Chapter 252: Records Worth Keeping

Max visited the Hall of Achievements because a crowd had blocked one of its doors.

No fight had broken out. Sanctuary’s rules made violence impossible outside the Arena, and the gnomes assigned to the hall had already separated the loudest parties. The argument concerned a bronze display that the dungeon had never created.

Someone had placed it beside the official achievement tablets.

[Cleanest Fey Nights Completion]

The board listed five parties according to injuries, damaged equipment, and supplies consumed during successful attempts. Each entry carried verified results copied from party records with the owners’ permission.

The first-place party had completed the level without a death and used fewer restorative supplies than the others. The second-place party claimed the comparison was dishonest because the winners had taken the hidden dinner route and received food during the level.

The winners argued that finding useful resources was part of Fey Nights.

Neither result violated any dungeon rule.

Max entered through the cleared doorway with Anna and Quin. The crowd noticed him quickly enough for the argument to stop without a gnome demanding silence.

"Is that one of ours?" Anna asked.

"The bronze came from an ordinary metalworker." Quin said. "The verification marks are copied from records, not issued by the hall."

The Hall of Achievements displayed system-recognized results. First clears, unusual accomplishments, and records defined by the dungeon belonged on its permanent tablets. Visitors had begun building their own comparisons around those results.

The unofficial board was only the largest.

Smaller lists occupied stands around the hall. One compared the condition of the supplied Dwarven Airship when parties reached the valley. Another ranked Skyyard teams by average placement across ten races instead of a single Grand Race victory. A Masquerade Castle list tracked parties that acquired their assigned target without alerting Kildra.

The strangest board recorded the shortest time between entering the Orc Highlands arena and realizing escape had been possible.

No party had escaped after entering the arena. The record measured regret, not progress.

Max read the boards while the crowd waited.

"Did anyone claim these were official achievements?" he asked.

The gnome responsible for the hall pointed toward a painted sign placed near the entrance.

VISITOR RECORDS. NOT DUNGEON AWARDS.

The sign had been moved behind the largest board to create more space.

The problem was not that adventurers compared themselves. The problem was that unofficial displays used the Hall of Achievements’ location and presentation to borrow authority they had not earned.

Max asked the two Fey Nights parties to explain their disagreement.

The second-place leader wanted the dinner route excluded because it reduced supplies consumed. The first-place leader wanted the record left unchanged because the party had found and used an advantage inside the level.

"What does the board claim to measure?" Max asked.

"The cleanest successful completion." the metalworker who made it said.

"Then finding food inside the level does not make the completion less successful or less clean."

The first-place party relaxed.

Max continued.

"The board does not say every party followed the same route. Anyone reading it should be able to see the route beside the result."

The metalworker agreed to add a route column. The second-place party kept its position and gained a fair basis for creating a separate comparison limited to the direct path.

Max did not declare either board an official achievement.

One member of the crowd asked what would make a visitor record official.

Max could have answered by reserving the distinction for accomplishments he liked. Doing so would turn the hall into a collection of his preferences rather than a record of the dungeon.

"An official achievement needs a condition the dungeon can recognize consistently." Max said. "The condition must exist before an attempt begins, and anyone who satisfies it must receive the same result."

"Then the clean completion could become official if you add the condition." the metalworker said.

"It could. The question is whether measuring supplies serves the level."

Fey Nights tested navigation, caution, negotiation, and combat across changing routes. Rewarding low supply use might encourage skill. It might also encourage parties to deny healing to injured members so their total looked better.

The second-place healer admitted his party had delayed using a potion near the end because they knew the board existed.

No one had died. The admission still changed the crowd’s mood.

Max left the visitor record in place but rejected an official version. Community recognition could celebrate narrow accomplishments. Dungeon achievements had to consider what behavior their rewards encouraged.

Quin asked the hall gnomes to add a place for category rules and revision dates. If a community record changed its definition, old results would remain under the version used when they were submitted. Parties would no longer discover that their accomplishment had changed because someone added a condition later.

The metalworker objected to the extra work until three parties volunteered to maintain the board. Ownership of the record moved from one maker to the people competing for it.

The gnomes moved every visitor-created display to the hall’s western gallery. A permanent sign identified the area as community records. Official achievement tablets remained in the central chamber and retained the dungeon’s verification mark.

Parties could submit results to the western gallery if every named participant consented. The hall would confirm that a copied result matched the party record, but it would not judge whether the category mattered.

That distinction produced new arguments immediately.

A group wanted to rank the most valuable loot acquired during Masquerade Castle. Merchants objected that changing prices made the record meaningless. Another group proposed measuring how long parties kept all dwarven crew members alive during Level Three. A surviving dwarf from an active instance could not remember previous parties, but the completion records could still confirm the outcome.

Max left the debates to the people creating the categories.

He intervened again when a guild proposed a record for the most party members revived after a single attempt. The guild representative claimed the category honored persistence. Hospital workers viewed it differently. A high result required almost everyone to die.

The representative insisted that no one would seek the record deliberately.

Three adventurers in the crowd began discussing which level could produce the highest count without risking a failed recovery.

The board never reached the wall.

"Community records are not dungeon awards, but the hall still chooses what it displays." Max said. "Recognition for recovering from a disaster is different from competition over who can create the largest one."

The guild replaced the proposal with successful completion after at least one revival. The category still honored recovery without rewarding additional deaths.

The decision led to a question the hall had never needed to answer. Who approved community categories when Max was absent?

The gnome assigned to the gallery could verify records and remove lies. He did not want to decide which behavior deserved public recognition. Max did not want every new board entering the tiered response system until it reached someone with broad authority.

Anna suggested a rotating panel drawn from hall staff, adventurers, healers, and attraction workers. Their job would not be to decide whether a record was impressive. They would check whether it was measurable, consensual, clearly labeled, and unlikely to reward harm unrelated to completing the level.

Appeals could follow the existing response tiers. Only disputes affecting dungeon rules would rise to Max.

The clean-completion rivals both volunteered for the first panel. Each believed the other needed supervision. The hall gnome accepted them on the condition that neither reviewed a category where their own party held a place.

Quin stopped at a board comparing attempts against the Level Three dragon. The list did not rank fastest kills. It tracked how long parties kept the airship functional after the dragon entered the battle.

"The measure may be more useful than the official completion time." Quin said.

"It rewards the skill the level is supposed to teach." Max replied.

Some unofficial records exposed behavior Max wanted to encourage. Others rewarded foolish risk.

One board ranked the lowest remaining health at the end of Fey Nights. Another counted how many red caps a party fought simultaneously. Max did not ban them, but he required every community board to state whether the underlying attempt ended in success, withdrawal, or death.

The change removed the appearance that surviving with almost no health mattered more than completing the objective.

Anna found a list dedicated to Max.

[Confirmed Sightings of the Dungeon Master Outside the Core Room]

The entries included the first Grand Race, Masquerade Castle, several Sanctuary walks, and meetings that had occurred in public. Most contained no private information. One claimed Max had visited a baker four times in a week.

"Was the bread good?" Anna asked.

"I visited twice." Max replied.

The baker had apparently submitted separate records for entering and leaving.

Max rejected the board from the Hall because it did not measure dungeon performance or an adventuring accomplishment. The gnome moved it to the bakery, where the owner could decide whether false precision helped sell bread.

The incident revealed how much attention visitors paid to Max even when he was not directing them. He could not eliminate every rumor by making himself less visible.

The official hall remained unchanged. No public clear announcement appeared, and unofficial rankings did not unlock levels or grant rewards. They provided recognition because adventurers valued recognition from one another.

By evening, the western gallery held fewer boards arranged more clearly. The Cleanest Fey Nights Completion board showed routes beside results. A new direct-route category appeared next to it.

The two parties continued competing.

They now agreed about what they were competing over.

Max left the hall while another group argued whether landing a damaged Dwarven Airship should be worth more than keeping it undamaged enough that the landing was easy.