Chapter 4
110.
Exploring a dungeon holds different experiences, depending on how well everything comes out. It can be dull and just an empty tomb, or an eventful one. Either way, one thing is for sure, if it holds a high-value treasure, then it must be heavily guarded.
As the story progresses, the mood drastically changes when an unsettling feeling lingers around. Since the group could no longer rest in this type of situation, they decided to continue their search instead. Being extremely cautious constantly is way more exhausting, it keeps them on guard and also heavily distracted.
"It feels like any second from now, something will jump out of nowhere," Kita said.
"Not gonna lie, ever since nyu mentioned that I can't focus on drawing the map accurately," Yuna responded.
"Let's just speed up, maybe this will end soon," Hana suggested as they walked hastily.
"Can't we just talk to them? The Relic shows their location right?" Lulu asked.
"The Relic does not detect other Kemis around other than us," FeLinE:1000X replied.
"What do you mean? I thought you said we are not the only ones here?" Furo questioned.
"Hai. It means that the unknown entity, lurking and watching us, is not a Kemi," FeLinE:1000X answered.
"Okay, this time, it is for sure a ghost. There's no way this can be someone's talent." Kita mentioned.
The paranoia continues as the group goes deeper into the dungeon. From distant looking to closely watching, this lingering feeling gets stronger the more they intrude. In every dungeon that contains a Mystical Runekey, invisible spirits protect the place. These spirits are called the Templarites, they test the seekers by directly attacking their mental fortitude. There are a lot of ways for Templarites to fend off intruders; some make the Kemis fall asleep, and others shorten the target's temper. But right now, the group is facing the Templarites that make the intruders extremely wary and uncomfortable.
"Can we pause a little bit?" Yuna suggested as they all halted.
"Why, what's wrong?" Hana asked.
"We've been walking carelessly fast, I think the map is messed up now," Yuna said.
"I also forgot to mark the walls because of the situation…" Kita admitted.
"I feel like I'm about to go nuts! This place is making me crazy!" Furo complained.
While others are trying to keep themselves sane, Lulu notices that FeLinE is up to something. Lulu approaches as FeLinE keeps on checking the bricks on the wall. "What are nyu doing?" Lulu curiously asked.
"The Relic shows that there's an empty space behind this wall. FeLinE thinks there's a hidden passage." FeLinE:1000X answered.
"Oh, I want to help too!" Lulu excitedly responded as she immediately tried to push every brick on the wall.
FeLinE, Lulu, and Pily mind their own business while the rest of the group is busy arguing for a better solution to their situation. A few minutes later, Lulu pushed a brick on the lower left side, triggering the lock as a part of the wall tilts like a door. The noise cut the group's discussion as they finally turned their attention to FeLinE and Lulu.
"We did it! There's a hidden passage!" Lulu gladly said.
FeLinE pats Lulu's head and then enters the room. The rest follows as Kita asks "Did she just pat your head?"
"She did…" Lulu confusedly reacted. They were baffled by the fact that FeLinE just randomly showed appreciation.
The moment FeLinE walks in, the Luminous rock on the ceiling lights up. The group carefully scans the area, and It looks like someone dug this field in order to create such space, everything inside is evidently made by a Kemi, and judging by the size of the place, the suspected Kemi is not from BijouTerra. What surprises them the most is the wooden table at the edge of the room wherein dozens of old papers and notebooks are all over the place.
"What on UniPaws…" Kita commented.
"This reminds me of Aoi's room, but underground instead of a house," Lulu mentioned.
"So someone made it here before us… And it looks like that Kemi has been studying something…" Hana said. Her speculations grew because some of the information that they have is seemingly interrelated to one another.
"Let's check the papers, maybe we can get something from this mess," Yuna suggested.
As they dusted off the notes, the group's focus was diverted. The paranoia earlier slowly disappears while they are occupied. Eventually, they are finally able to breathe freely as they go through the pages.
While everyone is busy reading, Kita randomly says, "Nyu know what, this is actually the first time I focused this much on reading something," she then drops the notes and adds, "Well, of course not anymore since I noticed myself focusing, which made me lose focus."
"It almost made me forget that someone was watching us. Or maybe they cannot see us here?" Furo replied as he stopped reading as well.
"I don't know if this is just a coincidence but this notebook tells the exact situation that we are in…" Yuna said after finishing the whole notebook.
"What does it say?" Lulu curiously asked. She was not reading anything right from the get-go.
"There's a part here that says this place helps the writer regain his sanity. He wrote each result of his experiment." Yuna answered.
"Is that so? Then that means the notebook I'm reading is the continuation of those notes!" Hana suddenly responded. "He wrote that there are spirits in this dungeon that keep everyone astray," she added.
"And looks like that Kemi managed to prove his claim. The papers that FeLinE read, indicate that these spirits are called Templarites. Though there are probably missing pages since FeLinE could not find the process of his discovery." FeLinE:1000X said.
"Woah, this is like a story-building game! Not a fan of it but it looks fun!" Lulu commented.
The group finds themselves connecting the chain of events. The old papers and notebooks scattered everywhere, are notes from someone who studied the place. Connecting all the details provided will be integral in their journey, it's up to them how they will trace everything from that point.
Treasure hunting evolves into a different theme since the group found a hidden room. The evidence strongly shows that the Kemi stayed in this room for a long period of time. Countless hours passed, and the group was still arranging the documents. They even decided to set a camp inside the room.
The group has been working for almost a whole day, and they need something to eat. Since Kita, Furo, and Lulu are not that interested in reading paperwork, they are the ones who set the camp and prepare a simple meal for everyone. Supplementary foods from Zenshin truly come in handy in this situation, just pour hot water on it and then noodles in a cup are ready. Boiling water is also not a problem because there's a hearth fireplace built on the far right of the room. Not to mention, Furo and Lulu already stored tons of random objects in the imaginary space, giving them enough resources for anything that they need.
Later that moment, the papers are slowly getting categorized while the group enjoys their cup noodles. The notes are separated into 3 parts; the results, the progress, and those with missing pages. Every time there's a strong conclusion, it goes to the first part. The second one is for trial-and-error, mostly experiments that occurred, some are failed assumptions but are still valuable for research purposes. Lastly, those that do not offer clear details belong to the third part, which concluded as 'with missing pages'.
"Hoooo! This has been quite a work, but I'll prefer doing this than exploring the dungeon." Kita said as she stretched up a bit.
"Indeed, but at least we finally grasped the surface of what's happening here," Hana responded.
"I still can't believe someone wrote all of these. It's amazingly nuts." Yuna mentioned.
"Does the Realm Sanctuary have this info? They're like the origin of all, right?" Kita asked FeLinE.
"Probably, FeLinE could not fully tell because FeLinE's memory is not yet clear. Though the word Templarites sounds familiar to FeLinE." FeLinE:1000X answered.
"Riiiight… I forgot about that, my bad." Kita responded.
"Why is your memory fuzzy anyway?" Furo curiously asked.
"FeLinE doesn't know why, but FeLinE thinks it was done intentionally. Everything that's happening is not coincidental, something must have happened for FeLinE to be transported to the UniPaws with erased memory." FeLinE:1000X said.
"Sounds scary, you must be a threat to whoever did that. Anyway, I shall prepare our space, I'm quite sleepy." Furo commented.
The group barricaded the door so it wouldn't close, but at the same time keeping the room safe from a possible intruder. Furo removed the items inside the stone, in order for him to create a new imaginary space at the wall, allowing everyone to rest inside of it once more. They all call it a day as they sleep in the relaxing dark blue room designed by Furo's imagination, except for FeLinE. It looks like Furo's words earlier bothered FeLinE to a certain extent, keeping her awake while the rest were sleeping peacefully.
After the long sleepless night for FeLinE, the group comes out of the imaginary space, looking to continue their journey. It's hard to distinguish if it was already morning since they are underground, luckily, their wristwatches worked as alarm clocks.
Before they left the room, the group did a debriefing first. They are now aware of the current situation, and knowing the truth behind the uncomfortable feeling made the group less wary about the surroundings. They can now force themselves to ignore the spirits because the Templarites won't attack them as they thought, thus the dungeon exploration continues.
Several hours pass by, and the group is definitely eager to achieve their goal. Even though the group keeps on accidentally triggering countless deadly traps, they manage to survive and still move onwards. Eventually, they reached the shrine where the Mystical Runekey is placed. 7 sandstone pillars surround an old slab. A shining-bloody red artifact floating at the center, it is shaped like a key with Cyan aura radiating all over it. The group finally witnessed 1 out of the 7 Mystical Runekeys.
"That… That's…" Kita wants to say something but her words won't come out.
"Its presence is astonishing…" Yuna commented.
"Can we even touch that?" Hana questioned.
"I'll touch it!" Lulu excitedly volunteered.
"Chuu~ Beautiful yet frightening!" Pily added.
"This Rune is truly stunning, way more than what FeLinE thought it would be…" FeLinE:1000X said as she slowly walked toward the Mystical Rune.
"Be… Be… Be careful!" Furo warned while nervously stuttering.
When FeLinE reached the old slab, she then gently reached for the artifact. As her hand gets closer, FeLinE can feel how powerful it is. No words can explain the scenario, they can just feel the raw power stored in the Mystical Runekey. Finally, the group collected the objective as FeLinE stores their first Mystical Runekey in her Relic.
"This is just so fulfilling…" Kita commented after successfully securing the artifact.
"It is indeed satisfying, in fact, I couldn't even feel the Templarites now," Yuna mentioned.
"I think they are truly gone? I mean, the mood somewhat changed right after FeLinE stored the Mystical Runekey. This place feels empty now, unlike earlier," Hana responded.
"I guess Templarites and Mystical Runekeys are truly connected to each other, just like that one page we read, sadly the rest of it is missing," Furo replied.
"At least we don't have to walk fast, that's the brutal part for me," Lulu commented.
"1 down, 6 to go, let's move to the next one immediately," FeLinE:1000X said as she walked.
"Hoho, someone is enthusiastic." Kita teased FeLinE.
FeLinE smirked a little bit, showing that she was indeed excited to collect more.
"Did she just smile?" Hana questioned as they all followed FeLinE.
"She did…" Kita confusedly reacted. Lulu had that reaction a while ago, now it's Kita's turn.
"Now nyu know how it feels!" Lulu told Kita.
"This journey has been full of surprises," Yuna said.
The Mystical Runekey truly shocked the group. However, seeing FeLinE smirk that way made them feel almost equivalently to the first encounter with the ancient Rune. Technically, both are extremely rare in their own rights. It's a successful mission for them, now it's time for them to regroup on the surface.
112.
The group traces the marks on the wall they prepared right from the start. Some marks are quite far from the next one due to the paranoia earlier, but since the group is fired up, they are looking unstoppable despite the inconvenience.
Eventually, the group reached the surface. Going back is definitely way faster since they already know the path. It's the middle of the day and the group missed how the daylight feels. The warmth of the star, plus the relaxing fresh air of the forest, allows them to breathe freely and ease their minds. To further extend the relaxing sensation, the Catgirls decided to take a bath in the small fresh waterfall nearby while Furo and Pily guard from a far distance.
As soon as they reached the place, the Catgirls wasted no time, they removed their clothes and submerged themselves in the water.
"Aaaaa… Fresh water is truly one of my favorites…" Hana said.
While they are all relaxing in the cold water, Kita randomly asks FeLinE, "Anooo… Is it okay for nyu to take a bath?"
"What do nyu mean?" FeLinE:1000X replied.
"Well, nyu are like a Robo-Catgirl right? Won't nyu rust?" Kita added to her question.
"Sentient Kemis don't rust, FeLinE is not made out of metal," FeLinE:1000X answered.
"But your legs are as hard as steel!" Kita stood up as she argued.
"Oy, don't just stand up while in the bath, nyu are completely naked remember?" Yuna told Kita.
"What's the difference? We are all wearing nothing anyway." Kita replied.
"Yuna is right, nyu should sit down. Nyu are annoying FeLinE for some reason." FeLinE:1000X responded.
"Those are annoying indeed!" Lulu added as she glared at Kita.
"What are?" Kita asked.
"Nothing…" Lulu answered as she looked away.
"Don't worry Lulu, nyu'll grow too," Hana said.
"Or not, not everyone is 'gifted'. Though it's totally fine, I mean look at me, I look good even without those." Yuna confidently responded.
"Indeed. We can all be beautiful in our own way." Hana replied.
"Wait, what are we talking about now?" Kita confusedly asked.
"Nooooothing…" The rest of the Catgirls replied.
"Eh?" Kita reacted.
Even with the chaotic conversation without resolution, at least for Kita, the Catgirls enjoyed their free time in the small waterfall. After that, they changed their clothes and went straight back to their course.
A couple more days passed, and the group finally made it back to the Ruin, the gateway to the UniPaws. They once again met up with Raccus, who was patiently waiting for them in the village. As of now, Furo is afraid that the Forbidden Rune might corrupt him at any moment, that's why he also decided to come with the Catgirls.
When the group crossed the Ruin, the Kemis on the other side warmly welcomed them.
"It's been weeks, how was your journey?" Raven excitedly asked.
FeLinE pulls out the Mystical Runekey from her Relic as the group proudly says, "Ta-daaa!".
"Ara~ truly magnificent, well done." Maiko greeted the group.
"Ooooy!" Celeste shouted as she ran towards the group. "Good thing nyu are finally here, nyu all must see the result!" She added upon getting closer.
Without wasting any second, they all follow Celeste and head to the lab. Eve and Rubi turn their attention to the group as they enter. With big eyebags on their face, it looks like the scientists have been studying non-stop.
"Are nyu guys okay?" Hana worriedly asked.
"We're good… we're good…" Rubi answered, her exhaustion reflected in the tone of her voice.
"What's not good is that thing that nyu brought. That Forbidden Rune has a 65% match with the Evil Mimi sample that we have. It's way more than the Runecrystal," Eve replied.
"That means our theories were true, the Forbidden Runes were the ones that they used to mutate the Tameable Mimis," Yuna responded.
"Where do nyu even get this? It's insane how potent this is," Eve said, referring to the Rune.
"Not only that, its frequency is too unstable. A complete opposite of a Runecrystal's data," Rubi added.
"In our realm, those were scattered after the boom," Furo answered.
"After the what?" Eve and Rubi both asked.
The Kemis from BijouTerra were shocked when they heard Eve and Rubi's claims. On the other hand, the scientists in the UniPaws were intrigued by Furo's answer. It's time for them to exchange every piece of information that they know.
With that, the Kemis created a conference call with Queen Grace using the wristwatch. In this way, the ruler of Kemitopia will be updated as well. Thus the discussion starts, Eve and Rubi were the first ones to reveal their studies.
It turns out, FeLinE was right, Forbidden Runes are not safe for Kemis. The immediate convenience is more of a side effect before it truly corrupts the user. The frequency of the Forbidden Rune changes every time they run an experiment. Therefore, its corruption to Kemis does not have a definite timestamp. It all depends on how fast the Forbidden Rune adjusts to a Kemi's composition. After the long presentation of Eve and Rubi, the discovery fully convinced Ridsae, Furo, and Raccus about the danger of the artifact. They can now use this information, backed up with evidence, to warn their kind in BijouTerra.
"Thanks for your hard work, I will make sure to share this with everyone," Raccus said, appreciating the efforts of the scientists.
"Everything is also clear to me now, I'll do my best and warn the village," Ridsae added.
"I just wish that mine would leave my body soon," Furo mentioned.
"Wait, what? Yours is still inside of nyu?" Rubi questioned.
"Hai! Aaaaaannd this is the part where we will share our discoveries!" Furo responded.
"I can't tell if he is worried about his state, or he is just this jolly no matter the situation is…" Eve commented.
Just like what Furo said, It's time for Kita's group to present the details that they gathered during their journey. If Eve and Rubi took a lot of time discussing their discovery, it's just half of the conversation that the group is about to bring, even though these were just the tip of the iceberg. The Kemis are on their way to finding the truth that lies within the UniPaws.
End of Chapter 4