Marthox had been born into The Order of The Broken Goddess and trained in their ways from the start. Upon adulthood he had been initiated and the small sparks of doubt his child self had had disappeared at once.

This was where he was supposed to be.

If only people did as they were told!

The only thing Marthox hated more than when people didn't do their job right, was when they didn't do their job at all.

Such as priestess Calorose.

It's a months old Dungeon, not even half a year yet! How could she possibly fail to defeat it?!

The old muskin was of the opinion that other people failed their jobs more often than they should. Way more. Which was why Marthox took great pride in his formidable memory, which aided him greatly in fulfilling every duty he had ever gotten from The Order.

And if Marthox could consistently do a good job, why wouldn't everyone else be able to do the same?

But sometimes, to get a job done right you have to do it yourself!

And as such, Marthox decided he would lead the repeat crusade himself, even though he didn't need to.

Can't leave anything to chance!

To go from bishop to archbishop two requirements needed to be fulfilled. The first was to either gain the Hypnotize Skill or master the use of the spell equivalent. The second was to lead or have a personal disciple lead a successful crusade after the first requirement had been fulfilled.

Priestess Calorose was supposed to fulfill that requirement for him. She had been closer and the Dungeon was practically a newborn!

Main piece of the goddess or not, it should have been easy for her!

The Dungeon in question had certainly been an unusual one. But not in a way which led Marthox to believe the priestess couldn't have defeated the foul thing if she had really tried.

Clearly she wasn't as devoted as she had led me to believe. That level of laziness and disregard of the goddess was hidden well.

Then came the pixieless fog and the trail leading to a Dungeon wall.

And the resulting hole and scream.

"Everyone! Stand back!" Came the command from disciple Mlartlar.

While Marthox, as the highest ranking among them, was in charge of the crusade itself, Mlartlar was a Battle Commander and was thus allowed to give commands during battle. After all, his Class did indicate he would do a better job at that than Marthox.

Not that Marthox would have done a bad job. Mlartlar was simply… faster at such commands.

After everyone but disciple Agtius had taken several steps back, Mlartlar explained what had happened, even though they all already knew it. They wouldn't have reached the tiers they had without at some point hearing the cautionary tale.

"What does your expertise suggest we do now, disciple Mlartlar?" Marthox questioned. Of course the old muskin already had a plan in mind. This was simply a test for the younger - half - beastkin!

"I believe we have two options here." The half elf half vulpinekin began. "Either we amputate his arm and as we do, block the hole with something else. This has the potential of someone else getting sucked in in the process. Or, we declare him dead and leave him be." Mlartlar took a deep breath as he listened to the screams of the giant before coming with his last suggestion. "With the last option we can also give him a mercy killing. He's clearly in a lot of pain right now."

"Hmm…" The bishop hummed, considering the given options. "This crusade is more important than any one of us. We can't risk a second one of our numbers to go down." The muskin pointed his nose up in determination and arrogance before issuing his last command on the topic. "There will be no mercy killing for we will let the System decide his fate. This room has no other monster in it but the foul pixie, and the hole will naturally close itself. He may die, but the System might let him live!"

With that declaration the flock left their screaming member to his fate.

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With the Axe Master unconscious and not - yet - dead my creatures wouldn’t respawn on the 5th Floor. And as my creatures couldn’t move between Floors while still being corporeal I had no way of offering the giant any aid.

I didn’t know if I would have. But as I couldn’t, I also didn’t need to find out.

The fog had done its job. Even if it had been painful at times, the Party had indeed been slowed down.

Maybe I can add something to the fog?

… What if they thought they saw a Mist pixie only for it to be a Fata Morgana?

Or! Or! Maybe they never realize it’s a Fata Morgana ‘cause the image keeps avoiding their weapons!

And! Maybe it's not just a Mist pixie! I could add other creatures too! Make them really frustrated they can’t hit my creatures!

Hmmm… I should limit it to only fast creatures though. Otherwise they’ll become suspicious too quickly.

With my gameplan set, I tried to make the Rule, or rather the change in the existing fog Rule.

The described Rule includes the use of optical illusions.

Optical illusions are categorized as traps.

Oh right! Like how I had to make an optical illusion trap imitating my Real Core before I could make a Rule surrounding it.

I’ll just rearrange my traps on the 6th Floor, then.

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While not all my puzzles before my kirin Boss had been skipped, the large majority had been. And with the additional +11 to each of its Ability Scores from its 'Power of Fallen Heroes' Ability, my kirin Boss had enough Toughness only the Light Hunter could harm it without the use of Skills.

That being said, my Boss also couldn't do a lot to the cultists. At first it had attempted to attack the Light Hunter only for her to dodge the attack like it was nothing and launch a counterattack with her bow in the same instance. At my order the kirin then attempted to attack the Hypnotist only for the Paladin to use - what I had to assume was - some sort of taunting Skill causing the Boss to refocus on him instead.

And as the Paladin on top of his titanium armor also had a Skill active which made the human's skin seemingly turn to steel, the Paladin didn't seem to take any damage at all.

At least it seems like he has to keep sprouting verbal taunts to keep the Skill going. He must be using a lot of energy just keeping those two Skills going.

Meeting the flaming Boss had also finally made the Earthquake Mage start using mana.

Too bad she mostly used it for her Class given Earthquake Skill - more limited in use than what a spell could have done -, meaning there was no chance of a spell going Wonky.

Still, at least she's using some of her mana up. The faster I can drain her repertoire the faster she's out of combat.

At least temporarily, till she recharges some…

The unicorn rabbit assistant was only able to heal the Boss once as the Light Hunter immediately caught on and shot it down before it could hide in a burrow. The feathered serpent and bā zú lung dragon had already been slayed by the Earthquake Mage after a command from the Battle Commander.

Is it just me, or is his commands powering up the people following them? I gave a metal sigh. Right. He's a Battle Commander. It's probably something his Class does.

Having eventually defeated my Boss despite its high Toughness and the Fog only hindering the Party - of course I had made it so my own creatures and family could see through the Fog no problem -, the Party entered my 6th Floor and met my newly installed 'optical illusions'. Said illusions had changed from being physical stone statues in the shape and color scheme of some of my fastest creatures to incorporeal Fata Morganas with the ability to always be just out of reach.

Like any good Fata Morgana was.

As for what shapes my Fata Morganas took? My dragonets, as the first creature I had ever made, certainly weren't the most powerful of creatures I had these days, yet it was still among the fastest.

Provided the creatures getting compared had the same level of course!

My other choices for fast creatures included Fire foxes, Mist eagles, phoenixes, and, of course, Mist pixies.

While a Mist pixie preferes surrounding their target with Mist, Mist eagles use their Mist to hide themselves! And with the Thick Fog being under my control I could imitate the effect a real Mist eagle would have on a Mist pixie's fog, making the Fata Morganas seem even more believable.

And with the same method I could have the Thick Fog retrieve from the Fire fox's Fire.

What I couldn't have the Thick Fog imitate was a feathered serpent's innate passive Skill 'Aura of Morons'. Which meant that while feathered serpents were fast, having them as Fata Morganas would risk all the Fata Morganas getting exposed.

As for the phoenix Fata Morganas: I planned on having them actually get 'hit' by long ranged attacks. Then have their 'ashes' disappear in the Thick Fog and reappearing as a phoenix again a minute later. This would give the Party a false sense of… well… actually being able to hit something.

Otherwise I doubt it would take them long to realize my ploy.

As for the Fata Morgana phoenixes only getting hit by ranged attacks: With a melee attack the attacker expects to feel at least some resistance as they hit their target, something a Fata Morgana can not provide.

The Mist pixies? Well… They were the only reason the Party would stop and fight!

Getting rid of the annoying Thick Fog they thought was created by Mist pixies was the only reason they would stop up to fight my 'creatures'! Otherwise they would just keep moving, only killing what got in their way.

The last two rooms of the 5th might not have had any trails for the Party to follow, but the Party sure hadn't forgotten how the trail had screwed them over and lost them a Party member. So, instead of following the trail which would actually have led them to the next room they decided to follow the right wall around till they found the next room.

Not a bad choice. It'll take a bit longer than if they had followed the trail, but they'll get there.

Then my Fata Morganas began their 'attack'.

Of course, being completely incorporeal they couldn't actually attack the Party. Instead the dragonets, Fire foxes, Mist eagles, and phoenixes only made 'attacks' the target would be fast enough to dodge. And when the target was instead blocked - either from their own actions or the aid of a Party member - the Fata Morgana would abort the 'attack' with an unnatural or sometimes straight up impossibly sharp turn.

Not that the Party noticed how unnatural their enemies were moving while in the middle of fighting them. Lucky me! Or rather: Unlucky you!

The Fata Morgana Mist pixies had a different job, however. They needed to play keep away. Staying far enough away to be just almost out of sight of the Party, popping in and out of their view through the Thick Fog, and generally teasing them with their - and the Fog's - constant presence.

The whole idea here was naturally to make the Party expend as much time, energy, and resources as possible.

And it worked! More so for the energy and resources part than the time aspect, but still!

It might only have delayed them half an hour or so, but the anger the trick had caused had led to a lot of wasted energy and resources.

Mana had been used and arrows fired!

Unfortunately for me - rare as that is, it does happen - only once during this did a spell turn Wonky. Said Wonky spell caused everyone - whether they be friend or foe, sapient or Dungeon creature - within a 5 meters radius to effectively become poisoned for 16 minutes.

As my only 'creatures' in that area were actually Fata Morganas, they, of course, couldn't actually be affected by this.

And, once again, unfortunately for me the Hypnotist knew a spell to cure poison, meaning the Party was quickly healed once the condition had been discovered.

At least the poison wasn't discovered right away! Some damage is better than none, after all! And getting cured for poison in the middle of 'battle' meant they ended up getting even more delayed!

With an omnipresent glance at the timer above the Hypnotist I had to admit to myself: I don't know if that delay will be good enough. They'll soon realize my tactics and go back to ignoring my efforts…

Marthox [Brainwashed] [Dungeon Weakness] [2 hours, 12 minutes, 27 seconds] Beastkin - Muskin Hypnotist Level 60

They're already halfway through my Dungeon and it's only been 1 hour 27 minutes. Yes, my Dungeon gets harder further in. But my first Boss, with an additional +11 to each of its Ability Scores, barely made them pause.

It was my wall that took out their Axe Master, not my creatures, and my Fata Morganas and Thick Fog Rules which has delayed them the most.

Higher level creatures on later Floors won't be what wins me this battle. My Rules will!

… My Rules but perhaps my latest puzzles too!