The Achievement Junkie

Chapter 391 Tomb in the Fissured Mountains

Jack sighed. "That’s only because Lina’s powerful bloodline overwhelmed the bloodline of Maura’s cetus companion. Your companions are completely different so you’ll have to recognize which bloodline is which before trying to activate the skill. Try it with your dryad first, okay?"

"Okay..." Calming her breathing, Eliza refocused herself. It took a few minutes but Eliza managed to differentiate the two bloodlines. Focusing on the energy of her dryad companion, the aurora around Eliza began to change.

The ground beneath Eliza’s feet started to grow tufts of grass, surprising everyone present. Her physical appearance didn’t change at all, but her eyes had become entirely green with no pupil or iris. Both eyes looked like leaves when held up in direct sunlight, slightly transparent and filled with accents of soft orange and streaks of warm yellow.

"Well... How do I look?" Eliza examined herself and then did a turn around for everyone to see. "Did anything change?"

"Look in a mirror..." For a moment, Jack was bewitched by Eliza’s eyes, unable to look away from her. After Eliza took out a mirror and looked away, Jack broke eye contact and explained more, "Dryads are naturally charming, able to coerce plant life to their will and cast powerful enchantments."

"Oh, is that why you can’t look away from me?" teased Eliza. "Maybe I’ll have to try this out later tonight..."

"Since you’ve all tested your new skills, let’s get going!" Clapping his hands, Jack changed the subject. "Phoro, Bowzer, I gotta put you away for a second, okay? Daliea, store Mooldrat as well."

The beasts were quickly stored away as Jack looked to Lina. "If you want to come with us, then you’ll have to go back to your human form. Otherwise, I can leave you here to play with Dragov."

"Umm... Is it going to be fun where we’re going?" Lina asked, tempted to stay and play with the massive centipede.

"Not exactly," replied Jack. "We’ll be back before nightfall, so we can come back to pick you up later, okay?"

"Okay!" Lina shouted and barreled toward the centipede. "Dragov! I want to slide on your back!"

The others got a laugh out of Lina’s antics as Jack wrapped his arms around each of his wives. "As beautiful as you all are in those forms, you should change back to save mana and not scare anyone we might run into. And a change of clothes would be good too"

Once the women were back to normal and changed out of their torn clothes, Jack activated his new skill Greater Teleportation. Jack and his wives were suddenly transported in a flash of light, like Tralon and Daruun had done so many times before. When the light faded, the party looked around to find themselves in a rocky landscape with a row of jagged mountains not too far away.

Jack released Phoro and Bowzer, then turned to see his surprised wives. "We’re just outside the Fissured Mountains, that’s where we’ll find this hidden tomb. Eliza, would you please bring out Appa?"

"Sure thing."

With the Giant Condor, the party was off for the mountains, excited to adventure together again.

Not even an hour later the party was overlooking the mountainside. There, Jack retrieved the sword that acted as their guide. After apologizing to Appa and Eliza for the mess he was about to make, Jack slit his hand carefully, allowing gravity to cover the downward-pointing blade in blood.

They were then led to one of the mountain peaks, jutting out between the mountainside and the large, bottomless fissure that ran down the center of the mountain range.

"That peak..." Jack directed Appa toward the mountain, making sure to keep an eye out for nearby beasts. There were a few, but nothing that the lv. 49 Bowzer and the lv. 47 Phoro couldn’t handle.

Those two dispatched the nearby beasts with ease while Jack searched the cliffside for the tomb’s entrance.

On the side of a perfectly vertical drop, Jack finally managed to find the entrance thanks to Appa, who was carrying the party over the fissure. Soon, they were glad to find the rockface parting to form a smooth entrance to a small cave. And it was just in time, as Jack heard a distant growl from deep inside the fissure.

’Bowzer! Phoro! Get back now,’ ordered Jack, not daring to find out what was below without first entering the ancient tomb.

Both beasts hurried back and were stored before Jack jumped into the newly-opened cave.

"Jump! I’ll catch you!"

Eliza didn’t hesitate and leaped toward Jack, forcing him to catch her like she were a princess. "Thanks, Darling."

"Anytime." Jack chuckled and helped her stand up. "Come on you two."

Maura was next, followed by Daliea. After both of them were caught by Jack and carefully placed inside the cave, Eliza stored Appa as the growling started to grow louder.

The cave wasn’t very deep but that made it easy to find an archway with a name etched into the stone overhead. Reading the sign, "T1golBidd13s", Jack reached up and ran his hand over the lettering as he stepped inside.

There they found a few dozen chests and rows of armor on display around the sepulcher.

"Go ahead and check the chests. If there’s anything you want, just let me know."

Happy to hear that, Eliza was the first to place her hands on a chest. But Maura wasn’t far behind as she rummaged through the chests to find items of varying uses and levels. Daliea carefully inspected the armors and cloaks on display, focusing on some of the magic staffs beside the cloaks.

Jack focused on the sepulcher and claimed his reward, earning himself fifty-five skill points.

Without a second thought, Jack checked the T1golBidd13s’s activity log.

"Jack, can I keep this?" Maura pulled a sword out from one of the chests. It shined like an emerald and as thin as a cicada’s wing, which also happened to be the name of the sword. But she failed to get a response, so Maura called again, "Jack? Jaaack?"

"Huh... Oh, that’s a great sword. It’s lv. 45 and mythic tier, definitely keep that one."

Not directly replying to Jack’s robotic answer, Maura eyed Jack for a moment and then asked, "Jack, is something wrong? You’re really focused for some reason..."

Trying to laugh it off, Jack didn’t manage to reply. He quickly checked his map and started laughing again. "Okay, let’s hurry up and gather everything. We can sort through it all back at the guild."

"Jack, what’s wrong?" Maura asked again, more sternly this time.

Putting his hands up, Jack walked to her and pushed the emerald-green sword up to her chest. "Nothing’s wrong. I’m just trying to hurry back before Lina drives Dragov crazy."

Giving Jack a serious glare, Maura asked one more time, "Jack, what’s wrong?"

"Like I said, nothing is--"

"Rrraaaaaahhh..."

Surprised to hear that low growl again, all the women stiffened in startlement. Somehow the growl had gotten even louder then it was while they were outside.

"Jack, what’s--"

"Store everything and grab hold of me, Now!" Jack shouted as he frantically began to place chest after chest into his storage.

Daliea didn’t ask any questions and began to do the same with the various armors. Catching on, Eliza did the same, leaving Maura to worry enough for them all.

"Rrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh..."

"Alright, grab hold of me!"

Each of the three women grabbed Jack in some way. At the same time, the room began to shake and the four of them felt the mountain moving beneath their feet.

But before anything else could happen, Jack and his wives were again taken away in a flash of light, leaving the empty tomb behind.

"Rrraaaaahhh!"

Suddenly, the wall of the mountain burst open. The small, smooth opening in the mountain was now a dust-covered hole four meters wide. A two-meter tall, mountain of a man now stood in that small cave, staring at the ancient tomb’s entrance. Though he was much too broad to fit normally, the man walked through the rock surrounding that entrance like it was paper, shaking the mountainside.

Now inside the tomb, the man growled again, but even louder this time, "RRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!"

The man’s eyes glared at the sepulcher, overflowing with rage. In a fit of anger, the man kicked the sepulcher, reducing it to rubble and dust instantly.

"WHERE IS IT?!"