Inside the dungeon core

When Five opened his eyes, he found himself in a familiar environment. His surroundings were foggy but at the same time, felt quite warm and welcoming. He was back inside his dungeon core. In the same empty space where he first spawned at when he died to the orcs.

He could see through the shell of the dungeon core and could look at the meeting room. The dungeon core was usually left on a small holder in the middle of the meeting room. At the moment, the meeting room was empty; Five looked at the familiar room before sitting down on the cold ground under his feet.

He suddenly felt exhausted. His trip outside of the dungeon had come to an end. Unfortunately, everything did not go exactly as planned. Five managed to meet other players; he had the opportunity to learn about the state of the game, about the various classes and also had a small glimpse at the lore the developers created.

However, Five did not expect to encounter so many powerful individuals. His dungeon might be doing well on the barbarians' territory but in truth, it was really weak compared to the rest of the world. When he saw that the average player he encountered was already above level 20, Five knew his dungeon would not be able to defend against an attack. He needed to quickly expand and make himself relevant.

He was not concerned about his death. Losing a few levels was irrelevant to a dungeon master as he normally would not need to fight. HIs greatest lost was the death of Ariel and Harriet. The Harpy queen would be able to revive but it would cost him quite a bit of DP. As for the purple haired harpy, she was gone forever.

"I was too full of myself... I thought I could take the risk and explore... But I should just have stayed at the dungeon. Going outside was dangerous... And I have paid the price for it... Penmark Family... You will have to wait for a little while longer..."

Five lay down on the cold floor, deep in thoughts. As much as he hated it, his thoughts would always naturally drift toward the death of Ariel. He blamed himself for having pulled the harpy into this mess. At the same time, every time he recalled the scene of her death, Five would also clearly see Two's face in the background and clench his fist.

"Whatever happened is my fault... Two is just another player but that does not mean I can allow anyone to kill my monsters..."

At that moment, a series of system prompts rang in Five's ears:

[System prompt: Due to the player's intervention, the monthly trial of this region will be considered complete. The player 'Five' acted alone and influenced the trials of several other dungeon masters. 1 million DP will be awarded for completion. 3 Monster Lottery tickets and 1 extra floor are also awarded as bonus rewards.]

[System prompt: Due to the player's achievements, an additional reward will be provided. Until the end of the trials, in 8.2 days, the Dungeon of Madness will receive 50% more DP.]

[System prompt: Your existence has been noticed by the church and the god behind it. You are partly responsible for the death of several members of the church. You have obtained the title: Heathen]

[Information]

Title: Heathen

Effect 1: The members of the church will hold a certain degree of animosity toward the title holder.

Effect 2: All monsters and demons will hold a certain degree of favourability toward the title holder.

Effect 3: Increase all damage dealt by members of the church by 10%.

Effect 4: Title holder will be chased by players holding the title: Arbiter. If the player is slain by an arbiter, the death penalties are tripled.

Effect 5: If the title holder is a dungeon master, permanently receive a 5% discount on all purchases in the dungeon shop.

[System prompt: Title: Heathen, has been automatically equipped.]

Five looked at the system prompts on the small interface. The rewards were a pleasant surprise, but they were not enough to raise his morale. He did not bother to check the details and instead, browsed through his inventory.

Five's mood further went down when he noticed that Ariel's black feathers had dropped from his inventory because of his death. The only token he had left of the harpy was the small black bead, the Harpy's Heart.

Five took out the bead from his inventory and held it between his fingers. The bead was cold, devoid of life.

"Sigh..."

...

Endless Archipelago, Holy Island, Headquarters of the Church.

In the dark silent meditation room of the Commandments, 10 candles were brightly burning in front of the statues of the gods. The room was still; there was absolutely no sound aside from the breathing of the four commandments engrossed in their meditation. It was a rare opportunity for the commandments to meditate in this room; they would usually have to go out on a mission or would stay at their respective Shrine.

Suddenly, a light breeze started blowing inside the sealed room. The flames danced to the breeze without being affected, except for one. The flame struggled at the top of the candle; the light breeze seemed to sap away all of its strength and eventually, the flame gave up and died out. It left behind a faint trace of smoke, filling the room with a burnt smell.

Immediately, the four commandments in the meditation room frowned. Despite focusing on their own meditation, it was impossible for them not to notice that one of the candles went out.

They all briefly opened their eyes to look at the candles, clearly annoyed that their meditation has been disturbed. When they saw the candles, they all immediately understood what had happened. However, they still chose to remain silent. They did not restart their meditation; instead, they simply sat in silence, observing each other.

"It was Faith, right? Wasn't he just acting as an escort in the Sylvester Empire?"

"There is no danger there. What exactly happened?"

The two oldest men of the group asked each other with curious expressions. The death of a Commandment could not simply be ignored. Someone would without a doubt be sent to investigate the area.

"He was just an idiot who could not think for himself. He probably provoked someone stronger than him but since he only knows how to follow orders, he did not change his plans. I told him that Faith and Trust are different things. But he never listened to me." The youngest man of the group spoke calmly. He did not look concerned about the event and closed his eyes to resume his meditation.

"Tsssk! As the one representing Piety, shouldn't you be more concerned about your father? He might not be the smartest person, but he was not weak," said an effeminate man as he took off his monocle and rubbed his eyes.

"Shut up Truth. A man that killed his own wife does not deserve any respect from his son. The worst part is he does not even believe that he killed her. He was just a fool that could not even think for himself. I dare say that we are better without him."

"You are not wrong, but you still should not speak like that of your father. I suppose I will be the one who will have to investigate what exactly happened. I will have to go to the Sylvester Empire soon. Necro Valley became quite reckless these days. They are no longer restricting themselves to the fallen battlefield. It looks as if they are looking for something and they do not hesitate to grow their army while traveling," answered the effeminate man.

"Stop looking at me with those eyes, Silence! I cannot be blamed for his death. If you want to complain, just say it, or is it because you can't?" said the Piety as he noticed the stare being directed at him.

The only man who had yet to say a word smacked his lips, "I represent the Silence, not the mute. You should ask for permission to go to the Sylvester Empire to at least bring back your father's corpse."

"Not happening. I want nothing to do with him. For now, I need to focus on increasing my own strength. I do not have time to consider such trivial things. Besides, If I died, he would have left my corpse to rot in the wild like he did for my mother."

...

Harriet jolted awake. She scene where the bright light blinded her as she tried to protect Five was still vivid in her mind. She tried to stand up but found that her wrists and ankles were chained to a strange monolith behind her back.

When she looked around her, Harriet found nothing but darkness. Although there was no light source, she was still clearly able to see herself and the monolith. She felt a chill run down her spine. This scene looked familiar, but she could not recall where exactly she had seen this place.

She was well aware that she had died. Unless a miracle happened, there was no way she could have survived such a powerful attack. Harriet looked around her and examined her new environment. It was not the first time she had died but she did not have a clear memory of coming to this place when that happened.

Suddenly, Harriet felt something move around her. She turned around but saw nothing but a small trail of smoke. The Harpy Queen went on her guard. She tried to fly but the shackles held her on the ground, preventing her from using her magic.

Suddenly, a childish and cute voice sounded next to Harriet, "Ouhh, who do we have here? A visitor?"

"Who are you?" exclaimed Harriet as she panicked. She turned around but still did not find the source of the voice. The voice did not seem to be very threatening but to be able to sneak on her without her realizing it proved the ability of the speaker.

"Me? You don't need to know about my identity! You are just my meal. You can struggle as much as you want but, in this space,, nothing can resist me. As the real owner of the core, my powers in this place are second to none."

"Num... I can't wait to taste it. Five is such a stingy master. The only real meat I got was that old stack of bones. Apart from him, all I got were basically ants that could barely feed me. If it was not for the stack of bones telling Five to be so cautious, I am sure I would have been able to have decent meals. The next time I see him, I will have to suck him dry!" The childish voice answered but did not show himself yet.

"Five? Stack of bones? You mean Dreidus? What does Dreidus have to do with you?" asked Harriet as she constantly surveyed her surroundings.

"What is the point of me explaining it to you? As soon as you leave this place, you will lose your memories anyway. You are lucky that my level is still way too low; I can only eat that much before I become full. Come on, I can see your pain and sorrow. Just let me eat your memories; it is a win-win situation! I get my fill while you no longer have to care about your previous life. When you go back, if you remember anything, tell Five to stop being so cautious. If none of you die, it will take forever for me to break away from my shell."

"You... you are... Go away!" Harriet wanted to answer but before she could say anything, the darkness around her started to move. In an instant, she was assaulted from all sides. She tried to resist the invasive feeling, but her resistance only lasted for a few seconds. She lost consciousness and fell completely defenseless on the cold floor, at the mercy of the creature hiding in the darkness.