Light shines from my gloves, illuminating the stone confines of my last minute defense against the gas.

The danger had reminded me of something I should have done as soon as I’d met the little girl.

I set the girl down, and look at her while keeping an eye on the timer for when the door opens. It’s a little uncomfortable in the cramped space created by my earth walls, but I still manage to hold out my hand towards the girl. “[Mark Of Protection]”

A hieroglyph glows on the girl’s forehead before disappearing into her skin.

There. That’s much better. Now my class abilities should apply to her.

Once the three minutes have passed, I make sure that the cloth mask is still around the girl’s face, take a deep breath of air, and dismiss the walls around us.

The gas still covers the room, making me glad that I took a deep breath, before leaving our protection. I hurry to the door and open it, making sure that the little girl follows me through.

I look around to see the gas unable to follow us through the threshold. Closing the door with a breath of relief, I gasp for air for a few seconds.

Once I feel better, I take a look around the room we find ourselves in. It looks practically identical to the last room with a chest, except the chest in this room is smaller. I approach it cautiously, still wary of any traps that might be in the room. The little girl follows right behind me, still wearing the cloth around her face.

I walk up to the chest with a shrug, then prepared for anything, I flip open the chest.

Nothing happens.

I look into the chest, inside sits a small notebook, and a jewelry box. “[Identify]”

Secret Diary

The words in this diary are only readable by the owner or those they choose.

Necklace of Whispers (Cursed)

Unremovable, slowly causes the wearer to go mad.

I put both items in my inventory. I’m surprised to see a cursed item, or at least one that tells me that it is cursed. Doesn’t that kind of ruin the point?

“Where’d they go?” A soft voice asks from behind me.

I turn around to see the little girl looking at me curiously. “I have a magical space that I can transport everything to.” I think about all of the things I have in my inventory, which isn’t much aside from necessities, and bring out a set of dice with a flourish. I hand her a single die.

She rolls the die around in her hands.

“Do you want to wait before going into the next room?” I ask her, leaning against the wall while I wait.

She looks at the door forward, then at the die in her hands, then at me. She shakes her head.

I smile at her, walking to the next door. Repeating the process from the last couple rooms, I stand to the side of the door, creaking it open before opening it wide and stepping into the doorway.

A long corridor stretches on for about fifty meters, where the next door awaits us.

Again, the room looks empty, but the floors no longer have the carpet that was covering the floors in the other rooms. Instead, stone tiles cover the floor in a mismatched pattern. I move closer to the walls, looking for any kind of trap.

My carefulness rewards me when I see small slits in the wall at my waist and chest level all the way down the wall as far as I can see. A look at the other wall shows the same slits going down its length.

Alright, so think. What would Indiana Jones do?

I don’t really know, it’s been forever since I last saw an Indiana Jones movie.

“Stay here.” I tell the girl.

Then I walk towards a spot between the first few slits. First I wave a hand in front of both slits. When nothing happens, I take a single step forward, still angling my body out of the way. Two long metal needles shoot out from each wall with enough power to impale me, hitting the wall opposite.

I pull my leg back, then put it forward again. Needles fly out again. I get down on my belly and crawl underneath the flying needles, getting up on the other side. Then I convince the little girl to do the same.

I repeat this process for the next five minutes, slowly making my way across the hallway, always testing the slits to make sure that they react the same way, before crawling underneath them.

After we pass the tenth needle-impaler-thing, the slits in the walls disappear, but we’re only a third of the way through the room, so I doubt that they are the last of the traps.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Don’t move,” I say to the little girl whose name I really should know at some point.”I don’t know what the next traps might be, and we don’t want to set them off by accident.”

She nods, the knuckles around the health potion and die I had given her whitening from her tight grip.

My gaze on the objects in her hand gives me an idea.

I pull five dice from my inventory, all that I had. Blowing on them softly, I whisper, “let’s hope I’m lucky.”

I throw the dice out into the path in front of me, hoping to provoke whatever trap is coming up next. A sharp sound makes me jump, as a spike pops from the ground impaling one of the dice. The spike reaches up to my knee.

Motioning for the girl to stay still, I walk towards the spike, only stepping on tiles that the dice rolled over. Gently, I pick the die off of the tip of the spike.

I study the tile that the spike came out of, hoping to notice some difference that will alert me about what spikes to avoid in the future. Nothing stands out.

Gently walking over the tiles, I gather the rest of the dice. Then, I walk back to the little girl, picking her up into my arms. It’s better that I get impaled than her.

Here’s to hoping that my increase to intelligence over the last two weeks doesn’t fail me.

With another breath of good luck, I roll the dice in front of us. This time, two spikes shoot from the ground.

I repeat the process, carefully picking up each die before rolling them across the floor in front of me. The number of tiles with spikes in them increases at a substantial rate, and four of the dice break in half from being punctured so many times. Not that I mind, it just gives me more things to roll across the floor.

When I’m another two thirds of the way down the hallway, the number of spikes starts to peter out and stops completely.

Which probably means that there is another kind of trap for the next third.

I cautiously take a step forward. The tile holds for a second, then the ground beneath my feet falls into an abyss. I hurriedly leap back to the little girl, and watch as the ground falls in a wave all the way to a ledge at the door. The floor stays that way for a moment, before seemingly reconstructing itself until it looks normal again.

A speed run, that’s probably what it is.

I’m a fast runner, but the speed at which the floor collapsed looks difficult for me, especially if I have to carry the little girl.

Makes me wish that I could fly, that would make this a lot easier.

Nothing to it I guess, “Let me hold onto those. Don’t worry, I’ll give them back once we are across.” I say, motioning towards the things in her hands.

She nods, giving them to me. I put them in my inventory, then kneel down in front of her.

“Get onto my back and hold on as tight as you can.”

She does as I say, choking me slightly in the process, but I can live with the discomfort as long as she keeps her grip.

Taking a deep breath, I stretch my limbs out in preparation for the run. I briefly consider using my Unmatchable Speed ability to cross the gap in no time, but I don’t think the little girl would be able to survive that kind of speed, let alone hold onto my back.

How do I survive that kind of speed?

Not important right now, but I’ll file it away for later.

“Hold on.” I say one more time. “[Enhance Body]” I cast in preparation.

Then with one final breath of preparation, I burst into a sprint.

I can hear the floor crumbling behind me as I race to make it across the space. I’m about halfway there, when I hear the sound of a needle firing from my left.

In a split second decision, I angle my body so that I block the needle from hitting the girl on my back, slowing my speed down ever so slightly.

I curse internally as I feel something entering my arm, knowing that only my adrenaline is stopping me from feeling the pain.

I stumble slightly before my run continues, I can feel the floor dropping away at the back of my feet.

Not the best feeling I’ve ever had.

This time, I see the slit in the wall, staggering my speed slightly so the needle barely misses me, but also losing the little distance I had regained from the gap behind me.

Five seconds later, I reach the ledge at the entryway to the door. Flinging the door open, I collapse to my knees in the next room, breathing heavily.

I catch my breath, taking in the room I’ve found myself in. The chest in this room Is bigger than both of the ones before it, about a meter wide and a meter long, and as tall as my waist.

I flip open the lid, looking at what the gods have decided to grant me today.

A rolled up rug sits underneath another jewelry box. “[Identify]”

Teleportation Marker (rug) ½ of T set

Connected with two earrings, can be used as a marker for teleportation.

Earrings of Teleportation ½ of T set

Connected with a rug, can be activated to teleport you to the teleportation marker.

Those will certainly be useful, I’ll have to remember to set up the rug in my house.

I place both of them into my inventory, then take out a water bottle.

I share the water bottle with the little girl and take a break.

“My name is Leila.” The little girl says in a quiet voice.

“It’s nice to meet you Leila. I’m Elena, just in case you forgot.” I respond, smiling at finally getting her name.

Now I can stop thinking of her as “the little girl”.

Once we are done with our small break, we get up and continue our process of entering new rooms.

This time, when I look through the door into the next room, I’m surprised to see that I can’t see through the door. It’s just pitch blackness.

I hold Leila’s hand just in case as we step through.

Colors swirl as the world reasserts itself and we find ourselves back in the park. It’s dark out, so I pull out my phone to see that the time is nearing midnight on the same day I left.

At least I know that there weren’t any weird time shenanigans going on in those ruins.

I look down to see Leila looking around the park with surprise and relief.

“Do you live near here?” I ask, kneeling in front of her.

She nods.

“Can you take me to your house?”

She nods again, then pulls me towards the street, still holding my hand.