Archimedes frowned. It was already late in the morning, but he hadn’t gotten his Black Wolf to evolve yet. The amount of mana required to produce a C rank monster was manyfold higher than what was needed for a D rank one. But the outside world didn’t care, and his area of perception was invaded yet again.

It was another group he’d seen before; luckily, this one wasn’t nearly so malicious. First, Hunter, and Gatherer had all come together today. They approached the watchman and held out some matching necklaces for him to inspect. The elf man smiled and nodded.

“You left your mind stones at the guild, right?”

“We did,” Hunter nodded. “I don’t think this dungeon is dangerous, but do they really work?”

The watchman gave the boy a pat on the head. “They work, trust me. I’ve been saved a few times thanks to them.” He put on a more professional face and gestured to the dungeon entrance. “Okay, you can go in. You’ll have to figure out that door for yourself though. Do you need a map?”

“I think it’s more fun to explore it ourselves,” First grinned, strolling up to the first puzzle door.

Archimedes examined the necklaces that the three were wearing. There were words on them: Anther, Kasser, and Myla. Those must be their names. Besides that, there were other engravings that he didn’t recognize. They seemed to hold some kind of meaning, so he kept their designs for later analysis.

Archimedes realized that, although it was hidden in her clothes, the demon woman from the group of immortals had a similar necklace. He looked through his memory and found her name on it: Casanuella Euria Opherion. Long name.

The way that woman and her party ignored their own deaths was troublesome. Actually, there was something in the conversation just now that reminded him of that. Mind stones: something you have to leave at the “guild” and can “save” you.

“Vow, what is a mind stone?”

A somewhat glitchy window flickered into view, overlapped immediately by a red window he'd never seen before.

Creature Core: can be embedded in a Monster to store a copy of it. This copy can be perfectly restored upon the original’s death. Monsters with a Core can venture outside of the dungeon. Costs 100 mana. Error. Dungeon Core Archimedes does not possess the ability . Link terminated.

What the hell? The two overlapping windows flashed out of view almost immediately after they appeared. Fortunately, it was still enough time for Archimedes to read what they said. She was trying to tell me that these mind stones are similar to creature cores, right? That explains everything.

Archimedes watched the air with mixed feelings. “Hey, Vow, are you alright?” There was no answer so, “Just rest, okay? Thanks for the information.”

By now, First--or rather, Anther--had solved the first puzzle. He trotted inside excitedly, but his pace slowed to a stop when he saw the state of things. After practically everything was destroyed, Archimedes had only repaired what absolutely needed to be repaired, and he was letting the ambient mana take care of the rest. In other words, it looked as bad as it was.

***Anther’s POV***

Myla and Kasser stood nervously in the front of the tunnel while Anther carefully touched the crumbling wall carvings. “What happened? Did you decide you didn’t want these?”

“I don’t think that’s it, Anther,” Myla said while crouching over a flattened pepper plant.

Kasser spotted a charred rabbit corpse and tried to hide behind his bow. “Who would do something like this?”

Anther gripped his fists and shook his head rapidly. “Let’s just go a little deeper.”

He had brought the others today intending to proudly show off the second puzzle’s solution to them, but the mood was a little ruined now. All the same, the boy took a steaming, disk-shaped pastry out of his pack and tossed it into the mouth of the door. When it opened, a mere three Wolfbats were waiting inside to play with him. Their numbers were less than last time so the welcome wasn’t as energetic as before.

“This is awful,” Anther said softly, scratching one of the monsters on its neck. “First the hallway and now this. There were a lot more of these winged foxes the last time I was here,” he looked around and grimaced, seeing that there were scorch marks on the walls where they weren’t smashed. “I feel a little sick.”

“Maybe we should just go home,” Myla said softly. “The dungeon probably need some time alone to fix things.”

“You’re right,” Anther nodded and stood up, waving goodbye to the little winged foxes.

It was a short walk out of the dungeon. Once he got to the watchman, Anther stopped, putting his hands on his hips. “Hey, whoever went in before us is terrible. Everything’s smashed and burnt, and most of the plants and animals are dead.”

The watchman tilted his head, “Nobody went in before you three, kid. Are you sure the dungeon isn’t just like that normally?”

“I’m the one who found this place,” Anther said indignantly, “I know what it’s supposed to look like. Someone went in before they were supposed to and ruined everything. You should report it to somebody.”

The man’s expression turned down and he nodded. “Alright, I got it. I’ll make sure to pass on what you told me.”

All three of the children’s faces brightened and they made their way down the mountain. At the entrance of the village, Kasser spoke up.

“Hey, that dungeon’s going to get fixed, right? That was a really good hunting spot.”

“Of course it will,” Myla shot back. “It’s a dungeon. I heard at the guild that they can recover from anything with enough time, as long as the core is alright.”

“That might be true, but what if someone else damages it again right after it’s been fixed. Won’t it just stay broken like that forever?”

Myla stalled, “Well, that’s…”

Kasser went on, head tilted, “And why did they smash it up in the first place? The only bad thing about that dungeon is that the puzzles are tedious.”

Anther blinked and held his chin. “Hm. Maybe an explorer with more experience would know. We could ask about it at the guild.”

“Yeah, let’s do that.” Kasser agreed, and Myla nodded.

The three walked back to the guild building together to retrieve their mind stones. When receiving his from the employee, Anther asked her, “Do you know why someone would damage a dungeon?”

“Hm?” The demoness tilted her head and thought. “There could be various reasons. Maybe to break down a blockage in the path. Or maybe something gets damaged if there’s a big and chaotic fight. Some dungeons were discovered with dilapidated interiors, but they were intentionally made like that as camouflage.”

“This one was really bad though,” Myla threw in. “It looked like every square inch of it had been crushed or burned. It didn’t used to look like that at all.”

“Eh~ that bad?” The demoness tilted her head in the opposite direction. “Something like that only happens when someone deliberately wants to harm the dungeon. Usually, it’s because someone was killed by the dungeon and they want revenge. Behavior like that is strongly discouraged by the guild though. Dungeons eventually develop personalities, just like people, and if they’re mistreated they might start to do bad things later on. Some dungeons can be really petty.”

The look of mild amusement on the guild employee’s face suddenly disappeared as she realized something. “Wait, you aren’t talking about the dungeon near this village, right?”

“Yeah, that one,” Kasser nodded firmly. “We already told the watchman about it, but he says he didn’t see anybody go inside.”

“Oh, oh dear.” The woman started fishing for papers behind the counter and quickly found the one she wanted. “That’s bad, so could you please leave your names here? I’ll have to report this and we might need you to answer some questions later.”

“Ah… no problem,” Kasser muttered.

They signed their names and were given a friendly wave-off by the employee, who dashed into the back as soon as they were gone.

“Well, today was a bit of a bummer,” Kasser put his arms behind his head. “I rushed through my chores this morning just to go to the dungeon, but we didn’t stay long. Maybe I’ll go fishing instead.”

Myla suddenly perked up and jumped on his words. “I’ll come with you!”

“Sure, that sounds fun. What about you, Anther?”

“Okay, I’ll come, but I have to be back for lunch.”

***

A few hours passed peacefully, and Anther waved goodbye to Kasser and Myla. By the time he’d run home, Rybo had already arrived and Anniil was almost finished cooking. A mouth-watering smell was drifting out of the doorway and windows, beckoning him inside.

“I’m home,” the boy called.

“Just in time,” Anniil smiled, serving the first plate of food off of a hot pan. “Anther, be a dear and pour some water for everyone, then take a seat.”

“Yes, mother.”

The three of them ate together in relative silence, trying to finish the grade A home cooking before it could get cold. When he was done, Rybo leaned back in his chair and sighed contentedly.

“Your cooking really is great, Anniil.”

She smiled tensely. “I’m glad you liked it, but honestly I invited you today because there’s something important I wanted to talk to you about.”

The beastman’s casual atmosphere thinned somewhat and he sat a little straighter. “Something important? What is it?”

The woman clasped her hands in her lap and chewed her lip. “Anther tells me that Cherise committed rape inside the dungeon.”

“What?” For a moment, Rybo glanced at the child and couldn’t help but show a hint of accusation in his eyes. “I haven’t seen her or anybody else acting strangely. Why do you think that, Anther?”

“Because the dungeon made carvings and a statue of her, with the word “Rapist” carved above.”

“He also tells me,” Anniil shook her head, “that she didn’t do it to a “person”.”

“Th-that’s,” the Beastman trailed off, then stood suddenly from his chair. “Wait! You said there were carvings implicating her in the dungeon?! That’s bad! We can’t let anybody see those before we sort this out! We have to keep the dungeon closed for a--”

“But it opened this morning?” the boy tipped his head. “Actually, things were smashed up pretty badly when I went in today with Myla and Kasser. You couldn’t recognize who the carvings were of at all, or read the words. I asked the watchman about it, but he said nobody else had come inside, so somebody must have gone in illegally and smashed them. We reported it at the guild.”

“That’s,” Rybo gritted his teeth, excused himself in a hurry and dashed out into the road, making a beeline for the new guild building. He sprinted past the counter and up the stairs to the second floor, then practically broke the door to Cherise’s office.

“You have to close the dungeon!”

The demoness lowered the document in her hand and frowned. “What?”

“The dungeon is slandering you with graffiti! You have to do something before all the adventurers in town see it!”

Cherise moved at her own pace, setting the document down and stamping it. She put it into a pile and picked a fresh one for her hand. “That’s nonsense. Why would it do that?”

“I don’t know. Does it matter right now? Anyway, we have to--”

“No, without a legitimate reason, I can’t close the dungeon. Slander is just harsh words. What harm could it do? Besides, if I just prove the rumors amount to nothing, everything will be fine.”

“Cherise, I really think you should take action. Even if it’s just circumstantial evidence, people will give credit to it. I’m saying you’re too new to your position to risk your reputation over something like this.”

“And I’m saying I’ll be penalized if I close a dungeon over something as harmless as slander.”

Rybo wanted to say more, but it was clear Cherise was no longer paying attention. Hanging his tail, he turned and left her office. He couldn’t close the dungeon with his authority but leaving things like this felt awful, so he made his way up the mountain.

Rybo saw the gate guard and waved. “How many teams have been in today?”

“Three. And possibly one before my shift started.”

“Thanks.” The beastman turned and thrust his palm at the stone entrance, blasting the door back with a single strike. He saw the graphic statue and carvings of Cherise and grimaced. Just as Anther said, the words “Die, Rapist” were unmistakably carved captioning them. Apparently, they had recovered from their destroyed state. There was no way of knowing how many people had seen them like this.

“Sorry to force my way inside.” He dropped his head, “I’m begging you, please get rid of these carvings. Cherise still lacks experience, but she has a promising future. If bad rumors start circulating about her here, she may even be pressured to leave her position.”

A wooden sign grew out of the ground at the man’s feet. “She should pay for her actions,” it read.

“Not like this!” Rybo insisted. “At least be honest when you’re slandering someone. Why should she pay for an action she didn’t commit?” The sign didn’t disappear or change, and Rybo’s jaw clenched tighter. “Are you saying she really did something like that? I was with her the whole time! She did no such thing!”

The black ink on the sign faded out and new letters appeared. “She did.”

“She did not! Cherise did nothing but what was required of her as an inspector, and you are shameless!” Rybo kicked the sign out of the dirt, sending it flying in splinters to the opposite end of the hall. “And you’re strangely intelligent for a two-floor dungeon. If you cause too much trouble, I’ll hand you over to the institute as research material.”

Rybo stormed out of the dungeon and the sign pieces turned to dust.

***Archimedes' POV***

“Well, that could have gone better.”

Archimedes watched the Wolfman storm out of his range of perception and looked sadly at his front door. Five times today it had been bashed in by impatient adventurers.

“I’m really sick of this. Let’s just build a new one.”

Minute had had an idea for a future door puzzle, but Archimedes decided just to replace his entrance with it. He made the model on the second floor, intending to simply move it once it was working.

First, he changed the material the door was made of. It would now be composed of platinum. On top of that, it would be a sliding door that sunk into the floor, so there would be no hinges as weak points. The puzzle was simple and suitable for an entry-level puzzle: there were three keys and one keyhole; using the correct key would open the door. The trick was that two of the three keys had to be stacked together for them to work.

Minute had already designed the whole thing beforehand, so it only took a few minutes to assemble. Once it was done, Archimedes destroyed his previous entrance and put the new one in its place.

“Try and break this one,” he gloated.

It was a strong door already, and over time it would alchemize into adamantine and be almost unbreakable.

Archimedes’ gaze drifted to the other puzzle doors, now vastly inferior. Perhaps I should update these as well.