Jacob didn’t start creating new cavities, as this chasm didn’t have a slight outcropping like the entrance to the first. This meant that, instead of creating a ledge from the stone, the invaders might decide to dig a recess and path to get to the other side.

  Instead, he went to the other side and started reviewing the tunnels on the other side. He had done his best to avoid creating dead ends by making sure that all paths led to the dungeon core because he had noticed that stronger magic beasts were able to roughly sense the right path.

  Many of the paths loop around and reconnect with each other in an attempt to confuse or deceive this sense. Whether this worked or not, he wasn’t sure, but what he did know was that a confusing and convoluted layout was a useful defense. He had also tried his best to make sure that there was enough stone between tunnels and paths to discourage the creation of unauthorized tunnels.

  He decided to perform a little experiment. He would block off one of the tunnel entrances and see what happens. This tunnel wasn’t a part of the direct path to the dungeon core, but he wondered how much a king-level monster could sense, as this wouldn’t be the last time he fought one.

  In full view of the boss and its cronies, the dungeon fairy first created a cavity within the wall to provide some protection, and then he micromanaged it to slowly close off the tunnel. The monsters started casting spells, but the stone was thick enough to shield the fairy. They could do nothing as one of their paths forward was closed off.

  He debated whether he wanted to block off the other tunnel next and decided that it would be worthwhile. While it would muddy the experiment, his biggest priority was to ensure the safety of the core and, by extension, himself.

  Following the same strategy, the other tunnel was closed, leaving only a slight indent.

  The boss responded by not doing anything, seeming to stare at the tunnels for a little bit as the cogs in its mind slowly turned. It kept looking at the two now blocked before it did something unexpected. It turned around and went back to the previous pit.

  It went back and started staring at the other tunnel that Jacob couldn’t close off as it would cut off the dungeon core from the surface. Jacob couldn’t begin to guess what it was thinking as it looked at the other path.

  Then it went back to the second pit. It kept staring and its eyes seemed to be glued to the rightmost tunnel, the first one that he covered up. It kept looking at the two closed off tunnels and even went back again to the first pit.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  Jacob realized that it was sensing the dungeon core and, due to the tunnels’ different layout, it was getting confusing signals. He didn’t know the exact mechanic behind it though, so he didn’t have a way to weaponize it.

  It had stopped going back to the first pit and kept switch gazes from the two closed up tunnels. Then it roared an unknown command and the earth magic beast began to work again.

  It started to dig into the wall into the direction of the leftmost tunnel, the one that he had closed off first. It seemed that his deception had worked. His prediction that they would dig into the wall instead of creating a perilous ledge was also correct.

  The lack of ledge did make it harder for him to create and take advantage of openings, but there wasn’t anything he could do about it. At least, nothing that he had come up with so far.

  He watched them and kept racking his already strained creativity as a small path was carved against the wall. He needed to reduce them as much as possible. While killing the boss or earth magic user was wishful thinking, he needed to reduce the six-monster party to three.

  The four monsters other than the boss and the earth one used water, fire, ice, and lightning magic. This invasion party had a variety of different magics to take advantage of, and the fire and ice magic in particular were the most annoying as they had the strongest ranged attacks. The spells the lightning magic could use were short range yet powerful, sort of like an electric eel except in the rough shape of an oversized weasel.

  These three magic types were the most concerning and so these beasts were the ones that he needed to kill. Especially the lightning magic, as it was tailor made to deal with waves of cannon fodder like his ants.

  The order of the monsters was the earth beast, the boss, lightning beast, water beast, ice beast, and the fire beast defending the rear. His win conditions were to knock one of the magic beasts into the pit or to drain the monster king of its mana. If he could drain the earth magic beast’s mana, that would also work, but the boss monster’s blessing spell made its mana regeneration too high. That thing had already defeated his dungeon fairy at earth manipulation in a one-on-one battle.

  He needed to do something drastic again, though that was easier said than done. What advantages did his dungeon fairy or any of his own monsters have over them? His fairy could terraform from within stone, but there weren’t that many ways he could use that.

  Or maybe there was. He thought back and recalled the large boulder he had used to survive the fourth and third wave. He had to make that out of much stronger stone than the normal dungeon kind.

  What happened if the earth user had to drill or manipulate reinforced dungeon stone? He wasn’t sure. He had little hope of causing damage to the boss, but if he could use this to separate some of the magic beasts from their master, then he had a good chance to reduce their numbers again.

  He had to think about this strategically though. He went to the tunnel that they were planning to go to and started creating outlines for the next trap he had in store.