3 The Core of Madness

After a good meal, Five stood up and placed the tray on the desk. He regained most of his strength and was now able to move normally. He found the food exceptionally delicious considering his recent diet, but he hoped that the portion had been bigger.

He started examining the room. It was a habit he developed. Looking under the sofa and the bed, moving the chairs and even feeling the walls for any sign of hidden parts, but Five did not find anything.

He sat on the bed, hesitating whether he should go and explore outside his room but at that moment, he heard a familiar voice.

[Greetings to all dungeon masters. I hope you all arrived safely at your mentor's dungeon. Please make the most of your stay there and learn as much as you can. Your future achievements depend on it. On another note, I am informing all of you that you have access to your character's status as well as several other services. Just make a downward motion with a finger to open an interface. The rest is self-explanatory. I wish you all best of luck.]

Five instantly recognized that voice, it was Gaia. He calmly listened to her speech and directly tried to open the interface and the followings appeared in front of him:

Name: Five

Race: Human/Dungeon Core

Level: 1 (0/500)

Class: Dungeon Master

Title: None

HP: 40/40

MP: 70/70

Strength: 6

Dexterity: 7

Vitality: 4

Intelligence: 7

Wisdom: 5

Stat Points available: 0

Skills: 0

Fatigue: 10%

[Information]

Increasing strength increases the physical damage inflicted per strike

Increasing dexterity increases the attack speed, reaction speed, and movement speed

Increasing Vitality increases the amount of HP. HP is calculated by Vitality*10

Increasing Intelligence increases the amount of MP. MP is calculated by Intelligence*10

Increasing Wisdom increases the magical damage inflicted per spell

Your race is half human half dungeon core. Since you have a different origin from the monsters, you were provided with an external core. It can be found in your inventory.

Due to your special race, you can only level up using Dungeon Points.

Just by looking at the interface, Five had a general understanding of the situation.

"How can my vitality be so low!! And what about wisdom? Are they saying I am stupid!?" exclaimed Five.

He continued to observe the interface, and quickly found other icons at the top. He pressed the one representing a storage which was clearly the inventory. In it, he found his dungeon core.

[Core of Madness](Grade 0)(Upgradable)

Activate to set up a dungeon at a specific location. (Cannot be used within 1 km of another dungeon core)

Effect 1: 100% chance to drop upon death

Effect 2: DP gained +2%

Five took out the core and held it in his hand. He felt a sort of bond between him and the core. The latter was a small sphere. It looked like a constantly rotating galaxy was trapped inside.

"So this is my core," thought Five and at the same time, the core flashed for a fraction of a second as if saying "yes".

Five smiled but then returned the core to his inventory. He turned his attention to the interface. In his inventory, he found out that he had 204 DP. From the novels he read and the movies he watched, Five naturally determined that these were generated daily as a flat amount.

Moving on, Five pressed onto the forums' symbol. A separate section was created solely for dungeon masters like him, but right now, it was empty aside from an automated welcoming thread. After all, criminals were very keen on working alone and rarely shared their information.

Finding nothing else interesting, Five gradually got bored and relaxed. He was already tired from all the previous events and in this dull environment, he gradually fell asleep.

....

"Crrrk"

Five was peacefully sleeping when he suddenly heard a creaking noise. Instinctively, he jumped awake moving his arm to grab his knife, but his hand grabbed nothing. It was just his old habit to always have a weapon near him when sleeping, and even when he was asleep, his senses were still sharp.

"Good morning. Did you sleep well?" asked a voice.

Five looked around, disoriented but quickly recovered and focused his gaze towards the door. Harriet was standing there, smiling at Five. Somehow, her wings were nowhere to be seen.

"Morning," politely answered Five. He shifted his body to get out of the bed.

She happily hopped into the room, and magically, another tray appeared in her hands. She placed it on the sofa and took a step back, looking at Five.

"Here's some food. You will need a lot of energy for the task ahead," explained Harriet. She then stood behind the sofa, quietly humming a song.

"Thank you," said Five, before grabbing what looked like a croissant. He started eating but seeing that Harriet did not leave his room, he felt awkward. Harriet quietly whistled while averting her gaze. The awkward silence was too much for Five and so, he asked: "Harriet? Didn't you have wings yesterday?"

"Oh. It is one of my abilities. I can retract and take out my wings at will. I can even change their size to a certain degree," happily explained Harriet while demonstrating it. Her black wings once again emerged from behind her purple hair.

Five looked closely at the wings. It was his first time seeing something like that. They looked so real! Their appearance was similar to angel wings but were black in color. Instinctively, Five moved his free hand trying to touch them.

Immediately, Harriet retracted her wings, took a step back and made a "Hmmmp" while looking at Five with an annoyed expression.

"What is it? I just wanted to touch your wings," asked Five, wondering what he did wrong.

"Precisely! It is rude to touch the wings of a Harpy unless you are her husband," drily answered Harriet while crossing her arms and retracting her wings.

"Ahh, I am sorry. I did not know. It is the first time I am seeing such wings and I just wanted to have a feel," answered Five with a sorry expression. He awkwardly looked down as he knew that he was at fault. He did not know the culture of this world, but it should have been clear that touching someone else for no reason was rude.

'Could it be that the harpy's wings are the equivalent of human's chest,' thought Five making an embarrassed expression as he realized that.

In an attempt to repair the situation, Five continued talking. "It is just that you are the first harpy I am seeing. Where I come from, there are only humans. Although I did see digital wings, I was just curious about the feel."

"What is 'digital'? " Hesitantly asked Harriet, still crossing her arms.

"It is hard to explain. It is just a term used by people to describe imaginary things... The world I come from is different. We have screens that can show us picture and videos or holograms. These are digital things"

"Can you tell me more about where you came from? " asked Harriet with a curious look, leaving aside the previous incident.

Five hesitated for a moment. He did not want to recall the previous incidents of his life, but he found no harm in talking about benign things: "Sure. I come from a place called..."

A few minutes later,

"Since you've finished, follow me. Master wants to see you; your first lesson is about to begin." Harriet pushed the door open and walked out of the room, waving her hands.

Five quickly got up and followed her. He naturally started examining his new environment. He felt as if he was walking in an underground tunnel. The corridors were circular and were made of a clay-like material, but it was clearly not clay. The walls were emitting light despite the absence of torches and light bulbs.

Harriet was happily humming a tone while leading the way. From time to time, she would look back at Five but would just quietly smile and not say anything. The latter noticed several doors in the corridor just like the one in his room. He determined that this was dormitory of some sort.

Gradually, the surroundings changed and five entered a large and well-decorated room. The walls were covered with maps, paintings and portraits that Five did not recognise. At the center of the room, was a large metallic throne on which Kroff was sitting.

"Good morning, Five. Did you sleep well?" greeted Kroff.

"Good morning, Dr. Kroff. The night was pleasant, thank you," politely answered Five while sweeping his eyes across the room.

Kroff invited Five to come closer to him. "Now that you are well rested, it is time for your first lesson."