Chapter 18: This Might Very Well Be a Maze

“I guess we just keep going until we reach the right level to fight the boss,” I said, motioning down the hall where we’d originally been going before the fight broke out. The [Recliners] and [Bitter Ancestors] had all turned to dust after a minute or so, leaving the carpet dirty but easy to walk through.

Peter shrugged. “That’s all we can do.”

“Assuming that’s how this floor works,” Bethany said.

We all walked down the hallway towards what I hoped would be the next entrance to this floor’s boss. I was tired of fighting monster chairs and flying picture frames.

Peter looked at her with wide eyes. “What do you mean?” Wouldn’t it work the same as the other floors?”

She made a face. “It’s not like we ever confirmed that reaching a certain level was why we got the boss entrance on floor one. It might have been complete [Luck] that we ended up finding it right after a level up. Level four is kind of a weird level to be a milestone.”

“That’s a pretty big coincidence to not be related to our leveling up,” I pointed out.

Bethany nodded. “True. But even if that’s how the first floor worked, that’s not to say that’s how this floor works. It’s set up quite a bit differently so why wouldn’t the key to finding the boss be different too?”

“If only Alfie would tell us this kind of stuff. It’s already plenty of work fighting enemies, but now we also have to figure out how to reach the boss? Stupid dog,” Peter grumbled.

“No kidding. Why doesn’t this Dungeon come with more instructions? The whole ‘learn by doing’ thing isn’t really that effective in this case,” I agreed. I’d had my share of college professors who sucked at the teaching part of their jobs, and I was not enjoying dealing with the [Dungeon Manager] who seemed to share that quality.

“It could be worse,” Bethany said.

Peter and I both looked at her.

She grinned. “We could be in last place like Daisy, Landon, and Darlene.”

We all laughed as we went down the hallway. She made a good point. It was still weird to think about this being a competition when we so rarely saw the other cousins. I knew Peter had his heart set on being first, but I was going to be content as long as I made it out not in last place. Oh, and as long as the trio of idiot boys didn’t win either.

At the next intersection, Peter turned left, but I grabbed his arm and stopped him.

“What if Beth’s right? Maybe this isn’t just about leveling up. With all the hallways and intersections, this reminds me of a maze,” I said, thinking about her words once again.

“Okay…?” Peter waved his hand. “And?”

I rolled my eyes. “Maybe we should try treating it like a maze.”

“It might be a little late for that. I don’t remember all the turns we’ve taken. Do you?” Bethany asked.

I shook my head. “That doesn’t matter. I heard about this trick once where one way to brute force a maze is to always take the right-hand turns and only turn around when you reach dead ends. Eventually you’ll reach the end.”

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Peter scoffed. “We’d eventually reach the end if we just took whatever turns we wanted anyway.”

“Unless we end up going in one giant circle over and over again. Can’t we just try it?” I said.

My brother’s face remained skeptical, but he sighed and dipped his head. Murmuring under his breath, he turned and took the right hallway instead of the left. Bethany followed, and then I took up the rear.

I kept flexing my hands as we walked, my eyes peeled for any sign of danger. I was suspicious of every picture frame we passed and even wondered if some of the end tables we occasionally passed were going to come alive too, but we had over fifteen minutes of peace to wander the corridors of the floor, taking every right turn we came across.

“How’s everyone’s [MP]?” Bethany asked, breaking the silence.

Calling up my screen, I glanced at my [MP] stat, a little disappointed by the fact that I hadn’t fully recharged. Stupid [MP Overdraw]

[23/35 MP]

“Only at twenty-three,” I said with a sigh.

“I’m at thirty-two,” Peter answered. “What about you, Beth?”

“Twenty-nine,” she said. “That’s pretty good. If we do run into something, we’re ready to fight.”

Peter huffed. “Bold of you to assume we will run into something to fight. There’s nothing alive in these halls but us.”

“Eager to fight again already?” Beth smirked at him. “It’s going to take a lot of time to get to our next level up so I don’t mind taking it a little slow.”

“The amount of time it’s going to take is what I’m concerned about. That’s why I want to find a fight sooner rather than later.”

“We could get a level up during our next fight,” I said.

They both laughed.

“Yeah? How do you figure that math nerd?” Peter asked.

I smiled. “Our [quest]. It grants us a free level up. All we have to do is figure out a way to all contribute equally to a fight. I think that will be easier if we go up against something smaller like the [Bitter Ancestors] so we should start strategizing about how to make sure we all have a part in the fight.”

Bethany nodded at me. “That’s a really good point. I almost forgot about the [quest]. It would be really convenient if we could finish it off and get that level up.”

Peter looked over his shoulder and rolled his eyes. “That [quest] is impossible with Beth’s [skills]. She can’t really contribute anything to a fight.”

“What does that mean?” Bethany stopped walking and put her hands on her hips.

Peter held his hands up. “I mean that you don’t kill monsters. You just defend against them. How can you contribute equally if me and Madi always have to do the killing?”

I put a finger up. “Ah. But the [quest] doesn’t specify that contributing equally means we all kill the same number of creatures. It could be enough for everyone to be involved the same amount.”

My sister gave me a dubious look. “If that was the case, shouldn’t we have achieved it during the last battle? Peter and I worked together to take two [Recliners] out and you handled the other one. That’s pretty equal.”

“Except that I also handled all of the [Ancestors]. Next time we should find a way to divy them up better, and then I think we’ll have it,” I suggested.

Peter shrugged. “Okay. Sure. I can use [Archery] next time to shoot down a couple before Beth and I handle the [Recliners].”

“And Beth should find a way to contribute to that part too,” I pointed out. “That would make it completely equal.”

My siblings both nodded.

“Good idea, Madi. I think it’s a smart plan to focus on the [quest] for our next level up,” Bethany said as we resumed walking.

“Again, doing the [quest] still requires us to find monsters, and the Dungeon has decided to give us all these barren stretches for whatever reason.” Peter gestured to the hallway devoid of [Recliners].

I smiled. “Maybe we just need to pick a fight.” I recalled the other fights with [Bitter Ancestors], and I had a feeling that we had more enemies near us than we realized. “Everyone ready up.”

Bethany gave me an inquisitive look as I walked up to the nearest set of picture frames.

“Alright, [Ancestors]. If you’re so bitter, let’s see some action.” I reached out and swiped my hand across all the frames, causing them to swing back and forth.

“Wow. Really cool, Madi.” Peter crossed his arms. “Why are we wasting time with this?”

I pointed at the frames which had stopped swinging and instead started to shake. “Because now we have some enemies to fight.”