Stor returned to the old traps that he had checked the days before. Food was running out. The forest, once as plentiful as it was dangerous, had become barren and empty. There was no hunting anymore, there was nothing left for him to hunt, and there was nothing that hunted him.

  The silent forests felt more foreboding than any other time in his memory. The monsters and great beasts in this forest only respected one thing: strength. The only thing that could cause this is if some mythical monster was born. If it was enough to scare them, especially the much stronger magic beasts deep within, then it was hopeless for him and the village.

  The elders had contacted help from the kingdom and the adventurer’s guild. The village was relatively remote though, with the trails and roads infrequently traveled.

  He sighed as he looked up at the azure sky above him before kneeling down to pray. They desperately needed a miracle.

  The king was furious, roaring its alien roar and stomping its feet as its aura went rampant and caused a small whirlwind. The dungeon shook again from its power and the magic beasts around it cowered in fear. The earth magic beast, the one remaining, almost fell off the small ledge it had created from the king’s tantrum.

  The domain, the field of silver grass and shrubs, grew like an infestation around it as if to retaliate against the dungeon. However, most of the space around the king was empty space and vertical walls, and all it was doing was wasting its valuable mana to claim territory it had no use for.

  The boss monster seemed to realize this and quickly stopped, though from the way it continued to stomp the ground, it was still clear that the thing was livid. One of the magic beasts was directed to stand with and help defend the remaining earth magic beast and everyone became more vigilant.

  However, that itself was another mistake. Stamina was a stat just as much as mana, and the constant vigilance would only deplete it much faster. With only one earth magic user left, it was going to take much longer to reach the bottom and eventually scale the other side.

  Except, that isn’t what the king decided to do. Going down to the bottom and up the other side was safest as it reduced the height, and therefore possible injury, for a lot of the journey.

  Instead, the king decided that it was going to create a path along the circular walls of the pit to the other tunnel. Or, at least, that was what Jacob assumed was going on. He thought about it for a moment and couldn’t decide if that was a smart idea or not.

  If one of the magic beasts did fall, they would suffer significant wounds. The only reason the other earth user tanked the damage so well was because of the natural defenses of its shell. The other ones didn’t have such natural defense, and even if their magic could help cushion the fall, he doubted that they could cast the needed spells correctly while panicking.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Did the king think that there was a trap at the bottom? It was a strange thought, though one that could make sense. Maybe to an invader the bottom of the pit looked suspicious. Or maybe by killing those two magic beasts earlier, it caused the king to think that the bottom was a trap?

  Jacob shrugged and decided not to bother himself over it. After all, if one of the animals fell, they wouldn’t have a way to get back up. While the boss monster did have a whip type spell, it wasn’t long enough to reach the bottom. In other words, if he knocked a magic beast into the pit, then it would effectively be taken out.

  The new strategy didn’t change the core problem he was dealing with. He didn’t have any form of long range attack. The invaders simply had better spells and forms of attack; even if he did have a ranged attacker it would be hard for him to protect it.

  Which one of the magic beasts should he target next? He looked through each of their status screens as he planned ahead. While the earth magic beast was the most problematic for him, it was also the most closely guarded and watched. Its magic was also the type that was the hardest for him to deal with.

  No, he was thinking about this all wrong. He didn’t have the power to target any magic beast that he wanted. Rather, which of the magic beasts could he realistically target? And how could he target them?

  He reviewed the bag of tricks that he used back in the game, looking for inspiration, before he remembered something. He thought back to his idea of using cave-ins and falling ceilings as traps. This all came from a mechanic back in the game that simulated strain. While those specific tactics were harder for him to replicate now, there were other strategies that took advantage of it.

  He had done some testing earlier; terraforming the dungeon automatically changed the strength of the stone in order to fit his design. So, for example, if he created a large and expansive room held up by only one pillar, the stone that made up the pillar and the ceiling will be reinforced as much as normal dungeon stone could.

  There were limits to what he could do—there are times where he designed rooms that would fall apart and the system would warn him. It was rare though, he often had to purposely make the dungeon caverns and areas terrible in order for this mechanism to trigger.

  He could use this strategy to slow down the earth magic user, but then he would be showing his cards. He had to be careful about the king, its domain ability could easily make his actions more difficult. However, it would slow them down.

  Jacob calculated and decided that it was the best option. He began marking out the design, and outlined a cavity within the wall in front of the invaders, severely weakening the stone in front of them. The dungeon fairy created it from within the stone, which protected it from spells and attack. The king seemed to sense its presence, but its domain ability struggled to spread through a solid wall.

  The earth magic beast also sensed the stone being sculpted and started to use its magic to counteract it. The battle was interesting: the dungeon fairy had functionally infinite mana yet its output was abysmal. The earth magic beast managed to quickly overcome it, but as the fight continued on it started to lose as its mana reserves were devoured.

  The king roared and a spell much like the blessing spell Jacob’s deer had was cast. The mana cost and recovery for the magic beast were improved, but the steady and consistent power of the dungeon fairy was hard to defeat.

  Then the boss monster roared again, and all the invaders collectively began to attack the wall that shielded the dungeon fairy.