Dungeon Master (Karma System)

The fungal cords entered the Ant Hill long before Nethren opened a passage large enough for his army.

They slipped between packed stones, followed cracks in the hardened earth, and emerged through seams the goblins had never considered openings. Defenders cut every strand they found. The cords withdrew and returned somewhere else.

Hizon watched pale marks appear across the Ant Hill map.

Each mark represented a place where the dungeon sensed foreign growth. At first, they clustered around the collapsed entrance. Then isolated points appeared in nearby chambers. The network was searching for open ground on the other side of the blockage.

"Do not chase individual strands." Hizon said. "Seal the nearest chambers and clear every creature from the marked tunnels. We destroy the growth after it gathers somewhere worth burning."

The Artificer answered from the Ant Hill control station. "If it reaches the lift controls, the fungus may open routes we intend to keep closed."

"Disconnect the controls from the outer tunnels."

"That means operating the nearest gates by hand."

"Assign workers to them."

The Artificer sent goblin crews toward the manual releases. Cables connecting the first tunnel mechanisms went slack as workers removed their locking pins. Nethren could infest the outer controls without gaining authority over the gates deeper inside.

The first breach opened six minutes later.

Dark plates pushed between the collapsed stones and forced them apart. Fungal guards dug into the opening from the valley side. The wedge-headed siege creature struck the weakened blockage until earth spilled into the Ant Hill.

No goblins waited in the first chamber.

The enemy entered without resistance. Carriers crossed the broken ground and planted growth along the walls. Cave moths filled the chamber after them, coating the ceiling with gray dust.

Nethren followed his creatures through the breach.

The amber light inside his chest illuminated the first junction as it formed. Cords connected with him, and pale growth expanded into every unsealed tunnel.

The fungal Dungeon Master had entered a level designed around narrow passages, collapses, and false routes. His network could explore several tunnels at once, but it still had to occupy physical space.

Hizon intended to make that expensive.

Nethren divided his force into five groups. One followed the broadest passage. Two entered narrower side routes. Moths and carriers moved through a raised tunnel near the ceiling. The final group remained with Nethren and the siege creature.

Hizon allowed every group to advance.

The first enemy force found an empty feeding chamber. Fresh scraps and abandoned tools suggested the goblins had withdrawn only moments earlier. Carriers spread across the floor. Fungal guards searched the side openings.

A gate closed behind them.

Goblin workers released covered containers through narrow holes in the ceiling. The containers broke against the floor and filled the chamber with oil. The fungal guards tried to force the gate while their junction pulled cords away from the spreading liquid.

The goblins ignited the room from outside.

Heat passed through the walls. The enemy group disappeared from the Ant Hill map as fire consumed its growth and creatures together.

Nethren felt the loss.

Every remaining group stopped at the same moment. The network pulled back from open chambers and began testing ceilings, walls, and floors before advancing.

Hizon had shown him the first trap because caution would slow everything that followed.

The group in the raised tunnel encountered no oil. Its carriers found thin grooves cut into the floor and sent cords through them. The grooves led toward a junction chamber with four possible exits.

Fungal guards entered first.

The floor turned beneath them.

The entire central section rotated and dropped the creatures into separate lower tunnels. Goblin gates closed before the network could pull them back together. Bombardier Beetles waited in two of the passages. Goblin spears waited in the others.

Without a junction connecting them, the isolated fungal guards reacted slowly. Some fought. Others tried to grow new cords through the sealed walls. None rejoined the main force.

Nethren abandoned that route.

His broadest group advanced more carefully. Wet fungal plates covered the floor before the guards crossed it. Moths entered chambers first and disturbed concealed containers with the wind from their wings. Carriers pressed against gates to search for heat on the other side.

The enemy was learning the Ant Hill, but it was using time and bodies to do it.

Hizon checked the battle limit.

[Dungeon Battle time remaining: 21 hours, 43 minutes.]

Time would matter only if neither side claimed a core. Hizon did not intend to surrender the outcome to the system’s score. He needed to defeat the attacking force with enough strength remaining to invade Fungal Hollow.

The Ant Hill could not consume all of his defenders to protect itself.

"Brannik, move the Stag Beetle to the lower junction." Hizon said. "The goblin king will hold the central colony. You will command the mobile groups between them."

"The outer tunnels still contain three enemy groups. Moving the Stag Beetle will leave those routes with fewer defenders." Brannik said.

"Leave the group near the old storage chambers sealed inside its route." Hizon said. "It has not planted a junction since entering and cannot threaten the core without reconnecting to the network."

Brannik checked the map. The fungal creatures in that route continued moving, but the growth behind them remained thin.

"They are separated from the network." Brannik said.

"Nethren wants us to send defenders after them. Seal the inner exit and leave them there."

The disconnected group could damage empty rooms without threatening the route toward Hizon’s core. Chasing it would waste creatures needed elsewhere.

Nethren’s main force reached the first manually operated gate.

The wedge-headed siege animal struck it. Reinforced wood bent but held. Fungal cords entered the frame and tried to pull the hinges from the surrounding earth.

Goblin workers turned a wheel in the chamber above.

The tunnel narrowed.

Packed walls moved inward along hidden tracks, pressing against the siege creature from both sides. It drove its wedge-shaped head deeper and prevented the passage from closing completely. Fungal guards crawled beneath its body while moths entered through the remaining space.

The workers continued turning.

Wooden braces cracked. The siege creature’s protective plates broke against the walls, but the fungal mass beneath them expanded to fill the pressure. It had found a position where its strength could hold the mechanism open.

The Artificer studied the control display. "The walls will not crush it before the drive chain breaks. I can preserve the mechanism or continue holding the passage, but I cannot do both."

"Release the pressure and preserve the mechanism for the withdrawal." Hizon said. "The creature has already forced enough space for the guards beneath it."

The workers disengaged the drive. The walls stopped pressing inward. The siege creature forced the gate from its frame and opened the central route.

Nethren entered behind it.

He had seen the first chamber burn and the junction floor divide his creatures. He no longer allowed carriers to move far ahead of his position. Thick cords connected him directly to the guards surrounding the siege animal.

That kept his army coordinated.

It also gathered the network around him.

Hizon waited until Nethren passed the broken gate.

"Close the outer routes."

Manual crews released every gate behind the fungal Dungeon Master. Trappers collapsed two side tunnels. The abandoned enemy group near the storage chambers vanished behind packed earth. Nethren’s remaining forces were confined to the central route.

Brannik led three goblin teams through narrow passages running parallel to it. They carried acid bulbs, heated blades, and sealed fire pots. None attacked the fungal guards.

They attacked the junctions left behind them.

The first junction died beneath acid. The second withdrew before the goblins reached it, but moved into a tunnel where a waiting Bombardier Beetle burned it. The third split into smaller growths and tried to flee through cracks in the wall.

Goblin workers opened the nearest steam pipe.

Heated vapor filled the cracks and cooked the escaping cords.

Nethren stopped in the central route.

The cords linking him to the outer Ant Hill tightened. Several broke. Pale growth covering the captured chambers lost its shape and sagged against the walls.

The fungal Dungeon Master turned back.

The gate behind him had closed. Goblin shields filled the parallel openings above it. Brannik’s teams withdrew before Nethren could redirect his guards toward them.

Hizon had cut the invading force away from most of its captured territory.

He did not order an attack.

Nethren still controlled too many creatures, and the wedge-headed siege animal remained functional. A battle in the central route would favor its mass. Hizon opened the inner gate instead.

The path toward the central colony appeared unguarded.

Nethren faced it.

"He knows the central colony is another trap, but he is entering anyway." Brannik said.

"Returning to the valley cannot bring him closer to the core." Hizon said. "He is taking the only useful route we left open."

Nethren sent moths through the gate. Their wings disturbed no wires. Their dust revealed no hidden pits. Fungal guards followed in a tight formation around the siege creature.

The route led into the largest colony chamber in the Ant Hill.

Tiered passages opened along its walls. Bridges of packed earth crossed above the main floor. Empty platforms and abandoned supply piles created the appearance of a position evacuated too quickly.

The goblin king waited beyond the far exit.

Hundreds of goblins occupied the surrounding tunnels outside Nethren’s view. The king’s aura reached them through the walls, strengthening hands already resting on bows, spears, levers, and release bars.

Nethren entered the chamber.

His cords spread cautiously across the floor. They found grooves surrounding the abandoned supplies and withdrew before touching them. The fungal guards raised wet shields toward the upper passages.

The wedge-headed creature moved to the center.

Hizon closed both gates.

Goblins appeared along every tier.

Their first attack did not target Nethren’s guards. Acid bulbs and heated bolts struck the thick cords connecting them. Bombardier Beetles fired from protected side chambers. The Stag Beetle emerged from the lower junction and blocked the route back toward the valley.

The network broke into sections.

Nethren drove both hands into the chamber floor. Amber light passed through the remaining cords, and dark plates spread around him. His guards pulled inward, forming a living wall while moths filled the upper chamber with spores.

The goblin king entered through the far gate.

His aura strengthened the defenders enough to keep fighting through the dust. Goblins wearing masks maintained their positions while unprotected creatures withdrew into clear tunnels. The king pointed his blade toward the fungal Dungeon Master.

"Your army entered the Goblin Depths because you believed everything living beneath this mountain would become part of your network." The goblin king said. "These tunnels already belong to us."

Nethren answered for the first time.

His voice came from every fungal guard still connected to him.

"Everything beneath the ground becomes food eventually."

The siege creature convulsed.

Its wedge-shaped body split open. Thick strands reached from it to every defeated fungal creature in the chamber. Broken guards, burned carriers, and severed growths slid across the floor. The network pulled them together around the siege animal.

Its body expanded.

New limbs pressed against the chamber floor. Layers of dark fungal armor covered a mass large enough to reach the lower bridges. Nethren had stopped preserving the creature and begun feeding it everything his army had lost.

The transformed siege beast struck the nearest support column.

The bridge above it collapsed. Goblins withdrew before the falling earth reached them, but the impact opened a route into one of the upper tunnels.

Nethren directed the creature toward the far gate.

The goblin king’s defenders attacked its exposed growth. Damage disappeared beneath new layers drawn from the bodies around it. Every fungal creature destroyed in the chamber became material for the same advancing mass.

Hizon studied the enemy’s remaining manpower.

The transformation had consumed creatures that could no longer fight independently. It had also created something the Ant Hill was not built to contain.

The enormous fungal beast struck the far gate.

Reinforced wood broke from its frame.

Beyond it waited the final tunnels leading to the Goblin Foundry.

Hizon ordered the goblin king to withdraw.

The Ant Hill had separated Nethren from most of his network and destroyed a large portion of his army. Holding the colony chamber until every goblin fell would not improve that victory.

The defenders retreated through the upper passages while the Stag Beetle blocked the lower route. Trappers released the final collapses behind them.

Nethren followed his transformed creature through the broken gate.