391 Tomb in the Fissured Mountains (1/2)
”Okay…” Calming her breathing, Eliza refocused herself. It took a few minutes but Eliza managed to differentiate the two bloodlines. Focusing on the energy of her dryad companion, the aurora around Eliza began to change.
The ground beneath Eliza's feet started to grow tufts of grass, surprising everyone present. Her physical appearance didn't change at all, but her eyes had become entirely green with no pupil or iris. Both eyes looked like leaves when held up in direct sunlight, slightly transparent and filled with accents of soft orange and streaks of warm yellow.
”Well… How do I look?” Eliza examined herself and then did a turn around for everyone to see. ”Did anything change?”
”Look in a mirror…” For a moment, Jack was bewitched by Eliza's eyes, unable to look away from her. After Eliza took out a mirror and looked away, Jack broke eye contact and explained more, ”Dryads are naturally charming, able to coerce plant life to their will and cast powerful enchantments.”
”Oh, is that why you can't look away from me?” teased Eliza. ”Maybe I'll have to try this out later tonight…”
”Since you've all tested your new skills, let's get going!” Clapping his hands, Jack changed the subject. ”Phoro, Bowzer, I gotta put you away for a second, okay? Daliea, store Mooldrat as well.”
The beasts were quickly stored away as Jack looked to Lina. ”If you want to come with us, then you'll have to go back to your human form. Otherwise, I can leave you here to play with Dragov.”
”Umm… Is it going to be fun where we're going?” Lina asked, tempted to stay and play with the massive centipede.
”Not exactly,” replied Jack. ”We'll be back before nightfall, so we can come back to pick you up later, okay?”
”Okay!” Lina shouted and barreled toward the centipede. ”Dragov! I want to slide on your back!”
The others got a laugh out of Lina's antics as Jack wrapped his arms around each of his wives. ”As beautiful as you all are in those forms, you should change back to save mana and not scare anyone we might run into. And a change of clothes would be good too”
Once the women were back to normal and changed out of their torn clothes, Jack activated his new skill Greater Teleportation. Jack and his wives were suddenly transported in a flash of light, like Tralon and Daruun had done so many times before. When the light faded, the party looked around to find themselves in a rocky landscape with a row of jagged mountains not too far away.
”Sure thing.”
With the Giant Condor, the party was off for the mountains, excited to adventure together again.
Not even an hour later the party was overlooking the mountainside. There, Jack retrieved the sword that acted as their guide. After apologizing to Appa and Eliza for the mess he was about to make, Jack slit his hand carefully, allowing gravity to cover the downward-pointing blade in blood.
They were then led to one of the mountain peaks, jutting out between the mountainside and the large, bottomless fissure that ran down the center of the mountain range.
”That peak…” Jack directed Appa toward the mountain, making sure to keep an eye out for nearby beasts. There were a few, but nothing that the lv. 49 Bowzer and the lv. 47 Phoro couldn't handle.
Those two dispatched the nearby beasts with ease while Jack searched the cliffside for the tomb's entrance.
On the side of a perfectly vertical drop, Jack finally managed to find the entrance thanks to Appa, who was carrying the party over the fissure. Soon, they were glad to find the rockface parting to form a smooth entrance to a small cave. And it was just in time, as Jack heard a distant growl from deep inside the fissure.
'Bowzer! Phoro! Get back now,' ordered Jack, not daring to find out what was below without first entering the ancient tomb.
Both beasts hurried back and were stored before Jack jumped into the newly-opened cave.
”Jump! I'll catch you!”
Eliza didn't hesitate and leaped toward Jack, forcing him to catch her like she were a princess. ”Thanks, Darling.”
”Anytime.” Jack chuckled and helped her stand up. ”Come on you two.”
Maura was next, followed by Daliea. After both of them were caught by Jack and carefully placed inside the cave, Eliza stored Appa as the growling started to grow louder.
The cave wasn't very deep but that made it easy to find an archway with a name etched into the stone overhead. Reading the sign, ”T1golBidd13s”, Jack reached up and ran his hand over the lettering as he stepped inside.
There they found a few dozen chests and rows of armor on display around the sepulcher.