Draconic Karma Dungeon - Chapter 63: Bans and Leaderships

After the Lightning Mage had talked with the priest she sought out the sheriff to ask his opinion on outlawing slavery. It seemed to me like she wanted both to know what fallout to prepare and if she could count on his support.

Luckily, the sheriff was fully supportive. He had apparently disliked how beastkin had been treated for years, though I doubted he had wanted to actually free them.

As for the expected fallout, he concluded that as the priest was the only one of the current inhabitants of their would-be-town who had a slave, and as he had already approved of the ban, there likely wouldn’t be a big outcry. There would be arguments, but as the ban wouldn’t expand outside the town’s boundaries – the Lightning Mage didn’t have more power than that -, it would soon be seen as an odd quirk of the place and its dungeon mistress.

The only real problem, the sheriff could find, was for any visiting nobles. People rich enough to have a personal slave would expect to have them catering to their every whim during their visit, and they would most likely react badly to not only having to pay a fine, but having their slave freed as well.

After a thoughtful pause, the Lightning Mage suggested a most devious solution: Anyone unwilling to free their slave or pay the fine could instead enter a Dungeon trial. Said trial was simple: Defeat my first Boss, the kirin, while supervised by the ‘dungeon mistress’ or someone chosen to represent her. The supervision was simply to ensure they didn’t simply wait in a previous Floor till enough time had passed and then claim they had defeated the Boss.

Did I forget to mention they had to do it alone? Well… They had to do it alone. The supervisor wasn’t allowed to interfere and they couldn’t take anyone with them. And considering that any slave owner who chose to enter the Dungeon trial would almost certainly have a karma level under 25%… There was little chance they would come out alive.

And them dying in my Dungeon would, of course, count towards my next tier up. So naturally, I was all for this rule!

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The Lightning Mage decided to wait a day before she officially banned slavery. Just in case one of her advisers thought of any other potential problems. Besides the priest and the sheriff, she had also consulted her former Professor now that she didn’t have to keep the Mission of Dungeon Cores a secret.

Guess she’ll have to update her teachings now! Not that it had sounded like she minded that. In fact she had sounded really excited about the news and had immediately started considering how the Mission might affect Dungeons and the people visiting them, even if the Dungeon Core in question wasn’t aware of it.

While waiting for the day to pass before announcing the ban on slavery, the sheriff had joined the Lightning Mage in my 10th Floor again. The priest had to deal with a sudden confession or something like that, which had him cancel last minute.

As expected, his duties came first.

However, the elves’ seemingly natural fear of unicorns kept the two adventurers from befriending the blessing and thus solving the puzzle of the room.

During the night the now nocturnal beastkin Tribe replaced the presence of elves. With a constant supply of meat and continuous level up the Tribe had gone back to an almost festive mood.

For the moment at least…

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The Lightning Mage had planned the ban to be announced just as the construction workers’ workday was finished the next day. This meant the majority of people would be tired after a hard day’s work and thus less likely to complain about something that likely wouldn’t ever affect them anyway.

And the plan worked!

There were questions, of course. But as soon as they heard the priest support the ban, people began supporting it too.

Huh… That was easy…

… Too easy…

…

Then again… The priest was the only one to have a slave in the first place. The rest might not have ever gotten close to one and, as such, don’t have any opinions on the matter. And with their most trusted source on matters of their god supporting the ban…

Huh… I suppose it’s not that big of a surprise…

The Tribe’s reaction to the ban was split. Most had refused to believe the Lightning Mage would actually go through with it and were now left in paranoid confusion, thinking ‘it must be a trap of some sort’.

There were, of course, some Tribesmen who felt optimistic hearing she had gone through with it, but the majority were still too frightened to seriously consider leaving the safety of my Dungeon.

Upon hearing her Tribe’s caution, Begdar suggested waiting and see what would happen to the beastkin slave the priest had.

To ensure the free will of the ex-slave, the Lightning Mage had had a private discussion with her about her future plans. The privacy of the meeting was meant to give the ex-slave a chance to talk about how their previous owner had actually treated them without said person being nearby to discourage it. The Lightning Mage – through the advice of the sheriff – had even demanded the presence of the baby to – hopefully – ensure no blackmailing was happening.

During the meeting the beastkin had sounded lost yet cautiously hopeful and had revealed she wanted to keep working for the priest, as he had treated her and her baby well.

The Tribe had been outraged when they heard that, for surely she had only repeated what her owner had told her to. And that was certainly a worry, I had as well. The Lightning Mage too had seemed skeptical about it and questioned her some more, only for both the Lightning Mage and I to realize the real motivation behind her choice: confirmed safety. Any other choice came with the dangers of uncertainty, while this one she knew was safe.

And when you have to take care of a baby, safety matters a lot.

Having finally realized what worried the Lightning Mage, the beastkin mother added that she intended to explore what other job options she had, once she had gotten used to her newfound freedom.

Having asserted that it was her own choice, the Lightning Mage scheduled a later meeting between the priest, the mother, and herself, so she could supervise their salary negotiation and offer the beastkin advice should it be needed.

In other news, with my unicorn blessing roadblock in place the Lightning Mage had been unable to meet my second Boss. Three days had passed since the ban on slavery and the Lightning Mage had taken to visit my Dungeon alone once again, just until she had figured out how to solve the unicorn puzzle.

While she could at times overcome her fear of a single unicorn and befriend it, the moment another came closer to her to ask for pets she would make a sudden retreat. Thus failing to befriend the entire blessing.

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Talindra Delonix-Regia had been a part of The Order of The Broken Goddess for 38 years. While she was amongst the highest tiered in The Order, she would never be put in any leadership position within The Order itself due to her low Intelligence Score.

That is, low for being an 8th tier. 22 Intelligence was good considering it was only her 4th highest Score, but just about all 3rd tiers with an Intelligence based Class were smarter than her.

That was why one had advisers, after all!

But more importantly, Talindra’s low Intelligence Score meant she couldn’t cast any meaningful spells – not that she had ever really tried – and thus couldn’t cast any variation of The Order’s initiation spell. The weakest of which needed an Intelligence of at least 25, so it would take her at least another two levels before she could cast it. And that was only if at least three of the 4 Ability Score points grained through the level ups went to increase her Intelligence.

Which was unlikely, to say the least.

Talindra was rarely ever a part of The Order’s crusades to free The Broken Goddess. Her main duty to The Order could only be accomplished after the piece of The Broken Goddess located in The Royal Dungeon was freed and it wouldn’t do to die beforehand as no one else in The Order could take her place.

But even with Talindra’s status, she was never able to free that part of The Broken Goddess. Her mother was simply too paranoid to leave her only daughter alone with ‘her precious Dungeon Core’.

The current plan on that front was to initiate a pair or more of her mother’s guards into The Order, make sure they were all in a Party together scheduled to go to the bottom of The Royal Dungeon, and potentially knock out or kill any non-Order Party members. Then it would be easy to free that part of The Broken Goddess without any of the heathens placing blame on the good guys.

This time, Talindra was a part of the crusade. That only happened when the Dungeon in question was particularly tough and was located somewhat near where Talindra was at the time. Talindra had had a reputation of being a spontaneous wanderer ever since she reached the 8th tier, so no one thought it was odd for her to disappear for a couple of months. They thought she was out looking for a husband, trailed by her personal guards.

In reality she hadn’t had personal guards since she was a 6th tier. Her own power alongside all her Enchanted gear had long since made guards unnecessary.

And while her wandering had, in fact, started out as her looking for a husband, ever since she joined The Order, it had just as often been Order related.

She had just barely started on one of her husband-hunts, when she had been informed of the crusade she would be joining, and had immediately changed directions.

The main piece of The Goddess! Surely I’ll be handsomely rewarded for freeing the core piece of her!

Talindra was a loyal follower of The System and The Broken Goddess. Mostly due to the divine rewards she would eventually receive for her worship. Without the promise of reward she would have been a much more passive follower.

So it was a good thing her initiation had emphasized the existence of divine rewards to her! Achievements had always been a thing, but few people realized it for what it really was!

Bishop Marthox was the leader for this particular crusade due to it having been his initiate and her followers who had originally failed to free The Goddess. He would get one chance to redeem himself before the cardinals ordered him to personally join in the crusade.

As in, he didn’t need to be a part of the Party trying to free the main piece of The Goddess. Not this time around at least. Only if his chosen flock failed – making it two failed attempts – would he have to put himself in danger. This was in place to ensure none of The Order’s leaders got too out of touch with their initiates and their missions, yet still safeguard The Order’s wisest and most powerful members.

The Party chosen to attempt a second crusade on a Dungeon didn’t have to consist entirely of a specific bishop’s initiates, as the bishop in question could be new in said position. Still, it was generally expected for roughly half of the Party to be the bishop’s initiates or their initiates’ initiates.

Despite all of this, bishop Marthox had decided to take the failure of priestess Calorose as a personal insult to his worship and his ability to pass on that same devotion, and instead of staying safe he had given himself a spot in the crusade Party.

Leaders have to stay safe. For a dead leader cannot lead. And a leaderless people will fall to one with a leader. The mantra was one her mother told her every time she was about to do something risky. Talindra had never been discouraged from doing something dangerous – that would have been blasphemous, even her heathen parents knew that – but she had been encouraged to do all she could to ensure her own survival. Even if that survival meant civilians had to die instead.

So, bishop Marthox ignoring that childhood lesson was confusing to Talindra. I suppose that’s why I’m never gonna be an Order leader. There is clearly some important detail I’m missing.

“We’ll settle here for the night, my flock.” Bishop Marthox stated as he got off his horse. “We’ll leave as the sun dawns, meaning we have to be up and packed before then, so no chatter before bedtime!” The old muskin had a rough and straight forward way of speaking considering his title.

They should be close to their destination by now, but disciple Great Rat wasn’t the best with directions and distances. So it was hard to be certain how far they still had left.