"Find anything else of value in here?" Jass called out, her voice echoing across the large cavern the cannibals took refuge in as she crouched beside what looked like the remains of other creatures that the cannibals had killed and eaten. Which gave the trio a bit of insight that these cannibals were probably in the middle of some sort of ritual that required them to eat one of their own.
"A few things," Esmerelda replied, flicking her wrist to levitate a rusted chainmail fragment. "Assuming you're in the market for tetanus."
"Only if it's worth more than this," Jass quipped back, holding up a hole-ridden, rusty tin teapot.
Deacon knelt atop a large collection of boulders and brushed away layers of dust and dried moss to reveal a cloth pouch between three of the particularly large boulders, and used a mana string to fish it out from between the cracks. "Couple of loose gems in this one," he muttered, holding up a small cloth pouch. He loosened the drawstring and tipped it over, which made seven garnets roll into his palm. The garnets were dark red in color and surprisingly fully intact, despite him finding them tossed between a couple of large boulders at the far end of the cavern.
Esmerelda glanced over from where she was rifling through a leather pack. "I found a couple more sapphires and a pack that we can use to store our stuff in."
"Oh, nice," Deacon said. "Can it fit all the gold and stuff we collected so far from the outpost?"
"… I think so, it's either gonna be a perfect fit or slightly just under it," Esmerelda announced as she then made her way toward the exit of the cavern to grab the cloth they fashioned into a bag and used to stuff the valuables they found on Floor Three.
They continued scouring the cavern for a while longer, spreading out across the messier-looking and more heavily touched areas. However, after thirty minutes of searching, most of what they found was useless and provided little more than a single gold coin in value according to the Identification Relay wrist band.
Which made sense, honestly. The majority of it was exactly what you'd expect in a place like this: a few rusted weapons, scraps of rotted cloth, and a cracked journal with its ink smeared beyond recognition.
Esmerelda stood and dusted off her knees. "Haven't really found any more enchanted gear or any artifacts." Turning to look at Deacon, she asked, "Speaking of which, how is it that you were able to find two artifacts in a day and a half? You got some sort of artifact GPS in you?"
"I mean it would make sense," Jass said, slipping a small, untarnished coin into her pouch. "Deacon's always got great luck in finding valuable stuff. Remember where we had that treasure hunt on campus the week and a half after Deacon arrived at the academy?"
"Ah," Esmerelda said, cleaning up a muddied jewel and raising it up to her eyes to get a better look at it. "The one where one of the hidden treasures was a golden egg and Deacon found it like five minutes into the hunt?"
"Yup," Jass smirked, turning to Deacon, who looked a bit lost in thought at the moment. "You remember that, Deke?"
Deacon didn't answer. Instead, he continued to walk toward the edge of the lake.
"Deek, you okay?" Jass called out as she saw him begin to take off his cloak.
He peeled off his leather chest piece, unbuckled all his weapons, untied all the pouches on his person, and piled them next to a massive rock beside the cave. "Checking something."
And without another word, he stepped into the lake.
Deacon slid beneath the surface of the lake without a second more of waiting, ignoring the cold bite of the water against his bare torso and arms. And as he fully submerged himself and felt his eyes fully adjust to the dark, he carefully began to scan the contents within the lake.
The first thing that stood out to him where the clusters of multicolored clams nestled in the sand, their shells sealed tight. A few drifted open lazily as he passed, but they largely did nothing else. Moving past them, his gaze swept further.
On the walls of the lake, he could see tens of circular tunnels, partially hidden by strands of swaying moss. The flow of water coming from them was faint, but present. Salt stung at the corners of his eyes and filled his mouth.
Ah, these are probably connected to the ocean just outside, Deacon mused. That explains the taste of the lake now.
He hovered in front of the tunnels for a couple of seconds longer, watching the current, waiting to see if anything emerged. But nothing came.
Deacon turned and kicked off the stone floor of the lake with all the 45 Strength he could muster, which caused him to shoot through the water with ease and watching as the surface gleamed faintly above. A final glance over his shoulder at the tunnels, and he broke through the water with a sharp exhale, slick hair clinging to his face and neck.
Jass looked up from where she was sorting their findings. "Anything?"
"Not really." He shook his head before trying to wipe away the saltwater that clung to his face like some sort of mucus and continued to sting his eyes. "A couple of tunnels leading out into the ocean. There could have been something in them, but I didn't want to take the risk of either getting caught in a sudden strong current or getting stuck because I didn't notice the walls of the tunnel getting narrower."
"Anything else?" Jass asked, tossing Esmerelda another pouch full of jewels.
"Just a couple of clams," Deacon shrugged, starting to reach for his cloak. "I really didn't find much of anything in it."
Deacon had just caught hold of his cloak when he noticed the looks on both their faces.
Jass and Esmerelda were staring at him like he'd just confessed to enjoying a good bout of necrophilia with Bonehead.
"…What?" Deacon said while using his Cloak of the Iron Shade to get rid of the saltwater that clung to his face and refused to be wiped away with his hands.
Esmerelda slowly shook her head in disappointment before turning her head to the side and muttering under her breath. "There's no need to hit his head, Morith. Any more and he'd lose the last three brain cells clanging around in there."
Jass let out a soft laugh. "Clams, Deek. They have pearls."
Deacon stared blankly for a beat. "...So?"
Jass stood, grinning now. "So, pearls are valuable. And you just said there were a couple dozen clams down there."
"Not all clams have pearls," Deacon argued. "Plus, the lake floor was covered in them; it would take forever to check them all."
"Then we wait till forever," Esmerelda replied without missing a beat.
"Why does it have to be me?" he asked, exasperated. "You two have legs. You know how water works."
"And you're already soaking wet," Jass said with a shrug. "Trying to get us fair maidens into the ocean water would be a crime against humanity."
Deacon's eyes narrowed as he suddenly realized that the two of them were clean, untouched by the filth of the jungle and blood from the cannibals. "How is it that you're both clean, clean?"
"Cleansing spell," Esmerelda said with a brow raised. "It's literally the second spell we learned, us girls at least."
Deacon stared at the two of them for a moment before sighing. "Can you at least use the spell on me when I get out?"
"Sure, "Jass casually tossed him a small, empty pouch. "C'mon, treasure boy. Time to go pearl hunting."
Groaning, Deacon turned around, dropping his cloak to the floor and making his way to where he'd dropped his gear. He crouched, grabbing one of his daggers and slipping the pouch over his wrist. "I hate both of you."
"We know," Jass said brightly.
"Go get us those shiny pearls!" Esmerelda chimed as he waded back into the lake.
"When I get out, you two have to use that spell on me."
With another grumble, Deacon slipped beneath the surface again, muttering under his breath the whole way down.
***
About thirty minutes later, the lake's surface rippled once again as Deacon broke through it, this time with a heavy exhale and with the pouch Jass gave him, bulging at the seams.
He trudged out of the lake with a look that was a mixture of embarrassment and annoyance, water squelching with each step he made as his Windkissed Boots were soaked, then, without ceremony, tossed the now-bulging pouch toward Esmerelda. She easily caught it with both hands, but nearly dropped it from the sheer weight of the bulging pouch. "Whoa."
"You're welcome," Deacon muttered as he stopped beside the gear he'd left piled near the boulders. "Spell, please."
Within seconds of him asking for the spell, Deacon was hit square in the chest with a bright white colored spell, which quickly evaporated every last droplet of saltwater that clung to his skin, leggings, boots, and hair. Steam hissed from his arms and legs. A thin, white crust of salt rained to the cave floor like falling ash.
"Damn you both for not telling me about this sooner," Deacon muttered as he felt as though he'd come out of a steaming hot bath.
Esmerelda, meanwhile, had unfastened the pouch and was pouring the pearls into her hand, letting them spill out like marbles onto a wide piece of cloth. Her Identification Relay blinked with each pass.
"...Holy crap," she muttered, checking the reading again, then again.
"What?" Jass asked, eyes flicking to the pile.
Esmerelda looked up, eyebrows raised high. "These aren't just pearls. These are heavily infused with water mana, like really heavily infused. Spellcasters use them for enchanting aquatic charms."
Jass let out a low whistle. "That's gotta bump the price."
"Like you would never believe," Esmerelda nodded slowly. "All together, with everything else we gathered - including the outpost haul? Eighty-five thousand, two hundred thirteen gold."
Deacon, now buckling his weapons back on, froze mid-motion.
"What?"
"Eighty-five Gs," Esmerelda repeated, grinning now as she tied the pouch shut again. "The clams that you ignored the first time brought us 70% of the total a person needs to clear Floor Three."
Jass burst out laughing while stabilizing herself against a large boulder to prevent herself from falling over.
"We're so never gonna let you live this down," Jass added, still grinning. "I'm so gonna be telling Sam and Bonehead about this."
"Fuck you two," Deacon grumbled as a tinge of red colored his face as he hastily put back on his equipment.
"We now have more than enough for a trip back to Floor Zero to tell Bonehead and Sam about Floor Three and to purchase spatial storages for all five of us." Esmerelda said as she closed the drawstring of the pack she had found earlier.
Jass, still grinning at Deacon's reddened scowl, reached into her belt pouch and pulled something out. "Here. Since you did all the grunt work."
She tossed one of the four tribal anklets they'd taken off the cannibals his way. Deacon caught it, still damp, and raised an eyebrow before using Identify.
Item Name: Tribal Anklet
Type: Accessory
Rarity: Uncommon
Description:
Woven from jungle beast sinew and enchanted with crude blood-binding runes. Designed to be worn by warriors of the Wild Fang Tribe.
Provides: +5 End, +5 Agi
He gave a small grunt of approval, and he slid it onto his ankle beneath the cuff of his right leather leggings.
"Not bad," he muttered. "Endurance and Agility boosts. I'll take 'em."
While tightening his belts, double-checking that all his pouches were in order, and weapons were sheathed, he said; "So… are we gonna talk about how these people," he gestured toward the pile of bodies at the edge of the clearing, "were all Identified by the System as Level 0s?"
Jass's grin faded. She glanced over at the dead cannibals wearing tribal paint and bone charms.
"Yeah…" she said slowly. "I noticed that too. Never seen anything at zero on the Floors before. The only time I ever saw Level 0s was when we all just received our Classes."
"Do you think that these people from other kingdoms and the inhabitants on the island could be like the Fallen Angels, the people of Murim, and the Angels. In which they became climbers like us when the generation that found them cleared the Floor they were on? Where, after the clearing of their Floor, they became welcomed into the Tower to become climbers?"
"Maybe," Deacon said. "If this island's part of some old Floor civilization that got left behind when their generation cleared it… they might've never ascended."
"This could really be big," Deacon muttered.
Jass crossed her arms. "But if that's true… wouldn't the Isles and everyone on them get cut off from these other 'kingdoms' or factions as it gets added onto The World Map for Floor Three? Like, wouldn't they not be able to go back to wherever they were before getting shipped to the Isles of the Damned once Floor Three gets cleared?"
Esmerelda squinted in thought. "I think so. The World Map for a Floor only updates when a Floor is officially cleared… yeah. Then, once that happens, only the Isles of the Damned would be added to the Floor Three World Map, and maybe the surrounding kingdoms, empires, or whatever will be added onto it when the generations after us reach their new Floor Threes.
Then he adjusted the strap on his pack and exhaled. "I'll check with the archive within the academy once I land back at Floor Zero or get Sam to do it if he's free."