_____________________________
[ ???'s Interface ]
System Notification
Intrusion Report:
One thousand nine hundred fifty-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:
- 39322 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:
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.
“Calm down. Shouldn’t you be used to it already?”
“Used to it? Every time that old bastard pops out, it makes me feel like a hungry homeless man on a corner of the street being teased with food that won’t even be given to him.”
“That’s even more of a reason to simply get used to this. What was that one quote about insanity already? Ah, yes, insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.”
“Mph, I guess you’re right, but still, what’s the deal with them.”
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 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, 1 of which was done by a batch of normal human invaders, 11 of which were 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 the Dungeon Master’s Guardians. But one after another they kept popping out, so much so that the Dungeon Masters themselves had grown bored of dealing with Greed and Resurgence-Authority-wielders. They popped up so much that we, who, unlike with Greed and Resurgence-Authority-wielder, still eagerly awaited regular human invasions, began to feel like human invasions had really decreased since we first interacted with these authority wielders.
All of this really made it feel like these old men, these Greed and Resurgence-Authority-wielders, were seeing our domain as a sort of sarcophagus for easy euthanasia, because there’s no way all these 11 old men just haphazardly came here to all die one after the other. It just couldn’t.
“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—to be frankly fair, while I’ve gotten the impression, actually not an impression but more like a fact, that human invasion decreased, each invasion done by Greed and Resurgence-Authority-wielders more or less replaced the GP I was usually getting from invasions. To be fair it wasn’t like I was being invaded that often by humans anyway.
While Greed and Resurgence-Authority-wielders, upon their death, don’t leave behind the authority, they still leave behind a substantial amount of GP that I guess more or less covers the decrease of normal human invasions. That was pretty much the only positive side to the constant nuisances that are Greed and Resurgence-Authority-wielders, but even so, at the rhythm it was going, I think it was about time we put an end to it.
Having battled one of them with my own guardians, watched many of their battles against the others’ 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 today, 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 would have to do was take him to a Dungeon Guardian’s chamber, have him be aggroed, and be constantly attacked by one of such spawns, for however long it has to be. In other words, the plan was, in a way, burying him alive so that the authority no longer passes over somewhere else but here at our side, even though we ourselves can’t reach 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 by the time of the Greed and Resurgence-Authority-wielder’s 13th invasion, we were finally ready to seal the authority. 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.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
_____________________________
[ ???'s Interface ]
System Notification
Intrusion Report:
One thousand nine hundred fifty-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:
- 39322 G.P
- Authorities: Greed and Resurgence
_____________________________
“Hahahaha, finally.”
_____________________________
Name: Aegis
Level: 92
Race: HighBreed
Class: Knight
Title: Grand Crusader / Lord Defender / Champion
Experience: 47,420,200 / 48,510,000
[Status]
- H.P: 4600 / 4600
- M.P: 1200 / 1200
- S.P: 3200 / 3800
- Fatigue: 5%
- Defense: 2800
- Offense: 3500
[Skills]
- Bending: Level 3
- Sword Mastery: Level 32
- Shield Bash: Level 28
- Holy Strike: Level 30
- Divine Shield: Level 26
- Counter-Attack: Level 28
- Aura of Protection: Level 30
- Shield Wall: Level 32
- Crusader's Charge: Level 30
- Grandmaster Parry: Level 28
- Vindicator's Stance: Level 30
- Earthshaker Cleave: Level 28
- Celestial Wrath: Level 32
[Abilities]
- Crusader's Zeal: Unlocked
- Divine Intervention: Unlocked
- Unyielding Fortitude: Unlocked
- Shield of the Righteous: Unlocked
- Avatar of Justice: Unlocked
- Celestial Aegis: Unlocked
- Resolute Guardian: Unlocked
- Holy Retribution: Unlocked
- Knight's Resolve: Unlocked
- Supreme Defender: Unlocked
_____________________________
Although I can’t argue with the improvement in the GP you left behind, it's time for this 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 them; 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, 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 05—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, Dungeon Master 05, the second one to go was Dungeon Master 02. 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
Yes
No
____________________________
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: Eldritch Being
Class: Sentient Echo
Title:
Status
H.P: 300
M.P: 400
S.P: 250
Fatigue: 10%
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: Unlocked
- Echoic Resilience: Unlocked
- Transient Existence: Unlocked
- Memory Weave: Unlocked
- Residual Influence: Unlocked
- Telepathic Discourse: Unlocked
- Temporal Flux: Unlocked
- Ethereal Bond: Unlocked
____________________________
“It’s been long enough. 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 abilities: Telepathic Discourse
_____________________________
In that moment even though he’d already plenty rehearsed the use of this ability Dungeon Master 07 seemed to hesitated but eventually through the ‘Telepathic Discourse, he communicated with the man, asking the question that's been plaguing not only him but us all from the moment the third time an Greed and Resurgence-Authority-wielder showed up in our domain.
_____________________________
[ Telepathic Discourse ]
Echo-13: Why?
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