Draconic Karma Dungeon

Chapter 77: The Consequences of Spell, Skill, and Class

Unlike normal Dungeons my creatures didn't have to stay in one designated room. After all, while I had placed my creatures in a room, made them spawn there, and told them not to leave said room without permission, in actuality my entire Dungeon had been designated as 'their room' when they were first created.

So, if a blessing of unicorns in a normal Dungeon saw a person with a low karma level in another they would immediately try to attack, only to find themselves unable to to leave the room. In my Dungeon my creatures might have been told to stay in their starting room unless I said otherwise, but there was nothing but my command to stop them from attacking someone in another room should they notice them.

The lack of control over my creatures every time a person with low karma came by was something which had frustrated me many times. At that point my orders seemingly became 'unwanted advice rarely used'.

But my unicorn blessing hadn't reacted to the Light Hunter looking in from the other room, and at first I hadn't understood why. They had clearly seen the elf but they acted like she was a tree or rock or some other inanimate object they had no interest in.

As a 0%'er the whole blessing should have disregarded my command to stay in one room to follow their innate desire to kill people with that low a karma level. Yet they hadn't.

Unlike my kobolds, my unicorns couldn't talk. That, however, didn't mean we couldn't communicate. They were a part of my Dungeon and thus a part of me.

Why aren't you attacking her? She's standing right there, I know you've seen her. I asked the unicorn closest to the portal entrance.

The unicorn looked directly at the Light Hunter before sending me an image of what it saw: A young elven noblewoman dressed in quality hunters clothes designed for an archer. Her hooded cloak was up covering her hair and her face was hidden behind a plain ivory colored mask. Magic quiver on her back, sheathed shortsword at her side, and her bow held in both hands as she meditated on the ground just on the other side of the portal.

The image looked nearly identical to what I could see myself, but something was off about it.

Her Aura is gone!

And then it hit me: My unicorns weren't attacking her because they couldn't see her Karma Aura and thus didn't know she currently had a low karma. They couldn't see said Aura because they weren't actually looking at her. They were looking at the portal showing them what was on the other side. And the portal only showed the physical aspect of what was on the other side of it, not invisible things like one's karma level.

Her meditation done, and the Wonkyness of spells increased to 50% the next 10 minutes, the Light Hunter placed an arrow on her bow and entered The Blessed Field. With my unicorns finally able to see her black Aura they tensed up, ready to charge her with their sharp horns, only for the archer to try to cast a spell.

A spell which immediately went Wonky.

And this time the Wonkyness did more than simply annoy.

She's… stone now? Her body had turned into a gray stone statue, a perfect replica of when she had been flesh and blood. As a statue her Karma Aura had disappeared, both the black outer layer from being mind controlled and her own inner gray layer. As such, the blessing once again treated her as an uninteresting object and went back to grassing.

The label above her head didn't show her name, level, Class, or species anymore. It was now just two timers. One was her mind control timer, while the other was counting down from an original 45 minutes. My instincts told me the Wonky spell had only turned her into a statue for half an hour, and that my 'Sleeping Safe and Sound' Rule had increased that time by 15 minutes due to her unconscious state as a statue.

Huh… Seems like I might actually be able to stall her long enough that the mind control lets up. There'll only be some 50 minutes left of her mind control when she stops being a statue and I have a full unicorn blessing, a puzzle room and a Boss room for her to finish in that time.

I honestly thought I would have to either kill her or let her take my Fake Core and see if she realized it was a Fake. Given the fact that I wouldn't die if it was removed…

But I like this. This is good!

… And boring… I guess I'll update the Tribe on what just happened. And how is that argument going for the Lightning Mage? No one was speaking where the Lightning Mage - and thus me - could hear it, so they were likely glaring at each other at the moment.

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Until a moment ago Jenna Emery had been surrounded by noise. She had always had a hard time sleeping when the room was completely quiet, so it came to no surprise for the Earthquake Mage that the sudden lack of noise woke her up.

What happened?

A wet, cold cloth lay across the side of her head from where her headache originated.

How did I get hurt? Jenna was pretty sure she hadn't seen what had attacked her.

I had just left the Dungeon hadn't I? I left in quite a hurry. 'Cause I needed to get away before… Suddenly everything came back to her. That she had been a member of a cult because they had had her under mind control, that she wasn't any more, and, most importantly, that Marthox the bishop was still a Hypnotist even when not Brainwashed.

Meaning he would want to Hypnotize her should he get the chance.

Not knowing where she was or what was going on, Jenna slowly opened her eyes, hoping no one would notice she had woken before she knew those things.

She appeared to be in the sheriff's office in the Security Guild of the town around the Dungeon she had just been in. Jenna remembered the place from when the group had first arrived in town and had to gain approval from the dungeon mistress to enter the Dungeon.

With the 'where' answered, the Earthquake Mage slowly moved her head, hoping to figure out what was happening around her. Or rather, what had made it go quiet.

"You're awake!"

Given up any pretense of still being asleep, Jenna began sitting up as her head turned towards the speaker. The half elf half fox beastkin Battle Commander had been the one to speak up and was walking towards her.

Why is he walking sideways like that? And is it just me or does he keep looking between me and the locals? Like he wants to check up on me but also keep an eye on the locals?

Why would he want to keep an eye on the locals? Marthox was the one who Hypnotized us! He's the one with the Hypnotist Class!

"How are you feeling?"

But he was behind me, so maybe one of the locals was the one to knock me out? I suppose that would be reason to be cautious, but I can't say I blame them. We were attempting to destroy their Dungeon. The very lifeblood of their growing town! Everyone knew how much economy a Dungeon with its loot and EXP brought to a place. Remove the Dungeon and the place around it collapses.

Jenna was thrown out of her thoughts by a hand touching her shoulder.

"Huh?" She questioned, before remembering the question she had been asked. "Right. Sorry. I guess I'm still a little bit out of it. Dizzy. Massive headache. But I think I'm otherwise fine."

The Battle Commander - What is his name again? - was squatting with his body half turned towards the wounded Mage and half toward the locals, letting him keep an eye on both at the same time. He sighed in relief hearing Jenna's reply before nodding and filling her in on what had happened while she was out.

I don't know why, but he's clearly biased against the locals. I, for one, completely agree with punishing Marthox. Honestly, just cutting off his hand isn't enough. What's stopping him from Hypnotizing someone? Something needs to be done about that before he does it again.

"Dude. You're clearly biased against these people." Jenna decided to just give it to him straight. "I don't know what happened to you to make you hate these people, but Marthox absolutely needed to be punished. The System gives people Classes based on what suits them. The very fact he still has that Hypnotist Class means he sees no problem taking people's free will away."

Her spiel had left the Battle Commander stunned. He clearly hadn't thought of it that way.

Leaving him to his thoughts, Jenna turned her head towards the locals. "So what are we gonna do to stop him from Hypnotizing anyone?"

"Just 'cause he has the Class doesn't mean he'll Hypnotize people willy-nilly." The sheriff began. "You say the Class means he has no problem taking people's free will away. What if it's more that he has no problem taking people's free will away if doing so saves lives or some sort."

That argument caused the Earthquake Mage to pause in thought. "I suppose that's possible, but I really don't want to take risks with my freedom. With my very mind!"

That in turn made the sheriff pause. After a moment of thoughtful silence the dungeon mistress spoke up. "While you make an excellent point, I'm unaware of any methods of suppressing the use of someone's Skill. While I'm sure such a thing exists I'm also confident it will be both expensive beyond belief and rare beyond imagining."

Taking a deep calming breath, the dungeon mistress continued. "As stopping him from using his Skill to Hypnotize seems impossible, I see only three ways to deal with Marthox. None of which I find satisfying. We could give him the benefit of the doubt and simply let him go and do as he wants and then deal with eventual consequences of that choice as it happens. We could demand he stays in the Dungeon for the rest of his life where such Skills are less likely to stick. Or we could deem him a danger to society and execute him on the spot."

That last line triggered whatever trauma had made the Battle Commander biased in the first place and the noise from when Jenna had been unconscious returned in full force.

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Being a protective hot-head needing to get to his fellow victims before their untimely demise but without any smart companions to solve puzzles for him, Agtius had needed to brute force any puzzles he came across. This had led to arrows shooting at him from the wall in response to stepping on the wrong tile, but at least the wheel spinning puzzle after that was simple and gave him a key as a reward on top of the EXP for solving it.

The room after that had a pair of dragon-headed, antlered, winged lions, which constantly reappeared roughly a minute after their deaths. The exit to the room wasn't visible and Agtius wasn't about to break down a wall after losing his arm for doing so.

He might have been a stubborn one, but Agtius knew his fellow victims had either already died to whatever battle had taken Marthox or they would have finished it at this point. And if the latter had happened it seemed most likely the newly free thinking group would leave the Dungeon they hadn't wanted to be in in the first place.

So, with a disappointed sigh that he hadn't been able to help, the giant turned around to leave the Dungeon. Hoping he would find the group alive outside.