"Well...shit."

Reed Blair raises an eyebrow in his father's direction as the two step into the first chamber of Floor Seven, their thin blades at the ready. "What? Does this cave look worse to you than all the others so far? At least there's no endless drop a foot away at all times like on the floor before."

Lyman shakes his head. "No, I'm just disappointed that we're actually here. Was kinda hoping the dungeon would send us to the shrine like the other group, so we'd get an easy win. I'd take an hour of spilling my sins over spilling my guts any day."

"Feeling your age, human?" The dark elf coming up behind him has a smirk on his gray-skinned face, adding a warmer feeling to the potential insult.

"Age? You're damn near twice as old as I am, Hylii, damn you! But nah, aside from having an easier time of it, then at least we'd know what to expect. Now I got the feeling the dungeon's still up to something, but now we ain't got a clue what it is."

The middle-aged man twitches a bit as two shards of metal fly through the air, shattering a pair of small gemstones on the floor beyond him. Gemstones which squeal in pain as the metal tears them apart. Those cries are cut short as the shards exit their bodies just as quickly, flying back into the sleeve of the second dark elf to enter the floor. "Maybe you should care less about potential dangers, and focus more on the ones sharing the room with us. Tizzy's report included mentions of the tiny mimics, you know."

Reed grunts as the two elves verbally team up on his dad. "Relax, Gerliari, the report also said they're slow to act and easy to take care of once they do. We were getting to it in a moment."

The last member of the party steps through the shortcut portal and wastes little time in drawing her own blade. The party has three sword fighters, which is a little unbalanced by some reckonings, but Liani's style is quite a bit...messier than the Blairs and their fencing-based training. The local Challenger class title the pale-skinned woman had claimed was that of a Bloody Blade, a melee class augmented by blood magic, which would typically be rather useless on a floor like this where none of the monsters actually have blood. That's mostly just a cover story however, as the woman's actual skills contain more than a few abilities that would have raised a few questions had Tizzy included them on her paperwork. She certainly seems confident enough as she scans the room and displays a fang-tipped smile.

"Mmmm, back in the dungeon. Everyone's ready?"

Gerliari turns to face the last arrival, her violet robes jingling slightly as she moves. "You seem unusually eager, Liani. I thought you hated getting your hands dirty - unless it was in the process of getting yourself a snack."

"True, but I have a good feeling about this floor. I think we're going to be very...productive today."

Lyman frowns but shrugs it off. "Somehow, you being in a good mood doesn't help mine any. Just remember to keep a watch out for Gery's back, everyone. She's our ace in the hole when it comes to the Valkyrie, in fact, if she bites it I'm calling this whole run off. Otherwise we're too melee-oriented for that fight, in my opinion."

The dark elf mage sighs and pinches her nose. "...Lyman, have you forgotten that the dungeon can almost certainly hear us now that we're inside? You've just painted a nice big target on that back of mine."

"...Well, it'll encourage you to keep on your toes. Now enough dawdling, lets get to it!"

It doesn't take long for the group to clear the first chamber, as both of the dark elves display abilities that allow them to sense the mimics hiding around them. Gerliari does so by detecting the different metallicities of the false gemstones, while Hylii - acting under the guise of a 'Body Mage' - manages to detect their faint life signs directly. From there things begin to get a little more complex, however. The elemental sprite-based fae of the floor have a number of magical attacks which the party has no direct counter for, and so instead the team manages by showcasing a high level of agility instead. The Blair family are known for their speed and precision in their swordplay, but with Hylii's magics enhancing their muscles the two become masters of being wherever their enemy's attacks aren't. Liani meanwhile manages quite well on her own, and half the time the woman slays her opponents by crushing them in her palms, her sword almost forgotten.

It's a little tiring, but the party takes no injuries and so they remain largely in good cheer for the first few chambers. Eight crystal-filled rooms on, that mood begins to slip slightly. Turning back towards his team, Lyman furrows his brow. "I didn't miscount or misremember, right? Wasn't it only supposed to be five or six chambers before we get to that big one with the upside-down crystal trees, or whatever? Do you think the dungeon broke it up into a bunch of small ones? Seems odd, since the reports said the most dangerous stuff was supposed to be in the main chamber."

Reed peeks ahead through the small tunnel leading to the next room, and his frown matches his father's. "It's worse than just making more rooms. Is it just me, dad, or does this next one look familiar?"

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The group continues on through, and sure enough there's a number of distinctive markers sitting around them. For one, there's the shattered remnants of the gemstone mimics they'd slain on arrival. For another, the shortcut portal leading back to the mountainside is impossible to miss. At the sight of it, Hylii groans. "Ah, wonderful! We've gone in a circle. But doesn't that violate the dungeon rules, or something? There has to be a route to continue onward, yes?"

Gery nods. "They can be hidden, but only within reason. Dungeons can become trickier as they age, apparently. I didn't bother searching out for hidden doors or tunnels on our first trip around, but perhaps I can pick something up if I look for it."

Lyman gives his approval, and so the party gets to searching the walls of the floor, with Gerliari running her fingertips across the stone of the inner side of the loop. It doesn't take long before she stops, and with a quick slam of the side of her fist against the stone a thin facade crumbles away, revealing a small pressure plate. Grinning, she turns back to the rest of the team. "This is magically charged - given how weakly it was hidden, it must be part of the way onward. A switch for a hidden door, perhaps. Shall I?"

The party leader sighs, but eventually nods. "Everyone get ready for a trap. Actually, Hylii, you hit the button. If it zaps you or something, you're the fastest, and if you aren't, at least you're more expendable than Gery is."

"My, your confidence in me is astounding." Despite the sarcasm, the elf doesn't hesitate to walk over and press down on the plate, muscles prepared to launch himself backwards should anything go wrong. Instead, absolutely nothing happens at all.

The party cranes their heads in silence for a few moments, wondering if perhaps the room had shifted in some invisible way, but it doesn't take long to come to the conclusion that everything is exactly as it was. Scratching his head, Reed offers a theory. "Perhaps it opened a door on the other side of the loop?"

"Perhaps. I suppose we'll continue and see if I can find anything more, shall I?" Lyman again nods his assent, and the Metal Mage continues her search of the floor. Now knowing what to look for, it doesn't take her long to find a second switch, just as it doesn't take the party long to confirm that it also has no apparent effect when pressed. Then another, and another, until eventually the party's completed their second circle of the floor. Mentally counting it up, Lyman begins cursing to himself.

"Five switches! Five goddamn switches. And that one door there that completes the loop wasn't there when we walked in, so the dungeon's obviously making modifications as we go. Modifications just for us. Anyone else see the obvious, here?"

Reed grunts as he stands next to his father. "Five of us, five switches. We'll need to hit them all at once, I assume? That's a challenge of synchronization, I suppose. It's not going to be easy to time things for the five of us spread across the floor."

"Right, Reed, but that's not what concerns me. What concerns me is that we'll be splitting up the party to the maximum extent possible. Would that not be the ideal moment for the dungeon to strike us all down?"

The party considers that in silence for a moment, before Hylii chooses to speak up. "They say that, regardless of how physically large a dungeon floor may be, each floor only has a certain 'capacity' for the number of monsters it can contain. The Association's done studies of it, and it does vary depending on how strong those monsters are, but there is a limit to how difficult the challenge of a floor can be. Not only have we already cleared out quite a few rooms worth of monsters, but there were more of those rooms than there typically are. So, theoretically, we've probably already killed most of the floor's monsters. The main threat is likely just the boss, and possibly that rabbit boss who shows up randomly sometimes. That's not enough to get all five of us at once."

The other elf scoffs. "Oh, so just one or two of us, then? And we've already told the dungeon that I'm the most valuable target here? Explain to me how splitting up isn't going to lead to my death?"

Liani had been rather silent for quite a while, but on seeing Gery's discouraged expression the vampire decides to try and cheer her up. "What if Hylii gave you his best enhancements before we split up, hrmm? If you're already the best magician in the party, you'd be quite the terror if you're boosted to being our deadliest fighter at the same time! Perhaps you might even want for the boss to try and give you a surprise hello!"

"Hrnf, I don't know about that, but...becoming fast enough to rejoin the rest of the party would certainly help. Hylii, does that work for you?"

The Body Mage rubs his chin in thought, but eventually nods. "I was planning to save my most expensive spells for the boss fight, but if this could be the boss fight, then I suppose I might as well. And if it's not, we do still have mana potions. I can also help with the synchronized plate-pressing challenge, as well. My perception-enhancing spell also includes the perception of time - if we begin counting in sync, it shouldn't be too hard to remain in sync for the duration of the spell."

"Let's do it, then. I don't want to have to go back and tell the prince we gave up because of some damn logic puzzle or some shit." Lyman gives the man a nod. "Boost Gery up, then let us know when to start counting. Sixty seconds should be enough for everyone to get into position, so we'll hit them on sixty, got it?"

The party confirms their understanding of their orders, and Hylii gets to work casting his entire assortment of body-boosting spells on his elf companion. A much simpler spell improves the party's senses, and with that done they immediately get to sprinting in either direction. Gerliari takes the switch closest to the floor's exit, while Liani moves on to the most distant plate as the most physically durable member of the party. To help with their timing Lyman begins to bellow out his count, and soon the sound of numbers can be heard echoing down the floor.

"Fifty-seven!"

"Fifty-eight!"

"Fifty-nine!"

"Sixty! Now!"

Each member of the party slams down their hands upon the switches and just as they suspected, their correct timing activates the puzzle mechanism.

And nearly a dozen doors slide shut, cutting off each member of the party into their own individual chamber.