Those damn adventurers.

Simul-al'Toroth, known as Toro by his subordinates, floated above the crystal ball serving as the dungeon core, watching the dynamic duo as they crushed his traps, blew apart his puzzles, and killed all his minions. They even killed Dolan! For a measly magic dagger, ring of resistance, and 100 gold!

Toro sighed. He'd had enough of this. After the hundredth party comes through, it just gets to be a drudge.

As he monitored them, he also monitored other parts of the dungeon, each eye stalk seeing a different room through the same crystal ball. At least the Sam twins got through with minor injuries, and they skipped past the fairy rings. Those guys were a blast.

The pair continued down the final hallway towards Toro's room, experimenting with different spell combinations, and Toro prepared for the encounter. He put on an angry face, opened all his eyes wide, and stared at the entrance.

Then as the stone door shifted, his countenance drooped, as he thought of how pointless it was. What was he even defending? All this room held was another chest of gold and gems, which Toro had no use for anyways, and a small plot of flowers, never to be tended to again. Toro already missed Dolan so much.

"Alright, I think this is it! We made-" Celebrated Arturias, stopping when he saw what awaited them. The beholder floated above the dungeon core, unmoving.

The duo prepared for combat, and waited. Toro sat there. They flinched as the daggers he called teeth shifted, preparing to make a speech.

"Congratu-frickin-lations." He began. They stared at him a moment, before he continued. "So what? You plow through my dungeon, kill my subordinates, destroy a month's work setting up traps and the like, and for what? A bit of gold? Is that really worth all the damage you've caused, the hours of work we'll have to replace?

The party stood silent, absolutely flabbergasted at the nature of this speech. They had been expecting something along the lines of, 'You foolish mortals!' Instead they got reprimanded as though they were naughty children who accidentally knocked over a shelf of hand-crafted dishware.

"Um... we're, sorry?" Questioned Felix.

"Oh, they're sorry! Well, that makes it all worth it doesn't it!" Sarcasted the great floating one. "I don't understand why you adventurers always have to- Oh forget it. Treasure's over there, just take it and go." He turned around and proceeded to ignore them. They looked at each other, shrugged, and started walking, as Toro stared at the flowers Dolan had so lovingly taken care of.

Until Felix walked right up to those very same flowers with anticipation. "What do you think you're doing?" Exclaimed the flying ball of doom.

"Well, you said to grab the treasure, and I really need snowflowers to make a potion." At this he gestured to the blue flowers. Small specks continuously fell off them like white pollen, melting as they touched the warm floor. "I only need one or two, if you want to keep the rest, though they're very valuable and rare, so-"

"You'd better bet they're valuable! Those are the only thing I have to remember my precious Dolan by, rest his steely soul."

"Dolan? Steely soul?"

"You don't even remember him, do you? Does the pattern in the dirt not mean anything to you?"

Felix looked at the dirt in confusion, back at the beholder, then back to the dirt, placing his hand on his chin as he pondered. Toro had nothing better to do, so he let him come to his own conclusion. Eventually, he did.

"Oh, there was one room with lots of swirls in it, but I don't remember anyone in there besides a golem."

"Yes, my precious Dolan!"

"Wait, that golem was the one who tended these flowers?"

"Dolan was the most loving minion in the entire dungeon. You didn't even notice his caring touch. One look at the wall of his room would have told you he was my favorite minion in the entire dungeon!" The dungeon core shifted interally, projecting an image of a stone wall into the room, carved with an image of a beholder, the many eye-stalks shooting beams of formidable energy.

"Ah, I remember that now, should have guessed it was foreshadowing. But loving and caring? S... Steel soul? But..." Felix looked at Artur, who now wore a somewhat fancier leather helmet than before. "But you said they didn't have souls, they aren't living."

"And it's stereotypes like that which cause your race to be the most violent of us all! Even I don't go out into your home, kill your family, and steal all your things once a month! Yet time and again, adventurers come in here, steal all my stuff, and I have to teach them their lesson before putting everything back where it belongs. I can't tell you how many times I've pronounced doom to scare people off, before they charge head-long into my petrification ray anyways. Oh wait, I can!" He then turned to a corner of the room, holding about two hundred statues in different poses of terror.

"But he didn't speak, or give any indication he had thought. His eyes just started glowing and he stumbled towards us like a-"

"Don't you say it! I heard what your friend over there called him."

"What? What's wrong with saying he acted like a zombie? He really did!"

"Dolan was no zombie, he didn't speak because he had no mouth, not because he's some mindless construct. He got enraged because you trampled all over his flawless garden. He just wanted to be left alone in his secret room, and he was the best goddamn minion you'll ever kill!" At this, Toro blasted Felix with a disintegration ray, to teach that uppity human some respect.

In a panic, Felix reacted quickly, creating the same shield that protected him from an iron golem's hammer. The ray blasted the solid shield, bouncing back towards the beholder, who dodged under it easily. As he prepared to attack Felix again with a shout of rage at the unfairness of it all, though, he heard a crack, and looked up in time to see the stalactite above him crumble at the base and fall.