“I say, you certainly have some unique ways of getting out of the Artificial Realm. Well, as expected of an otherworlder,” Lorelei chimed in from behind me.

“Um… Lorelei, has the dungeon some hidden rooms, or is it just literally a single room?” The room I was standing in was about as big as half a basketball court, disappointing, to say the least.

As I inspected my surroundings more, the area where I previously fell and the glowing crystal ball — the Dungeon Core — were only twenty meters away from each other. You could even see the ravine mouth from here.

“I’m afraid that it is what it is — except for the entrance, there is but a single room, the Core Room. Most dungeons only gain sentience once they reach a year old. I was about to have one myself soon, if not for you. But for us to mature… it may take more than a decade.”

So basically, the Dungeon Core was placed overtly in the open without single protection? That was akin to saying, “Here is the Core Room, hurry and come here.” But the place was well secluded if not for me falling down here…

Still, what she said reminded me of one phrase: “I think; therefore I am.” Wherein she existed because she was capable of any form of thought.

“Uh, then can you explain everything you know about this dungeon to me?” Doing something without knowing anything would just be putting the cart before the horse.

“Yes, allow me.” Lorelei then began explaining the ins and outs of the dungeon.

Long story short, the dungeon only consisted of a single floor and a single room. The entrance where the ravine was located basically adjoined the Core Room. No traps, no monsters of any sort to protect the place. This place was bare of anything that would call it a dungeon except for the floating crystal ball that illuminated the place.

By the way, the Core was about the size of a basketball, glowing brightly while emitting a warm light above a pedestal. It warmed the place like a mini heater that otherwise would be cold because this was at the bottom of a ravine.

Welp, it was a bit too much to say that it didn’t have any creatures… For example, there were small insects and animals: rats, bats, among other cave animals. However, what could they do in defense anyway? Swarm the enemy to death?

“It’s disappointing, frankly, but on the bright side, with this, I can design the dungeon from scratch.” As a programmer student, it would be of my interest to start a project on my own starting line rather than overhaul someone else’s.

“Uh-huh. Oh yeah, right when you lost consciousness after our ‘battle,’ I recorded the conversation of those humans above. I didn’t understand a single thing of what they said, though.” Lorelei flicked her wrist, and a hologram-like screen was projected in front of me.

I wasn’t as surprised anymore because of the existence of the status screen. Yet, I couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow upon seeing this; the notion of her being able to record things would be useful in many cases.

“Wow! Lorelei, you can use magic?” There was that instance of her moving the teacup, but it was inside the Artificial Realm…

“Magic?” Lorelei shook her head in denial. “I am capable of doing the most basic stuff — manipulating mana around me. But things like magic spells… that is beyond me. My apologies.”

“I see.” I could only swallow the disappointment for now since it would get me nowhere.

Anyway, the projection displayed the people responsible for causing me to fall into this ravine — the assassination leader and the ranger. I subconsciously curled my hands into fists upon seeing their faces again. This vengeance, I will pay it back a hundredfold! …Er, since when have I become so heinous?

The displayed projection soon began playing as the leader walked to the ranger and began talking. Their conversation started off with them talking about my whereabouts, then straight to the ranger finding out about this ravine being a dungeon.

“An opportunity. Y’know what other words stand for dungeons?”

“Well, well. A gold mine, of course,” the ranger, dressed in green and brown leather, answered in greed.

“Indeed.”

“Let’s not count the chicken before it hatches,” The leader said, “we need to gather more men. Can’t say whether this dungeon is dangerous or not. What do you say?”

“…”

Their conversation still went on for a bit, but I pretty much understood what they were talking about. Incidentally, I found out that the leader was named Rowan — I figured I had seen it from the status screen. Anyway, I got to address the elephant in the room.

“This is concerning,” I mumbled. They would come down here with more men, even facing the ranger was already an insurmountable task, much less a group of them. I got to act fast! I’m talking ‘bout my life here. Can’t let it be taken away when I just got it the second time.

“Speaking of which, what are they talking about?” Lorelei tilted her head.

“Huh? You don’t understand what they are saying…? Why? I think I perfectly understood their conversation. Wait—!” This was another world, first of all, so I needed to think out of the box. In the first place, why would they be speaking English? And in fact, they weren’t. As for why Lorelei didn’t understand them…

“I suppose that you have come to a conclusion. Yep. Currently, I’m speaking with you in English. To me, they’re speaking gibberish and nonsense.”

“My thoughts exactly.” Although that made me wonder, why could I understand them? Is it because of the power of my Vocation?

Massaging my forehead, I diverted my attention elsewhere.

Suddenly, I felt a poke on my shoulder and found that it was Lorelei. “Hey! You still have yet to answer my question.”

It was funny to see that Lorelei acted like this, but I decided to fill her in any way as two heads were better than one. In return, she told me what happened once they were gone. I was surprised about one thing in this exchange as I conversed with her in several other languages — not in a bilingual way, but by changing one or two words to other languages that I knew. She appeared to understand what I said just fine, but now was not the time for further research.

Since this was happening yesterday, I had one less day to prepare for their invasion. According to Lorelei, they were going to the west and went outside her sphere of influence… The ranger aside that went to deal with the dead bodies, Rowan, the leader, was going to their base to gather men. To my conclusion, they would likely come here tomorrow at the earliest. This would be a race against time!

“Okay. Now let’s get started. Lorelei, is there a menu for the dungeon or something?” Usually, in a lot of video games, a menu for summoning monsters and items would be a common sight.

“Me-nu? Do you mean a list with different kinds of functions? Nope, why would there be one?” Lorelei waved her hand in dismissal.

There obviously wouldn’t be one… But wait a minute, [Developer Interface], in some way, was a screen one would have in a typical game, minus level.

With that in mind, I tried to use [Developer Interface] by imagining the menu of the dungeon. To my surprise, a transparent screen similar to the status screen did pop up before my eyes.

Dungeon Name: -

Dungeon Type: [Humanoid]

Interior Type: Ravine cave

Master: Vincent Anderson

Dungeon Menu:

“Jackpot.”

Written on the screen in blue letters was “Dungeon Menu.” It might be called a menu, but other than a simple description of the dungeon above it, there was merely one available function: “Dungeon Catalogs,” which listed several different catalogs: “Life Creation,” “Minions,” and so on. As an intellectual myself, I was attracted by the words “Life Creation” the most.

Hm? So monsters were created or spawned rather than summoned... Then, were there monsters above, on the surface? Or was it unique to dungeons?

“Say, Lorelei,” I inquired, “how does a Dungeon Core create a monster?”

“I have never done it before… But I’ve gained the necessary knowledge. Well, according to my source, I need to first visualize the monster that I want to create. Then, with a suitable amount of my power, I create them.”

Her power? “Oh, so mana is the main currency for monsters?”

“No, mana alone can’t create monsters. There is something more than that — I can’t tell you what it is though. Not that I don’t want to tell you or anything. It’s just hard to explain.” Lorelei was acting ambiguous as she could be.

“Huh?” This was my turn to tilt my head.

“Okay.” she huffed and seemed to give way. “In general terminology: I, as a Dungeon Core, feed on everything. Of course, I don’t mean dirt and stones around, those also count, but what I meant is living things. Not just any living things, creatures that are rich in energy… emotions, among other forms, the more the better. The closest I would call this is ‘existential energy.’ Know what I mean?”

That was a lot of information to digest. But when I contemplated it logically, what she said made a lot of sense. To answer this, I needed to tackle the meaning of life… I mean, to create a genuine life one would need not only a vessel but also a soul, and it appeared that emotions were also one of the components. But this was still my two cents on the matter, more concrete data would be needed.

“Then again, are there more ways to gain monsters?”

“Sure thing. There are a few more ways in fact. One of which is ‘brainwashing’ normal animals. And I’ve done it quite a few times myself. These cave rats here are all under my control. They should be useful to use as surveillance.” As if to answer her command, a dozen or so cave rats converged and lined up in a square formation before Lorelei.

“Is that… so?” No wonder the other catalog was called “Minions” instead of “Monsters” because normal, brainwashed, or alternatively mind-controlled animals were included as well. I imagined that it should also be possible to create animals in the Life Creation catalog.

Not fussing over the small things, I selected the Life Creation catalog with my mind, and a list of three different categories was revealed on the menu:

Life Creation Categories:

Intrigued, I went straight and chose the “Monster Creation” category. Right away, countless different monsters’ classifications filled the menu screen. It appeared that I could sort the classifications in many ways. For instance, it was possible to divide the monsters according to their evaluation or Accumulation Points.

What piqued my interest the most was the word “CP” in the upper left corner of the screen. There was a total of 7,060 CP. What did CP stand for?

Creation Points (CP)

An accumulation of points that can be exchanged with anything within the Dungeon Menu. Gain through all things: emotion, energy, mana, object, corpse, and whatnot.

Ohh. So it is a currency used to create monsters… I don’t think the word “create” is right in my mouth, so “summon” it is. My thought bubble was popped by Lorelei’s sudden intrusion on the hologram menu.

“Is anything wrong? You have been mindlessly staring at the air for a prolonged time,” she voiced out, as if concerned.

Welp, she couldn’t see the menu. To her, I would look like a fool staring at an empty space, but now that I thought about it, we shared a connection. Was it possible to make her see the menu? That was something worth checking…

“Hey, Lorelei. Can you see the Dungeon Menu now?” I just went to find the setting, and that instant, “Properties” appeared inside the Dungeon Menu out of nowhere from originally one selection. Within, there was an option where I could give her authorization. Hm. Does the menu add more when I ask for it?

“Oh, my. By that, you mean the transparent screen that suddenly popped out? Then yes!” Lorelei exclaimed, curiosity on her outwardly expressionless face.

Now that she could see the Dungeon Menu, I would get someone else to help me in dungeon making. Every second counts, after all.

“Try manipulating it.”

Lorelei began to use the menu in a way that I’d call clumsy. She didn’t know that it could be manipulated with just a thought and looked like someone that just discovered a smartphone. But watching someone being so technologically backward was funny enough, so I didn’t bother to tell her outright.