Draconic Karma Dungeon

Chapter 31: A Thief and a Forest on Fire

Emil Great Rat had been a thief before he had joined The Order of The Broken Goddess. The order's influence hadn't changed this fact, only tempered it.

Growing up as an orphaned street kid meant he had to go against society's rules to survive. Other kids had a family which fed them and helped them out. Emil didn't even know what his parents' names had been and thus didn't know his own last name. But plenty of people had called him "a great rat, unnaturally big" or some variety thereof, so Emil had taken Great Rat as his last name.

Sometimes people had offered to aid Emil, but he knew they were simply trying to trick him into lowering his guard, so he didn't fall for their false offers.

The Order of The Broken Goddess, however, had taken good care of Emil: giving him shelter and tasty food. What more could a homeless guy ask for! In return Emil only had to pretend to believe in the existence of a broken goddess. He didn't even have any duties to attend to!

Well… Except for joining the failed crusade.

Still better than what his life had been beforehand.

For a bit Emil had actually believed in the existence of the broken goddess. He could no longer say for certain. He felt it could be true, but that he wanted a bit more proof before truly believing.

But even without believing he was still ready to support The Order.

As long as they took care of him in return, that is.

Before, the presence of his boss kept him from going back to his roots. But now, that influence was gone.

So when the Tribe chose to simply send him off with no one to guard him, he knew it would be the perfect time to take a couple of extra things for himself.

The horses! Was Emil's first thought and target. Stupid rules saying they're not already mine! But as always! Rules are there for me to break them! Never done anything for me after all, so why should I follow them?!

Soon after, Emil on his own crusade horse reached the other three crusade horses his group had arrived with. Boss had only received 4 crusade horses from big boss, as she had still been new at her job. As such, Emil and the gnome girl had shared a horse on the way there, and the two centaurs hadn't needed any horses.

That thing again?! Seriously? What is that?! The creature had the body of a horse but blue and red scales and an unnaturally long neck. Fur-covered horns on top of its reptilian face behind which lay a mane of golden fur.

It was the creature the boss of this place had walked around with.

Something that unique has to be worth a lot! So of course, Emil had to take it too.

The horses were secured by ropes to some thick branches on the nearest trees. Lizard-face stood in the middle of the three horses and let them sniff and nibble it as horses are wont to do when curious. The horse Emil had arrived on began sniffing and nipping too, soon after Emil had jumped off it.

Why's lizard-face not on a leash too? I don't have any extra rope for you mister! However, the ropes were quite long and Emil did have a knife with him.

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"... end up having a whole army of Dungeon creatures to help us fight against the elves!" Tirza, the vulpinekin leader of the Party of the Brave, finished her suggestion for the whole Tribe to have not just one Dungeon creature friend but many.

"While your idea has merit, Tirza!" Nerok began. "... and I will certainly ask the Dungeon if such a thing is possible or have limits on the Dungeon side of things! On our side of it you have to remember that we have to feed all these creatures! While one or two creatures each - depending on their needs - is certainly possible, we do have to be careful not to-!" The Chief cut himself off as he had spotted Lionheart sprinting towards him.

"Lionheart?! What's wrong?!" Lionheart didn't slow down until he stood on the other side of the Chief. Then he began trying to push Nerok in the direction he had come from using his wither. Getting worried, Nerok pulled himself on his steed, who immediately began running.

Only 35 seconds passed from Lionheart started running with Nerok clinging to his back till he stopped. It took Nerok several seconds to realize what Lionheart wanted to show him.

A horse was missing!

The remaining two horses were moving restlessly and seemed to be in distress, but otherwise they looked unharmed and were still roped to nearby trees.

Nerok looked around the area, trying to find any clue as to what had happened to the third horse but finding none.

Hearing the Tribe nearing his location he loudly informed them of the missing horse, while thinking to himself: What happened here? Could the rope simply have been too loose? But what about Lionheart's reaction then? Hopefully someone can figure out what happened, so we can stop it from repeating. 'Cause… The old ursakin Chief gulped. … I really don't know what happened here.

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Emil Great Rat had jumped on his horse and quickly gotten out of there, the moment lizard-face ran off after he had failed to place the rope around its long neck. He had done this enough to not risk it when the jig might be up!

Not that he had ever dealt with living animals before…

Still, Emil now had two horses so he considered the event a success!

… At least until he realized he had a week or so long journey ahead of him and only enough food for a day or two. The busty horse lady had been hunting for them on the way there using her bow and arrows, but Emil had no such skills.

… And she and horse boy had been surprisingly good at finding their way around in the forest.

… Gnome girl was always the one to raise their tents wasn't she? Emil didn't think he knew how to do it.

… And fire for the cold almost winter nights. That had been the giants' job. One getting firewood and the other making it catch on fire. Emil wasn't worried about getting the wood, he was in a forest after all, but how exactly had they made it catch on fire?

"Stupid lizard-face!" Emil grumbled to himself. While the horses and lizard-face were distracted, Emil had unknotted a rope from a branch, cut it in half and bound the half still connected to a horse to the saddle of the horse he had ridden in on. Then Emil had taken the half of the rope he had cut off in both hands and cautiously approached lizard-face wanting to secure the exotic creature for himself so he could sell it off when he got back in town. Seeing him approach, lizard-face had begun to back away. Emil had had very little experience with animals and as lizard-face didn't seem aggressive he had decided to simply to get it over with fast.

After having decided that speed was the key to success but before Emil had begun to implement his new strategy, lizard-face had begun to turn around. As Emil had planned on putting the rope loosely around the creature's long neck, now having its face turned in another direction made this more difficult to do. And so, as Emil tried, the need to first get to the neck before actually attempting to knot the rope around it meant that lizard-face had had more than enough time to run off before he could.

As lizard-face had run off towards the beast people, Emil had quickly decided not to risk getting discovered and jumped on his horse to take off with the newly connected horse right behind them.

…

Am I even going in the right direction? Emil didn't know and had no real clue how he could find out. I think we came from this direction…

And that was just the first of his problems…

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New Dungeon Rule:

Only for Those of Sound Mind: All mind manipulation is punished by having all Ability Scores lowered by 10%. This is in effect whether it is done to you or by you, but will not hinder any attempt to free a being from mind manipulation.

It does make me feel safer, but boy! was that expensive!

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New Dungeon Rule: Get Out of My Head: All mind manipulation is weakened equal to a lowering of 6 points per hour of the used Ability Score(/s) of the manipulator.

I hope this will end up saving some innocent lives.

…

What a Dungeon Core I am. Wanting to save the innocent rather than killing those with low karma as my mission states I should. Cult members even count towards my tier up despite them being forced.

I would have killed the siren’s group regardless of whether it helped me tier up. I don’t want to take any risks when it comes to my life after all.

… And I’m pretty sure I couldn’t even have stopped my creatures or traps from killing them due to the karmic targeting.

… I suppose I could have… removed some of the creatures or traps they would have a hard time dealing with, but as every removed creature gives me back half of their mana’s worth I would soon have ended up with max mana and been unable to remove anything else.

That would have been stupid, though!

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The selected karmic cherufe has gotten the Achievement 'Puzzle Guardian'.

Achievement: Puzzle Guardian: You are the guardian of a Dungeon puzzle. Condition: Be the only guardian of a Dungeon puzzle. Reward: 125% to all Ability Scores when doing your duty as a guardian.

What?!Why? I had charged my magma golem with guarding the blue coin token, which was a key to the first door of the 7th Floor. The golem had placed the token on its back as it would be harder for people to notice it was there without making it impossible - which the System wouldn't allow. It had even made a circular indent in its back for the token.

If that was a thing why didn't the dragonets and kobolds, I charged with keeping keys out of the wrong hands, get this too?! I questioned the System, but I didn't pause to let it answer. It's basically the same thing after all! Don't tell me it's just a difference between using keys or coins!

The description of the Puzzle Guardian Achievement simply flashed in response. As I reread the thing I noticed it: It says 'the only guardian'! That's why!

Should I change my key-puzzles then? So that you only need one key? I considered it for a bit before discarding the idea. They're on the first two Floors. While the extra Ability Scores are nice, it won't make a lot of difference on those Floors. The time delay the extra keys give - and the confusion surrounding them - is better for those early Floors.

But I'll definitely start using only one guardian!

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The 7th Floor was finished 2 hours before dawn the day after the cult had tried to 'rescue' me. We had fallen into a new routine, where the whole Tribe intended to visit me at least once a week. No one had actually limited it to that as everyone wanted their own bonded creature friend ASAP. Nerok had asked if they could have more than one, but unfortunately the System wouldn't allow that.

The Chief had also asked if my kobolds would mind training the Tribe in fight techniques, which they didn't. Several kobolds all around my Dungeon even ended up with the 'teacher' modifier:

8 self-selected karmic kobolds have gotten the modifier 'teacher' and will have a better sense of what to do to help their students learn.

One of the new kobold teachers was the Charisma Class kobold, which wanted to teach everything but fighting.

Sure. If that's what you want.

Every adult member of the Tribe was scheduled to attend at least one lesson while 16 people had applied for daily lessons.

The cult really shook them up!

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It was tradition in Mammalia that the parents of a newborn would do no work for the first week of the baby's life. Instead, their community did all the needed work for them and brought them food to eat for the duration. This was meant to give the parents time to bond with their newborn without having to worry about anything.

Morghar would have liked to follow this tradition, but wasn't too disappointed when it wasn't entirely possible due to the various threats approaching the Tribe.

… At least he didn't need to do any chores or cooking for a bit!

The ursakin dad stood at the end of the long first room of the 7th Floor with the rest of his Party.

Begdar had considered befriending a kobold, as they could hold a conversation, but no kobold stood out to her. In the end, she decided to wait. You could only bond with one creature after all!

Thenac had chosen a similar route, but had also asked the Dungeon for a small creature with high Dexterity and Awareness. A kobold had informed them that, while not exactly small, wolves had been planned for the 8th Floor. It then proceeded to tell Thenac that, while bigger than a house cat, a lynx would be a perfect fit for her and could easily be included in the 9th Floor. After hearing about the feline's natural abilities, she agreed to wait for the 9th Floor.

Nelir had started paying attention to various black-furred animals in what the kobolds called their training camp. This made it impossible for Morghar to know what creature the felinekin was actually trying to befriend.

Taozcec had, as the only one in the Tribe, considered befriending a phoenix. Birax had overheard the Party discussing it and had asked Taozcec why he would want a bird when a dragon was possible. The young girl had been devastated when it was revealed that you had to be an adult before the Dungeon could give you a creature friend and couldn't understand why anyone would pick a non-dragon. The vulpinekin had informed her that as a being of flight and freedom, birds had always been his favorite animal, which was why he considered a phoenix.

He also briefly considered getting a unicorn bunny with its Healing speciality but quickly discarded the idea, as several other members of the tribe had expressed the desire to have one as well. It would have made getting one himself a bit redundant. So, Taozcec had yet to decide on a creature.

Morghar had learnt a lot about the charismatic, yet shy, vulpinekin since they started mining together. Taozcec was a listener and a comforter, soothing your cares and worries away. The vulpinekin would only enter the spotlight if he could make his audience happy by doing so. But if someone else could do the same he would happily let them take the lead.

Morghar thought he would make the perfect dad and had tried to convince Taozcec to take in one of the three children in the Tribe who had no true guardian. Said children lived with 'temporary' guardians, but Morghar had been too busy mining and taking care of his expanding family to figure out just how temporary the different guardians actually were. Instead he had simply attempted to convince Taozcec to check the situation out himself.

Right now, the Party stood before the door leading to the second room of the 7th Floor. The door had a circular indent obviously meant for the blue coin the cherufe had had stuck in its back. Zaktak had been carrying the coin and, as such, was the one to place it in the indent.

Your Party has solved a puzzle!

You have gained 15 EXP.

The door moved to the side only to reveal yet another door!

This stone door was identical to The Door of Speciesism as it too had an animated 2-dimensional kobold on it.

"Welcome visitors! I'm the smartest riddle door of all!" The door stated. "Test me! Tell me a riddle and I shall give you the answer!"

"Oookaayyy…" Begdar began, a bit surprised. Riddle doors were quite normal in Dungeons but normally you had to answer its riddle. Not the other way around. "What about this one? You wear me everyday but you never put me on. I'll change colors if you leave me in the sun for too long. What am I?"

"Clothes!" The door answered right away.

Begdar looked a bit confused at the door. She didn't think it was that hard a riddle. "No. You put clothes on. So… it's not the right answer."

"Of course it is! I'm brilliant!" The door said stubbornly. "Next riddle!"

The Party stood in silence for a bit before Nelir tried a riddle. "Many have heard me, yet no one has seen me. I won't speak unless spoken to. What am I?"

"A voice! Easy! Next one!"

The door had again answered wrong to an easy riddle. Morghat was the next to give it a try, having heard one from his dragon obsessed daughter the day before. "What has no legs, but can dance, no lungs, but can breathe and no life, yet lives?"

"Music! Keep them coming!"

"Why did the human cross the road?" Taozcec asked, having solved the riddle of the 'smart' riddle door.

"To get to the other side!" The door shouted happily before swinging open.

Your Party has solved a puzzle!

You have gained 25 EXP.

The vulpinekin gave his Party a proud smirk. "It always answered the first thing that came to mind. So, I just gave it a riddle where that would be the right answer." Then he gave Begdar a wink. "You're not the only one of us who can solve puzzles."

Begdar simply rolled her eyes in response, a small smile on her lips. "Good job. But I'm sure I would have gotten it! You just got lucky and got it first!"

"Believe what you want, Begdar~!" Taozcec taunted her as he walked backwards into the next room, having complete trust in the safety of the Dungeon.

Due to the Dungeon Rule 'Experiencing Peace' your Party has been rewarded double the amount of EXP and loot you would have gotten if you killed all the creatures in the room you just left.

Experiencing Peace rewards you 972 EXP.

While that was an enormous amount of EXP to get at once, the first room of this Floor had been a rectangular room which was long enough that it might have contained all the creatures of the entire Floor, so the amount made sense as well. The whole Party was in the 3rd tier, with Emerald and Sprout having the lowest levels amongst them at level 22, though the two were quickly catching up to the rest of the Party.

As 3rd tiers on a 2nd tier Floor like this one the gained amount had been halved by being a higher tier and then doubled by the Experiencing Peace Rule, which canceled each other out.

Looking behind Taozcec, Morghar could see into the smaller rectangular room he was walking into. The walls to the right and left of the entryway were double the length of the other two walls and had plenty of weapons on stands beside them.

"No exit?" Zaktak asked before Morghar could study the room more. And as she had stated, there appeared to be no exit in the room. The wall on the opposite side of them had no weapon stands next to it either. "Must be another puzzle room…" The muskin answered herself with a shrug.

"And this is likely the puzzle." Thenac continued Zaktak's thought process and gestured to the middle of the right wall. Here an empty, altar-like table replaced the weapon stands and a sentence was written on the wall. "'Show me only violence'." Thenac read out loud.

"Hmm…" Begdar began thoughtfully as she looked around. "Ah! And that must be who needs to be shown!" Morghar followed her gaze to the wall opposite the riddle. In the middle of said wall, several meters up, there was a pair of fake eyes, staring straight ahead and slightly down right at the riddle.

The Party knew instinctively by now, that the Dungeon disliked violence and liked to give distractions with its puzzle. It had been pointed out often enough that they no longer saw any need to remind each other to ignore the distractions, which in this case was clearly the weapons on the many stands.

Looking around for other clues, Morghar noticed another oddity. The wall with the entrance was covered in mirrors! Perfectly reflective mirrors! "Look!" The ursakin shouted as he pointed at the mirror wall.

As slaves, the Tribe had had very little access to mirrors and those mirrors would always be of a poor quality. As such, the whole Party was immediately distracted by the mirror wall, and instead of trying to solve the puzzle they began commenting on their own appearance and talking about the different people who would want to see their reflection.