Chapter 90 Conversation with a mind (1/2)
[Troglodyte?! Where in the BLAZES did you get that thought?!]
This guy is so touchy! Judging from the 'sound' his voice makes in my mind I definitely consider him to be male, he sounds like a British general from the 1800's.
Oh.. Uh…. I took a look at the … Dark Crawler core and it said they were engineered by… Troglodytes… so I a.s.sumed…
[BOSH and POPPYc.o.c.k! Only the BLASTED system in this Dungeon refers to my great people as ”cave dwellers”! We refer to ourselves as the Sophos and have done since before this SMARMY Dungeon existed!]
Uh… poppyc.o.c.k?
What is a Dungeon anyway?
[… You are inside the Dungeon you BLITHERING simpleton! You're smart enough to talk to me but have no idea where you are?!]
I'm… not local? Sir?
I have no idea how to talk to this guy. He doesn't have eyes I can focus on, I feel rude staring at his wrinkly forehead.
[What do you mean not local? You're here aren't you?! I can't imagine a BLASTED thing like you could get out of the Dungeon at all! Those DUNDERHEADED surface dwellers lack the sophistication and senses of us Sophos! If they'd seen you they'd think you were any old monster and squashed you flat I dare say!]
Despite his voice frequently rising to a mighty roar, filled with energy and outrage, his body never moves, not even a twitch. The juxtaposition of voice to frame is completely bewildering, I'm finding it hard to focus on all of the incredible information he's pa.s.sing me!
Please… Sir! I haven't had a chance to ask anyone as… knowledgeable as yourself about this… Dungeon! If I have caused offense by eating your crawlers I am very sorry! I thought they were just monsters and attacked them.
[Just monsters? BALDERDAs.h.!.+ I laboured many hours in the monster forge to produce those beasts! How am I to complete my reconnaissance of the forest expanse without them? HMPH! If you weren't so unique I'd have already fed you to Crinitus here!]
You can tell I'm not a normal monster?
[Of course! What do you take me for? Some primping, pink, puffy HUMAN? My people are renowned over Pangera for our unsurpa.s.sed mental magic. UNSURPa.s.sED I SAY!]
AHH! Yes! Clearly unsurpa.s.sed!
My bootlicking seems to mollify him a little, though it is hard to tell since he basically has no face. I try not to think such thoughts too loudly lest he pick up on them and feed me to his worm.
[Hurrumph! I could detect the movement of your thoughts long before I came upon you here. Clearly not the mind of a monster sp.a.w.ned from this WALLY of a Dungeon! What say you, ant?! How did you come to be?!]
Uhhhhh.
How can I explain this… I… died? On another world? And then I … uh.. Woke up here in an ant body… ?
…
…
[By the MAGNIFICENT MINDS OF THE MIGHTY SOPHOS! You were reborn here you say?!]
Shocked by the sheer volume of the response I can barely think a reply. I think I'm getting a headache.
.. Yes!?
[I see!]
A moment of silence follows as my brusque new a.s.sociate absorbs this news.
[According to the recorded wisdom of my people you are not the first we have encountered in these circ.u.mstances].
Really?! Holy moly! You mean there have been more people like me that were reborn in the .. Dungeon … as monsters?
[Yes].
…
Are they still around? What happened to them?
Another pause.
[Most were driven rather insane, or at least they had been when they encountered us. Others were killed either by the Dungeon or hunted by surface dwellers].
For once he gets through a full statement without shouting, perhaps he understand how that statement would make me feel.
Insane? Driven mad or dead?
[You don't seem particularly insane]
Uh.. No?
[Interesting. You don't find your new environs to be … difficult?]
I .. Guess so? I mean… I was pretty used to being on my own with n.o.body to talk to… and it kind of feels nice to be out and about doing things… Lots of excitement and action… You know?
[… You were a human previously as I understand it from your thoughts, you don't find it strange to be a monstrous ant?]
…
It did take a bit of getting used to, I guess? I don't really think I had that much time to worry about it really, I was too concerned about staying alive and then I was too busy trying to level up and evolve, then I found the colony and looking after them has been fun… I suppose I already had a human life and it was ok to be something new the next time around?
…
More silence. I wish this guy would move or something! I can't even tell if he's breathing!
…