Draconic Karma Dungeon

Chapter 52: Puzzles of Character and Logic

As lieutenant Alnus and Sarzina Acacia reentered the dark forest themed Reversal Ability Scores Challenge Room, Zina paid attention to how her mana moved in her body. It was a fascinating feeling: Having all that mana, but being unable to use it.

The Challenge Room might have given Zina an effective Intelligence of 11, but that didn't mean she was a complete idiot all of a sudden. She could still remember all she had been taught. Instead it would take her longer to solve puzzles and connect dots, and some clues would end up being completely missed.

But as this puzzle was a simple 'find the exit and leave safely', her lowered effective Intelligence shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Growls could once again be heard in the dark forest but this time Zina could locate where the sounds came from. She didn't intend to throw the first punch, but she wanted them to be prepared if it came to a fight and so she quickly called out the monster's position to the lieutenant.

A monster, vaguely resembling a centaur, could soon be seen circling the two elves. It had a pair of triangular fur-covered ears on top of its head. Its nose looked like that of a cat or a dog and its mouth was full of sharp teeth. Its naked torso was covered with a thin layer of grey fur, which turned thick shortly before the place its front pair of legs appeared from. The palms of its hands had pawpads ending in sharp thick claws, while its 4 legs ended in four-toed hooves with the two outer toes looking like dull claws. Despite having the general structure of a centaur, its tail was identical to that of a wolf.

Oddly enough, it was only level 11 when then creatures of the previous room had been level 17 and 18 as expected of Zina's Dungeon.

The centaur monster, called a 'Werewolf - centaur' whatever that meant, hadn't circled them for long before being joined by another monster. This one appeared as if a giant had gone through the same mutation the centaur had. Triangular ears, the nose, sharpened teeth, fur, paws with sharp claws - though this time its feet looked like elongated paws and its legs essentially elbows instead of knees -, and the wolf tail slowly swaying behind it. Additionally, its movements seemed to suggest it would be just as comfortable walking on all four as it was on two.

And it too was only level 11.

While the two monsters circled the two visitors, the two elves had moved so they had their backs to each other.

"No sudden movements. There must be a reason why they're not attacking yet." Zina whispered to Alnus. She didn't get a reply, but assumed he had nodded. He followed the order at least.

Then a gnome variant joined the first two in their circling. Then an elf. All level 11 as well.

I'm sensing a pattern here… But what does it mean? I take it that something will happen once the human and siren variant shows up, but what?

On cue, the fur and feather covered siren werewolf appeared. Its hands were more talons than paws, but its nose and ears were wolflike.

The monsters circled half a circle around the elves before the human werewolf showed up with a beastkin variant. Both the elf and the human werewolf looked like if a lupinekin had fur covering their entire body, had a wolf nose and knees bent the other way.

The beastkin werewolf appeared to be a muskin covered in brown fur. With elbow-knees and a wolf nose. Still with round mouse ears, but with the usual hairless tail swapped for a fur-covered wolf version.

Huh…? I thought the variants of this monster were only sapient races? Why is there an animal among them?

And why are they still just circling?!

A couple more seconds passed with the werewolves simply circling the two plant-covered elves. Then the smallest of the werewolves appeared in the circle. One just a little bit smaller than the muskin werewolf. It had a dragon muzzle and scales visible behind the fur.

A kobold werewolf?!

Whether it was the appearance of the kobold that did it or Zina's surprised shout, the pack of werewolves sprung into action. First the centaur, having ended its circling right in front of the noblewoman, then the rest of the pack. As the pack had been circling the two elves beforehand, their attacks came from all directions with half the pack going for either elf.

With the lieutenant's two best Scores at the moment being Dexterity and Awareness, he was quick to both notice that the attack was happening and get out of the way of it.

All while shouting angrily at the monsters…

The strong Noble Lightning Mage had even more Awareness than her companion, but no longer the Intelligence to think fast. The split second before the attack hit was only enough time for the noblewoman to conclude that she wouldn't be fast enough to dodge the attack.

Zina had always believed offense was the best defense. Only her confusion over the sudden attack from monsters of an otherwise peaceful Dungeon, had her reflectively hold her strength back.

The punch was thrown and the snap of broken bones could be heard as the ribs of the centaur monster broke. With its ribs broken and its breath knocked out, it fell to its knees, stunned.

Meanwhile, the other three werewolves attacking Zina, the gnome, beastkin and human, were reflected by her plant armor. Said armor not only absorbed all the damage dealt but even snapped vines at the attackers giving them all bruises. The human even had its hand grabbed by a vine, which it couldn't free itself from.

Seeing their packmate hurt filled the other beasts with rage, making them even more aggressive. Zina grabbed the trapped hand of the human werewolf now desperately trying to rip her throat out, only to be blocked by her living armor. The noblewoman ordered the armor, still linked to her control, to let go of the hand, after which she threw the monster away from her.

Only to wince in pain midthrow, leaving the monster more pushed to the ground than thrown away.

The pain had come from her right hand, which appeared to be broken. How it had happened, however, would have to wait, as the gnome and beastkin werewolves were still attacking her.

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The solution to The Werewolf Wood was simple, yet hard. Most of the details the Lightning Mage had already guessed or had suspicions of: One's highest and lowest Ability Scores were, essentially, switched while in the room. That was not just one part of the puzzle but one whole puzzle - or Challenge Room - in itself.

But I had then placed a second puzzle on top of it, complicated things.

The second puzzle included both the moon in the fake sky and the monsters in the room.

As the Lightning Mage had suggested, the moon was both a timer for when the exit might appear and a direction to where that would be. She had assumed its appearance would be a sure thing once the time had passed, but no. The time had to have passed and the puzzle had to be solved.

The puzzle being 'don't kill the monsters who are trying to kill you'.

This might seem at first glance as me going away from my principles or me being a hypocrite. My own creatures kill in self defense, after all, so why wouldn't I allow my visitors to?

'Cause this is meant to serve as another lesson. One deeply connected to the specism problem going on around me:

Don't judge a book by its cover, a hyena by its spots, or a werewolf by its claws.

The second condition needed to make the exit appear was to do one of two things: Either to not have 'permanently' harmed - any injuries would be healed once the Floor emptied no matter how severe, so none could be truly permanent - any of the werewolves, showing compassion and restraint. Or to try to medically help the remaining werewolves - as long as at least one werewolf survived this could be achieved - once the time had passed and the full moon became a quarter moon, making the werewolves become… whatever species again. This would show one's regret and - perhaps - teach a lesson on assuming things about others.

With the exception of the kobold werewolf, the werewolves couldn't talk as sapients weren't Dungeon creatures and thus I was unable to recreate the real thing.

Well… Not 'real' as in werewolves actually existed - the System had more or less indirectly told me they didn't, in that odd way the System communicates -, more as in 'what I had imagined in my mind'.

What I had ended up with was more of a moon-bound shapeshifting fey. And while the kobold could speak, I had naturally told it not to.

Yes, the System had classified werewolves as 'fey' and 'bipedal' in terms of a Dungeon's creature theme selection and even added my creations to it. But only after I had tweaked them to only be able to infect people with karma levels of 10% or lower.

It was probably also what had kept my werewolves out of the 'corrupted' category, despite the fact that I had made them to be monsters.

You know, some of the time.

Unlike actual sapients, the werewolves didn't get classes. Well, except the kobold, that is, which I decided should be randomized each time it spawned.

The werewolves' nature also meant they weren't eligible as a bounded creature, which was intentional. They might only be able to turn people with karma levels of 10% or less, but I still wanted to contain lycanthropy as much as possible.

It took the moon 10 minutes to cross the room, where it quickly became a quarter moon and forced the werewolves' transformations. While, somewhat surprisingly due to the massive level difference, no one had been killed during the fight. However, half the werewolves had gotten bones broken which would heal wrongly if not tended to properly. And as they weren't actually sapient despite looking like it - except in a way the kobold werewolf, whose base species had been sapient - the puzzle considered their broken bones permanent damage.

So, the exit was still non-existent. Not that the Party realized that as they were still in the middle of a dark, thick forest.

Seeing how their enemies had transformed into seemingly mute, and clearly hurt people, had the Lightning Mage spring into action.

Well that, and she had finally accepted that I had a theme.

… Which might explain why they hadn't killed my werewolves…

Experiencing Peace is pretty clear in its demands to not kill as well.

While the lieutenant tried to aid my creatures as well he was clearly affected by his loss of Charisma and I heard him tell my siren werewolf how getting hurt was its own fault by attacking them like that.

Well, fair, but rude.

As the two tried to get the werewolves back on their feet, they had solved my puzzle and the exit was revealed.

Having done their job, the 8 werewolves, still hurt and bruised, waved goodbye to the Party - I had included behavioral instincts into their design when I made them - and slowly limbered into their small cottage in the corner of the room. The cottage was hidden behind the thick tree cover until one was right next to it, and so small it was simply one room with 8 beds.

Taking the hint offered by the wave goodbye, my visitors shrugged the encounter off for now and went in the direction of the light coming from the now quarter moon.

They're not going to notice the lynx, are they?

Said lynx was high up in a tree, well covered by shadows and leaves, having observed the fight in complete silence. As a karmic lynx it had had no desire to attack or defend the elves, but instead the natural curiosity of felines.

Oh well. Maybe next time.

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While it took quite a while for mistress Acacia to finish muttering to herself as she wrote about the encounter with the pack of werewolves, Tanithil only reflected on it for a couple of minutes. He had both liked and disliked the Reversal Ability Scores Challenge Room aspect. The inability to be properly polite to the dungeon mistress, even simply calling her by her proper honorific, was unsettling. But at the same time the extra speed and reflexes was a thrill!

Not that he wanted to trade and have the effect be permanent.

The species of the different werewolves were quite confusing to think about. Tanithil knew that several other nations considered beastkin people, but even that thought wouldn't explain the inclusion of the kobold.

Tanithil didn't consider the matter deeper. It wouldn't change anything even if he found out why and it wasn't his job regardless.

Likewise the lieutenant had noticed as they performed first aid, then ignored, the fact that the werewolves' floating labels had replaced the word 'werewolf' with 'moon-bound fey'. Something Tanithil found odd as 'fey' was not a species but a kingdom or class or something. He wasn't really into classification but even he knew something was odd here.

Done with his reflection, Tanithil began trying to solve the puzzle of the new room they had entered.

A room which was thankfully well lit.

Along the left and right volcanic walls were a row of pedestals, detailed with little suns and flowers rather than the fire imagery of the gargoyles' pedestals. Each pedestal had a crystal or gemstone - Tanithil would freely admit he didn't know the difference - on top of it of a different color. With 6 pedestals along each wall, this gave an array of 12 differently colored stones. With the colors going from red, to red-orange, to orange, to yellow-orange, to yellow, and so on, it was as if a rainbow had 12 colors.

The middle of the room contained another three pedestals in a line, though empty of crystals, and placed at a right angle connecting the other two rows with each other. Each of these pedestals had an indent clearly designed to hold one of the crystals.

On the other side of the room was the exit door, clearly visible but without any handles or keyholes. Above the door, right where the wall met the ceiling, was another crystal, this time in a see-through white color. And between the white crystal and the top of the door was a black plate with the riddle of the room written in white on it:

The three colors of a bright sunny day

While Tanithil was smart enough to realize three crystals had to be picked and placed on the three pedestals in the middle, he still had no idea of which ones to pick.

What about the order of placement? Does that matter to the puzzle? Timing? I don't think it matters here, but…

But as before, it was not his job to figure it out. He could help, sure! And he wanted to if possible! But sometimes it was just nice to leave someone else in charge.

The lieutenant liked his job. These days he just really needed a break from it…

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Once the Lightning Mage was done writing everything down - both their experience in the Werewolf Wood and a description of The Hall of Light -, the two elves began discussing what crystals to move to the three center pedestals. As they had to find the 'three colors of a bright sunny day', blue and yellow were quickly chosen, representing the sky and sun respectively. The third color was apparently 'less obvious'.

Right… 'Cause the first two are actually right… I thought sarcastically. Well one is. But that's not gonna help you.

They decided to first see what would happen if they placed the blue crystal on one of the center pedestals and worry about the third one afterwards, thinking they might get more clues.

Placing the blue crystal made it glow and shine a blue ray into the sensor crystal above the door, making it turn glowing blue as well.

They then placed the yellow crystal on the leftmost center pedestal, which glowed yellow and gave a yellow ray. But this time the sensor crystal turned back to white, though this time it was glowing.

Despite achieving the original objective, making the sensor crystal glow white, the door didn't open.

I had originally forgotten that yellow light was made up of both red and green, but after the Tribe had revealed the flaw in my design, I had made sure to fix it.

It had been really easy to solve. I simply updated the puzzle so that in addition to making the sensor crystal glow white, all three pedestals had to contain a crystal and those crystals had to be red, green, and blue in no particular order.

After another discussion the elves settled on the green crystal, representing healthy grass, and placed it on the right center pedestal. The sensor crystal stopped glowing in response to the wrong combination.

After each failed attempt the three chosen crystals would be stuck at their pedestals for a minute, before they could be removed and another combination made. There were multiple reasons for this: Forcing people to think and not just pick randomly or systematically, slowing them down, so I had time - if needed - to make countermeasures, and to make them more receptive toward the next puzzle.

And with 220 possible combinations it would take quite a while to try them all.

But of course, the Lightning Mage was both a smart and learned person, who during the 4th attempt recognized what the sensor crystal was showing them while there was only one or two crystals on the center pedestals from her own lessons on 'elemental mana VS their manaless counterpart'.

All of a sudden the puzzle had been solved and the door opened.

The solution was naturally written down. Not that it would do much good.

After The Hall of Light came Gluttony's Dining Hall. The two elves cautiously walked into the center of the room placing themselves in the middle of two long tables filled with delicious food born from their own understanding of what that meant.

Which seemingly meant mostly meats and desserts…

To the opposite side of each buffet table were a long dining table with enough chairs to sit 14 people at each table.

The handleless, keyholeless exit door was right in front of the entrance, and the walls were filled with the most disgusting images of gluttony I could imagine. Some of the characters on the walls were sapients, while others were wild animals.

The elves wandered around the room, writing down every detail they could find, but didn't dare try eating the food.

It was real food and would have filled their stomach like normal, but they didn't trust me not to have poisoned it.

And thus, the puzzle couldn't be solved.

A single bite would have done it, the trick was to 1) not overeat and 2) not try to take any food with you.

Then your chair and silverware would become mimics and attack you. If you failed the puzzle due to trying to leave the room with food, the exit would slam shut before you could, only to open again once either the mimics were dead or the food left behind. Likewise the mimics would become docile should the food be dropped.

The best part was, as the mimics were a result of a failed puzzle they didn't count towards my maximum levels worth of creatures!

Instead the puzzle had been more expensive. Just not as expensive as a bunch of mimics would have been.

Once again my puzzle has left you confused, 'mistress'! You better get used to feeling confused around me, once you see how different my 10th Floor is compared to your expectations based on my false requests!