Dungeon Design (3)
Nearly a year had slipped by since Ruel first came to be at Lucy's side.
Their first meeting had been, to put it charitably, less than ideal — and yet here he was now, cherishing the girl as if she were his own flesh and blood.
So much so that he genuinely grieved the fact that, lacking a body of his own, he had no choice but to send her charging onto the battlefield in his stead.
And because of that, Ruel knew the girl called Lucy better than almost anyone.
He knew that the blessing the Chief God had laid upon her forced her to act like a cursed little brat, while the heart beneath was nothing but kind. He knew that she showed weakness often enough, yet when it came time to move for the sake of others, she was upright and unyielding to the point of bearing every agony herself. He knew, quietly, how lonely she was — how, having earned the scorn of everyone around her for so long, she could not even conceive of the idea that anyone might actually like her. He knew that this otherwise perfectly sensible girl would, on occasion, stray absurdly far from common sense — and that once she sank her teeth into something, as she was doing right now, she would forget the world existed and stare at nothing else.
The moment Dungeon Studies class ended, Lucy — having received her dungeon drafting sheets from the professor — shut herself in her room and clutched the paper without pause.
Normally she would train herself half to death until the sun went down and the training grounds locked their doors, then come home and drill her divinity deep into the night. Today, she had thrown her entire routine out the window and poured everything into drafting the dungeon.
It wasn't as though the deadline pressed on her. The Dungeon Studies professor had said three weeks would be plenty. No — the reason Lucy was buried in this work was simple, and singular: designing a dungeon was so unbearably fun that she couldn't stand it.
'Using a weakness-exploit gimmick here works great, but how do I hand them the clue? Leaving it out in the open is too obvious — rejected. So then...'
Ruel smiled warmly at the sight of Lucy's pen moving across the page, her inner thoughts spilling audibly from her lips without her even noticing.
Could building a dungeon with her own two hands truly bring her this much joy?
Well — this was the girl whose emotions shot through the roof the instant anything dungeon-related came up. It would be stranger if she weren't grinning like that.
Any other day, Ruel would have been nagging her for skipping meals with her head buried in her hands. Today, he held his tongue.
This giddy, overwhelmed girl was exactly what a child her age was supposed to look like. A child so crushed beneath her duties that she never once allowed herself even simple play. Sometimes, he decided, she ought to be left alone to throw herself at the things she loved.
'...Wait, why is the capacity already maxed out when I haven't even put anything in?! Am I supposed to build a dungeon or not?! Ugh. Fine — cut the complex gimmicks wherever possible. And then...'
Watching Lucy struggle this hard, apparently designing a dungeon was far trickier than anyone would imagine.
For a girl who displayed near-omniscient knowledge where dungeons were concerned to clutch her head like that...
He had never given it much thought, always standing on the side that cleared the evil gods' dungeons — but the evil gods' lot must have wracked their brains over this too, he supposed. Ahh. So that's why she flew into such a rage whenever their party blew her precious dungeons apart.
'Eh?! I can't use this gimmick yet?! Why?! This is dungeon-crawling 101!'
Seeing her struggle so, he ached to offer a word of guidance — but Lucy took such pride in her dungeon expertise that jumping in with unsolicited advice would do no good.
Truthfully, he wasn't sure what advice he could give in the first place, so he resolved to simply wait and prepare good answers for whenever she did ask something.
So deciding, Ruel anticipated the questions Lucy might pose and readied his responses.
Partly because he genuinely wanted to help her — and partly because he wanted to hear her say 'Grandpa, you're amazing!'
Flattery from a girl like a granddaughter to him was more than enough to melt the heart of Holy Knight Ruel, who had been treated as a difficult old relic everywhere he went.
Alas, Lucy never once asked Ruel anything. She worried through trial and error entirely on her own, arriving at answers by herself without ever seeking another's help.
How many times did Ruel hope with a maybe this time, only to wilt with an of course not?
Before anyone knew it, evening had bled past midnight into the small hours, and even as dawn's light began streaming through the window, Lucy was still moving her pen, bloodshot to the whites of her eyes.
"Does that child know no fatigue?"
Rina, who had fallen asleep in the early evening and woken with the morning, gazed at Lucy's hunched back at the desk before drifting over to Ruel's side.
"Did she get up from her seat at all?"
Get up she did. The girl is human, after all.
"Which is to say, before long she returned to that desk and picked the pen right back up."
Yes.
"Goodness. What manner of infernal dungeon is she trying to build, exactly?"
At Rina's remark that Lucy was going to traumatize every first-year student in the academy, Ruel let out a light laugh.
Oh, come now. She's been warned by one person after another; she'll have some consideration.
"Consideration she'll show, no doubt. But no amount of consideration changes the fact that her notion of 'considerate' is monstrously difficult."
Lucy had an unconscious habit of measuring everyone else by her own yardstick.
Perhaps from years of being belittled by others, she simply could not grasp that her own scale reached far, far beyond anyone else's.
One need only look at the assignments she handed out to those around her.
She would pass them along thinking this much should be perfectly manageable, while the poor recipients faced their lives flashing before their eyes on an almost daily basis.
It was only because her circle consisted of superhumans — Arthur, Joy, Frey, Phoebe — that everyone was keeping up at all. Anyone less would likely have worked themselves to death long ago.
"It's certain. That child will say this much should be easy and produce an infernal dungeon that no living soul could pass."
Ruel could not bring himself to argue.
"And when she presents that, the professor will surely tell her to do it over — and Lucy will come back with something easier than before, yet still leagues beyond first-year level."
...I can see it now, plain as day. 'Even the Third Prince could clear this much,' she'll say.
"Ha. She absolutely will. Mind you, that Third Prince is himself a monster who more than earns the word 'genius' for his age."
And the Third Prince himself — the very one Lucy would name — would look at her dungeon and reply, 'You expect someone to clear this? Me? What nonsense is this?!'
Because Lucy — and Lucy obsessed with dungeons above all — was a human being with no concept of restraint whatsoever.
"Which is why we ought to filter out the worst of it ourselves before she ever hands it to the professor. Spare everyone the wasted time."
How unusually considerate of you today.
This was someone who normally watched the vast majority of Lucy's ordeals from the sidelines with detached amusement — why so much attention all of a sudden? Had the business in Burrow Territory changed his heart?
Just as Ruel marveled at how remarkably mature Rina was being, so long as Lucy wasn't involved —
Rina, despite still wearing the shape of a fox, broke into a smile so melted it was visible.
"The sooner this is finished, the sooner Lucy will dress up in her bunny girl outfit, no?"
...I beg your pardon?
"Oh, I can hardly wait. Even back when Lucy's rank was lower, seeing her in that bunny girl outfit nearly evaporated my reason. But the Lucy of now, in that outfit — and then stomping on me with an expression of pure contempt? Haah... I was only imagining it, and already my body trembles."
Ruel's goodwill chilled over completely at the sight of her drooling and shuddering.
Truly, he did not know what to say.
Rina was, without question, a capable and dignified soul — so why did standing before Lucy reduce her to a degenerate one wouldn't even deign to call an animal?
It was true the girl had a face that turned heads wherever she went.
Now, with her charm heightened further still, a single meeting of the eyes could strike a person speechless.
And yet — wasn't this a bit much, directed at a child that young?
Back when he still carried a body of his own, he'd have taught her manners with a mace to the skull.
"IT'S FINISHED!
Just as Rina's face melted further and Ruel's disgust swelled in equal measure, Lucy shot up from her seat with a voice bursting with triumph.
'Grandpa! Look, quickly! I worked so hard on this!'
"Grandpa, take a look right now. I've built a dungeon that a fossil with a rusted brain like you couldn't dream of conceiving!"
How many times must I tell you — keep that to your inside voice.
She was too worked up to even register the complaint, it seemed.
But she was this happy, and he couldn't bear to sour her mood, so — no nagging today.
...Mm. And he would restrain the harsh remarks as well.
Lately he'd fallen victim to her mischief often enough that she was clearly teasing now too, hoping to see him sulk. But he couldn't spoil that bright smile.
Even if there were things to correct, he would deliver them as pleasantly as possible.
So resolving, Ruel slowly turned his gaze to the dungeon Lucy had created.
The first thing that stood out was its small size. At Lucy's pace, it looked like something she could clear in under ten minutes.
Even if it was meant to test children, wasn't this far too short?
A question rose in him, but he swallowed it and read on. Lucy was the one who built it — if she made it short, there was surely a reason.
His guess proved correct.
The dungeon Lucy had made was short, and yet not short at all.
A dungeon that repeats the same space infinitely, is it?
'Yes! Exactly. Once you fulfill a certain condition, the dungeon's scenery changes — and to move on to the next stage, you have to fulfill another condition!'
I see. Then this would be a superb instrument for testing one's ability to crack gimmicks.
Excellent thinking.
'Right? Right?'
Listening to Lucy's delighted laughter at the praise, Ruel continued reading through her dungeon.
The overall structure was sound. Nothing felt forced, and the insights gained earlier remained valid in later stages — a lovely touch.
Haha. Now he understood why she'd been wracking her brain so. Something like this demanded no small amount of thought.
...Hm? No, that's wrong?
By the pattern so far, the earlier gimmick should have been reused here —
Ah! So that's the trick of it.
For someone like me to make such a blunder! I've rusted far more than I thought.
At first, Ruel had been reading to find flaws in the dungeon — but at some point, everything changed.
Past a certain point, he found himself transported back to the days he'd cleared dungeon after dungeon alongside the Hero, earnestly and dead-seriously solving the puzzles Lucy had laid down.
Ha! Yes! Once it's me facing it, this much is nothing at all!
How long did he keep at it?
When he felled the dungeon's final boss and finally laid eyes on its end, he cried out with a strange sense of accomplishment — then, noticing Lucy grinning smugly at him, coughed violently into his fist.
'Grandpa. Grandpa. It's really well made, isn't it? Right?'
...I cannot deny it.
This dungeon was a place of examination, yes — but at once a hall of enlightenment and a stage for pure theater.
Anyone who reached the very end, however cool-headed they might be, would find themselves screaming aloud.
It was a dungeon crafted to precisely that caliber.
To praise what you've made, I fear, would take from now until the end of days.
'Heheh. Naturally. Who do you think made it?'
Which is why — before anything else — let me point out one problem.
That said, it was not without its faults.
A problem? This dungeon has one of those?
It does. The problem that not a single first-year in the academy will ever see the end of this dungeon.
'...I'm sorry, what?'
I myself, having conquered dungeons beyond counting, had to rack my brain again and again partway through — and you expect a first-year student to clear this in one go?! Preposterous!
Thinking it over a second time, the level was still absurd.
To present this as an exam to children who had never experienced a proper dungeon run in their lives...
Thank the heavens Lucy was the Chief God's Apostle. If this girl had fallen under an evil god and begun crafting dungeons out of pure malice...
Even imagining it was dreadful.
That place would surely have been a nightmare from which even the Hero's party — himself included — could only have escaped by wagering their very lives.
'Eh?! But... but the monsters are weak, and there's nothing actually dangerous, so if they just take their time —'
Do you think that will fly? The students are sitting more exams than Dungeon Studies during the test period, are they not?
At his flat declaration that clearing it was impossible, Lucy visibly deflated.
Despair was a rare sight on a girl who normally strode about with her chin held high.
Rina beside them raised her voice declaring that the look was, in its own way, rather charming — but both Ruel and Lucy lightly ignored her.
Rina saying something unhinged was simply a daily occurrence.
'Ugh. There's nothing left to cut. Strip out any more gimmicks and the dungeon's whole concept falls apart!'
On that point, I agree. Shrinking this dungeon would be a poor choice.
'Then what am I supposed to do?! Throw it all away and start over from scratch?!'
No need. I happen to have a strategy in mind.
'...And that would be?'
If no one can clear the dungeon in a single attempt — then simply grant them as many attempts as they need.