Dungeon Master (Karma System)

While Golden Axe’s caravan was still on its first day north, Tovin woke beneath an apple tree.

For several seconds, he believed the southern woods had thrown him there. He remembered running between dark trunks while something moved through the branches above him. He remembered a scream, a flash of healing light, and claws crossing his chest.

Then he remembered dying.

The apple tree stood inside the starter village churchyard. Morning mist covered the grave markers, and a narrow resurrection circle glowed beneath his back.

A system window waited above him.

[Local resurrection completed.]

[Resurrection point: Starter Village Churchyard.]

[Dungeon coins deducted.]

[Current balance: 3 Dungeon Coins.]

[Revival protection has recharged and is active.]

[If death occurs before the recharge is complete, further resurrection is not guaranteed.]

Tovin sat up too quickly. His restored body moved without pain, but panic remained.

"The others?"

Another circle brightened twenty feet away. Their archer appeared on the grass, followed by the swordsman near the church wall. Both sat up with the confused expressions of people whose final memories ended violently.

The healer and mage did not appear.

Tovin checked the party menu. Their names remained, but their locations read Sanctuary Hospital.

They had not possessed enough dungeon coins for local resurrection.

The church attendant arrived carrying folded robes and three cups of water. She did not ask where they were injured. Their bodies had been rebuilt without wounds.

"Your companions were transferred safely." She said. "You may use the church message station after you dress."

Tovin looked down and realized his torn clothing had been restored with him. The offered robes were for warmth rather than modesty.

"How long were we dead?"

"Less than a minute."

"The monster?"

The attendant looked at him like he was stupid. "I am not really sure what you are asking, but I work her at the church and there are currently no monsters attacking the church or the village."

The archer quickly spoke up. "Ah, sorry about him. He must still be a bit shaken from his resurrection."

Tovin spoke again. "Sorry I was just wandering if the monster that killed us survived, or if one of managed to deal with before we died."

The attendant shrugged. Her job was to see to the odds and ends around the church. She didn’t even know where these people came from before they died.

The archer shut up his friend from saying further stupid things since he was obviously still looking for an answer from the attendant.

The attendant led them into a side room containing washbasins, benches, and local notices. A new board explained the difference between local resurrection and transfer to the Sanctuary.

Tovin checked the fee recorded twice. The payment had not been selected after his mistake. It matched the estimate he accepted before entering Level Five. His class level was higher than the archer so he couldn’t complain when he had to pay slightly more than said archer to revive.

None of them could claim the amount had been hidden.

The party had entered Corathen the previous afternoon. All five were below level ten, but they had completed several ordinary dungeons outside Crag Mountain. Fey Nights looked slow and inconvenient, so they read the Level Five warning and decided the starter area would be designed for beginners. They rented floor space in a barn for the night and entered the southern woods shortly after sunrise.

For the first hour, they appeared correct.

They killed three burrowing rodents near a field and drove a horned scavenger away from an abandoned shed. The creatures provided little experience, but they were new. Tovin led the party farther south after the road turned east.

The woods contained signs they did not understand.

Scratches marked trunks above the swordsman’s head. Bones had been pushed beneath thorn bushes instead of scattered. The forest became quiet long before they saw what caused it.

Their party had no tracker.

The animal resembled a cat only in the general shape of its body. It was heavier than a horse, with bark-colored fur and forelegs long enough to reach across their formation. It attacked from above rather than charging along the ground.

The battle lasted less than a minute.

Tovin remembered only the decisions that failed. The swordsman raised his shield toward the first sound and exposed the healer. The mage used her strongest spell before anyone had a clear target. Tovin chased the animal when it withdrew into brush, pulling the party away from the only open ground nearby.

They did not lose because the creature possessed a hidden rule. They lost because they ignored every warning, lacked several basic party skills, and expected the woods to protect them from their own choices.

The archer sat beneath another apple tree with his head between his knees. His bow and clothing had returned with him, but the potion case he dropped while running remained in the woods did not.

Tovin inspected his equipment. The weapons and armor worn when he died had returned. The supply bag he abandoned beside the first marked tree had not.

At the Sanctuary hospital, the other two party members woke in separate beds. Hospital gnomes examined them, confirmed that the revival completed properly, and showed them their recharge timers.

Neither moved toward the Level Five portal.

The healer had spent most of her dungeon coins on medicine before entering Corathen. She saw the resurrection estimate and assumed the few coins remaining would be enough because she was still low level. The mage had spent nearly everything on equipment the previous evening.

Their transfer to the hospital did not require a local fee, but it separated the party and left their supplies in the southern woods.

They sent Tovin a message.

We are alive. We are not going back without a stronger group.

Tovin read it outside the church.

He sent a second message to the village mayor. It included their route, the marked trees they ignored, and the last location where he saw the beast. Tovin did not know whether the animal threatened local farms, but the people living near the woods deserved the information.

Two hunters visited the church before noon. They questioned all three resurrected adventurers and concluded that the beast remained within its normal territory.

"It did not hunt you into the fields?" One asked with obvious concern.

"No."

"Then stay out of its trees until you know how to read them." He said while looking at him like he was an idiot.

Tovin accepted the judgment. It really hadn’t been a smart decision.

People in the village noticed three outsiders returning through the graveyard. Word spread because the resurrected party crossed the village wearing yesterday’s dirt and the expressions of people who had learned an expensive lesson. Hopefully it was a mistake they would only make once.

The two hospital members returned through the arrival gate an hour later.

The reunion contained no celebration. The healer checked every revived party member despite knowing their bodies were restored. The mage compared the hospital record to Tovin’s graveyard record and confirmed that the difference came entirely from their dungeon coin balances.

"We need to recover the potion case and supply bag." The archer said.

"We need to replace them." Tovin answered. "Going back before our protection recharges risks another death without a guaranteed return."

The healer opened her countdown. "Eleven hours.".

The party left Corathen through the arrival gate and returned to the Sanctuary. They spent the remainder of the twelve-hour wait in the training hall.

Tovin requested information about Fey Nights.

The healer enrolled in an introductory field-awareness lesson taught by one of the tracker trainers. The swordsman spent his remaining dungeon coins on a map of the first level rather than another weapon. Their archer learned how to distinguish territorial markings from an ordinary animal trail.

They hired a tracker for two lessons and arranged to practice signals before attempting another wilderness journey. They also purchased only the supplies they could afford after accounting for their current resurrection estimates.

The tracker did not begin with a monster. She placed colored strips of cloth among the training trees and told the party to walk a short route without speaking. They missed three warnings, crossed a marked boundary, and separated when a patch of thorns divided the path. On the second attempt, the archer signaled what she saw, Tovin stopped before committing the party, and the healer remained protected in the center.

The exercise earned no experience and contained nothing they could kill. It still exposed more weaknesses than their morning in the woods.

None of those preparations guaranteed success.

It did mean their next failure would not be identical to the first. They were improving after all.

An experienced hunting party agreed to retrieve the abandoned supplies if its route passed through the beast’s territory. If the trip proved safe, the hunters would keep part of the recovered value. If it did not, the forest would keep everything.

The warning each party member accepted remained in their system records. It stated that enemy strength varied and that the previous levels were strongly recommended before independent travel. Tovin read it again and found nothing that promised the southern woods would adjust to his party.

Their failure did more to advertise the tutorial than Max’s recommendation had.

Max learned of the deaths through his dungeon menu.

He sat at the dinner table with Anna when three local resurrection costs appeared in the Level Five ledger. The deducted dungeon coins covered the DP required to rebuild each adventurer. Two additional entries showed hospital transfers after failed payment checks.

He recognized the names as the five young adventurers he had watched planning their trip near the arrival gate.

"The system worked." Anna said.

"The resurrection system worked." Max corrected. "But that party left much to be desired."

"At least it could be considered a test of that section of forest." Anna said, trying to add a bit of value to the parties foolish actions.

Max examined the path they had taken. They crossed two warning markers, left the beginner gathering area, and entered the territory of a mature ridge cat. The animal had not moved closer to the village. The party moved closer to it.

"Ha, that is true."

He checked and saw the hunters’ confirmed report had been updated to the local map by the villagers. It marked the area as claimed territory without revealing the creature’s exact location or explaining how to fight it.

At the edge of his vision, the other countdown continued.

[Champion Establishment Period Remaining: 29 Days, 7 Hours.]

Max closed it.

The unknown challenge could wait until it provided a problem he could actually solve.

That night, all two adventurers completed their twelve-hour recharge in the Sanctuary. None returned to the woods right away.