Capítulo 76: Wit and resourcefulness (3)
We went in different directions. The selection was magnificent. There were beautifully carved wooden wands, wands made of various minerals – there seemed to be onyx, marble, ivory ones. However, there were also blatant forgeries. For example, a beautifully decorated silver wand with two stones resembling rubies. An outright fake, not even suitable for conjuring a magical arrow.
My attention was drawn to a beautiful blue wand. Its tip was made of transparent stone, perhaps even a sapphire, and was only five centimeters long. At the same time, the disproportionately large metallic handle was made of silver. I twisted it in my hand, and it fell apart into two pieces.
"Darn, did I break it!?"
Upon closer examination, it hadn't broken, but the tip had simply detached from the handle. It seemed it was detachable. To confirm my suspicion, I peered inside the shelf and discovered a set of detachable tips, all of the same shape and size as the first one. All of them appeared to be made of precious and semi-precious stones, the main difference being their various colors. At first, I thought they were meant to be used for different elements, but they all had a thin hole inside. Inside the handle, I also found a cavity, possibly meant for something to be poured into it, although I had no idea why that might be needed. In any case, even without knowing the wand's purpose, it was partially made of precious stones, which meant it couldn't be cheap.
In the end, I decided to take the wand and the set of tips and headed back to Asura. Not bothering much with the selection, she was filling a shelf with everything that looked like stone wands. However, there were some that were half-wooden or metallic.
"Aura, how's it going?" I peered into the shelf she was holding.
"Huh? Are you done already? Well, I'm doing as you said, gathering everything that looks like a stone wand. Although there are some that are half-wooden or metallic," Asura glanced at her watch. "We have ten minutes left; choose a few, and let's get out of here. I won't be able to carry all of this anyway."
"Alright, alright," I carefully inspected the shelf.
There was indeed plenty to see. One of the wands was wooden, but it had a thin core made of transparent mineral. I ran it along the glass showcase, leaving a deep scratch on it.
"Diamond core in a wooden wand. It seems they are used for powerful water and ice magic. Maybe it will come in handy for you?" I suggested to Asura.
She grimaced at my proposal. "I'll pass, but tell me, how much is it worth?"
"Well, it's quite valuable, actually. Take this one and a couple of these," I handed Asura two more wands made of ivory and black onyx. They had the seals of a skilled craftsman on them, and though I didn't know the craftsman personally, they must have been worth a considerable sum.
Soon, the exit door appeared, seemingly emerging from thin air.
"Well, there's the exit. I wonder how the others are doing," I said.
We stepped through the door and found ourselves back in the same library where we had been before. Several of our comrades were sitting nearby, judging by their dejected looks, they hadn't been successful.
Closest to the exit was Algo.
"Hey, Mister Swordsman. How's it going?" I greeted him.
"Krito, Asura?! I see you managed to pull it off successfully. Well, we haven't fared so well. Only that pair over there succeeded," Algo pointed to two girls busy sifting through a pile of coins on the floor about ten meters away. It was Kurone and Vina.
"Ladies, what do you have there?"
"Lord Krito?"
"Oh, Krito! Is that you? Did you manage to find something too? I was afraid we'd be the only ones."
"Yeah, we somehow managed to trick the system. We had history questions, but we managed to bypass them and get straight into the treasury."
"Ohh, you're amazing."
"Yeah, right. We almost died because of that plan," Asura gave me a sidelong glance.
"Well, it all turned out fine in the end. In our treasury, there were plenty of magical wands; we had to pick the best ones."
Vina shrugged. "Well, you're a mage; you should know about these things. Kuronya and I had an ordeal with solving math problems. Ha! They didn't know who they were dealing with."
"K-Kuronya!?" Kurone was unexpectedly embarrassed.
"Well, I thought maybe I could come up with nicknames for all of you. Well, we easily managed everything, and we still have twenty minutes left for the treasury. But when we got in there..." Vina paused dramatically, "it turned out to be a mountain of coins!"
I was amazed at her theatrics. "Well, that sounds great; you could have just taken more coins and left."
"Heh-heh, it's not that simple, Mister 'take what suits, cut down whoever gets in the way.' Most of the coins were already out of circulation, but among them, there could be rare ones highly valued by collectors."
Vina hugged Kurone tightly.
"But Kurone easily picked out the coins still usable in circulation, and I was left searching for the rarest ones. I must say, the daughter of merchants is very skilled with money. Isn't that right, dear friend?"
Kurone was simply glowing with embarrassment. She had never had such a close friend before.
"Well, congratulations to you both. What about the others?"
"Well, no one else managed to pass the trials. Only Katrina, Seleria, Ragni, and Rizel are left. They are delayed; something might have happened to them."
Suddenly, with cries and shouts, Katrina and Seleria burst out of the passage. Seleria's hair was sticking out in all directions, and its tips were singed in some places. As for Katrina, her dress was burned in several spots, and her entire face was covered in soot.
"Stupid redhead!!"
"Brain-dead lightning bolt!!"
"You did it on purpose!!"
"Who are you to talk?!!"
The princesses fought on the floor, grappling with each other. It was a frightening sight, considering that they were princesses of two countries. They seemed to have no idea how they had emerged from the dungeon.
"Ahem," as everyone was already staring at the brawling girls, I decided to get their attention.
"Huh?" The princesses finally noticed the others.
The girls got up, dusted themselves off, extinguished the fire on their dresses, and went their separate ways.
"Katrina, any problems?"
"No. Everything is perfectly fine," the yellow princess proudly folded her arms across her chest, oblivious to the fact that her face was blackened with soot.
"Seleria?"
"What makes you think so?" The girl stood on the opposite end of the hall from Katrina, also leaning against the wall. Occasionally, a slight twitch in her eyes indicated residual electrical charges.
"I'll have to ask Levris about their ordeal."
And there was Levris, appearing from the passage, carrying the necromancer on her arm.
"Teacher, what happened to her? Is she injured?" I was worried about Rizel.
"Eh... heh-heh. No, I think she's fine," the teacher awkwardly smiled and scratched her cheek.
"Ragni?"
"Don't look at me; I'm not to blame. She volunteered herself," the dragoness quickly fell silent, realizing she had given herself away.
The girls sat Rizel on a bench, and I approached to check on her condition.
"Rizel, can you hear me?"
The black-hooded figure slowly looked up at me; she seemed unsteady.
"K-Kritunia!? HIC - She hiccupped: - Do you re... respect me? Oh, I admire you sooo much."
A foolish grin spread across the necromancer's face.
"Is she drunk??" I looked at Ragni, and she hastily averted her eyes.
"Well, it's not my fault. Our task was to arrange vials with poisons and potions according to their purpose. So, at first, I tried to determine them by color or smell."
"And?!" I approached Ragni threateningly.
"Well, we were short on time. That's when Rizel suggested trying all the potions and describing the effects to me, and then I would identify them based on that. We sped up significantly, and in the end, I managed to sneak a peek at the treasury for five minutes. Look, I even extracted dragon scales and diamond dust from there."
Ragni handed me two boxes.
"Fine, but what about her?! Doesn't she have immunity to all poisons?!"
"Well... for the sake of a fair experiment, she had to rinse her throat every time, and we only had alcohol on hand. So, that's how it turned out."
"And how much did she drink?"
"A little over a liter," now it was Ragni's turn to grin foolishly, "but with her resistance, it should evaporate from her system by morning."
"Kriiitoooniaaa, I love yooouu," before she could finish her sentence, the necromancer collapsed onto the floor. Adopting a horizontal position, she quickly rolled into a ball around her staff and started snoring peacefully.
"Haha, can't miss such an opportunity," Seleria tiptoed toward the sleeping necromancer and reached for her hood. However, even in her sleep, the shinigami reflexes worked excellently. Rolling onto the other side, Rizel tripped Seleria with her staff, and she fell face-first onto the floor. "Damn it. Well, I'll show you!"
"That's enough. Leave poor Rizel alone. Tell me what happened to you all."
The princesses exchanged glances, snorted demonstratively, and turned away from each other.
"Teacher?" Levris still had a question.
"Well, they got the most unusual trial. Usually, they choose two powerful mages of different elements. They are asked questions alternately, and if one answers incorrectly, the other uses their magic to strike them. At first, everything was going well for them, but then each couldn't answer some silly question, and they started blaming each other. In the end, they deliberately gave wrong answers to fry their opponent. Unfortunately, they were so close to the treasury but couldn't reconcile in the end."
Levris helplessly shrugged her shoulders.
"She started it first!!" Seleria pointed her finger at Katrina.
"No, she did!!" The princesses started arguing again.
"Enough already! You both failed the task; you need to rest. Teacher, what about you? Are you staying here?"
"I'm definitely staying. What if new guilds come to participate in the trial?"
"They won't. The quarter is closed for visits. And certainly, no one will be allowed in at night."
"Huh? The quarter is closed? For how long?"
"I gather until the end of the 'Treasure Hunt'. We should have been more attentive when choosing the location for the underground dungeon."
"Oh no. Once again, I chose a dungeon where no one will come."
"Well, well, don't worry. Maybe someone with influential connections might still come here. But since you have nothing to do here at night, why don't you join us? We're staying at Katrina's friend's place in the middle district."
"If I won't be a bother, then, of course. Besides, my little room in this library is probably functioning as a janitor's closet."
We exited the library, and a girl in armor greeted us with anxious cries.
"P-p-princess!! What happened?! You were attacked!! I'll call a doctor immediately!!"
"Victoria!! Calm down; everything's fine. It was just a trial we were going through, and it turned out a bit more challenging than I anticipated," Katrina tried to reassure the captain of the guards. If she called for help, there could be problems. "Escort us to your home; I need a good bath!"
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