The Stargazing Witch & The Dungeon Planet
Chapter 118: To Find The Heart of the World

Chapter 118: To Find The Heart of the World

So two human prisoners, as they were basically prisoners even if the Nelatta called them other names. The fact that they had no way to determine the potential danger level of these two if they were too simply wander around the camp without any method of communicating meant they had to be locked out, executed, or thrown out of the meraimaka.

Though I felt the Nelatta were oddly kind to ‘world survivors’, as it could be easily possible to see these aliens as invaders to their home.

Neither look too injured, but they don’t look to be in a hurry to escape.

That made sense if they were in here for a month, they likely experienced the outside world and the dangers it brought.

However, the fact these Nelatta were able to contain these two was faciating, as the two guards I first met didn’t feel that strong, and while I considered the lower ranks of Dominous Hood nothing but low ranking rats that could be killed with a good torturous poke, they were technically very strong.

“Hello, can you two understand me?” I asked, fully expecting a response.

The two of them had been looking at me in surprise since I first walked in with the Nelatta.

The guard answered, “Yes…” He turned to the other man, the Hood bastard who was on the right of the room who nodded as said, “I can as well.”

The Dominous Hood idiot then asked, “Can you speak with these… lizards..?”

“Yes, it's an ability of mine, they call themselves Nelatta but I can’t teach you their language, my ability only translates their words to me, and my words to them.”

“Ergh…” The guard rolled over from his cramped sitting position, “Why are you here…?” 

Based on their reaction, neither of them recognised me, which wasn’t surprising since I was wearing different armour and had a different voice changer.

Time for some more lying, “I was tasked with entering this world and exploring it.”

The guard let out a slow pained laugh, “Heheh, well good job, you are now stuck here forever…”

“Not unless the dungeon core is found, it should be somewhere on the planet.”

“There is one..?” The guard question.

“Yes, this is still a dungeon, and getting the core will allow me to go back home.”

“Will… that allow us as well?”

I said, “Depends on the success of the mission…”

The guard sat back a little depressed, but he wasn’t the only one with a question.

The Hood grunt asked, “How did you enter this world?”

“Through a portal device using the proto-core.” I was making up words now. “

“Did anyone give it to you?” I wasn’t blind that they were talking about cough cough me but the one who attacked/defended them version of me.

“The company? I don’t understand the meaning of your question?”

“It’s only been a week since we have been in here, how has your company–?”

“A week?” I interpreted, shocked, if it had only been a week for them that meant there was a time difference. 

Fuck… Hopefully it is just a week to a month.

I couldn’t give exact dates, so more lies. “The company has been prepping this operation for a month? How have you only been here for a week? The device was ordered to not be activated during the prep phase.”

“Huh… wait, what’s the date?!” 

I gave them an answer that was three months ahead of what it actually was.

(“ I believe you gave them extra panic. Four months to one week is a lot scarier for humans than one week one month ”)

So is it one month to one week here?

(“ Not exactly, there are rules to it ”)

Ones that you aren’t going to tell me?

(“ Correct ”)

“It’s been that long..?” The Dominous Hood goon muttered.

My reason for lying was less for the reason of keeping my identity hidden–while that did help–my main purpose was to create a story that seemed crazy but believable. By the end of this mission the chances they could be dead was staggering high, but if I could get some use out of them in the meanwhile then I would try to.

Though I was holding back the urge to murk the underling, I doubted the guard would be helpful to me if he was all alone, and there was a good chance some comrating had formed during their time surviving and in prison. At the moment, my priority was finding the core of this world so any extra hands would be helpful.

“So a time difference? If that is the case, where are you two from?”

“We–” The guard paused for a moment, thinking of his answer.

“Were working security at Jelannax station when an attack happened. Our client bought the portal device and had us go through it as he decided to use it as a means to escape the attack. The plan was to pop back out once the chaos ceased as one the other guards was supposed to leave with the artefact.”

The guard added, clearly disappointed as he remembered something horrifying. “However, we couldn’t pass through the gate… Honestly, the moment we entered something about the world felt different from a normal dungeon and when we couldn’t even hear or pass through the gate again, we knew we were trapped…”

So they are really covering for each other…

“I see, well I was requested to ask, do you have any intent to harm this city or its people?”

The Dominous Hood guy said, “They are monsters?”

“No, we don’t. As long as we are safe and can get home, I mean no harm to anyone here.”

“Okay, I will let them know that. It may still talk a bit to leave this area, if you even want to, the surrounding wasteland isn’t particularly hospitable.” I didn’t continue the conversation any further, and turned to my guards.

Al-Roo asked, “Did you find out where they from?”

More wonky translation.

“Yes, it appears they simply got lost in this world, but it appears their world hasn’t been destroyed, and they entered here through a portal.” I gave some truth but decided to hide the fact I was the same race as them. Body shape wise we did look similar, but if I didn’t need to clarify, then there was no reason for me to.

Cole-Ra-Cu spoke, “That’s impossible. Travel between worlds. Said to be impossible.”

I shrugged, “That’s what they said anyway, they could be mistaken or telling the truth but I don’t think they are lying.”

“Do they hold animosity towards my people?”

“Maybe? But at least they don’t seem like they will harm anyone, one clearly stated he wouldn’t, the other was more hesitant.” I didn’t even have to lie to place the Dominous Hood idiot in a worse light, more security on him was for the best and if I did attack the Nelatta, well, that would be a fun execution to watch.

Time to return.

After leaving the two wardened off prisoners, I returned with the rest of my Nelatta entourage and returned to the ceremony area that I met Cole-Ra-Cu at. He returned to his place and the remaining three of us left his domain and took me to a quiet part of the city. Here I was told I was allowed to move around the city, but was asked to not interact with people or the building, and they preferred if I stayed here on or on the wall.

The two guards then split ways with me and I was left with the child of the group who seemingly wanted to ask me a lot of questions. The fact that they left with the child probably meant they didn’t figure I was going to kill everybody, or they precaution, I didn’t really care, I wasn’t planning on doing anything hostile at the moment.

(“ Oh look at that, fresh meat ”)

Ha ha, very funny.

After a few moments after the others walked away she was bouncing up and down, “So so. What is your goal?”

“My goal?” I nearly laughed, my plan was to destroy the world, but I answered truthfully. “To find the heart of the world.

She paused, and asked, “What’s that?”

“Hmm, that’s complicated, but you can think of it as a big core of energy that created the world.”

Lu’s eyes sparkled, “Wow… that sounds amazing.” 

“Heh, I would hope so, I have been very keen on seeing what it looks like.”

“Well…if you do find it, let me know, I would love to see it! It might be bestest thing I see.”

“Maybe for the time being, but I doubt it can match the splendour of stars.”

Lu asked, “Stars?”

“Yeah… they aren’t in this world which is a damn shame, but maybe I will show you something similar at a later point, but they are a real amazing sight to behold.”

“Are they really that amazing?” 

“I would say so. They come in various colours, they are larger than worlds, you can connect multiple into shapes and patterns, well,  I think that is enough for that topic.”

“Wait, can you tell me more.” She tried grabbing onto my armour but her hand slipped off, it was a little funny.

“Maybe later, but while I have your attention, how does your race disguise age and gender?” I had my guesses but since I had an excitable talking partner, why not ask questions.

“Age is simple!” Lu wagged her little tail as she excitedly explained their biology. 

Key points were that I was correct about tail length and scale brightness being an indicator of age, another thing I kind of guessed was their voice, similar to humans, their voice deepened with age and some of the elderly folk had raspy voices. Scale durability was also a trait, as scales started soft and hardened with age, but once they reached their later years they could lose some durability and crack.  

A non-physical trait was their names, it was part of their culture, when a Nelatta was in their youth they had names like ‘Lu’, those who were in the adult stages had names like Al-Roo and C-Eal, finally the eldest generation had names similar to Cole-Ra-Cu. With each stage, an additional portion would be added to their names.

For gender differences… yeah I was lost on that. Lu explained there were these differences in scale sparkle, frill shape–if they had frills–she tried explaining some of the shape details but that was lost in translation, claw length on certain fingers, and a minute in pupil size. Finally there were sexual organs, but those apparently only came out of the body during the activity, so I couldn’t tell by that method. That fact they did have sexual organs was interesting, as there were many monsters I knew of that couldn’t reproduce, the fact that these ones could was interesting to learn. 

I said, “Thanks for the information.”

She smiled, “All be well.” 

Rumble!

A large sound echoed across the city and I felt a shake in the ground.

“What is that?”

“Don’t worry, it’s just the Kelrara, the guards will take care of it.”

“Kelrara?” I asked, and tornadoes of sand started swirling up all around outside the city walls. 

She spoke, still with a smile, “Yes, beast of great evil.”

“Secreeeee!”