An Assassin's Adventure: Hot Spring Paradise

Part 4

A few minutes prior to these catastrophic, and rather risqué events, a certain explorer made a momentous discovery. The mysterious vanishing clothing, and embarrassing aftermath could all be traced back to one man's actions...

Hit grumbled to himself as he marched down a dark canyon, his keen eyesight analysing every nook and cranny for ambushing monsters and hidden traps. The water that flowed around his legs, and trickled down from columnar waterfalls, now possessed a crystal blue hue. 'The river grows deeper in this direction... am I nearing the source?'.

Hit tutted yet again at his cumbersome trunks, which he had to readjust every so often. 'That bastard... This must be his way of thanking me for interfering in his leering.'

Crimson eyes shone in the darkness as Hit delved deeper and deeper into unknown territory, until he reached a crossroads. Sensing nothing from either direction, Hit took out a 100 Valis coin and flicked it into the air. 'Heads for left, tails for right'.

As the spinning disc fell back down, Hit dexterously caught it and opened his palm.

"Tails. Right then." Coin flipping was not too exciting of an endeavour for Hit, since the man could perceive the movement of objects at the sub yoctosecond resolution and could easily catch a coin in a manner that ensured either outcome. Therefore, he instead allowed a set number of seconds to pass before catching the metallic object.

As Hit trudged down the right path, part of him was grateful that he was now wearing nothing but trunks, since his long trench coat would have become soaked in these shallow streams. 'I miss flying... Although, the limitation can be exciting...'

The warrior narrowed his eyes as he approached a dark cavern, completely devoid of any illumination; even his incredible eyesight could not deduce its contents from this far away. Seeing that there was no other choice, Hit simply tensed himself for battle and marched right through the jagged earthen maw, and into the pitch-black chamber.

*Thrum*

*Shing*

Hit instantly skipped time as a series of whirring sounds began to emanate from above him; looking up, Hit could see that various pinpricks of azure light now twinkled on the cavern's ceiling. 'Motion sensors? I cannot see any signs of infrared emitters, so likely not... What am I thinking? This backward planet would have no such devices... The mechanism must be magical.' Hit cursed his human vision, unable to perceive the breadth of the electromagnetic spectrum he could in his past life, and flicked his pupils around the room he now found himself in. Forests of upright crystals lined its borders, and a dark appendage of some sort descended from the ceiling, ending in an inert bulbous object. Oddly, there were no other discernible structures within this confined space.

Time skip reached its limit and deactivated, allowing Hit to relax in the quiet ambience and the lights to continue illuminating. 'Interesting; my time skip feels more prolonged now, by around half a second... Something to consider later. Anyway, there must be something here... Why else would those lights activate? Hm. Or are they simply bioluminescent and responding to a stimulus?' Hit put his theory to the test and leapt upwards, plucking one of the twinkling gems from its 'constellation'. As he set foot back on earth, with a loud splash, he analysed his newest trophy. 'A magic stone, attached to a number of other components... Looks like I was right: they are not natural formations.'

Hit gazed up again. 'But why were they placed here exactly...?' His searching eyes could see nothing, other than slight sparks of energy emitted from the damaged light source. 'This whole region was hidden behind a wall... one with no visible entryway. Hm...' Hit drew his arm back and tossed the stolen magic stone upwards, causing it to thud against the ceiling with a reverberating clang.