Garble stood before the somewhat small room, more of a nook, but inside the room there was a treasure chest. But it was not any ordinary treasure chest. Most chests were some kind of wood, or at best some dull metal, but this chest was gilded. It shone with gold, scrawlings on the sides, embedded gems, the works.

And most chests had a potion, or some dull chainmail in them. But if the chests of those niceness…

Garble dashed over to it, practically hugging the chest. “Look at this beauty. Ohohohoh what do you think is in it? A bunch of gems? Gold? Some amazing massive item! Oh it’s gonna be great.” He grabbed the top of the chest, trying to push it open, only for it not to budge.

As Garble continued to try to pry open the uncooperative box, Smolder snickered. “We’ve found Garble’s other secret love, treasure.”

“Hey! Less yapping more helping me open this chest.” Garble said, from atop it, trying to pry it open.

“Hang on, stop,” Sandra said. “I think I know what this is.”

Garble did not stop, but as he pulled on the top of the chest he managed, “Great, so--” he grunted as he tried to yank the top up again “--what is it?”

Sandra sighed. “We won’t be able to open it with you on top of it.”

Frowning, Garble climbed off the top of it. “Fine, great. Tell me how to open it so I can get what’s inside, then.”

“The chest collects magic, as long as it’s closed.” She walked over to the chest. “Nothing is in it, technically, until it’s opened, and to open it--” she pointed at a small round dent in the middle “-- You put a guildchain and it makes an item aligned with the class you are.”

Spike's brows rose together. "Huh, so we should really think about who gets this."

Even as he said it, Garble was already shoving his guild chain against it, grinning widely with expectation. "C'mon, nothing lame!"

The chest began to rattle and quake, bits of light escaping from the seam of where the top met the bottom. It began to crack open, the light becoming blindingly brilliant. "It's making the item," shouted Sandra, not that the opening was actually very loud.

Smolder shoved Garble from the side, almost knocking him over. "Doofus! We're a team."

"Yeah, so? I'll smash things better and that'll help 'the team'." He made airquotes as he spoke, rolling his eyes. "Now what do we get?" He tromped towards the fading glow of the chest, leaning over the side to see what was lurking within.

As he saw them, his facial expression fell. “Aw what?” Reaching inside, he pulled out what looked like a pair of ornate gloves. “Gloves? Why couldn’t it be a cool sword or something?” He flipped the gloves over. “They don’t even have like, things over the claws.” They did indeed look more like bracers over the forearms, with a strap that went around the palm to hold an armored part over the back of the hand.

“Maybe that’s better?” Sandra looked down at them. “I mean, it won’t interfere with you grabbing your sword, or using your claws if you want to.”

Garble pursed his lips. “I guess.” He removed the current leather gloves he had on and put on the new gloves. They did… feel good. And the style was definitely nicer. Not rough leather, but fine metal and smooth fabric. And they were orange (and white), which was a great color. He knew because he was it.

Maybe he should replace all of his breastplate and leather gear with stuff like this…

He shook his head, and opened up his guildchain, seeing if anything was new.

The chain dutifully reported the presence of a new skill, but its name was obfuscated. Spike was flying just over his shoulder, peering at it. "Guess you have to unlock it--"

"What the?!" Garble brought up a hand, brushing Spike away. "Warn a fella before you go getting pushy. Alright, so it looks decent, and it does… something." He turned to Sandra directly. "You know how this stuff works. How do I make it do its thing."

"Fight with it, should come out on its own eventually." She lifted her shoulders.

"Sounds right." Spike nodded in easy agreement. "Even works for classes. Well, that's it for the chest, we should move on." He pointed to the door on the other side of the small room that held the chest.

Smolder snorted softly, smoke escaping. "Next one is not Garble's. You got that, Bro? Hopefully after this we get some stairs or one of those platforms." She was quickly proven correct, a spiral staircase ascending upwards through the ceiling, promising the next floor of dangers. "See, this isn't so bad. We have this."

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The four of them followed the path that seemed opened to them, ascending the stairs as they wound round and round. "Hey." Garble rolled his shoulders as he climbed. "Other people go up this thing, right?"

"Yes." Sandra nodded softly. "Why?"

"So where are they?" He shrugged, looking out over the view of the floor as they went around. "Do you run into them sometimes?"

"This is my first time here," she admitted. "But I've heard you can, yes. It's just not nearly as common as you'd think."

"It's like The Eternal Maze!" piped in Spike with a big smile. "Everyone gets their own path, unless the maze itself decides to bring you together. I loved that comic."

Smolder twirled her dagger in the air, casually tossing it as she went around and around. "Show it to me, once we get back."

"You read comics?" Garble looked over his shoulder back at his sister.

"Yeah, and?"

"Nothin'..." He went quiet for a time, until the sound of his sword being drawn was heard. The others rushed up ahead to see him facing what appeared to be a housecat, though this cat had wings.

"You've made it this far," they could all hear, but the mouth of the cat was busy licking its paw, the voice not seeming to come from it, more like behind it. "Be proud. To die on the next floor is a distinct honor that few others can claim.

Sandra set her hands on her hips, frowning at the feline. "Thanks, but no. We'll be going right past it. We didn't pass the first two to bite it on the third. We have... uh..." She looked upwards, though there was no hint there of how tall the tower was. "A lot more to go after that."

Garble huffed as he turned to Spike. "Is this what you were talking to before?"

"Huh? Oh!" He shook a hand quickly. "Nuh uh. That was a human. You didn't see him?"

Garble hiked a brow. "Whatever... Hey, cat. We're walking past you now. You got a problem with that?"

The cat watched them, speaking no further, not that it had really spoken to begin with. Garble kept his blade out, but walked past the feline. He took a hand off the hilt to touch the door beyond the cat. When it didn't open, he looked back to the others.

Soon they were all next to him, joining their hands on the door. When the last hand touched it, it opened slowly. "Do groups always come in fours or what?"

Sandra shook her head. "But the tower seems to know what you came with. If you were crazy enough to come alone, it'd work for just you, I think. Aiden--" The bird appeared on her shoulder. "--I think it'll be time to get to work soon."

Beyond the door was brilliant light. A cloud-specked sunny day greeted them with wild cheering. They were stepping out into what seemed to be a vast arena. Those cheering were far from human, instead monsters of all sorts, including a section of the spiders they had crashed through on the first floor, waving their sharp legs wildly.

Sandra took a sharp hiss of a breath. "Oh, great, an arena level."

Smolder nodded softly. "Sure looks like one, but you sound like you know what that means. What should we expect?"

Sandra drew her staff and clutched it firmly. "Expect fights. We win against enough waves, they let us past. On the positive side, you get rewarded if you do well, and look good doing it. On the negative, no breaks, no pauses. Once it starts, you're in it until you win, or get beaten up and possibly killed. No pressure."

"Beat things up and look good doing it?" Garble tossed his blade from hand to hand as a smile grew on his face. "I'm liking this floor way better than the last one.

"Arriving from the north side," boomed an announcer excitedly. "A most unusual party. With three dragons and a human, it may be time to really turn up the heat on the competition!" The crowd was going nuts, hooting and crying in their monstrous ways. "We'll be sure to put them through the paces."

Smolder flipped her knives in her hands, assuming a battle stance. "The way I see it, last floor was the break. It's time to get back into things."

"That's my sister," reported Garble proudly, a smirk on his face. "We'll pound them all. Spike, you keep them from returning the favor. Sandra, keep them from bunching up on us."

Spike blinked softly. "When did you learn tactics?" he said quietly, not actually arguing with Garble. Those were their positions. "Smolder, strange as it is, you'll help us keep going strong, right?"

"As if you had to ask." She twirled her right dagger in place. "We're going to cook the competition, figuratively, then literally, and possibly back and forth a little depending on how I'm feeling."

"On the south side, we begin with a warmup. They're small, they're cute, they just want a really big hug. Bring your forelimbs together for the grass oozes!" Great gates opened wide, though the oozes began popping through before they even finished. It seemed like an entire field of bouncing little oozes, moving towards the party in a great stampede of squishy bodies.

Smolder pointed one of her daggers up at Aiden. "Time for your firebird to really show his stuff."

"Right." She threw her hand forward and Aiden took flight without further prompting. "If they're as strong as the goops we started with, this wave shouldn't be hard, but there will be more after it, I promise."

Aiden flew just over the wave, flames dropping from its wings to either side in a great V shape that began to cook and boil the slimes along the way. Roughly half of them began to melt in place, their numbers greatly dwindled by the elemental bird's attack, but their great speed allowed them to close in on the party and the battle began properly.

Spike caught one on his shield and thrust it forward, sending the ooze crashing into several of its compatriots to bound wildly just in time for Garble's sword to come down, smashing the group into paste. Smolder was dancing from ooze to ooze, appearing wherever one appeared to not be looking to plunge her knife deep into its gooey body. "I wonder what I could make with this..."

She hefted one up, impaled on her knife, and slammed it down into a pot that hadn't been there a moment before, starting to prepare something in the middle of the fight.

"What is this? A break time? A bold move from the party," shouted the announcer, as excited as ever, the crowd cheering the ridiculous move on wildly.

Sandra jinked and bobbed, trying her best to be out of the way of the oncoming bouncing enemies, her bird setting groups of them ablaze at the direction of her sweeping hand motions, as if she were the conductor of the symphony of fire.

"It didn't save the last party that tried that, but maybe this one will be luckier."