The Fool's Challenge Letter
Without letting anything show on her face, Zero made a show of slowly surveying the dungeon, all the while trying to pin down where her observer was lurking.
Even her data-collection mode was picking up an anomalous signal.
Rather than say it out loud, she reached out over the friend chat.
Ryu Hwi answered through the friend chat as well, sneaking a glance at YggON. In town, the sheer density of "broadcasts" had made tracking difficult, but out here that wouldn't be an issue.
YggON immediately launched into analysis based on the data.
Found it.
"Can we identify who it is?"
I'm detecting a power close to the "Field" that the S.E.N employ. It stretches across this entire dungeon like a spider's web.
One of the S.E.N, then. Most likely it had been keeping watch over this dungeon ever since it abruptly appeared after the seal broke — and then Ryu Hwi and Zero had simply walked in.
"Trace it back."
Signal flow locked on.
That's YggON for you.
Until they knew how far the surveillance web extended, they couldn't afford to move carelessly. Which meant they had to blind the watcher's eyes first...
"Ah."
Something surfaced from memory — an old film he'd seen once. A classic from before Yggdrasil had appeared. In it, the protagonist shook off an enemy's gaze through security cameras using a brilliantly clever trick.
"YggON, can you do something like this?"
Child's play.
Ryu Hwi sent Zero a message through the friend chat right away. She made a mildly astonished face at the method he'd described.
What could possibly be more enjoyable than imagining an enemy trembling in humiliation?
The more of Intuition Lv.4's power he drew out, the more vividly and abundantly he could perceive. The burden grew proportionally heavier, of course — but right now, escape came first.
"Here we go."
He unlatched the bolt on his Intuition.
──Intuition Lv.4.
With each step up in intensity, torrents of information came flooding in.
His skull throbbed, but it wasn't yet more than he could bear. Ryu Hwi pushed the dial up another notch.
──Everything gathered from his full circuit of the dungeon, distilled at once.
──What he'd seen and felt, and what Intuition had detected even when he couldn't perceive it directly.
All of that information converged in an instant, churning out a single "answer."
"Good."
He took a deep breath and steadied his mind. The power of Intuition dimmed, and the headache faded with it.
Ryu Hwi handed the potions and herbs over to Zero.
"Potions and herbs. You can hold out a little longer, right?"
"I won't die, sure. But what good is that if I don't know the way out?"
"I found the way."
Zero stared at him, wide-eyed. She had no idea what he'd just done, but the exhaustion written across his face made it obvious he'd used a skill.
"Is that not a cheat?"
My point exactly.
YggON heartily chimed in.
"...?"
Zero startled, feeling oddly as though someone had just answered her.
"To summarize the quirks of this labyrinth, it comes down to three things."
Endless loop — the rooms from 0 to 11 repeat infinitely, one after another.
Random shift — the path connecting one segment to the next is never fixed and keeps changing.
Heat — constant damage-over-time from the molten lava flowing alongside every path.
"The 'random shift' and the 'heat' exist purely to make exploring this dungeon miserable. Mapping becomes meaningless, and on top of that there's an implicit time limit."
"Makes me want to crack open the designer's skull and take a look inside."
"So the first problem is breaking this endless loop — and conveniently, an easy-to-read hint has been left for us."
"Hint?"
He approached one of the pillars bearing an engraved number. The figure ⟨2⟩ was carved there, alongside a crown marked with a cross and a staff shaped like the symbol for woman, ♀.
Ryu Hwi rapped the engraved portion lightly with his knuckles. From the feel of it against his hand, he confirmed a hollow space within — then smashed the carving in with his fist.
"Just as I thought."
Having confirmed what lay inside, Ryu Hwi beckoned Zero closer.
"The Pope's tarot card... so that's what this is."
Tarot cards. The kind used for divination.
"How did you even know these would be here?"
"Each pillar had a special emblem carved into it, remember? 0 was a jester's cap, 1 a wizard's hat, 2 a cross-crowned staff symbolizing a woman — and 3 had an ornate crown with another staff symbolizing a woman..."
"Hold on."
Zero pulled up the data she'd compiled in her collection mode. Sure enough, just as Ryu Hwi said, every pillar bore a distinctive mark.
⟨4⟩ bore the same crown as ⟨3⟩, but with a staff shaped like the symbol for man, ♂.
⟨5⟩ had the same cross-crown as ⟨2⟩ with the ♂ staff.
The only differences were the shape of the crowns and the gender symbol on the staffs. And the arrangement of these emblems matched the order of the tarot arcana exactly.
"0 is the Fool, 1 the Magician, 2 the High Priestess, 3 the Empress, 4 the Emperor, 5 the Pope... I see. But what does a volcano have to do with tarot cards?"
"How would I know."
There was no telling why a tarot-based mechanism of all things had been built into a volcano.
"Tarot cards change meaning depending on whether they're upright or reversed, right?"
"Right. This one is... the High Priestess, reversed. Could that be connected to the dungeon's infinite loop?"
"Then from here, let's do another full circuit and check the orientation of every single card."
"Again?"
Zero felt like collapsing. One lap had already pushed her to her limit — and now he wanted another?
Ryu Hwi patted her on the shoulder.
"It's fine. We've got a mountain of regular potions in stock."
"..."
It was absolutely not fine. Zero's head drooped all the way down.
After that, the two of them made the circuit once more, checking every tarot card.
"Only the Fool is upright. Everything else is reversed," Zero said in a voice half-dead with exhaustion.
"Card number 0, the Fool — upright it means adventure and innocence. Reversed it means recklessness and foolishness. I'd guess it's a warning not to flip things carelessly."
Zero analyzed the data gathered over yet another lap. Ryu Hwi, meanwhile, had already gotten a feel for which card needed touching.
"The one we flip is..."
"The Chariot, isn't it?"
Before Ryu Hwi could speak, Zero produced the answer herself.
"Upright, the Chariot means 'advance' and 'victory.' The others all seem far removed from the idea of moving forward."
If the Fool was indeed a warning, who knew what would happen if they carelessly flipped any of the others?
"..."
Ryu Hwi clicked his tongue.
"Yeah, the Chariot is probably the answer."
Ryu Hwi and Zero passed the section where the Lovers were placed and finally reached the zone holding the Chariot card. Even getting this far had taken another full hour.
Zero had been guzzling herbs and potions without restraint. Without the recovery items, the damage-over-time would have killed her over and over.
Ryu Hwi turned the Chariot card on its pillar from reversed to upright.
GRUUUUMBLE — with a thunderous roar, the river of flowing lava split apart, and a new path opened.
"So this is how we get out?"
Zero voiced the hopeful observation, but Ryu Hwi said nothing in reply. He could see all too clearly what awaited ahead.
The two of them pressed on through the new passage.
"Right, tarot cards... there are twenty-two of them."
The dungeon's structure had changed. A vast cavern opened up amid lava crisscrossing from every direction, ringed by rows of dragon statues.
At the center of the cavern, ten tarot cards sat arranged in a jumble of upright and reversed positions.
A path led straight across to the far side — but ignoring the cards in front of them and walking on was asking for something terrible to happen.
"One mountain after another, huh. Whew..."
He had a rough grasp of the dungeon's design now.
They would have to arrange all ten cards in their correct orientations according to their meanings before the way forward would open. Misplace even one, and they'd end up looping through the same ground forever like before — or worse, trigger some even nastier trap.
The dragon statues stationed around them were ominous, too. There was no telling whether they might wake and attack.
"So then..."
"Wait, hold on. I think I know the answer."
Ryu Hwi reached for his Intuition again, but Zero stopped him.
"That power of yours isn't something you can throw around casually, right? You get a headache every time you use it."
"Ugh."
Exerting only a sliver of Intuition Lv.4 caused no real trouble, but the further he opened that bolt, the heavier the burden became.
"Leave it to me. Now that I know how the structure works, the answer's basically staring at me."
Zero strode boldly toward the arrangement of ten tarot cards.
"Card 13, Death. Upright it means upheaval and separation; reversed, it means restart, renewal, ascent... so this one goes reversed."
She flipped the Death card.
"Card 14, Temperance. Upright means harmony, fruition... upright for this one. Card 15, the Devil. Reversed it means liberation, awakening, a new encounter... reversed."
Not a trace of hesitation in her card placement.
"Card 16, the Tower. Upright it means destruction and tragedy; reversed it means sudden disaster and misunderstanding... this one's bad news either way, isn't it?"
16, the Tower — upright.
17, the Star — upright.
18, the Moon — reversed.
Zero kept choosing the cards' positions one after another.
19, the Sun — upright.
20, Judgement — upright.
And one card remained: 21, the World.
Ryu Hwi swallowed. If Zero's arrangement was wrong, there was no telling what might happen.
"21, the World — upright means completion. Placing it upright."
Zero finished the tarot arrangement.
"If you just know what the cards mean, it's a simple puzzle. The Tower was a bit of a toss-up, though..."
The dungeon shuddered, and the path ahead was swallowed by the overflowing lava. Then the arranged tarot cards rose into the air, whirling around the chamber before dissolving into light — and out of that light, a fresh road formed over the molten rock.
"Guess that was the right answer."
Please, let this one actually be the exit.
Their potions were nearly gone by now. Honestly, forget the potions — she was mentally drained.
Zero wanted nothing more than a hot bath and to sprawl boneless across a bed.
Light shone through from beyond the dark corridor.
The exit! Finally!! Zero's steps turned buoyant.
Just as she moved toward the light—
"HURK?!"
Ryu Hwi yanked her back by the collar. It happened so fast her neck cracked audibly.
"Are you trying to KILL me?!"
"Wait. In my experience, whenever something looks like this, there's always a catch."
"A catch?"
"And look at this."
Ryu Hwi pointed at the floor of the path.
There, a crest was engraved: the Tower, upright.
"The Tower..."
"You agonized over which way to place the Tower yourself, didn't you? It's the only tarot card whose meaning is bad in both orientations."
"Don't tell me I placed it wrong?"
"No — the path probably would have opened whether the Tower was upright or reversed. Only the stage layout would be completely different."
Stage layout.
The meaning of Ryu Hwi's words was clear: this wasn't the end.
"Knowing that guy's style, there's probably a hidden boss up ahead — or a lethal trap lying in wait."
"Aren't you overestimating Loki a little?"
"Either way, I'm going first, so you follow behind."
Ryu Hwi spread Intuition Lv.4 wide, ready to react the instant anything happened. The moment he took a single step forward — and sure enough — the final stage unfolded before them.
Clap, clap, clap!
Applause rang out from every direction. Countless hands in white gloves materialized in the empty air, clapping without pause.
::Conditions met: Trial of Loki (Volcano)::
::Proof of Qualification — the Foolish Fool's Challenge begins.::
As the system alert rang in his ears, Ryu Hwi heaved a sigh.
"I knew it."