A Demon Lord’s Tale: Dungeons, Monster Girls, and Heartwarming Bliss
chapter-3

Getting a Grasp of the Status Quo — Part 2

General Information

Name: Yuki

Race: Archdemon

Level: 1

HP: 2100/2100

MP: 6700/6700

Strength: 651

Stamina: 685

Agility: 550

Dexterity: 1250

Luck: 70

Skill Points: 5

Unique Skills

Magic Eye

Translation

Skills

Item Box

Analyze Lv. 1

Titles

Demon Lord from Another World

DP: 1000

***

I blinked a few times in surprise as I continued looking over my status page. I’d apparently not only lost my humanity, but also became a Demon Lord. Confusion coursed through my mind, but only for a moment. The w*kipedia-like database implanted in my head promptly answered all my concerns and informed me that a Demon Lord was in fact not an evil ruler that propagated a doctrine of violence and conquest, but rather just a term used to describe an individual in charge of a dungeon. For all intents and purposes, demon lord and dungeon master were synonymous.

My name was Yuki. It was basically the exact same as the name I used to have prior to my death, save for the fact that it was written in katakana as opposed to kanji. [1] The loss of the kanji that denoted my first name made it feel even more girly than it already had. [2] That said, my first name was faring better than my last name, which’d flat out been deleted.

I didn’t really have anything to compare my stats to, so I couldn’t really gauge how good they were. But in any case, my luck looked ridiculously low, which did make sense given the accidental nature of my death. What I couldn’t make sense of was my dexterity. I didn’t ever do anything that required me to develop precision or finesse. I was never into the arts.

After I was done checking out my stats, I moved on and started examining my skills. I swiped my finger across each item in turn in order to get a better grasp of my own abilities.

Of the four I had, three were pretty intuitive given their names. Analyze allowed me to inspect something and determine its stats. Leveling it up would increase the level of detail displayed. Item Box allowed me to store items in a dimensional rift whose size was relative to my max MP. Translation allowed me to remain both conversational and literate even though I’d been whisked away to another world. My last and least intuitive skill, magic eye, was innate to my race. Apparently, it allowed me to see magical power. I couldn’t actually tell whether or not it was of any use. As far as I was concerned, magic was still pretty much a foreign concept.

Each skill had a level associated with it, ranging from one to ten. Skill points could be used to bolster skill levels, with higher leveled skills requiring more points.

The second last part of my status page was a section containing titles. At the moment, I had just one, Demon Lord from Another World. It’s description read as follows: A title granted to an individual originating from outside this world. Those that bear this title will automatically obtain the translation skill.

“I guess that doubles down and confirms that this really is another world…” I muttered.

I was done looking through my stat page, so I dismissed it and tapped the DP Catalogue button. The menu switched to another screen, one displaying a list of items. Each was accompanied by a number, their cost in DP. The list contained all the typical things you’d expect to see in a fantasy-based JRPG: swords, shields, staves, armour, and the whole shebang. But that wasn’t all. It also contained a wide variety of non-fantastical items. I could choose to purchase cups, toothbrushes, food, and all my other everyday necessities as well. There were even consoles and games, but their prices were exorbitant and way beyond what I could afford.

The DP Catalogue, as a whole, seemed really convenient. It looked like my purchases would get delivered to me the moment I made the exchange.

Browsing the catalogue kind of reminds me of online shopping. The whole system feels kinda out of place given the fantasy-esque setting, but hey, it’s convenient, so I’m not complaining.

All in all, it seemed like there were two different types of items. There were the items from this world, which, in general, tended to be less expensive, and the items from my world, which were precisely the opposite. It was almost as if the latter group of items were only present and purchasable because I knew they existed. They seemed too inconsistent and out of place to be there for any other reason.

The third function I checked was the gacha function. It seemed that I could choose between four different gachas, with their prices being: 100 DP, 1000 DP, 10000DP, and 100000 DP respectively. There didn’t seem to be a list of prizes anywhere. I’d have to go in blind if I wanted to try my luck.

The final menu button, the “Dungeon” button, took me to a page that had a ton of options pertaining to the dungeon’s core functions. It allowed me to add to the number of floors, increase the size of the dungeon’s domain, summon monsters, and much more. There was far too much information for me to take it all in at once, so I decided to refrain from checking out the details for the time being.

It seemed that the dungeon itself was a living thing, a species of organism often born in places with a high concentration of magical particles. Like many other organisms, dungeons were born weak and frail. They were incredible easy to destroy early on in their infancy.

Humans were particularly well known for their dungeon-crushing antics. Their attacks were heavily driven by greed. Or at least what I assumed to be greed. The dungeon’s core, the rainbow-like orb that served as its heart, looked like it could fetch a pretty penny on the market.

Unfortunately, humans weren’t the only creatures that attacked dungeons. Monsters, members of this world’s wildlife, did as well. Dungeon cores were rich in mana, and thus, the monsters’ instincts drove them to hunt them.

In other words, dungeons had enemies on all sides.

Everyone and everything was hostile.

And it was for that reason that dungeons summoned demon lords, guardians that could protect them from the harsh environments in which they were born. Dungeons concentrated their magical energies in their demon lords and allowed them to become much more powerful than ever before. In exchange, the demon lords protected the dungeons and bolstered their chances of survival.

It was a picture perfect example of a symbiotic relationship.

Most dungeons obtained their demon lords by drawing in nearby monsters and rebirthing them. My dungeon, however, had been born in an area with an abnormally high concentration of magical particles. It was much more powerful than its peers. It invested nearly all of its energy into summoning a being more suited to the role: me. It’d selected me even though I’d already died in another world and become nothing more than just a soul.

Wait, that means the dungeon thinks that I’m much more suited to being a demon lord than all the other candidates it came across? The hell!? Makes me think I’m evil incarnate or something. Feels bad man.

My race had been altered because the dungeon believed that I would be able to do my job better as an archdemon. The change had only been made possible by my soul’s affinities. I was apparently just innately suited to being an archdemon.

Uh… Alright, let’s chalk that up to the fact that I used to play an archdemon in that one MMO I really liked.

…

Okay, yeah no. That’s total bullshit and I know it.

I sighed. I didn’t quite feel like contemplating my own moral alignment, so I let my mind wander. The first thing it latched back onto was my stats. To reiterate, I had no idea how powerful I was relative to everything else. The world I’d been reincarnated in was filled with violence. It lacked the peace that my old world had basically bathed in. Monsters roamed the land, fighting and killing for the sake of self preservation. Wars and other armed conflicts were the norm. Surviving was going to be tough if I was too weak.

After another moment’s worth of contemplation, I turned my gaze towards the dungeon core.

It and I had become two parts of a whole. It played a heavy hand in maintaining the vessel that functioned as my body. If it were to be destroyed, then I was sure to follow. And because I’d become both the owner and manager of most of its resources, it too would weaken, dwindle away, and die if I were to lose my life.

Neither the dungeon nor I could survive without the other.

It’d become my second heart, and I’d become its second body.

Though I did resent it for summoning me into a world completely filled with barbaric brutality, I was still plenty grateful that it’d given me a second shot at life.

I decided that I would live it out however I wanted, enjoying my days as they passed, that I wouldn’t waste the opportunity I’d been granted.

And that, for my own sake, I would protect the dungeon’s core.

It’d given me another chance. Defending it was well worth my time.

I let a bit of a smile show up on my face as I used a bit of DP to purchase a mirror. I needed to check myself over so I could evaluate precisely what becoming an archdemon had entailed.

***

[1] Katakana is the Japanese alphabet normally used for when you’re just trying to sound out a word. It is seen most commonly when Japanese people try to use foreign words in text. Kanji is Chinese hanzi characters used in a Japanese context. While it’s possible to guess some of their pronounciations based off precedent, it’s much, much more difficult if not often impossible.

[2] Yuki is typically a girl’s name. The old spelling of his name was likely something that had manly kanji in it. Note that Yuki is different from Yuuki, which is typically a boy’s name.