Reborn as a Dungeon Core
When I regained consciousness, I realized that I had been reborn.
In my previous life, I was a normal office worker. I received a cancer diagnosis at a young age, endured treatment, and ultimately died. It was an unfortunate life, but beyond that, it was nothing special. I hadn't met any fateful person, nor did I possess any special talent. So why had I been reborn with my memories from the previous life? Even more incomprehensible was this—
The young woman's voice echoed within my consciousness, breaking my reverie. The voice was captivating, yet it was filled with a somber, emotionless hue. Just listening to it made my heart sink.
"Who...?"
I reflexively asked in response to the voice. I couldn't open my mouth to ask. I couldn't turn my head to see the source of the voice. Because, despite being reborn, I had no body.
"If you're asking about my identity, I don't know that either. Not my name, or how I came to be. But I do know my reason for existence."
The woman's voice answered slowly and calmly.
"Assist you."
"Assist? So... you exist to help me?"
"Yes."
The woman read my consciousness immediately and answered.
"You've been reborn as a Dungeon. Do you know what that means?"
"Dungeon... is that the meaning I think?"
In games or fantasy novels, the space where adventurers level up or acquire items. A dark cave-like place where various traps and monsters lurk. I hadn't played many games in my previous life, but I knew that concept.
"Correct."
Although it wasn't pleasant that thoughts were read so easily, it was convenient because communication was immediate. No sense of reality. Being reborn, the woman's existence, me being a dungeon. Surprisingly, there was no agitation. Normally, such situations would bring surprise and various thoughts, but unexpectedly, my mind was calm.
But the questions that arose needed to be addressed properly.
"Why was I reborn as a dungeon? Purpose? The being who made me like this? A god?"
"Many questions. But in one word, I can answer all. I don't know either."
The woman had said she didn't know her own existence. If that wasn't a lie, it was reasonable that I couldn't answer about her. Since deep questions wouldn't change anything, I asked another.
"Then where is this place? A dream... doesn't seem like it."
"This is reality. A different world from the one you were in, the Bysus Continent."
"Bysus Continent? Could it be... the fantasy world I'm imagining?"
"Yes."
A fantasy world with magic and swords. The woman was a reality fitting the name 'Dungeon' she called me. Despite the woman's answer, I couldn't stop my mind from getting complicated.
"Want to live?"
A sudden question from the woman.
"What?"
"I asked if you want to live. We don't know the reason either, but right now, we're alive and breathing. We can't know who created us, the purpose of being here, or why it's you and me. Thinking about that now won't yield answers. Because neither of us knows. Maybe later through others, but that assumes we continue to live."
The woman seemed to understand what she was saying.
"Anyway, since it won't change anything by thinking, let's first solve the problems facing reality now?"
"Yes."
The woman said she exists to assist you. From that perspective, it seemed like she was fulfilling her purpose for existence. I felt a sense of obligation to repay that purpose somehow.
"Understood."
"Efficient."
After quickly organizing my thoughts and deciding, the woman answered. I couldn't tell if it was my mood, but I felt a slight, very slight warmth in her voice.
"It would be good to solve them one by one. You live in the form of a dungeon, but you won't feel any sensations right away."
"Right, that's why I'm confused. Normally, if it's a living being, it has a body, right? But right now, I have to say I'm like a lump of consciousness... I can't see or hear. The senses themselves don't exist."
"You are the dungeon itself. Think of it as the vast cave you imagined with the concept of a dungeon earlier. So, focus your consciousness on the senses within you. Then there will be something to feel."
"Got it, I'll try."
Following the woman's advice, I set aside my thoughts for a moment and focused my consciousness.
"...I see something."
With a flash of vision, surprisingly, something was visible. It was a dimly lit cave with a faint light coexisting. Along with the air flowing serenely in the cave, the sound of wind brushing past the ears also came.
As I focused more, the vision reversed. Following the woman's explanation that the dungeon is my body, I realized I could shift my vision and senses to any space within the dungeon. The cave consisted of three large rooms connected in a straight line and corridors connecting them. In the rooms made of what seemed like limestone, only damp air lingered coolly.
There was nothing in the rooms, but at the end of the connected rooms, a ruby-red gem the size of a thumb was embedded on what looked like an altar. Seeing it, I realized it looked expensive.
"Ah...."
I realized that that was my heart. I instinctively knew that it was the source of my life, and if it broke or was damaged, the existence I was would disappear.
"What you're seeing is your life. If you compare it to human body organs, it's the heart. As you can see, your heart is currently in a vulnerable state. It also seems expensive. If adventurers enter your dungeon without traps or monsters, and discover that, what would you do?"
"They would take it and leave."
"Then what about your life?"
"It disappears."
Meaning, I would die again upon being reborn. Death is frightening. I don't know why, but even I, who had become unmoved by ordinary things like a quiet lake, had a clear fear of death. Life was everything for a living being. Having experienced what it means for life to end, I had no choice but to cling to life even more.
"I am the same. Your death is my death. Then, what should you do now?"
"I need to set up defenses to protect my heart... my life."
"Yes. And to set up those defenses, you need a physical body that can actually move. Right now, you can only observe inside your body, and you can't do anything. Moreover, there is no one to replace you or ask for help. So, you have to move to protect yourself from within."
"How?"
"Imagine forming an image of a body that can move by concentrating like before. Since you're weak now, recall a small, familiar, and simple structure."
Small, familiar... and simple...
After chewing on the woman's words, I recalled the image in my mind.
"Kiiiii..."
"...Ah."
My consciousness, which had been focusing on the vivid auditory sensation, rose. At the same time, my eyes flashed open. It wasn't the vision that had been observing the dungeon earlier, like watching the world. In the gaze looking at me as a living being, I saw inside my body, the dimly lit cave. The field of vision was a bit narrow and low, but it was the familiar gaze looking through two pupils. The familiar yet nostalgic sensation found its place.
I had two hands and two legs. Everything was moving properly. Interestingly, the male genitalia was also properly formed, and considering the small body, its size was not ordinary. It seemed unconsciously created when forming the image.
"Done!"
"Keheke!"
I reflexively made a sound with a happy heart, but due to the body caused by simplicity, it came out as a strange sound. I tried to speak several times, but it was useless. I felt a bit sorry, but I considered it fortunate just to have obtained a body that could walk on two legs right away.
"Success. Good."
Good...
I felt a sense of unease in the woman's calm words. It was like catching a glimpse of a human perspective from an NPC-like being who had been silently guiding me. So, I honestly expressed the emotion that arose.
"Thank you."
"For what?"
"For guiding me."
"......"
After a moment of silence, the woman's words were a voice as if she had deliberately removed the color of emotion.
"My reason for existence is to assist you. Also, your death leads to my death. It was a natural action."
"Ah, right... well, yeah. Anyway, thank you."
"...Now, there are two actions you can take to defend your life. First, create traps. Second, create monsters that move according to your commands. Choose."
Traps?
I didn't know how to create traps. I had no knowledge, and no materials to make them. Also, feeling the weakness of my current body, I realized I didn't have the strength to make even one small trap.
"Then, the second. Create monsters."
"How?"
The woman was silent for a moment. Is it a delusion that I feel like she's looking at me with a cold, calculating gaze from somewhere?
"How is life created?"
"Well... generally, by having sex, right? More precisely, by inserting semen from a man's reproductive organ into a woman's reproductive organ to conceive life?"
I spoke directly about sexual activity without feeling embarrassed. My heart was filled with a steady calm, and it was also due to my personality that was originally indifferent to such things. But when I recalled that the being I was talking to was a woman, I felt a slight awkwardness belatedly.
"You seem to know well without needing explanation. Do it that way."
"Huh?"
"It's impossible for a woman, especially an unprotected woman, to come here alone. You have to come to take a female body to create monsters outside the dungeon."
"Does that mean you want me to kidnap them?"
"Yes. Then, you have to rape them. As you said, insert my semen into the woman's vagina, then conceive your child, your following monsters, inside that woman's body."
I was a bit dazed by the cool words. Moreover, since the same woman was saying such things without hesitation, a hollow laugh came from inside me. At first, it was unbelievable, but upon thinking carefully, I realized they were all correct words. To survive, I had to create monsters. Creating monsters meant conceiving life, and it required a man's semen and a woman's womb. My current body was male, and I could generate semen. Then, the only thing needed was a woman. Of course, unless the woman was insane, she wouldn't obediently follow a weird creature like me into this dungeon. Moreover, to carry a monster's child...
Of course, I had no choice but to forcibly bring the woman here and do it against her will.
"Do you feel guilty?"
The woman asked. I was a normal human in my previous life. As a human with normal thinking, it was a natural emotion to feel. Yeah... I should feel moral guilt... But... why... why isn't this feeling coming?
"After all, you're not human right now."
That's right. The laws that applied to humans in my previous life were for humans. Moreover, the place I'm in now is not a modern society where human dignity is protected.
"To classify it, you're close to a monster. Not all, but in this world, monsters eat humans or rape women to breed their species. It's a natural act as a monster, and it's common sense to the beings in this world."
It wasn't trying to rationalize me. It was just stating the facts as they were. While listening to them, my mind cleared. Neatly. Questions without remainder. Earlier, she asked me if I feel guilty? The answer was set.
"Kikigik..."
A word that was unclear whether it was laughter or a positive answer flowed through my immature oral structure.
And.
"Excellent."
In response to my answer, the woman first praised me with a voice mixed with laughter.