“Are you tellihis throne is a legendary item?” I ask the Gemma, already knowing the answer.

  “Yes!”

  Myers grunts. “Odd that Valentine would leave su item. He must not have sidered that a throne would be Runed so heavily.”

  Shit. Maybe it’s soldered to the ground?

  “Emma, are you able to lift it at all?”

  She gives me a look for a moment. Then she applies pressure to the throhe throilts, revealing that it is not ected to the ground. But, it is quite heavy.

  “Barely. I don’t think my strength is high enough.”

  “That’s fine. I should be able to carry it myself.”

  “If you require strength, I am avaible.” hes slithers to us. Her arm is reattached and her chest is somewhat healed.

  “You don’t look fully healed.”

  “The damage you caused upon my chest is far more severe than expected. Expending energy in the absence of sunlight would require me to e other parts of my body. This would weaken my bat potential far too much.”

  “I see. Well, if you have the strength to carry this throhen please go ahead.”

  “Of course, [Captain].”

  She slither to the throne, s her pincers, and lifts it up.

  “This is quite heavy, but manageable,” She states. “Is this throne of metal truly worth it?”

  “It’s very well runed,” I say.

  “Runed?” She tilts her head. “What are runes?”

  “Good questio’s keep searg while Emma expins ruo you.”

  Leaving the chamber, the group tinues our jourhrough the castle. Eventually, we found the library. The entrance is broken and the inside is a mess. Books, scrolls, papers, and various writing instruments are spread across the floor of the room. The room is a mess, though the mess doesn’t look to be caused by mortal means. It looks like the books merely fell off the shelves.

  “Doesn’t look like Valeook muterest in this room.”

  Myers eagerly walks inside. “Any books of worth would be locked away in a vault. This is just a public library for the royalty.”

  “I see. Sounds b. Anything here we sell?”

  “Of course. Many libraries will pay rge sums for information of old. We merely o find such books.”

  “Right. Well, I think this is a perfect job for you. Cillian, light a tord give it to Myers. We’ll let the old man look at books while we look for treasure.”

  “I’m going with fluffy!” Cy quickly adds.

  Myers frowns, but accepts the torch. We leave the library and tinue our journey.

  “So, hes, you mentioned something about the Fming Sce. What is that about?” The Phytonid stops speaking with Emma about the subject of runes, and then looks at me. Her expressioo turn hard.

  “Yes. My kind saw the message from Pandora, but decided against any preparation. Me and my sisters believed that whatever test we face, it will be overe with ease. Then the fming sce arrived.” Her mouth opens to reveal sharp pincers. “We hunt, kill, devour. Our ar is that of predators and everything is prey. If we struggle, then t ourselves to better deal with the adversary.”

  I nod. “The tests are designed with a y-nine pert ce of killing everyone. I imagihe test involves something your kind struggles to adapt to.”

  “That is so. Wheest began, the skies became smothered with flying lizards that breathe fire. In moments, our home was set afme, including the great tree.”

  “You 't adapt to fire?”

  “We , but such a process is slow. Growing bark that withstand fme while shifting our bodies to hold additional water is a process that takes days. We did not have such time.”

  Emma crosses her arms with a frown. “Flying lizards that spit fire. Those sound like wyverns.”

  “Wyverns,” hes tests the word. “I will remember such a mighty foe.”

  “sidering you are here, I’m guessing you defeated them. What was the requirement for the test?” I ask.

  “The test said the leader must be killed and that the killers will have the option to bee a champion.”

  “Leader? Was it also a wyvern?”

  “Yes. It looked simir to them, but was far rger and its fmes were blue.”

  “Royal Wyverns are rger and spew blue jets of fire,” Emma adds helpfully.

  “So you killed the Royal Wyvern?”

  “I killed everyone, including my sisters.”

  Oh shit.

  “How?” Cillian finally speaks. Even he is ied iory.

  hes gives a sad look of loss. “Our forest was on fire, reat tree was on fire, our homes were burning and our warriors died three to one against the sce. We were losing, and then morale dropped ohe Matriarch perished under fme. As the most senior sister, the duty of leadership fell upon me. In desperation, I ehe inner chamber of the burning great tree. I fused myself with its iem and ected to the dwindling power it holds. It was here that I realized the tree was not only burniernally, but also internally. Its inner roots are on fire and the tree will eventually perish if nothing is done.”

  The Phytonid slows her slither aually stops. She looks down. “I was left with two options. I purge the fme by excreting water and deying its death. Or, I end the sce.”

  “You chose to end the sce,” I say.

  hes rises up and tinues her slithering. “Yes. While ected to the great tree, I forced it to grow millions of poison filled pores across its brahe poisoed by the fire, smothered the atmosphere in such potend tration that everything outside the great tree’s prote would not survive. For days I stayed within the bowels of the tree, produg as much poison as I could. Only ohe tree is fully perished, did I leave the bowels to sight of dead wyverns and my sisters. The sky was still covered in poison, but I already adapted my body to it. I searched for survivors, believing that some of my sisters had the time to create antibodies to the poison, but that was not to be. I eventually found my predecessor- the former Matriarch. Her body is mostly ash, except for her chest. Her chest was covered in thick fire-resistant bark. Curious, I peeled the bark away to reveal something that truly gave me hope. The Matriarch carried a seed of the world tree. With such a seed, I regrow the great tree and start ahe moment I picked up the seed, I was notified that the leader of the Wyverns had died.”

  “Then you were transported to Tristique.”

  She nods.

  “Yes, one moment I was staring at the corpse of the former Matriarch surrounded by a burned forest and the I’m staring at a pletely fn forest. A moment after that, I find myself going unscious, where-in I meet the Goddess Mus and am given the [Druid] css."

  hes, for the first time since we’d met, seems to chuckle.

  “When I awoke, the earth was quaking and fire was raining from the sky. For a moment, I thought, the Fming Sce had returned, but no. Nearby, an isnd violently rose into the sky alongside a rge amount of molten debris. One such rge debris fell upon the isnd I arrived at aroyed half the isnd. It was only ter that I realized the other side of the isnd tained civilization.”

  And probably ships that would allow you to travel off the isnd. Goddamn you are unlucky.

  “So, without any way to get off the isnd, you chose to create a vine bridge to this current isnd. Were you expeg to find something?”

  “No. From my isnd, I saw a rge vessel his isnd and then leave shortly after. I figured that more vessels would arrive at the isnd and that I would be able to aransport either through versation or through force.”

  “You chose force,” I say.

  “Your form and as were initially of a mindless beast g in the ability of versation. It was only when I heard speech that I modified my Assessment.”

  I shrug. “Your initial assessment makes sense, but you should have backed off when I transformed wearing gaus.”

  “Gaus? Is that not a metal exoskeleton?”

  What the fuck?

  “Does your world have beast with metal exoskel-”

  “Vault!” Cillian loudly interrupts. He raises the ntern up to a stairway leading down and the words Vault at the top of the entrance.

  “There better be treasure down there.”

  Leading the way, I traverse dowairs with everyone following a distance away. When I reach the bottom, I’m immediately met with a rge thhly runed circur metal door that you’d see at a major bank. The runes on the dolowing and are clearly fully active.

  To the right of the vault door is a human-sized hole in the crete.

  “I guess it was easier for Valeo make his owrance.” I pce a paw o stohough, I was uhe impression that mana-rich ruone is iructible.”

  “Not iructible, Just nearly so,” Emma ents. She walks up o me and takes a good look at the stone. “Whoever did this slowly ground the stone.” She traces her finger on the rough edges of the cuts that look like someone used a saw.

  “Well, it doesn’t matter. Let's see if he left something for us.”

  I ehe vault to find it mostly empty. The wall racks have a feons on them and the numerous chests are open ay. The chests that arey are filled with gems and gold. Lots of gold. Two full chests of gold bars.

  “They left the gold,” Cillian yells. He rushes to the chest.

  “Why would they leave gold?” I ask. “Is it not worth much or something?”

  Emma grabs one of the gold bars and frowns. “These bars have a lot of impurity. It o be purified first or it wouldn’t sell for that much.”

  At her words, Cilliaement takes a nosedive. “Shite. What about the gems?”

  She shakes her head. “Poor Quality. Selble, but not as much as you expect.”

  “Fuck me.” Cillian stares at the gold and gems, then he looks at the chest and notices runes. “What about the chests?” He taps the tainer.

  Emma looks at the tainer, and theher one. And then all the rest. Her mouth opens wide.“These chests are all of exceptional quality. Why would they be left here?”

  While Emma and Cillian gush about chests, I shift my attention to the leftover ons.

  3 years, a longsword, a mace, and two shortswords. Out of these ons, only the longsword and the two shortswords stand out.

  Name

  Shortsword of light.

  Rarity

  Rare - 5 Runes.

  1(1-Durability)1(1-lightweight)1(3- Illumination)Description

  This Shortsword is +30% more durable, +30% lighter i, and glows brightly when held.

  Sustain

  0.06% Mana regeion per minute.

  Name

  Shortsword of Cutting.

  Rarity

  Rare - 5 Runes.

  1(1-Durability)1(1-lightweight)3(1- Sharpness)Description

  This Shortsword is +30% more durable, +30% lighter i, and is +70% sharper.

  Sustain

  0.07% Mana regeion per minute.

  Name

  Longsword of Slig

  Rarity

  Exceptional - 6 Runes.

  1(1-Durability)2(1-lightweight)1(3- Enhanced Sharpness)Description

  This Longsword is +30% more durable, +40% lighter i, and is 100% sharper.

  Sustain

  0.06% Mana regeion per minute.

  Odd. Boriss’s Shamshir of Slig has a simir name as the Longsword, except the Shamshir is much sharper. Still, exceptional items do sell for quite a bit, so we make good money if nobody he on.

  “Hey, take a look at these wea-” I choke when I return my attention to Cillian and Emma.

  The two have somehow gotten the bright idea to rope the chests arouhes like she’s some kind of mule.

  Gng at hes, the woman is just holding the throne in her arms, pletely unbothered by the chests now strapped to her and ow sitting in one of the opes.

  “You know what, fine. Whatever. Cillian, grab these ons a's go find Find Myers. I don’t think we’re going to get much more treasure from this castle.”