Chapter 5-6
One commonality shared by all dungeon races is that they speak only American from the moment of their arrival, yet when asked, are adamant that their native language was quite different. Invariably, however, they are unable to recall the nature or even words of their original tongue, as if the System had overwritten the language center of the brain during their transition.
This explains why the names we use for many of these dungeon races date back to pre-System Earth. For example, we have no idea what the race we call dwarves actually referred to themselves as on their world of origin. Since the concept of a race of short, strongly built people with human features already existed in the American language under the name ‘dwarf’, when they appeared on Earth any references to their original name in their mother tongue were translated by the System to ‘dwarf’ in their very minds.
This phenomenon, when repeated across the entirety of the concepts that define the identity of a people, naturally destroys their ability to recall and define their own culture in any terms other than those available in American. This forces them in some sense to conform to preconceived cultural notions about what such a people would be like. All known dungeon races have been affected by the same cultural devastation, perhaps easing their integration into human society at an untold cost.
- Rufus Veres, Level 29 Prolix Historian, Oddities of the System
Unsurprisingly, no one was brave enough to speak up. That, and Thompson really had covered things thoroughly, except for explaining the whole dueling bit. The Tier 4 woman waited for a few moments, then nodded sharply and raised an arm. The all-clear signal sounded again.
“You’ve just heard the assembly signal, now show me you were paying some attention.”
With that, she turned and marched back into the administration building, while all the students filed out into the square. There, we found Leon and Zenia, along with a number of other instructors we hadn’t seen before, standing around the square calling out Squad names. Apparently the students coming from LA had already organized themselves and picked their names.
“Squad Champion!” “Squad Deathdealers!” “Elite Squad!”
I rolled my eyes at some of the names, but wasn’t sure where to go until I heard a deep voice call out “Squad Azure!”.
The entire group of us – including Alex and Alyssa – made our way over towards the voice. The source was a compact, wiry man wearing dull brown leather armor – except on his right leg, which looked to be made of metal rather than flesh. The black metal reminded me more than a little of the golem we’d fought, though his was more sculpted, resembling an actual leg. Identify.