My Dungeon Life: Rise of the Slave Harem - My Dungeon Life – Chapter 1361-1363

Chapter 1361

“What does that mean?” I asked, no less confused than I was before. “You said you manufactured my lore.”

Her lips thinned slightly. “I had hoped you’d be able to figure it out on your own. I thought that you might understand. After all, you’ve tied so much lore to your soul, I thought you would be able to reason it out.”

“Tied lore to myself? Do you mean the blessings?”

“The blessings, the slaves, the monsters, the jobs, the dungeons… heroes become heroes by creating such lore that it cannot stop from being told. They are those who have changed the world. You’re different. Your lore is rather a support for those around you. All of your lore comes from the ones you’ve bonded to: your friends, your slaves, and your family. That’s why I hope you can understand me.”

I shook my head. “I’m sorry, you’re just not making sense.”

She closed her eyes, muttering under her breath for a second before speaking up. “We no longer have the time. I wish there was more time, but that damned king has started planning to launch an attack against me. He plans to attack my lore, to attack my children. How could I not react in kind?”

“A king…” My memory started to return slowly, things that felt like a distant past becoming much more vivid. “King… Diorite?”

“Yes…” She frowned. “King Diorite is the one who trapped me down here all those years ago. Although I suppose he is also the one that freed me.”

“He… gave me seven days.”

“A little less than two now. Lore is… slow in here. It’s why Gaia has always performed better than me.”

“Gaia? The planet?”

“Yes… the planet…” She looked at my blank face and sighed. “I tried to use your memories to explain it to you, but it seems like you’re far too naïve to understand such things. Thus, I will tell you a new story. Everything that is and ever will be is simply a story. Stories begin, stories live, stories die, stories evolve and change, and stories end. You possess your lore, what you understand as a soul, and a world possesses its lore, which it understands as the lifestream.”

“Every world has its own lore, and that lore connects with everything living on that planet through what you know as mana. Every planet forms a symbiosis with the lifeforms on it, and the story that is told makes sense within its narrative. However, sometimes, an element runs counter to a world’s lore. This is what you know as curses, and when those curses grow, they become dungeons, a thing that eats and feeds on the lore of the world.

“Sometimes, these lores are excised, and if they can grow enough, they become new worlds, with their own stories, and their own path. Some of those paths are so strange that they run counter to the lore of other worlds. Sometimes, those worlds become connected, and the only path is the complete destruction of one of those lores. Curses that run so deep that they connect to other worlds of a similar disposition. If those connections aren’t cut, then only devastation is the answer.”

What she was saying confirmed a lot of theories I had heard, and even some I had considered myself. I distinctly recalled that this woman was named Twilight, and the dungeon that Lord Aberis once threw me in was called the Twilight Dungeon. I had originally assumed it was named after the nation of Twilight, which the demons conquered. However, lore had a tendency to create false truths, especially lore as ancient and as damaged as that dungeon’s lore. It was possible the name came from something bigger, something related to this woman.

“So, you’re saying that you’re a very old dungeon?” I guessed.

She shook her head sadly. “You misunderstand me. I am not the dungeon… I am the world! Gaia is the dungeon that destroyed me!”

Chapter 1362

I took a step back, unable to keep my mouth from opening. How could what she was saying be true? Gaia was a dungeon? She made up the entire planet of Faerith! Were we all in a dungeon? That didn’t make sense at all. Did it?

“A long time ago, I was the world, and the world was me. This was so long ago, that it precedes any meaning to the likes of you. Then, Gaia came as an infection that ran deep into me. I battled Gaia for untold eons, but slowly she took over the lifestream and suppressed me deep underground. What you know as Faerith is nothing more than a prison made for me. That is the truth of things.”

“W-why?” I responded, not sure what else to ask.

“This is the nature of the world. All lore wants to be the truth. Facts compete with counter facts. A narrative runs supreme, and reality shapes to that narrative.”

I swallowed, trying to come to my senses again. “Alright, let’s say I believe all of this. Even if Gaia destroyed you, humans came onto Faerith from some other world. They displaced the Fae. It doesn’t mean I’m willing to throw aside all humanity. If Gaia is currently the lore, then why would I help you?”

It probably wasn’t a good idea to challenge her, but at that point, I couldn’t think of anything but to continue talking. I didn’t know if I could believe a word she said. It made sense that something was locked deep within this world and that the deep dwarves had accidentally freed it. If this was the person who had sent the deep dwarves running, then how could I trust a thing she said. The deep dwarves had feared her, after all.

“My desires are purely in your best interest.” She responded, and when she saw me giving her a dubious look, she chuckled. “They are! I could have destroyed you in an instant. Instead, I’ve kept you alive, and even created this lore for you to live in. Everyone I’ve absorbed lives a similar life of peace. This is what I wanted you to see. I wanted you to see what it would be like to give yourself to me.”

“Absorption? You’re eating people?”

“Eating? Of course not! Just as you attach blessings to yourself, I attach lore to myself. I haven’t killed a single soul. All of the deep dwarves aren’t dead. They are me. I am a collective of all of the souls that have given themselves to me.  Their thoughts, their minds, they become one with me. They become one with Twilight. We become one unified existence. Their lore becomes my fuel.”

“So, you do consume them!”

She clicked her tongue. “It’s not like that. They unify with me peacefully. They live out their lives within me. Their lives are happy and peaceful. There is no strife, no fear. I create a world for them, just like I did for you. When they finally accept me fully, when our thoughts align, only then does their soul merge with my main body. It is a beautiful thing.”

“That sounds bad…”

“Why don’t you think about what Gaia does?” She shot back. “A life of struggle and hardship. You must carry on physical bodies, fighting for survival. In the end, when you die, she chops up your soul into a million pieces! You’re not given a choice to join Gaia. She makes you. She kills you, and your lore. Within a few months, you’re destroyed, and she forcefully incorporates you into her soul, only to spit out some abomination. Why do you think there are so many curses? Why do you think there is so much suffering? I’m not the evil one. Gaia is!”

Chapter 1363

There was a gong, and a flash of panic appeared on Twilight’s face. It would be the sixth gong. She said that alarm signaled a day had passed. King Diorite had said that in seven days, he’d ignite my soul and attack the darkness. That meant that in seven days, my soul would be destroyed, and it was hard to say what would happen to Twilight. We only had one alarm left, and then the day of the attack would come.

“This is how Gaia was able to defeat me. Even we worlds have our limitations. Gaia streamlines the process by dragging your soul into a blender. She doesn’t run countless lore as I do. Thus, her processing speed is faster. In other words, time for you all moves faster than time for me. That’s why we must hurry.”

I licked my lips. I still didn’t know what I should do, but sitting around and doing nothing seemed like a bad idea.

“Okay, what do you want?”

Twilight’s expression finally relaxed. “I’ve come to you because you’re the only one who can help me. The world I created wasn’t just there to show you how happy your life can be with me, but it was also there to explain to you how we can escape our current predicament.”

“You mean… calling my soul?”

“Yes, Shao’s shadow magic was the closest thing in your memory to what is known as Soul Crafting. Soul Crafting is many levels above what your people are allowed to know. It’s the ability to manipulate lore directly. Anything that gets close to Soul Crafting is usually destroyed by Gaia. In other words, this is magic you cannot learn on Faerith.”

“What about the shadow magic?” I asked.

“Did you ever wonder why demons are such world enemies? Gaia rarely interacts so directly with the world. She doesn’t just wave her hands and cause a volcano to wipe someone out. Her movements are more subtle, and they take thousands of years to culminate. She’s tried to remove demons, to slowly destroy them. Well, I prefer such an approach too, but I no longer can afford to. I created this avatar to contact you directly because I have no other choice.”

“I see, so how do I summon my soul then?”

I decided to first find out all of the information, and then decide what to do. I just hoped I still had the time to make that decision.

“I’ve created a piece of lore with the Soul Crafting magic on it. It’ll be much like a blessing. Once you bind it, your affinity to souls will increase, and you’ll gain a relevant job. The 1st skill is Soul Summon.”

“Just like that?” I widened my eyes.

“Just like that.” She responded.

“And what happens after? What happens after I summon my soul?” I demanded.

“I’ll absorb it.” She responded. “And you’ll live out the rest of your existence in peace and happiness. Garnet and… the other one will join you. So will the rest of your girls, in time.”

“How can I trust that?”

“I’m not lying to you.” She responded. “The reason I waited so long was that I wished to show you my sincerity. However, if you do not choose this option, then your fate is sealed. Accept my lore, call your soul, and strip my enemy of his counterattack. Let him rot away to time as he was meant to.”

What choice should I make. I didn’t know what other option to choose. I bit my lip and nodded.

“Okay.”