We slumped against the cold, stone walls of the chamber, exhausted but triumphant. I warily stared at the shattered remnants of the golem bird, half expecting it to suddenly just back up and enter a new form. But it seemed I was just overthinking as the pieces showed no signs of movement. The signature mana it released was gone too. Was I being too paranoid?

The fading wisps of light placed before the fight gave the chamber an eerie hue. Finally, it was calm and quiet again. No more ear piercing shrieks of metal scratching against metal.

Rurik was the first to break the silence, his uncharacteristic laughter resounding against the cold chamber walls. "Well, that was a close one, wasn't it?" His axes lay discarded by his side, his broad shoulders heaving with every breath.

"Close? That's one way to put it" Finn retorted. Despite his nonchalant facade, the slight tremor in his hands as he dusted his body gave it all away.

"I've had worse” Elara chimed in, her voice strained. Despite her declaration, she looked ready to collapse, her usually sharp eyes glazed with exhaustion. Her bow was nowhere to be found, though her dual blades lay by her side. Even the magic enhanced mythril wasn't enough, as one of the blades had broken off, leaving a small stub above the handle.

“I wanna rest” I declared, allowing my weary body to sprawl across the cold chamber floor. 'A bed would be nice right about now. A hot bath, too,' Sigh, I couldn't help but fantasize.

As Elara got up, heading towards the center of the chamber, I couldn't help but ask, “Where are you going?” She flashed her broken short sword in response, “Repair fees” she replied, making her way towards the scattered gold.

‘I should get some too’ I thought. Seeing Elara take her fair share of the loot, I decided it was time for me to claim my own 'trauma care fee'. With a flick of my wrist, I magically floated some coins into my pouch. The soft clinking sound of gold meeting gold felt oddly satisfying. 'That's better’ I thought as I contently inspected my newfound fortune, fantasizing at the possibilities money can bring. ‘If only I had a bigger pouch.’

We all allowed ourselves a good period of rest, everyone collecting an extra ‘something fee’ while chatting about life. Rurik took the opportunity to rummage through his pack, kindly pulling out some emergency dried rations for us to eat.

“...” it's bland and dry, I don't want to eat…

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Our rest was interrupted short by the realization that we forgot about the archaeologist. We had left him outside the chamber while we fought. ‘Is he safe?’ We should have cleared everything already, but there's no telling for sure. A wave of anxiety washed over us. Us employees slacking off and having a good time had completely forgotten about the boss and made him wait.

Finn sighed, stuffing one last coin in his pocket before standing up. "I guess we should go and check on him."

We gathered our stuff, our bodies still slightly groaning in protest as we stood. The more I rested, the less I wanted to move. After using our combined strength to push open the large chamber doors, we found that he's not there. Anxiety washed over us like a wave as we hurriedly began our search, tracing through the any and all routes to find him. We started searching the labyrinth complex, calling out for him. Relief only washed over us as we finally found him in one of the smaller rooms, busily stuffing a pile of artifacts into a sack on his back. He had somehow gotten a giant sack, and instead of filling it with the countless gold and treasures, he was instead stuffing it with useless clay pots and rusty ornaments.

"Oh, you're back! And all alive!" he exclaimed, his face lighting up in relief. "I found some fantastic artifacts here, quickly help me put them in. Look at these glyphs, they’re ancient! And look at this plate, the intricately etched designs and their deep colours are indicative of secret ancient arts!”

While the archaeologist continued to babble about the historical significance of his findings and how it was sure to revolutionize the world, we made our way back to the main chamber. We had found what we believed to be the exit during our looting earlier. Underneath the sarcophagus’ pedestal in the center was a tight stairwell leading to a small room. This room was suspiciously identical to the room containing the teleport trap, so we hypothesized that this would be another teleport room/trap. Well hopefully not a trap.

"We don't know where it leads, it might be dangerous" Elara reasoned. I agreed. We didn't want to end up in another deadly predicament. But ultimately, the group voted in favour of trying it, it was our only option left after all as we had run out of food and water.

Right before we entered, the archaeologist suggested we bring the adamantite sarcophagus with us. Thinking ‘why not’, we went back and tried to carry it, but despite our best efforts, it was just too heavy to move and we couldn't crack it open either. In the end, we had to leave it. With one last look around the chamber, we entered the teleportation room. Finn, once again, was tasked with triggering the magic. “Why is it me?" He complained, a hint of annoyance in his voice. Before anyone could answer, he had somehow accidentally activated the teleportation magic. Once again, mana swarmed before flashing brightly. In a blink of an eye, we were back at the first teleport trap room, where we were initially whisked away from.

Of course, everyone else is unconscious again.

‘I knew I could count on Finn.’

Quickly, I brought everyone back out to the adjacent room. I didn't want to risk the teleportation suddenly going off again and bringing us back to the labyrinth. Once everyone was out and I double checked that they were alive and well, I found a place to sit and waited for them to wake up.