From this clash, I found some intriguing cases. Lorelei, for one, didn’t look the least bit bothered by the gore, and in fact, appeared to be rather enjoying the scene. Common logic wouldn’t work against a Dungeon Core, it seemed.

Right, this also concluded the questions that I had in mind. Higher CP cost monsters would be stronger than the lower ones, but I didn’t know if that’d be the case for all the monsters, though it could be used as a guideline.

I opened up the Dungeon Menu and looked at the total CP we had. There was no less than 7,025 CP — no increase over the death of the rat. This made me wonder about the reason why no CP was gained.

“Snap out of your thoughts. We need to continue building the dungeon,” Lorelei chimed in from the side.

“You’re right.” I shook my head. “Still, this has piqued my interest. What’s the difference between normal animals and monsters?”

“Why with the question? But if you ask me, monsters have a core or more inside their bodies, I say.”

“Core?” A kind of monster core?

“Yup. Each and every monster produced by the dungeon possesses something known as a monster core. One of the reasons why a Dungeon Core like me can control monsters easily is because of the same wavelength of mana inside the monster core.”

“Oh, I see.” I examined the monsters we had — the goblin, kobold, and slime — among which was a barely noticeable transparent crystal-like stone inside the slime.

“Okay, before proceeding forward, how do we get more CP? O Lorelei of the dungeon, what is your wisdom?” Although she could consume basically anything, there was a need to break down what she said pertaining to this.

She flinched her head slightly. “Wha? Wisdom? I don’t know much since the ‘CP term’ is a new thing for me. But, you see…” She began explaining what she knew, nonetheless.

To break down what she said:

First and foremost, the mana vein was located under the dungeon. She said that her entire accumulation of CP came from this so-called “mana vein.” I didn’t know how much it gave us per day, but dividing it by how long she had been a dungeon, I came up with an estimation: around 20 CP.

Second, from intruders. As she said previously, she fed on what basically living beings’ energy, and emotion, among other forms. The more of this, what she called existential energy, she got from the intruder, the more CP she got. At least, I kind of concluded that.

Last but not least, from absorbing objects. It varied depending on the object itself, and she could absorb any kind of living beings’ corpses (humans included). The reason that the dead rat didn’t give us any CP was because it wasn’t absorbed by the dungeon apparently.

There might be other ways to get CP, but she wasn’t sure.

From nowhere, my stomach rumbled and made me subconsciously rub it. “Man, am I hungry!”

How long had it been since the last time I’d eaten something? A day? Because the situation had called for it, I didn’t feel much hunger, or at all. But now that things had calmed down, it hit me right in my stomach.

“Pfft. You’re silly. How about eating me inside the Artificial Realm? Pun intended,” she stated, not batting an eye.

“Ahem. Stop with that joke. It’s weird.” I couldn’t help but hold my furrowed eyebrows in dejection. “And it’s not like I’ll ever get full eating those.” The recollection of me drinking her tea made my stomach feel full instantly instead.

Having had enough of her ludicrous joke, I opened the Dungeon Menu. Right inside the Dungeon Catalogs menu, there was an “Item Creation” catalog below the Minion catalog, and inside was a list of items that was divided into numerous sections.

“Ooh? Such an intriguing function.” Lorelei stuck to my side, trying to attentively read. Her silky, silver hair was touching my side. She’s too close! Smells good… Is she really trying to read or what?

“Don’t get too close. You have your own menu!” I pushed her aside and continued reading.

“Hmph. Cheapskate.” She opened hers, and instantly her eyes shone despite always being rather expressionless. “What’s this? So many unfamiliar things…”

“Eh? Was it not possible to create an item previously?”

“Nah, I can do it. However, not only that I never created anything, the list of items in this catalog is beyond my knowledge.”

To prove what she said, the sections of items available in the catalog not only contained normal, everyday items but weapons, equipment, and even magic items like potions as well. Since the magic items' sections were the most intriguing, I began checking from there…

There were all kinds of magic potions one would seek inside an RPG game — you named it, they had it. From healing potions to strength potions. The cheapest of its kind was priced at a steep 100 CP price tag. Expensive! The realization of how broke we were, finally sank down upon me.

I got to know that there were also different levels of healing potions, the highest on the list being the elixir. The price... it was beyond what we had.

[Elixir (10,000 CP)]

A highest-grade healing potion, able to regenerate lost limbs, cure incurable diseases, and extend lifespan. Said to be capable of rejuvenating someone from the brink of death; a treasure coveted by many.

Anyway, the subsequent two sections were weapons and equipment. Disappointingly, it didn’t offer hot weapons like guns, nor did it offer advanced military equipment. All that was available were limited to cold weaponry and such. I wondered deeply about the reason. Was there some sort of requirements for them to be available?

The good news was that when I thoroughly skimmed through the list, the necessary stuff to make gunpowder was there on the menu. But even if that was the case, on the one hand, I didn’t know how to make it— No, in fact, I do! Still, on the other hand, even with knowledge and necessary material, it couldn’t be created willy-nilly, and as such, I could only put it on the backburner.

“What’s this? A magic sword?” On the list, I discovered a variety of magic weapons. Most of the weapons had a fancy-looking crystal-like stone, navy-blue in color, embedded in the surface of the guard or the blade. However, some had gems of various colors instead, likely representing an element of their own. There were many types here.

“You ain’t thinking about getting yourself a magic sword, are you?” Lorelei leered at me; her eyes squinted almost into a line.

“No, no. We can barely afford the cheapest one…” There was only so much CP, so wasting them on something unneeded would be foolish.

But speaking of weapons, I did grab one when I was escaping as proven by the empty scabbard on my left side. I remembered that it fell down the ravine too, so it should be around here…

I rummaged around the area. The ravine was damp with traces of past flowing water, even the dirt was made out of clay mostly. Thick patches of grasses were scattered aplenty with a patch that seemed to have been crushed by something. Wait, is that where I fell previously?

Examining it closely, it was bare of any blood trace. How peculiar…

There was a sudden tug on my back hoodie, and Lorelei inquired, “Anything wrong?”

“Have you seen the sword that had fallen before me?”

“Are you looking for this sword?” She handed me a sword that had its blade broken asunder. “This sword is a lost cause; how about picking a new one?”

“Hold on. I will take it.” One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. This sword may have been broken to pieces, but to me, this was something that tickled my programmer curiosity.

“Fine by me. Here are the rest of the broken pieces.” The rest of the blade pieces were stacked on the ground near me.

“Thanks, Lorelei.” I patted Lorelei’s head and put the broken sword in the scabbard, though I left the pieces untouched for now. “Still, this place is clean of any traces… the dungeon sure possesses an ability to clean itself, huh.”

“I-Indeed. Like I have said previously, I could absorb anything foreign… This includes bodily fluid, excrement, and even foreign objects. Although, the amount that I absorbed was lacking.” said Lorelei regardless of the several bad words she said.

“Lorelei, you’re a girl, right? A girl should try her best to maintain some elegance; you shouldn’t be saying something like that so nonchalantly.”

“I am a Dungeon Core. I understand not what you humans consider filthy.”

Leaving her comment aside, her ability sure was neat. It’d be bad if the dungeon was full of corpses. At any rate, if dead bodies piled up, it’d cause bad sanitation that might lead to many different kinds of disease — a plague.

I stared above, tracing the at least fifteen meters tall ravine wall. The outside was actually visible from here. My last memory of this place was full of black, but it looked like it was morning now since the sky was a faint blue.

Curious, I checked my phone to see the time and found that it was ten p.m., the complete opposite of the scenery outside. Apparently, it was around eight o’clock looking at the time shown on the Dungeon Menu. How had I missed that?

I asked Lorelei how long since I woke up, and she informed me that it had been an hour. Shoot. Then that meant I had one hour less to plan out the dungeon. Yet—

“Guh… This hunger gets the better of me. Let’s go back to the Artificial Realm and have something to eat first. What do you think?” I’d noticed that there were all kinds of food inside the Item Creation catalog. Unless I wanted to be a miser and eat roasted rats and such, I’d better spend some CP to get something nice. In the end, no matter how hungry I was, thinking about eating those already made my stomach churn.

“Well, fine by me.”

Lorelei’s Perspective

Creatures. Nourishment for her to grow.

She was a Dungeon Core. She didn’t know who created her and what purpose she had. What she knew was that she existed to grow larger, creating rooms full of traps filled with deadly monsters and luring other living creatures in.

That was all she knew and had to know about herself until a certain human became her Dungeon Master. Swathes of knowledge that she had never known or even perceived before struck straight to her core. Her way of thinking had been too narrow… Insignificant.

While all that was true, she was rather annoyed to have a weak Dungeon Master like him, despite all the knowledge that he offered; she was filled with mixed feelings. She had never felt like this before… Life had been static for her this entire time until now.

Furthermore, the Dungeon Master named Vincent gave her the name “Lorelei.” Although she didn’t quite understand why, she felt that the name fit her most.

Lorelei stared at the human before her. He might be a weak, insignificant being, but he wasn’t some ordinary human; he was an otherworlder. And his quirky ability had brought her surprise again and again.

She had thought about ending him when he was unconscious… Nevertheless, she couldn’t bring herself to do that. Not because he was her Dungeon Master, but… other than knowledge, he also brought “emotions” to her. Something that a Dungeon Core shouldn’t have possessed.

“Lorelei, what do you want to eat?” the human, dressed in strange clothes with black hair and middle-thin stature, asked her.

“Anything’s fine,” she stated. She hadn’t known much about food… Wouldn’t it suffice for her to partake of animals’ corpses? She wouldn’t say that here, however. “Mhm, it would be nice if you could give me the delicacy of your world.”

“Okay, then…”

He was really an anomaly. A curious being with almost no mana when she first met him. Keeping him alive would benefit her more than not.

Lorelei felt that she needed to observe his course of action further. What surprises would he bring? Only time would tell…