"That's a mimic. Leave it be." Sarzina Acacia told her Party. The actual spinnable wheel soon gave them a key as it landed on a green triangle.

The latest Dungeon run had revealed many secrets to Zina.

After several tests it was discovered that the kobolds refused to follow commands, but would do requests if asked politely and it wasn't too outrageous. Asking them to hand over their weapons or jump on the spot were meant with glares, indicating they understood the request but refused to follow it. Use of 'please' and polite wording was enough for them to follow commands like 'stop', 'stay' and 'follow me', but didn't make a difference for most orders.

Politely requesting for the gate to be lowered, so Zina and her companions could enter the fortress without getting wet, was among the commands the kobolds listened to. She even learned that 'could you please bring me the keys' to be a valid command, and two more keys were brought to her.

The inside of the fortress was even more impressive than she remembered from back when the company was simply passing through. It had everything a group of people would need to survive!

Well… The kitchen had no actual food in it, but still! There was a kitchen! Dungeons nor their monsters had any need for a kitchen! Nor a dormitory, nor outhouses, nor a dining hall, nor a knitting/spinning/weaving room! So why were they there!

Maybe it wants to lead us into a false sense of security? That would explain why the traps have stopped triggering again…

… No, no. Dungeons aren't smart enough for that sort of strategy!

Zina was well aware that she often mumbled to herself without meaning to. Her noble status meant that most people choose to either ignore her muttering or distract her with conversation. In the rare moments Zina was near her peers or higher ranked elves, she had enough practice that she could forcefully stop herself.

But doing so was way too mentally exhausting to do in everyday life, and as it rarely ever caused her any problems why should she force that upon herself?

Well… This time it had caused a problem. One she probably should have seen coming. After all, Zina had already concluded that the kobold of this place could understand every word she said.

… And she had just muttered to herself that their Dungeon was too stupid to think up complicated schemes.

They didn't like hearing that.

The Party was in the dining hall at the time along with 8 kobolds. As one all 8 kobolds led out a growl of rage and raised their weapons at her Party.

No. At Zina herself.

The Party tensed up and froze, as Zina had told them to do in such a situation. The noblewoman had a lot of Awareness and would be able to stop any and all of these low leveled monsters before they had even taken a single step in hostility.

So there was no need for the two 3rd tiers or even Oona to do a single thing.

It quickly became clear to Zina that the kobolds had only released a warning, much like both the Lightning sea serpents and dragonets did. But apparently, instead of the warning meaning 'don't go near my home', it here meant 'you insulted my maker, apologize now!'.

"My sincerest apologies. I didn't mean to imply that this Dungeon, your Dungeon, wasn't smart enough to come up with good strategies. Only that most Dungeons aren't. But clearly this is no ordinary Dungeon!" While Zina said this to pacify the kobolds, she could help but wonder if perhaps all the oddities of the Dungeon was actually due to it being much smarter than other Dungeons.

The kobolds accepted her apology and relaxed their stances.

Still, the mason had had enough scares for one day and asked if it wasn't time for the Party to leave. While they hadn't finished exploring the Floor, they were mostly done, and Zina had written down more than enough data for her to be busy analyzing for the rest of the day.

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In the middle of the following night I had reached level 29+, and gotten access to my 3rd tier Boss. Not that I could make it before the 15th Floor without making a new Rule about it. And I hadn't even made my 2nd Boss yet meant for the 10th Floor.

While I might be able to make it a Rule that Bosses can be placed at earlier Floors, it would also mean the Boss would be at a lower level. I would simply have exchanged power for the element of surprise.

Something my mimics already take care of.

Status, please!

Personal Status Level: 29+ Needed number of killed or redeemed sapients with original karma levels of 25% or lower: 54/100 EXP: 1,215,832 Next mana payment for level up: 0/18,000 Mana: 1/4,000 Mana regeneration: 1,400 per hour Floors: 8/15 Allowed number of sapients in each Floor: 4 Floor Details Achievements Mission Dungeon Rules

100? That'll probably take me another couple of months…

Well. It's not like I'm in any real hurry to tier up again.

I… still have more than a million EXP… How?

Dungeon Cores have enhanced growth while young.

Right! Thanks for reminding me!

I suppose between my maxed out Careful Preparation Achievement and all my mana discounts I probably make Floors and get enough mana to level up faster than other Dungeon Cores my age. And with First of Your Kind along with my Experiencing Peace Rule giving me more than double the amount of EXP your typical Dungeon Core would get, it makes sense I have a lot of it.

Oh! And the extra EXP from Creature Designer!

… and Weeding the World…

… and all the small amounts of EXP I get for raising people's karma or the rare but larger ones for helping people selflessly…

… or the double amount for redeeming instead of killing…

…

Basically I earn a lot more EXP than I deal with bad guys! I even grow Floors faster, which both makes me earn more EXP, but also helped me kill more elves which in turn earned me EXP.

… Hey System? Enhanced growth while young means it's gonna become much harder to level at some point right? When would that be?

With the average tier reached by the end of a sapient's lifespan being the 5th tier, and the median of the same being 4th tier, a Dungeon Core's enhanced growth stops at the beginning of the 4th tier. Once a Dungeon Core reaches the 5th tier it instead has an increasingly stunted growth to reflect its immortal lifespan.

Oh… and next level I've entered the 4th tier…

At least I have plenty of mana and Floors to play with!

I took another look at my Mana Bank. That is a lot of mana I can use at once now!

…

I can have a unicorn! Or finally make my true mimic!

Or both!

… Definitely both!

No! Stop and think! Would that be a good idea?

While I like the idea of making a whole unicorn blessing it would take me so long to do, even if I made them all level 1.

… But I'm immortal! I can waste some time on a powerful blessing of unicorns!

Or can I? My creatures aren't useful for defending me until the Floor they've been made on is finished, after all. So, a blessing of unicorns will definitely be very helpful once the Floor is finished, but they will slow the process down drastically!

I considered the threat level of the elves for a bit. I'm not in a big danger here, but there is a chance the Lightning Mage could discover I'm not actually under her control. I believe the risk is minimal for now, but once I've finished my 10th Floor she'll realize I can make creatures, traps and puzzles without getting her permission. There was no way I wouldn't take advantage of that fact when making my 10th Floor, which in turn would reveal that I hadn't actually been tamed.

What about the Tribe?

No, they're not really in any danger. I just have to finish my 9th Floor early one night, so I can dig out the 10th Floor before morning. And the same thing for when the 10th Floor is finished.

Food won't be a problem either. I'll just temporarily change the environment of the 8th Floor to include a bunch of fruits and vegetables and such each night. The Tribe might be teleported outside my Dungeon should they try to go back to the 7th Floor, but the 8th Floor is still accessible and changing the environment costs me nothing but a bit a concentration.

… What was I wondering about again? Right! Unicorn blessing!

Hmm… In conclusion: I'm not in any hurry, but I don't want the elves to suspect I'm still free before I've finished my 10th Floor and gotten a powerful Boss to defend myself.

So… I mentally sighed in disappointment. I guess I'll have to wait on making anything super powerful - such as unicorns or my true mimic - till I begin on the 10th Floor.

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4 days had passed since the massacre of 43 elves had happened in the Dungeon. As the highest remaining officer Tanithil Alnus had gotten the task of reporting how their mission had gone.

Which included listing everyone who had lost limbs in the battle.

It included listing everyone who had died.

It meant learning the name of everyone who had died.

At least Tanithil wasn't the one who had to tell their families. That would be an officer placed near said family. With the number of dead; likely several officers.

Tanithil, like several other surviving soldiers, had a hard time getting rid of his survivor's guilt. For the lieutenant it was less wondering why he survived instead of those who died and more looking back and blaming himself for things he might have been able to do better.

He blamed himself for not keeping more people safe.

For not keeping them all safe.

Of course he had been relieved when it had first been over and had celebrated their hard won victory with the rest of the company.

The first nightmare came that night and it kept haunting him even while he was awake.

He kept feeling the need to apologize to the dead. Logically Tanithil knew he hadn't forced them to come, nor had he even realized it would be that dangerous.

But maybe I should have realized…

His duties were the only thing keeping him going at the moment and he knew it was the same for many of the other soldiers.

His biggest duty at the moment was taking care of everyone's safety.

Not that there really was anything to worry about. Any of the civilians could at the very least scare away, if not straight up kill most of the local animals. It was mostly only the so-called 'semi-sapient' animals which could pose a threat to an adult elf.

Every elven child was given at least some basic training in self defense after all, and with the extra power given to them at adulthood by the holy System, mere animals stood no chance against even a civilian of the Queendom of Alfamér.

Other sapients were the main thing Tanithil prepared against. While the first several groups to find this place would either be from Alfamér, and thus allies, or random civilians from other lands, who would be unable to do any harm, at some point someone would try to challenge their claim to the Dungeon. It was positioned in no-man's-land, after all.

Tanithil wanted the town's defenses to be ready for that day.

And that goal kept him going.

Of course he knew he wouldn't still be there when that day came. In three or so weeks the 2nd group of civilians would arrive. This group would include the town's new sheriff and his subordinates, who would take over from the military. At their arrival Tanithil would inform the sheriff of what had been done in regards to safety, before leading the remains of the company back home.

At their arrival at the capital everyone would get a bonus due to the unexpected danger of the Dungeon. Those with limb loss would additionally get compensation for having lost a limb while on active duty.

The compensation was designed to be just enough to get a runic limb replacement of the cheapest kind for whichever limb they had lost. Which was still an expensive thing to be sure!

If the person themselves used some of their own money as well, they could get extra features for their new runic limb, like a hidden weapon or the ability to use a single type of spell with it.

If said person decided to use even more of their own money, they could go to a Mage who has mastered the Healing element by reliably being able to turn it into the Restoration element and have the limb entirely regrown. For smaller and less complicated limbs, like a severed finger, it costs about the same to have it regrown as getting a cheap runic limb replacement made for it. But the price of getting a whole arm regrown was much more expensive than a runic arm was.

At least regrown limbs didn't come with phantom pains.

It was generally expected that one would return to active duty afterwards, but there would always be some who decided to do a career change.

While he hadn't lost a limb himself, Tanithil had begun considering making a career change himself.