Draconic Karma Dungeon

Chapter 6: Abnormal Dungeon

I like them. They respect the dragonets and leave their burrows alone as asked to. Asked, hissed at. Same thing really. They got it after all.

The catboy seemed to be the leader but only took charge when needed. The wolfgirl was clearly his mate. The foxboy had successfully charmed my first key-wearing dragonet and gotten the first key. Peaceful solutions! Just how I like it! The foxboy had even risen 1% in karma levels simply petting my dragonet. The mousegirl had done so when they decided to leave the burrows alone in the room before. It was likely only her karma levels getting raised due to her having the lowest karma level of the entire Party. See! I'm making people better people! I love my job! Mousegirl only needs one more percent before she gets extra luck in here like her friends do!

They seem a bit confused by the slightly fire-resistant dragon leather. Maybe they don't know what's special about it…

Uh, well! Status!

Personal Status Level: 1 EXP needed for level up: 52/200 Mana payment needed for level up: 0/100 Mana: 32.75/100 Mana regeneration: 15 per hour Floors: 1/1 Allowed number of sapients in each Floor: 6 Floor Details Achievements Mission Dungeon Rules

Uh! I'll likely get faster regeneration when I level up! Yes! I can't wait!

Or well… I guess I have to…

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇

The 5th room had plenty of trees and a stream going from the middle of the left wall to the near right corner. Unlike the other streams this one had steppingstones in it.

The stones are right in front of us too. Begdar thought. There're too many details like this for it to be a coincidence. Taking a deep breath she nervously spoke her thoughts out loud. "I know it might sound crazy but this Dungeon is pretty weird anyway so you might just agree with me." She took another calming breath as her Party turned towards her. "This Dungeon has done plenty of unusual things: peaceful monsters, double loot and EXP for not killing said monsters, the trap was perfectly placed to punish people for going near the burrows, something the dragons first give a warning about, they could have… should have just attacked us for it!"

Another calming breath was needed to stop her rambling. Then she turned to look at Taozcec. "It let you pet it! It purred as you pet it!" Another breath. "The key around its neck. You could probably take it by force but it… it seems to me like you were meant to do it peacefully. Like everything else in this Dungeon." The lupinekin turned to look at the steppingstones in the stream. "These stones are clearly here for us to step on so we can get over without getting wet. But just like the trap before the burrows, these steppingstones are meant to teach us something."

Nalir took her hand and gave it a squeeze in support. "What do you think the lesson is?"

Thinking for a bit Begdar suggested: "None of the other streams had steppingstones but we also didn't need to get to the other side to get to the next room. Here we do. I think the Dungeon is telling us to only cross streams with steppingstones." She nervously looked at her Party. "I sound crazy, don't I?"

"Na… I believe you." Taozcec stated. "This Dungeon is weird about no one attacking anyone. It being more intelligent than most and trying to teach us its boundaries seems just up its alley if I'm being honest."

Zaktak and Thenac, being the pessimistic and cautious ones, had some things to add to it. "If it's really smarter than other Dungeons…" Zaktak began "... it might simply be trying to lure us into a false sense of security." Thenac nodded and cautioned them to be more cautious, just in case.

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇

The steppingstones had gotten them safely across, but it took longer than expected to find the way to the next room. While looking Thenac pointed out that there were 6 dragons in the room rather than the usual 5.

In the end it turned out that instead of the way being located in the middle of a wall this one was next to a corner. In addition this one wasn't a simple 1-meter-long opening like the others had been. Instead it appeared at an angle, curved and was much longer than the others.

It was also partly hidden behind a tree…

Entering the curved corridor two 1st tier BO's, 6 meat, 6 fruits and 26 small aluminum cubes appeared and this time everyone got 6 EXP. As the remaining 1st tiers, Zaktak and Nalir got a BO each and became 2nd tiers. Zaktak got the Toughness Class which while unusual for muskin was kind of expected for her. Nalir on the other hand got the usual felinekin Class of Dexterity. With these Classes came the passive Class skills of Enhanced Stamina and Fast Reflexes.

Additionally Nalir was rewarded with a big kiss from his mate leaving the whole Party smiling.

With no one being 9+ anymore their chances of getting BO's had now halved yet the Party couldn't be happier. They had finally tiered up!

With the corridor only being 1-meter wide, Thenac was put in the front to keep a watch out for traps. After her was Taozcec in case a dragon needed to be charmed.

10 meters in, the rhinokin noticed a slightly raised pressure platform and 3 vertically placed holes on each side of the wall. "Another pressure trap. Judging by the holes in the wall, this one will shoot something from said holes. Likely something sharp." Thenac turned her head to look at her Party. "I'm going to trigger it, but as it could be a gas we should be prepared to run." It wasn't necessary to trigger the trap before passing but in a tight corridor it seemed better to Thenac to not take the risk. They nodded. Thenac carefully stepped a toe unto the platform and pushed down, activating the trap. 6 darts burst out from the holes, hitting the opposite wall, and falling down. "Just darts. Let's keep going."

They did but soon Thenac noticed another pressure trap. "There are no holes with this one, so I don't feel comfortable stepping on it. Could whoever, is the one in the back, go get a stick from the other room? A thick one?" Zaktak grumbled a bit but turned around and walked back. Thenac had started carrying thick sticks around while in Dungeons ever since the trap incident that took half her horn, but as she had known this was either a jungle or a forest Dungeon, she had decided it would be a waste to carry one around as she could just get one from the surroundings.

Zaktak came back with a thick stick she had broken off of a tree and sent it forwards till it got to Thenac. Thenac used the stick to safely trigger the trap. Metal spikes burst through the ground. "Metal spikes. Just walk over them."

Another 10 meters passed, and another pressure trap was found. No holes in the wall so the rhinokin used the stick again. Rocks loudly crashed from the ceiling and snapped the stick. She gulped. Why didn't I think to look up? Thenac decided she had to try to remember to look up when looking for traps. The rocks weren't big enough to kill any of them as they were all 2nd tiers now but even someone at level 3 could have gotten killed by that. The 1st Floor is supposed to be for level 1 and 2, so while not a lot stronger than expected this trap is still somewhat stronger. The rest of the corridor didn't have any traps.

The 6th room had the trees placed in rows with a brook following the furthest wall. The opening to the next room could just be seen from this angle. It was in the middle of the wall to the left.

"What lesson did the Dungeon try to teach us with the trap corridor?" Zaktak asked sarcastically.

"To be careful." Thenac replied. The others stared at her confused. "Did we get hurt? No. Why not? Because we were careful. The traps in this Dungeon are slightly less hidden than in the two other Dungeons I've been in. As long as you're being careful in that corridor, anyone could have noticed the traps and safely avoided them." She shrugged. "They were all pressure traps. We could just have stepped over them."

Mumbles of agreements could be heard.

Morghar took a closer look at the trees hoping to spot a dragon in them. "Is that an apple tree! My cubs love apples!" The ursakin started picking apples for his children. While taking a living monster, pieces of traps or puzzles with you outside would fail, pieces of the environment - like the apples - could be harvested and brought out. And as the Floor resets after a Party leaves it, they could take as much as they could carry without worry.

The room turned out to be an orchard with two rows of pear trees, two rows of mango trees, two of apple trees and two of orange trees. By the middle of the right wall there was a thornbush which would make the dragons hiss at anyone nearing it. The Party concluded their burrows were beneath the bush.

They exited the room carrying a lot of fruit while still leaving some space for loot. With the orchard room having 6 dragons in it, said loot consisted of 4 meat, 8 fruits and 32 small aluminum cubes. Another doubled rare loot drop appeared in the form of two small round shields covered in the green scaled leather. Zaktak and Morghar got to carry the shields as none of them had any and those two were the most likely to use them.

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇

The wolfgirl had made a nervous monologue in The Hidden Tunnel Room. Not that I knew what it was about, but they seemed more… paranoid…? afterward.

It took them a whole 10 minutes of concentrated searching before they found the opening to The Trap Corridor.

Experiencing Peace rewards you 12 EXP.

First of Your Kind rewards you 3 EXP.

Creature Designer rewards you 2 EXP.

The Hidden Tunnel Room showed me that the System rounded up when it comes to EXP. I can use that. In pretty simple ways too. Like here where there are 6 dragonets in a room. I'll just have to keep a lookout for it. Status!

Personal Status Level: 1 EXP needed for level up: 69/200 Mana payment needed for level up: 0/100 Mana: 38/100 Mana regeneration: 15 per hour Floors: 1/1 Allowed number of sapients in each Floor: 6 Floor Details Achievements Mission Dungeon Rules

I believe this is where you say 'nice!'

The last two members of the Party got their tier up confirming my suspicion that they had all started out as level 9+. This would also mean that they were way overleveled compared to my level 1 creatures. My dragonets wouldn't have been able to hurt these people if they had tried!

Well they're good people anyway. They won't hurt me… Right? I had to admit I was getting a bit nervous thinking they might get into my Core Room.

The Trap Corridor went well for them. The rhinogirl was clearly their trapfinder. She looked a bit spooked after triggering the Rockfall Ceiling trap. Maybe it surprised her that it wasn't another Spikes trap?

They all loved The Orchard though. The bearboy in particular seemed excited.

Status. I ordered again. I liked seeing my EXP going up.

Personal Status Level: 1 EXP needed for level up: 86/200 Mana payment needed for level up: 0/100 Mana: 48/100 Mana regeneration: 15 per hour Floors: 1/1 Allowed number of sapients in each Floor: 6 Floor Details Achievements Mission Dungeon Rules

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇

With new shields in hand the Party entered the 7th room of the Dungeon. A big rock stood in the middle of the room covered in vines carrying fat yellow berries. The next room was located to the right with a dirt route leading there. Between the closest right corner and the route there was a small pond slightly hidden by reeds. Another dirt route sprang from the first going around the vine covered rock. On the other side of this second route stood a bunch of different bushes.

"Hey there little one. Would you like to be petted as well?" Taozcec had noticed a key-carrying dragon on top of the vine rock. As the rock was about 2.5 meters high Taozcec decided to let the dragon come to him.

The dragon looked at him but didn't move towards him. Instead it picked up a berry from the vines and started to eat it.

Zaktak grumbled while looking at the dragon. "That explains why we couldn't find a keyhole earlier. What a waste of time!"

Taozcec kept talking to the key-carrying dragon while the rest of his Party started to walk around, no longer so afraid of spooking the dragons.

"They're berry bushes!" Morghar discovered. He immediately started eating the nearest raspberries. The other 4 went to follow his example.

"Different types of berry bushes. Like the trees in the room before this." Thenac soon added. While eating a handful of blackcurrants the rhinokin decided to try and identify the different berries despite not having a System Skill for it. "Starting from the end closest to where we came from, we appear to have blackberries, raspberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants and two types I'm not familiar with. Do any of you know them?" After taking a look, the other 4 concluded that they didn't know them either. "We probably shouldn't eat them then. Hmm… Let's gather a branch with berries from each and see if someone else knows what they are. And a vine with berries too."

"I got it!" Came it from the vulpinekin. Taozcec had the dragon in his arms and a key in one hand. Holding the dragon up he then tried to convince it to fly up on the rock again. As he had stopped his petting the dragon had no longer a reason to stay in his arms, so it did as it was told.

"How many keys do you think we need?" Taozcec asked.

Begdar thought for a bit while the others shrugged. "Judging by the frequency of them appearing and the number of rooms left, I'll guess probably 3 though it could be 4 or 5. We might have missed one though. Remember the first room? We didn't see the 5th dragon in there. Maybe it had a key too." The others nodded, looking a bit annoyed. "Most likely we need to collect all the keys in order to enter either the last room or the Core Room. But let's keep going."

8 meat, 4 fruits, 22 small aluminum cubes, two 1×1 leather pieces and two pairs of boots made of said leather appeared when the Party left the room. While equipment like the boots didn't bind itself to the first one touching it, it did resize to fit them perfectly. As former slaves none of them had fitting shoes. Morghar and Zaktak had gotten the shields so they said no to also getting the boots. After some discussion Nalir and Thenac ended up with new footwear. Nalir did because his Class, Dexterity, combat wise focused on speed and fast reflexes. New boots would make him run and turn faster. And as the trapfinder Thenac might decide to activate a trap using her foot again. New footwear would naturally protect one's feet better than old ones.

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇

You're supposed to bribe the dragonet with sunlightberries! It's supposed to keep eating them while on the rock till you call while holding some in your hand! That’s supposed to be an extra challenge for getting one of the keys! That one of them needs to be bribed with food! How was he able to…? Right… They're all tier 2 now. And since the foxboy's the one dealing with the dragonets he's most likely the one with the highest Charisma. Probably even has the Class Charisma.

… No wonder he could charm my poor level 1 dragonet.

Experiencing Peace rewards you 12 EXP.

First of Your Kind rewards you 3 EXP.New novel chapt𝒆rs are published on no/vel(b)in(.)co/m

Creature Designer rewards you 2 EXP.

That took them barely any time. Status.

Personal Status Level: 1 EXP needed for level up: 103/200 Mana payment needed for level up: 0/100 Mana: 49.5/100 Mana regeneration: 15 per hour Floors: 1/1 Allowed number of sapients in each Floor: 6 Floor Details Achievements Mission Dungeon Rules