“Since you’re &%$#@-user. I take it that, unless you’ve gotten it from someone, you’re like me, someone from somewhere else than this world, someone that was in that place of pain and suffering, someone who’d met him, Lord K.R.U.L, Herald of the Divine.”

Welp, that’s awkward.

Really awkward.

That was the only way to currently describe the situation I just found myself in after confirming that not only was I not alone in being saved from that place by Mighty KRUL, but that I found myself antagonizing three of them, killed two, and in the process of sealing the third, which I failed to properly kill.

That wasn’t just awkward; it was on a whole new level.

Well, to be fair with myself, while I did kill some of them, it wasn’t like I did it for the sake of killing fellow otherworlders, reincarnates or whatever should I use to refer to ourselves; it was an accident, mostly. Besides, it was them who came to my domain, killing my poor spawn back when I was nothing but a very low GP-wealthed Dungeon Master. I did what I had to do to survive. But not only did I do that, I also did what was asked of me: to act on my instinct. What that instinct told me was to acquire GP and of course the authorities from them.

The more I thought about it, the more messed up it looked. As I was given the chance to escape that place, Mighty K.R.U.L entrusted me with a fragment of himself—a fragment that, had I been reincarnated with an authority, I would’ve believed that authority to be the said fragment. But I wasn’t. All I know is that I have the task that has been given to me, the one to act upon my instinct. One thing that instinct first dictated to me was to harvest as much GP as I possibly could. While I did know that it could be used for the betterment of my dungeon, if one were to ask me what the ultimate purpose of that urge to harvest G.P would be or what it’ll be used for, I wouldn’t even know what to answer. Perhaps my fellow reincarnates does, but I don’t. I just know what needs to be done, and so far I have done nothing else but act in that general direction.
But even so, I wanted to know. While perhaps this was just what was expected of me to know, I wanted to know more, to understand more, and this old man was the first step toward that secondary objective of mine.

_____________________________

Echo-13: No.

_____________________________

We replied to his question. In that moment, the man was taken by what looked like both utter despair and relief; he cried and chuckled almost simultaneously, creating a messy sight to behold. This went on for a moment, and once he was done, he finally looked at Dungeon Master 07’s guardian, a now challenging expression on his face.

“You want my &%$#@ too, do you?”

Of course I do.

Why wouldn’t we want your authority?

But wait.

Too?

Too?

Oh, I see, so I’m not alone in that regard too. From the look of it, the desire of gathering authorities isn’t something proper to me alone but to other authority wielders as well, or at least some of them, just enough for him to assume that, like "others" before me, I too wanted his authority.

Even back when I still had no confirmation of the existence of fellow reincarnates, I was at least aware that there were other cases of authority wielders killing others than me. Actually one could argue that I was never initially an authority wielder, so it could be said that I was innocent of the killing of a “fellow” authority-wielder until my second “lone invader.”

From the very beginning, even without knowing much about the authority, I knew these things were something rare, unique. So naturally, when Tusko Vagar popped up in my domain with not one but two authorities, I had the feeling that he’d acquired them from at least someone else or, if he were authoritiless like me, two. After all, there was always the possibility that he acquired the two from an unfortunate “accident.” I was more believing in the former; it was just an attempt of mine to at least give Tusko Vagar the benefit of the doubt.

Anyway, that was just to say that while I might have been the first to cause the demise of a fellow “reincarnate,” I wasn’t, because of the existence of Tusko Vagar, the only one. The thing is that I even believed that what most likely brought him to my domain was Authority Gathering, which allowed him to sense the presence of the authority in my possession: otherworldly synergy.

He was most likely tracking it, and that was what led him to his demise.

While the short and rather hostile interaction I had with Tusko Vagar was nowhere enough for me to tell what kind of man he was, I, in my mind, created a mental image of the kind of bastard Tusko Vagar was. In my mind, and from the little I knew of him, he was a greedy man, overconfident. I was tempted to see him as a loner, but being a former wielder of the Ethereal Echo, I knew for a fact that man couldn’t be lonely. And last but not least, I imagined Tusko Vagar as a ruthless one—ruthless enough that he earned himself a ride most likely straight to that place we’ve been saved from by Mighty K.R.U.L.

Perhaps it was because he didn’t get an answer almost immediately, or perhaps he simply wanted to vent out his anger. He walked threateningly in Dungeon Master’s direction, barking, “Answer me. You want my &%$#@ too, don’t you? That’s why you killed everyone.”

At that moment, we seriously considered shifting domains to have one of us lower his health just a little, just enough for him to calm down. However, we promptly gave up on that idea. We didn’t want to either accidentally kill him or antagonize him more than we already were on bad terms. Instead, we attempted to defuse the situation with a reply.

_____________________________

Echo-13: You know what we are. You know you and I are from someplace else than this one. I have answered many of your questions already, but I can tell you still have questions for me, so do I for you. What I would like to happen next is us responding to one another's questions like civilized creatures. If it can’t be that, then—

_____________________________

In that moment, Dungeon Master 07 shifted with the other Dungeon Masters, in the span of several consecutive seconds, spawning the old man into their respective guardian chambers without having the guardians attack him. As Dungeon Master 07 took back control, the old man, in spite of what he just witnessed, didn’t seem all that much impressed. If anything, he seemed even more stubborn.

“You think you can threaten me?”

_____________________________

Echo-13: Not a threat. Just showing what else it could be if we choose not to go the civilized way.

_____________________________

Technically, yes, those were the alternatives. After all, we weren’t planning on using any Guardian. We just showed him. With the authority he has, it would be useless to kill him. Should he refuse the civilized approach, we wouldn’t waste a second and seal him straight away as planned. While I firmly believed that the smarter thing to do was make allies, when that option was not available, leaving me with just an annoying enemy I had no way to definitively deal with, fellow reincarnate or not, I wasn’t going to pull my punches.

I must admit, as that exchange unfolded, that while I didn't regret it one bit, I felt like I might have lit a fuse that couldn't be put down. We were there, waiting for it to blow, when, after some time that felt like an eternity of consideration, the old man anticlimactically calmed down. In a calmer but still stubborn voice, he said, "Fine."

A sigh escaped his lips, bearing the remnants of frustration, yet hinting at a reluctant acceptance. "What do you like to know?" he uttered, his tone now tinged with a mixture of defiance and resignation.

While surprised by the sudden change of heart,

_____________________________

Echo-13: Everything.

_____________________________

—we nonetheless replied.

***

I want to clarify that by "everything," I meant everything from the day you were saved by Mighty K.R.U.L to this day. In other words, I want to know what sets us apart as two reincarnates. I'm not particularly interested in anything before that, especially not anything about that place.

While I make sure to remember the fact that I have been saved from that place every day as a form of self-motivation to keep up the good work as a Dungeon Master, I'm also trying to forget the vivid details of that place. I really don't want to hear your description that I doubt will be anything short of vivid about how hellish that place was. As for what you were before that place, I believe that to be an irrelevant detail. However, the old man, seemingly misunderstanding my words, which might have been lost in translation or not precise enough, began narrating his story with unexpected enthusiasm.