Ch. 68: Reunion at the Bottom Floor
The door to the bottom floor easily opened after Lapis put her hand on it and muttered a few words.
It happened so quickly that Loren wondered if there was actually a seal.
“What did you just do?”
To Klaus, what Lapis had just done was unbelievable, as his eyes became wide open with surprise, in contrast to Loren.
Seeing his reaction, Loren understood that the door had been sealed properly, but when he thought about it, whatever Lapis had just done wasn’t something that could be done ordinarily and realized that it shouldn’t have been shown to the other. So, he panicked and looked towards Lapis, wondering how she would react, but she answered like it was nothing.
“I tried copying the wavelength of the mana used to undo the seal. I examined the key, after all. It’s quite simple.”
“Huh? What?”
Since Klaus was a swordsman, he was about to stand down with Lapis’ explanation, but this time Ange, who was a magician, let out a confused voice.
On the front among the members there, Ange was supposed to be the expert on mana, so Loren was alarmed that her confused response would cause more suspicion towards Lapis, but Lapis easily responded to this as well.
“A thief that came to confess at the temple I was training at secretly taught me this technique when I told her I was going to become an adventurer. You shouldn’t think that a thief can’t touch something just because you sealed something with mana.”
As she told Ange that it was a technique of a thief, she stopped looking suspiciously at her for now.
Since it was outside of her expertise, she couldn’t say if what Lapis said was true or not and decided that there was no reason to be suspicious of it.
“Is that story true?”
Seeing that the conversation was now done, Loren quietly asked Lapis, and she answered him in a hushed voice.
“It’s true that a handful of thieves know the technique of picking locks using mana. But the source of the technique is us.”
In this case, us didn’t mean priests of the Knowledge G.o.d.
Loren understood that since Lapis was a demon, the technique sourced from them.
Loren wondered why they decided to develop and spread the technique to thieves, even though it was only a handful of them, and was worried that when Klaus or Ange had the opportunity to travel with priests of the Knowledge G.o.d in the future, the level of skill and techniques they would expect from that priest would be very high.
“Okay, the door is open. It’s a waste of time just standing here and chatting, so let’s get going, shall we?”
As Lapis insisted that there was nothing more to talk about, the group started going down the stairs on the other side of the open door.
The stairs leading to the tenth floor was longer compared to the ones for the upper floors, but other than that, it was almost the same, and the group reached the tenth floor.
They immediately realized why the stairs were longer than the others.
The bottom floor wasn’t a dungeon like the floors above, but instead it was just a wide s.p.a.ce.
In places across this wide s.p.a.ce were showcases packed with many kinds of items and tools.
The ceiling was high and had light sources installed so it was possible to see across the whole floor, and Parme let out a voice full of admiration as she put her torch against the wall.
“This is Volf’s legacy…”
The things that were more valuable were stored inside the showcases, but everything else was stored adequately, with some were just piled up next to the walls.
But even those radiated its own mana, while the gold, silver, and jewels were shining brightly, and one look told them that it was worth a fortune.
“The last time I’ve been here was before graduating, but it’s quite a sight, no matter how many times I see it.”
Klaus looked around with slight nostalgia.
From what Loren had heard, Klaus was quite the honor student and had been here before, so he asked him out of slight curiosity.
“Hey Klaus, were you able to take something from here?”
“No, I returned to the surface without taking anything to avoid fighting the guardian. I didn’t want to put my companions in danger.”
When Klaus looked Ange with a smile, she looked back at him with flushed cheeks and a s.p.a.ced-out expression, while Loren and Lapis overtly sighed and looked away.
Meanwhile Parme looked at the two of them enviously.
“Alright, anyways.”
“You’re the one who asked.”
“Anyways! Where would the preceding visitors be?”
The tenth floor was vast.
And due to the showcases, there were places they couldn’t see, and wouldn’t be surprising if someone or something would be lurking there.
On top of that, because of the items radiating mana all around the place, it was hard to sense others that might be there, so Loren felt that it wasn’t a situation where they could let down their guards.
“I was expecting there to be an ambush or two.”
Since the keeper on the ninth floor was deactivated, it was almost certain that whoever did it was on the same floor.
And that someone was most likely someone partic.i.p.ating in the exam, with a high possibility of fraud.
So, Lapis had expected that person to consider that they would be coming behind him and ready something to hold them back or even set an ambush, but it seemed that her prediction was wrong, as they didn’t meet anything of the sort.
“Nothing happening doesn’t hurt.”
“You’re so naïve, Klaus.”
As Lapis said with a sigh, Klaus looked at her, not sure what he said wrong.
“Nothing here means that the person has already finished what he came here for, you know? It means that he finished it before we even got a chance to find out what it was.”
“That’s…I guess that’s true.”
“On top of that, if it was one of the students, he would know that we would find out that he attempted fraud, so even if we return to the surface, he would already be running away. Well…as proctors, it wouldn’t affect our job results even if he gets away.”
Reporting the facts and letting the school decide what happens after could count as doing their jobs as proctors.
Then it was easier if no one was there on the bottom floor and nothing happened.
“Lapis, you didn’t forget why we came here, right?”
“Of course not. I’m looking for it right now.”
In the same way Loren and the others were scanning the area, Lapis was doing the same, except she was actually looking for the part of her body, which was what she and Loren had come here for.
But still, whether it be one of her arms or legs or eyes, if the actual thing was just sitting around there somewhere, she would have to explain it to Klaus and the others somehow, so she was trying to think of a good explanation.
As Lapis decided that in the worst case, she would have to put them to sleep, one of the showcases in the corner caught her eye.
Although all the expensive looking items were stored inside the showcase, on top of that particular one was a transparent jewel.
Lapis walked over to it and reached for the jewel on top of the showcase, which was on the same height as her eyes, took it, raised it above her head, and peered in to it with one eye.
“Umm Lapis? Sorry to bother you…but I don’t think we have time for that.”
“You’re right.”
Lapis obeyed Klaus and put the jewel back on top of the showcase.
But Loren managed to see her only pretend to do so and drop the jewel into her sleeve.
“Is that it?”
“Yes, I’m glad it’s easy to carry around.”
“What is it?”
“Looks like my left arm. Not bad, but not good either, I suppose.”
Loren didn’t know the principle behind how Lapis’ left arm was processed into the transparent jewel that she had snuck into her sleeve.
And he didn’t know how the jewel will go back to being her arm, but seeing that she wasn’t distraught or worried, he guessed that there wasn’t a problem.
“But if you take that, wouldn’t the guardian wake up…?”
“This isn’t part of Volf’s fortune so it should be fine.”
Lapis told him that if the guardian was for those who tried to take part of Volf’s fortune, it shouldn’t react to them, since her arm wasn’t part of it.
Thinking that they could escape without having to worry about involving Klaus and the others in danger, started looking around for the exit, deciding that they should leave as soon as they could.
But then he realized that he couldn’t even find the entrance that they came through.
“The entrance vanished?”
“I-it closed up as soon as we set foot inside this floor!”
When Parme, who seemed to have seen it happen, said so, they all glanced at each other.
Now that they thought about it, if one could go back up the way he came, he wouldn’t have to face the guardian, and although it would take longer, they could take whatever they want to.
They then realized that the entrance got blocked off in order to stop anyone from doing so and would have to go through the guardian.
“Now that I think about it, it was that sort of system.”
“Don’t forget something so important.”
As Klaus said with a laugh, Loren hit him in the chest with the back of his hand, and started looking for the exit, ignoring Klaus, who sank to the floor clutching his chest, while Ange and Parme rushed over to help him up.
After a while, Loren saw where the rows of showcases ended.
On the other side was a slightly vast empty area, and on the wall across it, was a door.
Seeing that there was nothing else like it, he guessed that this was where the guardians were as well as the exit to the surface, and called the others over to head over there, when he saw four shadows standing in front of the door.
As he was about to call out to them, he heard something cutting through the air, flying towards him.
He immediately drew the great sword on his back and used it as a shield, and immediately after, he heard something hard hit the flat of the blade.
“What’s going on!?”
The sound caught the attention of Klaus, and while watching him run over with his sword drawn, Loren rested his great sword on his shoulder, and bent over to pick up what had bounced off it.
“A dart, huh.”
“You’ve reached here faster than I thought.”
The one who called out was the priest Al, who was part of Ain’s party, who they separated from when running from the wave of slimes.
But the one who attacked was Feim, who was standing next to him with a smile on her face.
“If you would’ve gave up and one back, it would’ve saved us so much trouble.”
“How should I take the fact that you attacked me?”
The tip of the dart glistened.
It was most likely poison, and Loren was sure that throwing it at him wasn’t an accident.
“That’s a warning not to get in our way until we reach our goal, of course.”
On both sides of Al, who said that, was Ain and Cloud, with their weapons drawn.
For a moment, Loren thought that they were all in in together, but Ain and Cloud’s faces were expressionless, and their eyes were unfocused.
“Hey, those two…”
“Oh, I used > on them to make them my p.a.w.ns.”
Feim answered instead of Al.
In her hand was a crushed piece of paper instead of a dart, and she then threw it towards Loren with a shout.
“>”
The piece of paper that was thrown started glowing, and instead of disappearing it shot bullets made of fire.
As Loren cut through them with his great sword, Lapis shouted a warning.
“Be careful! They are supplementing their use of magic with scrolls!”
“What are they thinking?”
Due to the special method of making them, scrolls that contained magic could be used not only by magicians, but by those with other jobs as well.
Using them caused the effect of the magic written on the scrolls, but not many were distributed in the market and were also very expensive, so they weren’t used very often.
“I’m doing what needs to be done to achieve my goals, of course.”
The smile on Al’s face wasn’t the same as the timid looking priest that they had traveled with.