"This should do it." Karl stared at the reworked system of traps in front of him.

  In fact, the traps had not been changed at all. The wooden door had been repaired and the ruined prison door had been replaced with Karl's generic bars that slid up and down.

After a lot of thinking, Karl chose a different approach to the problem.

  It was obvious that he could not resist the might of the city, if it decided to act with full force. He might build all kinds of traps, but in the end he was still just a one person. He left everything how it had been except for a fact that his system buildings were at this point just dummy rooms without any function at all and the real ones had been completely cut off from the dungeon.

  He had transformed his underground lair into two separate dungeons with one that could be entered and explored and the other one that was completely cut off by dozen meters of rock from the fake one. The public dungeon. how he decided to call it, had its connection to Karl's private dungeon sealed in the middle of an inconspicuous straight tunnel where no one would expect it.

  When Karl needed to pass from the public to the private part, he simply ordered an Earth Elemental to destroy the rock that separated the two. It took a while to open, but he did not trust any kind of a secret door anymore. The elemental stationed in the private part of the secret passage cost him a hefty fifty mana in upkeep, but he decided that it was a necessary cost. At lest until he would find a better way.

  If the uninvited guest came again, he would observe just minor changes in certain areas like the Void Well and other structures being just a cheap imitation. There was even a fake dungeon core in the middle for those that might guess Karl's true nature for some unfathomable reason.

  A proper scam was easier than a valiant defense. In case a strong invader came, he could let them conquer the public part of the dungeon and let them have their victory. There would be no way for them to know that they have missed something. There would be a way if Karl had been properly "isekaied" into a standard setting, but that was not the case in the cultivation world. The intruders would have cleared his lair with none the wiser about his true fate.

"I have to fully utilize my mobility advantage." Karl watched his last door slid into its place. He did not possess the classic weakness of ordinary dungeons of being stationary and it would be foolish not to utilize this advantage in his strategy. From the perspective of the natives, he was closer to an Earth Mojo cultivator with some special means at his disposal.

"It is time for another round of selection." He focused on one of his minions that were on the surface. It was harder to act through his other minions, but he had to learn it to avoid being targeted in the future. The limited perception was a small price to pay for the huge security benefit of acting through a proxy.

* * * *

"Heavy crap, we had pulled the short straw." Rovan, a red haired teen who was little more than just skin and bones put down a rectangular piece of rock that would make the wall he was building higher by another feet.

"I knew it was a scam right away." A similar figure with bald head answered after they had crafted and fitted yet another stone block into the seemingly infinite wall.

"All of us will croak here, we should fight or run while we have any strength left." A third laborer complained while getting his messy black hair out of his face. He was significantly older than the two, not fitting into the group of five that toiled since the morning, trying to rebuild the walls of Fort Orlov.

"That is hardly an option, old man." The red haired teen snorted and glanced warily next to them at an unspeakably hideous abomination that guarded them.

"I should have chosen to be a sacrifice, there will be no difference in the end." The middle aged man responded, he was the oldest of the group of thirteen that had been kicked out of the city. Considering the average age of the group, he was really an old man.

  Thirteen of them had been kicked out of the city. One died during the chase and the two others were gone as well. The leftover ten had peen divided by their captors into two groups. Five were taken away into the depths of the wet stinking hole under the fort to be sacrificed to same insane new deity, the remaining five had been chased to the surface to work.

Five survivors.

How long would it take to shrink those five yet again, this time to zero?

  Only the three of them had still enough strength to work, their two mates lying on the ground. Rovan sneaked a peek at the abomination guarding them, but he knew that it was not alone, there were more deeper in the forest. They would not get far if they decided to run.

"If we dash in multiple directions, one of us should make it." The other teen said, not believing it himself.

"He is right." The old man said, but Rovan did not believe him at all. He had urged them to take action multiple times, probably waiting for them to become a decoy for his escape. Rovan had spent enough time in the slums to see through his ploy.

  He was about to retort something in response to the old man's repetitive urging that was becoming old quickly, but his bald coworker was obviously not as suspecting as he was, or his nerves had finally snapped, because he suddenly threw away the tools and began running away into the forest under the keen eye of the flesh monster that monitored them.

Immediately, the abomination dashed after him, leaving them seemingly alone.

"Fool." Rovan watched them disappear in the thick vegetation of the forest, when he heard a rustle nearby. The supposedly exhausted pair that had been collapsed on the ground jumped to their feet and were both running in the opposite direction of the bald escapee.

"Those pretenders!" He spat out when he saw how quickly the par was running away, without doubt they had been just slacking off while the three of them worked on the wall.

  He just wordlessly watched the remaining old guy next to him having finally his moment. He must have thought that three decoys was more than enough and chose another direction to make his escape. It seemed to Rovan that he was the only one who had been honestly rebuilding the wall and all the others had just been waiting for an opportunity to escape.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  He sighed an sat down on the stone block he had been about to haul to its place. He was too exhausted to run and he had not intended to escape in the first place. There was nowhere to go. He had heard many tales about the wilderness and it was no joke to survive in the forests around Jinsheng. Even if they managed to reach the wall, what then?

  It was more promising to act as an exemplary servant and try to infiltrate the strange cult or whatever it was, than try and survive the wilderness with no actual knowledge about it.

"Alright." Rovan stood up again and continued to work even without any supervisor around. If he wanted to go along the road of an exemplary servant, it had to look authentic.

* * * *

  Karl was tumbling through the woods, inhabiting the body of one of his Warped Flesh servants. Actually, he was not directly controlling the body, as it was not possible. It felt more like giving commands to a subordinate and then watch him execute them in the first person view mode. His minion was in pursuit of a bald teenager that was making his escape.

"Slow down man, slow down, else we catch him." Karl commanded his minion while watching the thin feet of the runaway getting closer. They were only playing along, he had no need to catch anyone. His goal was to sort out the disobedient delinquents and cutthroats that would make bad company for Tyrn. There was no benefit in catching them.

"Fine, let's go back." Karl ordered when the teen finally managed to outrun them.

"That should get rid of the less promising group on the surface. Those five looked too violent to use them for my project." He returned to the spot of his little labor camp only to freeze at an unusual sight. There was a half-naked teen with sweat running in rivulets down his body toiling like it was his last day being alive.

"Well, that is unexpected." Karl stared at the sight and his minion stood motionless in place, having run out of orders.

"Guess that makes eight of them. Bring him to the others and lead all of them to Tyrn's cell. It is time for some introductions." Karl concluded and detached himself from the minion, returning his perception to the one that was carrying his physical self.

  He had nine teenagers at this point. Tyrn, the five he had selected for looking sufficiently meek, the siblings and the redhead oddball that for some reason had not escaped, but continued working. He thought it was only fitting that he ended up choosing nine people, it seemed to fit the cultivation environment nicely.

Everything was going like a well oiled machine.

"That was the surface, let's check on our prince before I put them together." Karl focused again on the minion carrying him and felt overjoyed to perceive again all the details he had been unable to sense while possessing the minion on the surface. As much as he liked the extra security, he did not want to torture himself too much and walked down the main tunnel using the huge body of his bearer.

  He passed through the bleak tunnels of his underground kingdom, but his perception was skewed by his existence. He did not feel any of the discomfort or anxiety a human would feel. Instead, he felt mesmerized by the purple light reflecting off the glossy surface of the long tunnels. Where a human would see a haunting, wet tunnel, he saw an enchanting place of wonder.

  He had never been a picky guy with no need for satisfying his greed or ego, he always scolded his co-workers for complaining their work being boring. Boring was good. It meant that it was not stressful, nor painful. Some considered him a loser for having his bar too low, but he considered himself a winner, as he refused to accept the expectations of others. Why should he dance as the others willed as their puppet?

  He even no longer felt any pain and he always liked boredom anyways. In a way, he had enjoyed his new existence, even though his perception had most likely been already a little skewed by what he had experienced as a dungeon. In the end, everything stemmed from experience. Prolonged experience became a habit, a habit became a person's history and a person's history was an identity.

The rift in perception was clear, but the gloom and doom swiftly returned to Karl's existence the moment he had arrived at the storage room and saw the body lying inside.

"Tyrn?! What happened?" He even forgot that no one could hear him and quickly entered the improvised cell. The armored hand touched the stiff body, but it was clearly too late.

"Wake up!" He shook the body, but Tyrn was clearly not asleep.

  Karl had no means to verify the body's temperature, but Tyrn was curled up into a ball and his jaw looked forcefully clenched. Whatever end he had met, it did not look painless at all. Despite that, there were no visible wounds on his body, pointing in the direction of an internal injury.

"An Intruder! Who have killed him?" Karl looked around and quickly went thought the eyes of all of his minions around him to discover that there was no one else around. There was no disturbance anywhere with no intruders in sight.

"I had everything planned out and it went so well! Why? Why?!" Karl wanted to shout his frustration into the world and the fact he could not made him even more angry.

Tyrn was dead and his plans failed. There would be no redemption for him.

While he raged inside, nine figures began marching to his position led by the Warped Flesh minion, as he had tasked the servant to bring them for introductions. The closer they were, the more apparent was the dread in their faces fueled by the picture of an imposing knight towering above a dead body.

"Everything is messed up." Karl looked up at the line of trembling teenagers and fought back the urge to slaughter them all in a fit of rage.

"Killing them is the cleanest. Humans are just trouble, I can do alone with my dungeon." The Void Knight straightened and took out its sword that gleamed with purple runes. The frightening monster left the bars of the improvised prison and lifted its sword above the teenagers' heads, its tip began glowing with purple light.

When the tip finally moved, breaking the breathless silence, purple words in the air lingered for a few moments that seemed like an eternity.

"My name is Karl, Karl Gulden. Always was and always will be."

He had already chosen his nature once and he was not going to change just because of misfortune or trifling fate.

* * * *

"Give it to me, all of it! You surely ate your fill on your way here!" A sinewy hand tore a piece of bread out of a smaller hand that held it with all its strength. However, it was no use against the stronger kid.

"I ate nothing! I am so hungry Tyrn! Let me have . . . "

"Do not lie to me ever again!" The hand had already stuffed the bread into its owner's hungry mouth and was now grabbing onto the shoulder of the smaller kid, shaking him violently.

"I am not lying! I wanted to share it all!" The small boy protested, but the bigger one just snorted in response. Deception, theft and violence were common in the slums of the declining city. Those who were too honest had already starved to death, or slaved in one of the few city's factories.

"Give me the rest, I am bored by your lies." Tyrn snapped, the winter had been particularly cold and it was the first year that even the last surviving farmers had given up on their livelihoods, running away from the wrath of the wild beasts. As the result, the food was more scarce compared to other years that had been already quite lean.

"Ok." Flock whimpered while being squeezed by Tyrn's iron grip and gave all the rest of the bread to his companion, but not before he had stealthily squeezed inside a sharp piece of a nail he had picked up earlier, because it looked shiny. He did not want to harm his friend, but the frustration and anger from his constant pestering and exploitation clouded his mind, a tiny voice in the back of his mind kept calling for justice at all costs.

"That is a good boy." Tyrn smiled insincerely and gulped down the piece of bread.

"Damn, it is too dry." He chuckled for a second, but it passed quickly and he began to lead them back to the city center.

"We will try again, there is never too much food." Tyrn said resolutely."You have to try harder Flack, people really like your pretty little face. I had no luck with my appearance."

"Alright." Flock whispered knowing it was a lie, the truth was Tyrn had eaten all food he had managed to get.

Despite being his friend, he sometimes wished for him to choke on all the stolen food, as hunger gnawed away on his belly.