To summarize my current predicament, dungeon delvers are potentially going to invade the dungeon to try to destroy the core. De’gon has already spent the majority of the currency used to modify the dungeon, and I was scammed out of another 50 Entropy by Chaos, leaving the dungeon with 370 Entropy. And all I have to show for it is another pop-up at the corner of my vision. This must be the gift she mentioned, so I’ll at least see what she gave me instead of a guide to being a dungeon master. Expanding the screen, it looks like another book, titled: “The Tristar Pantheon: Genesis and Chronology”. It sounds like a religious text, and the cover’s design resembles those three-star pendants I’ve seen on a couple of dungeon delvers. There’s three different colored stars placed on a circle, one blue, one green, and one white. The design is probably the holy symbol used by this religion’s adherents. I spent Entropy on it, so I might as well dive into it.

  ?

  The world as we know it, before humanity populated it, was a barren rock where only five gods presided. These gods each ruled over their own domain, working together to create a world suitable for life. The blue god ruled over water, the green goddess ruled over life, the white god ruled over light, the red goddess ruled over death, and the yellow goddess ruled over souls. Utilizing their control over each domain, water flooded the barren rock, creating the continent and all of the waterways enriching the land. Light was cast down from the heavens themselves to provide warmth and daylight. Life was thus born, developing from the abundance of water and light, leading to the presence of plants and animals. Death then brought an end to said life, creating a cycle of change and growth to fuel the rapid developments occurring on the continent.

  ?

  The yellow goddess, with the aid of the green goddess, then created humanity to inhabit this world, to grow and experience the wonders that all of the gods created together. However, like all other life, humanity was still subject to the cycle of life and death, limiting their time but granting meaning to the lives they lived under the gods. This balance in the world would persist for a time, until greed began to permeate the red goddess. The goddess of death gained the desire to try her own hand at life. The result of this was an untold variety of monsters, designed more for reaping life than to live amongst humanity.

  ?

  Dissatisfied with the state of her creations, the red goddess requested the goddess of souls to implant a will within her creations as she did with humanity. The yellow goddess refused, leading the goddess of death to exert her domain over the yellow goddess, ending her life and divinity. Infuriated, the rest of the gods retaliated against the red goddess. However, they were unable to kill her after a prolonged, intense battle that raged over the entire world. The rest of the gods managed to seal the red goddess, pronouncing her as the goddess of Chaos.

  ?

  With their creator sealed, the monsters left on the continent began to rampage against humanity. The gods, unwilling to let humanity perish, exerted their power to confine the majority of monsterkind to the deepest caves and barren regions to protect humanity. Unfortunately, the goddess of Chaos’ power could not be fully sealed, coalescing throughout the continent as cores of divine power, leading to the creation of dungeons. Once a certain threshold was met, these dungeons would let loose a flood of monsters to terrorize humanity. The gods, placing their trust in humanity, created the System to allow humans to overcome the monster threat. With the advent of the System, humanity would begin to flourish, expanding across the continent and pushing back against the goddess of Chaos’ influence. [Pay 500 Entropy to unlock the next part]

  ?

  Hmm, so Chaos is basically the bad guy of this world, at least from humanity’s point of view. I wouldn’t be surprised if the core text was written long after the beginning of the world, so I can’t trust that this account is completely accurate. But it is possible for the gods of this world to interact with people, so maybe it was orally passed down from the beginning of the world. I haven’t met any other gods, but Chaos seems like she would be capable of killing another god. She is willing to reincarnate a person into a wisp with honeyed words, so maybe the whole story isn’t too far off from the truth. I just wish she wouldn’t nickel and dime me for everything I’m worth just to get a history lesson. But, if dungeon delvers take their genesis story seriously, the abrupt changes brought to the dungeon, my dungeon, could be considered as the foretelling of a monster flood. I’ll have to prioritize defense over learning, at least until I’m not under threat of annihilation.

  ?

  The dungeon currently accrues about 1 Entropy every 5 minutes, or 284 Entropy every 24 hours. I would say per day, but I don’t know how long a day is in this world yet. I still haven’t gone outside of the dungeon since I reincarnated here. I want to at least check what’s outside, but I’m worried about what will happen if I do. I remember Chaos mentioning how wisps don’t last very long once they’re outside of the dungeon. I’m not a wisp anymore, but I’m still a similar existence. Plus, what would happen if the dungeon master left the dungeon? Would it collapse? Would I lose my claim to the dungeon? Would I die? These are all worries I have, but at the same time, if I’m not able to leave the dungeon, then any conflict with humans will just result in a defensive war, eventually resulting in the dungeon being conquered with enough persistence. I need to know what happens, even if it leads to the worst-case scenario for me. Just in case, I tell Vulcan what to do in case I don’t come back and the dungeon doesn’t collapse.

  ?

  “Hey, Vulcan, if I don’t come back in a bit, connect your mana to the dungeon core. Okay?”

  ?

  He tilts his head to the side, but he still responds after a second. “...Okay”.

  ?

  There are currently two parties of dungeon delvers still in the dungeon, one on the fifth floor and the other on the fourth floor. I think they were the two parties I saw earlier, so they might get caught in the middle of a dungeon collapse. Well, nothing I can do about it, I guess. I use the teleport function to move myself from the throne room to the entrance to the dungeon. All that separates me from the outside world is a single set of stairs. Slowly, monitoring my status and appearance the whole time, I make my way up the stairs. After what only feels like a minute or two, I see a sunlit opening. I drift my way over until I’m on the precipice of the dungeon. I’m able to extend my mana to the outside from here, allowing me to see a hilly environment, but this isn’t enough. Taking one more metaphorical step, I drift over the dungeon’s boundary. I wait a minute, two, then five minutes for something to happen. My mana is able to spread enough to show me that the dungeon is located in a valley of hills, sunlight shining down over the crests of the hills. But the worst never comes to pass. I don’t feel like my core is dissipating, nor do I feel like I’m in imminent danger. I can still feel my connection to the dungeon, and it isn’t collapsing or anything like that. I can go outside without the fear of catastrophe, so my options are greatly expanded in any future strategies. I focus my mana threads in one direction and sweep them around like radar, allowing me to pick up on something in the distance, a few miles away. A small caravan of dungeon delvers is moving along the valley, heading directly to the dungeon. They number at least 15 dungeon delvers with enough supplies to last a month. The time to defend my dungeon core is almost here, and this time, hesitation will mean death for us all.