My Dungeon Life: Rise of the Slave Harem - My Dungeon Life – Chapter 1385-1387

Chapter 1385

“Deek!” Alysia threw her arms around me, and I gave her a hug.

“When did she become so close to Master?” Terra asked worriedly.

Returning to the boss room was rather easy. I just had to make a portal connecting myself to Alysia. Alysia, Pait, and Dav were left behind when King Diorite went down. They had been King Diorite’s prisoners for a little over a week, so I was immediately concerned if they were alright. As I was checking over Alysia, she gave a blush.

“I’m okay, I was unharmed, and he said my connection to the sword will be restored as soon as I enter your soul world.”

“Sword?” Terra frowned.

“Ah, that’s right! Terra, you missed a couple of things since I went away. Well, various things happened and Alysia is my sword now.”

I sent Alysia to my soul world, and then I lifted my hand, summoning her back out as my blade. A moment later, that blade glowed and then returned to the shape of Alysia, but she was whole again.

“I’ve finally returned…” Alysia let out a gasp of relief. “This feels much better.”

Terra looked at Alysia somewhat warily. “What is this? Another soul connected to an object? Master has replaced me!”

“Huh?”

“Master, please don’t say I’m disposable!” Terra looked up at me with tearful eyes.

“You’re not, you’re not!” Although I said that, I had upset Terra greatly.

As I tried to calm her down by reassuring her that a sentient sword was nothing like a sentient guardian golem, Pait cut in. “We’re fine too, thanks for asking.”

“Master acts upset, but he learned a lot of history from King Diorite and was very happy about it,” Dav added.

“You! When have you become so willful?” He shot me a glare. “It’s your fault! You allow your girls to act that way and they’re a bad example on Dav.”

“M-master… I’m a maid, not your slave though?”

“You’re lucky that Esmore doesn’t have legalized slavery. Otherwise, I would have enslaved you a long time ago!”

“Master, what are you saying.” Her face turned pink. “Are you afraid I’ll leave you so much?”

“Leave me?” He blinked. “No, I’m just saying that I want you by my side forever.”

“Eeep…” Dav stiffened, her pink coloring turning red.

“Eep?” Pait cocked his head and reaching out to touch her forehead. “Are you sick or something?”

“Master! How can you say such a thing?” Dav suddenly shoved Pait to the ground, and then spun around, racing away.

Not wanting her to wander off someplace dangerous where she was likely to get hurt, I tossed her into my soul world. Pait stood back up, patting the dirt off his butt from where she had shoved him to the ground.

“What was that all about?” He asked in confusion, looking at me.

I shrugged. “Girls are confusing. You’ll never understand them, so stop trying…”

“I see… I’ll take your advice!”

Exactly. Just to prove my point, Terra and Alysia were both giving me cold looks after that exchange with Pait, and I had no clue why. Surely, women were something meant to be love and admired, but never understood.

Chapter 1386

After the previous ordeal, everyone had needed time to rest. The deep dwarves had all needed to be resurrected, and even though their physical bodies were recovered for the most part, the condition they were in was at a level that they were extremely weak. I wasn’t much better, having gone a week without eating and also having to cast such an intensive and mana-consuming spell. Then there was Terra, who had to carry me out of there on her own after her soul had spent months hiding from the darkness.

It wasn’t just the physical strain that people needed time to recover from, but also the emotional strain. It appeared that the deep dwarves were well aware of their captivity. They had been in Twilight’s lore, being tempted by the life she offered, for innumerable years. The group that had survived to this point was the group that had realized they were living in deception and had fought it tooth and nail for untold years.

They had to witness approximations and illusions of their loved ones with hurt eyes as they were forced to reject and ignore them time and time again. There were times when they were unable to see the difference between reality and illusion. The one redeeming quality was that they didn’t remember their time as wraiths that were used to hunt down and kill their fellow dwarves as they fled, but that was a small relief.

Now that they were alive again, they were in an unfamiliar place. The deep that they had once tamed was a wildland filled with monsters and curses, and their ancestorial home that had been turned into a ghost town was destroyed. Everyone they ever knew and loved had either died long ages past or eventually broke down and unified with Twilight, becoming a permanent and indistinguishable part of her lifestream, their lore permanently lost to time.

Then, as if to add insult to injury, the king that they had thought betrayed them had given his life to save them. In a way, he had exchanged his soul for all of theirs. It gave them a complicated feeling. To say that they needed time to grieve was an understatement. Seeing what was left of this once proud nation huddled together in my soul world, it was truly a pitiable sight.

Watching them taught me some things that I had never realized before. For example, Terra had experienced a very similar event. Her entire family had perished, and she had been trapped underground for many years before finally rising in a world where everything was different. It was no wonder that she had attached herself to me. It wasn’t just the control rod that had connected us. She had needed me because she had nothing else.

“What, Master?” Terra looked up at me, blushing slightly as I looked down at her.

“You are incredible,” I stated.

“S-saying that now…”

“Terra, I haven’t always been the best Master. My low self-confidence often led me to push you all away. I couldn’t believe or understand why you cared for me, and I convinced myself it was my uncontrolled passions that prevented me from freeing you.”

“Master…” Her body shook slightly, her eyes wet with tears.

“It took losing you all to realize my mistake. I absolutely won’t make that mistake again. You’re mine forever, I will never let you go.”

She nodded. “Mm! I am!”

“It’s about time I did this.” I took out the control rod, causing Terra to gasp.

“You brought that with you?” Terra cried out.

“I’ve always made sure it was safe,” I responded. “Although it’s always bothered me slightly.”

“Hmm? How so?” Terra looked at it nervously.

“Although it bonded to me when I grabbed it, this could theoretically be used to control you. By all metrics, you’re a golem, and that makes you closer to a tamed monster than a slave. This control rod was what once bridged the difference. Even though you were a monster, a dungeon guardian, you were treated like a slave under my absolute control. You don’t have a slave mark like the other girls, but you have this rod instead. Anyone who took this rod could also take control of you. It may be bonded to me, but I’ve seen enough magic over these months to know how easily such a thing like this can be overridden.”

“What is Master saying?” She looked up at me in confusion.

“I’m saying that I’m done controlling you.” I broke the control rod in half, causing Terra to let out a gasp of shock.

“Wh-what did you do?”

“Our bond was cut when I was dragged into the Illusory Sword Dungeon. I could use this rod to restore our connection, but rather than control you, I’d rather own you!”

Of course, part of the reason I had never done this earlier was that I wasn’t confident I could. At this point, my Slave Master, Monster Tamer, and even the presence of the new Soulsmith gave me the confidence to discard the control rod.

Her eyes widened at my words, and then she smiled. “Master, you always have.”

I reached out and wrapped my arms around her, and the pair of us embraced. As we kissed, I used Enslave on Terra, making her soul mine.

Chapter 1387

After I gave every one a bit of time to rest and recover, I gathered them up and brought them up to speed on everything that had been going on. They had already heard bits and pieces from each other and understood the general situation, but explaining it all in one go was also good.

“So, ultimately, that’s the situation that we’re in.” I finished my spiel. “Of course, none of you are obligated to stay. If you’d like to flee to the surface, Chalm will welcome you. You won’t need to experience what your ances- ahem… what your friends experienced when they tried to integrate with the surface.”

“How can we leave someone else to clean up our problem?” One of the deep dwarves spoke up.

“It was us who started this problem. We need to finish it!” Another added.

“We’ll fight! And we’ll win!”

It seemed like deep dwarves were especially resilient…. Or it was more accurate to say that by default those that had survived to this point would be extremely stubborn. They immediately wanted to help. Unfortunately, I didn’t know what they could do right away, so I had to calm them down. Once they were over their shock, they were quite loud and boisterous. I could see Pait losing his patience too, and I began to understand where the stories about Esmere and Dwarves not getting along came from. I had taken for granted how quiet Pait and Dav were until I had a group of deep dwarves in my soul.

When they got into my alcohol, it became a big problem. They started singing and dancing, and I eventually removed them from my soul world so I could get some peace and concentrate on the lore the king had given me.  At that point, I had created the dungeon and was allowing it to grow. However, I felt that the lore the king had given me was essential for keeping Twilight back. Yet, after 12 hours of trying to crack it, I couldn’t.

It wasn’t like the blessings that quickly adhered themselves to my soul. This was separate from me, and not intended for me. This was something personal to the king, the last bit of lore he had protected. He had given it to me rather than allow it to fall into Twilight’s hands, and there had to be a reason behind it.

“I’m sorry, but I only have the slightest memory of you,” Sapphire spoke hesitantly as she entered my room alongside her mother. “I only half remember anything.”

I opened one eye as the pair entered the dungeon’s safe room I had restored out of the one that once belonged to King Diorite. Terra was the one currently acting as my guard, so if she let them come in, there was probably a good reason.

“Did you need something?” I asked.

“My lord, the dwarves are becoming impatient. It has already been two days. There are only twelve left before Twilight comes, and yet they haven’t done a thing.” Lapis explained.

“I’m sorry.” I sighed. “The king said I need to merge my soul with the lore to unlock my true potential. I’ve been trying, but the lore he gave me has told me nothing. The lore in blessings binds itself so easily, yet as soon as I try to bring this lore close to my soul, it seems to repel greatly. Soul Merging is fare more difficult than I thought?”

“Soul merging?” Lapis frowned. “This sounds familiar…”

I nodded. “It’s the fifth level skill from the Soulsmith job. Resurrecting 300 souls, after your monster forces them into their former body, and compounded with a 10X experience multiplier, is a good way to level Soulsmith rapidly.”

“Master, do you need to merge with this lore?” Sapphire asked. “What would you have done with it before he told you about soul merging?”

“I would have…” I blinked and then sighed. “I would have fed it to the dungeon!”

Sometimes, the best plans were simple plans.