"Sapphire? Wake up already! I am getting worried now." Winter exclaimed. "Sapphire!" She exclaimed right in Sapphire's ears, causing her to sit straight on impulse.
Sapphire knocked her head into Winter's, both of them reeling back from the hit. The two rolled in pain, holding their heads, before Winter hugged Sapphire, tears rolling down her face.
"You know I woke up before while you were asleep, right? Don't act like you weren't pretending to be asleep. You could have just said I have been asleep for too long just now and needed to wake up," Sapphire sighed sleepily.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever, want to check what we found here?" Winter offered.
"Right, I forgot about those chests, what was in them?" Sapphire inquired.
"I don't know, let's go check." Winter shrugged as she stood up.
"You didn't open them yet?" Sapphire inquired as Winter offered her hand to help her up.
"Why would I? I was waiting for you, and I was getting impatient so I yelled in your ears." Winter smirked and walked to the treasure chests.
Sapphire followed her and stood beside her in front of the six chests, one gold and five silver.
"A mimic you think?" Sapphire inquired.
"Perhaps, I wonder when it got here, I don't remember having sensed anything enter," Winter answered thoughtfully. "Well whatever, they are trouble so just kill it." Winter shrugged and stabbed the silver chest right of the gold chest with icicles from the ground. "It was looking at you hungrily, I didn't like that one bit," she mumbled.
The mimic slowly started to bleed due to the wounds, not yet dead. Sapphire walked to it and crouched down beside it, tilting her head at it. "Do you want to live?" She inquired.
The mimic slightly opened itself in curiosity.
"Give me a good artifact and I will let you live." Sapphire offered as she held her hand out in front.
The mimic closed itself slightly for a moment as it considered the offer, opening it wide afterwards, fearing for its life. Sapphire looked inside to find a bracelet. Reaching in she retrieved it, taking a look at it as the mimic slowly closed itself.
*Appraisal?* Sapphire inquired.
"Bracelet of Frost-borne Calamity, level 1."
Sapphire pocketed tbe bracelet before gesturing Winter to remove the icicles. After Winter removed the icicles Sapphire performed a healing spell on the mimic and allowed it to be on its way.
"Try not to get yourself killed by other adventurers." Sapphire called out after it as it hopped away into the dark hallway. "Well, let's check these now, and I got something for you I will give you after checking these."
"Why not before?" Winter inquired.
"Surprise." Sapphire smirked and opened the right most silver chest with her Shadow Manipulation.
Winter and Sapphire looked inside to find a hair clip. It seemed to be a blue crystal in the shape of a crescent moon. Sapphire chose to keep it due to her affinity for the moon, and both agreed it looked better on her anyways. Afterall, they cared little about the effects.
Winter opened the silver chest right beside it, finding an enchanted black ribbon and an enchanted white ribbon. The black meant for all types of Dark magic and related powers, and the white for all types of light magic and related powers. Sapphire took the black one and tied it around her right arm, from her palm to halfway up her elbow. Winter tied hers around her waist from above her coat, wrapping her coat close to her body.
They opened the left most silver chest and found a pair of icy looking snowflake earrings and a snowflake hair clip. Winter took both, but didn't like the idea of pinning something into her ears. She clipped the hair clip onto her ribbon on her waist and pinned the earrings on the sleeve ends of her coat.
"Fashionable." Sapphire observed with a smirk.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Winter pouted at her statement and turned away, slightly embarassed.
"So you really weren't joking when you said once you wanted to be the coolest looking adventurer ever," Sapphire laughed.
"You got one thing wrong, I said second most coolest looking, definitely not cooler than you miss, like, look at you. Those black clothes with your deep blue eyes, and flowy black hair with the blue highlight above your head, and now that blue crescent moon hairpin, truly adorable looking. Your soft and cute looking face really makes me want to squish it, but I don't want to get bitten so I keep myself in check."
"You better, I will kill you if you do that or touch my tail," Sapphire warned.
"Yeah, I know, Blood Wolves and Midnight Wolves consider touching the tail the biggest possible offense." Winter sighed and opened the last silver chest.
Inside she found a bright white feather, which reminded Sapphire of something but she couldn't point her finger on it. Winter also seemed to be reminded of something by it but failed to remember exactly what.
"Appraisal?" Sapphire inquired.
"Phonenix feather," Appraisal Informed.
"No wonder it seemed familiar," Both sighed in unison.
After some time they decided Winter will take this one as Sapphire already has the one from Fi.
"We are well prepared just from our first location. We are doing great, aren't we?" Winter cheered.
"We happened to be quite lucky, now, for the last one." Sapphire said as she lift the lid of the gold chest.
Inside they found a bracelet, all black in color. Sapphire lifted it to her eyes and examined it. The bracelet seemed to be mainly black with dark blue veins running through it. A sapphire the shape of a Midnight Bloom appeared to be embedded into the bracelet, and a sapphire the shape of a wolf head on the opposite side of it. On closer inspection, Sapphire saw the phases of the moon carved onto the bracelet, the wolf head in place of the new moon, and the Midnight Lily in place of the full moon.
"Bracelet of the Shadow Empress, level 1, bound to: Sapphire."
"That," Winter gasped. "Its simply made for you."
"Maybe," Sapphire shrugged. "You don't want it?" She inquired.
"Certainly not, I already got most of what we found here anyways, it looks like its made for you anyways," Winter refuted.
Sapphire shrugged and wore it on her right hand, her appraisal bracelet on her left. It suited her very well and even she thought so.
"So, what did you have for me?" Winter inquired.
Sapphire presented Winter with the bracelet she got from the mimic. It looked much like Sapphire's, but completely white. There were snowflakes carved onto the bracelet, a shiny white gem with a slight blue hue in the shape of a ten cornered snowflake like flower embedded on one side, a wolf head of the same crystal on the opposite side. Winter wore it on her left hand, the bracelet suiting just as well as Sapphire's.
"Well, time to leave," Sapphire reminded.
"Certainly, let's go beat this guardian together," Winter cheered.
"Not yet, we will go check out all of these locations before going against the guardian." Sapphire informed.
"As you wish." Winter smiled as she followed Sapphire back the way they came from.
---
They came out of the labyrinth a while after dawn, some time before midday. From there they journeyed through the continent, clearing several labyrinths and dungeons, none proving any trouble to them. They gathered a great number of artifacts, too many for them to be able to wear all.
"Fusing?" Sapphire inquired.
They stood at an alchemist's store in a small city, the street mostly empty save for a few food stalls and passerbys.
"Yes, you can fuse the effects of several artifacts into one if they become too many to carry, or you can use other artifacts to enhance the ones you use. If I am being honest, there is no shortage of artifacts, all kinds of magical labyrinths have them and they magically restock every so often," The alchemist explained.
"That is certainly useful, how do I fuse and enhance artifacts?" Sapphire questioned.
"You simply use an alchemist's workbench for it, I can do as many for you as you want me to, for just one gold, or you can pay twenty silver each. It's a tiring process which costs a lot of mana," The alchemist offered.
Sapphire placed a gold coin on the table and then handed the alchemist her bracelet to enhance first along with several useless artifacts boosting magic and abilities neither her nor Winter used, or needed. She observed carefully as the alchemist arranged the artifacts, the bracelet in the center and the rest around it. Several already transcribed runes lit up and Sapphire appraised the entire process, making sure she will be able to perform it easily again. After the alchemist finished he handed her bracelet back, but the other artifacts were just accessories now and Sapphire let the alchemist keep them.
"Bracelet of the Shadow Empress, level 5, bound to: Sapphire," Appraisal informed.
She handed the bracelet and asked him to fuse it with the effects of several other of her fire and darkness related artifacts. The alchemist did as she asked, allowing her to again observe the process carefully again. She thanked the alchemist as he returned the bracelet and led Winter out of the city. They found a safe spot under a tree in the wide grassland and rested there for the time being.
"So, you plan to try it yourself now?" Winter inquired.
"Yes, till then, can I trust you with this?" Sapphire inquired.
"With what?" Winter questioned.
Sapphire retrieved a small vial with a golden liquid inside, handing it to Winter. "An elixir. I want you to take this, go and defeat a dragon straight west of here, and then make it drink this," Sapphire explained.
"I will do just as you said." Winter accepted with a slight bow.
Sapphire handed Winter the vial and Winter rushed off as she pocketed it.
"Be careful, it's a Storm Wyvern," Sapphire warned.
Winter waved to Sapphire as she quickly disappeared out of sight.
Sapphire sighed and returned to trying to enhance her artifacts and fuse others into them while keeping the ones for Winter's seperate, and making sure Winter will get more of them.