Reject Humanity, Return to Monke

I stood there stunned, the soft texture of the cloth weighing down on my hands like feathers. It was black, blacker than even the night without light, perhaps. Under its hood, a mask attached to the cloth hung limply, waiting for the wearer to don its magnificence and vanish under the twilight.

But that wasn\'t the thing that surprised me. The feature that had that trophy was the voice talking in my head the moment this "bonding" procedure finished.

"… Hi…?"

=Yes, introductions are in order. As the first person to merge one of my belongings… No, one of my original\'s belongings. Allow me to congratulate you on a job well done.=

"… Thanks…?" My mind was still stunned at the sudden voice in my head. This wasn\'t the first time I\'ve had a voice directly speaking into my head, unlike the System using chatboxes as opposed to direct telepathy.

Come to think of it, during my stay here, I haven\'t been exposed to telepathy, haven\'t I? Reorganizing my thoughts, I discovered that I had not heard hide nor tail of telepathy during my time in this world. Maybe Drake or the others would know, but right now, I placed that thought in the back of my mind in favor of focusing on this voice in my head.

=Wow, thanks for the attention.=

\'And this dude\'s an ass.\' A tick mark appeared on my head as the voice in my head laughed at the light insult. Apparently, not only can he communicate with me via my mind, he can also read my thoughts. Eh, probably a staple in telepathy.

=That, my friend, is completely true. Anyway, as fun as it is to mess around, our current situation deems it unfavorable to do so.=

\'And what do you mean by that?\' Mentally speaking with the disembodied voice, I imagined him nodding at my question, his slight humming confirming my thoughts.

=Patience, Jionni. Patience. First of all, let\'s go over the introductions. No need to introduce yourself. You can call me Drakhan, or a piece of him.=

\'Drakhan? You own this cloak?\' Asking him mentally with a raised eyebrow, the voice hummed once more, before answering my question.

=Yes. That cloak gives the wearer invisibility, along with increased strength, magic potency, and the ability to create fog in a location. You can think of it as an assassin\'s magic cloak.=

\'… Cool. Anyway, about that \'current situation\' thing. What do you mean by that?\' The disembodied voice once again gave me a hum, a sigh that he was probably gesturing something.

=It is as I say. As of right now, from a dormant soul piece of me residing within the bearer of the Gauntlets of Sharok, a group of heavily armed soldiers and an elite knight are currently heading your way.=

\'So, basically, I have a raid incoming.\' I summarized, and I imagined Drakhan nodding.

=Correct. Be aware, this isn\'t your usual ragtag bunch of Hunters and run of the mill drafted soldiers. These are trained professionals, with one of them being an elite knight of the Human Movement cult.=

\'Aren\'t those the fanatical soldiers that tried to raid my Dungeon after they chased the twin elves all the way here?\'

=Yes.=

His brief and concise answer made me stand up, my body on full alert and my mind quickly coming up with strategies to deal with the incoming raid, but I have to wonder though…

\'Why are you helping me? From my point of view, I received an item that\'s bonded to me, only to have a disembodied soul piece talking to me via my bond to the item. What do you get out of this?\' I may look paranoid and ungrateful, but to ensure a proper partnership, and possible alliance, it is important to state the goals of both parties.

=You are one paranoid monster, but who am I to blame you?=

I could literally imagine Drakhan chuckling at my predicament. A tick mark appeared on my head as I walked away from the backyard of the Gaming House, fully intent on quickly waking up Drake who was probably sleeping like a sack of potatoes right now, as well as once again calling for another meeting in the Monster Town, with all the higher-ranked humans and demi-humans, as well as Monster leaders, attending.

But first, I placed the cloak in my inventory, only to have it denied.

=Did I forget to mention that you can no longer put the cloak inside hammerspaces?=

I deadpanned at Drakhan, and instead donned the cloak, not placing the mask attached to the hood over my head for the moment to prevent my strength being increased and suddenly burning out.

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Now back on the first floor in the Human Town after power walking through the Master\'s Path, my first destination was the place where Drake was currently staying. Arriving at his doorstep, I knocked on the door. After a few minutes of not getting any response, I felt my patience drying up, and decided to just barge in and wake up the man myself.

Using my power as the Dungeon Master, I unlocked the house and opened the door, my footsteps letting out heavy thuds on the wooden floor. Walking down the hall and up the stairs leading to the second floor, I arrived at the bedroom, which is the first place I would search. Opening the door, which I unlocked via my Dungeon power again, I walked in and saw the sleeping figure of Drake who was lying cozy in the bed.

"… Sorry about this…" I sighed and felt guilty, but with an incoming threat, rest should be disregarded for now. I approached the lying figure of Drake, and called out his name. He didn\'t respond. Feeling my patience once again drying, I reached out towards him in an attempt to shake him, but was stopped by him grabbing my arm and throwing me to the ground effortlessly, my arm making snapping sounds as I felt the pain rush through my arm.

HP: 7,330 / 7,330 => 6,987 / 7,330

"Argh!" I landed on the ground with a thud, my HP dropping slightly. I then felt the pressure on my arm disappear and looked at the offender with confused eyes.

"What the fuck… Jionni! Don\'t scare me like that!" Drake retreated back a few steps, looking a bit apologetic, but otherwise, still pissed at me for disturbing his sleep. "If I didn\'t see my surroundings, I would\'ve twisted your arm off!"

"Ugh… Remind me to send someone else to wake you up." I groaned as I sat back up, my regeneration already working full-tilt to restore me back to peak condition. "And also, I have no choice but to wake you up right now. We have a problem, and it isn\'t something I can handle well yet."

"… You\'re Dungeon is already lesser B standards, enough to repel, and maybe decimate well-trained soldiers, Hunters, and Adventurers. Why do you need a meeting?" Drake asked and I deadpanned at him.

"You\'re seriously asking me that? You already have first-hand experience of how bullshit this world is." I replied and he opened his mouth, only to close it back up.

"Point." I chuckled a bit at his response, but quickly went back to serious mode.

"A group of knights are approaching my Dungeon, and not the run-of-the-mill ones either. I\'m going to be honest with you here. I received this tip from a soul piece inside one of Drakhan\'s pieces of equipment. It\'s the cloak I\'m currently wearing."

He looked at me with a narrowed gaze, only to facepalm and approach the wall and bang his head.

"Oi, Drake! What the hell!?" I approached the man who was completely focused on banging his head on the wall, and also, the wall was the one getting damaged, not the fleshy human.

He suddenly stopped and looked at me with a sheepish gaze.

"About that part with knights coming for your Dungeon…? Yeah, that\'s probably my fault…" He admitted it with a shy gaze, and my piercing glare gave him all the information he needed to guess what I was feeling now.

"… What…?"

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~ Third Person POV ~

"He came through here, you said?" A man held at sword point raised his hands as he made no effort to move as the pointy edge of the sword poked his throat.

"Yes! Yes! He went that way! Into the east of the forest!" The man pointed his right arm to the east entrance of the town, his shivering slowly getting worse as the cold metal slowly dug itself into his throat, droplets of blood now seeping out of the cut.

A moment later, the sword was pulled back from the relieved man, who then fell on his ass from the near-death experience.

"Very well. Thank you for the information, and may Goddess Phoemis guide you with her stalwart light, fellow human." The female knight, who was holding the man at sword point, sheathed her sword while on top of her steed, and the threatened man ran for the hills, his mind telling him to get away from the insane, fanatical woman.

She then looked at her guard detail with bored eyes.

"Follow that man. If you see him colluding with any demi-humans, you have my permission to execute him and display his head on one of the spikes in the plaza." She commanded, and the guards saluted. "Also, if I find out that you helped him escape in case they were colluding with demi-humans, pray that I don\'t find you."

The guards saluted more fiercely, their bodies trembling at the mere thought of being tortured by their master. The female knight scoffed and trekked forward, not giving rest to pursue the heretic man who had alluded her so far.

\'Mark my words, heretic.. I will find you, and I will kill you.\'