Previously in NWC-
The party splits up and begins searching for anything of interest, be it traps or interesting things. Reno finds a rock that has scribbling on it. He later finds that the concrete on which they stood had more scribbling and he begins trying to find more. Medusa and Luna find a necklace that turns out to be documented in a journal found by CeCe. The three continue searching for more information, hoping to find more interesting things...
The group of three continue searching, completely unaware that Reno had already found it.
They meet back up for lunch and gather around the entrance. "Now that we're all here, let's show what we found." Reno looks at the others and waits for their findings.
Luna speaks up first, speaking with a slight level of pride. "Medusa found a necklace that CeCe believes we'll need to get inside the ruins."
CeCe nods her head in agreement. "That's right! I found a journal by the inner entrance from some poor guy. The majority of the writing was so jumbled that I believe the poor guy had something wrong with him. However, I could feel a faint bit of mana coming from the door, and I couldn't get the door to budge. It's a stone door, and those are normally controlled by some sort of magical means. The journal said something about a stone, but he made it sound like the door still wouldn't move. That's about the only lead we have to go off of though, so I'm hoping he just missed a minor detail. What about you, Reno? Did you find anything?"
After hearing about what the others had found, Reno begins to feel slightly self-conscious. "Huh, me? Not really." He shrugs his shoulders, feeling like his findings were insufficient.
CeCe smiles and places a hand on Reno's shoulder. "You must have found something. You were playing in the dirt for quite a while. Even if I hadn't caught a glimpse of it, there's so much dirt on your shirt. You must have seen something that caught your attention."
Reno sighs before begrudgingly disclosing his findings. "I just found a rock with some weird scribbles on it and then I saw some concrete with more of the scribbling. I can't read any of it so it's probably nothing."
CeCe thinks to herself before her eyes light up. "Wait a minute!" She pulls the journal back out and turns to a specific page, turning it around to Reno to show him an illustration. "Did that rock look anything like this?"
Reno looks at the drawing and nods his head. "Yeah, actually. It kind of looks like that. Is it important?"
CeCe nods her head excitedly. "If it's the same one as in this journal then we actually need it to get inside!"
Reno jumps up after hearing this news. He quickly rushes over to the area where he left the stone. "Give me a second, I'll grab it!" He excitedly retrieves the stone, being careful on his back not to drop it. "Here it is! Does it look like the right one?" He sets it on the ground carefully and waits for an answer.
CeCe compares the illustration and description of the supposed stone to the one in front of her. "That's it!" CeCe looks up with excitement. "You said the ground over there had more of this scribbling?!"
Reno nods his head. "Yeah! Let's eat, then I'll show you!" The party decides to take a break and eat. After they're done, they excitedly wander over to the area Reno had searched through. "This is the area. There was only a small portion, but the concrete keeps going and I wasn't sure if there was any more anywhere else."
CeCe inspects the portion of the concrete pad Reno had cleared off. "Wait a minute. Reno, are those the corners?" CeCe points to two jagged edges, one to her far left and far right.
Reno looks at where she's pointing and nods his head. "Yeah, those are the corners. I went a bit farther out on each of them to make sure."
CeCe nods her head as she processes her estimations. "I'd say it's about sixty feet. If I had to guess, I'd say it's a sixty-by-sixty slab if all sides are the same length. Judging by the area's where there used to be walls I'd say this used to be a pretty big structure they used and the entrance to the underground was probably hidden. The scribbling you found…" CeCe's voice trails off as she stands in front of the scribbling, comparing the distance of the writing in relativity of the corner. "Let me check something." CeCe rushes to an area covered by mounds of dirt and begins spreading it around. After a couple of seconds, her eyes light up and her voice raises in pitch. "Yes!" She excitedly jumps up and rushes off to another area, doing the same thing and squealing with joy. She does this to one final aera and rushes back to the group. "There's more in each corner! Let's start cleaning up around the corners!" The party splits into their original groups. Luna and Medusa are able to clear the area with ease using Medusa's vines. CeCe places her hand on the ground and a small gust of wind exudes from her hand. In an instant, the dirt is all cleared by a powerful wind coming from CeCe's hand.
Reno feels dirt fly past him, getting his eyes and mouth. "Ahh what the hell?!" He spits out the dirt until it's finally cleared. He manages to hold open his eyes one at a time to use his own magic to drop a small amount of water into his them to help the flushing process. He finishes getting the dirt out of his eyes, looking up at CeCe with utter confusion. "What the hell was that?! You can use magic?! Why the hell didn't you tell anyone?!" Reno points at her and yells in annoyance.
CeCe covers her mouth and giggles. She strikes a cute and innocent pose as she responds. "Because you didn't ask?" She sticks her tongue out and sways side to side. "Besides, you didn't tell me you could you water magic, so aren't you just as guilty as me?"
Reno slowly lowers his hand, grumbling to himself. "I guess I can't really argue that." He thinks to himself before his attention snaps back to CeCe. He hand points at her with renewed energy. "Why did I just spend however long clearing dirt when you could just do that in the first place?!" He speaks with a new source of annoyance.
CeCe shrugs her shoulders and smiles. "You looked like you were having fun!" She grins happily. "I didn't want to take away your fun, especially if it was harmless fun!"
Reno sighs, his voice mellowing out for a second. "Well, I was having fun in all honesty," his voice picks up it's aggressive tone again, "but that's besides the point!" The party reconvenes by where Reno put the stone.
CeCe looks at the four corners and then back to the slab. "I wonder where that thing came from? It has the same style of writing as the corners, but it almost looks like the one Reno found was torn up from somewhere. "CeCe continues to ponder before turning to the rest of the party. "We did a lot today! I think we should head back and call it early today and discuss what we found.
Reno sighs and slumps over. "I thought you'd never offer. I'm so going to bed early when we get back to camp."
"You three head back, I'm going to take one more look around and see if the journal gives me any hints. I'll be right behind you guys!" CeCe waves off the party and begins wandering around the perimeter. "Hmm…" She thinks to herself, looking around for any clue. "That piece had to have come from here somewhere. It's the same writing and material, but it doesn't look like anything is missing." CeCe looks at thew ground and begins planning. "What if.." Her voice trails off and she begins using her wind magic to clear off the rest of the concrete pad. After some time, her eyes open wide with shock. "Ah-ha!"
The rest of the party head back to camp, Reno slowly dragging his feet. "This is so much work. I wasn't made for this level of physical output!" He hangs his head and he looks up in the sky. The sun was beating down on them as they walked to their campsite. "It's so hot today. This place's spring is so bipolar. Just last weeks it was barely warm enough to not shiver with a short sleeve shirt on, now it's like a hundred degrees!" Reno lazily props his hand on his face and begins to use his magic to cool himself off. As the water runs down his face he shivers. "Damn! I never really realized how cold the water I make is!" He stands up straight and manages to make it back to camp.
Luna, upon arrival, speaks up. "Reno, you shouldn't use your mana for such trivial matters until you're more experienced and have a greater mana reserve. Just because you're able to learn magic faster due to my miracle, doesn't mean magically gain an unlimited amount of mana."
"I'll be fine~. It's just a bit of water to cool me down. I'm avoid heat stroke, so it's for a good cause!" Reno waves a hand at her notion and causes her to become irritated.
"Fine! I don't know why I said anything! You never listen anyway! Don't come crawling to me when you can't use your body because you were casting magic with reckless abandon!" Luna storms off into her and CeCe's tent, leaving Medusa and Reno standing in confusion.
Reno slowly looks over at Medusa and points at the tent. "I think I made her mad." Medusa sighs and facepalms with one of her vines, shaking her head in disappointment.
TO BE CONTINUED...