“Well you’re not at full power just yet, so it is incorrect to call you the Demon King, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t the Demon King either,” Johan said as we climbed into the carriage. Apparently their base was a few days ride from here, so we had to use the Hero army’s carriages that got left behind when the group dispatched the knights. I looked back at where the bodies were buried; Johan insisted so the group spent at least an hour on that. I had been silent the entire time, and I had a feeling everyone thought I was upset over their deaths. I wasn't sure if I was, it wasn't my first time seeing something dead, but it was my first time seeing a dead person.

“For now you shall remain the same m’lord. That is, our Dungeon Master. From there we will serve under you until you are the true Demon King and defeat the Hero.” Johan's voice cut me out of my thoughts.

I was stuck between Patty and Claire while Darnelle sat across from us, holding onto Voop as if he were a pet cat. The trip was smooth and generally uneventful, filled with everyone telling me as much of this world as possible.

The country we lived in was called Aleria, and we were in the kingdom of Tarn. The surrounding kingdoms were collectively Vania, Lorta, and Erna. Together, the four kingdoms made up Aleria, one of the 5 countries in this continent. Conversely, Tarn was the smaller of the four, located near the border of Aleria and Toshna, the country beside it. Lorta has the biggest capital, where the Hero is supposedly located, and apparently the gates to the Underworld could be found somewhere in Toshna, which explains why the knights were here in Tarn.

Other information, like the type of monster denizens, the way humans treated them unjustly, where they lived, how a dungeon usually functioned, all of that was told to me by everyone. Even Johan, who admitted to living mostly in human settlements, managed to give me more information about how the humans of this world lived.

From everything I’ve been told, it seemed like this place was basically Western Medieval Fantasyland, the staple for nearly all fantasy games and stories.

“Hey Boss, hey hey Boss, I never asked cos it didn’t matter before but uh, what’s your name?” Patty asked. She stared at me with such an open honest face I couldn’t help but get embarrassed even though it was a simple and valid question.

“Hey now, don’t you think that’s a little forward Patricia?” Darnelle said. “He’s our Master and we should respect him as such.”

“It’s Patty! And well yeah but it’s not like we can call him that in front of anyone, especially since he’s kinda weak right now! Plus we don’t know it at all!”

Ack, that one hit right in my heart. But she wasn’t wrong. I was kinda surprised that Patty was so smart. She always gave off this reckless young kid vibe, but I guess it was simply because she really wanted to be a tank like Claire who she looked up to.

“Well uh, I mean I guess it makes sense that you guys don’t know since I always went by my screen name,” I said sheepishly. “Uh well it’s Leonardo Flores. But you can just call me Leo.”

“AYE AYE BOSS!” Patty and Claire said in unison.

“Well you’ll always be Master to me,” Darnelle said with a teasing laugh. I couldn’t tell if he was joking or being serious though. I had a feeling that was just the kind of person Darnelle was, always keeping you guessing if he was serious or not.

The next few days passed like this, with everyone telling me as much as possible about this world.

“What about being a dungeon master?” I asked on the second night on the road.

We were set up in a small camp with a small fire so as not to attract any attention.

“Our jobs in a dungeon is simple. We must attract humans and through trials judge if they’re immoral or not. If they’re evil, we must terminate them, and use their treasures to lure in other humans. If they’re good, they earn any treasures left over. It was one of the Underworld Lord’s designs in order to test humans. Greed is a natural inborn sin, and pushing that sense of greed will attract people of immoral qualities. But if they are there simply to clear out monsters or keep a village safe, then they are rewarded for their good moral quality.”

When Johan put it that way, it made sense, but still, it felt like a sorta honeypot trap to me.

“Don’t worry Boss, if yer worried about failing at bein’ a dungeon master, ya can’t be any worse than our last one,” Claire said, stuffing her face with a hunk of roasted meat. The cyclops could move surprisingly quickly, so Claire was always on hunting duty with Patty, who could scout ahead for her.

Johan coughed and turned away, as if embarrassed. Wait… don’t tell me the previous Dungeon Master was Johan! But the man was a tactical genius.

‘It’s not about tactics, it’s about being sneaky and underhanded.’ That thought suddenly hit me. Johan was smart and knew how to out maneuver someone, which would explain how they survived so far, but he was too straight laced for his own good, meaning he probably rarely used underhanded tricks to his advantage. Things like traps or tricks are a staple for any dungeon, but knowing Johan, he thought it wouldn’t test someone’s morality very well.

Oh Johan, you may be half human, but you sure don’t think like one.

“W-While it may be true that our dungeon isn’t necessarily the most prosperous one, we are still managed to survive this long, when most dungeons have been abandoned at this point. We must continue our work even if others refuse to follow their ancestors footsteps!”

Poor poor Johan. You must’ve tried your hardest didn’t you.

“So what’s the dungeon like?” I asked. I was more than curious what a real dungeon was like, dilapidated or not.

Now the entire group grew quiet, as if none of them wanted to admit their failures.

“C-Come on, it can’t be that bad!” I said nervously.

“Well to be frank Boss, it’s kinda fucked,” Voop said. Every time that slime monster spoke, I always expected something cutesie and timid, not that deep yakuza sounding voice.

“Our troops are low, we don’t have any gold to entice humans, and to make matters worse, bozo over here managed to piss off a lot of humans including the Hero’s army!”

I’m assuming “bozo” was Johan. Man poor Johan, he can’t catch a break today can he?

“All of that shall change now that m’lord is here,” Johan said. Was it just me or was his face sort of red? I couldn't be sure so I returned to the conversation at hand.

“So are you guys the only monsters in the dungeon or are there others?” I asked.

This time even Johan looked at me in surprise. “You mean you can't tell already m'lord?” Johan asked.

“W-What do you mean?”

“Boss… ain't dungeon masters like supposed to automatically already know?” Claire said, looking straight at me with her big blue eye. She scratched her short red hair as she tried to think of a way to explain herself.

“Y'know like, I thought dungeon masters have like uh, innate abilities Johan is always talking 'bout.”

Innate abilities? I couldn't help but get excited for a moment. Was I gonna be like one of those super cool anime protagonists with super powers that made them OP?

“While it's true that a dungeon master has the magical ability to see everyone in their dungeon and their status, it's still a limited power,” Johan said.

My dreams of being in an anime were instantly crushed. What good is it being a Demon King if you don't have cool powers?

“But wait Johan, how is Boss gonna use those innate abilities if no one here knows how to show him?” Patty asked.

The entire group became solemn upon realizing her logic.

“Maybe our wonderful master should just… wing it!” Darnelle said with a pained smile.

“W-Wing it!” Johan looked at Darnelle in utter shock.

“WELL WHAT ELSE AM I SUPPOSED TO SUGGEST DARLIN’? I CAN'T JUST SHOW HIM HOW TO USE MAGIC NOW CAN I?” Darnelle said dramatically.

“Wait why can't you just teach me magic?” I asked.

“Well it's more complicated than that. This sort of magic is something that not everyone can learn because not everyone has the mana to support it. Even if we tried to recreate the spells, it'd essentially burn our body away trying to power it up.” Johan always explained things in a simple manner but the idea of my body frying because I didn't have the energy to cast a spell terrified me.

“So basically you're saying even if you knew the spell you can't tell me how to cast it because you haven't done it yourself.”

“That's the jist of it,” Darnelle said, idly playing his lute. “We can teach you things that we know but it's not like we can just hand you a manual on how to be a dungeon master.”

Dungeon master manual?

My eyes snap wide open when I realized what Darnelle just said. All DMs have a dungeon master manual. I felt like smacking my head at my own stupidity. The answer was right in front of me.

The real question was how I could activate it. I didn't have my actual manual on me when I got here. When I was transported the only thing I had on me was the clothes on my back and my phone, which I was holding tightly in my hand. Even if I did have it or somehow managed to work it on my phone, there was still the question of how to… well cast a spell.

“So uh… how do you cast a spell?”

Johan and Darnelle looked at each other for a moment before turning to me.

“First you must find your center of magic, be it here, here, or here,” Johan said, pointing to my head, my heart, and my stomach respectively. “Once you find your magical core, you have to find a way to expel it via a magical conduit and concentrating on the spell you want to use. Vocalizing it is the easiest but some masters can apparently just think of what they want and make it happen.”

“It sounds easy in theory but moving mana actually takes a lot of concentration,” Darnelle pointed out.

“Voop does not find it hard at all!” Said slime monster was currently giving off a look of a smug cat while sitting on its master's lap.

“Voop that's cos you're a slime monster. Your entire being is made out of mana!” Patty admonished.

If Voop had shoulders I feel he'd be shrugging them right now.

“Hey Boss, don't you already know how ta cast magic though?” Claire was finishing gnawing on the large bone as she spoke to me, and I couldn't help but want to laugh at the comedic pose but also shudder at her appetite. “I mean all them battles you out us through cam true didn't it? Why not do what you did then?”

I wanted to retort that it's not that easy, that I was just writing down ideas of what I thought could happen but stopped. Maybe it does work like that. I wasn't exactly sure how to put it, but every time I wrote my campaign notes I went into an almost trance like state. I heard that a lot of people experienced it when they were hyper focused on a project and suddenly get all these ideas but maybe that feeling and the feeling of casting magic were similar enough I could get them confused.

“Ok I'll try,” I said, hoping to sound more confident than I actually felt. Maybe if I did cool anime poses it'll be better?

No no no, what am I thinking, that'd be too embarrassing.

I concentrated as much as possible, squeezing my eyes shut. I had the feeling I was making weird faces because Patty and Claire were giggling. But no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't feel that magical core Johan was talking about.

I squeezed my eyes even harder, holding my head in concentration. It felt like a tiny spark was in the pit of my stomach but it was so hard to reach. It felt like it was slipping through my hands no matter how hard I grabbed at it. Grasping onto that feeling I kept at it, forcing it outward while concentrating on my goal. I felt a pressure grow and grow until it was almost painful and then…

PFFFFFFFT.

Everyone was deadly silent. No one said a word, moved a muscle, or could even look at me.

Never in my entire life had I wanted to disappear than in that moment.

What I thought was magic was just me passing gas.

I WANT TO DIE! THIS IS SO UNFAIR ABSOLUTELY TOTALLY UNFAIR! WHO DECIDED ALL THESE DUMB RULES FOR MAGIC! SO UNFAIR! SOMEONE TAKE PITY ON ME FOR GOD SAKE! HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT WASN'T MAGIC!

“I WISH I COULD JUST SEE EVERYONE'S CHARACTER SHEETS OR SOMETHING!” I suddenly shouted in frustration.

[Ding]

Huh?

HUH?

Right before me were 5 similar character sheets, all containing everyone's information.

N-No way, no way it could be that easy.

WHY DIDN'T I JUST DO THIS IN THE FIRST PLACE?

“Uh… Boss? Y-You ok?” Patty asked, her head tilted to the side like a cockatoo.

“It worked!”

Everyone looked at me in confusion but I was too engrossed in this character sheets.

All of their information was right before me, including to small things like their vitals and current abilities. Johan’s character sheet had the same bio that he told us back in the cave, so I could trust everything he said, Patty’s sheet showed me that my initial guess of her being a long range fighter was for the best considering her dex was enormous, Darnelle’s sheet said he was a succubus, which was a surprise since I always pegged him as a tiefling but made sense considering his personality, Claire’s was very straight forward and didn’t have too much to offer that I didn’t already know, and Voop’s was… all over the place if I was being honest.

Where Voop is the type of monster that can evolve, he has a wide opportunity of things to choose from, but as a result, he wasn’t exactly good at anything in particular. Meaning if he wanted to truly evolve into something useful, he’d need to know what he’d want to turn into from the start and go from there by building the corresponding stats. Talk about troublesome.

I wondered if I could look up a monster manual to see if I could find an evolution tree to see what would be best for Voop and his set of skills. Just as I was thinking that, another ding popped up and the character sheets were replaced with the very thing I was thinking of.

Let’s see. Slimes, slimes, slimes, where are you slimes?

After double checking the index, I found the page for slimes and…

I was sorely disappointed. There wasn’t much information about slimes it would seem.

The monster manual wasn’t based on the type you could buy in a store like back home, but rather a compendium of the monsters found naturally in this world. There were clearly several different branches that a slime monster could take, but it seems where slimes are such low level monsters to begin with, they didn’t get an opportunity to evolve. Only a few key evolutions were cleared, meaning the rest were still hidden and had to be explored.

Then I got to thinking if I could breed more slimes or somehow summon them when a new window popped up in front of me with a ding.

[Would you like to summon a Lvl 1 Slime?]

[>Y/N?]

It really was a sort of automated system it would seem. I selected no for now, not wanting to go through that sort of hassle at the moment.

Next up was our dungeon map. Since we were still in the middle of our travels, I wanted to get a heads up on the layout, and just like before the map came forward with a ding.

It was translucent and 3D, meaning I could see things in a greater detail than just a blueprint. I turned the map around to get a better look. It was a pretty straight forward dungeon with a few twists and turns and a hidden passage or two. The primary one seemed to lead to where everyone slept while the more cannon fodder monsters would rest in the main areas. It was a clever simple set up even if I didn’t really know they’d conceal it but it meant that no matter what, at least half our troops would be safe from any raiding humans.

Now for a world map. I would need to see what sort of humans we would be dealing with and if we could work right away or build up first. This time I was ready for the pop up but what I got was a huge time waster.

There was a map, sure. But it was completely fucking empty save for the places I’ve already physically been. I could see the faint outline of the world and the continents but that was pretty much it. Not even a hint as to what biomes there were. It looked like I’d either need to go to every inch of the world to know what the hell is going on or substitute everything with a real map. Talk about annoying. Was nothing gonna be on my side?

I grumbled to myself as I exited out of the all the popups and realized another dilemma.

No one could see what I saw meaning that I looked like a total fucking doofus right now in front of my friends. They were staring at me out of concern and were nervously talking to themselves.

“Do you think he finally lost is?” Patty was whispering to Darnelle.

“He’s been quiet for like 30 minutes making all sorts of faces, so maybe he’s always been like that.”

“Voop votes for poking him with a stick to see if he’s alive still.”

“Shhhh I think Boss is finally looking at us,” Claire warned.

“Oh shit look away,” Patty said hurriedly, looking around and pretending to whistle.

I rubbed my forehead and sighed.

“So did it work?” Johan asked cautiously.

“I guess you can say that. But really, is our dungeon that tiny?”

Everyone sighed and nodded. A gloomy air descended on the group and to cut through it Johan suggested we all go to bed.

And so passed the second night in this strange new world.