The first thing Reid Alvarado noticed as he entered the forested room was how bishop Marthox and disciple Emery, the Earthquake Mage, suddenly started growing muscles. The Mage more so than the bishop, who had noticeably given up completely on his normal poker face. Reid had long since noticed how bishop Marthox only ever dropped said poker face, when anger or frustration made him snap.

Which had happened several times during this unusual Dungeon dive.

But instead of the anger or frustration expected whenever the muskin dropped the mask, nerves and discomfort was clearly seen on his face and body language.

Then Reid, as he took another step, realized his under armor rubbed against him rougher than before. And yet, as he took a quick second to check it, it appeared to be the same as usual.

What's going on?

Then a mighty howl sounded slight behind them and to the right. They all turned around, ready to attack the creature, only for them to see a hybrid between a wolf beastkin and a giant. Given how disciple Mlartlar was a hybrid between an elf and a fox beastkin, Reid's first instinct was to lower his guard as this was clearly a sapient and thus not a threat.

But then the hybrid lowered themselves, getting ready to jump.

That's when Reid realized it's reversed knees.

Well trained reflexes pulled Reid's shield up in front of him as the monster jumped him, but for some reason his body failed to keep standing as he took the hit. Now laying on the ground the monster stood on all fours on his shield on top of him and began biting Reid's helmet, trying to reach his throat.

A feminine scream sounded, a thud of someone hitting the ground like Reid had, the sound of bodies being slammed together, followed by a high pitched, yet masculine groan from what had to be the muskin bishop.

All backgrounded by a multitude of growls and barks from all directions.

But before Reid could defend the others he needed to fight off his own attacker.

Luckily, despite whatever had caused his body to fail against the force of the monster's jump, his Strength seemed to still be intact and he quickly threw the hybrid minster off him despite its giant size.

Reid's knight training always came through for him in times like this and he was quick to make distance between him and the monster, keeping his struggling teammates at his back for maximum safety while surrounded. A quick glance at how the rest were doing showed Reid the bishop in the middle of sumo wrestling a gnome/wolf monster.

What is going on?

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇

The Ability Score switching of The Werewolf Wood didn’t affect the timers counting down the time before their minds were freed. Given how their Ability Scores hadn’t actually changed, they simply started doing the job of the Score they had switched with, I hadn’t actually expected the counters to change.

The current Ability Scores of the victim were up against the Ability Scores of the caster at the time of casting, but as the Ability Scores of the victim hadn’t actually changed, the cultists were just as resistant to already applied effects, such as the mind control in question, as before they entered the room. The Hypnotist would be unable to Hypnotize anyone while in The Werewolf Wood, but those he had already Hypnotized would remain so.

Even knowing this, I couldn’t help but be disappointed.

Given that my werewolves were only level 11, the cultists were never in any actual danger from them. But having one's Ability Scores messed up in the middle of combat made everyone a bad fighter. And as my werewolves benefitted from 'Cheaters Only Cheat Themselves' they had enough Toughness that only the kobold variant had died when the moon sat.

The Hypnotist most have had equally bad Strength and Toughness Scores. 'Cause I'm pretty confident they were both raised with how he took those hits, yet managed to do significant damage to my Toughness boosted werewolf gnome.

As my werewolves weren't karma creatures, they felt no reason to keep attacking after they transformed back. And as they now looked exactly like sapients, the cultist cautiously stopped fighting too, though they didn't lower their guard.

They had, however, overlooked the karmic lynx in the room. Said lynx had been jumping in and out of the fight, always aiming to take an opponent by surprise. And since its prey was focused on deciding what to do about the now docile and sapient-looking fey…

A quick attack, then back to hiding.

But with the werewolf Pack no longer distracting the Party, the lynx's next attack was pursued and the cat hunted down and killed.

As for the no-longer-wolfed-out fey? The Hypnotist pointed out how the labels over their heads declared them 'monsters' and those too wounded to flee were killed on the spot.

As they had now completely failed the puzzle, the exit wouldn't be revealed to them.

Not that that did me a lot of good, seeing as it only took them a single lap around the room before the Hypnotist pointed out the vague outline of the new moon on the ceiling over where the exit would have appeared, marking the spot.

Luckily for me, their swapping Ability Scores caused most of their Skills to be less effective, as many of their Skills used their best Ability Score as a base.

They did eventually figure out they could have the Hypnotist and Battle Commander use Buff Skills and spells on the Earthquake Mage as she was now the strongest among them.

She seemed quite happy about being able to - eventually - break the walled door with her gloved - borrowed from the Paladin - fist. More so in fact, than when she minutes later solved the puzzle in The Hall of Light.

The creatureless, buffet filled dining room naturally caused some confusion. There once again appeared to be no exit to the room, so it was clearly a puzzle. Just not one with an obvious goal in mind.

They didn't dare eat the food at first. One of their theories was that some food was poisoned and they had to find and possibly eat the few pieces, likely only one for each, which weren't.

But as they couldn't find any signs of anything suspicious with any of the food, they eventually sat down to, cautiously, eat the offered food.

After all, Dungeon environments were known to sometimes have edible food, and they were getting quite hungry after all that fighting.

After they had each swallowed at least one bite of food, the exit revealed itself as the first criteria for solving the puzzle was completed.

While confused as to what they had done for that to happen, their stomachs demanded they eat more of the delicious food before them.

Unfortunately for me, the Hypnotist demanded they press onwards before the puzzle declared them gluttons and changed their chairs and silverware to mimics.

Then to the 10th Floor and The Lightning Forrest!

Oh! The giant is waking up!

Said giant Axe Master slowly woke up, took a moment to assess his own health before deciding to walk, not run, through the still creature-empty 7th Floor.

Boring. I turned my focus back to the Party.

The timer's almost done. I think they have time to deal with the key mimic after it reveals itself, but I doubt they'll get much further than that.

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇

"'The key is the key'?" Marthox read out loud the inscription over the door barring them from the second room of the 10th, and hopefully final, Floor of the Dungeon.

This has already gone on far longer than it should have!

"The Dungeon must be fighting our goddess." The muskin concluded. "Otherwise I'm sure she would have chosen a less cryptic way of guiding us, her loyal flock."

Of course a key is a key! Not that he dared roll his eyes at the goddess. Surely there was some hidden meaning behind the written clue!

The disciples with him nodded, before disciple Delonix-Regia took the key hanging on a keychain next to the door.

Only for the key to move with incredible speed, growing legs, mouth, and eyes, jumping off the wall aiming for the eyes of the elven woman. But unfortunately for it, disciple Delonix-Regia had an incredibly high Dexterity Score, which gave her the reflexes and speed to dodge its attack.

It wasn't long after that, that the monster, the dreaded mimic, was slayed.

"But… the clue?" Disciple Emery questioned, confused.

Marthox had to agree. Clearly the key hadn't been a key at all, so why had the goddess said it was?

"'The key is the key'." Disciple Delonix-Regia made sure to put emphasis on the first word as she quoted the clue. "It's not just any key - and certainly not a key-shaped mimic. We need to find the key, which will be 'the key' to solving this puzzle."

"Ah! So there must be other keys in here!" Disciple Emery concluded.

"Most likely." The elf agreed.

"Split up and search for keys." Marthox commanded. "But don't touch them, it could be another mimic."

His flock nodded and did as he asked of them.

Choosing to start close to the exit, Marthox too began looking around for keys. They didn’t intend to waste a lot of time looking, but breaking doors down seemed to get harder and harder the closer they got to their goal. Finding the key would save immense amounts of energy, which would likely be needed to deal with the Boss monster at the end of the Floor.

While searching, Marthox began considering what was going to happen once they returned to The Prophet's Gallery Room with the main piece of the goddess. Said Gallery Room was where all the rescued pieces of the goddess were gathered and displayed till such a time, that the goddess could be put back together.

Of course to those not initiated, it does sound- Something broke. Not physically, and it didn't make any sound, but Marthox instinctively knew: Something had broken.

With a frozen body, the muskin searched his mind for clues. He knew whatever had broken had been in his mind, but he didn't know what.

The more he thought the more discrepancies he found in his past behavior. Nothing big, but many, many small things. Things he knew he didn't want to do, yet had done. But also things he wouldn't do, yet had done.

Thoughts started swirling faster and faster, words blending with memories, all trying to reach a conclusion telling him why he had done things he wouldn't do.

Then his thoughts focused on one particular memory. One from his 8th birthday, the day he came of age, became an adult, got access to the System, levels, and his first Class of Commoner.

But more importantly it was the day of his own initiation.

They…

They had taken his free will from him that day. They didn’t even have any reason to do it! Marthox had been raised in The Order of The Broken Goddess. His parents had been members themselves and raised their only surviving child - it had been a complicated birth - in their belief.

Only… Marthox realized now; it hadn't been their own belief. It had been forced upon them!

Just like it had been forced upon the otherwise willing Marthox.

But why? Why did they find it necessary?

A memory surfaced with the answer. A simple one. Every member of The Order was under mind control, it was a part of- no! It was the entirety of the initiation. And no one was considered a member without it.

He had initiated dozens of people himself. Could feel the mental strings he had on them. During the mental battle of initiation he would give all needed instructions, as he couldn't change it again afterwards without having to undo it and start over.

The strings were similar to leashes in some ways. The pet needed to be near the person leasing them as it happened, but could then do as they pleased as long as they stayed within the range of the leash.

And while it was almost impossible for the pet to free themselves, the owner could simply drop the leash anytime they wanted to.

They found it necessary because they have theyselves been ordered to do it.

But… why?

If it's really necessary to control the actions of every member to ensure they follow The Order, then…

His world crashed around him.

For the truth didn't need to be believed to be true. But a lie needed to be believed by someone to even exist.

The… the goddess doesn't exist does she? It was all just a lie…

My whole life! Has been a lie!