The older giant turned out to be the victim's father who felt a massive amount of guilt for what had happened. He felt he should have been able to protect his child from every danger and thus felt he had failed her. He believed he should have been able to stop her from getting Hypnotized in the first place or at least quickly realize it had happened so he could get her help.

But neither had happened, so the father had broken down.

Luckily, Taozcec was there and knew exactly how to help. The vulpinekin was known for being quite good at dealing with sad people and cheering them up.

Or at least I had realized that was his calling in life. As I couldn't see what happened outside my Dungeon I couldn't be sure if the Tribe had realized…

Nonetheless, Taozcec had successfully calmed the father down. They then ate some food Molgroor had gotten them, before Taozcec started playing and singing songs on his banjo.

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New Achievement: Freedom of Thought (I): Everyone deserves to have their own free will. Your actions have helped make this happen. Condition: Ensure that at least 1 person can act of their own free will when they couldn't before. The loss of free will must not have been caused by you. One of these people can be yourself. Reward: 10% easier to help people, including yourself, exercise their own free will. Unlocks the Ability to sense when people in your sight are under mind manipulation Skills or spells. You already have 5 Achievements active. Pick 3 to be passive. Passive Achievements give only half the rewards. You can only change your decision when you earn an Achievement. Achievement: Reward: A Friend in Need (IV): 5,000 EXP and 20% discount on karma creatures. Careful Preparation (V): An extra 25% mana regeneration and the Ability 'Mana Bank'. Creature Designer (III): Creatures have a 10% discount on their base cost. Creatures earn you 115% EXP. Dungeon God: The Ability 'Dungeon Rules' and a 5% mana discount on all creations. First of Your Kind: 120% EXP gain for 5 years [5 years left], 120% levels worth of creatures per Floor and +2 Toughness then 120% Toughness to all your creatures for 75 years [75 years left]. Freedom of Thought (I): 10% easier to help people, including yourself, exercise their own free will and the Ability 'Mind Manipulation Sight'. Karma's a Bitch: The Abilities 'Karma Aura Sight' and 'Karma Targeting'. 110% damage dealt to people with a Karma Aura of 25% or lower. Making the World a Better Place (III): 20% discount on karma creatures. You now earn 50 EXP per karma level you rise in others in net total. This is retroactive. Calculating…

Surprisingly it only took 5 hours and 20 minutes before the Hypnosis broke, and Skau immediately broke down crying in relief. Her father was quick to free her from her binds and remove the gag.

Why didn't it take longer? Did she simply have more Awareness-

All members of the cult known as 'The Order of The Broken Goddess' have a 'Dungeon Weakness', which causes all attacks from a Dungeon to deal 150% damage to them.

…

MY RULES ARE AFFECTED BY THE CULT'S DUNGEON WEAKNESS TOO?!

…

Awesome!

System Alert

Mission has been updated to: Too many sapients have karma levels of 25% or lower. The System created Dungeon Cores with the intention of having them kill off these bad people while making good people stronger. Dungeon Cores are given loot to lure greedy people to their death, while the promise of more power will lure the power hungry.

While killing sapients with karma levels of 25% or lower was the intended purpose of Dungeon Cores, helping these sapients raise above 25% is a perfectly acceptable way of going at it.

As redeeming sapients is much harder than killing them, it will in turn give double the amount of EXP that killing does.

System Alert 'Needed number of killed sapients with karma levels of 25% or lower' on Dungeon Cores' Personal Status windows is changed to 'Needed number of killed or redeemed sapients with original karma levels of 25% or lower'. System Alert

The condition and reward for the Achievement Weeding the World has been updated to: Condition: Kill or help kill at least 1 being with a karma level of 0%. In the case the karma level is 0% due to mind manipulation, getting rid of said mind manipulation is also an option. Reward: 1% extra lifespan per being of karma level 0% you have killed or freed from mind manipulation and the Ability to see the Karma Auras of beings with karma levels of 0%.

You do not have a lifespan. 1% extra lifespan per being of karma level 0% you have killed or freed from mind manipulation changed to 1% more EXP per being of karma level 0% you have killed or freed from mind manipulation.

You already have the Ability 'Karma Aura Sight'. '0% Karma Aura Sight' changed to '0% Karma Sense'. You can now sense when a being of karma level 0% is within 1 km of your Dungeon Portal.

Weeding the World: 7 beings of karma level 0% killed or freed from mind manipulation.

1 level 12 sapient has been redeemed in your Dungeon.

You have gained 1,200 EXP.

First of Your Kind rewards you 240 EXP.

Weeding the World rewards you 84 EXP.

With the exception of the sobbing Skau, the sapients of The Great Tree Room began staring at, presumably, the Achievement update. Having helped me free Skau's mind by keeping her, they likely either got the Achievement or had its count go to two, like mine had reached 7.

Lots of updates! I guess having a Dungeon Core free someone from mind control has never happened before.

That doesn't surprise me.

I really like the updates too! It might not always be possible to redeem people but it is nice to have that as an option!

I likely would have tried to 'redeem' at least some of the cult members even if I didn't get any EXP or tier up progress for it. But it is mighty nice to get those things anyway!

…

The updates also feel like a form of approval… Like the System is my parent and is telling me it's proud of me…

…

Is the System my parent? I mean technically Dungeon Cores don't have parents, but maybe more in an adopted sense?

You already have 5 Achievements active. Pick 3 to be passive. Passive Achievements give only half the rewards. You can only change your decision when you earn an Achievement.

Right! Right. Sorry! I got distracted! I'll get right on it. I took a closer look at my Achievements. As Weeding the World is the same passive or not, it seems to have already been selected for me. Dungeon God will stay passive. As the elves might come any day now it would be smart to have Karma's a Bitch active for the extra attack power. As I don't expect any potential mind controlled elf to be in my Dungeon for 5+ hours before dying it would make sense to have Freedom of Thought be passive.

Hmm… Last one…

So, A Friend in Need, Careful Preparation, Creature Designer or Making the World a Better Place. Each one helps me make creatures faster, so I don't really want to pick any of them. But which would have the smallest difference?

I love my fast mana regeneration, so Careful Preparation stays. A Friend in Need and Making the World a Better Place have the same discount, but as I've already gotten the 5,000 EXP nothing else would happen should I make A Friend in Need passive unlike for Making the World a Better Place. So, the latter should stay active too.

Then it's just between A Friend in Need and Creature Designer. Having Creature Designer passive would mean making creatures faster as its discount is less, but it would also mean getting less EXP compared to having it the other way around.

So what do I need more? Creatures or EXP?

… Tough one.

While being able to level up quickly after tiering up is great, and tiering up might happen during the elves' attack, I would rather overestimate them than the opposite. So, I would rather have more creatures to defend myself with than more EXP.

I wouldn't even be able to level up in the middle of the battle as I need plenty of mana as well to do so.

So, Creature Designer should be the last passive one.

Creature Designer (III) (Passive): Reward: Creatures have a 5% discount on their base cost. Creatures earn you 108% EXP. Dungeon God (Passive): Reward: The Ability 'Dungeon Rules' and a 3% mana discount on all creations. Freedom of Thought (I) (Passive): Reward: 5% easier to help people, including yourself, exercise their own free will and the Ability 'Mind Manipulation Sight'. Weeding the World (Passive): Reward: 1% more EXP per being of karma level 0% you have killed or freed from mind manipulation, and the Ability '0% Karma Sense'.

Good. Now I can finally check my new Status window out! Status, please!

Personal Status Level: 19+ Needed number of killed or redeemed sapients with original karma levels of 25% or lower: 20/50 EXP: 1,195,168 Next mana payment for level up: 0/5,250 Mana: 938.5/1,500 Mana regeneration: 525 per hour Floors: 8/10 Allowed number of sapients in each Floor: 6 Floor Details Achievements Mission Dungeon Rules

20! One step closer to tier up!

… Buuuut… Still not even halfway there…

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While Skau was out of it, the Tribesmen told Hotheus and Podon what they knew about the cult and what they had done to be better prepared, should any member come by again.

When the giantess had calmed down enough she started talking about what had happened to her. A month or two - she couldn't remember exactly when - after she had come of age she had stumbled upon a vulpinekin bishop of the cult by the name of Marthox. Skau had seen the bishop's horse and had not only wanted a closer look but wanted to ask him how he took care of his horse.

Skau is such a horse girl!

Or maybe more beast of burden girl? Her father mentioned something about her wanting to have a hippogriff, while Taozcec tried to calm him down earlier.

Or does that still count as being a horse girl as hippogriffs are half horses?

While talking to the bishop about horse care he had mentioned his cult several times, which Skau had found nothing off about at the time as she had mentioned the caravan several times too. But then suddenly Skau believed everything the cult stood for. Quick as can be, the bishop had given Skau her a simple mission: Stay with the merchant caravan and report the location of every Dungeon they found to him through the Communication Orb, he gave her afterwards.

And of course: Tell no one.

The order meant she could act like herself for the most part. The only real exception was that she was unable to do anything, which had any possibility of getting her thrown off the caravan.

So, while she really wanted that hippogriff, she could suddenly no longer talk about it. The logic seemed to be that Skau had been, even before the Hypnosis, slightly afraid of her father telling her a hippogriff had no place in a merchant caravan and would kick her out if she still insisted on getting one.

Skau had heard her father talk about his fears and guilt with Taozcec while she had been gagged. So, while talking about the consequence of the Hypnosis, Skau kept reassuring her father that she still wanted to stay with the caravan, even if it meant she wouldn't have a hippogriff.

Such a horse girl!

When everything had finally come out, Skau hid her face in her father's shoulder, while hugging him tightly. She didn't fall asleep, but it seemed close.

Her father carried her out of the Portal soon after.

I replaced the black marble boulder with an identical one in white marble.

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The merchants stayed for 3 days, during which Skau ran in and out of my Dungeon. She was desperately trying to ensure she would never be Hypnotized again, first by getting herself a bounded creature. Her karmic galespike, Spiked Shield or Spike for short, was meant to stop her from ever getting near anyone like the bishop ever again.

That, and apparently galespikes were better than hippogriffs.

So, not a horse girl but a beast of burden girl after all!

Or something… She definitely has a type at least!

Said type appeared to be creatures she could ride and fly on. It also had to be a predator, so it could defend itself and her.

She could have gone for one of my fledgling red dragons, but those didn't like to travel as it would mean leaving their hoard behind.

The rest of the merchants decided not to get a bounded creature as it would interfere with their trading, should the creature decide to attack a customer. Other customers would then likely get worried it should happen to them too and stop trading with them.

Two things convinced the other merchants to allow Skau to get a bounded creature: 1) Skau didn't like the actual trading part and much prefered to stay with the arthropleura and make sure they were okay, so having her stay out of most customers' sight wouldn't be hard. And should someone end up attacked anyway it would be easier to declare it an act of protecting the goods. And 2)

The whole caravan wanted to make up for not having noticed anything wrong with her and surrendered to the young giantess' pleading looks.

After having befriended Spike, the two of them went through my Dungeon almost constantly as Skau was desperate to level them both up fast. Both so they could better defend themselves and the caravan should it come to an actual fight, but also largely because I had Begdar inform Skau that higher Awareness and Charisma Scores would make it harder for her to be Hypnotized again.

As the first day the merchants were here, Skau had spent getting her mind freed, she didn't get any EXP that day. The next day she went through the entire Dungeon 11 times, getting through it faster each time. Some of the runs, like the first couple ones, were accompanied, typically by her father. The third day Skau went through the Dungeon 10 more times before finally being satisfied as she had reached level 20.

8 levels in 2 days' work was impressive, but her starting level had also been 3 levels below the expected level for my deepest Floor. I hadn't actually had a sapient go through my Dungeon while having a lower level than my creatures…

And she had gone through my Dungeon like a maniac too.

Once the merchants found out how big I had gotten since the last time they were here, they were very impressed by my fast growth despite barely killing anyone. The merchants only knew that Dungeons, which killed more people, typically grew faster as well, so I became an even bigger mystery to them. But one they were now indebted to.

After the events of Skau's Hypnosis, the Tribe now knew the merchants wanted nothing to do with the cult, so they told them about how I had killed several cult members. Nerok decided it was unnecessary to mention the exact levels of the cult members and only told the merchants that several of them had had higher levels than any of my creatures.

Yeah… I think I have more worshippers now…

Honestly, Hotheus and Skau basically joined when I freed her mind.

At the break of dawn of the 4th day the merchants left. I went back to making the unfinished 9th Floor ready for the Tribe to evacuate to. While the Tribe had gotten much stronger, than the last time the elves were here, they had no delusion that they were strong enough to take them on.

The preparations were basically finished but I kept going over the details again. Probably not needed, but I would rather be safe than sorry.

The first room of the 9th Floor was the second biggest room I had made and covered any area of 1,400 m². Last time the Tribe had been evacuated they had had an area of only 1,000 m², so just that one room should give them enough space.

Which is good, 'cause I can't actually deactivate the dangers of the second room without wasting a lot of mana dismantling the puzzle. I would much rather simply make the room forbidden while the Floor is unfinished.

And sure. The Tribe can simply bypass the puzzle due to being family, but…

I guess making non-karma creatures makes me a bit nervous. I know my creatures see the Tribe as a part of my Dungeon, but…

I had, of course, informed Nerok of the forbidden second room during one of his routine walks through my Dungeon to keep me up to date on everything going on in the Tribe.

I think his walk-and-talks helps him work through his problems as a Chief and gets rid of some of the stress he gets from the job. Most of the info he gives me I can't actually do anything about. It's nice being up to date of course! But I think a lot of it is more for his own benefit.

Well! I'm glad I can help!

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In the middle of the elven company marching through The Galeurien Forest, a proud dawon carried her noble rider with practiced grace. The feline was almost as big as the horses around it but acted like she was twice their size. The dawon oozed power, both through her actions and through the looks of her massive muscles, powerful jaw and sharp teeth. Her fur was a cream color covered in sparse dark brown stripes. Being a female dawon, the fur around her neck wasn’t quite long enough to be called a mane, though it was clearly longer than her otherwise short fur.

This magnificent beast was named Oona.

"How much further, lieutenant Alnus?" Asked Oona’s rider, the elven noblewoman Sarzina "Zina" Acacia. Lieutenant Alnus had been to the Dungeon before, and so he and his platoon had been tasked with guiding them in the right direction.

"Hmm… Sometime around noon tomorrow would be my estimate, ma'am." Alnus answered. "In an hour or so I'll suggest to the captain that we set camp for the night."

Zina nodded. It would be dark by then, but the whole company wanted to be at their destination as quickly as possible.