No one had visited my 5th Floor yet and the sun had risen long ago. Normally Erald's Party would have visited by now.
At what I assud was around midday - I might be able to tell perfectly how much ti has passed and my cooldown tir could tell when the sun rises, but I didn't actually have a clock, nor could I see the sun - a pair of wolf pups inford of the arrival of rchants and that said rchants wanted to explore . There were 6 in total but 2 wanted to stay behind to guard their goods. The pups inford that the Chief wanted to join the rchants but wanted Begdar to co along as well due to her high Intelligence and knowledge of my Dungeon. And if Begdar went, her mate would follow.
However, the Chief didn't find it wise to reveal to the rchants that the Tribe could enter the Dungeon with no regards for the allowed number of sapients per Floor. Especially since this is what saved them from the elves. As such, Nerok had asked the wolf pup siblings - Riska had called Tuzzik her brother while telling this part - to ask if I could change the allowed number of sapients to 7 for a while.
I had no problem doing that, but as the young siblings had told all this in the 1st room of the 1st Floor, I had no way of actually replying to them. They knew this, and left again when they were done talking… at ? Yeah. Talking at .
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Nerok had distracted 4 of the rchants - the young giantess and the older felinekin had stayed with their arthropleura to keep an eye on both the animals and the goods - and kept them away from the Dungeon Portal while the two pups inford the Dungeon of the situation. The Chief had plenty of tales ready to tell - all modified to exclude any hint of slavery - but he was nonetheless relieved to see Tuzzik and Riska. The two kept their distance with the older brother seeking eye contact with his Chief, after which he gave Nerok a short nod. Having done their task, the two pups ran off to get a better look at the arthropleura.
"Enough about that!" Nerok stated and turned to guide the rchants towards the Portal. "You wanted to see the Dungeon, correct?"
"Thad we do! A 1st tier Dungion? Why?! Ai could even walk-through id by self! There would be no problem with 4 of us!" Podon stated. "Thad reminds ! Jusd how many folks does the Dungion allow in at once?"
"I believe it's 7 at the mont but the number does change at tis. As for walking through the Dungeon alone…" Nerok made a dramatic pause. "If it were possible for a child to enter the Dungeon, they would be able to walk through it unhard."
The 4 rchants looked confused at the Chief. "Whad makes ye say thad?" Asked the gno.
Wanting to drag out the mystery a bit longer, Nerok took the opportunity to wave Begdar and Nalir over to them. "The creatures of the Dungeon only attack bad people."
This statent caused the rchants to laugh out loud.
"What can we help you with, Chief Nerok?" Begdar asked as she and her mate reached the group.
Nerok waited till the laughter quieted down before answering. "As the expert on the Dungeon I was hoping you and your mate might want to join our rchant guests and I during our trip through the Dungeon."
Begdar took a quick look at her mate before answering. "We'd love to!"
"And maybe you could tell our guests a couple of tips before we enter…?"
The woman's gray wolf tail started wagging. Begdar loved to share information. "The first thing to know about the Dungeon is that its traps and creatures will only harm you if you are a bad person or in self-defense. So don't attack the creatures."
The rchants looked confused at Begdar or each other. Then the gno relaxed and rolled his eyes. "Ay! Ye got her in on id!" Podon exclaid.
"Got in on what?" Begdar questioned in return before realizing what had happened. "Oh! You don't believe a Dungeon can be a pacifist. I an, it's not really a pacifist. But you get the point!"
Podon nodded, looking at Begdar like she was crazy. "'Course Ai don' believe id!"
"Well I doubt you'll believe it or anything else I could tell you about the Dungeon unless you see it first, so let's get going! Just promise you won't attack first!"
"All righd! Sure thing lidl lady!" Podon said mockingly, as he was much shorter than the lupinekin. Podon might try to be a nice person but he found it hard not to mock soone clearly crazy. "Bud led crew and Ai ged properly dressed firsd. We still have our riding gear on!"
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Podon Peddlepitch Gno rchant Level 38
Nuktar Beastkin - Vulpinekin rchant Level 33
Caleb Walters Human rchant Level 32
Hotheus Giant Body Enhancer Level 36
While part of found it interesting that beastkins and giants didn't have last nas, for the most part I was panicking over the newcors' levels. They're in their 30's!
The rchants clearly hadn't believed that my creatures weren't aggressive but had apparently promised Begdar not to attack first. Luckily - for them but possibly too - the three of them had karma levels between 53 and 67% with the last - the gno - having a whole 82%. As such, no attack was made by the rchants or my creatures. Instead the dragonets watched from The Great Tree. Normally they would mirror the friendliness of Erald's Party, but the caution of the newcors made them stay away.
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"As you can see, the creatures of this Dungeon only attack bad people and in self-defense. So, first rule of this Dungeon: don't attack its creatures. 2nd rule: respect the Dungeon's boundaries. This includes not crossing streams that have no steppingstones or bridge and to heed its warnings." Begdar took a breath and was about to continue, when the human interrupted.
"If no one is allowed to attack the monsters, how can anyone get EXP and loot from them?! Isn't that the whole point of a Dungeon?!"
Begdar gave Caleb a knowing look and a smirk. "You'll see~!" She teased. "The bushes in this room are berry bushes if any of you feel like having so before we leave the room." They didn't and the group left the 1st room. As they did so, the rchants saw an unexpected System ssage.
Due to the Dungeon Rule 'Experiencing Peace' your Party has been rewarded double the amount of EXP and loot you would have gotten if you killed all the creatures in the room you just left.
Experiencing Peace rewards you 2 EXP.
In addition to that, a bunch of loot appeared in front of the group. The rchants froze in shock, while the three Tribesn looked at them amused.
"We actually got EXP for that?" The giant, Hotheus, asked, confused. "Not only didn't we do anything but we're 4th tier!" It was common knowledge that for each tier above the Floor one was, one's EXP gain would be halved. And that, while EXP would normally be rounded up to a whole number, should the amount of EXP gained be less than 0.5 one would get no EXP at all. Being three tiers too high, all the rchants' EXP gain would be divided by 8 in a 1st tier Dungeon. As such, they hadn't expected to get any EXP before eting level 4's on the 2nd Floor. And then only getting 1 EXP at a ti for the rest of the Dungeon.
Nerok had ntioned to his guests earlier that the 5th Floor might have been finished. The rchants had thought that ant they could get 5 EXP for killing the Boss, as it would be level 10 and would give 4 tis as much EXP for being a Boss. The level 9's and 10's of the 5th Floor would give 2 EXP and all in all would not be worth it for the EXP. The rchants had instead co for the experience and their curiosity.
But gaining EXP for doing nothing when you should have gotten none for doing sothing… That's a massive difference!
And then throw in double loot too!
"Well… You did just get EXP for a whole room rather than for one creature at a ti and then it got doubled. Soooo… That doesn't surprise ." Begdar stated, matter-of-factly with a shrug and a happy smirk.
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All in all, the trip went pretty calmly as the rchants did as the Tribesn told them to. Each rchant even rose in karma level once and Nuktar, the rchant vulpinekin, even rose twice. From having been the lowest at 53% to slightly higher at 55%.
Now that I was less petrified by fear I couldn't help but notice just how… aty… the rchants were. They weren't fat, nor particularly muscular. Just… fuller… than anyone else I had seen.
Then ca the realization that everyone I could rember ever seeing was mbers of Nerok's Tribe. A Tribe made up entirely of run-away slaves. As in overworked, malnourished people. Getting food and healing from had helped a lot, but this was a lifeti of suffering.
And now that I could compare the Tribespeople with people who had never been slaves, I could see just how thin the Tribe still was.
In other news, I had decided to err on the side of caution and had ordered my kobolds to stay silent. I did not have anything to say to the newcors that Begdar couldn't - and did - say for .
The 3 non-beastkin rchants successfully convinced the Door of Speciesism that they - and their species - were decent people and the foxgirl rchant already knew not to trust stereotypes.
Then they ca to my new 5th Floor. I was excited to see what they thought of my new puzzles!
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