AMBROSIAExploring Opening some more, we discovered a young girl near a lake in the upper corner of town. “Hi there,” she pleaded, “I wonder if you could help me out? You see, I traded away my Crystal Trophy. An old Japanese woman showed me this stuff called sushi, and said that if I give her it, she''d teach me.” I asked, “So what should we do to get it back?” She shook her head, “That might be difficult to get back though. Kinda. Sorta.” I said flatly, “What.” She hastily replied, “But you can help me reclaim it! Get me some rice, seaweed, and some seafood. Then come back.” I picked up some of that shark meat from earlier, and then I kinda sorta went to a nearby farm in the dead of night, and took a little bit of rice from the corner. It''s not stealing, it''s gleaning! Completely okay. As for seaweed, I turned my fishing pole into a seaweed rake, and started skimming the pond where the little girl stood. She chopped it up, scaring me with her knife skills, then prepped the rice, then added the shark meat. “Okay,” she said after making a plate, “looks like you got it. Deliver this to the old woman in Goji, will you?”

    Goji?!? That''s halfway around the world! We stuffed the sushi in our Preserver, and boarded our ship. The water was rough, but we had experience sailing around the world several times to get where we wanted. After several weeks, we arrived in Goji, tired and worn out. Next time, as long it was something non-perishable, we''d take Bahamut.

    AZRAEL

    We arrived in Goji, and I explored my old haunts once again. While the others searched for lady fitting the description, I went inside an old dilapidated house that had been my home growing up. My mother, being one of those women who simply mated and forgot any ties with her family, had the decency at least to carry me to term, but thereafter left me at the doorstep. Like any child, I cried. Loudly. The priest at run-down temple which has now fallen into disuse, noticed me. He fed me, he clothed me, and he loved me. He was a priest by trade and knew Exorcism, so he taught me to read, and how to meditate. My power grew, but power is a doubled-edged sword. As I got stronger, there was a greater chance that spirits would come to steal my unused spiritual energy. He taught me sutras and symbols to defend myself with. And yet, the dead rose in this town, and they were after the power of those who performed Exorcism. Any who were easy prey would be consumed in order to make the ghosts stronger. I was taught Exorcism to defend myself, and at age 8, I exorcised my first spirit. I was a professional myself by the age of 14, earning money to be split with the temple to cleanse evil spirits. I was successful, I was powerful, and I was fairly rich. Yet something was missing, because I was lonely. I desperately needed someone to keep me company, and yet there was nobody in town my own age I could confide in.

    I was brought out of my reverie by a warm hand, and Zoe motioned me to follow her. “C''mon, slowpoke, hurry up,” she teased. As if I wouldn''t follow her anywhere. Finally, we had found that lady.

    AMBROSIA

    The woman in Goji was a crazy old lady with cats. We offered her our plate of sushi, and explained why we were here. She giggled as she fed it to her pets, “Oh yes, I remember now. That fool of a girl gave away a Crystal Trophy like it was nothing. Only a few of them exist, and you probably can only get one by beating the game without saving. Trading that for the cheap ability to make sushi is absurd. Well, anyway, I don''t have it. As I was basking in my deal, some giant monkey grabbed the thing. All I managed to keep was the banana he dropped. See if you can trade this back.” I took a look at the banana. It was completely huge, roughly the size of her cats. I couldn''t imagine the size of a bunch. This was the legendary King Banana I''d heard about.

    Since the old lady had no real idea of which way this critter went, Zoe volunteered. “Let me do this!” she said. Grabbing the banana and boarding the ship, she started to strip below deck. Then she started to get on all fours. Then she started to growling and her teeth became more canine, and hair started growing on her fingers and toes while they became more paw-like, her body fat including that of her breasts started to be covered over by sinew and muscle, and a tail grew out of her behind. If she wasn''t making wolf sounds, she would probably be screaming from the pain right now. Her face around where her nose was lengthened, her natural hair on her head receded and was replaced by fur, until finally she was just a big alpha wolf. We raised our weapons as if to hurt her if necessary, but instead she started sniffing the banana, and then abruptly barked. “Is she gonna kill us all?” I asked. Azrael shook her head. “I''ve heard about this. I didn''t think anyone in our group could do it though.” Nevras looked nervous, “Skin Magic? Like those creepy assassins that can pretend to be everyone?” He would have encountered some of those. Azrael shook her head, “This is a Beast Form. She has control of this, and she''s a real wolf.” I was concerned, “There aren''t risks, are there? I mean, she seemed like she was in a lot of pain. Could she get stuck, forget who she is, or just go crazy or something?” She shook her head, “She''ll be alright. I think. Anyway, let''s let her work!” Zoe nodded after I suggested that, and Azrael gave her a pet on the shoulders.

    Zoe sniffed for quite awhile, then she seemed to have memorized the scent, tried to climb the stairs up to the top deck. Unfortunately, the steps were too close together, and she toppled over. We tried to lift her, but after she panicked and her legs started flopping all over the place, and she was too heavy to lift anyway. “Dammit, Zoe! Turn back, already.” She whined, and howled a bit, and forced herself back into a human form. “Owww ow oww!!! It hurts,” she said. “What hurts?” I asked. She pointed to everything. Walking up the steps, she was told to do it again, but she shook her head hard and said, “I can''t right now.” I asked, “Why not?”

    YAZIM JIANNE

    Barring some modesty reasons, since the boat had still not left port, there was a pretty clear reason why she couldn''t use it again. Self-transmutation had a toll on the body that took getting used to. Remember how I talked about flight and how it was easier in terms of mystic points to turn into bird than just defy gravity because of disbelief? Well, it''s even easier to turn into a bird when slipping inside a bird costume. Doing it without one was a strenuous process. Plus it’s just more comfortable slipping into a bird suit.

    Unless she had done this frequently and her body was used to this process, she''d be basically crunching up her bones, stretching muscles, or rearranging fat cells. If it''s done by a real amateur, this risks permanently hurting the body. Zoe wasn''t that, but since she probably only used this on rare occasions since animal transformations aren''t really more powerful than the animal itself, and it was probable that she had done this less than five times in her life. It showed, she seemed to be taking awhile and it looked painful.

    “I''ll do this,” I said. They had seen what I had done with the Transport Coin. But besides making enchantments in a fundamentally different way from most casters, we could also make self-collapsing enchantments. Such a thing would only last a week at most without a redo, but for our purposes this was best. I advised the group to instead take Bahamut, and we hefted the large fruit and the limping Druid on her. Before we took off, I quickly made an enchantment, writing with my finger, ?傳染的神奇規則 .?

    A strange yellow mist extended from the banana, showing our way to our quarry. Bahamut tracked it rather quickly to a palmetto growing just northeast of Galaxia. Landing nearby managed to completely terrify the abhorrent thief, and it fled for the hills. Or, it would have, if I had not restrained it with my 1st level Minor Temporal Binding. What a weak creature! Even a larger monkey could have struggled out of this, but it was almost totally paralyzed while we tried to interrogate the gibbering beast. Thankfully, Zoe, while currently crippled, was not totally worthless, for she had the ability to talk to animals. Its speech was clear enough, it gave us a bag of “shiny stuff” or iron pyrite, in exchange for our enormous banana.

    When we got to town however, nobody seemed to know anything about it. We searched for quite some time, until finally it was obviously I and not someone else (okay, maybe it was Nevras) who noticed a coffin and a sign that said, ?Please come back at night, I''m sleeping.? Acting on a hunch, we decided to turn in until the evening. A girl in a long black cape with looked at us with hypnotic eyes, but contrary to a certain Flock of Seagulls song, she had tawny hair and auburn eyes. She was a vampire, and fairly well behaved from the looks of it. I assume she was on tomato juice if she wasn’t biting.

    While vampires do crave blood, they can get it from rare meat just as easily as a human. They can also get the red pigments they crave from vegetables; these don’t fill them the same way as real blood, but they manage. They didn''t necessarily have to make more vampires either. Vampires are able to control their racial abilities after all. A vampire could only make a new vampire by pressing their fingers to an area they had just bit, and saying the words “???? ” in which case those runes would flash on the creature''s neck for about a day. After this, the person would become a vampire. Also, there was always a choice, the person bitten would begin to hear words inside their head about why they should become a vampire, but they could simply refuse. If they refused, the runes would break apart, and the bite mark would start to heal. If they refused, the runes would break apart, and the bite mark would start to heal. If they accepted, the bite mark never healed, and their skin became a sort of porcelain color, and a parasite would burrow inside their body, constantly demanding they drink blood. This creature was a symbiote, giving them power and immortality, but its price was constant feeding. That doesn''t stop vamps from convincing people they don''t have a choice though.

    Honestly, while many people are like “Kill the vamp!” I am not very concerned about them, since I can''t be hypnotized by one because my heart belongs to another. No woman I know of can replace Sarai, so I pretty much just chat with vampires like regular people. I asked her, “Is this bag of fool''s gold yours?” She nodded, “Yes, that''s mine. But I don''t want it back. You are searching for the Crystal Trophy? If you want more information, give me some Aurum instead.”

    Aurum was another name for gold nuggets, to be distinguished from the Gold that was coins. We had money, but a bag of Aurum? That was crazy. Elias suggested when we were out of earshot, “If we can find a decent alchemist, we can transmute what we already have.” After a moment''s though, Ambrosia said, “Hey wait, I know of an alchemist. And he''ll do it for cheap. He''s in Ghobli, though.” Apparently Nevras knew this guy, because after a moment''s thought, recognition turned into nervousness and fear. “Surely you can''t mean...” Ambrosia smiled, “Relax. It''ll just be you and me doing this. The others won''t be involved.” Nevras shook his head, “That is not what I''m worried about. That guy probably sent Sera and Phim after us! He''ll kill me!” She smiled again, “Relax~ I won''t let him hurt you.”

    And so it was that we made another trip, this time to the market town of Ghobli. Ambrosia ordered us to stay near the dragon until they came back. Nevras looked visibly upset, “Ambrosia, how could you! We didn''t even bother running away that time! We let him do it. And the look on his face...” Ambrosia explained, “We had to. If we tried to bargain and run this time, he would send the ninjas after us. We needed to make sure that he treated us right this time, and that meant keeping our promise.” Nevras mumbled something I couldn''t catch, “But dressing me up as girl, and making me have sex with him! I''m just lucky that when he looked under my dress, he said we could go free and didn''t decide to molest me! Seriously, why did you do that, Ambrosia?” She shrugged, “All''s well that ends well.” She held up a bag of Aurum.

    Flying back, we stayed just outside town until nightfall, then asked her again. This time, her face brightened, “A client made me a nice offer. The souls of an entire town. You be careful, and offer a nice gift or the critter might try to eat you too. Here, give it Candy. And I''ll be taking this.” We wound up with a lozenge. I was done. I told the others I was waiting on the ship until they figured stuff out.

    AMBROSIA

    Following the directions of our sweet vampire guide, we headed southeast of Hinata, where we saw a catgirl sitting down, mewling, and licking herself. Catgirls were hengeyokai, but unlike the others, they could only morph between cat and hybrid, they couldn''t become human. She took one look at the lozenge, and asked, “Whoa, is that Candy? Gimme some!” I knew she might take it and tell us nothing, so I pushed, “First tell us about the Trophy.” She mewed in frustration, then said, “Some crazy girl in a big town gave me massive amounts of Candy for it. She said she could rest easier knowing she had such a valuable item.” She paused, “Here give her this Soft Pillow. It''s always helped me sleep.” She did look well-rested. I took her Pillow.

    The only big town I knew of was Kushiyama, so we wandered around there for awhile, until I noticed a blond girl with deep black circles around her eyes. It looked like she hadn''t slept in days! She talked in a slow and listless way, barely concentrating on what she was about to say. It was almost like someone who started writing a novel and stayed up night after night trying to finish as many pages as possible in about a few years, until at last they began to write stuff that was nonsense and/or filled with typos. She muttered, “Wel-come...” I told her, “Here''s a pillow, please use it.” I watched as she grabbed for it slowly with the lack of response of someone about to pass out, but then I interrupted her, “but first, could you tell me what happened to a certain Crystal Trophy?” I had to poke her a few times to get her to talk as she wobbled, halfway in between consciousness, “I thought... if I... had the... Trophy I would... be able... to sleep...” She paused, so I asked, “To sleep better?” She shook her head, “No... to sleep... I drank some of this covfefe, and now... I can''t. Not ever. It worked... for awhile... but then... this... cat... it stole... the Trophy. ” She continued, “The king... saw it too... he should... tell more if... you... give him... something.” I asked, “Could you be more specific please?” She shrugged with the energy of everything else, “I don''t... know... give my coffee... to someone who likes it... they should... be able... to come up... with a... gift.”

    I rested her head on the Soft Pillow, and got her to sleep some. Sorta. After this, we talked with King Yama and discovered that he would only discuss this matter if he had an Aluminum Can. Apparently, he had some special use for one. Since we didn''t have one, we went to a trader of coffee, and showed him our Magic Coffee. He was willing to offer anything in exchange, including Gold coins of finest Phoenix mint. But we refused. Think of that poor suffering girl who would never see her Trophy again! Instead, I demanded to have an Aluminum Can. He looked at me blankly, “Really?!? Our coffee sometimes comes in those when it isn''t that Magic Coffee stuff. It''s cheap crappy metal. Why would anyone want this?” I shrugged. The mission had become an obsession, but I wanted to see the end result.

    Delivering the can to King Yama, he told me, “Oh my, is that...? Yes it is! Now I can talk with the other kings from here...” He started to fit metallic wire in the aluminum can, and prepped to start talking with other rulers. Ummm, why didn''t he just use a cellphone? Regardless, we were about to leave when I reminded him, “Oh right, what about the Trophy?” King Yama explained, “Head to the base of Tsukuyomi Mountain. There you''ll find a sick man.” He gave me a small brown bag, then continued, “Give him these medical herbs, and he should give you something to trade for that.”

    Having a firm lead, we flew over to this mountain and indeed noticed a man laying on his side with what looked like indigestion or something. So we gave him our herbs, slowly brewing them as tea, and set the cup in front of him. Drinking the mixture, his stomach settled over the next hour, and he sat up and talked to us. He explained, “A cat took it from me, warning me to not focus on worldly things.” I smirked, “Wait, he told you not to focus on worldly things, but here he is, stealing your stuff.” He smiled, “Yeah, I noticed this too. In any case, I found this rare Sage Peach to trade him for his Trophy.”

    And so, we once again began the obnoxiously arduous path up the mountain. As before, the lush green hillside gave way to crags, and then icy mountain. But this time we had better gear and were better prepared. I turned my fishing pole into a long and durable rope of some blue cord, and I tied it around Lilith. Her strong body and sharp claws scrambled up the mountain ignoring the ice, and before long we made it up the peak. Of course, once again there was a large gorge in front of us on the path to the floating island. Even after explaining that this gap was a Paradigm that depended on our personal belief, Lilith refused to try. “Maybe you don''t remember,” she said, “but I''m a demon. Most magic doesn''t work on us, and because of how I am, having strong belief probably wouldn''t work. I''ll fall right through!” Michael volunteered to expedite things, and just flew me across, which was a real time-saver. I showed the Sage Peach to this cat, who ate it hungrily, saying “Omm nom nom” as he did. Peaches were in the apricot family so he could technically eat this as long as he avoided the pit, but he would be better off with the sushi from earlier. At once, he was transformed, no longer appearing as a cat, but as an old man in sack cloth. He told me, “I no longer have the Trophy. Give this Note to the little girl explaining matters.” I turned to leave, beginning to be frustrated. “Wait,” he said, “tell that Druid to come over here. I wish to teach her to master her Sage trance.” I pointed to Zoe, and made a motion for her to come over. Her heart and soul were disciplined, and her belief was pretty strong. She made it over, no problem, despite this being her first try. “Tell her what you said to me,” I told the old master. Lao Tzu asked Zoe, “So then, you''ve come to study under the great Sage to become powerful. Right?” Zoe thought a moment, then shook her head, “No.”

    ZOE

    I was taught by professional Druids and I was discovered as a child. As an infant, golden light extended from every pore of my body. After each of my reincarnations, I remembered my past life. So I was born a Sage, which freaked out my natural mother. She gave me to the Aiken Monastery, who in turn gave me to the Druids to adopt. One of the Druid women acted as a surrogate mother to me, and she was kind and sweet to me. As I was treated less like a being of awesome power, and more like a child that needed love, gradually the golden light receded. I became like a normal child, well, one raised by Druids with all sorts of natural magic.

    In fact, the longer I stayed with them, the more difficult it was to become a Sage. This is not to say that in order to become one, I had to give up my feelings or some nonsense. Rather, I was trying so hard to fit in that I probably didn''t want to do it, and when I finally had to, it felt sort of like trying to pull a hand or foot off my body. I couldn''t stand the idea of someone judging me to be odd.

    I remember growing older, and how excited I was to be learning magical techniques. I had a real drive to do so, and the Druids were getting concerned. “Remember, my daughter,” one said, though in fact I wasn''t his daughter, “any magic that you learn, if used without restraint, can be abused or can corrupt you. True power is knowing restraint.” Yeah, what did that old man know? I sought after more and more techniques, learning how to walk on clouds, talk to animals, control vines, and even change my shape. I learned three forms: a wolf, an auk (a species of bird that can fly as well as swim underwater), and a porpoise. It was time for me to learn the Druidfire technique like the other students. I was excited, and I was sure that I was ready!

    The senior Druids had other ideas. They decided to teach me what would happen if I misused power. Two volunteered for this, as I later learned. Until just after fighting the Gate Guardian, the reason I couldn''t use Druidfire wasn''t because I was inept at using elemental ability, it was because I blocked out all memories of learning to use it. On some level, I had learned my lesson though. I was lacking in confidence, and wary about abusing my power. I was getting better lately, but wouldn''t make the mistake of being cocky like back then.

    The first Druid agreed to teach me Druidfire, and showed the various steps. Then, he demonstrated. He sent out a burst of energy into the air. Magic develops as you use it, and grow in experience. More practiced wonder-workers will have more mystic power, and also better endure the effects of their own casting. A novice will have trouble using more than a small fireball without hurting themselves, while a master can summon enough power to destroy a forest. Magic also depends on how much power you spread to a single area, so a cone of fire is much weaker than a dense ball. All this means that when a person knows their limits, they will gradually grow stronger and stronger. But he decided to push those limits. The already huge stream of fire became tremendous and then titanic, until heat and light filled the sky. I was awe-inspired until I realized what was happening. Until I saw his body smoke. You see, when a caster pushes beyond their limits, the mystic power in their bloodstream getting depleted isn''t enough. They start to convert their muscles into mystic power, then their fat, then their skin, and then their bones. If only done partially, it would cause magical backlash in the form of bleeding and physical strain, but he wasn''t holding back at all. I blinked, and the Druid burst into blue flames as he spontaneously combusted. His Druidfire cut off suddenly, as he was coated in fire intense enough to frighten me. And then he was gone. As was true of most spontaneous combustion, the area nearby was untouched. A stench came from the spot where he stood, and there was not even enough of him to be called ashes. I can still remember that odor of burning flesh. “No,” I said. Never again.

    Ambrosia looked confused, “What do you mean ''no''? You''ve been struggling all this time to use this without turning to stone, now this guy hands you the keys to mastering it on a silver platter, and you turn up your nose at it. What''s wrong with you?!?” I snarled, “I just can''t, okay? I can''t use power for its own sake. Not after what I saw...” I lowered my head. Ambrosia didn''t understand, but she could see whatever reasons I had were making me depressed. “Anyway,” I said, “the Elder has power and he''s basically imprisoned inside the Grove. Power can work against you too.” Lao Tzu smiled, “Those who want power the least will be trusted with the most. I shall give you power against your will. Mwahaha!!!” He edged closer and touched my chakra points in turn, awakening my long dormant energy. I screamed, as light poured from my eyes and other orifices, but gradually, it receded. After giving me this power, all the effects of the Sage Peach went away, and he returned to the form of a cat. I glared at him pretty hard, but eventually I got over it. It was time to try the Sage trance thingy.

    I went through the steps from before of how I drew my Sage form out, and was surprised at how easy it felt. Before, it felt like I had to be really angry and really calm and the same time, and I felt a sort of balance scale where if I were a hair off a awesome mood or something, I''d turn to stone or blow up. This time, however, I just kinda felt like I was getting into the zone, and suddenly I changed completely.

    It wasn''t all peachy though. For some reason, although I could draw it out easier, I couldn''t maintain it like before. “Hey, what gives?” I asked him, “it just cuts out on me. Why won''t it last?” He shrugged, “I drew your power out so you''d be able to summon it more easily and without problems. But you still need to be strong enough to maintain it.”

    It would be time to practice later. For now, I told Ambrosia, “Enough of this, let''s just deliver that letter to that girl and get of here already!” And so, at my urging, we headed back to Opening using Bahamut. She was more than a little grumpy about having to fly back and forth, but we appeased her by letting her eat the nearby flora and fauna.

    Inside Opening, we gave the note to the girl, only for her to tell us, “Oh that? I got that traded back to me while you were gone! Then I traded it for a bowl of chicken soup. Wait, why are you looking at me that way...? Get back! Noooo!!!” Yeah, we roughed her up a bit. Serves her right, trading away an incredibly rare artifact for something worthless, not once but twice! Anyway, after a sound beating, she offered to sell us some sushi for our trouble. And after some more... convincing... she offered to sell it at a discount price. I mean... she gave it away. Sёarch* The N?vel(F)ire.ηet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    AMBROSIA

    I wanted to do a sidequest, come to think of it. Aqorm asked, “Hey, do you think maybe we could train me? Not for battle, I want to learn some more music so after this journey, I''ll have a marketable skill.” I was going to protest, but she whispered in my ear that she had figured out what I was doing, and probably everyone but Lilith, Zoe, and Nevras was sharp enough that they also knew. And I knew Nevras would have figured it out, if he wasn''t so blinded as to trust me completely. I sighed, “Okay.”

    To ease some of the tension, Azrael also said, “Hey can we just check out major libraries, and then Aqorm can practice the songs in bars? That way, I can also read books and improve my Exorcism.” When she said it that way, it sounded like a good idea.

    AQORM

    According to legend, there were four ancient song sheets that had to be found, in order to become a master musician of any sort. These sacred songs were written be master geomancers, and in the right hands, could greatly increase the power of someone like me. Azrael found all the books she needed almost right away. Kushiyama''s library, along with the Great Library, yielded results just by requesting help from the librarians. Now that Yazim Jianne had the ability to teleport us around, our trip to all the many libraries in the world was done in a matter of days. However, he had to stop for awhile. “I can only do this so many times in a short time, especially if I''m teleporting all of you guys,” said Yazim Jianne, “give me a break!” I hadn''t found my song sheets, looking in the normal way. So, then we decided to do abnormal things.

    We looked everywhere, solving bizarre puzzles or riddles, and finding them in peculiar places. Having read some old legend, I noticed that there was a painting in Zuran that had always bugged me as to how real it looked. I went back to the inn and stared at it, getting closer and closer, looking at details. It was a landscape picture that was big enough to fit my entire body into, with a forest in the background, and a piece of reddish-brown vellum paper resting on a tree stump. I tried to make out what the sheet of paper said, but as I couldn''t. I just kept moving closer to it, until I noticed something. The grass was moving as if by an unseen wind. I backed up in surprise and no longer saw any movement. I must have been imagining things! I moved steadily closer. It was blowing after all! But where was the wind blowing from?

    It took quite a bit of experimentation to figure out that my movements and my breathing was creating some wind. I even had to hold my breath once. But when I did, I tried to reach inside the painting. It felt like I was pushing my hand through a paint bucket, but once I did, my hand moved inside the painting. The paper was much father away than perspective let me believe though. Since I still couldn''t reach it, I closed my eyes and mouth then I stumbled inside. The creepy sensation began again, then stopped. I was within a real forest. On the end that I had come from, I saw a multicolored square around the same size and shape as the frame I had stepped into. The forest continued for quite some way. If I strayed too far, I might have trouble finding my way back! I guess that I was lucky that this wasn''t a painting of a scene in space. I picked up this piece of vellum, and read it. It was a huge sheet so it held a massive amount of music on just the front side. The song was called The Beds Are Burning, by Midnight Oil. I grabbed it and made it outside the painting, breathing in some paint on the way. The others stared. “That was the creepiest thing I''ve ever seen,” Nevras said. I sat down, and went to the inn''s piano and started playing. It was a fairly simple song, but after playing I felt my understanding of fire-based geomancy increase. I was about to roll this up to pack it away, when I noticed strange markings on the back. I turned it over and saw what basically amounted to a map of the world. Only, it wasn''t whole. In fact, this was just the sort of map that could probably only be completed when all pieces were discovered. There was, however, a map containing from Ghobli all the way over to where Galaxia and Gruumi were, and as far south as Phoenix. Looking at the map, I noticed a tiny mark to the northeast of Gruumi, where a forest was. There was tiny writing saying, ?Knock three times on the ceiling.? I thought this was a strange thing to say, but then I remembered something about that. I realized the instructions were themselves lyrics to another song. Humming it briefly, I managed to get it stuck in my head.

    We made our way to Gruumi by boat, then wandered toward the forest. Moving randomly through this forest, we fought off snakes and bears until we finally saw a small hut in the middle of the woods. The hut was fairly simple. It was a one-room house with a bed and a stove, a few supplies such as wood and salted meat, and a painting that had a picture of a pipe for smoking which said, ?Ceci n''est pas une pipe.? For some reason, I had the idea of knocking on the ceiling three times. But nothing happened. Was I missing something?

    Then Elias, went over where the painting was, and backhanded it twice. A chime sounded, and the painting spat out another vellum scroll, this one was green probably from mold. “Huh?” I said, “the instructions said to hit the ceiling. Why...?” Elias explained, “You understand that this is part of a song right?” I nodded, “Yes, but if you hit the pipe twice, that''s if the answer is no. Why should that be the right answer?” Elias explained again, “Yes, but this painting is not a pipe, it''s a representation of one. The artist even says so. So, even though we shouldn''t be hitting the pipe, this isn''t a pipe, so it''s exactly what we should be hitting!” I think my brain exploded, working through the logic. Gradually though, I got a grip. I looked at the page.

    It was called Earth Song and it was by Michael Jackson. I took it over to Gruumi to play. I noticed that the map on the back didn''t appear until after I played, because the runes were activated by sound. The map showed the southeastern parts of New Earth, diagonal from the first map, all the way south to Hinata. The map this time pointed to Kushiyama, and the instructions mentioned an elaborate and rather embarrassing dance that needed to be performed. All of us learned this dance, but Lilith wasn''t very good at remembering the moves. “It''s just a jump to the left...?” she muttered, trying to remember the rest. “And a step to the right,” Elias explained, trying to jog her memory. I helped out too, “Put your hands on your hips...” Elias, finished the sentence for me, “And bring your knees in tight.” I sensed she would have no trouble with the pelvic thrust though.

    We made it to town, but the huge size of this city made it difficult to find the precise location, so we wound up starting a flash mob in several points around the city hoping to find the exact spot where the dance would activate the puzzle. The crowd thought we were a bit odd, but then we taught them the dance steps and got them to help. Eventually we hit the right spot, and the song sheet popped up from the ground. The song was called Don''t Tell the Wind by Zeno, and it was a long version with a lot of instrumental jam sessions. After our strange dancing, we had an absolutely huge audience of curious people. I was gonna have to ask these guys to help me advertise if ever I did become big. The next map appeared, but this one was tricky, because it pointed directly into the ocean. This one had no instructions. What were we supposed to do?