After an unexpected reunion that caught not only me but them by surprise—neither of us anticipating our meeting to unfold like this—I found myself standing before them once again. I had been preparing to seek them out upon reaching the Voidborne Catacombs, whilst they had been waiting for me… as an invader, if I were somehow still alive.

  They had no way of confirming my fate. When I used the authority, something inexplicable occurred—it was left behind, severing all connections between us. And yet, here I was. How such a thing was even possible remained a mystery, but we knew we would soon uncover the truth. First, however, they would hear my story.

  From the moment I wielded the power of Greed and Resurgence—somehow leaving that authority behind—and awakened in the body of a newborn Verdenkind, later named Roland by his parents, I recounted everything. I held nothing back… except, perhaps, what I deemed unworthy of being told.

  ***

  As we absorbed Dungeon Master 07’s story—his life story—the world beyond our domain began to take shape in our minds. Though we had gleaned some knowledge from invaders and the old man, there was something distinct about hearing it from one of our own. His words offered a perspective we could grasp more vividly, allowing us to truly envision the differences between this world and the one we had left behind.

  Before delving into his story, Dungeon Master 07 made sure to immediately address a question he assumed we would be asking: Why, once he had come of age, had he not sought us out sooner? Why had he waited so long? But I believe he misjudged us. While 29 years had passed for him in this world before his death, for us, it felt like mere days—perhaps a week, at most. Time did not flow the same for Dungeon Masters. What was nearly three decades for him was nothing more than a fleeting moment for us.

  Yet, for Dungeon Master 07—now known as Roland—those years had been real, and he wanted us to understand why he had delayed his return. When he realized he might not have what it took to fulfill his mission, he made a choice: at the very least, he would find his way back to us and share what he had learned. That meant locating our Dungeon, known out there as the Voidborne Catacombs and making the long journey here.

  Finding our location wasn’t difficult—by then, the Voidborne Catacombs had gained quite the reputation among men. But reaching us? That was a far more complex ordeal.

  As Roland continued, he painted a picture of the world he had come to know—Fiendfell. It was far larger than we had ever imagined. Its vastness became undeniable as he described the immense continent known as the Land of Men, split into two sections by a great sea. This land, once shared with angels but now ruled by mankind, dwarfed our previous world in size.

  However, Fiendfell’s enormity didn’t end there. Dungeon Master 07 described other continents, each home to distinct inhabitants—Quel’Thalas, the land of elves; Stoneholm, the dwarves’ domain; and the demons’ Underworld. The sheer scale of this world was almost unimaginable.

  Dungeon Master 07, born as Roland, was born in this world in the Land of Men—specifically, on the opposite side of the continent from the Voidborne Catacombs. Though our dungeon technically shared the same landmass, an ocean separated us. Under normal logic, a land divided by a sea wouldn’t be considered a single continent, yet it was. The two halves were treated as one due to the dominance of humanity, though in truth, only one side had originally belonged to men. The other had once been the domain of angels. But with their decline, their lands gradually fell under human control.

  For Dungeon Master 07 to reach the Voidborne Catacombs, he would have to traverse nearly the entirety of the Land of Men. Yet despite its name, this land didn’t truly belong to men in the absolute sense. Unlike our old world, humanity was not the dominant species here. In fact, they weren’t even the majority on their own continent. Most of the Land of Men was a vast, monster-infested expanse, with scattered towns and cities serving as fragile sanctuaries. To reach us, Dungeon Master 07 would have to carve his way through this treacherous wilderness.

  Understanding the challenges ahead, he knew his journey would be arduous. To prepare, he dedicated himself to growing stronger—honing his combat skills, leveling up, and accumulating experience. In Fiendfell, strength came through battle; slaying monsters—or, alternatively, other sentients—was the path to progress. Though he had the option of hunting fellow humans, he primarily focused on monsters.

  At thirteen, having chosen the warrior class, Dungeon Master 07 left home to begin his journey. His goal was clear: to become strong enough to survive the journey to the Voidborne Catacombs. Yet beyond training, he spent much of his time gathering intelligence—specifically on a certain traitorous fellow reincarnate.

  Born in the formerly angelic lands, Dungeon Master 07 took every opportunity to investigate Shun Nagumo, or as he now called himself, Jason. Though he never had the chance to confront or eliminate him as he desired, he uncovered a wealth of valuable information about our treacherous fellow reincarnate.

  Jason's name was renowned throughout the land of men. It seemed that our treacherous fellow reincarnate was relishing his second life by portraying himself as a hero to the humans of this world.

  His "feats" ranged from monster-slaying and establishing dwellings, resulting in the formation of many cities through his efforts, to dungeon-crawling. Dungeons were considered as much of a nuisance as monsters were, if not more.

  Additionally, he was known for preaching and bestowing teachings upon those willing to listen. Several organizations, born out of his influence, focused on monster-slaying and dungeon crawling, providing opportunities and resources for those daring to embark on such adventures.

  Dungeon Master 07 also managed to gather rumors—though he hesitated to use the word "confirm" as these were mostly unverified reports—he firmly believed that the faction Jason likely colluded with was the angelic race, or more precisely, its remnants.

  In this world, angels were once one of the six main sentient races, and while it is still the case to this day, the angel race is no longer the powerhouse they used to be. Rumors circulated that only a handful of angels remained, and it was with them, or at least one of them, that Jason worked with.

  Thanks to another set of rumors that mentioned that “Jason,” the hero was in the good grace of a beautiful angel, it wasn't very difficult to infer that the woman influencing him away from the right path was most likely that very angel he was said to be close to.

  Tsk.

  The more I learned of that traitor, the more infuriated I became. I wasn’t alone in that sentiment, the other as well. We couldn't wait for the day when the authority he was bestowed would be taken from his unworthy hands, be it by us or another fellow reincarnate. The latter was equally fine as the former for me, as long as the one to get it was a reincarnate who didn't forget who gave us a chance to be where we are now instead of still being in that hellish place.

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  Speaking of fellow reincarnates, one other thing Dungeon Master 07 dedicated his time to was learning about the whereabouts of other fellow reincarnates, especially the one we stupidly let go instead of slaying on the spot, as we would've done in the past.

  He welcomed anything from a mere clue to a complete location about the other reincarnate. Unfortunately, Dungeon Master 07 was not able to find anything about the old man.

  Of course, with the latest name he went by, Aegis, Dungeon Master was able to find some clues about him on the continent, but most of these snippets of clues dated back to before he made his way to their domain. While not as popular as "Jason the traitor," Aegis seemed to, to a certain extent, enjoy a certain level of popularity in the Land of men. So, in spite of the continent being as gigantic as it was, while venturing here and there, Dungeon Master 07 would often collect some new information about the semi-treacherous old madman.

  Unfortunately, most of these pieces of information found themselves inconclusive in helping him locate the old man’s ultimate whereabouts.

  The truth is that with the time it took Dungeon Master 07 to reach an age where he seriously began searching for the old man, the old man most likely already reached an age where he could really be already dead of old age or some other cause. Back then, he said that he believed himself having roughly ten years to live. Of course, it could be a lie, but even if he still had twice that to live, Dungeon Master 07 was 27 when he died. Unless he mysteriously found a way to bypass his own mortality, the man was most likely dead. The question now was whether he managed to rat on us or not, or did he simply never try at all?

  That question would be left unanswered.

  It was at that moment, as Dungeon Master 07 seemed to finally finish exposing how his journey as Roland ended, that one of us voiced, "Shame you died so early; you were only level 27."

  I could tell that Dungeon Master 07 was fuming at that comment, especially at what it suggested between the lines. But unexpectedly, he replied with a rather calm tone, "I had the feeling I would be welcomed with such a comment when I awoke here for some reason. I'm relieved to see that I wasn't wrong about that."

  "What?"

  "It's nothing. You're right, Dungeon Master 02. I was only level 27 when I died."

  From our point of view, level 27 Verdenkind might be something we could achieve with an inconsequential amount of G.P but that’s just us.

  While I wouldn’t go as far as to say I related to the struggle as I didn’t get to experience it myself, I was at least self-aware enough to know that it was much more complicated than just investing 300 G.P onto a spawn.

  “I’m not even going to bother finding an excuse for myself,” he said. “Nonetheless, I would like to tell each one of you bastards who’re looking down at me for not achieving much that it was a completely different experience altogether.”

  “We weren’t looking down on you,” I immediately denied.

  “Guys tell me, were we looking down at him?”

  “No, of course not.”

  “Why would we?”

  “Stop pretending. I’m just as much you as you dumbasses are me, and we both know it—I’m not satisfied with what I’ve done. I could’ve done better. Hell, I could’ve had a much better death than that, that’s for sure.”

  He let out a sigh before adding, “But things are what they are. Unless we stumble upon an authority that lets us rewrite the past, there’s nothing we can do about it. We have to learn from our mistakes and move forward. I’ve done the first part… now all that’s left is the second.”

  “Dungeon Master 07…”

  “By that, do you mean…”

  “I’ll use Greed and Resurgence and go again.”

  “Seriously?”

  “I’ve yet to accomplish any of the main goals I was sent out there in the first place, so… what’s your verdict, everyone? Dungeon Master 00?”

  At that moment, after I briefly pondered, I added, “I think sending you out would allow us to perhaps figure out what happened last time, so why not?”

  In that moment, I shared a metaphorical nod with the other Dungeon Masters; in other words, the High Council had agreed to Dungeon Master 07's suggestion.

  “Then I guess you got your answer, Dungeon Master 07. But you are aware of the risks this involves, aren’t you?”

  Last time, what happened was that when Dungeon Master 07 used the Greed and Resurgence authority, he disappeared without giving us any confirmation of what had happened to him—or to us. Since the authority remained by our side, it was possible that he had made it to the other side, but it was equally possible that he was simply gone—sent to oblivion or some other unknown place.

  Given how uncertain we were about what had happened back then, it was a real possibility for us that he had been sent somewhere with no way to return to us. To be fair, if it had worked, we could have concluded that this was simply the standard way the authority operated on us—Dungeon Cores. Nonetheless, it had been a risk that could not be ignored.

  “I’m aware of the risk, but I doubt this is any more dangerous than last time, so let’s do this.”

  “I see, if that’s the case, then…”

  With those words, I once again passed the Greed and Resurgence to Dungeon Master 07, who, upon receiving it, remained silent for a while, so much that I wondered if he didn’t already use it somehow. But then he spoke, dispelling that doubt.

  “I don’t think I need a countdown, do I?”

  “I mean, if you don’t want to.”

  “Then I won’t, it’s needlessly distressing,” he said before sinking into another strange silence that he himself later broke. “It’s strange…” he said.

  “What?”

  “What’s strange?” we asked.

  “Back when I was cut off from you guys, I… I was distressed by the idea of not being able to get back here. With time, I eventually accepted it for what it seemed—a fact.”

  For a moment, I was left silent by the confession—because that was what it sounded like to me—a confession.

  “Oh, you missed us,” Dungeon Master 04 voiced in a typical Dungeon Master 04 manner.

  “I didn’t know you loved us like that.”

  “—but now that I’m miraculously back, I’m eager to leave again,” Dungeon Master 07 replied vindictively, as if foreseeing the Dungeon Masters’ comment before it was even voiced.

  “Come on, brother, don’t be like that. We might not look like it, but we really missed you too.”

  “We just didn’t get the opportunity to miss you very much with how quickly it felt, so make sure to survive long enough for us to at least feel your absence.”

  “I’m planning to but not for that reason you just mentioned.”

  “Tsk, tsk, tsk. Still can’t be honest with your feelings, and here I thought that your 29 years-long changed you. It seems I was wrong.”

  “And that’s a relief,” he said with a flash before concluding, “Anyway, I think it’s time I go.”

  “Yeah, don’t die to ran—nevermind.”

  At that moment, before Dungeon Master 04 could come up with one of his out-of-pocket comments, Dungeon Master 07 had already used the Greed and Resurgence authority. Just like last time, he disappeared—and, most importantly, the authority inexplicably returned to me.

  _____________________________

  [ ???'s Interface ]

  Name: ??? (Dungeon Master 00)

  Entity: Dungeon Core

  Designation: Dungeon Master

  Status: Idle

  [ Authorities ]

  - Authority Gathering

  - Ethereal Echo

   - Otherworldly Synergy

  - Greed and Resurgence

  『Expand』

  _____________________________

  At that moment, as things seemed to have gone similarly as they did last time, I was more or less entirely convinced that the reason the authority didn't follow Dungeon Master 07 was simply because that's how the authority was meant to work for Dungeon Cores like us.

  Having gathered three authorities before acquiring Greed and Resurgence, I understood that authorities don’t work on us the way they do on humans. So, right now, all that was left for us to do to really confirm that it was just that, was to wait for Dungeon Master 07 to come back. I guessed this time around, with the experience he acquired in his past life, he might take a little longer, meaning a bit more time for us to wait to actually be able to confirm anything. But, well, even if it was more time, I doubted it would feel like a lot. So, all we had to do was be patient.

  ***

  Patient.

  Ah yes, being patient, that sure we did, and soon enough it paid off.

  Too soon enough, in fact, to be a good sign.

  “Dungeon Master 07, you’re already back. What happened?”