Hizon was making great progress with developing the undercity.
The first four groups entered the renewed defense dungeon within an hour of the reservation restriction disappearing. Two failed before the end of the first day. One lost a merchant during the thirty-second hour. Golden Axe remained inside its copy, protecting six merchants through attacks that no longer had to wait a week before Hizon could use them again.
The separate five-person instance would receive an independent roster purchased for it from the beginning. That decision cost more DP, but it allowed Hizon to change either dungeon later without taking creatures away from the other one.
Hizon had expected that.
He opened the project created two days earlier.
[Five-Person Project]
[Environment: Unassigned]
[Primary objective: Unassigned]
[Progression structure: Unassigned]
[Boss: Unassigned]
[Reward framework: Unassigned]
[Available roster: Goblin Trapper, Giant Bombardier Beetle]
The single trapper and beetle he had purchased stood in the adjoining training chamber. The Goblin Trapper had spent two days constructing mechanisms from discarded wood, bent nails, three lengths of cord, and a door hinge nobody remembered giving him. The Bombardier Beetle had learned to release short bursts against individual targets without spraying the insect handler standing beside it.
Both were useful.
Hizon spread records from Max’s first four levels across the control table. He had requested decisions, failures, and completion times. The records showed parties choosing routes in Fey Nights, challenging the Orc Highlands, reacting to attacks aboard the dwarven airship, and finding ways through Dread Fort.
Max had built each level to prepare visitors for what followed.
Hizon did not need to prepare them for anything.
His new instance did not stand between Sanctuary and Corathen. It did not unlock another attraction or teach a lesson the Dungeon Master considered important. Adventurers would enter it because they wanted a fight, a reward, and a place worth discussing afterward.
That was enough.
The trapper’s practice mechanisms helped Hizon to determine the ideal environment for the instance. Half of the goblin’s traps depended on the ground being disturbed. Two concealed pits had failed because the training room’s stone looked nothing like the half packed dirt used to hide the trap. The bombardier beetle used walls to limit where targets could escape its spray.
Both belonged underground.
Hizon selected a terrain model and expanded it above the table.
An enormous mound rose from a stretch of bare earth. The outer opening descended into packed tunnels large enough for five adventurers to walk without crawling. Shafts connected chambers above and below. Some passages widened into storage galleries. Others narrowed around columns of hardened soil left to carry the weight of the mound.
It resembled the inside of an anthill built for creatures larger than horses.
Hizon rotated the model.
The structure allowed goblins and insects to use the same space differently. Goblins could build doors, platforms, rope lifts, traps, and firing positions. Bullet ants could climb the walls, travel through narrow side passages, and emerge behind a party without using the main route. Bombardier Beetles could hold a chamber while trappers controlled the exits.
He assigned the environment.
[Environment: Giant subterranean colony.]
The project asked for a name.
Hizon entered the first accurate description that came to mind.
[Instance name: The Ant Hill.]
He turned to the creature catalogue.
The first Goblin Trapper had cost more than a normal goblin because Hizon purchased it directly as an Eternal Soul. The second cost the same. So did the third, fourth, and fifth.
They appeared one at a time in the training chamber. Each examined the existing mechanisms before introducing himself to the others. Within minutes, they had divided the room into work areas without Hizon assigning them.
He purchased twenty regular goblins and eight hobgoblins. Their records began with The Ant Hill as their only assignment.
New Giant Bullet Ants followed.
The first defense dungeon ants had been acquired as ordinary creatures and converted over months. Hizon no longer needed to repeat that process. Six new insects appeared, their shells unscarred and their registration already permanent.
Three additional Giant Bombardier Beetles completed the first roster.
The training chamber became too crowded. Hizon assigned the new creatures to empty holding spaces inside the terrain model while he built their rooms.
The outer tunnels received the regular goblins and two bullet ants. Hizon added forked routes, low barriers, and small openings connecting the main passages. A party that moved carefully could see evidence of the side tunnels before an ant emerged. A party that charged toward the first visible goblins could find an insect behind it.
The next section opened into a food-storage chamber built around thick roots descending from the surface. Goblins occupied platforms among them. Bullet ants climbed the walls and carried loads between openings too small for adventurers.
Hizon did not fill every surface with enemies.
An empty tunnel made the occupied chamber ahead more important. It also gave parties somewhere to stop, change formation, or decide which route to follow. The defense dungeon had taught him that constant attacks became less useful when adventurers stopped being able to distinguish pressure from rest.
The Goblin Trappers received the middle galleries.
Hizon gave them concealed observation holes, repair passages, and storage alcoves containing approved materials. Their traps could vary between individual runs because each trapper had several mechanisms available for the same location. One party might face a collapsing section of packed earth. Another might find a weighted net, a rolling barrier, or a false bridge above a lower passage.
The trappers could alter simple mechanisms after watching adventurers defeat there peers.
They could not invent unlimited dangers during an attempt. Hizon restricted each copy to the materials placed in its storage alcoves. Once a trapper spent its cord, timber, counterweights, and metal teeth, it had to fight or retreat.
The Bombardier Beetles occupied wider chambers where their burning spray could shape movement without filling an entire tunnel. Goblin handlers directed their first burst. Hobgoblin overseers used shields and long spears to keep adventurers inside the dangerous angles.
Hizon added ventilation shafts above every beetle chamber.
The burning fluid could remain dangerous without turning the rest of the instance into an unbreathable gas pit.
He connected the sections through three possible routes. Every copy selected two. Parties would encounter the outer colony, one of two middle galleries, and the artificer’s workshop before reaching the final chamber. The unused branch remained sealed rather than ending at a door that suggested an objective had been missed.
The primary objective became simple.
[Enter the colony.]
[Reach the deepest workshop.]
[Defeat the Hobgoblin Artificer.]
Hizon returned to the catalogue.
The Hobgoblin Artificer appeared beneath the Goblin Trapper’s advancement options. It possessed improved trap construction, alchemical knowledge, mechanical design, command abilities affecting assistants, and enough intelligence to change prepared devices during combat.
Its health and direct combat ratings were lower than those of a normal hobgoblin commander, but its intelligence made it dangerous for the adventurers.
Hizon approved the purchase.
The Artificer appeared in the unfinished workshop wearing a heavy leather apron covered with narrow pockets. Metal lenses rested above his eyes. He carried a tool case instead of a sword.
He looked once at the empty benches and then at Hizon’s projected presence.
"How many assistants can I have?" He asked.
"As many as you can keep useful."
The Artificer requested measurements for the room where the boss fight would take place, a list of available creatures, and permission to inspect every mechanism the trappers had built. Hizon granted all three.
The final workshop expanded under his direction.
Regular goblin assistants received stations along the walls. Two trappers controlled gates between the party and the central floor. A Bombardier Beetle waited behind a shielded opening that could be exposed by a crank. Bullet ants traveled through raised tunnels and delivered replacement components to the assistants.
The Artificer designed no single weapon capable of defeating a party.
He designed a room where every helper kept another danger working.
Goblin assistants reset weighted arms and carried alchemical flasks. Trappers repaired damaged gates and changed the floor mechanisms. The beetles denied open approaches. Hobgoblin guards prevented adventurers from walking directly to the work platform.
The Artificer remained vulnerable behind all of them.
If a party disabled the helpers and machinery, he would not survive long. If they ignored everything to rush him, the room would close around them.
Hizon approved the boss’s framework.
Adventurer rewards came from defeated creatures, time spent inside, and a completion allocation. Parties could receive dungeon coins, insect material, alchemical components, or trap parts produced by the reward system.
He set no reservation schedule.
[Recommended party size: 5]
[Instance copies: Generated as required]
[Global entry limit: None]
[Completion cooldown: None]
The last decision concerned the entrance.
Sanctuary’s central square already held portals leading toward Max’s levels, public services, Corathen, and attractions. Placing The Ant Hill among them would send adventurers through the instance without requiring them to see any other part of Hizon’s territory.
Hizon selected a broad Undercity street instead.
The location stood near an equipment market, two eating houses, an alchemical supplier, and several shops selling goods produced by Undercity workshops. The street could hold several parties without blocking ordinary traffic. Empty stone frontage beside a warehouse provided enough room for an entrance arch and a goblin-operated counter.
The arch rose from the floor in dark stone.
Packed earth filled its center until Hizon activated the instance connection. A sign appeared above it.
[The Ant Hill]
[Five-person renewable instance]
[Reach the deepest workshop and defeat the Hobgoblin Artificer.]
Adventurers gathered before the construction finished.
Some had come to the Undercity after hearing that the defense dungeon now accepted simultaneous groups. Others followed the system notice announcing a new instance. Equipment merchants moved their most relevant goods toward the street. The alchemical supplier placed burn salves and breathing cloths near his entrance after reading the public creature warnings.
Hizon reviewed the finished project once.
The routes connected. The creatures were in place and behaving like they should. The objective could be completed. The final chamber recognized the Artificer as its boss. Everything was ready.
He opened The Ant Hill.
The packed earth inside the arch withdrew, revealing a descending tunnel lit by pale bioluminescent fungus along the walls. Five adventurers at the front of the waiting crowd crossed through the portal together.
A silver boundary closed behind them. The tunnel remained open.
The next party advanced toward the arch while new adventures were informed of the dungeons newest instance.
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