Day 1 on the Fourth Floor

Crayford and his party descended to the fourth floor. Unlike, the previous floors, this floor was quite welcoming. It was well lit, there were no traps and no monsters – contrary to the party’s expectations. If one thought, the party would be relieved they would be dead wrong. The party was especially tense given how easy this floor appeared.

“Can there ever be such a floor in a dungeon?” Tulda asked as they advanced cautiously.

“No….there is no such thing as an easy floor…” Hem muttered.

“If the floor is easy then the Gatekeeper is always much harder.” Crayford added. “There is always a natural balance in this world….”

“Yeah…but Master, how come we haven’t tripped up any traps? Fought any monsters?” Claire asked in a complete carefree manner.

The question stumped Crayford. Floors can be easy….but they are never deserted.

“Maybe…we killed all the monsters from this floor previously when they attacked in waves?” Boze suggested.

The other four turned to look at him and began laughing. He too began laughing with them – it was a joke.

***

Day 3 on the Fourth Floor

Crayford’s party was still roaming around on the fourth floor.

The previous light mood that hung around them had now disappeared. The five were weary and tired. Just how big was this floor?

Crayford had begun mapping the floor on a large parchment. He was a genius but even a genius can’t remember it all. He was nearing the limits of his great memory and needed to start taking notes.

“See….there is no such thing as an easy floor….” Crayford said as he began drawing thin lines representing the labyrinth and the path they were taking.

“Agreed Master. This floor may have no traps or monsters but the size of this floor is atrocious. One can get lost in here forever.” Claire said as she gloomily looked down at what Crayford was drawing. She was completely bored with the lack of excitement.

“Don’t worry, I’ll get us out of here in jiffy.” Crayford assured her.

***

Day 5 on the Fourth Floor

“This doesn’t make sense…” Crayford said as he stared at his parchment with markings of the labyrinth.

There was a dull and gloomy air that hung about the party. So far, they have spent five days on the fourth floor exploring every nook and cranny of the floor.

At first they thought, they would be able to be able to map out the entire floor. However, on the fourth day they rushed across the maze at the their top speed….only to realize it encompassed a limitless area. This made mapping the labyrinth unviable.

On the fifth day, Crayford noticed that when they took the path back….nothing was the same. Paths which should have existed no longer existed and walls appeared where there should have been paths.

“It can’t be….” Crayford reached a sudden realization.

“Master?” Claire asked with a hint of excitement – she knew Crayford had figured out something.

“There is a possibility this infinite labyrinth is nothing but an illusion.” Crayford revealed his discovery.

“An illusion?” The other four asked in unison.

“Are we dreaming this?” Tulda asks.

“Have we been hypnotized?” Hem asked the next question.

“No we are definitely awake…not under anyone’s control or influence.” Crayford added quickly. “It appears these walls have been moving about….”

“You mean the labyrinth has been changing as we explored it?” Boze asked in shock. None of them had noticed this – they didn’t hear or feel anything.

“Then there is a really simple way around this….” Claire said happily. The next moment, she landed a punch on the wall, breaking it instantly. “We need to simply tear down the walls…”

The other four didn’t know what to say when it came to her using brute force.

Crayford nodded in agreement – that was one way to go about it….

***

Day 6 on the Fourth Floor

“Impossible….” Crayford muttered as Tulda broke down the last wall on the floor.

Crayford’s hypothesis regarding the fake walls was correct.

After spending a day knocking down walls, the true size of the fourth floor was revealed. However, no exit appeared other than the one which connected them to the floor above.

The true walls of the dungeon could not be broken down, no matter how much they attacked. So Crayford’s party didn’t bother destroying them – it could cause the floor to collapse or worse the dungeon to implode.

The party of five now began examining the walls very carefully, hoping to discover a false floor switch or a lever hidden from their sight.

***

Day 14 on the Fourth Floor

Currently, the scene can be described as follows: Tulda is going ripping out his hair in frustration and Hem and Boze are trying to console him.

Crayford and Claire both have massive panda eyes. It wasn’t just them but the other three warriors had massive eye bags due to sleep deprivation. They spent over a week looking for the secret lever or hidden exit to the floor but to no avail. They searched every inch of the fourth floor and found nothing.

“Could this be it?” Claire asked. “This dungeon was only four floor deep?”

“Don’t be silly.” Crayford snapped in irritation. Not being able to find the exit had been the hardest on him. Given his pride as a genius and know-it-all, he could not accept that there was no floor below this. Who has ever heard of a monster dungeon with only four floors?

“I WANT TO GET OUT OF HERE!!!” Tulda was crying out loud. “THIS IS SO BORING. I SLEEP AND I SEE THE WALL. I SLEEP AND I SEE THE FLOOR. THAT IS ALL I SEE….” He had the lowest tolerance to the nothing-to-do-all-day phenomena.

While shouting out in frustration, Tulda began waving his massive axe around in frustration. One such particular blow was strong enough to send cracks across the floor.

Crayford who had been staring at Tulda with pity, suddenly gained a flash of inspiration.

“Tulda…do that again.” Crayford spoke in a crazed an excited manner.

The four stopped doing whatever they were doing and they turned slowly towards Crayford.

“Do what?” Tulda asked. He didn’t know what he did.

“Hit the floor!” Crayford screamed out excitedly as though he was certain he found the answer. He hadn’t been this excited in a long time. Originally, he had thought this would be another boring dungeon. However, as of this moment, Crayford was truly happy with the puzzles this dungeon had been throwing at him.

Boze and Hem immediately understood what Crayford was implying – the floor itself could be false. They took out their weapons and began attacking the floor. Claire and Tulda joined in.

After a few minutes of attacking, massive craters were spread across the floor connected by jagged lines like those on a shattered glass.

“Master are you sure about this?” Claire asked as she landed another powerful blow to the floor, which threw up nearly a ton of dirt.

“Tsk…Looks like I don’t have an option.” Crayford muttered.

“Step back.” Crayford said as he took out what looked like ‘something similar to a Pile Bunker from Arifureta’ from thin air. The other four were quick to leave their spots the moment they recognized the weapon Crayford pulled out.

Crayford charged the weapon for two minutes and then clicked a tiny button on the side of the weapon with his index finger. He aimed precisely to the most damaged area of the floor.

*SWISSSH!!!*

A massive black projectile rushed out of the ‘Pile Bunker’. Its destruction force was incomparable to the previous attacks of the warriors and Claire. A huge volume of earth was thrown up into the air, followed by an earth quake like shaking.

The entire floor roared loudly as the projectile hit the ground. Then like shattered glass, crevices began forming along the impact site and spreading across the floor.

“We did it!” Claire squealed happily as the crevices rapidly expanded.

The next moment, the ground beneath them began collapsing.

The five hopped from one falling piece to another, avoiding falling with the rubble…

“Uh oh…” Boze said as he stared beneath them. There was an infinitely dark abyss like hole.

Technically, they did break out of the nightmare-infinite-labyrinth like fourth floor. However, that just coincidentally happened to be located above the massive abyss like hole located on the fifth floor.

So now Crayford and his party were falling into (and most likely past) the fifth floor…at an accelerating rate…with rubble all around them and headed straight for what appeared to be an abyss.

***

*Rumble* Rumble* Rumble*

Sora looked at the ceiling. “Looks like they finally figured it out…but hope they don’t become too careless…because there is nothing beneath them to stop their fall.”

If anyone saw Sora, then they could have sworn they saw a smiling skeleton. He was certainly enjoying his role a Gatekeeper - somehow this role complemented his personality more than he knew he would willingly accept.

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Author's Note:

1. Subchapters needs titles. Please feel free to to suggest.

2. Happy reading.