The second floor didn't look any different from the first floor. The same overgrown stone walls. The same blue torches.

Crear silently tapped the scribbles on the right pillar before checking the corridor for traps.

Challengers: 4

Difficulty: Medium

The traps were slightly better, now partially hidden by the moss and lichen. Though the triggers were still laughably easy to find. The standard of the traps was low. Arrows and pitfalls.

The first room they found was inhabited by five foxes, quickly killed by Roric, and had exactly one other exit. As did the other 20 rooms they went through before they came to a room without another exit. A tori stood where a path should've been. But instead, there was only a wall. There was no trigger anywhere. Not on the foxes, not the pillars, not on any of the walls.

"I don't like this one bit," said Lydia as she stared at the tori in front of them. "First we have vanishing paths, now we have an obviously closed one."

And I don't like that we're missing those bats. With all their eyes fixed on the closed tori or the map drawn by Thira, Crear slunk back down the corridor and into the previous room.

"Wasn't the way back to the left?" Crear pushed his blindfold up, rubbed his eyes and squinted against the bright light, before putting the blindfold back into place. "There are two exits. One straight ahead, one to the right. Farting trolls soup!"

He raced back, snatched the map out of Rorics hands and returned. The map clearly showed that they had come from the left side. Where there was no Spirits forsaken tori! Instead, they now had two new options.

"What is wrong with you! Eh..." The clatter behind him came to a sudden stop.

"We might have a problem," said Crear. "That is where we came from," he pointed at the left wall, "and that is where we can go." His hand moved to the two new corridors.

"How did you notice that?" whispered Lydia.

"Where do we go now?" asked Crear instead.

"Uhm... we go straight."

"Can I have my map back, please?" Thira stretched her hand towards the piece of paper.

"Make a new map. Starting point is that last room with the closed tori." Crear rolled the map up and threw it at her, walking down the corridor straight ahead after putting a mark in front of each tori.

"Huh? Why? I mean, I can. I have enough paper with me. But why?" Her question was left unanswered, Crear already halfway through the corridor.

The next room was back to one other exit. As were the next ten, before they stood back in front of the closed tori. This time, though, from a different side.

"I don't understand this!" cried Lydia.

"Never been in a maze, eh?" retorted Crear and stole the two maps from Thira, spreading them on the floor next to each other.

"We always gave them a wide berth. Mazes and labyrinths come with traps. And since none of us are good at finding and disabling traps, we avoided such dungeons," explained Thira helpfully. "What are you doing?"

Pulling a piece of paper from his pack and sketching the first map onto it, then the second on top of it, he said: "This is more a labyrinth than a maze. Doesn't matter what path we pick. We always end up in this room." Three rooms were marked with a small x.

"What's that for?" asked Thira again.

"We walked through these rooms twice." He tapped the paper thoughtfully. "Could be we get a completely different route. Or we pass through the old rooms. But why? It doesn't make sense..."

The sudden silence made him look up. All three stared at him.

"Make a new map." Pushing the two maps back at Thira and stowing his own, Crear walked back the corridor and picked a random path without waiting for them to catch up.

"Wait for us!" screamed Thira, her pack horse was huffing from the short sprint. "That was amazing! How did you think of overlapping the maps? Is it something normally done in labyrinths? How many labyrinth dungeons did you go through? Where are they?"

It's common knowledge for burglars, if they want to find hidden rooms, thought Crear, disabling a trap before making way for Roric to clean up the seven foxes in the room ahead. Their dead bodies vanished as all their predecessors. Another thing I don't like about this dungeon. The corpses vanish immediately. No chance to gather pelts, magical shards or some such. Normally, they stay where they are until the group has either left the room or has gone to the next floor.

They were back in the last room, with the closed tori.

This doesn't make sense, - "This doesn't make any sense," echoed Thira his unspoken thoughts. "I've read about labyrinths and mazes. They always have an exit."

"Then we must be missing something," added Lydia with a strained voice.

"Can't we just... blast it open?" Roric hopefully scratched at the stones with his sword.

Dumbass, thought Crear.

"Let's take a short break before we decide what to do next. We've been running in circles for... however long we've been on the second floor," declared Lydia.

Roric dropped his sword. Sighing disappointed, he set the wooden construct with Thira on the ground.

Crear shook his head at the sight. I don't understand the use of this contraption. Would be easier if she just walked like normal people. Sorcerers. Leaning on the wall, he snacked on a piece of the cooked deer from... the day before yesterday? Three days ago? Dungeons always messed with his sense of time.

"Say, did the other fox statues have eyes?" asked Thira between bites of dried fruit.

"What do you mean eyes? Of course they had eyes. Who would make a statue without eyes? They were green. Right, Crear?" said Lydia promptly.

"First floor was green. Second floor was red," mumbled Crear.

"Well, these two have no eyes. No, that's not true. They have holes where the eyes should be. But they are empty."

"Not only an ever-changing maze, but a treasure hunt in an ever-changing maze," said Crear drily. Sarcasm dripped from his words.

"Can't we just use the eyes of another statue?" asked Roric, stepping closer to the statues to the only open exit.

""No!"" screamed Thira and Lydia at the same time.

Roric scratched his head sheepishly.

How in the Spirits name did they manage to get to C-rank?

"I know you don't like dungeon theory, Roric. But these are the basics! Do not remove anything from its spot unless you are absolutely sure it won't trigger a trap." Thira stared at the big man with serious eyes. "Treasure chests and monsters are excluded."

"We could also be missing something else. A condition, like exploring everything, or killing every monster," added Lydia.

"Then we would have to return to the first floor and kill the missing bats - which is no longer possible," mumbled Crear.

"Let's take a break, then. This room is as good as any and it's easy to defend. We'll have three watches. With how we can't tell the time down here, I would say you wake up the next person before you fall asleep. Who wants the first watch?" Lydia looked at the two men.

"I'll take the last watch." - "Last watch." Volunteered both Crear and Roric. They briefly glared at each other.

"Then Roric takes first watch, I take second and Crear the last watch? We'll be switching around for the next break."

Grumbling, Roric grabbed his sword and shield, settling down in front of the tori.

With a smirk, Crear pulled a shawl around his shoulders and sat down against a wall for a nap.

Lydia curled up next to Thira, her spear right next to her.

Lydia woke to the familiar presence of Rorics shaking her awake, although her hand still jerked towards her spear.

"Time to switch?" she mumbled sleepily.

"Yes." The whisper rumbled in his chest.

"Thanks." Crawling to her knees, she grabbed her spear and stood up. Yawning, she moved down the corridor to relieve herself, before she returned to take up Rorics previous spot in front of the tori. Behind her, she could hear Roric flop into her bedroll. Within heartbeats he was snoring.

With another yawn, she stretched her arms and legs. She rolled her shoulders and walked a few steps, trying to wake up her body.

Then she settled in to wait. Night watch was boring but necessary. But she had been in enough dungeons where they had been ambushed during a break. With how this dungeon was turning out, she wasn't going to risk their lives on carelessness.

At least Crear seemed equally suspicious of this dungeon.

I still don't know what to make of him. What do we even know about him? He seems to be a good shot with his bow. At least that deer he brought back had only one arrow wound. He can find traps and disable them. But to what extent? Those traps were so easy, they could've been found by a child! He's an unsocial guy, doesn't talk much, picks on Roric and wears a blindfold - while not being blind.

He has some kind of history with the Guild Master. Maybe I could ask one of the receptionists? Maria might know something. Or the barkeeper. He seems to know something, too.

If rumors are to be believed, he's responsible for the failure of the parties he joined. Then again, according to Maria, those parties wouldn't have made it past the third floor of the Silkhook Dungeon anyway. But I can't understand why they kicked him out. Because he was needling them? Or because he doesn't speak up when he seems to know something?

I just wished he would speak up a bit more! Should I talk to him about it? Or is it too soon?

And that blindfold! Why is he even wearing it? It's maddening! I can't even read his face that way!

She sighed silently, walking circles in front of the tori to stay awake.

Think differently. Maybe his snark and silence is a defensive mechanism, same as Thira's chatter whenever we had someone else join the party. Defensive reactions, I can understand, what with all the adventurers that have kicked him out of their parties and talk bad about him. Then what can I do to make this party more comfortable for him? Show him that he can at least trust us to listen to his suspicions about this place, instead of hoarding them behind that thrice-damned blindfold of his!

Stop it, Lydia. No cursing. You could just ask him. It did work when he inspected the wall where the tori should've been. It could work again.

"You're wearing a hole in the floor," mumbled a voice.

Lydia whirled around, but there was no one. Thira and Roric were still in the corner, sleeping. Crear still sat against the wall in the same position he had had during her entire watch. No one was down the corridor.

Then Crear started moving, stretching and working the kinks out of his neck.

"You can go back to sleep. I'm not yet tired," she tried it with a winning smile.

"I can't believe they can sleep through you wearing a hole in the floor. See there? It's already a little lower than the rest of the floor." He pointed at a spot on the ground. Lydia leaned down to take a closer look, but couldn't find a difference.

"But there is no difference?" she asked, uncertain.

"'course not. It's stone, dummy. I'll take over in a moment." He swiftly went down the corridor and around the corner.

That's your chance, Lydia! Ask him!

He returned shortly.

"I..." she started, then stopped again, watching as he strung his bow and tested the tension, ignoring her. What if he laughed at her ridiculous suspicions about this dungeon.

"You going to sleep or not?" came his mumbled question. He took up position under the tori, leaning against one of the pillars.

"I... was wondering..."

"Bad idea."

"Huh?" she tilted her head. Thira rolled over in her sleep. Cringing, Lydia walked over to the tori, leaning on the other side. "What is a bad idea?"

Crear didn't answer. With his blindfold, it was impossible to see what he was looking at.

"This dungeon is strange. Blocking paths and making the traps so obvious even a child could find them," started Lydia.

"Hmm..." was his only answer.

"What do you think about this dungeon? I know you have your own suspicions. Tell me? Then I can make a better plan for us to go through this dungeon."

His head moved slightly, putting her more into the center of his field of view - if she wanted to praise herself. Or his neck had gone stiff. It felt like he regarded her silently, before his head moved a little more to have their camping room in view. Before turning back to watching the corridor.

The silence stretched into eternity.

Guess he isn't going to tell me anything. What a bummer.

"Did you notice the scribbles at the entrance tori in the very first room and the first tori on the second floor?"

"There were scribbles?" She hadn't seen anything on the tori, except for the dungeon's name, written big and prominently on the cross-beam.

"There were scribbles. Challengers: 4. Starting difficulty: Easy. On the right pillar. The second floor mentioned medium difficulty. Similar to what is written on the right pillar of this tori." His voice was steady. "This here says: Challengers: 4. Next difficulty: Undecided."

Lydia looked at the uncaring person next to her, not believing this one bit. He had pulled a joke on her already. This could be another one.

But her curiosity won out. She hurried to the tori as quietly as possible, searching the pillars and finding the exact scribbling he had just talked about. Returning to the corridor, she asked: "Was there anything written on the tori between here and the start?"

"Nothing," was the short answer.

"Please tell me about something like that sooner," smiled Lydia, silently wishing to wring his neck for not speaking up. "What else did you find out? Any ideas how we can deal with those vanishing paths or this closed tori? I really want to know where they lead to."