Chapter 30: Lilith
Kael’s consciousness came back to him the same way a person woke up in the morning. He could see and sense everything once again. The adventurers that walked the floor, the monsters that attacked them as well.
[You have woken from forced sleep]
The system rang out with its usual tone. Kael looked at the screen. If he could, he would have rolled his eyes.
"How long was I out?" he asked.
[You were in forced sleep for 3 days]
"Three days? Shit," he cursed. He recalled what had happened that day, how that being from the lower floors had charged at that group.
"Tch, that monster wanted to override my authority in the dungeon. Tell me, which monster was that?" he asked with a certain anger in his voice.
[Why don’t you ask her yourself]
After the system finished speaking, Kael realized that his consciousness was now inside a room in the dungeon, and there was a being there. It sat cross-legged with eyes closed, with golden hair that flowed down her sides like a beautiful waterfall and pale skin that peeked through the gaps in her armor.
On the side was her sword, stabbed into the ground.
"Who the hell is she?" Kael asked first. He had never sensed this person in the dungeon.
[Floor twenty two boss]
The system replied.
As if sensing that someone was looking at her, her eyes snapped open, emerald green and extremely beautiful. But her gaze carried a certain hate to it, rage and anger.
She rose to her feet. She was tall, a tall woman.
"Damn, she a mommy," he muttered.
She pulled her sword out and pointed it at the roof.
"Come out and face me." Her tone was low and heavy.
"You know I’m here?" he asked, and she heard.
"I do, and I plan to rid this dungeon of you," she spoke with aggression backed by power.
"And why the hell would you want me dead? Wait, gimme a moment." Kael said. He scanned outside the room. They were on floor three, and there was a hobgoblin there.
"Alright, let’s see if this works," he muttered and then tried to use Wraith Steps. The very moment that he thought about using it, his consciousness was pulled and hurled into the body of the hobgoblin.
"Urghh, this feels weird," he muttered. He had gotten used to the massive and wide spaces his consciousness could cover, and now he was again confined to a human body. But at the same time, it gave him a good feeling of nostalgia. He had not been in a body for quite a while.
He stretched a bit, sniffed the air through his nose, and then stretched a bit more. Then he turned and faced the room. He walked inside and saw the woman standing there.
Now that he could look her eye to eye, he saw that their difference in height was not little in any way. She was a towering figure, and this hobgoblin was five feet nine inches at best. She was easily far above six feet.
She looked down at him. She could tell that it was Kael who was inside that body. She gripped her sword and swung, stopping only a few inches shy of his neck.
Kael looked at the blade and felt a cold sweat trickle down his back.
"Uhm, why do you seem so eager to kill me, and why did you chase that group through the freaking floors?" he managed to ask as he looked at her.
"You were favoring them," she muttered and pulled back her sword.
"Wait, what?" Kael asked. He stepped closer, almost tripping as he was not yet used to the body.
"Why the hell would me favoring them make you want to kill them? Wait, sorry, I’m getting ahead of myself." He straightened himself and looked at her.
"I am Kael, the current mind of this dungeon, and you are?" he asked.
She looked at him in a way that you would look at someone who did not deserve anything.
"I am Lilith, Dragon Born and the Boss of the twenty-second floor.
I sensed when you awoke, all of us did, even the floor five boss that you allowed those weak adventurers to kill.
I do not know what your plan is for this dungeon, but I’ll not allow you to destroy a preexisting structure," she said in anger.
’Ahhh, I see how it is. I am the issue here. The dungeon had always run on automated control, and now there is someone in charge. The workers are not happy with that change, and I personally did not help with that.’
"I see, I understand your anger, Lilith, but that being said, this dungeon was a no man’s land when I arrived here. No adventurers and barely any proper structure.
I came and I changed that, and for that to happen some sacrifices had to be made. The floor five dungeon boss was only one of those sacrifices," he spoke without stuttering. He could feel her rage and bloodlust, but he knew that he needed to stand his ground somehow.
’Please, please just give in already, don’t be stubborn. If you attacked me, I would die for sure, and I do not want to die for the second time,’ Kael thought while looking at her.
She gritted her teeth for a few seconds but then stabbed her sword into the ground and looked at Kael.
"I doubt your competence. I don’t trust you or how you came into this place and began to change things," she said and then took a step forward. "And the moment I feel your actions will cause the destruction of the dungeon, I will descend to the last floor where your core lies, and I will rip you from the dungeon and ensure you have no more control."
Kael heard that threat, and his mind did not cling to the threat but rather to a piece of context that was stated.
"I have a core?"
