Chapter 231: New Projects

Hizon and Nethren began with the entrance.

The joint instance needed to promise something different from the Ant Hill without revealing how its encounters worked. Hizon shaped the outer passage from fitted stone and dark metal. Nethren covered sections of it with pale fungal plates that opened and closed slowly as air moved through them.

The growth remained inside marked boundaries. The Artificer had installed narrow metal channels around the display before allowing Nethren to add it. Heat could pass through those channels and destroy the growth if it attempted to spread into the Undercity walls.

Nethren regarded the precaution as excessive. Hizon approved it without debate.

They moved to the first chamber.

Their limited budget prevented them from building separate routes filled with expensive creatures. Instead, they designed a single network of chambers whose hazards could assist either group.

Nethren proposed a floor covered by dormant fungal cords. When disturbed, the cords would tighten around an adventurer’s boots and release spores into the air. Hizon added raised paths narrow enough for goblins to cross without touching the growth.

"If the paths remain safe, every party will use them." Nethren said.

"The goblins will use them first. Adventurers can follow, but the Trappers will control which sections remain connected. The party must choose between fighting for the paths or crossing your floor." Hizon said.

The arrangement made the terrain useful without turning it into an unavoidable punishment. Parties that noticed the Trappers targeting the supports could protect a route. Those that ignored them would lose the safe ground one section at a time.

The second chamber used Bombardier Beetles and heat-sensitive growth. Nethren created thick fungal screens capable of blocking arrows and separating a party. The Beetles’ attacks would burn openings through those screens, changing the chamber whenever they fired.

Adventurers could use the openings as easily as the goblins could.

Nethren initially wanted the growth to close immediately after a party passed. Hizon refused because the result would split groups without giving them a reasonable way to anticipate it. They changed the design so the damaged screens contracted visibly before sealing. Alert parties would have time to remain together or deliberately divide their formation.

Their third idea placed Bullet Ant riders above a basin filled with broad fungal caps. The caps supported weight until struck by heat or acid. Riders could cross quickly, while adventurers had to determine which surfaces remained stable.

The same rule applied to everyone inside the room. A careless goblin could bring down the path beneath his own mount.

Nethren approved that risk. His old dungeon had protected its network by making its own creatures part of the terrain. The joint instance would instead force goblins and fungi to work around each other’s effects.

They could afford only a small final encounter.

Hizon proposed a strengthened hobgoblin supported by renewable fungal armor. Nethren altered the idea so the armor drew strength from three growth clusters positioned around the chamber. Destroying a cluster weakened the armor but released lesser fungal creatures hidden inside it.

The goblin Trappers would defend the clusters while the hobgoblin prevented adventurers from attacking them without resistance.

The encounter gave parties several workable approaches. They could overwhelm the armored hobgoblin, destroy the clusters and accept the additional creatures, or disrupt the cords connecting the armor without breaking the clusters themselves.

Nethren reviewed the complete design through the shared interface.

"It is possible for them to clear every chamber." Nethren said.

"That is why some of them will return. Failure teaches them what to attempt next. Success gives them a reason to believe our other instances can also be cleared." Hizon said.

Nethren had used uncertainty to prevent intruders from understanding Fungal Hollow. Hizon intended to use understanding to encourage repeated attempts.

The difference did not require Nethren to make the instance harmless. It required every danger to operate according to rules the adventurers could discover.

They committed to the design.

Stone rose around the first chamber while fungal cords spread through channels purchased as part of the instance. Goblin workers installed supports beneath the raised paths. Renewable Trappers entered through the unfinished connection and tested whether they could remove sections without causing the entire structure to collapse.

Nethren adjusted the cords wherever the paths failed too quickly. Hizon changed the spacing where adventurers could bypass both the goblins and the fungal floor without engaging either one.

Construction continued into the second chamber.

Neither Dungeon Master had enough DP remaining to add decorative regions or unnecessary creatures. Every purchase affected an encounter, protected the workers, or made the reset function reliably. The result was smaller than either of their independent ambitions, but it could begin generating income as soon as testing ended.

At the edge of the construction area, Nethren watched an instance copy of a fungal screen return after a Bombardier Beetle burned through it.

Fresh growth replaced the damaged section without drawing material from another creature.

For the first time since losing Fungal Hollow, Nethren possessed something that could be destroyed without reducing what remained to him.

He entered the next set of adjustments without being directed by Hizon.

Elsewhere in Sanctuary, Mira followed Anna through the market while Anna completed a list of errands that had grown longer with every district they visited.

One merchant needed permission to move a stall closer to the portal route. A group of new residents needed directions to the registration area. Two gnomes had reported a damaged sign near the training halls, and a delivery intended for the class trainers had arrived at the wrong storage building.

None of the problems required Max’s intervention. They still required someone to resolve them.

Anna sent messages through the dungeon connection, contacted the appropriate gnomes, and changed their route twice before they reached the next shop.

Mira waited until Anna finished speaking with a merchant.

"Hizon has goblins who carry his orders through the Goblin Depths. Why do you keep finding someone new every time you need something done?" Mira said.

Anna looked at the remaining errands. "Because the gnomes already have jobs. I can ask one of them to help, but that usually means pulling him away from a registration desk, a shop, or a maintenance crew."

"Then you need gnomes whose job is helping you." Mira said.

The suggestion was simple enough that Anna stopped walking.

She had authority throughout Sanctuary but no unit assigned directly to her. When she needed guards, scouts, messengers, or specialists, she borrowed them from Max’s forces or asked the managers of existing operations to spare someone. That worked for individual problems. It became inefficient when several districts needed attention at once.

Mira watched her consider the idea. "You could have your own team. Max has lots of teams."

Anna contacted Max and asked him to meet them near the central plaza.

He arrived while they were still discussing which responsibilities belonged with a permanent unit. Anna did not want another group standing idle until a crisis occurred. Its members needed to handle inspections, messages, escorts, investigations, and the ordinary problems that crossed between existing departments.

Max approved the idea before she finished listing possible duties.

"Choose enough variety to handle things without calling for replacements every time the assignment changes. A durable fighter, someone suited for scouting, a healer, and a few specialists would cover most of what you described. We can add magical creatures if you need them." Max said.

Anna opened the dungeon’s creature options.

She ignored the fighters, magical beasts, and specialized monsters. Her selection remained within one familiar category.

Max noticed the first purchase. "A gnome scout makes sense."

Anna purchased a second gnome, then a third.

Mira leaned closer to the interface as the list continued growing.

Anna finished after purchasing twelve gnomes. Max’s expression made his unspoken question clear.

"Gnomes have handled Sanctuary’s work since the beginning. They register adventurers, manage shops, maintain public areas, carry messages, and solve problems before either of us hears about them. Every other major race serving the dungeon has received a level or territory centered on it. The gnomes have never had anything comparable." Anna said.

Anna did not need a new level to recognize their contribution. She needed a group whose regular work would be serving Sanctuary as a whole.

The purchased gnomes appeared in an empty meeting room near the plaza. They arrived wearing ordinary clothes and waited for Anna to assign their roles.

She gave each of them access to equipment appropriate to a specialty.

The dungeon interpreted those choices more literally than Max expected.

Two scouts emerged in black clothing with cloth masks, soft boots, and short practice blades secured across their backs. The outfits resembled the costumes used by stage performers portraying ninjas, but every pocket contained real scouting equipment.

Three defensive specialists wore polished knight armor sized for gnomes. Their shields reached from their boots to their shoulders, and colored plumes rose above their helmets.

The medical gnomes wore white coats marked with bright red symbols and carried cases containing bandages, potions, and ordinary emergency supplies. Two investigators received long coats, small notebooks, magnifying lenses, and hats that nearly doubled their height.

The remaining gnomes dressed as a courier, an engineer, and a wilderness guide.

Mira walked around the assembled unit. None of the gnomes appeared embarrassed by the costumes. The ninja scouts tested the balance of their equipment. The knights adjusted their shields into a protective line. One investigator had already begun recording the names and roles of the others.

"They also have the correct equipment for every job. People will know who to approach when the team arrives, and I can identify their roles immediately." Anna said.

The visual effect was unusual. The organization behind it was practical.

Anna named the group the Sanctuary Auxiliary. The title gave them authority to assist across district boundaries without implying that they replaced the guards, healers, or existing gnome workers already serving there.

She divided them into three small teams and assigned their first duties.

The ninja scouts would inspect the route between the portal district and the storage buildings, then identify why deliveries had begun arriving at the wrong locations. A knight and medical gnome would escort the newest residents through registration and help them reach temporary housing. The investigators and engineer would examine the damaged signs near the training halls and determine whether the failures came from poor installation or deliberate interference.

The remaining knights and courier stayed with Anna to carry orders between the teams.

The Sanctuary Auxiliary saluted together.

Their different costumes made the formation look as though several unrelated performances had begun at the same time. Their movements remained disciplined, and each gnome left for his assignment without needing further instructions.

Mira watched the two ninjas disappear into the plaza crowd by climbing over a cart instead of walking around it. Their route was unnecessary for reaching the storage buildings, but it allowed them to inspect the cart and the traffic obstruction around it without delaying the assignment.

One of the investigators knelt beside the first damaged sign and opened his notebook. The engineer removed the mounting bracket while the armored knight redirected foot traffic around them. Before Anna and Max left the plaza, the new unit had already found that delivery markings on two storage buildings had been switched.

The ninja scouts returned carrying the misplaced trainer shipment between them.

They had completed Anna’s first assignment without borrowing a single creature from anyone else.