New Dungeon Rule: None of Your Business: No form of mind control can take hold.

I had regenerated enough mana to make the new Rule cover the 26th, 27th, and 28th Floors, just in time. Even after both Boss and assistants had been defeated, the death of the human cardinal had delayed them entering the 26th Floor just long enough.

With a wording of ‘make a Rule that no mind control can work’ and an insane cost of 43,650 mana, I had really thought it would suppress the current mind control or something. And not just stop any new mind control from happening.

Why was it that expensive, System? With it doing so little?

Forbidding the use of certain Skills, spells, Abilities, and so on can lead to certain Dungeon creatures, puzzles, and traps becoming much harder or even near impossible to complete. For example, it would be much harder to defeat elemental creatures of the Ice elemental if all Fire related Skills, spells, Abilities, and so on were impossible.

…

So, you're saying I should have done this to begin with…

My annoyance at the price had turned to frustration over this much simpler way of keeping myself safe that I had clearly missed.

I doubt it'll take them so long to reach my final Floor that I'll have enough mana to ban something else on the last Floor. I only had enough for these three Floors because of how long the 19th Floor took them. So, I'll have to shelve that idea.

As the group was in the middle of the 26th Floor, in plenty of time to validate me having spent mana on including said Floor in the Rule, a human man was released from his mind control. The 4th tier Detective - which was his Class and not necessarily his job - likely had a high Awareness Score, which helped lower the time between each reapplication of mind control.

It also meant Enthrall simply didn't work on the guy, which in turn meant the - now lone - cardinal had to waste mana on using Hypnosis on him instead everytime my Rule made it wear off.

… Which in turn meant it took a bit longer to wear off than if Enthrall had been able to stick. After all, Enthrall was a battle of the strongest between each person's Awareness and Charisma, while Hypnosis meant the mind controller could add the two Scores together while the victim could still only use their strongest. And as the time needed to free someone from mind control depended on how big the difference was between these numbers…

Regardless, the Detective's high Awareness still meant he had a smaller timer than half of them. And he wasn't even the only one Enthrall hadn't worked on.

And as fate would have it, he got to be the first of their group - and perhaps even the entire world - to have the cardinal attempt to mind control, only for him to fail no matter what he tried.

Hypnosis didn't work anymore, and neither did Brainwash.

And before the centaur cardinal could try a third thing or even order the Detective to be tied up and held captive till they figured out what to do, the Detective turned tail and ran out of my Dungeon.

Immediately getting caught by several members of Karmaria who weren't the best at combat, but felt confident enough in themselves to take down surprised enemies, so that their mental faculties could be checked. Aka: Dragging the unconscious body of whoever just left my Dungeon back into my Dungeon and check if they had a countdown timer to see whether or not the person in question was still under mind control.

Yes! It worked! One less person I had to kill to defend myself!

But that joy - only it wasn't joy, it was satisfaction and pride in myself - was short lived as the cardinal quickly declared that anyone that ‘lost faith and couldn't be reinitiated’ had to be killed on the spot.

Not good. More than two thirds of those people are my family! And I certainly don't want innocents to die if they don't need to!

What to do, what to do…?

Koblins?!

“Yes Great Mother?” My kobolds answered nearly as one despite their wildly different positions across my Floors.

A change of plans. Instead of attacking near constantly to kill and distract, I want you to wait till just before one of the cultists has their mind freed. And then attack with the goal of helping that individual escape.

The kobolds replied at the same time yet again, but this time their affirmations were varied in actual words with ‘Yes, Great Mother!’ and ‘We obey!’ being amongst the most popular ones.

Thank you, my koblings. Be ready to move on my signal.

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My plan worked.

… For a bit, at least…

The next three cultists to stop being cultists successfully ran away during the resulting commotion created by my kobolds.

But where the first four to benefit from ‘None of Your Business’ were people previously unknown to me, the fifth was a ram rider.

And where the first four didn't actually know anyone else there, the ram rider did.

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Which meant the ram rider didn't run away like he should have.

Instead he used the kobolds’ attack to attempt his own attack on the cardinal.

An attack a Brainwashed Zina not only deflected but returned.

Unlike the cardinal, the ram rider hadn't ordered a mind controlled minion to defend him above all others.

And so, unlike the cardinal, the ram rider died.

He was killed by someone he normally considers his ally…

I knew I would have felt immense betrayal had it been me, regardless of Zina's mind controlled status. But just like I couldn't mourn his death, I couldn't muster up any actual sympathy. A small sense of pity was the closest I could get.

I suppose I can be excused for not having a good grip on my own feelings. I turn six months in three weeks. I'm not even half a year yet!

At least, that was the excuse I told myself. Deep down I didn't really think Dungeon Core had a point where they reached emotional maturity.

More likely they either had a fully mature emotion or they couldn't feel that emotion at all.

New plan koblins. If the individual doesn't flee, drag them out!

Oona, the only ‘member’ of the group not mind controlled on account of being a semi-sapient dawon instead of a sapient and mind control thus not working on her, visibly recoiled in shock as her owner electrocuted the ram rider. Then proceeded to look confused between the dead body and the elf in question.

A questioning meow.

Zina simply answered coldly that he had stopped believing, attacked the cardinal, and deserved to die.

Whether she truly understood the reply was unclear, but after nozzling the body of the comrade Zina had just killed - unwillingly, but Oona probably didn't know that - the dawon turned back the way they came and left my Dungeon behind.

Ignoring Zina's voice commanding her return.

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Only once during the 28th Floor did a timer reach zero, causing the kobolds to storm the group to distract and drag out the newly freed ram rider, who luckily didn't resist as much as he clearly wanted to due to his gnomish respect for Dungeons in general and me specifically.

The 28th and last Floor were mostly filled with a plethora of 'fiery flying serpents’. I hadn't expected the 28th Floor to be my last stand and had - at the time - found pleasure in how the Floor appeared mostly empty to anyone with a karma level of 25% or over, who didn't have an insanely high Awareness like Zina or a Skill specifically meant for noticing hidden things like Thenac.

Which before this had happened had included everyone but those two, and had thus been mightily confusing to my visitors.

Especially as I had refused to explain my ‘mostly empty’ rooms, and had convinced Zina and Thenac to keep my secrets.

I wouldn't be surprised if ‘Shadow’ - or whatever her real name is - would have noticed them as well if this Floor had existed while she was here.

And if Kathrin - and Reid - had had the time to do a long visit recently, I'm sure she would have noticed too.

The brown and white spotted ‘fiery flying serpents’ with their six matching wings were perfectly capable of blending in with their mountainous habitat with the white spots looking like patches of frost. Which naturally led them to a lifestyle of ambush from the ground.

And to people's inability to detect them before they attacked.

The wings were normally only meant to allow them to better ‘climb’ the sometimes vertical mountainsides, with the three sets instead of just one allowing them to control their flight even in the constantly windy weather found high up.

The ‘fiery’ part of their name was twofold. While they couldn't breathe Fire they had a body temperature - meant to help them deal with their cold environment - high enough to burn anyone naive or stupid enough to touch them.

… Not ‘instant third degree burn’ hot. More a ‘reflexively retract my hand because I accidentally touched a hot pan’ hot. Which could still be dangerous if it got its body around you.

Not that it would. The 75 cm long serpents were venomous thus didn't have the muscles of a constrictor snake. Instead they had speed and the option of flight, letting them bite their opponents and retreat before all but the fastest could retaliate. Which was their preferred strategy and the reason they survived longer than most of my other creatures.

… That and their high levels of over 50, with the large majority being of level 55 or 56, which allowed them to pierce even the toughest leather.

Not quite stones or metals, but it was better than normal snakes! And they hadn't even focused on Strength all that much!

Dexterity, Toughness, and Awareness were where most of their points went, in that order. Dexterity gave them the speed and reflexes they relied on when attacking and retrieving. Toughness protected them from return hits and allowed them to remain still even when unaware people stepped on them. While a high Awareness was needed to detect the location of their prey even with their eyes closed as open eyes were easier to detect than camouflaged eyelids.

While - as a part of my family - Zina wasn't directly attacked, she was still under the command to protect the remaining cardinal. And unlike some, Zina could attack both at range and with area of effect, letting her hit the fiery flying serpents despite their speed.

But luckily for me and the fiery flying serpents, they had a natural, if slight, resistance to lightning - and thus its magical equivalent - due to their habitat being a naturally occurring lightning rod allowing them to survive double the hits from her than they otherwise would have.

… Their mountain environment had certainly done a lot of nice things for them…

But back to the other half of their ‘fiery’ name: Anger.

These motherfuckers were angry as hell all the time! And they wanted nothing more than to spread that anger to their enemies and victims!

And yes, it was a constant rage. It wasn't obvious while they were laying in wait, but even in their ‘calm’ moments they were filled with barely contained fury.

Which naturally also meant they were my most aggressive creatures.

But they used their anger well. Fully capable of using this wrath in battle to give them speed and power.

But even with all those advantages, their current adversaries likewise had things playing in their own favor. With the exception of most of my remaining family the group had similar levels to the creatures on the 28th Floor. The lower leveled family members had really only survived this long due to ‘Family True Sight’ ensuring they weren't attacked as much.

The Rule in question wouldn't stop creatures from retaliating and attacks on them, but it stopped them from starting any fights with my mind controlled family. Which seemed to be enough to keep the rest of them alive.

But the Rule didn't only mean the creatures were unable to attack just anyone and thus always choosing the best victim, it also stopped them from realizing my mind controlled family would attack them if the opportunity arose. Which in turn meant they left themselves open to attacks and didn't even realize they had to hide from them for an ambush to work.

Still, by the time the group reached the final room of the 28th Floor, there were only 18 people left. 17 of whom I considered my family.

Unfortunately, the 18th was the centaur cardinal who still had them in his thrall. The cardinal was mainly still alive due to having ordered them all to care about his safety

And unfortunately there was only that one room separating them from my Core Room.

It's time. I hate to ask you all to fight your friends, but I know… This is what you want.

You want to protect your god and your Dungeon.

And if there's one thing the System seems to cherish before all, it would be free will.