I woke up the following morning in the pleasant company of two lovely women; one was a draconian princess, and the other was an el’doraw former assassin. Their soft bosoms brought a happy grin to my face, reminding me once more of how much I enjoyed big breasts. Maybe that was why I ended up with an allegiance to that sort of god. If he was up there, then surely he was blessing me in that very moment.

Good morning, Master… whispered Shanteya.

Opening my eyes, I looked up at her and then brought her lips to a soft kiss. It was as pleasant as always. Then it was Ayuseya’s turn, but she was still sleeping. I decided not to disturb her, but I didn’t want her to wake up without me in her arms either. Currently, our legs were intertwined, and her tail was wrapped around my waist as though she was trying to proclaim her claim over my body. Shanteya didn’t mind her doing so and pulled back from our embrace.

Ayuseya… I whispered to the draconian woman, but she failed to open her eyes.

Moving my hands around her waist, I began to research the shape of her body. Besides being very tall, she had a good figure as well. Her big chest held a divine suppleness to it, and the way her curves moved down around her hips made me believe she has an hourglass figure rather than a slim or tall one. Based on my analysis, her tail connected not as a continuation of the coccis, but rather as an extension of the spine above the pelvis. Unfortunately, the dress she was wearing didn’t allow me to give her a firm grope of her behind to ‘test’ it’s elasticity. On the bright side of things, because her tail was wrapped around me, it lifted her dress up just enough for me to catch a glimpse of her thigh, and I used that God-given opportunity to give it a soft touch.

Do you like what you feel? she suddenly asked me.

I gulped and looked up. Ayuseya was awake now.

I smiled and removed my hand, placing it over her waist. Leaning closer, I wished to capture her lips in a kiss, but she pulled back, her tail retreated as well.

Is… is this necessary? she asked with a bit of blush in her cheeks.

Do you dislike it? I asked her in return.

She looked away, but didn’t give me a proper answer.

Then, I shall enjoy this kiss. I told her as I gently touched her chin and turned her head my way.

Since she didn’t deny nor pushed me away, I welcomed her lips to mold with mine in a soft kiss. Once more, I felt her taste and rough tongue. She didn’t improve in kissing over night, but it was only her second one so far. That was why when we parted lips, her cheeks and the tips of her ears were of a bright red. She held a feverish gaze in her eyes as well. The sweet dance was over, and she was now allowed to part herself with me.

Thank you, Ayuseya… I told her as I left her embrace.

It was time to release Shanteya, and once she was out, I gave her the orders for that day.

“I want you to go into the forest and hunt down as many monsters as you can. Everything you kill will be counted as my kills, and it will help me level up. Gather their remains, and every two or three hours, I will drop by to check on you and pick them up. Also, let me try to enchant your dress.” I said.

“I understand, Master. I will do as you request, but if you can, could you please give me back my old leather armor? I will be able to fight much better in it than I would in this dress.” she told me with a smile.

“Of course, I think Nanya has it though. You can go and get it from her, but first, let me see if I can enchant your dress. I’m really curious about this new ability of mine!” I said with a smile.

“Of course! As you wish, Master!” she replied with a small bow of her head.

With that being said, I opened my skill panel and looked around for my item enchanting skill. Unlike the other two which were in placed in the [Construction] and [Traps] category, this one was classified as a [Unique Skill].

[Enchant Item with Enchantment]

Another weird voice command… I thought as I squinted my eyes at the skill.

The targeted item was Shanteya’s dress without the apron, shoes, and undergarments. The system took everything as a separate item. Upon discovering this, my gamer’s instincts irked me to make a set, but there was something else I wanted to do, something I couldn’t help doing.

“Upgrade [Enchant Item with Enchantment].” I said, and the system complied.

For the cost of 30 points, I received: [Enchant Item with Enchantment]. I was brimming with joy when I saw it, so much that I didn’t care about the 10 extra points I had to spend for it when compared to other skills. It might have been because it was a Unique skill, although it made me wonder if the other two enchanting skills would cost me the same to upgrade them.

“Oh! Goodie! Goodie! Let’s do this!” I said with a big, bright invisible smile.

“Master?” asked Shanteya, blinking once and furrowing her brow.

Selecting her dress again, I applied the Enchant, I poured about 3000 Magic Energy in it and imagined the enchantment I could make. Of course, the system took care of most of the annoying things, but I could see in the corner of my mind the chance of failing in the form of a percentage, the change of stats it offered, and some special abilities I could choose from.

It was currently showing a 0% chance of failing, but the moment I chose to add 1000 points for each of her stats, the chance went to 100% chance of failing. Even if I poured another 1000 Magic Energy Points in it, it still didn’t work. I was a bit disappointed, but I continued to play around with the settings.

The reason why it didn’t work may have had something to do with my current level as well as the improvement level of the skill. Basically, I wasn’t allowed to enchant items with abilities capable of insta-killing a Supreme, but a gamer could dream.

Adding abilities also raised my chance of failing, so I struggled a bit to make an enchantment able to offer Shanteya some decent stat boosts and abilities without raising the fail chance too high.

The end result was this item:

[Name of item]: Maid Dress Y/N

[Stats added]: +135 All +1% Magic Energy Regeneration

[Abilities]: +High Endurance +Tracking +Damage Dampener 20% +Link [Illsyore]

[Chance of Failing]: 67%

I didn’t like the 67%, so I added another 2000 Magic Energy Points, making this a 6000 Magic Energy Points enchantment.

[Chance of Failing]: 48%

Too high! I wanted to shout, but I realized it might have been something in the options I selected that kept the failing chance so high, so I began to experiment a bit more. I took out some of the abilities, but that only reduced it to 40%. I added them back and focused on the stats. I removed Magic Energy Regeneration, and the chance fell to 18%. Out of curiosity, I reduced the stats to 50 instead of 135. The chance dropped to 1%.

So, adding stats increased the chance of failing tremendously, huh? I thought, and out of curiosity reduced the stats even more. It didn’t change from 1% to 0% until I completely removed the stats.

In other words, stats added an automatic chance of failure of 1%.

It reached 3% when I had 60 points in all. By removing the Intelligence points, I could increase Strength by another 30 and Agility by another 30. Since those were more important, I left them at that.

With 3% chance of failing, it was a guaranteed win, so I applied the 6000 Magic Energy enchantment on Shanteya’s maid dress. The moment I did that, there was a bright light and then… something unexpected happened, which was both good and bad at the same time.

“Master?” the el’doraw asked surprised after she was left standing in front of me with her maid dress shredded into scraps.

“Well… naked apron is a thing, you know?” I said.

“Naked? But, I’m still wearing my bra and panties…”

“I can fix that, you know?”

She blushed and looked down.

The enchantment failed at 3%, and I was raging inside.

How could it fail at 3%? Just… just how? Seriously? ARGH! I screamed.

It took me a few moments to calm down, but when I did, I decided to never again attempt to raise the stats through enchantment until I have improved the spell to the point where it didn’t fail so ridiculously anymore.

“I don’t have a spare… I’ll go and get you your leather armor.” I grumbled.

“Please do, master. I can’t fight like this.” she told me and pointed at the remains of her dress.

Her cheeks were red and ears lowered a bit from embarrassment.

You trained naked, Shanteya, don’t complain about half-naked apron fighting. I thought but decided against saying those words out loud. It might have been a bit rude to do so.

I found Nanya in her room. Of course, before entering, I knocked first and just in case there was someone in there, I was prepared to accidentally shoot him or her with a simple [Fireball].

“Well, enchanting an item to be able to gather Magic Energy or increase one’s strength isn’t that easy and most of the times, no one actually tries it.” she told me after I explained the reason why I was there so early and asking for a spare set of clothes for Shanteya. “Still, I’m more surprised by the fact that you can add four abilities to it! Anyway, I’ll bring you Shanteya’s armor, but please don’t rip it up. Enchantments can be overwritten if needed be, therefore, until you handle it better, just spread the abilities around. By the way, they don’t stack. The stronger version takes priority.” she warned me.

“There goes my overpowered set idea.” I replied.

“So what are your plans for today?” she asked me and turned around.

Nanya went inside to grab Shanteya’s armor and a spare maid dress. Meanwhile, I waited in the hallway.

“I’ll build the fifth floor of the dungeon, enchant some traps. Stuff like that… You?” I asked.

“I’ll go and check the dungeons you made yesterday and add some bait inside to make them work. You said you wanted Shanteya to go hunting? Does that mean that if I hunt as well, you can level up faster?” she asked from the other side of the room.

“Yes.” I replied.

“Hm, I see… So, how did Shanteya get so strong all of a sudden?” she asked me curiously.

“It’s a passive ability of mine. It’s called [Bond of Trust]. As long as you trust me, and I trust you completely, the ability appears and allows me to boost your strength by a lot.” I explained calmly, without going too deep into details.

Even if Nanya and Ayuseya were my wives now, I didn’t feel like I could fully trust them, or that they trusted me. Maybe that was the reason why it didn’t work. Forcing this ability wouldn’t get me anywhere, it had to come naturally like it did with me and Shanteya. I felt safe and protected with her around, while she felt the same for me.

“Hm, interesting, unfortunately, I don’t think it will ever activate for me.” she told me as she returned with my slave’s clothes.

After absorbing them, I asked her “Why?”

“I just can’t trust anyone anymore.” she shrugged as though it was nothing to worry about “So, don’t worry, it’s not just you I don’t trust…” she looked down at the floor for a moment. “Even if my feelings for you turn into pure love… they won’t ever allow me to trust you, and you shouldn’t trust me either…” she looked up and showed me small smile, a sad one.

“Nanya…” I said as I thought about what to reply to her, but should I have when I didn’t know how she ended up like that?

Honestly speaking, I wouldn’t have ever guessed that the energetic, friendly, wild, and chatty Nanya had a problem with trusting other people. She interacted well with the students at the academy and even the other teachers. Nevertheless, considering the type of world this was and her past with Dankyun, it wasn’t an impossible thing either. Medieval times weren’t very pleasant or kind back on Earth either. Rather than romance, knights, and honor, it was more like terror, darkness, fear, and death. But still, I wanted to say something to her to help her out.

“You should get going now. Just keep in mind what I told you about enchanting. Also, now that I think about it, for your dungeon, I believe it’s better if you don’t build an entire floor today and instead focus more on defenses to your room here, at the academy. It wouldn’t be bad if you’re at it, to find a away to bring your core to your dungeon, just in case.” she advised me.

I was planning on doing that either way, but the part about a secret way to get my core to the dungeon was left somewhere in the corners of my mind. In other words, I wasn’t so sure about it. Maybe with Dankyun heading this way, such an emergency plan wasn’t such a bad idea, after all.

“Nanya, before I go, there’s something I wish to tell you.” I said.

“What is it, Illsy?” she asked me.

“I don’t think love can exist without mutual trust… When you love someone, you automatically trust them as well. I don’t know what made you unable to trust others, you seem to be doing perfectly fine with the teachers and the students, but just think about what I said for a moment… I actually mean what I told you yesterday. I’m not going to go back on my words just because you said you will never trust me. If I will suffer for falling in love with you, then let it be so. I’ll deal with it then.” I declared with a firm tone of voice, to show her that I meant every single word I said before and now.

Truth be told, I had no idea how things would end up between us in a few months or years from then, but if I didn’t try my best to win their both her heart and Ayuseya’s as well as open mine to theirs, I knew I would end up regretting it. For what I did, I had to at least try. This, I knew for certain because it was something Alina taught me.

When I was feeling down because of unemployment, when I was having a hard time with my friends, when I didn’t know if it was even worth living or not, she was there to help me get back on my feet. She could have abandoned me, she could have just stood there and do nothing, but she didn’t. There was even a time when I thought she was cheating on me with one of her coworkers, but it was all proven wrong. Well, it wasn’t only she who helped me get over that, some good animes and lines from a book helped me realize the wrong in my way of thinking.

It was actually logical, if one loved, how could they claim they couldn’t trust them? After all, as far as I knew, love meant to completely give yourself to the one you loved and request nothing in return, it meant to accept your partner without complaint and accept them as they were as well as believe and trust that they would do the same for you.

This wasn’t a belief I was born with, but one which I attained after suffering from doing the exact opposite, but I didn’t know if my words had the strength to reach Nanya. For now, they could have been seen by her only as mere empty words.

“I’ll think about it, Illsy.” she replied before closing the door.

I sighed and flew back to my room. For now, I could only wait.

Once I got back to Shanteya, I decided to enchant her armor before she put it on. I didn’t try to add any stats this time, but instead, I used the High Endurance and Damage Dampener 20% enchants as main ones. On her chest, I also added the third one, which was Link [Illsyore]. The only other part of her armor to receive an extra enchantment was her headpiece, on which I placed Tracker. Still, I was quite surprised to find out that her assassin armor didn’t have any initial enchantments suitable for her previous line of work, but then again, she was just a Master Rank or maybe Intermediary. Maybe that was the reason.

After I explained what sort of enchantments I added, the first question she asked of me was “How long will these last?”

It was quite interesting because I didn’t see any sort of timer on them when I made them.

“I don’t know, let me absorb one piece and see…” I told her, and she handed me the mask.

Upon entering my Inner Mind, I didn’t stop by to visit Ayuseya and went straight to the location inside my darkness where the items were being kept. After finding the headpiece, I pulled up its stats, but again, nothing out of the ordinary appeared in the menu.

Display duration of enchantment. I ordered.

That was the reply I received. I shrugged and left my Inner Mind.

“P-Permanent?” asked Shanteya when I told her.

“Yes.” I replied calmly.

“That’s amazing…” she said and looked down at her gloves.

“I sort of suspected as much.” I told her.

“What do you mean, Master?” she tilted her head to the right and furrowed her brow a little.

“I’m a Dungeon Lord as a species and from what Nanya told me, all dungeons can both create and enchant items. People researched enchantment spells based on what they encountered in dungeons. Their versions are temporary and not as strong as mine, so I believed it should be natural for me learn permanent enchantments rather than temporary ones even if they are mentioned as temporary in the books.” I explained.

In a way, I was expecting something similar to happen when I would find a book or scroll with a Godlike Rank Skill on it. That was unless I managed to unlock that skill myself. It was quite possible it required me to have multiple Emperor Rank skills.

Of course, there was the chance that I was completely wrong, and I just ended up with permanent enchantment based on a fluke or the fact that I simply didn’t specify the amount of time I wanted it to last. The skill did hold the option of: .

“Then, Master, I shall be on my way. I will hunt down as many monsters as I can for you!” said Shanteya with a bright smile before she pulled her mask on.

“Take care!” I told her.

In that moment, she turned back into the assassin I met during my first day as a Dungeon Lord. It made me remember the time when I slaughtered those 24 assassins without showing even the slightest sign of remorse. Even now, I felt nothing for them because I knew they caused harm for my beloved Shanteya. Thinking about it, for a level 1 dungeon to do something like that was incredible, absurd even, yet I thought it was something basic, something anyone could do.

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Either way, after Shanteya left, I headed off to my dungeon, but while I did that, I began to look over the types of enchantments I had there, most specifically for ‘see through’ and ‘enhance libido’ type enchantments. To my surprise, there were a few, but none with a negative effect. If I had to guess, those entered in the curse category rather than enchantment.

These enchantments do give me a good idea for what to try on their bras and panties… I thought, but I quickly decided against going down on that path.

If I could prevent it, I wanted to avoid having my wives and slave gain any sort of horny buff when I my only body was that of a floating crystal.

For two and half hours, all I did in my dungeon was to enchant each and every trap I found there with Ignore Magic Armor . After that, I enchanted the rooms containing lava with the Low Temperatures enchantment, so that it would be very cold for any adventurer who stepped in. I wanted them to believe that maybe the lava wasn’t real, and they accidentally went for a dip. Of course, I didn’t forget to enchant the lava with Corrode Magic Armor and High Temperatures. The walls were given a High Endurance enchantment, to make them very hard to destroy or melt. The labyrinth sections forming independent mazes received random High and Low temperature enchantments. The Illusion and High Endurance ones were on every wall in there. I was hoping to get something like a ghost enchantment for the walls or special sections of the maze, but there was no such thing in my list. All I could do was give some of them a third enchantment: Growl Noise. It was the same one used in home alarms and mimicked a dog’s growl.

The last thing I did in the maze was to add some scribbled notes written on dead-end walls. They were just some random taunts I thought up:

-You thought this was the exit?

-Aaand… you’re lost, aren’t you?

-I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but to reach the exit, you had to take the OTHER left!

-Note to self: Don’t forget to add exit to the maze.

-Note to self: I can’t find the other note to self…

-If you see this message… RUN!

-The message that told you to run was a joke.

-Are you bald yet?

-Somewhere in this maze, I hid a room filled with gold!

-Congratulations! You are lost!

-If you read this message, then you are lost.

-No, seriously, where did I put the exit?

From my perspective, I had quite a bit fun writing all of those down, but I had to keep them short. Too much would only spoil the effect.

I was thinking about building the fourth floor now, but I decided against it. I wanted to make sure my crystal room was safe and that I had a way to escape into the depths of my labyrinth. Plans to make all sorts of traps and defense mechanism rushed through my mind as I flew out of my dungeon.

“Hm?” I stopped midair when I sensed a strange presence approaching through the forest. It was a single man.

Curious, I approached him and analyzed him from afar. He was wearing a long trench coat with a black hood to cover his head. He was holding something in his hand, a small black crystal that glowed and showed the number 64. For a moment, I thought it was just some random bandit, but then I realized that he was holding the same type of item Nanya showed me once. The man was an adventurer looking for my dungeon.

Poor fellow. I thought when I imagined him entering my enhanced first floor.

I decided to give him a helping hand, so I constructed a spring trap in front of him. The man didn’t even realize it was there until it was too late. The moment he stepped on it, the trap triggered, and he was tossed into the air at an incredible speed.

“AAA!” he screamed as he flew like a bird, or rather a rock that was about to smash into the ground.

I may have made that spring too strong… I thought.

Luckily for him, he had a powerful Magic Armor that managed to dampen most of the damage he took from the fall, but he still got really banged up. I made sure he wasn’t dead and left him a small message on the nearby tree: [If you dare to step any further, I will and then I will , and finally, I will . Oh, and I could also kill you.]

The moment he saw the message, he limped back the way he came.

With a shrug, I went to check up on Shanteya. Seeing as she made me level up a few times, I was sure to find quite an interesting stash, and I did. She hunted down Dayuks, Orkarin, normal wolves, some goblins, even an Urkin.

“You did a good job, Shanteya!” I told he with a smile before I began absorbing the bodies.

“Thank you, Master! Your enchantments and buff are amazing! I never thought I could take them out so easily!” she said with a happy smile.

“As expected of you! Well, keep up the good work, I’ll head back to the academy and return to you in three hours, alright?”

“Of course, Master! I’ll head north from here to hunt some more!” she said excited.

I guess she missed the thrill of the hunt? Or is that the excitement of being overpowered? I wondered as I watched her run off into the forest.

Upon returning to the academy, I started to work on my big plan to ‘modernize’ my room. The first things I changed were the walls. From cobblestone and cement, I turned them into Inconel Alloy. This stuff was a super-alloy made out of Nickel, Chromium, Iron, Molybdenum, Niobium, Cobalt, Manganese, Copper, Aluminium, Titanium, Silicon, Carbon, Sulfur, Phosphorus, and Boron. This thing was used for turbine blades in jet engines, and nuclear reactor applications. It was corrosive resistant, heat resistant, shock resistant, and hopefully Supreme resistant. To make it even better, I made it in 10 cm thick layers. The first one, the closest to me, had an enchantment of High Endurance 40%, which nearly drained me of Magic Energy. The second had High Endurance 20%, Low Temperature, and Illusion set to show heavy cracks meant to induce the attacker into using a weaker attack to try to shatter it. The third one was similar to the second one. Thus, I had a sealed up box with 30 cm thick walls as hard as it could get to pierce.

I highly doubted even a Supreme could get through that thing, but it was best not to test out fate and because of that, I reorganized the construction of my room. It was placed on the second floor, unfortunately, by the time I realized that, I had already finished creating the first walls. Now, I had to figure out a way to create an escape route for my crystal body in case of an emergency. The one thing I realized so far was that the stronger your Magic Armor was, the higher the chance to survive a high fall. The other thing was the fact that I was floating above the ground thanks to the runes engraved on the floor and ceiling. They created a field around my body, which allowed it to stand straight. In other words, I wasn’t floating because I could but because I was allowed to by an enchantment of sorts. Upon looking in my list, however, I was unable to find it.

The first thing that came to my mind when facing this dilemma was to try to copy the runes exactly as they were drawn and then infuse them with magic. It had to be that sort of a process, right? But then again, it was probably better to simply ask my wife, Nanya, about it.

Just in case, I went under the school and created a free fall lift of about 10 meters. It would land in a body of water. Afterwards, a piston would push me out of the water and another into the next chamber, which was going to be a slide all the way to my dungeon. Unfortunately, I knew well enough that simply making my crystal body slide wasn’t going to work as it did in cartoons. Another problem was the fact that I had to transport it quite a distance away from there. I had the option of using [Telekinezy], but it felt a bit bothersome to drag myself through a tunnel, especially when I might need to focus on closing the path behind me. The temporary solution I came up with was a slide made out of perfectly round wood rollers covered in thick oil. The only problem left then was how to obtain the oil. For that, I thought of the complicated process of creating oil moats and then gathering up.

As I would come to find out, however, I couldn’t regenerate the oil or any other liquid once it was depleted from the moat. The reason why I could reheat the lava back then was because the liquid was still there. In other words, I turned dirt into any liquid I desired.

If this is so, I wonder if dungeons built upwards in the form of a tower require the Dungeon Core to mine underground for any sort of materials it needs… Hm, could it be? I thought and then entered my Inner Mind for a moment.

In there, I concentrated for a moment and asked to be taken in the area where basic materials could be found. The darkness replied, and I was brought into a huge area. What I found there was beyond my imagination.

Thousands upon thousands of tons of dirt were gathered in the form of a floating sphere. Not far from it, I saw granite gathered in the shape of giant cubes, and right next to it, various metals of the highest purity were kept in the form of very big floating molten spheres. On the other side, gases of all kinds were gathered in the form of clouds. Under the dirt sphere, I saw all sorts of radioactive materials in the shape of cubes. The entire Mendeleev Table was right in front of me in the form of floating giant spheres or cubes. The compounds, dirt, lava, alloys, and other stuff like that were also there, but it appeared as though dirt was the center piece of all of them.

Looking around, I realized that whenever I created something, I didn’t do it out of nothing. I had all the materials stored right there, inside of me.

Who gathered all of these? I asked, but although I didn’t hope to receive an answer, I did get one.

In other words, I can’t just build dungeons without an end… I have finite resources unless I replenish them. Maybe that’s why I can absorb matter and liquids… I thought as I looked around at all those materials.

I wasn’t just lucky I received the Godlike race, but also because I got a boost in basic materials I could use. However, it meant that at one point, all of these had been mined and absorbed by Dungeons. In other words, I would also need to create a mine or mines. This also explained why other dungeons started out with humble cave systems and slowly develop as they dug down. The more they dug, the more materials they absorbed, the more resources they ultimately have and then, after a thousand years had passed since their death, all of those materials were given to newborn dungeons. Godlikes already had an impressive boost from level one, they could mine faster and better than any other dungeon, that was why they didn’t receive a part of the loot.

Should I consider myself lucky? I thought as I left my Inner Mind.

With so much material at my disposal, I could even build an entire island from the seafloor up and entirely made out of dungeon floors.

“Huh?” I blinked when I felt something entering my Dungeon Territory.

In that moment, my dungeon sense was tingling, and I knew something dangerous and far stronger than me was heading towards the academy.

“What… What’s that?” I asked myself as I looked in its direction.

Over forty life signs were heading my way. Two split apart from the group and went into the woods, but among them was a rather fierce life sign. It was stronger than any of those present on my dungeon territory, and it even frightened me. Still, it was a bit strange because they were all over 15 km away from me. It was the first time I sensed something so detailed and at such a far away distance.

“Something is coming…” I said with a trembling voice.

At first, I thought about starting to build walls and constructing traps to keep them from getting closer, but I didn’t have time for all of that, and I highly doubted they could actually stop them. Now I regretted I didn’t do this from the get go.

Flying back to my room, I created and installed six AGLMC laser pointed at the door, the only entrance. Air flowed inside the room through a few small holes on the top left corner, but I could always plug them up and use the air stored inside of me. I just had to absorb Carbon Dioxide and let out Oxygen to make it breathable. As funny as it sounded, my crystal body did, in fact, require oxygen to breath. I had no idea how it worked exactly, but I instinctively knew I would suffocate if I was locked up in a safe-like room with no way to refresh the air around me.

There were still a lot of things I wanted to prepare, and I could see that they were heading our way quite fast, well as fast as a horse could cover a distance of 16 km. There was also the matter with Shanteya and Nanya to think about.

No, Shanteya should stay there and keep farming levels for me. I need to get stronger… then Nanya? Yes! I have to go get her! I thought and immediately flew towards her.

There was still the safety of the students I had to think about. As soon as I returned with Nanya, I had to gather the students, tell Tuberculus and notify the other teachers of the incoming danger.

So many things… Argh! I have to hurry! I shouted in my mind as I rushed over the forest, heading straight towards the teenage-looking teacher.

I found her hunting a wild boar to use as a bait for one of the simple dungeons. It was probably going to be used to attract normal wolves, not the horned kind. The animal wasn’t even aware of her presence, but she didn’t have time to jump on it, I used my [Telekinezy] and grabbed her by the waist, lifting her up in the sky with me.

“Hey! What the?! Illsy?!” she shouted as she looked back at me.

The boar was startled by the noise and dashed into the nearby bushes.

“Something powerful is heading our way! Something dangerous! Something stronger than me! More than forty humanoids riding horses are heading on the main road towards the academy. Two split off and are trying to find my dungeons. We must hurry back! We have to…” I said quickly as I flew as fast as I could back to the academy.

“What? Illsy! Calm down! What danger? What are you talking bout?” she asked a bit confused.

“I-I-I think it’s Dankyun…” I replied with a trembling tone of voice.

A serious expression took place of the confused one a moment ago. Clenching her jaws and fists, she looked up at me.

“Are you sure?” she asked.

“Yes… I think… Who else could it be? Still, I don’t know, but ever since he entered my dungeon territory, I felt afraid… I felt really afraid, Nanya!” I told her.

If I had a body, all joints would shake and all my muscles would quiver with fear. My breath would tremble, my heart would beat so fast it would nearly burst out of my chest. I wouldn’t be able to focus, and I wouldn’t be able to react. My only salvation was the fact that I didn’t possess such physical reactions, but even then, it was hard to keep focus.

Maybe she noticed how I was reacting because I saw her gaze soften and then she spoke to me with a soft, gentle tone of voice “Illsy… calm down, my dear.”

Her words pulled me out of that trance like a hard slap to my cheek. It made me slow down a bit and look back at her in surprise. My breath, if I had one, slowly returned to its normal rhythm.

“Nanya? What?” I asked a bit confused.

“It’s not your fault, Illsy. You are not afraid of him, but of his weapon, The Dungeon Slayer. It’s a weapon created with powerful enchantments meant to send Dungeon Cores and Lords in a state of panic. You fear it instinctively the moment the sword enters your Dungeon Territory, after all, don’t you remember? You can barely feel anything past 10 km from here. If that’s so, how can you feel such a powerful fear when they had just entered your territory? Right?” she told me with a soft smile.

I blinked surprised and looked at her gentle gaze. She relaxed me, she calmed me down, and her words caressed my shivering heart, letting it resume a normal pulse. It was a miracle…

“Is this sword that powerful?” I asked.

“Yes… That’s the weapon Dankyun stole from me. A weapon meant to slay dungeons, but that enchantment which causes you to fear it so much isn’t its most dangerous one.” she explained shaking her head.

“Which one is then?” I asked as I remembered how Nanya once told me about this fellow.

He was the one who left her to die in a dungeon and also the one who stole the Supreme Skill scroll from her. Yet instead of feeling anger towards him, I felt fear…

“The Reaper enchantment…”

“Sounds scary, but what does it do?” I asked with a gulp.

“It grants a bladed or blunt weapon the ability to ignore the magic armor of the user’s enemy.” she explained and closed her eyes.

I gulped again.

“Doesn’t that mean that…” I started to speak.

“In the hands of a Master Rank, it’s a very dangerous weapon, but in the hands of a Supreme, it’s unstoppable.” she opened her eyes and looked up at me.

“I can’t defeat him, can I?” I asked.

She shook her head.

“Not right now… not unless you have a Godlike created Shield or a much stronger Magic Armor than yours.” she explained.

“What use would a stronger Magic Armor have and can’t you make a shield?” I asked.

“Godlike item creation skills are separated into tiers and types. I’m specialized on cutting and blunt weapons. I barely know how to make leather armor… My gauntlets are recognized as blunt weapons. So no, I can’t make a Godlike Shield, but a powerful Magic Armor can at least slow down the blade long enough for you to try and dodge it or counter it with another weapon.” she let out a sigh. “We have to make sure he leaves the academy peacefully.” she then looked up at me “Illsy, we mustn’t engage him in battle, at all cost! If we do, maybe we can survive somehow, maybe we can flee or hide from him, but what about Tuberculus, Rufus, Paladinus, Zertan, Angius, the other teachers who come here from the city once a week or the students? There are over 400 souls here, Illsy, who won’t be able to flee from Dankyun’s wrath if he attacks us, especially with his Supreme Skill…” she pleaded me.

Despite how angry she was with that draconian, despite how much she would have wanted to defeat him and bury him under a ton of dirt, despite how much I wanted to protect her, Ayuseya, and Shanteya, Nanya thought about something that didn’t even cross my mind at that moment. While I was starting to plot and weave strategies I could use against that sword or even how to create some sort of temporary shield against it using my modern-day knowledge, she thought about the safety of the students and all the innocent people who would be dragged into this battle for the simple reason of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. If I attacked with all of my might, I could vaporize his army, but could I safely protect all the lives at the academy against his Supreme Skill attack? Could I dare to run away from the academy and let him take the students as hostages? I wasn’t an idiot, this was a medieval type world, therefore, nothing would have stopped him from massacring the students and placing the blame on me. A dungeon core had gone wild, and he reached them too late. ‘The tragedy at Fellyore’ would be chapter written down in history, and Dankyun would come out as the brave hero who tried to save the day.

“I won’t do it…” I told her, but it didn’t feel right, it didn’t feel right at all.

To leave such a bastard alive, but what can I do? I thought and struggled with my inner turmoil, a battle between fear, a cry for justice, and the idea of being too weak for now.

I remained quiet, but on the way, I kept pondering about how I could get stronger, and about what I could do to help Nanya and Ayuseya. It was a difficult puzzle to solve, but as I got closer to my core, a strange feeling told me that I could take him on and that I shouldn’t back away.

I’m not a manga or anime character. I would love to have the ability to simply pull out that mythical energy from deep inside my chest and turn into a super powerful being. To shout at the top of my lungs that I stand for the weak, to face injustice head on, to stretch my hands and punch the hell out of my enemy, but this is the real world… I’m not a super alien. I’m not a pirate with a straw hat and powerful nakama. I’m not a proud ramen loving ninja. I’m not a shinigami. I’m not a hero like them… I’m just a normal guy stuck in the crystal body of a dungeon core… I thought to myself as I saw the Academy in sight, but as I got closer, I started to feel the pressure of being responsible for another’s life.

Dankyun had to leave this place peacefully, without engaging us in a battle. If he did, then, I wouldn’t be able to defeat him at my current level. Nanya believed so, and I believed so as well.

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Note from the Author: Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed the story so far! There's more to come! :D