“But this is impossible!” Elman cried. “It must be some trick! How can a chestful of treasure appear out of thin air?”

“It’s not a trick,” Zorea said quietly. “It’s our reward.”

“Our reward?” Elman protested. “Our reward for what?”

At that moment, something strange happened. Saul felt a pressure on his magical senses, a kind of request, like searching hands feeling out to take something he held. The sensation was unsettling, but it wasn’t unpleasant.

He frowned, and then sensed that what was being requested was for the Light Globe to be dismissed.

“Very well,” he said. With a shrug, he deactivated the spell, not imagining anything would come of it.

“Whoa!” he said in surprise as he did so. A sensation he’d never encountered before swept over him.

“What?” the others asked.

“It was the strangest thing,” Saul explained. “Normally, when I deactivate a spell, I feel the energy of the magic coming back into me, like water soaking into a sponge. But that time, I felt the energy of the spell going out of me, as if it was sucked into the very essence of this place. It was an odd feeling, and I don’t think I like it.”

As he spoke, he had the same questing sensation around the two golems who still stood placidly awaiting orders from him.

“Ah, I think not,” he said aloud. “You can have the Light Globe, but I’m keeping the golems.”

The questing removed itself, and Saul had the distinct impression that the withdrawal was done rather sulkily. Whatever was in this chamber absorbing magic energy had a definite presence, and it was very keen, apparently, on consuming the energy from Saul’s spells.

Quickly, he explained the sensation to the others.

Zorea nodded slowly. “I think,” She said, “there is some kind of spirit that has a level of control over what happens in the chamber. It would make sense to me that such a being would be able to absorb the energy from a magician’s spells.”

“And that would be all very well if the energy from a magician’s spell came directly from the elemental gods,” he said. “In that case, there would be no lack of energy to be spent. But my magic is different. As far as I can tell, my System is powered by Sigils within the System itself. Those Sigils are the source of the energy that I use for spells; that’s how Sigils work. They are power sources and containers for magic, and the System is just a highly sophisticated application of that magical technology.”

“But Sigils are not an infinite energy source,” Brand put in. “You’re saying that your System has a fixed amount of magical power within it?”

“That’s right,” Saul said. “When I deactivate a spell I’ve cast, I reabsorb the energy from the magic, and it gets recycled back into the System as raw material for future spells. I can’t afford to be using the magical energies of the System to feed some hungry tomb spirit, however much it might appreciate the gift.”

Zorea nodded, her eyes brightening as the pieces came together in her mind. “I think that is just the way of it,” she said. “Think about how magic used to work, back in the days when this chamber was built. They used old-world magic, and though the records of their civilization are lost, some understanding of their magic remains. That old-world magic is the tradition I’ve inherited through my mentor, Nala, and it’s the magic that our nemesis the Jorogumo used back at Tall Tree pool in the battle of Jillin.”

Saul listened intently. “Go on, Zorea,” he urged.

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“In old-world magic, people power spells from their own internal reserves, and those reserves replenish themselves naturally over time. It would make perfect sense for some kind of entity to develop in those days that could feed on such an energy source.”

“Such a long time ago since old-world magic has been widely practiced,” Brand mused. “The poor spirit must be awfully hungry.”

“Well, it’s had a good snack now at least,” Saul said brusquely. He wasn’t about to start feeding the spirit his reserves, however hungry it might be.

“Elman, are you all right?” he said with sudden concern.

The armsmaster had sagged and staggered a few feet forward, putting out a hand to lean on the wall and support himself. “I feel…drained…” he said in a hoarse voice. His face was pale, and he looked sick.

“Get him out of the chamber,” Saul said to Brand. “We’ve lingered here too long.”

Brand and Zorea each took an arm and hustled Elman out through the unblocked exit. As soon as he got out of the chamber, he recovered a little. Saul leaned over the chest of treasure and put his hand to it, opening the System scan options. The inventory that came with the Squad magic gave him the ability to place items directly into the inventory from the real world.

First, he scanned the treasure chest with the System.

Item: Dungeon Loot

Class: Misc. Items

Type: Ancient Treasure

Select: Add to Inventory

He selected the option Add to Inventory and the box immediately vanished. He felt it being absorbed into the System, ready to be pulled out again at a moment’s notice. Of course, Saul had no particular need for a box full of gold coins and jewels. As Thane of Jillin, he had a stipend from the queen of Xorn and a share of all the food resources of the town. He wasn’t in this world to be rich but to learn magic and defeat the elemental gods.

However, he reflected that a use could always be found for riches, and so he slipped the chest into the inventory and glanced over his shoulder as he left the chamber, following his friends and his summoned creatures.

As he looked over his shoulder, he saw something odd. The blue light which had first shone from the alcoves and had constructed the skeleton fighters from the bone piles had made an appearance again. Now, the light was working around the piles of bones that had been left after the battle.

For a moment, Saul thought that the skeletons were being put back together and would be ordered to attack him and his friends again, but it wasn’t the case. Instead, the blue light picked the bones up and carefully squirreled them back away into their alcoves.

Saul frowned, shook his head, and then headed for the exit.

“Dungeon loot,” he muttered under his breath as he went. “The System said that the chest was Dungeon Loot. I never heard the phrase before but, somehow, it sounds right. There’s something going on here that I don’t fully understand.”

When Saul rejoined his friends in the corridor, Elman felt better. “I felt drained all of a sudden,” the armsmaster said, “as if the very life had gone out of me.”

Saul frowned, but then what he’d been saying just before Elman had felt ill came back to him.

“The energy of the spell!” he cried. “That’s why you felt unwell!”

“What do you mean?” Elman asked.

“You were the only person apart from me who used magic in the chamber. Brand and Zorea saw that your fire spell wasn’t effective against the skeletons, so we didn’t bother using their spells.”

“That’s right,” the armsmaster said thoughtfully. “But I only dismissed my spell at the end of the fight, just before the treasure chest appeared.”

“Exactly,” Saul said. “And whatever is in that chamber feeds on the energy that comes from dismissed or finished magic spells.”

“But our way of doing magic is not designed for that,” Zorea added. “Our Squad magic is based on the placement of a body Sigil that comes direct from the System. It’s based on power drawn from inside your System and, as we were saying a moment ago, that magic doesn’t naturally replenish itself.”

“I see it now,” Elman said. “I’m still new to this magic game, but I’m beginning to understand. So, that spirit, or whatever it is, that’s in charge of the chamber, ate the magic energy from my spell, and that’s what made me feel washed out. But I feel okay now…” he added thoughtfully.

“And that’s another thing,” Saul said. “I felt the energy from my System going out to replenish your Body Sigil, Elman. I didn’t realize what it was, but just at the end of the battle there, when you left the chamber, I felt it happen.”

He thought for a moment. “We will have to be very careful. A spirit like the one in that chamber could eat a System user whole without even meaning to. It could drain all the energy out of his System, and I don’t imagine that the user would survive much longer after that.”

They looked at each other worriedly. “You know what this means?” Saul asked.

Brand nodded. “It means that if we have to fight more creatures under the control of that spirit, we can’t rely on System magic to help us out. We don’t know what will happen if we keep casting spells and the spirit just consumes them.”

“Come on,” Saul said. “Let’s move on from here. Whatever happens, we can’t go back the way we came.”