The elves who had escorted and guarded the cultist prisoners to me for anti-mind control therapy stayed in town for 5 days. During the first two days they dealt with the prisoners, got their statements, and a short approximation of what they intended to do now that they were free.

They even got the statement of the Crown Princess, though of course that was less of an interview and more of a polite request of information. My 'dungeon mistress' had already gotten and relayed her statement but of course they had wanted to be extra thorough.

Mind control was not something to mess around with, so I could only agree with how seriously they were taking it all.

The last three days of their stay they used to recuperate and prepare themselves for their upcoming journey back home.

Which is where problems began to arise.

Without their jobs to keep them distracted, the newcomers started focusing on the beastkin population. They had been informed that owning a beastkin was illegal here and that they had the same rights as elves and other sapient species, so nothing too bad happened.

If they had been forced to stay here longer there probably would have. But in the end it was mostly speciesistic comments and slurs, cutting in front of lines, and general rude behavior. A couple of shouting matches had gotten loud enough that the local law enforcement had to step in, but luckily my 'dungeon mistress' had trained them well enough that at least the Security Guild showed no biases towards elves.

Which had prompted Nerok to stop his retelling of one such event to inform me that local elves generally were still a tad bit speciesistic. Not the Security Guild, which was apparently more due to their Sheriff, who just so happened to be dating my 'dungeon mistress'.

This hidden speciesism, however, appeared to be more due to habit and learned behaviors not yet unlearned. They trusted their High Priest when he stated the System considered beastkin sapients. And as their other two authority figures, my 'dungeon mistress' and the Sheriff, believed this just as forcefully, the common citizen saw no reason to doubt it.

To them it was simply a new discovery that the rest of the world - or rather; the other elves - had yet to accept.

Still, it would take time before all their bad habits had been done with.

Something unlikely to happen to the elven guards leaving with the Crown Princess. As they left I heard - through the ears of my 'dungeon mistress' - that several of them planned to take out their frustration of having had to 'play nice with filthy beasts and pretend they're sapient' on beastkin slaves when they got home.

I so wish I could help those slaves. That my actions and presences hadn't caused that reaction in those elves.

Speaking of beastkin and elven relationships: The Tribe had at first been paying the Dungeon tax - one tenth of the worth of everything you took out of the Dungeon - mainly as they didn't want to disturb the delicate balance between the two species. But after the heightened tensions while the elven guards were here, Nerok had brought the topic up for discussion with my 'dungeon mistress'. He claimed that as the Tribe was the one to discover and bring attention to my Dungeon - unwillingly or not - they should be exempt from Dungeon tax.

She, in return, claimed that as the 'dungeon mistress' she was the owner of the Dungeon and thus had the right to make anyone pay to enter her property.

Either Nerok or I liked hearing that, and the noblewoman even seemed to regret her words immediately as she quickly backtracked, stating that that was how the law saw the situation but that this was clearly outside of the norm.

After a bit back and forth, they agreed on Dungeon tax for the Tribe but a week's worth of service to the 'dungeon mistress' for each adult member of the Tribe per year. As the Tribe worshiped me every day by walking through my Dungeon while gathering anything they found of interest, this was much preferable to them.

After agreeing on a list of examples of what these services might be, the two parties left in pleasant moods.

In other news, while Mlartlar had successfully passed the 5 Floors' Test, he still had trouble being nice to elves. He's clearly working on it, but it's just as clearly forced.

He'll get there eventually. It takes time to break old habits and get over trauma.

Maybe he'll get better at it once he's bonded to that kobold he keeps talking to? A supportive friend can do wonders for progress, after all!

The Tribe had taken my advice and had Nerok approach Ovakz alone, which had stopped her from running off immediately. And once she actually got to hear their offer of membership, she nearly broke down crying on the spot.

As a miner, Ovakz had long since passed the 5 Floors' Test, and while she still acted more submissive towards elves than other species, she had no problem being nice to them. Likewise she had no problems with the gnomes and she treated the Tribe's half a dozen bonded kobolds with respect despite their poor speech.

For while everything said inside my Dungeon was translated, outside of it the kobolds reverted to speaking an ancient kobold language, long forgotten by the modern specieses. They had to be taught the modern common language spoken by all but the sirens. The kobolds could generally hold a simple conversation as long as it stayed within certain topics. Anything more complex, they would have to enter my Dungeon to have it translated.

Having accepted the kobolds as sapients, she came to the final trial - though I don't think anyone had informed her that her place in the Tribe depended on her reaction.

She had to be informed and accepted that I, a Dungeon Core, was sapient.

It mostly confused her. Like she didn't think she had heard correctly.

So, I spoke to her through my mimics, which eventually convinced her that this wasn't a joke.

And she accepted me, and the Tribe accepted her.

While the majority of the elven guard had left for the capital, a small group of them went in another direction to meet up with the rest of their team before they went after the cult. The siren Apprentice Mindbender and the human who kept getting mind controlled had joined this group. According to my 'dungeon mistress' they would be invaluable due to their knowledge of the cult and how easily they would be able to infiltrate the headquarters. The cult believed them to still be members after all.

This was also apparently the first time the gnomes heard about the cult and their mission to collect Dungeon Cores, thus killing them in the process.

Which caused them to realize the cult was responsible for the destruction of their Dungeon.

Many gnomes had wanted to join the elves in their mission, but had to admit to being a bad fit. Partly due to a lack of skills needed and partly due to their high emotional state on the matter.

Instead they dedicated themselves to protecting me from ending up with the same fate.

As for my Floor making endeavors, I had gone back to designing my own creatures again in the attempt to tier up my Creature Designer Achievement. But several times I had encountered a message essentially saying: 'This creature is too similar to this other already existing creature, so here is instead the pattern for that creature'.

Like when I had tried to make a simple dog with a monkey arm instead of a tail - something I had thought to be more scary than practical - only for it to gain the ability to breathe underwater and for its fur to become waterproof as the System declared it an ahuizotl.

I still managed to design some new, but pretty simple and cheap creatures. Not enough for the tier up, though.

Status, please.

Personal Status Level: 59+ Needed number of killed or redeemed sapients with original karma levels of 25% or lower: 2,820/5,000 EXP: 11,027,339 Next mana payment for level up: 0/212,000 Mana: 62.75/26,500 Mana regeneration: 9,275 per hour Floors: 11/30 Allowed number of sapients in each Floor: 6 Floor Details Achievements Mission Dungeon Rules

The 11th Floor was done and the 12th well underway. The halved EXP gain caused by being at a + level certainly didn't bother me, seeing how I was only about halfway through the amount of 25%ers I needed to deal with before I could tier up.

Well! I have plenty of Floors to deal with in the meantime!

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Jenna Emery nervously walked toward her childhood home. It had been more than two decades since she had last been home, and where before everyone in her neighborhood had known and recognized her, now no one did.

My parents must be 55 by now. And while the average human lived about 80 years, Jenna's parents lived in the bad part of the City, where a long life wasn't guaranteed. Not because the place had a lot of crime and violence - it hadn't - but because the entire neighborhood was poor which led to bad hygiene, bad quality food, poor health, and sicknesses.

There was no guarantee Jenna's parents still lived in the same house, just like she had no guarantee they were even still alive.

But there was no reason to delay.

She was already two decades late.

The sound of knocking was incredibly loud to Jenna's ears, but the following silence even more so.

No 'Coming!' being shouted from her mom. No sound of dad's heavy footsteps nearing the door.

Not even the sound of strangers reacting to her knocking.

Just silence.

Tears finally sprung from Jenna's eyes as she blindly went to the other side of the house, locating the faulty window to the kitchen they had never gotten fixed and climbing inside.

While her teary eyes made it out to make out, the house had clearly changed over the decades. Nothing much but plenty of tiny details. Clearly no one new had moved into the place.

But all those tiny details? They indicated her parents had gotten her a little brother near the end.

Her bedroom was the most changed, as it clearly wasn't her bedroom anymore. But her new brother's.

It was unclear whether this boy was her biological brother or if her parents had adopted him in her absence. Street kids were abundant in this neighborhood and with her parents kind and giving natures combined with her own empty bedroom?

Yeah. He was likely an adopted street kid.

But that didn't make him any less her brother. And while their parents might be dead, he was likely still out there, needing his sister's help.

With that thought Jenna was ready to leave the house in search of her new brother she had never before seen.

"What are you doing in my room, bitch?!" Came the sudden screech of a preteen boy.

"Huh?" Jenna's melancholy inner monologue had distracted her from the sounds of people entering the house.

And having heard the young boy's accusing question, his parents came running.

Her parents came running.

"... Jenna?" Unlike the rest of the neighborhood, her parents could still recognize her, even after more than 20 years apart.

Jenna nodded, stunned.

"Jenna!" Her parents shouted as one as they ran past the boy, who must be her new brother, to embrace their returned daughter.

"I'm home! I'm finally home!"

And anyone who tried to drag her away from her community again would be met with the wrath of Jenna Emery!