The party reached the garden´s exit, but before they left its domain, Peonie crouched down and picked up a long and sturdy branch to replace her lost sword. She gave a couple of practice swings before being satisfied that her latest acquisition had the resilience and weight necessary to clobber opponents.
The soft dirt of the garden gave way to the hard cobblestone of the dungeon proper. Once more, the party navigated cramped corridors, but unlike before, lit torches provided much-needed light along the walls. Their presence could only mean one thing. Something was living down there, and they were getting closer to it.
It also meant they were probably close to a confrontation with something magical at the bottom of the dungeon. Min fiddled with her fingers, looking down at herself, at her naked chest swaying slightly with each step of her bare feet.
Fighting a boss in the nude seemed like a bad idea, but Min had an ace in her nonexistent sleeve. Her magical jamming ability, the one she activated in the forest during her fight with the fairies. It should nullify the worst spells of whatever creature waited for them at the end of the dungeon.
... Of course, said ability failed to work in her most recent fight against the fairies in this dungeon. That was the reason she was walking with her legs pressed together and an arm folded around her chest. Why her cheeks burned a bit with the sting of embarrassment and defeat.
What if the fairies in the Misty Forest were right? Was if Min did not have a magical ability but was cursed to be a bad luck magnet? It would explain a lot about how the expedition was shaping out. Even if things went excellently from this point forward, Min still had an awkward naked walk to town waiting for her due to the party´s, mistakes.
But who would curse her? The goddess that sent her into this world seemed the obvious candidate, but why would she? Why would she go through the trouble of reincarnating someone just to saddle them with a curse? Was she watching down at her misfortune with a big tub of popcorn and laughing at Min as if she were watching a sitcom?
Was that how bored deities amused themselves in a world without movies and video games?
No, it didn´t make much sense. Of all the people in the world to play the clown, why would the goddess choose Min? She would make the most boring jester ever.
Min used to be a meek and quiet woman who, ironically enough, would not stand out in the middle of the crowd even if she was singing karaoke in the nude. People sat on her in the cinema as if she was invisible, for crying out loud! Hell, she was so forgettable that even her boss could not remember she worked at her office most days, always asking her if she was a new hire or intern.
Of course, all those attributes are not exactly adventurer material either. Well, except maybe thief material. Why would the goddess choose her to be a heroine? Maybe no one else of the recently deceased had the same burning desire to stand out and become someone important, someone admired, as Min did.
Or maybe her encyclopedic knowledge of useless fantasy trivia was useful for something. it´s not like her late Friday nights alone were good for anything else.
There was also the possibility that the goddess didn´t curse Min, but someone else did. In that case, who could have done so? The alchemist? The innkeeper´s daughter, angry that she ruined her favorite dress? One of the fairies?
Min shook her head. She was getting ahead of herself. Min didn´t even know if she was cursed, and she was already going down a list of suspects. None of which seemed likely to cause her such harm.
The real explanation was that she was still a novice adventuring in a party with only one seasoned dungeon diver. They were bound to make mistakes. As for her "ability", she probably needed to do something to activate it beyond just wishing for it. Once she figured that out, everything would go smoothly... right?
Min sighed. If only there was a way to know for sure if she had the ability or was cursed. Sadly, the only person who might have a clue about her situation was also the last one at the party she wanted to talk with.
But, being a heroine is all about doing things you don´t want for the greater good, right? So…
"Err, Liana. Do you mind answering a tiny-itsy bitsy question?" Min asked, twiddling her thumbs.
"Before you ask, no. I don´t know any illusory spells to make clothing appear on your body. And even if did, I would not waste the mana on you..."
"Great, nice knowing you have my back," Min replied through gritted teeth. The oath of vengeance she took against the mage flashed in her head. It wasn´t the time or place.
"It´s not about that. Out of curiosity, do you feel like your magic is working as intended? Like, don´t you feel as if something is messing with your spells? Making them fail or be more ineffective than usual?"
"Hmmm." Liana crossed her arms. "Can´t say I do… Wait, are you suggesting that it´s my fault we are in this mess? That I should have been able to magic our problems away somehow?"
"Jeez, talk about touchy. No! Nothing like that. Just curiosity, that´s all."
Ok, so, Liana wasn´t affected by any magic jamming ability Min might or not have. That was a strike against the possibility that Min was blessed with a power like that. Or maybe the ability to know who her friends were... Wait, Liana wasn´t her friend. Acquaintance? Nope, that wasn´t it either. Co-worker? Yeah, that seemed closer to the truth.
But, regardless of the question if the hypothetical ability had friendly fire or not, there was still the bigger question hanging over Min´s head.
"And, have you ever heard of bad luck curses and stuff like that?"
Liana eyed Min suspiciously, from top to bottom, as if trying to decipher her true intentions.
"Yes, curses are a real thing that exists, and yes, theoretically, you could make a curse with an effect that would make the victim experience something that could be described as bad luck. However, that´s not a spell I know how to cast, if you have a grudge to settle."
"O-oh, so bad luck curses can be real, huh? I-interesting. Out of curiosity, can you like, detect curses and stuff?"
"I can´t. That´s not an easy thing to learn. You would need a far more experienced wizard than me. Why do you ask? Wait," Liana´s eyes shot open with a realization. "You don´t think we got cursed, don't you? It would explain why everything has been a mess ever since we set foot in this place."
"Err, I´m leaning towards maybe? Is there no way to know?"
"Sadly, no. Nothing I can try right now, at least, unless you have some chalk, a crystal ball, and some chicken bones stitched away in that cape of yours."
"No, but... thanks for the idea on how to use the cape to carry stuff! Hopefully, I won´t need to after I buy some pants with actual pockets, but you never know how things are going..."
"You are welcome? ...What do you mean you never know? It´s not like you are going to remain naked permanently."
"Are you sure? Isn´t there a possibility that we could remain cursed forever?"
"Even if we were cursed, that´s very unlikely. Curses are very magic-intensive spells. For them to last even more than a day would require they be cast by beings of unknowable power, like a Spirit or the Sisters themselves. We found nothing of the sort here. If anyone cursed us, are those annoying fairies, or maybe..."
Or maybe a goddess with an inexplicable grudge. That wasn´t reassuring at all. But at least it offered Min the hope that her curse had a time limit if she had a curse at all, that is. Argh, she was going in circles! The first thing Min would do after getting out is to find an honest-to-goodness wizard to solve this enigma. A proper one with a long beard and pointy hat, not a wannabe like Liana.
"Agh!" Liana lightly tapped Min´s back, snapping her out of her mind.
"Huh, I pegged for an idiot, but you might be onto something here. We might not be cursed, but the ruins are! That´s why we have bad luck, and that´s why the animals are congregating here! It´s all because of a curse!"
"But you said that such a powerful curse requires spirits and stuff. Does that mean we will find a-"
"That´s unlikely. I think this is the result of a naturally occurring curse. You see, Sometimes mana naturally congregates in specific places, like this one, due to a geographical quirk or just plain luck. Like a barrel full of oil, concentrated magic needs but a spark to take shape into a spell or a curse."
"A spark? Like what?"
"The spark could be any outburst of emotion. The cries of a dying animal, the song of a happy bird, a magically inclined person yelling after stubbing her toe."
"Oh, like you did a couple of floors back up. Could you be the cause of all of this?"
"No, the curse was already active when we went in, remember? The spark doesn´t matter. What matters is that because of the sordid history of this dungeon, the magic was influenced by negative emotions, and so it takes the shape of a curse affecting everyone and everything around it."
"So, we have to find the place where the magic is thickest and dispel the curse to finish our quest?" Peonie commented.
"Ah!" Liana jumped back like a scared cat into Min´s soft body.
"Oww!"
"Eavesdropping is rude, you know? Since when are you two standing behind me?" Liana asked.
"Since you two decided to stop walking to have an academic discussion about the nature of curses," Celeria replied. "At least now we know we won´t have to face a strong monster in our small clothes and just need to perform a ritual."
"Why would there be a monster at the end of the dungeon?" Peonie asked.
"There usually is."
"She is right, you know?" Min backed the elf up. "The boss is always at the end of the dungeon, not the start. And he never leaves his room."
"That´s right."
"What? That doesn´t make any sense. Shouldn´t he be out here doing his thing instead of waiting for adventurers or knights to wander in and kill them?"
Celeria shrugged. "It´s just the way it is."
"A better question would be if there´s no one down here, who lit up all the torches?" Min asked.
The party´s gaze was slowly drawn upwards. Towards the winged peanut gallery watching their every step from the ceiling. Then, the fairies slowly turned their gaze toward their teal sister floating among them.
"What?" a fairy replied, shrugging. "It gets dark here. How am I supposed to fly around the basement if I can´t see what´s in front of me? That´s where I keep my stash of nuts."
"There you go. It was a rough start, but it seems like the quest will have an easy resolution." Liana concluded. "All we need to do to disperse the accumulated mana is to cast any spells. Easy as pie, we might even return before nightfall!"
"Err, if you don´t mind. I think I would rather return after dark if we can help it…" Peonie replied, shuffling her legs and placing her hands above her crotch.
"Yeah, no reason to show the peasants the full moon while the sun is out," Min replied with a shy smirk, her arms following Peonie´s example and covering the front and back of her crotch.
The wave of self-consciousness reached Celeria, who discreetly folded her arms in front of her sprightly chest. She nodded towards Liana, who followed suit. "Agreed."