Chapter 69: 69: Hidden Treasure

When SaltySiamese finally logged on, spiders were already really scarce. Everyone was scattered across the fairy town looking for stragglers when Aishin caught up with Danika using the party compass. Danika dropped out of the treetop and down to his level when he silently held something out to her.

"What is it?" Danika asked, and then remembered that he didn't want to talk. "Uh, you don't have to answer if you don't want to," she added quickly.

Aishin grinned and said, "Thanks."

"I don't need any thank you," Danika protested.

He laughed the quick laugh of an emote, and reached out and caught her in his other hand. "Silly," he said without inflection. "This," he held the bag in his other hand up to her clawed hands, "is insurance in case I can't connect for a few days. You can give it back if you don't use it." The bag was as big as she was.

After a moment Danika accepted the bag and placed it into one of the spots she'd emptied of candy without looking inside of it, which meant that it wasn't a bag of holding. "Ok?" she agreed doubtfully.

"Wish me luck?" Aishin asked.

Danika wished he were using his home system so that she could see his expression, or at least his headset so that she could hear his voice, but after a moment she declared, "I wish you the best of luck!"

He flicked one last grin at her as he logged out.

--

By the time Quin and Terri logged on, they were all ready to give up on spider hunting for the night. Danika's party had gathered over 200 spiders by then, and Danika's share of the coin was over 250, more than double the previous night's profit. SaltySiamese had only found five more spiders, and MatchlessMinion caught them for her and even made sure that the fairy attributed those to her party.

Terri pouted at them, but didn't really seem to be disappointed to have missed out on more spiders. Quin was the one who asked, "Should we scout around the town and see if we run into more goblins?"

Shrubbery said, "I'm sorry, I'm going to log off if we're done with spiders. I should check on things and there's a concert streaming tonight that I'd like to watch."

"Oh, what band?" Terri asked with interest. "What kind of music do you like? I prefer stuff you can dance to!"

"Haha, that's very like you," Shrubbery replied. "It's the annual free concert that Mirage does every year."

"Mirage?" Terri asked doubtfully. "I don't think I've heard of them."

"I'm sure you'd recognize the songs," Danika spoke up. "That's a really old group. My mom used to listen to their stuff whenever she cleaned, she said it made the chores go faster."

"Old people music?" Terri asked in a scandalized tone.

"Eh, classic pop, I guess?" Shrubbery replied uncertainly. "But there's a current boy band that most people would recognize," her gaze shifted from Terri to ZipZing, "that will play with them tonight as the first stop on their next tour, called Underneath."

"What's so great about boy bands?" MatchlessMinion asked with disgust.

Terri exclaimed, "Oh, Underneath have done some good songs! If these old Mirage people can play with them, maybe I'll look them up later."

SaltySiamese poked her brother and asked, "What's so great about idol girls?"

Quin suggested, "They're cute and funny?"

Justin, who had logged on when no one was looking, commented dryly, "I had no idea you were into boy bands Quin."

"Idol girls!" Quin protested.

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SaltySiamese snickered and Justin grinned as Terri agreed, "Yeah, boy bands are usually cute and have at least one funny member," she glanced at MatchlessMinion and added, "idol girls are usually both too. I always wished I could grow up to be one, until I found out what kind of diets most of them have to maintain."

"What are you planning to do now?" Danika asked curiously.

"Design things that add cuteness to the world without starving anyone!" Terri exclaimed.

"Goblins?" Quin asked again in a desperate bid to change the subject.

"Sure," Justin agreed.

--

The six of them followed the stream upward out of the fairy dell toward Oliva. They reached an area that showed evidence of recent logging before they reached the point that Justin's party had fought the goblins that had been attacking the centaur. Quin had a tracking skill, but lost the trail a short distance away.

"Maybe they used a teleport scroll?" SaltySiamese suggested.

"They could have used any number of transportation methods," Justin replied.

They circled Windbur, following the ridges that cradled the dell west, and then crossing the lower valley and heading east again. They found some evidence of recent logging in two more spots, but no goblins were caught in the act. Even though Justin had been the last to arrive, he was the first to log off.

SaltySiamese was the one who spotted the tree that was hiding the gold at the last logging site when they passed through it a second time on their way back to Windbur. There were discarded branches with wilting foliage laying around each of the logged areas, but she pointed at a pile at the last site and asked, "Don't those leaves seem a bit sparkly? But they don't glow with magic?"

Quin walked over and examined them with her. "I don't know? They aren't much different?"

Danika couldn't detect any difference at all, but MatchlessMinion brought up his menus and examined their invisible contents intently before announcing, "There is a large amount of gold nearby." He moved around like someone holding a metal detector for awhile, until he finally halted between three good sized stumps and announced, "Somewhere within three meters of here? I think?"

SaltySiamese walked over to stand next to her brother's short chinchillamin figure and looked around. She pointed to one of the three stumps and exclaimed, "That stump looks like it has flecks of golden glitter in it!"

This time Quin agreed, "It does!"

They discussed it a bit and then used a combination of their skills, including Danika's featherweight spell to pull the trunk out of the ground and revealed the decayed chest buried beneath it. Danika's currency appraisal valued the small collection of corroded coins at a bit over 5,000 coin worth.

They carried it back to the fairy dell where the traveling merchant waited conveniently. Terri said, "Lucky!" She dashed forward to the merchant and demanded that he exchange the corroded coins for the standard coin hearts of the empire.

She also insisted that they split the coins among each of the group who'd found them instead of evenly between the two parties. Only Danika was hesitant, but both SaltySiamese who'd initiated the find and MatchlessMinion persuaded her that it was a perfectly reasonable division.

Quin asked, "Are you unhappy because our party is receiving a larger share ZipZing?"

Danika shook her head quickly and MatchlessMinion laughed and told Quin, "No, she thinks we should share with Justin, Shrubbery and that Aishin guy."

Danika nodded, and SaltySiamese shouted, "Just keep the money idiot! If you resist Match and I will give you our shares too!"

Quin laughed when Danika hastily tapped her inventory ring and stored her share. "You guys are weird, fun, but weird," he said laughingly.

"Don't forget cute!" Terri insisted as she grabbed MatchlessMinion and rubbed his fluffy head.

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