I don’t spend time exploring dark passages. No. I leave that for later as I go straight to where the action was.

“Let’s go and see what the dwarfs were after,” I say as I stand next to the hole they chiseled, putting my hand, then half of the body through the wall.

But then, I just imagine going through the wall without having to squeeze through the hole, and I’m inside.

Pitch black at first.

But only for a second, as I blink a few times and it lights up enough so that I see it clearly.

I count five distinct objects in the Core chamber. All are different sizes, from golden-covered boxes of less than a foot in length to a big box that is at least ten feet long.

Funny thing is, they are all decorated in precious stones and diamonds of different sizes and colors. First, they do not shine at all, look dusty and dead. But as I approach them and move my hand closer, they start to gleam.

And as I touch them and run my fingers over them, I feel they are actually not a decoration, but serve some purpose, the kind I cannot even imagine or guess.

And while try to feel them, they light up even more.

I take a step back and look at them from a distance, and realize they do not really look like much. It’s not like Aladdin’s cave. Or Smaug's treasure. Not even one little spec of it. But, I sense its live presence. In some weird manner, I feel how it’s pulsing, feel it beating with the same rhythm as my own heart.

And then I understand. Maybe it’s not much, but… It’s mine. My precious.

Heh-heh-heh.

My sinister laugh is cut short as the message pops up inside my vision.

[Update:

Processing the Integration: 97 percent completed]

I see. So, this is what I needed to do, where I was probably supposed to land. Obviously I needed to make a contact with the Core to fully integrate. To sense it, feel it. And I’m feeling it now.

It's a living thing. And I'm sensing all its parts. It’s so weird. Almost as if I have an extra limb. An extra heart. One more liver and a pair of kidneys. It is so strange. I could never feel my own organs. But here, I feel it all. And even though there are no visible wires running from one object to another, I sense how they are all interconnected.

Suddenly, for the first time, I feel more than just a man. I feel my consciousness expanding, finding depths and compartments inside of me, finding some distant parts of me I never suspected could exist. I sense them being being crucial parts of me. Yet so hidden and dark, morbid, making me reluctant and even scared to look inside of them.

But I can't help it, can't pull myself out. It's worse than watching any scary movie. It's like being in a dark basement of a cannibalistic serial killer. It's like being stalked by a monster. It's like being a monster.

Brrrrrr!

It takes me a long while to come back to be able to compose myself.

[Integration Process is now complete.

Your entity is now Fully Operational and Functional]

As soon as I read that, a golden glowing card, maybe the same one that Baron Elf-dude tapped me with, suddenly pops out and starts floating in the air right in front of me.

I reach for it, and, to my surprise, I can touch it, hold it. I move it around, swipe my finger over it, and the 3D image of me pops up, with glowing letters underneath.

[Name: Felix Elliott,

Race: Human (80 percent)

Class: Apprentice

Title: Agent

Rank: Administrator 1]

Underneath those clearly visible words, there are also a bunch of other letters and signs, but they mean nothing to me as I cannot understand them. I swipe my finger over them, and the new ones, equally mysteriously appear.

I decide not to worry about them. But what does worry me is the number placed in parentheses next to Human. I try to press it to see if I can get any more information. But it does not offer anything more. Eighty percent… So... If I am four-fifths part human, where does the fifth part of me come from? Have my grandma had her wild side and secretly slept with some hairy dwarf or was it when my mom called my father a monster, she actually mean that he was a being from another world? Or… could it be when when my great grandparents immigrated from abroad, maybe they were not implying Europe. Or Asia. Or any other part of the mother Earth?

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

All these possibilities swam around my head. It makes me think I know so little, maybe not even a fraction of what I should know about myself.

Yes, I might not know much, but there are a few things I can safely conclude.

This card is not just my ID card. And it’s not part of the SAMS operating system. It’s mine. It's me. It’s thinner than a piece of paper, yet the way it glows and has this mystical aurora around it, makes me think it just might hold more information than I have inside my head.

It is almost mystical with technology I cannot comprehend, and without a doubt, it’s extremely valuable.

I place it inside an imaginary pocket over my chest and I see it moves with me wherever I go. But I can take it out at any moment just to stare at it again, glowing with a power I cannot comprehend. Hopefully, I will never lose it.

SAMS interrupts me from toying around with it, with new info.

[2 Messages Received]

Oh, maybe I should check my mail.

The first message is from LIPS Administration.

[Message Received from: LIPS Administration ADM#RED33fD

Thank you for becoming part of our prestigious entity.

In case you were wondering, LIPS Corp. stands for Life Induction and Propagation Services, and we pride ourselves on being one of the most effective companies in spreading life throughout the known universe as well as providing education, research, and entertainment programs to our clients...]

It's a welcoming message, and after reading a first few lies I drop it.*

And I eagerly look into other message.

[Message Received from Baron Ternicus, ETT323M1004]

That’s a surprise.

“Okay. Let’s see what he wants.”

The scroll pops in the air in front of me. It's not any kind of a scroll. Amber-colored, it looks rich, especially with the carved wooden handle it was rolled on. Very fancy.

I'm guessing it's only a hologram. And as I see how easy I can move it around, I decide to unroll it.

[Hope you have settled in. I’ve deposited ten thousand extra coins to give you a jump start.]

“What ten thousand coins?” I ask.

[Update:

Your Holding balance has been updated.

Your new coin total is now: 10,000 coins.]

“Oh, okay, So, you gave me ten thousand coins. You really shouldn’t have, thank you so very much, you fucker! What am I going to do with ten thousand extra coins? Go and buy Ferrari??”

I breathe in, trying to let my anger go. And continue to read the message.

[Knowing you, you are already complaining about how little that is. You are complaining because you do not know how much it cost me to acquire that old dungeon as well as to obtain your card. You ungrateful bastard.]

I sigh. The man might know me a bit better then I thought. I hate when that happens.

[By now, I think you already had to make some tough decisions. I hope you made the right ones. Trust your instincts and remember who you are. And then, don’t forget it ever again.]

I read it, thinking what wonderful advice that is. Remember who you are, and then don’t forget who you are. Are you kidding me??? I’m here in a dungeon with no freaking clue what to do and he’s telling me that one plus one is two and two minus one is back to one! Thank you, Mr. Baron. I feel enlightened already. Could not have done it without you.

The message goes on, but… it’s the same mixture of hieroglyphs and signs as those that came beaming out of my card. And that baffles me.

“Why cannot I see the rest of the message?” I ask, trying to find an explanation. “SAMS, I think you failed to translate it. I do not speak asshole.”

[The rest of the message has been encoded]

“Can you decode it?”

[No. I do not possess the key.]

“So, then… who does?”

SAMS tells me nothing, so I look at the message, examining it all the way over.

Small letters were written on a side of it. I have to flip it over and magnify it to look at it.

[Day and Month of birth of your favorite girl - Day and Month of birth of your favorite boy - the years since you proposed to your wife - The name of the town…]

Okay, so he is providing me with the key. That should be easy then. Day of birth of… my daughter. Has to be my daughter. Zoya’s birth,

Seventeenth of May.

As I say it, I see letters being displayed on the paper. Cool, it's working.

The day and month of Tomas’s birth are the twelfth of December.

The years since I proposed to my wife… that’s easy too. We lived together for four years, but… we did not get married until we decided to have kids. It was not much of a proposal. We decided to have children and decided to do whatever it takes to make it work for us. After that big fight, we had that almost broke us apart. So… my daughter is twelve. And it was the year before, so.. Thirteen it is.

I see the word 'Thirteen' clearly and magically appear on the paper.

And, the name of the place… where, what? We first met?? What? He and I? Oh… must be a hospital. Yeah, the hospital is in…

Wellington is written on the paper but not in a bold type as the other letters, just in a bleak italic style, and I know it’s wrong because I wait and the word Wellington slowly disappears. And nothing else happens.

First met? He said we met before. Asshole. How would I know? He knows I do not remember. When did we meet? When I was a kid? In a kindergarten? What an SOB.

Why the hell would he do that?

And what am I supposed to do now? Think?! About what??! Nothing is there in my mind. There is not even my head there. I do not even have a body anymore.

Even worse, I trusted the life of my family to this butt face?!

Asshole!!

What a son of a bitch!!

I knew it. The way he carried himself as if the whole Earth is not deserving the likes of him. The way he pronounced his name!

I bet, I bet at this very moment he is sitting in some fancy restaurant, eating juicy steak, looking at my wife, consoling her, and laughing inside all the way through. Nooooo!!!

I bet a person like him would like that. He’s rich and good-looking, knows his way with words. No. No. What have I done??

I try to think, but the image of him and my wife is there in my head and I can’t take it out.

It hits me harder than dwarfs’ chisels and picks did. Many times harder.

I find it hard to breathe. I want to tear something, a shirt off my chest, a hair off my head. Anything.

It's driving me crazy, and I can't control it. It boils in me and boils out of me.

I scream with all that I have in me.

The whole cave shakes, and the whole mountain above me trembles, loosening stones that fall down all around, ready to crush everything in the Core and all the life with it.

“No!” I mumble to myself, understanding that what I prevented the Dwarfs to do, I may end up doing it all on my own.