Draconic Karma Dungeon

Chapter 95: Family Reunions

The three ex-cultists had decided to travel together more for companionship than for safety reasons. As their levels were between 48 and 57 - with Agtius himself having the highest level - they had little to fear from the area. It wasn't a particularly dangerous route they had to take, after all.

As the destination of all three of them was the Kingdom of Windin, they traveled together the majority of the way. As they traveled, Reid had informed his companions that - despite having left his family and responsibilities behind suddenly and with no warning - he only intended to stay with his family for a week, before he would return to the Dungeon that saved to repay his debt to it.

How exactly one repays a debt to a Dungeon, he hadn't completely figured out, but Reid assumed he would be protecting it from its enemies such as The Order of The Broken Goddess.

The Paladin then invited his two companions to join him on the trip back.

They both declined.

Jenna had never wanted to leave her neighborhood in the first place. She was not a fighter, nor an adventurous soul.

Agtius refused to even consider abandoning his family again.

They arrived at Jenna's destination first and so she was the first to leave the group to - hopefully - reunite with her parents.

Reid and Agtius, however, had the same destination. Only Reid lived in the City, while Agtius lived outside its borders where trees for chopping were more accessible.

Walking up the familiar path to his family's cottage the consistent sounds of an axe hitting wood could be heard over the background sounds of singing songbirds.

As the cottage came into view Agtius spotted an unknown, almost adult, adolescent giantess hard at work chopping wood. And having finished her current swing, she spotted Agtius as well and sat the axe down beside her.

"Howdy! How may I help you, stranger?" She asked with a smile and a wave.

"I'm looking for Valith, Kusius, or any member of their family." Agtius replying, nervously.

It's been so long. Are they even here?

Are they still… alive?

"Oh…" The young giantess exclaimed, stunned and somewhat confused. "You mustn't have been by a while. My father, Kusius, died 11 years ago. Barely even remember him anymore, it's been that long. Granted, I was only four when he died, so I-"

"Meas?!" Agtius interrupted.

"Yes?" His youngest sibling replied questionably.

Even with the news of his father's death still ringing in his ears, the relief of being back with even just a single family member forced Agtius to instinctively rush in to hug his precious little sister, even with one arm missing.

A hug his sister nimbly dodged.

"Wow there buster! You haven't even introduced yourself yet!"

Right, she was still a baby when I last saw her. Of course she doesn't recognize me. I didn't even recognize her!

"It's Agtius! Your oldest brother!" This time Agtius was able to stop himself from trying to hug her.

"Agtius?" All movement stopped except for her rapidly moving eyes as Meas used all her focus to analyze the newcomer.

"Yes!" Agtius nodded excitedly. "What about mamá? Is she okay?"

"Mamá is fine. Old and aching, but otherwise doing okay." Meas replied absent-mindedly, clearly still trying to comprehend the reappearance of her long lost brother. "You lost your arm."

The dungeon mistress of The Dungeon of Karma had been able to stabilize Agtius' blood loss enough that he had been able to reach a professional Healer who could use Healing mana to fix his stub down to the skin tissue.

He just didn't have anywhere near enough money to have his arm regrown or get an Enchanted replacement.

"She inside?" Agtius questioned, ignoring the comment on his missing arm for now.

Meas hummed suspiciously. "I suppose the best way of proving your claim is to have mamá see you. Yeah, she's taking a nap in her room."

"And the others?" Agtius questioned, even as he walked towards the entrance of the cottage.

"Fridvag, Trivog, and Miztius moved out. Safius and Ethor stayed behind to help mamá out. They're in town working. The City's not really expanding anymore, so people don't really need wood for building no more. And with the new supplier of Heating Breakthrough Orbs, wood isn't even needed for firewood. And, you wouldn't have heard, but we got a gnome family as our neighbor now, and the Goldbranches are way better than us at making wooden furniture. So, business isn't going well enough for Safius and Ethor to work for the family, so they got jobs in town instead."

They needed me. They needed me, and I wasn't there!

Finally he stood in front of the door to his mother's bedroom.

A door which opened before he could knock.

"What's all that ruckus abo-!" His mamá began, only to interrupt herself mid word. "Agtius! My baby boy!"

Much like her son, her first instinct was to hug her family in a bone crushing hug.

"Mamá!"

I'll never leave my family behind again!

Over my dead body!

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Reid Alvarado didn't get to knock on the door of his childhood home before it was opened by his stoic father. His father smelled of sweat and could be seen wearing chainmail, both of which indicated he had just been out in the courtyard training.

Why is he the one answering the door? Whichever one of our butlers is currently working should be the one answering.

"Father." Reid greeted politely, just as his father always wanted him to, but the longing in his voice was audible.

His father didn't reply and the silence dragged out for several seconds while the two men stared at each other.

Then the older of the two suddenly burst into tears of relief and sudden movement as he grabbed his son in a tight hug.

Reid immediately hugged back and started muttering reassurances into the older man's ear. "I'm here, dad. I'm really here."

As the twins had rarely ever been hugged by their father and certainly never seen their stoic father cry, it didn't take long for Reid to start crying just as hard as his father was.

"Any room for me in there?" The sound of a female voice came from behind his father.

"Kat?" His twin had grown a bit since he last saw her. From what he could see through the tears, she looked more mature and was certainly dressed so. Gone was the happy adolescent he had guarded his final week of knight examination. An examination he had been forced to abandon on the very last day.

Did she end up finishing hers, or did my disappearance mess that up too?

Regardless of all the subtle changes, it was clearly his beloved twin.

Detaching from his father's grip, Reid desperately grabbed hold of his sister, hugging her tight.

More crying ensured as their father hugged the twins as they hugged each other.

"Where is mom?" Reid asked when the crying finally died down.

"Out on a mission. No contact, as usual," Kathrin replied, letting go of her brother after their lengthy crying and hugging session. As she wiped away her tears she continued. "Unlike normally, she actually gave us some details before leaving. Apparently some Brainwashing cult needs to be dealt with before they expand too much, but they have a hard time figuring out who is a member," Kat began explaining.

"Unicorns act insanely towards them so at least we know the palace hasn't been infiltrated." Her demeanor had gone from tearfilled relief to serious-spy-giving-their-rapport. The red eyes after having cried broke the otherwise stoic image. "And as unicorns seem to be the only way we have of detecting them, the Royal family has a lended nearly their entire blessing to the law enforcement in the largest of Cities if they wouldn't otherwise have access to a unicorn. Then the unicorn is put on a lead like it's a common horse and escorted through the streets. If it suddenly starts acting aggressive, mom or any of her colleagues have the duty of locating and apprehending the cultist before they even realize they've been spotted."

Good.

Kat shrugged while looking slightly sad. "They have Skills which can Brainwash people. Normal law enforcement would simply end up Brainwashed. For now we keep them in mana enforced sleep as much as possible till we've figured out how to get rid of the mind control. Mom gives us weekly updates, but it's still a delicate enough situation that she can't risk having her position compromised just 'cause we called her."

Having finished explaining her mother's role in the current crisis, Kat changed the subject to her own role. "My job is to watch out for suspicious figures. People who seem to be avoiding getting close enough to the unicorn for it to notice them. Or simply people who are acting like they might be a part of the cult."

The twitch of a smile suddenly appeared on his sister's lips and a glimpse of mischief appeared in her eyes. "I saw a very suspicious looking man enter the City about an hour ago. Clad fully in armor with the symbol of the cult. You know. The moon one can only barely detect is broken into 6 equal pieces if one knows to look for it, which symbolizes the broken goddess they supposedly worship? Right next to the classic sun with 6 sunbeams, which, even in our own, real, faith, symbolizes the System? Sounds familiar?"

Reid looked down, before checking his shield. Just as he remembered, both his breastplate and shield bore the aforementioned symbols. "Right. I had forgotten about that."

"How did you get out?" Kat questioned, seemingly not doubting the fact that he had gotten out.

"Let's move inside before you begin." Their father suggested. "I'm sure it won't be a short tale."

Reid told them all he knew as the three of them sat on the soft couches in the sitting room. How he became a part of a mind controlling cult. Their goal and false goddess. How a Dungeon had freed the one who had Hypnotized him, who had in turn freed him, but with the intention of putting them all under mind control of his own.

And how the Crown Princess of one of the neighboring nations had been mind controlled as well, for not even royalty was safe from this cult.

Except, apparently, Windin's own royalty, whose unicorns could keep them safe. Which Reid felt infinitely grateful for.

Their father simply nodded stoically as he alway did. He was a man of few words.

Kat - as a trained spy - waited patiently for Reid to finish speaking before asking her questions to ensure she did disturb and cause him to forget details due to her questions. "This Dungeon can undo mind control? I'll have to ensure the higher ups know about this, so we can make a deal with Alfamér to borrow their Dungeon for this."

"About that." Reid began. "Alfamér is ruled by a Queen, as you know. But when it comes to settlements around a Dungeon, the dungeon master or mistress is the one to make the laws. They do still have to follow the 'ground rules' so to speak, and I think they still pay the Queen taxes and such things. But they can add any law they want as long as it doesn't go against the ground rules. So, you would have to make the deal with dungeon mistress Sarzina Acacia and not Queen Phoenix Flower."

Reid had learned quite a lot about how their legal system worked when it came to Dungeons and their surrounding settlements, simply by observing how the locals had acted around their dungeon mistress. But that wasn't the only detail he had noticed worth mentioning. "Additionally… The Dungeon of Karma isn't located in Alfamér territory. They were simply the ones to put an Enchanted Dungeon Core Cage on the Dungeon Core. The first to find it was a group of beastkin runaway slaves originating from Mammalia. The Dungeon itself is actually located in the no-man's land between Windin, Alfamér, Mammalia, and Tharesaly. The Empty Forest, which no nation ever bothered to claim."

Kat hummed thoughtfully for a moment as she considered the implications of this. "While Windin could certainly attempt to argue at least partial rights to the Dungeon due to its location, the general rule regarding these kinds of no-man's land states it's first come first served. In which case Windin has no claim to the area. Still, I'll have to report it in."

Kat stood up from the couch only to hesitate in her movement. A pleading, somewhat shameful look was then aimed at her twin. "I don't want us to be separated again when we only just got back together, but I have to report this as fast as possible. It's out of protocol, but as a key witness I think I can get it overlooked. Will you please come with me, my knight?"

Reid melted in fondness at the childhood nickname. "Of course, my shadow. I feel the same way."