The gate's chime intermingled with the sounds of birds and water creating music together as Mouse gated in, golden rings descending her form as she entered with a big stretch. Soon after sending Craven a mail, she headed to the keywords they'd spoken briefly about herself. Part of her felt guilty for inviting them, someone she barely knew, out to investigate a rumor. Not to mention, they were also still fairly new to the game. Well, quite new. There was nothing wrong with that. Looking down at the water, which sat right above her knees, she idly watched the fish swimming by with a seemingly bored expression. Though, her hand reaching out towards one of them to try and give it a little stroke said otherwise.

It was more like exhaustion. Since her brawling adventure with Gorre, Noblesse, and Ornery, she'd failed to address her Anger Gauge. A heated headache pounded at her temples and the line of irrational irritation was so thin, one need nearly touch it and it felt as though it might snap. Mouse mimicked Lily in the outside world by slapping her hands against her cheeks gently as if that would help her 'snap out of it.' The posting she'd read had a lot of comments about stupid traps, confusing doors, and death pits. Nothing was too in detail which was just fine by her, she enjoyed the surprise.. However.

The part she was really looking forward to was the random monster encounters. Low levels were a guaranteed defeat and blip taken away from her Anger Gauge, hopefully Craven wouldn't be the type to mind her quickly taking care of a few. Finally walking away from the water, she slowly made her way to and a short ways up the stairs. She examined the statues that lined either side of the stairs, looking past them briefly to admire the heads sculpted from stone spitting water into the lake below. Focusing back on the statues themselves.. She stepped a bit close, leaning over the waterfall banister to get a good look. If she wasn't mistaken, these were once traps. Other players had talked about there being 'annoying fire turrets' on the very first set of stairs before even entering the temple. Others had said they could walk right in, but weren't able to make it far.

So what exactly was going on here? Taking a deep breath to keep her volatile emotions from raising unnecessarily, she took a seat on the step with her head in her hands in thought. Areas and dungeons were made to reset each time. So what changed? Some of the rigged sculptures even looked busted up, as if someone or something had broken them by force. If the original poster was right, and there was a hacker at play here, was this their hideout? She'd remembered reading an old BBS post some time back about a PKer who would kill players if they tried to enter an area with specific keywords, stating they'd claimed the area for their own. That was a long time ago. Was this situation similar? From seeing what Ornery could do, she knew a hacker would be capable of making changes to the area, so perhaps there was some weight behind that theory.

Either way, she would never know from outside of the walls. Taking a look at how the dungeon was shaped from what she could see on the outside, it definitely looked like it was going to be a whopper. Hopefully there would be plenty of monsters to ease the overwhelming amount of scorching buzzing interrupting her every other thought. Sighing, she looked up towards the Chaos Gate to be ready to welcome Craven with a tired smile and small wave whenever they would arrive.

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Anger Gauge: ✦✦✦✦✦✧✧✧ HP: 100% SP: 100%

Mouse observed Craven's antics with that same tired expression and a polite smile that turned more genuine by the time they approached her on the stairs and returned her wave. She wondered briefly what was going on through their mind as she watched their nervous expression for hints, blinking when they mentioned something about her mail. "O-oh!" It seemed like a few wires in Mouse's brain were rearranging themselves before a bit more life came to her expression. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to scare you, there's really not much to worry about-" Standing up from the step, she dusted off her skirt for the aesthetic before beaming up at them once more.

"In order, hmmm... I'm not sure if there's a hacker. One thing about keywords is the places that they bring us to usually reset after we leave. But if I'm to believe the comments in that thread," Mouse turned to point towards the previously trapped statue she'd just been examining, "All of these statue thingies used to be traps. And now they are just.. Broken. Realistically, even if players or whatever disarmed them previously, they should be intact once more now that we've entered the field for the first time. But, it could easily be an intentional rework due to the field's difficulty." The runechemist shrugged, "It's a, we don't really know until we find out situation. As for the fish-" She looked over towards the water as they swam around.

"I don't think they bite, I tried to pet one earlier but it was afraid of me. I think they just live here, that's all," her soft voice stated matter of factly as she continued smiling up at them. "Aside from all of that, I thank you for coming out and joining me today!" That being said, Mouse quickly sent Craven a party invite before motioning for them to walk alongside her up the long stretch of stairs before them. She would, of course, wait for as long as they needed. "I should let you know, I'm feeling quite tired today. Please excuse me for that, but I'm also very excited to go on this adventure today! How are you feeling? Have you done much more adventuring in The World since we last talked?"

Whenever Craven was ready to move on, she would walk at a leisurely pace up the stairs while speaking with them. She wanted it to be clear there was no rush- While taking care of her Anger Gauge was certainly a priority, the exhaustion and irrational frustration she was trying to suppress were working hand in hand to help beat down her drive. Fortunately, her genuine joy in seeing Craven once again managed to keep her mood level for the most part. The effort wasn't minimal, but it was at least something she'd grown to be capable of managing. Her head cocked to the side as she listened for their response.

As she listened to them, she also listened to the birds and the water, a symphony of sounds that encouraged relaxation. It was funny, she thought, as she took in the beauty that was the temple's exterior. Everything out here, other than the deepest part of the lake, was lovely and calm. Definitely a contrast for what lay within if any credit could be given to the other posters within the rumor's original thread.

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Anger Gauge: ✦✦✦✦✦✧✧✧ HP: 100% SP: 100%

As they walked the stairs together, Mouse chuckled softly at their concern and waved a hand dismissively. "I'll rest much better after this. You know how sometimes you can't quite rest well until you've finished something you want to do? It's kind of like that." Well, it wasn't a lie, and hopefully it would be enough to satisfy her acquaintance as she didn't have the energy for anything more elaborate. Plus, Craven didn't seem the sort to be pushy. She listened as they gave a vague recount of what they'd been up to. Mouse looked towards them and was surprised, yet pleased, to see they'd taken as much an interest in the traps as she had. That was a good sign for how the dungeon would go.

"Stuff?" Mouse questioned with a laugh. "I keep pretty busy with stuff too, though if I'm being honest, I spend a lot of my time here in The World. I was going to college, but I dropped out for personal reasons." She shrugged. "So yeah, if I'm not around in the game, I'm either hanging out with my roommate or working." As they reached the second platform, Mouse paused and looked around. It seemed to be the same situation. All the traps here were broken or disabled as well! "But yeah, I'm kinda obsessed when it comes to The World, so I like to spend a lot of time here for tons of reasons. What kinda stuff do you get up to? Well-" Mouse waved her hands slightly, shaking her head. "You don't have to say if you don't want to. I can understand if you play to get away. Or maybe are just a private person. I'm glad to hear you've gotten around to exploring some more, though! Even looking at the quests, wow~" She crouched down briefly to look at the paint that stained lovely patterns into the stone. There was nothing of interest other than aesthetic, so she ultimately stood once more to head up the next flight of stairs on the left while listening to Craven.

Whenever they would reach the next platform, Mouse quickly drew her staff and held an arm out protectively in front of Craven only to slowly lower it as confusion altered her tired features. The statues up here seemed.. Off. Their lifeless eyes would flicker the same red matching the statue's over the door and their bodies would move forward as if to step off the platform they were standing on before both would glitch back into place suddenly. Strings of broken data occasionally sprung up when the glitches occurred. Stepping in front of the one on the left didn't seem to change anything. They were both truly stuck in animation limbo. Placing her free hand to her chin, Mouse stood idle in thought for a moment while Lily took a short screen recording.

"Odd.. Probably best we don't touch them, hmm?" She would wait patiently for them to be satisfied with the glitched trap spectacle before continuing up the final set of stairs. In her mind, she mulled over proceeding further. Especially with Craven. It was obvious something weird was happening here. The responsible thing would be to send the rumor's thread and the short video of the glitched statue to CC Corp- However, recalling the situation Nao and his coworkers went through trying to look into something left a bitter taste in her mouth. Surely there was nothing like that going on. She wasn't exactly knowledgeable on the topic, but looking over the traps- The damage seemed pretty juvenile. For all she knew, the dungeon could be glitching due to not refreshing properly each time the keywords were visited. That was, if what the comments on the thread she'd read could be trusted. Ultimately, she could always send a flash mail to someone online if needed.

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Anger Gauge: ✦✦✦✦✦✧✧✧ HP: 100% SP: 100%