Weeding the World: 2,709 beings of karma level 0% killed or freed from mind manipulation.

It was 2,474 before - when including the siren himself - so that's a jump of 235. He's a level 72 Apprentice Mindbender where the previous guy was just a level 60 Hypnotist. I would have thought this guy had more people under his control with a higher level like that. But instead he has less than half…

… Maybe the Hypnotist was a recruiter or something? Or maybe this guy only Brainwashes people who can resist Hypnosis?

Maybe both?

Even after having freed a couple of hundred people from mind control the siren still hadn't noticed the other 18 prisoners magically sleeping in the room with him. Their times had been several hours longer than his own with the longest having been over 9 hours longer than the siren's original time of only 1 hours, 5 minutes, and 39 seconds.

7 of them had no timer anymore, which had the Sheriff and the Lightning Mage get up from their chairs with the latter reaching over to undo the magical sleep on the nearest of them. A man with an unfamiliar face but a familiar name: Emil Great Rat.

Emil Great Rat Human Awareness Level 13

How did you get sucked back into this? The Tribe told me you had been freed from the cult when the previous siren priestess was killed.

Because the guy had been Charmed rather than Hypnotized or Brainwashed, he would have regained control of his own mind after a single day without having the Skill reapplied on him or if the Charmer died - which was what ended up happening.

Hey, dear 'dungeon mistress' of mine? Might I request that you ensure this guy doesn't end up back in the cult again. Apparently he needs a bit of extra protection from them.

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Emil Great Rat had followed bishop Marthox’s orders and joined the cell near a Dungeon known simply as The Royal Dungeon. The place was filled with elves but had plenty of other species in the area closest to the Dungeon. Which had made his ‘blending in’-training - which had started on the way there - easy to complete.

Then he was ordered to mine the Dungeon. Specifically for levels but with a side focus on learning as he could about it and how to defeat its challenges. That kind of knowledge would be needed when they finally had the chance to rush the place.

Emil knew he wasn’t the intelligent kind even before he received his first real Class of Awareness, so he decided to only focus on learning about the first 4 Floors of the Dungeon.

He had no intention of trying to fight the 1st tier Boss even with help of the cell. There was no need for that. He needed to level up but no one had told him it needed to happen fast.

He had tasty food and shelter, something he had rarely had before he joined The Order of The Broken Goddess. He even had a new sense of pride and a trustworthy community! Emil had at times temporarily joined gangs to better access food and objects to sell to buy things not so easily obtained. But eventually someone would always backstab the rest and the gang would disband.

The Order was different! He had been there longer than any gang had ever lasted and he had seen no backstabbing happening!

But then again. As no gang had ever lasted more than two weeks, it really wasn’t that impressive.

When not mining - which was most of the time as Emil saw no reason to go more than once or twice a week - he wandered around the streets observing the people around him.

He might not need to work to survive anymore but there was no need to allow his skills to become rusty! While his System given Skills would always be effective, his more mundane skills needed constant use to remain effective.

What if The Order one day needed them?

At least that’s how he justified it to himself. Deep down he knew he liked the feeling of getting one over someone else. Even in cases where they never realized what he had done or that he had been the one to do it.

So, Emil wandered the streets, grabbing a thing or two when opportunity struck. But only when he knew he could get away with it without discovery.

He had leveled up several times when he finally got a Breakthrough Orb to tier up with due to saved EXP, so he was in no hurry to level up more.

Then one day the feeling of pride and community disappeared. It was three or four weeks after bishop Marthox had left to collect the main piece of the goddess, and Emil had only been with the cell for about a week and a half.

Emil had felt that way before and made a plan for what to do if it happened again.

It was a pretty simple plan, designed after what had worked before: When boss died, he had gone to boss’s boss. Now that boss’s boss had - presumably - died, he would go to boss’s boss’s boss.

Only that guy - or gal apparently - was annoyingly far away. Boss's boss's boss's boss - who was a part of the inner circle - was much closer. So, that’s who he reported to.

The planning part was mostly about locating the various bosses and figuring out how to contact them, before he actually needed to do so.

Having notified cardinal Lagurith about bishop Marthox’s likely death and what he knew about his last mission, Emil went back to his routine.

Cardinal Lagurith hadn’t seemed particularly worried about it, so why would Emil be?

Only hours later came the order to rush The Royal Dungeon as their cover had been blown and they were running out of time.

Emil joined the fight against the increased number of heathens who were guarding the entrance to the prison containing the piece of the goddess The Order was trying to liberate. But with his low level and lackluster combat experience - speed and stealth had always been more his style - Emil had quickly been knocked out and taken prisoner.

As he was once again considered 'uninitiated' by The Order of The Broken Goddess, Emil's first instinct was to locate the nearest boss for reinitiation.

… But the nearest boss was the one who had just initiated him. And that guy certainly wasn't dead like his previous bosses.

So… He's still my boss then?

… But I'm not initiated? Which he found quite uncomfortable. Not only was his pride for following a noble cause and the constant feeling of community - despite rarely spending time with the other members - gone, but without The Order he had no shelter and no easy access to tasty food.

"Boss?" Emil tested out. "What's the plan?"

The siren looked confused at the address for a bit before accepting his new title. "The plan is what you want it to be. You can go back home now if you wish."

"And where would home be?" Emil questioned. His homes had always been of the temporary sort and with the cell of The Order he had just been a part of shot down by the local authorities, he knew his previous home wasn't an option anymore.

The old siren blinked rapidly in his confusion, before sadness and pity found their way into his eyes. "You don't have a home? A community?"

There was only one thing Emil hated more than starving and sleeping in the rain: Pity.

But Emil had no comeback for his questions. He had no home at the moment and the only communities he had ever been a part of were temporarily gangs and The Order.

He considered for a moment, stating that The Order was his community, but he had the feeling that was a bad idea. So instead he stayed silent and turned his head away in shame.

Shame for being in a position where he could be pitied, that is. Not that he had ever really not been in that position. He was an orphan street urchin and always would be. Even now as an adult he still couldn't escape that fate.

"What is your name chwee-pipit?" The realistic sounding bird chirping at the end of the sentence took Emil by surprise before he remembered the man he was talking to. With the siren being half man half bird it made sense he could sound exactly like a bird.

Then the question became why he chose to make a bird sound now.

Not that Emil had any intentions of questioning his boss. After all, that was a good way to stop having a boss.

And Emil had always quite liked having a boss. Life was always at least a little bit easier when he had a boss to follow.

"Emil Great Rat." He didn't ask for a name in return. He wasn't going to use it anyway.

An awkward silence took place before the siren picked up the conversation again. "I'm Lagurith. And while I'm not entirely sure what Sheriff Dakath Fraxinus and dungeon mistress Sarzina Acacia has in store for us, I'm sure we'll figure it all out. No need to worry!"

Good. Emil nodded in reply with a small smile on his lips. We have been caught by law enforcement but if boss isn't worried then there's no reason for me to be.

Boss will take care of any problems.

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Lagurith found himself questioned alone in the local Security Guild, specifically in the office of the Sheriff. He had needed to calm Emil Great Rat down and assure him that everything was okay. The man might be in his prime physically, but it was clear to Lagurith that he was still a child in his mind, clinging to any authority figure he could find in search of parental approval.

Lagurith didn't mind being said authority figure. In fact he thought it might be nice to have a constant companion for a while. Just till Emil Great Rat had figured out what he wanted to do with his life. Lagurith had no intentions to stop Emil Great Rat from living his life how he wanted. He simply wanted to keep him steady against the waves till he had found his fins again.

Or whatever the land dwelling equivalent was of that saying.

Sheriff Dakath Fraxinus wanted to know all Lagurith knew about The Order of The Broken Goddess. The more they knew the easier it would be for them to take The Order down.

Which Lagurith was naturally all for!

Sure, there were some specific times where he thought mind control was not only acceptable but down right helpful. Lagurith had seen many kinds of people during his travels including drug addicts, alcoholics, and uncontrolled gamblers. And while some of those people generally liked their addiction, Lagurith had found that many had wanted to stop, but were unable to go through with it.

Lagurith was of the mind that mind control was the answer to that problem.

Willing mind control, that is, which only helped the addicted avoid their addiction and did nothing more. And what The Order of The Broken Goddess did, was certainly not done willingly nor did it have any intention of actually helping those it mind controlled.

So, Lagurith told Sheriff Dakath Fraxinus all he knew.

Only… That didn't feel like that was enough. He wanted to help more than that. He wanted to help them take The Order down completely.

So, he asked to become a part of the team tasked with infiltrating. The Order knew him and, as long as he kept the act up, they would believe him to be one of them. On top of that, mind control Skills could just as easily undo mind control as it could create it.

Which wasn't all that easy in the first place of course. It was mana intensive and included a mental battle between the two minds - or in the case of freeing one, a battle between a mind and the mind control itself - during which each person would stand awkwardly frozen in place for minutes at a time. And if one lost the mental battle, all the time and mana invested would have been wasted.

Mind control was only easy - and instant - to undo when it was your own. But at least it was possible. And with Lagurith being one of only 9 cardinals still alive - as without the prophet, no one new could become a cardinal - the siren would be able to free the minds of nearly all of them.

It simply required they took him with them.

So, they did.