Undertale

Chapter 2: The Ruins

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Toriel led me through another, similar archway. The archway led into a large, ruined building made of purple stones. Two white staircases curved upward to a balcony, where there was a doorway framed by green ivy. Between the staircases was a pile of red leaves.

The shadow of the Ruins loomed above, filling me with determination.

I followed Toriel through the doorway into another room. The big purple door on the opposite wall had the same strange symbol on it. There were six gray pressure plates on the floor, and a switch on the wall behind it. "Welcome to your new home, innocent one," said Toriel sweetly.

I glanced at the pressure plates. "What's this?" I asked.

"Allow me to educate you in the operation of the Ruins," said Toriel. She walked on four of the pressure plates in a square shape, and flipped the switch on the wall. The door opened. "The Ruins are full of puzzles," she explained. "Ancient fusions between diversions and doorkeys. One must solve them to move from room to room. Please adjust yourself to the sight of them."

"Sure," I said blandly. So, you couldn't just walk from room to room? You had to solve puzzles to open doors? Great. And she expected me to live here.

I noticed a sign on the wall as Toriel walked through the door:

Only the fearless may proceed.

Brave ones, foolish ones.

Both walk not in the middle road.

What on earth did that mean?

The next room had ropes of ivy on the walls and a small canal running through it. "To make progress here, you will need to trigger several switches," said Toriel. "Do not worry, I have labelled the ones that you need to flip."

I snorted. So, I was expected to solve all these puzzles to get from room to room, but she had basically solved them for me. Well, at least that made it easy. I crossed the bridge over the canal and flipped the switch on the wall with all the yellow arrows pointing to it. Across another canal were two more switches. I flipped the one that was marked. Two rows of spikes blocking the exit from the room shot into the ground. "Splendid! I am proud of you, little one," said Toriel. I couldn't imagine why she was proud of me; I just flipped two labeled switches. "Let us move to the next room.

"As a human living in the Underground, monsters may attack you," she continued. "You will need to be prepared for this situation. However, worry not! The process is simple. When you encounter a monster, you will enter a fight. While you are in a fight, strike up a friendly conversation."

"What?" I cried. "A friendly conversation? How am I supposed to make small talk with a monster that's attacking me?"

"Stall for time," said Toriel. "I will come to resolve the conflict."

I sighed. "I can handle conflicts myself!" I said.

"Practice talking to the dummy," said Toriel. She gestured toward a stuffed dummy with a simple cloth body propped on a stand, and a long face. I stared into its two little black button eyes.

"Uh... hi?" I said to it.

"Ah, very good!" said Toriel. "You are very good!" She walked through another doorway. "There is another puzzle in this room," she said as I ran after her. "I wonder if you can solve it?"

Did that mean there were no more labelled switches?

The room was empty except for ivy on the walls. Most rooms in the Ruins were empty. There was a hallway leading off the room, but before I could follow Toriel, I bumped into a little frog. It seemed to be aggressive, but Toriel gave it a look and it hopped off. "Oh, those Froggits..." Toriel sighed.