Draconic Karma Dungeon

Chapter 74: Dealing with the Loss of Leash and Limb

Agtius had felt this way before not terribly long ago. He had been escorting a small group of the Order's merchants as well as bishop Marthox from some small town to a much bigger one. They hadn't expected any trouble, but one could never be too careful.

A pair of colorful 8-legged serpentine dragons - which Agtius now knew was bā zú lung dragons - had showed up and attacked them. As the giant was the group's only defender the rest wasn't able to do more than distract the mostly orange one while he dealt with the blue and green one.

He had been informed later on that Marthox had attempted to use his mind tricks on the orange dragon only to constantly have his concentration disrupted.

While fighting the blue and green dragon he would mysteriously miss much more than expected. Something which had been equally as odd and frustrating when fighting against their Dungeon counterparts. Several of these misses had hit the trees around them and cleaved the wood in two.

Agtius had been a woodsman before the Order. His Cleaving Skill was at a high level. And when a high level Skill leveled up, came more EXP than when a low level Skill leveled up.

Skills very rarely leveled up - it was much more time efficient to simply mine a Dungeon -, but when they did, it would come with a big boost of EXP.

And in that moment it was enough for the Axe Master to level up.

With the level up came two points of Awareness. Not that Agtius had realized what that meant.

He simply leveled up and suddenly neither dragon wanted to attack him.

They were still attacking those he had been tasked to guard, however, so the giant pushed his confusion away to defend the merchants.

Only once the dragons had been slayed, did Agtius have a moment to question what had happened.

I must have been offered a good deal of money to have accepted a job which would take me from my family for this long a time. Agtius had thought to himself.

Only… He couldn't remember any talk of payment happening at any point.

And just when had he last seen his family?

Then Marthox took matters into his own hands and stopped the giant from questioning his situation.

But once again his thoughts were his own.

Or maybe not. It seemed anger had taken control again.

That happened quite often for the former woodsman.

As his free will had been taken from him, not just once, but twice, Agtius instantly knew what had once again happened:

He had control of himself once again.

But this time he hadn't leveled up, so what had changed?

Being a muscleman more than an egghead he didn't know anything for sure. But he assumed he must have gotten back control because his 'master' had died.

And if Marthox had died, it was highly possible the rest of the group was in the middle of a deadly battle.

Agtius had been here due to Marthox's mind control, so it stood to reason the rest of them were as well.

At his core, Agtius was simply a protective hot-head, who would do anything for his family.

If he couldn't protect his family, he would protect his fellow victims.

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To Hypnotize someone, many criteria had to be fulfilled. You had to either have the Skill or be able to cast its spell variant. That was the obvious part. With that, you also had to have enough mana to actually Hypnotize someone, which was quite a large amount. Despite his high level and having a Class specialized in it, Marthox could at most use his Skill twice in a row before he needed to rest.

Then came the criteria for the target. For, for some reason Marthox nor anyone in the Order knew about, you couldn't Hypnotize anyone unconscious. You also needed eye contact but simply forcing a drugged person's eyes open wasn't enough.

The target couldn't be a child. The Order had explained this as the System - Marthox wasn't sure if the System could still be considered holy as its soulmate had clearly been made up - wanting children to remain children and only join the Order as adults.

Marthox had no clue what the actual reason might be.

And while that was everything needed to try to Hypnotize another, to do it successfully required the Hypnotist to win a mental battle over the target, during which both combatants were frozen in place in a staring contest. If the Hypnotist lost, the mana used was simply wasted. Which was a dangerous situation to be in as anyone with the ability to win such a battle would immediately know what had happened.

At the current moment, Marthox wished he could Hypnotize the Earthquake Mage. No one was looking at him and with the human unconscious the sudden stiffness of a mental battle would go unnoticed.

But not only was it impossible to Hypnotize her due to unconsciousness, Marthox didn't even have enough mana to do so after all the fighting in the Dungeon.

He almost had enough for a single target, but not quite yet.

So the muskin bid his time and waited in the background.

Or rather, that had been his plan till the elven leader he had Hypnotized earlier came storming out the Dungeon Portal. The moment she saw Marthox standing half hidden behind the Battle Commander, a short distance behind the distracted Paladin giving first-aid, she jumped over the unconscious Mage and headed straight for the Hypnotist.

Maybe I should have been a bit more picky about who I released…

Luckily for Marthox, the Battle Commander next to him decided to block the Lightning coming their way with his own body as he charged back at the elven leader with a battle cry.

Unfortunately for Marthox, said Battle Commander wasn't aware of this particular elf's modus operandi, and was thus caught and restrained by the plants appearing from underneath him.

Marthox didn't actually know anything about battling.

The first spell most people learned - of those who learned any spells at all, that is- was how to create water.

So, Marthox created some water to throw at his charging enemy, hoping to disorient her long enough for help to arrive.

It didn't work.

Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!

"Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!" The pain from losing his right hand was slightly delayed but sudden and sharp.

The scream from his mouth reached an even higher note as the pain changed from 'loss of limb and blood loss' to 'wound getting cauterized'.

While his mind was strong enough to stop the muskin from fainting once the cauterizing feeling was over, the pain left the muskin exhausted and unable to do anything but lay on the ground, hyperventilating.

As a Hypnotist his Toughness Score was naturally quite low.

"There! Punishment delivered!" The elven leader stated seemingly ending in a satisfied nod, before her voice took a deeper, more threatening tone. "I hope you learned your lesson. We don't tolerate those who take free will from others around here."

Marthox was too wounded to react, but he got the message: Don't let her catch you Hypnotizing anyone!

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When the timer disappeared from the Hypnotist's floating label along with the associated [Brainwashed] he did what he could to hide what had happened.

This made me worry about what his next action would be. I had hoped anger over having been Brainwashed would have him stop trying to reach my Core - and hopefully drag some of the others with him - but his own dark Karma Aura had me concerned he might decide to go along with it. For levels and riches if nothing else.

But then he led the majority of his Party away from their strongest member and freed them from mind control.

Okay. He freed everyone but the elf girl - her Brainwashed state is probably outside of his ability - yet he has a dark aura? Not as much as while under mind control but damn close!

Ulterior motive, perhaps?

And as I had helped in freeing them from mind control - either by lowering the needed requirement needed to undo the effect or by freeing the Hypnotist so he could free them - my Weeding the World Achievement went up several notches.

Weeding the World: 2,473 beings of karma level 0% killed or freed from mind manipulation.

… I'm pretty sure that was a 9 earlier…

What just happened?!

The System didn't answer. It likely wasn't general knowledge.

That's 2,473% more EXP just from that one Achievement!

Just. Like. That.

And I don't even know why!

Wait! The Axe Master has been freed too!

Oh!

He must have freed everyone he personally Hypnotized! That explains the big number!

Nice!

Then the Earthquake Mage started running out, and I could finally make my Rule without fearing it getting countered:

New Dungeon Rule: Adding More Weights: Gravity pulls with double the normal force.

I fully intended to add this Rule to the 8th Floor at some point. It would make my Rolling Boulder traps much more powerful.

But for now, the Rule would do its job slowing down the remaining intruder on my 10th Floor.

Said intruder had yet to realize her Party had left her behind.

But the puzzle she was trying to solve needed at least two people to function - both would receive a small, mostly annoying, temporary curse, which the other had to guess the effect of. As she was now the only one on the Floor the System declared the puzzle unsolvable and made every part of it intangible.

I had made the puzzle like that in the thought - and hope - that if a single powerful individual were to come, they would either be stopped or - more likely - have to break the puzzle to continue, thus adding to Cheaters Only Cheat Themselves.

But nope. That didn't happen. The System simply sent both me and her a message saying the puzzle was unsolvable under the circumstances while it made the whole thing intangible and see-through.

Naturally, the Light Hunter then tried to find her Party only to find them missing. While confused, she didn't let it stop her from reaching her goal:

My Core.

I took a look at the label over her head.

Talindra Delonix-Regia [Brainwashed] [Dungeon Weakness] [2 hours, 24 minutes, 48 seconds] Elf Noble Light Hunter Level 74

I really don't think I can delay her for over2 hours when I only have this Floor left.

…

Then again… Unicorns… They appear to be quite efficient deterrents to elves…

But just in case… I should inform the Tribe of what's happening.

But maybe I'll leave the mess happening at my door for later. I doubt the Tribe will care and I can't really do anything about it.

Not that I want to. His Aura tells me he had it coming.

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Chief Nerok had held a meeting when the Dungeon had first been breached by its, and thus their, enemy. The meeting started with a vote on whether the Tribe would risk their lives defending the Dungeon or not.

Nerok hadn't doubted the outcome. He simply needed everyone to know they were on the same page.

That they were one Tribe under the guidance of their Dungeon god!

Then the ursakin leader began organizing their defense of the Dungeon. Weapons had to be prepared, armor in order, and people needed to know their role in the upcoming fight.

By order of the Dungeon, the Tribe was to be their last stand. The 2nd Boss wouldn't be able to cooperate an attack with the Tribe due to its large size and widespread attacks, so the Tribe would instead enter The Graveyard of Ash immediately after its death.

Its assistants might still be alive, they might not. Nerok tried to plan for either scenario, though he focused on worst case.

"Good news! Our mighty protector, the loving Dungeon of Karma, has freed all but one of its enemies from the poison in their minds! Releasing them back into the loving care of the holy System! Only one remains an enemy to our savior, but it is the strongest one! A quick archer with the Noble Light Hunter Class! We must prepare for a fierce battle, for though we vastly outnumber our opponent we might still be outmatched!" After having been Chief for so long, Nerok knew he was good at encouraging his people.

He just knew exactly what to say.

And he was proud of what he did!