Dig up the Golden Staircase
It was not the army of the “Rose Princess of Hellrage” that appeared from the end of the narrow corridor with the sound of their footsteps.
It was a Fighter wearing a gold-worked circlet and silvery-white holy armor.
Underneath his armor, he was wearing some kind of ceremonial dress, but it was torn and blood was stained in some places. Even so, he did not appear to be injured, so perhaps he had healed his injuries with a potion after taking damage.
It was Erminio Drolet, the leader of the “Decisive Drolette”.
“Master, you are safe!”
Edgar called out to him, but Erminio ignored him.
With a grim look on his face, he strode toward Loretta and suddenly grabbed her by the neck (he might have wanted to grab her by the bust, but her that part was exposed and ample).
“Kya!? What are you doing…”
“Loretta, you…!”
Erminio trembled with anger and pointed in a direction from which they had come.
There, Loretta had taken the magic items out of the storage magic and had been chopped up by the rotary saw.
“Why did you do that!? Do you know how much those things cost!? Do you know how many lives you could buy!?”
“Erminio, because I got attacked by a trap…”
“Because of nothing!”
Erminio immediately punched Loretta across the cheek.
He would probably have been careful not to kill her, but there was not the slightest hesitation in his blows.
Fresh blood poured from Loretta’s mouth as she fell to the ground.
It seemed to have cut the inside of her mouth.
“I… Ugh…”
“You betrayed my trust and now you’re doing that? You should have held on to the baggage and looked for a way to survive to the end! That’s why women’s brains…!”
“I’m… So-rry… Erminio…”
Loretta humbly apologized to Erminio, who yelled at her, half-crying.
Loretta knew that it was useless to argue with him at a time like this.
In order to get the upper hand, Erminio’s good mood was more important than her own pride.
And for Erminio, magic items were nothing more than something he could get if he asked his parents.
Even if it was a great loss that could cause shock and death for the average person, it was essentially unimportant to him. He was just angry at the damage done to his reputation. He would get back in a good mood sooner or later.
“Hey, master …, now is not the time. We’ll talk about it when we get back…”
“……Chee. Hey, Loretta, collect those.”
“Yeesss…”
Edgar intervened, and Erminio relented.
Erminio was an adventurer too, not so foolish as to yell endlessly while isolated in the middle of hostile territory.
Loretta re-collected the piles of magic items (including the wreckage) into her storage magic.
“This is your fault too, Edgar. You overlooked the teleportation trap. This will be deducted from your reward. Remember that.”
“He…”
Edgar did not argue.
There was a good reason why he had missed the teleportation trap.
He didn’t know why they were detected even though they had blocked their presence with magic items and concealed their appearance from the surroundings by projecting phantom images, and he didn’t know where and how they could set up a trap to create a teleport formation in such a place. It was an unknown technology.
Edgar wanted to excuse that it was not a lack of ability but something strange about the other side, and if possible, he wanted to find out before he left, but telling Erminio now would only make him angry. It would be better to wait until after a short pause.
“You didn’t get caught in the teleportation zone, did you? Do you know the way to get back?”
“Of course I do. There was some kind of hidden door on the way, but I put a wedge in it so it wouldn’t close.”
“All right, then we’ll go back that way.”
The three of them quickly began to move.
There were no lights on the narrow paths in the dungeon, but thanks to the “Owl Glasses”, there was no shortage of activity.
In addition, Edgar put on a monocle to hook onto the top of his glasses.
To Edgar’s eyes, the walls of the labyrinth, as well as the floor, seemed to be decorated with lines of blue-white light that formed geometric trails.
This single lens was a magic item called a “Craftsman’s Lens”, and it allowed him to see the magic that was flowing through objects. By seeing the magic power inside the structure and where it was flowing from there, he could get a rough idea of where the traps were located.
The rest was just a matter of how good of a Thief he was.
“Give me the other one.”
“Hey.”
Edgar, who was wearing a strange outfit with a pair of dark glasses and a lens over one eye, handed one of the “Craftsman’s lenses” to Erminio.
Erminio also began to walk, taking in his surroundings. Loretta followed behind him, looking deflated.
“As long as the traps are triggered, the enemy will be aware of us. It is too dangerous to be separated in this state. Let’s get out of here first.”
“… What about the Holy Knights?”
“It would be best if they could join us, but it is not certain they are still alive. It is not a good idea to look for them. It is their job to keep me safe. If I risk my life to help them, it would be a different matter. If we see them on the way out and I think we can help them.”
“Understood.”
Erminio said naturally.
Edgar did not say anything, although he was not without his own feelings.
For Edgar, the most important thing was the reward from the Drolet family, and for that reason, it was important that he return home alive first.
Loretta, of course, did not object.
The three of them hurried on their way back as if pushed by the eerie sound of footsteps echoing from somewhere.
Since Edgar had already been through the area by himself, he had already found most of the traps, and the walk was so smooth that it was hard to believe that they were walking through a dungeon.
However, Erminio stopped when they entered a small room with what appeared to be construction materials.
“… Edgar, what is that? Is there anything buried in the ground?”
Erminio was looking straight down.
When Edgar followed Erminio’s gaze, he saw through the flow of magic power that covered the floor like a net, far below.
There was a chest-like closed flow of magical energy in the ground, completely unrelated to the flow of magical energy in the dungeon.
“It looks like a treasure chest to me.”
“Yes, it is. Since it is an independent flow of magic power, it is probably a treasure chest buried underground, not part of the dungeon. There must be some kind of magic trap there.”
“Can you dig it out?”
“Well, yes, I think we can. Miss, is the “Gnome’s Left Staff” still intact?”
Loretta was still holding her bloody mouth with a sulking expression, but the wounds on her face were better, whether she used a potion or magic.
“…≪Storage Chest≫”
Loretta, who looked dejected, used storage magic, pulled out a staff from the void, and released it to Edgar.
At first glance, it was a mundane magic staff.
This was the “Gnome’s Left Staff”. It was an item that could knead earth and stone and reassemble them into any shape.
“First of all, we need to stop the flow of magic power. This will partially neutralize the dungeon’s magical defenses.”
Edgar assessed the flow of magic on the floor and drove a wedge-shaped item into the floor.
Then, the line of light extending ahead of it disappeared.
This was an item called a “Wedge of Disenchantment”, which had the effect of erasing minor magical effects, but it also had the effect of cutting off the flow of magical power if the location of the wedge was carefully selected.
When the “Wedge of Disenchantment” was driven into several places, a void appeared in the flow of magic power that had been running in all directions.
Like a worm-eaten hole, there was a blank space in the middle of the room.
“There you go!”
Edgar swung the ‘Gnome’s Left Staff’ at the hole.
As light gushed from the staff, the stone floor in the center of the room melted into a hole, and the earth beneath it was scraped away and dug down.
Next, the earth and stone that had been pushed away went around under the subterranean chest.
The sandy soil swirled in the vertical hole, pushing the chest-like object upward as if it were a geyser.
A fine grayish-silver treasure chest popped out of the hole in the floor.
The hole filled up beneath it, and the ejected treasure chest landed on the floor.
“Alright!”
Edgar pumped his fist in the air.
It was a massive treasure chest, about the size of a large bag. It was unadorned, but looked sturdy and practical.
“It is a brand-new treasure chest. I wonder if it was buried recently.”
Erminio looked at the treasure chest.
The chest was somewhat stained with dirt, but there were no scratches or signs of deterioration.
Edgar immediately took out his favorite tool and began to examine the treasure chest.
After attaching three small plate-like disks to detect the wavelength of magic power, Edgar turned back to Erminio with a thumbs up.
“Master, I think we hit the jackpot with this one.”
“You know what’s inside?”
“I don’t know yet, but the magic trap in this treasure chest was made with the intention of completely killing people… Traps for killing intruders are usually placed in places where they seem to be hidden but can be easily found if you look for them. The purpose is to give a big blow to an idiot who feels good about finding a treasure chest. This chest, however, is hidden in such a way that it can never be found, but it has a terrible trap. In other words, it’s a treasure someone really wants to hide.”
“If it’s … the magic sword Terra Ayur in here?”
“It’s just the right size.”
The size of the chest. How it was hidden. A trap with killing intention.
The situation seemed to point to that.
Even if it was not Terra Ayur, there was no doubt that something of great importance was hidden in the chest. And it was probably the “Rose Princess of Hellrage” who hid it.
No adventurer would not be thrilled at this moment to find such an important treasure chest.
“Can you open it?”
“If it’s ‘Man Unlock’.”
Edgar replied seriously and jokingly.
The adventurers called it “Man Unlock” when someone stepped over a trap, knowing the damage it would do.
The unlocking version of that. In other words, it meant to open the chest without worrying about the trap being triggered.
“This chest had a trap that would spring up if you tried to cast a spell on it or unlock it. I would have been able to disarm the trap, but I probably would not have had enough time to open it. There are signs that an alarm went off when it was moved.”
“Well, it’s a little too late for that. They would have discovered us by now.”
The enemy had the advantage of location.
If captured, they would be surrounded. The situation was a race against time.
“I’d like to have a lot of protection and a lot of … traps that are ranged, so I’d like to have a “Sacrificial Lamb Necklace” as well. The necklace will probably be broken, but that will take care of it for five seconds.”
“… Okay, that’s good. Do it!”
Erminio made up his mind.
It could be said that he was dazzled by the treasure chest in front of him.
He was not moved by money, but he was a sucker for rare magic items, and above all, he was greedy for praise.
If he brought back a valuable item from the nest of the “Rose Princess of Hellrage” that had been carefully hidden, it would be the second greatest accomplishment following the defeat of the “Rose Princess of Hellrage”, wouldn’t it? It was not difficult to imagine that … Erminio would do so.
As for Edgar, he would be happy if this treasure could put Erminio in a good mood and give him a bonus.
Loretta took out all the charms she could find from the storage magic, and then she took out a necklace made of bones and fangs, which looked like something that would be used in a pagan ritual.
This was a magic item called “Sacrificial Lamb Necklace”. It was designed to absorb ranged magic attacks that occurred nearby onto one of the wearer’s hands.
After putting on the necklace, Edgar activated a large number of nearly 20 charms one after the other and tucked them into his belt.
When he was finished, Edgar immediately put his hand on the treasure chest.
“Come on, come out. Treasure-chan.”
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