Draconic Karma Dungeon - Chapter 62: On the Topic of Slavery

“And that’s why your Dungeon only attacks in self defense.” Fader Travan Ginkgo concluded after a moment of silent consideration. “And it explains the secondary trap trigger as well. Heh! Only harming sinners!” The priest exclaimed the last part as an awed murmur as a smile started to form on his lips.

“Exactly!” Sarzina Acacia confirmed as she considered how well the conversation seemed to be going.

And how the happy atmosphere was about to be broken.

For with that bit of background given, it was time to get back to the original topic.

“Why don’t all Dungeons do the same?” Fader Ginkgo asked before Zina could direct the conversation back on track. Not that she minded that. It was a good question!

“Hmm… I believe the System decided Dungeons weren’t fulfilling their purpose well enough. Too many innocent deaths most likely.“ Zina stated, slowly and thoughtfully. “We concluded before that the Dungeon of Karma has been blessed by the System. I could see the System giving these blessings to better guide the Dungeon in its Mission. And I wouldn’t be surprised if every Dungeon after this ends up with similar blessings.”

Fader Ginkgo seemed thoughtful at this hypothesis before nodding in agreement.

Zina took a deep, calming breath before getting the conversation back on track. “With the System watching this particular Dungeon so closely and guiding its choices… Would I be wrong to say that their… goals… align?”

“Hmm… The Dungeon of Karma certainly seems to be following its divine purpose better than any other Dungeons I’ve ever heard of.” The high priest began. “That doesn’t mean its every desire lines up with the holy System’s. Still…” Fader Ginkgo aimed a curious stare at Zina. “If you have determined some such of… desire or want from the Dungeon… I believe it would be worth considering if the holy System desires the same thing.”

Zina nodded. She had come to the same conclusion. Even if that conclusion had recently been tested by the revelation of the Dungeon’s ability to trick the System into telling lies.

“I’ve learned, through my role as a dungeon mistress,-” however little that actually means to the Dungeon “that the System, not the Dungeon of Karma but the actual holy System, considers beastkin sapients.” A gasp could be heard from the high priest as part of his world view was shattered. But Zina didn’t stop talking just yet. “And that our local Dungeon began hating slavery after meeting the beastkin that originally found it.”

“And with beastkin being sapients every beastkin owner is actually a slave owner!” Fader Ginkgo exclaimed wide-eyed. Then all of a sudden his shoulders fell and his head lowered, still with his shocked eyes wide open. “I’m a sinner…” He concluded sadly.

Zina could see how he reached that conclusion. The belief of the holy System didn’t have a lot of virtues and therefore not a lot of vices, which made them easy to remember. Hard work and risk taking – in a mostly safe way, as the goal was to challenge yourself – were the virtues Zina concentrated on the most.

Free will was the third and last on the short list of virtues, and the one most often overlooked. Working hard and taking risks were considered worship to the holy System, while ‘freedom’ wasn’t something one could easily practice.

On the other side of the spectrum was laziness. A vice considered to be the antithesis of both hard work and risk. It was possible to become a hard worker who took no risks, or a gambler who did minimum work. But those kinds of people weren’t nearly as bad as one who possessed neither virtue. In fact, those types of people could benefit a society as long as their numbers were kept small.

But a truly lazy person was considered the worst kind of sinner.

Except for someone who took someone else’s freedom away from them through either blackmail, torture, murder or slavery.

So it made sense that Fader Ginkgo suddenly thought himself a sinner.

“You didn’t know, Fader Ginkgo. I’m confident the holy System will forgive you.” Zina stated comfortingly. He straightened his back and raised his head, but his eyes revealed the doubts he had of her words. “Perhaps you would feel better if you showed your repentance.” Zina felt bad manipulating him like this, but she would need all the help she could get on this endeavor.

The high priest looked at her with hope in his eyes. He must have guessed she had a specific idea in mind. “How?”

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇

The Lightning Mage had struggled as she tried to explain to the priest that beastkin were sapients and why he should care.

And why he should care about my opinion on the matter.

So, I decided to give her a helping hand by allowing her to reveal the details of my Mission.

Which, on second thought, I don’t even know why I considered a secret. Well… I don’t want anyone to know exactly how she learned about it, but otherwise… whatever really.

As such the allowance came with the condition that she didn’t reveal how she knew about the Mission of Dungeon Cores.

In hindsight she should’ve gotten super suspicious about the timing of that message…

I guess she was too relieved and focused on the conversation to realize I’m spying on her…

While I could hear everything the Lightning Mage heard, the fact that I couldn’t see what she saw meant I would have to guess what she was physically doing. But instead I could usually follow any conversation she was having.

Not this time.

Well… not all of it. At some point the priest concluded he was a sinner, something which didn’t make sense to me, but the Lightning Mage immediately understood.

The Lightning Mage had begun explaining how he could show repentance by supporting her, as she made a local law prohibiting ownership of beastkin. This led me to the understanding that the priest had a beastkin slave, I hadn’t heard, but the Lightning Mage must have seen.

The priest agreed to her suggestion, before questioning what would happen to any freed slaves. A question the Lightning Mage clearly hadn’t thought too much about, as she simply answered they could do what they wanted. ‘They would be free, after all’.

The priest, however, realized that a newly freed slave would own nothing and have no money of their own, if she didn’t do something about it. And that such a state could drive people into doing things they otherwise wouldn’t do.

“They can start out as miners then.” The Lightning Mage stated, before adding that the previous owner would be forced to pay a fine for breaking the law and that that money would be given to the ex-slave. If the slave owner freed the slave of their own accord, up to 75% of the fine would be paid by the Dungeon Guild as a reward for cooperating.

The discussion then turned to ‘what to do about discrimination against freed beastkin’, and while I supported their topic, I stopped paying as much attention. Instead I went to share the good news with the Tribe.

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇

Ovakz had never seen Fader Ginkgo – she wasn’t being disrespectful, he had asked her to refer to him as such – looking sad before. Mad? Many times. In fact he usually bottled up his anger and only released it when he was home, either alone or with only her and Jangor present.

But today her master had shown up to her room looking sad.

Or regretful?

At least he had a small – but sad – smile on his lips, so whatever had made him that way couldn’t be too bad.

“Are you happy here, my dear?” He asked.

The lupine woman tilted her head in confusion. He had never called her ‘my dear’ before. He regularly called her son ‘the young one’ but he usually refrained from referring to Ovakz herself by any name or nickname. When the high priest needed her to do something he would simply look at her and tell her what he wanted her to do, no name or nickname needed, for better or worse.

As he had never asked her for her name nor that of her son, Ovakz had long since decided the lack of name-calling was a good thing.

“I have what I need for me and my son.” Ovakz had always believed it was better to answer her masters neutrally. At least until one knew their current master well enough to do otherwise. She had seen both positive and negative responses to seemingly easy questions get sudden and violent reactions from the master.

“Yes, but are you happy here?” Fader Ginkgo pressed, making Ovask instantly sweat in fear. Now she would have to give him an actual response and she hadn’t been his personal property for very long yet. She didn’t yet know what answer he wanted.

She and her son had been bought by the Ginkgo family roughly a month beforehand as their previous masters couldn’t take the constant screaming of a newborn baby. They had then been given to Fader Ginkgo as a congratulatory gift for becoming a high priest.

With sweat covering her body, she cautiously replied to her master’s question. “I’m happier than I’ve ever been.” It was the truth too. She had been treated better by Fader Ginkgo than her two previous sets of masters. She had been born as the property of an elven family, was sold to another elven family as a child, before meeting her current master the month before.

And on top of getting better treatment she had her precious baby boy which was still new and wonderful.

Even if he did wake her up several times at night.

Ovakz was even allowed to prioritize taking care of her son over her own duties, something she knew wasn’t normally allowed. And she didn’t even have a lot of duties in the first place as her master didn’t even have a proper place yet for her to take care of. Even if he had, she likely still wouldn’t have a lot of duties as he liked to do most things himself as a part of his worship of the System.

Fader Ginkgo hummed thoughtfully. He didn’t seem entirely convinced by her words.

She gulped. Her armpits and back were completely covered in sweat by now, though she didn’t think it had soaked into the fabric enough to show just yet.

“Dungeon mistress Acacia plans to outlaw keeping beastkin as slaves.” He stated, looking at her closely to study her reaction.

Oh no! He’s gonna kill me before the law kicks in! He’ll kill us both! Why else would he tell me this? Her eyes frantically began searching for an exit as her body stiffened up, preparing for a fight. I have to get Jangor. Her son was taking a nap in their shared bedroll behind her. But that means turning my back and leaving me vulnerable to an attack.

Logic may have told Ovakz that the smart thing to do was to attack him first, but her lifelong conditioning prevented her from even considering such a thing.

“I intend to support her.”

Immediately the fire was calmed, but Ovakz’ body language was still tense. Just ’cause Fader Ginkgo intended to support the new law, didn’t mean he wouldn’t kill them first or simply make their new lives miserable somehow.

Fader Ginkgo was still looking at her sadly, but by now confusion had joined the sadness in his eyes. “You’ll get enough money to rent a room at the inn for a week. And food too. She suggests you become a miner till you have enough capital to… well… what do you want to do?”

Ovakz had no answer to that question.

He nodded sadly to himself before continuing. “I want you to know. That. If you ever need any help. You can come to me. Okay? Whether that means money or babysitting, I’m gonna be there for you.”

The lupine mother was too shocked and confused to respond, and soon enough Fader Ginkgo clapped her shoulder before leaving her alone so she could deal with her chaotic thoughts.