The door was solid stone, swinging slowly closed behind us.

How quickly we got use to being that much stronger - that I hardly noticed something that we probably both should have struggled with.

And we are already navigating an ancient pyramid, that looked like it had just been built, discovering -

What? That there is more - to the dungeons, and it had Derek in fits. Because he thought, maybe they were divine? Or he just was an Egypt geek? Like those dudes that idolize sushi culture...

And maybe I'd not put enough energy into figuring the Doors out, but I have other priorities, and for me the dungeons were a means, practical, you didn't have to overthink them to get all the benefits..

Derek had been whispering as we walked down the hall, about King's and Queen's rooms, about treasure, mummies, and - I hadn't realized how much of a nerd he was, I couldn't help but poke fun at his excitement -

Now he was wearing an Indiana Jones hat I'd quickly made out of crab chitin and welded to the top of his head, it matched the useless whip that I'd stuck to his hip -

But he'd shaken off his bitterness enough to let the mannequin continue ahead, checking for traps by stumbling -

Because Derek is clever.

He keeps amazing me, and while his power let's him manipulate others, nudging them, it changes their perspective, the focus -

I feel myself drawn to his best features. He looks better - unexplainably, and it's easy to like him, something I had struggled with, before he changed. But I was always willing to put up with him because he was useful, his mind is by far his best feature, he's creative and quick, his wit and his worth -

"It's the Queen's." He said as the hall opened up into a room, we peered in, "I think - and look -"

There was a stone box - her sarcophagus, on top were carvings, and behind a mural, a beautiful woman, and more hieroglyphics-

"This is what bothers me." Derek's voice dropped back down into growling frustration, "She's not even Egyptian."

"What?"

"She's not..." He bit his lip, frustrated, "Cody, that's clearly a Chinese woman."

"Oh, I thought they did that make-up, with their eyes, and they don't have a lot of colors to paint with." But now that he mentioned it, the woman did look Chinese.

"It's so lazy -" Derek continued, "Why go through all this..."

"Lazy?"

"Yes, Cody, don't you see? What this all means?"

I looked at the woman, but to me - it doesn't mean anything - I don't like feeling stupid, because he said it like it was obvious but - time to own up -

"No, it doesn't mean anything to me."

"Exactly!" He shouted - "It doesn't mean anything, the greatest jungle discovery and we actually know less after. It's more confusing now."

"Oh. Good. I was right."

He narrowed at me - I held up my hands, he was still salty over that little prank...

After the dummy finished walking out the room, we drew closer - on the coffin were four stone carvings, like small coke bottles, and I could see they had a seam - lids, and that they had been shaped into intricate figurines, half person and animal, and I loved them -

They reminded me of, well, me - of the transformations I was still trying to understand, still improving on -

"It's an obituary. Nothing." Derek remarked on the rooms carvings, still, the phone Derek floated diligently, and I brought the first into me - it had a bird's head, similar to the eagles -

It was a potion - I could sense it, instantly. The power it contained, and I couldn't quite feel -

"Oh my...disgusting!" Derek gagged as I took a cautious sip, and it was gross - I should have just - "Those are that woman's guts!"

I couldn't stop, after the first sip the potion kept pouring into my mouth, slithering down my throat.

Constitution +1

"It's a potion."

I felt the effect - nice - though not what I had expected from a hawk, and Derek still looked at me horrified, "Permanent stat boost, that one was Constitution. Can I have your jar when you're done?" I grinned.

He walked over, looking at the remaining three - his hand hovered between them, a dog and a pharaoh, before he grabbed the monkey, "How bad is it? Actually, don't tell me." He said chugging it with a repulsed grimace. "Tastes as bad as I would expect from lungs, I guess."

He pulled out a sports drink to chase it, then gargled some mouthwash and spat, back into the bottle, why - he gestured at the - imaginary Egyptian tomb for a dead Chinese woman he was so strung up over -

"You just drank her lungs, but you can't spit?" He looked guilty - "Take the others, you'll see the guys before I do. Just ask them to keep the bottles for me? I can make them wood copies - or something else, if it's cool?"

Derek nodded - I was being greedy, I already had the stone with carvings used to release the scorpions - Derek said it didn't make sense, just random words, junk - the only thing, so far without a greater story, or purpose - how he could still be upset when he could clearly see it had done something...but he'd just read the words one at a time, and he was right they didn't really make sense...

The empty potion container felt the same - like garbage, a wrapper, if it wasn't so cool to look at. But as he pulled the other two potions inside, the lid of the tomb started to grind back-

Close Quarters - Aggressive Retreat, he shot to the entrance and I was right behind him - dropping small saplings to my left and right as we shuffled back I fed them, letting them grow tall -

A screeching howl - broken and chaotic and dry, echoed, and - once more, Derek had doused her in gasoline -

He tossed the lit flare, and - whoosh -

But the screaming didn't stop - it grew louder and I heard thrashing, my first glimpse was of a lean body, smoldering and blackened, the fabric crumbling to reveal a desiccated corpse of dried flesh that moved smoothly, and carried a large cross with a loop on top, an ankh.

Derek's bow thrummed, and I threw bone spears - they caught, and she ignored them as they collected at her head, the spear passing through her ribs, she raised her talisman at us -

Drain -

Like Jason's I felt it hit me, but my mana was fine, it was my health - pulled from me like an IV, the minus one hp trickling out - changing our strategy, and we hadn't planned to fight in a dungeon against a magic user - but people?

My trees had been placed at the edge of the hall for a reason - a clear line of fire for us as they grew, while still being able to entangle and hold an enemy in place - I closed the distance, my mauls appearing, running along the right wall.

Arrows continued to pour past my left, then I was fighting -

My health dropping, my first swing connected, and I expected a bone piñata - to send her swinging across the room, but she was solid -

Whatever held her together, kept her together. My left swing connected as well, knocking her sideways, but she rolled with the blow, coming up - she backhanded me, and I flew -

Dazed, as I smacked into the wall, taking another eight points to my health, I blinked and shot forward - again, jumping and bringing two overhead blows down on her head that would have killed anything, and she stumbled, but didn't die, or re-dead, whatever -

"The heart!" Derek shouted, and my maul vanished, another bone spear and I drove it into her chest, pushing deep and I felt something break, felt the resistance end and my force carried me through her as the corpse reverted to crumbling remains and I stumbled through where she had stood -

"Wow. Way different..." I said, it was nothing like animals, "How'd you know it was her heart?"

"I wasn't sure, but, they keep that organ. It's not in a jar. She drained your health?"

"Yeah," I said, nodding.

"She got my Intelligence, what I got from the potion. She was taking it back."

"Crazy. But...at least that makes sense?"

Derek shrugged, he was still on combat high - it was good he could modify his shots, because with how he shook - his teeth even clattered as he spoke, he wouldn't hit anything -

I examined the corpse, the bones turned out to be crap so I left them, I passed the Ankh she carried to Derek, since I'd gotten the stone -

"Holy shit, plus one to intel and constitution...damn, now I wish we had drank them all." I agreed, but shrugged, disappointed at how easy it was to get something that matched my best item, and thinking, there had probably been places like this everywhere, that I'd missed out on -

I moved over to the stone she'd rested in, and I gasped at the treasure, it was -

Derek shoved up next to me, "Are you kidding? "

There was a gold locket, with pictures of asian children, a half burned red candle. Some pottery, a silver brush, comb, and mirror. I didn't see anything I wanted so had him take it to hopefully sell discreetly.

And the King's chamber was the same - four more jars, and another mummy. This time he chugged two potions, and I absorbed the last two, quickly backing away - a point in intel and wisdom. Still, the fight was easier since we knew what to do - the drain didn't even hit, and he was right about the Ankh, which he carried now but intended to give to Jason, the two stats for who didn't want the other which I carried for now.

And I got a full set of the nice bottles. Just more trinkets for treasure - but Derek, he was practically skipping -

There was another door, and I dragged my feet just to watch him glancing back at me, his eyes white, Ankh held like an easter basket in his demand for me to hurry, mumbling about a treasure room. He threw open the door -

But aside from a stone table, it was empty. The same as the other rooms, and he just slumped, but still we approached the table, looking down there turned out to be something.

"A souvenir." Derek pouted, lifting up the tiny pyramid replica, it rested in his palm. It was carved perfectly, even the little eye on top, the stairs. I looked closer, saw it was a bit dirty - he tossed it to me, "You like junk. Add this to your collection."

I licked my thumb and rubbed it at the black smudges, the specks along the stairs but...it didn't come off and almost looked burnt? And it was heavy -

I pulled it within to examine closer, and the stone floor beneath us - it turned to sand. I grabbed him, instinctually reaching out as we dropped, thinking we'd be buried but the sand just kept swirling down, and I wasn't buried. didn't even lose my balance. I felt my feet sliding through it and stop, in more sand -

Derek stopped shouting, the worst thing you can do when you're about to be buried by sand, "What happened?"

I removed the pyramid and set it on the ground, I pushed my mana through the connection I'd felt established as I'd sensed it inside of me and understood where it would expand and then, the sand rose up, around us. It was an elevator carrying us up, I felt us separate but I sensed, he was just being taken to the entry and I was returned to the room. The pyramid back on the table.

Derek burst through the door a moment later, sprinting down the hall, and before he could say a word, I hugged him -

"Thanks, Derek. Now I have a place to keep all my junk."

"Cody -"

"Don't worry - there's an extra room for you." I grabbed the pyramid off the table and dropped it in my pocket, patting it, then walking down the hall. With a thought the door opened, then slammed behind us, locked, I went to the Kings Room -

"Please -"

Dropping off my bed, a few books on a table. And then headed to the Queen's room -

"It's my dream -"

There was a very happy blue bug I sat out with a chunk of fruit, chittering away, as I lead Derek to his room -

"I've never had anything nice. I didn't know."

I dropped a couple trees and with some quick work, a wonderful guest bedroom was created in the scorpion lair, a custom bed, 'Incredible' carved on the headboard, 'Incredibly Stupid' at the foot.

I don't need a pyramid, no more than the next person, including Derek. Where did he think he was going to put it? In the trailer park? And to feel his power hit me full blast, the different desires washing over me as he tried to convince me with sympathy, with pity, with cajoling -

I slammed the front door, this place was sturdier then anything I could grow - I dimmed the light orb and let it float there for him, then went to my own room to take a nap.