Dungeon Master (Karma System)

Hizon left the mansion and walked into the village. He noticed that several adventures would glance at him but other than that they ignored him.

It was strange but he didn’t pay much mind to it since he saw several orcs also walking down the street and the adventurers didn’t pay them any attention either.

Checking his dungeon menu, he found that Max had given him 5,000 DP to build his home. He found that to be ridiculous. Not because it was a small amount. In fact, it was the opposite. In the mines he had to scrimp and save every Dungeon Point he gathered and now his boss had just handed him a large chunk of DP like it was nothing.

He could only shake his head and sigh. What had he been thinking when he decided to battle this dungeon. The fact that Max could causally hand out so much DP without batting an eye was crazy to him.

While disappointed that he would no longer be the head honcho in charge of everything, but being under Max’s banner may not be such a bad thing.

Hizon spent the next few hours wandering around the growing village. He explored the shops and inns along with the various other attractions. With the sun setting on the horizon the hobgoblin wandered into a tavern.

He had seen a few taverns already, but this one was on the outskirts of the village and seemed to have less traffic. Hizon chose it because it would be a nice quiet place to drink.

When he walked in, several well-armed adventurers turned and stared at him. Hizon looked back for a moment and then walked to the bar. He noticed the adventures turned back to their drinks but kept an eye on him.

He figured he was drawing their attention because he was the only goblins creature in the dungeon right now.

A white-haired man behind the counter walked up to him.

Hizon found this odd since this was the first store that had a human working. Most had gnomes and then there were a few odd creatures here and there, but this was the first time he found a place that a human worked in.

”What can I get you to drink?” The man asked.

Hizon saw a lot of writing on the wall behind the bar, but he couldn’t read the human language very well.

”Do you have any spiced mead?”

”Sure, that will be 3 bronze pieces or if you want to pay with dungeon coins, I can open up a tab for you.”

Hizon checked his dungeon menu since he knew he only had dungeon points. He quickly found a section where he could switch points for coins and got his hands on some money.

A single dungeon coin materialized on the bar counter.

The old man took it and then served the drink.

Hizon slowly sipped the warm mead and then smacked his lips.

”Ah, that’s good.”

The old man smiled. ”Can’t say I have seen a hobgoblin in the dungeon before. Did you wander in or is Boss Clarkson reworking one of his levels?”

Hizon’s shoulders dropped. ”Well... I lost the dungeon battle today. Boss is turning my dungeon into a sub dungeon.”

”Oh, well I imagine there are worse dungeon masters to work for.” The old man said.

”Yeah, he seems alright so far. I am just waiting for the other shoe to drop.”

Hizon didn’t notice but everyone in the tavern was paying close attention while the old man behind the bar fished for information.

”Any idea what he plans to do with your dungeon? I imagine your people are worried about what will come next.”

Hizon shook his head. ”They are still waiting in the dungeon space, so they don’t even know we have lost yet. Boss Clarkson said I will get them back once we build a place for them tomorrow.”

”Oh, well at least he isn’t taking everything.”

Hizon shrugged. ”After seeing what he has here and learning about his operation, I don’t know that he would even want my people. I know he didn’t mean too, but it was obvious he thought they weren’t up to his standards.”

”Here, have another one.” The old man said while setting another drink in front of Hizon after he finished his first. ”But that is understandable. Even the strong warriors here are having a hard time beating the Boss’s first level. From what we heard, he already has four levels built and only a handful of people have reached the second level.”

Hizon nodded. ”That is what I heard too. Once he revives my guards tomorrow, I was thinking about trying out the first level. But that will depend on how long it takes to build the dungeon he wants me to run tomorrow.”

”Well, the boys here can offer you some tips. The first level can be pretty tricky. So, is the boss going to be adding a fifth level for you guys to run? Because if that is the case, it may be a long time before you can get adventures into it.”

”No.” Hizon said with a shake of his head. ”Last we talked, Boss Clarkson wants to have a dungeon that opens once a week and lets 20 or 50 people in.”

”Oh, how will that work? Sounds like you won’t to get many visitors then.”

Hizon shrugged. ”I am not sure; he just wants to do that until I get the instance system up and running but there is a lot of prep that needs to be done first.”

”That makes sense. If you are going to be building another copy of the goblin mines, I imagine that will take a bit of time.”

”Nah, he wants something else. He called it a defense dungeon. I am not entirely sure how it will work, but the idea sounds alright.”

”Defense dungeon aye? Can’t say I have ever heard of something like that.”

The hobgoblin agreed. ”The boss said the idea is for people to defend a small village or outpost. A wave of enemies comes in and then they will have time to build up a defense before a stronger wave of enemies comes. The rewards adventures receive will depend on how well they defend and how long they can last. If they can hold on till the very end and overcome the last wave they will get big rewards.”

”That is fairly different for a typical dungeon.”

Hizon shrugged. ”Boss Clarkson seemed sure that people would be interested in it.”

The old man behind the counter nodded. ”I can see how it could draw a certain crowd.”

Hizon finished off his drink before getting up. ”That’s for the mead. I need to go track down a gnome to build my home unless I want to stay at an inn tonight.”

”Good luck and hopefully the dungeon works out.” The old man said as the hobgoblin left the tavern.

All the adventurers grabbed their drinks and headed to the bar. A large man in heavy metal armor spoke to the bartender.

”Guild master, what do you think?”

”I think it sounds like the prefect dungeon for our Golden Axe group. With the new recruits we picked up we have enough if it is a 20-man dungeon but if it is 50 we will need some more to fill in the gaps.”

”That’s true. But we need to move fast. Lord Titters will probably want his recruits to take on the new dungeon. If they can snag the first run it sounds like we will have to wait a week to give it a try.”

”That’s true.” The guild master behind the bar said. ”And the Lord’s son seems to know Boss Clarkson pretty well. We have to make sure we can get the first run. I want to find out what the rewards for completing the dungeon are.”

///

Hizon walked down the street and sent a voice message through dungeon menu.

Max was pleased that the menu was capable of translating because he had no desire to learn to read and write goblin.

[Boss, I did as you suggest and spread the news at the tavern that is run by the Golden Axe group. They seemed interested and were fishing for information.]

Hizon closed the menu and assumed he would get a reply tomorrow since it was already fairly late. At least he wouldn’t have to worry about not having adventures for his dungeon. With Max’s ideas he wouldn’t be waiting on them to enter, they would be waiting on him to open.