Finding Objects

"A theft?" he repeated Maya's words.

"Y-yes," she said in a pleading tone, "Please don't kill me."

"Hmm…" Ash didn't lower his sword. "Why did you come here," he asked.

Maya hesitated to answer and fidgeted with her sling bag.

Ash moved his sword a little closer to the girl's neck, and Maya raised both hands hastily.

"I-I am going to steal an item from here!" she said, half-shouted.

"What item?" Ash narrowed his eyes.

"Emm… a-a grimoire," she said hesitantly.

"Is that the item in your quest?" Ash asked.

"Ah, no...no..." Maya shook her head

"Then why do you want to take it?"

"B-Because I want to steal it…"

"What the f…"

"I am a theft! What do you expect?!" she gritted her teeth with clear annoyance.

Ash was stunned. A thief wanting to steal something not on her quest list was unexpected.

Maya tilted her head and asked, "Are you new here? I mean in this game world."

Ash just stared at the girl, unsure whether to tell the truth or not.

"You are here, meaning your quest is to retrieve the grimoire. Right?" Maya asked again.

"Yeah…"

Maya's smile widened.

"Please withdraw your sword. I don't mean any harm. I'll help you with your quests." the girl said, this time in a confident tone.

Ash raised an eyebrow. 'Can I believe her?'

Seeing Ash hesitated, Maya tried to persuade him, "I swear. My skills are not for fighting. That's why I need a partner."

"What are your skills?" Ash asked.

"Treasure Sense," answered Maya with a slight frown.

"So you steal valuable items with Treasure Sense?" Ash was astonished.

"Yes," Maya nodded enthusiastically.

"No fighting skill?" 

"Yes," she nodded again.

"What is your quest?" Ash was still suspicious.

"Mmm... Most of them have to steal from monsters or something," Maya answered while looking at the tip of the sword before her, "Please withdraw your sword first."

Ash thought for a moment, then sheathed his sword, "You will face the consequences if you mess around."

Maya shook her head, "I won't, I swear on my life."

"Huh, it is easy to swear something like that. We'll see," Ash said as he walked towards the table. He picked up the penknife he had repaired and wondered about what he should do next.

Maya, who had been silently watching Ash's every move, replied, "Let me solve the puzzle for you. And the item remains yours."

Ash glanced at Maya, clearly not convinced.

"Then what is the payment?" Ash asked, "You're not going to help me for nothing, are you?"

Maya grinned. Her freckles were visible when she smiled, "I need your help to steal items from the Pterodactyls' nest."

Ash turned to Maya in surprise, "A pterodactyls' nest?" he exclaimed, "Are you kidding me?" he exclaimed.

"Nope," Maya was still grinning, "That's my quest."

'Huh, pterodactyl… This is crazy,' he grumbled inwardly.

Pterodactyl is a prehistoric flying reptile with skin and bone wings. They are carnivores and feed on fish, small reptiles, and other marine animals.

Ash thought for a moment. In this game, quests were not given a time limit, they could be completed any time the player wished to.

The problem was that if the quest completion took too long, the player would take a longer time to reach level 100, and it would take him longer to leave this game.

'Maybe I can buy time for her quest,' he pondered.

Ash's opinion was not without reason. With so many people wanted to kill him, he had to be careful.

"Okay, but the agreement is valid if you can get the grimoire for me," Ash finally agreed to the girl's proposal.

"Deal!" said Maya, smiling broadly and stretching out her hand for a handshake.

Ash shook it reluctantly. He noticed that the girl was starting to examine the objects that Ash had found.

"Let me see, can you decipher the puzzle," he challenged.

Maya just grinned mischievously at him, then took the penknife. She scanned her surroundings and then approached the tied sack at the corner.

She cut the rope that tied the sack. Then took a pencil and a handkerchief from the sack.

"How long have you been in this game?" Ash asked while leaning against the wall next to the window. 

"A year," Maya answered and brought the pencil and the handkerchief to the table.

"But you seem to have a long experience here," asked Ash again.

Maya took a deep breath and answered, "If you are stranded in a place you don't know, it's better to keep yourself busy than to get stressed thinking about a way out that doesn't exist."

Ash was silent. He just watched her who was approaching the window next to him.

"Do you have family?" Ash asked again.

Maya looked at him, and answered, "I have six brothers. My family is not well off, so my parents don't care if I'm there or not. Honestly, I was a pickpocketer myself."

She rummaged through the soil of the flower vase while saying, "Maybe I'd rather be here than that world. The world back there was not so friendly to me. Here, at least I can hunt or gather food or meal for myself."

"...."

Ash didn't know what to say, and silently watching her actions.

Maya took a tweezer from the soil in the flower pot and then cleaned it with the handkerchief. She dipped the tweezers into the ink bottle on the table.

She asked, "What about you? How is your family?"

Ash answered, "My only family is my mother. I'm different from you, I want to go home and be with my mother."

Maya looked at him with sympathy, then went to the shelf with ink bottles neatly arranged on top of it. She rummaged through the ink bottles one by one. Not long after, she lifted a plastic containing a flash disk while grinning.

Ash widened his eyes, "How you know that thing…"

While wiping the plastic with a handkerchief, Maya answered, "I like playing with hidden objects or escape rooms genre. So this is easy for me."

She took out the flash disk from the plastic and then walked over to the computer on the table. She turned on the computer and inserted the flash disk into the USB port on the computer.

The computer screen instantly showed a type of puzzle game. The objective was to fill in the cut-out images with the correct images. It was similar to a jigsaw puzzle game but with a more specific theme.

With an astonishing speed, Maya solved it in no time. 

Finally, a code with the number 71092 appeared on the screen.

"What code is that?" asked Ash, who was also paying attention to the computer screen next to Maya.

"The combination code to solve a certain puzzle. Usually, we have to insert it in a safe or something," answered Maya, and writing the numbers down on a paper, with the pencil she had found earlier from the sack.

Ash nodded in understanding.

Maya turned to him and asked, "Have you never played a hidden object game? Or escape room?"

"Ha..ha..ha.." Ash laughed while scratching his head, "I prefer playing Action type games."

"Hehehe, boys at your age usually play that kind of game," Maya chuckled.

She walked around the office, while touching or pressing various objects.

When she pressed the painting behind the work chair, a clicking sound was heard and the painting shifted upwards.

Inside, there was a small safe with numbered buttons.

Maya grinned at Ash, then she pressed the buttons according to the combination code she had written down earlier.

Click.

With a soft click, the small safe was opened, and there was a book with a black leather cover in it. Maya took the book with the handkerchief and then handed it to Ash.

"Tadaaaa! There you go, your grimoire," she said while laughing proudly.

Ash, stunned by what Maya had done, accepted the book with a daze.

A screen appeared in front of him, showing that he had finished the quest.

[You obtained the Supreme Magus' grimoire.]

[Item Rank: Special.]

[You received: 10 points.]

[Total points: 15.]

[You have completed 1 quest.]

[Remaining quest: 1.]

Ash happily opened the grimoire and saw various notes about magic. Maya enthusiastically looked alongside him.

The Grimoire contained extensive and complex magical knowledge, a record of the Supreme Magus' experiences, an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of magic, and hidden secrets and powers.

"Maya? Can we use magic in this world?' he asked.

"Of course. We're in a fantasy world," Maya replied.

Ash's eyes sparkled. He would have a chance to learn magic!

Then the two of them discussed the book's contents and planned to rest in the hotel that night.

***

They were already asleep at each room of their choices when two tigers entered the hotel through a broken window. The sound of their footsteps was not heard on the dusty floor.

One of the tigers went up to the second floor and sniffed to the closed room door where Ash was sleeping.

Then the tiger pounced at the door and made a loud bang.