They chose to return to the surface, suffering rumbling stomachs after so long in the depths of the ruins. This meal was another barbecue, this time of bird meat. The intention was there to boil the bones and remnant meat for a breakfast soup, only it happened that the fowl were more feathers than flesh and the bones were delicate and hollow, not wise for stewing in water overlong. So Leon picked wild vegetables and found roots. It was not as tasty, but it was enough to soak their dry rations in and fill their stomachs.
They took shelter for the night in the shallower slope of the tunnel, staying out of the wind and any potential rain that might fall, before breaking their fast and continuing on with their trials.
As was the case yesterday, the tunnel seemed to continue on endlessly into the dim darkness beyond the light of their mage globes and the steps shallow beneath their feet, but never stopping in descent. They inched their way forward, Roman scanning over the walls for each and any clue on how to escape the array holding their progress at bay. It was monotonous, tedious and they had lapsed into silence sometime ago, having nothing more to say.
Leon couldn't help but try to muffle an overwhelming yawn, but it still escaped from his lips, his eyes fluttering shut as it did so. Caelus side glanced at him briefly with an inward sneer.
"Anything, Roman?" Pike asked, pausing as he did so. The gangly youth, who just sighed and shook his head, thinking of how to respond.
"The walls look... are all natural," he mentioned. "Just carved out of the rock underground. I can't find any hidden switches, no places to push, or exits that allude the eye. Nothing."
They couldn't help but scratch their heads in frustration. Whoever created the array did so cleverly, for there was no obvious exit to breach. To pace slowly from the marker they placed until finding that same marker appear before them once more thanks to the array's loop had taken them about a shichen, thanks in part to Roman's meticulous examinations. And yet, they might as well consider themselves right back at the beginning.
"Wait, where's Leon?" Velana asked suddenly. They all glanced around.
Caelus frowned. "He was just here a moment ago," he informed them, not adding that he was yawning with no discretion, like a broad mouthed fish.
"Velana," Pike turned to her and she nodded, understanding what he wanted without need for instruction and she and the tri-coloured fox rushed back up the tunnel steps quickly.
"Leon's not the sort to rush off on his own," Troy voiced an opinion, which Pike agreed with and Roman couldn't help but add conjecture.
"You don't think... he managed to slip through the array?"
Caelus sneered once more, this time visibly. "How is that possible? I was right next to him. I would have noticed if he did something to break through the array!"
Velana returned as swiftly as she had left. "He is not on the surface," she advised them, shortly. Volune had not found his scent either or at least, nothing fresher than what was left mingling amongst the rest of the team's during the last time they ventured above ground.
"Probably wandered ahead," Caelus believed. The youth had his eyes shut a bit when he was yawning after all. Probably hadn't noticed them stop.
Pike thought about this for a moment, the frown still marring his forehead, but in the end he nodded. Leon was sensible, he would double back when he realised that they hadn't kept up with him. "Velana, would you mind?"
The woman nodded again, agreeing to wait at the point where the steps became steep, where the reach of the array did not seem to extend. If Leon reversed his steps, he would likely end up back at this point. Once the others had breached the array, they would come back for them.
The beast-tamer and beast pair left the team to continue searching onward, this time Roman took particular note of the steps.
Caelus stretched his body, his feet aching slightly as he'd reduced the amount of spirit he'd poured into his steps. To enter the mage school, one had to have three of four attributes and all four if one wanted to enter the inner school. It was unfair, but things were just this way. Caelus was enrolled in the outer school; he only had three of the four attributes. He lacked the root specification, meaning that he did not only have a singular, primary root. He just happened to have a 'waste' root.
Saying it was a 'waste' root was the prejudice of ages past. Apart from holding him back from achieving a higher potential, he didn't actually mind it too much. It was known as a 'cloud' root and thought to derive from 'air'. Basically, it made him light-footed, shifting his body mass that it was not in anyway a burden. He could climb like the most agile cat or run swiftly like a deer. In these two categories, he would seldom lose out to Martial Artists, despite being a 'squishy' mage.
All this time, he'd also been using to ease the burden upon his feet, but it was draining to do this for long periods of time. This venture had seen him need pop blisters more than once. Fortunately, he'd packed a salve in anticipation of that. But now his feet were aching again and he couldn't help look at them, nor could he help wincing when he stepped on a new, painful formation on his heel. He quickly lifted his foot, standing instead on his toes, but in doing so he lost his balance for a moment. He facing a long tumbled, he covered his face with his arms as he wailed in panic.
"C-Caelus? Are you ok-k-k... alright?"
The mage lifted his round face from the shelter of his arms, his fall already broken, when the sudden realisation came; he'd fallen onto a flat surface. His face reddened, embarrassed to have lost his balance for his team mates to witness and he quickly leapt to his feet, hissing at the discomfort that brought in itself.
His eyes scanned over his teammates... teammate...? "Leon? Where did you come from? You vanished before..."
"Ah, I'm n-not sure," Leon admitted sheepishly. "I only c-c-closed by eyes for a few sec-conds and then I w-was here, alone."
Here still seemed to be part of the tunnel, but this time it was tiled floor to ceiling and there were recesses with mage globes, but not were shedding light. Those that were seemed very dim, their glow not extending far from their shells. Caelus looked back and could see the steps of the previous corridor shallowly rising upwards. It seemed that Roman's suggestion had been true; Leon somehow surpassed the confines of the array!
"What... why did you not head back?" Caelus was a bit embarrassed, thinking how quickly he'd previously dismissed this possibility before.
"I thought Roman h-had d-done something," Leon replied, "t-to b-break the array. So I w-waited for everyone."
Caelus shook his head, a slight smile curving his lips. A dimple formed in one of his full cheeks. "No, wasn't Roman." He glanced up at the ceiling for a moment, thinking about how it was possible that Leon and then himself broke through the array. "You yawned, I tripped, what does either have in common?"
"C-closed eyes?" Leon pointed out, tentatively, earning himself a sharp look from the mage. He wasn't nervous beneath the scrutiny, knowing it was just how Caelus was, but he did feel uncomfortable and shuffled between feet. "I sh-shut m-my eyes, yours were c-covered."
"We didn't look ahead to where we were going," Caelus added in realisation. He grinned, his eyes vanishing into slits and that dimple deepening. He slapped Leon heartily on the shoulder. "Good man! Now we just need to figure out how to tell the others."
They discussed it for a bit, they didn't know whether the rule to break through the array would change once they left it, but they had to take the chance or leave the others behind. It was decided that Caelus would head back; his feet would have the advantage of swiftness after all. He would rush and meet with Velana and the Fox, they would send the Fox to grab the others so they could all meet up and try this small method of breaking through the array. If Caelus did not return with the team in a shichen, consider the 'rule' a lost cause and head on alone. Better that one of them find the treasure than it continue to be out of reach.
"Just if you do, be careful," Caelus warned him. "There are often more than one trap set in places such as these." Leon nodded earnestly, but remained worried. He really wasn't brave enough to set out on his own. He really wished that Jin Li was beside him more than ever in that moment.
As if I have not enough works on my plate, I decided to join a competition on Webnovel; the Kingdom Building, Male Lead, Writer’s Practice competition! But it’s not a bl, sorry! Instead, it’s just a bit of nonsense in which I express my stupid sense of humour. Check it out if you have the time! It’s called Restoring a Kingdom from Scratch. Thank you!
Leon couldn't help but remain nervous as he watched Caelus hurry off to find their team mates. He'd never been the sort to think that he was some sort of hero, a protagonist of his own book, he didn't even think he was someone to add colour to it. In his last life, he'd been one of the many salmon in the school, trying to make their way up the river rapids for a secure future, but he'd not made it very far, though that was no fault of his own. His self esteem was not low, but not high, his confidence tended to fluctuate depending on circumstance. Right now, it was definitely at a low point; he had no confidence about heading into this dark tunnel that may or may not have traps and succeeding to plunder its potential treasures.
Look what happened last time he went exploring alone in dark, underground spaces!! The corners of his lips curled upward slightly and his heart beat calmed to skip to a different rhythm. Ah, his man really didn't leave the best first impressions. He understood more now; Jin Li had awoken battered and beaten in a strange place with no memory of how he'd arrived there, his confidence and ego that had been tempered over seventeen years and allowed to swell due to his excellent innate abilities had taken a hit. The secure future path set out before him on which he'd been guided by his parents (occasionally in brutal ways, or at least brutal in the eyes of outsiders, they would have considered it lessons in reality, which unfortunately was also true) had vanished from sight and he lashed out at the first person he saw once he woke. Plus, his temper was always sharper on an empty stomach.
That said, if Jin Li had had the chance to calm down, say if Leon had not been there when he awakened, he'd likely have figured things out and not latched onto him like a chick imprinting on the first thing it sees. In theory. His heart ached for a moment as he thought of not having that chance meeting and of not meeting Jin Li. Thinking back, such really only happened due to the bully Caprian, beating him to the point where his body experienced spiritual deviation in which memories he should have had were lost and memories of a past life were awoken, setting him on his current path. Like fate. Him and Jin Li could be considered fated.
The smile upon his face was like first rain in the desert after a relentless heatwave, very beautiful and welcoming. It was this that his team mates witnessed as they all broke through the array together.
Actually, things for Caelus and the team had proven quite smooth. As the mage had stated, he'd hurried back to meet with Velana and they'd sent Volune on to pull back the team, not knowing how deep into the array they'd travelled. But despite how long the road forward was, the road back was always short so they'd appeared after not much time had passed.
What would prove a little more troublesome was breaking the array, not as they now had no clue to how to do so, but closing ones eyes for a couple of seconds wasn't enough. One had to step forward (or fall, in Caelus' case) a few paces with their eyes shut for at least six seconds. But through some trial and error, they made it through.
"What I want to know is why Roman never slipped through," Troy voiced his question as they recollected themselves a few minutes later and began to explore that which had been revealed.
Pike's arm was currently draped around Leon's shoulders, thinking the youth had been very glad to see them, having been stuck alone and uncertain for sometime and wanting to reassure him. He'd taken a liking to the youth from the moment he'd seen him late in the spring, this cute little brother with a clean face. Those little brothers who'd shared even part of his blood really hadn't been cute at all. Now he did not call them brothers, but instead had friends who he considered his true family along with his Master.
"It probably had something to do with the timing," Pike suggested in response and Roman close by nodded.
"It's natural to glance ahead every so often, make sure that you aren't going to lose your footing on the steps," he added, thinking he'd done just that as he'd sidled along the walls looking for clues in vain. The trap of the array was so simple, yet so ingenious. Very few would close their eyes for more than it took to blink while stepping down even shallow stairs. And six seconds might seem short but without sight could seem quite long.
Their hearts had raced as they'd blinded themselves taking tentative steps forward down the steps, willing themselves not to fall and of course cheating by opening their eyes a squint would not help nor would looking at their feet. Not moving forward also was no good. It was by luck that Caelus had fallen far enough that he'd slipped out of the array and Leon had been too drowsy to think about accidentally falling as his eyes had closed while continuing on forward, automatically trusting his feet.
This part of the tunnel was not as long as first glance. Caelus poured his spiritual energy into a few of the ancient mage globes, shattering a couple of the more fragile ones accidentally, lighting up the corridor to ease the oppressive darkness. The tunnel curved making what seemed long actually not so. There were no traps, just a locked door, but even the thickest, hardiest wood could not stand for an inordinate amount of time and it crumbled to the touch making the enchanted lock useless.
Inside was a single chamber and a second locked door. Along the sides of the chamber were fragments of wood and dust, tiny pieces of cloth parchment that had become nothing due to time. There were also pieces of shaped porcelain, not unlike the shape of Leon's jade bottles, hinting what they may have once held. But while the jade might have survived, the porcelain proved much more fragile. There was no sign of their previous contents. Also, on the opposite wall were remnants of rusty bolts, hinting that they might once have supported something and what that was could have something to do with the oxidised mess beneath them.
The table at the centre was made of the same hard stone that had first caught Roman's eyes. There was a thin fracture along one side of the table top, but otherwise it remained mostly intact. A pity it was too heavy and large otherwise Roman might have wanted to take it with him; the carved piece was quite stunning and unique of flavour.
Upon the table was a chest. The wood was similar in quality to the door which had held for so long, but it didn't collapse when fingers gingerly touched it, hinting that it was enchanted along with its lock. But the spells were too weak to hold up against the force of Pike jimmying it open and the chest's lid fell backwards and off of its hinges to reveal its contents. The men and woman clustered around it. It was mostly filled with blackened coins, the denominations of which were not familiar, but Roman declared them as silver. There was the odd gemstone, ruby and sapphires for the most part, the largest the size of a thumbnail. As wealth in itself, this was quite the find and was worth some points if not as much as rarities.
Hidden amongst them, however, were three rings. Two were made of gold, which had tarnished only a little, protected as it had been for the many millennia by the mage spells upon this chest and likely once this room. The third was made of silver. Of the gold ones, one held a large emerald and two tiny diamonds, all framed by scrolling patterns not unlike those on the table and on the coins. It was the least valuable ring. The second gold ring was more simple and inset was a piece of mutton fat jade, which was circled by tiny mage crystals. Caelus felt a hint of a faded array on it, but chose not to activate it in case it was a curse or a trap. The last ring, the unassuming silver ring, was black from age and held a dark grey shard that had not been cut to a stylised shape. The shard was only small, split slightly into a v formation and in that hid a little mage crystal. Roman drew in breath, sharply as he picked up the unattractive piece from its hiding place in the coins.
"This..." he murmured, slightly in awe of the find.
"What is it?" Troy asked, brimming with curiosity.
His expression was without jest when he declared; "I may be wrong, but I think that this is an interspatial ring!"
Author's note; sorry for the delay, I wasn't feeling up to writing much yesterday, so didn't end up posting anything. Now in a happy mood and if I had the time, I'd carry on writing! But I'm at work, so I can't x
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