For once in my life, it was a good thing that I was scrawny. The entrance to the nook was barely wide enough for me to shimmy through. I looked back over my shoulder and found Kalliphae collecting more seashells. I was amazed that she wasn’t freezing. She was wearing the phoenix outfit as a summer dress while she squatted to search tiny pools of water on the ground. Of course, it was Kalli after all, so she was probably regulating her temperature with her fire magic.

Shara, on the other hand, was looking diligently for relics while being trailed closely by her bodyguards. All of the guardian mages in the room had their eyes trained on the young Shaw. I figured I should thank her as I slipped into the crack.

Using my God Eye, I was able to see deep into the nook. Because of this, I was fairly confident that no monsters were lying in wait. I took another look at the map and saw the red X about 20 yards deeper in the rift, just around a corner.

Kalliphae’s happy thoughts invaded my treasure hunt. Come look, Mel. These are so pretty.

In a minute. I’m on a treasure hunt of my own.

Shara replied. Let me know if you find anything good.

Kalli answered. I did. Come look.

Shara shot back. Not you. I meant Melvin. He knows what to look for.

I laughed at the banter as I inched my way forward. It was a good thing that there were no monsters because the narrow passage would have made it incredibly difficult to fight. As I neared the bend in the passage I began to notice a faint glow coming from around the corner.

Kalliphae must have noticed my excitement because she shot a question through the connection. Did you find something, Mel?

I’m not sure yet.

My jaw dropped when I rounded the corner. Only a few feet away stood a treasure chest brimming with gold and jewels. I grinned inwardly at the thought of returning to the main area with a bag full of swag. I inched my way closer to the treasure, weary of traps or hidden monsters. Spotting nothing, I made it over to the chest.

For several long minutes, I stood over the treasure, trying to work out any potential traps that might be on the chest. My first fear was a mimic. I had encountered those in my video game training and they were always worse than monsters. Next, there was that trap in the movie The Goonies, but there was no skeleton helpfully gazing at the forbidden treasure. Finally, I thought of Indiana Jones and decided that the most likely trap was a pressure plate under the chest that would activate a trap of some sort.

I spent a lot of time trying to find any evidence of a crude contraption that fit the description but found nothing. Just as I reached for the treasure, Kalliphae noticed my excitement. What did you find, Mel?

Shara also grew excited. You found something and didn’t tell me?

I finally gathered my courage and prepared a swap. I picked up a stone and held it over the treasure. I prepared to pick up a gem of equal weight. The transfer felt smooth.

I hefted the gem and appraised it, proud of circumventing the imaginary trap. Unfortunately, the floor chose that very moment to crumble beneath my feet. I plummeted for what felt like an eternity before splashing down in a shallow pool of water. The impact knocked the wind out of me.

Kalliphae’s urgency rang in my mind like a bell. Melvin!

I groaned and tried to reassure the girl.

It’s okay. I’m okay. I fell, but I’m alright.

Shara was also concerned as she warned. Kalli. No. Don’t go in there.

I shook my head to clear the dizziness I felt from the impact. I found myself in another room that branched off into a series of fissures. The current map showed all of them as grey areas on the map listed as unexplored. I attempted to pull myself to my feet when a red-haired projectile flattened me.

I gasped for air, sucking in nothing but water from the shallow pool in the chamber. I reached up to feel Kalli’s butt pinning my head to the muddy floor. With more strength than I thought I had, I heaved the girl off of me and rose from the puddle, gasping for breath.

Kalliphae landed in the puddle next to me with a scandalized sounding squeak. She glared at me for a moment but was interrupted by an urgent thought from Shara. Melvin, tell Kalli to come back. She went in after you.

Too late. She found me.

Shara felt quite worried. Are you two okay? Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum won’t let me come look for you.

Kalli nodded silently when I looked to see if she was okay. I buffed her with my regeneration again to be sure.

I think we’re both okay.

Shara thought instructions at us. Aunt Vestara wants you to both stay put. They can’t get in the way you did, but she thinks she knows of another cave that will lead to you.

I didn’t respond and decided to speak to Kalli, since that was the new private form of communication, “Why did you come in after me?”

She rolled her eyes and replied, “Because you would die if I wasn’t around.”

I sighed, “I’m so stupid. I just knew that treasure had to be booby-trapped.”

Kalliphae looked up sadly, “You can’t really know that. However, we weren’t supposed to leave the main chamber. We are going to be in trouble when they find us.”

If there was one thing I was used to, it was being in trouble. I informed the girl, “I only went back there because I detected treasure. It didn’t seem very far off the main chamber so I thought I could make it back without being noticed.”

Kalli took a seashell out of her bag and pointed out, “There was plenty of treasure right there in the main room.”

I looked over at the seashell and explained, “You can find those up on the beach.”

She frowned at me, “I don’t care. I still like them. It’s better than trapped treasure anyway.”

I sighed and climbed to my feet, looking around the room we found ourselves in. With God Eye, I was able to see through the water in the room. While I couldn’t see any seashells, there was something that stood out lodged in the mud. I trudged over to pick it up.

I could feel the muck coating whatever it was when I picked it up. It was attached to a thick chain that was buried in the mud. I tugged at it for a minute before it finally relented and came free.

Item:

Unidentified Muck Covered Amulet

Components

Mythril, Emerald, Chryosantium, Mana, Mud

Item Rank:

C

Item Level:

1

Item Owner:

Murphy

I held it up to Kalli while complaining, “There are no stats on this?”

The girl took the item from me and held it up, “Let me see what I can do.”

“Pvruzth”

The flame erupted from her hands and went to kiss the amulet. It swirled around the grime for a moment as if trying to find a way to get in before exploding violently. Flames shot everywhere, flooding the chamber with searing heat as Kalliphae failed to control the flames. We were both blown back by the force of the explosion, landing in the water once again.

I was grateful that I shared the regeneration buff with Kalliphae as I watched her gingerly make her way back to her feet. I asked the girl, “Was that supposed to happen?”

She coughed a few times before replying, “No. There's some kind of magic in that amulet that reacted to my fire. It might be valuable. Either that or cursed.”

I looked at it again. It didn’t look cursed. Just muck-covered and unidentified. I grinned, “Let me try.”

She handed it back and I decided to try a simple edit.

Item:

Unidentified Amulet (Edited)

Components

Mythril, Emerald, Chrysantium, Mana

Item Rank:

B

Item Level:

1

Item Owner:

Murphy

The muck liquified and fell off, dripping down my hand and into the water. The artifact left behind was a shimmering blue metal chain with a very large emerald embedded in it. The gemstone was surrounded by tiny glimmering rocks shaped like flowers.

Kalli stared at the amulet and gasped, “Your magic is better than mine. I couldn’t even get through the mud and you have it looking like it’s brand new.”

“What do you think it is?”, I asked, noticing there were still no details in the description.

Kalli smiled and informed me, “You are going to have to have it appraised. This happens a lot of times with magical items. Part of an artifact’s magic can only be used once you understand what it does.”

I gave the item description a reproachful glare as if it had let me down and stashed it in my bag. When I did, I noticed that the treasure X on the map disappeared. I looked at Kalli and said, “You know. I don’t think the treasure chest upstairs was the real treasure.”

Kalli walked over to the edge of the chamber trying to look up at the treasure and asked, “Why do you think that?”

“The treasure icon disappeared when I put it away”, I replied absentmindedly.

She blinked at me from across the room, “What treasure icon?”

I grinned at her, “I modified the map. Now it's a treasure map.”

Kalli gave me an excited look and asked, “Can you do that to my map?”

I walked over to her and took her hands in mine. She started to flinch back but took a deep breath and waited for me to do something. I focused on her and pulled up her menu.

Name

Kalliphae Hellquist

Class

Pyromancer

Level

9

Affection Level

Indifferent

That part I had already seen. I pushed harder to see more.

Name

Kalliphae Hellquist

Class

Pyromancer

Level

9

Hitpoints

900

Mana

900

Stamina

900

Strength

20

Dexterity

30

Agility

30

Constitution

50

Intelligence

60

Wisdom

50

Charisma

75

Luck

5

That still didn’t give me any details on her map. However, seeing her stats reminded me of my issue with them not going up when I leveled so I asked, “What do you know about your stats?”

The girl looked at me uncomfortably, “Are you being a pervert? I am not telling you my bust size.”

I looked down reflexively, earning myself a reproachful glare. I shook my head rapidly and said, “No. Not those stats. I mean like strength and intelligence.”

She looked confused and said, “I know that my magic is tied to how smart I am, but I don’t know about any statistics that go with it. Are you seeing this when you look at me?”

Her previous comment was still working its magic on me and a new menu suddenly popped up.

Name

Kalliphae Hellquist

Height

5 Feet 2 Inches

Weight

103 Pounds

Bust

32 Inches

Waist

25 Inches

Hips

30 Inches

I felt my blood rise to my face as I gaped at the new menu that I had never seen before. I was shocked that there was a menu for that. A forbidden thought suddenly entered my mind.

Can I edit that?

Since I wasn’t suicidal, I struck that thought from my brain and looked up to find Kalli staring at me, “What are you doing? You look like you’re up to something.”

I mentally swiped the menu closed and tried to pull myself together, “I’ve never done anything like this before. I’m having trouble finding your map.”

She pointed at the empty air in front of her face, “It’s right here.”

I looked where she was pointing and grumbled, “I can’t see that.”

I shook thoughts of Kalliphae’s physical dimensions out of my mind and tried to focus on her skills.

Skills

Traits

Boost Magic

Affinity: Fire

Amplify

Fireproof

Silent Cast

Heatproof

Mirage

Enhanced Regeneration (Shared)

God Eye (Shared)

Monster Vision S (Temporary)

I took in the fact that she had a lot of traits I would expect her to have as well as a few that I didn’t understand. I looked deeper, trying to find the map. The problem was, I didn’t know if there even was a menu for the map. I pulled up my map again and looked at the legend. Taking a deep breath, I tried using my buff skill on the treasure listing.

Kalliphae gasped and announced, “You did it. I can see treasures on the map. There's one just down that way.”

I grinned and informed her, “Shara said to wait here though.”

Kalli raised an eyebrow at me, “That didn’t stop you earlier.”

She seemed to immediately think better of the decision and sent a message to Shara. Hey Shara, are they close to finding us?

Shara's reply was sent to both of our ears. She still isn’t back yet. The maps aren’t very clear, so it might take a while to find a path that leads to where you are.

Okay.

I turned back to Kalli, “We might need to help them find us somehow.”

She was already making her way over to the opening leading to the treasure, “How do you propose to do that?

I picked up a rock and did a quick edit.

Item:

Transoceanic Tunnel Map (Edited)

Components

Parchment, Ink, Mana

Item Rank:

C

Item Level:

1

Item Owner:

Murphy

The rock flattened and elongated into an old worn-out looking map. I half expected a map book covering every possible cavern under the ocean. However, the map seemed to understand what I was looking for and presented a map of the local passages. It showed us exactly how to make our way back to the main chamber.

The other thing it showed was the branch that led to the treasure Kalli and I were looking for. There were two choices. Go deeper or be responsible and head back to safety.

I decided to leave it up to Kalli, “Should we go pick up another treasure before we head up?”

She looked back at me and nodded, “Yep. Let’s”

I suddenly started to realize that I was having a bad influence on the girl.