My Dungeon Life: Rise of the Slave Harem

“Come with me.” The man stated simply, before turning to the crowd. “The match is over! Deacon the Dragon is disqualified! He shall hereby have his status provoked, and he will be banished from this location after today!”

Those that were fans of Lydia had been giving me hateful glares, some even booing or calling for my head. With the Kingpin’s announcement, they nodded as if to say it served me right. The volume increased as the people started muttering to each other, uncontented with the results of what should have been a spectacle match. From what I could hear, most agreed that I had cheated, although I technically hadn’t broken any of the rules that I knew about. Magic was allowed, but it was difficult to pull off in one-to-one fights. So was restraining people, for that matter. However, new rules might be created after tonight.

I didn’t care that much about people’s opinions of me. If this made it so that I wouldn’t be able to recruit a single person, none of that mattered at this particular moment. All of my thoughts were on Lydia and what I had seen when I tried to interact with her soul. I followed the Kingpin as he led me to the backstage area on Lydia’s side. As he entered the room, he put Lydia down on a table that seemed to work as the medical bed. I closed the door, cutting the noises behind me and giving us privacy.

“What the hell happened to her?” I demanded.

“What do you know?” He asked, not looking up from Lydia.

“Her soul is extremely damaged. It’s being consumed by a karmic infection. The miasma has already done significant damage.”

The man nodded in response. “She was attacked by assassins. She managed to fight them off, but they managed to strike her with a soul-reaving dagger.”

I took a deep breath. I had prepared for this possibility, but hearing it was rather difficult.

“She survived,” I said.

“Barely.” He responded. “I saved her life, and did what I could for her.”

“Why is she here fighting? Why did you allow us to battle?”

“I never expected you to try to reach for her soul like that. I may seem to know many things, but I didn’t know you had such an ability. When you touched her soul, you aggravated her condition.” He explained, shaking his head. “Now, I don’t know if she’ll make it.”

“What does that mean? What were you doing before then?”

“Since her soul was infected with karma, her only chance was to let it run its course.”

“Run it’s coarse?” I frowned. “You mean… turn her into a karmic being…”

“You understand.” He finally looked up at me. “Through battle and experience, a person finds strength. They gain insight and build lore. I had her fight so that she could circulate her mana, allowing the miasma to completely replace her mana soul. Only once that happened would she survive.”

I shook my head. “A miasma soul would convert to mana when left outside of a dungeon.”

“You’re not completely wrong, but you’re also not correct. After all, if this was the truth, then how can such things as your God soul exist?” Although he revealed he knew even more about me, I had stopped being surprised by his knowledge at this point. “No, a miasma creature can exist without a dungeon. It’s not easy, and they’d eventually have to find a connection to the mana of this world or die, but she would have lived a bit longer.”

“But now?”

“Only part of her soul is left here, and that part was barely strong enough. When you interrupted the process, I’m now even less confident she’ll survive.”

I looked down at Lydia, who still had her eyes closed like she was sleeping, a peaceful expression on her face. “She will. I’ll make sure of it.”