Rilia began to explain, “If you’ve ever experienced an Arena dungeon, which it looks like you have, then Trial dungeons are similar. They lock up to three people inside a single room and give you a situation to solve for rewards.”

“Any examples?”

“There was one Trial dungeon we’ve managed to fully dissipate after twelve instances – a month each. Explorers were given symbols to study all around the area, and within the hour, they had to understand what those meant to alter the dungeon enough for the reward.”

Alta and Caesar shared a look. It seemed too complicated, and he wanted to have the Draugr King practice fighting with his Kelpie. Although this experience seemed like it would help, he wanted something more comprehensive.

“A Gauntlet dungeon mixes aspects of both Trial and Arena dungeons together.” Rilia placed her two hands on the table, moving them in front of each other as she talked. “Two may enter at a time before the portal closes. Instead of a singular room, there are several, and the entrants must clear each within a certain amount of time or they fail the challenge.”

“That seems good for us.”

“You may want to wait. There’s a certain level of danger because no portal opens until a room is cleared, and you receive nothing if you leave prematurely.” Another elder of the Pax Society spoke up. “If you take the Trial dungeon, Magister’s Journey, I can offer a third person to join your group. She’s quite reliable and will give you free rewards. Spellbooks can be quite valuable.” Rilia nodded her assent.

Alta smiled and shook her head. “Thanks, but we’d like to take the gamble.”

The elder looked a little dissatisfied, but also nodded to give his permission.

----

Three days later, in a solitary place with a few scant guards, Caesar and Alta arrived in a carriage.

Dungeon Detected!

Test of a Fallen King

[Type]: Gauntlet

[Level]: Peak Rank 2

An old man basking in the sun stood to greet them. His stance was steady, and his countenance remained immutable while the two approached.

She greeted him and gave the elder a little token from the Pax Society, which he clasped in his hands and nodded before returning it. A key slipped out from the man’s sleeve, and he inserted it into the door, revealing a small red portal about half the height of a man. As they entered, the man watched until their profiles disappeared, then locked the door after them.

----

Words. Recognizable written language on the stone castle walls immediately shone to Caesar like a lamp in the night. He gazed at the front of the entrance room and spotted three openings, also glowing a bright white, similar to the portal outside.

Instead of a puzzle, the first room provided entrants with knowledge about the gauntlet they were about to take. Three options were available, corresponding to each gate: the Path of the Scholar, the Path of the Knight, and the Path of the Sage.

“Which do you think will help?” he asked and summoned the Kelpie and the Draugr King to stand in the corner. The Ring of Disease Resistance shielded him from being easily contaminated, although Contagion Aura was more powerful than he thought. When in close proximity to the Draugr, it reduced his protections to almost nothing.

“Likely the Path of the Knight. Scholar likely involves more knowledge, while Sage involves more thinking. Both will probably have more puzzles, but since we do want combat, Knight makes the most sense.”

Caesar agreed, nodding his head in assent. But first he wanted to explore the entire room first to search for anything hidden. Perhaps a secret would be present at the start, and maybe even the dungeon’s core.

Other than the three gates taking up the entire space at the front, the sides and back contained bookcases. Most were empty, and the few who had books also had too much damage on them for him to read. Instead, only three covers stood out to him: blue, red, and green. Clearly representing each path, they seemingly provided hints as long as one could decipher the unknown language within.

“I suppose this can be considered a secret,” he said. “Alta, what can you understand?”

“A little. I would take more time reading this if we didn’t have a time limit.”

That’s right. Although this first room had no real challenge to solve, it indeed had a time limit. Failing to enter one of the portals would result in them failing the dungeon entirely with no rewards.

He brushed his fingers against the wall and shook his head. Perhaps a hidden door was present here, but it’d take too much time for him to painstakingly search all walls and bookcases. For now, the rewards were not the priority.

“It does look like the Path of the Knight contains horseback riding. There’s an image here portraying some form of a steed.” Taking up over half a page, the creature looked like a horse, but not quite: the animal was missing a mane and had three dull black eyes instead. Glowing markings marred the beast’s skin, and the artist noticeably used red ink for the underbelly while other parts were colored blue.

She continued to carry the book with them as the party walked inside the portal. In the front led the mounted Draugr king, eyes bright with hate for whatever lay ahead of them. It swung its greatmaul with ease, lightly clenching both hands on the glossy wood handle. A chunk of metal awaited the first enemy it saw.

As Caesar walked inside the portal, he immediately beheld the Draugr slamming its weapon into the heads of Mundane skeletons. It cantered around the room, sending skulls flying with a single sweep of its maul. More undead rushed out to confront the threat, appearing from the walls and underneath. Some even splattered over the floor, presumably dropping out of the ceiling in unknown places.

“Let it be,” he said as Alta motioned to help. “There’s a puzzle here and we have to solve it before the time limit is up. Yet those two should also have a chance.”

“It’ll indeed make good training. Can you spot the hidden walls?”

“With a little perception, yes. Memorize them, Alta. We’ll move in once it appears that the Draugr has not progressed for a long time.”

They watched it charge through a crowd of skeletons and smash into a wall, then slam its greatmaul repeatedly against the stone. Although it missed a few times, it had successfully noticed something suspicious about the high numbers of enemies there, and managed to push a button that stopped more skeletons from coming in.

“Good. It solved the puzzle.”

“It seems a lot smarter to me, compared to when I ran away from it.”

Indeed, Caesar thought. His ability provided all his summons with increased intelligence but could also remove negative mental effects like the rage of a Draugr, or the [Variance] talent of the Ever-Shifting Faces – which had never posed a problem.

Caesar and Alta fought off a few skeletons off to the sides and walked to the corners of the room, where they inspected them for any hidden walls. Nothing was found, so after the Draugr had finished closing all the invisible entrances and opened a portal forwards, they all moved ahead.

A pit of lava awaited them, molten sparks leaping from the churning red below. In the center was a bridge wide enough to just barely fit the Kelpie’s stride. While most horses were nervous, the steed remained uncaring about the danger.

Instead of speaking, Caesar simply stared at the Draugr and let it make the first move. The undead cocked its head sideways and swept its gaze around the room before nodding. It pressed its heels onto its steed, allowing it to walk forwards at a steady pace. Because his summons had an iron will, they all managed to make it to the end of the pathway without anything happening, thus easily opening another portal ahead.

“That’s the second room,” said Alta as she looked behind them at the portal back. It would take them out of the dungeon, though they did not have to use it. “I’ve studied the book some more and the next one requires a sacrifice of an item. A rank two artifact, specifically.”

“Have you found anything secret?”

“Not really.”

Caesar stopped to think about what items he didn’t need. The first thing that came to mind was the Orb of Divination, which was unnecessary to use the Divination spell Eye of the Storm, and was also likely trapped by the Order of the Fox. However, each artifact was worth a lot in the auction, and would sell for more if he offered the spellbook – Heaven Sees All – with the artifact. Thus, should he keep it for an emergency or use it now?

Death’s Clasp was next on the list. It seemed particularly dangerous to use, but he had plans for the Skeleton Mage once he found a suitable fusion candidate for it. Additionally, the Stygian Shards provided him with a similar.

He then looked at the two heads. The Bearer of Strength was much too powerful a card for him to simply give away, and the Bearer of Wisdom was an artifact that any real faction with ambition would give limbs to have in their arsenal.

If only that Fox Cult leader hadn’t burned herself and all her equipment, he thought. “I suppose we’ll have to throw away a Shimmerwisp Spider Silk Robe.”

“We can always make more,” Alta added.

With that decision made, they continued into the fourth room of the dungeon. Here, a small, simple pedestal sat in the middle with a golden hand on top. Its palms were splayed out, and on each finger’s knuckle, a ring embraced white bone.

The Draugr took the robe from Alta’s hands and gently laid it on top of the hand, which slowly closed into a fist and molded the artifact into a key-like shape, fitting the door in the front of the room. Taking it back, the Draugr trotted to the front and inserted it in, opening a white portal once again.

“Good job,” Caesar complimented it and continued deeper. The horse neighed softly in response.

The fifth room, smaller than the rest, contained a hulking giant sobbing quietly in the corner of the room. As the four entered, it looked up and grinned, showing sunken teeth. Standing up at twice the height of a man, chains rattled from beneath as it swung its arms at the group, upon which the Draugr charged forwards.

As they fought, Alta said, “I don’t think that thing can reach us. Its arms aren’t long enough.”

“So a normal person would finish this room by simply standing here? Until the portal opened?”

“Probably.” The Draugr and Kelpie worked together seamlessly as one. Hoofed legs moved in tandem with arms to bolster the power of each swing, crushing bone with each blow. The horse dashed away to dodge a swipe then charged back in to continue the assault. Over time, the giant started to cough and twitch. Plague had infected it, and the Kelpie heaved its rider off its back before pouring its Pestilential Breath over the chained creature’s wounds.

The Level 40 giant fell and roared in agony, its knees broken by the greatmaul. It bled black in more ways than one as it died.

He moved to loot it but Alta shook her head. “It’s dishonorable to disrespect the dead.”

Right, Caesar thought.

In the sixth room knelt a chained skeleton. Another puzzle, he thought, and watched as the Draugr smashed it into bits. It reformed, piece by piece, drifting back together erratically like smashed logs in a whirlpool.

As the Draugr moved to attack again, he called out, “Stop.” This puzzle required his own intervention, because it was unlikely to see the meaning of the room by itself.

“Mercy,” said Alta, pointing at a page within the book. “We probably need to show it mercy.”

After hearing those words, the skeleton stood up and slapped the Draugr with its bony hand. It then walked around and struck the entire party, stinging his cheek a little. Suspicious, he identified it and saw it now as a rank one monster. Somehow it had ranked up without them knowing, or perhaps hid its levels.

They simply waited there for a long time, unfazed by the slaps even as the skeleton began to reach higher and higher levels. It hurt, but he had to ignore it. Eventually, as the final Level 40 hit landed on the Draugr, a treasure chest appeared at the front instead of a portal.

“Aren’t there still more pages left in the book?” he asked, rubbing his cheeks.

“Indeed. Looks like we failed somewhere, and could not complete the test fully. But we still did well enough to receive a reward.”