Expendable

Reborn in a Fantasy World, This Time I Shall...!

Jase the Assassin

??? — Mosslit Cavern

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"Huh," Jase noted as the chest lock gave way and the lid sprung open at the slightest of pressure. "Must have rusted and dry-rotted. Must have been a long time since anyone's been here."

His youthful face scowled at the stone flute and fur. Why was the fur so well preserved in the chest? At least it wasn't moving when both were removed by the knight and Javal. Wasn't there like a children's story about a magic flute that bewitched mice and such? Best they don't play it until they were someplace safe, who knew what this one might do?

"Okay, false alarm. Let's go find ourselves a way out of here," Jase said, reasoning if someone brought the chest in, they must have a way out... unless it arrived the same way they did.

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@Crusader Lord@Thunder999999@Crimson Paladin

Rerun: Blackguards!

@Red Wizard - I've been fighting with the character about their wanting to be a tailed chimpanzee with wings, and something in my schedule has changed, so I'm afraid I'll have to drop out of this one.

Sorry.

Rerun: Blackguards!

@Expendable Love it. Love the flavour, too. Just right for the setting, and for how I picture it'd be to glimpse into the Wardens mind. Write me a CS and you'll be accepted.

@Red Wizard

Hope to have a CS for you later today.

Reborn in a Fantasy World, This Time I Shall...!

Jase the Assassin

??? — Mosslit Cavern

---

"If it's rigged so a wire runs outside the chest, it's probably underneath," Jase sighs. "If it's rigged internally, then the holes in the wall are a fake - or whoever set this up was really paranoid."

There were so many ways to rig a trap.

"Best move back," the half-elf scowled, pulling his blade. standing to one side, he carefully slid his blade under the lid, then tried to lift the lid a fraction of an inch. For all they knew, it might not even be locked. And if they heard any noises, that would suggest there was some sort of mechanism.

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@Crusader Lord@Thunder999999@Crimson Paladin

Rerun: Blackguards!

You've already got a vampire. Hmmm.

Okay, a chimera - bat-winged monkey with the usual assortment of sharp claws and teeth, poisonous dew claws, but this one can talk and take over the bodies of others.

Formerly employed by a witch <NAME WITHHELD> but kept the livery.

It tried taking over the Warden.
Its soul leapt out.
It knows rather than let it die, the Warden picked up its soul and put it back in its body - because it was still useful....
It still has nightmares from the few glimpses it saw. It would give a demon lord nightmares.

Worcestershire sauce?

Usually I just point to it.

Reborn in a Fantasy World, This Time I Shall...!

Jase the Assassin

??? — ???

---

Jase smiled thinly, then pointed at the chest.

"So shoot an icicle at it," he said with a shrug at Vrelenor. "Something with some heft to it. If it's boobytrapped, we can see what it does."

If it was boobytrapped, setting it off from here might disarm it. If it didn't work, they'd have to take a chance.

And if it destroyed itself, that would tell them something, too.

He paused to stare at the other two. The knight Nyana, were they still human? Perhaps they stayed armored up simply because it was easier to move around. But why did Javal stay human while he became one of Santa's helpers? And what was the idea with the status panels?

@Crusader Lord@Thunder999999@Crimson Paladin

Reborn in a Fantasy World, This Time I Shall...!

Jase the Assassin

??? — ???

---

Jase resisted the urge to respond in Spanish.

It was unfortunate that they didn't have anything to carry some water with them as they left their stony womb. (what else do you call a room that birthed you?) Jase used a rock to try and scrape the walls as they went, but it wasn't much success. And now they found a dimly lit alcove with a chest and weird holes in the wall.

"'Come into my parlor'," Jase intoned, frowning at the setup, "'Said the spider to the fly.'"

Still, the chest offered some hope that food or something else useful could be found inside, so he was loathe to bypass it.

"Unless someone knows how to make a light, I suggest we try gathering some of that moss in the last cave and bring it in here to see if we can find any tripwires. Or don't they have traps in isekais?" he intoned. He'd finally seen his status panel, but this idea that you'd die and be brought to a fantasy world just seem so much wish-fulfillment, like the guys who prepare for attacks from zombies.

Still, it was much more attractive than waiting around on a cloud for eternity.

Without tools, picking the lock wasn't an option, they'd have to force the chest open. And who knows what sort of trap whoever left this chest might have set to protect it?

@Crusader Lord@Thunder999999@Crimson Paladin

Hello

Greetings and salutations, welcome back and we hope you'll stay a while.

Reborn in a Fantasy World, This Time I Shall...!

Jase the Assassin

??? — ???

---

Jase frowned. First robes guy complained about a lack of towels, he couldn't wait until robes needed toilet paper. But now he was calling himself a mage? Frosting the knob on the top of his staff was a neat trick, but right now he wanted something a lot stronger than shaved ice. Besides, he'd seen better tricks from street performers.

"Isekai'd?" he asked, wincing when he heard himself squeak instead of his normal deep rumble. He looked at the others gravely. "You were on the plane, too? All of you? From Tokyo to LA?"

"Well, I'm Jason, and I wasn't dressed like this on the plane," he said, balling up his fist and using his thumb to point at himself, "or looked like this, neither. Thought we all bought the farm, so what's this 'isekai' business? Why are we all here in this cave with the radioactive moss? Did we crash land at the Nevada Test Site or something? And why were you all staring off into space after you woke up, like you had an invisible television?"

He didn't normally talk this much in a year, but something strange was going on and he intended to find out just what it was! Not being dead was good, but why the crazy outfits and why were they in some cave?

@Crusader Lord@Thunder999999@Crimson Paladin