Dungeon? This Tree? Why Don't You Join Me for Lunch? (Dungeon Core) Chapter 81: Dark Clouds

"It was a rainy day. A strange day. It almost never rained back ho," I whispered, in the middle of a cuddle pile. There they all were: Aron, Nate, Desmond and Nick.

My rays of sunshine.

But I was going to tell them a dark story. A story which Titan already knew. For he knew everything I knew.

And yet, he still wanted to cut down. To remake . To scavenge what he could from .

Nate gave my hand a little squeeze, I snugged deeper into Aron. His lap was my seat.

I couldn’t find it in myself to move from it. He was my rock in this stormy ocean.

I’d be lost without him.

I took a deep breath.

"But it did rain on that day. A storm like I’ve never seen before. It was cold. At first, I mistook the woodcutter for soone who was lost. I wanted to go great him. Then... then I saw that he was clutching at an axe. Can you imagine how poor he was? He didn’t even have leather to strap the axe to his back," it was the first ti I said it out loud.

I was beginning to piece together a loss so severe, that I had nearly turned into a Forest Demon over.

The man was poor. The man had braved the rain, his clothes showing his skin through the holes in them because he had a drive.

thuselah was his salvation.

But why! Why had he co to chop down a tree which was not even going to make good firewood! The oldest tree there was! A tree with a nymph!

"thuselah told he loved . That I was his dearest son," I blinked at that. Dearest? Had thuselah had other nymphs before ?

My first mory had been waking up... his already thick branches swaying over .

So, as if his trunk was my cradle, and his branches the toys which were supposed to keep my idle mind from being bored.

I had started off as a child. A toddler.

Just like Theanore.

But... she was dungeon made. A soul which had been stolen from a system.

Was I... dungeon made? No true nymph?

I couldn’t continue the story.

I was finally beginning to think. I was thinking so fast; I was drawing conclusions which were so far from each other that it wasn’t even funny!

"There..." I couldn’t continue the tale of thuselah’s death. It was too painful. "Theanore the Nymph and Marinus the rman... they were there. When I first opened my eyes. They were there!"

I jumped up from my seat in Aron’s lap. I couldn’t breathe. My legs took to a mirror.

I was blonde. My eyes were embers.

But there it was, a nose I had seen on my Old Girl more than once. And those eyes... the shape was the sa as Grumpy Pants!

"Edda," If there was one person who would know if I was chasing ghosts trying to ignore the pain, then my system. "Examine my mana! Tell who created !"

I saw three dots. They flashed just for a second. And then...

Apple Grotto.

Not so sprout planted by the many rmaid or rman children of the two.

The dungeon itself. The Apple Grotto. Theanore’s dungeon.

My parents had given away before I was even born.

Why?

I fell to the stone floor. My head was swimming with the lack of air.

Lack of air? Why wasn’t I breathing?

"Sylvan!" Soone was calling . Huh... I was Pan’s uncle...

Then I saw it. Right under my na, there was another.

No, I wasn’t the boy’s uncle. His red hair did co from Marinus, but not through a rfolk child.

It ca from .

I had been a father for the past thirty years.

Guess one of the things I planted near thuselah must have sprouted sothing.

Everything clicked into place. The man didn’t want to kill thuselah for money. He was a tree in a harsh region.

I was a dark nymph.

The brave man was trying to protect his people from us. Viewed us as a danger.

I had three sons.

One of whom I never got to say hello to when he first opened his eyes.

Why...? Who had taken him? Had thuselah just chased Pan away? Didn’t I deserve to care for my own child back then?

Pan was an apple nymph. How had a bristlecone pine nymph managed to produce an apple nymph?

That was the last question, before the lack of air made fall down on the floor.

Edda took over my vitals to keep alive.

0000

When I woke up, I was in the Cave of Sin.

The bones were now making up the decoration of the cave. I had to give Titan points for trying.

"I have three sons," I murmured because it was still too good to be true.

How was I going to tell Pan that I was his father?

That I never searched for him? Just like how my own parents never searched for ?

But... no.

They did. They just didn’t want to give the power that they wielded.

Because I was a dark nymph. A monster.

"Well, I’d love to get to know them," he said, as he continued to pet on the head.

"I never knew my eldest," I couldn’t help but feel like the biggest asshat in the universe for that one.

I created a nymph, probably planted the apple in the brittle ground myself, and didn’t even know that the small seed got a nymph.

What was wrong with ?

And... Pan’s birth had brought that woodcutter to us. To thuselah and .

Had dood my tree.

Had thuselah teleported Pan to Theanore and Marinus? Had he begged them to take care of their grandchild? To give him so silly story about him being the product of a rmaid, just because his father was a clueless, brain-dead, drake?

"Hey," Titan kissed on my blonde curls. I realized that he was regulating my mana for .

Like a true boss mob.

"None of that. The boy will forgive," soon he had wrapped up in his limbs. His warmth consuming .

Yes, I thought, as he began to rock us. Trying to give the only comfort he could.

But how could I forgive myself?