In a cold and dark room, a man in his twenties sat in a chair as he looked towards the air in front of him.
Looking at him you would not spot a difference from a normal human, but once you look at his head you can instantly see the difference.
The horns on his head form a crown. Clear signs showing that he is not a human, but a demon.
As a demon he is not strong or possess great background, but just a lowly demon, the lowest scum of all. A low-level Lesser Demon.
What makes him different from other demons? He is reincarnated and has a system that helps him.
When he opened his eyes, first a dark cave welcomed him, and memories assaulted him of how pathetic the previous owner was. He is currently a dungeon lord. What are dungeons?
Dungeons are created by demons on Perans.
What is Perans, or where is it? Perans is the planet name that the inhabitants gave to it.
On Perans, humans are different as there is magic, and not only are they good at manipulating magic, they have a very advanced science and combine the two, making them extremely powerful.
With such a good start for any civilization, they embarked on colonizing the nearby habitable planets, making their civilization possess 5 planets in total.
Even though they have 5 planets under their control and vast resources, most of their attention remains on Perans. Why? Not only is this the capital, but only here can they descend into dungeons, as dungeons only appear on Perans and no other planet.
Then with great technology and magic, they can easily conquer dungeons? No, in dungeons the monsters are almost fully immune to scientific weapons, and only magical weapons can harm them.
The higher the rank of monsters in the dungeon, the higher the resistance towards scientific weapons.
In this world, the main races are the demons and humans. The demons came to invade the Perans, bringing magic with them, and on Perans they pursued science with everything. Magic and technology had a great combination, resulting in a rapid breakthrough of many previously thought impossible things.
Such a breakthrough was the one causing the humans to have more resources and not worrying about it depleting, so the likes of famines were completely forgotten by people.
These advancements at first did not look great, but as time passed, this put more and more pressure on the demons, as their reproduction is much different than humans.
With more humans, more people chose to become adventurers that descend into dungeons to gain resources from these dungeons. Soon dungeons were destroyed by people for their resources.
Fewer dungeons meant fewer people could enter it and gain wealth and glory.
This led to a frenzy among humans, as less dungeon meant less wealth for them, and no one could stop this frenzy for money grabbing. This ultimately led to a situation where weaker dungeons were eradicated and only the strong remained, but this did not last long as they too fell under the endless wave.
So if all dungeons are destroyed, how am I here?
Even though the strongest dungeons were destroyed, it did not mean no more dungeons popped up, but they became a rarity.
Some people tried to monopolize it, but they did not have a good end, after all, everyone wanted the wealth in it for themselves.
How do I know all this information?
All demons are born in another dimension. This knowledge is granted to all demons who are born to conquer this world.
Their objective is to conquer this world, and this is the main reason no dungeon was spared or protected for their resource they generated as this feud started so long ago with all of them being the same either me or you die.
My situation, thanks to it, is extremely bad, as the strongest dungeon that kept the humans at bay was destroyed not long ago after I was born.
With the strongest dungeon destroyed, making this world abandoned by the stronger demons.
So am I scared of dying? No, why?
All demons will return to hell once they die and start from nothing, so death is nothing to fear about.
This is the main reason no demon gives up until the very end, as starting from the bottom is the hardest, as you made many enemies in your long lifespan.
I am a new soul born into hell, so I did not make any enemies yet.
So comes my next problem.
Survival.
My dungeon is constantly being sieged by humans. Wave after wave.
They don't give me any time to recreate the traps the previous owner created, and the monsters are dying too fast, so I had no choice but to recreate the floor, consuming all my mana and terror points in the process.
Thankfully I gained a system in these dark and tiring times. What kind of system?
Terror System.
Each person gives me a different amount of terror points, so I don't have a constant income.
There is no upper limit on how much a person gives, but how long can they endure it is the question?
Knowing my problem, I recreated the first floor as a foggy forest instead of a maze.
This foggy forest can disorient a person's sense of direction, and the longer a person is in it, the greater the effect.
After recreating the whole floor, I felt my energy drained, but here comes the system.
I can exchange my terror points for mana.
1 terror point is equivalent to 10 mana.
How much mana do I have? 100.
But sadly I could only open part of the system and not fully.
For it to open fully, I need to gather 1000 terror points.
It granted me at the start 100 terror points to build up my dungeon.
Such a good start is not granted to everyone, as almost all demons die on the first day after they are born by the crazy siege from humans.
So what creatures are on my floor? I thought about ancient legends on Earth for the first time, and the Wendigo came to my mind first.
Thankfully, the wendigos in the dungeon do not need to eat or sleep and can move in 0-24 hours.
Name Nameless Race Wendigo Title none Skills
super strength (passive)
Traits Weakness to Antlers(Special) Strength 22 Agility 23 Intelligence 5 Wisdom 4 Mana 10
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Other than that, I created screaming birds. Their voice, when scared, sounded like human screams, and I made them scream fear humans so they will always scream, and no one will know if the scream is real or fake.
The foggy settings and constant screams of people in agony can put any person on the edge of his nerves.
I thought about making traps, but I gave up, instead, I decorated the whole forest with decapitated human heads and antlers on their heads.
Such a grotesque scene makes weaker people puke, but I felt ecstatic about it.
In my previous life, I was imprisoned in that damn house! They claimed I was crazy and I should make no contract with any human!
The agony I endured imprisoned there!
The agony of knowing there is no blood on my hands from day to day from the innocent people I killed.
Knowing people happily move on the streets without any fear and how innocent they are?! That damn police captured me before I could feel happiness! Others can have fun, but I don’t, because my fun costs human lives, so what?!
They also claimed I killed 77 people. Where did they get these numbers? I killed around 300 people, and those 77 people had nothing to do with me at all.
They did not even know who they were arresting, and they falsely accused me of another person's crazy doings! What I did for happiness and they did for their so-called hobby!
Mine wasn’t a hobby but a daily routine.
When I told them about it, they put me here, locked up, making me crazy!
I could only bash my head against the door so I could be released from this prison, but no, they even sealed my movements so I couldn’t harm anyone or myself.
I lived for a shitty 88 years there! I reached the age of 133!
The agony of knowing I can’t kill anyone or harm others?! It made me crazy!
But as if the gods answered my prayers and knew these people did injustice against me, they granted me a second chance!
I can finally kill people without regard to being caught, and even if I get caught, I can restart all over!
If this is not heaven, then what is it?
I could see their faces as they were in agony as the wendigos on the first floor ripped them apart.
When you create monsters for your floor, their strength varies based on how much weakness they have.
I created the wendigoes so their weakness is deer antlers, even a bit of touch, and it will kill the wendigo instantly.
Do you mean I decorated my whole floor in antlers? I made all of them fake, but one real.
How many there are? I don't know, probably a thousand.
Am I not scared this information gets leaked to the outside world?
If they became brave and ventured into my dungeon even more, I would be the happiest, as I could crush their hope and see their suffering as they try to use the fake antlers as weapons.
I could only imagine such a blissful future.
Thousands and thousands of people scream, filling a whole world as they beg to end their misery, but I just extend their suffering by not crushing their hope so I can enjoy.
From time to time I let them escape to the outside world, and when a dungeon break occurs, I will hunt them down to the last bit of usefulness they have!
What a perfect idea, and they can happily contribute to creating a paradise for me!
But before that, I should make a second floor, as these people are getting closer and closer to my room.
I know how to fight, but I don’t want to.
Bloodying my hands with these lesser creatures?
Never again! I realized my mistake in my past life! The problem was that I did not have any person I could blame it on!
They blamed the 77 people's deaths on me, while it was not me at all!
So I can always say I never killed anyone!
My subordinates will take all the blame for the killings I did.
With these happy thoughts over, I came back to reality, but I was slowly bored seeing the wendigoes ripping them apart from limb to limb and eating them.
I cannot increase the number of Wendigoes from 30, as there is a limit.
Each floor has a limit on how many monsters can live in it, and a dungeon needs to expand so more monsters can be on a floor.
I already have a plan for my second floor, but for that, I need to advance to middle-level Lesser Demon.
Each category of demon is made into 3 subcategories.
So from a lesser demon, I go to a middle-level lesser demon and a high-level lesser demon.
After a high-level lesser demon comes common demons.
From what I know, your looks will change based on your level.
Even though I looked the same in my previous life when I was entering my 20s with horns on my head, to other demons I look nothing different from an imp.
But I don’t care what other demons think of me. All I care about is my happiness.
I could only boringly look now at the people entering my dungeon as it gets even more boring to look at them when they react almost similarly to the people before them.
***
My name is Dane, and this is my first dungeon conquest in my life.
I was thrilled to know I got chosen to participate in this dungeon conquest. I couldn’t sleep all night.
When I entered the dungeon, I looked around for the typical monsters like goblins and kobolds, as they are what dungeons spawn on their first floor.
But it was different when we all saw what awaited us.
A foggy forest with a creepy atmosphere.
“Haha, kiddo, don’t believe what they tell you about dungeons on the internet as many dungeons. Dungeons newly born have all different types of monsters, but because these dungeons connect to older ones, they gain the ability to create better creatures, so in this dungeon, there is nothing scary or strong.” I looked back and saw a middle-aged person saying this to me as he had one of his hands on my shoulder after he saw me getting frightened by the sight.
“Also, kiddo, don’t forget to be alert, as these dungeons aren’t connected to higher dungeons, they are trickier to conquer than those that are linked to higher dungeons.” Added the middle-aged person, as he no longer held my shoulder, and I could only listen to him, as many adventurers are banned from speaking to the public about what is happening in the dungeons.
I could only look at this information, so most of what I was told is a lie, and those self-proclaimed dungeon experts are fake too?
But knowing that new dungeons aren’t dangerous made me much more confident.
Conquering this dungeon would be a piece of cake, and the riches I get from conquering a dungeon would be great!
I am no longer worried about making money for the rest of my life, but the uncle just shakes his head at my sight and can only shake his head as he had these thoughts when he was younger, but he knows reality best.
“Everyone gather here!” Soon a booming voice sounded as a person in military gear spoke to all of us.
“Our mission is to gather information about this new dungeon and not conquer it! Anyone who disobeys it will be put in military court!” Saying the captain of the military units, as they clearly claimed this new dungeon for the military.
Everyone had a bad look on their faces, as gathering information and conquering are different.
One brings glory and a shit ton of money, while the other only gives you some scraps as payment.
But who will dare to go against the military in the empire after it united the whole world and colonized so many planets?
Many people had a downcast look as I looked around, but I still held a bit of hope, if I find it secretly, I may be able to claim it all for myself.
If I defeat a dungeon lord alone, I would be one of the geniuses everyone talks about.
Clenching my hand, I knew this was my only chance in my life.
“Now, everyone will find a team, if not, I will assign them to one.” Said the military leader, as he knew some people would try to claim glory for themselves, and he wanted that.
They clear the monsters ahead, and then he reaps the rewards.
But no one knew once they became so loud there were already pairs of eyes in the forest lying up one by one and looking at them.
***
My teammate is the uncle who told me information about dungeons and 3 other people. We were made into 4 separate groups as the military brought in 10 people.
Each of our groups explores this forest in a way while the military stays at the entrance, and we have to notify them in case we find the entrance to the dungeon lord room.
But looking at each other, I knew everyone wanted the loot for themselves, but I had to be the one getting it!
They are already over their 30s, but I just entered my 20s. I have much more chance in my life than them.
“Aaaaaah!” Soon a scream erupted in the forest far away from us.
Everyone instantly got into a fighting stance, and we moved in that direction.
As we moved towards the scream to know what happened, we encountered this dungeon hobby.
I felt like puking seeing the head with antlers on top of it.
Its eyes were removed, and only the blood from the sockets remained, they stained their whole face and a fearful face at their last moment.
Just what did they see before they died, and what kind of monster does it? Or did the dungeon create it?
As I looked over, I saw others shaken by this sight too.
So this is not normal in other dungeons? They each made a fearful face, but they soon recovered as they saw many corpses, but such brutality was their first experience.
Whoever created this dungeon has to be crazy.
No wonder so many people want to destroy dungeons, not only for glory but for revenge for the fallen.
We could only bypass this head as we went towards the sound of a scream, but another one sounded in the way we came from.
“Aah!” Everyone looked at each other, then we realized we were tricked.
Some creatures can copy human screaming.
We can only ignore it as we have no choice.
Who knew the scream behind us was real, from a soldier who secretly followed us and met the Wendigoes?
***
Several hours passed, yet we did not find any leads, but other adventurers' equipment, some torn clothes, and bloodstains.
There was nothing else, so we can assume there was a fight between the monsters and adventurers.
We could only follow the bloodstains as they led us back to the entrance of the dungeon.
We were sure we did not move in the direction where we came from, so how did we end up back at the entrance?
What was more shocking was the soldiers were no longer there.
From the looks of it, a fight broke out, and the soldiers went into the forest as we saw footprints on the ground.
We could only look at each other and start walking in that direction.
As we walked, we found dead people as they lay on the ground.
Their stomach was ripped out as they bled to death.
Each had a missing arm or leg.
We counted their number as 5, only the captain of this unit is missing and 4 others.
“Should we retreat?” I asked as I was uncertain of conquering this dungeon, but who knew the noise I made made the monsters in the dungeon aware of our presence?
“Yeah, this dungeon is clearly out of our league.” Said the middle-aged man as he looked at the dead soldiers.
We turned around and wanted to go back the way we came from, but as we walked, the terrain around us changed from what we remembered.
After walking for a while, everyone's face changed from hope to hopelessness, but I knew we would reach the end.
We cannot give up now.
“Did we get lost?” Said one of the women as clearly she realized we could not escape.
“We can reach the end any minute now,” I said to myself, but I clearly couldn’t say this out loud as I knew I would lie to myself.
We walked for so long yet didn’t even reach the exit or any signs of other adventurers.
As we walked, I saw a pair of eyes lit up in the fog.
“Enemy!” I could only yell to others as I saw a monster in the fog.
Everyone hearing my voice instantly prepared themselves for battle.
The monster screamed as it charged at us.
“Eeaak!” A soul-shaking scream came out of the monster as it charged towards us.
Raising my shield to block its advancement, but instead, I was sent flying back, and I couldn’t feel my arm at all.
The monster did not pay any attention to me as it charged towards the uncle, who could only raise his sword to strike at the monster, but he wasn’t better than me.
“Magic missile!” Soon one of the women's voices sounded, and a bluish magic rod appeared and struck the monster.
“Eat this! Hahaha.” Said the woman as she saw the monster get hit by it, and no monster on the first level could withstand it.
We were happy as the monster was sent back, but this did not last long as the woman who launched the missile didn’t have a long time to live as a claw penetrated her chest from behind.
We were shocked at the sight, but the other woman who was next to her tried to raise her staff but failed as she was shocked by the sight.
Soon the monster ripped her head from her body, threw it away, and looked at us.
2 versus 4.
Our odds are extremely low, but we can do it.
I thought to myself as I got up, but soon more and more eyes appeared in the fog.
“There are too many of them, we can't escape, what should we do?!” This was the last thing I heard before a claw appeared in front of my face as darkness engulfed my vision.