Draconic Karma Dungeon

Chapter 43: Momma's Treasure

While walking across the tiled part of the room, Sarzina Acacia only stepped on tiles with images of either apples, blueberries or plums. These three were in the diet of dragonets, which was the only monster type in the room. A room which also had two giant dragonet statues in it.

Upon reaching the handleless door on the other side, Zina was quick to spin the wheel right next to it.

How sad that it felt the need to reuse a puzzle already. I hope it bounces back quickly. Older Dungeons were known to reuse previous puzzles. Sometimes they began making new ones again later - or at least a new variety of an old puzzle - while some Dungeons seemed stuck on the exact same 50 or so puzzles.

And I hope it doesn't use this one again, 'cause this is too easy!

The wheel landed on a red triangle. After all, I just have to keep trying every couple of minutes until I hit a-

The sound of stones scraping against each other appeared from closely behind the Noble Lighting Mage, and she reflectively turned around to see where it came from.

-green one.

The two statues were moving, though they had yet to make an attack. Oona noticed her master's reaction and turned to look as well.

The giant dragonet statues began moving towards the nearest victim, only to be intercepted by Zina and Oona. Zina shot a single bolt of Lightning toward the statue on the left, which crumpled in response. Oona began biting and slashing at the one on the right, causing chunks of stone to fall off while only getting scratched by the statue in return.

Several nearby elves tried to help the dawon defeat her target and Zina hit it with a couple of bolts, only for each attack to do no damage at all. Only Oona's attack did any damage to the statue.

Odd. I know the Toughness of Dungeon materials follow a different rule set while inside their Dungeon, which is based on the tier of the Floor. But this is only a 2nd tier Floor…

After a quick look at her allies, she rolled her eyes and sighed. Right. I forgot I'm surrounded by 3rd and 4th tiers! And that the more powerful ones are defending our back!

While Zina was thinking, Oona had defeated her opponent. This caused the puzzle to be solved and the handleless door to open.

Your Party has solved a puzzle!

You have gained 3 EXP.

After walking through the exit of the room a new message appeared from the System. One Zina had never seen or heard of before.

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 12 EXP.

Loot is disabled.

"What?!" Had this always been a thing?! Did it happen in other Dungeons too?! The holy message says it's due to a 'Dungeon Rule'. Does that mean it's a universal Dungeon Rule or one only for this Dungeon?!

The elven noblewoman forced herself to close her eyes and take a deep breath.

Calm down. It was likely just a part of a puzzle. Perhaps to compensate for the extra difficulty.

… Not that the 'don't kill' part was all that hard, when the monsters of the room hadn't even moved towards them.

Having gathered her thoughts, she shared them with those near her, who had yet to exit the room as they had heard her sudden shout and gotten worried. Now reassured, they followed her into the next room.

Said room was the standard 10×10 meters and thus too small for how ever many remained of the company to be in it at once.

The room was covered in grass - still green - and flowers with climbing plants once again covering the walls. Each corner had a small sapling of a tree, only just big enough to have grown some pretty pink flowers.

In the center of the room there was another statue. This one was human shaped, sat on the grass with its legs crossed and had its hands resting on the knees.

On each side of the statue lay a bìxié.

Calmly…

Looking at the newcomers, but making no attempts to even get up.

"Like before." Zina stated to those behind, but without turning her head away from the monsters. "Don't make the first attack. It is a part of the puzzle. One it might be favoring."

Around the statue and bìxiés there was a ring of brown wool blankets. After getting a closer look at the statue, Zina noticed that the statue had been placed on a blanket as well.

Seeing no other clue as to what the puzzle was about - not even an exit door -, Zina decided to simply sit down on a blanket and try to imitate the statue's posture.

Seeing this several other elves decided to do the same, while Oona - being quadrupedal - simply laid down next to her master.

While fighting could still be heard, this room was quite peaceful. They could relax for a bit here.

Some of the privates began talking to each other, while others simply caught their breath in silence.

Then the wall, opposite the side they had entered from, sunk into the ground and revealed the exit.

Your Party has solved a puzzle!

You have gained 2 EXP.

Zina blinked confused at the exit several times before regaining her composure. She wasn't completely sure what they had done to solve the puzzle. It hadn't immediately been solved when the frontline had entered the cross legged position of the statue, and several privates had quickly found said position uncomfortable and changed their stands.

Was it a test of patience? If so, it wasn't a very hard test. It took - what? 5 minutes?

With a look at the two bìxiés in front of her, she reevaluated that thought. But if you also couldn't kill these two, then it would quickly become a much harder puzzle. Few would even have gotten the idea.

… Truthfully, I wouldn't have gotten the idea if not for the odd behavior of the monsters in the previous room. And back then my first instinct was still to attack! Only the larger distance between us combined with their unnaturally… dare I say 'docile' behavior… led me to think there might be a puzzle in effect.

When exiting this room another System message, much like the previous one, appeared.

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 4 EXP.

Loot is disabled.

So…

I have to know. Is this for every room, or just those two?

With that thought, Zina began trying to convince the company to not attack every monster they saw.

It took some time. But the docile behavior of the monsters of the two previous rooms combined with the holy words of the System eventually convinced the survivors to give it a cautious attempt.

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇

Uhh… Is this a good thing?

I think so…

I mean I won't get to tier up, so it's definitely not all good, but no more people have to die…

…

I guess… I'll just… have to wait and see what happens…?

The third room of the 8th Floor was a long one much like the first room of the previous Floor. This one wasn't as long as The Swampfire Forest, and unlike all my previous Floors it had a couple of dead end side rooms.

It was completely possible to simply walk past these side rooms, but then you would end up either having to break through the locked door at the end or go back and solve the puzzles the side rooms contained. As such, it was only the presence of my 'Cheaters Only Cheat Themselves' Rule, which let me feel comfortable using some of my space for skippeable side rooms.

The main traps of this Floor were the many spots where lava might sprout from the ground. These spots were scattered roughly in a line through the first room of the Floor. The invisible line would make invaders expect the traps in one area, making the few outliers all the more dangerous.

This room was naturally named The Volcanic Mountain Range.

With the Lightning Mage leading the elven army, no one ended up blasted by lava. And as she had convinced the rest to let my creatures be, my creatures also stopped having to defend themselves.

The army simply walked past my flameborn dragons and my elemental wolfpack with both sides simply watching the other closely.

Off to the left side, half way into the 40 meter long room, was the entrance to the first side room. The Lightning Mage, with her interestingly high Awareness, noticed this and guided the army past the wolfpack guarding the room.

Both feline and canines growled at each other as the army walked closer to the pack. But while the situation was clearly tense, no one actually attacked.

The first side room was Momma's Treasure Room. The small forest themed room contained a pair of bìxiés and a pair of tiānlùs, but the most fascinating thing about Momma's Treasure Room was the level 0 flameborn dragon egg half hidden in some high grass. I had discovered that it was possible to create creatures of level 0 for half the base mana for its species, but that said creature would be unable to fight at all or use any innate Skill.

So generally not useful at all!

But this egg was a part of a puzzle.

The Noble Lightning Mage noticed the egg, but saw no reason to touch it. She had mumbled her curiosity about the level 0 part, but left the room soon after, having recognized it as a dead end.

A level 33 Ranger with a karma level of 24%, however, made sure he would be the last one to leave the room, intending to get a better look at the egg. At first he simply poked the egg while keeping a close eye on the two adult creatures in the room, he could actually focus on. When they didn't react, he picked up the egg for a close look.

Satisfied, the Ranger then placed the egg in his mostly empty quiver before leaving the room.

Hmm… I wonder why he did that behind the others' backs.

With no one to fight, the army soon reached the second side room: Momma's Cave.

Momma's puzzle was a simple fetch quest: Bring momma her baby. In return the key to the locked door at the end of the Floor would appear.

This made momma flameborn a Puzzle Guardian.

Of course this wouldn't do much of a difference against 40 opponents. Even with her buddy the 'karmic elemental salamander - Fire, Healing' healing her near constantly, while its Fire element kept it from taking damage from the firecovered dragon mother.

The Lightning Mage entered Momma's Cave first and neutralized all 5 traps in the room using her Forest spells. After half a dozen elves and the dawon had looked around the cave and found nothing of interest, they left again.

Now Momma's puzzle wasn't completed, nor skipped or failed. It was 'in progress' if anything. The egg had been collected but not yet delivered.

It wasn't my fault they hadn't seen Momma's empty nest as the hint it was.

Back to The Volcanic Mountain Range and then to the last room of the Floor: The Magma Pass. A 40×10×10 meters long hall filled with magma to each side of a small pass. The room didn't look like it had a height of 10 meters as 3 of them were filled with magma and obsidian.

In these two strips of magma lived my 18 magma lindwyrms. Their immunity to heat made them perfect for knocking enemies into the magma around them, with the 4 ash drakes able to both block the pass and the sight of their opponents.

The pass also made it hard to evade an ambush from the Floor's mimic.

Too bad my defenses won't be tested today.

And it had just become time for phase 4 as well!

The elves had been in my Dungeon just over 4.5 hours by now and had used 3 hours after having been discovered but before entering my Dungeon. This had given me enough mana to make three level 5 Fire wyrms and one level 6.

Not a lot to work with, but with the 4 of them side by side on the Magma Pass one couldn't really avoid them. And despite their low level they had high Strength and Dexterity Scores.

Which… did mean every other Score - especially Toughness - was kinda low.

Still. It was mostly their very few weakness, born from being a being of living Fire mana, I had counted on.

I still had them stand guard on the pass. I just expected people to carefully step over them instead of attacking.

Oh well. They still haven't solved Momma's puzzle. So, maybe something interesting will happen…

And something did!

The Lightning Mage got distracted observing and casting what appeared to be analyzing spells on the Fire wyrms, leading to one of my traps getting activated by another elf. Though I don't think they could have avoided activating that one.

The trap in question was triggered by having any visitor of low karma level pass the 30 meter mark into The Magma Pass. A 2.5 meter large, perfectly round boulder would then be dropped out from a hidden compartment in the wall just above the exit of the room. The pass was oh so slightly tilted and had each side raised a bit, so the boulder could keep rolling without ending up in the magma. As it was impossible not to trigger for low karma people, they only had three ways to not end up smashed by it: Outrun the boulder and get out of its way once in The Volcanic Mountain Range. Jump and land on one of the few rock platforms in the magma. Or, somehow, push the fast moving boulder into the magma.

With 'Cheaters Only Cheat Themselves' giving extra Toughness there wasn't anyone here who could simply destroy the boulder.

Unless the Lighting Mage had some spell to do it with at least.

The guy who activated the trap didn't appear to have a lot of Awareness, as after seeing the incoming boulder he jumped out of its way without aiming for a rock platform.

Like Dungeon fire, Dungeon magma was only hot when touched. But if one did, then it would act like normal magma.

While most of the army chose to try and outrun the boulder, the dawon and 5 elves - one being the Lightning Mage - attempted to seek safety on a rock platform. One of the elves missed their landing spot and was consumed by the magma.

Of those who tried to run, two were pushed into the magma by their comrades in the resulting panic, while the 4 slowest ended up crushed by the boulder and stopping it from reaching the rest.

…

Yes! 8 down with a single trap and some environmental hazards! I had immediately tiered up and gotten a bunch of System messages. I quickly chose the 'river and lake' as my new environment, so I could start earning full EXP again right away.

I would take a better look at my new status once the elves were gone.

After the army had collected itself they pushed the boulder and the crushed bodies into the magma, so they could continue moving forward. This time the Lighting Mage made sure to look for possible traps. As such, she noticed the hidden compartment inside the now open compartment, which contained an identical boulder.

So naturally, she warned the rest before the trap was triggered and no elves ended up killed by the second one.

Oh well! I'm still satisfied with the efforts of the first one!

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇

The latest puzzle had taken them almost an hour to complete. Much longer than any of the other puzzles. While this fact had frustrated the rest of the company, Zina couldn't help but be ecstatic.

The puzzle hadn't taken that long because it was difficult. It really wasn't. It had taken that long because 1) the puzzle took place in multiple rooms and 2) one of the privates had taken the egg meant for the puzzle. The first of which had never been recorded happening in any Dungeon. Some Dungeons had side rooms with a puzzle which would give a key or token to open a later door, that part wasn't unusual. But puzzles had always taken place in one room. The key reward was the furthest that rule could be bent!

Or at least, everyone had thought so.

Which, naturally, had led to Zina's extreme excitement.

Which she half heartedly tried to hide from the frustrated soldiers.

But with the egg delivered to its 'mother' and the rewarded key in hand, they could finally get out of the 8th Floor.

Your Party has solved a puzzle!

You have gained 3 EXP.

You have completed this Dungeon while it has 8 Floors for the first time.

You have gained 50 EXP.

As soon as the door had been open and the sight of the Dungeon Core could be seen, relief was shot through every elf present. Many gave out sighs of relief, while some had their whole body suddenly relax. The sound of knees hitting the ground echoed through the lava filled room as several elves dropped to their knees and praised the System for letting them survive the ordeal.

With no doubt in her mind, Zina retracted the Enchanted Dungeon Core Cage from her back, looked it over to ensure it was still intact - which it was as no monster had actually gotten close to her -, and placed it around the crystal Core. With a deep breath and a shove of mana in the shape of a spell she activated the Cage, making it shrink and reshape from its square form till it fit tightly around the octahedron Core.

The spell had linked her to the Cage as well as activating the taming progress. Now she simply had to win against the Dungeon Core's natural defenses.

She could feel the Core fighting against her, but it was like an 99 year-old elf going against a centenarian. With only one having reached adulthood something truly unusual would have to occur for the child to win the fight.

There had been some records of older children winning fights against young adults. In these cases the adult had only just reached adulthood, had never been good at fighting, but was older than their opponent and thought to take advantage of this fact. The child would then defeat the odds by either having had combat training or using the adult's arrogance against them.

But this was clearly not one of those few cases.

Instead, just as Zina had assumed, her Awareness Score of 45 had ensured her the victory. She could feel the Cage sending her passive touches, telling her it was working as intended and that the Core wasn't currently trying to do anything it would now need her permission for.

Which was trying to change anything but environmental changes. And that was such a small thing that Dungeons rarely bothered to dramatically change it.

Still… Just like the higher number of Floors than expected, the Core itself had resisted more than she had expected. But in a way, this was somewhat expected. It did have those extra Floors after all, which had to be a sign of its power.

Nonetheless, with the Core tamed their mission was complete and they could finally get out. Naturally this caused the company to cheer and be merry.

With the loot disabled, they wouldn't be getting out by touching their personalized loot, but by exiting the Core Room from the door they had come from.

Soon what remained of the company stood next to the Dungeon Portal, ready to take a well deserved nap.