Leah, Reincarnated As a Dungeon Core!

“Cough… Fuck … Cough!” I threw up blood on the ground. How did I even end up in this situation? 

 

“I see you like it real rough, you trash animal!” I got kicked and rolled on the ground. “We almost got into real trouble, real trouble, you know.” At that moment, someone placed their hand on the man. 

 

“Gartz stop, don’t damage the merchandise too much.” 

“Tch, you are saved for now, although I don’t think anyone cares if you died… Maybe Rutz does thoughhh.” I heard his footsteps coming closer. 

 

“AAH!” My hair was pulled, my face felt warm, almost burning. The sensation was akin to one of running liquid. Something moist and funny feeling ran through it. It was oddly disgusting. 

“Mmh, tasty... I wonder what kind of kin bleeds black blood though? I wonder, if the rumors about them being tainted by some type of darkness are true.” He dropped my on the ground. “Well, not like it matters to me.” 

 

The footsteps grew distant and I heard the door close as I squirmed on the ground with pain. I was panting, my entire body was protesting in pain. I had no idea what was happening, tears flowed down my face. 

 

“Is this my fate?” No. “It’s just my fate…” I struggled as I got close to the wall and leaned on it. 

 

Was it the wrong idea? I was being carried in some type of bag and I fought for my life. I was getting abducted. I got kicked and passed out, and now I was here… I kind of wondered, was it because of being a core? What was so wrong about being one? Well, not like I knew, these people seemed to just do it because of being a kin… Even though I just looked like one… 

 

“Was it simply because I tried to run away again?” I paused as I recalled what happened one more time. 

 

* * * 

 

“Wakey wakey.” Huh? I, in my blurry vision managed to see a hooded man waving his hand in front of me. “Looks like I won’t need to get rough.” I didn’t say anything, instead I focused on looking around me. I was in some type of room, I could hear the outside and the passing people. Freedom was still within arm’s reach. 

 

I looked at the hooded man with resentment. “Ohhh, I like those eyes. They get me excited.” Haha… “Well, time to get going.” He grabbed a bag that was sitting in a corner of the room, so that was how it was going to be… 

 

I looked around some more, I was sitting on a chair and my hands were... tied? I moved them around and noticed the knot was badly done. Fiddling around with it, it simply came loose.

 

“Okay, let’s do this the nice way.” He gave me a creepy smile as he approached with the bag in hand. I had to create a distraction. 

 

“Ummm, don’t you need like some type of ribbon for me to not escape again from the bag?” I asked the obvious, the man paused and looked at his hands for a second. Without saying anything he turned around and started to look in the same corner.

 

‘This is my chance…’ I undid the rope and silently moved to the door.

 

“Ah, here it is.” He turned around and saw me opening the door. “Good su⁠— What are you doing!?” I managed to get a look at his eyes, they were bloodshot. 

 

In a panic I rushed outside, passerby's eyes widened. It was my chance for running away and getting out of this place. I steadily landed on my feet, before I could process I felt a jolt of pain run through my hair as force pulled me back. Losing my sense of balance I hit the ground with a dull sound.

 

The man was looking at me with predatory eyes. “So it’s going to be the rough way, huh?” That look instilled fear in me, without thinking twice about it, I opened my mouth.

 

“Please help me!” I made a plea in the middle of the busy street, and yet people just glanced at me without saying anything and kept walking by. “Please, help!” Nothing… 

 

* * * 

 

That’s the last thing I remembered… I felt a funny sensation on my eyes, after remembering. But, it was whatever. I wiped my eyes with my arm. 

 

Sometimes it’s simply better to stop thinking about the bad things, although it’s rather easy… I honestly just wanted to be gone, somewhere, anywhere was fine, really… First the cave and the egg, I almost died there, now this… Why must everything depend on strength? If I was strong this wouldn’t be happening...

 

“Although, if I understood what happened back in the cave…” I paused. “Titles are everything, so maybe it wasn’t so bad…” I muttered in reassurance as I recalled the stupid system alert I saw while I struggled for my life. A part of me knew it was abnormal to gain so many at a time.

 

Ding!

[System alert: You overcame a life or death situation! +3 to all stats!] 

 

The progression certainly felt stupid. Although I had no idea what was the average for things, so maybe everyone had the same progress or a similar one, in that way. If everyone was powerful then there wouldn’t be any problem with things, however, the weak just get the even shorter end of the stick. Which was my case. 

 

Click…

 

I snapped back into reality and struggled to hug the wall. A cloaked man stood on the door, he wasn’t the person that beat me up from before. But something told me that he could kill me if he wanted to. 

 

“Now now, don’t be so scared little pet. We will find you the right home, but for now, we have to make preparations…” His voice was eerie and echoed in my head, he tried to sound gentle, or rather. He sounded completely gentle and seemingly had no ill intent, but something about me told me it was just a facade he was putting up. 

 

“W-When will you kill me?” I asked in fear. 

“Now, we don’t plan on doing that.”

 

“I can tell… you can kill me any time you want, and what’s the point in pretending to be nice?” He stood aghast on the door. 

 

“Hahaha! Is that so? Wow, you are unbelievable.” He started walking towards me as I struggled to get away from him, but I was already against the wall. My entire being was telling me to get away. His footsteps got closer until I was forced to look up, he flashed me his creepy smile and almost visible breath. 

 

“So you can even tell. Well, sadly for you I am not here to end your misery.” He brought a small cup close to my mouth, of course I did not want to drink it. “Tch, just drink.” He held my cheeks and forcefully opened my mouth as if feeding an animal. I couldn’t breathe and ended up swallowing unintentionally. 

 

“Good girl.” 

“Cough!” It tasted awful, almost as if it was trash in liquid form. I did not hear the man anymore, just a door click once again. 

 

I sat upright, my body was still in pain. Maybe I deserved it... I was starting to feel better though. Well, not like I could do anything in my current condition… My head started to feel dizzy and I closed my eyes for a long time. 

 

At last, I finally managed to completely and clearly opened my eyes. I was no longer seeing things fuzzy. Which was good. 

 

I looked around the room, it was entirely made of bricks, with windows at the very top of the walls, they were basically basement windows with bars on them, almost like a prison. The sun was filtering through them, so that was nice. I kind of wanted to scream and try to get help, but I had a feeling that the windows were not really connected to any place of significance. Also, it just felt like the same thing from earlier would happen. If I screamed or did anything, the man might come back again. 

 

Sigh, this is hopeless. It doesn’t matter anymore to be honest...

 

The door opened once again. It was a person I did not recognize, no cloak or cape. Tanned skin and full of tattoos with some rather revealing clothes. “Now, you know what happens here?” 

 

His voice was familiar. “Are you going to beat me up again?” I asked in tiredness. Part of me wanted to be in fear, and the other part of me was convincing me that I should die here and get the nightmare done with. It just kind of felt unrealistic. 

 

“So, you recognize me? I thought I erased my face from your memory through a good beating, but to answer your question, no. I am not here to beat you up this time.” With a snap of his fingers, another two cloaked figures entered the room carrying a box with a cloth on top of it “We can do things the nice way or do them rough, last time you chose being rough, what will it be this time?” So it was like that… 

 

“Nice way… Please…” 

“Oh wow, would you look at you? You have manners and everything! Just because you pleaded nicely.” He snapped his fingers once again and the box was set on the ground. He lifted the cloth up. It was a cage. “Get in.” 

 

I complied and stood up, it no longer hurt for some reason. It felt as if my dignity was stripped away, but as I said. A part of me thought it was for the better, I had no reason to complain. The cage was small, so I had to crawl inside. I noticed the man’s eyes widened. 

 

“So it really is the nice way… I thought you would attempt something. Looks like you are learning. Good girl…” Even though his voice was nice, that was the only part that felt gentle. As I was inside the cage I looked at it for a bit, it was made out of wood and kind of rough. The door was closed and cloth was placed over it. 

 

“Take her to the site.” 

“”Aye”” The cage started to shuffle, it was hard to stay in one place.