After having accepted my request to spare the criminal's life - so he could mess up the lives of other evil people by spreading his lycanthropy around, which would eventually get them killed -, the Lightning Mage proceeded to banish him from the town. Should he ever return, he would be killed like the outlaw he now was.

The gnomes had taken my judgment seriously as well. Stating that it was a Dungeon Retribution and as such it was entirely up to me to decide their fates.

They are acting like they already know I'm sapient.

Does that mean there's other sapient Dungeon Cores out there?! Ones they've met?!

I immediately called for a meeting with the gnome leader through my 'dungeon mistress'.

But no. There were no other sapient Dungeon Cores. Not anyone the gnomes knew of at least.

What the gnomes did know was the Mission of Dungeons. Generally speaking.

Through generations the gnomes had paid close attention to how quickly their Dungeon would grow. And they had noticed that after a certain number of bad people had died in the Dungeon, it would grow quicker for a while. And in periods where few or no bad people had died, the Dungeon would stall its growth.

Which was why the Dungeon Retribution came to be. Not only because the gnomes had realized Dungeons needed to kill bad people to grow, but also because they believed Dungeons could somehow differentiate between good and bad people.

Which wasn't actually something all Dungeon Cores could do. I had only gotten that Ability through an Achievement, and Achievements wasn't the easiest thing to get.

All in all, the gnomes didn't actually see Dungeon Cores as sapients but more like a metal detector. 'If the light blinks and the beeping sounds, then you're bad, if nothing happens, then you're good.' Something like that. Trustworthy in our judgment of good and bad, but not an intelligent being.

Well. Their leader knows now.

And unlike the Lightning Mage I can't force him to keep my secrets. Which, oddly enough, I'm not too worried about. Much like the Tribe, though to a lesser degree, they already have me in high regard simply due to my status as a Dungeon Core. This is more likely to turn respect into worship than have anyone try to kill me for being an abomination.

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Personal Status Level: 58 EXP needed for level up: 58,345,436/59,000,000 Mana payment for level up: 0/204,000 Mana: 1.5/25,500 Mana regeneration: 8,925 per hour Floors: 10/24 Allowed number of sapients in each Floor: 6 Floor Details Achievements Mission Dungeon Rules

I was level 34 before I started speedrunning my levels… That's 26 levels! Counting level 39+ and 49+ as their own levels, which I definitely feel like they are!

Just over 19 days had passed since the gnome arrival and the Dungeon Retribution and I had been leveling up everytime I had the mana for it. Which in the 4th tier had been every 14 hours and 18 minutes, in the 5th every 17 hours and 6 minutes, and in the 6th tier every 22 hours and 51 minutes.

During that time, about half of the Floors in my Dungeon had had a Party in it during my opening hours. Which generated so much EXP that I, in the beginning, was earning more than 10 times the EXP that I used, despite the fact that I was using it as fast as I could.

The new 2,473% EXP modifier was clearly working its ass off!

Where the end of the 5th tier had asked for 1,125,000 EXP to level up, the beginning of the 6th tier asked for 25,000,000.

Before that the jump in EXP needed from one tier to the next had been between slightly under double to just over three times.

This was a jump of over 22 times the previous amount!

Yeah, that 'increasingly stunted growth to reflect a Dungeon Core's immortality' has clearly gone into effect.

I am not looking forward to the 7th tier…

Then again. I can make 24 Floors right now and my mana capacity and regeneration has gone through the roof! From 2,275 mana per hour to 8,925!

Let's finally finish that 11th Floor!

… And then level up one more time… I'll probably have the remaining EXP at the end of the day.

When I had first become a Dungeon Core I had to pick a starting creature and an Environment. For each level up I got access to a new dragon without having to design it myself and every tier up I got to pick an additional Environment. For each Environment I had already picked, the already short list of Environments would become shorter.

Forest, volcano, river and lake, mountain as well as desert had already been picked - and in that order - by the time I got to my 6th tier up, so I was naturally curious as to what would happen this time.

I really just expected nothing to happen as I already had access to all Environments compatible with dragons.

Instead I got a new list with a small warning:

Environment

Be aware that not all level up creature patterns for these Environments will be of your chosen type.

Beach Deep sea Graveyard Jungle Mushroom cavern Ocean Prairie Tundra Urban and farmland

As I had done all the other times, I decided based on what advantages each Environment could give me and which of those fit me best.

Tundra won with its potential for ice covered paths - which could make people slip if unprepared -, deep snow - which could hide any number of things I wanted hidden -, and blizzards - which could obscure the vision of my enemies.

As my volcano theme hadn't raised the temperature of each room following its theme, I didn't expect any tundra rooms to reach freezing temperatures.

With a bit of testing - with the help of Begdar and Nalir, who both volunteered - I discovered that the room itself wasn't cold but that - much like magma - snow and ice had their expected temperature. But unlike normal snow and ice they wouldn't thaw even at normal body temperature. It had to be put in a pot and placed under open fire - something Begdar could now do with magic.

I can work with that!

On the 2nd day of speedrunning levels one of my Achievements decided to tier up out of the blue.

Achievement tier up: Making the World a Better Place (IV): You have made the people around you into better versions of themselves, thus making the world a better place. Keep doing it. Condition: You have at one point successfully made the karma levels of other people rise 100 times in net total. Reward: 125% Charisma. You now earn 50 EXP per karma level you rise in others in net total. This is retroactive. [You do not have a Charisma Score. 125% Charisma changed to 25% discount on karma creatures.] You have gotten an Achievement tier up while having 4 passive Achievements. Do you wish to change which Achievements are passive?

I must have inspired someone to try and better themselves.

And no thank you.

In the midst of all my level ups, the merchant group had been by once again and was surprised to see just how many people now called this place their home. After all, only 40 days had passed and the place had gone from being entirely populated by beastkin to having the beastkin be the minority alongside the elves due to the massive amount of gnomes. The place had also gone from being almost entirely tents with only a couple of mostly finished wooden huts to having sewers, a well, a Dungeon Guild, a building around my Portal for the Portal Control, an Inn called 'The Jolly Dragon Inn' which had stables, storage and cleaning and mending services, a Security Guild as well as enough normal housing for 250 people.

Which met the System's criteria for a Small Village, which in turn meant that the people living there could earn Village related Achievements and had their Nomad related Achievements exchanged for Village themed ones where appropriate. The sheriff became a Sheriff with an actual proper 'Small Village Sheriff' Achievement.

But of course the construction team still had a lot of building to do. Not only had a thousand or so gnomes - no one had mentioned a more specific number where I could hear them - joined them, but the elves had always been expecting and planning for more elves to move here. But only once the initial building was done as the new arrivals would want to have a house to settle down in immediately upon arrival.

It was quite a lot to get done in only 40 days with a construction crew numbering around 60 elves. The last week or so - I don't know exactly when they started - about 9 houses had been built a day. The exact number varied as some houses were only meant to house two people - eleves apparently had a problem with fertility - while others were built in a dorm room style with communal kitchens.

Given how I could only see the Surface World from my Portal, and emphasized by how said Portal had had a building built around it, I had naturally not really seen any magic being cast around by the construction crew. When they had first started working - on the sewers, working from the ground up - I had noticed the workers incredible Strength as not only dirt but boulders and tree trunks were moved out of the way with barely a second thought. Which had naturally sped up the process.

They've definitely used some sort of System given magic to have all of this done so quickly!

Not that I blamed them. I would have done the same.

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Oh… That can't be good…

No, wait! It might be the captured cultists!

I should warn 'my mistress' either way.

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"How are you feeling?" asked a female voice.

"Uh?" Lagurith questioned back, still groggy from having woken up from deep sleep.

"You're not Brainwashed anymore. I know how great a relief it is to not be mind controlled anymore, but of course Brainwash and Hypnotize are two different Skills and apparently Brainwash is the stronger of the two. And of course you must have been controlled for much longer than me as I was only under for a couple of hours. So your relief must be much greater than mine were." The female voice blabbered in response, barely taking the time to breathe.

"Brainwash? Mind control?" That can't be right. When have I ever done something against my will?

Then memories started flashing. One moment after another where he followed a stranger's order, did immoral things, and even broke the basis of all siren society: Know your people. All of them.

He didn't even know the names of every member of the so-called order he had joined, much less actually known them.

And that certainly wasn't something he would do willingly.

The elven woman speaking to him was about to start talking again when a male elf put his hand on her shoulder and stopped her. "Maybe we should give him a bit of time for him to gather his thoughts. He appears to be a bit out of it."

"Who are you?!" Came the sudden outburst from Lagurith.

He couldn't take not knowing who everyone was, after having broken that sacred siren rule for so long. He would be an outcast if anyone found out!

"I'm Dakath Fraxinus, the Sheriff around here. This is Sarzina Acacia, the dungeon mistress of the Dungeon we're currently in."

At first Lagurith was relieved to not only know their names but to now additionally know one thing about each of them. Then the last part he had said registered. "We're in a Dungeon?"

Looking around, he indeed appeared to be sitting on the grass covered floor of a small Dungeon Room, complete with half a dozen small, green dragons being restrained by tree roots. The dragons were desperately trying to escape the roots, but every claw and bite mark was quickly restored through the Skill or spell which had created the roots in the first place.

Why not just kill them?

"We are indeed." Sheriff Dakath Fraxinus replied calmly. "Our only current method for dealing with controlled people is to contain them inside The Dungeon of Karma. Simply being inside The Dungeon of Karma will, after a time, give people back their minds."

"Really?" Lagurith asked, confused. Since when has that been a thing?

"Huhmm." Sheriff Dakath Fraxinus nodded.

"Huh."

"Any other questions before we leave you to gather your thoughts? You still seem a slight bit out of it."

"No. Thank you, Sheriff Dakath Fraxinus. Dungeon mistress Sarzina Acacia. Wait. Are you related to Advisor Acacia?" Lagurith flinched as he realized he didn't know Advisor Acacia's personal name.

Siren's didn't have family names! To not know someone's personal name when you have been working with them for years was unthinkable.

"Yes." She answered sharply, almost like she was suddenly angry. "What about it?"

Uh… Cultural differences? It had been a while since he had really had the time to try and understand other cultures, so he was quite rusty in elven customs.

Despite how learning about other cultures had been the reason he had gone against siren norms and left his home in the sea.

And despite how he had been actively working in an elven Palace in an elven Queendom.

"It's custom for sirens to know all we can about our-" The language the surface dwellers spoke didn't have the right word for his type of community, so he would have to use a more general word, so they could understand his meaning. "-allies. It helps us connect to each other and makes us feel more like we are a part of a collective whole. I'm sorry if the question made you uncomfortable, but I'm still a bit too out of it to remember what the elven customs are."

"Oh…" Dungeon mistress Sarzina Acacia nodded in acceptance of his apology and relaxed her posture.

"We'll leave you to your thoughts." Sheriff Dakath Fraxinus stated, before the two elves moved to a couple of chairs placed up against the climbing plants covered Dungeon wall.

What exactly happened to all my plans for the future? They say I was mind controlled, but when did that happen? And who did it?

It didn't take long to find the answer. Everything he had done against his will, his memory informed him had been done because of The Order of The Broken Goddess.

And their prophet Luvenia Mein. A prophet he had met.

And as he remembered said meeting he realized that was when he was Brainwashed.

Specifically during what he previously had thought of as his 'initiation'.

An 'initiation' he himself had performed several times afterwards.

No! His mind screamed, his eyes widened, and he instinctively ordered his Skill to rip. Rip and rip and rip apart each and every hold he had on someone else.

When finally done ripping he took a couple of calming breaths, trying to take back control of his panicked mind. He could hear the elves exclaim confused words and get up from the chairs they had just placed themselves in, but he paid it no mind.

What else happened? Maybe something less horrifying.

How did I get here?

I was pretending to be an Ambassador. The elven Queen Enania Phoenix Flower got news from Advisor Acacia - need her name - that her daughter, Crown Princess Talindra Phoenix Flower, had been mind controlled by a cult. I left the meeting abruptly as I needed to inform 'The Order of The Broken Goddess' that we had been discovered and to push a last attempt attack on The Royal Dungeon in hopes of getting its Core and bringing it to…

Lagurith blinked many times in sudden confusion.

We were supposed to bring Cores to prophet Luvenia Mein's bedroom, where she would arrange them to her liking.

Like they were mere decorations!

Even when sometime after Luvenia Mein's death the room they placed Dungeon Cores in had been replaced with a bigger and more secure one, it had still been styled like it was her bedroom. Only with her bed having been replaced with her golden coffin.

She made a cult because she wanted Dungeon Cores to decorate her room?

Why? Didn't she understand how essential Dungeons are to society? Both due to their loot and their necessity in tiering up? Not to mention fast leveling.

No. Don't think about this right now. I can be horrified over this later. What happened next?

I decided to send out the message to attack first as I thought that was more time sensitive.

… I didn't get to finish the message did I? Next I remember, I woke up for the first of many, many 'food and pee breaks'.

Yeah, I had somehow been knocked out and captured. And my elven captures would keep me and my fellow prisoners unconscious using Enchanted sticks unless we needed to eat, drink, or relieve ourselves. And when awake each awake prisoner would have two guards keeping an eye on them and we would all be chained to a tree.

The other prisoners were likely all members of 'The Order of The Broken Goddess'. I recognized many of their faces, but not all.

A deep, calming breath.

And now I'm here. With a free will once again.