Dungeon Master

The man walked down a white hallway lined with doors, each one different in some way. Some were very plain, while others had very detailed engravings, others had a futuristic look, and some looked so old they could be relics from a museum.

The man was tall, his hair was dark, as were his eyes and the elegant suit he wore. But what was most striking were the two small curved horns on his forehead.

The man stopped in front of a green door with a style characteristic of 19th century England.

*Knock, knock, knock....*

The man knocked on the door three times, but entered before the person on the other side could answer.

"Привет (Privet)¹ Edward! How have you been...? Wow, you've remodeled the place?!"

Edward was at his desk, working as usual, but his office was filled with piles of documents and papers to such an extent that the room was very cluttered.

Edward looked up from his desk and looked at the tall man who had entered without his permission.

"Ah, it's you, Ivan. What brings you here? As you may have noticed I'm a bit busy."

Ivan walked to the chair in front of the desk, sat down in the position he found most comfortable, and then spoke.

"Well... I hear you got in trouble for violating the reincarnation contract by going against the client's wishes. But from what I see, the matter was no big deal." said Ivan. There was a certain sarcasm in his tone of voice.

"I was lucky the client didn't press charges. But the superiors didn't like my intervention and gave me a 'light punishment' for my actions. I feel like I haven't slept in centuries because of this paperwork. ", said Edward. As much as he tried to disguise it, the tiredness showed in his words.

Edward had huge dark circles under his eyes and his appearance was that of a sad and tired man after a long day's work.

Since receiving his punishment, Edward had no time to rest even once. Although he was a far superior being to a mere mortal, he needed to have a few moments to rest.

"Can I ask you something?" Said Ivan.

Edward said nothing and merely nodded his head as he continued to go through the documents on his desk.

"Why did you give him "the upgrade"? That soul was reincarnated in a very dangerous place and the client didn't give him the blessings... Besides, the bastard blocked the physical statistics distribution function and access to the system store. He was doomed from the first moment he reincarnated... Why did you risk it?"

Edward had been working at the agency since long before Ivan and had always proven to be an exemplary employee. But one day he simply decided to break the rules for a soul who was nothing special.

"You didn't read that soul's file. When I saw his past, I felt pity for him..... "

"Чушь(Chush')²!!!"

But before Edwar could finish speaking, Ivan interrupted him. There was anger in his voice

.

"You're lying, Edward!!! ... I've known you for over two million star cycles, I've seen you send children and crippled old men into the battlefield without the slightest hint of remorse or hesitation and slaughter entire planets for the sake of the rules... And you expect me to believe that you pity this useless soul?! ... No, no, there's another reason for your actions, isn't there? Something big enough for you to break agency rules."

Edward didn't respond. He took a moment to think things over.

"And if I did feel pity this time... Sigh... Forget it, you wouldn't understand Ivan. Marcus may not be an intellectual genius or a martial arts prodigy. But he is a survivor, I am sure he can overcome anything if he puts his mind to it. I've made the right decision. "

Ivan was speechless - had this man felt pity after all this time? Be that as it may, Ivan still had his suspicions.

"Say what you will, but that soul is still screwed, he'll never be able to use the system to its full potential. He will be lucky if he manages to achieve his first evolution."

"Well, I wouldn't say that." Edward said. There was a smirk on his face.

"You... Wait, now what did you do?"

"Well, let's just say I made a bet with an old friend of mine." Edwar had to make a great effort not to laugh.

"Okay, you seriously expect me to believe that you just felt sorry for... You know what? Forget it, I'm just wasting my time. I didn't come to visit you, Edward, I came for work." Ivan said and his face became serious.

Ivan pulled out a USB stick from his suit and handed it to Edward.

"It's an order from the higher-ups, they want you to take care of this matter."

Edward snapped his fingers causing a screen and a blue holographic keyboard to appear, he inserted the flash drive inside the hologram and a large amount of information appeared on the screen.

When Edward finished reading the information he was so perplexed that his eyes widened like saucers.

"Are you kidding-?"

"до свидания (Do svidaniya)³ Edward, have fun!"

But before he could finish speaking Ivan was already out the door.

"SON OF-!!... Sigh... You better survive Marcus, you've got harder things to come."

Edward turned off his holographic display and continued working.

****

The room was huge, probably the largest in the facilities, with tall stone columns, and was incredibly spacious. There were also some strange engravings and figures on the walls of the room.

The floor was littered with papers, glass, and other metal instruments whose purpose was unknown. At the far ends of the room were some glass cylinders resembling the cultivation tanks that Marcus had seen in the movies.

But his attention was more focused on the being at the far end of the room.

It was a mummy that was all skin and bones, dressed in black robes, a tattered cloak, and, in his right hand, he carried a wooden staff with a triangular gem embedded at the top.

================================

Name: Bairus

Titles: [Dungeon Master]

Race: Undead

Species: Semi-lich

Rank: 4

Level: ??

================================

'Semi-Lich Rank 4?!! Oh hell no, I'm out of here!!'

Marcus knew that if he faced that guy he would die. Even if he could deal with other monsters of his own rank with relative ease, this Semi-lich was on a completely different level.

But just before he could turn around to escape, Bairus raised his staff and a large black shadow expanded across the room sealing the exit.

In a desperate attempt to escape, Marcus struck at the shadow blocking the door, but it was useless.

'Shit! Is darkness magic?!'

Darkness magic was a derivative of the energy element that Marcus used and consisted of manipulating or creating shadows. It also had other capabilities, but only magic users above the fifth realm could use such spells.

Even if Marcus was resistant to darkness magic, he would still take a great deal of damage if he was hit by a Semi-lich attack.

*Tack*

Bairus knocked his staff against the floor and a huge magic circle appeared in the center of the room. From within the circle, 12 shadows emerged and soon began to take humanoid form.

================================

Race: Undead

Species: Corpse soldier.

Rank: 1

Level: 10

================================

The monsters that came out of the circle were zombies with rotting skin, with some bones and organs exposed. They were also all equipped with weapons and armor.

'Why do DMs always have the skill to summon minions?'

Marcus unsheathed his sword and pulled a shield from his inventory. It was clear that if he wanted to get out of the room alive he had to defeat Bairus first.

Full of resolution, Marcus charged towards the first undead minion.

*Clang!..Shik*

Marcus blocked the minion's sword with his shield and quickly stabbed him in the head. At that instant, the corpse soldier turned into black smoke and disappeared into thin air.

Marcus hurriedly jumped backward evading the attack of two minions coming from the sides and kept his distance.

'Eeh... These guys aren't as strong as I thought.'

Just in terms of physical stats, Marcus was a bit weaker than a normal Skeleton Soldier. The only reason he could kill them so easily was that he could use magic.

But right now Marcus couldn't afford to spend his MP carelessly. So when he attacked Bairus' first minion he wasn't using the [Self Reinforcement] spell, but still, the minion had died too easily.

The only conclusion Marcus could come to was that summoned monsters were much weaker than natural undead. He could kill them without much effort, as long as he aimed for the head.

*Clang!.. Slash!*

Marcus blocked the attack of another undead and immediately decapitated it, and just like the previous one, it vanished into thin air.

Marcus turned his body managing to dodge the attack of two other undead and with a swing of his sword, he cut off the heads of both of them.

*Clang!..Slash*

Marcus' sword deflected the minion's attack and with a vertical slash cut his head in two. In just a few minutes, the number of undead had fallen by half.

In his time at the installation, Marcus' combat skills had increased dramatically. Although these corpse soldiers were stronger than the average person, they lacked coordination and their movements were very crude.

They were no match for him.

But then, Bairus raised his staff once again, and immediately all the remaining corpse soldiers turned into black smoke.

More black smoke began to pour out of the staff and merged with the smoke left behind by the minions until it formed a large dark fog.

The fog started to swirl like a small uncontrollable tornado and began to take shape.

"Guooooh!!!"

Finally, the fog dissipated, but in its place was a huge undead wolf. Its head, like its limbs, was pure bone and the rest of its body was covered in decaying green flesh.

================================

Race: Undead

Species: Corpse beast.

Rank: 2

Level: 24

================================

'Tch... This guy is smarter than the others.'

The undead Marcus had fought so far didn't show any kind of intelligence or reasoning, they just followed their instinct. But Bairus was different.

He had first summoned the corpse soldiers to test Marcus' abilities, but seeing that he was strong enough to take care of them without a problem, he decided to summon a stronger servant.

"Guooooh!!!"

The undead wolf didn't wait for another second and charged towards Marcus and tried to destroy him with its gigantic jaws.

*Slash!!!*

Marcus dodged it and slashed the rotting green flesh from its body, but it had no effect. The undead ended up biting the pillar behind Marcus and …

*Crunch!... Crack!*

Part of the pillar was shattered by the power of the wolf's bite. The undead, annoyed at having missed its target, jerked and attacked again.

Marcus quickly discarded his sword and pulled the battle mace from his inventory.

Since the cut he had made had no effect, he decided to aim for the parts that weren't covered by flesh since they were weak against blunt damage.

Marcus dodged the wolf's charge and struck one of its hind legs making a small crack in it.

*Crack..Snap..Crack..Snap..Crack..*.

Every time the undead wolf attacked, Marcus dodged it like a professional bullfighter, only to hit it in the legs.

Little by little, the undead's legs were filling up with cracks. Marcus had a feeling that it wouldn't be long before one of them would break.

*BAM!*

But then the wolf slammed into a column causing it to collapse.

*THUD!*

Marcus jumped to the side and managed to evade the pillar. But in that second it took him to dodge it, the undead wolf charged at him and caught him with its huge jaws.

Although Marcus had managed to cast [Energy Shield] around his body before the wolf caught him, it had shattered as if it were made of glass. Even with [Self-Reinforcement] activated the undead's jaw was destroying both the armor and his bones.

At that instant, Marcus thrust both hands into the wolf's eye sockets.

'ENERGY MISSILE!'

*BOOM!*

Both projectiles collided and exploded inside the wolf's skull destroying it into hundreds of pieces.

The decapitated body of the undead staggered until it finally collapsed to the ground, only to turn into black smoke and disappear without a trace.

Marcus rolled across the floor until he collided with one of the columns. He quickly got to his feet and while repairing his hands with necrotic energy, he grabbed his weapons and looked at Bairus.

The Semi-lich didn't move, even after his corpse Beast was annihilated he didn't seem to show the slightest hint of concern or anger.

*weng weng*

Bairus raised his staff and at that instant dozens of shadows appeared behind him. The shadows began to take the form of weapons such as knives, swords, and spears.

'So... You're telling me you finally recognize me as a threat?... Alright Bairus, let's get this over with!'

****

1)Hello in Russian.

2)Means Bullsh*t in Russian.

3)Goodbye in Russian.