Chapter 242: New Boss

The joint instance had operated long enough for Nethren to stop measuring its earnings one party at a time.

Adventurers entered through the same doorway at nearly every hour. Some moved carefully through the fungal caverns. Others broke the first growth that reacted to them and fought whatever answered. Failed groups returned with better plans, while successful groups discussed routes they had not attempted and came back to test them.

Every completed fight, discovered path, and sustained attempt added to the instance’s income. The system divided the total before either owner could touch it.

[Joint instance earnings distributed.]

[Hizon: 50 percent.]

[Nethren: 50 percent.]

Nethren moved his newest share into the reserve he had begun after the first payment. The amount crossed the threshold he had been waiting for.

His basic dungeon space remained almost empty. Rough passages connected the core chamber to several smaller rooms. A shallow bed of pale fungus covered one wall where his workers had tested the stone, but the growth ended before reaching the first branch. The creatures transferred from Fungal Hollow occupied more space than the dungeon had been prepared to support.

He could finally change that.

The construction menu offered a wider cavern, a permanent fungal bed, water channels, and the first components needed for a future entrance. Nethren examined each option without selecting one. Any of them would make the territory look more like a dungeon and less like a set of rooms Max had purchased for him.

None would protect it.

The few followers Nethren had already converted into eternal souls continued their work near the core chamber. Choosing them had preserved creatures that had survived Fungal Hollow and remained useful during the joint instance’s construction. The conversions had not given him a central defender capable of controlling a full encounter.

Nethren opened the creature menu.

He did not search for another siege creature. The wedge-headed animal that had broken Hizon’s gates had been effective because Nethren’s entire network supported it. A creature built only to force one passage would offer little to a dungeon that did not yet possess enough territory to lose ground.

He filtered the available creatures by fungal affinity, defensive role, growth potential, and compatibility with eternal-soul conversion.

The first results were familiar. Fungal guards could hold narrow passages, but he already owned several. Cave moths carried spores and disrupted visibility without controlling a chamber. Rooted defenders were stronger, yet most became nearly useless once an adventurer moved beyond the ground they occupied.

One option remained after he raised the growth requirement.

[Crowncap Guard]

[Role: Adaptive fungal defender.]

[The Crowncap Guard develops in response to assigned territory, repeated combat, and compatible fungal upgrades.]

[Current abilities: Root Brace, Spore Screen, Guarding Reach.]

[Eligible for future elite and boss development.]

The displayed creature stood nearly twice the height of a goblin. Layered plates of dark fungus covered its chest, shoulders, and upper legs. A broad cap rose behind its head and extended forward like a shield. Both arms ended in heavy, fibrous hands large enough to seize an attacker or move an obstruction.

It was slower than the guards Nethren already possessed. Its starting attacks were less destructive than the siege creature’s charge. The difference lay in what it could become.

Root Brace allowed it to anchor itself to compatible growth and draw strength from the surrounding network. Spore Screen could block sight across part of a chamber without filling the entire area with poison. Guarding Reach allowed it to intercept attacks directed toward creatures or structures behind it.

Nethren opened its development paths.

The Crowncap Guard could thicken its plates, cultivate different spores, extend its roots into room mechanisms, or support smaller defenders through a shared network. Later development could increase its size and establish a defended territory as its domain. The final options remained locked behind combat experience, dungeon growth, and assignment to a completed encounter.

Hizon entered the core chamber while Nethren studied the paths.

He looked at the projected creature, then at the untouched construction options.

"You decided against the cavern." Hizon said.

"I delayed it." Nethren replied.

"The Crowncap Guard costs more than the cavern’s first stage."

"An empty cavern only gives adventurers room to stand. The Crowncap Guard gives them a defender they must overcome."

Hizon examined the purchase details. His authority allowed him to inspect anything that might threaten the surrounding dungeon, but the decision and cost remained Nethren’s.

"You already own fungal guards." Hizon said.

"Those guards were purchased for Fungal Hollow. They can defend passages, patrol growth, and support the network. None was designed to become the center of an instance."

Nethren expanded the locked development tree.

"My independent level will need a final defender. If I wait until the level is complete before purchasing one, it will enter without experience in the territory it is meant to control."

The joint instance had taught him the weakness of building every answer in advance. Adventurers used rooms and creatures in ways their designers had not intended. A boss purchased after the surrounding encounter was finished would be another fixed answer placed at the end of a route.

Nethren wanted the Crowncap Guard to grow alongside the level. It would learn which passages required support, which lesser creatures worked around it, and how adventurers reacted to its spores. When the independent level finally opened, its final defender would already understand the dungeon it guarded.

Hizon studied the reserve displayed beneath the purchase cost.

"You can afford the creature or the eternal-soul designation without touching most of the reserve. Purchasing both leaves less than you intended to keep."

Nethren had already calculated the difference. The remaining points would still cover emergency repairs, food growth, and the replacement of basic supplies. They would not fund a sudden expansion or another major creature.

Buying the Crowncap Guard without protecting it would cost less. It would also mean building future rooms around a creature that could be permanently lost during training, an accident, or the first attempt at the level.

"I kept the reserve so one mistake would not end my rebuilding." Nethren said. "Purchasing an unprotected creature and making it central to the design would create that mistake deliberately."

Hizon closed the cost comparison.

"Then you have made the decision."

Nethren selected the Crowncap Guard and added eternal-soul status before confirming the purchase.

[Purchase summary]

[Crowncap Guard]

[Eternal Soul designation]

[Primary authority: Nethren]

[Greater dungeon authority: Max Clarkson]

[Revival location: Nethren’s assigned dungeon space]

[Confirm purchase?]

Nethren read the authority lines twice. Fungal Hollow had belonged entirely to him. The new creature would recognize his commands, but its existence would be anchored to the greater dungeon that made eternal revival possible.

That condition no longer stopped him.

He confirmed the purchase.

The stone floor in front of the core darkened. Fine white strands spread across it in a circle, then thickened into a low bed of fungus. A folded shape rose from the center.

The Crowncap Guard unfolded slowly. Its legs straightened first, lifting the plated body until the broad cap nearly touched the chamber ceiling. Its arms separated from its chest. Dark eyes opened beneath the cap’s forward edge and fixed on Nethren.

The new bond entered his dungeon record.

It was different from the network Fungal Hollow had spread through every creature and wall. The Crowncap Guard could receive his direction without rooting itself into his body or the floor. Beneath that command link sat a deeper connection tied to the greater dungeon.

If the guard died while serving within Max’s dungeon, it would return here.

The Crowncap Guard lowered itself onto one knee.

Nethren assigned it to the unfinished eastern branch.

The passage led to an empty chamber with an uneven floor and two narrow approaches. There was no encounter, no reward, and no reason for an adventurer to enter. Nethren’s workers had marked the walls for eventual expansion but had not begun changing them.

The guard crossed the chamber and examined both approaches. It tested the softer ground near the center, rejected it, and moved toward the stone between the entrances. Rootlike strands extended from its feet and entered cracks in the floor.

[Root Brace established.]

[Guarded territory recognized.]

The creature’s cap shifted as it looked from one passage to the other. A faint cloud formed beneath the rear edge, spread across the wider approach, and stopped before reaching the workers.

It was already deciding how to divide the room.

Nethren ordered two fungal workers to bring a weighted practice frame through the wider entrance. The Crowncap Guard did not charge them. It waited until the frame crossed into the area between the passages, then extended one arm across the route and used Guarding Reach to turn the obstacle toward the wall. Its roots tightened as the workers pushed harder.

The frame stopped without the guard striking either worker.

Nethren moved the same test to the narrow entrance. This time the Crowncap Guard shifted its body into the passage and allowed its plated shoulder to close most of the opening. The spore screen remained over the wider route, forcing an imagined party to choose between poor visibility and direct contact with the defender.

The response was useful, but incomplete. A fast adventurer could draw the guard toward one passage while another attacked the growth connecting it to the floor. Ranged attackers could remain beyond Guarding Reach unless the future room gave the defender a way to alter cover or visibility.

Those were problems for development rather than reasons to reject the creature. Nethren recorded both weaknesses beside the construction plan. The guard’s first upgrades would not simply increase its strength. They would connect its decisions to the room around it.

Nethren opened his first personal construction plan.

He placed a future cavern around the guarded chamber without approving the cost. The wider entrance would allow parties to choose their approach. Fungal shelves would provide height for smaller defenders. A central growth bed would connect the Crowncap Guard to movable barriers and spore vents once he could afford them.

He marked the creature’s eventual role at the end of the level.

[Planned encounter role: Final guardian.]

[Boss designation unavailable.]

[Requirements: Completed independent level, sufficient development, approved encounter space.]

The locked designation did not disappoint him. It gave the rebuilding a direction.

Hizon watched the Crowncap Guard hold the empty chamber.

"It has nothing to defend yet." Hizon said.

"It has the place where the defense will begin." Nethren replied.

Another earnings notice arrived from the joint instance. Nethren moved his half into the reduced reserve instead of spending it on the construction plan.

The Crowncap Guard remained rooted between the two unfinished passages. Workers began measuring the walls around it.

Fungal Hollow was still gone. The new territory did not resemble it, and Nethren no longer intended to reproduce it room for room.

He would build the first cavern around a defender that could survive long enough to become part of whatever replaced it.