//------------------------------// // 1 - The Search for the Sage's Stone // Story: Chasing Treasures // by Yukito //------------------------------// A dark, cold corridor, decorated with cobwebs, moss, cracks in the wall and dimly-lit candles barely allowing any visibility to those inside. No windows, but many doors, and behind each one could be heard the tortured screams of those who had been imprisoned within this dungeon. That’s what it was: a dungeon. There were no other words to describe this place, and Toby was trapped within these dungeon walls. No light, nor sound, nor any hint of the outside world could reach him there. Only nightmares. Only demons, disguised as humans, served as Toby's companions in the cold, damp corridor. Opening the large pair of double doors at the end, each one decorated with centaur skulls and guarded by large, muscular thugs – both of which were easily twice Toby’s size – the bandit entered and walked into the room beyond, stopping before the throne inside and kneeling. “You have returned,” the shadowy figure sitting atop the throne said as he gazed down on the bandit. “The items?” Toby didn’t say a word. He merely reached into his rucksack and pulled out a small stone slab, with the image of a sun decorating the front. Its left side was cracked and uneven, and it was covered in scratches and dirt. He laid it down onto the floor and a long silence followed. “And the other?” “F-Forgive me, my lord. I could only find the one in the time you gave me.” Toby lifted his head and quickly added, “But I have a lead! Just permit me more time and I’ll-” Toby could not finish. Before he could plead any further, the lord of the dungeon took one of the many daggers to his side and used it to silence him, forever. Blood trickled from the bandit's forehead as he fell backwards onto the ground, his face showing no fear, as he never even saw his death approaching. “Guard, burn the body and dispose of the dagger with the worthless whelp’s blood.” “Yes, my lord,” one of the guards said as he collected the body, removing the dagger from the forehead. Another guard moved quickly to clean away the blood. “Scorpan, step forward.” As the body was carried away, another muscular man, just slightly shorter than the guards, stepped forward. “Scorpan, I want that second stone. One is useless without the other.” “Yes, my lord,” Scorpan said as he kneeled. “I will not disappoint you.” “See that you don’t.” The figure snapped his fingers. “I know that you do not think your own life to be worth much.” Scorpan heard movement behind him, followed by a scared yelp. Turning around, he found one of the guards holding a small, light-purple dog in one arm and an axe in the other. The bloodlust seeping from the guard’s eyes and his malicious grin chilled Scorpan to the bone. “If you fail me, Scorpan, your mutt will pay the price.” Scorpan gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. Turning around and bowing his head deeper, he said, “I will not fail you, Lord Tirek.” Deep in the jungles of South Africa, shrouded in thick trees and guarded by precarious cliffs and dangerous animals, was unfortunately the place that Daring Do's map pointed to. Her search for 'key to all magic', the Sage's Stone, led the young adventurer to this hot, hellish deathtrap of nature. Thankfully, the young adventurer had all that she needed to safely navigate the jungle and make it safely to the ancient tomb. All that she needed was her map, a flask of water, her protective hat, and her keen, sharpened instincts. Daring Do hacked away at the last of the foliage in her way and gazed up at the glorious, enormous pyramid standing before her. Putting her machete away, Daring Do took out her camera and snapped a few pictures. "It really does exist. And to think, I was going to take this week off before I found that last clue!" Voices alerted Daring Do the presence of nearby hostiles, and she took cover quickly behind a nearby tree. Poking her head out, she frowned. Several men in suits were carrying large crates towards the tomb. The markings on the crates suggested that they carried explosives, likely to blast through the pyramid's wall. "Not very subtle…" "Let's hurry along, lads!" one man shouted out, clapping his hands as he ushered more groups along. "Caballeron wants the treasure inside by sunset!" "Why don't we just use the entrance?" one of the men carrying the crates asked. "Because it's filled with puzzles and traps, and we can't afford to lose any more men on these expeditions. Now move it, and be careful with those! They're very sensitive!" "Hmmm… So there's a front entrance with puzzles and traps, huh?" Daring Do grinned. "Just my kind of entrance!" Daring Do ran off through the trees, circling around the tomb. She soon found the entrance and, to her surprise, it was unguarded. "Huh. Well, whatever! I'm goin' in!" The first obstacle that the adventurer encountered was a large pit in the middle of a chamber, with very small, very fragile-looking pathways to either side. Daring Do studied the pathways and hummed. "There's no way I can make it across on those. I gotta think of another way across." Looking across the pit, Daring Do concluded that she would not be able to reach the other side by jumping across. However, with her trusty grappling hook, she would be just fine. Taking a few steps back, Daring Do flexed her legs and prepared to run. She took off, making her way towards the pit and jumping at just the last moment. As she fell, Daring took out her grappling hook and fired it upwards. The hook caught the ground above and anchored her in the air. Placing her feet against the wall, Daring Do scaled the side of the pit quickly, taking care not to hit any of the crumbling pieces of the wall. As she neared the top, she felt the rope give way just a little bit, and she gasped. "Oh crap!" Picking up the pace, Daring Do slipped on a jagged part of the wall and fell some way down. She gritted her teeth and scaled the wall once more, making it almost to the top before the hook fell out of its place and down the pit. Daring Do jumped, swinging her hand towards the edge of the pit and grabbing it. She threw her other arm up and tried to push herself up, but the edge was slippery and the stones were rough on her hands. Grunting and groaning, Daring Do felt her blood boiling and her palms sweating, which meant that her grip was loosened even more. "Grab my hand!" Daring Do looked up, taking no time to identify her saviour before she reached for the large, gloved hand extended towards her. The stranger pulled her up, allowing her to climb to her feet on the edge of the pit, before wrapping his right hand around her waist and grabbing her wrist with his left hand. "That was a close one, Daring Do," Dr. Caballeron said, grinning as he looked down into the startled woman's eyes. "Ugh. If I'd known it was you, I would have just dropped to my death," Daring Do gagged. "A dangerous tomb like this is no place for such a… delicate young lady." A click sounded through the room, and Caballeron looked down to find Daring's free hand pressing a pistol against his stomach. "I usually don't do this kind of thing on a first date." "I won't let you have the stone, Caballeron." "Oh, but that's not my concern," Caballeron chuckled. "That stone will fetch me a lovely sum to the right seller, and right now, I need that money! There's a penthouse in Florida with my name on it." "It belongs in a museum!" "Ugh, here we go," Caballeron said with a roll of his eyes. "Look, I'll give you a choice. Take your filthy hands off of me and leave now, or I'll throw you down that pit!" Caballeron simply stared down into Daring Do's steady eyes, the adventurer staring back whilst her body shook in his hold. "… My precious Daring Do… Very well. You have convinced me." "I- Uh, okay?" Daring Do pushed the tall man back and pointed her gun towards him. "What are you up to?" "It just so happens that something has come up, so fortunately for you, I will have to forfeit this one… for now." Caballeron looked past Daring Do, nodding to something behind her. Gasping, Daring Do ran past Caballeron, evading the shots that we fired towards her and running down the long corridor ahead. "Damn! She got away!" the man on the other side of the pit exclaimed. "Let her," Caballeron said, watching as his men extended planks across the gap to reach him. "As I suspected, we are not alone here. We are pulling out." "After coming all this way?" Caballeron hummed, and then turned to face down the corridor ahead of him. "I don't like being in the dark. I will let Miss Do scout ahead for me, and if she finds the stone, I will take it from her." The soldier nodded and holstered his gun. Caballeron crossed the gap, and then turned back towards the corridor with a curious look on his face. "That is strange. The explosions should have gone off by now." None of the soldiers had an answer for him, and he started to grow concerned. "… Radio the reserve unit in the jungle. Tell them to send the armoured convoy to pick us up." Navigating the twists and turns of the tomb's labyrinth, Daring Do solved riddle after riddle, evaded trap after trap, and passed the bodies of the many adventurers before her who did not carry her same luck. A lot of them were fresh, telling her that Caballeron's men had also found navigating this tomb to be a difficult task. "Something's not right," Daring Do muttered. "Some of these bodies show signs of being shot or stabbed by knives, and there's a thick smell of gunpowder in the air. Did these guys turn on each other?" Daring Do reached a dead-end, and wondered if she had taken a wrong turn. "Hmmm… The dust around here is disturbed," she noted, crouching down and observing the floor. "Leading up the wall… Or maybe, it's not a wall, but…" Daring Do studied the bricks making up the wall and found one that was loose. Smirking, she pushed the brick in, and sure enough, the secret door opened. "Heh. Amateurs." Daring Do heard a click, followed by a rumbling. "… What's that sound?" Daring Do looked up, and found that the ceiling was lowering. "… What?" The ceiling spat out some spikes, and Daring Do bolted forwards like her life depended on it – which it very much did. "How did the last group make it through this?!" Daring Do screamed as she watched her imminent doom falling towards her. "There must be a switch somewhere that shuts it off! I gotta find it before… before I'm flattened and skewered!" Looking around, Daring Do found bodies lying on the floor along the long hallway, some of them in the centre – likely caught trying to reach the end before the ceiling lowered completely – and some were along the walls, possibly searching for a switch the same way she was. One body lay in shambles over another, though, in a manner that suggested it has been tossed aside by some force. Turning, Daring Do approached the wall there and felt it. Nothing. "What was here, then? Why would somebody move the body aside if it wasn't in the way?" Looking down, Daring Do found her answer on the floor. A pressured pad, just big enough for her to place one foot atop it, was on the ground. She stepped on it and the ceiling stopped. She lifted her foot off, and it started moving again. Quickly, she returned her foot to the pad. Looking at the disturbed body, she found marks around the skull and discarded bullet cases along the floor. "I see," she muttered. "Somebody used this body to disarm the trap, and then shot it from the exit to rearm it for anyone else who'd come by." Carefully, making sure not to move her foot off of the pad, Daring Do reached for one of the nearby bodies, hoping to repeat the trick. Unfortunately, none were close enough for her to grab. With a grunt, she instead removed her backpack and searched through it. Just some essential items for surviving in the wild were in there, certainly not anything she'd miss. She removed the satellite phone and strapped it to her belt, and then leaned down to gently replace her foot with the bag. The fact that the ceiling did not start moving again meant that it had weighed enough. Leaving the backpack behind, she raced out of the room and further into the pyramid. A few more corners and she had finally found what she had sought. Before her stood a huge chamber, decorated with magnificent murals and illuminated by torchlight. The paintings were a history of the people who had built the tomb, and also of the man whom resided within its crypt. But what fascinated her most of all was the stone that lay on the alter in the centre of the room. The Sage's Stone, said to be the ultimate in magical artefacts and the prize of any seeking to rule the world of magic itself, lay waiting for any adventurer foolish enough to try to take it. The five bodies around the alter indicated its kill count, but Daring Do could not ascertain their causes of death. She knew that she would have to be careful. She took one step inside, and gasped. Shadows moved about, indicating that she was not alone in that room. She ducked behind a pillar and watched. From behind another pillar, a man appeared, his build tall and muscular and his open chest boasting a field of hair that even a yeti would be jealous of. In his hand was a revolver, smoke rising from its barrel. He looked around the room for a bit. "I know there are more of you here. Come out now!" Daring Do gulped. Suddenly, two mean jumped out from behind separate stone slabs. Each held an automatic rifle and each began unloading immediately on the giant. The man ran forward, dodging the barrage of bullets, and pointed his gun to the man on his left. He fired, and without a moment of hesitation, he turned his gun towards the other man and fired again. Both dropped in an instant, and then he turned towards the alter. "That's fifteen. All of Caballeron's men who made it this far are dead." Daring Do peered out cautiously and found that he was wearing a headset. "Caballeron himself isn't here… He left? Whatever, so long as he never saw us." Daring Do pulled out her gun and readied herself. His back was turned, so if she was fast enough- The man turned around and fired towards her. She clasped her hand over her mouth to stop her voice from giving her away. Gently, slowly, she inched her head to see what he had fired at… A small rat lay dead on the floor, turned into a pile of blood and guts from the accurate shot. "It was a rat, that's all. Damn place has me jumpin' at every sound I hear." Daring Do put her gun away and withdrew to the shadows. Whoever this man was, she was not going to surprise him, and his aim easily outclassed her own. From the safety of a corner that escaped the light of the torches, she could see the man approaching the stone and examining it for a moment. And then, with a speed that she couldn't believe, he grabbed the stone and pulled it back, escaping before the deadly spikes that protruded from the floor could even be triggered. Swiftly he left the room, and only after she could no longer hear his footsteps did Daring Do allow herself to breathe. "W-Who the hell was that guy?" "Scorpan…" Tirek watched as his grunt kneeled before him, offering the stone that he had recovered from the temple with his head low. The stone bore the mark of a crescent moon, and Tirek took it greedily. "You recovered the stone…" "Yes, Lord Tirek." "… And yet, you messed up, Scorpan." Scorpan looked up with a confused look on his face, before a sound behind him prompted the man to turn around. A guard held his dog, Spike, by the collar, and as it whimpered and struggled for freedom, Tirek continued. "You were seen, Scorpan, and you did not eliminate the witness." "But Lord Tirek, Caballeron never saw-" "I am not referring to him, Scorpan." Tirek motioned towards the monitor to the left of the room. The large monitor, big enough to cover the entirety of the wall, played an image of Scorpan leaving the tomb. It then skipped through roughly two hours of footage, before showing another figure leaving. A young woman. "W-Who-" "I had the entrance of the tomb monitored by a camera to ensure that you would not betray me, but it seems that, instead, you let yourself be seen… By Daring Do, no less." "Daring Do?" Scorpan turned to Tirek, sweat dripping down his brow as his body shook. The buff man rose from his from and slowly approached his whimpering grunt. "P-Please, Lord Tirek, have mercy! I will find this Daring Do and correct my mistake! I promise!" "… Very well," Tirek said, much to Scorpan's surprise. "You did bring me the stone, and so, I am feeling generous." Scorpan dared to smile. "T-Thank you, Lord-" His praise was cut short, and Tirek rushed past him faster than he could blinked, and delivered his fist directly into Spike's muzzle. Scorpan turned and looked with horror and the dog's struggling stopped, and its whimpering was muffled to a silent cry as blood trailed down its face. "Wha- B-But you said-" "I said that I am feeling generous. Be thankful that you are getting off so light." Tirek turned to Scorpan, looking down at the man with a fiery glare. "I am close, Scorpan, but I still need one more item before I can make my move. Do you understand? I cannot afford to be discovered just yet. "I will give you one more chance, though. Fail, and he dies. Your next task is simple." Tirek motioned towards the monitor. "Before she writes and publishes her next book, kill Daring Do."