I had asked of Nerok that the Tribe didn't mention my sapiency to the Light Hunter. It was clearly luck - which I had screwed in my direction through my Rules - which had ensured my victory in the end here. I didn't want to risk getting her even more interested in me.

And as a Crown Princess she could most likely call in reinforcement should she decide she needed it.

Better not to risk it. I'll reevaluate once I have more finished Floors.

No more unicorns I think. They weren't as effective as their high mana price suggested.

… Well, maybe as a Boss's assistant. Their healing abilities are still superior to a unicorn bunny's.

Without knowing of my sapiency and thinking of beastkin as animals, the elven girl soon decided to leave. She had at first demanded the Tribe tell her what was going on - or at least what they themselves were doing down here -, but the Tribe simply retreated to the unfinished 11th Floor without answering her questions, the entrance to which she couldn't see.

So, it likely just looked like the 83 adult members of the beastkin Tribe and their many Bonded creatures simply disappeared into the wall.

She was naturally eager to leave after seeing that.

Placing her gloved hand over my Fake Core, she chose to give me mercy, like so many had before.

But last time it had happened I had only had 9 Floors and only one Boss.

In return for mercy each individual would receive an item better than anything one could get from anywhere else in the Dungeon. An item which would be personalized to each person.

I hadn't had unicorns and a true mimic before this Floor, and at level 20 they were many times more expensive than I should have been able to create at my level.

So, naturally… The item which spawned for the Crown Princess was much better than anything I had spawned before.

It was a Ring of Mind Resistance. The relevant Ability Scores of the wearer would effectively be doubled while resisting mind control.

It couldn't block mind control entirely, but in the right hands it might as well have.

Too bad she doesn't realize what she's holding.

Then again. That would just bring unwanted attention to me.

… She'll figure it out eventually and come back for more, likely having informed her Queendom.

Hopefully, they'll be nice about it. I don't mind helping them with this - quite the opposite in fact - but I do hope they don't simply mine me for resources.

Or Rings of Mind Resistance as it were.

The elf picked the ring off the ground, which caused my fake Core to teleport her out of my Dungeon. Now next to my Portal she slipped the Ring of Mind Resistance on her finger, not knowing what it did.

The deputy keeping an eye on the Dungeon Portal was immediately on guard, not knowing if she was still Brainwashed or not.

But that didn't interest me. She was out of my Dungeon and I needed to celebrate!

The Tribe had already started their own celebration!

Mine would involve looking at my Personal Status and planning my leveling!

Personal Status Level: 30 EXP needed for level up: 152,000/152,000 Additional EXP: 2,385,169 Mana payment for level up: 0/22,500 Mana: 1,873/4,500 Mana regeneration: 1,575 per hour Floors: 10/16 Allowed number of sapients in each Floor: 6 Floor Details Achievements Mission Dungeon Rules

…

Then again… I'm just gonna be leveling up as fast as my mana allows. Not much planning to do here.

It is, however, nice to see how much I've improved after having been… well not entirely stagnant, but certainly slower than I was used to.

…

Oh well. Back to my observations.

The Light Hunter had been escorted to the Lightning Mage, who had immediately reported the news to someone unknown to my sightless eavesdropping. Then she began interrogating the Crown Princess.

… Politely of course.

Seems the Crown Princess had been Brainwashed by a foreign Ambassador, and there had been a plan in place for her to grab the Core of The Royal Dungeon the moment she became the Queen and bring it to the cult. Which would have had terrible consequences for the Queendom, which relied heavily on loot from the Dungeon. The nation had other Dungeons, but none were as deep as The Royal Dungeon and so no other Dungeon gave as high tiered loot.

I sure hope this means I'm on good terms with the elven Queendom then. Since I stopped all that from happening.

…Intentional or not, I still stopped it from happening!

Or maybe, since Dungeon Cores aren't normally sapient, the Lightning Mage will receive the credit and good will on my behalf as my 'dungeon mistress'? I think that'll be fine too. We seem to have overlapping goals.

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇

Upon feeling the slight vibration of her right earring, the elven woman had gotten up from her chair, radiating a calm she didn't feel. And before she had even opened the door of her Spymaster office, she had already, subtly, used several Skills to make her go unnoticed.

Shadow - and death to anyone who called her by any other name - was rarely ever called to action like this. Her job as a Spymaster was important but rarely ever called for immediate action.

Never had before in fact.

It was never urgent enough that it couldn't be communicated to her in person.

She had an Ability which stopped people from eavesdropping on her conversations, so it was always safer to communicate enquiries on national safety to her in person, and so people tended to come to her.

The earrings were in case they needed her to come to them instead. The left earring was connected to the Crown Princess and her personal Guards, while the right one was connected to the Queen and hers. When activated, the corresponding earring would vibrate for 5 seconds before subtly pulling towards the one who activated it.

Now Shadow simply had to follow the pull of her right earring to figure out why her Queen needed her so urgently she couldn't simply send a Guard.

And with her superior speed she quickly caught up to the one who had activated her earring, Ralnor Liriodendron, one of the Queen's Royal Guards. With her earring within 5 meters of the activation Rune on his belt, it stopped pulling, having done its job.

"Sir Liriodendron," the Spymaster greeted the Royal Guard, subtly inviting him to explain what was happening.

Sir Liriodendron gave a sudden and surprised head turn as he had been unable to notice the Spymaster's presence beside him through all her Skills before she addressed him. But he quickly regained his composure and aimed his sight back where it had been before her arrival. "Her majesty wants you to follow Ambassador Lagurith of the Siren Seas. Figure out his goals and alignments. He suddenly wanted to leave the Ambassadors meeting with her majesty after it had been interrupted by the news of her highness' status as a mind controlled member of a previously unknown cult known as The Order of The Broken Goddess. He is thus naturally suspected of association with the cult which has taken the mind of our Crown Princess. I've been ordered to follow him from a distance till you could take over, but he has yet to do anything more to incriminate himself."

And while that was a lot to process, Shadow was quick to understand and begin her new orders. Starting by locating the siren in question that the two of them had apparently been following.

It wasn't hard. Even though they had now entered the crowds surrounding the Palace.

He was the only siren in the Queendom, after all.

"Tracker?"

Sir Liriodendron silently gave Shadow the celenegil 'compass' pin on his sleeve, indicating that he had indeed succeeded in placing a tracker on their target.

Shadow nodded in acknowledgement as she received the pin with its compass decoration Enchanted to point towards a tiny celenegil pin, easily placed on a target's clothing with a casual clap on the back. "I'll take it from here."

Sir Liriodendron nodded twice, first as a response, then as a nod of equality, to which Shadow replied with her own.

Then he left Shadow alone and returned to his duty by the side of their Queen.

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇

Here we go! Shadow thought to herself in excitement. Her love of uncovering people's secrets was the reason she became first a spy, then a good spy, before eventually becoming the Queen's Spymaster.

Making good use of the now uncovered secrets was something she had gotten good at due to it being a core part of her job as a Spymaster. That part was the boring one, and one she was glad to have been separated from - temporarily or not - when her earring had signaled an urgent mission.

It was the thrill of learning something forbidden which excited Shadow and made her love her job.

… It was also a large chunk of why no one wanted to marry her…

And why is he going in there?

The building in question was clearly a Church. A somewhat small one, but a Church nonetheless as indicated by all the 6-themed imagery etched into its outer walls: Flowers with 6 petals, animals and people in groups of 6, hexagons, a sun with 6 sunbeams opposite a moon with 6 stars and so on.

That moon… it's hard to see, but it's broken into 6 equal pieces. You would either have to know to look for it to see it or have as high an Awareness as I.

Spies in general had high Awareness, as they had to keep an eye on their surroundings at all times while on the field. Either to learn as much as possible or to keep an eye out for potential enemy spies.

And being the royal Spymaster, Shadow naturally had a lot of Awareness.

As the pieces are of equal size it can't be a coincidence. It must be a sign to the members of his group, this cult perhaps, that this is a safehouse. Or a meeting hall or something.

After a quick mental check to confirm that all the needed Skills were activated, Shadow quickly opened the door to the Church, or whatever the building actually was, entered it as fast as possible and with a practiced flick of her wrist as she let go of the door she had the door closing with the exact speed it naturally would have if it had been opened by the wind.

Not that the movement turned out to be necessary. The main Church room was empty except for herself and Ambassador Lagurith, and he had stopped speed walking in favor of straight up running the last few meters.

Shadow was quick to ensure she stayed close by.

Not too close, just in case. Her Skills meant he wouldn't be able to take notice of her unless she spoke to him, he used a 5th or higher tiered detection Skill, or if he had an Ability which allowed him to notice her.

None of those options seemed likely, but it was better to be too cautious than not enough. Especially in the spy business.

His running came to a sudden stop in front of a mural depicting the same subtly broken moon from outside the building. Here he pushed each broken piece in clockwise order from the top, before sliding the moon to the side revealing what appeared at first glance to be a standard emco. But upon further inspection it was revealed it had been modified with additional Runes.

"This is Cardinal Lagurith. The heathens have found the Phoenix Seed. We have to gather together and initiate the plan before they can up their defenses. Work together whenever possible-"

Shadow didn't let him finish his speech. She had heard enough.

A single touch of the finely carved orb at the end her Sleeping Rod to his feathered wings was enough to instantly put him to sleep, indicating he had just as low of a Toughness Score as the Spymaster had expected.

Mind you, a good mana based shield could have stopped it as well, but that typically needed one to first have realized an enemy was nearby.

Now it was time for Shadow to call in her own reinforcement.