Draconic Karma Dungeon

Chapter 16: Evacuation and Elves

Wanting to confirm the Rule one last time before entering, Chief Nerok placed his hand on the stone part of the Dungeon Portal.

The Dungeon Portal is currently open.

The standard timer has been set to 2 hours from the arrival of each Party.

4 can enter the Dungeon at a time.

Due to the Dungeon Rule 'Chosen Family' any member of Chief Nerok's Tribe, including children, can enter the Dungeon without counting towards the Dungeon's allowed number of sapients per Floor.

Turning back to his Tribe the Chief repeated what the people already knew. Just to make sure they behave. "The Dungeon may have made us its chosen family, but we are still its guests! Behave yourselves and respect its boundaries! Be kind to its creatures and don't cross any streams unless the Dungeon has provided it with steppingstones! If a creature tells you to stop you do so! And that’s whether it tells you with words or growls! Understood?!" They did. "Then grab everything so the elves think we left! Then we'll enter the Dungeon and see how it has prepared for our arrival!"

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The children loved the cute dragonets but were easily convinced to leave them alone by their parents or guardians. "Later." They were told. "We need to see where we are staying first and unpack our stuff. Besides, you've played with Emerald and Sprout before. You can wait before playing with these."

Loot was collected on the way, but fruits, nuts, berries, and meat were the main focus. They had no real clue as to how long they would have to stay after all.

The first 5 BO's were given to the 5 pregnant ladies, who had yet to tier up. None of them have given birth yet but it looks really close for two of them. One of the two closest to giving birth was Morghar's mate. His mate was a bear-beastkin like himself and their two children. The girls appeared to be identical twins, but they clearly had two different personalities. Birax was slightly calmer and seemed obsessed with dragons. Haria liked dragons too but less enthusiastically and was more interested in running around, exploring, and playing tag. She did successfully drag her sister into playing with her and the other kids instead of only observing my creatures.

The children even got to run around unsupervised while in the big Forest of Territories. They really trust me a lot it seems.

One little mousegirl - and by little, I mean while she was only one meter tall, her features was what told me she was still a child - wasn't allowed to wander off though. Her foxboy guardian kept a close eye on her in fact. Or maybe he's her dad? I'm not completely sure if that's possible or not. Hey System?! Can a… I looked at the species name above the foxboy in question to find the proper term. … vulpinekin have a… I then looked above the mousegirl. … muskin as a biological daughter?

Crossbreeding between the different beastkin races produces an offspring of the race of either the mother, the father or one of the grandparents.

Oh… Simple then… What then, if a beastkin and an elf had a child?

Crossbreeding between different sapient species produces a sterile offspring with features and abilities from both parents.

Right. So likely not a popular option.

The Tribe had now reached The Watchtower Crossroad and were greeted by a kobold who proceeded to show them around. The Tribe was very impressed by The Kobold Fortress. I might have built the walls, the trees, and the moat but the rest of it the kobolds had done. Furniture, tools, doors, and the likes had all been built by the kobolds. I had simply told them what I wanted done, while supplying them with trees to cut down and rocks to shape, and they did. They might not need to sleep but that won't stop me from making sure they have beds! Granted, it was just one room filled with beds and nothing else, but at least they had them!

The unfinished 4th Floor was a series of 5 rectangular rooms with long stone buildings on each of the long sides of the rooms. Each building had a flat stone roof and was furnished by the kobolds. The Tribe would end up a bit cramped with only 10 18×3 meters buildings but it wasn't too bad.

Several black fledgling neurotoxic dragons with dark green highlights were hanging out on some of the rooftops along with 10 level 8 kobolds, who couldn't leave the Floor due to their higher level, and the mimic of the Floor. The karmic dumb mimic currently looked like a raised part of the roof, so the Tribe was unlikely to ever realize it was there unless it revealed itself.

The neurotoxic dragons were slightly bigger than dragonets but had sharper features and small spikes running down their spine.

The yak wool beds were a big hit, even though each bed was made of wood and only had a thin yak wool blanket to sleep on and one to sleep under. I wanted something like that for my kobolds eventually too. For now my kobolds hadn't had enough time to make blankets for themselves as well. And well, as they like to remind me; they also don't need to sleep. So right now they simply had beds covered in the softest moss I could make.

The Tribe was sad that they would be unable to take the yak wool blankets with them when they left, due to it having come from a Dungeon creature and not the environment.

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Tanithil Alnus was the lieutenant for the platoon sent to retrieve the runaway slaves and confirm the existence of a new Dungeon. His superiors didn't want to take the words of a slave child too seriously after all, so his orders regarding the Dungeon were simply to scout it and report back.

That's probably why they sent my platoon too. Tanithil thought to himself. Everyone here is young and has little to no field experience.

Tanithil had two sergeants under his charge who in turn had a squad of 10 elves each under their command. The platoon additionally had a field medic in training, who was somewhat outside the normal chain of command. If Mr. Populus - as his title was ‘field medic in training’ he had asked everyone to instead call him Mr. Populus - gave a medically related order he had to be obeyed by all, but he was otherwise just underneath the two sergeants in the hierarchy. Tanithil knew Mr. Populus was a 3rd tier Shaman but didn’t know his exact level.

A platoon of only 24 people might seem small to some, when pitted against a group of 98 people. But those people should remember that not all of the 98 beastkin could fight, while all 23 elves were professionally trained in handling slaves. And while most of the slaves might have tiered up by now, they would only be at the early to mid-2nd tier - with the exception of three slaves who were level 19+ due to having been meant to grind for 2nd tier BO’s. Meanwhile the elves of Tanithil’s platoon were all in late tier 2 to mid-tier 3. Tanithil himself was late 3rd tier - level 28 specifically - with the Class of Leader. The Leader Class gave him the active Class Skills 'Aura of Speed' and 'Morale Boost' in addition to the passive 'Persuading Voice' he had gotten when he got the Charisma Class he no longer had.

"The Portal has been located!" Came the word from a Scout.

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"Well, they appear to have abandoned the area." Sergeant Luvon Tilia commented.

Tanithil nodded. "Have all awas - except Mr. Populus - look for clues as to their whereabouts." 'Awa' was the term used for all classes that was or started as the Awareness Class. Likewise 'dex' was for the Dexterity based, 'char' for Charisma and so on. Though with Strength only having one syllable in the first place no one shortened that one. The shortening didn't include the hybrid Classes, which were based on multiple Ability Scores, that appeared from the 4th tier. It only referred to Classes with only one focus.

In Tanithil's platoon no one had hybrid Classes as no one was a 4th tier.

"We'll pick a group of 4 to scout the Dungeon for the report and have the rest make camp and guard the area." Tanithil announced.

"Yes, lieutenant Alnus!" Said the two sergeants with an elven salute. After having clicked their heels together in respect for their lieutenant the two of them went to go order their squads around.

Tanithil took his Communication Orb and started making a report to captain Gleditsia.

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Jaonos Elaeagnus entered the Dungeon with his crossbow raised. The other three elves in his Party had their weapons ready as well. Jaonos noticed the text above each of his Party members head but didn't comment on it out loud.

While no monster attacked them immediately, they didn't let their guard down. Halfway into the room Jaonos heard the other Dexterity Class, Elduin, shout "In the tree!" as he threw one of his throwing daggers. The small green dragon fell to the ground as the room turned red. As it hit the now blood-red grass it turned into loot.

The remaining 5 dragons answered the attack with screams as they flew to attack the dagger-thrower. He simply answered by throwing more daggers at them. Only one got close enough to attack before it died, and it used the opportunity to blast his face full of flames. This naturally caused him to curse up a storm.

Jaonos lowered his crossbow and took out his water canteen. He then dumped its contents on top of Elduin who responded with a mumbled thanks. The light of the fire had temporarily blinded the man.

Iefyr, the Party's Strength Class member, ordered Elduin to relax for a bit while he and the Toughness Class, Paeral, checked if the room was truly empty of monsters.

Jaonos stood by Elduin as they searched. Not in case the blinded man needed help with something or to protect him, but because he had no reason to help the others look. The monsters are all level 1 anyway.

As soon as Iefyr and Paeral stepped foot into the stream they got electrocuted. They hadn't thought to look in the water as they hadn't expected the Dungeon to have any water dragons. Forest themed Dungeons didn't get those until they got either the ocean theme or the river theme at a higher tier. And while the stream before the big tree could have been taken as a sign that the 1st tier of the Dungeon had the river theme, one thing had informed the elves that it wasn't so. The reflective surface of the Dungeon Portal had been green, not blue.

With the electrocution coming from a level 1 monster, the two 2nd tiers barely got hurt and the sea serpent was soon slaughtered. Then the two gathered Elduin's daggers and sounded the all clear. Jaonos then pushed the still blind Elduin into the next room.

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All the monsters seem really focused on killing Elduin and Paeral for some reason. Every time a monster noticed one of the two, they started attacking, but didn't immediately attack if they saw Jaonos or Iefyr.

Elduin looked really hurt at the moment, though his eyes worked fine again. While attacking the monsters of the 3rd room he had stepped on a spike trap which had him limping. Of course he's faking that. A 1st Floor trap wouldn't harm a late 2nd tier enough for that. Why he would fake it, Jaonos didn't know though. Elduin had then gotten steadily angrier over each slight wound and had taken to being the spearhead. A role better suited for Paeral as the tough of the Party. No one tried to discourage him though. If he wants to take the hits then let him, the other 3 thought.

While spearheading the Party through the corridor between the 5th and 6th rooms, Elduin had taken dart to his sides, more spikes up through his hurt foot and rocks to his head. Jaonos knew that any 2nd tier that had been looking out for traps would have noticed them as it was only the 1st Floor. And any 2nd tier awa would have spotted them without looking for them. But Elduin was mad and simply charged forward without looking.

The fight in the 6th room was different than in the other rooms. Here Elduin was attacked by a dragon-headed winged lion that he couldn't focus on, which made the battle much more difficult. Iefyr had just as much trouble focusing but together, they defeated the monster. But before that happened it had gotten a couple of hits on Elduin. Meanwhile Jaonos and Paeral had taken care of the 'dragonets' coming to attack Paeral.

Elduin still wanted to spearhead the mission and fell into a pit trap with wooden spikes on the bottom as a result.

And then the dragonets started dive-bombing him.

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The elves had arrived 2 days after the Tribe had evacuated. The first Party consisted of two level 17's with the Dexterity Class, one level 18 Toughness and a level 19 Strength.

Whenever possible, I had my creatures attack the one named Elduin. With my creatures and traps being so weak on the 1st Floor compared to the elves I knew I would have to take them out one by one. Jaonos and Elduin both had the lowest levels of the 4 at level 17 but Elduin's karma level of only 9% made the choice between them easy. Paeral's karma level of 10% meant that my creatures would attack the Toughness Classer instead if they saw him first. I had tried to redirect them, but it wasn't possible once they had noticed an evil target. Guess I know who's next! The other two had karma levels of 17% and 22%.

The Party got Elduin up from the Hidden Pitfall trap using a rope they had with them. Clearly, they are better prepared for this than the Tribe was.

They failed the Kindness puzzle as they had 'killed' the fake dragonet. I thought this would have stopped them in their tracks, but it only slowed them down while they looked for the hidden door. When they found it the Strength Classer simply rammed the stone door open.

… I hadn't realized that was an option…

This also meant that the Strength Classer was the one getting hit by the Acid Spray trap spitting acid from above him right in front of the opening just inside The Swamp Route. The acid made his skin red and irritated but nothing more.

The now red elf tried to tell his Party to "keep an eye out for-" something but got interrupted by the dragonets spotting and attacking Elduin while they were screeching. Unluckily for Elduin he decided to attack the dragonet by going past Iefyr and jumping forward with his daggers aimed for a flying dragonet. This led him into the trigger zone of the Sleeping Gas trap and caused him to fall asleep.

And then the two log crocodiles arrived.

While no one was stupid enough to enter the area with the white fog looking sleeping gas, Jaonos still had a crossbow. So while Elduin got several more wounds and burns from the dragonets he didn't die, and the log crocodiles didn't get near him.

The other three barely made sure the room was empty before leaving Elduin on the ground. And with Elduin now unconscious the Toughness Classer was now the one in front and thus the one getting hit by traps. This time Spikes and Darts at the same time.

It didn't hurt him much though.

The two bìxiés' aura did a brilliant job of disorienting the elves while the bìxiés tried to kill Paeral. His right arm - with which he held his double-bladed axe - was bleeding fiercely. But in the end my creatures lost. The mimicking dragonet had been mimicking a branch and got a bite of Paeral's ear when he passed by but was then quickly slain.

With the Party having gotten no keys the Strength Classer again smashed through my stone door.