Five slowly regained consciousness. He felt someone touching his body and heard a soft voice: "He is fine. He will wake up very soon."

Five felt numb. He tried to move his arms but failed. He could not even open his eyes, but gradually, he felt his strength coming back.

"Mmm"

He opened his eyes and saw a delicate white face staring at him a few inches away. The woman instantly backed off as Five’s gaze followed her. What directly attracted Five's attention wasn't her purple hair but rather the dark wings behind the woman's back. She was the one who just examined Five's body.

"Master. He is awake," said the woman while standing up and taking a few steps back.

A few seconds later, an elderly man approached Five.

The latter was still dazed, but he slowly took notice of his surroundings. He was lying on a small bed in a very simple room. There were no windows and only a large metallic door. In addition to the bed, there was a desk, chairs and a sofa on which the elderly man was previously sitting. The lack of decorations made the room look pretty much like a prison cell.

"Good morning, child. You finally woke up!" said the elderly man.

"First of all, I am Kroff, Dr. Kroff! And I will be your mentor for the following week and she is Harriet," said the man while showing the winged woman who was previously examining Five's body.

"Hello!" added the woman with a gentle smile, gently flapping her wings.

As soon as he learned their name, Five could see their name appear just above their heads like holograms. Next to the names were their levels. However, all Five could see was: “???”

Five stared at them. It was not that he wanted to be impolite; he just could not move his body yet. Even just opening his eyes was straining for him.

"Don't worry. You will slowly recover. For now, just listen to what I say," said Kroff, when he saw that Five was trying to move.

"You and I are both Dungeon Masters. You were chosen to become one but lacked knowledge and experience. You were sent here to learn about dungeons before setting up your own."

Kroff continued: "I know that right now, you are tired and just want to sleep, but as a dungeon master, it is essential to be able to focus and react in any circumstances. You cannot predict when your dungeon will be under danger. Therefore, get yourself together and stand up!"

Five frowned and looked right in the eyes of Kroff as if accepting the challenge. Despite feeling numb, he forced himself to move. After a few seconds of struggle, he managed to move his arms. With them, he adjusted his body to sit on the bed and looked back at Kroff.

Kroff watched the whole process. Seeing the Five succeeded, he nodded his head and smiled. "I see that you have a good spirit. What is your name?"

"I am called Five," promptly answered Five, using the name he had just been given.

"There is a lot to say so sit down and just listen.... Where should I begin? A bit of story?"

"We dungeon masters are said to come from the demons and that is partly true. We are the survivors among the monsters that invaded Zero decades ago. When our leaders were defeated, they shamelessly abandoned us on this planet. To ensure our survival, we, the highest ranked monsters that were abandoned, created these dungeons with our own cores which later, turned into dungeon cores."

"By doing so, we could absorb energy from the environment and the living beings in the surroundings of our cores. With this energy, we were able to create anything. Yes, anything could be created as long as you had enough energy to trade. To quantify this energy, we use the term DP (Dungeon Points). With this energy, our dungeons slowly grew, and we expanded our forces."

"However, our cores were highly sought by the different races of Zero, they are valuable materials for crafting weapons and elixirs. Noticing that our leaders had retreated, the different races all attacked our dungeons. We had to defend but many of the weaker dungeons perished under the constant attacks."

"The different races became more and more greedy and to protect ourselves, several alliances between dungeons masters were formed and we went on the offensive for the first time. This was known as the first Monster Wave. Many cities suffered severe losses. Some were even destroyed but we achieved our aim. We cooled down the head of the attackers."

"After this, the different races still attacked our dungeons but with much more moderation. Eventually, our alliance leaders initiated contact with the other races and later, an equilibrium was reached. Years have passed and now, our dungeons are basically the training grounds of these races. They come and kill monsters, while we obtain Dungeon Points due to their presence or death within our dungeons. It is a never-ending cycle."

"I myself, is a member of the Cyclone Alliance. We are one of the strongest alliances of Dungeon Masters. Our leader is the Duke Shercliff of the Millenium Empire. Yes, you heard me well. Our leader is a duke. We dungeon masters also have other identities which actually helps in making our dungeons more popular."

Kroff continued his explanations, talking a lot about the Cyclone Alliance, praising it, but Five twitched upon hearing that. He could tell where this was going. Kroff wanted him to join the Cyclone Alliance, but Five had no desire to. He remained silent and pretended to listen intently.

"My dungeon is the Algate Dungeon, located just outside Algate City in the Dominion Empire. It is not the greatest dungeon, but I am proud to say that it is definitely in the top 20 of the Empire."

"Cough Cough"

"I think that this is enough information for today. You just woke up and need to rest. I will come back tomorrow for more. Harriet!"

"Yes!" said the woman standing behind Kroff. She quickly went out of the room and came back with a tray on which a few dishes were placed.

"Here. You should eat. It will help you recover faster," said Harriet with a smile.

"Thank you!" gratefully answered Five while looking at his plate. He was relieved that Kroff did not invite him to the Cyclone Alliance but with just one look, he could tell that Kroff was rather displeased. In his previous 'job', he learned how to observe people and determine what they were thinking based on their body language and what he saw was that Kroff was at first happy to talk to him, but later got gloomier.

"We will leave you now. Have a good night," said Kroff while walking towards the door. He was quickly followed by Harriet who sent a quick glance towards Five before closing the door.

"Fiouff"

Upon seeing them both leave his room, Five let out a sigh of relief. He leaned against the wall, calmly thinking about what happened. Kroff gave him a lot of information but he was used to it. In his previous 'job' collecting information was of utmost importance. There was a lot of information to process but he had a general understanding of what was happening.

'Should I just wait for him to come back? Or be more proactive?' said Five to himself.

His eyes landed on the tray in front of him. Seeing the tray of food, he could not help but feel hungry, not physically, but mentally. He stayed in prison before coming here and the food in front of him looked very appetizing right now.

He quickly let go of his thoughts and attacked the steak in front of him.

...

At the same time, in a large and fancily decorated room, Kroff was sitting on a throne in the center of the room. He rotated a floating sphere which was displaying the different floors of his dungeon. He was carefully looking at what was happening in the dungeon when Harriet came in from a side door.

"So? What do you think of him, master?"

"He is a good seedling; good spirit and he looks like he retained most of what I said."

"Then why are you not happy?" asked Harriet.

"When I mentioned the Cyclone Alliance, that guy clearly got uncomfortable. I don't think he will be willing to join us..."

"Is that an issue? When teaching the newcomers, isn't it necessary to be impartial, regardless of what they choose?"

"Yes, but I have a bad feeling about him. If I cannot get him to join us, I might as well leave him alone and not bother teaching him anything. At least, he won't become a significant threat to us. That’s the most important thing!"

"Isn't that against the rules? You should be giving him proper teaching and advises,” said Harriet with a confused expression.

"That's true. I have to teach him the basics, but apart from that, what I teach him is up to my own discretion."

A cold light flashed through Kroff's eyes which was quickly followed by a cold smile.

"Now that I think about it... I am supposed to give him protection, but what if one of my monsters rebels and ends up killing him in the process?"