Sam raised his hand and enhanced it with mana, creating a soft blue glow around him. He gasped, taking in the sight around him. He was standing on the floor of an inordinately massive cavern and all around him small huts made out of some sort of stone stood. Next to them, short and squat creatures that looked to be made out of the same stone as their buildings stood, shielding their eyes from the light. One of them stepped forwards and addressed Sam.
“Who are you, human? How did you enter our lands?”
Confused at what he was even speaking to, Sam hesitated before answering.
“I’m Sam. As to why I am here, I have no idea. I fell through a hole on the surface and now I’m here. If you don’t mind me asking, where exactly am I right now, and who are you?”
The creatures behind the one talking to Sam started to chitter, but they stopped at a stern glance from the leader.
“I am Torg of the troglodytes. My people and I were sent here from our homeworld by some gray alien. He approached us in the form of a hologram, but I will never forget the power that he exuded. He could have broken our world with a single flick of his hand. All he said to us was that we would have our uses. The problem is, ever since arriving in this universe, our power has been suppressed somehow and although we are all in the F Rank, it feels as if we are back in the first one.”
Sam didn't know how to respond to that, but after having dealings with Berrigious, he had an inkling of why these creatures were here.
“That alien you talked to, did he by any chance tell you his name?”
The troglodyte gave him a look.
“Yes he did. Also, how did you know that it was a he? Did you meet this alien?”
Sam nodded, waiting for Torg to answer him.
“He said his name was Tantalos Veruvax, the leader of the Darkstar Conquerors. It was as if he was trying to impress us, but my species has never left our planet so we had no idea who he was.”
Sam was about to respond but then the other man clicked his fingers.
“Before we continue, why don't we get you inside? There are all sorts of monsters here, ones that we normally would eat for breakfast, but now are quite the challenge for us. Here, come with me.” Sam followed the troglodytes to one of the huts and he entered it after them, ducking his head. He was standing at the top of a ladder, leading down into what looked like an underground bunker.
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“Whoa.”
The troglodytes smiled up at Sam after he said that. Climbing down the ladder, he entered the bunker and dropped the last few feet onto a carpeted floor. Lucky for him, the troglodytes seemed to like tall ceilings, because what was tall for them was barely enough for Sam to stand upright. He followed Torg towards the back of the room and awkwardly sat down on a tiny chair. The troglodytes seemed to have the same taste in interior design as humans and the house looked very similar to a normal one. It was filled with artfully placed patches of luminescent moss that lit it up in a gentle glow. Sam retracted his mana from his hand, now with enough light to see with. Torg sat down next to him and the others crowded around. Now comfortably situated, Sam continued to talk.
“Do you know how to get out of here?” he asked Torg. The troglodyte shook his head, which was quite hard to make out because the man lacked any sort of discernible neck.
“No, we just arrived here. About 25 days ago, my kind were teleported into this cavern and these houses were already here for us. Apparently whoever designed this place knew what our culture was like because they look identical to our houses back home. Hopefully we will be able to go home soon.”
Sam gave the man a sad look and then explained what he thought was going on.
“It might not be as easy as that. That man you met is the one who bought my universe and is now using it as an investment for his cultivation. In one hundred years, he is going to return and kill us all. I think I know why you are here too.”
The troglodytes all gave him strange looks and Torg coughed.
“What do you mean “universe”? What is that? How could this man buy a universe? Also, are you implying that we are not part of it?”
Sam nodded.
“You already had access to the System for long enough to reach F rank, which means that you are not native to this universe. In fact, you were transported here as a little fuel injection for the locals. You said that your power was suppressed, but you still are qualified as an F Rank under the system, meaning that someone who killed you would get a much larger amount of essence than if they killed something else with a similar difficulty level. Unfortunately, there are many of my kind who would happily kill you for easy levels.”
Upon this proclamation, the room was filled with an anxious chattering noise from some of the younger troglodytes. Their attendants, or perhaps parents, glared at Sam. He had upset the children with his brusque proclamation of doom. Wincing, Sam looked away from them until Torg responded.
“If this is true, then our entire worldview is completely incorrect. You see, we worship the System as a god above all else, the creator of our world and our place in it. If there are other universes out there, then that means that we are nothing.” The man had trouble pronouncing the word universe, but he managed it eventually, likely helped on by the System translation. That was yet another thing that Sam did not fully understand. He could not fathom how such a thing could exist. For the System to be able to translate the conversations of untold numbers of people in real time would require an immense amount of computing power, something that was scarcely imaginable to Sam. The database for such a device would be the size of a universe, which as he thought about it, was not actually that ridiculous. If there were at least 10 billion universes in this Multiverse alone, then one was nothing, especially considered that there were many more Multiverses out there. He let the troglodytes deal with their existential crises in silence, waiting for his turn to speak.