章 25: Entrance
Inside a torch lit passageway...
Vitomir was leading the trio in a maze of tunnels after they were dismissed by the elders of the village.
"We're almost outside.", Vitomir said.
"Thank you for everything.", Allen said.
"Don't mention it, we don't always get visitors.", Vitomir replied.
"You mean there were other people that have also discovered this place?", Allen asked.
"Yes, but they could only be counted on two hands.", Vitomir said.
After a few minutes of conversation, they saw a light at the end of the tunnel. The trio left behind Vitomir and rushed towards it.
As they get closer, the light became more intense to the point they had to close their eyes until they. exited the tunnel.
When they finally exited, they opened up their eyes and they adjusted for a moment, and saw that they were near the peak of the mountain!
"Hey, wait!", Vitomir came out of the tunnel, panting. "You kids really have a lot of energ." He took out three coins made from stone, engraved with some sort of symbol and handed it over to the trio.
"Put it in your pockets, there are some parts of the mountain that didn't recover from the curse yet. Those coin rocks are blessed by the statue's power. It will protect you from the curse.", Vitomir explained.
"Thank you.", the three took hold of the coins and pocketed them.
Actually, blessed weapons like the one Drake was bringing could also protect the three of them from the necromancers' curse; however, he thought that a 'normal' wizard only 'accidentally stumbled' upon the said weapons, making him think that the holy energy inside it was very weak.
"I'll be going back, I wish you three safe travels.", as Vitomir was about walk back inside, he saw Laura sneaking out by the entrance.
"Hello father.", Laura innocently smiled.
Before Laura could say anything else, Vitomir said, "No, you're not going to with them!" Then the latter carried the former up on his shoulder and ran inside the tunnel in a very fast manner!
From outside, the last sound that the trio heard was Laura crying in anger.
"We shouldn't waste more time. It's getting dark, we need to set up camp.", Kate said.
...
As the sun was about to set...
When they were inside the chamber under the power of the Holy Statue, twenty-four hours have passed, however, on the outside world only several hours came by.
Inside another cave on the mountain...
Allen was slicing off the thick fur of the undead bear that they took down, Drake was preparing to light up the firewood, while Kate was sitting near the entrance reading the encyclopedia about flicker.
Kate looked over at Allen, "What are you doing? Won't you also get affected by the undead energy that that bear releases?"
"Don't worry, we got the coins, it would also protect us from undead energy.", Allen assured her.
"Are you sure about that?"
"Of course, I read in a book that anything that emanates holy energy would protect the holder of that object from curses and undead energy.", Allen proudly stated.
"Alright bookworm.", Kate didn't bother anymore and continued reading the book.
As the sun finally disappeared on the horizon, it was replaced by the moon and the starry sky, and at the same time, fire was lit up inside the cave.
"There might be monsters in the area. We'll take shifts on night watch." Kate said, "I'll take the last shift."
"I'll take the first one.", Drake immediately followed after.
"I guess the second one is mine.", Allen shrugged.
...
The night passed quietly, during the night watch, they didn't meet a single monster.
The trio set out during dawn, they met many undead beasts on the way, those who could be distracted, they distracted them, those who were needed to be killed, they were killed, those who were far too strong, they avoided them.
"We're here.", the trio looked at the cavern, which was the entrance to where the treasure was.
"The map said that the treasure would be at the deepest part of the cave.", Kate then took the lead. "Follow me."
An unknown figure of time passed, they reached an area in the cave where the pathway was separated into three tunnels.
Kate then lead them to the right tunnel and disappeared from the outer chamber.
After they entered the tunnel, they didn't know that the cavern slowly closed behind them.
***
Meanwhile, in the basement of a tavern at the Riverboard City.
There were a lot of bloodied corpses on the ground. Lord Levine, Mr. Sanchez, and the merchant wearing a hat that was shadowing the upper half of his face, were surrounding a frightened man.
"Y-You are monsters!", the man shouted in horror.
"We're just cleaning up the true monsters.", Mr. Sanchez calmly retorted.
"Just tell us where is your base of operations, and we'll let you free.", Lord Levine said.
"You'll never know!", the man made a gesture with his hands and pointed at the corpses of his fellows. Suddenly, the corpses' eyes glowed green and rose up from the dead.
Lord Levine calmly smiled and said, "Such a boring move." He released holy light from his hands and focused it on the corpses. When the light reached the bodies of the zombies, the said creatures wailed and crashed back to the ground with green smoke coming out of their orifices.
The man was stunned, "You're a holy priest?!"
"I don't know. What do you think?", Lord Levine casually answered back, as if he was already familiar with this scene.
"But still...! You'll never know! You'll never know where it is!" Suddenly, the body of the of man glowed red, and his body began inflating.
"If I can't get out of here, then I'll die with you three!" With a haggard and crazily look, the man started to self-destruct!
"You'll never leave out of this place alive! Hahahaha...", the man crazily laughed.
However, the quiet merchant flicked his fingers, and the man's state went back to normal in a flash!
"W-what?" Startled by what happened, the man looked over at the merchant who was seemingly the weakest of the three of them!
The self-destruction that he has initiated, was stopped with a flick of that man's finger!?
"W-w-who are you people?!", the man pointed his finger out. A holy priest that could defeat a necromancer's spell with a wave of his hands, which was impossible, holy priests couldn't do that by themselves, they needed a staff first so they could at least release holy energy.
And not just that, what Levine did was Holy Retribution! A very powerful and hard to learn spell in the rank of the holy priests!
Then there's the man who looked like a merchant, he stopped his self-destruct sequence with a flick of his fingers, even powerful wizards couldn't do that!
In addition, the self-destruct spell he initiated couldn't even be stopped by the caster itself, adding to his fear!
And finally was the other man with a long hair, who didn't yet do anything, even during the fight!
"You're just wasting our time, talk now or...", Mr. Sanchez didn't finish his sentence and just looked over to the direction of Mount Watchtower.
The merchant and Lord Levine also looked to the direction of the mountain.
Making use of this chance, the man was about to desperately cast another spell when the merchant flicked his finger once again, dispersing the spell.
The merchant sighed and looked at the man, "My spells have denegrated to this point at the hands of you useless living beings."
Hearing the merchant's sentence, the man blurted, "Your spells?! Who are you!?"
After a pause, the merchant asked, "Levine, aren't we going to kill this man? He isn't even that cooperative to us."
"No... not yet. We're going to search for his memories when we get back.", Lord Levine said.
"Alright then, after you search for his memories, I'm going to take his soul.", the merchant said.
"Okay.", Lord Levine nonchalantly replied.
"Take my soul!? Answer me first, who are you?!", the man asked.
"You're in no position to ask you annoying c***.", the merchant shouted. He then looked at Mr. Sanchez, "So, you sent three kids at that mountain? You know that they can't handle the danger in that place."
"I know it's dangerous, but then, why would I send them if they can't handle it?", Mr. Sanchez said.
"You're just referring to that kid with that dagger, aren't you?", the merchant eyed the tavern owner suspiciously.
Mr. Sanchez ignored the merchant's questions. The latter didn't seem to mind it and kept looking at the terrified man.
"I'm worried for them.", Lord Levine said.
"As I am. However, we can't enter that restricted place with our bodies. It's better that they would be the ones who will kill that thing sooner and later and get those treasures.", Mr. Sanchez said.
"I hope you are right about this, Roger. I hope you are right.", Lord Levine said.
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