Hello.

This is day twelve: dungeons.

I do not own Legend of Zelda or Linked Universe.

Enjoy!

Hyrule remembered his first dungeon very clearly. It wasn't a large dungeon, being a cool icy blue stone flooring, wall, and a ceiling that created an atmosphere of chill although there was no ice. Compared to his later dungeons, the first was relatively short, and the monsters inside were very easy to beat.

There was an entire room full of bots!

Although, he did find it odd to find the Old Man in the dungeon. He gave him a simple message to go to the east peninsula before vanishing. When Hyrule returned to the room later, the Old Man was gone. Only dead torches alluded to his presence being there at all.

He had no companions to help him in the dungeon, but there wasn't many puzzles. And it didn't take a genius to realise that he needed to kill the monsters or stay on a path. Although, it would've been helpful to know how to defeat the green dragon-creature at the end.

Later on, he learnt that it was called Aquamentus.

But he managed to defeat Aquamentus and got the first shard of the Triforce of Wisdom.

Hyrule wondered if the others' dungeons were as easy as his. But he wasn't really going to ask them because he knew that a lot of the others preferred to not talk about their quests. There was too much trauma to unpack. And he couldn't judge, there was much he didn't want to discuss to the others about his quests.

It confused him, at first, when they would land near one of their dungeons and the others actually gave them names. Hyrule's dungeons didn't have names, at least, not that he knew. He called them Level 1 and such because he didn't know they had names. That would be something he would need to investigate, finding out the names of his first quest's dungeons.

Now that he thought of it, the names may've been written down by the entrance. But since Hyrule couldn't read, he wouldn't have seen it. Or, even if he had seen it, understood what it meant.

It's interesting how dungeons exist. There's always something of value in a dungeon, and normally it's imperative towards their quest. But someone had to put the item there, and then monsters had to fill it up. And the puzzles! Someone had to make the puzzles, and put monsters inside to guard the treasure. Who would do that? And why? Would it be such a hassle to bury it somewhere where only the Hero could find it?

Like, a door that would only open for the Triforce or something along those lines? Is that impossible? It sounded hard to do. Wouldn't the person who made the door need the Triforce in order for the whole contraption to work?

Hyrule's brain started to pound just thinking of that.

Also, the amount of dungeons was preposterous. He had nine dungeons in his first quest. Nine! That's more dungeons than his age at the time halved! What made a dungeon safe, anyway? How would making more dungeons keep whatever's there safe? If he could do it, Hyrule thought, then anyone could.

All they needed was a sword for it was dangerous to go without one.

The system was flawed. He knew that if he brought up his thoughts with the others, they would probably agree—sometimes they would complain if someone mentioned a dungeon: almost everyone complained about their water dungeons. Wild didn't. There was something about the term water dungeon that made the skin crawl and the heart beat in horror at the thought.

What kind of person would decide to have a dungeon where the possibility to drown was everywhere? And the water mechanics! Oh, they've complained about water mechanics before. Sky's mentioned having to used water pipes to flip giant lily pads, Twilight had to move a water wheel to get anywhere, Time wouldn't speak of his water dungeon, Legend didn't complain because according to him "I had a water dungeon in every single quest. We don't have enough time for me to complain.", Wind had mentioned about having to wait for the tide in order to enter a room—but then Warriors asked if his entire world would technically be a water dungeon cause it's the ocean, and Wind was still debating, Warriors and Four couldn't complain because Warriors didn't have a water dungeon and Four really didn't hate his.

Another thing was how come Ganon didn't just enter the dungeon himself? He generally needed what was at the end, and it wasn't like the Master Sword or the Triforce was needed to get it. All they needed to do was solve a few puzzles, defeat a few bosses, and get the treasure. And if Ganon put the treasure there, then why didn't he keep it closer to himself instead of letting it be watched over by an easily killable monster?

Well, as much as Hyrule complain about dungeons he couldn't hate them. After all, if Ganon thought logically, then Dawn wouldn't have been saved and Hyrule would be destroyed. But still, dungeons were extremely flawed.

Hope you enjoyed!

I have some… feelings towards the idea of dungeons in the Zelda universe. Mostly, why.

Anyway, I have nothing else to add…

Fiddlerinthewoods OUT!