Bazel sighed. “Well, what kind of adventurers would we be if we just leave gems and gold on the ground? Silverstring, you’re up.”

  Ferdinand practically squealed in delight as he began approaching the pile. Eyes darting left and right for traps, he carefully approached the pile. When nothing happened, he rushed to stack some coins into his bag.

  Pos, always alert, raised a finger to his lips. “[Dangersense]!”

  The word was all the [Thief] needed as he immediately [Shadowstep] away from the pile. A moment later, the ground began to tremble, and a massive monster emerged beneath the pile of gems. Pos looked up at the monster.

  It was a plant more than two metre tall with a giant sunflower as its head. The sunflower glowed ominously as the monster roared, sending a shockwave that rattled the ground. Thick roots shot out of the ground, and the party was suddenly in a fight. “Well, we seen this before!” Pos yelled, dodging to the side as the creature swung a massive root at him.“Less talking and more fighting!” Umdar shouted, charging forward with a battle cry. He swung his sword with all his might, cutting through a root but the sunflower monster fought on like it didn’t feel it.

  “Get back!” Fabiana shouted, raising her staff to conjure a fireball. With a flicker and a burst, flames erupted, enveloping the monster. It howled, but the fire was not enough to bring it down.

  “We’re need a new plan!” Ferdinand shouted as he darted around the monster, looking for weaknesses.Bazel drew an arrow, uttered some words, and released. The arrow flew through the air before hitting the monster right in its flowery head. It exploded, several petals fell on the ground, and a wordless scream filled the air.

  “That hurt it! Aim at the flower-head!” Bazel yelled, and Fabiana immediately launched another fireball, aiming right at its head. This time, the monster dodged, stumbling backward to avoid the spell.

  “Weak spot!” Barwin shouted, seizing the moment to charge in, slashing at the monster’s roots. Melee fighters like him and Pos had a hard time reaching the head of the flower but the roots were fair game.

  “Keep it distracted!” Ferdinand shouted before scaling the walls of the maze in an attempt to get a better vantage point.

  That turned out to be unnecessary.

  The final attack came from Bazel. With the monster distracted, the [Dragoon] shot another arrow at the monster’s head. It hit, unleashing a torrent of arcane energy that tore the sunflower apart. The monster staggered and collapsed with a thunderous crash. The maze fell silent except for the soft clinking of scattered coins rolling across the ground.

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  Panting and covered in dirt and treasure, the party exchanged elated looks. “Well, that wasn’t so bad.” Barwin exclaimed with a laugh, racing forward to pick up a particularly shiny gem.

  The party wasted no time collecting coins and gems, stuffing them hurriedly into bags. Once they were done, the party continued their delve, and Pos couldn’t help but ask with a laugh, “So, halfling. Which way to the next treasure pile?”

  ***

  “Unbelievable! Absolutely unacceptable! Thirty seconds! They dismantled that plant monster in under thirty seconds. Thirty! You know how much time I spent to plan and create that minion? And they didn’t even need to use a single potion against it!” Xu Han’s voice echoed through the dungeon core room, full of indignation.

  Jemma pressed a tiny hand to her temple, trying her best to rub away the brewing headache growing within. Her teachers told her this could happen. Dungeon cores could be overly dramatic at times, and when they becomes like that, dungeon fairy need to deal with them with the patience of a [Saint].

  “Core, we have been over this. This party is over-levelled for your dungeon. It is only natural that they overcame the plant monster. It was never designed to struggle against a party with a few Level 30s in them.”

  “It could at least put up more of a fight.” Xu Han fumed. “It’s like the party gained a pile of gems for a casual stroll in a garden. It didn’t even annoy them.”

  “Told you putting a bunch of gems in the maze was a bad idea.” Jemma’s voice was almost causal but there was no mistaking the joy in it. The dungeon fairy loves it when she was proven right.

  “It worked so far,” Xu Han countered, which even Jemma had to admit was true as the trap had lure several adventurers into the roots of the plant monster.

  “Then, take those wins and enjoy them. The third floor is to stop new adventurers, and to challenge the lower ones. And it had done a good job of it so far. The maze had stopped every adventurer that had came before, but this party is different. Observe.”

  Jemma gestured towards the images where the party of adventurers were now moving towards another trap within the hedge maze. Xu Han had designed a simple pit trap with spikes at the bottom. After covering the top of the trap with branches, he then created an illusion on top of it to prevent adventurers from seeing the trap.

  Now, the dungeon core sees the halfling [Thief] of the party approaching the trap and skipped past the trap by jumping off the wall of the maze. As he past the trap, he threw a small stone at the trap. According to Jemma, halfings were great throwers and the species as a whole had a tendency to gain classes like [Slingers], [Knife Throwers] and the like. This halfling proved his fairy’s point. The stone smashed through the branches, and broke the illusion covering the trap.

  Despite his frustration, Xu Han was impressed. The stone was small and the throw wasn’t even that hard, but the illusion broke like wet paper. It was not power that broke it but precision, like the halfling simply knew the exact point to hit to break the spell. Xu Han remembered that Jemma once said that halflings had a reputation of being lucky, and wondered if there was some truth to it.

  “Observe, core. They are showing you respect.” Jemma said.

  “Respect?” A puzzled Xu Han asked.

  “Yes, this is efficiency, not wanton destruction. The party could overpower your third floor, your third-floor defenses are irrelevant to them, but they choose not to. These adventurers know that the more they destroy, the more work there would be for you. So, they are bypassing the maze through skill when possible. It is respect.” Jemma concluded calmly.

  “The halfling could had jumped over the trap without breaking the illusion.” Xu Han complained through there was no heat in his words. Respect or not, the dungeon core knew that leaving a trap for his follow party members would be stretching it.

  Xu Han sighed. Maybe his final Boss on the third floor would do better.