“Mm, I see. So you are a demon lord, and a newborn one at that.”
As the silver dragon girl spoke, she wandered curiously around the throne room. She was still pretty much naked despite the T-shirt, which, combined with her personality, was weirdly seductive. Of course, I was half-naked too, since I’d given her my shirt. I knew that if we were still on Earth, this sort of thing would seem illegal. There was no doubt in my mind they’d have locked me up and thrown away the key. Good thing we weren’t on Earth, then.
Anyway, I actually hadn’t planned on bringing her to the dungeon. I wasn’t sure how she was going to react when I told her I was a demon lord, so my initial idea had been to feel out the situation. But then she refused to stop yelling about wanting to eat more chocolate now, which meant she basically bullied me into giving up. So, here we were.
Eh, I guess it was inevitable we’d end up back here seeing as I couldn’t use the DP Catalog outside of the dungeon. Plus, I didn’t think it was a big deal if she knew about this place. I wasn’t really getting an “I must kill the demon lord!” vibe from her, so I probably didn’t need to be super cautious. Probably. Hopefully.
Anyway, I opened the Catalog because I figured I might as well get some proper clothes for her. Oh, wait, did it even have stuff for girls? Yup. I found girls’ apparel as soon as I started scrolling through the clothing section.
Wow, the Catalog really did have everything. It made it way too easy to spend recklessly, to the point that I’d been feeling like I’d blow all my DP in an instant. Case in point, half my DP was already gone, so I seriously needed to rein it in.
Shopping habits aside, I bought all the things she needed and they appeared magically out of thin air. I tossed everything her way—a dress, underwear for girls (as if I could ignore that), and sandals to match since she couldn’t be walking around barefoot.
“You get why you need clothes, right?”
“Indeed. I thank you. I seem to have completely forgotten that human skin affords no protection against the cold... Nevertheless, I find it quite intriguing that I could not feel the dungeon’s power until I stepped through the door, yet am now awash in its energy. If you are the only inhabitant of this deep dungeon and it comprises only this one room, then I conclude you must be a newborn demon lord. I begin to understand why the demon clan has suddenly reappeared in my domain.”
While she chattered away excitedly, the silver dragon girl got naked, tossed my T-shirt back to me, and started changing into her new clothes. I wasn’t looking, okay? I totally had my back turned. Totally. I just assumed she was naked after the shirt came flying my way. Can we drop it already? Jeez.
No joke, though, she figured everything out right away. I didn’t think she would, but that was on me for underestimating the power of someone who’d lived for so long. She specifically mentioned the dungeon’s power, so did that mean there were different kinds of magical powers? It had to, because Magic was an attribute in my Stats window, and I was hoping to solve that particular puzzle sooner rather than later. Plus, since magical powers existed, then there had to be a way to use them, which, hell yeah, I wanted to do spells and jawns.
“Wait, hold on. You said ‘reappeared.’ Is it normal for demons to just appear out of thin air?”
“Indeed. Though a vast number of demons are born naturally from mated pairs in today’s age, they first originated in regions saturated with mana. An unknown catalyst would force that mana to gather into an essence, then take the form of a living being centered around said essence.”
“What do you mean, ‘essence’?”
“Hmm. By and large, most essences crystallize as magical jewels. Regarding your existence, however, I suspect the essence here may be another matter altogether. I believe this dungeon’s essence lies in its power to create a demon lord to be its caretaker. And with that necessary element in place, the mana in the vicinity would have further coalesced, to the point that the dungeon itself was born. This area is bathed in a great deal of magical energy, so the conditions for both its birth and yours were unrivaled.”
“Really? I guess demons are pretty amazing then.”
“Ha! Their existence provides me with endless amusement, you may be certain of that. But I must say, this particular dungeon exhibits a refined aura I have never before encountered.”
The dragon girl touched everything she could with her small hands while she spoke.
“Seriously? They aren’t all like this?”
My voice was muffled as I responded since I was putting my T-shirt back on.
“Indeed. All of the dungeons I have destroyed out of boredom could only be described as poorly decorated caverns. Although... I do recall a particularly imbecilic demon who would boast about being the strongest in the world. His castle reflected his abominable taste in, well, everything.”
Shiiit, so she had gone on rampages. Man, it really was a stroke of luck that I figured out she had a sweet tooth. If I hadn’t, I’d have gone right back to the afterlife on day two of being reborn. Wild.
Then again, I didn’t think I was ever in all that much danger anyway, because I didn’t think she was ever actually planning to kill me. I got the feeling she’d only wanted to threaten me and drive me out of her territory. She probably would have killed me if I’d tried anything stupid, so I was guessing she deliberately waited me out to see what I’d do. And I’m pretty sure killing me wasn’t what had her hesitating in the first place when we negotiated; she was probably just trying to decide whether she was willing to let me have this cave, what with it being in her territory and all.