Draconic Karma Dungeon

Chapter 78: Trap and Mistreatment

Marthox had rarely ever felt pain in his life, having been raised from birth to have a supportive leadership role in The Order of The Broken Goddess, so the sudden onslaught of pain from having his hand cut off and immediately cauterized left him paralyzed screaming in pain.

While screaming his body had at some point been moved, but he hadn't at the time been able to comprehend where they were moving him.

At least someone had been kind enough to give him some numbing bush leaves to chew on after they had moved him. His stump had even been covered in bandages in case he ended up reopening his wounds.

With the slight numbing effect of the leaves Marthox had finally been able to relax his mind enough to drift off to mindless, pain free slumber.

At least for a little while.

After a much shorter time than preferred, Marthox was awoken by the sound of massive feet coming his way. Groggily, the muskin raised his head to look at the newcomer. As he did, he absent-mindedly noted he was laying on a bedroll on the floor of what appeared to be an unfurnished prison cell, based on the lack of windows and the handless door with two covered slits. One for the warden to look and talk to the prisoner through and one to pass meals through. Both presumably able to be locked from the other side. With a lack of windows, the room was instead lit by a Light Orb hanging from the ceiling.

The first thing anyone wanting to learn to Enchant learned was how to make Breakthrough Orbs into simple lights. Then they learned how to make the Orb turn on and off with a push of mana, called a Light Orb. Any successfully made Light Orbs would then naturally be sold, and some people would decide they didn't need to know anything more about Enchanting and instead supply the public with Light Orbs.

Having a career of making Light Orbs wasn't particularly well paying, but it was a stable job as people needed to replace their Light Orbs everytime the mana in them ran out. Which for the cheap ones made out of 1st tier Breakthrough Orbs was every 3 months or so if used daily.

It would be nice to have an Enchanter of some kind under my control. Free Light Orbs are always nice, but a good one can do some truly amazing things with the right materials.

The cell door opening drew Marthox back to the present. Mister Agtius, the giant Axe Master of his group who they had left behind when the Dungeon wall took his arm, stepped into the room and closed it behind him.

With no handle on this side of the door that meant he had locked himself in with the muskin. Someone else would have to let him out.

"We've had a meeting on what the town here wants to happen to us." The giant began. Marthox desperately began getting up in response. While, as a muskin, he would never be able to match the height of a giant, he could at least mitigate it by standing or, if not that, sitting up rather than laying down.

Mister Agtius continued as Marthox got himself to stand on wobbly legs. "They concluded that the 4 of us you released from your control, will have no charges placed upon us and we are free to go or stay as we please. Any crimes we might have committed happened while under the Hypnosis and thus wasn't something we did willingly. You, however…"

It was only now Marthox realized the giant had been staring angrily at him as he spoke. His tone had been monotone, but the last two words had been tainted with anger which finally clued the muskin into the matching emotion in the Axe Master's eyes.

It didn't bear well for the muskin, and with a nervous gulp in the face of such fury from such a large and bulky man, his mind frantically began to search for solutions.

"Your Class is Hypnotist which brings them pause. While you likely didn't Hypnotize us willingly as you were Brainwashed yourself, your Class suggests you see no wrong in controlling people." Mister Agtius gave a slight pause here, but Marthox didn't have a good lie ready for him. "It was suggested that there might be certain situations where Hypnotizing someone could be a good thing, but that they're unable to stop you from abusing your powers should they decide to give you the benefit of the doubt."

They can't stop me! Marthox had hoped they would be unable to stop him from Hypnotizing. But in the case they could, attempting could potentially ruin his chances of getting out of this alive. If they could stop his Skills from working, they might also be able to tell it had been attempted.

But as he now knew they couldn't tell…

Well, the hot-headed giant didn't have near enough Awareness or Charisma to overcome the combined power of both of his.

Follow my every command. Marthox inscribed on his new leash. A line he would place on every leash he made from here on out. Then he softly spoke his first command, taking care to only speak loudly enough for the sound to travel the distance between the short muskin and much taller giant. In all likelihood there was a guard outside the door waiting for mister Agtius to ask to be let out. It wouldn't do to let anyone else hear his plan.

"You trust me not to mistreat my powers. Tell them I desperately want to prove my worth to them by completing any task they ask of me. Tell them they need to let me live and set me free as soon as they'll let me."

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While Sarzina Acacia had originally assumed - and still hoped - the Hypnotist was a good beastkin with morals, the female human and the giant had reminded her that she didn't know the muskin and had no reason to think he was a good person.

Having left the Dungeon after regaining his senses, the giant had headed to the Security Guild - likely due to it being the one place he knew here, and it being one of the few finished places - in the hopes of either finding his comrades or getting news about them from the sheriff and his people.

While normally the Dungeon Portal would be guarded it had been completely evacuated due to the current crisis, so the giant hadn't met anyone till he arrived at the Security Guild. The first deputy to see him immediately escorted him to Sheriff Fraxinus' office where the meeting was taking place.

It took a while to catch him up on the argument as everyone wanted him to join their side of the argument.

"The Dungeon can undo the Hypnosis…? At any time?" The giant had asked for confirmation. Zina had replied that it could, but that it took time, hours, where the victim had to stay in the Dungeon.

He had nodded and looked thoughtful for several seconds - which the angry one took as a sign to start pushing his own speciesist agenda. The Dungeon had made Zina much more aware of speciesism, she knew exactly what she was looking at.

And given the angry one's fox-ears and how his arguments circled around the fact that Zina was an elf who had punished a beastkin, the speciesism likely originated in the fact that most elves considered beastkin animals and kept them as 'work animals'.

The giant simply ignored the speciesistic rant, interrupting the angry one like he wasn't talking: "We could test him."

After a bit of back and forth the plan ended up like this: The giant - who had volunteered - would walk into the prison cell with the Hypnotist and make him worry about what would happen to him. Then he would be told they couldn't stop him Hypnotizing people. If he, in his worry for the future, decided to resort to mind control despite having just gotten his own mind back, then he would be sentenced to death.

The angry one hadn't liked the plan but agreed to the necessity of it.

He clearly hadn't liked following someone else's instructions anymore than anyone else had. This test was necessary to make sure it wouldn't happen again. To anyone.

How would they know if the giant had been Hypnotized? They would naturally take him to the Dungeon regardless, but the giant had suggested a simple question might reveal it sooner: 'How do you feel about Marthox?'

If the answer was anything other than 'I hate him', then the giant had been Hypnotized.

When the giant suggested this question and answer he had explained how he logically knew the muskin wasn't to blame as he had done it while under another's control, emotionally the giant couldn't help but place all the hate for what had happened to him unto the Hypnotist.

So, when the giant was let out of the prison cell and answered 'I trust him' to his own security question, they immediately knew what had happened. The giant was escorted to the Dungeon by the sheriff and three deputies - as the giant was higher level than one member of the Security Guild. One deputy was ordered to inform the Hypnotist of his impending execution, while two others stood in wait with raised weapons on the other side of the cell door, ready to perform the execution for the first deputy should he be Hypnotized as well.

No one here actually knew what limits or requirements the Hypnotize Skill had, so caution was being used.

Before leaving, the sheriff had picked out his most stoic deputy to inform the muskin of his deadly punishment and potentially execute him. The deputies had never killed another sapient being before, and most of them would have suffered terribly by suddenly having to act as an executioner.

Even if they had all been raised to think of beastkin as animals, Zina had spend a lot of effort on convincing the town that they were sapient all along. She had especially focused on the Security Guild as she didn't want to chance having a speciesistic deputy deciding to act on said speciesism.

Her efforts were in no way done - especially as she had only had Fader Ginkgo's ex slave as a tangible example of a sapient and civilized beastkin - but enough had been done that the deputies felt uncomfortable having to execute one.

The one the sheriff had picked out for the job at least seemed like he would be able to handle the strain of the bloody job, when he went into the cell to do it.

I'll have to make sure Fraxinus gives that guy a raise. Or at least a bonus. He had indeed done his job perfectly, and the Hypnotist was no more.

The guy either wasn't shaken or had an excellent pokerface.

The muskin also, most likely, didn't have enough mana to Hypnotize anyone else after the giant and fighting in the local Dungeon. It wouldn't have been that easy otherwise.

With that danger gone, Zina went back to figuring out what to do with the other newcomers. While she was definitely leaning towards simply letting them go, the situation had left her a bit more cautious.

She needed to know more about them before she decided on anything.

And that naturally meant talking to them more.

The remaining members of the Security Guild - the undersheriff and two deputies - had 'entertained' the angry one, the hurt female human, and the heavily armored male human, while the test and execution had taken place. Mostly to keep an eye on them and to sound the alarm should they try anything. The newcomers were too high a level for anyone but Zina and Oona to have a chance against any of them one on one.

Reentering Fraxinus' office, Zina began questioning the unknowns on their background and plans for the future, should they be allowed to leave.

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With the immediate danger of mind control gone, Reid Alvarado could relax a little bit.

To be honest, the fact that Mlartlar has finally gone quiet helps my mood a lot. The hybrid had been almost constantly yelling during the meeting while everyone else had at least attempted to keep a cool head.

The dungeon mistress was currently questioning Reid on his plans for the immediate future to which he replied he would return to his family and tell them why he hadn't been home in years.

He would tell them everything that had happened to him before returning to this place to repay the debt he owed for having been freed.

It was while thinking about all the things he would finally be able to share with his father, mother, and twin sister, that he remembered his earlier discovery. He would naturally be telling his spy mother and sister about this juicy piece of international gossip, but his honor demanded he inform the elves as well.

"The last one of our unwilling group wasn't freed with the rest of us. She's still down there fighting the Dungeon."

"The one with a hood up and a mask on?" The dungeon mistress asked, clearly thinking back on their short meeting before they had entered the Dungeon.

"Yes. Her name is Talindra Delonix-Regia." The elf woman simply raised her eyebrow in response.

How can she not know?!

Oh! Right! Mother said they did a 'public name, private name'-thing.

"Every elf has the scientific name of a tree as their last name, right?" Reid began to explain.

"Yes…?"

"And yet what is the last name of your royal family?"

"Phoenix Flower."

"Which is the common name of what tree?"

Her eyes widened as she replied in realization: "Delonix-Regia."

"Your royal family goes by Phoenix Flower publicly, and only their closest circles know them as Delonix-Regia. That is their real last name." Reid himself only knew because his mother - and later sister - was a member of his own country's spy network.

And naturally the spies knew about it.

"Why?"

Reid shrugged. "Enchanted Contracts only work if you sign with your actual name. Should a royal be threatened into signing one, having a different public name can come in handy."

The dungeon mistress took some time to absorb the new information before the realization hit her: "You're telling me… my Crown Princess is under someone else's control and currently inside this Dungeon. This Dungeon, which is much more dangerous than its size and age suggests. All alone! Even though every Dungeon is meant to be explored with a Party to ensure one's safety?!"

Reid swallowed. "Yes."