Ah!~ Life… So beautiful and yet so fragile. A bit of a sad way to start a story isn’t it? However~ Guess who just died? Yes, me! The MC of the story! Oh? Nope, I didn’t get hit by a truck… Ahem! Let me tell you about my mortal life before I ended up as whatever the hell I am right now… So, I was born as a boy in your typical hard-working family. No, I’m not Japanese, I’m Romanian. Good ol’ politically corrupt Romania! Well, enough with the unimportant details… I grew up quite normal. I wasn’t bullied, I wasn’t the bully, I wasn’t the hot guy in the class nor the disgusting guy who kept digging for gold up his nasal cavity. I was… average. I went to an average High School. I studied at the University Politehnica București and became a sales manager at a sweets company. What? Not everyone who goes there ends up as an engineer. Even if we get the diploma, many of us wandered off in completely unexpected directions, but that’s life. Anyway, to escape my boredom, I bought a good computer and started to play games. Aaand I played a lot… I mean seriously, my collection was impressive! Good ol’ Seasonal Sales! Hm? A few of you are wondering if I ended up as a creepy old otaku? More or less… My snickering during certain anime scenes crept out my girlfriend major time! Nonetheless, before this pure angel flew into my arms, I achieved the condition to become a wizard! In other words… 30 years old virgin… So how did I die? Well, while Alina was out shopping with her mom for a dress, since we were supposed to go together to a friend’s wedding, I was inside my private room playing Ultrademons 3. The game appeared a month before, and it was amazing! Well, 2023 tech does wonders when it comes to graphics, unfortunately, I wasn’t rich enough to own a VR set. While I was playing, I suddenly heard a loud bang and died… And there I was, waiting for my beautiful… huh? I didn’t finish the story? Tch… stupid author. So, the reason why I died, huh? I found that out AFTER I died from two souls who kicked the bucket around the same time as me. While I was playing, an accident took place in front of my apartment building. A taxi driver smashed into a police car. The drivers died instantly, but the criminal the officers caught survived without a scratch. The bastard rushed into my apartment building after he stole the guns and ammo from the two officers in the car, one who was heavily injured and the other dead. He picked a random door, shot the lock, entered the apartment, emptied the fridge, made a few calls and then he found me. I didn’t hear him since I was playing with my headphones on. I’m never buying noise canceling headphones again! Anyway, he panicked and well did the most stupid thing imaginable, he shot me point blank in the back of my head. I’m sorry man, I really am… said the taxi driver who was apologizing to the cop. ‘What about me?!’ I wanted to scream, but I abstained. It wasn’t their fault the criminal was a lunatic… Sigh, but what now? Children… come! a voice called to us. A bright light appeared before me. Without a worry, I went closer to it. I didn’t have many regrets, I wished I could have finished my game and more importantly… propose to Alina, my girlfriend. Sigh… I guess it was time to meet my pretty Valkyries. I was an orthodox christian, but the idea of beautiful war maidens coming to greet me to take me to Heaven sounded nice… Ah~, my beautiful Valkyries! The light vanished and there was darkness around me… Huh? What? Where? Where are my Valkyries? A cute angel chick would be good as well… I’m not picky… Erm? Hello? I shouted, but there was only darkness around me. “Is this it?” I heard the voice of a stranger, a man, coming from everywhere. It startled me. Hello? Can you hear me? ECHO?! I shouted, but nothing… “Ah! This is it! Chant this… here… er no, here… I think.” said the man again. He sounded old, like really old. Erm… I heard some weird chanting and then suddenly an explosion. “ARGH!” the old man groaned in pain. “Quick! Cut them off before they spread throughout the academy!” shouted another man. “The imp! Kill the imp there!” shouted another while sounds of sword clashing and monsters screaming were heard from everywhere. I started to get worried. What’s happening? I asked myself. I listened to the battle, but they were either chanting some weird words or slashing at something. The sounds were strangely familiar to what I previously heard in my games, but honestly speaking, where was I? Hell? Heaven? Was I resurrected as the cleavage of a beautiful elf maiden? Nah! Considering my luck, there was a chance I got resurrected as an old guy’s butt crack! Sigh… 99 bottles of milk on the wall~ 99 bottles milk! You take one down, you toss it around, 98 bottles of milk remain on the wall! I started to sing while I was listening to a background that sounded like strange battle between a party of heroes and a bunch of monsters. After I reached the 46th bottle, the sounds ceased. Hm? “Should we break it? It might be safer that way…” said one of the men there. Oh, I confirmed something meanwhile, there were no women in their party, just grumpy men. I had a bad feeling about this… “No! Absolutely not! We can do this, just focus…” said the old man again while heaving. He must have gotten tired after all that chanting. Suddenly, things went silent, and I didn’t hear anything. Hello? Anyone? Banana! CAT! God? Mommy? I started to shout, but nothing and no one replied. I sighed again and waited… Then it happened. A bright light cast off the darkness, and I opened my eyes… but what greeted me wasn’t the beautiful bouncy mountains of an elf maiden but the grizzly white beard of an old man. “AAAARGH!” I shouted. “AAAA!” the others shouted. “AAAA!” I shouted. “AAAA!” the others shouted. “AAAA!” I shouted. Then we stopped… “Where are my Valkyries? Where am I? Who are you all?” I started to ask and tried to move, but I was stuck. I looked down, but what I saw weren’t my legs but some strange symbols carved into the floor tiles and what looked like the bottom of a floating green giant crystal. “Huh?” I gasped. “Oh! You see! I told you it would work!” said the old man with the ridiculously long beard. “Hmph! I still say we should smash it.” said the big guy with a big sword and dressed like your typical big, brawny warrior. “Nonsense! Anyway, please excuse us, Lord of the Dungeon! I am the High Mage Tuberculus! This here are my associates, Berserker Warrior Angius and Master Tamer Paladinus the Third!” he declared all of a sudden. “Erm…” I looked left and right, but it appeared as though he was talking to me. “Me? Lord of the Dungeon? What dungeon? Are you guys sane?” I asked and tried to tilt my head, but no chance… I couldn’t move. “Oh my, did we actually break it?” asked Paladinus the something. “Impossible!” stated Tuberculus. They looked at the chant one more time, it was written on an old fashioned scroll, then they looked back at me. They kept exchanging glances, making me feel quite uncomfortable. “So, erm…” I tried to speak. “You are the Lord of the Dungeon. Or to be more exact, the core of a dungeon we made artificially from various destroyed dungeon cores. Hm, I believe we might have made a mistake somewhere, it appears you don’t know who or what you are… That is troubling. For now, try to adjust to your current environment. We will return in a few hours and try to answer any questions you may have, although, please don’t summon any monsters? OK?” he ended his explanation with a typical forced smile the politicians on the news usually showed. “I think so…” I replied, but his words did over 9000 damage on my sanity. “Then we will be back before you know it!” and just like that I was left alone in a completely trashed room. “Lord of the Dungeon… me? I’m a what now?” I said about fifteen minutes after they left. Aaand that’s how I began my second life as the core of a dungeon, the only problem was that I wasn’t exactly in a dungeon… ________________ From the Author: Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this chapter and let me know what you think about it in the comments below! You can read the latest chapters at: dragomircm.com I will try to add the rest of the chapters in the following days.