Ashiore waited for Majolica to make her way down, straining her vision to try and make out what was up ahead. Once the other woman was down here as well, she was just about to stop channeling her energy and regrow the mushrooms elsewhere when Majolica moved quickly. Ashiore stared, completely baffled, as little mushroom crumbs fell from Majolica's mouth onto the ground. "I- I don't-" She just had. No words. "That's- I don't know if they're safe to eat...?" Majolica's exclamation that she was immune to poison didn't help. If anything, it just raised more questions. Just in case though, Ashiore waved a hand and said the incantation for a cleansing spell. She didn't know if the mushrooms she grew really were toxic but it was better to be safe than sorry. Moving on, Ashiore privately just reflected on the past few minutes. She just... what was wrong with Majolica? First she disguised herself as an entirely different person, and then she just grabbed glowing mushrooms off a wall to eat?? But there was little time to ponder that question as Majolica started pointing at something up ahead. Glancing up, Ashiore found herself looking at a doorway that expanded into a large, almost empty room. There appeared to be no traps, and at first it looked like there was nothing there. It was darker inside, but Ashiore repeated the motion to grow mushrooms again to give them some light. Still empty... ah, wait. "There are runes carved on the walls, but I don't recognize them," Ashiore said, leaning in a bit closer to try and look. They weren't the runes related to Nature Magic like she saw on those pieces of pottery. And in fact, they looked like a whole bunch of different styles, just scattered about the- Ashiore jolted as something beneath her hand shifted, and a loud grinding sound began to fill the air. Backing away from the wall, she watched wide-eyed as grooves on the wall began to light up with a pale green light. Wait, those were the nature magic runes! And when the entire rune was bright, a compartment opened in the wall, revealing a stack of tightly rolled scrolls. "Majolica, take a look at those runes! I think they're activated by different types of magic. If you recognize something, then you should try a small spell there." Ashiore knelt down to began peering through the scrolls. This was it!
"Hehehe! Good find! Maybe it's instructions for a world-ending catastrophic spell! Or a recipe for candy!" Majolica grabbed a few more mushrooms from the wall and stuffed them into her pocket, then hurried over. Mentioning "Hmm... hehehe! Oh no! I can't read runes! Oh, Hehe... activated by magic huh! Then I guess I won't have to blast the wall down... hehehe." Majolica looked at the various runes inspecting them carefully. None of the runes she looked at in any way resembled any magic languages she had come across on her travels. This impressed Majolica, as she had spent most of her free time exploring the world and had come across many different texts, and magic users. Going through each of the various runes carved into the wall, Majolica came across one that looked like a snow crystal. Not exactly what she was looking for, but if it opened, it would probably also come in handy. Majolica placed her hand on the rune and allowed icy magic to flow into it. Slowly, it unlocked and opened. Inside was a few tightly bound scrolls. "Hehehe! Score! I'll read them later!" Majolica picked them up carefully and placed them into her non-mushroom pocket. Moving down the line, Majolica came across another rune. It looked like a clown smiling but upside down. This one is illusion I bet! Majolica siphoned some illusion magic into the rune and like the previous one, it opened. "You know what, when we first came in here I thought 'geez, I bet the people that made this place were really amazing!' but now looking at how dumb these runes are I'm starting to doubt that.. hehe..." Majolica reached into the slot that opened under the rune. "AH! AHHHH! IT'S EATING MEEEEEEEeeee.... hehe just kidding." Majolica winked mischievously at Ashiore, then pulled out a single loose sheet of paper. "This is it? Hehehe... lame." Looking at the paper for a moment, she noticed the symbols on it seemed to appear and disappear, as if the whole text was constantly shifting, changing, appearing, and disappearing. Majolica tossed the paper into her pocket. It seemed more trouble than it was worth, but maybe it would make good tinder for an emergency fire if she ever got caught in the woods. "Where's the stupid black magic one? I bet the black magic one will really stand out, and--" Majolica reached the last rune that looked sort of like an upside-down pentagram with an evil looking eye with horns on it. "That one's probably it." Again, Majolica siphoned some magic into it and watched as it opened. Unlike the past two, this one opened to reveal an entire book. "OOOOOOH! BLACK MAGIC BOOK! HEHEHE! ASHIORE! LOOK! THIS ONE HAD A WHOLE BOOK IN IT! DID THE ONE YOU FOUND HAVE--" Perhaps it was because Majolica was shouting, but from the darkness of the tunnel they had just come from, something roared...
Kneeling on the ground, Ashiore carefully opened up the few scrolls she had found. Looks like there wasn't that much for nature magic, but that was okay! If even a few of these were things that she didn't have access to, then it would be worth it. She glanced up every now and then as Majolica went about activating runes and opening up secret compartments, but for the most part it appeared that nothing bad was happening. Despite the fact that the other girl was having a bit of fun with the ominous stone-grinding sound that followed a successful activation. Okay, so these were pretty hard to make out. Ashiore probably should have expected that from ancient scrolls that could have been a century old for all that she knew. Hmmm. A few more crude depictions, some scratchy writing in an ancient script, more runes... Majolica's excited yelling made her look up yet again. The loudness was sudden, but Ashiore smiled at her enthusiasm. It made it easier to remember that Majolica was just another girl, and not just a really, really weird person. Sadly, the moment of revelry was broken by a loud, angry-sounding roar. Ashiore froze as the roar echoed down the tunnels, before she snapped back to attention. Out of instinct, she began rolling up the scrolls again, before deciding to just forget about it and shove them in her inventory. After all this time ingame, navigating her game menus were getting to be second nature. Which was a very good thing, as a dark shadow loomed in the doorway. "Majolica!" Ashiore hissed, quickly moving over to the girl. "Maybe it'll-" Maybe it'll pass us by, she was going to say. Unfortunately, there was no such luck to be found now. A stout, scaly leg slammed onto the stone floor, followed by another, and then a large thick form was squeezing its way into the chamber. It was about the size of a horse but was obviously no such creature: it seemed to be a dragon-like crocodile, covered in scales, with large leathery wings folded against its back, a long snout full of sharp jagged teeth and yellow, reflective pupils. It roared once again as it entered, blocking up the whole entryway. Again, all the time she spent playing Terrasphere and getting into dangerous situations trained her instincts well. She shouted out a short incantation and threw her hands out. In this kind of rocky ground, growing vines strong enough to restrain the creature was tough, but it would be stopped for a while, at least. "Do you have anything that can hit it?" Ashiore asked, daring to take her eyes off the struggling creature for a brief moment to look back at Majolica. Prometheus hissed and fluttered above, ready to strike if Ashiore ordered him to. "I can keep it pinned down for a while longer, but I don't think we can get past it while it's blocking the doorway."
Majolica was startled when she heard the monster come barging into the treasure room they had found. Turning, she watched as vines grew to restrain the snapping and roaring beast. "Hehehe, this dummy thinks he can eat us after all the trouble we went through to find the treasure! Hehehehe! That's something that Grand Witch Majolica just cannot allow!" Grinning and cackling, Majolica held out the bristles of the broom and pointed them at the monster. "Broomstick Doomstick!" Broom Control The bristles of Majolica's broomstick staff enlarged with magical energy then surged forward towards the beast. Instead of hammering into the beast, as the bristles approached they made a sharp forty degrees change of direction upwards. Like fist made of brookstick bristles, the attack punched through the ceiling right above the monster's head. As crash shook the temple, rubble from the ceiling's new hole cascaded down on the monster. "Hehehe!" Real life Majolica, being good at math and in the computer programming club, Majolica's magical incantations were based off of mathematics and formulas. Of course, the magical language Majolica had created made sense to her, but not to really anyone making her incantations sound... well, odd at best. As the monster reeled from some debris landing on its head, Majolica was already casting her next spell. "One over Festive times two~!" Witch Clone Majolica threw up which floated in mid-air, then she slapped her hands together as if copying someone who's brother was turned into a suit of armor, and was now trying to make an alchemical circle with their hands. Dark ice crystals cracked into existence next to Majolica, the crystals crew slowly then after a second two copies of Majolica blinked into reality. The two clones giggled at the beast. "Go!" Laughing, the clones began running at a dead sprint towards the beast. As the clones started dashed forward, Majolica began prepping her third spell. Dark energy began gathering in her hand as the clones neared the tied down monster. As the two clones approached they leaped forward tackling the beast then, crash! The two clones exploded into a whirlwind of piercing shards of corrupted 'Witch Frost' ice. The beast, howling in the pain, fell to the ground clawing and snapping angrily. "Hehehe! And now the finale! Error Silly equals Error zero Error Xtreme Plumpy minus two Radical over Witchy Optometrist squared! Abra Cadabra!” Abra Cadabra Majolica held out the hand she had been channeling energy into towards the beast and out thundered a beam of shadowy, black, smoking energy. The spell washed over the beast as Majolica cackled. "FEEL THE POWER OF THE GRAND WITCH YOU IDIOT MONSTER! HEHEHE!" As the spell dissipated, nothing remained of the beast that was once pinned down in the hallway. Not blood, not bones, not even a hair. The doorway, walls, and ground were simply stained black. Now that the monster was gone, Majolica turned back towards Ashiore and shot her a thumbs up. "Hehehe, monster dealt with! Pretty neat trick huh, where you combo spells together, huh? Hehehe, frost plus black makes Witch Frost! Add Illusion then it's witch frost clones! Hehehe...now, let's loot the rest of the treasure!" @Ashiore Evretto
Majolica's command of her different types of magic was certainly very impressive. The scaly creature, bound as it was, stood no chance. Majolica definitely looked practiced in blending her spells into one another, which was impressive. Ashiore herself had taken a long, long time before she was comfortable trying to cast on her own without the assistance from the in-game menu. Despite how unorthodox Majolica's spells sounded, at least they were effective. All that was left of the vines and the beast were smudges of black around the doorway. "Very neat," she said with a slight smile. She returned the thumbs up. Prometheus calmed down now that nothing was assaulting them, and he promptly resumed his earlier nosy behavior, poking around for anything that caught his attention. He did seem a bit put out that there wasn't a corpse left for him to eat, though. "We'll find you something later," Ashiore said to him, and then turned back to Majolica. "I'm mostly fine with these scrolls I found. You can go look around for anything else you want. But we probably shouldn't take too long. Other monsters might get curious about the explosion, so we should get moving soon. We can take a closer look at the things we found back in town." For now, Ashiore would keep an eye out for anything else heading their way. The next monster may not be as loud as the one they just vanquished, so having someone keep an eye out would be helpful. She stayed by the doorway and grew a few more light-emitting mushrooms, and- Ah, right. They'd been traveling for a while. And casting a lot of spells in quick succession took a lot of energy. Ashiore found a patch of ground and began growing some different types of mushrooms, ones she knew were safe to eat. She added on a few more types of fruits and vegetables too, just in case. "Here, Majolica. If you're hungry, help yourself." Alas, if they were heading out soon, there'd be no time to prepare a proper meal. They'd find something when they got back to town, Ashiore supposed as she picked a handful of berries. This would tide them over for the time being.
"Hehehe, well I think we should leave some stuff in case some other adventures come down here! Hehe, just kidding. I don't think there's anything else down here. What did you get? A scroll? Can you read it, hehe! I'll probably have to do some research to read mine. Maybe there's a big library I can visit to see if I can learn something, hehe. But, I can't do that while we're stuck down here hehehe, Let's go!" Majolica's mouth began watering as she watched the glowing mushrooms once again grow onto the walls. She was even more excited when Ashiore grew some especially for her. Watching with ravenous glee as the mushroom grew to fruition, Majolica rushed at the mushrooms then hungrily crouched over her meal and devoured all of them. With a full mouth, she turned to Ashiore. "These are really good, hehehe. You're a good person, you know that? Next time try and make ones that taste like this, and glow... Hehehe." After finishing, Majolica got up and made sure there was no dirt or bits of mushroom on her mouth. "Okay, I'm ready! Hehehe!" @Ashiore Evretto
"Ah, right. So, I guess that's everything, then." Ashiore nodded and brought out the few scrolls she found. "I have a few of them, but I didn't get a good chance to read through them. I think I might be able to read them? I'll probably try again in better light." As helpful as they were as emergency lights, they were not good enough for trying to decipher ancient texts. "If not, I might have to look for a library like you. There should be one in Stokbon," she mused. "It's the capital of Falderen, so a lot of important scholars probably gathered there." And now that the situation between Astorea and Falderen had hopefully calmed down a bit, Ashiore hoped that going about the city would be smooth sailing. "Or maybe it's something that the Ynglar Brotherhood would know about..." The mysterious group did seem to have knowledge of a whole bunch of different magical things. They could create portals, they knew about different planes of existence, they knew practically everything arcane and esoteric. Maybe they'd also have some idea about what kind of affliction was messing with her fingers. Hmm. That was something to pursue. Impromptu picnic done, there was nothing left to do but head on back. "Thank you!" she said, smiling at the compliment. "I, uh, I could definitely try to find some mushrooms like that." Back through the tunnels it was! --- So, that was that. The trek back to civilization wasn't eventful or difficult at all. They reached the closest village just as twilight began, so they'd been digging around the temple for a good couple of hours. ...And that she'd been playing Terrasphere for a few hours too many. Oops. She probably needed to go, then. With one last farewell for Majolica, Ashiore opened up her menu to log out.
Majolica waved bye to Ashiore as she left. "Hehehe, let's do this again sometime! I had fun! Bring more mushrooms!" Now alone, Majolica once again took out her scrolls and looked over them. Hehehe, such a good find! I'm sure these are super powerful! Along with the scrolls, Majolica had also gained some knowledge of underground tunnels and even runes. Deciding she might come back here later Majolica wrote herself the directions to the ruined temple. Even if it was full of monsters right now, maybe with some extermination and some elbow grease, the place would make a cool base or meeting point. Hehehe, I'll take it! But not right now. I"m tired. Majolica walked back to the corner of the temple that she and ashiore had excavated and, using her broom, began to seal it back up by blocking the entrance. Can't have any other dummies trying to get in before I can come back, hehehe! Her job finished, she hopped on her broom and rode off.
