James was awoken was a nudge to the side and then the head. He turned and opened his eyes to see Ian holding his staff.

“It has been fifteen minutes. We decided to let you sleep because you looked like you needed it and I think we were right.”

“Thanks.”

James rolled over and stood back up. He looked around and saw that the others were already preparing for the next challenge. Naomi was checking her supplies and Derek was sharpening his sword. Wes was still sitting against the wall. He slung his bag onto his back and looked over the writing on the wall.

Statements:

1) No interesting poems are unpopular among people of real taste.

2) No modern poetry is free from affectation.

3) All your poems are on the subject of war.

4) No affected poetry is popular among people of real taste.

5) No ancient poem is on the subject of war.

Question:

Make a new statement about this puzzle.

“What are your thoughts on the puzzle?” asked James.

“Mostly that it is confusing. There is clearly more than one right answer but what those answers could be we aren’t sure of yet.”

“I have already tried writing it down,” interjected Naomi. “More visualizing it really. At least with the stuff we have. I wish we had something to write properly with.”

“I do too. So, what do you have for me so far?”

“The statements all are pretty standard except for the third line where ‘your’ is emphasized. I assume it expects us to make a statement about our poems.”

“I would have to agree with you on that part.”

“The first line could be rewritten or stated as ‘Interesting poems are popular among people of real taste’.” She said pointing to each part.

“That is a fine statement but not original. It is just stating the opposite of the first statement. What else do you have?” asked James.

“We know statements two and four are connected. I think it is correct in saying that no modern poetry is popular.”

“And did the others contribute to this discovery,” said James. He looked at Derek and Wes who sat in the corner of the room and had not said a word.

“I have never even seen a puzzle like this before,” said Wes. “I am more used to the physical puzzles and spatial ones.”

James looked at Derek.

“Don’t look at me. She wanted to take charge and I didn’t want to bother her. I was tired and so was Ian.”

“We have been resting more than solving these puzzles,” said Ian. You can’t blame us. What were you expecting?”

“I am not blaming you at all. I am just curious about what has happened while napping. While it would have been great if you solved the puzzle in a such short time it is unrealistic.”

James read over the lines of text a few more times over. He started to build out the connections between the pieces to fit it all together. It was similar to logic puzzles he had done before but there were no riddles or confusing pieces to be interpreted. Each statement was meant to be taken at face value with no double meanings intended. The only statement meant for confusion was the last.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“Make a new statement about this puzzle,” he said to himself. “We have assumed that we cannot tell the dungeon ‘Interesting poems are popular among people of real taste’ because it does not involve more than one of the included statements. And because the word ‘your’ is emphasized we should include it in our answer statement.”

James considered the statements some more while the others discussed amongst themselves. He started by reading it line by line and then in variations and in different orders.

“How long do you think we have been in here?” asked Wes. He rested his head against the wall and looked up.

“Nine? Ten hours. Why do you ask?” asked Derek.

“I want to estimate how many more hours it will take to get out of here.”

“Two more hours. Maybe three,” said Naomi.

“And how are we getting out of here in two hours?” asked Derek.

“This floor will be done in twenty minutes or less. The next floor will finish out the first hour or so leaving us an hour to kill the floor 25 big boss drake,” said Naomi.

“You are forgetting the 25 other floors,” said Wes.

“And those we won’t have to deal with. James said so himself.”

“We also expected to be out of the dungeon by now,” said Derek.

“Of course, we aren’t. Or are you pretending to forget what you did? We and to chase you and Ian down because you jumped onto the 17th floor without permission,” she said raising her voice a little. “Now we are down to three health potions. At the same time, neither of you cared to apologize. Instead, we have gone around and pretended like everything is fine and dandy when it fuckling isn’t. I haven’t forgotten the stunts the two of you have pulled.”

“I think I am going to go check on James,” said Wes quietly.

“You can stay right here. You can wait here and build up some confidence. Just because you’ve got a nice, improved shield doesn’t mean you have forgotten your habits. Shaking a little when we first step onto new floors. Not activating your abilities on time when you should and not keeping enemies on you. We’ve got an hour until we face the drake. You better be ready.”

Wes sighed and nodded. He knew that Naomi was right, and he felt ashamed of his actions. He had let his fear and insecurity get the better of him, and it had put the whole team in danger at times. Even taking care of his shield had almost caused a problem. It was only because of James looking over his equipment did anything change. He might have some renewed confidence because of the upgraded shield but he was still the same. It was only because of luck that his shield hadn’t broken earlier, and his weak heart hadn’t failed him on the earlier floors. The ogre or hobgoblins should have killed him already. He resolved to do better, to be more focused and prepared for the challenges ahead.

"I'm sorry, Naomi," he said quietly. "I know I messed up, and I'll do better. I promise."

Naomi nodded, her expression softening. "I know you will, Wes," she said. "Just remember, we're a team. We need to trust and rely on each other if we want to make it out of here alive."

Derek nodded in agreement, and the three of them made their way over to where James was resting. They all knew that the next hour would be critical, and they needed to be at their best if they wanted to defeat the drake and escape the dungeon.

James saw the others coming his way and he looked away from the puzzle.

“I want to go over this one more time with everyone. I want to make sure I get this right because if I am wrong I injure myself badly. If I get this part very wrong then I die. I was thinking the statement must be ‘my poem is not interesting’. I think it is correct because it uses all of the pieces of the statements. I want to submit that, but I want to hear what your other suggestions are.”

“That does if the criteria that we have assumed,” said Naomi. “It involves the emphasized statement, and it uses the fact that your poetry is not part of ancient poetry. If it isn’t that then I don’t know what it expects of us.”

“These puzzles would expect us to use every line to get to our answer,” said Wes. “Do we know for sure that we can do that?”

“Yes, I am sure of it. I will go through the steps of every line. First, we would start with the third. ‘All your poems are on the subject of war.’ Then we look at the fifth. ‘No ancient poem is on the subject of war.’ Now we know that our poem is not an ancient one. Because it is not ancient it is modern. From the second line, we learn that ‘No modern poetry is free from affectation.’ That brings us to the fourth and then first lines respectively. ‘No affected poetry is popular among people of real taste. No interesting poems are unpopular among people of real taste.’ Using each of these statements leads us to the statement about our poem that ‘Our poem is not interesting.’”

“It sounds like you’ve made up your mind,” said Ian. “Go ahead and submit it. We’ve already been stuck on this floor longer than I would have liked. The drake is so close. We’re almost there.”

“Don’t worry. We will have to fight it eventually. We can’t run past it and exit the dungeon, can we? The good thing is that the next floor’s climate will be comfortable, and the dangers will be manageable. It may take us some time to clear it but then after you will get your shot against the drake.”

James took a deep breath. He took a few steps forward and put both hands on the wall. The dungeon acknowledged his word as soon as he started speaking.

“My poem is not interesting.”

He released his hands from the wall. James screamed.