Demon Lord's Reincarnation

Chapter 24 - Dungeon Core

Ren, Lara, and Hilda had entered the dungeon. When Ren and Lara entered they were surprised to see, the dungeon that was underground was fully lit. Seeing Ren's surprised expression Hilda was about to explain how the the dungeon was lit, but before she could say anything Ren cut her off.

"Oh there is a strong concentration of magical power underground. The accumulated mana here is the most probable cause for the monsters being born underground. This phenomenon could explain why the underground passage way is actually bright as if there were torches lit here. Still why is mana gathering here in this particular position?"

Hearing Ren explain his hypothesis out loud and was correct about it, made Hilda a bit irritated. She was about to answer him but then she was cut off. She knows it doesn't make sense to get mad at him for answering, but for some reason that overconfident face of his made her irritated. Then she heard him ask about why mana gathered in the dungeon.

Hilda was about to answer this as well, but before she could do so. Once again Ren answered his own question and once again he did it out loud.

"Oh there must be an object that gathers and replenishes mana in here. Hey Hilda is there any object in this dungeon that gathers mana from the outside and stores it?"

Ren who noticed Hilda's ever darkening expression asked her a question. It wasn't a coincidence that Ren would answer his own questions and say them out loud, when Hilda was ready to answer. Ren was doing this on purpose, since he thought Hilda's irritated face was quite funny and cute. But now that her expression was darkening turning irritation into anger, Ren decided to stop fooling around.

"Are you sure that you aren't going to just answer your own question again?" Hilda glared at Ren, who responded with a shrug.

"Not sure what you're talking about, but I do want to know if there really is an item that gathers and stores mana in this Dungeon."

Hilda looked at Ren while half doubting him. Ever since he met this guy, he was just full of lies and tricks. Even though he has such overwhelming might, he still resorts to cheap tactics such as provocation and other petty ways. Ren doing this even with his strength made Hilda unable to look at him in a good light.

"Fine I will answer your question since you asked. Yes, there is an object that gathers and stores mana inside the dungeon, we call that object a Dungeon's Core. In the beginning the true and sole purpose of an adventurer was to explore Dungeons that keep on spawning monsters, and destroy the dungeon core within. Nowadays adventurers do a lot more than just finding and destroying Dungeon Cores, but even with all the other additional quests. The mission to destroy Dungeon Cores still remains our main job."

"Okay so the object that is collecting the mana and spawning this monsters is called a Dungeon Core. I get that now, but your explanation raises a bunch of other question, but the ones I want to learn about are just a few things. One, how are dungeon cores created? I'm sure that they don't just magically appear out of nowhere, so where do they come from? How are they created? Or if they're not natural things, the question would be who created them? Second question if you know that there is a dungeon core in here, and an adventurers main job is to destroy them, why is this one still functioning? It can't be, that just because you use this dungeon to rank adventurers, you haven't destroyed it yet... Can it?"

Lara nodded her head indicating that she agreed with all of Ren's questions. Seeing the two look at her with eyes of curiosity, Hilda felt like she was being overwhelmed by their sheer curiosity. Well its really mostly because they were looking at her in a weird way.

"The answer to your first question is still unknown. But there are two prevailing theories that explain the appearance of the Dungeon Core. One the dungeon core is created by the Dungeon Master. The Dungeon Master is someone that appears at the same time as the Dungeon Core. He is the one who supposedly controls all functions of a Dungeon. The Dungeon Masters that have been killed before were different classes of intelligent monsters, which ranged from the weak goblin priest, to the strong Dragons. The only reason we assume that they can control the dungeon is because once a dungeon master dies, the dungeon slows down in producing monsters. Also the dungeon stops growing once a dungeon master dies. The second theory is that the dungeon core is a natural accumulation of mana that took form and with it an intelligent monster is born to safeguard the dungeon core. Making the monsters born here something like a defense mechanism."

Lara was having a hard time understanding the information Hilda provided in quick succession. Ren on the other hand got a lot more questions after hearing Hilda's answer, like why are Dragons even categorized as monsters? Weren't they suppose to be categorized as a race? Or does this world have a different view of Dragons? But Ren decided to just get the information later, once they were done with this test.

"Thank you for that explanation Hilda. It was very informative." Ren said in a bit of a sarcastic tone, but Hilda didn't notice this. She was still feeling a bit proud that she could explain things about Dungeon Cores in such concise manner.

"You're welcome, so onto your next question. The reason why we haven't destroyed the Dungeon Core of this particular Dungeon is because it's in too deep. The one who got the deepest into this dungeon was the former Guild Master who stopped on the Twentieth floor. The one he faced was assumed to be the Dungeon Master. The former Guild Master was able luckily able to flee with his life, but upon his return he became a bit unstable and was unable to continue his job as a Guild Master. So at the moment the only adventurer in our branch of the Adventurers Guild that has the qualifications to destroy the Dungeon Core, of this particular Dungeon is the current Guild Master, Nezard Netter. And as both of you know he is someone like that, so that's why the dungeon core of this dungeon still remains functioning."

While listening to Hilda's answer. Ren and Lara recalled their impression of the current Guild Master of the Grenton branch. Nezard Netter was a person that even offered to give his position as Guild Master to the non adventurer Ren. Remembering this, the two could understand why this dungeon hasn't been conquered yet.

"So any other questions? None? Okay then let's continue onwards." When Hilda saw the two, or more precisely Ren had no more questions, she went onward to the first floor of the dungeon. Ren and Lara followed in as they finally start their test to become adventurers.