One day, I woke up only find out that I’d become a Demon Lord, an individual responsible for protecting a dungeon. The world I’d been spirited away to was one filled with violence. Gigantic monsters wandered through it and competed with each other each and every day for the right to survive. I had no choice but to strengthen my dungeon’s defenses in hopes of living another day—or at least that was what I’d thought. For some odd reason, I instead ended up spending my days in relaxation and bliss.

This is Yuki’s story, my story. It tells the tale of how I spent my days after settling down in a dungeon with a self indulgent, “supreme” dragon girl and a young vampire I twisted and turned the mirror I had on hand, dexterously manipulating it in order to check myself out. I slowly examined every last nook and cranny, with my expression remaining serious throughout the process.

For the most part, I looked no different from usual. My hair was black, and my facial features were all exactly as I remembered them. To be honest, I was just another guy. I wasn’t especially handsome nor particularly ugly. My eyes carried a bit of a sharp glint, but they were honestly the only part of my face that didn’t scream average. My height and build both fell within the norm as well.

The reason I was scrutinizing myself wasn’t because I was some sort of narcissist. I wasn’t particularly interested in taking in the appeal of my own body. I was merely checking myself over because it was absolutely necessary.

I gave the mirror yet another twist and started to gaze at my back: the most abnormal part of me. For some odd reason, I’d grown wings. The pitch black protrusions sprouted out of the area around my shoulder blade. They looked like the kind of thing you’d expect to see on a dragon, or maybe even a bat. I couldn’t tell which.

Having wings was weird. I’d never had them before, so they almost didn’t feel like a part of my body despite clearly being attached to me. It was a bit difficult for me to control them due to my unfamiliarity with them, but focusing on them allowed me to flap them, thereby confirming that they weren’t just some sort of decoration.

The second and only other weird part of my body was my right eye. My eyes were both originally black. Keyword: were. My right iris, however, had gone through some sort of change. It had somehow dyed itself a brilliant shade of crimson.

It seemed that the change in colour was linked to one of the skills innate to my race. Specifically, it was one of the so called “magic eyes,” the cringy things Japanese kids in middle school loved going on and on about. I myself had gone through a similar phase in the past, so seeing the piercing red eyeball had caused a series of embarrassing memories to resurface. I immediately started feeling ashamed of myself.

Though my body had changed, my clothes hadn’t. I was still wearing jeans and a t-shirt. The overly casual apparel starkly contrasted my less than normal body parts. My appearance was all over the place; I felt like a shitty, low budget cosplayer.

Wait a second. I’m wearing a t-shirt over my wings? Oh god damn it, it’s probably torn, isn’t it?

I couldn’t quite get the angle I needed to see the supposedly torn part of my shirt, but I remained absolutely certain that it’d suffered damage nonetheless.

“You know what? Screw this. I’m going to bed.”

The act of examining my body had caused me far more mental fatigue than I was comfortable with, so I decided to just stop thinking about it. I used a bunch of dungeon points, or DP for short, and purchased a futon, a japanese style bed.

I appeared to be in some sort of throne room, but I decided to just flat out ignore it for the time being. I laid the futon out on the floor, tucked myself in, and closed my eyes.

***

General Information

Name: Yuki

Race: Archdemon

Class: Demon Lord

Level: 1

HP: 2100/2100

MP: 6700/6700

Strength: 651

Stamina: 685

Agility: 550

Magic: 897

Dexterity: 1250

Luck: 70

Skill Points: 5

Unique Skills

Magic Eye

Translation

Skills

Item Box

Analyze Lv. 1

Titles

Demon Lord from Another World

DP: 900

So what exactly happened?

The answer to that question was surprisingly simple: I reincarnated.

My death was a boring one. It wasn’t accompanied by any extenuating circumstances. I wasn’t involved in any sort of major incident, nor was I intentionally killed for any particular reason. I simply died in just another everyday accident. And then I was reborn.

I never met any sort of God. I wasn’t informed that I’d been killed. But I was certain that I’d died. The sensation was still vividly ingrained in my mind. I could still recall the feeling of the truck crushing my bones and mutilating my body beyond repair. I could still feel the blood and pain simultaneously seep from my body as my consciousness slowly sank into the abyss.

A shiver ran up my spine as I recalled it. It was far too explicit a memory for it to be fake. I really had died. Taking a deep breath, I calmed my nerves and stopped myself from trembling. I chased the unpleasant memories out of my mind and set them aside. No good was going to come out of dwelling on the past.

When I came to, I found myself in what could only be described as a throne room, one filled with expensive looking chandeliers, walls, and pillars. There weren’t any windows, and it honestly seemed quite small for what it was. Behind me sat a single throne. It wasn’t overly decorated or particularly gaudy in any which way. Rather, it gave off a sense of majesty. A large blue carpet ran from one end of the room to the other. I followed it with my eyes as I observed the room in its entirety. There were very few ornaments placed within. The only expensive looking thing was the door that lay at the end of

All in all, the room gave off a sort of sinister feel. It looked like the kind of area that would likely be accompanied by a demon lord or some other sort of final boss, with the only difference being that it seemed a bit small.

My mind was blown. I couldn’t help but blankly stare as I slowly took in my surroundings. It took a good while for me to finally recover and realize that I needed to get a better grasp of my current situation.

I stood up. And as I did, my line of sight changed.

“The heck is that?”

I immediately spotted a rainbow coloured gem as I got to my feet. It was situated right behind the throne, and seemed to be be radiating a colourful light. The gem was circular, and seemed to be just a bit smaller than a basketball.

For some odd reason, I decided to reach out and touch it. I had no idea why I made the decision, but I did.

“What theaaaaaaaaaarrggh!?”

A head splitting pain assaulted my mind the moment my fingers touched the orb. It was like my brain was being tampered with against my will. Unpleasant, unnatural sensations coursed through my body as I fell on my hands and knees. Tears began to spill from the corners of my eyes.

All I felt was pain. It hurt so bad I couldn’t see straight; the world had started rocking back and forth, tilting left and right. I felt nauseous, I almost wanted to vomit.

The hellish headache persisted at full strength for several seconds before slowly beginning to abate. It came and went in waves, fluctuating in intensity every few moments.

“I…see…”

I managed to squeeze out a few words between rapid, shallow breaths. I felt as if I’d suddenly been injected with knowledge, as if a dictionary had implanted itself inside my brain.

And that was exactly what had happened.

“Menu.”

I recited one of the words the dungeon itself had taught me. A translucent, glass-like pane appeared in midair, materializing itself right in front of me. The knowledge I’d suddenly gained informed me that the menu I summoned was adaptable. Its appearance would change based on its beholder; it would morph in such a way that it always appeared as intuitive as possible. I used to be an avid consumer of video games, and for that reason, the dungeon seemed to have judged the that its menu should appear like that of a game’s.

If I was a goblin, it probably would have manifested as something along the lines of a stone slate instead, given how primitive they were.

I still felt a bit dizzy, so I placed a hand against my forehead to prevent the world from staggering as I looked down at the menu options. It seemed to have four buttons: Status, DP Catalogue, Dungeon, and Gacha. [1]

The last of the four immediately grabbed my attention. Rolling a gacha and trying my luck sounded tempting, really tempting. That said, I understood it wasn’t a good idea for me to try it without first obtaining a more robust understanding of my current situation.

For the time being, I decided to start off by checking out my stats. I manipulated the menu by tapping it, as I would a smartphone or other touch device.

“Wait… I’m an archdemon?”

Well, so much for being human…

[1] I didn’t localize this term because I feel that it’s already used enough in English. If anything, localizing it would make less sense. Anyway, for those that don’t know what these are, they’re machines with capsules inside of them. The capsules contain toys, and you never know what you’re going to get until you insert your money and give the thing a spin, but the prizes are sometimes listed somewhere if you look for them. They are commonly used in video games, particularly MMOs and asian mobile games, and typically function as a premium feature for paying users. thank you for your time

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Cardboard Translations

Fighting MTL with Literacy Since 2017

 MENU

Jingai Musume 3

Getting a Grasp of the Status Quo — Part 2

General Information

Name: Yuki

Race: Archdemon

Class: Demon Lord

Level: 1

HP: 2100/2100

MP: 6700/6700

Strength: 651

Stamina: 685

Agility: 550

Magic: 897

Dexterity: 1250

Luck: 70

Skill Points: 5

Unique Skills

Magic Eye

Translation

Skills

Item Box

Analyze Lv. 1

Titles

Demon Lord from Another World

DP: 1000

***

I blinked a few times in surprise as I continued looking over my status page. I’d apparently not only lost my humanity, but also became a Demon Lord. Confusion coursed through my mind, but only for a moment. The w*kipedia-like database implanted in my head promptly answered all my concerns and informed me that a Demon Lord was in fact not an evil ruler that propagated a doctrine of violence and conquest, but rather just a term used to describe an individual in charge of a dungeon. For all intents and purposes, demon lord and dungeon master were synonymous.

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My name was Yuki. It was basically the exact same as the name I used to have prior to my death, save for the fact that it was written in katakana as opposed to kanji. [1] The loss of the kanji that denoted my first name made it feel even more girly than it already had. [2] That said, my first name was faring better than my last name, which’d flat out been deleted.

I didn’t really have anything to compare my stats to, so I couldn’t really gauge how good they were. But in any case, my luck looked ridiculously low, which did make sense given the accidental nature of my death. What I couldn’t make sense of was my dexterity. I didn’t ever do anything that required me to develop precision or finesse. I was never into the arts.

After I was done checking out my stats, I moved on and started examining my skills. I swiped my finger across each item in turn in order to get a better grasp of my own abilities.

Of the four I had, three were pretty intuitive given their names. Analyze allowed me to inspect something and determine its stats. Leveling it up would increase the level of detail displayed. Item Box allowed me to store items in a dimensional rift whose size was relative to my max MP. Translation allowed me to remain both conversational and literate even though I’d been whisked away to another world. My last and least intuitive skill, magic eye, was innate to my race. Apparently, it allowed me to see magical power. I couldn’t actually tell whether or not it was of any use. As far as I was concerned, magic was still pretty much a foreign concept.

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Each skill had a level associated with it, ranging from one to ten. Skill points could be used to bolster skill levels, with higher leveled skills requiring more points.

The second last part of my status page was a section containing titles. At the moment, I had just one, Demon Lord from Another World. It’s description read as follows: A title granted to an individual originating from outside this world. Those that bear this title will automatically obtain the translation skill.

“I guess that doubles down and confirms that this really is another world…” I muttered.

I was done looking through my stat page, so I dismissed it and tapped the DP Catalogue button. The menu switched to another screen, one displaying a list of items. Each was accompanied by a number, their cost in DP. The list contained all the typical things you’d expect to see in a fantasy-based JRPG: swords, shields, staves, armour, and the whole shebang. But that wasn’t all. It also contained a wide variety of non-fantastical items. I could choose to purchase cups, toothbrushes, food, and all my other everyday necessities as well. There were even consoles and games, but their prices were exorbitant and way beyond what I could afford.

The DP Catalogue, as a whole, seemed really convenient. It looked like my purchases would get delivered to me the moment I made the exchange.

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Browsing the catalogue kind of reminds me of online shopping. The whole system feels kinda out of place given the fantasy-esque setting, but hey, it’s convenient, so I’m not complaining.

All in all, it seemed like there were two different types of items. There were the items from this world, which, in general, tended to be less expensive, and the items from my world, which were precisely the opposite. It was almost as if the latter group of items were only present and purchasable because I knew they existed. They seemed too inconsistent and out of place to be there for any other reason.

The third function I checked was the gacha function. It seemed that I could choose between four different gachas, with their prices being: 100 DP, 1000 DP, 10000DP, and 100000 DP respectively. There didn’t seem to be a list of prizes anywhere. I’d have to go in blind if I wanted to try my luck.

The final menu button, the “Dungeon” button, took me to a page that had a ton of options pertaining to the dungeon’s core functions. It allowed me to add to the number of floors, increase the size of the dungeon’s domain, summon monsters, and much more. There was far too much information for me to take it all in at once, so I decided to refrain from checking out the details for the time being.

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It seemed that the dungeon itself was a living thing, a species of organism often born in places with a high concentration of magical particles. Like many other organisms, dungeons were born weak and frail. They were incredible easy to destroy early on in their infancy.

Humans were particularly well known for their dungeon-crushing antics. Their attacks were heavily driven by greed. Or at least what I assumed to be greed. The dungeon’s core, the rainbow-like orb that served as its heart, looked like it could fetch a pretty penny on the market.

Unfortunately, humans weren’t the only creatures that attacked dungeons. Monsters, members of this world’s wildlife, did as well. Dungeon cores were rich in mana, and thus, the monsters’ instincts drove them to hunt them.

In other words, dungeons had enemies on all sides.

Everyone and everything was hostile.

And it was for that reason that dungeons summoned demon lords, guardians that could protect them from the harsh environments in which they were born. Dungeons concentrated their magical energies in their demon lords and allowed them to become much more powerful than ever before. In exchange, the demon lords protected the dungeons and bolstered their chances of survival.

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It was a picture perfect example of a symbiotic relationship.

Most dungeons obtained their demon lords by drawing in nearby monsters and rebirthing them. My dungeon, however, had been born in an area with an abnormally high concentration of magical particles. It was much more powerful than its peers. It invested nearly all of its energy into summoning a being more suited to the role: me. It’d selected me even though I’d already died in another world and become nothing more than just a soul.

Wait, that means the dungeon thinks that I’m much more suited to being a demon lord than all the other candidates it came across? The hell!? Makes me think I’m evil incarnate or something. Feels bad man.

My race had been altered because the dungeon believed that I would be able to do my job better as an archdemon. The change had only been made possible by my soul’s affinities. I was apparently just innately suited to being an archdemon.

Uh… Alright, let’s chalk that up to the fact that I used to play an archdemon in that one MMO I really liked.

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…

Okay, yeah no. That’s total bullshit and I know it.

I sighed. I didn’t quite feel like contemplating my own moral alignment, so I let my mind wander. The first thing it latched back onto was my stats. To reiterate, I had no idea how powerful I was relative to everything else. The world I’d been reincarnated in was filled with violence. It lacked the peace that my old world had basically bathed in. Monsters roamed the land, fighting and killing for the sake of self preservation. Wars and other armed conflicts were the norm. Surviving was going to be tough if I was too weak.

After another moment’s worth of contemplation, I turned my gaze towards the dungeon core.

It and I had become two parts of a whole. It played a heavy hand in maintaining the vessel that functioned as my body. If it were to be destroyed, then I was sure to follow. And because I’d become both the owner and manager of most of its resources, it too would weaken, dwindle away, and die if I were to lose my life.

Neither the dungeon nor I could survive without the other.

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It’d become my second heart, and I’d become its second body.

Though I did resent it for summoning me into a world completely filled with barbaric brutality, I was still plenty grateful that it’d given me a second shot at life.

I decided that I would live it out however I wanted, enjoying my days as they passed, that I wouldn’t waste the opportunity I’d been granted.

And that, for my own sake, I would protect the dungeon’s core.

It’d given me another chance. Defending it was well worth my time.

I let a bit of a smile show up on my face as I used a bit of DP to purchase a mirror. I needed to check myself over so I could evaluate precisely what becoming an archdemon had entailed.

***

[1] Katakana is the Japanese alphabet normally used for when you’re just trying to sound out a word. It is seen most commonly when Japanese people try to use foreign words in text. Kanji is Chinese hanzi characters used in a Japanese context. While it’s possible to guess some of their pronounciations based off precedent, it’s much, much more difficult if not often impossible.

[2] Yuki is typically a girl’s name. The old spelling of his name was likely something that had manly kanji in it. Note that Yuki is different from Yuuki, which is typically a boy’s name.