_____________________________
[ ???'s Interface ]
System Notification
Intrusion Report:
Three hundred ninety-three thousand nine hundred fifty-eight entities have invaded your dungeon domain. G.P safety compromised.
Suggestion:
Secure G.P, put an end to the invasion.
Intercept and Slay the invaders
Estimated Reward:
- 7322 G.P
- Authorities: Greed and Resurgence
_____________________________
“Guys, guess who’s back?”
“Him?”
“Yep. With an even cooler name than last time. It’s Collins now; guess he really dropped the Karstark.”
“Again?”
“Can’t he just learn?”
“It seems like he can’t.”
“So who's dealing with him? Dungeon Master 03? Dungeon Master 02? Dungeon Master 04? Dungeon Master 01? Dungeon Master 05?”
For a long moment, no one spoke until ultimately, one of them, with a sigh, declared, “Since no one wants to do it, I guess I’ll deal with him myself.”
“Good luck, pal. Imma go take a nap; don’t wake me up,” Dungeon Master 03 declared, completely disinterested in the from-time-to-time-popping-Greed-and-Resurgence-Authority-wielder. I couldn’t even blame him; that was a sentiment shared by all of us.
***
____________________________
[ ???'s Interface ]
System Notification
Intrusion Report:
Sanctum Invasion successfully repelled, G.P and domain secured, all interfaces are now available.
_____________________________
“DAAAAMMMM ITTTT! AGAIN!” Dungeon Master 04 declared upon realizing that, as always, the authority disappeared only to almost immediately pop up somewhere out there.
“Has anyone ever told you the definition of insanity?”
“It’s doing the same thing expecting a different result again and again.”
“SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU TWO! THIS IS STILL UNFAIR!”
“Calm down. Shouldn’t you be used to it already?”
"Used to it? Every time that old bastard comes by with his authority, it feels like being a starving beggar watching a feast through a locked window—close enough to smell it, but never to taste."
“That’s even more of a reason to simply get used to this.”
That day, after Dungeon Master 05, Dungeon Master 02 failed to acquire the Greed and Resurgence authority from the old man, the Dungeon Masters and I agreed that the next time a Greed and Resurgence-Authority-wielder would pop out in our domain, I and my domain’s guardian would be the ones to deal with them, for that we believed could be the reason of our vanishing authority predicament.
To be honest, while we all have come to a consensus that I’ll be the one to deal with them, we had no proper assurance that a Greed and Resurgence-Authority-wielder would come to us. But surprise, surprise, barely one human invasion later, another decrepit old man showed up, with the so-eagerly-expected authority.
That day I was given control back by Dungeon Master 06; all his cattle was brought to my domain, leading to their inevitable demise. No doubt, this was a sad sight to witness for Dungeon Master 06, but since it was for the sake of securing an authority, we believed it was worth it.
It was not.
For the single reason that dying by my domain or dying by the domain of the other dungeon masters, there seems to be no difference; the authority simply disappeared to reappear elsewhere the moment the Authority wielder is offed.
Since that bitter failure, we were invaded 12 times by humans, 3 of which was done by a batch of normal human invaders, 9 of which were lone old men, all of whom were Greed and Resurgence-Authority-wielders.
I can’t explain what’s happening. Actually, I do. But what I can't explain is the logic.
Naturally, with these old men coming to me one after the others, it was needless to say that all met the same fate, slain by our Guardians. But they kept and kept popping out, so much so that we’d grown bored of dealing with Greed and Resurgence-Authority-wielders.
They popped up so much that we, who, still eagerly awaited regular human invasions, began to feel like human invasions had really decreased since we first interacted with these authority wielders. It most likely has not. It’s just that the rate at which we’re having to deal with a Greed and Resurgence authority wielder makes us feel like it’s the case.
"All of this made it seem like these old men—these wielders of Greed and Resurgence Authority—saw our domain as a graveyard for a dignified death. There was no way all nine of them—eleven if I accounted for the two first—just wandered in our domain one by one to die by chance. It had to be deliberate."
“We really have to do something about them,” Dungeon Master 04 mumbled, still annoyed over the elusive authority.
“I’ve been thinking about the same thing, and I think I might have figured out exactly what we should do about it.”
“What?” I heard from all dungeon masters who were all equally interested in my proposition.
“Okay since you’re all interested, hear me out, since we can’t acquire that bastard’s authority, let’s seal him.”
***
To be fair—really fair—while I said that it felt like human invasions had simply decreased, it wasn’t just an impression; it was a fact. However, each invasion by Greed and Resurgence Authority wielders more or less compensated for the GP I would have normally gained from regular human invaders. Not that humans were invading all that often anyway.
So, I have to acknowledge that a sort of balance was reached—one where the scale tipped in our favor. I have to acknowledge that.
While Greed and Resurgence Authority wielders don’t leave behind their Authority upon death, they still drop a substantial amount of GP, which, I suppose, makes up for the decline in normal human invasions. That was the only real upside to these constant nuisances. But even so, at the rate things were going, it was about time we put an end to it.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Having battled one of them with my own guardian, watched many of their battles against the others Dungeon Masters’ guardians, I think I’ve more or less understood how the mechanics behind the ever-frustrating disappearance upon the death of its wielder of the authority Greed and Resurgence operate, and I understood that it was dangerous to let things continue as they did. However, since there was hardly anything I could do about the situation, I allowed things to be as they are today. But, I’ve finally found my answer, a way to put an end to all this. That way was sealing the next Greed and Resurgence-Authority-wielder.
How would I seal it? Well, there are many spawns in the acquirable spawn section of the interface, especially in the eldritch beings, Celestial beings, mythical beasts subcategories that have time-stopping abilities. In the forest creatures subcategory, there spawns with such abilities, but compared to spawns of the aforementioned categories, their time-stopping abilities are of an inferior tier. But that didn’t matter so long as it worked; the rest is just a question of leveling the spawn accordingly so that it can do exactly what’s expected of it.
To stop Greed and Resurgence Authority wielders, all we had to do was take him to a Dungeon Guardian’s sanctum, let the Guardian aggro him until he was barely clinging to life, then transport him back to Dungeon Master 06’s domain. There, he’d be placed in one of the external chambers designed specifically for him and the spawns he’d share the room with—spawns that would relentlessly attack him with time-locking strikes for as long as necessary.
In other words, the plan was essentially to bury him alive, ensuring the Authority remained trapped here on our side rather than passing elsewhere, even if we ourselves couldn’t claim it.
While there were some initial complaints regarding the impermeability of my plan, I managed to get all Dungeon Masters to agree with me, including Dungeon Master 06, on whom most of this plan would rely.
Since we agreed on the plan, we began working on it. Since the plan involved doing something we had never done, rehearsals were bound to be necessary. For that, we needed a Dungeon Guardian different from the ones we all had. I'll skip over the skirmish of who would be chosen for that; the truth was no one wanted that role, for various hubristic reasons that were very characteristic of us. I didn’t even blame them. Instead, I relied on an authority we managed to regain control over.
The task of rehearsing the sealing of the Greed and Resurgence-Authority-wielder was handed over to our youngest, Dungeon Master 07. Naturally, being one of us, he complained about the task given to him, but eventually he agreed. After all, even I wouldn’t be strong enough to win against the sheer pressure of seven other versions of myself.
To not push the bullying too far and to help him in his task, we provided him with plenty of G.P to rearrange his domain, acquire the adequate guardian, and a very rare batch of invaders for him to figure things out.
It took time, but not so much that we were late.
All that was left for us to do was wait for him to pop up and do what was to be done. And fairly soon enough, true to his habits, one random day out of the blue, “he” appeared in Dungeon Master 06’s domain.
_____________________________
[ ???'s Interface ]
System Notification
Intrusion Report:
Forty-seven million eight hundred twenty-four thousand seventy-eight entities has invaded your dungeon domain. G.P safety compromised.
Suggestion:
Secure G.P, put an end to the invasion.
Intercept and Slay the invaders
Estimated Reward:
- 8244 G.P
- Authorities: Greed and Resurgence
_____________________________
“Hahahaha, finally.”
_____________________________
Name: Aegis
Level: 92
Race: HighBreed
Class: Knight
Title: Grand Crusader / Lord Defender / Champion / Kinslayer
『Expand』
_____________________________
Although I can’t argue with the improvement the GP you left behind brought us, it's time for this to stop. It’s for this madness to stop. It's time for you to stop.
"So do I take him straight to the guardian, or do we weaken him first?"
“While I don’t doubt your guardian’s capabilities, he’s still level 92, so close to a class change. It's better to have one of us lower his health and then let your guardian finish the job.”
“I see. It’s fine by me, so who's going to be the one to do it?”
In that moment, knowing that this could be the last time we’d be dealing with a Greed and Resurgence-Authority-wielder, the Dungeon Masters' reactions were rather enthusiastic.
“Me.”
“I’ll do it.”
“Send him to my domain.”
“Come on, guys, I’ve been the first one annoyed by his kin; leave this part to me.”
That was an enthusiasm that I wanted to partake in, but knowing the propriety of my domain, I knew I couldn’t. Otherwise, I’d provoke the anger of all of them, and especially Dungeon Master 06, who was very protective of his cattle. So, having no other choice than to remain in the background as I usually do, I, being a third party, proposed, “since this is going to be the last, why not give him the complete combo?”
“The complete combo…”
“Yes, the complete combo.”
It didn’t take them long to understand exactly what I meant and agree with it. “Let’s do this.”
By complete combo, I meant having the Greed and Resurgence-Authority-wielder's encounter involve all Dungeon Masters who wanted to be involved, and that naturally included their respective guardians.
***
Since all Dungeon Masters agreed to it, the first one to go was, per his demand, Dungeon Master 02—the first one to have dealt with the Greed and Resurgence-Authority-wielder and failed to retrieve the authority.
_____________________________
Name: Aegis
Level: 92
Race: HighBreed
Class: Knight
Health: 76%
Status: In combat
『Expand』
_____________________________
Under the logic of order, the second one to go was Dungeon Master 05. There seemed to be a lot of bottled-up emotion here, that much I could tell.
_____________________________
Name: Aegis
Level: 92
Race: HighBreed
Class: Knight
Health: 42%
Status: In combat
『Expand』
_____________________________
Following him was Dungeon Master 01.
_____________________________
Name: Aegis
Level: 92
Race: HighBreed
Class: Knight
Health: 19%
Status: In combat
『Expand』
_____________________________
The last one, to weaken to a reasonable extent, was Dungeon Master 04.
_____________________________
Name: Aegis
Level: 92
Race: HighBreed
Class: Knight
Health: 3%
Status: In combat
『Expand』
_____________________________
“That should be low enough. Anything beyond this would be killing him. We don’t want that. I think you can take it up now from up here, Dungeon Master 07, right?”
“Of course,” Dungeon Master 07, the youngest of us all, declared, taking over control from Dungeon Master 04.
____________________________
- Spawn Dungeon Guardian
____________________________
Before the old man, who seemed already accepting of his fate, Dungeon Master 07 manifested his domain guardian—one very different from the one the old man had been spawn in front of thus far.
____________________________
[ Sentient Echo ]
Name: Echo-13
Level: 13
Type: Sentient Echo (Eldritch Being)
Title: N/A
Status
H.P: 300
M.P: 400
S.P: 250
Defense: 150
Offense: 250
Skills
- Resonance Pulse: Level 5
- Ethereal Insight: Level 4
- Echo Distortion: Level 6
- Phantom Presence: Level 3
- Whispering Winds: Level 3
- Memory Recall: Level 5
- Subtle Manipulation: Level 4
- Temporal Echo: Level 3
- Harmonic Attunement: Level 5
- Ghostly Form: Level 4
- Reflective Echo: Level 3
Abilities
- Sentient Awareness
- Echoic Resilience
- Transient Existence
- Memory Weave
- Residual Influence
- Telepathic Discourse
- Temporal Flux
- Ethereal Bond
____________________________
“Sigh… finally. Time to see if all the time and effort I’ve dedicated to this cause was worth it,” Dungeon Master 07 declared activating the ability he chose the spawn as his guardian for instead of anything else.
____________________________
[Real-time Feedback]
Guardian, Level 13, used ability: Telepathic Discourse
_____________________________
"In that moment, even though he had already rehearsed the use of this ability plenty of times, Dungeon Master 07 seemed to hesitate. But eventually, through Telepathic Discourse, he communicated with the man, asking the question that had been plaguing not only him but all of us—ever since we tried to take him down with my domain and still failed to secure the authority."
_____________________________
[ Telepathic Discourse ]
Echo-13:
_____________________________
