The islands within the Isle of the Damned gained a soft gold hue as the sun began to dip off into the horizon. Along with the setting sun, the intense heat that followed it finally began to die down, allowing for the soft breeze that threaded through the leaves of the jungles to turn cold and cool down their inhabitants.
The jungle below hummed with evening life: the chittering of cicadas, the cries of seagulls and other tropical birds, and the occasional audible yelps of some animals getting killed by the nocturnal beasts waking up for their morning snack.
Speaking of breakfast, I should really pop back to Floor Zero to restock my supplies and tell Bonehead and Sam to hurry the hell up because Floor Three is a damn Treasure Hunt Floor, Deacon mused, his gaze lingering on a ruin that had caught his eye while he scouted the island for a place to set up base and gather supplies.
He rested his hands on a glassless window frame that he had just finished carving out, looking at the work the three of them accomplished with a tired yet satisfied smile. The last of the outer walls was complete. Vines had been cinched around the logs, sap had hardened into thick amber joints, and Esmerelda had even layered bits of moss and woven leaves across some of the seams for camouflage, even if it did end up insulating the areas around it.
Jass sat on the end of the back platform, eating a packet of some orange-colored chips she'd pulled out from her pouch, legs dangling over the edge. Her hands were still stained with sap, but she looked as though she couldn't care less about how exhausted she looked.
"Almost looks like we know what we're doing," she said between bites.
Deacon snorted. "Don't let the jungle gods the Aztecs worshipped hear you. They'll send another storm or cause a storm of frogs to rain down on us."
Esmerelda was nearby, kneeling over a flat stretch of wood she'd declared the "tool bench." She'd arranged a small array of makeshift supplies: sharpened vine clamps, leftover sap, and a few of the thinner branches she was carving down for structural reinforcement. Her magic flickered faintly at her fingertips, pushing a vine clamp into perfect position.
"We could reinforce the corners tomorrow," she said, voice low with focus. "The left edge near the northwest pillar's still got a small wobble."
"I've still got a couple of those pegs I shaved down a couple of hours ago, so do you think we should just call it quits for today and finish up tomorrow?" Deacon asked, who in turn received a muffled "Yes," and a "Please."
Deacon leaned back and let his weight fall onto the log floor, arms splayed behind him as he gazed up at the sky through the gaps in the leaves above.
"We haven't done too badly for ourselves considering we aren't Production Classes," he said to himself.
Jass looked over. "For a hidden treehouse with a view of half the island and no one trying to kill us right this second? I'd say it's damn near perfect."
Esmerelda sat back finally and exhaled, wiping her brow with her sleeve. "Give me a campfire and a drink, and I might even forgive you for roping us into this project."
"I ain't got any beer, but I got some clean water," Deacon shrugged before turning to his left. "And I think I saw a beehive somewhere over there, but I can probably smoke them out to get a couple of honeycombs."
A few minutes and a couple of bee stings later, the three of them sat in a loose circle around a medium-sized campfire; their muscles aching, armors and robes stained, but they were smiling nonetheless.
From where they sat, the jungle around them was covered in a blanket of darkness, allowing them to see the bright stars above, and note that the stars were very different than the ones he would see in the Tower's Floor Zero.
"Alright," Deacon said, raising his Water Tin slightly. "To the best hidden base on Floor Three, and the only one with a view like this."
Jass smirked, raising her own Water Tin. "And no boars charging us."
"Yet," Esmerelda smirked as she raised her own Water Tin.
The wood of the campfire crackled softly between them, casting flickering shadows across their faces that were somewhat marred by chocolate.
Deacon leaned back on his palms as he sat on a half log with his eyes closed, as he felt the cold evening breeze pass through their section of the jungle. The stinging welts still lingered faintly on his forearm from his honey hunt, but the honeycomb was worth it, rich, sticky sweetness that made the plain, clean water taste like a luxury drink after not being able to drink soda or any type of energy drink in the past week.
He exhaled through his nose, then glanced toward the fire. "So, I ran into Valorie yesterday morning."
Jass, who had been absently turning her tin in her hands, perked up. "Valorie?... Do you mean the one who got caught sleeping with Kim? Or the one who went from constantly getting second place to first in Archery Class after Liam quit?"
Deacon nodded. "The second one. She helped me from getting sniped in the head by some cunt who went by the name Le'ae and she's the one who got the meat for the jerky."
"She always was a good shot," Esmerelda murmured, stretching her legs out across the floor with a wince. "She carried me through half of Survival Month last year when we got separated from our squads. She didn't even ask for anything in return from me, not sure why though..."
"She sounds nice," Jass said, then eyed Deacon over the rim of her tin. "So... is she joining us or what?"
"Nah," Deacon said with a small shake of his head. "I offered. Told her that I'm building a base off the central island and that we five will be staying here for a while. But she said no, she wants to find her brother before doing or promising anything. While I was spicing the venison, she told me that she was in a Group Quest with her brother and for some reason they weren't teleported onto the same platform and when she checked the Party tab on her Status Page his compass was all wonky even though he teleported to Floor Three just before her."
"… Maybe he wanted to go to visit the Floor Map of Floor Two and ended up visiting one of the areas claimed by a guild that has a signal jammer," Esmerelda suggested, frowning slightly as her gaze drifted to the fire. "I hope you told her where our base is. If she finds him, they might need a safe place to fall back to. And like I said, she helped me out big back then. I owe her."
"I did," Deacon confirmed, tapping two fingers against his tin. "I gave her the direction of which island I was going to and left her a couple of clues for her to track me. And if I know her personality well enough, she most definitely tracked me until I left the central island."
Jass let out a low whistle. "Man... everything about this Floor Climb has been different. Floor One was completely different than anything we learned about, Floor Two felt off, but wave fights are a pretty common concept, so I don't have much of an issue with it, but a Treasure Hunt Floor for Floor Three takes the cake. I've never heard of one happening so early on."
"Yeah," Esmerelda said softly, resting her head on her crossed arms. "We should really get Bonehead and Sam in on this asap. Our previous plans are seriously ruined because of getting this golden egg of a Floor."
"Yeah, I was thinking the same," Deacon nodded in agreement.
Esmerelda set down her wand and reached into one of the pouches hanging from her belt. "Well, since we're actually not running from anything for once," she muttered, "might as well break out the good stuff."
She pulled out a slightly crumpled bag from one of her leg pouches with "Floor One – Emergency Ration Pack" scrawled on the front in faded marker. Within said bag was a sealed sleeve of marshmallows, a half-dozen Graham crackers, and a bar of dark chocolate that had slightly melted at some point and resolidified in an uneven block.
Jass perked up immediately. "No. Way. You brought s'mores?!"
Esmerelda grinned. "You think I left Floor One without taking what I need to make them? Girl, please."
The two young women got to work, breaking the unevenly spaced chocolate bars into manageable squares and layering them onto the crackers before stabbing marshmallows onto sticks they quickly sharpened with their own daggers and holding them over the campfire, not wanting to waste a second cracker for a top. The flames of the campfire flickered warmly across their excited faces as they rotated the sweets with practiced movements. The smell of toasted sugar quickly filled the air.
"Was this the real reason why you were complaining about the heat?" Deacon, still holding his water tin, raised an eyebrow. "Because you kept expending your mana into ice to keep the chocolate cold?"
"Hey," Esmerelda said, eyes fixed on her slowly browning marshmallow. "Do you want some of my snacks or not?"
Snorting in response to her words, Deacon reached behind him and grabbed one of the spare sticks from earlier, then skewered a lone marshmallow at the tip. Holding it just above the flames of the campfire, he leaned forward slightly before fishing something from the satchel beside him.
Giving a glance at the untouched mana-imbued parchment to check that it was good to use, he then tossed it into the flames of the campfire.
It flared up instantly, the red-tinged flames crackling as the parchment burned and then, just as quickly, shot back out from the heart of the campfire. Deacon caught it midair with his free hand, now singed lightly around the edges, and flipped it open.
Spell Upgrade: [Flame Armament (Common → Uncommon)]
Spell Learned: [Flame Mine (Common)]
Deacon Surtr Hayes
Race: Jötunn Lv 8
Class: Warrior Lv 8
Health: 460/460
Mana: 200/200
Stamina: 310/346
Stats:
Vitality: 46
Strength: 45 (47)
Endurance: 33 (34)
Agility: 19
Intelligence: 15
Wisdom: 20
Willpower: 27
Perception: 11
Free Points: 1
Racial Traits:
General Skills: Identify (Initiate), Meditation (Initiate)
Class Skills: Basic One-Handed Weapon Mastery (Common), Light Shield Mastery (Initiate), Academy of Beginnings Sword Style (Uncommon)
Spell Masteries: Fire [Spark (Initiate), Ignis (Common), Flame Armament (Uncommon), Flame Mine (Common)], Water [Water Ball (Initiate)], Earth [Gouge Ground (Initiate)]
Affinity: Fire (High) – Innate skill: Undying Flame
Achievements: Finder of the Hidden I [+5 All Stats]
Deacon blinked. "Huh."
Jass leaned over his shoulder, licking melted chocolate off her thumb. "What?"
"For all the pain that we endured getting our spells engraved into our soul by the Academy, I'm quite thankful," Deacon said, bringing his roasted marshmallow up to his face.
"I agree, if it were not for the Academy, the only spells I would know would be the ones the System gave me upon selecting the Mage Class." Esmerelda leaned back on her elbows, her half-eaten s'more in one hand. "What brought this up?"
"The first day I was here, I ended up catching the attention of a Blighted Crawler Host and was pinned behind a door with it banging on it," Deacon said, mouth half-full of toasted marshmallow, unaware of the guilty looks the girls gave each other.
"It was because of the spells I know that were engraved into my soul that I was even able to create a new spell called Flame Mine and kill it," He said while glancing at the spell on his Status Page. "While it is true that my Affinity for Fire did some of the heavy lifting… I am thankful for the academy for deciding to engrave these spells into our soul, allowing us to effectively have a minimum of four skills that we intimately know and are able to use when we began our climb."
Putting away his Status Page and finishing up the rest of his roasted marshmallow, he continued. "Anyways, I was thinking about heading southeast of the island tomorrow. There's a ruin I saw near the coast when I was sailing around the back of the island, and saw a kind of dilapidated ruined outpost."
Jass raised a brow. "That's not exactly close."
"Nope," Deacon said, leaning a bit closer to the campfire. "But it should have a couple of goodies in there because outposts are known for containing gear, according to the lectures and general history on Earth."