Olivander emerged from his portal several feet underwater. He didn't panic, looking up to see the surface nearby. Instead he waited for Fezzic. The goblin did panic, and Olivander grabbed him and swam to the surface.
Fezzic coughed and sputtered.
"It came into this world under water?"
"Not quite, sorry about that. I didn't actually want to put us right on top of the origination, in case it was an open entrance to another Realm. That would be significantly more dangerous. Instead I opened the portal a few hundred feet away. Not sure why we ended up under water though."
His portals couldn't open to places where they wouldn't survive, like inside of a mountain or deep under the ocean where pressure would crush them. The portals destabilized and broke in those cases. The portals had no issues opening hundreds of feet in the air, however, so Olivander always liked to go through first when targeting a new location.
They paddled to the shore, Olivander towing Fezzic who seemed to be a poor swimmer at best. There wasn't any sign of civilization, just a dense tropical jungle in front of them.
Olivander activated Sous.
"I have arrived!" The golem looked around. "Where have I arrived?"
"No idea. Can you scout around, Sous? We're looking for a potential opening into a plant or life based Realm. Think green and otherworldly. Should be within a few hundred feet, more or less straight into the jungle."
Sous shifted his eye lenses to green instead of their normal light blue. "Yes, sir!"
The golem flew into the dense trees.
"Whatever is here, the life energy coming out of this jungle is on another level. I can barely get my senses past it."
"It's pretty overpowering," Fezzic agreed. He pulled a satchel off his shoulder and dumped water out of it. "Aww, my stuff is all wet."
"Allow me!"
Olivander crafted a drying ritual and activated it. Warm winds pulled moisture from both of them, as well as Fezzic's rather damp bag. A minute later they were dry.
"Thanks. Do you might if I gather some samples? Life aura like this could yield some incredible plant materials."
Olivander swept his hand out in an inviting gesture. "Be my guest. Do watch out for predators. I have put a ward on you, but there's no telling what's out there."
As Fezzic bottled various plants nearby, Sous flew quickly out of the jungle.
"Good news and bad news, boss."
"Bad news first, please."
"I didn't find anything like what you were describing."
"Ahh, well, it might not still be here. What's the good news?"
"I found pirates!"
Fezzic looked up from his plants. "How is that good news?"
"It just seemed like the thing to say!"
Fezzic packed up a plant and then moved away from the jungle. A moment later, three men strolled out of the brush. They were bare chested with vests that seemed to only provide a convenient place to hold weapons. They had another type of weapon strapped to their belts. It was rare to see pistols in the kingdom, but pirates on the sea and in the far kingdoms across the world favored them.
They wouldn't be particularly dangerous against his wards, but pistols were always a deadly weapon, so he didn't take the three relatively low leveled men lightly.
"Who are you?" one of them asked when they saw Olivander.
"Good day friends! I am Olivander, professional treasure hunter and part time sleuth. This is my faithful assistant and professional botanist, Fezzic."
Fezzic waved at the pirates from a safe distance behind Olivander.
"What's a botanist?" one of them asked.
"Shut up, Kluug," another said.
"Do you know what it is?"
"No, and why would I care what kind of job some random goblin has?"
"Maybe it's dangerous?"
"Would you two shut up," the obvious lead pirate said. "Treasure hunter, huh? Where's your ship?"
"No ship. I can travel using magic."
The pirate leader looked Olivander up and down. His robes were obviously the type a magician would wear.
"Magician, huh? Show me some magic."
Olivander summoned his grimoire.
"Woah! What's that?" Kluug asked.
"It's a book, Kluug. You can read them. Well not you. Never learned that, did you?"
"I know what a book is, idiot. Why's it glowing?"
"He said he was a magician."
The lead pirate turned around and the two other men shut up quickly.
"A glowing book isn't proof of anything. Cast a spell."
"If you insist."
Olivander opened a portal.
The two subordinates were amazed by the purple field of magic. They walked around it and Kluug stuck a finger forward to touch it.
"Don't touch it Kluug!"
"Why not? It looks squishy."
"Why would you want to touch something squishy?"
"I'm starting to see why you have so many lady problems, Cam."
"That looks nothi—"
"Excuse me!" Olivander said with enough force to make the two men jump. "I hate to interrupt some quality banter, but I'm becoming rather uncomfortable with the direction these analogies are going. So! What brings you fellows out here today?"
He closed his portal before Kluug could touch it.
"Hold on a minute, Wizard. I'll be asking the questions here," the leader said, putting his hand on a pistol. "What are you doing out here today?"
"A clever and original question! Well, I just so happen to be searching for the hidden entrance to a Realm of unimaginable power."
The pirate's eyes lit up at the mention of hidden power.
"How are you going to find it?"
"I'm going to start by looking around. We just got here and encountered you. I'd love for you to join us, you seem well suited to navigating the jungle."
The pirate considered, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.
"Alright, but when we find the treasure, we split it fifty-fifty. Half to the three of us, and half to the three you."
"Why would we split the treasure with you?" Sous said, floating forward. "You wouldn't even know about it if we weren't here!"
"He's not wrong," Kluug said, which earned an elbow to the gut from his companion, Cam.
"Either we search together, or we shoot you all in the heads and find it on our own," the pirate growled. "Seems awfully fair to me."
"Would that be bad for you?" Sous asked Olivander.
"Quite fatal, I assure you."
"Fine!"
"Alright, just call out loud if you spot anything, you were heading straight in here?" the pirate asked.
"We were, it should be within a few hundred feet, but I can't tell you precisely where."
The pirates entered the jungle.
"Is there really treasure?" Sous asked.
"Of a sort, but I don't think our new friends will be happy with it. Still. I'm happy to have them help us search."
"Oooorrr," Fezzic stretched out the word, "we could just leave! That's my vote."
"I vote we stay," Olivander said.
They turned to Sous.
"Possibly imaginary treasure, here we come!" the golem said.
"This really doesn't seem fair. We should have brought Gregory and Cooper, they would have sided with me."
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"Come on Fezzic, no one likes a whiner."
Fezzic grumbled as he followed Olivander into the jungle.
* * *
Gregory and Cooper were just finishing up a meal prepared by Timothy with some assistance from his sister. Helena was playing with the kids and Burtrum and Zeke were outside catching up on some of the work they had missed over the last couple days in Du'la'melio.
"Olivander and Fezzic have been gone for a while, should we check on them?" Gregory asked.
"They might be doing something interesting."
"They're probably just talking about that gross stuff Olivander gave him," Timothy said. "Fezzic has been raving about the properties of the stuff for the last few days. He even got dad to help with something in his workshop the other day."
"It was probably just to move that giant book," Helga said. "Have you seen that thing? I'm glad Olivander didn't have a giant sewing manual that took up half my living room."
"Did he think the stuff Olivander gave him would help against mindrot?"
"He didn't say," Timothy said, wincing a little, "but it's a touchy subject. I haven't brought it up."
That made sense. Gregory met the man in a mine full of his diseased family. It was something he didn't think about often, but he had given it more consideration since the events of Serin.
There hadn't been anything for them to do about it besides enact a form of mercy killing, but it had still been pretty callous. They didn't treat the living dead with the respect they deserved. He needed to apologize more thoroughly for that. He had been caught up in the excitement of fulfilling a guild contract and working with a powerful magician, so it had been easy for him to sweep the details into the back of his mind and simply say that he had been doing the right things for the right reasons. Now he wasn't so sure.
"Gregory, do you want to head over?"
Gregory shook himself from his gloomy thoughts and nodded to Cooper.
"Does anyone want to come with?"
Helena and the girls didn't seem to hear, and Timothy and Helga shook their heads.
"Should probably clean up in here before mom sees what Helga did to the kitchen," Timothy said.
Helga slapped him on the arm. "I need to get to work on a few orders I've been neglecting. The vacation has been nice, but the people need clothes made and repaired. Stop by the house before you head out for good, Greg. I have something for you."
He nodded and then followed Cooper out the door. It wasn't far to the little house that Fezzic lived in and worked out of. They saw Burtrum and Zeke repairing a wagon. Burtrum was lifting the entire front while Zeke reattached an axle underneath. They were busy so Gregory didn't try to bother them.
Inside the goblin's home, they didn't find either of the men, just an empty room with some equipment set out, and an open portal.
"Looks like they left. Should we follow them?"
"Let's check around first. We don't know where that goes."
They split up and searched the house.
"Nothing. I forget I have Advanced Search too. It looks like they just went straight into the portal."
"We could wait for them?"
They looked at each other then Gregory started laughing.
"Let's go!"
They jumped through the portal.
* * *
Cooper was surprised to find himself underwater, but he handled the situation quickly. The surface was obvious above him with bright sunlight streaming through the water. Gregory appeared behind him, and Cooper was glad for his ability to speak without using his mouth.
"Come on! The surface is close!"
Gregory's eyes found him and they swam upward, breaking the surface in a few moments.
"Whew! Thanks. I almost panicked! I definitely wasn't holding my breath. Maybe I should do that when going through portals. Where do you think they went?"
"Land behind you, an island maybe?"
After they swam in they searched a little, finding footprints in the sand.
"Looks like they went into the jungle."
"Should we go back? What if Olivander portals away and we're stuck here?"
"I…did not think that far ahead. Hmm."
Gregory turned around and looked back at the water. "I don't suppose you know where the portal is?"
"...Nope."
"Olivander!" Gregory called.
"I don't think my voice carries. I can track him though. Advanced Search isn't ready, but I can sniff him out."
"Alright, but let's be careful. We don't know what's in this jungle, or why they came here."
Cooper sniffed the tracks, easily picking up Olivander's scent, which was a mix of a very particular pipe smell and something akin to fresh clean rain. Cooper had never seen it, but he suspected the man used his water bubble spell on himself every morning.
Entering the jungle was an almost overwhelming experience. There were too many plants and animals giving off new and unfamiliar scents. He nearly lost the scent entirely, but there was clearly a trail of broken and bent plants that kept him going in the right direction. The damage was actually more than he would have expected for just Olivander and the smaller Fezzic, but he didn't know how hard it was to pass through the jungle for them — Gregory certainly wasn't having any easy time.
Gregroy stomped noisily behind him. He wasn't particularly graceful to begin with, and the thick jungle wasn't helping. Cooper was low enough that he could easily weave through the undergrowth, but Gregory pulled out his sword and started to try hacking through the plants. That only made him progress more slowly.
"What's that?"
They both froze when they heard the unfamiliar voice.
"You hearing things again, Kluug? Don't know why the captain makes me follow you around like I don't have better things to do."
"You don't want to find the treasure?"
"Of course I want to find the treasure, I just don't need to follow around a bumbling idiot to do it."
The voices drifted away as they made their way in another direction.
"Treasure?"
"They didn't say what it was, can you search for it?"
"I need to know what I'm searching for. I think something Olivander was trying to teach me could help, but I don't know how to combine effects."
"What do you mean?"
"Like, if someone else knew what they were looking for, could I use their intent to direct my spell instead of my own?"
"That is a magnificent idea. Truly you are my most insightful pupil," Olivander said, appearing from a thick patch of brush nearby.
"There you are, what are you doing here? We came to find you."
"Me? I'm in a race against pirates to find lost treasure!"
"Really?"
"No. It was mostly just a misunderstanding. Not the brightest bunch, pirates. Gregory, you aren't secretly sitting on the Pirate class, are you?"
"Is that an option? It sounds kind of cool."
"I want an eyepatch!"
"My father had an eyepatch, it was significantly more intimidating when he wasn't wearing it."
"Was he a pirate?"
"You know, I never asked. You should save that question for when you meet my mother."
"Uh, guys," Fezzic said, pushing out from behind Olivander. "Can we focus here? This humidity is killing me. I like the desert better."
"Right you are, Fezzic. Cooper, you have an excellent idea. I think it's time you make use of your newest item."
Olivander rummaged in a bag at his waist and pulled out a round black glass stone — Cooper's Eye of the Dark Magus.
Cooper was still wearing his amulet with an empty slot for the stone.
"This shouldn't do anything, but pay special attention to any messages you get," Olivander said as he leaned over and fit the stone into his amulet.
----------------------------------------
Your Eye of the Dark Magus has combined with your Chain of the Keeper to create Contained Eye of the Dark Magus.
----------------------------------------
Contained Eye of the Dark Magus
* Combination Equipment: Amulet
* Rarity: Legendary
* A contained Eye from the ?????. This can be dismantled into its components, but doing so will damage the containment vessel. Remaining Durability: 3/3
* Draw on the Power of the Dark Magus, drawing mana from ?????. Power will be cut off when corruption becomes too great.
* Corruption reduces over time.
* Corruption: 0/100
* Active Ability: ??????
* [SEALED]: ??????
* [SEALED]: ??????
----------------------------------------
"Ahh, that's a shame. I was hoping it would reveal the Eye's abilities, and it looks like you won't be able to swap it out frequently. Still, it provides you with similar access to the power from the Realm of Madness that I have. Unlike my grimoire, it comes with a built-in mechanism to prevent you from turning your brain to mush. Very nice!"
"That doesn't sound very nice."
"No, I don't imagine it would be. Now, be sure not to use that active ability until we find out what it actually is. In the meantime, let's test your limits and give you little practice on the topic you have so insightfully suggested."
Olivander summoned his grimoire and drew out a ritual.
"When I point at you, Cooper," he made the gesture and then dropped it. "I want you to activate your Advanced Search ability."
Cooper was suddenly far more aware of the power of Olivander's grimoire. It could feel it reaching beyond their world and making the smallest of tears in the fabric of reality. Through that miniscule hole, an oddly familiar power flowed out. He could sense that he could do that same thing if he wished.
"I can sense your attention on what I'm doing, that's good! Don't try to influence or take over the flow from another. It will be a contest of wills, and typically results in a really big hole instead of a tiny one."
"What are you talking about?" Gregory asked.
"I'm channeling power through my grimoire, and Cooper can now sense it. Now hush. I need to focus for a moment."
"Ability spell illumination! Binding target!"
Olivander pointed at Cooper, and he triggered his technique. He wasn't focusing on anything, so nothing happened, but he felt a brief connection with Olivander. Then a ritual blossomed in the air above the man's open palm.
"This ritual is your Advanced Search technique. Not the entire thing mind you. It's not a spell, so it's impossible to represent it with a ritual in its entirety, but there are definite magical effects that we can map out."
Olivander pulled his grimoire around in front of him and drew out another ritual, continuing to hold the first in his hand.
"Right before I encountered you, you mentioned something about intent, yes?"
"Yeah, I thought if I could tap into something that someone else knew, something they wanted to find, I could use my search on that, without needing to know it myself."
Olivander nodded. "Yes, very good. Do we see any problems with that?"
Cooper couldn't think of any. He definitely didn't know how it would work, but he didn't see why it wouldn't be possible.
"Can you just pull intent out of someone like that? I think you mentioned once that you could fight other's intentions when spells made contact."
"Good job, Gregory. I guess you don't have to leave with the pirates. We don't project our intents directly. If we did, no one would ever be able to surprise a Magus or any other sufficiently powerful magician. Reading intent is something of a specialty of ours.
"Now, there are spells to read minds and things like that, but they are wildly complicated, and it's very unwise to tap into intent with such a spell."
"Why?"
"Because they can fight you. And if they win while you're casting a mind reading spell or something similar? Then they get to read your mind instead. I'm not trying to lead you down that path, so don't worry. Instead, what you need is a spell specifically designed to share intent. It just so happens that it is quite easy, if a little more expensive than you would normally be able to handle. Something on the order of eighty mana."
Cooper had seen solid gains in his mana capacity since he unlocked the Storm Magician class, but with how low it had been, he was still sitting at only forty total mana. He was glad he picked the amulet.
"The hard part here is linking your ability to the spell. It's even harder than linking spells, but never fear, you have an expert at your disposal. This is only slightly more dangerous than…well, maybe we'll just leave it at that. Now, pay attention! You too Gregory! There will be a quiz."