Blood splattered on the ground as Pablo, our protagonist, slays the final boss of the dungeon. He had worked for years to get to this point, finally all the treasure he was promised when he entered the dungeon was finally going to be his.
*Clank*
Pablo drops his sword, he was drenched in blood and sweat. The battle was fought hard. It brought a tear and a smile to Pablo's face as the boss stepped back in pain, sat down on it's throne and died. Pablo was the only one left from the party he had when he first entered the dungeon all those years ago. All the suffering he had experienced, all the pain he went through for the voice of a simple congratulations.
"Congratulations! Adventurer Pablo, you have cleared the dungeon."
Out of breath, Pablo drops the ground panting like a dog on a hot summer afternoon. "I won. I did it guys, I won."
The voice came from an intangible being created by the dungeon, it spoke directly to his head.
"Choose, Adventurer Pablo, do you wish to become the Lord of the Dungeon or destroy it?"
Pablo, wiped his tears, "The lord of the dungeon," he asked starting to sit up.
"What's-"
"You have chosen, the Lord of the Dungeon as your reward."
"Huh? Wait, wait I was asking a question!"
Pablo cried out to the voice to revert his answer, but the voice never responded. Instead, the ground underneath Pablo became brighter and pure light. The whole dungeon had become pure light. Outsiders would say that the Dungeon was being picked up by God himself. As the clouds from outside parted on a rainy day, and a beam of light shined on the dungeon.
With a gust of wind, and intense heat, the dungeon whisked away quicker than a blink. It wasn't until a few minutes later, with the dungeon relocated to a different country that Pablo realized what happened. The roof of the dungeon had opened up and the walls of the boss room were gone. Pablo could look outside, after being blinded by the light for a few moments, and was stunned by the sudden fresh beauty he was seeing.
"This definitely isn't the Kingdom of Gwas. Where exactly am I? I've never seen anything as beautiful as this."
"You are in the Southern region of the Kingdom of Recknai," the voice said to him.
"Oh, thank you...."
A silence fell over them while Pablo looked over the lush green lands, with a fragrance of extreme delight. He couldn't hear the sound of a busy village, from his old home that he heard so long ago. No longer can he hear the screams of adventurers or battle cries of monsters. He was at peace, for a moment, until home sickness kicked in.
Pablo walked to the edge of the dungeon and sat down, his legs dangled in the air as he looked upon all the beauty.
"What am I supposed to do now?"
"You have become the Dungeon Lord for the Kingdom of Recknai."
"I don't want to be a Dungeon Lord. Let me go, I want to go home."
"I'm sorry, but I cannot let that happen. You have become the Dungeon Lord despite you having the desire to be. You cannot stop being a Dungeon Lord, until you lose your life to an Adventurer."
Pablo gets up from the ledge and looks down the edge, it was a long drop, he gulped and took a leap. As he falls to the ground, he closes his eyes, he recounts his life, and smiles as he does. "I lived a good life. Too bad I wasn't able to see my child being born. Maybe if I stayed for another month." He opens his eyes again, he sees the grass close up and braces for impact. However the dirt that he was supposed to be hitting, feels harder than he thought.
He was still alive despite falling 100 floors, he feels the ground around him and groans. He looked around himself and sighed, he was back at the top of the dungeon.
"You mustn't kill yourself, it is unhealthy for you," the voice says to a confused Pablo.
"I died?"
"Yes, you did. You can only permanently die from an adventurer, other than that, you will always revive. Now then, while we are on the topic I wish to tell you about your responsibilities as a Dungeon Lord."
"Wait! So you're telling me there is no way for me to get out of this unless I die by an adventurer?"
"Yes, that is correct."
"Alright, I guess I have no other choice but to try to become a good Dungeon Lord."
"Perfect, I'm glad that you are passionate about accepting your responsibilities as a Dungeon Lord."
'Ha! That voice thinks I'm passionate. That thing jailed me! I'm forced to this, as soon as an Adventurer comes in here, I'm letting him kill me so quick.' Pablo thinks smirking at his genius plan.
'Do I go back to being an adventurer when I die? I should probably ask.'
Pablo attempted to talk, but he began floating above the Dungeon. The dungeon began to spin and break apart, light shining throughout the whole dungeon. Every monster corpse in the dungeon became dust and was absorbed into Pablo.
Pablo's black short hair, grew and turned white. His tanned skin became pale, his brown eyes became blood red, as his teeth became straighter. He becomes taller in structure and skinnier. The shock from the sudden change caused his question to slip from his mind.
"You have complete control of this Dungeon. You can design it as you wish, but you are limited at your current level of strength. You can become stronger based off of how many adventurers that you defeat in defense of this Dungeon. The stronger you become the better you can upgrade this dungeon. Since you are just starting you and you're dungeon is only at level 1. You are able to create a single monster and a single floor for that monster to be the boss of. Would you like to create your monster now? It will be created from you and whatever you imagine it to be is the form it will take."
Pablo nods his head, and thinks about a strong monster. Shortly after it takes fruition as a floating light.
'Why did I think of a strong monster? I'm trying to get these adventurers to kill me not lose.'
He imagines a weaker monster, the light distorts and becomes smaller in its size.
'I think it worked'
"First monster has been created. You're ideal Dungeon has been created as well," the voice said as the Dungeon reconstructed itself into being much smaller than before. The dungeon was only a single floor, inside the dungeon it looks like outside, lush short grasses. With a fee trees here and there. However a sense of dread and darkness was felt throughout the whole dungeon.
Pablo felt the ground around him, pounced on it and smiled. "If I wasn't a Dungeon Lord this is exactly where I would want to be." Pablo continued walking around the dungeon admiring it in all its glory, he finds a tree and sits in front of it. He lays back, "Guess I'll just wait for Adventurers to come here and kill me while I sleep." He laid back in it and closed his eyes, a cool breeze passed by and a swift sleep overtook him.
During this time, the injuries he had obtained from beating the dungeon healed. As he slept he dreamed of reaching home and embracing his wife, along with meeting his child. That child must be about 5 years old by now, he thought. He cried as he slept, his desire to go home burned even harder than before.
In his dream, by the time that he started physically crying, the happy life he was living with his wife and child had became dull and washed out. The dungeon life, of constant terror and despair became vivid in the washes of his life.
"Master," an unfamiliar feminine voice calls. A voice similar to that of his wife, he recognizes the familiarity waking up instantly yelling out, "Miriam!"