"Stubborn little goblin," muttered Lydia and polished her spear during the first watch. "Commendable but idiotic. Doesn't he know to ask for a break when he's too weak to even walk? Don't think I didn't notice it!"

No one was awake to answer her.

"And he needs a bath. He stinks. What did he do? Drink alcohol? For that he's much too lucid. And where would he even get the stuff? ... Unless he carried it all the way here?" An infuriating person, but he did navigate them through the few traps on the fourth floor without them getting a single scratch. "But it is strange. Compared to the third floor, the second and fourth floor feel like they are littered with traps. Sure, we only had five or so this time around, but the third floor had only two! And..."

Lydia spread the maps in front of her.

"The second floor was a long labyrinth. The third floor was a downgrade from there. The blue stones were also much easier to find. And this fourth floor... practically a straight line. Few forks. And not very long. Someone must be watching us an actively changing the dungeon. But why?"

The torches flickered eerily in answer.

"But he's not as bad off as I thought. The wound must be healing better than Thira said it would. He is good at finding traps. And he knows much about dungeons. Specially labyrinths and traps, where we know nothing. Wish he would join us permanently. But after what Roric pulled? The chances that he would want to stay are as high as a snowflakes chance in the desert. Besides, it was a temporary party. And he still doesn't know about Thira... We have to tell him before asking, but..." she sighed. "Face it, Lydia. If we tell him, he will never join. Hey, Roric. Time to switch."

The big oaf grumbled and she shook his shoulder a bit harder. "Roric!"

"'m 'wake." He rubbed his eyes and looked around, before crawling out of his bedroll. "I'm awake," he said more coherently. "How long?"

"A few bells, maybe? Would have to buy one of those timetrackers that work in a dungeon to know for sure."

"Expensive," he shuddered.

"An investment at C-rank, but not that necessary," quoted Lydia the guild worker that had done their C-rank tests.

"Yeah..." Roric grumbled, stretched, then walked down the stairs to relieve himself.

"One of the good things about dungeons: the piss vanishes even quicker than corpses." Lydia turned around at the sound to look at Crear's crooked smile.

"You're awake? You should get some more rest."

"Nah. 'm fine." Using the wall, he pulled himself onto his wobbling feet. "See? Good as new. Can we go now?"

"No."

He shrugged and hobbled past her.

When did he put on his backpack? wondered Lydia briefly. "Wait!"

With two quick steps she was next to him and grabbed his arm. "Roric, grab him! Don't let him go!"

Crear turned his head towards her, staring straight at her. A cold shiver ran down her spine. She felt like a rabbit in front of a wolf. "Let. Go."

Her fingers loosened involuntarily. Crear stared at Roric next, until the man stepped aside with a heavy gulp.

They still stood frozen when he had disappeared.

"Uh... did something happen? I felt a powerful presence..." Thira rubbed at her eyes. Her question ripped them out of their stupor.

"Spirits shorn paws! What was that?!" screamed Lydia. "Roric, you pack up, I'll go after him!"

What in the Spirits name was that? It felt like looking at a vicious beast! I'm still trembling... She was down the stairs within seconds and stumbled to a stop in front of the three tori.

Sorcerers Challenge 0/2

Warriors Challenge 0/1

Rangers Challenge 1/1

The last tori was closed off.

"Troll farting little goblin!"

"What's wrong, Lydia?" Roric tumbled down the stairs behind her.

"We have... a problem..." huffed Lydia and pointed at the tori. "Our ranger fled that way-"

[Greetings, challengers,] a fox appeared in the middle of the room. With a furious scream, Lydia ran it through with her spear.

[Oh, dear me. You're a lively one, huh? It's been a while since someone tried to kill me.] The fox turned into mist and reappeared on top of a tori. [Let me explain my little game to you. There are three paths before you. The warriors path can be challenged by only one person. The sorcerers path... well, due to your circumstances, I'll allow two of you to enter it. But beware, only magic can get you through this path. The boy already took the rangers path, so that one's out.]

"Get down here!" screamed Lydia, thrashing around as Roric kept her from running at the fox again. Though he didn't look like the epitome of happiness either.

[The three paths all lead into the same final room. If your performance is bad, you'll have to solve one riddle per path in the final room to finish this game and be able to leave the dungeon.]

"Can I go straight to solving the riddle?" asked Thira.

[That would be against the spirit of the challenge, little girl.] The fox seemed to grow. It's eyes started glowing ominously. [Now then, what will it be? Choose your path and challenge yourselves, mortals! Mwahaha!]

And it was gone.

"Let me kill it!" screamed Lydia, fighting against Roric.

"Calm down, Lydia!" shouted Roric, grappling with her until she stilled.

"You can't kill it. It must be the dungeon master. You would have to destroy the whole dungeon if you wanted to kill it," explained Thira. Then added: "And then we would get hunted down by the adventurers guild for destroying a dungeon."

"It kidnapped Crear! Who knows where he's stumbling around right now!"

"If we finish our challenges fast enough, maybe we can help with his," continued Thira, but she wasn't so sure about it herself.

The tension drained out of Lydia's shoulders.

"Calmed down again?" asked Roric concerned.

"I... guess... - You're right, Thira. The faster we finish this, the faster we can help him. Do you want to do the fighters challenge or help Thira with the sorcerers challenge, Roric?"

"The... nah. I'll help Thira." Roric shook his head and handed a backpack over to her. "See you on the other side."

With a wave of his hand, he went down the Sorcerers Challenge. The entrance was replaced by a stone wall. The number on the tori changed from 0/2 to 2/2.

"I still don't like it..." but do I have a choice?

Pulling the backpack over her shoulders, Lydia raised her spear in a defensive position and walked through the tori in the middle. A low rumble made her whirl back. A stone wall had closed off her path of retreat.

"Fine." Turning forward again, she regarded the room before her. A wide, long room. Two lines of red pillars rose to the ceiling and stretched into the distance. Fox statues were set into the walls at regular intervals. Some sitting, some lounging and every one of them was smirking.

Hefting her spear, she took the only possible way: forward.

The door closed behind them, leaving Thira with a sinking feeling in her stomach. A sorcerers challenge... when I'm not even that good at magic! I can barely make a ball of water and a water arrow. I don't know any shield spells nor healing! How am I supposed to get through this?!

"Looks like a hall. Any guesses what the challenge will be like?" asked Roric.

Thira laughed weakly. "Your guess is as good as mine. Some fighting, probably."

"If it's fighting, I can at least help you. Ready?"

"Hah, no. But go on anyways." She conjured a water arrow and held it ready to shoot at anything that might be hostile, as Roric started to walk down the hall.

It was pure chance that Thira looked back after an hour to check for enemies.

"What in the Spirits names?!" she exclaimed.

Roric glanced back at her and stopped abruptly.

Behind them was the door, as if they had never left it.

"How can this be? We should've reached the other side of the hall already!"

"This... this... I don't understand this," wailed Thira.

Lydia killed another one of the bears running at her, then jumped over a swiping paw. Using the weight of the dead bear, she let herself be pulled through the air. At the highest point, she ripped her spear out of the corpse and stabbed it through another bears head. Her feet kicked at fourth, propelling her out of the deadly cluster.

Her feet touched the ground once more and carried her behind a pillar. Five dead, seven to go.

Catching her breath, she charged out of hiding to slash at her next enemy, but stopped short. They were gone. Only the five corpses littered the ground.

Lydia backed up to the nearest wall and got into a defensive stance. Her eyes flitted across the hall. Where did they go?

Between one blink and the next, she was back at the start. The corpses were gone, too.

"By the spirits shorn paws! Not again!" screamed Lydia.

It was the second time she had been returned to the start of the hall.

Crear leaned against the door - well, what should've been the door - and took deep, calming breaths. His leg was on fire again from the short walk down the stairs.

After what felt like an eternity, he dabbed the sweat from his forehead and looked at his surroundings. A hall. Two rows of red pillars went down on each side, with a red runner between them. The end of the hall was too far away to see it. Between the pillars and the walls was nothing with a width of maybe four paces. Fox statues sat inside the wall at regular intervals, either sitting or lounging. All smirking.

Nothing had moved during his break. No creature had appeared to attack him.

"Very nice. But what has anything of that to do with a ranger? No traps? No flying enemies?" He turned around to look at the sealed door behind him and started to laugh.

A red tori, same as everywhere in this dungeon. On the cross beam were white letters: Left is Right, Front is Back, Up is Down.

"Your riddles are really bad! Say, is it the same for everyone?"

[I'll have you know that my riddles are the best,] sniffed the fox.

"Yeah, yeah," waving it away, he walked into the wall.

The fox appeared in front of Thira and Roric. [One challenger has finished their path. You can now choose between finishing your challenge or taking up a riddle,] it grumbled.

"The riddle!" blubbered Thira immediately.

[Then turn around and walk through the wall.] With a vicious grin, the fox was gone.

"Hey!" But Rorics shout went unanswered.

"Why through the wall?" Thira sniveled and rubbed at her teary eyes.

Roric turned around and they both stared at the closed tori.

"Say... what is that on the cross beam?" he asked silently.

Thira blinked, rubbed the tears from her eyes and read aloud: "Left is right, Up is Down, Front is Back. What does... it... That's not fair!"

She balled her hands and hit them onto Roric's shoulders.

"Hey! Ouch! Thira, stop it!"

"That riddle up there! It's the key to get out of here! Sorcerers Challenge my ass!"

Roric sighed. "Spell it out for me, please?"

"There! It says Front is Back. Front. Is. Back. In other words, go back to reach the front of this hall."

"Through a solid stone wall?"

"If we have to."

"If I hit my head, it's your fault," said Roric with a suffering tone. He stretched his hands forward, closed his eyes tightly and walked towards the stone wall.

Thira closed her eyes as well. Hope it works.