Chapter 268: Cost of Return

Merrit returned to the hospital the next morning with a contract proposal.

He had written it before breakfast.

The proposal offered the Thousand Works a fixed number of resurrection protections each month. Merrit would pay Sanctuary in Dungeon Points or crafted equipment. He would decide which crafters and customers received the protections.

Max read the first page and stopped.

"I cannot sell an authority I have not confirmed will function outside my dungeon." he said.

"Then confirm it inside first." Merrit replied.

"How?" Anna asked.

Merrit had an answer.

One of his assistants could enter Sanctuary, register under the temporary exchange agreement, and die in a controlled Arena match. If the assistant appeared in Max’s hospital, they would know which authority claimed the resurrection.

The contract keeper looked uncomfortable. The proposal had not been his idea.

"Did the assistant volunteer?" Max asked.

"I have not selected one."

"Then you proposed someone else’s death before asking them."

"A protected death." Merrit said. "Your adventurers accept the same risk every day."

"They enter levels for their own reasons. I am not killing someone to answer a contract question."

Merrit considered the refusal inefficient. Max considered the proposed test unacceptable.

Dagar arrived before the disagreement ended. He read Merrit’s summary and rejected the method for another reason.

"A single controlled death proves only that Max’s authority won once." Dagar said. "It does not prove which authority responds during battle, across greater distance, or after repeated use."

"One result is more than none." Merrit replied.

"One result treated as a rule is worse than none." Quin said.

Merrit looked from Quin to Max.

"No one here wants the answer."

"We want an answer that deserves to be used." Max replied.

The hospital received a Level Two party while they spoke. Five restored bodies appeared in assigned spaces and remained asleep as their consciousness entered the afterlife system. Attendants identified the party, checked the core’s timing, and notified waiting companions.

No healer rushed forward. The hospital did not repair injuries or provide passive healing magic. The bodies had been restored through resurrection and needed supervision until their consciousness returned.

Dagar watched the attendants work.

"How long?" he asked.

"Up to twelve hours." Max replied. "They may return earlier."

"And if they die again before the protection resets?"

Max gave the rule adventurers knew.

"They believe the next death would be permanent."

The statement was carefully true. Max had created the belief to prevent people from treating resurrection as permission for unlimited deaths. He did not explain the hidden mechanism to visiting Dungeon Masters he had known for two days.

Dagar accepted the warning at face value.

"My soldiers would obey it." he said. "Some would also become willing to spend one life too easily."

His interest in resurrection came from defense rather than commerce. The Redoubt’s population could not replace experienced defenders quickly. One veteran returned after death represented years of preserved training.

"You want protection for your soldiers." Max said.

"I want to know whether people who cross here can return. I will not build defensive plans around a service controlled by another Dungeon Master."

Dagar’s answer separated him from Merrit. He valued resurrection immensely and distrusted dependence on it for the same reason.

Merrit wanted predictable access he could sell or assign. Dagar wanted proof his dungeon could continue without it.

Max wanted neither dungeon treating Sanctuary’s hospital as an extension of its own authority.

The senior hospital attendant joined the discussion after receiving permission from the waking-area supervisor.

"The hospital also needs to know whose instructions apply while a body remains here." she said.

Merrit assumed the host dungeon controlled the body. Dagar believed a soldier’s designated representative should make decisions if the soldier could not.

The attendant rejected both answers as incomplete.

Hospital staff did not own an unconscious patient. A foreign employer or commander could receive notice according to the visitor’s stated preference, but could not remove the body, interrupt the afterlife period, or decide when the person returned.

"What if their own dungeon can call them back?" Dagar asked.

"Then we need to know whether the call harms them or conflicts with Sanctuary’s authority."

"A soldier may be needed."

"A patient may need the full recovery period."

The attendant wanted every exchange visitor to name contacts and receive the hospital rules before entering a level. Her motivation was not deciding the larger resurrection dispute. She wanted staff protected from two Dungeon Masters issuing contradictory orders over a sleeping person.

Max added the requirement to the exchange conditions.

Merrit asked whether employers could at least receive confirmation that someone arrived safely. The attendant allowed it only if the visitor authorized notification or an existing emergency rule applied.

The conversation made resurrection less attractive as a service Merrit could purchase and administer. The returned body remained a person under Sanctuary’s protection, not an asset delivered to whoever paid.

They moved to the core room’s public consultation chamber, where Max could question the system without revealing private displays.

The exchange authority confirmed several points.

A living person crossing into Sanctuary became subject to Sanctuary’s normal entry rules. Foreign ownership of equipment, contracts, or dungeon rewards did not change that. A creature bound to another core remained bound to the original core unless transferred.

The system would not state what happened when two dungeon authorities held valid resurrection claims over the same person.

[RESOLUTION DEPENDS ON ACTIVE BINDINGS, TERRITORIAL AUTHORITY, PURCHASED PROTECTIONS, AND CLAIM PRIORITY.]

Merrit read the response.

"Then calculate the priority."

[INSUFFICIENT ACTIVE CONDITIONS.]

Quin asked whether crossing the gate created a binding.

[ENTRY ACCEPTS HOST RULES. ENTRY DOES NOT AUTOMATICALLY SURRENDER EXTERNAL BINDINGS.]

Dagar asked whether his soldiers possessed external bindings.

The system required him to examine his own core. The temporary connection did not grant Max access to that information.

"We cannot solve the question from one side." Anna said.

Merrit wanted to compare every revival condition used by the Thousand Works. Dagar refused to disclose his soldiers’ core protections before understanding what Max intended to do with the information.

The mistrust was reasonable. Resurrection rules could expose weaknesses an enemy might exploit.

"Then unrestricted exchange waits." Max said.

Merrit objected.

"Trade does not require death."

"No. It creates the possibility. A crafter crosses, enters a level, and dies. A guard responds to an emergency and dies. A visitor assumes Sanctuary will restore them because the hospital exists."

"Publish a warning."

"A warning does not resolve where they wake."

Dagar supported Max’s restriction.

"Anyone I send must know whether death returns him to the Redoubt, to Sanctuary, or nowhere."

Merrit looked toward the sleeping adventurers.

His impatience came from more than profit. The Thousand Works had lost talented crafters during the first challenge. Several died defending workshops because the dungeon’s existing revival rules did not protect them during an invasion. Merrit had preserved their designs and tools. He could not replace the judgment that made them useful.

"How many?" Max asked.

Merrit did not pretend to misunderstand.

"Eleven."

The number changed the proposal without making it acceptable.

Merrit wanted control over resurrection because ownership had failed to protect the people who created value. He could secure designs, contracts, and equipment. Death still removed the person.

"Selling you protections will not undo those losses." Anna said.

"No. It may prevent the next ones."

"Or convince people they can take a risk whose rules we do not understand."

Merrit looked at the contract he had drafted.

The agreement described payment, allocation, and limits. It did not contain a verified explanation of what the purchased protection could do.

His contract keeper finally spoke.

"The proposal cannot define delivery."

Merrit turned toward him.

"Sanctuary cannot promise resurrection outside its authority." the keeper continued. "We cannot identify when that authority begins or whether another claim overrides it. No enforceable contract exists yet."

Merrit valued the keeper because he protected the Thousand Works from expensive promises. The same skill now prevented Merrit from buying what he wanted.

"Withdraw the proposal." Merrit said.

The keeper sealed it without argument.

Max offered a narrower path.

The first exchange would involve delegations entering only public territory. No visitor would be encouraged to enter a dungeon level until both cores compared their entry and resurrection rules. If a foreign visitor later chose to attempt a level with full warning, Sanctuary would observe the result if death occurred naturally. No one would be asked to die for the test.

Dagar agreed.

Merrit wanted faster certainty but accepted the condition because refusing ended the exchange completely.

"If Sanctuary’s authority restores them, will you sell access afterward?" he asked.

"No." Max replied.

"You rejected the test because the rules were unknown."

"I also reject turning death into a service another Dungeon Master assigns to people."

Merrit studied him.

"You charge adventurers."

"External adventurers on Level Five may purchase graveyard protection for themselves. The cost depends on their level. They choose before taking the risk. Floors One through Four return them to the hospital under the established system."

"A Dungeon Master could purchase the same choice for his people."

"Then the Dungeon Master decides whose life justifies the expense and whose does not."

Dagar understood the concern immediately. Military command already decided who held dangerous positions. Adding purchased resurrection could turn survival into another reward distributed through rank.

"If my soldiers use it, they purchase it individually." he said.

Merrit did not agree, but he recorded the objection.

The visitors left the hospital without access to Max’s resurrection authority.