“Terra? She’s right, you really are the dungeon?” I let out a noise of surprise.

I was starting to understand a bit more about dungeons and how they functioned. For example, the name of a dungeon was based on the person the lore was formed around. This doesn’t mean that the big boss at the end of the dungeon. In fact, usually, the final boss was the person inflicted by the curse. So, Mina’s curse was a curse constructed from Mina’s untimely death, but the person it affected the most was her Necromancer brother.

Meanwhile, Karr’s curse was a product of his unusual death, but the person most infected by the curse was the Fairy Queen. If logic continued, that would mean that this was Terra, the person who was the center of this curse. However, the final boss would likely have to do with someone centered around her. Would that be the so-called guardian? That would mean that this girl was the guardian’s original owner or something like that. Well, I could easily be wrong, but that was my guess.

“Hmph!” Terra shook her fists at us. “You humans! You cheaters! You strangle me dry and then try to storm in and take it without even asking!”

“Move… little girl!” Carmine hissed. “You’re in our way. I will take the guardian as my own!”

“That will never happen!” The girl said tearfully. “I won’t allow it.”

“By the scriptures set by the god accords in the Age of Curses, a dungeon cannot make its lore inaccessible. Making your lore inaccessible is a crime against nature!” Carmine said darkly.

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I had never heard that kind of stuff, but it seemed like it was true. So, dungeons did have rules they had to follow. They had to keep themselves open to the surface. A person has to be able to reach the lore. The lore had to display itself after it was defeated. These things seemed to have been set in some kind of scripture.

Even the damage of a collapsed floor had to be opened up in a few days. I didn’t know what kind of backlash a dungeon would feel if it went against these accords, but it was nice to know that as many monsters, floods, and traps they tossed my way, they wouldn’t be able to just lock me in a room and starve me, which was technically what this one was doing!

“Please…” I stepped forward. “I do not wish to destroy your lore. I’m not a threat to you. We wish to borrow the power of the guardian to repel back the bandits that have attacked this city. They’re the same men on the other side of that wall. Please let us continue on our way.”

Terra took a step back, hiding half her face behind a pillar. It seemed like she was almost as scared of me talking nicely to her as Carmine yelling at her.

“Okay…” She said. “You said to provide a challenge, and that is why I closed these doors. By the accords, I must challenge you. Even though that bastard Hero Magician strangled the dungeon’s magic and left my home to die, I will not betray my promises. You will receive your challenge.”

Carmine sniffed. “Any monster you come up with would be too simple.”

“N-no… this is not a challenge of the body, but of the mind. You must answer my riddle. If you answer correctly, I will open the door moving forward, and you will have an hour before the bandits will renew their pursuit. I will even leave their door closed since they are not related to your party, and force them to answer the same question.”

“And what if we fail?” I asked nervously.

“Then I will open the other door, and with luck, you will all kill each other.”