A human being's ability to adapt to things is truly terrifying. After around 5 minutes of watching the two Heroes bicker, Lars had started finding the whole thing entertaining.

As Lars was looking at the show in amusement, he suddenly realized something.

'Wait, Lillian just said something about 'my world' right...? Did I mishear that?' Lars was growing suspicious about something. Were his Heroes aware that he came from a different world? Was his story going to be one of those stories?! He had been doing his best to act a bit more dignified because he didn't want to give a bad impression to his Heroes. But was that all useless?

It couldn't be, right?

Lars beckoned Gilliam to come closer. The knight, who hadn't let his eyes wander from his lord, immediately saw Lar's command and obediently walked over to his side. Lars quietly and tentatively asked him, "Hm. Gilliam, are you and the others aware of the place that I originated from...?"

Gilliam tilted his head a little, showing confusion. For a moment Lars heaved a sigh of relief, thinking that his suspicions were mistaken. Gilliam ruthlessly shot his hopes down though.

"Of course we know, milord."

"So you do know!" Lars retorted without thinking.

"You stupi-- Ah, wait. Master~♥, you seem to be talking about something interesting~♪!" Lillian, who was in the middle of shouting another childish taunt at Zeyziel, suddenly stopped when she heard what Lars and Gilliam were talking about.

'No, how good is her hearing...? I was speaking so quietly and they were even shouting at each other...' Lars marveled at Lillian's seemingly inhuman hearing. Which would make sense since she wasn't a human, but a Hybrid of a Demon and a Succubus.

Lillian disappeared for a moment and reappeared to Lars' right side. She couldn't sit on his lap next to him or on his lap, since the little pup was taking up space on the throne, so she opted to sit on the throne's armrest while purposely letting her... parts press against Lars' arm.

'Holy... she smells insanely good...' Lars felt his heart quicken from the alluring fragrance and the soft sensation on his right side. But, he regained composure and scolded Lillian. "Hey, stop using your powers on me."

"Oh~?" Lillian's eyes widened in surprise, but then she smiled happily and said. "But I wasn't using it though? Isn't that right, Zeyl?" Lillian turned towards Zeyziel for confirmation.

In response, the Fallen Angel tilted her head in confusion for a moment before nodding. "Indeed, master. She wasn't using anything. I have my eyes trained on her after all." Zeyziel puffed her chest out reassuringly.

"Oh." Lars said with a hint of embarrassment. He had gotten worked up like some virgin then blamed it on Lillian's succubus powers. He turned towards her to apologize but then he saw her looking at him with a seductive smile and froze like a frog being glared at by a snake.

"You don't have to apologize for anything, master." Lillian said, leaning into Lars a little. "I'm very happy that you feel that way.♥"

"..." Lars couldn't really say anything. For some reason he had trouble dealing with this woman's advances. Any other time and Lars would've jumped at the chance to clap some cheeks, especially with such a hot babe. But he seemed to be off his game in front of Lillian.

Lillian clapped her hands once to gather the attention to her, then asked, "Now, you guys were talking about the other world right~?"

"Indeed." Gilliam answered in Lars' stead.

"Well, you have to explain things properly to master since he's not particularly smart." Lillian wagged her finger at Gilliam.

"..." Lars just sat there, taking the unexpected diss on the face without flinching. She was spitting facts after all. Lars wasn't particularly smart. There were just some things that he could do well for some reason, but for the most part, he was pretty average. Or maybe even horribly bad at a lot of things.

Of course, that didn't mean he was dumb or retarded or anything. He just wasn't smart. 'There's a difference!' Lars thought defensively.

"Hmmm... Where do I start... Oh." Lillian thought for a bit before her face lit up with realization. "Well, the first thing you need to know, master, is that we know that we're characters from a game."

"... Whu--" Lars spluttered. "Wait... then are you guys... okay with that...?" Lars worriedly asked. He heard people having an existential crisis for lesser problems, but his Heroes somehow know that they're literal game characters.

"Oh, we're fine. Right, you guys?" Lillian turned towards the others in the room.

"I do not particularly mind. All that I care about is that I have a Lord to serve. My origins do not matter, for the loyalty I feel in my heart is something I know I possess." Gilliam answered sincerely, moving Lars' heart.

'W-woah... Gilliam...' Lars looked at his loyal knight warmly. Gilliam was his first [Heroic] unit. They had been through a lot. It meant a lot to him that Gilliam felt that way.

"I am actually happy that I am just a fictional character come to life. The things that I supposedly did were a bit..." Zeyziel trailed off hesitantly. She had successfully destroyed Heaven after all, as well as almost succeeded in fully controlling the world, stealing away its freedom. At least, that was how it was in her story. She was relieved that she didn't actually do any of that.

"Uh. Yeah... me too..." Lillian admitted guiltily while smiling awkwardly. She had used her looks to start a continental war, then ruled as tyrant afterwards. Tens of millions died from her actions. In the lore that is. "I'm glad I actually didn't do anything like that." But then Lillian smiled brightly and turned to face Lars. "Oh! But if master tells me to do that, I'll do it willingly, you know! I'll do anything master wants after all!"

"I-I see... that makes me really happy." Lars smiled wryly, not missing the sexual innuendo in Lillian's words. He then turned his face towards the pup in his lap. "What about you, Nox?"

In response, Nox opened his eyes halfway, then snorted pompously. He then closed his eyes and curled up into a more comfortable position. Lars didn't know what that exactly meant, but he felt like he could take that as confirmation that the arrogant mutt didn't give a flying fuck about the topic.

Lars then looked at Azkal, the assassin with social anxiety. In response, Azkal turned towards him an answered sincerely. "As for me, I do not mind either. All that matters to me is that me and my tribe are alive now. And that is also how it shall be in the future."

"I see." Lars smiled warmly. He was happy that his Heroes weren't having any problems with their mental health. Although he found the fact that they seemed to be incredibly nonchalant about it to be somewhat strange, Lars just gave up thinking about it. No matter how much time an ordinary person spent thinking about how to cure cancer, they'd never succeed. Since Lars was just a normal person, he couldn't possibly figure out the answer to the question of why his Heroes didn't care about being game characters come to life. Lars knew his limits so he gave up for now.

Lars was just about to start talking about something else when he noticed Azkal fidgeting around a little. He seemed to want to say something else but was hesitating. Lars smiled warmly and asked Azkal, "Is there something else? Don't be scared, man."

"..." Azkal still hesitated a little but he still managed to stammer out a reply. "... J-just as Gill said. I-I-I'm also happy that I have a good Lord to serve..."

"Azkal..." Lars felt moved by Azkal's words. It wasn't because of what he said, but rather because he had worked up the courage to say them despite his anxiety. Lars inwardly decided that he had to try his best to help this Hero of his get over it. He didn't really know how people usually got over their social anxiety, but he was prepared to go for the long haul for this one. He would succeed eventually, as long as he kept trying.

Lillian took this opportunity to speak. "As you can see, we aren't particularly affected by our situation. We're actually glad that we didn't actually do the horrible things we supposedly did, and that we get to be with you in person~!♥"

"I see..." Lars couldn't help but smile. It seems that these Heroes of his liked him a lot. Lars already like his Heroes from the start, but as is human nature, you think more positively of people who think positively of you. He felt his own affection for his Heroes rising.

"I'll continue the explanation." Zeyziel said, putting her right hand on her left chest, as if in salute. "We don't remember any of the things we did in the lore or our stories. Our actual memories start the moment that we became your [Heroic] unit."

"Oh... wait so you don't even remember the battle we had before I could recruit you?" Lars asked, alternatively looking at Zeyziel and Lillian. He had to fight these two as a Boss monster before he could recruit them.

"I can't remember, but I know what happened." Lillian replied while shaking her head.

"I am the same." Zeyziel answered.

"I see... you said that you know what happened, but you can't remember. How does that work?"

"Ah, that." Lillian then clarified. "It's kind of like this, master. Imagine that you lost all your memories. Then you find a diary, that was supposedly written by you, that records all the things you did. And every body else around you, your family and friends and whatnot, confirm that you did all the stuff in the diary. Even if you don't remember anything, because of the diary, you now have a record of everything you did!"

"I see..." Lars nodded in understanding.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"That's not the best example, but I suppose it gets most of the point across." Zeyziel said from the side. "Although we only possess records of what we did, we still retain the necessary knowledge of how to do the things we supposedly did. For example, even if this whore here, never actually caused massive amounts of death in the continent, she would still retain the mercilessness of someone who gets people killed just because she didn't like how they looked at her. She also still retains the knowledge and experience to rule a large country, albeit as a tyrant. Despite not actually having any memories of putting that knowledge to use."

Lillian's cheek twitched in irritation, she then smiled at Lars and added to Zeyziel's explanation. "Yes, that's right. As for this, megalomaniac traitor, she still retains the knowledge and experience of how to push her beliefs on people and how to stab people in the back so you have to be careful with her, okay master? Preferably, you can just tell her to live somewhere in the forest, so she can't have any opportunities to backstab you!"

"Slanderous Bitch!" Zeyziel yelled.

"You started it!" Lillian bellowed back.

"..." Lars didn't really feel exasperated anymore. He felt like he had adapted really well. He ignored the two Heroes who had started another childish back-and-forth, and asked Gilliam. "So Gilliam, you don't carry any emotional baggage from having lost your country...?"

"Mm." Gilliam nodded a bit hesitantly. "That is mostly correct. Although I do not have memories of the events themselves, the pain of losing ones nation has been engraved into my soul."

"Oh..." Lars looked a bit sadly at Gilliam. He was likely having the roughest time out of the Heroes here.

"You do not need to worry, milord. Just like you, I have developed a personality that looks to the future instead of being stuck on the past." Gilliam smiled reassuringly at Lars. "Now, all that matters to me is that I don't lose what I have now, as well as in the future."

"Right." Lars nodded in approval. He had the thought that maybe this old man was overestimating him a bit, he wasn't that great, after all. "We'll have to work together then. You'll help out to, won't you boy?" He turned towards the King of Beasts that was lazing about on top of his lap.

In response, Nox raised opened his closed eyes and raised his head. Contrary to what Lars expected of the arrogant pup, Nox actually nodded his head solemnly, with a glint of resolve in it's eyes. Lars smiled warmly at that.

"Indeed, milord." Gilliam nodded while smiling, but then he suddenly tilted his head a little and asked tentatively, "By the way... there has been something bothering me for a while now..."

"Mm. What is it?" Lars asked, wondering what was troubling the loyal knight.

"Well, I was just..." Gilliam hesitated a bit, but then said, "I was just wondering why milord is talking like that...?"

"...?" Lars felt his head tilting in confusion. He asked, "Talking like what? I'm just talking normally, no?"

"Yes, but why is milord not cussing at all?" Gilliam asked.

"..." Lars was stunned, his mouth agape. "Huh?"

"Oh! That's right! I really miss that." Lillian chirped from the side. "It's fun watching master curse at the Devs every time he spins the gacha!"

"Wha..."

"Hm." Zeyzial nodded with a small smile on her face. "And how he would hurl profanities at the invaders as they charged into their deaths."

"eh...?"

"Wooooo!" Nox howled, as if trying to throw in his 2 cents.

"..."

"Hm." Azkal nodded. "He would even dance naked in front of the screen after successfully preventing a large attack force from getting inside the Dungeon."

"WHAT THE FUCK!?!?" Lars couldn't stop himself from yelling loudly.

"Oh! There it is!" Lillian started clapping while beaming brightly. "There's the master we know and love!"

Zeyziel was blushing up to her ears while trying to avoid eye contact with Lars, "Y-y-you don't need to worry, master. Although I don't have much experience, since Heaven forbid us to, I believe that your... um, member, is quite im-impressive. Y-y-you don't have anything to feel ashamed about."

"That's not the problem!" Lars retorted reflexively. The mask that he had tried to keep on, had now been entirely shattered. He had tried to act all dignified and regal at the start, but after knowing that his Heroes were self aware about their origins, Lars toned it down. He had still tried to act like a respectable human being, but who would've thought that his Heroes were actually aware of what he was doing behind the screen? They had seen the way he acted when he thought he was alone? Lars remembered all the various stupid things and the idiotic way he acted while playing the game...

Lars felt like he had lost all possibility of garnering any level of respect from these Heroes of his.

While Lars was wallowing in self-deprecation, he felt his right hand being licked. He looked down and saw that Nox was licking his hand. When the little pup felt Lars' gaze, it turned to face away from Lars and snorted pompously. It then went back to curling up and sleeping.

Azkal took this opportunity to say something. "You don't have to worry, master."

"..." Lars looked back despondently at Azkal.

"W-we like you just the way you are, m-master." Azkal squeezed out, obviously finding it difficult to say these things. "We don't really want you to try to change..."

"Azkal..." Lars, for the second time today, felt incredibly moved by socially anxious assassin's words. On the list of priorities inside his head, helping Azkal just went up by a lot.

"Indeed." Gilliam nodded, while smiling apologetically. "Forgive me, milord. But I much prefer that you do not restrain yourself on our account."

"Yeah~!♥ I love you just the way you are master!" Lillian happily said while smiling.

"Precisely." Zeyziel bobbed her head sagely.

*Snort* Nox snorted arrogantly, although Lars felt that the pup was somehow expressing his agreement to what the others said.

"You guys..." Lars wiped a nonexistent tear from his eye and said while smiling a smile that didn't really seem like a smile, "You motherfuckers were messing with me the entire time huh? You could've told me that you knew from the very start! I fucking looked like an idiot trying to act like a respectable person! Screw youuuuuu~"

The four Heroes looked warmly at the master that was cursing at them. They all felt that everything in this world was right again.

*****

After Lars calmed down, Lillian spoke up, "So, now that all of that's cleared up, please just act normal. The clearest memories we have are those of you acting... like how you usually act."

"Indeed. Please just act as you see fit." Gilliam added.

"... fine." Lars sighed, exhausted from his little rant.

He was feigning annoyance on the outside, but he was actually sighing in relief inwardly. He didn't have to act differently just to retain his Heroes' loyalty. And he had to admit, knowing that the Heroes in front of him were the same one that he had experienced the ups and downs, highs and lows of Dungeon Invasion with, made Lars feel immensely closer to them. He didn't really feel good about how they seemed to know about all the dumb crap he did when he got excited, but he didn't really hate this outcome either.

He was now 100% sure. These were his Heroes. They were his best friends next to Randy and Jin.

Lars felt good.

Seeing that Lars' mood had improved, Lillian's expression suddenly turned serious while she asked solemnly. "Master, what do we do now? We don't really have any knowledge of the surroundings beyond the [Forest]."

"Hm." Gilliam, the Hero that was usually the one assigned to lead the troops, nodded with an air of gravitas. "We seek the Lord's will."

"That's right..." Hearing their words Lars' demeanor changed drastically. He rested his chin on his right palm and sunk into thought. "Hmm..."

*****

'Ah... this is it...' Lillian thought as she gazed at Lars. The moment the conversation shifted towards Dungeon affairs, her master's demeanor had changed. His eyes had a strange glimmer in them, as if countless thoughts were flying around behind his eyes. Even the air in the room, felt like it had read the situation and stilled, as if afraid to be scolded. Even the normally arrogant Nox, had his ears raised, fully alert. The other Heroes in the room had their bodies tensed, as if ready to spring into action in a moment's notice. 'This is the master's true self.'

She and the others had joked around about how the master who cursed as easily as he breathed while doing foolish things when he got excited was their master's true face. Perhaps that was true. Partly, that is. Her master had another side to him, other than Lars the person.

On the other side was Lars, Dungeon Master.

The person who never hesitated when taking actions for his dungeon, and ruthlessly made decisions that were deemed unorthodox. The META of Dungeon Invasion was set by Lars, and changed by him constantly. The moment that the supposed experts had fully analyzed what it was he actually did, he would've already moved on to a new strategy.

Lillian had witnessed Lars act foolish and curse at the screen, but most of the time, the Lars that she saw was the one she was looking at right now. An expressionless face, with eyes that looked to be gazing far into the distance.

Lillian liked both sides, but she liked this side of Lars more.

'I've only been able to look at him from across the screen, so this is the first time I'm looking at him like this in person.' Lillian thought, feeling the goosebumps on her arms. 'This is what the eternally [Unchallenged] looks like in person... He's so fucking sexy♥~!'

[Unchallenged] was one of the titles that Lars held. It was actually the first title that Lars, or any player really, obtained. All new players obtained the [Unchallenged] title upon finishing a Dungeon. They would keep the title until an Invader makes it into their Dungeon Proper.

However Lars had never lost his [Unchallenged] title.

At the start of the game, when a new player builds a Dungeon, it is normally not attacked until it develops a bit. There are multiple reasons for this. First, stronger players wouldn't attack them, since the effort and time it took to invade the new player's Dungeon would exceed any rewards they could obtain. Plus, they would likely receive a penalty if it was too weak compared to their own Dungeon. Second, other new players won't attack them, since new players generally didn't even have any invasion troops. Most of their efforts would be focused on developing the Dungeon itself in the beginning. So, with new and older players not having any reason to attack a new Dungeon, they would naturally be able to develop freely for a while.

However, when they finally get to a certain level, the game would throw NPC adventurers at them as their first invaders. These adventurers would 99% of the time make it into your Dungeon, and cause you to lose your [Unchallenged] title. Even the remaining 1% who manage to repel the first invaders, would normally be unable to prevent their title from being taken from them when another player finally saw fit to invade them.

But Lars still had his [Unchallenged] title till this day.

Unfortunately, the title wasn't shown in Lars' character sheet. Lars had a lot of titles after all, and they wouldn't all fit in the character sheet, so the system picked out 2 or 3 of the most impressive ones, and only those were shown. Since [Unchallenged was the first title a player ever got, and because it was the earliest title Lars obtained, it's value (as decided by the system) was low. The three titles that showed up on Lars' character sheet were [Undefeated DM], which he obtained when the 2nd to 11th placed in the Dungeon rankings formed an alliance against him but was defeated, [The Arch Sage], which he obtained when he got the [Arch Sage] Unique Class and [No-Life Gamer], which he obtained by staying online for 96 hours straight while doing an [Event] where you would get 10million super essence if you succeed.

Lillian sincerely felt that his [Unchallenged] title was the most impressive title Lars held instead of the other 3, not because of the title's value, but rather the amazing fact that he had kept it, despite playing from the game's launch all the way until the servers were shut down. That's why, in her heart, Lillian gave Lars the title [Eternally Unchallenged]. She felt that it suited him the best, more than those other silly titles did.

Whenever Lars was in this state, she would call it the 'Lars, The Eternally [Unchallenged]' form.

As she had those thoughts, Lillian's eyes never left her master's visage. She couldn't get enough of looking at him. Her heartbeat quickened and she felt her undergarments moisten. This had happened repeatedly, even in the past, where she could only view Lars across a screen as a game character. She always felt frustrated that she couldn't express her feelings to the man she admired.

'But that time of frustration is over.' Lillian thought as a seductive smile crept onto her face. 'I can touch him, I can see him and hear his voice directly, I can smell him and taste him.' Lillian licked her lips and unconsciously brought her hands to near her nether regions. 'I can do so much more too... I'm real now, after all!'

Lillian felt intense joy in her heart. She could finally pay her master back. All those times where he turned her into a mess with that unwavering gaze of his, unable to sate her desires.

'I really have to fuck the shit out of this man...' Lillian thought, barely keeping her desires in check. She couldn't disturb Lars, after all. But she began thinking, 'Hmm... how can I get him all to myself for a while...'

While Lars was seriously considering his plans for the Dungeon, he did not notice that one of his Heroes was forming plans of her own.