"Holy shit people, please help me there's something in here with us." He said in a panic.

"One second just wait there hands where we can see them." Root said, my Twin doing exactly that.

"Orlo, Nicole, please check this individual." Root told us, I immediately did. Luckily he seemed far more fixated on the Harpy than myself and didn't register who was standing in front of him.

Human, Scout level 4.

"Came back as Human." I said and My brother's eyes immediately shot to me.

"Nicole!? WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!" he shouted.

"Nicole, this is very likely a trick by the dungeon. I very much doubt that is the person you think it is." Root said, "it's one of the nastiest tricks we have seen dungeons use .."

"Tell them it's me, I'm fucking real!" He said.

I responded "everyone, wait…" I all but shouted out.

"Allen we need a litmus test one second…" I said

He stood there arms still up rocking back and forth slightly in a panic but didn't indicate anything against the idea.

"What kind of mind games can a dungeon play on people? How well do they replicate the ones we know." I asked.

"Well but not perfectly, earlier memories tend to be the hardest for dungeons to handle." Root replayed.

"Got it, Allen I am going to ask you a question, and you need to respond truthfully even if it seems hurtful or damaging to me… it's about myself." I said.

"Ok… ask." He said, fuck it sounded so much like him down to the small details.

"What was my name when I was born, and that I used for most of my life until a few years ago?" I asked.

"Really? That?" He said.

"Yes that… it's a very easy answer for you and almost slapping you in the face." I said.

He held still for a moment, then his smile grew and grew and grew. Before he had a chance to do anything else I shot the duplicate of my brother in the head with my crossbow.

"Fuck… I don't think I have ever seen or heard of a dungeons entity getting so stumped it would break character without at least trying. Nicole, are you doing ok? That's normally a very stressful sort of test…' Lluvia said

"Yup if that was really my brother it would not have been a big deal for him to tell me. Also if the dungeon is currently in my mind right now it's going to be getting some very confused results." I said.

"Can I know the answer to that? It sounds incredibly interesting." Iser said.

"Umm yeah I guess I can tell you later it's honestly not a major deal to me anymore." I said.

We then confused to push forward into the maze.

Maybe 10 minutes later my Wondering Pather skill finally ranked up to C.

Congratulations! Through repeated actions your Wondering Pather skill has improved and is now eligible for rank up!

Rank C will cost One (1) Class skill point to rank up.

Wondering Pather

Rank D - 100%

Your awareness of possible paths expands, you can use mana to reach out even further and to look for hidden paths.

I accepted almost at once and happily spent the skill point.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"I yeah this is great!" I said

"What's up, a skill rank up?" Turnip asked.

"Yup, everyone hold on for a second. I want to try something." I asked the group, and they did.

I then poured in about 40 points worth of mana into my first use of Mana infused Wondering Pather. I then after a few seconds got a rather detailed return of the 100 meters around us and one odd return.

"Wow I can see all of you in my head right now and a few other creatures now stalking us. I don't get the impression they are very strong, I think they are waiting for us to get separated. I also found something I would like to take a look at." I told the group.

We backtracked for maybe 70 or so meters until we reached a hedge wall that looked like any other. Even gently brushing it felt like the rest of the hedge wall. I then pressed my hand onto it and it turned into a shadowy smoke leading us on a roughly parallel course we had been taking.

"Right… who thinks we should try the hidden pathway?" I asked.

"Fuck yeah I'm in." Lluvia said, everyone else seemed onboard with the idea as well.

What we discovered was it sort of acted as a shortcut through sections of the maze as a whole. I would leave one shortcut path, then need to locate another.

We ended up going through two shortcuts before finally exiting the maze after a little over an hour.

"Ok that's not so bad, if I had to guess that maze would take the better part of 4 lto 6 hours to work through. Potentially dealing with all sorts of fun traps and entities…" Root said.

"That will earn some big coins for that information." He continued.

"Most puzzles in dungeons have multiple methods of solving them. If you find a quicker way through a dungeon it's generally very valuable to whoever might end up living here." Orlo then added after my questioning glance.

"Alright this should be the entrance to the third floor." Root stated but then I was given a questioning looked which I nodded in affirmative to.

"Ok so everyone but Nicole knows the drill. This is a possible Dungeon boss, particularly on such a stagnant Dungeon… Be wary for mind games, this is one of the better behaved dungeons but I still want to try and avoid surprises." Root said.

We opened the door to the next section to be greeted by a light gem that we had left earlier. I was the only one truly surprised by this.

"Good we get a break before the next section." Root said. We ventured in and took a few minutes to verify that we knew where we were, then sat down.

"Lluvia, Iser and Oslo want to take a moment to verify this is the exit path?" Root asked. All three nodded and started to head back the door we had just gone through only to be greeted by a familiar stone hallway, all three left as a group.

"I'm guessing this is normal? Seeing the path intersect with itself?" I asked.

"Yup, it's standard." Turnip said then did a very long stretch.

"So how is our newest member of this band of misfits holding up?" Root asked me.

"A bit worn out but fine overall. It's been a very long day and I am not normally this physically active. Mind you I feel like I should be more worn out than I am and it's not due to all the physical activity I have done over the past week." I said with a bit of a thoughtful tone to my voice at the end.

"Yeah, skills and magic have a direct effect on your body. Generally making you tougher and able to recover better and faster." He said.

"Boy that's handy. By the way, how in your professional opinion have I been handling this for my first Dungeon." I asked.

"If I didn't already know better I would have assumed you have done this before. Otherwise it's been remarkable." Root said.

"About that… I have a parallel in my world that maps kind of well to what we are doing here and it is for entertainment purposes normally. I'll tell you about the specifics later but honestly how this has been running is very standard based on my odd experience." I said.

"Ok that will need an explanation for sure… but if it has been helpful I'm not going to deny the assistance it has brought us." He said.

It was about this time the other three came back with an affirmative.

"Wait, do we not need to worry about them being false or copies or something?" I asked.

"No generally these rooms we are in are safe, that includes entities and monsters from being unable to follow or pass into the room." Root said.

"Ok so that could have been another test we could have done on my brother. Try to force him into the room." I said.

"Technically yes but getting a duplicate entity to corporate for that long is very difficult." Turnip said.

We sat around and chatted and snacked. After another 30 minutes which gave my mana enough time to be ¾ full.

"Alright if it's the boss you know the rules as we are currently playing escort the VIP. Make sure she gets the killing blow or has a chance to do some damage." Root said, Lluvia giggled quietly at the 'escort' remark. We all agreed then readied ourselves at the door in our standard pattern.

"Immediate area looks clear, Orlo and Nicole you're up." Lluvia said.

Orlo did a quick look around and indicated they didn't notice anything. I did the same but used both my identity and pathfinding together. It was a large chunk of my mana but it gave me a very clear picture of the room ahead.

"Large Court or hall I'm seeing what might be seating to the left and right and a large ornate looking throne at the other end." I told the group.

After that we pushed forward into what seemed like the final room of the Dungeon.