Draconic Karma Dungeon

Chapter 9: Everything Has Tiers and Trouble Lurks

You have leveled up! You are now level 3! Karmic woods wyvern pattern obtained. You can now create creatures of level 3. You can now make your 2nd Floor.

Three Parties had now successfully gone through my Dungeon and after the first half hour of my 2-hour closing time I had the mana to level up. Status.

Personal Status Level: 3 EXP needed for level up: 450/450 Additional EXP: 381 Mana payment needed for level up: 0/200 Mana: 0/200 Mana regeneration: 30 per hour Floors: 1/2 Allowed number of sapients in each Floor: 6 Floor Details Achievements Mission Dungeon Rules

I still have a lot of EXP!

And the woods wyvern?

Karmic woods wyverns are a small brown feathered species of wyvern with an average wingspan of 1.7 meters. They have traded half of their Charisma and Intelligence for the innate active Skill 'Stunning Scream'. They attack by stunning their prey with a high pitched-screech before attacking with teeth and claws. Their diet consists mostly of small to medium sized mammals. As they are a solitary monogamous species they can only be found alone or with their lifemate. They will refuse to build a nest unless they find a tall tree. As they are karma creatures, they will mirror how sapients treat them. But they get aggressive if a stranger nears their nest.

That gives me ideas for the 2nd Floor, but I want to do more for my 1st Floor first.

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Your 1st Floor has been emptied of sapients.

Timer is set to 9 hours 13 minutes.

Night had come and the 4th Party had left. All Parties had been beastkin at level 9+, but two beastkin hadn't tiered up. 6 times had a karma level risen. Status.

Personal Status Level: 3 EXP needed for level up: 450/450 Additional EXP: 838 Mana payment needed for level up: 0/200 Mana: 132/200 Mana regeneration: 30 per hour Floors: 1/2 Allowed number of sapients in each Floor: 6 Floor Details Achievements Mission Dungeon Rules

Game plan: Design some fitting creatures to add to my current rooms while waiting for my mana to reach 200. When it does, I’ll level up. Then I’ll save up half of the needed mana payment for the next level before using the rest on my creatures. When possible, I want to add new creatures during the night and focus on leveling up during the day. Right now I have a lot of EXP though, so I'll focus on that a bit tonight as well.

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2 hours and 16 minutes passed.

You have leveled up! You are now level 4! Bā zú lung dragon pattern obtained. You can now create creatures of level 4.

Status.

Personal Status Level: 4 EXP needed for level up: 650/650 Additional EXP: 188 Mana payment needed for level up: 0/250 Mana: 0/250 Mana regeneration: 37.5 per hour Floors: 1/2 Allowed number of sapients in each Floor: 6 Floor Details Achievements Mission Dungeon Rules

Looking good! Bā zú lung dragons?

Bā zú lung dragons are colorful flightless dragons with a serpentine body averaging 5 meters long. Their 8 legs are short, so they attack using their teeth and powerful tail. Their neural spine sail is hard and sharp and reaches around the tail making their tail attack especially dangerous. Their diet consists of rocks, minerals, and gems. As they are karma creatures, they will mirror how sapients treat them. They have traded 3/4 of their Dexterity for the innate active Skill 'Luck Bending' making them incredibly slow and bad at hitting an opponent unless they bend the other's luck. They can curse one being at a time with a bit of bad luck or bless one with a bit of good luck. The effect ends when the dragon dies or after an hour has passed. They can make it rain on command.

That sounds so powerful! They must be really expensive then. How much do they cost?

Creatures

Creatures give you a little EXP when killed and can kill sapients which earns you much more EXP.

Karmic dragonet: 12 mana + 4.25 mana Bìxié: 16.25 mana + 8.5 mana Karmic mimicking dragonet: 24.5 mana + 12 mana Karmic woods wyvern: 49 mana + 21.75 mana Bā zú lung dragon: 82 mana + 34.75 mana

Yeah, it's pretty expensive. But what a discount I get!

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I had decided that every creature after The Trap Corridor was to be level 2 as the 1st Floor could only have level 1 and 2 creatures. I wanted to wait with the wyverns and lung dragons till the next Floor and while I eventually wanted to have two bìxiés in The Waterfall Room for now I only had enough for one level 2 bìxié. The last room is supposed to be the hardest one after all!

I only had enough mana for one more dragonet, so I added it to The Great Pond Room. One last Status and 1st Floor Details before they arrive though.

Personal Status Level: 4 EXP needed for level up: 650/650 Additional EXP: 188 Mana payment needed for level up: 125/250 Mana: 1/250 Mana regeneration: 37.5 per hour Floors: 1/2 Allowed number of sapients in each Floor: 6 Floor Details Achievements Mission Dungeon Rules

Floor Details for the 1st Floor

77/90 levels worth of creatures

2/2 puzzles

6/10 traps

Creatures Puzzles Traps

The 1st Floor is coming along nicely I'll say!

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The first Party of the day had light gray Auras and thus wasn't compelled to stay away from the bìxié. Even so, they had no idea on what to do or think about the winged lion with a dragon's head and deerlike horns and so simply avoided it.

You should have seen the look on your faces!

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The second Party of the day could be found in The Trap Corridor when I had enough mana to level up.

You have leveled up! You are now level 5! Karmic kobold pattern obtained. You can now create creatures of level 5. You can now make your 3rd Floor.

I laughed mentally. Already allowed to make the third Floor yet I haven't even begun on the 2nd.

Kobold?

Kobolds were once a sapient species. Due to their extinction they were then added to bipedal and draconic Dungeons as level up creature patterns. As such, kobolds do not exist outside of Dungeons. As a Dungeon creature based on a once sapient species, kobolds gain Classes. The Class is chosen by the kobold's Dungeon Core. Before their extinction they lived in villages that they defended together. Kobolds are able to make tools, structures, and basic traps without any guidance.

Wow. I'm not even sure what to think about that! But they have Classes and can build stuff! That's awesome!

Uhm… Status, please.

Personal Status Level: 5 EXP needed for level up: 833/900 Mana payment needed for level up: 0/300 Mana: 0/300 Mana regeneration: 45 per hour Floors: 1/3 Allowed number of sapients in each Floor: 6 Floor Details Achievements Mission Dungeon Rules

The 'Making the World a Better Place' Achievement gives me about as much EXP as… well everything else put together! A lot of people have been raising their karma levels. And that might be due to the novel experience of peaceful Dungeon creatures and will then likely die off somewhat when people are more used to it.

On the other hand: making the world a better place by killing off the bad guys is my mission! The mission of all Dungeons! So making the good people better must be something the System wants!

… Or at least it's a part of my own personal mission!

I haven't seen anyone with low karma though… I wonder why that is?

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Nerok was getting more and more frustrated. Khaogthoc had several times tried to demand that his Party should be the next one to enter the Dungeon. Why won't he just accept a no?! Nerok tried not to let the irritation show as he once again told Khaogthoc that some other Party was in front of him in line.

Loudly Khaogthoc asked: "When is it our turn then?!"

Truthfully Nerok had put Khaogthoc's Party behind the line a couple of times. Each time a Party had left the Dungeon rich and unharmed with tales of its trials of kindness and peace, had left Nerok with the fear of how the Dungeon would react to Khaogthoc's Party.

His Party consisted of Khaogthoc, his two equally bullying friends and three youths they had bullied into joining them. The youths had no backbone due to their - and everyone else around here's - former life as a slave and Nerok could only stop bullying if he had some proof it had happened. As none had come forward even when asked, Nerok had nothing he could do without seeming crazy or corrupt.

It honestly wouldn't surprise me to hear that the three of them had killed someone. Nerok's frustration had not been lessened. I'm definitely biased though.

"Your Party is set to be the first one to enter tomorrow morning." As his fear rose, he decided to ask around among the Parties that had already gone in, what they thought would be the reaction to a monster getting killed. Most mentioned that the 'Experiencing Peace' Rule stated that the double bonus only took effect if no 'creature' was harmed. And that it could therefore be assumed that killing the monsters would simply make it a normal Dungeon run. Though none knew if the monsters would attack in self-defense or not.

'First Party' - they had never chosen a name and with everyone else calling them that they had decided to accept it as their own - had given another option. They described how the dragons had warned them away from their burrows and seemingly forgiven them for going near. 'First Party' suggested that the Dungeon monsters would attack back but only to those that attacked them. Nerok thought this idea had merit.

The Chief hadn't wanted to test this theory so soon though. He just couldn't deal with Khaogthoc anymore.

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The second key-wearing dragonet had this time been one of the dragonets in The Orchard. I need to make more things randomized on later Floors. This Floor only has the room the two first keys appear in and the location of the fake hurt dragonet in The Room of Kindness randomized.

As the dragonet got petted into giving up the key the karma level of the mousegirl from day's second Party rose.

Achievement tier up: Making the World a Better Place (II): You have made the people around you into better versions of themselves, thus making the world a better place. Keep doing it. Condition: You have at one point successfully made the karma levels of other people rise 25 times in net total. Reward: 115% Charisma. You now earn 50 EXP per karma level you rise in others in net total. This is retroactive. [You do not have a Charisma Score. 115% Charisma changed to 15% discount on karma creatures.]

You have gotten an Achievement tier up while having 1 passive Achievement. Do you wish to change which Achievement is passive?

… No, thank you… But cool...

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The 4th Party was about to leave when I had enough mana to level up again.

You have leveled up! You are now level 6! Karmic galespike pattern obtained. You can now create creatures of level 6.

Status.

Personal Status Level: 6 EXP needed for level up: 1,082/1,200 Mana payment needed for level up: 0/350 Mana: 0/350 Mana regeneration: 52.5 per hour Floors: 1/3 Allowed number of sapients in each Floor: 6 Floor Details Achievements Mission Dungeon Rules

I remember when my mana regeneration was only 5. Such boring times!

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As this day had started earlier than the previous day - and due to people getting faster at completing my Dungeon by having heard so many tales of my tricks -, I had time for a 5th Party before it grew dark. Shortly before said Party was due to arrive a window popped up:

Achievement tier up: Careful Preparation (II): You have decided to prepare your Dungeon some more before going to the next step. Condition: Wait at least 1 day before opening your Dungeon after the option has appeared or wait at least 1 day after getting access to a new Floor before making it. Do both of these once or the latter twice. Reward: An extra 10% mana regeneration and the Ability to use the next mana payment for level ups as a Mana Bank.

You have gotten an Achievement tier up while having 1 passive Achievement. Do you wish to change which Achievement is passive?

No. How many times can Careful Preparation tier up? It seems a bit overpowered.

Serial Achievements start as (I) and can tier up 4 times to (V). The only exception is karma related Achievements which can tier up 9 times to (X). Karma related Achievements get more difficult to achieve after (V).

So Careful Preparation can give me a regeneration of 35% of my max. mana per hour! Powerful, but not completely broken.

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Dawn of the next day had almost arrived and I felt good about all the work I had done through the night.

The Great Tree Room, The Burrow Trap Room and The Hidden Tunnel Room had gotten their dragonet counter boosted to 6. Thus all rooms had 6 dragonets except The Room of Kindness - where there were no creatures - and The Rainbow Forest - which only had 5. I had other plans for that room.

Needing another 4 levels worth of dragons to reach my own self-imposed goal, I added another level 2 bìxié to The Waterfall Room and one to The Orchard. I thought it would fit in well there.

As I had now reached the amount of dragons I wanted to have on the 1st Floor, The Rainbow Forest got a couple of electric eels instead. Or rather 'fledgling karmic elemental sea serpent - Lightning' as those for some reason counted as draconic. They were basically eels with stronger electricity and the ability to become really gigantic. The last of which would never happen due to it being spawned by a Dungeon as a youth.

When I had first seen the name of the eels I had to ask the System for more information.

Elemental sea serpent? And what's with the 'Lightning' bit? The race of it? It reminds me of how the beastkin races get mentioned.

Elemental sea serpents are true dragons, which have a natural control over mana of a specific elemental type. All elemental creatures have races categorized based on their prefered element.

And yes. I am counting it as a non-dragon despite it being described as a ‘true dragon’. If it looks like an eel and acts like an eel, then it's likely a mimic but you can pretend it's an eel. Or at least I'm going to! It's much cheaper that way! I had been trying to design electric eels and wanted them to be cheaper, so I made them draconic. It turns out the creature already existed, and so I couldn’t name it myself. Not that ‘draconic electric eel’ is a much better name.

As the eels were meant to deter people from crossing streams, they might be tempted to but shouldn't, I also added an eel to the stream guarding The Great Tree.

The Swamp Route got a couple of level 2 karmic log crocodiles - one on each side of the route. They were a bit expensive due to not being draconic, but my discounts made it alright. Log crocodiles resembled a roughly 2 meter long tree log while staying still, which had inspired their name.

Floor details and status, please.

Floor Details for the 1st Floor

90/90 levels worth of creatures

2/2 puzzles

6/10 traps

Creatures Puzzles Traps

Personal Status Level: 6 EXP needed for level up: 1,200/1,200 Additional EXP: 256 Mana payment needed for level up: 88.25/350 Mana: 0/350 Mana regeneration: 70 per hour Floors: 1/3 Allowed number of sapients in each Floor: 6 Floor Details Achievements Mission Dungeon Rules

I just need some more traps and I'll be ready to make the 2nd Floor.