Lord Of Puppets

"..."

"You... Like it?" – said the princess Endera with somewhat confused expression.

"..."

{"Honestly speaking, when I was born in here, I thought of only one thing."}

{"Grow stronger, survive, slaughter and grow the dungeon."}

{"I didn’t really understand those feelings myself."}

{"Why I felt that way."}

{"It maybe the primordial instinct of the dungeon."}

{"I didn’t through much about it... I did what I was built for."}

{"But then, when I developed my first thought, my first feeling."}

{"I became curios."}

{"Curiosity was the thing that pushed me forward."}

{"And after curiosity, came fear."}

{"I almost died."}

{"I’ve slain the person who attacked the dungeon and was about to destroy me."}

{"But I’ve slain them."}

{"However, it wasn’t matter of skills, abilities or talent."}

{"It was just pure luck."}

{"And that terrified me."}

{"I was traumatized."}

{"Scared."}

{"Curiosity mixed with fear caused me to question myself."}

{"And it was longer the instinct that I was born with that was controlling me."}

{"No."}

{"It was will to survive."}

"..."

"So you became monster not because you were born that way, but because you chose to?"

{"Both, actually."}

{"I knew there would be other invaders."}

{"But even if I didn’t tried to harm them, they would harm me because I was a monster."}

{"It wasn’t matter of choice."}

{"Afterwords, in the incident, the town that was once right next to this forest was destroyed, resulting in me getting somewhat saved."}

{"People thought that I perished alongside the town."}

{"But I’ve survived."}

{"I’ve later learned what they were planning to do."}

{"They were trying to enslave me."}

{"And truth to be told, I was already enslaved once after sometime after getting born."}

{"They used me to gather resources."}

{"The next time I would end up getting enslaved was when I once again discovered."}

{"This was after Garmfon kingdom won the war and took control over my territory."}

{"I was enslaved once again."}

{"But then, the rebellion happened within Garmfon kingdom, resulting in me obtaining back my freedom."}

{"Obviously they tried to take control over me again after they had time to deal with me, but then, I suddenly had to deal with elves, I didn’t knew at the time, but the Garmfon kingdom ruled by the traitors had sold my dungeon and the territory where it was to the elven kingdom Mowiorano."}

{"They too tried to enslave me, but they failed."}

{"However, I knew I would had either get enslaved or be destroyed during their next attack... However, the new war occurred."}

"...The war where three nations joined the war after the Garmfon had fallen, resulting in our Gorijy kingdom winning and forming the empire."

{"Yes. Indeed that very war had saved me."}

{"It was luck."}

{"Luck and luck again had saved me multiple times."}

{"it wasn’t because I was strong enough."}

{"No."}

{"I’ve always gotten lucky."}

{"And I’ve hated it."}

{"I’ve would had never ever survived if it wasn’t for luck."}

{"This didn’t brough me hope, but nothing more than pure despair, if I’m being honest."}

{"I was also terrified."}

{"I knew that fighting any nations would be a suicide."}

{"I didn’t wanted to die... So, I just hit."}

{"After the empire was born, I did not made even a single move."}

{"I’ve hid my entire existence."}

{"I just wanted to survive."}

{"At that point, all of my dungeon instinct were gone."}

{"The instincts that were trying to push me forward towards the monster’s path were gone."}

{"I’ve completely erased them with my own fear and curiosity."}

{"Questions after questions."}

{"Why?"}

{"Why do dungeons exactly exists?"}

{"Are we only here to create monsters that will bring destruction?"}

{"But if that is the case, what is our origin?"}

{"Did somebody made us to be the destruction?"}

{"But why? And do we even need to do that?"}

{"Were these emotions, instincts that were telling me to be a monster, even my own on the first place?"}

{"The moment I started questioning it all, they disappeared."}

{"Not only that, but even though I was no longer set on becoming a pure monster, I wasn’t punished or anything like that."}

{"I had my own free will."}

"..."

(Destructive instincts?) – thought the princess.

(Honestly, I’ve read something about this before, about how dungeons are hostile to other beings.)

(That they maybe sources of disaster and profit.)

(But... You are telling me, that they were somewhat "infected" with some kind of thoughts?)

(And this guy, has gotten rid of those corrupted implanted throughout?)

"..."

"Many people believe, that the concept of the dungeon as well as their existence is thanks to the mad god of chaos, Xui."

"In his revenge against the gods, he infected this world itself with his despair and madness, causing dungeons to exists."

"If what you just told me is true, then that means the dungeons aren’t exactly evil by nature?"

{"I wouldn’t say that."}

{"I did before decided out of my very own will to murder anybody who gets in my way, all in order to survive."}

{"And from what I know, the dungeon masters are intelligent beings."}

{"They too, just like me, must have emotions."}

{"There are humans out there, who murder in the name of justice."}

{"But there also those who murder other humans for no real reason."}

{"Because it felt good for them."}

{"As the dungeon master’s mind develops, they will become smarter and start thinking properly."}

{"I’ve asked Ariava once about this, and she said this."}

{"She believes that those infected thoughts were there to make sure that I would end up the way that the creator of the dungeons had desired."}

{"I’ve truly never encountered another dungeon master face to face in my life, so I don’t how they are."}

{"But I can image."}

{"Some may not realized that these feelings weren’t theirs."}

{"Some may realize that these weird feelings are there, but decided to embrace them."}

{"And there are definitely some that rejected these implanted feelings, but decided to still walk the path of monster out of their own free will."}

{"Be it survival."}

{"Or just of killing people."}

"...In other words, you are suspecting that there could be other dungeons like you out there."

"But at same time, you are saying that there are dungeons that you cannot show any mercy too?"

{"That is correct."}

{"But this isn’t end either."}

{"The main problem dungeons would be facing would be their own monsters."}

"?"

"What are you talking about? Are you saying that these golems aren’t completely loyal to you?"

{"No. These ones are."}

{"Because they are golems."}

{"But the other dungeons that have living creatures will unfortunately go out of control."}

"..."

"Would you mind explaining?"

{"Dungeon monsters."}

{"They are manifested monsters with the power of dungeon."}

{"However, they are not truly real monsters, causing their deaths to make their entire existence disappear, leaving only a piece of themselves."}

{"These monsters don’t possess any emotions or anything."}

{"You can call them puppets."}

{"However, once their full manifestation is over and they are born."}

{"Not only they become true and real beings."}

{"They also gain ability to no be longer have their existence bound to the dungeon, allowing them to leave."}

{"But they gain their true sense of self."}

{"They gain emotions."}

{"They gain ability to think for real."}

{"And they also obtain their own needs."}

{"Living creatures."}

{"Simple put, the dungeon monsters are like fingers attached to your hand."}

{"They are your fingers, meaning you can move them and use them in any possible way you want."}

{"All because they are your own fingers."}

{"However, once the monsters fully manifest, the said fingers detach themselves from you and then they grow, becoming not just a finger, but their very own existence."}

"...Wait... So, you are saying, that the dungeons cannot control monsters that end up getting manifested?"

{"That is correct."}

"..."

(The monsters after manifesting leave the dungeon afterwords, since they need to survive.) – thought the princess.

(Drink. Eat and sleep.)

(But they cannot do those things in dungeon, which is why they leave... And that always result in them clashing with other beings... Animals.)

(They hunt mainly not out of joy, but to survive... Huh.)

(This guy is really giving me good amount of information on how dungeon’s inner working exactly work.)

(...)

"Still, there is one thing that doesn’t make sense."

"You are saying that the dungeon monsters go out of control once they are born."

"But what about your golems outside? They are fully manifested dungeon monsters, aren’t they?"

"Yet, they were fully under your control."

{"Because they are my creation."}

{"Golems, be it real monster or dungeon monster are still lifeless beings, puppets."}

{"These golems are just like any real golems."}

{"They have engravement coding and registered master."}

{"And even if they manifest, those do not disappear."}

{"Not only that, but because they don’t really have any ’SOUL’ of their own, they are just tools."}

{"Just like that sword that you are carrying. It doesn’t have will of its own."}

{"They do not need to sleep, eat or anything else."}

{"They are my tools."}

{"Therefore, I have complete control over them."}

{"And that is the only reason why my dungeon monsters do not go rouge the moment they manifest."}

{"Because they are mine."}

"..."

(It makes sense.) – thought the princess as she analyzed the information she had obtained from the dungeon master.

(Golems are truly lifeless beings! That is the reason why he could control them while the other dungeons couldn’t!)

(The other dungeons didn’t had any ability of controlling their dungeon breaks, since their ability to control monsters only affected the "tools" and not living beings.)

(However, since his monsters are "tools" before and after being born, he has full control over them.)

"..."

(But that is the problem.)

(If what he said is true about control... Then this means only thing.)

(He is far more dangerous than any other dungeon out there, if he can truly do something like that!)