Dominik and Fran soon made it to the small cave she’d been living in. There they found the wounded mule, laying on the grass, with her leg bandaged. The mule gave a theatrical neigh as it saw them approach, to show the suffering she had endured while her owner was away.

“I’d really be screwed without my mule, she’s been bringing supplies to and from the village for trading. I could live on my own from scavenging for a while, but obviously it’s much better to have some real food. Among other things.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll heal her up good as new.” Dominik said as he approached the mule. He put his hand near her injured leg and used a healing spell. Within seconds the mule was fully healed. He then cast a spell to restore her stamina, and she soon started trotting around happily.

“Wow, that was quick.” Said Fran, surprised at the speed. “You make it look easy, that was a major injury.”

“No problem.” Said Dominik. “But are you sure you don’t want to try staying at the dungeon for a little bit? You might like it better than this cave. And you’d be safe, we could even make a contract if you want.”

Fran looked at him strangely. “I thought you said it was a cave?”

Dominik returned the look. “Well yes, the dungeon is a cave under the mountain. It’s probably fine to tell you this, so I will. I was a human, but then I took over the eldritch dungeon core after my group attacked it. I was the last one left, I ate their bodies, bla bla bla, and then I made an avatar, and here I am.”

Fran didn’t say anything for a while, so Dominik continued. “Since I’m the dungeon core now, I thought it’d be neat to add some more people to the dungeon. But I don’t really want to summon demons. And I’d like to learn other kinds of magic, so it’d be perfect. I’m even making the spiders more intelligent, so eventually, maybe you could even have a conversation with them. What do you say?”

Fran stared at this man with wide eyes. She’d thought he was harmless, and maybe he was. But now she realized he was completely insane. She considered asking him to leave, though she now feared retaliation even more.

But she considered, what if she lets him leave, and this man goes and lives alone in some cave? What if he goes on and tells the villagers something like this? How long can this man keep living alone, as mad as he is? After he’d helped her, she’d feel terrible about leaving him alone to die.

After some consideration, she finally had her answer. “Well Dominik, if you really have a nice place to live, maybe I could go visit you, and I could have my mule bring some food, we could cook up a nice meal. Does that sound good?”

Dominik found this agreeable. “Alright, but if you end up liking the place, you can stay the night, I’m sure one of the demons had some sort of bed you could sleep on, and I can have the troglodytes help dig out a nice place for you to stay.”

“That sounds great Dominik.” Fran said, smiling. She’d figured with the two of them together, they’d be able to easily fight off any demons that may be wandering around, and she could see if he would at least be safe wherever he’s living.

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After packing the mule with some supplies, they all set out for the mountain, and this time Fran followed Dominik. As they traveled, they continued to talk.

“So why are you out here?” Asked Dominik. “I don’t remember seeing a lot of dark elves when I was a human.”

She contemplated this for a second, wondering if she should tell him the whole truth, before deciding there was no harm in it. “Well, I guess I could tell you, but don’t tell anyone else. Please.”

“Of course. Just you, me, and all the birds.”

She smiled. “Okay, the birds can know everything too. Anyway, I kind of didn’t choose to come here. I was in line for royalty, in a small underground kingdom. My eldest sister was already queen, but then the next in line was murdered. Then the next. At that point, I was already planning on leaving. But then when the third was murdered, somebody framed me, the youngest sister.”

She waited for a comment on this story, but he didn’t interrupt. “Anyway, there was only one sister left other than me, so it was either her, getting rid of the competition and framing me, before she takes out my eldest sister and claims the throne for herself. Or it was my eldest sister getting rid of potential threats. But I don’t see why she would’ve left my older sister alive before she framed me.”

She sighed. “Either way, I didn’t have many people close to me. I mostly studied magic, I didn’t do a lot of socializing. I never planned on taking the throne or anything. But a few people believed me and helped me get out before I would’ve been executed. But not with much.” She gestured to her mule.

“What about you? Before you became the dungeon lord I mean.”

“Before this.” Dominik began. “I was born to a lesser noble house, but they’d run out of money. When they found out I had a lot of mana, and an aptitude for magic, they sold me to the royal family as an indentured servant. Then I was trained in healing and support magic until I was sixteen. I wasn’t allowed to learn offensive magic. They were afraid I’d turn on them. Then from sixteen to twenty, I fought in their militia taking out threats until.”

Dominik paused, recalling the fight in the dungeon, the clearest fight he could remember. “Well until they got wiped out, and I took over the dungeon core. We always called it a core in the royal guard, it was to minimize the power people viewed it as having, to make it seem like an object rather than a living thing.”

“Oh that’s…. Interesting.” Said Fran. “I mean it’s terrible how you were sold by your family. Not that mine’s much better of course.”

Dominik gave her a strange smile and said. “Well, at least I have all the little creatures in the dungeon, and the birds. And you’ve got your mule.”

She couldn’t tell if he was serious or not, but she gave a sad smile and agreed. “Yes, at least we have that.”

Fran couldn’t tell if the part about his past was true, given everything he’d been capable of. Maybe this militia he mentioned had been wiped out, and something happened in the dungeon. This made her more worried that there really was a dungeon near where she’d been staying. It’d explain the attacks from the demons.

But she didn’t want to just sit around and wait for the demons to attack again. She’d rather see the place for herself to see if it’d really been cleared out. Or at least if they’d rid the place of the dungeon lord and the demons of course.

As they continued, Dominik told her about his insane ideas to give troglodytes better eyesight, to make the spiders more intelligent, and to make crows into incredibly strong spies that he’d keep around the forest.

It all sounded insane, but she’d remembered seeing a lot of crows just before he found her. And she’d wondered how he found her, he ran straight to her, as if he knew where she was. No, he must’ve been running around the forest looking for her. The alternative, that’d he’d actually been telling the truth the whole time, was even crazier. And as they ventured closer to the mountain, she started to wonder if she’d gone crazy herself, living alone in the forest for so long. That and her lack of sleep today, as she made the trek to the village, and now on through the night to the mountain, were the only explanation for this growing feeling of unease.