Chapitre 245: Chapter 245: This is a cycle (Edited)
The search for gold is as instinctive and subconscious as the search for water, air, oil, salt, and sweetness.
In the face of such enormous wealth, it's difficult for anyone to control their desires, like Sara, who dived into the mountain of gold, throwing handfuls of gold into the air as she fell into it, and then emptied her backpack, cramming it with all kinds of exotic treasures.
Soon her backpack was full, but there were more precious and exotic treasures to be found. Sara took out the ordinary ones from her backpack and replaced them with the new jewels she had seen. Like a child in a field searching for the biggest sheaf of wheat, she rummaged through the jewels, and every time she thought she was done, something more precious appeared before her eyes, a thumbnail-sized black stone was replaced by one the size of a pigeon egg, and when she wanted to leave, she found one the size of an egg...
This happened again and again.
But Tom didn't dare do what she did, to dive in and go crazy. He restrained Hermione, not allowing her to join in the carnival. He feared that the gold and jewels might be contaminated with some strange poison. Of course, most biotoxins had evaporated over five thousand years and probably decomposed into nothingness, but the curse on the mysterious side is hard to say.
Both Dr. Hunter and the old Yushadu remained calm and silently watched as Sara went on her shopping spree. Sara took a while to come to her senses, feeling that something was not right in the atmosphere.
"Guys... you can also grab... grab whatever you want," she said sarcastically.
"Half of the team died along the way, and yet you're still so reckless? Don't you have a brain?" Tom was speechless in the face of this foolish woman. "Aren't you afraid that the gold is poisoned or cursed?"
Sara realized the problem and stumbled away from the mountain, knocking down a heap of gold, letting it scatter everywhere, and as she descended from the mountain, she accidentally stepped on a hollow golden cup that had rolled under her feet and shattered it. Dr. Hunter's tension rose as he looked at the cup and the black stones that had flown out of it.
Sara realized she had done something wrong and stepped back with her head down. Tom looked at her and sighed.
At least she had proven with her actions that the gold was not poisonous and didn't have an instant death curse.
"Doctor, let's go look for an exit, and we'll come back for the treasure when we find it," Tom told Dr. Hunter, not as a question but as an order.
Perhaps Dr. Hunter and the others had achieved their goal, but Tom hadn't, and he hadn't gained much from the journey, aside from a few points along the way. So he would have to explore the area further. Of course, if he found an exit, it would be great to send Dr. Hunter and the others on their way. The rest was more than the three Muggles could handle; in fact, Tom was already regretting bringing the group to the city.
But by then, the expedition had too many dead people to stop at the outskirts ruins. Alyosha had lost his companions in the ruins, Dr. Hunter had lost his students, and Tom couldn't stop them.
Tom's assertiveness worked. Dr. Hunter agreed to find the exit first. They first went to the most suspicious pool in the room, but they found nothing unusual, just a pool of clear water and some small golden fish.
The golden mountains surrounding them shone as brightly as the sun under the light.
Behind the pool, there was a path identical to the one they had used to enter the room, and a door of the same dark golden shape as the entrance. They exited through this path. As soon as they passed through the door, they all turned and took a long look at the treasure room, filled with gold and jewels.
"Let's get to work." Tom urged them on and informed the three Muggles of what he had just found out.
"What is to come is not for those of you who have not been exposed to magic." He seriously urged them to leave, determined to remember the "real" circumstances of the adventure as they departed.
"Fine." Dr. Hunter gritted his teeth in agreement.
And so they all walked through the dark passage, with no one speaking except Tom and Dr. Hunter at first, who exchanged a few words about their thoughts. The only sounds on the way were the footsteps of the five and Sara's heavy breathing. Her backpack, with its dozens of kilograms of treasure, was heavy.
After walking for a while, something appeared ahead. Tom raised his wand and looked closer, but it was a piece of sand, as fine and beautiful as the sand they had found earlier. As Dr. Hunter and the others approached, the light beams from their hands illuminated the sand, and Tom was speechless: there were already large tracks of disordered footprints in the sand.
Tom froze, and a strange thought occurred to him.
The others saw it too. "Why are there footprints here?" Sara asked in astonishment. How could someone else have entered here? They were lucky to get in here; ordinary people wouldn't even be able to decipher that puzzle on the outside!
Tom shook his head. "Don't think too much, keep going, and you'll find out why in a while."
He carefully observed the set of footprints in the sand, which he was quite certain were left behind because they matched Hermione's boot sole.
The tension grew due to the strange footprints, and the atmosphere in the passage became even more oppressive. Soon, another dark golden door appeared at the end of the corridor. As soon as he saw it, Tom had a bad feeling: it was the same door they had entered through before! Even the black cat on the door was the same.
"Interesting." Tom smiled. "Go in and take a look."
He told the four of them, standing in front of the door.
At that moment, the door opened, and light streamed out from inside.
At first, they felt relieved—the room had been dark without light, and this one was bright. Then they panicked, remembering that they hadn't turned off the lights before leaving!
The door opened, and they entered, the room behind it was exactly the same as the treasure room: pillars, a pool, a coral lamp emitting light, a path, a mountain of gold...
When Dr. Hunter picked up a crushed golden cup from the floor, they were all certain that they had returned to the same room as before.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone