"Hey Phil?"

"Hmm?"

"I was thinking after I finish my contract here of opening up a farm. Yeah, I could have magical farm animals you know? Like a moon rooster or an earth pig. Maybe a half-dragon, half-carp. What do you think?"

...

"I think that's a terrible idea."

"Why's that?"

"Because it's all fun and games until a drought happens and you're faced with eating one of your friends. I pity the fool who tries to eat a half-dragon anything."

--Conversation between two Guards, Lenorian Dungeon. AC 1622.

Luna and I wake up and prepare to head out. We grab some breakfast and I ask her about the next level.

"I thought I told you? All even numbered levels are puzzles or mazes or something non combat related. We're going into level four now, so it should be a series of obstacles and puzzles."

I nod around a bite of crab, "Yeah, but that was before wasn't it? With all these changes, who knows what we might face."

Her usual jovial tone takes on a shade of worry, "You're right. But we practiced alot yesterday didn't we? And I won't freeze up again! Not anymore!"

I rush to reassure her, patting her arm. "I'm not worried about you. I'm just worried about what's going on in this dungeon. I don't like the fact that we're being faced with something completely new that no one has ever seen before."

She laughs, "Well worst case scenario we can always sic the hypnofrog on the dungeon! Hahaha...." We laugh, and then gradually trail off as we nervously glance at the hole in the wall.

"Actually, now that I think about it, how about we not talk about it where it might hear?" she says.

"I think that's a good plan."

We finish our meal and then taking my arm, Luna says "Level 4 - [Recall]."

As our surroundings change, I remember something I was wondering about. "Hey Luna, what's with that [Recall] skill?"

"Oh, it's something that all [dungeon] monsters have. It lets us go to floors we've cleared before and take someone along with us."

"What about me? I don't remember getting the floor token for this level."

She blushes saying, "when you were unconscious a pedestal arose. I was able to grab the token for you and applied it while you were knocked out."

I acknowledge her words and then look around to assess the area. The plain rough hewn stone walls of the dungeon are replaced with fashioned stone. I'm able to see the massive slabs fashioned into squares and mortared together. I walk up to a block and place my claw on the wall.

"This is new."

"Yep! I understand that as you go further down the [dungeon] spends more and more time and effort on making the surroundings comfortable and more aesthetic. Todd said it's to lure people into a false sense of security before it attacks."

I remove my claw from the wall and assess the encircling area. In front of us, there are two doors. One door has what looks to be a coin engraved into the panel with a crab embossed on it's surface, and the other has what seems to be a fish pushing a boulder up a hill. The second image is hard to explain, yet somehow in pictographic form, wavy lines of mental energy is depicted emanating from a fish that is moving a rock. It's quite bizarre. I turn to Luna.

"Are you familiar with this?"

"No... these choices are new as well. Maybe we should just pick one and go with it? If everything I know is wrong, then I don't want to fall into the trap of assuming I know what's best."

I acknowledge her point and consider the two options. "Well which one do you want to go with?"

She looks at the two doors and says, "I think I'd rather go with the door on the left, the fish one. Maybe it's testing how strong you can think? I don't know, but I consider myself a pretty strong thinker. And I believe you are as well."

That seems as good a reason as any so I walk towards the door with the fish. Luna is on my back and she reaches in front of me, touching it with her arm. She disappears in a flash of light and I'm stunned for a moment, standing there in shock. Quickly, I reach out to touch the door as well and nothing happens. No flash, no transportation. I'm still in the hallway with the two doors.

Maybe the dungeon will only let one person in a room?

Going along with that thought, I move to the other door. Internally, I'm a little partial to this door anyway. Afterall, it has a crab on it, so it can't be that bad right? I touch the door and vanish in a cloud of light.

As my vision clears, I see that I'm out of the water again. A red carpet lays around the room and tables fill the area. A quick survey reveals games of chance, brightly spinning wheels of various makes, models and colors. As I'm standing there shocked, trying to figure out where the danger will come from, a human walks up to me. It's wearing a black suit, neatly dressed with a half mask covering it's face. The mask doesn't fit perfectly however, and I can see what it is trying to cover up. Half of it's face is rotting away and as I raise my claws for combat I notice that the thing isn't breathing.

I activate mana reinforcement and prepare for battle as it says, "Hello sir, and welcome to the Lucky Crab. I'll be your host, construct 8̵5̸21."

My arms still raised, my brain struggles to deal with this unexpected scenario. Deciding to roll along with it, I reply, "Er... It's good to be here? Uhm, if you're the host... how do I leave here?"

It straightens up from it's bow and proceeds to hand me a small stack of circular coins. He points at the various games and devices around the area and says, "Well it's easy sir. All you need to do is double your starting amount of funds and you can buy your way to the next level."

I nod and gather the coins up in my hand. Cautiously, I ask, "And if I lose all the coins?"

The half of it's mouth I can see lifts up in a grin that reveals jagged fangs. It's voice gets deep and guttural as it says, "Well then it would appear Crab will be on the menu tonight." His words send a shudder through my shell and I turn on [mana sense] to get an idea of his power. The light shines brighter than the sphinx from earlier. I don't think I have a crab's chance in the desert to beat him with the amount of mana coursing through his form.

I shudder and look around. I have no idea what to play.

Meanwhile, Luna appears in a shadowed area, light flickering weakly from an indistinct source. She's still underwater, yet she can hardly see two feet in front of her. Sending out a mana ping reveals nothing of import and the range of her senses don't reveal any exterior walls. She calls out for Crabby, but it appears that she's alone here. It doesn't seem as if he made it through.

"Hello? Is anyone there?"

Only silence answers her timid call and she decides to take a step forward. As she does, an indistinct pressure begins to build... both on her body and her mind. It doesn't seem like much, so she takes another step. The pressure doubles, and she can make out a doorway in front of her. There's no directions or input from anything to indicate what she should be doing. For lack of a better plan, she takes another step, and the pressure doubles.

She's beginning to feel it now, and cool water oozes from her body under the increased strain. She's about four steps away from the door. She doesn't know if she can make it. She takes another step.

Meanwhile, I tell the dealer I'd like to raise. The host has explained the rules of a game called poker and I'm already down a hand. There is an element of luck to this game surely, but there's also strategy and I'm having a tough time of it. I look at my remaining coins and decide that after this hand I'm going to try something else.

Over in the other trial, Luna takes another step. As the pressure increases she begins to hear something chittering in the dark... little whispers flickering at the edges of her awareness.

"You are nothing. The crab has left you to die. Your future is here, with us, in the shadows. You know what I say to be true. Join us, join your brethren in death."

Luna shakes her head in denial, taking another step. As her arm touches the ground, the pressure doubles and she's crushed to the floor. She can barely breathe, the weight of the recriminations flowing ever faster.

"You left him to die. You left one of your few friends to die. What does that make you? That makes you worse then a coward. That makes you a traitor."

I look around to the shining lights, to the multifaceted blinking machines and options available. I have enough coins for one more bet. I finally decide to put it all on a single game where a ball falls onto a spinning wheel. You have to guess which number is the one that the ball is going to land on.

I take a seat and place my remaining coins on three. Three is a good number. It's the number of the gods I've met and the number of me and my two friends. I'm nearly twitching from nerves as the monster in front of me spins the wheel and presses a button. The ball falls down onto the wheel in front of me. It bounces around the pit faster and faster before beginning to slow.

"Come on... come on!!!"

The construct replies, "The ball has landed on fourty two."

I look up in horror as the creature removes it's mask. The other side of it's face is a grinning skull, the flesh rotting where it touches the blackened bone. A rancid tongue reaches out of it's mouth, the horrid thing falling down to chin height as it licks it's lips in anticipation. I barely see it move before I'm spinning away, dragged by [Luck of the Crab]. It looks down at me, then at it's hand, as if it's shocked by the initial failure.

I'm already dodging, scrambling to find some cover or a door, anything that might help. As it closes in on me, it freezes. It then straightens up perfectly, as if nothing had happened and resumes a normal tone of voice. It says, "The casino regrets to inform you that your teammate has passed the trial. Please exit out the door to your right to join her."

A wave of it's arm materializes a door out of the floor and I rush to get through. I only hope that Luna is alright.

A few minutes before.

Luna struggles, trying to summon the will, the strength, the anything to move just a single step more and touch the door leading out. Yet nothing she does can stop the weight of the pressure on her body. As her consciousness fades, she tries [Leg Substitution], yet the skill fails to activate. She reaches in her mind for the spatial bag. Her efforts are stymied once more. The shadows whisper,

"See? You are nothing. Your team is nothing. Your friend has already lost. You are just ephemeral dust in the wind, destined to rot."

The words seem to reverberate within her mind. She could imagine the embers of her willpower, slowly flickering out, suddenly flaring up in rage. The thing in the shadows could mock her. But her new friend? Insult her team? She yells into the dark,

"You may have me, but you'll never have us both! And if one skill doesn't work... well... I have another!"

[LEG BOMB].

The force of the explosion slings her body forward. Almost in slow motion, she could feel her flesh shredding and tearing from the shockwave of the limb detonation. When she activated the skill, she targeted her still attached legs. Her body hits the door, and then she was in a new area. She manages to hold onto consciousness only long enough to see Sir Crabby emerge safely. With a tiny whimper she collapses, passing out from the pain.