Between the tall tree branches several rays of sunlight seeped into a forest from where a pair of women, carrying their baggages on their backs, walked out onto an open area of knee tall greenery.

Built atop a small hill at the center of the grassfield was the ruins of what now only resembled a house.

The woman leading the way had long, blond hair that was held together by a lace at the center of her back, and wore some dark tight-fitted clothes beneath a couple of leather protections over her chest, arms, legs and head, befitting a sort of huntress style.

And the one following her had short, shoulder length light brown hair, and half a feet shorter height than the leader, also wearing protections, though over a mostly white garb that reached down to her ankles, resembling the appearance of a clergy.

Once the pair arrived at the entrance, they put their bags on the ground and discussed their next move.

“The place is just as we were told,” the leading woman looked at the state of the building, “how can someone important be left here?”

Her companion brushed one of the fences next to the entrance, and a thick layer of dust was effortlessly extracted, “I cannot disagree that it is very questionable, but since we were sent here by the oracle, we mustn’t return for a reason as small as that,” she then proceeded to clean her hand with a handkerchief but didn’t dispose of it, instead she stored it in her bag’s side pocket.

“I wasn’t trying to— forget it, let’s get this over and done with,” she tightened her gloves on both hands, and put her hand over the axe tied to the side of her backpack.

Following suit, the clergy woman took out a clean but extremely adorned large piece of cloth, “now, if you will,” gesturing towards the decaying wooden door.

“Sure, don’t mind if I do,” choosing not to take it up, she approached the wooden door that lacked any sort of lock and put a little strength into pushing it open.

“Crap,” she pulled back her hand once several insects ran out of the small opening, “I hate those things.”

“Hu fufu,” a chuckle escaped through the clergy’s lips at the sight.

Which, after giving a stern, and momentaneous glare, she chose to let go.

As soon as the insects stopped crawling out of the gap, she reapproached the door and carried on with carefully opening it, allowing the room to slowly be illuminated by the sun above their heads.

They walked in and a single look around the room was enough to tell them how unkind the passage of time could be.

The huntress covered her nose with the back of her left hand, “this place is so dusty that it could kill,” as she waved the floating particles in front of her away with her free hand.

“Such is the case,” the clergy squinted her eyes as they tried to adjust themselves to the less illuminated parts of the room. Her next step just happened to kick a book on the floor, which led her attention towards the bookshelf next to the wall, “what an odd way of breaking.”

Every single plank had broken specifically in the middle, though the books didn’t seem to be there for long enough to be covered in dust, at least not as much as the rest of the floor.

With a similar line of thought, her companion shrugged, “who knows, since the windows are broken, some small animal must’ve gotten inside and made a mess out of this place.”

“Perhaps,” although not satisfied with that conclusion she still chose not to dwell on it any further. Instead, she thoroughly inspected the area with her eyes, looking for something in specific.

As they circled around the sole room, the huntress started to look through the windows. While the clergy noticed a fallen cabinet, it had a part of its top broken without a single hint of mold having grown on that spot.

“What may this be?”

“Hm? Found something?”

“This device, do you recognize it?” She picked up a cubic shaped machine from the floor beside the cabinet, with some sort of circular glass on the front and an intricate design.

“No, I’ve never seen something like that.”

“Could it be?” She kneeled and laid the machine on top of the embroidered cloth, and on her lap, and started to talk in a softer tone as her eyes closed. “O’ lord of knowledge, father of wisdom, reveal thee form and share thee vision—”

“Appraisal.”

Her surroundings began to glow, the particles of dust were swapped by particles of cyan blue lights and a similarly colored circle materialized below her feet, displaying a four-point star at its center.

 

[Category: (Ancient) Camera.]

[Rarity: Relic]

[Level: 1 | F-Rank]

[Features: (Photo Shooting), (Manual Trigger)]

[Remaining uses: 10]

 

And right after the glow disappeared, a status screen was displayed.

“As I thought.”

“Jackpot!” The huntress almost hit the windows as she jumped with joy on her face.

Before getting up, she wrapped the object with the cloth and made sure to tie it firmly, so as to not damage it under any circumstances.

“Oh, man, we are getting a relic out of this,” she spun and kicked around without a care, “the pay is finally becoming worth the efforts.”

“Do not fail to recall what we were sent here for,” but her companion didn’t share such joyful emotions.

“Yes, yes, your strict-ness.”

They inspected every corner of the room, turning the place upside down before the huntress mentioned a construction at what would be the backyard of the house. So they went back outside, stored the wrapped object carefully, then headed towards the garden with their bags.

There, a stone made building that resembled a sanctuary stood. With a statue of a well-known deity at the center of a pedestal, a man-made pond surrounding it, and a single stand  set up in front of the pedestal for kneeled prayers to be done.

The duo inspected all corners and even under the pond’s shallow water, but their search came to bear no fruits.

“No one is here anymore.”

“Indeed, it is possible that we were too late to welcome the visitor.”

They stood in front of the makeshift sanctuary for a while, and then took their leave before the sun could decide to rest on the bed that is the horizon.

Their steps caused the snapping of twigs and thick foliage to echo as they proceeded through the same path that they had taken to reach this place. Having to navigate through a jungle of bushes and vines, where trees were in minor numbers and small creatures reigned supreme over the medium sized ones.

Serpent-looking animals, furballs holding onto hazelnuts as they hung upside down on tree branches, felines with scales all over their bodies instead of fur, and many other species were seen, scared off, or killed on their way back. Only when the cracking sounds of sticks became the crackling noises of a bonfire that they stopped walking.

"What's a camera though," the huntress held the relic they had found in the ruins, motioning it on several sides to get a better understanding of its structure.

“I beg that you do not damage the relic, if you please,” the clergy woman sat on the opposite side of the bonfire, holding a porcelain cup filled with a warm and densely blue liquid, “we do not wish to depreciate its value, do we?” taking a sip of it caused her stoic expression to slowly change into a brief smile.

“You may say that, but I know you’re also curious. What can this thing do? Is it better to keep it than to sell it? Yeah, we know it has limited uses, but they can be life saving, right?”

“I believe the proper course of action would be to show it to the contractor before making any decisions.”

She sighed, “you temple dwellers…” but then she noticed a small glass part on the back of the camera, “hm? What is this?”

Looking into the glass she realized that it was possible to see through the relic, as if she was looking through a window. And with both of her hands on the handles, she thought that it was just the right position to reach that spherical part sticking out of the top right surface like a sore thumb.

“Maybe if I press this,” she placed her right hand’s index finger on top of the spherical button.

“What are you planning by pointing it towards me?”

*Click*

““Huh?””

The duo reacted in the same way as a not so loud but distinguishable sound came out of the machine. It was the same noise as when a branch or a finger snapped, so they both started to grow beads of sweat on their foreheads.

“What did you—” the clergy stood up immediately, spilling a bit of her drink.

“No! No, calm down. I didn’t do anything.”

*Schwiii*

Another noise was made by the camera, and this time it came along with a piece of paper that slid out of the bottom and dropped onto the grassy ground.

“Hey,” the huntress picked it up and waved it a bit to drive away the leaves that held onto the paper, once she saw that one side was completely white, she turned it around, “isn’t this—”

“—You?”