She kept putting her foot out in front and kept expecting something to happen. She kept expecting her foot to find some kind of blind spot with the snakes but the floor may as well have been made of golden snakes. She didn't want to step on the snakes because they could strike at her and she wondered what would happen if she stepped on these snakes and they bit her. She wondered would effects (if any) they would have on her.

"I think I'll just go around." She turned back, using the wall to rotate and she went up the second set of stairs. As she got higher up, she noticed the hissing sound fading. She stopped and went back down. "I have to follow the snakes."

She stood at the door once more and sighed deeply, wondering what to do.

Assuming that there are snakes on the ground and I don't want them to bite me, what could I do?

She gets an idea and couches down. The snakes hissing intensified greatly. When she stood up, the hissing returned to normal. That's when she got an idea.

Could I climb on the ceiling and over the snakes?

She focuses her hearing above her and hears nothing.

There are no snakes on the ceiling which means that I can look up.

She lifts her blindfold up. She faces upward and pried her eyelids open, which were barely enough to see the ceiling. She was hesitant to open her eyelids but when she did, she spotted the ceiling made of pure gold as expected from this golden castle. There were golden beams that resembled monkey bars across the ceiling that she could crawl across.

She closed her eyes again and blindly reached for her grappling hook. She spun the end in her wrist and threw the grappling hook with only one eye open. The hook wraps around the beam and yanks it as a precaution. She closes her eyes tightly and climbs up the rope. It was different climbing up the rope when you're forced to keep your eyes closed.

Her left-hand grasps the beam and she tests its strength. She dangles from one hand and pulls herself up before grappling the end of the hook.

I can't risk opening my eyes because I'm a curious person by nature, which means I'll have to use my grappling hook as a way to guide me across the beams.

Once she's sure the grappling hook is free, she opens her eyes just barely to see the next bar only five feet away and out of arm's reach. She blindly throws the hook and she hits her target. She swings across and pulls herself up again.

This has got to be the most difficult adventure up to date. I've never had to swing and climb across with both eyes closed.

She felt something fall from her back and she panicked when she realized it was the gun that Marcel kicked towards her. She cringed and almost lost her grip went the pistol discharged. Snakes were hissing angrily.

Shit, I lost the gun. It's okay, as long as I have my wits, I can survive anything.

She opened her eyes slightly once more and spotted the bar closer this time. No grappling hook needed as she closed her eyes and climbed across the bar as she did with monkey bars when she was a child.

She reached the end of what she could tell. When she opened her eyes, there were no bars for her to climb across. She carefully lowers herself down, keeping her eyes shut and listening for the hissing sounds. She swings her feet out blindly back and forth and she doesn't feel for any snakes. She keeps her guard up as she lowers herself. When she reached the bottom, her foot feels for a solid surface. She sighed in relief and dropped both feet to the ground.

But now what do I do? Where do I go now that I've passed the snakes?

She opens her eyes to look at the ceiling. It was still golden but she saw a light shining off the ceiling coming from her front. She did not risk looking down but she could hear more hisses coming from the path in front of her. She followed the direction of the light.

Should I go back for the gun? No, it's not an option, especially if it landed in the snake pit.

She moved around the snakes on the ground, predicting their positions by instinct and hearing alone. As she moved down the hallway, the light shining on the ceiling was becoming narrow. It eventually turned into a straight line of light shining from something like a flashlight one square inch big.

"Where could this light be coming from? I don't even know where to go at this point."

She bumps into the wall. Her eyes trailed the light and its source was coming from a small opening in the wall that was just below her eye-level.

She pushes herself up on her tippy-toes, put her eye to the opening and…

Pulls away.

It could be a trap, who knows what could be on the other side. She looks at the light on the ceiling. But then again, a light of some kind is shining which means that nothing is blocking the source of the light. Maybe it is safe.

Cassie puts her eye to the opening. Her eyelid was closed but she built enough courage to look into the hole.

From what she could see through the peephole was some kind of pedestal in the middle of a room. She couldn't see inside the room but she knew that this was the end of the line. This is where the Philosopher's Stone was. She closes her eyes after an idea comes to mind. She puts her ear to the wall and listens carefully.

Without a doubt, the room was full of snakes.

Why did it have to be snakes?

She moved onto the important question of how she was going to in the room. Her first answer was to look for another door but when she moved to either side of the wall, it leads to nothing more than a dead-end, which made it clear that the only way into the room was to smash through the wall.

She keeps her eyes closed tightly as she blindly charges with all her strength into the wall. It hurt like a bitch but she shrugged off the pain and rammed the wall three more times.

The fourth time was the charm and she cracked the wall and fell right through. She landed on her shoulder, which left a bruise. She hisses, like the snakes she now found herself surrounded by. She freezes in place once again and listens carefully to her environment. Up, down, left, right, front, back, snakes were everywhere and she now realized the severity of her situation if she opened her eyes. She also heard hissing directly in front of her face.

It was a no-staring contest with the snake in front of her. She takes deep breaths and controls her heartbeat. She licks her lips as she mentally pictures the snake studying her like a buffet table of non-gold flesh.

Back away, slowly…

She sits up on her knees. She clutches her bruised shoulder before standing up. She almost lost her balance on one side before she regained it. Een as she stood straight up upon the ground, she sensed something was off... the ground.

She crouches back down and reaches out to where she almost lost her balance and feels for nothing as she expected.

"I'm on a stone path that's several feet above the ground," she said, thinking aloud, "And if my theory is correct, then there is a snake pit under the ground." She steps back and touches the cracked wall she crashed through to get her bearings. "This has been the most complicated adventure I've been on. Everything I have to do, it's with my eyes closed or else I turn into gold."

Upon hearing herself, she adjusts her blindfold.

She grabs the end of her grappling hook and hooks it to a sturdy part of the wall. "This will help guide me so I don't steer off course." She grabs the rope tightly."There should be one hissing snake in front of me and as long as I keep straight then I should be able to walk over it."

She steps forward slowly, yanking at the rope to make sure that she was going in one direction. She takes another step and several more before she stops upon hearing hissing. The hissing was violent compared to the other hisses, which were given more as a warning. She hesitated and licked her lips nervously. "This is starting out to be a really lousy day." She lifts her feet high above the ground, knee to her chest. "I'm about fifty feet underground in a golden castle surrounded by a magical wall of water that makes an aquarium look like nothing. Now I'm about to step over a snake that appears to be some kind of the last line of defense. Where does this crazy day end? What're next, zombies that were created by men who've turned to gold?"

She takes one big step over the snake, who almost snarls at her. She almost jumped and lost her balance but remained calm and stayed strong.

She stomped her foot down and quickly did the other, not wasting any time. She cringed slightly at the thought of benign bitten and moved forward. She took approximately five steps forward before she stopped. She tugs onto the rope as a precaution before she reaches out. She starts at the ground and feels for a smooth surface going upwards like a wall. She moves her hand up the smooth surface and her fingers find something. Due to not using one of the five senses in the last thirty minutes, not only has her hearing been heightened but her sense of touch increased as well. It felt like symbols carved into the pedestal that was written from left to right. She touches the edge of the pedestal to her left and moves her hands across to feel for the symbols. Eventually, she recognized one letter and it leads her to recognize another. She slowly and very carefully moved her index and thumb across to feel for the symbols.

"Latin," she said, "Latin is written on the pedestal, same as in the Voynich Manuscript." She moves her fingers across the writing. "What is it saying?"

She deciphered a message after a slow and thorough analysis.

"Ingredients: Mercury, Salt, Sulfur, but what could they mean?" She remembered. "There was a fourth symbol that Derek was unable to recognize." She was building a mental picture of what the Philosopher's Stone could look it, considering that the pedestal in front of her had the stone itself. "I'm actually touching the pedestal of a device that grants immortality and turns all forms of metal into gold."

She moves her fingers upwards towards the pedestal, and when she feels the surface at a horizontal angle, she realized that she was inches away from touching the Philosopher's Stone, and that's when she instantly froze as a new thought crossed her mind.

"If I touch the Philosopher's Stone, then I will become immortal. I can't die of old age but I can still die. My death won't be a peaceful one but would have to be a forced one like jumping off a cliff or getting shot. Sure, immortality does seem like a nice thing but death is a part of human life. If I can't die then life isn't precious. Besides, I won't be able to go see Sully in Heaven or Mom and Dad when they die. Derek will die and I'll still be on this earth, unable to die of natural causes." She quickly took her hand back and away from the pedestal. "It's best not to know when your life is about to end, that way you can live your life to fullest, the infinite every day. Besides, who says I won't be immortal? Cassie Drake: Legendary Treasure Hunter, Arceahologist, and Adventurer. Discoverer of the Philosopher's Stone and the Lost City of Ys."