Straight to the right of where the Party had entered the 8th room there was a small pond. Otherwise the room was simply filled with trees and bushes. While there wasn't a dirt route in this room the Party could clearly see the opposite wall from where they walked in due to the lack of trees in that direction.

"I think I can only see it due to Enhanced Senses but there's a door shaped depression on the wall in front of us. Behind the climbing plants that is." Thenac pointed but none of the others could see it.

"There's likely a puzzle we have to solve then." Begdar concluded.

The Party walked forward a couple meters before Thenac spoke again. "I hear a whimper…?" She looked confused. "They're Dungeon monsters so why would one be hurt before we even enter the room?!"

Begdar was quick on the uptake. "It's not a monster! It's the puzzle! This Dungeon thrives on kindness, so we likely have to help the poor dragon to solve the puzzle!"

The thought of these friendly - and quite frankly cute - dragons being hurt send both the ursakin and vulpinekin running, looking for the hurting dragon, puzzle, or no. Taozcec might have a closer connection to dragons having petted two but Morghar was a dad. A bear dad. As such he was way more practiced in locating whimpers.

Underneath one of the bushes Morghar found the whimpering dragon with its tail caught in a tiny bear trap. Enraged, the bearkin used his Strength to break the trap completely and free the dragon. The dragon rubbed its body against him with a purr - much like a cat would - before spreading its wings and jumping into the air. Two wing beats later it started to disappear by slowly turning into light dust confirming that it was in fact just a puzzle.

At the same time the hidden door opened up making a loud noise as rock scraped against rock.

Your Party has solved a puzzle!

You have gained 3 EXP.

Morghar received several claps on his back, arms and shoulders before the Party turned to leave the room. With no actual monsters in the room they didn't receive any loot when leaving it.

The 9th room looked kind of like a swamp. It had a thick cover of trees found in swamps such as ashes, maples, oaks and baldcypress. The ground under the trees was muddy and wet. However, the illusion of a swamp was broken by the completely dry dirt route curving through the trees. Unlike the previous routes of this Dungeon, this one had several rocks in different sizes embedded in it.

The addition of rocks quickly caught Thenac's attention. "That rock's a trap." She pointed to a rock the size of a small head standing on the edge of the right side of the route. The rock had holes in it making it look a bit like a lava rock. "No pressure platform or tripwire, so it must be a proximity trap. Don't know its range though. The holes suggest darts or gas." The Party quickly decided to simply walk on the other side of the route while passing the trap. It worked.

The 6 dragons followed the Party walking on the curved route by flying from tree to tree after them.

Exiting the room Experiencing Peace rewarded the Party with 6 meat, 6 fruits, 20 small aluminum cubes, 4 1×1-meter leather pieces and 2 helmets covered in green leather. The Party quickly agreed that they had gotten quite lucky this time having apparently gotten 3 rare loot drops which had then gotten doubled.

"The leather pieces appear to be the common rare loot drop for these small green dragons, though it might still be too early to tell." Begdar commented. Rare loot drops consisted of 3-8 different items that dropped more rarely than the other drops. One of these 3-8 items were 3 times as likely to drop than the other rare drops and as such was named the common rare loot drop. Each monster had its own set of common drops, rare drops and possible amounts of metal cubes which determined what loot could and would drop when a creature died.

As Begdar and Taozcec hadn't gotten any rare loot yet, they got to keep the helmets.

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A puzzle was attempted!

You have gained 5 EXP.

First of Your Kind rewards you 1 EXP.

Personal Status Level: 1 EXP needed for level up: 109/200 Mana payment needed for level up: 0/100 Mana: 51/100 Mana regeneration: 15 per hour Floors: 1/1 Allowed number of sapients in each Floor: 6 Floor Details Achievements Mission Dungeon Rules

It didn't surprise me that the Party solved the puzzle so quickly. And it was quite pleasing to see the karma level of the bearboy rise like the foxboy's had earlier.

Likewise I had expected the rhinogirl to notice the Sleeping Gas trap and she did.

Status! I ordered yet again as they left The Swamp Route.

Personal Status Level: 1 EXP needed for level up: 126/200 Mana payment needed for level up: 0/100 Mana: 52/100 Mana regeneration: 15 per hour Floors: 1/1 Allowed number of sapients in each Floor: 6 Floor Details Achievements Mission Dungeon Rules

Looking good! And now they are gonna meet the mimicking dragonet! Or rather… I think it's gonna stay changed the whole time so they might not notice it… But their trapfinder is also really good at her job. She even noticed the hidden door in The Room of Kindness! Well I'll see what happens I guess…

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The last room had trees, bushes, and a stream like many of the others. Unlike the other rooms the stream of this one started from a waterfall. The waterfall was roughly located on the top of the middle right wall. The water then went into a small plunge pool before curving to interrupt the dirt and pebble route leading to a triple locked door. Where the route was interrupted by the stream there were several steppingstones.

"There's the third key." Thenac pointed to a key-carrying dragon in a tree a bit into the forest to the right of them.

Taozcec walked towards it. "I got it. Hey little one! Do you want pets?"

Soon the dragon had been persuaded down and its key had been removed. However only one step had been taken towards the steppingstones before Thenac forced them to a stop.

"Stop! That's a fake rock." She pointed to a rock just slightly bigger than a closed fist sitting to the right side of the route just before the stream. Silence followed where only the waterfall could be heard as her Party waited for their trapfinder to tell them what kind of trap she found. "Logically it would be a proximity trap but something - probably Enhanced Senses - tells me it's not. I don't know what else it could be though." Grabbing a stick the rhinokin went to poke the rock. It responded by folding itself out while changing color to green and looking at the stick. The rock now looked exactly like the other small green dragons.

"That is so cool!" Zaktak shouted, making the shapeshifting dragon look at her with widened eyes. Passing the others in a hurry the muskin kneeled in front of the dragon and grabbed it in a hug. Surprisingly the dragon didn't try to wiggle itself out but instead began nuzzling her cheek and purring. "I wanna keep you!" Noticing that her Party was looking stunned at her due to her uncharacteristic action she added: "Who wouldn't want to keep a shapeshifting dragon as a pet?!" The muskin huffed before hiding her blushing face behind the nuzzling dragon.

Nalir was the first to shake off the shock and waved at the others to follow him. Zaktak decided to carry the cool dragon with her but it disappeared from her arms as she entered the Core Room.

Your Party has solved a puzzle!

You have gained 5 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 6 EXP.

You have completed this Dungeon while it has 1 Floor for the first time.

You have gained 50 EXP.

Before getting their personalized reward from the Core the Party received their loot: 2 1st tier BO's, 12 meat, 4 fruits, 34 small aluminum cubes, and 2 1×1 meter constantly color-changing dragon leather.

"The shapeshifter dragon was obviously worth a bit more loot than the others but what's up with this dragon skin?!" Zaktak asked, holding up a color-changing piece of leather.

As always Begdar had a theory ready. "It's likely a rare drop from the shapeshifter. Can I try something?" Zaktak gave her the leather. Green. Begdar thought and the leather turned green, staying that color. Red, she tried next, and it did as asked. The lupinekin then explained how to do the same to her awed audience.

After everyone had tried changing the color of the 2 color-changing leathers - with Zaktak proclaiming her dragon 'so cool' a couple of times - they packed their backpacks - now full to the bursting - and walked to the Core to get their rewards.

Just as Nalir was about to put his hand on the Core in the center of the otherwise empty room, Begdar had something to say: "When we touch a reward in here - whether it's our own or someone else's - we'll be sent back to the Tribe. When this happens the Tribe will swamp us wanting to hear about the Dungeon. They won't give us time to look at our item, so it might be a good idea to not touch before we figure out exactly what each item is. And well…" She nervously rubbed the back of her neck. "It might also be a good idea to plan how we're gonna tell the Tribe that this is a nice Dungeon…"

"Yeah sure. Gifts first!" Zaktak demanded. With them basically having simply walked through the Dungeon, it was no wonder she saw the reward as a gift.

Shaking his head with a small smile the felinekin touched the Core.

The Dungeon Core offers your Party personalized rewards greater than elsewhere in its Dungeon in return for mercy. If you accept you and your Party will receive said reward before being teleported back to the Surface World.

Do you accept this offer?

Yes/No

Yes. With that thought rewards started appearing in front of their recipient.

"Yes!" Zaktak had to hold herself back from touching her reward. Elven slaves of level 9+ like Zaktak and her Party - and most of the Tribe for that matter - were only allowed on Floors 1 to 5 as that’s where 1st tier BO’s are dropped. And as the elven Dungeons were at least several decades old their Core Rooms were always located on higher levels. As such Zaktak - and her Party - had never gotten a reward from completing a Dungeon before. This made her extra excited.

The leather body armor in front of the muskin was clearly made of the same type of color-changing leather they had just gotten some of. The armor was well made and would fit her body perfectly.

Likewise was Nalir's item made of color-changing leather. Though his took the form of a hooded cape.

His mate Begdar had gotten a dragon shaped amulet covered in runes.

Morghar smiled softly at the two small green dragon plushies in front of him. He knew who they were meant for.

On the ground before Taozcec laid a banjo with a green dragon leather cradle strap.

What exactly Thenac had gotten wasn't really clear to her. It really just looked like a small cone made of the color-changing leather. "What is this supposed to be?"

For a moment no one said a thing. Then everyone turned to look at Begdar. She just shrugged and said: "It's most likely magical in some small way. The type of material suggests it's connected to the shapeshifting abilities of that one dragon we saw. But what exactly it does I cannot say."

"Do you think mine might be magic too?" Asked Morghar.

Begdar considered it. "This reward is supposed to be better than anything else in the Dungeon. I can't really see a couple of dragon plushies being that. However, it's also personalized and knowing how much you love your cubs, I can totally see these plushies having some protection magic in them. I mean, you are clearly meant to give them to your girls!" Begdar ended her thought with a large smile to Morghar. "Oh! But you probably have to touch them both at the same time to get them out with you!" The ursakin promised he would.

"And my banjo?" Taozcec asked.

"I would imagine that your banjo and my amulet could do one of two things: increasing one of our Ability Scores by some small amount while we're using them or creating an area of some sort of effect around us. Though again, only while we're using them." Knowing what was coming the lupinekin simply kept going. "As for Nalir and Zaktak: I mentioned earlier that dragon leather is most likely somewhat fire resistant and we have just covered the color-changing aspect. Both your items - had a tailor made them - would have used up at least 2 of the 1×1-meter leather pieces we have gotten as loot. As such it qualifies as 'greater than in the rest of the Dungeon' on its own and won't be magical."

Nalir looked around at his Party. "I suppose we should now discuss how to tell the Tribe about the Dungeon." And so they did.