Draconic Karma Dungeon

Chapter 66: Delaying Tactics

The Room of Rust didn't do as well as it had before. It still managed to turn most of the Party's metal weapons and armor to dust, just not all of it as it had done every time before. The Axe Master's axe and the Paladin's armor wasn't affected at all nor was anything the Noble Light Hunter had on her.

Titanium… Unlike acutium, titanium was not just resistant to my rust effect but completely immune.

And as the Party had - as all cultists before them - rammed through any puzzles standing in their way they couldn't immediately figure out - which had been all of them at this point - they were progressing fast.

Skipping any puzzle not in their way and ramming through the rest.

Naturally that had activated 'Cheaters Only Cheat Themselves' and the Toughness of everything in my Dungeon had started to climb.

Not that they noticed.

They hadn't even used any spells either, so my 'Mostly Random Wonky Magic' Rule didn't even have a chance at causing them trouble. The three close combat fighters and one archer combo combined with their high levels meant the spellcasters - for I assumed the Hypnotist was a spellcaster too, even if not one normally in combat - had no reason to waste their mana.

Said high level had also meant the bad luck curses of my bā zú lung dragons had little effect, as their experience and skill simply overcame any bad luck aimed at them.

I don't have a lot of mana to work with here, so I really need to work on efficiency. Coming up with a new Rule on the spot while in a stressful situation wasn't all that easy and my mana limitations only made that worse.

Hmm… Maybe a more narrow trigger criteria would make a Rule cheaper? As long as it doesn't get too cheap, of course. After all, the narrower a Rule the less it'll be used.

Is that how it works, System?

The mana price of a Rule depends firstly on the level of the Dungeon Core in question, with lower level Dungeon Cores getting a cheaper price due to being less experienced and more open to changes.

Secondly the mana price of a Rule depends on whether or not a Rule would support Dungeon Cores' Mission. A Rule supporting the Mission will be cheaper, one going against it will be more expensive, and a Rule, which is neither, will not have its price affected by this at all.

Lastly the mana price of a Rule depends on how big a change it causes once in effect, with bigger changes costing more.

…

You've been charging me more every time I leveled up?! The whole spiel simply flashed in response. Never mind! I don't have the time for that!

Okay. So. The last part says it 'depends on how big a change it causes once in effect'. 'Once in effect' means it doesn't matter how narrow or generic the trigger criteria is. Not pricewise, that is.

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To lower the price of a Rule… Can't lower my level - and I'm not sure I would want to - so the first part can't help me.

By having the trigger be '25% karma or lower' the Rule will support the Mission, so that's good.

… Having the Rule make a smaller change might make it cheaper but also less effective…

I gave a mental sigh, only for my muse to arrive.

A smaller change? What if I simply boost one of my existing Rules? That would be a smaller change, right?!

The System didn't reply, but I didn't expect it to.

… Or maybe it would simply be upgrading the existing Rule…

Never mind the details! System! I wish to make the Rule 'Get Out of My Head' more effective, so the cultists are… redeemed faster. How much would that cost?

To change the effect of "Get Out of My Head" from "a lowering of 6 points per hour of the used Ability Score(/s) of the manipulator" to "a lowering of 7 points per hour of the used Ability Score(/s) of the manipulator" costs 2,910 mana.

System Alert Strengthening the effects of "Get Out of My Head" introduces the potential of the victims receiving brain damage due to a too fast change in brain signals.

Oh…

Is it worth it to risk brain damage?

… Can brain damage be healed?

Damage done to the physical brain can be healing by talented, high tiered mages or a powerful enough healing potion.

The sapient species have yet to design a strategy for healing non-physical brain damage due to the near non-existent need for it.

So, no. Not this type of brain damage…

…

I'll try to see if I can come up with something better.

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The Mist pixie on the 4th Floor's first room The Cliffside had had some success at delaying the Party with the heavy fog it summoned around them. But as the fog disappeared once the pixie was killed it didn't last long.

Still, it inspired me. For should they enter a second fog they would assume another Mist pixie was nearby. They would go look for it so they could kill it and see clearly once again. The standard procedure of cultists seemed to be to ignore any creatures and puzzles which weren't in their way so they could get to my Core without delays.

The fog created by a Mist pixie wasn't directly in their way but would still delay them, meaning they actually went out of their way to find and kill it.

But what if there weren't any pixies to be found? Surely it would take them a while to realize!

I picked an earlier room to experiment with but I couldn't make a fog as thick as the one the Mist pixie made. It was barely even worth calling a fog!

Which meant I would have to make a fog Rule, which shouldn't be all that expensive. Adding a simple fog wasn't that big a change and it would only appear in the presence of bad people.

So, a fog Rule to distract and delay them.

Any way I can make the fog even more confusing?

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Agtius had just been given the command to find and kill the annoying pixie making the thick fog. The giant had hoped the first pixie had been the only one, but the thick fog in the first room of the 5th Floor told him otherwise.

His fellow devotees were looking for it as well of course! No reason why they wouldn't, really. Agtius didn't even expect to be the one to find it. While the Axe Master had good Awareness, he knew disciple Delonix-Regia and the bishop had far better Scores than him and were that much more likely to spot the pixie first.

Though Agtius would most certainly enjoy it if it ended up being him who spotted the monster first.

After all, being the first to spot it gave the right to squish it in the name of the goddess!

Agtius loved to cleave things!

At first it had simply been a fondness for all things sharp and what they could do. Then the adolescent had taken up the job of chopping wood for the family. The job had made him feel proud: He could lessen the burden on his family, be useful! And if he practiced enough with his axe he would even be able to help protect his family!

As Agtius got better at chopping they even began selling some of the wood and his pride grew at providing his family with both warmth and money.

Then the Order had entered his life and he had realized that wasn't what his family needed him to be. He had plenty of siblings who could chop wood just as well and his father was capable of protecting the family should it come to it.

No. What his family needed more than anything else, was for the goddess to return to her former glory! Easing the burden on the System and giving out just rewards to the most deserving!

Agtius had grown a lot since then and now his mission was coming to an end. One last crusade before he would be reunited with his family, having freed the goddess.

It's been so long… Are they even still alive?

He knew he was making his family proud!

Several minutes had passed with no sign of the blasted pixie. They couldn't stray far from where their fog was as it would simply follow them, meaning it was normally easy enough to locate them once you knew what you were up against.

And Agtius had been on enough crusades to know just about anything a Dungeon could throw at him. In fact, it had been his warning which had allowed disciple Delonix-Regia to find and kill the first one within seconds!

"It's taking too long!" Declared the bishop.

"We could follow the trail, while keeping an ear out for monsters?" Disciple Mlartlar suggested.

Looking down, Agtius did indeed have one foot in the grass and one foot not.

Not that he would have been able to declare that a trail just from that.

"Most of the previous rooms had trails like this, all leading from beginning to exit." Disciple Mlartlar continued. "The few rooms where that wasn't true, didn't have a trail at all."

Agtius hadn't noticed that. Mlartar probably only noticed 'cause he's a Battle Commander. They have to be aware of their surroundings to be most effective at commanding their soldiers in battle.

And follow the trail they did, though it seemed like they had already killed every monster in the room.

The trail ended and instead of the room exit they had expected they simply found a wall. Not even a puzzle door but a simple wall covered in climbing plants.

"Break it." His bishop commanded.

Oh! So, it is a puzzle door! Just a camouflaged one! Agtius took his beloved, Enchanted, expensive axe and hammered it through the climbing plants and directly into and through the wall.

For a wall it was. And any seasoned miner had heard the horror stories of what happened to those who tried to break a Dungeon's walls in an attempt to skip rooms.

The hole would swallow them and any nearby Party members up!

Fortunately for the Order, Agtius had only made an axe sized hole.

Unfortunately for Agtius, his axe was the size of his arm.

So, into the void behind the hole went both axe and arm.

Agtius screamed in pain as the void tore in his arm, slowly peeling off his arm hair, nails, and skin.

He was abandoned before it moved on to his flesh, causing him to pass out from the pain.

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As the Axe Master's axe broke my wall, I began mentally screaming in pain. I hadn't felt any pain at all since becoming a Dungeon Core. Not even any aching anywhere! So the sudden sensation of pain was unexpected and excruciating.

My Core was simultaneously my heart and brain but the Dungeon itself was my body. My creatures, puzzles, traps, and even the environment were - in a way - my nails and hair. Still a part of me, but one it wouldn't hurt to cut off and one which would alway grow back.

But the Dungeon walls, ceiling, and floor were my body. And it hurt when my body got damaged. Had it been my Core I would likely die before feeling any pain. With it being my wall I would hurt but had no actual chance of dying.

It took quite a while before I could think past the pain and luckily for me the Party had decided not to attack any more of my walls despite the next two rooms following the same combo of 'Thick Fog' Rule and alternated environment leading into a wall.

The entirety of the 5th and 6th Floors had been covered in thick fog from the Rule but only some pathways had been altered. The first three had been altered in the hope of making them distrust the trails, only for other trails to lead them to the exit.

By the time I could think again the Party was at the end of those three rooms, talking to The Humble Door.

The Axe Master had clearly been abandoned and seemed to have passed out while my pain incapacitated me.

Why did they leave him behind? Why did he pass out?

Why is his arm still in my wound? Passing out made him go limp so he should have fallen to the ground by now.

Dungeons exist in their own dimension which gets bigger as the Dungeon does. The Surface World is the main dimension, and it's where the sapients live. Dungeons are only connected to the Surface World through their Dungeon Portal.

Should a Dungeon have a hole punctured into it, anything near the hole will be sucked out of the Dungeon till the Dungeon's natural regeneration has closed the hole or the hole has been blocked.

Oh…