"Huh?"

  The look of confusion on the old man's face after seeing Dungeon Master 07's guardian, a guardian nothing like the others he'd faced thus far, shifted into one of distraught when he heard the words spoken by Dungeon Master 07 through "Telepathic Discourse."

  “What?”

  Having come to the common resolution to seal the Greed and Resurgence-Authority-wielder, we also simultaneously agreed that since we were about to do this, we might as well try something else along with it.

  As Dungeon Master 07 rehearsed the sealing of the Authority wielder on a batch of human invaders, he took advantage of the opportunity to learn their language. We were already familiar with basic words like and but that wasn’t enough for a proper conversation—we wanted to hold a real discussion.

  We are Dungeon Masters—Dungeon Cores–-the sentient entity behind Dungeon, and while I think we've reached a point where we understand what being a Dungeon Core truly means and what is expected of us, we also know that we're missing a large piece of the puzzle—why we are in this world in the first place.

  To find out, I have to ask questions. So far, every question I've asked has been answered by myself. That worked for a while, but it's clear that won't take me far. I need to ask my questions to those who might actually have answers. But to do that, I must communicate.

  And yet, being what we are, we were clearly never meant to. The very fact that, despite having myriad ways to control my spawns and domain, I have no direct means of communication is undeniable proof of that.

  But even so—even if this isn’t something I was ever meant to do—I wanted to communicate.

  I wanted answers.

  Seemingly not yet adapted to what just happened, the old man stammered back to his feet, mumbling, “A voice… just talked to me… a mental attack?” theorizing on what just happened to him.

  That promptly prompted Dungeon Master 07 to answer.

  _____________________________

  Echo-13:

  

  “Huh?! What’s happening?!”

  I couldn’t really blame the old man for assuming Dungeon Master 07’s words were an attack—because, in a sense, they were.

  We wanted to communicate, but without a direct means to do so, we had to find alternatives. The first thing we considered was using our spawns. However, we quickly realized that wouldn’t work; we had too little control over them. That led us to focus on a different category of spawns: guardians. But not just any guardian. While our control over them was vastly superior compared to regular spawns, it still wasn’t enough to make them speak on our behalf.

  Desperate for a workaround, we scoured the interface catalog and eventually stumbled upon creatures with telepathic abilities. Since abilities were the one thing we could conventionally control in a guardian, we thought we had found our solution.

  We hadn’t.

  To our disappointment, telepathic abilities in those creatures could only be used as attacks—not as a means of communication. It was an obvious limitation, yet we couldn’t help but feel disheartened.

  That was when we finally considered something we should have thought of much earlier: the authority Otherworldly Synergy. Unlike other “powers”, this one operated without an interface. We had grasped some of its potential, but its true limits remained unknown. And through it, we discovered something new.

  To skip the lengthy details—with Otherworldly Synergy, we modified the attack ability Telepathic Discourse into a means of communication.

  Every human we tested the modified ability on had the same reaction: they assumed they were under attack. It was a natural response. But if true communication was our goal, the first thing we needed to do was dispel that right—but wrong—assessment.

  “Who are you?” The man asked with an expression of confusion.

  A moment of silence followed. No doubt, Dungeon Master 07 hesitated between introducing himself as his guardian or as what he was. Hearing no complaint from any of us, he continued.

  

  Echo-13: I am the entity behind this Dungeon.

  

  “The entity behind this… Dungeon,” the man mumbled, seemingly still in a daze. I had the feeling that it would take him a moment to fully digest what he just heard. So we gave him that, the moment he looked ready to answer what interested us, we began.

  

  Echo-13: Since you didn’t answer when I first asked, I will ask again. Why? Why do you keep showing up in our—my domain?

  

  With at least dozens instances of invasions to his name, I would be deeply ignorant not to have noticed it. After three or four invasions, it became clear to me: All the Greed and Resurgence-Authority wielders, Eland Karstark, Gael, Samuel, Danitz, Damien, and even Aegis as he currently calls himself, all these people; they may have different names, but in the end of the day, it was obvious these people were all the same person: the man initially known as Kevin Karstark.

  How does this work? Well, the answer always lies in an authority. While initially, the effect of the Greed and Resurgence Authority remained a mystery, as soon as I realized what happened, we understood that this was the doing of the authority. In fact, we knew from the second time the authority eluded our control that it was the doing of an authority; we just didn’t know how it worked.

  Initially, I, assuming, if not knowing, that all authorities were different from one another, assumed that the Greed and Resurgence Authority’s power was a corporeal-version of the Ethereal Echo Authority. Basically, what I imagined was him having clones—clones he could hop his soul around—which allowed him to do what he did, almost a dozen times. That's how I initially pictured it. However, as I thought about and remembered a detail about myself, I realized that it couldn’t be. It was something else. That something else was that the authority allowed him–his soul—his essence to hop into another body, in other words what Greed and Resurgence does is allow him to reincarnate into this world.

  “Why… I keep showing up… in your domain? You want to know why I keep showing up in your domain,” he echoed, utterly baffled by the question.

  _____________________________

  Echo-13: Yes.

  

  That was a question I—and the other Dungeon Masters—had thirsted for an answer to for so long. Even more so once we understood what his Authority truly did.

  Imagine this: You have a power—one that grants you the opportunity to begin again. And so, that’s exactly what you do. Even if it’s unintentional at first. You live out a lifetime, and at the end of it, you go to a place that kills you. You die.

  The first time? Logical. An understandable mistake.

  The second time? Still reasonable—perhaps an attempt at revenge.

  But beyond that? Madness.

  And if it isn’t madness, then I’ve killed that same old man enough times to believe I’m entitled to know why.

  I waited for his answer.

  But instead of an explanation, all I got were mumbles—soft, disjointed repetitions of my own words.

  "Why… I keep showing up… in your domain…”

  Again and again, until finally, instead of answering my question, he asked one of his own:

  "You… you know that I keep showing up?"

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  We were confused. That wasn’t the answer we expected.

  But still, we answered truthfully.

  

  Echo-13: We—I know.

  

  Hearing our words, the old man’s expression turned to one of utter bafflement, only to have that expression hidden as he arched down into a strange bow. We wondered if it was because he was hurt; after all, he was only at the percents of his health. But I understood it wasn’t that the moment I heard a chuckle from him—a chuckle that soon turned into a full-blown maddened laughter.

  What happened?

  Did he finally go mad?

  Wasn’t he already mad in the first place anyway?

  Could be.

  Amidst his laughter, he suddenly calmed down to mumble, “I see, so that’s how it was, that explains everything,” as if he just made sense of something that had forever eluded him. He then looked ahead, his gaze—one of madness—staring straight at Dungeon Master 07’s guardian, saying, “You… you know what my &%$#@ does…You know I can come back from the dead, which means you…whatever you are…must also be a &%$#@-user.”

  We had no way to confirm what &%$#@ could possibly be. We didn’t learn what that word meant when I got the opportunity to, but I had the feeling that &%$#@ was the equivalent of what I called authority. So our answer was simple.

  

  Echo-13: Yes.

  

  In that moment, he fell into what came across to me as a dumbfounded expression. It was only some time later that he said in a completely unrecognizable language, “”

  What the heck was that?

  We didn’t learn that from these invaders.

  That literally didn’t sound like any language they taught us.

  It was exactly then that he asked, “Did you understand what I just said?”

  

  Echo-13: No.

  

  —we simply answered, though we were confident that with the authority of Otherwordly Synergy, which greatly helped us when it came to learning the language of this world, we would be able to understand whatever he said if given enough time and content.

  “I see, so not from that side. That’s a relief.” He heaved with a sigh before letting out a self-deprecating chuckle.

  By that point, we were growing bored—or rather, annoyed by the way this interaction was unfolding. We were patient, but instead of answering our question, the man kept asking his own, completely ignoring what we had asked in the first place. Then, finally, he spoke again. Yet once again, it was a question. But this time, it was different. Because in asking it, he inadvertently confirmed something I already knew. All I had needed was that confirmation. And his very question gave it to me.

  “Since you’re &%$#@-user. I take it that you’re like me, someone from somewhere else than this world, someone that was in that place of pain and suffering, someone who’d met him, Lord K.R.U.L, Herald of the Divine.”

  That I already knew, or at the very least, it wasn’t a surprise. Since the first time I was being invaded by that lone invader, from my very first interaction with an authority, I’ve already established the possibility that authorities were linked to him, the entity that saved me from that place, Mighty K.R.U.L.

  As to exactly how it was linked, I’ve never been able to confirm it, but now I can see that it was this: I wasn’t alone, never been alone in my situation. Authorities were wielded by people like me, people that aren’t from this world.

  Welp, that’s awkward.

  Really awkward.

  That was the only way to currently describe the situation I just found myself in after confirming that not only was I not alone in being saved from that place by Mighty KRUL, but that I found myself antagonizing three of them, killed two, and in the process of sealing the third, whom I failed to properly kill almost a dozen time.

  That wasn’t just awkward; it was on a whole new level.

  Well, to be fair with myself, while I did kill some of them, it wasn’t like I did it for the sake of killing fellow otherworlders, reincarnates or whatever should I use to refer to ourselves; it was an accident, mostly. Besides, it was them who came to my domain, killing my poor spawn back when I was nothing but a very low GP-wealthed Dungeon Master.

  I did what I had to do to survive. But not only did I do that, I also did what was asked of me: to act on my instinct. What that instinct told me was to acquire GP and of course the authorities from them.

  The more I thought about it, the more messed up it looked. As I was given the chance to escape that place, Mighty K.R.U.L entrusted me with a fragment of himself—a fragment that, had I been reincarnated with an authority, I would’ve believed that authority to be the said fragment. But I wasn’t.

  All I know is that I have the task that has been given to me, the one to act upon my instinct. One thing that instinct first dictated to me was to harvest as much GP as I possibly could. While I did know that it could be used for the betterment of my dungeon, if one were to ask me what the ultimate purpose of that urge to harvest G.P would be or what it’ll be used for, I wouldn’t even know what to answer.

  Perhaps my fellow reincarnates does, but I don’t. I just know what needs to be done, and so far I have done nothing else but act in that general direction.

  But even so, I wanted to know. While perhaps this was just what was expected of me to know, I wanted to know more, to understand more, and this old man was the first step toward that secondary objective of mine.

  

  Echo-13: No.

  

  —we replied to his question.

  At that moment, the man was taken by what looked like both utter despair and relief; he cried and chuckled almost simultaneously, creating a messy sight to behold. This went on for a moment, and once he was done, he finally looked at Dungeon Master 07’s guardian, a now challenging expression on his face.

  “You want my &%$#@ too, do you?”

  Of course I do.

  Why wouldn’t we want your authority?

  But wait.

  Too…

  Too?

  Oh, I see, so I’m not alone in that regard too.

  From the look of it, the desire of gathering authorities isn’t something proper to me alone but to other authority wielders as well, or at least some of them, just enough for him to assume that, like "others" before me, I too wanted his authority.

  Even back when I still had no confirmation of the existence of fellow reincarnates, I was at least aware that there were other cases of authority wielders killing others than me. Actually one could argue that I was never initially an authority wielder, so it could be said that I was innocent of the killing of a “fellow” authority-wielder until my second “lone invader.”

  From the very beginning, even without knowing much about the authority, I knew these things were something rare, unique. So naturally, when Tusko Vagar popped up in my domain with not one but two authorities, I had the feeling that he’d acquired them from at least someone else or, if he were authoritiless like me, two.

  After all, there was always the possibility that he acquired the two authorities from an unfortunate “accident.” I am very much more inclined to believe in the former; it was just an attempt of mine to at least give Tusko Vagar the benefit of the doubt.

  Anyway, that was just to say that I most likely wasn’t, because of the existence of Tusko Vagar, the only one to cause the demise of a fellow “reincarnate”. The thing is that I even believed that what most likely brought him to my domain was Authority Gathering, which allowed him to sense the presence of the authority in my possession: otherworldly synergy. He was most likely tracking it, and that was what led him to his demise.

  While the short and rather hostile interaction I had with Tusko Vagar was nowhere enough for me to tell what kind of man he was, I, in my mind, created a mental image of the kind of bastard Tusko Vagar was. In my mind, and from the little I knew of him, he was a greedy man, overconfident. I was tempted to see him as a loner, but being the wielder of the Ethereal Echo after him, I knew for a fact that man couldn’t be lonely. And last but not least, I imagined Tusko Vagar as a ruthless man—ruthless enough that he earned himself a ride most likely straight to that place we’ve been saved from by Mighty K.R.U.L.

  Perhaps it was because he didn’t get an answer almost immediately, or perhaps he simply wanted to vent out his anger. He walked threateningly in Dungeon Master’s direction, barking, “Answer me. You want my &%$#@ too, don’t you? That’s why you killed them.”

  At that moment, we seriously considered shifting domains to have one of us lower his health just a little, just enough for him to calm down. However, we promptly gave up on that idea. We didn’t want to either accidentally kill him or antagonize him more than we already were on bad terms. Instead, we attempted to defuse the situation with a reply.

  

  Echo-13: You know what we are. You know you and I are from someplace else than this one. I have answered many of your questions already, but I can tell you still have questions for me, so do I for you. What I would like to happen next is us responding to one another's questions like civilized creatures. If it can’t be that, then—

  

  In that moment, Dungeon Master 07 shifted with the other Dungeon Masters, in the span of several consecutive seconds, spawning the old man into their respective guardian chambers without having the guardians attack him. As Dungeon Master 07 took back control, the old man, in spite of what he just witnessed, didn’t seem all that much impressed. If anything, he seemed even more stubborn.

  “You think you can threaten me?”

  

  Echo-13: Not a threat. Just showing what else it could be if we choose not to go the civilized way.

  

  Technically, yes, those were threats. After all, we weren’t planning on using any of the guardians we just showed him against him. With the authority he has, it would be useless to kill him. Should he refuse the civilized approach, we wouldn’t waste a second and seal him straight away as planned. While I firmly believed that the smarter thing to do was make allies, when that option was not available, leaving me with just an annoying enemy I had no way to definitively deal with, fellow reincarnate or not, I wasn’t going to pull my punches.

  I must admit, as that exchange unfolded, that while I didn't regret it one bit, I felt like I might have lit a fuse that couldn't be put down. We were there, waiting for it to blow, when, after some time that felt like an eternity of consideration, the old man anticlimactically calmed down.

  In a calmer but still stubborn voice, he said, "Fine."

  A sigh escaped his lips, bearing the remnants of frustration, yet hinting at a reluctant acceptance. "What do you like to know?"

  While surprised by the sudden change of heart,

  _____________________________

  Echo-13: Everything.

  _____________________________

  —we nonetheless replied.

  ***

  I want to clarify that by "everything," I meant everything from the day you were saved by Mighty K.R.U.L to this day.

  In other words, I want to know what sets us apart as two reincarnates. I'm not particularly interested in anything before that, especially not anything about that place.

  While I make sure to remember the fact that I have been saved from that place every day as a form of self-motivation to keep up the good work as a Dungeon Master, I'm also trying to forget the vivid details of that place.

  I really don't want to hear his description that I doubt will be anything short of vivid about how hellish that place was. As for what he was before that place, I believe that to be an irrelevant detail. However, the old man, seemingly misunderstanding my words, which might have been lost in translation or not precise enough, began narrating his story—his life story with unexpected enthusiasm.