The game Dimension Contender raises characters using a system called traits.
So how do you obtain traits?
It begins with blooming a "possibility."
For instance, if a player fights mainly in a headlong style, they obtain possibilities of the "charge" line.
Invest KP in that, and you get a complete trait.
There is one secret here that newbies don't know.
Even without investing KP in a possibility, repeating the same style of combat countless times generates the trait automatically.
'So the [Magic Power Core] I just obtained falls under that method.'
Enoch probably hadn't pushed me "to the limit" because he knew the system's unique abilities.
More likely, one of the ways a Demon Realm native grows stronger had simply happened to overlap with it.
'But even so…….'
The fact that controlling this damned magic power had become possible doesn't go away.
It isn't perfect, of course.
Say I'd "designated a leader" for a pack of wild horses that would only run wherever a road was opened for them.
Now I only had to manage that leader. A sliver of control had become possible.
"Heh, heh heh…… gurk."
Even that wasn't easy, mind you.
To think I had to suffer side effects this bad just for designating a leader.
"Whew."
A familiar ceiling.
Familiar enough that such a trite thought came to mind.
"Still, I made it back somehow."
Clothing worn to shreds by half a month of every kind of hardship.
A faint smell of blood came through the gaps.
It seemed Enoch had carried me all the way back here.
"Well, this isn't a bad outcome either."
My original goal had been to copy the traits Enoch held through Existence Analysis.
But for someone who had to handle magic power from here on, gaining the Magic Power Core was a good thing too.
And this affair had given me the conviction that I could speak with Enoch a little more comfortably now.
In many ways I'd gained a lot.
So first…….
"Guess I'll go see Eno—gurghk."
……I'd better let my body recover until I could move.
***
Fortunately, with good food and rest, my body recovered quickly.
That was thanks to the [Regeneration] I'd picked up by chance while fighting all sorts of demonic beasts.
After resting well for about a day, I headed straight for Enoch's room.
I knocked lightly, permission to enter came, and when I opened the door.
I saw Enoch seated neatly at a table, enjoying his teatime.
……He had a hobby like this?
"What is it."
Enoch, whose eyes had been closed as though savoring the tea, asked.
Hm.
Countless questions whirled through my head, but there was still something I had to say first.
"Um, I wanted to tell you thank you."
Man, those words were hard to get out.
To think I'd be saying this to the enemy of my entire life before the regression.
You really do have to live long to see…… no, you have to regress to see everything.
"……I see."
Enoch answered with nothing more than a minute nod.
I went on to ask.
"Also, will you be going out again?"
"What do you mean."
"You know, last time you were out for ten years. Whether you'll do it again."
"Not for the time being."
And how long is "the time being"?
Your "shortly" was ten years.
"At the least, not until those things move. It will be quiet for a few years at minimum."
Those things.
Probably the reason Enoch had guarded this dungeon for the past five hundred years, and the reason he'd been away for ten.
The Void.
Not the parasites it sent out to swallow the world, but their true bodies.
Enoch was holding them back here.
'So that means at least a year of safety?'
If I could, I wanted to learn more about this being called the "Void" that Enoch faced.
Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be in peril in a hundred battles.
In my past life I'd fought a Demon Realm eroded by the Void, but I hadn't fought the "Void" itself.
My enemies in this life clearly wouldn't stop at the Heavenly Realm, so I needed to look into those bastards.
Hm, so how should I go about finding out?
The golems here obviously wouldn't know.
And asking Enoch to "show me the enemies you fight" was a bit much, wasn't it?
"It would be convenient if there were some books. Something like a library."
"There is."
"……What?"
"If you mean a library, there is one."
What was he talking about now?
***
Age six.
That is, back when Enoch left saying he'd be back "shortly."
When he didn't return to the mansion for over a month, I made up my mind to search the place.
Combing this huge mansion on stubby legs was no easy task.
But at the time I thought it necessary.
Back then my hostility toward Enoch hadn't fully settled.
And I suspected there might be a decisive clue inside the mansion as to how he would become the Demon God in the future.
But for all my effort, I found nothing.
Enoch's room, bare but for a bed and a small tea table.
The rest area for the golems that managed the mansion.
And countless empty rooms on top of that (the golems cleaned even those, which gave me a bit of a chill).
Beyond that, about the only thing I found was the dining hall where the golems prepared meals.
And yet…….
"There was a study?"
If something like that existed, he could have told me sooner!
I'd have milked it for all it was worth these ten years!
"To be exact, it is an underground storeroom."
An underground storeroom……?
I had never seen an entrance leading underground in this mansion.
Then, as if he meant to show me by action rather than words, Enoch headed for the mansion's central staircase.
He walked toward the enormous fountain that decorated the space beneath it.
Then Enoch stirred up a little magic power.
And, as if resonating with it, didn't an entrance open up beneath the fountain?
"Why did you hide it……?"
"Because this place needs to be severed from the mansion."
What on earth had he done down there to require severing it?
That question came to me, but Enoch said nothing further.
So, with Enoch's permission, I went down the stairs.
Enoch merely waited in front of the fountain.
At the entrance the smell of water moss brushed my nose, but once I had gone all the way down the stairs.
The damp that had been wetting my skin until a moment ago, and Enoch's presence from above, had both vanished.
Instead, only a corridor appeared, its torches lighting in time with my steps.
"So this is what a severed space is like."
It wasn't simply a division between one floor and another; the space itself had been separated from the start.
'Did he create an entirely new space?'
If I had to compare it, it felt close to a subspace, but the grain of it was different.
A subspace is a place that comes into being without any fixed coordinates.
Whereas this had been newly created with its coordinates fixed in place.
Anyway, I set my stray thoughts aside and followed the torches that lit the corridor one after another.
'Feels like I've walked into some underground dungeon.'
Surely there wasn't a lich king's soul sealed down here…….
Then again, this was the underground storeroom of a being who would become the Demon God, so it wouldn't be strange if something like that turned up.
Worrying about that, I reached the end of the corridor, and what I saw was the door of an old storeroom.
"……."
Not knowing what might jump out, I quietly circulated magic power and opened the door.
And beyond it…….
"Huh."
It was cleaner than I'd expected…….
"No, this is beyond clean."
A space appeared with an atmosphere so splendid it felt luxurious.
I couldn't even gauge how vast it was, and in the midst of it I saw bookshelves stretching far and wide in long rows, packed tight with books.
"Wait, what is all this……?"
A space so clean you'd be hard pressed to find a single speck of dust, as though someone tended it every day.
I was wondering how such a thing was possible when.
-Eep!
"……?"
A strange voice came.
I turned my head that way at once, but there was nothing to be seen.
"Did I hear things?"
Hmm.
I soon dropped my interest and turned my head back toward the bookshelves…….
Psych!
SNAP!
When I whipped my head around without warning.
Behind one of the shelves, I spotted some ball of fluff the size of a head spying in my direction.
-Eeek?!
Our eyes met, and the startled ball of fur immediately hid behind the shelf.
Seriously, it fell for a childish fake like that?
"You there. I've already seen you, so why don't you come out?"
-…….
"If you don't come out, I can't settle this like a gentleman either."
Still no sign of it coming out.
I wore a sly smile and opened my mouth again.
"Come out by the count of three. One, twooo……."
-Wh-who are you, yo?!
The question came in just before I hit three.
……Who am I?
Good question.
What should I say?
Maybe because I'd spent so much of the past sixteen years alone, my communication skills felt as poor as Enoch's.
Still, there was only one answer to give.
"The Demon King Enoch's son. Yujin."
-Th-the King's son?! I've never heard of such a thing, yo!
What a hurtful thing to say to the son he picked up.
And what's with tacking a "yo" onto the end of every sentence?
-F-first of all, no female Demon Realm native has ever come here, yo! The Demon King is not of a hermaphroditic species, yo!
"That's true, but……."
Good grief. Proof that I'm the Demon King's son…….
'Ah.'
I didn't know whether this would count as proof.
"Will this do?"
I moved the Magic Power Core and set magic power burning over my fist.
The internal injuries around the core hadn't fully healed, but this much was fine.
Anyway, the black ball of fluff looked at the magic power risen over my fist, and its already round eyes grew rounder.
-Th-the Demon King's magic power……?
"Will you believe me now?"
I couldn't explain the exact reason, but thanks to the Demon God's blood serum before the regression, part of the Demon God's magic power was mixed into me now.
We weren't joined by blood, but the magic power was similar.
That should count as proof.
But.
-EEEEEK!!
"Wh-what? What's wrong?"
-You tried to deceive me, yo!!
"……?"
-I don't feel the same grain as the Demon King's soul from you, bastard, yo! Just what kind of bastard are you, yo?!
Oh, shit. What is this?
Is it smarter than I thought?
-What is that look, yo?!
"No……. Hold on."
The conversation was turning against me.
The moment I grasped that, I went on the counterattack.
"And who are you, then? I've lived here sixteen years and I've never even heard of you. Aren't you the one who's some evil spirit that sneaked into this mansion?"
-E-evil spirit?! Take that back, yo! I'm not any kind of evil spirit, yo!
"You've got no proof. No proof."
It must have been galled enough by my counterattack, because the thing that had been hiding behind the shelf slowly revealed itself.
"……Dust?"
-What, yo?!
What popped out was a clump of black dust…… no, on a closer look, it was a sheep with black wool.
A bipedal one at that, a round sheep the size of a head.
"You're a spirit?"
-That's right, yo! I'm a dream spirit, yo!
A dream spirit.
Only then did I understand why this strange space was so separated from Enoch's mansion.
This place was a space made by mapping a dream onto reality.
"What's a spirit doing in the Demon Realm? Your kind belongs in the Middle Realm."
-Th-that's none of your business, yo! Now reveal your own identity, yo!
"I already told you. The Demon King Enoch's son. A picked-up son, but still."
-Picked up? You were picked up too, yo?
What was that supposed to mean?
"You were picked up too?"
-Urk!
As if it had made a slip, the spirit clapped its cotton-club hands over its mouth.
At the sight I let out a deep sigh…… and went on.
"Let's start with introductions. Seeing as we were both picked up."
Was Enoch's hobby something like picking up stray cats?
Being lumped in with a fluffball of a spirit like that was a little absurd…… but still.
I couldn't help being glad that I finally had someone in this mansion I could actually talk to.
-Why are you suddenly acting friendly, yo?! Did you develop some inner sense of kinship, yo?!
Ah.
Apparently it didn't feel the same way.
***
"So you're some kind of caretaker who manages this storeroom and the mansion on top of it?"
-That's right, yo. The King took me in, so I've been serving him here, yo.
The reason it hadn't been staying in the mansion proper was that, being a dream spirit, it needed a space of its own.
"So this is why the mansion's been so spotless all this time……."
-Can't you feel the King's dignity, yo?
The spirit pointed at the storeroom as it spoke, as if showing it off.
Astonishingly, the owner of the golems that managed the mansion was this thing.
The reason it still hadn't recognized me was that, like this space, its golems were independent beings.
'And Enoch, not telling me any of this…….'
Did the Demon King even know this one existed?
-The King is always busy with his work, yo. I only need to do my own job well, yo.
How could there be such a faithful slave?
Apparently the last time it spoke with the Demon King was over ten years ago.
……Hold on.
Over ten years ago?
"What did you two talk about?"
-Why would I tell you that, yo?
"Tell me, and I'll tell you what the Demon King is doing upstairs."
-He asked me to find a book on a certain subject, yo. It was a book about the living creatures of the Middle Realm, yo.
Living creatures?
Don't tell me he went looking for a book like that over me, back when I was a newborn?
……For that, he doesn't seem to have done much for me.
And not even a childcare book, but a book about living creatures.
It drew a dry laugh out of me.
But it struck me as very like Enoch.
-Why aren't you telling me, yo?
"He's probably resting comfortably in his room about now."
-Ooh! What a relief, yo! The King is always a busy one! He needs rest now and then, yo!
I gave it a half-hearted answer and it was thrilled.
I felt needlessly guilty, but anyway.
"So will you find the books I want, too?"
-Is there any reason I should help you, yo?
"I came with the Demon King's permission."
-What do you want, yo?
……I was starting to get the hang of how to use this thing.
In any case, thanks to it, I was able to find the books I wanted among the volumes.
The history of the Demon Realm, which I'd puzzled over on my own for sixteen years.
And information on the bastards who would destroy the Demon Realm in the future.