36 It’s my hidden treasure! (2/2)

Ken and Lux started fighting once again. Their playful roars scared off the nearby lower level creatures. Lux's hidden treasure was caught in-between their slightly more violent playing.

Ken swiped the box away from Lux. The box tumbled to the ground. (Haha!) Ken leapt at the box.

(No you don't!) Lux roared as he also charged towards his special treasure.

They gripped the box with their claws as they continued fighting.

A light flashed and the box opened, pulled apart by their claws. The two cats flew apart. Some objects clattered to the ground.

A powerful image of an old lynx like creature emerged. (Finally, some worthy lynxes!) An aged growl shouted.

[You and Lux have opened Lux's hidden treasure.]

***

Jericho logged into the game and looked over to his dancing sister with a smile. ”I'm here.” He called out.

Princess stopped. ”That was sooner than I expected. Are you good?”

Jericho gave a nod. ”I think we should be able to refine the song and dance steps fairly soon. Don't you agree?”

She gave a nod in response. ”Oh, brother, I was warned today that something bad is likely going to happen in the area soon. Alex was really worried and wanted me to tell you we should finish our quest and get out of here as soon as possible.”

Jericho frowned. ”I see. So what do you want to do?”

Princess frowned back. ”While we could go with the line dance and song we created before, I don't think it will satisfy them. I don't think rushing our quest is a good idea. We should keep going at the pace we are going. Good stuff takes time or effort, great stuff takes time and effort.”

Jericho let out a light chuckle. ”Spoken like an artist. So other than the words, I can play the basic melody while you dance to it. But like you said yesterday, you need to figure out how a satyr would dance to it right?”

The girl gave a nod. ”Yeah, But I don't know of a way to make my body like theirs enough to make it work. I don't want to ask them for help just yet, but I will later if it is more useful.”

Jericho smiled. ”I have an idea then. It'll be a bit gross, but if it works, I should be able to help you with that.” He split himself into two and had his clone move out of sight. ”For now, you and I should refine the overall performance while my clone tries to see if my idea could even work.”

Jericho and Princess practiced the piece they had worked hard on the night before.

”Jericho, do you want to talk about it?”

The bard shook his head. ”Glaw mentioned something that set me off but I am much better now but I don't want to talk about it. Thank you for caring though.”

Princess gave a nod. ”You don't sound like you are lying like you were this morning.”

Jericho chuckled. ”I'm that readable?”

”Only to me; I know my brother better than anyone. What did Glaw say?”

The bard shook his head. ”Moira, I don't want to talk about it.”

The girl sighed. ”Alright, I'll stop pushing.”

”Thank you. So tell me about this warning.”

”Alex said it was some sort of spiritual poison and was very dangerous.” Princess replied.

Meanwhile the other Jericho looked at his legs and was trying not to be grossed out. He watched as his body shape deformed. ”Mutable body in human form is defiantly not supposed to be a thing.” He groaned.

His feet shriveled into the shape of hooves. ”They still look fleshy.” He muttered as he tried to stand. He winced in pain as the small 'hooves' were surprisingly tender despite looking calloused. ”At its current stage, Mutable body won't work.” His stamina depleted and his body reverted back to normal. ”Wow, so human form, mutable body consumes stamina. That is good to know.” He sat in a meditative position to breathe and regain stamina. Ken mentioned that breathing does help restore stamina.

{Hey Glaw, I have a question.}

{I might have an answer for you. What is your question?}

{Do you know that the benefit for having mutable body at Expert is?}

{I do.}

Jericho waited before laughing. {My bad, will you tell me what the benefit is?}

Glaw joined in the laughter. {I'm getting familiar with your human humor. I am glad the joke was funny.} He emerged from Jericho to face him directly. {You can change your state of being. For example, if I were to use mutable body, I could become an ice or steam elemental which changes how my abilities work. Like so,} Glaw froze himself and used aqua slash which turned into an icy blade that he could swing. He melted into steam and used the same ability. The slash blasted a wall of hot mist at a high speed outward. {I don't know how it would work with your human body. But I can't use it to become something I am not.} He resumed being a normal water elemental. {For example, I am made of water and cannot make myself be made of fire. Your human form is made of flesh, so I am not sure what 'states' it could be in. Also, the ability doesn't allow you to change how much mass you have. Even now, if you were to grow an extra arm, you would probably shrink because the material for the arm doesn't form randomly.}

Jericho gave a nod. {Thanks Glaw, it looks like it would be good for me to try and get it up to Expert then.}

{True, and then you should be able to make four of yourself.} Glaw reminded.

Jericho remained silent for a bit before Glaw's words sunk in. {Wait… that is what all the complicated explanation about lesser elementals was saying in the skill description for split? I feel dumb.}

Glaw waited before answering. {Yes. As a lesser elemental you cannot split. As a small elemental you can split into 2 lesser elementals. As an elemental you can split into two small elementals or four lesser elementals. When you reach Llyn's level of power, you will be able to split into eight lesser elementals and so on. Did you not understand this? Is that why you have delayed working on the elemental skills? I did think it was strange that you were ignoring them when they could be so useful to you and your performance skills.}

Jericho scratched his cheek. {Yeah… Well, now that I know, I should practice more. Mutable body is the closest to breaking through so I will just use that one. Who knows, maybe I will find it works great for the quest once it reaches Expert.}

{Good luck.}

{Thanks, I have one more question though. My sister just mentioned to my other half that the mist she wanted to investigate later is a type of spiritual poison. Do you know of anything that could help?}

Glaw gave a nod. {Your Serenade soothes spiritual ailments. Spiritual poison is likely an ailment. That, and your sister has Yun's staff, right?While I do not know for sure, both of those should be able to help protect you.}

{I see, thank you.} Jericho, the clone, turned into his water elemental self. {Now I can practice without having to worry about stamina running out, or being grossed out by my own actions.}

{Jericho, I have a question. There is something I don't understand.} Glaw stated.

{What is it Glaw?} Jericho asked back thinking it strange that there were things Glaw didn't understand.

{Why is it that mutable body is not gross when you are an elemental but is gross when you are in your mortal fleshy form?}