Chapter 84

84 . Side Diary

「There you are, Master . 」

『Have you finished reading it over?』

「I have . It would be best for you to give it a read as well . 」

『Hmmm... alright, but it seems pretty long . 』

The diary's almost completely filled . It looks like there's a couple year's worth of entries in there .

◇◆◇

My body's been like this for almost three years .

Today, I decided that I would write a diary . I don't really know why I decided to, I just kinda felt like it . I don't think I'll be able to write an entry every single day, so I'll try for once a week .

It's possible that someone might end up seeing this diary some time in the future . So, person, whoever you are, I'll write you a little bit of a self-introduction so you know more about me .

I guess the first thing I should write about is my current location . To be honest, at first I didn't really know exactly where I was, but I did know the kind of place I was in .

I was on a giant floating rock, one of the Reidos Kingdom's secret experiments . As for me? I was just one of their lab rats .

I didn't really know exactly what kind of experiment they were running here, but it looked to me like it was something to do with the military .

They used me as a part of a necromancy experiment . Again, I didn't really know many details or anything like that . All I knew was that I wanted to die . And I wasn't saying this like it was some sort of passing thought . It's something I was brooding over for a long time . I wanted to die .

You could easily tell that the researchers didn't really see us as fellow human beings . To them, we were guinea pigs, nothing less, nothing more . It's as if they didn't understand the meaning of the words "humane treatment . "

But yeah, one day a lot of bad things happened, or should I say good things? I'm not really sure which it is . Either way, a lot of things happened, and I was deprived of everything that made me human .

I can still recall what happened that day in vivid detail . That day, they killed me . After cutting off both my legs and and my right arm in a series of experiments, they decided to dispose of me by using me in one last, large-scale experiment .

They used me, a live necromancer, in an experiment . Well, actually, I say that, but I was a pretty weak necromancer . You could barely call me one . The only spells I could use were the Lv 1 spells I picked up in my time here in this facility . Either way they were going to do it . They were going to inject me with curses, grudges, and malice in order to try and turn me into an undead while I was still alive . Messed up, right?

But whatever . Nothing mattered anymore . I was going to die .

They chained me up and placed me in a hallway with a giant magic circle drawn inside of it . Countless curses were poured inside of my body . They used a barrier alongside a sort of special technique to make it so I couldn't reject the curses as they came to me, and so, having found a body to possess all room's malice rushed towards me and filled me in an instant .

And that was when it happened .

I couldn't tell what Goddess was trying to do that day . Was she trying to show me mercy? Or was she just playing a prank on me? I couldn't tell .

A dungeon core suddenly appeared in the room I was in .

There was a bunch of writing on it, but I couldn't tell what any of it meant back then .

What I did know was that the core could've appeared anywhere else . But it appeared here, right in front of me .

I still don't know why it appeared then and there . Was it just a coincidence? Was the Goddess of Chaos just messing with me? Or was she pitying me?

I didn't know, and I still don't to this day .

All I knew was that the dungeon core acknowledged me as its master . It powered up my body and allowed me to absorb every single last bit of malice that came at me . And so, the ritual transformed me from a living, breathing human being to nothing more than an undead creature .

I was supposed to be turned into a Zombie Mage, a lower class undead . But even then, it was much more powerful than I'd ever been in life .

But the fact that I became a dungeon master and the fact that I absorbed every single last grudge and curse made me transform into something else altogether .

I somehow ended up becoming a Lich . At first, I'd just thought I became a Skeleton, but I soon realized that I'd become a Lich . My transformation granted me more than twenty different skills and spells .

There was actually a span of three days between the dungeon core appearing and me waking up . I don't actually know what happened during those three days, but what I did know was that all of the humans on the island had somehow been overwhelmed by the undead and exterminated . Learning that fact made me freeze in shock for a few moments .

Some would go as far as calling the transformation I underwent an evolution, one of necromancy's ultimate goals .

But I think that's pretty much as far from the truth as it gets .

My sense of morality seemed to have left with my humanity . My heart felt like it'd been wrung dry, and so, I tried to quench its thirst . I went around the island and destroyed any of the researchers that'd turned into undead .

But it wasn't enough .

Hatred continued to vent from every last fibre of my being .

It hurt . I couldn't help but hate humans so much that it hurt . I felt the urge to completely ruin their lives, to destroy everything and anything they've ever loved . I want to kill every last one, to wipe their very species off the face of the Earth .

Revenge .

I wanted revenge .

Vengence was the only reason for which I now existed .

I wanted revenge .

ButIdidn't .

Becoming a Lich was something along the lines of a miracle . I'd finally been released from my life as a lab rat . I wanted to spend the rest of my days in peace, to quietly live on and enjoy my second chance at life .

I didn't want to kill .

The malice within me, however, did . It refused my pleas and told me to do but a single thing .

To kill .

To seek vengeance .

It forced me to action . I couldn't stop myself .

Hey, you, the person reading this diary . I don't know who you are or what kind of person you are . I don't know if you're an enemy or an ally, a good or bad person . But regardless, I hope that you will tell the world about what happened here . Please, inform the world of the Reidos Kingdom's sins and liberate our souls from the fetters of misery .

April 7th, 3619

Today's the day I start my diary . Nothing notable happened, besides me deciding to write this, of course . Yeah, that's pretty much it . I mean, this is a whim and all that .

So uh... yeah, I guess I'll just quickly gloss over what I did today .

To start, I did the usual thing and enlarged the dungeon a bit . Then, I made a few undead . I still haven't touched the bodies of the researchers, nor the bodies of my fellow lab rats . I think I'll focus on making subordinates and accruing GP for the time being .

Oh, yeah, by the way, GP stands for Goddess Points . I didn't know either until recently . I guess they're called that because you offer them up to the Goddess of Chaos or something like that .

September 29th, 3619

I've finally managed to get over 10k GP! I should be able to get the dungeon to mass produce undead now .

I also tried to write down some stuff about the dungeon itself, but it doesn't seem like I'm able to . I can try all I want, but my hands will refuse to move whenever I try writing about the dungeon's core .

It seems like there's some sort of mysterious power that's preventing me from doing so . It's strong enough to stop a Lich, so I guess it's probably the Goddess or something .

November 4th, 3619

I used a bunch of GP to make a strong subordinate . The facilities left behind by the researchers seemed to have a bunch of stuff used in the summoning of undead, so I procured it all for myself . One of the items therein was called the "Hero's Bone . " I don't really know if it actually belonged to some hero or not, but whatever .

What mattered was that it was actually just as powerful a material as its name signified . Using it allowed me to summon a Fighter class Legendary Skeleton . It even had an extra skill by the name of "Latent Potential Release . "

I tried pitting myself against it in a mock battle, and it did pretty well . I'm glad, I've managed to get myself a strong companion .

December 31st, 3619

The year has come to an end . This is the fourth New Years I've experienced as a lich . I tried making some special New Year's bread and soup . I can't actually eat it, but making let me enjoy the festive mood .

Hmm... I wonder what kind of holidays undead are supposed to celebrate anyway...?

It won't be long until I get enough GP for my next goal . I can almost taste the Undead Creation Studio I'm about to get my hands on . I'm really looking forward to it, I'll be able to make even more undead now .

Feburary 27th, 3620

I finally managed to get my Undead Creation Studio . Dungeons sure are strange . The studio just magically appeared where I wanted it to without so much as a delay .

The studio was really nice, and a significant powerup as well . The dungeon is now capable of creating many different kinds of undead that it wasn't capable of creating before . I'm getting better at necromancy too, so I've gotten a grasp on how to summon a bunch of different kinds of undead as well .

The only issue is that I'm not really sure what kind of undead I should be making .

The undead the dungeon makes have magic stones inside of them, and most of the mana will ultimately end up going back to the dungeon, but they're kind of weak .

The undead that I make, my kin, don't have magic stones . They have fake souls inside of them instead . They end up being much stronger, but, they don't really help the dungeon's mana situation much at all . Furthermore, their cores are pretty much made up by grudges, so they're all kind of aggressive .

I could always just buff up all the undead that the dungeon churns out if I used Spirit Control, but doing that for a few hundred of them is honestly too much of a pain for me to bother with it .

Alrighty, I guess I'll do a fifty-fifty split then .

September 18th, 3620

It seems that the floating island's path started to stabilize, it's route has gotten fairly regular . I can try to point it in a direction too, but that takes a lot of mana...

I'm kind of stuck in the middle of a bunch of different countries, but whatever, that's fine . I'm not all that far away from the Reidos Kingdom, so it should be pretty easy for me to get revenge on them . That is why I exist, after all .

April 14th, 3621

The dungeon's gotten a lot bigger, so my options seemed to have expanded as well . All I can say is that all the dungeon's more advanced facilities look awesome .

Two of them in particular have really caught my attention . The first was a huge barrier that covered the entire dungeon . The second was something that converted malice into magical energy . Both cost 300k GP, so I won't be able to get them for a while .

September 11th, 3621

I've finally finished expanding the dungeon . It now spans a total of ten floors, and it can influence the whole island plus another fifty meters or so .

I don't think anyone'll be able to land on the island with ease so long as I beef up the air units a bit .

I think I'll focus on creating more undead and adding traps for now then, I guess .

May 20th, 3622

Today marks the first time I've made a unique undead in a long time . I used 10k GP to make myself a Soul Eater .

Apparently it gets stronger by eating the undead despite the fact that it itself is also a member of the undead . It looks like another run of the mill zombie for the time being, but I'm kinda curious as to how it'll end up turning out .

I decided to let it roam around in the labyrinth as it pleased for the time being .

October 10th, 3622

Today, I'm going to be writing quite a bit for the first time in a while .

Someone's finally come to the dungeon! My first invader! At first, I thought he came on the Reidos Kingdom's orders, but apparently that wasn't the case .

I mean, there was only a single person after all, so I guess it'd have to be an adventurer of sorts . That said, he was quite formidable despite only being a lone necromancer . He was riding a Griffon Skeleton — something that even I was struggling to summon!

The undead birds and bats I summoned tried their best to keep him out, but the Griffon proved too strong and managed to break through them .

The forest pretty much did exactly what I'd planned though . It had an illusion spell on it, so it confused the adventurer and made him get lost .

There were undead at every single turn, so he started to get exhausted .

He tried to retreat, so I had a few of my more powerful undead go after him . The Soul Eater had gotten pretty strong too, so I sent him as well . My undead beat out the necromancer's, but he still managed to escape .

Too bad . I wanted to capture and talk to him . If he was the likeable kind, I might've even made him into one of my subordinates .

Oh well, whatever . Either way, he managed to get me to smile for the first time in what felt like years . In fact, I think the smile I had on my face today was the biggest I've ever had in my life .

I still remember what he said, "Fuhahaha! What a formidable dungeon! Never have I considered that I, Jean Dovy, would have to escape from a haunt!"

He wasn't making fun of me, right? I think it might've even been the opposite, in fact . He was paying homage to my dungeon as his tattered robe and skull-like accessories fluttered in the wind . I see . I get it now . That's what it means to be a true necromancer .

What about me then? I mean, I'm a lich and all, but aren't I kind of lame? I should be more like him .

Alright, it's time for a change in attitude . I'll try to be a bit more conscious of how I speak .

"Behold, for I am a Lich, Ruler of the Undead! Kukakakakaka!" Hmm... that sounded pretty good didn't it? Er, I mean . That sounded quite magnificent, did it not?

Splendid . I feel naught but marvelous . Kukakakaka!

This is going to take some getting used to .

October 28th, 3623

I finally managed to save up 300k GP, so I immediately set up the Furnace of Malice . Actively hunting the magic beasts that ended up coming near the floating island was well worth it .

I was thinking of saving the magic stones I got so I could make magic tools with them later, but I ended up prioritizing GP, so I let the dungeon absorb them .

Even something as weak as a Lesser Wyvern nets me around 20 GP . It was well worth having the dungeon absorb my entire stock .

The furnace would absorb any malice in its surroundings and convert it all into magical energy . Linking it up with me effectively produced an infinite loop alongside an inexhaustible supply of magical energy .

April 12th, 3624

My power increases every single day as a result of the furnace of Malice . I may soon have enough power to enact my revenge upon the Kingdom of Reidos .

However, I encountered what would label a minor incident whose cause not even I could identify . The curses within this body of mine have begun to grow more powerful . It poses no problem, as I possess the ability to convert malice into power, but...

I can feel my hatred grow, day by day . I can feel resentment piling up within me and reaching heights unknown .

November 3rd, 3624

I have began experiencing moments of which I have no memory . Could this perhaps be caused by all the malice that dwells within me?

August 7th, 3625

I've noticed something strange today . The corpse eater has taken on a child's as a result of a peculiar reason of which I bear no comprehension .

I recall that it had been a ten meter tall giant just a few days prior...

It appears to have shaved off any excess body parts . Though it stands a much shorter height, its magical abilities have more than doubled in recompense .

It has taken on a form identical to that my own prior to my transformation . I cannot decipher if this has occurred because it was produced from my magic, or if it is simply a result of it being my effective offspring . How interesting .

February 24th, 3626

As I have no memory of two of the past seven days, I decided to investigate by inspecting the dungeon's video records . I cannot imagine the demon beyond the screen as myself .

What was reflected within the dungeon's records was none other than a true Lich, a being that could only be described by the words violent, cruel and brutal .

I feel that I will soon be swallowed by what I see before me .

That, however, may be perfectly acceptable by its own right .

If I am to tread upon the path of vengeance, then sympathy will be but an obstacle . My other self will surely be able to fulfill my thirst for revenge in an ever so cruel and gruesome manner .

October 6th, 3626

My memory loss continues to worsen . I can now only recall every other day .

My plan, however, is progressing as smoothly as could be . I have risen in level whilst strengthening my subordinates . I've finally amassed enough power to topple the Kingdom of Reidos .

I lack the prowess to best the Kingdom in an all out war . However, the floating island will allow my troops to catch the Kingdom by surprise . I shall invade the capital and assassinate its royal family before razing the city and turning it into a sea of undead soldiers .

Soon .

Soon, my plan will come to fruition . I need but half a year .

The world shall learn the depths of my malice .

March 19th, 3627

Today, I regained my consciousness for the first time in half a year . I've long handed off the seat of this body's primary host to another .

But I do not mind . The dungeon has progressed as per my wishes .

There is, however, an item that bothers me . Is the path I tread truly one laid out before me by the Goddess?

It just so happens that the first day I've awoken is coincidentally a day in which the dungeon was subject to invasion . The necromancer has returned, and with him came a companion .

The necromancer's companion was an adorable girl . Her age was likely similar to that of mine immediately prior to my transformation . She possesses great might for her age; her mastery of the sword is none other than outstanding .

My eyes fail me; they are unable to keep up her motions .

It must be nice... to have companions, friends... I myself have never known the experience, for I was both into slavery and denied the opportunity . And it is likely for that reason that she almost appeared to shimmer .

I wish for her not to perish... but I doubt my desire to be plausible .

The party cleared through the dungeon at an incredible pace . Will it perhaps fall to them?

Considering the possibility puts me in an indescribable mood . The joyful prospect of my soul attaining freedom contrasts the irritation that arises from the potential destruction of my plans .

Do I wish to be vanquished? Or do I wish to live on?

I cannot grasp the answer .

I feel as if my encounter with the necromancer and the girl must be none other than the call of fate itself...

I regret that I will be unable to witness the outcome of our encounter . And so, I wonder...

What scene will I awaken to next? No, will I even continue to awaken?

My dear reader, could you perhaps be him? Jean Dovy? Or maybe the beastgirl that traveled by his side?

If so, then I have but a single thing to say .

I'm glad that you were the ones that survived our encounter .