Dungeon Master (Karma System)

The answer arrived less than a minute after Hizon issued the challenge.

[Fungal Hollow has chosen to attack.]

[Dungeon Master Nethren will lead fifty percent of his manpower into the challenging dungeon.]

[Hizon will defend.]

[Preparation period: 1 hour.]

Hizon had expected the choice. Fungal Hollow’s greatest advantage came from spreading its network through enemy terrain. Nethren also believed he understood what waited inside Hizon’s dungeon.

The scouts had shown him goblins, an ember slime, and an insect companion. He had not seen the defense valley, the Ant Hill, or the Goblin Foundry.

Hizon sent one command to every officer.

”Take your positions.”

The response throughout Max’s dungeon was much larger.

Adventurers inside Fey Nights saw their surroundings freeze before the system removed them from the level. Parties disappeared from Orc Highlands while fighting, traveling, or resting between encounters. The dwarven airships and hidden routes of the third level emptied. Inside Dread Fort, adventurers vanished from corridors and battlefields as its instance functions shut down.

They reappeared in Sanctuary with their equipment and party members intact.

Hizon’s attractions emptied as well.

Five separate parties were inside copies of the Ant Hill when the challenge was issued. One was fighting goblins in the upper tunnels. Another had reached the chamber before the Hobgoblin Artificer. All five groups appeared near the Ant Hill’s public entrance in the Undercity.

The party inside the Goblin Foundry returned moments later. They had been crossing the middle workshop when the level vanished around them. One fighter still held a broken length of chain taken from a moving platform. It disappeared from his hands when the instance restored equipment belonging to the level.

The entrance to Hizon’s defense dungeon closed before its scheduled group could begin. Gnome attendants and Hizon’s Undercity workers explained that every reservation would be honored after the dungeon battle ended.

The displaced adventurers received no opportunity to remain and watch. They were outsiders to both active dungeons, and the system would not allow them inside any part of the battle route.

System notices explained that the first four levels were closed because a subordinate dungeon had entered a dungeon battle. Entrances leading to those levels darkened, and the gnomes redirected the displaced adventurers toward inns, training grounds, shops, and the Undercity.

Adventurers traveling through Corathen continued their work without interruption. Caravans remained on the roads. Parties entered ruins, hunted monsters, and accepted contracts without receiving any notice about Hizon’s battle. The restriction belonged to Max’s instances. While Corathen did have a few, the majority of adventures on level five wouldn’t even notice that the instance were down for a day.

Max watched the closures from his monitoring room.

Anna stood beside him, reviewing the reports arriving from the first four levels.

”Everyone was removed safely.” She said. ”The gnomes are dealing with the complaints.”

”How many?”

”Enough that the taverns are already filling.”

Max looked at the display connected to Hizon’s control room. ”At least the Undercity will have customers while its owner is busy.”

Anna set the reports aside. ”Are you going to join him?”

”He did not ask me to.”

”That was not my question.”

”I am staying here unless he needs help. This is his battle. Hizon wants to grow and control more territory, this is his chance, I am not going to take it from by being a backseat dungeon master.”

Max could have filled Hizon’s valley with creatures stronger than anything seen during the scouting expeditions. Doing so would make the result meaningless. Hizon wanted another core, and he needed to prove that he could claim it with the dungeon he had built.

Anna looked toward the screens showing the crowded Sanctuary. ”The battle is still affecting your dungeon.”

”Yes.”

”Closing four levels costs you income, and every adventurer removed from an attempt will expect an explanation.”

Max knew that. The shutdown also interrupted training schedules, merchant plans, and groups that had traveled to Crag Mountain specifically to enter one of the levels. None of those problems were dangerous, but they made Hizon’s decision more than a private wager.

”If he wins, another dungeon becomes connected to mine.” Max said. ”If I never let a subordinate take a risk because it inconveniences me, there is no point allowing him to operate independently.”

”I am not asking you to stop him.”

”I know.”

Anna turned toward the gnome coordinating the displaced parties. ”Give each interrupted party priority when the levels reopen. Anyone who spent a fast pass should have its cost restored. And open the grand masquerade tonight instead of waiting till the weekend. That will give them something to do.”

The gnome recorded the instruction and sent it to the level entrances. ”Should we run we also run an airship race?”

”Yes, do that.” Anna answered.

Max returned his attention to Hizon’s displays. The ordinary copies of the Ant Hill and Foundry had disappeared. What remained were the original spaces beneath the Undercity, filled with Hizon’s actual creatures and everything they had placed there before the spending freeze.

The displays showing the ordinary instances went dark. New images replaced them as the system connected the actual levels into a single defensive route.

Max suddenly had an idea. ”Open the projection rooms and charge a small fee to watch the dungeon battle.” He said to the gnome before turning back to the display.

The defense valley appeared first. Beyond it waited the true Ant Hill rather than one of its duplicated copies. The actual Goblin Foundry followed, connected to the chamber containing Hizon’s core.

Fey Nights, Orc Highlands, the third level, and Dread Fort also remained real spaces within Max’s dungeon, but the battle route did not lead through them. Their instance functions stayed disabled because the larger dungeon had entered battle status.

”Can Hizon see us watching?” Anna asked.

”No. He knows I am monitoring the battle, but I did not open a channel yet.” Max said

Max checked the connection and opened a communication channel.

Hizon’s image appeared on one of the displays. He was standing above the central map in his control room while goblin messengers moved through the doors behind him.

”Everything outside your dungeon has been secured.” Max said. ”The first four levels are empty, and no adventurers remain in an active area.”

”Good.”

”I will continue watching from here. Contact me if the battle exceeds what you prepared to handle.”

Hizon glanced up from the map. ”If that happens, you will likely see it before I ask.”

”Probably. I would still prefer that you ask.”

”Understood.”

The channel closed.

Hizon checked the time.

[Preparation period: 47 minutes.]

Every creature killed during the battle would revive without cost after the fighting ended. None would be able to return before then. Hizon placed that reminder beneath the countdown on every officer’s system display.

The rule changed how the coming defense had to be fought. A dead goblin was not permanently lost, but his absence would still weaken every later level. Sacrificing a thousand creatures to protect an open field could leave the Ant Hill and Foundry without enough defenders to function.

Hizon contacted the valley commander.

”Report.”

Brannik answered from the first defensive line. ”All retreat lanes are clear. The burn strips are armed. Trappers are checking for anything disturbed during the level conversion.”

”The goblin king?”

”With the reserve behind the second line.”

”Be prepared for the first creatures to avoid combat. They may be establishing growth rather than attacking.”

”We remember the junctions.”

Hizon closed the channel and contacted the Ant Hill.

The Artificer had already begun complaining.

”The conversion moved three carts away from their marks. One lift reset with its gate open. Two workers are correcting it.”

”Will it be ready?”

”Yes.”

”Then report when it is ready.”

Hizon moved to the Foundry.

The overseers confirmed that the ventilation shutters were closed until the enemy entered. Opening them too early would pull outside spores deeper into the level. Ember slimes waited behind removable grates, and sealed fuel stores stood beyond the main furnace halls.

The Forgeguard was already in position.

”The battle will not begin for almost an hour.” Hizon said. ”Use the time to inspect the chamber and report anything that could interfere with your defense.”

”I completed my inspection before taking this position.” The Forgeguard said. ”The chamber is ready, the door is secured, and I have no reason to leave either unattended.”

Hizon found no fault with the answer and continued toward the Ant Hill.

The remaining preparation passed through inspections rather than speeches. Officers confirmed their numbers. Workers checked masks, weapons, and mechanisms. Brannik sent a runner back after discovering that one fire pot had cracked beneath its armored cover. The damaged pot was replaced from existing stores.

Hizon could not spend DP, but the freeze did not prevent his creatures from using equipment already produced. The foundry continued operating. Goblin workers sharpened blades, fitted replacement parts, and moved ammunition to prepared positions.

The dungeon had not frozen with its account.

[Preparation period: 15 minutes.]

Hizon stood over the valley map and reviewed the withdrawal conditions with its commanders. The first line would retreat if the fungal network crossed either marked streambed. The second would withdraw if the enemy established growth behind it. Brannik had authority to order both movements without waiting for Hizon.

The Ant Hill’s defenders would not enter the valley to reinforce a failing position. The Foundry would not send crews into the Ant Hill. Every level had to preserve the strength needed for its own purpose.

The fungal dungeon would either spend itself breaking through them or arrive before Hizon’s core with too little left to claim it.

[Preparation period: 5 minutes.]

The light above the far end of the defense valley changed.

An archway appeared where bare stone had stood moments earlier. Its interior remained dark while the system completed the connection.

Brannik crouched behind the first earthen barrier. Goblin archers raised their bows. Bombardier Beetles lowered their armored heads as handlers checked the vents along their bodies.

The goblin king stood farther back, surrounded by the reserve. His strengthening aura spread through the nearest defenders.

Hizon watched them through the control-room displays.

Max watched Hizon from another part of the dungeon.

[Dungeon Battle between The Goblin Depths and Fungal Hollow has begun.]

[Hizon has been assigned to defend.]

[If a victor is not decided after 24 hours, the system will calculate a score and declare the victorious Dungeon Master.]

[All battle damage will revert to its previous condition when the Dungeon Battle ends.]

[Establishing dungeon connection.]

[Connection complete.]

The darkness inside the archway receded.

Warm mist rolled across the valley floor.

Small shapes moved inside it, but none charged the waiting goblins. Pale creatures no larger than rats scattered to both sides of the entrance. They pressed themselves against stones, clawed into the soil, and split open.

White cords entered the ground.

More creatures followed.

Behind them walked a tall figure wearing a mantle of pale caps. Amber light pulsed beneath the dark plates covering his chest.

Nethren had entered Hizon’s dungeon.

He raised one hand.

The first fungal growth spread across the valley.