Draconic Karma Dungeon

Chapter 93: An Ounce of Prevention

Sarzina Acacia was headed towards the Sheriff's office to help him make a report on the day's events for the Crown Princess and her escorts to take back to the Queen, who wanted to be kept up to date on everything regarding the cult. The Sheriff's office was located on the second floor of the Security Guild and as she stepped into the building her attention was immediately drawn towards a loud discussion happening in the lobby.

The human man her Dungeon had requested she keep a closer eye on to ensure he didn't get sucked back into the cult was talking disparately - and thus loudly - with the siren who had been the first of the prisoners to be freed of mind control. Zina didn't know what was so special about this particular human, which had led her Dungeon to want to keep him in particular safe. She hadn't asked as she highly doubted she would have gotten an answer.

The Dungeon liked their - the beastkin had ensured her the Dungeon prefered they/them pronouns - secrets enough to have the System force her to keep them for them, after all.

At least the request was one she was happy to accommodate. She didn't want anyone to fall into the clutches of the cult in the first place.

What is going on here?

It didn't take much listening before the piece fell into place: The siren had joined the unit going after the cult and the human wanted to stay with him. But the siren was worried about the human's safety due to the man's much lower level.

Yeah… How can you only be a 2nd tier despite being in your prime? Zina, who had spent all her free time training and leveling up in Dungeons, had no way of understanding how someone could be that low leveled and not just have come of age.

"You are welcome to stay here till mister Lagurith returns, mister Great Rat." Zina interrupted to suggest. If he stays here I can keep an eye on him like my Dungeon wants. I can't really leave this place for unknown periods of time.

"Mister Great Rat?!" The human exclaimed confusedly, before stubbornness set back in. "No. You're not a boss if you're not close enough to order anyone around! I have to stay with him!"

That's not true, Zina thought confused. The Queendom works just fine even though the Queen can't be everywhere.

"I-. No, but-." Mr. Great Rat stuttered. "Maybe that works for you, but that's not how it works here!" He ended stubbornly.

"I don't mind the company of Mr. Great Rat." Intercepted Lagurith with a fond smile aimed at the human. "I simply worry for his safety during my missions."

"I-. But-. I won't-. I'll stay hidden!" The human replied with his arms now crossed and his head turned sideways, looking down.

"Hmmm…" It was silent for a couple of seconds as Zina thought. "What do you intend to do while mister Lagurith is working?"

The reply was instant. "Whatever he tells me to!"

Zina raised an eyebrow as Lagurith questioned the answer. "Whatever I tell you to? Don't you have anything you want to do?" The look the human sent was in itself an answer. "Huh… If you could have any job in the world, what kind of job would you have?"

"I-. Uhh…" Clearly he had never considered that before now, as he froze up entirely from being asked.

After several long seconds Lagurith seemed to give up on getting an answer as he suddenly sighed. "I'm sure we can find something you'll like doing."

The human unfroze as a satisfied grin appeared on his lips.

"Something which will keep him out of danger and away from the cult?" Zina questioned. If I can't do it myself then…

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A questioning chirp sounded from the siren before he answered. "Certainly. As I said, his safety is my main concern. I'll do my utmost to keep him out of harm's way. Whether that be physical or mental."

"Good! Now if you'll excuse me, I have some paperwork to do with the Sheriff."

The silently listening deputies in the lobby sniggered.

Paperwork might not be all the two of them did in the Sheriff's office these days, but the rumors were certainly ahead of reality.

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"Is that your personal name or family name?" Kastle Brassheart questioned the siren. The human next to him had been presented by the siren with both a personal name and a family name. While it wasn't his business he highly suspected the human had been adopted by gnomes for him to have a family name like Greatrat.

"We sirens don't have family names as we consider our whole community our family," replied Lagurith.

"Oh," exclaimed Kastle, confused. "Then how do you know whether you've been invited to stay in someone's home?"

The siren chirped confusedly back at Kastle. "Well… While sirens are very hospitable, our customs means each Village and Town has several guest homes available for guests rather than guest bedrooms. While you would always be allowed to visit, even uninvited and without warning, you would not be allowed to stay at someone's home. Night time is meant to be spent with your ji-dit, your closest family."

"Oh!" Kastle exclaimed again but this time in understanding. He had never considered that someone might have other traditions when it came to social interactions. "Well, we gnomes will introduce ourselves or each other by both personal and family name. But expect to be called by our family name and any relevant title. If we give our permission for you to address us by our personal name only, then you would have earned our trust and loyalty. And with that trust and loyalty comes the standing offer to find shelter and safety in our home."

Lagurith took a moment to look around at the members of the Exodus around them, before drawing his gaze back to Kastle. "While I'm sure that's true for your people, I'm afraid to say it's not a universal gnome custom. I have met many gnomes doing my travels, many of whom asked to be called by their personal name the moment we met. Long before any trust and loyalty could be established between us. Some people simply prefer being called by their personal name rather than their family name. Generally because they want to be seen and judged for their own merits instead of their parents'."

Kastle simply stared blankly as his brain tried to comprehend the meaning of the words he had been told.

Could this-? be why we were always rejected?

Just how many times have I, and so many others, entered the home of a person who gave us permission to call them by their personal name? Thinking it meant we had been invited inside? Thinking it meant we had been invited to stay?

Too many. We have mostly been traveling through human lands and they seem to prefer to be called by their personal names.

Regaining his composure, Kastle decided to ask the siren if this could be the truth.

"Hmm…" The siren hummed thoughtfully for a moment after hearing their tale. "That would certainly be enough for some places, but I do find it odd that not a single person would tell you what you had done wrong. Perhaps there is more to the story than simply this. Maybe you and some of your fellows could go through what a normal day looks like for you. I find cultures very fascinating, you see, and I know the customs of Pasan well. When you speak of humans, you are referring to the citizens of Pasan, correct?"

"Yes, I did! And we'll be glad to go through our routines with you!" The excitement in Kastle's voice was clear to all.

Finally we'll figure out what we've been doing wrong all this time!

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"While 'finders keepers' are a thing, for - quite frankly - everyone else, it only comes into effect if it's impossible to tell who owned - or rather owns - the object. If your pet raccoon, crow, or raven brings you an item which you know belongs to someone else, it is instead your duty to do all you can to bring the object back to its proper owner. You don't just get to keep it. And plenty of places might demand you train your pets not to steal rather than encourage it. It might not technically not be you who steals the item, but as you've decided to keep known stolen goods which your pets have brought you, you would still be considered the thief to most places. You are supposed to be the sapient here, their actions are your responsibility."

Lagurith took a couple of deep breaths before finishing his scolding of a fully adult gnome woman. Having racoons, crows, and ravens as pets was apparently completely normal for these gnomes, and it was completely expected that they would bring any well liked owner gifts in the form of items they had found on their walks or flights. It didn't matter if those 'gifts' had clearly been stolen from another. The gnomes themselves simply made sure to lock anything away that might be taken by another's pet as a 'gift'.

"Now bring all of your stolen goods to the Security Guild so it can be given back to their proper owner. Then train your pets not to steal from people."

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With 8,925 mana per hour and no intention of making something super expensive, like a unicorn blessing, it didn't take me long to finish my 11th Floor.

After having done 5 mainly forest themed Floors followed by 5 mainly volcano themed ones, and as I had already been outed as being an unusual Dungeon, I had decided to mix things up a bit. Instead of doing 5 mainly river and lake themed Floors next, I would only make one. The 12th Floor would then be mountain themed, the 13th a desert, and the 14th a tundra.

A greater variety would not only keep me from stagnating, but leave me better able to defend myself against specialized enemies.

When I eventually ran out of Floors I could make and had to wait for either a level up or a tier up, I planned to redo my first 10 Floors, to make them fit this rotation.

And to stop boredom of course!

Now that I think about it… I've never actually been bored. Not even back at level 0 when I waited hours simply to get enough mana to make a single dragonet.

… Probably an inherent immortality thing. Otherwise no one would ever be able to handle eternity!

With only 1 Floor to work with per theme at a time, I wanted to include a much bigger variety of suitable dragons. Where each of my first 5 Floors had of the dragons I had gotten through leveling up - all forest themed -, this time I would include 4 of them on one Floor.

The tatzelwurm was a lindwyrm with the face and front paws of a lynx. Both the furred front part of the creature and the scaled back part was colored in a lynx's pattern with the fur part extending down the creature's back a bit like the mane of a horse. Besides their sharp claws and teeth, tatzelwurms could produce an ear-claspingly high-pitched hissing sound meant to distract their prey from the poisonous breath now surrounding them.

A pair of crocodiles with an elephant trunk, makaras, could be found at every entrance throughout the Floor as they had an Achievement called 'Guardian of Gateways' which gave them bonuses in both Strength and Toughness while guarding anything one could consider a gateway. As they were already able to Buff their own Toughness and as 'Cheaters Only Cheat Themselves' would surely already be in effect by the time any intruders arrived at the 11th Floor, they could potentially end up with quite insane Toughness Scores.

Where the tatzelwurms would strike from their hiding spots in trees and shrubs, the peludas would ambush from underwater. This long-necked drake had an almost spherical body completely covered in green, stiff, waterproof fur from which poison-tipped, hedgehog-like spikes emerged. The poison was a weak and slow acting one, clearly meant to deter and punish predators from trying to eat it.

And with their size being just short that of a large dog, they were small enough to warrant that size of protection in this world.

Not that that was their only defense. No, their first instinct was to burn their enemies with their breaths of Fire!

And if that didn't work, the peluda would use its mace-shaped tail to crush them.

To round out the dragons of the 11th Floor came the amaru. The amaru was an amphiptere with two sets of fins on its long, fish-like tail as well as red and green, waterproof feathers on its wings. With the exception of its more colorful wings, it had a body covered completely in turquoise scales.

Even on its llama-like head. Which was a bit weird to look at.

As the only flier of the group, I found it quite fitting that they preferred to spend their time in the sky, where they could summon small localized thunderstorms, cause hail to appear, or simply make it rain on command.