010

--TheirWorld--

It took them about half an hour to find their way to Zen’s quest location, and it was disappointingly dull. Guin expected there to have at least a tomb guardian, but it was actually set up for private meditation. So, while Zen went into the tomb alone to fulfil his quest requirement, everyone else sat around trying to decide where to go next. Though Guin suspected that her quest was in in a similar area, there was no way to find out just how close they were, so it was decided that they would do Tea’s quest next, which had a very specific location.

“I think all I have to do is go to the Hall of Music and find the score of “Dance of the Necromancer”,” Tea was explaining. “I hope it’s as easy as Zen’s quest is. I don’t want to meditate though. That’s boring...”

Plucking her bowstring, Athariel said, “Considering that the most powerful enemies we’ve seen so far were those skeletons that Ibraxis and Guin took out earlier, it seems the ‘C’ ranking of these quests was pretty right on.”

“The quest difficulties are pretty fair — unless you start to deviate from the path,” Ibraxis nodded. “Sometimes you would not even know you did. Best to stay on one’s toes.”

Ath simply shrugged as Zen came out from the tomb with his head held like he conquered a nation. “All set?” she asked him. He nodded.

“I’ve pinged the location on the map,” Tea said, and they pulled out their maps.

“Looks like we’ll have to back through to the room with the different doors,” Guin noticed, looking where Tea’s marker took the for a pixelated blue garule head.

“I think it’s through the gold doors,” Ath said.

Together, the group made their way back through the halls. The mice hordes had all respawned, but they had slowly become more efficient at killing them. It helped that Ibraxis had apparently gotten bored of his healer role, and had started just stomping on them all. Zen was none too happy about having his role get intruded upon, but Ath managed to keep him in line. Happily ignorant of the fuss, Tea just ran around strumming his lute and singing rather off-key.

The skeletons had also respawned, but the larger targets with their fewer numbers had been much easier to deal with for the larger, more diverse group. Tea had far less fun with them, however, as Guin had to save him from the Hounds, which apparently had support agro. Still, they went down without much fuss.

Coming upon the doors, they took a moment to take a bit of a breather. They saw several groups go in and out; some looking more haggard than others.

The golden doors were about the same height as the door of bones was, but they seemed like they had quite a bit more heft to them. Guin went over, looking over at it’s construction. Scrawled across it were inscriptions and pictograms, detailing a story of what looked like a hero or king of some kind entering the door and leaving vast amounts of treasure in the rooms beyond it. Running her hand across the indentations, she tried to make out what the door might have said, but the script was both unfamiliar to her and untranslated.

“Watch it,” Zen said, nudging her away and pressing his body against the door. It didn’t budge. Smirking, Guin watched him struggle, enjoying the view of his bare, bulging muscles as he applied more and more force. As he huffed and puffed, her eyes fell to a stone next to the frame of the door. A familiar inscription was scrawled on it; though she had no notion of it’s meaning, she looked back at the top of the door, where she assumed the story began. In front of the hero king’s outstretched hand was the same inscription.

Wiggling her nose, Guin leaned in and pressed it lightly.

With barely any effort on her part, the stone pushed in, and the doors swung inward. The Monk fell forward with it, gracelessly landing face first on to the golden floor of the other side. Tea and Ath snorted with laughter.

“Hmm,” Guin went, looking at her hand. “I guess strength isn’t everything down here. Imagine that.” Zen grumbled as he stood and brushed himself off.

The hallway glittered with the warm glow of golds and reds reflected against the polished gold it was covered in. Rows of carvings, just like those on the doors, lined the hall, along with paintings and gem stones of various kinds and colors.

“Whoa!” Tea exclaimed breathlessly, his mouth falling open.

Ath’s eyes glittered with ambition. “Now this place I like…”

“Let us not get ahead of ourselves,” came Ibraxis with his words of warning. “This is a dungeon, not a museum.”

Narrowing her eyes at him, Guin asked, “Whose mind goes to a museum in this scenario?” The garule shifted uncomfortably. Guin stepped forward, her eyes locked on the artistry of the walls. Images of painted animals and people of various races danced and marched in patterns around different colored stones. The closest stone to them on either side of the hall was gold stone; probably a kind of pyrite, from what Guin could tell. Around it, the animals and people seemed to be celebrating with hammers and hoes and other tools in their hands. There was one, drawn to stand on the gem tself; a man in plain clothes, holding a large hammer over his head.

Further down the hall she spotted another set of stones; darker ones. Guin stepped forward to inspect them, but she felt the ground underneath her foot give way.

“What—?” she went, looking down at the square shaped indent where her foot was.

“Guin! Look out!” she head Teas cry as she was jerked back by a quick, strong tug on her cloak. In front of her, a trio of arrows shot out from the wall on one side and disappeared into the other. Gawking, Guin looked up to see Ibraxis’s disapproving face, his long neck arched as he started down at her with a single raised brow, his pupils contracted into narrow slits. Tea came over and tugged on her arm. “Guin, are you okay?”

“‘N-Not all that glitters is gold’, I guess,” she muttered weakly as Ibraxis released the hood of her cloak. “Thanks..”

“Let us not get killed by traps, yeah?” the white garule said.

Zen glared at him. “If you knew they were there, you should have said something!” he growled.

Ibraxis shrugged. “I forgot.”

“You—!”

“Okay, okay,” Ath stepped between them. “Let’s not get killed by each other, either, okay? No harm, no foul. You good, Guin?” Guin nodded, and the blonde woman turned to Ibraxis. “Do the these traps reset after they are set off?” she asked.

“They do not,” he shook his head. “Or rather, I think they are on the same respawn timer as everything else. Roughly five minutes, give or take.”

Guin exchanged her dagger for her spear, and poked the floor before she tried to go forward again. Turning back to him, she asked, “What kinds of traps are there? Are they all traps high reflexes could easily avoid?”

Ibraxis thought for a moment. “If I remember correctly, they are,” he said. “In fact, if you are thinking what I think you are, you are probably right. It would work. There are not any enemies until after we clear this hall.”

Curiosity written all over her face, Ath looked between them. “What are you two talking about this time?”

“I can shapeshift,” Guin explained. “In my fox form, I can run forward and set the traps off. You guys can just follow in my path. Ibraxis —”

He waved her on. “I will make sure you have a healing buff just in case. Go.”

Zen moved to protest, but Guin watched as Ibraxis placed a hand on Zen’s shoulder, his eye twitching and mouth curling as if he didn’t want to soil his hands.

Changing into her fox form, she looked up at her party members before turning back toward the hall.

But before she could act, she felt hands slip around her small body.

“So! Cute!” Tea happily twittered in garuli tongue while the translation tried to convey a childish tone. “I’ve never seen anyone do that! I wanna do that!”

Dazed, Guin looked over at Ibraxis, hoping that the more level headed male might say something to the unbridled one, but the white garule looked just as stuffed as she was, with his jaw hung open in mild horror.

Ears falling flat against her head, Guin started struggling in Tea’s grasp as he hugged her tightly to his chest with a playful giggle.

“U-Um,” Ath cleared her throat. “T-Tea, you know that’s Guin, right? I don’t think she’s happy with that..?”

“Hm?” Tea looked up at the ranger as she reached over and took Guin up out of his arms and set her on the ground. He started to protest, but then seemed to become aware of what he had done. Falling to all fours, the small garule crouched before Guin, belly on the floor. “I’m so sorry!” he exclaimed.

Unable to speak to anyone but Ibraxis in her shifted form, she snorted at him, and shot down the hall, making sure to hit as many of the floor tiles as she could as she pranced through.