Draconic Karma Dungeon

Chapter 25: The Greatest Weapon and Merchants' Decisions

As it was an individual puzzle, every person had to humbly describe themselves or they would fail the puzzle, but after Hotheus' example the others had no problems doing so.

The room they entered had olive trees along the wall of the door they entered from and the opposite wall where another door was. Along the other two walls were weapon stands with all sorts of weapons.

As with all of the walls and ceilings of this Dungeon these too were covered in climbing plants. Likewise the ground was covered in grass and wildflowers, but no bushes could be seen in this room. In the exact center of the room stood a statue of a human knight. In one hand it had a shield while the other had its hand stretched out towards them with the palm facing up.

On the stone stand underneath the statue stood the words:

Bring to me the greatest weapon, that kings covet, puts warriors to ruin and ends all wars.

The group read the riddle and most began to ponder on the solution.

Nerok was the only one to show no interest in trying to solve the riddle, seemingly satisfied letting someone else work it out.

Nalir looked around for clues but didn't give it serious thought, as he knew how much it would please his mate to be the one to solve it.

Begdar ignored the weapon stands as she knew they were red herrings and tried to look for other clues. The hand of the statue was stretched out with the palm up, clearly indicating one needed to place something in its hand. But what? Begdar asked herself. Looking around again she realized that - unlike in any other room in the Dungeon - all the trees were of the same kind. What was so special about the olive tree wasn't completely clear to the lupinekin, and after a bit more thinking she concluded it was not the kind of tree that was important but simply nature in general. The trees needed to be identical to serve as the clue and olive trees just happened to get picked.

Caleb and Nuktar were looking at the weapons in the hopes of finding a weapon that stood out to them. As there were anything from swords to bows to spears to slings to hammers and maces and so on, they had a hard time coming to any conclusion.

Hotheus examined the statue more closely but didn't find anything new.

Podon reread the riddle several times while thinking about the nature of the Dungeon. While all Dungeons had creature and environment themes, the gnome had heard of no other Dungeons that had a theme like this one. A theme of morals! A Dungeon that actively tried to teach people to be better people!

So whad is the lesson here? Podon asked himself. Whad is the moral?

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I don't think any of them have a good Awareness Score, I concluded. I admit, they are also not expecting the door to have a doorknob and they aren’t even looking in the right direction, but still! It's disappointing!

…

Though… for the sake of having the element of surprise for the next group of bad guys… I suppose this is for the best.

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Thad mighd jusd be id! The gnome Merchant thought and walked up to the statue. Reaching his hand up high - due to his short stature - he grabbed the hand of the knight statue and tried to shake it as he said out loud: "Ai bring ye peace!"

The statue bent in the wrist and elbow, making it seem like an actual handshake. At the same time the door behind the statue slid open.

"Uh?!" Begdar exclaimed confused. That was not the solution she had reached. Though thinking over it, it did make sense. But what was the point of having all the trees be the same type?

Putting the question to rest for now, Begdar followed the group out of the room.

Your Party has solved a puzzle!

You have gained 8 EXP.

Due to the Dungeon Rule 'Experiencing Peace' your Party has been rewarded double the amount of EXP and loot you would have gotten if you killed all the creatures in the room you just left.

Experiencing Peace rewards you 10 EXP.

While the 4 merchants only got 5 EXP in total, the fact remained that no creature had been seen in the previous room.

Then 4 small tin cubes appeared as loot.

Exclamations like "Tin?!", "What?!" and "By the System!" could suddenly be heard.

The first three metals to appear in a Dungeon were aluminum, copper, and tin, in that order. Copper typically appeared in the latter half of the 1st tier of Floors and tin in the first half of the 2nd tier. Where exactly they would start to show up depended on the Dungeon's creatures and what level they were at. An 8th Floor filled with level 1 dragonets would still only leave small aluminum cubes.

It was almost unheard of for a Dungeon to drop tin before the 6th Floor, though, it did at times happen. This was typically seen as a sign of a fast-growing Dungeon.

Finally the noise died down, only for Podon to state: "Clearly the unknown creature was a mighty powerful one compared to the Dungion's tier!"

Begdar really wanted to go back and locate the mysterious creature, but one thing held her back. The Dungeon clearly doesn't trust the merchants. No creature has said a word while they have been here. The creature likely stayed hidden because of them. I have to respect the Dungeon's decision here! The lupinekin took a deep breath to calm herself. I'll see it next time. When there's no merchants with us.

Having noticed his mate's agitation Nalir grabbed Begdar's hand, gave it a squeeze and sent her a questioning look. She answered with a shake of her head and a grateful and reassuring smile, telling her mate without words that she was okay and that they would talk about it later. Nalir then communicated his support of her by giving her a quick kiss on her forehead, turning her smile big and bright. Then the two returned their attention to the rest of the group.

Before entering the Dungeon the 7 of them had agreed that the three Tribesmen had first claim on anything they found in the Dungeon. It was their Dungeon after all, and the merchants had only been invited in as an act of goodwill. As such, the Chief had claimed the 4 small tin cubes and put it in his own backpack.

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While I for the most part didn't mess with the loot drop chances, I felt like I had to in some cases. Some of my creatures were not intended for a 1st tier Floor and as such gave more valuable metal cubes than I should be capable of dropping at this stage. For these, I changed the loot drops to something more realistic, like big copper cubes. This had happened to all my mimics - except my mimicking dragonet -, my unicorn bunny and - to a lesser degree - the griffins.

The level 10 karmic mini mimic in The Room of The Peacemaker had a natural common loot drop of 1-2 small gold cubes. As gold was the 7th metal to appear in Dungeons it normally belonged to 4th tier Floors. There was no way, I would want to pull attention towards myself by having that appear so early!

I did trust the Tribe to a certain degree and considered for a bit making it a Rule that the Tribe would get the natural loot drop chances when not with outsiders. But I realized the Tribe would gain just as much unwanted attention if they found to have unexplained gold as I would get should it be discovered it came from me.

So the 1-2 small gold became 1-2 small tin.

The kirin Boss would drop 3-4 big copper cubes - which had not been altered by it becoming a Boss - which seemed to me like a bit too little for it being the Boss. The unicorn bunny, however, would naturally drop 1-2 big tin cubes despite only being level 5. Even for a Boss fight, big tin cubes seemed like it would be a bit too much instead, so I changed the bunny' metal loot to 3-4 small tin cubes. This way it would look a bit more… powerful…? than the mini mimic. And I do love to misdirect people!

That being said, when fighting against evil the kirin could become much more powerful than the mini mimic. It was the boss for a reason.

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Kirin Level 10

Bā zú lung dragon Level 5

Fledgling karmic feathered serpent Level 5

"Why're there multiple monsters in the Boss Room?" Podon asked out loud as the group entered the Boss Room.

Nerok calmly walked up to the kirin standing in midair just slightly above the running water. Stopping in front of it, he gave the dragon-headed, blue, and red scaled, cloven-hoofed, long-necked, lion-maned, horse a couple of claps on the head underneath its ossicones. The kirin was 2.2 meters at the highest point of the withers but including its neck and head it was 3 meter tall. As such, Nerok could only touch the creature's head 'cause it wanted him to. The kirin responded to the friendly touch with a happy neigh and a whisk of its scaled, yet fur-tipped, lion-tail.

"Because the Dungeon wanted it and the System allowed it." Answered the Chief confidently and proudly. His local god had done it once again!

"Riiighd…" The gnome nor his companions were convinced but had no good explanation themselves and decided to just ignore the anomaly for now.

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Due to the Dungeon Rule 'Experiencing Peace' your Party has been rewarded double the amount of EXP and loot you would have gotten if you killed all the creatures in the room you just left.

Experiencing Peace rewards you 55 EXP.

You have completed this Dungeon while it has 5 Floors for the first time.

You have gained 250 EXP.

It was clear to Begdar that, once again, a creature had gone unnoticed. And again, she resisted the urge to go back and look for it.

It took several minutes of deep thinking to realize it was the unicorn bunny they hadn't seen.

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When the group left, I checked on my status.

Personal Status Level: 19 EXP needed for level up: 19,400/19,400 Additional EXP: 613 Mana payment needed for level up: 1,750/3,000 Mana: 41.25/1,500 Mana regeneration: 525 per hour Floors: 5/10 Allowed number of sapients in each Floor: 7 Floor Details Achievements Mission Dungeon Rules

The 6th Floor had been dug but as I had started by making the most expensive creature - which was, as always, the mimic of the Floor -, it currently only had a level 5 small mimic in it. The mimic would end up being level 12, but I had not yet enough mana to finish leveling it as each level up cost me a whopping 1,407 mana. And I also needed to save some mana so I could quickly level up when I got the EXP for it.

I should probably stop my obsession with making my mimics into secret bosses, though. It's mighty expensive and slows down my process!

…

… Next time…

… Maybe…

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Podon called for a meeting with his merchant caravan that night. They had already traded with the Tribe but had plenty of things they needed to decide on for the future. The meeting began with the 2 guards of the day getting updated on all that had happened.

"We need to decide whad we tell people aboud this… unique Dungion?" The gnome leader continued afterwards. "We could sell 'formation on the Dungion to whoever wants to pay us for id. This would give us money now, bud soon other merchants would come in and give compétition. This here mighd still be a young Dungion bud the tin lood is proof it's a fasd growing one. Id will soon be a real money bank."

Podon took a sip of water from his water canteen. "Instead Ai suggest we pretend it's a normal Dungion to anyone nod already in the know. Should anyone aske, we say we found a town in the middle of noo-where with a Dungion but we refrain from saying exactly where or how big the town or the Dungion is. We would pud this place on our route - id is already baisically on id! - and we come back here every month or so. Thad wai we'll basically have a monopoly on the easiesd to complete Dungion in this here world! One which also happens to give double lood!"

The gnome shrugged his shoulders. "Well… For a wee while at leasd. It'll be discovered by others ad some poind of course. Mighd be by other merchants or be by thad there culd that has been killing Dungions to get ahold of their Cores. There only seem to be older or mighty well protected Dungions lefd round here 'cause of them…"

Podon had looked thoughtful before he shook his head in disappointment and took a look around at the others. "Regardless of other merchand caravans and cults. Do ye agree with me plan for the immediate future regarding this here Dungion?"

Agreements were heard.

"Then Ai have one lasd question for y'all. Do we leave in the morrow? Or do we stai a wee while longer?"

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The merchant caravan decided the Dungeon was still a bit too young to be of much use to them. They would leave in the morning and come back at a later date and check on its progress.