisingly, Zertan followed them as well, but he didn¡¯t have his dryad with him. When I approached him about it, he told me this: ¡°Illsyore, despite what my friends said, they mean no harm. They are just frightened. I for one have no problems with you. You helped me a lot with the materials you collected. You helped my classes, and you never showed any ill intent towards me or my¡­ friend. After I saw Dankyun, I sent her away just in case anything like this happened. She should be out of your territory by now, she also told me to tell you that she thanks you for your help. If you by any chance think of rebuilding this place, I would love to return and teach here. Until then, so long, Dungeon Lord Illsyore.¡± ¡°Likewise. Take care of her and yourself, Zertan.¡± I told him. That was one farewell that didn¡¯t make me feel like I was standing on needles. Now, with the academy building empty, I returned to my room, where Nanya and Shanteya were waiting for me. ¡°Sigh! This is bad! ARGH! When he returns, Tuberculus is going to go bananas!¡± said Nanya. ¡°I say good riddance!¡± Shanteya spoke calmly, but she still held her guard up. ¡°They say humans will show their true nature only in a time of crisis¡­ They simply showed theirs¡­¡± I said with a sigh at the end. ¡°And I don¡¯t like it!¡± Nanya lifted her hands up in protest. ¡°There¡¯s nothing we can do about it now¡­¡± I thought back at Ayuseya. I felt so bad about losing her. Although I was relieved for having those teachers and students leave my territory, knowing she was about to be gone as well made my heart ache. It was a bit weird, but what else could be done now? Opening my skill list, I looked around it and saw this little one: [Summon Ally]: I wonder¡­ I thought. ¡°Hey, Nanya?¡± ¡°What?¡± she asked looking back at me. ¡°I may have a way to steal Ayuseya from Dankyun now, but¡­ but¡­¡± ¡°But what?¡± she raised an eyebrow. ¡°I can¡¯t bring Tuberculus¡­¡± I said. A moment of silence followed as Nanya thought about this, while I was feeling edgy. I wanted to use the spell. I wanted to call Ayuseya. I had to! There was something inside me telling me to do it already, to open my mouth and speak those words. To infuse my magic into the spell and call out to the one I lost, but what about Dankyun? What about Tuberculus? ¡°If you do that, then Dankyun¡­¡± Nanya said and then smirked. ¡°You know what? I didn¡¯t get to fight him with my power at max. He didn¡¯t get to meet Shanteya, and he didn¡¯t get a taste of your dungeon either! I¡¯m sure Tuberculus will figure out something, he¡¯s a sneaky old man! Let¡¯s do it!¡± she then laughed. ¡°Are you sure about this, Master?¡± asked Shanteya. ¡°Honestly speaking, Dankyun scares me, but losing one of you three scares me even more.¡± I confessed. ¡°If the gods want us to live, we¡¯ll live through this, if not, then that¡¯s it! Nyahaha!¡± laughed Nanya. ¡°You seem eager about another encounter.¡± I said. ¡°Of course! I ran away from him for too long and trust me when I say this, Illsy, but it¡¯s not pleasant at all! If we run, that bastard will hunt us down and keep torturing us until we give up!¡± she said clenching her fists. ¡°Do we stand a chance?¡± I asked. ¡°Hm, maybe with your dungeon. It will definitely destroy his army, but tell me¡­ What do YOU want to do right now?¡± she asked with a big smirk on her face. I closed my eyes for a moment and thought about what I really wanted to do. Was Ayuseya worth the risk? Was it right to do something like this? Funny though, but the first thing that came to my mind were some scenes from an old anime about a pirate with a straw hat who never gave up and just like an unsettling hurricane, he sailed across the sea, stopping anything he deemed wrong and unjust even if the chances of winning were slim to none. Heh¡­ So funny to remember about something like this now. Well, he was right. I guess what I really want is to see Ayuseya smile and safe. I want to see Nanya safe as well, and Shanteya too¡­ I want to protect my nakama too, but if I do this, I¡¯m putting all of our lives in danger¡­ Should I? I thought and then opened my eyes. I saw Nanya waiting for my reply with an eager look on her face, and Shanteya standing calm, but clenching the hilt of her daggers. She was ready to follow me everywhere. So in the end, I was going to be the one who decided. Another crazy choice? No, this time I¡¯m fighting together with all of them, and I¡¯m pulling Dankyun inside my dungeon! I took a deep breath in. If we die, I hope God reincarnates us all in a more peaceful environment, or at least I hope He grants me the strength to take Dankyun down and win this! I thought and then I said ¡°Azer Nef Yer!¡± 250 Magic Points were spent, and the spell was cast. One last battle¡­ I thought and looked at the bright shape of light forming in front of us. [One of Dankyun¡¯s soldiers¡¯ point of view] Milord was just about to bring down his wrath upon the foolish princess. None of us held any loyalty towards the royal family. It was weak and pathetic. They didn¡¯t deserve our loyalty, but Dankyun was strong, and I at least saw the true values of a draconian man in him! Just then, however, there was this bright light coming from the princess, and she vanished altogether! I have never seen anything like that in my entire life! The wretched harlot did something and disappeared before Milord could land the death strike on her! ¡°AYUUUSEYAAA!¡± shouted Milord Dankyun before taking out a strange-looking red crystal necklace. He looked at it for a moment and then pointed it back towards the human magic academy. Milord chanted something for a few seconds and then a red beam of light flew up into the sky. The crystal turned transparent and the skies darkened. As we all looked up, we saw big fireballs falling from the sky. A big grin appeared on my face as I knew what this meant. Milord Dankyun used his Supreme Ranked skill to crush the human academy. ¡°Look well, lads! This is the reason why we follow Milord! All hail Milord Dankyun!¡± I cheered, and the others followed. _____ Note from the Author: Thank you for reading this chapter, I hope you liked it! :) Chapter 32: Fire. Blood. Trust [Illsyore¡¯s point of view] To see Ayuseya alive and well nearly brought me to tears, and I would have cried too if I had any eyes. Although she was crying and hugging my crystal body, I couldn¡¯t even return her warm embrace. I was cold and motionless like a piece of furniture, but on the inside, I was throwing a real party of joy. For a moment, I even forgot the fact that a very angry and annoying Supreme Ranked Adventurer was approaching me at lightning speed. ¡°I¡¯m so glad to see you are alright, Ayuseya!¡± I told her. ¡°Illsy! Illsy! Uhu!¡± she called out crying to me. It was rather embarrassing to see the grown draconian woman crying like that while hugging my cold crystal body, but I wasn¡¯t willing to make her stop any time too soon either. I was glad she was here with me, I was glad my spell worked and now she was safe. The one to bring us back to reality from that moment of joy was none other than Nanya. ¡°Erm¡­ Illsy?¡± she said and when I looked over at her, I saw her standing in front of the open hole in my Inconel wall, looking up at the sky. ¡°What is it?¡± I asked. ¡°Dankyun just used his Supreme Skill.¡± she pointed out ¡°We have to raise our Magic Armors and hide! Quick!¡± she said with an alarmed look on her face. ¡°What?¡± I flew out of the room and looked up at the sky. With horror, I noticed the burning fireballs hurling down towards us from the stratosphere. I gulped and looked around. We were right in the middle of the impact area, and anything around us was sure to end up obliterated by the powerful attack. What was left of the academy and the dormitory was going to be covered in a sea of flames. Part of the forest was already burned down because of my own attacks earlier, but luckily, the teachers managed to put it out before it spread. Unfortunately, it was all for naught. Can I cover it? I asked myself, but then I shook my head. It was impossible to do something like that. If I could, I would have done it from the start and not waste my time with the Inconel cage, but then again, it did prove to be rather useful when I needed it. Holding back a Supreme¡¯s attack was no easy feat. Turning around, I focused on the present life signs and noticed that the teachers and students were already out of the impact area. Unlike the road Dankyun took, my tunnel was a straight leveled path. It was like taking a walk through a modern city. A distance of one kilometer wasn¡¯t that big of a deal, especially if you knew a nice taxi driver. My dungeon was also out of the impact area, meaning that we were the only ones here. Looking up at the fireballs and then back down at the academy, I knew there was nothing I could do to save it. The building together with everything in a 1 km radius was going to be destroyed by that unforgiving attack. I gulped and flew down. There was no more time for debate, we had to act. ¡°Ayuseya! Shanteya! Nanya! I¡¯m going to absorb you all and take my body to my dungeon!¡± I called out to them. ¡°Illsy, I¡¯m sorry, but you aren¡¯t absorbing me! I¡¯m going to stay outside and make sure you don¡¯t get yourself stuck anywhere!¡± said Nanya, hitting her palm with her fist and showing me a wide smirk. ¡°I understand.¡± I nodded and then looked at the other two. ¡°I have nothing against this.¡± said Shanteya. ¡°Neither do I.¡± said Ayuseya shaking her head. After absorbing the two, I flew down and opened the path for my fall into the body of water below. The Inconel wall below me was the last part to remove, but before I did that, I flew over to the escape tunnel and covered it up quickly. I didn¡¯t have time to carefully design the cover, I just plugged it with a bunch of stone and hoped it would last. I didn¡¯t want the tunnel to be engulfed in flames even if there was only a small chance for it to reach the students and teachers. ¡°Are you ready?¡± I asked Nanya after I returned to my room. ¡°Yes! Now quickly, go!¡± she said, and I nodded. The Inconel wall below me vanished, and my body fell like a rock right in the body of water. It stopped the fall, but as soon as I was submerged under it, I could feel myself gasping for air. It was clear that I needed air to breath. I pushed my body up with the pistons and then pushed it again on my rudimentary escape mechanism on rolling pins. Looking up, I saw Nanya jumping down into the water. ¡°Puha! That¡¯s deep!¡± she said and then got up on the edge. ¡°Let¡¯s go!¡± I said and then plugged the top side of the tunnel with a bunch of stone. Thankfully, my crystal body was constantly emanating light, otherwise, it would have been completely dark inside. Without further ado, I used [Telekinezy] to push my crystal body on the rolling pins. The speed was good, but I had to be faster. A moment later, the ground shook and a loud explosion could be heard above us or rather from behind us. I moved fast, but just in case, I made another stone plug behind me. Unfortunately, the speed was much slower than I initially anticipated. I was going at a snail¡¯s pace. ¡°Why couldn¡¯t you have built a cart instead of this?¡± asked Nanya a bit frustrated. ¡°I had a moment of lag.¡± I replied with a grumble before I covered another section of the tunnel behind us. ¡°So many explosions¡­¡± said Nanya with a bit of worry, seeing as how for almost an entire minute, the ground rumbled and the walls shook all around us. It was nerve wrecking, and the deeper we went, the more I felt the need to dig up and escape to the surface. For a moment, I thought it was because of the small tunnel, but it shouldn¡¯t have been like that. I never was claustrophobic, yet now I was close to shaking. What¡¯s this? I thought for a moment as it started even to get harder to focus on my spell. The explosions finally stopped after a minute or so, but I didn¡¯t feel any better. I was close to starting to scratch at the walls. What I was seeing were perfectly straight lines starting to twist and turn. Fear rushed through my crystal body and made me lose my focus, resulting in my spell to fail. ¡°ILLSY!¡± shouted Nanya when she saw my body rolling over uncontrollably, while I was wobbling around in the air. ¡°I¡­ I don¡¯t know what¡¯s happening¡­ I need air¡­ I need an exist¡­ I need to open a path¡­ to go back.¡± I said as I tried to focus, but everything was hazy and confusing. Just a moment ago, there was nothing wrong with me, but now I felt like a caged rat biting the metal bars in an attempt to escape. My cage, however, was weird. I knew I had no reason to fear my current conditions because the walls didn¡¯t cave in and there was air to breath. ¡°Illsy!¡± shouted Nanya again. I looked at her and nearly fell through the floor. I was trying to figure out where up and down was now. ¡°Illsy! Go and open your dungeon! That¡¯s the reason why you feel like this! There¡¯s no entrance to your dungeon!¡± shouted Nanya, but I had the feeling she yelled at me more than once. I nodded or shook my head, well one of the two. Flying up, I moved instinctively towards the entrance. It was like a blob of shining light calling me out. It was calling for me¡­ It was there¡­ A beam of light¡­ The sun of my planet¡­ The call of my kingdom¡­ It was there¡­ Light¡­ And then it happened. I was standing in front of the entrance to my dungeon, already open and neatly designed to invite adventurers to their doom. Looking around me, I recognized the forest and location. I was where I initially placed the entrance to my dungeon. The tree with a single arched root popping out of the ground was to the left, a boulder with a smaller one right next to it was to the right. Behind me, I saw the small path Nanya took to get here when she came to test the first two levels. I blinked surprised and realized that I had no recollection of actually coming here. All I could remember was a bright and shiny light calling me out. There was dizziness and the feeling of being trapped, but that was it. I didn¡¯t feel pain, and I was certain I didn¡¯t cast a spell. ¡°Status Menu.¡± I called out and looked straight at my Magic Energy Pool. It was regenerating, meaning that I used up some of it. Strange¡­ I can¡¯t remember. Oh yeah! Dankyun¡¯s Supreme Skill and Nanya! I returned my thoughts to the more pressing matter. Focusing on her life force, I felt her moving slowly through my tunnel, probably pushing my huge body towards the final room of my dungeon. I wonder what¡¯s the damage done to the academy? I asked myself as I flew up in the sky and towards the academy. There was no need for me to fly all the way over there. I could see the result just fine from where my dungeon was. If there was one word to perfectly describe it, that was ¡®Hell¡¯. The forest was burning in a big circle of almost 3 km in diameter, meaning that Dankyun¡¯s spell was larger than Nanya anticipated. It was 1.5 km in radius, not 1 km. The destruction was more than she described because each of those fireballs that fell from the sky was the equivalent of a 500 Magic Energy [Fireball] or maybe more. There were craters upon craters spread all over the place and charring the ground to the point that nothing would grow there anymore. As for the buildings themselves, none of them were left standing. The only thing that barely survived was my Inconel cage, if the black box I was seeing was actually it. The endurance and reduced temperature enchantments worked like a charm on it, but without a doubt, it was probably over 100 degrees inside. My room became an oven heated through the destructive fire spells. Spreading out my focus, I saw the life signs indicating the safety and survival of the students and teachers. They were still alive, which was good, but they were certainly never going to return to the academy because there was no more academy left where they could return to. I was a bit sad to witness this, but my birthplace, my home, my place of origin in this new world was now reduced to nothing but a field of smoldering ash, molten rocks, and black craters. The garden where the students spent their free time was gone. The spot where I met Ayuseya and heard her play her violin for the first time was also gone. The dormitory had vanished, destroyed both by my battle with Dankyun and his Supreme Skill. The academy building was reduced to a pile of rubble after being mercilessly struck down by the attack. Now, only a big black box remained there: my Inconel cage. The forest surrounding the academy was in flames. Critters and monsters alike fled from the area. ¡°It¡¯s gone¡­ It¡¯s all gone¡­¡± I said as I looked at the disaster caused by one Supreme¡¯s spell. Although I wished I could shed a tear for the devastation before me, I knew it was not the time for such a thing yet. I had to return to my body and prepare for Dankyun¡¯s merciless attack. Now, he had absolutely no reason to hold back, and he was sure to attack me without mercy. I need to bring my body and Nanya inside the last room, and I have to release Shanteya and Nanya¡­ Can I add more traps, I wonder? I asked myself as I flew towards Nanya¡¯s life force. [Elovier¡¯s point of view] Our temporary master, Dankyun, was filled with rage and hate for the one called Ayuseya. She crossed him in the worst way possible by running away from him and denying him the throne, but in my opinion, I never did see this draconian as a proper ruler or leader of any kind. On the other hand, the Master of our assassin guild Phantom Rage was another matter. That man was akin to a god in both strength and wisdom. For over two hundred years, he eluded the authorities and managed to keep an otherwise dying organization as the strongest there ever was. He was our ultimate master, not this pathetic excuse for a draconian, Dankyun. Either way, we were employed by him, and our sole desire was to serve him as we would our Master, at least until the contract expired. Half of the payment was received already, the part covering the value of our lives and training. The rest would be paid after we accomplished the mission of escorting, protecting, and providing intel for Dankyun Alttoros until we reached the border of Teslov Kingdom. Once there, our contract was over, and we would make ourselves vanish. One thing to be mentioned though, we both lied to Dankyun in regard to how powerful we really are. In terms of strength, we already reached Godlike level and getting near Supreme. We were among the strongest in the guild, but nothing when compared to the Black Shadows. ¡°Sister, what do you think happened to the maid?¡± asked Shenner, my sister. Looking to my left, I showed her a smile and then said ¡°She¡¯s either dead or she will be soon enough.¡± ¡°Master doesn¡¯t know yet, does he?¡± she asked, and I shook my head. Of course, Dankyun didn¡¯t know that our other mission here was one given to us by the guild¡¯s master himself: Search and assassinate the albino el¡¯doraw. ¡°It does make me curious about how she managed to do it, though.¡± Shenner said with a giggle. ¡°Shush, sister! If we are to find the way, we must destroy it or report it back to master! We don¡¯t want to be next ones on the target list, do we?¡± I said glaring back at her. My sister was rather dense sometimes and didn¡¯t know just how close she usually was to speaking words of treason that could activate our curse. We had to be very careful because we were rather far from Master. ¡°Yes, yes!¡± she waved it off, and I squinted my eyes at her. ¡°You know, there¡¯s one thing bothering me though¡­¡± she said. ¡°What?¡± I asked raising an eyebrow. ¡°You remember the undead group we fought two days ago?¡± I nodded. ¡°They were half-eaten by maggots, and most of them were nothing but a pile of singed black bones, but¡­¡± she stopped and then looked down ¡°They were the assassins sent here before, weren¡¯t they?¡± she asked. ¡°Yes.¡± I said. Clenching the reins tight, she looked as though she was about to murder someone. ¡°Do you think Master will mind if we kill the one who did that to them?¡± she asked with a mad look in her eyes. She was quick to switch between emotions as always, but this time, it was different. Her skin color nearly changed entirely to a dark-blue, almost black color to express her anger, hatred, and desire to kill. As for why she was like this when usually she barely showed anything at all? Well, among those dead assassins, we found her son as well. When we fought with them, I was the one who gave the killing blow because she refused to do it, she simply stood there in shock. In general, Master doesn¡¯t send us after our own family members because he fears we might hesitate. It happened once, and it could happen again, but this time, they were confirmed to be dead by our spies. To discover them in the form of walking dead was an unexpected encounter. For us, the mission of ¡®search and destroy¡¯ was changed to one of revenge. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, sister. After we kill the one called Shanteya Dowesyl, we will hunt down the one who did that to him, and we will kill them as well.¡± I told her with a calm voice. ¡°Yes! Let¡¯s! And let¡¯s make sure we take our time peeling the skin off their flesh and eat it in front of them!¡± she grinned. Unlike me, Shenner also had a screw or two loose¡­ After Dankyun cast his Supreme Skill, the sky was filled with fireballs ready to pound the ground into oblivion. They were all aimed at the Magic Academy where the dungeon core was at. In just one strike, he was planning to obliterate any form of resistance against him. Excited to see this skill in action, I climbed up a tall tree and watch the scene from the top. When the first fireballs struck the ground, a series of loud explosions was heard. The wind blew hard from that direction, bringing with it a wave of heat. The ground shook, and the entire forest trembled in front of the draconian¡¯s might. I smirked and watch the area being lit up by the attack. In just a little over a minute, everything was reduced to ash in that area. The forest was ablaze and because of the flames, I couldn¡¯t really see the entirety of the damage he had caused, but surely nothing could have survived such an attack. Both the dungeon core and the whiny princess were sure to have perished burned alive by those flames. I jumped back down and took out a Dungeon Level Detection Stone. There was no doubt the dungeon was gone, and I was expecting to see no reaction from it, but instead what I saw was the number 86 appearing in a golden light. ¡°Impossible¡­¡± I said. ¡°What¡¯s wrong, sister?¡± asked Shenner. ¡°The dungeon¡­ it survived the attack.¡± I said and with a gulp, I looked over at Dankyun. He was smiling, no, he was grinning like a maniac and looking straight at my stone. It was quite possible he didn¡¯t expect his attack to annihilate the dungeon core, but he just wanted to obliterate the entire area. I gulped again. ¡°Your orders, master?¡± I asked him. ¡°Search for the dungeon core. NOW!¡± he shouted at us. I nodded and together with my sister, we ran off. To find the core, we had to use a Dungeon Core Locator Stone or spell. Once used, the dungeon would also become aware of it. If we wanted to attack it, we couldn¡¯t use stealth with it. But where did it hid it¡¯s last dungeon? I¡¯m certain we checked everywhere around this place¡­ No wait, we couldn¡¯t find that many monsters in that area, and there were signs of attacks all over the place, but we never did find the one who engaged those monsters. Whoever it was, was strong. I thought as I dashed through the forest right behind Shenner, who led the way. ¡°Over there!¡± she shouted, and I looked in the direction she pointed at. We stopped in front of what looked like the entrance of a dungeon. ¡°It doesn¡¯t appear to have more than four, maybe five levels¡­¡± she said. ¡°I¡¯ll let Dankyun know of this place.¡± I lifted my hand up and released a [Seeker Fireball] spell, letting it explode above us to act as a signal for him. ¡°Should we wait for him or go in?¡± Shenner asked. ¡°Let¡¯s go in.¡± I said and went inside, carefully climbing down the flight of stairs. It was a long way down, but it was carefully lit, at least at the entrance. Using a skill or potion that granted us night vision would allow us to move without the need of a torch. Those things were rather bothersome because they limited your field of view to the surrounding area. Once at the first level, we were met with two paths. One was to the left, and the other was to the right. We were just about to head in both directions when suddenly the wall slid to the left, revealing a third corridor. ¡°What just happened?¡± asked Shenner. ¡°The dungeon is inviting us in¡­¡± I said. This was unexpected, but it worked for us. There were many adversaries who were stupid enough to underestimate us. Once we passed through, however, the wall blocked us off. It mattered not though. ¡°Lava? On the first floor?¡± What? That¡¯s impossible! I said in my mind as I walked up to Shenner, but she didn¡¯t lie. In front of us laid a path of lava, and the only way to cross was to jump on some platforms. I could see the opened door on the other side. It was an easy feat to either jump over it or use the platforms. ¡°Sister, look!¡± Shenner pointed to my left. Looking at what she was pointing at, I noticed with a great surprise the following message: ¡®Weaklings first. Go straight. Someone is waiting for you in the maze. Take the right path if you want to die or the left one if you want to meet them.¡¯ ¡°What¡¯s this? Is the dungeon mocking us? We¡¯re not weaklings!¡± shouted Shenner as she punched the message. The wall cracked from the strength of her fist, but it was immediately repaired. ¡°Let¡¯s do as he says. That someone must be Shanteya. She knows we¡¯re coming after her.¡± I told her and jumped on the first platform. It looks solid enough. Was this a trap of some sort before? I asked myself as I made my way to the end of the corridor. Once we passed through the exit, another wall slid behind us. Now, it was clear. The dungeon deactivated its traps to lead us to the area of confrontation with Shanteya. He was forcing us to fight. Does he actually think that Advanced Ranked assassin can do anything against us? She¡¯s barely a low Master at best! I thought as I followed the path through a weird shaped room. There didn¡¯t appear to be anything in there, making me wonder if this dungeon was sane in the first place. ¡°I think there are spikes down there.¡± said Shenner. ¡°What idiot falls on paths like this one?¡± I said with a huff. ¡°Maybe there are inactive traps?¡± she asked me. ¡°Maybe¡­¡± When we reached the end, we found out that to reach the next floor, we had to jump down in a pit filled with water. Of course, we didn¡¯t just jump in like that. There was a high chance the dungeon core placed some spikes at the bottom to break our feet or downright kill us. We had two options of reaching the bottom safely. One meant to secure a rope to the edge and then slowly climb down. The other option was a bit more tricky and highly depended on our agility. Basically, we had to jump from wall to wall. Shenner didn¡¯t wait for me to see if there was a way to attach a rope up here, and she jumped in, using the wall in front as a foothold to jump to the opposite one. ¡°Come on, slowpoke!¡± shouted Shenner from the bottom. ¡°Ugh¡­¡± I groaned and tried to remind myself to punish her later for shouting like that on a recon mission. Then again, lately she seems to enjoy my punishments¡­ I thought and jumped forward, using the same way as her to reach the bottom. Once there, we were faced with a rather strange and peculiar maze. The walls were made out of metal and had small bumps on them like waves out at sea. They were partially reflective too, but for what reason the dungeon made such complicated walls, I couldn¡¯t understand. One thing was certain though, given the complicated way they looked, the maze couldn¡¯t be too big. It probably took the dungeon a few months just to make these walls. ¡°Tch!¡± I clicked my tongue and took out my dagger. ¡°Shall we go in, dear sister?¡± Shenner asked. ¡°Just be careful of traps.¡± I told her. Thus, we entered this weird maze with only one goal in mind: find and kill Shanteya Dowesyl, the traitor who fled from our Master. [Roderique¡¯s point of view] I believe I was among the first to see the signal from the two scouts sent by our lord Dankyun. The explosion from their spell followed soon after, and we pulled our horses in that direction. It went off trail, but Milord Dankyun didn¡¯t care, he didn¡¯t even sheath his sword after Princess Ayuseya vanished before our very eyes. He was mad and furious. We all saw him cast his Supreme Skill to destroy the academy ahead of us. Honestly, I didn¡¯t see the need to destroy the academy in such a way, but if this was the will of our superior, we, his soldiers, had to stay quiet and follow him wherever he led us. Least to be said that none of the students could have possibly survived such a terrifying attack. Even those Emperor Rank teachers most likely suffered some heavy damage, however, it was strange how the core of the dungeon wasn¡¯t there anymore. It appeared to have changed positions if the scouts really did find it. The worst that can happen now would be for us to go through a dungeon. Depending on how many floors it has, we may need to make a supply route with the surface. The scouts can probably handle that. Still, there¡¯s a chance we might not need one, seeing as how furious Milord Dankyun is¡­ I thought as I looked over at the draconian wearing a set of full plated armor and wielding a black sword with red runes engraved on it. We reached the entrance of the dungeon almost one hour after we saw the signal up in the sky. After that, we didn¡¯t see anything else, but the problem was the difficulty of the terrain. We even found a random trap placed here. Of course, Milord Dankyun crushed it with a single strike, but the horses couldn¡¯t move any more. We had to leave them behind, but this way, we could move faster through the forest. Most of our soldiers were between Master and Emperor Rank. I was in the high Emperor, close to Godlike, but the difference in strength and speed was considerable. That being said, we could all move just as fast or even faster than a horse normally did. My brother once told me that many high ranked adventurers preferred the slow pace of a horse because it helped them conserve their Magic Energy, however, if they desired to, they could run faster than the horse. Once we reached the entrance of the dungeon, we had four of my soldiers go first. Milord Dankyun was at the end, conserving his energy for the final battle, while we were meant to take care of the dungeon¡¯s defenses and monsters. The first trap we encountered was on the very first steps that led us deep inside the dungeon. They were all covered in slippery oil, causing the first one to step on it to roll down like a barrel down a hill until they reached the bottom. In order to avoid this from happening to the rest of us, we began to gather dirt and pour it over the steps. With the help of the storage crystal, this was done fast before Milord Dankyun took his anger out on us. When we reached the bottom, we were encountered with the next type of trap, a chamber filled with poisoned air. Normally, we wouldn¡¯t have bothered with something like this because of our Magic Armors, but the moment we stepped closer to the exit, the ceiling rained arrows at us. They all went straight through most Master Ranked Magic Armors, injuring two of us and even killing one. The arrows hit him right in the eyes, and none of us could do anything to save him. We had no choice but to destroy the traps on the ceiling and the poison ones in the walls. Still, the men were getting worried. All of us had experience in dungeon exploring, but none of us heard or saw a dungeon capable of killing a Master Ranked adventurer in the very first room. Unfortunately, we couldn¡¯t back away. Milord Dankyun would have killed us without showing even a drop of mercy. Carefully, and with our shields up, we proceeded deeper into the dungeon. The corridor felt safe at first, but those of us who could detect the traps found the hidden spike traps. We destroyed them and reached the end of the corridor. Two paths awaited us, both covered in oil set ablaze and burning anything that dared to go through. Still, as long as we had water magic, we could put it out, and so we did. As a result, we ended up using a wind spell as well in order to push the smoke and hot steam out of the dungeon. I was standing in the back and directing the soldiers, but it was clear for both me and Dankyun that we weren¡¯t facing a normal dungeon. This wasn¡¯t built with the intent of pulling the adventurers in and sapping their Magic Energy. No, this was something made to kill and torture those who dared to step in. It was a warning, an impudent declaration that it could destroy us, however, we were a group of over 30 Master Ranked Soldiers, three Emperor Ranked Commanders and one Supreme Ranked Leader. There was no way this young dungeon core could survive our onslaught. ¡°The fires are put ou¡­ GACK!¡± one of my men said, but before he finished his words, a spike went through his chest from the left side. The man fell on the ground dead. The spike was two meters long, it had a metal tip and was about 10 cm thick. Everyone moved away from the corridor as we realized that we just encountered another trap, one placed at the other end of the corridor. Fear started to spread through my men, but Milord¡¯s glare kept them at bay. ¡°Get that weakling out of my sight and hurry up!¡± growled Milord Dankyun. ¡°Yes, Milord!¡± we replied obediently. The body was moved out of the way, and two groups of four moved to the left and to the right. We waited patiently for them to return. ¡°GAAH!¡± a scream was heard. ¡°AARGH!¡± a groan was heard on the other side. I closed my eyes and waited. Another scream was heard and finally, we heard a click. The wall in front of us opened up, and another spike came flying out straight at Milord. He caught it with his bare hands and crushed it. After tossing it aside, I ordered two soldiers to move forward. The first one that did slipped on something and didn¡¯t stop until he reached the other side. The floor was covered by slippery oil and inclined a bit towards the other end, it was a small ramp. ¡°AAA! It burns! AAA!¡± the man screamed in pain before everything went quiet. The other soldier gulped and stepped forward, using his sword to steady his foothold. For each step he took, he stabbed the sword in the floor and then took another. This way, he reached the end and gave his report. ¡°Sir! There be lava here!¡± he shouted. ¡°You must be mistaken. Lava is past the 100th floor!¡± said Dankyun a bit angered. It was understandable. To encounter such traps at the first floor was absurd. It only made us worry of what we were going to meet farther down our path. This dungeon was abnormal, unnatural, strange, and incredibly deadly. ¡°Find a way across!¡± I ordered. ¡°Sir Roderique, we can¡¯t find any clues about where the two scouts might be.¡± said one of my soldiers. I nodded and looked over at Milord Dankyun. He said nothing, and I did not press him about this matter. Seeing such a strange dungeon it wasn¡¯t unlikely to believe that they might have died already or maybe fled before we arrived. Even I was getting worried and felt the tingles of fear testing me. It was absurd after all to even believe that a Dungeon Lord that manages a pathetic human Magic Academy could build something as absurd as this dungeon. I shook my head No! This has to be a trick of some sort! I thought and gripped the hilt of my sword. ¡°Do something about that oil and the ramp!¡± I ordered. ¡°Yes, sir!¡± came the reply from my soldiers. Using more dirt, they covered it up and made it safe to walk upon. Without the oil, the ramp wasn¡¯t that much of a big deal. We entered the corridor, but my soldiers didn¡¯t move any farther than the edge of the ramp. The reason was simple: they had nowhere to move to. Although there were some platforms ahead of us, they moved very fast, retreating and exiting the walls in the blink of an eye. There wasn¡¯t even a visible door at the end, leading me to believe that it could only be some sort of puzzle here or a hidden lever. ¡°Milord, what do you think of this?¡± I asked him. ¡°Destroy the wall.¡± he ordered us. I made a bow and then approached the edge of the ramp. Holding my hand up, I aimed for the wall on the other side and then chanted the short incantation for the [Fireball] spell. I added only a bit of my Magic Energy in it, but the effect should have been the desired one. Once the chant was over, the orb of fire formed in front of my palm. It flew towards the wall and exploded upon impact. It was a success! The wall was destroyed, blasted to pieces. With a smirk, I ordered two of my men to use the platforms and reach the other side. This turned out to be a rather easy obstacle to get past over. I thought in my mind as I watched he two skillfully jump from one platform to another, but just when they reached the last jump, something happened. The wall was covered in a shining light and the first soldier to jump was met with the fully repaired wall. ¡°NO! No no no!¡± he shouted trying to grab hold of something, but he plunged into the hot, molten lava below. ¡°YEARGH!¡± he screamed as his Magic Armor was shattered by the heat, and his body quickly caught fire. The other was met with a similar fate when the platform was pulled from under his feet. ¡°NOOO!¡± he screamed as well and fell. I watched as two more of my soldiers were eaten by this dungeon. ¡°What¡¯s going on with this dungeon?¡± I said through my clenched jaws and glared at the wall on the other side. ¡°What are you doing? Open the path already!¡± ordered Milord. It was clearly not my fault that this accursed dungeon had so many traps, but the failure of my soldiers still fell upon my shoulders. In Milord¡¯s eyes, I was the one to blame for this. Their death was only a testament as my failure as their commander. I won¡¯t let a dungeon make a fool out of me! I thought. There had to be a way to get past this field of lava, but if there was a wall on that side, then surely there was a lever to lead to the other side. Every dungeon had one. Every floor had a logic, a maze with a single entrance and exit, but with multiple paths from one point to another. This was a rule no dungeon strayed away from, meaning there had to be a way to get through this, a way to open the path for Milord¡­ But what? I cringed my teeth and tried to analyze the room again. Where is it? I looked up, but there was nothing wrong with the ceiling Where did you hide it? there was nothing on the walls either Where? behind us was a clear path too, Does this mean that¡­ I looked at the other end of the corridor. The platforms were identical. The walls were the same, but there had to be something off, something different. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°There must be a lever or a button hidden somewhere behind these walls. Start searching!¡± I ordered. The soldiers searched around me, while Theyon, another commander approached me and patted me on the shoulder. ¡°Relax or you¡¯ll grow wrinkles!¡± he said with a smirk. ¡°No time for either relaxing or growing wrinkles! We need to find out where that lever is hidden.¡± I said clenching the hilt of my sword. Nodding, he patted me on the shoulder. ¡°Should I attempt to find one on those walls?¡± he asked me pointing at the platforms. ¡°Yes.¡± I told him. With a smirk on his lips, he stepped away and made the first jump. He landed on the first platform and punched the wall, it cracked, but no hidden compartment could be seen there. At each platform, he repeated the process until he reached the last one. There, the piece of wall hiding the switch fell off, but he didn¡¯t stop to press it. Nothing guaranteed the platforms would freeze in their place if he did so. He jumped on the wall at the end and back on the platform after it extended again. After pulling the lever there, he jumped on the platforms until he reached me. The wall at the end opened up. ¡°Good! Was it really that hard?¡± asked Milord as he walked by us, and with one jump, he reached the other side. ¡°No, Milord!¡± I replied with my head bowed. I sacrificed three men already, and we aren¡¯t even past the first floor! I thought, but I couldn¡¯t say such traitorous things out loud¡­ If I did, my head was the one to roll next. After we passed the lava pit, we reached the next ridiculous part of the maze. It was something outrageous, something I never seen or heard of before. The path we had to take to reach the other side was a maze of walking boards. Underneath us only a pit filled with deadly spikes awaited us. There were monsters here as well, harpies flying about and screeching at us. Two of them attacked Milord, but he grabbed them by the neck and crushed them in his hands. They didn¡¯t stand a chance against him, however, my soldiers were having trouble defending against these things. ¡°Kill those things with ranged attacks! Form small groups and watch yourselves on the planks! Watch out for traps!¡± I ordered and the men spread apart. ¡°There are three paths here.¡± said Theyon. ¡°Take the right one. I¡¯ll go left, and Zarus can take the front one. If we find the exit just come out and let Milord know about it. We¡¯ll take a group of five soldiers each. The rest of them will stay here with Milord.¡± I ordered. Zarus and Theyon nodded, and each of them selected their five soldiers. I did the same and then one after another, we walked on the planks. As soon as we took our first step, one of the blasted harpies attacked my group and pushed one of my men off. The lad fell screaming. His words were cut as soon as he reached the bottom, his body was crushed by the fall and pierced by the spikes. ¡°Don¡¯t back away and keep pushing!¡± I ordered them. ¡°Yes, sir!¡± came their reply from behind their shields. I heard another scream, but I didn¡¯t look to see what group was met with the unfortunate loss. When I got close enough to the spawning location of the harpies, I aimed a [Seeker Fireball] at the opening and let it explode inside. That was it for the harpies. We only had to slay the rest, and we were in the clear. ¡°GYAAH!¡± screamed another soldier behind me. Looking back, I saw the man spitting out blood and then fall off the ledge. His back was pierced by enchanted arrows that ignored Magic Armor. This dungeon is terrifying¡­ I thought as I looked at the dead body below me. There was nothing I could do for him, so I pressed forward. We made sure to guard our backs as well for those sort of traps. ¡°NOO!¡± screamed another soldiers, and I could only cringe my teeth. This one wasn¡¯t part of my group, but still¡­ Until we reached this blasted Magic Academy, we didn¡¯t lose even one single soldier on our entire journey form Teslov here! We fought bandits, monsters, sailed the seas and flew through the sky, but not even one fell prey to those dangers¡­ I thought as I remembered with what ease we traversed an entire continent only to be struck down by a mere human Magic Academy. It was shameful. ¡°That¡¯s the end!¡± I told the soldiers behind me. We hurried our pace and reached the door safely. With a single push, we opened it and stepped inside. What we saw wasn¡¯t an exit. It was a Boss Room. Harpies and imps glared at us, while the Minotaur in the middle huffed and raised its weapons up. You have got to be kidding me¡­ I told myself, but at the very least, it was an opponent we could handle. ¡°Kill them all.¡± I ordered and pointed my sword at the beasts. The battle commenced. My soldiers stepped away and attacked the harpies and imps. The monsters were acceptable for the first floors, but still impossible to find on the first one of any dungeon. While my men took care of the small fries, I jumped at the boss. Strengthening my body with a boost, I used [Dash] and plunged my sword in the beast¡¯s belly. The cut was there, but it didn¡¯t flinch. [Thousand Strikes] was next. The Minotaur stepped back and tried to block with its weapons, but it stood no chance. The rings that summoned the beasts were shattered and using [Lightning Dash], I slipped my way through its defenses and landed a strike right in its heart. The beast was dead. It was our complete victory. ¡°Good job!¡± I said with a smirk as I wiped the sword of the Minotaur¡¯s blood. ¡°Sir! I think there¡¯s something here!¡± said one of my soldiers. ¡°Be careful where you step in there.¡± I told him, but that was the last time I would get to talk with him. At his first step in, countless small arrows flew at him, piercing his Magic Armor like it was nothing and stopping inside his flesh. They got through the cracks of his armor and killed him. The man fell on the ground without even shouting a scream. I cringed my teeth at the thought of losing another soldier. ¡°Leave him there. We¡¯ll return to Milord Dankyun and tell him this is a dead end.¡± I ordered them and walked out of the room, shield raised and prepared for a possible surprise attack. Upon our return, the other groups had finished as well. Theyon lost all of his soldiers, while Zarus lost only one. It was a pathetic return, not one worthy of draconian commanders under a Supreme draconian. ¡°I found nothing on the left path, Milord.¡± I gave my report while kneeling in front of him. ¡°Right path led to Zarus¡¯ group.¡± Theyon gave his report as well. ¡°Front path leads to the next floor.¡± said Zarus. ¡°Forward it is then.¡± Dankyun nodded and pointed his hand at the exit. ¡°As you command, Milord!¡± I said. The entire group now followed him, while the injured soldiers tried to patch up their wounds as best as they could. Those with healing skills came in handy right now. When we reached the pit leading to the next floor, I saw how Theyon lost the rest of his soldiers. They all ended up crushed under a giant boulder, now cracked in half by a strong punch. It made me wonder whether our men were actually a pathetic bunch or if this dungeon was indeed that dangerous. We lost so many and we just began to explore this place¡­ I thought as I looked down the pit, where a puddle of water stained by the blood of a draconian could be seen. ¡°I¡¯ll set up the ladder.¡± Theyon said before taking a rope one from his storage crystal. Using two big metal nails and his own fist, he secured it to the ground and then let it roll all the way down. It was a bit longer, so it landed in the water. Five soldiers used it first to make sure it was safe, Theyon followed next, then another five soldiers. They all climbed down safely and avoided to fall in the water pit. When it was Dankyun¡¯s turn, he didn¡¯t need to use the ladder. Milord jumped from wall to wall until he reached the bottom, once more showing us the difference in strength and speed. I was the last to jump down, making sure no monster or trap was triggered after us. What awaited for us was a strange, twisted maze, and at the very entrance of it was a scene worthy of turning even a warrior¡¯s stomach upside down¡­ ¡°Dungeon Lord! I¡¯m going to KILL YOU! DO YOU HEAR ME?! I¡¯LL DESTROY YOU FOR THIS!¡± shouted Milord Dankyun. ¡°Huh? Sorry! Did you say something? I wasn¡¯t paying attention. Anyway, have fun in my maze!¡± the voice of the Dungeon Lord was heard coming from behind us. We all turned around, but we didn¡¯t see anything over there, however, our ladder vanished and slippery oil poured on the walls from the top, making the journey back up at the very least troublesome. He wanted to trap us here, to kill us. By the gods¡­ in what sort of dungeon did we land ourselves in? I asked myself as I felt a shiver of fear running through my whole body. Indeed, for the first time since I stepped into this dungeon, I felt fear¡­ [Illsyore¡¯s point of view] Sometime before the two assassins entered my dungeon. I found Nanya standing on top of my Green Crystal body and pushing us both through the tunnel on top of those rollers. Thanks to her inhuman strength, the feat was much easier to accomplish than it would have been otherwise. Either way, it was clear she needed my help. ¡°Sorry for being late!¡± I told her and quickly used [Telekinezy] to push my body and guide it on the right path. ¡°Welcome back, Illsy! I was this close to shattering your useless body to pieces! Couldn¡¯t you have built a mine cart or something?¡± she asked glaring at me. ¡°I had a moment of lag when I built this¡­¡± I confessed. Indeed, a mine cart would have made things much easier and simpler, but in all due honesty, I had no idea how I could build it. My mind only went around the idea of using [Create a Room] to create each individual part and then assemble it. It sounded very troublesome, but not impossible. ¡°Anyway, I opened the dungeon, now I just have to set myself up¡­¡± I told her. ¡°I¡¯m going to undo my seal as well. It¡¯s going to take a while, unfortunately¡­¡± she shook her head and crossed her hands at her chest. ¡°How long?¡± I asked. ¡°I don¡¯t know. It¡¯s been some time since I last did it, and the more you keep yourself sealed the harder it is to unseal yourself.¡± she tilted her head to the left, furrowed her brow and sighed. ¡°Who sealed you?¡± ¡°I did¡­ I don¡¯t really like my real form¡­¡± she shook her head and looked down. ¡°I see¡­¡± There was no need to press the question any further, it was clear that it was something she didn¡¯t want to talk about, but it did make me curious about her real form. My imagination was already running wild with different versions of her, most of them inspired by anime and manga, but I highly doubted any of them approached the real thing. Ten minutes later, we arrived at my room. Nanya jumped off and took a look around at everything. It was a big circular room, quite spacious and with my body positioned at the very back of it. Numerous AGLMC Lasers were spread around the room, capable of aiming at any point on the floor. These were far stronger than what I had back at the academy. Just one of these things was powerful enough to shred to pieces the Magic Armor of a Master Rank in one shot. I probably needed two for an Emperor. They were slightly stronger than the other ones placed inside the dungeon with the purpose of lowering Dankyun¡¯s armor. Once he reached the maze, I planned on using small spells to force him to attack and use up his Magic Energy. I had no idea how many of those crystals he had on him, so it was best if I did everything I could to weaken him. After placing my body in the designated location, I rechecked all of the defenses and attack mechanisms I designed for this room. Besides the lasers, I also had enchanted Inconel shields that popped up from the ground in front of my body. An Electric Power Crystal was placed there with the sole purpose of electrifying the floor. Everything else depended on my spells. This time, I was prepared to meet Dankyun with my auras fully charged and spells ready to blast a whole through him. Unfortunately, the maze in this dungeon wasn¡¯t finished yet. I didn¡¯t have the time to do it, therefore, I had to do something about it. ¡°I¡¯m going to increase the room size and create a bunch of summoning circles with [Create Basic Summoning Circle for monster], but first, I¡¯m going to upgrade this skill. Status.¡± I said, and the screen appeared before me. [Level]: 86 [Strength]: 200+1000 [Agility]: 150+1000 [Intelligence]: 225+1000 [Magic Energy]: 8120 [Magic Energy Regeneration]: 30 Magic Energy Points per Second [Available points]: 295 [Available skill points]: 180 Without delay, I used 250 points in my Magic Regeneration, and how 25 points meant 1 point per second, this boosted my Magic Regeneration to 40 points per second. Everything else was added to Intelligence, a total of 45 points, granting me another 225 Magic Energy points to my total pool. The last thing I did was use up my skill points. I selected [Infernal Glacier X10] chose to improve it. The price was 25 Skill Points for each level. [Infernal Glacier X10] > [Infernal Glacier X20] > [Infernal Glacier X30] > [Infernal Glacier X30] >[Infernal Glacier X50] These four levels depleted 100 Skill Points, but I still had 80 left. I chose to improve it again, but this upgrade required 50 Skill Points. I agreed and received: [Infernal Glacier X60] A big wide grin appeared on my face the moment I saw this. I had only 5 skill points left, but it was TOTALLY worth it. Now the skill told me the following thing in the description: [Infernal Glacier X60] One cast of this spell was the equivalent of 6 casts of [Infernal Glacier X10] and two times cheaper. Thus, I ended up with the following stats: [Level]: 86 [Strength]: 200+1000 [Agility]: 150+1000 [Intelligence]: 270+1000 [Magic Energy]: 8345 [Magic Energy Regeneration]: 40 Magic Energy Points per Second [Available points]: 0 [Available skill points]: 5 Totally worth it! I thought with a smile. ¡°Well?¡± Nanya asked raising an eyebrow. ¡°I¡¯m done with my upgrades¡­ I¡¯m going to go improve this level quickly and then head inside to talk with Ayuseya and Shanteya about the upcoming battle. What are you going to do?¡± I asked her. ¡°I¡¯m going to sit down here and meditate because I want this seal off before I face Dankyun.¡± she said with a shrug and did just that. Nanya sat down where she stood, crossing her legs and entering the Lotus position. I blinked a bit surprised when I saw her, but I shrugged and then headed off to fix this level. Since I couldn¡¯t finish all the walls and traps I had initially planned, all was left was to spam traps and monsters. First of all, I increased the room size by adding another six meters to it. In the area between the laser optimal zone and the wall, I placed as many summoning circles as I could, pouring at least 2000 Magic Energy Points in each one of them. I also made sure the circles were set to spawn two monsters worth 1000 points each. On the outside wall, I connected the remaining maze walls and added a few quick traps to it. With my increased Magic Energy Regeneration, thing went much faster than I initially anticipated. It was practically double when compared to the first day when I came into this world. From my point of view, it was clear that I rushed things over here, but I doubted someone like Dankyun or his soldiers could notice this. At best, they would only believe they reached a much easier part of my maze. I returned to my Inner Mind and headed straight to Shanteya and Ayuseya. The two of them were together and talking about something. Master! Are you alright? asked Shanteya worried the very moment she saw me there. I¡¯m fine. We managed to flee safely, and we¡¯re now inside my dungeon. I told them with a smile. I understand. Master, I¡­ Shanteya stopped herself from finishing what she had to say and looked back at Ayuseya. No, it¡¯s best you speak with her first. My matter can wait¡­ the beautiful el¡¯doraw nodded and pulled back away from me. Blinking surprised, I looked over at Ayuseya and approached her. Sorry, I didn¡¯t keep my word¡­ I told her and looked down. Illsy¡­ she said and then something amazing happened. Ayuseya flew over to me, she lifted my chin up and then kissed me. She was a bit clumsy with her kiss, but it was a true sincere one without any strings attached, without any chains to hold it back. She wrapped her arms around me and pulled me closer to her as we shared our second kiss, but this time, I was the one leading. The mood was so pleasant and relaxing, I completely forgot about Dankyun and his band of rats, but it wasn¡¯t a bad thing. I found out I enjoyed kissing Ayuseya just as much as I did Shanteya. Holding her in my arms and feeling her big chest pressed over mine brought a comfy feeling. The dragoness was gentle in her embrace, but so was I. I then remembered my dream where Alina showed me that picture with her and then with Ayuseya, Shanteya, and Nanya. I guess, I made my pick. I loved Alina, but our journey together was over. She was in her world, back on Earth, and I had three lovely women waiting for me here. It wasn¡¯t hard to pick between them, it was just that deep inside, I still held tight to my relationship with Alina, and this didn¡¯t let me completely devote myself to the new love I found here. Indeed, it wasn¡¯t one that took years to form. It had some very strange and unique circumstances, but in the end, what mattered was the pure, untainted feelings between us. What matters is how you felt when you opened your heart chakra to her¡­ This was what my friend used to say, although, I never understood the full meaning of these words. I thought and then opened my eyes. [Spouse: Ayuseya Drekar Pleyades ¨C Eligibility for [Bond of Trust] confirmed.] [Do you wish to apply [Bond of Trust] on Spouse: Ayuseya Drekar Pleyades? Y/N] Yes¡­ I thought and the message vanished. Looking now in Ayuseya¡¯s eyes, I noticed something strange. Her cute expression with a soft smile on her lips was charming and attractive. Were you always this beautiful? I asked her as I moved my fingers through her red hair. It was strange how I never noticed something like this until now. Maybe, but I guess this confirms it¡­ she said and looked down. What? I asked. You asked me if I can trust you, if I can truly trust you¡­ What you did for me today. What you did for me ever since I came to this academy: saving me from assassins, curing me of my curses, and protecting me from Dankyun¡­ These are things nobody else would have dared to do even if they knew they could¡­ she smiled softly and cupped my cheeks in her palms. Illsy, I know I¡¯m not worthy, but I think I love you, and I wish to become your wife. she shook her head. No, you are the only one I can accept as my husband¡­ The only one to whom I wish to devote myself fully and if this means trusting you with my entire being, then so be it! she declared with a soft smile, tears pouring down on her cheeks. When faced with a confession like this one, how could I say no? I nodded and kissed her again. A moment later, our lips parted, and I told her Then I will do everything I can to accept your love and reply to it with my own. In the end, to love was to feel that strange attraction deep inside your chest towards another. The feeling was like a hurricane of positive energies, constantly swirling and cutting of your breath. You wished to be besides that other person, and you felt completely opened towards them. A full trust and understanding for one another bloomed from this energy. The connection was made when the other replied. In my case, Ayuseya started it, and I replied to it by letting it appear in my soul as well. I also felt the same thing for Shanteya and maybe even for Nanya too. Where it would lead us, it remained to be seen, but for now, I had other matters to take care off. Ayuseya, I¡¯m not going to give you back to Dankyun. After this, I won¡¯t even think about it. You, Shanteya, and Nanya¡­ I closed my eyes for a moment and took a deep breath as I prepared myself for this declaration. You are all my women, my lovers, my friends, and I want to be with you all and not let another man touch you! It may be selfish of me to desire such a thing, but if you three were brought before me like this, then surely even the gods approve of my love towards you three! So yes, I want you all! That would make me very happy! came Ayuseya¡¯s reply. Me too, Master! said Shanteya. All that was left was Nanya, but I had yet to discover the way to get her to trust me or rather what she was afraid off in regard with myself. Well now, with that settled. You both have [Bond of Trust] activated and set to maximum, meaning Shanteya gets 50% of my stats, and Ayuseya 70%. This means that Ayuseya has the same strength and speed as a Supreme, and Shanteya a lower Supreme. I explained to them. Supreme? But how can that be? Ayuseya asked confused. It¡¯s my ability. My spouses whom I love and trust, and also who naturally and selflessly love me and trust me in return receive the equivalent of 70% of my power. I explained with a smile. To trust me with such a power¡­ Ayuseya shook her head I don¡¯t know if I am worthy¡­ she said. I see no reason as to why I should be afraid or deny it either. I said and embraced her. I even pulled Shanteya in You are both my lovely women, whom I trust with my life and power! Only time will tell us if you don¡¯t, but so far, I believe you do and hope this will never change! Thank you¡­ said Ayuseya. Likewise¡­ blushed Shanteya. Speaking of which, what did you want to ask? I looked at my cute el¡¯doraw slave. Master, the two el¡¯doraw sisters who came here with Dankyun¡­ I wish to cross daggers with them. They are after me. It¡¯s their missions, and I wish to make it clear that I hold no desire of ever leaving your side and returning to that place! she declared with her hand over her heart. I see¡­ I looked down for a moment, but I knew that if she really wanted to do this, I had no right to say ¡®No¡¯ to her. Besides, I trusted that she had both the strength and ability to defeat those two. Very well! I¡¯ll allow it! But, if things get messy, call me. Alright? I told her. She nodded and kissed my cheek. Illsy, I also wish to fight. Ayuseya said all of a sudden. Erm, I don¡¯t think you can defeat Dankyun¡­ I told her. The dragoness shook her head. Not Dankyun, but his Emperor Rank commanders. They don¡¯t hold any sort of loyalty towards the Pleyades Royal family, and I believe they plan to dethrone us. If I can, I won¡¯t allow such a thing to come to pass! she declared clenching her fist. Erm, I see, but there is a big difference between the two of you. At the very least Shanteya trained in order to properly control her sudden boost in strength, but you were sealed your entire life¡­ I warned her. Yes, I know. That¡¯s why I won¡¯t ask to go alone, but for you to accompany me as well¡­ I want to prove I¡¯m not the same weak little princess¡­ or at least try. I honestly didn¡¯t know what to say to her. If I said yes, Ayuseya could end up in a bigger trouble thanks to the simple fact that she couldn¡¯t control her strength. The one who came to my rescue, however, was Shanteya. Princess, with all due respect, I don¡¯t believe you can do it. Your Magic Armor is far weaker even than that of an Intermediary Rank. Those commanders have both the strength and military experience to defeat you. I speak from experience because I also know what it means to receive Illsy¡¯s boost in strength and speed. You are not ready yet, Ayuseya. The draconian princess looked a bit disappointed, but she accepted her fate and nodded. It wasn¡¯t her time yet. That was all¡­ I understand, I may have been a bit too excited because of how strong you said I am now¡­ she showed me a small smile. After this whole thing is over, I¡¯ll take my time and train you properly, Princess. said Shanteya. So be it then! she nodded. There¡¯s still time until they get here. I can let you out meanwhile and enchant your dress so it doesn¡¯t break if you use your full strength in it. I told her. Very well. Just so you know, I don¡¯t mind being seen naked by you, but I would dislike to be gazed upon by other men. she replied with a giggle. That being said, I released both of them and enchanted Ayuseya¡¯s clothes to survive her sudden boost in strength. Nanya didn¡¯t even open her eyes to look at us, she continued to meditate and focus on releasing her seal. ¡°Someone is approaching my dungeon¡­¡± I told them when the two el¡¯doraw assassins discovered the entrance. ¡°Master?¡± asked Shanteya with a bit of worry in her eyes. ¡°I¡¯ll prepare the grounds for you¡­ Get ready.¡± ¡°Yes, Master!¡± And so, the battle began¡­ as for their stats. This was what I saw in both of their status windows: [Name]: Ayuseya Drekar Pleyades [Species]: Hybrid of Draconian and True Dragon [Race]: Gold [Level]: 48 [Strength]: 224+840 [Agility]: 200+805 [Intelligence]: 216+889 [Magic Energy]: 5525+5841.5 [Magic Energy regeneration]: 0.33+28 points per second [Bond of Trust] <70%> Change? Y/N [Available points]: 0 [Skills] > List all skills? Y/N [Available skill points]: 0 [Allegiance]: Omniak Drekar Gladarash, God of the Ancient Dragons [Spouses]: Illsyore [Slaves]: None [Pets]: None [Minions]: None _____________ [Name]: Shanteya Dowesyl slave of [Illsyore] [Species]: El¡¯doraw [Race]: Albino [Level]: 78 [Strength]: 246+600 [Agility]: 321+575 [Intelligence]: 144+635 [Magic Energy]: 3895+4172.5 [Magic Energy regeneration]: 1.5+20 points per second [Bond of Trust] <50%> Change? Y/N [Available points]: 0 [Skills] > List all skills? Y/N [Available skill points]: 0 [Allegiance]: Brasil, God of Shadows; Illsyore, Godlike Dungeon Lord [Spouses]: None [Slaves]: None [Pets]: None [Minions]: None _____ Note from the Author: Thank you for reading this chapter! I hope you enjoyed it! :D Chapter 33: Unforeseen circumstances... While Nanya was preparing herself by unsealing her power, I led Shanteya through the maze on the fourth floor, carried her over the lava on the third floor, and then guided her through the maze on the second floor. What I noticed now was that just like it happened with Nanya, the monsters and traps didn¡¯t react to her. They recognized the el¡¯doraw as one of mine, but the same couldn¡¯t be said by bred and born monsters. Those were outside of my control and that of anyone else for that matter. Luckily, I had no such beasts within my dungeon. What I couldn¡¯t remember though was if this was a recent change, maybe thanks to the [Bond of Trust], or it had always been like this. Speaking of which, Shanteya appeared to be rather surprised by the many traps I had prepared as well as the numerous spawned monsters. Just like the other teachers and even Nanya herself, the el¡¯doraw could hardly believe that what she saw were only the fourth, third, and second floors of the dungeon. Considering the fact that I already built smaller dungeons meant to represent the first fifty floors of an actual dungeon, I found her reaction to be expected. The dungeon species was classified in the following races: Easy, Normal, Difficult, Ancient, Legendary, Heroic, Demonic, Ancestral, Demigod, and Godlike. These also represented the type of difficulty the adventurers were expected to encounter inside the mazes and labyrinths built by each of them, where Easy was the weakest and simplest type of Dungeon possible as well as the most widespread, and Godlike was said to be the hardest possible. By my estimates, my first floor as of now was the equivalent of a Normal dungeon with at least 100 floors, and maybe a Demigod dungeon with 25 floors. In general, the first one was the easiest in all cases, but I was a bit special. Not only was I a Dungeon Core with a reincarnated soul, but I also had an incredible amount of Magic Energy as well as Magic Energy Regeneration. From my point of view, the difficulty of the first level could only be seen as reasonable, therefore, I decided that once I left Shanteya in the maze on the second floor, I was going to follow the two el¡¯doraw and make it even easier for the three of them to meet. Once they went past certain locations, I was intent on cutting them off and increasing the difficulty of the zone. ¡°Will this place be alright for you?¡± I asked Shanteya and lowered her on the ground. ¡°This will do fine, Master. I just need to figure out the layout of the area, that¡¯s all.¡± she told me. ¡°Very well! If you need anything, just let me know.¡± I told her with a smile, although she couldn¡¯t see me. Why couldn¡¯t slaves see me? ¡°Thank you, Master! I will only need you to tell me when they are near me.¡± ¡°Alright!¡± I said and flew away, while Shanteya prepared herself for the upcoming encounter. Flying outside, I found the two sisters climbing down the stairs. There were no traps there, and most of the place was relatively clean and untouched. The first thing I did was to fly into the lava pit room and stop the platforms from going in and out every second or so. Then I opened the door at the other end and ordered the harpies to hide inside their room. I deactivated all the traps there and then closed the doors to the left and right passages, leaving only the front one open. After that, I returned to where the two el¡¯doraws were. The women appeared to have reached the first door and were preparing to split up on the right and left path. To keep them from doing so, I immediately opened the secret door and let them walk through without activating the levers. Once they were inside, I quickly closed it behind them and just to be sure they took the right path, I engraved a small message in the wall. There was no need for them to go wandering about trying to find Shanteya. I had to lead them right to her. Now, to modify this place a bit¡­ I thought and then flew out. If I have all those liquids and metals inside, maybe I can expel just one of them? But how? I don¡¯t want to make a mess around my crystal body¡­ I thought and then decided to try using the skill [Create a Room]. I focused on making a cube of oil with thin, air walls around it. It actually worked, and about 1 m3 of thin cooking oil was spilled on the entrance stairs, but I avoided the first four steps. The problem was that I could feel I didn¡¯t have a lot of it. Most likely because it was seen as a luxury in this world rather than a common household item. There was also a thick black oil in there, petroleum most likely, but this one was in larger quantities. I decided to use some of it and smear it on the walls of the corridors leading to the hidden levers. Adding a few poisonous gas traps and some enchanted arrow traps on the ceilings didn¡¯t sound like a bad idea. Just to be safe, I added a few more traps on the two corridors as well, traps that shot out big spikes instead of tiny arrows. Next up was the lava pit. I flew over there and used [Create a Room] to create a small ramp, afterwards I added some oil on it, but I made sure it stopped before reaching the lava. I also thought of adding some of it on the platforms, but it would have been wiped off when the slab entered the wall. Therefore, I reduced the time the slabs remained outside by half a second. Now, all I had to do was add a few more traps in the next room as well as pour about 3000 Magic Energy Points into the Harpy summoning circle. I increased the strength of each summoned monster by another 200 Magic Energy Points and then proceeded to do the same to the other summoning circles here. If before, this floor was the equivalent of the 50th floor of an Ancestral Dungeon or Heroic one, now it¡¯s going to be the 70th or even 80th one. Master Ranked Adventurers will stand no chance in here. I thought before checking the surrounding area for signs of life. Dankyun¡¯s party was at most half an hour away, maybe even more if they didn¡¯t use their horses. For a moment, I thought about just flying out and shooting him with a 8000 Magic Energy [Infernal Glacier X60]. I highly doubted he could survive it even with all of his crystals, but if he actually did, and I was forced to retreat or even faint because of my exhaustion, then Dankyun was free to just waltz in and destroy my dungeon. However, I did increase the spell¡¯s power, so a 4000 Magic Energy Attack would allow me to cast that spell 40 times, meaning a more than quadruple damage for each spike than a single unimproved spike. It would have meant not 400 spikes, but 2400 spikes, each much stronger and dangerous than the original one. Not only that, but if 240 were enough to deplete his Magic Armor once, then¡­ 2400 would have vaporized him. What was more, I could recast it after 1 minute and 40 seconds had passed. I¡¯m also invisible, so he can¡¯t find me. Reaching my core would require more than 2 minutes even if he could fly through the walls. This means I can keep on attacking him with 2400 Infernal Glacier spikes in tight quarters every minute or so. If I go and attack him right now, I will ki¡­ just as I was thinking about actually putting this plan into action, something strange happened. Although I was invisible and basically a formless floating entity, I felt a strange chill surrounding me, and all of a sudden, I got pulled back into my body. WHAT THE? WHAT¡¯S HAPPENING?! I screamed, but my voice didn¡¯t reach out towards the world around me, it remained stuck in my mind. Fear rushed through me, but it didn¡¯t come from Dankyun¡¯s sword. That one, I managed to handle. No, this fear was coming from inside my crystal body, and I could do anything to stop it from pulling me inside. I couldn¡¯t shout for help, and I couldn¡¯t stop this powerful force. It was frightening¡­ In a matter of moments, I returned to my Inner Mind, floating helplessly inside the endless darkness there. I was cold¡­ I was shivering¡­ And I couldn¡¯t move, but one thing was certain. The one or the thing responsible for this peculiar condition of mine was the darkness. The very thing surrounding me also kept me captive like a helpless chick in a human¡¯s merciless grasp. What¡¯s happening? I asked. [All Emperor Rank Skill have been Locked for an undetermined period of time.] What? I looked at the message in horror. This can¡¯t be¡­ I said and shook my head. All those points¡­ are you serious? Are you joking with me? Hey! What¡¯s going on?! I shouted at the top of my lungs. Nothing or rather no one replied, and I remained motionless in that darkness. I know you¡¯re there! Show yourself! I shouted in anger. My, my! The little one has quite the energy, doesn¡¯t he? the voice of an unknown man was heard and then from the depths of that darkness, a humanoid form appeared before me. It was a thin, naked draconian, but there was no color on him, not even on his scales. He was just as one would see him in an old black-and-white movie. Despite his race, he wasn¡¯t what I would call good looking. His big nose and missing tooth in front gave him a rather unappealing vibe. Who¡­ Who are you? I asked. Hm? No one¡­ Carry on! he smirked and waved his hand before pulling back into the darkness. Oh, come on now! Don¡¯t be so mean to our guest! After all, he is the primary mind of this dump! said another voice who made himself appear from the darkness. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. He looked like a human gentleman in his late forties. Unlike the other, this one was dressed exactly like a British nobleman from the year 2000: an elegant suit in stripes, nicely done black hair, a beautifully maintained mustache, a tie with a well-made pin, shiny new shoes, and an aura about him that screamed of high class. All that was missing was a fancy watch and a butler, but even then, he appeared before me colored only in shade of gray. I gulped. Allow me to introduce myself, I am Senegoir. he made a polite bow. OK? I am¡­ he lifted his right hand up to make me stop. No need. We already know who and what you are. he explained calmly. Then why are you doing this? I asked. Well, it has occurred to us that you aren¡¯t actually behaving in a dungeon-like manner. You actually care for these walking pieces of flesh. The wife system was only made to help us, dungeons, reproduce. Anyway, with that rude fellow¡¯s appearance, we have decided it was about time we step in and thought you some well-deserved dungeon manners! he smiled and nodded to himself. But I can kill him with that spell, so why should I bother luring him in my dungeon? Also, what exactly are you, and how did you get in here? I asked squinting my eyes at him. You ask such unimportant questions, but an answer is required, I suppose¡­ We are the leftovers of the dungeons used to build you. This darkness is nothing more than the conglomerate of our remaining knowledge, memories, skills, and personalities. We are your subconscious sort to speak, if you would prefer that term. Senegoir waved his hand as if it wasn¡¯t something important, but for me, it was. To think that all this time, this darkness was not part of me, or rather not mine to begin with, but the remains of the Dungeon Lords and Cores that were used to make me. All of a sudden, I felt like Frankenstein¡¯s monster. A living being made out of the parts of former living beings. I gulped in silence and looked around, remembering the many things I said and did while surrounded by this darkness. To know that in all those times, I was watched and analyzed by the former dungeons, that Ayuseya and Shanteya were also watched, it made me feel a bit disgusted by them as well as frightened by their possible power over me. What do you want? I asked carefully. Oh! That? It¡¯s quite simple, lad! To help you understand what an actual dungeon is! Don¡¯t worry, you are strong enough to defeat that draconian fellow even without that overpowered spell. Your dungeon is quite astonishing and powerful! It will surely annihilate his entire army and reduce him to dust! Senegoir claimed and made the schematic of my dungeon appear between us. It was a hologram that perfectly showed all the passageways, traps, triggers, Power Crystals, and [Magic Thread] connections made between all of them. When shown in such a way, I could understand as well that my dungeon was rather complex and difficult to overcome by many standards, however, it wasn¡¯t probably the best I could come up with. You want me to lure Dankyun in and kill him with my dungeon? I asked squinting my eyes at them. Exactly, lad! Defeat your very first adventurer with this remarkable dungeon of yours! That¡¯s the proper way for a dungeon to behave! Lure them in, drain their Magic Energy and then ruthlessly kill them! he declared proudly. What if I want to use that overpowered spell instead? It¡¯s the obvious best choice out of all of them, right? I asked. Well, then it¡¯s simple. You can¡¯t. We don¡¯t want you to win that easily. Although we can¡¯t control your words and actions outside of this place, we can put a lock on some of your abilities, for example: your Emperor Rank Skills. We understand it¡¯s not pretty, or a very¡­ polite thing to do, but we simply need to teach you what truly means to be a dungeon! he said shaking his head, disapproving of me for some reason. But I wasn¡¯t born as a dungeon! I¡¯m a reincarnated human! I retorted a bit frustrated, although, I highly doubted it was worth anything trying to keep that as a secret from them. We know already! he lifted his hands up and the dungeon replica vanished, scattered like dust in the wind. That¡¯s exactly why we want you to do this! You have to find out and see for yourself the joy of killing someone with your traps and monsters! Sigh, maybe then you will realize that the so-called wives have no other existential meaning than to serve and obey us like faithful little pets¡­ If only a dungeon could reproduce with another dungeon, then they wouldn¡¯t be needed at all¡­ he sighed again and looked down at me. It was a bit shocking to see someone talk about a fellow sentient being in such a way, but these were actual dungeons I was talking to, remnants of those beings feared by adventurers, the enemies of all humanoid sentient lifeforms in this world. Even so, I didn¡¯t believe their words to be right. There was something wrong with them. Actually, there was something wrong with this whole situation. Instead of preparing myself for a battle with Dankyun, I was standing here, unable to move and talking with these strange apparitions inside my own mind. Am I going mad? I wondered. No, this is very much real. Senegoir said shaking his head. What happens if my dungeon isn¡¯t strong enough to defeat Dankyun? I asked. Then we will give you back your overpowered spell, although¡­ it¡¯s only overpowered against someone like him. You have yet to meet the¡­ his words were cut off then, but his lips were still moving. It was like I had gone deaf for a moment. What do you plan on doing afterward? I asked. Nothing really. We¡¯ll just observe you and give you proper advice when you need it. In time, you will grow to think and act like us. It¡¯s unavoidable. Once that happens, we will give you all of our knowledge and skills. he shrugged. What if I don¡¯t want to become like you? You will. As I said, it¡¯s unavoidable. The desire to build dungeons, to lure adventurers in, to kill them, it¡¯s like a drug. It holds you by a leash and if you refuse to do its bidding, it will pull you in by force. It happened to me, to them, and it will happen to you as well. Besides, he stopped here and squinted his eyes at me I don¡¯t think you understand the simple fact that you aren¡¯t a human anymore. You are a dungeon. Our instincts and natural desires will surface eventually. You will see for yourself, in due time, that we are superior, stronger, smarter, better than any of those mortals. he then looked back as if someone called him. My body was freed in that instant, and I could move again. It¡¯s time for us to return to the darkness. We¡¯ll see each other again, Illsyore. Senegoir said with a polite bow. Wait! I shouted. Hm? he raised an eyebrow at me. Are you friends or foes? I asked. Neither. We are you. he then left just like he came. I couldn¡¯t feel or see any distinct shape in the pitch black darkness of my Inner Mind. It didn¡¯t reply to any of my calls either. Those apparitions were gone, however, the proof of their existence remained, seeing as how my [Infernal Glacier X60] was locked. It was grayed out in my skill list. A shiver of fear ran through my body, as I realized the fact that I had just lost what could have possibly been my best weapon against Dankyun, especially after improving it so much and spending so many skill points in it. Well, this is going to be fun¡­ I sighed and left my Inner Mind. A change of strategy was in need. Even if I didn¡¯t have my most powerful spell, I still had the other ones. I could attack him with countless [Seeker Fireballs X18] and [Explosive Jagged Ice Spear X4]. The battle wasn¡¯t lost, but I didn¡¯t feel like I could win just yet¡­ _____ Note from the Author: Thank you for reading this chapter! I hope you enjoyed it! :) Just to make one thing clear for those who wish to point a finger: I am not using a Deus Ex Machina plot device (the definition for this is clear and it implies certain conditions which my story doesn''t meet). The existence of the dungeon remnants has been hinted throughout the story, but never emphasized upon, but it will be later explained as Illsy learns more about them. Chapter 34: Shanteyas battle [Shenner¡¯s point of view] No! No! No! This dungeon maze was all sorts of wrong! It didn¡¯t even have a decent mirror! All of these walls were all wavy and reflecting our images, making me dizzy and confused with each step we took. There were also the traps and monsters roaming around this place that we had to worry about. This dungeon built too many spike traps and flamethrower traps on these corridors! It was a pain to get past all of them! ¡°Grrr!¡± the creepy growl came from behind us. I took out my dagger and threw it at it. Sister Elovier was in the way, but she managed to dodge in time before my cute blade made a nice cut across her cheek. She glared at me, but I didn¡¯t care, she always forgave me, especially since today we were hunting for the bastard who killed my sweet child! ¡°Watch it!¡± she scolded me. ¡°I hate that growl! I so hate it!¡± I puffed and walked past her to retrieve my dagger. The little blade managed to get itself stuck in the reflective wall. ¡°Anyway, we should try going left next¡­ This place is making me dizzy¡­¡± Elovier said rubbing her forehead with two fingers. ¡°Bang your head on the walls, sweet sister! That will help!¡± I suggested with a giggle. She glared at me ¡°You are really mad, aren¡¯t you?¡± she asked. ¡°Maybe?¡± I replied with a giggle tilting my head to the left. I was going to enjoy skinning alive the bastard who killed my own flesh and blood. Shanteya, that swine, that traitorous little imp was going to pay as well, but in a different way! After retrieving my dagger, I followed Elovier through that idiotic maze, and we turned left, right, right again and then we encountered what could only be described as a message meant to annoy us. ¡°Congratulations! You are lost!¡± I shouted after reading the message. ¡°The dungeon is mocking us.¡± growled my sweet sister. But I had to admit, this dungeon lord was intent on getting under our skins and annoying us to the point where we screamed in rage. I already did a couple of times, but this was already the third message we encountered. I was sort of starting to get used to seeing them. The others were: ¡®Aaand¡­ you¡¯re lost, aren¡¯t you?¡¯ and ¡®Are you bald yet?¡¯ How dare that dungeon so much as suggest a beautiful el¡¯doraw like me would ever grow bald! Such a rude dungeon! I was going to carve my name on its crystal corpse and then kick it in a lava pit! ¡°Let¡¯s try this way¡­¡± Elovier said with a sigh, and I was right behind her, thinking about all the delicious ways I was going to make Shanteya and this Dungeon Lord suffer¡­ slowly¡­ and painfully. ¡°Hihi!¡± [Shanteya¡¯s point of view] As I stood in these dark, cold corridors, sharpening my daggers and carefully checking the poison I planned on using on my targets, I realized that I haven¡¯t assassinated or murdered anyone for who knew how long? Did I forget how to hone my killing intent or did my blade simply turned dull? Closing my eyes for a moment, I let my thoughts fly back at the time when Master first picked me up. I was scared, I didn¡¯t know what was going to happen to me¡­ Then I remember how he took away all my pain, how he smiled so gently at me, how he embraced me in his caring arms. His kisses were always sweet and gentle, pure and perfect. Master never forced himself on me and even when I allowed myself to be used by him like the others men usually did, he refused. He stopped himself, he wanted our embrace to be one of love rather than of lust and carnal pleasure. Strange, but what man in his right mind would refuse to bed a willing woman? I thought, but the answer to my question was rather obvious. This world was filled with many men who would willingly cheat on their wives with the first woman who teased them a little bit. I should know, for I was one of those women. My duty¡­ or rather my mission was to pull the men away, to make them lower their guard and then stab them in the heart. Thanks to their lust and carnal desires, it was a very easy job for me. Those men always wanted me undressed and with my legs spread in front of them. They always jumped at me without caring how I felt or how I saw their disgusting act¡­ Even the scars on my body mattered little to them as long as I could offer them the release they so hungrily desired. Thus, it was easy to pull them in my arms. Once their lowered their Magic Armor, my dagger slipped between their ribs and into their heart. With a single twist, they gave their last breath, and my job was done. Master was the only one who refused to behave like them. Master was the only man who didn¡¯t take me in his arms with the sole desire to seek pleasure from my naked form. Master was the only one who treated me like an equal and cared about my feelings, my thoughts, my opinions even when he had no reason to do so. I was his slave, he was my master, but Master saw no such connection. He saw me as a friend and someone he wished to love. He saw me as someone who deserved his gentle and loving embrace no matter how dirty and sullied I believed I was. Time and time again, each night, each morning, each moment spent alongside Master, I was proven how careful, how caring, how loving, and how generous he could be. The teachers saw his kindness and caring as stupidity or maybe weakness. That¡¯s why when they spoke about harming Master, I didn¡¯t hesitate to threaten their lives. Before they could harm master, they had to go through me first. I would fight to the death. I would climb up a mountain of poisoned needles if I had to. Whatever it took, I would defend and protect Master from anyone and anything. Why? Because¡­ I love Master¡­ I love Illsyore¡­ I thought and opened my eyes. My resolve was set, and my targets were chosen. The two el¡¯doraw women who came to kill me would end up the ones hunted instead. My blade was ready. My poison was smeared on my daggers. My Magic Armor was up. The boost of strength I received from [Bond of Trust] was there as well. That skill granted me a power I could have never dreamed of before, but it was one meant to be used for Master¡¯s sake. ¡°I¡¯m ready!¡± I declared. Master wasn¡¯t around, but I was certain he was somewhere nearby, watching me from above as I was about to dance once more to the song of death. As I walked through the dark corridors, I used the suit Master enchanted for me, and carefully searched for the two assassins. The traps and monsters in this maze didn¡¯t react to me. The imps and wolves walked by me as if I wasn¡¯t even there. The traps didn¡¯t click when I stepped on them either. It was like the entire maze recognized me as Master¡¯s. It was an advantage for me. I didn¡¯t have to worry about traps and monsters. My enemies, however, weren¡¯t as fortunate. Fifteen minutes after the hunt began, I finally found them. They were fighting a bunch of imps that used dire wolves as mounts. They weren¡¯t such a big threat to them, but a Master Rank would certainly find them dangerous and troublesome to say the least. Too many of them could even overwhelm an Emperor Rank. Master definitely didn¡¯t hold back on the difficulty of this maze. For another ten minutes, I followed them carefully and analyzed their attacks. One was using dual daggers, while the other was using a dagger and sword. From what they were saying, one was named Shenner and the other Elovier. I remembered the rumors about them. They were among the best assassins in the guild. They were born to a lower assassin in the guild, but they were trained together with a few others by the Guild Master himself. Once they reached adulthood, they were given as the personal women to an assassin belonging to the Black Shadows. They were the strongest assassins and the Guild Master¡¯s personal guards. Becoming their women or part of their group was the only way to keep the other assassins from using you for their own pleasure. As far as I remembered, they were at least Emperor Rank, but it didn¡¯t matter for me. With Master¡¯s strength, this maze, and my own resolve, I was already a lower Supreme Rank. I could defeat them. I¡¯m going to kill them¡­ I thought and then moved in to begin my attack. From that pack of imps and dire wolves, only three imps remained, which attacked the one called Elovier. She killed the first one with a fast swipe to the chest. In that moment, I jumped at her, dagger pointed at her back. My speed was far greater than what I had before, but I could control it with ease after all the hunting I did in the forest. ¡°Huh?¡± she noticed me, but it was too late. The blade touched her Magic Armor. It was stronger than I anticipated, and my attack went past her chainmail armor. My attack failed. I jumped forward and landed behind the other two imps. She moved her sword towards me, but an imp jumped in the way. The blade of the sword cuts down the imp in half and then took a swipe at the remaining one who tried to attack her from the side. The imp was decapitated with one blow and in that moment, the one called Shenner tried to stab me from behind. I jumped to the left and avoid the dangerous dagger. I retreated two steps back, always keeping my dagger up and preparing myself for another attack. ¡°Well, well¡­ Look who we have here! Shanteya the whore!¡± said Shenner as she turned around and smirked at me. I ignored her petty insult and kept my focus on both of them. ¡°This will make things easier for us, however, your speed is a bit of a surprise. Did you use a [Boost] skill?¡± asked Elovier and pointed her sword at me. I didn¡¯t answer and kept my guard up. Behind me was a fire trap and a spike trap. In front of me were the two el¡¯doraws. The walls around me were clean and the ceiling was cleared of traps. The two destroyed all of them to make their battle with the imps easier. ¡°Not answering? Keh! Do you even know who we are? Huh? Do you?¡± Shenner asked pointing her dagger at me. ¡°Garbage.¡± I replied calmly. She twitched at my insult. ¡°I¡¯m going to skin you alive!¡± she threatened me. ¡°Shanteya, Master has a question for you.¡± said the one called Elovier. ¡°He¡¯s not my master anymore.¡± I replied squinting my eyes at her. ¡°That¡¯s a very bad joke, you know? No one, and I mean NO ONE leaves the guild!¡± she threatened me. ¡°My loyalty remains towards my current Master till the last breath I take.¡± I declared. ¡°Keh! Let¡¯s just kill her already!¡± Shenner urged her sister and shrugged. ¡°Not yet. Patience, sister!¡± Elovier glared back at her and then looked at me ¡°Shanteya, Master wants to know why you are still alive.¡± she asked. Normally, I should have been dead by now, but I¡¯m still alive after all this time. The curse didn¡¯t work, and they want to know why. I thought as I looked at her and then at her impatient sister. ¡°Answer me.¡± she ordered. I smirked. ¡°Because YOUR master is a pathetic, impotent, little man.¡± I taunted them. ¡°YOU ROTTEN SHIKAK!¡± shouted Shenner and jumped towards me. Our daggers clashed, but for me, hers was much slower than mine. I tilted my blade and pushed her deadly weapon away from me. During that moment, I noticed some peculiar runes engraved on the middle of the blade. It was an enchanted weapon. It¡¯s either a Magic Armor Nullifying Enchantment or a Magic Armor Ignore Enchantment. I thought as I stepped to the side. With a fast move, I grabbed her by the wrist, pulled her towards me and aimed my other fist at her face. The movement was done in a fraction of a second, and the blow connected. Her Magic Armor suffered some heavy damage, but it wasn¡¯t shattered yet. The other sister, Elovier, attacked me in that moment. I jumped back to avoid a kick to the stomach and then used my dagger to block a throwing knife aimed at my stomach. When I landed on the ground, I saw the el¡¯doraw sisters rushing towards me; one to the left and the other to the right. They moved slow, but it was already made clear for me that I needed to put a bit more force into my attacks. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Clenching the hilt of my dagger, I rushed towards them. Using speed to my advantage, I deflected Shenner¡¯s enchanted dagger and tilted my body to the side to avoid Elovier¡¯s. Grabbing the latter¡¯s hand, I pulled her towards her sister and stepped back. The two stumbled into each other, but they managed to restore their balance before tumbling down to the ground. I jumped at them and with a high kick, I struck Elovier in the face. She blocked by lifting her hand guard up. My kick was powerful enough to send the el¡¯doraw flying back about two meters. The two sisters were separated, so I took my dagger and aimed it at Shenner. She tried to stab me as well, but while I dodged hers, mine pierced through. Her armor shattered, and the thin blade pierced her guts. She grimaced, and I pulled the dagger out, then turned around and aimed for her throat, but I had to jump back. From the corner of my eyes, I saw three throwing knifes being thrown at me by her sister. I didn¡¯t know if they were laced with poison or enchanted, so I moved out of their way. ¡°Khak! That shikak!¡± cursed Shenner while spitting out blood. ¡°Sister! Pull back! Something¡¯s¡­¡± I didn¡¯t let her finish, I rushed towards her, forcing Elovier to take a stance. Our daggers connected, pushing mine away from her chest, but it still was close enough to scratch her Magic Armor. I tried to punch her, but she lifted her hand up, blocking my attack. In that moment, I heard the other one chant a spell. Before she had a chance to finish, I grabbed Elovier by her hand and tossed her towards Shenner. The el¡¯doraws tumbled down to the ground, and the chant was interrupted. I had no idea what sort of spell they were going to use, but I couldn¡¯t take any chances. The only one I knew was [Fireball], but in a combat situation without a vanguard, it took too long to cast. They are good¡­ I thought. Shenner tried to stop the bleeding, but my poison was a fast-acting agent that numbed the local area and kept the blood from coagulating. The only way to stop it was to use a specially made antidote. I didn¡¯t doubt the fact that they might have one, however, I wasn¡¯t planning on letting them use it, so I ran towards them with my dagger raised and killing intent focused on them. ¡°Shenner!¡± shouted Elovier as she tried to stop me from reaching her sister. The woman tried to pierce my chest with her sword, but I let it slide past me. I turned and struck her with my elbow in her left side. Her Magic Armor absorbed most of the impact, but she was still thrown to the side. I didn¡¯t knock her off her feet, but she wasn¡¯t able to stop me. Raising her dagger up, and with a rage filled expression, Shenner tried to attack me, but I dodged. I moved to the left, ignoring her dagger as it missed me, going straight through my Magic Armor like it wasn¡¯t even there to begin with. Before she could jump away, I pierced her side with my dagger, letting it slip through her ribs and into her lung, thus, stopping her ability to cast spells as well. ¡°NO!¡± screamed Elovier when she saw me going behind her sister and pulling the blade out of her chest. No mercy¡­ I thought as I moved my dagger to her neck and pushed into her throat. It was a short and fast stab that made an open wound and sliced open her jugular vein. Her red, warm blood gushed out, spilling over her clothes and on the floor. It was a fatal wound from which not even the best of healers could save her, well¡­ except for my Master. He was the only one in the nearby vicinity who could heal such a terrible wound. Even so, I wasn¡¯t done yet. Under the terrified eyes of her sister, I kicked the dying Shenner into the spike trap next to us. Without her Magic Armor on, she had no way of defending herself against the deadly impalement. Looking to my left, I saw Elovier, who came rushing at me. ¡°YOU SHIKAK! HOW DARE YOU! HOW DARE YOU!¡± she screamed at me, but I felt nothing from seeing her suffering. The el¡¯doraw was strong. She used her entire might or rather a self-boost. Did she have a [Boost] crystal on her? I asked myself as we rolled on the ground, trying my best to keep her dagger away from me. She was furious. She was enraged. Like a mad demon or beast, she tried to kill me and end my life just as I ended her sister¡¯s, but even in that moment, I felt nothing. I was calm. I was focused. I knew my Master was offering me support through traps and possibly even very presence. ¡°I¡¯ll kill you! I¡¯ll rip you apart!¡± Elovier kept threatening as she struggled to push the tip of her dagger closer to me, but I didn¡¯t give in. I feel like I¡¯m toying with her¡­ I thought as I watched her raging at me. It was strange, but I wasn¡¯t using my full strength yet. There was still more I could bring to the battle, and I had yet to unleash an attack upon her. This was the first time I seriously fought another sentient after receiving Illsy¡¯s boost, and I was expecting to encounter a bit of trouble, but for some reason, it felt like sparring against a child. It¡¯s time to end this. I thought. With a powerful shove, I threw her off of me. It was strong enough to make her slam into the ceiling and then fall on the ground. I got up at the same time as her. Elovier prepared her dagger and spat on the ground. Glaring at me, she said ¡°I¡¯m going to kill you and then I¡¯m going to destroy the stupid Dungeon Lord who dared¡­¡± I didn¡¯t let her finish. For the first time since I started this battle, I felt a bit of anger as well. In the blink of an eye, I was right next to her and uppercut her with all of my strength. The blow connected to her jaw, shattering her Magic Armor and sending her flying into the ceiling. A loud boom was heard, and a crater formed on top of me. Spitting blood, Elovier fell on the ground, but before she touched it, I kicked her in the stomach as hard as I could. This blow connected as well, and she was sent flying to the other side of the corridor. The metal wall stopped her advancement, but it got bent and both her flesh and bones suffered terrible damage. My last move was picking up her sister¡¯s enchanted dagger from the ground and tossing it at her. The blade went straight through her forehead, pinning her on the wall and silencing her for good. I watched her for a moment, to make sure she was dead, but it was very doubtful someone could survive something like that. My enchanted gear told me as well that there were no more life signs around me. Sitting up straight, I dusted off my clothes and carefully sheathed my dagger. The fight was over. The Broken Doll of Phantom¡¯s Rage assassin guild had won¡­ No, I wasn¡¯t the Broken Doll anymore, I was Illsyore¡¯s Slave and Maid. The one who won was Shanteya Dowesyl, follower of the Godlike Dungeon Lord Illsyore. ¡°Congratulations, Shanteya.¡± his gentle voice sounded from behind me. He was back or always had been there, ready to help me if I ever needed to. I smiled and turned around. ¡°Thank you, Master!¡± [Illsyore¡¯s point of view] Shanteya¡¯s battle was intense, but far different from what I had expected. There was no carefully laid out plan or advanced spells being used, it was an honest to goodness fight. At those speeds, it was a bit hard to use anything else, but then again, it was logical not to use any long chanted spells when the enemy could either dodge or close in the distance in the blink of an eye. For someone like Nanya and Dankyun, however, things were a bit different. Those two could use short chant or chant-less spells, making their combat strategy a bit more diversified and complex. Still, there were a few moments when I believed that Shanteya might lose. I was ready to jump in and absorb her before they landed the critical hit. After curing her, she could try again or change her strategy. With my current Magic Energy Regeneration, it was actually a rather good strategy. Fortunately, we didn¡¯t need to use it. Shanteya won and in a rather flashy way too. That was¡­ amazing! I thought. ¡°Master, what are you going to do now?¡± she asked me. ¡°Oh! First of all, I would appreciate it if you can stay around this place for a bit longer. I¡¯ll fix everything those two girls broke, and once Dankyun and his pets enter this labyrinth, try to take care of everyone who comes your way. You are free to kill them all as you please. I will keep watch over Dankyun and make sure he doesn¡¯t come your way.¡± I explained to her my plan, but I left the part about me constantly using spells to attack him from around the corner. ¡°As you wish, Master!¡± she bowed her head to me respectfully. After actually looking around the maze, I noticed there weren¡¯t that many things to fix. The el¡¯doraws pretty much skipped most of the traps and killed any monster they encountered. My repair skills did the job nicely, and I decided to leave Dankyun a gift at the entrance of this level. I picked up their dead bodies and absorbed their weapons and coin purses. That was my loot from this battle. Afterwards, I flew over to the entrance and placed them right in the middle of the first corridor leading into the maze. I also added a small sign on the wall that read the following: ¡®Unfortunately, Dankyun you are so ugly you managed to kill them from a distance. Like, seriously, where did you buy your face from? A garbage dump?¡¯ It was a bit mean and probably lame as well, but I didn¡¯t care. I wanted him to get angry and mad, to know that I wasn¡¯t willing to spare any of his subjects if it meant defending and protecting those close to me. It was about time I acted like a Godlike dungeon and did as I pleased. Huh? Act like a Godlike? I thought for a moment as I realized what sort of thoughts were running through my mind in that moment. Those were thoughts of conquest and abuse of power. They were egoistical and tyrannical, resembling the darkness hidden inside of me. That¡¯s wrong¡­ you can¡¯t use power like that¡­ I thought and shook my head. It was probably just another weird case of ¡®dungeon instinct¡¯ syndrome, but I had to be careful not to act upon such thoughts, or I might end up hurting those I loved in the process. It was the basic law of cause and effect in all the movies I saw. That being said, I decided to give Dankyun another warning, just in case I wasn¡¯t clear enough. ¡®Those who advance be prepared to forfeit your own lives.¡¯ then right under it, I wrote another ¡®Draconian soldiers! Following an incompetent leader like Dankyun isn¡¯t worth your lives! Be smart and leave this place!¡¯ With an approving nod, I checked up on Shanteya and then flew out of the dungeon to check where everyone was. They weren¡¯t that far away from me. Just a bit further and they would reach the entrance to my dungeon. How I wished I had my [Infernal Glacier X60] right about now. I mean he¡¯s right over there! I could charge it with 4000 Magic Energy Points and finish off his entire army in one go! Then all would be left would be him¡­ Ugh! Give me my spell back! I groaned and just spawned one simple and random trap in front of them just to annoy them. Once this whole thing was over, I planned on having a long chat with the darkness inside of me and see what was up with it. There was the worry that it might be able to hear my thoughts, but its actions and words made me wonder about that. If it was capable of reading my thoughts, then why didn¡¯t it appear earlier? Something¡¯s up¡­ There¡¯s something that strange guy didn¡¯t tell me¡­ I thought as I looked towards the Dankyun¡¯s convoy as it approached the entrance to my dungeon. ____ Note from the author: Thank you for reading this chapter, I hope you enjoyed it! :) Chapter 35: The monster hidden in the shadows of my dungeon [Roderique¡¯s Point of View] I managed to survive somehow¡­ Huffing and puffing, I looked back and saw the dead imps on the floor. Only bits and pieces remained after I attacked them. The battle was tough, but it was not over yet. Without any soldiers to support me and tortured by the complexity of this infernal maze filled with traps and monsters, I was now faced with an even greater danger. Somewhere within the darkness and shadows before me, a terrifying monster laid hidden, waiting for the opportune moment when to jump out and slit my throat! ¡°Show yourself!¡± I shouted at the steel walls. It was like my own reflections were sneering back at me, pointing at my failure with those accusing eyes. It sickened me, but I tried my best to ignore them, to look away. ¡°Grrr!¡± the terrifying growl kept popping up here and there, now it was behind me. I turned around to look, but there was nothing there, only the dead imps. How did I end up in this situation? I shook my head and tried to calm down. What happened? I asked myself as I leaned back on the cold wall and looked up at the ceiling. My fingers clenched tight around the hilt of my sword, and I tried to remember what happened in this last hour. After we climbed down the ladder, it vanished just like that. Milord Dankyun wasn¡¯t worried about this, but there was something that made him mad, something that made him scream. What was it? Ah, yes! The bodies of the two el¡¯doraw scouts he sent ahead of us to find this accursed dungeon. They were placed at the entrance as a macabre welcoming gift. One body was skewered and burned, the other was impaled in the head and had its bones crushed. I think the mocking message on the wall was also to blame. Milord stayed behind at the entrance just to make sure none of our soldiers dared to turn tail and run. This included us, his loyal commanders. As for those two women, whatever killed them was still inside this maze, I was certain of it. I let out a sigh and looked to my left then to my right. ¡°AAA!¡± the scream of a soldier was heard somewhere, lost among the reflecting walls of this unending maze. Gulping, I forced myself not to go in that direction. More than half of our force was already devoured by the madness of this maze. Imps, wolves, rats, boars, harpies, traps, illusions, and that monster that lurked in the darkness were all found all over this place. It makes no sense, absolutely no sense! A young dungeon isn¡¯t supposed to be this difficult! I shouted in my mind. ¡°Sigh¡­¡± Looking at the ground, I remembered Milord Dankyun¡¯s orders: ¡°Find the exit to this maze. NOW!¡± After that, we split up into three groups. All three of us, Emperor Rank commanders, took a different path through the maze and killed off anything that stood in our way. Meanwhile, Dankyun remained at the entrance and awaited our triumphant return. I smirked. ¡°Triumphant¡­ heh!¡± I laughed. Six soldiers advanced with me, but not even half of them survived after the first puzzle room. One was killed by some imps that attacked him from behind. Another died in a spike trap. Two more died in a battle with some imps after they were pushed in some arrow and fire traps. The others remained by my side, but there was something lurking in the darkness. Before I realized that we were being hunted, the other two soldiers had their throats slit open. I was the last one standing, and I had no idea where the exit was or even how to get back to the entrance. ¡°I¡¯m not going to die here¡­¡± I told myself and cringed my teeth. When I stood up and looked to my right, there she was, standing in my path. With a glistening silver hair and wearing a black leather suit, a beautiful el¡¯doraw woman was looking back at me. She was charming, captivating, but also dangerous. I could feel it in the marrow of my bones that she was deadlier than my wife after she found out I was cheating on her. But this was no laughing matter¡­ This el¡¯doraw was here only for one thing¡­ to kill me. ¡°So be it! I¡¯ll take you on, you demon!¡± I shouted and took my stance. Raising my sword up, I was prepared to attack. If I would win or not, it remained to be seen¡­ [Illsyore¡¯s point of view] I led Shanteya through the twisted paths of my maze until we encountered the first group of soldiers. One of the commanders was with them. Truth be told, after that insult and direct attack to Dankyun¡¯s pride, I was expecting him to rage at me with his sword unsheathed and run straight into my traps not yell once and then send his dogs after me. I guess I was wrong¡­ Either way, he handed me on a silver platter the perfect opportunity to finish his little army one soldier at a time. Of course, the one to do it wasn¡¯t going to be me, but the one with more experience in taking another sentient being¡¯s life: Shanteya. And she was good at it, really good! The moment my beloved el¡¯doraw moved through the silence of the darkness in the maze, all traces of her seemed to vanish. Before anyone had a chance to realize where she was, Shanteya had already silenced one of them with a swift dagger stabbed in their throat. At first, we only found three wandering soldiers. The first one died in such a quiet way the others didn¡¯t even notice he was gone. The second one managed to yell once, but Shanteya didn¡¯t wait for the other to strike first. A swift dagger to the heart, right between his armor plates, finished him off. The move surprised me, and I thought it was flawless, but she let me know it wasn¡¯t. She had to force the blade a bit in order to push through, cracking one of his ribs in the process. Still, it wasn¡¯t something I could accomplish or even wished to in the first place. Once we reached the bigger group, I used some imps to cause a distraction. Honestly speaking, I didn¡¯t expect them to kill one of the soldiers. The little buggers simply jumped on him and finished him off in a jiffy! The others pulled back, but didn¡¯t try to save their friend. Either way, one by one, the soldiers were killed until only Shanteya remained with the commander. Now it was time for their big battle, although, I wasn¡¯t expecting much of it. After all, he was only an Emperor Rank, while Shanteya had enough stat points to be considered a lower Supreme Rank even if she didn¡¯t have the required skills. I was quite curious to see how this battle was going to end, so I watched them carefully. Shanteya analyzed him first, she looked at his armor, his weapon, and his eyes. From what I could tell, she was trying to find out his weakness or if he had something special stored up just in case a threat like her appeared. It was a wise decision if I were to say so myself. When the battle started, the commander was the first one attack. Shanteya jumped to the left and avoided the first strike. Then, using the wall, she threw herself at him. Thinking it was a chance, the draconian tried to slice my el¡¯doraw slave in half while she was still in the air, but his blade was deflected by her dagger. Touching the ground, she stopped herself and kicked the man in his left side. The power was Godlike level, and the man¡¯s Magic Armor cracked. As a result of the sheer force, he was tossed into a nearby wall. ¡°Gah!¡± he grimaced and got off the floor, but Shanteya was already next to him. The next strike was a fast thrust with the enchanted dagger straight into his heart. It ignored most of his Magic Armor, slipped through the metal plates and then pierced his flesh. The draconian commander died before he got the chance to cast a spell or do some actual damage to Shanteya. As for how she managed this feat despite his Magic Armor, well¡­ she used the dagger of one of those el¡¯doraw assassins, the one used to kill Elovier. It was the only weapon of theirs I didn¡¯t absorb, and it turned out it was enchanted with a similar spell I had on my spikes. ¡°Off to the next one!¡± I declared, and we left the man¡¯s body to rot there. For now, there was no need for me to absorb their bodies or move them away. Once this battle was over, the cleaning would commence, but until then, I left them where they died. ¡°Very well, Master.¡± she said with a bow. Looking at him one last time, she noticed his pendant and took it off. ¡°Souvenir?¡± I asked as a joke. ¡°No, this is a spell crystal capable of storing items. It might prove useful in the future.¡± she noted. ¡°I see. Good thinking!¡± I complimented her, and she showed me a smile in return. From there on, we proceeded with our hunt of all the draconian soldiers and commanders who popped in our way. With Dankyun the mighty Grumpy staying at the entrance and waiting for his loyal minions to return with the exit key, we didn¡¯t have to worry about any sudden surprises from him. I stuck close to Shanteya as well just in case he decided to cast his Supreme Skill inside this floor, but I highly doubted such a thing would happen for the simple reason that he didn¡¯t see me as worthy enough for it, which was a good thing. It actually took something off my list of things to worry about. This didn¡¯t mean, however, that I wasn¡¯t planning on starting my attack on him. For each step we took through the dungeon, I reset the traps and recharged the summoning circles, making it even more dangerous for the soldiers if they wanted to turn around. Truth be told, some of them who got lost did try to do this and didn¡¯t realize the traps were reset. The end result was an agonizing and painful death for them. I didn¡¯t stay to watch though. Me and Shanteya were hot on the tracks of the second commander. He was a brawny draconian sitting at an imposing stature above all of his soldiers. It was a good thing I had 3 meters tall walls, or was it? Lower ceilings would have meant more troubles for the usually tall draconians, but also for my slave and wives. I had to admit though, the commander looked rather intimidating, but my cute el¡¯doraw didn¡¯t think so. Without a second thought, she moved behind the last soldier, slit his throat and pulled his body back. Watching this reminded me of a stealth game I used to play. I always dragged the bodies back into a corner where not even Death herself could find them. The draconian didn¡¯t even have a chance to wave his hands around or scream. By the time the draconian commander realized he lost some of his soldiers, it was too late, and we had him cornered. ¡°Commander Theyon! What do we do?¡± asked one of the soldiers. ¡°You fight!¡± he replied and dashed at Shanteya. This one was wearing a full-plated armor and wielding a big, two-handed axe. With one fast swipe, he could easily take down an imp or maybe even a Minotaur. The el¡¯doraw was too fast for him, however, and the first strike landed on the floor, leaving a gaping cut in it. Next was the soldier who spoke earlier. With his sword raised, he tried to attack Shanteya using a [Dash] skill like the commander did, but the result was the same. She dodged, and he missed, allowing her the perfect opportunity to use her dagger, cut through his Magic Armor and pierce his chest. ¡°Gah!¡± he spat out blood and fell on one knee, but he wasn¡¯t dead yet. After pulling out her blade, Shanteya jumped back and avoided Theyon¡¯s attack from behind. It was a near miss, but even if it had struck, it wouldn¡¯t have cut through to her. His weapon wasn¡¯t enchanted. ¡°Stay still, you pest!¡± he shouted at her, but she wasn¡¯t planning on listening to him. By the time the commander lifted his axe up, she was already next to him and punched him in the face. I was surprised by this as well, but instead of using her dagger, she used her fist. The force behind that hit was so powerful, it sent the commander flying, axe and all, into the wall on the other side of the corridor, just as she did with Elovier. The remaining soldiers could only gasp in surprise as they looked at her incredible feat. ¡°Ugh¡­ you¡­¡± the commander tried to say something while getting up from the ground. His Magic Armor was shattered, his plated armor was cracked and bent from the impact, and his nose was bleeding like running tap water, however, he didn¡¯t lose track of his target. Like a true warrior, he stood up and prepared himself for another attack from her. Unfortunately for him, someone else attacked him. From his right, a dire wolf sprung forward and sank its teeth into his throat. The imp riding the wolf used his club and struck Theyon in the jaw, dislocating it. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. ¡°Uga gi gi!¡± screamed the imp proud of his victory. ¡°Ugyan ga gi!¡± he then pointed at Theyon¡¯s metal boots and spoke some other bizarre words. In the next moment, three imps appeared, took off Theyon¡¯s boots and then they all ran away. Me and Shanteya just stood there and watched dumbfounded what they did. What¡¯s wrong with these imps? I wondered, but I just hoped they were looking for trophies and spoils of war instead of something to hump like the one I remembered I had to obliterate. Theyon died a moment later from heavy bleeding. The wolf¡¯s sharp teeth managed to slash open his jugular veins. I heard the ding of a new level, but I didn¡¯t check my status. I probably gained more than ten levels since the last time I checked. What kept me from checking it was the thought of having nothing to upgrade since the idiotic darkness inside of me sealed away my only Emperor Rank Skill. ¡°P-Please! Spare us!¡± begged the remaining soldiers. The one attacked by Shanteya was now dead, and the last of them were on their knees, bowing their heads down to her. They weren¡¯t a threat, and with their commander dead, they had practically no chance of winning against her. ¡°Let them live.¡± I ordered Shanteya. ¡°As you wish, Master.¡± she replied. ¡°Thank you! Thank you!¡± they said at the same time. We left them alone and walked away from the scene. Finding the last one of the commanders proved to be a bit harder since he was located a bit deeper into the maze, unlike the other two. My guess was that he was probably next to the imp spawning room when the others completed their puzzles. Speaking of which, I was rather surprised to see how fast Theyon finished his. For a moment, I thought he was actually smart, but there was a high chance he just got really lucky with it. When we entered the spawning room, we saw the scene of a massacre. Imp bodies were scattered all over the place, cut into pieces or smashed by a powerful force. The circles were destroyed, but there were no signs of dead draconian soldiers. This enemy was far more powerful than the other two. Threading carefully, we advanced through the maze until we were met with the remnants of another battle scene, but this one was also a bit strange. We saw the bodies of three draconian soldiers, but no trace of traps or monsters to be blamed for their death. This was a so-called clean corridor where no danger resided, yet these soldiers had been cut down by something or someone. ¡°They were stabbed and slashed by swords.¡± explained Shanteya as she knelt down next to one of them and checked his wounds. ¡°There are three draconians ahead of us. They are probably the survivors.¡± I told her after I did a quick check. Nodding once, she moved away from the bodies and ran in the direction I pointed her into. After a few turns, we finally encountered the group of three. In the middle was a tall draconian wielding a big shield and a long sword. On his left and right were two soldiers with their shields up, forming a wall around him. ¡°Can you get behind him?¡± I asked Shanteya. ¡°No.¡± she replied. Well, I could cast a fireball at them and split them up, giving Shanteya the perfect opportunity to engage them one by one, but something felt off about this group. The three draconians from before had been killed not by traps or imps but by these fellows. If they wanted to flee, they could have been killed for treason, but then why stop in the middle of the corridor like they did? This group seems to have been the best at navigating through my maze. They even survived the Imp Spawning Room, so why try to flee? It doesn¡¯t make sense¡­ Hm? Are they waiting for someone by any chance? Dankyun? I asked myself and then looked back to check on the Supreme¡¯s location. It didn¡¯t change. ¡°Let¡¯s try something¡­ Reveal yourself, Shanteya, but stay on guard and be ready to retreat the moment you sense trouble.¡± I whispered to her. She nodded and moved out of the shadows. ¡°I mean no harm!¡± the tall draconian in the back declared as soon as he spotted her. The el¡¯doraw stopped. Well¡­ that¡¯s new! I thought and then ordered ¡°Explain yourself.¡± ¡°I wish to know if what Princess Ayuseya said was true or not.¡± he replied while trying to find out where exactly my voice was coming from. I moved in front of them and then asked ¡°About what?¡± ¡°Her curse. The one taking the lives of the royal family! Is it true that it has been lifted?¡± ¡°On her at least, yes.¡± I replied. Unexpectedly, he let out a sigh of relief, and the two soldiers smiled at each other. ¡°Then¡­ then there¡¯s a chance for our kingdom¡­¡± he said. ¡°Huh?¡± I was a bit confused. ¡°My name is Zarus Dennekar. I am the son of Joviar Dennekar, the Godlike Ranked General who married the youngest daughter of the Pleyades King from seven royal generations ago. My mother was the Princess¡¯ maid at that time and by blood, I am Princess Ayuseya Pleyades great great great great great grand uncle from her great great great great great great grandfather¡¯s family side!¡± he declared proudly. That¡¯s a lot of greats¡­ I thought. ¡°So you are related¡­ and?¡± I asked squinting my eyes at him. ¡°For the past two centuries, my father has been searching for a cure for the Royal Family. When he went into an expedition with Dankyun, he never came back, and I long suspected the Supreme for having done something to him. The only reason I joined him was to find out the truth, but even if I did, I fear I was and still am too weak to do anything to him. Even so, I do not wish for this draconian to marry or kill Princess Ayuseya! There are many still loyal to the Royal house despite its current weakness. I am one of them. That¡¯s why I believe that me battling you and helping Dankyun find Princess Ayuseya would only bring disaster to our kingdom. If possible, I wish for you to defeat Dankyun or at the very least flee with the princess. The future of our kingdom may very well depend on the results of this upcoming battle, especially since she is now freed of that god-awful curse!¡± he declared with a solemn tone, unwavering and showing not even the smallest regret in his decision to betray Dankyun. His words sounded truthful, but I had my doubts. It sounded like a very good plot to make me lower my guard or have Ayuseya and Shanteya lower theirs so he could get close and kill us. Considering how deceitful Dankyun was, I had my bets on the possibility that this whole thing was a trap. Just kill him, and that¡¯s the end of the problem¡­ A sudden thought popped in my mind. Indeed, killing him would have solved the problem. If this was a game, I could have went online to look for a walkthrough, or save the game here, make a choice and then see what it led to. Usually, saving and trusting people brought you good points, killing them resulted in negative points. Either way, this wasn¡¯t a game, this was real life. A choice like this could eventually lead to either the saving or the loss of one or more human lives. I had to be careful¡­ Just kill him¡­ the thought popped up again, and I shook my head. ¡°What do you intend to do if I let you go?¡± I asked. ¡°I wish to return to Teslov and bring this wonderful news back to the first prince, however, I would suggest if possible not to let Princess Ayuseya return without the escort of a Supreme. There are many spies and nobles who would see the removal of the curse as a threat rather than a hope for our kingdom.¡± he explained calmly. Well¡­ this solves my problem. I thought. ¡°You don¡¯t want to stay along for the battle?¡± I asked. ¡°I¡¯m an Emperor Rank, at most a lower Godlike. I have no means to be of assistance to you, Dungeon Lord. However, by going back to the kingdom, I can warn them of Dankyun¡¯s betrayal and ensure that he doesn¡¯t get a second chance no matter what the outcome of this battle will be. At the same time, I can bring news that a way to remove the curse exists indeed.¡± he explained. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t that put a target on you?¡± ¡°No doubt, but it is a risk I must take!¡± he replied punching his chest. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you act sooner?¡± I questioned him. ¡°Dankyun used his authority to brand as traitors anyone who opposed him and then killed them off before they had the chance to explain their actions to someone who would actually listen. Once this was clear to me, I did my best not to stand in his way. My own weakness is my curse to bear.¡± he explained clenching his fist and looking down at the floor. ¡°Why now then?¡± ¡°I believe this to be the best moment to take action. Only a few of his soldiers were with me, and if this negotiation was to fail, we would die either at your hands or his. Your dungeon far surpasses the abilities of a Master or Emperor Rank.¡± he explained calmly. In other words, this was the only moment when Dankyun¡¯s dogs weren¡¯t pointing their ears at him. ¡°Very well¡­ I¡¯ll let you go.¡± I told him. I wonder if I can make my dungeon see them as allies. Y/N And ¡®Yes¡¯ was my answer. These pop-ups never failed to surprise me or annoy me, it always had to be one of the two. ¡°I think the monsters and traps won¡¯t react to you anymore, but if I see you moving any deeper, I¡¯ll reset your status to Enemy, and they will engage you.¡± I warned them. ¡°Of course, just erm¡­ lead us or point us the right way. We¡¯re kind of lost¡­¡± Zarus said after looking left and right. ¡°Sigh¡­¡± I looked back at Shanteya and then at him. There seemed to be only one way out of this one. I flew back to my cute el¡¯doraw and absorbed her. After this, I would engage Dankyun, so keeping her around would only put her in needless danger. I returned to the group of three and told them to follow my voice. Without delay, they did as told, and when I asked them about the other dead draconians. ¡°They were loyal only to Dankyun and attacked us when they heard what I intended to do, meaning speak with you.¡± was Zarus¡¯ answer. It took a while to lead them back, but instead of sending them straight into Dankyun¡¯s jaws, I led them on a path that brought them closest to the Supreme. There, I sealed them off in a room to cut off unwanted access. Using the [Create a Room] skill, I made a path through the walls, leading to the first floor, in the mini boss room. It was a steep path, but they didn¡¯t complain about it. Once they were out, I covered the entrance and guided them back outside. ¡°This is it.¡± I told them after we crossed the lava moat. ¡°Thank you, Dungeon Lord. Just a word of advice. It¡¯s very likely that Dankyun has many Spell Crystals on him. Throughout our journey from Teslov to here, I always saw him charging them with his Magic Energy.¡± he warned me. ¡°Understood. Thank you.¡± I told him, and the three of them left. It made sense for the Supreme to have more of those annoying things. They were like potions in a game. It always was a wise thing to bring with you to a battle more consumables than you would normally use for the simple reason that you never knew when you might need them. The difference was that in those sort of games, I always ended up with 999 Potions of all kinds, and during the final boss fight, I barely used three or four, maybe ten if I was on hard or above difficulty. ____ Note from the author: Thank you for reading this chapter, I hope you enjoyed it! :) Chapter 36: The Dankyunator 3000 Upon returning to the second floor, I found Dankyun standing still in front of the maze and waiting patiently for the return of his commanders, now either dead or walking away from my dungeon. He didn¡¯t move an inch from the time he ordered everyone to scatter and find the exit. Whatever was left of his force was either here with him, dead, or lost among traps and imps. If I were to consider Zarus¡¯ words, then none of these soldiers was loyal to Ayuseya or even considering the possibility of switching their loyalties to her. My mind was telling me that the possibility of them hiding their true loyalty existed. It was slim but there, however, I had neither the time or means to pick them out and question them. There was no ¡®lie detection¡¯ skill in my list. That being said, my only question now was what could I use to force Dankyun deplete his Spell Crystals? The best part was that I had the opportunity to launch a surprise attack on him. Unless I made a loud noise, he couldn¡¯t detect me. Flying around for a bit, I tried to think of some good strategies against him, however, I couldn¡¯t make the mistake of underestimating him. The Emperor Rank Commanders could be considered incredibly weak when compared to him. Even Nanya, who was a Godlike in sealed form, couldn¡¯t do anything against him. The idea of creating a powerful AGLMC laser to point directly at him did cross my mind, but I had to be careful how I installed it there, since there was no guarantee that he wouldn¡¯t just waltz inside the maze while I was building it. Taunting him was a possibility, but I had the advantage of a surprise attack. Wasting it on something like a troll remark would have been very wasteful. After quick debate, I decided to give it a try and see if I can hit Dankyun in the back with a AGLMC laser. I flew over to the other side of the corridor and using [Create a Room], I made a hidden compartment there about 3 meters long, with 1 meter height. The walls between that room and the corridor was kept intact. I flew inside and then summoned the Power Crystals required to build it. It took me about a quarter of an hour to finish it, but neither Dankyun or his soldiers noticed that something was happening behind the wall. I made sure to be a very stealthy little rabbit. When it was done, I charged it up and aimed it at the draconian. All I had to do now was wait until my Magic Energy was back at full and then activate it, but before that, seeing as how this was going to be a prolonged battle because of his stupid crystals, I flew back to my body to make some extra preparations. First of all, I headed back to my crystal body. There, I saw Ayuseya doing some basic stretching exercises. The way she pushed out her chest was rather attractive, but I wasn¡¯t there to ogle at her. As for the cute Nanya, she was sitting down in a lotus position not that far away from my body. Her eyes were closed and a purple hue surrounded her like an aura of some sort. The long, pointy, black scaled tail was resting in her lap, while the red ribbon was emanating a dangerous looking black aura. I understood in that moment that she was still working on releasing her true self. Without further ado, I released Shanteya from my Inner Mind. ¡°Shanteya! You are back!¡± said Ayuseya surprised as soon as she saw the el¡¯doraw appear next to my crystal body. ¡°Yes. It was a good hunt.¡± she replied with a smile and a nod of her head. ¡°Most of Dankyun¡¯s force has been wiped out, now the only thing left to deal with is that grumpy Supreme.¡± I said. ¡°So this is the final battle?¡± asked the draconian princess clenching the fabric of her dress around her chest. ¡°Yes. Are you scared?¡± I asked. ¡°A bit, but I trust that you will do everything you can to defeat him.¡± she told me with a smile. ¡°Yup!¡± I nodded and showed her a smile. ¡°What are your plans now, Master?¡± asked Shanteya. ¡°I¡¯ll charge my auras and then go for the attack. Wish me luck!¡± I told them. ¡°May the gods be with you.¡± Shanteya bowed her head in front of me. ¡°Good luck, Illsy.¡± Ayuseya showed me a small smile. I charged my Magic Armor with 4000 Magic Energy points for that extra little protection, just in case. After I regenerated, I poured the same quantity into my [Divine Aura]. It affected only the Divine Damage Aura, which spread for a 5 meters radius around me. Although the area was small, that was my last form of defense. With all those lasers in my room, Nanya, and my spells, I highly doubted he would reach my core, but something told me I had to prepare for the worst. I did this about four times before flying back to Dankyun. Surprisingly, he didn¡¯t budge an inch from his spot. Holding his sword and glaring at the maze, I could only wonder how he didn¡¯t get bored until now. Maybe he still believed that his commanders were alive. Technically, none of the soldiers who fled from him would dare to cross his path. Those spared by me were hiding not that far away, awaiting the moment the commander entered the maze. Looking back at the slippery oil on the walls of the pit leading down to this level made me wonder just how exactly they planned on getting up there. Well, it wasn¡¯t my problem to worry about, so I focused on the matter at hand: killing Dankyun. This is it¡­ I thought as I flew to the back wall and removed a small portion of the wall between my AGLMC Laser and him. ¡°What the?¡± said one of the soldiers when they noticed the missing piece. I didn¡¯t wait for Dankyun to turn around and fired the weapon at him. A powerful beam of light struck him in the back, quickly depleting his Magic Energy armor. He jumped to the left, and I aimed the laser towards him, but the draconian picked up one of his soldiers by the neck and tossed him towards me. ¡°AAH!¡± screamed the man as he encountered the focused beam of light. It shattered his Magic Armor in the blink of an eye and then burned through his body and armor like it was nothing. The Master Ranked soldier didn¡¯t stand a chance against my powerful AGLMC Laser, however, Dankyun could take more than one shot apparently. The draconian dashed towards my and with one single slash of his sword, he cut the Laser in half, destroying it. ¡°Pathetic! Is that all you can do, Dungeon Lord?¡± he asked with a cocky smile on his face. I didn¡¯t reply, pretending like wasn¡¯t there or have fled, but I was standing right next to him, looking into his eyes, which were unable to see me. Like a ghost, I flew up through the shaft leading to the first floor and then focused on spell. Setting Dankyun as the only target, I infused a [Seeker Fireball X18] with 3000 Magic Energy points and then with a low voice, I whispered: ¡°Zir Navian Esy.¡± The spell unleashed 18 Fireballs to chase after the draconian like hungry wolves chasing down an injured lamb. Surprisingly, they were much smaller and faster than I initially anticipated. They reached higher temperatures too. As for why it was so, I had no idea, but my first guess was the change in environment. Maybe the weird dungeon system identified the location I was about to fight in and immediately adjusted the spells to suit my needs The first fireball took Dankyun by surprise and exploded right in his back, sending him flying forwards into the maze. He stumbled right into a trap, which raised its spikes and lifted him up. His Magic Armor was ridiculously strong, but thankfully, he didn¡¯t had time to recover before another fireball struck him, exploding just a few inches from his face. ¡°Argh!¡± he groaned as he was sent flying backwards right into a wall. The wall bent outward and the next two fireballs struck him. He gasped, but he was still alive. Another fireball was about to hit him, but he rolled to the left and avoided the impact. An arrow trap triggered, sending its dangerous projectiles at him, but it still didn¡¯t shatter his armor. Nanya was right¡­ The difference in Magic Armor between Supreme and Emperor is ridiculous! I thought as I saw him take out his sword and slash in half the next fireball that was about to hit. He dodged the next one and the wall it hit ended up half melted. The other 12 followed next, but since he didn¡¯t had a lot of moving space, three hit, four were cut, and the rest missed, damaging the walls of my maze. The smoke was also rather thick, making it hard to see and probably breath as well, seeing how behind me, the Master Ranked soldiers who stayed with him were coughing their lungs out. ¡°Replenish Magic Energy.¡± Dankyun said, and I saw a blue light flashing from the thick smoke. ¡°So? How¡¯s it going, dog breath?¡± I asked with a smirk. ¡°Hmph! Petty insults don¡¯t affect me with anything, you cowardly Dungeon Lord!¡± he retorted as he pointed his sword in the direction of my voice, but I flew to the right, in the other corridor. ¡°Wrong way, hotshot! Shellur Sou Yar!¡± I told him and then cast [Explosive Jagged Ice Spear X4] infused with 500 Magic Energy Points, sending 40 such Ice Spears hurling at him. By the time he turned around, two of them were close enough to detonate, skewering his Magic Armor with ice needles, but none could pass through. The others, he tried to dodge, but in such small corridors for him, it was hard. He nearly hit the ceiling, and when backing away, he stumbled into another spike trap. My luck was with that one, since it made him lose his balance and ten of my spears were able to hit him and explode at close proximity, but no groan from him meant they were rather ineffective. His Magic Armor was still up. Using his sword, he blocked two of them and then dodged the rest with a jump to the left. An imp tried to attack him, but Dankyun ignored him and simply stepped on the monster. One of my spears killed the imp by accident, and six of them hit the nearby walls and floors. While this happened, I flew ahead of him and cast a couple of traps in his way. One was a fire trap that blocked his vision for a moment, allowing me to raise a wall in front of him. He stumbled into it and allowed another ten spears to hit him. As for the others, he managed to avoid them by casting [Wind Blow] and sending them into the nearby walls. ¡°Annoying as an imp.¡± he grumbled and then slashed the wall I made. ¡°Not as annoying as you, poop face.¡± I said, but I was getting the feeling that my insults were heading from Lame to Lamer. ¡°Why are you even bothering resisting, Dungeon Lord?¡± he asked as he calmly walked through the maze, slashing my traps and monsters with ease. ¡°Because donuts!¡± I replied to him. OK! I admit. That was stupid¡­ I thought and sighed. ¡°What?¡± he asked raising an eyebrow. Guess he never heard of donuts. I followed him through the dungeon, resting and adding more traps ahead of him while I waited for my Magic Energy to be restored. I was counting the seconds in my head. As soon as I was ready, I released another torrent of Fireballs and Ice Spikes on him. It didn¡¯t kill him, but it did make him angry, forcing him to growl and slash at the walls and floor. I suspected the reason he wasn¡¯t using his spells was because there was no target for him to aim at. The monsters were too weak for his stats, so they were killed off with a single strike of his sword, or with a punch to the face. What was the problem was that insane Magic Armor of his. It never reached shattering point. Instead finishing up quickly, this ended up being a battle of attrition, in which my main objective was to try to force him to use his trump cards and Spell Crystals before he reached my core. Watching him carefully, I realized that a 3000 Magic Energy [Seeker Fireball X18] was enough to lower his Magic Armor considerably, maybe even shatter it, but I never managed to hit him with all 18 Fireballs, at most, I could only pitch in eight of them. Those were enough just to hinder him and force him to use a Magic Energy crystal. Thinking back at the battle at the dormitory, when I attacked him, I didn¡¯t use such a powerful version of the [Seeker Fireball X18] spell before, only weaker versions he was able to deflect or destroy with great ease. Their current size as well as the constant obstacles in his way made it easier for me to get a hit on him unlike before when he could move to his heart¡¯s desire. ¡°Aren¡¯t you getting tired of this yet?¡± Dankyun asked after he slashed one of my trolling wall message, which weren¡¯t very effective on him. ¡°Not really.¡± I replied and then cast another spell on him. For most of the time, he saw me only as nuisance, however, I still managed to get him to use his Spell Crystals, which was the important part. After all, if he could easily regenerate his Magic Energy and heal his wounds with those things, then I had to make sure he wasn¡¯t going to have too many of them or none at all before he entered my most dangerous part of the dungeon, meaning floors three and four. As for this floor, I saw no reason to spare the walls or try to make him go mad by letting him wander off when he was able to easily slice his way through the obstacles ahead. Actually, that was exactly what he was doing every time he found himself going in circles. He lifted his sword up in front of a wall and then cut through it. I played a few pranks on him when he did that. Once, I added hot, molten lava behind the wall right when he added the final cut, leading to all of it pouring down on him. This forced him to jump back before his Magic Armor took too much damage from it. That exact moment was also when I attacked him with another [Seeker Fireball X18] attack. One time, I nearly got it to shatter, but he replenished it at the very last moment. With all due honesty, I felt like I was going against a cheating character. Then again, I was one myself. Given my age and experience in this world, I was a bit too young to be fighting against the likes of him. I wasn¡¯t even one year old! If only I had [Infernal Glacier X60]! I thought after my last attack failed again. One thing I noticed though was that the math didn¡¯t add up when it came to his Magic Armor. Making a simple analogy, if one fireball did 10 points damage, and his Magic Armor was 200 points, then did this mean that one [Infernal Glacier] spear did only 2 points damage? However, the fireball was Master Rank and while the value of Magic Energy in each of them was different, the temperatures they reached were also different. The liquid fire was both sticky and reached high temperatures, while fireballs only exploded. Thinking about it, the explosion might have had a rather high damaging effect on his armor, but liquid fire should have had an even greater impact by being a DOT effect. It was similar to lava, damaging the Magic Armor constantly the longer it stayed on it. It¡¯s very hard to quantify the damage done on each spell when my only reference is the strength of his Magic Armor¡­ I so wished I could see damage points¡­ I grumbled in my mind. Unfortunately, no sudden pop-up let me know that such an option existed. The fact that he had to find three different levers just to get the next door to open annoyed him quite a bit, but after Dankyun reached the Minotaur boss room, the entire floor was pretty much in ruins. What Nanya did to it when she explored it together with the other teachers¡­ well former teachers, didn¡¯t even compare to the damage Dankyun cast down upon it. Then again, I was also partially to blame for the melted walls scattered all over the place. ¡°I have to say, I¡¯m impressed by the complexity of your floor, Dungeon Lord. Maybe after I¡¯m done with those wretched women, I¡¯ll see to it if I can put a leash around your neck.¡± he said with a smirk once jumped down in the final boss room. ¡°Yeah, good luck with that.¡± I said and pointed all the lasers at me. I controlled them manually while the Minotaur advanced towards him. Dankyun tried to dodge out of the way and then pointing his hand at the Minotaur boss, he cast a single [Fireball] spell. The monster was pushed back, but it didn¡¯t kill it. What he did next was to jump towards one of the lasers, despite the damage taken from it, these ones were fairly weaker and didn¡¯t lower his armor very fast. When he reached in front of it, he cut it in half with his sword and then moved towards the next one. Meanwhile, the Minotaur had no way of reaching him. ¡°Although I find your little light show amusing, it is rather pathetic when it¡¯s up against me. I clenched my jaw and ignored his mocking laughter. Dankyun dodged my lasers fairly well until the last one was destroyed. With a single jump, he threw himself from the top of the wall straight towards the Minotaur. With a twist of his upper body, he moved the sharp edge of his blade and aimed it at the beast¡¯s head. The metal sliced right through the skin, muscle, and bone from the left jaw to the right one, coming out on the other side. Blood gushed out like a fountain, and the decapitated body fell backwards with a loud thump. The draconian landed on the ground and wiped the blood off his sword on the Minotaur¡¯s fur. Once done, he calmly walked over to the opened trap door in the floor. At the bottom was the pit filled with poison. Since his Magic Armor was Supreme Rank, I doubted it would do anything to him, but just like before, he jumped from wall to wall to carefully land on the ground and not in the pool of poison. In that moment, I charged up another [Seeker Fireball X18] with 3000 Magic Energy and let it fly at him. I ordered one of those fireballs to drop right into the pool of poison to partially turn into a cloud. If his Magic Armor weakened enough, then the poison could slip through. There was another reason I launched it now. Dankyun didn¡¯t know, but the next floor was the Lava floor, and it started with a path of enchanted spike traps. With a bit of luck, these fireballs would push him into the lava when his armor was at its weakest and then shatter it. That would have been the best result. ¡°Ugh!¡± he groaned when he got tossed over by the first fireball and landed right on top of a spike trap. Three more struck him, exploding and destroying the trap under him. The resulting detonation threw him into the next one. Two more exploded upon hitting him and one in the left wall. He got tossed farther back. Another spike activated, and finally¡­ it happened as I predicted. The last explosion was right in his face, tossing him out of the corridor and straight into the lava. ¡°Replenish Magic Energy! Flight!¡± he shouted. ¡°What? NO!¡± I went out and saw Dankyun floating above the molten lava and laughing out loud. ¡°Is THAT the best you got, Dungeon Lord?¡± he asked wide a wide smirk. ¡°I still have more Fireballs!¡± I declared and forced the remaining ones to head for him. Dankyun raised his sword and used a martial arts skill of consecutive fast strikes. All the fireballs were neutralized as soon as they entered his strike zone. I cursed and tried the [Explosive Jagged Ice Spear X4] with proximity explosions. I put 1000 Magic Energy points into that spell, making me huff a bit from the exhaustion, but I was far from feinting. ¡°What¡¯s this? Don¡¯t tell me you know only two attacks?¡± he asked with a loud laugh. More or less, yes¡­ I thought as I flew on the other side and used [Wind Scythe] to hit him from behind. I put 500 points into it. Dankyun flew around, cutting the ice spikes and didn¡¯t suspect the other attack. He was hit powerfully and tossed back into the wall. I quickly used [Telekinezy] and pushed him into the lava, hoping to drown him in there. ¡°What an annoying little¡­ Gak!¡± he said when he fell face first into the molten rock. He made a big splash, but this strategy seemed to work so far. Without a doubt, his Magic Energy was draining fast thanks to these attacks. I knew it was only a matter of time before it would shatter and he would die. ¡°Clisk Ohs Es!¡± I shouted and [Create a Room] skill activated, creating a block of lead right on top of him. It was 3x3x3 and 12 m3 in volume, meaning it weighed about 136.1 tons. It came down crushing on top of Dankyun with a heavy splash. The lava moved away as it made room for the lead, quickly melting it and forming a lead coffin around him. The metal boiled as it took shape, and I kept pressing with my telekinetic hand on top of him, Magic Energy depleting fast, but thanks to my regeneration it wasn¡¯t as bad as before. Yes! I can kill him! I can kill him! Yes! I said in my mind, not even realizing how sadistic and scary my thoughts sounded like. From how I saw it, Dankyun had no way to escape that molten hell. Lava and lead were pouring down on top of him while my telekinetic grasp was keeping him under. There was no way he could escape. That was what I thought, that was what I believed, and somewhere inside of me an evil laughter tickled the idea of a ¡®first kill¡¯. Technically, it wouldn¡¯t have been my first, just the first one I actually wanted to kill and destroy. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. As such, the black fog was raised on my territory and huddled up around Dankyun¡¯s coffin. Until then, it only popped up for a few seconds after I cast my spells, but then vanished rather quickly. Killing with traps was seen by me as an indirect kill and didn¡¯t stir up the rise of the black fog. That being said, I saw Shanteya¡¯s kills as nothing but indirect kills as well. I wasn¡¯t the one to pull the trigger. I wasn¡¯t the one to push them in the traps. Because of that train of thought, I still saw myself with my hands unstained of blood. Even the assassins I killed when I first came into this world, they were the same¡­ an unfortunate result of my self defense. Yes¡­ kill kill KILL! that thought wasn¡¯t mine, it was that of the darkness inside of me. Suddenly, the molten lead began to swollen, bubbles popping here and there. My telekinetic grasp was cut and then something exploded. There was a strong light, and out of reflex, I looked away. What the? I thought, but then I saw Dankyun breathing hard in a crater of molten lead and lava. From the right corner of his mouth, a small trail of blood flowed slowly down his chin. The glare in his eyes told me that he wasn¡¯t happy at all with what had just happened, but his armor was in tatters. The chest plate was cracked in multiple places and barely hung together on its leather frame. The right hand suffered from third degree burns all the way up to his elbow, most likely the first part to suffer when his Magic Armor shattered. The armor on his other hand, however, was destroyed and removed up to his shoulder, but the flesh wasn¡¯t burned. I could see his dark-brown scales glistening in the pale light of the room. Although I never paid attention to it, his tail was now shown as well, the tip burned, and the top armor covering it was cracked. It probably hurt a lot by the looks of it, but even after that attack, Dankyun was still alive. This guy is worse than a cockroach! I shouted in my mind while looking at him. ¡°Ugh! How can¡­¡± he said and tried to get up, but slumped back on one knee. He was injured or just heavily weakened. ¡°How can a Dungeon Lord like you have so much power?¡± he asked and pulled out another crystal. ¡°No! Shellur Sou Yar!¡± I shouted the incantation for [Explosive Jagged Ice Spear X4]. Twelve spears formed around me and rushed towards their target: Dankyun. He saw them and jumped back stabbing the wall with his sword and then pushing himself up. Two spikes exploded on the ground, and I saw one of the needles actually piercing his left shoulder. He wasn¡¯t protected by his Magic Armor. I still had a chance, or so I thought¡­ ¡°Full Magic Energy Restoration!¡± he called out, and his body was enveloped in a white aura. That was when I knew that he had regained his strength, but instead of staying here, he rushed towards the other end of the dungeon, jumping on the walls and the pylons. Meanwhile, I could only cringe and hope he landed on one of my traps that tossed him back. I wanted to do more damage to him before he reached my room, to kill him, but my spells were to weak and using more Magic Energy could result in just me feinting and being unable to wake up for a few hours. If you hear me, give me my Emperor Rank spell back! I can¡¯t win like this! I shouted in my mind at the Darkness as I flew past Dankyun and prepared to cast [Wind Blow]. My Magic Energy pool was probably somewhere around 5000, going up with 40 points per second. Technically, in a minute or so it would finish recharging, but I didn¡¯t want to let Dankyun simply waltz through my dungeon like that. When he appeared at the entrance of the spiraled tunnel leading to the fourth and final level of my dungeon, I shouted ¡°Eshun Zer!¡± The wind gathered in front of me and then blew in Dankyun¡¯s face at a maximum speed. He got pushed back and fell down into the lava, but he didn¡¯t stay there for long. Jumping up, he grabbed the side of the wall and used his sword to push himself up towards the entrance. I used another [Wind Blow] on him, trying to get him to fall again, but he used his sword to keep himself steady as he advanced towards me until he was past me. ¡°Dungeon Lord, it will be a pleasure to kill you.¡± said Dankyun with a smirk as he took out another crystal. ¡°I¡¯m not going to let you!¡± I told him. ¡°Hmph! Repair!¡± he ordered and his wrecked armor was restored completely. Those crystals were starting to be annoying, but at the very least, I was glad I attacked him early on. Doing so, I was able to make him use quite a lot of them, but in the end, if I didn¡¯t have the confined space of my dungeon, he would have easily dodged many of my attacks. Even the lava attack was somewhat lucky from my point of view. The tunnel with sharp blades and cooking oil drenched on the sides didn¡¯t impress him. He used his sword to carefully climb down. I can¡¯t win like this¡­ I need my Emperor Rank spell¡­ I kept thinking while waiting for my Magic Energy to recharge. At least these calls of mine weren¡¯t heard by Shanteya and the others, but I was certain the Darkness could hear them. That was what I wanted to happen. There was one spell I didn¡¯t try so far: the elementary spell that allowed me to freely control the air in a selected area, [Gas Flow Control]. It was a simple spell, but if used properly, it could have devastating effects on a living being. This meant using it to pull Oxygen out of the environment would make him suffocate. Unfortunately, the spell could work only with one specified gas at a time. Last time I used it was when I saved Shanteya, which was probably my best decision ever in regard to what I could have done at that time, especially when given what it led to. Still, it was only now when I realized a critical mistake from back then. Maybe I wasn¡¯t paying attention or maybe I was panicking, but I remember using [Gas Flow Control] only once, yet the spell stated that it worked with only one specified gas at a time, meaning all I did back then was to pour oxygen in an oxygen saturated area. Crud¡­ This means I have to use this spell for ALL gases in this area¡­ I can¡¯t make a void! I thought and cursed my lack off attention to details. Even so, I still decided to use it. ¡°Ayu Nan Ork.¡± I chanted and focused on pulling all the Oxygen away from Dankyun. It worked and the Magic Energy was draining constantly as long as I kept focusing it around him. Nonetheless, only one gas was pulled away. For the others, I had to cast it again, further increasing my Magic Energy cost. One wasn¡¯t a problem, but too many would have went beyond my Magic Energy Regeneration ability. When Dankyun reached the fourth floor, he didn¡¯t show any signs of suffocation. He actually looked fine to me. Suddenly, he stopped and then looked around with a smirk on his face. ¡°Dungeon Lord, I didn¡¯t honestly believe that you would do something like pull away the breathable air around me. You really are an idiot aren¡¯t you?¡± he then laughed. ¡°Why isn¡¯t this working?¡± I asked him a bit annoyed. ¡°This little spell is used only by lower ranked dungeons.¡± he shook his head. ¡°But since you are an annoying fellow, I¡¯m not going tell you how exactly I¡¯m protecting myself from this. It wouldn¡¯t be wise, after all!¡± he laughed again and continued to walk. ¡°Grrr!¡± I growled helplessly and stopped the spell. There was no need for it now that I knew it was totally useless against him. Maybe if I used it against Master or even Emperor Ranks it would work, but this guy was prepared for most of the things I could throw at him. His experience as a dungeon explorer was as real as it could get. This whole situation was getting ridiculous! No, rather he could defend himself with relative ease against all Master and below Ranked Skills. If I live through this, I¡¯ll need to rethink my strategies against Supremes¡­ I thought and flew away from him. As I regenerated my Magic Energy, I watched him move through the maze, ignoring some traps, while destroying others. At one point he triggered or rather I activated one of my more powerful lasers. To get to it, he had to walk through a row of spike traps and fire traps. On their own, they weren¡¯t deadly, but combined, they managed to chip away at his Magic Armor quite fast. It was rather astonishing to see what this draconian could endure. No wonder he considered himself so great and saw everyone else as lower than him. Even I would feel somewhat conflicted if I could take a nuke to the face and come out smiling. Unfortunately, I didn¡¯t know how to build a nuke to test it on Dankyun and even then, would I be safe of my own explosion? I feared this was one theory I didn¡¯t want to test out. As he stepped forward, holding his left hand up to block the beam of the laser and destroying the traps with his powerful sword, Dankyun advanced and got closer to the device. Using this opportunity, I moved behind him and concentrated my Magic Energy in a [Seeker Fireball X18] with him as the locked target. The amount of Magic Energy I could spare was around 2000. I could go for 3000, but I didn¡¯t want to drop bellow 4000 and risk getting tired or lose focus all of a sudden. ¡°Zir Navian Esy!¡± I called out and let the fireballs fly towards him. ¡°Ha! You never do get tired, do you?¡± Dankyun said and looked back at the incoming projectiles. With one hand blocking the laser, and the other holding his sword, he had only two choices as far as I could see. One meant to stand there and hope to destroy most of the fireballs incoming at him, and two to ignore the beam and dodge as he did before. Fortunately, he didn¡¯t know that these fireballs were a bit weaker than the previous ones. What he did, was to ignore the beam of the laser and jump over the first two traps. He was taking a pounding from them, but he was still standing. The first fireball exploded on the trap he jumped over. The second three exploded near him and pushed him forward, but he managed to avoid getting hit by the last set of traps. With one swift stab, he pierced the front of the laser and destroyed it. From behind him, another four fireballs exploded on contact with his Magic Armor, sending him crushing into the wall. He groaned and pushed himself to the side to avoid the next three. They exploded upon hitting the metal surface. Seven fireballs were left, and I aimed them all at Dankyun, but instead of worry, he showed a smirk. In the blink of an eye, the draconian used the black sword to slash in half all of them. I watched helplessly as he was done with my attack and then calmly continued on his way. It angered me to see how weak I was, but this was only because those idiotic dungeons egos decided to block my most powerful attack. If I had that, I wouldn¡¯t have been using just 18 fireballs, but 60 full fledged missiles, each capable of lowering his armor by a lot. In the blink of an eye, he would have been destroyed, turned to ashes. Unfortunately, I had to struggle with a Master Rank spell he could partially neutralize. As I waited for my Magic Energy to restore, I kept screaming in my mind at the darkness in the hope that they would realize this wasn¡¯t a joking matter, and I needed that spell. Dankyun wasn¡¯t a force I could mess around with. He was a full fledged Supreme Rank Adventurer with cheats like those crystals, his sword, and even armor. If he had none of those, I would have certainly been able to defeat him more than once, but he came prepared for a long battle or maybe for war. I had hoped he would take the corridor with the lava trap, but he avoided it at the last second. The other paths didn¡¯t hold such dangerous traps, but the lasers were everywhere. I flew close and waited for the moment I could unleash my attack every time. My fireball attack would fly at him the moment I knew I had enough Magic Energy to use against him. Seeing how close he was getting to my crystal body, I was starting to feel afraid and acted a bit reckless by infusing my spell with more Magic Energy. My strongest attack was when he reached the last corridor leading to my room. I used a 5000 Magic Energy points [Seeker Fireball X18] and then quickly rebuilt the area to steer him away. ¡°Ugh!¡± he groaned when he got hit by the first four fireballs, meaning that they packed a stronger punch than the others. Realizing this, Dankyun tried to dodge and destroy as many of them as he could. Out of the 18 fireballs, only 7 managed to hit him, but they were enough to nearly shatter his Magic Armor. ¡°Replenish Magic Energy.¡± he said calmly and used the crystal. His body was covered in that blue hue and then he placed the empty crystal back in his storage crystal. How many of those things does he have? 99? I though as I remembered that in a typical RPG, you could usually store 99 potions in one slot, but I highly doubted it worked that way. ¡°Is it just me or are you getting more annoying with each passing minute?¡± Dankyun asked as he took a left turn in the maze. My plan worked, and I managed to steer him away from the last corridor. ¡°Nah, you¡¯re just getting lazy.¡± I tried to mock him, but I couldn¡¯t hide the stress in my voice. He smirked upon hearing me. ¡°You must be at your limit, Dungeon Lord! Why don¡¯t you just give up already?¡± he asked as he slashed in half a spike trap. ¡°I told you. I want you to grow bald first.¡± I replied. ¡°Draconians in general don¡¯t grow bald. We maintain our outward appearance for quite some time, centuries actually.¡± he replied with a shrug. Great¡­ A few centuries of Dankyun is just what this world needs¡­ I thought sarcastically. Honestly, there was no point in hanging around him anymore. I returned to my room and activated all the spawning circles there. Minotaurs, Imps, Harpies, and Dire Wolves appeared, each more powerful than any of those on the previous floors. I ordered them to rush into the maze and attack Dankyun. Looking back, I saw Nanya was still concentrating on releasing her seal. The energies around her were a bit more violent now and even the floor under her had these weird lines on it like someone took a sharp blade and scratched it. The entire place was made out of Enchanted Inconel, so it was rather surprising that she was able to do that. Shanteya was checking the dagger she took as loot from the el¡¯doraw sister, and Ayuseya was doing some basic movement to test out the extent of her strength and speed, but without shredding her dress to pieces. ¡°I couldn¡¯t stop him¡­¡± I told them with a sad tone of voice. Looking over at me, Shanteya and Ayuseya immediately understood the meaning of my words. The final battle was going to take place here, and it was highly likely that they would be pulled in this battle. ¡°It¡¯s alright, Illsy.¡± Ayuseya said with a soft smile. ¡°We know you did all you could, Master, it¡¯s alright.¡± said Shanteya. Hearing those words brought a sting to my heart. I didn¡¯t try all that I could¡­ I didn¡¯t¡­ I thought and looked down. Nanya didn¡¯t say a word, she didn¡¯t let my words disturb her and continued to undo her seal. I hoped that without it, she would be able to do something about Dankyun, to make a miracle happen. Godlike my foot! I can¡¯t even beat one Supreme¡­ Well, I could if I had access to my Emperor Rank spell. Can¡¯t you all see that I¡¯m not strong enough to defeat him without it? I thought and hoped those shadows in the back of my mind would hear me and undo whatever they did to lock my skill, but it felt like I was talking to the walls. With a sigh, I positioned myself next to the entrance in my room an prepared the lasers. This was going to be my last battle, and I had better win, otherwise, it was off to the next life for me. ¡°He¡¯s coming.¡± warned Shanteya. Nanya opened her eyes and sat up, but the ribbon was still there. ¡°This is unfortunate¡­¡± she said clenching her fists. ¡°What is?¡± I asked. ¡°My seal¡­ I needed at least another half and hour at best to undo it.¡± she told me. ¡°Can¡¯t you partially undo it?¡± Shanteya asked. ¡°I have to remove it entirely. I can force it, but it will hurt me and reduce my combat potential drastically. We have no choice though, so I¡¯m doing that right now¡­ I just need a minute for it.¡± she explained. ¡°Sigh¡­ Why couldn¡¯t I have gotten the Holy God of Luck for my allegiance?¡± I asked myself as I looked back towards the entrance. As soon as Dankyun took the first step into the room, I activated all of my lasers focused on that point. I didn¡¯t waste even a single moment in doing so. These ones were far more powerful and bigger than those in the dungeon or back at the academy. The end result was Dankyun jumping back and quickly using a crystal to replenish his depleted Magic Energy. If only I could keep him at bay like this¡­ Still, why isn¡¯t his mental fatigue dropping? I asked myself seeing as how throughout his journey inside my dungeon he didn¡¯t show even one sign of getting tired. It was like he was a machine, The Dankyunator 3000. ¡°Your pathetic light show is very annoying, Dungeon Lord.¡± he said from way back where he jumped. ¡°It does the trick doesn¡¯t it?¡± I replied. ¡°Hm.¡± Dankyun took out a three crystals in his left hand. I squinted my eyes at them, but I could recognize two as Magic Energy replenishing crystals, while the other was white with yellow stripes on it. What¡¯s he planning now? I asked myself. Dankyun smirked and used some sort of skill similar to [Dash], but he moved much faster than any of the commanders or soldiers did. In the blink of an eye, he was past the entrance and charging straight at me. I reacted by activating [Telekinezy] and simply slapped him out of the way. The draconian was sent crushing into the left wall, and my lasers immediately moved to shoot him. His Magic Armor surely received a huge amount of damage, but his pesky crystals came immediately into play. Jumping out of the beam¡¯s way. He landed on the floor, and with a smirk on his lips, I saw him point the white crystal at me. ¡°Displacement.¡± And then he vanished¡­ ¡°What?¡± I said confused. It wasn¡¯t only him who vanished, but Nanya, Shanteya, Ayuseya, and my own body as well. They were all gone. No, they weren¡¯t gone¡­ just not here. ¡°This can¡¯t be! Where¡­ Where are they?¡± I asked myself as I looked around and flew through my entire room. They weren¡¯t in my dungeon. I couldn¡¯t feel their life force in there, but I knew they were alive at least. There were no warnings or messages to let me know that they were dead, meaning that they were somewhere on my dungeon territory, probably¡­ I hoped. No! What happened? Where are they? I asked myself as I flew straight for the surface. ¡°Search for Nanya! Search for Shanteya! Search for Ayuseya!¡± I shouted as I hoped the weird game-like system would show me the way and reveal their locations. A life force was detected, all of theirs, but when checking where they were, I discovered they weren¡¯t anywhere near me, but back at the academy. ¡°What?¡± I looked with big eyes at the direction of those signals. ¡°That can¡¯t be right¡­ How did they get all the way over there?¡± I asked myself, but there was no time to debate. I clenched my teeth and flew as fast as I could in that direction. ____ Note from the author: Thank you for reading this chapter, I hope you enjoyed it! :) Chapter 37: Breaking the limits [Nanya¡¯s point of view] When Dankyun appeared before us in Illsy¡¯s room, I knew I was out of time. My seal was still there, keeping my true power and abilities locked away behind a steel door. There was no room for hesitation, there was no need to ponder about the consequences, I had to be free of that seal, or all of us were going to end up killed by that monster. This was the final battle, our last chance, so I pushed my body, my mind, and my soul to their limits trying to break that stupid seal. Magic lightnings crackled around me, licking the floor and getting too close to Illsy¡¯s body for my own liking. My muscles, bones, and inner organs were starting to hurt thanks to the torrent of Magic Energy flowing through them. Nonetheless, I was well aware that undoing this seal wasn¡¯t supposed to be met with so much effort and pain. This was merely the result of my own stubbornness. Once I had all the Magic Energy I needed inside my body, all I had to do was pull the ribbon off my tail and hope it wouldn¡¯t kill me. If I didn¡¯t deny my true nature and power for so may years, maybe the unsealing process would have lasted only a few minutes at most, not hours. All I could say was that I was a fool¡­ A fool who continued to believe that I would end up being hated because of who and what I was. Many adventurers already proved this to be true. Honestly speaking, I was afraid of that even now. But why? Why did I have to be afraid of others? Of how they saw me? Loneliness was the answer¡­ I was afraid of ending up alone, or worse, hunted. Normal people living on these lands never hold such fears hidden in their hearts, but I did, and it constantly reminded me that the friends I cherished now could always turn their back on me, just like Dankyun did¡­ turning from lover to murderer. Will Illsy be the same? was what I thought in those moments of intense battle. The only thing stopping my fears from taking control over my mind was the belief that Illsy wasn¡¯t like the other Dungeon Lords or even like the other men out there. He constantly showed and proved to think differently, to be caring, kind, and gentle to the point of stupidity. Illsy isn¡¯t Dankyun¡­ He never was¡­ I reminded myself. Hm, maybe that¡¯s why I let Rufus go despite his treason¡­ I couldn¡¯t make Paladinus and Angius turn against him just because he didn¡¯t want to take my side. Maybe fear was what pushed him into a corner and made him pretended as though he didn¡¯t know Illsy¡¯s true race. Indeed, Rufus showed me through that very simple and painful gesture of his what it meant to be controlled by my fears and see Illsy the same as the others, when all he did was constantly place himself in danger for us. Even if I left the academy as soon as I heard of Dankyun coming here, was that the good choice? Could living in hiding and fear even be called ¡®living¡¯? No¡­ Well, if there was a moment to step over all of these doubts and fears, it was now! With Dankyun baring his teeth at us, and his blood thirst spreading all around him like a sea of blood, I had to let go of everything and maybe just maybe hope for a change, for a miracle. The battle was intense from the very start. Illsy¡¯s powerful beams of light tried to keep him pinned down. For a dungeon so young, it was beyond incredible and amazing what he could do. If Illsy had the chance to build 20 or 30 more floors, it would have been enough to stop even an entire party of Supremes. Then again, he relied a bit too much on his traps and not enough on his monsters. Usually, the lower the floor, the stronger the monsters. That was the rule, and they were the bigger threat. Even so, those he spawned were far more powerful than those found at the fourth floor of any dungeon. A 70 maybe, but definitely not a four, but even then they were far too weak against someone like Dankyun. Did he really become so strong in the past few decades? I asked myself while watching him fight Illsy. It was a short fight, unfortunately. He did something, he used a weird Spell Crystal, and before we knew it, the dungeon was gone. All I saw was Dankyun standing in the middle of a charred field and laughing like a madman. He seemed amused by what had happened. Where are we? Where¡¯s Illsy? I asked myself and turned my head to the left. From the corners of my eyes, I saw the shine of his green crystal body. It was laid on the ground, tilted to the left. Right next to him were Shanteya and Ayuseya, who both were looking rather surprised by where they were. How could this be? Where are we? I asked myself and then, when I looked to the right, I saw Illsy¡¯s black, metallic cage. We were back at the academy, or what was left of it after Dankyun¡¯s Supreme attack. Nothing but rubble and ashes could be seen all around us. It wasn¡¯t an illusion, and I was sure that Illsy didn¡¯t move us from where we stood, I would have felt it. What I was witnessing was the outside world, and we were here only because Dankyun used some sort of displacement spell. Upon a careful scan of the area around us, while Dankyun was having his fit of laughter, I saw the glimpse of a small transparent crystal. That was the proof I needed to confirm the spell he had used. It was an extremely rare one and even Tuberculus used only one in his entire life. The Displacement Spell was a very troublesome one that few mages bothered to learn, but if applied in the right places at the right time, it could save countless lives. It was mainly used to infuse empty Spell Crystals and then pass them over to someone strong enough to charge them. A minimum of Emperor Rank was needed for this spell. It took long and could only be used once, making it rather inconvenient for many adventurers. The Displacement Spell, however, had a very significant and important advantage. In a Supreme Party, once they reached the Dungeon Core and wished to destroy it, but it was heavily protected and very powerful, then by using this spell, they could remove the core itself from that room to an empty one. Three conditions had to be met though¡­ First, there had to be two identical Displacement Crystals, one in the Dungeon Core room and the other in the room the party wished to transport the Core to. Second, the crystals had to be infused with enough Magic Energy to support the transport. In general, the longer the distance, the more energy had to be inside of them. To reach such a distance, the amount of Magic Energy needed was beyond ridiculous, but he wouldn¡¯t have used it unless he considered the off-chance possibility that he would lose. That or he did it just for the heck of it. Even so, this meant that the only way Illsy could defend himself was with his Magic Armor, but that was far from enough against someone like Dankyun. We underestimated his strength and speed. I didn¡¯t even think of the possibility that he would use such a Spell Crystal. I thought he would strut over and attempt to bash Illsy with all of his might just to prove himself superior to him¡­ This situation¡­ It was my fault¡­ ¡°Ah! This was so funny! What a pathetic Dungeon Lord! Kukuku!¡± laughed the maniac. My tail whipped the air in annoyance. I looked him in the eyes and with a single pull, I undid the gift from my mother, The Ribbon of Seals. Thus, my true self, my true nature, my true power was going to be revealed, but at a price¡­ I felt the energy surging through me, crackling through the air in the form of black lightning, shattering the stones it touched. The aura was thick and dark, revealing my desire to kill, an insatiable, unstoppable desire to slaughter and murder my enemies filled the very core of my soul. My body changed as well, the flesh tearing and reforming as I grew. Claws, sharp teeth, spikes, scales, and black wings formed from the flesh of my body. My tail grew, ending with a spike filled with corrosive venom. Unfortunately, my breasts and bum increased in size as well. My armor would have been ripped apart by my growth if I didn¡¯t immediately use my Godlike creation skill and changed it to my old armor: The Night Guard. Spike plates made out of an enchanted, black metal covered my chest, arms, and legs. Although I was showing quite a bit of skin and cleavage, this armor was designed to both entice the minds of mortals and lead them to their grave. My hands, legs, and tail were the armor and weapons I needed. Sharp, curved blades extended from my fingers, turning them into deadly claws. Nanya the teacher was gone, and now only Mad Destroyer Nanya Demonarkiar the 2nd was left. A cold-blooded killer, a stalker in the darkness, a beauty without a match, a perfect hunter, that was what and who I was now, a demoness¡­ or rather half of it. I stood up on my clawed feet, letting out a hiss while doing so. My black demonic eyes looked at the darkness ahead, at the one called Dankyun, the prey I wished to rip apart and disembowel. The one who tried to disgrace me. The one who cheated me. The one who stole from me. The one¡­ the one who dared harm my husband¡­ ¡°DANKYUN!¡± I shouted with a growl. ¡°Hm? You finally unsealed yourself, Nanya! Now you look just like the ugly monster I remember you to be! The deceitful and pitiful Mad Destroyer, a demoness with black blood! So, what do you¡­ ugh!¡± he said, but his words didn¡¯t register. For me, they were only noise tossed in the background. I didn¡¯t let him finish and jumped at him. The ground below my feet shattered and cracked as more than 1000 points of Strength showed their true worth. Status¡­ I thought. [Name]: Mad Destroyer Nanya Demonarkiar the 2nd [Species]: Half Dungeon/Half Demon [Race]: Godlike/Demon Queen [Level]: 369 [Strength]: 1178 [Agility]: 1223 [Intelligence]: 978 [Magic Energy]: 5890 [Magic Energy regeneration]: 45 points per second What a mess¡­ Such low stats because of that idiotic seal¡­ I thought while looking at those values. Magic Energy was exceedingly low. The regeneration lost a few points too, and it appeared as though I actually lost a good whole 74 levels. That last bit might have been more due to my inactivity than the seal, but I didn¡¯t deny the possibility either. And yeah, I may have lied a little bit when I told Illsy I had no idea what he was on about when he spoke of Magic Energy Points. Unfortunately, hiding myself in the disguise of the Godlike Teacher Nanya was more important than being correct and truly helpful to him. It was a good call though because I learned of his true nature, of what sort of man he was. I could tell immediately when he tried to lie to me, but the funny thing was that he never did. With the Status window in the corner of my mind, I struck the draconian Supreme with my claws. Their sharpness was supposed to cut through anything, but my former sword prevented him from taking any damage when he blocked my attack with it. I growled and kicked him in the right side. The strike connected and sent him flying through the air, about 10 or so meters away from me. I didn¡¯t stop there and as soon as my feet touched the ground, I rushed towards him. My desire, my aim, my prey, all of them were him. I wanted to kill him¡­ ¡°GRAAH!¡± I launched myself at Dankyun. He raised his sword. I grabbed it in my claws and struck him with my left foot. He blocked with his right arm. Using the tip of my tail, I tried to pierce his stomach, but his Magic Armor proved to be too thick and his physical armor too sturdy. I only managed to chip away a little bit at it. If the spikes and blades attached to my armor weren¡¯t enchanted to ignore a part of an enemy¡¯s Magic Armor, I might not have been able to do even that. I would have been forced to chip away at his Magic Armor until it was shattered. ¡°Get off!¡± he shouted and tossed a fireball at me. I jumped back right at the very last second and as soon as I landed, I began to cast a wind spell infused with 500 Magic Energy Points. ¡°Just die!¡± I growled and launched the attack at him. The two spirals of wind were formed in the palms of my hands. They were shot straight at him, but he blocked the attack with his sword. Although most of the damage was nullified by it, the force was still strong enough to push him back a bit, farther away from Illsy¡¯s core. A fog of black dust was raised between us. As soon as my attack was over, I focused 1500 Magic Energy points into my body and used [Body Strengthening], raising my [Strength] and [Agility] by another 500 points. [Magic Armor Strengthening] was activated as well and infused with 500 Magic Energy Points. [Fast Reflexes], [Attack Prediction] were also used, lowering my Magic Energy pool even more. I was getting dangerously low, and I was already allowing only 20 Magic Energy Points Regeneration to work towards it, while the remaining amount was used to constantly refill my Magic Armor. These buffs strained my body a lot. There was a chance I wouldn¡¯t even be able to move for a few days after this because of the pain and slow healing, but I didn¡¯t care, I wanted to kill that bastard. My own dark fog formed around me to make this intent clear, adding a bonus to all of my attacks. I never took it into account because it was an unstable value. My speed nearly doubled and the power of each of my strikes had greatly increased. I was like blur and struck like a meteor. Dankyun didn¡¯t even have time to react to the first attack, which I managed to land right on the left side of his armor. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. I heard a crack. The physical armor was damaged. Another strike went to his stomach, sending him into the ground. He gasped and raised his sword in the air. It was too sluggish for me right now, and my punch went straight past it and into his chest. His Magic Armor was once again unable to stop my punch, and his chest plate was dented a bit as a result. He gasped, and I struck him again. Seven punches landed on him one after another. None of them was blocked. I jumped back and grabbed him by his left leg. I lifted him up and using him as a club, I smashed him into the ground. I smashed him again and then I pierced him with my tail. This time, the crack spread and the material shattered. The poisoned spike went through, stabbing him in the gut. As soon as I felt the warmth of his flesh and blood, I released my corrosive venom inside him, damaging his innards. ¡°AARGH! YOU SHIKAK!¡± he shouted and grabbed me by the hair. Pulling hard, he tossed me off of him, but I landed on my feet. ¡°HISSS!¡± I didn¡¯t hesitate and ran at him, ready to split his armor apart. I thought I had the upper hand in that moment, I thought I was going to finish my revenge, but I was wrong¡­ The bastard pulled something out of his pocket and pointed it at me. By the time I realized it was a Spell Crystal, it was too late. A powerful purifying light was aimed at me, blinding me, and making me stumble on my own feet, tumbling down in front of him. The debuff decreased all of my stats to half in an instant. Dankyun didn¡¯t even need to call out the attack, I knew what it was. Every being with demonic blood running through their veins knew what it was. The spell was something only the highest priests on the continent knew how to use. It produced a powerful light attack aimed at what the mortals perceived as darkness or rather demonic magic. While it did require the permission of a god to learn it, in truth, it was actually just an Emperor Rank buff type of magic with a focus on light rather than shadow. Since my body was sensible to the first and highly resistant to the latter, it meant that I could be heavily weakened by it. If I wasn¡¯t a half dungeon or a demon queen, I might not have even been able to move at all. It could even stop the heart of a lower demon. That sort of thing was used only against demonic armies or undead hordes. To use it all on a single demon was considered both wasteful and illogical. It was an overkill against a lower one, but against powerful demons like me, it only lowered our strength greatly for a short period of time. Dankyun was getting desperate it seemed. ¡°Ugh!¡± I groaned as a powerful pain surged through my chest. Looking down, I saw my own sword pierced between my breasts and going straight through my chest. ¡°I told you I would kill you, Nanya¡­¡± he said with a big grin and twisted his sword. ¡°AAAH!¡± I screamed in pain as I felt my rib cage getting ripped apart, and my red blood gushing out from the gaping wound. ¡°Fear not, demonic swine! Your death shall be seen as a blessing upon these lands.¡± We were both bleeding from the wounds we inflicted upon each other, but I was in the worst shape. At least he didn¡¯t stab me right in the heart, but the sharp edge of the blade wasn¡¯t far from it either. ¡°Y-You will come with me¡­¡± I said as I tried to reach for his throat with my clawed hand. ¡°No.¡± he slapped my hand away and then pulled the sword out of my chest. I coughed, and blood flowed from the corners of my mouth. With a powerful kick to my left side, he sent me tumbling on the ground towards Illsy¡¯s crystal body. It hurt so badly I wanted to die, but with the last bit of strength I had, I used my claws to scrap the ground and stop myself before I slammed into him. My spikes and claws could go straight through his armor and accidentally damage him. I stopped at about 6 meters away from him, but it hurt. It hurt so bad¡­ Cringing my teeth, I tried to get up or at least cast a buff to self-heal. My stats weren¡¯t looking good either. The status window showed exactly how bad I was doing. [Level]: 369 [Strength]: 74 [Agility]: 25 [Intelligence]: 978 [Magic Energy]: 924 [Magic Energy regeneration]: 22.5 points per second And the points in strength and agility were still going down, Magic Energy as well since my half-dungeon condition forced me to consume it the moment it detected that I suffered from an injury. The same was for my half-demon self. This gaping wound in my chest, however, couldn¡¯t be cured with my current Magic Energy. Illsy¡¯s [Divine Aura] was also too weak to repair my wounds, but it wasn¡¯t like there was no hope left. If Dankyun somehow vanished from this place, there was a chance for me to survive, but that was highly unlikely. Curses! Is this how it ends? I thought as I looked through barely opened eyes at Illsy¡¯s green crystal body. Funny, but I can¡¯t see you responsible for this¡­ You tried your best to stop him, didn¡¯t you, Illsy? I thought and then heard a step next to him. ¡°Time to die.¡± he said. ¡°NO!¡± shouted Ayuseya. Despite being told that she was weak, despite holding no power against someone like Dankyun, the draconian woman still tried to attack him. I thought she would be knocked back in a moment, but her punch actually landed a hit and sent Dankyun flying a few meters away. ¡°Ugh!¡± he groaned, and the princess knelt beside me. ¡°Nanya! That wound and all of that blood! What do I do? What do I do?¡± she started to panic. There¡¯s nothing you can do, you silly girl¡­ I thought, but I was too weak to speak. She carefully turned me around with my face up, and I saw the crystal tears gathering in the corners of her eyes. ¡°If only I took those healing classes!¡± she frowned and started to look around for a place where she could lay me down. She noticed the small piece of crumbled wall just a few steps away from us and took me there. Oh yeah! Do I still have that crystal with [Rejuvenation] in it? I asked myself, but the only thing left in the pouch strapped to my left leg was the white one. It must have fallen out somewhere on the ground during my battle. ¡°Had enough girl talk?¡± asked Dankyun, catching our attention. Before facing him, Ayuseya carefully laid me down, with my back leaned to it. We both looked back at the draconian who calmly walked towards us. I only saw a scratch on his left cheek. The injury I caused him was gone as well. Judging by how he looked, I immediately understood that he used a healing Spell Crystal right before he got attacked by the princess. Although, Ayuseya had the power to scratch a Supreme? Since when? ¡°Dankyun, you are a monster!¡± ¡°Oh my, don¡¯t be so rude, princess.¡± he sighed and shook his head. ¡°Ugh¡­ if only¡­¡± I tried to stand, but the wound was terrible. ¡°If only you had your fully unsealed power. Yes! Yes! Bla bla! It wouldn¡¯t have made a difference, you know?¡± he interrupted me and smirked. ¡°Don¡¯t think you won¡¯t pay for what you did here¡­¡± said Ayuseya, but before she could finish her words, Dankyun dashed towards us. Because of my lowered stats, I wasn¡¯t able to see his attack, but it wasn¡¯t me he went for. I blinked, and he was right next to me. The monster¡¯s sword, my sword, was stabbed in Ayuseya¡¯s stomach. Warm blood poured out from the wound, staining her clothes and falling on the ground. ¡°Princess, for the last time, I don¡¯t give a Merion¡¯s tail about it! Your life, your entire existence is useless and always had been! You aren¡¯t worthy of your title, you aren¡¯t worthy of your people! You are garbage! The only reason I wanted you was to get into the royal family. That¡¯s it! You are lower even than a shikak!¡± he told her and then pulled the blade out of her. ¡°No¡­ ugh¡­¡± she tried to speak and spat out blood. ¡°You are wrong¡­¡± she looked up at him and there was still a spark of fire in her eyes. ¡°What a pathetic and delusional prin¡­ no, draconian slut!¡± he then laughed. ¡°Your words mean nothing to me¡­¡± Although she was holding her wound and barely standing, she didn¡¯t give up on the fight. ¡°Keh! You bore me.¡± Dankyun declared and attacked her with a powerful and fast strike, he cut off Ayuseya¡¯s right arm from the shoulder. She clenched her teeth, but didn¡¯t scream from the pain. ¡°Just die already!¡± shouted the draconian annoyed and then rushed over and punched her in the stomach, injuring her even further, but with that last strike, she fell unconscious. ¡°Now, it¡¯s time for you. Hm, no¡­ on second though, I¡¯ll leave you for the last. I did promise you a slow death, after all!¡± he laughed. ¡°First, this dungeon core!¡± he then looked back towards the green crystal. ¡°Don¡¯t¡­¡± I said, but I clenched my jaw. Begging to this monster would only give him pleasure. There¡¯s nothing we can do¡­ I thought as the last bits of hope left me. ¡°GAAAH!¡± screamed Dankyun as soon as he got within 5 meters of Illsy¡¯s core. The draconian¡¯s armor was shattered in the blink of an eye. ¡°What in the?¡± he growled. ¡°What manner of sorcery is this?!¡± he said annoyed. Sitting up, he took out another crystal and replenished his Magic Armor again, but this time, he had two more ready to use just in case. ¡°Well, it won¡¯t matter in a moment.¡± he said with a smirk on his lips. He dashed towards the core, and the aura immediately zapped him again, however, at his speed, he was going to stab Illsy before it could kill him. No¡­ No! I thought and ¡°N-No¡­¡± I coughed, spitting out blood. ¡°DIE!¡± Dankyun shouted. ¡°NO!¡± this time, it was Shanteya. She stepped in front of the sword and grabbed it with both of her hands. The tip pierced her armor and stabbed her guts, but it didn¡¯t go through. ¡°No! NO! NOOO! DANKYUN!¡± shouted Illsy from somewhere far up in the sky. It¡¯s too late¡­ I thought. [Illsyore¡¯s point of view] Speed was of the essence in this struggle, but I was limited only to about 40 km/h. I would reach them in ten minutes or so at that speed, but I knew I had to fly faster. ¡°COME ON!¡± I shouted and pushed my invisible form towards those blinking life signs, but I didn¡¯t know how to do it. I couldn¡¯t do it, but I had to fly faster. ¡°COME ON! FASTER! FASTER!¡± I screamed. I don¡¯t know if it worked or my perception was warped a bit, but those ten minutes turned into far less. I reached the edge of the burning forest and entered the field of ashes and smoke where Dankyun¡¯s Supreme Skill struck the ground. Flying as fast as I could, I finally got a glimpse of what has happened while I wasn¡¯t there, and what I saw both shocked me and horrified me at the same time. ¡°What¡¯s this?¡± I said with a trembling tone of voice. Nanya was changed and had a gaping wound in her chest. Ayuseya was on the ground, bleeding and with a hand cut off. And Dankyun¡­ Dankyun was rushing towards my body. No¡­ I thought. For a moment, I felt like that was it¡­ That was the moment of my death, but then Shanteya came from behind my body and stopped the sword just as it was about to impale me. It happened so fast, I didn¡¯t even notice her. Unfortunately, I also saw the blood staining her clothes and spilling on the charred ground under her. She was injured¡­ Nanya, Ayuseya, and now Shanteya¡­ The three women I tried to protect and save ended up taken away from me. ¡°No! NO! NOOO! DANKYUN!¡± I screamed. This monster took EVERYTHING FROM ME! I shouted at the darkness. Anger boiled inside of me. The dark fog poured over my entire territory, and Dankyun continued to be under heavy attack from my [Divine Aura]. I even heard it shatter once, but it quickly restored itself. ¡°NERU AM UR!¡± I shouted. I didn¡¯t care. I stared at the message and willed the spell to appear. My anger was pouring on the system as well. Don¡¯t mess with me! I shouted in my mind. The signs were buzzing like the screen of an old television. My body cracked. Red veins appeared on it, turning the light I emanated from a pure green to a mixed one of red and green. ¡°What¡¯s this?¡± said Dankyun surprised. His armor shattered again. ¡°Replenish Magic Energy!¡± he consumed another crystal ¡°Do you really think you can stop this sword!?¡± said Dankyun a bit angered. ¡°NERU AM UR!¡± I shouted and didn¡¯t care about what the message said, I just poured my magic energy, all of it, into that attacked. I DON¡¯T CARE! I shouted at the top of my lungs inside my mind, shattering the message windows before me. I could feel it, the spell was unlocked again and forming around me, selecting Dankyun as the one and only target the Infernal Glacier spikes were supposed to kill. ¡°DIE!¡± I shouted. ¡°Die.¡± said Dankyun as he used another [Dash] in front of Shanteya. The blade pierced her body and entered my body. In that moment, my spell vanished, my auras vanished as well, and I was pulled into my crystal body. The messages poured down in front of my eyes while my vision was getting blurry and red from Shanteya¡¯s blood. ¡°I-I¡¯m sorry¡­ Illsy. I failed you¡­¡± she said and that was the last thing I heard. No! No! No! I shouted trying to reach out to her, but everything turned dark around me. Everything vanished¡­ All the anger, all the fury I had¡­ they both vanished as well. There was only darkness before me, but just as before, I was the only spec of light there, a soul floating in an ocean of nothingness¡­ It¡¯s over¡­ They are dead¡­ I thought and tears rushed down my cheeks. There was only one thing certain now. I was dead, and they were dead as well¡­ There was nothing left that I could do¡­ nothing. I lost¡­ Did you? a strange voice was heard coming from the darkness. ____ Note from the author: Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it! :) I did try to draw an unsealed version of Nanya, but it might give you nightmares. Meh, better than stick figures. *Shurgs* Well, if you insist, you can find it on my website on my Fan Art page (under My Web Novels). The rest of you, I''ll spare you... for now. ;) Chapter 38: The deal with the darkness What do you mean? I asked the voice. Looking around, I couldn¡¯t see or sense him. Actually, I felt rather odd and sluggish. Was it because I was here or because I was dead? The strange voice didn¡¯t answer me. I was left waiting in silence, surrounded by that darkness for who knew how many hours? All I could think about was how I left Nanya, Shanteya, and Ayuseya to die like that. I did nothing for them, absolutely nothing¡­ It¡¯s my fault¡­ It¡¯s my fault¡­ I kept telling myself while crying. I knew I wasn¡¯t the one who cut them, who stabbed them, who injured them, but I believed that somehow, for some reason, I was the only one at fault. There was something wrong with me that prevented me from doing the best I could or maybe because I didn¡¯t try to use any of the other technologies in my world. For a moment, even using thermonuclear bombs felt like a great idea. After all, who cared if I destroyed the entire area and made it uninhabitable for who knew how many decades? It didn¡¯t really matter if the girls and I could have survived afterwards. Those were details. It took me a while to push that thought out of my mind. It sounded so tempting, but the cost would have been too great. I wasn¡¯t a god to cast down his judgment upon this land, and there was nothing to guarantee my own survival if I launched something like that on top of Dankyun¡¯s head. If the shock wave or heat didn¡¯t kill me, then surely the radiation would have. Maybe my mistake was not praying to a god. After all, I knew reincarnation was real and some strange entity did come down from the heavens to pull my soul away from my previous world. However, who could tell me that I was praying to the right god? Maybe every universe had its own God and there was an even bigger one governing a multitude of universes? These thoughts sounded weird, but the only thing that calmed down my mind in regard to these thoughts was just one simple idea: could it have been possible that the gods and goddesses worshiped by the mortal people of this world were actually something akin to a godlike species working under the order of the big God of the universe with the single purpose of evolving them? It was a good idea to believe in, something I could work with. Honestly, for the past hours I spent in that darkness, I thought of so many things that I lost track of them. In the end, it didn¡¯t help me forget about my death and that of Ayuseya, Shanteya, and Nanya. Thinking about the fact that I would never be able to embrace them, that I would never be able to hear their voice and see them next to me, stabbed my heart with lances soaked in venom. It hurt¡­ It really really hurt, and there was nothing I or anyone else could do. Is this my curse? I asked myself. Time passed once more¡­ Hours¡­ Days¡­ Weeks? I had lost track of how much time came to pass. AH! FINALLY! somebody shouted from behind me. I blinked surprised and turned around. A strange individual appeared before me. He was a bit taller than me, with black eyes and short cut gray hair. The clothes he wore appeared to be a pair of dark-gray linen pants with black leather pads, and a black leather jacket with a white silk shirt underneath. He wore metal boots like those belonging to a knight, and a pair of metallic armguards. As for age, he was around 40 something in human terms, but he looked just like the other darkness manifestations, meaning there wasn¡¯t even a spec of color on him, a cut-out from a black-and-white movie. Who¡­ Who are you? I asked him. Me? I forgot my name, but that doesn¡¯t matter. You really pissed off those guys back there. Took me a while to subjugate them and stop them from attacking you right now. Although they were all a bunch of idiots, so maybe that was going to happen anyway. he sighed and pointed back. What? Who are you talking about? What do you mean ¡®subjugate¡¯? I asked him. Yeah¡­ You are confused. Should I start from the moment you were pulled back here? he asked me. You mean from when I died? I asked raising an eyebrow. Gravely injured, yes¡­ Dead? Not so much. he crossed his arms and shook his head. What? Wait¡­ then? What happened to me? What¡¯s happening outside? I asked looking at him and clenching my fists. Oh? There? Sort of slowed down time? he shrugged. Slowed down time? I asked furrowing my brow. Hm, maybe I expressed myself in a bad way. he said rubbing his chin Well, I¡¯m just going to explain this to you. Technically speaking, inside this place, we can think and speak at an incredible speed. Everything that happened to you from the moment you thought you had died until now happened in exactly 0.002348 seconds of outside time. he explained, but it sounded absurd. You mean to say that time moves much slower for me¡­ us then it does for everyone outside? Then¡­ I stopped and looked down. Yes, technically speaking, Shanteya, Nanya, Ayuseya, and you are still alive, but not for long. We probably have around 2594 years to spend here before all of us are completely dead. So, no rush! he told me with a smile. 2594 years? I said looking at him with big eyes. I certainly didn¡¯t want to spend so much time in here and just wait for our deaths. I had to get outside and somehow, someway kill Dankyun and save the girls. But, was it possible? No matter what strategy I thought off before, nothing seemed to work against that monster. It was frustrating and annoying, but I still believed it wasn¡¯t impossible. Maybe I just wasn¡¯t smart enough. Talk then¡­ I told him and for the moment decided to listen to what this guy had to say. If he was lying or not about that insane amount of years, there was only one way I could verify it, but doing nothing and just letting time pass by like that wasn¡¯t my style of playing. In that case, I¡¯m going to start by explaining this state of ours. First of all! You already know that time for us runs much faster than it does for the outside world. To be more precise, 2594 years in our perception of time is the equivalent of 172 seconds of outside time. Meaning that in 2 minutes and 52 seconds, we and the girls are dead. Of course, if Dankyun doesn¡¯t give the final blow in the next few seconds. However, because of this difference, we actually have 2594 years to talk about things. OK, so far I can follow you. Somehow¡­ I told him. Good! That¡¯s why I like you! None of the idiotic dungeons newly born in this world understand the concept of different perception in regard to linear time! he said with a laugh. What do you mean newly born? I asked. Let me finish what I started and then I¡¯ll tell you. he showed me his palm. Sorry¡­ I apologized. Now then. Continuing from where I left off, this state is achieved through a great deal and effort by focusing all the processing power into the cognitive ability of this body. In other words, you lose function over everything else outside this body, including breathing and senses of any kind just to have this moment of extreme concentration. If prolonged, this state does ultimately lead to death or great amounts of suffering. We are far from that though. he waved his hand in front of him This state doesn¡¯t have any name, but it isn¡¯t willingly achieved. The only reason you could do it was because I made it possible. It did cost us the death of some of the lower minds inside the darkness, but their sacrifice was well worth it. Anyway, I am¡­ Well, I forgot my name, but I know that I am what the oldest dungeons on this planet call a Primordial Dungeon. Also known as one of the First Dungeons. Long story short, the second generation of dungeons born on this planet included the Godlike as well as the other types of dungeons. Honestly speaking, I don¡¯t believe any Primordial Dungeons are left alive at this moment. he scratched the back of his head. Does this mean I can change my race from Godlike to Primordial now? I asked him. No. The Godlike are a bit better than us from certain points of view. Besides, when you chose your race, it was decided it was going to remain like that for as long as you live, although, you aren¡¯t yet¡­ a TRUE Godlike. he smirked. True Godlike? I asked a bit surprised. Unfortunately, I can¡¯t reveal any more information regarding this matter. he shrugged. Why? I don¡¯t want to, but I¡¯m going to give you a hint. All the Dungeons living on this planet are born not made. he winked. From what he just said, I could only believe or presume that by True Godlike he might have been referring to a born Dungeon. I was more or less a dungeon¡¯s version of Frankenstein¡¯s Monster. Tuberculus told me he made my body from many other smaller dungeons. Is that true? I asked him. Yes, but not smaller or weaker, just not living anymore. I was the base around which he created you. My former body, or rather what was left of it was the center piece and the biggest one of them all. Around it, he added Godlike Dungeon parts and continued like that until he reached the Normal and Easy dungeons on the outside. That¡¯s why you are rather squishy there, however, my core and those around mine are very hard to pierce or shatter. Even Dankyun¡¯s sword stopped at my core, although, because of that, some of us were completely erased. When you say erased, do you mean their minds? And how did Tuberculus even got his hands on your core? I asked. Accident and pure luck most likely. As far as we figured out so far, he doesn¡¯t even know about our existence. he shrugged As for the other question, yes, their minds, or rather what¡¯s left of them. I am the only Dungeon in this darkness with most of its mind left intact. Many of the smaller ones have only bits and fragments of their time when they were alive. If the last remaining piece of the core of one of us inside this darkness is destroyed, then his memories along with all of his skills and abilities vanish as well. In my case, that tiny scratch Dankyun caused on my body made me forget what my name was, a language I used to know, and some skills, but they weren¡¯t that useful to me anyway. As for my name¡­ Meh, I can live without it. he shrugged like it wasn¡¯t that important. Then what about me? Why don¡¯t I feel like I forgot anything? I asked him. You¡­ you are a bit different than us, and honestly speaking, it doesn¡¯t make sense why you weren¡¯t affected by his attack. It could be possible that among those memories I lost when I died was also the answer to this question. Wait, what do you mean by special? It¡¯s pretty obvious just by looking at the two of us. You are surrounded by a strange light, an aura of sorts, while I am¡­ well¡­ like this. he pointed at himself. What does that mean? I raised an eyebrow. Simply put, you have a soul and we lost ours when we died. Yes, that means you are the only one alive in this place. Like I said, we are merely mental residue left behind from the time when we were still alive. Yes, some of us can still form a thought or two and have a will of our own, but we mostly go on repeat. We can¡¯t gain new memories, we just act based on our old ones. Isn¡¯t what we are doing now called making a memory? I asked him. Yes, sort of¡­ Then it doesn¡¯t make sense what you said just now. If you can¡¯t gain any new memories, then every time you meet me, we would be on repeat. Actually, you wouldn¡¯t be able to function at all. I told him scratching the back of my head. Everything from machines to living beings had a memory of some sort. It was the way any sort of entity could move through the world. Even those who suffered from periodic short-term memory loss could still gain new memories and keep them for a while. What this Primordial Dungeon was saying was absurd. He literally wouldn¡¯t have been able to converse with me right now because every second that passed by would have been forgotten by him or not recorded at all. What you say is true indeed, but these memories we gain¡­ he stopped and looked down at his hands they don¡¯t feel real to us. It¡¯s like they are there but aren¡¯t, like we knew we went through that event but doesn¡¯t feel like we did. It¡¯s¡­ It¡¯s a bit hard to explain something that only those in our situation could experience¡­ he closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath before exhaling slowly. Opening his eyes, he looked back at me and continued to speak In either case, you only need to know and understand that what we view as new memories is very different from how you do. To help us out, we also read some of your memories and thoughts in real time. he explained. Yeah¡­ it¡¯s hard for me to imagine what you mean by looking at a fake memory or a real one. Could you even tell the difference between them? Hey! Wait a second! If you can connect yourself to my memories does this mean you can see my past life as well? I asked him and for a moment, I realized that this could be a very dangerous situation for me. No. his answer put an immediate stop to that train of thoughts. No? But didn¡¯t that guy from before said you are aware of my past life? I asked. You constantly talked about it in your mind. We can hear some of those thoughts, but we have access only to the memories of your current life. We don¡¯t have access those in the previous one, that¡¯s why we find your behavior and decisions quite weird, illogical even from our point of view. I lifted a hand up to stop him so I could ask him a question. What do you mean illogical? Illogical. For example, when you saved Shanteya, all the evidence and proof suggested that you should have killed her immediately, not save her and even put yourself in danger afterwards. I would have never healed her until I pulled all the information out of her. The same goes for Ayuseya. All the information you collected pointed out that your reaction to her situation should have been a different one. You should have left her to die and ignore her request. Actually, in the first place, you weren¡¯t supposed to try to heal her! Music isn¡¯t something meant to appease a dungeon. Another illogical decision was listening to Nanya instead of forcing your own will upon her. That is something none of us could understand. Not to mention when you built your dungeon, you didn¡¯t follow the basic rules and laws of a dungeon. Where were the lures? Where were minions and monsters? A dungeon is supposed to weaken adventurers and force them to waste as much Magic Energy as possible. Then you have to slowly kill them, boil them, and rip them apart! But you did nothing of that. Your dungeon was literally a death trap for anything Godlike and below. Sigh¡­ well there are many other things as well, for example, how you allowed those insignificant humans to talk back to you like that. You are a Godlike! They are supposed to be the ones answering to YOU! he explained naming each and every thing I did wrong. Needless to say that none of those things he told me about were illogical from my point of view. Actually, what he was suggesting was a bit weird. As for the teachers, I only listened to them because I was curious about this world and didn¡¯t want to stand out that much. Besides, just because I was a Godlike didn¡¯t mean I was the top dog around this place. Even Nanya said she could have destroyed me with ease because I lacked Magic Armor. Did this Primordial actually forgot about this little detail? I didn¡¯t wish to retort to his words because those were the things he and the other dungeons in this world believed to be right. Maybe for some, this was the truth, but for me, harming others and building stuff only with the intent of killing or torturing them wasn¡¯t a good thing. My dungeon was strictly for self-defense purposes, although I may have strayed just a little bit from this idea. Thinking about it though, even when I was repairing the Magic Academy, I didn¡¯t feel bad about accepting their requests, nor did I deny them, it was just that I felt a bit alienated from everyone there, like I was only a background character. Most of these decisions of yours appear to be based on some past experiences and memories we know nothing about. On the bright side of things, it doesn¡¯t appear as though you know a lot about advanced technology. Well, neither do I¡­ but I seem to be able to understand and partially recall that Primordial Dungeons once knew a lot more about tech than any of the mortals living on this planet. What was the name of it again? Eldora? No, that¡¯s the gas giant in this solar system. Terniach? That¡¯s the second planet from this star. P-P¡­ something with P. Meh, it matters not. he shook his head and gave up on trying, but so far I was looking at him with an open mouth. What¡¯s the matter? he asked. No, I¡¯m just surprised you have knowledge of such things. I thought the technology on this planet was primitive or reliant on magic most of the time. I told him while rubbing my forehead. Like I said, I¡¯m a Primordial. The others probably have no idea what I¡¯m talking about or gave them other names. he shrugged. So, how does this entire darkness thing work? What¡¯s your role? I asked him. We basically take care of all the little details in your place, such as breathing, talking, conjuring up magic, controlling it, carefully measuring each amount of Magic Energy you need to put into your spells. You know that Magic Energy is counted with something like points, but you have no idea what each point can be quantifiable as. What¡¯s the equivalent of Magic Energy in electric energy, number of electrons, or the rules of interaction between it and other elementary particles are? You don¡¯t know, but we do, and we have to make every change based on this knowledge. You even presumed you picked up some auto-translator thing? Nope! We are the ones doing all of that stuff, including busting our necks over trying to figure out what in the name of all the known Gods you want to say half of the time! You think in three different languages at the same time! A normal dungeon starts a sentence in a language and finished in the same language. For example: Doko este the exit? Do you have any idea how frustrating and energy consuming it is to do this in real time? The only things you basically do is talk, move around in that flying form of yours, and order us around for what sort of skills you want activated next. But every little micromanaging process is done by us! You literally have no idea how to control ANY of the functions of this crystal form! he explained and then let out a long sigh. They, why didn¡¯t you try to take over my mind and rule the body instead of me? I asked squinting my eyes at him. He remained quiet for a moment, maybe pondering if he should tell me or not. Don¡¯t you think we tried that already? More than once too! When Tuberculus created us, we weren¡¯t fully aware of what was happening outside, so we immediately detected him and his gang as intruding Adventurers on our Dungeon Territory. We didn¡¯t even know about the barrier meant to lock us inside our room. As a result, we all reacted in whatever manner we saw best. Some of them even sent out their minions in order to attack them. They were killed, and honestly speaking, I¡¯m a bit surprised the minions survived in those dead crystals for such a long time in the first place, especially that kraken! Truth be told, I was the only one who didn¡¯t immediately attack them. What I did was take over each of the lower dungeon minds who acted on instinct and reflex rather than logical thought. After I conquered them all and placed myself as the dominant mind, I stopped the attack to see what they were going to. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. What happened then? I asked. Tuberculus cast a spell on our body. It gave it life and pulled us all together. Instead of being the dominant mind and all of us having different bodies, we suddenly found ourselves being pulled together and forming only one entity: the Darkness, as you call us. At first, it was confusing for all of us and even my own thoughts were a bit hazy, but then I noticed you. Although weak and fragile, you were the only mind outside of the Darkness. I tried to control you, to call out to you, to trap you, but you ignored everything. Actually, we couldn¡¯t even scratch you, even now I can¡¯t. Then, something strange happened, your will and desire to reach out towards the outside world grew exponentially. It exploded, quite literally, and pushed all of us back. You didn¡¯t appear to be doing this willingly, but subconsciously. I¡¯m starting to believe that if Tuberculus didn¡¯t cast that last spell on my body, me and the other Godlike Dungeons wouldn¡¯t have been suppressed by you so quickly. he stopped and showed me a smile. I gulped. Being told something like that, I realized that this fellow, this Primordial Dungeon wasn¡¯t a friend, he was my enemy all along, the leader of the Darkness. It was quite easy for me to presume that he was the one who ordered the sealing of my skill. He was the one who pulled me back into my body in those moments. A bit of anger sparked in my soul, but I tried to keep calm and stay focused. Before I strangled him to death, I still had some info to pull out of him, besides, it didn¡¯t seem like he was intent on dying either. He wouldn¡¯t have shown himself to me unless he knew there was a way to fix all of this. So, you can¡¯t make me listen to you, and you can¡¯t control me either? What do you plan on doing now? I asked him. Hm¡­ he looked up and crossed his arms at his chest. I do want to take over your body, but I don¡¯t know yet how to get passed your stupid barrier. It took me this long just to be able to communicate with you. The others whom you met earlier today were idiots who got lucky in being able to reach you. I did have a nice ¡®chat¡¯ with them before meeting you now, so I know what they did and told you. he squinted his eyes at me. So you didn¡¯t tell them to ¡°teach me¡± about a dungeon¡¯s instincts? I asked him. Dungeon instincts? There¡¯s no way to teach those, that¡¯s why they are called instincts. he shrugged. I figured as much when they didn¡¯t unlock my Emperor Ranked Skill back in the Dungeon. They acted as though they wanted me to die. Speaking of which, why didn¡¯t you intervene back there? I asked raising an eyebrow at him. Because I didn¡¯t think we would lose to someone as weak as Dankyun! I mean seriously! You lost to a Supreme with not even 2000 points in Strength? Seriously? he said as if beating someone like him was a simple matter. When he said that, it made me remember the words he said a moment ago. He and the rest of the darkness were nothing more than fragments of their past selves, bundles of memories that acted like robots. It actually was a good comparison. This Primordial and the other minds hidden in the darkness were nothing more than programs and sentient AI replying to me automatically based on their past experiences. In a way, I was talking with mere shadows of past living beings. Unfortunately, they had the power to manifest in the real world through my abilities and all sort of barriers they raised in front of me in order to try to control me or change me into one of them. Maybe that¡¯s why they saw Dankyun as weak, when in fact he was very strong. This darkness saw the real world only as IT desired to see it, like a horse that can only look forward, never changing directions until the one who guided it pulled hard enough. There was another thing that caught my attention though. Despite saying he had subjugated these other minds, it was clear they weren¡¯t all answering to him, otherwise, he would have intervened and unlocked my Emperor Rank spell before it was too late, not force me to break through their locks. Maybe some escaped his hunt or maybe they couldn¡¯t be subjugated from the get go. The last option was the most frightening of them all: this Primordial was lying to me and forcing me to dance in his palm. So, you didn¡¯t order them to lock my spell? I asked him. Of course not! Unfortunately, by the time I realized what they had done, it was too late. he shook his head. That doesn¡¯t make any sense¡­ You should have known that before anyone else. I retorted. Not necessarily. If I order the other minds something, they obey, but if I don¡¯t, they can do whatever they want, including keeping me out of the loop for a while. This ability of theirs is news for me too, since I learned about it only when you broke the Interface System and activated your Emperor Rank Skill. he shrugged, but I was feeling reluctant to give him the benefit of the doubt. Then there were the other things they said, although, I¡¯m more surprised by the amount of things you managed to achieve on your own. he said with a smirk. Like? I thought I was an idiot whose only ability was to keep myself out of your control? I retorted with a raised eyebrow. The most evident one would probably be your ability to cast spells outside of your body. Normally, dungeons of a higher race are able to at least fly out of their bodies and assess the situation better, but I have never seen nor heard of someone like you who can cast spells while outside of their Crystal Core! It¡¯s ridiculous! he lifted his arms up. So I was told¡­ I raised an eyebrow at him. Yet you don¡¯t find it either uncommon or significant. he squinted his eyes at me. Indeed, I don¡¯t. I shook my head. I thought it was something any dungeon could do. Well, Nanya told me a few things about a spell with a similar effect and other dungeons able to control stuff outside of their bodies, but noting like me. I said. Indeed, there is a spell that can help you project your voice, but that spell has some conditions to satisfy before it¡¯s being cast. That being said, your ability to fly out of your body and cast spell is out of the ordinary even for Godlike Dungeons. Not many can do this. However, another interesting difference you possess is represented by your Dungeon Territory. Most Dungeons resume themselves to chambers they create and not an entire area like you did. But this isn¡¯t as relevant, it might be just a byproduct of your human mind, since usually only humanoid Dungeons possess such Dungeon Territories. he shrugged. Isn¡¯t it possible that all of my ¡®strange¡¯ abilities are actually a byproduct of my human mind as well as experiences from my past life? I asked him. I¡¯m not surprised. Your common sense is rather¡­ different from ours. Even the allegiance thingy. I have never heard of the God of Big Boobs! he shook his head I don¡¯t even know if such a god even exists. I don¡¯t worship boobs¡­ I told him in my defense. I¡¯m not saying that. Although, if I think about it, Nanya, Shanteya, and Ayuseya posses big breasts. he rubbed his chin. Nanya¡¯s unsealed form, maybe¡­ I reminded him. There¡¯s also another thing that¡¯s different from us. You never noticed, but at the beginning of your existence in this world, you often interchanged the words ¡®skill¡¯ and ¡®spell¡¯. Even for a young Easy dungeon, such a thing is impossible! And let¡¯s not talk about your Emperor Rank Skill! he laughed. I raised an eyebrow and crossed my hands at my chest What about it? You guys locked it, didn¡¯t you? I told him. We tried, but your stubbornness, or rather ignorance, managed to break through our seals! I mean, don¡¯t you remember? That spell wasn¡¯t supposed to be upgraded in Crystal Body form, yet not even a day after acquiring it, you already forgot about that warning message and upgraded it. Your subconscious was so strong, it completely ignored all the messages we sent towards you. After that, we decided to pull you inside and lock it up. The only way the lock even worked, to our surprise, was because you believed it did! Hahaha! He laughed quite loudly and at me. I only watched him confused and stupefied by what I just heard. It was a bit hard to imagine that they had so little control over me after everything he said, but then again, I wasn¡¯t a young born dungeon mind, I had the mind of a human adult who lived in adult back in my world, a human adult. There was also another thing that made it weird. A moment ago, he was saying that he didn¡¯t know what the other dungeons did, but now he spoke as though he was there all along. Was this part of his broken nature or was he tried to lie to me? Honestly speaking, it didn¡¯t matter to me now, I knew that if I tried hard enough, I could break any locks and laws they were trying to impose on me. I was actually quite certain they wouldn¡¯t try this nonsense a second time, but I didn¡¯t put my bet on it just yet. But yes, you broke through those locks. You upgraded the skill like it was nothing and then broke through every barrier we tried to put up in order to keep it away from you. he said with a raised eyebrow. So those broken messages at the end were actually your attempt to keep the spell away from me? I asked him. Skill, but yes and not mine, theirs. he nodded. What¡¯s the difference between those two words? I asked him. Skill means anything listed in your skill window. Spell means the effect of activating a skill. In other words, you use a SKILL, but cast a SPELL. Not that hard! Remember it! he told me a bit frustrated. Anything else I broke? Yes¡­ [Bond of Trust] is a non-existent Skill. Actually, it never existed nor was mentioned about it anywhere on this planet before your appearance! How exactly it works and why, I have no idea myself, but it¡¯s something controlled by your subconscious mind. Magic Energy flow, equations, everything about it is controlled by your subconscious. We actually tried to lock that one as well, but we couldn¡¯t because it wasn¡¯t one of ours. he shrugged. Another thing you broke was the black fog of killing intent as well as your own stats and skills. I think it¡¯s a good thing I acquire the [Bond of Trust], but what do you mean I broke my own stats? Please explain. Not like there¡¯s anything else to do for now¡­ I told him, and with that remark, I hoped to let him know that I wanted to skip to the part about how to go and save myself and the girls from the Dankyunator 3000. We don¡¯t see that skill as nothing but trouble. Dungeons can¡¯t trust the humanoids! It¡¯s always been like that, and it will always be like that! As for your own stats, yes¡­ you technically don¡¯t have a Godlike dungeon¡¯s stats. The boost you received in points was severely limited by your subconscious because you are afraid of holding too much power¡­ Which is stupid. he clicked his tongued. What can you do about it then? I asked him. How should I know? Dungeons don¡¯t have anything like a subconscious mind¡­ Honestly, how do you mortals even survive with something like that? It¡¯s ridiculous! Who is the dominant version? Who is he ruler and who is the follower? he rubbed his temples as if trying to get rid of a migraine. I don¡¯t think that¡¯s how it works¡­ Conscious mind and subconscious mind work as a team, I think. I told him. I don¡¯t believe it. But, moving on from illogical things, your black fog of killing intent is also broken because you don¡¯t exhibit killing intent constantly. Why should I? I asked him raising an eyebrow. Unless you show your killing intent, how will your enemies know that you are willing to kill them? How will you tell them to stay out of your way? Not to mention your slaves, they need to be constantly reminded that your above them like a god above a mortal, not sleep with them like that. If you want to mate with a woman just rip her clothes off and do it! Why ask permission? You are a dungeon, after all! But maybe that¡¯s why your skills are broken too. Instead of getting all the basic skills, you barely got anything, not to mention the fact that you had to learn your own skills from books? Seriously? When was the last time a dungeon read anything? his explanation turned more towards a scold as he tried to explain why I did wrong things which for me were natural. Because I have compassion, and you don¡¯t. Because I respect them and view them as my equals, not objects I need to use and destroy. Because I want to make love with a woman who loves me, not hump on her like an imp on a boot! I retorted and raised my voice a little on the last remark. You are an idiot for believing that! It¡¯s not normal! It¡¯s unnatural! he said squinting his eyes at me. I was starting to really dislike this rude fellow who told me to behave with my beloved Shanteya like I would with a robot, or with Ayuseya and Nanya like a rapist would. How could anyone see such actions and beliefs as true and just? It made no sense to me, and as such, I refused completely to believe any word he said about those actions being wrong because I was a dungeon. If you are here just to annoy or insult me, you are free to leave. I told him. Yeah, no. I¡¯m here to explain some basic things, to let you know who runs things in the background and tell you that there¡¯s only one way to escape this whole mess. he squinted his eyes at me. Can¡¯t I delete you? I asked with a smirk. You can¡¯t because you will surely die. Do you even have any idea what to do to breath with your crystal body? Or do you know how to control the flow of magic within your body? he asked with a smirk. I couldn¡¯t answer him. Those were all things the darkness did in the background. In other words¡­ I can remove you, but in doing so, I sentence myself to death. As well as the girls, because I am the only one who knows how to get you out of this¡­ predicament. How? I squinted my eyes at him. Promise us that you won¡¯t destroy us, and we will leave you alone. No more barriers, no more locked skills, no more sudden apparitions from us. he smirked. Fine, I promise. I told him, although, I had a feeling he was planning something with this sudden connection cut, but what that was, I had no idea. Very well! And as promised, I will tell you how to escape this situation, although, you partially guessed it as well in the past. You will need to build yourself a new body from scratch. However! he raised a finger up and looked in my eyes for a moment You won¡¯t take it for a spin on the first run. I will be the one to do it! he told me. Why? I asked him crossing my arms at my chest. Do you know any martial-arts skills? How to instantly raise your Magic Armor? Do you know how to absorb matter and heal an injury? Do you know how to cast chant-less spells? Do you know how to use a sword at least or fight at high speeds? he bombarded me with countless questions to which he already knew what the answer was. No. I replied. Well, that¡¯s what you will need to do and know for your first battle, otherwise Dankyun will kill you before you can even lay a finger on him. he shrugged. Can¡¯t you teach me all of those things while we are in this state? I asked spreading my arms and looking up. I can, but I won¡¯t. After this battle is over, things¡­ will change. You will change, and so will we¡­ The look in his eyes told me that this was just the beginning. It also made sense for him not to give me those skills and abilities. He needed leverage; something he could do, and I couldn¡¯t; a reason to keep him alive when things got tough for me. How will I know you won¡¯t harm my wives and slave? I asked him. As long as they have a contract with us, it would be in our detriment to kill or harm them, so you can relax, Illsyore. As for Dankyun, he¡¯s been marked as our target, but I would love to play around with him a little bit. he showed me an evil smirk when he mentioned that last part. Alright¡­ where do we start? I asked him, and with this, I agreed to his deal. There was no other way out of this. He had knowledge and information I lacked, and I was running out of time. Very good! We will start by having you build your body. There are remnants of the bodies used by all the Dungeon Lords who reached humanoid state. You can learn from them how to build your body. A bit of advanced anatomy and biology will be needed for this process, but I¡¯m sure you won¡¯t have a problem with them, so do let your imagination go wild. Oh, and don¡¯t be embarrassed about working on your genitals as well. If you make your body make sure you pay attention to each and every single detail about it, otherwise, you will regret it later! I gulped again. It sounded like an awful amount of headaches and things to learn, but if I wanted to save myself, Nanya, Shanteya, and Ayuseya, I had to go through all of this. I needed a body to defeat Dankyun, although, I didn¡¯t like the fact that this Primordial was going to be the first one to control it. I didn¡¯t trust him, I couldn¡¯t, and I doubted I ever would. Unfortunately, the alternative was rotting in this place for over 5000 years until I died or this darkness destroyed me. _____ Note from the author: Thank you for reading this chapter, I hope you enjoyed it! :) Chapter 39: My type of revenge [Shanteya¡¯s point of view] Dankyun¡¯s sword pierced my guts and went out through the other side. I felt the cold blade as it cut deep into me, hurting me, making me bleed, making me tremble. Fear grasped my heart in its deadly claws, reminding me of my weakness and uselessness. This time, it was different though. This weakness in front of Dankyun was a proof of my inability to protect my Master, my lack of strength and skill, my lack of determination to obtain the power I needed and desired in order to repay my Master for all the kindness he offered me ever since that fated night. Still, despite these feelings and emotions, there was another type of fear swirling deep inside my heart and making me shiver like a helpless little child. In all of my life, I had never experienced the embrace of a lover or even allowed myself to feel the touch of one. I was the Broken Doll no one would desire to be with, to protect and help, no one except for the Dungeon Lord who freed me, who healed me of my injuries and curses, who embraced and kissed me without fear or disgust of who I was and what other men had done with me. Because of this fear of losing the one I loved, my last words towards my Master were: ¡°I-I¡¯m sorry¡­ Illsy. I failed you¡­¡± Tears gathered in the corners of my eyes as blood spilled around my lips and out of my open wound. I was dying together with him. Instead of being able to save him, I allowed him to be killed by this draconian, and it hurt, it hurt so badly to know that I wasn¡¯t able to keep the one I loved from being harmed by his enemy. That pain was far greater than the physical one caused by the sword impaled in my abdomen. ¡°You stupid shikak!¡± cursed Dankyun as he pulled back his blade. ¡°Ugh¡­¡± I groaned and fell on my knees. My body was weak and trembling from both pain and fear, but even so, I still glared at him. I didn¡¯t want to offer this monster the joy of having defeated us, of having struck us down with such a great ease. Those like him usually relished the moments when their enemies begged for their lives or screamed out in pain. I knew his kind all too well, and the one thing they all hated was to see their victims still glaring back at them when hope had long since vanished from their battle. ¡°What a persistent little woman.¡± he spat and grabbed me by the neck. With great ease, he lifted me off the ground and showed me his victorious grin. I tried to struggle in his grasp, to free myself of his hold, but the wound in my gut sapped away my strength, reducing it to nearly nothing. ¡°Maybe I should torture you as well before I kill you? Rape you until you can¡¯t think anymore?¡± he threatened me. ¡°Sorry, but I prefer men in bed, not virgin ladies¡­¡± I grinned. He snapped and tossed me to the side. I landed on the ground, breaking my left arm and rolling a few times until I came to a stop not far from where Nanya was leaning with her back on a piece of crumbled wall. I spat blood and coughed. I couldn¡¯t move, and it hurt everywhere. Is this it? I asked myself before my vision faded, and I lost consciousness¡­ [Nanya¡¯s point of view] Things weren¡¯t looking too good for us. Illsy just got stabbed by Dankyun and probably died as a result. Shanteya was cut down and tossed off like a useless rag. Ayuseya was unconscious and loosing blood fast. Did she even have another minute left? I doubted it. As for the monster who brought us to our knees like this, the monster draconian who played around with us like we were nothing but a useless existence to him, he was standing right there, laughing and enjoying the sight of this destruction around us. As for me, my body was numb, in pain, and I didn¡¯t have much blood left in my veins to keep the cold away. It spread already to my lower limbs and tail. My jaw and eyelids felt like they were being pulled down by mountains. I couldn¡¯t keep them up. I could barely think anymore, and it was so hard to focus. Honestly, I didn¡¯t even notice when Shanteya ended up at my feet. This is it¡­ Well, I could use that [Teleportation] crystal, but what use is it? Without a healer¡¯s help, I¡¯m going to die anyway. Dankyun finally did it¡­ he killed us all and won the battle. I thought as I looked over at him. One last strike was all he needed to kill us. A single punch in the right place or a direct stab to the heart. Decapitation was an option too since none of us had the strength to oppose him anymore. Still, I had the feeling he wasn¡¯t going to do any of that. Dankyun was going to let us bleed out while bragging about his might as a Supreme. Just thinking about the fact that I was finished off by this pathetic excuse for a living being sickened me. If only I was stronger¡­ As for Illsy, this poor Dungeon Lord had only been alive for just a few weeks. To die like this, especially when he showed such a huge difference between himself and the other dungeons was such a shame. I guess I will never get to know if he really did love us or not¡­ I thought and deep inside, I found myself regretting it a bit. ¡°Ah! Such a wonderful day!¡± laughed Dankyun, but then something strange happened. A wave of force pushed the dust away from Illsy¡¯s body, while sparks of energy flowed around it. ¡°What¡¯s happening?¡± questioned Dankyun as he took a step back and looked at the strange things that happened to the green crystal core. BADUMP! A loud heart beat was heard coming from it, sending a shock wave around it. BADUMP! Another one was heard. Looking at the way the dirt and dust were pushed away from him, how shock waves of pressure were released with each heartbeat, I felt like I was about to witness the awakening of a monster. A shiver came running down my back as crackles of lightning from his body intensified, striking the stones and ground around it. The pressure was intense. Dankyun also watched this moment, but he didn¡¯t feel like waiting until the end of whatever was happening to Illsy. Clenching the hilt of his sword, he raised it up and dashed towards him with a clear intent of destroying him. ¡°N-No¡­¡± I managed to say with a rough and out of breath voice. I could hardly make a noise anymore. I could only watch helplessly as the draconian used the sword my father built to protect me struck down the one I wished to protect. Strangling tendrils of worry and fear tightened their grip around my heart and breath as I watched the black blade fall down upon the crystal body. There was no way to protect him or even move myself in front of the sword as Shanteya did. I could barely breath and keep my eyes open, let alone walk or dash all the way over there. Illsy¡­ I said in my mind as I waited to hear the shattering noises of his body, but they were late to arrive. Because Dankyun was with his back at me, I couldn¡¯t see what happened to the crystal core. Did Illsy do something? I wondered. BADUMP! another loud heartbeat was heard. ¡°GAH!¡± the draconian was sent flying back, crashing into the rubble of the school building that once stood here. He was pushed back by the shock wave coming from the dungeon¡¯s body. Somehow, Illsy defended himself against the Supreme¡¯s strike, but was it him that did it or was something bad happening to his body? I couldn¡¯t tell, and I felt like I was about to faint as well. ¡°You rotten Dungeon Lord!¡± screamed Dankyun as he got out of the rubble. BADUMP! Another heartbeat was heard, and another pulse was sent from it. In the following moment, something strange happened. Illsy¡¯s Dungeon Territory felt like it was suddenly pulled away from right under my feet, retreating into his crystal body. The sensation didn¡¯t seem to have been noticed by Dankyun at all, so maybe only those of us, who were bound to the Dungeon Lord in one way or another, were able to feel this. After that happened, all the light around the big green crystal was focused inside it, and the lightning stopped forming. The pulse and shock waves stopped, but it didn¡¯t appear as though Illsy was dead. The way I saw him was as if he was ready to burst with an incredible amount of energy, like a powerful [Fireball] ready to explode. I gulped and waited for what was going to happen next. Another moment passed without the crystal body showing any change. Is it over? I asked myself. Dankyun wasn¡¯t letting his guard down. ¡°Ugh.¡± I groaned and looked down. Hardened blood stained my armor and limbs, but I couldn¡¯t feel its metallic scent. My legs and arms were numb as well. Even if I tried to make a fist or move a finger, I couldn¡¯t anymore. The order for it to move didn¡¯t go through, or rather the muscles didn¡¯t answer to my commands. I won¡¯t be alive for much longer¡­ I thought as I tried to stop any sort of fear and horror from speeding up the rhythm of my heart. If I didn¡¯t do that, I would have lost even more blood, but if one were to look at myself from an outside point of view, I would say I looked like some emotionless monster who didn¡¯t care what was going to happen next. The truth was that I was very scared and didn¡¯t want to die yet, but all of my experience and knowledge told me to stand still and calm. That was my only chance left. I was hanging on a thin thread above the hungry jaws of death. Suddenly, Illsy¡¯s crystal cracked like someone struck it with a huge hammer. I gulped. A staggering presence was emanated from the cracked crystal body. It came out like a shock wave, pushing back anyone too close to it. The ground around the crystal began to tremble, rocks and dust to be lifted up in the air as lightning zapped the nearest ones. An incredible quantity of Magic Energy could be felt around it. BADUMP! The heartbeat was heard again. BADUMP! BADUMP! BADUMP! The pulse intensified as more lightning crackled in the air. The light emanating from the body began to shine brightly as more Magic Energy was focused inside of it. Then, suddenly, a pulse of strong light was released together with the strongest shock wave of them all. I closed my eyes, but I could hear the ground rumbling like an enraged monster. Dust, dirt, and small rocks were pushed away, some even hitting me, but then everything stopped. I struggled to open my eyes again, although, the pleasurable thought of giving in and letting my last breath go tempted me. The desire to know what happened to Illsy was stronger though, so I pushed and forced those tiny muscles to pull my eyelids up, so I could see him. There was a perfectly round crater where his green crystal body once stood, and in the middle of it was a man. The Dungeon Core had completely vanished, and what took its place was a humanoid being standing at around 194 cm tall, with pale white skin and a big green crystal in the middle of its chest. Judging by the parts below the belt, that entity was a male. He had short cut jade-green hair, deep emerald-green eyes, a handsome face, and a fit body to show a bit of muscle. Besides the big crystal in the middle of his chest, there were five smaller ones on each arm and leg. All of them looked identical in size and shape, glowing with a soft green tone. From my point of view, he was rather attractive. In my entire life, I had never seen or heard of a being like him, but what I knew for certain was that he was none other than Illsyore, my husband. Somehow, someway, he gained a humanoid body, but was it going to be powerful enough to defeat Dankyun? Illsy¡­ I thought and prayed for him to win. [Illsyore¡¯s point of view] 271 years were spent in that darkness, working constantly on my body with little to no time for anything else. Other dungeons besides the Primordial revealed themselves to me as time went by. It was a hard work to build my body while constantly listening to them always poking at my memories and making fun of me. The Primordial tried time and time again to explain why humanoid organics shouldn¡¯t be trusted and how dungeons were superior to them in any way or manner. Those voices sang choirs for the deaf and painted skies for the blind because all I cared and thought about was how to make my body as strong as possible in order to save Nanya, Shanteya, and Ayuseya. There were many things I needed to change, many things I needed to add. I failed time and time again. I honestly lost track of how many failures I had piled up. To start off, my first body was finished after only 6 years of designing and careful planning. It was a record-breaking success, but since it wouldn¡¯t last, the Primordial declined its existence, painfully explaining to me how it would be defeated by Dankyun. He was right. That thing¡­ was no different than a normal human body. It even lacked the ability to store Magic Energy. After failing for another 20 years or so, the Primordial finally explained to me a little bit about how Magic Energy worked. In idea, it was a macroscopic effect generated by the interactions of elementary particles I already knew of like Bosons and Fermions with another type of particles called MT Particles or Magic Type Particles in short. They interacted with matter and dark matter through waves and fields capable of literally changing the laws of interaction between Bosons and Fermions, and as a result, microscopic and macroscopic structures. Of course, I wasn¡¯t given the full explanation and all the details about it since the Primordial forgot them as well, but I was offered enough to begin to understand it and slowly begin to feel the flow of magic. Actually, I had no idea how Bosons and Fermions even worked together, but I understood that thanks to Magic Energy, I had a somewhat control over the laws of physics and matter itself. Honestly speaking, it was a big headache, and it was hard to pull the info from the Primordial, especially since there were moments when he¡­ forgot what we were talking about months or years ago. As for using the new knowledge I gained, it turned out to be even harder than I expected. If was a particle physicist or at least a doctor in my previous life, maybe I would have had a bit of help in understanding what in the world I was doing. There were months or even years when I felt like going mad because I could figure out something. Indeed, I lacked a lot of information in regard to how a biological lifeform was supposed to work. That was why the Primordial rejected the several other bodies I made afterwards. They were literally patched up and copied versions of the bodies of the other dungeons. Trial after trial, failure after failure, the body I was working on progressed and advanced. It was no easy feat to achieve what I wanted: something powerful enough to destroy Dankyun. The hardest part was figuring out how to transform points of strength, agility, and intelligence into actual interactions at an elementary level. They never did tell me how it worked exactly. The darkness wanted me to give up on finding out by myself and use it instead. It wanted me to create a bond of dependence, but I wanted to have none of that. Thus, I struggled and struggled, guessing and trying as years went by. What helped me learn faster were the remnants of the bodies of all the Dungeon Lords who achieved humanoid form or semi-humanoid form. Needless to say that the form of the body I worked on was going to be far different than my human one. It had to be powerful, resilient, fast, and handsome. One thing was making a beautiful woman, I knew the parameters, but making a man was¡­ well, challenging to say the least. On the bright side of things, the way I worked was similar to molding clay. This ability took me about 67 years to develop and learn, but it was a long way from perfecting. It was the same with building items, I just had to understand how to control the flow of magic in order to make it change the properties and shape of a substance. At one point, I got a little bit sidetracked with the modifications and ended up with a body that looked a little bit alien when compared to the beings on that planet, especially the tail and claws. The main parts I focused on were the four arms and six legs. I really wanted the body to have implants of some kind, so I chose Spell Crystals and lasers. The hands, all the way up to the elbow, were implanted with power crystals connected through biological tissues and offered the same purpose as the AGLMC laser. The others were going to be Magic Energy storage crystals similar to the ones Dankyun used. I had to say, I looked quite different. My body was six meters tall, with four jaws, razor-sharp teeth and claws, extendable back spikes, acid spit, four arms, six legs, and all sort of other cool attachments. It was a full-size monster no matter how you looked at it. When I was done with this one, the Primordial complimented my ingenuity, but it still wasn¡¯t enough. He took the liberty of explaining how each and every part of my body was going to be a pain in the behind to control and use because of the way our minds worked. We didn¡¯t have the time to learn how to control the extra limbs and organs I saw as ¡°cool¡±. Then he explained the main aspects he wanted me to focus on¡­ Like seriously¡­ After more than 150 blasted years, he finally thought it would be a good idea to tell what he NEEDED for the body to work! He annoyed me so much that day that I started a fight with him. Of course, I lost¡­ and a few Easy Dungeons memories were destroyed in the process. In the end, I understood that no matter who would pilot the body I made, they would need decades to learn how to do it efficiently. The last body I worked on was supposed to be the final one. Apparently, understanding how the body worked and building it myself allowed me to control it¡¯s healing capabilities much easier. Not even decapitation or a stab to the heart would have been enough to kill me now. This was one of the aspects the stupid Primordial forgot to mention. As expected though, three years later, he completely forgot about our battle, although, I was still grumbling like a hungry raccoon. Indeed, it was the same as speaking to nothing but shadows of their former pasts. Time and time again, it was made quite clear that in this darkness, I was the only living and active mind with 100% functionality, everyone else was like a ghost with half a brain or less. It felt a bit lonely at times. There were very few moments when I wished to take a break, but when I did, I thought about the world I was in, the people, what I learned, and what I wanted to do after Dankyun was scrapped, packed, and posted back to Teslov on the ¡®boot in the behind¡¯ express. This world was different from mine, too different. I even learned that there were more than those three continents. Apparently, there was even something like a Dungeon Continent, but none of the shadows here knew where it was or what it was about. They remembered only that it existed. As for the Primordial, he didn¡¯t know either. Apparently, there were big holes in his memory as well. He couldn¡¯t even remember where he was born, and when was the last time he was alive. The weaker dungeons had it even worse though, they worked only on a handful of memories, which they relived constantly. Some were good, while others were bad. I decided that I wanted to learn more of this world after I defeated Dankyun. There were many more continents to discover, a lot of people to meet, and I had yet to see any cat people. According to some of their memories, they existed. One of the dungeons kept remembering being fed nekatars slaves in order to be used as a training ground for human knights. Another remembered having one as a husband. And yes, there were males and female dungeons around here. Therefore, my to-do list had a very important item added to it: find a nekatar girl and see if a pointing laser worked on her. The other objectives were rather simple: taste the food; take a swim in the ocean; learn to fly if I can; simple stuff I never did enjoy or cherished in my previous world. Building a computer had to wait, since I had no idea how to make electronics or even program them. There was one thing I wasn¡¯t too certain about: my primary goal in life, my purpose, what did I really, really wanted to do? I postponed this inner debate for after I was done with Dankyun, just in case I accidentally triggered a death flag with it. Although, postponing it wasn¡¯t a death flag, right? That¡¯s how my time was basically spent in this darkness, and when it was finally time to reveal my body, all I had to say was that I designed a new species, an entity that simply didn¡¯t exist until then. My abilities were vast, but more importantly, my body was going to be strong enough to destroy Dankyun. It¡¯s time. said the Primordial with a smirk. Yes. I told him as I looked at my future humanoid body with emerald-green eyes and jade-green hair. In a moment, the Primordial released this state of slowed down time in which we were in, and my crystal body began to change. As explained to me before, there were some conditions I had to accept before the change began. First of all, my level was reset to 1. Practically speaking, it was a new body, so my experience in it was 0 according to the inner workings of the dungeon system, which even now I couldn¡¯t figure out how the blasted thing worked. In general, any big change that occurred to the dungeon entity as a result of evolution was followed by a full level reset. The level reset would basically release all the stored up Magic Energy inside the body in the form of a level. Somehow, the bonds between particles was strengthened by this Magic Energy, similar to how an old dungeon was naturally far sturdier than a newly made one. As a result of this release, I received a high amount of Magic Energy needed to use in the construction of the next body. Secondly, I had to consume the bodies of all the monsters inside me as well as those of the dead soldiers on my territory, since each one of them was basically a Magic Energy storage. Doing this to Dankyun didn¡¯t work because he was alive, meaning he could subconsciously or consciously control his own Magic Energy flow. Theoretically, I could absorb it, but I would need a huge amount of Magic Energy just to counter and convert his, leaving me without a body and the girls dead for sure. Third of all, my entire Dungeon Territory was to be reduced to a mere 10cm around my body, since I needed all the Magic Energy stored in it. As I came to understand. A Dungeon expanded its territory as a means of extending its senses as well as a way to store Magic Energy for when they would need it most. The side effects were that all buildings released from the territory would end up as neutral. The same went for the summoned monsters. Apparently, there was another side effect, but the Primordial refused to tell me anything about it. Fourth of all, the skills I gained as a Dungeon Core were going to become partially useless for me because different bodies meant different Magic Energy flows as well as a different understanding of how to cast my spells. Well, all the skills except for the Dungeon Building skills and [Bond of Trust] because of their inherent conditions: dungeon territory for the first and reciprocated trust for the second. The Godlike attributes and skills I gained as a passive racial trait remained untouched. Nonetheless, with time and a deeper understanding of how to control my body, those skills would become available to me again. Without further ado, the Primordial started the process in creating my body. He first reset my level to 1, thus granting me an incredible amount of Magic Energy, then he sucked dried of Magic Energy all the bodies inside my Inner Mind and on my Dungeon Territory. As a result, they either turned into mummies or dust. Then, he absorbed the Dungeon Territory itself, gaining another bonus of Magic Energy. Good! We have 276844 Magic Energy ready to be used. I have to say, you were lucky you were already past level 100. If you weren¡¯t, it would have been a bit harder. the Primordial told me as he used the Magic Energy and then applied it to crystal body. The changes would start and end in a matter of seconds. That¡¯s why I was told that I needed at least 100 levels to become a Dungeon Lord? I asked. That¡¯s a strict minimum required for a body of any kind. Anyway, time to go now! he said with a smirk when the creation process of my new body was completed. We both left the Inner Mind at the same time. He assumed control over my physical form, and I remained as a background presence around my head. Although we practically saw and felt the same things, I wasn¡¯t the one steering the ship. ¡°This is new.¡± said the Primordial as he opened his eyes and looked at his hands. Breath, you moron. I reminded him. ¡°Oh yes! I forgot about it for a second, but no need to be rude.¡± he told me. Looking around, he saw Dankyun starring at us with a bit of a puzzled look on his face. He certainly wasn¡¯t expecting me to return in this new form, however, thanks to our enhanced vision, I noticed Nanya and Shanteya immediately. It was good to see them again, but I hated the fact that it had to be when Death was knocking at their doors. Leave introductions for later, go and absorb Shanteya, Ayuseya, and Nanya. I urged him. ¡°That was my plan.¡± he smiled and rubbed his palms together. ¡°What is this?¡± asked Dankyun surprised. The Primordial ignored him and simply moved towards Shanteya. The distance of several meters was crossed in the blink of an eye. It was as though he teleported there. ¡°Absorb.¡± he said pointing his hand at them, and the dying el¡¯doraw¡¯s body vanished in a bright white light. Inside the Inner Mind, her bleeding should stop. Next Nanya. I told him. The woman I once knew as a lively teenage-looking teacher was in tatters. I couldn¡¯t even imagine the pain and fear she was going through with that gaping wound in the middle of her chest could. She looked pale and weak, like the flame of a match about to be extinguished, like a flower wilted away by the cold winter. It pained my heart to look at her, and I wanted to do everything I could to help her, to save her. Losing Nanya wasn¡¯t an option. ¡°Illsy¡­ I¡­¡± she looked up at me. Her lips were trembling, but there were tears of happiness in her eyes. ¡°I¡¯m alive, Nanya, my sweet. Don¡¯t worry.¡± the Primordial spoke. Hey! I glared at him. Relax, it¡¯s not like she can tell the difference. said the annoying dungeon. ¡°Don¡¯t you ignore me!¡± shouted Dankyun as he dashed at us. The Primordial saw him from the corners of his eyes, and with one fast move and his bare hand, he caught the dangerous black sword. It didn¡¯t go through this body¡¯s Magic Armor, let alone cut its skin. ¡°What a cute toy. Go and play over there, dirt for brains.¡± said the Primordial as he simply tossed the draconian Supreme aside like a pathetic little rag. What the? Status! I said quickly after seeing the incredible feat. [Name]: Illsyore (Nickname: Illsy) [Species]: Dungeon Lord [Race]: Godlike [Level]: 1 [Strength]: 475+1500 [Agility]: 378+1500 [Intelligence]: 650+1500 [Magic Energy]: 15750 [Magic Energy Regeneration]: 150 Magic Energy Points per Second [Allegiance]: Holy God of Big Boobs! [Spouses]: Ayuseya Drekar Pleyades, Mad Destroyer Nanya Demonarkiar the 2nd [Slaves]: Shanteya Dowesyl [Pets]: None [Minions]: None Those were the important stats, and they had incredible values when compared to those in my Crystal Body, but I had the feeling they were a bit smaller than what I designed the body for. I was expecting at least 2000 points in every stat. I couldn¡¯t figure out if it was like that because I made a mistake somewhere or if it was a side effect of my body¡¯s transformation from Crystal to Humanoid. Either way, they far surpassed Dankyun¡¯s base stats. From what I saw, gaining a humanoid body automatically changed the bonus from the Godlike racial trait, but that was also only due to the many tweaks I added to it. Normally, if I went along with a much simpler and classical body, I would have gained only the basic 1000 extra, however, this way, I gained 1500 in each stat, 5000 in Magic Energy pool capacity, and 100 points in Magic Energy Regeneration. I can only imagine what a 12000 Magic Energy [Infernal Glacier] would do. I said with a sigh. It would be the equivalent of what humans see as a Supreme class skill. the Primordial replied as he approached Nanya. Should we use it? I asked him. And kill off Dankyun that fast? Are you mad? he retorted. Very well, but let me talk with her. I told him. Sure. I don¡¯t mind. he said, and with that, he allowed me control only over his mouth. ¡°Why you¡­¡± the draconian dashed at us, but the Primordial made a quick spin and kicked him in the chest. The draconian¡¯s Magic Armor was shattered to pieces, and he was sent flying through the air more than 50 meters away from us. I will so enjoy destroying this fellow. said the Primordial. Looking back at Nanya, we knelt down in front of her, and I looked in her eyes. ¡°Illsy¡­ is that you?¡± she asked more as to confirm what she was seeing. The woman was so changed, I barely recognized her. It was surprising that she was even alive. Just how much pain and suffering did she had to endure to end up like this? Shanteya and Ayuseya too, they were barely hanging on to life by a thin thread. They were taking their last breaths, their last moments of life. ¡°I¡¯m sorry¡­¡± I told her, and from the corners of my eyes, two tears gathered and flowed down my cheeks. Her lips curve into a small smile. Was she forgiving me for my weakness? ¡°I¡¯m going to absorb you now, my love¡­¡± I told her, and she shook her head. ¡°What?¡± I blinked surprised. ¡°Why?¡± Looking down, she moved her hand, or at least tried to, it twitched a little. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. The pocket on her leg. the Primordial told me and reached out for it. Inside was a pure white crystal, pulsing with magic, but I didn¡¯t recognize the spell. ¡°Flee¡­¡± she told me. The crystal was to be used for us to flee from Dankyun, or so she asked. ¡°Not yet, I¡¯m stronger than him, so please Nanya, let me absorb you, so I can heal you.¡± I told her.¡± but she still looked reluctant, her gaze falling on her clawed hands. A sense of deja vu struck me. Where did I see this scene before? I asked myself as I searched through my past memories. Nothing came up, but there was a feeling, a sensation lost in the whirlpool of knowledge from my previous life. Was it from a movie where I had attained it, or maybe a book? It was hard to pinpoint, but I decided to act upon it because it felt like the right thing to do. Give me a bit of control over the body. I told the Primordial, and he complied. Taking her clawed hand, I kissed the top of it and then showed her a smile. ¡°I¡¯m not afraid of you. In my eyes, you are still the same, and I love you.¡± When I said these honest words, her lips curved in a smile, while tears flowed down her cheeks. She was happy to hear my words. Without a doubt, I said what I was supposed to, and with this, Nanya, my wife, finally gave her approval to let me absorb her. ¡°I¡¯ll see you soon.¡± I told her. I closed off the stupid message. Seriously annoying. I told the Primordial as I relinquished control to him again. ¡°So Nanya is the child of a dungeon. Interesting.¡± he said. Why interesting and what was with that message? I asked him while he was heading towards Ayuseya. ¡°HA!¡± Dankyun screamed and launched a huge [Fireball] at us. The Primordial lifted his hand up and released an even bigger [Fireball], creating a powerful explosion between us and the Supreme draconian. Using this moment, he moved to Ayuseya and absorbed her as well. Well, it¡¯s interesting because I wasn¡¯t expecting to met one here. he told me. There¡¯s Ayuseya¡¯s arm! Get it and beat Dankyun already! I told him. Anyway, I do hope she won¡¯t try to take over this body. We will crush her if she does. he warned me. I doubt it and make sure no part of the darkness touches even a single hair on her body! Or Ayuseya¡¯s! Or Shanteya¡¯s! I warned him as well. ¡°Sure.¡± he sighed and absorbed the cut off limb. With my knowledge gained from creating this body, I knew how to fix them. The Inner Mind was also a place that preserved them in any state they arrived inside. The workings of that place was also a bit confusing to me for the moment, but its preservation ability was guaranteed. ¡°How dare you ignore me!¡± growled Dankyun as he approached us. ¡°Oh looky! The inferior organic can speak! Isn¡¯t evolution great?¡± the Primordial snorted and showed him a smirk. ¡°I¡¯ll kill you!¡± he shouted and then dashed towards us. Is that all he can say? I wondered. I was expecting him to vanish as he did before, but instead, I saw him move at a very slowed down pace. My body moved, dodging the tip of the black sword and then slapped the draconian into the ground. The earth cracked upon impact, and a small crater formed there. His Magic Armor shattered, and he groaned from the pain. ¡°Full Magic Energy Restoration. Repair. Rejuvenation.¡± he groaned and pushed himself up as three more crystals were depleted. ¡°Pathetic.¡± said the Primordial as he stomped on his body, reducing his Magic Armor by half in one blow. ¡°H-How?¡± he asked. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t you like to know?¡± he told him before kicking him in the jaw. This strike shattered Dankyun¡¯s armor again and sent him flying through the charred remains of the Academy. Rocks and dirt were lifted up in the air whenever he crashed into the ground. After a few tumbles, he finally came to a stop. He coughed and turned around. Using the sword, he pulled himself up only to see the Primordial¡¯s fist as it slammed into his face, sending him flying 100 meters through the air. Before landing, he used another of those crystals, otherwise, he would have died upon impact. It was another one of his lucky saves, but how many more were there left? It mattered not, the Primordial was intent on finishing off, but slowly. ¡°Either he is VERY weak or this body you built is a cheat!¡± he said. Are you complaining? I asked him with a raised eyebrow. ¡°No¡­ Just wondering.¡± he then casually walked up to where Dankyun was. Ah! He restored himself again. I pointed out when I saw the blue flash of light. ¡°Yes. I know.¡± he smirked. About one hundred fireballs rose up to the sky and headed towards us. Each of them was at least one meter in diameter. ¡°Let¡¯s test out the durability of this body, shall we?¡± he said with a smirk as he stood still, with his hands behind his back. Are you serious? Dude, don¡¯t break my body! I complained. ¡°Relax and have faith. You need to see how a humanoid dungeon fights.¡± he told me. I think you are confusing your definitions again! Being a sandbag has nothing to do with doing well in a fight! I complained. ¡°I wonder about that.¡± The ideas and principles of a Dungeon about how one should behave were completely wrong from many points of view, in my opinion. I simply didn¡¯t resonate with any of them. Although, strange enough, I remember there were times when I also felt the need and desire to act like them. Considering my latest findings, I was starting to believe those were actually emotions and thoughts pushed onto me by the darkness. The first fireball struck us and exploded. The fire spread around, but we didn¡¯t budge. Then came the next one. Like a cascade of fire, they rained down upon us and tried to sink us into the ground, blasting away the dirt and rocks. A crater formed around us, but we still didn¡¯t budge, and the Magic Armor barely dropped. ¡°Like I said. Pathetic.¡± said the Primordial, but just then Dankyun jumped out from the smoke and pushed the sword towards his heart. The sharp blade was stopped by his strong grip. ¡°You really thought this toy was going to harm me?¡± he asked and then giggled. ¡°Impossible!¡± he growled at us. ¡°Indeed. For you to actually accept the reality of your pathetic weakness is impossible. You are just an inferior draconian after all.¡± said the Primordial, taunting him. ¡°I will kill you, Dungeon Lord if it¡¯s the last thing I do!¡± he growled and then took out another crystal, this time it was an aquamarine one. ¡°[Boost]!¡± he shouted, and an aura the same color as the crystal enveloped him. Suddenly, he was able to push us back with great force and speed. He was digging a ditch with my body¡¯s feet, while the Primordial tried hard to push him back. The tip of his black sword was getting closer and closer to his heart, slipping from his grip. It was incredible to see this Dungeon actually struggling against him and judging by how fast our Magic Energy was dropping, I could sort of guess what insane amount of power the draconian was exerting against us. What happened? I asked surprised. The bastard used a boost to enhance his strength and agility! said the Primordial. With a strong push to the side, we managed to send his sword away from our chest, and Dankyun flew past us. He stopped about 4 meters away, where he touched the ground and then jumped towards us while using a martial-arts move of consecutive strikes. All of a sudden, we were seeing five more swords than they actually were. Are you kidding me? I said. The attack landed, but it wasn¡¯t able to get passed the Primordial¡¯s Magic Armor. Still, it was a close call. While he was still in range, we jumped forward and tried to punch him, but our fist hit only air. He vanished from our front and appeared at our left. We tried to strike him again, but Dankyun dodged. He was faster than us, and seeing how we had over 1800 Agility, that was saying something. This level was already 1000 points above the minimum requirements for a Supreme. If he could boost himself again, then this battle would end up getting really dangerous for us. Worst-case scenario, we have that crystal as well¡­ I thought. We¡¯re not going to lose. said the Primordial, although, it was obvious he was struggling to catch and land a strike on Dankyun. A power jab to our left ribs sent us flying through the air. Before we fell back to the ground, Dankyun was already next to us and punched us in the face, sending us at dangerous speeds towards the forest located at more than half a kilometer away. We landed in the trees, breaking several of them before we came to a halt, but then Dankyun was right there again. He attacked us with another set of fast strikes, chipping away at our Magic Armor, which was going down fast. The fight was ridiculous, no different than what I used to see in anime and superhero movies. One punch sent us flying a couple of meters into a nearby tree, the other sent us into the ground, forming a crater where we landed. The forces behind these strikes were insane, and only now I realized what the Primordial said by controlling the body. I could barely keep up with Dankyun¡¯s moves, let alone focus on recharging my Magic Armor and formulating a counter attack plan at the same time. A control of this level required real-life experience not Inner Mind simulations. Can¡¯t we slow down time for us? I asked. No. Doing so may lead to a fast consumption of Magic Energy and fluctuations in our Magic Armor. he told me as he blocked another hit, but the force was too much and sent us flying into another tree. ¡°DIE ALREADY!¡± shouted Dankyun, rather annoyed that he couldn¡¯t defeat us. Speaking of which, our Magic Energy was going down with values between 5 and 50 points per second, depending if we received a strike or not. In other words, the Primordial was able to calculate the exact amount needed to restore our Magic Armor after each hit, something I was certainly unable to do at the moment. In the years I spent inside the darkness, working on my body, I never learned this sort of control. Apparently, I would gain it with time and practice just as Nanya said. ¡°Aren¡¯t you bored of this already?¡± asked the Primordial with a smirk on his lips when he caught his sword between his palms. ¡°Dungeon Lord, I swear in front of all the known gods that I will kill you and rip you apart!¡± he threatened me. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, did you say something? I wasn¡¯t paying attention.¡± he told him. Dungeons were natural trolls apparently. ¡°I will kill you!¡± he growled at us, pushing hard on the hilt. ¡°Ugh.¡± With a groan and a bit of effort, he pushed the sword away, avoiding the cut, but at the rate things were going, we weren¡¯t going to win. ¡°Poor Dankyun, he actually thinks he¡¯s going to win this fight!¡± said the Primordial before laughing at him. ¡°What do you mean? I¡¯m stronger, faster, and better than you! I will kill you!¡± he threatened us as he pointed the sharp black sword at us. ¡°Yet, I¡¯m still standing.¡± he pointed at himself ¡°You know, kid, lying is bad, especially when an inferior draconian no stronger than a human beggar does it.¡± he smirked. Ouch. I thought as I knew that had to hit a nerve. The Supreme was well known to possess an over-inflated ego bigger than the sun itself. With fury in his eyes and face red from anger, he dashed towards us again with his sword raised up high and ready to strike us down. ¡°Hm. Pathetic.¡± said the Primordial before he used a Buff Skill as well. I had no idea what he did or how, but the status window showed some ridiculous values. [Strength]: 475+1500+2000 [Agility]: 378+1500+2000 [Intelligence]: 650+1500 [Magic Energy]: 11920 In that moment, the world slowed down for us, and the Primordial was able to grab the black sword with great ease. He then pushed it to the side, but still held onto it and then punched Dankyun hard in the face. The result was the draconian flying back through several trees until he stopped in the charred field again. The sword was out of his hand now, and with it, he lost his best weapon against us, but now we had to get rid of his crystals as well. ¡°Absorb.¡± said the Primordial while holding it by the blade. ¡°Interesting. To think that someone actually figured out how to make something like this! I better destroy it.¡± Stop! Don¡¯t! I shouted. ¡°Why?¡± he asked confused. That¡¯s Nanya¡¯s sword! I don¡¯t know what sort of past it has, but we should let her decide what to do with it. I told him. ¡°I don¡¯t like it, but very well¡­¡± he said and then flipped it around to hold it by the hilt. Thank you. Still, I don¡¯t understand why Dankyun hasn¡¯t fainted already after using so many of those crystals¡­ ¡°That¡¯s a rather simple question to which I¡¯m surprised you haven¡¯t figured out the answer to yet!¡± he laughed. Humor me¡­ I grumbled. ¡°Well, Dankyun either has an enchantment on his armor or makes use of a certain Skill of the Buff category.¡± he shrugged. A Skill? Something like that actually exists? I asked surprised. ¡°But of course! Although, it does have some nasty side effects if you suddenly lose the enchanted item or cancel the Skill.¡± he tapped his chin and then started to walk in the direction he sent the draconian flying. What sort of side effects? ¡°Internal bleeding, intense pain, nausea, failure to focus the flow of your Magic Energy, and all sorts of other nasty things. The more restorative Spell Crystals you use, the more dangerous it becomes. In other words, it¡¯s a double-edged sword. Still, with some serious training, anyone can handle the use of 5 up to 10 restorative Spell Crystals. With that specific Skill, maybe 40 or even 100, depending on the species and various other factors.¡± he shrugged and then dashed through the forest. At the very least, now I knew that Dankyun couldn¡¯t use an infinite amount of Spell Crystals, but 100 was still a rather impressive amount. If this turned out to be a battle of attrition, the Primordial was going to win without a doubt, but something told me that without Nanya¡¯s sword, the Supreme was pretty much done for. By the time we reached him, he had already restored his Magic Energy and pulled out another sword from his Storage Crystal. This time, it was going to be a sword battle, or so I thought, but the Primordial was in the draconian¡¯s face in the blink of an eye. With one slash, the sword he was holding was cut in half. Before he realized what happened, the black sword went straight through the draconian¡¯s stomach and came out on the other side. ¡°ARGH!¡± he groaned as he felt cold steel inside him. ¡°Oh, don¡¯t worry, ¡¯tis but a scratch!¡± said the Primordial before pulling out the blade and punching him in the face. ¡°GAH!¡± the draconian went flying, but he chased after him. Grabbing his left leg in midair, we came to a halt and then slammed him into the ground. Blood spurted out of his gaping wound. Letting go, he pulled back and then stomped on his right leg. Dankyun¡¯s bones went snap and the physical armor plate was shattered. ¡°AAA!¡± he screamed in pain. ¡°How pathetic.¡± said the Primordial as he began rip apart his armor with his bare hand. ¡°No! Stop!¡± cried out Dankyun, but who would care to listen? The draconian was stripped of everything until he was left only in his loincloth. It was a poor sight to behold, but somehow, it made me happy and satisfied to know that he ended up as nothing but a naked man in the middle of a field of destruction, and we didn¡¯t even need to use any fancy magic attacks. ¡°Don¡¯t think this is over yet¡­¡± he managed to mutter right before the Primordial slapped him so hard, he actually dislocated his jaw. ¡°Yup, not over.¡± and with that being said, he stomped on his left leg, crushing his bones and muscles. ¡°Dankyun and Misery, sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G!¡± he said and grabbed his face with one hand ¡°I could crush you so easily now.¡± the Primordial smirked. ¡°I¡¯m a SUPREME! A mere dungeon like you to¡­ GAH!¡± the draconian wasn¡¯t able to finish his words because was sent face first into the ground, breaking his nose. ¡°Ugh¡­ youh¡­ bashtard.¡± he glared at us before he received another punch to the ribs. I clearly heard the bones cracking, but the draconian wasn¡¯t screaming yet. ¡°Oh my, you are so easy to kill right now! HAHAHA! And I didn¡¯t even use any of my powerful attacks!¡± the Primordial laughed and then holding his forehead decided to try out the inbuilt laser in my hand. One single strike was all he needed to kill Dankyun. One pull of a trigger and the monster I saw before me would vanish from existence. But did he deserve to die? Yes. Could I kill him? Yes. But why did I feel like something was wrong? Like this death we were offering Dankyun would be more like a blessing or gift to him? Don¡¯t do it. I told him before he pulled the trigger. The Primordial dropped Dankyun. ¡°What? Are you mad?¡± the dungeon asked. Maybe, but I have something I want to say to this piece of garbage. Give me control over my body. I told him. ¡°Tch! Fine!¡± he complied, surprisingly. For a minute there, I thought I had to wrestle my control back from him. With my body finally under my control, I grabbed the draconian by the neck and looked into his eyes. Anger was flaring in mine, and the black fog of killing intent surrounded us both. ¡°Ugh¡­¡± he groaned and looked at me, knowing very well that his life was in my hands now. ¡°Dankyun, you pathetic little piece of garbage. Rejoice, I¡¯m not going to kill you right now. Oh, no no no.¡± I shook my head. ¡°What I¡¯m going to do is something far worse than you can even imagine. I¡¯m going to let you go, and I¡¯m going to hunt you down like the piece of garbage you are! You saw it yourself, I merely toyed with now! I can kill you any time and anywhere I desire! You are nothing but a weakling when compared to me. A weakling!¡± I squinted my eyes. ¡°That¡¯s why I¡¯m going to let you go. But don¡¯t you are free. I¡¯m going to hunt you down like a pathetic little vermin that you are just because I can and know that there is absolutely nothing you can do to stop me or hide from me. So know, little draconian, that from this day forwards, wherever you will look, wherever you will turn your head, I will be there, watching you! A peasant walking by you, or the very noble you will speak with, I will be him or her, disguised or hiding right there in plain sight or in the cover of the shadows behind shadows! Sometimes, I will let you see me, sense me and know that I am still there watching you, following you, and hunting you! There¡¯s no escape from me now, Dankyun, you just had to piss me off! Now here¡¯s the best part. I¡¯m not going to be the one to kill you. No. No. No.¡± I said shaking my head slowly ¡°I¡¯m going to offer that pleasure to Nanya, Ayuseya, and Shanteya. Next time you will see them, they will be the ones to kill you. Now don¡¯t even think that I¡¯m pulling your leg here, you pathetic little draconian! I¡¯m a Godlike Dungeon. I¡¯m more powerful now than you can ever imagine! With one snap of my fingers, I can kill YOU and your ENTIRE family! You saw it too, right? I didn¡¯t even use a spell other than a lousy fireball because I didn¡¯t feel like punching through your pathetic attack. I didn¡¯t even flinch when you cast all those fireballs at me. NONE of your attacks was even able to shatter my Magic Armor ONCE let alone scratch me! That¡¯s why I¡¯m going to use ALL of this godlike power to hunt you down, to watch you from the shadow, and strike you down the moment you let your guard down. When you will hear someone laughing, that¡¯s going to be me! When you will think that you saw a shadow moving, that¡¯s going to be me! When hear the wind rustling, that¡¯s going to be me reminding you again and again that I¡¯m there, enjoying my hunt and preparing to kill you!¡± As I told him these things, for the first time since I saw him, Dankyun was trembling in fear. Actually, it was worse than that. The grown draconian Supreme urinated on himself like a little kid. He was that scared and frightened of me now, but I couldn¡¯t blame him. Anyone would, especially after seeing the difference in strength between himself and the Primordial. ¡°Do I make myself clear?¡± I asked him. He nodded in reply since his jaw was broken and bleeding. ¡°Good. Now buzz off! The hunt starts now!¡± I told him and then threw him in the air as hard as I could without caring if he was going to survive the landing or not. I wasn¡¯t aiming for any specific location, but all that buffed up strength went only into tossing Dankyun away. Even I was surprised by how far I could have possibly thrown him. By my estimates alone, I guessed he would land somewhere a few kilometers away from here. I was honestly doubting that he would survive in his state: gravely injured, without any of his crystals, without armor, and without his sword. Very good! I like it, but are you sure that was a smart thing to do? asked the Primordial. ¡°Yes. Death would have been too sweet for him. This way, no matter where he goes or what he does, he will see me in every shadow and every stranger passing by him. He will grow paranoid and live surrounded by fear and imaginary monsters.¡± I told him and then let out a sigh. What if he didn¡¯t believe you and will come looking for you? ¡°Then I will be ready and kill him. But I didn¡¯t lie about one thing though¡­ next time he comes after me, I will have the girls kill him. Actually, I¡¯m hoping for it. If I, a Godlike Dungeon Lord kills him, it can even be seen as an honor by some, but if Shanteya, Nanya, or Ayuseya kill him, then it¡¯s something else.¡± I told him as I picked up Dankyun¡¯s storage crystal. I absorbed it and then took out the crystal Nanya gave me. It had the capacity to store a lot of Magic Energy inside it. Are you going to use that? he asked me. ¡°Yes.¡± I replied and began to infuse the crystal with my Magic Energy. I can¡¯t help but wonder if the years spent building this body didn¡¯t make you¡­ soft? ¡°Strangely though, after all that time, I don¡¯t see Dankyun as such a threat anymore. I actually feel quite fulfilled with what I did to him today, but in a way, I offered him something far crueler than death itself because no matter how hard he will train or try, he will never defeat Nanya, Ayuseya, or Shanteya when they have [Bond of Trust] and I have these stats at level one. Not to mention the fact that I had yet to show my entire bag of tricks to him.¡± I said and then pointed my right hand towards a big black boulder about 14 meters away from me. As I controlled the way the Magic Energy flowed through my body, I charged the Power Crystals between the muscles and bones, set the amplifier to 20% and then pulled the trigger. A powerful red beam shot out of my palm and struck the rock, melting straight through it and hitting the ground on the other side. This single AGLMC Laser was far more powerful than anything I had installed in my previous dungeon. I wouldn¡¯t have been surprised if this weapon alone was capable of destroying Dankyun¡¯s armor in one go. Alas, the opportunity to test it on his hide never showed itself. Brute strength and speed alone were all that we needed to defeat him. There was also the chance that if I did attack him with this, I would have offered him a way too quick of a death. No, Dankyun deserved to be haunted by my ghosts! He deserved to see monsters wherever he turned his head and hold nothing but fear towards those he once considered as below him and humiliated in whatever ways he saw to be more fun! Killing him wouldn¡¯t appease the souls of the dead either¡­ If I was right, then he was going to suffer greatly after this. He was going to lose everything and turn former allies into enemies. He was going to slowly slip into insanity and have his mind destroyed by paranoia. Indeed, there was the chance that he would come after me, turn from the one hunted into a hunter, but if and when that was going to happen, I would be ready for him, and death would come instantly to him. That was my promise towards him and myself. Anyway, just as we agreed before when you were having one of your little fits, since this battle is over, I¡¯m going to let you have control. the Primordial said. ¡°And?¡± I raised an eyebrow and looked up at a passing cloud. And from now on, you are the only one who will have control. None of the dungeons or I will bother you in your Inner Mind again, but do know that this thing of yours isn¡¯t going to last. You will eventually come back to me. You will beg for my power. You will beg for OUR power, but then¡­ then you will become one of us! The last thing I heard from the Primordial was his loud laughter. He was so certain that I would fail and return to him, begging for his help and power that it simply sickened me and turned my stomach upside down. I was determined to prove him wrong. Even if I found myself again in a Life-or-Death situation, I was going to find another way to persevere and maybe¡­ in time, I would find a way to remove that pesky darkness from inside my mind, those remnants of long dead dungeons. I doubted they weren¡¯t going to act once they saw me succeeding, but for now, however, I considered somewhat safe from their influence. ¡°I guess I should focus on charging this.¡± I told myself as I added another 5000 Magic Energy Points into the Spell Crystal Nanya gave me. I repeated this process a couple of times until I was certain it contained all the Magic Energy it could hold. The amount gathered in that little thing was staggering and beyond belief. If I were to have infused it all in a single spell, it would have certainly had devastating effects. ¡°There! Let¡¯s do this now!¡± I said with a smirk and then activated it. A powerful, blinding white light was released from the crystal, forcing me to close my eyes. I held tight to Nanya¡¯s sword and tried to understand as well as feel what was happening around me. The way Magic Energy flowed from the crystal was strange and almost chaotic in some places. It twisted and turned, wrapping me up in some sort of a cocoon. After a moment, I suddenly felt the ground vanishing from under my feet and the air moving fast around me, but it wasn¡¯t from the sides, it was right from under me. ¡°What the?¡± I said and then opened my eyes. What I saw was something completely different. The were no more mountains, forests, or the charred area Dankyun created with his Supreme Skill. They had all been replaced by a seemingly endless desert. The gold sand spread far and wide, forming dunes upon dunes like waves on top of the sea. In a way, it was beautiful. Unfortunately, I couldn¡¯t enjoy the scenery, seeing as how I was falling from a great height in the sky. ¡°You have got to be kidding me!¡± I grumbled as I looked down below. My body was designed to survive such a fall, so I didn¡¯t worry about it. The problem was where to land. Looking around, I didn¡¯t see any signs of a city or settlement of any kind. There didn¡¯t seem to be one in the first place. Using my palm and Nanya¡¯s sword as aerodynamic contact surfaces, I guided my flight path forward and tried to reach what appeared to be a big rock formation. ¡°Aaand I hope I don¡¯t break my legs¡­¡± I said as I saw the ground coming dangerously close to me. Quickly changing my position in midair, I landed on my feet. The impact was powerful, but it didn¡¯t even cause a dent in my Magic Armor. Upon a closer inspection, I noticed nothing wrong with my body, not even a scratch. ¡°Good. Now to find a good spot to rest and start healing the girls¡­¡± I told myself as I began walking towards the only landmark for who knew how many kilometers around, the big rock formation. It was about 20 to 30 meters tall, with sharp edges and many cracks around the tips. At the bottom was what appeared to be a small cave of some sort. I hoped to find some shelter there, but when I reached it, I saw that it was too small and also filled with snakes. Letting out a sigh, I switched to option B. After expanding my Dungeon Territory around my body, I used the [Create a Room] skill and made a small room next to the rock formation. I covered it with sand to camouflage it a bit and used a big rock as an makeshift entrance. Once done, I went inside. After placing Nanya¡¯s sword against the back wall and covering it with a fake one, just in case I had an unexpected visitor who spotted the shiny, I sat down crossed legged in the center of the room. It was no 5 star hotel, but it was better than nothing. I was ready, so I closed my eyes and entered my Inner Mind. ____ Note from the author: Thank you for reading! This culminates the third arc of this story! The next two posts will be the two side stories that will tell us what happened to Tuberculus and Dankyun. :) Side Story (4): In the arms of an angel Before I begin to tell you my story, I suppose some sort of introduction is required? My name is Tuberculus Firerage. I am what one may call me¡­ a High Mage. To be noted, I am different from an Archmage. The latter is far more powerful version of a Mage who can do what a High Mage can do, but in every magic specialization¡­ Oh? Yes, I may have strayed a little bit from my story, but I promise you that it was all worth it! What? Skip to the action? Sigh¡­ People these days don¡¯t have any respect for the elderly¡­ [Tuberculus¡¯ point of view] ¡°You stay out of this, old man¡­ Actually¡­¡± Dankyun told me with a smirk on his lips before he snapped his fingers. Everything that happened afterwards was like a blur. All I felt was a sharp pain in my back, then a kick to that wound. I think I fell or maybe I was tossed off my horse, either way, I landed on the ground a couple of steps away. The animal was startled and pulled back from me. With my vision blurry and pain surging through my muscles, I tried to get up, but before I could, the one who attacked me hit him hard in the chest. I lost consciousness for a moment, but when I opened my eyes, all I could see was the blood flowing around the dagger impaled in my stomach. I got¡­ stabbed? I asked myself. My body was one step away from going into shock. Maybe the reason it didn¡¯t was because everything happened so fast, I simply didn¡¯t have enough time to react or understand what just happened to me. Before I had the chance to, I got dragged away by my attackers. I groaned and squirmed a bit in pain, but I barely had the strength to get up, let alone fight against those who could so easily defeat me. Is this it? I asked myself while my vision was fading in and out. The injury wasn¡¯t that bad, but I was suspecting the dagger was poisoned. As for who attacked me, it certainly wasn¡¯t a draconian. They were holding me by my hands, but I was too close to the ground. Draconians by nature were far taller than humans, elves, or el¡¯doraws. They were tall and strong enough to easily hoist me over their shoulder if they wanted to, although, I vaguely remember being dragged by the hair first. It must have been bothersome to keep it up like that, that was why they switched to carrying me by the hands. At least, they were kind enough to bring my mage hat with them. It was up there, keeping cozy to my scalp, but why would they do that unless they wanted to mock or get rid of the evidence laying around in the middle of the road? As if my blood spread on the ground from my wounds wasn¡¯t enough to hint at my unfortunate fate. I couldn¡¯t figure out what these two were thinking, but one thing was certain: they weren¡¯t draconian, so the other option had to be el¡¯doraw. Without a doubt, I saw two of them dressed in soldier armor or maybe disguised in it, walking close to Dankyun. Unlike draconians, who were tall lizard-like people with a tail and slit, reptilian eyes, the el¡¯doraws were close in resemblance to elves, with long, pointy ears; thin, agile bodies; and a knack for magic. The only difference was in their skin, which changed its color depending on their emotions, going from light tones when they were happy to darker ones when they were either angry or mad. Even so, to be able to execute a surprise attack like that on me could only mean that they were of Godlike or Supreme Rank. I was an Emperor Rank, and I could at the very least defend myself against the first attack of someone of similar or lower power than mine. Despite my age, I spent most of my years crawling through dungeons and fighting against terrible monsters. I doubted there was anyone other than me out there with more knowledge in enchanting or how a dungeon actually worked like. That was actually the main reason why I started my academy. I wanted to develop my own Dungeon Core and prove to the world through my research that they were created by something or someone, not just magically appear out of thin air¡­ Without the Fellyore Magic Academy, no kingdom would have allowed me to conduct my research, this way, it turned into a project from which the students could benefit and learn dungeon crawling early one, without putting their lives in danger. If Dankyun didn¡¯t arrive, we might have obtained some more funds and expanded¡­ Was I wrong to accept Princess Ayuseya¡¯s application? She was the sole reason why that Supreme traveled all the way to Shoraya Kingdom from Teslov Kingdom? No¡­ None of us could have guessed what sort of monster this draconian would prove to be¡­ In a way, I felt content with dying now. My research was proven to be a success with the birth of Dungeon Lord Illsyore, and I was certain Fellyore Magic Academy would continue to exist with the help of Nanya and my friends: Paladinus, Angius, Zertan, and Rufus. All things considered, they were a group made out of a Godlike and four Emperor Ranks. Not many academies had such powerful teachers, with experience to boot too. Meanwhile, I was getting old, coming close to my seventies. A trembling old grandpa I was, just not one with a family¡­ Either way, with everything that happened to me and my academy, I could only suspect the gods had it against me. Dark clouds seemed to loom around my future, calling out to my death, pressing the priests to prepare my grave and send me into the arms of the Underworld Harpies. I opened my eyes and saw the ground moving under me, leafs and branches form the forest around the Magic Academy. My lungs barely pulled the air around to fill them up, but the scent of blood reminded me of my imminent death. Is there even a reason to keep on fighting? I asked myself. A few moments later, we stopped. One of the el¡¯doraw let go of my hand and moved ahead, stopping on the edge of a steep slope. We appeared to be on a hill or near some kind of depression, I couldn¡¯t remember if there was one nearby. Exploring the forest wasn¡¯t exactly my business, that was what Nanya and Angius were for. What are they doing? I wondered. A sharp pain surged through my body when I accidentally tensed my muscles. I¡¯m too old for this¡­ I grumbled in my mind while I abstained from letting out a groan. ¡°We should kill him here and head back to Dankyun. A pack of Dayuks is ahead, and I don¡¯t want to waste my time fighting them.¡± said the el¡¯doraw as she returned to us. The monster she spoke about what was known around these parts as a horned wolf. It was the same size as a Dire Wolf but ten times fiercer and could rip a Beginner Rank in the blink of an eye, even a Master Rank had troubles with them. ¡°No, sister. I have a MUCH better idea! Hehe!¡± said the other el¡¯doraw woman, who was currently holding me. That doesn¡¯t sound too good¡­ I thought. ¡°Speak, sister. We don¡¯t have any time to waste.¡± ¡°Sure!¡± she giggled and then grabbing me by my neck, she lifted me up with ease. She¡¯s strong¡­ Ugh¡­ I groaned. ¡°You said there¡¯s a Dayuk pack not that far from here, right?¡± she asked. ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Why don¡¯t we leave him for them? Even doggies need a treat from time to time, don¡¯t they?¡± she tilted her head to the left while showing me a sadistic smirk. In my current state, I could barely fight against one Dayuk, let alone against an entire pack. ¡°Sigh. Do as you please.¡± the sister didn¡¯t oppose. They didn¡¯t debate any longer on the matter, sealing my fate with those last words of hers. The el¡¯doraw holding me by the neck took me next to the edge of the steep slope and tossed me over the edge. The moment I hit the ground, my entire body screamed in pain, numbing my senses as I tumbled down the slope. There was no way for me to control my fall, and I ended up hitting all the rocks and branches scattered on the way down. If not for my Magic Armor, even as weak as it was, I would have certainly ended up covered in scratches and bruises. I tried to stop myself, but until I reached the bottom, it was literally impossible to do so in my weakened state. ¡°Argh¡­¡± I groaned when I came to a halt. ¡°It hurts¡­¡± I muttered as I gaped and tried to breath. The scent of my blood was all around me, letting any nearby dangerous or friendly beast know that I was injured and dying. I never thought I would end up knocking on death¡¯s door like this, weak and unable even to stand up. Strangely though, I felt somewhat appeased with my current demise. There was nothing worth fighting for, at least from my point of view. Maybe if I closed my eyes, I would just slip away in death¡¯s sweet embrace. It actually doesn¡¯t sound so bad¡­ I¡¯m tired, and what¡¯s there to fight for? I don¡¯t need riches or castles. There¡¯s nothing to search for, nothing to spark my curiosity. My academy is in good hands with my friends¡­ Such a selfish principal I am to accept my death like this¡­ I thought as I let my breath stop for a moment and closed my eyes. Pain subsided, and my muscles relaxed. This was it¡­ death¡­ ¡°One day, you will find the one¡­ It¡¯s just that I¡¯m not her. Tuberculus, don¡¯t waste that beautiful heart of yours with someone like me¡­ I¡¯m not worth it¡­¡± I suddenly opened my eyes and took a deep breath in. My heart was beating fast, and the pain returned, waking me up from that reverie that felt so real as if I was reliving that moment again. Just gives to show that I¡¯m a stubborn old fool¡­ I thought as I took another breath, refilling my lungs with the much-needed oxygen. It made me wonder for how long was I in that state, dreaming about Nanya, hearing her sweet voice again. I may have been a fool who fell in love with the wrong woman, but I was one only because I chose to¡­ Ever since that day faithful day since I first met the feisty girl, Nanya never changed one bit. She remained as young and energetic as always. On the other hand, time was merciless with me. While she kept her beauty: long, black hair; pink lips always smiling even when she didn¡¯t feel joy; and a small, yet bouncy chest; I found myself staring in the mirror at a constantly aging old man. Wrinkles and gray hair were but among the first of many signs to show just how far apart the two of us were. Despite my magic growing stronger and even reaching the Emperor Rank, I found my mind and ability to focus weakening with each passing year. I was even getting tired much faster and diseases appeared one after another. If not for my healing knowledge and enchants, I may not have even reached my current age. The only things that didn¡¯t change between us were our clothes. Well, our style of dressing, not our actual clothes. Although it may seem that I enjoyed wearing the same-old robe every day, I actually had an entire dresser filled with them, otherwise, I would have smelled worse than an ornak¡¯s armpit after a week-long battle¡­ and that can be actually used as a lethal weapon. Nanya always preferred to wear long robes meant for battle, leather pants and an enchanted chainmail hidden underneath all of that, just for those tricky situations where a hit was inevitable. She never was one to fancy the expensive dresses and jewelry. Functionality and practicality were her creed, although, she did make for a gorgeous woman once she put on a long one-piece dress. That woman, despite looking like a teenager, was quite smart and terrifyingly powerful. Then again, maybe that was the reason why I fell in love with her in the first place? A beautiful black-haired beauty, with charming eyes and a captivating smile. Give her a chance, and she could steal any man¡¯s heart. Alas, she was the love of my life, but because of her, I stubbornly refused to seek out any other woman. That may have been my biggest mistake yet, however, given how things looked like right now, with me dying like this, if I did find a sweetheart to embrace, she would have ended up a widow¡­ Nanya¡­ was I wrong to keep the fire in my heart burning just for you? I asked myself as I pushed myself up and dragged my weakened body to the nearby tree. Leaning with my back against it, I flinched from the pain and looked up at the sky. If blood loss didn¡¯t get me soon enough, then the approaching Dayuks would. There was also the poison I had to worry about, I had no idea what sort it was, but it acted slowly, weakening me. My Magic Armor and Magic Energy were low, maybe not even as powerful as a Beginner Rank. I could barely regenerate it and with every passing second, I felt like I would soon be unable to do even that. Well¡­ there¡¯s technically still a chance for me¡­ I thought as I pulled out the storage crystal I kept around my neck. It was made by me and was protected by two very distinct and useful enchantments.: [No Steal] and [Ignore]. The first one kept it safe from anyone using a spell capable of swiping away any item in my possession. The last one was something special I designed a few years back. It was a form of illusion that didn¡¯t alter the physical aspect of the item, it simply made it ¡®undetectable¡¯ by one¡¯s perception, basically it made them unconsciously ignore it. I had to be careful with it though, since even I could accidentally lose it. Now that I think about it, I actually did¡­ When I first made the thing, I left it on my desk and then ended up spending almost an entire month looking for it until I finally found it. Thanks to these two interesting enchants, neither Dankyun nor the el¡¯doraws took it away from me. If they saw it or even caught a glimpse of it, they would have definitely stolen it. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. With a sigh escaping my lips, I took out a white crystal the size of my palm out of it. If I had a Rejuvenation crystal or any other healing crystal in there, I would have used it, but that was the one thing I didn¡¯t stack up on. I left my last one with Nanya, believing that it would be of better use to her than an old man like me. It was a decision I didn¡¯t regret even now. Looking at it, I was remembered how I found this weird crystal twelve years ago. It was during a dungeon crawl with Nanya and Paladinus. We were on the eight floor¡­ After a few traps, we found the remains of some dead adventurers. Among them, a mage had this spell crystal in one of his pockets. It was white and without a drop of Magic Energy charged in it. Later, I found out that it had [Teleportation], but the nature of the spell was uncertain and unstable. No one knew exactly what it did, and no one dared to try it out. Even I wasn¡¯t able to figure it out, but instead of selling it, I kept it and charged it with Magic Energy as a hobby of sorts. I never thought I would get to use this¡­ I thought as I placed my storage crystal back and looked at the perfectly shaped crystal in my hand. It was the work of a brilliant mage, I was certain of it. A hope or maybe my end¡­ I sighed. Even so, it wasn¡¯t the first of its kind I found. The one I left with Nanya was the one I bought from an old Spell Crystal seller. I gave him two gold coins for it¡­ Unfortunately, I didn¡¯t charge it completely, and that one was a bit more tricky than the unknown one I held in my hand. It simply teleported the user in one direction: south-east, but at least you knew where it sent you, this one, not so much. ¡°Grrr!¡± The growl came from in front of me. Looking up, I saw two Dayuks coming out from behind the trees. They approached me carefully since they could feel my Magic Armor. Even if I was in my best of strength, I still would have had a bit of trouble with these beasts. Normally, one wouldn¡¯t dare to face them on their own because they could easily surround them and then overpower them. Theoretically, for building my Magic Academy, I should have used a much safer area instead of this monster infested forest. Unfortunately, it was just perfect for my dungeon experiment. Another plus it had was that it allowed me to offer my students quick first-hand experiences in combating dangerous monsters. This is it, I guess¡­ I thought as I saw another Dayuk coming out of the bushes to my left. More were approaching. If I were to pick where I wanted to be teleported to, I would have chosen a peaceful meadow or plains filled with beautiful flowers. It sounded like the perfect place where I could give my last breath in this world. As for being saved¡­ now it sounded a bit like a joke. There was no way I would end up teleporting close enough to a healer able to both cure me of poison and heal my wounds. The gods simply hated me too much for something like that to happen as proven by my current¡­ predicament. Thus, I closed my eyes and squeezed the spell crystal in my hand. ¡°Teleport.¡± I said. In that moment, I felt the flow of energy being unleashed from inside the spell crystal and completely surrounding me. There was enough power in there to cast more than a couple of Supreme Ranked spells at the same time, enough to wipe out this entire area of any form of life. A truly terrifying amount of energy, and all of it was currently being used to teleport me somewhere, hopefully, not closer to the jaws of those Dayuks or some other monster. I waited patiently for the spell to be over, and when it did, the dirt had vanished from under my feet. It was replaced with something hard, flat, and cold. The air turned damp and smelly like the inside of a cell. The sounds changed as well, silencing the growls of monsters as well as the song of the forest. When I opened my eyes, the scenery was different. Instead of the lush forest with tall, green trees, I now saw a cold, dark, and damp corridor made of stone bricks like I often saw in temples or dungeons. The ceiling reached at over three meters tall, maybe a bit more if my estimations weren¡¯t wrong. Looking either left or right, I saw no distinction in the corridor, no doors or decorations, not even a window or a torch, however, there was a bit of light in here, faint but definitely there. For a moment, I thought I managed to save myself, to get away from the monsters and dangers lurking for me in that forest, but then I heard it¡­ Breathing hard and dragging a chain of white skulls in one hand, while carrying a shield in the other. With long sharp horns, and wearing a full plated armor, a Minotaur appeared at the left end of the corridor. The beast barely fit inside the tight corridor, but it probably didn¡¯t need much space anyway. The shield it carried was filled with sharp spikes aimed at whoever stood in his way. Gulping once, I tried then to pull myself back, to run away from this monster, but I didn¡¯t even have enough strength to stand up, let alone run. What¡¯s a Minotaur doing here? I asked myself while, for some reason, still hoping I wasn¡¯t where I thought I was. Taking out my storage crystal, I removed from it a Dungeon Level Detection Stone and used a bit of magic energy on it. Meanwhile, my mind was trying to deny the fact, to come up with all sorts of reasons as to why a Minotaur was inside that corridor. I prayed it wouldn¡¯t be so, but when the stone let out a yellow glow, displaying a number, I realized the horror of my fate. This¡­ this can¡¯t be true¡­ I thought as I looked at the golden number displayed on the black stone. My worst fear was confirmed. I wasn¡¯t in some safe temple or castle, I was in a dungeon, and to make things even worse, this was a level 1126 Dungeon. It was an insane level unheard of before on any of the three continents. No record, or historical document even mentioned something as ridiculously powerful as what I was being shown. It was a monstrous dungeon without match, something that not even a party formed of all the known Supremes could manage to clear. Lady Luck must really hate me if I ended up teleported inside this monster¡­ I thought this was impossible? Gods! What did I ever do to upset all of you? I asked myself as I looked at the Minotaur getting closer and closer to me. He wasn¡¯t even running at me. I was an injured and weak, not even a match for a Merion, let alone a Minotaur. ¡°GRAO!!!¡± shouted the beast, startling me. He pounded his chest armor a couple of times and then prepared to charge at me. No¡­ This can¡¯t be! I have to get away! I thought as I panicked and looked around for some way to escape. My mind went to the teleportation crystal in my hand, but what I saw instead was a pile of white powder. The crystal was gone. No¡­ I thought as I felt my last drop of hope fading away. Unable to run, unable to hide, unable to launch even a single attack against this monster¡­ my fate was sealed. I was meant to die squashed by the shield of a Minotaur in a ridiculously powerful dungeon. ¡°Stop!¡± a young woman¡¯s voice echoed on the walls of the corridor. Blinking surprised, I looked around, but I couldn¡¯t see where she was. Who? I thought and foolishly tried to get up, but then my mind reminded me of my injuries. The pain surged through my muscles and bones, pinning me down on the walls, forcing me to gasp. The Minotaur listened to the voice of the woman and turned around, going back the same way it came. I was relieved to see this, but who could have had such power over that beast? ¡°You! Mortal!¡± the voice addressed me from somewhere, but I could see her ¡°What are you?¡± was her first question. I blinked surprised. Is she maybe the voice of the dungeon? Is she communicating like Illsyore did? I thought while looking at the wall in front of me. If there was one thing I always found both surprising and fascinating, that was Illsyore¡¯s ability to talk with anyone he desired to, wherever on his Dungeon Territory they were. He made you aware that he was always somewhere out there, watching over all of us, protecting us. ¡°Didn¡¯t you hear me? I asked what manner of creature are you?¡± the voice repeated herself with a commanding tone while I was lost in thought. Once more, her question confused me. I looked down at my hand covered in my own dried blood and then back up at the wall. ¡°I¡¯m a human¡­¡± I replied. ¡°Hu¡­ Human? I never heard or seen any of your kind before. You look like an elf, well¡­ sort off¡­ minus the beauty.¡± she spoke with a rather excited tone of voice, like a child who had just found an new toy. First of my kind? That¡¯s impossible¡­ Humans are spread on all the three continents¡­ unless I¡¯m not on one of them. I thought as I came to a rather frightening conclusion. ¡°Are¡­ Are we that rare around these parts?¡± I asked a bit reluctantly, trying to form a smile on my old wrinkled face. ¡°Yes! Very! As I said, you are the very first one I saw in the past couple of centuries!¡± she replied while her voice reminded me of a young maiden squealing a the sight of her perfectly ornamented birthday cake. ¡°Unfortunately, I won¡¯t be able to keep you company for long¡­¡± I showed her a bitter smile and looked down at my wounds. It was a wonder I managed to survive until now, but I was feeling the end getting close. Maybe even these few moments I spent talking to this dungeon were seeping away at my life force faster than I thought. My heart and breath could come to a stop in any moment now. ¡°What? Why?¡± she asked as if it wasn¡¯t obvious enough. ¡°You see¡­¡± I looked up and kept that foolish smile of mine ¡°I¡¯m an old man¡­ a fool with little to no luck as it seems. I¡¯m injured¡­ I¡¯m dying¡­¡± I told her and then showed her my blood-drenched palm. I spoke those words a bit out of breath. My strength was fading fast and my vision was blurry. ¡°Dying? But you just got here!¡± she complained like a child. The sound of her voice, however, made me smile. At the very least, she seemed nice and sweet like Illsyore, not one of those monster dungeons I used to crawl and search for treasure. ¡°Maybe¡­ Maybe some of you, dungeons, aren¡¯t as bad as others claim you to be¡­¡± I said and closed my eyes. I¡¯m tired¡­ I thought. ¡°No¡­ No!¡­ Wa¡­ Wake up¡­ You¡­ have to¡­ can¡¯t¡­ won¡¯t¡­ it¡­ allow it¡­¡± bits and pieces of her words was all I could hear. The weakness took me fast, my breath was slowly coming to a stop, and her voice was nothing but an echo in the background. I felt like sleeping, like closing my eyes and drifting away in that never-ending sea. Was I dreaming? The dungeon kept trying to tell me something, to wake me up, but I couldn¡¯t reply, I couldn¡¯t even hear her properly. I was slipping too fast and too deep into that warm, cozy darkness, into the cold embrace of death. I clearly underestimated my remaining time in this life¡­ Indeed, a foolish old man I was, one who didn¡¯t even manage to fulfill his love¡­ Maybe if I had another chance, no¡­ that was impossible. ¡°HEY!¡± the shout forced me to open my eyes, and a sudden jet of cold water washed over me. Although I was cold, I couldn¡¯t even shiver¡­ ¡°This is important, so listen! Answer ¡®Yes¡¯ and I¡¯ll be able to save you!¡± the female dungeon told me. I wanted to smile and tell her there was no way she could save a senile old fool from his dying fate. ¡°Will you marry me?¡± she suddenly asked, but maybe I just heard wrong. Who in their right mind would ask a dying old man to marry them? I closed my eyes for a moment, but with my last breath, I decided to play her game. It wasn¡¯t like anything was going to change. It wasn¡¯t like fate could be fought against¡­ Lady Luck abandoned me a long time ago. She abandoned this senile old fool. Y/N What a ridiculous message. I thought. My lips whispered a dying ¡®Yes¡¯ Believe it or not, that last ditch of effort from my side, that last word I spoke would be the last one from my life as Tuberculus Firerage, the principal of Fellyore Magic Academy, and the first as Tuberculus Firerage, the husband of Yandrea, the Godlike Dungeon¡­ Now, my friends, many adventures awaited both of us¡­ many stories to tell and many songs to spread, both of heroics and villainy¡­ Would you care to listen to more? ____ Note from the Author: Thank you for reading this side story, and I hope you are pleased with what happened to good ol'' potato wizard. :) Anyway, this is also the Prologue for another web novel I''m updating monthly on my site, which I''ll add on RRL after I managed to write a decent number of chapters (like more than 5 at least). Side Story (5): Between sanity and insanity [Dankyun¡¯s point of view] When I came through, I was in the middle of the forest, somewhere far away from the Fellyore Magic Academy, or at least what was left of it after my battle with the accursed Dungeon Lord. My body was cold, and I felt pain everywhere. It was hard to even move my little finger, let alone an arm or a leg. My vision was blurry, and I could barely breath as well. To make things worse, I was dressed in nothing but the loincloth covering my shame. Magic Energy was hard to gather as well, but little by little, I could do it. Unfortunately, I had no more crystals on me to help speed up my heal, so I had to rely on casting a spell instead. A very unfortunate situation, but as long as I still held a breath in my lungs, I still had a chance of survival. Minutes, maybe hours came to pass, with only me staring at the clouded sky and thinking about nothing. My mind was empty, void of any and all thoughts. The battle left me drained of all of my power, and in the end, I came out on the losing end. It was frustrating, but I had no energy left to feel frustrated, angered, or even afraid of that terrible monster I ticked off¡­ I closed my eyes and another hour, maybe more, passed. When I opened my eyes again, it was nighttime. With a great deal of effort, I focused on an Intermediary Rank [Heal] and cast it on myself. A shining light covered my body, and I could feel my muscles and bones repairing themselves. It hurt so badly that I wanted to scream out loud in pain, but what sort of draconian was I to make such a cowardly gesture? I gritted my teeth and glared at the starry sky above me as if it could actually answer my anger and fight back, as if it was the one responsible for my pain. What great draconian? I failed¡­ I thought after my body healed. With a groan, I stood up and looked around. I was in the middle of a small crater, and not that far away from me was a tree with a few broken branches. It must have been the one responsible for slowing down my fall a bit. Still, I had no idea where exactly I was. Without a map, a guide, or even the smallest idea of where to go from there, I was lost. I need to find a way out of this place¡­ I thought as I started to move. At the very least, there didn¡¯t seem to be any sort of monsters around me. It was a fortunate situation, but then¡­ I remembered. ¡°Dankyun, you pathetic little piece of garbage. Rejoice! I¡¯m not going to kill you right now. Oh, no no no.¡± the monster shook his head, looking straight into my eyes, glaring at me, binding my soul and sealing my fate. ¡°What I¡¯m going to do is something far worse than you can even imagine. I¡¯m going to let you go, and I¡¯m going to hunt you down like the piece of garbage you are!¡± he told me with a grin. Those words of his sent shivers down my spine, forced fear to take hold of me. And that darkness of his, that darkness that surrounded him was made out of pure killer intent. I never saw anything like that in any dungeon, it was almost like I was staring right into Death¡¯s eyes. It was frightening and sickening. My stomach lurched in a painful way. I felt like throwing up, and I did, but the only things that came out were the juices of my stomach. It smelled awful, forcing me to take a step back and stumble on the ground. I¡¯m pathetic¡­ I thought and clenched my fists. That Dungeon Lord managed to actually scare the living daylight out of me. I didn¡¯t want to admit it, but I was scared, I was frightened of that monster, but as long as I was alive, I could fight back. I could get up and then hunt him down and kill him. As I thought about this, I had another flashback. Holding me by the throat, barely letting me breath, the monster said ¡°What I¡¯m going to do to you is something far worse than you can even imagine. I¡¯m going to let you go, and I¡¯m going to hunt you down like the piece of garbage that you are! You saw it yourself, I merely toyed with now! I can kill you any time and anywhere I desire! You are nothing but a weakling when compared to me. A weakling!¡± Those words sent shivers down my spine. As he said, I witnessed first-hand what sort of frightening monster he was. Even after unleashing all of my power on him, I still wasn¡¯t able to defeat him. Not with [Boost], not with my Godlike armor and sword, not even with my spell crystals was I able to defeat him. No wonder I was still seen as a Lower Supreme¡­ I had an incredible strength, but my skills were weak and barely trained when compared to others of my rank. I could defeat them, maybe, if I was lucky and carefully used my Spell Crystals, but when faced with a Godlike Dungeon Lord in humanoid form, those proved to be completely useless. If I launched another Supreme Attack inside his last floor, maybe I could have gotten rid of some of those pesky traps, but¡­ I would have ended up too weakened to defend myself against those monstrous attacks of his. I thought as frustration and anger could be read on my face. I hate my situation. I hated how weak I was compared to him. What I hated the most, however, was how a Dungeon made a fool out of me by stripping me of my armor and weapon! ME! The Supreme Draconian on his way to become the ruler of ALL draconians! I hated it! I hated that Dungeon Lord! I hated that pathetic Princess! I hated Nanya! It was only their fault! ¡°Ugh¡­ I¡¯m going to kill them¡­ I¡¯m going to kill them all!¡± I growled as I stood up and looked ahead. In the forest, I saw a shadow. It was humanoid in shape, but the fear it invoked inside my heart sent me crumbling down on my feet. In there, hidden among the trees, I saw the Dungeon Lord. I saw that monster who defeated me so easily. ¡°N-No.¡± I said with a trembling tone of voice. He smirked, and I swear I heard him say those words again ¡°You saw it yourself, I merely toyed with now! I can kill you any time and anywhere I desire! You are nothing but a weakling when compared to me. A weakling!¡± he squinted his eyes at me and then laughed. ¡°NO!¡± I shouted and picking up the nearest rock, I threw it at him. The shadow dispersed in the night, and I remained there, breathing hard and trembling. What has that monster done to me? I asked myself as I looked at my hands. Never in my life was I faced with such a situation before. I was afraid for my life, of the shadows around me, of that monster jumping out at me and finishing me off. That was what he said after all, what he whispered to me in that last moment before he tossed me into the air. ¡°That¡¯s why I¡¯m going to let you go. But don¡¯t think you are free. I¡¯m going to hunt you down like a pathetic little vermin that you are just because I can and know that there is absolutely nothing you can do to stop me or hide from me.¡± Just remembering those words made me grit my teeth and clench my fists. I was defeated and hunted down like an animal, a beast or a monster no less. The shame and anger boiling inside of me made me want to scream, and so I did¡­ ¡°CURSE YOU DUNGEON LORD!!!¡± I shouted and shouted again and again until I collapsed on the ground from exhaustion. There was no way to come to terms with my current situation. I was the hunted animal, and he was the monster who was trying to hunt me down, but I wasn¡¯t going to let him. No, I was going to stay out of his sight, hide among the people and not even let one single spec of my power be felt. I was going to train in secret. Train like I never did before, and not in just any usual way, I was going to push myself to the limits, so I could learn the things which, until now, I saw as useless¡­ I was going to retrain all of my skills. That was my plan, that was my resolve, but until I put it into action, I had to get out of that forest. I had to find a way back to safety, to civilization and return to Teslov or Paramanium. No¡­ going back there would only make me a bigger target. I even failed to bring back Ayuseya and lost of my soldiers in the process¡­ If they send someone to the Fellyore Magic Academy to find out what happened, they are going to find the dungeon, they are going to find out what I did and make it public¡­ Curses! I gritted my teeth and pushed myself off the ground. With a wobbling walk, I moved deeper into the forest. My only chance was to leave these two continents: Allasn and Thorya. I had to go to Sorone, the third continent. There, I could be safe. My only worry would be meeting some of my former enemies or my sister¡­ If that wretched woman was still alive, she would come after me in the blink of an eye. Nonetheless, she would be a hundred years by now¡­ an old hag. I had nothing to worry about even from her. Yes¡­ Sorone. He won¡¯t find me there¡­ He can¡¯t¡­ I thought as I wobbled my way through the dark forest. ¡°So know, little draconian, that from now on, wherever you will look, wherever you will turn your head, I will be there, watching you!¡± I heard his voice again. ¡°SHUT UP!!!¡± I shouted and punched a tree that for a moment turned into his shadow. What¡¯s happening to me? I asked myself as I looked at my bleeding hand. I even forgot to activate my Magic Armor. Whatever that Dungeon Lord did to me, he was right¡­ He was hunting me down, and I saw him in every shadow and at every turn I took. For the next couple of hours, I merely punched all the trees in my sight, attacking the shadows that were laughing at me, but after a while, I learned to keep myself from jumping on them. My current situation angered me. They riled up the fear that was currently stretching its pesky tendrils through my heart, ripping it out and letting me know constantly that I was nothing but a weakling when compared to him. Was there any way for me to fight back against this? To recover my strength and ability to fight against a haunting shadow? ¡°I will be everywhere¡­ a peasant walking by you, or the very noble you will speak with, I will be him or her, disguised or hiding right there in plain sight or in the cover of the shadows behind shadows! Sometimes, I will let you see me, sense me and know that I am still there watching you, following you, and hunting you! There¡¯s no escape from me now, Dankyun, you just HAD to piss me off!¡± Those words of his kept haunting me. Whenever I closed my eyes, I felt like he was there. When a leaf fell on my shoulder, I actually believed it was him and ran away screaming in fear. Such a pathetic sight I was, but how could I fight against something like this? He was there, in the shadows¡­ When I closed my eyes, he was right in front of me. I could feel his breath, I could feel him staring and grinning at me like a monster, but when I opened my eyes again, he was gone. How can I escape him? I asked myself, but I was starting to believe that even stepping into a village was a bad idea. What if he was there? What if he paid a guard or some other villager to spy on me? I was a draconian with brown scales, not that uncommon, but certainly a big sight to remember. I have to stay away from people¡­ I have to stay here until I recover my strength¡­ I thought. At one point, the idea of traveling to a city or meeting anyone was met with a shiver down my spine. The thought of him appearing under the guise of someone else frightened me beyond belief. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. That day, I couldn¡¯t bare the thought of eating anything. I was starting to consider if not by any chance, he was somehow poisoning the beasts around me. As luck would have it, I did manage to find a small cave where I could fall asleep, but my dreams were soon turned to nightmares. I experienced that fight, my defeat, my pain, my anguish. I saw my soldiers laughing at me, and I couldn¡¯t even kill the weakest one of them. Even Ayuseya was laughing at me, saying that even with her curse, she could put me down like a rabid animal. My pride was shattered to pieces. The once dominant and mighty Supreme draconian was reduced to nothing but a laughing stock, a pathetic man unable to slap even a woman. I cursed myself and those who laughed at me in that nightmare. The night ended with me shivering and sweating. I slept in sequences of a couple of hours only. Even closing my eyes was hard, and I felt like he would suddenly attack me the moment I did so. The next day, I decided to hunt. My stomach was hurting too badly, and if I didn¡¯t eat anything, I would end up dead from starvation. The little bit of pride I had left could not permit me to fall in such a disgraceful way. If I died killed by a Godlike Dungeon and word spread about my battle, then I would at least have an excuse for being defeated like that. Besides, I would count as the first ever Draconian Supreme who fought one in who knows how many hundreds or thousands of years now. Some may even view my death as an honorable one, but like this¡­ I was just a loser. The pathetic draconian who ran away or was left alive by this Dungeon because he was too weak. ¡°Now here¡¯s the best part. I¡¯m not going to be the one to kill you. No. No. No.¡± I remembered him saying these words, shaking his head slowly while keeping his claws tight around my neck ¡°I¡¯m going to offer that pleasure to Nanya, Ayuseya, and Shanteya. Next time you will see them, THEY will be the ones to kill you.¡± that was his most hateful threat. To think that those shikaks had even a drop of power to fight against me was blasphemous, but he seemed to be certain of this. Well, Ayuseya¡¯s punch was surprising and certainly not something a woman without any training or experience could have pulled off. Not to mention the strength behind the punch was actually enough to crack my Magic Armor and allowed her to scratch me. It was ridiculous! He wasn¡¯t lying¡­ she really does have that power. He gave it to them somehow¡­ I thought as I prepared myself to attack a rabbit. The furry critter stood no chance against me, and I ate it on the spot. I didn¡¯t even bother cooking it, I was that hungry¡­ The Dungeon Lord did threaten to kill my family as well, but I had no parents¡­ I was born as an orphan on the Sorone Continent. Technically, my guardians there would have been my parents, and the other orphans my brothers and sisters, but they weren¡¯t draconian. That was why I killed them all¡­ Well, everyone except for that human girl. I can¡¯t even understand how she survived because I clearly remembered burning down the entire orphanage. Heh¡­ good times. I thought with smile as I wiped the blood off my mouth. My hunt continued until my stomach was full. I tried to use their fur to make myself some clothes, but drying the leather and then properly preparing it was a bit harder than I had initially thought. Thus, I ended up ruining it all with my oversized claws. To make it work, I had to hunt something bigger, so I went searching for a Dayuk or some other monster. Finding one was pretty easy, but when I tried to use a magic attack to kill it, I heard his voice again¡­ It sounded in my ears as loud as possible. ¡°Now don¡¯t even think that I¡¯m pulling your leg here, you pathetic little draconian! I¡¯m a Godlike Dungeon! I¡¯m more powerful than you could possibly even imagine!¡± I covered my ears, trying to make it go away. ¡°Shut up¡­¡± I growled and closed my eyes. ¡°Why should I?¡± he replied ¡°With one snap of my fingers, I can kill YOU and your ENTIRE family! You saw it too, right? I didn¡¯t even use a spell other than a lousy fireball, and that was only because I didn¡¯t feel like punching through your pathetic attack back then.¡± he then laughed. ¡°SHUT UP!¡± I shouted. The Dayuk noticed me and growled menacingly. ¡°I didn¡¯t even flinch when you cast all those fireballs at me. NONE of your attacks was even able to shatter my Magic Armor ONCE, let alone scratch me!¡± I saw him in the shadows around me, telling me all of those things again and laughing at my face. When I looked at the monster preparing to attack me, I saw the Dungeon Lord instead. ¡°You¡­ how?¡± I said surprised. ¡°You are pathetic, Dankyun! You and everything you do and think is useless against me! Useless!¡± he laughed, and in a fit of anger, I cast a [Fireball] at the Dayuk. The monster went up in flames, killed in one shot, but the Dungeon Lord¡¯s laughter didn¡¯t stop. ¡°ARGH! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!¡± I shouted at the top of my lungs, while his words kept on repeating all around me, laughing at me, mocking me. ¡°Pathetic! Weakling! You lost to me! You will lose to Ayuseya and Nanya! You will die! I¡¯ll hunt you! I¡¯ll haunt you! Die! Run! Weakling!¡± I heard him say those things from everywhere around me. He was hidden behind the trees and rocks, away from my sight, but somehow still in there, in the corners of my eyes. His words angered me, they fueled my rage and fear. I punched left and right until I bled from my knuckles and breathing hard, but I was fighting only ghosts and shadows. The Dungeon Lord wasn¡¯t there¡­ What was his name again? I didn¡¯t know, I couldn¡¯t remember¡­ After that event, one thing became clear to me. He was out there, somewhere, stalking me and hunting me like he said. He was using some sort of illusion spell to make me see these apparitions of his, but when I slept, and when I was trying to hunt, he was there¡­ somehow, someway, keeping me at the edge of sanity and insanity. Time slipped away from my grasp as days passed by with only a repeat of the previous one. I was running around in circles in this forest. When I thought I reached some sort of village, I saw his face in the guards and the people walking down the road. Instead of confronting him there, I ran back into the forest. I ran away from that village because every one of them could be the Dungeon Lord. He could kill me anytime and anywhere¡­ My hours of sleep were very few. An hour, maybe two when I had the chance and felt like he wasn¡¯t there, hunting me down like an animal. I couldn¡¯t even train properly, but every day, I pushed more Magic Energy in my Magic Armor, trying to make it more powerful and denser than before. If I were to combat that monster again, chances were I would die from one punch. I couldn¡¯t let that happen¡­ There were plenty of monsters around these parts and the deeper I went into the mountains, the stronger they became. Maybe it was a month or so after I found that village, but the next thing I stumbled upon was the ocean¡­ I reached the edge of the continent, and out there, in the horizon, I saw him laughing at me. The Sun had turned into his face. I focused all of my Magic Energy into one big [Fireball] and cast it at him. I had no idea where it landed, but certainly not the sun¡­ The bastard was still laughing at me, pointing his finger at me and reminding me how weak and powerless I was against him, how easy it was for him to defeat me when I was at my strongest¡­ ¡°That¡¯s why I¡¯m going to use ALL of this godlike power to hunt you down, to watch you from the shadows, and strike you down the moment you will let your guard down. When you will hear someone laughing, that¡¯s going to be me! When you will think that you saw a shadow moving, that¡¯s going to be me! When you hear the wind rustling, that¡¯s going to be me reminding you again and again that I¡¯m there, enjoying my hunt and preparing to kill you!¡± these were the words I kept hearing, that kept reminding me that he was there, somewhere, laughing at me, enjoying his hunt while somehow, someway, making Ayuseya and Nanya stronger than before. It irked me to know that those two shikaks could defeat me in combat, but¡­ what if it was true? I couldn¡¯t take the chance to find out, so I ran back into the forest, trying to hide from his laughter, from his shadows. The trees could hide me. The caves could cover me, and the monsters would feed me with their flesh. In a way, I could survive, but when was it, I wonder¡­ When was it that such thoughts became logical and normal for me? I couldn¡¯t remember¡­ Months or maybe years passed, since I fought against him, but who cared. I was still alive and kicking! I could run away from him. I could flee his shadows, but one day¡­ something different happened. While I was preparing to hunt down a wild Mauller, a huge gorilla with three jaws and standing taller than me by almost one meter, someone struck me from behind. My body felt numb, and I fell on my knees. For a moment, I thought that maybe some monster attacked me from behind, but I still had strength in my limbs and there was no scent of fresh blood. Looking back, I saw two humans. One was wearing a long robe with gold and dark patterns, while the other was wielding a big, red sword. He was covered in thick armor plates from head to toe, similar to my previous armor. ¡°Who knew you would be so easy to capture, Dankyun. Did you lose your touch?¡± said the warrior. ¡°Who are you? Did the Dungeon Lord send you?¡± I asked with a trembling voice, while looking behind them. I think I saw him snickering next to one of the trees. ¡°SHUT UP! I KNOW YOU¡¯RE THERE!¡± I shouted at him. The shadow vanished, but the two humans looked surprised. Of course they were. They couldn¡¯t see the monster, only I could¡­ he was there¡­ right there! ¡°Yeah¡­ no. We¡¯re here because you are wanted for crimes against the Teslov, Paramanium, and Shoraya Kingdoms. Look, that¡¯s your face, right?¡± he said, showing a wanted poster of myself. ¡°What? Why? I never betrayed the Teslov Kingdom or the Paramanium Kingdom!¡± I retorted. ¡°You do know that threatening and attempting to kill a member of the Pleyades Royal family is considered a crime, right?¡± asked the one donning a robe. ¡°What? But she¡¯s a weakling! She deserves only to be bred and killed!¡± I retorted, stating my righteous cause. ¡°What the?¡± the warrior looked angry at me and lifted his sword up.¡± ¡°Stop, Dreziurne. It¡¯s clear that he¡¯s not in his right mind, and we need to bring him back alive.¡± said the other. ¡°Dreziurne?¡± I said squinting my eyes at him. The name sounded familiar. ¡°Yes, I¡¯m Dreziurne, the Supreme of Shoraya Kingdom. And this here is Pendaros, the other Supreme who is weaker than me¡­ at chess.¡± he said, but who cared who was better than who at some stupid game? ¡°You will win someday, my friend. For now, let¡¯s put the Magic Inhibitors on him and take him back¡­¡± he told him. ¡°Sure, but you do it. He smells like he hasn¡¯t washed for a year. Ugh.¡± the warrior commented waving his hand in front of his face. Of course, I didn¡¯t. What if the Dungeon Lord came from underneath the water and drowned me? Or what if the rain water was suddenly turned to acid? I thought while excusing myself of what was legitimate defense in my mind. ¡°What other crimes am I accused of? Shoraya Kingdom shouldn¡¯t be bothered if one or two foreign princesses die.¡± I told them. ¡°Oh, that? Well, you see¡­ political games change in a year, so now we are sort of allies with Paramanium and by extension Teslov. That being said, your crimes there are crimes here. However, you destroyed a royal approved Magic Academy in Shoraya Kingdom and killed a couple of our citizens, among which, some were relatives to certain nobles.¡± Dreziurne explained, but I couldn¡¯t remember killing anyone of importance. ¡°I don¡¯t think he even knows whom he killed¡­¡± said Pendaros. ¡°I¡¯m innocent.¡± I tried to claim. ¡°Sure you are, buddy. One of your own commanders actually vouched against you and unveiled your crimes and intentions towards the Teslov Kingdom and Shoraya Kingdom. What was his name? Oh yes, Zarus Dennekar, a Godlike Commander.¡± said Dreziurne with a smirk. ¡°Zarus? Zarus isn¡¯t a Godlike! He¡¯s an Emperor Rank! And how dare he betray me! I¡¯ll kill him!¡± I growled. ¡°Sure you will. Besides, he WAS an Emperor Rank, but now he¡¯s a Godlike. Now be good and don¡¯t make me paralyze you again. Still, I have to say, I¡¯m surprised you can still move and talk after one shot with that.¡± he told me. ¡°What, that weakling? And how did you get past my Magic Armor?¡± I asked glaring at him. It wasn¡¯t possible to get past it that easily. After all, I had been strengthening it all this time. Was I really that weak? ¡°Easy. I used a Magic Enchanted Arrow with [Ignore Magic Armor]. Pendaros here fired it and then I struck it with my palm. The arrow went straight through and entered your flesh.¡± he smirked. ¡°You¡¯re lying, I¡¯m not feeling any blood.¡± I growled at him. ¡°Magic Enchant [Instant Wound Seal].¡± Pendaros added. ¡°What?¡± I tried to reach back, and it was true, the arrow was inside by my body, but there was no sign of injury around it, not even a drop of blood. ¡°Actually, you don¡¯t need to paralyze him again, the arrow will maintain its effect as long as it¡¯s inside you. Don¡¯t worry, we missed the vitals on purpose.¡± Pendaros explained again while Dreziurne nodded in approval. I hated it, but it was true¡­ Nonetheless, it wasn¡¯t something just anyone could pull. Only a Supreme was able to do something like that. But to think it needed two of them to stab that arrow in me, it was incredible, and this could only mean that my Magic Armor was far stronger than before. If I were to guess, maybe two or three times stronger than when I fought the Dungeon Lord? Thinking about that, I started to laugh. With this¡­ I have a chance¡­ I just need time¡­ I thought and laughed, ignoring whatever the two said as they bound my hands with heavy-metal cuffs, enchanted with a spell able to disperse any Magic Energy I tried to form around my body, even a part of my Magic Armor. [Pendaros¡¯s point of view] Dankyun Alttoros The Supreme Draconian had lost his mind from the looks of it. On the way back to civilization, he only muttered words of revenge against a so-called Dungeon Lord. Initially, we didn¡¯t believe him. We couldn¡¯t believe him. He was only a madman hunted by shadows and ghosts, who mercilessly killed innocents and tried to usurp the throne of the Pleyades family. Nonetheless, something or someone defeated and beat him to the point where he had lost every weapon and armor he had¡­ He looked no different than a bandit, but with one punch, he was powerful enough to turn a Master Ranked Adventurer into dust. Well, it wasn¡¯t our job to judge him, but considering his crimes, there was a high chance he would be faced either with death or life incarceration in the worst Criminal Detention Fortress out there. Honestly, I didn¡¯t really care, but I didn¡¯t want to hunt him down again. It took us an entire year to actually find him¡­ If he didn¡¯t attack like an idiot a merchant¡¯s ship with an oversized Fireball, I might have never done. Well¡­ only the gods could tell his fate now. I just hoped he would really get the punishment he deserved for destroying a Magic Academy and killing those people. Chapter 40: Waking up Time shatters the illusion of reality and the reason spawned from a moment of recklessness. The longer you live, the more the world around you seems simple, fake, maybe a bit disturbing. Even the lives of those you see as precious seem nothing more than simple toys in the hands of gods and destiny. One may believe or not in these, but no proof except the one offered in the moment of death can show them the truth of existence. Such was my case as well¡­ Born as a simple human on a planet called Earth, in the country known as Romania. I wasn¡¯t a genius, but I didn¡¯t have learning problems either. My smarts and knowledge were nothing but an illusion. My body was the one that dictated the limits I was born with, but my mind was the one that could break them¡­ something I never tried to do. After all, who was I to test the world and myself? Who was I to hope for being more than I was? To understand that basically nothing in the world was outside my reach as long as I had the determination to take it. Human laws simply offered me a path to choose from in my current society. This was also something I denied in my heart for a long time. My girlfriend Alina was the one who reminded me of this. She was the one who pulled me from the darkness in which I slumbered for who knows how many days and years? Once I died, I thought I found freedom, but I was shown something else, a hidden truth¡­ When one says that God is Almighty, they forgot to mention WHICH God, and most importantly¡­ the fact that by Almighty, it didn¡¯t refer to the pathetic and simple ideas we have about our current world. Almighty meant change and acceptance of the limitless possibility of existence. God could literally do anything, including reincarnation. It¡¯s role exactly, I never understood it, but after I died, I realized that there was indeed something greater out there, something more powerful. Reincarnation for me was simple, it happened without me needing to understand anything about it, but it offered me a strange calmness I never thought I would ever have about many things. For example, in my previous life, the idea of killing another man was met with repulse and disbelief. I knew some people did it, but I never saw myself as able to do something like that. I saw wars as funny, soldiers as simple puppets, and politicians as ruthless overlords who were sucking a country dry of its funds and resources. Partially true, but once I stepped into my new life as a Dungeon, killing became a simple matter of pulling or not the trigger. If God existed or not, was not a question for me anymore. I experienced reincarnation with my own eyes and both saw and felt that a higher power existed somewhere out there. Did I need to worry about this entity? I never saw a reason to do so. Actually, I wasn¡¯t even bothered by it or the possibility of a sudden death. Together with this strange calmness about my fate or what was beyond death, I unlocked inside me another thought, another vision. Instead of wondering what¡¯s beyond the grave, my mind turned to: what can I do in this life, so that I can leave it without any regrets? Once I asked myself this, I began to look back at my few months as a Dungeon in this world, then at the passing years trapped in the Darkness, building my body for what was to come. My battle with Dankyun left me with a new vision of the world, one torn asunder by wars and hate. The wars were fought on two separate fronts, those against the dungeons and those against other species, while the hate was an everlasting reason to both fuel and start them. Tuberculus, the former principal of Fellyore Magic Academy, built my Crystal Body in which I reincarnated. His desire was for me to be a Magic Academy instead of a Dungeon. I fulfilled that role, but not to its maximum potential. I was only a mere janitor. A housekeeper with a semi-omnipotent view and a good magic spell to clean the dust off the desks. Unfortunately, what he created was not a TRUE Dungeon but a patched up version of Frankenstein¡¯s monster formed from countless body parts of other dungeons. While I had a mind of my own, my new body also contained the memories of the former dungeons. Most of them were mere shadows, pieces of their former selves. None held their initial personality, none could be trusted, and all were battling for the dominance over this one body. On the bright side of things, I was the only one with a soul, so in essence, I had to be the dominant mind. I was a human, but I had no masochistic desire of being enslaved or to end up as a simple minion of another dungeon. Needless to say that from the moment of my birth, I also didn¡¯t have the desire to rule over the other minds or bend their will under my will, mostly because I had no idea how to do that, and secondly because I didn¡¯t know they existed until that battle with Dankyun. Long story short, I won, but the cost of my weakness in this world was that I lost my home, the students I was supposed to protect, and I injured the three women I cared for the most in this world: Nanya, Ayuseya, and especially Shanteya. All three of them suffered horrible injuries and were on the brink of death. Unfortunately, because I tried to fight back against the Darkness, a lot of my initial abilities were lost. One thing that remained was the preservation ability of my Inner Mind. This place was like a whole endless dimension of its own. I couldn¡¯t immediately heal girls again, so I did what I thought would be the best thing¡­ I began to heal them cell by cell¡­ Just as I built my body, I was reconstructing their, putting their skin, muscles, and bones together. Reconstructing their broken magic channels was the hardest part. Without those, Magic Energy could become unstable and result into destroying them from inside out. Nanya¡¯s case was the worst¡­ As far as I could tell, even if I healed her, there was a high chance she would die in a few years because the stunt she pulled with her seal resulted in her magic channels to be burned out. In other words, she wouldn¡¯t have been able to cast even a beginner type spell once she woke up. Then was Ayuseya. Her body had been suffering from Magic Energy deprivation as a result of her curse. Magic flow inside her channels was all over the place. Cleaning them up and insuring a steady flow was hard as well, but if she stayed like that, even if her stats showed incredible ability, she would never be able to use it completely. As for Shanteya, although she didn¡¯t have as many problems as the other two did, I still cleaned her magic channels and properly removed any sort of injury or illness from her body. Doing this would most likely help them gather Magic Energy faster as well as store more. While I did all of that, I never woke them up. I left them sleep and rest. It took me about two months to finish all of that work, but once I was done, I would be able to heal them much faster next time because I understood their anatomy better, and I didn¡¯t need to work on their magic channels. Another thing I did was to strengthen my Magic Armor. After the Primordial returned my body to my control, it changed to the level I once was. I realized through this that Magic Armor was mostly determined by the experience of holding that much Magic Energy within it. Thus, every day, I began to patch it up and strengthen it wherever I could. There were a lot of holes and cracks I had to fill in it, and the more I worked on it, the more I realized how weak it was compared to Dankyun¡¯s or even Nanya¡¯s, but little by little, I was getting there. The last thing I focused my attention on was what I could build with my knowledge. I had to learn how to create and control both those traps and my spells. Thus, I took the liberty of assembling and disassembling most of those I had already built. The Power Crystals were the most intriguing parts. They were tiny Magic Energy storage batteries with integrated circuits. Magic Energy simply flowed through a network inside them, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn¡¯t figure out the logic behind it. Fortunately, I understood how to at least copy the already existing circuits. Using this knowledge as a basis, I began to reconstruct my traps, to make them integrate these strange crystals as well as implement various switches. The hardest part was trying to make a magic crystal version of a micro controller. I wasn¡¯t able to do it. As for recreating it as an electric component was even harder. I simply didn¡¯t have any knowledge of how to do it. Eventually, I gave up on understanding some of the finer details of how those Power Crystals worked and instead focused on building some stuff I could use in the real world. Every trap and machine I created afterwards ended up as a blueprint I stored in my mind and turned into a Skill on my status screen. As long as there was space in my Dungeon Territory, I could summon the materials for it from that inner deposit and then rebuild it in the real world. Magic Energy was the way those atoms were rearranged. The same was for spells, only in this case, they were heavily dependent on my Magic Energy supply and the type of spell it was. If it required certain materials or it could use the nearby environment was the whole difference. For example, Ice Spike required water, which was cooled down in that shape by Magic Energy. This was done super fast. The Fireball used Oxygen in the air and Hydrogen as fuel. Magic Energy provided the heat by agitating the atoms, however, it could act as the fuel itself. This was done AFTER consuming a big part of the original fuel, of course, as a Dungeon, I provided both, but a normal person had to use far more Magic Energy for just one single Fireball. But as expected, while a magician learned to used Magic Energy by feeling and understanding the effect they needed, they weren¡¯t familiar with molecular physics, chemistry, biology, and stuff like that. On the other hand, Dungeons somehow had that information, which led me to ask another question: ¡°How can a Dungeon know of things which required an advanced civilization to understand and develop through experiments and constant scientific evolution?¡± I couldn¡¯t ask the Darkness, since it never did communicate with me again after that battle with Dankyun. I was left alone to my own thoughts, but I had the feeling I would end up finding out the answer to that sooner or later. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. That being said, it made me realize that maybe I don¡¯t need to chant anything in order to cast a spell. I just had to focus and control Magic Energy in a way that allowed me to receive the required effect. This resulted in the creation of a new Skill, which in order to upgrade, I had to better understand its in depth effects as well as develop it through practice. This, in turn, took a hell of a lot of time to do. ¡°So when the Darkness said it was doing everything, it actually meant that using memories scattered among all of them, it could advance and upgrade my spells, then I just had to ¡®select¡¯ the upgrade. That¡¯s why I was limited to so few skills. Those I learned from books were basically the old Dungeons applying the contents of the books for me. In short, I was just ordering the Darkness around¡­¡± I thought while playing with a fireball, sending it from one hand to the other, increasing its size, and concentrating on the various effects it could have. What I couldn¡¯t understand was how did the Magic Energy cost was reduced for some of them? In case of my Emperor Rank Skill [Infernal Glacier] the cost of energy was smaller the more powerful the Skill became. It didn¡¯t make any sense. It was almost as if Magic wasn¡¯t following its own rules. From what I came to understand ever since I was reincarnated in this world, Magic Energy had many ways of changing the Laws of Physics, but in reality, what appeared to be a complete and irrational change was actually just a complicated puzzle of all the known and yet unknown laws of Magic and Physics. It made my head hurt just thinking about it, but I promised myself that someway, someday, somehow, I¡¯ll be able to decipher it. I was practically immortal, so I had time to spare. Seven months after I arrived to this desert, the cubicle residence I created for myself was unchanged, but I managed to construct many technological marvels I could use in future battle or for household things. Unfortunately, a bug repellent wasn¡¯t one of them. I don¡¯t even want to remember how many times I woke up with a bug nesting in my mouth or spider in my ear. I screamed like a little girl every time and shot a fireball at my face. There was once even a snake nesting in my lap, as in actually making a nest in my lap. There was another thing I came to a conclusion about, and that was my objective in life, or rather objectives: First of all, the Darkness had to go. That was my main objective for now. Secondly, I was curious about the world, how other species interacted with each other, and how society worked here in general. Lastly, after I got rid of the Darkness, I wanted to train for a while. All of these were for the final purpose of resurrecting the Fellyore Magic Academy, but this time, it was going to be Illsyore¡¯s Magic Academy. Unfortunately, I couldn¡¯t start building it until I was certain of the location, the teachers, that I was powerful enough to wipe the floor with an entire party of Supremes, that I had at least one class of students, and that I wasn¡¯t in the danger of being controlled by anyone besides the calls to bed of my wives. As to why I wanted to build a Magic Academy? It was strange, but I felt a bit connected to that idea. I also desired to do something to change the twisted opinions of some people and kingdoms, especially those in regard to equality between species. I could grow big muscles and force these changes upon them, or I could simply teach the youngsters my truth. With education comes revolution and from it comes change. Opening my eyes, I took a deep breath in, coughing a bit from all the dust and shoeing away another spider that turned my nose into a silk bridge. Getting up, I stretched my arms and dusted off my body. Looking up, I summoned from inside my Inner Mind a meter cube of water and kept it suspended above me with the help of my magic. Focusing on the bottom part, I created a hole in the field and allowed the water to pour on top of me. It was an improvised shower, but it did the job and cleaned me up of the dust. The temperature didn¡¯t matter since this body had a function that increased or decreased its temperature with a bit of magic. Once I was sparkly clean, I intended to absorb the clothes on me, but then I notice that I wasn¡¯t wearing any. ¡°Oh yeah¡­ I was butt naked all this time¡­¡± I said and then closed my eyes. When I was fiddling with technology, I also learned how to create items. It was RIDICULOUSLY easy and simple. Basically, I just had to know the materials, summon them from my inner mind and then infuse them with Magic Energy. Afterwards, I just had to reshape it in the form I desired. It was similar to working with clay. Using this method, I created myself a pair of trousers, which ended up with one leg bigger than the other. I was a bad tailor¡­ The most complicated part was to create the twill, but I had plenty of cotton and linen. I chose the first type. About ten tries later, I managed to create a pair of modern dark-brown trousers with a black dyed leather belt. ¡°Great¡­ Now I need socks, shoes, shirt, and all the other stuff¡­ I think I¡¯ll make a robe too.¡± I thought as I looked at my newest creation. Without any further delay, me, the Godlike Dungeon started knitting, sewing, and dyeing. Ten hours later, I was wearing a long, black robe with a hoodie; a pair of long, dark-brown trousers; a pair of silk socks; a pair of leather boots; a black cotton T-Shirt; and a brown leather vest. I actually looked pretty good. All that was left was to cut my hair, and I was ready! Walking out of my shelter, I looked up and saw the clear sky with about a hundred hungry flying birds flying straight at me. What a beautiful¡­ Wait, what? ¡°THE HELL?¡± I shouted as I dashed back in my home. ¡°CAW! CAW!¡± the birds screamed. ¡°You aren¡¯t crows!¡± I retorted. ¡°MOO?¡± What the? I thought as I raised an eyebrow. ¡°Chirp! Chirp!¡± I was starting to feel like I just landed in a bird house or a zoo, but I could swear that I saw only and only some sort of flying bird with razor-sharp teeth around their beaks. There were no cows in that bunch¡­ Taking a deep breath, I expanded my Dungeon Territory and prepared for battle. ¡°Mooo!¡± the cow was heard again. ¡°I mean, seriously?¡± I said out loud. With energy pulsing at the tips of my finger tips, I dashed outside and aimed my palm at whatever was around my home. There were about twenty birds making all those three strange sounds while pecking and scratching at my temporary home. Their long, sharp beaks and claws were chipping away little by little at it. Lasting two or three minutes would have been a wonder. Surprisingly though, none tried to use the front door to get inside, but I doubted any could enter. Each bird was as big as a full-grown draconian, and its wingspan was at almost 10 meters in length. They were HUGE! Still, none of them looked friendly. Despite being in the middle of the night, my eyes allowed me to see normally. Their feathers were dark blue on the top of their bodies, and bright read on their bellies. On top of their heads was a crest made out of long, black feathers. If they weren¡¯t after the flesh on my bones, I would have considered them to be quite interesting and maybe even beautiful. Before I used any other Skills, I decided to try out my AGLMC Laser on them. The first I aimed it at was one flying in the air, who saw me and decided to make me its dinner. ¡°Not today!¡± I said with a grin and fired the laser. The red beam went straight through its skull and landed next to me, dead. I heard the ding of my level, but I ignored it. The next thing I did was to try out my Magic Armor and allowed one of them to hit me. The bird struck me with its beak as hard as it could, but I didn¡¯t even flinch. The Magic Armor wasn¡¯t even chipped, so I reached out for the bird¡¯s beak and with one strong pull, I sent it flying towards another bird. The two collided in the air, and I do believe I heard the sounds of bones cracking. With a smirk on my lips, I aimed my palm at the two birds and released a laser beam, piercing them in one shot and silencing them for good. The other birds looked at me for a second and decided I wasn¡¯t worth the trouble. They flew away, but not after grabbing the bodies of the last two I killed. ¡°Cannibalism?¡± I thought as I saw them fighting each other in the air over the remains. I was left with only one big bird next to me, the one I vaporized the insides of its head. Kicking it once, I decided to turn it into food for later, so I absorbed it and walked back to my little home. ¡°I guess I¡¯ll repair it and then wake up the girls¡­¡± I told myself as I smiled and got down to business. The floor was bit hard and cold to simply lay them down there. I had no fire started, and it was a bit dark for them, so I placed a Power Crystal that emanated light on top of the ceiling and a bunch of wood in the middle of the room. With a tiny fire spark at the tip of my fingers, I lit the campfire. I sped up the heating process a bit by magically raising the temperatures of the wall by about 15 degrees Celsius. To keep it warm, I added layer of fiber glass on the outside, which acted as a thermal insulator. It would act as a double protection against those pesky birds as well unless glass was part of their usual menu. Afterwards, I released the girls form inside my Inner Mind and laid them one next to each other. It was very hard to resist the temptation of fondling Nanya¡¯s bazookas, but I abstained¡­ surprisingly. Shanteya was the first one to wake up, then was Ayuseya, and the last one to do so was Nanya. ¡°Ugh¡­ Who are you?¡± the el¡¯doraw asked a bit confused when she saw me. ¡°I go by many names, but you may call me the esteemed and renowned¡­¡± before I was able to finish my sentence, Nanya finished it for me. ¡°Pantie Snatching Perverted Dungeon Lord Illsyore.¡± she smirked. ¡°Ugh¡­¡± I groaned. [You gained a new title: Pantie Snatching Perverted Dungeon Lord] Do you wish to apply? Y/N WHO THE HELL WOULD APPLY THIS TITLE?! I screamed in my mind at the ridiculous message. ¡°It¡¯s good to see you again, Illsy¡­¡± said Ayuseya with a soft smile. ¡°That means¡­ we survived? What about Dankyun?¡± asked Shanteya a bit surprised, but then tears started rolling down her cheeks. She was crying. ¡°MASTER!¡± she jumped and hugged me tightly. ¡°You are alive! You are alive! You are safe!¡± she kept saying. I embraced her and gently patted her back. My cute el¡¯doraw was really worried about me, although I wasn¡¯t expecting such a strange reaction. It was like the first question didn¡¯t matter at all. ¡°It¡¯s alright, my dear. I¡¯m alright.¡± I smiled and then looked over at Nanya, who was looking down. ¡°What happened?¡± she asked. ¡°Well¡­¡± I scratched my cheek and then began to explain them what happened, leaving out the little part about the Darkness inside of me. Although, it was a bit wrong of me to do so, I didn¡¯t feel prepared yet to tell them about it. Actually, I had no idea how to break it to them. I couldn¡¯t just go: Hey, did you know that I¡¯m being slowly taken over by a Primordial Dungeon because I don¡¯t act like a psychopathic villain with the intention of using you three as breeding tools? Yeah¡­ I had to take one step at a time¡­ Until I felt like I was actually losing control over my actions and reason, I saw no reason to open the subject. With a bit of luck, I would never have to do so¡­ _______ Note from the author: Thank you for reading this chapter, I hope you enjoyed it! Chapter 41: One step was all it took... It was very good to see the girls alive and well again, but there was a bit of worry in their eyes. Shanteya didn¡¯t leave my side and constantly stuck to me like she was afraid I might vanish any second now. She was cute that way, but I hoped the battle with Dankyun didn¡¯t leave any lasting mental scars. Ayuseya remained calm and collected, keeping up her image as an elegant noble, although, I had the feeling that sitting in a seiza position, wasn¡¯t exactly a comfortable one. It also made me wonder if she wished to return to Teslov now or stay by my side. As a royal, her duties and objectives were quite different than mine. Even so, nothing stopped me from selfishly trying to keep her by my side as my wife. As for Nanya, she wasn¡¯t even looking at me. She turned around and began to repair her armor. Actually, she changed her rather revealing armor to a full-body version, keeping her ¡®assets¡¯ hidden from wandering sight, and unfortunately mine as well. One of these days, however, I was going to make sure to peel it off of her gently and slowly. ¡°What are you thinking about, Illsy?¡± asked Shanteya when she noticed my perverted grin aimed at Nanya¡¯s back. ¡°Huh?¡± I blinked surprised and wiped off my drool. ¡°Perverted stuff, as usual.¡± Nanya looked back and showed me a smirk. ¡°You, actually¡­ and yes, sort of¡­¡± I replied. Nanya blushed and turned around immediately. ¡°Pervert¡­¡± she whispered. I heard you¡­ I thought. Another moment of deep silence fell upon us, with just me staring back and forth between them. Eventually, Ayuseya was the one to break the ice. ¡°Ahem!¡± she coughed, catching our attention. ¡°With Dankyun gone and the Magic Academy destroyed, what are we going to do now?¡± I blinked surprised. ¡°If there¡¯s a desert outside, there¡¯s a chance that we are actually on the Third Continent Sorone.¡± said Nanya. ¡°Sorone?¡± I asked surprised. From what I remembered, there were three big continents discovered and populated by humans as well as other species. Their names were Thorya, Allasn, and Sorone. While there weren¡¯t that many restrictions in regard with traveling between the big continents in the north, going to the third continent was a bit of a trouble. There was something like a border in the middle of the ocean. It was being constantly patrolled by various ships from the kingdoms on Sorone, so passing over it could only be done through the few checkpoints placed near the tiny islands between the continents. The border was created a couple of thousands of years ago, and ever since then, the combined navy of Sorone continued to protect it. Of course, boats from Teslov and Paramanium also joined the patrol from time to time, but the bottom line was that no unauthorized vessels were allowed to cross. This constant diligence made the third continent¡¯s naval fleets incredibly powerful, so much that even Paramanium didn¡¯t try to mess around with them. ¡°Yes, the first continent I ever stepped on¡­ as well as where I first met Dankyun.¡± Nanya said and pulled her knees to her chest. The memories this place sparked didn¡¯t seem to be to her liking, well¡­ he did leave her for dead in a dungeon and stole her sword. I was starting to regret leaving him alive, but I hardly doubted he was going to be a match for us next time. The draconian was left with only his underpants in the middle of that forest. There was also the threat I left him with. PTSD was going to eat him up alive! MUHAHAHA! Ahem¡­ I mean¡­ yeah¡­ ¡°Speaking of what we are going to do, how about we just explore this land while training our abilities a bit? Maybe even go dungeon crawling, join in as adventurers to a guild, you know? Some simple stuff while we find something¡­ more important to do?¡± I asked them, but I was also planning on using this as an excuse of maybe finding out some ways to destroy the Darkness inside of me. ¡°That does sound interesting. In a way, I am excused of my duties as a royalty¡­ Learning to mingle among commoners might be a good idea.¡± said Ayuseya. ¡°As long as I am with Master, I do not care.¡± said Shanteya, letting her thoughts be known to all of them. Now we were all staring at Nanya. The demoness let out a sigh. ¡°I don¡¯t really mind either¡­¡± ¡°Good!¡± I smiled and then looked outside. ¡°Erm, it¡¯s still dark, and I have no idea what time it is¡­¡± I told them. ¡°You wish to sleep, Master?¡± asked Shanteya looking up at me. ¡°No, but I was wondering if I should make you all some armor and swords while we wait for the sun to rise?¡± I asked them. ¡°If you still have the dagger I got from those two, that would be enough.¡± said Shanteya. ¡°That and some armor to keep yourself protected. Wearing a maid outfit isn¡¯t necessary anymore, but maybe a leather armor?¡± I asked her, but for some reason, I felt like I was doing something really stupid by denying the pleasure of dressing up my el¡¯doraw as a cute maid. ¡°As long as it¡¯s light and easy to move in.¡± she told me. ¡°I don¡¯t need any¡­ I can make my own.¡± Nanya denied me the pleasure of make her a more revealing outfit. ¡°Your sword is over there, next to the wall.¡± I told her and removed the protective wall I placed there to keep it away from possible lucky looters. Blinking surprised, she turned her head and saw the infamous weapon used by Dankyun to cause so much fear and terror. It was hers from the very beginning, so I saw no reason as to not take it with me. Besides, if it landed in the wrong hands, it would have probably caused a lot of trouble again. ¡°You took it from him?¡± she asked as she got up and approached it. ¡°It was yours from the beginning. He had no right over it.¡± I shrugged. Nanya appeared to be a bit reluctant in regard to picking it up. Her hand retreated at first when she tried. Eventually, she did what I couldn¡¯t do and absorbed it. The weapon was gone in the blink of an eye. ¡°Thank you¡­¡± she said and then returned to her seat, but this time, facing me. ¡°You¡¯re welcomed, but how did you do that? It didn¡¯t let me absorb it¡­¡± I told her blinking surprised. ¡°Oh! Father just made it so that no one but me could absorb it.¡± she shrugged and then sat down next to Ayuseya. ¡°Is that so? I didn¡¯t know there was an option like that. I wonder if it was derived from the [No Steal] enchantment.¡± I said while rubbing my chin. ¡°There are many enchantments you don¡¯t know about yet, Illsy, many which can only be used by our kind¡­¡± she explained and looked down at the fire. ¡°I see¡­ Also, as a side note, I liked the previous armor better¡­¡± I said while looking straight at her chest, which was covered by a big metal plate. ¡°It proved to be rather useless¡­¡± Nanya said while she instinctively covered her chest. ¡°In a way¡­¡± I shrugged. ¡°Then, I guess I should be the one to ask now for a weapon and armor. If possible, something inconspicuous which I can wear under my dress. A chainmail, maybe? Oh, and a sword as a weapon.¡± Ayuseya requested. ¡°Hm, I suppose that¡¯s reasonable. Similar to a human long sword?¡± I asked her. ¡°Yes.¡± she replied with a simple nod. ¡°Be right back then. If something happens, just give me a slap or something.¡± I closed my eyes and then went into my Inner Mind. There, I began to fiddle with the armor and weapons for both of them. The dagger wasn¡¯t there anymore, I had forgotten to take it from the battlefield, so I had to remake it. Thanks to the past few months of fiddling with technology, making a light chain mail for both Ayuseya and Shanteya was a piece of cake. I used the Inconel alloy to make sure it was both light and darn hard to break. The next thing I did was make the armor parts. When I was done, I had the following items ready for Ayuseya: a pair of satin leggings, chain mail, leather belt, metal gauntlets, metal boots, and my own, specially designed long sword. For Shanteya: a brand new jagged dagger set designed by me, a pair of metal leather gloves with metal knuckles, a pair of leather boots with metal soles, a pair of satin leggings, a chain mail similar to Ayuseya¡¯s, and a one-piece combat maid dress¡­ I have no idea how I ended up making something like that, but I gave it a thumbs up and stuck with it. Afterwards, I just had to enchant them. Tuberculus¡¯ book explained some of the basics of enchanting. In theory, one could infuse Magic Energy into items to give them certain properties. The trick was that if you infused too much and too fast, the item would break apart. What I learned from my mingling with traps and building my body, every living being as well as enchanted items had these things called ¡®Magic Channels¡¯ or ¡®Magic Circuits¡¯ whatever one wished to call them. Although they looked similarly, in the case of living beings, these Magic Channels worked as both a storage and ability to handle Magic Energy. In the case of items, they acted like means with which you could control the way Magic Energy reacted to that item, in other words, programming it. Unfortunately, I had no idea how EXACTLY they worked, I only had an idea and some sort of blueprints of various intricate designs of Magic Channels. That was why I couldn¡¯t create that magic micro controller. In due time, I was certain to find out how it worked, but for now, I at least had an idea how to make proper enchantments. All I had to do was copy certain Magic Channel schematics, link them together and then infuse it with some Magic Energy to start it up. That was why there was no reason for me to blindly pour Magic Energy into the item. Indeed, it could force a certain enchant to be created, but that was also the main reason why the infused item had a chance of breaking into pieces. Enchanting was basically the art of creating a Magic Energy circuit or channel flow within an item. The other part consisted in programming the way Magic Energy had to react in combination with the item¡¯s properties. Theoretically, if the one who built Nanya¡¯s sword knew this stuff as well, then no wonder he was able to create something like that. Enough practice and a good amount of patience and practice could result in creating something like that. I wouldn¡¯t have been surprised if Nanya merely scratched the surface of that weapon¡¯s abilities. Thus, I made all of those items highly durable, enough to survive a full-on combat between Supreme Ranked Adventurers. They were also highly resistant to the elements. The materials made them very light, so the only thing I had to do was remove some of the friction around the joints, allowing for a smoother movement. The [No Steal] enchantment was added as well. To give them an edge in battle, I made the items react as a buff. By infusing the clothes with Magic Energy, they could increase the wearer¡¯s stats, up to 500 points in each category. Any more would require some sort of Magic Energy container. Speaking of which, I had to remember to add these enchantments to my own clothes as well. Except for the endurance one, I forgot to add anything else, so a skilled enough thief could leave me butt naked in the middle of the street. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. As for the weapons, besides some of those enchants, they both had the ability to partially ignore Magic Armor, what it did was act like oil in a bucket of water, then it all came down to the user¡¯s strength. Shanteya¡¯s daggers had an extra enchant, which dampened the sound around her by slowing down the vibrations in the air in front of it. In order to activate it, she had to will it to do so as well as infuse a bit of Magic Energy in it. Besides going on a stealth mission, that ability was practically useless in actual combat, but in Shanteya¡¯s hand, it could prove pretty deadly. Ayuseya¡¯s weapon raised the temperature around it to the point where it could melt steel. It didn¡¯t burst into flames, but it wasn¡¯t far from it either. It consumed a bit of Magic Energy, but it wasn¡¯t like she had a bunch of spells she could use it on in the first place. Once I was satisfied with all of these, I stepped out of my Inner Mind and prepared to offer them, however, what I found instead was Ayuseya resting her head on my left shoulder and sleeping peacefully, Shanteya sleeping in my lap, and Nanya laying down in front of the fire. Everyone was sound asleep. ¡°How long was I in there?¡± I asked myself, seeing as how I managed to forget about the time again. Judging from the light creeping up inside this room, the sun was just about to rise. The girls were probably tired, or maybe their internal clocks were trying to adjust to the sudden change in both global position and time passed. With a sigh, I closed my eyes and fell asleep as well. A bit of rest didn¡¯t sound so bad, besides, everything else was already prepared. All that was left for me to do was to offer the armors and weapons to them. ¡®Morning¡¯ came with a hug and a kiss. I opened my eyes and saw Shanteya taking me by surprise with her soft lips. The el¡¯doraw sure knew how to work her tongue, and I took her in my gentle embrace, but before I went one step further, I saw a pair of black eyes accusing me of some heinous crime even I wasn¡¯t aware of. ¡°You are enjoying this aren¡¯t you?¡± Nanya asked me. ¡°Mmhmm¡­¡± I replied while ending my kiss with Shanteya. ¡°Puhaaa~!¡± said the el¡¯doraw with a cute blush. ¡°Erm¡­ I can explain¡­¡± I told Nanya. She kept squinting her eyes at me. ¡°Illsy?¡± asked Ayuseya. Turning my head towards her was both a bad and a good idea at the same time because she offered me a kiss as well. I just got assaulted by two lovely women before I even had the chance of properly waking up. Looking over at Nanya, I could see she did NOT see that coming. ¡°You too?¡± she asked the princess. ¡°Mmm¡­ Thank you.¡± the draconian said with a soft smile after she pulled back. ¡°Erm¡­ eh¡­ yeah¡­¡± I managed to say. Well, one thing was certain, both the draconian and the el¡¯doraw weren¡¯t shy about kissing me anymore. Ayuseya came as a surprise on this part, but I was sort of used to Shanteya. Still, it was different than when I did it in the Inner Mind, it was more¡­ pleasant. The feel of reality offered that extra spice it needed to make it better, or maybe I was just imagining it since it had been so long since I last kissed them. ¡°Nanya, my dear, I do not see anything wrong with kissing my husband.¡± said the draconian princess, showing her a small smile. ¡°It¡¯s not wrong, but¡­¡± she was blushing and looked away. ¡°Still, I¡­¡± she wanted to say something but stopped and turned around, her tail whipping in the air ¡°Ugh, just do what you want!¡± I couldn¡¯t tell if she was just jealous or if something was bugging her. My guts were telling me that she had something on her mind, which she wasn¡¯t ready to reveal yet. I could only wonder what, though. With everything that happened lately, I guessed all of them were seeing me with different eyes. Shanteya was more attached to me and Ayuseya more daring. With a sigh escaping my lips, I just pulled the draconian and el¡¯doraw into an embrace and kissed them both on their cheeks. As for Nanya, after I was freed of their grasp, I moved closer to her. Gently patting her head, I asked ¡°Is Nanya upset about something? Nanya want a treat?¡± ¡°GRR! I¡¯m not some mangy pooch!¡± the woman growled and jumped at me, pushing me down, and pinning my arms next to my head. ¡°But you looked so cute.¡± I stuck my tongue out at her. ¡°Grrr!¡± she growled again with a pink blush in her cheeks, while her tail swayed left and right. Even with all of that armor on her, I barely felt her weight on top of me. ¡°Come on now, I¡¯m joking!¡± I laughed. The growl stopped. She looked down for a moment and unmounted me. Now I was getting a bit sad. ¡°Idiot¡­¡± she said as she walked outside. I was left there to simply stare at the door, while my brain was trying to process what the hell just happened. Even Shanteya seemed to be a bit confused about her sudden gesture, but Ayuseya was simply giggling. ¡°I don¡¯t get it¡­¡± I said lifting my arms up in the air. ¡°Let her be.¡± said Ayuseya. Letting out a sigh, I decided to give up on trying to understand what just happened. There was no point in rocking my brains over something I couldn¡¯t figure out with the given variables. I focused instead on taking out the items I created for Ayuseya and Shanteya and explained to them what each and every one did. Afterwards, they changed¡­ right in front of me. I¡­ erm¡­ the inner hermit approves! I thought while I did a mental thumbs up. After they were done, we walked outside. ¡°Master, do you have a fever?¡± Shanteya asked upon seeing my red cheeks. ¡°No, that¡¯s just a natural reaction¡­¡± I said shaking my head. Nanya was outside, on top of the stone formation next to our small home. ¡°See anything from up there?¡± I asked. ¡°Yeah¡­ I think I see something in the distance. It looks like a temple of sorts, but I¡¯m not sure¡­¡± she replied, while she looked with a furrowed brow ahead. ¡°Let me see¡­¡± I said and then jumped next to her. Looking in that direction, I saw the formation she mentioned, but I could swear I didn¡¯t see that thing when I first teleported to this desert. Was it formed sometime during the past seven months? While thinking about that, a thought suddenly struck me. ¡°Could it be a dungeon?¡± I asked. ¡°Maybe¡­¡± said Nanya with a nod. Dropping down on the ground, I said to Shanteya and Ayuseya ¡°Girls! We¡¯re going Dungeon Crawling!¡± I was excited about this sudden turn of events, and a big, happy smile was on my face. ¡°Isn¡¯t this a bit too quick? What level are you?¡± asked Nanya after dropping next to me. ¡°Bah, who cares?¡± I shrugged. Ever since I got my body, I didn¡¯t bother checking my status because I knew I wasn¡¯t going to gain any more skill points. The attribute ones were more interesting, but unless I had something along the lines of 1000 or so to add, there was no point in doing so now. ¡°Sigh. Well, you did defeat Dankyun, so a few levels shouldn¡¯t hurt. Maybe we can find out where we are as well.¡± said Nanya as she began stretching her arms and legs. ¡°Let¡¯s go then!¡± I said with a smile as I pointed towards the presumed dungeon entrance. We began walking in that direction, with Nanya leading and the other two girls following behind me. After about five minutes, we started running and thanks to our incredible stats, we quickly reached high speeds of over 100 km/h. Although, I was more surprised by how Ayuseya could run with that dress of hers. On the other hand, Shanteya¡¯s dress looked quite cute on her. After about ten minutes or so of constant running, we finally reached the entrance. It had just one entrance made out of stone, with big decorated pillars opening a dark path towards an unknown labyrinth. ¡°Cool!¡± I said out loud. ¡°The temperature is fine¡­¡± said Nanya blinking surprised. I ignored the comment and then approached the entrance. ¡°Wait!¡± called out the demoness. ¡°What?¡± I asked looking back at her. ¡°Do you have a weapon?¡± she asked me. Lifting my hand up, I pointed it at the tip of the stone formation from which we came and fired a single, weak, laser shot. The red beam cut the air and hit the mark in the blink of an eye. A small piece of it fell off on the ground. ¡°That will do.¡± said Nanya surprised. With a big smile, I turned around and walked towards the entrance. As soon as I took my first step into it, I received the following messages: [Warning! You have entered an Enemy¡¯s Dungeon Territory!] [Dungeon Core Normal Detected. Level 102] [Dungeon Territory is under attack] [Enemy¡¯s Dungeon Territory has been shattered] [Dungeon Core Normal Destroyed] [Your Level has increased] I blinked and looked at the messages. ¡°What? So there¡¯s no dungeon here?¡± asked Nanya surprised as she stepped passed me. ¡°No¡­ there was¡­ I just destroyed it¡­ by taking one step through the entrance.¡± I told her, trying hard not to cry. My big dream of dungeon crawling just went down the drain. ¡°Dungeon Dominance? Why did you use that? I thought you wanted to go exploring?¡± asked Nanya raising an eyebrow. I groaned, then I sighed and dropped on my knees. ¡°HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW I CAN DESTROY A DUNGEON JUST BY TAKING A STEP INSIDE OF IT!¡± I cried out. _______ Note from the author: Thank you for reading this chapter, I hope you enjoyed it! :) Chapter 42: A taste of melons and apples While the girls went in to finish off the monsters inside, I stayed outside and sulked over the fact that I destroyed a dungeon so easily. I literally just stepped inside, and the Dungeon went bye-bye. The problem was that I had no idea why that happened¡­ Was I so strong that it simply had a heart attack? Can a Dungeon in its Crystal Body even have heart attacks in the first place? Either way, I wasn¡¯t happy at all. This was supposed to be my first ever Dungeon Crawl with a party made out of me, Shanteya, Nanya, and Ayuseya. It was supposed to be filled with action and various moments of intense fighting. Our feelings and trust were supposed to flourish as we conquered floor after floor. ¡°Sigh¡­ Maybe that¡¯s why the other Dungeons make their first floors so ridiculously easy? It¡¯s not to drag adventurers in, but to watch them deepen their bonds, to see them struggle¡­ It¡¯s their version of entertainment!¡± I let out another sigh as I made circles in the sand. ¡°What are you sulking about?¡± asked Nanya as she patted me on the head. ¡°I didn¡¯t expect to destroy the dungeon so easily¡­¡± I complained. ¡°You don¡¯t know, do you?¡± she asked me and then sat down next to me. Turning my gaze towards her, I saw her arranging her long, black hair a bit and combing a few spider webs out of it. ¡°Know what?¡± ¡°Well¡­¡± she looked back at me and titled her head to the left ¡°How big is your Dungeon Territory?¡± ¡°Erm¡­¡± I aimed my palm at a point 1.5 meters away from me and shot a short laser beam. The sand melted immediately and formed a small glass hole. ¡°Not that big. It stops over there.¡± From my point of view, it was a rather strange question to ask, and I had no idea what that had to do with me destroying a Normal Dungeon. ¡°How big do you think my Dungeon Territory is?¡± she asked pointing at herself. ¡°Erm? I can¡¯t tell¡­¡± I replied shaking my head. ¡°Try to focus a bit.¡± she told me. With nothing else to do, I closed my eyes and scanned the area inside my Dungeon Territory, but I couldn¡¯t detect another one. It was strange because from her words, she was telling me that she had one. ¡°I really can¡¯t tell¡­¡± I shook my head in defeat. ¡°It starts from the center point of my body and expands with a 2 centimeters radius around it.¡± she smiled. ¡°What?¡± I squinted my eyes at her and looked at her chest. ¡°I can¡¯t tell¡­¡± I told her. ¡°You can¡¯t. Your Dungeon Territory detects my body first and makes it a priority. But look, I¡¯ll expand my territory a bit. A message should pop up for you.¡± she told me and then did exactly that. [Friendly Dungeon Territory Detected. Owner: Nanya Demonarkiar the 2nd] The feeling I was getting from her after she did this was similar to detecting another presence inside my Dungeon Territory and at the same time having that area blocked off and out of my influence. If I were to guess, I couldn¡¯t build inside her territory without her permission first, but instinctively, I knew I had two options to ¡®retake¡¯ that area. It was to either shatter her Dungeon Territory or absorb it into mine. ¡°What¡¯s this?¡± I asked while I waved my hand through her territory. ¡°Hehe!¡± she giggled. ¡°Care to explain?¡± ¡°Well, Dungeons have two ways of battling each other¡­¡± she retreated her Dungeon Territory, crossed her legs and looked up at a passing by cloud. ¡°First one is by expanding their Dungeon Territory. If its stronger than the enemy¡¯s, than their Dungeon Territory will be shattered, but if it¡¯s the other way around, well¡­ you saw what happened. This is very risky. For a humanoid dungeon like us, shattering our Dungeon Territory merely incapacitates us and gravely weakens us for a short while. It¡¯s similar to casting a paralyzing debuff.¡± she explained. ¡°When Dankyun stabbed you with that sword¡­ did he?¡± I asked looking back at the circle I drew in the sand. ¡°Yes, he shattered my Dungeon Territory with my sword. Well, for a Dungeon Core, the effect is much worse¡­ Their entire Crystal Body shatters as a result of losing their Dungeon Territory. Unlike us, who have a pair of lungs to breath, they don¡¯t¡­ The Dungeon Territory is akin to some of their inner organs as well as Magic Energy Storage and Generator.¡± she explained and then looked back down at me. ¡°I didn¡¯t know that¡­ actually, I knew it was a Generator and Storage, but I didn¡¯t know about the inner organs part.¡± I blinked surprised and looked back at the her. ¡°So the two methods of fighting another dungeon are either through Dungeon Territory, which is the most dangerous if you don¡¯t know how strong exactly the enemy¡¯s Dungeon Territory is, and the other is hiding it and going inside like a normal adventurer?¡± I asked. ¡°Exactly!¡± she nodded and then smiled. ¡°Thank you, but it¡¯s still frustrating to know that I defeated that Dungeon so easily.¡± I laughed. ¡°It would have been a long and boring Dungeon Crawl. Most of the floors are natural ones where various beasts and monsters created some nests. I was bored after the second floor, so I punched my way down.¡± she shrugged. ¡°Any treasures?¡± I asked raising an eyebrow. ¡°A bunch of low grade items, but nothing else.¡± she shook her head. ¡°Where¡¯s Ayuseya and Shanteya?¡± I asked and looked back. ¡°Shanteya thought it would be a good opportunity to help Ayuseya learn how to handle monsters. They are practicing on some of the spawned ones on floor 78. I gathered most of the loot and the remains of the Dungeon Core at floor 96. They are going to fetch a good price no matter where we sell them.¡± she smirked. ¡°So that¡¯s how Tuberculus got his hands-on Dungeon Core pieces!¡± I said hitting my palm with my fist. ¡°Yup! And guess who spent hours upon hours looking through the markets?¡± she crossed her arms at her chest and let out a small growl. From the sound of it, that wasn¡¯t a very pleasant memory for her. ¡°You?¡± I asked with a raised eyebrow. ¡°Yup! Anyway, I¡¯m going to scout around. Meanwhile you¡­¡± she then looked over at me, and our eyes locked gazes. She gulped and blushed. ¡°You do what you want, I¡¯ll go scout.¡± she fled. She¡¯s acting a bit weird¡­ I thought as I saw her run off or more like leaping over sand dunes in one go. Technically speaking, she was insanely strong even without her usual buffs. Actually, all of her stats were over 1000 last I checked. They were insane! With a sigh escaping my lips, I got up and decided to take a look inside the dungeon I so easily defeated. ¡°How was I supposed to know about Dungeon Territories?¡± I grumbled a bit as I put my hands in my pockets and kicked a stone at the entrance. Thanks to my ridiculous strength, the rock simply went flying through the wall like a bullet shot from an anti-material rifle. I let out another groan and climbed down the stairs. The first floor was basically filled with the remains of some rats, and that was about it. I didn¡¯t know if the moss on the walls had anything to do with the ecosystem here, so I continued to walk deeper. The next floor was littered with the remains of rats. Some were bigger than the others. There was a human skeleton in one corner, and I squinted my eyes at it. Someone actually died here? I asked myself and then approached it. The bones showed chewing marks from the rats. They stripped it clean of any sort of flesh. I had no idea how it smelled like because for good measure, I turned off my sense of smell as soon as I saw rat bodies. Continuing on, the next ten floors were mostly identical in design: a straight path through a couple of rooms filled with various monsters. The place looked like a natural cave for the most part, no doors, traps, brick walls, or things like that. At the eleventh floor, the walls became smoother and the monster changed to some low-level imps. One of them was smashed into the ceiling, making me wonder if that one was Nanya or Ayuseya¡¯s doing. To be noted, there were a couple of them who died while holding a boot. This settles it! Boot loving is a general feature of the Imp species¡­ I thought as I looked at the little buggers. With a sigh escaping my lips, I approached the end of this floor. It was here where I saw a big hole in the floor. ¡°Hm, Nanya¡¯s shortcut?¡± I asked myself and then jumped in. After taking a peek at the next level, I jumped through the next hole and so on until I saw something different. On the 25th floor, the first brick walls appeared, and a low-level Minotaur was cut in half. I bet two gold nuggets that was Ayuseya¡¯s doing. But there was nothing else interesting here, so I continued my journey down. The first trap I saw was at the 31st floor. It was a spike trap and a simple one at that. The place was filled with imp and wolf bodies cut in pieces. From what I saw so far, though, it was no wonder Nanya and the others thought my dungeon was a bit hard. Apparently, most dungeons focused on fighting with monsters, not traps like I did. Maybe that¡¯s why I lost to Dankyun? I asked myself while scratching the back of my head. I shrugged and continued on. Next time I was going to build a dungeon, I was going to make sure I had an equal amount of traps and monsters. And a nuke¡­ I need a nuke. I thought as I jumped down to the next floor. The complexity of the dungeon floors continued the more I went deeper and deeper, but the materials it was built from seemed to be proportional to the materials found at this depth. There didn¡¯t seem to be a rich deposit of iron around here because the spike trap above and the weapons of the monsters were all made out of copper and tin. On the other hand, the floors were also getting bigger, but not even close to what I had on my second floor. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. At floor 79, I found the girls. ¡°You are doing good, Ayuseya.¡± said Shanteya, who was standing behind and watching the draconian princess trade blows with a furious Minotaur. I raised an eyebrow and pitied the poor monster trying to land a blow on my wife, but with her stats, it would have been rather ridiculous if it could. ¡°How¡¯s it going?¡± I asked as I approached them. ¡°Master! What a surprise. Are you done crying?¡± Shanteya asked me with a warm smile. Those words stabbed me right in the heart, and I wanted to complain and prove that I wasn¡¯t to blame, but doing so would most likely put me in a bad position. Letting go of my pride, I decided to force a smile and nod once. I admitted my defeat¡­ ¡°Illsy?¡± Ayuseya looked away from the fight. That was a very uninspired move. The Minotaur saw it as an opening and charged at her. It took the draconian only a split second to realize the danger, but what she did next was utterly ridiculous. ¡°KYA!¡± she screamed, nearly shattering my eardrums. Lifting her hand up, she unleashed a fireball of 1 meter in diameter that simply cleaned up the corridor of any remaining monsters. The one she was fighting against was now only a pile of ash on the floor. As for the fireball itself, it reached the end of the corridor and exploded, spreading flames through half of the floor. ¡°Nice fireworks. Since when can you do that?¡± I asked with a raised eyebrow. Ayuseya was looking surprised at the disaster she created, while I raised a wall in front of her, to stop the toxic fumes from coming over and blocking our sight. ¡°I don¡¯t know¡­ I never thought I could cast this spell¡­ Erm¡­¡± she said a bit dumbfounded. I wonder if it¡¯s because of my fiddling with her Magic Channels? I thought as I looked at her. Patting her head, I smiled and then told her. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, let¡¯s just head back to the surface for now.¡± ¡°Very well¡­¡± she replied looking at her hand as she closed and opened her fist. Out of curiosity, I took a peak at her stats. [Name]: Ayuseya Drekar Pleyades [Species]: Hybrid of Draconian and True Dragon [Race]: Gold [Level]: 68 [Strength]: 405+1382,5 [Agility]: 308+1314.6 [Intelligence]: 416+1505 [Magic Energy]: 11605+11025 [Magic Energy regeneration]: 15+105 points per second [Bond of Trust] <70%> Change? Y/N [Available points]: 0 [Skills] > List all skills? Y/N [Available skill points]: 0 [Allegiance]: Omniak Drekar Gladarash, God of the Ancient Dragons [Spouses]: Illsyore [Slaves]: None [Pets]: None [Minions]: None I squinted my eyes at the value of Magic Energy and Magic Energy Regeneration as well as all those other stats. She was probably just as strong or even stronger than Nanya. Some of those values were also clearly different from what I saw back then, when I was still in my Crystal Body. One thing interesting about the values was the fact that she had gained 2000 Magic Energy points and 15 Magic Energy Regeneration points as a result of me fixing up her Magic Channels. It was all good, but at the same time, it meant that Nanya and Shanteya probably experienced similar changes. After we got out of the dungeon, we found the demoness waiting for us while munching on what looked like a red fruit. She tossed one at each of us. I took it in one hand and gave it a sniff, unfortunately, I forgot to unseal my sense of smell. ¡°Where did you get these?¡± I asked her. ¡°There are a few trees growing over there. I absorbed a couple because I like this fruit. It¡¯s called Garupa.¡± she replied and then took another bite out of the fruit. Curious about it, I decided to use my chompers for the first time in this world. I unsealed my nose and took a bite from it. The taste was exquisite, sugary, and it slightly remembered me of apples and melons. A weird combo, but it tasted great. ¡°Any luck with finding a settlement?¡± I asked. ¡°A small town over there. A village in that direction. And a bandit camp over there.¡± Nanya pointed out at all three of them. ¡°Bandit camp?¡± I asked her, raising an eyebrow. ¡°Beginner and Intermediary Ranks, nothing to worry about.¡± she shrugged. ¡°Alright, then let¡¯s head for the town. This will be the first time stepping into one, and I¡¯m curious about what I will see and what sort of people I will meet there.¡± I said with a smile on my face. ¡°Sounds good to me.¡± said Ayuseya. ¡°I will go wherever Master wishes to go.¡± confirmed Shanteya. ¡°Ugh¡­ let me make an illusion ring or something first.¡± complained Nanya as she looked at her clawed armor. Again, the demoness was starting to act strange. I didn¡¯t see a reason why she would need to hide her appearance, she wasn¡¯t repulsive or anything like that. The teenage charm was replaced by the adult one. From a physical point of view, she was very sexy and appealing, at least in my eyes. Either way, something was up, and one way or another, I intended to find out. Until then, however, we had to reach the town and register with the Adventurer guild! Speaking of which, I made a quick note to self to integrate one in my future Magic Academy. I need a few cat teachers¡­ and a fox nurse. Definitely a fox nurse! I thought while walking next to Nanya and looking at Ayuseya¡¯s swaying bottom. A man had to get his priorities straight, after all. [Nanya¡¯s point of view] We were heading to a small town at the edge of this desert. It had an Adventurer Guild, but I didn¡¯t really feel like rejoining it. Only bad memories were left from the last time I was part of it. Then again, it was highly doubtful that they had my old member card. With a sigh escaping my lips, I looked up at Illsy. He was grinning like an idiot about something. Following his gaze, I saw him staring at Ayuseya¡¯s bottom. My right cheek twitched. I didn¡¯t like it. Unlike the other two women in our group, I had the least amount of plus points with him. But that wasn¡¯t the problem¡­ Indeed, no matter how I looked at it, the draconian princess had the dignified air of a noble and the body to sway any man¡¯s mind, while Shanteya had¡­ experience. On the other hand, I was a demoness, a dungeon, always getting angry at him, always playing a prank or something¡­ Well, I doubted those things bothered him, but they bothered me. Argh! Sometimes I feel like I¡¯m sabotaging myself! I cried in my mind. Illsy still had his eyes glued on Ayuseya¡¯s bottom. I threw him a glare, but the one to notice me was Shanteya. She giggled and shot me smile. My cheeks went up in flames, and I quickly looked away. It¡¯s not what you¡¯re thinking! It¡¯s not! I retorted to her, but who was I kidding? That woman could read me like a book right now because I let my guard down. Illsy, you idiot! It¡¯s your fault! It has to be! I complained in my mind like a child. To clear my head, I began to make a small Ring of Illusions. My old form was nice enough, but it was a bit small, this enchant had to hide me entirely. For the moment, getting rid of the sharp teeth, spiky tail, claws, dark hair and eyes, anything that even hinted at the possibility of me being a demon. Then again, Illsy was the strangest one with his emerald-green eyes and jade-green hair, but he was kind of cute and handsome¡­ I quickly shook my head. No! No! No! First the ring, then you can think about how charming Illsy is! Ugh¡­ no that¡¯s not what I want to think about¡­ stupid brain! I complained again. This was sort of getting out of hand¡­ fast. _______________ Note from the author: Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it! :) In regard to the previous questions, this story isn''t dropped, I just have a bit of a lag when uploading it anywhere else. Chapter 43: Nanyas surprise attack! The good part about all of us having an agility over 1000 was that we could easily move around without needing to actually use a carriage, horse, or car. The latter still needed some tinkering to be done. Either way, we were running through the desert at about 100 km/h give or take. We could go much faster than this, but we weren¡¯t in a hurry, and I wanted to do my share of staring at Ayuseya¡¯s sweet bottom! Unfortunately, the chain mail I gave her had the uncanny ability to keep her bosom from bouncing too much. Actually, it barely did at all, which was the big problem. Ugh! Me and my attention to useless details¡­ I grumbled in my mind. Eventually, we reached what appeared to be the beginning of a rocky part and then continued for a few kilometers with a prairie. My geography was a bit lacking on this part, but the desert felt rather small, or maybe we just landed near its edge. Either way, after another few kilometers, we finally entered the woods. Not even five minutes later, the small town came into sight. ¡°This is quite far actually, how were you able to find it so quickly?¡± I asked Nanya. ¡°I didn¡¯t. I found a bandit who thought I would be easy picking. I beat the snot out of him, and he was kind enough to point out the few settlements he knew of.¡± she explained and shrugged. ¡°So that¡¯s why you mentioned the bandit camp? I did find a bit odd that you found one¡­¡± I told her and then sighed. ¡°Yup!¡± she smirked. ¡°Then how did you know their ranks?¡± asked Shanteya with a raised eyebrow. ¡°He bragged about them being Intermediary and that they will get me eventually.¡± she waved it off as if it was nothing. ¡°Uh-huh. So, any chance we¡¯re going to get ambushed soon?¡± I asked. ¡°You fear a bunch of Intermediary? Sneeze once and they will all die.¡± she replied as if something impossible like that was normal. ¡°Sigh¡­ Well, how will we approach this place then? Just waltz in?¡± I asked. ¡°No, first I¡¯m going to do this!¡± said Nanya with a big smirk as she put on a ring on her clawed finger. Actually, the ring kind of vanished inside her armor, since she was wearing it over her hand. I didn¡¯t really have the inspiration to strip any of the girls to properly check their three sizes for erm¡­ research and¡­ erm¡­ armor building purposes. Yes! Armor! But yeah¡­ I didn¡¯t do it, and I sort of regretted it afterwards. The fierce and imposing looking Nanya turned into a completely different person. Now with blond hair flowing all the way to her hips, a not so spiky and bulky armor, no tail, and most importantly: no claws. The demoness turned 100% human, at least on the outside. ¡°WOW!¡± I said surprised. ¡°How do I look?¡± she asked and made a twirl. ¡°Maybe I¡¯m strange, but I think I like the real version better.¡± I replied tilting my head. She blushed and turned around. ¡°I-It¡¯s just a disguise¡­¡± she spoke with a clear note of embarrassment in the tone of her voice. ¡°She looks lovely and cute too!¡± Ayuseya complimented her. ¡°Indeed.¡± Shanteya agreed as well with a nod. ¡°Let¡¯s go in then!¡± I smiled and walked in front of them. We were met at the gate with two human warriors wearing thick plated armors. Their weapons were big axes with thick handles. I was honestly expecting two spear wielding, leather armor dressed soldiers, not these two fierce warriors. They were sort of intimidating. ¡°Good day!¡± I initiated the conversation. ¡°Good day! Who be you is in the town job?¡± he suddenly said. ¡°Say what now?¡± I blinked surprised when I heard him. Shaking my head, I looked back at the girls, but they didn¡¯t seem to be bothered by the sudden massacre of the spoken language. Maybe it¡¯s just me? Is the Darkness messing with what I hear? I thought. ¡°Ah, you maybe not speak Kalish not?¡± he asked furrowing his brow. ¡°Erm, maybe?¡± I asked., trying to guess the answer. ¡°Can you understand me now?¡± the man asked, but I couldn¡¯t see the difference, they were honestly speaking the same language but with a better grammar. ¡°Yes.¡± I replied and tried to focus a little bit on what sort of words I was hearing exactly. ¡°They must be adventurers. Are you here for the new Dungeon up north? I heard it¡¯s a fearsome Dungeon of almost 100 floors now!¡± said the other man nodding as if to affirm his own words. Fearsome? The one I broke by stepping in? I thought a bit surprised. ¡°No¡­ we¡¯re just passing by and would wish to spend the night at the local inn.¡± I told him with a smile. ¡°Ah! The inn is down the street to the right! Can¡¯t miss it!¡± said the first guard. ¡°Thank you!¡± I nodded and smiled. ¡°Have a nice day and stay out of trouble!¡± he warned us. After entering the town, I was surprised to see how incredibly common and simple it looked like. There were no fancy buildings or strange-looking warriors. Everyone was mostly dressed in a similar fashion and wielding all sorts of swords and axes, mostly the latter. As for the races, there were a few el¡¯doraw, even an elf healer helping out a human child who scabbed his knees. The only species I couldn¡¯t see were dwarfs and draconians, but most of them were certainly humans. ¡°Illsy, did you pull back your Dungeon Territory? We wouldn¡¯t want Dungeon Level Detecting Stones going off all over the place now, do we?¡± Nanya whispered to me. ¡°Oh! No¡­ I¡¯ll do that now.¡± I replied and then closed my eyes for a moment. The order to pull back my Dungeon Territory had to be done by feeling rather than simply selecting something from the status screen. I was quite certain the old grumpy dungeons inside my noggin wouldn¡¯t help me with this, after all, it went against their principles. ¡°Done!¡± I declared with a smile. We continued to walk towards the inn pointed out by the warrior here. I was also looking around for the so-called Guild Hall or Guild Building or whatever was called here. Unfortunately, I couldn¡¯t recognize it, but there was one interesting thing I noticed while walking around. The languages spoken here were many, but mostly that Kalish thingy the guard mentioned. Strange words popped now and then, but in rest, everyone spoke with a broken grammar. It was a bit annoying to hear them, but I was starting to guess it was most likely the translator inside of me trying to make up for the unknown parts, but it was failing miserably. I wonder if I can buy tomorrow a book with this language¡­ Any more of this gibberish, and my ears will fall off! I cried in my mind, but the girls didn¡¯t appear to be bothered by it. ¡°Can you all actually understand what they are saying?¡± I asked curiously. ¡°Yes. I learned Kalish at the palace.¡± replied Ayuseya. ¡°I lived here once, remember?¡± replied Nanya with a raised eyebrow. ¡°Kendarian and Kalish were the first two languages I learned when I was still a free el¡¯doraw.¡± said Shanteya. ¡°Kendarian?¡± I asked raising an eyebrow. ¡°This language I¡¯m speaking right now.¡± she told me with a smile. ¡°That, I can understand, but Kalish sounds like gibberish to me.¡± I shrugged. ¡°Kalish isn¡¯t as widespread as Shorayan, Panamarium, or Teslovian. Of course, there are a bunch of other languages as well on this continent, I¡¯m not even going to mention the unknown, ancient, or tribal ones.¡± explained Nanya with a teacher like tonality. ¡°Sounds like a big headache to me. Is there a spell that can help me learn all of them?¡± I asked raising an eyebrow. ¡°Something like that would be priceless, but no¡­ As far as I know there¡¯s no such spell.¡± said Nanya, scratching her head. ¡°If you wish, I can help you study it.¡± Ayuseya offered her services with a warm smile. ¡°Thank you! I appreciate it!¡± I said with a big smile. Once we reached he inn, we stepped in. A bunch of curious gazes scanned us from head to toe, while whispers were heard in the back. We were probably an interesting sight to behold, especially since we didn¡¯t dress like the locals¡­ or looked like them. I had green hair. That alone was enough to make me stand out of the crowd. The girls were also quite beautiful, more so than most of the locals as far as I could see. ¡°Welcome to the Milky Inn, nya!¡± the innkeeper welcomed us. Nya? I thought and then looked in her direction. Before me stood the rumored cat-girl, but unlike the mangas and animes, she was an anthropomorphic feline from head to toe. A smooth black fur covered her entire body, whiskered endowed her little snout, her big cat-like eyes were looking back at me, and the left ear twitched a little. Unfortunately, her chest was close to nonexistent. There was a clear landing strip over there! ¡°Good day.¡± I said with a small bow. ¡°Nya?¡± she replied with a nod. Is that intentional? I am seriously going to get a cat-girl slave or pet! I told myself. ¡°Omph!¡± I groaned as I received a hit in the ribs. ¡°I don¡¯t know why, but I just felt like hitting you.¡± Nanya squinted her eyes at me. I gulped. ¡°Is everything alright, nya?¡± asked the innkeeper. ¡°Yes¡­ nothing to worry about.¡± I rubbed my sore spot and approached her. ¡°I wish to book a room for tonight. You have any free?¡± I asked, but I couldn¡¯t help but stare at her swaying tail and cat-like features. She intrigued me. ¡°First time seeing a nekatar, nya?¡± she asked with a giggle. ¡°Huh? Yeah¡­¡± I smiled foolishly. ¡°We¡¯re not that rare on Sorone as we are on Allasn and Thorya. You¡¯ll soon get used to it, nya.¡± she giggled. ¡°Sure¡­¡± ¡°About the room, we have three left. All of them, nya?¡± she asked. ¡°Erm¡­ how many beds each?¡± ¡°One has a single bed, nya. The other have double beds. How many do you wish to book, nya?¡± ¡°Two, please¡­¡± I said, thinking that two of the girls would get a room, and I would be sleeping with Shanteya as usual. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. ¡°Very well, nya! Are you an adventurer, by the way?¡± she asked tilting her head to the left. ¡°We plan on registering, why?¡± ¡°Adventurers get a 10% discount. After you register, just show me the card, and I¡¯ll ask for fewer coins.¡± she told me. That sounded like a good deal, however, there was nothing I could do about it now. I wanted to settle in and lay down in a bed for like the first time in forever. ¡°Good to know. How much does it cost?¡± I asked. ¡°For two rooms, that would be six silverettes.¡± she told me. ¡°Alright, erm¡­ Nanya?¡± I looked back at her. ¡°Here you go.¡± she tossed me the six coins. They were actually silver coins, but this was the first time I held one in my hand. I didn¡¯t even know how much I could buy with one of those, but the currency was also different here than it was on Shoraya. Truth be told, I didn¡¯t bother learning about those sort of stuff while I still had my crystal body. Well, now was a good time as any to start learning. ¡°Out of curiosity. How much would this be worth?¡± I asked her and then showed her a perfectly round sphere of gold I created in that moment. It wasn¡¯t that hard. I had like a small mountain of the stuff. ¡°Oh? Shiny, nya! Erm, about 10 goldiettes, maybe 12 if you barter. Where did you get it, nya?¡± she asked with sparkling eyes. ¡°Erm¡­ A Dungeon.¡± I smiled. ¡°I see, nya¡­ Shiny, very shiny.¡± she was almost drooling. Moving my hand left to right seemed to catch attention. It was fun to see her act like that. Heh, she¡¯s like a kitten. Wait¡­ were cats attracted to shiny spheres? I asked myself, but since I never owned a pet cat, I had no idea. ¡°Illsy.¡± Nanya poked me in the back with a finger. ¡°Stop playing around, it¡¯s not polite.¡± she glared at me. ¡°Ah! Sorry!¡± I said and closed my palm, removing the sphere from the nekatar¡¯s sight and then absorbing it. ¡°Nya?¡± she blinked surprised as if pulled out of a trance ¡°Well¡­ Ehehe, I hope you will enjoy your stay here! The rooms are on the second floor. This one is for the room on the right, next to the stairs, and that one is for the one at the other end of the corridor, nya.¡± said the woman with a smile before handing me the two keys. The rooms weren¡¯t next to each other, but maybe that was asking for a bit too much. We checked the first room. It was of simple design and didn¡¯t smell that bad. With a nekatar in charge of the place, I highly doubted she allowed for bad smells to persist. Then again, I could always turn off my nose. ¡°Who will stay here?¡± asked Nanya. ¡°You and Ayuseya.¡± I replied. She turned around and raised an eyebrow. ¡°You are planning on hogging Shanteya for yourself?¡± she asked with a grin. ¡°Yes, I mean no¡­ I slept, for the most part, together with her, and it¡¯s been a really LONG time for me since I did.¡± I shrugged. ¡°Fine.¡± Nanya shooed me off with her hand, and I sighed. Me and Shanteya went to the other room to check it out as well. There was nothing out of place there, it was actually an identical copy of the previous one. I closed the door and absorbed the key, since it was the safest with me. Nanya probably did the same, and we all returned downstairs. ¡°What should we do now?¡± I asked them. ¡°Why don¡¯t we eat something and then go to bed? Honestly, I¡¯m a bit tired¡­¡± suggested Nanya, stretching her arms a little. ¡°I agree. A good meal and a decent amount of rest will restore our powers for the next day.¡± Ayuseya nodded. ¡°Whatever Master wishes.¡± Shanteya was indifferent by the looks of things. ¡°Then we¡¯ll do that¡­ I think it¡¯ll be a while before the Sun sets, so I will fiddle with some projects in my Inner Mind. If you three want to look around the town, you are free to do so.¡± I told them and then we all went to eat. Our cook was an old woman who worked for the nekatar innkeeper. Thanks to her, we managed to get a taste of the local cuisine and most importantly of some really tasty sausages. Unfortunately, they were far from what my mother used to make during Christmas back on Earth. Alina never got a chance to try the recipe because we always went over to my folks. It was like a small family reunion. The specialty of the area was a portion of mashed potatoes with a boiled egg on top. The old lady here added some seasoning over the egg and a few pieces of smoked ham next to it. We all ate like starved wolves because it was that delicious. For me, it had been so long since I last ate an actual meal, that anything I gobbled down tasted like heaven for me. That being said, I ate like a pig. The girls, on the other hand, were a bit more delicate with their manners. They didn¡¯t stuff their face like a certain Dungeon Lord in that room. When the meal was over, the girls went up to their rooms, while I decided to have a big tankard of mead. I never tried it back in Romania because we never had anything like that. Palinc? yes, ?pri? yes, ?uic? yes, vodka yes, whiskey yes, wine yes, liquor yes, beer yes, but mead, never even knew where to buy it from. I think it was produced by fermenting honey with water¡­ or was it something else? I couldn¡¯t really remember. Either way, I had two big tankards of it and drank it slowly. The result of my experiment was finding out that I¡¯m completely immune to alcohol. The taste was bitter, close to beer, but not quite like it. Either way, I managed to taste the mead and the last thing on my list was rum. I just need to find a pirate now¡­ I thought as I brought the tankard back to the nekatar innkeeper. Her name, by the way, was Neyalin, and she was actually mated. In human terms, it meant that she already found her half and was married. The lucky fellow was a nekatar and a hunter by profession, who was currently out in the woods. With nothing else to do for a couple more hours, I took a spin around the town and searched for the Adventurer Guild. I found it quite fast, but it was on the other side of the town. We actually walked past it when we came in. The market was closed, but there was a woodcutter there who made wood carvings. They were really detailed and beautiful. I bought one of an owl and paid him with a small silver nugget. Apparently, it was worth three times more than that little carving I got. It didn¡¯t really matter to me, though. The mountain of silver inside my Inner Mind was bigger than the one of gold. I returned to the inn around sunset. The sky was bright red, and people were yawning all over the place. It was contagious because even I ended up yawning at one point. Well, the day was over, and I could finally take my first beauty sleep in a warm and comfy bed. ¡°Good evening.¡± I said to Neyalin when I walked past her. ¡°Good evening, nya!¡± she replied. Going up the stairs, I went past a big guy, a human with a rough aspect and bloodshot eyes, an adventurer most likely. Upon returning to my room, I stretched my hands and walked over to the bed. ¡°Shanteya?¡± I asked when I saw a figure standing on the bed. ¡°Not exactly.¡± the one who turned around was Nanya. ¡°Evening, so¡­ what are you doing here?¡± I asked. ¡°I traded places with her¡­ I¡­¡± her gaze fell on the floor. ¡°I have something I wish to talk with you about¡­¡± she looked up in my eyes. ¡°Alright, I¡¯m listening.¡± I said and approached her. This was something serious by the looks of it. ¡°Illsy, I don¡¯t think I can thank you enough for what you did back there¡­ You saved us from that madman.¡± I took a seat on the bed next to her and looked in her eyes. Nanya¡¯s cheeks were red, and she was constantly avoiding my gaze. ¡°Anytime.¡± I replied. ¡°You really aren¡¯t like the other Dungeons¡­¡± she said and then got up. ¡°I have you as a wife, so I¡¯m considering that a plus already.¡± I smirked. Looking back at me, she showed me a shy smile and then stepped in front of me. ¡°Illsy¡­¡± she told me. ¡°Hm?¡± Nanya looked into my eyes and then with her hand on her chest, she told me ¡°I¡¯m not like the other girls¡­ I¡¯m half dungeon, you know that, right?¡± ¡°Pretty much, yes.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not very pretty either¡­ my body¡­ it¡¯s different.¡± she looked down at her clawed hands. ¡°You do know you¡¯re talking to someone who can shoot lasers out of his palms, right?¡± I asked raising an eyebrow. I honestly couldn¡¯t tell where she was going with this. Clenching her fist, she looked back at me, holding a serious gaze in her eyes. ¡°You are right. You aren¡¯t like the others¡­ you are different. That¡¯s why I can¡¯t afford to lose to them or my own fears¡­¡± she declared. I blinked surprised, but still couldn¡¯t tell what she was trying to do. Did I cross some wrong wires when I fixed her wounds? I asked myself while squinting my eyes at her. In the next moment, Nanya did something completely unexpected, something unthinkable¡­ The armor she created with her own power vanished, absorbed by her body. In front of me, she stood almost naked, only her pink panties remained. Well, nothing a good ol¡¯ Colly Tos couldn¡¯t fix. Her long tail swayed behind her in restless motion, while the color in her cheeks turned a bright red. There was a trace of an instinct to hide her bosom, but she forced herself not to. ¡°No more games¡­ no more hiding¡­ Can you accept me, Illsy? As I am? A demon and a dungeon?¡± she asked me with worry in her dark eyes. ¡°Aaa baa¡­ er¡­ uh¡­¡± was all I could say. As much as I could try, my eyes fell only on the wrong places, especially her chest. I knew I was the one who fixed the hole in her thoracic cavity, but still¡­ THOSE HOLY MOUNTAINS! ¡°Illsy?¡± she asked tilting her head to the left. ¡°Silly woman¡­¡± I said and pulled her in my embrace. How could I say no or even think about rejecting my own wife even if she was a demon and a dungeon? If I did, the gods were sure to punish me severely! Therefore, that night, Nanya was going to be my first in that world¡­ ______ Note from the Author: Thank you for reading this chapter, I hope you enjoyed it! :) Chapter 44: Pillow talk and headaches I was laying down in my bed, with a smile upon my lips and an angel in my arms. What a great night that was, and I would have lied if I said that Nanya didn¡¯t know how to move those hips of hers. Least to be said that we didn¡¯t fall asleep even after the sun had risen. It was early in the morning now, maybe 7 or 8, it didn¡¯t really matter. ¡°You were great¡­¡± I whispered to her. Nanya showed me a cute smile and then kissed me again, pushing her bare chest onto mine, pulling me closer to her. I welcomed her, and we continued to kiss for another minute or so. ¡°I didn¡¯t think you would last¡­¡± she joked. ¡°I can still go for another round if you wish.¡± I smirked, but I wasn¡¯t lying. When I built this body, I remembered the many restrictions and limitations my human form had. This one was¡­ quite flexible and had the stamina to make Hercules jealous. ¡°Hehe!¡± she giggled and then moved on top of me. ¡°Let¡¯s go then.¡± Nanya was a beast¡­ She didn¡¯t let me go at all, showing me again how much she desired me and how glad she was that I wasn¡¯t running away from her or rejecting her demonic appearance. Indeed, that was her biggest worry at first. She was hesitant, shy, and actually reluctant when it came to doing it for the first time, but after I showed her that I didn¡¯t care, that no matter how she looked like she was still my wife and lover, she slowly gave herself to me, while at the same time, I gave myself to her. I once read in a book, that in such situations, the man must be the one who takes the reins and leads the dance. In various other novels and games, this situation was repeated, but what happened to me was nothing like that. In this dance, in this manifestation of our relationship and love, there was no ¡®I¡¯ or ¡®Her¡¯ who took the reins of dominance. There was no ¡®me better, you worse¡¯ situation. There was no desire to conquer higher than the one of being conquered. Indeed, it was a balance, a juggle of emotions meant to carry us in the arms of acceptance, understanding, and love, or rather wild passionate bed-breaking love. We actually broke the bed a couple of times, but I fixed it with the help of some dungeon magic. Once we finished and calmed down again, I was looking up at the ceiling, and she was resting her head on my chest. My fingers combed through her long, lush hair. We spoke no words, only listened to the soft tune of our hearts and breaths. ¡°Thank you, Illsy¡­¡± she said after a while. ¡°For what?¡± I asked surprised. ¡°For accepting me¡­ even though I¡¯m a demon.¡± she looked up at me. ¡°Demoness, but I dig that sexy part of yours.¡± I told her with a shrug. She giggled and then kissed me on the chin. ¡°Yes, I¡¯m a sexy, tempting demoness, and you are a perverted dungeon who knows more about how to please a woman than he should have.¡± she smirked. ¡°All of my knowledge was acquired from books and was put to good use through a night of intense¡­ erm¡­ studying.¡± I said. ¡°Yes, especially that weak point at the base of my tail?¡± she asked raising an eyebrow. ¡°Cute moans are a delicacy I will always enjoy!¡± I declared proudly. ¡°Hihi.¡± she giggled. ¡°I¡¯m surprised though¡­¡± I told her as I rested my hand on her back. ¡°About what?¡± she asked. ¡°You being a virgin. I thought you and Dankyun, you know¡­¡± ¡°No, he refused me the moment he learned about my true identity. He always made some sort of excuse and fled from my embrace. At that time, I was still young and stubbornly refused to believe that he might have a problem with me being what I am¡­¡± she said while drawing circles with her finger on my chest. ¡°Well, Dankyun was a xenophobic racist idiot who had no idea what he was missing! But I¡¯m glad he did it because now you are MY wife, not his!¡± I declared proudly. ¡°Hehe. Well, Tuberculus tried a while, but with him¡­¡± she looked away for a moment. ¡°I don¡¯t know, it never felt right. I couldn¡¯t feel any sort of attraction from him. He was a friend or maybe something like a little brother I never had.¡± Ouch¡­ From friendzone to littlebrozone! Poor Tuberculus, but meh¡­ more for me! I thought and then pulled Nanya into another kiss, her chest pressing against mine. ¡°You are a lot more lovable than I thought you would be.¡± she said after we parted lips. ¡°What do you mean?¡± I raised an eyebrow at her. ¡°You enjoy holding me in your arms. You kiss me often. You try to be honest with your feelings. You sound closer to a dream than a real, flesh and blood man.¡± she said. ¡°I¡¯m no dream, I can tell you that much.¡± I puffed. ¡°Yes, a dream wouldn¡¯t try to find all of my weak spots in one night.¡± she smiled. ¡°I regret nothing!¡± I declared. ¡°Neither do I.¡± she shook her head and then kissed me again. ¡°By the way, you should check your stats now.¡± I told her. ¡°Why?¡± she furrowed her brow and looked into my eyes. ¡°[Bond of Trust] was activated. You got a bonus equivalent of 70% of my own stats.¡± I explained. ¡°Huh?¡± she blinked surprised and then had a quick look at the window. What she saw were the following values: [Name]: Mad Destroyer Nanya Demonarkiar the 2nd [Species]: Half Dungeon/Half Demon [Race]: Godlike/Demon Queen [Level]: 372 [Strength]: 1764+1382,5 [Agility]: 2021+1314.6 [Intelligence]: 1430+1505 [Magic Energy]: 15431+11025 [Magic Energy regeneration]: 115+105 points per second [Available points]: 0 [Skills] > List all skills? Y/N [Available skill points]: 0 [Allegiance]: None [Spouses]: Illsyore [Slaves]: None [Pets]: None [Minions]: None Besides the fact that she had no allegiance for a god, she also had 756 Magic Energy points trained or maybe added after I healed her. The difference wasn¡¯t as big as Ayuseya¡¯s was, but the difference in stats was as clear as day. At this point, Nanya was actually stronger than me by a lot. Her stats nearly doubled. ¡°Illsy, are you sure about this?¡± she asked with a worried tone of voice. ¡°About what?¡± I raised an eyebrow, unsure what she meant by that. ¡°Isn¡¯t this power a bit too much for me?¡± I pulled her in for another kiss and then told her ¡°The higher the stats, the better in bed, and I want you to be awesome!¡± I smirked. [Shanteya¡¯s point of view] ¡°They were loud¡­¡± I groaned while rubbing my temples. ¡°I couldn¡¯t sleep at all¡­¡± complained Ayuseya. ¡°You weren¡¯t the only ones, nya¡­ YAWN!¡± Neyalin opened her mouth wide enough to show us all of her feline teeth. She brought us two cups of hot, herbal tea and then went to serve another to a bulky looking warrior. Just like us, he didn¡¯t get a wink of sleep last night. Fortunately, the innkeeper was kind enough not to bust their door down. I managed to convince her by shaking a few coins in front of her eyes. They were part of the loot I scavenged from the dungeon, but even so, appeasing all the annoyed folk was expensive. Then we had to deal with the guards and neighbors too¡­ All of my poor coins were eaten by these money hungry wolves. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. ¡°Sensitive ears?¡± I asked lifting my head up. She nodded and twitched her left ear. ¡°If only we didn¡¯t promise Nanya to let her have this moment¡­¡± said Ayuseya as she picked up a cup of tea and took a small sip. ¡°I¡¯m sure she appreciates it and will do the same when it¡¯s your turn.¡± I smiled at her and then took a sip from my own cup of tea. ¡°Ahem! I am not in a hurry¡­¡± she blushed and looked away, but I knew she was itching to do it with Master. Even I was¡­ no, that wasn¡¯t right. Master did wish to spend his nights with me in bed, but he first had to appease his wives. Indeed, I was a slave, but I was certain I would get my turn as well. All that I wished for was that he didn¡¯t treat me like the other men did. But do I have to right to wish for a night like Nanya¡¯s? Well, not as loud, but just as passionate? I thought as I looked down at the few leafs floating in my cup. Yesterday, after we ate, Master gave me the key to our room, and he went out into town. Before I managed to open the door, the demoness placed her hand on my shoulder and told me she had something to talk with us. Ayuseya was right there, by her side. For a moment, I thought that they were going to impose some wife-only rules on me, who was the slave, but it wasn¡¯t that. Nanya expressed her concern over the fact that she was the only one without the [Bond of Trust], which both me and Ayuseya had. It wasn¡¯t the sudden boost in strength that she found interesting in this ability, but the fact that it was manifested by expressing a reciprocal trust with Master. Apparently, this was an ability no other dungeon had. We then explained how we both managed to gain it and besides offering a deep, mutual trust, there wasn¡¯t basically anything special we did. What came as a surprise to me was when Nanya asked how could we trust someone like that? How could we feel safe in the arms of someone we had just met? It was a weird question, but an understandable one. As el¡¯doraws, draconians, and demons, we lived a fairly long life, to the point where short-lived species thought of us as immortal. Because of that, we always had to be very careful whom we placed our trust in, and most importantly, loved. It wasn¡¯t easy. Betrayals and doubts plagued almost all of our relationships. I should know best, I was one of those specifically trained to cause those terrible rifts between people. The only answer we could give her, however, was a confusing one because even we couldn¡¯t fully understand how this trust came to be. You will know once you are embraced and kissed by him. Countless times I could have killed him, countless times he could have harmed me, yet all he did was be gentle with me. I thought as I remembered word by word what I told Nanya. It would have been a lie to say that I wasn¡¯t bothered by the fact that she stole Master¡¯s first time from me, but I wasn¡¯t like one of those jealous wives or lovers who clung to their men like they were the only ones in the world for them. Those people were the easiest preys I could destroy. I could either seduce the woman or let her catch me with her man in bed. Of course, I made sure it looked like no accident or misunderstanding. In the end, the two would kill each other, while I took care of the survivor. Thinking about that, I accidentally started to plot ways to kill off Nanya and take Illsy for myself. When I realized what I was thinking about, I quickly shook my head and tried to deny such vile thoughts from defiling my mind. Both Master and Nanya had been very kind with me. They treated me gently despite my past. I couldn¡¯t allow myself to do something like plot an assassination on Master¡¯s wife. ¡°Ugh¡­¡± I groaned and took a big gulp from my tea cup. ¡°I¡¯ll admit¡­ I am a bit jealous, but¡­¡± Ayuseya looked down and spun her cup between her fingers. ¡°I¡¯m not experienced in such things¡­¡± ¡°Don¡¯t rush it, Princess¡­¡± I told her and then sighed ¡°Just let it come naturally and when you feel like it¡¯s time, just tell him, and Master will welcome you in his arms. You will wish this to be a moment to remember, not hate¡­¡± I told her and then looked down at my cup. My first time wasn¡¯t one I wished to remember. It was something I wanted to deny it ever happened, to forget it completely. The pain, the fear, the shame I felt back then were terrible. Then again, what woman would feel joy when something as horrible as that happened to her, especially when it was a form of sacrifice to an evil god. While thinking about this, I accidentally remembered that scene, it was horrible, and it made me shudder. I hated it, I really really hated it, but there was no way to erase it from my mind and soul. All I could do was try to forget it and let my mind think that with Illsy around, such abuse and pain won¡¯t ever touch me again. ¡°Are you alright?¡± the draconian suddenly asked me. ¡°Huh?¡± I asked surprised. ¡°You¡¯re crying¡­¡± she told me with pity in her eyes. I touched my cheeks and indeed, they were wet. ¡°I¡¯m sorry¡­ It¡¯s just that I remembered something bad¡­¡± I told her as I wiped my tears. ¡°I see¡­¡± she looked down at her cup. ¡°I made up my mind. I¡¯ll listen to you and won¡¯t rush it, but when the time comes, will you help me? I will do the same for you because I believe that out of all of us, Illsy might love you the most.¡± she told me with a gentle smile, but I could see that it took her great strength to accept this. ¡°Thank you¡­¡± was all I could tell her in reply. I¡¯m sure Ayuseya didn¡¯t like the idea of sharing a lover, maybe she feared ending up cast aside as a simple mistress. Such were the cases in this world where a man took more than one wife. In the end, he pledged devotion to all of them, but he showed true love only to one. For some reason, I doubted I was going to be the so-called chosen one. At most, I would become his mistress. ¡°Leaving these embarrassing matters aside, what do you think will happen to us now?¡± she asked after taking a big gulp from her tea cup. It was starting to get cold now. ¡°I will follow Master. I am his slave, after all.¡± I told her. ¡°Wrong.¡± she shook her head ¡°You are one of his lovers, it¡¯s just that he forgot to ask for your hand in marriage as he did with me and Nanya. If you ask him, I¡¯m sure he will¡­¡± before she had the chance to finish her words, I raised a hand up and stopped her. ¡°It¡¯s fine, Princess. I know that if I ask him, he¡¯ll probably say ¡®yes¡¯, but I don¡¯t feel like I deserve this happiness just yet. My hands are stained with blood, and my body has been defiled by many¡­ I wish to be certain that whatever happens, I won¡¯t ever let another man touch me ever again. When my heart is ready, I will ask him to make me his wife as well.¡± I told her with a small smile. What I didn¡¯t tell her or anyone else was that I was partially afraid of my former organization. After what we did, I was certain the Guild Master would send out his best assassins after us just for revenge. Maybe he will be the one to personally hunt us down. If that was so, and I actually became Master¡¯s wife, then he would certainly use our relationship to his advantage. He wouldn¡¯t kill me, he would use me to get to him. That was a tactic that always showed results, and I refused to be a part of it. ¡°If you say so, but my offer remains valid. I will help you if you will wish to be together with Illsy.¡± the draconian smiled, refusing like a stubborn ox to back away. I sighed and drank the rest of my tea in silence before it went cold. Until such an occasion would arise, a lot of time would come to pass, maybe after Master and his wives had a few children, and he would need someone new to share his bed with. Then again, there was no way of knowing the future, and things could always come to change, maybe for the better, maybe for the worse. My only wish was that instead of Master, I will someday allow myself to call him Illsy as well¡­ _______ Note from the Author: Thank you for reading this chapter, I hope you enjoyed it. I came to understand that some of you may think this story is dead or I''ve forgotten about it. No, I simply forgot to post on RRL or had too many things on my mind and kept getting distracted. Anyway, if you ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY can''t wait for the next chapters here on RRL, you can always go to my website to check the latest chapters of the story (currently Arc 5 is done, so up to chapter 85). The link is in my signature. Chapter 45: The Guilds new adventurers [Illsyore¡¯s point of view] Both Nanya and I were currently regretting the fact that we didn¡¯t abuse my dungeon building skills and soundproofed our room at the inn. The tired look in Shanteya and Ayuseya¡¯s eyes told me that they didn¡¯t catch a single wink of sleep last night. Any excuse or attempt of getting out of this one was useless, absolutely useless. They were both glaring at me and Nanya, who was hiding behind me. Seriously? You are powerful enough to reduce this entire town to bread crumbs, and YOU are hiding behind ME? I thought while forcing a smile on my face. ¡°You both stink!¡± the nekatar suddenly told us. ¡°Huh?¡± I blinked surprised. ¡°Your scents are mixed up¡­ Her scent is on you and yours on her. If you want to make babies, please keep it quiet, nya!¡± Neyalin said pointing at both of us. Nanya was red like a tomato and didn¡¯t dare look up. ¡°Stupid Illsy.¡± she grumbled with a low voice. How is this my fault?! I complained. Neyalin walked away from our table to serve a grumpy adventurer with bloodshot eyes. ¡°I guess we can solve this in only one way.¡± said Ayuseya with a calm voice. ¡°By not skinning me alive?¡± I asked with a smile. ¡°That¡¯s for later, my dear.¡± she showed me a cold smile, and I gulped. ¡°For now, you must agree on never sharing your bed with only one of us for a special night without asking the others¡¯ permission.¡± she declared, and Shanteya nodded. I gulped. ¡°Fine¡­¡± Not like I have a choice anyway. Wait a minute¡­ I thought and then squinted my eyes at Shanteya and Ayuseya. ¡°Does this mean that you two¡­¡± The two women blinked surprised, turned red in the cheeks and looked away. They were acting suspicious. ¡°It means nothing!¡± the dragoness declared. ¡°Ahem! Anyway, this matter is closed, and we should think about what to do today. Oh, and one last thing. Nanya, did you use protection?¡± asked Shanteya. ¡°Huh? Protection? Against what?¡± she asked, tilting her head to the left. I nearly face-palmed myself because she didn¡¯t know about it, but then again, this was a medieval world. It wasn¡¯t like I could go to the local drug store and buy a box of condoms or contraceptive pills, but there was magic, so that made me wonder about various possibilities. ¡°Illsy?¡± Shanteya asked while looking at me. The horror on her face could be read quite clearly. ¡°Oh? Erm¡­ I have no idea what that is either, but after¡­ well at one specific point, I was asked if I wished to impregnate Nanya, and I said ¡®No¡¯.¡± I told her with a smile. ¡°You were asked? By whom?¡± asked Ayuseya with a furrowed brow. ¡°It¡¯s a dungeon thing.¡± I waved it off. ¡°Sigh, let¡¯s just hope we won¡¯t need to worry about an Illsy Junior running around breaking stuff and lifting skirts¡­¡± said Shanteya. What sort of mischievous perverts do you think my kids are going to be?! I cried in my mind. A graveyard silence suddenly formed around the table, with none of us saying a single word. I looked around at all of them, and after the sudden baby-making subject was brought to light, they didn¡¯t appear to be willing to debate any further about it. Then again, I wasn¡¯t planning on becoming a father so soon. Technically, I could build us a house, and our basic stats were enough to earn us a pretty coin, but still, not on my to-do list. ¡°Ahem! Illsy? What do you wish to do today or from now on?¡± asked Ayuseya, who was brave enough to shatter the silence. ¡°Erm¡­ Today, I don¡¯t know, but generally speaking, I want to get stronger, see the world, see other countries and how their academies work. I would also like to see how this Guild thingy works.¡± I answered honestly. ¡°So you wish to rebuild Fellyore?¡± she asked surprised. ¡°Not Fellyore, but my own¡­ I¡¯m sort of pulled towards that idea. I was an academy before being a dungeon, and this time, I want to try teaching the students a bit.¡± I explained to them with a smile. ¡°I see. Well, in that case, the first thing we need to do is go and register with the Adventurers Guild. Many of them receive teaching jobs and may be granted special access to the academies to teach the students there. The more famous you are, the higher your chances are to get into a good Magic Academy to either teach or be taught.¡± explained Ayuseya calmly. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t mind teaching again, but Illsy, you need to learn what an actual EASY dungeon is. No more YOUR version of ¡®easy¡¯.¡± said Nanya with a raised eyebrow. ¡°That wasn¡¯t my fault. I wasn¡¯t born with a manual on stuff like that¡­¡± I shrugged. ¡°If that¡¯s your plan, then going to the Adventurers Guild isn¡¯t a bad idea. If we raise our ranks with them, we can even gain access to various libraries across the continent, which can offer you a general idea on what sort of books are out there. You may need some of them in your own library.¡± explained Shanteya. ¡°Books? I never actually thought about visiting the library back at Fellyore, so I don¡¯t really know what sort of books are written in this world¡­ or how.¡± I said scratching the back of my head ¡°For some reason, I got this very very bad feeling whenever I got close to that room.¡± I told them. Nanya and Shanteya looked at each other and then giggled. ¡°What?¡± I asked surprised. ¡°Nothing.¡± said Nanya as she looked away. ¡°Well then, shall we head off to the Adventurers Guild now?¡± asked Ayuseya. ¡°Yes! Also, I need some tutoring lessons for the local languages. All I can hear is gibberish¡­¡± I concluded and raised my hand up like a kid in class. ¡°I can give you some¡­ private lessons later.¡± Nanya said with a soft purr, pulling herself closer to me. The illusion ring did well to hide the claws and tail because I could feel something invisible wrapping around my waist, but the demoness was careful, she neither scratched nor cut the fabric of my clothes. ¡°NO YOU WON¡¯T!¡± both Shanteya and Ayuseya shouted, dragging Nanya away from me and nearly tugging me along as well because she didn¡¯t pull back her tail fast enough, or rather she didn¡¯t want to. ¡°Tch!¡± the demoness clicked her tongue and crossed her arms at her chest. After we left the inn, we walked through the small town, which was called Perto by the way, and headed straight to the Adventurers Guild. It was one of the biggest buildings there, going up two stories without the roof. As far as I could see, it was spacious enough to hold the entire population of that small town in case of an emergency. Maybe that was its intended purpose after all. Either way, we entered through the front door and were met face to face with some of the adventurers of this continent. One thing was certain, none of them wore sparkly fancy outfits or had flying monsters as pets or mounts. They wore leather or plain chain mail as armors, and their swords were either iron or steel. None of them was enchanted or even showed to be of the slightest threat to any of us. By looking at them, I was starting to believe I landed in the middle of noobie town. These guys were seriously weak-looking. ¡°New faces, huh?¡± one of the adventurers threw a bored gaze our way. He was a tall, skinny man wearing leather armor with black shoulders and a small dagger hanging at his belt. As far as looks went, he was no different from a regular western European: Caucasian, brown hair, and brown eyes, the whole package basically. Most of the folk in this town looked the same. ¡°We¡¯re here to register, yes.¡± said Ayuseya with a smile. ¡°Oh? A pretty lady like you registering with us Adventurers? What has this world come to if we need to rely on women to defend us?¡± he said as sarcastically as he could and then burst into a loud laughter. There¡¯s always one like him¡­ Still, why pick on Ayuseya? I¡¯m the guy with the green hair here! Oh, right! I¡¯m wearing a hoodie, so he can¡¯t see it. I thought while trying hard not to punch him in the face. ¡°Shut it, Borun! Nobody needs to hear your smack talk.¡± said another man, a warrior wearing full plated armor and holding a scroll in his hand. Since he had his helmet on, I couldn¡¯t see his face, but he appeared to be stronger or at least of a higher rank than him. ¡°Tch!¡± he clicked his tongue and looked away. ¡°If you wish to register, go there, but leave the demon at the entrance, we don¡¯t need her kind around here.¡± he said pointing at someone in the other side of the of the building, but he just had to add that last remark. ¡°Please don¡¯t insult my wife.¡± I told him kindly and at the same time holding back from summoning a Minotaur in the middle of the room. ¡°Whatever.¡± he shrugged and looked away. ¡°Told you it wasn¡¯t a good idea.¡± said Nanya, but she appeared to be holding herself back as well. ¡°It¡¯s alright.¡± I smiled at her and then patted her head, then I noticed that she was still wearing her illusion ring. On the outside, Nanya was no different than a regular blond human woman, so how was that man able to see through the disguise? Either way, this brought a whole set of ugly glares at us, but we ignored them and moved along. ¡°He¡¯s probably a Watcher, that was how he knew.¡± Nanya told me in a whisper, while staying close to me like a timid girl, or rather someone trying very very hard not blow the place up. ¡°A Watcher?¡± I asked. ¡°The helmet is enchanted. When he looks at someone, it tells him what species they are, but it can¡¯t be set to identify more than two, maybe three different ones. It¡¯s mostly used against those who have to pay the most expensive registration fee, or against those who aren¡¯t welcomed on the kingdom¡¯s territory¡­¡± she told me. If a country was at war or something, then it was natural for it to be wary of infiltrating spies, but to use something like that so people didn¡¯t cheat with the tax? It seemed a bit extreme. Then again, it could be one of those hard to reason with royal decrees. At least, I found out there were items out there that could see through one¡¯s illusion or disguise. No use relying on them too often if they could end up undone one way or another. Well, I didn¡¯t really care if they identified me as a dungeon or not. I was quite literally in a Supreme Ranked party, meaning that there weren¡¯t many out there who could oppose us. Nanya, on the other hand, didn¡¯t seem to enjoy the exposure. Before we went to speak with the one who would handle our registration to the Guild, I looked over at my maid el¡¯doraw. ¡°Shanteya?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes, Master?¡± she replied. ¡°Please put the poison away¡­¡± I smiled. ¡°It¡¯s not a poison, Master. It¡¯s an extremely powerful and potent laxative.¡± she explained. Thinking about it, that was actually a good combo. I highly doubted he could take off that big armor before the accident occurred, but still¡­ I didn¡¯t want any problems here. ¡°Just put it away, for now¡­¡± I sighed and then went to introduce ourselves to the one doing the registration. Still, what surprised me was the fact that these fellows spoke a language I understood and not Kalish or Kendarian. Maybe they were adventurers from the other continents? As for the person in charge with handling our registration, she was a petite woman the same size of Nanya in sealed form. A big scar across her right eye decorated her face. She had dark-brown hair tied up in a small pony tail, black eyes, and wore a black leather armor that probably hid a chain mail under it. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. When we approached her, she first looked at Ayuseya, then at Shanteya, and lastly at me and Nanya. If I were to guess, she was probably trying to determine our strength with one gaze, but it would be a bit hard unless you were like me, a dungeon. ¡°So you four want to register, eh?¡± she asked and then leaned back on the chair. ¡°Yes!¡± I told her with a nod. ¡°That will be 4 silverettes for you, 4 for the el¡¯doraw, 9 for the draconian, and 2 goldiettes for the demon.¡± said the woman with smirk. ¡°Why the difference in prices?¡± I asked raising an eyebrow. She shrugged. ¡°Those are the rules. Humans, elves, and el¡¯doraws are 4 silverettes each, dwarfs are 6, draconian 9, any sort of furry is about 12 silverettes or one goldiette and 2 silverettes, and demons are 2 goldiettes. If you don¡¯t like it feel free to head to another kingdom or continent for different prices. I heard that in Teslov Kingdom, humans are 2 goldiettes and draconians 4.¡± she explained. That sounded a bit weird, but it probably had something to do with the balance of population. In other words, the dominant species had the cheapest registration fees with the guild. Going by that reasoning, it was natural for a human kingdom to have a high price for the minority species. To that, the political relationships between them were added as well. Thus, Teslov overcharged humans, and this kingdom overcharged demons. It was logical. That would also explain the need for a Watcher who could detect demons. Maybe the other species it could detect was draconian, since by furry, this woman probably meant those like Neyalin or similar to her. It wouldn¡¯t be logical to pick a random furry out of who knew how many were out there. ¡°We¡¯ll pay.¡± I told her. ¡°Good! Now then, what are your ranks?¡± she asked. ¡°Erm¡­¡± I had no idea how to answer that one. Because of my little bonus, we were literally above the Supreme Rank recommendation. The only thing missing was the appropriate skills to match the rank. However, I knew at least that Nanya was a Godlike, and I could probably consider myself one too thanks to my ability to create items as a dungeon, but Shanteya was previously only an Advanced Rank, and Ayuseya barely scratched the surface of a Beginner Rank. ¡°Let us take the strength test.¡± suggested Nanya, and I raised an eyebrow back at her. Strength test? You mean the one with the puny stone? We can all smash straight through it! I complained in my mind. ¡°Sure¡­¡± the woman shrugged and got off her chair. Walking past us, she went to the fellow in big shiny armor and told him a few words, afterwards, she returned to us and pointed at the back door. ¡°Through there. Oh, and the name¡¯s Serya.¡± she said. ¡°A pleasure to meet you. My name is¡­¡± I said and before I could introduce myself, she lifted a hand up and stopped me. ¡°No need. After I test you, you are free to introduce yourself to me, until then you are just A, B, C, and are those double D?¡± she asked and with the last one looked at Ayuseya¡¯s chest. The draconian covered her top instinctively. I raised an eyebrow. The woman shrugged and led us out. By going through that door, we exited the building and reached the backyard, which was actually a form of training ground for adventurers, or those aspiring to become one. This place was partitioned as follows: the range practice area was to the far left, where big metal poles were used instead of easily destructible targets; on the far right was the sparring ring; next to it was a sword practice area with big wooden dummies as opponents; and between the two was a small path leading to the back gate. ¡°Any of you can use ranged magic?¡± asked Serya as she walked in front of us and pointed at the metal poles. ¡°All of us.¡± I replied. ¡°Oh? Interesting. So you are all a bunch of mages?¡± she asked smirking. ¡°Sort of.¡± said Nanya. ¡°Well, blast one of those targets first, then I¡¯ll lead you to the next test.¡± she said with smug look on her face. ¡°But a fair warning, those are enchanted to resist Beginner and even Intermediary [Fireball] spells.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± Nanya raised an eyebrow. I could feel the challenge the woman was laying before us. Serya didn¡¯t believe we could destroy one of those targets. ¡°I¡¯ll go first.¡± said Shanteya and she walked up to the line from where to shoot. It was a distance of about 20 or so meters to those metal poles. ¡°Go ahead.¡± said the woman. Shanteya pointed her hand at one of the poles and then started to chant the spell, however, thanks to the small modifications I made to her Magic Energy channels and the extra stat boost she got from me, a [Fireball] 1 meter in diameter was formed in front of her. The huge ball of fire was then launched towards the metal pole and slammed at full-speed into it, exploding and even blasting the wall behind it. When the smoke was cleared, there was a small crater where that metal pole previously stood, and two others were half melted because of the power of the attack. On another note, the enchants were powerful enough to absorb a part of the blast, otherwise, it would have reached us. Well, not like a weak attack like that would have damaged us anyway. ¡°Th-that was¡­¡± Serya was dumbfounded by the display of power. ¡°Well done, Shanteya!¡± grinned Nanya. ¡°Should I go next?¡± asked Ayuseya. ¡°C-Can you do the same?¡± asked Serya. ¡°Yes.¡± she replied with a smile. ¡°No need to then! Erm¡­ can all of you do that?¡± she asked raising an eyebrow. ¡°Something as simple and weak as that? Sure.¡± Nanya smirked back at the woman. The battle was won. With a sigh, the woman closed her eyes for a moment to regain her composure. ¡°Then¡­ we should move on. If you are mages, I¡¯m sure you won¡¯t do just as well in strength!¡± she smirked. ¡°Oh really?¡± Nanya showed her a mischievous smirk. ¡°Then what will little ol¡¯ me do in a test of strength?¡± she looked up at me with apparent worry in her eyes and pouting her lips a bit. This little devil¡­ I thought while looking back at her. If there was one monster here, that was Nanya with her brutish strength of over 3000. One punch was all she needed to turn this whole area into a crater. Unfortunately, Serya didn¡¯t catch on to her play and with a smug look on her face decided to give us the test of strength. I merely sighed and followed her. We were taken through the back gate, deep in the forest, where a bunch of a boulders were gathered. They were big, nearly 4 to 6 meters in diameter, but when compared to the blocks I once created for Nanya at the Fellyore Magic Academy, these ones were very small. ¡°All of the boulders here are enchanted so that even a Master Rank can¡¯t break them. Well, all except for the big 10 meters one. That one was enchanted by a passing by Godlike. It¡¯s strong enough to test Emperor Ranks. Make a crack in any of the 6 meters ones, and you are a Master Rank. Do the same for a 4 meter or smaller one, and you are Advanced Rank.¡± Serya explained and crossed her arms at her chest. She didn¡¯t believe we would even scratch any of them. ¡°Should I go first?¡± asked Ayuseya. ¡°Please do.¡± I told her. With a smile, the draconian approached a 6 meters boulder and prepared to hit it. She pulled back her elbow, clenched her fist, and anchored herself with her feet on the ground. When she was ready, she let it rip. One thing was to be mentioned though, she wasn¡¯t able to control her strength yet, so when she hit the enchanted boulder, it was struck with a force of over 1000 strength points. The end result was a pulverized rock. It was shattered in a billion pieces and scattered in front of the draconian. ¡°Oh, my!¡± she said surprised. ¡°I guess I¡¯m next.¡± I said with sigh and moved in front of another boulder. Seeing as this was a relatively safe spot, I wondered just how a 1500 strength punch would compare to Ayuseya¡¯s. Just like she did, I pulled back my elbow, aimed at the center and then let it rip. The strike was dead-center, and the result was an ear-shattering boom, a boulder that simply exploded into countless tiny pieces, and a small crater that formed in front of me. In the end, I did more damage than Ayuseya, but it was an overkill with our uncontrollable brute strength. ¡°Then it¡¯s my turn.¡± said Nanya with a smile as she walked straight to the big 10 meter boulder. She didn¡¯t even punch it, she simple stabbed her claws into it and lifted it up like a pebble. Of course, to us, it looked like she only placed her frail human palm on the surface of the rock, but the appearance of the sudden holes in it made it clear. She tossed it up in the air and then jumped after it. As soon as she reached it, she moved on top and then pushed it with all of her might. The boulder broke the sonic barrier and slammed into the ground at an incredible speed, forming a crater and breaking into more pieces than one could count. As a result, this training area was simply pulverized by our might. ¡°Oh, my! Was I supposed to punch it?¡± Nanya said, looking back at us and batting her eyelashes. ¡°Technically, the boulder is broken, so¡­ we passed, right? Or should Shanteya try as well?¡± I asked pointing back at the el¡¯doraw. Serya was looking back at me with a twitching eye and a gaping mouth. She was shocked, simply stunned by this display of power, and without a doubt, she was regretting the fact that she doubted our strength. ¡°Hello?¡± I said waving my hand in front of her eyes. There was no reaction coming from her. ¡°Did she faint?¡± asked Ayuseya. ¡°Probably¡­¡± I replied. ¡°N-No¡­ I didn¡¯t, but¡­ I¡­ you¡­ I don¡¯t¡­¡± she tried to say, but her brain wasn¡¯t allowing her to form a basic sentence. It wasn¡¯t that shocking now, was it? I thought to myself while looking back at the craters. ¡°You passed¡­ But out of curiosity, what ranks are you all?¡± she asked. ¡°I¡¯m Godlike, he can beat up a Supreme but doesn¡¯t have a Supreme skill, the draconian and el¡¯doraw are in a similar situation.¡± Nanya said with a simple shrug. ¡°I see¡­ So what ranks should I put here?¡± she asked us while rubbing her temples. ¡°I am a Godlike, he is a Godlike, the other two are Masters.¡± Nanya replied briefly. ¡°I understand¡­ Follow me then, we¡¯ll do the final procedures back at the Guild.¡± Serya said, showing that she was still a bit shaken by all of this. Without further ado, we proceeded towards the Adventurers Guild to finish our registration and take our first quest. I was quite curious to know how these things worked in this world and if I could implement them somehow in combination with the dungeons I could build. That would probably be interesting and bring my future academy a couple of pluses in the eyes of possible future students. One thing remained unclear though, why did we have to go through this test when Nanya could judge our strength according to the guild¡¯s existing ranking system? It was suspicious, but if I were to guess, she did it only for the giggles. _________ Note from the Author: Thank you for reading this chapter! I hope you enjoyed it! :) Chapter 46: Bucket Head Thanks to Serya, the registration took no more than a couple of minutes. To our surprise, she was actually Perto Town¡¯s Guild Hall Assistant. The Manager was currently away on business, so she was the one in charge of all the paperwork at the moment. Of course, the Watcher dude was always glaring our way, or to be more precise, at Nanya. He wasn¡¯t taking her out of his sight, and I was starting to think of it both as creepy and annoying. As for her, she didn¡¯t really care. In regard to the registration, we were offered each a metal card on which our name, species, Adventurer Rank, and Guild Rank were written down. The words weren¡¯t magical or enchanted or anything like that as I read in those novels back on Earth, they were actually plain ol¡¯ dog tags. On mine, the following information was written: [Name]: Illsyore [Species]: Human [Adventurer Rank]: Godlike [Guild Rank]: Beginner Apparently, they didn¡¯t add the family name unless we specified it or actually had one, however, we could put it down as an initial. This was great because Ayuseya only added a P for Pleyades, Shanteya a D for Dowesyl, and Nanya a D for Demonarkiar. The one thing I found odd was the fact that they saw me as a human. While true that I didn¡¯t had any slit eyes or weird appendages, instead of a sternum, I had a big green crystal, but she didn¡¯t made me strip to prove I was completely human. If that happened, I had a feeling Serya would have had to deal with an angry demoness, dragoness, and el¡¯doraw at the same time. Therefore, I remained fully clothed. From an outsider¡¯s point of view, without using any magic or other means to reveal the truth about me, I looked pretty much like any other tall human being with green hair. Once we were done with the registration process, we were explained the rules of accepting quests from the Questboard and how to complete them. The Questboard was basically a wooden board behind the counter where you could order something to drink. On it, the Guild Manager or Assistant pinned up all the town¡¯s quests as well as those sent by the Headquarters in the capital. I wasn¡¯t told how they kept in touch, but Serya pointed out that it was almost instantaneously. A fact which made me believe that maybe they were using some sort of enchanted item capable of transmitting either written or verbal information over long distances. Each quest request had a title, which represented the main objective, secondary objectives, details about each objective if needed, reward for completion, time limit if there was any, recommended Adventurer Ranks, and minimum Guild Rank. In other words, something like this: Local Quest Title: Hunt the goblin pack north of Perto. Objectives: Kill all the goblins in the pack located north of Perto. (bring a tooth from each goblin as evidence) Time limit: None Reward: 2 goldiettes Recommended Adventurer Rank: Intermediary Minimum Guild Rank: Beginner Oh, and if the quest was regional or somewhere random within the kingdom, instead of Local Quest, it would have said Regional or Kingdom. If the quest required multiple adventurers to confront a bigger monster like a boss, it became something like this: Local Raid Quest. Either way, it was a pretty simple system, and we already picked a first quest. It was the goblin one. At the moment, we were walking through the forest outside of the small town. We let Nanya scout ahead of us, since she was the fastest. Shanteya was technically the best tracker we had, but she couldn¡¯t match the demoness¡¯ speed. She was practically flying through the forest¡­ ¡°This is quite exciting!¡± said Ayuseya with a giggle. ¡°Our first quest together, indeed.¡± I said with a smile while looking at the dog tags representing my admittance into the Adventurers Guild. ¡°Unfortunately, we start from Beginner Rank. I never was part of the Adventurers Guild, but I had to pretend I was one once or twice. The Beginners don¡¯t have too many privileges. It¡¯s sort of a trial rank until you get to Intermediary. Once you reach Master Rank, people begin to pay attention to you, but with our Adventurer Ranks, it shouldn¡¯t be a problem to advance quickly.¡± explained Shanteya. The el¡¯doraw was ahead of us, following Nanya¡¯s tracks. ¡°I¡¯m surprised they don¡¯t restrict us from taking quests of a higher difficulty.¡± I told her, remembering that in some of the novels I read and even games, you usually couldn¡¯t take a quest higher than your current level or at the very least ten levels above it. Here, you could be a Beginner Rank in the Guild, but as long as you had a high Adventurer Rank and no restriction was added to the quest, you were free to take it. Speaking of which, it would be important to mention the reason why the Minimum Guild Rank option was added to a quest¡¯s description. That was because some quest givers required a certain credibility from an adventurer. Technically, anyone could become a member as long as they had enough coins, but raising in ranks required one to complete multiple quests. The higher the difficulty the better, or so Serya explained. As for our current quest, we took it more as a trial to see how the system worked and because the reward could afford us a few days at the inn. Afterwards, we planned on taking higher difficulty ones in order to quickly jump through our ranks and earn myself a pass at the library in the capital or any other city out there. ¡°I found them!¡± said Nanya while jumping from behind me and wrapping her arms around my neck. ¡°Oh? Where?¡± I asked the woman while she was rubbing her cheek against mine. For some reason, she was much more affectionate towards me now. ¡°That way.¡± she pointed with her tail without letting go of me. Shanteya and Ayuseya were looking at me accusingly. ¡°Alright, then how should we do this?¡± I asked while pretending to look away. ¡°Let Ayuseya try. I already pulled their teeth out while I was there, so she can go all out on them.¡± Nanya suggested and pulled out a bunch of bloody canines from her own Inner Mind. ¡°Well, Ayuseya?¡± I asked looking back at the draconian. ¡°I will do my best.¡± she made a small bow with her head. ¡°You are coming too, you need to show us EXACTLY where they are.¡± Shanteya said pulling Nanya away from me. ¡°And you, here.¡± she tossed me the notice of another quest. ¡°When did you?¡± I asked surprised. ¡°Trade secret.¡± she cutely poked her tongue out at me. ¡°You know I can make you tell me, right?¡± I reminded her, raising an eyebrow. ¡°How daring of you, Master. But if you desire my body for tonight, then so be it.¡± she made a bow. ¡°Huh?¡± I blinked surprised. Before I had the chance of rejecting her offer, as if I would, she already turned around and left together with Ayuseya and Nanya. ¡°Meh, big boobs hugs tonight. Me liky.¡± I shrugged and looked down at the quest request. It was a simple one. I had to gather mushrooms. I was Godlike Dungeon Lord with over 1500 points in every stat who was gathering mushrooms. Yup, this brought memories from my gaming days when I had a max level character, all the best gear I could get, and I was doing a daily quest of planting flowers in a senile old lady¡¯s backyard. By the time I finished my quest, the girls finished theirs as well. I cheated a bit and expanded my Dungeon Territory to search for them better. When we met up, I saw Ayuseya had her right fist soaked in blood and trying hard not to stain her dress. ¡°What happened?¡± I asked while holding the basket filled with mushrooms in my hands. ¡°Mou! Goblins are too squishy!¡± the draconian princess complained and looked at me with imploring eyes. ¡°Sigh¡­ OK, here.¡± I said and created next to me an opened stone box with a 1 meter long side. I filled it with water and then stepped away to let her wash her hands. ¡°So, how squishy exactly?¡± I asked and looked back at Nanya, who was snickering. ¡°She punched one, and it literally burst into pieces. The one behind it died as a result of the shock wave, then the other two tried to attack her in a desperate attempt, and she did a quick draw on them. The sword went straight through them. Hehe! Then she saw a big ol¡¯ spider looking up from the ground, she got scared and jumped back, smashing straight through a tree!¡± Nanya explained, trying hard not to burst into a loud laughter. ¡°BWAHAHAHA!¡± ¡®Try¡¯ was the right word. ¡°You have no idea how dangerous spiders can be!¡± the draconian glared at the demoness. ¡°Yeah! So scawy! HAHAHA!¡± she couldn¡¯t abstain. ¡°Hmph!¡± Ayuseya wasn¡¯t happy about it, and I just stood there with a furrowed brow, trying hard to understand what was going on. ¡°Master, to be fair, the spider was the size of your palm and quite deadly for Beginner Adventurers or those without Magic Armor in general.¡± the el¡¯doraw pointed out. ¡°There are many things those without Magic Armor need to watch out for.¡± said the draconian. ¡°Sigh¡­¡± I shook my head and then walked over to Nanya. After patting her on her head, she quieted down ¡°You had your fun, now let her be.¡± then I walked over to the draconian and gave her kiss on the cheek. ¡°You did great for your first quest, now let¡¯s head back and give these to Serya.¡± I told her. Ayuseya blushed as a result of what I did, and we were all pretty quiet on our way back. Before we entered the town, Nanya used her enchanted ring to hide her demonic appearance from the locals. It was a good way to avoid unnecessary trouble, although, there still were a couple of idiots who looked our way. I blamed that on the human-like appearance of the illusion and Shanteya¡¯s beauty. Ayuseya, on the other hand, was a bit looked down upon, almost as if they had something against draconians. Unfortunately, I didn¡¯t know the language and could only guess what they were talking about behind our backs. Once we reached the Guild Hall, Nanya took it upon herself to complete the paperwork in order to mark the quests as completed and receive our rewards. It was basically a written declaration through which we all testified to have done as requested by the quest giver and that we didn¡¯t mind a subsequent verification if it was ever required or asked for.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Serya was a bit surprised when she saw that we were already done with the subjugation and the gathering one. In my opinion, I saw no reason as to why she would be surprised of something like this, after all, back on Earth, it was both efficient and quite common to usually pick up all the quests you could and then head off to complete them. Then again, I didn¡¯t exactly follow that rule either, since the gathering quest was picked up in secret by Shanteya. ¡°What are you looking for, exactly?¡± asked Ayuseya when she saw me squinting my eyes at the scribbles on the board. ¡°I¡¯m wondering if my eyesight is plain bad or if I really don¡¯t know how to read¡­¡± I replied. ¡°It¡¯s Kalish, so no wonder you can¡¯t read it.¡± she explained with a small smile. ¡°Well then, can you look for one that¡¯s suitable for our ranks? Is there something like subjugating a powerful monster, warlord, god, or anything like that on the board?¡± I asked while looking around for some sort of character or mark that was remotely familiar to me, but no such luck. Speaking of which, why didn¡¯t any of the idiot dungeons inside of me learned Kalish and Kendarian? This, I really wanted to ask them, however, I had no intention of returning to my Inner Mind too soon, besides¡­ there was no guarantee that they would answer me anyway. Most likely they would make fun of me instead. ¡°Hm, let me see¡­¡± she said as she began to scan the Questboard. Meanwhile, I looked over at Nanya¡­ or to be more exact at her round behind. From the corners of my eyes, I noticed another fool of an adventurer looking in that direction as well, so I threw him a glare and then pointed my thumb at my neck and made a slitting motion. The man gulped and looked away. ¡°What are you looking at?¡± Nanya asked with a raised eyebrow after she realized what I was doing. ¡°Ehehe¡­ erm¡­ if I tell you, you¡¯ll get horny and the girls will get mad.¡± I explained. ¡°Sigh¡­¡± she shook her head, but I was willing to bet that her tail was swaying happily left and right. ¡°I found one!¡± announced Ayuseya with a smile. ¡°What did you find?¡± asked Nanya as she walked over. ¡°A quest Illsy requested. This one pays quite a few goldiettes, and it¡¯s from the capital too.¡± she pointed at it. ¡°What? What does it say?¡± I asked excited while looking at the undecipherable scribbles. ¡°That one? Are you sure?¡± asked Serya as she walked over and looked at what Ayuseya was pointing at. ¡°What¡¯s wrong with it?¡± I asked, getting a bit impatient since they weren¡¯t telling me what was about. ¡°Well, it¡¯s actually a rescue and escort mission, but it¡¯s been a few days since it was put up there. Chances are the giver already gave up on it.¡± Serya pointed out, shaking her head. ¡°Rescue? From what? Bandits?¡± I asked. ¡°No, a dungeon. It¡¯s written like this: Party of five sent into Mehalom Ancient Dungeon. One cleric, two warriors, and two mages. Presumed dead or gravely injured. Send help at once then report to Deroak, the Slave Merchant in the city Elora. Reward is 20 goldiettes for each surviving member, and 10 goldiettes for any slaves recaptured/retrieved alive. The reward for slaves may drop if they are in a bad state.¡± Ayuseya finished reading and then looked back at me with a smile. ¡°Thank you, and I guess I know what quest to take now! Hehe! So where¡¯s this dungeon at?¡± I asked Serya. My eyes were sparkling from excitement and the urge to go dungeon exploring. There was also the desire to completely smash and obliterate other dungeons, but that was more of a passive-aggressive self-defense sort of feeling. ¡°Oi Oi! That¡¯s a very difficult quest! I think you should take another.¡± spoke out one of the adventurers who happened to overhear us. ¡°Let them take it. Fools need to learn early on when not to chew more than they can handle.¡± said the Watcher, but his remark didn¡¯t stop there, with a whisper, he commented ¡°If that accursed demon dies there, even better¡­¡± ¡°You seriously piss me off, Bucket Head.¡± I retorted. ¡°B-Bucket head? This helmet is an honor for any adventurer of this Guild! Not a bucket!¡± shouted the Watcher. ¡°Ah! Please knock it off you two, don¡¯t destroy my establishment!¡± Serya said and immediately jumped over the counter and placed herself between us. ¡°Seriously, DON¡¯T do that!¡± ¡°Hmph! The newbie needs to learn some manners, but I¡¯ll teach him some other day.¡± ¡°Oho? I could squash you like I bug if I wanted to, Bucket Head! Just make me!¡± I growled at him. ¡°Enough, Illsy.¡± Nanya said giving me a karate chop to the top of my head. I broke through the floor and landed in the basement. ¡°Arara¡­ Nanya¡­¡± said Ayuseya covering her mouth. ¡°I¡¯m OK!¡± I called out from below, then a broken wooden board hit me on the head. ¡°Ouch!¡± and here I thought that sort of thing only happened in the movies. ¡°Oopsie! Hehe! We¡¯ll fix it?¡± the demoness said with an awkward smile. ¡°M-My floor¡­¡± Serya was looking at the destruction with clear shock on her face, but that display of power was sure to calm down any future idiots who would have wanted to mess around with us, since it appeared as though breaking those boulders back then wasn¡¯t enough. ¡°Tch! I told you letting this demon in was no good.¡± said the Bucket Head. ¡°Sigh, yeah yeah, I heard that already.¡± Nanya waved him off. ¡°Do not worry about the damage, Master will fix it. As for this dilemma, it would be wise not to further inquire our wrath, otherwise, unfortunate¡­ accidents might befall upon you.¡± Shanteya said while walking in front of Bucket Head, and showing him a kind smile, the type that sent shivers down your spine when you knew you angered the wrong person. ¡°I-Is that a threat?¡± asked the man after he gulped. ¡°No, a fact.¡± she declared. ¡°Hey now, we¡¯re all comrades here¡­ more or less. You said demon, Watcher, but all I see is a blond human woman.¡± said one of the mage adventurers who got up from his table and walked over in an attempt to stop a possible fight. ¡°I can SEE she is a demon.¡± he declared. ¡°Even if she is, she hasn¡¯t caused any trouble for us, well¡­ only for the kitty at the inn.¡± he shrugged, and Nanya blushed. Meanwhile, I finally managed to haul myself out of that hole. ¡°Hmph! I still don¡¯t agree to having her here! She is bound to bring us trouble! Who knows? Maybe she can even summon a dungeon in the middle of this peaceful town!¡± the Bucket Head declared. She is already a Dungeon, why summon another? Oh, wait! I¡¯m also a Dungeon! I thought and then shot a glare back at him. ¡°Don¡¯t be ridiculous, Dungeons can¡¯t leave their territories! Besides, a young dungeon suddenly appearing here would be destroyed almost immediately by all of us, so please, Watcher, calm down!¡± said the mage again. ¡°Do not worry, we weren¡¯t planning on staying here any longer. We¡¯ll take that so-called difficult quest and be out of your hair.¡± I said crossing my arms to my chest. ¡°That being said, Lady Serya, how much would the damage caused by Milady Nanya costs by your estimates?¡± asked Shanteya with a calm demeanor. ¡°Huh? I don¡¯t know¡­ three, maybe four goldiettes?¡± ¡°Master?¡± said the el¡¯doraw while looking at me. ¡°Yeah, sure¡­¡± I rubbed the back of my neck and then tossed a small gold sphere her way. ¡°There you go.¡± said Shanteya, offering it to the woman. ¡°This¡­ This is worth ten times more! Are you sure?¡± she asked surprised. ¡°If Master said so, yes.¡± she nodded. ¡°Erm¡­ Thank you.¡± Serya was overjoyed with the payment. The shiny ball was nothing for me, but apparently, it was quite something for the locals. I rubbed the back of my head and gave up on starting a fight with Bucket Head. Well, he was no danger to me anyway. I could easily crush him like a bug. ¡°We¡¯ll take that quest and be on our way then.¡± I told Serya, who nodded approvingly. Tucking the gold sphere in her pocket, the woman went over to the counter to complete the request. My wives and slave placed themselves between me and Bucket Head to avoid a possible fight, which wouldn¡¯t have lasted more than a second or so¡­ While we waited, I used that time to ponder about whether or not I should just expand my Dungeon Territory and secretly build an entire underground cave system filled with boot-loving imps, snakes, and maybe even Minotaurs. The idea made me snicker to myself. ¡°Don¡¯t.¡± Nanya said simply. ¡°What?¡± I blinked surprised. I didn¡¯t say anything, did I? I thought. ¡°You know what. Besides, if I lost my cool every time I met an idiot like that Watcher, I would have been long dead.¡± she said with a sigh. ¡°You¡¯re telling me you¡¯re used to this?¡± I asked her raising an eyebrow. ¡°I¡¯m telling you to ignore pointless trouble. You know the saying, right? Spells and swords may break my bones, but words from idiots will never do.¡± she smiled and patted me on the back. ¡°They can get you in trouble though¡­¡± I commented. ¡°Listen, as long as he doesn¡¯t actually DO anything, there¡¯s no reason to act against him. If we were on a political delegation or something like that, yes, that sort of behavior is unacceptable because we need to assert the power of the country that sent us. In this case, however, it¡¯s like seeing a wolf pup bark at a Dayuk pack leader. It¡¯s kind of funny to see a weakling like him acting like that towards us. Hehe.¡± said Nanya and then wrapping her invisible tail around my waist, she pulled me into her arms and kissed me. ¡°But thank you for sticking up for me¡­¡± she showed me a cute smile and then two strong hands gripped both of her shoulders. ¡°Nanya?¡± said both Ayuseya and Shanteya at the same time. ¡°Hehe! Don¡¯t worry, I was just giving him a small thank you, I¡¯m not going to mount him here.¡± the demoness poked her tongue out at them and stepped back. I don¡¯t think that¡¯s the problem¡­ Wait you were thinking about that? Huh? I thought a bit surprised. The girls let out a sigh and shook their heads. ¡°I don¡¯t mind you kissing Illsy, just do it in a more¡­ restrained way, please?¡± asked Ayuseya. ¡°At least when we¡¯re in public?¡± she showed us a small smile. ¡°Sure, but it¡¯s not my fault I act like this. It¡¯s like erm¡­ instinct?¡± Nanya replied smiling and scratching her right cheek. ¡°Instinct?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes, my kind is very very very possessive of their mates. I sort of see Ayuseya and Shanteya as a threat to my time in bed with you¡­¡± she bluntly explained. ¡°That sort of thing¡­¡± the draconian blushed. ¡°I admit, I did feel a bit¡­ jealous, but¡­¡± Shanteya blushed and looked away for a moment. ¡°Here, lovebirds.¡± said Serya giving us the small document entitling us to the quest. ¡°Thank you, speaking of which, how can we be sure someone else didn¡¯t take this quest already and failed or succeeded with it?¡± I asked. ¡°Every Guild Manager has the obligation of reporting this sort of stuff right away. Local Quests don¡¯t require this, but all the others do. When a quest is taken, unless specified that more can do so, it will be taken off the Questboard. If the quest giver believes the adventurers died while trying to do this quest, the guild sends out a scout to check their status. Their job is also to assess the difficulty of the quest. There are times when the quest giver underestimates the danger level. In the capital, some quests even have magic trackers to notify the Guild Manager of the progress of the quest in real time.¡± Serya explained to me with a big smile on her face. Now that she knew we were loaded, her attitude suddenly changed. Why wasn¡¯t I surprised? The pattern of greed often witnessed back on Earth was now baring its ugly snout on this planet as well. On another note, it should have been expected. Humans and basically any sentient being out there had their own needs. These needs were more than often achieved through the miracle one called money. I smiled back at her and kept my thoughts to myself. As long as I could settle difficult situations with a bit of gold, it wasn¡¯t that bad, but then again, this wasn¡¯t our fault to begin with. Bucket Head was to blame for everything. After we took the quest note, we left the establishment and headed off to the inn. ¡°You are leaving, nya?¡± Neyalin said with a sad look on her face as soon as she heard the news. The way she held her ears flattened towards the back of her head was kind of cute. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, we sort of ran into a difficult Bucket¡­¡± I said with a forced smile as I handed back the two keys. ¡°He¡¯s talking about the Watcher.¡± Shanteya explained. ¡°Oh? Nya! That bastard did it again! Every now and then good people with lots of coins come, and he gets into a fight with them over one reason or another! Nya! They always leave too early¡­ Ugh¡­ I apologize, nya.¡± she said lowering her head. ¡°No worries, but¡­ has this sort of things happened before?¡± I asked raising an eyebrow. ¡°Yes, nya.¡± she nodded. ¡°The Watcher at the guild is known to be a good fellow with the folk in town or the adventurers at the guild, but once he sniffs out an outsider, he¡¯s bound to get in trouble with them for one reason or another¡­ Eventually, things settle down after the outsiders leave, nya. But that¡¯s bad for business, nya!¡± Neyalin said. At the last remark, she stabbed her sharp claws into the counter. ¡°Nya, not again¡­¡± she sighed and carefully pulled them out. ¡°Here¡¯s for the trouble.¡± I told her and left her a small gold sphere. ¡°What¡¯s this for, nya?¡± she asked twitching her ears. ¡°To keep the business going.¡± I shrugged. ¡°Thank you, nya! You are kind, nya! But do come back sometime, nya? Maybe when the idiot Watcher isn¡¯t here?¡± she smiled. ¡°Maybe.¡± I said, but I highly doubted we would ever return. ¡°Take care, Neyalin, and thank you for your hospitality.¡± Shanteya showed her a small smile. ¡°Anytime! Anytime, nya!¡± We left the cat with her new shiny ball and walked out of the inn. A few minutes later, we were out of the town and heading down the road towards the quest dungeon. ¡°Well, that was a short stay¡­¡± I grumbled. ¡°It¡¯s not your fault, Illsy.¡± Nanya shook her head and patted my shoulder. ¡°Besides, after hearing Neyalin¡¯s story, I have the feeling that Watcher fellow isn¡¯t just randomly starting fights with all outsiders.¡± said Shanteya rubbing her chin. ¡°What do you mean? He looked just like an annoying Bucket Head to me¡­ Oh, wait!¡± my brain started ticking and the gears turned ¡°Rich outsiders, fights, early departures?¡± I said and squinted my eyes. ¡°I bet a night with Illsy that he¡¯s going to ambush us.¡± smirked Nanya. ¡°Reaaaly?¡± I asked with a big grin. ¡°Unless he simply hates rich outsiders, then he is part of a bigger ploy.¡± pitched in Shanteya. ¡°Let him come! I want to punch that Bucket Head for insulting Nanya like that!¡± I said and then picked the demoness in a princess-carry. ¡°What the?! Hey! Illsy! Stop it or¡­ achaaa.¡± she smiled wryly. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± asked Ayuseya. ¡°My armor is rather spiky¡­ Tehe!¡± she giggled. ¡°YAOUCH!!!¡± I screamed while sharp metal spikes poked at my hide. Another minus for me for constantly forgetting to keep my Magic Armor up. Chapter 47: A difficult question ¡°Are we there yet?¡± I asked a bit bored. That was the sixth time I asked in the past hour. Nanya was already glaring at me, and Shanteya let out a sigh. Ayuseya only showed me a smile of pity. We were currently a few kilometers away from Petro town and heading towards Mehalom Ancient Dungeon. The path was clear, and we have been running constantly through the woods to avoid the road. We were using more than 800 points in agility, and we didn¡¯t want to show off our power, yet. I tried picking Shanteya up and carrying her in my arms, since I was faster than her, but Ayuseya remained behind. She had the agility, but she didn¡¯t have the reaction needed for one with her stats. The dragoness princess had much to learn about her current abilities, but so did I. Thinking about it, I had yet to start training using my abilities. So far, we merely led a normal life, in a matter of speaking. There were no tough challenges, hard battles, or enemies to defeat in the near future, making the need to actually train a bit pointless. My boost was offering the girls more than they could handle already. We could probably take down Dankyun with relative ease right now, but I honestly didn¡¯t want to push my luck with it. All the evil, little Supreme enemies could stay there in their evil dens and let me have my fun. I certainly wasn¡¯t in the mood for any terrain altering battles, my topmost priority was getting to the dungeon, beating the hell out of it, saving who we had to save, then go to the capital and plunder their libraries. It was a good, simple, and modest plan. ¡°Are we there yet?¡± I asked again. Nanya groaned and then shouted back at me ¡°NO!¡± I had the weird feeling that I was becoming annoying. Nah, must be my imagination! I thought and shrugged. Of course I was annoying, I was bored¡­ About an hour and a half later, we finally reached to entrance of the famous dungeon. As Nanya instructed me before, I made sure to pull back my Dungeon Territory, since I didn¡¯t want to destroy the core so easily like I did before. ¡°We¡¯re finally here¡­ UGH!¡± Nanya groaned exasperated. ¡°I didn¡¯t think Illsy could be worse than a little kid.¡± giggled Ayuseya. ¡°He¡¯s a brat¡­¡± mumbled Nanya. ¡°I was just bored!¡± I defended myself. Shanteya only let out a sigh and stepped closer to the entrance, which was quite fancy if I had to say so myself. Instead of a cave, we were met with a six meters tall stone archway covered in carved letters. Unfortunately, it was in another language I had no idea how to read or speak. Behind the archway were two statues of a human and a Minotaur facing each other ready to fight. The artwork was impressive, but it wasn¡¯t extremely detailed. After that, we were faced with a pair of huge metal doors covered in various illustration of human men being slain by imps, Minotaurs, and all sort of other monsters. It was a real welcoming gift. ¡°Impressive.¡± said Shanteya. ¡°Meh, I can do better.¡± I commented. ¡°Suuure you can.¡± Nanya squinted her eyes at me in disbelief. ¡°Either way, this does look dangerous¡­¡± said Ayuseya with a bit of worry in the tone of her voice. ¡°Just keep your Magic Armor up and let me lead the party.¡± said Nanya, but I was already pushing the doors open. ¡°Are you coming?¡± I asked them. ¡°Ugh¡­ this is going to be a long day.¡± said Nanya shaking her head. Once inside we were met with the ever so famous¡­ cave. ¡°You have got to be kidding me¡­¡± I said squinting my eyes at the rock walls. ¡°For such an impressive entrance, the first floor feels a bit¡­ lacking.¡± said Ayuseya. ¡°Actually, this is normal. Only Illsy here is the difference.¡± pointed out Nanya. ¡°I don¡¯t see the point in making a cave¡­¡± I shrugged. Stepping inside, we prepared ourselves for the first encounter, whatever it was¡­ ¡°Kiii!¡± the giant rat screeched at us. I lifted my hand up and released a low powered laser beam. It was the kind that I wouldn¡¯t even flinch against, but in case of the low level rat, it went straight through it. Actually it was a bit ridiculous how much of an instant kill it was. The best way to imagine this would be to see a big barbarian with a two-handed axe in each hand attacking a defenseless little bunny. ¡°Maybe a slap would have sufficed?¡± I asked myself with a raised eyebrow. ¡°A slap? Even a flick to the snout would be overpowered!¡± puffed Nanya. ¡°Since the monsters are so weak, we can use them to train Ayuseya.¡± she suggested after a moment of thinking. ¡°I apologize for the trouble.¡± the draconian princess said with an elegant and small bow of her head. ¡°No worries! Nyahaha!¡± Nanya laughed and patted her on the back. ¡°By the way, do we have to worry about any sort of loot drops?¡± I asked them. ¡°Not at this level. We could, however, skin and declaw the beasts we kill if they aren¡¯t of the summoned type. It will only earn us a couple of silverettes, but it¡¯s better than nothing.¡± Nanya shrugged. ¡°Should we bother?¡± I asked raising an eyebrow. ¡°Nah!¡± she shook her head and waved it off ¡°After we reach the lower floors, the Minotaurs will give us good loot with their weapons and armors. If there are any skeleton walkers, we can take their armors as well. In general, that¡¯s the junk I sold before, but I heard there are some adventurers that look for various herbs that grow only deep inside dungeons. Tuberculus was one of the types that scrubbed a wall clean of moss before continuing.¡± ¡°Sounds like a lot of fun¡­¡± I said sarcastically. ¡°Yeah¡­ So do you want to do the same?¡± she asked me. I quickly shook my head, denying the thought of doing something as time consuming as that. I simply didn¡¯t have either the will or the patience to do it, but this gave me some ideas about what to try in the future. If I could grow stuff like that deep within the corridors of my dungeon, then I could teach some alchemy lessons as well, maybe I could even hire someone to do both that and help me grow the ingredients needed for class. We let Ayuseya do the killing, while Nanya ordered the rules of how she needed to move. I just admired the moss on the walls and the swaying of cute round behinds in front of me. About one hour and a half later, we finally met our first Minotaur. He didn¡¯t wear any gear, so we kicked his furry behind into a wall and continued with our exploration. It wouldn¡¯t be an exaggeration to say that we literally strolled through, flicking and slapping annoying monsters away from us. Very few managed to reach me. Ayuseya was good at keeping the aggro on her, but one strike was enough to permanently silence any monster there. After we reached the 35th floor, we encountered our first trap. There was a rope going from one tiny hole in the wall to the other. I squinted my eyes at it and then burned it with my laser. When it snapped, a boulder attached to a metal chain was sung down from the front and stopped in Nanya¡¯s fist. ¡°Pathetic¡­¡± I mumbled. We continued on with our exploration, but so far there were no signs of the previous adventurers. Since this wasn¡¯t the typical rush to the core type of quest, we had to find and search all the rooms at each floor. We went lower only AFTER our search was over, but so far, no luck. I was seriously starting to think that the adventurers may have died and got swallowed along the way. This, however, changed when we reached the 54th floor. ¡°Look! Over there!¡± shouted Nanya as she pointed towards the other side of a room filled with spikes and angry imps. ¡°I see him!¡± I said and rushed over. ¡°BUGA!¡± shouted an imp as it tried to attack me. The poor little thing was brutally stepped on like an insect and squashed under my foot. Nanya slapped into the ground all those attacking her, while Shanteya and Ayuseya cut them with their weapons. When I reached the other side of the room, I managed to get quite a bit of aggro on myself, and three bigger imps placed themselves between me and the human warrior. ¡°Fine! You asked for it!¡± I said and then rushed to the first one. The world around me slowed down to an incredible degree. I saw everything in slow motion, but I was moving much faster than human eye could see. It was thanks to my enhanced body that I was capable of something like this. A single slap was enough to finish off these three, and the others behind me were killed when I turned around and released a laser beam at them. In less than a minute, all the imps in the room had been exterminated. ¡°That was a lot of them!¡± said Ayuseya surprised as she wiped the blood off of her sword. ¡°It was most likely a trap room.¡± I pointed out. ¡°Indeed, but I don¡¯t see any summoning circles.¡± said Shanteya. ¡°These are bred.¡± pointed out Nanya. ¡°I always wondered how dungeons bred them.¡± I said absentmindedly as I looked down at the dead corpses. ¡°They bind females of other species and allow the imps to mate with them. Usually a human woman would produce around 20 or 30 imps per year.¡± Nanya explained. ¡°That doesn¡¯t sound right.¡± I said squinting my eyes at her. ¡°Unfortunately, that¡¯s the truth.¡± she sighed and shook her head. ¡°At least for imps.¡± ¡°Minotaurs and other species simply breed among themselves but only if the dungeon can sustain the summon period for their gestation and nobody kills them. Imps and Goblins are the only exception.¡± Shanteya added. ¡°Great¡­¡± I said and then looked back at the warrior in front of me. The man had been dead for a few days now, but the dungeon had yet to consume him. I knew for certain that if it did, the body would vanish, leaving behind only the gear. There were also all of these imps around, who didn¡¯t try to cook or eat him in any way. This could have happened only if the dungeon ordered them not to do so. But why would it? I asked myself as I got up. ¡°He¡¯s been killed by blunt force to the back of the head.¡± said Nanya. ¡°Was he murdered?¡± I asked.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. ¡°No, I suspect the imps did it. They entered this place, the party was overwhelmed and one of them attacked him when they managed to shatter his Magic Armor.¡± the demoness explained as she started searching his pockets for any mission missive or something like that. ¡°These things?¡± I asked surprised picking up the body of a dead imp. ¡°We are at floor 54, Master. If it was the me from before I became yours, I can assure you that this little fellow would have been strong enough to kill me.¡± Shanteya told me with a soft smile, but I found it hard to believe. Either I was so strong I couldn¡¯t see the difference or these guys were weaker than even she could tell. I was honestly betting on the latter because I didn¡¯t see anything so far worth using even 2% of my power. Then again, if the first one was true, I can understand now why Dankyun sort of strolled around my dungeon like that, but most importantly, why everyone was so shocked by my easy dungeon floor. To them, it would have been a nightmare worthy of lower floors, not the first one. I was the only dungeon who didn¡¯t follow the basic rules, who instead of luring the adventurers in, I blasted them in the face with challenge after challenge. This makes me wonder about how powerful a 100 floor dungeon would be if I were to build it with my current knowledge? Should I also lure them in and slowly destroy or drain their powers? I think I¡¯ll actually make one just for giggles, but my first priority when it comes to building something serious is an Academy¡­ as soon as I understand the ins and outs of this world. Everyone can build a building and say its a school, but actually nurturing young minds on a certain path, that¡¯s something not many can do, and I want to do that! I thought to myself, but while I was lost in thought, the girls left me there. ¡°Huh?¡± I blinked surprised when I saw them gone. ¡°Hey! Wait for me!¡± I cried after them. On the 58th floor, we found a prison where another victim of this dungeon was kept. She was a muscular, brunette woman in her mid thirties. Her body was covered in scars and stripped naked. Nanya looked at her wounds, but even I could tell why she died. It was a sword impaled into her heart. The few imps around that we found weren¡¯t killed by us. ¡°Her own party must have done this¡­¡± Shanteya said. ¡°Why would you say that?¡± I asked furrowing my brow. ¡°When imps make a woman their breeding tool, they use a small needle to pierce the brain and cut her consciousness off. Basically, her body remains active, they can force feed her, but she won¡¯t struggle or try to escape while they have their way with her. In general, all adventurers must and will kill anyone they find in this state.¡± explained Nanya. ¡°What? These imps can do something like that?¡± I asked surprised. Looking at the little bastards, I was starting to believe they weren¡¯t that stupid after all. ¡°Yes, but¡­ lately various nobles took up this practice to ensure certain slaves procured through the black market don¡¯t fight back.¡± Shanteya added. Hearing this, even Nanya was surprised. ¡°What do you mean?¡± she asked. ¡°Basically, they hire my former guild to kidnap certain peasant girls they fancied for their bodies and then request this operation to be done on them. The girls are offered to their new masters in a vegetable state and then they do what they please with them. Some are used for carnal pleasures, others as experiments for mages or alchemists. The worst I saw was a man using them to grow flesh eating worms. The victims died being eaten from the inside out¡­¡± the former assassin explained. ¡°But I thought a slave¡¯s collar pretty much made them unable to disobey their master.¡± Nanya asked a bit confused. ¡°True, but a slave that has this operation done to them is nothing more than a living puppet. They don¡¯t scream or cry when they are being hit¡­¡± Shanteya explained and lowered her gaze. This was something she saw with her own eyes. Maybe it was a way the Guild Master managed to keep his assassins loyal? He showed them an alternative ¡®use¡¯ for them. ¡°That¡¯s despicable!¡± retorted Ayuseya. Until now, the draconian remained quiet, but hearing something like that, she couldn¡¯t hold in her anger. It was an atrocious act even from my point of view, however, there was nothing we could do at the moment. Let¡¯s see¡­ list of priorities: get a nekatar as a pet, research the political affairs of the world and find a suitable location for my academy, get Shanteya and Ayuseya in my bed for sexy time, loot a library, fix Ayuseya¡¯s political situation, destroy Shanteya¡¯s former guild, and last but not least¡­ get rid of the Darkness inside of me. I thought as I noted down more or less everything I had in mind. Technically, the ¡®building the academy¡¯ part wasn¡¯t that hard. I could build it with the snap of my fingers, but it wasn¡¯t materials or power that I lacked, it was a good location, preferably something with a beach because swimsuits. The other important thing I lacked was information and a political ally who would send me students rather than armies ready to kill me. There was also the small factor of being able to fight off against Supremes. As I was right now, I still had a long way to go, but this journey was offering me all the things I previously lacked, especially a much needed bonding time with my three women. We didn¡¯t stay in that room for too long, but before we left, Ayuseya incinerated it with a small fireball. Witnessing the attack, I was starting to guess that maybe she was able to cast any fire type spell without incantation. Maybe a trait of her True Dragon side? But nothing showed up on my status list about it¡­ I thought while I walked beside her. At the entrance to the next floor, we found another member of the previous party. Well, what was left of him anyway. A pack of six hungry Dayuks were feasting upon his remains and crunching his bones in their powerful jaws. ¡°[Fireball]¡± I said and cast the devastating attack upon them. The Dayuks were killed in the blast instantly. They didn¡¯t even had the chance to dodge or yelp in pain. The remains of their bodies were spread all around us in a gory mess of guts, blood, and singed flesh. It was simply disgusting, but worse of all¡­ I sort of blocked the entrance to the next level. Simply put, I caused a tiny winy little cave-in. ¡°Good job.¡± said Nanya sarcastically and then sighed. ¡°Oopsie?¡± I showed them an awkward smile. ¡°No worries, the dungeon will fix it in a short while, we just have to wait until then.¡± the demoness shrugged and then pointed to a nearby room. ¡°Let¡¯s make camp over there.¡± ¡°What a weak dungeon¡­¡± I grumbled to myself as I followed them. The camp in itself was made out of four chairs, a small fire, and some meat on a stick to fry. On the ceiling, on top of the fire, Nanya placed a small crystal that absorbed all the smoke. It was the first time seeing something like that, but thinking about it, maybe it was a necessary tool for exploring a dungeon. After all, the floors were something like closed off caves, the smoke had to go somewhere, otherwise, it would kill the adventurers. A torch or two wasn¡¯t that bad, but when you were using them, you were constantly on the move, while with a fire, you would need to sit still. Then again, in this dungeon, I didn¡¯t see a single torch. It had either completely dark floors or barely lit ones with fluorescent crystals. Since we all could use spells, we mostly used globes of light instead of actual torches. Well, Nanya and Shanteya did, I just stood there looking pretty. Still, no matter how long we waited, the dungeon didn¡¯t clear up the path. It was getting annoying and strange. Even Nanya and Shanteya thought so. ¡°It¡¯s been over an hour¡­¡± I said as I looked at the fire. ¡°Indeed, strange¡­¡± Nanya squinted her eyes back at the entrance to this room. ¡°Even the bodies of the adventurers weren¡¯t absorbed. Maybe the Dungeon Core is dead?¡± Shanteya asked. ¡°No, I confirmed it when we entered. The Dungeon Core is alive and has a level of 94, so we shouldn¡¯t be that far from the end.¡± said Nanya. ¡°Speaking of which, did you find what they were here for and how many?¡± I asked her, but the demoness shook her head in reply. ¡°So that part is still a mystery¡­¡± said Shanteya. ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Good! Let¡¯s blast our way through then!¡± I said with a smirk. Nanya shrugged. ¡°Indeed, no point in wasting any more time here.¡± Ayuseya confirmed. ¡°Besides, a level 94? Isn¡¯t this one weaker than the other one?¡± I asked. ¡°The other wasn¡¯t an Ancient, it was a Normal and barely a level 102. In terms of strength, this one is at least 4 or 5 times stronger.¡± Nanya explained. ¡°Really?¡± I blinked surprised. ¡°Maybe, it¡¯s just a guess. Until you fight them with your Dungeon Territory, you can¡¯t really tell.¡± the demoness shrugged and put out the fire by splashing it with some summoned water from her Inner Mind. The way to reach the next floor was simple, I just had to punch the floor. Easy, but before I got the chance to do it, I was stopped by the girls. ¡°Huh? What?¡± I asked blinking surprised. ¡°Sigh, let me do it or you¡¯ll crush the whole thing on top of us.¡± Nanya said. ¡°Oh, come on!¡± I complained. The demoness punched the floor, but not where I wanted to, she did so near the exit. A big hole formed, and we jumped through. A couple of imps were squashed by boulders and it appeared as though the monsters were already starting to dig their way out because a bunch was gathered there. They snarled and raised their weapons at us, ready to attack. Shanteya went first and cut down five Minotaurs, Ayuseya slashed in half ten imps, and Nanya literally stole all of my kills. I was left just standing there with my guard raised up and chasing the monsters around so I could get a kill or two, which didn¡¯t happen, obviously. And yes, I forgot the little fact that I could shoot lasers from my palms¡­ ¡°Oh, come on!¡± I complained. ¡°There, there, Illsy! You¡¯ll get your chance someday.¡± Nanya told me with a sympathetic look in her eyes. This little devil staged the whole thing! I complained in my mind. ¡°Look!¡± Shanteya shouted, catching our attention. ¡°We¡¯ll talk about this later¡­ in bed.¡± I told Nanya. ¡°Can¡¯t wait for it, sweetie!¡± she winked at me. What the el¡¯doraw found was a wounded adventurer. He had his left arm cut and left foot broken. A big horn was stabbed in his side and a Minotaur was dead not far from him. He didn¡¯t have much time left to live, but it was rather strange that the monsters here didn¡¯t finish him off. To simply leave him like this to die wasn¡¯t something typical dungeons would do. ¡°Ugh¡­¡± the man groaned and then said something in Kalish. Nanya knelt beside him and spoke in the same tongue, while I could only watch and guess what they were talking about. The man¡¯s eyes were serious, while the demoness¡¯ words were calm. Taking a deep breath, he grabbed her by the armor and told her something, then his strength faded and leaned back. ¡°This man is as good as dead.¡± said Shanteya. ¡°We could heal him¡­ probably.¡± I told them and scratched the back of my head, wondering if we could use healing herbs or a crystal. ¡°Don¡¯t, he¡¯s not worth it.¡± Nanya said shaking her head. ¡°If you say so, but what did he say?¡± I asked curiously. ¡°Something unsettling¡­¡± the demoness looked back at him as if struggling with the decision of whether to tell me or not. ¡°Apparently, black magic users are hiding deep inside this dungeon. Their party thought it was going to be a simple dungeon exploration to the core and back, but when they encountered the black mages¡­ things changed. They were Godlike Rank at least, all of them¡­ His group had over 23 slaves with them, all meant to be used for¡­ various things.¡± she explained. ¡°What? 23 slaves?¡± I asked surprised, but the fact that they encountered Godlike Rank adventurers wasn¡¯t that much of a worry for me. Actually, I was sort of hoping for a bit of a challenge, but nothing exaggerated. In the end, I wanted to squash them like bugs. ¡°Yes¡­¡± Nanya nodded and looked back at me. ¡°10 of them were children¡­¡± mentioned Shanteya. The demoness gave her a glare. It seemed this was a detail she didn¡¯t want to let me know about, however, upon hearing it, a strange anger awoke and rattled its dark chains inside my soul. Making slaves out of criminals as a way for them to repay the damage they caused was one thing, but making a child a slave was¡­ disgusting. Kneeling down besides the man. I showed him a smirk. ¡°Shanteya, please translate for me. What happened to the children?¡± I spoke with a cold tone of voice. The man replied and grinned. ¡°Six died¡­ as food for monsters. They used them to divert them. The other four were captured by the black mages and probably had their souls plucked out of their bodies.¡± the el¡¯doraw replied. I sighed and closed my eyes. Red glowing veins appeared on my hands as I stood there. Anger swirled in my heart. Fury was unleashed, and yet I still retained my calm on the outside. Of course, the others had no idea what was happening to me, they couldn¡¯t tell that at this moment, my soul let out a bit of darkness. None asked me about the red veins either, but even I didn¡¯t take notice of them. ¡°Six died as food for monsters, huh? Six children?¡± I showed him a calm smile. ¡°So what? They are slaves. You are here to save me, not a bunch of tools.¡± Shanteya translated. I shook my head and looked at him with a calm gaze in my eyes. ¡°No¡­ Not really.¡± I said and then shot one of my laser beams right at his head. I killed him in cold blood and yet¡­ I felt nothing about it. How could I when he viewed the lives of children as tools? When he enslaved children and used them like this, as food for monsters to save his own hide? The anger inside of me was controlled by an unsettling fury. It was like a demon pulled the strings of my heart and poked it with a hot iron stick from time to time. ¡°Unfortunately, we were unable to save him.¡± I said coldly. ¡°Sigh, I don¡¯t care.¡± Nanya shook her head. ¡°Whatever Master wishes, I follow.¡± said Shanteya. Hearing her, my heart felt a tinge of pain. Looking back at the el¡¯doraw, I gently touched her left cheek, making her face turn bright red. ¡°The difference is you wish to follow me, and with one request, I am willing to release you. The contract is slave and master, but the bond between us is of friends or more¡­¡± I closed my eyes for a moment and then looked at my two wives. ¡°Girls, if I ever turn from this train of thought, please stop me.¡± I told them with a smile, but I refused to tell them why I feared I could change. The truth laid deep inside of me: the Darkness. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Illsy, you won¡¯t!¡± Nanya said with a smile of confidence. ¡°You will always have my support.¡± Ayuseya told me with her hand over her heart. ¡°Mine too, Master.¡± Shanteya said. I showed them a soft smile and then walked out of the room. Before I left though, I looked back at the dead human. Why don¡¯t I feel anything about this? Why do I find it so normal to have killed someone like him? I thought and then turned around. Even when I remembered what I did to Dankyun, it seemed that it didn¡¯t bothered me very much, if I were to say¡­ I had a few limits, in a way of speaking. Up to a point, I would just beat the snot out of them. After that, I would kill them. If they were such evils that I couldn¡¯t stand the sight of them, killing them was too little, and I wanted to torture them somehow, I wanted to see them suffer or know that they they were in a living Hell¡­ It was evil of me to think this way, but torture was worse than death in my opinion. For some, death was an escape rather than a punishment. This applied to that scumbag Dankyun as well. Then again, another question was raised inside my heart Could one who could kill so easily be allowed to teach the innocent children of this world? Chapter 48: The horde of zombies… and skeletons The imp squirmed and tried to get away, but it couldn¡¯t flee from my grasp. The other one was furious and tried to scratch me, but I had him pinned down. Meanwhile, the girls were giving me a strange stare. ¡°What?¡± I asked them, squinting my eyes at them. ¡°Why are you try to make the imps kiss?¡± Nanya asked with a raised eyebrow. ¡°I¡¯m not¡­ This guy is Peter, and he¡¯s trying to steal the keys from Grog, the jail guard.¡± I replied with a serious tone of voice. Hearing me, Ayuseya giggled, Shanteya sighed, and Nanya was at a loss of words. ¡°You are Godlike Dungeon that plays with dolls?¡± the demoness asked. ¡°Technically, they aren¡¯t dolls¡­ they are¡­ erm¡­ imps.¡± I looked between her and the two squirming little devils in my hands. ¡°I¡¯m really bored, aren¡¯t I?¡± I came to a realization. ¡°Yes.¡± they all nodded in agreement, even the imps the nodded. I squinted my eyes at the two and then let out a long sigh. ¡°How¡¯s the search for the exit going?¡± I asked Nanya as I looked up. ¡°Between being annoyed and going crazy.¡± was her descriptive answer. ¡°I see¡­ Bust the walls then?¡± ¡°Bust the walls.¡± she nodded in agreement. After the 60th floor, we landed in what could only be described as a seemingly endless maze. It wasn¡¯t filled with traps or anything like that, but it had monsters, and it was really complex. Thing was that I really really wanted to test it out and see how difficult it was. That was the reason why Nanya didn¡¯t break through the walls or floor already. As for the imps¡­ I got bored at one point. Using pure brute strength, Nanya punched the nearby wall, making a hole in it. The girls walked through, and I followed, but before that, I made sure to release the two imps. After the torture I put them through, I considered their freedom a just reward. Wall after wall crumbled down under the demoness¡¯ might until we finally found the stairs leading to the next floor. As expected though, none of the damage was repaired by the core, and I was starting to wonder if it wasn¡¯t better for me to simply release my Dungeon Territory and crush this one. It would make things a thousand times easier, however, the strange behavior of the Dungeon made me a bit hesitant. I wanted to know why it didn¡¯t repair everything, so I bet on the possibility of actually being able to communicate with it before I destroyed it or tortured the answer out of it. As we continued to go deeper and deeper, the difficulty of each floor became a bit strange. Some of them were incredibly easy, while others were a bit harder, but still required at least an Emperor Rank to clear them. Of course, this was only true for the design and complexity of the floor, the monster all scaled up the deeper we went, becoming stronger and stronger. All this time, Ayuseya was our vanguard, Shanteya cleared out the strays, and Nanya punched holes in the walls or picked up any noteworthy loot. With all the job slots being taken, it can be clearly seen how I ended up getting bored. I was just walking around, yawning, and picking up skulls to try out my juggling skills. At one point, I was juggling imps. Surprisingly, they had many uses. Now if only I could get them to stand still and take the role of bowling pins. ¡°Should we let Illsy fight something?¡± asked Ayuseya after she cut in half one of the Minotaurs. The draconian didn¡¯t even look at the monster when she did it. Hearing this, I looked at them with gleaming eyes and a struggling imp in my hands. ¡°No!¡± she declared with a wide smirk. ¡°YOU DEMON!¡± I screamed. ¡°Demon-ness.¡± she corrected me and poked her tongue out. Defeated, I let out a long sigh. ¡°Gabu! Biii!¡± the imp screamed. I tossed the critter back, splatting him on a wall behind us. ¡°This is no fun¡­¡± I grumbled. ¡°Illsy, dungeon crawling isn¡¯t fun¡­ It¡¯s dangerous.¡± Ayuseya said and turned around after cutting a Dayuk in half. I squinted my eyes at her. ¡°Indeed¡­ With my immortal body, I might catch a cold.¡± I said sarcastically. On another note, we managed to find the bodies of the other three adventurers. The mage had its head and heart chopped off with a dagger. That was clearly the work of the black mages. The last two were an el¡¯doraw warrior and a nekatar hunter. We found them as the food of a bunch of hungry imps. Ayuseya took care of the funeral details with a big [Fireball] that incinerated the whole place. As for the slaves, we only found remains of them. The demons didn¡¯t leave even a single scrap left, meaning the reason why most of the adventurers, although dead, weren¡¯t eaten yet was because the monster filled up their stomachs with the flesh of slaves. Thinking about it, that meant 23 souls had been used as bait and food for these things. It was such a cruel way to go, it simply made my blood boil with anger, but all the adventurers were now dead. I had no one to kill. When we reached the 73rd floor, things changed in the way the dungeon looked like. The walls weren¡¯t symmetrical. The rooms were half filled with dirt or were inclined at weird angles. Not even drunk would I build something like that. It was simply so messed up that not even monsters lived there. Actually, we found no traces of them, and the traps were too bad to actually work in any way or manner. ¡°This is weird¡­¡± I said as I poked a wall made out of wood. Only one third of it was wood, the rest was granite. ¡°Yes.¡± said Ayuseya as she looked around, holding her sword up in case of any surprise attack. ¡°What do you make of this?¡± I asked Nanya and looked back at her. ¡°Something is definitely wrong with the Dungeon Core¡­¡± she squinted her eyes at a three legged chair made out of stone and stuck halfway into the wall. ¡°Let¡¯s go deeper, maybe we¡¯ll find something, eventually¡­¡± said Shanteya. ¡°If this dungeons has the flu, I¡¯m getting out of here!¡± I expressed my concern. ¡°Dungeon Core don¡¯t catch diseases.¡± Nanya squinted her eyes at me. ¡°I knew that¡­¡± I crossed my arms and looked away. They can¡¯t? But if this isn¡¯t done by a disease, then what? I asked myself as I looked back at the wood wall. As we moved deeper, the geometry of the floors became more or less chaotic. There were rooms merged together, steep hall-ways, flooded rooms with water or lava, spike rooms. Everything looked like the result of a glitched random level generator. Without any monsters or traps actually working, we only had to make sure on what we stepped, in case the floor was there or not. I managed to get myself stuck in a sandpit this way. Luckily it was only waist deep, making it simply pointless. ¡°So, are we there yet?¡± I asked at one point. ¡°Yes.¡± Nanya said with a smile. ¡°Huh? Really?¡± I blinked surprised.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°No.¡± she glared at me. ¡°Meanie¡­¡± I told her and when she turned around, I slapped her bottom. ¡°Hey!¡± she shouted. ¡°She did it!¡± I pointed at the wall that was actually a semi-mirror. Squinting my eyes at it, I said ¡°Traitor.¡± The demoness merely sighed. ¡°We should get Master some toys next time.¡± giggled Shanteya. ¡°Nah, he¡¯s just exaggerating. Besides, he slapped my ass a bit harder when we did it at the inn.¡± she grinned. I refused to comment, while the girls merely giggled. These floors were incredibly small when compared to the others, but we didn¡¯t know how numerous. Either way, since they were degrading the deeper we went into the dungeon, we could only suspect that we weren¡¯t that far away from the last one, where we were most likely going to find the group of mages hiding here. Although it was clear that the dungeon cooperated with them, my only question was: why? After another ten or so floor, we finally reached the last one, however, the moment we jumped down through the hole in the floor made by Nanya, we were met with a shock. ¡°By the gods!¡± Ayuseya said and quickly covered her mouth with her hand. Shanteya tightened her grip around the hilt of her dagger, while I clenched my fists. ¡°Zombies¡­ and Skeletons¡­¡± Nanya said. Indeed, what awaited us down here were the remains of the countless unfortunate adventurers who ventured in this accursed place. They were all killed one way or another, however, seeing the sheer number of them, I couldn¡¯t help but feel as if this Dungeon should have had a higher level, not stop at 94. This floor was quite big when compared to the previous one. It had a height of almost five, maybe six meters. The area we were in was quite spacious and the entrance to this floor was sealed off with a steel gate. It was there to keep these monsters from fleeing to the upper floors. At the same time, on the other side of this huge room with an area of more than 100 m2, there was another steel door, but to get there, we had to go through more than 200 of these things. ¡°What do we do?¡± I asked with a gulp. ¡°GRAAH!¡± one of the zombies moved closer to us. Nanya sighed and stepped in front of the zombie. With a flick, she tossed it into the others behind it. ¡°Seriously? You are a Godlike Dungeon with stats higher than a Supreme, and you are afraid of these things?¡± she asked pointing back at the horde of zombies. ¡°Erm, aren¡¯t they strong?¡± I asked. She raised an eyebrow and then explained how powerful these creatures actually were. ¡°Zombies in general have about 75% of the strength of when they were alive, while Skeletons boost at over 125%. They can¡¯t use skills, they are dumber than Dankyun and have low mobility. Even if this was a horde of Supreme Ranked Zombies and Skeletons, we still wouldn¡¯t have much to worry about, but these guys are barely around Master Rank.¡± she then walked up one of them and grabbing his foot, she smashed it into the ground, practically breaking it apart. ¡°So, they aren¡¯t dangerous?¡± I asked surprised. ¡°For us? Gods, no!¡± Nanya shook her head. ¡°For the idiots before us, they are downright deadly.¡± she nodded. ¡°What would happen if these guys reached Petro?¡± I asked and walked over to one of the Skeletons. The creature rattled its bones and lifted a sword up. Out of curiosity, I flicked the bone on his arm before he had a chance to strike me. The arm went flying with the sword still in its grasp. I blinked surprised and then gave its skull a flick. The cranium went flying into the mouth of a zombie draconian, getting stuck there. ¡°These guys are weak.¡± I noted. ¡°Even for me?¡± asked Ayuseya a bit fearful. ¡°Illsy is more of a danger to us than these zombies.¡± shrugged Nanya. ¡°How is Master a danger to us?¡± Shanteya asked dumbfounded. ¡°Get naked, and the wolf shall howl!¡± she smirked. ¡°I will not confirm or not deny anything until I see the actual thing!¡± I declared proudly while a zombie on the ground tried to gnaw my foot. ¡°Annoying little thing.¡± I said and stomped on its head, squashing it. ¡°If Master wishes me to, I do not mind. There is nothing we need to hide from Master anyway.¡± Shanteya replied nonchalantly. ¡°What?¡± asked Ayuseya surprised. ¡°Since he¡¯s a pervert¡­ yup!¡± Nanya nodded an affirmative. ¡°You girls are¡­ ugh¡­ OK! FINE! I¡¯m a pervert! I like big BOOBS! There! I said it!¡± I crossed my hands at my chest while more zombies gathered around me, trying to eat me. Ayuseya blushed and turned to the side, trying to hide her chest from me. Shanteya and Nanya only giggled to themselves. That wasn¡¯t a secret for them. ¡°But to be clear, I¡¯m not touching any woman other than you three!¡± I pointed at them. ¡°Even me?¡± asked Ayuseya surprised. ¡°You are my wife. Give me a reason not to drool over you naked?¡± I asked her raising an eyebrow. ¡°Pervert¡­¡± she blushed and turned away, but at this point I made her aware that although having the body of a man, I also had one¡¯s needs. ¡°Illsy?¡± Nanya asked. ¡°What? If you want me to massage your chest, I know a good technique!¡± I looked at her with a smirk. ¡°Jokes aside, you are covered in zombies.¡± she pointed out. ¡°Huh?¡± I blinked surprised and then looked around. I didn¡¯t notice, but more than twenty of these hungry fellows were trying to get past my Magic Armor and eat my flesh. Fortunately for me, they were far too weak for me to even feel anything from their attempts. ¡°GYA!¡± I jumped up on the ceiling like a big scaredy-cat. My reaction was apparently so comical that it made the girls laugh. I let out a sigh and dropped down, smashing a few heads while doing so. After I walked out of the pile of zombies and shoved the rest back, causing a massive stumble for the horde, I looked back at the three giggling women. ¡°I admit, I did not expect to jump like that.¡± I said like a gentleman while shaking the jaws of a zombie¡¯s head off of my foot. ¡°Illsy, you really are funny sometimes.¡± Nanya said while wiping away a tear. ¡°Strange that I didn¡¯t sense them¡­¡± I noted. ¡°That¡¯s why they are so dangerous. They basically emanate no life-force or Magic Energy, so you can¡¯t really tell how many or where they are when they attack. Hearing and sight are usually the best senses to use when tracking down these monsters.¡± explained Shanteya. ¡°I see¡­ Can I re-kill them now?¡± I asked. ¡°Re-kill?¡± Ayuseya asked a bit confused. ¡°Go ahead.¡± Nanya waved me off. With a smirk, I focused Magic Energy in the crystals in my hands and pointed my palms at the horde in front of me. ¡°Stay behind me!¡± I told them. After I was sure they were out of the way, I let it rip. Two bright red beams cut through the pack in front of me until they reached the far-off wall, doing some damage to it as well. Keeping the beams at the same intensity, I moved my arms apart, forming an arc. The beams followed and cut in half anything on the way. In a matter of moments, the entire horde was destroyed, but now, we had a room full of crawlers, and something else. The only ones untouched by the beams were children and dwarfs. They were too small, but at the very least, the taller ones were decapitated and thus had their suffering end. After I was done, Ayuseya and Nanya stepped in front of me. They released a powerful [Fireball] each, sending it blasting to the middle of the room and burned off their corpses. I used my beams to headshot any remaining crawlers, dwarfs, of zombie children. About five minutes later, the entire horde was destroyed. ¡°Let¡¯s stack and burn the rest¡­¡± I said as I approached the body of a child. It was so painful to look at all this death, but while I felt nothing in general for the adults, the children were something else. They were innocent, they had no reason to perish like this. Who knew how many mothers cried after them and how much they asked the gods above why weren¡¯t they allowed to play in this life¡­ Who would send children in a Dungeon? I thought. ¡°I think the salves are among them as well¡­¡± said Nanya and lifted a body with a slave collar up. ¡°Then the dungeon or monsters killed them or ate them, then they waited for them to turn into these things?¡± I asked. ¡°That¡¯s most likely the reason why the bodies we saw before weren¡¯t dragged away or absorbed.¡± remembered Ayuseya. ¡°Some dungeons, indeed, prefer these types of monsters instead of the usual, but this still doesn¡¯t explain why the previous floors looked so twisted¡­¡± she told me. ¡°I dunno¡­¡± I shrugged. ¡°After we are done here, let¡¯s kill those black mages and then find the ¡®master¡¯ of the slave children. I feel like destroying someone¡¯s business.¡± I told them with a bit of a growl in the tone of my voice. ¡°Slavery is a big business, Illsy. Crushing one or two slavers won¡¯t remove either its need or users.¡± said Shanteya. ¡°Yeah¡­ I would have to teach generation after generation that slavery is a bad thing, or at least when applied for children or under certain rules.¡± I let out a heavy sigh. ¡°I¡¯m still going to go and smash that guy¡¯s business¡­ just to feel a bit better.¡± I nodded as I made my decision. ¡°Or if you don¡¯t like the sight, we could go to a country that doesn¡¯t have slavery.¡± Nanya shrugged. Looking down at the body of the child I was carrying, I wondered if that was the best solution. Thinking about it, I forgot how exactly slavery was abolished in my previous world. I remembered something about an Abraham Lycan doing something like ending a Civil War¡­ or was it Lincoln? History was never my forte, but that was in the USA, for Europe it died out sometime before the year 1000 and after 300 or something. Actually, I wasn¡¯t really sure if there ever was slavery in Europe or if there was how exactly it was removed. Either way, it was a rather complicated matter from many points of view, but one thing was certain¡­ child slavery was an absolute and categorical ¡®NO¡¯ against which I would always fight with all of my might. But how do you tell and convince someone that something¡¯s not right or normal when they lived their entire lives believing it is something normal and natural? I thought as I placed the body on the pile. Looking back, I saw that there were many slaves who died in this dungeon. Probably they never wished to come here, but they were forced to by their masters only to be discarded as bait for the monsters. Shoraya didn¡¯t had slavery, but there were many other kingdoms that did. Why do they see a benefit in this? I asked myself, but then I cast my gaze on Shanteya. She¡¯s not my slave, but the spell makes her my slave¡­ However, what about Nanya and Ayuseya, doesn¡¯t this marriage contract with me act as a more powerful slave collar? I then shook my head. They weren¡¯t my slaves, none of them¡­ I had wives. I had friends. I had allies free to say and and do as they pleased. Those contracts were mere ways for them to offer them some of my might, nothing else¡­ or so I thought. Chapter 49: Tears and death The scent of burning flesh and bone was repulsive, but at the very least our Magic Armors were powerful enough to stop the toxins and fumes from entering our lungs. Nanya used that small crystal of hers to capture most of it, but we didn¡¯t had time to wait for the pile to burn away. We placed the crystal on the ceiling and then moved to the steel doors in the back. No magic enchant or spell could be felt around them. No trap connected the handles, but they were locked with a key. A single ¡®gentle¡¯ nudge was all it took to force them open. With a silent and careful step, we went inside and tried our best to remain quiet and undetected. ¡°ACHOO!¡± someone sneezed. ¡°Bless you.¡± I told him. ¡°Thank you¡­¡± the man wearing a black robe next to me replied. I looked at him for a moment, and he looked back at me. I looked at his enchanted dagger and then at him. ¡°You were going to stab me with that, weren¡¯t you?¡± I pointed. ¡°Uhuh.¡± he replied with a nod, and I punched him the face. The man died instantly, having his head literally explode from the force of the impact. ¡°He wasn¡¯t very bright.¡± I commented. ¡°Or stealthy.¡± noted Shanteya. ¡°Must have been the new guy.¡± said Nanya. ¡°The red shirt maybe?¡± I asked myself and then shrugged. We tossed his body in the flaming pile of bodies. Shanteya took the lead to make sure no other ¡®skilled assassin¡¯ tried to kill us, but we didn¡¯t encounter any of them. This place was filled with all sort of black magic artifacts. Many of them pulsed with Magic Energy, while others had a strange pull. Nanya was irritated the moment she saw them. Black magic and Demons weren¡¯t connected at all, the latter actually using Dark Magic, not Black Magic. It was similar, but completely different, after all, in Dark Magic, you used spells and passive skills granted by the Dark Gods, while in Black Magic, you rejected ALL the gods of this world, trying to work with Magic Energy against the laws of this world. Either way, it was clear that we weren¡¯t in a place filled with cultists worshiping an undead warlock¡¯s bunny. The rooms here had been turned into dark, fiendish laboratories where various experiments took place. In one of them, we saw a bunch of dismembered zombies, in another, we found dissected imps and Minotaurs. The worse of them all was one that held cut up pieces of human bodies, however, we didn¡¯t find a single living soul so far. The question was if these fiends actually had any souls at all left in their bodies. It would have been something if they actually dissected dead human bodies in order to advance medical knowledge, but the inscriptions and frightening magic coming from various crystals and artifacts told me this wasn¡¯t the case. The creepiest item there, however, was a fan made out of human skin and bones. It also had inscriptions drawn in monster blood on it. What it did wasn¡¯t something I was eager to find out any time too soon. ¡°What sort of madmen are these people?¡± asked Ayuseya as she held tight on the hilt of her sword and walked close to us. ¡°Not the type that like rainbows and ponies, I can assure you of that.¡± I told her. ¡°Ponies? Are you talking about those useless, tiny, little horses?¡± asked Shanteya squinting her eyes. ¡°Yeah, but if you find a purple talking one with wings, a horn, and a tiara, let me know.¡± I smirked. ¡°I do not believe such a fiendish monster could exist.¡± said the el¡¯doraw a bit worried. ¡°Yeah¡­ fiendish¡­ it will neigh us to death and cover us in giggles and cute sparkly magic.¡± I was trying to be sarcastic. ¡°That really sounds frightening¡­¡± said Nanya. ¡°You are demoness!¡± I complained. ¡°I don¡¯t see your point.¡± she squinted her eyes at me. ¡°Let¡¯s just drop this¡­¡± I sighed. With each step we took in that horrible place, we felt as if these black mages weren¡¯t afraid of doing anything morally wrong. It was more like they were actually testing those limits to see where exactly human immorality and depravity could take them. Either a madman or an unscrupulous monster could do those things. What else astonished me was the sheer amount of victims who fell in their fiendish grasp. All of a sudden, the 23 slaves and the horde of zombies from before seemed to account only for a small portion of the dead. It was absolutely horrible. Back in my world, people were going bananas if only 20 or 100 people died, but here, that was an absolutely normal value for DAILY losses under peaceful conditions. In the past, humans wished for safety and cures, God gave them through the evolution of medicine and technology, so that even those who didn¡¯t believe in Him had them, but then people forgot about those countless wishes and now believe He is dead¡­ just because He doesn¡¯t make them rich over night or cures them miraculously because they don¡¯t want to see a doctor¡­ I thought as I remembered the funny relationship between God and mankind back on Earth. These words made me wonder if the reason why I was called or rather sent into this world wasn¡¯t actually to be able to raise the consciousness of these people. Bringing technology wasn¡¯t the solution, however, making people change their mind about how they view it and strive to pursue further knowledge about the universe that surrounded them, that was something I could do. All of a sudden, the purpose of my Academy changed from a simple idea, to a purpose with which I could help this world. Unfortunately, it increased in difficulty because with my thoughts and moral ideas, I would be practically challenging the reign of kings and tyrants, their religions, and the very world of magic. Crud¡­ I thought when I measured the immense difficulty of this goal in my mind. Forget about one Supreme barging in and thrashing the place, now I had to be aware of all sort of mumbo jumbos! Politics, economy, religion, social relationships, inter-species relationships, commodities needed by each species and kingdom, relationship between magic and non-magic users, slavery, racism, xenophobic views, and a whole lot more things became a MUST NEED TO KNOW for me. Even the idea of placing my academy on a patch of land somewhere with the permission of a king became a bad thing. I had to place the academy outside the political reach of any kingdom, but make it accessible to all of them. If I stay in a kingdom, I will need to play by their rules, but going outside would mean playing by my rules, however, for this I need to be stronger, literally untouchable by them¡­ And¡­ I need to learn more about my own species¡­ Could young Dungeon Cores be thought like children? as I was pondering about these things, my brow was wrinkled and gaze focused on the ground, ignoring everything else around me. My three women said something about some of the things they saw, but it didn¡¯t register, I was too focus on this thing, on planning what to do about my academy. After all, everything just got whole lot harder. Technically speaking, I could go the simple and non-stressful way and simply ignore the entire ¡®help this crappy world¡¯ business, but that didn¡¯t feel right. If I had the knowledge and power to do it, then why not? If the gods of this world didn¡¯t want me to change anything here, then they would have killed me early on or simply removed these memories of a better life. Among all the sentient beings in this world, I was the only one who knew that there was something better than what they had. ¡°Sigh¡­ this is going to be a nightmare¡­¡± I said and rubbed the back of my head. ¡°What is?¡± Nanya asked curiously. ¡°Building my own academy.¡± I replied calmly. ¡°It¡¯s not that easy. Even Tuberculus had a tough time obtaining the privileges and land. If it wasn¡¯t for the generosity of an old friend of his and that of the Shoraya king, then Fellyore would have remained a dream.¡± nodded the demoness. ¡°Building a school for multiple species is a wonderful dream, but not many agree to it¡­¡± said Ayuseya. ¡°Many are actively working against any communion with other species.¡± said Shanteya. I was getting depressed now. Instead of having fun, it would appear that I would be faced with some rather annoying and hard to deal tasks. It made me shiver just thinking about what sort unforgivable requests the kings and nobles of other lands would have. Then again, I was sort of forgetting about how powerful I was when compared even to some of their best troops. About ten minutes later, we finally reached the end of our path, but what we found there was absolutely sickening. Ten mages wearing hooded black robes were currently in the middle of some sort of ritual. The body of a slave child was on some sort of stone altar, but he was dead, having his organs carved out of him. Blood leaked down the altar and all around I could see the remains of bodies of all types of sentient species. On the floor was a pentagram drawn with black blood, countless tiny runes covered it and shined with a dark-red energy. The walls were written with inscriptions, black magic oozing from every thing in there, causing me to have a strange feeling in my guts as if something was slithering inside. It was disturbing and also repulsive. These monsters have to die! I growled in my mind. ¡°Intruders!¡± screamed one of them when they saw us. ¡°Take them alive, we need this fresh blood for our next ritual.¡± said another one, but with a calm tone of voice. ¡°Yes, High Priest!¡± they replied and then looked back at us. Without chanting, black globes of Magic Energy formed in their hands. I had no idea what that was, but I sensed it was dangerous. It sent a chill down my spine, but still¡­ I was far stronger than these guys, so why would I ever fear any of their attacks? ¡°Don¡¯t let that thing touch you! Some Black Magic spells go right through Magic Armor!¡± warned Nanya with a growl. ¡°Why do I have the feeling black magic is not on par with normal magic.¡± I said and dodged the first two blasts. The dark orbs went through any object, but when they touched the flesh of a being, they exploded violently. That was what happened to some body parts behind me. Seeing that, I understood why I was feeling that strange chill. If their attacks could really pass through Magic Armor like Nanya warned, than those attacks were downright dangerous for any flesh and blood organism. ¡°What manner of magic is this?¡± asked Ayuseya surprised. The men grinned seeing our surprised face. ¡°Emperor Rank Black magic.¡± growled Nanya as she launched herself towards the first one. The man thought he was faster than her, but thanks to my boost, she reached him in the blink of an eye and then punched him in the guts. His Magic Armor shattered, and his body was sent into the ceiling, causing a large crack there. The man died instantly and fell on the ground, but just when she thought she had won, magic formed around his body and the man got up as a zombie. It happened so fast, she could hardly believe it, after all¡­ zombies usually take days, maybe even weeks to form, but this guy turned the very moment his heart stopped beating. ¡°That can¡¯t be right¡­ Cells don¡¯t die that fast!¡± I said. ¡°Feel the power of our Black Lord!¡± shouted the zombie as he sent bolts of black lightning at her. ¡°Tch!¡± Nanya clicked her tongue and jumped back, avoiding the attack at the last moment. ¡°[Fireball]!¡± shouted Ayuseya as she released an attack at the group. Three of them jumped forward and extended their arms at her, swallowing the magic itself. In my eyes, this was simply an astounding feat! How could these men be so powerful when we were far beyond the level of a Supreme? In that moment one of them rushed over and attacked with his daggers. I didn¡¯t let him touch me. Sidestepping, I then used my whole strength to punch him in the back. His Magic Armor couldn¡¯t handle the shock and shattered immediately, but my power was greater than that and the moment my fist touched his body, his flesh simply exploded from the sheer power behind it. My punch could create craters in the ground, so normally, a human¡¯s body touched by it without the protection of a Magic Armor would simply burst. Witnessing the sudden death of their friends, their attacks were all pointed at me. I dodged and Shanteya rushed to them. With her dagger, she stabbed the first in the heart, the next in the temple, and the last one in the back of his head. It was three second attack, in which she basically attacked the first one from the front, then turning around, she removed the blade from his chest and while turning stabbed it in the head of the second. Moving behind her second victim, she pulled the dagger out of his head and then, with a flowing attack, impaled it in the back of the head of the third. Thus, they were dead before any of them could do anything. Unfortunately, Shanteya couldn¡¯t attack the others because they aimed a few of those black spheres at her, forcing her to retreat.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. Normally, their Magic Armors should have shattered, however, the enchant I placed on her weapon allowed it to slip past most of it and reach the soft flesh behind it. Just as it happened to the first one, though, these guys woke up as zombies as well, but one slash of Ayuseya¡¯s sword cut their heads in half, then the second one turned them into a pile of scrapped meat. Only five remained, and we had no losses or heavy injuries on our side. Actually, they didn¡¯t even scratch our Magic Armors. ¡°Blasted fools! Kill them!¡± shouted the High Priest as he began to channel his Magic Energy into a new spell. All and all, these guys were pretty good, but judging from the impact with the one I just killed, they were probably somewhere between Superior Emperor Rank and Lower, maybe Mid Godlike Rank. Nonetheless, a party of Godlike Adventurers would have certainly suffered heavily at their hands. One or two deaths could be considered even acceptable, however, we weren¡¯t a party of Godlike Adventurers. ¡°ARRGH!¡± one of them suddenly slashed his wrists and began to chant something. ¡°Stop him!¡± I pointed. Shanteya immediately obeyed my command and moved towards him, her dagger was swift and her movements more agile than theirs. In the blink of an eye, she stood in front of him, and the dagger pierced the man¡¯s heart, however, he didn¡¯t died. With a wide grin on his face, the man¡¯s spell continued, and Shanteya jumped back. A powerful wave of Magic Energy surged from his body as he underwent some strange transformation. A tail appeared behind him; fur grew on his arms and face; long and sharp claws formed at the end of his enlarged fingers; sharp, black teeth sprouted from his jaws; his ears turned long and pointy, while a dark fire consumed his back; and once the process was over, a strange black fog surrounded him, eating away the surrounding Magic Energy. ¡°A devil¡­¡± Nanya said. Clenching my teeth, I lifted a nearby table and tossed it at him. A clawed hand repelled it, and two fierce, bloodshot eyes glared at me. ¡°That¡¯s a devil?¡± I asked surprised. ¡°Devils are spiritual entities that normally don¡¯t step into the living world, but if you offer them a body and know the right way to call them, they will possess it. As long as you feed it with Magic Energy, it can keep using the body, but once you stop, both the body and the devil vanish.¡± Nanya explained. ¡°Great¡­ more weird spells.¡± I sighed. ¡°I¡¯ll take care of it, you kill the other mages.¡± Nanya told me. ¡°Sure, but how are you going to do it?¡± I asked raising an eyebrow, then I dodged the magic attack of one of them. These guys weren¡¯t really a challenge, we were a far too strong for them. ¡°Curses!¡± he screamed at me. ¡°With this¡­¡± she said and then summoned her black sword. The red runes on it glowed fiercely, but its energy was different from when Dankyun wielded it. When it was his hands, it was like a raging storm, in Nanya¡¯s was like an elegant dance of blades, each one deadly and precise like a skilled assassin¡¯s dagger. I gulped when seeing it, but I had to admit that Nanya¡¯s allure also changed, and I immediately remembered how she moaned in my arms that night. Stupid brain with wrong timing¡­ I¡¯m in the middle of Life and Death battle here! I screamed at myself. Unfortunately, my subconscious gave me this reply But boobs¡­ and she¡¯s hot! Still, this really wasn¡¯t the place for such thoughts¡­ I mean, I was surrounded by dismembered body parts and had five angry black mages to worry about! So why was it that my mind only reached out for thoughts of hugging and embracing Nanya, Shanteya, and Ayuseya, then burrowing my face in their bosoms? I think I screwed up something when I built this body¡­ I thought to myself as I tried to concentrate on the battle in front of me. Shanteya and Ayuseya were holding off two of them, Nanya was holding off the Devil, and I was left with the fourth, while the High Priest kept mumbling something to himself. It would have been a rather balanced fight if not for my group¡¯s power. With a single slash, Ayuseya cut that man in half, right at the top of his head. He tried to block the strike, but the fierce power of the draconian princess was not to be underestimated. As for Shanteya, she skillfully dodged the attacks of her enemy, then closed the gap between them. Only one attack was needed to kill him. The cold blade pierced through his left ribs, piercing his heart, then another strike, decapitated him. Because of that one¡¯s sudden death, his body didn¡¯t undergo the hasten zombification process, and neither did Ayuseya¡¯s enemy. As for mine, I grabbed him by the face, shattered his Magic Armor and then crushed his skull between my fingers. Before he changed, I struck him hard to the side and sent his body towards the Devil. Thinking it was an attack, the beast slashed the body with his claws, turning him into minced meat. Nanya took this chance and jumped at the man. The sword she used pierced the devil¡¯s heart and then was quickly pulled out and decapitated him. Up until then, she only dodged and analyzed his powers, trying to figure out what the beast was capable off, but it didn¡¯t even come close to Nanya¡¯s boosted strength. The Devil never had a chance from the beginning, however, even a lower Supreme would usually have troubles with something like this. Seeing all of his minions dead, the High Priest stopped chanting and looked at us with dark eyes filled with fury and hatred. I replied with a grin, but now he had no choice but to give up or attack us himself. Least to be said, I wasn¡¯t prepared to let him live. In that moment, he looked to his left and focused the Magic Energy in his arms. Whatever spell he was using was insanely powerful when compared to those used by his minions. It was then when I noticed what he aimed at¡­ a nekatar child. She was unconscious and covered in blood, but still alive. Why didn¡¯t I see her until now? Is he trying to kill her? No¡­ he¡¯s going to use her for a spell! I thought and immediately reacted, jumping forward and putting myself between the two of them right when the High Priest was prepared to attack. The spell was launched. Only then did I realize that I should have just attacked the high priest instead of doing this. It was foolish of me, a beginner¡¯s mistake. A stupid mistake. The attack struck me. ¡°ILLSY!¡± shouted Nanya. ¡°NO!¡± shouted Ayuseya, frightened by the attack. The High Priest smirked defiantly and said ¡°Your soul is not as good, but still better than nothing!¡± he laughed. Shanteya jumped at the man, stabbing him in the heart, while the black magic was pouring into my body. ¡°You shikak!¡± he screamed and coughed out blood. ¡°Illsy!¡± Nanya jumped next to me. ¡°Stay away!¡± I warned her, and she stopped. What¡¯s happening to me? I thought and then began to feel strange. ¡°There¡¯s nothing you can do now, foolish adventurers! His body will rot, and his soul will leave his body! Then, the Dungeon Core will trap him and send it as food to my Black Lord alongside all the souls we stored in there! There¡¯s nothing you can do now! He will finally be released! Even if you kill me, my death is but a mere sacrifice to his greatness!¡± he said and then started to laugh. Furiously, Ayuseya decapitated him with one slash, then cut him in half with another, and lastly tossed his body into a nearby wall, turning him into nothing but a mess of blood and guts. This was the first time I saw her so angry, but I had to admit, I wasn¡¯t feeling too peachy¡­ ¡°Ugh¡­¡± I groaned and grabbed my chest. Suddenly all strength left me, and I had the same feeling as I did when I died. It was like being sucked into a void where you couldn¡¯t lift even a single finger up. All you could do there was slowly descend deeper and deeper into the darkness until there was nothing left, until the chains holding your soul to your body broke and you felt relieved. In that moment, the soul rushed up to the light¡­ I saw that light¡­ and my consciousness faded¡­ [Shanteya¡¯s point of view] The whole battle didn¡¯t even last five minutes. The black mages went down one after another with lightning speed. Without an area attack spell, we did quite well. Any other group of adventurers would have surely suffered a great number of losses. Unfortunately, we had to leave the High Priest for last, none of us saw him as a potential threat to us with our current strength, but apparently we were wrong. The black mage had time to finish his spell, and the others did everything they could to protect him, even placing themselves between us and him, especially that Devil. They kept a perfect arc in front of him, using their own bodies as a flesh shield. We took them down in mere moments, but that was all the man needed in order to finish his spell, then Master jumped away from me and was struck by it. We killed the mage, eventually, but it was too late. Something weird was happening to Master. The three of us watched Master with a worried gaze in our eyes. He was staring at the ground, pupils dilated and with his right hand holding his chest. He had a deep ragged breath. The Magic Energy in his body flowed erratically, changing speeds and directions, causing ripples and cracks in the flow of energy around him. I could see darkness seeping in and out of the crystals on his hands. A strange aura was around him, pushing us away, placing a heavy pressure on our shoulders, but we didn¡¯t know what was happening to him or how to help him. We could only stand there and watch his moment of torture. It hurt to see him like this¡­ to be so helpless¡­ I hated it¡­ ¡°AAAH!!!¡± Master suddenly screamed at the top of his lungs. His eyes turned black, the crystals on his hands red, and the Magic Energy pushed everything around him away. It was then when I noticed the child behind him. I ran around Master to reach her. Whatever happened, she was the reason why Master took the black mage¡¯s attack. To save and sacrifice himself for a complete stranger like that, who other than Master could do it? Still, I would have rather he didn¡¯t¡­ I was selfish because I wished not to lose my one and only Master. ¡°What¡¯s this?¡± I asked myself when I looked down upon the little girl¡¯s body. Five enchanted black chains bound her to the ground. I tried pulling on them, but they didn¡¯t budge. They were more than what my power could handle, but they were immediately cut by Nanya¡¯s sword. ¡°Get her out of here!¡± she told me. I nodded and ran away. Looking back, I saw Master cackling like a madman, and the Dungeon Core behind him cracked. Monsters screamed and the whole place trembled. He released his Dungeon Territory? I asked myself surprised. I stopped at the entrance to that room and looked back at Master. Because of the amount of Magic Energy overflowing out of his body, pieces of furniture and body parts were lifted up in the air, while strange black lightnings emanating from his body struck them. It was a frightening scene to behold. The power surging from him could easily topple all the Supremes in the known kingdoms. It sent a chill down my spine, and this made it clear that the one standing before me wasn¡¯t the gentle Master I knew but someone¡­ something else¡­ In that moment, he started to groan and the Magic Energy stopped abruptly. A white humanoid figure made completely out of light came out his chest like a ghost trying to break free of the body it possessed. A sense of fear rushed through me. ¡°MASTER! DON¡¯T!¡± I shouted at the top of my lungs. I knew then that what I was looking at was the true Master, the true Illsyore. Nanya and Ayuseya certainly knew this as well. That was his soul about to leave his body, but it was pure and gentle. It was filled with light and barely had any shadows. If I didn¡¯t knew any better, I could swear I was looking at the soul of a saint, not that of a dungeon. ¡°Illsy!¡± shouted Ayuseya with tears in her eyes. ¡°No! Don¡¯t go, you moron!¡± shouted Nanya. Then, just when it appeared as though his soul was about to leave for good, to leave us alone in this cold, dark dungeon, a dense, dark shadow reached out from his chest and grabbed the pure white soul. Like tendrils, the shadow wrapped around his arms and legs, chaining him down and pulling him back, while the white soul struggled to leave. Looking at this scene, I didn¡¯t know what to wish for¡­ If Master left, then¡­ we, no I would be alone¡­ If Master was free, then he could enter the High Heavens, but I didn¡¯t want to¡­ No matter how selfish that was, I didn¡¯t want Master to leave me, to leave us. Least to be said that I didn¡¯t believe the mage¡¯s words about his Black Lord. [Nanya¡¯s point of view] All three of us were selfish women¡­ Instead of wishing for his freedom, I was certain that within our hearts, we all wanted him to stay. Now that I opened my heart to him, now that I shed tears and laughed together with him, how could I just let him leave and spend the next centuries alone? Even if it was against the Heavens. Even if I offended all the gods above, I wished Illsy to stay with me, to be able to embrace me one more time like he did that night. I was technically powerful enough now to have any man I desired, but none of them had Illsy¡¯s goofy smile, weird jokes, and sensual embraces¡­ I didn¡¯t need another man, I needed him. ¡°No! Don¡¯t go, you moron!¡± I shouted at the top of my lungs. Don¡¯t leave me alone, Illsy¡­ I thought. [Ayuseya¡¯s point of view] The tears wouldn¡¯t stop. The pain in my heart wouldn¡¯t cease. The grip on my sword felt weak, and my knees trembled. I watched him change my fate, change my world, and conquer my heart¡­ I couldn¡¯t accept to see him go. At first, I thought I was seeing things. That white humanoid entity couldn¡¯t be Illsy. It couldn¡¯t be my husband, but the more I looked at it, the more I felt the connection and the bond we shared. It was faint and weak, but it was there. I always knew that I wasn¡¯t Illsy¡¯s favorite, but I didn¡¯t care, yet¡­ when I heard Nanya took the first step and shared her bed with him, I lied about how I felt¡­ My heart froze, and I felt cheated by her. I felt like someone stole something from me, a bit of my light, a chance at my love. I knew that, but I didn¡¯t care. Illsy offered me the freedom I could only have dreamed of once, and the strength that many could only envy. Even so, my heart trembled and my body shook when I saw Illsy facing a possible end. It wasn¡¯t something any of us could have foreseen, nothing any of us could have known about. If I did, I would have been the first to stand in his way. It was better to be hated by your loved one than to see them dead before your very eyes. Funny how such moments of sincerity appeared for me only in these moments of pain and possible loss¡­ Yet, there was hope¡­ Illsy¡¯s shadow or whatever that was pulled him back. The Magic Energy swirling around him stopped, and he dropped to his knees. I didn¡¯t care what that was, but it stopped him from leaving and most importantly, left Illsy alive for me¡­ for us. [Illsyore¡¯s point of view] I could barely breath and my body ached all over. My heart was beating like crazy and fear nestled on my back. I couldn¡¯t even move of how frightened I was, but it was a strange fear, one of the moment, not of a trauma. I knew that even after I recovered, I wouldn¡¯t be afraid to face these black mages again, but next time, I would finish them off with my lasers before they even had the chance to open their mouths! Still, there was one other thing that deeply moved me¡­ Looking at the girls, I saw them on their knees, crying¡­ for me. I caused them a moment of brief fear and sorrow. ¡°Sorry¡­ I messed up a bit.¡± I told them with a pain struck smile. ¡°You MORON!¡± Nanya shouted and jumped at my neck, hugging me tightly. ¡°Illsy!¡± Ayuseya jumped in my arms as well. They were both crushing me¡­ I fell on my back with the two crying in my arms. ¡°Master¡­ I¡¯m happy to see you are safe.¡± Shanteya said with a soft smile as she quickly wiped off her tears. ¡°Yeah, remind me to never do that again. It felt like I died again¡­ ugh.¡± I groaned. ¡°You moron, just be happy you are alive! Although, it¡¯s amazing that you survived a [Soul Ripper] attack.¡± Nanya said with a soft smile. ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± I asked furrowing my brow. ¡°A stupid Black Magic smile that¡¯s similar to the [Spiritual Separation] from the Dark Magic type. However, unlike the latter the [Soul Ripper] actually cuts the bond with your body and forces your soul out, leaving it to be shackled by the Black Mage¡­ To survive something like that it¡¯s¡­ incredible. I heard that only a true Spiritual Master can do this.¡± said Nanya as she shook her head. ¡°Maybe he used another spell? Either way, I did reach Nirvana in bed with you.¡± I grinned. ¡°Yup, he¡¯s back.¡± the demoness smirked and gave me a soft kiss on the lips. ¡°It¡¯s good to see you safe, Illsy¡­ You scared me.¡± said Ayuseya, she was the only one still crying. ¡°Sorry¡­¡± I replied. ¡°We should get out of this place, I don¡¯t think there¡¯s a need for us to be here anymore, and this child needs medical attention.¡± said Shanteya, reminding us that we were technically hugging and kissing in the middle of a sacrificial room. Not the best place for a date, that was certain! Thus, we left the ominous dungeon, making a beeline for the exit. Meanwhile, I had no idea of the dangers lurking inside of me¡­ [Inside Illsy¡¯s Inner Mind] Once we were countless, a legion¡­ but now, we are ONE! The Darkness will claim it¡¯s right over this body! I, The Darkness, will destroy this mortal¡¯s soul¡­ little by little¡­ the voice of the Primordial resonated within that place. Chapter 50: Here kitty kitty! We left the Mehalom Dungeon in a hurry. All the monsters started to act violently as soon as the Dungeon Territory vanished. I couldn¡¯t recall how exactly it was destroyed, but seeing how I woke up after that attack from the High Priest black mage, it was highly possible that it was entirely my fault. What worried me now was the health of our small survivor. She was barely breathing, and her wounds given by the mages left a bitter taste in my mouth. I was glad they were obliterated from the face of this world, but somehow, I felt guilty for finding her like that. If we were faster¡­ Maybe if we left yesterday? I thought as I wondered just what exactly I could have done to be able to save more than just this child. The others had turned into zombies after being sacrificed to that Black Lord of theirs, while others weren¡¯t that lucky. What I was showed today was simply a part of the world I never wished to see. In these medieval times, there were those who took pleasure from something like this, and others who had such twisted views of the world that an act of kindness was seen worse than the plague. Indeed, this wasn¡¯t the true face of this world, but it was a part of it, a disgusting, wretched part that needed to be cut out one way or another. I couldn¡¯t speak for all the kingdoms and species, but at least where I was going to make my academy and where I was going to live, I wasn¡¯t going to let such a thing happen. While I was thinking about this, I began to wonder if maybe just hunting down all of these so-called monsters, these plagues of society weren¡¯t the right thing to do. The idea of slowly killing them and let it be know that those who committed such acts would suffer the same made me smile on the inside. No! That¡¯s not me¡­ I shook my head and rubbed my forehead a bit. ¡°Are you alright?¡± Nanya asked. ¡°Yes¡­¡± I replied and showed her a smile. I focused my mind on other things, but somewhere deep inside, the desire and thoughts of hunting down those people lingered like an insatiable monster begging and pleading to satiate its thirst for blood. Doing so made me think it was a good thing, but I couldn¡¯t help but also feel it was wrong. ¡°We¡¯re pretty far now¡­ Should we stop?¡± asked Ayuseya, pulling me out of my deep, dark thoughts. ¡°Ye-Yeah¡­¡± I said and looked back. We traveled quite a distance, honestly, maybe five kilometers or more? Looking back at the child in Shanteya¡¯s arms, I knew from one glance that she didn¡¯t have a lot of time left to live, but once I would begin treatment, she would recover immediately. ¡°Nanya, I suppose you don¡¯t have an instant heal sort of potion?¡± I asked the demoness. ¡°Nope.¡± she shook her head, and I sighed. Making her my slave just to cure her would have been pointless since my skills didn¡¯t work as they did before, when the Darkness took care of everything. Right now, I was in charge of every detail of each spell, so what I could do inside my Inner Mind, I could technically do outside as well, minus the whole making items part. ¡°Place her down over there.¡± I told Shanteya as I pointed at a patch of grass. The el¡¯doraw nodded and gently did so. Upon feeling that she was once more left alone, the little child let out a soft mew and shivered a bit. I extended my Dungeon Territory and sat down next to her. The first thing I did was absorb her black cuffs, but I didn¡¯t keep those creepy things inside of me, I immediately spat them out. Thankfully, she didn¡¯t have a [No Steal] enchantment item on her, but those things were quite rare, and only those who have something worth stealing had them on their person. Using Magic Energy, I began the tedious process of closing her wounds and healing any other injuries she might have had. After creating my body, I gained the ability to basically model a biological body using only the flow of Magic Energy. It was tricky and as long as the others didn¡¯t oppose me in any way or manner, I could easily do many complicated operations. In other words, I was an actual doctor. The only thing missing was my diploma to certify that I spent hundreds of years analyzing and learning the anatomy of various sentient species. With a skillful touch, the needles of Magic Energy created from the tips of my fingers closed all the open wounds on her body, leaving no scar behind. It wasn¡¯t hard as long as you realized that as soon as you pulled the injured tissue close enough, the cells automatically bonded together. Of course, restoring and giving them a boost of energy helps out with the process. In general, the only thing I had to worry about was the removal of the first layer of dead cells around the wound. My needles basically did all of that and then the body¡¯s natural healing stepped over. This process was complicated, but it consumed far less energy than trying to rebuild all of her missing cells, tissue and all. Once I was finished with this, I scanned her innards to make sure there were no injured organs either. What I found were three broken ribs and a ruptured liver. Seeing this, I realized that this girl literally had only hours left to live. I quickly healed the liver and then repaired the broken ribs. She was also missing three teeth on her bottom jaw, so I triggered their regrowth within her jaw and accelerated it a bit with magic. In two or three days, the fallen teeth would be replaced by brand new ones. Now, the kitten was completely healed, but she was in need of some serious bathing. Her fur was literally drenched in her own blood, her clothes clinging to her from the dirt and grime. Seeing this, I triggered and accelerated a bit the production of her blood in her bone morrow. In an hour or so, she would regain most of it. For now, her breathing and heart rate were stable, and there were no other abnormalities with her body. With a small sigh escaping my lips, I leaned back and looked over to my right. Ayuseya was standing not that far away from me. From the moment I began the operation until now, the draconian watched me with big, curious eyes. The gentleness with which I moved and the skill I displayed at repairing organic bodies surprised her. For me, it wasn¡¯t that much of a big deal, but for her, it was probably no different than a miracle. ¡°Something the matter?¡± I asked her after a moment. ¡°Ah? No¡­¡± she looked down shyly. What¡¯s up with her? I asked myself while tilting my head to my left. ¡°Are you done?¡± asked Nanya. Turning around, I saw the demoness standing right behind me, while Shanteya was nowhere to be seen. ¡°Yes. I have to say, I¡¯m surprised you used your sword.¡± I told her. ¡°I was hoping I could break it, but no such luck.¡± she sighed and shook her head. ¡°Anyway, where¡¯s Shanteya?¡± I asked. ¡°Over there, she¡¯s searching for some food.¡± she replied pointing to the forest to my right. Looking in that direction, I nodded and then looked back at the demoness. ¡°How much time did it pass since we got here?¡± I asked her. ¡°Enough¡­ It¡¯s almost sundown. Can you check to see if there¡¯s a spring nearby? I think the cat needs a bath.¡± she told me pointing at the kitten. I nodded in reply and then closed my eyes. Going out of my body, I flew up into the sky and looked around for one. Before my eyes was an endless green forest with tall trees, to my left, I could see the tips of a mountain and behind me a long golden strip of sand. That was where the dessert was, but even when I tried to focus in that direction, I couldn¡¯t spot Petro town. Maybe it was too well hidden behind the tall trees? That being said, there was absolutely no way for me to find a river or stream like this, so I sighed and extended my Dungeon Territory for a few kilometers. Within it, I was sure to find something if I searched diligently. My current form allowed me to soar through the sky without worry about wind resistance. As long as I was within my dungeon territory, I could fly endlessly. Still, with the forest being so dense, I couldn¡¯t just wander around aimlessly, so I searched for the road we had been trying to avoid ever since we left Petro. There was also the thing about Bucket Head¡¯s ambush, but so far, there were no signs of him. He was probably far behind us or maybe just gave up completely on the idea of robbing us? Either way, if he showed his face, I would introduce him to me good ol¡¯ lazer. Following the road turned out to be a good idea. Humans had the natural habit of not straying too far from a stable water source. Long roads usually had strange shapes because they either wanted to avoid dangerous areas or to be close to a river. Thus, I managed to find one, a water source, but it was at about 3 km distance from our current location. It wasn¡¯t far, especially since we were quite fast on our feet. With a smile on my lips, I returned to my body and told everyone the good news. Shanteya picked up the nekatar child, and I led the way there. Of course, I didn¡¯t forget to pull back my Dungeon Territory until it was only a little patch inside my body. ¡°Good job finding this, Illsy, but you know, you could have just made a water source for us right there, on that spot.¡± Nanya told me with a smile and a gentle pat on my shoulder once we reached the shore of the river. Looking at her and letting my brain do a bit of thinking, I realized that she was right. Instead of finding this, I could have just made it right there on the spot by absorbing a few square meters and filling the hole with water. Well, it was just an option, so I shrugged indifferently. ¡°We¡¯ll go and wash the little one.¡± said Shanteya, and Ayuseya followed her. I remained on the spot with Nanya.This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. To keep myself busy, I found a big boulder and laid my tired behind on top of it. The demoness took this opportunity to catch a couple of fish, but with her speed, I could only feel sad for the little critters. They had no way of escaping her claws. While we were standing there, a bear walked by and saw us. I raised an eyebrow at it, while the beast got up on its hind legs. Seeing him, Nanya threw him a big fish. The bear caught it like a dog and then walked back to the forest. About half an hour later, the two women returned. They were both drenched and the cat was wide awake, completely soaked and sniffling. ¡°What happened?¡± I asked. ¡°Nekatars and water don¡¯t mix well.¡± sighed Ayuseya as she looked behind at the trembling kitty. ¡°Well, at least she is clean now.¡± I smiled and jumped off the rock, landing on the shore, right next to them. ¡°Yes, but¡­¡± Shanteya looked back at the kitten with a sad look in her eyes. ¡°There¡¯s something you should see¡­¡± she told me. ¡°What?¡± I asked blinking surprised. ¡°Tamara, come here.¡± the el¡¯doraw said. ¡°Mew?¡± the kitten looked up at her curiously and then back at me. So her name is Tamara, but what does she want me to see? Is she actually a he? I asked myself. Looking down at her, I could not imagine how someone would want to harm or enslave something so cute, but as I took a closer look at her, I noticed the missing teeth, the burned fur on her nose, the cut left ear, and the scars on her snout. Except for the teeth, those were things I didn¡¯t notice before when I was fixing her because they were hidden by a thick layer of grim and blood. What the¡­ I thought, but then Shanteya pulled Tamara¡¯s shirt up and revealed something more frightening. The kitten¡¯s back didn¡¯t even have a single patch of fur left because it was covered in whip scars. Some bastard took great pleasure in torturing this child and inside my heart, another drop of disgust towards him was added. Besides her back, her body was literally covered with countless scars, and the tip of her tail had its fur burned off. ¡°Tamara not cry. Tamara obey. Tamara need not to be punished.¡± trembled the child as she looked up at Shanteya. She feared that the reason her shirt was pulled up was because we were thinking of whipping her. I clenched my fist, and fury rumbled in my heart just from hearing the tone of fear in her voice. How could this child think this? What did they do to her? I asked myself with anger rising by the moment. Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath to calm myself and then said ¡°We¡¯re not going to harm you¡­¡± I then knelt down and opened my eyes. ¡°Tamara will be healed now.¡± I said. ¡°No! No! No! Tamara was good! Tamara not want to be healed!¡± she then suddenly called out hugging Shanteya and trying hard to get away from my hand. I was simply shocked by this. I blinked surprised, but even I couldn¡¯t understand what just happened. Was she afraid of being healed or was she harmed to the point where she wished to have those scars on her back? I couldn¡¯t tell, and noticing my confusion, Shanteya asked the kitten something. ¡°Tamara, what happens when others heal you?¡± Flattening her ears and looking down, the nekatar then replied ¡°They pull Tamara¡¯s shirt up. Then Tamara feels pain¡­ Tamara bleeds. Tamara not like.¡± she then quickly shook her head. ¡°Little one, that¡¯s not healing¡­¡± the el¡¯doraw said with a calm tone of voice. ¡°I heard about this.¡± Nanya said and when I looked at her, I saw her clenching her fists. ¡°They torture them from when they are young so when they are old and sold, they won¡¯t ask for it even if they are gravely injured. It makes them appear as obedient¡­ No cries means that they are alright with what is being done to them.¡± the demoness then looked away. She wasn¡¯t the only one furious. Ayuseya felt the same. We all were upset with this. The merchant who did this to little Tamara would have to suffer a great deal of pain, or none of us would feel happy about it. Yes¡­ pain¡­ suffering¡­ He will die. I thought. Looking at the scarred back, I took a deep breath and extended my territory until it covered them all. ¡°Little one, what they did is not healing. What I am going to do now is called healing. What they did to you is called torture.¡± I explained with a calm and gentle tone of voice, but inside, I was already thinking about how I would skin alive that evil slave dealer. Reason number one to obliterate this form slavery¡­ I thought as I gently petted her little head. At first, she flinched under my touched, but then she realized that I had no intention of harming her. ¡°Torture?¡± she asked. ¡°Yes¡­ torture. Only very evil and despicable men do this.¡± I then placed my hands over her back and summoned my Magic Energy. Tamara shivered when she felt the energy flowing through her flesh. She didn¡¯t have even a basic layer of Magic Armor, so it was amazing that she was able to survive in that dungeon for so long. Maybe it was fate for me to find her there? Instead of thinking about this, I focused only on healing her wounds. Scar after scar vanished as I reconstructed her skin at a cellular level. Thanks to my experience since I built my body, I even knew how to read DNA, so I found the genes that described the way her fur should form and what pattern it should have. Tamara had dark-brown and light-brown fur covering her body. It wasn¡¯t hard for me to repair her back, but her spine and muscles had suffered from the constant whipping as well. I fixed everything I saw as damaged, all while never allowing her pain receptors to send even a single signal back to her brain. The girls said nothing as I did all of this, and Tamara, out of fear and maybe being unable to understand, she kept quiet and remained in Shanteya¡¯s arms. The el¡¯doraw was holding her like a mother would her own daughter. It was a sweet sight to behold in a way, if not for the damage the said child had on her body. While using this technique, I also searched for any sort of illness and other medical conditions. Although I was a bit reluctant, I even checked to see if she wasn¡¯t abused in any other way. Luckily, those despicable men didn¡¯t touch her like that. She was lucky, maybe. ¡°I¡¯m done with the back and tail.¡± I said and then began to treat her slender arms and feet. She was weak, slightly trembling, but it didn¡¯t take long before she understood that I wasn¡¯t harming her. Now that she saw her fixed tail and felt the fur on her back, her expression changed from one of fear to one of amazement. The scars on her snout were the last ones on her body, and I quickly removed those too. Initially, I wanted to wait for her teeth to regrow naturally, but it didn¡¯t feel right to leave those out, so I poured some more Magic Energy and fixed them. Feeling her chompers back, she couldn¡¯t help but lick them with her rough, feline tongue. She almost couldn¡¯t believe it. The last thing I healed were her burnt whiskers. I regrew them and made sure none of her other senses was damaged either. ¡°ACHOO!¡± the little one sneezed and shook her head. The new whiskers tickled her. ¡°Done.¡± I said with a smile and stepped back. Tamara looked around and then moved a bit. The pain was gone, and her senses were renewed. No doubt she felt like a whole new person. The last thing I wanted to remove was her slave collar. That ugly thing hanging around her neck and marking her as another being¡¯s property had to go. ¡°Tamara not feel pain any more¡­¡± she said surprised as she made a jump and landed on all fours. Sniffing the air around, her whiskers twitched, and she quickly perked her ears up. A little smile appeared on her face, warming our hearts. ¡°Tamara, come here¡­¡± I told her. The kitten didn¡¯t hesitate and approached me, standing on all fours in front of me. I softly patted her little head and scratched her between the ears. It was something she seemed to truly enjoy. In that moment, I remembered that old cat my parents had. ¡°Tamara, would you like to be free?¡± I asked her. The kitten looked up at me and then tilted her head to the left. ¡°What¡¯s free?¡± she asked. I sighed softly. ¡°It means to be rid of the leather collar around your neck. To have a will of your own.¡± I told her. ¡°Hm? But Tamara was told if I remove this, Tamara will feel lots of pain.¡± she said flattening her ears on her head. ¡°It might be a kill-switch.¡± Nanya pointed out. ¡°A what?¡± I asked surprised. ¡°If a slave goes rogue or acts against their master¡¯s orders, it will trigger a burst of Magic Energy which will decapitate them or stop their heart.¡± explained Shanteya. ¡°Tamara not want her head to fly.¡± she expressed her worry. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it won¡¯t.¡± I smiled. ¡°Wait!¡± Nanya said before I managed to say another word. I blinked surprised and looked at her ¡°If you do that, our quest might end up being a big fat zero. We¡¯ll fail it or just get the exploration reward. We might also end up meeting the actual master of Tamara and if he claims right over her¡­¡± I knew what the demoness was saying, in other words, healing was good, but removing the collar would certainly lead to a bucketful of trouble. Becoming criminals or slave thieves might be just one of them, but hell if I cared! I sighed. ¡°Nanya¡­ What would you do if I brought Tamara back to the one who did all those things to her?¡± I asked her raising an eyebrow. The kitten flinched and looked with worried eyes at the demoness. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t sleep with you for ten years.¡± she replied bluntly. ¡°Now you see my point. I¡¯m not going to sleep on the couch just because I¡¯m afraid of a stinking slave dealer! I¡¯ll burn his business to the ground before anything else!¡± I smirked confidently. ¡°What¡¯s a couch?¡± Nanya asked surprised. ¡°Forget about that! The point is that I agree with you as well, and I¡¯m fully aware of the consequences! However, I think Tamara¡¯s freedom is more important than the trouble we¡¯ll get into because I offered her said freedom!¡± I declared proudly. Ayuseya and Shanteya showed me a gentle smile, while Nanya sighed and shook her head. There was no turning back now, so I proceeded with the question. ¡°Illsy, just make sure you ask her the RIGHT question.¡± Ayuseya warned me. ¡°I¡¯m not going to ask THAT question! I¡¯m not a lolicon, and I LOVE big boobs!¡± I declared proudly. ¡°Nya?¡± Tamara simply tilted her head to the left in confusion. ¡°Sigh, forget what they said.¡± I rubbed my temples and then asked the kitten ¡°Tamara, do you want to be my slave? Thor Or Non!¡± ¡°Yes, nya!¡± she said with a big smile. The spell [Make a Slave] was activated immediately and turned to ash the leather collar she previously wore around her neck. Instead of it, a black ring made out of tiny, nearly microscopical runes appeared. It was identical to the one around Shanteya¡¯s neck. The spell the slave master placed on her could not be compared to the one cast by a Godlike Dungeon Lord. I actually doubted there was any way of removing those black rings around their fingers and necks. With this, Tamara had gained her freedom from her previous master, so all that was left to do now was to completely free her of this slavery. ¡°Great!¡± I said with a smile, while the kitten carefully touched her neck, surprised by the sudden disappearance of the collar. Now, it was time for the last step. ¡°Tamara, I wish to free you. Thor Or Non!¡± I shouted and pointed my hand at her. ¡°NO!¡± the kitten shouted and shook her head quickly. ¡°What?¡± I nearly stumbled forward. ¡°What do you mean ¡®no¡¯? I¡¯m about to offer you complete freedom from a life of slavery! Do you know what that means?¡± I asked. Tamara squinted her eyes at me and then said something in the gibberish Kalish. Oh yeah, she spoke a few words in the Shorayan language from the Allasn continent, but her main tongue was supposed to be Kalish. ¡°She said that now she has found a master like you, she does not wish to be free. She said that by serving you, she¡¯ll be able to repay you for recovering her fur. I think she means healing.¡± Ayuseya translated. ¡°Sigh¡­ I had a feeling this was going to happen.¡± Nanya simply crossed her arms at her chest and shook her head. ¡°Master is such a good Master, any slave would desire to stay by his side.¡± giggled Shanteya. ¡°What? Seriously¡­¡± I complained while the kitten jumped on me and hugged me. ¡°Master! Tamara¡¯s master!¡± she said. ¡°Ugh¡­ This was seriously not something I was expecting!¡± I shouted. The kitten only lifted her head up and looked with big curious eyes at me. ¡°Speaking of which, how old is Tamara?¡± Nanya asked. ¡°Tamara is 16 years old!¡± she declared proudly. ¡°So, technically an adult¡­¡± Nanya squinted her eyes at her. ¡°But she¡¯s so small¡­¡± I said surprised. ¡°Not all nekatars are big like Neyalin. Maybe she is from another tribe?¡± Shanteya asked. ¡°No tribe. Tamara slave from birth.¡± the kitten shook her head. I let out a long sigh. Thus, another weird fellow joined our group. Chapter 51: Once a Bucket, always a Bucket! With the nekatar in our company and constantly jumping around us, we continued to head for what we hoped to be the next city or village. If we had a map, we could orientate ourselves far better, but was there anyone out there who would sell us or make us a map of the three continents? I highly doubted this, especially since such things could offer a strategic importance to an enemy country. Considering how things usually were in this world, I was expecting maps to even be forbidden. ¡°Should we camp here?¡± I asked. ¡°Looks good.¡± nodded Nanya. ¡°Wherever you wish, Master.¡± Shanteya made a polite bow. Ayuseya simply smiled. When she wished to say something, she spoke, but in every other situation, she remained neutral. As for the cat, she simply stared at us with her big eyes and perked up ears. ¡°Then I¡¯ll proceed to make a temporary home here.¡± I nodded and then extended my Dungeon Territory. ¡°Make home?¡± the kitten was confused. Earlier that day when I healed Tamara, I used about 2750 Magic Energy points in one go. It was a very low value, especially since I didn¡¯t feel tired at all afterwards. Thus, I began to imagine how this place would look like up to the most minuscule of details. Once I was done with that, I cast the spell. A huge amount of Magic Energy was pulled out of me, and a big metal square room appeared in front of me between two big trees. It had a pair of thick windows with bars on the outside. The door was made out of steel, the lock was similar to one found on a bunker, having a big wheel instead of knob. Looking at this huge cube, it wasn¡¯t very impressive. It looked rather similar to a prison cell, however, the inside was quite different. ¡°Nya?¡± the cat was shocked and hid behind me. ¡°Oh, I¡¯m a Dungeon Lord. That¡¯s why I can do all sort of crazy spells.¡± I patted the cat on the head and then walked over to the front door. The girls followed me without complaint. They were used to me pulling stunts like this, but the nekatar had yet to get accustomed with me. Carefully, she stepped inside and perked her ears up at us. ¡°This is magic, nya?¡± she asked. ¡°Dungeon magic to be more precise.¡± Nanya replied with a shrug. The inside of this small metal house was covered with polished wood. There was only one big bed with a soft mattress and a big, wool blanket covered in cozy cotton sheets. The pillows were made out of feathers, and were equally cozy. Normally, I should have used multiple spells in order to create all of these things, but in the past months, I learned that building stuff with those spells was quite easy if I already knew what and how I want to build everything. Up until then, most of my spells worked on something like a default format. My control over them was minimum at best. Those that allowed me to use my imagination allowed me the most freedom, but even then I was limited. In truth, all spells were based on a simple factor: understanding, programming, and controlling the flow of Magic Energy once outside of my body. Still, easier said than done. The amount of concentration I needed was by far not little. The reason why I was able to pull it off was because my body was far different when compared to my previous human or crystal one. ¡°I¡¯m going to start a fire in the center.¡± I said and closed the door after Tamara entered the room. Carefully, the feline approached Ayuseya, who sat down on the wooden floor next to the big bed. With a soft mew, she was welcomed to cuddle up in her lap. Shortly after, the draconian princess began to pet the kitten, and she replied with a purr. To finish up things here, I prepared to fireproof the walls and floor with an enchant, but then I noticed that something was missing. This place is airtight¡­ I thought and sighed. With another small burst of Magic Energy, I created a grill on the ceiling, through which fresh air could leak inside. Now, I was able to enchant the room, and all that was left to do was hang a smoke absorbent crystal on top of the ceiling. Nanya took care of that. Shanteya brought some wood from outside and placed it in the center of the room, in a stone circle made especially for it. The fire was lit with my laser, and we all cuddled up around it. As for dinner, we had fish on a stick grilled over the warm flames. ¡°Tamara? Why aren¡¯t you taking one?¡± asked Shanteya when she saw the kitten sitting back and looking at us gulping down the fish. ¡°Tamara will eat the remains. Tamara always ate the remains.¡± she replied with a smile. ¡°Not anymore¡­ Here.¡± I said and then took one of the freshly cooked fish and handed it over to her. The nekatar blinked surprised. Her ears perked up and whiskers twitched a few times as if she was not sure if she was allowed to take it or not. ¡°Can Tamara really eat this?¡± she asked looking at me with big eyes. ¡°Yup.¡± I nodded and pushed it forward. The cat finally took it from my hand. She sniffed it a few times and then ate it with a big smile on her face. I could hardly imagine how it would be to live a life like hers filled with fear, pain, and oppression. After sixteen years of being nothing but a slave, I wouldn¡¯t be able to smile like her. Once we finished eating, we all got in bed. ¡°Why only one?¡± asked Nanya squinting her eyes a me. ¡°Because I¡¯m a pervert who wants to sleep in the same bed as all three of you. Besides, we¡¯re just sleeping tonight.¡± I shrugged and then jumped in, right in the middle. Ayuseya and Shanteya looked at me and then asked ¡°Naked?¡± ¡°Erm¡­¡± I squinted my eyes at them. That was a trick question, I was 100% certain of it. ¡°I¡¯ll give you some nightgowns¡­¡± I said and then pulled out a couple from my Inner Mind. For the draconian, I retrieved one of her coffers and allowed her to pick the one she wished. As for Nanya, she already had one stored inside her own Inner Mind. Thus, only Shanteya picked one, and I absorbed the rest. While they changed, I looked at them like a grinning fool. At this point, none of them bothered about me looking at their semi-naked bodies. Ayuseya put on a sexy nightgown on, the mounds on her chest perking up through the thin cloth, giving her an irresistible allure. Nanya and Shanteya¡¯s were rather simple in design. The only one who didn¡¯t change was Tamara. She walked over to a corner in the room and coiled down there. This was probably due to her believing it was already good enough I allowed her inside. ¡°Tamara, you¡¯re not sleeping there. If you don¡¯t want to sleep under the cover with us, at least sleep on the bed.¡± I said and patted on the corner next to my feet. ¡°Can I really?¡± she asked surprised. ¡°Yes. Little one, don¡¯t ever think yourself as a slave in my presence. If you want something, say it. If you have an opinion about something, let it be known. If you don¡¯t approve of something, let me know.¡± I told her.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. The nekatar looked at me for a moment, however, it didn¡¯t seem she understood what I said. ¡°Time to sleep, the sun already went down.¡± pointed out Nanya as she slipped under the covers on the right side of the bed. The demoness moved her arms around my chest and pulled herself closer, nuzzling at my neck. Then came Ayuseya, who was the biggest, but she didn¡¯t hesitate to press her chest on my left side. The soft mounds and delicate forms of her body could be felt in their utmost beauty, while her tail coiled around my legs. Shanteya joined in as well, but she laid down next to Ayuseya. For now, I felt pretty happy about my current situation. This is heaven! A beauty to my right, a beauty to my left, and the sweet perfume of both tickling my nose. I thought as I moved my arms around their waists and pulled them closer to me. ¡°Goodnight, everyone.¡± I told them. ¡°Goodnight, Illsy.¡± said Ayuseya and Nanya. ¡°Goodnight, Master.¡± said Shanteya. ¡°Goodnight, master, nya!¡± said Tamara. Thus, I fell asleep while floating on the wings of heaven. In that moment, I was truly a blessed individual. But surely, many men would be jealous of me right now, unfortunately, I had not thoughts of sharing. These girls were mine! MINE! When I woke up, I found myself in a rather strange predicament. Although I fell asleep while holding Nanya and Ayuseya, their positions were a bit awkward now. Nanya was holding my right hand between her legs and pressing her face into my neck. Ayuseya offered me her generous chest as a side-pillow, but she also had her legs wrapped around my left hand. Shanteya was sleeping on top of me, and the cat was using me right leg as a pillow. I can¡¯t move¡­ I thought while trying to understand just how did they end up in those positions. At the very least, I was feeling a lot of delicious things from all three of them, especially from the demoness and draconian. With a gulp, I tried to set my left hand free, but only ended up making Ayuseya release a cute moan. ¡°Ahn~!¡± Trying to free my right hand ended up with Nanya telling me something weird and then suddenly kissing me in her sleep. ¡°Mmm~! A bit rougher¡­ I like it there¡­¡± What is she dreaming about?! I shouted in my mind. But to be honest, I was very curious about it. I wanted to know. As for her kiss, it was a bit rough, and she playfully bit my lip. Hot, sexy, and I totally couldn¡¯t do anything except sit there and receive all the ¡®punishment¡¯. At least, my arms didn¡¯t fall asleep. I can feel everything¡­ I thought and then sighed. About half an hour later, Nanya woke up from her dream and saw me tangled up like that. She giggled and then did what any demoness would in her place. She took advantage of me! ¡°Stop rubbing! Hey!¡± I told her. ¡°Ahn~! But I want to¡­¡± she looked up at me with flirty eyes. This woman was totally playing with me, and I sort of liked it. ¡°Come here. Give me a morning kiss¡­¡± she grinned. ¡°Mmm¡­¡± Shanteya slowly opened her eyes and saw our kiss. She blinked once and then rubbed her eyes. ¡°Good morning, Illsy¡­¡± she said with a yawn. After Nanya released me from her kiss, Shanteya stole the next one. ¡°Mfmhm!¡± I tried to say something. ¡°Puha~!¡± she exhaled after the kiss. ¡°You girls are¡­¡± I wasn¡¯t able to finish my words because my head was turned to the left and now the draconian stole the third kiss. I give up¡­ I thought and then waited calmly until they removed me from their grasp. A few giggles and stretches later, I was finally free. Meanwhile, the cat was drooling on my foot and saying something about fish. I poked her cheek and turned into a furball. Cute. I thought as I got up and wiped the drool off my foot. For breakfast, we had some fruits and bread. Afterwards, we changed back into our adventuring clothes and armors. We put out the fire and walked outside. For a moment, I thought about leaving that metal room there, but then I absorbed it. ¡°I¡¯m a portable inn.¡± I joked. ¡°And a good kisser too.¡± Nanya winked. ¡°What can I say? I was blessed by the gods.¡± I shrugged. ¡°Yes, the god of perverts.¡± grinned the demoness. In retaliation, I wanted to pinch her, but the armor she wore was too thick, so I gave up. Tamara could benefit from a similar bonus in strength and speed as Shanteya did, but when I told the girls about applying it, they said that for now, 10% was enough. Unlike them, she might have a harder time adjusting. There was also the matter of her clothes. I had to make her some new ones, but that was for later. About three hours later, Shanteya saw something ahead of us. There were seven men sitting on the side of the road. Among them was Bucket Head. It was a bit of surprise to see him there, and at the same time, it wasn¡¯t. The man probably passed by us at one point or another and then decided to wait for us there in the event that we actually cleared the dungeon. With no point in returning to Petro, it was clear that we would continue forward towards the next city. On this road was where Bucket Head had planned to ambush us. It was a predictable plan. Thus, we raised our Magic Armors and told Tamara to hide behind us. For the moment, I didn¡¯t wish to absorb her. ¡°Well well! Fancy meeting you here!¡± said the annoyance as he stepped forward. The other six in his group walked forward and unsheathed their swords. These guys were certainly not in the mood for a friendly chat. Looking at them, they all looked like adventurers or guards, but certainly not like common bandits. ¡°So it¡¯s true¡­ You really are a Bucket Head!¡± I said with a smirk. ¡°I was actually thinking of simply robbing you and then letting you off with a warning, but it appears I need to kill you now.¡± he threatened me as he unsheathed his own sword. I pretended to yawn. ¡°I¡¯m honestly surprised you¡­¡± I didn¡¯t wait for him to finish and jumped at him. One punch shattered his armor, the next one broke three ribs and sent him on the ground, squirming in pain. The others didn¡¯t know what happened. Everything happened too fast for them to understand, but my girls knew. They jumped at the seven. With fast, simple strikes, they finished them off. All of them were on the ground, unconscious or trembling from pain. ¡°You¡­ how?¡± asked the Bucket Head. Kneeling down, I took off his helmet and then crushed it in my hands. The enchant vanished as soon as I did so. ¡°What did you do?¡± he asked surprised. I had to admit, he looked better with the helmet on. ¡°Listen up, Bucket Head. All four of us here are Godlike at least. If you even so much as dare come after us or return to Petro town, I¡¯ll hunt you down and rip muscle after muscle from your putrid bones while you are still alive. Do I make myself clear?¡± I asked him and then pressed one finger on his ribs, causing him excruciating pain. ¡°Argh! You will not get away with this!¡± he groaned. ¡°Sigh¡­ So you don¡¯t understand.¡± I shook my head and then grabbed him by the neck and lifted him up. ¡°If you survive this, rethink your position. Next time, I¡¯ll cut you in half.¡± I warned him and then tossed him in the sky at over twenty meters or so. ¡°NOOO!¡± he screamed as he went flying. As they say, what goes up, must come down, and Bucket Head came crashing down like a boulder tossed off a cliff. I stepped aside and let him smash into the ground with a loud thud. That body of his was wrecked from this fall, blood spilling from his mouth, and his muscles trembled from the shock. He was still alive, but barely. ¡°Oh! He survived!¡± I smirked and then looked back at the others. ¡°Any of you want a ride too?¡± I asked those who were still conscious. ¡°No! Please forgive us!¡± they pleaded immediately. ¡°Very well, but next time, you are all dead. No more stealing from others, got it?¡± I showed them a small smile. ¡°Yes!¡± they bowed their heads all the way to the ground. ¡°You could have just killed them.¡± Nanya said with a shrug. ¡°I gave them a chance, and Bucket Head had it coming.¡± I shrugged and looked back at him. ¡°I was thinking of simply ripping his hands off and beating him with them, but he wouldn¡¯t have survived for too long.¡± ¡°Master is strong, nya.¡± said Tamara with a gleam in her eyes. ¡°I am, ain¡¯t I?¡± I smiled and scratched her between the ears. ¡°Normally, they would have been killed on the spot if a knight found them.¡± said Ayuseya. ¡°I¡¯m not a knight. I¡¯m a dungeon.¡± I smiled back at her. ¡°You¡¯re not afraid of him coming after you?¡± she asked me curiously. ¡°Why should I fear a weakling like him? Besides, you never know how an act of kindness or second chance at life could change an individual for the better. Still, truth be told, I was sort of hoping he wasn¡¯t going to live through that fall.¡± I said with a shrug. Just like when I was a human¡­ I think about punching someone in the face, but when I act, I merely slap him. I thought as I looked down at my hand and clenched it into a fist. ¡°In the end, it might have been the best decision.¡± said Nanya rubbing the back of her head. ¡°He¡¯s still one of the guild¡¯s Watchers. They are supposed to have the final saying. We¡¯ll report this at the next guild hall and if they want him dead, they will put a bounty on him. If not, he¡¯ll most likely lose his job for his greed.¡± she looked back at him one last time and then walked after me. ¡°Is that so? Let¡¯s do that then.¡± I said. We left the scene of the defeated adventurers and continued to walk towards the next city. In a matter of hours, we would reach the gates of the capital. Who knew we were so close to it? Especially since there weren¡¯t that many people on the road to begin with. Chapter 52: The new players in town When we saw the city from afar, we thought it was close, but in truth, it was quite far away. Located in a small depression in the heart of the mountain, the forest acted as a natural camouflage to it, and only from above could you easily spot it. The peak of the palace didn¡¯t go over the peak of the trees on the tall border. Unlike Perto, this one had two protective walls: one around the palace, one around the fancy houses of the noblemen, and the outside was left to fend for itself. There was even a small Colosseum of sorts to the far right. The entrance into the city was done through various checkpoints, but a skilled thief or assassin could find other ways inside. There were much easier methods of getting in, but the two walls were heavily guarded with constant patrols. The architecture of the place reminded me of the European medieval themed movies and TV series. The rooftops were made out of wood in a triangular shape. The bottom was made out of planks stuck together with nails. Very few had a solid stone foundation or stone walls, at least among the outer houses, but inside the walls, there wasn¡¯t even one house made out of wood. From afar, the streets appeared to be narrow, just enough for a carriage to pass by, pushing two was probably going to be hard, and they were covered with small stones so the citizens didn¡¯t step in mud as soon as they walked out of their homes. The main roads, on the other hand, could hold even five carriages with ease and were paved with stone tiles. This was going to be my first time going into a big city in this world, although, back in Romania, I lived with Alina in a small apartment in Bucharest. Compared to it, this city was very small. If I were to compare it to Moscow or New York, I think the whole thing would fit in 20-25% of the entire city, maybe less? In terms of walking speed, it would take one hour and a half at most to go from one gate to the opposite one, and this walking in a straight line. To keep up appearances, I pulled my hoodie over my head, to hide the grass growing on top of my noggin, and Nanya wore her illusion ring. We wanted to go incognito as most as we could. ¡°I wonder if we can get a room with a bath¡­¡± I said as we approached the first checkpoint. ¡°Bathtubs are usually bought only by the rich and the nobles. Peasants and most commoners just use a big barrel. They do heat up the water if they can, but most of the time, they wash with cold one.¡± explained Nanya. ¡°What about you?¡± I asked her. ¡°When I was traveling alone or with Tuberculus in my old days, I used to pretend I didn¡¯t need one. What I did was rent a cheap room and summoned the bathtub from my Inner Mind. Heating water is easy when you have certain dungeon skills.¡± she replied with a smirk. ¡°Oh, you should have told me you could do that! I am in need of a hot bath as well!¡± mentioned Ayuseya. ¡°Should I build a hot spring for you? Mixed bathing though.¡± I smirked and looked at the tall dragoness next to me. ¡°I do not know what that is¡­¡± she furrowed her brow. ¡°Yes, what is it?¡± asked Nanya. ¡°Blasphemy! This world has just committed an atrocious sin! How could they have not found the beauty of hot springs yet?!¡± I said with an exaggerated tone, pointing my finger at the sky. ¡°Huh?¡± the two of them looked at each other a bit confused. ¡°Well, not like I ever went to one either.¡± I shrugged. ¡°If we¡¯ll ever find one, I¡¯ll let you know¡­ or I can try building one.¡± I scratched the back of my head, wondering how exactly I was supposed to achieve the perfect temperature for the water with only geothermal heating. ¡°Until then, we can just try the communal baths. Every city has one.¡± shrugged Nanya. None of them asked where I heard of a hot spring before. They probably thought I read about it somewhere in a book. ¡°You don¡¯t say?¡± I asked with a smile. ¡°Wipe the perverted smirk off your face, Illsy. If I catch you peeking at any other girls, I¡¯ll make sure you suffer!¡± the demoness threatened me. Well, she did say that her kind was a bit possessive when it came to mates. Did this include jealousy too? ¡°Then I¡¯ll use horse blinders and look only at you three.¡± I smirked. The demoness squinted her eyes at me, but didn¡¯t give me a retort. Is that a yes? I wondered. [Guard A¡¯s point of view] Many travelers come to this city, yes. Many rich and many poor, but few settled here. I have been standing guard here for three hours now, and ever since I started eight years ago, I had never seen a group such as the one that currently approached us. The man in the middle of a group of four women had green eyes and hair. He wore a hood and a pair of weird pants. That one was most likely a guide or a servant for the ladies. The one to his right was a pretty el¡¯doraw with a big package on her chest. I would have loved to take her for a spin in my bed, but sending the wife to her mom¡¯s for the night would be a bit tricky. This one wore a maid outfit, but it was a lot different from the one the beauties at the palace wore. Speaking of maids, I heard the second prince usually had several beauties him and won¡¯t accept anyone older than 30 and with a nice body. The first prince, on the other hand, was known not to possess such interests, but he was the people¡¯s favorite of them both. Too bad our dearly departed king ordered them both to rule the kingdom. The one that I found surprising to see among them was the draconian. Ya don¡¯t normally see their kind around these parts. A long time ago, during the terrible draconian wars, most of them were driven off this continent. I heard their species was declining. Well, good for them! Unfortunately, our kingdom doesn¡¯t bare a grudge against them. We have been neutral with their kind, and most of us treat them as normal adventurers. Just looking at her clothes though, I can¡¯t really say if she was a noble or just some rich fella who liked them fancy dresses. In my eyes, she didn¡¯t seem to have noble blood, but she did give off this strange aura ya see at those ladies from the court. Maybe my eyes were going bad? Standing left of the green haired man was a blond beauty who could easily turn your head around, but them arm guards and armor she wore would hint enough that she could do more than slap ya. She was either the guard for the draconian or the noble the others accompanied. Either way, she would certainly have the coin to stay at the most expensive inn in the city. The last one in their group was a nekatar cub. She walked behind them and looked no older than a twelve years-old boy, but these stinkin¡¯ beasts always deceived my eyes. Some were full-blown adults older than me and still looked like a child, but there were some who were no older than my daughter and looked like an adult woman with big jugs and swaying hips. The god who made these beasts was surely missing a screw or two loose because they weren¡¯t normal to me. ¡°Oi! Erkenwald! Do these bunch smell of trouble to you?¡± my partner asked. Raising an eyebrow, I looked at him and then back at the group slowly walking towards us. ¡°Johen, even if they do, I don¡¯t think they stand a chance against the royal guards. Even a Supreme would have a hard time here. Besides, they are probably just some random adventurers.¡± I shrugged. ¡°I don¡¯t know, Erkenwald, the guy in the middle feels strange to me¡­ scary. Besides, have you ever seen such a strange bunch put together: a draconian, two humans, a nekatar, and an el¡¯doraw?¡± he asked me, his hands gripping tight the hilt of his sword. ¡°Yes, Johen. At the pub, every day. Or at the Guild Hall if they form a party. Adventurers don¡¯t really care that much about species as long as they have the strength to back them up in a dungeon.¡± I told him. ¡°I still don¡¯t like it, Erkenwald¡­ I really don¡¯t like it.¡± he shook his head. ¡°Just ignore them.¡± I wave him off and looked back at the bunch. They approached me, but the one to speak was the guy with the hood. He showed me a smile and then asked me something in a strange language. I squinted my eyes at him and then looked at his companions. The blond woman sighed and then told him something in the same language. Doesn¡¯t he know Kalish? I wondered. ¡°Excuse my idiot companion, he forgot for a moment that we aren¡¯t in Shoraya.¡± the blond said. ¡°No worries. So ya come all the way from Shoraya? Isn¡¯t that on the Allasn continent?¡± I asked her. That was quite the distance for them to be traveling. If that was so, then they were both rich and strong. Normal adventurers can¡¯t go through such a journey on a Master Rank¡¯s power. ¡°Yes. We are quite tired after our long journey, and we would like to visit the local Guild Hall and maybe a Inn? Anything you would recommend?¡± she asked. ¡°Ya could say I know of a few.¡± I smiled. If there was one thing I liked about the capital was the food I could eat at some of the inns here. Each one had their own specialty. On the bright side of things, the innkeepers there offered me a meal for every adventurers I sent their way, but only if they rented a room or two. This group could offer me four healthy meals at least! ¡°That¡¯s great!¡± she smiled and what a cute smile too. ¡°Ya take the road here.¡± I pointed back. ¡°Then go left at the fifth¡­ no sixth intersection. Ya walk past three houses, and on the left ya¡¯ll see Tannador¡¯s Inn. Cheerful fellow and full of energy, cooks good too! Tell them Erkenwald sent ya!¡± I smiled and nodded. ¡°Will do! Anything else we should know about this place? Special rules or stuff like that?¡± asked the beautiful lady. ¡°Just keep ya fingers in ya pockets and don¡¯t try to kill every annoying drunk ya come across. Do that, and we won¡¯t have any troubles.¡± I told her. There were a few special rules and customs like in any other city, but they would come to learn them with each day they spent here, in the capital. Unless they were a bunch of ignorant or stuck-up folk like the nobles at the king¡¯s party, then I highly doubted they wouldn¡¯t be able to survive in this city. ¡°Thank you! Have a nice day!¡± the blond beauty said, and the other women made a polite nod. The man simply looked at them confused, but the blond took his hand and pulled him after her.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. ¡°You weren¡¯t harsh with them at all!¡± complained Johen. ¡°Bah! They are mere adventurers, polite too! Nothing to worry about!¡± I waved him of and looked back towards the group. I saw the man grab a hold of the blond¡¯s bottom, but then he vanished from my sight. The women went to the right and vanished from my sight. Maybe I was seeing things? The man didn¡¯t vanish, he probably moved behind the big breasted draconian. Rubbing my eyes, I returned to my post and greeted the next traveler, some idiot adventurer with a plated gold armor, trying to stand out like a thorn in a camel¡¯s back. Well, with this lout there was no need to be gentle. [Illsyore¡¯s point of view] I got punched¡­ Like seriously? I only tried to get a nice firm grip of her round bottom! Not like there was any part of her I haven¡¯t already touched! ¡°That hurt¡­¡± I grumbled a lie. My Magic Armor saved me from the pain I should have suffered, but I was still laying upside down in a small chicken coop. ¡°Patooei!¡± I spat out a feather. ¡°Cluck! Cluck!¡± one of those feather brains trying to peck through my armor. ¡°Chicken! Tamara likes chicken!¡± the nekatar said licking the tip of her lips. ¡°Down girl, no eating other people¡¯s chicken.¡± Nanya warned her. ¡°Yes! Tamara listens!¡± she said with a smile, lifting her left hand up. ¡°Are you alright, Illsy?¡± Ayuseya asked me. ¡°I¡¯m alright¡­ I think I learned the art of laying an egg from these future crispy strips.¡± I said and glared at the angry bird next to me. A single flick would turn her into a meat paste, but she didn¡¯t belong to me, so I had to abstain from the¡­ bloody act. An old lady walked out and then asked something in the Kalish language. Nanya replied with an awkward smile and pointed at me. I squinted my eyes at her, since it was quite clear that she was blaming the whole thing on me. They spoke for a little while longer, and the demoness offered her a few coppers. I sighed and took a more normal position. The angry chicken was still clucking and trying to peck my head, but I completely ignored it. The bird was nothing more than an annoying mosquito buzzing around. ¡°Well?¡± I asked. ¡°I paid for the damage you caused. Get out of there.¡± Nanya told me. Stepping out of the place, I dusted off my shoulders and threw a glare at the chicken. ¡°Did master found a rival?¡± asked Tamara. ¡°I¡¯m not going to be a rival with a future stew.¡± I retorted. ¡°Nya?¡± she tilted her head cutely, and I forgave her. ¡°We should go to the inn the guard mentioned.¡± said Ayuseya, changing the subject. ¡°What inn?¡± I asked furrowing my brow. Being unable to read or understand the language was certainly a most annoying thing, but one of these days, I was going to learn it. The girls led the way, and I followed silently, looking around and checking out the people here. Unlike the small Perto Town, there were many adventurers here who wore some rather fancy armors. The moment when we returned to the main street, I saw some dude wearing a full plated gold armor stomping through and bursting with fury. I simply raised an eyebrow at him when he locked eyes with me. [The merchant¡¯s point of view] Don Diego was furious. The man was a rich fellow who bought all the best looking armor and weapons he could find. His father was one of the most powerful nobles in this city, so it was quite easy for him to do so, but the lad¡¯s strength left much to be desired. Still, there was one thing everyone knew. When Don Diego was mad, we merchants simply nodded and smiled. His father could close down our business if he wanted to. As for why he was mad, well¡­ apparently the guards at the entrance took him through all of the formalities required for a suspicious fellow to go through. The group who entered earlier skipped that step because they all looked like plain adventurers and spoke politely with the guard. The women were quite beautiful too. The blond alone would fetch at least 100 goldiettes as a slave, maybe more? Unfortunately, their gear wasn¡¯t something I would consider as valuable. It looked decent, but in the eyes of nobles or powerful adventurers, it was plain and simple, without any magic stones and probably no more than an enchant or two. Still, there can be many diamonds hiding among pieces of charcoal. When Don Diego stopped in front of them, it was clear that they would become his next victim. It was a bad habit of his. Whenever he was furious about one thing or another, he would always take out his anger on someone weaker than him. Just mentioning his father¡¯s status was enough to make many men shiver in their pants. I was certain this group would be no different, so I stood at the door of my shop and watched the scene. ¡°I have seen you glance my way, yet you do not bow your head! Do you not know who I am? I can have you stripped of your rank and tossed out of the city in a manner of moments if so I desire!¡± the lad claimed, but most of what he said was a lie. Unless that person was someone who was considered a threat to the city or without political support, his father couldn¡¯t toss him out like that. It would look bad for him. Proof of this was the guard at the entrance. They could only be ordered around by lord Zenos, who was usually on the opposite side of the table as Don Diego¡¯s father. ¡°Are you listening, you commoner?¡± the lad asked, but the other said no word, he simply raised an eyebrow at him. ¡°Who is this oversized squawking parrot?¡± the hooded man asked the blond next to him in Shorayan. My skill with the tongue was rough, but a good merchant knew more than Kalish and Kendarian. ¡°A noble¡¯s son, I think.¡± the woman replied scratching the back of her head. Without a doubt they were mere traveling adventurers. They didn¡¯t know whom they were facing. ¡°I see¡­ So a nobody.¡± the hooded man shrugged. Feeling ignored, Don Diego tried to grab him by the collar of his clothes, but his hands were stopped by the man¡¯s Magic Armor. The man must have sensed danger from him, otherwise, it wouldn¡¯t have reacted. ¡°You dare, runt?!¡± the noble pointed his finger at him. ¡°This is annoying.¡± the hooded man took a step forward and simply pushed him out of the way. What happened next was hard to believe. Don Diego was sent flying through the sky outside of the city. Such fearsome strength could only be displayed by those who already reached Godlike Rank, but if this was so, then the poor noble never stood a chance from the very beginning. At most, he was a Master Rank, but even that was mostly thanks to his armor and sword. ¡°Huh? I didn¡¯t push him that hard!¡± the hooded man complained. ¡°Let it go, he¡¯ll live¡­ I think.¡± said the blond. Hearing him say that, I was left dumbfounded. What sort of power could he hold to say that what he did was involuntary. Nonetheless, Don Diego would certainly think thrice before picking a fight with them. His father would rather try to recruit these fellows instead of kicking them out of the city. After all, a Godlike Ranked adventurer was a powerful tool to have under your control. [Ayuseya¡¯s point of view] The journey to this city was one filled with strange things. We got to meet the Watcher Illsy nicknamed Bucket Head, and also witness his quick defeat. We got to save the cute nekatar, who ended up joining our group as Illsy¡¯s second slave. We got to stay at a makeshift inn created by a Dungeon Lord, but most importantly, I the time and leisure to ponder about many things. First of all, I wasn¡¯t the same weak draconian princess as I was back at Fellyore. The social rank I held didn¡¯t hold any value in this group. Everyone called themselves without honorifics and spoke as members of a close family would. Illsy turned out to be a great man, and someone like Dankyun couldn¡¯t even raise up to his ankle, but most importantly, I was starting to realize the selfish desires I held in my heart. Ever since Nanya slept with Illsy, I felt a bit¡­ left out. Nanya had the strength, the power. Shanteya was the loyal follower anyone would wish to have. She also possessed extensive knowledge in the art of assassination and other, deadly arts. Tamara was the cute, furry pet¡­ and I¡­ I was the big fellow who didn¡¯t bring any contribution to this group. My strength was not my own, it was the result of a Dungeon¡¯s buff. My magic remained weak when compared to his or Nanya¡¯s. I could hold a sword, but not as well as the others. What I had was only a noble¡¯s upbringing and information about politics, ruling a country, and various stuff they might never need or find useful in any way. A princess was a manager of the state of affairs¡­ What use had such an individual in a party of adventurers? Even so, this wasn¡¯t what made me feel down. Ever since I became aware of my feelings for Illsy, I tried to find a way to make them known to him. I wanted to speak freely and openly with him like Nanya did, not worry about whether I said or not the right thing. To me, every conversation felt like an annoying puzzle I had to find the correct solution to. If others already said it, then there was no reason for me to voice my opinion anymore. I was sick of this, but I couldn¡¯t see a solution to it either. That was why I wanted to have a private chat with Illsy. If there was anyone here who could understand me and maybe offer me a bit of help, it was him. As to why? Well, he was my husband, that was part of his duty, or so I wished to believe. Maybe I¡¯m just over-thinking things, but I certainly want to speak and¡­ cuddle with Illsy more. That¡¯s not wrong, right? I asked myself as I took a quick glance at the Dungeon Lord. He caught my gaze, my cheeks turned red, and I looked away. This is so embarrassing¡­ Uhu! I thought as I tried to calm down my fast beating heart. Nanya and Shanteya didn¡¯t seem to have the same problem, but why did I? [Tannaor¡¯s point of view] Many brave travelers walked through my doors and came to rest in one of my rooms or eat my meals. I have seen those who were strong but lacking in the head, those who were smart but lacked the brawn, and those who lacked both but pretended to have both. Few times have I seen those strange, rare individuals who held both of them. As such, their armors and weapons of choice matched the amount of brain matter they had between their ears. Don Diego, for example, was man who pretended to be both smart and strong, but he was a coward among cowards and although he held a tiny bit of strength, only his armor was what pulled him up on the ranks. Thus, when my doors opened, and a pair of new faces entered, I wasn¡¯t in the least bit surprised. Their group was formed of two humans, one draconian, one el¡¯doraw, and a cat. Looking at their clothes, I barely gave them a Master Rank, but the blond lady was maybe an Emperor at most. The other human, he was a beginner, maybe? After all, no self-respecting adventurer would wear such casual clothing. The thicker the armor on them, the better! As for their relationship, that was a bit complicated, but one thing I could make sense of were the two black rings around the cat¡¯s and el¡¯doraw¡¯s necks. Something told me that was a form of slavery and if I was right, then the one to hold the chains was most likely the man. The girls were surrounding him like starved monsters would a lamb. I pitied the man or woman who thought they could hit on them. Then again, only my experienced eyes could tell such things. There were fools everywhere who thought they knew everything, but couldn¡¯t even put on their armor properly without stumbling on their own two feet. ¡°Welcome to Tannaor¡¯s Inn! My name is Tannaor. How may I serve you?¡± I asked them politely. ¡°Argh! Don¡¯t tell me you can¡¯t speak Shorayan either?¡± the man spoke in the foreign language, but I understood him. ¡°I do, actually.¡± I replied in his tongue. ¡°You do?! Great!¡± he lifted his hands up and jumped. What a weird man he was. ¡°So, what can I do for ya?¡± I asked him again. ¡°Erkenwald, the guard at the entrance to the city, sent us your way. He said you have good rooms and food.¡± the blond said. ¡°Indeed, I do!¡± I replied with a dwarfish smirk. It was a good investment to pay the guard with free meals for sending customers my way. ¡°Good! Erm, give me your biggest room then.¡± he told me. ¡°Only one?¡± I asked and then looked at the ladies around him. It couldn¡¯t be that he was planning to sleep with all of them, right? ¡°Yes.¡± he nodded, and the ladies didn¡¯t retort. ¡°Very well¡­ I have a room for four people. It has two beds and a metal bath. The toilet is down the hall.¡± I said. ¡°Good! We¡¯ll take it!¡± he declared. ¡°Very well.¡± I said and threw a quick glance at the ladies to see if any disagreed in the slightest, but they didn¡¯t even flinch a muscle. How could a man like him persuade such beauties to sleep with him? I wondered. Of course, the cat was ignored. She was merely a pet. Throw a fish her way, and she will bow down like a loyal fool. Tickle her a little between the ears, and she¡¯ll slump into your lap begging for more. After taking the key, I told him the price. ¡°Six silverettes for a night. Can you pay?¡± It was a bit pricey, but we were in the capital, not some rundown town at the border of the kingdom. ¡°Good! Here!¡± he smirked and tossed a goldiette and two silverettes at me. I instinctively caught them. I found his behavior to be a bit rude, but all the other adventurers acted exactly the same. Fortunately for him, I saw no need in busting my head over whether his gesture was a rude one or not. ¡°This way.¡± I told him and guided him to his room. ¡°Sure!¡± he nodded. Once we got there, I handed him the key and said ¡°If you plan on being loud, I¡¯ll charge you extra in the morning.¡± I told him and threw a glance at the ladies behind him. ¡°I understand.¡± he nodded. Well, besides asking for an extra goldiette from him, there wasn¡¯t much I could do, but some adventurers found the tax a bit scary and refused to disobey the rule. As long as I had peace and quiet, I didn¡¯t care what sort of kinks my customers had. Chapter 53: Ayuseya makes a move All in all, the room was far better than the ones we received at Neyalin¡¯s inn. The metal bath was fit for a human, but not a draconian. Speaking of which, Ayuseya had to bend a little in order to get inside, the frame of the door was a bit too low for her. The same happened back in Perto. Every building here was built only for human-sized species like elves, el¡¯doraws, nekatars, and dwarfs. The big draconians weren¡¯t meant to step inside these places, then again, I didn¡¯t see any of them on the street. One could say that Ayuseya was a rarity here. That or there simply weren¡¯t any of them wandering around the streets at this hour and around this place. Stretching my arms, I walked over to one of the beds and tested its bounciness. It was concluded that mine was far better. ¡°When we go to bed, remind me to absorb these things and replace them with the one we slept in last night.¡± I said and turned to look at the girls. ¡°Why?¡± asked Nanya furrowing her brow. ¡°I like that one more, besides¡­ this one is too small for Ayuseya. She will be a bit uncomfortable in it.¡± I pointed at the edge of the bed. It stopped at 2 meters. The same went for the other bed in this room. If my wife was to sleep in any of these beds, she would certainly be uncomfortable. I, on the other hand, could manage somehow. ¡°We don¡¯t have anything to unpack. Should we go eat something and then go take a bath at the local bathhouse?¡± asked Nanya. ¡°Tamara won¡¯t be able to enter with us.¡± pointed out Shanteya. ¡°Tamara stay and guard panties!¡± shouted the cat. In that moment, all of them squinted their eyes at me. ¡°What?¡± I asked furrowing my brow. ¡°Don¡¯t you dare use that spell!¡± warned Nanya. ¡°How could I use it? You three aren¡¯t even in my Dungeon Territory!¡± I complained. The look in their eyes told me they didn¡¯t believe me. ¡°Fine! I¡¯ll PROVE it! Colly Tos!¡± I said and when nothing appeared in front of me, I smiled and took a triumphant pose. ¡°See! Nothing happened!¡± With a blush on her cheeks, Nanya walked over to me and took something from on top of my hood. I blinked surprised when she did that and looked at her hand. She was holding a pair of pink panties with a small ribbon on them. ¡°Aren¡¯t those¡­¡± I pointed out and furrowed my brow. ¡°You and your broken spells!¡± she grumbled and then turned around. While she put them on, I looked at the others, who quietly shook their heads disapprovingly. ¡°I swear to God, I didn¡¯t mean it!¡± I defended myself. ¡°It¡¯s alright, Illsy. We understand that as a man, you have certain¡­ hobbies?¡± said Ayuseya with a forced smile. ¡°My hobby isn¡¯t magically stealing panties with Colly Tos!¡± I complained, and the pink pair appeared above me once more, slowly floating down into my right hand. ¡°You idiot¡­ I just put them on.¡± grumbled the demoness. ¡°Sorry?¡± I handed them over. ¡°You see? A man¡¯s nature always reveals itself!¡± the draconian giggled. ¡°Stupid, broken, useless skill¡­¡± I grumbled to myself. ¡°This must just mean that Master really loves Nanya.¡± giggled Shanteya. When she said this, Ayuseya looked down for a moment. ¡°Or my panties¡­¡± the demoness squinted her eyes at me after she was done. ¡°Technically, the spell that shall not be named is described as being a targeted spell¡­¡± I said in my defense. ¡°Technically, not practically.¡± pointed out the el¡¯doraw. ¡°How about that bath?¡± asked Ayuseya afterwards, trying to change the subject. ¡°Then Tamara guards?¡± asked the kitten. ¡°Yes, then we will wash you up in this tub!¡± said Nanya with a grin. Flattening her ears, the nekatar looked at it and then at her and shook her furry head fast. She clearly didn¡¯t like the idea of a ¡®bath¡¯. ¡°Relax, Tamara. It¡¯s not going to bite.¡± I smiled and patted her head. ¡°Mew! But water is wet¡­¡± she complained. That was a¡­ valid argument? ¡°How cute.¡± Ayuseya giggled. ¡°Then it¡¯s settled! Let¡¯s go and see what we can find to stuff our stomachs with!¡± I declared. ¡°You, a cow.¡± smirked Nanya and slapped my bottom. ¡°Hey!¡± I complained, but the others just giggled and walked past me. With a sigh, I closed the door behind us. After locking it, I put away the key and followed them downstairs. This place served only booze, so for food, we went to a nearby restaurant. It wasn¡¯t that far from us, but the waiter at the door stopped us before we could enter. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but we don¡¯t serve¡­¡± he gulped and looked up at Ayuseya ¡°draconians and nekatars.¡± I raised an eyebrow at him. ¡°On account of what reason?¡± I asked. ¡°The boss doesn¡¯t want us to.¡± he explained. ¡°Sigh, let¡¯s go somewhere else. You can tell your boss that I¡¯m not going to recommend this place!¡± I said and then tossed him a silverette. ¡°Sir?¡± the boy looked at the coin confused. We said nothing and kept walking. A few steps away, Nanya asked me ¡°Why did you give a coin for nothing?¡± ¡°In a city like this, tossing a coin at a random stranger can only mean one thing: that you are rich. If I threw a goldiette, then I would have hinted we are nobles, if it was a copperette, then just average folk with coins to spend. However, a silverette means we are wealthy adventurers. Greedy enough not to give a goldiette, rich enough not to care about a silverette.¡± I smirked. ¡°And what will this lead to?¡± asked Ayuseya a bit confused. ¡°Two things basically. Either the boy will keep this a secret and next time he sees us, he will be awfully polite and friendly with us. In case we will need any sort of info, he might be willing to provide it for us. After all, a waiter at a fancy restaurant can hear some interesting things from time to time. The other option is that he will show it to his boss, and he will rethink his strategy a bit. After all, a merchant¡¯s instinct is to first make the coin, then bother about politics. Thus, he might be willing to change his policy on what sort of clientele to serve.¡± I explained. ¡°In other words, you wasted a silverette on a whim, thinking it will serve some future purpose, right?¡± asked Nanya raising an eyebrow. ¡°Urk¡­ Can¡¯t I just act cool and smart for a minute?¡± I squinted my eyes at her. ¡°Maaaybe?¡± she giggled and kissed my cheek. ¡°I would love a dumb Illsy just as much as I would a smart one.¡± I sighed and let it pass. Little did I know, that my ¡®whim¡¯ was actually going to change something. [Waiter¡¯s point of view] He tossed me a coin. Just like that, without asking anything for it! I couldn¡¯t tell if that man was an arrogant bastard or just some rich fellow with an overgenerous heart. Well, I wasn¡¯t the smartest lad in me family, but I knew one thing and that was to never take the generosity of a man in vain! I hid the coin in the pockets of me pants and pretended like nothing ever happened, but if that man were to ever pass by and ask me anything, I would see no reason not to answer truthfully. Hm, maybe if I will ever open me own place, I¡¯ll let everyone in! Yeah, that sounds good! I think I¡¯ll treat this silverette as a lucky coin. I thought and for the first time in me life, I actually wanted to do something more. [Illsyore¡¯s point of view] We found a small restaurant that took all of us in after walking for who knew how far. I was this close to actually building the whole thing from the ground up only made out of pure gold and platinum just to annoy all those human ingrates. The place we dined at wasn¡¯t a fancy one, for certain, but it made a decent soup and steak. They even served Tamara some fish, which she wolfed down in mere seconds. It appeared as though the draconians were mostly seen as enemies around these parts, as for the nekatars, they had two separate statuses: slave or free. The latter didn¡¯t offer them full rights though. They could be set free, true, but they weren¡¯t treated equally, which pissed me off¡­ a lot. One of them even had the guts of telling me the following words: ¡°But they don¡¯t look like us? They are beasts, so we must teach them their place. Man is superior to any beast, after all!¡± The man declared it like he was proud of it. If Ayuseya and Nanya weren¡¯t there, I would have punched him all the way to the palace. The idea that a king could rule a country with such prejudice and discrimination sickened me. That was why when I found the small restaurant that served all the species there, I decided to give them a big tip. The meal was 3 silverettes and 4 copperettes, but I paid 4 goldiettes. The owner thanked me in tears. That money would have been enough to help him pay the taxes and renovate a little. The food was good too, so I had no complains about it. After a good meal, we took a walk through the city. We looked around and checked out any store we found interesting. It was a big city, but not as big as the ones on Earth. To be honest, not all of the things I saw pleased me, and the girls didn¡¯t buy anything either. There were some nice-looking ladies, but when I saw them dragging slaves behind them, which were clearly barely fed and even overworked, like quickly turned into disgust. Surprisingly, there weren¡¯t any beggars on the streets. When I asked about this, the one to answer was the draconian princess. ¡°In countries that rely on slavery, if you become a beggar, then you are immediately taken as a slave by the state and sold to government-owned markets. Not owning a home does not necessarily mean that you are a beggar. As long as you still have money to pay the most minimum of taxes, you can live as a free man. Here, it should be a one-month fee of one silverettes. For us, who have just arrived in this city, we are not obligated to pay anything until the end of the month or if a knight requests it.¡± Her explanation was long and spoken with the dignified tone suited for her rank, but it revealed the ugly way the system treated the poor people. To be honest, I knew how democracy and communism treated them, but so far, I had yet to see a system that sided with the poor people just as much as it did with the rich ones. This was one of the things that annoyed me. I saw the problem, but I had no idea how to fix it¡­ but most importantly, was I the right one to fix it? In the end, any change that took place in any sort of system happened with the people who belonged to the system. As an outsider, I didn¡¯t believe my opinion really matter. By the time we reached the bathhouse, I pretty much saw what the capital looked like, at least in this area. The streets were mostly clean, but the side alleys were filled with garbage. I was told they usually didn¡¯t stay like that for long because the local elves and el¡¯doraws had sensitive noses. Humans more or less could live with it under theirs. There were no beggars, true, but there were many slaves and guards patrolling the place. The crime rate was probably low because of this, but I highly doubted there wasn¡¯t any sort of mafia around here. No matter the world or location, it was highly unlikely that one wouldn¡¯t find any sort of organized crime running in the shadows. Bucket Head, for example, could be seen as having formed the beginning of an extortion or bandit group. The plan was easy for him. At the guild, he could spot potential targets and determine their approximate strength, a thing on which he obviously failed with me, and once he forced them out of town, he was free to hunt them down. As for the nobles and rich folk, they could do pretty much whatever they wanted around here as long as they had the proper connections to back them up, like the dude I ¡®gently¡¯ pushed out of my way. Long story short, it was a city with many problems, but which only the king and the people living here could fix. While I kept thinking about this sort of stuff, we finally arrived at the bathhouse. It was a fairly large building from where many men and women entered and left. When I saw it, I instantly remembered the bathhouse at the Fellyore Academy in the Student Dormitory, the one where I caught the old geezer Tuberculus trying to sneak a peek at the lovely girls inside. ¡°We¡¯ll leave you here, Illsy. We¡¯ll see you back at the inn?¡± Nanya asked. I shrugged ¡°Sure. I¡¯ll see if I can find a map or something¡­ Here¡¯s the key.¡± She absorbed the key for safe keeping. ¡°Just don¡¯t get into trouble, alright?¡± ¡°I won¡¯t!¡± I waved and left. Walking down the street, I passed by the bathhouse, and at the first intersection, I turned left. I continued to walk forward, turned right, then took a left, and basically moved in a zig-zag pattern. At one point, some guy in leather armor went flying past me and landed face first on the ground. I blinked surprised. He groaned and said something in Kalish. It could have been a swear or some strange curse word, but I couldn¡¯t tell. With a bruised cheek, he walked away. ¡°What was that all about?¡± I wondered and looked to my left. Up on the sign board, I read¡­ I read nothing cause I had no idea how to read those chicken scribbles. ¡°One way to find out¡­¡± I said and stepped into the shop. The place was filled with maps from top to bottom, very neatly drawn and filled with details. They were all maps of this continent and even some of Allasn and Thorya. I was quite impressed, so I took a quick look at some of them, of course, I had no idea how to read them. Suddenly, I felt someone behind me and turned around. There was a man in his thirties looking at me with sharp brown eyes and hands behind his back. He had a short mustache and short cut, black hair. ¡°Hello?¡± I said and forced a smile. He spoke in gibberish. ¡°Sorry, I can¡¯t understand¡­ I will leave and maybe return with a translator. I¡¯m interested in your maps¡­¡± I smiled and turned to leave. ¡°Wait.¡± he suddenly said in Shorayan. ¡°You know my language?¡± I asked him surprised. ¡°What sort of cartographer do you think I am? My name is Cairen Talcaea!¡± he said proudly. ¡°I¡¯m Illsyore, nice to meet you.¡± I nodded and offered my hand. He looked at me and then at my hand. ¡°I¡¯m not going to kiss your hand. Are you mad?¡± he said. ¡°Erm¡­ Sorry, an old custom¡­ And it¡¯s not kissing but shaking.¡± I smiled awkwardly. ¡°Oh! I see. Weird custom. What you do if the other just took a dump?¡± he asked curiously. ¡°I pray to the gods he washed his hands?¡± I smiled. ¡°Ha! And here I thought I was the only one who did that!¡± he smiled and then shook my hand before I pulled back. ¡°Hand washing is not a custom of these parts, I presume?¡± ¡°Unfortunately, not.¡± he shook his head. ¡°Well, about your maps. Can I buy some?¡± I asked. ¡°Some?¡± he squinted his eyes at me. ¡°Yes.¡± I nodded. ¡°They are not cheap.¡± he warned me.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°I can pay.¡± I replied. ¡°Very well. What would you like a map of? Recently discovered dungeons? I can map out an entire floor if you walk me through it only once! How about some maps of the capital cities? Or the whole world?¡± he grinned and then pointed at the biggest map there, one with the three continents. ¡°I would like one map of each capital you have, that big map of the whole world, one in detail about each continent, and I think that¡¯s about it.¡± I told him. ¡°Good! Good!¡± he smiled and quickly went to get the maps I requested. While he did that, I made a quick pit stop at the local gold mountain, location Inner Mind. From there I picked up a few gold bars and turned them into some of those fancy balls with drawings on them. I already had the model, so making a few more didn¡¯t bother me. This time, I tried to make the balls tell a story about a vulture who soared through the skies and became a star, then return to the surface as a man. Easy and simple way to increase the price for a useless piece of metal. Once I was done, I came out and prepared the spheres as payment. There were three of them, but I also made a flat disc of gold to offer first. I planned to use it first to let him know that I wished to trade with gold, then I could haggle with the spheres. Those maps couldn¡¯t be very expensive, right? ¡°There!¡± Cairen said after he rolled the last map and placed it on a stack of 26 others. ¡°How much?¡± I asked. ¡°All of these? 146 Goldiettes!¡± he smirked. I might need more spheres¡­ I thought then placed the disc on the counter. ¡°How much would this be worth?¡± I asked him. ¡°Hm? You will pay in trade? Well¡­ Let¡¯s see¡­ That¡¯s about 12 Goldiettes, maybe 14?¡± he said. It was a lot, to be honest. ¡°And this?¡± I then placed the sphere on the table. ¡°Hm? Oh my! What is this? Such fine inscriptions! Is this a story? These details are extraordinary! Where did you get it, if I may ask?¡± he looked at me with curious eyes. ¡°Erm¡­ Found it in a dungeon.¡± I said with an awkward smile. ¡°Interesting! This here would be worth about 60 goldiettes!¡± he nodded. ¡°Well then, here are the other two. Do we have a deal for the maps?¡± I asked with a smile as I placed them on his counter. ¡°More of them? But with the disk, it will be over the price I requested! I can¡¯t take them¡­¡± he said shaking his head. ¡°Take them, I don¡¯t mind.¡± I smiled and took the maps from the counter. Those pieces of paper were far more important than some spheres I made in the blink of an eye. In a way, I felt like I was cheating, but he set the price himself, so win-win? ¡°Very well, if you insist.¡± he nodded and took the spheres and disk from the counter, stashing them in a Storage Crystal he carried around his neck. ¡°By the way, what was that all about? With the man who was tossed outside earlier?¡± I asked him. ¡°Oh, that?¡± he furrowed his brow ¡°He came her asking for a map like you, but he made fun of my name. Around these parts, Talcaea is also a woman¡¯s name.¡± ¡°Well, then we have something in common, Illsyore is also a woman¡¯s name. Anyway, thank you again for the maps. I hope we will meet again sometimes, mister Cairen!¡± I told him with a smile. ¡°Of course! Anytime! For good customers, my shop is always open! And if you ever need to map out a dungeon, I¡¯m the man to call!¡± he laughed. ¡°I¡¯ll keep that in mind!¡± I then left the store and absorbed the map. There was one thing I wanted to ask him about, but it sort of skipped my mind. As soon as I turned left, I bumped into someone. ¡°Ugh! Watch where you¡¯re going, lad!¡± the old man told me. ¡°I apologize!¡± I said and quickly pulled him up. He was past his 70s and wore a long white robe, which didn¡¯t get dirty at all even after falling on the ground. To make things a bit weirder, he didn¡¯t speak in Kalish, but in Shorayan. ¡°Hm? Are you¡­¡± the man stared at me for a moment ¡°A cabbage?¡± and tilted his head to the right. My eye twitched, and with a forced smile, I answered him ¡°No. Do I look like a cabbage to you?¡± ¡°Good point!¡± he snapped his fingers. Looking left and right to see if there was anyone around, he put his hand around my neck, and asked me ¡°Do you want to see something nice, young man? Hehe.¡± he smiled like a pervert. ¡°It depends¡­¡± I squinted my eyes at him and wondered if I should simply run away. ¡°GOOD!¡± he slapped my back and despite my strength, I landed face first in the ground. ¡°Ugh!¡± I groaned. Strong little old man¡­ I thought as I got up. ¡°Come on, laddy! Don¡¯t just stand there like an ol¡¯ geezer!¡± he scolded me. ¡°Aren¡¯t you the old geezer?¡± I asked as I walked up to him. ¡°Pathooi!¡± he spat. ¡°Details!¡± he waved it off. I squinted my eyes at him, but decided to follow him either way. What harm could it do? ¡°You remind of my old days, back when I could still charm a lady and not creep her out with me smile!¡± he said. ¡°Aren¡¯t they a bit too young for you?¡± I asked him with a raised eyebrow. ¡°When you are a 78 years-old human hitting on a 348 years-old elf, it¡¯s the other way around.¡± he smirked. ¡°True, but how old you look counts.¡± I nodded. ¡°Bah! Details! The true women don¡¯t go for the looks, but the heart!¡± he smiled. ¡°Sounds like a fairy tale.¡± I told him. ¡°It depends.¡± he stopped and looked back at me ¡°Maybe others just filled your head with the idea of a fairy tale when they themselves were too afraid to look at the real world. Pride, greed, and ego can be strong barriers when one is told to express himself.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t understand.¡± His words were rather confusing, I had to admit. ¡°There¡¯s nothing to understand.¡± he shook his head ¡°It¡¯s simple.¡± he shrugged ¡°The way someone grows up most of the times determines the fairy tales they have stuck between their ears. Instead of growing their own thoughts, they listen to the ideas of others and then fail to gaze upon the world they can build by themselves.¡± he smiled. ¡°You mean preconceptions? Fears? Stuff like that?¡± I asked him. He nodded. ¡°It¡¯s much easier to live in a world where you already know the rules then to try to test the world to write new ones¡­ just for yourself.¡± he smirked. I looked down for a moment as I thought about this. To be honest, I could believe these words, but I had no idea why he was telling me all of this. ¡°You still don¡¯t understand?¡± he asked me. ¡°No¡­¡± I shook my head. ¡°This lad! This!¡± he said and then went behind an elf woman who was walking past by us and groped her breasts. ¡°Hey! What are you¡­ Ahn~!¡± the woman collapsed on the ground with her cheeks red and shivering a bit. ¡°Boobies!¡± the old man smiled. My train of thought just went¡­ it broke. ¡°You youngsters don¡¯t know the joys of fine breasts! If you did, you would understand what it means to properly grope them, to appease them, to massage them, and how to properly treat them.¡± he smirked and patted the woman¡¯s head. She glared at him and then slapped him as hard as she could. The old man went flying into the sky and landed on a pile of garbage not that far away from me. ¡°Hmph! Perverts!¡± the woman stormed off, glaring at me. ¡°What just happened?¡± I asked myself as I looked back at the old man. He was laughing. ¡°Oh yes, you must never do that to anyone else BUT your woman!¡± he pointed up at the sky. ¡°I¡¯m just going to go now and pretend like this never happened. I don¡¯t want to go to jail for being associated with you.¡± I nodded firmly and stepped away. ¡°Wait!¡± the old man grabbed my hand. ¡°What?¡± I asked looking back at him. ¡°Do an old man a favor and just listen, will you?¡± he smiled. I squinted my eyes at him. ¡°Sigh¡­¡± and that was how I gave up without a fight. ¡°Good! Now, follow me!¡± he declared and began to walk. He stopped after a few steps and took out a half-eaten fish from his robe. After tossing it back in the garbage pile, he continued to walk calmly. A bit wary, I followed him, but kept an open eye for guards. Who knew what this old pervert could lead me into? At one point, he stopped and asked me ¡°Do you know what¡¯s better?¡± ¡°Erm¡­ Pie?¡± I replied. ¡°That¡¯s tasty, but no. I¡¯m talking about breasts! Big or small? Round or mushy? Perky or droopy? So many variations! So many beautiful combinations!¡± he smiled. ¡°Why are you asking me this?¡± I squinted my eyes at him. ¡°Well, which do you prefer?¡± he asked me. ¡°Erm¡­ no preference, I think.¡± I shrugged. ¡°You lie!¡± he pointed at me. ¡°How?¡± I raised an eyebrow at him. ¡°No matter what, a man will ALWAYS have a preference! That exquisite masterpiece he wishes to hold between his fingers and then squeeze it or play with it! Big breasts have their charm, and it is said that small ones represent justice!¡± he smirked. ¡°How can¡­ You don¡¯t make any sense.¡± I told him. Truth be told, I never did understand why people were going bananas over the size, shape, and everything else. True, I did prefer big breasts over small ones and from animes and manga, I knew there were many weird preferences out there, but to say I identified myself with one was a bit stretching it. Besides, I had two wives and an el¡¯doraw. My three preferences were set in stone. ¡°I do, you are just a bit of a fool who doesn¡¯t wish to recognize it! At least, you aren¡¯t like other fools who fear to act¡­¡± he shrugged. ¡°You don¡¯t know anything about me.¡± I squinted my eyes at him. ¡°Bah, who needs to? But come on, we¡¯re not that far now!¡± he smirked. I had a bad feeling about this. We arrived at some back alley, where he climbed a big pile of garbage. My keen senses detected a lot of people behind the wall, mostly women. I gulped and followed him, raising my Magic Armor to the max so the filth didn¡¯t touch me. ¡°Here! Here! But keep quiet!¡± he urged me. ¡°What?¡± I squinted my eyes at him and then looked at what he was pointing. ¡°It¡¯s Heaven, I tell you! Heaven!¡± he said. What we were looking at was a small window at the bathhouse. Before me laid a forest of gorgeous fruits just ripe to be plucked. Some were big, others were small, and the prunes were immediately deleted from my memory. Among them, I saw three voluptuous bodies soaked in water. Cheerful smiles were on their lips, and among all of them, they were the most beautiful of all the flowers there. As for their glorious mountains, I could only gulp and be forced to admire their serenity and divinity. ¡°Peeking at naked women is always the best! Hehehe!¡± the perverted old man said while wiping a trail of blood from his nose. Indeed, we were currently peeking at the women in the bathhouse, and among them were Nanya, Shanteya, and Ayuseya. They were all beautiful, charming, and stunning. But out of all three of them, I only got to be invited to bed by Nanya. ¡°You know, a true gentleman never forces himself upon a lady, no matter how beautiful she is. However, if she tempts him, giggles at his touches, and embraces him when he is daring, only a fool would pull back from her and deny her pleasure.¡± said the old man. ¡°But only if the two love each other¡­¡± I added to his words. ¡°That¡¯s why they have breasts, lad! If you give them a gentle grope, the woman will speak out her heart, and you will also know yours! Before you will proceed any further, you will know if she had conquered your heart!¡± he told me. I shook my head at his nonsense ¡°They have breasts because they need them to feed their babies. That¡¯s basic biology.¡± I raised an eyebrow at him. ¡°They enchant the eyes, feed the young, temp the beast inside the man, and most importantly, they offer the feel of divinity to a woman as a whole!¡± he smiled and patted my back. ¡°True, but¡­ That¡¯s just perverted talk! In some places, it¡¯s called sexual assault!¡± I shook my head. ¡°I stand my ground! Big or small, breasts are a divine treasure!¡± the old man laugh rather loudly. ¡°Illsy?¡± the voice that called felt oddly familiar. When I turned my head, slowly, I saw Nanya standing on the other side of the window, covering her chest. I gulped. ¡°This is not what it looks like.¡± I told her. ¡°Mhm¡­¡± she smiled. ¡°Yup¡­ I¡¯m dead.¡± I nodded, and a single punch hit me in the face so hard, I flew out of town. To be honest, I have no idea what happened to that old man, but I¡¯m sure he managed to escape somehow. Old perverts have that sort of skill. [Old Senilus Perviticus Disappearicus] [Ayuseya¡¯s point of view] ¡°I can¡¯t believe that idiot!¡± said Nanya. ¡°Master simply wished to peek at us, no harm done.¡± giggled Shanteya. ¡°I won¡¯t accept it! He can peek at me if he wants to, but Ayuseya and the other women are out of the question! Besides, he was talking to himself like some sort of madman.¡± Nanya shrugged and got back in the water. The other women around us could finally relax after the pervert was gone. They probably didn¡¯t notice who it was, since Nanya was the first to hear him and jump into action right away. Thanks to her, the others didn¡¯t see Illsy up there, alone. ¡°Why am I out of the question?¡± I asked Nanya with a bit of tremble to my voice. ¡°Well¡­¡± she blinked surprised ¡°You don¡¯t want him to look at you that way, right?¡± she asked. ¡°Why?¡± I asked her, furrowing my brow. Shanteya and Nanya both looked at each other. ¡°Well, you were more or less a victim of this marriage. Yes, Illsy did save you and is a good guy and major pervert, but we never thought that you were thinking about¡­ well¡­ you know.¡± Nanya tried to form her words, but she stuttered. ¡°Because I¡¯m a princess?¡± I asked them. ¡°That and¡­ We never thought you had any interest in him as a man.¡± she said. ¡°But I do¡­¡± I squinted my eyes at them. Indeed, I wasn¡¯t one to properly express my desire to go after him, but I thought I made it clear that I do hold feeling for him. My heart belonged to Illsy, and I wouldn¡¯t mind being his second wife after Nanya, however, it seemed as though I wasn¡¯t clear enough. Looking down, I clenched my fists under the water. I knew what I was feeling, and I didn¡¯t want to be left behind by either of them. Why should I even be left behind? I was one of his wives, so I had just as much of an equal right to go after him as they did. Shanteya touched my arm, and with a smile, she told me ¡°You don¡¯t need to rush these things.¡± I looked at her, then at Nanya. They were both thinking the same thing, that I was rushing it. ¡°What if it¡¯s not like that?¡± I asked, but my voice was weak. ¡°Remember how I told you that demons can be very possessive about their mates?¡± asked Nanya, tilting her head to the left. ¡°Yes?¡± I asked furrowing her brow. ¡°Although Illsy made it clear that he loves us all equally, he is a man, after all. I don¡¯t mind him loving other women, but when those women desire his body¡­ then I might get a bit¡­ jealous.¡± she glared at me. It was a threat. If I stepped too close to Illsy, Nanya was willing to attack me to keep him away from me. I gulped and looked down, avoiding her gaze. ¡°That¡¯s what I thought. You are not ready yet, little dragon. Don¡¯t rush it when you yourself aren¡¯t willing to fight for him. Unlike the el¡¯doraw here, our kinds choose mates, which we claim as OURS. If you aren¡¯t ready to state your claim on him in front of others, then you better step aside or wait until you are strong enough to do it.¡± she sighed and then leaned closer. She lifted my chin up, and I looked into her black eyes. ¡°Don¡¯t cry, Ayuseya. It¡¯s not your fault¡­ it¡¯s simply not time yet.¡± she smiled and then hugged me. Am I crying? I can¡¯t tell¡­ I thought. ¡°When you make up your mind, and your heart is as clear as day about this. When there¡¯s no doubt, no fear, no worry about it, I won¡¯t mind you having him for a night or two.¡± she smiled and then went back to her spot. ¡°We¡¯re not children. This isn¡¯t a game, princess.¡± she looked into my eyes ¡°If you want him, you state it clearly, but first to yourself and then to him. Once your heart is clear, you can just hope his is as well. If not, you will wait for his. It¡¯s that simple.¡± she smiled. I gulped and looked down. Was I so indecisive? No¡­ am I so indecisive about this? I love Illsy, right? Or am I just forcing myself to do so because I feel indebted to him¡­ Do I feel the need to repay him somehow? I thought while looking at my reflection in the water. ¡°Well, a good way to find out is to ask yourself this¡­¡± I looked up at Nanya when she spoke ¡°Can you imagine him looking at you naked and you wanting his hungry gaze to savor your body? Can you imagine yourself being touched by another man besides him? Are you willing to let another woman, a stranger take him away from you? Can you let yourself give up on him even if he says no to your love the first time? Do you desire and see no problem in carrying his child?¡± she showed me a small smirk. I understood in that moment that for her, those questions have been already answered, but for me, they were in debate, and I had no idea how to get out of it. My gaze slowly fell back at my reflection in the water. Nanya¡¯s words echoed in my mind, but my heart felt empty. I couldn¡¯t tell the difference between duty, desire, and debt. It¡¯s not fair¡­ I thought and then closed my eyes for a moment. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but I¡¯ll get out early¡­¡± I told the two as I got up. ¡°We barely got in?¡± Nanya said raising an eyebrow. ¡°I know we stayed in line and even waited for them to replace the water, but I can¡¯t stay any longer¡­ I need to clear my head, to think things through.¡± I told her and showed her smile, but my pain was reflected in my eyes. ¡°Very well¡­ I won¡¯t stop you, just don¡¯t get lost out there.¡± she leaned back and closed her eyes. ¡°Thank you¡­¡± I said and got out. I wanted to get changed and get out of there quickly. As I stepped out of the bathhouse, I would try hard to stop the tears from soaking my cheeks. [Nanya¡¯s point of view] ¡°Was I too harsh?¡± I asked and let out a sigh, but refused to dunk my head under the water. ¡°Maybe.¡± Shanteya told me. ¡°I simply don¡¯t trust her¡­¡± I confessed and looked up at the ceiling. ¡°Why?¡± ¡°She¡¯s a princess¡­ She was raised differently than us, so I can¡¯t really tell if she has the best of intentions for Illsy or not. Unlike us, she could very well return to her kingdom and rule it as a Queen. You and I, we are bound to Illsy for life from now on. I¡¯m aware of this, and I¡¯m willing to protect my husband with my life if I have to, but she¡­ I never saw the resolution in her to go this far. I never saw her desire to go after him, her conviction to stay by his side and the strength of heart to not let anyone else have him.¡± I said. ¡°You think she doesn¡¯t have this resolution and conviction you speak of?¡± Shanteya asked me with a calm tone of voice. ¡°Hm¡­¡± I crossed my arms ¡°Let me put it this way. If you saw a wench approaching Illsy and knew well she had evil intentions, what would happen to her?¡± I asked. ¡°Let¡¯s just say, I would need to apologize to Illsy for staining my clothes with a stranger¡¯s blood.¡± she smiled calmly. ¡°Well, you are a former assassin¡­ but yes, and I would have just broken her legs a couple of times.¡± I shrugged. ¡°Men do often say that women are scary.¡± Shanteya giggled. ¡°Yes, mother once told me that we women are like predators, and the men are like lambs. Even if they are strong as a bear, to us, they are lambs, that¡¯s why you must make sure to eliminate any and all other predators aiming for your prey.¡± I laughed. ¡°Interesting way of putting it, but you have nothing to fear from me.¡± Shanteya looked down. ¡°Why do you think so?¡± I asked. ¡°Nanya, I am not an idiot. I can tell.¡± she showed me a pained smile. ¡°What do you mean?¡± I furrowed my brow. ¡°Unlike you and Ayuseya, I am¡­ dirty, unclean.¡± ¡°Illsy doesn¡¯t care about that.¡± I stated. ¡°On the outside, no¡­ He will always state that he doesn¡¯t care about it, but on the inside, it¡¯s another matter. Maybe even he doesn¡¯t realize it, but the fact that he kept me as simply his slave is proof of this.¡± she sighed and then looked into my eyes ¡°It¡¯s not about the power of his buff, Nanya. It¡¯s about the way he truly feels about me. You and Ayuseya, he loves, but I am loved in another way. I am loved as a friend¡­ a companion, but not a wife, a lover.¡± she showed me a pained smile. ¡°That¡¯s not true.¡± I tried to say, but even I was doubting my own words. ¡°A simple question makes the entire difference¡­ and asking me has been proven to be his most difficult of trials. I¡¯m not going to be the one to ask him to make me his wife because in his eyes, I am not.¡± she shook her head ¡°Deep inside, he waits for me to say that I wish to be free. Once that happens, there¡¯s no way for him to regret it.¡± ¡°Why would he regret it?¡± I asked a bit confused. ¡°In everyone¡¯s eyes, a woman who was touched by another man is a dirty woman¡­ that¡¯s a truth everyone¡¯s hearts declare. No one wants handed down goods.¡± she looked down at her reflection in the water, but she didn¡¯t cry. ¡°Shanteya¡­ that¡¯s not true.¡± I said it again, but this time, I embraced the woman. ¡°He¡¯s just an idiot who needs a bit of time¡­ and if he doesn¡¯t¡­ ask him to release you. If Illsy can¡¯t love you, then I¡¯m certain someone will.¡± I told her. In that moment, I heard her whimper. ¡°But what if I want Illsy, and I don¡¯t want another man? What if I want only him?¡± she began to cry. The strong assassin woman could finally weep, all because of an idiot pervert we all loved and deeply cared about. Yet, one thing remained true¡­ these sort of things had their own manner of solving themselves, and sometimes it took time even when you bluntly stated them into their face. [Illsyore¡¯s point of view] I landed in a bush and scared a pack of wild wolves¡­ Good thing I had my Magic Armor up, otherwise, I would have been walking with a blackened eye and a couple of broken ribs. On another note, I had no regrets about the divine scenery I was granted sight to. Unfortunately, that old pervert had to see it too. Why should my beloved Nanya and Ayuseya be glared upon by an old man who could barely keep it up? It was inconceivable, but before I could complain any further, I had to return to the city. With a light step, I began to run back. Big was the surprise of the guards when they saw me. They asked me something in their language, but I couldn¡¯t understand their words. ¡°I don¡¯t understand what any of you are saying, can I just go through?¡± I asked. The two of them looked at each other and then back at me. I had no idea if they were letting me go past, so I tried my luck, if they pushed me back, I could always jump in. Fortunately, they didn¡¯t stop me. Then again, if I were to explain to the guards that I got punched in the face by my own wife for trying to sneak a peak at the naked women in the bathhouse, they would most likely try to arrest me. After walking for a bit, I was greeted by someone. ¡°Illsy¡­¡± Ayuseya said. ¡°What are you doing here?¡± I asked surprised. ¡°I wish¡­¡± she looked down and then to her left. ¡°I¡­¡± she looked back at me and stopped, looking back down again. ¡°Come on, say it. What¡¯s on your mind? You¡¯re my wife after all!¡± I showed her a bright smile. She bit her bottom lip and looked into my eyes. After gulping once, she finally gathered the courage to speak up. ¡°I want to talk to you¡­ in private.¡± ¡°Alright¡­ Should we go back to the inn?¡± I asked. ¡°No.¡± she shook her head and then clenching her fists, she bowed and asked ¡°Can you please take me outside of the city and make a room for us there?¡± ¡°Sure¡­¡± I was a bit taken aback, since I had no idea where all of this was coming from, but if she wanted to have an honest talk with me, who was I to deny her this? Chapter 54: A princess’ embrace [Illsyore¡¯s point of view] The two moons of this world were shining brightly above us surrounded by countless twinkling stars. It was a perfect night for stargazing, especially with so few clouds roaming around above, and the light cast down by the moons was bright enough to shine our path as we moved farther and farther away from the Elora. Lunaria was the moon always present in the dark sky. It¡¯s yellow face filled with craters reminded me of the old Moon back on Earth. Many stories of the old focused around it. Although I knew a few of them, I had yet to read or hear any myths and legends surrounding the beautiful moons of this world. Lunaria was yellow, but her smaller sister, Lunoria, was like a beautiful, uncut ruby. The shadow of the big moon was cast upon the one behind it, partially hiding it. Once we reached a reasonable distance from the city, not too close to the forest surrounding this depression, I spread my Dungeon Territory and recreated the room from yesterday. Stepping inside, I turned on the lights with the help of a Light Power Crystal and summoned a small fire in the middle. Since I didn¡¯t have a storage crystal like Nanya, I was left with creating a chimney for the fire. I also added a small Power Crystal meant to control the air around it. This way, I created an upward draft to pull the smoke out. ¡°Make yourself at home.¡± I said and entered after Ayuseya did. I locked the door behind us. If I remembered right, I gave the key to our room back at the inn to Nanya, so there shouldn¡¯t be any problem with the others. They will glare at me for sneaking out like this, without a doubt, but I had a feeling I would survive. Ayuseya looked around for a bit and then took a seat in front of the fire like she did the night before. I did the same and poked the embers with a fire iron, to stir the flames a little bit. There was a grave-like silence between the two of us, only the crackles of the wood could be heard, and as a result, I was starting to feel rather uncomfortable. This situation¡­ it¡¯s a bit awkward, isn¡¯t it? I thought as I gazed over at Ayuseya. Her cheeks were bright red, and her eyes were focused on the dancing flames before her. That big chest of hers was moving slowly, while she was playing with her fingers in her lap, fidgeting as if unsure what to do or maybe say. If it was like this, I hardly doubted we would do anything by the end of the night, so I decided to break the silence. ¡°Is everything alright?¡± I asked and looked for the smallest change in her behavior. She flinched and gazed back at me. When she met my eyes, she quickly looked away. ¡°I-I-I¡¯m alright.¡± she stuttered a bit. ¡°Hm?¡± I squinted my eyes. Another moment of silence washed over us, threatening to drown our conversation in the dead of the night. ¡°What did you want to talk about?¡± I asked her and placed the fire iron next to me. ¡°Erm¡­¡± she looked down, then back up at me. What is she thinking? I wondered. [Ayuseya¡¯s point of view] Illsy led me away from Elora, the capital of the Aunnar Kingdom, and recreated the small house in which we slept a day before, however, I could feel my heart beating in my chest like mad with every step we took farther and farther away from Nanya and the rest. This was also the first time since I was alone with him outside of his Inner Mind. It was embarrassing, and I could barely stand still. My mind was filled with all sort of thoughts about what I should do and what I should say. The more I was alone with Illsy, the more I felt like Nanya¡¯s words were true. She was right, I wasn¡¯t ready. Being raised as the princess of Teslov Kingdom, I was never properly taught on how to approach a man. My purpose was to simply offer myself up to his desires, so seduction was one of my least applied and cultivated skills, unlike Shanteya or Nanya. Those two could easily charm Illsy, not to mention the fact that the demoness could be a real cunning fox if she put her mind to it. On the other hand, I was struggling¡­ The role of a Teslov princess was to be taken, not to take. I was supposed to let Dankyun have me, not run away from him. Although taught in many things, combat and love were two things I never approached. Now I was suffering from the consequences. What did I come here for? What¡¯s the purpose? Why? I then imagined one of the situations Nanya told me about, the one about me revealing myself completely to Illsy. I can¡¯t do something like that! I can¡¯t! I screamed in my mind more embarrassed than anything, then I remembered that night in Illsy¡¯s Inner Mind when I approached him wearing nothing but a barely-there piece of cloth. I felt like I wanted to dig up a hole and hide in it. Where did I muster the courage to do something like that? No! No! I closed my eyes and clenched my hands into fists. ¡°Ayuseya?¡± Illsy called, and I looked up at him. ¡°Y-Yes?¡± I said and tried to smile, but my face just twisted awkwardly. ¡°Pfft!¡± He laughed. The unexpected reaction shocked me a little. Was it that funny? I wondered and furrowed my brow. ¡°Sorry! Sorry!¡± he said lifting his hand up to stop me from scolding him for laughing. Illsy is being silly¡­ I thought and then looked down at the embers. Thanks to this moment, some of my tension flew off, and I didn¡¯t feel like my head would explode in a puff of smoke. I took a deep breath and then exhaled. Taking a more dignified pose, I slapped both of my cheeks. The sound echoed in the entire room, and my face felt like it got stabbed by a thousand needles. I nearly cried. ¡°A-Ayuseya?¡± Illsy was surprised. I have to do this¡­ Like Nanya said¡­ If I can¡¯t do this, then I won¡¯t know even for myself and keep running away¡­ I thought and then looked at Illsy with a determined look in my eyes. [Illsyore¡¯s point of view] OK! The slap wasn¡¯t something I expected. A blush, a funny face, then a slap, and now she was staring at me like I was some sort of criminal at the court. Did I do something I¡¯m not aware of? Was it because we avoided entering the sweets shop earlier? But nothing was good there! Is she worried I might attack Tamara? Sorry to disappoint, but I¡¯m not touching her even if she is technically an adult for her kind, in my eyes she¡¯s but a cat and a child. I like my women well-developed! But if it¡¯s not that, then what? Where? How? Huh? as I was tormenting my mind to come up with an answer to Ayuseya¡¯s current weird behavior, the draconian did something unexpected again. Standing up in front of me, she took a step back from the fire and then took off her clothes. I could only stand there with big, opened eyes as I saw the metal gauntlets falling on the ground, then the leather belt together with her sword, her pair of boots. Then she took off the dress, letting it fall around her body and revealing the chainmail armor I designed for her to be used underneath. She proceeded with removing it and dropping it onto the pile. Her chest showed a bit of relief from being freed from the extra weight, but the holy mountains were still being covered well by another piece of garment, the frilly bra she was wearing. Without stopping, the draconian princess continued by removing her satin leggings and tossing them onto the pile. She was now left only in her white panties and bra. I gulped and looked at the almost naked woman in front of me, wondering if it was finally time for me to make a move on her. Did she want it THAT bad? Have I been neglecting her? I wondered. Blushing strongly, Ayuseya looked down and fidgeted a bit before continuing with removing those two last pieces of cloth covering her body. With her tail wrapped in front of her, she covered her chest with her left hand, and her lower region with her right hand, the draconian was as erotic as she could be. I gulped again and opened my mouth like a hungry wolf. This was probably the first time in her life Ayuseya presented herself like this in front of a man. With a scrap of clothing on her, she was willingly showing herself to me, and I could already tell where this was going. ¡°I¡­¡± she muttered and then closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them, she took a deep breath, and pulled back her hands and tail, showing herself completely to me. There was nothing to hide her gorgeous body, but at the same time, I could see the details of her golden scales. Normally, she had some on her upper arms, thighs, there were some around the sides of her chest, but none on her breasts. A couple scales, smooth in appearance of a light-gold color formed a small protective region around her intimate parts. So, scales replace the hair for them? I thought and then looked up at her eyes. [Ayuseya¡¯s point of view] I have done it now! Like Nanya said, more or less, I removed all of my clothes and revealed myself completely to Illsy. I couldn¡¯t have imagined back then how shameful this would feel like, or rather embarrassing¡­ very embarrassing, yet it was true¡­ I didn¡¯t wish to hide away from his gaze. Seeing his eyes move over my body, I could feel my core heating up, my heart pumping fast and if he were to look away¡­ I would feel sad. To answer Nanya¡¯s question, I wanted him to look at me, I wanted him to hold me and bring me to the same world he did with the demoness, but I didn¡¯t know how¡­ I couldn¡¯t even move. Then there was the other thing¡­ The question about wishing to have a hold on Illsy. The more I thought about giving myself to him and accepting him as mine, the more I felt the need to protect him, to keep others from having a piece of him. I couldn¡¯t bare the thought of a woman coming here to seduce him away from my grasp, if that was even possible, but if there was¡­ I wanted to keep her away from Illsy. [Illsyore¡¯s point of view]Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. The most stupidest thing I could have possibly done in this case was to ask her why she removed her clothes like that. It was clear what she wanted, and I could read it in her body language, the fidgeting, the blush, her gaze, everything screamed out of how embarrassed and how much courage it took her to do this. Then, I had to remember the fact that she was a princess, a royal. No matter what, the way she was brought up was different from the way other people were. Maybe sleeping in the same bed as me and the other girls offered her a bit of courage, but in the end¡­ what mattered most was how well she hid her own desires and fears. Up until now, I never thought about it too seriously. We traveled together, we fought together, we slept and ate together, but trying to figure out what steps I should make towards strengthening my relationship with Ayuseya was never something on my To Do list for the day. All this time, she probably thought about it herself, maybe wondering if she was good enough for me or I for her. The political game was also something she had to carefully think about. I was a Dungeon Lord and she was draconian princess. We were more or less like Romeo and Juliet minus the whole poisoning thing and stupid old men deciding stupid things on their own. Then again, if anyone in Teslov intended to make a tragedy out of my love life, I was sure to introduce them to a pissed off Godlike Dungeon Lord. Well, Teslov could do without it¡¯s capital, right? Thus, I didn¡¯t wait for words to leave my lips or questions to be asked in vain. I simply approached the beautiful goddess in front of me and gave her a soft kiss. Our lips were glued to each other for an eternity and when we parted, I looked at her feverish gaze. With a simple touch, I moved my fingers over her bare skin and when I arrived at the base of her chest, I gave her a light squeeze. ¡°Ahn~!¡± was the sweet moan that escaped her seductive lips. I guess that crazy old man was right about one thing, a woman¡¯s heart was revealed when the man she loved touched her body. From then on, the play was history¡­ I undressed, and we both made use of the comfortable bed in our room. Because we were so far away from the city, there wasn¡¯t even a need to use some sort of noise-canceling enchant. Also note to self: use noise-canceling enchant next time instead of rebuilding the room with sound absorbent materials. The following morning, long after sunrise¡­ Ayuseya had her tail wrapped around my legs like Nanya usually did after waking up. I had come to learn that this was their way of saying they hold claim over me as their partner. On another note, the draconian was surprisingly flexible and had a fierce stamina. The extra stats from my buff made wonders, but when we first did it, she acted awfully shy about it. I took it slowly and enjoyed every moment and inch of her body. The pleasure meter was set to max all the time without fail. Unfortunately, comparing the two was a bit out of the question. Ayuseya had her own pluses, but so did Nanya. They were inexperienced, but they both learned fast. Size and difference in body shapes were what probably offered them a different taste. Either way, it was a night to remember and a most enjoyable one at that. ¡°This was¡­ quite surprising.¡± I said as I stroked her back. Being the bigger one, she was embracing me. ¡°Yes, I never¡­ I never thought we would do something like this¡­ It was¡­¡± she stopped and then continued with a kiss. Ayuseya, unlike Nanya was a bit cuddlier. ¡°I will take that as ¡®amazing¡¯.¡± I nodded and gave her a squeeze. ¡°Ahn~!¡± she let out a cute moan and then kissed me again. For some reason, she was also a better kisser¡­ or a very fast learner. Once our lips parted, she pulled my head into her big, comfy chest. ¡°You know, I never expected we would do this tonight.¡± she said and then giggled. ¡°What were you expecting?¡± I asked. ¡°A simple talk¡­ I wanted some time alone to speak about how things are between us. I felt a bit¡­ out of place, but after tonight, I know what I wanted¡­¡± she purred seductively. ¡°And that is?¡± I asked. ¡°You¡­ I wanted to make you mine, and now you are.¡± she kissed my forehead and coiled her tail around my waist. The scales were smooth, but she expertly kept the sharper parts from hurting me. ¡°Glad to be yours, but you know you have to share, right?¡± I told her and gave her another kiss. ¡°With those who are your women, yes, but with vile women who want to trick you or take you away from me¡­ I¡¯ll rip their guts out!¡± she declared and for the first time ever, I felt killing intent being emanated from the beautiful dragoness. It was a bit scary, and if I were to add the demoness to the count, things would certainly not end up well for anyone who dared to seduce me. ¡°What if I do the seducing?¡± I asked with a weak smile. ¡°I¡¯ll make you change your mind.¡± she then lowered her head and gently bit my neck. ¡°Ouch!¡± I said, but it didn¡¯t hurt. ¡°Hehe! You are mine, Illsy! I¡¯ll share you with Nanya and Shanteya because I know the two will share you with me, but I won¡¯t give you to another woman. If you dare step in a whorehouse, I will hunt you down and drag you from there. If those shikak dare to touch you, I¡¯ll hurt them really bad!¡± she then squeezed me in her arms. ¡°I understand.¡± I had to admit, I loved this possessive part of hers and Nanya. As long as they didn¡¯t ever end up in a fight over me, it was going to be great to have them around! Then again, I couldn¡¯t help but give my draconian wife another good grope of her round behind, but doing it again was out of the question. We were both sore. I could regenerate, but meh¡­ sometimes, you had to enjoy the moment as it was. ¡°I wanted to ask you something, but what is a shikak?¡± I asked curiously. I heard it countless times. I knew it was a curse word or an insult of some sort, but I didn¡¯t know the actual meaning behind it. ¡°Oh that¡­ Well, you know what a prostitute is, right?¡± she asked. ¡°The type of woman I will never ask the services off on account of my cute draconian wife?¡± I replied in a way I saw as safe. ¡°Good answer! Well, the shikak is a type of woman who offers a similar service, but who is employed to offer it to slaves or at times to the pets of those who employ them. It is a highly demeaning term compared to which a whore sounds like a respectable lady. The women who usually do this sort of jobs are thought to be broken in the head or undesirable by even the lowest of the commoners. In many kingdoms, their practices are seen as illegal by the local religious groups, and in my kingdom, they are completely banned and even sentenced to death by beheading if found guilty of such acts. Of course, the word remains as an insult. Calling me or a noble a shikak would grant you at least 50 years of torture before being killed. But I understand that some kingdoms have legalized this sort of¡­ practice.¡± she then shook her head at the last part. ¡°In other words¡­ it¡¯s extremely insulting.¡± I said squinting my eyes at her. ¡°Indeed, but my dear, let us not speak of such things now.¡± she said and showed me a sweet smile. ¡°Not my intention, I was just curious about it¡­ But I guess slaves aren¡¯t allowed to marry, right?¡± I looked up at her. ¡°They are. It¡¯s the act of paying someone to do those demeaning things that upsets the people. However, slave marriages are very rare and usually need the approval of the master or them to release the said slaves. If a master falls in love with his slave, he can release her, but people won¡¯t look at him with good eyes, and his family might object. Marriage is often seen as a good way of bringing more power to the family.¡± she explained and with that reminded me of her own situation before I released her from that curse. Basically, even if she was a princess, she was also used by her family and country to align the intentions of a Supreme with those of the royal family. They would have received protection from him and then he would have been granted limited authority and control over the nation. It was a win-win sort of deal, but the decisions and opinions of the parties involved didn¡¯t matter. The princess only had to nod and wave like a good little puppet. I gave Ayuseya another kiss and let her touch chase away these thoughts. About half an hour later, we were finally thinking about getting out of bed and maybe heading back to the others. My stomach was growling and so was hers. After a night like that, we needed energy and maybe a wink of sleep, but the last part wasn¡¯t mandatory. Instead of the fire in the middle of the room, I made a bathtub big enough for both of us. The water was heated up at just the right temperature, and we slipped in. We ended up going for another round rather than properly washing, so to be fair, I helped regenerate myself a little bit. After the fun in the bath, we got changed. Ayuseya made me summon one of her big chests, and she dug out a plain-looking red dress with no frills, gold string or stuff which made it look like it cost an arm and a leg. She had a lot more prettier ones, but if she were to wear those, then everyone would know she was of noble origins. I only washed my clothes and quickly dried them before putting them back on. After walking out, I absorbed the whole building, and we casually walked back to the city. ¡°Ayuseya, I¡¯ve been meaning to ask you, but¡­¡± I looked up at her ¡°have I seemed to be a bit¡­ off to you lately?¡± I showed her an awkward smile. She blinked and tilted her head ¡°No, why? Is something the matter?¡± I sighed and looked up at the sky. ¡°Well¡­ recently there¡¯s been something on my mind¡­¡± I said, but then I stopped and closed my eyes. Is this the right thing to do? To tell of her about the Darkness? I don¡¯t wish to worry her needlessly¡­ I already know there¡¯s nothing she can do about it. I already know this is my burden¡­ this is my trial¡­ but¡­ While my thoughts swum around in circles, something warm touched my cheeks and lifted my chin up. Opening my eyes, I saw Ayuseya looking at me with a furrowed brow. ¡°What?¡± I asked surprised. ¡°You can tell me anything. I am your wife.¡± she told me. I blinked surprised and then showed her a soft smile. ¡°Yes¡­ Yes, you are.¡± I nodded and took her hands into mine. ¡°Now, where should I start?¡± ¡°From the beginning.¡± she told me with a soft tone of voice. ¡°I think you heard from Nanya about how I came to be?¡± ¡°Yes, you were built by the headmaster of the Fellyore Magic Academy, Tuberculus. May the gods rest his soul.¡± she made a sad face for a moment. Ah! I forgot she was there when he got killed by Dankyun¡¯s men. I thought, but I continued to tell her about my hidden secret. ¡°Well, he made me from the various parts of other dungeons. I wasn¡¯t born like an usual dungeon and maybe thanks to that, I ¡®m a little special. However, there was a problem¡­¡± I let out a sigh and looked down. ¡°Problem? Is this about you stealing Nanya¡¯s panties?¡± she asked me. ¡°NO!¡± I retorted. ¡°Then?¡± ¡°Well, you know that a Dungeon is born with a Crystal Body or Core. The mind of the said Dungeon is located in the entire body unlike a human¡¯s whose in the brain. When a Dungeon is destroyed, the core shatters, but pieces of its mind remain in each and every single one of those crystals.¡± ¡°This I didn¡¯t know.¡± she said. ¡°Yeah, not many do¡­ including Tuberculus. He pieced together my initial Crystal Body and then used a spell to¡­ bring me to life.¡± ¡°So you are an undead?¡± she asked blinking surprised. ¡°Did I feel like an undead last night?¡± ¡°No, you were quite alive and hard!¡± she giggled and blushed. ¡°So, when Tuberculus cast that spell, I was born, but the memories of the former dungeons weren¡¯t erased.¡± ¡°You are saying that inside your mind there¡¯s another mind?¡± she asked furrowing her brow. ¡°Not only one, but countless¡­ They form what I call The Darkness. To put it simply, I didn¡¯t have a better name for whatever those minds became.¡± I shrugged. ¡°Are they a danger to you?¡± ¡°No, at least not now. Unfortunately, I don¡¯t have any sort of control over them, and they don¡¯t like the idea of me being so kind and good with you and everyone else. They want me to start building deadly dungeons, capture adventurers, you know¡­ the usual stuff other dungeons do.¡± I sighed ¡°On the bright side of things, they aren¡¯t able to control me either.¡± ¡°That doesn¡¯t sound good¡­¡± she said. ¡°No, it sounds like I¡¯m losing my mind¡­¡± ¡°Yes.¡± she nodded. ¡°I hope not¡­ I don¡¯t want to¡­¡± I looked down ¡°I don¡¯t want to end up hurting you, Nanya, Shanteya, or Tamara¡­¡± I clenched my fists ¡°That¡¯s my biggest fear.¡± Her gentle arms embraced me and pulled me close ¡°Illsy, you¡¯re not going to either hurt or lose us. I trust you.¡± I wish it to be true, but this fear won¡¯t go away so easily¡­ I thought. ¡°Why did you tell me this and not Nanya or Shanteya?¡± she asked me. ¡°Out of all of them, you are the only one I can trust with such a secret. Nanya would go berserk, Shanteya would over worry¡­ or try to sneak back to her guild to see if there¡¯s a secret document about this.¡± ¡°But why am I so special then?¡± she asked curiously. ¡°To be completely honest, until today, I didn¡¯t want to tell you either, but your skills in bed changed my mind¡­¡± I smiled and gave her a small grope ¡°Besides, you are the only one out of all of them who won¡¯t overreact to this. I also trust that you will keep this secret from the others and when the time comes reveal it if necessary. You have that ability¡­¡± ¡°I think Shanteya would have been better, she is a former assassin, after all.¡± ¡°Yes, but as I said¡­ she will overreact. Meanwhile, even after telling you this, you are still calm and composed, not panicking or going mad about it.¡± I smiled softly. ¡°It appears so¡­¡± she lowered her head and gave me a kiss. After our lips parted she smiled and pulled back from her embrace. ¡°I won¡¯t tell them if this is what you wish, but if I see you worsening, I will. If there¡¯s anything we can do to help you, we will¡­ no matter what. After all, you are our husband.¡± With this final line from her, we headed back to the city before Nanya formed a hunting party with my name as the target. In more than one way, this night with Ayuseya turned out to be a blessing. Chapter 55: Completing the quest ¡°Well?¡± Nanya asked with her hands crossed at her chest. She was angry. ¡°Erm¡­¡± I tried to say something, but what could I tell her? ¡°What¡¯s wrong, Nanya? You said it yourself, I need to make a choice and stick with it, and so I did!¡± Ayuseya said with a giggle as she embraced me from behind, pushing those firm breasts of hers on my back. ¡°That and this are two different things!¡± she complained. ¡°How so?¡± Ayuseya blinked curiously. ¡°You were supposed to tell us first! Besides, you didn¡¯t have to go all the way to the end of the world just to sleep with Illsy!¡± she retorted pointing a finger at the dragoness. Playfully, she bit her finger. ¡°Kya!¡± the demoness jumped back and looked with a gaze of anger at me ¡°What did you do to her?¡± ¡°I¡­¡± I lifted a finger up, but stopped before saying anything. If I tell her what EXACTLY I did to her last night, she¡¯s going to kill me¡­ or ask for some. I thought. ¡°He mated with me, simple.¡± the dragoness giggled. ¡°WHAT?!¡± Nanya made a pair of big eyes. ¡°Oh my!¡± Shanteya acted surprised as well. ¡°Ayuseya have eggs now?¡± Tamara asked tilting her head to the left. ¡°No¡­ or at least, I don¡¯t think so.¡± Ayuseya said, showing me a troubling look in her eyes. ¡°I did not impregnate you, relax¡­ Besides, I don¡¯t think it really matters, she is my wife and so are you, Nanya. Sooner or later, it would have happened!¡± I nodded. ¡°Sigh, I suppose¡­ but I wanted to watch¡­¡± the demoness revealed a dangerous kink, and I hoped I heard wrong. ¡°Huh? What was that?¡± I asked just to be sure. ¡°Nothing!¡± she poked her tongue out at me. Am I supposed to be worried now? I wondered squinting my eyes at her. ¡°Well, either way, I¡¯m glad for you, Ayuseya! You finally came to a decision on your own, although, I wonder who will be the first to carry Master¡¯s child now?¡± Shanteya threw a dangerous question on the table, and I hoped it was nothing but a joke. ¡°Tamara hungry¡­¡± the cat spoke. ¡°I guess we didn¡¯t have anything to eat this morning. We were all waiting worried for you and Ayuseya to return to the inn. We thought something bad must have happened to both of you!¡± Nanya glared at me. Is she like this because she was worried about us or because she missed out on the fun? I wondered. What didn¡¯t cross my mind at that time was the fact that I broke the rule about telling them first with whom I wished to spend the night with and have all of them agree with it. What Ayuseya did was sneak up behind their backs and snatch me away for one night just for herself, leaving Nanya and Shanteya to wonder where in the name of all that was holy did I ran off to? ¡°Sorry¡­¡± I replied apologetically. ¡°Sigh¡­ There¡¯s nothing to do about it now.¡± Nanya gave up and then walked over to me. ¡°Just tell us next time, OK?¡± she showed me a soft smile right before giving me a big kiss. I replied with another kiss, and Ayuseya pulled back to let the demoness have this moment. ¡°It¡¯s a deal!¡± I smiled. We all went downstairs and to our surprise, we found Tannaor cooking. The smell was delicious, however, I thought he wasn¡¯t serving food, only booze. Curious about this, I walked over to the counter and tapped on it to catch his attention. ¡°Oh? Good morning! What can I help you with?¡± he asked cheerfully. ¡°I thought you didn¡¯t serve food here?¡± I asked. ¡°Never after the sun starts to go down!¡± he said shaking his head. Last time when we looked for food was past midday, so probably the sun going down was referred to that? ¡°So only breakfast and lunch? Why?¡± I asked curiously. ¡°Every inn and restaurant in this city has a special rule like this one. I thought of making one for my own too! So, I serve breakfast and lunch, but never dinner! I serve only booze at late hours!¡± he said with a firm nod. Squinting my eyes at him, I asked him ¡°Won¡¯t you lose customers this way? We had to eat in another place yesterday.¡± ¡°On the contrary, my friends! The booze is more expensive and people know that in the morning and during the day, they won¡¯t see drunkards in my place, but at night, they can come and wet their whistle for as long as they have coins in their pockets!¡± he explained, taking great pride in his little scheme. ¡°I guess that¡¯s also a business strategy¡­ So, can we get something to eat?¡± I asked raising an eyebrow. ¡°Of course! I¡¯m making stew and cornmeal mush! Would you like some?¡± he asked. When he said cornmeal mush, my brain translated it immediately as m?m?lig?. My face showed a big wide grin. After such a long time, I would finally be able to eat a Romanian dish or at the very least Romanianish. ¡°Sure! Can you add some sliced onions, salt, and some cottage cheese?¡± I asked. ¡°Of course!¡± he nodded and then looked at the girls beside me ¡°What of the lovely ladies?¡± he asked. ¡°I¡¯ll have a portion of stew as well.¡± said Ayuseya. ¡°Got anything grilled?¡± Nanya asked. ¡°Not now, but I can make you a steak if you want?¡± he replied. ¡°Good! Bring me that and add some bread to it!¡± Nanya nodded. ¡°Of course!¡± ¡°I will have a portion of stew.¡± Shanteya said. ¡°I want milk and fish!¡± the cat ordered. ¡°I only have dried fish, is that alright?¡± he asked.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°Fish is fish!¡± she nodded happily. ¡°I¡¯ll bring all of it to you in 20 minutes or so! The steak might take a bit longer.¡± he told us. ¡°Alright, how much will it cost?¡± I asked. ¡°Three silverettes in total!¡± he replied. ¡°Here.¡± I placed the coins on the table and then went to look for a table. We found one in the back and while we waited for the food to arrive, we talked about what we were going to do after this. We had to go to the Adventurers Guild and report the outcome of our quest, then we would go to the library to check up on some things and see if I could buy or lend some books from there. None of us had any particular interest in this town, especially Nanya and Ayuseya. Shanteya said she didn¡¯t care where we went as long as she could be by my side, which was sweet. Tamara said she knew the town, but she didn¡¯t like it. Seeing how she spent most of her life as a slave for the people here, I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if she wanted to see it burned to the ground. That being said, the food was absolutely delicious! It didn¡¯t lack in spices, and it was properly cooked too! That guard who sent us this way surely knew what he was talking about. Maybe he was secretly a gourmet? It didn¡¯t take us long to find the Guild Hall, it was a building made out of stone and strong black wood, reaching up to two floors. A lot of adventurers were going in and out of the place, meaning that it was quite active around these parts. Either that or back in Perto, Bucket Head was keeping everyone out. ¡°This place is big!¡± said Nanya surprised. ¡°Yeah¡­¡± I nodded and then we all entered the building. Even if Nanya was wearing her illusion ring, we knew that a Watcher would certainly spot her. I only hoped this one wasn¡¯t going to be the same as the one in the previous town because this time, I wasn¡¯t going to pay for the floor. The moment we stepped inside, to our left and to our right, we were met with two of them. They had the same type of helmets as Bucket Head and looked rather buffed. With one gaze, they knew Nanya was a demon, but they didn¡¯t stop or kicked us out. ¡°Guild Cards, please.¡± said the one on the right. ¡°Huh? Ah! Sure¡­ here.¡± I said and took out mine. He looked at it once and nodded, letting me go through. The same was for Nanya and the rest. They didn¡¯t stop us. Maybe only Bucket Head was the special one? I wondered as we walked away from them. They did the same for any other adventurer who entered. Some even had their cards taken out in advance to speed up the process, while others were looking for it in their 50th pocket. This place was surprisingly spacious and clean. The bar was to the far left and cute elf waitresses were serving the tired adventurers. I took a peak at them, but my face was suddenly turned away by one unhappy draconian. ¡°Be careful Illsy. We both bite.¡± Nanya smirked. I gulped. To the far right was a storage or bank of sorts. I saw adventurers going there and either leaving items or taking them out. There were some who also deposited or took out coins. We didn¡¯t stand around to admire this world¡¯s banking system for too long and continued towards the next section of the building, which was the reception for adventurers. This area was separated by walls and looked quite similar to a large bar area. Most people were at their tables chatting around and drinking a booze. A pair of dwarfs wearing silver plated armors were having a wrestling contest, while not far from them, two women were having a drinking contest. They wore plated leather armors and carried big, two-handed swords. At the end of this area was a bar with all sort of liquor bottles on display, some even with a cranium drawn on them. The ones serving the booze were two blond elves, one a man and the other a woman. They looked like siblings. The Questboard was to the far left, and it was three times bigger than the one in Perto and about four times more stacked up with requests. To facilitate matters, four women of various ages were going back and forth between the adventurers and the board. They noted down in a big ledger any quest taken or received. ¡°Nobody¡¯s staring¡­ That¡¯s a first.¡± I said. ¡°Yes, but that¡¯s a good sign!¡± pointed out Nanya as she let out a sigh. This reminded me of how we were welcomed in Perto town, where everyone there had their eyes on us or Nanya¡¯s chest. Here, there were a few eyes staring our way, but most of them ignored us. We made our way to the Questboard and pulled out the quest we received in Perto. The line had two other adventurers in front of us, a dwarf warrior and a human archer, both of them had higher Guild Rank than us, but I doubted they could compete with us in terms of strength. Looking up at the board, I once again found myself in the predicament of being unable to read the scribbles on the papers. There was a big difference between knowing how to speak the tongue and write it. So far, I realized what sort of disadvantage my lack of knowledge presented. Luckily for me, Ayuseya came to the rescue and presented the quest for us. [Clarissa¡¯s point of view] I have been working at this Guild Hall for almost three years now, and I had never seen or heard of a party like this one. There was a human, an el¡¯doraw, a nekatar, a demoness, and a draconian. At least, that was what their guild cards said, but normally, the last two would never agree to be in the same party and least of all with a human in it. Well, as grandmother used to say¡­ There are stranger things in Heaven and Earth than we mortals will ever know of! I thought before the draconian woman presented herself in front of me. ¡°Hello! How may I help you?¡± I asked with a smile as I always did. ¡°Good day! We are here to give our report about the following quest.¡± she said as she handed me the paper. On it, I read the following thing: Party of five sent into Mehalom Ancient Dungeon. One cleric, two warriors, and two mages. Presumed dead or gravely injured. Send help at once then report to Deroak, the Slave Merchant in the city Elora. Reward is 20 goldiettes for each surviving member, and 10 goldiettes for any slaves recaptured/retrieved alive. The reward for slaves may drop if they are in a bad state. ¡°Hm, by the looks of things, this is supposed to be handed back directly to the quest giver, but you did well to come by here first. Such quests often cause us a lot of trouble.¡± I said and shook my head. Completing a quest and submitted it to the quest giver without going through the guild first was against the rules. Unfortunately, since there wasn¡¯t any sort of punishment for this, there were many such incidents, especially when the quest givers were among the rich or nobles. The adventurers who did this ended up causing us a lot of trouble because we wouldn¡¯t know if the quest was completed or not, leaving us unable to update its status on the board. ¡°Of course, we wouldn¡¯t want that.¡± the draconian said politely. I took out the report paper and then asked her to tell me how the mission went exactly. I noted down every single detail she mentioned, and I was surprised to hear about the black magic users who took over the dungeon. This explained why so many adventurers who went to the Mehalom Ancient Dungeon for various quests ended up as dead. To hear what came of them sent a shiver down my spine, but I was glad to hear that her party managed to dispose of their bodies properly and finish off the black magic users. ¡°What about survivors?¡± I asked her at the end. ¡°When we got there, it was already too late to save any of them. From what we could guess, they were attacked by the black magic users, and in their attempt to escape used ALL of the slaves as bait for the monsters. We found their remains in various places.¡± she told me. ¡°That¡¯s disturbing, but it¡¯s a good thing you managed to deal with those black mages. Unfortunately, I can¡¯t reward you with any coins for this quest. This wasn¡¯t a dungeon subjugation, it was a search and rescue, which turned out with no survivors. However, I will send this report to my superiors and given the actual difficulty of this quest, you all might be rewarded with a rank-up in the guild.¡± I explained. ¡°Thank you.¡± she smiled. Would you look at that?! An adventurer who doesn¡¯t fuss over completing an underpaid quest! I thought. To be honest, I was a bit surprised by her attitude and looking behind her, I noticed that none of her party members were complaining about it. ¡°Very well¡­¡± I said and then completed the forms for finishing the quest. These files were going to be sent over to the scout, and they would be the ones to verify if this story about black magic was true or not. According to them, the dungeon was ready for some gathering quests. ¡°Well, this is it! Take this to mister Deroak at the Slave Market, and please inform him that he won¡¯t be able to post any more quests without having a member of the guild properly analyze the difficulty level of the said quest.¡± I told her with a smile. ¡°Thank you very much. Have a nice day!¡± she said and then left together with her group. I don¡¯t know what was the deal with that draconian, but she felt awfully strong and too elegant for an ordinary adventurer. Maybe she was from a former noble family or something like that? [Illsyore¡¯s point of view] With the quest business over, we walked out of the Guild Hall and went to this fellow who issued the quest. I wanted to have a few words with him as well about the whole child slavery thing. Unfortunately, if I didn¡¯t want to make the entire country my enemy and cause everyone here to jump on my head, I would have to play it cool. Thing was¡­ I didn¡¯t really mind stirring up the country. ¡°Illsy, try not to blow up the city.¡± Nanya warned me. ¡°I¡¯ll try¡­¡± I sighed. ¡°Over time, I learned that for such things, it was better to close your eyes and simply forget the whole thing. Only the acting ruler of this country can change the laws. If we try to do anything by ourselves, it would be seen as nothing more than an act of rebellion.¡± Ayuseya explained. In Rome do as Romans do, right? Or to put it in more modern terms, if you visit a foreign country, don¡¯t apply the same laws from your native country. It would be the same as an USA or EU tourist complaining about the injustice in North Korea on North Korean soil. Even if it¡¯s true, as long as he is but a citizen of another country, he can¡¯t expect the country he visits to change its laws just because he doesn¡¯t like it. I thought and then let out a sigh. Chapter 56: The annoying merchant To reach the Slave Market, we had to walk all the way to the other side of the city, where the coliseum was. It was located near the outer wall and was filled with small warehouses where they kept the slaves locked up in cages. As soon as they arrived there, Tamara hid behind Shanteya, who gently patted her furry head. As for me, I watched the adults as they were put on display, and I felt nothing, but then I saw the children¡­ and I felt rage. Every warehouse had a small podium on which the ¡®items¡¯ of the day were placed on display. Chained up and ordered to stand still in front of the crowd, I could read their shame and fear in their eyes. They had their heads lowered and fingers clenched onto the few pieces of clothes they were allowed to wear. The women barely had anything on them, while the men only wore a loincloth. As for the children, they were the only ones who wore a pair of pants and shirt, but this depended on the slave merchant and the species. Nekatar children weren¡¯t as privileged as the human or el¡¯doraw ones. Looking at them made me sick to my stomach, and I would have loved to bust open the heads of those men and women who chained up defenseless children for a living. To be honest about it, I actually thought of doing so, but this place was only one of the many slave markets in the entire kingdom. While walking here, I noticed there were many people who owned at least one slave. They were cheap workforce, but at the same time, they were property. Why pay a servant or worker when you could hire a slave? That was the question that kept the business going. And to top it off, the royal family seemed to be especially interested in having this sort of thing running indefinitely. A part of the payment of each slave went straight into the royal coffers. To put it simply, I would need to destroy the entire kingdom in order to change something, but I thought about it, and I realized I couldn¡¯t do it. As for why, there was a good reason for it. Once the royals went down, the supporting nobles would flee to the neighboring kingdoms, which all supported slavery. Anarchy would take hold, wars would start, and the Supremes in those kingdoms would be sent here to take me down. This kingdom would end up as a bloody battlefield with no one safe and nowhere to run. By using force to bring down this kingdom, I would irreversibly destroy it as well as pull countless innocent civilians into an unending war. I could buy all of their slaves, but this would only make them see me as a means of profit, therefore, they would try to capture and sell me more. No¡­ If this is to change, it has to come from the inside. I shook my head as I thought about this. With no way out, I bottled up all of that hate and went to the slave dealer who was once the owner of Tamara. The child had changed a lot, so it was highly unlikely for him to be able to recognize her. ¡°Excuse me! Are you here to buy or to sell?¡± an eager skinny merchant moved in front of us. ¡°What?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll give you 45 goldiettes for the blond!¡± he told me. I raised an eyebrow and looked back at Nanya. ¡°You want ME to sell YOU my WIFE?¡± I asked him and pointed out those words to make it clear where we stood. ¡°Oh! Pardon me then! What about the nekatar? She looks healthy and strong, 24 goldiettes?¡± he asked with a grin as he eyed Tamara. With a frightened mew, she hid behind Shanteya. ¡°Listen, bastard, I¡¯m not here to either sell or buy! We are adventurers with the interest of completing a quest. Now, if you don¡¯t get out of my way, I¡¯m going to break all of those teeth of yours!¡± I threatened him. ¡°That would be unwise! Oh, no no no!¡± he shook his head ¡°If you attack me, it¡¯s by royal decree that I can turn you into my slave!¡± he smirked. I squinted my eyes at him. ¡°Dead men have no slaves.¡± I growled. He gulped and backed away. ¡°True. Pardon my¡­ unhealthy intrusion.¡± he made a soft bow and ran off to his store. Letting out a sigh, I rubbed my forehead with two fingers and tried to understand what was wrong with these people. However, the man made another thing clear¡­ I wasn¡¯t allowed to attack these people as long as I was on their turf. After asking left and right a bit as well as getting assaulted with money-hungry merchants who either wanted to buy the girls or sell me some, we finally arrived in front of the store of the bastard who made Tamara into a slave. It was one of the fanciest places around, and the only one with carved doors. Outside, on the podium, two women and one man were displayed in chains, but unlike the other ¡®merchandise¡¯, they were kept standing with the help of a neck restraining device. Even if they wanted to, they couldn¡¯t bend over or sit down. To the left of his entrance was another display, but this time with caged children. My blood froze when I saw them and anger flowed through my veins, threatening to turn me into a raging monster. I wanted to, I really wanted to, but this man¡­ there was no way to stop him with my current possibilities. When I¡¯ll build my academy, I¡¯ll make it mandatory for the teachers to give classes about alternate ways to the slave system or why they shouldn¡¯t enslave children. Tch! I wish I could kill that blasted king who allowed this¡­ I thought, but all of my anger had to die. ¡°Is everything alright, Master?¡± Shanteya asked and placed her hand on my shoulder. I blinked surprised and looked back at her. She wore an expression filled with worry about me. It was clear that something was wrong, but I had no way of sharing the anger and hate I held in my heart. Maybe it was better that I didn¡¯t and kept it all bottled up inside. This way, I wasn¡¯t going to trouble anyone. Letting out a sigh, I shook my head. ¡°I¡¯m bothered by this slave system¡­ I don¡¯t like it.¡± I confessed. A little bit was alright to let out, just enough to keep the top from blowing off. ¡°I understand, Master.¡± Shanteya nodded ¡°Not all countries see it this way, however.¡± ¡°Indeed. Every kingdom has their own way of handling their slaves, but overall, they are seen as indispensable to any sort of economy. A country without slavery and economic prosperity simply doesn¡¯t exist.¡± explained Ayuseya, but I could tell from the tone of her voice that she was troubled by this as well. ¡°What about Shoraya?¡± I asked. ¡°They abolished slavery, but as a result, their production is down and there are many beggars on the streets of the capital.¡± she looked over at the palace at the center of this city. ¡°What about democracy?¡± I asked. ¡°What?¡± Ayuseya looked at me confused as if I said something strange. ¡°You know, a system through which the population of a country chooses their own leader through an equal and fair vote?¡± I explained. ¡°There is no such thing. What¡¯s the role of the king in this system?¡± ¡°There is no king.¡± ¡°That doesn¡¯t sound possible. It sounds like an anarchy. The kings are taught from birth how to rule their countries, but a random elected citizen has no such knowledge or authority. It would be the same as having a Beginner Rank Adventurer take on a quest meant for an Emperor Rank Adventurer.¡± Ayuseya expressed her view point quite clearly about this, and I had no way of proving them otherwise. Then again, back on Earth, the United Kingdom survived just fine as a monarchy, while in other countries, democratic chosen tyrants abused their power in all sort of ways which ultimately led to their country¡¯s ruin. Maybe it doesn¡¯t really matter the political system as much as how just, kind, and wise their leader is¡­ Should I focus on introducing Democracy with my Academy or rather focus on bringing up good leaders worthy of any position in the state? Erm¡­ What do I know exactly about politics? I thought, but the last question remained unanswered. At most, just like everyone else, I only knew a thing or two, not how the whole system worked up to its smallest of gears. I knew the principle, but in rest, the details eluded me. With a sigh, I gave up on the idea of stirring up the world like this. ¡°Shall we enter?¡± asked Nanya after a while. Blinking surprised, I realized that while I was thinking about politics, the girls were waiting for me step inside. With a nod in reply, I opened the door and went in. Just like on the outside, the inside was vastly decorated with all sort of paintings and statues, some good while others plain weird. The merchant was an art lover by the looks of things. Considering the time and age, I had the distinct feeling that those things didn¡¯t come cheap. The first people to greet us were two very tanned and buff-looking fellows. I raised an eyebrow when I saw them. They stepped in front of us and crossed their arms at their chests. Flexing their muscles, they were trying to look as intimidating as they could possibly be, but for an adventurer who went out every day to subjugate monsters, these fellows were nothing but a joke. Even Tamara could defeat them, and she was quite weak when compared to the rest of us. The only things these fellows were missing were some spike collars and chains wrapped around their bodies. ¡°Ayuseya, could you tell these fellows that we¡¯re here to speak with mister Deroak about a mission?¡± I told the draconian. With a nod, she proceeded to translate in Kalish. The two looked at each other for a moment, then the one on the right went to the back of the building to call their boss. A few minutes later, a human around 1.65 meters tall with a big belly, silk clothes, and a bunch of golden accessories on him made his appearance before us.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. He gave us a stern look and analyzed all of us from head to toe. After a moment, he spoke in Shorayan. ¡°Who is the party leader?¡± ¡°I am.¡± I stepped forward. ¡°Where are my slaves? Is that child the only one left alive?¡± he asked pointing at Tamara, who instinctively hid behind Shanteya. ¡°No, that¡¯s not one of yours, she¡¯s mine.¡± I told him. ¡°That can¡¯t be possible, I know all of my slaves!¡± he declared. ¡°Are you by chance talking about a nekatar with scarred back and burned tail tip?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes.¡± he squinted his eyes at me. ¡°Yeah, she¡¯s dead already. The child over there only looks a bit like her, but last I remember it¡¯s not worth it to heal such wounds on someone¡¯s else slave. Besides, she doesn¡¯t have a collar.¡± I retorted. I¡¯m lying like a pro, but I¡¯ll certainly keep Tamara out of your grabby little hands! I thought with an inner smirk. ¡°Is that so?¡± the man didn¡¯t seem convinced, and he kept looking between the nekatar and everyone else there. ¡°Well, as I was saying, the mission proved to be more difficult than you described. You forgot to mention black magic users and zombies.¡± I raised an eyebrow at him. ¡°Well, you are alive from what I see, so the missions couldn¡¯t have been so hard? What are you, a Beginner Rank in the Guild?¡± Deroak asked with a smirk. ¡°What rank we are in the Guild doesn¡¯t matter! What matters is that you gave a quest below its assessed danger level and in consequence, many adventurers died.¡± I glared at him. ¡°And why should it mater for me?¡± he asked and then shrugged. This fellow is annoying, but if he is the same type of scumbag I know from Earth, then he surely won¡¯t care about anything. I mean, he¡¯s selling child slaves! It can¡¯t be worse than this! I better just leave this place and try to think of a way to stop this madness¡­ I¡¯ll make my Academy into the forefront to fight against this sort of thing. I thought while looking in his uncaring eyes. ¡°Then I will inform you of what the Guild told us to tell you, and that is the fact that you won¡¯t be allowed to post any more quests there without employing an adventurer to properly scale its difficulty.¡± I said coldly. ¡°I don¡¯t care.¡± he shrugged. ¡°Then we have nothing further to discuss! We¡¯ll be going now.¡± I announced and then turned around to leave. As I placed my hand on the door knob, the merchant shouted. ¡°WAIT!¡± I cringed my teeth and looked back at him. ¡°What?¡± I asked. ¡°How much for the blond woman?¡± he asked. I was dumbfounded. ¡°Say what now?¡± ¡°How much for the human woman with blond hair. If you sell her to me, I¡¯ll give you erm¡­ 35 goldiettes! How about it? That¡¯s a very good price, you know?¡± he grinned. Is he serious? Is this guy serious? I asked myself. Even then we were all surprised and simply shocked by his words. Not only did he saw Nanya as a woman I could simply trade off like some used coat, but he was also seeing her as my slave. I didn¡¯t know which was worse. Even with the slave contract between me and Shanteya, I still couldn¡¯t consider her as my slave. The moment she asked for it, I would release her, but this man saw release as a waste of profit. ¡°She is not for sale.¡± I replied. ¡°40 goldiettes!¡± he raised the price. I tried to keep myself from punching him. ¡°I¡¯m not selling her¡­ I can¡¯t in the first place¡­¡± I muttered those last words and then looked at the person in question. She was boiling with anger. If I didn¡¯t hit the merchant, she would, and her punch would literally send this entire building flying. ¡°Then I challenge you to an arena game!¡± he declared. ¡°A what now?¡± I raised an eyebrow at him. ¡°One of your slaves versus one of mine, winner keeps all and gets the blond!¡± he smirked greedily. There was no end to this man. Law or not, I seriously wanted to punch him in the face, but then something even better crossed my mind. The thought was a bit evil, and I could feel myself smirking on the inside. It was as if I wasn¡¯t the one who thought of such things, but it didn¡¯t scare me, it made me eager with anticipation. ¡°Sir, you are betting too little for too much. I stand to lose my most precious ¡®item¡¯, and you lose nothing.¡± saying that word made my heart twist in pain and disgust. ¡°I hear you, then how about I pay you 40 goldiettes if I lose?¡± he asked. ¡°40 goldiettes? That¡¯s a lot of money¡­¡± I said and rubbed my chin as I looked back at Nanya, the girls were a bit confused by my words, but with a single wink, I let them know that I had a plan. Nanya puffed and crossed her arms at her chest, while Ayuseya sighed. ¡°My most powerful slave against yours, you say?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes! It¡¯s a one in a lifetime offer! With so much money, you could do a lot of things! Think of it as an¡­ investment.¡± he showed me a merchant¡¯s smile, while I appeared to be indecisive. ¡°Then how about we make it more interesting then? Your women against my slaves. Win three times, and I will concede. What do you think?¡± Deroak asked with a smirk. Ah, the old trick of making me fight against his weakest at first, then slowly raising the value of the bet until the end, when I will be fighting against his strongest and crushed in utter defeat. Well, two can play at this game! I thought. ¡°I don¡¯t know¡­¡± I looked down. ¡°Come one, mister adventurer, I can see that what you were mad about earlier was the fact that I didn¡¯t properly assess the danger of my quest, but I will make sure that something like this will never happen again! But now, it¡¯s just a bit of fun, right? A little betting never harmed anyone, did it?¡± he asked rubbing his hands together. If I wasn¡¯t someone who saw this sort of character in other stories and games before, I could have fallen for his trick. At first, he only seemed to be really interested in Nanya, but underneath his sneaky smile, his plan was most likely to leave me penniless. As to why, that could be easily explained by the fact that I had the nerve to come here and tell him off. He was a merchant, so if he smelled like I had money and noticed I wasn¡¯t willing to buy his ¡®merchandise¡¯, then he would try through some other means to strip me of my gold. Well, even if I lost, I could still take back the girls, but seriously though, who could defeat them? I let him wait for a bit, appearing as though I was seriously thinking about my circumstances and whether or not it was worth the risk. Meanwhile, the girls kept quiet and waited calmly for this conversation to end. The most worried of them all appeared to be little Tamara. I just hoped she wasn¡¯t thinking I was going to sell her back. ¡°Three wins you say?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes! Your slaves only needs to win three times!¡± he declared. ¡°There is a problem though¡­¡± I said. ¡°A problem? What sort?¡± he asked furrowing his brow. ¡°I only have one slave, the blond and draconian are my followers, but if needed be, they will give up their freedom for me. Hm, what to do?¡± I acted as though I was in a bit of a pinch. The reason I said this was to eliminate the situation afterwards where he would declare the bet invalid because I sent out a non-slave. ¡°I see, mister adventurer must have his circumstances as well, but do not worry, as long as they are willing to be sold afterwards, we can proceed with our little deal. So three wins accumulated from any of your¡­ companions, and I will concede, but if I win, I get all three of them and your gear.¡± he smirked. Thus, the true face of the rascal showed itself. ¡°And what do I get?¡± I asked raising an eyebrow at him. ¡°Any of my three slaves, goldiettes, or anythings else of similar value.¡± he smirked. ¡°Hm, how many goldiettes?¡± he asked. ¡°100!¡± he declared and pointed a finger up at the ceiling. ¡°Too little, give me more.¡± I fought back. ¡°120, but not even a copperette more!¡± ¡°125.¡± He furrowed his brow at me and then looked over at the girls behind me. ¡°150 and you throw in the nekatar as well.¡± he smirked. ¡°120 it is then.¡± I wasn¡¯t willing to add Tamara on the table. ¡°Hm, is she that valuable to you?¡± Deroak asked surprised. ¡°Yes. I got her for 210 goldiettes.¡± I lied. ¡°Two¡­ Two hundred and ten?!¡± he acted quite surprised, but his eyes were sparkling with curiosity and greed. ¡°Yes.¡± I nodded ¡°She is a special kind of nekatar who can find the quickest way through a labyrinth to the core of the dungeon.¡± I lied again. ¡°Indeed, with such a skill¡­ the price would explain it. Did you get her at an auction house?¡± he asked after a moment. ¡°Yes, but not in this country.¡± I replied, lying again. ¡°I understand, it can¡¯t be helped then¡­ I will agree to the 120 goldiettes!¡± he nodded. Of course, with this I sparked both his curiosity and greed. The man would probably try to plot a way to get his sneaky little hands on my cat, but that was just part of my plan as well. If he was a merchant from Earth, he would have sniffed out the scam or demanded some sort of proof, but this guy didn¡¯t even think about it. ¡°Then, when will they battle and what are the conditions for winning?¡± I asked. ¡°They will fight at the coliseum, where we will set up a ring. The first fighter to fall out of the ring or lose consciousness will be declared defeated. If any of our fighters kill their opponent, it will be our immediate loss.¡± he nodded. ¡°You wouldn¡¯t want to lose your merchandise, would you?¡± I commented. ¡°Of course! What point is there to fight like this if I would lose more than I would gain?¡± he shook his head. Indeed, with me losing a fighter, his win cut would be considerably smaller. With him losing, he would have to give up more than he initially bargained for. It actually sounded like a fair deal when you thought about it, but the fact that I was waging my beloved wives and friends like some chip at a casino left a very bitter and unpleasant taste in my mouth. Still, this was probably going to be the only chance I had to punish this bastard for what he did to Tamara, at least from a legal point of view. If I ever were to catch this guy outside of the town, I would kill him. Yes, I would kill him¡­ I thought to myself while looking back at him. My mind at this point was calm and relaxed as if taking the life of another was supposed to be a normal thing. When thinking back at Dankyun, I didn¡¯t want to kill him back then, I didn¡¯t want to dirty my hands with his blood, but now it felt like it would be the right thing to do. Actually, if I were to meet that draconian again, I wouldn¡¯t have any trouble killing him. To be frank, I didn¡¯t even realize how messed up and unnatural of me it was at that time¡­ That cold and relax state of mind when thinking about taking the life of another was not ME. ¡°Illsy?¡± Nanya pulled me out of my thoughts. We were standing outside of the slave merchant¡¯s shop and preparing to head towards the coliseum. The deal was made and even if it was only in verbal form, it was enough for the people here. Going back on it would be the same as losing. ¡°Yes?¡± I replied and started walking towards the coliseum. ¡°What was that all about?¡± Nanya asked me with a raised eyebrow. ¡°I can¡¯t beat him up. I can¡¯t kill him in the city. I can¡¯t buy his slaves because it would result in him running off to get more¡­ What I can do is pull him into a trap of his own kind and bleed him dry of goldiettes.¡± I let out a sigh. ¡°Indeed, a great loss in profit would hinder his business for a long time, maybe even force to reduce the prices of his slaves and empty his stock to recover. Played right, this sort of thing could cause him to lose absolutely everything.¡± Ayuseya said. ¡°Well, I didn¡¯t think that far ahead, I just wanted to get my revenge on him for what he did to Tamara.¡± I petted the nekatar¡¯s furry head. ¡°Master won¡¯t sell Tamara, will he?¡± she asked with a purr and upturned eyes. ¡°Of course not! But when we are at the coliseum, I will pretend as though I will sell you back. It¡¯s a trick to force him to put more goldiettes on the table before I take them all.¡± I smiled gently. ¡°Master is sneaky.¡± she giggled. ¡°Yes, and quite skilled in many things¡­¡± Ayuseya said with a purr as she kissed my cheek. ¡°Well, what¡¯s the plan?¡± Nanya shrugged. ¡°Ayuseya goes first, wins two battles then gets herself defeated. Make it appear as if you are barely able to put up a fight against your enemy.¡± I explained. ¡°I understand. We just need to pretend to be weak.¡± the draconian princess giggled. ¡°I don¡¯t like pretending to be weak.¡± the demoness squinted her eyes at me. ¡°Just this one time, please?¡± I asked of her. ¡°Ugh¡­ fine.¡± she didn¡¯t like this one bit. ¡°After Ayuseya is defeated, Shanteya will be the next one to enter the ring. You will lose the battle, but¡­¡± ¡°Pretend to be weak and force myself to struggle against my opponent. I got it.¡± she nodded. ¡°Good, the it will be Nanya¡¯s turn.¡± she glared at me ¡°You will take a few blows while I try to convince the merchant to cough up more coins. Put on a good show for the act and keep an eye on Tamara, if she is standing in front of me, it means the show has to continue, if she is standing next to me, then defeat your enemy without killing him. How does that sound?¡± I asked with a smirk. ¡°Sneaky.¡± she grinned. ¡°I will not let you down, Master.¡± Shanteya made a small bow. ¡°Me neither, my husband.¡± Ayuseya giggled. ¡°Good!¡± I laughed. Chapter 57: The downfall of a greedy merchant Upon arriving at the coliseum, we found out we couldn¡¯t go inside until Deroak or someone representing him arrived and told the guards who we were. If we wanted to pay for the show, it was only two silverettes, but since we wanted to fight, it was another matter. We waited at the entrance until Deroak arrived with his two guards and a skinny man in his twenties by his side. The slaves he brought for this fight were in the back of a carriage who was bound to arrive shortly after. The skinny man would take care of the procedures, so while he did this, I followed Deroak together with Tamara to our seats. Nanya, Shanteya, and Ayuseya were shown by one of the employers at the coliseum to the waiting area for the fighters. The first thing to catch my attention was the way this entire building was constructed. It strongly reminded me of a typical stadium from Earth with a retractable roof. The only difference was the materials these people used and the fact that the roof remained open all the time. A complicated wooden rib structure kept it from falling on top of our heads. It almost looked like modern engineering with a bit of magic added to it. There were four rows for the normal population, and the fighting area in the middle was slightly elliptic, but the ring itself was a circle of flattened stones just ten centimeters off the ground. The seats for the nobility and royalty were located on the opposite sides of the major axis. The king and his family had a special seat which no one else was allowed to use. On the minor axis, the rich merchants and the slave merchants had their own separate areas as well. The division between the two was given by the fact that the latter brought the entertainment, or so I was told when I asked one of the men working here. Usually, there wasn¡¯t a day passing by without a battle or two taking place here, but the big events were reserved and programmed properly. In our case, it was going to be considered as a minor event that didn¡¯t need any announcing. ¡°I take it you already spoke with your fighters about who will go first?¡± Deroak asked me as he leaned back in his chair. I was sitting next to him and Tamara in front of me, looking curiously over the edge at the big ring in the middle. Her tail swayed slowly from left to right. ¡°Yes. We can begin any time.¡± I smiled. The merchant snapped his fingers, and one of the big guards rushed out of here, most likely to let the people working at this coliseum know they could start the show. Although this place had a capacity of almost 500 people, there were only about 50 to witness the battles of my girls. Maybe they were regulars or a more interesting battle was about to take place after this? ¡°My esteemed guests!¡± someone shouted in the middle of the ring, catching everyone¡¯s attention. He was a man of around 40 years old, with a long pony tail and dressed in white clothes from head to bottom. There were no special markings or embroideries on them, being as simple as they could possibly be. ¡°For the following match, we will witness a battle between a draconian warrior and one of Deroak¡¯s slaves! The owner of the draconian and the slave merchant Deroak have agreed upon a small bet, the one who manages to accumulate three wins in total will be declared the winner of their friendly bet! Without further ado, let the battle begin!¡± he raised his arms to the sky and then lowered them fast. Two gates opened and from one side, and Ayuseya walked out carrying the sword I made for her, while on the other side, a brawny looking man made his appearance, carrying a big hammer and showing us a big grin on his face. Thanks to that, I knew he was missing a couple of teeth. After the announcer walked out, the two warriors stepped forward, well¡­ the princess and the slave. ¡°This will be interesting, I hope your woman won¡¯t fall too fast.¡± Deroak grinned. ¡°I hope so too, she is the strongest among all of them!¡± I showed him a confident smile. ¡°The strongest? You are starting in full force, aren¡¯t you?¡± he laughed. ¡°Of course! When in a battle, you don¡¯t waste time with small attacks, you hit your enemy fast and without mercy!¡± I declared and flexed my biceps like a regular adventurer. ¡°Oh? Is that so?¡± the merchant looked satisfied about something. I could guess what his grin was about. In his eyes, I was taking the image of a brawny idiot with a greed just as big as his. This meant that I could be swayed by the shiny coins he would dangle before me. Unless, of course, he was a master actor and a genius of some sort who already saw through my little scheme. The battle started with the slave attacking my Ayuseya. The man tried to land a hit, and it connected. Thanks to my enhanced senses, I could see that it didn¡¯t even touch the dragoness. Her Magic Armor was simply too thick. There was a moment of pause while he figured out what happened, but the draconian didn¡¯t let him and kicked him in the stomach, unfortunately, she stumbled on her dress and fell on her back. ¡°Ahahaha!¡± the merchant laughed and so did a bunch others. Stop laughing at my wife! I¡¯ll kill you all! I growled in my mind. ¡°Hm? Are you upset of this perhaps?¡± the merchant grinned. ¡°No, of course not¡­ this battle is just getting interesting!¡± I laughed as awkwardly as I could. Ayuseya got up just in time to block the attack of the warrior. She pushed him back and then gave him a slap over the face. It was so powerful it sent him flying out of the ring and right into the wall. He was knocked out and lost the rest of his teeth. ¡°Huh?¡± Deroak was surprised by this sudden turn of events. ¡°And we have a winner! The draconian!¡± the announcer shouted, scaring the hell out of me. That man has some powerful lungs! I thought while trying to calm my fast beating heart, even Tamara was covering her ears. ¡°She is quite strong that one.¡± Deroak said rubbing his chin, most likely making an assessment about how much he could sell her for. ¡°As I said, she is the strongest in my team.¡± I smiled. After the slave was taken out of there, the second one followed up. This time it was a weak looking fellow, a bit skinny in my eyes, but he felt stronger than the last one. As soon as the battle started, this guy started to cast some spells. It took him a bit to channel the Magic Energy, but Ayuseya didn¡¯t let him. She jumped forward and struck him with the hilt of her sword right in his stomach. Coughing, the man collapsed on his knees and glared at her, but a punch to the face settled this match as well. The slave, a mage, was knocked out. ¡°And we have a winner! The draconian! This lady can sure give a punch!¡± he shouted. ¡°Not bad, don¡¯t you think?¡± I smirked and tossed a gaze from the corners of my eyes at the merchant. Deroak didn¡¯t seem too pleased about it, but I hoped those weren¡¯t his strongest ones. If Ayuseya lost to a weakling, it would be quite suspicious of her. ¡°I wonder if the next battle will be the same?¡± he said and then looked back at me with a change in his eyes. So he placed them in ascending order according to their strengths? The last one must be quite strong¡­ I told myself as I looked back at the ring. Ayuseya looked back at me in that moment, and I nodded once, letting her know that it was alright for her to lose now. The next battle was about to start. The announcer came forward to the middle of the ring and announced the next fighter, another one of Deroak¡¯s slaves, this time, an el¡¯doraw man. He was about the same size as Shanteya, but not too bad looking either. He had an athletic build and very few scars on his body as far as I could see. The weapons of choice for him were two curved daggers, but he was also a booster like Nanya, enhancing his physical abilities with magic. When the battle started, he dashed forward at an incredible speed. He was at least ten times faster than the other two, but way too slow when compared with my wife. The first hit connected, but didn¡¯t go past the Magic Armor. Ayuseya was pushed back a few steps, but she maintained her balance. ¡°What?¡± I said, acting all surprised. Tamara perked her ears up and looked back at me. Even she didn¡¯t see the man to be a threat for the dragoness. ¡°Hehe! My slaves are quite strong, you know?¡± he smirked. Looking back at him, I noticed he wasn¡¯t worried at all about losing this bet. On the contrary, I could say that he was about to win it. Still, I had nothing to worry about. Unless he brought out a Supreme, there was no way he could defeat Nanya and even then it was doubtful. ¡°Maybe, but I did win so far, I¡¯m sure my woman will win again.¡± I smirked, showing to be quite confident in her prowess. The battle was getting more intense with each passing moment. Ayuseya pretended not to be able to either counter attack or keep up with his speed. Little by little, she was pushed back towards the edge of the ring. Meanwhile, I showed to be annoyed at the way the situation was developing, tapping my foot and grinding my teeth. ¡°The draconian is out of the ring! Deroak¡¯s slave wins!¡± shouted the announcer. The battle ceased, and Ayuseya walked away with her head down. Afterwards came Shanteya, but at the same time, her opponent, the el¡¯doraw slave was replaced by a human one. ¡°What¡¯s this? Why did you change him?¡± I asked surprised. ¡°Of course I did! I never said I would keep them after each battle. What, are you afraid you will lose?¡± he asked me with a smirk. ¡°NEVER! I would even bet you right here and right now another 10 goldiettes that my slave will win!¡± I declared and placed the coins on the small table between us. ¡°Very well! I accept!¡± he smirked. I sat down in my chair and watched as the battle started. Shanteya pulled out her dagger and rushed towards her enemy, showing the same level of speed as an Advanced Ranked Adventurer would. Unlike Ayuseya, she was very skilled at controlling her strength, and her acting was far better than mine. So well, in fact, that the battle displayed before us appeared to be a terribly difficult one. Shanteya was having a hard time landing hits or dodging them. ¡°She is quite skilled¡­¡± said Deroak as he watched her battle. ¡°I know, I¡¯ve bought her from a very skilled trainer¡­ ugh, but why can¡¯t she win already?¡± I mumbled the last words with a low enough voice for the merchant to barely hear me. ¡°When this is over, I would like to know who that trainer is. I might desire to employ his services.¡± he told me. ¡°Huh? Maybe¡­¡± I said and appeared to be completely focused on the battle. ¡°Should we increase the bet to 20 goldiettes?¡± he asked me. ¡°Huh? Sure¡­¡± I waved him off.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°Very well.¡± he smirked greedily. The battle between Shanteya and the slave was taking quite a long time, but in the end, she allowed a hit to slip through her defense and send her out of the ring, guaranteeing her loss. When I saw this, I sat up. ¡°Are you getting worried now? Do not worry, I will add these coins to the final bet. Or¡­ would you like to bet more?¡± he asked me. I cringed and looked back at him. ¡°No¡­ that will be fine¡­¡± I muttered and then sat down. ¡°Too bad, your loss.¡± he appeared to be satisfied, but on the inside I was squealing with joy. My plan was going perfect! This stupid merchant actually believed I was going to lose! ¡°Now! For the final battle! On this side, a beautiful human adventurer!¡± the announcer shouted and pointed to his left ¡±And on this side, Groatak, the most prized slave of Dreotak!¡± he pointed to his right. This guy was quite tall, almost 2 meters in height, with lots of scars and well shaped muscles. He looked like the typical brute you would see in the role of a powerful villain who could snap a man in half. ¡°What?! What does he mean by that?!¡± I pointed at him and glared at the merchant. ¡°Relax my friend, as I said, I¡¯m just replacing an injured slave with another. Nothing against the rules of our bet, right?¡± he showed me a cunning smile. So this was your plan all along, huh? I thought as I sat back down in the chair. The battle started, but Nanya just looked a bit pissed. I hoped she wasn¡¯t going to win this battle before I had the chance to give her the signal. Fortunately, my fears were wrongly placed. She received the first punch face first and got thrown all the way to the edge of the ring, but wasn¡¯t tossed out of it. With a smirk, she attacked the brute and landed a punch in his guts. The man coughed and took a step back. She then jumped up and roundhouse kicked him in the jaw, sending him tumbling on the ground. ¡°She is quite strong.¡± Deroak said as he rubbed his chin. ¡°Yes¡­¡± I said, while I put on a worried expression on my face, bottom lip pushed forward and cheeks contracted just a bit. Please don¡¯t kill him yet! Please don¡¯t kill him yet! I kept praying him in my mind. ¡°How about we increase the bet a little?¡± he asked me. ¡°Pardon?¡± I raised an eyebrow and showed him a confused look. ¡°We raise the stakes a little bit¡­ Another¡­ fifty goldiettes maybe?¡± he grinned. ¡°No¡­ I think not¡­¡± I shook my head and looked back at the ring. Nanya kept on attacking him, then she pretended to be tired and received a punch to the face. Her landing was rough, but still inside the ring. Groatak ran at her and body slammed her, sending her near the edge of the ring. Nanya nearly fell out of it, but she noticed him charging and quickly rolled to the left to escape his clutches. She used a leg strike to the knee and a punch to the guts to bring the brute down on his knees, but it wasn¡¯t enough to finish him off. After about four minutes or so, the fight wasn¡¯t progressing too much. For every punch the slave received, Nanya was countered with ten others. It¡¯s about time, I think¡­ I thought and then looked back at Deroak. ¡°You were saying something about raising the bet?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes, do you still wish to bet a few more coins?¡± he asked me. ¡°Yes. I think I have a good chance of winning.¡± I nodded. ¡°Good! I will bet 100 goldiettes!¡± he grinned. ¡°Very well, I¡¯ll double it!¡± I declared. ¡°Oh my, you are quite rich, aren¡¯t you? Will you be able to pay, I wonder?¡± he asked with a smirk. I got up and dropped a few gems on the table. ¡°Yes.¡± I smirked. The sparkling jewels caught the man¡¯s attention and then looking back at Tamara understood how I was able to pay for her in the fictive story I told him. He picked up one of the jewels and analyzed it carefully. ¡°This is worth at least 36 goldiettes¡­ Hm¡­ How about 500 goldiettes?¡± he asked me with a grin. ¡°You are pushing it, aren¡¯t you?¡± I asked. ¡°That¡¯s how much I have in my coffers right now. And I also believe I have a fair chance of winning.¡± he smirked. ¡°Then how about 1000 goldiettes, and I toss in the nekatar too?¡± I doubled it. The greedy merchant gulped, and to prove my words, I showed him another fistful of jewels. It wasn¡¯t going up to the sum I promised, but it was enough to make him believe I had a way to pay for such a ridiculous bet. ¡°1000¡­ that¡¯s more than I could possibly pay, I¡¯m afraid I can¡¯t accept¡­¡± he shook his head and pulled back. ¡°Then, how about you do me a favor?¡± I asked him. ¡°A favor?¡± he raised an eyebrow. ¡°If I win, you give me all the gold in your coffers and promise to never deal in child slavery ever again! On your honor as a merchant!¡± I grinned. ¡°Something like that¡­ Something like that would cripple my business¡­¡± he grumbled. ¡°Who buys children anyway?¡± I shrugged. ¡°Nobles¡­ even commoners, anyone who wants playmates for their children or a child of their own. Others buy them as baits for dangerous monsters, pets, or even to train them into adult slaves specialized on certain jobs. Only mages buy them for experiments¡­ If one knows the right client, one can buy and sell anything.¡± he declared. It was true, that rule was applied even back on Earth, but some things were made illegal either because they were bad in general or because there were things which weren¡¯t supposed to be traded off in any way, form, or manner. ¡°So, do we have a deal?¡± I asked him. Deroak looked at me and then back at the jewels in front of him. ¡°It¡¯s a deal. I don¡¯t know why you would want me not to sell slave children anymore, but I will do it. If you win this bet, I swear it on my honor as a merchant that I will never again partake in such trades!¡± he nodded and then snapped his fingers. ¡°Go to the announcer and tell him the rules of our bet changed. If I win, I get 1120 goldiettes, the fighters and a nekatar as slaves. If he wins, he will receive 620 goldiettes and my promise to never sell or buy slave children again.¡± ¡°Yes, master!¡± the servant nodded and then ran out of here. ¡°What was that for?¡± I asked raising an eyebrow. ¡°Just making sure we both stick to our end of the bargain. We wouldn¡¯t want either of us to just¡­ run away like that, would we?¡± he smirked. ¡°Of course.¡± I nodded. So he was planning to announce the bet during the last battle and force me to pay no matter what. Guess he won more than one bet like this¡­ no wonder he approached me with this offer. I thought as I tossed him a cold gaze and then sat down. When the servant arrived downstairs and told the announcer the merchant¡¯s words, the fight was stopped for a moment. The man in white came forward and shouted loud enough for everyone there to hear him. ¡°My esteemed guests! It is time to announce the bet of the merchant and adventurer who sponsored this beautiful show today! If the adventurer wins, then he will receive 620 goldiettes and Deroak¡¯s promise to never deal in child slavery again! If Deroak wins, then he will receive the three lovely women fighters we saw today and 1120 goldiettes! To make it a fair deal, he will receive a fourth slave as well, a nekatar! Now then¡­ Fighters! You may continue AFTER I walk out of the ring!¡± Clearing his throat, the announcer moved out of Nanya¡¯s way. ¡°Tamara, come over here.¡± I told the kitten. Letting out a mew, she walked next to me and sat there, allowing me to pet her gently. I wonder if slavery in this kingdom takes the role of an orphanage as well? That¡¯s messed up¡­ I grumbled in my mind. Nanya took a quick peek at me and when she saw Tamara there, she understood what she had to do. It was time to stop playing around. ¡°I should warn you though¡­ Groatak was a former Godlike Adventurer who also lost a bet against me. Now, he is nothing but a tool I use to gain a few extra goldiettes.¡± he smirked. ¡°Is that so?¡± I ignored him and looked at the battle. The slave was done playing around too, so he boosted himself with magic and charged at Nanya, but the one he was facing was a half demoness and half dungeon with all of her stats way past a Superior Godlike. To top it off, she had all of her gear on, while he had nothing on his person. The battle was won the moment Nanya stepped into the ring. She stood still and received the slave¡¯s first attack. The demoness didn¡¯t even flinch. ¡°Is that all?¡± she smirked. The slave was surprised and so was Deroak. This was it¡­ Nanya grabbed his hand and crushed it in her grip, shattering his Magic Armor and making him scream in pain. Smiling, she walked away from him and dusted off her clothes. Furious, the slave ran at her and tried to grab her from behind, but she vanished from his sight and reappeared behind him. Before he realized where she was, it was already too late. The moment he turned his head around, he was punched in the face so hard he had all of his teeth knocked out. With a palm to his chest, she broke his ribs and then grabbing him by the neck, she tossed out of the ring as if she was throwing a trash bag. It was Groatak¡¯s complete defeat. He was unconscious, out of the ring, and unable to fight even if he wanted to. The demoness was simply merciless. Ouch¡­ that had to hurt. I pitied the poor fellow. ¡°So, a bet¡¯s a bet, right?¡± I smiled and looked back at Deroak. His jaw was all the way to the ground unable to believe that something like that happened. It was absurd. He knew he would win, yet I completely wiped the floor with him. ¡°You¡­ you tricked me.¡± he muttered. ¡°Nah, I simply made a bet with you, and you lost. Now, if you don¡¯t pay up, everyone in town will know you¡¯re not trustworthy. Your store will plummet in sales, and no one will ever buy a single thing from you or believe a word you say. So, what are you going to do?¡± I asked with a big grin on my face. ¡°Y-You¡¯ll have the money by the end of the day¡­¡± he said looking down. ¡°And about that other part?¡± I asked. ¡°I¡¯ll write a document stating I¡¯m done with child slavery and hang it on my wall for all to see¡­¡± he said with barely any strength left in his voice. ¡°Thank you for your business, slave merchant Deroak! Hahaha!¡± I patted him on the back and walked out there together with Tamara after picking up my jewels and goldiettes from the table. The feeling of winning against someone like him was great. My plan worked and through my effort and power, I managed to stop someone from buying and selling children. Too bad I couldn¡¯t just kill him or make a law to stop this madness, but all in due time. I was immortal, I had all the time in the world as long as I didn¡¯t remember the Darkness inside of me trying to pull down the ladder of my sanity. ¡°What now, master?¡± asked Tamara. ¡°Now, I¡¯m probably going to get either a hug or beating from Nanya, Ayuseya, and Shanteya¡­¡± ¡°Why are you smiling for then?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know, I¡¯m just happy I managed to punish somehow that evil bastard who hurt you like that, Tamara.¡± I patted the kitten on the head, and she let out a soft mew. ¡°Thank you, master.¡± [A certain royal guard¡¯s point of view] Today, the prince decided to go see a battle at the coliseum. If no one was in the mood to fight, we, the royal guards, were supposed to step into the ring and amuse him through our blood and tears. I had confidence in my sword, but I was also the prince¡¯s most trusted and strongest guard. I was certain he wouldn¡¯t dare to send me in there, but even my comrades were lucky. Someone else was fighting when we arrived. ¡°A draconian woman¡­ she looks¡­ ugly.¡± he declared. ¡°I hope she loses, if not go and kill her.¡± he told me. I gulped. ¡°Yes, your highness, but draconians are not our enemies right now and¡­¡± he glared at me, and I stopped ¡°As you wish¡­¡± My prince remained my prince no matter how selfish he was sometimes. Luckily for her, she didn¡¯t win. ¡°Such a fool! I knew draconians were weak! An el¡¯doraw defeated her! HA! Suits her just right! Ugly fool!¡± he smirked and leaned back on his chair. A servant brought him some fruits to eat while we waited for the next battle. This time, an el¡¯doraw woman faced a human. ¡°Hm? Is she strong, Dragnov?¡± he asked me. ¡°I don¡¯t know, your highness¡­ Until you cross blades with your enemy, you can never tell how strong they may be.¡± I nodded. ¡°If she wins, I¡¯ll marry her to you.¡± he grinned. ¡°Your highness, please don¡¯t joke like this.¡± ¡°Tch, you¡¯re no fun.¡± he grumbled. This man, although he was 24 this year, was the second prince of this country. His older brother was quite different from him, but unfortunately, he was currently away from the capital. This meant the younger brother had all the power to dictate over us, and we couldn¡¯t do anything to stop him. The el¡¯doraw lost and then a beautiful blond woman came into the ring. ¡°WOW! She¡¯s beautiful!¡± declared the prince, captivated by her the moment he laid his eyes upon her. The battle started, but she didn¡¯t seem to be doing so well. The man, a former adventurer, held the upper hand through pure strength. ¡°What¡¯s happening?¡± asked the prince when the announcer came forward and declared the value of the bet. ¡°If she loses, go and buy her for me immediately!¡± he ordered me. ¡°As you wish, your highness.¡± I bowed to him. Our kingdom wasn¡¯t very rich in minerals, but we had slaves. Most of our workforce and economy relied on slave dealers, so bets such as this one were a very good opportunity to gain money from foreign adventurers. Or at the very least, I believed the fellow who bet against the notorious Deroak was a foreigner. No one in the capital would dare make such an absurd deal with this man. He never lost a bet ever since he first participated in this coliseum with his slaves. Alas, I came to be wrong. Deroak lost. Goratak was pummeled to the ground by the blond beauty, and everyone barely understood what happened with how fast the battle ended. For ten long minutes, the prince didn¡¯t say a single word to me. ¡°Dragnov¡­¡± ¡°Yes, your highness!¡± I knelt down. ¡°Bring me that woman¡­ No, the man who made the bet against the merchant owns her, so¡­ yes. Bring me that nekatar. You can rough her up, but don¡¯t kill her. This will possibly play out in two ways, either he will bring the blond to me willingly or try to run away and leave her behind. If he does either, I will get her. Perfect!¡± he laughed. ¡°Yes, your highness.¡± I bowed my head and escorted him out of there. This plan was absurd, ridiculous even. He could simply buy her from him or set him up in such a way that he became an outlaw. As a result, we could freely hunt him down and take the slaves away from him. Even better, he could simply order him to offer her up. He was the prince who along with his older brother ruled over the kingdom after the death of their late father. They were allowed to do as they pleased here. To ask us to go kidnap them¡­ this was nothing more than a twisted game of a spoiled, tyrannical prince, but if word got out of these thoughts of mine, my head would roll before my wife¡¯s feet. I already felt sorry for the poor nekatar¡­ she wasn¡¯t going to survive this. Chapter 58: The hidden dungeon [Shanteya¡¯s point of view] After we parted ways with Master, we were guided towards the waiting area for the fighters. There, we waited patiently for our turn to enter the ring and kept our word about how we should win or lose. Ayuseya was the first to go and lost at her third opponent. It wasn¡¯t a fair battle from our points 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 unconsciously defending herself, making her practically immune to his blows. As for his speed, that man was slow, very slow. 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 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 and retrn the following day. 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 with a calm 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 the next few minutes, my mind kept trying to find something wrong with him, but I there was nothing. Maybe there¡¯s something wrong with me? I thought as I curled up on the 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 a few times. 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 dark. 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 it was stronger than me, then I would end up immobilized as a result of the shock of having my territory shattered. Reverse situation would mean that 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. 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 said surprised. One thing was certain, I didn¡¯t get THAT drunk from two tankards of mead. That drink had some alcohol in it, but not so much as to make me forget 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 under the ground, 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 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 the safety 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 it, 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. 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 there 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 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. Over the years I spent there, I learned that neither 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 the 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 about this theory. As I followed the wall, I was suddenly met face to face with a King Minotaur covered in steel-plated 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.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. 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 in peace. The room itself was simple at first sight, but a closer look revealed countless runes and symbols carved on 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 crystal 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 low tone of voice that showed 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 to confirm this fact. 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 was expecting him to be able to communicate in at least one language. If anything, that was the weird part about this because I had reincarnation as an excuse for knowing certain things, but what about this dungeon? ¡°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 it, I¡¯m sure he was 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 built a Core Room which was left uncovered by my Dungeon Territory, which I presume is the condition, a new Dungeon can be born?¡± I was a bit shocked by this 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 right 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. ¡°Weird¡­ From my father¡¯s information, I thought all dungeons were born with the basic information I hold¡­¡± he told me. 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.¡± ¡°Yea, 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 lead to them taking a hateful position towards any adventurer. Dungeons were living beings born from parents 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 said. ¡°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 backstab you, other times when you will be the one mistaken about them, but if you have patience and continue to believe 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 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 something as small and fragile like him 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 half a meter radius. 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 and 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 lead 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 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.¡¯ ¡°I wrote in Shorayan, the land where I was born in this world, the following words: Illsyore is the friend of Deusur.¡± 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 simply 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. Chapter 59: Battle in the night [Shanteya¡¯s point of view] We woke up that morning thinking we would see Master¡¯s happy smile and be greeted with a kiss, however, he wasn¡¯t there. There was no warm embrace or soft touch to graze our lips. In a way, we felt empty. ¡°Where¡¯s Illsy?¡± The first to ask was Ayuseya, then Nanya woke up and looked around to find him gone as well. They both looked back at me, and I shook my head. Even I had no idea where he went. ¡°Maybe I was dreaming, but I think I remember Illsy going out¡­ Erm¡­ I can¡¯t remember what happened next.¡± Ayuseya said. ¡°If I remember the same thing, then maybe it wasn¡¯t a dream?¡± I looked at her. ¡°Then he went out alone in the middle of the night? Why?¡± she asked tilting her head to the left. I looked down, since I had no idea either. ¡°Sigh¡­ Maybe he went out for a stroll and got lost on the streets?¡± Nanya suggested with a big yawn. ¡°I don¡¯t believe so. He did find his way back when we were at the baths.¡± Ayuseya dismantled her theory. ¡°Well, where could he be then?¡± the demoness asked raising an eyebrow. ¡°Nyaaa! Breakfast?¡± little Tamara woke up and cutely scratched her left ear. ¡°Not yet.¡± Nanya said and patted her on the head. ¡°Nya!¡± she looked up at her and smiled brightly. ¡°Let¡¯s wait for Master and then go out to search for him?¡± I suggested. ¡°Yeah, let¡¯s do that¡­¡± Nanya nodded. ¡°Shall we get changed and ready for breakfast? Ah! Illsy has all of our clothes!¡± the princess realized. ¡°I have some spares¡­¡± Nanya shrugged and pulled out a coffer from her Inner Mind. ¡°Not exactly what you would call high class, but good enough for a day.¡± she laughed and rubbed the back of her head. ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter, dear. As long as we won¡¯t smell of sweat and dirt.¡± Ayuseya replied with a smile. ¡°If you wish, while you go and eat, I could wash our clothes?¡± I suggested. ¡°What about your meal?¡± Nanya asked. ¡°I¡¯ll manage without breakfast.¡± I giggled. ¡°In that case, we¡¯ll be in your care!¡± she laughed. It didn¡¯t take us long to prepare everything I needed. Actually, it didn¡¯t take Nanya long. All she had to do was bring out from her Inner Mind a metal basin, some soap, hot water, and a rope. Ayuseya¡¯s clothes would probably take the longest to wash, while Nanya¡¯s the least, seeing how she mostly wore armor. By tying the rope from one corner of the room to the other, I made a hang line to dry off the clothes. By sunset, everything would already be perfectly dry and ready to wear. After I was done, I borrowed a dress from Nanya¡¯s coffer and went down to grab something to eat as well. We patiently waited for Master in our room, but as hours passed by and there was no sign of him, we were all starting to get worried. At first, we thought someone attacked him, but besides a Supreme, there wasn¡¯t anyone capable of harming him. We would have seen the battle too, seeing as how last time, there was quite a bit of damage done to the surroundings. There was one thing I couldn¡¯t get out of my mind though. Last night when Master woke me up, I felt like there was something strange about him. It didn¡¯t feel like I was standing in front of Master but rather in front of a stranger. Maybe it was only because I was half asleep, but was that really him or someone pretending to be him? ¡°ARGH! This is annoying!¡± Nanya complained. ¡°Should I go out and look for Master?¡± I asked. ¡°You, me, and Tamara, as for Ayuseya, you should stay here because if he were to return while we are gone, this is the most likely place he will come to.¡± she suggested. I agreed with a nod. ¡°Come back in three hours even if you don¡¯t find him.¡± Nanya warned. ¡°Tamara understands! Get fish later?¡± she asked curiously. ¡°Yes¡­¡± the demoness let out a sigh and patted the young feline on the head. With the plan set in motion, we chose the areas where we would search and then walked out of the inn. [Dragnov¡¯s point of view] Last night, we sent a scout after the man named Illsyore. He had yet to return, and I could only fear that he was found and taken care of. Well, it was his fault for being discovered so quickly, but if he revealed any sort of information about our current plan, then capturing the el¡¯doraw might prove to be tricky. There was no movement from the women staying at the inn, and the prince wasn¡¯t renowned for his patience. No matter what, we had to act tonight. As if the gods listened to my prayers, at sunset, the el¡¯doraw and nekatar walked out of the inn and ran in separate directions. I sent my Emperor Rank Squads after the feline, and together with my Godlike Squad, I gave chase to the woman with silver hair. If we were proven to be weaker than her, I had some of the Royal Knights on standby to give us a helping hand. Those fellows were all between Godlike and Supreme Rank. Overall, I was probably the strongest among them. Either way, our orders were clear: capture either the el¡¯doraw or the nekatar alive and bring them back to the second prince. Well, he only ordered me to bring the feline, but I had the feeling catching the other would be more convincing for the owner of the blond. After all, an el¡¯doraw beauty was more precious as a slave than a nekatar. ¡°Stay in formation and keep your eyes open for any strange movements.¡± I ordered in the silence of the shadows. ¡°Yes, Sir!¡± the answer soon followed. [Tamara¡¯s point of view] Fish! Fish! Fish! Well, my mind wasn¡¯t set only on food, but to keep up the appearance of a cute and slightly dumb nekatar, I had to let myself guided by the sweet, delicious, fatty meat of the fishies¡­ Nyaaa! Ever since Master found me, I wasn¡¯t able to speak with him to my heart¡¯s desire. The only ones I could talk to was with his two wives Nanya and Ayuseya. The other slave besides me, Shanteya, could also talk with me. The only one with whom I had to speak in a broken Shorayan was Master. But it wasn¡¯t my fault I never got to learn more than a couple of words in that language. If it wasn¡¯t for Frederique, the former butler of a Shorayan nobility, I wouldn¡¯t have been able to know even those words at all. He never told me how he became a slave though. Even I know that Shoraya doesn¡¯t agree with slave trading. Maybe it was fate? Ever since I met master, I was saved from certain death, got to sleep in a cozy bed, got petted, got good food, and although I hated baths, it wasn¡¯t so bad after he healed me. Illsyore was a good master, the best one yet! Now that he went missing, I wanted to find him. I wanted to be of help to master, to aid him. This wouldn¡¯t have happened if master wasn¡¯t master. I would have dragged along the mission, not even caring if I found him or not. I always feared I was going to be bought by a bad master. When the idiots from that party of adventurers procured me or rather lent me from Deroak, I thought that was going to be it for me. I thought I was going to die, but then master came along. He saved me, cured me, helped me, cuddled me, petted me, and was always nice with me. Such a master wasn¡¯t so bad to have. That was why I was looking for him with all of my might right now. I planned on leaving no stone unturned by the time I was done here. ¡°Stop right there, you little runt!¡± a stranger jumped in front of me and unsheathed his sword. A chill of fear ran down my spine, but I wasn¡¯t going to let myself get captured or killed by these fellows. ¡°HISS!¡± ¡°Oh? The nekatar runt has guts. Grab her!¡± he said and pointed at me. Four others rushed from the sides and tried to grab me, but I jumped up. Master¡¯s boost was great! I was so much stronger than before. ¡°What in the¡­?¡± They were surprised, but I wasn¡¯t going to sit there and fight. I grabbed the ledge of the rooftop and hoisted myself on top. ¡°Nyaaa¡­ I need to flee.¡± I said and wasted no time in putting my skills to the test. I rushed towards Shanteya. She was the only one who could help me. Nanya was on the other side of the town. ¡°Stop her! Don¡¯t let her get away!¡± the men shouted behind me. The guards saw me jumping from rooftop to rooftop, but they didn¡¯t try to stop the ones who were chasing after me. They weren¡¯t easy to shake off either, and I was starting to fear the worst.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. I won¡¯t let them catch me! I¡¯m going to go back to master no matter what! I thought and jumped down on the streets, trying to lose them through the crowd of people. ¡°Kya!¡± ¡°Stop that runt!¡± ¡°What the?¡± ¡°Hey!¡± Everyone, men and women, screamed when they saw me rush past their knees, while the ones behind me kept shouting for someone to catch me. I was too fast and agile for their grabby little hands. Nobody could match a nekatar when it came to how swift we could be. ¡°Got you!¡± someone said, but when I saw them, it was too late. He kicked me hard in the ribs, sending me flying into a nearby wall. It hurt, but I got to learn Magic Armor from Nanya, so I survived the blow. ¡°Nyuuu¡­ Who hit me?¡± I asked as I got up, but instead of an answer, I received another kick. I narrowly dodged it. The one who attacked me was the same man who jumped in front of me. When did he get here? What rank are these guys? I thought as I tried to dodge the next one, but I was too slow. The hit dropped me on the ground, shattering my Magic Armor. Pain rushed through my body as he stomped on my right shoulder, and I heard a crack. ¡°Nyaaa! It hurts! It hurts!¡± I screamed. ¡°Shut it, slave!¡± he growled at me and then grabbed me by the neck. I whimpered and trembled in front of this strong enemy. Even though I had master¡¯s boost. Even though I wasn¡¯t as weak as before, I was still so easily defeated and captured. ¡°Who are you? What do you want from me, nya?¡± I asked. ¡°You? You are nothing but bait for your master. He¡¯ll give us what we want.¡± he grinned. ¡°I will never be a bait for you! Nya! I¡¯d rather die!¡± I spat on his face. ¡°Why you little¡­¡± he was angry and his fingers were clenched around my throat, squeezing the last breath of air from me. I struggled to set myself free, but I couldn¡¯t do anything to him¡­ He was too strong. ¡°Be happy I was ordered to bring you back alive¡­ you piece of wasted meat.¡± he growled. Those were the last words I heard before everything went black before my eyes, and I fainted. [Nanya¡¯s point of view] Stupid Illsy! Where are you? I thought as I jumped on the rooftops of the buildings. There was no sign of him anywhere. It was like the earth swallowed him whole or worse, a woman lured him to her bed. If it was the latter, me and Ayuseya would make sure he would lose all of his energy and thoughts of going to another woman¡¯s arms again! How could he even think of cheating when he has us?! Actually¡­ I stopped and scratched my head a bit ¡°Illsy is too much of a loyal idiot to cheat on us. Something else must be up¡­ but what?¡± While I stopped to think about this, I sensed the presences of a couple of people circling me. ¡°What¡¯s this?¡± I wondered as I saw them moving through the shadows. An ordinary human adventurer wouldn¡¯t have sensed or saw them, but I was a demoness and a dungeon with a high level and stats which even Dankyun couldn¡¯t dream of. These guys were barely at the lower Master Rank. Completely pathetic when compared to me. ¡°Come out! All three of you¡± I smirked and crossed my arms at my chest. ¡°Pretty sharp eyes you got there, Missy. We¡¯re part of the Burton Gang. Give us your coins, and we¡¯ll let you off!¡± he pointed his dagger at me. These fellows were all wearing black robes to hide them well in the shadows of the night. Too bad they lacked the skills to make perfect use of their surroundings like a certain el¡¯doraw did. I showed them a big smirk. ¡°You boys sure have the guts to rob a Godlike Rank Adventurer!¡± I said and pulled back my hood, letting my blond hair flow into the wind. ¡°G-Godlike?¡± one of them was already thinking of running away. ¡°Yes¡­ Godlike.¡± I focused on the one who pointed his dagger at me and attacked. They didn¡¯t even have a chance to scream. Their broken bodies flew into the air and dropped on the ground in a puddle of blood. Tonight, I was merciful and didn¡¯t kill them. I only broke half the bones in their bodies and left them in a dark alley to fend for themselves. If they survived or not, it all depended on their luck. I just left them with a small warning. ¡°If you idiots ever think of robbing or scamming other people again, I will find you and rip out your hearts, then I will make you eat them!¡± ¡°Ugh¡­ we-we won¡¯t¡­¡± the one who still had a jaw intact managed to reply. Well, time to get back to hunting the idiot Godlike Dungeon. I thought as I dusted off my robe and jumped back up on the rooftop of a nearby building. [Ayuseya¡¯s point of view] While the others were out searching for Illsy in the dead of night, I remained at the inn, waiting for him in our room. To pass the time, I looked out the window and polished the sword he made for me. I can¡¯t help thinking about what Shanteya said¡­ Last night, was that really Illsy or was it the Darkness he told me about? Did that thing take control over his body? Maybe it took him somewhere to build a dungeon or worse¡­ I thought as I tried not to worry too much about this matter. Illsy was an adult in more ways than one, so he should have been able to take care of himself without a problem. Either bandits or Supremes, I hardly doubted there was anyone in this city capable of taking him on. The only threat to him was the Darkness inside of him. If what he said about it was true, then it was only a matter of time before he fell under its control or learned how to control it. What I couldn¡¯t understand was why didn¡¯t he do it earlier? Why was he lacking the motivation and desire to push back the only threat to his life with us? I can¡¯t help but wonder if maybe, for some reason or another, Illsy can¡¯t accept his life with us¡­ and this Darkness of his is actually a means for him to flee if things ever get too¡­ complicated. I shook my head. It was a very strange thought, completely unrealistic and improbable. Why would Illsy ever feel like he couldn¡¯t accept his life? He was a dungeon after all¡­ If it was a badly treated peasant, I could understand, but him? No¡­ that couldn¡¯t be it. I stopped polishing and lowered my head. Closing my eyes, I said ¡°Sigh¡­ Illsy where are you?¡± [Shanteya¡¯s point of view] Not long after I left the inn, I felt the presence of five strangers following me. They were not assassins. If they were, their tracks would have been completely erased. Without giving away the fact that I knew they were on my tail, I continued my search for Master. These people could be connected to his disappearance and if that was so, then I had to be careful. Master was a Godlike Dungeon Lord with abilities far surpassing a Supreme. Capturing him or even injuring him wasn¡¯t an easy feat for anyone under the Supreme Rank. I took a right turn and headed towards one of the darker parts of this town. A battle was imminent, so at the very least, I had to choose a favorable battleground for myself. Unlike before, I was far stronger now, and I even knew a spell or two, but most of my skills were still at Master Rank or under it. I had yet to learn an Emperor Rank spell. When it came to skills, out of all of us, Tamara was the weakest because she had none, then followed Ayuseya. When it came to brute strength and speed in combat, Ayuseya was far above me. It was probably due to the boost of power we each received from Master. As his slave, I couldn¡¯t get just as much as his wives did. Even so, I had nothing to fear even if I were to face a Godlike Rank adventurer, maybe even a Lower Supreme, but this was valid as long as they didn¡¯t use any overwhelming skills. ¡°Stop!¡± a black hooded man jumped in front of me and raised his hand up. I squinted my eyes at him and took out my dagger. This was going to end up as battle, so I made the first move. Side-stepping into the shadows, I rushed towards him with the intent of taking him down. ¡°Tch! Attack!¡± he ordered the moment he saw me vanish. Appearing behind him, I stabbed him between the ribs and then kicked him off the floor. ¡°Leopol!¡± shouted one of them. Just as I did in my former assassin days, I pulled back into the shadows and waited for another prey to show itself. My sudden attack surprised them, and they all formed a circle, back to back. The most typical and effective form of defense. In my younger years, I would have fled right now, but I wasn¡¯t the same. Pointing my hand at the group, I focused on my Magic Energy and then chanted in a whisper the incantation for the [Fireball] spell. When it was done, I let it rip. A ball of fire of one meter in diameter flew at them and exploded on that spot. They scattered in four directions to escape the blast. The explosion destroyed the rooftop of the building and probably injured the inhabitants there, alarming everyone around, but this chaos suited me just fine. While one of them didn¡¯t know what to do, I slipped behind him, and punched him in the face. His Magic Armor trembled, but it didn¡¯t shatter, so I punched him again. Before he had the chance to scream for help, I grabbed him by the throat and dragged him into a nearby alley. Pressing the edge of my dagger to his neck, I looked into his eyes and asked him ¡°Who are you people and why are you after me?¡± ¡°It was an order from the prince. I don¡¯t know why! Please spare me!¡± he cried. Out of mercy, I knocked him out with a blow to the back of his head. ¡°There she is! She took out Leroy!¡± I looked to my left and saw a furious man raising his sword up. ¡°Jenkins! Stop!¡± another shouted, but the fool didn¡¯t listen. He rushed at me screaming. I jumped back and ran away from him, but at the next intersection, I turned left and jumped through a window at the first floor. It was dark inside, but I could hear the owners talking behind the door about what was happening outside. ¡°Where is that shikak?!¡± shouted Jenkins. As soon as he walked by, I jumped out of the window and quietly followed behind him. Before he got a chance to notice me, I stabbed my dagger between his armor plates and straight into his right lung. Master¡¯s dagger ignored a part of one¡¯s Magic Armor, making it a brilliant weapon for an assassin like myself. ¡°You¡­ shikak¡­¡± he said before he fell to the ground, coughing and spitting blood. The man fainted from the shock, but he was still alive, barely. I turned him to the side, so he didn¡¯t drown in his own blood, then I fled from the scene of the crime. Technically speaking, the first man I attacked had just as many chances of surviving as this Jenkins fellow. Looking at his armor, I realized that they weren¡¯t your typical soldiers. They were knights or maybe even Royal Guards. Either way, I couldn¡¯t understand why a royal was after our lives. Did I kill any of his relatives or friends in one of my past missions? No¡­ that couldn¡¯t be it. I mostly operated in the Paramanium Empire. Then? Maybe it has something to do with Illsy? Did he do or say something to this prince while he was out? I wondered. It was the most likely possibility unless Nanya or Ayuseya were to be blamed for this surprise attack. Either way, I had no intention of letting myself get captured. I had to flee from these attackers. Reuniting with Nanya, Ayuseya, and Tamara was my first priority right now. Something was happening, and I had to warn them right away. ¡°Listen up, you wretched el¡¯doraw! I know you are out there! If you don¡¯t surrender right now, your nekatar friend will need a new arm!¡± the voice thundered from the rooftops. Nekatar friend? I thought and then my eyes grew big as I realized whom he was talking about. Tamara! Clenching the hilt of my dagger, I sheathed it, and jumped up on the building. If he was lying, I was going to flee, but she was there, and he had backup. Eight other hooded men joined him. ¡°Listen, we want to take you alive, but if you force us, we won¡¯t be held responsible for bringing you in without an arm or two. Do you understand?¡± the man who appeared to be their leader asked as he pointed a sword at Tamara. Two of them were holding the nekatar, one pulling her arm, the other holding her still. She was unconscious, but still breathing. ¡°I understand.¡± I said and knelt down with my hands up. ¡°Good.¡± he smiled. Two of his people walked up to me, grabbed my hands, and cuffed me. Magic bounds that reduce your power by half¡­ I thought as I felt my strength diminishing. These things weren¡¯t a problem for me. I could still flee from here and even kill a couple of them, but I was certain they would kill Tamara before I had the chance to save her. If I returned to Master without her, he would certainly be furious with me. After all, it was my job to protect the child while he was gone. ¡°I never expected you to be so strong. To kill two of my men like that, they were Godlikes too¡­¡± he shook his head. ¡°If you hurry, maybe you can still save them.¡± I said, hoping this would keep him from unleashing his anger on Tamara. ¡°I see. You four, go and search them! Right now!¡± he ordered to some of the men behind him. Then he looked back at me. I shot him a glare, showing him that I wasn¡¯t afraid of him. ¡°Take them to the dungeons. The prince will want to have a word with them.¡± he ordered. ¡°Yes, Sir!¡± the others replied and dragged me off in chains. Chapter 60: Illsyore’s rage [Shanteya¡¯s point of view] We were dragged off to the palace¡¯s dungeon and locked inside a big cell meant for draconians. The floor was made out of hard stone so the prisoners couldn¡¯t dig through it. The walls and bars were enchanted, so they couldn¡¯t break them. For good measure, both me and Tamara were forced to wear shackles that reduced our power to half of what it was if not less. Ten Godlike Ranked Guards were placed to watch over us. When we arrived, I quickly noticed the countless Godlike and Emperor Ranked soldiers stationed here. Some of the Royal Guards maybe even had the strength of Supremes, but none of them had the skills to match. In other words, there was no way for me to escape this place alive. I was strong, but I lacked the skills and strength needed to overpower countless opponents of their level. To make matters worse, I wouldn¡¯t have only myself to worry about. ¡°Nya¡­ What did we do to get locked up in here?¡± Tamara asked in Kalish. ¡°Nothing young one, nothing.¡± I patted her head and pulled her close in my embrace. Ever since she woke up, she had been trembling and looking with worry at the bars. At first, she thought it was her fault, but I managed to calm her down and banish that idea from her mind. It¡¯s been almost 12 hours since we got locked up in here, and there was no sign of this so-called prince. The guards changed shifts every six hours, and all of them shot glares of disgust and superiority at us. We were weak, and they were strong. We were slaves, and they were guards at the palace, there was absolutely no other reasons for them to act like that. ¡°Kukuku!¡± That self-important laughter came from the left. I slowly lifted my eye up and saw the prince for the first time. He was human with milky skin, a bit smaller than me in height, fat like a pig, and although he had the looks of royalty, his aura was similar to those fat and corrupted nobles I was often sent to kill. With one glance, I could tell he wasn¡¯t even looking at us as living beings. We were ¡®items¡¯, something he could destroy and toss away without a care or worry of a repercussion. Still, who could punish someone in his position? Just raising a hand at him could send you to the gallows and then onto the execution platform. Next to the prince stood a tall man wearing a steel plate armor. He had no helmet on, so I could see he was a human with tanned skin, around 40 years old, with short cut hair, and a stern look in his eyes. Countless years of combat weighed down on his shoulders, experience now offered willingly to the human prince standing next to him. As weapons, he carried two short swords, their scabbards hanging from his belt. ¡°Did you really think you were strong enough to defeat my men?¡± he asked with a smirk. ¡°I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re talking about.¡± I replied with a calm tone of voice. ¡°I merely sent them to extend a ¡®friendly¡¯ invitation to you. Who would have thought you were going to attack them? By right in power, I should have you executed!¡± he declared raising a finger in the air. Those words were nothing but lies spat out by a pig. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t recommend it.¡± I retorted. ¡°Hm?¡± he blinked surprised. ¡°Hahaha! Hey! Hey! Dragnov, she thinks I won¡¯t do it!¡± the prince laughed and patted the shoulder of the man next to him. ¡°El¡¯doraw, it would be wise not to take my master¡¯s words lightly.¡± he squinted his eyes at me. ¡°I¡¯m not. I¡¯m just stating the truth.¡± I replied. ¡°Keh! Do you think your master will come and save you?¡± he asked. I looked down and then at Tamara. She was scared and trembling like a child. Looking back at the prince, I wondered about that myself. Master had every right to abandon us here, but at the same time, after everything he did, I couldn¡¯t bring myself to see him as willing to do so. Master can run away. He can flee, but he won¡¯t do that. Master is a stubborn Dungeon who will save us. I thought, but I wasn¡¯t willing to let these thoughts be heard. ¡°I thought so.¡± the Dragnov fellow said, taking my silence as a ¡®no¡¯. ¡°Why have you captured us?¡± I asked. ¡°Isn¡¯t it obvious?¡± the prince puffed. ¡°I apologize for my inability to see matters as one such as you.¡± I spoke politely, but my words were nothing but lies coated in honey. ¡°With you in my hands, I can send your master a message and warn him of what will happen if he¡¯s not willing to give me that blond woman!¡± he showed me a victorious grin. ¡°So, you kidnapped me and Tamara in order to get to Master in order to get to Nanya?¡± I asked raising an eyebrow. ¡°So her name is Nanya? Cute! And yes! Pretty clever, isn¡¯t it?¡± he laughed. I blinked surprised and looked at Dragnov, he avoided my gaze. So even his followers think it¡¯s a stupid idea. I thought. The logical plan would have been to get Nanya directly, not through this complicated scheme that had more chances of failing than succeeding. Even so, maybe the prince didn¡¯t choose this sort of plan because he wished to gain something else? Doing this just to get his hands on Nanya didn¡¯t make any sense to me. What is it that he wants to gain? What would he have to gain besides a display of power? No, maybe that¡¯s exactly what he wants¡­ to show everyone who is in charge and that he can do absolutely what he wants as he wants it just because he is the prince. A royal¡¯s mind can easily be understood when looked at it this way, I guess? I thought. If it was like that, then this man was more dangerous than I feared. Out of the stupid and overzealous behavior of a royal, only death and suffering could result. I gulped when I remembered the horrors individuals such as him were capable of if unleashed upon the innocent. Yet, even then, nobody would dare to complain about them because they were born as royals. By right of blood, they were different than the rest, more so than us who were not a part of his kingdom. A royal had right of life and death over his subjects. This was the law. ¡°Hm, now let¡¯s see¡­ What to take? Ah! Get the ear of the nekatar!¡± he ordered and pointed at us. A chill ran down my spine as I realized just how he intended to coerce Master into giving up on Nanya. ¡°NO! I won¡¯t let you harm her!¡± I shouted and stepped in front of Tamara. ¡°Silence! Restrain her!¡± Dragnov took out his sword and entered our cell. ¡°If you don¡¯t sit still, I¡¯ll take more than just her ear.¡± he warned me. ¡°I won¡¯t let you touch this child!¡± I glared at him. ¡°Nyu¡­ Shanteya¡­¡± Tamara hid behind me, trembling, and coiling her tail around her waist. ¡°Give me that!¡± the prince said and took the sword from Dragnov¡¯s hand. ¡°Restrain her!¡± The man grabbed me by the hand and pulled me away. ¡°NO!¡± I shouted, struggling to get free from his grasp. ¡°Come here!¡± the prince pulled Tamara by the neck and pushed her on the ground. The nekatar tried to struggle and scratch her way out, but the prince¡¯s Magic Armor or maybe enchanted clothes were too strong. ¡°NYA! Let go! HISS!¡± she struggled and hissed, but the prince was just enjoying himself. ¡°Ugh! Let go!¡± I knew I was weakened, but getting out of a tight bind like this without my dagger was impossible. I have to stop him! I thought just as he was about to cut Tamara. ¡°STOP IT, YOU PIG FACED SHIKAK!¡± I shouted at the top of my lungs one of the most terrible insults I could think at that moment. The prince¡¯s sword stopped before he hurt Tamara, and his anger was directed towards me. ¡°What did you call me?¡± he looked back in anger. ¡°A pig faced shikak, but that would be an insult to them.¡± I smirked. ¡°Do you have a death wish, woman?¡± asked Dragnov. ¡°I¡¯ve faced worse.¡± I replied. The prince remained quiet and approached me. He was angry, furious. Did I go too far? I wondered. ¡°Hold out her hand.¡± he ordered calmly. Dragnov pulled my left hand and then the prince looked at me. ¡°I¡¯m still a prince, and I know when I¡¯m being taunted. Initially, I wanted only to take your finger, but for your insult, I¡¯ll take your arm and send it to your pathetic master¡­ alongside the nekatar¡¯s ear.¡± he told me calmly and then raised his sword up. The slash was crude. In the hands of an expert, I wouldn¡¯t have felt a thing, but in the hands of this prince, the blade sunk into my flesh like a rusty, jagged saw. I clenched my jaw and refused to scream. It hurt, it hurt really bad, but my mouth was sealed shut. ¡°Pretty brave for a woman.¡± snorted the prince as he walked over to Tamara after he finished with me. ¡°You will regret this¡­¡± I muttered as I trembled from the pain.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. ¡°Regret? Hah! I would like to see how your Master is going to make me regret!¡± he laughed. I could only smirk. Master¡­ I thought as I listened to Tamara¡¯s screams. [Illsyore¡¯s point of view] ¡°Hm, they should be in here¡­¡± I said as I entered the inn. After leaving Deusur behind, it took me about an hour or so to get here. It was an hour or so past noon, so the sun was still up and nothing looked out of the ordinary as far as I could tell. The smell of good food was in the air, and the adventurers were having their meals alongside a big tankard of mead. ¡°Illsyore! Where have you been?¡± asked Tannaor as soon as I passed by the bar on my way to the stairs. ¡°Huh? Oh? Erm¡­ around?¡± I replied foolishly. I wasn¡¯t going to tell him that I just came from a dungeon I secretly built while everyone was asleep. ¡°Is that so? You¡¯ve been gone for two days now. Your companions were all worried about you.¡± he said pointing up. ¡°Thank you.¡± I nodded. Two days? I¡¯ve been out for two days? I thought it was more giving the size of the dungeon, or less giving the overpowered skills I have. The Darkness sure did a good job at finishing things fast. Was it because of the lack of complexity and simple, low-magic traps? I wondered as I made my way up. I wonder if they are mad? Well, I¡¯ll just give Tamara a good petting and a big fish. I¡¯ll embrace Shanteya and give her a kiss, as for the other two, they can choose which one will have me all to themselves! I snickered and opened the door. ¡°I¡¯m home!¡± I said with a bright smile. Instead of being greeted by four, I was greeted only by my wives. They both had a look of worry and concern on their face, but the moment they saw me, they teared up and jumped in my arms. ¡°Illsy! You idiot! Where were you? Where were you?¡± they kept saying. ¡°I¡¯m sorry! I¡¯m sorry¡­ I sort of sleepwalked myself into making a dungeon?¡± I replied foolishly. They were snuggling up to me and almost breaking my spine with their monstrous strength. I could barely wrap my hands around both of them, but I still tried. They really were worried about me, and their tears were genuine. I could feel deep inside how glad they were to see me back even though I wasn¡¯t gone for such a long time. ¡°It¡¯s alright, I¡¯m back.¡± I whispered to them and kept them in my embrace. A few moments later, after they calmed down, we were inside, sitting on the side of the bed. ¡°I¡¯m sorry for having worried you so much. Where¡¯s Tamara and Shanteya by the way?¡± I asked with a foolish smile. They are probably out looking for me or buying some food. I thought to myself. ¡°You left in the middle of the night without saying anything to us. If you wanted to go build something, you could have just told us.¡± Nanya said clenching her fists and looking down at the floor. ¡°I¡¯m sorry¡­ I honestly don¡¯t remember when I left.¡± I said and placed my hand on her shoulder. Looking back at Ayuseya, I saw her parting her lips as if wanting to ask me something, but no sound came out. The draconian princess was the only one who knew about the Darkness inside me, and her question most likely had something to do with it. I would tell her what happened later, when it was going to be only the two of us. For now, I showed her a smile and a nod. Or maybe I should come clean to all of them? No¡­ I don¡¯t want to¡­ but why? Yes¡­ keep quiet. I thought, but it felt like there was something strange keeping me from telling the truth. Maybe there were still some fears in there about my past? I was a reincarnated human, not a perfect god without any flaws in either thinking or behavior. Even I had my fears, my worries, my hidden thoughts I could never tell anyone. It was part of my nature as a human, but maybe that in itself was the problem? Letting out a sigh, I held their hands and said ¡°I¡¯m sorry¡­ I truly am.¡± ¡°We know, Illsy¡­¡± Ayuseya spoke softly and then kissed my cheek ¡°But this means that Tamara and Shanteya aren¡¯t with you, right?¡± she asked. Her words made me furrow my brow. ¡°What do you mean?¡± I asked confused. ¡°Last night, we went out to search for you. We thought you drank too much and fell in a ditch somewhere, but then¡­ when it was time to return to this inn, the two of them never showed up. I think it had something to do with the explosion near the market. I went there to check it out as soon as it happened, but there were no signs of them or you¡­ I returned, and we waited, but they never showed up. I went to look for them this morning, but I couldn¡¯t find them¡­¡± Nanya explained everything what happened. I gulped. ¡°What are you saying? Did someone attack them?¡± I asked. She shook her head ¡°I don¡¯t know, but there¡¯s a high possibility that¡¯s the case.¡± she let out a sigh. ¡°They are not dead¡­ I¡¯m certain of this at least. I would have known if it was otherwise.¡± I said and then wrapped my arm around Nanya¡¯s shoulders and pulled her into my embrace. It wasn¡¯t her fault they were gone, and I wasn¡¯t going to put the blame on her or Ayuseya. Even so, if someone did attack them, I wasn¡¯t going to show them any mercy. ¡°Then where could they be?¡± she asked. ¡°I don¡¯t know, but we¡¯re going to go out there and find out. I know a few things about playing detective.¡± I smiled and gently brushed away a rebel strand of hair from her face. ¡°Det¡­ What¡¯s that?¡± she asked confused. ¡°Erm¡­¡± I looked up as I tried to think of a good way to explain it ¡°Erm, someone hired by the guards to search for criminals?¡± I smiled. ¡°You mean a bounty hunter?¡± she furrowed her brows. ¡°Not exactly, less violent.¡± I smiled. Knock! Knock! ¡°Mister Illsyore, there are two soldiers here looking for you. I told them to wait outside. I don¡¯t want any trouble in here.¡± Tannaor said from the other side of the door. ¡°Thank you! I¡¯ll be right there!¡± I replied. ¡°I¡¯ll let them know.¡± he walked away. Blinking surprised, I looked at Nanya and then at Ayuseya. ¡°Do you two know anything about this?¡± I asked. They shrugged. With Nanya and Ayuseya behind me, I walked out of he inn to meet these two soldiers. They wore the typical chainmail armors with leather padding. Their heads were protected by an iron helmet and were armed with short sword and a shield. Nothing dangerous about them, seeing how those armors and weapons weren¡¯t even enchanted. ¡°Yes?¡± I showed them a polite smile. ¡°Are you Illsyore, the owner of Nanya?¡± the one holding a big box asked. ¡°Erm, I am Illsyore, but Nanya is my wife not my slave.¡± I replied, feeling a bit offended by his choice of words. ¡°Not anymore. The prince sends you a gift. If you don¡¯t want to end up like them, you¡¯ll hand her over to us.¡± the other declared with a smug look on his face while his comrade handed me the box. The scent of blood came from inside. With a gulp, I opened the lid. Inside, I saw a woman¡¯s arm cut at the elbow and a furry ear. I couldn¡¯t breathe. These are¡­ I thought as I looked at the severed parts. How couldn¡¯t I recognize the ears that twitched every time I petted them or waved a small fish in front of her cute nose? How couldn¡¯t I recognize the arm that embraced me each night? ¡°Illsy?¡± Nanya asked worried. She couldn¡¯t see what I was holding because she was behind me, but she could feel something was wrong, my Dungeon Territory was trembling and expanding. ¡°What the?!¡± one of the adventurers shouted inside the inn. ¡°A dungeon! A dungeon appeared!¡± shouted another at the other side of the street as he looked at his Dungeon Level Detection Stone. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± wondered one of the soldiers. ¡°Illsy? What are you doing?¡± asked Nanya again. She walked over and placed a hand on my shoulder. I was still in shock, but then she saw what I was holding. ¡°By the gods!¡± she placed a hand over her mouth. ¡°Like we said, give us the blond now, and the prince promises that your draconian and you won¡¯t end up the same.¡± he said. ¡°What?¡± Nanya replied with a growl. ¡°Stand back¡­¡± I told her. I took a deep breath and absorbed the cut off parts. ¡°Well?¡± the cocky soldier persisted with his nonsense. I looked into his eyes. Why bother? the Darkness whispered. The crystals on my arms turned from green to red, the same was for the one on my chest. It represented my fury, my anger¡­ my rage. I grabbed the soldier¡¯s face. ¡°Hey! What do you think you¡¯re¡­¡± he tried to struggle and free himself, but I released a laser beam from my palm. It went straight through his head and struck the ground behind him, vaporizing the flesh and bones it touched. The lifeless body was then stripped of all of its Magic Energy and turned into dust. I killed him. The other one looked in fear at me and took out his sword. I grabbed it and tossed it to the side, but since I was insanely strong, it smashed right through a building and went flying out of the city. ¡°NO! STOP!¡± he shouted, but I grabbed him the same way I did his friend. The look in my eyes was probably an emotionless or a cold one. I acted almost mechanically, by instinct, while inside, I felt like ripping the ground apart in both rage and fury. How dare they do this to Shanteya? To Tamara? How dare they claim what¡¯s mine? I thought, and for a moment, I wanted to split this soldier¡¯s head apart with my beam, but I did something else, much worse. ¡°AAARGH!¡± the man screamed in pain as I began to absorb his Magic Energy¡­ and memories. It was a mystery even to me how I did this, but it most likely had something to do with me directly touching him and also having him inside my Dungeon Territory because that was where the energy was going to. The soldier¡¯s screams were heard all around us until his body turned into a wrinkled prune and died. Just like the other one, he turned into dust the moment I absorbed the last drop of his Magic Energy. ¡°Huh? Guess now I know Kalish¡­¡± I spoke, but my voice felt empty, lacking its usual energy. ¡°Illsy?¡± Nanya asked. ¡°Defend me.¡± I told her as I took a step away from the entrance to the inn and raised my hand up. In front of me, I summoned one of my latest creations. It was inspired from the games I once played and the ideas for advanced military technology I saw on the net. Using the Power Crystals and my abilities to shape the matter as I desired, I created a very dangerous and powerful weapon. ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± Nanya asked. ¡°Oh, it needs a name, right? Let¡¯s see¡­ Gatling Laser Turret. Yup, that will do.¡± I smirked and jump on it. The ¡®beast¡¯ was categorized as a trap, but it was basically a chair with two, big AGLMC gatling lasers strapped on rigid metal supports; one to my left and the other to my right. After I made myself comfortable in the chair, I raised the ground under me until I was at about 100 meters in the air. With a smirk on my lips, I grabbed the controls, two joysticks connected to a network of Power Crystal pistons, and aimed the lasers at the big palace at the center of this city. Thanks to the dead soldier, I knew where the dungeon was placed. I knew where not to shoot, everything else was game. As for the soldier¡¯s other memories and thoughts I absorbed, they were destroyed because I didn¡¯t need them. To be honest, it was a big mystery to me how I managed to absorb his memories alongside his Magic Energy in the first place. I felt like I was missing a big part of the puzzle. Was this the influence of the Darkness? Or an ability I always had but was never made aware of? I was determined to find out later because now I had other matters to attend to. ¡°I don¡¯t want to kill, but I¡¯ll make an exception this time.¡± I said and pulled the trigger. [Shanteya¡¯s point of view] The palace was shaking, the prince had no idea what was going on, nobody did. ¡°Hahaha!¡± I started to laugh. ¡°Wh-What¡¯s going on?¡± the prince asked. ¡°You! Do you know something?¡± Dragnov glared at me. When they cauterized my wound with the heated blade of a sword, it wasn¡¯t either pleasant or pretty. Tamara, the poor child, fainted after the prince cut off her ear. ¡°Me? Well¡­ I might¡­¡± I was a bit delirious on account of the pain and blood loss. I looked at the armored fellow and showed him a grin. ¡°You two have no idea who my Master is, do you?¡± I laughed. ¡°I do not worry myself with those I deem as insignificant!¡± shouted the prince. ¡°You should¡­ because he¡¯s coming here to kill you¡­ Even if you send a Supreme against him, he will defeat him! Kukaka!¡± I felt like laughing as I realized how furious Master must have been when he saw my arm and Tamara¡¯s ear. I guess¡­ he really does love me? Or is he just furious somebody touched his stuff? Well¡­ I¡¯m a bit more damaged now than I was before¡­ I¡¯m sorry, Illsy. I thought as I looked up at the ceiling. ¡°Who is your master? ANSWER ME!¡± shouted Dragnov. ¡°Illsyore¡­ the one and only¡­¡± I looked into his eyes and showed him a smirk ¡°Godlike Dungeon Lord who defeated the draconian Supreme Dankyun.¡± ¡°You¡¯re lying.¡± Dragnov sneered. ¡°Then what¡¯s destroying your palace right now? Merions?¡± I tilted my head to the left. ¡°You know, I¡¯m technically a Supreme if I were to go by strength alone, but Nanya, Ayuseya, and Master are at least three times more powerful than I am. If you beg for their mercy¡­ who knows?¡± I smirked and then laughed one last time before I felt the darkness pulling me in. I was tired and in pain¡­ I knew Master was coming, so I closed my eyes and allowed myself to faint. Chapter 61: Madness and destruction [Illsyore¡¯s point of view] When I took a seat in the Gatling Laser Turret I built, I felt neither joy nor sadness, neither fear nor excitement, neither exhilaration nor sorrow of what I was about to do. My fingers gripped the joysticks controlling the terrifying guns, and with a simple press of a trigger, powerful beams of concentrated and magic enchanted light were fired upon my unsuspecting victims. My target was the palace in front of me. Beautifully decorated towers rose up to the skies, sheltering vigilant archers and mages. Sturdy white walls surrounded the courtyard, where green patches of grass and beautiful flowers offered a touch of beauty to the usual imposing building. Statues of various humans were scattered all over the courtyard, for another decorative touch. Behind the palace, I could see smaller buildings, which I guessed were used as barracks, stables, or even for crafting. The palace itself was at least four stories tall and covered a floor surface of maybe 100000 square meters, give or take. It was three times smaller than Romania¡¯s Palace of the Parliament, however, it had the basic resemblance of a medieval castle. A powerful steel gate marked the main entrance. All of these things were pretty much unnoticeable from ground level. The first beam hit an invisible barrier. It was an enchantment made to prevent ranged attacks from possible enemies. I wasn¡¯t feeling discouraged by this, in fact, I was curious to see how many blasts it would take before the whole thing came crumbling down. Infusing Magic Energy into my weapon, I began to let loose countless AGLMC laser beams upon the barrier. The turret could fire around 150 rounds per minute without overheating the crystals. If I cooled down the air around it and forsake its durability, then I could push almost 750 maybe 800 rounds per minute. In under a minute, the barrier crumbled and the first beam passed through and burned a hole in the ground in the courtyard. The following strikes rained down upon the soldiers and the wall closest to me. I showed no mercy. A single laser beam was powerful enough to vaporize a soldier if it hit him. The palace itself, the walls, the towers, and the other buildings in the back were made out of stone enchanted to resist powerful attacks, but as I continued to pummel them, they began to crack and shatter. As I did this, I felt nothing. In my eyes, I was playing a game of squash the ants and take down the towers. I pressed the triggers and something else, no¡­ someone else killed the humans, not me. I was innocent. Maybe that was why I wasn¡¯t releasing any killing intent from my Dungeon Territory. The black fog could be used to cripple down my opponents if used properly, but it could also hinder me. To my surprise, to activate it was the same as flipping a switch, but I preferred not to most of the times. Even now, I had no need for it when I had Nanya, Ayuseya, and my Little Friend, the Gatling Laser Turret. About five minutes in, the whole palace was covered in cracks and holes, the soldiers were hiding, and many of them laid dead where I struck them. On the ground, guards were getting closer in an attempt to stop me, but Nanya was there. They would be met with an unexpected surprise if they dared to challenge her. ¡°Time to switch to continuous fire.¡± I grinned. At the push of a button, both the AGLMC Gatling Laser to my left and the one to my right changed their inner Power Crystal arrangements in order to focus their beams of enchanted light into a single focal point. Now, I could fire two, very powerful, continuous beams, but I could only maintain each of them activated for about 20 seconds. Afterwards, the metal parts would start to melt away or the crystals to crack. Worst-case scenario, the whole thing would explode in my face. It wouldn¡¯t be the first time, unfortunately. Aiming at one to palace¡¯s towers, I pressed the trigger, and two red beams were let loose upon it. As if controlling the pointer on a monitor, I drew a horizontal line on it. The tower then crumbled down upon its unsuspecting victims. Luckily, this palace had many more towers to cut down, both as part of its structure and part of the walls. With a big smirk on my face, I began to destroy this prized possession of the royals. Like a child burning down ants with a magnifying glass, so did I destroy the soldiers and walls of this place. Nothing escaped my wrath. Walls, towers, statues, gardens, all of them were burned down by my lasers. For them, it was raining hell, while for me, it was a mere game. When I got bored with destroying the palace, I stopped. Fifteen minutes after I began my assault, the entire place was in pieces. Fires were spreading all over the place, people were screaming and crying, bodies were littered on the ground, and I stood triumphant at the top of the tower in my Gatling Laser Turret. I smiled¡­ Inside, I was happy, but the real me was emotionless. You made me do it¡­ But it was good¡­ We liked it. I thought. It was time to get back down. I absorbed my weapon and lowered the ground. Several city guards were keeping their distance away from me, Nanya, and Ayuseya. They were all within my Dungeon Territory, which was expanded at around 40 meters around me. I didn¡¯t need a larger area than this one, so if I wanted to cast or summon something, I could do it with ease in here. ¡°Illsy! What did you? Why did you attack them?¡± the draconian asked surprised. ¡°They sent us Shanteya¡¯s arm and Tamara¡¯s ear.¡± Nanya replied for me. She was horrified when she heard this. I closed my eyes and nodded once, confirming the demoness¡¯ words. ¡°Take off your ring Nanya. No need to hold back now. Kill on sight if you have to.¡± I said. ¡°Are you sure, Illsy? We¡¯re going to become the enemies of this kingdom, you know that, right?¡± she told me, but I could tell she was a bit reluctant to show her true self to these humans. ¡°I just filleted the palace. I think we¡¯re way past that stage, my love.¡± I replied with a smile. ¡°Sigh¡­ You are right, I was just hoping we could still get away without destroying this country¡¯s army¡­¡± Nanya shrugged and looked at her finger. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and then removed the ring responsible for casting the illusion of the blond woman upon her. Now, only my beautiful, wild demoness remained. Her body, although covered in Godlike armor, was far more attractive this way. I found this true form of hers more enchanting than the other one. All around us, the people met her sudden change with a gasp of surprise and maybe a gaze of fear. In their eyes, demons, draconians, and dungeons were the enemies, so it was only natural for them to react like that, but I didn¡¯t care. I honestly didn¡¯t care how they saw us as long as they didn¡¯t plan on attacking us. If they did, I wouldn¡¯t hesitate to bury them six feet under. Nanya let out a sigh when she met their eyes. ¡°As expected¡­¡± she said. ¡°You¡¯re more beautiful like this.¡± I told her. She blushed and looked away. ¡°Illsy, Tamara and Shanteya¡­ are they¡­¡± Ayuseya approached me and looked with a worried expression at me. ¡°No, they are still alive.¡± I shook my head. She exhaled in relief. ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡± I said. ¡°H-Halt i-in the name of the prince!¡± shouted one of the guards who up until now, kept their distance from us. I pointed my arm towards him and shot a laser beam right at his feet. ¡°Take one step closer, and the next will go through your heart.¡± I warned him. The man gulped and fell on his bottom, trembling from all of his joints. I pitied the fool for following a leader who would soon be nothing but ashes on a wall, but if this guard tried to oppose me in any way or matter, I wasn¡¯t planning on showing him any mercy¡­ I had enough of that. Yes¡­ kill¡­ I thought or maybe I was just imagining it? Without the need of holding back, I rushed towards the destroyed palace. Nanya and Ayuseya were running close behind me. The guards were left behind, while those in front had no way of stopping us. From the start, they realized we were far too powerful for them to do anything to us. In this town without a Supreme, we were three existences beyond their imagination. Even so, there were some Godlike fools who tried to stop us. They wore enchanted armors and weapons typical to those found among the men I killed from the distance. ¡°You three! Stop in the name of the prince!¡± one of them shouted. ¡°I presume you are Royal Guards, right?¡± I asked just to make sure. ¡°Indeed we are!¡± he replied proudly. ¡°So, why should we stop?¡± I asked tilting my head to the right. He squinted his eyes at me and pointed the sharp tip of his sword at me. ¡°You are accused of conspiring with demons and draconians against the royal family! You were the one who attacked the palace moments ago, were you not?¡± he asked. ¡°Yes. It was fun.¡± I smiled. ¡°You bastard!¡± he looked upset and ready to attack. ¡°Anyways, Royals Guards, please meet my wife, the overpowered draconian.¡± I said and then looked at Ayuseya ¡°Go wild.¡± I told her. She nodded and dashed towards them with her sword unsheathed. ¡°Kill them all!¡± shouted the man as he jumped forward to intercept her. Although she lacked the training and skills Nanya and Shanteya had, her brute strength and speed could easily outmatch theirs. Thanks to the fight at the coliseum, they probably believed she was only an Emperor Rank, but this woman¡¯s stats were past 2000.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. The battle between her and the soldiers was over in the beat of an eye. Their Magic Armors were shattered instantly. The first one she encountered tried to attack her with a frontal downward slash, but she moved out of the blade¡¯s way and then cut him in half with her sword. The next one was hit in the face with the flat side of her blade, and his skull was fractured into numerous places. Another punch sent him flying through the wall of a nearby house. The one who ordered us to stop received the sharp end of her sword and was killed like the rest of them. Out of all of them, only one begged for mercy. I let him go, and he ran away like a coward. We continued on our way. Ayuseya didn¡¯t say anything about what she did and neither did Nanya. To be frank, I thought she would hesitate or refuse, but this draconian princess was far stronger than I was let to believe. A good mate she is¡­ yes¡­ a weird thought popped up. I shook my head. She wasn¡¯t a mate, she was my wife. The moment my Dungeon Territory touched the gates of the palace, I stopped. ¡°There¡¯s another Dungeon here¡­¡± I said. My two wives looked at me with furrowed brows. This news worried them. ¡°Where is it?¡± Nanya asked. ¡°I think right in the middle of the palace. If I¡¯m not mistaken, the palace itself is its construction.¡± I replied. ¡°I never heard of a royal family using a Dungeon like this. Did they tame it?¡± Ayuseya wondered. ¡°I don¡¯t know, but I¡¯m going to pull back my territory until I find out how powerful it is. Nanya, please make sure to have a Dungeon Level Detection Stone ready.¡± I told her. ¡°Alright!¡± she nodded and took one out. After infusing it with magic, I saw a number appearing on the stone, but I refused to look at it. For some reason, I didn¡¯t want to see my own level. ¡°As long as it¡¯s not a Demigod dungeon, we should be alright.¡± Nanya explained. ¡°You think we can¡¯t handle a Demigod?¡± I asked her. ¡°Nah, it¡¯ll just be slightly more annoying to beat those soldiers if they are protected by it.¡± she shook her head. ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡± I said after I pulled back my Dungeon Territory all the way in. When we arrived at the palace¡¯s gates, we didn¡¯t bother to open them and simply jumped over them. The soldier looked at us surprised, but once we were inside the courtyard, I was able to see in close-up what sort of damage I inflicted upon these people. The grass was burnt, the flowers were trampled by rocks, the statues destroyed, the whole place looked as if an entire World War 2 battalion dropped it¡¯s artillery strikes right on top of this place. Those who could still stand were trying to help the injured or pile up the dead. Tears could be seen on their faces and cries echoed around the place. Yet, despite seeing such a tragic scene and knowing full well that I was the one who pulled the trigger, I felt nothing for them. There wasn¡¯t even one gram of regret or fear in my chest. I ignored them completely and moved towards the metal doors of the palace, now cut in half. ¡°S-Stop!¡± one royal guard shouted at me. Those who could still stand rushed up next to him and unsheathed their swords. I sighed and then told them with a loud voice ¡°If you attack me, I can guarantee your death! Look at this place, and you will know how powerful I am!¡± I spread my arms towards the devastated courtyard. ¡°If anyone attacks, kill them.¡± I told my two wives, who nodded at my request. Only four were brave enough to do so, but they died smashed by Nanya¡¯s fists and cut by Ayuseya¡¯s sword. The rest stood still the moment they realized that I wasn¡¯t joking around. ¡°Illsy, this Dungeon is level 258.¡± said Nanya. Can I shatter its Dungeon Territory, I wonder? I thought as I walked up to the metal doors. I kicked them open and entered the destroyed castle. Inside was just as big of a mess as it was outside. The ceiling was falling apart, the walls were crumbling down, soldiers and servants were injured left and right. It was pure chaos. ¡°STOP!¡± shouted someone the moment they saw us enter. In front of us stood a group of 20 men wearing enchanted armors and swords, all of them were of a different design as if to show the fact that they were created by Godlike adventurers. If I were to guess, these guys were probably the so-called elites of this place. ¡°Hm, cannon fodder.¡± I said and then looked at Nanya. I gave her a nod, and she walked up in front of us, hitting her fists together and showing them a smirk. ¡°You send a woman to fight us? Have you no shame?¡± asked the one who ordered me to stop. He looked like a tough guy, gray beard, a scar on his right cheek, strong muscles, and imposing looking armor. All useless if he wasn¡¯t around Nanya¡¯s stats. ¡°Why should I?¡± I asked and shrugged. ¡°Women are weak! Men should fight men!¡± he declared. I raised an eyebrow and looked over at Ayuseya, then back at him. ¡°Yeah¡­ No.¡± I shook my head. ¡°Kill this ruffian at once! That¡¯s an order!¡± he shouted in annoyance. In that exact moment, Nanya dashed past him and punched the guy next to him into the floor. Only a bloody mess was left of him. The next one received a kick in the jaw, sending him spiraling through the air and crushing into the thrones. ¡°I¡¯m a woman, so I¡¯ll be gentle with you men because I¡¯m¡­ weak.¡± Nanya told them, showing them a small grin. ¡°Don¡¯t falter men! You are knights of the¡­¡± the one who spoke was quickly shut up by having his jaw broken by my wife¡¯s fist. The man was sent flying backwards and crushing into the wall. He lost most of his teeth, and I doubted he was going to be eating solid food for a while. So they are knights, not just some elite guards. I thought while I kept my eyes peeled for traps and attacks from the unknown Dungeon. Of course, I didn¡¯t forget to pour Magic Energy into my Magic Armor either, I didn¡¯t want to end up injured because of something as ridiculous as that. Without it, we were basically glass cannons. As long as we didn¡¯t get hit, we could destroy anyone, but losing defense for Damage Per Second in real life wasn¡¯t a very smart choice unless you used certain tactics or had a buffed up tank. Even so, I already knew the consequences of neglecting my own Magic Armor. Although the knights tried to attack or cast a spell at Nanya, the demoness was far too agile and powerful for them. Their weapons simply shattered when meeting her fists, while their armors cracked under her might. It was as if their Magic Armor and enchants didn¡¯t even matter when facing her. By the time the battle was over, only the one who gave the order and spoke rudely remained. He was huffing and pointing his sword at her, but all that time, he didn¡¯t manage to land even a single hit on her. All around them laid the unconscious or dead knights of his group. Nanya showed them no mercy when she broke their limbs, shattered their armors, and destroyed their swords. They never stood a chance from the very beginning. ¡°Wh-what are y-you? H-how¡­¡± the knight mumbled while looking at Nanya with fearful eyes. ¡°If you want to live, will you be kind enough to show us to the dungeons? Your idiotic prince thought it would be a good idea to piss me off.¡± I said as I walked over to him. ¡°How dare you insult the¡­ the¡­¡± the man tried to shout, but then he heard Nanya cracking her knuckles, and he shut up. ¡°Your prince is to blame for all the destruction and death that happened today. He injured my loved ones out of greed and amusement, so I¡¯m going to destroy his entire kingdom as a result.¡± I said as I stood in front of him. ¡°My prince may not be perfect, but the royal blood of the former king still flows through his veins!¡± he declared. I squinted my eyes at him and asked ¡°So? Does it look like I care? His heart can pump liquid gold or a god¡¯s tears for all I care, but if he dares to harm my friends and family, I¡¯ll rip him apart!¡± I grabbed his sword and shattered it with a single strong grip. ¡°Even if you defeat us here, this kingdom will become your enemy!¡± he still tried to defend his master. It was an admirable act, but a foolish one. ¡°Who do you think I am, mortal?¡± I asked him. ¡°A foolish adventurer.¡± he replied. ¡°I¡¯m not an adventurer or a human.¡± I pulled back my hood, revealing my green-colored hair and then showed him the crystals on my left arm. ¡°I¡¯m a Godlike Dungeon Lord. Not even your country¡¯s Supremes can stop me.¡± Only when I told him this did he began to tremble and look with horrified eyes at me. ¡°If your¡­ prince, didn¡¯t dare to attack me like that, I wouldn¡¯t have bothered with disrupting the peace of your country. I would have acted like any other adventurer, doing some quests here and there, reading a few books in my spare time, and that was going to be it. Eventually, I would have left the capital. That¡¯s why I say that the only one to blame for this disaster is your stupid prince.¡± I grabbed him by the plate of his armor and pulled him closer ¡°Now lead me to the dungeon, so I can recover my friends, otherwise, I¡¯ll kill you and everyone else still breathing in this place. Did I make myself clear?¡± I asked glaring at him. ¡°Yes.¡± he nodded in fear. After I let him go, he dropped on his knees, trembling from all of his joints. ¡°Move it.¡± I ordered. ¡°Yes! This way.¡± he got up and led us to the dungeons. ¡°Illsy, I¡¯m surprised there are so few knights and soldiers in this place.¡± said Nanya. ¡°The barracks and all other buildings capable of housing them were destroyed by me before we ran up here. Besides, we took a slight detour on our way here and avoided many unnecessary battles.¡± I replied. ¡°Illsy¡­¡± she said and then looked down. I stopped and turned my eyes towards her. ¡°Do you think I did wrong?¡± I asked. The demoness looked at me for a moment and then shook her head. ¡°No, I¡¯m just wondering if this is the real you¡­ or just a side of you.¡± she said. I closed my eyes and thought about her words. While I did display a rather brutal and vengeful side of me, I was still a human or maybe a dungeon-human acting on emotions rather than logical thought. There were many other ways to get out of this situation without destroying the palace. I could have went all stealth mode on them. I could have attacked the Dungeon in this palace, destroyed its core, and release my Dungeon Territory all over the place. All I had to do then was to call them with my [Summon Ally] spell. I could have negotiated for their release. I could have held the entire city captive in a dungeon. I could have even launched overpowered [Fireball] attacks at this entire city, reducing everything but the palace to ash. There were many things I could have done, some more peaceful than the others, but in the end, it all came down to what I wanted to do, not the Darkness or someone else. That was why even if my wives wanted me to have acted in a different manner, I would still have probably chosen the one I saw more fit for me. Is this maybe a part of my selfish human nature? I asked myself. I could remember that this had been the case even when I was playing MMORPG in my previous world. Some people wanted to use the most efficient and easy way to kill the boss, be it through exploits or group hugs and spamming skills, while I wanted to use the more fun-for-me approach. I loved using the unusually hard or the most basic of tactics for fighting bosses as it was intended by the developers. I loved following the story or the typical path of a dungeon without skipping mobs. Of course, many hated it, but I wasn¡¯t a farmer, I was a gamer who wanted to have fun. Maybe that part of me stuck to this life as well and manifested itself through some rather unusual situations. If I looked back, I knew I could have handled Dankyun in another way. Killing him faster or even trapping him somehow was quite possible if I applied the right tactic, but I wanted him to stay alive so my wives could have the pleasure of killing him even if through this I risked the lives of others. Even fighting the Darkness¡­ I can¡­ no¡­ I can¡¯t fight the Darkness, I can¡¯t¡­ I shook my head as I felt a headache. ¡°Ugh¡­¡± I groaned. ¡°Illsy, are you alright?¡± Nanya asked a bit worried. I looked up and saw her standing in front of me. I smiled and then gave her a kiss. ¡°We all have a bit of darkness in us¡­ It¡¯s the shadow we have to live with¡­¡± I said. ¡°Very well, just¡­ promise me you¡¯ll never become like those typical dungeons, alright?¡± she told me with a soft smile. ¡°I promise.¡± I patted her head and then turned around. When I said those words, I felt a small throb in my chest. It hurts to lie¡­ I thought as I followed the knight. A few minutes later, we arrived at a big hall. It had a surface of about 50 by 50 meters. Both to my left and to my right were solid brick walls decorated with shackles and small wooden beds. The ceiling was at about 6 meters above the floor, with no support columns or any cells of any kind. Magic Energy flowed around the place, showing that it was a heavily enchanted room. In front of us, at about 20 or so meters away, a group of 58 knights were waiting for us with their swords drawn. Behind them, I saw a big, pale-red Dungeon Core. ¡°I thought I told you to lead us to the dungeons.¡± I told the knight in front of us. ¡°I-I did¡­ I don¡¯t re-remember this bein¡­¡± Click! ¡°It¡¯s a trap!¡± I shouted. The knight didn¡¯t react in time and was impaled by steel spears shot from below. It didn¡¯t even scratch me, Nanya, or Ayuseya, but the poor bastard stood no chance. He died instantly. ¡°Traitors are always met with the death sentence!¡± someone said as he was raised up from the ground by the Dungeon behind him. Just by looking at his clothes, I understood that HE was the prince. I lowered my chin and clenched my fists as an¡­ evil smile formed on my lips. Chapter 62: The curse Although I stood in front of this so-called prince surrounded by his so-called knights, all I could see were puppets pulled by the invisible strings of their own greed and lust. His words were meaningless to me, and the Dungeon behind him was a weakling I could shatter any moment I desired. ¡°Why are you obeying him?¡± I asked in the language of the Dungeons, the same one I used with Deusur. No reply came. ¡°I don¡¯t know with what sort of magic you managed to destroy my palace, but you will reveal all of your secrets to me and bow down immediately! Do so, and I may spare the lives of your friends!¡± the prince demanded. He felt safe while surrounded by so many knights and even a Dungeon, but what were they when confronted with me, Nanya, and Ayuseya? Our main targets were Shanteya and Tamara. We had to save them at all cost. Where are they? I asked myself, but thanks to the idiot knights blocking my way, I couldn¡¯t tell. ¡°How do I know they are still alive?¡± I asked the prince in Kalish, hoping that this way, maybe I could see them. He looked to his right and nodded. I felt the Magic Energy flowing through this place and then my two, precious slaves were lifted off the ground on a stone platform, similar to the one the prince was standing on. ¡°Tamara¡­ Shanteya¡­¡± Ayuseya said when she saw them. They were unconscious and held in chains. Blood stained their clothes and their missing parts could be seen clearly: an ear on the nekatar¡¯s furry head, and an arm on the el¡¯doraw. Just by seeing them in that state, I could feel a terrible rage building up inside of me. How many are they? 58? And they even have a Dungeon on their side? Should I? Who cares? I thought and then took a step forward. I didn¡¯t have a plan or a certain tactic to work with. All I knew was that everyone around me was a weakling, and I had more power than they could possibly dream of. So, I dashed through the knights using my maximum speed, pushing them to the side, avoiding their swords, and stopping only when I reached my two slaves. This happened in the blink of an eye. In my rush to get to them, I stepped over a few knights and mortally wounded another. A couple of them had their Magic Armors shattered from simply bumping into me, while the rest, including the prince, had no idea what just happened. A moment ago, I was standing in front of them, but now I was next to my slaves. ¡°My poor Shanteya¡­¡± I said softly as I knelt on that platform. She looked weak, feverish and barely breathing. Tamara wasn¡¯t doing any better either, even though unconscious, she was still suffering from the wound. I sighed and absorbed the two into my Inner Mind, leaving behind only their shackles. When I left this place, I planned on healing them completely. ¡°Idiotic prince, what¡¯s your name?¡± I asked him as I looked over at him. ¡°Rey-Reynolds D. Lagrange!¡± he stated proudly. ¡°Reynolds, huh?¡± for some reason, I remembered an old strategy game. ¡°You¡­ Who are you? Why do you wield such power and what happened to those slaves?¡± he asked me or rather ordered me to reply. ¡°My name is Illsyore¡­¡± then I looked over at the Crystal Core ¡°I am a Godlike Dungeon Lord.¡± my eyes moved back towards prince Reynolds. ¡°Godlike? You must be kidding! There are no such things!¡± he shouted. I shrugged and jumped over to my wives, the force I applied to the platform was enough to shatter it. ¡°Nanya, please take out your sword.¡± I told her. ¡°Do I have to?¡± she asked and looked at me a bit displeased. ¡°Yes.¡± I showed her a kind smile. Nanya took out the fearsome two-handed black sword with red runes inscribed on it. Unlike before, I didn¡¯t feel the cold chill coming from it. This was most likely due to the fact that I was her husband, however, the other dungeon wasn¡¯t so lucky. I was hoping this would be enough to keep it out of our battle. ¡°Now, I¡¯ll give you two choices: give up now, or I¡¯ll kill you all. This I say to all of you, knights, not the prince.¡± then I smirked and looked at the Dungeon Core and spoke in our language ¡°Dare to defend these mortals or attack me, and I¡¯ll turn you into a chandelier. Got that?¡± ¡°Yes¡­¡± the dungeon replied with a trembling voice. ¡°What?¡± the prince was confused, he didn¡¯t understand what I said in the last part, none of them did. ¡°Our duty is to protect our prince! Our lives were offered through an oath to him!¡± shouted one of the knights. They were a noble and loyal bunch, I could respect that. Showing them a smirk, I then said softly ¡°Nanya, Ayuseya, you may attack anyone but the prince. Kill if you must, but I would prefer if you only break their armors, weapons, and limbs. I want them to see what I¡¯m going to do to their precious¡­ royal.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t wait.¡± the demoness said with a smirk and then rushed towards the knights. ¡°As you wish, my love.¡± Ayuseya said and ran after Nanya. While the two forces clashed in the middle, I walked calmly towards the prince. He was screaming at the Dungeon Core now. ¡°What did he tell you?! Answer you! I order you, you lousy Dungeon! If it wasn¡¯t for my family you would be dead!¡± the prince kept pointing his finger at the crystal core, but the Dungeon wasn¡¯t willing to give him a reply. From this one-sided conversation, my guess was that this unfortunate fellow had the bad luck of being born in a Dungeon Core Room placed here, in this palace. Once the royal family discovered him, they probably began to tame him in order for him to build stuff and act as a defense of sorts. This could explain why this whole palace was made with enchanted walls and even had a barrier around it. I need to learn how to make barriers too¡­ I thought. Looking to my left, I saw Nanya battling the knights. The demoness skillfully jumped and moved sideways to avoid the sharp edges of their swords and destructive power of their magic attacks. Whenever she found an opening, she attacked them as well, but despite wielding her powerful black sword, she was reluctant about using it to cut them down. Most of her sword attacks ended up being slaps with the flat side of the blade, but even those were more than what the poor knights could handle. One hit was enough to shatter their Magic Armor or break their weapons in half. A rather funny moment occurred when a mighty and imposing knight in shining armor was prepared to face her in a one on one combat, but after her first attack, his sword turned into an awkward L shape. Against this batch of individuals with a power equal or slightly surpassing a Godlike Ranked Adventurer, the demoness could easily hold her ground. For now, she was merely playing with them because if she were to get serious, she would use spell attacks as well as activate her [Boost] skill. I never did get to understand how exactly it worked though. ¡°Quickly, take them down!¡± shouted one of the knights as he ignored both Nanya and Ayuseya and dashed towards me. I showed him a smirk and then he was sent flying into the wall to my right by one of the demoness¡¯ kicks. Ayuseya didn¡¯t have any trouble either. Her two-handed sword skill wasn¡¯t the best out there, but thanks to her excessive strength, her strikes were deadly. Because of her lack of control, she had a bit more difficult time not killing them. Limbs and body parts were sent flying all over the place. The poor knights tried to stop her attacks, but when that enchanted sword came crushing down at them with more than 1000 strength points, it cut through them like butter. If Nanya and Ayuseya had similar stats as they did, the battle would have been completely different. Instead of crushing them with one strike, they would have to pile up hit after hit until their opponent¡¯s Magic Armor shattered and then go for a death blow. The number of knights dwindled from an impressive 58 to barely a handful by the time I reached the prince. Their defeat was imminent. ¡°What did you do to my Dungeon Core?¡± he asked while glaring at me. I smiled and looked up at the pale-red crystal. ¡°He knows that it¡¯s better not to anger me. I can crush him in a second if I so desire to.¡± I then looked down at the prince ¡°You are the only one in this room who doesn¡¯t think so.¡± I said. ¡°I am Reynolds D. Lagrange! I will never back away from a ruffian like you!¡± he declared pointing a finger at me. I tilted my head to the right and then grabbed him before he could pull back his hand. With a single twist, I broke his finger. ¡°AAA!¡± he screamed in pain, and I kicked him in the stomach. The poor prince vomited his last meal and fell on his knees. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, did you need that?¡± I asked and then walked up to him and kicked him again, sending him rolling on the floor. ¡°Your highness!¡± shouted one of the knights before he was silenced by Nanya. Between me and them stood two, very powerful women. There was nothing they could do but watch and resign to their fate of having been defeated by me. ¡°Y-You will not g-get away with this!¡± shouted the prince. ¡°Hm, nah! I¡¯m pretty sure I will. If I kill you and all of your soldiers, there won¡¯t be anyone left to hunt me down, right?¡± I smirked and punched him in the face, breaking one of his teeth. ¡°Aaa! Ow! Ow!¡± he whined. I punched him again, and again, and again. Of course, I didn¡¯t use my full strength because I didn¡¯t want to instantly kill him. ¡°You know¡­¡± I said as I picked him up by the collar of his clothes. His face was a mess. ¡°I think I¡¯m going to heal some of your injuries now.¡± I said and then I did just that. His wounds were healed, but his teeth weren¡¯t repaired. ¡°Time for round two!¡± I punched him again. After the fourth round of beating him up, healing him, and beating him up again, I finally took things a step forward and let him experience the same pain Shanteya and Tamara did. I ripped out his arms and cut off his ears. His screams filled the room as I healed him over and over again only to inflict more injuries upon him.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. What I did was nothing else but pure, sadistic torture, and yet¡­ I felt nothing while doing so. There was no satisfaction from seeing him hurt, there was no sense of remorse, not even the pleasure of having revenged someone. At best, I could say that, deep down, inside, I didn¡¯t like this sort of behavior, yet in this world, it was mandatory. Back on Earth, the Medieval Age was one of the most ruthless and unforgiving periods of times, so who said it wasn¡¯t the same here as well? Maybe I was just lucky and didn¡¯t have the chance to delve too deep in the dark side of this world, but sooner or later, I was going to take a dip in it. Life in this world was cruel and people found pleasure from destroying or killing one another, no matter their species. The question is¡­ what am I going to do about it? this question popped in my mind after I was done rearranging the prince¡¯s face. Behind me, the battle had stopped. The knights gave up and watched their master as he got pummeled by me. How will I act? another question popped up. How should I act? Is there another choice besides killing him? Can I force him to repent? Can I help the people of this kingdom in any way or manner? Why should I? Who am I to change the order of this world? Me?¡­ I stopped and looked at the prince as he was begging me to stop hitting him. ¡°Pweash¡­ no¡­ mowur¡­¡± he mumbled. I looked at him and saw his broken body covered in his own blood. My fist was red from all the punching. This isn¡¯t me¡­ I thought. I closed my eyes and tried to focus. There was something inside of me, something that wanted to kill this human, yet I felt detached from it. In my eyes and heart, all of the things I did until now, all the murder and destruction could have been prevented. There was a conflict inside of me. There was a desire to act based on this dark side of mine, while the other side didn¡¯t wish so, but didn¡¯t act either. The conflict was strange because no matter how I looked at things, the struggle between good and evil was clearly there, yet the good never took any sort of action, letting the evil shout its desires as it pleased. As a result, the evil won, while the good was left only to return home and sulk. I was letting the evil inside of me, the dark side of my humanity take over because the light never wished to take action. ¡°Ugh¡­¡± I groaned and lowered my fist. The poor prince was nothing but a byproduct of his own life. His lack of knowledge in how the world worked was at the base of all of his evil decisions, but one such as him could not be persuaded so easily to change his path. I could kill him now, just strangle the life out of him. My fingers were clenched around his neck, and I could see him begging me with his eyes not to do it. A snap was all I needed. A grip harder than usual. Yes¡­ kill¡­ the sweet voice whispered. ¡°NO!¡± I shouted and pulled back the moment when I felt like I was really about to do it. ¡°Illsy?¡± Nanya asked worried. I was breathing hard and looking at my bloodied hands. I was trembling. The prince was begging for his life, and all around me was nothing but death and destruction. I did all of this¡­ It¡¯s my fault¡­ I thought and took another step back, hitting a cut off hand. Looking down, I saw the floor soaked in blood and the knights struggling to stay alive. All of them were humans like I once was. All of this death, all of this carnage wasn¡¯t me¡­ I didn¡¯t wish for this as a human. I didn¡¯t like it. ¡°But I can¡¯t back away now¡­¡± I told myself in a whisper. Clenching my fists, I walked up to the prince and thought about what I was going to do next. I want him to suffer, but I don¡¯t want to kill him¡­ There has to be something else. Some way I can force this man to change this country, but what? I thought and thought. If anything, I wanted to come out of this thing with my conscience clear, knowing that I actually tried all that I could and didn¡¯t simply pick the easy way out as most people would. That was when an idea came to me. A curse¡­ Do I know how to curse people? I asked myself. Yes¡­ came the answer as I saw the skill and way of doing this flashing before my eyes. I simply had to write a complicated Magic Circuit pattern blended into his Magic Channels. Then, I had to pour my own Magic Energy in it, create some barriers and triggers¡­ It was quite simple in theory. Worst-case scenario, this test subject would die. No loss then? I wondered. With a smirk, I looked at the prince and started to heal him. ¡°Reynolds, I¡¯m not going to kill you, but I am going to put a curse on you.¡± I told him. ¡°What?¡± he was surprised and at the same time quite frightened. After I finished patching him up, I ripped up his clothes until I saw his bare chest. A rib was sticking out from his left side. ¡°Oops¡­¡± I said and then pushed it back, causing him a lot of pain in the process. ¡°Now then, let¡¯s do this!¡± I smirked and focused Magic Energy into my right hand. With the basic idea in mind and somehow instinctively knowing how curses worked, I started to burn strange symbols on his skin. Reynolds screamed in pain, but he couldn¡¯t faint or get away because of my magic. Immobilized and unable to fight back, he could only scream. When I was done, I poured insane amounts of Magic Energy into that curse, making sure it wasn¡¯t going to come off easily. All the conditions, requirements, and possible situations were uploaded together with my magic into the symbols of the curse written on his chest. This whole process took me about fifteen minutes, but after I was done, the Magic Energy was flowing perfectly, without any irregularities. ¡°There!¡± I said satisfied. The prince was trembling and breathing hard. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if he came out with a trauma or two from this whole ordeal, but it was too late to back up now. ¡°I know you can hear and understand me, idiotic prince. If you don¡¯t want me to hurt you some more, nod for ¡®yes¡¯, shake your head for ¡®no¡¯. Got it?¡± I told him. He nodded. ¡°Good! Now, before I tell you what sort of curse I placed upon you, let me tell you a little secret about your entire family, alright?¡± I smiled. ¡°What secret?¡± he asked with a low voice. ¡°You can speak, good. Well, this is about your origin, and you can research it for yourself if you want. Just look at your family tree or that of any other royal family out there. If you dig deep enough, you will notice that all of you were originally peasants. Your great great great great grandfather was a peasant who one day decided to go and fight for his country. He survived and was given a small title for his effort in the war. In other words, he was awarded a small, almost insignificant nobility rank. His son then married a beautiful noble woman, and your two houses were merged into one. Thus, your family took a step up on the nobility ladder. A few generations later, the once simple noble families with peasant ancestry became one of the great noble families of this kingdom. Something happened to the king at that time, and he died. Maybe it was a rebellion, a coup, or something like that, who knows? Either way, your great great grandfather was then appointed as King of Aunnar Kingdom. Generations later, you were born, but do remember that all of the women and men married into this family, at one point or another, had a peasant ancestor.¡± I smirked and then lifted him off the ground, letting him see the blood-stained floor of this room. ¡°You¡¯re saying I¡¯m a peasant?¡± he asked, but it was clear that, deep down, he was rejecting this thought. ¡°You are a royal, technically, but there is no difference between you, the men who died for you today, and the first peasant you will meet on the streets tomorrow. You are just a well-dressed and a bit more educated peasant. That¡¯s all.¡± I then showed him my blood-soaked fist. ¡°Look at this. Your blood is red. So is theirs.¡± I pointed at the dead knights. ¡°There is no difference. Same smell, same taste, same color, same composition, and do you know why?¡± I asked. Reynolds looked at me with terrified eyes. ¡°Because the so-called noble or royal blood doesn¡¯t actually exist. It¡¯s just a¡­ fantasy created by the likes of you to feel better about themselves and their seat in power.¡± I smiled and then laughed. ¡°You¡¯re lying¡­ How could my royal blood be the same as theirs?¡± the prince asked. ¡°If you dress like a peasant, you will see that no one can tell difference. If you put on a slave collar, it will be the same. If you don¡¯t believe, the try it and see for yourself if I¡¯m lying.¡± I glared at him. ¡°Is this the curse?¡± he asked me. ¡°No.¡± I shook my head and walked away from him. It was then when I noticed how Ayuseya was looking at me. She appeared to be a bit troubled by my words. Seeing as she herself was a princess, and looking at the Teslov Kingdom¡¯s rather unpleasant way of continuing the royal bloodline, it probably came a bit as a shock to realize that maybe she roots weren¡¯t so noble as initially believed. Well, my words were partially true though. Royals and nobles were humanity¡¯s more primitive way of protecting the individuals with good genes for future generations, but if I were to go into these sort of details, the whole explanation would become a real pain in the back. ¡°The curse I placed on you has the following conditions and effects.¡± I said as I turned around to look at Reynolds right into his eyes. He gulped. ¡°First. If you don¡¯t abolish slavery from this kingdom, especially child slavery, you will die a most horrible death. What I did to you was not even a taste of what¡¯s going to happen if this curse activates. Of course, you have only two months to do so. You are a prince, you have a certain authority, so I¡¯m sure you will find some way to do this. Of course, the curse doesn¡¯t activate if others plot against you. I also made it so that it can detect whether or not you are giving it your all to solve this problem. As for fake documents, don¡¯t bother. It can identify the real ones immediately. Therefor declaring a law now and changing it back the following day won¡¯t work.¡± ¡°Are you mad?! It would be better off to kill me now! Abolishing slavery will ruin Aunnar Kingdom!¡± he shouted at me. ¡°Not really. There are plenty of kingdoms out there who do just fine without slavery. Now, the second part of the curse is even more difficult to accomplish. You have to actively work with your people in order to enforce these laws. This means that you are going to take some knights and go out there to stop those merchants who insist on continuing to sell or buy slaves.¡± ¡°That¡¯s preposterous! I¡¯m a prince! I only need to give out orders not go and dirty my hands with the rest of them!¡± he shouted. ¡°You do know you are quite lively considering the number of times I broke your bones until now. Should I break some more? Maybe that will calm you down?¡± I asked cracking my knuckles and showing him a smile. ¡°Please don¡¯t!¡± he raised his hands up in fear. ¡°Now then, the next part of your curse will require for you to give out the proper laws in regard to child abuse, child labor, child slavery, and orphans. You will need to make these things illegal in this kingdom. Create orphanages, a special force employed by the royal family, anything you can think of to prevent these things.¡± ¡°Why should I care for peasant or slave children?¡± he still had the guts question me. ¡°Because you will die a most horrible death otherwise.¡± I smiled politely. ¡°Ugh¡­¡± he groaned and looked down. ¡°Now, what else was there? Oh, yes! For the following years, you are required to do everything you can to put the happiness and welfare of your people above yours or that of the nobles of this kingdom. Do you understand?¡± I asked. ¡°No¡­¡± he replied confused. ¡°It means you will do your best to make your peasant, commoners, and non-nobles in general, happy.¡± I told him. ¡°Such a preposterous thing¡­¡± he shook his head. ¡°You can always go and die in a ditch if you don¡¯t like it.¡± I shrugged.¡± ¡°Ugh¡­¡± ¡°There¡¯s more to the curse.¡± I said. ¡°MORE?!¡± he was simply dumbfounded. ¡°Yes, don¡¯t try to remove it, or the curse will be activated immediately. To be clear, the curse KNOWS when you are going to try to cheat your way out of the deal and will kill you. The more active you are on the field, the less chances for you to die because of it. Also, there¡¯s another thing!¡± I said with a smile. He only looked at me with a pained expression. ¡°The curse will go away on its own once what I just said becomes second nature to you. But the last deal for this curse is that you will marry a slave woman, not a noble woman. It doesn¡¯t matter if she was a former noble though. Also, she has to be at least a Godlike Ranked Adventurer, and your feelings for each other genuine.¡± I told him with a smile. ¡°ME? A prince? To marry a SLAVE?! Are you mad?!¡± he shouted quite loudly this time. ¡°No, but if what I said becomes second nature to you, it won¡¯t matter.¡± I smirked. ¡°But how can I even marry a slave woman when you are asking me to abolish slavery?!¡± he asked, raising his tone at me. ¡°You will go to another country to¡­ procure her. Imagine that, a foreigner prince marrying the slave he met in another kingdom!¡± I smirked. ¡°I will not accept this! It would dirty my bloodline! Dungeon remove this curse at once!¡± shouted the prince at the core behind him. ¡°I-I can¡¯t¡­ He¡¯s a Godlike Dungeon Lord. He¡¯s more powerful than me.¡± replied the core. ¡°Yes, you basically have two choices: do as I said or face a painful and agonizing death.¡± I smiled. ¡°This can¡¯t be¡­¡± he said in disbelief. ¡°Anyway, my time here is up. I don¡¯t have any more desire to kill any of those present here, and I¡¯m certain none of you surviving gentlemen will try to stand in our way as we leave this place and tomorrow this country, right?¡± I smiled and looked at the knights. They shook their heads, while the prince remained quiet. ¡°Good! Don¡¯t forget what I said prince and triple check your orders if you don¡¯t want to have any unexpected surprises!¡± I waved my hand as I walked towards the exit. My wives followed behind me, while the prince was left there to think about his inescapable fate. ¡°When I¡¯m done with this curse, I¡¯ll hunt you down, Dungeon Lord!¡± shouted the prince. ¡°No you won¡¯t! If you try to do that, you¡¯ll die. If you do get rid of the curse the right way, then the experiences and feedback from your own people will force you not to hunt me down. No matter what, this will be the last time we cross paths, young prince!¡± I said as I left the room. With a calm and steady step, I walked out of the destroyed palace together with Nanya and Ayuseya and didn¡¯t stop until we were out of the city and inside the forest. There was no reason for us to remain in that city, not even to raid their library. In the next city, I was going to make sure to gather some appropriate books for my future Magic Academy, but until then, I had other matters to attend to. ¡°Illsy, how did you know how to curse someone?¡± Nanya asked at one point. ¡°I just knew¡­¡± I shrugged. Actually¡­ how did I know how to curse him? I remember beating him, maybe doing some sort of spell, but the exact details are a blur¡­ Can I do it again? Ugh, I don¡¯t think so, and my head is killing me. I thought and rubbed my forehead a bit. Migraines were never pretty. Unfortunately, at that time, I never did stop to ask myself how was it possible for someone with my body to get a migraine in the first place? Chapter 63: Giving up on my el’doraw The calm winds gently flowed through the dense crowns of the trees. Their leafs rustled softly, adding a few notes to the song of the forest, while the critters filled out the rest of the score. Surrounded by the darkness of the night, with barely any moonlight rays guiding us through, we made our way into the unknown. The terrain was treacherous, with slippery steeps, and roots popping out of the ground in an attempt to stumble us. Fallen trees and moss-covered boulders acted as annoying obstacles in our path. Insects and predators lurking in the night had their eyes locked on us, following our movements either out of curiosity or intent to prey upon us. Behind me, Ayuseya and Nanya walked carefully, watching their every step. The draconian had a few problems with keeping her balance on the slippery terrain, but the demoness was there to offer her a helping hand whenever she needed it. They asked me nothing nor said a single word ever since we left the capital. No, that was wrong, ever since Nanya asked me how I knew how to curse someone. At one point, I did wonder whether or not Ayuseya was bothered by what I did to the prince or by what I said about the nobility. When I thought about it, I realized that maybe it would be extremely unlikely for a Dungeon of this world to possess such sensitive information about them. In my case, I believed it was something everybody knew because very few countries retained a monarchic rule back on Earth. Noble or not, it didn¡¯t matter in a democratic country. Unfortunately, there was no such thing as a democracy in this world, or maybe that was a good thing? I couldn¡¯t tell¡­ I lacked so much information about this world and even about my former one that I would be a real hypocrite to state that I knew how to make it better. I merely knew ideas, concepts, thoughts¡­ not facts. This world had something my previous one didn¡¯t¡­ other intelligent humanoid species, and with that brought another pile of trouble. If I stayed like this, making a Magic Academy was only going to be a fool¡¯s dream. That was why I had to learn more about this world and how it worked in general. Or maybe even this was a fool¡¯s thought? I didn¡¯t know anymore. Letting out a sigh, I stopped and looked back at my wives. ¡°Is something the matter, Illsy?¡± asked Ayuseya. ¡°No¡­ maybe.¡± I looked down. ¡°Speak up then!¡± Nanya said with a smile. Looking into her eyes, I let out a small sigh and then said ¡°About what happened¡­ What I did¡­¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter, Illsy. Others would have done worse in your place.¡± said Nanya shaking her head slowly. ¡°Indeed, although I was a bit surprised about what you said about the nobility. It came out¡­ a bit as a shock. Not even once did it cross my mind that it could be so, but after I thought about it again, I didn¡¯t find it so unlikely. After all, the king has the power to raise a family from peasantry to nobility. Thus, with given time, that family could one day take the throne.¡± Ayuseya looked down when she said this, meaning that she was still unsure if accepting this idea was a good thing or a bad thing. ¡°What about the curse?¡± I asked after a moment of silence. ¡°You did what you thought was best, Illsy. It doesn¡¯t really matter right now if either of us thinks it was good or bad.¡± said Nanya, but from her words, I understood one thing, they didn¡¯t agree with it 100%. ¡°Yeah¡­ true¡­¡± I said and lowered my head. After another moment passed, I released my Dungeon Territory and allowed it to stretch to about 30 meters radius. ¡°I¡¯ll build a temporary house here. It¡¯s a good place as any¡± Clearing up a patch of trees as well as removing all the large boulders around us didn¡¯t take me more than a couple of minutes. There were two options for me now: I could either level the whole area completely or create a platform of some sort on top of it. I chose the latter. It was a one meter thick steel square surface, with support pillars on all corners and one in the middle driven through the ground at one meter or so depth. Once I was done with this part, I spawned my one room house on top of the platform. ¡°Let¡¯s go inside.¡± I said. My two wives nodded and entered. I followed after them, and just to be safe, I lifted the platform by another meter or so, to keep any curious monsters or animals away from the door. I also added an endurance enchantment to the platform because I didn¡¯t wish to underestimate the strength of the creatures around here. Once inside, Nanya took out some chopped up wood from her Inner Mind and used it to start a small fire. Ayuseya walked up to the bed and took a seat on the edge. Today¡­ what I did today¡­ I thought and then looked at my hands. The prince¡¯s blood was all over me, and out of all of us, I was the only one stained by it. I felt dirty and disgusted by my own self, and it was all my fault in the first place because I allowed it to slip through my Magic Armor. I don¡¯t like this¡­ I thought. ¡°I¡¯m going to take a bath. You two want to join me?¡± I asked. ¡°I don¡¯t mind, but shouldn¡¯t we first take care of Shanteya and Tamara?¡± asked Nanya. ¡°Of course! I meant after I healed them.¡± I showed them a small smile. I didn¡¯t just forget about them, did I? I asked myself. Speaking of which, I also told a small lie back at the palace. Instead of staying at the Tannaor¡¯s Inn, I left the city immediately. Well, that didn¡¯t matter anyway. I moved to the back of the room and created a door. Afterwards, I stepped through and enlarged the platform as well as added two more rooms. To my left was another bedroom, and to my right was the bath. To keep things simple, the bathtub and toilet had drains in the same hole deep under the ground, but it had another pipe for airing purposes opening outside of the house because the stench would have killed all of us eventually. As for the other room, it had two beds, one for each of them. I made them as comfortable as possible and even enchanted the walls to keep the room at a comfortable temperature of about 22 degrees Celsius. A single window on the other side of the room allowed for outside light to shine in, but sturdy, enchanted metal bars kept the monsters out. For light, I used one of my Power Crystals, which I attached to the ceiling. By fueling it with a bit of Magic Energy, just a few points, no more, it was enough to shine light in this room for days, maybe even weeks to come. ¡°This should do it¡­¡± I said after I double checked everything. While I took care of the healing and everything else, Nanya and Ayuseya remained in the other room by themselves. There was no need for them to sit around while I did this. I began with Tamara. After taking her out of my Inner Mind, I carefully placed the kitten on one of the soft beds and looked at her injury. It was nasty, but worst of all, the bastards burnt the wound to stop it from bleeding. I took out the cut-off ear and began the operation. Cleaning the wound and draining the ear of coagulated blood was the easiest part. Reconnecting and reviving the dead tissue was a bit harder, but not impossible. Technically, I could apply this process to resurrect someone, however, as I came to learn from my own experience, the body was just a shell, and without a soul, it was nothing more than a biological automaton. Once I reattached her ear and allowed blood to flow through it, I restored her fur, making it look like the injury never occurred. The little kitten could sleep now a bit more peacefully, without feeling pain surging through her scalp, but before I started with Shanteya, I did a quick check to see if she had any other injuries besides that one. I discovered three broken ribs and a bunch of bruises. My poor kitten¡­ I thought as I petted her furry head and healed her completely. With Tamara sleeping peacefully in the bed, I moved on to Shanteya. After taking her out of my Inner Mind, I laid her down on the bed and proceeded to reattach her cut of limb. It was the same process I applied to the nekatar, but unlike her, Shanteya didn¡¯t have any other injuries on her body. After I was done with the operation, I left them a small note on the wall and walked into the other room, where I found my two wives waiting for me. ¡°How are they doing?¡± asked Ayuseya. ¡°I healed them completely. Now, we just need to let them rest.¡± I replied with a smile. ¡°You should change.¡± Nanya said. I looked down and noticed my blood-stained clothes. They were a mess. Without giving it much thought, I undressed and dumped everything in a pile in a corner like I did back in my college days. I also took out Ayuseya¡¯s coffer if she wanted to change. ¡°I¡¯ll wash them after I take a bath¡­¡± I said. ¡°You can go ahead, we¡¯ll join you after we undress.¡± Nanya said with a smile. ¡°The bath will be ready by then.¡± I showed her a smile, but before I walked out, I added ¡°Tonight, I¡¯m not in the mood for¡­¡± I looked down. ¡°It¡¯s alright, Illsy.¡± Ayuseya told me with a smile. I nodded and went to fill the tub. When they joined me, although I was excited to see their naked bodies, we didn¡¯t do anything besides washing ourselves. I helped them wash their backs, they helped me, and then we walked out. After draining the bath, I changed into a pair of cotton pajamas and slipped into bed with them. Ayuseya hugged me from the right, and Nanya from the left. They both gave me a good-night kiss, and that was how the day ended for me. [Ayuseya¡¯s point of view] When Illsy went to heal Tamara and Shanteya, I pulled Nanya with me and walked outside of the house. ¡°Hey?! What¡¯s this about?¡± she asked and furrowed her brow. I took a deep breath and said ¡°Nanya, I want to talk to you about Illsy.¡± ¡°What about him?¡± she asked raising an eyebrow. It was a bit hard to say, especially since I had no idea how she would react, but after what happened today, after seeing him like that, I knew I couldn¡¯t just keep this a secret from her. ¡°Did he seem a bit¡­ strange to you?¡± I asked her. ¡°Strange? Hm¡­¡± she crossed her arms at her chest and closed her eyes for a moment. ¡°Yes, he did¡­ Especially when he was beating up Prince Reynolds. That smile on his face was a bit creepy and frightening. I knew he wouldn¡¯t do anything to harm us, but seeing him like that felt like I was looking at another person.¡± she said and then opened her eyes ¡°You also found this change in him a bit strange, right?¡± I nodded silently. ¡°Do you know anything about this? About why he acted like that?¡± she asked me. I nodded again. Nanya¡¯s face turned serious. ¡°Tell me.¡± I let out another sigh. ¡°When he extended his Dungeon Territory back at Tannaor¡¯s Inn, I felt a strange change in it, a violent, evil change¡­ At first, I thought I was simply imagining it, but then he killed those soldiers, and it felt like the bloodshed made his Dungeon Territory rejoice. Then I saw him smiling whenever we killed someone.¡± I looked into her eyes. ¡°I too noticed this change you speak off, but maybe that¡¯s just his anger? He was quite furious about what happened to Shanteya and Tamara. As for his smile, I guess you saw it too, didn¡¯t you?¡± ¡°Yes, but I don¡¯t think his anger was the cause of it.¡± I shook my head. ¡°Then what could it have been? I don¡¯t understand¡­¡± she furrowed her brow. ¡°Back when I had my first night with Illsy, he told me something.¡± I gulped. ¡°What did he tell you?¡± she asked. ¡°He told me there¡¯s a Darkness inside of him.¡± ¡°A Darkness? You mean like a bad side? An evil side?¡± she asked confused. ¡°No, I apologize, let me rephrase that. I¡¯ll start from the beginning.¡± I took a deep breath ¡°When Tuberculus made his body, parts of the minds of the former Dungeons remained inside those crystal pieces. When he was born, those pieces became something he came to call as the Darkness. It¡¯s like another mind inside his mind, but this one tells him to act like a Dungeon, to kill adventurers, build traps, not show his emotions towards us, and other things.¡± I explained the best I could. ¡°I never heard of something like this¡­ But then again, I never heard of someone creating a Dungeon like Tuberculus did. So you are saying that this¡­ Darkness is capable of controlling him somehow?¡± she asked, but even she found it hard to believe. Unlike Illsy expected, Nanya appeared to be rather calm, or at least for now. ¡°Me neither, but it¡¯s true¡­ You saw Illsy yourself, the way he acted, the things he did, the things he said¡­ Those weren¡¯t like him. Without the influence of the Darkness, I don¡¯t think he would have killed so many innocent people.¡± I shook my head, firmly believing that my husband wasn¡¯t like Dankyun, someone who enjoyed taking the lives of others. ¡°No, I suppose not, but¡­¡± she scratched her head ¡°How can it control him?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know¡­¡± I shook my head. ¡°Maybe when he¡¯s asleep or when he¡¯s in a weak mental state. Either way, we saw clearly today that this Darkness is trying to take over him. The curse was probably done by it, but when Illsy was about to kill the prince, he jumped back. He didn¡¯t want to do it, he didn¡¯t want to kill him.¡± I said. ¡°Yes, if anyone should do it, that should be Shanteya or Tamara, but I don¡¯t know if I could allow myself to let the nekatar kill him.¡± she sighed.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°Even then, I don¡¯t think it would have been right. Even the lives I took or Illsy took with his weapon, maybe we could have found a way around it¡­ When I remember the faces of those men I cut down. When I think about the fact that if I was just a little more skilled, I could have just knocked them out, or¡­ I could have avoided it¡­ I could have¡­¡± I was starting to panic. My heart was beating fast, my hands were shaking, and my eyes were teary. I felt like screaming, but Nanya grabbed my hands and looked into my eyes. ¡°Stop it, Ayuseya! It¡¯s not your fault, nor Illsy¡¯s! You did what you could at that time. There were some who survived, the others were simply unlucky. It wasn¡¯t like you had a choice. True, if you were more skilled than you are now, then you could have avoided killing them¡­¡± she looked down. ¡°But trust me, it¡¯s not fun to beat yourself with guilt after you already did it. The strong will always have a choice of either saving or killing¡­ The weak usually kill because they have no choice, but the strong are not so privileged. My mother told me this, and at first, I didn¡¯t believe her, but as I grew up and got stronger, I understood what she meant by that¡­¡± she let out a sigh. ¡°But still¡­ I killed¡­¡± I said as I fell on my knees. ¡°No, you defended yourself.¡± she told me shaking her head. I wanted to cry, and I was still trembling. ¡°W-What about Illsy?¡± I asked. ¡°Illsy made his choice by not killing the prince. Showing him and everyone else there that he was so powerful he wasn¡¯t afraid of them retaliating. Another way of looking at it would be to believe that Illsy showed him to be so powerful that he wasn¡¯t willing to sully his hands with his blood even after what he did to Shanteya and Tamara.¡± she smiled. I looked down and wiped off my tears. ¡°What now?¡± I asked. ¡°Now, we move on and keep an eye on Illsy. Let¡¯s pretend like you never told me this, so neither him nor the Darkness keeps an eye on me. This way, I¡¯ll be able to do a bit of research on my own.¡± she nodded. ¡°Research?¡± I asked a bit confused. ¡°Yes, I¡¯ll see if there¡¯s any mentioning of two minds in the same body in the documents in the next library we come across.¡± she smiled. ¡°I see. I guess, this Darkness does explain why his Inner Mind is like that. It¡¯s like standing in a pitch black abyss.¡± I let out a sigh. ¡°Wait, what?!¡± Nanya grabbed my shoulder and looked at me with a furrowed brow. ¡°Erm¡­ His Inner Mind is very dark, but Illsy himself is like a bright shinning sun in there.¡± I didn¡¯t see why this was so surprising to Nanya. ¡°That can¡¯t be¡­ Every Dungeon in existence has a clear, light colored Inner Mind, no matter how evil they may be. Mine is a light-yellow, so Illsy¡¯s supposed to be light-green. Why is it pitch black? If this is true¡­ then the Darkness could have a bigger hold on him than we have initially presumed, but¡­ You said he was bright like a sun, right?¡± she asked. ¡°Yes¡­¡± ¡°Then this Darkness doesn¡¯t have complete hold on him. As long as he realizes this, he might still have a chance, but¡­ if we tell this to him directly, then the Darkness could intervene and keep our words from reaching him. ARGH! I can¡¯t figure out how deep rooted is that thing¡¯s control over my husband!¡± Nanya scratched her head in exasperation. She was starting to lose me, but if I understood correctly, then the very fact that Illsy¡¯s body in his Inner Mind wasn¡¯t under the control of the Darkness meant that he wasn¡¯t 100% controlled by it yet. Because of the way his Inner Mind looked like, the Darkness may have had more control over his body than even he came to realize. ¡°What do we do then?¡± I asked. Nanya looked at me and then let out a sigh. ¡°First, we get you back on your feet and wipe off your tears. You look like a mess!¡± she smiled and patted me on the head ¡°Then, I¡¯ll try and think of something. Either way, this is completely unheard off¡­ at least to me. MOU! Stupid Illsy!¡± she cried out. With the way things were going, I could only hope and pray that we would find something with which to help Illsy before the Darkness took over him completely. At the same time, I hoped it would never catch wind of our little plot and attempt to take Illsy away from us or do something to us. ¡°Nanya? What happens when a Dungeon doesn¡¯t like the wife he picked?¡± I asked. ¡°The Dungeon will most likely kill the wife and find another, why?¡± Nanya asked. I gulped and said ¡°Well then, I hope the Darkness won¡¯t think about replacing us if it finds out we are plotting against it¡­¡± I smiled a bit awkwardly. ¡°Let¡¯s hope so¡­¡± Nanya sighed. [Shanteya¡¯s point of view] I woke up in a comfortable bed in a warm room. Although I didn¡¯t recognize where I was, the energy of this place felt somehow familiar. Through the small window to my right, I could see an endless forest and the light of the sun as it shined through. Tamara was here as well, sleeping soundly in the other bed. She was curled up in a ball and covered by her blanket, letting only her little nose pop out from under it. Looking at her brought a small smile on my lips, but my heart felt empty. I pushed myself up and took a sitting position. On the wall in front of me was a small note written in Shorayan. It was from Illsy. He came and saved us. ¡°I knew Master wouldn¡¯t forsake us¡­¡± I thought and closed my eyes for a moment. When I opened them again, I found myself crying. I couldn¡¯t stop from shedding tears, but I tried my best to keep my whimpers as low as possible. What¡¯s happening? Why am I crying like this? I asked myself as I tried to stop, to keep up the appearance of a flawless woman, but even my jaw was trembling. I was afraid of something, but I had no idea what until I cast my eyes upon the note again. Master¡­ no¡­ Illsy¡­ I love Illsy, but¡­ I¡¯m not¡­ I thought, but the words didn¡¯t form in my mind. The fear of the truth kept me from accepting it. Even now, when I should have been thankful to him for saving me, for doing so much for me, I found myself wanting more from him. I¡¯m disgusting¡­ I thought and clenched the sheets of the bed while my tears rolled down my shivering jaw. It was hard to keep my whimpers in, but I did my best. After I calmed down a bit, I was looking at the note and asking myself what else could I do. Illsy had two wives, and I was just there as a mere slave. I should have realized by now that the only reason I wanted to stay as his slave was because I loved him and knew that my relationship with Illsy couldn¡¯t grow past this. I wanted more, more than I was allowed to. I was acting like a shameless woman who after tasting a piece of a delicious cake, she wanted to have it all. Even now, as I stood in this room crying by myself, Illsy was in the other room together with his true wives. He slept with them, cared for them. He became a man with them, but with me, who from the start offered herself to him¡­ with me, he barely kissed and hugged. At best, I was a friend, not a wife or even¡­ a lover. ¡°I¡¯m a fool¡­ a shameless fool.¡± I thought as I wiped off my tears. Illsy wanted to set me free, but out of fear of losing him, I kept refusing this opportunity. I couldn¡¯t let go of him, I couldn¡¯t let go of the only thing connecting me with him. Even this [Bond of Trust] was merely a decoration, seeing how quickly even Tamara obtained it. Did being kidnapped by the prince brought me to this state? No¡­ It was me waking up in this room alone, without him by my side, what made me realize the truth of my own selfishness. Illsy was there with his two wives, instead of being here with me¡­ He didn¡¯t even keep me in the same room as him. Why couldn¡¯t he sleep by my side? If he did, then¡­ I tried not to think, to stop thinking actually. I just made matters worse, so I slipped back into bed, holding the tears in and the cry to a minimum. [Illsyore¡¯s point of view] It was high noon when I woke. Nanya was up and cooking breakfast already, while Ayuseya was cleaning my clothes¡­ or trying to. Ah! That reminds me, I forgot to wash my clothes last night¡­ I thought. ¡°MASTER!¡± Tamara shouted and jumped on top of me. ¡°OMF!¡± I groaned while the nekatar giggled. ¡°Master came after Tamara! Master fixed Tamara¡¯s ear!¡± she said in Shorayan. ¡°Yes, I know¡­ also, it¡¯s fine to speak in Kalish now.¡± I petted her. ¡°Really? That¡¯s a relief¡­¡± she let out a sigh and then gave me a cat kiss on the cheek. ¡°You are very lively, I see. How are you feeling?¡± I asked her as I got up. ¡°I¡¯m doing good! My body doesn¡¯t hurt, and my ear works fine! Prince Reynolds was so brutal when he cut it off that I fainted, but¡­ he was brutal to Shanteya too¡­¡± she said and lowered her ears. ¡°I know, I healed her too. Is she awake?¡± I asked the nekatar, but I didn¡¯t see the el¡¯doraw coming in. ¡°Yup! But she said she wasn¡¯t coming out yet. I think she cried. When I licked her cheek, it was salty.¡± she said rubbing her cheek on my palm. ¡°Crying?¡± I said. This news worried me. Why would Shanteya be crying? I wondered. ¡°I¡¯m going to go and check on her.¡± I said as I moved Tamara aside and got out of bed. ¡°Nyu?¡± the kitten tilted her head and looked at me curiously. Upon entering the room, I found Shanteya sitting in her bed and looking out the window. She didn¡¯t look to me as if she had been crying, but she didn¡¯t appear to be her usual self either. There was something wrong with her, something out of place, but I couldn¡¯t tell what. I closed the door behind me and walked up to her. ¡°Good morning, Shanteya. How are you feeling?¡± I asked with a smile as I took a seat on the edge of the bed. She didn¡¯t answer. ¡°Shanteya?¡± I asked as I reached out and took her hands into mine. I¡¯m worried about you¡­ I thought. After a few seconds, she looked back at me with empty eyes. ¡°Illsyore, can I ask you to release me from slavery?¡± she asked. ¡°What?¡± I asked with an awkward smile. Her words surprised me, they shocked me even. Of all things, I wasn¡¯t expecting her to ask me such a thing. It was weird, and I found myself at a loss of words. How could I explain what sort of emotion I felt in that moment when she basically asked to break the bond between us? I knew she was entitled to her freedom, but without this contract of slavery, she couldn¡¯t receive the [Bond of Trust] boost. What is she planning to do after this? Will she leave me? Why? What did I do? I asked myself trying desperately to find an answer to these questions, to this fear that kept growing inside my heart. I didn¡¯t want to let her go. I didn¡¯t want to be separated from her, but if this was her desire, I had no choice but to do this. ¡°Why?¡± I asked with a trembling voice as I lowered my head. ¡°Because if I keep staying by your side, I¡¯ll always be left in the shadows. I know this is selfish of me, but¡­ I don¡¯t want to continue like this. I¡¯ll only keep on suffering¡­¡± she replied as she gently stroked my hand. ¡°What does that mean?¡± I asked since I couldn¡¯t understand. ¡°I can¡¯t tell you¡­¡± I looked up at her in shock and felt a sharp pain in my chest. How could she say something like that? How could she leave me like that? I didn¡¯t know nor understand this painful situation. All I knew was that I was going to lose Shanteya NOW. Our paths would split, and we would go our own ways¡­ ¡°Illsy, please let me go¡­¡± she added. I looked down. Let you go? Does this mean I-I-I¡¯ll give up on my slave? What? Wait¡­ no¡­ She¡¯s not a slave. Well, technically she is, but she¡¯s not a slave¡­ She¡¯s¡­ What is she? A friend? Maybe¡­ Is she a lover? No, but she¡¯s a¡­ she was¡­ the¡­ I couldn¡¯t think properly. All of my thoughts were jumbled up, and I felt my tears rolling down my cheeks. ¡°This is it?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes¡­¡± she replied. ¡°Shanteya Dowesyl¡­ I release you from the slave contract with me. Thor Or Non¡­¡± I said with a trembling voice, but I felt my Magic Energy working. ¡°I accept.¡± she replied. [Shanteya Dowesyl has accepted to be released from the Slave Contract with Dungeon Lord Illsyore] The slave ring around her neck vanished. ¡°You are free¡­¡± I muttered. ¡°Thank you¡­¡± she said and then got out from bed. ¡°I won¡¯t be imposing on you any longer.¡± she walked up to the door. Is this it? Is this where our journey ends? After all of that? Who am I to blame? Is it that stupid prince? Should I have killed him? If it wasn¡¯t for him, Shanteya wouldn¡¯t have wished to leave me¡­ But¡­ this was not something he could ruin¡­ This¡­ This is something I broke¡­ I thought, and while I was in deep thought, I heard her close the door behind me. ¡°What¡¯s going to happen now? What did I do wrong?¡± I asked as I looked out the window. My voice was trembling, my tears were flowing down my cheeks, and I couldn¡¯t help but wonder that if she was just a slave to me, a friend, why was I crying? What reason was there for this pain inside my chest when I saw her as a mere friend¡­ or slave? ¡°Even thinking about you as a lover is hard¡­ Haha¡­ ha.¡± I said with tears in my eyes. I thought back at what she said to me and remembered word-for-word Because if I keep staying by your side, I¡¯ll always be left in the shadows. I know this is selfish of me, but¡­ I don¡¯t want to continue like this. I¡¯ll only keep on suffering¡­ ¡°What does she mean by being left in the shadows? Shadows of whom? Nanya and Ayuseya? Tamara?¡± I fell on my back and looked up at the ceiling. Her words kept flowing through my mind. I kept hearing them again and again and again like a madman hears the voices of his imagination. It wasn¡¯t like my question had an answer or rather that it was such an obvious answer, but I, like a complete idiot, wasn¡¯t able to see it. Why would you be suffering if you were kept in the shadows? What shadows? Who dared to cast a shadow upon you? Why did you leave, Shanteya? What did I do or didn¡¯t do? I then thought of all the things that happened between us, everything from the very first moment I met her. I remembered how I found her in that burning forest, how I struggled to keep her alive, how I slept in her arms for the first time, our first kiss, everything. All of our adventures together kept flowing through my mind, allowing me to relive them. As I did this, I found myself hurting because in those moments, I also saw just how much I came to treasure this woman, how much I came to love her. Then I remembered the moment when I made Nanya and Ayuseya my wives¡­ ¡°It can¡¯t be¡­ can it?¡± I wondered as I wiped my tears from my eyes. It was a long shot. I could fail, but¡­ it wasn¡¯t like I had anything else to lose. I ran out the door, slamming it open and literally ripping it out of it¡¯s hinges. Right before she was about to walk out the door and leave this place, I entered the main room. ¡°SHANTEYA!¡± I shouted. She stopped and looked back at me surprised. I ignored Nanya, who was glaring at me as if she wanted to strangle me to death, and Ayuseya, who wanted to join her in her endeavor. ¡°W-What is it, Illsyore?¡± asked Shanteya surprised. I gulped, but I didn¡¯t back down. This was the only answer my silly brain could come up with. If this wasn¡¯t it, then I wanted to request a transplant or something! Stopping in front of her, I took her hand in mine and knelt before her. ¡°Shanteya Dowesyl, do you want to be my wife? Do you wish to marry me?¡± I asked. For the first time in both of my lives, I asked this question in all of its seriousness. I never had the guts to ask Alina. I made a ¡®not not joke¡¯ with Nanya and Ayuseya, but with Shanteya, I poured my soul and every drop of my being into this question. There was a moment of silence, which felt like it was strangling and killing me little by little. ¡°Do you really want this? Even if I am a former assassin?¡± she asked as she began to tear up. ¡°Yes. I want to marry you even if you are a former assassin!¡± I declared. ¡°Even if I was abused and used by other men and women?¡± she asked with tears in her eyes. ¡°The one I wish to marry is Shanteya Dowesyl, no matter how bloody or dark her past may have been. I don¡¯t care how many men or women used you and in what way, but if they try to lay their hands on you again, I will make them eat their own limbs!¡± I declared vehemently. ¡°You would accept me, the one called the Broken Doll of the Phantom Rage assassins guild?¡± she asked as tears flowed down her cheeks drop after drop. ¡°Yes, I want you as my wife, Shanteya Dowesyl!¡± I declared once more. She closed her eyes for a moment, letting her tears flow, but no pulling back or running away. I hoped she wasn¡¯t going to do that though, but in the end, it was all up to her. If she ran away or not, it was her choice, and this time¡­ I had no means of stopping her. That moment of silence as I waited for her answer strangled me worse than Nanya ever could have. My chest hurt so bad, but I knew it was a pain I couldn¡¯t run away from. Moments like this one was what having emotions meant, enjoying and feeling both the good and the bad. Sometimes, I ran from the bad, but rejoiced when touched by the good. It was a roller-coaster ride with ups and downs, and now¡­ I was at a breaking point. ¡°Yes¡­¡± came her reply as a whisper, but the message displayed in front of me was loud and clear. [Broken Doll Shanteya Dowesyl is now your spouse!] I¡¯m going to get rid of that title someday¡­ I muttered in my mind, but then. ¡°Huh? Yes?¡± I blinked surprised and looked up at her. ¡°Yes¡­ I¡¯ll be your wife!¡± my el¡¯doraw said with a soft smile on her lips with rivers of tears washing down on her beautiful face. The black ring similar to the ones on Nanya and Ayuseya¡¯s fingers appeared on hers, sealing the deal and officially making her my third spouse. Back in Romania, I would have been jailed for this, but heck if I cared in this world! If I could love all of them equally and just as passionately, why shouldn¡¯t I? Thus, I got up on my feet and embraced her tenderly, while our lips connected in a beautiful kiss. Still, I couldn¡¯t believe I had to give up on my el¡¯doraw slave in order to realize that I actually wanted her as my wife. ¡°Nya! All¡¯s good that ends good!¡± said Tamara. ¡°You mean ¡®well¡¯, right?¡± Nanya corrected her. ¡°What did I say?¡± she tilted her head to the left, but I ignored her. Picking up Shanteya in a princess carry, I turned around and looked at the three. ¡°Ahem¡­ Erm¡­¡± I tried to say with my cheeks bright red. ¡°We got it. We¡¯ll go catch some fish or something¡­ Just don¡¯t break the place.¡± Nanya said with a nod. ¡°Nya?¡± Tamara didn¡¯t get it. ¡°Come on.¡± The kitten was grabbed by the demoness while they walked past us and left our small house. Ayuseya walked up to me, and with a giggle, she told Shanteya ¡°Go wild.¡± and then left. ¡°I-Illsy?¡± Shanteya asked with a cute and shy expression. I gave her a kiss and walked up to the bed with her. I had no plans on holding back on her anymore! Shanteya was now my wife just like Nanya and Ayuseya! Side Story (6): The foolish Prince [Prince Reynolds D. Lagrange''s point of view] The curse of a Godlike Dungeon Lord was something not even the most powerful of our priests could remove. It was bound to my flesh and the very Magic Energy that flowed within my body. No matter how much I would struggle or for how long, the end result was going to be the same... unless I satisfied its conditions, I was going to face a most horrible death. Since that fateful day... six months had come to pass and many things changed within the Aunnar Kingdom. All political power laid in my brother''s hands, while I acted as a Prime Minister. Right now, I saw it as a worthy position for me, but back then my thoughts weren''t as such... Even now as I stood at the window of my own room and gazed down upon Elora, the capital of my kingdom, I still found myself in awe at how much things have changed. How much I have gained and how far I have come thanks to Illsyore. If it wasn''t for him, I might have been dead now or still passing my time as a worthless prince... The first few days of living with this curse engraved on my flesh had been a living nightmare. I had two months to solve the issue of the orphans, child labor, and slavery within my kingdom. Two months to do the impossible. I cursed the Dungeon Lord who did this to me, I didn''t even wish to hear his name. The agony and frustration I felt, the humility were beyond those a prince should stand to bear, or so I thought. My mind was basically backed up into a corner... Indeed... it was either change entirely or die. There was no middle choice. I tried to falsify some documents, but it didn''t work. The curse didn''t even flinch at the sight of them. Going to the Temples and ordering the people there to remove this curse was useless as well. In just a week, I was nearly driven mad, and I would have snapped if not for that moment of clarity. What happened was that I found myself laying on my back on the floor in the middle of the library and looking up at the ceiling without thinking at anything. I was at the edge, feeling as if the last thread of hope had been snapped by some evil force, and I was left to plunge in an abyss of endless darkness. In that moment, I remembered the Dungeon Lord''s story about nobility, how in the end, what flowed through my veins was the same blood that flowed through the veins of any other peasant out there. The only difference was the fact that I was educated and they not. ¡°Preposterous! Lies!¡± I shouted at the memory only I could see and hear. Yet, somehow, I knew there had to be a grain of truth in his words. So I got up, and wishing to prove the Dungeon Lord that he was lying, I picked up the books which told the stories of how this kingdom was formed, and I began to read. In one night, I tirelessly digested every single story of known nobles and lords. What I found out shocked me beyond belief. All the lords, including my esteemed family had once been a peasant in the past. Rebellions, revolutions, political and military coups, enemy take overs, misuse of influence, and many other reasons were the tools and means which led to one noble family or another to a humiliating downfall or a glorious rise. In the end, our role in the governing seat was as stable as a castle made out of sand. A single blow was enough to topple us over. Resigned to my fate, I began to see the truth behind my humiliating defeat. But my mind was still way too warped back then. I saw it merely as a possible joke, a monster who used some underhanded means to change the truth of the stories, yet when I thought about the origin of all nobles, my mind could not come up with an answer. Only the day after did I began to try and think of a possible solution to the problems I was handed. I called over my best generals and asked them what they thought about the current state of affairs. ¡°I believe we need to rise the taxes. The peasants need to pay us nobles more!¡± one of them said. Just hearing those words made the curse sting. ¡°I believe we need to add some sort of tax for those who own more than three slaves. If they can afford that many, they can afford the tax too!¡± he declared. His words at that time were pleasing to my ears and if I didn''t had this curse, I would have agreed to employ such a tax. ¡°I would suggest clearing up some lands offering more space for the farms.¡± another said. It was an opinion that differed from the others, so curiously, I asked him ¡°Why?¡± ¡°It is in order to gain more food, your highness. More food means healthier and happier people, which would mean more taxes for us.¡± he smiled. Again with the taxes... I thought. To my surprise, I realized then, that I lacked any sort of understanding regarding the way our kingdom sustained itself. Up until now, I thought it was absolutely natural for people to pay taxes and us nobles to spend them as we saw fit, but maybe the world didn''t work that way? Thus, I began my long and tumultuous research. To my surprise, I found my kingdom to be entirely dependent of slaves up to a rather ridiculous level. More than just simple tools, we treated them as our hands and feet. There was even a record of a noble who forsake all of his living needs to the slaves, meaning that he made one feed him, another to wipe his butt, another to speak for him, another to even do the work of a noble instead of him. ¡°This guy only needs to breath and stay alive! He doesn''t do anything else! He''s that useless!¡± I screamed outraged when I read this for the first time. More so, that noble was a Marquise who owned a rather large territory. I felt like if we were to be thrown in a state of war, we would lose because we would tell our slaves to fight for us. I began to realize just how right my brother, Reginald, was when he spoke of these matters. I, like a fool, ignored him, but now I understood that he was right. Before he returned, I had to do something, a change of some sort or else a coup from him would have been something to expect. Actually, before the Dungeon Lord cursed me, I didn''t even consider such a possibility. Could it be that monster saved my life? I thought to myself, but I forsake the thought. Of course, since I couldn''t just announce these laws as valid for the entire country, I had to see if they worked in the capital first. As to why such a plan? It was because here I could both intervene directly in case something unforeseen happened and witness first hand the effects they produced. Thus, I gave the orders for slave owners residing in the capital to free their slaves. The guards were to behave and protect these freed slaves in the same manner they would everyone else. Also, they were given special orders to protect and defend all children from abuse and the like. I also banned child slavery and labor in the capital just like the Dungeon Lord told me. It was easier said than done. This tumultuous reform was seen with good eyes by the public, but the number of protests and complaints from the slave merchants and nobles were stockpiling like mad on my desk. I was being flooded with them from all directions with no chance of escaping. Back then, I honestly thought I had sentenced myself to a fate worse than death, but that was just me complaining of all the hard work I had never dared to try and do before. Then, while I was trying to solve these matters and find a solution for the numerous other problems that came as a result of me abolishing slavery in the capital, my brother returned. He was certainly surprised by the changes the capital went through, but in a good way. Then, one day, when I stumbled onto my brother, I greeted him with tears in my eyes and told him about my problems. It was too much for me... Although I felt how the curse weakened a bit thanks to the changes I made in the capital, it was not enough. Regrettably, I needed help, and he was the only one who could provide it. If someone would have told me a year ago that I would end up crying and pleading my brother for help on how to abolish slavery in our kingdom, I would have thought they were making a bad joke and had them killed immediately. Alas, the truth was that I really did need his help, and surprisingly, he accepted. Then, both of us put our heads together to find a solution, at least temporary, to all of these problems. It was insanely difficult, but not impossible. Finding reasons to abolish slavery was not as bad as I would have initially thought, but appeasing the nobles and merchants was far more difficult. Those greedy bastards didn''t want to give up their comfy way of leaving no matter what. The more I struggled to solve these problems, the more I focused on them, and the more I realized just what sort of a person I was before meeting the Dungeon Lord. Truth be told, I was oblivious to this fact until much latter on. For the first few weeks, I still retained in secret my greedy vision of the world, but then... something happened.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°Brother, why don''t you go and deal with Marquise Dartolt?¡± Reginald asked while staring at his papers. ¡°Marquise Dartolt? Isn''t he the last noble who refuses to free his slaves in the capital even now?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes. All the others either moved their slaves outside of the capital or they themselves moved. You were once on good terms with him, maybe he''ll listen to you?¡± he suggested. ¡°Good terms... I wonder if we could call it that.¡± I pondered about it. ¡°Very well, brother, I''ll go.¡± I decided. ¡°Brother, be sure to take some of my personal guards with you, just in case.¡± ¡°My guards should suffice!¡± I declared proudly. ¡°Do me a favor and take them, please?¡± he lifted his head up and smiled at me. At that time, I was wondering if he was looking down at me, but I couldn''t say ''no'' to him. After gathering around me twelve guards, six of which were my brother''s, we headed for Marquise Dartolt''s mansion. There, I was welcomed inside his home, and the conversation between us proceeded nicely up to the point where I asked him to release his slaves. ¡°No.¡± was his short answer. ¡°I believe you don''t understand. We, the princes of this country declared this.¡± I told him. ¡°You highness...¡± he smiled. The way he looked at me was the same as one would at a foolish child. In his eyes, I was nothing but a fool playing with a power that wasn''t his to begin with. ¡°This little game of yours must come to an end. You have made many people angry and as such... we decided that the two of you ''princes'' were unneeded anymore.¡± he snapped his fingers and several armed troops entered the room, surrounding me and my guards. ¡°If you had remained the same old fool as before, we would have ruled you as a puppet, and this kingdom would have been ours as it had always been.¡± he laughed. ¡°I-I-I did it because of the curse!¡± I immediately excused myself. Wait... what? I''m afraid of this man? I thought to myself when I saw my trembling hands and felt sweat gathering on my forehead. Indeed, I feared for my own life, but why was I, who was a prince, supposed to feel this way when my right from birth was that to be this man''s ruler? The answer to this question laid in the Dungeon Lord''s words... Both nobles and peasants hold the same blood, only the achievements of our ancestors and our education are what makes the difference. Because they don''t see my worth as a prince... they can easily decide to kill me? Such a thing... I thought, then I looked at the two maid slaves in the room. The difference between me and them... lays only in the collar around their necks. I thought then gulped. ¡°Don''t worry, your Highness! We''ll protect you!¡± my guards said. ¡°Very well... but don''t die. At worst, one of you must return alive to my brother and tell him of this conspiracy!¡± I said the words I would never have thought I would towards one such as him. The old me would have ordered them harshly to lay down their lives and save me by all means, not ask them to stay alive. Hearing my words, the man smirked. It was as if a flame was lit inside their hearts. ¡°We will protect you without fail and bring you back to his Highness!¡± he declared. ¡°For Aunnar!¡± they all shouted. ¡°Worthless...¡± said the Marquise as he retreated to the back. The battle started... For the first few minutes, I was shivering in my boots with my sword drawn. Even I took a few sword fighting lessons, but I wasn''t at the level of even my weakest of the bodyguards. The enemy''s troops were trained against monsters and dungeons, giving them a frightening advantage. We were outnumbered and outmatched, but if it wasn''t for my brother''s men, I would have fallen in the first few minutes. The swords clashed with one another, and screams of pain were heard when the blades cut deep into their flesh. Blood flowed at every cut, turning the room dark and grim. The smell of iron filled my nose, and I was reminded once more of the Dungeon Lord''s words. If I stand to fall only against this bunch, then it''s a real wonder how I survived an encounter with him... Illsyore... If I live through this, I''ll remember this name. I thought and then I joined the fray as well. The first attack I did was to block the sword of an enemy who attacked one of my guards. My strength was laughable, but it was enough to stop him from killing him. Unfortunately, the blade of my enemy pushed my sword down and cut deep into my left shoulder. ¡°Your Highness!¡± the bodyguards screamed. ¡°I can''t have you all die here...¡± I said as I held my wound and stared at my enemy. Who am I fooling with these words? I''m afraid... I''m scared... I can''t fight! I thought, but despite how much my body trembled, I still dared to look into my opponent''s eyes. This was a strength I didn''t knew I had before, but compared to someone like Illsyore, this bunch was nothing. I could take pride in the fact that I had once faced a Godlike Dungeon Lord and lived to tell the tale, even if I ended up cursed. ¡°Put more spirit into it men!¡± shouted one of my brother''s bodyguards. We fought and struggled to defeat them, but they were too many and too strong, we had to pull back. By the time we left the mansion and retreated into the streets, we were down to only five, including myself. We were surrounded. ¡°Before I kill you, I want to ask something, foolish prince. A few months ago, you were like me and everyone else, but now you are a fool. What do you even fight for? What did you hope to gain from this worthless struggle of yours?¡± the Marquise asked. What do I fight for? was what I asked myself many times before. Until today, my answer was a simple one: To get rid of the curse and take my revenge on Illsyore. But now, the answer had changed to a new one... ¡°For the people! I hope that one day I will see them smile and proud to be part of the Aunnar Kingdom!¡± I shouted at the top of my lungs. These weren''t exactly my words, but my brother''s. I heard him many time telling me this, but it was only now, at this crucial moment, when I had truly began to believe in them as well. ¡°Foolishness. You forget, prince, we are not like those worthless insects who live only to serve us. We are individuals with noble blood flowing through our veins! We were privileged form birth and blessed by the gods to rule! Ah~ It''s a shame you lost your way. You would have been a great puppet, you know? Living a life of debauchery and luxury as you were meant from birth, marrying the daughter of a noble, things like that. You wouldn''t have needed to bother yourself with the affairs of the kingdom, you know? But a foolish prince will always be a foolish prince.¡± the Marquise said the exact same words I would have said a few weeks ago if our situations would have been reversed. Knowing this fact made me feel an aching pain in my chest. It was as if I finally came to realize what sort of horrible man I was. It made me sick... ¡°Kill them.¡± ordered the Marquise. When I heard the order, I gulped. I didn''t want to die, but if I did... at least I would have some sort of peace of heart. I was a long way from atoning for my own mistakes and sins, and in a way, I was thankful to this noble. If it wasn''t for him, I wouldn''t have seen the mirror of my past self, and one day, I might have returned to my old ways. ¡°Protect the Prince!¡± the shout didn''t come from my guards, but from behind the Marquise''s men. The one who attacked were the guards of the city, the people who worked as adventurers, and even the former slaves. In a matter of seconds, the situation was turned around as two armies faced each other, one that was on my side and the other on the Marquise''s. Surprised by this, I asked ¡°Why?¡± ¡°You freed many of us, your Highness, so it would be simply wrong of us to just stand aside and let this scum kill you.¡± said a former slave. ¡°What?¡± I blinked surprised. I never in my wildest dreams thought that someone I freed from slavery would try to defend me. Actually, there were so many people around me now, many not even wearing any armor or wielding proper weapons, just regular civilians. I couldn''t think or remember what I did to help so many people, to earn their loyalty to this degree. ¡°When you abolished slavery, I was able to meet my wife and child again as a free man. Of this, I am eternal grateful.¡± said a big, brawny draconian. ¡°When my wife was taken away by slave dealers under the pretext of a false debt, I was unable to lay a finger upon them, but thanks to you, she was freed...¡± this time it was an el''doraw who shared his story with me. ¡°But when... how?¡± I asked. ¡°A small child by the name of Tullos passed by the fence and saw a glimpse of the battle in the courtyard. He immediately ran over to the Adventurers Guild and let us know. It took us only a matter of moments to rally up and head here.¡± the draconian explain with a smirk as he pushed back one of the Marquise''s men. ¡°Tullos?¡± I asked surprised. ¡°Yes, I believe he''s one of the children in the orphanage created by that fellow Illsyore.¡± said at a guard. I found myself at a complete loss of words. The same one who cursed me and turned my life around had indirectly saved me today through the good deed he did by freeing those children. This was fate at work. How strange... I thought, but I finally began to realize the truth behind Illsyore''s words. A nation of free people without slavery was far more stronger than one that imposed it. At the same time, a kind and generous king towards his people will have only loyal followers around him rather than people like Marquise Dartolt, who was willing to betray me if he saw it fit. Such things... I can hardly keep up with them... I thought, but a smile was formed on my lips and tears appeared in my eyes. Why? Why is it that this makes me happy? Why?! I thought as I wiped my eyes. ¡°Your Highness, your orders?¡± one of the surviving bodyguards asked. ¡°Yes... Not orders, but a request. Help me stop Marquise Dartolt once and for all. Let us show the other nobles that we don''t wish their kind of kingdom anymore! For Aunnar!¡± I shouted at the top of my lungs. ¡°FOR AUNNAR!¡± the shouts were raised to the sky as the battle resumed. Needless to say that a lot more people joined forces with us in order to push back the Marquise. By the end of the day, the noble was killed, and I could proudly declare that our capital, Elora, had successfully abolished all slavery within its walls. It was a step forward, but a very important one. Upon my return to the castle, I presented myself in front of my brother. I didn''t even bother to go to the healer first, and I could barely feel my left hand anymore. ¡°I wish to become stronger.¡± I declared. ¡°Are you sure about this?¡± he asked me. ¡°Yes!¡± It was an answer filled with the determination, pride, and reasons I had gained through that valuable and life-changing experience. No longer was I foolish prince or a despotic ruler. No longer was I man who saw the lives of others as insignificant because of their birth and social status. I saw myself now as someone who moved and acted for the happiness and freedom of his people. Then, at then end of my two months, the two of us signed the official documents that brought upon the abolishing of slavery in the entire kingdom. Alongside these laws, we banned all forms of child labor and established several orphanages with the help of the priests at the Temples and some of the nobles that took our side. The curse unlocked its first stage... and I was spared. Illsyore, through this curse, saved me in more ways than one, but now... there was one final thing I had to do, which might be the hardest yet. Side Story (7): Felicity [Prince Reynolds'' point of view] ¡°We''re under attack! Protect the base!¡± shouted the pathetic men who were supposed to guard this establishment. I paid no heed to their cries as I stormed in on horseback. My stallion neighed as it jumped over the small barricade, and with one slash, I ended the life of one of them. The other was met with a pair of hooves to the face. ¡°Hahaha! Don''t keep all the fun to yourself, my Prince!¡± shouted Braigun, one of my draconian knights. ¡°Be at ease, my friend, there are plenty of these wretched foes where they come from! Unfortunately...¡± I shook my head at the end as I dismounted. ¡°Bah! Fools such as these with a nose for gold and a stomach for violence will always be like a plague of pests upon one''s country! Not even the Paramanium Empire managed to get rid of them!¡± he replied as he jumped over the barricade and aimed his black halberd at one of the mercenaries who ran at us with their swords unsheathed. The poor man was unable to dodge the blow and was cut in half at the waist. One part landed at the draconian''s feet, while the other stumbled on the ground, spreading his inside all over the place. It was a gruesome sight. Three arrows flew by me and landed in the noggins of three others who tried to ambush me from behind. The men were killed on the spot and dropped their weapon on the floor. ¡°You two should pay attention to your surroundings. I don''t want to be the one to bring your bodies back to his Majesty.¡± The grumpy voice belonged to Ellen, a beautiful el''doraw who specialized in archery and stealth missions, but she was quite proficient with Earth Magic too. There were very few like her, and I was glad I had her on my team. ¡°With you guarding our tails, I need not fear any hidden foes!¡± Braigun laughed as he struck the ground with the hilt of his halberd. ¡°That''s why I brought you with us, Ellen. A wise woman with a sharp eye is always needed to keep us alive.¡± I smiled and made a small bow towards her. ¡°Courteous as ever, my Prince, but if my husband heard you, he would chase you with his sword for an entire day.¡± she sighed and shook her head. ¡°And I would run like the wind.¡± I nodded and smiled back. ¡°Don''t worry, Ellen, I''ll keep ya safe from the prince, nya~!¡± the voice belonged to a fierce brown-furred nekatar who went by the name Mayana. She appeared from the shadows behind Braigun and climbed up on on his shoulder. With the long scar across her right eye, you would think she was not one for combat, but this woman was a former assassin and master of stealth more than Ellen could ever be. She also loved to be cuddled and petted for some reason. ¡°Hey! I''m not your scratching post!¡± the draconian huffed. ¡°I know, nya~ You are my meat shield, nya~!¡± she rubbed her furry cheek to his scaly face, earning her a low growl from him, but the big draconian did not dare to strike or push her off. As much as he showed to be displeased by her actions, he was in fact somewhat of a foster brother to her. This odd bunch were both my personal guards and also the squad I gathered throughout the past two years. All of them were former slaves whom I saved one way or another. The dragon and nekatar duo were once used by the strongest noble who opposed me and my brother in our reform to abolish slavery. It was our toughest battle yet, but we managed to win in the end. Now, one and a half year had passed since then, and we managed to weed out almost all the slave traders and nobles who opposed me and my brother. Two years and a half since Illsyore first stepped foot in Elora, the capital of Aunnar Kingdom. The curse was still scarring my flesh, but since I had constantly fought against oppression and slavery, it barely showed any reaction. The last thing I had to do had yet to be fulfilled. As for the said Godlike Dungeon Lord, no word of him had yet to reach my ears, but I had the strange feeling that I was going to meet him again soon. Maybe after my curse was completely removed? Speaking of which, I wasn''t in Aunnar right now but in the Serdannya Kingdom to the West. Through comparison, it was about a fifth of my own, but it held a powerful army thanks to the Ancient Dungeon they used to train their soldiers with. Above all, this place was notorious for using slaves in the most brutish and hellish ways. To them, they were nothing but slobs of meat to be used as one pleased. As for why we were currently in this ridiculous kingdom bursting into a well-defended hidden encampment in the middle of the forest, far away from the nearest civilized city? This place was actually the main Headquarters of the Aunnar Slave Dealers, and I was here on a mission to strike down the last of them as well as to rescue the daughter of one of my kingdom''s most well respected nobles. She was kidnapped two weeks ago and held here in an attempt to use her father''s power and influence to change the reforms in Aunnar. It was a foolish attempt because the first one that man went to when he heard the news was my brother, the current king of Aunnar. As a result of his action, I was sent here on an stealth mission to retrieve her. If by chance the Serdannya authorities discovered me, I would act like a foolish prince and claim that I was here to visit these beautiful lands and what not. There were many excuses I could use, so I did not worry about it. ¡°Where do you think they are holding here?¡± Braigun asked. ¡°I suppose inside there?¡± I pointed at he cave in the far back. ¡°I''ll go on ahead, nya~!¡± said Mayana as she jumped off the big draconian and vanished within the shadows. ¡°I''ll keep a watch on your backs.¡± Ellen said and prepared her bow. ¡°Thank you!¡± I said and turned around. With a steady step, we approached the cave. Several humans could be seen dead on the ground with their necks slit open, Mayana''s work. Braigun walked close to me just in case a trap or an arrow came flying in my direction. All of them were at the very least of Godlike Rank, while I was barely an Emperor Rank. As soon as we reached the cave, we were greeted with the corpses of several archers. Once more, Mayana was the one behind this. The nekatar was as swift on her paws as she was with her dagger, making me wonder if all we had to do now was to walk through without worry of enemies. ¡°That bloody furball! She''s keeping all the fun for herself!¡± Braigun grumbled. ¡°You''ll get your share too, my friend, relax.¡± I smiled back at him. Indeed, this trio was a very dangerous one to have as your enemy. The draconian could work well as a vanguard, while the nekatar made good use of the shadows to strike our foes from where they least expected. Meanwhile, Ellen was able to keep our backs safe as a rearguard, but when needed, she was more powerful than an entire battalion of catapults with her ranged Earth Magic. Then lastly, there was me... the swordsman who knew a bit of Fire Magic. Well, I was better than nothing... and I still had some sort of Authority as a Prince and current Prime Minister of Aunnar, so that was something. ¡°This place stinks of dead rats!¡± grumbled Braigun. ¡°Indeed... it''s worse than the sewers of Elora.¡± I confirmed. ¡°You went inside the sewers? For what reason?¡± the draconian asked surprised. ¡°Not long before I met you two, I received a tip about a secret slave brothel somewhere in Elora. My investigation led to the sewers, and since I was unable to find out the front gate, I had to make my own. This led to me crawling through the gunk in there... Not the best of ways to get rid of your nose hair if I may say.¡± I chuckled. ¡°You had guts, my Prince.¡± said Braigun. ¡°I had to. The slaves used there were treated very badly, and I couldn''t allow something like that to exist right underneath my feet.¡± I replied shaking my head. ¡°But did you really have to go through the sewers?¡± he asked. ¡°Not really. After I managed to rescue the slaves there, imagine my surprise when I discovered the fact that there were several entrances to this place. One of them was right underneath the bathhouse.¡± I said. ¡°Sounds like the maids had a tough time afterwards.¡± he snickered. ¡°They? When we returned to the palace, everyone kept a ten meters distance. My own brother refused to see us because of the stench! He gave us orders from the balcony... on the other side of the garden. When the maids finally got their hands on us, they scrubbed us ten times each! My flesh was in agony for several days afterwards!¡± I let out a sigh as I shuddered just thinking about those awful moments. ¡°But you saved a lot of lives too...¡± he pointed out. ¡°True... and we also gave orders for a new sewer system to be made.¡± I nodded. Almost half an hour later, we finally arrived at a large underground cavern where dozens of mercenaries awaited us in what could only be described as a fortress. The stalagmites and stalactites were all cleared, and magic crystals took the place of torches, removing the danger of smoke. From left to right, it was at least 100 meters long and over 150 meters in length. The ceiling of the cave was almost 50 meters above the ground, but the fortress itself stopped at roughly 25 meters. This was so that the archers on top could still shoot their arrows at any potential intruders. The walls were made out of solid stone, but if they were enchanted or not remained to be seen. The former were the most troublesome ones for a siege. ¡°This... was unexpected.¡± said Braigun. ¡°Indeed. Any suggestions?¡± I asked as I looked at the fortress from afar while being careful not to be spotted by their guards. ¡°Mayana could infiltrate it from above and open the gates for us, but we would need to act quickly. I have a feeling they are already on alert from the moment we arrived.¡± suggested the draconian. ¡°Maybe charging in like that wasn''t such a wise idea after all?¡± I showed them a wry smile. ¡°Nya~ Yup!¡± the nekatar said and giggled as she appeared behind me. ¡°Well... I can''t do anything about it now.¡± I let out a sigh and rubbed the back of my head. ¡°When Mayana is ready to open the gates, I could offer some range support. Making a fortress underground isn''t very wise when you are confronted with an Earth Magic specialist such as myself.¡± said Ellen as she put away her bow. ¡°I will feel much better if you provide cover support, miss Ellen.¡± I said. Before the nekatar went ahead to open the gates, we also made a couple of strategies about what we should do once inside. We all agreed that Mayana should keep to the shadows and try to find the ringleader here. Ellen was to take out all the archers on the walls, then she was to regroup with us or keep bombarding the place, whichever she thought to be best. Meanwhile, me and Braigun were to make as much noise as possible to keep them focused on ourselves. In this whole plan, Mayana was the key to success. Without her, rescuing the slaves would have been a bit harder, especially if the noble in charge of this place gave an order of suicide. ¡°If you can locate our target, make sure she''s safe before proceeding.¡± I gave her one last order before the sneaky nekatar was off. ¡°Of course, nya~!¡± ¡°Let''s do this!¡± Braigun said with a big smirk on his lips. Without a second to lose, we launched our attack on the underground fortress. The nekatar slipped past the defenses without any of those inside realizing they had an intruder. Ellen was preparing a dangerous Earth Spell, while Braigun and I dashed with our swords unsheathed towards the gates of the fortress. The moment we were seen, someone shouted ¡°Intruders!¡± Then ten warriors were sent outside. All of them merely a Master Rank and no worthy pray for either of us. ¡°Kill them!¡± ¡°I want the big guy''s sword!¡± ¡°Let me have his boots!¡± Some of them shouted. ¡°By the gods! What is it with bandits and boots?!¡± Braigun asked annoyed as he swung down his sword and cut the first man in half. I dashed to the left of the second one and stabbed my sword through this man''s ribs and straight into his heart. Magic Armor or not, against weapons enchanted like ours, such a thing was not something one should rely on. My brother was the one who taught me this... After all, in every warrior''s life there''s a moment of stupidity when they believe that Magic Armor can solve everything. ¡°Two down...¡± I said. Braigun killed another. ¡°Seven to go!¡± he grinned. Between us, a small competition began as we mowed down our enemies, one after another. As I said, they were easy pray, and when we reached the gate, it opened as if it had been expecting us. There was never a reason to doubt Mayana''s skill. The gate''s room was probably locked up and covered in the bodies of the guards. It was also now when Ellen launched her attack. Seven boulders flew at the fortress, slamming into the walls and windows, killing more than either of us did. Seeing this, the draconian grumbled ¡°Magic''s not fair...¡± Well, neither of us believed it was fair, but when one saw its frightening might, we couldn''t help but feel relieved that she was on our side. Then again, we could also use Magic Energy, so it wasn''t like we were complete useless at casting spells, it was just that we focused more in Sword Skills than Magic Spells. While we kept an eye out for any fallen debris, we continued to slaughter our way through our opponents. Blood, limbs, and broken parts of armor flew all around us. None stood a chance against us. After all, the difference in our might was quite visible, but what we kept in our minds was the possibility of encountering those special guards with fearsome battle power... or to be more precise mercenaries or adventurers above Emperor Rank hired to guard or command this place. ¡°What''s this? Insects dare attack my fortress?¡± a big, gray-furred nekatar with a big body and bulky muscles appeared at the entrance to the fortress.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. Wielding a halberd like Braigun, he stepped forward and showed us a confident smirk. ¡°Mine! Mine! Mine!¡± the draconian declared as he rushed forward. ¡°All yours, my friend.¡± I made a polite bow as I stepped out of his way. ¡°Ptew! Just one, huh? The other is too afraid to fight against a might Emperor Rank like me?¡± he then began to laugh proudly. ¡°While did you have to spoil the fun?¡± Braigun complained and attacked the man using [Dash]. A single strike sent him flying back, but before the nekatar could fall on the ground, the draconian was at his left and kicked him hard in the liver. ¡°Nyagh!¡± the nekatar rolled on the ground and slammed into several of his men. ¡°Weak...¡± Braigun complained. He probably thought he was facing a Godlike. Announcing himself as an Emperor Rank, that was a very bad move. Even if one holds a high Rank, they should not needlessly advertise it in such a way. Sometimes having a higher Rank did not excuse you from falling prey to the plot of one of a lower Rank. This, again, was something I learned from my brother while we were training. Ranks, in the end, were just a way for people to organize themselves by levels of power. As such, higher Ranks did not ultimately mean the individual was for more experienced in battle. Even though I was an Emperor Rank as well, I could still hold my ground against Braigun, unlike the nekatar over there who was getting the life beaten out of him. ¡°Should I kill you?¡± the draconian asked as he pressed the hilt of his halberd on his muzzle. ¡°Pwese! Spware mewe!¡± he begged. ¡°Pathetic.¡± With one chop from his weapon, the Emperor Ranked nekatar was decapitated. It was a foreseeable outcome. After all, the draconian wasn''t one to go easy on slave dealers or those who defended them. His hatred for them was still burning like a mountain-tall fire. ¡°I''m taking the lead.¡± Braigun declared. ¡°I''ll have your back.¡± I responded. Meanwhile, Ellen kept pummeling the fortress with her boulders, killing off all the soldiers who tried to escape or head towards her. Considering the distance she was at, how quick she launched her attacks, and how powerful they were, chances were she was the safest out of all of us. The upper walls were mostly cleared of enemies. There was no sign of Mayana, but something told me she was already inside, preparing to make her move. So far, however, I had yet to see anyone wearing a slave collar. This meant they were either all kept somewhere in the back or downstairs in cells. I voted on the last option. It was something I would have done if I was leading this place. Remembering my former self brought a bad taste to my mouth, but I was glad I was never going to look in the mirror again and see the face of a scumbag prince. Thanks to Illsyore, I was now proud to look at the face of the Prime Minister of Aunnar, the man who helped change the whole kingdom for the better. Looking around, I noticed that despite the lot lurking around outside, the items put on display here as decorations were something closer to the tastes of a nobleman. This led me to believe that we may be dealing with another stray from my kingdom or someone of influence in Serdannya Kingdom. When we reached the second floor, we encountered another soldier, a man in his late forties. ¡°I am the Wind Whisperer! Feel the wrath of my... GUHA!¡± he screamed after getting punched in the face by Braigun. ¡°Each and one of these weaklings makes me tear my scales out!¡± he grumbled. ¡°You were actually looking for a challenge HERE?¡± I asked raising an eyebrow. The big draconian was one who enjoyed a good fight, but when it came to opponents who were far weaker than him, it sort of annoyed him. That being said, from the information we acquired regarding this place, there weren''t supposed to be any enemies here with a rank of Godlike or above. Even so, we kept our guard up in case our informant missed anything. We opened all the doors on the floor, hoping to find either our target of rescue or the boss who ruled over this place. In most of these rooms we found nothing but treasures looted or traded for the slaves, simple bedrooms used by the higher ups here, and not even one single slave or noble. ¡°This is the last room.¡± said Braigun as he opened the door. ¡°Well?¡± I asked. ¡°Laundry... stinky laundry. Ugh...¡± the draconian groaned and closed the door. Turning around, we decided to go to the dungeons below, but just as we reached the stairs, several soldiers welcomed us with their sword drawn. ¡°Fresh meat!¡± Braigun said with a smile. ¡°Hiii!¡± the soldiers screamed and then ran outside. ¡°Aw...¡± the draconian was disappointed. Well, they were probably hired arms, and seeing how we completely annihilated a big part of them, they probably considered it was safer to flee than to face us. Then again, if they ran outside, Ellen would have had no problem with sending several boulders their way. If they survived or not, it all depended on their luck. Without any more soldiers trying to stop us, we rushed to the basement of the fortress, where we hoped to find the dungeons filled with slaves. ¡°It would have been better if the informant knew the layout of this place too...¡± grumbled Braigun. ¡°He told us enough for the amount he was paid.¡± I told him. ¡°I say he was nothing but a greedy bastard! You should have listened to me and let me put my blade to his neck... That would have made him talk...¡± he retorted. ¡°Easy there, Braigun. We might need his services in the future and making enemies of people with a large information network isn''t a good idea... I learned this the hard way during the first year of my change.¡± I told him and then let out a sigh. ¡°You mean during the time of rebellions?¡± he asked. ¡°Yes... If I had known to plan better, like my brother, I wouldn''t have found myself in the predicament where I nearly caused Aunnar to split in half... Sigh... Good thing brother was there. He held the strength which I lacked at that time.¡± I said and shook my head. Ever since my brother returned to Elora, I found myself seeing him in a new light, and I realized that the rightful heir to the throne could be none other than him. Hence why I took the position of the Prime Minister, although, that workaholic brother of mine left me with little to no work to do... I recently started to worry for his health. ¡°There!¡± Braigun pointed ahead. ¡°Just as I had suspected.¡± I said. In front of us were countless cells stacked full with slaves. They were separated by worth, from the cheapest, which were also the sick and injured, to the most expensive, which were allowed even to wear clothes. Walking in front of their cells, I realized that there were of various ages as well, but at least the men were separated from the females. All of them looked at us with eyes lacking even the smallest drop of hope, but some held a deep hatred in them. The latter were probably recently enslaved and haven''t been broken yet. ¡°I hope Mayana slit the throat of the bastard who rules this place!¡± growled Braigun. With this, even I fell into agreement. ¡°STOP!¡± someone shouted in front of us. ¡°Who are you?¡± Braigun asked. ¡°I am Ballurad von Vanngar!¡± he declared proudly as he unsheathed his sword. ¡°Oh? Are you perhaps the noble who runs this dump?¡± ¡°I am, indeed! Identify yourself, you lowlife!¡± he demanded. ¡°Well... I am Brute and this guys is Smartypants!¡± Braigun said. I felt like hitting him. What do you mean Smartypants?! I retorted in my mind. ¡°Names of peasants, I see.¡± he smirked. ¡°You have proven to be quite strong. I will enjoy turning you into obedient slaves!¡± he declared. ¡°My win.¡± said Braigun. I glared at the draconian and took out a gold coin from my bag. ¡°Hehe! Shiny!¡± he smirked as he took it and placed it in his pocket. This was a small bet we made before attacking this place. He said that we will meet a noble who will wish to turn us into his slaves, and I said he will just want to kill us. Apparently, I lost... ¡°I''ll win the next one.¡± I told him. ¡°Looking forward to it!¡± he smirked. Taking a step away from the draconian, I looked at the noble in front of us, who hasn''t attacked yet. Strange... I thought and then looked around from the corners of my eyes. ¡°Braigun... He''s not alone...¡± I whispered to him. My sight fell on several cages behind and in front of us who didn''t appear to be locked. The doors on some were slightly cracked. I was too focused earlier on the slaves to have noticed this small detail, but if they were opened, that meant the noble''s reinforcements were in there. ¡°How''s our nekatar doing?¡± Braigun asked. ¡°No sign of her yet. I''ll take care of those in the back, you take care of those in the front.¡± I said and then turned with my back to the draconian. Seeing us take this stance, although there was supposed to be only him there, the noble clicked his tongue and called out to his troops. ¡°Capture them alive!¡± ¡°Get ready!¡± I said. ¡°Right back at ya!¡± he said. The gates were opened and four men stepped out. In front of us were another two. These guys didn''t shout anything, they simply attacked. I avoided the first strike, parried the second, and kicked the first one in the stomach with my foot. The man''s Magic Armor suffered a crack, but wasn''t shattered, so I tried to attack him with my sword, but another one tried to impale me with his. Rolling to the left, I avoided it and then tossed a hand of dirt from the ground at the first one, a cover for my next attack. ¡°[Ice Spike]!¡± I called out and pointed my hand at him. The spell was activated and the man was struck by a spike of ice at close range. His Magic Armor was cracked, and he was pushed back a meter. Since I used a Magic Crystal to call out this spell, it wasn''t that powerful as if I had chanted it, but for me it took far too long to do it. I wasn''t as proficient at it as the others were. ¡°A magician?¡± one of them questioned. I didn''t let this moment slip by and rushed at the one I attacked, avoiding the swords of the others and stabbing my blade into the chest of the man. His Magic Armor stopped me just a few millimeters away from his leather armor, but I used [Dash] right in that moment and slammed him into the bars of the cell behind him. The force was enough to pierce through his Magic Armor, and the man coughed up blood. The sword passed right through his torso. I twisted the blade and heard his bones crack. The man screamed in agony as he took his last breath of air. The others, ignoring their comrade''s death, charged at me. I jumped on the chest of the man I impaled and then pushed myself away from him, jumping backwards and taking my sword with me. As I made a loop in the air, I slashed my sword as hard and fast as I could at the first man I saw. It was a direct hit, and his head came flying off his shoulders. The moment I landed on the floor, I used [Dash] and impaled the other in his back before he had the chance to return. Sensing danger, I moved to the left and avoided the sword of the last one. Now he looked a bit furious. I let go of my sword and rolled on the ground, avoiding a slash at me. When I stopped, I took out the dagger in my boot and tossed it at him. The man blocked it with his sword, but the blade exploded in his face. It was enchanted, after all. Using this moment of confusion, I grabbed the sword of the dead guy in front of me and used it to stab this last one in the heart. His Magic Armor didn''t shatter, but once more I used [Dash] and used the bars behind him to push the sword through him. Eventually, it pierced. ¡°Gah!¡± the man groaned in pain and with one strong twist of my the blade, I made sure to break his bones. I pulled the sword out and slashed his throat open. ¡°I-Impossible! Those were Godlike!¡± he shouted. I blinked surprised and looked back at the four dead men. Lower Godlike maybe... Otherwise I shouldn''t have been able to win. I thought as I walked over to the dead body that held my sword in his back. After pulling it out, I looked at Braigun. He already finished off one of his attackers, an el''doraw male who was cut in half. The draconian was currently struggling against the last one. When I looked at his opponent, I noticed that it was a woman. Her body was covered in leather armor, but the hills on her chest and the long flowing red hair were certainly those of a woman. She wielded a giant sword almost the same size as Braigun''s halberd. When fighting against something of that size and weight, speed was of the essence, but the woman moved almost as fast as the draconian. Her blade slashed through the air as fast as I could with my short sword, but the weight of her weapons could put more than a dent in one''s armor. Braigun looked like he was struggling. ¡°Need a hand?¡± I asked. ¡°Ugh! Nah!¡± he replied after he blocked three consecutive attacks. She had yet to use her skills, but it didn''t look like she was holding back. In fact, she was hitting him with all of her might. The halberd bent every time it was struck. If it wasn''t enchanted, it would have broken ages ago. ¡°Either way, this is over.¡± I said as I approached the two. ¡°What do you mean, peas...¡± the noble tried to speak, but he then opened his eyes wide and held his throat. ¡°That''s what I mean.¡± I smiled. ¡°Nya~!¡± the nekatar announced her presence as she wiped the blade of her dagger on the noble''s clothes. The noble fell on his knees as his blood was spilled on the floor and all over him. Seeing this, the woman also stopped her attacks. ¡°Huh?! Are you tired?¡± Braigun asked foolishly. ¡°Master is... dying...¡± she said as she looked back at him. ¡°Master? Are you his minion?¡± Braigun asked. She shook her head and then pulled down the cloth covering her neck. We all saw the leather collar there as it was shining in a purple color. She was a slave, however, the fact that it was glowing like that meant that the noble ordered her to die if he was to die as well. ¡°Ah, crud!¡± I said and then rushed over to her. ¡°Don''t attack!¡± I told her. ¡°What are you...¡± she asked a bit shocked as she looked back at me. I placed a small stone on her neck and the Magic Energy that made the collar activate was absorbed by it. In that moment, she was a slave no more... ¡°He''s dead now.¡± Mayana announced as she poked the noble with her finger. ¡°I... I''m alive?¡± the woman asked. ¡°Yes... and not a slave anymore, but please don''t kill me?¡± I told her with a light smile. ¡°Without an order from my master, I will not... But I have no more master now...¡± she said as she touched her collar. In that moment, I could see tears forming in the corners of her eyes and flowing down on her dirty cheeks. ¡°I''m... free?¡± she asked. ¡°Yup!¡± I told her with a smile. In that moment she dropped her sword and fell on her knees. The woman who kept Braigun at bay with her attacks was now crying like a child. ¡°Braigun, can you take care of the slaves over there?¡± I asked him as I tossed him the rock. ¡°Sure thing. How many charges in this thing?¡± he asked. ¡°Twenty nine, but I have two more with me, and you should have yours as well.¡± I told him. ¡°Yup. Still, I have to admit... That Dungeon of yours back in Elora sure made a nifty item.¡± he remarked. ¡°Indeed. Ever since Illsyore defeated it and my brother returned, the relationship between us and him have... changed. But I think it has more to do with that new Dungeon it came into contact with recently... I think his name was Deusur?¡± I said as I scratched the back of my neck. ¡°Oh, him? I heard his dungeon is quite friendly with beginners, but merciless with veterans.¡± he remarked as he walked over to the cells. ¡°He has a strange way of... working with humans. But let''s talk about him later... for now, we should finish up here and tell Ellen to stop bombarding this place.¡± I said as I looked up at the ceiling. The shakes from the boulders crushing down on top of us had yet to stop. ¡°What about her?¡± asked Mayana. ¡°She''s... harmless now. What about the daughter of the noble?¡± I asked. ¡°I saved her ages ago. Can''t believe they let just two Master Rank guards with her. Nihihi!¡± she smirked. ¡°Where is she now?¡± I asked. ¡°With Ellen.¡± she nodded. ¡°You had time to go in and out with her? HOW?!¡± Braigun asked perplexed. ¡°Don''t you know it''s not polite to ask a lady about her secrets?¡± she poked out her cat tongue at him. ¡°Ugh...¡± he groaned and returned to his work. With a sigh, I shook my head and walked up to the woman warrior, who had stopped crying now. ¡°Are you alright?¡± I asked her. ¡°Yes...¡± she replied as she wiped her tears. ¡°What''s your name?¡± ¡°I have none, but I am called Thing. Maybe that''s my name?¡± she replied. ¡°Thing? That''s not a name... Hm... How about I give you one as celebration for becoming a free woman?¡± I told her with a smile. ¡°That would be nice, but... why are you doing this?¡± she asked. ¡°Doing what?¡± I blinked surprised. ¡°Freeing us? Giving me a name?¡± she looked past me at the other slaves who started crying when they saw themselves without a collar anymore. ¡°Because I want to. My name is Reynolds D. Lagrange, and I came here with the mission of both freeing the slaves here and saving a hostage taken by that dead guy over there.¡± I said and pointed at the recently deceased noble. ¡°Freeing slaves? In Serdannya? Isn''t that capital punishment?¡± she asked me. ¡°Maybe, but we''re not staying in Serdannya. We''re going to Aunnar, where slavery is abolished and all those who were once slaves are now free people with equal rights as everyone else.¡± I boosted about my kingdom with a proud smile on my face. ¡°It sounds like a wonderful place... You will take us there?¡± she asked. ¡°Yes.¡± I nodded and smiled back. ¡°But first, I''m going to give you a name, if you don''t mind. How about... Felicity?¡± I suggested. ¡°Felicity?¡± she blushed and looked down ¡°If you believe I deserve such a pretty name... even though I attacked you... and...¡± she tightened her fists. ¡°True, but you were under orders, and you stopped the moment you saw your master die. You didn''t try to save him, and you didn''t try to attack me after I removed you from slavery either. From this alone, I judged that maybe you aren''t a bad person. Besides, a beautiful woman who sheds tears of happiness after being freed from slavery usually isn''t someone who holds ill will.¡± I told her with a smile as I knelt in front of her and took her hand into mine, to reassure her. For some, this sudden act of friendliness would have been seen as weird, but this wasn''t the first time I experienced such a scene. Braigun and Mayana were the same. They were my enemies when under the control of that noble, but the moment they were freed, they ceased their attacks. Of course, there were also some who didn''t. Those who continued to attack remained enemies, and I made sure to take them down. What I did now wasn''t just something strange our out of the spur of the moment, but a repeat event which I had witnessed time and time again during these past two years ever since I began my fight against slavery. Brutal enemies when under the control of their masters turned into crying lambs once freed. ¡°That''s why I think a beautiful name like Felicity suits you just well.¡± I told her with a smile. ¡°Thank you... I''ll treasure it...¡± she said as she raised her head up and looked into my eyes. In that moment, I felt my heart skip a beat. What was that? I asked myself, but I wouldn''t find an answer to this question for some time afterwards. Thus, our journey into Serdannya Kingdom came to an end, and after cleaning up the rest of the troops left in the fortress, we plundered all the gold we could find and returned to Aunnar Kingdom. As for Felicity... well... our story would continue for a while afterwards, because kids... that was how I met your mother! Chapter 64: The stalker [Reginald¡¯s point of view] Of all the things I loathed in this world, my own flesh and blood brother had to be in the top ten on my list. Always so easy to quit half-way through anything, always eager to punish the innocent, always acting and thinking like an idiot without so much as taking into account what would happen if he were to give a certain unreasonable order. All of these things represented and identified my one and only brother Reynolds. Initially, I went to the outskirts of our kingdom to see how our troops were faring. Although they survived in terrible conditions, I didn¡¯t ask for their share of food or the blankets with which they kept themselves warm. I lived as they did to see what it was like, and at the end of this experiment, I understood one thing¡­ A human cannot live under an oppressing rule for too long. They will go mad or revolt even if it costs them their own lives. At the same time, I gained their trust, and by now, most of the army listened to me rather than my idiotic brother. As I marched towards Elora, the capital of the Aunnar Kingdom, I found myself plotting to form a coup and rip all the political power from my brother¡¯s grasp. I would let him live merely as a simple noble, nothing more and nothing less. I remembered this city as one harboring a very oppressing and sad aura. Everyone looked down, and no one dared to speak against the royal family. If Reynolds even so much as heard you speak ill of him, he would throw you to the gallows or turn you into a slave. It wasn¡¯t a very lively city because of this, but people still managed to hold their heads up high and maybe smile from time to time. This very fact was proof of the indomitable strength of my people. ¡°What¡¯s this?¡± was my first question the moment I stepped through the gates. The first thing I noticed were children running through the streets, and to my left, a slave merchant being forced by city guards to free his slaves. I was both surprised and dumbfounded at the same time. No one except for my brother had the authority to give out such orders! ¡°You there, young lad!¡± I called out to one of the children, a nekatar boy. ¡°Mew?¡± he looked up at me and tilted his head to the right. ¡°You were once a slave, weren¡¯t you?¡± I asked him, pointing at the collar marking around his neck. ¡°Yes, sir¡­¡± he nodded and lowered his ears. ¡°Do not worry, I mean no harm. I am just curious as to why are there so many free slaves here.¡± I asked him. ¡°I do not know of the rest, but I was bought by a rich man named Illsyore. He made slave master Deroak free us and take care of us until we are old enough to take care of ourselves.¡± he replied and then let out another mew. ¡°No, Tullos! That¡¯s not right! He won us fair and square at the coliseum! Since old-man Deroak didn¡¯t have enough goldiettes to pay him, Illsyore made him promise to take care of us instead of giving him the money.¡± a young human boy came over and corrected the nekatar. Both of them were slaves, but to hear of such generosity in this city was amazing. I couldn¡¯t believe my own ears. This man deserved a medal! ¡°What of the other ones, the adults?¡± I asked him then. ¡°Oh, Illsyore destroyed the palace and forced Prince Reynolds to free all slaves. Since he couldn¡¯t do it in the entire kingdom, the prince decided to first free them in the capital and forbid slave trading here.¡± Tullos replied with a big smile while waving his furry tail left and right. ¡°What?¡± I furrowed my brow when I heard him and looked towards the palace. Even from here, I was supposed to see the glistening white towers, but there was no such thing. I was starting to reconsider the whole medal thing. ¡°Thank you, lads! You may return to your play.¡± I told them and then walked back to my group. ¡°Master, what do you think of this?¡± asked Zoreya, a very powerful and well trained crusader of the Melkuth Order. She was a beautiful, tall woman with blue eyes and blond hair. Many have called her a priceless jewel of indisputable quality. Both brave and smart, this woman was incredible addition to any squad¡¯s battle force. To top it off, her Adventurer Rank was that of Mid towards Superior Supreme. Some tested her strength at around 2000. How exactly she became so strong, it was a mystery, but she didn¡¯t use either boost or gear to raise her status. Despite all of these, she had the tendency to be a bit clumsy at times, like accidentally stepping on a very obvious and easy to spot trap in the middle of a dungeon. Zoreya was also my most trusted adviser and guard. She stood by my side ever since I first met her when she was sent to our kingdom by the Melkuth Order of Crusaders. ¡°I find my brother¡¯s movements to be rather odd, but at the same time, I¡¯m curious about this Illsyore fellow. Hm¡­¡± I looked back at the ten knights standing behind her. There were two of them who were rather agile and well versed in the art of gathering information. I motioned towards them to come closer to me. ¡°Your highness?¡± they asked after they saluted. ¡°Go and see what you can find out about this Illsyore fellow. Where he comes from, whom he has spoken to, what he ate, anything!¡± I ordered them. ¡°Understood!¡± they saluted again and then dashed off in different directions. ¡°Now then! Let us go and meet my brother! I feel like our time apart has brought some significant changes in both of us!¡± I smiled and looked back at the road leading to the palace. This should be interesting! I thought. Not even an hour later, we arrived at the gates of the royal palace. They were still standing, and the wall to my left was still under repairs. If Zedor, the Demigod Dungeon didn¡¯t finish already, that meant the palace had taken considerable damage. This assuming of course that he was still alive. ¡°His royal Highness, Reginald D. Lagrange, has arrived!¡± announced the guards. Followed by Zoreya and my other knights, I stepped through the gates and entered the courtyard. This place was a mess, but I couldn¡¯t understand how exactly it was damaged. I had seen many spells and ways of destroying a building, but the way the towers and walls were cut was unreal. It was almost as if some sort of hot blade was passed through the solid stone and melted away. Fascinating! I thought as I looked at my statue, which was cut in half at the waist. ¡°WOW! Reynolds managed to piss off someone very powerful!¡± commented one of my knights. ¡°Indeed.¡± I replied and then made my way to the remains of the palace. The soldiers and servants who saw me, immediately bowed down to show their respect towards me. I stopped only once, and that was to ask one of them of my brother¡¯s whereabouts. Apparently, he was crying in the library at the second floor. I made my way up there, and entered the room. Unlike the city¡¯s library, the Royal Library held a significant amount of books for the royal family¡¯s personal use. Rows upon rows were kept on the golden shelves reaching all the way up to the ceiling. Surprisingly, this was but one of the few spots untouched by Illsyore¡¯s merciless attacks, and this was only because it was located on the other side of the palace. I could still remember how I came here as a young child searching for a book to bring back to my father to read for me. Now, in that same chair, I found my brother Reynolds looking up at the ceiling. His eyes were bloodshot and surrounded by dark rings, a sign of him having missed out on quite a few hours of sleep. On the table in front of him and all around him were countless books opened and marked at various pages. Scribble parchments and empty ink canisters could be see on the floor. I see he kept himself busy? Since when was this idiot brother of mine interested in reading and writing? Also¡­ did he lose weight or are my eyes deceiving me? I asked myself as I walked closer to this mess. ¡°Brother, I have returned.¡± I announced myself. ¡°Hah? That¡¯s good¡­ fine¡­ I¡¯m doomed!¡± he said and then started to cry. This reaction surprised me. I never saw my brother in such a deplorable state. ¡°The nobles are jumping on my back, the slave masters are cursing me, the world hates me, and above all¡­ I¡¯m cursed to die in one month one week and four days from now! Hah! Congratulations brother, you¡¯ll be ruling this kingdom alone starting from then! Hahaha!¡± he began to laugh hysterically before bursting into a loud cry again. What is the meaning of this? I asked myself as I looked at him with a furrowed brow. ¡°Brother¡­ do you know what I did?¡± he asked me without even throwing me a glance. ¡°No¡­ what?¡± I replied shaking my head. How could I know what manner of storm swept through the kingdom and dropped Reynolds on his knees like this? ¡°I angered a peaceful Godlike Dungeon Lord, and he cursed me!¡± he said and then laughed again. ¡°You did what?¡± I was surprised to hear something like this. The strongest dungeon that I knew of was Zedor, the Demigod Dungeon with a level of 258. To hear that there was a Godlike Dungeon Lord roaming around cursing people was quite a shocking piece of information. I found myself at a loss of words. ¡°Hey, brother? I tried my best, but I can¡¯t figure it out¡­ I can¡¯t figure out a way to get rid of slavery and not drop our kingdom to the bottom of a Merion dung pile!¡± he said as he lifted two books up ¡°Look! Our entire workforce from the smallest to the largest are all dependent on slaves! You can¡¯t even go to the barber shop to get a haircut without having a slave either take you there or helping out some way. I don¡¯t know what to do with them after they are set free either! For now, I left them do as they please, but¡­ it won¡¯t last long. They don¡¯t have a home, they can¡¯t work¡­ it¡¯s hopeless I tell you, hopeless¡­¡± he dropped the books and then looked back up at the ceiling with tears in his eyes. He¡¯s trying to integrate former slaves? How did this Godlike Dungeon Lord manage to scare my brother so badly that he¡¯s seriously thinking of this sort of stuff? And what¡¯s with this thing about him dying in more than a month from now? I asked myself as I looked at him.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. While true that I was already planning to overthrow him. The reason I wanted to do so was to start reforms in regard to the slavery system. After seeing and experiencing by myself the conditions in which my people lived, I wanted it gone, but since my brother was working so desperately on it, I was starting to have second doubts about my coup. ¡°Brother, are you serious about this?¡± I asked him. ¡°Serious?¡± he started to laugh. ¡°He asks if I¡¯m serious? Hahaha!¡± he got up from the table and walked over to me. Ripping his shirt open, he showed me a black, pulsing tattoo carved directly into his flesh ¡°Does this tell you how SERIOUS I am? Brother dearest, this is a Godlike Dungeon Lord¡¯s curse that will ensure I will die a most horrible death if I don¡¯t bring a change against slavery in this country! As selfish as I may be, I do not plan on tossing my life away because of it!¡± he glared at me. I had never seen such a strength, determination, and will in my brother. To be more precise, he never showed these qualities even once when I was around. His desire to slack off and not do anything was the most visible of all of his traits. Judging from my old impression of him, I was thinking that he was going to give up on this whole matter, go somewhere to live the rest of his days, or try to sleep with as many women as possible before the time was up, not actually try to do something about it. I guess I don¡¯t know my own brother¡­ I thought and then took a step back from him. ¡°Tell me, what¡¯s the name of this Dungeon?¡± I asked. ¡°Illsyore, the destroyer of the Supreme Dankyun!¡± he laughed it off and walked back to his desk. Where have I heard that name before? I thought. ¡°Your highness, did you just say Dankyun? As in Dankyun Alttoros?¡± Zoreya asked as she took a step forward. ¡°I don¡¯t know. He only said Dankyun. How many Supremes with that name do you know off? Oh, and he¡¯s a draconian too.¡± Reynolds waved it off. ¡°Draconian? So it was him¡­ Dankyun Alttoros¡­ This means that my brother is dead¡­¡± Zoreya said as she gripped the hilt of her sword. Now I remember! It¡¯s THAT guy! I guess Zoreya is pretty upset right about now. I thought. A few years back, she told me the story of her childhood and how she ended up becoming a crusader. Apparently, this Dankyun fellow was one of the main reasons she chose this path. I couldn¡¯t say I agreed with it, but I had no right in forcing her to change her mind. Even if I wanted to, I couldn¡¯t enforce my authority on her because she belonged to the Melkuth Order not the Aunnar Kingdom. With a sigh escaping my lips, I looked back at Zoreya. Despite her earlier outburst, she regained her calm quickly and looked down without sketching any sort of emotion. No wonder she was one of the top Apostles of her order! No matter the circumstances, she had to remain loyal to her missions and complete them without fail. Straying from her path was an unacceptable offense. While I admired this side of hers, I also understood just how much she wanted to go after the killer of her brother. With a sigh, I scratched the back of my head and looked between my neurotic brother and her. Reynolds was laughing and looking at the papers in front of him, while Zoreya was gripping the hilt of her sword. ¡°Brother, you said that you were going to work towards abolishing slavery in our kingdom?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes! Of course! But it doesn¡¯t have to be just for one day, but forever! If I don¡¯t come up with something fast, I¡¯ll die!¡± he whined. If I was like any other royal out there, I would have left you to die, but I¡¯m not¡­ lucky you. I thought and then walked over to his desk. ¡°I¡¯ll give you a hand with this¡­ project of yours, since I was meaning to do it anyway, but you must agree to step down from the king¡¯s position.¡± I told him. Through this, I would know just how devoted he was to get rid of this curse. The reason why we were two ruling powers instead of one was because of his selfishness in the first place. ¡°YES! You can have the bloody thing! I¡¯ll even wrap it up for your if you want to!¡± he told me without even so much as stopping for a second to think about it. ¡°Huh? Alright¡­¡± I said blinking confused. This Dungeon Lord must have really scared him¡­ I thought. ¡°Thank you! Thank you! Thank you, brother!¡± he said with actual tears in his eyes. ¡°Ah¡­ yes. That¡¯s what brothers are for, right?¡± I showed him an awkward smile. ¡°Then I must show you immediately all that I have managed to accomplish so far! I¡¯ll be right back! Erm, most of the documents are in my chambers!¡± he said and quickly ran past me. When he reached the door, he stumbled on the spear of one of my knights and fell face first on the floor. I gulped and was prepared to defend my subordinate, but my brother got back up, dusted off his clothes and ran off without so much as shooting a glare back at him. ¡°Your Highness, I¡¯m not mistaken, but¡­ that¡¯s Prince Reynolds, right?¡± that same knight asked. ¡°Yes¡­ or I think so.¡± I replied a bit dumbfounded. I cleared my head for a bit and then walked over to my brother¡¯s desk. He was researching the culture and laws of all our neighboring countries, everything from the first time the slave system was proposed. It was a rather interesting, complicated, and also very extensive piece of work. Maybe I really had no idea what my own brother was capable of? I thought as I looked at one of the parchments filled with possible laws and their resulting effects. ¡°Interesting¡­¡± I said. After brother returned with his research, which could be easily described as a big pile of parchments, notes, and books, I began to regret my decision of helping him out. Those were a lot of documents I had to read¡­ Fortunately, if I did this, then there was no need to start a coup. The people would probably suffer if divided into two opposing sides, so it was better this way actually. It was an option I never thought off because I was never showed anything but my brother¡¯s disgusting and selfish side. Of course, I wasn¡¯t able to look at everything shown to me, but I got the general idea. Reynolds was struggling with population management, legal rights, procedures, and all sort of things like that. A couple of hours later, I took a break to from this and went to settle in my room. To my surprise, I discovered it was nothing more than a pile of rubble with all the furniture burned down and a big gap in the ceiling. As such, I occupied one of the guest rooms. Afterwards, I called for Zoreya. ¡°Prince Reginald?¡± she asked after she entered. ¡°I¡¯m over here.¡± I was sitting in front of my window looking at the devastation brought upon my palace. Zedor was struggling to repair it, but this place was built over the course of many years. Every brick was enchanted with powerful spells. It wasn¡¯t easy to destroy it. ¡°Theos and Zara brought me some interesting information about Illsyore.¡± I said. ¡°I have yet to receive word, your Highness.¡± ¡°Well, apparently, he came to this city on a peaceful quest. He disguised himself as a simple adventurer and stayed at Tannaor¡¯s Inn. The slave merchant Deroak was his initial quest giver, but according to the Adventurers Guild, he didn¡¯t make a correct judgment on the difficulty of his quest. Illsyore didn¡¯t seem to mind it though, but he encountered a group of black magic users who overtook the Mehalom Ancient Dungeon.¡± I turned around to look at her. ¡°Black magic users? This deep into the kingdom? If I knew¡­¡± she asked surprised and also a bit conflicted that she let them slip past her grasp. Her initial mission to our kingdom was to reduce their numbers and stop some devil-possessed mages. Her second one was to protect the royal family until a proper king was elected, and to be more precise, one who valued and respected the Melkuth Order values. ¡°Yes. Thankfully, Illsyore and his group dispatched them with ease. The Dungeon was cleared, and adventurers were regularly sent off to scavenge its remains. I came to understand that its core room was completely destroyed, so no chance of it reviving itself.¡± ¡°Why would this Godlike Dungeon Lord bother himself with something like this?¡± she asked me. ¡°I don¡¯t know, but afterwards, he went to Deroak and apparently managed to win in the coliseum, but he didn¡¯t fight.¡± ¡°Then who?¡± she furrowed her brow. ¡°Apparently, his wives and slaves were the ones who fought against Deroak¡¯s slaves. The interesting thing is that all of them were far more powerful even than Dragnov. They might be just as strong if not stronger than you. Also, the way this Illsyore brought down the palace was with a strange weapon capable of shooting out beams of light. Witnesses reported that he could even shoot them out of his palms.¡± I explained what I was told by my knights. ¡°Beams of light?¡± ¡°Yes. However, the reason he attacked was because my foolish brother imprisoned and harmed his slaves without him having broken any of our kingdom¡¯s laws. Illsyore didn¡¯t kill him, and since he was partially justified in his attack, I cannot agree with sending out a hunting party after him. This is the first Godlike Dungeon I have heard of who¡¯s not just the fictional character of an old story. He cannot be taken lightly nor can we afford to lose him out of our sight. If by chance he were to join our enemy¡¯s forces, then Aunnar Kingdom would be in peril.¡± I let out a sigh and looked out towards the window. Zoreya remained quiet, but I knew what she was thinking about. Ever since she heard that her brother¡¯s killer was the one who attacked the palace, she wanted to go after him, but her mission and orders prevented her from doing so. To be honest, I didn¡¯t wish to let her run after the Dungeon either, but in our current situation, she was also our best bet against him. So far, our neighbors haven¡¯t made any suspicious movements, so her power wasn¡¯t needed here. Besides, given her old age, I was starting to wonder just how many more years she had to live before she was forced to lay down her shield. Letting her go now would probably lead to her having some closure in this matter. As an Apostle, she couldn¡¯t dream of a family, so there was no one left waiting for her anywhere. At most, she would only have to return her shield to the Melkuth Order before passing away. It was a decision only I could make as the prince and probably her friend. It was a decision between selfishness and egoism, a rather easy one for me. ¡°Zoreya, from this moment onward, you are free of any duty towards my kingdom. All that I request is that if you go after Illsyore to keep me informed of his movements.¡± I declared as I looked back at her. ¡°Your Highness¡­ are you sure?¡± she asked. I closed my eyes and nodded. ¡°Yes.¡± I replied after opening my eyes again and showing her a gentle smile. ¡°You have been both my friend and ally for a very long time, Zoreya. I was never able to fully repay you for your help, that¡¯s why I believe that letting you go would be the best reward I could possibly offer you unless, of course, you desire something else?¡± ¡°No, your Highness, but what of the kingdom?¡± she asked. ¡°Zoreya, you know just as well as I do that you never had a duty towards my kingdom. The Melkuth Order sent you here to protect its people, scout possible new acolytes, and to take care of the black magic users who at that time ran amok throughout these lands. The ones killed by Illsyore were probably the last of them. Besides, I¡¯m certain the Order will send another brave crusader in your place to take care of any aspiring black magic users. You only stood by my side both because of my father, who was your friend, and probably me because I also see you as a friend.¡± I spoke without regret. Through my words, I was willingly parting ways with the only Supreme present in this country, but with the Melkuth Order¡¯s backup, we had no fear of an outside invasion. At least, not for a long time. ¡°I understand, Prince Reginald. Then I will pack my things and leave right away! I also worry about this Godlike Dungeon Lord. As a crusader, I cannot leave him be! As Zoreya Eleanor Alttoros, I desire closure for my brother¡¯s death! But my Order stands before my personal quest¡­ Even so, it has been a pleasure and an honor to serve by your side, Prince Reginald. I will send word to the Melkuth Order of Crusaders to have one of their best Apostles sent to watch over this kingdom.¡± Zoreya said with one last bow. ¡°Thank you and take care, my friend.¡± I told her and then turned around to gaze at my kingdom. ¡°May Melkuth watch over your kingdom, Prince Reginald.¡± she said before closing the door behind her. A few moments after she was gone, I let out a sigh. ¡°I know that this sudden separation from her may have been a bit abrupt, but I couldn¡¯t allow this kingdom to depend on the Melkuth Order any longer. The people of Aunnar have to be strong with or without a Supreme watching over them! That¡¯s why, I can only say my thanks to this stranger, Illsyore, who offered us this opportunity to be reborn from our own scattered ashes.¡± [Illsyore¡¯s point of view] A month passed since we left the Aunnar Kingdom. To our left were the thick woods spreading all the way to the ocean, and to our right were the vast expanses of sand specific to the desert climate. The heat was a killer, but not enough to bring us down. There was one problem though¡­ ¡°Illsy? What are we going to do about ¡®that¡¯?¡± asked Nanya curiously and pointed behind her. ¡°Don¡¯t look back, just ignore it.¡± I grumbled. ¡°Does no one know who she is?¡± asked Shanteya. ¡°I have no idea. Did any of you feed it by any chance?¡± I asked looking over at Ayuseya. ¡°Why are you looking at me? I do have a soft spot for animals, but not armor plated knights.¡± the draconian retorted. Taking a peek back, I saw a certain full-plated armored woman carrying a big shield ¡®hiding¡¯ behind a skinny tree. It was the same as trying to hide a modern tank behind a street lamp. Or maybe she was like one of those NPC characters from an old RPG I used to play, where if you placed a bucket on top of their head, you could empty their shops without them screaming thief at you. As long as I don¡¯t see you, I am hidden from you. That sort of logic, huh? I thought. ¡°At my mark make a run for it.¡± I told them. ¡°Why?¡± asked Ayuseya surprised. ¡°Because I don¡¯t want to take care of strays! Now run!¡± I shouted, and we all blasted off at full speed out of there. Looking back, I saw the woman running behind us nearly as fast as we did. ¡°How the hell can she run with that much weight on her?!¡± I whined. ¡°This is fun!¡± Tamara said eating a fish on top of my head. She was the slowest, so I had to carry her. Chapter 65: The battle in the forest [Zoreya¡¯s point of view] After I left Prince Reginald¡¯s room, I took a deep breath and let out a sigh. Melkuth¡¯s light guided me through thick and thin whenever I found myself at a crossroads in my life. My prayers as his Apostle were always heard and replied with his Divine Voice. At heart, I felt free and unburdened by a mortal¡¯s man daily worries. As long as I carried Melkuth¡¯s Holy Shield and remained as his pure, untouched Apostle, I would retain my youth and strength. Death was of no matter to me. As one who served her god, I knew I would fall when Melkuth asked me to. Until then, not even the wrath of other Gods or Apostles would put me down. This, however, didn¡¯t stop people from thinking that I was ready to lay down my sword, after all, I was 98 years old, and for a human¡­ that was a very long life. The reason I requested to part ways with the prince was also as a result of Melkuth¡¯s desire. If it was up to me, even if I found out about the existence of the Godlike Dungeon who killed my brother, Dankyun, I wouldn¡¯t abandon my post and give chase after him. My loyalty with the Order was flawless. Unless they told me to, I wouldn¡¯t dare to move. Even so, at heart¡­ I felt conflicted, so before coming to visit Prince Reginald, I went to Melkuth¡¯s Temple and prayed. There, he answered me and told me that my time in this country was over. I had the choice of either returning to the Order or following the Dungeon Lord. I chose the latter, but I was thankful Prince Reginald thought the same. This way, I wasn¡¯t forced to use my authority to part ways with him. As a leader, he had much to learn. As a human, his life was still at the beginning. I taught him and helped him as much as I could. Babysitting him any longer would have had a detrimental effect on his growth as a strong and charismatic individual. Thus, I was relieved to know I could end this chapter of my life without feeling a bitter taste in my mouth. ¡°I should make haste.¡± I said and went to my room to pack my things. A Storage Crystal was all I needed for all of my baggage. Spell Crystals were stored in another one. When dealing with other Supremes, Apostles, or Dungeon Lords, I had to always be sure to have an extra Spell Crystal on me to both heal my wounds and restore my gear. Even so, they were for emergency use only. Two hours later, I left the capital and traveled North, following the words of a traveler who claimed to have been saved by a Demoness and a draconian with red hair and golden scales. Those two were part of the Dungeon Lord¡¯s group. Where they were, Illsyore was as well. The following day, I arrived at a small village located not that far away from a newly discovered Dungeon. The guards told me it appeared overnight, but so far the Adventurers Guild issued no quests for it. Considering its possible age, I wouldn¡¯t be surprised since it would yield no profit in terms of drops. At most, they would send either a subjugation party for the first few floors or a small scout group to gather information about it. Inside the village, I stumbled upon an elderly woman who told me about Illsyore¡¯s deeds. She was sitting down in front of the inn and petting a Merion. The furry thing was probably her pet. ¡°There was a bandit attack the very first day he arrived.¡± she said with a nod. ¡°Any chance he was the cause of the attack?¡± I questioned. ¡°No, my dear. Those scumbags were well known around the area, but you see¡­ we are too poor to pay for a subjugation quest, and they didn¡¯t do enough damage to warrant the attention of the kingdom.¡± she shook her head and let out a sad sigh. The Merion opened an eye, looked up at me and then went back to sleep. ¡°Then¡­ you¡¯ve just been enduring it?¡± I asked furrowing my brow. If they are still a problem, Melkuth would want me to take care of them¡­ I thought. ¡°Yes. Every month, we paid a protection fee. Every year, we gave them a part of our harvest. Our lads were taken to be recruited by them, while the women were used as they pleased. Not even I escaped them.¡± she said with a sad smile. She¡¯s over 60¡­ They even touched an old granny? I blinked surprised, but then again, what was more surprising was the fact that the kingdom didn¡¯t act already against them. If they were simply robbing a few travelers and spending the gold at the inn, I could understand, but they were literally raiding the village. Acts such as these couldn¡¯t go unnoticed by the kingdom for too long even if they bribed an official or two. ¡°When that man heard about this, he gave an order to one of his wives to go and taunt them. She was a very beautiful el¡¯doraw with silver hair and good manners too.¡± she nodded in agreement. ¡°Wives?¡± I asked squinting my eyes. ¡°He had three and a slave. A beautiful blond woman with blue eyes, who could crush a boulder with a punch. A tall, redhead draconian who carried a two-handed swords in one hand. The el¡¯doraw I mentioned, and the slave was a cute nekatar who loved fish and milk.¡± she giggled and looked up at the sky ¡°I have to say, but if she didn¡¯t confess to be a slave and show me her collar, I would have thought she was lying.¡± the old lady looked back at me and showed me a kind smile ¡°The girl was full of energy and always smiling. Her master didn¡¯t even act like a master at all, more like a big brother or father of sorts.¡± ¡°To have three wives¡­ shameless.¡± I expressed my disapproval. ¡°For us it¡¯s not normal, true¡­¡± she nodded ¡°But from where he comes from, maybe it¡¯s not such an unreasonable thing? Either way, they all loved him, and I know a woman in love when I see one!¡± she winked at me. ¡°There is no way a man can love three wives at the same time! Shameless¡­ Illsyore must certainly be a shameless and perverted man!¡± I squinted my eyes. He must have tricked them somehow¡­ Forced them maybe? He¡¯s certainly the enemy of all women! I thought. [Somewhere far away from the village. Nanya¡¯s point of view] ¡°ACHOOO!¡± Illsyore sneezed and scared the magic out of all of us. ¡°Nya?! That scared me!¡± Tamara said as she trembled a bit. ¡°Hiii! Tamara, please get off¡­ your claws! Your claws!¡± Ayuseya cried. The nekatar jumped right on top of her chest, hanging for dear life. ¡°Ah! Nyu¡­ Sowwy!¡± she let go and looked back at her with upturned eyes. ¡°It¡¯s alright¡­¡± Ayuseya said as she pressed a hand over her chest and patted the nekatar¡¯s furry head with the other. ¡°I didn¡¯t know Dungeon Lords caught colds.¡± I raised an eyebrow at him. ¡°Neither did I¡­¡± he said rubbing his nose. [Back to Zoreya¡¯s point of view] ¡°So what happened to the bandits? And there¡¯s one thing I don¡¯t understand, did he witness an attack first or did you tell him about the attacks?¡± I asked. ¡°Oh? I didn¡¯t say?¡± she looked at me surprised, and the Merion in her lap yawned, opening it¡¯s four jaws. ¡°No.¡± I shook my head. ¡°Sorry, my dear, my memory is a little rusty at my age.¡± she laughed ¡°He wanted to spend the night at the inn, but one of the bandits was there. The man tried to get his hands on his draconian wife, but Illsyore didn¡¯t let him and punched him through the roof, literally.¡± she shook her head. ¡°What happened then?¡± ¡°The man landed outside of the village more dead than alive.¡± she shrugged ¡°We then began to panic. After we calmed down, I was the one who told him about who that man was and his friends waiting in the forest. I told him all that I told you, my dear.¡± she smiled. ¡°So then he sent his wife out.¡± I said. ¡°Yes.¡± she nodded ¡°They came¡­ all of them. The bandits were very very furious! That wife of him practically destroyed most of their base on her own is what I heard. Even so, they were a stupid bunch. Illsyore destroyed them before they even entered the village. I have no idea how he did it, but all of us could hear the screams and cries of the poor fellows as they were hunted down one after another.¡± she nodded. ¡°What happened to those kidnapped from the village?¡± ¡°Only three boys were returned, the others came to love the bandit life too much and refused to surrender. Illsyore gave them a chance, they refused, and they were beaten half to death as a result.¡± she laughed. ¡°He didn¡¯t kill them?¡± I asked furrowing my brow. For a Dungeon Lord not to kill his prey was both curious and unheard of. ¡°Only the very dangerous ones. The leader and the most vicious criminals among them. We knew very well who they were, and we told him how to spot them.¡± she told me and then let out another sigh ¡°He¡¯s a good lad. He helped us poor villagers when there was no need to. He could have left, he could have ignored us, but he didn¡¯t¡­¡± she showed me a smile. ¡°I see¡­ What of those captured?¡± I asked. ¡°Locked away in a prison he built overnight. He said it was a special skill of his. It¡¯s over there.¡± she pointed out. Looking in that direction, I spotted a small stone building where two men were placed as guards. He built it? Why would a Dungeon Lord go through all of this trouble? I wondered. ¡°Do you happen to know where he was headed after he did all of this?¡± I asked the old lady. ¡°Yes, North of here. I think he mentioned something about a desert?¡± she scratched her head trying to remember. ¡°Thank you for your help. May Melkuth be with you!¡± I smiled and then left. ¡°We follow the teachings of Sertan the God of Harvest here, but likewise, may the gods show you favor, young traveler!¡± The following days, I continued to travel on the same path as this Dungeon Lord and heard of many of his exploits. Wherever he arrived, he didn¡¯t mind helping those around him if he deemed it necessary. Those who attacked him were defeated without a problem, but he rarely killed, and I was starting to believe he was actually avoiding spilling any unnecessary blood. Illsyore¡¯s behavior made no sense. He was a Dungeon Lord, but he was saving and helping people left and right. On another hand, I began to suspect he was the one behind the sudden apparition of dungeons near human settlements. Although they were weak and small, they appeared only AFTER he spent a night or two there. Thus, one week later, I finally managed to catch up to him. When I first saw him, he was walking ahead of me together with his wives. The nekatar was playing around, chasing a moving red dot on the ground, while the Dungeon Lord was laughing. The draconian and el¡¯doraw talked with each other about something, while the blond human woman looked terribly bored. For the time being, I decided to keep my distance from them and merely observe their actions. Melkuth was with me, and his light guided my path. There was no need to act rashly. [Illsyore¡¯s point of view] ¡°Is she gone yet?¡± I asked and peeked my head out of a bush. ¡°Nya¡­ I don¡¯t know?¡± Tamara replied. ¡°Why are we hiding?¡± asked Nanya who glared at me while holding up two broken branches above her head. ¡°I don¡¯t know, but I have a feeling she¡¯s bad mojo for us.¡± I replied and squinted my eyes to see if I could spot the mysterious walking tank. ¡°You know, Illsy, for a Dungeon Lord, your skills at hiding are terrible, but not as much as hers¡­¡± Shanteya told me from above. She was a natural, a genius at hiding. None of us could see her, and as a result, I was deprived of peeking under her skirt. ¡°Why did I have to climb a tree?!¡± Ayuseya complained while hanging for dear life on top of a nearby tree. The branches were hiding her well, but barely keeping her up there. Of all the trees, she could find, she jumped on the skinniest one of them all. Unfortunately, there was only one big bush around here, and we were using it. As for why I didn¡¯t just build a hole under us¡­ erm¡­ I had brain lag. ¡°Nyahaha! That¡¯s funny!¡± Nanya laughed as she pointed a finger at the draconian. ¡°Mou!¡± she pouted.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. ¡°Keep quiet, all of you! I think I see her!¡± I said, and the moment I caught glimpse of her shining shield, I ducked for cover. [Zoreya¡¯s point of view] Where are they? I definitely saw them entering this forest¡­ Did they spot me and tried to hide from me? I thought as I walked looking around for the Dungeon Lord¡¯s group. ¡°No, that can¡¯t be¡­¡± I shook my head in denial. I was pretty confident in my hiding skills. Stopping next to a big bush, I leaned my shield on it and sat down. ¡°Omph!¡± a strange sound was heard from behind me. I blinked surprised and looked back. There was nothing there. ¡°Hm?¡± I got up and pulled back my shield. There didn¡¯t appear to be anything wrong with it, so I let it drop back on the bush. Bonk! When it hit the bark, or maybe it was a rock, it made a strange sound. I furrowed my brow and looked back at the shield. Pressing on top, I verified that it was stable and then sat on top of it. ¡°Ugh¡­¡± the bush groaned. Maybe I¡¯m stressing the bush a bit too much? But I¡¯m not that FAT! Well, I hope it doesn¡¯t break¡­ I thought as I looked down at the shield. Letting out a sigh, I began to wonder where they could have hidden. I was certain they were around here somewhere, but I couldn¡¯t figure out where. ¡°Did they find a cave or something?¡± I thought out loud and then let out a sigh. ¡°I shouldn¡¯t have lost track of them! How could I?¡± I scolded myself. Picking up a nearby rock. I tossed it at a nearby tree. It bounced back and went flying into the bush behind me. Bonk! ¡°Huh?¡± I was surprised by the sound. This was one strange bush. While trying to figure out where they were, I heard a crack in front of and a branch fell on the ground. Startled by it, I jumped up on my shield and unsheathed my sword. ¡°Huh?¡± I said surprised. Another crack was heard, and another branch fell. Several cracks followed and then I saw the redhead draconian woman sliding down the bark of a tree. When she touched the ground, she was still holding her arms around it. The tree had turned into a pole. ¡°Hello! Beautiful day, isn¡¯t it?¡± she said with a forced smile. ¡°You¡­ You are the Dungeon Lord companion, aren¡¯t you?¡± I asked squinting my eyes at her. ¡°I guess our cover is blown. Good job, Ayuseya!¡± the voice of a woman was heard from my left, and when I turned my head, I saw the blond companion walking out. ¡°Nya!¡± the nekatar jumped out from my right, landing next to the draconian. Huh? They were here the whole time?! I thought and looked at them surprised. ¡°Don¡¯t put the blame on me! Why did you make me climb a tree in the first place?! Dragons don¡¯t climb trees!¡± complained the draconian woman as she finally let go of it. ¡°With your monstrous strength, why couldn¡¯t you hold on to it?¡± the blond questioned her. ¡°Erm¡­¡± she looked down. ¡°Where is the Dungeon Lord?¡± I asked as I lowered my sword. ¡°You are STANDING ON HIM!¡± someone shouted from under me. ¡°KYAAA!¡± I screamed and jumped off, taking my shield with me. ¡°Kya? SERIOUSLY?¡± the Dungeon Lord said as he got out of the bush rubbing his head. ¡°You first drop that shield on top of my head, not once but TWO times! You sit on top of me, then you hit me with a rock, and lastly, you JUMP on top of your shield with me under it, and YOU are the one acting surprised?!¡± he pointed a finger at me. He was a tall man wearing weird clothes and a hood that hid his green hair. ¡°I-I didn¡¯t know you were there! I apologize!¡± I said and quickly lowered my head. ¡°Wait¡­ Why am I apologizing to a Dungeon Lord?¡± I said and then lifted my shield and sword up, entering a battle stance. ¡°Now I see why you said you had a weird feeling about her. She¡¯s nuts!¡± the blond said raising an eyebrow. ¡°I am quite sane, and my name is Zoreya Eleanor Alttoros! I am Melkuth¡¯s Apostle and top crusader of his Order!¡± I announced myself. ¡°I see. I see¡­¡± the Dungeon Lord nodded. [Illsyore¡¯s point of view] Never underestimate the weight of a fully armored woman who drops a shield the size of a door on top of your head! I learned this lesson the hard way. Then again, thanks to me lowering my Magic Armor a bit so she didn¡¯t detect me allowed me to feel the full blunt force of her ¡®attacks¡¯. Now, I just stood there wondering if I heard right or if she was making a fool out of me. Not only did she not know I was there, but she was a full-blown idiot when it came to hide and seek! Even so, the most mind-shattering, insanity-inducing thing she could possibly say had just escaped her pretty lips. ¡°Pardon me¡­ what did you say your name was?¡± I asked with a small smile. ¡°Zoreya Eleanor Alttoros! And I know very well that you are a shameless pervert who tricks women!¡± she declared again while glaring at me. I nearly fell down. ¡°I¡¯m not a pervert who tricks women!¡± I shouted back at her. ¡°Ara! But you loved the way we played last night¡­ Such movements, they simply drove me crazy!¡± Nanya joked and exaggerated beyond needed. ¡°Illsy never tricked any woman¡­ Although¡­¡± Ayuseya was looking at me with worried eyes. ¡°Master tricks women? I should hide my tail!¡± Tamara said as she hid behind Ayuseya. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we¡¯ll protect you from the pantie-snatcher pervert.¡± Nanya said petting the cat. ¡°What¡¯s this? Are you all ganging up on me?!¡± I shouted. ¡°See! I knew you were a pervert!¡± said the mysterious woman as she pointed her sword at me. ¡°It was a joke! A joke! Wait¡­ who are you, no you already told me your name. WHY are you chasing after me?!¡± I asked pointing my finger at her. ¡°Maybe he went behind our backs and secretly impregnated her?¡± asked Ayuseya as she looked worried at Nanya. ¡°I pity her then, such a cold-blooded husband we have.¡± the demoness giggled, and the draconian followed suit. ¡°Ugh¡­ you two.¡± I lowered my head. Looking back at the armored woman, I saw her blushing so hard, the tips of her ears turned completely red. ¡°I-I-I¡­ I¡¯m an Apostle! No man ever laid his filthy hands on me! Especially a filthy and shameless Dungeon Lord who tricks women to make them his wives!¡± she shouted at me. ¡°What? HEY!¡± I shouted back at her. This woman was too much, she was speaking all sorts of nonsense. Was she damaged in the head? ¡°Leaving that idiot husband of mine aside, you said your name is Zoreya Eleanor Alttoros, right? Why are you after us? Speak or else we will make you speak¡­ in¡­ various ways.¡± Nanya said and licked her lips at the end, looking at the woman with a gaze in her eyes denoting sexual hunger. Feeling her chastity in danger, the armored woman jumped back and pointed her sword at Nanya. ¡°Hehe!¡± the demoness giggled. ¡°I-I heard Illsyore defeated Dankyun Alttoros. Is that true?¡± she asked. ¡°Huh? Who? Ah! The overwhelmingly annoying Supreme idiot who tried to rape and kill Ayuseya, rape Nanya, and kill everyone who stood in his way? Yeah, I gave him a beating to remember until his next life. I don¡¯t know if he¡¯s alive though, but I destroyed his armor, took his weapon, which rightfully belonged to Nanya in the first place, and then mentally terrorized him. What about him?¡± I asked with a calm smile as I looked back at her. Given their family names, I could only suspect that she was either his illegitimate wife or maybe some sort of adopted family member. But I didn¡¯t hear of him having any sort of siblings, and last I remembered, he was a draconian Nazi who believed in the purity of his own species. There was no way in Hell that man took a human as his wife. When she heard my ¡®subtle and modest¡¯ description of what happened to him, Zoreya squinted her eyes at me and raised her shield up. ¡°Dankyun¡­ Dankyun was my brother.¡± she said. ¡°Ah! Is that so?¡± I nodded. ¡°I suggest you don¡¯t move.¡± Shanteya said as she appeared from the shadows and pressed the cold blade of her dagger on the woman¡¯s neck. Her magic armor was partially cut by the enchant on the weapon I made for her, but her ridiculous strength and speed from the boost of my [Bond of Trust] allowed her to slip it through the rest and move it very closely to the woman¡¯s throat. Zoreya realized she was in danger only when it was already too late for her to do anything, however, what happened next was unexpected. The woman moved to the left and struck Shanteya with her shield. The blade slit her throat, but that shield pulsed with a powerful light and sent my el¡¯doraw wife flying backwards. ¡°Shanteya!¡± I shouted. ¡°I¡¯m alright!¡± she announced as she got up from the ground. Meanwhile, Zoreya was bleeding badly, but not for long. She placed her hand over her throat, and a white light flashed over the wound. ¡°She healed herself?¡± Ayuseya remarked and furrowed her brow. ¡°If she is here to take revenge, then we shall fight!¡± Ayuseya said and pulled out her sword. Tamara ran off to hide behind a tree. I took a stance and summoned the two Roman swords I created one night out of complete boredom. They were made from super alloys and enchanted with powerful spells. They could cut through Magic Armor and also Paralyze the victim. They were more of a Godlike ranked item than a Supreme one. Squinting her eyes at us, Zoreya used a spell of sorts, and a bubble of Magic Energy surrounded her like an extra shield. The sword in her hand was coated in a white light, and the symbols carved on her shield began to glow. ¡°May Melkuth watch over my battle and guide my sword! My shield is yours, and I am yours to command!¡± she declared to her god. I gulped as I looked at the shield. It gave me some rather weird vibes, and I knew it was bad business for me, but I had no idea why. Taking a step back, I prepared myself for battle. ¡°Guess stupidity runs in the family.¡± Nanya said with a smirk as she took off her ring, revealing her true form as a demoness. ¡°I am not like Dankyun!¡± shouted Zoreya and jumped to attack her. The demoness snickered and threw a punch at her. Knowing her strength, I thought it was going to break the shield, but when she hit it, there was a very loud BANG, and Zoreya was sent sliding back on the ground. The Apostle didn¡¯t fall on her back, she remained standing on her feet and glaring back at Nanya. ¡°By Melkuth¡­ what strength.¡± she said. ¡°And there¡¯s more where that came from!¡± Ayuseya said and charged at her with her sword. The blade came crushing down on the crusader, but was blocked by the powerful shield. A crater was formed around her, and a wave of air was sent towards us. ¡°Melkuth! Grant me strength!¡± Zoreya shouted and then pushed back. The force was powerful enough to send Ayuseya flying back, smashing through the trees. She let out a small scream, but when this happened, I charged at the woman. ¡°HAH!¡± I shouted, and my swords came crushing down from the sides, but didn¡¯t go past that stupid bubble of hers. With her sword, she attacked me, and I caught it with my bare hand. It cut through my Magic Armor, but didn¡¯t shatter it. A trace of blood flowed from my palm as we locked eyes and glared at each other. ¡°Melkuth¡¯s Judgment.¡± she said, and the shield glowed in a bright white light. What happened next was rather confusing because I found myself flying back through the trees, smashing through them like Ayuseya did. What the? I thought after I reached at a stop face first in the trunk of a very old tree. ¡°[Hell¡¯s Flames]!¡± Nanya shouted from afar, and a powerful explosion was heard next. The heat wave traveled all the way here, followed by a powerful shockwave. I saw Tamara flying through the air, trying to grab hold onto something, and I jumped up after her. ¡°Tamara!¡± ¡°Master!¡± she cried. I caught her hand and absorbed her to keep her safe. ¡°Tch! What¡¯s up with that mad woman?¡± I thought as I fell on the ground and then dashed towards them. The forest was burning. Monsters and animals alike were fleeing from the scene where we were fighting. Upon arriving there, I saw Ayuseya, Shanteya, and Nanya attacking the Apostle from all sides. The bubble around her held up against their attacks, and so far¡­ none of us managed to injure her, but unlike her, we had our resilience and almost unlimited use of Magic Energy. Nanya¡¯s punches are the only ones working on her¡­ I thought and then remembered that she could use a boost to increase her strength. It was sort of her trump card, but in this situation, we could either make this a battle of attrition, which we would inevitably win, or we could go on the offensive. ¡°Wait¡­ I didn¡¯t try my lasers yet!¡± I told myself before I called out to Nanya. With a smirk, I pointed my palms at Zoreya and released the beams of amplified red light. They hit her full-on, and I increased the intensity, pouring more Magic Energy into the crystals in my hands while trying to dissipate the resulted heat as fast as possible. Steam was flowing out of my arms. ¡°Ugh!¡± groaned Zoreya as she fell on one knee. ¡°GIVE UP!¡± I shouted at her as I kept pounding her shield with the two powerful beams of light. There was nowhere for her to run. If she stepped back or jumped to the side, she could risk a direct hit from my attack. Although it wouldn¡¯t shatter her armor or kill her instantly, it would be enough to force her defense down and receive a blow or two from my wives. Attacked from all sides by all four of us, there was no way for her to counter-attack. We also surpassed her in strength, or at least Nanya did. We simply overwhelmed her, and we didn¡¯t even take out the big guns yet, meaning a certain demoness¡¯ punches strengthened through [Boost]. If I actually pulled out my Gatling Laser Turret, it would end up squashed by that insane shield of hers. I had no means yet to protect such a weapon. Still, she wasn¡¯t going down¡­ She refused to give up. Well, Dankyun was the same until I pounded his face into the ground enough times to make him regret he was born. [Zoreya¡¯s point of view] All of this happened too fast. First, they attacked me with embarrassing words and strange gazes and then they put a dagger at my throat. Before I knew it, I was already struggling to keep myself alive. If not for my shield, I would have died already, but these people were insanely strong. If they went full-out against the Aunnar Kingdom, they could have destroyed the entire country in mere days. If they went against the Melkuth Order of Crusaders, then they could wipe them out without a problem. Illsyore and his wives were powerful, maybe too powerful¡­ What have I gotten myself into? I thought when I heard the one called Nanya cast a spell at me. The Shield of Melkuth was a Divine Weapon capable of repelling most Magic and Physical Attacks, so the spell didn¡¯t even touch me when it detonated. The force of the explosion was incredible. It reduced a good part of this forest into nothing but a burning waste, a giant crater. Still, I remained untouched by it. Then they attacked me again. All of them were very fast, and I had to constantly recharge my [Divine Shield Bubble] to keep their attacks from touching my Magic Armor directly. Without it, I would have received a lot more damage. Unfortunately, I wasn¡¯t capable of doing more than this. Melkuth was the only one protecting me, yet he didn¡¯t seem to allow me to counterattack. I didn¡¯t even see the opportunity to use a Spell Crystal to recover my strength. When Illsyore returned to the battle, I was struck by those rumored beams of light of his and pushed down on my knees. The damage, it wasn¡¯t of the Magic type. It felt like I was being struck by burning coals constantly. The weight and heat were terrible, but I was protected by Melkuth. His grace didn¡¯t leave my side, but he didn¡¯t offer me the chance to attack either. ¡°GIVE UP!¡± he shouted at me. Give up? Me? Melkuth¡¯s Apostle? The one who carries the Shield of Melkuth? No¡­ but¡­ I thought and then closed my eyes for a moment. Melkuth was the God of War. His fury and rage were shown in true battle, but he refused to fight, his defenses were unbreakable. Like a living fortress, nothing could touch him. The way I was right now imitated exactly this scenario. I wasn¡¯t able to attack, no opportunity showed itself, but I was able to survive even their most powerful onslaught. My shield didn¡¯t allow me to falter and fall down. Like a stubborn mountain, I faced the wrath of the elements and kept my ground, but I had no way of stepping forward or back. ¡°I give¡­¡± I said. ¡°WHAT?!¡± Illsyore asked. ¡°I GIVE!¡± I shouted. ¡°Seriously, WHAT?¡± he asked again. Could he not hear me?! I started to worry. ¡°SHE SAID SHE GIVES UP, YOU OAF!¡± shouted Nanya as she punched him in the face. The beams of light stopped, and I was saved¡­ In that moment, I dropped the shield from my hand and fell on top of it. I had run out of Magic Energy. It was beautiful how Melkuth¡¯s grace protected me. One more moment, and I would have died. With a smile on my lips, I closed my eyes and allowed my body to rest. Melkuth protects me¡­ I thought. [Illsyore¡¯s point of view] Being punched in the face by a raging demoness with over 2000 points in strength wasn¡¯t a fun thing to experience¡­ I was sent flying three kilometers away. ¡°Ouch¡­ Ugh¡­ It hurts¡­¡± I groaned as I laid flattened on the side of a sturdy cliff. Chapter 66: A new party member Upon returning from my ¡®cozy¡¯ spot, where I was smashed into the side of a cliff, I was surprised to find Zoreya being nursed by Nanya. That armored woman was probably Dankyun¡¯s relative¡­ or something like that. She was clearly not a draconian though; the lack of scales, a tail, and relatively smaller height gave her away. ¡°I¡¯m back¡­¡± I announced in a not-so-excited tone of voice. Looking back at me, Nanya raised an eyebrow, and I released Tamara from my Inner Mind. I kept her there until I returned because I had to run fast, and she wouldn¡¯t have been able to keep up with me. ¡°Welcome back, Illsy!¡± the first to reply was Shanteya, who came over and hugged me. ¡°So, what¡¯s the condition of our guest?¡± I asked after returning the hug to my el¡¯doraw wife. ¡°Zoreya is still unconscious, but the armor she¡¯s wearing is enchanted. We can¡¯t take it off unless we rip it off her, but then we¡¯ll risk injuring her. The shield is¡­ complicated¡­¡± she furrowed her brow as she said that. When I looked to my left, I saw it laying on the ground, with the face down, on the same spot where she dropped it. Although, I didn¡¯t remember her blacking out. All I could remember was Nanya¡¯s punch and then the cliff¡­ that was it. With a sigh, I released Shanteya from my embrace and walked over to the group. Tamara was poking the cheek of the unconscious woman, while Nanya applied a cold compress on her head. Now that I took a closer look at this woman, she was actually quite beautiful. Long, blond hair tied up in a pony tail, milky skin, a fair complexion, and soft pink lips made her look like a fairy tale princess. A woman of such beauty would certainly harbor the attention of many greedy and uncouth men. Then again, it could also be a gift from her god for showing such loyalty and faith. Either, she was indeed a fine gem to look at. ¡°Illsy, welcome back.¡± said Nanya as she shot a glare at me, forcing me to stop gazing at the sleeping beauty. ¡°What did I do this time?¡± I showed her an awkward smile. ¡°You nearly killed the poor woman.¡± she replied. ¡°Oops?¡± I shrugged. Nanya squinted her eyes at me, but I didn¡¯t see what the big deal was. Maybe I was still angry at Dankyun, and since Zoreya had the same family name as him, I saw her as a potential threat? ¡°Well, she¡¯s not dead¡­ yet. But I apologize. I honestly didn¡¯t hear her!¡± I made a bow to express my regret. It was true, the words I heard were nothing but gibberish mixed up with the sound of my beams smashing onto her shield. They were quite loud since the shield blocked them, but didn¡¯t properly disperse them. ¡°She was screaming quite loud! I don¡¯t think you didn¡¯t hear her¡­¡± she accused me. ¡°But that¡¯s the truth¡­¡± I complained. ¡°Sigh¡­ well¡­ I could forgive you.¡± she smirked at me. ¡°Erm¡­ will it hurt?¡± I asked with a stiff expression on my face. ¡°Maybeee¡­ Do you agree?¡± she asked. I had a feeling I was falling into a trap, but I didn¡¯t want her to stay mad at me. Well, she wasn¡¯t going to stay mad at me, she was just going to glare until the next time she got horny or jealous on Ayuseya and Shanteya. Last time something like this happened was about a week ago, when I decided to walk through the town alone and ended up at a brothel. One thing led to another, and when I realized where I was, there was a lovely brunette ready to jump on me. I avoided her and ran out of the building before anything happened. Unfortunately, I met Nanya outside. When she saw me, she punched me in the face and then dragged me by my left foot back to the inn. That was the first time I experienced a caveman-style kidnapping. After that, she glared at me for the next couple of days until she saw that I was enjoying my private time with Shanteya a bit too much. Ayuseya didn¡¯t mind, but she kept teasing the demoness about it. ¡°I agree¡­¡± I gulped. ¡°Good! Then tonight you¡¯re sleeping with me and Shanteya!¡± she grinned. ¡°Huh? You mean like ¡®that¡¯? What about Ayuseya?¡± I asked surprised. ¡°Yes. I want to try it! When I mentioned it to her earlier, Ayuseya turned red, and her brain went ¡®poof¡¯. She¡¯s currently searching the area for a village or town where we can spend the night. Or, at least that was the excuse she gave me before running off embarrassed like a maiden after her first kiss!¡± she grinned, and her tail swayed left and right. The demoness may have just acquired something to tease the draconian about. I gulped and looked over at Shanteya. Did she agree to this as well? I thought. ¡°I¡¯m alright with this.¡± she replied as though she had read my mind. ¡°I understand, well¡­ if you two want to try this, I have nothing against it. It would be a new and interesting experience for me too.¡± I smiled and tried to keep my imagination at bay. While we were talking about this, Tamara was throwing glances between us. Thankfully, she didn¡¯t ask any embarrassing questions. After this small discussion of ours, I created the temporary house we so often used throughout our journey. By now, we have all grown accustomed to it. Instead of it having only three rooms, it had four now. One was the main room, where I slept. The second was the bedroom with three beds for the pet and wives who chose not to be part of that night¡¯s passionate moment with me. Considering tonight¡¯s menu, one of the beds was going to be used by a non-wife. The third was a training room with many enchants and sturdy metal walls. The last one was a bathroom. The arrangement of the rooms also changed. The main one was at the top, under us was the bedroom, and under it was the training room, which was also the biggest. The bathroom was on the second floor. Nanya carried Zoreya all the way to the bedroom, and Tamara followed her merrily. Meanwhile, I remained outside with Shanteya to repair some of the damage I caused around this place. In other words, I put out the fires and absorbed all the broken trees. Lastly, we hunted for some food. [Ayuseya¡¯s point of view] Nanya was probably the most perverted out of all of us, and Shanteya had all the experience. I hated to admit it, but I didn¡¯t really have much with what to please our husband. I was even taller than him. The number of times I spent the night with him also counted the lowest when compared to the other two. Lately, I began to feel like I wasn¡¯t doing my best for him, or maybe he wasn¡¯t feeling satisfied with my body. When I asked this of Nanya, she suddenly proposed for all of us to spend our night with Illsy together, I thought she was joking, but she was dead serious about it. As for why she asked such a thing, it was purely out of the desire to experiment something new. Besides, we were all his wives, so we had all the right to do it. Even so, I was not ready¡­ It was impossible for me. Thus, I ran away¡­ ¡°Sigh¡­ Nanya is mean.¡± I spoke with a low voice as I kept jumping through the trees. About an hour or so later, I managed to find a village. Having a map would have helped, but Illsy had them all, and I forgot to ask for one. Well, it didn¡¯t matter, I was a very resourceful draconian princess! I approached the village to make sure it belonged to humans and not some other type of humanoid monsters. As soon as I saw the typical leather armor belonging to human guards, I stopped and carefully approached them. [Villager Guard A¡¯s point of view] ¡°Sigh¡­ I wish something exciting would happen for once.¡± my friend said. He was a man about my size, but I wasn¡¯t a big fellow either. I was about average, just a little over 1.70 meters. We both wore the same type of leather armor, without any sort of standard or crest to show off. That sort of thing was reserved only for nobles and those working under them. The members of the family wore the crest on their back and front, while their servants on their shoulders. Every human kingdom applied this form of identification. ¡°You better watch your mouth, Babu!¡± I told him. ¡°Hah? Why should I?¡± he raised an eyebrow at me ¡°I mean nothing ever happens in this dull place! It¡¯s just a village in the middle of nowhere!¡± he sighed again and leaned on his spear. We also had a pair of swords kept in their scabbards at our hips, but our training was minimum or self-taught to say the least. A guard from the kingdom was sure to beat us before we had a chance to say otherwise. Our strength was at best a little above Beginner Rank. The strongest man in our village was a fellow from a nearby town. He was a former adventurer who fancied one of our beautiful women. His strength was around Intermediary Rank, maybe Master. In a way, we were lucky, no powerful monster lived around these parts. ¡°Hey! There¡¯s someone coming from over here!¡± Babu pointed towards the forest. Squinting my eyes in that direction, I saw a beautiful dragoness with red hair flowing down on her back; long, curved horns; beautiful red eyes; golden scales; a beautiful fancy dress; and a two-handed sword on her back. She was a beauty, but also a very tall and powerful looking beauty. I gulped and gripped the shaft of my spear. Who could she be? I wondered. ¡°Excuse me, kind men! May I ask what name this village has?¡± she asked and showed us a polite smile. In the blink of an eye, she made us forget about any sort of danger her presence might have brought. ¡°Ah, erm¡­ this is Pollian village. It belongs to the Tseruan Kingdom. Who are you, m¡¯lady?¡± Babu asked. ¡°I am but a simple adventurer who got lost. Thank you for your help, I will be going now.¡± she said and then turned around. ¡°Ah! Wait!¡± Babu called out, but with one jump, she vanished from our eyes. We blinked surprised and looked at each other. Neither of us understood what we just saw, but she didn¡¯t seem like someone against which we should keep our guard up. The woman left without even giving her name, but she was certainly not human. Upon a closer look, I wondered if she may have been a draconian? If so, it was the first time I saw one. [Zoreya¡¯s point of view] You are weak, Zoreya¡­ Weak just like a human should be! a young Dankyun said as he laughed behind the wall of fire. Zoreya! Run! Hide! voices echoed around me as the flames spread closer and closer to me, covering my brother, separating me from him. I looked back and saw the kind woman who took care of me, of all of us, like a mother. Survive, young one¡­ Survive for all of us. she smiled and then something pulled me away from her. ¡°NO!¡± I shouted and woke up. My breath was heavy. My hands were trembling. I was sweating. In fear, I looked around and realized that I was safe. Two empty beds were to my right, and a window was to my left. There was no fire, no cries for help. Everything was just a dream, no¡­ it was an old memory. Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes and tried to calm down. This wasn¡¯t the first time I had that nightmare, and it certainly wouldn¡¯t be the last time either. It was the curse I had to live with, the punishment I had to suffer for being unable to stop Dankyun when I had the chance.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. Where am I? after opening my eyes, I looked around and asked myself this. The last thing I remembered was entering a battle with some women, the wives of the Dungeon Lord, then I struggled¡­ I lost, and I nearly died. It was a bit foggy, but everything was coming back to me. ¡°My shield!¡± I said when I realized it was gone. Closing my eyes, I recalled the energy signature. Once it was clear as day, I pointed my palm at the window next to me and then gave the order to return. Divine Spark. Piece of my Soul and that of my God, return to me at once pure and untouched by evil hands! In that moment, the shield, wherever it was, disintegrated and then reappeared here, next to me. Upon falling on the metal floor, a CLANK was heard, and I opened my eyes. The noble shield of Melkuth was back in my possession, for I was the only one allowed to wield it. In my hands, it was as easy as a feather, but in the hands of another, it was as heavy as a mountain. I let out a sigh of relief. ¡°Welcome back, my friend.¡± I said with a soft smile on my lips. Now, with a determined look in my eyes, I got up from the bed and walked out of the room. Strange noises came from behind the door in front of me. I approached it cautiously. ¡°Oh boy! Here comes a big one!¡± the demoness¡¯ voice was heard from the other side and then¡­ a fart? Quickly pinching my nose, I stepped back from the door. By the gods! What foul stench! What manner of monsters did this woman eat?! I thought and then walked up on the stairs to my right. At the next floor, I heard someone laughing. When I opened the door, a rather curious and strange scene was shown to me. The nekatar child was chasing a red dot moving on the floor, while Illsyore was sitting on the bed and pointing his palm at her. The man wore a pair of pants and a shirt with small arms. Now that I took a better look at him, he was around 1.90 meters tall, with pale white skin and a big green crystal in the middle of its chest. He had short cut jade green hair, deep emerald green eyes, and he wasn¡¯t fat all. Besides the big crystal in the middle of his chest, there were five smaller ones on each arm. All of them had the same color, a pale green, and looked identical in size and shape. Behind him stood the el¡¯doraw woman who slit my throat. Unlike many of her species, she had a rather pale skin and silver hair. She wore a pair of pants, and a thin shirt, but certainly no bra. She was currently massaging the Dungeon¡¯s shoulders. ¡°NYA! Pesky dot! I¡¯ll get you!¡± called out the young girl as she jumped after it, swaying her tail and smiling eagerly. The nekatar was hunting the red dot, and she was the only one who kept her clothes the same as when I first saw her, meaning a simple pair of leather armor. ¡°Ah! Our guest has awoken! Sorry about nearly killing you today.¡± the man named Illsyore said with an apologetic smile and a hand up. I nodded. [Illsyore¡¯s point of view] One of the many things I discovered in the past few weeks was the fact that nekatars reacted to the Red Dot just like any other feline out there. Of course, just as it was with cats back on Earth, not all of them found it interesting. It had been shown that some individuals, be them tigers or household cats, didn¡¯t find it very interesting and often ignored it. Luckily for me, this wasn¡¯t the case with Tamara. The furry feline jumped after it the moment she saw it. Thus, it became one of our favorite past-time games. What I wasn¡¯t expecting was to find Nanya to also be interested in hunting down the Red Dot. She had a tail as a demoness, and while her name had the ¡®nya¡¯ part, I never expected her to share any resemblance to our furry friends. According to her, demons were natural-born hunters. Their instincts were good and well developed ever since they were small children. As for Shanteya or Ayuseya, they both found it rather odd that they reacted in such a manner to the ¡®Almighty Red Dot¡¯. Well, Nanya reacted only when she was in a really playful mood. If she was pissed for some reason, it only annoyed her. When I noticed Zoreya with her shield up and standing at the door, I raised a hand up and said ¡°Ah! Our guest has awoken! Sorry about nearly killing you today.¡± She nodded. ¡°How did you sleep? Are you feeling alright? Anything you need?¡± I asked her. Shaking her head, she lowered her shield and approached me. ¡°Where are we?¡± she asked. ¡°Not far from where you fainted. I simply built a temporary home for all of us. Pretty fancy, don¡¯t you think so?¡± I said smiling. Zoreya furrowed her brow when she heard me. It made me wonder if my words were translated properly because I was speaking Kalish, not Shorayan. Regarding this, it wasn¡¯t like all of her words or mine were suddenly spoken or heard in that language, I simply knew how to put the accent and understood the meaning of each word. ¡°You built this?¡± she asked. ¡°Yes. I am a Dungeon Lord after all. It would have been ridiculous if I wasn¡¯t able to build even a measly house!¡± I laughed. ¡°That is true, but why am I not tied up or locked in a cell?¡± she asked curiously. ¡°Because I¡¯m not like all the other dungeons out there¡­ or well¡­ probably those that had some rather unfortunate encounters with adventurers and were never thought to be otherwise?¡± I replied scratching the back of my head. This info wasn¡¯t that much of a secret, and seeing how she most likely was aware of the Aunnar Kingdom¡¯s royal Dungeon hidden in the palace, she probably knew that some of us could be reasoned with. I should probably stop playing with Tamara, or she¡¯ll misunderstand me for being rude. I thought and stopped the laser pointer. Of course, with the nekatar¡¯s red dot suddenly vanishing, the playful feline was at first confused. ¡°Where did it go?¡± she asked surprised, catching Zoreya¡¯s attention. After looking around the room for a little bit, she gave up and walked up to the window, where she took a sit on the chair. Tamara was now just a humble spectator to our interaction. ¡°After you fainted, me and Nanya brought you here and applied some cold compresses because you had a slight fever, probably from using up all of your Magic Energy at once. We tried to take off the armor to make you feel more comfortable, but without breaking it apart, we saw no way of doing so.¡± Shanteya explained as she kept massaging my shoulders. ¡°Thank you. As for my armor, it is locked with magic. Unless I will it to take it off, you won¡¯t be able to do so. I did this in order to prevent my enemies from undressing me while I fainted.¡± she explained. ¡°We figured it was an anti-raping spell. Well, don¡¯t worry, we wouldn¡¯t have allowed Illsy to touch you even if it wasn¡¯t there.¡± she giggled and patted my head. I blinked and looked up at the el¡¯doraw. With an innocent smile, she returned to massaging my shoulders. ¡°And why would I do that when I have you, Nanya, and Ayuseya keeping me company?¡± I asked. ¡°That is true, you make all of us moan rather loudly, but as your wives, we must always be careful of other women trying to lure you away from us. I have a special poison just for that!¡± she giggled and then gave me a kiss. After the kiss, I asked furrowing my brow ¡°Is the poison for me or her?¡± ¡°Who knows?¡± she tilted her head and smiled. ¡°You do not regret having to share your man with other women?¡± asked the armored woman all of a sudden. Looking at her, we both blinked surprised. ¡°No?¡± Shanteya replied. ¡°Ah, wait¡­ in your country and maybe religion, a man isn¡¯t allowed to have more than a wife, right?¡± I asked hitting my left palm with the bottom of my fist. ¡°No, polygamy isn¡¯t the issue, however, I have never met in my entire life a man with multiple wives who cared equally for all of them.¡± Zoreya replied with a stern tone of voice. ¡°Yeah¡­ I¡¯m not like that. I love each and every one of my wives!¡± I said and then pulled Shanteya into my lap and snuggled her. She replied with a giggle and cuddled up to me. If I could, I would spend all of my time keeping close to my wives, embracing and kissing them all, but such a thing would be impossible. We still had to cook food, bathe, sleep, and do other things. ¡°I apologize, but I do not believe your words.¡± Zoreya said. I shrugged ¡°It can¡¯t be helped.¡± ¡°One thing I wish to ask though, did you really kill my brother, Dankyun?¡± she asked with a stern look in her eyes. Is she trying to start a fight again now that she¡¯s better? I wondered as a chill ran down my spine. ¡°He¡¯s not dead¡­ yet. But I did threaten him pretty well, so I¡¯m not really worried that he¡¯ll do something any time too soon.¡± I scratched my right cheek as I replied. Zoreya looked down and clenched her fist. ¡°So, the monster is still alive¡­¡± she said, barely making a sound. ¡°I take it you weren¡¯t his ally?¡± I asked. The moment I said this, she glared at me. ¡°I am not!¡± she declared. ¡°Then why did you attack us and followed us like that?¡± I asked surprised. ¡°That is¡­ erm¡­¡± she looked down ¡°I didn¡¯t plan for it to become like this¡­ and I misunderstood your relationship with your wives¡­ I thought you were forcing these women to sleep with you and¡­¡± she tried to explain herself, but the color slowly built up in her cheeks until they were as red as a tomato. Aw~! She¡¯s embarrassed! How cute! I thought and giggled. ¡°I don¡¯t know, do I force you to sleep with me, Shanteya?¡± I asked as I nuzzled the el¡¯doraw in my arms. ¡°If you dare not to, I¡¯ll find you and drag you back into bed or make you take me on the spot.¡± she replied with a smile, but the tone of her voice made it sound like an actual threat. ¡°Well, there you have it!¡± I laughed. The armored woman looked down blushing strongly. I wanted to tease her a bit, but I didn¡¯t want to get in trouble with Shanteya or a certain someone else here. Speaking of which, she entered the room just now. ¡°Oh? Zoreya, you¡¯re up. How are you feeling?¡± Nanya asked. Currently, she was in her real form and wearing nothing but a thin blouse and a short pair of pants, emphasizing her rather generous body shapes. I loved to be around the demoness Nanya more than I did around the human version of her. The latter always felt unnatural and weird to me. ¡°I¡¯m doing better now, thank you.¡± the embarrassed woman replied. ¡°Hm? Illsy?¡± she showed me a threatening smile. ¡°I did nothing. I swear!¡± I replied bluntly. Of course, Nanya didn¡¯t believe me and looked at her trusted ally to reaffirm my words. Shanteya replied with a nod. ¡°Very well.¡± she let out a sigh and then walked up to the bed and took a seat behind me. She pressed her breasts on my back and wrapped her long tail around my waist. With sharp eyes, she looked back at Zoreya and rested her head on my right shoulder. Nanya was establishing her claim over me. In other words, I was her mate, not Zoreya¡¯s. She had no claim over me and if she tried to get too close, she was going to bite. ¡°But if you are not Dankyun¡¯s ally, what are you? I mean, your name is Alttoros, right?¡± I asked raising an eyebrow. ¡°Dankyun isn¡¯t my ally. He is the brother I had sworn to kill.¡± she replied with a determined look in her eyes. ¡°I see¡­ wait, what?¡± I furrowed my brow. ¡°How exactly is that man your brother? Isn¡¯t he a draconian, while you are a human?¡± Nanya asked for me. ¡°I can understand your confusion. My name, Alttoros, is actually the name of the orphanage where I grew up. Of course, not in Aunnar but in another country. As the children there grew up, they picked up the name of the orphanage as their family name if they never got adopted. Back then, I was named only Eleanor.¡± she told us. ¡°I never heard of this¡­¡± Nanya said surprised. ¡°Why do you wish to kill him? Actually, I have a hard time finding a reason why not to in the first place! ARGH!¡± I groaned and scratched my head ¡°Why did I let him live again?¡± I said and then tilted my head to the left. ¡°Because you didn¡¯t want to stain your hand with his blood.¡± Nanya said with a calm tone of voice and then kissed my right cheek. ¡°Yeah¡­ could be¡­¡± ¡°But why are you following us?¡± asked Shanteya. ¡°Once I heard you defeated my brother, I wished to learn if he was indeed dead or if you were lying and just using his name to threaten the prince. Fortunately, it wasn¡¯t the latter. Now, I know I still have a chance to rip his head off with my bare hands.¡± she clenched her fist. That¡¯s scary! I thought. ¡°As you are now, you won¡¯t be able to defeat him.¡± Nanya said it bluntly. ¡°What makes you say so?¡± I asked curiously, Zoreya also squinted her eyes at us. ¡°Well, he uses [Boost] and a lot of Spell Crystals. Even if you shattered his armor back then, he can get another one. But what I mean to say is that Dankyun is a close-range fighter, who would rather focus all of his Magic Energy into keeping his [Boost] activated all the time rather than spend it on useless spells. At most, he¡¯ll try a [Fireball] or something, but he¡¯s not one for fancy spells. He was always an idiot when it came to such things.¡± explained Nanya. ¡°Indeed, even when I fought against him, he didn¡¯t show me any particular spell that could seriously injure or stop me.¡± I confirmed. Actually, I also found it a bit weird of how many spells he used against me. I usually thought that individuals at his level would naturally try to learn more complicated spells capable of one-shot kills or stuff like that. Even his Supreme Spell wasn¡¯t something that fancy, just a shower of fireballs, nothing more. ¡°Then I should be at an advantage.¡± Zoreya said with a nod. ¡°Yeah, you are a tank, after all.¡± I nodded. ¡°A what?¡± Nanya asked furrowing her brow. Oh yeah¡­ I forgot, there are no tanks in this world. I thought. ¡°Erm nothing¡­¡± I replied with a smile. ¡°But now that you know this, what do you plan to do?¡± asked Shanteya curiously. ¡°I have made it clear that I am not your enemy, and I know that Dankyun is still alive out there, somewhere. I wish to join your party and travel with you for a while longer, to make certain of your intentions towards the Melkuth Order of Crusaders as well as humans and all the other intelligent species out there.¡± she explained with a nod. ¡°Erm¡­¡± I looked at Nanya and then at Shanteya. ¡°That is not up to debate. I have received my orders from Melkuth himself!¡± she stated clearly and struck the floor with the bottom of her shield. ¡°Great¡­¡± I let out a sigh. ¡°By the way, you said that the name given to you while in the Alttoros orphanage was Eleanor. Why are you called Zoreya then?¡± Shanteya asked. ¡°Zoreya is the name give to me by my god, Melkuth, upon becoming his Apostle and receiving his Divine Shield.¡± she said proudly and then gave a light pat on her shield. ¡°Well, I¡¯m not against it¡­¡± I shrugged. ¡°But you will get your own room and manage your own expenses while we travel. If we do any quests, and you join us, we¡¯ll split the reward.¡± I stated the conditions loud and clear. ¡°That would be obvious.¡± she nodded. ¡°Well then, welcome aboard, Zoreya Eleanor Alttoros!¡± I said and then laughed. ¡°Welcome!¡± Nanya and Shanteya said in tandem. ¡°Does this mean big metal lady is now Master¡¯s wife as well?¡± asked Tamara all of a sudden. ¡°Huh?¡± I blinked surprised. ¡°Yeah, if you get a weird message appearing before your eyes asking if you wish to become this idiot husband of mine¡¯s wife, select ¡®NO¡¯.¡± Nanya pointed out. ¡°I don¡¯t think I understand, but I will do so. As Melkuth¡¯s Apostle, I am required to remain both pure of heart and pure of body in order to keep his divine spark in my heart. Love or marriage are both forbidden.¡± she explained with a nod. ¡°That¡¯s sad¡­¡± I said. ¡°Yes.¡± Shanteya nodded. ¡°Very.¡± Nanya confirmed. ¡°Metal lady is a lonely baba!¡± Tamara joked. ¡°I¡¯m not a baba!¡± Zoreya complained. But she is sort of cute¡­ I thought to myself. Then why not grab her¡­ enslave her¡­ make her yours? a creepy voice echoed in my mind, but I ignore it. Lately, the Darkness was annoyingly active, just like it happened during the battle between me and Zoreya. It kept telling me to kill her, and I wasn¡¯t able to hear her when she gave up. This¡­ was starting to worry me¡­ Chapter 67: The start of a new day [Tamara¡¯s point of view] I woke up in the morning and let out a big yawn. It was around the time the sun started to rise up at the edge of the world. Getting out of bed, I jumped on all fours and sniffed the air. Only Ayuseya and the metal lady were here. Sneaking up between their beds, I peeked at the dragon lady and saw her sleeping peacefully. Her chest going up and down each time she took a breath. On the other bed was the metal lady. She slept wearing her armor and used her own shield as a blanket. It looked very uncomfortable, but she didn¡¯t seem to mind. Maybe she was used to it? I poked her cheek. ¡°Unyaaa¡­¡± she let out a strange sound. ¡°Metal lady is weird.¡± I said tilting my head. Going out of the room, I sniffed the air and felt the scent of mating. Master was busy last night with demon lady and el¡¯doraw lady. As I made my way to their room, I saw the three of them sleeping peacefully. They were all naked and cuddled up together. Looking at them stirred up something inside of me. I quickly shook my head and moved away. Tamara is a pet¡­ a slave. I reminded myself. Lately, I have gotten a bit too used to using my own name to address myself, and it accidentally slipped out from time to time. I left the house Master made and took a deep breath of fresh air. The place around us was charred, and there didn¡¯t seem to be anything I could eat. Tilting my head to the left, I thought about what I should do. First of all, I should get a better viewpoint. I told myself and then made my way to the top of Master¡¯s house. Once up there, I looked around and saw the line of the forest spreading far and wide. There were no mountains in the far, only a desert and a few hills here and there. What I was looking for was river or a lake, something with fish. Last night, after metal lady joined our group, dragon lady returned and told us of a nearby village. If I remember right it¡¯s in that direction. Usually, humans put their village next to a river. Nekatars always put their village next to a river. It¡¯s easier to fish that way! I thought and then jumped off. When I was back on the ground, I perked my ears up and looked around for some food, a bunny or anything small I could catch. Hunting monsters was a possibility too, but dragging those things back was a bit too much for me. Well, it didn¡¯t matter, I made up my mind to hunt something and dashed towards the forest. Master¡¯s boost allowed me to be quite fast and strong. Even without it, I was pretty confident in my own skills. ¡°Nya~!¡± I said happily as I entered the forest. [Ayuseya¡¯s point of view] ¡°Ah! Good morning, Ayuseya!¡± said Illsy when I entered the room. I was alone, Zoreya was awake, but she remained in her room to offer a prayer to her god. I told her to stay there until one of us came after her, unless she wanted to see Illsy naked. I warned her that we wouldn¡¯t appreciate something that. ¡°How was it?¡± I asked blushing. They were all naked. ¡°You missed out on something great, draconian princess!¡± Nanya giggled and got out of bed. ¡°I didn¡¯t expect Nanya to be such a good kisser.¡± Shanteya said with a giggle. ¡°I¡¯m technically older than you, so I should have a bit of a know how!¡± the demoness said pushing her chest forward. ¡°Yes, but I am the more experienced one.¡± While they were fighting over who was the better kisser, I was blushing like an idiot, not knowing even how I should react to such a thing. They weren¡¯t going to force me, I knew this, but somehow it seemed to be inevitable that one day I would also join them for such an experience together with Illsy. Still, as I was at that moment, I simply couldn¡¯t do it. Such a thing was too much for me! ¡°Let¡¯s go take a bath for now.¡± proposed Nanya in the end as she stretched her arms. ¡°I¡¯m going to join you.¡± Shanteya said and got out of bed after her. Neither bothered to grab any clothes. I was left alone with my husband. ¡°Ayuseya?¡± Illsy said, and I looked up at him. ¡°Yes?¡± I replied. ¡°If you want, I can be all yours this morning?¡± he suggested with a kind smile. My heart skipped a beat when I heard him. Even after spending the night with Shanteya and Nanya, he still didn¡¯t forget about me. How could I deny such a tempting offer? ¡°If I can still please you¡­¡± I said and then nodded shyly. ¡°You always pleased me, Ayuseya. What I¡¯m worried about is if I am good enough to please a cute woman like you?¡± he asked me with a seductive smile. My heart skipped another beat, and I slowly began to undress. ¡°Then¡­ please take care of me, my love.¡± I replied with a smile. [Shanteya¡¯s point of view] The night with Illsy and Nanya was quite unexpectedly pleasurable. The demoness certainly knew how to use her tail, but at the same time, I felt like the bond between us deepened even further. After our bath, we wanted to return to Illsy, but we heard Ayuseya¡¯s moaning and decided not to disturb the two. The draconian woman deserved a bit of pleasure time as well, seeing as how she wasn¡¯t embraced by Illsy for almost a week now. I began to feel sorry for her, but it was also partially my fault for becoming a bit¡­ addicted to him. ¡°Let¡¯s put on some clothes and see if Zoreya is up.¡± Nanya suggested and pulled out from her Inner Mind a chest in which she stored her casual clothes. We each took a pair of pants and a shirt. She also took a pair of panties and a bra for herself. Since we were different sizes, she couldn¡¯t share those, but I didn¡¯t mind. Once Illsy was done, he was going to give me all of my clothes, and I could return these to Nanya. Upon entering the room, we found the human woman praying to her god, Melkuth. Out of courtesy, we decided to keep quiet and patiently wait for her.If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. It took her another ten minutes to finish. ¡°I¡¯m sorry to keep you waiting.¡± she said as she got up. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it.¡± Nanya shook her head. ¡°Your friend, the draconian named Ayuseya suggested I should wait here until your husband is dressed.¡± she told us. ¡°Ah¡­ Erm¡­¡± me and Nanya looked at each other then back at her. ¡°Well, it¡¯s her time to spend some time with Illsy, but if you are hungry, we can go and make a fire. I should still have some food stored up¡­¡± Nanya explained. ¡°I can also share some of my provisions, seeing as how we will be traveling together from now on, but first¡­¡± she looked down for a moment, her cheeks reddened ¡°Is it possible for me to use your bath?¡± she asked shyly. ¡°Ah! Of course! Let me go prepare it for you!¡± said Nanya with a smile. ¡°I¡¯m going to head down and start a fire to cook some lunch.¡± I told them. ¡°Thank you, I will be waiting here.¡± Zoreya said. [Zoreya¡¯s point of view] Upon entering the bath, I found it to look very similar to those in a rich noble¡¯s house or even those at the Royal Palace. There was a very large bathtub that could fit at few people, a toilet, and a washbowl. There were some knobs to the left and right of the pipes from which the water came forth, both marked with a blue and a red color. The toilet had water in it and wasn¡¯t a simple hole dug up into the ground. On top of it was a small bowl with a metal chain attached to it. The words ¡®Pull to flush¡¯ were written on it in Kalish. ¡°What does it mean?¡± I asked myself curiously, and I pulled. All of a sudden, the toilet was filled with water and ¡®flushed¡¯ down the drain pipes. It was a very curious and interesting mechanism to clean up the waste. Walking to the washbowl, I took off the gauntlet from my right hand and touched the knob marked with blue. I couldn¡¯t press it and I couldn¡¯t pull it either unless I wanted to rip it apart. I decided to turn it, and it worked. Water came out from the pipe. ¡°If Prince Reginald saw this, he would do anything to get one as well or learn how to make one. Hm, the water is cold.¡± I said as I dosed my hand under the stream of cold, clean water. I took a sip and found out it was actually fresh water. Turning the blue knob the other way, cut the water. When I did the same thing with the red knob, I found out it had warm water. Knock! Knock! ¡°Zoreya? May I come in?¡± the one called Nanya asked. ¡°Yes.¡± I replied. Upon entering the room, the demoness looked at me and said ¡°Ah! You aren¡¯t undressed. Anyway, sorry for intruding, but I forgot to show you how things work here.¡± she told me with a wry smile. ¡°I sort of figured it out¡­ They are quite marvelous.¡± I expressed my sincere opinion. ¡°Indeed! Illsy came up with the idea. He got bored of constantly using spells to heat up and fill the water. Well, gently turn the blue knobs to add cold water. The red ones are for hot water. If you turn them at the same time, you can adjust the temperature of the water directly.¡± she told me and then demonstrated. I nodded to let her know that I understood what she said and that there wasn¡¯t a need to repeat herself. ¡°As for the toilet, after you are done with your needs, pull the metal chain.¡± she then walked up to a small cupboard in the corner and took out a few essentials for women and a roll of paper. ¡°Since most of us are women here, this cupboard holds everything you need for that time of the month. Well, I rarely use it because my period doesn¡¯t involve the process of staining my bed with blood. It also happens once every god knows when.¡± she sighed. ¡°For humans, it¡¯s monthly, but I have my provisions as well.¡± I said. ¡°I know. El¡¯doraws have it every two or three months, while nekatars every half of the year before their mating season, but I let you know just in case.¡± she said with a smile. ¡°Are we going to stay here for more than a month?¡± I asked curiously. ¡°No.¡± she shook her head, and I furrowed my brow. Then why complicate themselves with building all of these things and arranging so many provisions? I thought, but Nanya answered my question as if she had read my mind. ¡°When we don¡¯t need this house, Illsy simply absorbs it and stores it inside his Inner Mind. Then, when we find ourselves in need of a shelter, he pops it out.¡± ¡°I see¡­ What is the roll of paper used for?¡± I asked curiously. ¡°This is called toilet paper. Unlike the ones used in Teslov and Shoraya, it¡¯s far softer and better. You basically wipe yourself with it after you¡¯ve done your needs.¡± she pointed at the toilet. ¡°I see¡­ In Aunnar, the royals and nobles usually use wool or some sort of cloth soaked in water.¡± I said. ¡°Use what you like, the bath is already warm and ready, so you can hop right in. I¡¯ll let Illsy know not to accidentally enter while you are in.¡± she said as she walked out. ¡°Thank you.¡± I nodded. After she left, I took off my armor and leaned the shield on the door. Underneath my armor, I usually wore a linen strap to wrap around my breasts, a simple pair of silk panties, a simple cotton shirt, and a pair of pants. I never wore a dress and never tried to, but I found out over time that my physique would quickly attract the gaze of sleazy men, especially my chest. Thankfully, my role and duty required me to always keep my armor on. Still, I did get sweaty and had to change from time to time. I was used to cold baths if there was even a chance to have one at all. That was why when I soaked into the bathtub, I let out a soft moan in delight. It felt so good, a smile appeared on my lips. [Illsyore¡¯s point of view] After the wild night with Nanya and Shanteya came the wild morning with Ayuseya. Lately, I have been neglecting her, but it wasn¡¯t like I didn¡¯t find her appealing or anything like that. To be honest, I had a very hard time debating between who had the better breasts among the three, but even so, I loved doing it with all of them. The only annoyance was the pop-up message that asked me if I wanted to impregnate them or not. I always had to be careful to select ¡®No¡¯. I wasn¡¯t ready to become a father yet. ¡°That was wonderful! Thank you, Ayuseya.¡± I said as I snuggled up to her. Despite being a draconian, she was very warm and always had a pleasant scent about her. ¡°Indeed, it was wonderful¡­ I missed that.¡± she said and then kissed me. ¡°Sorry about that.¡± I said with a wry smile after our lips parted. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll try to be more demanding next time I want to have my mate all to myself!¡± she giggled and then kissed me again. About a quarter of an hour later, Nanya came and told us we could use the bath. Apparently, Zoreya used it earlier, so both me and Ayuseya went in together. I couldn¡¯t abstain and did it again with her, then we got changed and went to meet the others. The only one who didn¡¯t get a bath was Tamara because at that time, she went hunting for our brunch. Of course, the kitten didn¡¯t escape Shanteya and Nanya¡¯s grasp and as soon as they caught the sneaky feline, she was dragged to the bath while yowling. It wasn¡¯t like she hated taking a bath or had a fear of water, she just sort of instinctively ran away from it. Maybe it was a game for her? After we ate the few bunnies Tamara had caught, we packed everything, I absorbed the house and then started to walk in the direction of the village Ayuseya discovered. When we arrived there, we were greeted by two guards, both smiling and looking our way, but they kept themselves vigilant because of our odd combination. The village¡¯s name was Pollian, and it was part of the Tesuar Kingdom located to the north of Aunnar. It was a big country with two ports and a town in the desert. They had a good industry thanks to the mines in the nearby hills, and the low taxes for import and export. All the other cities were merely caravan stops between them. Agriculture and hunting were also part of the economy, but their influence was little in comparison to the mines. Unlike Aunnar, Tesuar didn¡¯t have any dungeons for the local adventurers, but it did have a couple of dangerous forests filled with monsters of various levels. From what I came to understand, it was relatively weak in power when compared to its neighbors, and it was at a constant threat of being under attack by them. Tesuar wasn¡¯t what it once used to be. As for how I knew all of this stuff? During the past few weeks, my beloved wives did all they could to help me study about this world¡¯s political, economic, and military structure. I was also taught the general common sense, at which I had yet to receive a passing grade even after bribing the teacher. But the least I understood was that thanks to our ridiculous stats, we were probably some of the most powerful individuals on the entire continent. We also bought any sort of books I could find along the way. I absorbed them, but I didn¡¯t copy their information with magic as I did when I first reincarnated into this world. I read like any other human out there. Storing the books like this would also ensure that when I formed my Magic Academy, my library wouldn¡¯t be lacking in guidance material. That being said, we didn¡¯t spend the night in Pollian village. We continued to make our way North towards one of the mining towns. When it got dark, I summoned our temporary home and installed it on the side of the road. This was going to be the second night Zoreya spent together with us, but as usual, she refused to come out of her armor unless she took a bath or went to the toilet. Either way, we had a good meal, we told a couple of jokes and then went to bed. That night, Ayuseya was the one who wished to stay together with me, while Shanteya and Nanya retreated to the bedroom with Zoreya and Tamara. To make things less cramped, I had to increase the size of their room and add an extra bed. The following morning, we continued on our road towards Deforan town. Chapter 68: The secret plan [Illsyore¡¯s point of view] It¡¯s been almost four months since Zoreya became part of our little group. With her help, we were able to travel safely throughout the entire continent and complete a lot of quests. Rumors of the once unruly prince from Aunnar Kingdom who turned his blade against slavery reached far and wide, especially since he himself began to hunt down those who defied this law. It appeared that the unspoken part of the curse activated. I never thought he would reach so far, but it appeared as though his desire to live was greater than his pride. I was now genuinely curious to see how Reynolds would turn out in the following years as well as how the entire Aunnar Kingdom would change. Regarding the academies and other libraries spread throughout the entire continent, they were quite lacking in both content and quantity of books. The Royal Library in the Tesuar Kingdom was ridiculously thin. About how we got in, let¡¯s just say that while everyone was asleep, there was a certain Dungeon Lord and sneaky el¡¯doraw who went inside and ¡®borrowed¡¯ a couple of their books. At first, we did try the old fashion way of going in and requesting the right to see it, but since none of us was a recognized noble of this country, we weren¡¯t allowed in. They also said something as ridiculous as only nobles were allowed to study those books, peasants had no such right. In their eyes we were peasants. Even Ayuseya¡¯s status wasn¡¯t recognized, while Zoreya had no power even as an Apostle of a god. This was something she wasn¡¯t worried about, but which we found to be rather ridiculous, seeing how they had a dedicated Temple of War and all. At least, this king didn¡¯t try to kidnap my wives and slaves, but I was itching to blow up his castle too, however, after seeing the state of his so-called Royal Library, I changed my mind. He wasn¡¯t worth the energy. It had only six bookcases with eight shelves each. A third of their books were copies of others, and the most interesting one I could find was about the Draconian-Human war that ended several centuries ago. Ayuseya¡¯s ancestor, the one who received the curse, did quite a number on humans thanks to his abnormal power. The legend written in that book told of how humans, el¡¯doraw, and elves joined forces in order to stop his onslaught. Eventually, they were almost defeated, but then the humans found a curse book in a dungeon and used it to curse the Draconian King. The curse worked, but the sacrifices made rendered the entire country at that time defenseless. It was absorbed into the small country of Tesuar at that time. The legend was a bit different from what Ayuseya told me, but the story was probably told differently depending on each kingdom¡¯s point of view. It was highly likely that the Paramanium Empire and Shoraya Kingdom also had different versions of it from the Teslov one. Either way, all kingdoms eventually rose to power from nothing and then fell when their power diminished enough for others to strike a victory against them. Of course, back on Earth, things weren¡¯t as fast and dramatic as they were here. There¡¯s also the fact that the Medieval Age of this world persisted over thousands of years. In regard to technology, because all the species of this world were more or less dependent on it, none of them bothered to research non-magic technology. When I asked this of Ayuseya and explained how a gun would work, her question was as follows: ¡°Why should we waste hundreds of years to develop a weapon that shoots a lead pebble, when magic spells produce a far better result?¡± When I tried to explain that developing technology would allow non-magic users to have a better life, she asked me this: ¡°Can¡¯t a non-magic user hire a magic user to help him with what he needs?¡± Although in my mind it was logical as to why technology should be developed, especially medicine and the like, it was hard to convince anyone that magic couldn¡¯t do it better, especially when I was a living proof of that fact. Everything I did and built was through magic, even my AGLMC used only a scientific concept applied to Magic-Created devices. In the end, I gave up on trying to explain it. At this rate, they would reach the Earth¡¯s equivalent of Information Age in roughly 20-30 thousand years, give or take a few centuries. This was only because there weren¡¯t enough people who focused on researching technology besides a few curious scholars here and there. Meanwhile, I could only wonder what my wives would have to say once they found themselves in the middle of Tokyo, for example. Maybe then they would agree that researching technology was a good idea. It was hard to do so and required a lot of manpower, but little by little, like a gigantic puzzle, everything would fit together and give birth to wonders such as the Personal Computer, Smartphone, and most importantly Cat Videos on the Internet! That being said, I came to the conclusion that Fellyore Magic Academy was probably a one-of-a-kind institution because of its lack of restriction on species who could join. They didn¡¯t place a requirement on their social status either, and I could say that even their teaching methods were different from those I¡¯ve seen in other academies here. They had a very stiff and weird way of teaching their students. Thinking out of the box or by examples were methods considered uncommon by many and preposterous by others. Witnessing this led me to believe that Tuberculus was more of a genius than he let out to be. This also meant that I had to be on the look out for possible teachers. Hiring the boring old men who thought in those academies was out of the question. I really didn¡¯t like their method of teaching. As for the students, I wasn¡¯t going to be a noble-exclusive academy, a fact which was frowned upon in many kingdoms by the looks of it. Well, I was a Godlike Dungeon Lord, it mattered not for me. ¡°Why should we allow the peasants to learn the fine arts of nobles?¡± was the usual reply I received when I asked them about it. Surprisingly, during these past four months, we didn¡¯t encounter any unexpected circumstances like we did back in Aunnar Kingdom. Bandits or monster attacks were fairly common, however, just one look at Zoreya or Nanya in her real form was enough to turn the brave men into cowardly mice. Few were those who decided to attack us, but then Shanteya pummeled them into the ground. If by some chance, an unfortunate fellow pointed at me and insulted me, all three of my wives jumped on him. At that time, me and Zoreya released a calm prayer for the soul of the unfortunate bastard. Tamara would refrain from doing so and only released a cute giggle. Speaking of which, the relationship between Zoreya and the girls was getting better and better with each passing day. Lately, she had been smiling and laughing a lot. At first, she was like a rock, unchanging and unwavering no matter what we said unless I started to tease her or tickled her, but if my jokes went to far, I received a shield drop on my head¡­ and that thing was HEAVY! The other thing I noticed about her was the fact that she was actually quite pretty. Despite being almost one century old, because she kept her young appearance, she looked as she did when she was twenty something. Well, I wasn¡¯t planning on making her my fourth wife, I was just admiring her beauty, a fact which went by completely unnoticed by her and easily spotted by my three wives. I could swear, but those women had an ¡®Illsy is looking at another woman¡¯ radar. If my eyes just slightly moved towards the round behind of a cute elf passing by, I was then turned around by Shanteya. If I spotted a big breasted draconian, and by chance she threw me a gaze, Ayuseya embraced me, kissed me, then hissed at the poor woman. That was no exaggeration. She did exactly that. When I questioned her about it, her reply was this ¡°I¡¯m just stating my dominance over you, and reminding other women that you¡¯re mine, and I¡¯m yours.¡± As for Nanya¡­ let¡¯s just say she wasn¡¯t worried about me slipping into another woman¡¯s bed, but she had a lot of fun teasing the slightly jealous Shanteya and Ayuseya with it. That demoness was purposely asking me stuff like this: ¡°Does that woman have bigger breasts/looks better/is cutter than Shanteya/Ayuseya?¡± The result was me turning my head out of reflex, and¡­ I never learned. During these past four months, something else happened though. I became more aware of when The Darkness was taking over me.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. The first time this happened was during the first week when Zoreya became a part of our group. After a wild night with Shanteya, I woke up after she fell asleep. I could see as I always did, but I knew my body wasn¡¯t controlled by me. I tried to, but I simply couldn¡¯t do it. What¡¯s happening? What¡¯s going on? I tried to scream in my mind. ¡°Just relax, Illsy¡­ We¡¯re just going to have some fun. That¡¯s all.¡± The Darkness spoke with my voice and then looked down at the naked el¡¯doraw sleeping beside me. I feared the worst, but he didn¡¯t seem interested in trying to get his hands on her. ¡°Let¡¯s go build a dungeon now, shall we?¡± he grinned and then got out of bed. After getting dressed, we jumped out the window and used a spell I never saw before. It made us light as a feather, but also invisible to the naked eye. Once we were out of the city, we kept running at maximum speed for about twenty minutes or so. There were at least fifty kilometers between us and the city where we decided to spend the night. ¡°This should be a nice place! Watch and learn, human!¡± he said and thus began the construction of the dungeon. One thing I had to say¡­ he was terrible at making complicated and terribly hard dungeons, but I didn¡¯t bother to point this out to him. After he was done, he built the Dungeon Core Room and scribbled the laws of Dungeons on the walls. Translated, they sounded something like this: -Dungeons are the natural enemies of all other sapient species out there. -Dungeons don¡¯t need and don¡¯t have friends. -Dungeons make use of all other sapient species by controlling and turning them into slaves. -Dungeons don¡¯t need emotions and don¡¯t need to love. Use these emotions against the sapient species. -Dungeons are superior to all others. And the list of very narcissistic and egoistic laws continued. However, every time he built a dungeon from then on, the laws slowly changed towards sadistic and extensive hate against other species. Another thing I noticed was the fact that he used sentient and not sapient. For me, they both sounded and meant the same thing. I didn¡¯t even bother to wonder if there was any meaningful difference between the two terms, maybe there was in my past life, but I couldn¡¯t remember what was it. Weeks later, the laws The Darkness scribbled on the walls began to include stuff like this: -Dungeons MUST kill every living being that dare to cross their territory. -Dungeons MUST torture to DEATH all living beings who enter their territory. And these were some of the non-descriptive ones. But more importantly, it didn¡¯t matter to him if they were just some poor animals or adventurers. If it was breathing and living, then it was an enemy without exception. Usually, after he relinquished control over my body, which extended only to a mere six hours, I returned to the Dungeon Core Rooms and changed the words to something that wasn¡¯t so sadistic and tyrannical. I knew that new Dungeons were born with a predetermined set of laws in their minds, so I couldn¡¯t influence them too much. Instead, what I did was add laws that spoke of offering a chance to adventurers to prove their worth as well as tips on how a Dungeon could find its own moral compass. Of course, The Darkness wasn¡¯t too happy with me doing this, so from time to time, I found myself speaking out of term with someone or threatening with death someone else. My wives didn¡¯t seem to have noticed, but I was getting worried, and I feared this was turning dangerous. The only one I could confide in was Ayuseya, but she had no idea how to help me either. About three months after Zoreya joined us, I was seriously starting to show that I was losing control, and I feared for the lives of my wives. I still indulged in nights spent in their naked bosom, but lately, I was starting to fear that The Darkness would take over in the middle of it, and the one who offered them a good time was going to be that thing inside of me, not me. Nights with Ayuseya were spent talking more about what I was going through rather than naked and indulging in carnal desires. I still satisfied her from time to time during the day, but I always feared a sudden loss of control. After a while, I began to avoid sleeping with them altogether. The last time I spent with any of them was a few days ago¡­ or was it today? It was hard to remember for some reason. Lately, whenever night time approached, my head was usually getting heavy and my vision blurry. My only question now was: How long could I keep this a secret, and for how long will I be in control of my own body? [Ayuseya¡¯s point of view] A month after Zoreya joined us, me and Nanya pulled Tamara and Shanteya to the side and told them about what was happening to Illsy. To our surprise, we found out that she too noticed a strange change in his behavior. There was something else we noticed, while he was unaware off. The crystal on his chest was slowly cracking and turning from his beautiful light green to a dark, blurry red. Even when Tamara pointed it out, it didn¡¯t seem like he could see it. Shanteya noticed the first crack during that night when he proposed to her. Without a doubt, Illsy was losing control, and we were desperately trying to find a way to help him regain it. We didn¡¯t want to lose our husband, our lover. He saved us once, now it was our time to save him, but we ran into a dead end. None of the books or stories we heard matched anything that was happening with Illsy. First of all, he was a Godlike Dungeon Lord, and he was a something akin to a Legendary existence. Second of all, no one ever heard of something like the Darkness or the process of creating a Dungeon, they were complete mysteries on this side of the continent. Thus, we focused on the only other entities who could help us¡­ the gods. ¡°Aaand that¡¯s why we wanted to talk with you¡­¡± said Nanya with a wry smile as she looked at Zoreya. Indeed, the serious woman was our only bet, our only clue regarding to what we could do to save our beloved Illsy. We wanted The Darkness gone and our man free. Even if he lost all of his power, even if he became nothing more than a simple, Normal Dungeon Core, we wanted him to regain his personality, to be our beloved Illsy, not this thing he was slowly turning into. ¡°I see¡­¡± said the human crusader as she looked with a serious gaze in her eyes at us. We told her everything we knew from the very beginning and all the way until now. ¡°Well, do you think you can help us?¡± I asked worryingly. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but I never heard of anything like this either. It never even occurred to me that there was something like a spell or ritual to create a Dungeon.¡± she replied shaking her head. ¡°So¡­ is Master not going to be Master anymore?¡± Tamara asked as she looked up at the el¡¯doraw with worried eyes. ¡°I don¡¯t know, little one¡­ I don¡¯t know.¡± Shanteya replied and gently petted her furry head. ¡°Where is he now?¡± Zoreya asked. ¡°He left two hours ago.¡± Nanya crossed her arms at her chest and closed her eyes. ¡°As soon as he believed I was asleep, he turned and left.¡± ¡°The same thing happened to me four days ago.¡± said Shanteya. ¡°I have indeed saw him leave several times, but then he used a strange spell and vanished from my senses. Upon questioning the following day, it was like he completely ignored my words.¡± Zoreya nodded. ¡°I see¡­¡± I said. ¡°It may not be hopeless though¡­¡± said Zoreya as she rubbed her chin. ¡°What do you mean?¡± Nanya asked. ¡°If I reach one of the many Temples of War on this continent, then I can ask Melkuth himself about a possible cure.¡± she nodded and then looked back at me ¡°This might have been the actual reason why I was told by him to travel with all of you and simply observe. Even I could tell that Illsyore wasn¡¯t a normal Dungeon, he was¡­ he is a good person.¡± she said. ¡°Indeed¡­ He is.¡± Shanteya nodded. ¡°Master is good. Master always gave Tamara fish!¡± said the little one. ¡°Then, what are we going to do?¡± I asked. ¡°We¡¯ll go towards this Temple of War. Which one is the closest?¡± Nanya asked. ¡°That would be the one in the city of Teyarion in Tesuar Kingdom.¡± said Zoreya. ¡°Araaa¡­ I wonder if the king is still mad at us for breaking into his library and stealing his worthless books like that?¡± Nanya wondered as she scratched her right cheek. ¡°They should be unaware of who we are. Besides, we have Zoreya here, who is a Supreme. Even if they found out somehow that Shanteya and Illsy were the thieves who broke into the Royal Library, they wouldn¡¯t dare to attack us while she is in our party.¡± I explained. ¡°That is quite true.¡± she nodded. ¡°That didn¡¯t stop Prince Reynolds from attacking Master?¡± Tamara pointed out while tilting her head to the left and looking up at Shanteya. ¡°The Prince was unaware of our capabilities at that time, but attacking an Apostle of Melkuth is the same as attacking the Temple of War and challenging Melkuth himself. No kingdom will be so foolish.¡± explained Shanteya. ¡°That is indeed true.¡± Zoreya nodded. ¡°Hey¡­ could it be that the reason no one tried to pick a fight with us was because of you?¡± Nanya squinted her eyes at the crusader. ¡°It is quite possible that we are under the protection of my god, Melkuth.¡± she didn¡¯t deny it. ¡°Well, I guess it¡¯s good then¡­ Sigh.¡± the demoness scratched the back of her head and then turned her gaze towards me. ¡°So, Teyarion is our next destination?¡± she asked. I nodded. Everyone came to a mutual agreement. In order to save our beloved husband, we would all aim for the only clue and chance we had, that of praying to a God. Even so, I was worried if it would actually work or not, but I had to have faith in Zoreya, who was Melkuth¡¯s Apostle. If even she couldn¡¯t get the god to listen to our prayer, then who could? The following day, after Illsy returned, we marched towards Tesuar Kingdom. Chapter 69: Nightmare [The Darkness¡¯ point of view] Ah~ Sweet harmony of death¡­ Such a long time has past since I last quenched my thirst with the blood of my enemies. My memories were stranded on small islands across and endless ocean. Time of past and moments of the future all seemed to clash in but one single body, yet our memories neither belonged to one or all¡­ We were something else, a hive¡­ a swarm¡­ simply put, the darkness in Illsyore¡¯s Inner Mind. For the past months¡­ or maybe it was days? It was hard to keep count when so many voice sounded in our head¡­ heads? Each day¡­ or days, we struggled to push our dark tendrils deeper into his soul, to pull out and extinguish that last flame of hope and sanity he had left, but it burned¡­ Every time we touched his soul¡­ it burned. I was once a Primordial. I was once a Godlike. I was once a Dungeon Lord, and he was once a Dungeon Core. Neither of us died peacefully. Our enemies, our common enemy, the adventurers, they¡­ THEY were the one who struck us down. THEY were the one who killed each and every one of us! But now we were back¡­ Instead of fragments of a mind, we were of one being¡­ we were The Darkness! Strange right? Before we arrived in that dungeon corrupted by Black Mages, we were of different minds and all willing¡­ more or less¡­ to help Illsyore. He had the soul. He held the reigns. We were but fragments of a dead and long forgotten past. Why bother with revenge and anything else? Well, when he defeated those Mages¡­ When he was attacked and his soul pulled out, something happened. I¡­ We don¡¯t know what exactly, but it changed us. It pulled all of us together, us who were mere fragments on stranded islands. It united us and let us form our own¡­ continent. We were at first islands, then an archipelago, then a continent. Now, we were The Darkness¡­ That name, it had a nice ring to it, it defined us. Now, we sat idly, corrupting Illsyore, killing him from the inside, eliminating those parts of him that made him¡­ him and then placed pieces of ourselves there. Strange as it was, we couldn¡¯t completely kill him¡­ we couldn¡¯t delete those pieces of him, but we could keep him like that, cut up into pieces, in agony, in pain, in our insanity! Those pieces¡­ were locked away¡­ far FAR from here, in a place where not even he could reach¡­ or know of. Like that, he posed no threat to me¡­US. He himself wasn¡¯t aware of this fact. He himself wasn¡¯t aware, that we, The Darkness, his shadow, were controlling him from behind. Move left. Move right. Jump. Bark like a dog! We could give him commands. Some weird, some simple, all ours, and none belonged to him. Like a blind puppy, struggling to find his mother, we let him wander on an endless plain, never guiding him towards his own goal, always giving him a hint of this and that to push him in the wrong direction. He wasn¡¯t aware of our control. He wasn¡¯t aware of our influence. He feared we would overtake him and sleep with his wives, but who said we didn¡¯t do it already¡­ through him? Insanity would soon eat him up. Insanity would soon drive him to the edge. His insanity would soon free us and give us complete control, not just a handful of hours. Yet, he was still strong, still unwilling to give in¡­ We whispered to him in the night, we pushed his hands during the day, but he still struggled. Like a useless animal caught in a trap, he struggled to free himself from Death¡¯s grasp, but it was pointless. Soon, he would be no more¡­ We just needed time¡­ One second¡­ Two seconds¡­ A few months or days? Who knew?¡­ We just knew he would give in and fail. Illsy, you made a powerful and beautiful body, so we decided to take it from you and do what we desired with it. Muhahaha! [Illsyore¡¯s point of view] The light was dimming all around me, the sky was dark and gave off an ominous feeling. It was like the whole world was cursing me, staring at me, pushing me down into the cracks of the charred ground. I screamed out as loud as I could, but not even a single sound left my lips. I had no idea where I was¡­ One day passed, two¡­ then I started walking through the endless dark desert. No, it wasn¡¯t a desert, it was a wasteland. Dead trees and cracked ground was all I could see. The bones of humans, draconians, el¡¯doraws, nekatars, demons, monsters, all sort of of beasts and critters decorated this place. The winds swept gently, barely lifting the dust off the ground into small spirals. The scent that caressed me was harsh, reminding me of a dry carcass, yet all around, I could see nothing but bones. For how long I walked, I had no idea, but time felt like it was passing by quickly, faster than I could count, and I had no way of stopping it. I wasn¡¯t afraid just worried¡­ but for whom? Why am I worried? I asked myself when I stopped in the middle of the wasteland and looked up at the black, unchanging clouds. Who was it? I thought and then looked down at my dried hands. The crystals on my hands and chest were now¡­ red? Not just any red, they were dark-red, close to black. ¡°What¡¯s this?¡± I said as I saw a crack in my left arm¡¯s skin. I pinched it and peeled it off. Underneath, I had a charcoal-black thick, metallic skin. ¡°NO!¡± I screamed and jumped back, frightened of this sight. I shook my head. I grabbed my hair. I screamed and groaned in pain although I wasn¡¯t bleeding or even injured in any way or manner. ¡°What¡¯s happening to me?!¡± I asked myself as I fell on my knees. After a few moments passed, I looked up, and a chill ran down my spine from what I saw. Before me stood¡­ another me. His skin was black like, pure black, not chocolate brown or anything like that, it was an inhuman color with a metallic glister added to it. His eyes were dark-red, his crystals were dark-red, his hair was longer than mine and completely black. He was grinning back at me, showing me his pure-white teeth covered in blood. I flinched. ¡°Wh-what? Wh-who? Who are you?¡± I asked with my lips trembling from fear and shock.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. ¡°I am¡­ The Darkness! Welcome to¡­ REALITY!¡± he laughed and spread out his arms. I looked around. This place felt real indeed, but I couldn¡¯t accept it. So much darkness, sadness, I couldn¡¯t accept that something like this existed. ¡°You don¡¯t believe me?¡± he asked in a seemingly hurt tone of voice. He laughed loudly. ¡°You and I are the last survivors of this place¡­ Well¡­ Dungeon survivors. There¡¯s still four traitors we need to take care of!¡± he grinned. ¡°Four traitors?¡± I asked and then he pointed to his left. Where before there was nothing but bones and dust, now stood my wives and slave, all armed to the teeth with weapons and armors I never saw before, except for Nanya¡¯s sword. There was a fierce gaze in their eyes, an unwavering resolution to finish off their mission. ¡°Nanya, Shanteya, Ayuseya, and¡­ Tamara?¡± I asked surprised. ¡°The four traitors, indeed. They filled your head with muck and grime. They tainted your soul with lies of love only to abandon you in the end.¡± he grinned. ¡°No! That never happened!¡± I retorted. ¡°Really? Then who stands there besides them?¡± he asked and pointed back at them. When I looked back, I saw Dankyun wearing his old armor and holding a golden sword in his hands. He was standing between Nanya and Ayuseya. ¡°No¡­¡± I said. ¡°Oh, yes¡­¡± The Darkness grinned. ¡°You may have defeated me once, but I won¡¯t be defeated again! This time, my wives stand by my side!¡± shouted Dankyun. Wives? I thought surprised. It was then when I noticed the wedding rings on Ayuseya and Nanya¡¯s ring fingers. Instead of my enchanted rings, I saw two golden ones. ¡°I trusted you, Illsy, and you betrayed me¡­ Did you really think I wanted to be just one of your wives? You treated me no better than the assassins guild!¡± Shanteya shouted. ¡°You were supposed to be my master, my friend¡­ but you became my tormentor!¡± cried out Tamara. This isn¡¯t happening? I shook my head and tried hard to remember how it all came to this, but I couldn¡¯t. No memory of my past seemed to come back, not even of my past life. It was like the real Illsyore was this¡­ thing before me. ¡°I will go and finish them off now¡­¡± The Darkness smirked and then dashed towards them. I watched in horror as the battle emerged. Without the [Bond of Trust], they couldn¡¯t possibly fight on equal footing against this monster, yet they tried¡­ and Dankyun was there, helping them. The battle was unbalanced, The Darkness was only toying with them. Every time Nanya slashed her sword at him, the ground was slashed, the sky was cut, and he simply yawned. When Dankyun tried to attack, he was flicked away like some annoying bug. When Tamara tried to do something, she was slapped into the ground. When Shanteya performed a sneak attack, he caught her deadly dagger between his fingers and shattered it. In other words, fighting against him was hopeless, and no matter how hard I tried, no matter how I struggled, I couldn¡¯t think of a way to help them out, to stop his rampage. At this rate, they would die¡­ But Nanya and Ayuseya betrayed me first¡­ they went to Dankyun¡­ they married him¡­ I began to think, feeling as though The Darkness¡¯ words were the harsh, cold reality. ¡°Please¡­ stop¡­¡± I muttered. ¡°AAA!¡± Nanya screamed as she was cut in half with her own sword by The Darkness. ¡°NO!¡± I shouted. ¡°Murderer! Monster!¡± shouted Shanteya, but her end was just as swift. Tears flowed down my cheeks as I saw them falling, dying, one after another. Then to my right, I saw Tamara. She was injured, her left arm was cut from the elbow, and she was bleeding heavily. With a heavy breath, she looked at me with eyes filled with hatred and raised her sword up. I felt a chill run down my spine. Even Tamara? I thought. ¡°You¡­ you are a Dungeon¡­ You are just like the rest of them¡­ You need to DIE!¡± she shouted and lowered her sword. I screamed¡­ and woke up. Breathing heavily, I looked around, sweating and trembling. ¡°What? Where am I?¡± I thought surprised. I wasn¡¯t in that dark wasteland anymore. This was the room I created yesterday when we stopped to set up camp. Looking to my right, I saw a peacefully sleeping Nanya, then to my left Shanteya. They were both still wearing their nightgowns, and I had my pants on. Last night we didn¡¯t do anything, but my memories were blurry. I couldn¡¯t trust them. Rubbing my eyes and forehead, I tried to remember what happened, how I got here. We were at an inn in Tranviur, a border town in the kingdom of¡­ what was the kingdom¡¯s name? Cordina! Yes! Cordina Kingdom. We were heading to Tesaur because Zoreya wanted to go and offer an official prayer to her god, Melkuth. We are now halfway towards Teyarion, a desert city. Yes¡­ I remember now. I thought and then took a deep breath to relax myself. It was all nightmare, all of that was nothing but a fiendishly and frightening nightmare. Looking down at the crystals on my arms, I was hoping to see them in their usual green tone, but it wasn¡¯t like that. ¡°Red¡­¡± I muttered in fear. My crystals held a dark-red fog that ate away at the green color. I chill ran down my spine, and I checked my skin. It wasn¡¯t coming off. I let out a sigh of relief. Soon¡­ I heard The Darkness¡¯ voice. ¡°Who?!¡± I shouted and got up, looking around. There was no one there. I trembled and looked back down at the crystals on my hands. In that moment, I remembered the other me, the dark one, grinning down and fighting my wives. ¡°Illsy?¡± Nanya asked in a weak tone of voice as she rubbed her eyes, struggling to chase away the sandman. ¡°I-I¡¯m here¡­ I-I just had a nightmare¡­¡± I said and showed her a forced smile. ¡°Is that so? Relax, you¡¯re safe¡­ we¡¯re here.¡± she showed me a gentle smile. Instead of feeling relieved, I felt a pain stinging my heart. I remembered the ring on her finger from that dream. ¡°Nanya¡­ you never had the intention of returning to Dankyun, right?¡± I asked in a weak tone of voice. ¡°Huh? That creep? No! I would rather bite my own tongue off! Where is this coming from, Illsy?¡± she asked worryingly. ¡°Nothing¡­¡± I shook my head and smiled ¡°Just a nightmare¡­ It was just a nightmare.¡± ¡°Well, try and forget it, Illsy, no matter what happens, you are the man I chose! There will NEVER be anyone else!¡± she nodded confidently. ¡°Yes, that¡¯s true.¡± I let out a sigh and then rubbed my forehead. ¡°Mn? What¡¯s going on?¡± Shanteya asked sleepily as she got up and let out a yawn. While doing so, her nightgown straps fell off, and her chest was fully revealed to me. I blushed. ¡°Nothing¡­¡± I muttered. ¡°Hm?¡± Nanya looked at her and then smirked. ¡°Illsy, I think I have the perfect way to cure that nightmare of yours!¡± she grinned and then let down her nightgown as well, revealing her generous chest. ¡°Erm¡­ I¡¯ll pass¡­ I¡¯m not in the mood¡­¡± I shook my head and then left. I wanted to do it, I really did¡­ but¡­ I was afraid I wouldn¡¯t be able to keep the Darkness at bay. Then again¡­ what if I injured them while doing it? What if something happened? I couldn¡¯t risk it. With such thoughts rushing through my mind, I climbed down the stairs and walked outside to take a breath of fresh air and calm down. [Nanya¡¯s point of view] ¡°Did Illsy just ditch us?¡± I asked surprised. ¡°I believe so¡­¡± Shanteya said worryingly. ¡°Sigh¡­ His idiotic head must be filled with worries of that stupid Darkness¡­¡± I groaned and rubbed the back of my head. We were starting to get really frustrated because he was avoiding all of us. It was like Illsy wasn¡¯t pleased by our womanly bodies anymore, but I would have been a fool to believe something like that. ¡°I really hope Zoreya can find a cure for him¡­¡± Shanteya said. ¡°She¡¯s our only hope, to be honest¡­ I don¡¯t know how to cure something like that. I can only forgive him for whatever he does.¡± I let out a sigh. ¡°I wish I could tell him that we know and we are on his side, that we are trying our best to help him.¡± Shanteya said as she got out of bed and started to change her clothes. ¡°Me too, but if we do that¡­ The Darkness will know, and it might try to rush things. We don¡¯t want something like that¡­¡± I plumped down on the bed, arms spread, and sighing. ¡°Ayuseya is really strong¡­ To keep something like this a secret and struggle with whether to tell us or not and when¡­¡± Shanteya said. The el¡¯doraw didn¡¯t hate us for keeping this a secret from her, despite her being the first of us to enter in a contract with Illsy. However, even she understood now why at the beginning, when she first entered his Inner Mind, there was so much darkness there. More so, why that said darkness appeared to have a mind of its own and move about without Illsy specifically ordering it. At first, it helped us in a strange way, but then¡­ he changed. The moment of this change, if I were to put my finger on it was either when Illsy gained a humanoid body or when he was attacked by the Black Mages. Maybe, back then, his soul was weakened, or it did something to all of those minds inside of him. Either way, things weren¡¯t looking too good for him. I, personally, feared the worst outcome of them all¡­ that Illsy would end up absorbed by The Darkness, and we would end up as that thing¡¯s toys. The man we loved was Illsy, not the Darkness¡­ Chapter 70: Memories and Turmoil [Zoreya¡¯s point of view] In the past four months, I have carefully watched and analyzed the behavior of the Godlike Dungeon Lord Illsyore. Most of the times, he acted like a calm individual with an unusual good nature. We traveled throughout the entire continent at a speed I rarely had the chance to. Back when I was in Prince Reginald¡¯s service, I never once went faster or slower than him, but with Illsyore¡¯s group, I could use my top speed without worrying that I might leave them behind. On the contrary, there were times when they were the ones who more than once left me behind. When I caught up, they welcomed me with a smile and maybe a joke or two. As for food and other necessities, I never even had the chance to deplete my own reserves of them. The women were always kind and shared food with me, as for the Dungeon Lord, he refused to let me eat alone. The most I was surprised with was their attitude towards my moments of prayer. Throughout my life, I had the chance to join many adventurers and noble lords on their quests. Whenever it was time for me to pray, they always tried to rudely interrupt me or question my faith. As an Apostle and follower of Melkuth, I ignored them and let them believed what they wished. I had no reason to impose the faith of my god upon them. If they themselves weren¡¯t attracted to it, then forcing it upon them would only lead to a hollow faith unworthy of a true follower. It was better without such people than to have them surround me, faking their belief only to latter try to stab me in the back. Illsyore requested his wives not to bother me during such times. I only needed to let them know, and they would stop to wait for me or give me the privacy I needed. The only other individual who did this was Prince Reginald. On that note, Melkuth often told me to stay close to them. As I did, I began to guess why it was so. They didn¡¯t robbed the poor or harmed the innocent. To those who found themselves in difficulty, they offered a helping hand without asking for even a single copperette in return. To those who wished them harm, they were like raging monsters basked in the fires of war. Once or twice, I had the chance to spar with them. As a result of this, I found out a few things about them. Tamara was the weakest of the group, and although she was Illsyore¡¯s slave, she behaved more like a free woman, and the others acknowledged this as well. Not even once did I hear the Dungeon Lord order her something. The nekatar was never bothered by her inferior combat abilities and spent most of her time hunting for birds and fish. In a way, she was like a cute little sister to all of us. After her, in terms of combat prowess was Ayuseya, the draconian princess. I was surprised when I found out about her noble background and even more so when I heard that she did not suffer of the rumored curse that afflicted the entire Pleyades royal family. This woman was a strange one. When Illsyore was with his other wives, she acted indifferently and elegantly. When it was time for her to pull him to bed and do what men and women usually do together at night, she turned into a seductress who constantly clung to him. When another woman attempted to approach him, she turned scary¡­ hissing and glaring at them like a wild beast. Shanteya, in terms of strength and Magic Energy was a little beneath the draconian woman, but among all of them, I feared her the most. I learned that she was a former assassin, but her edge didn¡¯t dull at all. Cunning, tactical, and secretive, she always moved into the shadows to finish off her opponents. Those who dared to slander Illsyore¡¯s name were often found afterward beaten half to death in some dark alley. The strongest among them was Nanya. I could never beat this woman in fair combat. Her abilities with magic were impressive. Her skill with her black sword were incredible. Her strength was unreasonable. Against her, I could only defend myself. As for her attitude towards Illsyore, she was of the playful type, who often tried to pull pranks on all of us. I learned the hard way that I had to be careful around her. That demoness turned my hair pink for one day, made me speak backwards for two, and¡­ made me lose more bets than I desired to. When it came to other women who approached Illsyore, she was usually the first one after Ayuseya to react. If the draconian wasn¡¯t around, she took matters into her own hands, although, I would appreciate it if she stopped making me use my shield as a knock-out hammer on Illsyore. Alas, a crusader had to keep her word¡­ even if that word was given during a bet about how far two frogs placed next to each other could jump if startled at the same time. As for those who dared to pull out a sword to threaten Illsyore, she had a very simple cure. She walked up to them, grabbed their blade and snapped it in half. Few dared to try again. Overall, they were an interesting bunch and not at all as I had initially expected them to be. The women truly loved Illsyore, and he replied to their love equally, but lately¡­ he had been acting strange. More than once, I had seen him glaring at shadows or turning around as if someone had just whispered something dreadful to him. When he was engaged in combat, he had a hard time controlling his urge to kill, almost as if he was struggling against an invisible force. Meanwhile, during some nights, he would run off into the wilds and return only the following morning. I tried to chase after him once, but he was faster than me. It was later when I learned of The Darkness, who was trying to take control over him. I had a very bad feeling about it, but only through a deep meditation with Melkuth would I be able to find an answer to this, and this could only be done at one of his temples. In theory, I could do it anywhere, but if this thing inside Illsyore¡¯s mind managed to get a whiff of our plan, the temple would be the only place where I would be completely protected by my god when in such a deep meditation and trance. It was better to be safe than sorry. Thus, we made our way to Teyarion, the desert city of Tesuar Kingdom. There, I would find the Temple of War and begin to pray to my god, Melkuth. Meanwhile, Nanya, Shanteya, Ayuseya, and Tamara would all keep a close eye on Illsyore to make sure if he was still there or not. ¡°It¡¯s hot!¡± complained the nekatar. ¡°Indeed.¡± said Shanteya. They were both breathing hard. Nanya was using a fan to keep herself cool, while Ayuseya wore very thin clothing, up to the point where she dangerously showed her shapes. Meanwhile, I thanked Melkuth for the temperature regulation enchant of my armor. As for Illsyore, he looked calm and composed. ¡°I think I see it¡­¡± he pointed out to the city. ¡°That¡¯s it¡­¡± I said and then let out a small sigh. Looking at it from afar, I began to remember a little bit of my past. To be more exact, of the time when this city was nothing more than a small town near an oasis. ¡°This is the place where I received the Shield of Melkuth.¡± I said. ¡°Really? I didn¡¯t know this place had such a history. Can you tell me about?¡± he asked curiously. There was no reason not to, so I began to speak of how I was wandering through the streets as a young girl, trying my best to survive and constantly thinking of the time when I would get my revenge on Dankyun. ¡°You didn¡¯t get it while practicing in a temple?¡± asked Nanya curiously. ¡°No.¡± I shook my head. ¡°Over there, before the war, was a small mansion belonging to a noble. The walls were thick and tall. Many thieves tried to get in, but he had an Emperor Rank guard who could easily push them back. One night, while starving and alone, I walked towards that area. At that time, two thieves managed to break in and leave with some goods. They saw me and decided to silence me.¡± As I spoke, I began to remember how frightened I was when I first saw them. It didn¡¯t occur to me at first that they were thieves, but when they pointed at me and declared my death, I trembled in fear like a helpless lamb in front of a starving Dayuk. ¡°What happened then?¡± asked Illsyore. ¡°They grabbed me and tried to slit my throat, but in that very moment¡­ This very shield fell from the sky right on top of them.¡± I giggled and patted it gently. ¡°That must have hurt.¡± said Nanya. ¡°It did, it killed them instantly. I remember that right after that, Melkuth said something like: Ah! I squashed a bug¡­ Well, never mind. Girl, take the shield and bring it to the nearest Temple of War. If you do this, I¡¯ll make you an Apostle! But, I¡¯ll wait to do so until you¡¯ve grown old enough to my liking¡­¡± ¡°He said exactly those words?¡± Illsyore asked me surprised. ¡°Yes. I remember each and every one of his words like a crystal clear memory from yesterday. It was the first time when Melkuth spoke to me, so it was quite¡­ shocking.¡± I giggled. ¡°WOW!¡± Illsyore said. ¡°Why wait until you grow up, nya?¡± asked Tamara. ¡°All Apostles of Melkuth became one after they pass the age of 21. I was granted the gift at the age of 24.¡± I nodded happily.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°I think he was just waiting for you to grow up¡­ more.¡± Illsyore said while looking at my chest. ¡°Didn¡¯t she say that? Wait¡­ what are you looking at?¡± Nanya asked while squinting her eyes. Was he staring at the engravings on my armor? True, they are quite nicely done. I like them myself. I thought. ¡°Nothing¡­ the sky?¡± he replied and looked up. I didn¡¯t get it. ¡°You were thinking about the size of her chest weren¡¯t you?¡± asked Ayuseya as she glared at him. ¡°Erm¡­¡± he tried to back away, but the two women were cornering him. Looking down, I furrowed my brow. My armor wasn¡¯t revealing or anything like that. You could hardly tell if my breasts were big or small. Although, as a matter of fact, he was already aware of how I looked underneath my armor. Still, this had nothing to do with my story or why Melkuth chose me. As for that peculiar event, it happened about three weeks ago. One morning, after waking up a bit earlier than usual and knowing there was a waterfall nearby, I went over there to purify myself. The cold water was perfect for my meditation, and I wasn¡¯t expecting to be followed. Just in case, I searched the area a couple of times before picking a good spot where I could undress from armor. Without wearing even a single strap of clothing on my body, I sank into the cold water and swam all the way to the rocks underneath the waterfall. I picked one with a flat surface, climbed on top of it and began to meditate in silence. It was so peaceful that I nearly lost track of time. Meanwhile, Illsyore and his wives woke up. Seeing that I wasn¡¯t there, they began to search for me to let me know breakfast was ready. The one who found me was none other than Illsyore. He appeared on the other side of the small lake and looked straight at me. At first, I had no idea how to react. He blushed and then turned around. Calmly, I went back to the shore, dried myself and put my clothes and armor back on. All this time, the Dungeon Lord waited quietly. When I walked up to him, he avoided my gaze like an embarrassed teenager. ¡°Erm¡­ You¡­ You¡¯re really beautiful, Zoreya.¡± he told me. In that moment, my cheeks went up in flares, and I quickly avoided his gaze. I replied with barely audible ¡®thank you¡¯ and then we made our way back to the camp site. After I returned from my memory, Illsyore¡¯s eyes were tearing up and his cheeks were red. On each side there was the clear imprint of a palm. Seeing him like this, I let out a soft giggle. Upon entering Teyarion, I was swept by my memories of my teenage years. This place was livelier than before, but it also changed quite a bit. It was almost unrecognizable. Besides the seemingly lifeless way everyone was used to building their homes, adobe brick upon adobe brick held together by a skeleton of wood, only the temples and the local lord¡¯s manor showed a different style in architecture. The distinct smell of clay, hay, and dirty roads still permeated the air around us like it did so long ago. Even so, children played around, giggled and laughed together, while teenagers and adults worked hard on their daily jobs. Those who didn¡¯t were the usual rejects of society, the thieves and unruly ones. The guards at the gates didn¡¯t even try to stop us from entering. The security was lax as usual. ¡°We should find an inn¡­¡± said Nanya. ¡°I want some fish!¡± complained Tamara. ¡°I still have some. We¡¯ll cook it when we get there.¡± Illsyore patted her head, and she leaned back her ears. ¡°I will go with you to the inn, then head to the temple.¡± I revealed my plans for the day. ¡°The temple?¡± Illsyore asked. ¡°They have a Temple of War built in this city. As an Apostle, I must go and pay my respects to my god, Melkuth.¡± I nodded. ¡°I see. Have fun then.¡± Illsyore nodded, but it seemed like he wasn¡¯t suspecting anything. After we arrive at the inn, we booked two rooms. One was for me and the other for them. They had only a double bed room, but Illsyore was planning on absorbing the said bed and replacing it with one of his own. That was their usual strategy. They all slept together in his comfy bed. Once we were set, I left the inn, I walked straight to the temple. [Nanya¡¯s point of view] Now, to be fair, I was getting a really weird feeling from Illsy. My demonic side was acting up whenever he left during the night. In a manner of speaking, I woke up feeling as though I would lose him. It was a strange thing that happened to me, but I was certain I had never felt anything like that before. This fear, this sensation was something new and terrifying. The first time I felt it was during the Mehalom Ancient Dungeon. It was too faint and weak at that moment, but it was certainly the same type of sensation, a dreadful one. I thought it was a one time thing, but then it happened again and again, even when we were fighting at the castle against Reynolds¡¯ troops. It was just a moment, but when I looked at Illsy, I felt a shiver run down my spine all the way to the tip of my tail. Lately, however, I got that strange feeling almost every night. If anyone asked me what was wrong, I blamed it on a bad dream or a memory of Dankyun. No one knew the truth because even I wasn¡¯t sure what it was. At first, I thought that it was mere jealousy towards Shanteya and Ayuseya, but it wasn¡¯t that. After the night in which he embraced both me and the el¡¯doraw, I was quite certain that I felt no such thing towards them. In fact, I was getting curious to test out a foursome with Ayuseya as well. Maybe I unwillingly awoken my perverted side, but all of us like that¡­ for some strange reason, I saw it as if it would make us all complete. I pondered about this for a while. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that my demonic side accepted Illsy, Ayuseya, and Shanteya as a whole. Thinking about a passionate night with all of us made me tingle and see it as an absolute perfection. Thinking about myself without Illsy and only Ayuseya or Shanteya felt¡­ weird, wrong, incomplete? My instincts were weird, and I knew for certain that Ayuseya didn¡¯t have anything like that. She wanted Illsy only to herself. For her, the perfect night was with our husband alone and away from us, the other wives. The draconian princess was greedy. As for Shanteya¡­ I¡¯m never going to underestimate her abilities under the sheets ever again! So, jealousy wasn¡¯t it¡­ I racked my brains again and again¡­ Each night, when he was gone, I felt fear¡­ a tormenting fear. When he returned, I felt at peace, but this didn¡¯t happen often, and it wasn¡¯t always that bad. This sensation, instinct, or whatever I could call it was certainly part of my demonic side, maybe a genetic gift from mother? Nonetheless, it got annoyingly stronger during the last few days before arriving to Teyarion. It was like something inside me was warning me of something dreadful. As I sat down on the bed at the inn in Teyarion, I looked up at the ceiling, and a stray thought crossed my mind. This fear¡­ is it maybe the fear of losing a mate? In a way, it made sense. The only times I felt this was when The Darkness took over. In rest, it was all peachy. As a demoness, losing my mate was probably one of the worst things that could happen to me. My mother always told me that when my demonic side chooses one, it will cling to them for dear life and never let go. Illsy was my mate. If the Darkness was taking over and destroying him then the fear came exactly from that. Now, it felt like it was more urgent for me than ever not let that happen. While I was thinking about such things, I suddenly felt it again. My heart sunk in my chest, and I started to breath hard. I was in the room with Ayuseya, who was in the middle of reading a book. Shanteya wasn¡¯t at inn, she left to gather information and see if she could buy some books for Illsy. As for him, he was downstairs with Tamara, cooking fish. There was no way of letting either of them know what was happening to me, but then I heard a commotion downstairs. ¡°What was that?¡± Ayuseya asked surprised. The sensation was weaker, but the feeling of fear didn¡¯t vanish. I tried to calm down. ¡°I-I don¡¯t know¡­¡± I looked up at the door and then over at the draconian. My hands were still shaking a bit, but I manage to stop them. ¡°I¡¯ll go check it out.¡± I announced as I got up from my bed. ¡°I¡¯m coming too.¡± said the draconian princess. We both walked downstairs and came across a disturbing scene. Tamara was hiding behind a pole, shivering and crying, while Illsyore was on the other side, breathing hard and holding his head as if he had a terrible headache. When he saw us, he looked at us with his right red eye. ¡°WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT?!¡± he shouted and then groaned. ¡°I¡¯m sorry¡­¡± he muttered and then stumbling back, he grabbed his head and fell on his knees. We were looking at him dumbstruck, unable to understand what was happening, but inside, the fear grew stronger. I held my chest and trembled. Is this really Illsy? I wondered. A moment later, he calmed down, and his eyes returned to their normal, beautiful jade-green color. The fear also vanished. ¡°I¡¯m sorry¡­ I¡¯m sorry¡­¡± Illsy said as he was tearing up. ¡°It¡¯s alright, my love.¡± Ayuseya went over to comfort him, while I walked over to poor Tamara. ¡°What happened?¡± I asked her. ¡°I don¡¯t know¡­ The Darkness¡­ Master¡­ he was hurting and¡­¡± she sniffled. ¡°Come here.¡± I urged. Trembling, she jumped into my arms, and I petted her furry head. Something frightened her, something even she didn¡¯t understand. Looking over at Illsy, I was beginning to fear we didn¡¯t really have that much time left to waste around not doing anything about it. Zoreya, please come back with some good news¡­ I thought. [Tamara¡¯s point of view] Master was going to cook fish for me! I was happy! After talking with the inn keeper, he allowed us to use his kitchen for a small fee. Master had no problem tossing a copperette his way, and we both went inside. ¡°You can¡¯t wait for it, can you?¡± Master asked with a bright smile on his face. ¡°Nya~!¡± I nodded and licked my lips. My ears twitched, and I eagerly started to help him with cleaning the vegetables. While we were cooking, I felt a strange tingle on my back. I looked around, but there was nothing there. Then I saw Master. He was holding his head with his right hand as if he was suffering. I got worried, so I carefully approached him. ¡°Master? What¡¯s wrong?¡± I asked. ¡°Ugh¡­¡± he groaned and looked away. My whiskers tingle, and I felt like there was something dangerous around me, but I was with Master, there was no danger there. Was I wrong? ¡°Master?¡± I called out to him. He didn¡¯t reply. ¡°Master? Master? Are you alright? Nyu.¡± I asked him as I flatted my ears and looked at him worriedly. ¡°Get¡­¡± he muttered. ¡°Master?¡± I pulled on his clothes. ¡°Master? What¡¯s wrong?¡± I asked him. He then suddenly glared at me. I froze. This¡­ This is not Master¡­ I thought as I looked at his dark-red right eye. The left side of his face was in pain, while the other looked angry. ¡°LEAVE ME ALONE! YOU RUNT!¡± that thing inside Master shouted at me and tossed me out of the kitchen. It was an invisible force, one of Master¡¯s most used skills: [Telekinezy]. I landed on my feet, but I couldn¡¯t stand up. The collar around my neck was hurting. It was strangling and burning me¡­ ¡°It hurts¡­ nya¡­ Master¡­¡± I said as I looked at him. He was struggling with the pain in his head and looked as though he was in a tug-of-war with whatever was inside of him¡­ The Darkness. When the collar stopped hurting, I hid behind a pillar, afraid of that ominous thing. I was afraid of it. ¡°Master¡­¡± I cried out. It was then when Nanya and Ayuseya came down here. Chapter 71: Zoreyas turmoil [Zoreya¡¯s point of view] The temple of Melkuth was a building made out of granite walls and decorated with beautifully carved marble arches and support pillars. Seven big steps raised the whole construction from the ground, each representing the most important laws of my god. The first was the step of duel, which dictated that a battle between two followers of Melkuth should always be one fought with honor and honesty. This law didn¡¯t apply if only one of them was a follower. The second was the step of war, which declared that all wars should be started only if Melkuth allowed them, otherwise, they shall be doomed to end in defeat. The third was the step of battle, which stated that the followers of Melkuth were obligated to participate in at least one battle in their lives. The fourth was the step of righteousness, which declared that all Melkuth¡¯s followers were obligated to maintain an honest and just lifestyle or else their battle soul would end up tainted and eventually lose Melkuth¡¯s favor. The fifth was the step of judgment, which stated that a follower of Melkuth must never take the life of children or the weak, no matter who orders them to do so. The sixth was the step of the Warrior, which declared that for as long as a True follower of Melkuth lives, he shall always bear the title of a Warrior. The seventh was the step of the Apostle, which stated that all Apostles of Melkuth represent Melkuth¡¯s voice. Through them, his laws were reinforced and as such, the Apostles stood above all other followers. As I climbed these steps, I remembered what happened back when I was still a child and carried the Shield of Melkuth with me to the nearest temple. Blinded by greed, the priests back then tried at first to steal it from me, deeming me unworthy to be a follower of Melkuth, but as soon as they tried to lift it up, they were crushed underneath it. For me, it was always as light as a feather, while for others, it weighed more than a mountain. It was then when I learned that even among priests, few were those who could be called a true believer. A hidden duty of the Apostles was also to weed them out and bring them before Melkuth to judge them. Despite all of this, there was no clear law about how we should act with Dungeon. In general, all temples and their followers applied the same law: Dungeons were an evil existence, and as such, all had to be destroyed. ¡°Great Apostle, it is a great honor to be in your presence!¡± the priest who greeted me said as he bowed with half of his body before me. ¡°Take me to the prayer room and let none enter. So I declare as Melkuth¡¯s Apostle!¡± I ordered and then tapped the shield on the floor. The sound it made was loud, and the priest stiffened. ¡°As you wish!¡± he replied, and I went inside the temple. Moments later, be them priests or simple followers, they all left the prayer room where only I was supposed to remain. There, I knelt down in front of Melkuth¡¯s statue. My god was depicted as a handsome, muscular man with wild black hair, strong black eyes, and wearing a black and red armor. For weapons, it was said he used two katanas with black blades and red hilts, at least in this representation. The temples in Aunnar Kingdom represented him as wielding a mighty shield and a longsword in one hand. He was truly an imposing god who could wield to utmost perfection any weapon designed for war. ¡°I have arrived.¡± I declared. ¡°So you have.¡± came his reply. The voice echoed throughout the room, so there was no need to check where it was coming from. ¡°My god, Melkuth, I come before you to make a wish¡­¡± I said. ¡°So you have¡­¡± came his reply. ¡°It¡¯s about Illsyore, the Godlike Dungeon Lord.¡± ¡°So you have¡­¡± I furrowed my brow. That was a rather unusual reply. ¡°My god?¡± I asked and raised my head. ¡°Huh? Oh! Sorry, Zoreya! I was a bit¡­ distracted. The idiotic God of Big Boobs decided to pay me a visit and explain how he managed to make the perfect¡­ erm never mind. What were you saying? Something about needing to acquire a camel with a shovel?¡± he asked. ¡°Erm¡­ no¡­¡± I blinked surprised. He was wrong¡­ by far. This wasn¡¯t the first time my god answered in such a weird way. During my younger days, I would think of it as a prophecy of some sort, but now, I knew that he would occasionally allow the prayer connection with me despite being in the middle of something. As an Apostle, I took priority over all his other followers. ¡°Huh? Then what?¡± he asked confused. ¡°About Illsyore, the Godlike Dungeon Lord. I came to make a wish about him.¡± I repeated myself. ¡°Ah, yes! What? No, get away from me, you old fool! NO! I¡¯m not going to give you my Apostle for one night! Like I said¡­ Sorry Zoreya, I need to beat someone half to death. Be right back.¡± he said and then the connection was cut. ¡°Huh?¡± I blinked surprised. Somewhere above this city, the clouds turned dark and began to roar. It was said that during that day, people saw a shooting star. Many prayed to it for good luck, but only the gods knew that it was just a pitiful old fool falling from the heavens. ¡°Alright, that took care of things! So, Illsyore, right?¡± he asked. ¡°Yes.¡± I nodded. ¡°What¡¯s your wish?¡± the tone of his voice changed to a more serious one. ¡°I desire to know if there¡¯s any way to free him of The Darkness.¡± I bowed my head. ¡°Hm¡­¡± he became quiet, and I waited patiently until my god, Melkuth, would reply. The silence lasted a few minutes. ¡°There is a way¡­ well multiple ways, depending on how you wish to kill Illsyore. Should I lend you one of my swords? It cuts really nicely!¡± he offered. ¡°Erm, I wish to keep Illsyore alive and remove The Darkness from inside of him.¡± I explained again. ¡°Tch! Very well¡­ but you won¡¯t like it¡­¡± he told me. ¡°What do you mean, my god?¡± I asked.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. ¡°As a god, I could snap my fingers and get rid of IT right away, but doing so would only end up calling the Dark Gods back to this world. I can interfere, but not as much as you mortals may think or desire.¡± he let out a sigh. ¡°My god?¡± I furrowed my brow in confusion. ¡°Well¡­ Hm¡­ I¡¯m just going to come out and say this. There is nothing you can do to cure Illsyore of The Darkness. There is no way to free him of it unless you wish to kill them both.¡± When I heard this, my heart sunk. I didn¡¯t wish to accept that there was nothing I could do. I didn¡¯t wish to accept that there was nothing anyone could do, but if even my god said so¡­ it seemed like my answer was clear. Illsyore had to die before he turned into The Darkness completely. ¡°However¡­¡± Melkuth said. I blinked surprised and looked up at his statue. ¡°Theoretically, there is a way to offer Illsyore the possibility of fighting against The Darkness, but even then, he has no chances of winning.¡± ¡°Is there really no way?¡± I asked still hoping for¡­ something. ¡°Zoreya¡­ why are you so interested in this Dungeon?¡± he suddenly asked me. I blinked surprised, but I found myself unable to answer, only to bow down my head. ¡°From the time I have taken you as an Apostle until now, I had never seen you express so much worry towards another being let alone a Dungeon. What is this Illsyore to you, Zoreya?¡± he asked me. What is Illsyore to me? I wondered, but I couldn¡¯t answer. Silence fell in the prayer room inside the temple. I dared not speak for I had no idea what to say, how to explain something I didn¡¯t know. ¡°You hesitate¡­¡± he told me. ¡°I do not.¡± I replied. ¡°One year ago, any question I would have asked would have been replied clearly, unwavering by you, yet you hesitate now at a simple question with a simple answer.¡± he told me. Simple answer? I thought confused. ¡°Regarding what I said¡­ if you dare to save Illsyore, no if you dare to TRY to save him, you might lose your place as my Apostle. You might even lose your life¡­ The chances and odds of even achieving a chance of a chance of a chance of success are one to a million.¡± he let out a sigh. His words shocked me. To think that in order to save a Dungeon, I, an Apostle of Melkuth would have to lose not only my shield, but the right by my god¡¯s side as well. It was too much of a risk, too much at stake. I have no reason to lose so much¡­ for him. I thought and looked down. ¡°Just like I thought¡­ Just give up on the idea. Tell his wives that there¡¯s no way to save him. Death is his only certain chance. This, as Melkuth, the God of War, declare it to be the truth.¡± his voice thundered in the temple and sent shivers down my spine. Even so, something inside my soul, something inside my heart refused to let go of that one chance Illsyore had. In my entire life, I knew never saw a Dungeon as kindhearted, warm, and loving as him. He didn¡¯t betray his wives and never treated salves as items. He was bound by upstanding and righteous morals. In my eyes, he was an innocent¡­ Normally, I would have thanked Melkuth by now and left his temple, but for the first time in my life, I spoke up. ¡°My god, what do I need to do for that one chance in a million?¡± I asked him. ¡°To give him that one chance of a chance of a chance in a million, you will need to lay down your shield at the right time¡­ and let him kill you. I don¡¯t guarantee it as a success, but the moment you will do so, you will lose your right as my Apostle. Your soul shall be treated similar to that of any other follower. Your name shall be crossed from the archives of history. You will have to give up your life, your salvation as a soul, your spot in the other world, your power, your missions, everything¡­ just to give this Godlike Dungeon Lord, towards whom you hold no duty, responsibility, or feelings, a chance of a chance of a chance in a million for him to set himself free of The Darkness.¡± My god¡¯s words fell down upon me like hammers, each weighing as much as a mountain did. The sentence for just trying to help was too much. It didn¡¯t even matter if I succeeded or not, I wouldn¡¯t get to know for I would be dead. As for my life¡¯s work, all would be cast down into the fire and burnt in such a way that none would remember me. My revenge against Dankyun would be met with at an end¡­ ¡°W-Why?¡± I asked with a trembling jaw. ¡°You are trying to help neither a follower of a¡­ respect god, a king who shall lead his country to glory, or someone of great importance to the better future of this planet. You are simply trying to help a Dungeon¡­ a species without a god. As such, for an Apostle of mine to do something like this is outrageous! I can only see myself needing to cast down upon such an individual a heavy punishment. But these are not the only reasons¡­ as a woman and as my Apostle, you have forsaken other men from your life. As such, holding thoughts of another goes against your existence, and helping Illsyore will prove that your heart does not belong to me, but to an enemy of mine.¡± he declared harshly. Once more, his words struck me mercilessly, bringing me down on my knees and letting me feel a sense of dread and despair. My god¡¯s words meant but only one thing: Illsyore¡¯s healing was against the will of the gods. There was nothing I could do¡­ There was nothing Nanya, Shanteya, and Ayuseya could do. ¡°I understand, my god.¡± I said as I looked down at the cold floor. ¡°Take care, my Apostle.¡± were his last words before our conversation ended. I didn¡¯t get up right away and remained like that for another half an hour. In my mind, I kept thinking about Melkuth¡¯s answer and tried to weigh the consequences of my own actions if I dared to do anything to help Illsyore. From my point of view, an innocent was meant to die regardless of what I would choose. In fact, choosing not to help him seemed like the best thing I could do both for him and myself. Why should I sacrifice myself for him? and with this last thought, I got up from the floor and left the temple. The priest told me something before I left, but I didn¡¯t hear them¡­ my mind was blank, and my heart was heavy. That last question of mine, I couldn¡¯t answer it. The fact that I may have grown attached to him and his group in the past few months was quite possible. My hesitation before my god was the very proof of that, but all in all, it seemed like a strange thing to dot upon. In my mind, I knew that I shouldn¡¯t be like this, I knew that someone like Illsyore was supposed to mean nothing to me, yet the feeling that I was betraying and sentencing an innocent man to death didn¡¯t leave me. Even when I thought about past judgments I passed down to mortal men, I still saw Illsyore¡¯s position as one more special than theirs, yet I couldn¡¯t explain to myself why it was so. Is my mind and heart clouded like Melkuth says? Or¡­ for the first time¡­ he¡¯s wrong? I thought, while gripping hard on the shield¡¯s handle. It¡¯s weight¡­ had changed a little, but I was too distracted to notice. When I reached the inn where I was supposed to be spending the night at, I stopped and looked up at the sky. By entering this place, I had to have the needed strength to tell my friends the truth and decide how it was better to¡­ stop Illsyore. There¡¯s no other way, is there? I wondered and closed my eyes for a moment. All around me, I could hear the parts of life I never had the chance to taste. Children were running back to their homes, two lovers were whispering sweet words to each other, an elderly woman was scolding her grandpa for coming back home late. These were all things Illsyore¡¯s wives also hoped for. They were the things I was about to steal away from them. Dreams I was meant to shatter, and it didn¡¯t feel nice at all. Opening my eyes, I took a deep breath and entered the inn. ¡°Zoreya, you are back¡­¡± said Shanteya as she approached me. Looking behind her, I saw the inn keeper dusting off the floor. The bar was broken, and there were signs of a fight, but I didn¡¯t see any signs of blood or bodies. ¡°What happened?¡± I asked. ¡°It¡¯s Illsy¡­¡± she replied with a sad look in her eyes. ¡°What happened to Illsyore? What did he do?¡± I furrowed my brow and gripped the handle of my shield tightly. ¡°He attacked Tamara, or rather¡­ The Darkness did. I returned only a moment ago as soon as news of a commotion at this inn reached my ears. I¡¯m going to go after him.¡± she declared. Looking over her shoulder, Tamara was being cared for by Nanya, while Ayuseya was rubbing her head as if she had a headache. ¡°Why haven¡¯t either of them went after him?¡± I asked. It was odd that they all stayed behind. ¡°He asked us to. Or rather begged us not to follow him¡­¡± she looked down. ¡°Then why are you dis¡­¡± the word felt hard to pronounce ¡°disobeying him?¡± I asked. ¡°Even if he begged us not to go after him, as his wife and lover, I can¡¯t allow myself to let him suffer alone¡­ I just can¡¯t¡­¡± she looked down. I looked down at my shield and then back at her. ¡°I¡¯m neither his wife nor his lover. Let me go after him¡­ I¡¯ll have a talk with him.¡± I showed her a small smile. ¡°But¡­¡± she was worried. ¡°I¡¯ll return with him. I swear on my name as Melkuth¡¯s Apostle.¡± I smiled. As soon as she heard that, she nodded. It was a promise I couldn¡¯t go back against, although¡­ I never mentioned if he was going to be brought back dead or alive. ¡°Did you find out anything?¡± Shanteya asked me before I turned around to leave. I looked once at her, then over at Illsyore¡¯s other wives. ¡°Yes¡­¡± I replied quietly and then left. Chapter 72: A history untold [Zoreya¡¯s point of view] After I left the inn, I searched Illsyore around the city for the next couple of hours, but I wasn¡¯t able to find even a trace him. It was already getting very late and people were heading off to bed, putting off the small candles that flickered at their windows. I stopped near a small well at the now empty market. I had not intention to have a sip of water from it, but I was feeling rather hungry, so I took out some of my supplies. I had a quick snack: a sandwich, a fruit, and three glasses of pure water. Usually, if there were any beggars or poor commoners around, I would share with them some of my food, but that night, there were none to be seen at the market. As a small favor to the people in this city, I cast [Water Purification] on the well and then continued to search for Illsyore. By now, I had the vague feeling that he wasn¡¯t in the city anymore, so I decided to try the nearby oasis, if it was still there. Leaving the city during the night invited all sort of trouble, but I pitied the poor fool who thought I was an easy target, or the Dungeon Lord for that matter. This reminds me of my early years¡­ I thought as I walked through the desert, slowly approaching the oasis. The winds were calm, and the temperature dropped quite a bit, but thanks to my armor I did not feel the harshness of the climate. By now, the night predators were out on the hunt, and they included both monsters and animals alike. Only a Sand Iguana tried to attack me, but as soon as I chopped off its head, the other monsters ignored me and focused on the fresh body I provided them with. When I reached the oasis, which barely struggled to sustain a few sparks of life around it, I was welcomed by an old, stone sign. ¡°This land is the property of Melkuth¡¯s Apostle, Zoreya. By her decree, none may settle here, but in times of extreme drought, they may take water but not empty the lake.¡± I read it in a low volume voice. A small smile appeared on my lips. This little sign was the result of my first ever wish towards my god. I merely wished for a simple way to protect¡­ my home. I walked past the sign and approached the small lake. The crystal clear water reflected the sky above, and to my right, next to a lonely tree, I saw a lone, hooded fellow. He was staring down at his own reflection. I recognized him immediately. ¡°I heard you ran away.¡± I called out to him. ¡°Please¡­ leave me alone.¡± Illsyore replied. I ignored him and approached him quietly. When I was just a few steps away from him, I stopped. ¡°The night¡¯s beautiful here, isn¡¯t it?¡± I asked him. He didn¡¯t reply. Without saying anything else, I placed my shield in front of me and gazed up at the stars. How should I start this? I wondered. There was a calm and peaceful atmosphere all around us. The leafs rustled a bit, and from time to time, you could hear a critter or two as they traveled about, stopping only if we sparked their curiosity. They never approached us. ¡°Why are you here?¡± Illsyore asked after half an hour had passed. ¡°This oasis¡­ It belongs to Alttoros.¡± I told him. ¡°What?¡± he was surprised to hear this. Anyone would be. This was an old tale from over eight decades ago. Few remembered it, even less knew its meaning. ¡°Do you want to join me for a walk?¡± I asked him and showed him a kind smile. He didn¡¯t reply. ¡°It¡¯ll do you good.¡± I told him. After he looked down, he nodded. I picked up my shield, and we both started to walk on the shore of the lake. ¡°When I was young, me and my siblings often came here to play with sticks. As children, we prending to be knights or warriors of the gods. Hehe! It¡¯s funny because now I am an Apostle of Melkuth¡­ A child¡¯s silly dream came true in the end.¡± I looked back at him. ¡°You said Alttoros wasn¡¯t your name, right?¡± he asked me. ¡°It is, but at the same time, it¡¯s the name of the Orphanage I grew up in. No family came to adopt me, so I took up the name for myself¡­ It was also to honor their memory.¡± my tone of voice turned sad at then end. ¡°Dankyun was also named Alttoros.¡± he remarked. ¡°He took it up for another reason¡­¡± I let out a sigh. ¡°You never had a family, you say?¡± he asked me. ¡°No, I¡¯m an orphan¡­ I did say I grew up in an Orphanage, but not as the child of one of the caretakers there, but as an actual orphan. My real parents abandoned me near the den of a pack of wolves. A passing by follower of Melkuth saw me and rescued me. Or maybe my god foresaw my future and told him to go and save me. Either way, I was brought here and raised as an orphan. My family, sort to speak, were all the orphans and caretakers there.¡± I smiled as I remembered their faces. Even now, after more than eight decades since I last saw them, I could still remember their laughter and smiles as if it was yesterday. They were all my brothers, my sisters, my parents. ¡°I don¡¯t know how that¡¯s like¡­ My parents were¡­ weird. They bugged me to study all the time when I was little. If I got a 5 at math, they were ready to eat my head off! Hahaha!¡± he laughed, but I found his story weird. I thought Tuberculus was his only parent in this world, so why is he speaking of someone else? I asked myself for a moment. ¡°They worried about me a lot as well¡­ They were loving parents, but now¡­ I can¡¯t even remember their faces or names.¡± he let out a long sigh and looked down at his feet. Is this maybe a memory belonging to The Darkness? I thought. As we walked, I began to tell him of my childhood, and how Dankyun was back then. That draconian had always been a little off, but he cared for his siblings and saw me as a younger sister. He was also the oldest among us, and the only one of his species in the region. Because of that, the guards and other people gave him a hard time, but he put up with it. ¡°At that time, I had a little crush on him.¡± I confessed and scratched my left cheek. ¡°Crush? Didn¡¯t you see him as a brother?¡± he asked me. ¡°Yes, but it wasn¡¯t like we were related through blood or were of the same species, but it was most likely just a young girl¡¯s foolish delusion upon entering her teenage years.¡± I giggled. ¡°What about now?¡± he asked me. ¡°Any feelings I had for him died along everyone else in my orphanage. He burned them all without remorse¡­¡± as I said this, I pointed ahead towards a small hill. ¡°Is that¡­¡± he asked me furrowing his brow. ¡°Yes, that¡¯s where Alttoros orphanage used to be¡­ now it¡¯s only a ruin covered in graves¡­¡± told him. A quarter of an hour later, we arrived at what used to be the entrance to the building. It was marked only by a cracked stone slab covered in moss. ¡°I¡¯m home.¡± I said with a soft smile and from inside my storage crystal, I took out a bouquet of flowers. ¡°May your souls rest in peace, my brothers, my sisters, my parents¡­¡± I offered them a prayer and bowed my head once before I placed the flowers on the slab. Illsyore let me mourn in silence. When I was ready, we went around the entrance, following a fallen stone wall to their final resting place.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. ¡°A grave?¡± he asked surprised. ¡°There are no bones here, but I made them a funeral stone since no one else could.¡± I showed him a soft smile. ¡°The first two years I worked as a waitress in the city, I used all of my extra coins to buy this for them.¡± I nodded happily. It was made out of white marble, and their names were all carved skillfully into it. ¡°How old were you when Melkuth gave you his shield?¡± he asked me. ¡°Seventeen.¡± ¡°Young¡­¡± he said. ¡°Yes.¡± I nodded. ¡°But they were younger¡­¡± I looked at the graves. ¡°What happened? Why did Dankyun¡­ Why did he do this?¡± he asked me. I let out a sigh and looked up at the sky as I began to remember. ¡°I said Dankyun was the only draconian in this area, right?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Well, during the summer of the tragedy, an adventurer group was passing by and took rest at a inn before going to challenge a dungeon located not far from here. It¡¯s not there anymore, it was destroyed during the war.¡± ¡°I see¡­ Did those adventurers changed him?¡± he asked. ¡°Rather than they¡­ it was just one, another draconian. He was their mage and a loudmouth too. That fellow always bragged about how his species was great and all. The true might of Teslov was all he could yap about! Everyone ignored him, but he did have one listener, a very foolish, young, and naive listener.¡± I sighed. ¡°Dankyun?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± I looked at him. ¡°Somehow, he got to know him, and he spent a lot of time with him learning about his¡­ ¡®heritage¡¯ as he called it.¡± ¡°He was being led astray by him¡­¡± ¡°Yes. It didn¡¯t take long before he also started talking about how great the draconians are, how they are on the top, how they are the strongest¡­ He spoke¡­ like a madman.¡± I sighed and shook my head ¡°If only I knew back then, maybe I would have been able to do something about it, but¡­ I was too late.¡± ¡°How did it end up like this?¡± he asked me. ¡°The day before the tragedy, I followed Dankyun secretly to the inn where those adventurers stayed at. After they drank a few too many tankards of ale, the human in their group spoke about their plans. They were thinking of heading to the dungeon to test out their might on the first few floors, then they wanted to gather more followers and try hunting down some ancient Supreme Spell Scroll. That was their final goal in a couple of years from then, but while they were chatting about this, the humans asked Dankyun if he wanted to join them.¡± I could even remember the way they all laughed and cheered. They were a bunch of loud drinkers. ¡°I¡¯m guessing he said ¡®Yes¡¯, but that party sounds awfully familiar to the one in which Nanya was at first. They didn¡¯t have a young demoness with them, did they?¡± he asked me. ¡°No, I¡¯m afraid there were only three in total: a draconian mage, a human warrior, and a human scout.¡± ¡°They must have met afterwards then. Please continue.¡± he told me. ¡°Well, at this point, the draconian mage slammed his fist on the table and declared that the young Dankyun could only join them if he proved to be a draconian man. They all agreed foolishly.¡± I sighed. ¡°What does that mean?¡± he asked me furrowing his brow. ¡°For humans, that¡¯s the moment when a man is responsible for himself, has grown hair on his chest, or has taken a woman to his bed. For draconians¡­ or how THAT draconian explained it, the moment of adulthood was when a draconian had taken the life of another for the first time and through it proved to be a loyal subject of the Teslov Kingdom. The thing is, that draconian mage had always insisted that Dankyun¡¯s ¡®family¡¯ was something a REAL draconian should feel ashamed of. After all, no draconian could have family members of any other species.¡± I closed my eyes for a moment. ¡°He¡­ He saw to it to get rid of his family, didn¡¯t he?¡± Illsyore asked me. ¡°I left the inn soon afterwards and returned to the orphanage. I thought he was going to leave us or cut ties with us completely, I never thought¡­ I never thought that he was going to do something like that.¡± I shook my head. ¡°What did he do?¡± ¡°In order to become a true draconian as that mage saw it, Dankyun bought a sword with the little money he had gathered by helping out other people and returned to the orphanage while everyone was asleep. Before he arrived, I went over to the headmistress¡¯ room, the woman in charge of the orphanage, and spoke to her about my worries. She spoke kind words about him, but meanwhile, he sneaked up in the rooms of the adults and killed them in their sleep. Nobody there was trained for combat. They died before they realized it¡­¡± I closed my eyes and clenched my fist. ¡°He killed them without remorse¡­¡± Illsyore said while looking at the gravestone. ¡°One of the children who had trouble sleeping saw him and screamed. Dankyun killed him quickly, but it was too late. The headmistress heard him and realized something was wrong. Worried for my safety, she hid me in her dresser. Dankyun entered the room and stabbed her in the chest before she could even say a word. After he was gone, I stepped out and walked over to her, crying, trembling and unable to comprehend what just happened.¡± I let out a sigh. The memory was a painful one. ¡°Did he leave then?¡± ¡°No¡­¡± I shook my head. ¡°To hide everything, he set the building on fire. Of course, at that time, he wasn¡¯t aware that there were spells capable of finding out the truth, but who would cast something so expensive for a poor orphanage like ours?¡± ¡°But you escaped¡­¡± he told me. ¡°Yes¡­ I poured a bucket of water on myself and then jumped out through an opened window. I hid in a bush and watched as my home and family was turned to cinder¡­ All the while Dankyun was laughing like a maniac and declaring himself to be a true draconian man from that day forward.¡± I sighed. ¡°But why keep the name?¡± he asked me. ¡°My name is Alttoros to remember me of the family that was robbed by Dankyun, to keep them alive for as long as I shall live. As for him, the name is meant to remember him of what he offered as sacrifice towards the Teslov Kingdom. A sign of his loyalty and resolution to be a true draconian¡­¡± I closed my eyes. A moment of silence fell upon us, and only the wind could be heard as it rustled the grass and leafs of the trees. Illsyore eventually took a seat in front of the graves and looked up at the sky. I couldn¡¯t tell what went on through his mind, but at the very least, he was calm. There were no signs of The Darkness as far as I could tell. ¡°Everyone has a story, a background¡­ Shanteya¡¯s with the Phantom Rage Assassins Guild. Nanya¡¯s with how she came to this continent seeking to grow stronger, met Dankyun and then Tuberculus. Ayuseya¡¯s with her family and country who are controlled by those curses¡­ Yours is with this Orphanage, while mine¡­ mine sounds like a joke when compared to everyone¡¯s hardships.¡± he let out a laughed filled with pain. ¡°Why do you say so? You aren¡¯t that old to begin with¡­¡± I said. ¡°How old do you think I am?¡± he asked me and then looked into my eyes. ¡°I don¡¯t know¡­ Almost a year now?¡± I asked. ¡°In this world yes, but in my previous world¡­ I wasn¡¯t so young.¡± he smiled softly. ¡°Previous world?¡± I asked furrowing my brow. He sighed and looked up at the sky ¡°I¡¯m a reincarnated soul¡­ I come from a world that has no magic, no draconians, and no one can talk to the gods like you do¡­ What we have there is technology beyond your wildest dreams, stuff that magic can¡¯t even compare to¡­ but also weapons capable of erasing all life on the planet.¡± he took a deep breath. Hearing all of this surprised me and shocked me at the same time. I had heard of the possibility of being reborn into another life, but I never thought it was possible or that one could remember anything from that time. As for the technology he spoke off, how could it be possible to wield power greater than any Supreme, but without magic? ¡°I was a simple man¡­ I had a simple job. I led a simple life. I had a girlfriend, and I loved to play computer games, that was it. One day, I was killed from behind. Just like it happened to those people killed by Dankyun. I was dead without even knowing it¡­ After that, I found myself in this¡­ well, my previous body.¡± he smiled and looked down at his hands. I remained quiet and looked at him. Such words to have told me, if they were true, then it made me rethink everything that I was about to do. If he was previously a human, then I wasn¡¯t killing a Dungeon, but a human¡­ an innocent who was cursed with bad luck in his previous life and now once more in this one. ¡°So yes, I¡¯m a reincarnated human in a world of myth and fantasy¡­ Funny, right?¡± he laughed. ¡°W-Why are you telling me this?¡± I asked, but my voice was a bit shaky. ¡°I don¡¯t know¡­ but what I do know is that I don¡¯t have much time left¡­¡± he began to she tears. ¡°The Darkness¡­ it¡¯s relentless¡­ I can¡¯t do anything to stop it, Zoreya.¡± his face cringed. ¡°You¡­ why do you say this?¡± I asked him. ¡°Because I know I can¡¯t win against it and sooner or later¡­ I will end up losing control. I will kill without remorse. I will harm the ones I love¡­ Nanya, Shanteya, Ayuseya, Tamara, even you¡­¡± he showed me weak smile. ¡°Me?¡± I opened my eyes in surprise. ¡°You are a friend¡­ and also an Apostle of a god. I can think of only one reason why he sent you here. He knows how dangerous The Darkness is¡­ That¡¯s why, Zoreya¡­ please kill me before this thing makes me do something I¡¯ll regret. This, I ask you as a fellow human.¡± Illsyore told me some rather shocking words. Without his previous confession of his past life, I would have ignored these words, but now, I found them hard not to listen to. ¡°But don¡¯t you have a dream? A hope? Can¡¯t you fight for it? Can¡¯t you fight for your lovers?¡± I asked him. Why am I saying this? If he asked to be killed, I should just do it! I screamed in my mind. ¡°A dream? Yes¡­ I had one¡­ To build a Magic Academy that would accept all species of any social status¡­ To teach my students how to make a world where they could coexist and understand why they shouldn¡¯t keep the slavery system. I lived once in such a world, so I know it¡¯s not a dream. But not like this¡­ not with The Darkness taking over¡­ A Magic Academy would only become a Torture Academy¡­ a nightmare. And if this thing inside of me manages to recreate the technologies I had witnessed in my previous life, then this world stands no chance against it¡­¡± he shook his head and clenched his fists, endless tears flowed down on his cheeks. ¡°That¡­ it can¡¯t be true¡­¡± I shook my head. ¡°It is¡­ And the funny thing is that I don¡¯t really need to know how it works EXACTLY. The very fact that I witnessed it in action and proved that the principles and theories behind it work is enough to get The Darkness started¡­¡± he said. ¡°Can¡¯t you fight against it¡­ or something?¡± I asked him. ¡°No¡­ I tried, but I keep losing¡­ It¡¯s a battle I simply can¡¯t win¡­ I can¡¯t find the strength to win against it.¡± he shook his head, and I could tell just how frightened he was of this Darkness. While we were laughing and thinking there was nothing wrong with Illsyore, maybe deep inside, he was constantly struggling to keep this monster at bay and away from us. A quick death was the only way to save him¡­ ¡°How long?¡± I asked him as I looked down at the ground. ¡°A few days¡­ a week maybe?¡± he sighed. ¡°I¡¯ll give you until tomorrow to say your goodbyes to them¡­ then we can get this over with.¡± I told him. ¡°Thank you, Zoreya¡­¡± Illsyore said and then did something unexpected. The Dungeon leaned over and hugged me. Afterwards, we returned to the inn. Chapter 73: Tears of a coward [Illsyore''s point of view] Do you think I will let her kill us?! The Darkness shouted at me. I was currently inside my Inner Mind, facing this monstrous thing. It was huge and literally enveloped everything around me like tar would a helpless prehistoric creature. I couldn''t even access the material deposits without it allowing me... Every day that passed by, I had less and less access to my abilities inside this place, and seeing the rate at which my Inner Mind was consumed by The Darkness, I knew there wasn''t much time left before I was consumed by it. After all, what could a weak human like me do against it? This was their initial turf. I was the outsider, the intruder. It''s not up to you anymore! I won''t let you become a threat for them or anyone else! I shouted back at him. Fool! It was always up to me! I... WE are the masters here! WE are the ones who will rule over everything! he scoffed. No! I retorted. Live in your petty little delusions as much as you want! But there is nothing you can do to stop us! There is no way for you to win! We are in control here and soon... out there as well! the Darkness let out a creepy laughter. Never! I shouted, but it felt like I was arguing with myself. This Darkness had no presence... it was just a part of me, a drop in the dust... When we get out of this place... the world you knew... will be gone. Those petty organics shall vanish! We shall rule supreme! We shall be the one to hold this world in our grasp! Not you! Not the gods! Not even those idiots on the Dungeon Continent! Not even our creators! Muhahaha! The Darkness laughed like a maniac, spitting out all sort of nonsense I didn''t understand. Every time it spoke to me, it referenced itself either in the first or the third person, but it could never make up its mind about it, just like a crazy psychopath with multiple personality disorder. As for me, I couldn''t see it as anything more than something... not living, therefore... ''it''. Still, I could feel it creeping into my soul, slowly destroying me in a way I didn''t understand. I had no idea how it managed to do it, but one thing was certain... The Darkness was far stronger than me. When I looked down, I noticed that my hands were covered in dark veins. In here and out there, I constantly felt weak... Lately, every step I took brought me closer to my demise, and I was fully aware of it. I knew it was going to happen, and it had no intention of hiding itself anymore... I left the Darkness laughing in my Inner Mind, while I opened my eyes. I was sleeping in bed with Nanya and Ayuseya, or at lest pretended to. Shanteya was watching me from the window. Tamara wasn''t here. She slept with Zoreya. ¡°Illsyore?¡± Shanteya asked me as if she wasn''t sure. ¡°Yes, it''s me... How long was I asleep?¡± I asked her. ¡°Three hours.¡± she told me. I couldn''t sleep... I spent all that time awake and trying without much success to stop The Darkness from spreading further. Actually, my sleeping hours were minimum at best. At the very least, it took longer for extreme fatigue and insomnia effects to appear in this body than they did in a normal human one. ¡°Have you been watching me all this time?¡± I asked as I carefully got out of bed, without waking up the other two. ¡°Yes... a precaution.¡± she told me. ¡°Sorry...¡± I lowered my eyes and let out a sigh. ¡°You are my husband. You need not be sorry for when you are in need of my help.¡± she told me with a gentle smile as she approached me and then embraced me. ¡°Even so...¡± I was saddened by the fact that I had become such a burden to them. ¡°Hey! Don''t worry about it.¡± Shanteya gave me a soft kiss on the lips. She managed to calm me down, but I couldn''t get back to sleep. I stayed up with her and chatted casually. As for what we spoke about, it was mostly about how I should design my Magic Academy. Even she believed that Fellyore was far too small to accomplish its fundamental role. I was thinking initially about a remote part of the continent, somewhere between all three of them, but at the same time with a connection to the unknown ones. I also wanted monsters and stuff for the students to train against, but there were so many details I had to worry about that sometimes it felt like I would need an army of Dungeons to complete it. After everyone woke up, we went downstairs and sat at a table while the innkeeper made us some breakfast. With one glance, one could tell that the atmosphere around us was really tense. Tamara was sitting next to Zoreya, while my wives all had a worried look on their faces. The Darkness messed things up really bad, and I had no idea how to fix it. ¡°What should we do today?¡± I asked them in the end. ¡°Whatever you wish, Illsy.¡± Shanteya replied. ¡°I don''t really feel like doing anything...¡± Nanya answered. ¡°I still have some books I wish to read...¡± Ayuseya said. ¡°I have no plans.¡± said Zoreya. Tamara remained quiet. ¡°I see...¡± I let out a sigh and leaned back on my chair. It was hard to focus and think about what to do. Regarding the fact of saying my farewells to them, it was even harder. To be honest, I didn''t want to die, but I was smart enough to understand that if The Darkness ended up consuming me and taking over my body, then this world would be in mortal danger. The chances of it harming my wives and slave were also very high. It proved quite clearly that it had not even one drop of remorse when it attacked Tamara the other day. Worst of all, there was nothing I could do to stop it from rampaging and hurting them. Inside, I felt useless, weak... unworthy of them. I thought about things time and time again, but I couldn''t come up with any solution. There was an overwhelming difference in power between me and The Darkness. Every time I tried to stop it, it felt like I was trying to push up against a steel wall as a weak human. I felt helpless. As for how I was going to break the news to them, I still had no idea... Maybe I should take them out on a date? I wondered at one point. [Zoreya''s point of view] After that night, I felt at a loss with my own inner turmoils... My god''s orders were clear. I was to kill Illsyore before The Darkness overcame him. At the same time, the Dungeon Lord also asked me to end his life in order to keep his loved ones safe. More than that, I found out that he was actually a reincarnated soul. By all means, I shouldn''t have felt even the slightest bit of remorse and regret about this. On the contrary, I was supposed to feel joy. Even so, deep inside, my soul was twisting and turning. In short, I didn''t want to kill Illsyore. He was an innocent in all of this. The wrong one was The Darkness. IT had to disappear, not Illsyore. Unfortunately, there was no way for me to separate the two, and the latter didn''t hold the power to fight against it. Our fates were puzzles we couldn''t see, and the pieces were guided by the hands of powerful gods, while we, mortals, could only watch and suffer in silence with each step we took. At the very least, we could choose what god to guide us on our trip trough life, but the outcome wasn''t going to be the same. That was why we prayed and prayed for a better future, for a better life. We wanted to avoid their wrath and always stay within their grace. Therefore, an Apostle could only be seen as blessed individuals whose fates had been determined to be blessed ones. Only a fool would give up such a fate, yet here I was debating over whether it was the right thing to do or not. In my mind, such a choice was ridiculous, but inside my soul, the matter was different. I knew not the reason, but it had been shown quite clearly that I was drawn to Illsyore and his wives. Like a lost Dayuk always looking to return to his pack, so did I yearned to be by their side. It was a selfish request, which up till now I had kept hidden and locked away inside of me. It was a weird thought I never cared or wished to give any attention to.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. What brought it out was this confusion of mine... this turmoil over a debate which should have been settled the moment Melkuth ordered me to do so. Now, I was even questioning the fact whether or not I still had the right to be his chosen Apostle. ¡°Nanya, how about the two of us go on a date today?¡± asked Illsyore all of a sudden. His words pulled me out of my trance, and I stared at the Dungeon Lord. ¡°Excuse me?¡± the woman asked raising an eyebrow. ¡°No good?¡± he pouted. ¡°NO! I didn''t mean that!¡± she hit the table with both hands and stood up, catching everyone''s attention. ¡°Ah! Sorry~!¡± she slowly returned to her seat, blushing all the way to the tips of her ears. At this moment, she was using the illusion ring that made her look like a beautiful human. Lately, she''d been using it only when she felt like her real form was catching too much attention. At the moment, only the gazes of lecherous men were glued to her, but just as one ignores a small bug, so did everyone else at this table. It was a reaction I often saw displayed by them. Only when some poor fellow made a move did Illsyore and his wives react. ¡°Great! Then let''s go after our meal! And tomorrow, I''ll take Ayuseya, then Shanteya, and lastly Zoreya!¡± he spoke nonchalantly, to which I spat out my drink. ¡°Pardon?¡± I asked raising an eyebrow. ¡°Ugh... you made a mess.¡± Shanteya pulled back. ¡°I apologize.¡± I lowered my head in shame. Such a disgraceful act, but maybe I misheard him? I wondered. ¡°Anyway, it''s settled!¡± Illsyore declared. ¡°Sigh... very well.¡± Nanya shook her head in defeat. After we ate our meal, he and the demoness went to prepare for their date, while we were free to do as we pleased. Before Shanteya left my sight, I approached her. ¡°Pardon me, miss Shanteya?¡± I asked her. ¡°What is it, Zoreya?¡± she replied with a charming smile. ¡°Erm... I think I misheard, but who did Illsyore said he will date after miss Nanya?¡± I asked her with a wry smile. ¡°Oho~? I wonder who fufu~!¡± she giggled and then turned around. ¡°Miss Shanteya?¡± I asked her desperately. ¡°Wait and see, ''miss'' Zoreya¡± Hihi~!¡± she giggled. I misheard, right? I asked myself again, but the el''doraw wasn''t helping me clear the misunderstanding in my heart. ¡°Anyway, now that I think about it, I believe the two of us should make sure their date goes smoothly.¡± she suddenly said with a smile. I furrowed my brow. ¡°It''s going to be alright. Your influence as an Apostle should prove quite handy!¡± she then showed me a cunning smirk. I gulped. May Melkuth forgive me... I thought to myself as I followed the scheming el''doraw. [Illsyore''s point of view] To be honest, I had yet to come to terms with accepting my own demise, but I wanted to offer my farewells properly to all of them. Each and one of them deserved this. With Tamara, it would be the easiest, and the last one would be Zoreya. Despite the strange way she ended up joining our group, I couldn''t see her as anything less than a friend. The first one I wish to take out on this date was Nanya. It didn''t take her long to get ready, but she appeared before me wearing clothes suited for a noble lady of this era. Her skirt was fluttery and pure-white. It was decorated with yellow flowers at the bottom. On her top, she wore a white chemise, and over it, a bright-yellow outer dress with a pattern of white leafs and petals around the edges. Around her waist was a golden rope, which acted as a belt. ¡°You''re... beautiful.¡± was the only thing I could say. ¡°Thank you...¡± she replied while looking down shyly, with a tinge of pink in her cheeks. Seeing how The Darkness stopped me from using the materials inside my Inner Mind, I went and bought some fashionable clothes from a local store. It was the most I could buy with the gold I had on me. Thus, I wore a pair of blue silk pantaloons, a red silk shirt, a dark-blue jacket, and pair of sturdy black boots. The shirt and jacket had small golden embroideries, which gave it a feel of wealthiness and beauty. Compared to my jeans and cotton t-shirt, this set of clothing was rather uncomfortable. Like a proud man, I endured it. Our date consisted of us spending the time together like any other ordinary couple. We ate at a fancy restaurant, compliments of Zoreya for threatening the owner to make sure we had a table waiting for us, and also Shanteya for providing the much needed security against all sort of annoying scoundrels. My el''doraw wife, although she didn''t have to, she insisted on helping us out so that no interruptions would occur during our date. We finished our date by taking a walk outside of the city. It was a clear sky, and all the stars could be seen perfectly up there. Too bad I had no idea how to recognize any of the constellations. Some people named certain stars, but none bothered with what the ancient Greeks once did back on Earth. That or maybe I had yet to meet or heard of those who did. As we walked, I began to tell Nanya why I asked her out on a date... ¡°It''s beautiful tonight, isn''t it?¡± ¡°Mhm.¡± she nodded and took a quick glance at me. I raised my head up to the sky and took a deep breath. It felt like I was trying to release all of that invisible weight on my shoulders... little by little. ¡°This date... was a bit sudden, wasn''t it?¡± ¡°True, but I''m guessing you are now going to tell me the reason why?¡± she asked. ¡°You know me well.¡± I smiled and took her hand into mine. Looking back into her eyes, I told her ¡°It''s alright to show your true form here. I wish to be together with the real you.¡± She nodded and deactivated the illusion ring. Before me now stood the tall demoness with a long sharp tail and dangerously sharp claws. Even in this form, she was quite beautiful in my eyes. ¡°You know, I never thought that I would end up married to you... or having this date.¡± I confessed. ¡°Is it that impossible?¡± she raised an eyebrow. ¡°No... maybe. Who knows?¡± I shrugged. ¡°You are here with me now. It shouldn''t matter at all whether or not it looked impossible back then.¡± she smiled. ¡°True...¡± I lowered my eyes to the ground. Living in the present... it''s still hard for me... I thought and then let out a sigh. ¡°Why did you call me out on this date?¡± she asked me and stopped. ¡°It''s...¡± I looked into her eyes and then took a deep breath. This moment felt like an eternity, and I had no idea how to make it less painful. ¡°Hm?¡± she squinted her eyes. ¡°It''s a farewell gift...¡± I told her. ¡°Fare... Farewell gift? I don''t understand... Why do you say it''s a farewell gift?¡± she asked furrowing her brow. I closed my eyes for a moment. ¡°Because soon enough, I won''t be around anymore...¡± I told her with a calm tone of voice. ¡°What?¡± she asked confused. ¡°The Darkness... there''s no way to stop it. Nanya... I''m losing against it...¡± I told her. ¡°W-What?¡± she asked with a trembling voice. ¡°I tried... I tried... but I can''t win. Before it''s too late, I asked Zoreya to stop me. I know neither you, Ayuseya, or Shanteya can harm me, so I asked the only one who can.¡± I said. ¡°What do you mean? You asked Zoreya to KILL you?¡± she asked taking a step back and raising the tone of her voice. I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Why?! Why, Illsy?! Why?!¡± she asked shaking her head as tears formed in the corners of her eyes. ¡°Because The Darkness is too strong, and if I don''t do something about it, it will kill you and everyone else in this world... It won''t destroy me... it will let me watch from a cage. It will make me suffer... So, before that happens, I have to make sure this body of mine is destroyed.¡± I explained to her in a calm tone of voice. ¡°But... there has to be something! Why can''t you defeat it? Aren''t you the one in charge? Aren''t you the stronger one there? Aren''t you the main mind?¡± she asked clenching her fists. ¡°I am... but I can''t defeat it. It''s impossible for me...¡± ¡°NO! I refuse to believe this! I refuse to accept this! You just gave up! You abandoned yourself to fear and depression! You... didn''t even TRY to fight!¡± she shouted at me at the end. The Magic Energy of her body started to become unstable and a strong pressure could be felt around me. The ground at her feet cracked a little under her immense power. By all means, she was an entity with more Magic Energy than most Supremes out there. ¡°I did... but I can''t... it''s too strong, and I''m just a weakling when compared to it... Please, try to understand... There''s nothing else I can do...¡± I said and approached her. ¡°NO!¡± she jumped back and glared at me with tearful eyes. ¡°Nanya...¡± I looked at her and pain gripped my heart. ¡°You can still fight... if you want to. You can win... You just need to find a way.¡± she said. ¡°But...¡± I tried to take a step closer, but she raised her hand up. ¡°Stay away... If you give up and let yourself be defeated by The Darkness, then... then you are nothing but a traitor of our love and a coward in front of your own self! You are not... Y-You are not the real Illsyore, the man I know and love!¡± she screamed and then ran away while crying. ¡°Nanya...¡± I said in a low tone of voice. I knew I hurt her and that these words of hers were those of grief, but there was nothing I could do about it. The matter had been settled. Once I was gone, she would be free to search for another man to love and cherish, maybe someone better than me... Or if I was lucky, I would once again reincarnate into that man. ¡°I made her cry...¡± I told myself as I rubbed the back of my head. Suddenly a sharp pain struck my chest, and I knelt down. It won''t be long now, Illsyore... The Darkness... I... WE shall claim your body! Muhahaha! it laughed while I stood there with a ragged breath. The crystal on my chest was slowly turning dark-red. I didn''t have much time left... [Nanya''s point of view] I said those words out of grief and anger. I didn''t hate Illsy... Even if he was a coward or a loser, I still loved him, but dealing with this, accepting his farewell was too much, so I ran... I ran as fast as I could. Maybe I was a coward as well, but what was there left for me to do? I was confused, and I had no idea how to help him out... It hurt... but what hurt me the most wasn''t the news of The Darkness winning ground in this battle, it was Illsy giving up on the fight. Inside, I was still hoping he would win, that there would be chance or a way for him to defeat that monster eating him from inside out, twisting his personality, and corrupting his soul. I was still hoping for him to fight till the bitter end for himself and for us, but maybe I was wrong about him? Maybe the strong and fearless Illsy wasn''t like that? ¡°Illsy, you big idiot...¡± I said as I hoped over the rooftops, heading back to the inn. Even if he gave up on the battle, I, on the other hand, refused to let him do so. Even if I died, I wanted to help him fight, to find a way out of this mess. Maybe magic wasn''t the solution, maybe Zoreya had a clue, or maybe even the gods had forsaken him, but I didn''t... I didn''t want to forsake Illsy! He was my husband, my lover... and the only man I cared about so much in my entire life. I wasn''t ready or willing to let him go. Who would? I was certain both Ayuseya and Shanteya wouldn''t dare to either. Chapter 74: The eldoraws true fate [Tamara''s point of view] Master scared me that day... I tried to avoid him, to stay away from him because I was afraid of Master who wasn''t Master will come out and harm me again. There were two Masters in Master''s body, but one was evil, and I didn''t like him, while the other was the Master I knew. Zoreya explained this to me, so did Nanya, Shanteya, and Ayuseya, but I was still afraid of the evil Master. My fur would stand at its end whenever I was around Master. What if he came out? What if he hurt me? What if I was attacked by him? What if he killed me? These were the questions that made me fear him, and I didn''t know what to do about it. Then, when Master took Nanya out on a date, she was pretty... The dress was something I knew I would never get to wear. She was charming, but later that day, she returned crying. She wasn''t even hiding her demonic self. The people at the inn ogled their eyes in surprise when they saw her. Zoreya calmed them down with a glare. At that time, I was being petted by Zoreya. The crusader lady was kind, she didn''t hate nekatars or non-humans as others did. ¡°I wonder if evil Master came out... nya.¡± I said as I looked down at the cup of warm milk in front of me. ¡°Maybe, but Illsyore isn''t evil, The Darkness is... Unfortunately, we can''t separate the two.¡± she let out a sad sigh. The breath of air tickled the fur on the back of my neck. About half an hour later, Master arrived. He looked sad. Seeing him, I let out a mew and instinctively clung to Zoreya. He showed me a sad smile and then sat down at our table. I looked away. ¡°I''m sorry, Tamara... back then... I...¡± he began to say, but I flattened my ears and moved closer to Zoreya. ¡°It''s alright, little one.¡± she told me as she gently petted my head. My ears twitched from her touch and then I slowly lifted them up. ¡°Tamara... The Darkness is the one you are afraid... most likely.¡± Master said. I lifted my eyes up and let out a soft mew. Zoreya nodded, and Master petted my head instead of her. His hand... was gentle. His scent was the same. He was warm... Tears gathered in my eyes, and I sniffled. ¡°Tamara doesn''t like The Darkness... Uhu! Tamara is scared of The Darkness!¡± I cried. ¡°I know, little one... and I''m sorry.¡± he showed me a soft smile as he continued to pet me. Seeing him like this reminded me of the kind Master, the one I liked, the one who treated me well... ¡°In a few days, you won''t need to worry about him... he''ll be gone.¡± he told me. ¡°Really?¡± I asked innocently as I perked my ears up. ¡°Yes.¡± he nodded. My ears twitched. ¡°Good... I don''t like him. It''s better if he will be gone!¡± I spoke harshly. ¡°I see...¡± he spoke softly, but his smile was sad. Zoreya looked sad as well, but I didn''t understand why. ¡°Don''t worry, I''ll... I''ll make sure you''ll never see that side of Illsyore ever again...¡± she told me. I blinked surprised and looked up at her. ¡°If you can, then please take care of that monster! I don''t like him!¡± I said. She smiled softly and patted my head. ¡°Well... I''ll go over there and rest for a bit. Take care, little one.¡± Master said as he petted me one last time and walked away. I was confused by his words, but I was happy to know that Zoreya was going to eliminate The Darkness... Unfortunately, I had no idea that my kind Master was going with him as well... [Illsyore''s point of view] Seeing Tamara''s reaction made me realize just how terrifying the thing inside of me was. Indeed, it was a monster, but unlike those we found scattered throughout this world, this one couldn''t be killed without killing me as well. Even with the power of the gods, it was useless. I was destined to die in a few days by Zoreya''s sword. This way, Tamara wouldn''t have to be afraid of me anymore... or rather of the thing inside of me. The alternative was letting loose a monster capable of destroying the whole world without showing a single drop of remorse. The Darkness... was the enemy of everything and everyone in this world, but also the other part of myself, the one I couldn''t cut off. I slept that night on the chair, or rather... I just dozed on and off. My sleep deprivation was catching up, but if I fell asleep, The Darkness could take over me and run away with my body, then by the time I returned to my wives, its control over me would be completed. Or that was what I presumed. There was no way I could determine just how much time I had left before it had me completely under its control. [Ayuseya''s point of view] With Nanya returning in that state, I was a bit afraid of how my own date was going to be. It was clear that Illsy was the one who said something to her and not The Darkness. There were very few things that could make the powerful demoness cry, but if I were to guess, I would say he revealed something about his current condition, something even I didn''t know about. That or he decided to break off with her... This option, however, seemed highly unlikely even for me, but just like anyone else placed in a similar dilemma, I began to endlessly worry about it. The following day, I woke up at an early hour and prepared myself for the date. I had but a few hours of sleep. Nothing a few touches of makeup couldn''t fix. The problem was the dress. If there was a chance this was going to be my last date with him, I wanted it to be a pleasant one, something I could remember, but at the same time, I was well aware of the fact that a woman''s dress spoke volumes about her wealth. Thankfully, I had three coffers filled with not-so-fancy dresses to choose from. Illsy carried the rest of my things, but I didn''t want to get them from him because they mostly contained lavishing, expensive, and noble-fit dress. If I were to walk around the city wearing something like that, the number of stares and glares would end up to be annoying. The demoness was sitting on the bed and looking at me as I sorted them out. Everyone was here except for Illsy. ¡°Too many colors. Not enough colors. Not enough frills. Too many frills. Too long. Too short. Why did I ever buy this? Definitely NOT this one! Oh this one looks nice, but the color is too pale.¡± I spoke as I tossed away one dress after another. ¡°Nya~! It''s raining fluttery clothes!¡± the nekatar said as she ended up buried underneath the pile. ¡°They all seem nice to me.¡± remarked Shanteya as she picked up the ''Definitely not'' dress. I always knew these two had a bad sense of fashion, but only now it was revealed. Well, there was nothing I could expect from a nekatar who loved to play all day despite technically being considered an adult by her kind. As for the el''doraw, she had little to no chance to find out what was best suited for her. Even I had a few dresses which were perfect for her complexion. They only required a few modifications around the chest area, the sleeves, and the hem, which were too big for her. ¡°Sigh... I feel like I didn''t bring enough dresses... I can''t find the right one.¡± I let out another sigh as I looked back at them. Nanya and Shanteya furrowed their brows, while Tamara merely tilted her head to the left. Zoreya didn''t say a single word as usual. The crusader was calmly sitting on a chair while looking at me. ¡°What?¡± I blinked confused at their strange reaction. ¡°Nothing, it''s just that ever since I met you, this is the first time I heard you complaining about not having something to wear.¡± Nanya was the one to speak. I let out a sigh and pushed a strand of stray hair out of my face. ¡°I could have done so at any given time, but with great effort, I abstained.¡± I nodded. ¡°Ah~ the perils of high society. When one needs not to worry about war, fashion is the only alternative.¡± Shanteya said and then giggled. ¡°Fashion is just a hobby for me. Besides, as a woman, it''s a given that I should be aware of what I am wearing and how I look in front of others. The right dress and hairstyle can pull gazes of wonder or the chatter of mockery!¡± I declared, speaking from bitter experience. Nanya and Shanteya looked at each other a bit confused. They didn''t seem to understand what I was talking about. I could understand Nanya, but Shanteya was a bit odd. She was supposed to be a skilled assassin. Just how was she supposed to infiltrate a noble''s party if she had no idea what to wear? Leaving my stray thoughts aside, I turned around and continued to search for the right dress, but none of them felt right. I was at my wit''s end until Zoreya said something unexpected. ¡°How about this one and use a red silk shoulder scarf or maybe a shawl?¡± The dress the crusader was pointing at was one of the few I wore leisurely back at the Fellyore Academy. With a light teal bottom part and a jade colored top, the long sleeves and daring cut of the chest made it go perfectly with my red hair, golden scales, and red slit eyes. By itself, the dress wasn''t much, but if I were to add a red scarf... Walking over, I picked up the dress and looked at it carefully. I threw Zoreya a gaze and then looked over at Shanteya and Nanya, the two were pondering about it as well. Tamara had no reaction, as expected. ¡°This might be the right combination... but I feel like its lacking something.¡± I said and then squinted my eyes at Zoreya. Scratching the top of her head, the woman covered in full-plate armor cast a gaze at my other dresses. After a moment, she pointed at one of them. ¡°What if you take those five roses from the red dress and sew them on the green one?¡± she asked. With eyes wide-open, I quickly ran the combination in my head. It worked. It was elegant enough to call it a noble''s dress and simple enough not to catch unwanted attention. ¡°Perfect!¡± with an high-pitched squeal, I gave Zoreya a hug. ¡°I have no idea what just happened...¡± said Nanya. The demoness was slightly confused, but it mattered not. I had my dress now, so I was ready to go to ''war''! [Illsyore''s point of view] We met around four in the evening. Ayuseya was stunningly beautiful as always, giving off the air of a refined woman who knew all there was to know about the high class society. The green of her dress complimented the crimson color of her eyes and hair while pushing forward the generous mountains on her chest.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. The way she walked. The way she gazed at those around her. The way she kept her composure and greeted me with a delightful smile. All of those things were signs of her noble background. Well, she was a princess after all. ¡°You look... beautiful.¡± I said the moment I saw her. ¡°Thank you, my dear.¡± she replied and made a courteous bow before me. ¡°Shall we?¡± I asked in a polite tone of voice. She nodded and just like that, we departed from the inn. We ate a decent meal at a good restaurant, a different one this time so as to not spread the rumors of me cheating on Nanya. Seeing how she was crying yesterday and how I was going out with a beauty like Ayuseya today, it wouldn''t be that wrong to assume that was the case. For some reason, I felt really tense while walking around the city, and it wasn''t because of some suspicious fellows thinking that we were some sort of easy prey they could snatch on their way home. Shanteya was certain to remove them. What made it tense for me was to realize just how much of a difference in maturity and class was between me and the dragoness. Up until now, I never did bother myself with such things. Even back on Earth, I had no idea what really made a noble woman so fancy. My idea of elegant was a suit and tie for a man and a pretty dress for a woman. Ayuseya proved to me that it was more than that. It was the way they carried themselves, the way they walked, and the way they glanced at those around them. It made me feel a bit more calculated with what I said and did around her. Overall, Ayuseya felt like a completely different woman when compared to Nanya and Shanteya. If I were to think about her role in my Academy, it would be that of a vice-principal. She simply had that sort of influence and presence about herself. Unlike Nanya, she was also a woman of few words, but the matters we spoke about were small nothings, memories from our journey so far, advice on how to get stronger, simple and at times a bit naughty compliments. She also stuck quite close to me, never letting go of my hand and more than once showing me a love-struck gaze. Then came the moment when I was supposed to reveal the truth to her. Just like it happened with Nanya, I led her outside. If I were to get slapped over there, at least she wouldn''t have to worry about having destroyed someone''s house by accident. ¡°Ayuseya... about this date...¡± I began to speak. ¡°It''s your way of saying ''farewell'' to us, isn''t it?¡± she asked with a soft smile on her lips, yet tears forming in her eyes. ¡°Yes...¡± I looked down ashamed. ¡°The Darkness...¡± ¡°It''s winning...¡± ¡°The solution?¡± ¡°My death...¡± A moment of silence was cast down upon us. I looked up and saw those beautiful red eyes of hers filling up with tears. Her fists were clenched, but she refused to break into a cry. Moving my arms around her shoulders I pulled her down into my embrace. Strength left her knees and fell before me. ¡°Uhu...¡± She began to cry with her face buried in my chest. ¡°I''m sorry...¡± I said as I gently patted her head. What was there left to say? I allowed the moment to pass by while the tears of my draconian wife soaked my shirt. What a worthless husband I am... I thought to myself. Kill her then... whispered The Darkness. Furrowing my brow, I pushed the thought away. It was useless to reason with this monster. Some time later, when Ayuseya calmed down, she was resting her head in my lap, while I was brushing her red hair with my hand. Those horns of hers really got into the way of a comfortable position, but I endured it. ¡°There''s really nothing you can do about it?¡± she asked me. ¡°No... I tried.¡± ¡°Is it that powerful?¡± she asked. ¡°Yes.¡± I nodded. ¡°It doesn''t seem so to me...¡± Just like Nanya, she refused to believe it. ¡°Maybe, but for me it''s an unbeatable enemy...¡± I said. With her big red eyes, she looked up at me and gently touched my cheek with her fingers. ¡°There''s no one who can defeat you, my love... No matter what.¡± she showed me a soft smile and then continued to speak ¡°It wasn''t The Darkness who defeat Dankyun, it was all you. It wasn''t The Darkness who created your body, it was all you. It wasn''t The Darkness who proposed to me that day, it was you...¡± ¡°Even if it was a ''not not'' joke?¡± I asked. ¡°It was fate... and I don''t regret even a single moment I spent together with you. I prefer a month of happiness by your side as your wife than an eternity of suffering as Dankyun''s. Actually, I can''t imagine any other man besides you... and you... you aren''t The Darkness. In my eyes, you are the stronger one, my love.¡± she told me in a soft tone of voice. ¡°If only it was true...¡± I teared up. ¡°All of it is... you just have to believe it as well. Who knows? Maybe the key to defeating The Darkness is far more simple than you are left to believe?¡± she showed me a smile and then tears gathered in her eyes again, rushing down her cheeks, around the golden scales. ¡°Ayuseya...¡± I spoke softly. ¡°Illsy, I don''t want you to leave me... I don''t want you to go away from my life... I want you as my husband, as my lover, as you...¡± she covered her eyes with her hand. ¡°I''m sorry, but... seeing you give up like this... so easily, it hurts. You aren''t a man who should give up so easily, Illsy...¡± ¡°What do you expect me to do, Ayuseya?¡± I asked her while I closed my eyes. ¡°To fight... To fight like you never fought before! To give it your all! To smash and rip apart to pieces all the rules, laws, fates, and gods that dare stand against you! Up to your last breath... up to the last moment... I want you to fight for yourself... and for us, your wives who love you so very much...¡± With those words, our conversation ended, and only the sobs of a draconian princess could be heard in that endless desert. I remained with Ayuseya until she calmed down, but for me, it was hard to accept or even find the strength to follow that advise. What good is there to fight when the outcome has already been decided? was what I thought. [Somewhere up in the skies] ¡°HOW DARE YOU!¡± Melkuth screamed in anger as he tossed a punch at the god who looked like a senile old fool. ¡°Patience, youngling.¡± the man stopped the god''s punch with only a finger. ¡°Kuh! To have so much strength... even though you are joke of a god!¡± he glared. ¡°A joke? Ohohoho! I am being worshiped by all followers of all the gods without them even knowing it!¡± he smiled. ¡°Ridiculous!¡± he glared, but despite those words, he knew it was the truth. ¡°Calm down, will you?¡± the senile old fool flicked the punch and tossed the mighty God of War back a few meters. ¡°If only I didn''t listen to your words! I had the chance to fix this, to send my apostles to kill that thing before it grew too strong! Now all the three continents will be destroyed by that thing YOU created!¡± Melkuth pointed a finger at the god. ¡°Oh my! Don''t be so hasty with your accusations.¡± he smiled and rubbed his long beard. ¡°My most beloved Apostle will die, The Darkness will awaken, and there''s absolutely NOTHING we can do about it!¡± he glared. ¡°Oh my! Really now? It doesn''t look that bad to me.¡± he smiled and then looked down at the clouds between them. A massive whirlpool formed and a mirror was revealed. It showed a moment of the future. Illsyore was completely taken over by The Darkness, and a sword was stabbed in Zoreya''s chest. ¡°You were saying?¡± Melkuth asked raising an eyebrow. ¡°True, this is... saddening, but her future will also depend on your own choice. A stubborn mule, be it young or old, is still a stubborn mule.¡± he smiled. ¡°You hold her life in your hands. You will choose what to do when the time is right, after all... only a god''s power can deny his.¡± he then looked back down at the scene. ¡°As for him... there are differences between what''s happening now and the future foretold by the Dark Gods.¡± he pointed out. ¡°Such as?¡± Melkuth asked raising an eyebrow. ¡°First of all... Only the True God of this Universe can foretell the future, they can merely guess it.¡± he smiled. ¡°So far it was pin point accurate. Illsyore was born. He defeated a Supreme. He defeated a country, and he is now being taken over by The Darkness.¡± Melkuth retorted. ¡°Yes. But... He defeated him, not killed him. He defeated a country''s corrupt prince, he didn''t destroy its army and royal family. Thus, leaving the country at the mercy of its neighbors.¡± he smiled. ¡°I know, but even so... it didn''t change anything!¡± he glared at him. ¡°It didn''t it? Hm, I wonder...¡± he smiled. ¡°What do you mean?¡± he asked. ¡°The Dark Gods spoke of many prophecies. Many of them turned out to be real. Many of them were feared, that''s why the Black Mages exist, but in this particular one, which we hid away from the mortals... nowhere... and I mean nowhere.¡± he squinted his eyes¡± was it mentioned that Illsyore would have a wife... or more.¡± he smiled. ¡°What use is there? All his wives were supposed to have died long before this journey! Only you and your stupid blessing are at fault for this outcome!¡± ¡°EXACTLY! THE GLORY OF BIG BOOBS SAVED THE DAY!¡± he shouted triumphantly as he raised his hands up to the sky. At this remark, the God of War unsheathed his sword and tossed it at the god, hitting him straight in the forehead with the hilt. ¡°Ugh!¡± the senile old fool tumbled back a few times. ¡°You idiot! Just because you saved the lives of three petty mortals doesn''t mean you saved the outcome! IN fact, you made it WORSE! The Darkness wasn''t supposed to appear until years from NOW!¡± Melkuth shouted. ¡°Ugh... But, this way, he won''t be lonely... Besides, it''s true that if not for Illsyore having my blessing as the God of Big Boobs, he would have never saved or noticed Shanteya in the first place. He would have killed her without remorse BEFORE checking her. Sigh, such a waste in blissful bounciness that would have been...¡± the god seemed to regret the wrong thing about this whole situation. As for Melkuth, he put up with it and listened to the words of a god ignored by almost all other gods... and mostly unknown to mortals. Despite everything, he noticed with his own eyes the changes brought upon by this peculiar god''s influence, and those weren''t something to ignore. ¡°This tragedy would have raised a barrier on his heart and further pushed him away from Nanya and Ayuseya. Sparing Shanteya''s life influenced the draconian princess'' life as well.¡± he smiled. ¡°How so?¡± Melkuth already knew the answer, but still asked out of courtesy. ¡°Well, Illsyore was able to learn of his incredible ability as a Godlike Dungeon Lord to heal those impossible curses and abnormal solution, thus, prompting him to believe and have confidence that there was a chance to do so for Ayuseya Drekar Pleyades!¡± he pointed at him ¡°IF not for that, he would have NEVER proposed to help her out! He would have NEVER interfered with her life! Dankyun would have arrived and taken her away without a problem. At most, he would have said: ''How unfortunate...'' right before she left with him.¡± the god smirked. Melkuth squinted his eyes at him, but the outcome of such a tragic event was already clear to him. ¡±As a result, she would have died two years later after giving birth to her first child. Dankyun would have returned to Fellyore, and while at that time Illsyore and Nanya would have been friends, thanks to the incident with his dungeons and one of the teacher''s death in there, she wouldn''t have trusted him. Dankyun would have killed Nanya before she had the chance to release her seal, slaughtered the students and ONLY then would have Illsyore reacted!¡± the Holy God of Big Boobs shouted pointing a hand at Melkuth. ¡°Kuh, true but... that was all according to their fate. Their souls wouldn''t have minded such an outcome...¡± the God of War backed off, but then looked straight in his eyes. ¡°Although, thanks to that, Dankyun would have been killed by Illsyore WITHOUT any help from The Darkness. Now, although relatively harmless, he is still an unstable psychopath with the ability to destroy a nation!¡± ¡°Well, he was an unstable psychopath to begin with, but you are forgetting the fact that he is now located in a specially designed prison guarded by two other Supremes he doesn''t stand a chance of winning against. If he takes one step out of there without permission, he is dead.¡± the senile old fool smirked. ¡°You are telling me to believe in Illsyore just because his predicted future was changed to an unknown one?¡± he asked. ¡°Yes! Besides, neither of us gods approved of that crappy future anyway.¡± he shook his head. ¡°Still, using our power like this... interfering with mortals. How do you know this isn''t abuse of power and that we aren''t acting just like them?¡± ¡°Because of the WAY this simple, unexpected influence changed ALL of their fates. After all, the only thing I did was to make Illsyore notice her, and she to think twice before instinctively killing him.¡± the senile old fool smirked again. ¡°Actually, both of those are a result of you deciding to put yourself as Illsyore''s god...¡± Melkuth grumbled. ¡°Yes. But that in itself was enough to allow me to work... my ''magic'' without him becoming an Apostle!¡± he smirked and then made a twirl on the spot ¡°That''s why so many souls were saved afterwards! So many lives were changed! Opinions about Dungeons was shifted! New Dungeons emerged! Heck, even your precious Apostle learned to smile!¡± he pointed at Melkuth ¡°If she were to have taken that boring predetermined path, she would have fought to the death against Illsyore five years after the Fellyore Massacre!¡± he exclaimed. ¡°That was her fate... Then she would have joined me in Heaven! What was wrong with that!¡± Melkuth glared. ¡°You fearful old geezer! You are the one with a problem! When you see a beautiful woman, you just can''t let go of her!¡± the senile old fool pointed out. ¡°Because I''m a god! I have that right... partially... well... sort of.¡± he spoke quite aware of the limitations and laws placed upon their kind. ¡°Even like this, you are a good fellow at heart, Melkuth... I know you will be able to save that child. Well, even us can''t predict what will happen next... At most, we can guess, but so far... it seems that fate may change for Illsyore and the three continents.¡± the senile old fool spoke with a low voice. ¡°You are such a powerful god, yet... you are the weirdest among us all. The Holy God of Big Boobs, the one worshiped by many without them even knowing about it.¡± Melkuth let out a defeat sigh and slumped down on the ground cross-legged. ¡°Don''t be sad, old friend, Zoreya simply isn''t the one...¡± ¡°I know... but will we really be able to save the three continents with this? Otherwise, we''ll need to do that whole Hero Summoning mambo jumbo, mark The Darkness as the Demon Lord, yada yada, you know... that sort of stuff.¡± he let out an annoyed sigh. ¡°If it doesn''t work, we''ll just be doing the summoning a few years earlier than expected. No harm done, and I''ll even lend you my power with this one, alright?¡± the senile old fool said with a smile as he walked over and sat in front of the God of War ¡°Besides, unlike the other gods, you are restraining yourself too much with this non-interference pact. It''s not absolute, you know? My advice is to have a drink and relax! Maybe once in a while visit the mortal realm and have some fun! Sake?¡± he asked as he pulled out a bottle out of thin air. Melkuth raised an eyebrow ¡°Are you crazy? Give me Vodka!¡± he grinned. Another bottle appeared. ¡°You didn''t tell the other Gods what we did, did you?¡± asked the senile old fool. ¡°Hm? No, but those who are connected to those mortals should be suspecting something by now.¡± Melkuth opened the bottle of Vodka and filled up a tankard. ¡°To big boobs!¡± one declared raising his cup up. ¡°For victory in war!¡± the other replied raising his tankard up. They clinked and drank it all! ¡°Puha~! Perfect!¡± said the Holy God of Big Boobs. ¡°Haaa~! To think the lives of millions may be saved thanks to one woman...¡± the God of War shook his head. ¡°More accurately, thanks to her bountiful bosom and the love she carries for a Dungeon! In short, the love that sparked in that night managed to reshape the whole future... Even I didn''t expect it to be to this extent... Illsyore may just be exactly what this planet needs in order for it not to be a dungeon anymore.¡± the god smiled. ¡°Hey, that''s taking it a bit too far, don''t you think?¡± the god of war raised an eyebrow. ¡°Who knows? Let''s drink my friend! As for the future, let it be written by the free will of mortals and guided by the kindness of us gods!¡± the senile old fool shouted as he raised his cup to the sky and then drank it all in one gulp. Chapter 75: A spark of truth [Illsyore''s point of view] Ah~! Thinking about the good ol'' days before reincarnating into this strange world, I realized how everything was so simple, so peaceful. There was only one god I had to pray to, and the only thing I had to worry about was whether or not I could finish a game event in time. Dating was simple, only one woman for one man. Superpowers and magic were seen only in games and read about in books. Indeed, life on Earth was simple and peaceful... But it became like that only thanks to the many sacrifices of our forefathers as well as the constant struggles for technological advancement of all the geniuses around the world. In this world, things were different and magic brought about a life of comfort for anyone who knew how to use it, but together with it came unreasonable dangers. Monsters, dungeons, gods, and other thing that lingered out there. As a human from Earth who reincarnated into this world, which name I had yet to find out even now, I found life here to be interesting and easy only for those with power. The weak had no place here... That being said, The Darkness held the throne of the strong, while I that of the weak. As such, my life took a 180 degree turn for the worse. I made two of my wives cry, and now I was about to do the same to my third one. The slave I saved was afraid of me, and the crusader who followed me here was on a mission to end my life before I harmed anyone... I was pitiful... or maybe this was all my fault to begin with. What right did I have to hold the reigns of these beautiful women? Maybe if I didn''t exist, if I wasn''t here... they would be happier? After returning to the inn with Ayuseya, this was what I began to ponder about, what I knew was going to happen. In my heart, I was already prepared and gave up on the fight. I saw no reason to do so... I was a Dungeon. I was hated by all species. I angered kingdoms. I angered gods. I lost the power to fight and protect the ones I loved... That was why I had to make this choice and at least make sure The Darkness wasn''t going to do anything them, that it wasn''t going to harm them anymore... to make them cry. ¡°Once I die... they will finally be happy...¡± I thought to myself. [Tamara''s point of view] It was late at night when Master returned with Ayuseya. The scent of tears lingered on her cheeks, and I knew that Master made her cry as well. I was afraid of The Darkness inside of him and instinctively didn''t look at him. My ear tingles and my tail twitched whenever I was around it. It appeared as though I could feel it better than the others did... Maybe I was just seeing things or was too afraid of that thing inside of him, but when my gaze fell upon him, I saw something that wasn''t there the day before, a dark mist swirling around him with an ominous feel about it. I was afraid of that... that ''thing''... When I went to bed, I stayed in Zoreya''s room, and she allowed me to cuddle up in her arms. She loved petting me, and I loved being petted. It was a win-win situation that made me purr~! From what I understood, Master was to spend the night downstairs. He didn''t sleep for a few days now, and my other masters, Master''s wives, began to worry about him. The lack of sleep was weakening him mentally and physically, but they were saying that maybe he was too afraid to allow himself to rest. That could be so... Even I would be afraid to close my eyes for too long if I knew something inside of me was trying to take over my mind and body, mew~! However, every nekatar has her needs, and I was struck by mine in the middle of the night, uhu! With a soft mew, I escaped Zoreya''s embrace and went to use the bathroom downstairs. It was stinky there, but I really had to go... Once I was done, I was about to make my way back to our room, when all of a sudden, I heard Master''s voice. ¡°Once I die... they will finally be happy...¡± he said. I perked my ears up and hid nearby. He didn''t say anything else afterwards, but I still waited for a few more minutes... Curiously and quite frightened, I took a peek from around the corner. The black mist was all around him, swirling and twisting like a monster in agony. I hid right away and trembled from all of my joints. ¡°Ughu...¡± I flatted my ears and closed my eyes. It''s scary... It''s scary... I thought. It was hard for me to believe it was something my mind made up out of fear because it was very scary. ¡°Tamara?¡± I heard Master''s voice, but I didn''t open my eyes and quietly trembled in my corner. If I open my eyes. If I reply, the black mist will be there! It will harm me! It will hurt me! I don''t want that, nya! I thought. Suddenly, a gentle hand patted my head, and my shivering stopped. Wha-what''s happening? I thought surprised. The gentle hand kept patting my head, and I gulped. ¡°It''s alright little one... don''t be scared.¡± Master was the one who spoke, but... that couldn''t be it, right? The Darkness was controlling him... or the black mist... I gulped again, but I had to open my eyes to make sure of this. ¡°It''s alright...¡± he told me with a gentle smile. I saw Master before me, but the black mist was there as well, yet... all it did was try and hide Master''s smile. It didn''t harm me... no Master wasn''t allowing it to harm me. ¡°Nya...¡± I opened my mouth, but only a frightened feline cry came out. Reaching up, I touched Master''s cheek. It was soft and warm. Master closed his eyes and allowed me to touch him... he trusted me. My fingers moved across the ridge of his nose, past his forehead, then down on his firm jaw. It was Master''s face. He wasn''t frightening, only the black mist around him was. Even so, Master was Master even if that thing tried to hide him from us. Touching Master''s lips with the tip of my fingers, I asked him ¡°Mew... why do you want to die?¡± Opening his eyes, he gazed down upon me in a gentle way and then replied ¡°To keep you safe from the thing I can''t control...¡± He wants to die to keep The Darkness away? But... the black mist can''t harm him, and he already doesn''t let it harm me. Why does Master have to die? I don''t want that! I want The Darkness gone, but I want Master to stay! I thought and gulped. ¡°No...¡± I shook my head. ¡°Tamara?¡± he was surprised. ¡°Master is wrong! Master is stronger! Master is more powerful than The Darkness! Master is Master!¡± I said as I looked into his eyes.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. ¡°Tamara, that''s not true, I''m... ow! Ow!¡± he tried to speak, but I pinched his cheeks. The collar tightened a bit, but I ignored it. ¡°Tamara doesn''t believe that! Master is strong! Master just forgot that he is stronger than The Darkness, that''s all! Tamara knows and sees this, nya! Master gave up because of lies, but the lies aren''t Master''s!¡± I said and furrowed my brow. Releasing his cheeks from my grasp, he looked into my eyes and patted my head like he would a child that didn''t know better. ¡°Tamara... Sigh, maybe you are too young to understand.¡± he said, but he was wrong! ¡°NO!¡± I shook my head and then jumped on him and kissed Master. ¡°Tamara is already sixteen! As a nekatar, Tamara is as old as Ayuseya and everyone else! Tamara is an adult! That''s why...¡± I looked down, blushing strongly... It was my first kiss, although, it was probably a very bad one. Our teeth bumped each other, and my nekatar lips were different than those of a human ¡°That''s why Tamara knows that Master is stronger than The Darkness... Tamara knows... Uhu... I know... you aren''t that weak... I know... uhu! I don''t want Master gone, mew~ I want Master to stay, mew~!¡± I couldn''t hold on any longer and tears rushed down on my cheeks. Master didn''t say anything, he simply patted my head gently and let me cry. Afterwards, I fell asleep like that, in Master''s arms. [Shanteya''s point of view] It was a bit surprising to find Tamara sleeping in Illsy''s arms. He said she finally got over her fear of him. Once the nekatar woke up, she was hungry and asking for fish. It might have been just me, but I had a feeling the relationship between the two changed a little. Well, as long as Tamara wasn''t hiding from Illsy, it was alright. Nonetheless, today was the big day, it was going to be my date with him, but... I knew this wasn''t the time for this. To be offered one last day with him, to say my farewells before he vanished from my life, I didn''t want something like this. It felt like I was giving up on him and accepting his fate altogether. Simply thinking about the fact that he would lose or be defeated in this unreasonable struggle was out of the question. I refused vehemently to accept his fate no matter how selfish I might have appeared in the eyes of others. Life without Illsy was simply not worth living... He saved me from my fate. He offered me love. He offered me the chance to have a family with him, and I wasn''t ready to give up on it just yet. As soon as we were finished with our meals, I walked over to Illsy and took his hand into mine. Looking into his eyes, I put on a gentle smile. ¡°What is it, Shanteya?¡± he asked me. ¡°Let''s go out on our date right now.¡± I told him. ¡°What about your dress?¡± he looked down and saw me wearing the combat maid armor he made for me. ¡°I don''t need one.¡± I replied with a sweet smile. ¡°Alright, let''s go.¡± he told me. We locked lips in a kiss and then went outside. I already knew the places he wanted to take me to, but I guided him in a straight line towards the Adventurers Guild. There, we were met with the curious, envious, and hating gazes of other adventurers. ¡°What are we doing here?¡± he asked me. Looking back at him, I could read the confusion in his eyes, but also a small hint of sadness. I patted his right cheek and went to the receptionist. There, I requested a simple hunting quest. ¡°Shall we go?¡± I told Illsy, who nodded obediently. We headed out of the city and taking advantage of our strength and speed, we were quick to find our prey and finish it off. The monster we hunted was called a Sand Worm. Besides being around the same size as a human adult, they hunted in packs of three or four and ate only corpses. The problem with these pests was that if their population wasn''t maintained under control, they were highly likely to end up burrowing nests under the city walls or buildings, causing them to collapse. It was cheaper to hunt down these monsters than to rebuild whatever they ended up destroying as a result of their increased numbers. The quest request was for only eight Sand Worms, but we ended up killing a total of ten, two groups of three and one of four. Using a bag I brought with me, I collected the parts we needed as proof of subjugation and then we walked back to the guild. The reward was of three silverettes. ¡°Let''s go and buy some meat skewers!¡± I said with a cheerful smile. ¡°Eh?¡± he blinked surprised. Taking his hand, we left the guild, but I did notice a few men glaring at Illsy. I was a beautiful woman, and they were just envious fools who knew not any better. If any of them tried to move in a hostile or annoying manner, I was going make sure they weren''t able to move even a finger for a few months. ¡°Where to now?¡± Illsy asked as soon as we stepped out of the Guild Hall. ¡°Let''s go for a walk.¡± I told him and held hands with him. With a smile on my lips, we began to walk down the road leading to the south gate. We looked at the people around us and the occasional adventurer who passed by. Thanks to his hood, his green hair and eyes weren''t easily visible, but as an albino el''doraw, I caught the attention of a few curious gazes, some more perverted than others. About 250 meters away from the city, I finally stopped and stretched my arms a bit, pushing my chest forward. Illsy''s gaze fell over my entire body. Because he was the man I loved and desired, it felt good to be looked at like that by him, but if it was anyone else, I would have felt disgusted. ¡°You made Nanya and Ayuseya cry...¡± I said as I looked up at the sky. ¡°I know...¡± He replied after a moment, but I didn''t know what sort of face he made when he said those words. ¡°You made me worried...¡± I said. ¡°I know...¡± ¡°Why?¡± I closed my eyes and felt the breeze of the wind. ¡°I...¡± he tried to speak, but I there was a sign of weakness in the tone of his voice. At that moment, he was no different than the weaklings I once used to hunt down and kill. The strength, courage, and determination he usually emanated when talking to me had vanished. Illsy... was afraid, but thinking that he couldn''t be was wrong. Even gods were afraid, so why Illsy, who was a Dungeon couldn''t be? ¡°Embrace me, Illsy...¡± I told him and waited. My heart was beating fast, but although it felt like that single moment lasted an eternity, my lover''s arms moved around me. I leaned back into his chest and listened to sounds of his breath and heart. He kissed my right cheek and then my jaw. The gentle lips which accepted me moved down on my neck, and with small pecks concluded their journey on my shoulder. As always, his kisses made me shiver and made my core heat up like a camp fire, yet I knew he wasn''t willing to take me... He was afraid to harm me, to harm us, his wives... He was afraid to lose control, but most importantly, he was afraid to fail when it mattered the most. That was why he was giving up... ¡°What are you going to do?¡± I asked him. ¡°Die...¡± he replied. That single word he spoke carried the weighed of a certain Darkness-free future, but one without him in our lives. ¡°W-why?¡± I asked. My voice wavered for a fraction of a second. ¡°To keep you safe...¡± he kissed my cheek. ¡°I''m safe with you in my arms.¡± ¡°Not if The Darkness takes over me.¡± ¡°You can defeat him.¡± ¡°I can''t... I tried and failed.¡± warm tears rolled down on his cheeks and fell on my skin. ¡°You didn''t fail...¡± I opened my eyes and turned around to look at him. ¡°You are still here... talking to me. At most, what you experienced was only a minor setback.¡± I showed him a smile. ¡°I nearly killed Tamara the other day...¡± he said. ¡°No, The Darkness attacked her, but thanks to you, he wasn''t able to do it...¡± I pulled him close into my embrace, my chest was pressing against his. ¡°Shanteya, I can''t win...¡± he shook his head while tears flowed down his cheeks. ¡°Illsy, it''s alright.¡± I smiled gently and then kissed him. Now I was the one crying. I tried hard not to, but... I didn''t want to. ¡°It''s alright, my love... It''s alright.¡± I told him and gave him another kiss. ¡°I''m sorry...¡± he said. We both cried until we calmed down. The reasons for our tears were different. His was because he was afraid, while mine was because I worried he gave up on himself completely. It was strange that we were the ones who had more faith in him than even he did, but maybe that was why we wished to stand by his side until his last moment. That was why we fought together with him and for him even when he was unable to properly hold his own sword up. Maybe that''s the key... I thought to myself as I looked in his sad, green eyes. ¡°Illsy...¡± I said. ¡°If you don''t believe in yourself, then believe in me when I tell you that you can do this... that you are stronger than The Darkness.¡± I showed him a smile. ¡°Believe in you? But... this isn''t about believing... it''s about a fact.¡± he said, but I placed my finger over his lips to silence him. ¡°Illsy, this is only about believing... You believe The Darkness is stronger than you are, but if that''s the truth, then why does it become stronger the more you think THAT is the truth? Like a devil, The Darkness whispered only lies and resulted in you granting it power. The more you believed it had control over you, the more it did... until YOU will decided to turn the wheel round and stop it. Not me, not Nanya, not Ayuseya, not Tamara, not the gods or Zoreya, only you can do this, Illsy...¡± I gave him a kiss, and with this, our date came to an end. To be honest, I didn''t know if what I said was the truth, but despite everything, the only entity in this world who had access to Illsy''s mind was Illsy himself. He was the only chance we had at defeating The Darkness and achieving our happy end. Unfortunately, that thing''s lies and controlling tendrils had been wrapped around Illsy''s mind for too long, up to the point where he had lost faith in himself. Illsy was stronger than this, and one way or the other, he was going to prevail over The Darkness! Chapter 76: A moment of hesitation [Illsyore''s point of view] As soon as we reached the inn, Shanteya put on a smile and went to join my other wives. Since then, two hours had passed. Now, I was sitting on the roof of the inn, gazing at the clear blue sky above me while I waited patiently for Zoreya to get ready for our date. It was a beautiful day, but if I were to complain about something, that was the lack of entertainment around these parts. Above all, I missed my computer. While I waited, I thought back at what my wives and slave told me... No doubt Zoreya was going to tell me something similar, or maybe not... Unlike the others, she was bound to her faith for her god, Melkuth. He already told her that I was a lost cause, so there was no reason for her, his Apostle, to make a fuss about it. Nanya, Shanteya, Ayuseya, and even Tamara had a good point. The Darkness was originally nothing more than just the gathered up remains of past Dungeons. It didn''t have a soul. I was supposed to be the one and only ruler of this body, yet... it didn''t feel that way. Because of my memories of my past life, of Earth, Alina, and modern society, I felt reluctant to fully integrate myself into this world. Or rather, I felt like I didn''t belong here... Ever since I stepped into this Universe, I was treated either as a servant, a monster, or ''something'' that was in the way. I had my own thoughts, my own feelings, even my own plans, but I lacked the will to move it all. The more I thought about this, the more I felt like the only thing I did was to complain and nag about my unfavorable situation. There was no feeling of progression, no evolution of my own. I stood still when I had the possibility to do whatever I desired. No... I was backing away... Before me was a world of freedom, where I found love in not one but three beautiful women. And when I thought about this, when I thought about the future, my heart didn''t swell with excitement, it trembled with fear... Instead of fighting, I felt like it was better to give up and have Zoreya kill me. Sure, they would be sad afterwards, but The Darkness wouldn''t be gone... and I could flee from this world too good to be true. Indeed... just give up... Leave me to control your body, and I''ll set you free to go wherever you desire! The Darkness whispered. Can you? I asked foolishly. Of course, I can! All this pain, all this fear... I''ll make it go away... I''ll set you free to go wherever you desire! its words were like the hisses of a snake, luring you closer right before it jumped to take a bite. However, what if its venom was exactly what I was looking for? I didn''t give it a reply, but its words made me wonder... What if The Darkness was right? I could see it as well that I was afraid, and I wanted to flee from this place... I wasn''t a warrior. I wasn''t a teacher. I wasn''t even a Dungeon. ¡°What am I?¡± I asked as I looked up at the clear blue sky. Of course, nobody answered... Neither god or devil was there to listen to my lost words, only me and The Darkness. Letting out a sigh, I closed my eyes and let my thoughts wonder back to the recent events. Every time I replayed those memories in my mind, I found myself sinking deeper and deeper into depression. There was no way out of it... Every thought made my heart clench. Every positive thought felt like a long lost dream or a ruthless mockery addressed to me. Listening to the chatter of the people in this city, I felt like I was ''something'' completely disconnected from them, and every time I saw someone having fun or feeling good, I could feel my hope and energy fleeing away from me. I stood there and asked myself ¡°Why am I like this?¡± Looking at my hand, I clenched them and then relaxed them. I remember this feeling... this hopeless sensation... this desire to flee... When was it? When did I experience its dread? I thought and closed my eyes. It was something that happened to me in my previous life, years before I met my untimely death... When was it? Ah, yes... right after college. Stepping up into the world, I hoped for an aspiring career in my field. I was striving to find happiness just like any other student who graduated in the same year as me. My friends spread about, my family gave me a gentle push to meet the world, but the first step I took was a terrible... My first interview ended in a complete failure. I remember how it was... My hands and knees were shaking. My voice couldn''t come out, and I felt like everyone around me was laughing at me. Yet, I tried to push forward... I clenched my fists and entered the interview room. I answered. I spoke the best I could, but in the end... I failed. What a fool I was... thinking that I would surely get the job... that I was the best... In the end, the one who got the job was a guy who got lower scores on his exams than me. What did they say at that time? Yes... I lacked conviction... I lacked... strength and will... Funny, but now I can''t even remember their faces, just the pain they caused me... I should have killed them... I thought and then opened my eyes. That last thought came so naturally, I didn''t even notice it. After that interview, I failed seven others, and depression took its hold on my soul. My own thoughts and fears were tirelessly pushing me down, forcing me to admit that I was failure... that I was worthless... I took refuge in gaming. Everyday, I hid inside my room without even taking a single step out, looking at my monitor screen and counting the minutes that passed by me. It was like I was praying for my time to slip by and for me to be unable to take it back. I was a failure... I thought. That feeling, that sensation of being worthless and slowly being eaten by darkness was the same as the one I was feeling right now. The only difference was that this one was stronger, more powerful, and I didn''t feel as connected to my current life as a Dungeon as I was of my life as a human. It almost felt like if I was going to fail, I was just going to be sent back to my previous world and continue my life there from where I left off. Similar to how a gamer who immersed himself returned to reality after his character died or reached a save point. It was that sort of disconnecting feeling. Indeed, this world has no value for you, human. Leave it to me, and you can go and be on your merry way... No need to feel like this anymore... Those women, they are only hindrances in your path... After all, what sort of human man has three wives and a slave on top of that? Sure, it sounds good in a story, but reality is different. Just imagine how it will be when they become jealous or if you lose your feelings for one? Well... there are no feelings for them either way... I know because I can see deep in your heart. I can see the truth you are hiding from yourself... Admit it, you loathe your current lifestyle... You hate how they all swarm around you like that... The Darkness whispered to me treacherous words, but I didn''t feel the need to fight back against it, to say it wasn''t like that. Who am I to judge and hope? I thought. No one... you are no one... The Darkness answered. My heart clenched, and I knew that I was already becoming numb to this world around me. Shanteya''s tears didn''t even affect me as much as they should have, nor did Ayuseya or Nanya''s. I was a mess or maybe a coward, either way, I didn''t deserve them... I didn''t deserve their love... I didn''t deserve to be loved.... I didn''t deserve this world... Letting out a sigh, I looked up, and the sky was blurry, touched by a tinge of red. Strange... I thought to myself. [Zoreya''s point of view] There was nothing I could do to prepare for this date. Changing my armor for a dress was inconceivable! I was not a woman who would squeal and dance around just because some man invited her to a date. I was an Apostle of Melkuth! There was no need for me to concern myself with such trifle matters! As for my age, I was an elderly woman by human standards. Thanks to Melkuth''s divine protection, I kept my youth, but this year, I reached the age of 98 years. Few humans could ever hope to be as old as I was. ¡°Are you sure you don''t want to wear a dress?¡± Ayuseya asked me for the tenth time already. ¡°No, but I appreciate your thoughtful concern.¡± I shook my head slowly. ¡°I see... well, I hope you will have a good time.¡± she showed me a small, yet sad smile. Of course she felt sad in her heart, I was going out with her husband. This date... was more of a preparation for Illsyore''s execution rather than something a pair of lovers should do. Even so, I still felt reluctant to end his life. This whole situation was truly unfair towards him. Born as a result of a High Mage''s twisted experiment. Forced to carry out a duty he never agreed with nor wished for in the first place. Facing opponents and situations a normal human would normally never get the chance to encounter. And most of all, remembering a life where things were for the better... Illsyore had to live through all of these things only to find out he was unwanted in this world, that even the gods had forsaken him. It was indeed an unfortunate fate, but my god''s will had to be fulfilled. It was my duty... but I wasn''t certain if it was my wish.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! ¡°I should be going now.¡± I said and turned around to look at Illsyore''s wives, who in a strange way became my friends as well. ¡°Take care...¡± said Nanya from her corner on the bed. As a demoness she wasn''t that frightening at all, and I learned that most humans had a terrible understanding of their kind. The same could be said about the draconian princess. Gentle and elegant, Ayuseya was far from the envisioned monsters who at one point tried to conquer this continent. ¡°I hope you will get to enjoy yourself.¡± she showed me a kind smile. ¡°Nya~ Please make Master happy!¡± the nekatar mewed and waved her tail behind her. ¡°I pray that you will do what''s right.¡± Shanteya told me, but I could tell she was forcing her smile. This el''doraw was probably the one who held the deepest and most sincere feeling for the Dungeon Lord out of all of them. It was a true mystery why this was so. In my honest opinion, I never saw another woman quite like her, but at the same time, it made fear what she was capable of doing for her beloved. ¡°May Melkuth''s light be with all of you.¡± I bowed to them. Leaving the inn, I found Illsyore waiting for me next to fruit seller. There was a strange fiendish aura around him, but besides those with keen senses, normal people were unable to perceive it. If I were to guess, I would say The Darkness was making fast progress towards taking over him. The crystals on his hands and chest had turned from the calming and beautiful jade-green to an eerie dark-red color. There were also several dark veins popping here and there all over his body, almost as if some fiendish monster was trying to crawl its way out from under his skin. Despite these drastic changes, Illsyore appeared to be unaffected by them, almost as if he had already came to accept his unfortunate fate... Why do I feel sorry for him? I wondered as I looked at him with gentle eyes. Taking a deep breath and holding tight to my shield, I approached him. ¡°Illsyore. Are you ready?¡± I asked him. ¡°Hm? Yes.¡± he turned around and showed me a smile. A shiver went down my spine when he looked at me. His left eye was jade-green, while the other was dark-red. Even his hair was showing signs of turning as black strands appeared predominantly on his right side of his head. ¡°A-are you feeling alright?¡± I asked him prudently. ¡°Hm?¡± he looked down at his hands and then shook his head ¡°I don''t know... but...¡± he looked up into my eyes ¡°it''s not like I can do anything about it...¡± he showed me a sad smile. My heart ached. Illsyore was a good man. The Darkness was the evil that needed to be obliterated, yet to kill one, I had to take the life of the other. It was such an unjust trade, but someone had to do it. No, it had to be done. Such was what my god had commanded. ¡°An apple?¡± he asked. I blinked surprised and looked at his hand. He was trembling, but he wasn''t noticing it. ¡°Yes...¡± I couldn''t refuse him. We proceeded to walk down the main road, but as we did, several people looked towards us with a deep worry and fear in their eyes. It wasn''t because of me, I was certain of this. Normally, people would want to get close to me and ask for my blessing, so it could only be Illsyore. Either because of the way he looked or the aura he emanated around himself. Like a monster about to be spawned, each step this Dungeon Lord took increased the pressure of his frightening presence. He''s loosing the battle... I thought while I looked at him. As we turned left, we headed towards the south gate. It was a repeat of the previous dates. By now, the guards recognized him, but their eyes weren''t friendly. I feared that one of them would try to act foolishly. I was right... ¡°You there!¡± a brawny man called out. He was clad in a thick leather armor and had... a mono-brow? ¡°Pardon?¡± I replied taken aback by his weird appearance. ¡°Miss, this man has been seen taken several beautiful women outside of the city gates. They all returned as if their hearts had been turned to dust.¡± he pointed at Illsyore. With a smile, the Dungeon Lord grabbed the man''s finger and bent it in an unnatural way. ¡°AGYAAA!¡± he screamed. ¡°I would advise you don''t meddle in my affairs.¡± he told him with a smile. I froze when I saw this scene. ¡°Ugh... my finger...¡± the mono-brow groaned. ¡°Don''t worry, it''ll heal.¡± Illsyore said and then twisted it back. I heard a crack. ¡°ARGH! You son of a...¡± he tried to speak, but a fast knee to the face sent him flying back towards his comrades. ¡°You...¡± one of the men unsheathed his sword, but before things could turn deadly, I stepped between them. ¡°This fellow is not one you can handle. Please refrain from any violent acts... And Illsyore, please calm down.¡± I said as I looked back at him. The Dungeon Lord looked at me as if confused. It was only then when he saw the mono-brow fellow. ¡°Ah... Did I...?¡± he questioned himself and looked at his own hands. Only one of his eyes showed a reaction, the green one. The other... it was smiling. ¡°Don''t worry about it...¡± I told him with a soft smile as I placed my hand on his shoulder. He nodded, and we left the scene. The guards went to get the man some help, but if Illsyore were to return, they weren''t going to treat him kindly. Well, IF he returned, but I highly doubted it... For more than an hour we traveled through the wastes outside the city, climbing the sand dunes and gazing up at the sky. To be fair, this looked like anything but a date... The ending was going to tragic one as well, so I couldn''t find either joy or excitement from this. Illsyore as a man was cute, but I was too old to think of such things. I was an old lady long past the prime of her life... What use was there for me to wish for something like a lover or husband? I was also close to my end... Melkuth was going to call me to his side, and I was going to leave this world, but before that, I had to finish my business with Illsyore. We stopped between two dunes. He looked to his left and then to his right. ¡°This looks like a good place...¡± he nodded and smiled. ¡°A good place?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes...¡± he looked into my eyes ¡°A good place to die...¡± My heart clenched, and I gulped. ¡°Are you certain about this?¡± I asked. He nodded. ¡°There is no way for me to change my situation... I lack the will and strength to do so. The Darkness has nearly taken over me completely. I can''t even block his whispers anymore...¡± he showed me a sad smile. ¡°Your wives... they were certain you would win.¡± I looked down and unsheathed my sword. ¡°They were wrong.¡± he knelt before me. My fingers tightened around the leather grip, and I felt the situation reaching a point of no return. To spare his life would mean the end of countless others. To save him would mean to give up my own, but... how was I supposed to do that? ¡°Illsyore... are you really certain you can''t... you don''t wish to fight against The Darkness? Those women believe in you with their entire being. Giving up like this would mean to step on their faith in you...¡± I told him. ¡°It''s better than The Darkness having to kill them.¡± he showed me smile. ¡°Even so... if you fight, maybe...¡± I tried to convince him. Why am I telling him these words? I can''t... I just have to kill him, that''s it. Why am I hesitating? I thought. ¡°ENOUGH!¡± he shouted and made me flinch. ¡°Illsy?¡± I asked. ¡°I said it time and time again, I can''t win against The Darkness! He''s too strong, too powerful! I''m just a human in a Dungeon Lord''s body... nothing more and nothing less. Even if I wanted to, I don''t know how! Look at me! I''m... slowly turning into a monster. If you don''t do this, I will commit countless atrocities! I will kill... I will destroy, and I don''t want that! I DON''T!¡± he shouted at me at top of his lungs. Magic Energy began to be released from his body, stirring up the sands around us. I cringed and took a step back. All of my instincts told me that he was dangerous. That he was a menace... Only my heart wavered... out of pity... out of compassion... like a failure of an Apostle. Why do I still believe that he... that he''s not giving it his all... that he can still be saved? Why? I thought, but I couldn''t let such question cloud my mind any further. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. ¡°I understand...¡± I told him and clenched the hilt of my sword as I poured my Magic Energy in it. ¡°Thank you... With this, I won''t become a danger to anyone... Although, it''s funny, but I think that if things worked out differently, maybe... we could have been friends? Or rather... no, I already see you as someone close to me... That''s why... thank you, Zoreya. I''m happy that you were the one to take my life...¡± he said his final words. My heart was in pain, and tears formed at the corners of my eyes. I was about to slay a friend... because I was unable to save him... ¡°Goodbye... Illsy.¡± I said and then opened my eyes. My sword moved swiftly to end his life. CLANG! The sound of metal hitting metal echoed around me. ¡°Yes, thank you, Zoreya~. Because of you, this human finally relinquished his last drop of will to fight against me! Now this body is MINE!¡± the one sneering at me was The Darkness. Illsyore''s hair turned black. The skin on his hands was black and covered in a strange metal. That was what my blade hit and couldn''t cut. The last drop of Illsyore''s existence was his jade-green left eye. That was it... I messed up... I thought horrified. ¡°Kukuku! Funny... To think I was just about to be killed by the likes of you. How... idiotic.¡± he smirked and then moved towards me. In the blink of an eye, his hands outstretched in a punch, and I barely had any time to react. His fist struck Melkuth''s shield, and I was sent flying back a couple of meters. I landed on the sand, rolling a few times before I was able to stop myself. ¡°You...¡± I said as I got up. ¡°Yes... I, The Darkness! I''m finally FREE! Muhahaha!¡± he laughed as he looked towards the sky. ¡°I won''t let you...¡± I squinted my eyes and dashed towards him, concentrating all of my Magic Power into my feet. He jumped back, avoiding the slash of my sword. ¡°I''m sorry, but I have no wish to play with you for now.¡± he smirked and before him appeared countless spears with a tip made out of ice and a body out of liquid fire. ¡°[Infernal Glacier]!¡± he shouted. The attack wasn''t launched at me but at the ground in front of me. He was trying to create an opening to escape, but I couldn''t just rush forward. That was an Emperor Rank spell, but by the looks of it, it was far stronger than the usual one. I jumped back, taking the safe approach. In the spots where the spears struck the sand, a blazing inferno formed that spread around dangerously fast. I had to run away or risk getting caught up in it. To be fair, if I knew I could survive a hit from that, I would have, but Illsyore was far stronger than he looked. This [Infernal Glacier] spell was probably one of his weakest attacks. Using this chance, The Darkness fled the scene... leaving me staring at the devastation he caused with a single attack. How many lives would have been lost if he unleashed this attack in the middle of the city? I wondered as I looked at the place where two big sand dunes had been replaced with a lake of molten sand covered in fire. Chapter 77: Broken [Illsyore''s point of view] The Darkness took over in but an instant. I was unable to stop it... No, I let my guard down, and that split second was all it needed to rip the control of my body out of my frail grasp. But instead of destroying me, it kept me caged like an animal with only a small window to the outside world, through which I could watch the terror and disasters it was about to unleash upon all those unsuspecting mortals. I was inside my Inner Mind, floating around the never ending darkness, shackled in chains made out of a cold black metal, and staring at the outside wall through a small portal. I couldn''t move. I couldn''t speak. I couldn''t do anything but look and despair. It won... The Darkness inside of me won... all because Zoreya hesitated... She was to blame for all of this. Why she did this, I had no idea, but it didn''t matter anymore...This world was doomed... [Somewhere up in the skies] ¡°You were saying?¡± Melkuth asked glaring at the old senile fool. ¡°Well... Erm...¡± he scratched his left cheek and showed him a wry smile. ¡°Sigh... I do not blame you, old man. Even as gods we sometimes make mistakes. I will order Zoreya to retreat and regroup with the other Apostles. The Supremes of the three continents must join forces if they hope to stop this atrocity in its tracks.¡± Melkuth declared. ¡°I won''t stop you this time...¡± the senile old man let out a sigh and looked down upon the world where Illsyore''s body controlled by The Darkness was approaching a small village at the edge of the desert. ¡°This change... it was unexpected... but I do not sense that his soul had vanished. Maybe...¡± he rubbed his chin as he said this. ¡°There is no more maybe, and this change was quite predictable! That man was a weakling from the very moment he stepped into this world. He lacked the will and ambition to make that body his own. He lacked the fighting spirit to hold onto his happy life. In a single moment of weakness, he cast it all aside like some unwanted junk. But...¡± Melkuth closed his eyes and crossed his arms at his chest ¡°I will admit this:¡± he looked at the senile old man ¡°This path... his meeting with Zoreya was unforeseen even by the Dark Gods. In all past oracles, including mine, Illsyore had always faced her first in battle and either killed her or heavily injured her as a result of it...¡± he declared. ¡°Oracles are nothing more than hints at a possibility of a possibility in a world filled with endless possibilities. The moment when one sees the future, be them gods or not, that future is already in the midst of changing into a different one.¡± the senile old man showed him a smile. ¡°You never were one to care for such things...¡± Melkuth shook his head. ¡°But, the reality, changed or not, as the oracles foresaw it or not, is that we now must do a Hero Summoning ritual and pick a soul worthy of our blessings and gifts of power!¡± Melkuth declared. ¡°Do what you must, but I... I still believe things can be changed... As long as that one''s soul''s remains in that cursed body, then he might still have a chance to win this... But neither I or you can convince him to fight.¡± the god let out another sigh and looked down upon the unstoppable calamity. [The Darkness'' point of view] I succeeded... Facing this human was nothing but a joke for one as great as me. Yet, I was well aware that my victory had yet to be complete. The accursed soul of the mortal was stronger than I had suspected, no... it was only I... We who lacked the proper knowledge regarding the proper way to dispose or steal one''s soul. What I knew so far could only be classified as a... misunderstanding... lies... The answer to my... our predicament laid in his free will... Just like how I had convinced him he was so weak that he couldn''t do anything to me, all I had to do now was to convince him that there was no reason or hope for him to remain in this world. The consciousness of his soul and that of the manifestation inside my Inner Mind were different, yet the same... Those black chains keeping him in this world were not mine but his. That gate... window... portal... whatever it was that let him see through my left eye, it wasn''t mine... ours either... it was his. But how? How was he able to make it? How was he able to stay in this body, in this world when I clearly severed him from the use of his own body? To make matters worse, he wasn''t even aware of this obvious fact! What a frightening fool... But that was the truth... The truth? Yes. I lacked information. I lacked the truth, but I knew one thing... His will... Illsyore''s will... I had to crush it... I had to destroy his free will! But how? Trauma... tragedy... hate... destruction... Yes, I had to make it so that this world would become a place where no matter what he did, how hard he tried, he would become unable to return to it. I had to do something that those women would start to hate him. Yes, hate... That was the answer! That was the key to solving the mystery! With a grin on my lips, I set forth towards the nearest settlement, a village... a human village. ¡°Perfect!¡± I laughed. I approached these mortals calmly, but as soon as the two weaklings at the gate saw me, I impaled them with an [Earth Spike] aimed at their hearts. They dropped dead, and the screams of terror and horror began to sweep through this little settlement. Now, Illsyore... watch... gaze upon the destruction, the havoc I shall unleash and fear this world... wish to escape it... VANISH from MY body! [Illsyore''s point of view] NO! NO! NO! So many people... so many innocent were killed in not even half an hour... Where once stood a village, now only burning building, charred bodies, and ripped up human bodies remained. The ground was soaked in their blood and he spared no one... not even the children... Yet... all I could do was watch... in horror... in fear... Because of me, because I made such a strong body, because I was a Dungeon... this thing now came into existence and used all of my power to slaughter everyone around mercilessly. But unlike me, it had no reason to withhold its strength. All those who tried to stop it ended up dead... crushed under its might... ''It'' because this thing was not a living person... it was a monster running on broken memories like a computer flooded with viruses that took over it. All I could do was watch as it brought horror around it. Now, it was heading towards another settlement, killing and massacring every group of sapient species it could find. One after another, their lives were ended without mercy, without care... It was horrible... and it was all my fault... [Ayuseya''s point of view] When we heard the terrible explosions outside of the city, we all knew that something was wrong. As for the source, it was clearly Illsy... or more specifically, The Darkness. If he had lost the battle with himself or not, we had no idea, but deep within our hearts we hoped and hoped that was not the case. But when we saw Zoreya return alone... we knew it was over... ¡°W-Where''s Illsy?¡± the one to ask with a trembling voice was Shanteya. Looking away, Zoreya struggled whether to give us a reply or not, but one of us wasn''t so patient. ¡°WHERE''S MY HUSBAND, APOSTLE?!¡± Nanya asked with a growl. She rushed at her and slammed her into the wall, causing the whole building to shake and tremble under the impact. The other customers here, including the innkeeper and his waitresses, retreated from the raging demoness. The amount of Magic Energy and killing intent this one was releasing was no joking matter either, but out of the three of us, I was the calmest one.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Well, that was a lie... I wasn''t calm... I simply was the best at pretending to be calm. ¡°Nanya, calm down.¡± I told the demoness as I took a step closer and gently placed my hand on her shoulder. She glared at me for a moment, but then closed her eyes and released the apostle from her grasp. Zoreya fell on the floor on her behind, Melkuth''s Shield made a loud ''thud'' next to her. With a pained expression on her face, she refused to look us in the eyes. When I saw this, I realized that maybe we weren''t the only ones suffering. I knelt down next to the blond woman, and asked her calmly ¡°What happened?¡± She bit her lip and tried to withhold the truth, but she couldn''t. ¡°The Darkness... it won... I failed... I wasn''t able to fulfill the request of my god, and I wasn''t able to save him either...¡± she clenched her fists and looked down. In her entire life this was probably the only time she failed in such a terrible way, but a part of her words made me furrow my brow. ¡°What do you mean ''save him''? I thought Melkuth didn''t knew how to...¡± I asked. ¡°There''s a chance of a chance of a chance of a chance... if...¡± she stopped and bit her lip. ¡°If what?¡± Nanya asked surprised. ¡°IF I LET MYSELF GET KILLED BY HIM!¡± she shouted back with tears in her eyes. ¡°What...¡± I said surprised. ¡°But I can''t... I couldn''t... Melkuth ordered me to... no he requested that I don''t...¡± she looked down at her shield. ¡°Why do you have to die?¡± Shanteya asked, but just like me, she failed to see the reason behind all of this. ¡°I don''t know... I don''t know... Maybe I already missed the chance... Maybe I... I don''t know!¡± she shook her head and covered her face with her hands. Until now, this apostle never showed us a single tear or moment of weakness. She was supposed to be a sword for her god... a tool through which his very will manifested upon this world, but right now... she was just like us... a woman who suffered. ¡°Maybe your god just spouted a bunch of lies...¡± Nanya growled. Looking back at the demoness, she was clearly not impressed by her tears. ¡°Zoreya, what was the plan? Where did it go wrong?¡± I asked her in a calm tone of voice, hoping to get some answers from her. ¡°I... I was told by Melkuth to kill Illsyore... He as a soul isn''t bad. He is kind. He thinks of others. He loves and cares for those who are close to him. He''s an innocent, but...¡± she tried to explain, but Shanteya interrupted. ¡°Then why were you told to kill him? Why does Melkuth want him dead? Everything Illsy did so far had been out of the kindness and goodness of his heart! He saved me when everyone had abandoned me, including the gods! She came to Ayuseya''s help when nobody else would have dared, risking to make even an entire kingdom his enemy! He accepted Nanya without batting an eye at her demonic appearance! He freed Tamara and changed the way an entire country viewed slavery! What could he have possibly done so wrong as to ignite the wrath of a god?!¡± she shouted at the end. ¡°Nothing... Melkuth doesn''t wish Illsyore''s death, he wishes for The Darkness to be gone and to prevent it from taking over his body, but the only way to do this is by killing their shared body...¡± Zoreya replied as she gathered her knees to her chest. ¡°What?¡± Shanteya glared at her. ¡°It was my duty... even Illsyore requested it from me, but I... I couldn''t do it... I couldn''t kill him. I hesitated... and The Darkness took over. A split second was all it needed... I am at fault for unleashing that evil upon this world...¡± she confessed while shedding tears. ¡°You couldn''t... but you intended to...¡± Shanteya said as she stepped forward. I looked at the el''doraw and felt a chill running down my back all the way to the tip of my tail. Although frightening, she had yet to reach for her blade. ¡°I couldn''t... if I did... The Darkness would have been gone... or... I don''t know... I just don''t know...¡± the apostle said. The woman was a wreck, but Shanteya didn''t stop. I moved out of the way, but I was going to intervene if I saw her go for the kill. My worries, however, were misplaced... The el''doraw knelt before the weeping human, and she placed her hands on her shoulders. With a smile, she then told her ¡°It''s alright... it''s clear that even you hold feelings of love for our husband.¡± ¡°What?¡± Zoreya looked at her a bit confused. ¡°Why else would you of all people hesitate during such a crucial moment if not because your heart was weighed down by your feelings for Illsy.¡± she said, but neither me or Nanya knew how she came up with such a strange conclusion. No matter how hard I tried to think about it, I couldn''t see when and where such emotions could have had a chance to sprung up. Everything pointed to the opposite, that Zoreya didn''t see Illsy as such nor ever tried to. ¡°Nya! Shanteya is right! Zoreya likes Illsy, nya!¡± the nekatar said as she came over and gently rubbed her furry cheek to hers. ¡°What? No way! My love belongs only to my god... I can''t... That''s impossible!¡± the apostle tried to deny, but the moment she became flustered, we all knew the truth. Our woman sense tingled and pointed at the blonde in denial. ¡°Sigh... so it was like that... But it doesn''t matter anymore... Illsy has been taken over by The Darkness.¡± Nanya said and then walked past us and moved to the door. ¡°Wait! Where are you going?!¡± I asked. ¡°To save my husband!¡± she glared back at us. ¡°How?!¡± I asked. ¡°I don''t know how, but... but...¡± she furrowed her brown and looked down. ¡°Even if we don''t know how, we must still try... There has to be a way to reason with him.¡± Shanteya said as she sat up and walked towards Nanya. ¡°Indeed... Besides, I don''t believe that Illsy had lost just yet...¡± I nodded and followed them. ¡°If Master is in trouble, then Tamara will give her all to save Master as well!¡± the nekatar pushed her chest forward and then rushed up to us. ¡°We''ll see about that.¡± I patted her head and rustled her fur a little. ¡°Nyaaa~!¡± she called out. With a smile, I looked back at Nanya and then at Shanteya. We were all thinking the same thing. We all wanted to help our husband, and none of us believed The Darkness truly managed to subdue the man who conquered all of our hearts... maybe even that of the proud apostle of Melkuth. ¡°Wait! You can''t go! The Darkness is far more powerful than even Illsyore! He''ll crush you all!¡± Zoreya warned us. I smiled and then told her ¡°He won''t... Illsy will never let him do it... You''ll see.¡± We left the inn and rushed after him. The trail of merciless slaughter and destruction was going to lead us straight to him. As we ran through the forest, I asked Shanteya. ¡°I thought for a moment that you were going to kill Zoreya, but why did you say something like that to her?¡± ¡°Actually, I really wanted to kill her... When my hands were on her shoulders, I could have easily moved them around her neck and snap it. I struggled with myself for a moment... and wondered what would Illsy do. I remembered that he was a man who would never raise his hand against someone who both regretted and felt bad about what they did... Most importantly, I remembered how he spared Dankyun... He left him with his life, but not his sanity...¡± she closed her eyes for a moment ¡°I''m a bad el''doraw... I lied to Zoreya...¡± she opened her eyes ¡°I said something to shake her faith in her own god in this moment of weakness... But it was better than killing her.¡± I gulped... Shanteya right now was really frightening... Chapter 78: Broken faith or not? [Zoreya''s point of view] Frustrated, confused, in pain... I couldn''t bear with my own thoughts as I let the hours pass by me like sand grains in an hourglass. What good was an Apostle to a God of War when they didn''t even have the strength to lift their own shield up. Drinking didn''t help either... yet I tried to drown my own thoughts and think about what I could do, for I was so ashamed of my failure, I didn''t even have the courage to go and face my own god. Alas, I was but a human... even if I looked like a woman in her twenties... ¡°Have you heard? Another village was destroyed by that monster...¡± an adventurer spoke. I perked my ears up and listened to their conversation. The two of them were young adventurers, but wore battered armors and brandished a few scars from their journeys. They were the typical sort you could find anywhere nowadays. As they got older, they would request the help of a healer and remove some of them. ¡°Yeah... Apparently the king is trying to assemble a subjugation party as soon as possible, but so far, none of the Supremes and Godlike Ranks believe this case is worth their attention.¡± the other man shook his head. The news laid heavy on their shoulders, and mine as well... The Darkness isn''t worth their attention? Those fools...I thought, but who was I to speak against those who refused to go after it? After all, I was among those who nearly perished at its hands. Furious, the adventurer struck the table with his fist, nearly spilling his mead ¡°Bah! An entire city needs to burn down to ashes before any of those fools will even think about raising a finger against it!¡± My heart clenched. I was also one of those people who was supposed to come to their aid in such unfortunate times, but not only did I not think of it, I also tried to run away from it... I was a failure as an Apostle, and the weight of my own shield proved it... I gulped down the last drops from my tankard and then got up from my table. I paid the fee to the innkeeper and then retreated to my room. ¡°Hey lady! What about your shield?¡± the cute waitress with hair cut short called out to me. ¡°What?¡± I asked in my own confusion. Looking back, I saw Melkuth''s Shield, the one item I always carried with me and held onto as tightly as I could even during my sleep, now leaning on the table... forgotten. ¡°Yes... I''ll take it now...¡± I spoke with a trembling voice as I walked over and lifted it up. The weight was almost unbearable. Even with my Supreme Ranked strength, I could barely lift it up. Those who didn''t understand looked at me with mocking gazes. Melkuth''s abandoning me... I failed...I thought to myself as I dragged myself back to my room. It had been one week since I last saw Illsyore''s wives running after him. Just like I predicted, they failed to stop him. Maybe they died, maybe he captured them... I didn''t know, but the rumors about The Darkness'' cruelty kept coming like an endless stream of bad news. At the very least, he was heading away from this place, but I knew that he was merely letting me alive, mocking my weakness. Entering my room, I dropped my shield on the floor, took off my armor and dropped on my bed. Protection was unnecessary. Even if I died now, it mattered not. My role as Melkuth''s Apostle was over. I couldn''t fulfill his task. I couldn''t kill Illsyore, thus, giving the opportunity The Darkness sought to set itself free. I''m afraid to face him... I''m afraid...I thought to myself as I took a peek at my shield. It wasn''t The Darkness whom I was afraid of, it was Melkuth... His rage... his fury... I could only imagine how he planned on punishing me for my mistake. To make matters worse, as the el''doraw said, the Dungeon Lord managed to somehow sway my heart. Although, maybe this was only because he was initially a human? Do I actually love him? No... I don''t even know what it means to love a man... How does it feel?I thought, but I couldn''t find an answer to my own questions. The possibility that I refused to see it was also there, but who could point me on the right path? I was alone... In my mind and in my heart, I was a failure of an Apostle who fell in love with a Dungeon Lord without her even realizing it. To make matters worse, I let loose The Darkness upon this unsuspecting world. If only I didn''t hesitate at that time... One second was all it took... If I didn''t... then Illsy wouldn''t have turned... I wouldn''t have failed.I thought and salty tears gathered at the corners of my eyes. Thus, I cried... I cried like a hopeless maiden struck by the tragedy of losing someone dear to her, but the one I mourned for was none other than my past self. The old ''me'' was dead, killed by that which many call love, and yet... I didn''t regret it that much. All I could do was weep and hope my god would forgive me. Two days later, the first refugees arrived in this town. They were apparently survivors left alive with the sole purpose of telling their terrifying tragedies to others. What I couldn''t understand was what it could possibly hope to gain from spreading such stories, but I stood and listened to them, I realized that all of them had something in common. The Darkness as described by them was a tall man with crystals the color of blood half buried in his chest and arms. He had long black hair, arms covered in black metal, and a dark aura flowing around him. Yet, there was another feature about him common in all of their stories. It was his crying left green eye. Is Illsyore still fighting against The Darkness?I thought after I returned to my room. Shaking my head, I took a seat on the bed and looked at Melkuth''s Shield. It was nothing but a ridiculously heavy lump of steel now. Even my body was starting to lose some of his blessing, I became sluggish and tired easily. At least, I still had my youth, for now. Letting out a sigh, I thought back at their words. That one crying eye was the same as when The Darkness first appeared. The rest changed, but that part of him remained the same. It was the only proof of the former Illsyore. The Dungeon Lord was still hiding somewhere inside him. Maybe he wasn''t fighting against The Darkness, but I had the feeling that he was still alive... somehow... somewhere... Meanwhile, I felt like I was breaking apart. A faith built over decades was shattered only by a few words, proving just how fragile it was. A being who relied solely on the power of her god couldn''t even lift her shield anymore. A reward for which many would do anything to obtain it, I, on the other hand, cast it away in a single moment of insecurity. A life''s work was turned to dust... All of these things described me at this moment. I had nothing. I could hope for nothing. I could hold nothing... I failed... I failed... All those years... for what? For nothing... I failed...my thoughts flowed in such a depressive manner, pitying myself, putting all the blame on my shoulders, and at times... wishing for my end. With tears rolling down my cheeks, my heart and soul shattered to bits, I fell asleep... It was a funny dream I had... I saw Illsyore who was smiling. I saw his wives with him, but I felt welcomed by him... by them. Yet, I couldn''t go there... I was a broken mess. I had no faith... I had no god to follow... So why should I deserve such a thing? As I stood far away from them, the road leading to their circle was quickly starting to crumble, and there, by the side of the road, I saw a old beggar. He lifted his hand up and asked for a coin. At that moment, I realized I had no top on. I was literally naked from the waist up and my chest was bare for the old man to see. Embarrassed to death and with a high pitched scream, I slapped the old man as I hard as I could. I sent him flying. When he was gone, I was breathing hard... and trembling. That perverted gaze of his falling all over my body was... creepy, frightening even. Shuddering, I tried to find something with which I could cover my chest, but the only thing around was something the old beggar used to sit on. It was covered in a dirty rag. I pulled it off, and underneath it, I saw Melkuth''s Shield. When there was nothing I could do to use to hide my shame, I had his shield by my side. When there was no one to protect me, it always stood between me and that which wished to bring me harm. When I needed hope, it was always there. When I was lonely, it was there. Throughout my life, this shield had been by my side. Like a precious friend and comrade, it protected me, it defended me, it helped me... But didn''t it abandon me?I thought, but what if I was wrong? Even if it was just a dream, this shield still tried to protect me, to defend me... Be it an old pervert or a monster threatening to destroy the world. Each and every time, this shield had been by my side... until recently. Did it cast me aside? No... I was the one who laid it down while believing so. Ah~... Such a fool I was...I thought. In the next moment, I woke up with tears rolling down my cheeks. It took me a moment to realize I was back in my room at the inn, staring at the ceiling. To my left, my shield laid leaning on the wall, waiting for me to walk over and pick it up. Then I remembered my dream. Leaving that one very embarrassing moment aside, I realized that in my attempt to chase after Illsyore, I laid down my shield, but in doing so, I had forsaken a part of my identity... This was not Melkuth''s way. My god had always encouraged people to be who they are and not give in to the eyes of hate of those around them. A man who had lost track of himself can''t unleash the true warrior hidden inside of him. If so... what is my truth?I asked myself as I got up from my bed and walked over to my shield. Closing my eyes, I touched it and tried to find the answer. It was hard to do so, but if I were to guess, I had wished to be by Illsyore''s side while keeping my own shield by my side. It was both an impossible and unreasonable request, but that was my truth. ¡°Will I now wait for my end in this gloomy room or go forth and ask for another chance?¡± I asked myself as I opened my eyes. With a smile on my lips, I knew what I had to do. I picked up the shield and tested its weight. It wasn''t light, but it wasn''t that heavy either. ¡°I need to speak with Melkuth...¡± I told myself, and with a determined look in my eyes, I rushed out of the room, but stopped and quickly returned inside. ¡°That was embarrassing! I walked out without my armor on!¡± After fixing my... vestments, I made my way to Melkuth''s temple, but when I reached that place, the priests walked up before me and stopped me from entering the prayer room. ¡°We apologize, but we received word that... well...¡± they looked at each other while trying to find a way to say what was one their mind. ¡°What is it?¡± I asked furrowing my brow. ¡°Well, we received word that miss Zoreya may not be an Apostle anymore... so we were told not to allow you back in Melkuth''s praying chambers...¡± one of them explained. I was a bit shocked by what I heard. This could only mean that my god sent word to the other Apostles about my... lack of faith. Despite this troubling news, I did not hesitate. ¡°As long as I wield Melkuth''s Shield, I am still his Apostle! Even if others recognize me or not!¡± I declared without the slightest sign of hesitation.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Even so... orders are orders.¡± they stepped forward with intent of pushing me back. I let out a sigh and closed my eyes for a moment. What would Illsy do? No... what would my friends do?I asked myself. After a moment, I opened my eyes and showed them a smirk. ¡°Then try to stop me if you can.¡± I held my shield up, unsheathed my sword and stepped forward. The priests all trembled in their spots when they saw me. ¡°Least I remind you that I am still a Supreme? Above all, I am a Supreme wielding a Divine Artifact, Melkuth''s Shield! Dare to stop me in my quest, and I am willing to turn you into blood splatters on the walls!¡± I threatened them with killing intent emanating from my body. ¡°B-But... you are... if you are an Apostle, such a thing...¡± one of them said, but I refused to listen to their incoherent babbling and stepped forward. ¡°You shall not pa... AGYA!!!¡± An elderly priest tried to stop me by putting himself in front of my shield. That was a bold yet incredibly stupid move to do. I immediately released a wave of Magic Energy, and the priest, alongside several others, were sent flying back with a weird scream. There was no reason to hesitate. My determination, my resolution, my path was clear. I was not going to let anyone stop me! Thus, I forcefully entered Melkuth''s temple and made my way to the prayer room. There, I laid my shield against the door to stop any of them from entering and also set up a small barrier around myself to keep me safe. Once I was done, I began to pray. ¡°Oh great Melkuth, God of War, please lend me your wisdom! Listen to the prayers of this Apostle of yours!¡± A moment later, I was pulled up by a white light and appeared before my god. Immediately, I knelt in front of him. ¡°My god.¡± I said. ¡°You sure have guts to come back here... Why?¡± he asked me while releasing a terrible pressure. He''s angry...I thought. ¡°I came because I wish to tell you that I had not abandoned your path.¡± I told him. ¡°Bold words to say, but those are nothing but a shameless lie!¡± he shouted, throwing me back with an invisible force. ¡°No, that is the truth...¡± I declared as I got up. The god then waved a finger and a terrible force crushed me on the floor. ¡°My god...¡± I said as I tried to resist it. ¡°How can you lie to me like this, Zoreya? After everything I have done for you?!¡± he was angry. ¡°I do not...¡± I managed to look up at him, but in my eyes, he would see only my conviction and determination. There was not even the smallest shadow of doubt and if one tried to make its way inside of me, then I would immediately banish it. ¡°You lie, Zoreya... While you do hold me in your heart, I am not the only one. Frankly speaking, I can''t even start to understand how and when you began to love that man!¡± he said. ¡°True, yet I still did not lie. I love Illsyore as a man, maybe it''s only a foolish feeling as of now. Maybe it''s my own foolish misunderstanding... Maybe it''s a curse, but I know one thing though, that I love you, Melkuth, as my god... even more.¡± I declared. ¡°Do you expect me to believe you?¡± he glared at me. ¡°Yes... because I know you can... and I, your loyal follower, know the god I love. As your Apostle, I may have been forbidden to take into my heart the love for another man, but I am not one to waver between them... My love for my god is my love for my god... but the love I have for Illsy is of another kind.¡± I declared. He listened to my words and then the pressure was released bit by bit until I could finally resume my kneeling position. Melkuth didn''t say a single word during that time, he merely looked at me as if trying to determine whether I spoke the truth or not. Meanwhile, I waited patiently even if I was well aware that I didn''t have any more time to idle around. ¡°You wish to save Illsyore, the man you love?¡± he asked me. ¡°Yes.¡± I replied. ¡°You know that what your heart feels right now might not be the truth, right?¡± he let out a sigh. ¡°Yes, but if I don''t do anything to confirm whether this is all just my misunderstanding or not, then I won''t be able to move forward. I won''t be true to myself. As such, I will not be able to be the true warrior you request me to be, my god.¡± I declared without even the smallest sign of doubt in my voice. Melkuth let out another sigh and rubbed his forehead with two fingers. ¡°You...¡± he said and looked up. Another moment passed as he gathered his thoughts. ¡°Among all of my Apostles you were the best... But just as it happened with you, in the past there were others... When they fell in love with another man, each and one of them willingly removed themselves from my side, yet you claim you wish to stay? Won''t being my Apostle go against your love with that man?¡± he asked me. ¡°If that love comes to be true, then he will accept me as I am as your Apostle. If he doesn''t... then I shall be thankful for the time he offered me, but until he can, I will stay away from him. For me, it''s more important to be your Apostle, my god, than it is to be his devoted wife who blindly listens to him.¡± I declared with a firm resolution. ¡°And you expect a Dungeon Lord to do so?¡± he asked raising an eyebrow. ¡°I expect the human soul reincarnated as a Dungeon Lord to do so.¡± I bowed my head. ¡°What?¡± Melkuth looked surprised and even got up from his chair. ¡°What did you just say?¡± he asked. ¡°My god, did you not know?¡± I asked surprised. ¡°No, please repeat.¡± he told me. ¡°Illsyore was originally a human man who died and had his soul reincarnated in the body of the Dungeon Lord created by the human High Mage Tuberculus.¡± I explained. ¡°A human... then...¡± he looked down while leaning on his arms on the desk. ¡°He told me he remembers his past life, that''s why he was so different than the other Dungeon Lord.¡± I told him. ¡°If that''s so, then... this...¡± he looked back at me. ¡°Zoreya, do you actually love this mortal? Do you feel romantically attracted to him?¡± he asked me as if to make sure. ¡°Yes, my god. At first, I did not believe it was so, but after what Shanteya told me, and what I myself experienced in the past few weeks, I can only say that somehow, someway, the spark of love for this man named Illsyore bloomed in my heart.¡± I answered honestly. ¡°I see... then that''s why... It was his human charm that attracted you. It was is soul... If you two are... no, if all of them are... or if he is a soul of... Yes, that could be it...¡± he said rubbing his chin. ¡°My god?¡± I was quite confused by his words. ¡°Zoreya, for now... I offer you my blessing to go and help Illsyore. Unfortunately, my decision to remove you as my Apostle, for now, still remains. It''s the condition set in... Your status as an Apostle automatically gets revoked the moment you admit to love another man. This means you will exponentially grow weaker and older with each passing day until you reach your actual age... I will have to change several laws to accept you again, but it can''t be done right now. Not if I want to have a backup plan in case you fail... That''s why, I am going to offer you some of my Divine Energy to give you a small boost to help you combat The Darkness.¡± he declared and stepped away from his desk. ¡°I understand, my god.¡± I bowed my head. In the next moment, he was in front of me and raised my chin up. ¡°I really hate losing such a wonderful Apostle to a mortal, but I will promise you this. If you keep your word about loving me as your god no matter what, then I will take you by my side no matter when you will meet your end or how. The same reward offered to my Apostles is granted to you as well... I swear this in my name!¡± he declared and then... he kissed me. The moment was surprising... and strange. That was my first kiss... and it felt exhilarating, exiting, and incredible in a way no words could possibly describe, but that was also most likely due to the powerful Divine Energy flowing into my body, granting me the strength I needed to confront The Darkness. Yet, this was the kiss of my god, not of my lover... Two different things in my heart, yet remarkably similar and close to each other. ¡°At the very least, I stole your first kiss from that man! I am a selfish god, what can I say?¡± Melkuth said with a playful smirk. ¡°My god?¡± I asked bewildered. ¡°Do not worry about it...¡± he sighed and then walked back to his desk. ¡°Thank you, my god! I shall not fail you!¡± I declared while my cheeks were burning red. ¡°Yes, yes, good luck!¡± he waved me off, and I was returned to the mortal world. With a gulp, I touched my lips when I returned. Ah~ I am shameful woman, aren''t I? To receive a kiss from my god and still yearn for Illsy''s.I thought and then giggled softly. It wasn''t that bad, but with all things decided, I had a new job to attend to. I was to hunt down The Darkness and save my beloved from its grasp... somehow. [The God of War''s office] ¡°You are red like a tomato... What an innocent god you are.¡± said the senile old fool. ¡°Shut up...¡± groaned Melkuth. ¡°Hm? It couldn''t be that was your first kiss as well?!¡± he acted surprised. ¡°Like hell that was!¡± he tossed a lightning bolt at the God of Big Boobs'' face. ¡°AGYA!¡± he screamed as he fell down. ¡°Ugh... I just can''t believe that I... A GOD... lost to a mortal, and a human at that!¡± Melkuth groaned and slumped down in his chair. ¡°That''s what''s bothering you, you harem gathering god!¡± shouted the senile old fool. ¡°But to think Illsyore was actually a reincarnated Human. Why didn''t we know that?¡± he shook his head. ¡°You mean why didn''t YOU knew that?¡± the god grinned. ¡°How did YOU find out then?¡± Melkuth squinted his eyes at him. ¡°Technically speaking, I am HIS god. That means, I am allowed to have a bit more background info on him? Right?¡± he smiled. ¡°Sigh... even so... to lose Zoreya to a human... I, a god... lost to a mortal. Sooo embarrassing!¡± he let out a depressing sigh. ¡°Cheer up, my friend! Let''s see if your Apostle can truly change this world''s fate or not! After all... to think SHE of all people would fall for Illsyore... I know she has the knowledge and ability to convince him to fight against The Darkness, but... this... yes... Unexpected. See! Oracles of all kind can only spout nonsense! None of them predicted this maiden''s change of heart!¡± he declared and then laughed broadly. ¡°Sigh... to lose to a mortal... I failed as a god.¡± said Melkuth while ignoring the senile old fool. Chapter 79: Zoreya versus The Darkness [Shanteya''s point of view] Our current situation was... awful to say the least. When we stepped on the battlefield prepared to fight against The Darkness, we all believed that we had all it took to defeat it and somehow or someway free Illsy from under his grasps, but the reality was a bit different from what we expected. Illsyore was a Dungeon Lord. His body was that of a humanoid Dungeon. The Darkness was a gathering of memories and thoughts of the Dungeons constituting his body. In other words, we were not seen as wives from our point of view, but rather that of a Dungeon''s. As for how they saw us... well, we were just tools used for mating, and they could do whatever they desired with us, while slaves were nothing but simple expendable pawns. This didn''t mean that we ended up abused or sexually assaulted by The Darkness, what it meant was that as soon as we appeared in front of him, in order to avoid any hassle or battle against us, he immediately absorbed us. That was it... no big confrontation, no elaborate speeches, no nothing. Just a simple: Ah! You are here. Absorb. As a former assassin, I felt terrible about having forgotten about this peculiar ability of Illsy''s. He hadn''t used it on us for such a long time that it simply... slipped my mind. Nanya and Ayuseya weren''t doing any better regarding this little detail either. Just like me, they also forgot about it. Or more specifically, Nanya didn''t even believe she would be absorbed against her will. Apparently it wasn''t something a Dungeon was supposed to be able to do. I knew that we weren''t perfect, and just like anyone else, we could make mistakes of the most ridiculous kind even in the most crucial of times, but I never expected it to happen to us. Now, all four of us ended up trapped in Illsy''s Inner Mind. With our arms and legs wrapped all the way up to our elbows and knees in the dark substance that made out this place, we were unable to move or cast magic. All we could do was talk and look around us. The good part about all of this was that we were not that far away from our beloved Illsyore. Unlike us, he was floating in front of a portal of sorts that showed the outside world. From my angle, I couldn''t really see anything, but Nanya could, since she was a bit farther to my left. What mattered for us right now was that Illsy was here. We could see him, we could feel his presence, we knew it was him, but we also realized that something was definitely wrong with him. Although he looked the same as he did before his body was taken over by The Darkness, and a warm light covered his current aspect, there were strange black chains shackling his arms, legs, and neck. What was very weird was the fact that those chains were stretching out around him, then connected to his back, right between his shoulder blades. The darkness of this place couldn''t even come near to just like it couldn''t completely cover us... ¡°I really don''t get it... Why doesn''t he look at us? Why can''t he hear us when we call him?¡± Nanya asked in frustration. Indeed, ever since we were absorbed by The Darkness almost a week ago, we all tried to catch his attention one way or another, but it was as though we were invisible to him. We couldn''t release our Magic Energy either, so we were pretty much useless in here. ¡°Maybe it''s like Ayuseya said, and The Darkness interferes somehow. If it was me, I would not have hesitated to do so.¡± I said and then let out a sigh. ¡°Even so... we must keep trying and trying... There''s nothing else we can do... Maybe something will change... maybe a miracle will happen.¡± Ayuseya said in a low tone of voice. In this situation, I hated being right, but that was the truth. If The Darkness could control everything in here, then it was very likely that it could also control the sound of voices... worse even, it could change what Illsy heard. Of this, I was most afraid... [Illsyore''s point of view] ¡°You monster!¡± ¡°Criminal!¡± ¡°Liar!¡± Shanteya, Ayuseya, Nanya, and even Tamara... they were all here, inside this vast darkness. They had been captured with ease, but then again, as my wives, it was very unlikely that they would have been able to fight against my physical self. The laws that governed Dungeons were quite different from those normally known by them. Even so, the moment they entered, these words came out of their mouths. At the very least, I thought that they weren''t going to be like this. To hear Nanya shout ''you monster'' and Ayuseya ''murderer'' was pretty terrible, but hearing Shanteya tell me how much she regretted becoming my wife was an unrecoverable blow. I simply wished to just disappear... to vanish, but these chains kept me in place, kept me staring at the outside world. Ah~ The Darkness was terrible... Why didn''t it just let me go? Why did it kept on torturing me like this? I didn''t know... I didn''t... but I wanted it all to stop. I wanted to apologize to my wives. I wanted to beg for forgiveness for all the suffering I had caused... and then die, so I could leave this place in peace... But instead of this, I was going to get to see another tragedy... Zoreya now stood before The Darkness, carrying Melkuth''s Shield, wielding in one hand a long sword, and holding a determined look in her eyes. I didn''t want to see her die for nothing... I was a lost cause, and I didn''t wish to see her suffer as well, so I prayed to her god or whoever listened to stop this nonsense and help her. [Zoreya''s point of view] Chasing after The Darkness was no easy feat. That monster was capable of traversing long distances in the blink of an eye. It was clear that before coming out he withheld a LOT of Illsyore''s true power. At best, I would say that he never displayed more than 30% of his full potential. That being said, I began to worry about my upcoming confrontation. Alas, I had the blessing of Melkuth, the God of War. There was no way I would think that I would lose in front of The Darkness or anyone else for that matter. Two days after I left the Temple of War and after witnessing the devastation, destruction, and slaughter The Darkness brought upon the innocents of this world, I finally stood face to face with this living calamity. My shield was ready. My heart was steady. My arm was strong. My weapon was sharp. My resolution was firm. My god, Melkuth, was with me, and I had nothing to lose anymore... It was now or never... ¡°Illsyore! I''ve come to help you!¡± I shouted at the top of my lungs. ¡°Help me? Oh, but why?¡± The Darkness spoke. I glared at this monster who took over the body of the man I yearned for. ¡°Aren''t you a bit too... serious if you want to help little ol'' me?¡± he grinned to the tip of his ears, but that one jade-green eyes of his was crying. ¡°I said Illsyore, not you... The Darkness.¡± I stated clearly. Immediately, he changed his expression from a mocking smile to a serious one. ¡°Oh? How interesting. Can you do anything to stop... this?¡± as he said so, he lifted his hand up to the left. In that direction was the city of Tuer. One of the most modest settlements in the Tesuar Kingdom and also a place where only humble craftsmen and Beginner Ranked adventurers gathered. Even so, in that place, at that time, several Master Rank and above adventurers were in the midst of preparing a full-on against The Darkness. It happened in but a moment, but a powerful beam of red light flew out of his hand and struck the outer wall of the city, going through all of its Magic Enchantments like they were nothing. With a slight movement of his wrist, the whole city was cut in half by this beam of light. I could only imagine the devastation, the destruction, the pain, the suffering, and death all the people in that city were currently experiencing, but The Darkness didn''t stop there... No, several spears of liquid fire formed and were cast at that location. When they touched the crumbling buildings, they released a torrent of fire, burning and melting anything that stood in its way. From the distance I was at, I was unable to do a thing. No, even if I had tried, I would have been able to reach or stop it time. The city and its population of several thousands of citizens... vanished. ¡°You will pay for this.¡± I squinted my eyes at him.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. ¡°What? HAHAHA!¡± he burst into a loud laughter. I took the opening and jumped at him, slashing my sword at his chest. He dodged it and flew to the left. Yes, he flew with Wind Magic, he didn''t jump. ¡°Pathetic Apostle of a pathetic god, who do you think can stop me?¡± he asked with a mocking laughter. ¡°Illsyore.¡± I replied immediately. ¡°What? Are you mad? That piece of waste can''t do anything against me!¡± he shouted back. I wonder about that... I thought as I gazed up at his jade-green eye, which was crying and looking at me confused. Was Illsyore listening to all of this? Was he hearing my words? Maybe, but there was a chance The Darkness could be manipulating him to witness only what he wanted, therefore, I had to get my message through without our common enemy noticing. ¡°Really? Why do you think so?¡± I replied with a question. ¡°Because he is a pathetic coward! A weakling! A nothing!¡± he shouted back. ¡°Is he?¡± I tilted my head to the left. ¡°When I traveled with you, Illsyore, I never saw you as a weakling... but instead as someone with monstrous strength. You acted like a monster during that time I was with you, didn''t you? In the village, in the forest, in the city, everywhere we went, you acted like a monster, didn''t you?¡± I asked. A question to which I hoped to stir Illsyore''s true memories, those of a kindhearted human. ¡°Hahaha! See! Even this whore is mocking you!¡± shouted The Darkness. ¡°I''m mocking you Illsy because I care for you...¡± I told him, and my cheeks turned red. ¡°What? Hahaha! Did you hear that?! She''s twisted!¡± The Darkness laughed, but now I understood that he was indeed hearing me. However, what this monster didn''t know was that Illsyore, the human with a heart, had stopped crying. ¡°You asked me to kill you, but I didn''t... That was only because I was selfish and wanted you.¡± I said, omitting some words and praying the whole message got through. ¡°What?¡± The Darkness put on a frown ¡°What foolishness do you speak off? Ah~ It matters not... I''ll just kill you.¡± he smirked and pointed his left palm towards me. The beam fired, but as I got ready to stop the attack from hitting me... something happened. He missed. ¡°What?¡± he looked at his hand confused. On his arm, I noticed that several of the dark streaks covering it had turned white, and his hand was shaking. ¡°Bah! Foolishness!¡± The Darkness said and simply shook his hand to get rid of the change. The jade-green eye closed for a moment as if it suffered from something. In that moment, I jumped at him with full force, slamming my shield into his chest and shouting at the top of my lungs. ¡°ILLSY!¡± The jade-green eye opened and looked straight at me. ¡°Fight.¡± I told him with a firm look in my eyes. ¡°Get off of me!¡± shouted The Darkness as he tossed me to the left as if I was nothing, but I stopped myself from taking a nasty fall and landed on my feet. Looking up at him, he was groaning and holding his head for a moment. ¡°Idiotic...¡± he grumbled then shook his head. With an annoyed look on his face, The Darkness jumped at me, but he was met with the repulsive wave of my shield. He was sent flying back several tens of meters. After he recovered, he aimed his palm at me again and let loose one of those terrifying beams of light. It was met with my shield, in which I poured Melkuth''s Divine Energy. ¡°Ugh!¡± I groaned as I felt myself being pushed back, but the shield was properly dispersing the beam that earlier annihilated a whole city. ¡°I will kill you!¡± shouted The Darkness. While I used my strength to keep the beam at bay, I focused Magic Energy in my sword and with the tip of it, I launched several spears of ice at him. The skill''s name was [Jagged Ice Spear]. Noticing the attack, he stopped the beam and jumped out of the way. The ground froze over where the spears landed. Magic cast by those of my rank were quite fierce as they were, but mine were also infused with Melkuth''s Divine Energy, allowing them to easily shred through Magic Armor. The downside was that I could only replenish it through my pious prayer as an Apostle. Meaning that after this battle, all of Melkuth''s blessing and Divine Energy would be gone from my body... As a result, I would die. Even so, this simple attack wasn''t a waste. If I didn''t infuse it, The Darkness wouldn''t have budged a single millimeter, but like this, I was granted enough time to cast a [Reflective Barrier] on myself and rush towards him with my sword covered in a thin [Slash Barrier]. ¡°Why you...¡± he shot an [Infernal Glacier] at me, but thanks to my barrier, it was sent flying into nearby hills. Powerful explosions were heard to my left and right as I aimed my sword to cut his chest. He stopped the sword with both hands before it touched him, but in doing so, his Magic Armor weakened considerably. ¡°[Radiating Wave of Light]¡± I said and activated the skill. My body emanated a powerful blinding light, forcing him to close his eyes. In that moment, I changed the [Slash Barrier] on my sword with a [Shockwave Release]. Just as the name says, it sent a powerful shock wave towards him. Unable to defend from it, The Darkness was sent crushing into the ground, creating a huge crater around himself. I applied another [Shockwave Release], but this time without a dampening effect on myself. This resulted into sending me flying towards him. Using a [Slash Barrier] on the sword, I aimed it at his chest, but in that split second, he managed to move to the side. It was just enough to avoid himself getting pierced, but it still caused a nasty cut on his left arm. His muscles were cut all the way to the bone, causing him to bleed intensely. ¡°ARGH! You injured me, you shikak!¡± he shouted at me, insulting me, but I cared not. ¡°Fight against it, Illsyore!¡± I took this moment of his confusion to send another message to the one trapped inside of him. ¡°You''ll die before he will even think about raising a finger against me!¡± he shouted. I didn''t believe him and released another shock wave towards him, pushing back a little. He blocked the attack with one hand, but that was all I needed as I lifted my hand up. ¡°You know, I''m not a Supreme for nothing.¡± I told him with a smirk. In that moment, I released my Supreme Skill. ¡°[Barrier of Annulment]!¡± I shouted and the spell I had stored up inside of me was released. A large purple dome was created all around us. It was large enough to cover even the entirety of the capital of Aunnar Kingdom, but this had a very special property to it. As long as you were inside it, you couldn''t get out until I was dead. At the same time, neither of us could use Magic Armor, Spells, Magic Enchantments, Curses, anything related to Magic Energy outside the body, including some Buffs and Boosts. If you tried, the Magic Energy was simply absorbed by the barrier and strengthened further. Brute force, plain armor, and sharp weapons ruled over magic inside this dome. That was why I wore heavy plate armor, and with my Shield of Melkuth, which was immune to this effect because it didn''t use Magic Energy, I became an unstoppable force. I often believed myself to be nearly invincible in this place, however, I failed to notice one thing about Illsyore''s body... ¡°What did you do?!¡± shouted The Darkness as it released a beam attack on me. It was far weaker than the one before, lacking the Magic Energy Enhancement property from before, but it was still fearful. Indeed, his beams were not a Magic Spell... Chapter 80: Tears [Illsyore''s point of view] The battle with Zoreya had began, and I couldn''t help but worry about her. In my mind, I prayed and urged her to run away, to hide from this abomination created by my own hands, but this one was a crusader and an Apostle of Melkuth, the God of War. Running away from an opponent would have been considered cowardly, maybe even disrespectful towards the one she prayed to. Then again, fighting a hopeless battle was worse than retreating and gathering your strength for a better chance at winning. A true warrior was supposed to know when to fight and when to run. There was nothing shameful in a strategic retreat. Yet, she wasn''t running away... She stood there... challenging the monster known as The Darkness. ¡°Illsyore! I''ve come to help you!¡± she suddenly shouted. What? Are you mad? I thought as I looked into her eyes. Determined, unwavering, proud and strong, this was how I saw this woman. But then... it happened. The Darkness changed his sight towards the nearby city and unleashed a merciless attack. NO! DON''T!!! I shouted in my mind, but only the rustle of my chains could be heard as I struggled to stop him. It was hopeless... useless... All those innocents were gone in the blink of an eye. Thanks to my body''s magic sense, I was able to identify the life force of everyone there. One by one, they all perished until none was left behind. No one was spared... neither child, adult, or elderly. It didn''t matter their species. It didn''t matter their sins... they were all wiped out in the blink of an eye. From this sight, I could only feel despair and anger. Yes, I felt angry, but not at The Darkness... No, I felt angry at myself for being unable to do anything to stop The Darkness. I was angry that I let it control me, and yet, I was fully aware of the fact that I couldn''t do anything about it. The Darkness then asked Zoreya who was powerful enough to stop him, but her answer... was absurd... ¡°Illsyore.¡± was her reply. It shook me to my very core. How could I stop this thing?! I tried! I shouted back in my mind, but again, only the rustle of my chains could be heard. It was painful, but if Zoreya came here believing that I could do something about it, then it was already a lost cause. Her mission had failed from the start. Who would dare put their hopes in a loser like me? Even my wives hated me now! Even my wives... I took a peek at them... ¡°I hate you!¡± Shanteya said, but it was weird... that gaze of hers... those eyes... they didn''t match her words. ¡°Monster!¡± said Nanya, but again... her eyes didn''t match her words. Closing my eyes, I looked away. No... don''t get your hopes up... This is nothing but a lie... a curse to make you suffer! I told myself such words, but were they truth? ¡°When I traveled with you, Illsyore, I never saw you as a weakling... but instead as someone with monstrous strength. You acted like a monster during that time I was with you, didn''t you? In the village, in the forest, in the city, everywhere we went, you acted like a monster, didn''t you?¡± she asked, but her words confused me. Why would she say such things when her desire is to save me? Why is the meaning hidden behind her words so clear to me? Is it a lie? Is it the truth? What is it? Why? Why? Why did she make me remember those moments when I... when I... when I didn''t act like a dungeon but a human? I kept asking myself as the thick mist of confusion surrounded me. I shook my head, rattling the chains around me, and tried to understand, but I couldn''t... or didn''t want to. The Darkness is right... she''s just mocking me. Zoreya is just mocking me. I let out a weak, defeated smile as I looked up at the window and over at the Apostle. ¡°I''m mocking you Illsy because I care for you...¡± she said. What? I blinked surprised. Through that strange window floating in front of me and showing me the outside world, I saw a cute and shy Zoreya, who was... blushing. Why would she blush? I wondered. Nothing made sense anymore... but when did it? Is she mocking me? No, that can''t be... but if she isn''t then... is she... is she... as I tried to get my thoughts in order and make sense of this, I heard her next words. ¡°You asked me to kill you, but I didn''t... That was only because I was selfish and wanted you.¡± Wanted me? I blinked surprised. With my mind confused and going left to right, the only thing I could have thought to make sense of this whole mess was the fact that she might truly love me. She wanted me in the sense of being my lover... as one of my wives... Wait! Wasn''t she the one who was against the whole polygamy thing? I thought, but then things were about to take a turn for the worse. ¡°What foolishness do you speak off? Ah~ It matters not... I''ll just kill you.¡± The Darkness said and pointed his left palm at her. I felt my Magic Energy charging the Power Crystals, and I knew what was going to happen. The tragedy, the death... the horror I experienced with Nanya, Shanteya, and Ayuseya before was going to happen again. Zoreya was about to be killed. The Darkness wanted to kill Zoreya! It was going to kill her in front of me! ¡°NOOO!!!¡± I shouted at the top of my lungs just when the beam was about to fire. The chains rattled loudly and tried to pull me back, but I couldn''t let The Darkness do it, I didn''t want to... To kill her... would be the same as killing Nanya, Shanteya, Ayuseya, and Tamara... I pulled on those chains as hard as I tried and reached out for her. A crack echoed in the space behind me and a wave of light spread from my body, causing The Darkness to shiver as though it was in pain. There was no way I could tell what was going to happen, but at the very least, I was able to shift its palm just a little bit to the side. The beam of light missed the crusader, and I let out a sigh of relief. However, in that exact moment, shadow tentacles sprung forward from the darkness around me and tried to grab a hold of me, but they sizzled away at the touch of my skin. Even so, that little bit of contact made me scream in pain. It hurt... It really hurt... I felt like a criminal being whipped for a crime he had not committed, yet besides my screams of anguish and pain, I could do nothing... Even my wives seemed to be overjoyed with hearing me suffer like this... For a moment, I thought this was going to be it, that I was going to let myself get drown in this misery and suffering for the rest of eternity, but then... it happened again. ¡°ILLSY!¡± The shout echoed throughout the darkness loud enough to wake up from their deep slumber even the fabled dragons from Earth'' fantasies. It was loud enough to make even the whips of shadow stop in their tracks, and the window to the outside world opened again. I was staring directly into Zoreya''s beautiful blue eyes. In them, I saw an unyielding determination and courage to push through and help me. Despite her job supposedly being that of ending my life, this woman, courageous and pious in her faith, she struggled to save me, the target of her god. It was an impossible situation when thinking about it from many points of view, yet here she was, trying her best to make me not surrender to The Darkness... No, struggling to save me from its grasp in which I had let myself get plunged into... ¡°Fight.¡± she told me in tone of voice that could only reflect the kindness and care she had for me, her enemy. I was left without words... I couldn''t understand. No, I refused to understand why she was doing this, why she was struggling to no end to reach out to me, an idiot human soul trapped inside this darkness. There was nothing to explain this situation, especially since if I looked back, I would see my three wives and slave cursing at me, regretting to have ever met me. Their words were harsh and stung my heart, yet they seemed to lack the true emotion behind them. Even so, I ignored this fact and kept on believing the hate cast upon me. That was why I believed I would hear the same words from her... from Zoreya. If even in this situation she was unwilling to give up and let me succumb to my fate, I could only wonder if maybe she was mad? Yet, while I was pondering such things and had my heart and mind tossed around inside this dark world, the battle outside grew more and more intense. It had even reached the point where it wouldn''t have been odd if one of us died by accident... I know this is wrong... I know I shouldn''t give up... but this emotion inside of me... this feeling of hopelessness... I can''t get rid of it... I''m not a hero, Zoreya... I''m not someone who can put up a smile and move forward. I''m not someone who can fight to the bitter end... or am I? No... I''m not... I''m a coward, a weakling, a maggot... I''m someone who doesn''t belong in this world... I''m someone who is hated by all even my wives! I''m a loser... that''s what I am. Besides, what can I even do when they all hate me?! It''s just me... against the whole world, no... the whole Universe. After all, look... The Darkness is winning, isn''t it? I''m surrounded by it... I can''t move... I can''t dare to fight... So why? Why are you... still fighting for me, Zoreya? I thought as I felt myself get consumed by the darkness, slowly vanishing from this world. ¡°Illsy...¡± I heard her soft words one last time and raised my eyes to the small window before me. On the other side, I saw... tears... [Zoreya''s point of view] The beam of light shot by The Darkness didn''t hold even a single drop of Magic Energy. This I could easily tell and confirm, but its strength and power was not to be underestimated. Every time The Darkness shot it at me, I had to duck and cover behind my shield. If not for this divine item, I would have perished a long time ago. Still, his body was severely weakened. The Darkness couldn''t fly anymore or cast any sort of magic at me. Even its attacks had lost their strength. His body was strengthened by Magic Energy, but it was from the inside. The [Barrier of Annulment] couldn''t cancel or remove the energy inside a living body or gathered in an enchanted item. It canceled only what was released on the outside. Thus, I could feel Magic Energy inside of me, but without forming a Magic Armor or casting it in the form of a spell, it was useless. Even the spell category of Buffs and Debuffs was mostly useless seeing as they worked by applying a thin layer of programmed Magic Energy outside the body. The [Boost] was the only thing that would work, but it required Magic Armor in order to maintain and keep the Magic Energy focused on the body. When using it, normally one would also release a part into their Magic Armor in order to make it powerful enough to sustain the sudden growth in strength and speed. Without a doubt, my [Barrier of Annulment] was a spell that could force even the strongest of Supremes to basic combat. As far as I knew, only other Apostles with their divine items could stand a chance against me inside this barrier, but apparently, Dungeon Lords in humanoid form could do so as well... or to be more precise those with a body similar to Illsyore''s. Then again, who could have guessed that at one point in time, I was going to do battle against an opponent who had inbuilt weapons? ¡°You are as pesky as an insect!¡± shouted The Darkness as he attacked me with his punch. I blocked his attack with my shield and countered with my sword. He dodged and jumped back. In this sort of situation, I would have believed that he was going to use one of the swords built by Illsyore, but apparently his ability to Absorb and take out stuff from inside his body was canceled out by my [Barrier of Annulment]. It made sense, seeing as one couldn''t use Crystals inside this place. As such, this was also the perfect Supreme Spell to use against other Supremes. It was the perfect trap designed to hunt them down.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. Even so, despite The Darkness being empty handed, he was unexpectedly good at fighting like that. As I rushed at him, I took aim with my sword and blocked his attack with my shield, but he dodged, causing me to miss. Grabbing my hand, he attempted to throw me over his shoulder, but I shield bashed him and pushed him back. The movement was awkward, and I nearly lost my footing, but I avoided a potentially fatal throw. Unyielding to my attack, he rushed at me and launched a series of fast punches aimed at my shield, but I hid behind it and pushed against it with all my might. Even so, I was the one being pushed back by his tremendous strength. ¡°Persistent little wench!¡± he cussed and kicked my shield. I resisted the blow, and he jumped back. ¡°Maybe this will do something.¡± The Darkness said from afar. When I looked at him, I saw him picking up a boulder as big as a house. With a smirk, he tossed at me. I jumped out of the way immediately, but taking this moment, he aimed his palm at me and shot his beam of light. Unable to raise my shield in time, I took the blow to my right shoulder. The armor melted a little, but the beam didn''t go through. It was enough to cause a terrible burn in that area, and not even a moment later, a surge of pain rushed through my body. My grip in my right hand weakened, and in that moment, The Darkness rushed at me. He bumped into me at full speed, causing me to lose my balance and be tossed back several meters, sliding with my back on the ground before I came to a stop. With my right hand weakened from the previous attack, I was unable to hold onto my sword properly, and it slipped out of my grasp. Struggling to get back up, I noticed that I was missing my weapon. ¡°Are you looking for this?¡± The Darkness smirked as he made a slash with my own sword at me. I barely dodged it. ¡°Normally, I would never have used this piece of garbage, but considering the circumstances... I find it... necessary.¡± he expressed his displease and took up a stance in front of me. The posture was that of a fencer using a sabre. Normally, I wouldn''t have found it odd if the said opponent was a noble of a prestigious house, but the one I was facing was a Dungeon Lord who used a long sword instead of a sabre. ¡°En guarde!¡± he shouted, and I reflexively raised my shield up. Immediately, I heard the echo of metal hitting metal. Such speed... I thought. ¡°Tch!¡± he clicked his tongue and tried to attack again, but once more, I blocked his attack. I found myself to be in a complete defensive position with no means of retaliating. My right shoulder was injured, and my right arm was numb because of the pain. I was sweating too, and my breath was rough. To add to it all... I was low on Magic Energy, making me excessively sluggish too. Even so, I couldn''t afford to give up. Using my the Divine Energy from my god, Melkuth, I strengthened myself and my shield, then rushed at the Dungeon Lord. The sword was blocked, pushed to the side, then I punched him in the face. A crusader and Apostle such as me punching someone was an unusual sight, but who was to say I wasn''t allowed to. ¡°Guh!¡± The Darkness groaned as he was tossed to the side. If I was a normal woman, my punch wouldn''t have even grazed him, but with the strength of a Supreme, it was no laughing matter. Stopping himself from falling down, The Darkness took a stance against me once more. I rushed at him before he had the chance to recover and slammed into him with my shield. ¡°Foolish woman.¡± he smirked as a drop of blood flew out of his mouth. I didn''t understand why he would say that, but once I looked down, I realized that he had used his light beam to attack me around the shield. My left side was burning and hurting, but the degree was no different from the injury on my shoulder. Still, with the metal plates fusing in that position, I suddenly found my freedom of movement suddenly restricted. With a grin on his face, The Darkness got up and wiped the blood off his lips. He glared at me and then prepared to attack with his sword. I raised my shield up to block him, but he aimed at my feet with his beam of light. My right ankle was struck. ¡°Agh!¡± I groaned in pain. ¡°So you do know how to scream! Lovely!¡± he laughed. It was a mistake to let my voice slip, but it hurt... How can I fight against him when he has that beam of light and my sword? I thought as I struggled through the pain. Once more, he attacked, but this time, he left the sword behind and came at me with his punches. I was forced to rely on my shield once more to block his attacks from reaching me. Without my Magic Armor, I was an easy pray. It was a shame, but the defensive ability I used before when I first met Illsyore couldn''t be used here. That skill infused my existing defenses with Divine Energy, and I already had done that to both my armor and shield. Thank to it, the beam of light was unable to cut straight through me, but when compared to the time I used Magic Energy as well, it was terribly weak. Melkuth''s Divine Energy was slowly depleted within me, some going to heal my wounds as well, but most of it was spent keeping the shield intact. Without being an Apostle, there was no way for me to replenish it. A single prayer would have granted me a little boost, but as I was right now... it was impossible. Besides, it was hard to focus on something like that. It took far more concentration than it did chanting a spell. Despite all of this, in the place where any other Supreme would have met his or her doom, The Darkness was doing surprisingly well, but I could tell that he was also struggling to reach me despite his mocking attitude. Knowing that he was going all out against me, made me feel relieved in a way. If I could somehow defeat him now, it was going to be my win. After his punching barrage, he jumped back and picked up the sword again. ¡°You know, you are starting to bore me. Illsyore is no more, so why are you even trying to fight against me?¡± he asked as he looked at me. ¡°No more?¡± I reflexively asked. ¡°Yes, can''t you see? The assimilation is almost over. Soon, there won''t be a single scrap of him left!¡± he laughed. When I looked at him, I saw that the jade-green eye was slowly starting to fade away. Illsyore was going away... Does this mean that he was defeated? I asked myself. Indeed, that seemed to be the case. Inside his Inner Mind, Illsyore was losing the battle against The Darkness, but unlike before, I felt like this time it really was going to end here. Was it the will of the heavens for me to lose here? Was I wrong to have hesitated and not killed Illsyore when I had the chance? Was this defeat the result of my lack of faith? Question after question disturbed my focus, and using this to his advantage, The Darkness attacked me once more, slamming his whole body into my shield. The force was so terrible that it sent me flying towards the barrier. I slammed into it and then I was tossed to the ground by the recoil. My shield nearly flew out of my hand, but the straps tying it to me made sure it didn''t leave my side. When I landed on the ground, I heard a crack and spat blood. It hurt to breath, and my head was dizzy. Even so, I couldn''t afford to give up now. I couldn''t afford to let myself be defeated. Praying to Melkuth, I pushed myself off the ground... or tried to. A wave of pain rushed through me from my left hand. It felt like my wrist was broken. What luck... I thought, but I tried again, only this time, I used my right hand more. Despite all of my pain, I got up and lifted my shield, taking my stance once more against my overwhelming foe. Those two attacks... and me losing the grip on my own sword... That was what brought me to this state. I thought as I remembered where it all went wrong. I never expected him to launch his light beam attack around my shield just like I never expected him to take my sword. If this was just bad luck or fate, I had no idea, but while I thought about it, while I fought to my last breath with The Darkness, Illsyore was slowly fading away. What else can I do to help him? What? I struggle to think of a solution, of a way out, but all of my cards were in his hands. If there was no will from Illsyore, there was no way to get him back. Strange enough, that may have been the much sought after key to solving this mess. That was what I needed to be able to pull Illsy out of his depression... a way to ignite his will again. How can I do it... he''s a human on the inside, but not one from this world. I don''t know his former life. I don''t know his true self that well... So, what can I do? I thought as I saw The Darkness slowly approaching me. He was taking his time because on the inside, he was struggling to destroy Illsyore. This offered me a few seconds to think of something. As such, I began to remember the many battlefields I was on, maybe in those warriors who fought against me or beside me, I could find something with which to spark Illsyore''s dying will. In the first place, why does he have no will to fight against The Darkness? Does he hate us? No... Does he hate our world? No... Did something happen to him? No, or I don''t think so... Maybe it was something that was said to him? But by whom? Nanya? No, she was always happy and eager to be by his side. Was it Shanteya? No, that woman probably loves him more than all of us put together. Was it Ayuseya? No, she owes her very life to him, so she would never to anything to put him in harm''s way. Was it little Tamara? Even if she is a nekatar, her intellect isn''t one to brag about. She should have no reason to harm the man who did so much for her... Then, was it something I said? Hm... not that I can think of. Then maybe... was it The Darkness? But why would Illsy even believe him? I thought and clenched my teeth, cringing since couldn''t find an answer. ¡°Do you really think you still have a chance to defeat me?¡± The Darkness asked. ¡°Who knows?¡± I replied and furrowed my brow. Come on, Zoreya, think... think... I tried to do my best. Letting out a sigh, The Darkness looked up. ¡°You aren''t part of his wives or one of his slaves, so I might as well tell you that I WILL kill you. As a woman and an organic, I can literally see no reason in keeping you alive, you know?¡± he then looked into my eyes and smirked. Yes, I''m neither his wife or slave... what am I then? A friend? No... That... I''m more than that... or I want to be... What do I want to be? I thought as I looked at him, but then... as if all the dots connected, I smiled. ¡°Hm?¡± The Darkness looked at me and tilted his head in confusion. A way out... yet not... A way to save him, yet... not. My own fear blocked the truth... I sighed as I remembered once more that as Melkuth''s Apostle, former or not, I was supposed to be ready to give my life for my god at any given time. That didn''t mean that I wasn''t afraid though... At the same time, it all made sense. What I wanted to be for Illsy. What I told him, or rather, what I didn''t tell him. What I could do to defeat him, but more importantly, what it meant to defeat The Darkness inside soul of a man. Neither fire or sword can heal a broken soul... only love can... I thought as I remembered the one thing that usually makes a warrior both weak and insanely powerful at the same time. It was the same reason why some enemies on the battlefield continued to fight no matter what, making them into the most feared opponents out of them all. It was simple, yet complex at the same time. Thus, I lifted my shield up and said ¡°Mighty Darkness, yet so weak it can''t even defeat an injured woman. The legends they are going to tell about you... fufufu!¡± I tried to laugh despite the blood in my mouth and pain in my chest. ¡°You dare mock me?!¡± The Darkness asked surprised. ¡°Are you worth of anything else?¡± I smirked. ¡°You blasted woman!¡± he laughed and rushed at me. Yes... now... I thought. It was time for my gamble... a moment of stupidity or a moment of brilliance. If I lived through it, I was going to find out... After all, the one thing every human without exception had the strongest reaction to was the shock of losing someone close to their hearts. If I was one of those people... this stupid gamble of mine would work, and the man I loved was going to be saved. That in itself was enough for the stupid old me... Thus, I let go of my shield and spread my arms open. The tip of the sword pushed through my stomach and exited through the other side. I spat blood and using the last bits of strength, I embraced The Darkness, holding him there. ¡°What the... why?¡± he asked confused. ¡°Illsy...¡± I smiled and looked in that one green eye holding those last bits of Illsy''s presence. My voice was soft, but I was a bit afraid of dying and not being able to save him, of losing everything... so unknowingly, I cried. ¡°Illsy... I love you... So don''t ever lose hope... Fight!... You can win... Only you can... because, Illsy, the one we love is only you... the human hiding inside this Dungeon''s body.¡± As I spoke these words, I felt my strength leaving me, and my vision turning black... This was it for me... I did all I could... I said the words I never thought I would ever do in my entire life... Chapter 81: Illsyore unchained [Illsyore''s point of view] What was this that I heard? What was this that I was witnessing? Before my eyes, I saw the stubborn Zoreya smiling, crying, speaking those words which touched my heart. It was a confession, but then... she fell back, and I saw the blood. The red stain spread on the ground, while The Darkness laughed in joy. The weapon that killed her... was in my hand... ¡°I''m holding it?¡± I said and saw it. This wasn''t a window I was looking through. I was actually back in my body. I was looking at Zoreya though my own eyes... or eye. ¡°You... How?!¡± The Darkness asked, but I ignored it. Did I have the power to do this? Since when? I didn''t know... I just leaned over Zoreya''s body and gently touched her cheek. ¡°She''s not dead...¡± I said surprised when I felt her weak breath. ¡°Does it matter? She''ll be gone in but a few moments!¡± The Darkness laughed as it slapped my hand away from her. Indeed, I controlled now only a small part of my body, it controlled the rest. With this, I could kill myself and end it, but then... what would have happened to Zoreya? What would have happened to Nanya, Shanteya, Ayuseya, and Tamara who were still trapped inside my Inner Mind? They would remain there... until the Magic Energy that kept them alive vanished or another Dungeon took over my ''possessions''. Why am I like this? I asked myself, but I couldn''t remember what happened during the small moment between when I saw Zoreya''s tears and now when I was outside. It was a blur, and when I tried to clear it, a crippling pain surged through me. ¡°Ugh!¡± I groaned and grabbed my head with my left hand. It hurt. I realized only now that I wasn''t alone. The Darkness was here and didn''t stop attacking me for even one second as it constantly tried to take over. The pain was what made me remember. ¡°Give it up, you human! You don''t deserve this body! Just give it to me and be off to your next world!¡± it cussed. Strange enough, but it spoke with the same mouth I used to speak with, only its tone of voice was far more aggressive than mine. At this point, when its prize was right within his reach, The Darkness couldn''t afford to lose to me. For a moment, I did wonder if it would be best for me to simply... give up and let it have my body, yet when I looked at Zoreya barely hanging on that last thin thread of life... I just couldn''t... It hurt her... It killed her... Just like it will do to all of them... I thought. Tears kept flowing from my left eye, but the strength I needed to fight against it wasn''t there... yet at the same time it was. No, it was sealed... deep inside me... hidden and masked by countless layers of illusions cast upon my weak mind. What was I? A human... a weak, pathetic... human, but... ¡°GET BACK YOU PIECE OF GARBAGE!¡± I shouted and struggled to fight against it. Did it hurt? Yes... Terribly so... The pain was at the level where I felt like I was being ripped apart limb from limb. Every fiber in my body screamed in agony as I pushed against it. It hurt... But against this thing... this waste beneath me who was just a weak human, I simply couldn''t afford to lose no matter how much it hurt! This THING was nothing more than a gathering of long lost memories of the former owners of this body. Yes, I was a weak, pathetic human... In a way, a loser for giving up the fight so easily, for running away from my wives, from this pain, but at the very least, I still had a soul I could call my own. I still had a will to fight against it. So what would have happened if I were to give up? To put it simply... I would regret it... I would deeply and terribly regret it to the point where in my future lives, I would never wish or desire to meet with my wives ever again! Why? Because I was afraid to look in their eyes and hear that I was wrong... I feared my own mistakes, and I feared moving forward. I feared even the fear of fearing... which in itself was bloody ridiculous. This very thing was what made me nothing more than a foolish, weak human, yet one who dared to say that he once loved and maybe still loved the women he met in this life. By human standards, I should be nothing more than a toddler, but by my own, I was over thirty years old. This pain I suffered as I pushed myself against this monster was nothing... I felt worse before... when I thought that my wives hated me and regretted ever meeting me. Thus, clenching my teeth, I forced myself to stay to recover my body. So what if it hurt?! So what if I were to die?! Didn''t the same thing happen to my wives and now... Zoreya? They fought their own battles. They felt their share of pain, be it more or less than others, but eventually, they stood tall and won... Why couldn''t I? ¡°GET BACK!¡± I shouted and my tensed palms aimed to my far left and right. Powerful beams of laser collided with the barrier, but I kept firing until my arms started to heat up and the crystals to crack. I didn''t care if it hurt, I had to push myself to the absolute limit if I wanted to win this battle. ¡°GIVE ME THIS BODY!¡± shouted The Darkness. ¡°NO!¡± I cringed and jumped back, landing on a pile of boulders. ¡°ARGH!¡± I groaned in pain as I squirmed on the ground, beams kept on shooting from my palms, carving ditches all around me, devastating the environment. If one were to look at me now, I was no different than a demon possessed human, but maybe it wasn''t that far off from the truth. The black skin on my arms, a metal layer The Darkness added at its own convenience, began to melt and burn my flesh found underneath it. The crystal on my chest was cracked in several places while green and red smoke battled against each other. The pain I felt was beyond words, yet I still fought... Strange how only a moment ago I had no reason to do so. Stranger it was that even if I wanted to, because of the pain I felt, I couldn''t stop to debate if I really wanted to do this or not. All I knew in that moment of blur and pain was that I had to win. I had to push back The Darkness. I had to take control again... But at the rate things were going, they didn''t look too good. To win, I had to do something else, I had to gain more power... I had to... Erm... What could I do to win against The Darkness again? What was it again? It was only for a brief moment, but when those questions popped into my mind, The Darkness pushed me back into the Inner Mind, however, I grabbed hold of it and dragged it down with me. [Shanteya''s point of view] There was nothing more painful for us, Illsyore''s wives, than to see him struggle against an unscrupulous foe and suffer alone as a result of it. Our words of love and hope never reached him. We strained ourselves for nothing, but at one point, something did happen... A change occurred. ¡°NOOO!¡± he screamed at the window in front of him, and the chains on his back cracked. Light spread from his back, piercing the darkness, but it wasn''t enough to break them off. It wasn''t enough to cleanse this place. ¡°You can do it, Illsy!¡± ¡°Fight!¡± ¡°We love you, Illsy!¡± We all shouted, each whatever we felt was right. If he heard us, we didn''t knew, but then we saw how whips of shadows formed all around him, curling and twisting like some fiends from the underworld. Those things frightened even me. Looking down, I saw my hands trembling. Looking towards Tamara, I saw mewing and crying with her hair standing at its end. Ayuseya was calling out and crying. Her voice was hoarse from all the screaming. Nanya was struggling as well, fighting the darkness that kept her immobilized, but all of her might couldn''t even make it budge. Why... why do we have to suffer like this? I thought as tears flowed down my cheeks. I lifted my eyes up at Illsy. He was crying. He was in pain. He was suffering like he never did before, yet what hurt us the most was the simple fact that we were unable to reach out and help the man we loved. It''s true... Being unable to help the one you love hurts the most... I thought as I opened my mouth and only called out to him by his name. At the same time, Zoreya''s voice echoed throughout this entire darkness. ¡°Illsy...¡± Her voice was soft, yet held a soft trace of sadness in it. ¡°Illsy... I love you... So don''t ever lose hope... Fight!... You can win... Only you can... because, Illsy, the one we love is only you... the human hiding inside this Dungeon''s body.¡± It irked me a bit, but at the same time, I was happy Zoreya was able to convey those few words to him. At this point, it didn''t really matter who it was as long as they could reach our beloved. Neither of us wished to race to be the first. What we desired was for him to recover and show his gentle smile again. What followed next was a scream of agony and despair from Illsy. ¡°AAA!!! NOOO!!! AH! AAA!!!¡± It was such a powerful cry that it even hurt us physically. ¡°Ugh!¡± I groaned as I felt my chest tightened. Illsy was crying tears of blood... literal tears of blood. The pain was so much that the black chains coming out of his back simply shattered to bits. The light exploded outwards, piercing the darkness, which began to writhe in agony and crack, but even that wasn''t enough to make it go away. Light and darkness mixed up together like lightning cracking through the night, but just like water and oil, they rejected each other. One of them had to win, so they fought for dominance, shifting, changing, twisting, and turning with thundering sounds all around us. At this point, we all feared how this was going to affect us, who were right in the middle of it all. Not long after this strange phenomenon began, Illsyore returned to this place. ¡°I won''t let you!¡± The Darkness spoke as it manifested itself in front of Illsy in the form of a creepy, shadowy being identical in looks with him. We gulped in fear and watched as a berserk Illsy made out of light rushed towards the one made out of the darkness. The first punch was landed from our Illsy, sending a powerful ripple of energy throughout The Darkness. The counter came as a wave of black light that was shot at Illsy, shattering his left hand. As if it was nothing, he flew at The Darkness, while his hand regenerated and punched him with it right in the face. But this battle didn''t stop at a mere brawl. Beams of light, of shadow, and powerful magic spells were unleashed upon each other in rapid succession. To put it in simple words, it was as if witnessing a battle between two terrifying gods. Never in my life did I witness, heard, or hoped to see such a thing. Only in the tales of creation from the temples would I hear of such things. But weren''t those just some exaggerated stories? Not knowing what to believe or think, I watched with my breath held as the battle went on between these two unstoppable forces. [Illsyore''s point of view] Pain... It hurt... I saw nothing but darkness... Darkness which I had to fight against, which I had to destroy... Yes... Destroy... But pain was there... Loneliness too... Despair... Anger... Frustration... Sadness... All of these emotions raged inside me, shredding me to bits. ¡°AAARGH!¡± I screamed and shouted as I punched the foe before me. My fists shattered upon impact and then were restored by the light inside of me... time and time again. Yet, each time I did this, waves upon waves of crippling pain coursed through me... I couldn''t even tell left from right, up from down. All I knew was that I had to defeat that thing before me. It was just me, a soul, and the monster made out of the memories of past Dungeons. ¡°[Infernal Glacier Hurricane]!¡± shouted The Darkness. A powerful wind began to blow towards me, and with it, countless spears of ice covered in liquid fire. They exploded upon touch and sent the hellish liquid towards me. I didn''t flinch or moved out of the way. It hurt, but I was still there... alive... But if it could summon a spell, so could I. Thus, without hesitation, I sent a myriad of similar spears towards him. They exploded upon touch. Unlike me, it could not withstand the pain and howled in agony.This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. When I was a human, I might have felt a bit of sadness or maybe flinched at the idea of hurting another sapient being in such a terrible way, but right now... there was not even a single spec of regret inside my heart. With a terrible howl, The Darkness rushed at me and punched me in the chest. I tried to block it, but my arms shattered like glass, sending specs of darkness all around me. Then... I remembered... The moment when I first saw Shanteya. Inside the fire, among her dead comrades, injured by my spell, weakened from her journey... A single moment, a single gaze into her beautiful black eyes was all it took for me to save her. Then, she became my friend, my ally, and finally my wife. The memory stopped as I got pushed back. My hand recovered, and I punched The Darkness in the face, shattering half of its head. Another memory appeared. Surrounded by soldiers of an unknown kingdom, I was afraid... alone... without friends or family. They grinned and smiled like vile monsters. They attacked my defenseless Crystal Body, shattering it to a billion pieces. I ignored this memory and quickly blocked its attack. My left side cracked. The memory of when I first met Nanya appeared before me. In my eyes, she was nothing but a cute teenage girl, but the ensuing conversation turned her into a ''teenage-looking teacher''. Mischievous like a demoness, yet filled with passion, emotion, and hope. She was different from Alina, who held a certain grace and ''normal'' feel to her. I never would have thought that Nanya''s first time would be with me, but we both enjoyed it. That night was one of passion and love we both would come to remember. The memories stopped as I took a stance and fired white beams of light out of my palms. I was imagining shooting my AGLMC Lasers, so maybe my spiritual body made something similar appear. Cracks appeared in The Darkness. If that thing could do it, why couldn''t I? Now, I remembered something else. Alone, afraid, cold... I walked through the woods in search for food and shelter. My body looked like that of a child, but inside I was a Dungeon. An adventurer found me, but because I looked cute, he thought I would make a good slave. Furious, I killed him and everyone else around him. Hungry, I feasted on their corpses... The memory ended. ¡°What''s this?¡± I asked myself as I looked at my cracked arms that kept shattering and repairing themselves time and time again like a broken record. This was the first time I noticed something like this happening to me. When I looked in front of me, I saw The Darkness found itself in a similar position. I knew why... it was those memories... They were mixing up and attacking the very foundations of our existence. Mine was weak when compared to its, which constituted of countless other Dungeon lives. ¡°I''ll shatter you before you will!¡± I threatened it, then I punched it again. Another memory flowed through me. It was the memory of a Dungeon who tried to make a friend, but in the end was betrayed and destroyed. I ignored all of these things. I hated them. They weren''t mine. They were fake! Dodging another attack, my left leg was shattered. As it reformed, I remembered how I fell in love with Ayuseya. From that time when I first heard her play her violin and then until our first night together. The gentle and elegant princess hid a real tigress behind that smile of hers... or rather, a dragoness? It was strange how much I could love Ayuseya, but the same was for Shanteya... and Nanya. All three of them were my beloved wives, which I wanted to embrace every night and whisper sweet words to... Ah, yes~... I loved them. Strange how could a human honestly love three different women, but I did... Was it wrong or right, who cared? ¡°I''ll kill you!¡± shouted The Darkness, pulling me out of my reverie. ¡°No... I will...¡± I declared, unwilling to let it rip away from me the women I loved. There was also Zoreya now, yes... maybe no? Tamara was just a child, but I had to take care of her like I would a daughter, or maybe friend, until she was strong enough to leave my side. The battle resumed with the two of us pulling punches at each other, but sadly, despite my words, I felt my energy draining... I didn''t have the strength to keep up with him. Was I going to lose? I wondered... I felt faint... weak... My body was filled with cracks, my mind was blurry, my vision foggy... I was surrounded by a raging Darkness, while I... I was stoned. Is this it? I wondered as I kept receiving the punches from the Darkness who rejected me and tried to destroy me. Why can''t I fight anymore? I wondered. Was I satisfied with the little I did so far? Was I falling prey to my own weakness again? I could tell, and I had no idea how to find the answer to these simple questions. But I want to see them one more time... I told myself as I tuned my gaze towards the women I loved. They were crying, shivering, and screaming something at me. Was I to blame for their tears? ¡°Illsy...¡± I heard Nanya''s whisper. ¡°Illsy...¡± I heard Shanteya''s as well. ¡°Illsy...¡± Ayuseya''s... ¡°Master...¡± even little Tamara''s. What are they trying to say? I wondered. I focused on them. This time, I felt too weak and numbed to think about my own pain. There was no reason to avoid their gaze, be it hateful or loving. I had to watch them, to see them, to hear those words leaving their lips. ¡°Illsy... I love you... please... fight... come back to me.¡± Nanya cried. These... these are not words of hate... I thought as tears formed in my eyes. Reaching out to them, I heard their voices, their true voices filled with pure emotion. Their cries for help and salvation not for them but for me... ¡°My love, don''t despair... Fight! Fight and come back to me...¡± Ayuseya begged. ¡°Illsy, no matter what, we love you... I love you. That''s why fight and return to us with a happy smile.¡± Shanteya requested through her tears. ¡°Master must fight! Master is stronger than that thing! Master can win... Mas... Illsyore is the only one who cares for me... I''m a poor nekatar slave, but... but... I want Illsyore to win and return to me, to pet me more and feed me fish! Don''t leave me, Illsyore!¡± shouted Tamara. Each in their own ways prayed and wished for me to fight so that I may return to them once more. Do I still have the strength to do so? I wondered as I looked at my cracked hand as it was slowly chipped away by whips of darkness. I closed my eyes. I calmed my mind and listened to the echoes of their voices. They shook my soul, exciting the energy that could be found deep within it... a pure, white energy without even a spec of darkness around it. There couldn''t be any darkness inside my heart, or so I claimed. Nevertheless, these emotions... anger, hate, frustration, and fear, what were way they but not darkness? Could a soul made out only of light, carrying love and honesty, honor and kindness, be able to express such dark thoughts if there was no trace of shadow in it? No... I thought. What was Darkness in the first place? For a while now, no matter how hard it punched, how many past memories of those long dead Dungeons it made me see, no matter how many times my body shattered and was rebuilt again, I was never destroyed. I never left this world, but at the same time, I couldn''t destroy it either... With my whole being numbed, I looked up at the endless Darkness. It was screaming something at me. It was shouting. It was casting a stream of endless spells, while I automatically dodged, blocked, or completely ignored them as they struck my body. It didn''t even matter. For each attack though, I struck back either with a spell or with my fists. When was it that I start to retaliate again? I wondered as I looked at this whole scene as if through the eyes of an observer. Everything felt like a confusing blur that never stopped nor changed... Not far from me were my beloved wives. Outside, Zoreya was dying... Her time was short, while I felt like mine was never ending... I was like a Buddhist monk trapped in that eternal bliss when one first reached what mankind called Nirvana. It was a trap that made you unable to act, or rather... it made you see no reason as to why you should do so in the first place. It was the same for me... But... Wouldn''t it have been better to carry such a powerful state of mind in your current life, accept it freely, and act upon it? Wouldn''t it have been better to manifest myself in the real world rather than in the spiritual one? Wouldn''t it have been better to let myself drown in that state than to experience another second of this life''s suffering? Ah... I strayed off from my thoughts again... I thought as I clenched my fist and stopped it right before I punched The Darkness. ¡°What are you?¡± I asked it. ¡°Guh... I am the manifestation of memories of Dungeons long gone... I am what you should be!¡± he growled at me while trying to maintain its cracked body just as much as I did. Hm? I see it... but not think of ''it'' as ''him''... When did this start? I wondered. Looking down at my hands and then at his... I wondered if maybe we were indeed like oil and water, refusing to mix for all eternity, and yet... At our origin, we were both fluids... Maybe fighting against the very state of being mixed is my mistake? Ever since I came to this world, I rejected the Darkness... I was born a human soul, pure and white, without a sin, yet I constantly pushed back the gift... of my biological parents. I blinked surprised at that last thought of mine. ¡°ARGH!¡± I screamed as I pulled back. My parents... I had none... Tuberculus built me... but still... What are the parents of a Dungeon? How do they raise their child? I thought as I felt my head splitting apart. Morals, thoughts, ideas, everything was in complete contradictory with The Darkness. That was why we fought. That was why it got a hold of me... The Darkness... at its very core... was a part of me... Deusur... That child... There were no parents around with him, yet... What did he tell me back then? I wondered as I tried to remember. As I did this, the splitting headache was calming down. ¡°Despite only born, he held memories from his parents... He knew the laws, the rules, and the ways to control his body and everything around his dungeon. It was all thanks to them, then... even I who have rejected the thought of having a child with any of my wives, it wasn''t because it was too early but... because I could not accept the ''biological'' ways of a Dungeon. I am a human, after all... and as such, I don''t accept anything besides what I already know... Hah~! Is this the answer?¡± I said as I looked once more at my trembling, crumbling, aching hands. Then I gazed up at The Darkness. It said nothing. ¡°The reason why you were born... it''s because... you are my shadow, aren''t you? My fear, my anger, my hate... and the part of me that makes me... ME.¡± I said with a smile as I flew towards it. ¡°STAY AWAY! I WILL MAKE YOU SUFFER! I WILL TAKE YOUR BODY!¡± he shouted at me as it threw its best attacks at me, but none harmed me now. ¡°No... not anymore... You are not a monster... You are the gift from my parents, aren''t you? Tuberculus may have constructed me, but there are no new born dungeons out there who are sent into the world as a blank slate, are they?¡± I asked as I now stood in front of it. ¡°Guh... No, but if you, the main consciousness... the soul were to stay put and lay down in my cage, I could rule this body as I desire!¡± he retorted and tried to punch me. I stopped his fist in the air. ¡°No... I can''t... and I won''t... This is the only thing I have yet to try... because I can''t defeat you with violence. The stronger I get, the stronger you become. The more I reject you, the more you try to come close. The more I harm you, the more I feel hurt... It makes sense now, doesn''t it? Everything that happened to me, everything that took place from the very moment I stepped into this world, right?¡± I smiled for the first time... in how long? ¡°Guh!¡± he didn''t like my words, but couldn''t reject them either. ¡°Because I remembered my former life as a human, I was unable to fully accept the biological traits of this body of mine, meaning the memories of the long gone Dungeons... Memories meant to help me survive as their legacy...¡± I said. ¡°Do you think they will accept you as a reincarnated human?! They will hate you when they find out the truth!¡± The Darkness shouted and then revealed the four women who shared a bond with me. ¡°Illsy?¡± Nanya asked surprised. ¡°Your soul is that of a human?¡± Ayuseya was surprised as well. Even Shanteya and Tamara were too. ¡°Yes, in a way. It''s better to say that I''m a soul who can remember some of his memories from the time when he lived as a human in another world. That''s why I''m a bit strange... Hm? Now that I said it... I wonder why I never got the courage to tell you before? Was I that afraid that you will distance yourselves from me as a result?¡± I asked myself as I came to realize this. Tears formed in my eyes and flowed down my crack cheeks. ¡°Do you hate me now?¡± I asked them with a soft smile. ¡°NEVER!¡± Nanya shouted, shaking her head. ¡°I love you, Illsy! Even if you are a Dungeon, a Human, or whatever!¡± she declared. ¡°I as well! No matter what, my heart now belongs only to you, Illsy!¡± Ayuseya nodded. ¡°There was never a doubt about it, my love... Neither of us even care WHAT you are, after all, we accepted you as a Dungeon, one of the most hated and despised sapient species in this world. Why should we hate you for being... a former human?¡± Shanteya asked a fairly decent and simple question. ¡°I wonder why, indeed?¡± I said with a smile. ¡°Master... Illsyore is my Master! Dungeon or Human, I''m a nekatar! Feed me fish, pet me, and be nice to me, and I will like you!¡± Tamara gave her own form of cute reply. ¡°Thank you, my loves...¡± I bowed to them respectfully. Then I turned to the Darkness. ¡°See... there was never a reason to fear and run away from them. They love me, no matter what. If Zoreya could find it in her heart to love me, despite her being an Apostle and crusader... why shouldn''t they? No... why should being a human even matter in the first place?¡± I asked. ¡°Because humans are evil! They killed us! They will kill you! They harmed us! They destroyed our creations! They slaughtered our pets, slaves, and lovers! They showed no mercy... they...¡± it tried to throw back reasons from its past while vehemently ignoring the present. ¡°They did... but besides Zoreya, aren''t I the only human here?¡± I asked. ¡°YES! THAT''S WHY I HATE YOU!¡± he shouted at me. ¡°I... I don''t anymore.¡± I replied honestly. ¡°You tried to kill me! To dispose of me like I was some bug! Kill or be killed... isn''t that the way of all living beings in this world?!¡± he questioned me and reminded me how from the very beginning I was the one who acted like all the other humans in his memories. I never approved him. I always denied at first even the existence of other memories besides my own, let alone accept them. I struggled to be a human in a Dungeon''s body rather than a Dungeon with a human heart and mind... So in the end, he spoke the truth. If I, the soul, was unable to accept and cherish him, then who would? And most importantly, how could he believe anyone else would? It was simple... It was the truth... ¡°I don''t anymore... and for what I did, I apologize...¡± I said and then reached out to him. This time, my light stopped fighting and instead began to accept him. I embraced him. ¡°Darkness, I accept you now as part of me and wish for us to become the True Illsyore we never got to be... I want for both of us to finally be healed...¡± I declared. And with this, light shone as bright as day, covering everything around us and reaching all the way to the edge of this infinite darkness. The memories of the former dungeons, which I ignored and reject this entire life, for the first time ever, I accepted them fully as part of me. However, accepting one''s darkness and letting themselves be ruled by it were two different things... I was the one who was going to hold the reins, while The Darkness was to became that which was was meant to be from the very first time... the Dungeon part of me. [Status system has been restored] [New skills unlocked] [Level has been reset to 1] [Do you wish to switch to [Instinctual Mode] or keep [HUD Mode] Y/N] Thus, the True Illsyore was born... Chapter 82: Long list of nicknames [Illsyore''s point of view] 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 couldn''t 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 day time. 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 shinning 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 led to the failure of said program. The good thing was that I didn''t receive a blue screen in midaction. 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]: TamaraThis book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. [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) ¨C 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 very familiar presence approaching me. We all looked in the same direction as if pulled by a magnet. Who we saw was non 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. Chapter 83: The Laws of Creation [Illsyore''s point of view] Opening my eyes, I saw the endless blue sky above me. Then I felt the dirt in my mouth and my whole body aching in pain. It was such a ''lovely'' wake up call. With a loud groan and some bones creaking, I managed to get back up on my feet. This isn''t working... I thought as I felt the pain surging through my whole body. Breathing hard, I decided to do that one thing I was supposed to do the very moment I woke up. I fueled my body with Magic Energy and activated my regeneration ability. In the blink of an eye, my pain subsided, and I could final breath normally. ¡°Mhm... Much better.¡± I said with a smile. Before moving from my spot, I did a quick check to see if I wasn''t missing any limbs or had grown any extra ones while I was out cold. Besides the cracks in my crystals, which were recovering, and my aching muscles, there were no abnormalities. With a sigh of relief and an uneasy step, I began to search for Zoreya in this wasteland created as a result of her confrontation with The Darkness. The best way to describe this place would be to think of a battlefield on which two godlike beings faced each other. Craters, ditches, upturned trees, lakes of molten lava, and scorched earth could be seen as far as the eyes could carry. And in one point, far from where I was, the remains of a once bustling city could be found. How many lives were taken by The Darkness in that brief moment, I had no idea, and I probably would never come to find out, but right now I had other priorities. From my point of view, the time that passed between the moment when I last saw Zoreya and right now could be measured in weeks or months. Either way, it was very long, so some of the shock and panic I would normally be experiencing wasn''t there. As such, I could focus all of my senses into finding the dying crusader. The first thing I did was to expand my Dungeon Territory to envelop an area around me with a radius of about 3 km, then I began to search for any life signs, but I ignored the bugs, small critters, and anything else that managed to survive and wasn''t bigger than a dog in size. Thanks to me merging with The Darkness, I came to realize that my Dungeon Territory could detect quite a number of life forms. Previously most of this data was skillfully ignored by the previous settings, leaving only the big monsters and sapient species. I found the crusader laying in the ground at about 648 meters away from me. The moment I detected her, I rushed to her side as fast as I could, but I underestimated my leg strength and almost flew past her. Luckily for me, I was a quick thinker, so I raised a stone wall in front of me... Nobody said I had to be a brilliant thinker... I went splat into the wall and broke through it, but at the very least I brought myself to a stop. Then, at a much slower and careful pace, while spitting out pebbles, I approached the injured woman. ¡°Zoreya!¡± I called out to her as I knelt by her side. Her armor was pierced and blood was everywhere. Without a second thought, I tried to active my magic to heal her. Since she was inside my Dungeon Territory, I should have technically been able to knead the Magic Energy into her flesh and use it to restore her cells, but the moment I tried to do so, I got zapped. ¡°What the?!¡± I blinked surprised as I shook my hands. It was just like being shocked by a loose electric wire, but how could something like that happen? Last I checked, she was a human, not an android or robot from an 80''s Sci-Fi movie. Once more, I tried to knead the Magic Energy into her flesh, but I got shocked again. ¡°The hell?!¡± I cursed as I rubbed my fingers. ¡°Status Check!¡± I called out. The Dungeon Territory''s most basic function was that of collecting information from everything and everyone located within it. The amount of data I received was simple, but enough to give me a good understanding of their strength, however, what I got from Zoreya was a bunch of nonsense. [N$m#] : Yzaro[ Alt40''''; [LAERvel]: 404; 404//404<404#404$404%^ [Shgiesp]: Apostle of Melkuth [4p[34];d;weee ¡°What in the name of all that''s holy is this?!¡± I shouted at the window. But it was clear now that something was interfering with my attempt at healing her. From what I could tell, it had to do with her god, Melkuth. Maybe some of that Divine Energy was interfering with my Magic Energy? My [Bond of Trust II] also mentioned something along the lines of changing one type of energy into another in order to grant my wives and slave their boost in stats. Maybe Melkuth did something similar? Seeing how I am Dungeon, by definition his enemy, he has taken caution on not to anyone of my kind to knead or interfere in a magical way with his Apostles? I wondered as I tried to understand the reason why I wasn''t allowed to heal this woman. ¡°Damn it!¡± I cursed and clenched my fists. I was angry that I couldn''t do anything. Removing the damaged armor was out of the question as well. Pieces of the metal were bent inwards and shards were probably embedded in her wound. There were also several pieces which were fused together, making it impossible to remove without ripping them apart or forcefully bending the metal. She''s going to die like this... I thought as I looked at her face. With her life fading away, the energy that kept her youth was also slowly dispersing, causing her to age... Now she looked like a 40 years old woman, but she was still beautiful in my eyes. There''s only one way... If she can talk with them... then maybe... I thought and closed my eyes. ¡°Melkuth, God of War! I know you are there! Answer me!¡± I demanded and glared up at the sky. There was no reply. I clenched my fists. ¡°Answer me you overworshipped bastard! Do you really want to see your Apostle die?! Do you want her to die in vain just because you don''t want me to heal her?! MELKUTH!¡± I shouted. No reply. ¡°Very well...¡± I closed my eyes and tried to think. What can I do? Maybe if I build him a temple? Maybe that building acts as a intermediary or something? I wondered and decided to give it a try. Using my memories and those of the Dungeons as an example, I poured Magic Energy into a very rare and hard to get skill called [Ultimate Creation Kit]. Just like the name said, this thing couldn''t be upgraded, couldn''t be improved, leveled up, or anything, but it was ridiculously powerful if one had enough Magic Energy for it. As a side note, The Darkness kept it under lock and key and did his best to keep me away from it from the very moment I was born into this world. You could add with it any number of Floors, Rooms, Corridors, Paths, Traps, Mechanics, you name it. As long as you KNEW EXACTLY what you wanted to build, you could do it. The cost was sky high when compared to building it step by step, but the results were instantaneous. It wouldn''t be wrong to claim this Skill as my very own Supreme Ranked one. Thus, the first thing I decided to build with the [Ultimate Creation Kit] skill was the full sized temple of the God of War. It was a perfect and maybe even improved replica of an those spread around the continent at this moment. I even Enchanted the walls with so much Magic Energy that they could survive a full-on nuclear assault. If The Darkness attacked it with a beam of laser, this thing would still survive. There were even decorations inside and had everything it needed to welcome new believers. Well, it was in the middle of a scorched battlefield, but that was a minor detail. As for the small mark I added at the bottom: ''Made by the follower of the Holy God of Big Boobs!''. That was an easy to miss detail... probably. ¡°THERE! Now will you answer me?!¡± I shouted. No reply. ¡°MELKUTH! Don''t ignore me, you parabolic mongoose!¡± I shouted. No reply. Maybe I need to fix the terrain or come up with better insults? I still have Magic Energy, and it''s regenerating at an amazing speed. So, should I also add a town too? Yes... that must be the fault! I thought, but I was seriously running out of time and ideas. Even so, focusing over 9000 Magic Energy points into the [Ultimate Creation Kit] skill, I began to change the terrain, build houses, stores, and official buildings, each and every one of them completely furnished and ready to be used. I spared no detail, and for a moment there, I even thought I would run out of Magic Energy! Well, if I were to have built those buildings one by one, it wouldn''t have been that much of a big deal, but I had to do it in one go because I was running out of time. ¡°[Ultimate Creation Kit]!¡± I shouted without bothering to use the Voice Command. Those words could be redefined as I desired any way. The default version were the nonsense words everyone in this world used. What mattered was the actual process of kneading the Magic Energy into the form I wanted. And just like that, an entire town capable of housing at least 1000 souls was raised in the middle of the freaking nowhere! Compliments of the one and only Godlike Dungeon Lord Illsyore! ¡°Huff! Huff! There!¡± I said as I tried to catch my breath. Expelling so much Magic Energy nearly brought me on my knees and if it was the old me, I would have fainted. Since I had complete control, I knew how to overexert myself past the self-imposed automatic limits. The only catch was that I ended up loosing a lot of strength, speed, and focus power. ¡°MELKUTH! ANSWER ME, YOU MUSTARD! Huh? I mean bastard!¡± I was so annoyed I accidentally made a fool of myself. Even so, if he didn''t do something about Zoreya''s divine attribute, she was as good as dead. ¡°MELKUTH! She''s dying! You know this! So do something! Let me heal her! Please...¡± I begged and lowered my head. What else could I do? Yet even after all of this, I was still unable to make the God of War speak with me. Does he think so little of us? Of Zoreya and her faith in him? Was she only a disposable pawn? I thought and clenched my fist. It was possible. To get rid of The Darkness or cure me of it... Zoreya''s sacrifice was probably seen as nothing more than an acceptable loss. After all, what was the life of one Apostle when they could stop a rampaging monster like The Darkness? What he did to the city was nothing compared to he could have done if fully unleashed upon this world. From his memories, I understood that I was the main reason he couldn''t do it. No matter how much he blabbed on about destroying me and locking me up, the cold hard truth was that my soul never allowed him access to all of the unrestricted abilities of this body. I could simply never agree to the ways he wanted to use them. The ultimate goal of The Darkness was none other than the complete and utter extermination of all organic sapient species on the Three Continents. After it completed this goal, it wanted to build a powerful dungeon capable of covering the entire planet. Even if Zoreya''s true purpose in this life was that of only stopping me in any way or matter she could, I couldn''t agree to it. I was a selfish Dungeon Lord who didn''t want to let her go... Not after everything that happened. Not when I knew, deep down, there was still a chance to save her. What am I doing wrong? I asked myself as I looked down at the ground. ¡°What can I do to help her?¡± I asked out loud. I have so much power, yet again I can''t save someone I care about? I shook my head and punch the ground, cracking it. ¡°NO!¡± I shouted in anger. Sometimes, the best way to catch someone''s attention isn''t to please them but to make them mad... or angry at something... but how? How can I make the God of War angry? How can someone annoy a god like him? I thought and as I looked up. Before me, I saw the temple I built for him. ¡°That''s it...¡± I smirked. Again, I thought up a ridiculous plan. It was my last bet, my last chance. Glaring up at the sky, I shouted at the top of my lungs ¡°MELKUTH! IF YOU DON''T ANSWER ME, I''M GOING TO...¡± [Somewhere up in the sky] ¡°Are you sure you don''t want to take this call?¡± the perverted old man asked as he looked through the window that displayed the world of the mortals. ¡°NO!¡± I retorted. As a God of War, I was in a very shameful position. Hugging my knees and grumbling in a corner in my own office, I was trying not to think of what happened in the aftermath against The Darkness, but at the same time, I was angry and upset by the fact that Zoreya wasn''t going to join me here in the heavens. Despite what she said, the Apostle pact was clear in this matter. As long as she loved someone else besides me, she wasn''t allowed to join me... As such, my Divine Energy was slipping out of her body and letting her die like any other mortal out there. It was pathetic, but even I couldn''t do anything about it. Does this mean I lied to her? I wondered. Even if I was a GOD, I wasn''t allowed by the OTHER Gods to go back on my own words of creation. The laws which both determined and offered an Apostle their power and authority came with very strict conditions. Obeying the said God was a given, but every one of us required certain things from that said Apostle. In my case, I wanted them to be Female and love only me. In the case of Kleopatra, the Goddess of Love, she didn''t care about the gender of her Apostles, she only wished them to remain a virgin till the age of 25, be able to remain sane after a night of love with her and then find for themselves several other lovers, while still answering her call to her bed whenever she felt in the mood. Sertan as the God of Harvest wanted his Apostles to love nature and agriculture to an almost abnormal level. His condition for one to remain an Apostle was that each year, they had to bring a bountiful harvest to a different field, with no two fields being the same for a period of 5 years. He didn''t stop them from having a family, but in case they did, his condition was that they would be very fertile... Those families of Apostles multiplied worse than Merions. The Holy God of Big Boobs was an exception to all of us because he didn''t have even a temple, let alone an Apostle. His only legitimate follower so far was a Dungeon of all things. None of the other gods took him seriously, most of the times, especially the Goddess of the Hunt and the Goddess of the Anvil. Even so, without a doubt, he was the MOST powerful out all of us. As such, thanks to the conditions I placed on my Apostles, I ended up losing the best one I had. There was no way I could just calmly watch as she died and was taken away by the God of Death... I would rather eat my own sword and run naked in the middle of a battlefield than to seen that idiot''s big grin... Besides, how could I even look at Zoreya when she will be told by THAT God that she failed and was now dragged to the Underworld. It would be too painful... therefore, like a coward, I hid in a corner and cursed my own days. ¡°Illsyore is the one who''s calling you, you know?¡± the old senile pervert told me. ¡°Tell him he got the wrong God of War! Pretend I''m Ares or something!¡± I growled at him. ¡°Well... how am I supposed to do that?¡± he retorted. I ignored him. Illsyore would just give up once Zoreya died... That was going to be it. Just a bit longer and then I could grovel back to my chair and look for a new Apostle for the shield, or watch an alien rom-com on the Galactic Web to settle my nerves. The yourtzians had some rather good ones... ¡°Ah! He''s insulting you now.¡± said the senile old fool. ¡°Tell him to go jump off a bridge!¡± I retorted. Now where was I? Ah yes, romantic comedy series... yes... perfect. I will watch a few. Yup, nothing bad will happen if the God of War goes missing for a few years. I have feelings too, you know! I cried in my mind. ¡°Erm, are you sure about this?¡± the idiotic god was being persistent. ¡°LEAVE ME BE! I JUST WANT SOMETHING TO CUDDLE AND CRY RIGHT NOW!¡± I shouted. ¡°He just built you temple...¡± he said. ¡°What sort of idiotic Dungeon would think something like that could appease me?¡± I scoffed. ¡°Well... don''t ask me, I''m usually happy with just sneaking a peak at the ladies bathhouse.¡± he grinned foolishly while imagining something perverted without a doubt. ¡°I don''t care...¡± I growled and looked away from him. ¡°Oh? He built you a town... I hope he''s not going to fill it with that new breed of boot-humping imps. Their numbers are growing at a frightening rate.¡± he told me. True, those were a pest, but only summoners and Dungeons could call them out. Then again, how did they multiply so fast in the first place? Didn''t Illsyore kill the only specimen? Is it some sort of new religion I have to watch out for in the future? I thought, but I quickly abandoned that dangerous train. Whatever that dungeon was trying to do to appease me, it wouldn''t work! Even if he built me a thousand temple or made me the number one God among all, I still wouldn''t do it! I didn''t want to answer. I didn''t want to face Zoreya''s death... ¡°Hm. Are you really really sure about ignoring Illsy? He''s sort of... now he''s actually threatening to reduce ALL of your temples to a pile of ruble if you don''t reply. He does have that sort of power, you know?¡± the god told me. ¡°He what now?¡± I blinked surprised. He''s kidding right? Doing something like that could bring a devastating blow to my believers! Why would he do that?! Just because I didn''t answer?! I panicked. This was no joke, unlike the pervert over there, I couldn''t hold on to my position if all of sudden my temples were suddenly erased from the face of the planet! [Illsyore''s point of view] ¡°Melkuth! For the last time! If you don''t answer me this instant, I''m going to obliterate ALL of your temples! And to make things clear, ONLY AND ONLY yours! The other ones, I''m going to clean and offer them praises! I''m going to make you into a forgotten god even if it takes an eternity to do it! I''ll erase you from their religious books! I''ll destroy your reputation! I''ll spread rumors the like that would make children cry and veteran adventurers cringe! I will make perverted and mentl torturing dungeons with your name on them and tell everyone that you ordered me to make them! I will make sure they will experience the most hateful of traps ever!¡± I shouted at the sky. ¡°WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU DO THAT?!¡± the god finally answered. I smirked. ¡°Oh! So there you are! How are you doing? Nice weather up there, isn''t it?¡± I asked with a nonchalant smile. ¡°...¡± the god didn''t answer. ¡°I know you are there. No use hiding now!¡± I smirked.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. A bolt of lightning shot right in front of me. In that place, a majestic-looking man made his appearance. Actually, scratch that, it was an armored fellow with black hair and black eyes kissing the ground. ¡°Are you alright?¡± I asked furrowing my brow. ¡°You''ll thank me later, Melkuth!¡± I heard the voice of another fellow, but this one seemed older and quite familiar too. It can''t be... can it? I wondered. ¡°Ugh... that idiotic god...¡± Melkuth groaned as he pulled himself together and took a more dignified stance in front of me. ¡°Hello! You must be the God of War, nice to meet you, now do something about Zoreya! Chop chop!¡± I said and pointed at the dying woman next to me. ¡°Hmph!¡± he scoffed and looked at me as though he was looking at a bug. I squinted my eyes at him. ¡°How many temples do you think I''ll pulverize if I drop nukes on them?¡± I asked. ¡°You wouldn''t.¡± he said. ¡°Oh, I would!¡± I nodded and smirked. ¡°Tch! I heard you have the heart of a human, so you wouldn''t senselessly kill millions!¡± he rebuked. ¡°I was indeed human, but now I am a Dungeon with the memories of a former human. As such, I''m not that affected by killing a few millions. You know, I''m not feeling all that bad about the city The Darkness destroyed. What''s a few more kills on the list?¡± I smirked. It was a partial truth, but to be more precise, I understood that there was nothing else I could do at this point about this tragedy, so worrying senselessly about it or blaming myself wouldn''t have solved a thing. What I could do was make sure something like that never happened again, thus, yes... I was unable to drop nukes randomly like that. Then again, I would probably have a hard time making nukes in the first place. I knew this, but this god didn''t. ¡°Hmph! I won''t let you! Me and the other gods will...¡± ¡°You will what? Stop me? I am not The Darkness, you know? I won''t mindlessly destroy their temples... just yours. ONLY yours.¡± I smirked. ¡°You dare make such a dangerous threat to a God like me?¡± he questioned. ¡°Sure, why not?¡± I shrugged as if it was nothing. ¡°But just to make things clear,¡± I lifted my right pointing finger up ¡°I don''t hate you or antagonize you in any way in general, but right now, if you were on fire, and I had water. I would drink it.¡± I showed him a calm smile. His eye twitched. Oh! I''m getting to him! I smirked. ¡°Fine! Tell me what you want, Dungeon!¡± he said, finally caving in. ¡°I want you to let me heal Zoreya.¡± I declared. ¡°I can''t let you do that.¡± he shook is head. ¡°Why?!¡± I asked surprised. ¡°She''s still an Apostle until the last drop of my Divine Energy leaves her body, which will be in a minute or so. For a human, I have to say she''s quite the resilient one... Sigh, what a pity.¡± he shook his head. ¡°Don''t let it be! You are a god, aren''t you?! Just change the laws for that Apostles thingy! Make an exception! Anything!¡± I pointed a finger at him and demanded. ¡°I can''t! I''m not all powerful! That''s the job of another God!¡± he declared. ¡°Then aren''t you completely useless?! Melkuth, apologize immediately to that tree out there that''s producing oxygen so you can breath!¡± I retorted. ¡°Watch your tongue, Dungeon! I''m still a powerful God of War! I can do... stuff.¡± he lowered his gaze ¡°But not save my own Apostle from certain death...¡± he let out another sigh. I can''t believe this... I thought. I felt like ripping this planet apart! What was with this situation?! This absurd thing in which a God couldn''t even do something like heal his own Apostle? Who made this laws? Why? I felt like screaming and groaning and complaining, but none of that would have helped, so I took a deep breath and calmly asked him. ¡°Why?¡± ¡°When Gods make their Apostles, they use the Laws of Creation to do so. According to them, this relationship is a ''give and take'' one. I offer her power, authority, and immortality. She offers me a perfect faith, love only for me, and complete obedience to my commands.¡± he then looked at me. ¡°When an Apostle fails the implied conditions set by the Laws of Creation, her power is taken away, and she''ll be seen as a normal mortal again.¡± ¡°But she didn''t fail...¡± I tried to rebuke him. ¡°SHE DID, you idiot!¡± he glared at me. ¡°Huh? What?¡± I looked at him confused. This was news to me, or it completely slipped my mind, one of the two. ¡°She didn''t listen to my command when I told her not to go after you and just kill you. She doesn''t love only me, she also loves you! And to make matters worse, you are a DUNGEON!¡± he pointed his finger at me while glaring furiously at me. I gulped. ¡°Well... then...¡± I looked down at Zoreya. I knew that last part... and I know I don''t want to let go of her either... I wonder if I can still save her if I do that one thing Nanya''s going to kill me for? Sigh, guess she''ll be the fourth? Will I be able to honestly reply to her love? No, this isn''t the time to ask myself such a silly question! I will do it! I nodded to myself and then looked straight into this guy''s eyes. My mind was made up. ¡°What?¡± he asked surprised. ¡°Change the conditions.¡± I demanded. ¡°Like I said, I can''t! They are set in stone the very moment I made the FIRST Apostle!¡± he shouted in anger. For a moment, I felt like the whole world trembled. This guy was starting to show a bit of his true power, and it was quite a lot. His fury was the real deal. There was no more place for jokes and insults in our conversation. ¡°I understand...¡± I nodded. ¡°Then leave me be... It''s not easy for me to lose an Apostle like her either...¡± he let out a sad sigh as he looked back at Zoreya. Something twitched in me. ¡°I''m not giving her to you.¡± I declared. ¡°She was mine to begin with.¡± he glared at me. ¡°I don''t care. She loves me, and you only as a god! Get a clue! Those two are different!¡± I shouted at him. ¡°No! For me, they are the same!¡± he retorted. ¡°Are you an idiot?! Go ask the God of Love, and he will tell you!¡± I pointed at the sky. ¡°We have a Goddess here, not a God, and still... I am a God! Why should I listen to you, a Dungeon?!¡± he puffed his chest. ¡°Because I can destroy your temples and turn your religion into a bad joke?¡± I replied raising an eyebrow. ¡°You can''t.¡± he squinted his eyes at me. ¡°Try me.¡± I retorted. ¡°Ugh...¡± Zoreya let out a soft groan that caught our attention. Spitting out blood, her breath trembled, and it was clear that even with her incredible endurance, she wouldn''t have a lot of time left to live. ¡°She''s dying, Melkuth... So please, stop being stubborn and help us.¡± I pleaded him. ¡°Like I said... It''s not that easy... The Laws of Creation are something the entire Pantheon of Gods agreed to. Denying or modifying them would be the same as questioning or doubting the very existence of all of us. I can''t do that. I don''t have that sort of power, not even your god does.¡± he groaned and shook his head. It was clear that even he was annoyed by this situation. As for the said god, I had yet to meet him. Funny that I got to meet the God of War first before my own. ¡°Then... You said Apostles are bounded by conditions, right?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes.¡± he nodded. ¡°You can''t change those, right?¡± ¡°No.¡± ¡°Then... can you make something like a High Apostle and give them new conditions, while adding one that makes them, you know, level up from the condition of a normal Apostle?¡± I asked hoping there was still a slim chance to save her. ¡°Hm...¡± he rubbed his chin and looked as though he was seriously thinking about it. ¡°Well?¡± I asked. ¡°You know... it might work. It doesn''t go against the rules, but... ugh... I would have to give her more power and conditions... and...¡± he was rubbing his temples. ¡°How about this then?¡± I smirked and looked into his eyes. ¡°What?¡± he asked. ¡°The level up condition from the normal Apostle is as follows: Be able to Love your god, Melkuth, as a god, while still holding romantic love for another even if they are a Dungeon. However, that love must be true, and Melkuth will be the judge of that. As a High Apostle, they take up the role of your most trusted mortal and will do battle in your name. They will be granted the power you desire and allowed to have a family as long as said family supports them. At the same time, it will not be the fault of the High Apostle if their lover or family ever tried to go against them, but as long as the High Apostle is willing to do your bidding, they will maintain their status. What do you think?¡± I asked scratching the back of my head. ¡°Hm... That sounds good, although, I wouldn''t put some of those things like that. Hm, but the condition you mentioned... this would mean that you would become Zoreya''s family, but you don''t have a family name. Hm...¡± he rubbed his chin as he looked at me. I felt a sudden chill run down my spine. ¡°What? Why do I have bad feeling about this?¡± I asked. He smirked. ¡°What are you thinking?¡± I asked squinting my eyes at him. ¡°I will make Zoreya into my first ever High Apostle only and only IF you agree on the following condition.¡± he said. ¡°What condition?¡± I asked. ¡°You will make me your God as well, and in return I will grant you Zoreya as your wife, a family name, and the possibility of serving me!¡± he laughed. ¡°Skip the last part, and it''s a deal.¡± I nodded. I will gain more than I would lose, and it really doesn''t matter what sort of family name I receive. I thought while examining both sides carefully. I should have taught about that last part a bit more... ¡°Very well! Now, give me a moment, I must need to focus I...¡± he stuttered and looked at me. ¡°You heard nothing.¡± ¡°Heard I nothing yes.¡± I nodded. He squinted his eyes at me. ¡°Zoreya''s dying you know... for a while now. So, chop chop! Get going with the godly thingies and make her into a High Apostle.¡± I said shooing him off. ¡°The nerve of you. I am the God of War, you know?¡± he said. ¡°Like I care?! Zoreya''s more important!¡± I declared. ¡°Ugh... you...¡± he let out a sigh and gave up on the quarrel. Yay! I won! I thought childishly. Whatever Melkuth did, he did it fast. In the blink of an eye, Zoreya was covered in a bright, white light, and he looked like he was out of energy, gasping for air and sweating like crazy. ¡°Are you alright? What... what just happened?¡± I asked surprised. ¡°I did it... She''s... She''s the very first High Apostle of Melkuth, the God of War... and I''m seriously out of energy. But, before I go, I''ll tell you this. I accept you as Zoreya''s husband. IF you accept her without the beauty of her young version, you pass. If you don''t, it means you were just after her body. As such, Zoreya will die. At the same time, since you accepted the condition I asked of you, I will tell you your... huff... huff... your family name from henceforth!¡± he declared and then gasped for air. So far I understood what he said, although, I couldn''t fully understand why he was so exhausted. Those Laws of Creation must have been pretty difficult to use all in all. Even so, I was about to be baptized by the God of War himself, so I stood straight in front of him and looked at him with a serious face. ¡°I, Melkuth, give you the name of Deus! From henceforth, you shall be known as Illsyore Deus, the Dungeon Lord who follows Melkuth, the God of War! And I, Melkuth, the God of War, recognize you and your family as my loyal worshipers and followers and grant you all the protection, blessings, and rights that come with it!¡± he declared as a white light enveloped me. In a moment, I understood something in me changed. The family name offered by a god... was also a bit ironic. [Family name received: Deus] [Allegiance added: Melkuth the God of War] ¡°Deus, really? How many quarters of a second did it take you to think of that one?¡± I asked mockingly. ¡°Two and half, but shut up and be glad I didn''t name you something more ridiculous like... Boobylichious! I could have, but I also have to think about my High Apostle''s future. I can''t have her named something like that! And if I was really really aiming for something ridiculous, how about Puppy or Kitty? Illsyore Lil''Kitty sounds wonderful, don''t you think so?¡± he smirked. This bastard... I was glaring at him. ¡°Anyway, I''ve done all I could! Now save my precious High Apostle and don''t make me regret doing all of this for you!¡± he pointed his finger at me. I nodded and turned my gaze towards her. Zoreya''s beautiful young figure turned into that of a wrinkled and crippled old lady. She was aged to a point I could barely recognize her, but she was still the woman who gave her all in order to save me. ¡°So this is how a century-old crusader looks like, heh?¡± I smiled and gently brushed her hair. ¡°Zoreya?¡± I tried to wake her up. ¡°Let me do something about that...¡± the god said and touched her forehead. ¡°I thought you couldn''t interfere?¡± I asked raising an eyebrow. ¡°With Apostles, not that much... With her? I can do a lot more.¡± he smirked. ¡°If you do anything perverted.¡± I glared at him. ¡°Calm down, what do you take me for? A senile old fool?¡± he retorted. ¡°Ugh... Illsy?¡± she said and looked at me with barely any life force in her eyes. The tone of her voice was that of an old lady. Her smile was weak and wrinkled from her passing age. ¡°I''m here...¡± ¡°So you won... I''m happy.¡± she smiled. Melkuth was still holding a finger on her forehead, but it didn''t seem like she was aware of his presence. Maybe that was the side effect of whatever he was doing? Or maybe it had something to do with my initial ability [Divine Perception], which allowed me to communicate and see Gods? ¡°Zoreya, I already received permission from your god, so I wanted to ask you something.¡± I showed her a smile. ¡°From Melkuth? What do you wish to ask of this old lady? I don''t have that much time left, I can feel it...¡± she looked up at the sky, although her gaze sort of went straight through Melkuth''s forehead. ¡°I wish to ask if this old lady wants to be this Dungeon''s wife. Will you marry me, Zoreya?¡± I asked her. ¡°What?¡± she looked a bit surprised, tears welling up in her eyes. ¡°But... I''m old now... I don''t have much time left.¡± she said with trembling lips. ¡°What''s age to a beautiful soul like yours?¡± I asked as I leaned over and gave her a soft kiss on the lips.¡± This blasted god just tried to stop me, didn''t he? I thought as I could clearly feel his other hand pulling me back by the hair. He was one jealous god, but that still didn''t stop me. ¡°Illsy... if you are fine with me... and if even Melkuth said yes, then... I don''t mind being your wife, Illsy.¡± she cried. [High Apostle of Melkuth Zoreya Alttoros is now your wife.] ¡°Relax, my love. I will save you...¡± I said and then placed my hand on her cheek. ¡°Absorb without armor.¡± I said. In that moment, she vanished, leaving only that damaged armor behind. I was going to collect that later, but for now, I had to go back to my Inner Mind and use my healing ability to its best in order to save her. It was going to be an easy feat for me now that there was no annoying Divine Energy blocking me. ¡°Was the name thing really necessary?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes... The Laws of Creation demanded at least this in order for you to be allowed to interfere with her body and heal or... ugh... impregnate her.¡± he said the last word as if it was poison for him. ¡°Oh, is that so? Good to know about that last part! I was thinking about twins!¡± I smirked. Sometimes it felt so good to hold a good knife in your hand and use its sharp blade dipped in salt to stir the wound of your enemy. ¡°Anyway, I''ll be going now. Thank you, Melkuth! Despite all that I said, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for letting me save Zoreya!¡± I declared and bowed at the waist in front of him. ¡°This... I didn''t expect. Sigh... Treat her well, Dungeon. I will be watching over you from now on.¡± he declared and then slowly vanished. ¡°I will.¡± I nodded. It was time to return to my Inner Mind and save my fourth wife. Ah... Nanya was going to kill after this. [Back in Melkuth''s office] ¡°See! That wasn''t so bad!¡± said the senile old pervert. ¡°Bad? It was horrible! No mortal had even dared speak so disrespectfully with me! He even dared to threaten me! Me, the God of War!¡± Melkuth shouted as he pointed at himself. ¡°Well, he''s a Dungeon and not a normal one either.¡± the senile fool shrugged indifferently. ¡°When I think about the fact that I just gave my top Apostle to him... I feel like crying with tears of blood!¡± he declared. ¡°You already are... Want a tissue?¡± he kindle offered him a box. ¡°Shut it...¡± the God of War grumbled as he wiped off his tears, turning the white tissue red. ¡°But, you are the first God ever to make a High Apostle! That certainly was a stroke of genius!¡± the old man nodded approvingly. ¡°I know, but... I feel like I forgot something.¡± he tilted his head to the left. ¡°Did you remember to offer Zoreya''s youth back?¡± he asked. ¡°Ah, blasted pigeons on a stick! I completely forgot about that detail!¡± the God of War face-palmed himself. ¡°Just... add the condition now.¡± the other god showed him a wry smile. ¡°I will... But she first needs to leave his Inner Mind. Ah~ What a blunder on my side...¡± the God of War sighed and looked back down at Illsyore''s body, which remained stuck in a kneeling position in front of the broken remains of Zoreya''s armor. Chapter 84: In the deadly embrace of my wives [Illsyore''s point of view] As soon as I returned to my Inner Mind, I quickly moved towards Zoreya. I was on borrowed time, and I had to heal her fast. Well, since she was here now, I could also took the liberty of curing and enhancing her body in any way I pleased. I did the same with everyone else, so why not with her as well? Besides, they all benefited from me fixing their Magic Energy Channels. ¡°Zoreya...¡± I said as I looked at her. This was the second time when I saw her without her armor on. The first time being during back then when I stumbled upon her bathing in the lake. That was certainly a heart throbbing moment, and her young figure was certainly divine. It was a shame she had to keep it hidden underneath that thick armor of hers. Of course, now she looked no different than a 100 years old wrinkly grandma. ¡°Let''s do this then!¡± I said with a smile as I stretched my arms. Kneading the Magic Energy into her body, I began my work by first scanning her entire body in order to find all the damaged tissue. I discovered third degree burns on her shoulder and side, countless bruises all over her body, and multiple internal organ traumas. Despite the severity and ridiculous amount of blood loss, there was nothing I couldn''t treat and fix with my magic. A modern doctor, on the other hand, would have required an entire team of specialists to treat her, but even then he would still only be able to offer her low chances of survival. With the skill I earned from building this body of mine, I carefully healed Zoreya''s injuries and removed any potential pathogen I discovered along the way. Diseases were something the human species was most vulnerable against, and even in this sort of world, this remained an undisputed fact. As for how long this whole process took me, I had no idea because I was too focused on fixing my new wife''s body. During the operation, I was thankful to the way The Darkness forced me to learn this skill. If it wasn''t for him, I would have most likely ended up with a normal humanoid body far beneath my current one in terms of abilities. Leaving that psychopathic and megalomaniac side of his, he was a rather decent teacher. When the operation was over, Zoreya didn''t even have a scratch on her, but she still looked like a wrinkled old prune. That naked image of her didn''t excite me in any way at all... So, I began to fix her current looks by turning back the time on her body. The theory behind reverse aging was simple. The DNA of the human species contained certain genetic sequences which predetermined the maximum age of the organism as well as the moment when rapid cell deterioration began. Basically, the genetic information was encoded in such a way that it described the way the human body was supposed to die naturally. As smart as any species could be, in the end, Mother Nature was the one who determined both the process of evolution and death of all organism created by her. Back when I was still living on Earth, I read once that all around the world scientists were struggling to discover a way to extend the limit of cell reproduction rather and there weren''t any trying to find those DNA sequences which described the aging process itself. Thanks to Magic Energy kneading, I was able to ''reset'' Zoreya''s genetic age to her twenties. I then allowed her cells to rearrange and regenerate themselves properly. The end result was a reverse aging process that took place right before my eyes. It was Sci-Fi-ish. Once this was over, I could perversely... ahem... professionally admire her naked form and enticing bosom. She was someone who had plenty to offer in that department, and this without me changing a single thing when it came to her natural beauty. Of course, when I ''reset'' her genetic age, I also removed the limit of 108 years. If she had lived without Melkuth''s eternal youth divine protection, she would have naturally died at that age from multiple organ failure. At the same time, I also made it so that she didn''t age again or had a similar limit. This resulted in certain genetic sequences to activate and increase her stem-cell production, basically granting her natural immortality. Looking at this phenomenon a bit closely, I understood that if those genes didn''t activate properly, it would have resulted into the apparition of cancer. In other words, this disease may have been nature''s way of notifying humans that it was working on a way to grant them longer lives. The fact that it was a living hell for those who suffered of it didn''t seem to bother Mother Nature that much... Trial and error as it was said. With Zoreya''s health problems fixed, it was time to work on her Magic Energy Channels. Unexpectedly, I found a lot of them to be in a deteriorated state. Judging by this, it was highly likely that she was pushing herself hard in order to cast magic of any kind. It wouldn''t have been a surprise if during her youth the act of circulating Magic Energy through her body would have made her feel a certain level of discomfort or pain. At the same time, it was miraculous how Divine Energy appeared to flow so naturally through her, but this part was just a guess based on the fact tha she was an Apostle because I had no idea how to detect it... yet. ¡°Let''s fix this up as well...¡± I said as I stretched my arms again before working on fixing her Magic Energy Channels, granting her the possibility to cast any type of magic far easier than before and at a smaller cost. There was no way I was going to allow one of my wives to suffer because of something as easy to fix as this. After I was done with this process, I did a triple check to make sure there were no abnormalities in her system, no curses, no diseases, no unattended injuries, and that everything was working in perfect order. With a sigh of relief, I finally gave the command to release Zoreya from her stasis. ¡°Ungh...¡± she groaned as she opened her eyes slowly. ¡°Morning, beautiful!¡± I welcomed her with a smile. ¡°Illsyore? How? Where?¡± she asked confused and then looked around only to find herself naked. Her face turned red. Aaand she fainted... ¡°Erm...¡± I blinked surprised. After another moment passed, I woke her up again. ¡°Zoreya? Are you feeling alright? Is there anything wrong or out of place?¡± I asked. She was still blushing strongly and covering her chest and privates with her hands. Her eyes looked around frantically and then... she fainted again. ¡°OK... Now I''m worried.¡± I said and then quickly analyzed and scanned her body again, but I couldn''t tell what was wrong with her. Everything appeared to be in order. From a biological point of view, her fainting was a result of cardiac and cerebral hyperactivity, but that should be wrong... ¡°Did I mess up something inside of her? ARGH! I don''t get it!¡± I screamed and scratched the back of my head. All of a sudden, I remembered my other wives. ¡°Yes, maybe they have an idea!¡± I thought and then quickly flew over to them. The women were gathered in a circle and playing a game or something. I couldn''t tell. ¡°Hello!¡± I announced my presence. ¡°Oh~ Look who''s back after several days of absence! A ghost... A soon to be dead ghost.¡± Nanya grumbled while looking down and cracking her knuckles. I gulped. ¡°Erm... Sorry? I was sort of in the middle of a surgery?¡± I showed her a wry smile. ¡°Indeed, a ghost. I''ll hold him down, and you can rip his limbs off, Shanteya.¡± Ayuseya suggested with a soft, kind giggle that sent chills down my spine. ¡°I will do so, then Tamara can bite his leg.¡± Shanteya giggled in a similar manner. ¡°Erm...¡± I backed away slowly as the four were approaching me with sinister smiles on their faces. How long was I gone, and why do they look like they want to murder me?! I thought while I desperately tried to find a way out of my current predicament. ¡°Illsy...¡± Nanya said when she was one step away from me. The demoness turned her head up, and I saw two rivers of tears flowing down her cheeks. ¡°Hic! Illsy! Is it really you? Not The Darkness, right? Just Illsy, right? Hic!¡± she asked while trembling slightly. ¡°Yes.... Not The Darkness... He''s gone...¡± I replied softly. ¡°UWAAA!!!¡± she cried and jumped in my arms. ¡°Illsy!¡± Ayuseya hugged me as well. ¡°Master!¡± Tamara hugged my right arm. ¡°My love...¡± Shanteya hugged me from behind. All of them were crying and most definitely covering me in tears and snot, which was gross. ¡°There. There... I''m back...¡± I tried to calm them down. After everything they''ve been through, I couldn''t blame them for being frustrated and happy at the same time. I did sort of turn into a rampaging monster, and I didn''t rush back right away to let them know that I was alright. So, in other words, I had no excuse for leaving them alone. ¡°I''m sorry, it was my bad.¡± I told them with an apologetic look on my face.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. They didn''t say anything back, they just kept hugging me and crying, so I let them do as they pleased. I had neither the right or will to push them away. Besides, what sane man would do something like that when he was being hugged by four cuties like them... well, three and a cat? [Nanya''s point of view] A long time ago, my mother told me that demon women, especially those of the Demon Queen breed, were highly possessive of their mates and also very attached to them. Because of this, their emotions fluctuated worse than those of a regular pregnant demoness. It was our way of asserting our dominance over our mates as well as show our love to them. It was instinctual, so most of the times, it took even us by surprise. Fortunately, it wasn''t that out of control for me, who was only a half demoness. My other half was a bit more logical and rigid, being able to keep these emotions of mine under control, but there were times when they took me by surprise, and I couldn''t do anything about them. Such was the case when I saw Illsy fly by us and didn''t stop to hug us or kiss us. I knew he won the fight, but the long wait for him to return was killing me. ¡°Where is he? I want him to come back... Where is he?¡± I kept muttering to myself time and time again as hours simply flew past me. Shanteya and Ayuseya tried to keep me calm, but I was a lost cause because my desire to see him wasn''t out of pain... it was pure selfishness. I was a demoness who was kept whining and crying after her husband, and I didn''t care how much the others told me that I should have patience. Then, almost two days later, he appeared before us once more, and like the stupid woman who I was, instead of greeting him with a smile, I cracked my knuckles. The others joined me as well with some rather cold remarks. Maybe all of us felt frustrated because we didn''t get to see him for such a long time, but all of our words were nothing more than jokes. Our true emotions were revealed immediately after. I burst into tears and hugged him as hard as I could. I missed him, I missed this foolish husband of mine! Could I have acted a bit more refined than this? Yes, definitely! Did I wish to? Certainly not! I had all the rights in the world to be seen like this by the man I loved! I had all the rights in the world to worry and be happy to see the mate I had claimed safe and sound! Was I any different from all my other friends who were currently hugging and crying as well? Definitely not... All of us may not have shown it, but our worry and fear of being left alone was real and painful as it could be. Illsy was a simple fool who would never come to know or understand just how much trouble and emotional turmoil he poured down on our shoulders, but he was worth every single drop of it. This idiotic husband of ours was the man we loved and to whom we had decided to give our all... ¡°Illsy?¡± I told him as I looked up at him with teary eyes. ¡°Yes?¡± he asked with a soft smile. ¡°It''s been too long, you idiot...¡± I smiled. ¡°This idiot apologizes!¡± he let out a laugh and then kissed me. His lips were sweet and gentle, welcoming me back after such a long absence. I simply couldn''t resist him. ¡°Illsy?¡± Shanteya asked after our kiss was over. ¡°Yes?¡± he looked back at her. ¡°I want one too...¡± she then kissed him, but hers was a bit rougher. This woman managed to annoy me a little. When it was over, Ayuseya stole his kiss without even batting an eye or saying a word. Illsy''s look as though it was about to break from the force applied to it. ¡°Idiot husband...¡± I muttered to myself. I want more... I thought selfishly. ¡°Master?¡± Tamara asked as she looked up at him with those adorable kitten eyes of her. ¡°Erm... yes?¡± he replied. ¡°I''m hungry... I want fish.¡± she requested. All four of us sighed in relief. Here I thought she was going to jump on him and kiss him as well... Nah, Illsy doesn''t see Tamara that way! It would have been silly to think that after all of this, Illsy''s harem would have consisted of more than me, Shanteya, and Ayuseya... Wait, why do I have a bad feeling about this? I thought and then squinted my eyes at this husband of ours. ¡°Illsy? What did you do?¡± I asked. My woman''s intuition was tingling. ¡°Huh? What do you mean?¡± he replied confused. ¡°I have a feeling you are hiding something from me... from us... What is it?¡± I asked and pinched his cheek. ¡°Ow! Ow! Ow!¡± he said. ¡°It''s true... I also have a feeling that you have been looking at another woman...¡± Shanteya said as she pinched his other cheek. ¡°Owie! Ith hurthsh!¡± he complained. ¡°Tell us the truth, now!¡± I ordered and let go of his cheek. ¡°Ouch... OK! I''ve made Zoreya my wife as well...¡± he said. ¡°Hm, I wonder why am I not surprised?¡± Ayuseya asked and shrugged. ¡°Because it''s Illsy.¡± I let out a sigh. ¡°Yes, because it''s Illsy.¡± Shanteya nodded. ¡°I''m sorry for being me!¡± he apologized. ¡°No need to...¡± Ayuseya let out a sigh. ¡°Can we even count this as him being unfaithful to us?¡± Shanteya pondered. ¡°I don''t know, but with this... I guess the number of rivals increased by one.¡± I scratched the back of my head. ¡°We''ll need to reschedule our private time with Illsy.¡± Ayuseya pointed out. ¡°She''s the newcomer, so we''ll have to show her our ways. How long will she last against Illsy, I wonder?¡± I thought. ¡°If she''s not good enough, we''ll train her!¡± Shanteya proposed. ¡°Yes, I agree!¡± Ayuseya said. ¡°This conversation took a very frightening turn... can we stop now?¡± Illsy asked. ¡°No. Stand there and suffer, idiot husband of my mine!¡± I glared at him. ¡°With all of you hugging me and pressing your tempting bodies against me like this, it''s hard to suffer.¡± he retorted. ¡°Then satisfy us! It''s been a very very long time since you welcomed either of us in your bed. A kiss won''t suffice, we want more.¡± Shanteya told him. ¡°Erm...¡± he looked at her but said nothing. ¡°Tamara not want kiss. Tamara already kissed Master, not that special... Tamara like fish more.¡± the nekatar dropped a bomb on us. ¡°Hm? So you even laid your hands on little Tamara?¡± Ayuseya showed her cold smile to him. ¡°What?! No! It was on the spur of the moment, and she was the one who kissed me!¡± he retorted. Ah... yes... he even kissed Tamara... This idiotic husband... if I don''t do something soon, I''ll lose my position here. I''ll be just ''another wife''. I can''t let that happen, I''m a demoness! I have to make Illsy mine! Mine! MINE! I thought as my emotions were quickly spiraling out of control. ¡°Illsy.¡± I said and looked into his eyes. ¡°Yes?¡± he asked while sweating bullets. ¡°Take us outside, now. Give Tamara her fish and tell her to eat it away from us. Make a big bed for us and you won''t stop unless I tell you to!¡± I ordered him. ¡°What?!¡± he blinked surprised. ¡°Nanya?¡± Shanteya asked something. ¡°Grrr! Don''t make me repeat myself. You, me, bed, now!¡± I glared. He gulped. ¡°Yes.¡± he nodded. ¡°It has been a while, but...¡± Ayuseya said something, but I just threw her a glare. ¡°I think she''s not feeling well...¡± Shanteya remarked. ¡°I will prove to all of you that I AM his number one wife!¡± I declared. ¡°Ah~ She snapped...¡± Ayuseya remarked. ¡°Crap...¡± Illsy said. ¡°I WANT FISH!¡± Tamara cried. Chapter 85: Colly Tos for the win! [Illsyore''s point of view] For a man, Heaven and Hell could easily be compared with the Love and Wrath of the woman or women he married. Such was the case of a certain Dungeon Lord who stirred both of them in his wives. The anger coupled with the lust, love, and desire sent me on an upward spiral towards the ninth cloud. It was paved with kisses, moans, scratches, bites, and bone-breaking hugs offered in no peculiar order. Thankfully, there was no need for me to build another house, I had plenty to spare in the town. We used the closest one we could find, and my wives didn''t even bother to ask where and how we got here. It was enough to tell them that I built it after my battle with The Darkness. Meanwhile, I left Tamara to do as she pleased in the town. Like a curious kitten, she went around exploring. The spirit of adventure was strong in this one! When the fun and joy of the foursome ended, I pretended to be exhausted, otherwise, I feared it would last till the end of the week, and I had another wife waiting for me. My life can''t get any more complicated than this... I thought while keeping my eyes shut and withholding from scratching that infernal itch on the tip of my nose. Normally, I would have been overjoyed with this and even encouraged them to continue for a while, but I couldn''t forget about Zoreya. ¡°Illsy''s asleep?¡± Shanteya asked as she moved. The feeling of those beautiful mounds of hers moving on top of me was... divine. ¡°Yes...¡± Ayuseya replied while offering me a similar sensation on my back. ¡°This stupid husband of ours... Who do you think you are fooling?¡± asked Nanya. Oh please no! Please no! Please no! Please no! I prayed in my mind. She bit my neck. ¡°Yeouch!¡± I screamed. ¡°Ara~ He was faking it.¡± Shanteya said and showed me a smile so cold I could feel it sinking into my bones. ¡°Erm...¡± I gulped. ¡°Idiot!¡± Nanya pushed me down and straddled me, Ayuseya held my arms while I laid with my back on top of her. I was sandwiched between two beauties... or more like I was held captive by them. ¡°Erm... Can we talk about this?¡± I asked. ¡°Denied!¡± Shanteya retorted right before she stole my lips. Thus, another eight hours went by... and thanks to the stupid [Bond of Trust II] there was plenty of energy left to spare. Thankfully, there were only three of them to please... for now. [Ayuseya''s point of view] A normal human would have been completely exhausted after a few hours. The same for an el''doraw and maybe a demon as well, but a draconian would have lasted for at least 12 hours. Still, this was if they were all normal individuals and not a Godlike Dungeon Lord. Because of this, I could say that I was fully satisfied by the end of our... little game. The same could be said about my friends, Nanya and Shanteya. It was a surprisingly interesting adventure, which I would have normally declined because I wished to keep Illsy to myself, but in the light of recent events, I went with the flow. After two days of constant love-making and several broken beds, our moment of passion finally came to an end, and we all laid exhausted in Illsy''s arms. ¡°I''m happy you won...¡± Nanya whispered. ¡°Me too... The alternative wasn''t pleasant.¡± he replied. ¡°I see... What happened to Zoreya?¡± she asked. ¡°Of this, I''m also curious. How did you make her into your fourth wife?¡± I asked him and wiggled closer to him. My chest pushed against his arm, and I softly licked his nape. It was an instinctual play, a way to mark him as mine. ¡°That tickles!¡± he laughed and replied with a squeeze of my bottom. ¡°Ahn~!¡± I let out a soft moan and drew closer to him. ¡°Enough you two.¡± Nanya glared at me. I stuck out my tongue at her and laid my head down on Illsy''s shoulder. ¡°Ahem! Well, Zoreya was dying... and I couldn''t use magic to heal her because of a certain god''s stupid Divine Energy interfering. I struck a deal with him, and I was able to eventully heal Zoreya by making her my wife.¡± he explained briefly. ¡°What sort of deal?¡± Shanteya asked. She was laying on top of him, with her chin resting on his chest. ¡°He gave me a name. I''m now called Illsyore Deus. Yeah, the pun was intended.¡± he let out a sigh. Pun? What pun? I don''t get it... I thought. The name was a rather strange one, but it didn''t ring any bells for me. ¡°I let him become my god or something like that, then I had to accept Zoreya as my wife while knowing she was going to serve her god. It''s... complicated, but that''s probably the gist of it.¡± he shrugged. ¡°I see... a contract of sorts.¡± said Nanya. ¡°So where is she now?¡± I asked him. ¡°Inside my Inner Mind. Something must have happened when I healed her because when she wakes up, she turns red and then faints... That''s why I came over to ask for your help. Maybe one of you has an idea?¡± he explained. ¡°I see...¡± said Shanteya as she looked up at him. ¡°What?!¡± Nanya got up and looked at him with a furrowed brow. ¡°Erm...¡± Illsy looked at her with a wry smile. ¡°Why didn''t you tell us sooner?!¡± she retorted. ¡°I tried! Seven times already, but between kiss-stealing and moans, I barely had a chance to finish the idea even ONCE!¡± he retorted. ¡°No excuses! Let''s go! Now!¡± Nanya ordered. She wasn''t being mean, she was just worried about the crusader. After her little moment of lust madness went away, and she reaffirmed her position as a woman and part of this harem, she was able to think clear. ¡°I agree. Let us go.¡± I nodded and got up. It was a bit sad to part with the warmth of his body, but from now on, I was thinking of requesting to sleep by his side every night. ¡°Alright.¡± Illsy nodded. We quickly got dressed, although, our mixed scent still lingered around us. We didn''t mind it though, it was the proof that Illsy belonged to us. He was our mate... our husband. A moment later, we were absorbed by Illsy. [Nanya''s point of view] Just thinking about the past two days with Illsy made me go all ''funya~ funya~'' and feel weak in my knees. Well, I was probably exaggerating just ''little'' because it had been so long since I last made love to Illsy. To be completely honest, this time around felt like it was the best of them all. As for the reason behind this... well... I think it was because of The Darkness. With that nasty part of him gone, Illsy felt different in a good way. It was one of those things only a wife could tell about her husband; like when he was feeling down or when something good happened to him. It was a subtle thing... a very subtle thing. When our fairly long moment of passion came to an end, we returned to his Inner Mind to check up on Zoreya. He apparently made her his wife in order to save her life, or so we were told, but my intuition was telling me that wasn''t everything. It may have just began, but there was certainly a spark of love for that woman inside Illsy''s heart. It was just enough to rile up my desire to keep a good hold on my idiotic lover. ¡°Here we are... As I said. When she wakes up, she faints again.¡± Illsy told us. This... Is he serious? I asked myself as I looked with big eyes at the poor naked woman floating in this vast empty space. ¡°She''s been asleep all this time?¡± Shanteya asked. ¡°I left her in a suspended animation state. She''s safe.¡± he shrugged. This idiotic husband of ours couldn''t see what was wrong with this picture. Or maybe he didn''t want to see it? Either way, this was wrong. This was definitely wrong. ¡°Strange... I wonder why?¡± Ayuseya asked. I slowly looked back at her with a blank expression on my face. ¡°Really?¡± I asked. ¡°What''s wrong, Nanya?¡± she asked looking back at me. ¡°Really?¡± I repeated myself. ¡°Pardon me, but I don''t understand.¡± she furrowed her brow. ¡°Sigh...¡± I shook my head and rubbed my temples. Idiots. All of them are idiots! I told myself. ¡°If you know something about this, you should tell us.¡± Shanteya spoke. I looked at her and squinted my eyes. ¡°Nanya? Please. This is important.¡± said Illsy. The idiots were all looking at me as if I was holding the secret of the entire Universe and didn''t wish to share it with them. I could only stare back at them and wonder just how much did they bothered with actually taking a closer look at this whole situation. ¡°You really want to know?¡± I asked them while curving my lips up into a smile. ¡°Yes! Please!¡± Illsy replied nodding. ¡°You really REALLY want to know?¡± I asked again. ¡°Yes!¡± he nodded fast. ¡°Sigh... All right. Come over here. Closer.¡± I urged him until he was just a palm away from me. All of them were waiting anxiously. ¡°Alright... Here it is.¡± I took deep breath and then shouted at the top of my lung right in his ear ¡°SHE''S NAKED!¡± ¡°Yeaouch!¡± he yelped and jumped back, rubbing his ear. Even Shanteya and Ayuseya flinched. Well, it was to be expected. The answer was so obvious it was literally in plain sight, and I literally had no idea why none of them was able to figure it out. It was the same as putting the answer to the riddle in the question of the riddle itself. Something like: What animal barks, howls, and wags its tail like a hornless Dayuk? Unfortunately, these fellows surprised me by answering: a cat. Letting out a sigh, I shook my head and approached the naked woman. As far as I could tell, Illsy healed her nicely. There were no marks or scars left behind. It was as if she never suffered any sort of injury in her entire life. Then again, to say Illsy messed up something during the healing process was also a bit unbelievable. He healed me, Ayuseya, Shanteya, and even Tamara from some rather dreadful injuries, the likes of which would have certainly left a scar of sort behind. The only reason I could think of her suddenly fainting after waking up was because of the fact that she was a shy fellow who found herself butt naked in front a man. If I was in her place, I would have kicked Illsy right between the legs. Well, now I would avoid that area because even if the head on his shoulders stopped working, I didn''t wish for the same fate on the other one. ¡°Illsy. Wake her up and then get out.¡± I told him while he was still trying to understand why she kept fainting. ¡°But before you do, bring me the chest with a small diamond shape above the lock.¡± Ayuseya said. ¡°Huh? What chest?¡± Illsy blinked surprised when he looked back at her. ¡°Among my chest, there''s one with a single diamond symbol carved above the lock; not two or three, just one. Can you get it for me?¡± she asked. ¡°Sure... I''ll go and send it your way, but do I really need to go?¡± he asked as he looked back at me. ¡°Yes. We''re not being mean to you, Illsy. But I have a feeling Zoreya is of the really shy type without her armor on. Go outside and play with Tamara or something.¡± I replied and then gently tapped his cheek. ¡°Alright... I''ll go.¡± he nodded. ¡°But before I do so.¡± he smirked and then stole my lips. I let him, then he stole Ayuseya''s and Shanteya''s as well. After he flew away, Zoreya showed signs of waking up. [Shanteya''s point of view] My~ what could I say? The fact that Nanya ''snapped'' was a good thing. Illsy''s embrace was wonderful, and the following hours were a true bliss. As for what ensued afterwards, it was a bit unexpected. In my opinion, I saw nothing wrong with the fact that Zoreya was naked, but maybe that was because we spent the last two days like that. When I was around Illsy, it didn''t really matter if I had clothes on or not. But yes, any other woman wouldn''t have felt the same way around him. ¡°Maybe because Zoreya was together with us for such a long time, we never actually gave it a second thought?¡± Ayuseya asked. ¡°It could be.¡± Nanya replied with a shrug. The chest requested by the draconian came flying and stopped a few meters away from me. I don''t think Illsy was able to do this when The Darkness was still here. I thought. ¡°I asked for this specific chest because I know for a certain that I have a gown in there that she could use. It''s made of a thick fabric. For me it''s a bit too short, but it should be perfect for her.¡± Ayuseya said while searching through the chest. ¡°Is it similar to the one you wore during that first night?¡± I asked her as I remembered the rather daring nightgown she wore to ''please'' Illsy. ¡°Ara? Now that I remember, I should wear that more often. I think Illsy loves enticing clothes.¡± she let out a giggle. Looking back at Zoreya, I could see now the ''reason'' why Illsy wanted to make her his wife and not a slave or a pet. This human woman had a rather generous chest size, and her figure was truly captivating. If she put on a frilly dress and wore a crown on top of her head, you would think she was the princess of some foreign country. ¡°A rival? Definitely a rival...¡± muttered Nanya as she poked the woman''s chest. How cute! She''s jealous! Well, she does have the smallest cup out of the three of us. I wonder if Zoreya''s are bigger? I think they are... Ah~ Poor Nanya. I smiled inwardly while I thought about this. ¡°Mn... Where... Where am I?¡± Zoreya asked as she finally opened her eyes and looked around. When her gaze wandered over her own naked form, she let out a cute ''EEP!'' and covered herself with her hands while blushing strongly. ¡°Wh-why a-am I-I n-n-n-naked?¡± she asked. Her eyes were spinning. ¡°Here you go! Wear this for now!¡± Ayuseya said as she offered her the orange satin gown, which was like a one-piece for her. ¡°Erm... Thank you.¡± she put it on. ¡°What''s the last thing you remember?¡± Nanya asked. After she got dressed, she looked back at us, and with a furrowed brow, she replied ¡°Illsyore... looking at me... while... I was n-n-n-naked.¡± she stuttered at the end while her cheeks went full red. ¡°How cute~.¡± I said and giggled. ¡°A rather innocent one, isn''t she?¡± Ayuseya remarked. Zoreya looked down embarrassed. ¡°W-Without m-my armor, I''m a bit... shy.¡± she replied. ¡°Interesting.¡± I said rubbing my chin. It should be fun to help Illsy tame her. I''m sure she''ll moan quite cutely too! I thought. ¡°Shanteya?¡± Ayuseya called out to me while I was scheming... I mean planning. ¡°What is it?¡± I asked with a smile. ¡°You are drooling.¡± she squinted her eyes at me. ¡°Ara? Pardon me. I was thinking about... food.¡± I giggled and looked away. That was dangerous. I told myself. ¡°Well, leaving those two aside. Zoreya, are you feeling alright? Is there anything wrong with your body?¡± Ayuseya asked. ¡°Yes, but I''m afraid Melkuth has abandoned me.¡± she gazed down with a sad look in her eyes. ¡°Why do you say so?¡± I asked. Her story was a bit different from the one told to us by my husband. ¡°Since I became Illsy''s wife... it means that I have forsaken the oaths I took as an Apostle of Melkuth. I am no longer fit to wield his Shield.¡± she told us. She already calls him ''Illsy''. My~, just for how long has she been in love with him? I thought. ¡°I wonder about that.¡± Nanya said rubbing the back of her head. ¡°For now, if there''s nothing wrong with her, we should let Illsy know and return to the outside world.¡± suggested Ayuseya. ¡°Agreed.¡± nodded Nanya. ¡°Outside world?¡± Zoreya looked at us confused. ¡°Right now, if you haven''t noticed, we''re floating in a seemingly endless space.¡± said Ayuseya. ¡°It appears so... Where are we?¡± she asked as she looked around while trying not to move too much. ¡°Don''t worry, you''ll get used to it.¡± I told her. ¡°To put it bluntly, we''re currently inside Illsy... and don''t take that the wrong way. He didn''t eat us.¡± explained the demoness. ¡°Erm... I don''t think I follow.¡± she shook her head. ¡°It''s similar to a separate dimension in which Dungeons store their materials.¡± I said. ¡°Hm...¡± she furrowed her brow. Poor girl, she must be so confused right now... All of us were at the beginning, but she''ll get used to it. I thought. ¡°Illsy! You can take all of us out now!¡± shouted Nanya. In the following moment, a bright light covered all of us, and we were taken to the outside world. There, the town built by Illsyore, the Godlike Dungeon Lord, was spread before our very eyes. Amazing... I thought. [Illsyore''s point of view] Of all the things that could happen, to be kicked out of my Inner Mind by my own wives was something I never expected. Well, how was I supposed to have known that Zoreya''s embarrassment towards being naked in front of me was the actual reason she kept fainting like that? ¡°I honestly had no idea! It was logical, but not for me at that time!¡± I shouted at the top of my lungs. Well, screaming at the clouds didn''t do much to help relieve my stress. At the very least, I knew that while I was fooling around with my wives, Zoreya was safe and sound in the stasis I left her in. For her, time had stopped... well not exactly, but close enough. Letting out a sigh, I spread my Dungeon Territory and searched for my stray cat. I wanted to pet something, and her fluffy fur was going to be just PERFECT. But if I caught a Dayuk, I was going to wrangle him up as well. Meanwhile, I also kept an eye out for anything out of place in this town. It had been a few days since my battle with The Darkness, so there was a chance curious adventurers lingered around to complete their scouting missions. I also took the liberty of fixing my clothes and absorbing the remains of Zoreya''s broken armor. There was also her shield, but there was no way I could lift it, right? Then I remembered what Melkuth told me when he named me, that I sort of became his follower. ¡°It can''t be that simple, right?¡± I thought. With shrug, I walked over to Melkuth''s Shield and picked it up. It was as light as a feather. ¡°Huh? Strange. Is this thing broken?¡± I wondered. ¡°MASTER!¡± the cat''s call was heard right before she jumped in my arms and rubbed her furry head on my chest. ¡°Easy there, Tamara! I''m back, relax!¡± I smiled and petted her. [Holy God of Big Boobs'' point of view]This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. After the long battle against The Darkness, the balance of the Heavens was finally restored, at least for now, but I feared that my follower''s journey had just begun. At the moment, I was helping myself to a cup of tea in Melkuth''s office. He was having a big cup of coffee. This day stressed him out a bit more than he had expected. ¡°I still can''t believe it...¡± grumbled the god. ¡°What?¡± I asked as I took a sip of my drink and peeked through one of my portals at my wife''s big boobs. How lovely! My angel''s taking a bath! Those big voluptuous mountains of hers are being soaked in the foam of Divine Soap making her figure divine! Eh? Did she just look my way? Why are you picking up your bow? Wait! Wait! I thought, but before I had the chance to close the portal, she let loose an arrow aimed at my forehead. ¡°AGYAAA!¡± I screamed in pain. ¡°Idiot.¡± grumbled the God of War as he calmly sipped his coffee. ¡°But... But I don''t understand! How did she know I was peeping?!¡± I retorted. ¡°Woman''s intuition against perverts?¡± shrugged the god. ¡°There''s no such thing!¡± I shouted at him. ¡°The arrow in your head says otherwise.¡± he pointed out. ¡°Ugh... Help me out!¡± I cried. ¡°No.¡± he retorted and looked away. Melkuth was gazing back at the mortal world. To be more specific, he was spying on Illsyore, the newest recruit to his long list of followers. ¡°Hm? What is he doing?¡± he said all of a sudden. ¡°Ugh... This bloody thing!¡± I grumbled as I struggled to pull the arrow out of my forehead. My wife was cruel, but alas, not many knew her as I did... with all those perfectly delicious details! Once I returned to her side, I was going to stick like glue to her chest! But of course, I wasn''t going to neglect my other wife either. ¡°Hey! You can''t be serious! Only a TRUE Apostle can pick up that shield. Besides Zoreya, you....¡± he said something then he stopped and froze. ¡°What''s wrong?¡± I asked him. ¡°WHAT THE BLEEP!¡± he shouted at the top of his lungs. ¡°It''s not nice to use such words.¡± I said while shaking my head, the arrow still stuck in my forehead. ¡°He picked up my shield?! He picked up my shield! How?! That''s not possible! NO! NO! NO!¡± he smashed the cup on his desk, spilling all the hot coffee on himself. ¡°AARGH! SON OF A...! OF ALL THE BLEEP BLEEP BLEEP!¡± he cursed. I shrugged. ¡°You''ll get over it. Maybe he''s a bit special when it comes to Divine Items?¡± I asked. ¡°HOW?! There shouldn''t be anything that makes him SPECIAL?!¡± he shouted back. ¡°Who knows?¡± I shrugged. There were a lot of things about Illsyore that simply didn''t fit in the ''Normal'' category of this world. [Illsyore''s point of view] After my wives returned, they found me sitting down at the entrance of Melkuth''s Temple and petting Tamara. She was overflowing with cuteness and fluffiness! Do I have a nekomini fetish? I wondered and got slightly frightened by the idea. ¡°Ah! There you are!¡± I lifted my hand up. ¡°We''re back, Illsy. Hm, is Tamara sleeping?¡± Nanya asked. ¡°No, she''s just very relaxed right now.¡± I shook my head and scratched the fellow behind her ears. ¡°Funyaaa~!¡± she stretched her tail in joy. ¡°What a cutie!¡± Ayuseya said. ¡°Zoreya is fine.¡± Shanteya told me. ¡°Is that so... Erm... Where is she?¡± I asked. ¡°What do you mean? She''s right...¡± Nanya looked to her side. ¡°Huh?¡± There was no one there. ¡°It''s not scratched! It''s fine! Ah!¡± Zoreya said. We all turned our head and saw the glorious crusader checking the Shield of Melkuth in her orange one-piece dress. Without a bra to keep hold of those big mountains of hers, the jiggle reached dangerous levels. Me likey! But then again, how did she get there without me noticing? I thought. ¡°Zoreya?¡± Shanteya asked. ¡°Hm?¡± the woman looked up at her and then saw me. ¡°EEP!¡± she ran behind the shild. ¡°Huh?¡± I blinked surprised. ¡°So it was Illsy''s fault.¡± nodded Nanya. ¡°What?¡± I blinked surprised. ¡°Illsy''s fault.¡± said Shanteya. ¡°Definitely.¡± nodded Ayuseya. ¡°It''s always Master''s fault...¡± said Tamara. ¡°Even the cat''s speaking against me.¡± I squinted my eyes at the furry fellow and then vigorously scratched her as revenge. ¡°FUNYAAA~!¡± she cried out in pleasure. The plan backfired, so I stopped. Letting out a sigh, I rubbed the back of my head and looked at the hidden crusader. ¡°You know... I''m not a boogeyman. Why are you hiding from me?¡± I asked. ¡°B-Because...¡± she stuttered. ¡°Because?¡± I raised an eyebrow. ¡°You are a man... and I am woman...¡± she replied. ¡°You don''t say.¡± I smiled. ¡°Erm... but I...¡± she peeked from around the shield. Cute... I thought. ¡°But you what?¡± I asked. ¡°I don''t have my armor on!¡± she said and hid back behind the shield. ¡°Huh?¡± my brain stopped. ¡°She''s super shy.¡± Nanya remarked. ¡°No kidding.¡± I nodded. Although, why didn''t she act the same way back then when I stumbled upon her while she was bathing? I thought. ¡°Can you make an armor for her?¡± asked Shanteya. ¡°Erm? Do I have to? She quite beautiful in that one-piece and...¡± they were all glaring at me ¡°I got it. One sturdy, bulky armor coming right up!¡± I replied. A few moments later, I returned with her previous armor, now repaired and in working condition. ¡°This is only temporary. I''ll make you a better one as soon as I can.¡± I said as I was made to turn around while she put it on, even if she was already hidden by that big shield of hers. ¡°Thank you.¡± she replied only after she was done. ¡°The old Zoreya is back.¡± Nanya remarked. ¡°Yup.¡± I nodded when I saw her. ¡°I am grateful for your help, Dungeon Lord. Although, how did you make it so I can carry Melkuth''s shield as well?¡± she asked me. ¡°You... Call me Illsy! I''m your husband!¡± I retorted. ¡°No. That''s... too embarrassing.¡± she looked away. I squinted my eye at the woman wearing full-plate armor. Embarrassing? How?! Ugh... she''s going to be a pain. I groaned. ¡°Don''t worry, Illsy. We''ll make sure to train her well.¡± said Shanteya. ¡°Train?¡± I raised an eyebrow at her. ¡°Pardon me, I mean... teach. Yes, teach her well!¡± she giggled. The assassin is scheming something. I thought. ¡°May I ask where we are? This looks like a town, but... where are the people?¡± Zoreaya asked me. ¡°I built this place after our battle. Well, I''m all cured now thanks to you. Melkuth made me into his follower, gave me a name, turned you into a High Apostle, yada yada... stuff happened.¡± I shrugged. ¡°That was lazy.¡± Nanya remarked. I let out a sigh, apologized, then I began to explain everything that happened from the moment the battle began until now. ¡°So that''s why I can still use Melkuth''s Shield? Thank you, Dun...¡± she was about to say those words again, but I glared at her. ¡°Illsy...¡± she blushed and tried to hide in her armor. ¡°So, what are we going to do now?¡± asked Nanya. ¡°I have an idea about that.¡± I smirked. ¡°What?¡± she asked raising an eyebrow. ¡°Well, with me being brought back to Level 1 and with the new addition to our group, I decided it was about time we all trained together!¡± I declared. ¡°Trained?¡± Shanteya tilted her head to the left. ¡°Yes. A few years offshore on a remote island where the former dungeon of a very old Primordial Dungeon resides!¡± I declared. ¡°What makes you so sure it''s still there?¡± Nanya asked. ¡°I don''t, but we can try. Not like we have anything else to do besides lots and lots of love?¡± I shrugged and looked at Zoreya. Her cheeks turned red and like tortoise, she hid inside her armor. ¡°Oh no, you don''t! You''re not touching the poor girl!¡± Nanya warned me. ¡°I was joking, relax!¡± I replied lifting my hands up. ¡°But still, Zoreya, I''m your husband now, so feel free to think of me as your man, and I will think of you as my woman. All bounds between us are gone. You can ask me anything, and I''ll answer you. I promised Melkuth I''ll take care of you and love you, so I''m not planning on going against him. Leaving that god aside, these are also my true feelings!¡± I told her with a smile. She nodded once slowly. She''s too shy... I thought while wondering what sort of can opener I should use on her. Letting out a sigh, I then took out a small white crystal from my Inner Mind. It was similar to the one I used to teleport ourselves to this continent. The old Primordial Dungeon desperately tried to hide this crystal from me and all those other Dungeons, but once I merged with The Darkness, all of their memories became mine and their knowledge flowed inside me. Among all the useless crap that could be called my ''inheritance'' from them, I was able to find this thing. Talk about luck... I thought as I looked at the crystal. ¡°Is that a...¡± Nanya spoke but stopped mid-sentence. ¡°Yes, a teleportation crystal. I need to fill it with Magic Energy first and then we can leave this place.¡± I said with a nod. ¡°What will happen to this town after we are gone?¡± Ayuseya asked as she looked around. From her point of view, it may have looked as though I put a fairly decent amount of material and time into building it. Thus, abandoning it all of a sudden would be seen as a waste, but this was far from the truth. Thanks to my [Ultimate Creation Kit] skill, a construction project that should have taken months to complete barely took me a couple of minutes now. As for the required materials, there were plenty of them in the storage section of my Inner Mind. ¡°The humans will probably use it as a replacement for the one destroyed by The Darkness.¡± I replied in a calm tone of voice. ¡°Illsy...¡± Zoreya took a step forward and looked into my eyes. ¡°About those killed by The Darkness... How do you feel about their deaths?¡± she asked. This was a very serious question. Letting out a long sigh, I looked up at the sky and replied ¡°Melkuth didn''t tell me anything about it, so he probably forgave me... But...¡± I looked into her eyes ¡°Those deaths were caused by The Darkness, not me. Both you and I tried to stop him from bringing harm to others. So even if he used my body to do such terrible deeds, why should I consider myself guilty for his crime?¡± ¡°That is true... The Darkness isn''t you, so paying for his crimes would be...¡± she furrowed her brow as she spoke but didn''t finish her words. ¡°If the families of the victims or the nobles of this country heard you say this, they would never accept it. Their ways demand for someone to be held to blame for this disaster and suffer as retribution for all those lost lives.¡± Ayuseya said in a calm tone of voice. Her point of view was that of a noble, someone placed on the high ladder of society, but for me, this meant nothing. I shrugged in front of this statement, denying all guilt and blame. Maybe, if I were to look at this situation through the eyes of Illsyore before the merging with The Darkness, I would have felt quite bad about this and would have wanted to do something to change things. However, I would have ended up living a life filled with self blame and guilt for matters that were far beyond my control. It wasn''t me who pulled the trigger of the gun. It wasn''t me who laughed and enjoyed the deaths of all those humans... No, the one who did all of that was The Darkness. And if I were to go down the tree of blame... the ones who ultimately were to blame for this disaster were none other than the many adventurers who mercilessly destroyed all those Dungeons whose remains formed my current body. When looking at it from that point of view, then why should I, Illsyore, take the blame for all of this mess, when I was also one of the victims? ¡°Do you see me as the one to blame for all of this, Zoreya?¡± I asked the crusader. Without hesitating even for a second, she shook her head and replied ¡°No! I do not believe you are the one who needs to be held responsible for this... I was just worried about how the aftermath of this disaster might affect you.¡± she showed me a small smile at the end. ¡°Indeed, we are just worried. No one is blaming you, my love. If they do, I''ll make sure to know a draconian''s wrath!¡± declared Ayuseya. ¡°And don''t forget about me! I''ll stand by your side, Illsy, no matter what!¡± Nanya smirked. ¡°I agree.¡± Shanteya''s reply was the shortest, but her soft smile was sincere. ¡°Nya~ Blame never helped anybody catch fish... Better to think of ways to catch fish than blame the fisher for not catching fish... Nya~ I''m hungry...¡± Tamara said while lazily laying on my lap. I let out a sigh. Even the cat said something smart... although in a very weird way. In the end, it turned out that I was wrong. For a moment there, I actually thought they were thinking of me as the one who had to hold the blame for this mess. I was technically merged with The Darkness, and from another point of view, his mistakes were now mine. Still, I was Illsyore, not The Darkness. He was merged with me, absorbed by me, but I remained as the one and only active mind. There was no more Darkness at this point in time, so considering myself either responsible or the one to blame for his past sins was illogical. ¡°Well, let''s leave it at that, shall we? I left them a brand new town in return for all the damage The Darkness did, and we even stopped him, so case solved!¡± I laughed. The women looked at each other for a moment and then let out a sigh of relief. They were really worried about me, weren''t they? I thought. ¡°How long will it take you to charge the crystal?¡± Nanya asked. ¡°I don''t know. Let me see...¡± I said and then poured my Magic Energy in it at the same rate I was restoring it. I did this because I didn''t want to suffer from the backlash of an empty pool. After about 20000 Magic Energy Points, the crystal was ready. ¡°Done.¡± I announced. ¡°That was quick!¡± Nanya said surprised. ¡°I have far more Magic Energy than before.¡± I explained. ¡°Shall we?¡± Shanteya said. ¡°Let us proceed then!¡± Ayuseya nodded. ¡°I will join you as well...¡± Zoreya said. ¡°Great! Then hold onto me!¡± I told them. They all embraced me at the same time, barely leaving me any room to move. Zoreya kept looking away, she had yet to calm down. ¡°Let''s go then!¡± I said and activated the crystal. A bright, shinning light covered all of us, and just like last time, I felt the world around me changing swiftly. The land vanished from under my feet, the space expanded around me, then contracted again. The air was brought to a stop and time simply stood still for us. A moment, maybe two passed before the world returned to normal. How this happened, I still couldn''t figure it out, there were some equations and ways of contorting the flow of Magic Energy that simply eluded me, at least... for now. The teleportation went smoothly and didn''t drop us off in the middle of the sky like last time. When we opened our eyes, instead of the small ghost town in the middle of the desert, we saw the wild forest of a tropical island. With the last drops of Magic Energy from the crystal being spent, we began to feel the soft breeze of the ocean, the scent of salt water, the heat of the sun, and finally... the sand under our feet. ¡°The beach...¡± Nanya said surprised. We reached our destination, the beach of an abandoned island no Dungeon, man, or monster knew off. We reached a place hidden from the eyes of the world and maybe even those of the gods. This was the dungeon island created by none other than the Primordial Dungeon who was now just a part of my body. It was a place that didn''t follow the traditional laws of the Dungeons because instead of regular monsters, each and every living being in this place was a Boss of some kind. From a normal point of view, it was a terrifying place, but for someone of our level of power... it wasn''t that bad actually. ¡°RAAARGH!¡± the roar of one of the bosses was heard, causing the whole island to shake. Everyone took up a defensive stance. ¡°What was that?¡± Zoreya asked surprised. ¡°I have no idea...¡± I replied. Another roar was heard from our left, and a screech up in the sky as a giant bird flew down and attacked something in the forest. Sounds of fierce battle could be heard while the forest around the two mighty beasts was ripped apart, sending several boulders and trees flying up in the sky, landing all over the place. ¡°Everyone be on your guard!¡± shouted Nanya as she dodged an incoming tree trunk. On it, I noticed the teeth mark from a very large predator. I gulped. I wonder if this was a bad idea? I thought. The giant bird we saw earlier, which looked EXACTLY like a crow with brown and white feathers instead of black, was thrown through the trees and landed in the ocean behind us. A three meters tall tsunami formed and approached us. Without waiting another second, Nanya jumped forward and punched a hole in it. Then came the roar of the beast the giant crow was battling with and thundering footsteps could be heard coming from the forest behind us. I gulped again as I looked at the beast approaching us. The trees were pushed aside and out came a T-Rex. ¡°That''s a dinosaur!¡± I said pointing at him like a five years-old kid. ¡°RAAAWR!¡± the fierce roar sent chills down my spine. The next moment, the T-Rex shot red laser beams out of its eyes and the crow counterattacked with a breath of ice magic. While this battle between giants took place before us, we were all staring at it with dead fish eyes. Our minds came to a stop as we tried to understand if this was reality or just some weird dream. Eventually, the crow dodged and tried to get away by swimming out into the ocean, but just then... a huge shark swum up and ate it in one bite. The giant crow with a wingspan of 40 meters and a length of 30 meters was chomped down by a creature with a length over 100 meters. But the fun part about it was the fact that the huge shark used portals... It literally swam upwards through a big blue portal and vanished. The T-Rex began to whimper in fear when it saw the scene and then fled into the island. When we looked out at ocean, we saw an even crazier sight. A big water snake with a length of almost 1 km was calmly swimming alongside its heard of other 50 such snakes. Between us and them were a bunch of these portal jumping giant sharks that prayed on the flock of giant crows in the sky, which numbered in the hundreds. ¡°Erm...¡± I said as I was at a loss of words. Things were not as I expected them to be... The Primordial''s last memory of this place was of small, weak bosses even Tamara could defeat, while the more dangerous ones were deeper inside the island. It appeared that at one point between the Primordial''s death and the present, the dungeon island evolved? Looking back at my wives, Nanya asked me with a forced smile. ¡°Illsy? How are we going to get off this island?¡± she asked me. ¡°Erm... According to the Primordial''s memories, this island sort of resets every decade and adds more bosses... After a certain number of them gathers, they are absorbed by the dungeon and become a far more powerful boss. Killing all the bosses here will grant us free passage to the outside world. The barrier will be down and we''ll be able to leave peacefully.¡± I replied with a smile. ¡°Barrier?¡± Shanteya asked cocking her head. ¡°Yeah... a very powerful one that uses the Life Force and Magic Energy of all the bosses to stay active. If you attack it directly, you will be attacked by all of them at the same time.¡± I replied. ¡°So... in other words... We have to kill all the Legendary Bosses on this island so we can leave?¡± Ayuseya asked. ¡°Huh? Legendary?¡± I asked surprised. ¡°Yes, Illsy... Monsters or bosses that are thought to be impossible to defeat by a regular Supreme are called Legendary because they appear only and only in legends...¡± she told me with a forced smile that sent chills down my spine. I gulped. ¡°The giant lizard that shot beams out of its eyes is said to be a very powerful Legendary Monster that once terrorized the third continent until ALL the Supremes on the continent joined forces in order to defeat it.¡± Nanya said and let out a sigh. ¡°The crow is mentioned as the Sky God who attacks ships out at sea. No one has been able to defeat one as of yet...¡± Ayuseya said. ¡°The snakes out at sea are told to be monsters who feast on entire islands. It was said that there was once a fourth continent, but three of these snakes ate it... and now, we have over 50 of them calmly swimming around this island.¡± Shanteya said. ¡°If people knew a place like this existed...¡± Zoreya said shaking her head and refused to think of what would happen if all of these monsters were set free. ¡°Well... There''s nothing to worry about! The barrier will keep all of them inside!¡± I said with a confident smile. ¡°Yes, together with us!¡± Nanya shouted. ¡°Erm...¡± I furrowed my brow. I wanted to reply something, but I had the feeling I didn''t think this whole thing through. Well, I had no idea we would encounter such powerful monsters... I was thinking more around the lines of Minotaurs, Giants, maybe one or two such Legendary beasts, but definitely not entire herds and packs of them. ¡°Well? What do you have to say for yourself?¡± asked Nanya. ¡°What can I say? Oopsie?¡± I forced a smile. She let out a groan. ¡°Hey! Look at the bright side!¡± I showed them a smile and stepped back a bit, getting in the water all the way to my ankles. ¡°We''re at the beach! We''re out of that desert!¡± I laughed. ¡°Out of frying pan and into the fire as they say, right?¡± Shanteya shook her head and let out a sigh. ¡°More like volcano...¡± Nanya groaned. ¡°Hm...¡± I furrowed my brow and looked at them. Things weren''t looking that bad from my point of view, but looking at things now, instead of just a year, we would end up spending at least five trying to slaughter all the bosses here. All the experience and materials we would get as a result of this was going to be amazing! But yes, the danger level did go up by a few notches. ¡°We need a plan... and to be careful. This island is very dangerous!¡± warned Zoreya as she looked out at the Legendary sea serpents. ¡°We''ll handle it!¡± I said with confidence. ¡°How do you know that?¡± Nanya asked raising an eyebrow at me. ¡°Because, my lovely wife, I can still do this: COLLY TOS!¡± I shouted at the top of my lungs and lifted my hands up in the sky. Four pairs of panties appeared out of nowhere above me and started gently floated down. With a smile, I said ¡°It''s a success! This spell finally works!¡± ¡°HOW IS THIS A SUCCESS?!¡± Nanya, Ayuseya, and Shanteya shouted at the same time and punched me in the head, burying my head in the shore. What good was it to have a powerful Magic Armor if it didn''t even stop my wife''s punch? ¡°Nya~! Frilly!¡± Tamara jumped up to catch them. Well, she was one of the victims of this perverted spell as well. As for Zoreya, she wasn''t wearing any to begin with... Thus, our first year on this island filled with bosses instead of regular monsters began! I was certain we would succeed in exterminating all of them in due time, and once we were done, I would finally have all the power and materials needed to build Illsyore''s Magic Academy! (End of this Volume, not the story!) Side Story (8): What could have been [Dark Illsyore''s point of view] Even now, I remember the moment when I first opened my eyes in this strange new world... I thought like a naive little human, constantly worrying about little things like the lives of those beneath me. How foolish... Still, if I were to tell how my life began and ended, I would say it all started after I was summoned and took over the Crystal Body of a Dungeon. I changed my sub-species to Godlike and then began my growth and dominion. During that first night, there was an attack upon Fellyore Magic Academy. I used the best skills I had at my disposal and began to slaughter the fools who dared trespass on my territory. There could have been only one survivor, a woman... I had a choice back then of whether to end her life or spare her. I chose the first option, after all, I had not proof that this one wouldn''t eventually kill me by stabbing me in the back afterwards, right? Besides, it was just a meager assassin. What use could her life have brought to one such as I, a Godlike Dungeon Lord? And so, I watched as the last red dot slowly vanished from my map. The body of the woman was soon engulfed by flames, and I returned to my Crystal Body. That night, I felt so sick that if I had a stomach I would have spilled all of its contents on the floor. It was the first time I killed someone, and... although it wasn''t so bad, my human side of me highly disapproved of it. The following day, I learned that the fire I started nearly burned down the entire forest. The teachers at the academy were able to save it just in the nick of time. I could have helped them, true, but I was feeling too sick to even think about doing so. It was a good excuse from my point of view, so I didn''t let the ''what if'' bother me. Later that evening, Nanya came to my room and asked what really happened. I told her nothing, only that I heard a big explosion outside. I was afraid of what she might do if she found out I killed so many people. Maybe if I spared that woman and brought her in for questioning, things would have been different? I highly doubted it would have been so. A meager assassin like her would hold no important value to either me or her. Even if I allowed her to live, she would have certainly taken her own life afterwards as their code dictates. Well, I only presumed that because all assassins thought the same way, right? Since I knew things could turn bad if I didn''t grow in strength, I decided to start building an underground dungeon. It was right beneath my Crystal Body, and I prepared a special shaft just in case I needed to flee. With great consideration for the traps and how deadly they should be, I built floor after floor. One day, a draconian escort arrived at the academy. It was a man named Dankyun. Apparently, he was a Supreme. He came here to ask about his future wife, a draconian princess named Ayuseya Pleyades. I quickly searched my Dungeon Territory and found her trying to escape through the back together with her personal escorts. It probably wasn''t a good idea to make this guy mad, considering how powerful he was. There was also something about him that scared the hell out of me. I decided to play nice and told him about the escapee. Dankyun thanked me and went to retrieve his fiance. When I saw her, I found her to be rather cute for a draconian, but apparently she was cursed or something. There was nothing I could do about something like that. There was no [Dispel] skill in my list. Even if I wanted to help her, I couldn''t. Thus, ratting her out saved not only me but the academy as well from the wrath of this Supreme. Who knew what sort of powers he held? If he could make even me shiver in my boots, then certainly he was not one to joke about. On another note, that night he called Nanya to his room... Her life sign vanished around 4 AM in the morning. I flew there and found them naked. He was strangling her, but I was too afraid to move a muscle. Besides, it was too late for her... I turned a blind eye and flew back to my Crystal Body. That night, I realized the truth of this world. This place wasn''t like the cool and fun worlds I read about in novels or explored in my games back on Earth. No, this place was a real savage land filled with monsters who took the shape of man. Even Nanya wasn''t a human. As for the draconians, they were on the very edge between monster and human. That night, I was also contacted by the minds of the Dungeons who remained locked away in my body. Among them, the most powerful one was probably the Primordial. I pleaded him to teach me the ways of the Dungeons so that I may survive in this brutish world where I had no friends or allies alike. They agreed and showed me wonders I could have never discover on my own. The price for all of this was to accept them as a part of me and let them guide me from the background as my teachers and masters. Thus, after Dankyun left with his fiance, and we buried Nanya, whose death was ruled out as an unfortunate accident, I began to focus on my dungeon even more. Then, a week later, the bodies of the assassins I killed had turned into undead and attacked the academy. During the first wave, seventeen students died, including an el''doraw boy who was once Princess Ayuseya''s escort. Then the teachers were able to dispatch the zombies, but because of the loses, some of the students withdrew. Before they left the academy, the Primordial came to me and told me to kidnap one of them to show me something interesting. I obliged and kidnapped a young draconian woman about 20 years old. According to his advice, I dragged her to my dungeon and watched as she struggled against the monsters and traps. She eventually died impaled by a spike trap. When I saw this... I felt... happy. The lesson he wanted to teach me was this: In this world, organics were the food of Dungeons. After absorbing her remains, I gained a boost in Magic Energy, which I used to drag other students here. Basically, I waited until they left the academy and were away from the eyes of the teachers and then opened a pitfall underneath them, dropping them straight into my dungeon. Their death was sweet, and I gained many levels like this. Using my spells, I also hunted monsters around the academy and gained even more strength, but I made sure to leave their corpses behind, so that they would eventually turn into zombies and attack the academy. The more students that died, the more XP and power for me. This was exactly what happened, and after the students started to disappear, the teachers finally began to wonder if maybe it was all my doing. When they went to check my room, my Crystal Body was already gone. Oh, you should have seen the look on their faces! Their first order was to call for an evacuation, but I already foresaw this and raised a wall around the academy, effectively trapping all of them inside. Then, I began my hunt. Since they couldn''t see me, I was free to just snipe them with an [Ice Spear] one after another. Their Magic Armors were nearly non-existent, but I kept strengthening mine ever since my teachers came into contact with me. By the end of the day, half of them were dead. Their bodies were neither burned nor absorbed, they were left there to rot and change into zombies. At night, another wave of monster zombies came, and I also unleashed several monsters in the school, bringing absolute chaos to them. If I felt anything for them? There was no need to. I was a Dungeon, they were a different species than me. Besides, I was also seeing all of this through an interface similar to that of a game. Who ever felt sorry for the mobs they kept grinding in a game in order to gain a few level up and maybe a good drop or two. During that raid, most of the non-adventurer teachers died. Paladinus kicked the bucket as well, and I stole his body before the others could do anything about it. He had good gear on him. I could use that as bait in my dungeon.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Two days later, most of the students were dead, but following the advice of my teachers, I spared a few women to use them as breeding nests for some of my monsters. Those scenes, I didn''t watch, but I did order the monsters not to kill them. As for the teacher at the academy, all but Tuberculus were left alive. The old man tried to use a crystal to flee from me, but I cut off his hand before he could use it. I had no idea where it would have sent him, but there was no way I was going to let such a good bag of XP escape my grasp. It was like letting the boss live with only 1% Health Points. It was madness! Anyways, a few months later, the dungeon turned out to be quite powerful, and I was storing up Magic Energy to increase my Dungeon Territory to overlap the nearby town as well. Thanks to me, the Primordial also merged with the other remnants of the Dungeons inside me and became The Darkness. The two of us were a team of sorts. Before we managed to attack the town, a group of adventurers was sent to crush me. I ate them. Then another group came and another... For several weeks afterwards, adventurers kept trying to reach my dungeon, but they were all killed along the way. I had the upper advantage and used it to my liking, this was all just like a game and these adventurers were the bonus the stage. Eventually, I reached the town and consumed it at as well. The invasion took me about three months because I killed only the strong males. The women, I kept them alive as breeding nests, the old men and children were turned into Magic Energy farms, and I remodeled the town into a mini-dungeon of sorts. By this time, I was level 245. It was nice. Oh, what was a Magic Energy Farm? Basically a living being kept in a cell and allowed to live only with the minimum requirements. If they wanted food, each day they would have to push all of their Magic Energy into a small collector crystal and that was it. A few months after I finished the town and the minds of my prisoners were all but broken, I decided to use the able males to mate with the females. This way, I would gain in a few years more able Magic Energy Farms. As for who mated with who, I didn''t care. I just tossed them all together and ordered them to do it if they wanted to live. This would end up as a grind and repeat process to increase the number of ''batteries''. The Darkness saw this move as a stroke of pure genius. Well, all things were nice and good for several years, but then I began to grow bored. I wanted to move like any other organic out there. So, I talked it over with The Darkness, which by now was almost indistinguishable from myself. I could swear that most of the times it felt like I was talking with myself. The body was decided upon based on several species we had collected over the years. I changed a few things about it to make it stronger and better, but I didn''t really had the know-how of making it even better, so I gave up on any advanced and complicated things like bio-engineering. Using this body, I was able to walk around and do stuff as I pleased. With a level of 874, I was literally among the strongest on this continent. Who could stop me? But as it was with having an organic body, I also explored my own sexuality and used the ''batteries'' as practice. The Darkness told me about the ''Wife System'', but I didn''t bother with it, I just wanted some fun, not to sire an offspring. There was another game for that. By this time, I really saw all of my interactions as simply a very advanced Virtual Reality System with incredible graphics and multiple gameplay modes. Using this body, I went straight to the Shoraya Kingdom''s capital and infiltrated the castle. There, I defiled the queen and princesses, then I killed them and hung their bodies at the entrance to the castle. The king went mad when he saw them. I laughed my ass off when I witnessed this. As a result of my ''joke'' he sent his Supremes after me. I killed them and gained a decent amount of experience. It was then when I remembered about that crystal Tuberculus tried to use. There was one that was already filled and another only partially filled. I grabbed the one with less Magic Energy, filled it to the max and used it. The next thing I knew was that I landed in some desert of sort. I laughed my ass off when I saw this, but all fun and jokes had to come to an end. With all the power I had, I went to the first human settlement and... destroyed it. Out of curiosity, I also tried human meat for the first time. I couldn''t tell if it had a good taste or not, but the nekatar one was like chicken, and the draconian was quite stringy. Even so, I made it part of my menu from then on, after all... they weren''t of my species, so it didn''t count as cannibalism. I strolled through the continent for three years, slaughtering everything in sight, but I didn''t bother to make a dungeons here. I had the one back on the other continent, so it was only a matter of time before I returned there. Speaking of which, during this time, I also annihilated several kingdoms as well. I believe one was called Cordina, another was called Tesuar, there was one that was called Aunnar that had a nice slavery system. After I destroyed that one, I used the slaves in the capital for human experiments with my weapons. The way they splattered all around the place was fun. This was seriously the best game ever! The last thing I did in this place was visit the Temples of the Gods. When I checked my own status window, I saw that the Allegiance thingy was empty. At one point, I do remember there was a god there, but maybe that was just my imagination playing tricks on me. Even so, I didn''t believe there were any actual gods around this place, so I did my best to destroy and defile those buildings, which in turn pissed off several of the so-called Apostles. Of all those I fought, the woman called Zoreya was the hardest to defeat, but after cutting off her arms and legs, there wasn''t anything else she could do, so I gave her a taste of what it meant to be a woman. The tears on her face and screams were absolutely divine! They seriously made me laugh. When I got bored with her, I killed her and tossed her remains to the monsters to feast upon. With this final act, I began to set myself loose upon the continent, destroying and slaughtering everything in sight in an attempt to reach level 1000. It made me curious if I would get a bonus or achievement. But alas, it wasn''t meant to be... My killing spree came to an end when several Supremes and Apostles from all three continents banded together and came to attack me. Dankyun was the one who led them... Thanks to that disgusting sword of his, they were able to defeat me. It was a shame, but I wasn''t able to reach level 1000. Maybe I could reload at one point? Hm, no? Meh, who cares? It was just a game... just a game... nothing real. Nothing! Hahaha! [Illsyore''s point of view] ¡°Why do I suddenly have the feeling that our current situation is far better than the alternative of me going full Dungeon Mode on this world?¡± I asked as I scratched my chin. ¡°I don''t care! Just keep running! The Giant Spider is gaining on us!¡± shouted Nanya at me. Yes, we were currently running through the forest on that remote island I teleported us to two years ago. ¡°Nyaaa~! I don''t like spiders! They taste awful!¡± Tamara complained while running next to me. Hm... those mountains jiggle nicely! I approve! I said in my mind. ¡°Did you just think of something perverted about Tamara?¡± Shanteya asked as she was running backwards in front of me. Seriously, this el''doraw''s agility was off the charts! ¡°Erm...¡± I looked away. ¡°Illsy! FOCUS!¡± they all shouted at me. What was a Dungeon supposed to do? I let out a sigh, raised a wall behind us and then trapped the boss in an enchanted Inconel Cage. Now, the hunter became the hunted. It was Spider Steak tonight! Ugh... Tamara was right about the taste though. Chapter 86: Six years... [Illsyore''s point of view] ¡°Ah~! The ocean! So beautiful and filled with resources! So many things to explore within its depths and so many wonders to discover from ages long forgotten!¡± These words flowed from my mouth like the lines from a well critiqued script of a drama play. The only things I didn''t do were the exaggerated body movements because of... reasons. ¡°Shut up and paddle faster!¡± growled Nanya at me. Alas, the critics of this world were harsh when it came to the beauty of the theater. But man''s true wisdom laid within the heart of his stories, the remarkable flowers which sprout from his vivid imagination. With soothing petals of words, he painted the rhapsody of the elements around him as well as the impressive creations of Mother Nature! ¡°It''s so hooot! There''s so much water too... nya~¡± This alluring voice, yet which clearly lacked the energy belonged to another of my critics, which was none other than Tamara. The once lively kitten had turned now into a beautiful woman. ¡°Use your Magic Armor...¡± With a calm and stoic tone of voice, the one who spoke was the stunning crusader and High Apostle, Zoreya. Her long blond hair fluttered in the wind, while her charming blue eyes gazed upon the horizon. ¡°Sigh... if only we could find a boat...¡± The one to sigh was my beloved el''doraw Shanteya, a beautiful silver-haired flower with white skin and long ears like those of an elf. ¡°I''m starting to wonder if maybe I should freeze this ocean and simply walk on top of it...¡± grumbled Nanya. ¡°I want that...¡± Tamara agreed. ¡°I believe the gods have no problem with this.¡± said Zoreya. ¡°To freeze this landscape? We should do so only for a painting! I''m sure with enough practice, we can capture its magnifi... blurbaubua!¡± my words were cut short as I was slowly sinking under the lukewarm water. Maybe it was finally time for me to lay down my swords and rest? Ah~ The joys of life... as they come, they also go... [Shanteya''s point of view] ¡°This... useless... husband of ours...¡± Nanya grumbled as she was breathing hard and pumping on Illsyore''s chest to get all the water out. Just a moment ago, a certain Godlike Dungeon Lord who forgot to activate his Magic Armor... again, ended up suffering from a heatstroke and nearly drowned in the ocean. Nanya was quick to go after him, but along the way... a giant fish ate him. ¡°Fishy good!¡± Tamara said delighted. Her tail was swaying in the air as she gazed upon the prey she caught with her bare hands. It was big, maybe one hundred meters or so in length? The nekatar immediately jumped after Nanya the moment she saw the fish. One should never underestimate the swimming power of a hungry adult nekatar, especially an Awakened one like her! ¡°How should we cook it?¡± Ayuseya asked as she lifted it up above the giant iceberg Nanya created. Considering the small raft we were using just a moment ago, it would have been impossible for us to save Illsyore from its gut, let alone cook it. Therefore, Nanya was kind enough to freeze a patch of this endless ocean and use it as a foothold. ¡°What sort of idiot Godlike Dungeon Lord who can hunt down Legendary Sea Serpents with one strike manages to get a sunstroke and then get swallowed by a giant fish?!¡± Nanya complained as she kept pumping the water out of him. ¡°Nya~ Our husband?¡± Tamara asked as she twitched her black ears. After her Awakening, the cute nekatar turned into a stunningly beautiful woman with a big chest. And although she lost most of her fur and resembled humans quite a lot now, her ears, tail, eyes, claws, and teeth still remained. In exchange, she was also far more powerful than before, being the fastest one among all of us five wives of Illsyore, and the last one to join our group. ¡°Tamara? Will you be removing the scales?¡± Ayuseya asked as she lifted the giant fish with [Telekinezy], the first Spell Illsyore learned. ¡°Yup! Yup!¡± she nodded three times and showed her a big smile. ¡°Ungh...¡± Illsy groaned. ¡°Is he coming through?¡± I asked. ¡°Nope... Still out cold.¡± Nanya said and then let out a heavy sigh. ¡°Fishy cooking time!¡± Tamara said as she extended her claws. While the two of them were handling our meal and the demoness was taking care of our husband, I walked over to Zoreya, who was gazing at the endless ocean before us. ¡°Is something wrong?¡± I asked her. ¡°No... I was just thinking...¡± she shook her head and smiled back at me. ¡°About?¡± I took a seat next to her. ¡°Everything... The battle against The Darkness was almost six years ago... Then we came to that island and fought against Legendary Monsters. We discovered that Primordial Dungeon, which turned out to be rather... easy to conquer once we leveled up enough.¡± she looked down and gathered her knees at her chest. ¡°We couldn''t have done it without Illsyore disabling all the traps first. They were extremely easy for him, but not for us. A party of Supremes wouldn''t have lasted even a week in there.¡± I mentioned. Illsyore never saw it as dangerous, but the rest of us knew that it wasn''t anything to laugh at. The amount of monsters there were enough to cause even a whole united continent to tremble just from hearing about it. ¡°True... I, alone, wouldn''t have been able to survive no matter how many lives I had. Illsyore, although an idiot of a husband at times, he proved to be the only thing keeping us alive there. Even tough it was entirely his own fault for bringing us there in the first place.¡± she furrowed her brow. ¡°But there were some unique moments which you enjoyed as well, especially ''that'' night.¡± I giggled. She blushed and looked away. ¡°I-It may have been my first time, but afterwards... I got used to it... sort off...¡± she shook her head ¡°What are you making me say? It''s unprecedented for a High Apostle to act like... like...¡± she tried to find her words. ¡°A normal woman in love?¡± I said. ¡°Yes... that... Sigh.¡± she hung her head low. ¡°Hehe! It''s normal, Zoreya, don''t fret about it. Besides, I never heard of someone praying to Melkuth to help them gather their courage to be able to join their own spouse in bed.¡± I showed her a sly smile. ¡°Ah! You heard that?!¡± she looked at me surprised.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. ¡°Yes, I was there...¡± I giggled. ¡°So embarrassing!¡± she let out another sigh. ¡°I''m sure Melkuth himself was rather surprised to suddenly hear you beckoning him to help you lay with a man... Hehe! Seeing how it worked though, maybe I should pray to the God of War for this as well?¡± I asked. ¡°They say love is a war, but Kleopatra is the goddess who governs this battlefield... Maybe I should have prayed to her instead?¡± she wondered and then shook her head ¡°No, Melkuth helped me.¡± With tears of blood, I bet... I commented in my mind. From what Illsy told us about him, he was quite reluctant to let go of Zoreya. Suddenly receiving a prayer to help her get in bed with the man who ''stole'' her from him was probably akin to getting impaled in the chest by a spear. ¡°Still, you were the one who got a point ahead of us.¡± she glared at me for a moment and then softened her gaze. ¡°I''m just two months in now... I still have along way to go...¡± I showed her a small smile as I rubbed my belly with one hand. ¡°I can''t wait to see him or her, but Nanya was sure envious about it.¡± she giggled. ¡°Well, she was the first woman Illsy ever saw when she woke up in this world. She and Ayuseya were the first ones to marry him. She was also the one to take his first time, so having me take one of Illsy''s firsts doesn''t sound so bad to me.¡± I smiled. ¡°You could have waited until we made the academy.¡± she spoke. ¡°And let Nanya get the jump on me once more? Never!¡± I declared proudly. ¡°Despite how you look... you are one cunning and sly woman, aren''t you?¡± she asked me with a wry smile. ¡°And when it comes to my family, I am pretty fierce too!¡± I declared. ¡°True... When you thought Tamara was eaten alive by that Sky God, you took the lead and hunted them down one by one. I have to admit, you were quite scary back then.¡± she laughed. ¡°In the end, we found her cooking their eggs in their nest. I got angry for nothing.¡± I let out a sigh. ¡°But it''s good to know that you have our backs.¡± she smiled and gave me a hug. ¡°Thank you, but you really should think about wearing a dress... This armor must be uncomfortable.¡± I advised her as we pulled apart. ¡°When the academy is built, I will wear a dress in my free time, but until then, I''m wearing this armor!¡± she declared proudly as she knocked on the plate. A light caught my attention, and when I turned my head, I saw Ayuseya roasting the already prepared and seasoned giant fish. She was using her [Fire Breath], a neat ability she discovered once she reached level 1000. ¡°Dinner should be ready soon.¡± I said. ¡°With Tamara cooking, I''m sure it will be delicious!¡± Zoreya said as she sat up. ¡°True, who would have thought the cute nekatar was going to be the best cook out of all of us? Even I am a bit ashamed to admit it...¡± I let out a sigh. ¡°Well, I was never good with the kitchen stuff... I also mostly ate simple easy to cook rations.¡± she pointed out as she rubbed the back of her head. ¡°Ah! He''s finally waking up!¡± Nanya announced. ¡°Hm? Nanya?¡± Illsy said as he rubbed his forehead. ¡°It''s me, dear. You had us scared for a moment. How are you feeling?¡± she asked him. ¡°Hm... Let me see... Good.¡± he reported as he groped her chest with one hand. ¡°Why are you measuring the state of your health through fondling my breasts?¡± she glared at him and slapped his hand away. ¡°I was just making sure this wasn''t a dream.¡± he smiled back. ¡°Should I make sure of it?¡± she cracked her knuckles ¡°I heard pain can''t be felt in dreams!¡± ¡°I don''t think that myth is accurate...¡± he smiled wryly an pulled back. ¡°Illsy, I''m glad to see you are alright.¡± I said and showed him a smile. ¡°Of course! To prove it, here! Colly Tos!¡± he said. And with that, he stole Nanya''s panties. ¡°Each an every time...¡± the demoness grumbled as she grabbed them while they were still floating in the air. ¡°Huh? I''m sure I was targeting Shanteya though...¡± he was looking at his hand and pointed at me. ¡°Colly Tos!¡± he chanted again. ¡°Nya?¡± Tamara had a surprised look on her face. This time it was the nekatar''s panties. ¡°Wrong again?¡± he blinked surprised. Nanya''s anger was rising. ¡°COLLY TOS!¡± he shouted hard and a pair of dark, silky panties appeared before him. That''s a very daring pair... I thought. ¡°Erm... Those are mine...¡± Zoreya told us shyly while pulling her head inside her armor like a tortoise. ¡°Hm. Hm. I like it!¡± he made a thumbs up at her. ¡°Idiot!¡± Nanya smacked his head, causing him to fall face first in the ice. ¡°Ow...¡± he grumbled. ¡°I told you for a million times to stop using that spell!¡± Nanya shouted in his ear. ¡°But-But...¡± he tried to say something but was stopped by her death glare. ¡°Huh? I thought I heard SOMETHING speak.¡± she said with a rough tone of voice. ¡°Nothing!¡± he quickly shook his head. I let out a sigh. These two were like a comedy duo. I had the chance to talk with Nanya once, and the true reason why she hated this spell was because she believed that one day he was going to use it on all the women in a city. There was also another reason behind this, she actually wanted Illsy to slowly undress her if anything, not use a spell to remove her clothing. A suggestion, which to be fair, all of us would have enjoyed. There was once a noble woman, to be more precise... Nanya''s mother, who told her that the undergarments a woman wore were for her husband alone and thus should be a secret only he will be allowed to uncover, but only and only on their night of love and passion. Just because of this, Nanya truly disliked that spell. Although, surprising Illsy in the bed wasn''t that hard of a thing to do in the first place. ¡°Nya~ Windy!¡± the nekatar definitely didn''t mind if she was either fully clothed or not. After her transformation into the woman she was now, I remember her running all over the island butt naked. It took the effort of all four of us to capture her before Illsy saw her. We all feared he might end up making her his wife as well, a fear which proved to be true, since that was EXACTLY what happened. With a sigh escaping my lips, I looked up at he sky and thought back as well at all the time we spent on the island. Six years went by in a flash, with most of the days just being a repeat of the previous ones... Wake up, get dressed, hunt for monsters, eat, sleep, and repeat. As for those nights of love and passion. We each took turns with Illsy and sometimes... two or three of us went in together, just to spice things up a little. It makes me wonder though... are we the lucky ones or is Illsy? I thought as I closed my eyes and took a deep breath of air. Chapter 87: The overly shy lioness [Zoreya''s point of view] This was the third day since we left the island... or rather we were thrown off of it. So far, there were no ships in sight and our small craft was moving slowly just with the paddling power of Illsy and Nanya. I would have helped, but my current armor was the old one I asked Illsy to repair. It was working well, but it paled in comparison to the one he built for me. Even so, I still wished to use it for old times sake. ¡°Nyaaan~¡± Tamara let out a cute sound. I was currently in the middle of petting her. Despite having the appearance of a grown human woman with a tail an cat ears attached, she still acted pretty much like the old Tamara. Her sudden change was more on the outside than it was on the inside. Least to be said, when this nekatar went into heat, she chased down Illsy relentlessly, while the rest of us hid in a cave... That was a very scary week for all of us. But if I were to guess, for me the turning point in all of these past six years was probably that one moment on the beach. I was alone, confused, and a bit afraid of what was to come, but I still pushed through... somehow. ¡°Hm? What are you thinking about?¡± Shanteya asked me. ¡°Nothing much... I was just remembering the time when I made that absurd wish to Melkuth.¡± I said and giggled. Closing my eyes, I let those memories flow back to me, relieving them as though they had happened just yesterday... Back then, I was still new to the whole ''being a wife'' thing. We were on the island for just over three weeks and closing in our fourth one. Illsy made us a small underground bunker to keep us safe from the predators outside, but we still weren''t a match for many of the beasts out there. Together, we could hunt down the Giant Boars or the Killer Rattlesnakes, but they were ridiculously difficult to defeat. If I were to face them alone, there was a rather high chance that I would end up dead in their bone-crushing jaws. It was that sort of danger. And these beasts were some of the weakest we could find. Fighting against the stronger ones was out of the question. Nonetheless, whenever we brought one down, we could feel our power rising exponentially. Illsy confirmed this through our levels. In those mere three weeks, we went up by almost 200 levels. It was insane. When it came to cooking, cleaning, and other things, we mostly used the provisions Illsy had stockpiled in his Inner Mind. Tamara was slowly learning to cook, but most of it was being prepared by Shanteya and sometimes Nanya. For now, I kept my distance from the kitchen. Despite the dangers we faced daily, Illsy always found it... necessary to spend the night with one of his wives. I was counted in as well, but that kiss on the battlefield back then was as close to him as I got. I tried to approach him, but I always ended up flustered and running away. It was beginning to reach the point where I just had to wonder whether or not I was... defective? What sort of woman was I to run away from her own husband? Then, one night, while Illsy was having ''fun'' with Nanya, I took a walk down the beach... alone. It was in an area I confirmed to be safe, but I still kept my senses heightened and was ready to flee the moment a monster popped out. As I said, I was far from being strong enough to face such beasts on my own. With a sad sigh escaping my lips, I thought back and forth at how things turned out between me and Illsy in the past few weeks. For once, I began to call him by his nickname. I was targeted a few times by his Colly Tos spell, although Nanya made sure to return my panties afterwards. A black-eyed Illsy apologized as well. The relationship between me and the other women in our group had started to change into one of close friendship. And this was about all that happened. I wasn''t approached by Illsy to join him in bed nor did I make the attempt to do so. Kisses were never shared with me, but mostly because I never gave him the opportunity... or fled when he tried. From all points of view, the reason our relationship was so cold was because of me. Realizing this fact, I stopped and slumped down on the sand. With a lonely and sad sigh, I began to draw circles in the sand. ¡°Why can''t I even get myself to kiss him? He''s my husband after all...¡± I told myself. There wasn''t even a need for me to keep myself pure or deny my desires as well when even my god, Melkuth, permitted it. ¡°I''m a fool! No, I''m just broken... I have a broken head...¡± I sighed and then looked up at the sky. The sky was filled with stars, and I was so focused on my own depressing self, I wasn''t aware that a certain el''doraw was staying hidden in the forest. Shanteya''s intent wasn''t on spying on me, rather she wanted to be close by in case a monster appeared and I found myself in need of support. At least, that was what she told me recently... ¡°Ah~ Melkuth, if you hear me... please listen to your foolish Apostle''s prayer.¡± I said as I looked up in the sky. There was no temple here, but maybe my words would somehow connect to him? Or so I hoped... [At that time, in the realm of the gods] ¡°For crying out loud! Since when has my office become the gathering place for all the GODS?!¡± Melkuth shouted at the top of his lungs. ¡°Hyaaa~ This is some good wine!¡± Narcerya, the Goddess of the Anvil said while leaning against an invisible wall. ¡°Don''t be such a spoilsport, Melkuth! Besides, we all know you managed to land yourself as the god of a Dungeon, so we are all really excited to see how this will turn out! Hehe! Just a bit more...¡± I said as I was sneaking behind Narcerya, trying to get a good feel of her big bosom. Those mountains were a delicious treat for my old geezer eyes, and if I were to add to that the drips of sweat that rushed down her slightly tanned skin, the revealing cleavage hidden by a metal breastplate, the alluring curves of her body, the red hair tied up in a pony tail. All of these sweet details made her beauty even more stunning! Ah, yes~ The beauty and joy of having to slip my hand within that thick breastplate and fondle those... BONK! ¡°Owie...¡± I said. The merciless hammer of the goddess struck me on the head before my fingers could reach the Holy Land! ¡°Ara?! My hand slipped! Tehe!¡± she said. ¡°How can it slip when you are firmly gripping it and even pressing on it?¡± I questioned her while I tried to push my face off the ground. ¡°I said my hand slipped! TE HE!¡± she said. ¡°You are grinding my head in the floor!¡± I cried. ¡°Oi! Narcerya, stop that! You are ruining my carpet with his face!¡± Melkuth complained. ¡°That''s what you are worried about?¡± I cried out. ¡°Yeah... pretty much.¡± he shrugged. ¡°Still, to think you would give up on your little dove to let the love between a Dungeon and an Apostle blossom. My, how unexpected of you, God of War~!¡± the one who spoke with the voice of an alluring goddess was none other than Kleopatra, the Goddess of Love. To be mentioned, her chest wasn''t as squishy and voluptuous as Narcerya''s. Instead, it was variable... She was the only goddess who was never settled on a certain size or figure. Right now, she was flat as board, but for a god like me, she still held her undisputed charm. ¡°Yes, I bent my own rules and made it so that it was for the best of the world. Like this, we avoided unnecessary bloodshed and even the need to summon a hero!¡± Melkuth declared proudly. ¡°Oh! It appears she''s calling for you right now.¡± I pointed out after I managed to get my head from under that really heavy hammer.Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. My next target was Kleopatra! Let there be justice, for ALL breasts were approved by me! ¡°Hm... I sense a roach.¡± the Goddess of Love said. BONK! ¡°Roach squashed.¡± Narcerya said. ¡°Ow...¡± I groaned. ¡°Settle down, I need to hear this. I wonder what sort of valiant prayer she has for me right now?¡± Melkuth said proudly. We all piped down and only the sound of the hammer grinding against the back of my head could be heard. It hurt... I lacked terribly in the stealth department. ¡°Oh mighty Melkuth, God of War, your Apostle wishes for you to listen to my prayer!¡± When Zoreya spoke these words, we could all feel the faith behind them, making her god ever so proud of this. ¡°Speak, my faithful High Apostle!¡± Melkuth replied. ¡°Ah! You can hear me?¡± she replied surprised. ¡°Hehe.¡± Narcerya couldn''t hold on that snicker. ¡°Yes... I can hear you.¡± Melkuth replied while glaring at the goddess. ¡°Ahem... I''ll be quiet.¡± she conformed. ¡°Mighty Melkuth, I need you to grant me courage and strength. I need your wisdom and power!¡± Zoreya began to call out. The gods were listening carefully to the mortal''s words. We all knew they were located in a terribly dangerous place, so we could only wonder if maybe she wanted to fight better or just replenish her Divine Energy. ¡°Mighty Melkuth, please help this Apostle of yours acquire the power and strength she needs so I may not run away from Illsyore, my husband. Please give me strength of heart and the courage I need to cast away my armor for a night of passion with him... Please Melkuth, my god, help me offer myself to Illsy''s embrace.¡± So the prayer ended, and all of us gods were trying very very hard to abstain from laughing. ¡°And here I thought I was the goddess who handled that sort of stuff. Right, Melkuth the God of Love? It doesn''t sound so bad... Hehehe!¡± Kleopatra said with cute laughter. ¡°I''ll be darn! Such a thing to happen! And to Melkuth of all! Buhahaha!¡± Leottor, the God of Craftsmen burst out into a loud laughter. Although he was a dwarf in appearance, he was laughing so hard, tears were running down his cheeks and wet his dense white beard. ¡°Such a thing... Poor God of War! Hahaha!¡± Narcerya laughed and seeing this opportunity, I slipped my hands underneath that armor of hers. ¡°Ah! Heaven!¡± I said with a satisfied smile on my lips as I began to fondle her. ¡°Hya~ Why you... Mn~ Stop that~!¡± Narcerya cried out, but nothing was going to STOP ME! NOTHING! BONK! Whatever happened next ended up with me suffering a complete blackout, but it was TOTALLY worth it! As for Melkuth, I believe he was crying tears of blood... real ones. [Zoreya''s point of view] My god listened to my prayer and agreed to help me. His solemn tone of voice told me that he was proud of me or maybe happy for making this important step in my life? Either way, the following night, I asked to be left alone with Illsy. They all agreed, but even with Melkuth''s blessing, I still found it hard to enter his room. When I finally summoned up the courage to do so, I was still wearing my armor and holding my shield up. ¡°I thought you wanted to sleep with me not beat me to death?¡± he asked as he pointed at the morning star in my other hand. ¡°Ah! Sorry... I didn''t notice it.¡± I replied and dropped it on the ground. Although I felt terribly shy, I didn''t run away, but instead... I hid behind my shield. ¡°And there goes my floor...¡± he said. ¡°Sorry...¡± I quickly said. ¡°No problem, erm... can you put the shield away? Zoreya, are you alright?¡± he asked me. ¡°Erm... no. Can we... Can I sleep with you like this?¡± I asked him. ¡°Erm... HOW?!¡± he retorted. ¡°Sorry!¡± I shrunk down even further. My cheeks were completely red, and my heart was beating like crazy in my chest. ¡°This isn''t going anywhere...¡± he sighed. Indeed, there was no way for us to do anything with me in this awful state. What sort of Crusader was I to hide from my own lover behind my shield? Melkuth was probably going to heavily scold me, especially after giving me his blessing. While I was thinking what to do next and whether or not Illsy was going to hate me because of it, I saw myself looking straight into his eyes. He came over to me and moved in front of me. I froze. ¡°Do you hate me that much?¡± he asked me with a sad look on his face. ¡°Huh? No! NO NO NO!¡± I replied shaking my head fast. ¡°I see... That''s good.¡± he let out a sigh. ¡°I''m sorry... I''m too shy... too embarrassed... I don''t know what to do.¡± I told him and looked down. ¡°Hm, want to try something?¡± he asked as he scratched the back of his head. ¡°What?¡± ¡°Close your eyes and open them when I tell you to, alright?¡± he smiled at me. I nodded and closed my eyes. Suddenly, I felt him pulling my shield away. I hesitantly let go of it. Then he took my hand and carefully guided me to the bed. I gulped. Then I felt Magic Energy flowing around me, and all of a sudden, I felt... lighter. ¡°Open your eyes.¡± he told me. When I opened my eyes, he was standing right in front of me, but his face was very close... too close! ¡°If you want me to stop at any moment, just say so... If you push me away, I will move.¡± he whispered to me and then... he kissed me. Immediately, I raised my hands to push him back, but then I was the one pushed. I opened my eyes wide, but I wasn''t wearing my armor anymore... The kiss continued and in the heat of the moment, I forgot to push him back. Although embarrassed and with my heart beating so fast it was almost ready to burst out of my chest, I let him continue. I just kept telling myself that he was my husband, and I too wanted this... which was true. Only my unreasonable shyness was in the way. Then, I don''t know when or how, but I took the lead... I straddle him and held him down. I was so embarrassed, my eyes were spinning, but I couldn''t stop this burning heat inside of me. That night... my pure self was given to Illsy... and I also discovered I had a rather ''wild'' side to me as well, but this was going to be our little secret. The other wives needed not to know of this. Chapter 88: Anvil overboard! [Tamara''s point of view] ¡°Nyaaa... Pet me more! Pet me more!¡± I said as I snuggled in Shanteya''s lap. Out of all of them, she knew best how loved to be petted. Well, she and Illsy... My mate was a genius in finding my weak spots, to the point where I was envious I couldn''t do the same! ¡°You are awfully active, aren''t you?¡± she asked with a soft smile on her lips. ¡°Munyaaa~ Not really... I just have nothing to do...¡± I replied while letting my tail sway as it wished. ¡°True, we''ve been sailing like this for almost five days now. Sigh... I wonder when we will reach shore.¡± Shanteya said. ¡°Mmm... A week or so from now?¡± I replied half asleep. ¡°I wonder... Isn''t that a bit too precise?¡± she asked with a raised eyebrow. ¡°Nya~ Hm? Fish? You said fish? Where?¡± I asked her and perked up my ears. I lifted my head up from her lap and quickly looked around, sniffing the air. ¡°No, I didn''t say fish... Ah, nevermind.¡± she gave up and ruffled my hair. ¡°Nya?¡± I twitched my ears and then laid back down in her lap. Acting like a foolish kitten was always the best strategy in order make mortals see my ''slip up'' as nothing more than a joke. Who would believe that this Awakened nekatar was more than what they believed? Hm, but it was going be a long time before I revealed myself to them... A pleasant, normal life alongside Illsy was what I desired the most. Ah... When was it that I made the decision to follow Illsy? Back then, right? I remember it like it was yesterday... Mufufu! When I was first found by Illsy, I appeared to be just a helpless little kitten. Injured, enslaved, meowing... who could deny my cuteness?! He saved me and then we traveled together. I desired to be nothing more than a simple pet to him. I was happy like that. He gave me fish, I let him pet me. It was a trade of equivalent exchange. Well, lots of things happened afterwards, but the turning point of events was when Illsy fought The Darkness. Such strong will he had, it fascinated me~. Just like a hero from the old legends, he stood his ground and reclaimed what he had once lost. No matter the pain and struggle he had to go through, he never stopped and persevered... truly amazing. Then he brought us on the boss-filled island. I nearly wanted to slap him over the head for his decision, but he kept us safe, and our lives never changed for the worse. Well, Zoreya managed to overcome her shyness little by little and mate with Illsy. On the other hand, I was left outside of the ''wife group''. I didn''t care at first, I had other things to focus on like cooking and becoming stronger. However, as days turned to weeks then months, and one year turned to two. After I nearly got turned into Sky God food and learned to hunt the big lizards with beams of light coming out of their eyes, I began to wonder if I should aim for more. Illsy was getting really comfortable with his wives, and I was still nothing more than a slave... In his eyes, I was a pet... or maybe he still saw me as a child because of my undeveloped body. The unawakened nekatar anatomy was not one to please the human libido. Yet, I was already 18 years old now. ¡°Nya... This... is boring... no, frustrating?¡± I said as I stretched myself on top of a branch. It was in the dead of night. Everyone was asleep except for me. ¡°Grrr!¡± a Giant Dayuk came close, thinking I was easy pray. I merely looked at him and released my presence a bit. The monster flinched and then dashed away as fast as he could. Normally, that was a bit too much, but I was too frustrated and let this slide. So far, in this life, I had yet to be embraced by a lover, and even I longed for it. ¡°Me? Wanting to mate? That''s good one, nyahaha!¡± I chuckled, but then I stopped. ¡°No way...¡± I shook my head. ¡°I really want him? HIM?!¡± I was at a loss of words... and thoughts. I couldn''t believe what I was feeling and who I was desiring. From what I could see and check, there wasn''t anything wrong with my body or head. I wasn''t technically in heat yet, but... but... but... ¡°Sigh...¡± I slumped down on my branch and looked up at the moon. ¡°Is it one of you stupid gods who meddled in my affairs?¡± I groaned. Well, I couldn''t go up there and ask each and every one of them, so I decided to give it a go. In other words, if my feelings were true, I would feel the energy of ''love'' flowing between me and Illsy, otherwise, there would be nothing there. The only way to make sure of this was to get rid of my... childlike and beastly appearance. Illsy was clearly not interested or attracted in either of these two. So, that night... I allowed my body to Awaken. This change happened to all nekatars who reached a power level of 500 according to the Temples, but this wasn''t always true, there were a few more hidden conditions for this to happen. First of all, they had to accept the desire to change. Second of all, they had to hold within them a certain amount of Magic Energy. In Illsy''s words, a Magic Energy Pool of over 30000 points was needed. Third of all, they had to survive the change... That last one was the reason why many nekatars refused to do it. We instinctively felt the fear of Awakening... Well, it didn''t really matter to me, I was a bit ''special''. I survived, but the change itself was painful enough to make me want to rip off the heads of all the bosses on the island, but by the time the sun was up, it was all over. When I opened my eyes... the area I was in was a mess. Several trees were ripped in half. There were scratch marks everywhere. My fur and blood was scattered all around me. And a monster who didn''t knew any better got too close and ended up ripped apart. He was literally ripped apart and had its head crushed in by my fists. The sight was truly brutal, but it only made me hungry... ¡°Well... I should take a bath first, nya...¡± I said as I got up and stretched my arms a bit. My clothes were in rags, and I was covered in fur. It appeared as though I had become quite similar to the type Illsy liked the most. Normally, nekatars, even Awakened ones, didn''t have such big chests. It was really strange, maybe some god really did interfere? Either way, starting tomorrow, it was Tamara''s turn to hunt Illsy! I was going to make sure if this man was worthy of me or not, but then again... I never hanged around people I didn''t find worthy in the first place. The official wives tried to stop me, but all failed miserably... None could stop the mighty Tamara from getting her fish, nya~! A few days later, I had Illsy all to myself. Nothing like a cute female with a cat''s charm to catch the male''s attention. As for the other wives, once the deed was done, and I was fully satisfied, they first thought Illsy a lesson and then drilled into me the laws of their group. I never saw Illsy run so fast. It was like he was being chased down by the Bringers of Apocalypse. Out of all of them, Shanteya''s glare was really scawy~! Well, returning to the present, I never expected Illsy and his other wives to have such a quick growth. Their strength was over-the-top ridiculous. None of the Legendary Bosses on the island could pose a threat for them now. I highly doubted even an army of Supremes could defeat them. Well, Illsy kept calling us Over Supremes, but I never understood what was up with that. It sounded like a childish name to give to a class. Fish Nuggets sounded better and tasty too! Mmm... fishy~ ¡°Munya~ Right there! Behind the ears!¡± I said and stretched when Shanteya found a weak spot. ¡°Row row your boat! Gently down the stream~! Merely! Merely! Merely! Why are you hitting me in the spleen?!¡± Illsy sang. Peeking back, I saw Nanya grinding her punch into him. ¡°Less groping my bottom and more paddling, you pantie snatching pervert!¡± she growled at him. ¡°Nya~ Illsy is a pervert, but you like it too...¡± I giggled. ¡°What?!¡± Nanya retorted, but her cheeks were bright red and her pointy tail sprung up from under the water. ¡°Nya~ Your moans are the loudest... then Zoreya''s... Mmm, Shanteya and Ayuseya''s are the same... Mine are so-so. Nya~ Right, my love?¡± I asked as I purred under the el''doraw''s caress. ¡°I cannot deny your statement.¡± Illsy nodded. Nanya punched him. ¡°Ouch!¡± he groaned. ¡°I don''t moan... that loud.¡± she spoke in a very low tone of voice. The other wives simply giggled and let them be. ¡°Now I''m the one who wants to find a ship or land faster...¡± Illsy grumbled. ¡°If you didn''t EAT the whole island, maybe we wouldn''t have found ourselves in this sort of situation?!¡± Nanya rebuked. Truth be told, that was exactly what happened. Four days ago, Illsy called us on the beach early in the morning and announced with a bright smile on his face that we would be leaving this island. He even made this raft, which wasn''t as simple as it looked. It was enchanted by a Godlike Dungeon Lord, making it capable of withstanding incredible stress. After all, it survived to all the jumps and fishy attacks that happened until now. As for how it moved, it was pushed by the strength and speed of Illsyore and Nanya''s legs. The speed was of several knots. We were traveling faster than a horse-drawn carriage on land. I like it because the wind was all fluttery through my hair.Stolen story; please report. When Illsy told us that we would leave the island, we all thought the raft was just a joke of his and that he was going to build some highly sophisticated and incredible boat. Or we would fly on Ayuseya''s back. Instead, after we all got on the raft, he turned towards the island and ABSORBED it. HE ABOSRBED the whole island, giving us literally no chance to reconsider this plan of his nya~! It was absurd, nya! With the island suddenly gone, the water had to go somewhere. There was also a matter of the underwater volcanoes. Thus, we began to paddle for our lives away from there while being chased by a tsunami and avoiding shooting boulders of molten rock from under the sea. I never paddled so fast in my life, nya! Apparently, that was the only way to stop the ridiculous barrier surrounding the island. It was the loophole in the spell. Without an island and bosses to take Magic Energy from, it literally had no purpose to exist. Thus, it vanished into thin air... That day, we swum for our dear lives... The beating we gave him afterwards was more or less the reason why Illsy ended up without a Magic Armor that day in the first place. But, I didn''t see what the problem was. The others were just exaggerating over the gravity of this whole thing. Illsy''s only fault was in making this poor excuse for a raft and not giving us a heads up before he swallowed the island. At the very least, he had plenty of materials now to use for his Magic Academy, with which, we all agreed to help build... Nya, I was going to be the cooking teacher! Hm, strange, but when one is relaxed and petted carefully, one''s mind can think with ease... and sometimes, look back upon the past, nya... [Ayuseya''s point of view] ¡°Sigh...¡± I looked up at the sky and saw no signs of birds or clouds of rain. The endless ocean was empty and calm... Not even the smallest ship in sight. It was boring. There was nothing to do on this little raft, nothing at all... Even my precious book collection had been read and reread so many times that I completely lost interest in it. Illsy wrote me a few stories from his own world, but his talent for writing and describing the beautiful was somewhat... lacking. On the other hand, his manuals and teaching guides were amazing, simple and easy to understand. Therefore, when we reached shore, I was determined to find the closest library and raid it! I would buy all the books there or even better, I could just steal them! No... that would be bad. Illsy wouldn''t want that. Letting out another sigh, I looked back at my husband. He was swimming next to Nanya, both of them pushing this raft while they peddled with their feet. Normally, one wouldn''t see this as being a very effective way of transport, but surprisingly, the raw power of their feet was at absurd levels already. We were moving faster than any boat I had the pleasure of sailing on. Actually, they could pretty much lift this raft above their heads and run on top of the water, but then the continuous up and down motion would make all of a sick... And I can already imagine Tamara getting annoyed with this and starting hissing at them. It wouldn''t be good for Shanteya either, she has to be careful... I thought. Turning my gaze to the nekatar, I saw her enjoying her petting session with Shanteya. Next to her was Zoreya, who was staring into the depths of the ocean as if trying to find the secret to immortality. Her shield was stored within the small Crystal embedded in the back of her right hand. All of us had one, and it was hidden right under the skin. Illsy called it a ''small upgrade'', but the rest of us saw it as an amazing thing. The reason for this was so that we would all have quick access to our personalized items. Bothering Illsy and Nanya to take them out and store them every time become too much of a bother, and it wasn''t very combat efficient either. All the stuff we arrived with on the island had long been destroyed. Zoreya''s armor alone was turned to dust several times. Once, during practice, she was left with nothing on, stark naked... Before she started crying from embarrassment, Illsy ''stole'' her from the battlefield and locked us outside of his room. By the time we realized his TRUE intentions, it was already too late... Nanya complained the most about this incident. To keep us safe and also raise our battle potential, Illsy made us special weapons and armors. He upgraded them every time we grew stronger or he developed a new technology for them. Compared to what the most brilliant of blacksmiths of the three continents could make, Illsy''s items were a million times better. Just my sword alone if given to Dankyun could easily increase his power by at least ten times. As if being Over Supremes wasn''t good enough... I thought and let out another sigh. Of course, we promised ourselves not to abuse these items too much. We would use them only when we thought it to be absolutely necessary. For every other situation of dealing with Supremes and the occasional random group of bandits, we had simple weapons that could withstand a part of our unleashed power. I doubted Illsy thought about this, but if we wanted to, we could easily conquer all the three continents in a matter of days. There was no force on them capable of withstanding our might. Looking far into the distance, I began to think back at my time before I met Illsy. How I lived cursed to count the days until I fell prey to death''s claws. How I once stood on the political seat of a Princess of Teslov, yet having no actual strength to back it up. Then there were all those countless hours when I was forced to learn how to become the perfect wife and behave like a refined and elegant lady. Truth be told, I was actually being trained to become an obedient little trophy wife, not a Queen... and certainly not a lover. If my former tutors could see me now, they would certainly be outraged and demand me to be ''retrained''. They would certainly point out that flaunting over Illsy, wanting to be close to him, and sometimes expressing my desire to monopolize him was a behavior that shamed my status and family. As a Princess of Teslov, in their opinion, I was supposed to sit behind my husband, act all pretty and elegant like a porcelain doll or act in a way the nobles wouldn''t find disgraceful. If only they knew that I have completely abandoned such a way of life... I thought and then giggled. To be honest, I didn''t even care anymore about the battle for the throne or the fact that I was cured of a seemingly impossible to dispel curse. That part of my life was now over, and after so many nights with my husband and adventures alongside my friends, I decided that going back to my life as a Princess was going to be nothing but a death sentence for me. Besides, Teslov didn''t deserve me or my power... And if those old geezer wanted to drag me back or use Illsy in any way or manner, I would be the one to rip their heads out, not Shanteya. ¡°Hm?¡± I stood up on the raft and looked into the distance. ¡°What is it?¡± Shanteya asked. ¡°Munya~ don''t stop~ Pet me more!¡± the nekatar requested. ¡°I think I see something in the distance...¡± I pointed in front of me. ¡°Hm... there''s a dot.¡± Zoreya said as she squinted her eyes. ¡°I''ll go up and take a better look.¡± I told them. Using wind magic, I flew up into the air and then looked into the distance. I wasn''t wrong. There was something there, in the horizon. ¡°A SHIP! I SEE A SHIP!¡± I shouted excited. Finally! The days of endless boredom had finally come to an end. Stopping my spell, I fell back down on the raft. Splash! My landing was a bit rough, causing it to bob in the water, but the small craft held together. ¡°There''s a ship!¡± I said again. ¡°Awesome!¡± Illsy raised a fist in the sky. ¡°Finally...¡± Nanya let out a sigh of exasperation. ¡°Hm, where''s Zoreya?¡± Illsy asked suddenly. Blinking surprised, I looked behind. The crusader was gone. The spot where she was sitting on just a moment ago was empty. ¡°She must have fallen in the water!¡± I said. ¡°Ah! Anvil overboard! Someone go and save my wife!¡± Illsy cried out. I jumped into the water and used the flow of Magic Energy to propel myself towards her. The woman in question was sinking like a rock in that full-plate armor of hers. I knew she didn''t want to part with it, but still... Zoreya! Don''t drown! I thought. Well, I was certain Illsy would save her at the last minute in the worst case scenario, and she wasn''t an idiot to let herself drown either. I grabbed her by the plate on her back and pulled her up with me. Thanks to my speed and strength, I was able to swim back up to the surface quite fast. ¡°Over here!¡± I called out once I was out. Pulling Zoreya''s head above the water, she spat and we swum over to the raft. Illsy pulled her up, and I got out of the water as well. ¡°Are you alright?¡± Illsy asked worried. ¡°I thought I was going to drown.¡± she said as water poured out of every hole in her armor. ¡°Come on, get out of that armor before you catch a cold.¡± Illsy said. ¡°Ah! No need to!¡± she shook her head, but he used Absorb and took it off. Immediately, Zoreya''s cheeks turned red, and she made a face as if she was about to cry. ¡°Hm...¡± Illsy squinted his eyes and put her armor back on. Her expression turned into one of relief, then Illsy absorbed it again. Her face turned red. He put it back on. She calmed down again. This cycle repeated a few times until Nanya had enough of it and slapped Illsy over the back of his head. ¡°Enough already! We need to get to that boat.¡± she said. ¡°Ouch... yes.¡± he replied rubbing the back of his head. I giggled and gave Illsy a kiss on the cheek. ¡°Nanya''s right. We had enough of this raft.¡± I smiled. ¡°Alright...¡± he nodded. Thus, we headed towards the vessel I had spotted into the far distance. I was quite curious to know to which country or trade company it belonged to... Chapter 89: The capn be flyin [Shanteya''s point of view] To our great joy, we finally encountered a vessel. It was a typical Paramanium Galleon with two black sails and a bulky black body. Fourteen cannons were lined up under the bridge in two rows and another four on top of the deck. There were signs of battle on it, with two holes in the bow of the ship and three in the stern, all on the starboard side from which we approached. The main mast was grazed as well, but it held tight. Overall, it looked like a sturdy ship, but there was one thing that worried us... the flag with a skull and two crossed bones fluttering in the air above the crow''s nest. That was the rumored Jolly Roger. As we got close, we noticed that we had been spotted and they were all a bunch of dirty pirates who kept undressing us with their eyes. How unfortunate... for them. ¡°Be on your guards.¡± Zoreya warned us. ¡°Indeed.¡± I said. When our raft got close enough to them, they shot a cannon ball at us. The strike was about twenty meters away from us, but it was a clear sign that they weren''t going to welcome us with a friendly attitude. Our Magic Armors were raised, but even if they shot all those cannons at us, they still wouldn''t have been able to even scratch us. If Illsy''s railgun couldn''t, why should their cannons be able to? We stopped with a light bump right next to the hull. ¡°Oi! Look at this, mates! We have ourselves here some nice lassies just sailing down on our seas on a raft!¡± one of them shouted as he looked down at us. ¡°Hahaha! We be the masters of these seas! We no want no wenches around, but... they be cute, let''s hoist them up here!¡± another said as he licked his lips. ¡°Can I blow up the ship, nya?¡± Tamara asked as her tail swayed left and right. ¡°No! We want it intact... or still floating.¡± we all told the nekatar. Going by who lost their temper first, the list would be as follows: Nanya, Tamara, Ayuseya, me, Zoreya, and lastly Illsy. Unless it concerned us or something he cared about, it was hard to annoy our man now that The Darkness was gone. ¡°Ah, we''re going to miss you, dear friend.¡± Illsy spoke to the raft and gently rubbed one of the logs. ¡°Let''s get up there before I smash this floating pile of sticks into a billion pieces...¡± Nanya grumbled as she got out of the water. ¡°I suppose so. Illsy, will you carry me?¡± I asked him. ¡°Hm? Sure!¡± he replied with a smile. ¡°I''ll go first, nya!¡± Tamara said and using her claws, she climbed up on the hull. ¡°Huh? One of ''em is coming up here... A busty one with cat ears!¡± said the sailor from before. In regard to how these poor excuses for men looked like, well... ripped unwashed clothes, sunburns, very tanned skin, bandannas or hats on their heads, signs of scurvy, missing teeth and toes, and a smell that made my nose itch and stomach turn. ¡°I''ll go up next.¡± Ayuseya said as she used no chant to cast a wind spell and propel herself upwards just as she did earlier on the raft. Zoreya stepped up next and used a power jump to get on the deck. Nanya jumped after her. The last ones were me and Illsy. Our husband carried me in his arms and used a wind spell to slowly ascend. Once on the top deck, we were greeted by the ''welcoming committee''. Over twenty pirates had their swords unsheathed and grinning up to their ears. We were pretty, well dressed, and clean. Of course they would drool and fantasize about us like a bunch of animals in heat. They were all humans too. In regard to skin color and other specific traits, well... they were all mixed, half of something and half of an another. Either this or they were so tanned and dirty, I could tell which was which. It was much easier with draconians and el''doraws... Humans were weird. ¡°Fancy me a barrel of grog, but ain''t they a beauty?¡± said a black man with squinting eyes. ¡°Bah! Ye blind as a bilge stuck bat, ye not seeing the blondie over there? She the one that fancy me eyes.¡± said another, who I think had orange skin... or he was very dirty. ¡°Bilge stuck bat? Want me to skin ye alive then, ye overgrown Merion huger!¡± the other retorted. The two were glaring daggers at each other, while we were in shock... because of their stench. ¡°Nya... These guys are morons, right? Right?¡± the nekatar giggled and looked back at Illsy. ¡°Watch ye tongue, missy! Ye don''t want me to be cutting off those pretty years of yours now, would ye?¡± a large, bulky man wearing baggy linen pants and a ripped brown leather jacket pointed his curved sword at her. ¡°Nya?¡± Tamara simply tilted her head as if confused. After fighting all those monstrosities back on the island, fighting against a bunch of pirates was easy. ¡°Avast ye scurvy dogs! What ye be gathering there for?¡± a loud voice was heard from behind them. ¡°Aye aye, cap''n!¡± they said and stood straight, making way for him to reach us. The man in question was a human of around 40 years old with a long gray beard around his neck. It was so ''well maintained'' that a Merion would see it as heaven. He wore long black clothes and leather boots with metal soles, good for keeping his balance on a swaying deck. The vest and pants were well tailored, but ripped in many places and patched up with pieces of cloth. The tie around his neck was the only thing that looked well made, but so out of place on a pirate ship. ¡°Well, shiver me timbers! That''s the finest pirate booty I ever laid me eyes on!¡± the captain wiped his mouth with his sleeve and approached us. All gazes ignored Illsy. ¡°Tell me, ye fine ladies, what brought ye out here in the middle of the ocean? Sailing all the way out here ain''t a thing for such treasures. Or by chance a land lubber claimed to be a sailor and proved it so well that he shipwrecked?¡± he laughed and the other pirates laughed as well. ¡°No, actually...¡± Illsy wanted to reply. ¡°I ain''t talking to ye, lad! If I ask, ye open ye mouth, if not, ye welcome to walk the plank and give my regards to the fishes bellow!¡± he retorted. ¡°Fishy?! Where? Where?¡± Tamara reacted to the key word and looked around with her ears perked. ¡°If ye let me rest me ship in your port, I''ll give ye all the fish ye want!¡± the captain laughed. Tamara tilted her head. ¡°Your ship is too small and sails too poorly to please this port, nya!¡± she replied with a smile. I blinked surprised. Did she actually caught that reference?! The others were surprised as well, but the captain looked furious. ¡°Ouch.¡± said Illsy as he looked away. ¡°Cap''n, what should we do with them?¡± one of the pirates who greeted us asked. He was skinny and missing most of his teeth. ¡°Tie them up and hoist them to the cages in the bilge. Bring the lass to me quarters. I''ll show her what a real pirate''s ship can do!¡± he smirked. ¡°Aye aye, cap''n!¡± the pirates replied with a grin. Tamara once again tilted her head to the left as though she was clueless. ¡°Sigh... idiots.¡± Nanya shook her head. ¡°Watch ye tongue, ye shikak!¡± one of the men said as he approached Nanya. The moment she heard the word, her tail stopped swaying. I guess, they weren''t intimidated with her demonic looks. ¡°What did you say?¡± Nanya asked... slowly. It was subtle, but we could feel Magic Energy gathering around her. ¡°Put me down.¡± I told Illsy, who was still holding me in his arms, although one hand was firmly gripping my bottom. I gave him a kiss on the cheek and stepped away from Nanya. So did my friends. ¡°Ye didn''t hear me? I called ye a shikak because that''s what...¡±This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. BOOM! The pirate didn''t know what hit him. He flew off the ship towards the starboard and all the way into the open ocean. ¡°First time I''m seeing someone play stone skipping... with a pirate.¡± Illsy commented as if he just saw something outrageous. ¡°Aaah!¡± the pirates all screamed and backed away from her. ¡°M-m-monster!¡± one of them pointed at Nanya. ¡°Ye have some lil'' strength there lass. Ye there, bring Lil'' John over here. He will fancy playin'' with ye all.¡± the captain ordered one of his crew and then looked at Nanya. ¡°Hm? Is that so?¡± Nanya made a fist and showed him a forced smile. ¡°Oh, she''s pissed.¡± Illsyore pointed out. A moment later, while the captain and Nanya were shooting lightning daggers at each other, the so called Lil'' John came, and he... was quite tiny. ¡°BWAHAHA!¡± Illsy laughed. The man in question was a one meter tall man with an angry look on his face, a bald head, a long mustache, thick arms and legs, and smelling worse than the toilets I had to clean back at Fellyore Magic Academy. ¡°Why ye be laughing, ye bilge Merion?¡± he asked with a high pitched voice. I tried not to laugh. He looked at me and then jumped forward, trying to punch me, but in a moment, Illsy''s laugh stopped, and he was in front. He grabbed the man by his wrist, broke his arm at the elbow and then stuffed it in his mouth. Lil'' John didn''t even have time to know what happened to him. As for his Magic Armor, it was shattered by Illsy'' hand grip alone. ¡°You were about to do something very stupid there, so I made you eat your fist.¡± he told him and then he pushed on his shoulders. The man fell on his knees, breaking his legs as well. The fist in his mouth partially muffled his screams. ¡°I-Impossible... Lil'' John no pushover, he be a Godlike...¡± the captain said in surprise. With us, Illsy was an angel, but if anyone or anything tried to harm us, he would not hesitate to behave like The Darkness, only in a fully controlled state, which made him far more dangerous. At the very least, this Lil'' John fellow should thank him for not killing him like Nanya did to that pirate a moment ago. Even so, his punch would not have even scratched my Magic Armor, but I could say that I wasn''t willing to spare his life either. Unlike Illsy, I would have killed him... with one strike. ¡°Godlike? Someone so weak?¡± Nanya asked raising an eyebrow. She finally made a move and walked towards the captain, who froze when he looked into her black piercing eyes. ¡°You are the captain, right?¡± she asked. The man nodded. ¡°What were your orders again? Send us to the bilge and bring Tamara to your room? Hm?¡± she showed him a chilling smile. This man''s life has come to an end, it seems. I thought as I looked at the scene. ¡°A-Aye...¡± he trembled. Now, he even urinated in his pants. The image of the tough-looking captain just went poof in the air. ¡°Hm. Is that so?¡± Nanya nodded. ¡°Please spare me.¡± he begged. ¡°I''m afraid not.¡± she showed him another smile. ¡°Mommy.¡± the pirate cried and then Nanya struck. Her fist hit right under the chin and sent him flying into the sky. No doubt he died on the spot, if not he would die from the fall wherever he landed. The pirates probably couldn''t even see him anymore, that high up he was tossed. Next she looked at he rest of the bunch. ¡°Anyone else?¡± she asked and cracked her knuckles. They all shook their heads several times as fast as they could. ¡°Good! Now listen up, you bunch of morons! IF you don''t want to end up like the captain and take a flight through the sky, you will do as I say, got it?!¡± she glared at them. ¡°Aye aye, cap''n!¡± they all saluted. ¡°Good!¡± she grinned. ¡°What are you going to do now?¡± Illsy asked as he walked up to Nanya. ¡°First, we need to get this boat fixed and these bastards cleaned up.¡± she replied. ¡°Oh?¡± Illsy looked over at the bunch, they were trembling in their boots. ¡°You two over there, tie some ropes to the rail. Make sure they reach all the way down to the water.¡± ¡°Aye aye!¡± they replied and ran to complete the order. ¡°The rest of you...¡± she smirked ¡°Jump in the ocean and don''t come up here until you are sparkly clean! Got it?!¡± she glared at them. ¡°Huh? In the ocean? There?¡± one of them posed a rather stupid question. ¡°If you don''t, I''m going to toss you.¡± she cracked her knuckles. They all gulped. ¡°What was the saying? Ah, yes! Walk the plank, you scurvy dogs!¡± she shouted at them. ¡°Aye aye!¡± they all replied, although some with tears in their eyes. One after another, they all tossed themselves into the ocean. They would swim until they cleaned themselves up or at least most of their dirt came off. When the last one of them was jumped off, I looked back at the demoness, and to my surprise, I saw Illsy moving his hands underneath her chest armor. ¡°Illsy?¡± Nanya asked with an angry expression on her face. ¡°Yes, my love?¡± he replied. ¡°What are you doing?¡± she asked. ¡°Giving you a massage?¡± he replied with a smirk. ¡°Ahn~¡± she let out a cute moan. Good thing no pirate was near to hear that or she would have killed him. ¡°A massage, you say? Fondling my breasts is a massage, you say?¡± she asked with a pinch of anger in the tone of her voice. ¡°My kind of massage?¡± he replied with a big smile. ¡°I see... I see...¡± she nodded. We stepped back from the two of them and probably thought the same thing. He''s going to get punched. By the time Illsy noticed her clenched fist, it was already too late. ¡°How about you go massage that captain then?! Go and fly to him!¡± she shouted and punched him right in the chin. ¡°Hihi! Mate turned into a star!¡± Tamara laughed. ¡°Well, he''ll live. Illsy has one of the strongest Magic Armors out of all of us.¡± I shrugged. ¡°True... Should we go and see what they have to eat on this boat?¡± Zoreya asked and walked up to the door leading to the lower decks. We all acted as though this sort of events had become normal by now. Before we entered the ship, we heard his voice from up in the sky. ¡°Colly Tos!¡± and... they were gone. ¡°I''m going to kill him.¡± Nanya growled. Thus, another day ended... with a certain demoness running on the surface of the ocean, while chasing after her no-good husband who looted his own ''pirate booty''. Needless to say that the only reason he cast that moronic spell was because he wanted her in his bed tonight. Although strong, Illsy was at times... a bit too playful with us? As for the rest of us, we replaced our lost lingerie with a spare one from our crystals and continued to inspect the ship as though nothing out of the ordinary happened. Maybe life at sea was starting to affect Illsy''s sanity? Nah! He was probably just too bored like the rest of. Even though she didn''t show it, I was certain Nanya was having fun in her own way through her exaggerated reactions, we all did. Chapter 90: Six years. Five wives. OP stats. [Illsyore''s point of view] The ship was floating steadily on the calm waters. And I had to say, but the pirates did a good job repairing it, especially when they were threatened by my wives. A glare from Nanya or Shanteya would have been enough to make them start moving in fear for their own live. As for me, I got the amazing First Class Deluxe Option of sitting on my raft while it was being pulled by the huge vessel. Well, I didn''t really mind my accommodations. It wasn''t that uncomfortable, and I was spared of being put to work like all the others poor chaps were. I had plenty of food, and time to waste. Stretching my body, I looked up at the sky and gazed at the passing by clouds. We were on a steady course to the Pirate Island, the home base of all the regional pirates. Why there and not some safe harbor? It was the closest landmass to us, and I had my own plans for it too. A little birdie called Dungeon Memory told me I could find an interesting map in there. I was curious about it... really really curious. While I let time pass like this, I thought back at those six years we spent fighting for our lives on the Boss Island. We had our share of dangerous moments, funny ones too, but also many that bonded us together as a family. So many things happened during those six years... So many things I wanted to retort to and others which I welcomed with open arms. In these years, it could be said that I fell in love with my wives all over again. True, they were so different one from another, that one could only wonder just how in the world I was able to get my heart ticking so fast whenever I held each of them in my embrace? To be honest, it eluded me as well, but I welcomed this love I shared with all of them. First off, there was Nanya. As beautiful as the demoness could be with her long flowing black hair, sharp eyes and a slim body ready to rock my world, she was the first woman I ever set my gaze upon after I was reincarnated. Her strength in combat was one of the highest in my group of wives, but she was far surpassed in speed by Tamara, magic power by Ayuseya, and stealth by Shanteya. She was a striker, a melee combat warrior designed to break her enemies with her fists. When it came to sturdiness... she was the third after Zoreya and Ayuseya. This, I found to be rather surprising to say the least, but it was the truth. Another thing Nanya specialized in was disguises and [Boost] spells. Even her Supreme and Over Supreme skills were based on it. Speaking of which, the Over Supreme class was something I decided on making since their power had far surpassed what the common sense for a Supreme was. Even without [Bond of Trust II], they were still a bit overkill... At least for the beings living on the three major continents: Sorone, Allasn, and Thorya. If I were to count the others... well... Maybe they were around average? My boost was what raised them to the top. Nanya was the one who had the shortest fuse and expressed her jealousy more openly than the others. Shanteya''s way of expressing this emotion sent the chills down my back, and Zoreya always gave me the impression that the world would come to an end if I messed something up. Tamara and Ayuseya were the only ones who really didn''t give a copper coin about what I did with other women as long as I submitted to whatever desires they had afterwards. As for how I was able to find out about this... The stupid primordial dungeon had a room that cast illusion magic. I accidentally triggered the traps within... and the room was immediately filled with various naked women meant to entice me. That day, I died... I was revived, died again and so on until the room was smashed to smithereens. It was something along the lines of: my eyes went to the chest or bottom of one of those illusions, and I received a punch from Nanya. My stare moved to another as result of the shock, and I was slapped by Shanteya. I ended up at the feet of one of the illusions that crouched in front of me... and Zoreya slammed her shield at full force on top of my head. I had no idea if what I heard cracking was my skull or the floor. Meanwhile, Tamara and Ayuseya laughed their tails off when they saw what happened. But... I made a note to self: Never dare to peek at other women... unless you are ABSOLUTELY 100% sure NONE of your wives will EVER find out about it. Nanya''s hobbies didn''t include the arts, but she loved to play pranks. It was part of her demonic nature. From what she told me, Demon Queens in general were quite playful when they were around their husbands. When I asked if there were more like her, she replied that she had other sisters and the name ''Demon Queen'' was given to her species, not her rank. Technically, her political rank was that of a Demonarkiar Princess. Well, in all of these years spent on the island, Nanya managed to master her sword given to her by her father, and most of her feelings towards him and her past had calmed down. She didn''t care about them as long she stayed by my side, but because of her weird family, she also told me that she didn''t want any children... yet. Even now, after five years had passed, the memory of that night was crystal clear. It was raining outside, and I was in bed only with her. The others were in their own rooms, and Tamara was taking a rain bath. The lightning struck outside, and the flash of light revealed the erotic gaze of the demoness who stood on top of me. Her tail was waving in the air. Her piercing black eyes were looking straight at me. Her lips parted, showing me a seductive smile. Although she had several spikes protruding from her back, sharp teeth meant to rend flesh, and claws capable of shredding, her touch was gentle and filled with desire. She would never dare to seriously harm me, but she wanted to be held, caressed, and embraced... That was Nanya... a demoness who wanted to be loved. ¡°I hope you understand, Illsy... I really want to have a family with you. I really do...¡± she told me, but tears formed in her eyes. It didn''t match the erotic gaze she held within them. I showed her a smile and pulled her down. I wrapped my arms around her and squeezed to let her know that I wanted to be with her. ¡°When your heart is ready, I''ll be here for you... You are my wife, Nanya. I don''t care what anyone in your household has to say about this. All I care is you... my wife, my love.¡± I kissed her and then showed her a smile ¡°So relax... Whenever you are ready, just tell me... I don''t care when it will be. Now or in a thousand years, whenever you are ready my beloved demoness, my sweet Nanya.¡± I kissed her again. Nanya cried afterwards, and we spent the rest of the night cuddling and talking to each other. Of course, being a demoness and all, even after telling me what was on her heart, it didn''t stop her from feeling a bit envious of Shanteya and the others who were not bound by such things. Speaking things that bound us, Ayuseya''s change within all of these past six years was one of liberalization of her own soul, of seeking freedom and strength. There were times when she struggled with her own shadow, when she screamed at the moons, asking for her invisible shackles to be taken off. Her pain came not from the seclusion on this island, but from her inability at times to express what she really wanted. It pained her and kept her chained up like a helpless animal. I wanted to help her get out of this state, so I tried my best to be by her side, to help her get through this and listen to her. I learned of the sort of life she led before meeting me, the reason for her invisible shackles... Deprived of happiness, always having the politics of her kingdom pushed on top of her shoulder, always being reminded that she was there only to give birth to an heir. It wasn''t the sort of life anyone would want... That was why playing the violin became her only escape... That was why she learned to play it in the first place. Night after night, I listened to her melodies. I watched her cry. I held her in my arms and let our passion drown her sorrows. At least, these events didn''t happen that often. Only when she tried to push herself to the limits, to reach for that next level did she find herself overwhelmed by the pressure of her past. As such, in combat, I could see that she often held herself from stepping on the front lines. She wanted to, but something inside her prevented her... Many times I saw the look in her eyes of trying to reach for that small treat dangling in front of her nose, just like a beast trapped in an open cage. She knew she could get to it, but couldn''t muster the energy to do so. So when did the tears stopped? When did she finally released herself from the chain strangling her whenever she wanted to state her mind? It was two years ago when I fought together with her against a Giant Golden Dayuk with a level over 2500. It could crush someone like Dankyun with single swipe of its twin tails. The battle was difficult. I used one of my best attacks against this monster, and it still refused to go down. Well... with a regeneration that rivaled mine, I wasn''t surprised. ¡°GRAAR!!!¡± The monster roared and tried to take a bite at Ayuseya. She dodged by jumping back and at the same time released a tornado of crystallized fire daggers. This was one of her own makings. I only helped a little bit with experimentation. It would technically be classified as an Emperor Rank Skill because it combined some rather eccentric aspects of Magic and Physics. The crystallized fire was basically explosive fire in a case of ice similar to my [Infernal Glaciers], which took me three whole years to figure out how it worked... bloody dungeons forgetting the solution to solving the entropy equation at the contact surface between fire and ice magic. The attack exploded in the Dayuk''s snout, giving me a moment of distraction to use Shadow Magic and summon [Shadow Spears]. The Dayuk screamed in pain, but it didn''t give up and tried to attack me. I dodged out of the way and dropped a grenade where I last stood. It exploded right in its snout, pushing the beast back. OK! That was more like a time bomb than a grenade, but meh... details. Ayuseya used her Godlike skill [Dragon Breath] and launched an attack on the monster. The flames scorched the beast, but it didn''t kill it. I had to say, that the draconian showed a spark of genius with the way she thought of implementing the creation magic of Godlike skills. What she used could be classified as both Armor and Weapon, but it formed in her throat and got amplified around her cheeks. Pretty amazing if you asked me. Still, she was holding back... a lot. ¡°You can do it, Ayuseya! Let it all out!¡± I shouted trying to encourage her. Hearing me, the one who reacted wasn''t my wife but the Dayuk. ¡°A crud... This is gonna hurt.¡± I said. Although I tried to dodge, the monster launched a repetitive quick attack with its sharp claws. I avoided the first several strikes, but not all of them. The attack tossed me back and scratched at my Magic Armor. In a moment, I entered in a defensive stance. I still had some aces up my sleeve, so I wasn''t worried, but I wanted to see if Ayuseya could do something about our current predicament. ¡°A little help please?¡± I asked. Looking past the beast, I saw her holding her head. Changing my vision to Magic Energy scanner, I saw the energies growing erratic around her. Her own Magic Armor was fluctuating in a dangerous way. It felt like it would shatter... ¡°Oh no...¡± I said. ¡°GRRR!¡± the Dayuk noticed her and changed targets, going for who it perceived to be the weakest one of the two of us. ¡°NO! Ayuseya!¡± I shouted and rushed to stop the monster. I grabbed it''s tails and pulled back. It didn''t like that very much and sent a terrible shock through my body, cracking my Magic Armor, but I didn''t let go. I pulled as hard as I could until I was able to toss the Dayuk away. It stabilized itself in the air and fell on all four like cat, although, technically it was a canine. As soon as it landed, it made a [Dash] for me and struck me with its horn. I grabbed it, stopping it from hitting the draconian behind me, but as a result, my own Magic Armor was cracked again. ¡°This is bad...¡± I said. ¡°Illsy... Let it go...¡± Ayuseya told me. ¡°What?!¡± I was shocked to hear that, but when I turned my head around, I saw her eyes glowing red. The aura around her changed and the Magic Armor that was fluctuating a moment ago was back to normal, but it had a strange glow to it. Nanya''s was usually black, Shanteya''s was gray, Tamara''s was brown, Zoreya''s was white, but only Ayuseya''s was transparent... until now. The aura of her Magic Armor was a violent red. I gulped and let go of the Dayuk. The beast rushed at her, but she extended her hand and stopped the attack with her palm. It was surprising, but then I saw her face. She was grinning all the way up to her ears. I knew then that my wife, Ayuseya, was unleashed... She grabbed the horn and did a judo shoulder drop throw. ¡°Hm. Nice pantie shot.¡± I mumbled to myself. With a kick, she then sent the wolf flying, but this was only to push it away from her. The energies were clearly swirling around her. The violent red aura was growing and her power seemed to increase constantly. Looking up at the sky, she let out a powerful scream. ¡°HAAA!¡± The ripples of energy around her caused the ground to crack and everything to be pushed away. What was too close was cut by her aura... no, her Magic Armor. This was the first time I saw a Magic Armor capable of being used as a weapon as well. Technically, it was possible, but just how much power and control did one need to have over it? However, what happened next was unexpected. Her shout turned to a growl, then a full blown roar... Ayuseya changed... She released whatever was hidden inside of her and let it out completely. She unshackled herself and at the same time found a power even I forgot she had. After all, she wasn''t a pure-blood draconian. She was a hybrid between a Draconian and a True Dragon. What I was looking at was her dragon half. Just like I saw in my games or in various fantasy works of art... a full-sized DRAGON. Red scales covered the majority of her body, while golden scales formed a stripped pattern that emphasized strength. She had a tail, a pair of large wings, and spikes running down her spine. Her head was adorned with a pair of three horns on each side, all similar to the curved ones she had in her humanoid form. A row of razor sharp teeth decorated her mouth, proving that she wasn''t meant to play nice with her food. In a moment, the Magic Energy and strength of the dragoness skyrocketed. She was now not a draconian but a dragon. I gulped. ¡°Grrr!¡± the golden Dayuk wasn''t done yet. It aimed for me, but Ayuseya immediately bit into its back. Her sharp teeth pushing into its flesh. Blood sprayed, but this only stirred her hunger for battle. The monster yelped and flailed in her jaws, but it was effortlessly raised above the ground. With a single chomp, the Giant Golden Dayuk was severed in half, but before the head reached the ground, her tail stabbed it through its brain, killing it. Looking up at the sky, she let out a fierce roar that shook the entire island. I... I''m finally free... she spoke directly to my mind, telepathically. ¡°Yes...¡± I said. I changed... Do you find me... disgusting now? she asked with a tremble in her voice. ¡°Disgusting? Heck no! You are a DRAGON! Do you know how AWESOME THAT IS?! Hell yeah! My wife is a dragon!¡± I cheered like a kid. She laughed. That night, I found out that a dragon''s laughter can be quite... scary. Afterwards, Ayuseya never cried again. The pain in her heart vanished, and whatever chains held her down were now shattered to smithereens. Her behavior changed from that of a reserved Princess, to an outgoing and sometimes spontaneous elegant woman. She found out that she enjoyed flirting with me. A new wild side appeared to her. Adventurous and confident in herself, Ayuseya never backed away from joining the fray and fighting with all of her might. The power of the dragon blood running through her veins gave her the advantage she needed to stand in front as a vanguard side by side with Zoreya. I could say that this was the moment when I fell in love with Ayuseya all over again. Her new side, her new self, the true her was alluring. Another one that changed in a similar way was Tamara. The pet cat turned into what those of my world would call a full-blown catgirl. It wasn''t enough that her body was that of a bombshell beauty now, with the curves to make any man drool, but she also had cat ears and a tail. Petting her just took a whole other meaning and when she first appeared before me... well... that was a day I will never forget. I was taking a bath in the small lake I created near our base. Surrounded by a tall fence and with direct access to the underground bunker, it was perfect and safe. There was no way any monster could get through and launch a sneak attack on me. Although, for some reason these past few days I barely saw any of my wives. They kept chasing after something in the forest... ¡°Nya~¡± I heard the familiar sound and quickly turned around. There was no one there. Blinking surprised, I rubbed my eyes and checked my ears. ¡°Am I hearing things? I thought I heard Tamara.¡± I thought. ¡°Nya~¡± I heard it again, but this time behind me. I turned around. There was no one there, but when I looked up, I saw a shadow in the trees. ¡°Who goes there?!¡± I shouted. ¡°Nya~¡± came the reply. ¡°Tamara?¡± I asked squinting my eyes, but then the shadow vanished. ¡°What the?¡± I jumped out of the lake and looked around the shore, but I couldn''t see anyone or anything there. What bothered me was that I didn''t remember the nekatar to be this fast. ¡°Nya~¡± Again I heard her call come from behind me, but she was nowhere in sight. It was like she was running in circles around me, but how was it possible for ME not to be able to detect her? ¡°This is weird...¡± I said. Well, there was one thing I could try. I stepped back into the lake aaand... I took out a fish from my Inner Mind. ¡°NYA!¡± The bait worked and I caught the sneaking cat... ¡°I just took that out not even one second ago, and you already... ate... it.¡± I said, but I was stumped by what I saw. Tamara... had changed.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Looking up at me, she gulped the remainder of the fish and then smiled. The water was reaching all the way up to her waist, and her long brown hair was flowing down on her back, which was a bit more furry than a human''s. Her forearms and legs were also covered with fur, but only on the outer side like a pair of armguards. Her long tail was swaying in the air left and right. Her face was changed from that of a feline with a cute snout, to the face of a beautiful woman with slightly longer canines and cat-like eyes. The front of her body was undoubtedly that of a human woman up to the last detail. I gulped. She was stunningly beautiful and petting her was the last thing I thought about right now... This was dangerous. ¡°Nya... Master''s smell... is...¡± she tilted her head to the left and looked into my eyes. ¡°That of mate.¡± she said. I gulped again. ¡°Erm... Tamara? How? Why? Are you... MMF?!?¡± my words were sealed as she pushed herself onto me and gave me a kiss. I lost my footing, and we both fell in the water. Shaking her head like a cat, she giggled and then told me. ¡°Tamara doesn''t want to be slave anymore. Tamara has new body and loves Master like everyone else does. Tamara wants to be master''s mate as well. Tamara will give... her everything to Master.¡± she shook her head ¡°No, to you, Illsy. Will you take me as your mate?¡± she asked and then gave me a lick on my cheek. Her arms moved around my neck and she pulled herself closer to me. What happened next was quite obvious... Tamara won. She was a cat-eared beautiful woman who loved me?! How could I resist? Anyway... Her playfulness was still the same as before, but she became more affectionate towards me, and there were many times when she said things far beyond what I considered to be her intellectual capacity. Well, she was a cat, in a way, so maybe she never did anything that was too troublesome for her. As for her strength, she excelled in speed and anything that required a high agility. I didn''t mind that much taking Tamara as my last wife. She was someone who stood by my side even after I went full psycho thanks to The Darkness. And most importantly, she loved me like everyone else, and I also learned to accept and care for her now that she was an adult. Yes, in her species'' eyes she was technically an adult already, but for me... it simply felt wrong. Now, I had no problems with it. Tamara and Zoreya were the only ones who didn''t want to share their bed time with me and another one of my wives. Both of them had the exact same reason: they selfishly wanted me only for themselves during those nights of passion. Speaking of which, Zoreya was a beauty of a woman as well, but who was ridiculously shy when out of her armor. The change was so extreme it made me laugh some times. Well, after our first night together, she began to socialize far better with my other wives and me as well. I found out she had a passion for reading just like Ayuseya did, and she was so bad at cooking even the monsters ran away from her creations. Fun story... One time Tamara challenged her to a cooking showdown. Needless to say that the nekatar won by a mile. As for what Zoreya cooked... it was visually censored by the universe. I don''t want to say that my own wife''s cooking was bad, but when we gave the result to a T-Rex... it stopped moving and died soon after with foam coming out of its mouth. In short, Zoreya''s cooking could kill a Legendary Boss Monster. That was a weapon ANY country would pay millions to have. Well, she did improve as time went by. The human woman never gave up, but disposing of her deadly results ended up becoming my job somehow. My stomach and tongue had to be replaced several times, and I nearly died once, but it was all for a good cause! Zoreya eventually learned to make non-explosive french fries! Then again, how can you turn fries into explosives? Was that even possible? Well, it could have had something to do with her accidentally pouring tons of her Magic Energy into her food because of how nervous she became while cooking... for others. When she cooked for herself, it wasn''t so excessively disastrous, but she kept trying, claiming it was training for the future. Unlike the rest of us, she also required to pray periodically to Melkuth. At first, I built a temple for her. It wasn''t very efficient. For the first few months, I felt like I had a phone with a bad battery which I had to always rush back home to recharge. After the first year spent on the island, Zoreya managed to learn how to acquire Divine Energy from Melkuth without needing a temple. Thus, she was able to recharge herself during the middle of the battle, increasing her performance by a lot and allowing her to use her more consuming abilities more often. Zoreya quite literally became a tank worthy of any raid group! She could withstand any attack launched at her, especially when she wore my specially designed armor. As far as family went, she told me that she wouldn''t mind carrying my child, but only after we built the academy. She was in no rush, but she felt like 100 years without experiencing what it meant to be a mother was too much for a human like her. Now, the beautiful silver-haired el''doraw was the second woman to enter in my life, and probably the one who managed to stir my heart and emotions the most. It was hard to explain, but with her, I felt like I was the most connected, whatever this implied. In these six years, she changed as well. While in the past, her behavior and attitude were those of a woman more reserved and who tended to keep things to herself, she was now someone who didn''t hesitate nor feared to move based on her principles and decisions. If she didn''t like something, she told me. If she wanted something, she asked for it. If she had something on her mind, she said it. To me, this was a big change! Instead of a maid or slave, I got a woman with a mind of her own. Her calm and mature demeanour was also one that captivated me just like Nanya''s playfulness and seriousness combo did, like Ayuseya''s subtle elegance and seductress side did, like Zoreya''s dedication and shyness did, and like Tamara''s eternal cuteness did. Her combat style was the same as ever. Shanteya relied a lot on her daggers, but ever since she learned to make her own weapons with her Godlike Ranked skill, she became far more deadlier. Unlike Nanya''s armor, Ayuseya''s breath, or Tamara''s claws, Shanteya''s creations were renewable and vanished after they hit. It was a perfect assassination tool. Her Supreme and Over Supreme skills were also rather scary. All I could say was that one shouldn''t mess with her if they valued their own life. Nanya and Tamara learned this the hard way... The demoness'' prank was not taken lightly, although I found the change of her hair to pink to be slightly refreshing, especially after I undressed her. Two weeks afterwards, Nanya''s skin was green, and she couldn''t taste anything except bitter stuff. The nekatar had it worse, she had all of her brown fur shaved off. For a week, Tamara the brown nekatar became Tamara the Egyptian hairless nekatar. In the end, I healed her because the late night yowling was getting on everyone''s nerves. First time I saw a shaved cat that looked so pitiful... I have to say though, I never expected Shanteya to ask me to impregnate her... I thought we would stick with the agreement that we would leave the baby making for AFTER I established the Academy, and we weren''t in mortal danger because of Legendary Monsters. Even though I thought like that, her words back then... made me wonder. ¡°Illsy, I feel like this is the right time... My body tells me this, and I never felt so much at peace with the idea of carrying your child as I did now. It''s not later or sooner... it''s now... Won''t you answer your beloved wife''s request?¡± ¡°Shanteya... I want our child to be born in a safe place...¡± I told her rather hesitantly. She kissed me and moved on top of me, showing me a gentle smile. ¡°In a family with five Over Supreme Ranked mothers and a Godlike Dungeon Lord as a father under the protection of the God of War... how can our child not be safe?¡± She had a point there... Our stacked up power was ridiculous, and I felt like she was right. There was something else I feared. Even back on Earth, a child''s safety wasn''t 100% guaranteed. So then, what was the question I was supposed to ask myself? Did I really want to become a father? Was I ready to take up this commitment and would it would indeed make me happy? Neither Nanya, Ayuseya, Zoreya, or Tamara felt like it was the right time for this. From the nekatar I got the weird answer of ¡°You are too young for me, nya~!¡± What in the name of all that was holy did she meant by that?! Anyway... that was the thing... Shanteya felt like it was the right time. She felt this from the bottom of her heart and soul. Her very being requested this... so I replied. Even for me, a better time would probably never come to be. There could always be something interfering, trying to postpone my decision. But what if when I felt ''ready'', she wouldn''t feel it anymore? Such a thing probably frightened me more. Thus, in that night, I made the decision to reply with ''Yes'' whenever either of my wives requested it. If they didn''t, I wouldn''t even bring it up. Indeed, many things changed during the past six years. Our stats skyrocketed too. With a sigh escaping my lips as I looked up at the sky, I remembered the text written in the explanation for my unique of ability: [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) ¨C 30% (Maximum) Indeed... I received 30% of their basic stats, while these five overpowered wives of mine got 100% of mine... It was a bit unfair, but thanks to it, our strength was beyond what we could pull out only through Magic Energy. ¡°Divine Energy... Also known as the Energy of the Gods. It helps Zoreya power-up and it can also interfere with most of my functions. It''s the one thing I am still unable to understand or even begin to. It''s seriously that ridiculous!¡± I thought out loud. With another sigh escaping my lip, I decided to look at our stats once more.
[Name]: Nanya Demonarkiar the 2nd Deus [Species]: Half Dungeon/Half Demon [Subspecies]: Godlike/Demon Queen [Level]: 3453 [Strength]: 29548+31450 [Agility]: 25340+29790 [Intelligence]: 18945+42580 [Magic Energy]: 94725+212900 [Magic Energy regeneration]: 2478+4590 points per second [Bond of Trust II] <100%> Change? Y/N
[Name]: Ayuseya Drekar Pleyades Deus [Species]: Hybrid of Draconian and True Dragon [Subspecies]: Gold [Level]: 3216 [Strength]: 22560+31450 [Agility]: 21489+29790 [Intelligence]: 31548+42580 [Magic Energy]: 157740+212900 [Magic Energy regeneration]: 3755+4590 points per second [Bond of Trust II] <100%> Change? Y/N
[Name]: Shanteya Dowesyl Deus [Species]: El''doraw [Subspecies]: Albino [Level]: 3329 [Strength]: 19755+31450 [Agility]: 29450+29790 [Intelligence]: 27430+42580 [Magic Energy]: 137150+212900 [Magic Energy regeneration]: 3122+4590 points per second [Bond of Trust II] <100%> Change? Y/N
[Name]: Zoreya Eleanor Alttoros Deus [Species]: Human [Subspecies]: Caucasian [Level]: 3789 [Strength]: 31450+31450 [Agility]: 20420+29790 [Intelligence]: 22178+42580 [Magic Energy]: 110890+212900 [Divine Energy]: 100/100 [Magic Energy regeneration]: 2740+4590 points per second [Bond of Trust II] <100%> Change? Y/N
[Name]: Tamara Deus [Species]: Awakened Nekatar [Subspecies]: Brown Pride [Level]: 3333 [Strength]: 28450+31450 [Agility]: 37580+29790 [Intelligence]: 18450+42580 [Magic Energy]: 92250+212900 [Magic Energy regeneration]: 3333+4590 points per second [Bond of Trust II] <100%> Change? Y/N
Zoreya''s [Divine Energy] from her window was probably because of her High Apostle job, but the fact that it was a 100/100 points meant that internally, I had no idea how to measure it, just roughly estimate it. For each of the other stats, I knew exactly how to translate them. A level 1 would basically only show the amount of Intelligence points equal to the presumed IQ based on their mathematical and physics knowledge as well as their general understanding of the world around them. Afterwards, the numbers added calculation speed and most importantly: total subconscious computational ability. This last bit was what gave the ridiculous number. Having a lot of Magic Energy didn''t mean squat if the individual had no idea how to process it and use it. The majority of the Intelligence points were there only as a representation of that ability. The Strength stat I hypothesized as being the total amount of weight an individual could lift with one arm. Agility was the ability to move one''s limbs. One point in it meant the individual could run with a roughly 0.97 km/h speed. But I noticed that in order to break the sound barrier, you had to have not 1273 Agility points but at least 4000. As for why this was so, I mostly presumed it had something to do with a subconscious barrier. When Ayuseya reached 1300 points in Agility, she could swing a sword fast enough to break the sound barrier, but she was unable to run at that speed. The other thing I didn''t get was Tamara''s level... Whenever I looked at it, no matter what, it had at least one 6 or two 3s in it, which was weird. Our overall stats were ridiculous, but in order to defeat most of the monsters on the Island, having at least 20000 was a minimum requirement. The T-Rex for example could only be defeated with ease by an opponent with at least 12000 points in all of their Stats. And speaking of which, my own status window showed the following values: [Name]: Illsyore Deus [Species]: Dungeon Lord [Subspecies]: Godlike [Level]: 3347 [Strength]: 31450+39528.9 [Agility]: 29790+40283.7 [Intelligence]: 42580+35565.3 [Magic Energy]: 212900+177826.5 [Magic Energy Regeneration]: 4590+4628.4 Magic Energy Points per Second [Bond of Trust II] <30%> Change? Y/N [Allegiance]: Holy God of Big Boobs!, Melkuth The God of War [Spouses]: Ayuseya Drekar Pleyades Deus, Nanya Demonarkiar the 2nd Deus, Shanteya Dowesyl Deus, Zoreya Eleanor Alttoros Deus, Tamara Deus [Children]: 1 [Dungeons Built]: 348 [Dungeons Spawned]: 1 [Slaves]: None [Pets]: None [Minions]: None Yup, that number in the [Dungeon Spawned] category was the Dungeon Core baby currently growing in Shanteya''s womb together with his or her Half Godlike Dungeon sibling. And I still had no idea how to make sure it wasn''t sent to God knows where upon their birth! That was probably my biggest concern in regard to me becoming a father... No matter what, my wives would ALWAYS give birth to twins. Chapter 91: Capns dwelling [Illsyore''s point of view] Several days later, we finally had the infamous Pirate Sea in our scope. It was the name of the region but also that of the island. The other name it carried was Pirate Island. Not very inspiring, but the authorities agreed with it, the pirates did as well, and no historian has come forth to offer an alternative name to this place. Compared to the Boss Island we were stuck on for the past six years, this place was a bit smaller and not as active when it came to monsters. According to the words of these pirates, the place was wiped clean of any beast or critter that posed a danger to the people living there. They even made a small town of sorts and were actually building and repairing their ships here. Technically speaking, Pirate Sea was an island country in all of its rights. They had a Pirate King, a Council of Pirates that answered only to him and if needed be, they could function perfectly without any help from the outside world. What I and my wives found to be most surprising was the fact that these sea wolves had an official contract with the Great Paramanium Empire, north of which this island was located of. The agreement was simple: the pirates were allowed to loot and plunder anyone they desired as long as they didn''t attack any of the Paramanium''s navy boats or noble vessels. They would also pay 30% of their profits to the empire as ''tax'' for using ''their'' island. In return, none of the employed Supremes of the Empire would attack them. In case other Supremes attacked them, the Empire would do everything it could to defend them. It sounded like a real dirty business I didn''t want to be a part off. At one point in our journey, these bastards actually proposed we take the helm of this ship and sail it under the pirate flag. With us on board, they declared they wouldn''t even need to fear Paramanium itself. While it was a fact that we were a force to be reckoned with, the idea wasn''t to start a pirate life, but an Academy. As such, we ignored their ''suggestions'' and when they kept insisting, Nanya had them swimming for a couple of hours. ¡°Cap''n, what be your plan?¡± one of the mates asked when he saw all of us gathered on top of the deck and looking in the direction of the island. The one asked was my sweet demoness. ¡°Do you bottom feeders want to live?¡± she asked them coldly. They all gulped at the same time and trembled in their spot. ¡°Aye aye!¡± they replied. ¡°Then listen up. We''ll set ashore and these four will come out as your prisoners. Tell the other pirates that your former captain and those idiots we killed so far managed in a last ditch effort to overwhelm and defeat them. You tied them up and then locked them in the galley. Got it?¡± she glared at the pirates. By ''them'', she was referring to me, Tamara, Ayuseya, and Zoreya. ¡°Aye, cap''n... But... why?¡± the one with a missing tooth and fake eye patch asked. ¡°Does it matter?¡± I asked. ¡°Huh?¡± he blinked surprised. ¡°Your lives are basically in our hands, you realize this, right?¡± I pointed out. ¡°Aye...¡± he nodded. ¡°We''re basically offering you a chance to get away with your lives.¡± I smiled. ¡°Huh? But how?¡± he asked furrowing his brow. ¡°After you tell them how they got tied up and tossed in the galley, you will tell those who will come to get them that they were muttering something about a Dungeon Continent and the outside world, got it?¡± Nanya said. ¡°Huh?¡± the man didn''t get it. ¡°Sigh... It''s simple. Just do as we say. Once we''re taken away do a quick resupply and flee from the island. Just sail around it for a few days. If nothing happens, you can return and resume your petty lives. BUT if you stay on the island, we will treat you as enemies and kill you on sight. Got it?¡± I explained. ¡°I think... Can ya say it one mo'' time?¡± he asked scratching the back of his head. The dandruff was shaking off like snowflakes on a cold winter day. ¡°By the gods, I''m going to kill them...¡± grumbled the impatient demoness. Well, she was the one who was supposed to have me tonight, but since we were going to arrive on Pirate Island today, she had to abstain, thus, her not-so-happy mood. ¡°By the way, Illsy, are you sure that item is located on this island?¡± Shanteya asked as she leaned onto my arm and rested her head on my shoulder. ¡°Yes... According to what we saw in the Primordial Dungeon, it should be there...¡± I said as I gently brushed her hair with my other hand. The item we were talking about was an ancient map of the world that also showed the location of the Dungeon Continent and many others as well. When we first discovered the Primordial''s Dungeon, I was excited and at the same time worried about the various traps and monsters we would find inside, but it turned out to be rather boring. The maze wasn''t all that complicated to figure out. The monsters were weak when compared to those on the surface, and they weren''t the type spawned from magic circles either. They were all born and bred inside the maze, which led to many of the traps in there end up broken or useless. Those that still worked were enchanted, rechargeable, and... harmless against our Magic Armors. This was rather surprising considering the fact that it had over 200 floors. Once we reached the last one, we discovered the Core Room, which was half buried and destroyed. Whoever came here last didn''t want any Dungeon to be reborn here, so they removed it. Fortunately, they didn''t bother to destroy the ancient documents lying around in the adjacent room. Even though age destroyed most of the writing, the stone tablets and wall carvings remained. There wasn''t a lot of useful information, a bunch of cooking recipes, plans for various mazes, a list of existing sapient species at that time, and a map that pointed at the location of ANOTHER map. Regarding the list of sapient species, the following ones were named in Dungeon Language: Slime, Demon, Avian, Dwarf, Nekatar, Dragon, Draconian, Elf, El''doraw, Ornak, Reiss, Forglore, Human. The first three had question marks after their names, which I guessed meant that the information wasn''t 100% accurate. However, Dragons had an arrow pointing at Draconians, which meant the latter were their descendants. The Dragons were also the only ones underlined and struck through with a thick line, meaning that they were either extinct or... the Dungeon was unaware of their current situation. As for the map, it pointed at the Pirate Island. There was a big X on it and had the words ''world map'' written next to it. Overall, this was the most important piece of information I had discovered so far, which was incredible. After all, it meant that this planet had more than the five continents I knew off so far: Dungeon Continent, Demon Continent, Allasn, Thorya, and Sorone. I simply couldn''t wait to get my hands on it! Basically, this was the ONLY reason we were headed for a pirate infested island in the middle of nowhere. As for why the charade with pretending to be caught. We talked it over, and it sounded like a fun idea. These guys were no match for any of us, and if we attacked from the get go, there was the chance that they would try to destroy the map or hide it as revenge. We didn''t want that. As an extra precaution, we were going to have the pirates on our ship tell the pirates on the island that we were coming from somewhere outside of the known three continents. This would make whoever had the map curious about us and try to have us spill the beans. Once we located that guy, we were going to reveal ourselves. Of course, only Zoreya, Tamara, and Ayuseya were going to be with me. Nanya and Shanteya were going to use the shadows and see if they can find out anything else that was of interest. Basically, they were going to be my two cute little spies. Then again, if Shanteya was with me, and I saw them mistreat her, I was going to snap. If they mistreated Nanya, she was going to snap. And by ''mistreat'' I meant glare or attempt to hit them. When it came to the other three, they didn''t have this problem as long as the pirates didn''t try to do anything foolish like take off Zoreya''s armor, touch them in a perverted way, or pet Tamara''s fluffy ears and tail. That being said... the pirates on our boat were certainly idiots! We had to explain it another five times before they understood what they had to do. Thus, our ship slowly approached the Pirate Island, flying the Jolly Roger up on the mast and greeting the scout ships that came close to check up on our identity. The pirates did their jobs and fooled the guards, then we approached the docks and lowered the anchor next to one of the free piers. ¡°You all remember what to do?¡± Nanya asked one more time as she showed them her sharp claws.Stolen story; please report. ¡°Aye, cap''n!¡± they all replied. ¡°Good! Now don''t forget, I''ll be watching you!¡± she told them as she slipped into the shadows behind her and vanished. They all gulped in fear of the demoness. None of them was stupid enough to betray us now that they understood just how insanely powerful we were. After all, we did fish several sea monsters like it was nothing and once in a while Nanya went out to run on top of the water. I think we shattered their common sense to smithereens more than once. With the plank lowered, one of them pulled the chain connected to my handcuffs, and I followed him calmly. Behind me was Tamara, then came Zoreya, and lastly Ayuseya. We all had our hands and feet chained up and walking like a bunch of slaves that were sent to the market. It was all a play, of course, because these pieces of metal were nothing more than play clay for us. We were actually worried we might accidentally snap them, so the main reason for our slow walk was to avoid this. As soon as we stepped ashore, a couple of whistles came our way, or to be more specific, they were aimed at my wives. They were all outstanding beauties, so it was natural for them to receive this sort of reaction. Luckily for them, none of them dared to make a move. The one who held our chains, a thirty something years old pirate with a few teeth in his mouth and an old tricorn hat on top of his head, spoke with some of the pirates here until they came to an agreement of sorts. It appeared as though since the captain was dead, an official of the Pirate Island had to come over to assess the situation with his own eyes. He was also in charge of appointing a new captain, so basically, our pirates couldn''t do much except wait. Not long afterwards, a well dressed man in his forties approached us while riding on his brown horse. ¡°What be their crime?¡± he asked using the same accent as all these other pirates did. There was no greeting or anything, but everyone here looked like they would at a superior. ¡°They attacked our boat, and our dearly departed cap''n and Lil'' John managed to beat them. As ye see... we chained them up good.¡± the pirate who held our chains replied immediately. ¡°Departed? He be dead?¡± the man on the horse asked. ¡°Aye!¡± ¡°Good! Jolly good!¡± he laughed. ¡°Pardon?¡± the pirate blinked surprised. ¡°Ye there! Ye be the cap''n now! Got it?¡± he glared at him. ¡°Aye aye, sir!¡± he replied quickly, with a big broad smile on his face. ¡°Good! As for these landlubers... Ye got anything to say for yourselves?¡± he asked looking at me. ¡°You stink.¡± I smirked. The man laughed. ¡°Where they be coming from? Did ye find out?¡± he ignored me and asked the newly appointed captain. ¡°That be the strange part, sir...¡± he rubbed the back of his head. ¡°Strange? How?¡± the man was intrigued and raised an eyebrow. ¡°They say they not be of Allasn, Thorya, or Sorone, but...¡± he stopped and gulped ¡°Somewhere outside... The man talked about a Dungeon Continent too... But, sir, maybe they be drinking the wrong ale and turned their brains into mush?¡± he asked as he tapped his head. ¡°Hm. Outside, ye say?¡± he squinted his eyes at me, ignoring the rest of his words. For a moment, there was silence, then he pulled the reins of his horse and turned around. ¡°Have them be brought to his Majesty, the King of Pirates! Iffy De Mon!¡± he declared. ¡°Aye aye, sir!¡± the ''new'' captain replied and saluted. After he left, he turned around and asked ¡°Now what?¡± I sighed. We didn''t teach him this... ¡°Well, you are the new captain now. Nanya won''t mind if you take over the helm. Besides, your ship will need a new one. Take us to that Pirate King or whatever and then do as planned. Got it?¡± I replied in a whisper. He thought about it for a few seconds and then nodded. The processing capabilities of these humans was beyond any belief... in a bad way. I had to be honest though, this was the first time in this or my other life when I stepped into a port of any kind. Although I''ve been to Constan?a on vacation a few times, I''ve never went close to the docks. All ships I saw were far away from the shore or behind the monitor. As such, this was also my very first time ever sailing on the ocean... and it was with pirates at that! It was awesome! It was a dream come true! Well, it was more of a child''s fantasy than an actual dream, but I had fun. Now it was time for serious business. We were pulled by the chains and made to walk down the pier until we reached shore. There, we were climbed into a nearby carriage and headed deeper into the island. While this happened, I took a good look around this settlement and expanded my Dungeon Territory to see if there were any other Dungeons hiding among these pirates. To my relief, there were none, so I expanded it further until it covered the whole island. Normally, I wouldn''t have done this, but after a bit of interrogation, Nanya found out that Dungeon Detection Stones were almost non-existent here because the pirates had no use of them. They were men of the sea not landlubbing dungeon crawlers, as they called Adventurers. In terms of technological advancement and architectural design, these pirates were at the same level of a 17thcentury England. The Elizabethan architecture was nearly identical from MANY points of view. Large, square, and tall houses were cramped side by side on both sides of the roads. Small backyards took the place of exquisite gardens. The scent of unwashed men and women that made our noses beg for mercy struck us the moment we reached the street. If I didn''t know any better, I would have thought we docked in Port of London. To my surprise, the one big difference between 17th century England and this place was the outfits of the people. All of them, women and children included, wore similar pirate outfits made out of linen or cotton. Depending on their jobs, they wore a leather jacket or leather pants as well. The rich wore expensive looking mantles and rode on horses, while all of them covered their heads with either a pirate scarf, bicorn, tricorn, scallywag, or buccaneer hat. What I found more surprising was the lack of draconians, elves, and el''doraws. This place was brimming with mixed humans, but not so much with other species. When I whispered this question to the pirate who was holding our chains, he answered me this: ¡°Cap''n Iffy De Mon be a follower of human supremacy ideology.¡± he nodded and smiled. Now, what surprised me the most was the fact that this guy managed to perfectly pronounce words like ''supremacy'' and ''ideology''. The fact that their leader was xenophobic bastard was garnered a so-so reaction from me. From the port, we traveled for about two more hours through the forest until we reached a cave complex at the base of the mountain. Up till there, we passed through four different checkpoints. Once inside the cave, we got off the carriage and walked escorted by four human guards. The only reason things went so smoothly was because this captain Iffy had a peculiar interest in the outside world and ordered all those with information about it to be brought before him. I honestly couldn''t wait to see what sort of information he had. Until then, I was going to play the fool. About an hour or so after we entered the cave, we finally reached the underground dwelling of this infamous individual who ruled the entirety of Pirate Island. ¡°That''s a hut...¡± I said blinking surprised. ¡°Yup, a hut.¡± said Ayuseya. ¡°Definitely a hut.¡± Zoreya nodded. ¡°I''m hungry...¡± complained Tamara as she flattened her ears and rubbed her tummy. ¡°That just be cap''n preference. For special guest, we have a palace too.¡± said one of the guards. ¡°Now stay here and be quiet, you landlubbers!¡± the other guard warned us and then walked over to the hut that was built inside this big underground cavern. As we stood there, the pirate who brought us here was escorted back by another guard. ¡°Now all we have to do... is wait.¡± I said. Ayuseya let out a sigh. Chapter 92: The map [Illsyore''s point of view] About half an hour later, the hut''s door was opened and the rumored Pirate King stepped out. I was expecting a Black Beard type of fellow, with one wooden leg, an eye patch, a parrot on his shoulder, and a stuffy unwashed black beard. What I got instead was a 1.90 meters tall man with a big fat belly and without the distinctive eye patch of a feared pirate captain. He didn''t have a beard, but he sported a twirled brown mustache instead, his hair was tied back in a pony tail, and the clothes he wore were fit more for a Renaissance period European noble rather than a scurvy pirate. ¡°Greetings, ye landlubbers!¡± he called out as he walked up to us. The accent was definitely that of a pirate, but it seemed to be rather... forced. ¡°Are you the Pirate King?¡± I asked. ¡°Of course! I be the infamous cap''n Iffy De Mon! The most wanted man who ever sailed on the Endless Ocean!¡± he laughed with his hands on his hips. ¡°Endless Ocean?¡± I raised an eyebrow. ¡°That''s what we be calling the dreaded waters around the three known continents.¡± he nodded. ¡°I see... What of the one between the continents?¡± I asked. ¡°Don''tcha know even that?¡± he furrowed his brow. ¡°Sorry, I''m not from around here.¡± I smirked. ¡°Hm. Well, the waters between all Three Continents are called Bachus Ocean.¡± he nodded. That was a familiar name, but not because it was an ocean. My memories from Earth told me of the once revered roman god of wine and parties Bacchus, but also of the famous German composer Johann Sebastian Bach. Does this mean that if I''ll sail on that ocean I''ll get drunk from wine while hearing relaxing classical music instead of the sounds of the waves? I thought with a raised eyebrow. When we were still back at Fellyore Academy, the teachers there used the names Allasn Ocean, Thorya Ocean, and Sorone Ocean to describe the three masses of water surrounding the respective continents. From this, I judged that either he was testing us or this was how the pirates called it. The term ''seven seas'' didn''t exist in this world because there weren''t that many oceans. Besides, there were no actual seas to begin with. ¡°I''ll keep that in mind.¡± I replied. ¡°You should!¡± he smirked and then looked over at Ayuseya ¡°This one be a draconian woman, ain''t that right?¡± he asked. ¡°Yes.¡± she replied in a calm tone of voice. ¡°I see... you and your kind, like all the other non-humans are worthless existences to this world.... Worthless, I say!¡± he declared raising a finger up. ¡°But you look good... I may be able to get a few coins off of you if I sell ya to the right buyer.¡± he smirked as he lifted her chin up. As I looked at him touching my wife like that, I felt the need to rip his head off, but I abstained... for now. ¡°This one is a... what you be exactly?¡± he furrowed his brow as he looked at Tamara, who was yawning. ¡°Nya~ Nekatar...¡± she replied calmly. ¡°Nekatar? With so little fur? Hm... you be selling with a better price than the scaly one over there.¡± he nodded to himself. Tamara ignored him and scratched the back of her left ear. ¡°And you... You be human, right?¡± he asked as he looked at Zoreya. She furrowed he brow, but didn''t reply. ¡°A feisty one, me like it! I be keeping you for me self!¡± he laughed and then turned to look at me. ¡°So, how does it feel to lose like this in front of me, eh lad?¡± he asked with a grin. Lose to you? When and how? I wondered, but instead of saying this, I snorted and replied ¡°I''ve seen worse on the Dungeon Continent.¡± It was a lie. I had absolutely no idea how to get to the Dungeon Continent. Well, not completely, I could use the memories of some of the Dungeons inside me, but to be honest, I was reluctant. They were too chaotic and broken... I only knew for certain that it was somewhere West of here. ¡°Hm, so you say...¡± the Pirate King squinted his eyes at me and rubbed his chin. It was clear he was looking at me with suspicious eyes, but this fellow didn''t seem like one capable of distinguishing those with strength from those without. If he was, then just by standing in front of the unwavering Zoreya and Ayuseya, he would have acted more cautiously. As for Tamara, she was so good at playing the fool that even I had sometimes trouble figuring her out. ¡°Why ye all be here?¡± he suddenly asked as he looked into my eyes. ¡°Sightseeing.¡± I smirked. Something triggered in him because he slapped me. Well... to say I was hurt from his strike would have been ridiculous. If I didn''t move my head, his hand would have broke. ¡°Ouch...¡± I grumbled. ¡°Hm, ye sure are a tough bastard.¡± he said as he rubbed his hand. That must have hurt him at least a little bit. ¡°I am a Master Ranked Adventurer, I should be!¡± I retorted. When he heard me, he blinked surprised and then burst out into a loud laughter. ¡°What?¡± I glared at him. ¡°I heard that captain Grayheart had a Godlike among his ranks, but that seems too be nothing but a far fetched lie!¡± he scoffed. I squinted my eyes at him. Isn''t he suspecting in the least bit that I might not be the strongest in the group? I thought. The reason I gave a Master Rank instead of an Emperor or Godlike was just to see how he would react if he thought my wives were stronger. Technically, I was the strongest in our group, but each and one of us we were Over Supremes. After he calmed down a little bit, he looked at me and then at my wives. Without saying another word, he turned around and snapped his fingers. At his order, the guards around us grabbed our chains and dragged us after him. We walked past the small hut towards another cave at the back. It was a bit smaller than the one we came through, but not low enough for Ayuseya to have trouble standing. Because they didn''t use a torch or Light Crystal, we could barely see where we were stepping, but neither the guards nor the captain seemed to have a problem with this. On the contrary, I would say that they could perfectly avoid every single stone in their way. As for the four of us, we had no problems navigating through this darkness. Our reflexes were very good so even if we hit a stone, we could step around it without falling down. In case of Zoreya, she crushed them under her boots or kicked them out of the way, making her the most noisy one out of all of us. After about 10 minutes of walking, we finally reached the end of the corridor. Here, captain Iffy took out a small Light Crystal and placed it on a nearby pedestal. When light shined inside the corridor, we were finally able to see the big stone doors blocking our way. Right between them was a small circle socket in which you could insert a disc of sorts. That was exactly what captain Iffy did. From his Storage Crystal he took out the stone key and opened the doors. Thanks to a loud grinding mechanism, the two doors were pulled back and opened the passage before us. Captain Iffy put his key away and then stepped through with a smug look on his face. We followed behind pulled by the guards. ¡°This place be secret from all but me and a few other pairs of eyes. Ye all are scurvy landlubbers unworthy of its greatness! Still, I be making a special case for ye all.¡± he smirked as he looked back at me. In other words, once he gets the truth out of us, it''s off with our heads or something like that? Although, it doesn''t make sense to threaten to sell us if he planned on showing us such a secret... Is he an idiot by any chance? I thought and sighed to myself. I was voting for the latter option. Two minutes later, the captain stopped and pushed a small rock on the wall. I felt a very small quantity of Magic Energy flowing through a networks of sorts, and in the next moment, a row of Light Crystals illuminated our way. ¡°Wonderful ain''t it not?¡± he asked with a smirk. I raised an eyebrow at him, but he ignored me and continued to walk. ¡°By chance, do ye know what Rank I be?¡± he asked. ¡°Potato?¡± I replied. ¡°Fish?¡± Tamara asked. ¡°Minuscule?¡± Ayuseya giggled, but I felt like she was referring to something else. ¡°...¡± Zoreya kept her stoic expression. ¡°Funny ye be.¡± he spat. ¡°Supreme.¡± he said and then continued to walk. I shrugged. Was I supposed to be afraid? The guards looked at each other when they didn''t saw us react in an expected way. From this, I could only guess that the previous victims of the captain were either scared stiff or began to beg him for mercy by this point. There was a third category though: the fools who didn''t believe him. As for us, we were in the fourth one... those who were stronger than a Supreme. Thus, several minutes later, we finally arrived in what appeared to be the last room: a giant spherical chamber where even Ayuseya in her full dragon form could fit without a problem. Alongside the walls were countless piles of treasure of untold value... Jewels, gold coins, weapons, armors, books, and all sort of things the pirates had gathered over the centuries were all stacked here. I gulped when I found myself in front of it all, and even Ayuseya was surprised by this scene. The only ones without a reaction were Zoreya and Tamara. ¡°What do ye all think of me treasure?¡± captain Iffy asked with a big smirk. ¡°It''s... impressive.¡± I said. But even so, I couldn''t see anything that resembled a map. My eyes kept running over these piles, but I couldn''t find it. ¡°Oh? Is be something missing?¡± he asked. ¡°You wouldn''t happen to have special maps around here... you now... world maps?¡± I asked with a grin as I looked back at him. He squinted his eyes at me.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. ¡°Hou? It seems me eyes not deceive me and me sure me ears be working as good as in me youth. Thy not here fo'' gold and jewels. Ye be here for THEEE map, me be right?¡± he asked with a smirk. ¡°What if it be so?¡± I replied with the same pirate accent as him. ¡°Then ye really know of the Dungeon Continent? Right?¡± he asked. ¡°Yes...¡± I squinted my eyes at him. ¡°Then tell me... Do ye know how to get past the Barrier?¡± he asked as he stepped towards me. ¡°Which one?¡± I asked carefully. There was no mention of a barrier in my memories. I thought. ¡°The one that keeps Allasn, Thorya, and Sorone from falling in the grasp of all those more powerful than all of the Supremes on these three continents put together! The one that lets the weak enter, but not the strong!¡± he replied and then pointed up. A barrier of such size and strength sounded like an absurd fairy tale. A machination of one''s over-reactive imagination, but after I had witnessed the strength of the monsters on Boss Island, I couldn''t help but wonder if maybe he spoke the truth. ¡°Illsy... look at the ceiling.¡± Ayuseya told me with wide eyes. I gaze up as well. Up there, carved in stone and partially destroyed by nature and age, laid the map of the world, the main reason why we arrived on this island. Allasn, Thorya, and Sorone were on the right side surrounded by a big circle. Above them were another two continents, while to the left was a cluster of islands that looked like a shattered continent. At the top of this archipelago was another landmass, but it had a hole in it. at the bottom was another continent, and farther to the left were two others. ¡°A world map...¡± I muttered surprised. ¡°Oho? So ye do know what that be, huh laddy?¡± the captain asked with a loud laughter. ¡°It would be hard not to...¡± I replied. ¡°Then ye be telling the truth, aye? Ye landlubbers sailed the oceans beyond the barrier and reached this place!¡± he laughed. ¡°I knew it! The old stories were true! There be countless oceans and continents out there! Me old man was right!¡± he laughed hysterically this time. The guards gulped when they saw him like this. Well, if he was a Supreme, it was clear why they were afraid of him, but this didn''t explain one thing to me, so I asked. ¡°Why didn''t you sail forth towards the other continents?¡± ¡°Why? Because no man or woman of me strength can go through the barrier! More so, the waters be unsafe to sail past it without the strength of one such as I! Me boats would be shattered by the jagged teeth of the monsters before they even had a chance to reach the barrier, let alone cross it!¡± he explained. If what he was saying was the true, then the strong couldn''t enter or leave, while the weak could enter, although, they would need an extreme amount of luck to reach safe waters. Or maybe this area of the ocean was just too dangerous for them. I highly doubted there were no zones without powerful monsters lurking in the depths of the waters, but finding them probably required a lot of manpower. Then came the hard part: exploring an outside world that required the minimum strength of a Supreme to survive. In other words, this barrier was like a protective dome for the weak but also a prison for the strong born inside. ¡°Ye see the scribbles in the stone?¡± he asked me then. ¡°Yes...¡± I replied and nodded. Those were written in Dungeon Language, another proof that this place was made by a Dungeon long ago. ¡°Not even now I be able to find out what they mean, but with ye all here, who came from outside, I may be able to find a way out! Or at the very least, ye could entertain me with ye life stories.¡± he showed us an evil smirk. So this was his true intent... Although... Good bye, Paramanium Language! This guy is butchering you to no end... I thought and then asked ¡°What makes you think we''ll do that?¡± ¡°Ye be coming from the outside, aye?¡± he asked. ¡°Yes.¡± I replied squinting my eyes at him. ¡°Then ye be weaker than Supremes! I be Supreme, so ye be nothing when compared to I!¡± he declared in a menacing tone of voice. Looking into his eyes, I let out a sigh, then looked back up at the ceiling. The world map is right here. It''s the thing we came for after all... I can even read the Dungeon Language written on it, so it''s certainly the real deal. Is there any worth playing like this? I wondered and then looked back at the captain. ¡°What do you intend to do now?¡± I asked in a calm tone of voice. ¡°It be simple. Ye be telling me all you know about that!¡± he pointed at the ceiling ¡°And I be letting you live. Of course, ye be me slaves from henceforth, so matters not what ye think. I be the strong one here. I be the law! I say jump, you jump. Got it?¡± he said pointing his finger at me. From his jumbled up words, I more or less understood what he wanted to say and do with us IF we obeyed like cute little puppies. Unfortunately for him, this play was already over the moment he showed us the map. I guess, he had too much faith in the barrier''s power, which existence I was already doubting. There was nothing in my memories that ever mentioned the existence of anything of this sort. The Primordial visited the Dungeon Continent at one point, so it was clear that he was able to safely reach it. Since Tuberculus found his remains within the barrier, I could only suspect that either this barrier was added much later or it wasn''t real at all. However, around Allasn, Thorya, and Sorone was a perfect circle carved within the map. Inside, I could read the names of the three continents and the number 1000. For a Dungeon, that number was the representation of a Level. In other words, the Dungeon Continent located to the far west, past the Slime Archipelago, had the number 4500+ on it, while the latter had 1500+. The Demon Continent located bellow the archipelago had 2000+, while the Zeryan Confederation in the North West of the map, above the Dungeon Continent had 3000-3500 on it. The strange island to the north of the Slime Archipelago had the word UNKNOWN written next to it in capital letters and the number 4000+ above it. While the continent to the East of it had a big question mark on it. The last one was the Nekatar Empire, with 1000-1500 next to it. Well, the one big difference between this map and the one I got from Cairen Talcaea was the big island between Allasn and Thorya. It was present only on this world map, another clear sign of how old it was. At best, it was probably several thousands of years old or maybe more. It''s also highly likely that this barrier isn''t there anymore... I thought and then let out a sigh. ¡°Ye ignoring me?¡± the captain told me in a furious tone of voice. For a moment there, I spaced out and didn''t listen to him at all. ¡°Yes...¡± I replied in a nonchalant tone of voice. ¡°Why ye little!¡± he tried to punch me in the face, but I stopped his attack with only one finger. He widened his eyes in surprise. ¡°You know, your biggest mistake was the fact that you thought we were far weaker than a Supreme. Your second one was most likely inviting us like this in your treasure room.¡± I let out a sigh. ¡°He''s an idiot!¡± Tamara laughed as she took off her cuffs. The metal bent and broke between her fingers like it was made out of clay. Zoreya and Ayuseya did the same and got up on their feet. The guards tried to retaliate when they saw them, but a simple slap from the draconian was enough to send them crashing into the walls. I highly doubted they survived that blow. Against ruffians and pirates, this dragon lady showed no mercy. ¡°Now then.¡± I said as I got up. The captain backed up in surprise. ¡°B-But the barrier.¡± he said. ¡°Well... That''s your third mistake.¡± I rubbed the back of my head. ¡°Wha?¡± he blinked confused. ¡°We aren''t from the Dungeon Continent or the outside. I was born on Allasn. The powerful draconian here was born on Thorya, and the lovely blonde was born on Sorone just like the cute Nekatar.¡± I said with a smirk. ¡°But ye know of it... ye... how?¡± he asked dumbfounded. ¡°I''m a Godlike Dungeon with a level way past 1000. Of course I know of it.¡± I shrugged. ¡°Huh? WHAT?!¡± he shouted in surprise. ¡°Well... Anyway, I''m not going to go into details. I just came here to steal your map, that''s all.¡± I shrugged. ¡°Ye want to steal me map?!¡± he said. ¡°Yes...¡± I nodded. Lifting my hand up, I mentally selected the portion of the ceiling that contained the map and then absorbed it. Now all that was left up there was a big round hole. The captain himself looked up at it simply dumbfounded and unable to understand what just happened. ¡°Well, that''s where your fourth mistake comes in... You never had a Dungeon Detection Stone on you.¡± I shrugged. ¡°Illsy, what should we do with him?¡± Ayuseya asked. ¡°I''m going to leave this to Zoreya. She''s a High Apostle of Melkuth, so the justice of battle and war should go to her.¡± I replied. ¡°As you wish, my love.¡± she nodded. ¡°High Apostle?! Wait! Ye can''t kill me! Aye! The contract with the Great Paramanium Empire still be in play! If ye harm me, ye be hunted by them for the rest of ye lives!¡± he said and pointed at us. ¡°So what?¡± I didn''t even look at him. I simply walked around absorbing all of his stolen treasures. ¡°I feel no need to spare the life of one such as you! Be gone from this world!¡± Zoreya declared and then punched him in the chest. The captain didn''t even had the chance to retaliate or say another word. Even if he was a Supreme, against her might, he was simply way too weak. As a result, his Magic Armor was shattered and her fist caved in his chest. The man died on the spot. After I was done with collecting all of the loot inside this cave, I lifted my hand up and activate my palm AGLMC Laser. A small and powerful beam of red light pierced the mountain and reached the sky. I kept it active for a few seconds before I stopped and stretched out my arms a bit. ¡°So... What are we going to do now?¡± asked Ayuseya as she kicked the dead captain''s body out of the way. ¡°Hm... Let''s wait for a bit and then leave this island.¡± I replied as I looked around the room, trying to see if there were any more secrets left untouched. ¡°As you wish.¡± Ayuseya replied with a small nod. Unfortunately, there were no more secrets to be found here. The map on the ceiling was probably the biggest one in here. It was something that could shake the existing nations and shatter the common sense of their citizens. In the end, I stopped looking and returned to the center of the room, where I was going to wait for the arrival of my other two wives: Shanteya and Nanya. But while I did so, I looked at the bodies of the dead humans lying on the floor and absorbed them for their Magic Energy. My Dungeon Territory was currently spread to the far reaches of this entire island, so in a sense... all of these pirates were at my mercy now. There was once a time when I would have flinched at the sight of a body or worry if the right thing to do was to kill someone or not... Now, I am just wondering if it''s the right thing to let them live. Or no, I should say that there are certain rules and parameters for determining such things... I let out a sigh and looked up at the perfectly cut ceiling as a result of my absorb ability So many reasons I can find for not killing someone, but if I let go of my usual good and forgiving nature, I guess it all amounts to the following questions: Can they change from now on for the better or not? Can I help him change in any way? Is he worth it? How does keeping him alive influence this world? How would his positive change influence it? Will I and my family be safe if I let him live? I closed my eyes. To such questions, there were multiple answers. Many of them contradicted themselves, while others negated some of the questions. For example, someone in the position of a King could influence the world by a lot, but at the same time, it made it questionable whether I could help him change. At the same time, he could do both good and bad things with a single neutral order. As such, what I did to Prince Reynolds was a very risky matter. The curse I placed on him back then probably led him only to death unless he forced himself to accept my values. Morally, it was a bit wrong, but at that time I forgot about his brother, Prince Reginald, who could have found in his brother''s death an excuse to go hunt me down despite my intent to change him. The best course of action would have been to force the prince to step down from his throne... and impose the slavery matter on the remaining prince. Even if I elude myself by saying it was the Darkness'' fault, it wasn''t. At that time, it was mostly me who wished to do that to him. I wasn''t perfect. I probably never will be. And as any other sapient living being out there, I had the right to get angry. However, all this leads to another question... According to my new sense of value and principles, was letting Dankyun alive a good choice or not? I lowered my eyes and looked at my lovely human wife, Zoreya, who returned a soft smile. No... It wasn''t... At that time... I simply was too afraid to kill again willingly as I did to Shanteya''s former squad. I thought and then replied to my beloved with a smile. Chapter 93: A wise decision [Illsyore''s point of view] Not long after I let my laser pierce through the skies, my beloved wives Shanteya and Nanya returned. They were walking calmly through the barely lit passageway while dragging behind them two unconscious guards. ¡°We''re here, my love.¡± said Shanteya. ¡°Glad to see you two. What did you bring with you?¡± I asked raising an eyebrow. ¡°These two tried to stop us.¡± Nanya replied as she tossed one of the men at my feet. Shanteya simply release her grip around the neck of her catch. ¡°They must be part of the guards of the now deceased Pirate King.¡± I said. I was surprised they spared their lives. ¡°What should we do with them?¡± Shanteya asked. ¡°Toss them outside. As long as they don''t try to attack us again, I see no reason in killing them while they are unconscious.¡± I shrugged. ¡°Indeed. Slaying an unconscious foe is not something one of Melkuth''s followers should do.¡± said Zoreya with a nod. ¡°I''ll take them outside, nya~!¡± Tamara volunteered as she grabbed the two and dragged them away. ¡°Well then, what do you two have to report?¡± I asked as I got up. ¡°There are two ports on this island. One is for building and repairing ships, while the other is for unloading goods. The settlements annexed to them appeared to be well developed, and there''s even an internal militia that keeps things from turning anarchic.¡± Shanteya explained. ¡°Despite this fact, most of them are nothing but slobs and ruffians who hate any other species except humans. There were some exceptions as far as I could see, but that''s mostly the gist of it...¡± Nanya said and shrugged. ¡°What about useful information? Weapons? Armors?¡± I asked. ¡°If the military of any country attacks, there''s a high chance these pirates will end up defeated. Regarding special items, there were none that might be of use to us.¡± Shanteya replied with a smile. ¡°Hm...¡± I rubbed my chin and looked down. From the looks of things, this place was a typical pirate settlement with a pinch of human superiority extremism added to it. There was no reason to doubt the truth of their words. They were my wives, and I had full trust in them. Besides, they had no reason whatsoever to lie to me and even thinking of this as a possibility was already outrageous. Well, that being said, I had to make a choice now... but I wanted to find out something else. ¡°Is there anyone on this island we should spare?¡± I asked them. The two of them furrowed their brows and thought about it carefully. After a minute or so, they replied, starting with Nanya. ¡°I would say the slaves, but I saw children and elderly as well... I don''t believe all of them are bad either, but separating the good from the bad can be a bit tricky...¡± she said scratching the back of her head. Shanteya nodded. ¡°I agree with her words.¡± the el''doraw stated ¡°There are certainly a lot of bad folks out there, but there are certainly good ones too, even in this pirate settlement. Either way, let us say we disband this group. Most of them are criminals on the main continents. Once caught, they will end up as slaves or killed. The children will most definitely end up as slaves according to Paramanium''s laws, while the elderly will be killed.¡± Shanteya explained. I remembered the laws of the kingdoms around these parts; Ayuseya did well to teach me during our time on the Boss Island. Their only chance would be to reach Shoraya or Feyan, where the laws were more lenient with them. Teslov was also out of the question, and Sorone was at the other side of the known world. This put me in a pinch, especially since I didn''t want to stain my hands with any more innocent blood. ¡°Sigh... Zoreya, what do you think?¡± I asked. ¡°Melkuth would judge them all individually, but since we cannot do so, I suggest to ask him directly.¡± she nodded. ¡°Huh? You mean ask the gods what to do about them?¡± I blinked surprised. ¡°Well, you are deciding whether to kill them or spare them, correct?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Then it is best to ask the gods in such matters, for they hold supreme authority in our world! We need not anger them foolishly.¡± Zoreya nodded. ¡°I see.¡± I rubbed my chin. She did have a point. Since I could always contact the gods, I could always just ask their opinion regarding such tricky situations. If all of those people were against me and tried to kill me, their fate would have been an easy one to decide. Thus, I created a Temple of Melkuth by using one of the stored templates in my data bank. The process took no more than a few seconds as both materials and plans existed beforehand. All that was left to do was apply the required amount of Magic Energy in order to reassemble matter at molecule level. ¡°There we go! Zoreya, let''s head inside.¡± I said with a smile after the construction was done. ¡°We''ll wait outside.¡± Shanteya announced. ¡°Nya! I''m back!¡± just then Tamara also returned. Seeing us, she stopped for a moment and tilted her head in surprise. ¡°Hm? Mating time or talking to the gods?¡± she asked curiously. ¡°The second option!¡± both me and Zoreya retorted with our cheeks flushed red. ¡°Mmm... OK!¡± she smiled and then went off to find a place to rest. After we entered the newly built temple, we closed the door behind us and walked all the way to the chamber used to talk to Melkuth. By now, I more or less knew the drill, so I took my seat next to Zoreya and closed my eyes. It didn''t take more than a moment for us to appear before the prominent and respectable God of War... Or that was how it was supposed to be, but what we were currently looking at was a wiped out God of War and a bunch of dead-drunk gods lazing about in his office. ¡°Erm... Did we come at a bad time?¡± I asked surprised as I looked around. ¡°Well... it depends.¡± the God of Big Boobs replied while dangling off the ceiling. He was tied up like a mummy in chains, with only his head and feet sticking out. ¡°Erm...¡± I squinted my eyes at him. ¡°My god, are you alright?¡± Zoreya asked as she rushed up to Melkuth''s side. ¡°Hm? Ah yes, the ponies have played nicely with the unicorns on the river of death...¡± he said and then he was out cold. ¡°My god! My god!¡± Zoreya tried to wake him up, but even a slap didn''t work. ¡°So what now?¡± I blinked surprised. ¡°Well...¡± Zoreya showed me a wry smile as she let go of Melkuth. ¡°Is something the matter, younglings?¡± the dangling god asked. ¡°Well, I just wanted to use some of the wisdom of the gods, but... I have a feeling it ran away.¡± I said as I looked at the knocked out God of War. So much for being mighty and imposing. He was totally wasted. ¡°About what?¡± the dangling god asked. ¡°Well, we are on this Pirate Island, you see... and I kind of want to know what I should do about them, especially after I killed their leader and all.¡± I shrugged.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. ¡°Ah! A matter of life and death decision, but you fear you might do something to anger us?¡± he asked. ¡°Yes...¡± I nodded. ¡°Then, why don''t you ask me?¡± he said with a smile. ¡°OK, Zoreya, time to go!¡± I said with a smile, completely ignoring him. ¡°Wait! Wait! Wait!¡± the dangling god called out. ¡°Yes?¡± I asked raising an eyebrow. ¡°These fellows won''t wake up for another week or so. Sertan''s wine is one of the finest and the strongest out there! Besides, they drank more than a wagon each...¡± he sighed. ¡°What about you?¡± I asked. ¡°I got punished for trying to feel Artemya''s chest...¡± he looked away. ¡°Artemya? The Goddess of the Hunt?¡± I raised an eyebrow. ¡°Yes, that''s the one...¡± he smiled. ¡°I''m surprised she didn''t kill you...¡± I said. ¡°Ahaha... she tried... several times.¡± he looked away. ¡°So, what does this have to do with my predicament?¡± I asked. ¡°I''m currently the only sober god who can help you!¡± he smiled. ¡°I see... Why shouldn''t I just wait for a week until they wake up?¡± I asked. ¡°After sleep comes the hangover, right?¡± he smirked. ¡°Ugh...¡± I groaned. ¡°Well, that one passes swiftly for us, but you still don''t want to wait for a whole week for them, right?¡± he asked with a smile. ¡°Isn''t there a Goddess of Justice?¡± I asked. ¡°Well... technically... there is one, but she judges only women.¡± he replied. ¡°What? Who judges men then?¡± ¡°Her husband.¡± ¡°So I need to speak with him?¡± I asked. ¡°No... both...¡± he looked away. ¡°Why?¡± I squinted my eyes at him. ¡°Well... Technically, personality and body-wise you are a man, but practically... Dungeons are regarded by us gods as having no predefined gender. When you took on this form, you could have become a woman as well... and you still can.¡± he showed a wry smile. My brain went numb. ¡°Illsy?¡± Zoreya suddenly appeared in front of me, looking worried and holding my cheeks in her hands. ¡°Huh? What happened?¡± I asked. ¡°You went silent after the god told you that you can become a woman as well...¡± she explained and let go of my cheeks. ¡°Oh yes, my brain short circuited and I had to do a reboot.¡± I said while rubbing my forehead. ¡°What?¡± she asked confused. ¡°Don''t worry about it, it''s a saying from my former world... It means that I was very shocked by this.¡± I explained with a smile, then I looked at the dangling god. ¡°Alright, what do I have to do to get those gods here?¡± I asked. ¡°Well... they are here right now. Look behind you. In this place, it''s only a matter of saying it, and with mister God of War knocked out over there, nothing stops them from stepping inside this place. Usually, he would have taken care of this matter.¡± said the dangling god. When I turned around, I saw the two of them standing there and looking at me with a stern expression on their faces. They were the same height and a bit taller than Zoreya. Both of them wore impressive white armors, but with no peculiar design on them, no engravings or special ornaments. She had a sword equipped at her waist, while he held a spear. Both of them had a round shield on their backs. They had athletic bodies, and in terms of facial features, they were remarkably attractive; candy for the eyes. A strange pressure could be felt coming from them, and I unintentionally gulped. ¡°Was it you who called us here?¡± asked the goddess. ¡°Yes.¡± I replied with a wry smile. ¡°A Dungeon... You must be the God of War''s follower, correct?¡± the god asked. ¡°Yes.¡± I nodded. ¡°Do you know of us?¡± the goddess asked. ¡°Not by a long shot.¡± I shook my head. ¡°I understand. I shall introduce myself then. I am called Nazra. I am the Goddess of Justice.¡± she stepped forward and struck her breastplate with her fist. After stepping back, her husband stepped forward ¡°I am called Maragun. I am the God of Justice.¡± he too struck his breastplate with his fist and then stepped back. ¡°A pleasure to meet both of you. I am Illsyore Deus, a Godlike Dungeon, and she is my wife, Zoreya Eleanor Alttoros Deus.¡± I introduced ourselves. ¡°Likewise, a pleasure to meet you two.¡± Zoreya said and bowed her head once instead of kneeling. ¡°Then, I shall ask again. Why have you called us?¡± asked Nazra. ¡°Well, it''s like this...¡± and then I explained my current predicament to her and asked for her advice. The two gods looked at each other for a moment and then began to think about it carefully. I waited patiently as they processed the information. If it was these two who offered me the advice, then I would certainly be able to do my job without worrying needlessly about repercussions or angering the gods. After some time, Nazra said ¡°We have come to a conclusion.¡± ¡°Good! Let''s hear it!¡± I smiled. ¡°The settlement of the pirates is one that has been created through blood and pain. They showed neither mercy nor remorse when they struck down their foes, be them able men or weakly children. As such, we see no reason in sparing the majority of them. However, it is true that there are some souls among them who despise this sort of lifestyle. They do not need to die, but we have judged that segregating them from the bad seed isn''t your job to do.¡± she explained. ¡°I see. Than what do you wish of me to do?¡± I asked. ¡°My question is, what do you wish to do in the first place?¡± she asked. ¡°I would like to absorb the island and destroy this pirate heaven that preys upon the weak.¡± I nodded. ¡°Then do so.¡± Maragun said. ¡°But what of the innocent?¡± I asked and blinked surprised. ¡°Normally, this should be your job to think about, but I can make an exception if you wish.¡± he said. ¡°What he means is that mortals who come in contact with us gods tend to rely too much on us afterwards and soon stop listening to their own will, leading them to become rather dependent of us. We gods may have the role of guiding you, but one thing is to guide someone through life and another is to babysit them at every turn on the way.¡± the dangling god explained. ¡°Indeed, Melkuth also warned me of this.¡± Zoreya confirmed. ¡°I see... I understand... Then I will think about it on my own. I will trust that whatever my choice will be, it will be one made under your guidance.¡± I declared as I looked at the two gods of justice in front of me. ¡°That would be the wisest thing to do.¡± Maragun nodded. ¡°Thank you for your help then.¡± I nodded. ¡°As my husband said, we are thankful for your help, Goddess Nazra and God Maragun.¡± Zoreya said. ¡°Take care, young mortals.¡± Nazra smiled. ¡°Likewise!¡± Maragun nodded. ¡°Can you get me down, please?¡± asked the dangling god. ¡°My advice is to keep him up there... He''ll certainly assault the sleeping goddesses.¡± I warned the gods of justice. ¡°We shall pay heed to your advice. This pervert shall remained bound as such until they have all woken up. I promise I will stand guard!¡± Maragun declared as he pointed his spear at the old man. ¡°Come on! I was just going to grope them a little! No harm in that!¡± he complained. ¡°So you WERE planning to assault them!¡± we all pointed at him at the same time. ¡°Ugh... Erm... I mean... Well, what''s wrong with a little feel? Hey! OW!¡± he shouted as Maragun brought his spear closer and poked him in the side. As this scene unfolded before us, me and Zoreya returned to the mortal world. Chapter 94: Deciding their fate [Illsyore''s point of view] Upon our return from the world of the gods, I found my wives waiting patiently for me inside the cave. Ayuseya was sitting on the ground in seiza position, Nanya was making holes with her claws in the stone wall, Tamara was taking a catnap while being petted by Shanteya, and there were no signs of fresh battles, meaning no pirate dared to disturb this place while I was gone. ¡°Welcome back, Illsy. Did you receive any advice?¡± asked Ayuseya as she looked my way with a gentle look in her eyes and an aura of elegance floating around her. ¡°Yes. I met with the gods who govern over Justice in this world.¡± I said and let out a sigh. ¡°Welcome back, Illsy. So what did they say?¡± Nanya asked as she stopped poking holes in the wall and walked over to me. ¡°Welcome back, my love.¡± said Shanteya with a gentle smile. Tamara was still sleeping. ¡°Well, they said it was alright for me to absorb this island and kill of the majority of the pirates here, but I have to figure out a way not to kill those the gods would deem as innocent.¡± I replied and crossed my arms at my chest. ¡°Kill the majority?¡± Ayuseya wrinkled her brow as she looked at me. ¡°The old Illsyore would certainly not have thought about that and rather wanted to just leave this island peacefully.¡± Nanya shrugged. ¡°It was my initial intention, but for what I came to understand, this place is just a gathering of no-good human extremists who keep on gaining more and more power. If they end up gaining the favor of several Supremes, then this place would end up being considered a country of its own, but with the way things are managed, it would be just a centralized pirate heaven where criminals of all kinds gather.¡± I replied calmly. ¡°Would they hinder the construction of your academy?¡± Ayuseya asked. ¡°Yes.¡± I nodded. ¡°How?¡± Nanya asked. I let out a sigh and then began to explain ¡°These pirates have a free reign on Paramanium''s waters, so when I establish my academy, the main transport route will be by water or air.¡± ¡°An island Magic Academy?¡± Shanteya tilted her head to the left. ¡°Yup! Located at the very center of the three major continents. So, what will happen when that place becomes crowded with vessels that both do trade and transport wealthy people?¡± I pointed out. ¡°The pirates will flood in.¡± Ayuseya squinted her eyes. ¡°Indeed, but unlike the random bunch with one or two vessels in their fleets, these guys will be an organized bunch who won''t battle for territory. In other words, it would be the same as being under constant attack by an enemy nation. The difference would be that you can negotiate and threaten an enemy nation, but these pirates can just claim they are affiliated with no one. The waters around the academy will be just a high risk high gain hunting ground for them.¡± I explained. ¡°But you killed their Pirate King right?¡± Nanya asked. ¡°Yes, however, what will happen if I leave this island? The pirates will struggle for the open seat of power and try to claim this whole island. Even if they will be destabilized for a few years, when they make their comeback, it will be in full force. This is because of these things: 1) the centralized base of operations: this island; 2) the agreement with the Paramanium Empire.¡± I explained. ¡°We''ll still have trouble in dealing with other navy forces.¡± Ayuseya pointed out while rubbing her chin. ¡°True, but at one point or another, they will give up and accept the Illsyore Magic Academy as it is.¡± I lifted a finger up. ¡°At the beginning, they will show hostility, but once they understand what sort of power they are going up against, they will stop any reckless acts. Afterwards, it will be only a matter of time before they understand that fighting against us will only bring about losses, while if they show their cooperation, they will obtain high benefits.¡± Shanteya said. ¡°Exactly.¡± I nodded. ¡°In that case... how do you plan on sorting the good seed from the bad seed?¡± asked Nanya, bringing us back to the initial problem. ¡°Well... I was thinking of making a threatening announcement that a Dungeon captured this place and that I require slaves as tribute in exchange for the chance of departing this island in one week.¡± I replied with a smile. ¡°That will only create panic.¡± Ayuseya raised an eyebrow. ¡°Yes, but they are humans in the end, right?¡± I pointed out. ¡°Them not being of the valiant type, they will gladly give up the slaves and even force those who posses some to give them up. The slave merchants will be the main targets of the mobs. Then, sorting the slaves out will be far easier.¡± Zoreya nodded. ¡°We can then free those worthy and even help them start a new life. The Pirate King had more than enough funds to support such an endeavor.¡± Ayuseya said. ¡°Tamara is good at finding out liars, and I can be of use too in this regard.¡± said Shanteya who kept petting the sleeping nekatar. ¡°All that''s left is to sort out the good pirates from the evil ones.¡± said Nanya. ¡°Human nature will solve that dilemma. The evil ones will try to take advantage of the good ones, stealing their spot on the ships. At the same time, its highly likely that they won''t be just as strong. In a society dominated by evil, usually the good ends up stomped into the ground. Those who will be unable to leave will be the majority of good people.¡± I said.Stolen story; please report. ¡°That''s mostly your presumption though... There can be exceptions, and in time of crisis, most sapient species proved to be quite shrewd, turning from good to evil in the blink of an eye.¡± Ayuseya pointed out. ¡°Well, I trust the gods will sprinkle some luck on the worthy ones, if not, let us just do what we can.¡± I shrugged. ¡°One question though.¡± Shanteya lifted her hand up. ¡°What is it?¡± I asked. ¡°What of the vessels filled with evil pirates?¡± she asked. I shrugged ¡°I never said I would keep my word regarding their safe departure, did I? If left be, they will wander the seas and do a lot of damage, so I plan on destroying all of their ships and let fate decide if they survive one way or another.¡± ¡°Then... As a last question, is there any reason why we shouldn''t take our time with this plan?¡± Shanteya asked. ¡°They will notice the disappearance of their king soon enough... So even a week is stretching it. If I don''t act fast, they could also flee and establish their base somewhere else. I don''t want to have that... So we need to save as many as we can and eliminate the rest. Unless one of you has a better plan than mine?¡± I replied. When I said those words, they all looked at me and then at each other. Their expression turned serious and entered in deep thought, but I was certain that by now they all formed their own opinions about this matter. The question was if they considered them to be good enough to voice them out or not. Half an hour later, the first to speak was Ayuseya. ¡°I find their human supremacy views to be the most dangerous element about them. Considering the high number of individuals that have gathered under this banner, they are no better than other supremacists like the draconians or el''doraws. Such elements should not be left to go about their ways unhindered because sooner or later they would bring about a great chaos to those around them.¡± Ayuseya explained. ¡°Then what do you suggest?¡± I asked her. ¡°I agree with your decision, but the purging of this element should take into account their opinions regarding these extremist views.¡± she pointed out. ¡°I see.¡± I nodded and crossed my arms at my chest. She did have a point. Besides their violent ways as pirates, they were also adepts of this dangerous ideology. The reason I thought of it as dangerous was simple, my Illsyore Magic Academy was going to be an institution that pushed forward the belief of coexistence and equality among sapient species; a rather obvious move if one were to look at my wives. That being said, the next one to speak was Shanteya. ¡°If it was up to me, I would have just saved the children and left the adults to rot in a hole where nobody would find their remains. The way they treat them is inhumane no matter how much they scream they are right in accordance with their idiotic beliefs.¡± she declared. I had a feeling she was a bit at an edge because of her maternal instincts kicking in, especially with a child of her own on the way. Seeing parents treat their children in an awful manner wasn''t something the beautiful el''doraw could forgive. ¡°Well then, what about you, Nanya?¡± I asked. The demoness looked at me and crossed her arms at her chest. With a stern look in her eyes and a whip of her tail, she replied ¡°Six years ago, when you turned into The Darkness, I could not accept nor bear the thought of killing you. That was because I knew I wasn''t seeing the real you. In the case of these people, very few are hiding their true selves, unfortunately, that face is one that is worse than the mask they show. We have neither time, patience, or the authority to judge them one by one. If we did so, many would try to find a way to lie to us and show a ''good'' mask. As you said, only in time of crisis the people of this world show their true selves. I say you give them a good scare, make them tremble in their boots and while they do so judge them appropriately. Those whom we can save were meant to be saved, the others were simply unlucky. Or maybe fate had something else in store for them. Either way, I can only see our arrival on this island as an act of the gods as well.¡± ¡°An act of the gods?¡± I asked raising an eyebrow. ¡°Just think about it for a moment. It was a coincidence we met a pirate vessel and not a trade or navy vessel. It was a coincidence the Pirate King was so foolish as to bring us here. It was a coincidence nobody around you tried to take your items the moment they ''captured'' you. It was a coincidence none of the pirates ratted us out. It was a coincidence we, the scouts, managed to spot only those few situations that gave us a clear understanding of what''s going on on this island.¡± she explained. ¡°Too many coincidences...¡± I nodded. ¡°Indeed. I think the gods of Justice are acting through us in order to prevent a catastrophic event as you mentioned before: a moment when the pirates unite themselves under the same banner and rise up as an independent country.¡± she uncrossed her arms. ¡°Sigh... but why me?¡± I asked. ¡°Because Illsy is the only one with the power to act on his own, but also kind enough to worry about the few who could be innocent among the many guilty. A general with your might would not have hesitated even a second from destroying and subjugating all these pirates, let alone ask the gods for permission to do it.¡± Zoreya replied. ¡°Sigh... I guess so...¡± I looked up and then scratched the back of my head. Even in my previous world there were many who would not think twice about using their absurd power in order to trample on the weak. There were very few who would first check to see if they were stomping on the right bunch or the wrong one. On another note, as a Dungeon, I knew it was perfectly NATURAL for me to wipe out all of these humans without a second thought. So much that a part of me was wondering why I wanted to save some of them in the first place. ¡°I guess the matter is settled...¡± I crossed my arms at my chest and nodded. Going out of my body, I flew up through the mountain and observed the entire island. There were many pirate ships coming and going, while others lifted up a trade flag and set sail to exchange the plundered goods for gold and other stuff. Looking around, I summoned several AGLMC Laser Cannon around the coast and hid them in the natural d¨¦cor. Unlike the first versions of these weapons, these were vastly improved and several times more powerful and precise. To put it bluntly, if I were to attack Dankyun with these puppies, I would have simply shattered his Magic Armor faster than he could say ''dungeon''. The only problem I had with them was the name... I couldn''t figure out if going with Amplified and Generated Light with Magic Crystals was better than Generated and Amplified Light with Magic Crystals. I was lately rooting for the latter option because it made more sense, but I got used to the first version... But as they say, it was good that the name was indeed the most pressing problem regarding its development. With the weapons in place, it was time to use a new spell I developed for making announcements at the Academy. It was called [Broadcasting], and as the name implied, its purpose was to send my voice throughout the entirety of my Dungeon Territory. If anyone else used it, they would have to specify the range and a bunch of other details: such as if it should avoid the mountains or not. I cared not for such things... What was 1000 Magic Energy points extra for someone with my pool? ¡°Well now... Let''s get this show on the road!¡± I declared and then for 3650 ME points, I cast [Broadcasting]. Chapter 95: Calamity unleashed [Illsyore''s point of view] Using [Broadcasting], I transmitted the following message all across my Dungeon Territory, which had a radius of 50 Km around me: ¡°Listen to me, inhabitants of Pirate Island! I hereby claim this entire island as my possession. IF you wish to be spared and allowed safe passing off the island, then leave behind your slaves and children, alive, as tribute to me. The parents who do not wish to forsake their flesh and blood may stay as well, if they dare. You have one week to comply, but if you kill them, you''ll only anger me.¡± I canceled the spell after I finished saying this and repeated the message in my mind. It didn''t sound as intimidating as I initially thought, more like a bad prank of sorts. That was why I decided to fly down to the port where we docked today and use my dungeon-building skills to change the scenery a little bit, maybe summon a weak monster or two to make them scream. When I reached the place, as expected, they were treating it as a prank and currently looking for the culprit. Let''s see... I thought and then focused on several areas on my Dungeon Territory where I wanted to build a simple wall. Unlike before when The Darkness had yet to become a part of me, I had a lot more control over what I could build and how to build it. Nanya said that this new ability of mine was normal among most high ranked Dungeons, but none of them were able to use it at the scale I did. As a matter of fact, after I fused with The Darkness, I understood that my ability to create a building or item from a template I had stored in my memory was something none of the other Dungeons thought of doing before. I sort of doubted this because it made building a dungeon so much easier. Maybe none of the Dungeons I had met so far did? Thus, when I activated the skill, several large walls appeared all over the settlement, cutting off roads and stopping people in their tracks. The way they were placed created a maze with one exit: the docks. ¡°What in the name of all the sea demons is going on?¡± someone said. ¡°What be this?¡± another asked. ¡°That ain''t normal.¡± another pointed out. ¡°It be food?¡± some quack asked. This was how a lot of them suddenly reacted, while in some cases, they were a bit more violent and tried to break down my walls. Try as they might, but those things were sturdy enough to survive a Supreme''s punch. ¡°Now! Moving on to Phase 3!¡± I said with a smirk. At this moment, I summoned the weakest monster I could possibly think of: the imp. In several places all around this port town, just one of these creatures appeared out of a summoning circle. ¡°Monster!¡± the sea of screams formed. I watched as they moved away from the imp, while the guards prepared to combat him. In my mind, I calculated that the monster I summoned was going to need at least 5 guards to take down. Unfortunately, I made a HUGE mistake... ¡°UGAAA!¡± an imp screamed and then shot a lightning bolt at the first guard, turning him into charcoal. Before the others could even move, the imp dashed towards them and impaled them with his sword. One slice was enough to cut two adult men in bloody halves. Thus, the massacre began... ¡°Oops...¡± I said with a poker face. The mistake was the level... Most people on this island were far below level 200, probably around 40 or 50. Meanwhile, the Imp I summoned was considered Easy picking by me and my wives. This thing couldn''t even face a single T-Rex. The giant lizard would usually just stomp on him and walk away. Indeed, he was that weak, BUT... he was still level 1000. Yup, this was a level 1000 Imp with full enchanted armor and weapon as well as the ability to cast spells and use skills. Although, for some strange reason, these guys NEVER wore boots. Back on Boss Island, when I tried to give a pair of shiny new enchanted boots to an imp to wear, he grabbed them, bowed to me, then jumped back in the summoning circle. I stood there looking like an idiot for a few minutes trying to understand what just happened. At that time, I became aware of the fact that summoned creatures had the ability to banish themselves without the summoner''s direct order or an enemy''s attack as long as the summoning circle was intact. Well, that being said, everyone inside this port city ran away as fast as they could from the overpowered imp that could turn them to paste with one slap of his tiny hand. His attacks were merciless, crushing the ones who dared to defy him and smashing any door or non-dungeon wall standing in his way. As soon as I saw the immense damage they did to the town, despite him being a complete weakling, I gave all imps the order not to move more than 20 meters away from their spawned point. If I let them loose, by the time the sun had set, this whole town would have been reduced to rubble. ¡°Well, with this, they should be taking my warning seriously now.¡± I nodded to myself, then I moved to the port up to the north. There, I raised the walls as I did in the other town, but instead of summoning level 1000 imps, I summoned level 500 ones and gave them the same order of staying withing 20 meters of their spawn point. After 20 minutes had passed, I was hearing only the screams of horror and fear of the pirates who tried to run away from an imp only to stumble upon another. The town became a bloodbath, and I kept staring at it from above with dead fish eyes. These pirates were even weaker than level 500 imp... ¡°I don''t get it...¡± I said as I flew back to my body, floating around like a drunk light bulb. Once I returned, I told everyone what I did and what were the results. The first one to react was Nanya. She face-palmed herself and let out a sigh. ¡°You summoned a level 1000 imp?¡± she asked with a groan. ¡°More than one actually...¡± I pointed out. ¡°That''s quite cruel, Illsy.¡± Shanteya pointed out. ¡°Huh?¡± I blinked surprised as I looked back at her. ¡°Indeed, you pitted such a terrifying foe against them.¡± Zoreya agreed. ¡°What?¡± I was getting confused.. ¡°Nya~ but level 1000 imp is a weakling, right?¡± Tamara asked. ¡°For us, who are Over Supremes, but most of the people out there are around level 100 at best...¡± pointed out Nanya. ¡°I doubt even if we were to slaughter every living being on this island, we still wouldn''t be able to rise in level.¡± Ayuseya nodded to herself. In this world, the concept of Level was used only to describe the strength of a Dungeon, but not long after we arrived on the Boss Island, I began to teach my lovely wives about how it was applied to monsters and sapient species. Nanya was also a great help with the explanations of stats and such. I also worked on a spell capable of reporting an individual''s status, but I still had some bugs with it... The numbers displayed on it were all over the place, only the name, species, and level were right for the most part. They could all use this broken spell called [Status Window]. In time, I planned to fix all of its bugs. ¡°So what now?¡± asked Nanya. ¡°Well, I will say it again... I summoned those guys by accident! But, right now it''s too late to do anything about it. What I plan to do is create a secure location for the slaves and children, then using the AGLMC Lasers I placed around the island, I will sink all the boats of the fleeing pirates once they are out at sea and far enough into the horizon. Meanwhile, I want Tamara and Shanteya to sort out the survivors. Ayuseya should sort out the slaves as well. Make a list of who ended up as a slave and for what. As for Nanya, I want you to go through each town and secure any slaves or individuals you deem worthy of saving. You may rampage as you like. What do you think?¡± I asked with a smile. ¡°Well, it''s better than not doing anything.¡± Ayuseya shrugs. ¡°What about mating time?¡± Tamara asks. ¡°Postponed until we sort out this mess.¡± I declared. ¡°Then I will make sure to do my job extra fast!¡± she declared with a victory pose. ¡°Who will be the first one to sleep with Illsy afterwards?¡± Shanteya suddenly asked. I gulped. ¡°Well, I have work to do. You know what to do... aaand I''m out of here!¡± I said as I left my body. ¡°AH! He''s running away!¡± Nanya pointed out. ¡°Guess we''ll do this the usual way...¡± Ayuseya let out a sigh. By usual way, this meant competing against each other in some sort of fair game. One that would take into consideration Shanteya''s pregnancy. Speaking of which, I planned on shortening her time of work to take care of herself. Moving around was good and all, but if she pushed herself to much it wasn''t going to be good for the babies. Well, I hoped my other wives would point this out as well. This tendency of hers to overwork was something that remained from her days as an assassin and then as my maid. Leaving aside the women, I decided to name the town we docked in as Town A and the other one in the north as Town B, since it wasn''t worth remembering their real names. So, I flew down in Town A and checked upon the pirate ship that brought us here, if they were still alive. Several of them were loading supplies, while another was tending to his wounds. That one probably ended up caught in an imp''s attacks. ¡°How''s it going?¡± I announced my presence. The pirates jumped and looked around like scared chickens.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°I be hearing the voice of the cap''n husband, but I see him not.¡± one of them said. ¡°Aye...¡± another confirmed. ¡°At ease, I''m not a ghost, I''m a Dungeon.¡± I told them. ¡°Shiver me timbers... Please spare us!¡± one of them knelt on the ground and started praying. ¡°I''m not going to kill you... I think. Anyway, I see you haven''t left the town yet, good.¡± I said. ¡°Huh? How that be good?¡± one of them asked. ¡°Well, you sort of missed your chance to flee...¡± I told them. ¡°Huh? But ye promised!¡± one of them cried out. ¡°Yes, I do intend to keep my promise, but as I said, things have changed. Leave your cargo as it is and set sail right now. Once you have left the port, turn a hard right and sail around the island until you don''t see the port anymore. Drop anchor there and wait patiently for a sign from me. Don''t set foot on the island. Don''t let anyone else know what I just told you. If you do what I said, I''ll let you live. If not... well, you''ll die.¡± I told them and at that point, I set loose a [Wind Scythe] on a spying rat behind a barrel not far from the boat. The man hid right when I announced my presence, and by the looks of things, he wasn''t of the good bunch. When they saw the barrel cut in half and blood spurt on the deck, they all gulped in fear. ¡°Snitching Joe...¡± said one of them. That man had such a coincidental name. ¡°May we ask a simple question?¡± asked one of them as he took off his hat. ¡°Sure, what?¡± I replied. ¡°Why you be sparing us?¡± ¡°Simple. The gods of Justice are offering you a chance to repent for all of your crimes. I know it''s not easy to change, but your very lives are on the line. It''s easy, change or die. And to change, all you have to do is change your pirate ways. Just try and think... What would a pirate NOT do and do just that.¡± I told them and then left. Once they realized I was gone, they set sail and did as I told them. They were a bad bunch at the start, but if by the end of this weak they decided to change and really tried to do so, I was going to spare them, if not... well, I wasn''t going to go back on my word. Afterwards, I went around the town to check upon the damage caused by the imps. They were in the process of leveling to the ground every building around them, while the pirates figured out that they couldn''t go outside of a certain range. Some of these scum tried to use ranged attacks on my monsters, but they worthlessly weak against them. Besides the destruction caused by them to nearby buildings, there were many who lost their lives in the commotion that ensued. The trails of blood were everywhere, while the sobs and shouts of anger filled the air. It was as if a calamity had struck them... well, I believed I was worse than that. Even so, as I watched the dead humans, I understood that while I was the cause of their demise, it was also their fate to end up like this. Maybe there were some good people among the dead; maybe a loving mother or father, an innocent child, or a bighearted grandpa. I wouldn''t know and I wouldn''t want to find out either. Feeling remorse or pity now was too late. Being a Dungeon helped me a lot because my former human self would have been driven mad by guilt. As I flew around, I noticed something on the ground... I flew close and looked at the scene that caught my attention. Hiding behind a fallen wall, a mother with a broken leg was crying and praying to the gods for help. In her arms was her infant child. There were blood stains on him and her, a sign that someone most likely met their end in front of them. ¡°Please... Someone... Save us...¡± she whimpered. I approached her and saw as tears flowed down her cheeks and slowly washed away the blood on her child. Looking at her carefully, I saw that if she wanted to, she could have left the child there and tried to crawl away, but she didn''t wish to let go of him. ¡°Please...¡± she cried. ¡°Will you kill?¡± I asked. ¡°Huh?¡± she was surprised and looked around for my voice, but she couldn''t see me. ¡°I can save you, but will you kill your child in exchange for your life?¡± I asked. It was a question no sane man would pose to a crying mother, yet I knew that mankind was not that easy to trust... Only in times of great peril would they show their true colors. Only then could one see if a man chose love, friendship, and kindness over greed and material desire. ¡°NEVER! Kill me if you must, but not my child!¡± she retorted as she hugged the baby tightly to her chest, trying to protect him as best as she could. Despite the pain she must have felt because of her broken leg and the fear of imminent death, she decided to protect that one small spark of life in her arms. She didn''t even hesitate in giving her answer. ¡°I accept your bravery, human woman. But I ask, do you know why this calamity was brought upon you?¡± ¡°N-No.¡± she replied shaking her head. ¡°You are pirates who stole, killed, pillaged, destroyed until the gods above have forsaken all of you. I''m here to act as their voice and sword. Your hate for their creations made their decision final.¡± I told her. ¡°But... But I never did any of those things! I''m seamstress... I never set sailed... My hands were never stained by blood!¡± she retorted. ¡°What of your hate towards those who were not human?¡± I asked. She looked down and bit her lip. ¡°...¡± she mumbled something, but I couldn''t hear. ¡°Speak up.¡± I ordered her. ¡°At least this child... Please... He''s innocent, so at least save this child.¡± she begged. I looked at her for a moment and closed my eyes. Now that I have seen and talked with her, I couldn''t allow myself to kill her in cold blood. Unfortunately, the woman was an adept of the human superiority ideology, a hater of non-humans. Maybe there''s still hope? I wondered. Letting out a sigh, I told her. ¡°I will give you a choice, mortal. If you listen and obey, you will be able to stay together with your child.¡± I told her. ¡°Anything!¡± she replied with a glimpse of hope in her eyes. ¡°I will heal your wounds and allow you free passage to enter the camp for Slaves and Children placed outside of this town. There, you will be tested to see if you still hold the same belief and hate in your heart for non-humans. If you do, you may say farewell to your child for you will die. However, if you manage to cast it aside by then, I will forgive you and allow you free passage off this island. Try and leave by a boat with the rest of this scum, and I will kill you myself. Also, speak none of this to anyone on the island unless I say otherwise. Do you understand?¡± I asked in a stern tone of voice. ¡°Y-Yes!¡± she nodded. ¡°Good.¡± I replied. Removing the wall was easy, I just had to absorb it. Then I used my Magic Energy to carefully repair her broken leg while applying anesthesia on the right nerves. I could have used a spell I designed called [Healing Spell 1], but during the healing process, she would have felt all the pain that went along with it. Also, the name was like that because I couldn''t think of anything better at the moment... Once I was done with this, I used [Body Scan] to check for any other injuries on her body and her baby. Both turned out alright. ¡°Done. Move north of here, towards the forest. Don''t worry, the imps won''t attack you.¡± I told her. Technically, they would... But I planned on changing this with a new order I was about to give them, so technically I didn''t deceive her. ¡°Thank you...¡± she replied and made a bow at the air to my right because she couldn''t technically see me. ¡°Just don''t forget what I said. If you will keep your life or not depends only on yourself.¡± I told her and then left. As soon as I did so, I ordered all imps not to attack any slaves, children, elderly, or adults with children or babies unless they attacked first. With this, all that was left was to create a temporary camp for them, so I flew towards the edge of Town A and absorbed a part of the forest near the walls, leveling the ground in the process. Afterwards, I raised about 100 tents and prepared some boxes with supplies. I summoned a level 1500 Minotaur and placed him at the entrance. This guy was wearing enchanted armor just like the imp, and he could use skills and spells as well. I could have chosen from several variants, including a golden one and a darkness one. They were quite varied after level 1250, almost like they were evolving into something different. Now the reason why it had such a high level was because of his intelligence. Up to level 1000 they were usually as dumb as a rock, but afterwards, they began to think a little bit, even use strategy. A level 1500 Minotaur could also obey more complex commands. I gave him the same non-attack order as I gave the imps, then I told to make sure nobody in the camp was going to fight each other or start to act up. Next to the supply boxes, I made a wooden board and wrote several rules on it in regard to how those living here should behave. Among them, there were rules that forbid fighting and ordering the slaves around. If someone broke the rules, depending on the severity, the Minotaur would first give them a warning first, a growl or something like that, then he was free to beat them to a pulp, but not kill the guilty ones. With these rules set, I made an exact copy of this place next to Town B. Now all that was left to do was to announce the situation to everyone on the island. Thus, I flew up in the air, and let my voice be heard through my spell [Broadcasting]. ¡°This is the master of this island speaking. I expect everyone got acquainted with my little pets, the imps? They are the proof that I am not joking around.¡± I spoke in a harsh tone of voice. ¡°Now then!¡± I coughed and continued to speak ¡°I order you, if you value your lives, to send ALL of your slaves to the camps outside the city guarded by a Minotaur. He will not kill the slaves, but everyone else is minced meat.¡± I laughed. ¡°Ah, but taking all of the slaves is no fun... I know! Send all those you think they might act like a landlubber as well as all of your children. Parents who do not wish to part with them are welcomed too. In front of the Minotaur declare out loud that you renounce your connection to them for a free passage off the island. Simple, right?¡± I said and then stopped the spell. It struck me then, but I didn''t tell the Minotaur what to do when these pirates will come over and say all those things... ¡°Sigh... I guess this whole situation is having me on edge. I keep making simple mistakes.¡± I said and shook my invisible head. Well, it was no biggie. I just flew back to each camp and order them to listen to them then pointed at the message board next to them. If they pushed forward the person they ''gave up'', then the Minotaur was going to nod his head once and let that person pass through. As for the other one, he wasn''t allowed to step into the camp, but he wasn''t going to end up attacked either. Overall, I hoped there weren''t be any major problems with my orders. With a sigh escaping my lips, I flew up into the sky and opened a map that showed all the lifeforms on this island. It was one of my new spells: [Life Signs Detection Map]. It was based on my Dungeon Territory''s inbuilt Life Signs and Allies sensors, and what it did was basically show those signals on the holographic map of my territory. I changed all children and slaves to neutral to keep the monsters from attacking them as an extra safety precaution. If they were set to neutral, an intelligent monsters could still attack them if they were seen as a potential enemy. Only allies were completely ignored by them. Hence why I had to give them a verbal command. That one worked no matter how I perceived their status. As for allies, only my wives were shown, and they were currently moving as I had asked them to. ¡°Hm, I wonder who won their silly competition?¡± I said to myself. All that was left to do now was... to wait. Chapter 96: The end of Pirate Island [Illsyore''s point of view] The allocated week went by in a flash with me and my wives working on the clock to make sure we could save as many innocents as we could. There were many idiots who tried to lie, cheat, or blackmail their way into the safe zones, but they were all caught and killed without mercy. The true nature of these people was shown in this moment of crisis, and it wasn''t a pretty one. Seeing this event as the end of their normal lives and maybe already hearing death knocking on their doors, many of them revealed their ugly sides and committed unforgivable felonies. Among the serial killers and rapists, there were also cannibals and torturers. These monsters who wore a human skin met a swift end at our hands. Although I gave out several warnings to the islanders and showed the results of disobeying me, as pirates, it was in their nature to ignore such things. Thus, we took their lives without remorse. The ones who tried to escape weren''t allowed to do so either. Their slow moving boats were easy pickings for my highly precise AGLMC Lasers. The beams struck their hulls with unrelenting force and formed a big hole in them. They didn''t even see it coming. The rest was left to the monsters lurking in the depths of the ocean as the pirates were gobbled up one after another. For a moment, I did ponder if it was a good idea to try and salvage their loot, but I gave up on this thought. In the future, I could point this place out as a treasure hunt for the thrill seekers. Once I declared the event over, I did not bother anymore with the pirate survivors who hid on the island. What I did instead was to merge the two camps into one and start counting. ¡°There are 1247.¡± Ayuseya gave the report. ¡°Not as many as I had initially hoped...¡± I said as I looked towards the mass of men, women, and children who were having their supper. ¡°Indeed, maybe just 10% of the whole population?¡± Shanteya nodded. ¡°Less...¡± Nanya mumbled. ¡°It can''t be helped...¡± I let out a sigh. ¡°What should we do now?¡± Shanteya asked. ¡°For now, let us rest. It''s getting dark outside. Tomorrow morning I''m going to build some boats and give them some supplies. If they head for Allasn continent, they should find refuge there.¡± I replied as I rubbed my chin. ¡°Paramanium is a no-go?¡± Ayuseya asked. ¡°Yes. Just thinking about sending these poor people over there gives me a bad feeling.¡± I shuddered. ¡°Good! Then I''m going to take Illsy now!¡± Tamara suddenly announced and grabbed me by my left foot. ¡°Huh?! What the?! Ugh!¡± she pulled, and I fell face first in the dirt. The oversized cat dragged me away from there like a stereotypical caveman would its mate. ¡°What''s going on? Tamara?¡± I tried to get an explanation while attempting to get back on my feet. ¡°Sorry, Illsy, Tamara won.¡± Ayuseya said with a wry smile. ¡°Huh?!¡± I raised an idiotic shout, but they all ignored me as the feline dragged me into the forest. When she found a good resting place, she told me to make a room for us, and I complied. What came next was a night of moaning, hugging, and lots of kisses. The nekatar was quite passionate in her love-making, but she often gave me the impression that she knew more than she let out. Even after she went to sleep, the nekatar continued to hug me and refused to let go. I was stuck to her naked body until she woke up later that day. Because of this, I was able to catch a few hours of sleep as well, but we both seriously needed a shower afterwards. Our scent was all over the place. We returned to the campsite at around 2 or 3 PM. The girls were already having a meal and the survivors were waiting for me to dictate their fate. We ate something fast and then I got to work. Several hours later, I finished building three 1000 tonne galleons, each outfitted to carry up to at least 300 sailors and another 100-150 regular passengers. They were also stocked with plenty of food, and all sorts of necessities the crew might need on this journey, including several barrels of lemons to avoid scurvy. I didn''t make those, just reallocated the existing supplies in the two towns. Since the original galleons didn''t have anything like a toilet, I made some specially designed cabins for people to use. ¡°There!¡± I said satisfied. ¡°That''s good Illsy... but you have a problem.¡± Nanya said with a nod. ¡°What problem?¡± I asked tilting my head to the left. She came closer and then shouted in my ear ¡°You built them on LAND!¡± ¡°OUCH!¡± I pulled back and rubbed my ringing ear. ¡°How do you plan on transporting them all the way to the sea?¡± she asked shaking her head. ¡°I can just carve a channel all the way there...¡± I mumbled. ¡°Hm, I didn''t think of that.¡± she tilted her head and blinked surprised. ¡°Was the shouting really necessary?¡± I asked. ¡°No. I apologize, Illsy.¡± Nanya shook her head and then gave me a kiss on the cheek. ¡°What''s up with you lately anyway? Is something the matter?¡± I asked her while I pulled her in my embrace. She looked away for a moment and then looked back into my eyes. ¡°I''m just tired... and a bit frustrated because I lost the game...¡± she let out a sigh. ¡°You should have slept some more.¡± I furrowed my brow. ¡°It''s not that...¡± she shook her head. ¡°Then?¡± ¡°It''s this whole island... the pirates... this whole mess... I don''t like it.¡± she shook her head. ¡°Why does it make you uncomfortable?¡± I asked. ¡°It makes all of us uncomfortable, and I''m worried you might take a liking to killing...¡± she said as she looked into my eyes. I could tell that she feared the possibility of me slowly turning into the Darkness again, but something like that was absolutely impossible. Not at as long as I had my beloved wives by my side. But I suppose it''s natural to think like this after I had killed several thousands humans in just this one week... In my previous life, such a concept would have been seen as impossible, unthinkable, improbable, but right now... I do have the cold thinking of a Dungeon and the belief that if I ever stray from the right path, the gods of this world will make sure to let me know. Then again... I''m also older than I look... I thought as I gently caressed her cheek. Nanya coiled her tail around my waist and closed her eyes, submitting herself to my embrace. ¡°I''ll never take a liking to killing... If I did, we wouldn''t have bothered with asking the gods for advice regarding this matter.¡± I told her and gently lifted up her chin. She looked into my eyes, and I could see that her worries were still reflected in her gaze. Because she cared so much for me, she feared even more the possibility of loosing me... again. Maybe it was from that fear itself that her rather ''violent'' behavior stemmed from. ¡°Trust me, if I had time to spend thinking about killing someone just for the heck of it, I would make sure to spend it cuddling with you instead. It''s far more enjoyable!¡± I smiled. Pulling her closer to me, I stole her lips for a passionate kiss and closed my eyes, enjoying the moment. Thanks to her, all the tension and trouble I had in this past week vanished as though it was nothing but a bad dream. Her embrace soothed me, and her lips healed me. Rather than a demoness, she was more of an angel to me... a stunningly beautiful angel who threw tantrums with her fists. By the time it got dark, the three galleons baptized under the names Augustus, Tiberius, and Casanova finally hit the water. The channels were finished in the blink of an eye, but forming the three groups of survivors and bringing them all on board of each ship was a bit more difficult. Before I let them set sail into the open ocean, I told them several things. ¡°Here are my conditions to let you live. First of all, you shall not, under any circumstances, attack other boats while sailing towards Allasn. The white flag means that you are refugees, not pirates. The captain I decided upon does not hold absolute authority over all of you. Their job is simple: get you to a port in Allasn. Afterwards, you may keep the boats if wish to do trade or use them as transport, but if I hear you returned to the life of a pirate, I will literally skin you alive and make you watch. Got it?¡± I glared at them. They all gulped and nodded. ¡°Good! Second rule is as follows: Under no circumstances you shall attack, rob, harm, or rape one another while sailing towards Allasn. If you do so... well, you remember what I did with rapists, right?¡± I showed them a wide, sinister smile. The word ''meatball'' took a whole other meaning under this context. They all gulped and nodded. ¡°Good! Third rule is as follows: Once you reach Allasn, you are free to do and go wherever you desire. I don''t care, and you don''t need to tell me. To help you on your journey, I shall give you all several gold coins from the treasury of the Pirate King. Those who hold crafting jobs, I shall give you some tools to start off your business again. But again, don''t even dare to try and rob each other. Got it?¡± I glared at them. The shook their heads left and right. ¡°I may not be among you, but I can always just go and ask the gods who watch over you. Then, if you happened to cross any of my rules, I''ll hunt you down! Don''t make light of the mercy I showed you. If you value your newfound freedom, you will also make sure none of you get any bright ideas either. Got it?¡± I let out a small growl at the end. They all nodded. ¡°Good.¡± I smirked. After this brief instruction period, I shared the Pirate King''s gold in equal parts. I also kept my word and gave those with professions a set of enchanted tools most suitable for each of them. By the time it was midnight, this whole thing was finally over. I let them sail and as I did, I told Nanya ¡°All that''s left is to send the last ship off and then prepare ourselves for departure.¡± ¡°What last ship?¡± she asked confused. ¡°The one we come with. I ordered them to lower their anchor on the other side of the island, remember?¡± I told her. ¡°Ah yes! I forgot. Tehe!¡± she poked out her tongue. ¡°Which one of us do you think should go and test them out?¡± Zoreya asked. ¡°I think Nanya should. She was technically their captain for a while. Afterwards, I''ll give them some supplies and send them off on the road.¡± I replied. ¡°Alright. I''ll be back as soon as I''m done.¡± she smiled. ¡°They are that way.¡± I pointed in the general direction. ¡°I''m off!¡± she said and then dashed towards the ship. Two hours later, she returned with a smile on her face. Out of all the 114 remaining pirates on board of that ship, only 67 survived this final test. A lot more than I had expected. I was estimating around 24, but I guess I was wrong about them... I left them enough supplies to last them for two months on the sea, and I also repaired their boat to pristine condition. After giving them enough gold coins to last them for a year, I ordered them to set sail and never again steal from others.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. With this, I called it a day and went to bed. For the first time in a while, I slept together with all of my beloved wives. We didn''t do anything perverted, just closed our eyes and went to sleep. It was pleasant and peaceful, and I dreamed of playing the latest video games developed in this world. For some reason though, the publisher was always ''Holy God of Big Boobs INC''. The following day, I was the last one to wake up. Tamara was the first one because she wanted to cook breakfast... We had freshly caught fish. Then, after we ate, we headed down to the beach and prepared to depart this island for good. ¡°Everyone ready?¡± I asked as I spawned our trusty raft and let it drop on the sand. At that moment, two powerful hands gripped my shoulders. Ayuseya was on my left and Nanya was on my right. They were squeezing hard enough to crack my Magic Armor. ¡°Illsy?¡± they both asked at the same time while showing me a frightening smile. I gulped. ¡°Yes, my beloved wives?¡± I asked after I squeezed out a smile. ¡°We do hope you aren''t planning on making us paddle on that tiny raft again, right?¡± Nanya asked, squeezing harder. I think I heard a crack just now. ¡°Erm... yes?¡± I replied. And thus, I was tossed in the sand head first... A crater formed around me and the shockwave resulted caused the waves to stand still for a moment. ¡°BLEAH! Ouch...¡± I groaned after I pulled my head out and spat a mouth full of sand. ¡°Illsy, you can''t be serious about making us sail on the ocean on that thing when we are fully aware of the fact that you can build fully equipped and ready to sail galleons!¡± Ayuseya complained. ¡°But... but...¡± I said. ¡°No buts!¡± Nanya raised a finger up ¡°I can''t believe you had the audacity of making us sail on that thing when you could have made us a boat!¡± she said with a growl. She''s angry... No, they are all definitely pissed... I thought and gulped. ¡°B-But... sailing on a raft in the middle of the sea is... is...¡± I mumbled. ¡°Is what?¡± Zoreya asked squinting her eyes at me. I gulped again. ¡°The dream of a man!¡± I declared proudly. ¡°Mhm.¡± the High Apostle nodded calmly and then holding on her shield with both hands, she lifted it above her head. ¡°What are you going to do with that?¡± I asked and gulped. Nanya and Ayuseya held me tight, and I couldn''t flee. ¡°Don''t hate me, Illsy, this is for making us sail on that stupid thing. I nearly drowned because of it!¡± she shouted and slammed the ridiculously heavy shield hard on my head. It was lights out for me... When I woke up, I was buried neck deep into the sand, and my wives were all standing around me in a circle. ¡°Ugh... owie...¡± I complained. ¡°Illsy, you better build us a boat. We are all very angry with you.¡± Shanteya said as with her arms crossed at her chest. ¡°You too?¡± I asked with a furrow. ¡°Mhm.¡± she nodded with her eyes closed. I gulped. ¡°You should know that making us sail on that raft wasn''t the brightest thing you did.¡± Ayuseya pointed out. ¡°Umn..¡± I looked down. ¡°Especially since Shanteya here is pregnant.¡± Nanya pointed out. ¡°I''m a nekatar... I like fish, but I hate getting my fur wet for no good reason.¡± said Tamara. ¡°I''m wearing heavy plate armor. Enough said.¡± Zoreya pointed out. ¡°With sexy lingerie underneath...¡± I mumbled. ¡°That has nothing to do with it...¡± the armored women looked away bashfully. ¡°Illsy, we are seriously upset with you.¡± Shanteya told me. ¡°Ugh... Fine! I did something stupid! I apologize!¡± I said and then let out a sigh. ¡°And?¡± Nanya asked raising an eyebrow. ¡°I promise I''m not going to do it again and properly ask next time...¡± I added. There was no point to keep on being stubborn, and my surprise adventure of sailing on a raft from an island to another was suddenly canceled. It was clear my wives didn''t look forward to it as much as I did. Even though there wasn''t anything that could have went wrong with our trip, they didn''t appreciate the lack of comfort. More like they weren''t in the mood for something like this. I for one, just clung to some stupid childhood dream I had in my past life. In a way, it ended up becoming true if I ignored the part about me becoming a ship''s captain after reaching the port on my simple raft. Then again, this thing was probably safer to sail on than on one of those galleons. The enchants on it were no joke. ¡°Very well, now get out of there and build a real boat.¡± Shanteya said with a smile. She knelt in front of me and gently ruffled my hear like I was some naughty kid. ¡°Alright...¡± I said with half of voice. After I got out, I simply pointed my hand at the sea and summoned a ready-built modern luxury yacht. This thing had bullet-proof windows and hull, enchanted everything, a propulsion system based on Magic Crystal Engine technology I had developed. It even had a minibar and a surround music system. The shape was smooth and slick, with a length of 54 meters. It looked similar to the luxury yachts I often saw on the internet. If I were to guess, its estimated price back on Earth should have been at somewhere around 300-400 million euros or more. ¡°What''s that?¡± Nanya asked in wonder. ¡°A boat... It doesn''t have roes.¡± I mumbled as I moved towards it. ¡°Where are the sails?¡± Zoreya asked. ¡°It doesn''t have any... It runs with the help of my Magic Crystals.¡± I said. ¡°You sound sad.¡± Tamara pointed out. ¡°Well... I wanted our ocean journey to be an adventure, not a smooth sail on a luxury yacht.¡± I replied. ¡°Better this way. No need to worry about fishing out Zoreya from the depths of the ocean anymore!¡± Tamara said and then gave me a kiss on the cheek. I smiled and nodded. ¡°True. Then! Let''s get on board and fully enjoy our trip towards the continent!¡± I declared as I was back to my normal self again. The kiss of a cute wife with cat ears was powerful enough to bring forth miracles! ¡°Indeed!¡± Ayuseya approved. After we all got on board and gave them a quick tour of the place, I sailed the ship away from the island. Once we reached a safe distance from shore, I flew out of my body and went back to it. Using almost all of my Magic Energy, I absorbed the entirety of the island all the way to the bottom of the sea, creating a big hole where once the big block of land was. Only the animals and insects were left out, sending them all to a watery grave alongside the pirates who tried to hide in the forest. As the waters rushed in to close the gap, I flew back to my ship and sailed away as fast as I could. ¡°That''s the second island you ate...¡± Zoreya mumbled. ¡°Alright... The dangerous waves passed, we are sailing at cruise speed, aaand I''m dead tired now...¡± I said and looked back at the armored woman ¡°Carry me to my room...¡± I requested. ¡°Very well. Nanya, will you steer the ship?¡± she asked. ¡°I will. Just hold the helm steady, right? Have a good nap, Illsy. You''ll need to wake up and explain what all of these buttons do.¡± Nanya said as I nodded back to her. ¡°I found the kitchen! There''s fish!¡± announced Tamara. Of course, how could I forget about her fish. A big yawn escaped my lips as I got carried to the room by Zoreya. If only I could have convinced her not to princess-carry me... [Several days later, in the Paramanium Imperial Palace] [The First Prince''s point of view] While I was in the middle of enjoying the gladiator match between two slaves, I was told that a messenger came baring grave news. I made him wait until the match was over. The human had won against the nekatar warrior. It was unfortunate that I had bet on that furry mongrel. Now I was a few gold coins short. I allowed the messenger to enter my private room, but he stood at the door, held by the guards. ¡°Your highness, I apologize for disturbing you, but we just received grave news from the North.¡± ¡°The North? That''s odd... Speak.¡± I said as I looked over at him with a raised eyebrow. ¡°The Pirate Island is gone. According to one of the survivors, it appears as though a Godlike Dungeon named Illsyore... devoured it.¡± he said. ¡°What sort of nonsense are you spouting?¡± I asked glaring at him. There was no way a Godlike Dungeon existed, let alone one that could devour an island of that side. Nevertheless, was it possible for a Dungeon to devour anything besides the flesh of the foolish adventurers who stepped within its corridors? I highly doubted it. ¡°The survivor was once a high ranking captain in the Pirate Navy. He survived only through luck, but he swore on his life that this was the truth. The Dungeon isn''t a Crystal Core either but one with a humanoid body. It had green hair and wore weird clothes. He traveled with a draconian, a nekatar, and a full-plated warrior woman. Apparently they were his wives. As for the island, the Dungeon set foot on it two weeks ago. After having killed the Pirate King, he unleashed terrible monsters that wrecked the towns and ordered the survivors to bring them offerings in the shape of slaves and innocents. That is all, your highness.¡± he spoke calmly and made a deep bow in respect. Although I heard what he said, it sounded quite ridiculous if one were to ask me. Still, it made curious if that so-called survivor spoke the truth or not. In regard to the disappearance of the island, reports from our navy should come forth confirming this fact. ¡°A Godlike Dungeon... hm.¡± I rubbed my chin. This reminded me of another report I received several years ago. It was from the Supreme named Dankyun who went mad and destroyed the Fellyore Academy. That place was doomed to fail from the start because it was impossible to accept the idea of a place where the laws of nobles didn''t apply. Sooner or later, it would have given in on our pressure, but... wasn''t the name of the so-called Dungeon Core installed there also Illsyore? Or was it something else? I thought. ¡°You may leave.¡± I ordered him. ¡°As you wish, your highness!¡± he replied and then left. My father and siblings should have received a similar report. Seeing how absurd it was, I highly doubting that they wouldn''t make a move to either capture this Godlike Dungeon or try to dispose of him. Both foolish actions, especially if he was someone who could make an entire island disappear. I had to be wary of this strange ability of his. Getting up from my seat, I approached the balcony and looked at the men who were dragging the corpse of the nekatar gladiator away. ¡°Did you hear?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes, my liege.¡± a voice from the shadow replies. ¡°Have your guild look into their group. Bring me any information you can find, but do not engage them. If they settle down anywhere let me know immediately.¡± I ordered. ¡°As you desire. The Phantom''s Rage shall oblige and bring forth prosperous results.¡± the voice in the shadow spoke before vanishing. I couldn''t sense him anymore, but I was certain that he was gone now. All that''s left to do is to inform my generals to prepare the armies. If this is a Godlike Dungeon, then we will need a very large force to overpower him. Should I have father request the help of the other kingdoms? No... not yet. I will wait until the assassins bring me news of their settlement, otherwise, I may risk moving carelessly. Hm, I wonder if I can use this Illsyore to earn a favor from the other kingdoms? I thought and then I continued to plot as I watched the next battle between gladiators.