Draconic Karma Dungeon

Chapter 56: Karma Theories, Boss's Boss, and Settlers

That worked perfectly! Sarzina Acacia thought to herself with a smile on her lips as she exited the Dungeon of Karma. Her god - through its sapient Dungeon - had charged her with locating and freeing an innocent young man from an evil cult's mind control.

And she had succeeded in that mission!

The plan had been fairly simple: Zina had declared everyone had to go through the first three rooms of the Dungeon with her so she could test her Dungeon's reaction to each person.

… For the purposes of finding the person with a 0% karma level it was only necessary for the person to enter the Dungeon, but the third room was where the first trap was… It was more realistic that way!

… Or at least that was the excuse Zina had made to herself…

Those who refused to enter the Dungeon with her would have to pay a small fine. Nothing major, it was mostly there simply as an encouragement. And if the person she was looking for turned out to have paid the fine then she had planned to try with a carrot next.

But it hadn't come to that.

The holy System is clearly pleased with me! The noblewoman was filled with a sense of pride and accomplishment as she thought of the Achievement she had just received.

New Achievement: Weeding the World: Rarely does a being ever validate getting a karma level of 0%. But if they do, they represent a danger to the world and need to be killed immediately. Condition: Kill or help kill at least 1 being with a karma level of 0%. In the case the karma level is 0% due to mind manipulation, getting rid of said mind manipulation is also an option. Reward: 1% extra lifespan per being of karma level 0% you have killed or freed from mind manipulation and the Ability to see the Karma Auras of beings with karma levels of 0%.

The Achievement had helped her shed a light on what exactly a karma level was. It's the System putting a number on how dangerous someone is, not just to others, but to the entire world!

Ha! Take that Professor! I'm completely without any relevant research materials and I still discovered the secret behind karma levels before you!

The extra lifespan was nice, but Zina had already ensured her immortality simply through being the dungeon mistress of a unique Dungeon and thought little of it.

The Ability to detect people with 0% karma level, however, was greatly appreciated. Zina had not always been the most committed disciple of the System, but recent events had certainly changed that. This new Ability would help her 'weed the world', as the System had put it, in the honor of her god, proving her faith.

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Shortly after arriving back in her tent her emco went from barely glowing a soft blue light - which was an indicator that it still had power - and began blinking a more vibrant purple, indicating an incoming call.

As her brother Braern only had a normal Communication Orb it couldn't be him calling. The only person, it could be that Zina actually wanted to talk to, was Professor Cercis.

I really wish I could tell who's calling before I answer. To mentally prepare if nothing else. For if it wasn't Professor Cercis, then it had to be either a peer or a superior. Either of which was someone she couldn't afford to ignore without at least social consequences.

It was, of course, always possible to claim one hadn't seen the emco flash, but such a claim was better saved for another time. It wasn't one you could use too often after all.

Taking a calming breath, Zina touched the emco with one finger and pushed mana into it to accept the call.

"Hey sweetheart! It's your favorite Professor!"

The sound of Professor Cercis had her immediately relax and smile. "Professor Cercis!"

"My contacts finally came through for me!" The Professor excitedly began what was sure to be a long spiel. "Turns out the knowledge isn't really known among elves. I had to reach out to some of my human and gnome colleagues before I got any real results."

"Which was?" Zina interrupted before her old Professor could get sidetracked.

"Well, the other sapient species believe - or at least the humans and gnomes, I haven't yet checked what the other believe. That will be my next stop as your question has got me quite curious!"

Zina did an eye roll she was glad her mentor couldn't see. She might have attempted to stop her Professor from getting sidetracked but, as so often was the case, it hadn't quite worked. The thought only made her smile larger.

"So the humans and gnomes believe - and have at least some studies to prove it, which, again, I'll have to look more into myself. That the holy System not only values hard work and risks, but things like kindness and generosity! Of course those things are needed to have a thriving society, but I've never heard anyone associate those qualities to the wishes of the System!"

"While this is all very fascinating, I really have to ask: What does this have to do with karma levels?" Zina asked, attempting again to move them back to the topic at hand.

"Supposedly, if someone has lived a very unkind life, then the System will refuse to reward the individual with any earned Achievement. They call this 'having bad karma' - which I assume means having a low karma level. And if an individual had already earned an Achievement only to 'become unkind' the System might even take the Achievement away again till such a time that their karma has gone neutral again."

"Huh…"

Professor Cercis then got sidetracked and began speculating, how if this was true, which nobles might have claimed to have an Achievement they didn't actually have.

Zina patiently let them get sidetracked for several minutes - it was a fun topic, after all! - before informing her mentor of the Achievement she had just achieved and what it said about people with karma levels of 0%.

After having her promise to be careful who she shared the knowledge with! The Achievement gave extra lifespan after all! Who knows what people would do to get that!

"Hmm…" Professor Cercis hummed thoughtfully. "'Rarely' you say? Then maybe one's karma level normally represents how likely the person is to… do another harm, while the lowest score is reserved for people who are a threat to not just other people, but the entire world…? We'll have to do more research to reach a conclusive answer, of course. My colleagues are still helping me search for additional knowledge and should get back to me any week now! Of course we mustn't forget how quickly humans can get things done compared to us elves and gnomes. I highly suspect it has something to do with their shorter lifespan. Perhaps they unconsciously realize they need to work faster if they want to get the same amount done in a single lifetime that an elf gets done? Gnomes don't seem to think the same way even though they only live one and a half times as long as humans. Like us elves, they understand that there is no hurry for many things in life."

And so the sidetracked rambling begins again. Zina thought with a small smile and a shake of her head. May her ramblings never truly stop.

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Boss's boss had been unable to provide Emil Great Rat with tasty food at first due to how far away Emil was to any of boss's boss's lackeys. But once the closest lackey did show up, tasty food had come with him.

And then boss's boss showed up himself just as he had told Emil he would. Boss's boss had at first simply wanted a detailed description of what had happened on their failed mission - stupid as the goal of that mission had been. Emil knew how important accurate information was when planning how to get stuff and did his best to describe the whole event as detailed as possible.

Though apparently the other group's initial reaction along with what boss had said about the Dungeon had been the important parts to boss's boss.

Emil didn't really understand why those details were so important, but he was also well aware that he was no mastermind. Boss's boss was boss's boss for a reason, after all, and could clearly see things Emil couldn't.

A couple of days before boss's boss arrived another one of his lackeys had. Or rather one of boss's boss's boss's boss's lackeys had arrived. The elven girl was always wearing a hooded cloak and hiding behind a plain mask matching the skin color of her hands and yet she was apparently quite high ranked in boss's organization.

Emil didn't really understand how the girl could be both higher ranked than boss's boss and yet have to take orders from him…

But Emil also didn't need to understand. The matter was between the two of them and he was only happy to stay out of it!

But then boss's boss had finally arrived along with 5 others and soon Emil did understand how the order's hierarchy worked.

It was actually really simple! Bishop Marthox knew how to cast the wonderful spell which had made Emil feel so proud of himself! Talindra Delonix-Regia couldn't cast it, so despite being a higher tier than the bishop she couldn't be in charge of a mission. The version of the spell that priestess Calorose could cast was a much weaker version and so she was still under the wings of bishop Marthox!

So simple!

Understanding the hierarchy of the Order of the Broken Goddess came with the understanding that the best way for Emil to serve their cause was for him to stay behind and be taught the art of blending in among elves. The beastkin heathens living around the Dungeon Portal had been replaced with elves assumed to be heathens as well, so it wasn't because Emil would be recognized.

No. The mission was simply too important to risk having a newbie join. This particular Dungeon had the main piece of the broken goddess, after all! Nothing was more important than rescuing the pieces of the goddess from her many Dungeon prisons!

In the meantime, it was Emil's job to learn to blend in with the elfs of Alfamér, so he could enter their tightly secured Dungeon and get himself a Breakthrough Orb and finally reach level 10.

… Well… it wasn't that tightly secured for people of the first three tiers, but the higher the tier the more security there was to enter. The foul place had put yet another cage around the piece of the broken goddess trapped at the end of the deepest Floor of the Dungeon and the elves wanted to ensure only their most trusted people could get anywhere near the trapped piece of the goddess!

So when bishop Marthox and his temporary flock left to rescue the main piece of the broken goddess, Emil stayed behind with his new teacher.

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5 days passed quietly after the stable boy had been found and freed. The Tribe had had another birth and a midnight baptism with my kirin Boss and its unicorn bunny assistant was planned for the following night. The mother and baby had needed a couple of days to recover from the birth and it had been announced this morning that they were ready for the ceremony to take place.

But before the sun had set that day, something exciting had happened to the elves as well: Reinforcement had arrived!

Or rather: The people meant to actually live in the town.

Till now all the elves had fit into one of three categories: soldiers meant to help the Lightning Mage reach my Core, various workers meant to build a town around my Portal, or the 'dungeon mistress' aka the Lightning Mage herself.

These new elves were meant to settle down here and thus there were surely many different types among them. From what I could hear from conversations around the Lightning Mage, some of these settlers were a sheriff and his 9 subordinates meant to replace the military as the town's security.

And of course, the long awaited priest, meant to decide if the elves would try to destroy my Core or not for being too abnormal, would be among them as well. If they did decide to destroy my Core they had two ways of going at it: Breaking my allowed sapients to come at me with massive forces like they did last time or only sending in a small but powerful Party. If they did the first, then I was pretty confident I would come out on top, seeing as my 10th Floor and its Boss was almost finished and I would once again be able to storm any invaders with forces from other Floors.

But if they chose to send a specialized Party - and thus didn’t break the allowed maximum per Floor -, I wouldn’t be able to move creatures to different Floor due to each Floor only being allowed a certain number of ‘levels worth of creatures’. This would stop my kirins from gaining as much power from the deaths of their fellow Dungeon creatures, meaning…

… I couldn’t be sure I would win. Not while knowing the Lighting Mage and her powerful pet dawon would be a part of this Party sent to destroy me.

And sure! The Core they would destroy would be fake, but after having destroyed ‘my Core’ without my Dungeon actually dying they would realize the Core was fake and begin looking for the Real Core. And with all that magic in her hand, it would surprise me if the Lightning Mage couldn’t find my Real Core should she actively look for it.

She could find my mimics when looking for them after all…

And with the Lightning Mage being a smart girl, she had surely realized a small but powerful Party would be her best choice for winning.

So to summarize: This single priest had the ability to sentence me to death. And if he did, I would only have, at most, a 50% chance of survival. The specific odds lay in the hands of the Lightning Mage and her choices, of course. But the priest could just as well declare I were to live and thus give me a 100% chance of survival for the foreseeable future.

Truth be told: This unknown priest made me more anxious than the powerful Lightning Mage.

She was the devil I knew, after all.

I suppose there is a decent chance my 'Fake or Real Core' Rule might convince her that she destroyed the real Core, but without the effects of actually dying I somewhat doubt that.