Pssst! Watch this: Diggy Diggy Hole 

Hahahah. I couldn't help it....my little sis had me play this for her so many times...so...many...times...six year olds! Why must they watch the same thing over and over again?

So sorry for the delay. I'm still sick, so the story did not come very easily this weekend. Hopefully I'll get back into the rhythm of things by the time my cold is done. Anyways, enjoy!

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Laura was grinning wickedly as she stirred a cauldron of food twice as large as the one she made yesterday. Knowing Thera, she would probably lose track of the time and end up coming back to camp ve~ry late~.

As such, when Thera returned to camp and was confronted by this scene, she stopped and stared. The spectacle of Laura stirring a huge cauldron of food reminded Thera of an image from her past life, of a witch stirring a cauldron.

Thera’s eyebrow twitched. Laura, you…to waste so much good food…How badly do you want me to punish you?

In her previous life, after college, Thera had jumped into her journey around the continents, learning many different martial arts.

But, that also meant that she had to clean and cook and do everything by herself. She quickly learned that if she was not frugal, then she would soon find herself coming up short on her bills.

Knowing the importance of eating good food in order to maintain a healthy body, she could not bring herself to compromise with simply filling up on junk food and cheap store-bought ramen. She had even bent over backwards, doing side jobs in order to make sure that she could at least eat good food. For Laura to make so much food simply for two people was a sin against Thera’s previous frugal way of life!

She emerged from the forest quietly, stalking up to Laura from behind without a sound. Then, she asked.

“What are you doing?”

Laura jumped, and turned around.

“Ah! Thera!” Then she realized the spectacle of the enormous cauldron behind her. “No! This is not what you think it is!” She replied.

“Ho..? Is that so?” Thera eyed Laura and the pot, making it obvious that she did not believe Laura at all. Laura’s face turned red with shame.

“Hmm...Very well, then.” Thera said. “Put the lid on it and let it stew for a bit. We have an unexpected visitor or two coming from the east. It would be bad manners not to welcome them.”

While Thera was indeed upset, she also knew that it was more important to discover who had entered while Master Thales had gone away. And now that she could use magic once more, she could easily deal with anyone under red class.

I’ll discuss this matter with you, later, Laura. Was what was implied underneath Thera’s words.

Laura, knowing she was in trouble, hastened to comply.

“Ah, well…It can’t be helped, since we have guests after all.” She place the lid on the cauldron. “The east, you say?”

Thera nodded.

Laura grabbed her sword, and fighting gauntlets. “Okay! Lead the way!”

With that, the two girls immediately disappeared from the clearing.

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Thera kept her speed down to a pace where Laura could follow, as they sped through the trees. Suddenly, she stopped and motioned to Laura, before throwing her cloak about her and melting into the scenery.

Laura also quickly hid herself behind a fallen tree. Moments later, two men walked into view. One wore a black cloak, and hid his face, while the other one wore leather armor, and tied his hair back with a leather strip, so that his face was exposed.

“But, what if he figures out something is wrong and heads back before he arrives there?” The black-cloaked man asked.

“You worry too much. What sort of Black class would leave such an incident unexamined? It’s precisely because the Devourer worm was headed straight for Grayelle Kingdom that he couldn’t leave it unexamined.” The Leather-clad man scolded.

“Look, now that we’re inside the Cultivation Treasure, all we need to do is follow the map, find the artifact, and leave. Simple, right?”

“Ri-right. Simple.” The black-cloaked man replied. “But what if the kids find out about it? Won’t they go ratting on us to that Master Thales?”

“There’ll be nothing to say if you just keep quiet! Besides, they probably didn’t even see the signs of us entering at all. You know how kids are, after all. Those two gits are probably playing house somewhere.”(Leather-clad)

“You might be surprised. Master Thales is famous for refusing to train useless people. Maybe they’re stronger than you think.” (Black-Cloak)

“Even if they’re strong, I refuse to believe that two little girls can defeat your 1st level Blue-class. Unless they’re complete and utter monsters, it’s impossible.”

Thera was the closest to the two, so, naturally, she heard every single word.

Well…you’re not entirely wrong, but to call us monsters out of the blue is rather troublesome. But, come on, Blue class? Even Laura is at least 2nd level, Blue Class, and she’s the weakest one in the group. She thought to herself.

Even though she hadn’t heard it from Laura, Thera could roughly guess the level and class by comparing them to her own past speed limits.

Anyways, Thera now recognized that the fools who had entered could be subdued at any time. But, their talk of an artifact that could only be found with a map intrigued her.

No one knows when it started, or who created them, but, roughly about a thousand years ago, people began finding maps to hidden boxes in places all over the continent in obscure places.

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Each box harbored something special: rare herbs, magic armor, enchanted weapons, etc. Once they were discovered, many people began travelling to see if they might have enough luck to obtain a map and find one of these boxes.

For over 500 years, many people were involved in what was known as The Great Treasure Hunt, and many books were written about the adventures of the men who searched for them. To Thera, the enthusiasm was similar to how someone might seek a celebrity to shake their hand and obtain bragging rights.

But, just like a celebrity, if too many fans show up at once, the opportunity to meet will be ever more and more scarce.   

Like the ward stones, these boxes were near impossible to find. Unless one were to bump into one, it would remain invisible for many years.

To be honest, when Thera read about them, she was reminded of a certain Italian plumber in a certain video game. But…considering the timelines, it was practically impossible for such a thing to make its way to this world almost a thousand years before it was created.

Unless the timeline in this world was skewed…Thera had stopped thinking about it, then, because considering such things only served to give her a headache.

Thera paid attention to every word the two said, wondering about it. What kind of an artifact was it? Did it have some sort of special martial manuscript, or rare herb? Did it perhaps have some magic armor, or a priceless elixir?

Thera decided to shadow the two. Whatever they were after, it was still within Master Thales’s cultivation treasure, which was tantamount to stealing from Master Thales.

Therefore, she would wait until they had found the box, and then deal with them accordingly.

Black-cloak took out a rather worn-looking parchment from his cloak pocket. “It’s over this way.” He pointed.

Leather-clad nodded and the two began walking in that direction.

Only after they had gone far enough did Thera turn her head slightly to look at Laura. As their eyes met, Thera gave a mischievous smile, and angled her head towards the direction of the two men.

Laura’s eyes sparkled as she gave a barely discernible nod. The two silently left their hiding places, disappearing in the underbrush as they shadowed the two men.

Although Laura was not as perfect at the technique as Thera, she had learned the art of stealth from Master Thales. Therefore, the two men were completely clueless to the fact that the hunters had turned into the hunted.

After walking this way, and walking that way in the forest, they came upon a miniature clearing.

“It’s here! Bro, the map says that it’s right here, under our feet!” Black-clad said, getting excited.

Thera raised an eyebrow. In the book she had read about artifacts, although they had been in hard-to-reach places, there had never actually been a case of the boxes being buried.

The stories always had the discoverer stumble into, or over, or get thrown into the box where it sat.

 Thera began to feel that, either the map was a dummy, or there was something about the box that was left out of the stories.

“Good!” Leather-clad ‘Bro’ could hardly contain his excitement. He swiftly retrieved two shovels from his magic bag.

“Come on, help me dig!” He said.

Swiftly, the two began over turning the long-undisturbed dead leaves, grass, and soil. Thera and Laura watched with interest from a safe distance away.

An hour later, they had dug a pit nine feet in diameter, twenty feet deep, and they still hadn’t found anything. Both men were sweating hard from the work they had done. Black-cloak half-heartedly poked his spade into the dirt in front of him.

Ding!

The sound of metal sounding on metal made the two men’s eyes brighten as they quickly unearthed what the shovel had struck.

It was a metal plate with writing on it.

“B-bro! Isn’t this- isn’t this that-?” Black Cloak exclaimed as he looked at the writing.

Leather-clad ‘Bro’ clicked his tongue. “You call this a treasure! It’s in the ancient tongue! How the heck are we even supposed to read this?”

“Actually, Bro, it’s easy enough to pronounce. Look, all the letters are the same as ours. Goo-do tu-rai, na-ow re-achee foru tha su-kai. I wonder what that means?” Black Cloak asked.

“How should I know!?” Leather-clad snarled. “You’re supposed to be the scholar, here!”

“Too bad…I thought maybe it was a clue to finding the artifact.” Black Cloak said, disappointedly.

“I knew it! Some Black Class know-it-all probably swiped it years ago! This map is worthless!” Leather-clad ‘Bro’ thrust his shovel in the ground, shoving it in up to the handle. Then he stamped vigorously upon the spot, burying it even deeper.

Black Cloak tried to calm him down. “Hey! At least it wasn’t a total loss, Bro! As I recall, the kingdom still pays out rewards for relics of the ancient language. Come to think of it, a single phrase in the ancient language can go anywhere from a hundred gold coins to a thousand.”

Leather-clad ‘Bro’ calmed down. “What?! Why didn’t you say so!? Let’s hurry up and leave, then, so that we can collect the reward!” With that, both of the men jumped up from the hole, only just landing on the edges.

“Hold on there! What are you doing here!?” A voice came from off to the side.

Startled, the two men jumped, and almost fell back into the hole they had dug. Turning to look, they saw Laura standing boldly on top of a small hillock, looking down at them with her arms crossed.