Dungeon Master (Karma System)

Max and Anna were up early the next morning. He usually preferred to wake up around 8 but he wanted to be in the monitoring room when the adventures tried the first level of the dungeon again.

To get the most out of the revival buff, they decided that they would enter the dungeon at 7 in the morning. That would let them enter again in the evening after dinner. They would spend the time in between training and honing their abilities.

Anna sat next to him in the monitoring room as they watched the adventurers. Even though Gilmore was the most experienced, he let Rod continue to lead the group. That didn’t stop him from offering advice though.

Before they entered, Max had made a few tweaks to the level. Nothing the adventures would notice. It was just a few things that would improve the terrain around the encounter zones to make it more natural for the creatures in them.

The assassin, now that he was level 10 was a lot more limited. But even with his reduced level he still had an abundance of experience.

The group of 5 made it to the third encounter this time. That may have been because they had encountered the fairies in their second encounter.

The fairies weren’t as lethal as the other encounters. But if one wasn’t prepared they could be deadly. It was just as dangerous to ignore the fairies because they would eventually return and work with those in the later encounters.

If dealt with in a timely manner, the threat could be minimized.

Max and Anna gave the adventures space today. After their defeat they took advantage of the projection services and watched the replay as Gilmore pointed out areas they could improve upon.

Max left Anna to oversee the village as he entered the second level. He had a brilliant idea while talking with his wife last night. He wanted to make an alternate story line that would affect the second and third level based on the choices of how the adventures started the second level.

It wouldn’t even cost that much to alter the second level. He already had most of the framework in place, he just needed a few more creatures and then spent the rest of the day setting up the parameters for the alternate level.

Max was hopeful over the next few days. He was beginning to see a glimpse of what his dungeon could become.

Rod spent his afternoons in the training field. Most of the time he was taking a beating.

Lana had fell in love with the mana stone her uncle had bought her. She used it to its limit as she constantly cast the Ice Bolt spell over and over. She hadn’t achieved enough casts to change it into a quick cast, but her progress was already showing results. She could now cast it in 4 seconds instead of 5.

Silvia had rented a training room and was focusing on her awareness and reaction speed. She was getting quicker and was able to block more of the projectiles sent her way. In the afternoons, she and Rod had shared the cost of hiring a sparing partner. When he was recovering from his beatings, she was practicing reflecting the strikes she blocked.

When the streets were busy in the village Dirk could sometimes be seen racing along the rooftops or slinking through the tight alleyways.

Everyone was focused on unlocking skills and improving themselves. Even Gilmore had tracked down the assassin trainer in a seedy bar and was working on unlocking the skill, Ambush.

Anna was very pleased as she was looking over the numbers. She knew that this group was wealthier than most adventurers. Their group included the son of a Lord, the daughter of a Baron, and a decently leveled Assassin. All three of these had access to gold.

With the purchases they were making, the first level of the dungeon was finally turning a profit.

Anna sighed. The dungeon was still losing money, but she wasn’t worried. It was just a matter of time. And Max was right, it was better to have the levels built ahead of time even if they had to pay the upkeep charges while nobody was using them.

Once this group left, word would begin to quickly spread.

Currently the dungeon had an upkeep cost of 30,000 Dungeon Points a day. Not counting the passive DP. If the stores and service providers pulled in 3,000 gold a day, it would cover the cost.

If they relied on just the passive earning it was a bit more complicated.

The dungeon would earn .25DP per level from an adventure every hour. A level 10 adventurer would earn them 2.5DP every hour. If it was a full party of 5, they would earn 12.5DP. But if that party died, the next 4 hours would go to paying off the revival system.

If that party was like the current group and died twice a day. They could only collect 16 hours of passive DP. For a party full of level 10s that was 200DP per day. To cover the cost of running the dungeon they needed 150 full parties in the first level.

Anna realized that was a huge number of people. Maybe one day it would be possible, but it wouldn’t be any time soon.

But the good part about her husband’s dungeon design was the higher levels. As the adventures leveled up they would earn the dungeon more DP.

Besides the village, they currently had 4 levels. The 4th level had a recommended adventurer level of 25. That adventurer would bring in 6.25DP per hour. A party would bring in 31.25. If that party died twice a day they would earn 500DP. 60 parties on the 4th level would cover the upkeep.

Max hoped more people like Gilmore would come and mentor younger people. Even when he lowered his level with a curse, the dungeon still absorbed passive DP from his true level. With 2 deaths a day, the man was contributing 156DP every day.

Anna put her concerns for money aside. With the shops, inns, trainers, and passive (From adventurers and the stables) sources of DP, they would be turning a profit soon.

What did concern her was Max’s plan to spend half a billion in one go. While she agreed with it in theory. It was still too early.

Only a single group of adventures had come to the dungeon. And they had yet to pass the first level. She supported his plan to do something grand on the fifth floor of the dungeon but with such large purchases the upkeep would put them in a hole.

She smiled while thinking about the man. He wasn’t unreasonable, just excited. Remembering when she nervously approached his study with her concerns she almost laughed at how flustered she had been.

But Max was glad that she had brought her concerns to him. He agreed to hold off and just work on smaller parts of his plan that wouldn’t raise the dungeon’s upkeep cost.

She was also relieved when he informed her that even if he did spend big, he never wanted to drop bellow 100 million DP. That was his bottom line. Even if they spent a lot in the future, he wanted to always have that as a safety net.

That was an idea that she could gladly get behind.

Anna and Max were now sitting in the monitoring room. The 5 adventurers were completing their last run. They would be leaving in a little while to return home, and they wanted to give it one last try. They had yet to beat the Boss at the end of the first level.

They had managed to catch a glimpse a few days earlier. But that was an accident. Half the group had died and they were fleeing from a group of viscous redcaps.

Redcaps were small humanoid fey that wore red caps (surprising). They weren’t fast like the quicklings. Also, unlike the quicklings, they could survive more than one good hit. What made them fearsome was that the sight and smell of blood pushed them into a frenzy where they would attack without concern for their own safety. Armed with knives, hatchets, and small spears, a frenzied group of redcaps was a serious threat.

Gilmore and Lana had been fleeing to look for a defensive position when they stumbled on the boss in a large clearing. A single creature stood before them. She was similar to a dryad, but she carried a staff and was much larger.

The Elder dryad didn’t waste time and finished them.

This time all 5 adventurers were in good shape as they approached the clearing with the boss.

Gilmore noticed that there wasn’t an elder dryad waiting for them. Compared to last time, a 30-meter-tall pine tree stood in the center of the clearing. He realized that the boss they encounter must also be randomly selected from a list like the encounters earlier.

The group cautiously entered the clearing. Their teamwork had improved several folds since their first run together.

”Watch out!” Dirk shouted as Rod approached the large tree in the center of the clearing.

Rod raised his guard but didn’t move quick enough.

A large root ripped out of the ground and sent the axe master tumbling after it slapped into him.

Dirk began letting arrows fly while Lana cast her ice bolt over and over.

The large tree shook and ripped its roots from the ground. Its bark shifted to reveal a face in the trunk of the large tree.

The frighting hollow eyes in the bark scanned the group.

Gilmore sighed. An Epic Treant was a bad match up for this group. Plant type monsters usually had resistances to poison and with its thick bark it would be hard for his daggers to do a lot of damage.

Dirk was an archer who was just starting on his path. He didn’t have any high single target damage skills. In fact, he didn’t have any skills at the moment.

It was the same with Rod. The axe master had the best chance of doing damage, but he would have to survive while he continuously chopped the tree.

Lana was also in a tough spot. She was just a young developing mage. She was close to turning Ice Bolt into a quick cast spell, but it did low damage. And he had a feeling that the boss may be able to shrug off the slow effect.

Silvia would be able to block a good number of blows. While she could normally do a bit of damage with the hammer she held in her off hand. He didn’t think it would do much against such a massive treant.

He shook his head; they would have had a much better chance with the elder dryad. But that didn’t stop them from fighting valiantly.

Silvia was the first to fall. She was doing a god job blocking the large blows that would kill Rod. But she lost a bit of health every time she succeeded. And they didn’t have a healer on the team.

Lana went next when she wasn’t paying attention. A vine had snaked from the tree. After grabbing her ankle at the perfect moment. She was dragged high into the tree. The others didn’t know what happened in the canopy of the tree but the system notified them of her defeat.

Rod died next when several roots balled together and stepped down on him. He wasn’t quick enough to get back after he had charged in to deliver several chops.

The treant let out a large groan and began to fall. Dirk was fast, but not fast enough. He was flattened by the falling tree.

Gilmore became invisible as the tree righted itself. The face on the trunk looked around but couldn’t find the assassin.

With another groan, the canopy began to shake.

Hundreds of thousands of pine needles began to fall from the tree. Gilmore knew he was in trouble when he felt large amounts of nature magic begin to stir.

The pine needles didn’t make it to the dirt ground. They were caught on a swirling wind current that revolved around the tree.

Gilmore realized that the treant didn’t know where he was, but it didn’t matter. That whole clearing was filled with reinforced pine needles traveling at ridiculous speeds. When the spell ended 10 seconds later. The needles fell to the ground and the assassin’s dead body could be seen.