Dungeon Master (Karma System)

Max scrolled through the dungeon creature purchase menus. He filtered out several options to narrow down what he was looking for.

Thousands of Eternal Souls remained available through the dungeon core. Most belonged to the races already represented somewhere in the dungeon. Some had advanced classes. Others had rare combinations of Skills that made them more expensive than small groups of ordinary creatures.

Max had no reason to purchase ordinary creatures for the elite unit he was creating.

This force would protect his core, respond to emergencies across the dungeon, and send ten members into the Elder God’s next challenge. Filling it with inexpensive units and hoping they became elite later would save DP now while defeating the purpose of creating it.

Anna stood beside his desk with the list of required functions. Quin occupied the other side, reading the catalogue entries Max opened above the table.

"Let’s start with twenty." Max said. "Four groups of five that can work separately or combine. I may expand it later."

Quin moved the strongest available orc commander out of the current selection.

The unit possessed excellent personal combat records and three abilities that strengthened other orcs. None affected elves, dwarves, humans, or fey. A skill like that wouldn’t truly shine in a mixed race group.

"Power tied to one formation is useful if you plan to keep that formation." Quin said. "This group cannot depend on every member standing beside the same race."

Max replaced the entry with a human battle captain whose command abilities worked through recognized allies rather than species.

[Human Battle Captain]

[Eternal Soul]

[Primary functions: Tactical coordination, resistance support, rapid command relay.]

[Cost: 48,000 DP]

The price was higher than any other individual on the shortlist.

Max approved it.

The command group formed around that decision. An orc bulwark provided the durable front. An elven ward mage handled magical defense. A human field healer specialized in stabilizing people while moving them out of danger. A quickling scout could cross a battlefield before most opponents finished turning their heads.

None existed to make the captain’s personal attacks stronger. Each brought their own advantages to the team.

The second group focused on containment.

Max selected a dwarven shieldthane who could establish an anchored defensive line without requiring a wall behind him. A dryad could create barriers and control the ground around an intruder. A human magebreaker disrupted hostile spells. An elven archer detected targets across long distances, and an orc shaman could cleanse afflictions while denying areas with hostile magic.

The third group needed to find threats that refused to approach a prepared defense.

An elven ranger became its leader. Max added a redcap tracker capable of following blood, an orc hunter trained to take targets alive with nets, a human infiltrator who could identify concealed routes, and a dwarf carrying a heavy crossbow designed for armored and airborne enemies.

The final group existed to enter places where every ordinary route had failed.

Its dwarven runesmith could place temporary wards and reinforce damaged equipment. An orc breaker provided force against gates and armor. A satyr controlled sound and perception. An elven spellblade supplied mobile offense. A dwarven combat engineer recognized unstable structures, traps, and mechanisms before the group destroyed something it needed to cross.

Quin reviewed all twenty positions together.

"You have two healers." He said.

"The human and the dryad. The orc shaman can keep people functional but is not a replacement for either."

"One fast messenger."

"The quickling. The ranger and human infiltrator can scout if she is unavailable."

The questions continued. Quin found overlaps, but none that left one individual as the only possible answer to an entire category of problem. If the human healer fell, the dryad could keep someone alive. If the orc bulwark could not hold a narrow route, the dwarven shieldthane could. The ranger, redcap, orc hunter, and human infiltrator followed different evidence rather than duplicating one Skill under four names.

Anna calculated the final cost.

[Twenty Elite Eternal Souls: 626,000 DP]

That amount purchased the creatures with their standard weapons, armor, and role equipment. It did not include the specialized training ground Max wanted or equipment designed for the threats inside his dungeon.

"It is expensive." Anna said.

"It is supposed to be." Max replied.

He did not lower the cost by replacing the human healer with two ordinary healers or the runesmith with a basic dwarven engineer. The elite unit could not become the place where he accepted cheaper substitutes and then relied on Quin to repair the decision through training.

Max approved the full purchase.

The first five appeared inside an unused assembly chamber connected to the private routes.

The human commander arrived at the center. He wore dark scale beneath a long reinforced coat, and no kingdom or family mark appeared on the steel at his shoulders. His system record identified him as Aderic. The orc bulwark stood nearly a foot taller beside him. The elven ward mage carried a narrow staff surrounded by three metal rings. The healer wore flexible armor over a field robe. The quickling appeared last and immediately looked toward every door in the chamber.

Aderic examined Max, Anna, and Quin.

"Dungeon Master." He said. "Who holds field command when you are not present?"

"You do." Max answered. "Quin is responsible for your initial training and evaluation. He can issue training orders and operational instructions when I place him over a response. He is not becoming the permanent commander of this unit."

Aderic looked toward Quin.

Quin nodded once. "I will train you and impart my own experiences, but I am not apart of your unit."

"Understood."

The next five arrived.

The dwarven shieldthane placed his shield against the floor and waited without speaking. The dryad’s hair carried living leaves that turned toward the nearest source of light. The human magebreaker checked the distance between the group and the doors. The elven archer selected the highest clear sightline in the room, while the orc shaman remained near the center where she could reach all four.

The pursuit group followed. The redcap’s presence drew immediate attention from the human healer. He carried an iron-edged weapon and smelled faintly of old blood, but his system record showed discipline abilities intended to govern the instincts that made his species dangerous.

The quickling kept a deliberate distance from him until Aderic assigned their positions. The redcap noticed.

"My pursuit sense excludes registered allies unless a commander deliberately changes their status." He said.

The final five appeared around Dagna, the dwarven runesmith assigned to lead their work. She inspected the assembly-room floor before greeting anyone. Her attention settled on a repaired seam where two stone sections met.

"This room was not built for breaching practice." she said.

"It was not," Max answered. "Your permanent training space is the next construction project."

The orc breaker looked disappointed by the intact walls. Dagna told him not to test them.

Aderic did not call the twenty into one line and begin memorizing names.

He called the three other group leaders to the center and asked each to identify the first weakness in the force as purchased. Borin, the dwarven shieldthane, said containment could hold a route but lacked a fast way to pursue anyone who broke through it. Eryndor said the pursuit group could find a fleeing target but would struggle against a prepared magical barrier. Dagna said her group could open most barriers but carried no dedicated healer.

Aderic assigned the overlaps before anyone moved to training. The quickling would carry information between separated groups instead of remaining beside command. The elven ward mage would support pursuit if it encountered a magical obstruction. The dryad would remain ready to reinforce breach when Dagna’s people had to work beneath attack.

"Those are not permanent transfers." He said. "They are the first connections between groups that were purchased separately. Even though we are in 5 person teams we are all part of the same unit."

Quin listened without correcting him.

Max had selected the roles. Aderic was already treating those roles as pieces of one force rather than accepting the four catalogue formations as finished answers.

Anna opened the temporary barracks record. The twenty would live beside the private assembly route until Max completed a permanent headquarters. Shared meals, equipment storage, and briefing rooms would place the groups together outside exercises without giving them public duties that pulled them apart.

"You begin with no patrol schedule." Max said. "Sanctuary security already has one. You are not replacing the gnomes or walking public streets to display that I purchased you."

Aderic accepted the boundary. "We respond when assigned and train when we are not."

"Correct."

All twenty registrations joined the dungeon’s roster.

[Assignment: Mobile Elite Unit]

[Permanent level assignment: None]

[Authorized response territory: Sanctuary, Undercity, Levels One through Five, private defensive routes.]

[Restricted-route access: Controlled through active orders.]

Max did not give every member a permanent token capable of opening every private portal. The unit would receive access tied to its assignments. A response force needed to reach protected areas without turning twenty people into twenty permanent keys.

Aderic read the authority record.

"Primary mission?"

Max placed the challenge notice beside the core-defense requirements.

"Protect the dungeon wherever its fixed defenders cannot respond without abandoning their own responsibilities. That includes the core, Anna, me, trapped staff, and threats that cross between levels. In less than two weeks, ten of you will enter a dungeon designed by an Elder God. We do not know the objective or environment."

The elven ranger asked. "Will you communicate with us inside it?"

"Unknown."

"Will death return us during the challenge?"

"Unknown."

"Do we know what qualifies as success?"

"No."

Aderic considered the three answers.

"Then our first requirement is functioning without a complete order."

Quin stepped away from the wall. "Correct."

He opened four routes from the assembly chamber. Each led to a different empty training area. They were sufficient for twenty experienced units to begin learning how their unfamiliar allies moved.

Aderic divided them by their assigned groups.

He used the names of the four group leaders and referred to everyone else by role until he learned more. The quickling went with the command group. The shieldthane took containment. The elven ranger led pursuit. Dagna took the breaching specialists.

The first exercise contained no enemy. Each group received a different portion of a damaged-route report and had to reach the same sealed chamber without opening an unsafe portal. The task would show whether they shared information before acting, not whether an elite fighter could overpower an empty door. Aderic asked for five minutes to establish signals between the groups. Quin gave him three.

Twenty new Eternal Souls left through four doors.

Max closed the catalogue. The purchase had filled the roster. The next stage was making sure a call for one elite unit did not produce four groups arriving with four unrelated plans. He needed them to work together like a well oiled machine.

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