Vince shot a confused look towards Maya. "What in the world are you?"

Maya scoffed at the question. "Just be quiet." She closed her eyes and concentrated as she tried to dig through Vince's memories.

However, as she did so, an intense headache struck her. It was enough to make her flinch and disrupt her concentration.

Sophia turned to Maya and asked. "You alright?"

The Shapestealer opened her eyes and shook her head. "I was trying to dig through his memories."

Valor interjected, "But?"

Maya sighed. "It's all jumbled up: I know he likes cheese on toast and other random stuff; but not the password."

"Sucks to be you." Vince said.

"Oh for the love of-" Maya pointed at the swordsman's nose and said. "Maple, bite him again."

Maple immediately lunged at Vince and bit his nose again. The swordsman screamed in pain as blood began to trickle down from his newly inflicted wound. Afterwards, Maple remained perched atop Vince's head and wagged her tail happily. Looking as pleased as always.

Sophia glared at Vince. "You want to try speaking without being asked again?"

The swordsman let out a grunt this time. His eyes staring off to the side.

The Paladin then shot a glance at Maya. "You're sure there's nothing you can do?"

"It's hard to say. Whenever I transform, usually I just immediately get a feel for how to use a form's abilities and what they can do. But I never really tried to dig through memories before."

"Okay, how about you try one more time?" Valor asked.

Maya shrugged. "Sure."

She closed her eyes and tried her best to focus on scouring Vince's mind for the password. There were countless memories that seemed to flash before her consciousness in an instant before vanishing completely. A growing pain gnawed at her skull as she kept trying to dig deeper: until finally, Maya believed she may have found what she needed.

"Hold on…I think I got something."

"You found the password?" Sophia asked.

"Sort of? I know it's got something to do with the Boss of the Black Talons, but that's it for now."

Suddenly, Valor piped up. "Can you at least tell if the password is a number or not?"

Maya closed her eyes and began searching once again. Blood dripped from her nose as she strained herself.

She breathed heavily as she opened her eyes. "It…is a number, and it's three digits."

"I think I got it then." Valor said.

"The password?" Maya asked.

"Yeah, I'm very confident."

"But how?"

Vince raised his head slightly and glared at the beastman. Valor saw this and smirked. "Our good friend here may have spilled a bit too much after a few rounds of drinks a while back."

"When I get-"

Before the swordsman could finish her sentence. Sophia hit him again in the head to knock him out. At the same time, Maple jumped off of Vince and landed on the ground before climbing up to Maya's shoulder.

"Sorry, didn't want to listen to his voice anymore." Sophia said.

Maya reverted back to her normal form and shrugged. "It's fine, we got what we needed." She then shot a glance towards Valor. "Right?"

The beastman nodded. "The password should be 756."

"Did this idiot tell you before?" Sophia asked, pointing towards Vince.

"We were drinking before, and he mentioned how the big boss wanted there to be an easy to remember pattern for things that required a password."

"And the storage rune is one of them?" Maya asked.

Valor nodded. "Every encampment has one and it's usually the only thing that uses a password. So, in this case. 756 is probably based on the fact that this is the 7th encampment which was built 5 days after the 6th encampment."

"That seems way too simple." Sophia said.

"That's kind of the point. Besides, while I was with the Black Talons. They told me that most people tend to assume the password is way more complicated, so it works out for them in the end."

"Okay, since the camp is still empty; why don't the three of us just go together there this time?" Maya asked.

"You two go ahead, I'll dispose of this idiot first." Sophia said, pointing towards an unconscious Vince.

Valor shot a glance at Maya. "You sure?"

"Yeah, I overheard that the other Black Talon members were still out… hunting. We have time."

***

Maya and Valor made their way back to the Black Talon encampment. Leading the way, Maya navigated through the camp until they arrived at the tent where she had discovered the storage rune.

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She then moved the chest that sat above it to reveal the hidden rune etched into the ground beneath. Valor took a step forward and leaned down. He brushed his fingers against the rune's surface. As his touch connected, a soft glow emanated from the markings: and a notification appeared in the air:

[Storage rune activated]

[Please provide a password either verbally or by etching it onto a surface near this rune]

Without hesitation, Valor said, "756."

The rune responded immediately, its glow intensifying as another set of notifications appeared:

[Password correct]

[Dispensing item(s) from storage]

As the rune's glow began to fade, a golden branch materialized above it and hovered in the air for a moment before falling on the ground. The branch was roughly as long as a corn cob. Its surface was intricately detailed: with patterns that seemed to pulse with a life of their own.

Valor pointed to the branch, then turned to Maya with a slight nod. "All yours."

The Shapestealer moved to pick up the branch. She held it in her hands, then turned to Valor. "So, I guess we just have to carry this around?" she asked, weighing the branch in her hands.

Valor looked around the tent. "Probably, unless we can find a better way to keep it."

Maya's eyes settled on the chest she had moved earlier. "I'll try to open that first." She placed the golden branch to her right before kneeling down in front of the chest. Then, she took out her dagger and used it to pick the lock.

After a moment, she was successful, and the chest's lid popped open with a soft creak. Valor leaned over Maya's shoulder to look inside and let out a soft whistle. "Not bad."

Meanwhile, Maya rustled through the chest and took out the items inside one by one before laying them on the ground beside her. "You recognize any of these?"

Valor knelt down and picked up each of the items: examining them one by one briefly. "Lot of these are junk, but we got some goodies."

The beastman took out three small stones: one green and two red. Each of them was etched with various intricate inscriptions. Valor then presented them to Maya in his right hand. "Three runestones: one is a portable storage rune and the other two or lesser explosive runes."

Maya picked up the three runes and examined them briefly before placing them back into Valor's open hand. "How can we use these?"

Valor moved the two red runes to his left hand and lifted the green rune with his right. "For this storage rune, you just need to activate it first by saying [Activate Storage]."

As soon as the words left his mouth, the green stone glowed, and notifications manifested in front of it:

[Storage runestone activated]

[Slots used: 0/8]

Maya eyed the notifications. "Alright, and how do we put stuff inside of it?"

Valor chuckled. "Easy, just watch." He then touched the golden branch with the green stone. Immediately, the branch was sucked into the storage runestone and vanished from sight. The following notifications appeared in response:

[Item stored]

[Slots used: 1/8]

"Nice, so can we store anything inside these runes?" Maya asked.

Valor shook his head. "Anything too big and it won't work. But it'll still be nice to have for sure."

"Alright, then what about those lesser explosive runes?"

Valor handed the two red explosive runes to Maya. "When you want to use them, just whisper close to them '[Detonate]' and you're good to go."

Maya jerked back upon hearing this. "Be careful with that!"

The beastman chuckled again. "Don't worry, these explosives won't activate unless you speak really close to it."

With a cautious nod, Maya took one of the explosive runes and carefully placed it in her pocket. "Good to know."

Valor raised an eyebrow and glanced at the remaining rune in his hand. "You're not taking the other one?" he asked, offering it to her.

"You can keep one, but pass me the storage rune though," Maya replied.

Valor tossed the green storage rune over to Maya, who caught it with one hand and quickly hid it within her cloak for safekeeping. She then turned to the beastman and said, "We should go back to Sophia now."

"You sure you don't want to look around a bit more?"

"I mean, most of the stuff here is junk anyway."

"Yeah, but what if we find something useful?"

"Fine. We'll look quickly."

Valor chuckled. "What's the rush?"

"I just have a bad feeling." Maya said.

***

Searching through the Black Talon encampment one last time for valuables, Maya and Valor found nothing of else of value that they could take with them. The two then returned to the tree where they last saw Sophia, expecting to find both the Paladin waiting for them. However, to their surprise, the area was empty.

Maya began to look around frantically, "Where is she?"

Valor scanned the surroundings. "Not anywhere here for sure."

The Shapestelare then patted Maple, who was still perched on her shoulder, on the head and asked, "Hey, can you help me find Sophia?"

Maple responded with an eager bark and quickly scurried down to the ground before dashing ahead.

Without hesitation, Maya began to chase after Maple. She gave a brief glance back at Valor briefly to urge him, "Come on!"

The two followed Maple into another part of the forest. Here, the foliage became noticeably denser as the trees grew thicker and stood closer together.

But as Maya went deeper, the small fox's form became harder to follow, and eventually, she lost sight of Maple altogether. She stopped running and glanced around. A thick mist was beginning to envelop her: starting from her feet and swirling upwards.

When she turned behind her, she saw that Valor was no longer following her. She was alone, at least for now.

As she kept walking, the mist thickened further, reducing her visibility dramatically. She could now barely see anything that was too far in front of her.

Maya accidentally stumbled into a tree and instinctively jumped back, tensing every muscle in anticipation of a threat. However, her fear quickly dissipated as she felt something soft resting on her head, accompanied by a familiar licking sensation.

The Shapestealer reached up and brought her hands to her head before gently carrying Maple in front of her. The fox greeted her with a light bark and wagged her tail excitedly, seemingly completely content despite the situation.

With a sigh, Maya scolded Maple. "Don't run off too far from me next time, okay?"

The fox mewled a bit, her expression turning sheepish under Maya's gaze. Then, she nodded her head in agreement before letting out a softer bark.

Feeling reassured, Maya placed Maple back on her shoulder and looked around at the enveloping mist. "Alright, now can you help me out of here?"

Maple barked more insistently this time. But unlike before, the fox kept barking repeatedly this time, as if to warn about something.

Maya glanced at Maple and asked, "What's wrong?"

In response, the fox pointed towards a direction with her tail and barked repeatedly again. After squinting her eyes, Maya finally made out a vague humanoid figure hovering towards her. As it hovered closer towards her: it conjured a sword out of pure mist, seemingly intent on using it against her.

After muttering a curse under her breath, Maya called out to Maple. "Is this thing the one causing the mist?"

The fox quickly moved to hide inside Maya's hood. She then peeked out her head as she barked again, as if to say "Yes."

Focusing her sight on the humanoid figure once more, Maya strained her eyes as she activated [Copycat].

[Target Identified: Mist Spirit]

[Knowledge threshold sufficient]

[Displaying Status]

Level: 14

Physique: 4

Dexterity: 4

Magic: 6

Unique Skills: Conjure Mist

[Would you like to override your current Tier 1 transformation: Vince Baker, with a new Tier 1 transformation: Mist Spirit? Yes/No]

Maya glanced at the "Yes" and selected it. And soon, a familiar light enveloped her.

[Override approved]

[Initiating transformation]

Her body began to lighten at first. Her feet gradually dissipated into mist, leaving her hovering slightly above the ground. Within seconds, more mist swirled around her and reshaped her physical form into that of the Mist Spirit.

[Copycat successful]

[Updating Status]

[Tier 1 form unlocked: Mist Spirit]

Level: 14

Physique: 4

Dexterity: 4

Magic: 6

Unique Skills: Conjure Mist