Chapter 12: The Circle Puzzle
Olivia entered the dungeon with an unusual party in tow. Unlike the expected newbies, this group seemed far more experienced.
“Um, DM?”
“…Yes?” The morphling stepped over to greet them.
“The Guild Master asked me to escort this party into the dungeon, but they’re not here to learn the basics.”
“…That’s apparent.”
“They’re visitors from the Grand Duchy of Crystrand to the south.” Olivia gestured to the party to approach.
“I’m Reese.” A man with the comb of a rooster atop his head and sickle feathers emerging from the seat of his pants stepped forward. “We were sent here by the Dustcre Guild to meet you.”
DM took note of the party. In addition to the rooster-like man, there were several other party members, all but one sporting animal features of one form or another. The last member appeared to just be a human man, at least at first glance. “…Dustcre?” DM couldn’t recall hearing the name before.
“It is the capital of the Grand Duchy, due south, along the coast.”
“…Ah. Well, you’ve met me.”
“B–By any chance…” Reese seemed a bit nervous, but that was understandable for a foreigner placed in this situation. “Would you allow us to meet you in person?”
“…Why?” DM could think of several reasons why a party would want to enter his chamber, and the majority of them were undesirable.
“We are extremely curious as to the nature of the dungeon master in the Lower Gordu. Hopefully, by laying eyes directly on you as we speak further, all our questions will be answered and we can return to the Grand Duchy with a full report.”
“…Why ask for permission instead of simply conquering the dungeon and joining me in the bottom level?”
Reese looked at Olivia for assistance but she stared back at him, not revealing her opinion on the matter. DM was proud of her.
“We wouldn’t want to invade the dungeon of such an accomplished dungeon master, or at least not without his permission.”
DM looked behind Reese and saw that his party members were all wearing their relief on their faces. “…Thank you for your consideration. Could you first tell me the reason why you are suddenly investigating me?”
“Well…” Reese clearly hadn’t decided ahead of time on an answer to this obvious question. “It was a request from our Guild…”
“…Because? Do you have any idea?”
“I can’t say for sure…”
The morphling addressed the people behind Reese. “…Do any of you have any theories?”
“It’s probably the dragon,” one muttered.
Reese spun around, a feeling of betrayal evident. He shook his head and turned back to the morphling. “She’s probably right… a dragon named Dracokonovich the Incinerator resides within the mountains of the Grand Duchy. Occasionally, he tasks humans to do his bidding.”
“…I’m quite familiar with Dracokonovich.”
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The adventurers’ eyes went wide.
“…But we’ve never met. Are you truly just here to lay eyes on me and ask questions?”
“Yes,” Reese confirmed. “That is all. We will even leave our weapons behind if you desire it.”
DM wasn’t expecting them to offer to visit him unarmed. While it was possible they could still pose a threat to him without their primary weapons, just as Karen Burger had previously, the odds were low.
The real question was how much DM should expose to these adventurers. They seemed innocent enough, simply sent on a mission by their Guild. Likely, Dracokonovich had some way to issue comments to humans. Those commands would have trickled down to a capable party from the Guild, without even including information about where the commands originated from. The story added up.
It made sense to DM: Dracokonovich wanted to know more about the one pulling the strings. Grummanonth hadn’t revealed much when he met Dracokonovich previously. Hopefully, Dracokonovich would be less opposed to DM’s role in overseeing dragons than he was to Daphne’s temporary ability to summon one. DM wasn’t at all sure what Dracokonovich’s opinion would be, though… especially with a second dragon recently spawned, not that she was around.
“…If you leave your weapons behind, then what will you do when the worms, liches, and greater demons attack you in the dungeon?”
Some of Reese’s party audibly gulped, although he managed to maintain his composure. “We truly didn’t come here to fight.”
“…That may be true, but I am a dungeon master. If you want to meet the dungeon master, you must conquer the dungeon, no?”
“That’s… I can’t argue with that.” Reese turned back to his party members, an apologetic look on his face. “We’ll just have to do this the normal way.”
“…If you make it to my chamber, let’s promise now that neither you nor me will be violent. Deal?”
“Y–Yes! Deal! We truly aren’t here to fight.”
“…In that case, I’ll give you a chance. If you can answer my riddle correctly on the first attempt, I’ll allow you to skip the first three levels. …If not, you’ll need to explore normally. Step forward.” The morphling gestured toward a spot near the exit.
The party walked over to the spot indicated where a sign presented information for them to review.
[https://i.imgur.com/pdwQcQf.jpg]
The sign read, “The radius of circle A is one-third the radius of circle B. Circle A rolls around circle B. At the end of how many rotations of circle A will the center of the circle reach its starting point?”
“I–I’m sorry?”
“…This is a famous math problem. I’m sure you can figure it out?”
“Um, math is not my strong—“
“Wait, hold on.” One of the other party members cut off their leader Reese while they thought about the problem. “Wouldn’t…”
The whole party got to discussing the problem, arguing about how it all worked. Reese left them to their own devices and walked back over to Olivia. “Miss Olivia, do you have any idea why we are being asked to answer this strange question?”
Olivia smiled wryly. “I think this is the best way for you to learn what the dungeon master is like…”
“Do you know the answer?”
“Me?” Olivia pointed to herself. “I just work here.”
Reese gave up and walked back to the rest of his party. “Did you all figure out an answer?”
“Hang on Reese, we’re still discussing it.” Reese would have to wait for quite a few more minutes before the party could proceed.
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“Okay, we’re ready.”
“…State your answer.”
On behalf of his party, as leader, Reese announced the number of times that circle A would rotate.
“…That answer is not correct. You may proceed through the door.”
“Huh?” The party started arguing again about why the answer was or was not correct. They were so into the discussion that they lost track of time and seemed to forget they had already been invited into the lower floors of the dungeon.
Eventually, Reese told everyone to wrap it up and prepare to explore. “That was a challenging question, it seems. I’m still not sure what the correct answer is.”
“…You could just play around with coins and probably figure it out…” the morphling suggested.
The adventurers’ eyes all went wide again. They each reached into their pockets or their belongings, searching for any coins. They squatted down onto the dungeon floor and began experiments, rotating coins around other coins of differing sizes while they counted the rotations. This led to another ten minutes of arguing.
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Finally, the party proceeded down to the next level. Since the group was much stronger than a typical party of newbies, they had no trouble dispatching the LVL 1 and LVL 2 monsters. Also, the mazelike corridors of the second floor were hardly a challenge to penetrate.
“You know, skipping several floors of a dungeon seemed like a really good deal, but if all we get to skip are the first few floors, isn’t that kinda pointless anyway?”
Reese agreed with his party member’s assertion. “That’s true…”
“Why do I feel like the dungeon master got the better of us…?”
“Y–Yea…” Reese prepared for a mentally exhausting journey.