As Cipher hesitated before the treasure chest, three shadowy figures stealthily approached the ancient tomb. One of them asked, "Rat, are you sure a team of adventurers just went in?"
The diminutive man known as Rat nodded. He was the same fellow who had been secretly observing Cipher and her companions from behind a tree a hundred meters away.
These three were simply thieves. In truth, the ancient tomb hadn't been exposed by natural causes; they had excavated it themselves, their motive obvious: to plunder the funerary goods.
They had already conducted a preliminary exploration of the tomb, safely navigating the trap-filled corridors to reach the main burial chamber. However, the chamber was swarming with undead. While the thieves excelled at evading traps, their direct combat skills were far from impressive.
Originally, there had been four of them, but during their hasty retreat, one had been surrounded by the undead and killed. Only three had managed to escape.
Meanwhile, some undead had broken free from the tomb in pursuit of the three thieves, alarming nearby villagers and prompting the current quest.
In short, the treasure was within reach, but the thieves were no match for the undead guarding it. They must have been desperate to claim the riches inside!
Unwilling to give up, yet too afraid to engage the undead, they were forced to lurk outside.
Hearing Rat's report, the Thief Captain said, "Alright, we'll follow them in. Once those adventurers have cleared out the undead and exhausted themselves, we'll swoop in and claim the spoils!"
The trio returned to the tomb. They froze in astonishment upon seeing the Stone Gate wide open. They remembered the immense effort it had taken just to pry open a narrow gap, barely large enough for the four of them to squeeze through. They knew firsthand how heavy the gate was. How could it now be completely open?
"These adventurers are stronger than we anticipated," the Thief Captain warned. "We need to be extra careful!"
The Thief Captain led the way, torch in hand, carefully scanning the ground for traps. Then... he realized they had all been triggered?
Looking up, he saw the walls bristling with arrows. The Thief Captain couldn't help but wonder, "Huh? Did their party not have a thief? How could they trigger even these simple traps?"
More precisely, how could the captain of an adventurer party accept a mission to investigate an ancient tomb without a thief in their ranks? Was he completely out of his mind?
Feidric: I had no idea! I accepted the quest thinking we had a thief!
As the Thief Captain continued forward, examining trap after trap, his confusion deepened. He racked his brain, unable to fathom how every single trap could have been triggered without leaving a single corpse behind, or even a drop of blood on the ground.
"So, those adventurers stepped on all these traps and didn't get hurt at all? How in the world did they manage that?!"
The perspective shifted back to Cipher's group. Feidric, noticing her restless expression, couldn't help but remark, "Even if you're interested in the treasure chest, you can't pick the lock, can you? We have no way to open it."
Cipher's face fell. He was right; whether the chest was trapped or not, she couldn't open it.
Douglas suddenly stepped forward. "Don't worry! Little Cipher can't pick locks, but I can!"
The others turned to him in astonishment. Cipher exclaimed, "You, a priest, know how to pick locks?!"
"What's so difficult about that?" Douglas said, swinging his double-bladed great axe from his back and adopting a readying stance. "All we need to do is open the chest, right? Let me just aim... Hmm, the lock's right here, isn't it?"
It was clear that Douglas's idea of "lockpicking" differed wildly from the norm. Before he could swing, Feidric hurriedly intervened. "Hold on! Take it easy! That's not how you open a lock! You'll destroy it!"
"Then what do we do?" Douglas asked, his own curiosity about the chest evident.
After a moment of silence, Cipher sized up the treasure chest and glanced at Douglas. "Maybe... we should just take the whole chest?" she suggested tentatively.
Douglas's eyes lit up, and he immediately gave her a thumbs-up. "Brilliant idea!"
If they couldn't get to the contents of the chest, they would simply take the entire thing. Once they got it back to the city, they'd have plenty of ways to open it.
Douglas slung his double-bladed axe back over his shoulder, rubbed his hands together, and stepped forward. Without hesitation, he effortlessly hoisted the entire treasure chest onto his shoulder. The weight was nothing to him.
Throughout this, Feidric kept a close eye on Douglas, ready to cast a Shield Spell at any moment. But nothing happened. Feidric looked genuinely surprised. "This treasure chest doesn't have any traps?!"
With the treasure chest incident behind them, the group retraced their steps to the previous crossroads. This time, Cipher chose the left path. They continued without triggering any traps until they reached a T-junction, where they could only turn left or right, with no straight path forward.
After a moment of contemplation, Cipher once again chose the left path. This time, however, it wasn't a blind guess. When she had first turned left at the initial crossroads, she had sensed a subtle downward slope.
The incline was barely perceptible, but Cipher's sense of balance was extraordinarily keen. With a flick of her tail, she could detect minute shifts in her center of gravity and deduce that the floor was uneven.
Therefore, at this second fork, Cipher wasn't choosing between left and right, but rather between up and down. Given that tombs were typically dug downwards, the lower path seemed the more likely correct route.
Indeed, this reasoning proved sound. Moments later, the four adventurers emerged from the stone corridor into a vast underground chamber resembling a grand hall.
Four massive stone pillars stood at the corners of the chamber, and in its center lay an ancient stone coffin, most likely the final resting place of the tomb's occupant.
But surrounding the coffin, a dense swarm of white skeletons wandered aimlessly. They had completely encircled the stone coffin, their numbers conservatively estimated at no fewer than forty.
Notably, amidst the horde of skeletons, a zombie clad in tattered clothing stood out conspicuously. It was clearly the thief who had previously met his end in this place.
Feidric immediately noticed the creature, frowned, and warned, "Be careful! This place and these undead are saturated with extremely potent Negative Energy. If you're injured by them, the consequences will be severe!"
The skeletons wore no armor and carried no weapons. Their only potential means of inflicting harm lay in their still-sharp finger bones. However, even a scratch from these bones would allow the massive amounts of Negative Energy clinging to the skeletons to seep into the wound.
Such injuries would prove nearly impossible to heal, bleeding incessantly. The Negative Energy would act like acid, slowly corroding the wound and inflicting excruciating pain. For an ordinary person, even a minor scratch could incapacitate them instantly.
Death in this place brought an even grimmer fate. The Negative Energy would gradually permeate the corpse, slowly "reanimating" it into a zombie. Once the zombie's flesh had completely decayed, the animated skeleton would join the ranks of the horde before them.
While Negative Energy sounds terrifying, it's actually quite manageable. Most legitimate priests possess the Turn Undead divine magic. Divine magic is composed of pure Positive Energy, and just as acids and bases neutralize each other, priests can neutralize the Negative Energy within the undead by releasing their own Positive Energy, causing them to crumble on their own.
Clearly, however, Douglas was no legitimate priest; he didn't know this spell.
No matter. Feidric swiftly recited an incantation and tapped Aria, Douglas, and Cipher on the shoulder in turn. "Negative Energy Protection!"
This second-level Abjuration School spell did exactly what its name suggested. It wasn't a conventional shield, but rather a buff that coated the recipients in a thin film of Positive Energy. Any Negative Energy that came into contact with this barrier would be instantly neutralized.
In other words, even if the skeletons managed to scratch them, the wounds would only be ordinary cuts.
In a sense, the Abjuration School existed to counter the other seven schools of magic. Negative Energy Protection, specifically, was designed to defend against the Necromancy School.
Next, Feidric cast Triggered Shield Spells on Aria and Douglas. These were conventional shields that could defend against physical attacks, ensuring they wouldn't even suffer scratches.
Why not Cipher? She already had one active, though it hadn't been triggered yet.
After layering two protective spells on everyone, Feidric announced, "Alright, you can move in now. I'll observe from a distance and reinforce your shields remotely if needed."
"Roger that! I'm charging in!" Douglas tossed the treasure chest from his shoulder onto the ground, hefted his massive great axe from his back, grinned widely, and charged into the skeletal horde.
The skeletons averaged about 1.5 to 1.6 meters tall, shorter than Cipher herself. Perhaps their rotting flesh had caused them to shrink?
Regardless, the two-meter-tall Douglas charged in like a tiger among sheep. Wielding his nearly two-meter-long great axe, a single sweep sent five or six skeletons flying.
However, they were merely knocked back, not killed. Cipher observed clearly that the skeletons were too light. Instead of being cleaved in two by the horizontal strikes, they were simply hurled aside.
Douglas had clearly noticed the issue as well, and his sweeping strike transformed into a vertical chop.
Thud!
The Great Axe slammed into the ground with a dull thud, and Cipher even felt a slight tremor beneath her feet. As for the skeleton Douglas had struck? It had been reduced to a pile of shattered bone fragments, pulverized beyond recognition.
Aria drew the Sword from her waist, its blade radiating a dazzling golden light. With a cry of "Divine Smite!", she swept the sword horizontally, effortlessly cleaving through the skeletons like butter. Golden flames erupted from the bisected remains, swiftly incinerating them into fine ash.
Watching this spectacle, Cipher felt a surge of excitement. She hadn't truly experienced a proper battle since transmigrating to this world. With Feidric's two layers of Shield Spells protecting her, and the skeletons seeming relatively weak, perhaps she should join the fray and test her skills?
As a Thief, Cipher had already fulfilled her duty by safely guiding the group through all the traps to this point. Even if she stood aside and did nothing, no one would fault her.
Conversely, if Cipher wanted to help, no one would object. Though... Aria and Douglas didn't seem to need it.
Aria, with her attack stat maxed out, was cutting down three to four skeletons with each swing. Douglas, while slightly less efficient, was completely unconcerned with defense thanks to the shield Feidric had provided. He focused solely on relentless offense, charging into the skeletal horde and slaughtering them indiscriminately like a one-man army.
Just then, a limping skeleton shuffled toward Cipher and Feidric from the side. With so many skeletons swarming the battlefield, even Aria and Douglas couldn't catch them all. Some were bound to slip through.
Feidric frowned. The Abjuration School was powerful, but its sole weakness lay in its lack of offensive capabilities. Just as he was about to call Douglas back to reinforce them, Cipher suddenly surged forward.
Cipher had no weapon, nor did she need one. Reaching the skeleton, she spun around with lightning speed, executing a flawless roundhouse kick. Her heel connected squarely with the creature's skull.
CRACK!
The skeleton's head exploded with a sharp crack, flying off like a cannonball. Feidric watched as a white comet streaked past him.
Thud!
Another dull thud echoed as the skull soared across the battlefield and slammed into the opposite wall, embedding itself halfway into the stone. Only the bare half of the cranium remained visible.
Feidric, "!?!"
What just happened?
To be fair, even Cipher was stunned. She stared at the headless skeleton swaying before her before finally collapsing to the ground, inwardly musing, Was... was it really that simple?