“How far until the next room?” Jeza asked, starting to grow impatient. With just the two of them working together in the dungeon, she was forced to burn through quite a lot of her mana. The only respite she received was the infrequent restorations brought about by leveling up. Without those, it is likely that she would have long since run dry.
“How am I supposed to know?!” Guile snapped back. The passage had already proven to be longer and more complicated than the rest of the dungeon so far. There were twists and turns and branching paths, and he was unable to scout ahead due to the density of the monsters.
Even as a halfling, he was limited in his ability to sneak unnoticed. The halls were packed with cave beasts and deep trolls, and even the slightest mistake would leave him surrounded with no escape.
What was more worrying was that he knew, sooner or later, Jeza was bound to become dead weight. Her mana was limited, as was her supply of potions. Once those both ran out, she would be nothing more than a walking target.
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I gave a small grin as I saw the two of them fighting. Mentally, I triggered the first distortion arrow. From a thin crack in the wall, a single arrow flew out towards Jeza’s leg. She must have spotted it out of the corner of her eye, because she quickly stumbled backwards. However, as she did, a small distortion field appeared alongside the arrow to change its trajectory.
The air visibly shifted in a small sphere where the arrow passed, and it seemed to almost bend before firing out again. This time, it was too close for the mage to properly react, landing straight in her leg. I could hear the shout of pain as Jeza fell backwards, and saw Guile forced to move over her to defend her.
Looking at the two of them, I knew that it would be so easy to just kill them both right now. Wash away my anger with the fact that the ones who wanted to kill me were gone. What was the point of dragging it out, and prolonging their suffering?
With a thought, I rearranged the rest of the arrow ‘traps’ I had laid throughout the dungeon into this corridor. I even made them a bit easier to spot by opening slits in the walls for them to fire through. After all, there weren’t enough cracks to hide them so easily.
Guile’s face twisted when he saw the new openings along the wall, and it seemed like he immediately made the decision to abandon Jeza. He dove out of the way as a storm of arrows launched from the walls, turning the mage into a pincushion.
Without even glancing back towards the bleeding and gasping mage, Guile began to run the way that they came. It seemed he hoped to be able to get through the stone doors and make his escape, but I wasn’t about to let that happen. “Can you get rid of all of his escape charms, and teleport him into the pit you prepared?”
“Certainly.” The dungeon core responded, and I heard a small clatter from next to me as three wooden charms fell to the ground at my feet. Meanwhile, Guile had vanished from the hall, instead appearing amidst the swinging blades in the acid pit.
I turned away, knowing that his fate was already sealed, and not entirely interested in watching someone’s flesh slowly dissolve. Instead, I looked at the dungeon core, still firmly placed within the wall. “So… what now?”
In my head, I was thinking through several scenarios. Maybe the dungeon was not looking for a permanent master, and only sought someone like myself for short bursts until they had exacted their revenge. If that was the case, it would make sense for me to be disposed of.
Somehow… I wasn’t too angry at that idea. I had gotten my revenge on the people that tried to kill me. By all accounts, I was now living on borrowed time. Sure, there was more that I wanted to do with my life, but… it was the dungeon that had saved me in the first place.
“Now, you are free to come and go as you wish.” The dungeon spoke up with a neutral tone. I was… honestly surprised by that revelation. “I have already recognized you as my master, and you have accepted the proof of the contract.”
“Ahh… okay. How do I get out, then?” I couldn’t help but glance to the escape charms at my feet. I wasn’t able to afford such things normally, which was why I was so desperate for a party to join, but I still knew about them. These charms would be tied to specific locations set by Guile, which meant that using one might put me in an environment hostile towards outsiders.
“Through the door, naturally.” It spoke in a casual tone, as the wall behind me began to open. What had once been the projection of Guile being boiled in acid was now a clear path, sunlight shining through. From the length of the path, and the smell that soon hit my nose, I could tell that we were actually positioned fairly close to the original entrance of the dungeon.
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“Oh…” I blinked, nodding my head and beginning to walk. It wasn’t very far back to town, and this was a fairly low-level environment, so I wasn’t too worried about something happening along the way.
As I left the dungeon, I glanced at my own karma again. After killing both Jeza and Guile, I expected to see more black appearing along my skin. However, what I saw was instead an increase in the white blobs, which surprised me. Was it considered good karma to kill those with terrible karma?
The thought of that gave me another idea. Although by coincidence, I had managed to gain the ability to see whose souls had been blackened by evil deeds. Perhaps even more accurately than the servants of Irena, I could tell the just from the wicked.
I let that idea settle in my mind as I walked back. My wound had long-since closed, leaving only a bloodstained cut on my leather armor. That alone wouldn’t be enough to make people ask too many questions. And perhaps thankfully, my party had not been officially registered with the guild before we left.
No doubt that was so that the three of them wouldn’t need to worry about my disappearance causing them problems, but now it was working in my favor. If the party had been registered, I would need to give a detailed account of what happened in front of a servant of Irena. Although it wasn’t impossible to fool them, it was easy to slip up with the story.
For now, it was a simple matter of what I wanted to do with the dungeon. I could easily turn it into a production facility to help those around me and give me enough coin to be comfortable. Maybe I could remodel it into a shelter to protect the locals from monsters. No… that one didn’t exactly seem fitting for the theme of this dungeon, and it was too far from town to be a decent shelter.
As I thought about that, I soon made my way back towards town. Out of curiosity, I began using my new ability to inspect the karma of those I passed. The result was… interesting, to say the least.
Most people, like myself, had karma in the form of ‘blobs’ along their skin that were either black or white. There were some, though, that were like Guile. People whose karma radiated from them in a soft glow. At the moment, I wasn’t quite able to understand the difference, given that there was still both light and dark karma within those glows. Thankfully, the two guards standing at the entrance of town both had mostly-white blobs of karma, meaning that they should be good people.
It didn’t take long after I entered the town before I found someone that I decided to ‘test’ things on. A young woman wrapped in fine silks, offering kind smiles to those she passed. I saw her presenting bread to the homeless, and a few coins to some passing orphans. Her karma was the thickest light that I had seen so far… only, it was an almost purely black light.
The karma was so dense that I could not even make out the woman’s features when I was using that sight. Since I was from this area, I was naturally familiar with the woman, the daughter of the local Count. She was hailed as a saint by all who knew her, so the fact that her karma appeared so evil startled me.
At first, I wanted to write it off as simply bad karma from her past life that she was working to repay. If that was the case, it was understandable, and would mean that she had done nothing wrong in this life.
As if she had caught my gaze, Loren Chester smiled towards me, approaching and offering a faint bow. “Is there something I can help you with, priestess?”
It took me a moment to realize that I was still wearing the token that identified me as a priestess to Accalia, taken aback by her sudden call. “No, sorry. I was just passing by and saw you.”
“That so?” Loren asked, giving that same smile as she looked me over. “My, it seems you suffered a bit of trouble while you were out. I don’t wish to keep you if you need to seek aid, but perhaps we could talk more sometime?”
“I think I would like that.” I answered honestly. While I didn’t expect us to be chatting over anything pleasant with her karma, I knew that we would truly need to talk again.
Loren offered another bow before walking away, leaving me to focus on other matters. First, I needed to decide how I was going to determine the origin of her karma. If her darkness is truly from this life, then that means that she would have a firm grip over the local criminal underworld. Otherwise, her secrets would have been exposed long ago.
This, sadly, limited my options. I couldn’t rely on anyone else to get me the information I needed. If the goddess was willing to speak with me, I might be able to get reliable insights from her… but it was incredibly rare for any deity to speak to someone. The only time I had received her words was when I first became a priestess.
I waited for Loren to be out of sight before making my way towards the market. While doing so, I sent a message towards my new dungeon core. I need some items. Anything you can provide that would aid in stealth and reconnaissance.
Of course. I have a few such items already prepared, and can craft more if they do not fit your requirements. Hearing the prompt response left me feeling relieved. I knew that I did not have the ability to spy on such an influential figure myself, so the fact that my dungeon core was able to help me provided a considerable relief.
While I continued walking, I explained the specific items that I would be needing for my idea, as well as what I was intending to do with them. If any extra materials were needed for what I required, I could trade some already crafted items from the dungeon for them.