“Ah, just let me smack him Liza!” exclaimed Eliot.

“No means no.”

“What if Boro ate the golem’s joints? Without arms or legs, he wouldn’t be much of a threat.” suggested Ben.

The dragon flew across the air and used his tail to slap Ben’s face. It was like he was saying What? Do you want me to eat mud? Are you crazy? Seeing Boro flying around like that surprised Fang Chu. Liza, on the other hand, facepalmed. They were hiding it so well before…

“Ouch! Sorry, my bad! I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to disarm the golem anymore!” exclaimed Ben as he massaged his cheek while being stared down by the dragon.

“That explains why he managed to climb that ogre so easily. He wasn’t climbing at all! He just flew there. Impressive stuff. I knew your tamed monster couldn’t be just a regular old serpent,” said Fang Chu.

Boro glared at Fang Chu through narrowed eyes and snorted. Now that he could understand the spoken word, he didn’t like being called tamed monster or pet. He could bear with it when needed, as was the case when they were in a village or town, but that was it. Even then, it was only possible on those occasions because Liza explained to him that he was too awesome for their own good. They would find themselves in all kinds of troubles if people found out more about him. That whole talk left Boro feeling quite smug for a while.

“Oh? Did I offend him somehow?”

“He doesn’t like being called a tamed monster or pet. He’s our companion,” said Liza. Her eyes that had casted away her suspicions of Fang Chu were serious once again.

The redhead could easily notice the immediate change in the atmosphere. It was surprising to her that Boro could understand the spoken language, but that wasn’t important right now. She needed to make sure that her recently earned trust from the group wouldn’t melt away due to a misunderstanding.

“I’m terribly sorry then, I hope you pardon me Boro. You also don’t need to keep looking at me like that Liza. The only one I’m interested in stealing from you is Ben,” she said candidly.

Ben instantly blushed. Although he knew she was talking about her desire of taking him as a pupil, the way she said it was too suggestive. Liza laughed and then relaxed. She could see Fang Chu was just genuinely surprised about Boro and nothing else. There was no greed in her eyes.

“Let’s get back on topic. What should we do about the golem?” asked Ben in an attempt to change the conversation and dispel the awkward mood.

“I was thinking of a couple ideas, but maybe yours is the easiest,” said Liza.

Boro looked at Liza in astonishment.

[Look at his face! It’s like he’s saying Et tu, Brute?] Ben laughed inwardly.

Liza patted the dragon lovingly. “Don’t worry Boro, I’m not going to ask you to do it. I’ve something else in mind. Say, Fang Chu, you’re rather well-off… could you lend me forty gold?” asked Liza shamelessly.

At this point she didn’t feel awkward about asking for money. Fang Chu wasn’t really nobility and although she was technically their employer for this task, Liza could no longer see her as such. As of now she treated the other more like a friendly acquaintance.

The redhead pondered for a few seconds and nodded. “Sure, but I don’t want you to pay me back. I’d rather you let me continue travelling with you until I’m satisfied.”

Upon hearing this, Ben was delighted but also feeling shameful. He just couldn’t accept Fang Chu’s proposition no matter what. He wanted to be a mage. Nay, he needed to be a mage. That is, unless he was fine with being stuck in Flanac forever.

“Fang Chu, I really can’t–” he started.

“I know, you don’t need to fret about it,” she laughed while cutting him off. “It’s just that staying with you guys for a bit looks interesting. You also seem to travel a lot and that suits me just fine. So, what do you guys think?”

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[Ouch! Awkward!] thought Liza.

[Ugh, that was a slap to my face. Of course, it’s not all about me. I was being completely delusional… how pathetic.]

[I’m not giving up yet! We barely know each other, so of course you refused. Maybe you do have a reason, but so what? That can change! I’ll just take it slowly for now and we’ll see. If it’s really impossible, I’ll just move on.]

[I’m kind of hungry.]

There was a brief period of silence while everyone was lost in their own thoughts. Liza contemplated everything she knew about Fang Chu and her attitude so far, then nodded her head. This was more than a great deal! It was perfect for them!

“You’re strong, wealthy and already helped us out in a dangerous situation. Never mind the money, I would’ve accepted it if you asked to join us straight away. But you can’t take the offer back, we really need the money to bypass the golem with ease.”

“No worries, take it.”

“Thanks. I’ll pay you back.”

“There’s no need, really.”

“I will, it’s not your choice.”

“All right, if it means this much to you,” Fang Chu shrugged.

“What do you want to buy with the gold?” asked Ben.

“Explosive arrows. The perforation arrows I’ve left could penetrate that golem, but unless I lucked out and managed to hit the core, it would do no damage at all.”

“That is indeed better than have Boro risk being squashed by the golem while being forced to scrap away at mud with his jaws.”

The five of them chose the opposite direction from the tomb and walked away. They would return to town and shop for what they needed before returning to explore the mausoleum again, better prepared this time.

As usual, Liza was walking ahead and clearing a path with her knife. This time however, Fang Chu was no longer being protected at the center of the formation. Ben was the one that took that spot, as he was the most vulnerable in the group. Around thirty minutes later, Liza who was slashing away mindlessly at the front hit an invisible barrier. That caught her so unprepared that the rebound almost made her stab Ben who was standing behind her.

“Woah, careful with that thing!”

“What’s going on? I just hit something.”

Liza used the knife and poked the air in front of her. As she expected, something was blocking her path. This confused her greatly. The way ahead was clearly visible, so what was preventing her from moving forward? She moved to the side a bit and tried a wide slash, but it was also blocked by something.

“Oh, what’s this? Looks interesting,” said Fang Chu.

The redhead walked to the front and extended her arm forward. She could feel a strong force repelling her hand backwards. Taking a wide stance, she let out a powerful punch against that barrier. Faint ripples ran across the air and spread in all directions, like a stone hitting the surface of a calm lake. The rebound was strong enough to make Fang Chu retreat a few steps.

“That looks cool, let me try it!”

Before anyone could say anything, Eliot took his sword and swung it against the barrier with all the strength he could muster with his one good arm. Wide ripples broke the surface of the air and traveled a great distance, going further than when Fang Chu hit it.

Following the movements of the ripples they could see that whatever was blocking their path seemed to be a giant dome of some kind. Eliot didn’t have the time to appreciate his handywork though. His sword went flying out of his hand and he was tossed back a good distance before slamming against a tree.

“Eliot! Are you ok?” asked Liza.

“Hahaha, I’m fine! That was fun! Let me do it again!”

“No! If you hit it with more force than that you could get seriously hurt!”

“This looks like a dome. Doesn’t that mean we’re trapped here?” asked Ben.

“Most likely,” noted Fang Chu.

“How are we going to get out?”

“No idea.”

“Let’s see if it’s closed in its entirety. Maybe there’s an entrance somewhere.”

They walked around the border of the dome, with Liza scrapping her knife against it the entire time, looking for any gaps in its circumference. A bit more than three hours later, they had returned to their starting point. The barrier was solid all around, with no entrance or exit to be found.

“I can’t believe this! It must be a magic barrier, but one this big and completely transparent? And when did we get inside of it? A barrier that lets people in but doesn’t let them out? I’ve never seen or heard anything like this!” said Liza.

“It’s probably another mechanism prepared by the owner of the tomb. It makes sense, if you think about it,” said Ben.

“It makes sense? Why don’t use the barrier to prevent people from finding out his grave in the first place?” asked Fang Chu.

“What would you do if you found a strange barrier in the woods that didn’t let you through?”

“I would assume it’s hiding something precious. Then I… oh, I see. It does make sense.”

“Right. You would try to break it so you could get in. If you couldn’t on your own, you would gather enough trustworthy people to try. By that point the tomb wouldn’t remain a secret and eventually all his fortune would be stolen. If you let people in instead, they’ll discover the mausoleum immediately, but they’ll be trapped. They’ll be doomed to take this secret to the grave if they’re not strong enough to break out.”

Ben started his explanation calmly, but by the end he was sweating buckets. “We are strong enough to break out, right?” he asked with a tinge of worry.

“Through this barrier? Unlikely,” said Fang Chu.

“Our only hope is in the mausoleum. A spell this strong and enduring couldn’t be casted by a human or scroll. There must be something that keeps constantly feeding energy to the barrier to keep it going. That’s our goal,” said Liza gravely.