FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

With a swift kick, the wooden door exploded in a shower of broken, moldy wood. Somehow there lingered a feeling that such a feat would have been easy even if the intruder did not possess solid hoofs at the end of her thick, muscled legs. Ancient dungeon doors were just not built to last if you did not go marble these days.

Just as lucky the old owners were so cheap anyway. A rather large chunk of the door ended up taking off the head of one of the goblin guards that had been playing a disturbing game of dice and rat chunks on the floor. They would have the fortune of not being directly taken out by Libby herself.

The red mare leaped into the room a blaze of red and silver. Her large hoofs landed together amidst the goblin dice with a thunderous clop that rocked the trio of goblins off their squatting perches. Poor disgusting creatures never had time to so much as finish their cries of alarm. A whirling pair of short swords, already stained with enemy blood many colors of the rainbow, cut them down where they laid.

Such quick and flashy actions brought new meaning to Libby Airspinner's name. Granted it was a lackluster bit of show for the dungeons last line of defense. But that the red mare was not about to complain after just having to do all her best tricks on a pair of very stubborn cave trolls ten minutes ago. Those bastards healed at speeds that gave even her slashing spin maneuvers a challenge.

What mattered was that the final room had been breached. Libby sheathed her weapons with a happy flick of her darker crimson tail. Many rumors had been circulating about this old alchemists tower for weeks now. No one really knew much about the owner that vanished over a hundred years ago, only far-fetched tails of what magical science had been accomplished. Libby had heard it all on her many binges to the bottom of an ale mug with fellow adventurers; he discovered the fountain of youth, a way to become a demi-god, how to synthesize an army of squirrel warriors, the difference between butter and 'I can't detect it's not butter.'

While Libby would have loved to know that last one, it was the newest rumor that spurred this fighter mare into climbing such an old pile of crumbling rock. Mostly because she needed a way to pay off her mounting debt of ale consumption fast. The rumors that this alchemist had actually found a way to produce gold out of nothing was too good to pass up. Unfortunately, it seemed too far-fetched a tale for any other companions to come with. Such low tier opposition as goblins, trolls, and their giant vermin pets hardly lends credence to the notion worthwhile treasure rested amongst the filth.

The joke was on them. Libby rested hands on her curvy hips while observing the top floor with a satisfied grin. Here she was standing triumphantly in the alchemist's main lab while they were still getting plastered back at the bar. Sure her chain mail was going to need hours of repair and polish, but the goblins already paid for that. A large cache of loot remained hoarded in the cellar thanks to decades of unregulated mischief spread across the wilderness and towns of the area.

It was especially nice compensation since this place was completely wrecked. There were plenty of signs of beakers and burners and the usual whimsy setups of an alchemist's lab. All of which were broken or rotted to a useless state thanks to a collapsed window letting nature creep its way inside. If not for the dais in the far wall of the room, Libby would have immediately turned to start the long clopping decent back down this wasteful tower.

The fact there was a chest on this dais would have caught full attention of any adventurer, honestly. But this one looked especially interesting in many ways. Like the fact it was made of solid black stone, or that even with years of exposure to the elements showed no sign of wear, or no debris seemed to rest within ten feet of this container.

"Bingo!" Libby said almost in song as she clopped over to the dais.

Of course, she was no fool on an errand. The mare made careful steps all around the dais checking for anything and everything that might seem peculiar. All she could find in that regard was a single magic rune visible on the lid. No need to worry there. Even with Libby's moderate amount of arcane knowledge, she recognized its only functioned was to open her new prize. No way to tell if it also sent a reaction to any other surprises in the room, though.

Good thing she was still wound up for another challenge. Libby hoped for more than half-awake goblins as she placed a gloved hand on the mark with an uttering of the proper command word.

A flash of warmth made Libby pull her hand away, ears and tail twitching in her mounting excitement. Light spread from the magic rune across the entire stone top of the chest before it began to rise. At least eighty pounds of marble hovered off the stone container before slowly gliding back to lay properly on the wall behind it.

"Wow," was about all Libby could get out taking in the contents of her latest treasure.

It was hard to even make out what she was staring at for a few seconds. At first, she had thought the chest contained some kind of golden-infused glass, but with the shifting of the lid caused many ripples to form on its glossy surface. Now Libby began to wonder if she had found some kind of permanently melted form of gold. There was certainly no heat radiating from the substance.

She then thought since, being an alchemist, it might be some form of potion that turned things into gold. A quick experiment with a chair leg proved that wrong.

More importantly, she learned this stuff was highly corrosive. A large glob of golden muck stuck to her bit of wood where it proceeded to devour the thing in mere seconds. The glob itself seemed to be growing bigger as it ate too before Libby dropped the stick in the chest to prevent it reaching her hand.

The stick created a small ripple in the muck as it landed with a wet plop. What remained quickly vanished into nothingness before going still again.

Seconds later the entire contents of the chest began to bubble faster than water on a roaring fire.

"Oh, bloody hell..."

Libby let out a panicked scream as the entire chest erupted in a wave of gold. Holding her arms up for a brace was a useless instinctive reaction. The ooze washed over her with a force to get rocked off her hooves. Excitement became replaced with regret at dying by literally being eaten into gold.