Putting aside all this clone/split shenanigan I’ve unfortunately found myself involved in, I after a while, finally got the opportunity to reflect on the situation and took my precious time to quietly dissect and understand what was happening.

Initially, at the beginning of the invasion done by the second lone invader, as I observed for the first time the anomaly that the lone was, for the first time, then the second time, I—since the name and strangely, but now that I realized how it worked, also not so strangely—his fatigue kept piling up. I was under the strong impression that he was basically a highbreed, with several classes available—classes that he was able to seemingly seamlessly shift in between.

That's what I believed, but now that I had the Ethereal Echo in my possession, the same authority that I believe is at the origin of that strange power, it became obvious that I was wrong in my assumption, as shown by his G.P. value.

 

_____________________________

 

[ ???'s Interface ]

 

_____________________________

 

From the interface in front of me, I could discern two crucial details: First, the lone invader, despite the imminent threat he posed, was remarkably affluent in terms of G.P. It was staggering; none of the invaders I'd faced thus far, and I doubt—hopefully I'm wrong in saying this—none in the future would come close to accumulating such a substantial amount. The other observation was that, disregarding the two authorities linked to most of his G.P., everything else about him appeared rather ordinary.

The G.P. attributed to him in the Knight class, which, as I've correctly assessed mid-battle, seemed to be his primary class, held a value exactly corresponding to that of a normal level 35 Highbreed knight. Admittedly, it was slightly higher, mainly due to the title he bore, but still.

Overall, though, he appeared normal. I must confess, it's weird. I guess I was half expecting that upon opening the harvesting section, I would be confronted with all the classes I'd witnessed him display during his invasion. But to my surprise, there was nothing, not even the option for me to harvest them for G.P. But I wasn't disheartened; it was clear that those sweet G.P.s I was looking for were tethered to the authority: Ethereal Echo.

Having experienced the effects of Ethereal Echo myself, I came to realize that my initial assessment was flawed. Rather than possessing the ability to seamlessly shift between multiple classes, the lone invader most likely had distinct entities within him, much like I currently do. Each entity would have its own set of classes, skills, abilities, H.P., S.P., and M.P., all while sharing the same physical form. This arrangement could explain the stacking fatigue percentage, reflecting the toll of managing multiple entities within a single body.

As I contemplated the intricacies of the lone invader's existence, I couldn't help but engage in a peculiar conversation with the other voice—or Dungeon Masters, as we had agreed to label each other.

"So, how many 'hims' were there in the lone invader?" I inquired, finding amusement in the absurdity of the situation.

"I" responded, "Well, considering the number of times he's shifted classes, it could be a diverse crowd in there. Each 'me' with its own set of stats, skills, abilities, and perhaps even thought, all crammed into a single body."

"I" couldn't help but chuckle internally. "I guess you can imagine him having a 'Tusko Convention' inside him. It must be quite the party."

Another voice of mine joined in the humor: "Yeah, I wonder if they argue about who gets control or fights over the mirror in the morning."

As I bantered about the bizarre nature of the lone invader's internal dynamics, I couldn't shake the irony of the situation. Here we were, contemplating the complexity of another being's existence while facing a similar enigma within ourselves.

"So, Dungeon Masters, any theories on what we do next?" I simultaneously asked, along with three other Dungeon Masters.

"Hm, I think we should—wait, who asked that question? That was one too many voices. Identify yourselves."

"Dungeon Master 00."

"Dungeon Master 01."

"Dungeon Master 02."

"Dungeon Master 03."

"Dungeon Master 04."

"Wait, since we do, we have a "Dungeon Master 04."

"We didn't even have a Dungeon Master 03."

"When?! When did you guys spawn out?"

"Whoah, calm down."

"Welp, guys, I'm telling you this thing; it's spiraling out of control, I'm telling you."

how we can exploit this situation?"

In the midst of our collective musings, confusion emerged as the voices within my—or our—mind multiplied, each claiming a thought, a thought that, while each different, was also a thought that I shared. It was strangely similar to multitasking, but the tasks weren't done by yourself. It was both fascinating and frustrating at the same time.

Annoyed by all the voices speaking simultaneously, I found myself barking, "Shut the fuck up, you all!?"

"Yeah, shut the f—"

"I said, shut the fuck up."

"Okay, okay, I was about to."

"I said, shut the fuck up."

"I heard that, dammit, I'm not dea—"

"Just shut the fuck up already, dude." The other Dungeon Master joined in.

"Tsk."

With the abrupt yet peaceful silence that followed, I took a moment to reflect on the bizarre situation I found myself in. Conversing with multiple iterations of my own consciousness was an experience both intriguing and disorienting. The thought occurred to me that perhaps I was going through something as maddening as what the lone invader might have gone through, if not more so.

"Gentlemen, Dungeon Master 00 reporting here. I initially assumed that giving each a ‘unique’ denomination to go by will fix our current predicament, but all it did was snoot. It's about time we face reality as it is; there are too many of us."

The chorus of voices flowed forth, each one chiming in agreement.

"Since we agree, I'll continue by adding that it can't keep going like this. We can't let this escalate beyond this point, that this must be put to an end; do we agree?"

"Yeah."

"Absolutely."

"Of course."

"Since we again agree, then we know what is to be done; we already know who is the culprit. In case one of us somehow didn't follow, it's the authority: Ethereal Echo. We already know that all that's left for us to do is figure out how to put a stop to what it's doing to us. It'll take brain power, but I'm pretty sure that's not something we're short of."

As I declared, that voice began chiming in, agreeing with what'd been said. In fact, it was taken with great optimism, with most of them ready to delve into the problem right away. But slowly, the chiming turned into noise, and the noise began to sound annoying. As it did get annoying, I began to realize that having us all work on the same problem wasn't a good idea.

"Gentlemen, please, I need your attention again. I have something to add."

It took me a few moments to finally get the silence I wanted, but I got it. "It has come to my attention that this isn't going to work. We're us. We're not born for teamwork, or at least not one that includes so many people; even these people in question are 'us.' So I propose that instead of having all of us go after our single current problem, we split up the task."

There was a collective murmur of agreement, so I continued, "To split the task, I'll have to know how many of us there are exactly. So, let's start by introducing ourselves. I am Dungeon Master 00."

"I'm Dungeon Master 01."

"Dungeon Master 02."

"Dungeon Master 03."

"Dungeon Master 04."

"So there are five of us?" I mused out.

Then another voice spoke, "Actually, 6 if you count me."

"Wait, who are—oh god! Another one. Fine, we're six, and you're Dungeon 05."

"Okay."

"Is there another one who still hasn't introduced himself?" There was no answer, so "So six it is. I would've preferred it to be an uneven number like five or even seven, but fine; there are six of us."

As I began to consider how we could split the tasks among ourselves, one of the Dungeon Masters voiced my exact thoughts.

"Dungeon Master 02, checking in. Since we come to this can we at least establish a hierarchy or some sort of leadership to avoid further confusion?"

"Dungeon Master 03—I mean, 04, reporting. Agreed. We need a clear chain of command. But who takes the lead?"

The moment these words were uttered, we were all back at it. At that moment, I began asking myself, am I really these people? And also at that moment, I got the answer to that question: yes. By the time I sobered up from this war to be the leader of this assembly of "me," several dozen insults had been thrown out randomly at the other Dungeon Master.

"Gentlemen, please, let's calm down. This isn't going anywhere. None of this is."

Having come to pretty much the same realization, 'we,' as a weird collective, all calmed down.

"Let's get back to what we left off. I've been thinking about how we could split tasks between each other. Dungeon Master 01, you're going to focus on our cloning/splitting problem."

"Roger that."

"You'll go with Dungeon Master 02. I know teamwork isn't our forte, but two brain powers here are better than one, considering the gravity of this problem. Together, dive deep into its nature, see if there's a loophole, a way to counter its effects. Once done, report back with your findings."

"Alright."

"Dungeon Master 03, I want you to focus on our other acquired Authority: Authority Gathering. That name is promising. Look into it, find out what's there to find, and just like Dungeon Master 01 and 02, report your findings for us all to hear."

"Alright, will do that."

"Dungeon Master 04, I want you to focus on what you, as a dungeon master, should focus on—making sure that any bastard that enters our domain regrets it. I'll leave the skimming of the acquirable spawn and spawn leveling up to you."

"Leave this one to me."

"Dungeon Master 05, just like with Dungeon Master 4, I want you to figure out a nice way to make this domain hell for any invader. I leave the domain management to you."

"It'll be done."

"Alright, that's about it all."

"Yeah, but what about you?"

"What, what about me?"

"What are you gonna do?"

In that moment, it finally dawned on me that as I thought of how to put them to work, I'd forgotten about myself. "Well, I guess—" Then just as that one thought passed my mind, one of them voiced it out in an accusatory way.

"Wait, guys. Isn't this what's actually happening to us? All these missions given to each one of us, a form of 'hierarchy?'"

"Don't get this started, you little shit." It was there, as the pot was once again stirred up, that a voice chimed in.

"Guys, I think you've forgotten about me. What do I do?"

"Who the fuc—Oh dear Godess, another one."