The level 59 elf with the 'Noble Elemental Mage - Lightning' solved my firewall puzzle, which beforehand had made the rest of the elven army halt their assault on me. The fire was meant to symbolize the fear of trusting another, while the punishment of failing the puzzle symbolized the pain and paranoia of being unable to trust anyone. As such, the fire didn't need heat, air, nor fuel to burn, which in turn meant water couldn't extinguish it. It also meant the fire attacked one mentally and not physically like most fires.

Where normal fires would attack one's Toughness, this fire went against one's Awareness. Anyone with an Awareness Score of 25 or higher would feel no pain even if they had failed the puzzle, as they would know their own mind well enough that the puzzle couldn't affect them.

But anyone with a Score under 15 would immediately go braindead.

Anyone in between would feel a level of emotional pain corresponding to their Awareness Score for a whole minute, leaving them emotionally drained afterwards.

Unless of course, one had solved the puzzle.

Still. I was very proud of that puzzle! And it had worked so well in practice too!

But then the almost 7th tier cracked the puzzle: Simply trust that the fire won't harm you, and then it won't.

She naturally told the rest the solution as well.

Luckily for me, not everyone was actually able to trust that the fire wouldn't harm them. Likely due to having heard the screams of the first one to go through. Unfortunately for me, none of those elves died from it, they were simply in pain for a minute while others protected them. At which point it became clear that the pain was temporary, with my creatures being a bigger danger.

Speaking of bigger danger! It's time for phase two!

With that thought I ordered all my creatures from rooms the army had passed to attack them from behind. I had had them gather on the 5th Floor so they could attack together. Before the elves had entered The Trusting Fox's Pass, I had added several burrows in both that room and all later rooms, so my unicorn bunny had more places to hide.

My kirin Boss had surprisingly - to me - been respawned already powered up from its 'Power of Fallen Heroes' Ability. But upon rereading the wording of the Ability I found that it didn't matter if the kirin had existed when the Hero had died, only whether the Hero had been avenged or 7 days had passed.

And in this case the 'Heroes' had yet to be avenged and in fact more were getting killed.

Several of the frontliners have died, though, and they were the ones who killed most of my creatures… Does the Ability consider the whole army to be the culprit? Or maybe their leader?

Regardless of the reason, my kirin was still strong and slowly getting stronger. Of course, as each power up threshold was double that of the previous, it would take longer and longer each time.

…

For some reason my Boss couldn't leave its room… It appeared to try, but seemed to be blocked from leaving.

System… I thought sternly. Why?

A Boss can not leave their Boss Room.

I mentally sighed. Well, now there is a Rule that says they can.

New Dungeon Rule: Working Vacation: A Boss may leave their Boss Room but will then receive the 'Vacation' modifier, which will half the Ability Score bonus they receive from their 'Boss' Achievement.

So the 'double Ability Scores' would then only be 150%. Not what I had hoped but better than nothing. And not too expensive in mana as I only have one Boss at the moment.

The 'Power of Fallen Heroes' does more at the moment to bust its Ability Scores than the 'Boss' Achievement anyway. So, it's not too big a loss.

With that fixed, I had my own army attack from behind, killing 4 elves in the surprise attack itself. The resulting battle killed another 3, but the two almost 7th tiers - the dawon and the Noble Lightning Mage - had finally gone on the offensive and together with the two reminding healers - one 3rd tier, one 5th - they prevented any further deaths on their side.

Just before my Boss would have finished off another elf, a wonky spell from the Lightning Mage turned my kirin into a troglodyte. While still a Boss, having exchanged its Ability for the 'Camouflage' Skill meant it suddenly was at a much greater disadvantage. So naturally, my foul-smelling, bipedal, 1.5 meter tall, frill-headed, kind of frog-looking lizard Boss didn't survive even 10 seconds. And its nocturnal nature meant it had a harder time seeing due to my brightly lit up Dungeon.

But I had gotten a bit too distracted to properly focus on the battle.

She has such a fascinating fighting strategy! Using plants to hold down one's opponent before using high damage lightning to finish them off with?! Brilliant!

I need to use that strategy with my own creatures! I could have Lightning wyverns and Forest dragons team up!

After a few more thoughts and plans on how to best do that, I forced myself to stop. No! Don't think about that now! Focus on the present!

What was the score again?

Right! 21 down, 54 to go! And only 12 more bad guys till I can tier up!

The elven army was panicking. Some had started once my Boss reappeared, while others only began once the kirin had been put down again.

Before they could calm down, my Boss - and plenty of other creatures - had re-reappeared.

Only 5 more elves died this time around as they were more prepared to deal with my Boss attacking from behind. After they had killed it again, it was quickly decided that the best course of action was to get to the safety of the Core Room. 'This has to be the last Floor after all', they stated. 'The Dungeon may be growing fast but it is still just a baby,' they added.

I chuckled to myself. I had two whole floors finished for them after they finished this one! Had they decided to turn around here my kirin would have been unable to follow them to the 4th Floor and they would have no more casualties.

I still didn't think I would be able to take them all out. Even with the weaker Boss Achievement, my Boss was still effectively a 11th tier, as the elves had skipped yet another puzzle. But with it being unable to harm 21 of the remaining 48 - including the three with the highest tier - it would be unable to carry this war completely by itself.

While my other creatures did a good job of making the army exhausted with their constant attacks, I didn't expect them to get any kills.

With the exception of my mimics that is.

Maybe The Greedy Pacifists will get a couple of kills… It would depend a lot on how the elves handle their puzzle.

I had gotten the pattern for fledgeling elemental Fire wyrms at level 18. They were going to be a main part of the defense of my 9th Floor. And after having observed the invading army, I had realized that they had relatively few spellcasters. I had only seen 10 of the original 74 cast any spells at all, and at this point only half of those were left. However, two of the now dead elves I hadn't even known could cast any spells until shortly before their death. So, it was entirely likely a couple more elves actually could. But their reluctance to use magic even when overwhelmed by this many enemies made me sure that no secret spellcaster would cause any major problem for phase 4. Either their magic wasn't good enough to be of much use in a fighting situation, or they wished to hide it for some reason.

Not that it mattered to me what the reason was.

My Fire wyrms could only be harmed by water, a lack of air, and spells. This amazing invulnerability came from having their entire serpentine body made from mana of the Fire element, but came with the drawback of having their actual Toughness Score be pathetic.

All the Fire wyrms I had at the moment were level 17 or 18, meaning they had to stay at my unfinished 9th Floor or take their Mana Form.

So with all this in mind, the third phase in my plan was to target the spellcasters in preparation for the 4th - and unfortunately last - phase of my plan. I didn't need to kill all the spellcasters before phase 4. I only needed to drain them of their mana.

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"You! Dungeon master girl! Solve the puzzle so we can be done in here!" Captain Gleditsia shouted from the front line. With the constant attack from behind by the repeatedly respawning Boss on 'Vacation' along with a hoard of other creatures, the backline of the company was now fighting more than the frontline. This really should mean that captain Gleditsia would now be supporting the backline while Sarzina Acacia should really be with the frontline.

But Zina loved a good challenge and she had long since clocked the captain as a lazy coward.

So, the elven noblewoman only went to join the frontline, when she heard that they needed help solving a puzzle.

The left corner of this end of the rectangular room had an opening on each side of it.

The left opening appeared to lead to the corridor to the Boss Room from the same angle they had originally entered it. This meant the Boss Room itself could also be seen, and plenty of monsters could be seen running through it, but the Boss itself was not currently in it.

The opening next to it and right in front the company appeared to open up to a curvy corridor leading to the left.

On the volcanic wall in front of them and between the two openings the words "Take the left" could be seen. This was clearly what had the frontline spooked.

"Have you checked the left wall for a third exit? Maybe a hidden door?" Zina suggested. Gleditsia simply shouted for the nearest private to do so in response. "I'll check these two for Shadow mana in the meantime. Could be one or both are illusions instead." Zina stated out loud, not really talking to anyone in particular as she was focusing on the mystery in front of her.

Captain Gleditsia folded his arms in front of him with an inpatient grunt and a scowl on his face, but he didn't say a word. He knew better than to interrupt a spellcaster in the middle of a spell. He had once done so and ended up in a lot of pain in return.

Zina wasn't actually casting a spell, however. Activating the Class Skill 'Identify Mana' she had gotten as a 5th tier Noble Mage on each opening, it was revealed to her that both openings were covered in an illusion made of Shadow mana, just as she had suspected. Zina absentmindedly informed the frontline of her discovery as she began casting spells to change the Shadow mana's element to Healing. While somewhat difficult to do as one needed a lot of concentrating and Intelligence to succeed, it didn't actually cost a lot of mana to do. This was due to the change being from the Heat and Earth combined Shadow element to the Water and Earth combined Healing element. With the two elements both consisting of two of the base elements and sharing one of them, it didn't take as much mana to force the change as it could have.

Facts like that was what Zina had learned at her spell Academy and she was proficient at using it to her advantage.

It would actually have been even easier for her to turn the Shadow mana into the Heat and Pressure combined Light element with it being one of her flavored elements. But changing the mana to the Light element would simply block the sight behind the mana with light instead.

That and the small amount of extra mana would be well spent for having the new mana veil take away a bit of their fatigue as they passed through it.

Well… Whichever one they ended up going through. It was cheaper in mana to change an element than destroying the mana anyway, so the mana might as well be changed in a way that helps them.

With the Shadow mana illusion gone, the left opening was now the one to show the curved curridor, while the one right in front of them showed the big tree with a stream in front of it from the very first room of the Dungeon.

Seeing that the elven noblewoman was done revealing the truth of the two exits, captain Gleditsia was quick to order the nearest couple of privates to exit the room through the left opening. After the privates had gone through the captain quickly followed.

Zina, on the other hand, went back to helping the backline deal with the Boss.