Dungeon Master (Karma System)

The Dread Fort killed another twelve parties over the next several weeks.

Most did not reach the inner gate. Two found the burial tunnel and failed to silence its bell. One reached the gatehouse passage, saw the portcullis, and spent too much time searching side chambers for a mechanism that did not exist. The undead trapped them between the closed gate and reinforcements from the crypt.

None of the attempts taught the Sanctuary as much as Golden Axe’s first journey to the throne room.

The line recorded in the Hall of Achievements did not change.

Kildra, Warden of the Last Threshold: Undefeated.

Matthew read it every morning.

On the twenty-third day after Golden Axe’s defeat, he rented the Sanctuary arena for a private party session and selected an encounter no one else could choose.

The arena remembered anything its participants had personally faced. It could reproduce the cyclops from the Orc Highlands, the elder dryad from Fey Nights, the scaled boarders from the Dwarven airship, and thousands of other enemies experienced by the people who used it.

Matthew’s menu offered a darker choice.

[Dread Fort: Throne Room.]

[Encounter includes Kildra, Warden of the Last Threshold, and associated grave knights.]

[Arena recreations provide no dungeon clear, boss reward, or achievement credit.]

Matthew selected it.

The sand beneath Golden Axe became black stone. Rows of empty pillars rose around them, followed by a broken throne at the far end. Kildra sat beneath the cracked arch with black fire moving around his exposed skull. Two grave knights stood between him and the party.

More waited beyond the doors.

The recreation was exact enough that Matthew’s hands tightened around his spear.

They had reached the real room exhausted, wounded, and short on mana. In the arena, their bodies were rested and every item in their selected practice loadout was intact.

That advantage lasted less than four minutes.

Kildra caught the mage’s opening spell in his black fire. The magic disappeared without reaching his armor. One grave knight forced the shield-bearer sideways while the other advanced on the healer. Matthew changed direction to intercept it, and Kildra crossed the space he abandoned with terrifying speed.

Golden Axe’s formation broke.

The arena ended shortly afterward.

All five members reappeared in the preparation circle without injury. Their equipment returned to its starting condition. A summary floated above the center of the arena, recording the encounter’s length, damage, mana use, and the moment each party member had been eliminated.

Matthew ignored most of the numbers.

"His fire moved before the mage cast." He said.

The mage nodded. "It was already gathering around the spell’s path."

"Then we test without magic."

They reset the encounter.

The second attempt lasted longer because the mage did not give Kildra anything to absorb at the beginning. She used barriers against the grave knights and waited. The shield-bearer kept Kildra in the center of the room. Matthew and the tracker attacked from opposite sides.

When Kildra extended black fire toward a wounded grave knight, the undead warrior straightened. Its movements sharpened, and the dents in its armor filled with darkness.

At the same moment, the flames protecting Kildra’s right side thinned.

Matthew’s spear struck his shoulder joint.

The blow did not win the fight. It proved Kildra paid for strengthening his servants.

Golden Axe returned for another reset.

The public seats filled before the fourth attempt. The arena allowed private participation, not private viewing, and parties qualified to enter the Dread Fort wanted every detail they could learn. They brought notebooks, copied the damage summary, and argued quietly about whether black fire counted as magic, an undead ability, or part of Kildra’s body.

Max watched from the upper row beside Anna and Quin.

He had expected someone to bring Kildra into the arena as soon as the encounter became available. The attraction existed to let adventurers practice against things that defeated them. Golden Axe was using it exactly as designed.

"How complete is the recreation?" Anna asked.

Max opened the arena record. "It has everything Kildra did while they were present. His movements, the black fire, the grave knights, and the reinforcements that entered the room."

"So only what they are already aware of?"

Quin answered. "The arena reproduces an experienced encounter. It does not reveal abilities the participants never forced an enemy to use."

Golden Axe could study every mistake they had survived long enough to witness. They could not assume the list was complete. Kildra might have another response at lower health, a different attack against a new tactic, or no hidden abilities at all. The arena gave them evidence rather than certainty.

That limitation appeared in every session.

During one attempt, Golden Axe concentrated on separating the grave knights. They learned the black fire could change direction midway through reaching one, choosing whichever servant was more useful to Kildra. During another attempt, they allowed one knight to receive the full strengthening effect and measured how long it lasted after the flame withdrew. The effect faded quickly, but the damage inflicted while it remained did not.

They also learned that destroying a grave knight too early could be a mistake. Kildra spent no fire on a servant that had already fallen. Leaving one damaged gave the party a chance to draw his defense away at a moment they chose.

The distinction sparked an argument in the seats.

One group believed all grave knights should be destroyed immediately. Another argued they should remain alive as bait. A third planned to pin them behind barriers and ignore them entirely.

Max listened without settling the debate. Different parties carried different classes, strengths, and supplies. A plan that suited Golden Axe might destroy a group built around ranged attacks. The arena was most useful when it produced questions that could be tested, not one answer everyone copied.

"They are treating the grave knights as separate enemies." Quin said.

Anna watched one of the armored undead force the shield-bearer three steps away from Kildra. "They were separate enemies the first time."

"They stop being separate when the black fire reaches them though. After that, they become an extension of Kildra’s will."

Below, the grave knight’s damaged arm rose beneath a sheath of flame. Its next strike landed with enough force to turn the shield-bearer sideways.

Kildra attacked the exposed edge of the shield.

The two impacts drove the defender out of position. Matthew moved to cover him. That gave the second grave knight a path to the mage.

The attempt ended.

Matthew stood beneath the result screen and pointed toward the last few lines.

"Every heavy strike moved him the same distance." He said. "The Warden was not trying to break the shield. He was placing it."

The shield-bearer looked unhappy. "I noticed."

"Can you change where you land?"

"If I angle the shield before the second strike. I may be able to turn left instead of right."

"Then we make him open the path we want."

They practiced the displacement without completing the full encounter. The shield-bearer met Kildra’s first attack, altered his stance, and allowed the second to move him toward a pillar instead of away from the party. Sometimes he fell. Sometimes the grave knight struck first and ruined the angle. Eventually, he began controlling the direction often enough that the others could plan around it.

The mage tested smaller spells.

Kildra’s fire absorbed direct attacks almost immediately. It ignored a sheet of ice placed on the floor until the ice affected his footing. It burned through a binding spell attached to his armor but failed to notice the same spell fixed between two pillars until he crossed it.

"The flame responds to magic directed at the boss." She said after another reset. "It does not erase every spell in the room."

"Can it absorb healing?" The healer asked.

No one volunteered to discover the answer by standing close enough to Kildra while being healed.

They tested it eventually. The answer was yes if the black fire touched the spell before it reached its target, and no if the healer kept out of Kildra’s line of sight.

By the end of the day, Golden Axe understood four things they had not known when they first entered the throne room.

Kildra’s fire weakened direct magic. It strengthened grave knights. Extending the flames opened temporary gaps in his own defense. His heaviest attacks displaced a defender with consistent force.

Instead of saying the formation collapsed, they could identify which impact moved the shield-bearer and which companion failed to fill the opening. Instead of saying the mage ran out of power, they could see how much she spent attacking black fire that could not be overpowered directly. The healer marked the moments she reacted late and needed a larger spell because a smaller one had no time to work.

Their next attempts became shorter by choice. They reset whenever one piece failed and repeated the same opening until every party member recognized it. The arena charged for each session, but it restored them between attempts and spared them the journey through the Dread Fort. More importantly, it let them fail without confusing exhaustion from the road with weakness in their throne-room plan.

Their final practice attempt lasted nearly twenty minutes. Golden Axe destroyed both grave knights, held the throne-room doors against the reinforcements outside, and drove Kildra below half health.

The black fire changed.

It drew inward until every flame clung close to the Warden’s armor. Kildra became faster. His blade struck before the shield-bearer finished setting his feet. A dark shock passed through the floor and broke the mage’s barrier at the doors. The waiting undead entered while the party tried to adjust.

Golden Axe was defeated with Kildra still standing.

The spectators filled pages with observations anyway.

Matthew remained in the preparation circle after the others left for food. He studied the final summary until the arena began warning him that his rental time had ended, then he left the arena to find his party.

The next morning, Golden Axe reserved another session. So did three other parties who had encountered Kildra and now possessed the same choice in their arena menus.

They watched one another, compared results, and developed different answers to the same problems. None joined Golden Axe’s practice. None could earn the Dread Fort clear for them.