Oscar progressed through to the next room, and met another friend. A Beelzebufo. It… didn't attack him, though. In fact, it looked like it wanted to talk! Oscar approached it and greeted it, "Hi, I'm Oscar. Nice to meet you."

"Ribbit." it croaked with gratitude.

"Oh, uh, you're welcome." Oscar replied. He didn't know quite how he understood it, but it seemed like they had reached an understanding.

"Ribbit," it went on, "ribbit ribbit ribbit, ribbit ribbit, ribbit. Ribbit?"

"So after I've found common ground with someone, I can Spare them, huh? Good to know!" he smiled. "Thank you!"

"Ribbit gribbit!" it croaked.

Looking up, Oscar noticed a gate behind the Beelzebufo, and decided to check it out before moving down the main hallway. He was met with a candy dish, and a sign. "Take One," it said.

So Oscar reached in and grabbed a few, but as he did, the bowl tipped over and spilled onto the ground! "Oh. Take one." he sighed, cleaning up the mess and taking a bonbon with him.

Leaving that room somewhat melancholy, he progressed through the hallway and found a short hallway with two crawl spaces in the walls. The floor in the middle of the hallway was in unconditional disrepair, like it could crumble at a moment's notice.

And when Oscar stepped on it, that is exactly what it did.

He plummeted, relatively unharmed, onto a pile of leaves. "If I had a Lien for every time a bunch of plants broke my fall…" he groaned.

Getting up, he walked through the door at the other end of the hallway, and soon found himself squeezing through the very crawl space he had just seen before. It was a bit of a tight fit, but by the time he had emerged, he was on the other end of the corridor! "Huh. Neat." he said, pleasantly surprised.

The next room was another puzzle. A gate, a rock, a button, and a sign. As he always did, Oscar read the sign before doing anything else. It said:

Fun Fact! One in every four rocks dislikes being pushed.

"Alright, I'll keep that in mind. I suppose." Oscar shrugged, and attempted to push the rock onto the button. As expected, he was met without resistance, and the gate opened. "I wonder what that sign was all about," he thought.

In the next room, there was a massive area of cracked floor. Oscar decided to take a risk and stepped…

And he didn't fall?

Confused, Oscar turned the corner, but as he did, the floor once again fell from beneath him, and he landed on a pile of leaves.

Looking around, Oscar noticed many piles of leaves, organized in some strange pattern. "Maybe," he thought, "just maybe, there's some intent behind this."

As he stood up, he got a call. He answered, "Hello?"

"Yes, this is Summer!" a voice answered. It was a breath of fresh air. "I just wanted to ask you, do you prefer chocolate chip cookies or sugar cookies?"

"Uhh…" Oscar pondered, "If I had to say, I'd say sugar cookies."

"Thank you! See you later!" Summer smiled, before hanging up.

Returning to the leaves, Oscar heard a rustling coming from a particularly large pile. And at once, a strange moth-like Grimm emerged from the pile, trembling in fear.

As it appeared, Oscar's Scroll dinged. He decided to check it. It was… giving him information about the creature? The notification read:

Ngengat. Sensitive moth Grimm. Treat it with kindness.

"Huh. That's cool." Oscar thought, and taking heed of the Scroll's advice, approached the Ngengat. "Hello, I'm-"

But before he could finish, it screeched and fluttered into the distance.

"Sorry! I didn't mean to scare you!" he called, but there was no answer. He decided to just forget about it and headed towards the crawl space to enact his plan to solve the puzzle.

As he returned to the upper floor, he began to walk a winding path on the cracked floor, very delicately so as not to overstep the boundaries.

"What's your plan, Oscar?" Ozpin whispered.

"Well, you see, the leaves were arranged in such a way so that you'd only fall on them if you took the wrong path." Oscar replied.

"So you memorized the areas without leaves and followed that path, knowing you wouldn't fall." Ozpin beamed. "Splendid."

Satisfied with his own genius, Oscar reached the next room, which was certainly familiar. It was just like the boulder puzzle from before, but with three rocks, three buttons, and no sign.

"Alright, here we go." Oscar thought, moving towards the first boulder on his left. It let itself slide towards the button, but the gate didn't open. He pushed the middle rock, and the gate still didn't open.

But as he attempted to push the boulder on the right, he was met with a surprise. "HOLD IT, BOSS, WHAT'S THE DEALIO?" they yelled.

Taken aback, Oscar suddenly realized what the sign meant. "Uh, excuse me, Mr Rock?" he politely asked the hunk of granite. "Could you please slide over to that button?"

"That's SGT Rock, thank you!" the irate igneous snapped. "And what's in it for me if I let you pass?"

"I… won't push you anymore?" Oscar said unsurely.

"Oh, come on, what good is that gonna do me? You know perfectly well some other unlucky twerp is gonna try and shove me anyway!" the rock yelled, before going on a long rant about both needing their job and hating their job. Oscar wasn't fully listening.

And then, something in the other two rocks broke. "Brothers in heaven, Rocky, could you just do your job, please?" one yelled. "The kid's just tryna pass!"

"Yeah!" the other concurred. "No one is trying to hear this right now, and that's coming from me!"

Apparently this had never happened before, because even Sgt Rock was shocked by this. They paused, and then began muttering something about how no-one respected them while sliding onto their button.

"Sorry about them, kid." the first rock sighed as the gate opened. "They're just… like that sometimes."

"Thanks." Oscar nodded, before heading into the next room.

All it was was a hallway, with a table and some cheese. And another glowing light, like the one in the rose bushes.

Oscar touched it, and got that same feeling. Ozpin began again.

"Look, a mousehole. I'm surprised the mouse hasn't eaten the cheese yet. Or maybe it's past cheese. Maybe it's moved on to other foods, like… cookies, perhaps."

"I should hope not." Oscar thought. "Those cookies are mine!"

"Very well." Ozpin chuckled. "Let's continue, shall we?"

In the next room, Oscar found… a boy. His hair was blonde, and he seemed to be wearing light armor. Most notably, he was sleeping in the perfect position to block the hallway.

Oscar gave him a light tap. The boy sat up, revealing his bold blue eyes. "PYRRH- oh… I'm awake." he groaned.

"Hi, I'm Oscar!" Oscar said calmly. "You, uh, seem to be blocking my way. Could you move, please?"

"Hey, I'm Jaune." the boy said tiredly. "And, uh, I'll get out of your way. Sorry."

"No, it's alright!" Oscar smiled. "I was just heading to Summer's house, and you happened to be sleeping on the path."

"I was actually thinking of heading there, myself." Jaune said, getting up. "Wanna go together?"

"Sure!" Oscar agreed.

They entered the next room, and saw three Beelzebufoes. They hopped up to Jaune with a smile, and he stroked them. One of them noticed Oscar, and approached cautiously. He reached over and patted it on the head, and it purred.

"Oscar, these two are Korten and Prinz, and that one's Lobel. They're my friends." Jaune explained.

"They're so cute!" Oscar smiled.

"They sure are." Jaune chuckled, giving each frog a bite of a sandwich he'd pulled out of his back pocket before taking a few bites himself. "Want some?" he offered.

"No thanks, I'm saving up for Summer's." Oscar smiled.

"More for me, then." Jaune said, putting the sandwich in his pocket for later as they entered the next room.

The next room had six cracked tiles and six crawl spaces. There was also a gate at the far side of the room.

"There's a lever in one of the rooms underneath the floor," Jaune explained. "What do you say we go look for it?"

"Sounds good to me!" Oscar said, moving towards the first one on the left.

He dropped down into a small room. He looked around just in time to notice the Grimm pouncing on him. A sharp-toothed gremlin creature leaped at him, lunging at his face! Flies began biting his skin, making him itch like crazy! And then he was hit by… a carrot?

As he was trying to shake the flies off, his Scroll autoread the notifications that arose:

Asmodeus. Mischievous imp Grimm. Chew it out.

Cavendish. Sly carrot Grimm. Act hungry to please it.

Zergulos. Irate cockroach Grimm. Becomes docile when alone.

Oscar decided to start with the Asmodeus. He grabbed it by the arms and stared into its eyes, and said calmly, "Hey. Why did you attack me? Why did you choose this path?"

It stopped thrashing about and seemed to ponder.

"You don't have to do this, little guy. This isn't who you are."

Its head lowered.

"Now, go!" he told it, releasing its arms.. "Live your best life!"

It smiled, and stepped back from the fight, but not before taking a bite out of the Cavendish, which seemed to make the crafty carrot happy. They both slipped through the crawl space together.

And then the Zergulos started dancing.

No, really. It didn't attack Oscar or anything.

It just danced.

Oscar decided to leave it alone.

As he emerged from the crawl space he found the gate already open, and Jaune waiting. "Hey, what took you so long?"

"Sorry, there were some Grimm down there." Oscar apologized.

"It's good." Jaune nodded. "Let's go."

Oscar felt around in his pocket and remembered the bonbon. He pulled it out and ate it, and suddenly the itching and claw marks were gone! "Good thing I brought that." Oscar thought, as he stuck by Jaune's side.

Oscar had found a new friend in this new land, but he had also found plenty of puzzles and plenty of danger. What would he have to go through deeper in the Ruins? The only way to know was to keep going forward.