Epic of Caterpillar

Chapter 1526: Finding An Ego In The Most Unexpected Of Places

Apparently, things were not so normal here in this dungeon. I had thought things were empty, but the Egos guided me into something. Apparently, there was another Ego here! But how?! I always assumed they were my invention and they just came out of my own creation… But can they manifest outside of creating them? Are there “natural” Egos? Or maybe my own power made them? Well, I might as well check around to find out. Nothing to lose with being more extensive with my search.

Which ultimately led me to something thanks to the guidance of Aquamarine, White, and Black. It was a faint glow I noticed in the upper left corner of the room. Sol was looking at us curiously while we walked there. When I reached the place, my three Egos were telling me this was it.

“This is it! This is it! This place, mama… I think this is where another one of us is located!” Said Aquamarine.

“Yeah, without a doubt. I can feel his presence loud and clear in here.” Black added.

“This is here, please touch that area of the wall, master!” White said.

“I guess I’ll give it a shot. I am pretty sure I saw something gleam in the wall…” I sighed. I extended a phantasmal tentacle into it and then…

FLAAAASH!

It was too bright!

“Agh!”

I was suddenly engulfed in pure light, as it felt like this light was never-ending. I quickly stepped back, slightly afraid, and suddenly realized I was no longer in the dungeon’s room. I was in a completely black space. Wherever I looked, it was everything black, and when I stepped over the floor, I could notice that it felt as if it had a water surface.

And while being there, I could feel another faint presence lurking behind me, this presence was watching over me… Or something. It felt both mysterious and incredibly intriguing, the more I walked forward, the closer this presence became.

“Hello?” I wondered.

“Ah…”

Suddenly, I heard the voice of a tiny girl.

“Someone’s there?” I asked again.

“…Who?”

“Eh?”

“Who are you?”

Suddenly, a faint glow emerged before me. It had no shape at all, but it seemed to be small and young, it had the gentle voice of a little toddler girl. I didn’t knew what this was, but it really had the aura and “feeling” of mystique and intrigue, and even mysteriousness that Egos always emanate from them. I am rather embarrassed to admit that, even as their creator, I know very little about them.

But certainly, if an Ego is here in another world, this means I am not really their creator, I merely discovered them in my own world, where they might had not exist or were never discovered. But in this world, they exist. Perhaps there’s a whole phenomena where they’re brought to life and my powers back in Genesis merely were able to imitate this phenomena.

“Who am I? A visitor.” I responded to her voice. “My friends seem to be similar to you, so they found you. Are you feeling lonely here?”

“…Lonely?” The little light responded, mysteriously flying around. “What’s… lonely?”

“You don’t know?” I wondered. “Where did you came from?”

“I… Where did I came from? This?” She wondered.

Much like the other Egos, she seem completely clueless about who she truly is.

“Are you from the Dark Labyrinth? Was a nasty demon attacking you or holding you?” I wondered.

“Demon… Ah… Yes.” She said. “There was something… It was using me… I think.”

It seems that it was just as I thought, this little Ego is probably… the representation of the Dark Labyrinth, or something very similar to that. Pereza had acquired the power to drain energy from the Dark Labyrinth by capturing this Ego. Maybe she has another name, but she’s really an Ego. That damn Demon Lord used her. But now that she’s dead, she was easily freed and seems to be healthy.

“You think? We defeated that thing, so you’re free.” I said.

“I am free? Oh… What’s being free?” She wondered.

“That nobody is holding you back and you can do whatever you want!” I said.

“Ohhh…”

“Do you want to come with me? I’ll show you the world outside. Want to learn new things?”

“New things… Outside world?”

“Yeah!”

“…I can’t.”

“Eh? Why?”

“Can’t leave… I’m stuck.”

“You’re stuck?”

“Hm… Can’t leave.”

“Huh…”

It seems she cannot leave. Apparently, she might be something similar to a Dungeon Core? Maybe the whole Dungeon is her actual body? Perhaps it is the vessel of her Ego, just as weapons or accessories can also be vessels… I need to find something to make her transfer herself into in that case. But what do I use? Well, I got a few items inside my Item Box…

“Wait, let me see something…” I said, searching through my Item Box.

What could be a good recipient for an Ego from everything I’ve got? If we ignore the weird reward items that I get by killing Demon Lords, there is a cooking knife, some cooking pans, and… more cooking stuff. I really am never gifted any sort of equipment or legendary magic item by Elfina and the rest of her family! Wow, that’s very greedy of them!

Currently, the item I trust the most and I like the most, and the one with the highest quality is… the cooking knife I have with me. It is said that this cooking knife is specially forged through special magic methods to be able to be sharp and cut through ingredients sharply and precisely. They even said it has a slight amount of mithril infused into it, so I might as well just pick this one…

“Here.” I said, taking out my Cooking Knife.

“Ohh… What’s this?” She wondered.

“Do you still want to go out? If you do, you can transfer yourself in this little knife, and we’ll go out together.” I said.

“Really? Is it possible?” She wondered innocently.

“Yes, it is.” I said with a nod. “So? Want to give it a try? I won’t force you or anything, so feel free to reject my offer if you want-”

FLASH!

…And she got inside rather quickly.