These days I was visited by 4 or 5 groups of 4 a day. The elves seemed to have concluded my Dungeon was 'either only dangerous in its second tier or taming the Core calmed it'.

To be on the safe side they had all agreed to wait on visiting beyond my 5th Floor till the Lightning Mage had finished going through all my Floors.

Surprisingly, my newest Rule hadn't been noticed. But then again, people tended to group up with people they knew. Meaning either the group were 4 soldiers who had all been in my Dungeon before and thus had minimal distortion to their memories, or none of the 4 had been in my Dungeon before and thus all of their minds were more scrambled than their soldier counterparts.

With equally scrambled brains, everyone appeared to know the same amount at all times. That the civilians used way longer to, for instance, find the hidden entrance to The Trap Corridor than the soldiers did, simply wasn't noticed. They weren't there at the same time, after all, and the civilians kept thinking 'I was told the entrance was riiiight over there' and 'why did I go over here, when I was informed it was over there?". These things were even said out loud plenty of times, but - while confused in the moment - they had no idea how to explain their own actions and saw no reason to inform my 'mistress' of their own embarrassment of being unable to remember her hand drawn maps.

Speaking of: My 'mistress' had chosen to explore and document one additional Floor a day and use her evenings to go over all she had learned that day - both from her own exploration as well as other Parties' reports -, hoping to understand what made me so unique.

She had yet to come up with a conclusion she was satisfied with. The Door of Speciesism constantly caused her frustration, as, while all of the Parties could get The Door to open, none of them had solved it. My traps' secondary trigger condition was another constant annoyance for her.

At the end of the previous day's exploration the Lightning Mage had, naturally, noticed the lack of a Caged Core in the room at the end of the 8th Floor. And as such, she quickly realized I had finished my 9th Floor, which made her super excited.

Still, she refrained from exploring the new Floor right away as she had written more than enough notes already that day and needed to start going over them.

She had stopped taking her dawon with her as she had realized that if she herself were earning small amounts of EXP after leaving my bigger and more creature-filled rooms, then the dawon was too.

… Not that I understood why, all of a sudden, that was a bad thing…

In other news, Thenac had bonded with the level 17 lynx of the 9th Floor. As requested the lynx had high Dexterity and Awareness and as promised it - sorry she - had the innate passive Skill 'Eyes of Clairvoyance'. Which essentially meant the lynx was passively learning about everything in its sight. And that included whether it could actually see it or not! Anything invisible would still be known to a lynx, which is why I had thought it such a perfect partner to Thenac! No more surprises! With a bit of concentration a lynx could even see through solid objects!

It was no wonder its species had gotten the title 'Keeper of Secrets', it was impossible to keep a secret from a lynx!

It was even a semi-sapient, so even lynx originating from outside my Dungeon could level up.

Though, I doubt many did. Dungeons seemed to be pretty… controlled… by the sapient species. And the only other way to earn EXP was through leveling Skills up, which was something semi-sapients didn’t normally have a lot of.

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While talking to lieutenant Alnus during their daily, but informal, morning meeting, Sarzina Acacia had mentioned the 9th Floor being finished which prompted the lieutenant to volunteer to join her in exploring the new Floor.

No one else wanted to be among the first to explore the newest Floor - Why not? -, so Alnus and Zina ended up braving the 9th Floor alone.

The first room of the 9th Floor was, as its name suggested, full of gargoyles. Gargoyles of the dragon race specifically. Gargoyles existed in many shapes and forms, each one mimicking the shape of another creature. Naturally each gargoyle race was named after the creature their shape took after.

Every dragon shaped gargoyle in The Gargoyle Garden sat on top of a pedestal and had their body turned in the direction of the entrance. As was the signature of gargoyles, they didn't move at all, which added with the natural stone appearance of their body made them look like stone statues. Several dozens of these gargoyle statues could be seen in the room, but that wasn't the only monster to be found in there.

Roughly two dozen - Zina had yet to actually count them - of the 'fledgling karmic elemental drake - Earthquake's that the Core had requested could be seen among the gargoyles, as well as about the same amount of 'fledgling karmic elemental wyrm - Fire's, which had been seen shortly before the Core's taming. There appeared to be more gargoyles than the other two types of monsters in the room. Maybe three dozen instead of two.

The walls, floor, and ceiling of the room was made of volcanic rock, and, with an exception for the furthest right corner, every corner had lava slowly pouring out of it.

The two elves thought nothing of this, as the environment of a Dungeon wasn't dangerous unless one actively went to interact with it. This type of lava didn’t actually move either. It simply appeared to do so. Likewise fire made by a Dungeon could burn a plant forever without ever harming the plant nor spreading to another. It wouldn't warm the area around it and only burn if touched.

This has to be all the monsters for this Floor. There are too many here for it not to be.

"You are likely right, mistress." Lieutenant Alnus replied to the muttering noblewoman. "Though perhaps a single monster or two belong to another room of the Floor. We won't know before we've checked it."

"Yes. True." Zina answered, distracted. She was writing down anything she could think of, pausing to count the exact number of monsters based on species and level, before beginning on a hand drawn map of The Gargoyle Garden.

Once done with all she could note from the entrance, Zina looked up from her notebook to take a look at the lieutenant with her.

Tanithil Alnus was looking around the room cautiously, trying to keep an eye on, at least, the monsters nearest the pair. The last time the lieutenant had been in the Dungeon had been when it had been tamed, but he had apperently known it was unnatural even before that. In fact, the original raport had stated how Alnus had been the one to declare the Dungeon for 'unnatural'.

Never mind. Zina shrugged her shoulders as Alnus turned to look at her. "I want a closer look at the different kinds of monsters." Zina informed the lieutenant as she began walking up to the nearest monster, a gargoyle on a pedestal. "See how they react to different stimuli. Only the kobolds seem to react to one's words and just not the tone, but I don't want to assume anything with this Dungeon. And of course I want to know what reaction it will have to getting approached and touched, so I can write it down for the Dungeon bestiary."

As Zina spoke she began petting the unmoving gargoyle in front of her. Only its eyes seemed to be moving as it watched her.

"This Dungeon is an idiot." The gargoyle didn't react to the words, spoken in a calm, soothing tone, and its reactions - or rather lack thereof - were written down.

"You are just as stupid, you know." Zina tried again. Gargoyles might simply react to different words than kobolds, after all.

But still no reaction.

A couple more tests - both verbal, through poking different spots, and through simply walking around it - it was concluded that the gargoyle would only move in order to keep an eye on whoever was nearest to it. Something it could determine even if one was closing in from behind. The moment the other person was closer than the one in front of it, it would spin around to look at the other one.

It also never blinked. Not even if poked in the eye.

It was a bit eerie, but uh so fascinating!

Similar tests were made for the other two species of monster in the room. The Earthquake drake didn't want its belly, tail or face touched, but liked getting scratched behind the ears. The Fire wyrm found the new arrivals interesting the first minute after getting approached before deciding to ignore them completely.

As in completely.

Zina tried to regain its attention by walking in front of the wyrm as it was slithering away. A normal being would react to this by either stopping up or going around the one in their way.

The Fire wyrm didn't care for either option. It simply ignored the 'obstacle'.

Which reminded Zina that Fire wyrms were made of Fire.

The snake-shaped Fire passed through the Lightning Mage setting her legs on fire. Being on fire and in pain wasn't good for spellcasting as one wouldn't be able to concentrate on the spell, so the screaming elf instead cast herself to the ground and began rolling around.

After the fire had been put out, Alnus poured the reminder of his water over Zina's legs to cool her down. The elven noblewoman then took a couple of calming breaths before beginning to laugh.

"I should have seen that coming!" She then grabbed her notebook, which had fallen to the ground in her panic, and began writing down her newly learned knowledge.

At least the elemental Fire became normal fire once it left the body of the Fire wyrm. Otherwise it would have been harder to put out.

This observation was naturally written down as well.

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That was… odd… Yet… not really surprising… She definitely loves learning too much…

The way the Lightning Mage had tested the reaction of my gargoyle was odd as well but clearly a result of my kobolds.

I had immediately decided not to tell them she had so casually insulted me. If I did, they would change their behavior around her, either by ignoring her, acting angry around her, or straight up attacking her.

Something about me being their god and ultimate leader meant I counted as a 'one of them' to their karma aspect. This meant that when I was attacked, my kobolds could come to my defense.

And their earlier display had informed me that verbal attacks counted as attacks, as long as my creatures understood it as such. For instance, my dragonets could respond to the volume and tone and consider it a verbal attack if they wanted - and I didn't command not to.

Hmm… She's usually better at finding my traps. I thought to myself as the two elf Party left The Gargoyle Garden. She noticed the Rockfall traps in the ceiling and the 4 holes for my Lava Geysers. But almost half of those gargoyles were traps and she didn't notice…

Maybe 'cause gargoyles look so much like a statue, and the traps have been designed to turn around like the real thing.

The trap gargoyles were stuck to their pedestals, unlike the real thing, and could thus only attack when someone got close enough. Which, with their long stone tails, was a bigger radius than one might expect.

And, granted, the one she chose to closely examine was an actual gargoyle. She likely would have noticed it, had she looked at a trap version more closely.

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Before even entering the second room of the Floor it was clear to the two elves that there was barely any light in it. Normally Dungeons was well lit, not too bright or too dark but at a comfortable medium, with the light appearing from seemingly nowhere.

This room was forest themed with plenty of trees, bushes, grass, and wildflowers being lit up only by a bright full moon. The climbing plants on the walls were present like they had been for every other forest themed room, but no such plants could be found on the ceiling.

Mostly due to the fact that the ceiling had been replaced with a night sky…

As Dungeons can only change their lightning when it's needed for a puzzle, this room has to have a puzzle. A light related one. Oh! It's so exciting!

As the two companions entered the room, multiple things happened at once, not all of which was immediately obvious to the pair.

They did immediately notice Zina's body suddenly gaining a lot of muscles. Her arms and legs had all their fat replaced, and she could feel her belly gaining abs.

At the same time, Alnus's perfect posture - which Zina had never seen him without - disappeared as the man began just slightly sloughing, while twitching in one place, clearly betraying his nerves.

The last change noted in that moment was how the moon, located in the 'sky' to the right just beside the top center of the right wall, began, slowly but visibly, moving towards the center of the room.

"What happened?" Zina asked the lieutenant. "Is this part of a puzzle? Or some form of trap?"

The normally polite lieutenant rolled his eyes at her before replying. "I don't know. Isn't that your job?" Then he blinked rapidly a couple of times. "Retreat. We should retreat."

"Why?" Zina asked, confused. "Shouldn't we figure out what happened?"

Then the sound of an angry growl could be heard, followed by a yip of pain. The darkness made it hard to tell exactly where it came from, except that it came from inside the dark room.

"Oh, them? Don't worry about it! I'll just cast a couple of spells! They won't be a problem!" As she talked, the Lightning Mage began going through the practiced motions - both mental and physical - meant to cast the spell to trap her opponents with plants.

Only for nothing to happen, not even the smallest movement of her inner mana.

No wait! That's not true! My mana is moving, just not where I want it to go!

Before Zina could figure out what her mana was doing, Alnus had made an annoyed huff, grabbed her arm with fast movement - faster than she had seen him do before - and pulled her out the room the way they had come.

The moment the two had left the dark forest-filled room, Zina's muscles retreated, the moon returned to its starting position and Alnus let go of Zina's arm with a yelp.

"I… am… so sorry about that!" The lieutenant began in a panic. "I shouldn't have grabbed your arm like that! Or rolled my eyes at you! I'm not normally disrespectful like that, dungeon mistress!"

Alnus took a breath as he got ready to continue, but Zina was quick to interrupt him. "It was the puzzle, lieutenant. Calm down." Luckily, Alnus was quick to follow her order. "It's known as the Reversal Ability Scores Challenge. It's a rare form of Challenge Room, but of course, many things are when it comes to this Dungeon."

"Challenge Room, mistress?"

Zina nodded. "A Challenge Room is a certain type of puzzle where the solution is to exit the room, while under some form of restrain or challenge. The room we could only enter by leaving our weapons behind was one such room. The challenge was simply to pass through the room weaponless." She paused a moment before adding: "Actually I think the challenge there includes not taking anything, and that's why the captain failed the challenge. I have to write that down."

Alnus waited patiently, being somewhat used to her spontaneously writing down her thoughts, while muttering what she was writing. When she was done with that part, she quickly wrote 'Reversal Ability Scores Challenge' on the page for the second room of the 9th Floor before finishing her explanation.

"The Reversal Ability Scores Challenge forces your highest Ability Score to power your weakest. Or in other terms: Your best Ability Score is now your worst. In my case, my Intelligence began powering my Strength by using Buff elemental mana on my muscles. With my Intelligence being used mainly on that, there wasn't much left for what I normally use it for. Which is why I didn't realize what had happened right away."

Alnus nodded. "So, while your Ability Scores don't actually change, it causes an effect like they had been switched?"

"Yes! Exactly!"

The lieutenant looked thoughtful. "I noticed that I was ruder than normal, found it odd, yet couldn't find it in me to be more polite. That's why I wanted to get out of there. I didn't like how I was acting but couldn't stop."

Zina nodded, casting a quick glance at the 'Leader' floating above the lieutenant's head. "Your highest Ability Score is Charisma. That means your Charisma was busy - for the lack of a better word - charming your lowest Ability Score is into working overtime, leaving less Charisma for you to use in interaction. And with the difference being so sudden, our bodies need time to adjust, and while that's happening the new lowest Score performs even worse than expected and vice versa." Her speech had gotten faster and more excited as she talked.

Alnus looked a bit ashamed and confused as he nodded in agreement. "I don't… actually know what my weakest Score is… I'm pretty well rounded, you see, and I've never seen any need to keep track of what each Score of mine is at. I know Awareness is my second best, and Intelligence might be my third, but at that point my Scores are pretty close to each other, so…"

"Dexterity." Zina stated with a small smirk and a hint of pride in her eyes.

"Huh?"

"Your lowest Score is Dexterity. You were faster than normal in there. Not as big a difference as with my sudden Strength, but that makes sense. I've kept track of my Scores, and while I won't reveal my actual Scores, I can tell you this: My effective Strength in that room is more than 5 times what it normally is." It was actually pretty close to 6 times, as her Strength Score was 11 to her 60 Intelligence. "With your lower level and more all around Scores your effective Dexterity was likely roughly doubled."

"Uh… Impressive deduction, dungeon mistress." Alnus complemented. "So, find the exit as fast as possible. Does this mean no note taking till after we leave?"

Zina sighed in disappointment, but could see his point. "It does. I won't be able to take as good notes while I’m in there anyway."

Alnus nodded. "I'll try to keep the talking to a minimum. I don't want to think about what might come out of my mouth should I open it…"

Zina gave a nod but was clearly distracted by her own thoughts. "Did you see the moon in there? It started moving when we entered but returned to its starting point once we left the room. It could either be a timer and the exit won't open or maybe not even reveal itself before the time is up. Likely when the moon reaches the other side. It could also be a clue to where the exit is or will be. Or perhaps a chest with loot. It could even be a lure trap meant to lure us to danger, so we still have to be careful. It's a bit too early to tell exactly what its purpose is, but we should remember to keep an eye on the moon while we're in there."

Alnus nodded, a bit uncertain. That was a lot of different possibilities. "Anything else?" He asked after a moment of silence.

"One last thing." Zina stated. "I want to cast a couple of protective spells on us before we enter. Something that can last a while without impact from me. Just to be on the safe side. A monster did growl at us, after all. The whole room could be its territory."

"Brilliant idea, mistress!"

The noblewoman paused to think for a bit. It needs to be able to last a while, either without relying on a continuous string of mana from me, or a small enough amount that my lower effective Intelligence can still handle it. Hmm… A normal Buff spell would take too much mana…

Could I… use a Forest spell on us? Lightning can't exist without a continuous amount of mana larger than what I will be able to supply, and Light would probably do more harm than good; attracting all monsters in the room.

But Forest? As the base form of one of my favored elements I don't need to use a lot of mana for Forest spells. It could work.

Hmm… Forest armor then? I could even have Alnus's armor be supplied with mana from his own supply.

Might even be necessary…

With a small nod to herself Zina began casting, first on herself, then Alnus, ending the casting with an offhand comment on how their plant armor would protect them in return for mana from their host.

Alnus gave the Lightning Mage a slightly displeased look, but it was gone before Zina could think to comment on it.

Moments later, the dark forest was once again entered.