The last thing I wanted was for him to take the easy way out—by simply turning around and cutting his way through my ambush. He could, no doubt. But thankfully, he was just bold—or foolish—enough to hold his ground instead. How convenient for me.
A wide, metaphorical grin spread across my face as I watched my spawns emerge from the seemingly external bubbles, closing in on the lone invader from both the front and back, trapping him in a deadly pincer.
_____________________________
[Shadow Specter (Patrolling Spawn, Enhanced), Level 18, slain by Verdenkind, mage, Level 23]
_____________________________
_____________________________
[Shadow Specter (Patrolling Spawn, Enhanced), Level 18, slain by Verdenkind, mage, Level 23]
_____________________________
_____________________________
[Shadow Specter (Patrolling Spawn, Enhanced), Level 18, slain by Verdenkind, mage, Level 23]
_____________________________
_____________________________
[Shadow Specter (Patrolling Spawn, Enhanced), Level 18, slain by Verdenkind, mage, Level 23]
_____________________________
Though he managed to fend off some, my Shadow Specters were the equivalent of a small army, each averaging at level 18, with four of them reaching level 20.
_____________________________
Name: Christian
Level: 23
Race: Verdenkind
Class: Mage
Health: 38%
Status: In Combat
『Expand』
_____________________________
"You should've left when you had the opportunity to," I couldn’t help but lament on his behalf as I watched the man's health plummeting down.
_____________________________
Name: Christian
Level: 23
Race: Verdenkind
Class: Mage
Health: 11%
Status: In Combat
『Expand』
_____________________________
_____________________________
[Shadow Specter (Patrolling Spawn, Enhanced), Level 18, slain by Verdenkind, mage, Level 23]
_____________________________
_____________________________
[Shadow Specter (Patrolling Spawn, Enhanced), Level 18, slain by Verdenkind, mage, Level 23]
_____________________________
“You’re a tough asshole, aren’t you?” I couldn’t help but praise as I watched the lone invader fighting to what was clearly the bitter end. But sadly for him so are my spawns. “Guys, spare me total humiliation. Make this the last time I say this. Get him, boys."
_____________________________
Name: Christian
Level: 23
Race: Verdenkind
Class: Mage
Health: 3%
Status: In Combat
『Expand』
_____________________________
_____________________________
[Shadow Specter (Patrolling Spawn), Level 18, slain by Verdenkind, mage, Level 23]
_____________________________
_____________________________
Name: Christian
Level: 23
Race: Verdenkind
Class: Mage
Health: 1%
Status: In Combat
『Expand』
_____________________________
_____________________________
[Death Paladin (Patrolling Spawn, Enhanced), Level 17, has slain Verdenkind Intruder, Mage, Level 23]
_____________________________
_____________________________
[ ???'s Interface ]
System Notification Intrusion Report:
Invasion successfully repelled, G.P and domain secured, all interfaces are now available.
_____________________________
“Sigh…Finally.”
***
After my spawns struck down the lone adventurer, I didn’t immediately proceed as I normally would. Instead, I paused, not to contemplate life—no—not life but existence itself.
In that moment, the urgency that had once driven me to defeat the lone invader faded. Maybe it was because I already knew that everything to be gained was already mine, or maybe it was something else entirely—I couldn’t say for sure.
I simply remained there, feeling a rare sense of satisfaction and contentment.
“I guess that was the most threatened I’ve been in a while.”
The thought crossed my mind, yet the truth was, I hadn’t felt the slightest bit of real danger during the entire invasion. Even if he had somehow made it past the corridor of Shadow Specters, he would have run headfirst into my final line of defense—a full company of Death Paladins. And if, by some miracle, he had bested them, my Domain Guardian would have been waiting.
“Now that I think about it, I actually wanted him to make it that far… There’s something I would’ve liked to try with my Domain Guardian.” I chuckled to myself. “Oh well, maybe next time. Or maybe not—it’s fine either way.”
Shaking off my musings, I turned my focus back to the matter at hand.
“Anyway, it’s about time. Let’s see what we have here.”
_____________________________
[ ???'s Interface ]
_____________________________
The moment I opened the interface displaying my spoils of war, I was met with an unexpected sight.
“What?”
Before me were four distinct options. The first was the invader—a mage from the Verdenkind race. Next, a wooden staff with a hippie-like appearance, adorned with a crystal fastened by a robust rope—apparently a magical staff named Clarence. Then came a short sword labeled Dáinsleif. And finally, the last option: Otherworldly Synergy, an authority.
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
Each of them had names, could be stored or harvested, and had a clear G.P value. What left me perplexed, however, was how that value was distributed across these four.
To be honest, the moment I saw the invasion notification promising 1,229 G.P as a reward, I knew there had to be something special about this one. After all, that lone invader had inflicted more damage on my domain than any group before him. Somewhere deep down, I had expected that entire sum to come from harvesting his body. But when I looked at the actual numbers…
123 G.P.
“That… shouldn’t be too abnormal for a Verdenkind Mage of his level, right?”
To confirm, I pulled up my spawn catalog and checked.
“Let’s see… The cost of acquiring a level 23 Verdenkind Mage spawn is… 58.5 G.P.”
Hmm. 123 G.P.—it was more than double the cost of summoning one of his kind, even expensive enough to get a level 25 spawn. But still, I could wrap my head around it. It made some sense. Unlike the 1,229 G.P, which was still baffling.
After a moment’s hesitation, I harvested the lone invader's body.
“Don’t worry, pal. I won’t judge you for being a freak. I’ll make good use of your G.P.”
Following the same logic that had already left me burdened with thousands of shields, swords, and maces, I decided to keep the hippie staff and harvest the shortsword.
That left just one last thing—the authority. Strangely, unlike the others, it didn’t even have the usual harvest option. Instead, there was only one choice: acquire.
So that’s exactly what I did.
At first, there was no tangible or interface-confirmed indication of what had changed. But the moment I acquired it, I felt it—a shift within myself.
And soon enough, that change appeared in-interface.
_____________________________
Dungeon Core Interface
Authority acquired.
Establishing Authority Core Functions…
Loading Core Functions…
Core functions Established.
_____________________________
_____________________________
[ ???'s Interface ]
Name: ???
Entity: Dungeon Core
Designation: Dungeon Master
Status: Idle
[ Ressource ]
- Raw Manacyte (R.M): 37▲ / 37▲
- Mana Available (M.A): 87832▲ / 93067.7▲
- Godhood Potential (G.P) Earned: 4786
[ Dungeon Master Core Function ]
- Dungeon Visualisation
- Domain Editor
- Resource Management
『Expand』
[ Spawnable Entities ]
- Guardians
- Spawns
- Spawns Catalog
[ Authorities ]
- Otherworldly Synergy
『Expand』
_____________________________
What is the Otherworldly Synergy Authority, and what does it do?
It didn’t take long for me to get an answer to that question. Unfortunately, it didn’t come in the form of a simple explanation. Instead, the answer revealed itself through countless, subtle hints—hints I only discovered as I, by sheer habit, skimmed through the system interface.
At first, it felt like —but no, it wasn’t. It was similar to how I perceived the interface, yet fundamentally different. It wasn’t seeing in the traditional sense, but something , unfiltered. It was like witnessing the flow of the wind—predictable yet unpredictable—or observing gravity as it individually affected every object.
But in this case, I wasn’t seeing wind or gravity. I wasn’t them either. The only thing before me was the interface—yet even that had changed.
The familiar holographic display was no longer just a screen. It had become something far more intricate—an amalgamation of countless glowing, floating symbols of various shapes and sizes. The sight, while not overwhelming , was something I was fairly certain would have been impossible to process if I had still possessed a mortal brain.
At that moment, I realized something strange. The very I could withstand this new perception was likely because I have a brain—no flesh, no nerves, nothing that could be overstimulated. And with that realization came another:
Two names surfaced in my mind: Mighty K.R.U.L and A42675.
Primarily the former.
Naturally, the moment that thought crossed my mind, a storm of theories and assumptions flooded my fleshless consciousness.
"Could it be that the invader was someone like me—contracted to some higher power? Mighty K.R.U.L. once spoke of entrusting a shard of his existence to me. Surely there must be other shards. Could this Authority be one of them? And if so… does that mean the invader was a colleague?"
I conjured a near-perfect image of the lone invader. Handsome, perhaps, but ultimately no different from the countless others I had slain before. Nothing about him had seemed particularly remarkable. Which was why I had so casually harvested him for G.P.
"That can’t be… or at least, I hope it’s not. Because… if this Authority was a shard, then shouldn’t there be one for me? Something like Otherworldly Synergy, but mine?"
I didn’t know why, but I instinctively understood that this Authority wasn’t unique. There were . More of them, scattered somewhere.
How was I so sure?
I had no idea.
I just .
"Did I mess up by killing him?"
...
No. No, I didn’t.
I acted on my instincts—that urge to claim the invader’s G.P, to seize the Authority. Or… did I misunderstand something?
I thought back to the battle. To how difficult he had been to deal with. My thoughts shifted, solidified.
"What am I saying? Am I questioning my purpose?"
No. This is fine.
Of course it is fine.
I had been doing great. Of course I had.
If anyone had messed up…
***
One thing I noticed almost immediately was how seamlessly the Authority integrated itself into the system’s interface.
That was its nature—to adapt.
Or, perhaps more accurately, to .
Even now, I couldn’t fully explain what it , but I knew for certain that it had changed things. Interfaces, functionalities… even something as fundamental as my . The shift was subtle but undeniable.
_____________________________
[ ???'s Interface ]
_____________________________
Before me floated an interface listing everything I had stored from past invasions.
The interface, which once displayed them by what I assumed were their original names—the ones used by their may-their-souls-rest-in-peace former owners—had now evolved. I could see it. I could see the truth—the properties of the said item which determine their uniqueness.
Because they have uniqueness, that’s why a seemingly ordinary, completely average knife could have a higher G.P. value than a pristine, well-crafted sword. Until now, these values had felt random, appearing arbitrary and inconsistent.
But now as I looked at each of them—peering into their properties, I understood. These unseen attributes were what determined their worth.
I zoomed in on Clarence, the staff that the lone invader had wielded—and subsequently left behind for me, and saw properties previously unmentioned: Animalistic Monsters-Slaying, M-P Storing ability, Undead-Slaying enhancement, Elemental Enhancement.
As I read through them, I found myself contemplating something I had only recently begun to grasp. In this world, weapons—be it swords, maces, or even a mage’s staff—carried lingering enhancements. Traits that stuck.
What did these enhancements do exactly?
I could tell, instinctively, that they functioned much like the titles occasionally found on some of my invaders. They augmented the weapon’s performance against specific targets. In the case of Clarence, two of its enhancements made it particularly effective against animalistic monsters and the undead.
But the Elemental Enhancement was different. Unlike the others, it didn’t focus on a particular enemy type—it simply amplified the wielder’s elemental magic.
And how did I know that?
I wasn’t entirely sure, but I chalked it up to two things: my boundless intellect… and, of course, Otherworldly Synergy.
I kept my gaze locked onto the staff. It was an odd thing, constructed in three distinct, archaic sections: the wooden shaft, the rope binding, and the gem fixed at its top. It was the gem that caught my attention.
Illusory glyphs and symbols oozed from its surface, shifting and flowing in patterns I recognized—but only because of Otherworldly Synergy.
This gem… what’s it’s oozing with…it’s familiar. Where have I seen it before?
I was certain that whatever recognition I felt had nothing to do with my old world. No, this familiarity came from here. But since my experience of this world was limited to what the system had revealed to me, the answer had to be somewhere within the interface.
So I skimmed.
I searched.
And then—
“There you were.”
It hadn’t been far.
It was right there, in the same Resource section of the interface.
_____________________________
[ ???'s Interface ]
Name: ???
Entity: Dungeon Core
Designation: Dungeon Master
Status: Idle
[ Ressource ]
- Raw Manacyte (R.M): 37▲ / 37▲
- Mana Available (M.A): 78832▲ / 93067.7▲
- Godhood Potential (G.P) Earned: 4809
_____________________________
The symbols flowing from the gem on the staff caught my attention. There was something familiar about them—an alphabet I could almost recognize. They resembled the symbols associated with Raw Manacyte Cluster (R.M.C) and Mana Available (M.A.), though not quite the same.
Following this thread of thought, I navigated away from the resources interface and into the Dungeon Visualization tab under the Dungeon Master Core Function.
There, I found something fascinating.
A section dedicated to the deposits of Manacyte—the material responsible for fueling my domain’s mana reserves. The very same resource I had long relied upon to sustain and empower my spawns.
And then it clicked.
The similarities between the oozing symbols from the gem and those tied to the Raw Manacyte clustering my domain’s walls… the weight and presence I could faintly feel emanating from them…
It was clear.
The gems were, in essence, a different manifestation of the material known as Raw Manacyte.
Sure, there was something different about them—an additional quality that set them apart from the raw deposits within my domain—but at their core, they shared the same fundamental essence.
The more I examined the interface before me, the more I grappled with the Authority it held. It dawned on me that my initial assumption, attributing the change in the system's interface to "Otherworldly Synergy," might have been off the mark. With some time and deeper contemplation, I began to realize that rather than altering the system's interface, this synergy had shifted my perspective.
Drawing an analogy, I likened it to using a computer. While I was humble to not see myself as a complete expert, I could relate it to staring at a tool like Photoshop. I understood that, in such a scenario, my perception would differ from that of someone like Andy, my dear colleague who was more of a man of action than a man of such things.
It wasn't that the system itself had changed; rather, it was my outlook that had undergone a transformation. This revelation led me to acknowledge that nothing was inherently different except for my perspective.
A more precise analogy dawned on me—a language, a perfectly exact language that had been implanted into my understanding. It was as if I had been presented by the authority with a linguistic system that had eluded me until now. While I couldn't precisely "speak" this newfound language, there existed a level of comprehension. It was like the language was speaking to me, with some words lost in translation. However, I sensed the potential for improvement.
Although there were elements that remained beyond my grasp, I believed that with time and deeper exploration, I could enhance my understanding.
