CHAPTER 272 – FINDING TREASURE

They cleared three small caverns and a large one and then Everlyn, with mounting excitement led them down another of the monotonous tunnels. There were forks on the way, and she chose which one to take with visibly increasing confidence. “It should be just up ahead.”

Tom kept jogging, with his magic triggering the traps as they run. Not one, but two earth elementals augmented his senses and dealt with the more complicated traps themselves. The finer the components, the easier they were to sabotage. The familiar twist of the tunnel appeared ahead and his Earth Sense confirmed another cavern.

He stopped.

Everlyn was almost bouncing on the spot. “This is it.”

She scouted quickly. Confirmed the numbers and then they burst into the defended space with the usual tactics. Now they were confident that the sanatio’s chosen would save them, if they got in trouble, it was easier to accept larger risks. Like every cavern before, the monsters were grouped together, waiting for them. The golem got their attention. Then immediately blinded them with its dust storm. The monsters were distracted by the stone monstrosity in their midst and in their precious moments of not being under attack Tom launched his three prepared lightning balls while everyone else cast chaos bolts. The mass of magical strikes slammed into the dust storm. Like usual, most of the chaos bolts failed to impress, creating no noticeable fireworks. They couldn’t fully see what was happening, but previous experience told them that even some of the apparent failed chaos bolts could kill the monsters they were targeting and the lightning balls would devastate them.

The second volley of attacks was launched. Tom spotted one, leaving Thor’s hand out of the corner of his eyes. The intense blue sent a warning screaming through him. Whatever version of chaos bolt he had created it was filled with genuine power and was going to land too close to the golem… To close to all of them if he was being honest. The blowbacks from that spell was going to hurt them even with them standing more than twenty metres away.

At the speed of thought, his warning reached the control orb and commanded it to act.

The dust storm, instead of spreading out as normal artificially constricted inward to form a dense shield around his golem. That was an effect he had personally designed and programmed. It then leapt away from the impact zone without regard for the attacks the kobolds were landing. Tom knew it would suffer more damage than usual because of the incautious movement, but he didn’t care. Whatever Thor had launched… he needed the golem clear or else it risked being destroyed.

The magic struck two metres from where the golem been and almost five from its new position.

It erupted like the dawning of the sun.

Instinctively, he blinked and yanked his arm up to cover his eyes. There was a blast of heat and bits of molten stone that burned and stuck to him. Living Rock mitigated the largest piece. The shockwave that struck was powerful, and he burned a teleport to balance himself when he was thrown backwards. Next to him Harry lost his feet. Everlyn didn’t but was pushed a good two metres away from the blast. It didn’t stop her from continuing to fire her arrows.

“What the fuck was that?” Michael yelled. He too was scrambling to his feet having been knocked into the air by the more powerful blast because he had been closer to the epicentre. That entire group had been wiped out with the exception of Thor. The kobolds were mostly dead, and those that had survived were battered and bruised. He threw a lightning spear at one that had rolled to only be a few metres from him..

Crack!

One of the shaman’s who had weathered the explosion courtesy of its shield tumbled backwards with an arrow in its eye. All the humans been shaken up by the detonation, but none of them waiting away. Keikain killed two on his side. Toni ran towards the impact site and the intense heat from the molten stone. Her hands waved furiously the whole way as they released blades of air that finished the stunned kobolds. Harry sprinted at another and impaled in with his spear. His low rank, and lack of skills were not an issue when he targeted and existing wound that let him thrust his spear all the way through the heart.

Within ten seconds of the explosion, they had overwhelmed the surviving kobolds.

Tom checked on his golem. Two of its legs were melted and part of its body, but the damage was mostly superficial. “Keikain?” he asked.

“Fine.” The earth mage walked over and started repairing the damaged. A middle and a small also joined him. Apparently golem magic or earth was a hobby of those two, and they enjoyed patching the golem up after these sorts of battles.

“Thor, did you use Fate?” Michael asked in an accusing tone, rounding on the other man.

The big man shook his head furiously. His eyes went unfocused. “Nope, it randomly popped out a tier four spell.”

“We need to communicate its existence more aggressively.” Clare stated matter of fact. “Chaos bolt is too powerful for us not to spread word of its existence far and wide.”

“I’ve been sending dozens of notes every break.” Thor answered. “Like enough that it’s a line item in our daily costs. Posting the letters isn’t cheap.”

Clare was going from person to person to peel off the molten stone and heal them. “Have we got anything back. Confirmation that it’s gone through, that they’ve read it. Selena’s stuff didn’t make it. Are we sure our is?”

“I don’t know.” Thor admitted. “We haven’t been getting much confirmation.” His face wrinkled in annoyance. “Two thank-you notes from a couple of hundred messages. It’s possible people don’t want to waste the credits on an empty gesture… but with only two responses, I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re getting pruned like Selena’s ones were. But if it’s happening, then there’s nothing I can do about it. I haven’t even alluded to the synergy with fate.”

“Maybe you can try more targeted versions.” Michael suggested. “Notes that just say chaos bolt is the best spell available for humans and you should get it and practice with it.”

“I’ve sent stuff like that.”

“It’s here, it’s here,” Everlyn called out. “I knew it. You can see it up there. The stone is a different shade.”

To his eyes it was the same, but he was not stupid enough to doubt Everlyn on a topic like this. He wandered over until he stood right under the spot she had identified. Earth sense had the range to just reach the roof. He paced in widening circles under the area and probed the stone as he did so.

Everlyn was not mistaken. A patch of the roof with similar dimensions to all of the tunnels in this zone was made of a different type of rock to the rest of the ceiling. It was softer, like hardened sand as opposed to actual rock. A single blow could shatter it. “You’re right. It’s a clear door patched with some form of packed sand. We could bring it down by throwing stuff at it but I’ll climb the wall and use Earth Manipulation. It’ll be easier.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

He went up to the stone wall and started to climb. His target, luckily, wasn’t in the middle of the cavern but close to the wall, so he wouldn’t have to monkey across the ceiling. The wall that appeared solid from a distance was anything but. There was a series of loose rocks that if he tried to grab them the supports would crack and they’d be dislodged. It was a nasty climbing surface, but Earth Sense spotted all those flaws and without even realising it he avoided those sections by climbing diagonally and then reversing direction when required to maintain a trajectory that was mostly vertical. In short order, he was close enough for his Remote Earth Manipulation to go to work.

He looked down at the others. He was a long way up, but he was not scared. His vitality was at a point where he would survive a fall, providing he didn’t land on his neck. Cats could do it on earth and with his increased attributes he could do the same on Existentia.

Everyone had cleared the space directly under his target. Everlyn must have been telling them where they weren’t allowed to stand. Now that he was closer, Tom could sense that tunnel that extended up and sideways beyond the plug. His range wasn’t sufficient to spy on the tunnels destination, but it was clearly the hiding spot of a treasure and he could barely wait to get up and see what their spoils were.

With a thought, he eroded the join between the fake stone and the real stuff. The plug fell mostly intact before it crashed on the stone far below them and exploded out in a cloud of dust. With a crackle of energy, the elder did something and the sand and grit was whipped away to pile in the corner rather than raising as an annoying and messy cloud of material.

The very visible entrance to the tunnel was revealed. Tom kept climbing.

“Told you.” Everlyn yelled out. She lifted her bow, which had a rope tied to a physical arrow.

Crack.

The arrow shot up and the glowing physical arrow buried itself into solid stone and the roof of the tunnel. With a happy smile, she pulled on it experimentally to confirm it was in tight and then climbed the rope with explosive power and speed like someone on one of the ninja shows used to do on Earth. She had forty metres to climb, and it took her under ten seconds.

It didn’t help her. Tom was closer, and when he saw her coming, he sped up. It was childish, but fun. His fingers digging deep into the stone and allowing him to perform a similar inhumane feat of acrobatics. He beat her into the tunnel, which, after the entrance was a flat surface.

She was grinning with excitement and the moment she was clear of the rope. The others followed, most of them were slightly slower but compared to earth they were still impressively fast.

“I’ve strengthened the connection,” he called out to them. “It will support multiple people at once.”

They gathered in the tunnel, casting suspicious looks at the hole they had come through, which was basically an open pitfall from this position. Then together they walked along the passage. There were no monsters and after following the slightly curving tunnel they a reached a room that was only about twice as wide as the passage that had brought them. It was a strange structure with the entrance dominating over half a wall.

A single loot portal filled the middle of it.

Everlyn approached the magic flames and then stopped. “We agreed to the order with the straw drawing.” She stated.

“I wasn’t part of that.” Tom grumbled good-naturedly, even if he was happy with his position of sixth. He was confident they would find six more of these rooms, but was not convinced that there would be an eighth or a ninth, so Michael and Rahmat who were behind him might miss out. Being lower on the list was a bonus because there was a chance that the power of the treasure would increase with each level. In which case, he would get a prize from one of the inner rings that would be far more valuable than Harry’s reward here.

He had to wait, but as far as he was concerned he had the prime position.

“You were asleep.” Michael told him. “If you weren’t so useless and sleeping all the time, you would have drawn your own straw.” The healer chuckled and slapped him on the back. “Luckily, I was supervising it on your behalf and can confirm it was fairly done.”

“As I was saying, we have an agreed order.” Everlyn continued, frostily. “I want to confirm that we’re all happy with the process. It’s quite possible that this will be the only time Harry gets an item and that it’ll be the weakest awarded. I want to make sure everyone understands that and now that there is one portal instead of two that they’re still happy with the arrangement.”

“It was done by random draw,” Michael said. “We’re not renegotiating a new order.” He glanced around and examined every one’s face. “Not that anyone wants to. We agreed to the process, and that’s what we’re sticking with. Your position,” he faced Everlyn. “Is the only grey matter.”

She shook her head furiously. “No, no, I’m happy to take the first and tenth slot. It’s fair. I recognised the risk of taking the earlier treasure when I did so.” She frowned. “I knew it might backfire, both if it was exclusive and second if this sort of situation arose. To be honest, I still think my decision was the right one because coming to get you and doing a straw draw would have cost too much time. But it’s done and the result we’ve got is equitable. Hopefully, I’ll get something in the last zone and won’t be stuck with my lacklustre gloves.” She grinned proudly at them as she called them out.

“Then we agree.” Michael gestured for Harry to approach the portal. “I don’t want to hear any bitching going forward. And yes, Thor, old people are allowed to say the word bitching.”

They chuckled and then the Ritualist shoved his hand into the portal. He felt around for only a moment before he pulled out what looked like a small stake. It was as long as a forearm and the point was not particularly sharp.

There was a crackle, and the portal collapsed.

“Damn,” Everlyn whispered. “I was half hoping that it would have two items in it.”

Harry meanwhile was examining the stake. His fingers tracing across its surface a look of wonder on his face. “Tailored just like with Everlyn. This is…” he smiled with genuine joy as he gripped the spike like he was going to drive it into something. “It’s a focus for ritual casting. Tier four like Everlyn’s gloves so I can’t conclusively state it’s more powerful, but I think it is. Not only does it amplify magic channelled through it and provide enhanced energy control there are a number of discrete enhancements on it as well. One that improves concentration, a high levelled shield to protect me when casting and a visualisation buff to aid the carving of advanced rituals.”

“Can it be used for non-physical runes?” Tom asked.

“Yes. It’s the point,” Harry poked the dull end. “It can resonate to different planes.” The tip seemed to shiver, and the ritualist carved something in the air that was invisible to them. But they could feel the pressure it generated. “It’s amazing.”

Everlyn was studying the object in fascination. “I think you’re right. It’s clearly better than my gloves.” She was flicking her eyes rapidly between the two of them. “Possibly not twice as good, but fifty, maybe seventy percent, more valuable.”

“Yeah, that’s my feel too,” Harry admitted.

“The treasure portals are getting more powerful.” Michael said with a broad smile. “We definitely need to prioritise them. Even in this layer, they’re a big positive. And it’s not because I’m number nine and prioritising them is the only way I get anything… Well, not fully for that reason. They’re a great powerup for everyone who gets to use it.”

Everlyn nodded vigorously. “We’ll find ten of them and, providing we can clear three or four zones in each layer. There’s another treasure on this level. It’s two complete zones away, but we can reach it and grab it if we push.”

“Which means we need to do better than four days per zone.” Michael said, grimly. “We’re ahead of the pace on this one, so we’ve got a chance.”

They returned to the sanatios chosen, each of them sliding effortlessly down the rope and a lesser elemental softened the rock to release the arrow once they were all down. They continued clearing the area. Everlyn was not leading them randomly. She was clearly targeting supply caches and while Tom was triggering traps, she had spent half her time consulting her memory crystal.

“What are you focused on?” Tom asked her. “Are you trying to see if there is another type of treasure room.”

“Nah, nothing so sexy only route optimisation. I want to maximise ore and get us to the exit just as we get the final pieces we all need. I’m hopeful of doing it on the third day around lunch.”

Tom nodded. The zone was not easy but with the massive cheat of the map they could short circuit a lot of the more difficult battles.

Six hours later, they settled in to a cavern for the night. Tom grabbed dried food and munched on it without waiting for Keikain to cook dinner. He needed to get to sleep and make sure everyone was surviving.

“Tom,” he looked up in surprise. Keikain came over with Everlyn in toe. “Before you crash, we need to talk.”