"I knew it! I fucking knew it! This place is going to fucking kill me!" Gerliari shouts out her first panicked reaction to the walls and ceiling of the crystal-studded chamber she finds herself trapped within, although of course the experienced combat mage doesn't stop there. The sleeves of her robes billow wide and within moments a swarm of metal shards have flown out and begun orbiting the dark elf, prepared to both defend her and attack any threat which reveals itself. Her silver-colored ponytail bounces back and forth as she examines every corner of her prison, its erratic movements alone doing quite a bit to display her anxiety.

Which leaves the woman feeling a little embarrassed when nothing happens except for the sliding open of a new exit from the room, with a rock face descending into the floor not far from the pressure plate she'd hit to activate it. The caster is no Earth Mage but her skills with metal had served her well when seeking out the hidden switches around Floor Seven, and so she starts with examining how the door was able to hide from her senses. "Okay, how'd you pull that off? Gotta be...two feet thick, so okay, I missed the empty space behind it. But the mechanism?" She leans over to touch the floor, and groans after a minute of pressing her mana through it. "Ugh, it's really just a hunk of rock, all the magic driving it was buried under our feet. Damn, perfectly set up to hide from my surface scans."

Gery pauses to frown at her own statement. "...Too perfect. Did you set this up for me, dungeon? Was this entire damn puzzle designed for my magic, specifically?"

The dungeon gives her no response, and so eventually she straightens up, returns her shards to her robes, and sighs before moving towards the newly revealed tunnel. It's not a long one, perhaps only eight feet deep before opening into another chamber, but the mage takes no extra risks before passing through it. With a hand brushing one wall she examines every foot of the passage for hidden traps or triggers, moving forward only when she's confident that she's surrounded by nothing more than mundane stone - or at least, mundane by dungeon standards.

What she finds beyond surprises her more than any trap, however. The chamber is decorated much like the rest of the floor, with raw, brown stone marked by oversized, brightly-colored crystals jutting from every surface. In the center of all of that though is a space cleared out for a stone table and two small rocky benches, and sitting on the opposite side of that table is a red-skinned demon. The man greets her with a comfortable smile, and gestures towards the empty bench. "Care to join me for a game, Mage Gerliari?"

As cautious as always, the mage doesn't exactly leap to accept the invitation. "You're...Sinister, right? The dungeon's core guardian? Aren't we still a long way from the dungeon's core?"

The demon sniffs slightly at his guest's misconceptions. "Sincere, actually. And yes, but I'm hardly a prisoner of the core chamber. I am simply weaker when away from my assigned floor, not that I'm necessarily the strongest defender of the dungeon to begin with. My wits, however, remain as sharp as ever."

The elf takes a few steps closer and notices that the table isn't exactly bare. At first she imagines that the surface is covered with some sort of board game, with a map and pieces which she doesn't recognize, but it doesn't take long for her to realize that she recognizes them all too well. The ring of rooms around the edge of the map is clearly the chambers her party had already cleared within Floor Seven, and a number of the pieces represent her team. There's even one for herself, an ebon marker standing in a room next to a marble figure which is clearly the man sitting in front of her.

"...My apologies, Sincere. You can call me Gery, if we're being friendly. I don't mind a good game or two, but I usually like to know the stakes before I sit down at a table."

The man's smile splits wide, showing his pearly teeth. "Ah, but this is a dungeon, Gery. The stakes are what they always are! Fortune - or death. Although very little of the latter for you yourself, unless you manage to play exceptionally poorly."

Gery slowly slides into the open seat, although she's still no more certain about actually playing along with whatever it is the dungeon is up to. "Why me, though? You seem to know a lot about us - shouldn't you have noticed that Lyman is the leader of this group? Or...is this about me being more of a magic-user while the others like to, ah...get their hands dirty?"

"Actually, the reason you were picked is because we'd like to know more about you. We do have our sources, of course. We know that Lyman and Reed are father and son, descendants of a 'Champion' although not of Prince Xenon himself. Hylii is a descendant of that infamous figure, or at least claims to be, but you...we know rather little about, as it happens."

The mage frowns, noticing a slight inconsistency. "You forgot Liani, eh? Is she not on your scouting sheets either?"

"Ah, of course, I couldn't forget the vampire, could I? An opportunist, apparently, one of those with no particular paths to power back home, and so she chose to try a new avenue by following in the footsteps of Prince Thaddeus. Honestly, despite her unusual species...perhaps the least interesting of the bunch."

"I'll be sure to tell her you said so. But why do you care so much? Wait, does this relate to those confessions you were doing with the other team? Were you just using them to gain intel on us?" The thought makes her furrow her brow. "How the hells would I be involved in anything they would've needed to 'confess' about?"

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"It's related, yes, but not as means of getting the members of your expedition to discuss each other. Like this test, our goal is to see what each of you is willing or able to reveal about yourselves. Now, before we begin, shall I explain the rules of the game?"

The elf gives a hesitant nod. "I'm listening, at least."

"As you know, dungeons must allow for a path from the dungeon's entrance to its core, and there are limits on how difficult this path can be to clear. The requirements are relaxed the deeper one goes, and so on Floor Seven we are allowed to be a little more restrictive than on Floor One. It's not a great difference, but on Floor One a door or barrier must be passable by one or two Challengers, while here we can make it so that barriers are much more difficult to clear without the support of a team."

Gery eyes the pieces on the board, each trapped within their own chamber. "So you got around that by splitting us up. None of us are Earth Mages, so breaking down a door pinning someone inside is going to be next to impossible for any single one of us to do. So game over, you win?"

Sincere snaps his fingers. "Not quite, you see, your team still has a method of progressing - you. With your wit and clever thinking, you may - may - be able to lead your party safely to the floor's exit. This is a game of trade-offs however, and not only is it a question of if you can lead your full party to perfect safety, but if you even want to."

The unwilling player sneers at his description. "I don't know what you've heard about me - some of us are backstabbers, yes, but that's not how I operate. Not to mention that I would be a fool to weaken my party before I myself even have a clear path to safety."

"Ah, but you haven't heard what the trade-offs are yet! For example, behold your opposition." Sincere waves a hand at one side of the table, and suddenly new marble pieces appear, growing from its surface. Some of them are crystalline humanoids, some variant of fae, as she's heard them described. There's also a number of massive slime blobs, or at least, massive if their scales are correct when compared to the sizes of her team's pieces. Finally there's four rabbit-eared figures, although Gerliari is relieved to see that the notorious Trush isn't among them. "The more of these monsters that are defeated, the more doors you can open. Or if not defeated, you may still choose to open a door five minutes after a set has been placed onto the board."

It doesn't take long for the mage to catch Sincere's implication. "You're saying I could direct all of these monsters against a single member of my party, almost certainly killing them, but five minutes later the rest of us would have a clear path to the exit?"

The demon smiles. "I see you catch on quickly."

"...You're seeing who I would be willing to kill in exchange for the safety of people I care about."

"Not just that, of course. Not every door is necessary for your party to escape. A number of treasures have also been placed into side rooms. I'll give you a hint - three of those side rooms are connected to this very chamber. Not that you have to worry about spending moves to free yourself. At the conclusion of the game you will be allowed to leave despite any other results regarding the rest of your party."

At this point Gery feels the need to roll her eyes. "So I could even get paid, scooping up a bunch of loot right here, at the expense of making someone else fight a swarm of monsters on my behalf."

"Or bring the swarms to this chamber, if you like! I promise to stay out of your way, and if you choose, you can take all of the danger of the floor upon yourself. We've established a hidden network of paths that will allow the monsters to reach any room upon the map. And in case you're wondering, yes, you could attempt to find that network...but then you'd be stumbling right into where all of our monsters are currently gathered."

"Well let's not get crazy, I'm neither that arrogant or that saintly." Having said that, the elf refocuses her attention onto the table, attempting to piece together a strategy. There's one obvious problem that immediately becomes clear to her - while the outer ring of rooms appears on the map, as well as the chambers where her companions are currently held, the only other chamber marked is the exit at the center of the floor. In between those sections, the table is nothing more than bare stone. "How am I suppose to guide my party if I don't have a path?"

"There's no game without a bit of risk, is there? The doors are marked by these thinner lines, as you can see, and for each set of monsters you place you can declare which door you would like to link them to. Once the door opens, the chamber beyond will be revealed on the map. There is a path for each of you to reach the exit, I swear on my honor."

"And...can I determine the condition of my companions in some way?"

"Visually, yes - as an example...hrmm, your elf companion?" Sincere gestures at the piece representing Hylii, and as Gerliari watches on the man's figure shifts as if it were clay rather than hard ebony. His expression shifts from determination to anguish, and cuts appear on his light armor and arms. Before Gerliari can shout in alarm, the figure quickly shifts back to its original shape. "Just an example. Perhaps not the most precise method, but I imagine you can get the general gist."

The elf shifts her attention back up to the demon sitting across from her. "And is this a two-player game? Do you have some role in this?"

"Indeed I do! I...am The Tempter." Sincere waves his arms in an exaggerated display, and huffs when Gerliari gives him an unimpressed look. "Every few moves, I shall tempt you. I'll offer you hints, prizes, and warnings. If you like you can choose to ignore everything I say, and still win the game. Alternatively, you can choose to do everything I say, and also win the game. Of course, much depends on your personal definition of 'winning'."

"This sounds like a ridiculously complex way of learning about me! Just buy me a drink like every other man in my life, eh!? Seriously, why am I going through this and no one else?"

"I won't say we know the rest of your companions like they're open books, but I also won't say that they're not being tested as well. The dungeon will be watching you all very carefully, of course. But of all of them, you seemed most suited for the role. In any case, best to deal with the hand you're dealt rather bemoaning your situation, don't you think?"

Gery narrows her eyes. "And if my response to my hand is to put a dart through your skull right now?"

Sincere raises his hands in a mock surrender, but with an entirely unafraid expression on his face. "The game continues regardless. But in that case, you would have to proceed without my charming company."

"...Fine." With a sigh, the mage looks back down at the board, and reaches out to pick up one of the sets of monster pieces. "Then I suppose it's time for the opening move..."