Chapter 237: A Dungeon Master’s First Earnings

Nethren watched five parties enter the joint instance in less than an hour.

Each group disappeared through the same entrance. Inside the instance monitoring room, five separate copies opened beneath five separate labels. Every copy began with the same dark passage, the same pale fungus climbing the walls, and the same distant clicking meant to warn observant adventurers that they were not alone.

Nethren understood duplication in theory. Watching it happen to a dungeon he partly owned felt different.

"They entered through one door, but none of them occupy the same cavern."

Hizon looked away from the earnings panel.

"Each party receives its own copy."

"Knowing that the space duplicates is not the same as watching five groups damage it differently."

The first party moved slowly through the opening cavern. Their scout tested the ground before every patch of luminous mold, and the others stepped where he stepped. The second party had already awakened two goblin patrols by arguing about which tunnel to choose. A third advanced behind shields and treated every growth large enough to hide a creature as an enemy.

The fourth group contained a fire mage.

Nethren disliked them immediately.

The joint instance used Nethren’s fungal terrain and Hizon’s experience with goblins, insects, traps, and repeatable encounters. Luminous shelves along the cavern walls brightened when sound disturbed them. Excessive noise awakened defenders and caused certain fungal bridges to retract. Quiet parties could avoid several fights. Aggressive parties could force their way through and create temporary crossings by toppling larger growths.

The design offered choices without requiring a single class or skill.

At least, that was what Nethren and Hizon had intended.

The fire mage burned the first sound-sensitive shelf because it glowed.

The released spores ignited with a flash that left the entire party coughing and blind. A goblin patrol arrived before they recovered.

Hizon recorded the unexpectedly effective interaction between the fire and the spores for use in future copies.

The fifth party reached the western bloom chamber first.

Nethren selected their view.

The chamber divided around a narrow chasm. Thick shelves of gray fungus climbed both walls and supported clusters of blue caps near the ceiling. The intended routes were simple. Careful parties could cross a retracting fungal bridge before noise caused it to withdraw. Parties that missed the bridge could descend into the chasm, fight through the creatures below, and raise a replacement crossing from the far side.

The adventurers inspected both routes and chose neither.

Their archer fired a rope around the stem of the largest shelf on the near wall. The party pulled until the growth bent. Their axe fighter then cut through the weakened base from a position the creatures below could not reach.

The entire shelf fell across the chasm.

It struck the far wall, lodged between two outcroppings, and became a bridge wide enough for the party to cross in single file.

They bypassed the retracting bridge, the lower defenders, and the mechanism on the far side.

Nethren opened the chamber controls and selected the fallen shelf. He could strengthen its base, move it farther from the chasm, or declare it impossible to cut. The first two solutions prevented the shortcut. The third would leave an ordinary-looking fungus mysteriously harder than the stone supporting it.

He reached for the structural setting.

A warning covered the control.

[Five active instance copies use the current chamber configuration.]

[Immediate structural revision may invalidate active routes.]

[Apply revision to active copies?]

Nethren stopped.

The fourth party was approaching the same chamber from a side passage. Changing the shelf now could move solid terrain while adventurers stood near it. A replacement crossing might appear for a group that had not activated it. The party already walking across the fallen shelf could find their route disappearing beneath their feet.

Nethren closed the warning.

"How do we fix it without changing the active copies?"

Hizon opened the revision panel and created a pending version.

"We change the next copies. These five finish the challenge they entered. Any party arriving after we approve the revision receives the new design."

"Then the fifth party keeps the advantage."

"They discovered it. Let them benefit."

Nethren watched the adventurers reach the far side without fighting anything in the chasm.

"They avoided almost a quarter of the chamber."

"Then the flaw is ours. Punishing the first group clever enough to find it would teach adventurers not to experiment."

That did not mean the shortcut had to remain free.

Hizon rejected the simplest correction. Moving the shelf away from the chasm would remove the interaction entirely. Making it indestructible would tell adventurers that only approved destruction mattered. He wanted the growth to remain useful to anyone who recognized the possibility.

They studied the chamber while the party continued.

Nethren noticed the broken base still releasing spores. In the current version, the spores only marked the damage with a faint gray cloud. The feature existed for appearance and carried no consequence.

"The shelf feeds the blue caps above it."

Hizon followed his attention toward the ceiling.

"Not after someone cuts it down."

"Then the caps should open. The dying root system could force its stored spores into them."

"What do the spores do?"

"Wake everything in the lower chamber."

Hizon considered the proposal.

The shortcut would remain. A party could cut down the shelf and cross before the retracting bridge closed, but the noise and spores would alert the creatures below. Some could climb the chamber walls or attack the improvised bridge from beneath. The party would skip the lower route without skipping the encounter entirely.

"Do not wake all of them. A shortcut that creates the same battle in a worse location is not a choice. Wake enough to pressure the crossing. Leave the rest guarding the lower mechanism." Hizon said.

Nethren adjusted the response. Two climbing insects would emerge beneath the shelf. A bombardier beetle positioned near the far wall would receive an alert and spray burning fluid toward the crossing. Parties could still gain time if they cut and crossed quickly. Parties that hesitated would fight while balanced above the chasm.

Hizon added a second possibility. If adventurers cut the shelf after silencing the blue caps with cold, poison, or careful removal, the alarm would not spread.

"Now the shortcut rewards preparation instead of removing the chamber." Hizon said.

Nethren ran a simulation. The growth fell. The blue caps opened. Creatures reacted along the intended paths without appearing from empty air.

The revision panel accepted the change.

[Joint Instance Version Two prepared.]

[Active copies remaining on Version One: Five.]

[New copies will use Version Two after approval.]

Nethren approved it.

The next party entering the instance received the revised chamber. The five groups already inside noticed nothing.

Nethren shifted between their views as the attempts separated further. The careful first party preserved the retracting bridge and reached the next area with most of its resources. The arguing second party survived three unnecessary fights and finally began using hand signals. The shield-heavy third party discovered that the largest defenders could be redirected into unstable growths. The fire mage’s group continued solving fungal problems with fire and losing resources each time.

The fifth party reached the final encounter first because of the shortcut.

They did not clear it.

The resources they had saved carried them farther than Nethren expected, but the party had learned little about how the goblins and fungal creatures reacted to one another. Their formation broke when defenders emerged from two connected growth beds instead of one.

The party abandoned the final encounter and returned through the entrance alive. Their copy closed behind them and reset out of existence.

They immediately began arguing about whether the fallen shelf had been brilliant or had allowed them to advance without learning something important.

Nethren listened through the entrance.

"They want to try again."

"Then the instance did its job."

The first earnings notification arrived while two members of the failed party were still drawing the western bloom chamber in the dirt.

[Joint instance activity recorded.]

[Dungeon points earned through combat, discovery, and sustained participation.]

[Ownership division applied.]

[Hizon: 50 percent.]

[Nethren: 50 percent.]

The amount was not large compared with the points Hizon’s established operations produced. To Nethren, the number felt enormous because it had not come from surrendering part of his remaining dungeon or accepting another allotment from Max. Adventurers had entered something he helped build, found value in it, and generated more than the attempt cost to operate.

His basic dungeon space could finally begin growing under its own power.

Nethren opened the construction menu before the notification faded. The empty chambers Max had provided waited beneath it. He could expand the first cavern, purchase another spore bed, improve the walls, or begin shaping the private fungal garden he had postponed.

Hizon watched him without speaking.

Nethren selected a larger cavern and studied the cost. Spending his entire share would complete most of it. The next payment could purchase creatures. The payment after that could begin an instance of his own.

The sequence felt sensible until he remembered Fungal Hollow’s final hours.

Every reserve had become a defender, a collapsed passage, or one more attempt to hold ground that could not be replaced. When the unexpected happened, he had possessed nothing except what was already under attack.

Nethren closed the construction option.

He moved the full payment into his reserve.

Hizon’s ears rose.

"You are saving all of it?"

"This time."

"You wanted that cavern yesterday."

"I still want it. I also want enough points to correct the next mistake without waiting for adventurers to pay for it."

Another party entered the instance. A fresh copy opened under Version Two.

Before entering, the adventurers had studied the rough map drawn by the group that discovered the shortcut. When they eventually reached the western bloom chamber, they ignored the retracting bridge and went directly to the large fungal shelf.

They secured a rope around its stem and cut through the base.

The shelf fell across the chasm exactly as they expected. The blue caps above it opened and released their stored spores. Two climbing insects emerged from below while the bombardier beetle moved into position on the far side.

The adventurers were forced to defend themselves while crossing, but the improvised bridge remained usable. They reached the opposite side without descending into the chasm, although the fight cost them time and several abilities they had hoped to preserve for the final encounter.

The shortcut had survived the revision. It simply no longer allowed a party to bypass every danger in the chamber.

Nethren left his first earnings in reserve and continued watching. He had enough points to respond when the adventurers found the next flaw, and he no longer doubted that they would find one.