Broder, no, Fader Travaran Ginkgo had not only come from a highly religious family he had also spent his life learning all he could about the holy System. Both from books and the older priests of Alfamér, some of whom he sometimes suspected were holding something back.

For his own good most likely. Surely, some things about the holy System were not suitable for everyone!

Not even a middle-aged, 4th tier Acolyte like himself…

Travaran didn't want to admit to still being bitter about it, yet couldn't help but think the best way to worship the System could be found in knowing more about it.

Now that he had become a high priest in charge of his own clergy - though right now that clergy only consisted of himself - at least he no longer would be tempted to fight his elders for daring to keep knowledge of the holy System away from him without even giving a reason for doing so.

Travaran was fully aware he had a temper. He was just good enough at hiding it that barely anyone else knew.

"Fader Ginkgo! Pleased to meet you! I'm Sarzina Acacia, the dungeon mistress of the Dungeon of Karma." The noblewoman speaking was less formal than he was used to them being and looked more like a full-time miner than a born and raised noble.

How refreshing!

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At first they had simply been small talking, as was polite. Mistress Acacia asked him how his travels had been and in turn told him about her plans for the town being built. She even suggested moving his house up on the building schedule to which he declined. It was no trouble for him to sleep in tents, and later he could simply get a room at the inn currently being built.

It didn't take long before mistress Acacia requested they get some privacy for a more serious talk.

She probably thinks becoming a dungeon mistress has or will turn her lazy and seeks my advice on the best way to keep worshiping the holy System. Travaran thought, as mistress Acacia opened the door to her office in the newly built Dungeon Guild. I've heard many tales of how an elf got themselves a new job in administration or management only to quickly either become lazy or think they had. Some, of course, had misinterpreted 'lazy' as 'not doing as much exercise any more'.

Fader Travaran smiled to himself as they took their seats. Well I'll be happy to inform her that the holy System sees the training of any Skill as worship!

What an easy first task!

As it turned out, his first task as a high priest wasn't easy at all and nowhere as lowkey as he had expected. Instead he had the job of determining if the local Dungeon had really been blessed by the System as its dungeon mistress suspected.

That can't be right. Was Travaran's first thought on the matter. Dungeon monsters are the reincarnation of dead sinners. Only once a sinner has been killed enough times to make up for their sins will they be reincarnated as an animal, then a semi-sapient and finally they'll have the chance as a sapient again. With their soul now hopefully having learned its lesson. While they're Dungeon monsters they serve their former people by helping them level up.

But why would a Dungeon be blessed? Would it contain sinners who were worse in life or better than the average sinner?

By that point mistress Acacia had gotten to the part about the Dungeon having more monsters than usual and Travaran couldn't help but nod. Ah! So its blessings are there to assist it in containing a larger than average number of sinners.

But what is the purpose of the theme and this secondary trigger? The holy System rewards risks after all, and this seems to go against that…

Breaking the mind manipulation of people in the Dungeon?! Marvelous!

While not immediately believing the Dungeon could be blessed, Fader Travaran didn't for one second think it needed to be destroyed as mistress Acacia seemed to fear was an option. The System made every other type of being in the world through their parents. Whether it was an animal, semi-sapient, sapient, or even a plant, the System made them through their parents.

Except for Dungeons.

Unlike other beings Dungeons wasn't created through a parent, nor was it eternal like the earth, water, rocks, and air. Immortal, yes. But not eternal. No Dungeon was as old as the world and all of them could be destroyed and completely cease to exist. A rock pulverized would have simply turned to powder, and water boiled became steam.

But once a Dungeon's Core had been harmed it would expel the culprits before disappearing, leaving nothing behind. And no sign could longer be found of its Portal having ever been there.

Thus making Dungeons the missing link between eternal objects and living beings.

And with the System making Dungeons without any parents being present, every Dungeon was made perfect.

… Though some Dungeons did end up learning bad habits and having to be put down. That was incredibly rare, of course! With them being created perfect, it could be no different!

Simply the fact that the Dungeon of Karma - the holy System officiating the names of Dungeons?! Marvelous! - contained more than the average amount of sinners would have been enough to make Travaran believe the System favoured it. The only thing making him pause was the dungeon mistress's not so random pauses alongside annoyed face expressions, which seemed to indicate her wanting to say more than she could.

An Enchanted Contract, perhaps? But with who? Enchanted Contracts were expensive due to all the regulations surrounding their use, so the individual had to either be well off or well connected and had to have been in contact with her after she first entered the Dungeon seeing as it stopped her from speaking about details specific to this particular Dungeon.

That didn't leave a lot of candidates. Especially seeing as one of the aspects being regulated was including the contract breaking should one of the people involved died from anything other than getting killed by the hand or order of the other person. This meant it was improbable for it to be any of those who died in the taming of the Dungeon of Karma.

And maybe most importantly: What would the motivation be? Travaran couldn't think of any, but he had also only just arrived.

Maybe a motive would reveal itself to him in time?

When the dungeon mistress had finished her explanation, the two of them had sat in silence for a while as Fader Travaran considered all he had learned. Eventually his thoughtful face was replaced with calm determination and with a nod to himself he spoke. "While I want to agree with your conclusions and officially declare the Dungeon of Karma blessed by the holy System, I believe I'll have to first observe the Dungeon myself. Would you mind escorting me after breakfast tomorrow?"

"Of course! It would be my pleasure!"

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It was clear to me that if the Lightning Mage hadn't been sworn to secrecy through a Dungeon Rule threatening to erase her memory of said secrets should she try, she would in fact have revealed everything she knew to the priest.

Despite this seemingly being the first time she met the guy…

Are my quirks really that worrying?

Seems so…

…

Nah! I totally get it! I am really weird compared to other Dungeon Cores and thus my priorities are much harder to pinpoint.

I spent the night filling my 10th Floor with the remaining creatures, made all 4 puzzles, and began filling the place with traps.

Tonight I'll finish the 10th Floor, dig out the 11th and have the Tribe move there!

… And in the morning have it revealed that the requests I send my 'mistress' are completely unneeded as my Core is not actually trapped in an Enchanted Dungeon Core Cage…

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Fader Travaran Ginkgo had found the Dungeon of Karma incredibly fascinating and unusual. Mistress Acacia had escorted him through her Dungeon and explained and demonstrated many interesting things on the way.

He still didn't know why anyone would want the dungeon mistress to keep certain, unknown knowledge of this Dungeon secret. Travaran did however find it odd how the kobolds seemed to become aggressive if the Dungeon Core was insulted, and maybe that was why mistress Acacia had thought the Dungeon was in danger of being ordered destroyed?

Kobolds in general were known as the only Dungeon creature smart enough to make advanced traps, given enough time for them to first master the more rudimentary kind of traps. Still. Travaran had never heard of them being able to understand every word someone spoke to them.

The Dungeon of Karma was definitely unusual, and while Fader Travaran didn't understand why the System had chosen to make the changes it had - or even which changes were directly done by the System and which were simply due to normal Dungeon diversion - it was clear to him that the System had in fact blessed the Dungeon of Karma like mistress Acacia had suggested.

A revelation which both relieved and excited the noblewoman.

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With the priest's blessing I, hopefully, would have nothing to fear from the elves.

… Except perhaps, once they realize I'm not actually under their Cage's limitations…

But I seem to have the Lightning Mage on my side now! Maybe I can convince her not to tell anyone? After all, if she doesn't snitch no one else will know!

… Would the secrecy Rule prevent her from telling anyone? I want it to stay a secret, so… it should, right?

… Huh…

I mean, if her lack of control over me makes her afraid or she decides to feel offended 'cause I won't let her micromanage me, then she might decide to try to Cage me again. And being the thorough scientist she is, she would want to figure out why the Cage didn’t work in the first place, which might lead her to realizing the trapped Core is fake - she is at a high enough tier where I don't doubt she can see through my defense if she decides to actually try. And if she knows the Mimicking Fake Core is fake then she'll surely look around for the real Core. And anyone who can see through the Mimicking Fake Core can just as easily find my real Core!

I could feel my panic rising with every thought and had to force myself to calm down. Nothing has happened yet, and I have already done all I can to prevent the worst.

I'll just take it one step at a time.

And right now that step is placing the last trap on my 10th Floor, so I can dig out the 11th and the Tribe can move location before the sun rises.

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Morning came and at first no one realized I had gained a new Floor. Not everyone had the time to go all the way to the end of my Dungeon. While the distance itself wasn't grand, some of the puzzles would still take some time to solve, even for people who had solved it before. The Door of Speciesism, for instance, needed to be convinced anew every run and every key had to be found and gathered - I had after all made it so they changed position every time.

Instead the elves had finally noticed the effect of the 'Earning One's Own Paycheck' Rule. Having had more than a full day to settle down after their move meant that some of the newcomers had accepted invitations to guided tours into my Dungeon from some of the more experienced goers. I had celebrated finishing my 10th Floor by increasing the allowed number of sapients in each Floor from 4 back to my original and preferred amount of 6 - getting a second Boss, a true mimic, and a unicorn blessing made me feel safe enough to do so - so the newcomers could visit me with several friends and an escorted or two, no problem.

Which led to them realizing the newcomers had all their knowledge of my Dungeon distorted while in said Dungeon.

Though curiously - for them -, they retained the knowledge that my creatures were generally non-aggressive.

The Lightning Mage was quickly informed about it and naturally she wrote it down. She thought quietly for a while. I had learnt this meant she was thinking about one of my secrets, which in turn informed me she took my secrecy seriously as she didn't want to risk anyone overhearing her mumlen.

After a couple of minutes she requested to know if people's knowledge getting messed up was one of my Dungeon Rules. I confirmed that it was and she requested the exact wording on the Rule.

Should I? I took a look at the wording myself before I decided.

Dungeon Rule:

Earning One's Own Paycheck: All knowledge of this Dungeon must be earned individually by exploring the Dungeon or having one of the Dungeon Core's creatures share the knowledge. Unearned knowledge will be distorted until it has been confirmed by Dungeon exploration or by a Dungeon creature.

All EXP gained to sapients or semi-sapients from killing Dungeon creatures must be earned individually by participating in the fight. No unearned EXP is gained in this Dungeon.

The Dungeon Core gains nothing from one sapient killing another, if nothing Dungeon-aligned did anything to make this happen. Dungeon-aligned includes Dungeon walls, doors, puzzles, traps, creatures, "family" and so on.

Subrule 1: The knowledge of Dungeon creatures being generally non-aggressive will not be distorted by this Rule.

There's not anything dangerous in there.

I mean… I know the line about knowledge being confirmed by a Dungeon creature refers to my mimics' and kobolds' ability to talk, but I highly doubt she'll realize that. It's not the smallest leap to make.

After the Lightning Mage had written down the wording of Rule, she read through it again and realized what I had missed: the mentioning of my chosen family.

So of course she requested to know what that was about. I almost instinctively rejected her request but remembered at the last second the consequence of doing so: The request would be forcefully implemented instead.

Right! I have to consider all her requests seriously before I reject them.

So, if I let her know who my chosen family is, what would happen?

…

Well, knowing who they are won't suddenly let her know where they are, so safetywise nothing would happen.

… Maybe knowing that I, the Dungeon Core supposedly blessed by their god, the System, considers a Tribe of beastkin my family, will help her accept that they aren't animals…

… Or maybe it will do the opposite, as Dungeon Cores are seen as lower than animals…

I could feel my fear of being betrayed caution me against giving away information and for that reason I decided to risk it.

I didn't want to live in fear and I had a whole new Floor to protect me!

Your linked activator requests to know who the Tribe of Nerok is.

Will you allow this?

Yes/No

Right! Of course that's all she would be told! It's what it tells me under 'Chosen Family' after all!

Hmm… I'll allow her to know that the Tribe of Nerok is the group of formerly enslaved beastkin who originally found me. But there's no reason for her to know anymore than that.

And luckily for me, she seemed satisfied with that.

... And she didn't react badly to the news either.