Author's Intro

I am a huge fan of Star Ocean 2. I've played it so many times that I've started replaying just to get endings for crack pairings. So of course I would turn to making a fanfic at one point. I've got this little (hah!) retelling to give you to read.

I played and beat Star Ocean 3; while I liked it, it doesn't get me as absorbed as SO2. When I go onto message boards and discussion sites, lots of people seem to dislike the big twist about the Eternal Sphere game. They say it cheapened the rest of the series. I rather liked the twist myself; it wasn't that bad. Plus, it gave me the idea for this fic. Because just maybe, it can enhance the other SO entries instead.

This fanfic should be considered AU, because it messes with events, ages, causes/effects, and some story paths. I've done my best not to mess with the characters too much, but I elaborate on backgrounds or make them up if there's practically nothing there. It involves some inevitable shipping, Spore references, and bad singing. It uses the PS1 names, as that's the reference I have on hand.

Lastly, I hope you enjoy Hackers of the Eternal Sphere! Tell your friends!

Historical Intro

There was war in the galaxy, massive violent war where whole planets were rendered unfit for life. Under this chaos, madness flourished and continued the reign of war. It lasted for a thousand years, until there were only the victors left. The soldiers came home to celebrate and rest, but discovered that one of their foes had left a vengeful present behind. Much of the army and many of the civilians were left dead. As their own home world was nothing but dust, the survivors were exhausted from the violence. That was enough, they declared. They wanted war no more.

And so they got rid of all the trappings of war. Using their technology, they eliminated all weapons and suffering. They built a new world, a completely safe and peaceful world, and called it the Fourth Delrina, or 4D. They stopped all uncertainty in their galaxy, leading to no more meteor showers, no more dangerous cosmic radiation storms, no more black holes, no more supernovas, and most of all, no more threat of the end of the universe. They even eliminated death, as well as perfected the genes of the population and providing the option to 'start over' with a new body and fresh memory. At long last, they had achieved utopia.

But the path to sentience includes a desire to compete. No matter how much the 4D residents tried, they could not erase competitiveness and the draw to violence to move ahead. As much of the work was done automatically now, jobs because scarce and a symbol of pride instead of drudgery. To solve this, the 4D residents developed outlets for this competitiveness. The most effective were immersion games, and the most successful immersion game was called the Eternal Sphere.

This is the story of some of the players of the Eternal Sphere and their adventures in the star ocean that was still vibrant with life.

Pirate Hacker Intro

Only the vastness of space can hold the myriad of dreams of trillions of intelligent beings…

The vastness that stretched unthinkably wide, to where even the brightest of stars could not completely cast their light to the edges of the universe.

The Pangalactic Federation covered the Milky Way galaxy, but they knew their galaxy was not the only one. They knew that there were other galaxies out there, sending their light over space and time. However, they had yet to reach those places. They were more focused on achieving peace and balance within their own galaxy before they ventured out to those places. But the dream was still there, built upon from desires to see what was across the lands, across the oceans, across the skies, across the galaxy.

The vast majority of those beings did not know what lay beyond their galaxy. There was a minority that did, though. Not only did they know what lay in those other galaxies, they had made those other galaxies. They had made the Milky Way galaxy. They were the 4D beings, gods and players of the entire universe.

In the empty vastness of space, a group of them were meeting aboard a wooden ship with canvas sails and a skull-and-crossbones flag.

Although the pirate ship seemed to have absolutely no protection from the dangers of space, nobody on board wore any protection. Most of them were dressed rather elaborately, with huge hats, curly wigs, bright overcoats, swirling capes, flashy jewelry, or other showy flairs. They were having a grand time, drinking and chatting. Later, most would agree it was one of their better parties.

Not all of them were pleased with the festivities, though. One in particular resembled a Fellpool, with his furry feline ears, long feline tail, long powder blue hair, and dark blue eyes. He wasn't dressed quite as obnoxiously as the others, in just a frilled shirt, red vest with gold buttons, red pants with gold trim, and black boots. Another thing that set him apart was the fact that he wasn't drunk or getting drunk. Rather, he leaned against the main mast and listened to the chatter around him while sipping some strawberry-flavored soda.

"I think Louta III is going to emerge as the next big thing," a woman in a frilly dress with a hoopskirt said. Despite the attire, she was sitting at a table playing poker with some of the others. "It's struggling a bit to get out of their tribal phase, but the setting has all the makings of a popular planet."

"Sure it's nice, but it doesn't beat the fact that Raiten had dragons," one of the others at the poker game said. He stood out for wearing a western cowboy outfit on this pirate ship. "And not just a singular species, but dozens in just about every element you can think of. I've got insider info that the Sphere Company is considering allowing players to be one of the Raiten dragons. That would be a total win."

"You can just hack yourself control of a dragon anytime you want," the woman said.

"I know, but for the prude crowd, it would be the first time they have access to actual dragons in the Milky Way, not those hybrid dragon-men which have horrid stat spreads."

"I hear Expel is getting fairly popular with the peace-lovers."

The Fellpool's ears pricked up on hearing that planet name. Expel… that was like his secret discovery, a great world that was unnoticed by much of the 4D crowd. To hear that it was getting popular and noticed was a bit sad to him. The Expel crowd was a good bunch, very friendly. The last thing he wanted was for a bunch of warmongering new people coming in the upset the balance.

Getting bored with the chatter, he looked at his near empty bottle, then traced a small crest on it with a fingernail. At first, it went gray as an invalid spell, but he forced it to become valid. The bottle then refilled itself with soda and replaced the cap. Then he stuck it in a small bag at his hip and climbed up the mast's ladder to the crow's nest.

At the top, he looked out at the ocean of stars surrounding them. It really was a lot of black with clusters of stars. But from where they were in relation to the major plane of the Milky Way galaxy, it did seem like an ocean of light sparkles spread out in front of the wooden vessel. Above him, there were clusters of light which indicated other galaxies. Those were other game servers. Some played by the same rules, others didn't.

It was all a game. Some server galaxies were very violent; one in particular, called Redden, was notorious for allowing itself to be completely destroyed by its warlike races, only to restart the whole bloodbath again. In others, a player didn't just play a single character; he or she played a whole species trying to dominate the server galaxy. The Sphere Company, which ran the entire game universe, hadn't yet allowed any server to reach another, except as special events which were strictly controlled.

But was it all just a game?

He noticed when the area around him shifted in a hack teleport. He sighed. "If you really want to be a true leader of hackers, you should work on covering your traces better."

The ship's captain, represented by an avatar of a blond haired man with the uniform of a Pangalactic commodore but the large triangular feathered hat of a pirate, rolled his eyes. "It takes one to know one. Nobody else notices."

He held his ears back. "Don't be so certain of that."

A woman had come up with him. Her avatar had medium blue hair of a nice gloss; she wore a jewel-laden silver and blue dress. "You shouldn't be so paranoid. We programmed this ship to be undetectable to Sphere's security forces."

"Except that it's an antique pirate out in the middle of space and you have an Executioner tracking the ship."

"No we don't," the captain insisted.

Waving his hand, he said, "Tria, bring up the tracker's data." A blur of programming appeared in the middle of the air. "Read it and weep. You've got a security program trying to pin down our location. I've been the one throwing it off, but this is getting ridiculous. You should have noticed it. That is, if you were sober."

He leaned against the edge of the nest to look at the data while the woman with him giggled. But they both clearly had alcohol on their breath. "I thought I had this ship undetectable by programming…" he muttered.

"It's detectable through common sense," the Fellpool hacker said with a slight hiss. "This party tells me that I was right to leave, and now I will stay gone. But I'm not about to get caught on the bad idea of someone else. Tria, my menu."

The browser brought up the game menu, which was normally inaccessible when immersed in the game. He used it to bring up a program which completely erased all data of the pirate ship, at least from his system and what was visible in the Eternal Sphere. To complete the cover-up, he transferred all the partiers onto a Pangalactic ship, to the observation deck.

There were groans and quick complaints about the loss of the stylish ship, but the Fellpool ignored them. He turned to the pirate hacker captain and handed over a data disk. "Accept this. It will transfer ownership of this ship from me to you, as well as give you the background information that makes it look like a legitimate Federation ship. You will have to fix something up to explain the sudden drunken costume party to the drone officers, though."

A bit slow due to the drinking, the captain shifted his large hat before accepting the data disk. "Why're you leading?"

"Leaving," the woman corrected, grabbing the captain's arm.

"I heard why you stepped down as our leader, but leaving for good?"

"You guys are just a bunch of self-absorbed losers," the Fellpool hacker sneered. "You don't consider the consequences of your actions, like with that silly show boat. You're just asking to get caught by the government and I don't want to be caught up in the upheaval of that. Plus, I'm concerned about bigger issues now. Something terrible is happening and no one, not even the Sphere Company, has fully caught on to it like I have. Besides, we need to think of the residents of this universe."

"Residents?" the woman asked. "They're just NPCs."

"They are not just NPCs," he said in a stern voice. "They are not just mindless characters. They are fully sentient beings that deserve to be respected. And I aim to prove this. But you've proven yourself worthless for the purpose."

"Hey, what's the big idea?" the captain shouted. "Giving me a parting gift and then insulting us? You taught a great many of us!"

"I know, and I regret that now." He then vanished.

Moments later, he had all data connecting him to the group and his old ship gone or altered. He wanted no trace to remain that would link him to the others. Now he would just have to be careful about his own memory.

Chapter 1: Can't Buy Me Love

-C.J., 4D

Her home was nice, made of a white stone with red ceramic trim. Of course, it wasn't real stone or real ceramics. It was all synthetics constructed to be uniform and safe. It had a charming feel, but it was so hard to decorate sometimes. "Does the carpet have to be so flat?" she asked. "It would look nicer if it was filled out like real carpet."

"It is a real carpet, C.J.," her robotic butler said. "We must keep the tripping hazard to a minimum."

"I know, so no one gets hurt. Are there non-flat options?"

"There are a few." The butler zapped the carpet, then modified it to be a little fuller. C.J. fussed a while until it finally gave her something that resembled a plush rug, although the sloped edges and edging still had that mark of safety.

"That should be fine," she accepted. "Upload pattern," she checked her wristwatch computer to make sure the number was right, "DRD-802874."

"Yes, Ma'am." The robot adjusted the carpet to have a dark red background with a pattern of red, yellow, and cream colored diamonds.

From there, C.J. had her butler adjust her other pieces of furniture. It seemed like she was mostly redecorating her home these days. She used to work at the transport station; it had been something to be proud of. But then her term was up and she had to give the job up to someone else. She still had a lot of time left before she could apply for another job. It was such a bore.

After changing the major pieces of furniture, she gave the decorating up for the time being. The new look was good, but she would have to wait a few days to see if she really liked it. The butler went off to clean up the remade carpet; it would shortly go to make dinner. While the robot butlers never complained if you did their work, they could report repetitive chore doing to the medical network, who would come in to make sure you didn't have an emotional problem. They'd report anything that could be a sign of problems, so that no one suffered. At least for long.

They didn't seem to care about suffering from boredom, though. Unless that was a sign of another problem. C.J. felt jealous of those who had permanent jobs, like those in the medical network. At least they were always doing something important, not just redecorating a house.

But, there was a way she could feel important. C.J. went downstairs to her game room. There was an immersion chair there. Covered in soft black fabric, it had a full back and leg rest. A helmet device would come down over the player's head and connect with the mind in order to fully engage all senses in the ES play. While there were a few straps, just in case of problems, it was really quite comfortable while getting ready for a play session. She set herself in and brought up the menu screen.

Welcome to the Eternal Sphere, where the limitless universe awaits you!

Which profile do you wish to load?

After noticing that one of the profiles had an alert, she picked that one.

Planet-Expel

Character- Celine Jules

Style- dating sim/adventure

Alert! – This character has planned on attending an auction, which begins in 12:48 minutes. Goals are (1) meet with Chris (2) acquire Old Map of Cross Cave.

Play as Celine?

C.J. accepted that profile. The immersion chair pulled the screen aside as the helmet came down over her head. As the chair began to latch onto her arms and legs, she recalled the first time she remembered using the immersion device. Being strapped down like this had spooked her. But like everyone else, she had quickly grown over it. A scent of freesia came to her senses as her mind slipped away from her world and into another.

-Celine, Cross Castle, ballroom

The ballroom of Cross Castle was grand and elegant, with a tiered crystal chandelier, an arched walkway above, polished marble floors, and pretty unicorn statues. However, one couldn't fully appreciate this room today. It was packed with all kinds of people: nobles, businessmen, adventurers, travelers, and even farming peasants. Today they were holding the monthly Royal Auction, when all sorts of rare and unique items could be bought. That is, if you had the fol to pay the bids.

Somewhere in the crowd, there was an elegant sorceress. Maybe not as elegant as others. She was also an adventurer, after all, and ones clothes didn't always stay pristine in wilderness and ancient ruins. Today, she had made sure that her white lace cloak was dust and mud free, that her pink boots were clean. She wore a pink dress that was small, but she didn't mind showing off her Heraldic tattoos. Knowing advanced crest magic as she did was something to be proud of, after all. Topping it off, she had a magician's hat, all pointed and with a halo ring to boot.

One could be proud of a lovely appearance too.

Celine opened her paper fan and stirred up the air some. So many people packed into this place made it warm and stuffy. Beside her, she kept her traveling bag on the bench. Some folks still getting settled gave her a look to remove the bag, which she replied with a look that said she most certainly would not. She was waiting for someone. Hopefully he hadn't gone to their usual place to meet up.

Thankfully, she felt his hand on her shoulder and heard his voice. "Sorry I'm late," he whispered.

Showing a bright smile, she moved her bag to the floor. "It's fine, Chris. I'm glad you made it."

He stepped over the bench and dropped down beside her. The blond-haired man was quite handsome, if oddly naïve. But he did have intelligence enough to keep Celine's notice. Just taking her hand for now, he asked, "How far along is it?"

"Not far enough," she whispered, using her fan to block their words. "They're still on the farming tools, which is why it's packed in here."

"To be with you, I'd go anywhere and endure any boredom," Chris said with a smile and a sparkle of his blue eyes.

Making a soft giggle, Celine playfully swatted her fan at him before going back to keeping them cooler. As the auction went on, the goods became better. Those who couldn't afford those items left when they had gotten what they came for, in order to claim anything won in the next room. Much of it was of no interest to her. Chris' presence did make things more bearable, so that was good.

Finally, they got to the item she wanted. She'd had her eye on it since she'd heard of its discovery a month ago. It being up for auction was something she was grateful for; competition for being a hired explorer would have been tougher to get through. "Next, we have an intriguing map of Cross Cave," the auctioneer announced. "This was discovered among a hermit's collection and it appears to have a previously unrecorded path on it. Bidding begins at a 1000 fol, do we have any takers?"

Celine wanted the item, but she wanted a good price on it. She took her bidder's card off her lap, but didn't hold it up. Besides, what competition did she have?

A decent one, as three cards went up. Chris tightened his grip on her hand. "Didn't you want this?" he whispered.

"Yes, but this is where strategy comes in," she whispered back.

The auctioneer went into full speed mode as the map quickly shot up to 2000 fol. One of the three dropped their card at this point. As it crept up in price, one of the bidders seemed uncertain. When he hesitated, Celine raised her card to claim a bid of 2700. The uncertain one folded, but the other remained strong. The map went over 3500.

"This is going to be a bit pricy," Celine whispered to Chris from behind her fan.

"I can pitch in if you take me into the cave," he offered.

"Would you?"

"Of course. Sounds fun."

Taking that offer, Celine made a signal with her card to bump the price up two levels to 4000. The other bidder wavered, then dropped his card. "And the map goes to the pretty lady with number 55, congratulations. Our next item up for bid," the servants quickly took the map away and replaced it with a pricy looking vase. Celine and Chris got up to go to the other room.

She could afford a 4000 fol price tag, but Chris held strong on his offer and passed over a quarter of it. While he looked over a suit of armor on displace, Celine paid the clerk who was taking care of the items. "Okay, number 55… you have the map of Cross Cave." Once she paid, the brown parchment was handed over to her. "And there you go. Have a good day."

"Thank you," she said. She picked up the map and looked it over. The new passage was apparent to her immediately. From the far eastern part of the caves, it led to what was labeled a treasure room. Just as she'd hoped for! A hermit like the one who had last owned this map wouldn't have claimed a treasure. But what about other explorers? "Chris, look at this," she said.

"Hmm?"

While he looked at it, a maid came into the room. "Something really odd is going on," she told the clerk. "The King has had all audiences postponed so he could meet with a special pair of travelers. But they're only from Arlia, so I don't know what's so special."

"Who is it?" the clerk asked.

"I don't know. It was a girl with blue hair and a handsome young man; he looks almost like the Prince, but he wears such odd clothes and talks in a strange manner."

Although they had been looking at the map, both Celine and Chris had noticed the comment about the two special visitors. A special audience given? What could it mean?

"It is an old map," Chris finally said.

"It's different, though. Let's go." She led the way out of the auction area.

"Say, those special visitors… I wonder who they are. The King wouldn't delay all audiences for no one."

"Especially not some hicks from Arlia," Celine added.

"Well… I heard that the King used to be friends with the mayor of Arlia. That may have something to do with it. Still makes me wonder."

With a mischievous smile, Celine pulled her fan up and whispered, "Do you want to go sneak over and take a peek at them?"

Chris paled a bit, nervously scratching his head. "Well I'd like to know… but we shouldn't get caught."

"We shouldn't get caught if we're quiet and sneaky. Come on, it'll be fun."

"Ah, all right."

Quietly, the couple went upstairs to find the side hall entrance to the King's audience chamber. Chris seemed flustered still, so Celine slipped closer to look and listen. Like the maid said, there was a girl, about sixteen-ish, with short blue hair and a young man, probably in his early twenties, meeting with the King. "Haven't you sent an expedition team to El to scout the area?" the girl asked.

King Cross hesitated a moment, his lips moving partly as he tried to word something carefully. "We have… they have not returned. To be frank, we don't have much information about the state of the continent of Eluria or the Sorcery Globe. We have called for adventurers to form more effective survey teams of Eluria, but without much luck."

"That must have been why we saw so many of them in town," the young man said. Again the maid was right. There was something odd about his speech. Celine couldn't pinpoint what was off; the sound of the words didn't seem right, yet they were clear and understandable. He wore a brown jacket with odd patches sewn onto them, and brown pants. Although she was some distance away, they didn't seem too odd.

"Right," the girl said. She was dressed like a typical country girl, in a blue jumper and small red cape. "We mean to make our own investigation of the Sorcery Globe. We are in earnest, your Highness; this is no adventure. We need a passport to cross over to Eluria, though."

"All efforts to this study are appreciated," the King said. "We would rather you not be involved, Miss Rena. However, Claude here does seem to be a stout and capable young man. Since you are together, we think it would be possible… it would be better if he were better equipped." He made a motion to a guard, who came over to speak quietly.

The guard then came over to the pair. "Here is your passport and some travel money," he said, handing over the documents and a coin sack.

The girl Rena seemed pleased and surprised. "Thank you, your Highness. This helps a lot."

"Now, now, we cannot be stingy when we ask you to carry out such a dangerous task," the King said in a generous tone.

At that, Celine slipped back to avoid notice. Chris was looking out a window while keeping an eye out for a maid, oddly enough. He turned to her when she came back, though. "Who was it?"

"Some adventurers volunteering for the Sorcery Globe investigation," Celine told him. "It sounds exciting… but I don't want to be pulled so far away from you, lovey."

Smiling, he took her hand and walked down the hall with her. "I don't want to be pulled away from you ever, dovey."

They split up for a short while. Chris wanted to get his weapon and armor, so Celine went into town to buy supplies. As she'd been in there before, she knew what to expect. The known passages could take days to get through, so to find an unknown passage, they couldn't be certain of how long it would take. Although it was an endurance test, it wouldn't be too hard for Chris. The poor boy needed to get out of the city anyhow, and Cross Cave would be a decent introduction to adventuring. Not like Salva Drift (easier, but with too much coal dust), Lasguss Mountains (too hard), or Mountain Palace (way too hard)

Besides, it would be the two of them in a vast cave system only visited by adventurers. That might lead to some rather different kind of adventures… Celine suppressed a smile at that. Ladies weren't supposed to think like that. In that case, she considered finding someone else to adventure with. Groups would be safer, and it wouldn't look so bad if someone came upon them.

As she left the open market area in north Cross, she found Chris looking for her. The interesting thing was that he was wearing Lacourian made armor. That much was noticeable by the metal craftsmanship and the lack of protective crests. But it bore the coat of arms of the Kingdom of Cross. With that, she knew that her guess was right: Chris belonged to some noble family of Cross. Only they would have the money to afford a customized Lacour plate mail like that. At his side, he had a high-quality crossbow and a sturdy case for his bolts.

"Are you ready for an adventure?" Celine asked as she took his arm.

He grinned, but still looked nervous. "Yeah. I hope I don't slow you down."

"It's okay. I was just thinking that we might want to find some other adventurers for this trip. It would be better…"

"HEY YOU!" a loud voice called, interrupting the daily flow of pedestrians. "Stop, you witch!"

When they turned, they saw a green-haired man in a dark blue cape. From his shadowed face, they could tell that he was angry, at Celine. "Pardon?" she asked, hiding any agitation. "You say that as if it were an insult."

"And you're a stinking con artist too," the man started ranting. "I saw you fixing the auction for that map; I would've had it if not for your meddling magic. You're going to pay for your cheating ways, but you can spare yourself some agony by handing that map over to me right now."

Chris looked intimidated, but did his best to defend her. "She didn't use any magic in the auction."

"So you're in on it too, you sniveling dainty-fingered coward. A noble's baby like you couldn't survive in the harsh monster nest that is Cross Cave. This saucy seductress is just out to use you and toss you out for the mongrels to eat."

Annoyed by this, Celine was about to give the man a piece of her mind when the two young people from earlier stepped out of the crowd. "Excuse me," the teen girl said, "but you shouldn't be speaking to people in that way."

"You're just making a foolish spectacle of yourself," the young man with her added.

"And just what do YOU intend to do about it?" he snapped at them. "Naïve fools… but the matter at hand is the map which this stinking witch stole!"

With that, Celine figured that this guy was the sort who made a huge fuss whenever he didn't get his own way. One couldn't combat him by yelling back. One had to choose ones words carefully. "That map is the issue, my dear wizard," she stated as calmly as she could manage. "But I have paid for the map in full, using legal methods of doing so. Anyone at the auction could tell you that. Besides, you shouldn't be picking fights with just anyone in the street. It's so vulgar."

"WHAT?! That does it. I'll make you see who's the vulgar one around here!" He brought his hands up and began tracing red lines in the air. Energy, a great amount of it, began to gather to him.

The crowd that had been stopped by the wizard's tantrum started to back off, reasonably frightened. Celine sighed. Such a showoff. She brought her left hand up, palm facing down; the rune tattooed on the back of her hand began to glow red. Within a second, a small fireball appeared under her fingertips. When she flicked her wrist about, the fireball shot at the wizard, interrupting his spell. The two fire magics combined and set his cape aflame. Yelping, he ripped it off and began stomping the flames out. The crowd laughed.

"You…" he growled, but then realized the whole situation had turned on him. "You're going to pay for this." He snatched up his smoldering cape and ran out of Cross.

"Well I hope that taught him a lesson," Celine declared.

"Thanks for standing up to him," Chris said, relaxing now that the wizard was gone. "Especially since you didn't have to do it."

"Oh, it's no trouble," the girl said. "Really, he shouldn't have been so rude."

"Well it was all fabrications he was spouting anyhow," Celine said. The crowd around them had moved on with their daily routines. "Thanks." Then she thought, maybe these two would be good. A tad naïve like Chris, but it couldn't be helped. "Oh, but you two recently had an audience with the King, didn't you?"

"Yes, but how did you know it was us?" the young man said.

"Well we heard that the King was delaying all audiences for a special pair of visitors. We couldn't help ourselves and snuck a peek to see who."

"That's an interesting hobby," the girl said, somewhat amused.

"Now now, there was no harm done. My name is Celine Jules; I'm a treasure hunter. And this is my boyfriend."

"Chris," he said. "I, um, live here."

"Hello," the girl said with a smile. "I'm Rena Lanford, from Arlia."

"I'm Claude Kenni," the young man added. "A traveler. We're heading to Eluria to check out the Sorcery Globe."

"That's a brave deed," Chris said. "Good luck to you."

"Actually, I was thinking about that," Celine interrupted. "You see, Eluria was a decent place to visit, so I heard, at least before the Sorcery Globe fell. Now it's supposed to be incredibly dangerous, with demons thriving."

"We'll be careful," Rena said, although she did look a touch nervous.

Celine came over and patted her shoulder. "Yes, darling, but from the looks of you, maybe you could use some more experience in dangerous places. If you don't mind a teensy little detour, I think I know of a good place where you can make sure your training is enough."

"Really?"

"That would be good, thank you," Claude said.

"Chris and I were headed to Cross Cave for a little exploration," Celine told them. "We're going in to find treasure, but it would be great of you to come with us. I think it would benefit us all in the end."

"So, Cross Cave?" Rena asked, a bit surprised. "I thought it had been fully explored years ago."

"So it's been said, but a new map has been discovered of an unknown passage. We bought it at the auction today. It had been previously owned by a religious hermit, so if this is authentic, then we may find treasures and sights that no one else has claimed! And even if not, we'll all be stronger for the trip. So what do you say? Would you like to come with us?" She also sent a glance to Chris, making sure he was alright with it.

Rena and Claude looked to each other, but seemed to be in agreement. "Sure, thanks for the offer," Claude said. "We were headed for Clik, so I hope it's not too far out of the way."

"It's on the road there, so no problems."

"Celine lovely, you manage to think of everything, don't you?" Chris asked in admiration. "We're glad to have you two along."

She laughed at his words, pleased that it was all going so well.