Chapter 34: Return
In the throne room of Selvenia's Royal Palace.
An middle aged man sat in the throne, dressed in luxurious robes. He rested his head on his hand as it leaned on the throne's armrest. It was the king of Selvenia Kingdom, Cedrick Selvenia.
Cedrick looked at the person kneeling in the ground, and asked. "So? How goes the search?"
"I'm afraid we still haven't made any progress, Your Majesty. The princess is still missing." The man spoke.
Ever since morning, the third princess had gone missing, and no one had known how she disappeared. Thus the king had issued orders to find the princess while maintaining secrecy of the matter. After all, no one knew when an opportunistic bastard would strike.
The king made a small groan from the report as he then heaved a heavy sigh.
Aria was indeed a troublemaker.
◇◇◇
The three pressed forward after taking their brief rest, until finally, they had found a staircase leading downwards. Lancell glanced at Arthur and asked.
"So? Is this it?"
"Hmm...It does look like it." Arthur affirmed.
Aria was confused as to what they were talking about, and asked. "What exactly is this?"
" Probably, the Treasure Guardian's room."
Lancell answered. Aria was an educated princess despite her behaviour, so she naturally knew what a Treasure Guardian was. Her eyes lit up as she asked.
"Does that mean it's finally gonna be treasure time?!"
Arthur made a wry smile and replied. "Actually, I don't know. After all, I've never been there before."
"Well, in any case, we still need to enter to find out, right?" Lancell asked as everyone nodded. And so, without further ado, they walked the staircase as they descended downwards.
The moment they reached the bottom, they found themselves looking at a 2 meter tall double-doors that was intricately designed with elegant vines.
The group stopped as they observed the door. Aria was the first one to comment.
"Quite the big door, isn't it?"
"That's not the point, is it? Just look at the impressive design, it really makes you wonder if monsters can carve things."
"Does the two of you even have anything useful to say? If not, then let's go in already." Lancell reproached the two
Aria and Arthur made wry smiles as to relive their tension. Or more like, to relive just Aria's tension as she was a newbie in practical combat.
Lancell lead the group as he put two hands in the door, and pushed it as it was nothing less vey heavy.
The door which seemed made of metal, made a metallic creak as the group tried their hardest to open the door.
And as the door opened, they were greeted by the sight of a 4 meter long lizard that stood at the height of a meter.
Seeing the opponent, Lancell immediately shouted.
"Arthur!"
"I'm on it!"
The next instant, Arthur had already raised Excalibur as it emitted a blinding flash that instantly blinded the lizard's glowing golden eyes.
The creature was a Basilisk. A Level 85 of the Second Step monster that had most of its growth allocated in its eyes.
It had the ability to INSTANTLY turn any living being it sees to stone, as long as it gazes at its target for at least ten seconds.
Lancell sighed in relief as it seems the monster wouldn't be using its eyes anymore.
Lancell dashed as he activated Void Wind Guidance and then slashed at its tail after materializing Arkenvalle.
CLAANG!!
The sound of metal being deflected resounded as Lancell's attack had bounced of its absurdly tough skin.
"Tch. Arthur!" Lancell called out to Arthur once again as she appeared on the other side of the Basilisk and slashed Excalibur exactly on the same spot Lancell had slashed earlier.
*GISHAA!!*
The Basilisk roared in pain as it shifted its attention to Arthur, but that was its mistake.
Lancell once again raised Arkenvalle as it lit up in dark purple glow that seemed to devour space around it. And the next instant, Severing Blade was fully activated, and Lancell brought down Arkenvalle with intent to slice the entire tail.
*Riiiip*
The sound of flesh being ripped resounded ominously as the tail was severed without any resistance.
And after that, Arthur who was done rebalancing herself, swung Excalibur towards the Basilisk's jaw as it then slammed with an ear-piercing *Clang!*.
The strike hadn't done much damage to the skin, but the impact from the attack shook its brain and it soon passed out.
Mercilessly, Lancell delivered the final blow to kill the monster.
And so, the Basilisk, which was the Treasure Guardian of the dungeon, died with barely any resistance.
◇◇◇
"W-What was that earlier?!" Aria suddenly asked as the two removed the core inside the Basilisk's body. It was indeed a lucky day as the monster had two cores inside it.
And as the two were in a good mood, Lancell decided to entertain her questions for now.
"What, you ask? Teamwork of course."
"Then why wasn't I in the 'Teamwork' as you call it."
"Is there seriously anything you could have done? I mean, if either of Arthur or me made some small mistakes during timing of our attacks, we would have been in deep shit."
Aria pouted and puffed her cheeks, but Arthur added.
"Nah, just forget it Aria. Working together in combat isn't something that can be done in a week, much less a day."
Aria harrumphed as she turned her head away. She then changed the topic.
"Ahem...anyway, how about searching for the treasure now?"
Arthur and Lancell nodded as they then began to search the room. They didn't have the chance to observe before, but the room was quite luxuriously designed. It had quite a few unopened chests, which they found out contained some gold, jewels and pretty much useless stuff.
"Is this it?" Aria asked as she pointed to a chest she opened.
"Probably. The rest of them are just plain useless stuff."
"Hey! Gold and jewels are treasures too, you know!" Aria retorted.
"I honestly don't care, but let's just open it shall we? I'm really curious of what's inside." Lancell suggested.
"Ooh! Great idea. Nice, Lancell! For stating the obvious." Arthur spoke sarcastically.
Lancell ignored Arthur, and then opened the chest. And the moment he saw what was inside, he was shocked...
...in a bad way.
"Fuck."
Lancell cursed at he looked at the rapier within the chest. It was indeed a sword, but not his type of weapon. He was more into longswords.
Arthur didn't actually care anymore the moment she found out what was inside, so it was decided who would be its owner.
Lancell took the rapier and then handed it to Aria. Aria was surprised as she unconsciously stiffened and asked.
"Me?"
"Yeah. It's useless on us, so it's yours." Lancell answered.
Aria received the rapier from Lancell, and then caressed its sheath as she was mesmerized by its design.
"You like it?" Arthur asked, and Aria nodded.
"Somehow, I feel like I've used it before." She answered.
Lancell and Arthur exchanged glances as they knew it was the same weapon she used in the past life. They didn't know how she got hold of it, but it was unmistakably it.
Lancell sighed at the unfruitful trip for him as he finally suggested.
"Well, let's leave now shall we?"
He then stood and Arthur also followed and started walking with him to the teleportation Magic Circle in the room.
Teleportation Magic Circles usually appears everytime a boss of a dungeon was defeated, so Lancell and Arthur was quite used to it.
Meanwhile...
"Hey! What about the gold and the rest?! This is too much of a waste!"
The two ignored Aria as they stood in the Magic Circle. Left with no choice, Aria abandoned the gold and jewels as she tried to enter the Magic Circle, in which she barely made it.
Light enveloped the three, and when they it finally settled, they were at a familiar forest outside Selvenia.
They have returned.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone