"Instead of trying to solve the puzzle all at once, see how all the blocks are the same except one side? That means those sides are the only ones that could be the answer, since otherwise any of the blocks would work,” reasons Smashy, turning one of the five deltohedron over in his hands. “And this one has the sun on it. Do any of the other ones have a sun?”

A flurry of motion from the other two had them turn over thirty stone shapes over to determine what was on each side. None of the ten sided shapes had a sun other than the noted one; each image was doubled on the other side, making five per stone block. All of those had a picture of a shield, a sword, a bottle, and a flute, which by Smashy’s hypothesis meant the options for the correct answer would be one of the sun, the moon, a star, a key, or a jigsaw puzzle piece. Going through the other sets of shapes proved that there were in fact no suns of any sort. One of the cubes was even completely blank.

“Alright. So this piece goes into the hole, sun facing toward the center, and the dial in the middle with all the pieces on it has the sword facing toward the sun. That leaves the rogue, the bard, the cleric, and the wizard with slots to fill, and the fighter doesn’t need to face anything at all,” Smashy logically deduced, “and with the positions established, we can see which opponents each party member would be best against in that shape group. Beyond that, the patterns probably repeat again so we could eliminate options that way.”

“Ugh, there are way too many steps for this thing to be the first puzzle of a beginner dungeon,” complains Shooty, “why can’t they be simple like the door puzzle to get in here?”

“Because now we’re actually in the dungeon,” states Stabby, “which means it has a reason to keep us here.”

The two uneasily look toward the ceiling and walls. No vents start hissing poisonous smoke, no monster drops from above upon their suspicions. Smashy continued checking through the die shaped blocks, and the other two decided soundlessly to keep an eye out for any sort of change in their surroundings.

“Got it,” announced Smashy, “since this group had the blank one, only have three options for the rogue. It’s not the knight, lich, pile of vines, slime, ball of fire, or nothing, so there’s a zombie, a skeleton, a ghost, or a mage. Pretty sure you can’t stab a ghost, and that slitting a zombie’s throat doesn’t do much, so that leaves the mage.”

“And there’s three more of these? How long are we going to be stuck here?” Shooty asks rhetorically.

“Less time if you help,” replies Smashy, a bit of irritation in his tone, “It’s not hard to go ‘hey there’s two of this one, can’t be those’.”

“Shooty, you keep being prepared to do your thing to anything that tries to attack us, I’ll start going through the triangles.”

A few moments pass, and then both of them have new results to share.

“This thing is for the cleric. Knight, the vine thing, and the mage are all out, which leaves this assassin guy, a dragon, the moon, a lightning skeleton, and a jigsaw puzzle piece. Pretty obvious that the undead are weak against clerics though,” says Smashy.

“Mine has multiples of devil, golem, and some sort of giant monster. That leaves a chest, a bottle, a ball of fire, the vines again, and a giant army,” Stabby adds in.

“That goes to mage, and I have no clue about that one. We’ll just leave it to last and do the other one.”

Remaining unchecked was the pile for the bard. Those were tubes of stone with an image on each side. The two adventurers quickly started shouting out what was on each side to the other, trying to determine which images were doubled.

“Dragon!”

“Rat! Next one.”

“Golem!”

“Assassin! Next.”

“Skeleton!”

“Knight! Next.”

“Assassin, not it.”

“Skeleton, not it.”

“Dragon, not it.”

“Knight, not it.”

“So it’s either a golem, which is a mindless creature bards can’t do anything with, or a rat.”

“Definitely rat.”

“What a dunk on bards.”

The two slide the cylinder into the bard slot, and check the pyramids in the wizard spot one after the other, until the army slots into place and the three doors click open. With a nod toward each other, having confirmed through this room there weren’t actually any traps or monsters to ambush them while they were solving the puzzles, the three split to check the left, forward, and rightward puzzle door rooms.

o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

Outside the dungeon, the aura receded. A completely intact human now laid on the depressed button, whereas before it was a collection of limbs, attached to each other but too broken to be called a person.

“See, no one shot me.”

“Luck.”

“Proper observational skills.”

“Oh yeah? Then why didn’t you notice that half the canyon got erased and replaced with a forest shrouded in mist and probably ghosts?”

“It did what?”

o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

“This is taking forever,” whispered the creature to the gem floating beside it. “Why can’t you just open the door?”

“During a Dungeon War, most functions are locked off. I am unable to reset rooms, manually open or close doors, spawn monsters, deconstruct material for mana, or expand the dungeon in any way. After you got to this room, the dungeon was locked into the uncleared state. Until they solve the puzzle, you are trapped within this lair.”

“Wasn’t expecting a clear and concise answer. Thank you very much.”

“I have been extraordinarily reasonable in all my dealings. Contracts are a powerful bond, and one that should not be abused. You have been leery of tying yourself to me so tightly, and though words mean nothing I assure you that a lack of sincerity when dealing with those I want to empower would only result in misfortune for all involved.”

“Well, try not to die when you get drafted.”

“It’s already begun. Once the notice is sent, the dungeons in question are brought to a sealed space, where neither can change their layout or gain outside help. Until one has been destroyed, the two are locked in an endless struggle for dominance. Apparently it’s possible to accept a surrender from a weaker dungeon, but I for one have never been so merciful and expect no sane dungeon would be either. Being within my borders as you are, you have been brought into the war as well, and unless you wish to be consigned to oblivion along with everything else in this dungeon, you must fight for me.”

“Ah, so that’s what you meant. Wouldn’t it be easier to change your poor performance rating?”

“I completed the tutorial ages ago, and used the bonus it provided to decrease the cost of raising the dead! Even at my prime I would run at a net negative mana regeneration, because my skeletal adventurer army continuously grew in power! It’s not simply a factor of incompetent planning that can lead to a negative influx. Instead, I used what came in from adventurers to fuel my growth. Those temporary increases aren’t counted in the base statistics, and make it seem as if I run constantly at a loss. Once I understood how the Wars are started, that set my path in blood. I could be set constantly against other dungeons, use the adventurers within me to boost my total mana, and capture the dungeon that was chosen to be my equal. I can kill an adventurer as easily as an adventurer kills a kobold, when I’m not hobbled by these useless lesser slimes.”

“I think the door just opened. Down the hole you go.”

“How dare yooooooou-”