Obligatory Harem Shenanigans 2: The Continuing “Adventures”
Chapter 70
In the early hours of the morning, the hero party found themselves facing what looked suspiciously like a mundane mine. According to the peasant who'd supplied them with the map, that was precisely what it was, but they'd expected something more.
The entrance was undoubtedly fancier than the average mine with a stone platform and roof. Things that would have been absent or made of wood in other places. Nothing to get too excited about.
"Maybe this isn't a dungeon?" Mina asked as she walked inside.
"What makes you think that?" Andrea asked sharply.
"It might not be, but there's little chance that an artifact-level light stone came from a normal mine… Even an ancient one like this," Lillian interjected. The three ladies glared at each other before realizing that Reiner was still walking. They all hurried to catch up to him.
"What do you mean ancient?" Andrea asked sharply.
"Exactly what I said. See how smooth the pillars are without any joining? They had to have been carved by magical means. No one would have bothered with that for something like a mine. Not after the fall of the mage kingdom," Lillian replied. She was distracted, running a hand over a pillar. As if looking for some clue as to how it had been made originally.
"Right? The other ones always felt like dungeons. They just dripped with this kind of hot Doritos breath malice, like a net troll on a tirade," Mina said disbelievingly. Andrea blinked, only able to make out half of what was said.
There had been a pattern when they had previously been sent to deal with a few small dungeons. Usually, a grand entrance of some kind would lead to a maze filled to the brim with traps and monsters. But, after walking for an hour and encountering nothing of note, their expectations were entirely in tatters.
"Reiner, it's possible that Mina was correct. The light stone might have been a fluke," Lillian offered reluctantly. They had only been able to navigate the tunnels thus far, thanks to the relic in question. She'd hoped they'd find more, but that hope was fading.
"Possibly, but we've only scratched the surface according to the map. I want to at least make it as far as the farmers were able to before calling it quits," Reiner said offhandedly. His tone was almost harsh, and there was no trace of a smile on his face. He was also looking at a map none of the women had seen before.
"Reiner, where did that come from?" Andrea asked, the most forward of them as always.
"What? Oh, I found it while I was poking around the house. It looks like the family mapped a bit of the mine at some point," Reiner said casually.
Mina's expression scrunched up in annoyance though she couldn't say why. If it were anyone other than Reiner, she might have thought it was a dumb move to not mention the new map. Reiner was above reproach in her eyes, however, so that couldn't be it.
"Can I see it?" Mina asked. Reiner went to hand it to her, but they both flinched. Then, pulling it back, he held it so she could take a look rather than letting her have it. Andrea and Lillian both quickly joined in, unwilling to let Mina be closest to him.
Despite the crowding, they all eventually had a look and felt uneasy. Like the map leading to the valley, it was well done. Something that seemed unlikely since it wouldn't have had much utility to the one-legged ancestor supposedly responsible for the other one.
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"I'm not really comfortable with how easy this all seems. Like that guy had total NPC vibes with how he just handed us a sack of coins like that was normal," Mina said.
"In pee sea? Whatever. Anway, that hit should have knocked him on his ass," Andrea chimed in with an undignified snort. The pair of them exchanged a long-suffering look and nodded in commiseration a split second before they were assailed by headaches. They jumped apart, then glared at each other once the pain stopped.
"Stromholt likely guided the young man to reward and sent us on our path," Lillian said dismissively. It was her stock answer, along with Stromholt works in mysterious ways.
"Lil's right. It would hardly be the first time someone just miraculously showed up to hand us directions," Reiner said bitterly. The party shared a look of commiseration. They really didn't want for rando's offering them stuff to do. They all flinched a bit, the impious thought vanishing from their minds.
"What were we…." Andrea asked, her train of thought lost. They all exchanged baffled looks. Reiner was the first to just shrug.
"Onward to adventure," Reiner said and started walking again. After two more hours of exploring, they finally arrived at something more in line with what they'd hoped to find.
The tunnel they'd been walking in opened into a large chamber with a slanted roof. A bright shaft of morning light spilled down to illuminate a grand entrance. The sight was enough to give the party pause, but Mina quickly noticed something odd.
Beyond the band of light, something faintly glowed. Stepping into the shadows, Mina found alcoves cut from floor to ceiling along the wall. On the floor of each was an unfamiliar and intricate magic array.
"Lillian, there's something magic and weird," Mina chirped. Magic was something she could use but not something she really understood on any deep level. Despite calling out to the cleric, it was Andrea who immediately went to take a look.
"These are arrays, right?" Andrea asked. She'd gone over to inspect one of the alcoves and immediately squatted down in a most unladylike fashion. She looked like she was ready to start poking things with a stick.
Lillian quickly joined her. As a cleric, it wasn't normal for her to be so well versed in general magic instead of holy, but she'd always felt it was something worth studying. Unfortunately, what she'd learned in the field didn't help her identify what she was looking at.
No, the only source for a positive identification came from the drawings of a heretic Lillian seen once by chance. Despite knowing what it was, she still sounded the magic, wanting to be wrong. It took a great deal of self-control to only collapse to the point where she was sitting flat on the floor instead of passing out.
"It's a teleportation circle… an active one," Lilian said faintly.
"That means this could be a ruin, right?" Mina asked. Lillian just nodded mutely in reply. Mina couldn't remember when, but she knew they'd talked about ruins at some point. It had been a friendly conversation. That brought on a flicker of pain before she dismissed the idea. They might have talked, but she couldn't see it being anything more than coldly polite.
"Well, shall we begin?" Reiner asked, already heading down the stairs at the back of the room. All three women looked at him in irritation before feeling a jag of pain and following after him quickly.
The stairs were broad and comfortably deep, hewn from the stone of the passageway with great skill. All that gave away their age was a slightly worn spot toward the middle that looked like it had been carved by the passage of countless feet over time.
"Man, back home, people would have killed for a countertop made of this stuff," Mina said, tapping the rose and gold marble of the passageway.
"Yes, your wonderful land full of magicless savages," Andrea said with a roll of her eyes. Mina flipped her off, but as they came to the next level, all hostility was forgotten. It looked like another section of the mine, but this one was lit by light stones. Damaged ones going by how they flickered or only glowed dully, but still light stones like the one they'd been lured by.
"Lillian… you said this was a relic. Are these?" Reiner asked, gesturing at the light fixtures. Lillian nodded, pale but still confident.
"Heh, looks like we hit the jackpot," Reiner said with a smile. It was genuine, if greedy, and stretched his mouth and reached his eyes. Seeing it, Andrea laughed and gave him a friendly slap on the shoulder, joining him for a moment.
"Right? Let's loot this bitch-" Mina joined in before grabbing her head. Everyone present was rocked by pain severe enough to make them falter and go to their knees. Reiner fought it but eventually grabbed the hilt of his sword. A few moments after that, the pain subsided, and they all got back to their feet.
"Well, let's continue our quest," Reiner said, smile gone and replaced by a parody of the genuine one. Everyone else agreed with vapid smiles.