Mlartlar hated elves.

He thought he had turned that hatred into dislike and distrust when the Order of the Broken Goddess bought him and got him away from his elven father and master.

But no. The Battle Commander still hated his father's species.

His mother had been one of his father's many beastkin slaves, and he claimed she had seduced him.

Only his moron of a wife believed that lie, but Mlartlar was sure that was who the lie was for anyway.

The bastard chose to 'acknowledge' Mlartlar as his son by giving him an elven name.

Only to then refuse to grant the child use of his last name, thus disowning Mlartlar in the same move.

Making the man more master than father.

Mlartlar's mother died when he was still a toddler, which hadn't been a surprise to anyone. Slaves didn't normally live all that long. Both due to their living conditions and their masters stopping them from tiering up and earning another decade of life.

So little Mlartlar had to fend for himself against both elves - for being 'half beast' - as well as other slaves, who saw their enemy in a form they could actually hurt.

Not that all the other slaves had been against Mlartlar. Some showed pity for him and his late mother. But those among them who decided to vent their anger and frustration on him tended to go all out when doing so.

And as Mlartlar - being half elf - stayed a child much longer than any other slave, he was vulnerable that much longer.

He only survived 'cause no slave dared to destroy a master's property.

Mlartlar had thought himself eternally thankful to the Order for them noticing his talent and buying him. Setting him free from slavery and all the hateful bullies around him.

To be honest, he was still thankful. Even now that he knew he had simply been taken from one type of slavery to another. At least the Order had treated him much better. No one had bullied him while he was in the Order, he got good food, rest as needed, healing when required, and the ability to tier up.

He was even able to make friends!

Though when Mlartlar thought about it, he realized he had no actual friends among the Order. Instead his friends were his fellow battle nerds.

Having exited the Dungeon after having been freed from mind control, Mlartlar was once again reminded of why he hated elves. The town’s apparent leader was headed straight towards him in a clear attack, despite Mlartlar never having done anything to her.

The spiteful Battle Commander naturally responded in kind.

Or rather, attempted.

The minute or so he was stuck in plants was more than enough for the elven woman to draw her short sword, cut off the muskin's hand, and use her magic to cauterize the now open wound.

She claimed it was a punishment and that she hoped he learned his lesson.

Mlartlar saw an elf punishing a beastkin for no apparent reason. The same way elven masters often did to their beastkin slaves, when the sadistic bastards wanted to entertain themselves.

His second family might have betrayed him, but he refused to let yet another beastkin be mindlessly punished.

The moment he was free of the plants constraining him he rushed towards the elf.

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One moment Reid Alvarado was attempting to cool down the bruising on the unconscious Mage, the next an elven woman had jumped over the unconscious body and caused chaos behind him.

What is going on?!

Despite his confusion, Reid could somewhat understand everyone's reasoning:

The elven woman had felt the need to punish Marthox for something - undoubtedly all the Hypnotizing he had done, though Reid didn't know how she knew about it. And if it was because of the Hypnotizing, then cutting a hand off was quite merciful. Most people and governments would have reacted with the death penalty.

The System valued freedom highly, after all.

That being said, everyone had the right to a fair trial and she had simply rushed in and cut his hand off with no warning and only came with an explanation after the fact.

Mlartlar, on the other hand, had just seen this happen to a fellow victim of mind control. And while it was certainly noble to defend one's comrades, attacking an unaware opponent from behind was dishonorable and cowardly.

On top of all that, there were two wounded around them - the Mage and the Hypnotist - who could easily get hit by accident, should it come to a fight.

So, no. Now was not the time or place for a fight.

"Halt!" Reid commanded as he began moving to get in between the two. As his intention was to stop the two from fighting, he didn't draw a weapon but took his shield in hand as he got up.

"Why?! So she can keep hurting us?!" Mlartlar shouted back as he tried to hit the elf with his dagger - his original weapon having rusted away in the early parts of the Dungeon. Said elf had enough time to defend herself due Reid's command making her aware of the attack, letting her summon a wall of plants between them.

"What? No!" The elven woman replied confused. "I don't wanna hurt you!"

And true enough her stance had become purely defensive. She was even trying to distance herself from the attacking hybrid, which gave Reid space to get in between them, one flat hand facing the defense elf, while the other held his shield towards the aggressive Battle Commander.

Mlartlar huffed sarcastically in response to the elf's words, not believing her for a moment, but having at least stopped attacking her. "Then what do you call that?!" He asked with an accusing finger pointing at the handless muskin.

"He Hypnotized me!" She screamed angrily in response, though the anger was clearly aimed at the fact that she had been Hypnotized and not at Mlartlar. "He Hypnotized you too!" She continued screaming, though almost as an afterthought. "And while he might have been mind controlled himself, I can't let that kind of behavior go unpunished!"

"Why not!" Mlartlar shouted back. Held back by the shield Reid could see from his body language and red face that the Battle Commander asked simply because he wanted to disagree with her.

At least it's a verbal fight now and not a physical one. While I would prefer it if they calmed down a bit more, it's fine for now.

"I'm the dungeon mistress of this town! I can't just let criminals go unpunished!"

"Why don’t we all calm down and take this discussion off the street?" Suggested a new voice. Looking around, Reid noticed a male elf wearing a shining sheriff's star standing next to the unconscious Mage. Three other elves stood with him - yet slightly behind him, suggesting a hierarchy - with a fourth elf checking the condition on the knocked out human. "We can take your unconscious comrade with us to the Security Guild if it makes you more comfortable." The sheriff continued.

Sensing Mlartlar getting ready to spew insults at the sheriff, Reid quickly replied for the group, wanting to keep the peace going. "What a splendid idea! We wouldn't want any innocents to end up in the crossfire of any potential disagreements!" Reid kept his eyes firmly on Mlartlar during the latter sentence, letting him his disappointment.

Mlartlar stared back hard for a couple of seconds before taking in a deep breath and nodding his agreement. Carefully - in case the Battle Commander was bluffing - Reid stepped out from in-between the two before pointing with his eyes for Mlartlar to pick up the whimpering muskin laying on the ground.

Reid fully intended to keep an eye on him by walking behind him. But they either both had to support a wounded comrade or neither could for that caution to make sense. Having been trained to become a knight from childhood, Reid found himself unable to simply let the local elves carry the wounded. To do such a thing was to spit on chivalry! Yet if Reid was to carry someone while Mlartlar didn't, keeping an eye on his behavior wouldn't really matter. The Battle Commander could do quite a lot of things in the time it would take the Paladin to put his passenger on the ground.

Luckily for Reid, Mlartlar simply glared angrily at each elf before picking up the small male muskin.

After picking up the taller, yet more petite, female human Mage, Reid nodded for Mlartlar to follow the sheriff first.

The hybrid simply gave Reid a stink eye before turning to follow the sheriff.

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Here we go! I thought to myself as I watched my victim fall right into my trap.

Not a 'trap' as in it took up a slot in my allowed number of traps. No, it was actually a puzzle constructed in such a way, that one would forget its hint and be unlikely to solve it.

The Light Hunter had reached the 5th room of The Lightning Forest - The Lightning Forest was mostly split into 5 rooms due to the two first containing puzzle doors - with no further issues due to the lack of puzzles in the last three rooms and her own high Awareness letting her spot all my traps.

But at the end of that room she had encountered a locked door.

Much like the previous 'locked door' a key was hanging on a hook next to the door. Likely remembering that the last one was actually a mimic, the Light Hunter simply gave the key a suspicious glare before ignoring it.

… And unlike the last 'locked door' this one was actually locked. Which the elven woman naturally checked.

And unlike the last one this one didn't have any hints or riddles written anywhere around it. Which she had naturally wasted several minutes looking for.

Taking a step back and thinking it through once again, she finally decided to give the key a chance.

A very cautious chance.

But no, this key was not a mimic.

Unlocking the door with the key worked just fine… till she realized the door didn't lead to another room, but instead into a brick wall…

"What?!"

The puzzle in question began in the first room of the Floor with the door which wasn't actually locked. Above that door the hint had simply said 'The key is the key', which was naturally true. The actual meaning, however, was that the one and only actual key on the Floor should be placed into the keyhole of the door underneath the text to complete the puzzle and get closer to my Core. Aka 'The key is the key to this door'.

The key in question fit just as well into the door in the 5th room, but would only reveal a brick wall, which wasn't actually made of bricks as it was a Dungeon wall.

This was naturally to confuse any who tried.

And confuse it did!

If she still had her Party I had no doubt she would have risked breaking the brick wall down. Instead she paced back and forth for several minutes, before she decided to retrace her steps, checking every wall, plant, and rock with surprising efficiency and speed.

And that meant she eventually arrived back in the first room on the 10th Floor and was reminded of the key hint.

It barely took her any time to figure it out after that.

At least she had left the key in the keyhole, so now she has to go back and get it.

Not that that will take her any time at all…

Back with the key she entered it into the correct keyhole and unlocked, not the door, but the portal hidden within.

A portal to the 6th room of the 10th Floor: The Blessed Field.

For both our sakes, I hope you're just as afraid of unicorns as the rest of the elves I've seen!