6/9/24 Floor 1: Vanaheim. Location: Fenrir Beach

The girls were relaxing on the beach south of Fenexia after fighting the Kraken that guarded the Celestial Key of Water.

“This may not be the beach day I had in mind but it's better than nothing,” Lemon said.

“You said it, after fighting that Kraken it may be best to rest up for a day or two,” Turquoise said.

“But what about getting home? What if someone tries anything before we reach the exit?” Haruka asked.

“Don't worry my dad has our entire security team guarding my room so no one will get to us,” Turquoise said. As soon as the girls were done sunbathing they put their clothes back on and went back to Fenexia.

“Have you ever thought of adding clothing stores that sold actual clothes like swimsuits?” Lemon asked.

“There is a clothing store in Fenexia, we could have gone there first but you insisted we kept going. I will work on adding more in the next update but first, when we get back I am taking a break from this project,” Turquoise replied.

“Sounds like a good idea,” Haruka said.

“And on the subject of getting home, we have two options: we can either go to the Kitsune Temple in the Jagged Fjords or the Sand Temple in the Dessert of Demise,” Turquoise said. The girls weighed their options and decided to go to the Sand Temple since they are already dressed for the weather there and could save their kroner. The girls returned to Fenexia to rest up at the inn to restore their HP.

The next day the Girls set off for the Dessert of Demise ready to go for the next Celestial Key. As soon as they crossed the border into the desert a sandstorm suddenly blew.

“This is bad,” Lemon said.

“Tell me about it if we lose all our HP in this storm before reaching the temple we will have to walk back here all over again,” Turquoise pointed out.

“Haven't you ever thought of putting some kind of shortcut or warp points in this game?” Lemon asked.

“Like I keep telling you this is just the development phase and besides I need to learn a lot more before I can properly release this game to the public,” Turquoise replied.

“What more is there to learn? you pretty much have the technical skills no ordinary teenager would have,” Lemon pointed out.

“True but that's not what I meant. I still need to learn about stuff like marketing and other business stuff if I want to make this Silver Corps new focus,” Turquoise said as they made it out of the sand storm. The girls arrived at an area sheltered from the sandstorm by a bunch of tall rocks and inside that area were some ruins with a scorpion emblem.

“I assume this is the Sand Temple?” Haruka asked.

“Yep before we enter, are you girls familiar with debuffs?” Turquoise asked.

“You mean those status conditions like sleep, burn, and paralysis?” Lemon asked.

“Exactly, we will be dealing with one of those but unfortunately I forgot to supply the shop with the proper potions to deal with them,” Turquoise replied.

“Are you saying we are going in there with no way of healing ourselves?” Lemon asked.

“I didn't say that, Lemon, check your skill tree there should be some healing arts unlocked by now,” Turquoise replied. Lemon checked her skills and found a spell that heals debuffs. Lemon added it to her attack menu and then readied her staff. As soon as the girls entered they were suddenly ambushed by a swarm of desert wasps.

“Uh, Turquoise, why did you put wasps in the desert?” Lemon asked.

“I thought it went well with the whole poison theme which reminds me, watch out for the stingers, they will poison you if they hit you,” Turquoise said.

“No duh miss entomologist,” Lemon said as she shot one of them down with a fireball. As they kept cutting and blasting the wasps down more and more kept coming.

“Is there no end to these bugs?” Lemon shouted.

“We need to destroy the hive to stop the queen from reproducing them,” Turquoise shouted.

“What does it look like?” Haruka asked.

“Look for an amber-colored object that looks out of place, Wasps always build their nests in the most inconvenient places,” Turquoise replied. Lemon looked around and noticed the wasps were coming from the hall ahead of them then deduced that the hive was on the wall at the end of the hall.

“I think I found the hive. It must be on the wall at the end of the hallway but I need a clear shot so while you two keep the wasps off my back I will torch the hive,” Lemon said. Turquoise and Haruka kept slashing the wasps giving Lemon a clear view of the hive. Lemon prepared her fire spell and then shot a barrage of fireballs into the hallway. Most of the fireballs missed while the last one slightly grazed the hive. Lemon was sure her spell failed until the hive began to burn from the fireball that grazed it. As the hive vanished the flow of wasps stopped. With the last of the Wasps defeated the girls proceeded to the door at the end of the hall. As soon as they entered the next room which was a central area with four stone statues of four different kinds of snakes.

“Snakes, why did it have to be snakes?” Haruka asked shakingly. The girls investigated the room and noticed the hollow chambers with dim torches inside the statue. Lemon came across a stone tablet with writing on it.

“Hey girls check this out, it might be a clue,” Lemon said as Turquoise and Haruka came quickly. Lemon noticed the writing looked like some kind of hieroglyphics until she touched the tablet and a screen popped up with a translation of what was written. “Seek out the four serpent deities and relight the flames of hope only then shall the path to the great evil be revealed,” Lemon read.

“Well, Turquoise, you made this game, any idea what that means?” Haruka asked.

“Simple we need to find the four mini-bosses and defeat them to relight the torches inside the statues and the way to the main boss will open up,” Turquoise replied.

“So where do we start looking, love?” Haruka asked.

“Let's start with that one,” Turquoise said, pointing to a door with a storm symbol above it. The girls entered the next room which turned out to be a room with a puzzle. Turquoise threw a stone and as soon as it landed on one of the tiles the walls slammed together and then returned to their original position.

“Well, Turquoise, what's the answer to this one?” Lemon asked.

“Now Lemon we can't keep asking for the answer, puzzles like these are part of the fun of games like this,” Haruka said.

“Exactly, it's more fun and enjoyable to solve these things yourself instead of asking for the answer,” Turquoise said. Lemon took a look at the tiles ahead and noticed there were images of snakes, frogs, spiders, scorpions, and armadillos carved into them. Lemon started thinking hard and then it dawned on her.

“I think I got it, all these creatures, what's the one thing most of them have in common?” Lemon asked.

“They all look scary and nasty?” Haruka replied.

“No, they are all poisonous creatures except for armadillos,” Lemon said, feeling like she just did something cool.

“See Lemon, it's not so bad using your brain every once in a while,” Haruka said. The girls jumped from one armadillo tile to another and made it to the other side safely. As soon as they entered the next room the door suddenly locked and a green Boomslang wearing a headdress with an emerald on it slithered into the room and unleashed a mighty hiss. As soon as the health bar appeared the first fight began. The Boomslang unleashed a mighty whirlwind that sent the girls into the wall damaging them a little.

“Can we even get close enough to hit the damn thing?” Lemon asked.

“ We can if we work together, Lemon, remember that spell that won us the first key?” Turquoise asked.

“Yes, but for it to work the snake needs to be close to the blast radius,” Lemon said.

“Leave that to me and Turquoise, you just focus on preparing that spell,” Haruka said before she and Turquoise charged in and slashed the snake by the sides. As soon as the pentagram appeared Turquoise and Haruka retreated, and Lemon unleashed her fire pillar which burned through most of the Boomslang’s HP. Haruka charged in and delivered the final blow which caused the snake to devirtualize and the headdress to fall which shattered the emerald and revealed a green flame that disappeared. Another door appeared and as soon as they went through it they were back inside the central room just in time to see the green flame appear and light the torch inside the Boomslang statue causing its eyes to glow green.

“One down three to go,” Lemon said.

Meanwhile back in the real world, Lemon and Haruka’s parents arrived after hearing about the situation. They were shocked to see all three girls unconscious on Turquoise’s bed.

“Bullet why are the girls hooked up to some strange device?” Haruka’s Mom asked.

“That would be Turquoise’s nerve gear. She invited Lemon and Haruka to see the world she made and due to some intruders messing with her program they can't get out,” Bullet explained.

“I knew I could not trust your daughter now look what she did,” Michael said as he was about to try and remove the nerve gear by force only for Bullet and Haruka’s Dad to hold him back.

“Are you crazy? if you try to remove it by force our little girls will end up getting their brains fried,” Haruka’s Dad shouted.

“Wow, I did not know you knew about tech like this?” Bullet said.

“We Japanese can make stuff like this in our sleep, I’m actually amazed your daughter actually made what we thought was just fictional,” Haruka’s Dad said.

“Our Turquoise always had a way with computers since she was little, one time she dismantled her grandfather’s Telegraph to see how it worked and reassembled it good as new,” Ruby said as she entered the room.

“How long have our daughters been in there?” Haruka’s Mom asked.

“About eighteen hours now,” Bullet said.

“Is there another way for them to get out of there?” Haruka’s Dad asked.

“Turquoise said she put a temporary Emergency exit on the fourth floor of her game, and they are working towards getting there,” Bullet replied.

“Well, how far are they from the exit?” Michael asked.

“So far they are on the third temple on the first floor, and they are making progress,” Bullet replied while pointing to the screen showing the girls in action fighting a king cobra with a ruby embedded in its forehead.

Back in the game the girls were putting up a good fight, but this snake proved slightly more difficult since it had immunity to fire on account of the Ruby that was embedded into its body. Fortunately, Fire was not the only element Lemon had. Turquoise and Haruka gave lemon some time to change her element from fire to water which automatically changed her skills to ones of the corresponding element. Soon Lemon summoned a raging torrent of water that extinguished the king cobra’s flame protection and allowed Turquoise and Haruka to deliver the final blow which resulted in the King cobra’s devirtualization and for the Ruby to fall and shatter thus releasing the flame inside. After following the doorway back to the maid room, the girls saw the red flame light the torch inside the king cobra statue and caused its eyes to glow red.

“Ok Turquoise, What Attribute will the next mini boss be?” Lemon asked.

“Water,” Turquoise said.

“In that case, let's try lightning,” Lemon said while changing her element once again. The girls entered the next room which had a symbol of a raging flood over it. As soon as they entered, they noticed the layout of the room looked all distorted. “Who designed this room, Esher?

“I did and the answer to this one is to find the switch that will make this room look normal but will twist the next room,” Turquoise said. The girls looked around and Haruka noticed a gem above a door and threw her katana at it. The successful hit caused the room to shake before everything began to move. Soon the room looked normal, and the door was easier to get to. The next room was a twisted corridor which was a straight shot with no hidden mechanism. As soon as they entered the next room a giant Cottonmouth with a Sapphire on its forehead slithered in ready to attack. Unfortunately, the girls did not have much room to dodge with all the water that was filling the room. The cotton mouth was also capable of shooting projectile blobs of poison which would cause poison status upon contact. Fortunately, the girls had enough room to stand.

“Ok girls stay by me, I’m going to try and zap this snake,” Lemon said. Lemon unleashed a powerful lightning spell and while it may have failed to hit the snake it did hit the water which conducted it and electrocuted the snake enough to weaken its defenses. Turquoise used this opportunity to slice the snake’s head off which resulted in its defeat. The snake vanished along with the water which caused the sapphire to fall and shatter. The girls returned to the center room where they saw the flame light the torch inside the cotton mouth statue which caused its eyes to glow blue. Before the girls could move on the sound of loud hissing was heard and a giant black mamba with an amethyst in its chest slithered in from the ceiling and landed on the floor.

Back in the real world, Bullet was surprised to see Turquoise programmed the fourth mini boss to appear inside the central room instead of its own room like the other three.

“Why would your daughter program such dangerous creatures to appear in her game?” Haruka's mom asked.

“She is a perfectionist, she always likes to make sure everything is on point, in this case, the theme of the dungeon is poison so what better creatures to fight then the king of all venomous creatures,” Bullet said.

“But why did she have to make this one tougher than the others,” Micheal asked.

“It’s a video game, it has to be challenging or it won’t be any fun,” Ruby said.

“Let’s just hope the girls can beat that thing,” Haruka’s dad said.

Back in the game, the girls were all confused by the afterimages the snake created. Lemon suddenly had an idea.
“Shield your eyes ladies because I am about to light things up,” Lemon said as she sent a ball of light flying upwards while Turquoise and Haruka covered their eyes. As soon as the light filled the room Lemon kept her eyes on the snakes and noticed the one by the center cast a shadow. “Ok girls attack the one in the center, that's the real one,” Lemon shouted before Turquoise and Haruka delivered the final blow. As soon as the final snake vanished the final torch was lit, and the center of the altar opened revealing a staircase leading deeper beneath the temple.

“How did you know that trick would work?” Haruka asked Lemon.

“Everyone knows solid objects cast a shadow when they are in front of a light. When I realized this was an illusion, I knew the real one must have been hiding somewhere,” Lemon explained.

“So, you used an illumination spell to flush him out, very clever,” Haruka said. The girls went down the passageway and noticed the chest containing the boss key was in a room with bars on it. After Lemon leaned against one of the sides the room began to spin. Haruka suddenly figured it out. After spinning the room enough, the girls got the boss key and proceeded to the boss chamber. As soon as they entered, they noticed the room was full of sand, and in the middle of it was what looked like a giant stinger. The stinger started to twitch, and a giant scorpion monster came out of the sand ready to fight. As soon as the fight started the girls charged in only to get stung. They each noticed a purple icon with a skull and crossbones appear by their HP meters and felt like they were losing health gradually.

“Lemon, do you still have that spell I told you about?” Turquoise asked.

“Yes, and it's ready to go,” Lemon replied before casting it and healing everyone. After they were healed, they focused on dodging the stinger while attacking. As soon as they reached the halfway mark the Scorpion unleashed a roar that caused the room to fill with more sand. The girls kept fighting and Haruka delivered the final blow. As soon as the Scorpion vanished the sand in the room began to drain and the ceiling opened up before the platform began to rise leading the girls back outside with the Celestial key of Earth.

Author's Note

decided to add the fourth boss this time since i left it out in the previous version.