“I am the dungeon master of this very dungeon in which you stand. I saved you from the goblin village and I granted you your freedom. You are slaves no more.”

A short silence followed.

Elves, from what I understood so far were calm creatures. They kept their posture despite the unexpected turn of events. Yet it was still possible that the idea of living with monsters or living with the dungeon master as part of their community was an outrageous thought. No one in the history of this world has probably attempted such thing.

Despite their disbelief, they were still amazed by the fact that they were not attacked or threatened by the monsters that surrounded them. What's more, they were even freed from their slavery. It was a tragicomic occurrence that they were enslaved by goblins and they were freed by other goblins. For an elf to be saved by a goblin was unheard of.

Another thing that factored into their disbelief was probably that I claimed myself to be a dungeon master. Elves live much longer than many other species, long enough to experience centuries. They must know that there has not been a single dungeon found since the old dungeon masters used the origin magic to seal the dungeons.

“Not a single dungeon has been born in last 700 years.”

“700 years? Didn't the 30 year long war happen 70 years ago?”

“Do you mean the Great War against the demons? No, that happened 700 years ago.”

As I noticed Lilith barging in, I casted Taamuth’s Words on her as well.

“No, it was 70 years ago! I have been waiting here… for… 70 years.”

I took a quick glance at Lilith expression. She was genuine. Was it the elves lying to us?

“Of course not. None of us are older than 700 years of age. It was our parents and grandparents who experienced the Great War. Dungeons belonged to the Old Era.”

Lily's confusion became much more apparent.

“How could this be? Has it really been 700 years?”

I intervened quickly.

“What did you mean by demons?”

One of the elves frowned his brows before opening his mouth.

“You and everyone around you. Goblins, orcs, imps. You are the demons, of course.”

“Didn't you call us monsters?” Lilith took the chance to direct her question – she understood where I was getting at.

“I heard that demons were called that before the Great War. I am not quite sure, though. We never use that word.”

Lilith's mental state was broken. She was questioning her life and knowledge. If what the elves word describing were true, then that would mean that what Lilith new would be false. But there is a huge difference between 70 years and 700 years. How can Lilith be confused?

“Is it possible that while you were waiting inside my miasma, you perceived the time much faster?”

“I am not sure. I never heard of anything similar to this. How could I miss 630 years? How did I not realize it passing? Witches do not live that long. How am I still alive?”

“Maybe… my miasma…” I was at a loss of words. I did not know how to console Lilith. I decided to change the subject to distract her.

“Either way, whatever you want to call us, demons or monsters, we are not your enemies now. Unless, of course, you attack us. I am a dungeon master born this year. I bear no hostility against you. Whatever prejudice you hold or whatever opinions you have against the demons, they are not valid here. I am building this place from scratch. What race you are from does not matter.

“If you wish to join us, you are welcome. Add in turn of accepting everyone as your fellow people with no prejudice, you will be accepted with none. We can also provide you a safe space. Your experiences on the outer world are valuable for us. Even if you do not wish to join us, we would like to buy information from you.”

It was a difficult decision to make to join a dungeon of monsters. I did not expect them to accept the proposal right away. To be quite frank, however, it was much more likely for them to reject the proposal right away. Yet they still held onto the silence.

“You are free to see for yourselves. Please go inside the dungeon and see what I am proposing you. If you so wish to leave, then we will provide you with some food and water. You can also fill your stomach while here. Again, the choice is yours. come to a decision, please find Lilith. She will bring you to me.”

Elves’ expression turned into that of relief. It was not so hard to understand that they had faith in the truth of my words. Why would I lie to them, after all? If I had to torture them, or kill them, or force any information out, or just use them as slaves, I would not go out of my way to save them and make this speech in Elvish.

After I left the area, I quit my spellcasting. Talamuth’s Words I was using was draining my energy too much. It's required high level manipulation of magic power. I hope this is because I am not used to using magic and not because I am bad at it. I hope I can improve my magic skills with training. Now that I mentioned, it has been a while since I looked up my character panel.

-----------Character-Info--------------

Character Level: 8

Chosen Title: Dungeon Master (Lord)

Health Points: 103,480/140,000

Skills: Lord’s Decree, Talamuth’s Wisdom, Unity, Rebirth

My health points are not full. Of course, I would expect such after being stabbed and hit many times during the fight in the goblin village. But it is not the only change in my character panel. My level has increased by 7. And my total health increased by 70,000. If a simple logic follows them at each level, it means that I gain 10,000 health points. But there is not a single indicator about magic. What if I wish to add any other category into this character panel? Could I add an indicator for magic power? Also, is it not difficult with these absurdly high numbers? Cannot I grade my vitality with letters instead of numbers?

-----------Character-Info--------------

Character Level: 8

Chosen Title: Dungeon Master (Lord)

Vitality: E

Magic: F+

Skills: Lord’s Decree, Talamuth’s Wisdom, Unity, Rebirth

Spells: Interdimensional Storage, Blood Sense, Talamuth’s Words (O)

Well, this is much more useful.

I would rather see a single letter done to see a number in six digits. I number would not tell me much since I do not know the maximum I can reach, but with this I assume the highest grade I can reach in vitality or magic is the letter A. Whether there is a letter grade corresponding to a better and higher capability than A, I do not know for now. Regardless, I am sure that A is much better than an E or an F+. Because A is the first letter. And also because, and this is the real reason, I know for sure that my vitality, that is my health, is much more refined than my magic power.

Another thing that is added to my character panel is spells. The list of spells here includes three spells that I have used before. Sure, I can create any magic on them and using origin magic through imagination. But I think the reason these are separately listed is because I used them before. Now when I try to use them, just like when I try to use my interdimensional storage, I do not make an extra effort to create the blueprint of the magic. This is good, I think, because creating the blueprint of the magic is very exhausting. And for now, the magic I casted have always been simple spells. If I were to create a more complicated and rigorous magic spell, then I would probably need to make a long-lasting effort to devise its blueprint. This list probably shows the spells that I can cast on demand without going through the rigmarole of creating a new blueprint.

I also want to see the dungeon panel quickly.

-----------Dungeon-Status--------------

Dungeon level: 2

Dungeon master: Echo

Dungeon population: 6032

Dungeon cities: Unnamed, Unnamed, Unnamed

Wealth: ☆☆☆☆☆

Wellbeing: ★☆☆☆☆

Education: ☆☆☆☆☆

Military: ★☆☆☆☆

Research: ☆☆☆☆☆

The dungeon population decrease after the war. I did not know the exact number of martyrs before, but apparently 66 has died. The dungeon level also increase to 2.

The dungeon status panel also changed a little bit. Now I can see three unnamed dungeon cities listed on the panel. One must definitely be the cave we are in. The other two has to be the outposts. Although I'm not quite sure why this list has appeared on dungeon Status Panel, I think it is because I decided to build 2 outposts. Because before that decision I could not see the dungeon cities listed, perhaps because I only had one.

Does this also mean that I can increase my dungeon level through creating new cities or increasing my population? Before, I had thought that the only way to increase the dungeon level was through gaining stars. Sure, I did not increase the population now, but I increased the number of cities. In fact, that is the only difference between now and when the dungeon was level 1, except for the slightly decreased population due to the fight. If through changing some things in the panel I can increase the level of the dungeon, wouldn’t it mean that I would be essentially able to develop my dungeon by increasing the number of cities or increasing the population besides trying to gain stars? So, if I increase the population more visibly, maybe that would also help boost my dungeon leveling