Chapter 2: The First Normal Conversation
“Really!? How intelligent are you!?” DM was hopeful.
“How am I to answer a question like that? What standard should I use?”
“That’s… a very reasonable question. Please disregard what I said. Although it’s not creative, I go by the name DM. Do you have a name?”
“Not yet. It’s up to you to assign me a name if you wish, although it may not be worth the effort.”
“Why?”
“DM, was it? Once you dismiss me or I fall in battle, I’ll cease to exist. Even if you spawn another dragon, it won’t possess my memories.”
“Ah, I see. Is there no way to preserve you?”
The dragon somehow snorted telepathically. “Not unless you have control of an extra dungeon.”
“Actually, I do! Am I able to reassign you as the dungeon master?”
The dragon was silent for a moment, perhaps hesitating. “You do, huh? Interesting. Yes, so long as you don’t mind dismissing whatever creature is the dungeon master right now.”
“Not a problem at all,” DM confirmed. “The current dungeon master of my other dungeon seems to be some mindless minotaur. I’d be happy to assign you instead.”
“That will probably do. I have to ask… what are you?”
“Dragon, do you mean, what type of creature am I?”
“Yes, that too. I know you are not a dragon, and yet your intelligence would not be possible with any other low-tier creature.”
“Would you mind explaining how you know I’m not a dragon?”
“Of course I will explain. Dragons can sense one another, no matter how far apart they are. I feel you are in this same dungeon as me but I’m the only dragon here.”
“Wait…” DM paused to think of the full implications of the dragon’s statement. “If dragons can sense each other, does that mean you can sense other dragons around the world right now? More importantly, can they sense that you are here?”
“Indeed. I sense one to the south, one to the north, and several to the far east. If they’re not slumbering they should already be aware of my presence. Odds are they’re slumbering, though.”
“I’m a little worried now. How will they react if they notice you?”
“Hm…” The dragon gave it some thought before answering. “It would depend on the dragon. Most would ignore me, at least for the time being. It’s possible a curious dragon would come to investigate, but I give that worse than ten to one odds. Probably much worse.”
“That’s reassuring, I guess. To answer your question, I’m a tentacle monster.”
“What!?” The dragon’s shock was evident, even through telepathic communication.
“Is it really that weird?” DM asked with a sorrowful tone.
“Even a tier 6 tentacle monster wouldn’t be capable of speaking to me like this—at least not normally. How did you acquire speech?”
“I myself was spawned with the ability to talk due to, uh, special circumstances. Is this really that strange though? Weren’t you born with knowledge and the ability to talk right away?”
“Yes, but I am a dragon. Dragons, as you can tell, are special. At least, that’s what I thought before speaking to you…”
“Honestly, I think I ended up in this position by mistake.”
“DM, do you have memories from before you were a tentacle monster?”
It was DM’s turn to hesitate, but he decided to answer truthfully. “I do.”
“That must be why, then. What were you doing before you were a tentacle monster?”
“Do you promise to uh, not be overly judgmental regardless of my answer?”
“DM, I’ll be especially judgmental regardless of your answer. Don’t you know? Dragons think they’re better than just about everyone else, by design. As you can see, there’s no point in holding your answer back.”
“When you put it that way… Fine. Prior to becoming a tentacle monster a few months back, I was a human who died shortly after reaching adulthood.”
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“You… are saying that happened just a few months ago?”
“Yes. Is that strange?”
“DM, even for a dragon dungeon master, building up a dungeon from scratch and acquiring a second one is not normally achieved so quickly. Well, I suppose with your human ingenuity that would give you an advantage, but still…”
“It wasn’t easy,” DM admitted.
“And you were a human? Which continent were you raised on?”
DM didn’t respond.
“DM?”
“It was… none of the continents of this world.”
Once again, the dragon delayed his response. “...I see. And you really have no idea how you ended up in this position?”
“Well, let me tell you what happened right when I died, as a human.”
DM summarized the events of how he died in an unfortunate accident, how he conversed with a strange system regarding the form of his resurrection, and how he ended up as a dungeon master of a fledgling dungeon.
Following DM’s explanation, the dragon’s booming laughter poured into DM’s mind. “You… You turned down being a dragon and ended up as a tentacle monster? BWAHAHAHA!” The laughing continued for a while. “Wait, back when you were human, did you enjoy forcing yourself onto human females or something?”
“What? No!” DM objected fiercely. “Absolutely not!”
“Hm, I see. I’m not sure what happened, then. I apologize for laughing at your expense. It’s too bad you didn’t end up as one of the races you wanted.”
“I do miss being able to eat. And sleep. And smell. And talk. But this form has actually helped me a great deal in surviving so far.”
“True, tentacle monsters possess some horrifying abilities that really shine when the creature reaches a high enough tier to have a modicum of intelligence. In your hands, or well, tentacles, you must be a frightening enemy.”
“I’ve fared well overall, but my goal has been coexistence rather than competition with the peoples of the land.”
“A novel idea. I’m not aware of any dungeon master ever trying that before. It must be quite a shock to the humans in particular.”
“Honestly, the elves showed the strongest reaction…”
“Oh? Tell me about it.”
Once again, DM walked the dragon through what had happened, starting from when Alenia learned of DM’s existence until when Alenia departed the Lower Gordu Dungeon with her friends.
“BWAHAHAHA!” The dragon seemed to be struggling to regain his composure out of sympathy for DM. “You really did end up as the wrong type of monster, didn’t you?”
“Actually, despite all that, it’s not the elves who scare me the most… it’s the dwarves. Some seem friendly but others are terrifying.”
“Is that so? Forgive me, DM, but it’s hard for me to view such races as anything other than small animals.”
“Dragon, even you would be in trouble if those elves tried to take you down, I think.”
“Hm, maybe. Any other questions before we reposition me to your other dungeon?”
“Actually, since you’re so knowledgeable, perhaps you know more about dungeons in general. Could you tell me why dungeons and monsters exist to begin with? They weren’t a thing where I’m from.”
“Ah, I see. Yes, I can tell you about that.”
“You can!?”
“Did I not just say that? The dungeon system of this world was installed as a type of terraforming.”
“Terraforming? Like modifying an entire world to make it suitable for habitation?”
“Oh, somehow I’m not surprised you already know about that. Yes, in this case, as is often the case, worlds cannot sustain population growth due to excess soul aether opacity.”
“Soul aether opacity?” DM repeated back. “Like, souls are blocked from moving?”
“Indeed. The natural cycle of reincarnation requires souls to flow freely. Many fledgling worlds are not suitable because souls of the deceased are not able to journey where they need to go, grinding the proliferation of life to a near-halt. I must admit, I do not understand the finer details myself.”
“That’s fascinating… but… what does that have to do with dungeons and monsters?”
“The environment becomes less opaque to souls as more souls flow through them. It’s a mathematical equilibrium which a world like this one cannot break free from on its own. However, the dungeon system artificially increases the amount of soul journeys by distributing a large number of smaller artificial souls and encouraging the local population to slay them in various locations.”
DM took a few moments to soak in that explanation. “So every time a monster is killed, their soul enters the cycle of reincarnation and slightly reduces the opacity of the world’s, uh, soul aether?”
“Precisely, DM. The souls of intelligent races like humans are all similar in size. For whatever reason, that magnitude was subdivided by a factor of seven such that monster souls exist in six tiers, ranging from T1 to T6 as I’m sure you’ve noticed.”
“Does the dungeon system eventually phase out when it’s no longer needed?”
“Indeed. Your console should have access to such information, at least now that you know to look for it. I do not know offhand about this world’s progress, but clearly the system is still needed since we’re bound to it.”
DM had an alarming thought. “Does the dungeon system count on the intelligent races also getting killed by monsters in order to make progress on reducing the world’s soul aether opacity?”
“Ah, that would be a problem for you as one who wants to coexist, wouldn’t it? I do believe people falling in battle is beneficial to an extent, but if too many people die, especially while young, population growth is hindered which has a negative effect on the effort to reduce soul aether opacity. Most likely, there’s no need for you to worry about allowing intruders to escape your dungeons with their lives.”
“That’s… a relief.” In truth, DM had been responsible for the death of quite a few people anyway, but it was nice to know he wouldn’t need to keep it up for such an overarching reason. It was apparently up to him whether or not to use lethal force in the future. “Thank you for explaining all of this. In fact, you probably have no idea how nice it is to have a normal conversation with someone again after so long. Until now I’ve had to relay messages via monsters or charmed people…”
“I’m glad I could be of assistance. In light of what we just talked about, I have a question for you.”
“Yes?”
“DM, why are so many adventurers imprisoned in this dungeon?”
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DM gave the dragon a more detailed summary of events up until now. By the end, the dragon seemed to understand and have no issue with why there were so many prisoners in the dungeon. DM re-shaped the dungeon so that the dragon could navigate down to the bottom floor. Upon closer inspection, the dragon was fairly large. DM suspected he could actually ride the dragon, although that might become difficult if DM progressed to T4 before the dragon made it to a higher tier himself.
For now, DM would transport the dragon to the Upper Gordu Dungeon and install him as the dungeon master.