Chapter 7

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Chapter 7: The Successful Pact

It turned out that when it came to matters of life and safety, the Book of Dungeons could be quite concise and flexible.

They finally reached an understanding. Tasha would help the Book of Dungeons solve the Abyss issue. The Book must not break the pact, must not destroy the Abyss, or cause irreparable harm to it. The Book of Dungeons also had to share all common knowledge of the world with Tasha, answer her questions truthfully, refrain from lying, and avoid harming Tasha’s interests. The pact they signed would last for a hundred years, after which Tasha would set it free.

Tasha could now call the Book of Dungeons by a single name, as per the pact’s requirements. The book had a very lengthy, unpronounceable name in the human tongue, so Tasha decided to choose a name with similar syllables at the beginning and called it Victor.

Or "he," the inhabitant of this book is a male demon who had the misfortune of losing everything in the war between the Abyss and the Heavenly Realm over four hundred years ago, leaving only a lingering soul attached to the book.

The contract was not a fair agreement, but a master-slave contract with Tasha as the master. She thought she was being kind enough, but this book tried to trick her into signing a slave contract. After gaining ownership of the Book of Dungeons, Tasha naturally learned Abyssal language – the patterns on the book pages. Slyly, they added additional terms next to the previous contract, stating that by signing their name, the soul would merge with the Book of Dungeons, gaining authority over the dungeon in this way. The so-called gaining power was indeed a text trap.

The master-slave contract was more like a hiring system, even though there was the issue of the servant not surviving if the master died, it was still better than a slave contract that could destroy the attached soul in an instant, right?

By the way, the language they used to communicate previously was the Undead language, a universal language for all dead creatures. Tasha found this quick way of learning a new language extremely convenient.

As soon as Tasha returned to the hall, Ahuang, who had been waiting for a long time, immediately ran over to greet her. Previously, she had sent the mass-produced miners down to join the battle, instructing Ahuang to stay above, not wanting the potential crisis below to harm this unique little pet. It looked very impatient, circling around Tasha, curiously observing the books being brought up by other miners behind her.

"A gnome?" Victor said in shock, "You gave Core Strength to a gnome?!"

He pronounced "gnome" as if a neat freak was talking about a bogeyman in the gutter, as he had mistaken a mole for a gnome before. Tasha took a few glances at Ahuang and still found it quite cute.

"What is a gnome?" she asked.

"The lowest-level earth element puppet, the most basic unit for building a dungeon, only able to defeat goblins!" Victor explained, "The core is the life of the dungeon, Core Strength is not renewable, not recyclable!"

"Oh," Tasha said, still not quite understanding, "What is a goblin?"

"Very weak humanoid creatures, cowardly pests that raid in groups, a single human farmer can easily kill one," Victor sighed. "To put it simply, the leader of a dungeon usually only shares their Core Strength with their most valued assistant, who acts as the dungeon’s deputy ruler or steward. It can allow a vampire viscount to directly become a count, enable a low-level wizard to gain the knowledge of a high-level wizard, and let a young dragon battle against an adult dragon!"

"What can it turn a gnome into?"

"Turn into a slightly smarter gnome," Victor said impatiently. "Even the strongest ant is still an ant, who would give the power of origin to such a thing? Is that what your instincts teach you?"

"I find it quite cute," Tasha said earnestly.

"Abyss!" the pages of the book sighed rustlingly. "What kind of dungeon would produce such a fool?"

In this case, "Nest Mother" is probably a blank consciousness born autonomously in the dungeon, Tasha speculated. This book has taken the liberty of giving her an origin, and she is happy to let the other party misunderstand, hiding her biggest secret of crossing over.

"Which one of us is the fool, me or a demon with whom I have a master-servant covenant?" she retorted.

"That was a mistake, I didn’t know you were the Nest Mother!" Victor argued. "I was severely injured and couldn’t detect the fluctuations of ghosts and dungeon creations—even then, I could sense the monsters passing within hundreds of miles! In my prime, my voice could make sea monsters bow, one sentence could steal a kingdom. I am the keeper of the Silver Tongue, ten thousand secrets flow from the hearts of fools into my box; I am the Snake of Lies…"

"Alright, now I know where those false advertising words come from," Tasha muttered. "Can we talk about something real now?"

After crossing over, one month later, Tasha finally understood where she had come to.

This is an unbelievable continent, besides the Primary Material Plane where various creatures live (also known as "Earth"), there is also the Heavenly Realm and the Abyss. The Heavenly Realm is home to the gods, while the Abyss is home to demons. The two are mortal enemies. They arrived on a continent called Aryan, developing their own followers and declaring war on each other.

"Why don’t you just fight directly?" Tasha interrupted, "What does it have to do with Earth?"

"The Heavenly Realm and the Abyss repel each other. The two dimensions are at the two extremes of this world, and the Primary Material Plane is the nexus connecting them," Victor explained. "Earth is too fragile; the major demons and deities would be repelled back to their original worlds before they could fully cross it. However, this is different for Spawns and followers."

Creatures climb up from dungeons, angels descend in temples, major demons and the Main God play chess from their homelands. Races favored by gods or demons continually emerge, while groups are wiped out in wars. Aryan is extraordinarily magnificent yet cruel.

"Before I fell into a deep sleep, the races on the ground were going mad," Victor grumbled. "The Druid persuaded some dragons, neutral Forest Elves joined the war for foolish reasons, the dwarves inexplicably paused from their civil war, who would have thought orcs could unite with other races? Some merfolk grew a brain; the Abyss Worshippers to the west and witches to the north made secret deals. Their leaders deceived us, allowing them to use magic without offering sacrifices to the Abyss… Long story short, because these unexpected events coincided, the situation was not looking good before this dungeon was attacked."

"Your army will collapse like a mountain," Tasha bluntly stated.

"The situation above is not necessarily better," Victor gloated. "Before I was ambushed and fell into a slumber, some heretics had found a way to use divine spells through willpower rather than prayer. You know how much humans love to seek profit and betray others, right? Just imagine, if you could gain the power of the gods without sacrificing yourself, who would still want to be a slave to those in the sky?"

"Slave?"

"Giving everything in life to please the gods, and having your soul owned by them after death, how is that different from being a slave?" Victor snorted, "At least in a trade, we make it clear what the deal is about."

Seeing that this guy had tried to deceive people into giving away their souls before, Tasha remained skeptical of his claims about the divine beings.

"But you don’t feel the abyss now," Tasha said, "Did the Heavenly Realm block the path from the abyss to the mortal world after their victory?"

"Block it? What do you think a passage is?" Victor scoffed, "We’ve had victories and failures before, whichever side wins, there are always pieces that can secretly move on the ground. Fortunes change, there will always be another war eventually, even if both sides stay still, the races of the Primary Material Plane will spark a war on their own. The charm of Aryan lies in chaos, when you arrive on the ground, you will see another exciting battlefield."

"That’s terrible," Tasha said, picturing a scarred wasteland in her mind.

"Only when you are weak," Victor said, "But you are a dungeon, dear master, and you still have me!"

The pages of the book dramatically curled up at the edges, as if bowing.

"I have enough knowledge and experience, and I am bound by contract to you, besides old Victor, who else can you trust in this unknown and dreadful world? I can be as loyal to you as a hunting dog, as harmless as a sheep! Just give me a bit of Core Strength…"

"No," Tasha said.

"Why?" Victor paused.

"I already gave away a portion," Tasha repeated its previous statement, "Core Strength is non-renewable."

"But you even gave some to a gnome!" Victor slammed the book pages loudly, "A gnome! While I am a thousand-year-old demon!"

Yes, Tasha thought, only a fool would give such an important thing to a highly suspicious demon.

So she said, "Because Ahuang is cuter."

The book closed with a snap.

"Don’t be upset," Tasha tapped the hardcover, "Let’s continue talking about the dungeon."

"Ask the gnome," Victor muttered.

Ignoring him, Tasha continued, "You told me before that the dungeon is like the outpost of an abyss, so where do the soldiers come from?"

Most of it comes from the abyss." The book reluctantly opened.

Although their contract did not require Victor to obey all of Tasha’s commands, it did demand that he answer all questions. As for Tasha’s opinion of the book? He couldn’t refuse to cooperate, and Tasha had no intention of getting too friendly with this guy, so the details didn’t matter.

"The dungeon should have linked to the abyss," Victor said, "the heart of the dungeon, which is the red stone, originally comes from the depths of the abyss and is favored by the Abyssal Will. When each dungeon is activated, the dungeon master can sense the connection points between the Primary Material Plane and the abyss within the dungeon’s range. After sufficient sacrifices, the portal between the two can be opened, allowing the energy of abyssal creatures to flow into the dungeon endlessly – the abyss is vast, with more low-level monsters than ants."

"I didn’t feel the connection point," Tasha said.

"That’s the problem… Wait, you haven’t activated the flame rune yet? Activate it! The Little Devil summoned by the rune comes from the abyss, maybe that can directly open a passage to the abyss."

Victor’s voice sounded excited, but Tasha shook her head again.

"You have to help me find the problem with the appearance of the abyss, it’s in the contract!" Victor said discontentedly.

"Yes, within a hundred years," Tasha replied, "I won’t go to your dangerous old home recklessly before I can protect myself, is there any other way?"

"Then you’ll have to catch some on the surface," the book said, "capture a certain amount of creatures, deconstruct them, and you can replicate an army. Hmm? You are really very lucky."

"What’s wrong?"

"I sensed a very faint magic fluctuation on the ground, just at the level you can handle." The yellow-eyed book looked up at the sky. "Let’s go, bring your mouse along, let’s see if we can catch a few goblins."