"A thief?" he repeated her words while narrowing his eyes.
"Y-yes," she said in a pleading tone, "Please don't kill me."
"Hmm…" Ash didn't lower his sword and asked her again. "Why did you come here."
The girl hesitated to answer and kept fidgeting with her sling bag.
He moved his sword a little closer to the girl's neck, and she raised both hands hastily.
"I-I am going to steal an item from here!" she blurted out, half-shouted.
"What item?" He narrowed his eyes once more.
"Emm… a-a grimoire," she answered hesitantly.
"Is that the item in your quest?" He pressed further.
"Ah, no...no..." The girl shook her head as quickly as she could.
"Then why do you want to take it?"
"B-Because I want to steal it…"
"What the f…"
"I am a thief! 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, and he regretted because he never read all the profession's descriptions since the first time.
She tilted her head slightly then asked back at him, "Are you new here? I mean in this game world."
He just stared at the girl, unsure whether to tell the truth or not.
"Yet you are here, meaning your quest is to retrieve the grimoire. Right?" She asked again.
"Yeah…"
Her smile widened.
"Please withdraw your sword. I don't mean any harm. I'll help you with your quest," the girl persuaded him but this time in a more confident tone.
Ash raised an eyebrow and pondered, 'Can I trust this girl or not?'
Seeing he hesitated, she tried to persuade him more, "I swear. My skills are not for fighting. That's why I need a partner."
"What are your skills?" He asked curiously.
"Treasure Sense," she answered with a slight frown.
He was astonished to hear the answer, "So, you steal valuable items with your Treasure Sense's skill?"
"Yes," She nodded enthusiastically.
"No fighting skill?"
"Yes," she nodded one more time.
He raised his left eyebrow and asked, "What is exactly your quest?"
"Mmm... Most of them have to steal from monsters or something," The red hair girl answered while looking at the tip of the sword before her, "Please withdraw your sword first."
He thought of the girl's demand for a moment, then sheathed his sword, "You will face the consequences if you mess around."
She shook her head with raising her both hands in the air, "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 then picked up the penknife he had repaired and wondered about what he should do next.
Maya, who had been silently watching his every move, suddenly spoke up, "Let me solve the puzzle for you. And the item remains yours."
He glanced at her while narrowing his eyes, clearly not convinced.
"Then what is the payment?" he asked, "You're not going to help me for nothing, are you?"
She grinned, making her freckles visible when she smiled, "I need your help to steal an item from the Pterodactyls' nest."
He turned to her in surprise, "A pterodactyls' nest? Are you kidding me?" he exclaimed.
"Nope," she answered, still grinning, "That's my quest."
'Huh, pterodactyl… This is crazy,' he grumbled inwardly and pondering the offer. 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," He finally agreed to the girl's proposal.
"Deal!" she said and smiled broadly, then stretching out her hand for a handshake, which he shook it reluctantly.
Then he noticed that the girl was starting to examine the objects that he 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?" He asked while leaning against the wall next to the window, a bit amazed on how she could figure out what to do with the penknife.
"A year," she answered, then put the pencil and the handkerchief to the table.
"But you seem to have a long experience here," he asked again.
She 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."
He was silent to hear that unexpected answer, so he just watched her silently as she approached the window next to him.
"Do you have family?" he couldn't help to asked again curiously.
She looked at him with a flat expression, then 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.
She suddenly took a tweezer out from the soil in the flower pot and then cleaned it with the handkerchief. After it was clean, she dipped the tweezers into the ink bottle on the table.
While doing that, she asked him in return, "What about you? How is your family?"
He honestly answered the question, "My only family is my mother. I'm different from you, I want to go home and be with my mother."
She looked at him for sometime with sympathy, but then went to the shelf with ink bottles neatly arranged on top of it. She rummaged through the ink bottles one by one with the tweezer, and 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, she answered, "I like playing with hidden objects or escape rooms genre. So this is easy for me."
After taking out the flash disk from the plastic, she walked over to the computer on the table. Then she turned on the computer and inserted the flash disk into the USB port on the computer.
The screen instantly showed a type of puzzle game. The objective of that game 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, she solved it in just mere minutes.
After the game ended, a code with the number 71092 appeared on the screen.
"What code is that?" he asked, while pointing his index finger to the screen next to her.
"The combination code to solve a certain puzzle. Usually, we have to insert it in a safe or something," she answered and writing the numbers down on a paper, with the pencil she had found earlier from the sack.
"Oh, i see..." He nodded in understanding.
Hearing his response, she turned to him and asked, "Have you never played a hidden object game? Or escape room?"
"Ha..ha..ha.." He laughed while scratching the back of his head, "I prefer playing Action type games."
"Hehehe, boys at your age usually play that kind of game," she chuckled while 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.
Behind the painting, there was a small safe with numbered buttons on it.
She grinned at him, then pressed the buttons according to the combination code she had written down earlier.
Click.
With a soft click, the small safe was opened, and inside it, there was a book with a black leather cover in it. She took it with the handkerchief, 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.]
Reading the screen, he 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 as he didn't know much about this game world's rules.
"Of course. We're in a fantasy world after all," she replied.
His eyes sparkled to know that 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 it made a loud bang.