Dungeon Master (Karma System)

Lana spent the morning with the familiar trainer.

The lesson itself lasted less than an hour. The trainer explained how the bond between a mage and a true familiar could carry more than emotions or simple commands. With the right spell, sight, sound, and even smell could pass between them.

Once Lana understood the basics, a notification appeared.

[Shared Senses training has begun.]

[Shared Senses progress: 0.1%]

Learning the spell was not as simple as paying for the lesson. The first time she tried looking through Midnight’s eyes, she became dizzy and fell out of her chair. The second attempt lasted three seconds before she lost the connection.

Midnight seemed to enjoy her difficulties. Every time the connection broke, the black cat moved somewhere else and waited for Lana to find him again. The familiar trainer encouraged it. Seeing through another creature was only useful if Lana could understand where that creature was in relation to her own body.

The trainer placed Midnight on shelves, beneath tables, and on the other side of the room. Lana had to identify objects through her familiar eyes while her actual body was walking in a straight line. She struck the wall twice and stepped on the trainer’s foot once.

By the afternoon, she could maintain it as long as she kept her own eyes closed. That was enough to begin.

Rod’s party met inside the Orc Arena. Halbin paid the entry fee and selected the Orc Chief from the list of available opponents.

”We are not trying to win this time,” Rod said.

Cindy raised an eyebrow. ”Then what are we paying for?”

”To learn how to fight without waiting for me to tell everyone what to do.”

Rod had spent most of the night developing hand signals and short commands. There were signals for changing targets, retreating, protecting Lana, spreading apart, and gathering together. He had even created several false commands they could use to mislead the Chief.

It lasted less than two minutes.

Rod signaled for the party to spread out. Halbin mistook it for the signal to attack from both sides. Cindy saw Halbin move and followed him. Dirk called out a warning, but Lana thought he was giving the command for everyone to take cover.

The Orc Chief walked through the confused formation and defeated them one at a time. It was an absolute mess.

When they revived outside the arena, Cindy glared at Rod.

”That was worse than shouting what we planned to do.”

”Much worse,” Dirk agreed.

Rod looked toward his father for support.

Halbin shook his head. ”You created too many commands. We spent more time remembering them than watching the enemy.”

Lana sat on a stone bench with Midnight in her lap. ”I could barely use Shared Senses. Midnight was on top of a pillar, but I was so focused on what he could see that I didn’t notice the Chief standing beside me.”

They had tried to fix every problem at once and created several new ones. Rod discarded most of his signals. They kept four simple calls. Break meant to create distance. Close meant to protect the nearest party member. Turn warned that the Chief had changed targets. Open meant someone had created an opportunity to attack.

More importantly, anyone could use them. Their second attempt lasted six minutes.

The Chief still defeated them, but they reduced his health a bit more than their previous best. He could understand their calls, but knowing that someone was open to attack did not tell him who would take advantage of it.

Their third attempt went worse. The Chief recognized that Lana was using Midnight to watch the battlefield. He kicked a stone toward the cat’s perch and forced Midnight to jump down. The sudden movement broke Lana’s concentration. The Chief attacked Dirk while everyone was waiting for Lana to warn them.

They had turned her new spell into another weakness.

”Do not depend on Midnight,” Lana said afterward. ”He gives us another pair of eyes. He should not replace our own.”

Rod nodded. ”The same goes for me. If you see something, act. Do not wait for a command.”

They spent the rest of the day fighting training automatons instead of the Chief. Rod gave no orders. Each person had to watch the two party members nearest to them and react when those people moved.

At first, they constantly collided or attacked the same target. Slowly, they began to understand one another.

Dirk learned that Cindy leaned forward before committing to a large attack. Cindy learned that Lana lowered her staff whenever she needed someone to move out of her line of fire. Halbin could tell when Rod was preparing to use Charge by the way he shifted his grip on his axe.

The next morning, they challenged the Chief again. They brought his health even lower than the last time.

He defeated Lana first, then used the threat of attacking Dirk to draw Rod away from Cindy. Once the party was separated, the Chief finished them.

On their fifth attempt, they made progress again, even if the Orc still wasn’t defeated.

On their sixth, they did worse than the fourth.

The Chief never fought them in exactly the same way. If they protected Lana, he pressured Dirk. If Cindy conserved her energy, he forced her to block until she was exhausted. When Halbin tried to stay near Rod, the Chief kept them close enough that one swing of his axe threatened both.

Every defeat cost some dungeon coins, but Halbin continued paying.

”Training against a real opponent without risking permanent injury is worth far more than some gold pieces.” He said when Lana offered to cover part of the expense.

That evening, they gathered in one of the training compound’s projection rooms and watched their defeats. Rod stopped the recording moments before the Chief attacked Lana during their sixth attempt.

”He always goes after whoever is most vulnerable,” Rod said.

”No,” Dirk replied. ”Look at what he did first.”

Rod replayed the previous few seconds. The Chief had attacked Cindy, forcing Halbin to help. He then moved toward Dirk, drawing Rod away from the center. Only after everyone had shifted did he turn toward Lana.

”She wasn’t vulnerable until he moved us,” Dirk said. ”He created the opening.”

Lana replayed several other moments. ”He also remembers how we react. The first time he attacks me, Cindy protects me. The next time, he only pretends to attack me because he knows Cindy will move.”

Cindy leaned back in her chair. ”So the plan is to stop doing what worked?”

”The plan is to understand why it worked,” Halbin said. ”If you protect Lana because you are closest, that is a good decision. If you run across the arena because you protected her last time, the Chief is making the decision for you.”

Rod looked at the frozen image of the Orc Chief. He had approached party leadership as if every problem needed a command, against most monsters, that had worked. Now, the Chief was showing him the weakness in it.

”We watch the two people closest to us,” Rod said. ”If the Chief attacks one, the other reacts. Everyone else keeps doing their job unless a call changes that.”

”And if he breaks the formation?” Lana asked.

”Then whoever can see what is happening makes the call.”

For the first time, Rod was building a plan that did not place him at the center of every decision.

Before their eighth attempt, Lana could keep her own eyes open while receiving brief images from Midnight. The two views overlapped and gave her a headache, but she no longer became helpless while using the spell.

[Shared Senses progress: 17.4%]

They entered the arena again. The Chief attacked Cindy first. Halbin moved to help her, but Rod remained where he was. The Chief had used the same opening before to draw the party together.

”Turn!” Midnight’s view showed Lana what the Chief was doing before she could see it herself.

The Chief abandoned Cindy and rushed toward Dirk. The archer did not retreat; he ran toward Rod.

The moment the Chief followed, Rod attacked from the side. The Orc blocked his axe and tried to drive him into Dirk, but the archer used Nimble Feet to cross a narrow boulder and changed direction. Quickly circling around while the Chief was locked together with Rod.

An arrow struck the Chief’s unprotected back.

”Open!” Dirk shouted.

Cindy and Halbin attacked without waiting for Rod. The Chief blocked Cindy, but Halbin’s sword cut across his arm. Lana used Ice Bolts sparingly. She did not try to maintain the full slowing effect. She cast only when the Chief needed to move quickly or when an attack would force him toward one of the weapon masters.

The fight continued for nearly fifteen minutes.

There was no perfect combination and no single moment when everything went according to plan. The Chief changed targets, broke their formation, and forced them to abandon several attacks.

Each time, the party formed again in a different way.

When Cindy became exhausted, Dirk stayed close enough to draw the Chief’s attention without getting caught. When the Chief cornered Dirk, Lana froze the ground beneath the Orc’s leading foot. When Lana ran low on mana, Halbin stopped waiting for magical openings and created his own.

The Chief’s health began to fall dangerously low.

He swung his axe in a wide circle, forcing Rod and Halbin back. Then he changed direction and charged Lana. Midnight saw him coming from above.

”Close!” Lana yelled.

Cindy was nearest. She stepped between them and caught the axe with her saber. The impact nearly knocked the weapon from her hands, but she held on long enough for Rod to reach them. He struck the Chief’s knee and immediately moved away.

The Orc turned after him. Halbin activated Swift Blade and attacked the Chief’s wounded arm. Dirk’s arrow struck the same place before the Orc could protect it.

The Chief lost his grip on the axe. White light gathered around Cindy’s saber. The Chief rushed her before she could release the attack.

”Break!” Rod shouted.

Cindy stopped gathering energy and retreated. The Chief had expected her to commit. His charge carried him past the place where she had been standing.

Lana’s Ice Spark struck his back. The spell did not paralyze him, but the layer of frost slowed his turn. Rod activated Charge while Halbin and Cindy attacked from opposite sides.

Dirk’s arrow struck the Chief’s injured knee. The Orc dropped to one leg. Rod’s axe struck his chest.

[Orc Chief has been defeated.]

The five adventurers stared at the notification.

Then Rod began to laugh.

”We finally did it,” Dirk said.

”Against the Arena copy,” Halbin reminded them. ”The real challenge comes after two other battles.”

Their smiles faded slightly. They needed to defeat the beast and hunting party without wasting the strength required for the Chief. Practicing one fight was no longer enough. They had to complete all three as a single challenge.

Rod looked around at the others. ”Tomorrow, we clear Orc Highlands.”