The 19th day of my new life arrived, and I now had 49 dragonets and one mimicking dragonet as I had decided to make the dragonets first.

  Let's make the other puzzle then! The puzzle was a door with three locks which I wanted right before my Core Room. The keys I wanted to hang in a thick thread around the necks of three dragonets from three different rooms. If a dragonet died before the key left its body the key would be teleported into the dragonet's burrow. This way the puzzle was still technically possible, but the person was unlikely to know that. By doing it this way rather than having the key disappear when the dragonet died made the puzzle cheaper in mana.

  My instincts didn't like the puzzle though. 'A puzzle is meant to be in only one room' they seemed to say. I ignored them. This is my Dungeon! And here I decide what goes! And with that thought the puzzle snapped into place, the keys appearing around the necks of dragonets in different rooms.

  … Is this a normal amount of achievements for someone my age?

  Thought so… It's probably because I'm a sapient Dungeon Core. I'm most likely doing a lot of things differently from other Cores. Now what's a Dungeon Rule?

  Oh, I'm gonna have so much fun with this!

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  I wanted to be extra sure I had enough mana to make my Dungeon Rule, so I waited all 20 hours it took to fully recharge my mana and fill my mana bank. With 150 mana at my disposal, I made a Dungeon Rule.

  Yes! It worked! This will both keep me safer, stop good people from dying and increase the chance of…

  … bad people dying…

  I suppose an ordinary Dungeon Core might achieve this by making more loot to attract the greedy. Personally, I had decided that, as I didn't yet know the outside economy, the standard loot drops for killing a creature was good enough for now.

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  I should probably make some traps now. With the Karma Rule in place, I felt a lot better about putting traps down. Still, I didn't want to put any traps in the first room they would enter. It was supposed to be the easiest room after all. What about one in the third room they enter, three in the trap corridor and one in the room after they have done the first puzzle? That makes five traps and half of what I'm allowed. The rest I'll do after I've opened.

  After some consideration I picked out which traps should go where and placed them as I got the mana to do so.

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  I had planned to open up now, but I also haven't really used my Dungeon Rules much. And apparently Dungeon wide Rules are gonna become more expensive as my Dungeon grows. But what other rules would benefit me or my mission?

  My Core still stood in the middle of the Core Room on its pedestal. My Core looks a bit vulnerable like that. Let me move it.

  'No!' screamed my Dungeon Core instincts. 'The Core has to stay in the middle of the Core Room!' Well then. New Dungeon Rule! The Core can be placed anywhere in the Dungeon! The Rule didn't take hold.

  'A human heart has to stay inside its body to work. Likewise, a Core has to stay inside the Core Room' my instincts informed me. Hmm… The Core can be placed anywhere in the Core Room. This time the Rule took hold. I then moved my Core to where the ceiling and wall meet, right above the opening to the rest of the Dungeon.

  But now the pedestal stood empty, and people expected there to be a Core there. And they are going to come in here to get a personalized reward from my Core too. If the Core is obviously missing, they'll start looking for it. Perhaps I could make a fake Core, which acts like a real one? Giving rewards and teleporting people out and such?

  I figured it out in the end. The fake Core itself was a trap of the optical illusion variety. It didn't do anything at all by itself. The trap was simply to make you think it was my Core when it really wasn't. Then a Dungeon Rule declared that the giving of rewards and teleporting people out would be done by the fake Core.

  I even threw in a Rule stating that everyone and everything - in case someone brought a golem or something - except me would think that the fake Core was the real one. Just to be safe! It didn't work exactly as intended though.

  It might not be as invulnerable as I had hoped, but it was better than nothing.

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  That feels like enough to start with. I have gotten a bit lonely by now, so it would be nice to… see some people? I guess I'm unlikely to ever talk to anyone ever again… I was oddly okay with that. Probably due to being a Dungeon Core now… Show me my Rules.

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  My Wonky Magic Rule was meant to, once in a while, change the effect of a spell. The reason it was only 'Mostly Random' was due to two things. 1) The randomness was always annoying or harmful to the caster if the caster was a bad person, while the effect was always fun or helpful if the caster was a good person. And 2) I could change how often the magic randomly went wonky from 10% to 50% on command twice a day for 10 minutes. Making the Rule much less random.

  Should I make more Rules before opening though? I think I should make at least one more. But what?

  The dragonet were truly social creatures. When active they always played with each other, never bullied - not even my mimicking dragonet - and liked to cuddle when relaxing. It was hard to imagine that they would attack anyone. Especially someone whose only crime was walking into the room. That's when it hit me. I could make a Rule stating that they won't attack unprovoked! I wanted to make the Rule immediately, but I was still running on empty after the last one.

  But it was a good thing I needed to wait. Wait. People - good, bad, and in between - are going to come to my Dungeon in order to get stronger. They do this by killing my creatures, solving my puzzles, and reaching my Core. So, with a Rule like this I would be stunting the growth of any nice people who choose to leave my creatures be. That's the opposite of what I want. Can I have a rule rewarding people EXP for not killing my creatures? Like double the amount for instance?

  I'll take that as a 'Yes'.

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  I had hoped to combine them into one Rule, but in the end I needed to make it two different Rules. After making the first of the two Rules I realized that once some good people had discovered this Rule, they would tell everyone about it. And at some point, bad guys would hear about it… Is there any way I can stop bad guys from simply exploiting my Dungeon? Without even putting any effort in?!

  … Well… The ‘Bad Karma, Bad Luck’ Rule might make it a bit more difficult. But can I add something to make ‘Experiencing Peace’ harder to exploit? I mean… I want to give even bad guys a chance to give peace a try but… I don’t want my kindness to be exploited… Is there even any way for me to tell when I’m getting exploited?

  Maybe not, but I like to think I would realize it… And if I do realize I’m getting used… What would stop me from pushing the override button? Nothing! I’m the god in here after all!

  … I guess that means I just need to make an override button then…

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  I hope that does it!

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  When I, many hours later, made the Rule to make my creatures attack only in self-defense something unexpected happened.

  I had only planned for the Rule to stop my creatures from attacking first. Maybe the system sensed my underlying intention of making it more rewarding for the good guys…? I certainly wasn't complaining about the results though!

  I wonder how the karmic phylum has changed my dragonets. Show me the description of karmic dragonets.

  It looked mostly normal but with a short version of the karma creature description added on. Though the last line sounded like the social aspect of their nature had interacted with the new karma aspect to give the dragonets a new instinct. The same change had happened to the new karmic mimicking dragonet.

  Wait… The Rule says they'll try to befriend the really good ones. What happens if they befriend someone?

  That's… a bit disappointing… But I got time! I'll just have to spice it up myself!

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  I guess it's time to open up then.

  Yes.

  Can I change the number later?

  6 then. I believe that's the number a balanced party has. Let's see how my status looks now.

  Double the mana regeneration! Hell yeah!