Chillcrypt Catacombs

When the group descended the last few steps, they were taken aback by the sheer magnitude of the room before them. It stretched into a massive circular space with a domed ceiling. Nearby, a colossal door stood adorned with numerous unfamiliar etchings and engravings. Apart from this grand entrance, another passage led out of the room, a narrow hallway too dark to discern what lay beyond.

Moving toward the room's center, they found themselves bathed in the glow of torches that spontaneously lit up, with small magic stones embedded in the walls emanating a warm and ambient light.

....Creaakkkk... 

BANG!!

A massive stone slammed down where they had just come from blocking off their only exit and forcing them into this mysterious dungeon. 

"Well that's probably not good." Niss thought aloud.

"Yeah I don't think I could bust through that thing, looks like were committed now!" Trevor laughed it off as he looked towards the large door in the room. "I don't think were getting through their either, at least not yet." 

Lysandra spoke up next "The Chillcrypt Catacombs don't usually look like this, I've cleared it a few times before and never did i see anything quite like this."

Lysandra took some time to explain how dungeons, especially those above F-Rank, become increasingly complex. Magic reshapes the dungeon and its aspects according to its whims, with higher ranks yielding more intricate designs. For instance, C-Rank dungeons rarely offer the same experience, while D-Ranks may have slight variations. F-Ranks are somewhat consistent, with minor alterations. Beyond C-Rank, the challenges intensify, there are few people who can easily clear a B-Rank dungeon. The guild tightly controls 'strike groups' for B-Rank and above to prevent dungeons from remaining uncleared for too long. It's the abundance of lower-ranked dungeons that makes adventurers like them necessary. 

"Right... So does that mean this dungeon has become C-Rank?" Siarra asked, her eyes widening.

"Even though it seems unlikely, given the way it trapped us and how significantly different it is from the last time I saw it, it must be C-Rank or very close." Lysandra sighed, her fingers fiddling with the icy sapphire pendant around her neck.

Niss looked at the group that was so confident only a moment ago starting to worry.

"Listen, we can't change what's already happened." He paused for a moment, his gaze firm. "The only way is forward. We can do this!"

"Right!"

Everyone resounded, regaining their confidence with just Niss's simple words. He seemed to have this affect on people especially his friends. 

"This dungeon is no match for us!" Siarra exclaimed, letting her flames burn even brighter, revealing the hallway that was their only option.

The group moved forward, with Trevor and Niss leading the way. Niss kept an eye out for any dangers, using his danger sense, while Trevor held his weapon firmly, ready to spring into action at any moment. The other three walked shoulder to shoulder behind them. Together, they emitted a strong glow of power as they entered the next room, which was even more massive than the first.

This area had four bridges, one of which they crossed to reach a central stone platform. The platform had stone bridges leading in each of the four cardinal directions and going directly up against the stone walls of the massive cavernous room they were in.

Peering over the edge of the platform, Siarra shrieked and jumped backward, colliding with Niss.

"Oof!" Niss caught her and held her princess-style for a moment before setting her down. Siarra, red-faced, looked as though steam was about to come out of her ears.

"I-it's so deep!"

Niss peered over the edge as well to confirm, it was an endless fall into nothingness if they weren't careful.

In the center of the platform, where the rest of the group had gathered, there was a simple device, a large stone lever sticking up from the ground, just begging someone to pull it. Lysandra had taken the lead and had her hands around the stiff rod.

"We should pull this, right? It's the only thing in here."

"Sure, Lysandra, give it a yank!" Niss said, eyeing her with a wicked grin.

As she pulled back the lever, a low and slow grinding sound could be heard straight in front of them.

Across the bridge, an opening was sliding into place, revealing a smaller room similar to the one they were in before. It was a simple circular room with a dome ceiling, the only difference from the room they had come from being that this room also had a lever, just like the center room.

"Huh?" The group seemed to exclaim in unison. 

Most of them had never encountered this before, but Curt spoke up for the first time since entering the dungeon.

"Oh, I love dungeon puzzles! I barely ever see them in D-Rank, but I've studied them a lot!"

His excitement about it seemed slightly out of character, but then again, he was quite nerdy-looking. Once you got a nerd going about their favorite thing, they became like a whole other person.

'Well, I'm glad we brought him along, it seems like he knows what's going on.' Niss thought inwardly.

"Well then, Curt, since you're the specialist, why don't you take the lead?" Niss had no problem delegating, in fact he knew his strengths and weaknesses, and he wasn't going to let something silly like ego take over when they had a specialist right here.

"Really!? Wow, nobody ever wants the healer to be leading..." He trailed off towards the end, his shy side fighting against his love for dungeon puzzles.

"Well, we've made a similar mistake before and learned our lesson. We're happy to have you show us what you know about dungeon puzzles." Niss walked over and placed his hand on Curt's back, trying to infuse some more confidence in the shy boy.

"Yeah, we're all on board!" the girls both smiled and gave Curt warm looks. Trevor mirrored their actions as well.

"Well, alright then, I think I read about something similar to this. With each pull of this lever in the center, it's going to spin the room in front of us. That means as long as at least one person stays here, then anyone going forward won't get stuck, in case the lever inside doesn't rotate its own room."

Curt was going on with his theories about the puzzle in front of them, but at this point, Trevor had already checked out mentally, he was more in favor of fighting than solving puzzles. Niss seemed to be the only one who was paying close attention, as the girls both had pained expressions trying to keep up with Curt's logic. "So someone needs to go pull that lever, that way, we can determine what that room will rotate. I'm assuming that one of these bridges leads the way out, we will just need to find the right combination of lever pulls to put the stones in the right place."

"Ahhh... that actually makes sense. Let's give it a shot." Niss looked at Curt again. "You stay here, I will try pulling the lever up ahead, and that way, you can see what happens."

"Right! Okay, that's perfect." Curt barely expected anyone to keep up with his explanation, but Niss was different from most adventurers he had met before and actually cared about what he had to say.