Chapter 229: The Captured Core
The fungal chamber remained motionless around Hizon.
Rooted guardians stood frozen in the entrance. Severed cords hung from the ceiling without attempting to reclaim the bodies scattered beneath them. Even the amber light inside the core had stopped pulsing through the structure enclosing it.
Hizon kept one hand against the crystal while the system completed its judgment.
[Ownership determined.]
[The victorious Dungeon Master is a subordinate of Dungeon Master Max Clarkson.]
[The captured dungeon core has been awarded to Max Clarkson.]
The core vanished beneath Hizon’s palm.
The disappearance took the rest of the chamber with it. Darkness replaced the living walls, and Hizon felt himself pulled away from the captured dungeon. Brannik, the Trappers, and every surviving creature from the Goblin Depths disappeared at the same time.
Hizon returned to the Foundry’s inner chamber.
The Forgeguard stood before the sealed approach to Hizon’s core. The damage across his armor had vanished with the end of the battle. Beyond him, machinery destroyed during Nethren’s assault had returned to working order. Platforms rested in their original positions, the collapsed floor had closed, and no fungal cords remained inside the ventilation system.
Creatures lost during the defense and counterattack reappeared throughout the Goblin Depths. Their restored numbers filled Hizon’s awareness. The Stag Beetle occupied its reinforced chamber again without the cracks that had spread across its armor. Goblins killed inside Fungal Hollow returned to their assigned posts carrying the same equipment they had possessed before the battle.
The victory restored Hizon’s army. It did not give him the captured core.
Max appeared through the dungeon connection with Anna beside him. He held a crystal smaller than the one Hizon had touched. Its interior contained the same amber light, but none of the hardened petals or living cords had accompanied it.
The system placed three choices before Max.
[Captured dungeon resolution available.]
[Destroy the captured core and convert its remaining value into Dungeon Points.]
[Absorb the captured dungeon’s unlocked creature options.]
[Establish the defeated Dungeon Master as a subordinate dungeon.]
Hizon read the options through his connection to Max.
"You won the battle, so the choice should be yours. If you want the points, I will destroy the core and transfer all of them to you. If you want the creature options, you can have those instead. The system only gave the core to me because you operate beneath my dungeon." Max said.
The offer carried no hidden restriction. Max would accept any of the three choices.
Hizon examined the second option first. Nethren had purchased fungal guards, cave moths, rooted guardians, and several creatures intended to spread or reinforce his living network. Some could be useful, but Hizon could already purchase monsters through Max’s fully unlocked dungeon core. Acquiring a smaller list would add little that he could not obtain another way.
Destroying the core would provide immediate value. The Goblin Depths had spent DP preparing for the battle, converting important defenders into eternal souls, and building mechanisms that had never been intended for ordinary use. A large payment would replace those reserves and fund several expansions.
It would also reduce everything Nethren had built to a single reward.
The fungal Dungeon Master had forced Hizon to alter his defenses during the invasion and had protected his own core without personally directing the counterattack. His methods had weaknesses, but the dungeon had continued resisting after his death. Nethren understood biological construction in ways neither Hizon nor the Artificer did.
Hizon made his decision.
"Keep him alive as a Dungeon Master. His old dungeon is gone, but his knowledge is worth more than the points we would receive for destroying him. Place him under my authority. If he cannot learn to operate within this dungeon, I will deal with that later." Hizon said.
Max selected the third option.
The captured crystal dissolved into amber light. New system notices appeared before all three of them.
[Subordinate dungeon established.]
[Dungeon Master Nethren has entered the service of Dungeon Master Max Clarkson.]
[Immediate oversight assigned to subordinate Dungeon Master Hizon.]
[Dungeon Master Nethren will retain eighty-five percent of all Dungeon Points generated by his dungeon.]
[Ten percent will be transferred to Dungeon Master Max Clarkson.]
[Five percent will be transferred to Dungeon Master Hizon for administration and oversight.]
The wording mattered. Nethren’s dungeon had survived as a system position, not as a place.
Fungal Hollow had not been moved into Crag Mountain. Its caverns, streams, living walls, hidden junctions, and core chamber remained outside Max’s territory. The temporary connection created by the dungeon battle had already closed. Nothing inside the Foundry led back to it.
The system had transferred Nethren and the creatures he had purchased. Everything else would have to be built again.
That distinction also removed the army Nethren had assembled from absorbed bodies. The transformed siege creature did not appear on the transferred roster because Nethren had never purchased it. The network had produced it during the invasion from other creatures and gathered material. The defenders incorporated into its body returned only in their original purchased forms. Likewise, the swollen junctions and rooted growth cultivated throughout Fungal Hollow were structures rather than independent creatures. None accompanied the core.
Nethren retained enough of his former population to begin again, but he no longer possessed the accumulated mass that had allowed him to replace damage faster than the Foundry could inflict it.
Anna studied the notices. "Where did the system put him?"
Max checked the dungeon map. A temporary holding area had appeared beside the Undercity entrance. The chamber contained no structures beyond a sealed boundary and enough space for the transferred creatures. It was not a new dungeon. The system had only prevented Nethren’s assets from appearing in the middle of Sanctuary.
"He is near the Undercity. The system is keeping him and his creatures contained until I assign permanent space. It looks like I have to purchase that space the same way I did when Hizon joined." Max said.
Hizon remembered the empty territory Max had given him. The original defense dungeon had begun as bare caverns connected to the rest of Max’s domain. Every fortification, tunnel, habitat, and mechanism inside the Goblin Depths had been added afterward.
Nethren would begin with less than Hizon had possessed. He had creatures and knowledge, but no developed territory and no established source of DP.
Max opened the expansion options connected to the new subordinate dungeon. The system offered a basic territory large enough for a core chamber, several connecting rooms, and a modest creature population. Anything larger increased sharply in price.
"The basic space is enough. Giving him more before he proves he can manage it would only provide more territory for me to inspect." Hizon said.
Max purchased the smallest available territory and assigned it to Nethren.
The new space appeared beyond a controlled connection inside Crag Mountain. Its map contained only rough stone chambers and a protected location for the subordinate core. No fungi covered the walls. There were no streams, concealed passages, or stored bodies waiting to become defenders.
Nethren’s transferred creatures did not move into it.
They remained in the holding chamber because their Dungeon Master had not yet accepted his new position.
Max assigned Hizon the permissions required to inspect the new territory, seal its exits, and halt construction that threatened neighboring areas. He did not give Hizon direct control over Nethren’s purchases. The fungal Dungeon Master would still make his own decisions and bear their cost.
"Supervising him does not mean building the dungeon for him. I expect you to stop him if he threatens Sanctuary or another part of Crag Mountain. I do not expect you to approve the placement of every room." Max said.
"If I have to place every room, preserving him was the wrong choice." Hizon said.
The division gave Hizon enough authority to enforce the hierarchy without making Nethren another manager of the Goblin Depths. His five-percent share paid for oversight, not ownership of the subordinate dungeon.
Max considered entering the chamber himself. Hizon stopped him.
"You gave him to me to oversee. He needs to understand that before he begins asking you to change the arrangement." Hizon said.
"He also needs to understand Sanctuary’s laws before any of those creatures leave containment. You can explain his authority, but I will remove it if he decides the people living here are material for his dungeon." Max said.
Hizon accepted the condition. Nethren had absorbed his own guards to preserve a siege creature and had reclaimed fallen bodies whenever the opportunity appeared. Those actions had been permitted during a dungeon battle. Applying the same methods to Sanctuary would end his service quickly.
Max left the holding chamber sealed and granted Hizon access.
Before Hizon departed, the Artificer approached from the upper workshop. The restored machinery had returned every damaged component, including the containers that had held pieces of Nethren’s network. The fungal material itself had disappeared when battle damage reverted.
Hizon traveled through the Undercity. News of the victory had already spread among the goblins. The restored warriors had returned with memories of the battle even though their wounds and deaths had been reversed. Units that had fought inside Fungal Hollow compared the living passages with the Foundry crews’ accounts of the transformed siege creature.
Hizon did not stop the discussions. The next enemy would not use the same methods, but the survivors needed to understand why their formations had failed and which decisions had preserved them.
The temporary chamber waited behind a new stone door near the edge of the Undercity.
Brannik joined Hizon before he opened it. The goblin king had also been restored, along with every unit lost while holding the entrance to Nethren’s core chamber.
"Do you expect him to attack?" Brannik asked.
"He has no territory and cannot reach his core from that room. Attacking would accomplish nothing. That does not mean he will understand his position immediately." Hizon said.
Hizon opened the door.
The holding chamber smelled of wet earth and decay. Nethren stood at its center surrounded by fungal guards, cave moths, and the smaller creatures that had once maintained his network. The dark plates covering his body had returned, but the amber light beneath them was faint.
None of his creatures were connected to the floor.
Nethren looked past Hizon toward the Undercity. Goblins moved through the distant streets beneath lamps, signs, and bridges built without fungal growth. The territory extended far beyond what he could see from the chamber.
"Where is Fungal Hollow?" Nethren asked.
"It was not part of the reward. You kept your existence, your purchased creatures, and the right to build again. Everything else remained behind." Hizon said.
Nethren’s attention moved to the sealed walls surrounding his force.
"Then you preserved nothing." Nethren said.
Hizon entered the chamber alone. "I preserved the part that can create another dungeon. Whether that was worthwhile depends on what you build next."