"To start off with, I''m Captain Olivia Heart. I''m in charge of the Military Intelligence division in Sky Fortress Dublo. From what we can tell, you have no memory of your previous life, and since you''re here at all, we know that power hungry bastard didn''t get a chance to name you."


    The core on the table thought for a bit.


    I did think it was odd on how insistent he was on trying to give me a name. Are you saying that giving someone or something a name gives control? That''s... horrifying.


    Olivia shook her head.


    "Normally naming something or someone doesn''t do anything. In his case though..."


    She shuddered.


    "I''m going to be perfectly honest with you here. If you had accepted a name from him, you would be a mindless zombie in his control. Worse still, you''re a dungeon core. He has plenty of mindless servants, but fortunately for us, every dungeon core he''s come across has chosen to self-destruct rather than become a mindless construct."


    She tapped her finger on the desk.


    "Now, the Tyrant finally accumulated enough power to create a dungeon core. However, even a newly born dungeon core is highly sensitive to magical energy and can easily tell the purpose of what magic is supposed to do. It''s similar to how humans, elves, and dwarfs can tell where an object can land based on the trajectory. No one needs to explain it since it just comes naturally. And as it turns out, Dungeon cores, like most sentient beings, don''t like the idea of becoming mindless zombies."


    That... is a fair point. I''d hate the idea of being a mindless zombie. Also, what do you mean that dungeon cores are naturally sensitive to magical energy? I can''t see anything that seems magical at all! I mean, I guess I look fairly magical, but that''s kind of beside the point... I think.


    "And that is exactly the point."


    She pointed at the core on the desk


    "As far as we can tell, he grabbed your soul, presumably after your death, and created a dungeon core using it. The reason you have no memories is because they were irrelevant to his plan. Since you were a sentient being acclimated to an entirely different set of senses, you wouldn''t be inclined to notice what he was doing until it was too late. Even now, you don''t notice what you are doing."


    What do you mean by that?


    "I don''t know if you''ve noticed this or not, but you don''t have eyes, but you''re looking around. You don''t have ears, but you''re hearing things. I''d be willing to bet that if I were to put a plate of food or a drink in front of you, you''d be able to smell it."


    The core sat in shock on his pedestal. After a brief moment of shocked silence, he spoke up again.


    Now that you mention it, I have no explanation of how that works...


    Olivia nodded.


    "Well, fortunately for you, I do have an explanation. Since dungeon cores are essentially naturals at the usage of magical energy, you used magic to give yourself senses in such a way that you didn''t even notice that you did it."


    The core thought for a moment.


    Umm... Well... How would I go about changing it so I could see magic?Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.


    Olivia frowned.


    "Now that is something that I don''t have a good answer to. As far as I''m aware, this has never happened before. Normally, souls have a magical barrier around them that prevents the scenario that happened with you from occurring. To be perfectly frank with you, we still aren''t sure exactly how you came to be in the first place."


    Wait a moment. If you''re not sure how I came to be in the first place, then that does raise a few questions. For one, how did you know how to get me out of that lunatic''s hands. For two, how did you get me out his clutches. And finally, how do you know he won''t be able to just do it again?


    Olivia sighed.


    "Unfortunately, I can''t give a detailed explanation the first two. Military Secrets and all. As for the final one, the method he used to obtain you required the destruction of an entire planet to work, and it took several years of setup at that. He could certainly do it again, but it will take him time to do so."


    After mulling it over in his head for a bit, the core spoke up.


    Okay. Well... I get where I came from now. But why would he want a dungeon core in the first place?


    "To be honest, we can only speculate on that matter. Presumably it has something to do with how good dungeon cores are with utilizing mana. But we don''t know what specifically he wants."


    Got it. Well, on to a different topic. He told me he could get me my memories back. Is there any possibility of that?


    Olivia Sighed.


    "Unfortunately, your memories were not required in his plan. As such, they are most likely gone for good."


    I see... Well, what should I do now?


    "We''ll get to that in a moment. Now that I''ve explained what happened to you, I''m going to give you a brief history lesson of the world."


    What does that have to do with what I should be doing.


    Olivia stared at the core.


    "Am I to assume you want no context of what''s going on in the world? That you''ll just, I don''t know, charge out there blindly hoping it works out?"


    ...


    You know what? You make a great point! I''ll happily listen to what you have to say!


    ...


    I''m sorry... Please just explain.


    Olivia stared at him for a moment longer.


    "Well, as I was saying, a brief history lesson. About fifty years ago now, The Tyrant, as we''ve come to call him, teleported to our world, and offered us the system. Fortunately for us, we are a relatively advanced society comprised of various different species such as Dwarfs, Elves, Humans, Dragons, and critically, in this case, Dungeon cores. As soon as they saw the system, they knew exactly what it was meant for, and quickly gave everyone warning about it. As such, we tried to eliminate him, but he managed to teleport off world before we could manage it. And that''s when the demonic invasions began. We did expect some form of retaliation. But not on this scale. Millions died before we could finally stop it. I''m not at liberty to talk about the specifics of how it all works, but we managed to figure out how to block his portals that allow the demons to flood into the world. After that point, it was just a matter of cleaning up the demons. The issue lies in the fact that in the initial waves were what we refer to as demon spawn. They burrow into the ground, and after a five-year growth period, they emerge as demon kings, which are capable of opening new portals. We kill the demon kings, but when the portals are opened, more demon spawn get in, perpetuating the cycle. Unfortunately, we don''t have a good method of detecting the damn things since they are specialized in stealth and each one is unique, so what works for finding one of them might not work to find another."


    So, am I supposed to help you all save the world or something?


    Olivia shook her head.


    "No. To be perfectly honest, you not being in his hands is good enough. We''ve been successfully defending against him for the past fifty years. Sure, the Tyrant is clever and changes things up quite a bit, but we are capable of adapting to his tricks. Furthermore, it would be irresponsible of us to demand that you help us with our problems. For the time being, we''re going to give you citizenship and assistance in transitioning to a regular dungeon life in the civilian world. We will have to figure out how to get you to be able to utilize the abilities that other cores can just naturally do, which while challenging, should be doable. As for the time being you should probably choose a name for yourself. Like I said earlier, the whole naming thing is normally not an issue except when it comes to the Tyrant, and in any case, you choosing your own name is entirely safe. I''m going to get going for the time being. There are several things I need to get done. Is there anything you need before I leave?"


    The core sat there for a bit thinking.


    Not for the time being. I''ll think about the whole name thing for now.


    Olivia stood up.


    "Very well then. I''ll send someone to retrieve you once I get things figured out."


    With that last statement, Olivia left the room, leaving the core alone.


    Well... What to choose as a name?