Even though JJ ran as fast as she could to the next room, she was beaten to it by M the wolf and later the lizard firetank. By the time she had made it, the two were already fighting what appeared to be golems made of clay. Unfortunately, she could hear them arguing with each other in her mind.

“Come on you stupid lizard, help me out here. I can’t really do anything unless you use your fire abilities to make them a bit harder so I can actually land a hit and not get watery clay all over this body.” M shouted at firetank.

“What’s wrong? Just a moment ago you were being all high and mighty, now you want my help?” Firetank scoffed.

“Oh for goodness’ sake,” M said just as JJ locked eyes with both of them. A moment later, a bright flash of light came out of nowhere so that JJ had to shield her sight from the burning light.

“What happened?” JJ said as she put her arms down from her eyes. However, there was silence in her mind as she saw firetank unleashing a deadly cone of flames all around the room. After the fire died down, the wolf launched at the now hardened clay golems and shattered them all one hit each.

“I’ll tell you what happened. I took over firetank’s body as well as the wolf. Now I am in control of both.” M’s familiar voice rang inside her head.

“How did you manage that? And why.”

“The consciousness of the lizard was pushed aside and that is how I entered into the body. This is also what happened to the wolf.”

“Oh...are you able to do that to me?”

“I’d rather not, the more brilliant someone is, the harder it is for me to accomplish. But to answer your question, yes, yes I can.”

“You haven’t done it to me have you?”

“No, if I do do this, then whoever was in the body before should be able to witness everything that is going on as I do them, I think”

“Anyway, doing this to dumb beasts isn’t really all that difficult. That’s sort of what I like about you humans, you are so unnecessarily complex. It’s pretty fun, that’s all I’ll say about that. Let’s head on to the next room.”

“...Ok....” JJ said as she followed the two beasts who were now both under M’s control.

“By the way…”

“Hmmm?”

“You should know that with all of the benefits that I have given you, you better not throw all that away.”

“Why do you think I would ever do that?”

“I don’t know, some are very irrational, this wouldn’t be the first nor last time that this will happen. Besides, you wanted me to kill you when we first met. If that isn’t an extremely irrational choice, I don’t know what is.”

“...”

“...”

“...”

“...Well, say something.”

“Can you tell me a bit more about this world?”

“I would have to go do a bit of recon for that but sure, once I get the info, I’ll tell you. If I do that then I would have to do that full-heartedly and you would be by yourself.”

“Alright, that shouldn’t be too big of a problem. Once we get out of here, I’ll go into a few more dungeons while you go do your research. I think I’ve been too accustomed to you helping me out that I won’t be able to do anything on my own. Plus, it’s not like you will be by my side forever, right?”

“Actually, I could literally be by your side until you die. However, I know people in your country on your world value freedom so that makes sense. I will try to respect it, but no guarantees.”

“That gives me some closure that you will stay by my side, but what exactly is your reason for doing so? What incentives do you have to stay by my side?”

“Hold on,” M said as the wolf and lizard under his command rushed forward to take out a few dozen wood druids that had very branchy faces which were terrifying. Then, once that task was accomplished, all 3 of them continued down the path in silence until M finally said, “this is a really private matter that concerns you very little, so I would appreciate it if you never asked me this again.”

“Are you serious? You have been invading my privacy all day today as well as yesterday too!”

“Just know that your continued survival and increased strength will benefit me in ways you will not understand.”

“Fine,” she sighed, “maybe I’ll ask again later. We have had quite a few adventures already, you seem to be really touchy about this subject, defensive even. I’d really like it if we could keep our adventures light-hearted.”

“Me too, I’m glad you think of it that way. Now, onto the next room. There are a few icy sprites in here.”

“What do they look like? Every time I see it mentioned in my books and games, it has a different look.”

“You’ll see,” M said as both of the monsters picked up the pace. As the next room came into view, a blue hue could be seen in the rocks of the walls that preceded the room. Once inside, there was very clearly a lake that shone a very mesmerizing shade of blue.

“I’ve never seen anything like this, all I can say is wow.”

“Yup, there are very few patches of water or any other distinctive feature of most dungeons. This is a pleasant surprise.”

“You weren’t able to see this in your dimension down onto mine?”

“I could have if I had paid much attention to it, but as you can tell by my tone, I have not. Plus, I can see a lot of things in the world you stand on, but not everything.”

“Makes sense, you might as well be a god in this dimension, huh?”

“Heh, I’ve played God a few times, and let me tell you, it gets very boring after a while. Never on Earth, but a few other planets. Fun for a little bit, but soon everyone takes everything way too seriously and wars start because of your name and whoever is swindled into it.”

“Wow, that’s really depressing.”

“Religions get started by a few higher beings and after a while, they leave as there is really nothing in your dimension that makes it worth staying for. After their departure, the presence of their followers slowly starts to decline and eventually it dwindles down to the last few. Then finally, poof, no more followers.”

“Is that really true for Earth as well?”

“You tell me, you’ve lived there all your life.”

“If what you say is true, then that is something that is very mindblowing to me. I have grown up reading all those myths and legends of gods, monsters and whatever of the Greeks and Romans and various other places. Are any of them real?”

“There are some truths, and some exaggerations no doubt. I haven’t really read up on the history, but I do believe that there were two mass exoduses’ of fantasy creatures from other worlds around the time that the Greeks and Romans were around the height of their power. In addition to the other two I told you about last time. The first one with the Greeks was the biggest one ever on your planet, and a comparatively smaller one occurred during Roman times.”

“I am learning so much from you, more than I ever did in school.”

“I’m not surprised, the truth of this universe and everyone that precedes and succeeds it is beyond even my understanding. You humans are no doubt above average in intellect, but there are many traits you lack that would make conquering the cosmos a lot easier.”

“And what would that be?”

“Ethics.”

“What do you mean by ethics?”

“You have a bit too high of a standard set upon yourselves that frankly, is one of the highest in my experience.”

“Isn’t having high ethics a good thing?”

“Many species foreign to you will seriously debate that statement to their dying breath. In all honesty, it is impressive that you have managed to come so far, but going forward, that will be a mystery.”

“I still don’t understand. You aren’t the best at explaining things so you resort to steering the conversation to other directions.”

“What I mean is advancement. I won’t say too much, but advancement will not be as high as other species vying for control of your universe.”

“What? People of this planet?”

“No, I don’t mean people of this planet. There are very few unique species like yours, that are able to reject the default fantasy setting that most planets have and evolve a species that is so much more technologically advanced that they develop methods capable of traversing the universe, something that only the beings of higher dimensions should be capable of doing.”

“Wow, this is some heavy stuff, I think I need to sit down.”

“Then go sit on that rock over there.”

“I will.” She said as she sat down trying to process everything that she was hearing, there was a bit of healthy skepticism in her mind, but that was being thrown out the window every time M told her new information.”

“There is one exception, the galaxy of beginnings. I saved you from going there, but if you die again, then you will surely go there. I don’t really know what quality is best suited for you, but let’s hope it's not anything particularly violent, otherwise, you will wish you were even deader than you will be. In fact, a million deaths would be preferable than some of the...bloodier...planets. Hold on, are you even comprehending half of what I am saying?”

“Content wise? Yes. Do I get it? I wish I really didn’t.”

“That’s enough info dump on you for now, time to go complete this dungeon.”

The following half-hour, the wolf and lizard controlled by M, along with a few more JJ managed to summon, took out monster after monster. Eventually finishing the dungeon with JJ not really doing anything much, but still benefitting from the shared experience all the same.