Selvara floated high up in the shadows between the stalactites on the cave ceiling and watched the battle at the entrance to the cave. The Dungeon Heart watched intently through the bond that connected him to his familiar.

"I'm starting to feel sick. The smell of the undead wafts up here. And all the blood and rotting guts... Horrible. Whoever forces revenants to enter our world must really hate them."

"Not now. Look, the undead are retreating..."

Malvorik watched as the knight came out and the negotiations began.

"No. Just mumbling. The others down there won't shut up either. Shall I fly down and listen?"

Selvara instinctively whirled a little further upwards and bumped painfully against the stone ceiling.

"As familiars?"

"Malvorik!"

Malvorik kept quiet about the few recipes that actually required fairy wings, fairy hair or fairy blood. He himself knew only one: the tincture of long life. Water from a natural source of healing, grated unicorn horn, blue lotus flowers and three drops of fairy blood.

"Something's not right." Selvara sounded worried.

Malvorik looked through her eyes, but didn't understand what she meant:

"Do you see the four of them back there?"

"Exactly. Can you see them whispering and looking worriedly towards the entrance?"

The two watched through the same eyes as the group discussed frantically, then they started moving. Selvara had trouble keeping an eye on everyone at the same time.

Selvara followed the excited request and saw that the duskgnome was holding something glowing in his hand. Golden threads of light shone out from between his fingers. The gnome shouted something that even Selvara could hear above the omnipresent murmuring below: "Betrayal!"

Then he threw the glowing golden vial.

Selvara closed her eyes, but even through her eyelids she could see the blinding light that filled the cave. Malvorik's voice sounded awestruck:

Selvara opened her eyes, blinking. The cave was brightly lit, like a desert in the midday sun. The situation had changed fundamentally. Leather-clad revenants stormed in at the entrance, others were already engaged in combat among the defenders. The negotiator had put his helmet back on and drawn his sword.

"What? What's happened? Where did all these shady guys suddenly come from?"

"But they were just about to come to an agreement."

The two watched the chaos for a moment. The fighting was wild and completely confused. A defender was hit in the back, his attacker went down under the blows of several defenders. Fighters switched between opponents, defenders struck at one attacker in threes, while other opponents were able to get into position without resistance. Then the attacker groups split up again and went after different opponents. It took time for pairs to slowly form. More opponents stormed in through the entrance.

Selvara was distracted by Malvorik's exclamation of thought:

One word. But it sent an icy shiver down her spine.

"What is it?"

He hesitated. Selvara's nervousness ticked up a few more notches. Malvorik had never hesitated to say or do anything. That was what often drove her so crazy.

Guilt surged through the emotional connection of the familiar.

"What have you done?"

.

"So?"

The dungeon fairy raised her hands uncomprehendingly: "What's the problem?"

"You've taken over the corridor? The duskgnomes are already in there!"

"It's already taken far too long for them to finally get in there. We don't have time to send them out. It's a battlefield in here. You can't send them back into the middle of a slaughter!"

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Selvara put on her wings and went into a dive. Below, she saw the boy charging at an armed warrior with a rusty knife. She looked at him as he flew by with an analysis skill. A shepherd, level 1, his opponent an elven level 6 assassin with a mace.

She braced her wings against the airflow and directed her momentum to move forward at lightning speed. Just above the heads of the surprised fighters, she glided towards the exit tunnel. Lightning bolts and small fireballs shot through the room. Arrows shot from the elevated archers into the turmoil. Almost without aim, as the archers were blinded. Her little head was buzzing. She couldn't send the gnomes out into the chaos of battle. That would be murder. She looped around to get a look behind. Armored warriors rushed in through the entrance. Closely followed by the undead. The attackers were securing a bridgehead. If they managed that, they would simply overrun the cave through superior numbers.

She fluttered through the projectiles towards the exit and inside. Immediately afterwards, the first duskgnomes appeared in front of her. She threaded her way between the ceiling and the heads.

"There must be another way."

.

"How far have you extended your sphere of influence?"

"You and your geometric experiments... Wait... Is the battlefield already included then?"

"So, you're not getting any EPs for the fights right now?"

"You only need 471 XP until you can raise Dungeon Master to level 7. Then you can choose a new special skill. Sanctuary would allow you to offer guests a contract. They would no longer count as intruders."

He was silent for a moment and then continued:

"Malvorik!"

He fought off the wave of indignation that came at him through the familiar:

"That's not possible. Dungeons don't give anything back once they've been conquered."

The commentary broke off while Malvorik used his enormous intelligence to read through various menus faster than most people could leaf through a book.

"That can't be true. I've never heard of that."

"That means it’s something new the gods have given dungeons. Seems like our best bet, so use that. And hurry up! The first zombies have broken through down there. The rangers won't last much longer."

"Do it anyway. Hurry up."

"Come on, that'll work. You'll see in a moment."

Malvorik worked his way through the menu system and confirmed the command. Mana flowed out of him, into the designated area. A circle spread out from the end of his linear sphere of influence. Warning messages popped up as the first fighters entered his area of influence. His mana began to flow faster than ever before. The sphere of influence snapped into position. More messages appeared.

Warning! An unacceptably high number of intruders are involved in combat within the dungeon.

Violation of Golgoroth's law!

Fair Play rules activated!

Number of intruders exceeds 100, maximum level activated.

Loot system deactivated. Dungeon monsters will not disintegrate after death and leave no loot behind.

Dungeon Mana regeneration x20

Dungeon Mana utilization speed x10

Dungeon Restrictions on the number of monsters lifted

Dungeon Control limit lifted

EP profit +20%

"I'll explain later. Now we just have to kill revenants quickly enough. Preferably attackers."

"Is there anything else you can do?"

Down below, a spell broke through the defenders' spell magic and exploded shortly after the exit in a shockwave of glowing, concentric circles. Although these did not injure anyone, they threw friends and foes alike off their feet. The attackers took the opportunity, which they had obviously expected, to move away from the entrance. No sooner had the tight front around them dissolved than the undead stormed into the cave. A wild and chaotic battle now broke out in a much larger area. The entrance was not yet clear, the next attackers had a hard time getting through, but now it was foreseeable when sheer numerical superiority would overcome the defenders.

Malvorik was able to observe what was happening in the area that was now part of his dungeon perfectly, as if from up close.

The barmaid named Trulda sprinted with unexpected speed after a cultist trying to break through to the back of the cave. His two scimitars easily fended off the untargeted attacks of the blinded defenders he ran between. When he came upon the fugitives, he would slaughter his way through the ranks. She could see the duskgnome standing in the way with his warhammer, but in front of the cultist he looked small and vulnerable. Almost like a child. Trulda gave free rein to her anger and roared. Blood coursed through the veins of her eyes and, as if she had activated an inner reserve, she accelerated even further. The cultist didn't even see her coming as she raced past him and slammed her mace into his back with one hand. His spine cracked and he fell uncontrollably to the ground, where his face skittered across the stone floor before disintegrating. Malvorik waited for an indication of how much XP this would earn him, but there was none. Disappointed, he realized that the fighter was still beyond his reach. And next to the narrow corridor that connected him to the area around the battle zone. Trulda slowed down and stood next to the duskgnome, panting and snorting.

Malvorik turned his attention back to his sphere of influence. Now someone just had to die!

A ranger fended off his opponent's short sword, binding and deflecting it as he used the greater reach of his rapier to lunge and strike the cultist directly in the neck. The critical hit caused him to drop his weapon with a gasp. For a moment he held his neck in a vain attempt to stop the fountain of blood, then he toppled forward and dissolved into the white sparks of a revenant. A gold pouch and a dagger were all that fell to the ground.

"Yes?"

"What do you mean?"

The fairy was silent for a moment, then she clapped her little hand to her face: "Of course. I am so stupid. I should never have passed fairy school. I should have ignored the glow and studied for a few more years. Or just teach you the whole program, no matter how much you know. I'm the most useless dungeon fairy ever..."

Malvorik interrupted her sternly, with the practiced mental catch of a father who had raised several children:

"There are no clear fronts. None of the revenants fight for the dungeon. The system therefore does not recognize fights between revenants as a victory for you. You only get XP for opponents who are defeated by locals."

He flew over the battlefield. Analyzed. Thought.

.

"What?"

Selvara hesitated for a moment, then took to her wings and dropped. Flapping her wings lightly, she took aim at the shepherd and caught herself next to him with her wings fluttering at head height.

Any semblance of formation had dissolved in the cave. There was a mad scramble in front of the entrance, where everyone seemed to be fighting against everyone else. The undead stood confused at the entrance, no longer able to tell friend from foe. The necromancers, who could have solved the problem with a few commands, did not come into view as the tunnel was blocked by indecisive zombies. For the moment, the onslaught was slowed, but some of the undead already had an opponent, which they continued to fight. Only one of them had chosen a cultist who had appeared in the midst of the defenders at the wrong moment. The cultists themselves were slightly outnumbered, but only needed to hold out for a few moments before they would receive further reinforcements and flood the cave.