After an unexpected reunion that took not only me but them as well by surprise, as neither of us expected our reunion to be one like this. Just as I was planning to meet them again as I would finally reach the Voidborne Catacombs' location, they were waiting for me to come as an invader, that is if I were somehow alive. They didn't have a means to confirm my whereabouts because, with the authority somehow left behind just after I used it, all connections between us were severed. And yet, here I was. It is a mystery as to how this was even possible, but feeling that we were going to promptly figure that out, we decided to hear out what there was to hear from me.
From the moment I used Greed and Resurgence authority, somehow managing to leave the said authority behind, and awakening into the body of a newborn HighBreed, whose parents would come to call Roland. I recounted everything that happened thereafter, leaving nothing behind except perhaps the one I deemed unworthy of being recounted.
***
As we absorbed Dungeon Master 07's story—his life story, this new world which we only knew of through our domain started to materialize in our imagination. Despite having acquired some knowledge from the invaders and the old man, there was a distinctive quality in receiving information from one of our own. It offered a unique perspective that allowed us, to a certain extent, to vividly envision the difference between this world and our old one.
One of the first things Dungeon Master 07 made sure to almost instantly emphasize before explaining anything about his story, most likely because he believed we would be asking ourselves the question, was why, as soon as he was of age, didn't he come to us but instead waited for so long. I think he assumed wrong about that. While it didn't feel like much time had passed for us, he was already in this world for 27 years by the time he died. That might sound like plenty of time to come to us and share what happened, but for us Dungeon Masters, that was barely anything. Though 27 years had passed for him in this world, for us Dungeon Masters, it felt like a mere week, if not less. That's how long it felt, even if it wasn't likely accurate. To Dungeon Master 07, those 27 years were truly 27 years, which is why he wanted it to be known that upon realizing he might not have what’s needed to fulfill his mission, he decided to, at the very least, join us all to tell us of his find. This involved finding the location of the Voidborne Catacombs and making his way towards us.
Discovering our location didn't pose much of a challenge for him, as it seemed that the VoïdBorne Catacombs had acquired quite the reputation in the land of men. However, the latter part of his journey—making his way here—proved to be a very complex ordeal.
Dungeon Master 07, now known as Roland, continued his account, highlighting that this world, Fiendfell, was far bigger than any of us had initially anticipated. The sheer vastness of this realm became evident with the substantial size of Fiendfell, particularly the two-section continent known as the Land of Man, separated by a vast sea. This land, claimed by mankind and once shared with angels, was already sizable enough to dwarf our previous world.
However, Fiendfell's enormity didn't end there. Roland pointed out the presence of other continents, each with its distinct inhabitants — the land of elves, Quel'Thalas; the land of dwarves, Stoneholm; and the demons' territory, the underworld. The thought of these additional continents left us to only imagine the sheer scale of this world.
Dungeon Master 07, born as Roland, was born in the land of man—specifically, the other half of the continent situated on the opposite side from the known location of the Voïdborne Catacombs, our dungeon. Even though our dungeon shared the human continent, it resided on the other side, separated by an ocean. Essentially, our dungeon lay at the furthest point of the continent, divided into two sections by a sea. Under normal circumstances I suppose it would be stupid to consider a landmass separated by a whole sea a single continent, however that’s how it was. The two geographical continents were deemed singular due to the shared presence of humans, in reality, only one of the two initially belonged to humans, the other part had once been the territory of angels, however with the decline of the angelic race, their land with passing years ended up becoming that of men.
For Dungeon Master 07 to reach The Voidborne Catacombs, he would have to traverse almost the entirety of the Land of Men. Despite the name, this land didn't truly belong to men in the absolute sense; it was merely a denomination. Unlike our old world, humanity wasn't the dominant species in this world. In fact, humans weren't even the predominant species on their own continent. Most of the Land of Men was inhabited by powerful monsters of all shapes, races, and levels, and although there were scattered towns, cities, and villages, the majority of the territory was a monster-infested maze. For Dungeon Master 07, born on the other side of the continent, reaching us meant not only journeying through the entire land but also slaughtering a path through that monster-infested maze.
Understanding the formidable challenges ahead, Dungeon Master 07 realized that reaching the Voidborne Catacombs wasn't impossible but would be an arduous and lengthy odyssey. To prepare for this journey, Dungeon Master 07 focused on enhancing his strength by accumulating battle experience, leveling up his skills, and gaining the necessary experience points to progress in this world's leveling system. In this world, Fiendfell, leveling up requires slaying monsters, whether they be otherworldly creatures or fellow humans. Although Dungeon Master 07 had the option to gain experience by defeating other sentients, he primarily focused on monsters.
Upon reaching the battle-appropriate age of 13, Dungeon Master 07, having chosen the warrior class, left home to embark on a life dedicated to monster-slaying. His primary goal was to raise his level and strength, ensuring he could survive the perilous journey to the Voidborne Catacombs. However in times he wasn't honing his combat skills, he would generally spent gathering information about our treacherous fellow reincarnate.
Being born as a HighBreed of the Land of Men, specifically in the region that once belonged to the angelic race, Dungeon Master 07 seized every opportunity to investigate our traitor, Shun Nagumo, or Jason, as he went by in this world. Despite never getting close to him personally or being able to eliminate him as he ideally wished, Dungeon Master 07 managed to gather a wealth of interesting information about the treacherous fellow reincarnate.
Jason's name was renowned throughout the land of man. It seemed that our treacherous fellow reincarnate was relishing his second life by portraying himself as a hero to the humans of this world.
His "feats" ranged from monster-slaying and establishing dwellings, resulting in the formation of many cities through his efforts, to dungeon-crawling. It appeared that for the humans, dungeons were more of a nuisance than monsters.
Additionally, he was known for preaching and bestowing teachings upon those willing to listen. Several organizations, born out of his influence, focused on monster-slaying and dungeon crawling, providing opportunities and resources for those daring to embark on such adventures.
Dungeon Master 07 also managed to gather rumors—though he hesitated to use the word "confirm" as these were mostly unverified reports—he firmly believed that the faction Jason likely colluded with was the angelic race, or more precisely, its remnants.
In this world, angels were once one of the six main sentient races, and while it is still the case to this day, the angel race is no longer the powerhouse they used to be. Rumors circulated that only a handful of angels remained, and it was with them, or at least one of them, that Jason worked with.
Thanks to another set of rumors that mentioned that “Jason,” the hero was in the good grace of a beautiful angel, it wasn't very difficult to infer that the woman influencing him away from the right path was most likely that very angel he was said to be close to.
Tsk.
The more I learned of that traitor, the more infuriated I became. I wasn’t alone in that sentiment, the other as well. We couldn't wait for the day when the authority he was bestowed would be taken from his unworthy hands, be it by us or another fellow reincarnate. The latter was equally fine as the former for me, as long as the one to get it was a reincarnate who didn't forget who gave us a chance to be where we are now instead of still being in that hellish place.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Speaking of fellow reincarnates, one other thing Dungeon Master 07 dedicated his time to was learning about the whereabouts of other fellow reincarnates, especially the one they stupidly let go instead of slaying on the spot, as they would've done in the past. He welcomed anything from a mere clue to a complete location about the other reincarnate.
Unfortunately, Dungeon Master 07 was not able to find anything about the old man. Of course, with the latest name he went by, Aegis, Dungeon Master was able to find some clues about him on the continent, but most of these snippets of clues dated back to before he made his way to their domain. While not as popular as "Jason the traitor," Aegis seemed to, to a certain extent, enjoy a certain level of popularity in the Land of men. So, in spite of the continent being as gigantic as it was, while venturing here and there, Dungeon Master 07 would often collect some new information about the semi-treacherous old madman. Unfortunately, most of these pieces of information found themselves inconclusive in helping him locate the old man’s whereabouts.
The truth is that with the time it took Dungeon Master 07 to reach an age where he seriously began searching for the old man, the old man most likely already reached an age where he could really be already dead of old age or some other cause. Back then, he said that he believed himself having roughly ten years to live. Of course, it could be a lie, but even if he still had twice that to live, Dungeon Master 07 was 27 when he died. Unless he mysteriously found a way to bypass his own mortality, the man was most likely dead. The question now was whether he managed to rat on us or not, or did he simply never try at all?
That question would be left unanswered.
It was at that moment, as Dungeon Master 07 seemed to finally finish exposing how his journey as Roland ended, that one of us voiced, "Shame you died so early; you were only level 35."
I could tell that Dungeon Master 07 was fuming at that comment, especially at what it suggested between the lines. But unexpectedly, he replied with a rather calm tone, "I had the feeling I would be welcomed with such a comment when I awoke here for some reason. I'm relieved to see that I wasn't wrong about that."
"What?"
"It's nothing. You're right, Dungeon Master 02. I was only level 35 when I died." That might be something we could achieve with barely 300 G.P from our point of view, but as previously mentioned, that’s just us.
While I wouldn’t go as far as to say I related to the struggle as I didn’t get to experience it myself, I was at least self-aware enough to know that it was much more complicated than just investing 300 G.P onto oneself, especially when one barely has any G.P to begin with.
“I’m not even going to bother finding an excuse for myself,” he said. “Nonetheless, I would like to tell each one of you bastards who’re looking down at me for not achieving much that it was a completely different experience altogether.”
“We weren’t looking down on you,” I immediately denied.
“Were we looking down at him?”
“No, of course not.”
“Why would we?”
“Stop pretending. I’m as much you as you dumbasses are me, and I know for a fact that I’m not satisfied with what I have done. I know I could’ve done better, and certainly I could’ve had a much better death than that one, that’s for sure.” At that moment, he sighed and added, “But things are what they are. Unless we stumble upon an authority that’ll allow us to change the past, there’s nothing we can do about it. We have to learn from our past mistakes and move on. I have done the former, now there’s just the latter for me to do.”
“Dungeon Master 07…”
“By that, do you mean…”
“I’ll use Greed and Resurgence and go again.”
“Seriously?”
“I’ve yet to accomplish any of the main goals I was sent out there in the first place, so… what’s your verdict, everyone? Dungeon Master 00?”
At that moment, after I briefly pondered, I added, “I think sending you out would allow us to perhaps figure out what happened last time, so why not?”
In that moment, I shared a metaphorical nod with the other Dungeon Masters; in other words, the council had agreed to Dungeon Master 07's suggestion.
“Then I guess you got your answer, Dungeon Master 07. But you are aware of the risks this involves, aren’t you?”
Last time, what happened was that as Dungeon Master 07 used the Greed and Resurgence authority, he disappeared without giving us confirmation of what happened to him, to us. Since the authority remained by our side, it was possible that he made it to the other side, but it was also possible that he was simply gone—sent to oblivion or some other place.
With how unsure we were of what happened back then, there was a possibility that he found himself sent to a place where he would have no way to return to us. To be fair, if it worked, then we would be able to conclude that this was just the standard under which the authority operated on us—Dungeon cores. Nonetheless, that was a risk not to be ignored.
“I’m aware of the risk, but I doubt this is any more dangerous than last time, so let’s do this.”
“I see, if that’s the case, then…”
With those words, I once again passed the Greed and Resurgence to Dungeon Master 07, who, upon receiving it, remained silent for a while, so much that I wondered if he didn’t already use it somehow. But then he spoke, dispelling that doubt.
“I don’t think I need a countdown, do I?”
“I mean, if you don’t want to.”
“Then I won’t, it’s needlessly distressing,” he said before sinking into another strange silence that he himself later broke. “It’s strange…” he said.
“What?”
“What’s strange?” we asked.
“Back when I was cut off from you guys, I… I was distressed by the idea of not being able to get back here. With time, I eventually accepted it for what it seemed—a fact.”
For a moment, I was left silent by the confession—because that was what it sounded like to me—a confession.
“Oh, you missed us,” Dungeon Master 04 voiced in a typical Dungeon Master 04 manner.
“I didn’t know you loved us like that.”
“—but now that I’m miraculously back, I’m eager to leave again,” Dungeon Master 07 replied vindictively, as if foreseeing Dungeon Master’s comment before it was even voiced.
“Come on, brother, don’t be like that. We might not look like it, but we really missed you too.”
“We just didn’t get the opportunity to miss you very much with how quickly it felt, so make sure to survive long enough for us to at least feel your absence.”
“I’m planning to but not for that reason you just mentioned.”
“Tsk, tsk, tsk. Still can’t be honest with your feelings, and here I thought that your 27 years-long changed you. It seems I was wrong.”
“And that’s a relief,” he said with a flash before concluding, “Anyway, I think it’s time I go.”
“Yeah, don’t die to random—nevermind.”
In that moment, before Dungeon Master 04 could come up with his out-of-pocket comments, Dungeon Master 07 had already used the Greed and Resurgence authority, causing, like last time, the authority to return to me for some reason, and most importantly, for him to disappear.
_____________________________
[ ???'s Interface ]
Name: ??? (Dungeon Master 00)
Entity: Dungeon Core
Designation: Dungeon Master
Status: Idle
[ Authorities ]
- Authority Gathering
- Ethereal Echo
- Otherworldly Synergy
- Greed and Resurgence
『Expand』
_____________________________
At that moment, as things seemed to have gone similarly as they did last time, I was more or less entirely convinced that the reason the authority didn't follow Dungeon Master 07 was simply because that's how the authority was meant to work for Dungeon Cores like us. Having gathered three authorities before acquiring Greed and Resurgence, I understood that authorities don’t work on us the way they do on humans. So, right now, all that was left for us to do to really confirm that it was just that, was to wait for Dungeon Master 07 to come back. I guessed this time around, with the experience he acquired in his past life, he might take a little longer, meaning a bit more time for us to wait to actually be able to confirm anything. But, well, even if it was more time, I doubted it would feel like a lot. So, all we had to do was be patient.
***
Patient.
Ah yes, being patient, that sure we did, and soon enough it paid off.
Too soon enough, in fact, to be a good sign.
“Dungeon Master 07, you’re already back. What happened?”