The other room was the same size and shape as the bedroom except that it had another doorway directly across from the entrance. Like an area of a hallway had been expanded into a room. All of the walls in this room were covered by shelves with long tables running alongside the center walkway to either side holding more shelves beneath them. The shelves were about half full and contained lots of raw materials. The largest section held rolls of tanned and treated leathers, another held raw hides, another metal plates and ingots, another plants and another gemstones. There were also miscellaneous goods strewn about like string, laces, cloth and scraps from everything.
Alan was the first to walk into the room, he inspected the doorway then looked to Felix who just shrugged as he didn't see nor feel anything. After inspecting every surface in the room, he beckoned everyone else inside but told them to wait so he could see if the goods on the shelves were trapped. After a few minutes, it seemed the room was perfectly safe, both Alan and Felix's novice inspection having revealed no traps whatsoever.
The materials on the shelves were mostly raw materials which would only be moderately valuable so neither Benjamin, Alan nor Will bothered picking any of it up. Their inventory space was better used holding treasures for now. Felix didn't have that problem so he picked everything up, stowing the entirety of the room in his inventory as the other three watched with just a smidge of bitterness and envy. Felix offered them a shrug when he was done and they all walked towards the next room.
They walked towards a room that was at least twice as big as the other rooms in width on top of being longer. The room contained 4 total entrances along with an anvil, two tanning racks and 5 tables of various sizes. One was just in front of the tanning rack and had leatherworking attachments such as clamps, knives and punches. The other desks were placed on the right side of the room and were more general purpose with no attachments bolted onto them. Alan inspected the entryway followed by Felix and then they all walked into the room one by one. There were a few materials scattered about but other than those, it appeared to be an empty workshop.
Walking into the room gave them a view into either of the side rooms, both of which had large metal doors just half a meter into the hallways. The doors had no gaps around them and no visible hinges, handles or key holes whatsoever. They were simply flat panels of metal. If it weren't for the fact that they were a different material than the walls, they might not have realized they were doors at all. Felix picked up the loose materials and added them to his growing collection of random crap that may or may not be useful in the future. Will and Alan inspected the metal door on the right while Benjamin walked forwards and looked down a short stairway into the room across from where they entered.
"Hey Felix, any idea how to get these open?" Will called out.
Felix walked up the door on the left and inspected it with every sense he had. He couldn't find anything that even indicated it was a door, his best bet was that it slid to the side into the wall due to the lack of hinges. Applying a decent amount of force through a simple spell form, the door didn't budge in any direction, to the side, up, down, in or out.
"No idea." Felix responded.
Felix heard a groan from behind him followed by Benjamin's voice, "Do we just move on and come back for them later? Hope we find a key or something down the road?"
"Guess so." Will called out as he stepped over next to Benjamin.
Alan looked around at the door one last time then begrudgingly turned around and began inspecting the stairway into the rest of the dungeon. Felix joined him a few moments later and performed his own inspection. The next room, at the bottom of the short stairway, seemed to be just a small empty room. Given that there was no furniture in the room, he began firing off Force Bombs to test for pressure activated traps causing the other three to jump back at first.
"That's… rather crude. Seems like a waste." Alan said with a raised eyebrow.
"Costs me basically nothing and it's been decently effective so far."
"Genius." Will muttered under his breath, eyes wide.
Alan looked back at him with disgust painted all over his face and just shook his head.
"What about magical traps though?" Alan asked through a sigh.
"Already checked, don't sense anything." Felix shrugged then walked into the room.
Benjamin reached out to stop him but wasn't fast enough, Felix having already stepped down a few steps into the room. Walking forwards, there didn't seem to be anything in this room, if it was even a room at all. It was barely wider than the hallway and had two stairways leading upwards and outwards on opposite sides of the far end. Other than that, the walls were the same as the other rooms had been, the tiles the same pattern, everything seemed perfectly uniform and normal.
Felix turned back to the others who had now cautiously joined him in the room and began inspecting the walls and floor for themselves. Felix walked to the far end and stepped up a few stairs to get an idea of what was in the next room. Looking up though, the stairs veered off to the side, further into the dungeon, so he turned back to rejoin the others. Alan was intently staring at the left wall, Will and Benjamin simply waiting. Felix walked up next to him and inspected the wall without getting in his way. Upon closer inspection, the wall seemed perfectly normal, some of the bricks were discolored but nothing extreme and with no apparent pattern. Felix opened his mouth to ask Alan what he was seeing but quickly closed it, deciding not to interrupt.
After a few minutes Alan reached his hand up and lightly brushed his fingers across a brick then pushed on it. The brick depressed into the stone almost to the depth of Alan's fingers producing a low stone on stone grumbling noise. Felix was half expecting this to happen, the other half expecting Alan to just shrug and walk away. He was definitely happy that he had found something though because he was starting to worry that this vault was either huge or that they were missing a lot.
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After Alan fully depressed the brick, a faint click echoed through the room, then nothing. Felix expected Alan to come up with something clever and offer them all a smirk but he just turned to them and shrugged. Luckily, the faint click noise was accompanied by a slight tingle in the back of Felix's mind, he had felt mana move in the wall to the side and down from the brick Alan had found. He created a quick force spell with just a minute amount of force and targeted it at the wall then activated it. A large rectangle of bricks slightly larger than a normal door shifted and pivoted inwards just a centimeter or so revealing the door and passageway beyond.
"Guess it just takes a few seconds." Benjamin said pointing at the wall behind Alan.
Alan spun around and his eyes lit up then he pushed on the disguised door, fully opening it. Behind the door the passageway was dark, Benjamin's torch only reaching so far. Instead of making Benjamin walk up to the hidden passage, incase it was trapped, Felix created a quick light spell and floated it into the passageway.
"That is damn useful. The more time I spend around you, the more I think I should dabble in magic." Benjamin said shaking his head.
"It's just a light." Felix shrugged.
"Yeah but you can move it around, meanwhile I gotta carry this damned torch around with me. In a fight I have to drop it and just deal with the shitty lighting." Benjamin ranted.
"I'm sure we can find a magic item to fix that. Light is not very difficult. Actually, come to think of it, I can probably enchant something to have the same effect if you'd like." Felix said.
"I hadn't even thought about that. Could I get like a ball of light above my head?" Benjamin asked.
"Yeah, that should be doable. In that case, it's probably easiest to put it on a helmet." Felix said.
"Sounds good to me. After this vault? You can keep that light up if we get into a fight, right?" Benjamin asked.
"Yes to both." Felix nodded.
Turning their attention back to the newly revealed passageway, Alan had already disappeared around the corner, Will standing in the hall peeking off to the side.
"Is it safe to enter?" Benjamin called out.
"No need." Will responded immediately, "Wanna make sure it isn't magically trapped though Felix?"
Felix nodded and walked in the passageway, turning left ninety degrees and immediately understanding. The hall ended after just a few meters into a tiny room just a few meters across. Right in the middle of the room was a wooden armor stand equipped with what appeared to be the hide of a badger. Alan was already closely inspecting it, without touching it, so Felix felt safe to walk right up to it. The armor looked like a fur coat from back on earth with matching pants all made from a badger or something else with similarly colored fur. It wasn't just loose like a jacket might be though, instead it was tailored to be fitted like leather armor would be.
[D - Rare] Blade Defense Coat
[Regenerative]
This set of leather armor was crafted from the hide of a creature known for it's tough fur. The hairs that make up it's coat are tough and resilient like metal wire and serve as very efficient protection against the claws of other beasts.
This set of leather armor is particularly resilient against all forms of slashing damage within the D grade.
Felix shared the identification with Alan then began doing his best to examine it for any kind of magical traps. To the best of his knowledge, it was completely safe but he didn't trust his own novice inspection enough to risk other people's lives.
"Doesn't look trapped to me but how about you walk out into the hall and let me take it off. I should be able to protect myself if it is trapped." Felix offered to Alan.
"Aren't you a caster? A squishy? What happens if the door suddenly shuts and traps you in here? How about we both exit the room and use a rope to pull the armor out, just in case." Alan offered.
"Sure, we're going to need to sever the armor stand from the floor though."
"Can you accomplish that with a spell?"
"Maybe. Let's give it a shot."
Alan pulled a long rope from his inventory and began carefully tying one end around the armor then walked back into the hall, tracing the rest of the rope behind him. Felix walked back to the turn in the hallway and created a giant Mana Bolt spell aiming it very carefully at the post holding the armor stand up. He left the spell form floating in the air then carefully walked back into the main chamber, rejoining Alan, Benjamin and Will. As he walked, he still felt the spell floating in the air, a dozen meters in front of him. He felt his connection to it weaken as he gained distance, but it never quite dissipated.
Once everything was ready, he slowly filled the spell with mana, which felt about as awkward as when he had initially learned to cast spells way back in the first puzzle dungeon. Eventually though, it had evidently cast judging from the massive boom and splintering sound echoing out of the room. Alan began pulling on the rope and, after a few tugs when it got caught, the armor on a now shattered armor stand began dragging along the ground towards them.
Felix was the first to walk up, reaching around a Mana Shield between his torso and the armor to pull it free. Turns out, all of their caution had been for naught as neither the armor, the room, nor the armor stand itself seemed to be trapped in any way. Once the armor was free, Felix handed it to Alan who was standing the closest to him. He inspected it a few times then handed it to Benjamin, sharing the identification as he did so.
"Not gonna claim this one?" Benjamin asked as he looked over the armor set.
"I want to see what else is in here first." Alan said.
"Good call. Nice armor though." Benjamin said. Will had walked over and inspected the armor while Benjamin held it too. Once they were both done, Benjamin stowed the armor. Alan was already staring at the opposite wall, finding a particular brick once again and pushing it in in just a few seconds this time. After the faint clicking noise, Alan pushed on the wall and another hidden passageway revealed itself. With the assistance of a floating light spell, he inspected the hallway and around the corner then turned back and rejoined the others.
"That one looks like a larger room. I think we should head back into the previous room first though. I want to check something in there." Alan said.
The others followed him back into the workshop room where he was looking around at the walls.
"Felix, could you get rid of all the furniture?" Alan asked.
"Sure thing." Felix said.
He walked through the room and touched everything that wasn't wall or floor, stowing it in his inventory and leaving the room completely empty. Alan walked along the walls, inspecting them shortly finding another hidden room just to the left of them, next to one of the metal doors they couldn't open. It had been hidden behind a large work table before, now that the room was empty, it was much easier for Alan to spot.
"How are you finding all of these? How high is your Perception?" Felix asked, wondering how much higher it could be than his own given that Alan's level was just 132 overall, compared to his 163.
"Just a couple thousand. I have a skill though, hunter's intuition. The first one was like an itch at the back of my mind. Once I found that, the skill helped me see the other's. It's mostly for finding and following beast tracks, that kinda thing." Alan shrugged as he inspected the hidden passageway.
Just a couple thousand. I have about 4 times that when I cycle energy.
More and more it seems like skills are what really matter.
At least, matter more than stats.
Yeah. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .