There is something about exploring places that should be forbidden and discovering a box or a chest. There is an indescribable sense of wonder, desire, and maybe a dash of hope. The chest probably had old linens that long rotted away, but there is a heart-pumping rush that exists for that one breath before flipping open the lid. The thrill of finding loot is not easily conquered.

~Manannan, God of the Sea & Weather

Glass crunched under Crow’s boots. After he slept for roughly two hours, he sat up and cultivated until his Source replenished. Shortly after, Lily decided to play tour guide because she explored while looking for the lightning trap. Since he’d been incapacitated, he couldn’t tell her no. Not that Crow didn’t trust her, but that he didn’t trust the old master who lived here. It was something he didn’t want to talk about, so he kept it hidden.

Whatever the source of lightning was, it caused Lily to grow. Initially, she was about as big as his hand, but now she was as long as his forearm. Lily still couldn’t speak, but he could sense the bond between them had solidified more—especially the empathic part of it. Her little hand gestures were reinforced with only her strongest emotions, but it made that much easier to understand her.

“She’s so cute!” Mara whispered excitedly from beside him. Crow rolled his eyes, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. “Is she really a fae princess?”

“That’s what Dagda said.”

“Dagda!? The god?”

“Didn’t I tell you about him?”

“No… You mentioned the dream world but never specifically told me who you met. I can’t believe you met a god before me.” Mara grumbled, her freckled face scrunched up, and Crow couldn’t help but reach out and poke her cheek. She slapped his hand away, but seeing his grin, she grinned back, showing her dimples.

Crow heard sounds ahead and summoned his Fire-Burst Arrow. It wasn’t the most brilliant name, but it matched what the arrow did. Plus, he had practiced with hidden weapons, so he could throw it in tight quarters like now. He found out during a few encounters that it didn’t take much impact to cause the arrow tip to burst out with Night Fire.

As they rounded a corner, they found another person caught in an unusual trap—a type Crow had never seen before. Two things were especially concerning about this scenario. First, Crow had no idea how this guy got in here, and second, the guy was strapped to the ceiling and could only move his mouth and eyes.

“Hey, little help?”

“It’s you!” Crow growled, recognizing the voice. Usually, this bastard was masked, but now that he was trussed up, his face was exposed. Surprisingly, it was a kid roughly Crow and Mara’s age, with sandy blonde hair and blue eyes. The main reason Crow recognized the kid, other than his voice, was that his left hand was missing the two smallest fingers. Mara and Crow just referred to him as Halfhand.

Crow wasn’t angry at the kid, just annoyed. On at least a half a dozen occasions, this ass had approached a tomb, cave, or whatever Crow discovered and cleared it out before they even arrived. At least the more accessible locations, but he always seemed to be a few steps ahead of them.

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“Ah, damn. It’s you two, and whatever that purple thing is. You two are later than usual.”

“Who are you?” Mara asked curiously. Unlike Crow, she was a little angry because this bastard stole her loot. Neither of them really needed it because they were mostly running around for the experience. It took her three months to convince Torcail to let her and Crow out. The thing that finally hit his weak spot was mentioning that Crow needed practical, real-world experience to tackle whatever Torcail’s task was.

“Not telling.”

“I don’t care,” Crow said indifferently. “I doubt anyone else is getting past that formation, so you are going to die here. Better off if you remain nameless, then it won’t weigh on my conscience.”

Mara wanted to laugh and struggled to keep her face serene. She really admired Crow’s way with words and doubted he had an equal in that aspect.

“That… fine, my name is—”

“Nope, you can’t tell me,” Crow shouted, drowning out the other boy’s voice.

“Acco. Acco. Acco. Acco,” the trapped boy said repeatedly, and Crow grinned in response. “You tricked me?”

“Perhaps.”

“Whatever, I’m Acco, and there isn’t any place I can’t break into.”

“Now, tell me how you are stealing my research.”

Acco’s eyes widened. “Y-you knew?”

“Idiot,” Mara shook her head. “This is the eighth time we’ve crossed paths—that we know about. Of course, we knew you were lurking about. This was a tomb that Crow picked especially for you.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“Didn’t you notice they mostly picked it over? The only part left alone was this area because the formation was extremely tough to break into. At least for people of our level of power. Which begs the question, how did you get in here?”

“That’s my technique. I already told you, there isn’t any place I can’t break into.” Acco struggled against the thick straps, but he couldn’t even move enough to get at his tools. He could only stare pleadingly at the people he had repeatedly wronged.

“Tell me how you got my research,” Crow said.

“I…” Acco closed his mouth, his lips tightly pressed together.

Crow was finding it awkward to keep staring up toward the ceiling.

“Let’s go,” Crow said and headed toward the door, going deeper in. He didn’t tell Mara about the other reason people avoided this place, because he wasn’t sure how she’d take it. Either way, Crow actively sent out his mana sense repeatedly while talking to Acco, checking for additional traps. It’d be embarrassing if he ended up in a trap like Acco Halfhand, his nemesis.

“Wait! I’ll tell you.”

“Don’t need to know,” he replied and stepped into the next room. Mara and Lily followed.

Mara brought out a Nightstone, and Crow wondered if it was the same one from the Hunt. She saw him looking at it and smiled. Soon after, his eyes wandered the room taking everything in. This was part of their process, and he’d take a few breaths time analyzing everything in his Sage’s Mind. It was a new trick he discovered. Using this method, he could spot things his eyes missed. However, he was quickly distracted by the room.

Shelves lined the wall on the left, which contained books, jars filled with things Crow didn’t even want to speculate about, and there were even some pill bottles. In front of them, in the center of the room, was a wooden table as long as a man. Alarmingly, there was a skeleton strapped to it. The remains of a chair sat in a corner off to the right, and next to it was a chest that looked perfectly intact. Out of everything in the room, the chest seemed out of place. It was as if it hadn’t aged at all—

Is that an illusion? Crow wondered. It just didn’t seem right that it looked so new and untouched. Not even dust had settled on it.

Lily flew in front of Crow and then pointed at the ceiling. After a few seconds of miming, he understood. It was where she absorbed the lightning trap, and her warning made him remember he hadn’t checked the room for surprises.

Spreading out his mana sense like a thin blanket, he let it settle down until it started to cover everything in the room. The second it touched the chest, Crow’s mana disappeared, and he felt a part of his senses deaden. It was as if the chest devoured it. Spitting out a little blood, he pointed toward it and shook his head to warn Mara.

Recalling his mana sense and strengthening himself, he prepared for the worst.