The Nature Deer stood near the treeline, observing the humans from a short distance. The only reason it could afford to do that and not go hide further in the foliage was due to its excellent camouflage.

  That and the invaders were too busy loudly arguing about leaving to notice.

  They didn't even spare a glance at vines quietly growing out of the ground and making a foliage shield in front of the water wall leading to the previous floor.

  Usually The Core wouldn't allow such behaviour as that might paint it as a dangerous dungeon for extermination, at least based on the manual, but it figured it might get away with it as long as it makes sure none escape.

  The temptation of more floors was too tantalizing for The Core to simply let this opportunity slip out of its reach.

  The Nature Deer felt smug about the invaders not noticing the creation of the barrier but The Core knew that this only worked out because no member of the group was currently facing the exit nor were they paying attention to it.

  "You're not the one who got his dick almost bitten off! " Yelled one with an obnoxiously shrill voice while weaving its arms around as if that would help it prove its point.

  The Core was a bit confused as it didn't recall its voice being so high pitched in the beginning.

  Maybe human voices just did that sometimes?

  "I get that you want to leave but offending Elder Wang isn't something everyone is stupid enough to do" A member of the group replied.

  It was the one who consistently defended the notion of advancing further into the dungeon giving The Nature Deer ample time to act.

  "Yeah you're really courting death with this one Senior Brother Li, didn't you see what happened to Xiao Huahua?" Another human added half-heartedly.

  "Fine! Then I'm going to leave and the rest of you can suffer alone! " The human with the changed voice yelled out one final time and turned around to face the exit.

  "Huh" was the sound it let out when it saw that the passage to the previous floor was mostly blocked by the still moving vines.

  The Nature Deer, upon noticing that the invaders knew about its operation, sped up the process of sealing the water wall. The vines now sprinting up rather than simply crawling.

  The Invaders weren't idle during this process, jumping to action the moment they saw what was happening but they noticed too late and focused on the wrong thing.

  Because of that while they were hacking and slashing at the vines there wasn't any decrease in the plant volume as it was continuously fed mana by the Nature Deer.

  The monster was quite content with standing still and letting them exhaust themselves even more, unfortunately an Invader turned around and spotted him before they could tire themselves out completely.

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  "Behind! Turn around everybody!" The individual shouted, causing the other members of the group to stop their futile attempts and notice the Nature Deer.

  "What is that!"

  "I have never encountered such a spiritual beast before!"

  "Everybody prepare-"

  There were murmurs in the group, and the invader who argued the loudest against leaving appeared to want to lead everybody to battle, fortunately it didn't get to finish the sentence and got attacked by the vines the Nature Deer controlled.

  When it stumbled to avoid the vines the Nature Deer lunged at it, headbutting the human causing a broken nose.

  The Core recalled that this human also breathed some Kiselina Shrooms before so that meant its respiratory system was truly being tested during this dungeon trip. Although not as much as the one who died via its lungs melting.

  The Nature Deer then tried to bite its neck but failed due to the human dodging just in time, although calling it failing backwards would be more accurate.

  The others weren't inactive either and started attacking the Nature Deer, fortunately the monster was nimble and retreated just in time, running back to the forest where his allies were stationed.

  The humans didn't dare to follow and instead chose to help free the tripped interloper's feet from the vines.

  A successful attempt given that the Nature Deer wasn't actively regenerating said vines.

  Although that triumph didn't make them happy as they soon realised that they still couldn't break through the foliage blocking their only exit as The Nature Deer was nearby and continuously remaking it.

  "... We're gonna have to kill the beast if we want to leave" The one who attempted to assume a leadership role during the fight stated the obvious.

  "But it's in the forest" Another one protested, seemingly afraid of venturing into the treeline.

  "What other choices do we have? Starve to death?" The leader snapped back

  The other group members seemed to agree with the sentence, some backing up the leader and condemning the protestor for cowardice while only one chose to keep quiet.

  Interestingly, the one with the changing voice also stood with the leader even though they were just arguing. The Core also noticed that its voice got less shrill.

  "Let's go after a short break" The leader announced as everybody in the group was tired since they were continuously exploring the dungeon and fighting monsters.

  Neither The Core nor The Nature Deer liked the sound of well rested invaders so the latter decided to attack again while the former started hurrying the monster up.

  The strategy the monster was employing was extremely safe with no obvious holes but it was also time consuming and The Core wanted to already be making new floors.

  The Nature Deer, being a dungeon monster, naturally needed to follow the dungeon master's command so in every subsequent skirmish it had with the group of Invaders it attacked more fiercely, dealing more injuries but sustaining more as well. Only retreating when not doing so could lead it to receiving a debilitating injury

  Fortunately The Core remembered it could cheat when it came to those invaders before The Nature Deer died from his wounds and healed him back to health.

  It wouldn't do so in the future as that would put into question its legitimacy as a dungeon but today was special as it was finally going to upgrade its halls.

  Besides, it's not like any of them were gonna spread the news.

  The Invaders seemed to lose fighting spirit when they saw The Nature Deer rapidly healing wounds and succumbed to their own injuries one by one soon after.

  [ 15/10 Invaders killed ]

  [ You are now able to further expand your dungeon ]

  The Core couldn't be happier.