Callie came back about twenty minutes later, having photographed all the symbols carved into the spire and several that had been sealed inside in the dark. "Well, we figured out what this place is." She said cheerfully. She held up a screen on her hand, showing an image of Anna-Marie, who waved happily.

"Hello, Solomon." She chirped. "You all made excellent time finding a place. I've had several of the older guards reassigned to a library Amaya had shipped down, they've been combing through all the legends and old forgotten stories we have, both native and from nearby countries. Based on the script that spire is from the Binvari Empire. It's an extinct civilization that eventually ended up becoming the Banwar kingdom. They kept the language alive orally."

I made an intrigued noise. "Fair enough, does the script tell you exactly what this is? Like is it a temple? Because we can just leave."

She shook her head. "The spire is the ruins of a mining outpost. Most of the mine was underground. As for what's in there...who knows. It's possible it was cleaned out and abandoned, it's possible they all died out without moving any of the ore. Or possibly they got half of it and then left the rest."

"Huh." I said with interest. "Good to know. I'll talk it over with the others and we can all decide if we think it's worth the risk. Do you know what they were mining?"

She smirked. "Of course. The only thing near Ladrigan WORTH mining. Heartstone. There was a massive vein of the stone branching off the mountains. Most of it might be gone, but if there's anything down there, it will be VERY valuable." That was definitely going to be a factor.

I said goodbye and nodded to Callie, who did the same and then cut the call. "Ok. So...what do you think?" I said slowly. "As the only person here whose gotten a look inside, and our resident trap master, you've got the best idea of whether this will be literal suicide or not."

Biting her lip, Callie glanced back at the spire. "I'm not sure." She said haltingly. "It's not suicide, I can say that for certain, but...I don't know if it's worth it. Can your ore detection power be used more...specifically?"

"Nope." I said with a sigh. "It picks up big ass rocks and metal, it doesn't pick up big ass rocks FULL of metal. It doesn't do anything that in depth. It's only part of an Intermediate Skill." She grunted, seeming annoyed but still obviously understanding. Skills could be pushed, but only so far. Sometimes you just needed a different Skill.

"I think we should go in." She said finally. "That much heartstone, even if they only left a fraction of it, could fund our operations out here indefinitely. With that much cash, we could afford to not only kit ourselves out even better, we could literally just hire an army most likely." Considering it sounded like Salara had done that with part of the reinforcements, we could go through her at the very least.

"Alright." I said, because really, I agreed with her. This was a possible treasure trove. But we needed to be careful. "We go slow though." I warned. "And you and I will be up front looking for traps. With the bond I can use your Trap Mastery a bit for a second opinion." It wasn't that I didn't trust Callie, I was more worried about her getting excited and impatient.

She felt the concern, and rather than getting offended she just sighed. Callie had her faults, but she cared about the team. She wouldn't put anyone in danger because of her loot madness. Not if she actually stopped to think about it. She just gave a short nod. "Yeah. I can do that. It'll be safest. Anna-Marie said that places like this, aside from more specific stories that make them more dangerous and powerful, also benefit from the overarching legends of the core. People know that ruins out here are all dangerous and filled with monsters so..."

"So they are." I sighed. "Sometimes it's really inconvenient living in a world where concentrated belief can alter reality. Those times are usually good days."

She chuckled as we rounded everyone up and told them what was happening. Benny look excited. "Fantastic. Even if the heartstone is gone, mining operations strip out tons of small pockets of different materials. There might be some even rarer metals or stones they didn't need or recognize stuffed into a corner."

I blinked, but then remembered that Benny's dad was a big shot in the mining community back on Callus, and my best friend had a decent amount of experience with this kind of thing. "Alright man, you're up here with us. Try to identify anything important, though stay back to avoid traps." He grinned and took up a position behind us, while Mel and Abel stepped to either side.

We approached the spire, finding a door at the base. As a precaution I triggered Eye of Revelation. It would be supplementary to the Trap Mastery and help me discover any issues. It also made things easier to spot. Less knowledge based when things lit up.

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Stepping down into the long stone tunnel, I noticed all the carvings around us light up. It wasn't a lot of light, sort of a dim ominous glow, but there were so many of the things that it created a sort of everpresent luminescence throughout the tunnel. The place was, as usual, bigger on the inside, and we had no trouble getting in, even Randall.

Speaking of Jessie's big bear, as soon as he crossed the threshold a rumbling growl bounced off the walls, and Jessie tensed up. "Something is nearby." She said in a low voice. "We need to be super careful here guys."

I nodded. "Probably past the traps, but we'll keep an eye out." Callie and I stepped forward, scanning the ground and walls of the tunnel. I noticed as I searched that some of the symbols glowed just a bit extra under my Eye of Revelation. I tapped Callie on the shoulder. "You seeing this?"

"Yeah." She hissed. "There are...a lot of traps here. Not all of the symbols, obviously, but there's a bunch. I can see a path through but it's going to be REALLY tight. I'm not sure some of us can even make it. No way Randall can squeeze through there."

Grinning, I pulled her back. "I have an idea." I pulled her and the others fully out of the tunnel, then triggered one of my shadow clone charges. The clone saluted me and then bolted past me into the tunnel. I pulled back far enough to avoid any splashback and then waited as the clone ran headfirst through every single trap.

There was a dull thump of displaced air and then I felt a burst of pressure and heat as a massive jet of flames burst from the tunnel. We were off at an angle so we weren't in any danger, but it was still shocking. I walked back to the hallway, looking in and whistling. "Damn. It only tripped like six of them before it died."

I triggered another two charges, then retreated again, dispatching the clones one after another, making sure they sprinted full speed to set off as many traps as possible. Considering how much Might I had, that was FAST, even with the enhanced gravity. The second clone tripped a dozen of them. The third managed to get about forty, because he tried jumping off the walls to hit different spots.

Finally the explosions settled. Callie and I approached the tunnel, eyes peeled through the smoke and debris. The entire tunnel was chipped and cracked, several hundred symbols were dimmed or completely extinguished, and there were rocks and dust everywhere, but still, from what I could tell there was a path now.

The clones hadn't hit every single trap, but they'd gotten all the ones on the floors along a specific route. "Alright, looks like we should be good to go." I looked to Nat. "I figure Mal, Abel, Perit, and Valk should be the ones up front now that we've cleared things out. That work for you?"

My cousin grinned. "I have guards for a reason. If I wanted to directly endanger myself I'd be more like you." She gestured them ahead. "You heard the man, you two. He's in charge. If you get blown up or crushed by a giant rock it's all his fault and has nothing to do with little old me."

At my glare, she shot me a mischievous smirk. "What? Being in charge means you get all the blame. Everyone knows you're supposed to blame the boss." I just rolled my eyes as the four of them got in formation at the front like we had, Randall taking up a space behind them in the center of the tunnel to block off anyone getting past. Jessie waited behind him, and the rest of us brought up the rear.

"So am I the only one thinking about the fact that there are primed traps in here?" Said Benny. "Because that either means they cleaned it out already and set the traps behind them, or they tried to use this place as fallback post. Whatever happened to the Binvari Empire anyway? Did Anna-Marie happen to mention that?"

The sounds of our footsteps echoed down the hallways as we headed further in. I forced myself to speak as low as possible, because the echo made even whispers sound like an avalanche. "No. But she didn't really have to. This place is a hotbed of conflict. Chances are good the Binvari got wiped out by some other faction in the core. Maybe one of the nomadic groups that live here, or maybe an early equivalent of another kingdom. If they were still around someone would have noticed or mentioned them."

He nodded grudgingly, and we continued down the tunnel, my Eyes of Revelation sweeping the walls and floors for more traps. There weren't any. Like at all. Which seemed weird until the tunnel let out into a new chamber and symbols hidden in the engravings on the walls lit up brightly. I hadn't had time to notice them before they triggered, since they were on the wall above our entrance, but there was a grinding and four stone walls smashed down, sealing us inside the stone chamber.

I heard scraping and chittering, and I looked around through my Eye of Revelation to see from where, and froze in trepidation as I finally caught the glow. They'd been hiding outside the room and had entered in, but the weird...humanoid spider centaurs with green chitin and preying mantis heads and claws were quick to spread themselves out around us, surrounding our group.

Letting out a whistle, Abel looked around impressed. "Damn. I mean, they're entry level F-rank, but the sheer number of the things is impressive."

Deciding to at least TRY to negotiate. I stepped forward. "Excuse me." I called. "I don't suppose any of you are willing to negotiate? You all seem like reasonable...bug creatures." My Danger Sense triggered (apparently it didn't count them as threats until they decided to actually attack) and I sidestepped some kind of chitin spine fired from a hole at the end of the claws of one the smaller ones in my field of view.

The spike slammed into the stone, gouging in deep, and I sighed. "Yeah, I guess that would have been too much to ask. Mel, no big blasts of flame, this is a sealed room and you'll cook us. Abel, don't collapse the walls or ceiling by accident. Cal....go nuts and don't get hurt. Valk, use your gel to protect Celine and Nat. Everyone else do your normal thing, don't get in each other's ways." And I triggered State of Grace. Guess it was time to fight.