The small opening he had made in the first pit housed his deer. His plan, in the event that he had successfully separated the lightning weasel from the rest, was to lure it here and then use the deer’s vine whip spell to pull it into the pit. Though the deer would be harmed, it would get rid of one of the monsters he was worried about. Once it was down there, there would be almost nothing the boss could do to save it.

  However, that aperture was visible from the other tunnel that the invaders would be forced to come through. Not only did he need to move the deer, but he also needed to fill in the small hole to avoid making the boss and magic beasts more scared.

  He wanted to try and salvage his plan, but he had too much experience with the sunk cost fallacy to entertain that thought too much. He moved the deer back and instructed the dungeon fairy to fill the hole while he returned back to the invaders.

  The wall trap had added more to their mountainous paranoia, as they were only slightly faster traveling through the tunnel then when they needed to dig it out. Another reason for their slowness was the boss, as it seemed to be trying to sense the path to the dungeon core. Unfortunately for them, they would have to go all the way back to find the right way forward.

  They eventually reached the chasm that separated the intersecting paths. This one was smaller than the others as he was strapped for time. The left tunnel on the other side would bring them back to the first chasm and the right would take them on a painful gauntlet before it would connect with the correct path.

  The boss choose the right tunnel, which stumped Jacob for a moment before he realized that he had blocked off the fastest path. Meaning that the right path was the only way to the dungeon core without a hard barrier. He had successfully deceived the boss’s dungeon core tracking ability.

  That way was cramped and full of every single cheap trap and obstacle he could make on short notice. There were areas of the tunnel that were so small they were the size of a coin. Spikes, barbs, sharp rocks, and everything he could think of blocked the way. This was also a great opportunity.

  Most of the magic beasts have used significant amounts of their mana so far. For them and especially the boss, he needed to keep draining them. As there wasn’t a second earth magic beast anymore, he could drain the king-level monster by draining the earth user through his dungeon fairy.

  Within such a cramped space, the ability for the dungeon fairy to terraform from within stone was an incredible advantage, more so than any other place within the dungeon. While draining the boss wouldn’t make it weak, as it definitely had much cheaper spells, it would cause the other magic beasts to become vulnerable.

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  Eventually, the boss would run out of enough mana to either be unable or unwilling to assist in healing or mana recovery. While there was no doubt in his mind that the boss would find some way to make everything more difficult, without its blessing in particular he could grind their progress to a halt.

  However, that plan could only work if they really do decide to go down that path. He wasn’t sure if the boss monster had gotten lost, or perhaps it realized that they had doubled back. He really did wish that he could read what it was thinking.

  They were left undisturbed while the dungeon fairy moved the deer away and refilled the hole, and the moment it was done he returned to his mischief. He didn’t want the absence to dissuade them from pursuing this much more dangerous and longer tunnel.

  The invaders dug a small path like last time through the stone, though periods of rest and recovery were becoming more frequent and lasting longer. The blessings from the boss were more infrequent too. This caused an interesting situation where he was able to actually start filling the carved out path back in, though he did decide to hold back.

  He spent most of the time filling or removing the invaders paths used to cross the other chasms. By removing all of this progress, he hoped that he would discourage them from changing course and discovering the better path forward. He also needed something to do while he waited.

  The monsters eventually reached the right tunnel and went in. Despite their constant, long breaks, the chasm was much smaller and the earth user returned to making a thin ledge instead of a half-tunnel.

  After they went in, Jacob went ahead to recall what was next. There wasn’t much, this tunnel was just a long path through stone that he decided to fill with spikes and hazards just so that there was something here. He hadn’t actually thought that spikes would be useful here, and he still wasn’t sure.

  The boss started trying to use the others to help the earth beast as they attacked and destroyed the sharp rocks and spikes. The ones with low defense cut themselves on the sharp shards and broken stones as they dived deeper in.

  Jacob needed to wait, he needed for them to keep pushing through until it was too late for them. His new plan was to bury them within, cutting them off. In order to do this, he needed to unseal the alternative path to the dungeon core with enough time to bury this side with enough stone to prevent them from digging themselves out.

  Once that happens, then he could seal off the other side if he wanted. He would have to wait for them to reach the middle for that to work, as their desperation would cause them to go back. Suffocation was absolutely a valid strategy, though it was a hard one to do consistently. Even if they didn’t die, it would cause more panic and strain on them. From what he could tell from the boss’s status screen, Silver Plant magic didn’t have any healing effect on mental states.

  While the maniacal drive to attack the dungeon core was there, stronger magic creatures or those under the influence of stronger magic beasts could resist it and retain their intelligence and awareness. That strength came with a weakness, breaking their will would cause them to become truly insane.

  His new strategy was to push their minds to the limit and see what happens.