Why set up the earth dungeon at all? Why not just leave it empty so that the party could get in, fight the boss, and then get out?

I like to claim that it was a well-thought-out plan to show the party that there was no way that I could have cleared the dungeon alone.

I like to claim that, but it’s patently false.

It was once again a case of me being blindsided by something, panicking, and not stopping to think it through. That habit of mine was getting to be a bit worrisome. Though, to be fair, it’s not like that modus operandi had failed me yet…

---

Getting into the dungeon was pretty easy, with the daves clearing out all of the monsters. However, the actual process ended up being a bit of a mess.

First, I had to “scout” and make sure to “find” it. To handle that, I just submerged into the lake and waited around for a bit. When I had determined I had spent long enough to “find the dungeon entrance,” I resurfaced and told the party where it was.

Then we had to actually get inside. The rest of the party left their personal daves on shore (Megan never took one, and I had already sent mine into the water). Then we went single-file underwater to make sure that we didn’t lose track of anyone. That resulted in a few issues where people accidentally hit the legs of the person in front of them.

Jake accidentally did that to me, and I hit him with an [Earth Strike] before I could stop myself. “Sorry, [Hero]!” I gurgled out. Too used to stranglevines grabbing me, I guess.

He grunted, and I assumed that meant, “It’s okay.” We kept going.

Then there was a bit of a mishap right at the entrance. I guess I didn’t explain well enough that you had to go into the opening and then up. However, we got everyone in with minimal suffocation damage, so I still counted it as a win.

“Dang, it’s really dark in here, isn’t it?” Jake asked as he pulled a torch out of his inventory.

Oh yeah. I completely forgot about light. I thought back over the other dungeons we’d been in. But since most dungeons seem to be “bring your own light,” I guess that isn’t too big a deal.

We gathered up in the first room. It was a bit small, but I had established that room as kind of a safe zone, so it worked out okay.

Jake was the first one to speak. “So, the [Demon Lord] had to be down here, right? And since we don’t see him here, that means he’s probably further in.”

I frowned. Not good. If we don’t fight a [Demon Lord], they’ll be suspicious. “Unless he managed to sneak past Megan and me. Or maybe literally [Sneak]. I also wouldn’t rule out some type of invisibility or teleportation.”

“Awfully convenient that you missed him, Titus,” Tim said.

“Oh, shut up, Tim,” Jake said. He looked surprised by his own words. He looked at the [Wizard]. “Sorry about that.” He then shifted his gaze to me and said a single word. “Aura.”

“Oh. My bad,” I said as I pulled it back in. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t happy about Jake snapping at Tim, though.

We prepared to head into the dungeon with Jake leading the way, but Sam of all people stopped us. “I know that you guys normally lead, and I don’t want to throw my best friend to the monsters, but shouldn’t Lindsey be at the front?” Sam asked. Jake, Garrett, and I looked back and forth at each other. “We brought it up back when she upgraded her class, remember? She’s got the most HP now!” She looked a bit downcast. “I mean, I still want her to protect me and stuff, but isn’t it the best for the party if she goes first?”

“Well, she doesn’t have a free hand to carry a torch,” Jake stated lamely.

Lindsey cocked her head, vanished her shield into her inventory, and then pulled out a torch.

“Okay, okay. I guess I just feel bad about sending a woman into a dungeon first, ya know? It just feels wrong,” Jake said.

Lindsey looked unamused, so I came to her defense. “Hey, it’s not like she can’t handle herself. In fact, she’s number 3 on the list of people in the party I wouldn’t want to fight for real.”

“And why do you happen to have that list, I wonder?” Tim asked sarcastically.

I scowled at him. “I would be an idiot not to! More of you in this party have threatened me or tried to kill me than not!” Tim’s comment was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Or, in this case, the remark that caused a crack in the bottle holding my repressed anger.

“Hey man, no need to exaggerate,” Jake said.

“I’M NOT EXAGGERATING!” I shouted. “You threatened me after I claimed the obelisk. Emilia almost killed me after! Tim tried to kill me during our duel. Andrew almost did when he interfered with it! And then, last of all, Megan almost killed me too!” The cracks grew and spread.

“Uh, aura-“ Jake said tentatively.

I just steamrolled through. “I don’t know why I put up with you all! You saved my life once, but that’s not near worth the number of times you almost took it!” The bottle was no more. The fire it contained burst forth.

“Aura,” Jake said a bit more assertively.

“And I’m done with the constant suspicion! We never would’ve made it to this freaking dungeon if it wasn’t for me! And who knows who would’ve died if I hadn’t been here!” The fire became a raging inferno.

“Aura!” Jake shouted.

“So, I don’t need you! I don’t need any of you! I’m leaving!”

“Titus! Pull in your aura now!” Jake shouted once more. Half of the party seemed to be preparing for a fight.

The raging inferno beckoned me, and I let it consume me. It felt… Good. “No, [Hero].” I didn’t even care about the demonic voice that came out of my throat. I could feel the rage build and almost become a physical presence.

System: Attempting to activate Wrath Form

Then Megan walked up and slapped me in the face.

It was so unexpected that shock and confusion took the place of my anger momentarily.

System: Cancelling

Fortunately, momentarily was enough. I was able to reel in the aura, even as Megan said. “Could Titus and I talk alone for a bit?”

The party acquiesced mostly because everyone was too stunned to stay anything, and Megan and I made our way back outside for some privacy.

As soon as we were back on the lakeshore, she turned to me and shouted. “What the hail was that, Titus!? You were this close to ruining our cover, and you were this close to ruining our plan!”

“I got angry,” was all I could say.

“You got angry. Great. Perfect. If I hadn’t been there to shut you up, who knows what would have happened?!”

I could still feel the anger there, biding its time, but I also had a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach. “I do. And it would’ve been something terrible.” I looked her in the eye. “And I’m not sure anyone would have survived.”

---

Jake had been too stunned to do anything. However, he belatedly noticed that he had drawn his sword.

“Still believe he’s just a [Half-Demon]? Tim asked haughtily.

Jake took a couple deep breaths. “Yes. Yes, I do. He mentioned that he thought he might be half wrath demon. Apparently, demons are more intense than we realized.” He looked at Tim. “But why do you keep antagonizing him? What’s your deal?”

“Hey! Don’t talk to my son like that!” Andrew said.

Jake looked back and forth between them. “Ya know what? I’m done.” He went into the party and kicked Andrew and Tim.

The entire party was shocked.

“You can’t do that!” Tim exclaimed.

“You would leave us out in this swamp alone?! How dare you!” Andrew followed up.

“Jake, isn’t that going a bit far?” Garrett asked.

“Everyone shut up and listen!” Jake shouted. Breathe. In. 2. 3. 4. Hold. 2. 3. 4. Out. 2. 3. 4. Hold. 2. 3. 4. In… After feeling calm enough, he continued. “It isn’t too far because I’m just kicking them for now. We’ll pick them up after clearing the dungeon. They can even rejoin if they learn how to play well together like they should’ve in fricken kindergarten.”

There was a pause for a bit as everyone digested that.

“What about the prophecy?” Tim asked. “Don’t you need us in the party?”

“Tim, you don’t even believe the prophecy because it specifically mentioned a [Half-Demon] right in it,” Jake stated flatly. Jake had a thought. “Also, now that I think about it, it only said I shouldn’t leave town without you. We’ve left town, so I guess we’re good on that front. Maybe I should kick you permanently.”

Jake expected a couple different arguments from Tim. Maybe how he was their only source of AOE. Maybe how Andrew was their healer, and they were a package deal. Maybe how they needed every party member they could get in order to take down the [Demon Lord]. What he didn’t expect was for the young [Wizard] to burst into tears.

“I like this new world. I just wanna help save it,” Tim bawled.

Andrew wrapped him in an awkward hug, since Tim was taller than him now, and glared daggers at Jake.

Jake sighed. With how he speaks and his awful attitude, I keep forgetting that he’s just a kid. Jake thought for a second and came to a conclusion. “Okay, fine. I’ll let you back in on one condition.”

Tim sniffled a bit but then looked up at Jake.

“You have to stop antagonizing Titus, okay? He’s been dealing with enough, and he doesn’t need you to add onto it,” Jake said.

Tim paused for a second. “I don’t suppose it would help my case to note that antagonizing him was a tactical decision?” At Jake’s dubious look, Tim continued. “After noticing his wrath aura reacting to irritating stimuli, I tried to exploit that to make him reveal himself as the [Demon Lord]. I would like to claim that I planned out this encounter so that we wouldn’t be in the swamp, which was favorable terrain for him, and also so that we would all be completely fresh.” He shook his head. “However, that would be a falsehood. I didn’t expect a singular flippant remark to be the catalyst for… That.”

Jake grit his teeth. You little piece of sit. Jake did his breathing yet again. “Are you going to continue doing that?”

Tim shook his head. “No. I think it’s clear that if the previous display was not enough to convince you that I will need to find alternate evidence.”

“You swear that you won’t antagonize Titus anymore?” Jake asked a bit suspiciously.

“I swear.”

I guess that will have to do for now. Jake reinvited them to the party, and then they waited for Titus and Megan to come back.

The waiting started to get awkward, so the remaining party members decided they would give the next dungeon room a look. They went through a short tunnel and saw a mound of dirt and rocks the size of Andrew in the middle of the room.

Lindsey and Jake both approached it when suddenly it started moving towards them. “[Identify]!” Jake cast. “We got a level 5 lesser earth elemental! It’s mine!”

As soon as Jake got close to it, it took on a more humanoid appearance and started swinging at him. Jake was able to dodge backward out of the way and land a quick strike. The elemental didn’t seem to learn from that interaction, so Jake just repeated that twice more and was surprised when that was enough to kill it.

The monster collapsed into a pile of dirt and then disappeared.

“That was easy,” Jake said. He looked around the room. There wasn’t much there besides two additional exits. Good thing I have the map perk. Wouldn’t wanna get lost in here.

“What do you think, Jake?” Garrett asked. “Keep going, or wait until Titus and Megan get back?”

“I don’t want them to accidentally get lost. Let’s just wait.”

Jake was a bit troubled, and Garrett must have picked up on it. “Something the matter?” The [Berserker] asked.

“I just… Don’t know if I’m leading this party right, ya know? I kicked Andrew and Tim back there and then reinvited them without getting anyone else’s thoughts on it. I’m worried that I’m becoming the party tyrant.”

Garrett shrugged. “I would say benevolent dictator for life, but yeah.”

Jake shot Garrett an unamused look.

“Look, if I thought you were doing something too boneheaded, I would’ve stepped in. Which is what I did when I thought you were planning to strand those two in the swamp. Kicking them from the party? I get it. Tim’s been awful to deal with even though he’s been getting a little better.” Garrett paused and stroked his chin. “However, I think reinviting them was the right move. If you’re going to kick them permanently, you need to wait until we are back in civilization. Otherwise, you’re kinda holding their life above their heads.”

“That’s a good point,” Jake muttered. He looked back up at the [Berserker]. “Thanks, geezer.”

Their waiting was finally ended with a call from the first room. “Where’d you guys go?”

“We’re in here!” Jake called back.

Titus walked into the room alone. Wait. Jake felt for Megan through the party link and found her trailing Titus. Ah. Good.

“You all good now?” Jake asked.

Titus sighed. “Yeah, sorry. I really lost it there.”

“No worries, it’s understandable. And sorry for threatening you back when you claimed the obelisk.”

Titus waved his hand. “Forget about it. What monsters are there? I need to punch something.”

That’s not the best method of dealing with anger, Titus. Jake thought. Then he remembered Titus almost losing it just a few minutes ago. But maybe I’ll tell you about what I learned in therapy some other time.

Shaking that thought off, Jake gave a quick recounting of the first fight.

---

After hearing how easy the fight was, I was now worried for a different reason. I think I might’ve made it too easy. I tried to use the lesser elementals sparingly, but I guess there was no reason to.

At this point, it’s worth backtracking a bit to the dungeon setup. The dungeon setup was a bit… Strange. I could make changes to the terrain and immediately see the effects, but adding in monsters never actually showed me them. I could only choose which type to spawn and where they would spawn in.

The traps also spawned in immediately, but doors and chests didn’t. The awkward part of that was that I had decided to make some doors that required keys, and I had placed the keys in chests. All in all that means I had no idea whether they worked. I also didn’t test the traps because I didn’t want to explain any injuries. I just assumed they would be fine.

I wasn’t too worried because I had tested an impossible dungeon setup (which was definitely a purposeful test and not the case of me forgetting to put a key in the first part of the dungeon), and the system gave me an error.

So where did that leave me? I knew that the path to our left ended in a single room with a chest guarded by 2 lesser elementals. I also knew that we would need the key in that chest somewhere down the right path. However, the party had already decided we were going to the right before I got back, so that meant I could do nothing but complain internally about our inefficient dungeon pathing.

My internal grumblings aside, I was still curious. What’s in the next room again? I thought a bit. I think it’s just a random monster room with a couple minor elementals.

The party followed Lindsey and Jake into the next room.

“Looks like we got 3 bigger ones!” Jake called out.

Wait, bigger ones? I finally got a glimpse of them. Jake had mentioned that the lesser elementals were around Andrew’s size. These probably had a few inches on Garrett.

“[Identify]!” Jake cast. “Level 10 minor earth elementals! Front line, move in!”

I assumed that the last statement was for my benefit since the rest of the party was getting their orders through the party interface. However, that wasn’t the main thought on my mind. Oh no… I switched them. Is this dungeon even possible? In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I had assumed minor was weaker than lesser. That meant I had used lesser elementals sparingly. I had absolutely spammed minor ones.

I moved into the room and made sure to give the party a wide berth. I hadn’t forgotten how the last several times I had tried to fight with the party had gone poorly.

Hope I only aggro one. I thought as I ran off to the side. I was assuming with my luck that I would end up with 2 of them, or maybe all 3.

I didn’t expect to be completely ignored.

1 elemental charged Jake, another Lindsey, and the third Garrett. I stood there, stunned for a second, and then shook my head. Focus. Who do I help? Lindsey easily dodged under her foe’s swing and then followed up with 2 quick sword strikes. Jake dodged backward, and I saw electricity arcing from his sword. Meanwhile, Garrett was yelling like a madman and swinging wildly. He didn’t even bother to dodge the rocky fist that came down on him. Or the second.

Help the [Raging] [Berserker] it is, those hits have to hurt. I ran towards Garrett’s enemy and started hitting it from behind with [Fire Strikes]. “Hey, rocky! Why don’t you box me instead!” My taunt had no effect.

I vaguely heard Jake’s [Sunder] go off, and him exclaim, “Holy carp! That didn’t even kill it!”

However, I was laser-focused on the enemy in front of me that refused to pay attention to me. It struck the [Berserker] yet again, and he started staggering around even as he took yet another reckless swing. Faster, Titus! DPS[1] faster!

My incoherent screams joined Garrett’s as we attacked it like two wild men. My final [Fire Strike] landed and went through the rocky form. It collapsed to the dirt and then disappeared. Garrett immediately turned and ran towards Lindsey’s opponent without a break.

I would have gone to help him. However, I had a different problem.

System: Significant damage to faction members detected. Premeditated killing of faction monster detected. Kicking from faction

System: ERROR, Cannot kick Demon Lord from Demon Lord Faction!

As soon as the error message popped up, I felt a build-up of pressure inside my head. It was hard to focus, and the world became a bit blurry. I could see the battle still going on, so I tried to stumble over to help.

System: Searching for alternate solutions

System: Attempting rewrite of Demon Lord memory

The pressure on my head doubled, and I fell to a knee.

System: ERROR, Entity has System-level write protection and cannot be directly modified!

System: Searching for alternate solutions

The pressure abated for a second but then came back in full force.

System: Attempting to revert Demon Lord to standard template

System: FATAL ERROR, NullPointerException!

The entire world froze. That included me. I sat there and admired Jake’s sword in midswing and tried to get up to help.

I struggled for a bit but couldn’t move. I couldn’t even change where I was looking. All I could do was think. Looks like I broke it pretty good.

System : I completely forgot that the Demon Lord faction was originally set up with friendly-fire kicking. What kind of Demon Lord isn’t allowed to kill his own subordinates? Also, for such an advanced system, how on earth did error logs make it through to a non-admin? Half-setup world or no?

What? Was all I could think.

System : Oh. I uhh. Forgot this was on. You weren’t supposed to hear that.

System : Ahem. Anyway, don’t worry, I’ll have the error fixed and the world running again in a moment. The upside from this is that you should be able to kill monsters from your faction without reprisal, even without training mode. And… Done. Talk to you later

I could feel the world restarting. Wait! I have so many questions!

System : And I promise answers. Later. I can’t let Admin catch me. I’ll talk to you when I know the coast is clear

And he’s gone again, isn’t he? I sighed. At least I know I’ll get some answers eventually… I should make a list of what to ask. I was so preoccupied with my thoughts that I hadn’t realized the battle was over.

“Yo, Titus! You alright!?” Jake called out.

“Yeah, just... Catching my breath.”

“Even though you don’t need to breathe?”

I chuckled drily and really didn’t want to talk about the end of the fight, so I tried my ultimate move. “Why did Garrett go into [Rage], though? That made things a lot dicier than they needed to be.” Okay, okay. Changing the subject is hardly a grandmaster technique of social manipulation, but it was the best I could do.

“I didn’t want to, okay?” Garrett’s voice had an edge to it.

That reply made the entire party look at Garrett in shock. The gentle giant had snapped at someone?

Jake even said, “Aura.” However, after a pause, he said, “No. No aura. Uhh, you okay, geezer?”

“I… Don’t know,” Garrett said. “That skill. I think it activated itself, and it messes with my head even a bit after.”

“Alright, let’s make sure you don’t get aggro until we know you aren’t going to [Rage], okay?” Jake asked.

“Yeah, this fight was too dicey for my tastes,” I said.

Jake looked at me, quizzically. “Why do you keep saying this fight was dicey?”

It was my turn to be confused. “Garrett took multiple hits from a level 10 monster. Honestly, I was expecting him to go down any time,” I said.

Andrew grunted. “My stamina bar is certainly feeling it, but I managed to keep him above half that entire time. Did you not think I could do my job?”

Jake gave Andrew a pointed look. “Nevermind,” the [Bishop] sighed. “You can’t see health bars, right? Garrett wasn’t in danger, though I burned through almost all my stamina. I didn’t realize [Cast from SP] made spells cost so much more.”

“Oh, got it,” I said. I totally forget that the party has a healer. And I also forgot about [Cast from SP]… I’m not a very good party member, am I?

The party decided to wait the full 15 minutes for Andrew’s SP to come back.

After that, it was on to the next room. Since I had made a stretch of straight monster rooms, this one was basically the same, except it had 4 minor elementals instead of 3.

I charged ahead and picked the farthest one away. I was determined to actually get aggro this time so that we wouldn’t have a repeat of the last fight.

Imagine my surprise when I got close, and the elemental simply disappeared into the ground and started burrowing quickly towards Jake.

“Watch out, [Hero]!” I called out. “You have 1 tunneling towards you!”

He must not have heard me because he kept charging his [Sunder]. He leaped back from the elemental’s swing and then let his skill loose.

I missed what happened after the subsequent thunderclap and the flash of light that seemed a bit brighter than usual. However, Jake was standing there alone after, and also laughing hysterically.

We mopped up the other 2, but Jake refused to tell us what happened. “I got the entire next room.” He said between laughter. “Just watch.”

We were a bit concerned when Jake went into the next room solo and drew aggro from 5 minor elementals. I almost ran in to help, but I finally figured it out when I noticed what he was doing.

He was charging [Sunder] while running back and forth, trying to get the elementals in a straight line. That skill is so unfair. I lamented to myself as Jake finally got them where he wanted them. He pivoted to face them and then activated the skill.

All 5 enemies were slain, just like that.

The rest of the party was too stunned to comment, but I just sighed and called out, “Your class is really BS, you know that [Hero]!?”

“You’re just jealous!” he called back.

Yeah. I wish I had it that easy, I thought.

“Woah. Aura!” he said. “Was it something I said?”

I pulled it back in. “No… Just thinking about something, sorry,” I replied.

Needless to say, Jake’s discovery that [Sunder] could hit multiple targets made our dungeon dive a lot easier. We did ask him to stop one-shotting the level 10 enemies, though. Both to save stamina and so that the rest of the party could actually feel like we were contributing.

With the influx of level 10 mobs we defeated, the party leveled up too. That put everyone up to level 11 and Jake up to 12. It also made Jake faceplant right after his [Sunder] that got the kill, and I thought that was hilarious.

After a couple more rooms, we finally made it to the first checkpoint. And, here’s the room where we’ll have to turn back. I wish I could’ve convinced them to go left at the first branch. I looked into the room that had 2 lesser elementals and a locked door. Ah. Yeah. I forgot that each of the pivotal points in the dungeon will be the easiest to take. Shouldn’t even need [Sunder] in the next room. That thought gave me an idea.

“Hey, can I have one of the elementals to myself? I want to test out [Elemental Strike] a bit.”

The party acquiesced, so I ran in first to aggro one of the mobs. And yes, I could do that as long as I went in first and attacked it. Finding that out had put some more suspicion on me, but I dispelled it by telling my best deception—the truth. The world had me in the [Demon Lord’s] faction for some reason.

When they asked why the Faroff Forest dungeon monsters would attack the party in a similar scenario, I “guessed” that it was because that one was in training mode, and this dungeon wasn’t.

Anyway, back to fighting a lesser elemental. My main curiosity was about the different effects that I had seen elemental attacks having. Earth attacks have consistently caused stagger. Can my punches do the same?

I dodged around the lesser elemental since I had quite the advantage in speed and reach, and I peppered it with [Earth Strikes].

Doesn’t seem to be doing much. Then again, maybe they’re immune to earth?

I switched tactics and decided to try [Ice Strikes] next. It took a few punches for it to be noticeable, but the elemental definitely started moving slower. Not too much slower, but enough to be significant in a prolonged fight.

Huh. I can, in fact, apply a chill effect. Already tried fire.. Air?

I punched the rock-solid enemy with an [Air Strike] and was surprised when it flew backward. Well, it flew backward only 2 feet, but that was more than I expected.

Huh. Guess that one’s easier to see because it doesn’t ramp up. Does the strength of my punch matter?

I gave it a softer punch and was surprised when it went back the same distance.

The science soon devolved into me giggling like an idiot and saying “boop” every time I [Air Strike] flicked the elemental as it was about to attack me.

Yes, it still cost the same amount of SP to flick as to punch with the skill. Yes, the party told me I was an idiot for wasting both time and stamina. Yes, it was totally worth it.

Tim eventually had enough and [Fire Bolted] it. His spell didn’t kill it. It also removed the chill effect.

Did you know that lesser elementals deal 22 damage per hit? I did after that.

Either way, I stopped messing around, and we finally cleared the room. We then stared at the ornate stone double doors that were chained together and had a giant padlock.

Huh. I wondered what the doors would look like.

Jake immediately slashed at the chains with his sword.

“What are you doing?!” I shouted. I sighed in relief as his sword bounced off.

“This looks like the way forward. Thought I would just cut my way through,” Jake said. “I guess that’s not allowed.”

He gave me a quizzical look about my reaction, and I gave the lame defense that I was worried he would damage his sword or something. In reality, I was worried that my hard work on the dungeon was going to get the gordian knot treatment.

We eventually decided to backtrack and try the other path. Fortunately, none of the monsters had respawned yet. Most of the lesser elementals in the first part of the dungeon were on the left path too. Together, that meant that we made it to the chest in no time.

I almost gave myself away a bit when we reached it. I didn’t immediately tell the party that the chest was obviously a mimic. Fortunately, Sam was on it and shot it with a [Mage Bolt] after we finished clearing out the elementals. When it didn’t grow legs and attack us, we looted it.

Key in hand, we made our way back to the locked door. Jake did the honors and inserted the key into the heavy padlock. He turned it. The padlock and the chain dissolved into nothing, and he was left holding the key.

I stared at it.

Jake did too. “Huh, I thought it would’ve dissolved too.”

I chuckled a little nervously. “Yeah, me too.” Aren’t dungeon keys normally one-time use things? Does this mean that people can just hoard keys and hand them out to anyone going into the dungeon? I internally sighed. Oh well, it’s not like anyone will be coming out to the middle of nowhere to clear this dungeon again.

We moved on to the second part of the dungeon. Which was the part where I had laid the traps.

After a few rooms with monsters in them, we made it into the first area that I trapped. A long tunnel where I had placed rockfall traps connected to tripwires.

I wonder why the dungeon warned me about too few traps. I placed so many of them in here. My puzzling was interrupted as we approached the first tripwire. It was so obvious to see that I was waiting for Lindsey to stop at any time. Any time now. She was 10 feet away. Any time Lindsey. 5 feet. Lindsey? She was right on it, and I shouted, “Stop!”

To their credit, the entire party did.

“What’s the matter?” Jake asked.

I pointed at the tripwire. “Do you not see that?”

Jake followed my point. “See what?”

Even after I cautiously approached it, knelt down, and showed the party exactly where it was, they still couldn’t see it. That made the party question my sanity, while I questioned why they couldn’t see it. Is it because it’s a trap I made? Because I’m in the faction? I remembered my most recent skill. Or is it [Detect]?

I managed to convince the party to stand back and let me trigger it. Not that I was activating it myself. That’s what minions are for.

“[Summon Dave],” I cast. The little ball of slime appeared. “Go hit that tripwire!”

The dave sat there, confused.

Great. It can’t see it either. “Uhh... Hop forward to there!” I pointed.

The dave obediently jumped forward. It reached the tripwire and just so happened to hop high enough to miss it. I growled in frustration. “Okay, come back!” The dave came back and still somehow managed to miss the deadly trap.

The dave hopped back to me. Forget it. I picked the dave up and hurled it into the tripwire. I was expecting rocks to fall and immediately kill it.

What I didn’t expect was for rocks to fall further down the tunnel. Which then hit another tripwire. Which then caused more rocks to fall even further down. Which hit yet another tripwire.

The party watched the chain of traps, and I finally realized why it had given me the warning. It counted this all as one trap. Didn’t it?

It was probably a minute total before the rockfall trap above the dave triggered. The rocks fell and ended the poor slimeball’s life instantly.

I stared down the now trapless tunnel. “Well… That was a thing.” I shook my head. “Shall we?” I gestured onward.

Lindsey shrugged and took point again.

A few rooms later, we came to the boulder trap. I hadn’t been terribly creative with my setup, so the chest was situated on the top of a slightly inclined tunnel that just jutted out of the room that had the next locked door.

Sam immediately tested the chest with a [Mage Bolt], and we determined it wasn’t a mimic.

Now, I wonder who we’re going to have trigger this? My pondering was interrupted as the chest lid popped open, and [Detect] finally helped me realize Megan had just looted it.

Oh no. The chest sank into the floor, and the ground started rumbling. The boulder dropped behind her, and she immediately dropped out of [Sneak] to start sprinting.

The boulder was gaining on her. She wasn’t going to be fast enough.

I had barely come to that conclusion before my legs took off as if working on their own. Megan looked confused that I was sprinting at her, but she didn’t have time to question it. The boulder was right behind her. It was going to hit her in the next couple of seconds.

I reached her first. I grabbed her, tucked her into my chest, and then turned my back to the boulder. I braced for impact.

It came not a half-second later.

A muffled scream escaped my grit teeth.

I was expecting to be forced to the ground and crushed underneath it. I was expecting a gruesome end caused by my own trap. I was expecting… Something.

I didn’t expect to only get a simple system message.

System: You are staggered

I’m not dead?

I looked backward at the boulder that was now just stopped against me. I checked my HP and blanched when I saw that single hit had done 137 of my 190 HP.

I’m not sure how long I would’ve stood there stunned like an idiot if it wasn’t for a certain [Sorceress] saying, “Awwww. How sweet!”

I finally remembered that I was holding Megan against me.

I released her, even as I could feel my face heating up. I was surprised to see her blushing too. Then both of us immediately turned to glare at Sam, who looked away and started whistling innocently.

“Sorry about that,” I whispered to Megan.

“No, it’s okay,” she whispered back. “And uhh… Thanks.”

Megan walked down to the party while I figured out how to handle the boulder. Even though it weighed 10 times as much as me, if not more, I could still stop it if it “hit” me. As long as it didn’t pick up much momentum, I could even make it do no damage.

Sir Isaac Newton, you have no power here, was all I could think as I inched my way back to the party.

At my suggestion, the party agreed to an hour rest so I could get my HP back.

During that time, Megan and Jake compared keys, and they noticed that they were basically the same. With a shrug, Jake tried his key on the door, and we were surprised when that managed to open it.

That meant 2 unfortunate things for me. The first was that I had borne the brunt of my own boulder trap for nothing. The second was that the third part of the dungeon was going to be completely invalidated.

After our rest was finished, we entered the now useless part of the dungeon.

Why was it useless? Since I made that section when I thought that the keys would be one-time use, I made a maze that you would have to go through to find the third key. A maze that we now completely ignored as we went straight to the locked door and opened it.

The first sight that greeted us in the last part of the dungeon was a pair of gigantic stone doors locked with golden chains and an ornate padlock.

“Boss room?” Jake asked.

“Boss room,” the rest of the party agreed.

Just for kicks, Jake tried his key. At least that part worked correctly as it didn’t open for him.

That led us into the only other room in that section, and the one I was worried about the most. It was the room that I setup as a miniboss room. I didn’t create an actual miniboss though, I just put a ton of enemies in it.

I had been worried about that room even before I knew that I had accidentally swapped the lesser and minor elementals around. Then we got even worse news.

As soon as we entered the tunnel to the next room, Jake immediately called out, “Miniboss! Be ready for anything!”

“How can you tell?” I asked.

He looked at me. “Didn’t you get the system message?” he asked.

I shook my head.

“Huh. More weird stuff with your class. Anyway, we can’t leave this room until all the monsters are defeated.”

That’s not good. I thought they’d at least be able to run. I shook my head and tried to focus. It’s okay. We have a good party. We can do this.

We walked into the room, and it widened out into the arena I had built for the fight. 4 lesser elementals stood in a cluster in the middle of the room, and then 12 minor elementals stood scattered around them.

The original idea had been to have the 4 bigger ones be in the middle to look like they were in charge, but having the two monsters backward kinda ruined that image.

At some imperceptible command, Tim started casting. “[Overchannel]! Orb of fire engulf my enemies and consume the foes that stand against me.” The ball of fire started growing at the end of his wand, and I could tell he was pumping a lot into the spell. “[Fire Ball]!”

The AOE caught all but 3 of the minor elementals. The lesser elementals in the middle of the spell were instantly vaporized.

“Frontline, charge!” Jake called out. The four of us moved in. “[Sunder]!” Jake used his skill to try to get a quick kill on the first opponent he saw.

However, I don’t know if being a part of a miniboss room made them more intelligent or if Tim had just drawn far too much aggro. All of the elementals in the room vanished into the dirt and started burrowing in his direction at the same time. That included the one that Jake tried to [Sunder], and for the first time ever, he missed.

His skill carried him to where the elemental had just been, but he immediately turned around. “They’re headed for the backline!”

All four of us moved to help. However, the 3 elementals that Tim didn’t hit decided to intervene. One popped up in front of Jake, the other in front of Lindsey, and the third in front of Garrett blocking their path.

The rest of the frontline engaged, I ran to help the backliners who were frantically trying to draw aggro away from Tim. The remaining elementals had popped up all around him, giving him nowhere to run and very little room to dodge.

Emilia, Sam, and Megan (who appeared with a [Backstab]) all managed to draw one of the elementals away, but I think that was mostly because there wasn’t enough room for all of them to get at Tim.

Meanwhile, Tim finally got caught by one of the elemental’s swings. He staggered a bit and barely dodged a second. Andrew immediately sent a [Heal] Tim’s way and then started furiously beating on one of the elementals with his mace to try to get to his son.

The elementals paid no mind and continued to attack the [Wizard]. The second hit finally landed. He was then too off-balance to dodge the third.

Andrew cast [Cure] even while he was still frantically attacking. He wasn’t going to be able to save Tim.

Then I finally made it.

The cynical part of me realized how good this situation could be for me. Oh no! The only person who’s been suspicious of me died to something beyond my control!

However, every other part of me immediately flipped the cynical part of me the bird. I’m not letting a kid die in front of me.

I batted two of the elementals to either side with an [Air Strike], scooped up Tim, and then started running.

It was oddly nostalgic having hordes of enemies chasing after me while I ran for my life. Or I guess in this case, for Tim’s life.

I shifted Tim from a bridal carry into a piggyback as I was running. Partially because I remembered how embarrassing the former was when Garrett did it to me, and partially because it was easier to get one of my hands free when I needed to.

Boy, did I need to.

The elementals were faster than I was as long as they were burrowing through the dirt. That, plus the fact that there were five of them, meant that I felt like I was playing some weird cross of football and wack-a-mole.

One popped up to my right? Bam, knock it away from me with an [Air Strike].

One in front of me? Knock it to either side and then juke the other way.

Two in front of me? Okay, that one got a bit dicey, but it turned out okay because lowering your shoulder and plowing into monsters still apparently counted for [Air Strike].

We eventually whittled (and [Sundered]) them down. When we got down to the last two, they finally stopped trying to attack Tim, and we got a breather.

I set him down and gave a sigh of relief.

Meanwhile, he looked down at his boots before finally looking back up at me and saying, “Thank you.”

“No problem, that’s what party members are for,” I replied.

We watched as the party took down the remaining enemies. When they were finally done, a large golden chest appeared in the middle of the room.

“Must be the boss key,” Jake said. He jogged over and looted it.

I made a brief mental note that no one even thought to check that this one was a mimic before I was accosted by Andrew. And by accosted, I mean that he was thanking me so profusely for saving Tim that it got really awkward. I tried to brush it off or excuse myself, but I finally just gave in and let him continue his effervescent praise.

Boss key acquired, we made it back to the room with the boss door. We had burned through a ton of resources in that fight, so we decided to rest. The thing that surprised me was that the party decided to make it a rest for the night. Well, assuming that it was nighttime outside, we had lost track of time by that point.

“Why would we need to break that long?” I asked.

“If the boss fight against the elemental wolf matriarch wasn’t atypical, we may have breaks in between waves. We need to have the maximum amount of resource regeneration possible as a safety precaution,” Tim said. “Also.. I believe I need some time to think after that last fight if it wouldn’t be a bother to any of you.”

That clinched it, so we waited. I was just surprised that Tim was actually somewhat polite and not sniping at me. I guess I did save his life. I wonder if he still thinks I’m the [Demon Lord]?

While the party settled in for a rough sleep (most of them left their bedding back in camp), I just laid down and thought. I could’ve tried to go and pick a fight with some of the elementals, but they were a bit strong for me to try to solo. Especially since I was worried that I would run out of stamina before I could clear out most of the rooms near the boss room.

So, I sat and thought. I wondered if the quest was worth completing. I wondered if the party would forgive me and we could just go on adventures together. I wondered… If Megan would let me hold her in my arms again. Preferably when we weren’t in mortal danger.

I shook that last thought away. Last thing I need before a boss fight is to be distracted by a girl.

I tried to keep my thoughts away from her for the rest of the night. I was only somewhat successful. I did belatedly remember to summon daves, though. I assumed they wouldn’t help much because we were going up against a giant dave, but I knew I had to keep up appearances.

It was around my 14th dave when the party was ready to go in.

Jake walked up with Lindsey to open the boss room, and I noticed Sam looked a bit down.

“What’s the matter?” I asked her.

“Oh, I just missing having Lindsey protect me,” she said.

I had a thought. Well, they aren’t going to do anything anyway. “Daves, protect Sam!” I commanded the balls of slime.

Sam giggled as the daves jumped into a protective circle around her. “Aww, thanks! You’re so sweet!” she said as she reached down and grabbed one of the daves.

With that, Jake unlocked the room, and we entered it.

---

I was tempted to leave the story here for now. End off right before the climax of the dungeon.

Sorry. [Demon Lord] habits, I guess. Let’s get back to it.

---

I was momentarily surprised when I didn’t get the expected message about entering a dungeon boss room and not being able to leave. However, it had worked similarly with the miniboss room, so I shrugged it off.

Then Jake burst out laughing. Half of the party did too.

“What? What is it?” I asked.

“Do you not see the boss’s name?” he asked.

I knew something else had been missing. “Uhh, no. I don’t see its name or health bar.”

“It’s name-“ Jake snorted. “Sorry. Its name is literally A Giant Dave.”

I suddenly recalled my experience creating the boss.

System: Please design dungeon boss

I don’t have time for this! Uhh. A giant dave!

Why. Why are you like this? I asked the uncaring system. Outwardly I just chuckled. “Well, at least we know exactly what we’re getting into.”

“Yup,” Jake said. “Pepper it from range. If it catches you, you’re going to have a bad time.”

We walked further into the boss room. Megan disappeared somewhere, and the rest of the frontline walked ahead. I trailed behind a bit near the backline. Andrew and Tim followed behind me a bit to the left. Sam was to their right. Emilia was even farther to the right than that.

I don’t usually mention party placement, but this time it was vital.

We still hadn’t seen anything in the massive room, and I was starting to wonder where the heck I managed to hide a giant ball of slime.

Then Sam’s daves started acting funny. They climbed on top of each other and started pushing Sam to the right. Sam stopped and laughed. “What’s gotten into you guys?” They continued their incessant pushing, and Sam gave in and let them push her over to Emilia.

“What are they doing, Titus?” Sam asked. She laughed and playfully batted one of the daves that was still pushing her.

I shrugged and was about to reply when we found the boss. Rather, the boss found us.

A Giant Dave was exactly as the name said, and it came crashing down from the ceiling onto Andrew and Tim. They were immediately captured inside its acidic slime.

---

The next 12 seconds seemed to stretch into eternity.

Second 1. The entire party is shocked at the gigantic monster that appeared practically out of nowhere. Andrew and Tim yell in pain.

I move in to try to help. Jake calls out to the party to attack and begins charging [Sunder]. Andrew casts [Heal] on Tim and shoves him to try to free him. The boss monster pulls Andrew in deeper, but Tim’s hand manages to break out. Emilia, Sam, and Megan begin attacking the slime. I grab Tim’s hand and frantically try to pull him out. Garrett and Lindsey reach the monster and attack. Jake activates his [Sunder] with the most power I had seen behind it. Andrew goes limp and stops fighting. He’s been reduced below 0 HP. His [Cure] that he was in the middle of casting is canceled. Jake yells that it still has a quarter HP. I start making headway pulling Tim out, but Tim is reduced below 0 HP. Jake begins furiously hacking at the monster. The rest of the party continues attacking. I start getting pulled in along with Tim since he can no longer struggle against the monster’s pull. Garrett realizes what I’m doing and drops his axe to come assist me. Tim gets sucked deeper in. My arms are close to being pulled inside the monster. Garrett reaches me. We pull Tim halfway out together. Garrett and I pull Tim out. “They’re both gone,” Garrett says.

We had pulled out nothing more than the corpse of a child [Wizard]. Its vacant eyes stared at me.

---

“What are they doing, Titus?” Sam asked. She laughed and playfully batted one of the daves that was pushing her.

“MOVE!” I shouted. I didn’t spare a thought to wonder what on earth was happening. I ran over to Andrew and Tim and shoved them with an [Air Strike]. The extra distance was enough. The giant dave landed only on me.

---

I only had a split second to realize that I didn’t have the luxury of being healed if I was dropped below 0 HP. Tim and Andrew had roughly the same HP I did. Together, that meant I had only 5 seconds to live.

Second 1. The party recovers slightly quicker, thanks to my warning. I scream in pain as the acid starts eating into me.

Jake calls out to the party to attack and begins charging [Sunder]. I look around frantically for the boss’ core and find it. Emilia, Sam, and Megan attack the slime. Tim begins casting an [Overchannelled] [Fire Bolt] without even getting back up to his feet. I make my way closer to the core. I punch the core of the monster with a [Fire Strike]. Garrett and Lindsey reach the monster and attack. Jake activates [Sunder]. Tim’s [Overchannelled] [Fire Bolt] flies. I follow up with a [Fire Strike] from my other hand.

5… The monster is slain, and I fall heavily to the ground.

---

I sat there with my hands trembling even as the party ran to me to see if I was okay.

Megan came and wrapped me in a hug while whispering, “It’s okay. You’re safe now. It’s okay.”

I also heard snippets of conversation. Trauma. Almost died again. Horrible experience.

I had no way to explain that the vision that was haunting me wasn’t of my own death. The thing that was haunting me was Tim’s vacant stare, accusing me of his.

---

Jake mostly left comforting Titus to Megan. He figured that she was probably the best one to handle it since they were dating. He also thought it would be best if the party gave them their space. They did that by walking over to the obelisk.

He went to claim it but got a surprise.

System: Dungeon obelisk cannot be changed from the Demon Lord Faction

System: Hero faction detected. Would you like to deactivate this obelisk?

Yes.

System: Zone, The Great Southern Swamp, has been returned to the neutral faction

The obelisk went inert after that, and he didn’t have the option to teleport them back to the entrance. “Looks like we have to walk back,” Jake said.

The party groaned.

The party started walking back towards Titus.

Jake looked at Tim. “That’s twice that he’s saved your life now. Is that enough proof for you, or are you still going to be a little asp and accuse him of being the [Demon Lord]?”

Tim sighed. “No. I don’t currently believe he is the [Demon Lord].” They both looked over at Titus, who was still shaking a bit. "And on the remote chance that he is… I do not believe he wants to be.”

[1] DPS – Damage per second. Does DPS faster make grammatical sense? No. Do some gamers say it anyway to mean “pile on the damage?” Yes.