I was floating on my back in absolute darkness. No light. No wind. No sound apart from my own. Even the water and air were perfectly warm. Their very existence fading from the mind if I didn’t focus on them. The details of the dungeon were much clearer to me here. This isolation chamber isn’t where I do most of the work relating to dungeons, but it is where I can have the greatest sense and control. Normally most things were on a sort of autopilot. Like driving all the way home and being unable to remember any of the scenery. But here in this place that cuts off my human senses, the rest of my world comes into crisp clear focus.

I was not the only one floating in the darkness. No there were several around me. Slight presences that would get scattered by a gentle breeze. So fragile that it took a constant drain of mana to keep them here. Yes, this was the real reason why I was here in the darkness. To be with these partial souls, to use all my focus to bind them to this realm a moment longer, lest they get swept away in the cycle of reincarnation.

[Eita] You souls are some of the first to die in this dungeon. To die defending this dungeon. For that I thank you. And so I shall offer a choice.

A shiver ran through the incorporeal mass that crowded the room. From the lowest plant to the strongest creatures. Those who have passed now gave me their full attention.

Will you free your soul from my dungeon and reenter the cycle of reincarnation proper?

Two or three souls flared up, consuming the chains of mana that held them here until it snapped, and their soul remained no more.

Will you be reborn, once again, as what you were and serve again?

Many more souls flared up. This time, they were absorbed by the chains that bound them to my dungeon and faded, as they once more return to the physical body they were so familiar with. Most of the souls were gone at this point.

Will you seek what others have and claim their bloodline as your own?

A few more souls burned, their chains changing and twisting into new forms. I hope I don’t have to balance the number of each creature too much after this.

And those who are left… Snake. Rabbit. Bird. . . . Cat ? Hm. Well, for the time being, will you choose one of the other rewards? Or Will you assist me in a new test?

And the final four souls burned bright. I reached out and grabbed them and placed them in the experiments I had prepared. If I hadn’t expanded my reaches out into the town, it would have taken all the mana that I could have saved many times over.

[Eita] Now… I wasn’t expecting a cat. What happened exactly?

Interacting with souls was abnormally draining but I was curious. I push my mind against the soul’s. It felt like I was trying to lift weights with just my mind. Eventually however, fragments of it’s memories come to me. And while I wasn’t exactly paying attention to it when it died, I still subconsciously held some information. Combining in my head, a story started to form.