My Dungeon Life: Rise of the Slave Harem - My Dungeon Life – Chapter 1364-1366

Chapter 1364

“We are out of time, so I will send you the lore now. As soon as the blessing attaches to your soul, then that king will realize that something is wrong. You must summon your soul immediately. You must pull it away from him. Do you understand?”

I nodded. “I do.”

“Good. Then I will begin.”

She held up her hand, and then a small orb began to form. It wasn’t much different from the countless dungeon cores I had seen before. It slowly took on a form of its own, light ebbing off it in waves. It also seemed to have darkness mixed into it.  It reminded me of the god core, a mixture of light and dark. As it formed, it began to rise off her palm. Then, with a wave, the orb went and struck my hip.

I gasped as I felt the familiar pain of information being bound to my soul. It lasted only for a second, and then there was a flash. I was back in the wet and the cold. It was dark and it stunk like rot. I was covered in even more black gunk than before. After what she had told me, I realized that this must be the real world, the world outside her lore. This was where my body was.

“Master.” I squinted as a form approached. “Master, you need to take my hand.”

The form slowly came out of the dark, and I could finally make out Terra. She reached out her hand to me. I was confused as to why she was there. However, she was my woman. She was my slave. I trusted her. My hand tried to reach out to her, but it was restrained. I began to push and pull.

“Master, please, there isn’t enough time! It’s now or never!” She cried out, looking terrified.

“AhhhHh!” I ripped free and threw my hand to her, just barely touching her fingertip.

There was another flash, and I stumbled. I was standing now. Looking around, I realized I was on the surface. However, the sky was filled with dark brown clouds, and the ground was dead. The black liquid seemed to stream over the land, giving it a dark swampy look. It was damp, dark, and lifeless, much like the area I had been in before. Being on the surface didn’t improve things at all.

“Master.”

That word caught my attention, and my eyes settled on Terra. She was standing a small distance away from me, almost like she was scared to come closer. I frowned slightly.

“What is going on?”

“There isn’t much time. We were only able to talk to you now, in this small window as your lore connects through the ground to your soul above.”

“I don’t know what you mean?”

“I wasn’t absorbed… well, she took my body, but I detached my soul from my body and escaped into the ground. I’ve been in the rocks, hiding from her all this time. Haven’t you been getting my messages?”

“You mean, the rock on my head?”

“Ah… well, it’s hard to do stuff when you don’t have a body.” She blushed slightly, reminding me of the Terra of old.

“Okay, so you’re not part of Twilight.” I nodded in relief. “She lied about that, it seems. Who are we?”

“Gaia… she’s been guiding me.” Terra blushed. “She’s ready now.”

“Ready?”

“She’s ready to talk to Master.”

“I’m going to talk to the lifestream now?”

At this point, why not?

“She will need to speak through me. I’m sorry, it’s happening ah… aahhh…” Her head went up and her body jerked like she was in pain.

“Terra?”

Her eyes turned a piercing bright green, and her hand began to change into shades of blue and green. She looked down on me, her face expressionless.

“Hello, traveler.” Her voice came out with multiple tones, like a chorus of people all speaking at once.

I didn’t even need to ask at this point. “Hello, Gaia.”

Chapter 1365

“You… have questions… for us.” She spoke, her body moving strangely, like she wasn’t used to human form.

“Was Twilight speaking the truth?” I asked the most obvious question first.

“Twilight… spoke… truth,” Gaia said through Terra’s body.

I closed my eyes and then opened them again. “So, why are you in Terra’s body?”

“Need… avatar. This form… aligns… with us… fits us. Terra is disciple of Gaia. Twilight… no better. Twilight uses… Twilight Princess. Gaia uses… Terra.”

The Twilight Princess? I had only heard about her in the Twilight dungeon. Was the girl I had been talking to an avatar of the Twilight princess? I had only seen her as a mermaid and as a karma that had infected Carmine. What did she have to do with all of this? I decided not to get caught up in that and ask something else.

“You took over this world, correct?”

“Look… around…” She declared in her stilted voice, glancing across the dead world. “This is a memory… of before. This is Twilight’s memory.”

If Twilight was annealing lore into me, it would be possible I’d get some kind of memories. She probably tried to limit those, but perhaps some things couldn’t be helped. I looked around.

“It’s all dead.”

“It’s… past.” She declared. “We came… brought life. Brought Gaia…”

“How can that be so? Don’t you blender souls?” I repeated Twilight’s words.

“Create new… old must give way… only through struggle… does life continue. Twilight… is stagnancy. Twilight… death. We offer new way. A future. We give choice. Her way… only leads here. Slavery. Death of everything.”

If I could believe Gaia, then everything seemed to fit. It was more complicated than good or evil. These were two completely different philosophies. Twilight created a spiritual heaven, allowing people to live out their stories until they eventually blended into her cause. This might seem like a humane method, but there were problems with such a communal choice. Sure, everyone was happy and there was no strife, but there was also no free will. It led to a world of stagnancy. It led to a dark world devoid of life.

For a bit, I had seriously been considering Twilight’s words. They sounded so peaceful and nice. Yet, I was beginning to see the poison in those worlds. It was nothing more than a gilded cage for your soul. You were essentially allowed to live to death. It wasn’t peaceful. It was sad.

“Why did you appear to me?” I asked.

“Need… help. Deep dwarves… put hole in her cage. King is dying. Must stop…”

“If you put her in the cage in the first place, can’t you do it again?”

“Have grown… weak… Fae… run off. Dungeons… hurt.”

I immediately understood what she meant. A long time had passed since then. She had once been powerful, but then she was weak. In her prime, she would have been tended to by the Fae. However, the Fae were driven off, and the races that make up the continent of Faerith had done a bad job keeping her clean of curses. Those mega-dungeons, in particular, must severely weaken Gaia, constantly sapping mana away and converting it into their counter-lore.

“Last question, why should I trust you?”

She didn’t respond, after a few seconds, her eyes lost their luster, and her hair started to become a more solid color, although her eyes remained green and her hair was still shades of green and blue.

“Master… I have stood beside Gaia my entire life.” This voice was distinctly Terra. “I don’t know if I understand it quite myself, but I feel like… I was built for this… for being her acolyte.”

“Terra…”

“You don’t have to trust Gaia…” She responded. “But… can you trust me?”

A small smile formed on my lips. “I do… with everything.”

Chapter 1366

“What do I do?”

“It’s simple. Allow Gaia to enter your soul world.” Terra explained. “Then, when you summon your soul back to your body, it will bring Gaia into Twilight. She’ll be able to temporarily weaken Twilight, and allow you to be pulled out of her lore. What happens next is on Master. I believe Master will be able to call my soul and Garnet’s souls back to our bodies though.”

I was able to reason out the risk of what she was asking me. Anything that entered my soul world had the potential to damage or even destroy my soul. There was a certain level of trust before I allowed anyone in there. If I let someone in there that wished me harm, they could cause it. Especially if they were Gaia. By letting her into my soul world, she could destroy me completely. If she saw me as a threat, which as a dungeon master, she absolutely could, this was a problem. There was just one thing…

“The king is planning on attacking Twilight by igniting my soul. Isn’t this in Gaia’s best interest? Why would she help me escape?”

Terra thought about it for a moment. “I cannot say that I understand everything that Gaia wants. She’s not a person. She is more an amalgamation of life. She’s a billion thoughts collected into a stream of knowledge. However, I believe that she believes in you. It was no accident we found each other, and I became your slave. Gaia had wanted such a meeting.”

“Is… she the one who brought me here?” I asked.

After recovering Shao, I had asked about that disk, My Dungeon Life. That’s when she revealed it had been some kind of magical transport that was developed to activate upon use. She said that the disk had turned to dust as soon as she picked it up, so there was no getting more information. I did wonder just who had planted that disk in my room, or was it even intended for me. It might make sense if I was brought there by Gaia.

“I’m not sure.”

“Will she accept the Soul Forging skill? What about the demons?” I demanded.

Terra smiled gently, lifting her hands. “I’m sorry. I was only able to connect like that briefly. I might be able to do it again when I grow stronger. I just don’t know, Master. All I know is what Gaia chooses to share with me. I won’t ask you to trust her completely, but she has kept me from being absorbed by Twilight for these months, and I believe she does want to help Master now.”

I frowned for a moment, but I knew that in the end, I would have to make a decision. As for my decision, I would never turn my back on Terra, so there wasn’t one. I didn’t trust Gaia, but I did trust Terra. She would never allow something to happen that would hurt me.

“Fine… I will accept her entry into my soul, and then summon it.” I declared, and then coughed awkwardly. “Um, how do I do that?”

“That part is simple.” Terra giggled. “As her avatar, I will act as a conduit. When you restore our slave bond, it will give her a pathway to your soul.”

“Hmph… as if I was planning to leave here without bonding you.” I took several steps forward and grabbed Terra in my arms.

She looked up at me and smiled. “I’ll see Master shortly. I’ve missed you so much.”

“Terra, I love you.”

“I love you too.”

Our lips met, and I began to Enslave her, taking her bond and reforging our connection once again. There was a bright light, and when it all faded, my eyes opened to find myself standing in the strange Library with Twilight once again.

{The soul lore is now a part of you. You have gained the Soul Forging Blessing.}

{For earning lore, you have gained 10 dungeon points.}

{You have an increased affinity with souls. You can more easily bind and shape souls.}

{Dark Priest has increased by ten levels.}

{Dungeon Builder has increased by ten levels.}

{Necromancer has increased by ten levels.}

{For mastering the soul, you have unlocked the job, Soulsmith.}

The seventh gong had begun to ring.