Dolan awoke from his trance, slowly coming-to in his little cave. He looked around, finding everything exactly how it was when he slept, exactly how he liked it.

A new challenger has entered the dungeon. That meant it was time to work.

Dolan moved to the corner of his room, finding his "tools" sitting there. A long sharp one, no... A long wood one with a sharp bit, no... A long wood one with a heavy bit. That's the one.

He picked up the hammer and moved over to his latest creation, an ornate carving in the wall depicting nothing in particular. There were lots of swirls, big lines, a few marks here and there (totally intentional and not from mis-swings). But the bit he was most proud of was in the center - a gigantic carving of his boss.

Or, most of him at least. This was most definitely a work-in-progress, but it was turning out well, if he did say so himself. He had the big round bit, some curvy lines coming off it, a field of spikes under a smaller round bit in the center, and now it was just detail work. Boss would be so happy to see this when it was finished. That is, if he wasn't already watching, which he wasn't likely to with the adventurers to occupy his attention.

Dolan continued his work in relative silence, proud to be the master's pet of the dungeon, and content in his quiet little corner of the world.

An hour passed, they're likely coming into the first puzzle chamber now. They'll be through in about five minutes.

Five minutes and a small rumble later, Dolan moved his hands away from the wall, in order to avoid chipping anything as the dungeon shifted minutely, then got back to work.

Eight hours later, there had been no further sign of progress on the adventurers' part, so Dolan assumed they were probably camping out in the cistern room. Lovely place, that. He absentmindedly turned around and waved to an invisible sensor, just in case boss was watching in the lull, then returned to his work.

About four hours after that came the signs he dreaded. Doors shifting, footsteps and combat in the distance. He grudgingly moved away from the wall, stopping his detail work due to the noise it caused. Didn't want to go attracting unwanted attention now. Instead, he grabbed the long stabby thing the humans called a spear, and started dragging it across the floor, creating wide swirls within swirls within swirls, fields of adjascent lines, and waves flowing over it all. It was such a calming process.

Soon enough, he heard the voices.

"Ooh, that one tickled! What else you got?"

"Uh, I have protection against good and evil. ... How's that one?"

"I have no strong feelings one way or the other."

"Oh shut up." They both laughed. "Alright, how about purge?"

"..... What the fuck dude."

"What?"

"You just got rid of my hangover."

"What?! Wait, are you telling me..."

"We could be getting blackout drunk before all our adventures with no consequences! Hell yeah!"

Dolan heard a clap in the distance, accompanying the two voices. He could understand them in part, thanks to lessons from boss in-between adventuring groups. The only reason he had even marginal success in this is that through the last ten groups to come here, none had even seen Dolan, much less tried to kill him. Thus he had plenty of free time, and not much but art and education to occupy it.

Living in a secret room with a hidden door had so many perks.

"Alright, let's see what else I ha- wait. That's weird."

"What is it?"

"This wall, it has lots of carvings. Surprisingly pretty for a dungeon such as this."

"Eh, probably just for flavor. Unless..." There was a pause as the second voice did something. Dolan hadn't paid them much mind, simply enjoying that someone appreciated his work, before he realized what was happening. Then he began to panic.

"Aha! Yes, it's a clue of some sort!" No it isn't! "See this torch here? It's connected to this hole." Pure coincidence! "So if we turn or pull this... then stick our finger in, ew, in here, ugh, I hate spiders. But! Then we pull the hidden mechanism that just appeared, and..."

Light washed over Dolan as, for the first time in years, someone other than the dungeon master entered the room.

Then they started stepping on his zen garden.

Dolan watched as his wonderful work blew away with the change in pressure, and foolish feet trampled years of hard work. He stood there in shock, as did the adventurers, though they for a different reason, before his vision literally turned red with rage as his eyes began to glow with bright light. He reached for his hammer with one hand, the spear with the other.

"Holy shit, an iron golem!" Shouted the brown armored one, before launching an arrow at Dolan. It plinked off his rusty steel skin without leaving so much as a scratch. "We aren't prepared for something like this!"

"We should run!"

"Ya think? ...Wait! Do you see those?" he exclaimed as Dolan reached them, swinging down with his art tools to get rid of the intruders, and maybe gain a few liters of paint in the proces.

"Are you crazy? We'll be dead before we can even open the chests, much less loot them. We don't even have anything that can harm it!" Said the robed one as he ducked under a spear-swing. They must have been referring to master's treasure, placed under Dolan's protection. That gave him even more reason to stop them here and now.

"You've got that fire spell! Blast a hole through it!" Dodged Arturias.

"I am not attacking another sentient creature so you can go treasure hunting! Let's go!" Side-stepped Felix.

"Don't worry, golems are constructs, they don't have souls, can't think!" Incorrectly assumed Artur. Although his assumption was harmful and Dolan wanted to take it personally, the current threat to his art and master's hoard were more pressing. He would deal with these emotions later.

"Wait, really?"

"Yeah, just like zombies!" Oof, right in the core. How could he compare a majestic, if blemished, iron golem to one of those mindless cretins?

"..." A mystic force shielded the robed one against the next hammer swing. "Alright, fine." He concluded, before powering up another spell. Dolan had seen the results of enough of these spells to know he had to stop him. Thus, he stepped forward, looking to lunge at the caster, before realizing that a hundred tiny metal babies were suddenly under his feet. The cruel armored one had dropped these poor things!

Dolan was overcome with both surprise and the force of gravity, so when he flinched away in order to avoid crushing these precious little things, he tumbled onto his back, scattering ball bearings across the room.

Then the caster finished his spell, and a blast of holy fire bore down on Dolan's prone form.

The pain... The pain was immeasurable. His skin began to melt, his organs fell apart, his leg snapped off, and the fire kept coming. What horrible creature would create a spell this torturous? What foul being would hold the spell, even after the foe was defeated? Oh gods, the pain!

As Dolan silently blacked out from the pain, uttering no sound due to his lack of vocal organs, he vowed revenge on this pitiful human. He would haunt him until the day he died. This human would know spiritual suffering ten times what Dolan was physically feeling at this moment.

And so his spirit passed, going to do its eternal haunting duty.

"Hey there! Would you like to help me on my quest for world peace?"