You have died.

The System message was the only visible thing in the pitch dark room.

Was it even a room? It was too dark for Talindra Delonix-Regia to tell. The Crown Princess couldn't even see her own hands.

How did I die?

… Maybe I hit some ridiculously fast trap when I got down from the trapdoor? Which then killed me before I realized the danger?

Or a monster perhaps?

Neither seemed entirely logical as nothing she had ever encountered - in this Dungeon or anywhere else - had been so fast she hadn't been able to at least see it coming.

Maybe I was hit from behind?

But that didn't seem right either, though the idea certainly made it all seem a whole lot more possible.

Not that there was any doubt as to what had happened. The System was clearly telling her she was dead.

Looking up from the hands she couldn't see, the System message was still there. Which shouldn't have seemed unusual to Talindra. System messages always needed a response from the receiver before it disappeared. Usually the only response needed was an acknowledgement, such as with a level up message, but in special circumstances, such as a dungeon master having to reply to their Dungeon's requests, an actual reply was needed.

Being dead the elf had assumed it would be different. That she wouldn't be able to send back her reply or acknowledgement in the afterlife. Or perhaps that she wouldn't get System messages at all anymore.

But here it was.

There is no question here, so I probably just have to acknowledge it.

…

Acknowledge my own death…

That was when the true realization of what had happened hit her.

She was dead, she would never reach the 'Dungeon Core' and retrieve the main piece of her goddess.

Talindra would never be rewarded with Achievements for doing so.

Her Queendom would be left without a direct heir, which would disrupt the plan of The Order of The Broken Goddess to more easily convert her Queendom to the faith - as their Queen would already be a supportive member - and for her to give them easy access to the piece of the goddess inside the Royal Dungeon.

My people rely on that Dungeon! They wouldn't survive its demise! The goddess needed to be freed and whole once again.

Her nation being left without a direct heir would surely lead to civil war as well. Talindra was an only child, so was her mother and her mother's mother, so who had the right to be the next Queen was unclear.

Mother will likely just appoint someone before her death. She'll have enough time to find a good candidate.

But that option didn't sit well with the elf. She was raised for the role! She couldn't be replaced that easily!

No elf would ever do as good a job as an actual Royal!

At first that thought calmed her anger. She wasn't that easily replaced!

Then the consequence of her land getting a worse ruler hit her.

Leaders have to stay safe. For a dead leader cannot lead. And a leaderless people will fall to one with a leader. Her mother's words echoed through her mind.

She hadn't stayed safe, she was dead, but her people still needed a future leader to keep them safe once her mother died.

And given the aggressiveness and unpredictability of unicorns, that could potentially happen at any time.

I've doomed the people I was meant to protect…

I… failed them…

Talindra stared at the words declaring her death with sadness and disappointment over her own fate filling her entire being.

But there was nothing for her to do but to accept and acknowledge her own death.

Your consideration of how others would suffer from your death weighs heavier on your mind than your own losses.

This makes you worthy.

Huh? Worthy of what?

As quick as the darkness had appeared it disappeared, taking the System message of her 'worthiness' with it, and bringing back the utterly empty Dungeon room she had entered before her death.

This is an individual puzzle.

You have solved a puzzle!

You have gained 1 EXP.

Given how her EXP gain on a 2nd tier Floor was halved 6 times due to her own status as an 8th tier, it was a wonder she had even gotten a single EXP.

It was just a puzzle…?

Relief crashed through her body so hard she fell to her knees, where she stared at the hands she could once again see.

I'm still alive! I can still serve my Queendom! Protect them from our enemies! No one needs to take my place just to keep everything going!

Talindra took a deep, relieved breath. It's going to be okay…

…

How did I even fall for that?! While both blue, in hindsight it was clearly two different shades of blue!

Quickly pushing the self aimed anger down before it could take control and distract her, Talindra calmed herself with another deep breath. Just remember that for the future. No one can completely fake the holy System.

Looking up she saw the open entrance to the next room. Said room had gone all in on the volcano theme with volcanic rocks covering the ground in varied sizes and lava dripping from above. 5 wooden statues each depicting a different creature stood in a line splitting the middle of the room. It took a bit of maneuver to see what each statue depicted as they hid each other from this angle.

The statues reminded Talindra of the wooden statue of a ugly flat slime with a disproportionate nose, which had been next to one of the puzzle doors on one of the earlier Floors, and how the room after that had had a couple wooden statues as well. While the ugly slime wasn't anywhere to be seen in this next room, the chicken and sloth statues were there, as well as the feathered serpent and slime-with-pseudopods she had seen later… on the 5th Floor?

And hadn't she seen that slime-with-pseudopods statue again later? Next to the wooden worm she could see in this room as well.

How peculiar. They must be there for some reason. But why? They don't seem to do anything, so it can be a trap. And while I can certainly see it as a puzzle of 'find the missing statue', 2nd tier Floors have 4 puzzles per Floor.

But then again this Dungeon doesn't really obey the rules…

Talindra was very aware she was ignoring the monsters of the next room.

The Boss Room.

She just needed to relax a little bit before she got back to it.

Just a little break where she wasn't risking her life.

I need to get going at some point. The goddess needs me to.

With a deep sigh, she began studying the monsters of the Boss Room: Another unicorn, a bā zú lung dragon, the 1st tier Boss - though it wasn't the Boss this time around.

That honor went to the two 3 meter tall, 8 meter long dragons in the center of the room. Or at least, the words above their heads claimed they were both the 2nd Boss.

Young karmic elemental dragon - Fire, Gravity [Boss] Level 20 Young karmic elemental dragon - Fire, Gravity [Boss] Level 20

Their scales were dark red with ash gray spots and patches and their four-legged, winged bodies took up a good part of the largely empty 20 by 15 meters room, though there was still enough space for them to maneuver around.

The red parts of their scales were glowing, like fire was heating them up from the inside. Smoke-, no ash-, no small heated lava rocks-, no all three were coming out of their nostrils everytime the dragons exhaled.

"Huh?" Something was creeping into Talindra's view from each side before she was done examining the dragons before her.

Lava was slowly pouring out from the two corners of the room she was in, which was the closest to the entrance to the Boss Room. The two pools of lava had almost reached the opening itself, telling the elf that she didn't have too much time to delay before the way forward was blocked.

No more time to analyze.

Kill the unicorn first so it can't heal its allies. So, starting by using the giant exploding Flash Lure to blind them all seems solid.

Then go for the eight-legged one. It seems to have a support role. Then the kirin, so I can focus on the Bosses without disturbances.

With a loose plan in mind, the Crown Princess readied her bow and mind for the upcoming Boss battle.

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇

When the Light Hunter, Crown Princess, landed on the ground underneath the ladder from the trapdoor, the puzzle of the room had activated. While the puzzle itself was individualized it would only activate if every sapient on the Floor had their feet on the ground in the room, or if one of them tried to enter the Boss Room.

The first trigger had been made with the thought that the backline of the Party could see the first member freeze on the spot and go unresponsive. This would give spellcasters the chance to use magic to break the other person out of the mental puzzle.

Which would count as breaking the puzzle, which while nice, wasn't the most desirable option here.

1st tier puzzles, which the System declared was meant to be aimed at tier 1 sapients, could not be created with a punishment for failing the puzzle.

2nd tier puzzles, as they were aimed for tougher people, could come with 'proportional consequences'. Which especially meant I could add a free trap, which would only activate if one failed the puzzle.

But the thing with Dungeon traps was the ability to avoid them if one was good enough at either detecting them or dodging. However, if the trap was connected to a puzzle there wouldn't necessarily be a way to avoid it, making failing a puzzle quite deadly in later Floors.

On the 10th Floor 'proportional consequences' meant 'something a healthy level 20 would certainly survive'. The thought here was that a wounded level 20 might take enough damage and die.

But 'would certainly survive' didn't mean it had to do damage. A strategy I had tried on the 6th Floor with my Double Illusion Doors trap, where one led to the next room, while the other led back to The Great Tree Room - if the 1st Floor wasn't at its limit on allowed sapients per Floor, otherwise it would send one to the 2nd Floor, unless that was full as well and so on. If all previous Floors were full, the Party would simply be sent back to the beginning of the 6th Floor.

It was the exact same concept here. If you failed the puzzle - it was more of a test really - in Hell's Judgement Hall you would - hopefully - be sent back to the beginning of my Dungeon, where you had to start all over again if you wanted to get to my Core.

Which was definitely something a healthy level 20 could survive. After all, they could just walk out of my Dungeon as soon as they appeared in The Great Tree Room!

… Or the first room of whichever Floor was free for them to be transported to.

It would entirely be their own choice should they decide to try my Dungeon again without first taking a break!

I couldn't be responsible for that when I had so nicely shown them the way out!

To successfully solve the puzzle in Hell's Judgement Hall, one had to prove themselves worthy of seeing my Core.

… I wasn't actually sure what measurement the System used to decide one's worthiness…

The puzzle would convince the visitor that they were dead and the System would then read their mind and analyze their reaction to - somehow - figure out if they were worthy.

… Which might seem like a bit of a privacy breach, but that was why I didn't read their minds myself! The System - while normally not a mind reader - seemed to know just about everything anyway!

If the sapient didn't have any big or interesting reaction upon learning of their 'death', then the puzzle would inform them of their impending reincarnation into whichever being - person, animal, it didn't matter - they had hurt the most in life.

In the case of an elven slave owner, the puzzle wouldn't simply inform them they would reincarnate into a random beastkin. No it would reincarnate them into the one beastkin slave they had harmed the most, at the time of that person's birth.

Meaning the elven slave owner would end up feeling everything the beastkin slave had…

It wouldn't actually happen of course! My puzzles weren't anywhere near that powerful! It was simply to give the System something to analyze.

…And hopefully it would make hypothetical elven slave owners rethink their actions.

If they System still had trouble analyzing their worthiness, the puzzle would proceed to the last phase where the sapient was informed, they had reincarnated many times before and would many times more, as everyone in every time - man, or woman, elf, gnome, or giant, sapient, semi-sapient, or animal - were actually them in different reincarnations. 'You are simply growing up and learning. Once you have been through every life, you will become like me and help guide others to greatness.' The fake System in the puzzle would state at the end.

And if the idea of being a young version of your own god didn't give them ideas of superiority - even if just for a moment before they remembered they were everyone and there wasn't anyone to be superior to -, then they had to be worthy!

Given how it had only taken the Light Hunter 9 minutes and 40 seconds - not even a full 10 minutes! - I very much doubted she got to the last phase before the System declared her worthy.

For the System had declared her worthy!

Even while Brainwashed!

Well there goes that hope!

Talindra Delonix-Regia [Brainwashed] [Dungeon Weakness] [38 minutes, 23 seconds] Elf Noble Light Hunter Level 74

38 minutes… I don't know. It's a Boss fight, yes, but she finished the unicorns so quickly!

… I might actually have to send the Tribe after her…

… Which will likely mean someone will die…

I had already aired the idea of the Tribe leaving me to my fate should it come to that.

Should the Crown Princess take my Fake Core, realize it was fake and come back with reinforcement to take my real Core…

With the ban on beastkin slavery in the unfinished town around my Portal, the Tribe wouldn't be immediately captured or killed, and I had even offered to grease the wheel by making it my last request to the Lightning Mage that she take care of them for me.

But no. They declined my every offer.

My worshippers refused to leave their god behind.