What is going on here? Sarzina Acacia thought to herself. Why are you so different? Why… How can a Dungeon be so consistent in trying to enforce kindness and good behavior on people? Dungeons aren't meant to have a theme outside their main creature type and the environment of the Floor tier. Very rarely can a dungeon master successfully add any sort of theme to their Dungeon, and yet somehow a wild, mindless Dungeon succeeded in doing so…?

She had just gotten back from her third trip to the Dungeon's banquet puzzle. The werewolf room had been deemed too dangerous to most people here due to the timed Reversal Ability Scores Challenge combined with actual aggressive monsters. Zina was well aware of how dangerous her Dungeon could be under the right circumstances, even for people of a much higher level than normally required for a certain Floor. Simply having someone watch her back, could do a world of good in unexpected situations. As such, Zina had decided on caution and only entered the 9th Floor when lieutenant Alnus was available to join her.

Which was only once a day in the afternoon after dinner. That was alright though, as Zina had many details of her Dungeon by now and plenty of oddities to go over and try to explain.

At least she had gotten a small breakthrough on her Dungeon's secondary trigger condition. Certain people fulfilled the condition. Not due to something they were wearing or carrying, nor even due to their weight.

She had paid to have some of the known trap triggeres switch clothes with a known non-triggere and have them walk through the 1st Floor.

The traps still triggered, meaning it had triggered because of which person had fulfilled the primary trigger.

Now Zina just needed to figure out what it was, the known trap triggeres had in common, which they didn't have in common with any known non-triggeres.

Something to which every theory had soon been disproven. The only connection she could find was how none of the triggeres could look at the bìxiés, while all the non-triggeres could.

But Zina, nor any she had asked, had any idea why some could look at a bìxié while others couldn't! So, the realization hadn't made that big a difference.

Dungeons are and always have been mindless. Intelligent design is not something they do. Zina continued her thought process.

Sure, some Dungeons do seem to learn from their mistakes, but even that is not a guarantee. Several Dungeons repeat the same traps and puzzles over and over again despite them no longer working. At least all lab rats have the ability to learn not to eat Lightning enchanted cheese. For Dungeons it seems to be hit or miss if they can learn or not.

For a while, Zina simply looked over her notes of her Dungeon. Trying to find a connection between all the oddities which would let her make sense of it all.

What if… Some Dungeons, those which can't learn, have so low an intelligence that they're more or less braindead. While learning Dungeons have about the same intelligence that a rat has.

She considered this idea for a bit, but couldn't find any issues with it. That would mean my Dungeon might simply have a higher than normal intelligence for a Dungeon, which might explain all the oddities!

Excited, Zina began looking over each oddity she had found to consider if a higher than normal intelligence could explain it.

It could.

In fact, it would explain just about all the Dungeon's oddities, with the only exception being the higher than normal accumulated monster levels for each Floor.

But the level of intelligence needed for her theory to actually be the explanation behind all of this…

Very high.

I doubt even a beastkin would be able to think of some of this. And beastkin are the smartest animals in existence, able to even learn to speak well enough to have small conversations with people!

Zina looked stunned at her notebook at her own thought. That would make my Dungeon at least as smart as a beastkin! Maybe even fully sapient!

If the noblewoman hadn't already been sitting she would have fallen on her butt at that realization.

Her theory seemed sound. Now she just had to prove it.

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First, there was panic. Silent panic, as I listened to the Lightning Mage mutter to herself.

She had discovered my biggest secret. It wasn't as if I was really, truly trying to hide my intelligence. I'm really just trying to survive and hopefully not have my kindness taken advantage of. Hiding my intelligence just seemed to be the way to accomplish that!

I took a few moments to use this thought to calm myself. I hadn't yet failed in those two goals. I was still alive and hadn't yet been taken advantage of.

How do I react, so that those facts keep being true?

Option one: Pretend to be mindless during whatever test she ends up concocting to test my intelligence.

Right now she was brainstorming ideas for how to do that, only to discard them again, as she had already done that or something incredibly similar while very thoroughly exploring my Dungeon.

That has the major hurdle of having to do an even better job at pretending to be a somewhat normal Dungeon Core. Something I have clearly failed at. If I go this route and then fail again…

Well… I don't know what will happen…

Honestly, she might not know either and will have to ask that priest guy when he comes…

Option two: Pretend nothing happened.

… Possibly a worse option than the previous one…

Option three then?: Take control of the situation and admit to being sapient on my own terms?

… Which would have to either include some form of binding promise, that she can't tell anyone else, or a mutually beneficial deal of some sort.

I definitely prefer option three, but how exactly do I go about doing it, and what would I rather achieve? Silence or some form of partnership?

What would I even want from a partnership with 'my mistress'?

Hmm… It sounds like she is and will be the mayor equivalent for the town they're building, and she has complete control regarding anyone entering me. Striking a deal with her could be a way for me to get additional EXP.

Except… I don't currently need EXP. I need to kill bad people to tier up.

Then… Getting her to send me bad guys to kill?

Yeah, no. Firstly. I doubt I can get her to do that. Secondly. It would reveal what I need to tier up, which can be used against me.

No. I WILL NOT be taken advantage of!

I took a moment to examine that thought. That feeling. Only to have to conclude that it was a lingering mental scar I had gotten as a human. And as such, not something I could actually remember.

All I could do was to heed the lesson I had seemingly already learned.

So, no asking for bad guys to die in my Dungeon.

But that doesn't mean I can't ask her for other favors…

Like… making the Tribe officially free? Could she do that?

Properly not. But I'll make sure to express my dislike of slavery with her and maybe she can make it locally banned or something…

I mentally sighed.

I'm not really sure if this is the right thing to do…

… But I don't think I have a better option.

…

So! How do I go about doing it? I could do my Mana Form, stone-shaped mimic trick again. Make me seem mysterious and all that by talking through a blue glowing and floating orb. Having my kobolds speak for me could work too, but seeming mysterious might make her more likely to actually take me seriously and follow through whatever deal we end up making.

…

But what can I even do to stop her from simply backing out of her part of the deal once I've done mine?

A quiet part of my mind whispered: How do I stop her from taking advantage of me? A part I hadn't before acknowledged was there.

If it's just changes to my Dungeon I can easily change it back, but… I can't do that for every possible thing she might think up. And simply changing it to what it was before won't change the fact that I would have been tricked…

I really didn't want to put trust in someone so clearly powerful.

Did I trust someone powerful as a human, only to be betrayed and taken advantage of?

… Sure feels like it… But the feeling of mistrust was all I had left of the event, so I had no clue of its details.

So, how can I stop it from happening again? She might actually be a trustworthy elf, but I don't know her well enough to know for sure.

Could I…? Somehow bind her to the deal? Like a magically enforced contract?

Dungeon God: You have realized that you are (kind of) the god of your own world. Dungeon Cores are unable to enter Enchanted Contracts as their Mission takes precedence.

The two messages from the System would at first glance seem to contradict each other, with one saying yes and the other no.

But I was quite used to the indirect way the System sometimes answered my questions, and thus I knew what the two answers were meant to say.

So, there's currently no known way for me to ensure she fulfills her part of the deal, but a cleverly worded Dungeon Rule might be able to do it.

… Hmm… And it must include a line about me following my Mission before all else.

Good idea, System!

And so, while 'my mistress' was brainstorming ways to test my intelligence, I was brainstorming how to word a Dungeon Rule to ensure that information wasn't abused.

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A Dungeon Core is trying to make a Dungeon Rule named "A Burden Shared is a Burden Halved".

Will you allow it to do so?

Yes/No

Zina had almost given up on finding a way to test her Dungeon's intelligence - for now that is - when the System popped up with a new request from her Dungeon. A Dungeon Rule? Like how the 'Experiencing Peace'-effect is a Dungeon Rule?

Oh! How exciting! That means I finally get to know what a Dungeon Rule actually is!

The exact wording of the request was written down, as always, before Zina asked for more details.

Oh holy System! Please inform me, so I might better myself and others: What is a Dungeon Rule?

A Dungeon Rule must be followed while inside the Dungeon.

Ahaaa… It didn't have as many details as Zina would have liked, but enough meaning could be derived from it for Zina to be able to come to her own conclusions. Holy System! Please inform me, so I might better myself and others: What would the Dungeon Rule named 'A Burden Shared is a Burden Halved' do?

A Burden Shared is a Burden Halved: In return for keeping the secrets of The Dungeon of Karma the activator of the Enchanted Dungeon Core Cage placed in the Dungeon Core's Core Room will be permitted to make requests of the Dungeon Core.

No request made of a Dungeon Core can go against its Mission or the request will be rejected by the System. For this purpose the activator will gain access to the description of the Mission of Dungeon Cores with this Rule.

Should the activator be about to share a secret of The Dungeon of Karma without permission all knowledge of said secret will be erased from the activator's mind before they are able to do so. Should the Dungeon Core reject a request without first considering it, will the request instead be forcefully implemented.

"I can make requests of my Dungeon with this Rule?!" The 'keeping secrets' part of the Rule flashed in response to her audible outburst. Seeing this Zina clapped her hands over her mouth while getting the distinct feeling her god was staring her down at this very moment. "Sorry!" The feeling lifted a bit but was clearly still present.

This time Zina took the effort to keep her mouth shut. Not even a mumble would cross her lips while the System was watching her this closely.

While not being able to share all her new knowledge was undesirable, not getting it at all was unthinkable!

Besides. She had already gotten more than enough fame. Missing out on it didn't matter as much anymore.

But before she answered the request she read it through several times. It did seem awfully similar to an Enchanted Contract in some ways, after all.

So, all this Rule requires of me, is for me to keep quiet on everything my Dungeon deems one of its secrets. Which is annoyingly open ended, but does seem to confirm my Dungeon's higher than average intelligence. Not that I know exactly how high it is yet, but only sapients and animals like beastkin are intelligent enough to both have a secret and ask someone else to help them keep it a secret.

While all my requests must abide by this 'Mission', nothing bad will happen if I fail to do so. Hmmm…

Wait! Doesn't that say 'the Mission of Dungeon Cores'? As in all Dungeon Cores?! They have a shared Mission?

The idea was hard to swallow. Normal Dungeons were just so mindless it seemed impossible for them to have a common goal.

Curiosity had at this point taken over, and having found no real drawback Zina accepted the Dungeon Rule.