"Haah~ This is the last place..." Isa said.

She held the crinkled paper map up with her pale fingers gripping the rough edges and turned her upper body back to face Wren, who was sluggishly walking behind her on the winding dirt trail.

"For the last key..."

The sweltering afternoon sun beat down mercilessly on the dense jungle canopy of Ivory Island.

Broad, emerald-green leaves filtered the harsh light casting jagged shadows across the damp soil.

After the intimate picture back at the roaring waterfall, both of them had geared back up and gone in immediate search of the three hidden keys which would logically lead them to the grand treasure of the scavenger hunt.

They had already navigated the treacherous, uneven terrain and reached two distinctly marked areas on the parchment map.

It wasn’t easy to do so.

They had been forced to trudge through thick sucking mud, physically climb over rotting, moss-covered logs and furiously dig through rough coarse dirt but they had successfully managed it.

Their fingernails were caked with dark earth, and their clothes were stained with sweat and grime.

But this specific overgrown clearing was the third place.

"Alright, let’s get this over with." Wren arrived at her side, his boots crunching loudly against a pile of dried leaves.

He lifted his arm and wiped a thick bead of sweat off his face with his damp sleeve. "Where did these people hide that now? They sure are sadists..."

The previous spots where the brass keys had been buried or hidden genuinely took a massive amount of time and exhausting effort to uncover, which was exactly why Isa could deeply understand why he was a bit pissed.

The skin on his muscular forearms was scratched from thorny bushes, and his boots were coated in a thick layer of dry mud.

But at the same time, despite the physical toll, it was also a bit genuinely fun to playfully fumble through the loose sand alongside him, bumping shoulders and laughing while desperately looking for the buried metal.

Isa brought out her glossy resort pamphlet from her back pocket and compared it directly to the rough map they were given.

Despite them basically being the exact same thing in terms of topography, the high-end pamphlet that the Celestine provided actually displayed names, landmarks, and titles alongside the winding pathways while the scavenger hunt map was maddeningly blank and vague.

Isa narrowed her green eyes, tracing her pale finger along the glossy paper, feeling the smooth texture of the print, and then transferring the trajectory directly to the rough paper making Wren flinch.

Though there was no difference to him, She would still be able to effortlessly spot the minute geographical differences and pin-point the exact location through deduction.

It was quite scary to see her mind work but Wren didn’t mind it at all, as long as this analytical skill wasn’t being actively used against him in a heated argument.

"This is the correct location," Isa said, lowering the papers and looking around the dense foliage. "But where would the key be?"

She reached her hand directly into her shirt, sliding her fingers down her cleavage where she had securely kept the folded paper clue initially, and pulled the wrinkled note out into the humid air.

She looked at the cryptic poem once more with her eyes scanning the faded ink. Just like the other two times, the rhyming words didn’t possess the actual, physical directions of where to find the keys within the designated zone.

Isa sighed as a hot frustrated breath escaped her lips.

"Maybe I am starting to get a little pissed off by this."

Wren walked past her, his boots snapping small twigs on the forest floor. He moved to lean his tired, aching body against a massive thick tree trunk resting on the edge of the clearing.

"These people are really sadists. A little bit of clues in the poems could have helpe—"

CRACK!

Immediately as he leaned his back against the thick, brown bark, the solid wood caved in. The structural integrity shattered into pieces and he fell backward into the dark, hollow fake trunk with a loud echoing clatter.

Wren grunted, his elbows scraping violently against the harsh fiberglass interior. "What the fuck?"

He grabbed the jagged edges of the fake bark, his knuckles turning white, and pulled his tall frame out of the deep hole.

He stood up, dusting splinters off his bare shoulders and shaking his head.

They both stepped forward with their boots crunching on the broken painted pieces of fake wood, and looked back inside the dark cavity.

Through the shadows of the artificial tree, they could clearly see something resting directly at the bottom, glinting brightly in a stray beam of harsh sunlight that pierced the canopy above.

Isa leaned forward, pushed her slender arm deep inside the dark hollow with her skin brushing against the walls, and brought out the last brass key.

It was cold, metallic, and physically similar in weight and design to the other two currently resting in her pockets.

"Hehe~" She grinned, a bright, triumphant smile spreading across her face. "Ren-Ren, it seems your misfortune shone on us today... Who would have known we would have to break through some tree."

Though her cheerful smile disappeared a second later.

She pulled out her phone with her thumb tapping the screen to turn on the bright LED torch, and leaned back over the broken hole to look inside the hollow tree properly.

The blinding white beam illuminated the dusty interior as it was revealed that the whole thing was intricately faked, crafted to blend seamlessly with the jungle flora but the craftsmanship wasn’t the main issue.

There was no additional letter or anything at all that would mathematically or logically guide them to where they actually had to use the three gathered keys in the first place.

"Ugh..." She immediately grunted, dropping her arms to her sides in frustration. The heat was getting to her, and the lack of direction was infuriating.

"The secret is probably on the keys in that case..." Wren said.

"That should be it," Isa said, nodding her head in agreement.

She turned around and bent over a large, flat, moss-covered rock resting directly in the center of the clearing so she would be able to spread the three brass keys out in perfect, illuminated detail.

As she leaned her torso forward, the tight fabric of her athletic shorts stretched incredibly taut across her hips and thighs.

Wren took one long deeply appreciative look at her perfectly shaped ass that was pointed directly in his direction but he forced himself to exhale.

Then, utilizing sheer ironclad willpower, he walked to the other way with his boots shifting the dirt as he circled the wide rock so he would see her face instead of her rear.

’Ren-Ren is so cute...’ Isa thought, noticing his deliberate highly respectful movement out of the corner of her eye.

The pooling heat in her lower stomach had not faded since they left the cave.

Isa really didn’t mind if he got intensely hard again right here in the humid jungle.

In fact, she would not object in the slightest if she had to go down on her bare knees in the dirt and suck his thick cock right out here in the public again, risking discovery by another rival team pushing through the brush.

’Who knows, maybe we can do the dee—’

Immediately, the older woman fiercely shook her head, her blonde hair whipping around as she violently scattered the dirty thoughts from her mind.

’Focus.’

She could thoroughly test these explicit, filthy thoughts out when they had actually found the final treasure and secured a private room.

Besides, he had already technically cheated on Marcus the exact moment that she decided to kiss him the first time in the Infirmary... There wasn’t much logical point in stopping now if they didn’t eventually go all the way to the bedroom.

’All these thoughts make me sound like Sonia,’ she thought while shaking her head again, a flush of genuine shame coloring her cheeks burning hotter than the jungle sun. ’I’m not a whore...’

"Are you okay?" Wren asked, his blue eyes studying her flushed distracted face with genuine concern.

Hearing his deep voice made her snap out of her highly inappropriate internal monologue.

"I–I’m fine," Isa said, clearing her throat loudly and shifting her weight.

She forced her gaze down, looking fiercely at the three brass keys resting on the rough stone surface, desperately searching for a physical path to the treasure box.

The metallic surfaces of the keys gleamed under the jungle canopy and Isa leaned closer, resting her palms flat against the warm stone with her nose mere inches from the brass.

She intensely tried to look for any hidden clues, microscopic engravings or directional arrows etched into the metal. At first, she didn’t see anything as the keys just looked like standard antiques with insignias below.

’Is this a dead end...?’

Then, she reached her hand back into her pocket and brought out the glossy map on the Celestine pamphlet.

Isa unfolded the thick paper smoothly with the creases snapping flat, and looked through the designated resort zones.

She then darted her vision back to the jagged teeth of the keys. Her green eyes narrowed to fine slits, her pupils tracking the minute details, and her facial expression turned fiercely focused.

That was exactly how her face looked when she wanted to deeply focus on a complex problem.

Wren would definitely know, since that was the exact same intense breathtaking way that she looked when she had been kneeling in the dark cavern sucking off his dic—

"I found it!" Isa said, perking up with a bright smile that banished the tension.

She pointed her pale finger directly to the open map resting on the rock, explaining the mechanics of the puzzle with rapid excitement.

"There are insignias scratched right into the base of the keys. The insignias are K, B, and T."

She dragged her perfectly manicured fingernail across the glossy paper, leaving a slight indent. "And if you look exactly at the middle of where K, B, T are printed on the map then—"

"It points to that spot not too far away from us..." Wren finished, his eyes following her finger to an unmarked, sandy cove on the shoreline.

Isa smiled a massive, radiant smile.

She snatched the three heavy keys off the rock with her fingers curling tight around the brass, and they quickly jogged over there.

Their boots pounded a rapid rhythm against the dirt trail as the adrenaline of the final stretch pushed the exhaustion straight out of their burning leg muscles.

In just a few minutes of intense sprinting through the humid flora, breaking through thick, broad-leafed ferns and ducking under low-hanging vines, the sound of crashing waves reached their ears.

They broke through the tree line and arrived at that specific position.

It was a pristine, white-sand clearing bordering the turquoise crashing ocean. The glaring sunlight reflected off the water, nearly blinding them after the shade of the jungle.

Standing perfectly straight in the center of the sand, seemingly unaffected by the blistering heat, were two men.

They were wearing immaculate tailored black butler uniforms, complete with crisp white gloves and they were casually holding heavy steel shovels with long wooden handles. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

"Congratulations to the two of you for being the first to find the Treasure," one of the butlers said, offering a polite bow, bending precisely at the waist.

He planted the sharp blade of his shovel deep into the white sand.

"Everybody who made it to Round 2 was given their individual task to find this place, and out of all of the people on the Island, you are actually the first to do it."

He then raised his white-gloved hand and pointed at a specific designated space forward. The area looked exactly like it had been freshly covered by loose sand, framed perfectly by four small wooden stakes driven into the beach.

"You should take the shovels and dig out," the butler instructed, extending the tools toward them.

Isa stepped forward, her boots sinking deep into the soft, yielding sand, and took one steel shovel from the man.

The wood was warm to the touch and Wren stepped up beside her, wrapping his sweaty hands around the thick wooden handle of the second one.

"The one who can dig the hardest and hit the treasure first wins," Isa said, turning her head and offering him a fierce, highly competitive grin.

"You’re on," Wren said, gripping the wood tight, a smirk playing on his lips.

And they began digging.

Wren drove the steel blade deep into the earth with his boots planting firmly for leverage.

His biceps flexed visibly under his sweat-soaked shirt as he hauled massive heavy clumps of wet sand out of the pit, throwing them over his shoulder.

Beside him, Isa worked as well. Her breathing grew ragged and harsh as she scooped and tossed the heavy earth.

The metallic scraping sounds of steel biting into sand echoed off the nearby palm trees as sweat dripped continuously down their noses, stinging their eyes and tasting salty on their lips, but neither of them stopped their relentless pace.

The pit grew wider and deeper with the sand piling high around the wooden stakes.

As they violently dug deeper into the ground, the sound of heavy, frantic footsteps crashing through the jungle foliage broke the ambient noise of the crashing ocean waves.

One of the men that had participated in the scavenger hunt... ran stumbling into the clearing.

His chest heaved like a bellows, his face was flushed a dangerous bright red from the heat, and he held his own set of brass keys triumphantly high in the air.

"I finished the Treasure hunti—"

The rival competitor froze.

His heavy boots stopped sinking into the sand with his jaw dropping in crushing despair as the other two kept aggressively digging in the deep pit.

He watched the sand flying through the air and he realized, with an agonizing certainty, that he had lost.

All of his running... all of his desperate searching... had been for nothing.

CLUNK!

Wren’s steel shovel struck a hard, solid object buried deep in the sand first. The metallic vibration traveled violently up the wooden handle and directly into his forearms, jarring his wrists.

"That’s my loss..." Isa groaned.

She leaned heavily on her shovel, using it as a crutch. Her chest heaved violently as she raised her arm and wiped the dripping, stinging sweat from her forehead.

They dropped the heavy steel tools onto the edge of the pit and fell to their knees in the dirt.

Using their bare, trembling hands, they frantically dug the remaining wet sand away, their fingers scraping against rough wood then they grabbed the rusted iron handles bolted to the sides and hauled the medium-sized wooden chest up to the upper ground.

It landed on the pristine white sand with a heavy, satisfying thud, spraying grains of sand across their boots.

The wooden box was old looking, bound in rusted iron straps, featuring three distinct intricate keyholes forged directly on its front plate.

"Insert the keys and open it," the butler said calmly, stepping forward to observe the final stage of the hunt with his hands clasped behind his back.

Wren took one of the heavy brass keys from Isa’s outstretched hand. He inserted his key directly into the leftmost lock with the metal grinding slightly against the internal mechanisms.

Isa leaned forward, her bare, sweaty shoulder brushing intimately against his, and inserted the other two keys into the remaining right slots.

Click! Click! Click!

The tumblers turned simultaneously as the iron latch popped open with a snap.

Wren grabbed the heavy wooden lid and pushed it backward.

The iron hinges shrieked loudly in protest as the chest opened, revealing the dark interior lined with faded rich red velvet. They both leaned in, expecting to see gold, jewels, or a massive cash prize but the chest was revealing.....

Revealing...

"A locket?" Wren and Isa let out at the exact same time, clearly stupefied at what was going on now.