Deposit Divers

I was being transported through the forest at immense speeds via slime. I can't believe Matthew couldn't break me out too! I'm gonna give him a hard time when I see him again. I tried stabbing the slime around me, but to no avail. It was like I was in the deep end of a pool trying to fight the very water around me. At a point, I just gave up and sat waiting for the slime to take me wherever it was going.

Not long after, I could see the lights of Jericho in the distance-WAIT! THE LIGHTS OF JERICHO?! THIS STUPID SLIME SENT ME BACK THIS FAR?!

As I struggled more out of frustration, the slime spat me out at the front gate. I was covered in slime, angry, and wanted to take it out on something. Thank goodness this slime is still here!

I swung at the slime with my sword, but it easily dodged it.

"Eh?"

I attempted a feint into a swung, but the slime reacted just fast enough to dodge my attack.

"HEH?!"

I tried to shield bash, he dodged. I tried gaze of pity, it looked at me, but didn't attack. I even tried to use Shapios to trap it, but it got out just in time.

"HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEH?!"

What the hell? I don't get it! Slimes aren't normally this fast! Why the hell is this one so swift?! I looked at the slime's untouched HP and then it's name. It was literally called "Agile Slime." I sheathed my weapon. There's no way I'm hitting it and it's not hostile, so I might as well just try to catch up with the rest of the group.

Once I sheathed my weapon and walked back into town, the slime went back into the forest. It probably assumes that I've given up. Little does it know, things are just getting started.

I walked to the market and found stables. They had all sorts of horses of all sorts of shapes and sizes. Frankly, I just need the fastest one.

"I'll take your fastest steed! Now! I'm in a hurry!" I told the storeowner. He wore a noble outfit, but it was obvious he was from the lower reach. He also wore a smile that screamed he was masking his true intentions. I have to be careful with this guy. I don't want to be scammed.

"No problem! Follow me!" the merchant led me to the stables nearby and as soon as he pointed out the fastest horse there, I got on top of it.

"I'll take it."

"Sure thing! That'll be 700,000 gold!"

"700,000 GOLD?! YOU CAN GET A HOUSE IN THE UPPER REACH FOR THAT MUCH!"

"Well, she's a fast girl. A real valuable one too. I reckon a desperate paladin that needs to beat the other guilds can get to the end of the scorching sands in a day with her!" He patted the horse as he briefly went over its specs.

This guy knows who I am and what I'm after. He's probably hiking up the prices of all the horses because he knows I'm desperate! I'm going to have to use every bit of my persuasion power to do this! Aegis: Master Haggler, is about to give it everything he's got!

"We DO have a credit program if you don't have the funds right now."

"You KNOW that's gonna do more harm than good to me." I crossed my arms.

===

Polk, Gash, and I walked the endless sands of the scorching desert. We three have been told to hunt down food for the rest of the group, but I am getting very tired of this place already. Unlike the forest of beginnings, there wasn't anything interesting to look at or see. Gash mentioned that this frontier had an entire shtick to it where everything remotely interesting would be in these underground cave-like environments called "Deposits." The real problem lies in this...

We haven't found a single one-

"Over here, Matthew! I found a deposit!" Gash called me over.

UNTIL NOW!

I ran over to the entrance of the deposit. It was a small hole that the three of us were peering down into. It looked as if no light entered it past the entrance. With no hesitation, I slid into the hole and the other two followed. Once I stopped sliding and hit the ground of the cavern, I looked to see that it was barely visible. I couldn't even see five feet in front of me.

"It sure is dark in here."

"Hold on! I have something for this." Gash said.

Gash took a torch out of his inventory and lit it to illuminate the walls of the cave.

"Wait, you had a torch the entire time?!"

"Yeah. We were going to the scorching sands, so I figured I should've brought a torch-"

I facepalmed.

"Ohhhhhhhhhhh. I probably could've used it against Origami Kami." Gash said after seeing my disappointed expression.

At least he's starting to understand. That was the main crux of what I was trying to tell him yesterday about his fighting.

As we walked throughout the cave, it felt more and more endless. And through that endless walking, the dynamic was more of the same: Gash asked me about improving his fighting and also some rather personal questions.

"What type of deodorant do you use?"

"Why would you need to know that?"

"You're right...I have a better question! What's your favorite type of woman?"

Polk on the other hand kept his distance. I even caught him scowling at me once in a while. What is that guy's problem?

I miss Violet...

I even miss Aegis...

"Oh look at this!" Gash ran ahead in excitement.

We entered a small room that had all sorts of carvings and letterings etched into the walls. It was a classic entrance to a tomb. At the opposite end of the room, there was a podium with a stone slab on it. Gash and I were curious, so we looked at what the slab had written on it.

"Inside this tomb holds a great treasure.

One that exceeds all measure.

Just answer right now,

This riddle anyhow,

And you can continue with your adventure."

As Gash read the first part, I read the actual riddle.

"You measure my life in hours and I serve you by expiring. I'm quick when I'm thin and slow when I'm fat. The wind is my enemy."

"Well, It's obvious there's no food here. Let's leave." Polk said.

"You know, you're kind of right, but there could be some crazy treasure here. No way in hell am I passing this up. How about you, partner?" I exchanged looks with Gash. He was immediately on board and the both of us maniacally laughed at the prospect of treasure. With a majority wanting to stay, Polk had no choice but to follow us.

As we were laughing, the exit behind us quickly closed. A stone button appeared next to the podium that had the number three etched into it. I assume you press the button to attempt to answer the riddle. I'm also assuming that the number etched in is the number of tries you get. There was no leaving now. We were locked in.

The first ten minutes, we thought long and hard about possible answers. Nothing really came to mind. After a bit, I got an idea of what the answer could be and wanted to press the button to give his answer. Gash figured if we didn't try anything, we'll be stuck here anyway. So he agreed to it.

"A Clock!"

The runes in the room all gave a faint red glow and the number on the button shifted from three to two.

"This doesn't look like the aesthetic for the right answer-" Gash said before being cut off by Polk.

"THANKS CAPTAIN OBVIOUS!"

Not long after, water began to pour from the corners of the room. Maybe this was a way to add suspense. There's no way there would be enough water to drown us.

Right?

I definitely didn't want to wait to find out, so I started to think. I looked over to Gash and asked for his opinion on the riddle.

"Well, it says 'I'm quick when I'm thin but slow when I'm fat.' That's kind of like a fire, right? Like a 'slow burn' you know?"

I don't really think that's the answer, but I can't really think of anything else. We should really be careful though. We only have two more tries. We should definitely try to give this some more thought-

"Fire!"

The room started to glow more red and water began gushing through the corners of the room. It didn't even take half of a minute for us to be floating in water. Well, everyone except me. When the water began to make the other two float, I had to quickly unequip my armor.

Once we were all keeping ourselves up, we realized that we were getting closer and closer to the ceiling. Soon, we were going to run out of air.

"DAMN IT! DO YOU SEE WHAT YOU IDIOTS DID?! WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE NOW!"

"Polk, calm down. the mission isn't over-"

"YES IT IS! AND IT'S BECAUSE YOU WANTED TO GO DEPOSIT DIVING WITH YOUR BUTT BUDDY HERE!" The priest pointed to me.

Hold on a second. Last time I checked, he had little to nothing to add to this riddle. Not only that, he's barely helped us throughout the trip! If I had to rank the group by their uselessness, he would be second. And that's because Roxline doesn't do anything! All he's done is bitch and complain the entire time.

Something then went off in me that made me have this thought: if we're gonna die here, I'm at least gonna go off on this asshole!