Fran woke up looking at a strange ceiling. She felt she was lying in a different direction than she was used to, and as she looked around, she realized she was definitely in a different place. She quickly remembered the long journey here, and that she was most likely in a dungeon, after having become acquaintances with a dungeon lord. Albeit a human soul that had taken over an eldritch dungeon lord. So all things considered, not that weird.

That didn’t stop her from panicking however, but she remained seated on her bedroll, breathing in and out, trying to calm down. A troglodyte came over carrying a cup of water, and presented it to her. She thought it’d be rude not to take it, and she was thirsty, but as she drank the water, she thought it must mean the dungeon lord had seen she was awake. The room was empty when she first woke up, yet there was a servant to meet her needs.

And just shortly after the servant had taken her empty cup and left, Dominik arrived. He was wearing new clothes that also seemed more raggedy and rough than the last set of clothes he’d worn. Though it did make her realize the state of her own clothes. She had a few other sets of clothing, but she hadn’t thought to bring everything here. Her poor mule probably couldn’t have made the trip anyway with much more weight, at least not in one trip. Even with Dominik’s magic.

She’d decided she would buy a new set of clothes at town today, though her funds were getting low. She’d spent quite a bit of it to get as far away as possible.

Dominik spoke. “The troglodytes are making breakfast, after we eat we can set out for the town. Make sure to bring the vegetables for the mule, and your bedroll. We may need to rest on the way there, it’ll be at least another full day’s walk to the town.”

Dominik and Fran sat at the table and ate again, then they fed the mule, and packed their things. Dominik took a few pouches, containing the tags of the others, and some funds. So hopefully, Fran thought, they’d be able to stay at an inn when they got there.

For now, they made their way toward the town. It was northeast of the dungeon, and it would’ve been only half a day’s walk from the village to the town, opposed to more than a day from the dungeon, even going straight there.

As they walked, very quickly with a buff from dominik’s magic, and with no lack of stamina thanks to that as well, they talked about various things related to this particular situation they’d found themselves in.

“What do you mean by permanent dungeon by the way?” Fran asked.

“I guess you don’t know much about dungeons.”

“Of course not, I wasn’t training to be an adventurer or anything, I only studied magic. And other things like language and math of course, but nothing about dungeons.” Fran responded.

Dominik sighed and began his explanation, somewhat shocked that he had to explain anything to a two hundred and eighty year old dark elf princess. Who was also a mage. “When a dungeon is too deep and powerful, and a full clear seems impossible, or simply not worth the cost of trying anymore, it’s deemed as a permanent dungeon. When that happens, adventurers are paid to cull the creatures on the first few floors, to make sure the population doesn’t grow too large, and the monsters don’t become too powerful.”

Dominik helped Fran and her mule up a steep walkway then continued. “They pay more for killing more powerful creatures deeper in the dungeon, and bringing back proof. But it’s no longer advised to try going too deep. Everything’s done just to make sure the creatures don’t start spreading out over the land and attacking people.”

“And.” For just a moment, Dominik paused. “I think it’s to get people desperate for money sent in as food, to satisfy the monsters of a dungeon we can’t clear. If they’re fed enough, they might be less likely to leave if the food comes to them. And for the rest, they hope some people will become strong enough to cull the creatures.”

“That seems a bit morbid.” Fran said. “Is the pay really good enough for something like that?”

“I don’t know the rates for normal adventurers, I wasn’t exactly paid.” Said Dominik. “But you could also sell some monster parts, for crafters and alchemists especially. And you might find the belongings of other adventurers, maybe some extra coins or good gear to sell, or to use yourself. So you could get lucky and find some good things. Especially if the creatures are intelligent enough to craft things themselves, though that’s somewhat rare.”

After some time walking in near silence, Fran hesitantly asked. “Are you sure they won’t just send another squad while the dungeon’s weakened?”

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Dominik smiled, and quickly responded. “That’s why we’re going to explain everything to them. I’ll tell them how dangerous it is. As long as they believe me, the royal guard won’t keep sending battalions into the meat grinder, it’s too expensive, and it’d leave them vulnerable if they lose too many elite squads. We weren’t always just used to fight monsters. We killed other people too.”

He sighed, thinking back wistfully on the scattered memories he could reach out to, of fighting wars against his fellow man, and other human-like races. The look of surprise in their eyes when they couldn’t cut through a poorly armored soldier’s neck, thanks to his barely perceptible golden barrier surrounding their bodies. He’d made small armies into monsters, and he couldn’t wait to use his power on protecting his dungeon.

“The only people we’ll need to worry about.” Dominik continued. “Is the adventurers they send to cull the first floors, or to at least scout them out. If they realize the dungeon isn’t quite so dangerous right now, they’ll send a kill squad no doubt. Once they receive confirmation. So we’ll have to make sure the adventurers don’t make it very far.”

After several hours, having walked the whole day, they found a clearing and made camp for the night. Which is to say they fed the mule, and Fran laid out her bedroll.

As Fran ate and drank water from her canteen, Dominik spoke again. “Alright, when we get there, just let me do the talking you’ll be the silent type right?”

Fran nearly choked as she sputtered out a response. “Why don’t you want me to talk? You think I’ll be the one to say something crazy?”

“It’s just.” Dominik began. “A lot of humans don’t really like dark elves, and they don’t really trust them either. They might be a bit irrational if you try to explain things to them. A human with a dark elf companion might be viewed as untrustworthy, but if it’s clear I’m not a slave, they might also view that person as strong. Which would make the two of us surviving long enough to grab these tags more believable.”

Fran thought for a moment as she finished chewing, then she asked. “Is everyone hung up on the slavery thing? It’s not like we taget humans specifically, we take slaves from a lot of villages, from all other races really.”

“That’s part of the problem, most races either fear or hate dark elves.”

“But why?” Fran asked. “Other races take slaves too, even some of your human kingdoms. You were even technically a slave!”

“Yes, but most people are hypocrites, and more than that, they fear an outside threat. Better the devil you know. More importantly, dark elves are the most prolific, I remember stories of nearly whole towns being taken. And the idea of being locked underground in slave pits, kind of seems more horrific than the average human situation, with less hope of ever escaping or being set free.”

Fran took in this information. “But you don’t mind living underground right?”

“No.” Dominik said. “From what I remember, I was kept inside the castle. I studied, I trained, practiced magic, I was kept in that place, not so different from a dungeon itself, until I was a man. I was kept in captivity for most of my life. But most people live out in the sun, they find the idea of being locked up below the earth terrifying.”

“Alright.” Fran said. “I’ll just speak a bit if I need to. Do we have a backstory?”

“You’re my wife.” Dominik stated this plainly, as if he were mentioning the chance of rain on a cold fall day.

Fran nearly choked on her food again. “That’s a bit forward isn’t it? We’ve barely known each other!”

“Well you can’t ever mention your real backstory.” Said Dominik. “Not only would your family send out assassins if word got out, but plenty of people of any given race would love to kill or kidnap dark elf royalty, or any royalty, for the chance of a reward. Whether that’s for killing you or selling you to your family.”

“So instead, if you ever need to tell anyone.” He continued. “Tell them you were raised by various humans until you were about a century old, then you lived alone, wandering around. And eventually, now, you met me. We live out in the forest together, bla bla bla, you study magic, I’m some healing druid, we love the forest and all of that. Things that won’t make them ask too many questions.”

Fran took it in and considered it all. “That’s fine I guess, but are you still going to be a human in your backstory?”

Dominik’s face contorted, perhaps a bit too much for a human, with such fine attention paid to the creation of every small group of muscles, and he said. “What else would I be? I made a perfect recreation of my human body. I even made it better.”

“Yes.” Said Fran. “But maybe you made it too perfect. When I first saw you I almost thought you were a high elf. I think you’d pass better for a half elf. Half high elf, half northman. Some half elves look more like elves, some look more like humans, so it’d be a perfect fit, you wouldn’t even need to change anything on your avatar.”

Dominik’s shoulders relaxed and he seemed to be accepting this, so she continued. “And there’d be less questions about your origins. Some half elves can live nearly as long as elves. So if you were two hundred years old, no one would be around, at least in human settlements, to remember you. So no one could really confirm or deny if you’ve been wandering around the forests of these lands.”

Dominik thought for a moment and considered this. “That is the perfect backstory.”

“Yes.” Said Fran. “And it’d give us plenty of time to become acquainted and to get… married. I think both of our backstories sound perfect.”

Dominik breathed in the cool night air, then stood. “Alright, now that we’ve got that taken care of, you can try to get some sleep. I’ll keep watch and work on my dungeon now and then. We’ll want to be prepared as soon as possible.”

Fran yawned and stretched her arms before standing herself. “Alright, this could be a lot of fun if we don’t get killed in town. Good night.”

“Good night.” Said Dominik, as he let his consciousness return to the dungeon.