Chapter 68 (1/2)

Ch. 68: Reunion at the Bottom Floor

The door to the bottom floor easily opened after Lapis put her hand on it and muttered a few words.

It happened so quickly that Loren wondered if there was actually a seal.

“What did you just do?”

To Klaus, what Lapis had just done was unbelievable, as his eyes became wide open with surprise, in contrast to Loren.

Seeing his reaction, Loren understood that the door had been sealed properly, but when he thought about it, whatever Lapis had just done wasn’t something that could be done ordinarily and realized that it shouldn’t have been shown to the other. So, he panicked and looked towards Lapis, wondering how she would react, but she answered like it was nothing.

“I tried copying the wavelength of the mana used to undo the seal. I examined the key, after all. It’s quite simple.”

“Huh? What?”

Since Klaus was a swordsman, he was about to stand down with Lapis’ explanation, but this time Ange, who was a magician, let out a confused voice.

On the front among the members there, Ange was supposed to be the expert on mana, so Loren was alarmed that her confused response would cause more suspicion towards Lapis, but Lapis easily responded to this as well.

“A thief that came to confess at the temple I was training at secretly taught me this technique when I told her I was going to become an adventurer. You shouldn’t think that a thief can’t touch something just because you sealed something with mana.”

As she told Ange that it was a technique of a thief, she stopped looking suspiciously at her for now.

Since it was outside of her expertise, she couldn’t say if what Lapis said was true or not and decided that there was no reason to be suspicious of it.

“Is that story true?”

Seeing that the conversation was now done, Loren quietly asked Lapis, and she answered him in a hushed voice.

“It’s true that a handful of thieves know the technique of picking locks using mana. But the source of the technique is us.”

In this case, us didn’t mean priests of the Knowledge G.o.d.

Loren understood that since Lapis was a demon, the technique sourced from them.

Loren wondered why they decided to develop and spread the technique to thieves, even though it was only a handful of them, and was worried that when Klaus or Ange had the opportunity to travel with priests of the Knowledge G.o.d in the future, the level of skill and techniques they would expect from that priest would be very high.

“Okay, the door is open. It’s a waste of time just standing here and chatting, so let’s get going, shall we?”

As Lapis insisted that there was nothing more to talk about, the group started going down the stairs on the other side of the open door.

The stairs leading to the tenth floor was longer compared to the ones for the upper floors, but other than that, it was almost the same, and the group reached the tenth floor.

They immediately realized why the stairs were longer than the others.

The bottom floor wasn’t a dungeon like the floors above, but instead it was just a wide s.p.a.ce.

In places across this wide s.p.a.ce were showcases packed with many kinds of items and tools.

The ceiling was high and had light sources installed so it was possible to see across the whole floor, and Parme let out a voice full of admiration as she put her torch against the wall.

“This is Volf’s legacy…”

The things that were more valuable were stored inside the showcases, but everything else was stored adequately, with some were just piled up next to the walls.

But even those radiated its own mana, while the gold, silver, and jewels were shining brightly, and one look told them that it was worth a fortune.

“The last time I’ve been here was before graduating, but it’s quite a sight, no matter how many times I see it.”

Klaus looked around with slight nostalgia.

From what Loren had heard, Klaus was quite the honor student and had been here before, so he asked him out of slight curiosity.

“Hey Klaus, were you able to take something from here?”

“No, I returned to the surface without taking anything to avoid fighting the guardian. I didn’t want to put my companions in danger.”

When Klaus looked Ange with a smile, she looked back at him with flushed cheeks and a s.p.a.ced-out expression, while Loren and Lapis overtly sighed and looked away.

Meanwhile Parme looked at the two of them enviously.

“Alright, anyways.”

“You’re the one who asked.”

“Anyways! Where would the preceding visitors be?”

The tenth floor was vast.

And due to the showcases, there were places they couldn’t see, and wouldn’t be surprising if someone or something would be lurking there.

On top of that, because of the items radiating mana all around the place, it was hard to sense others that might be there, so Loren felt that it wasn’t a situation where they could let down their guards.

“I was expecting there to be an ambush or two.”

Since the keeper on the ninth floor was deactivated, it was almost certain that whoever did it was on the same floor.

And that someone was most likely someone partic.i.p.ating in the exam, with a high possibility of fraud.

So, Lapis had expected that person to consider that they would be coming behind him and ready something to hold them back or even set an ambush, but it seemed that her prediction was wrong, as they didn’t meet anything of the sort.

“Nothing happening doesn’t hurt.”

“You’re so naïve, Klaus.”

As Lapis said with a sigh, Klaus looked at her, not sure what he said wrong.

“Nothing here means that the person has already finished what he came here for, you know? It means that he finished it before we even got a chance to find out what it was.”

“That’s…I guess that’s true.”

“On top of that, if it was one of the students, he would know that we would find out that he attempted fraud, so even if we return to the surface, he would already be running away. Well…as proctors, it wouldn’t affect our job results even if he gets away.”

Reporting the facts and letting the school decide what happens after could count as doing their jobs as proctors.

Then it was easier if no one was there on the bottom floor and nothing happened.

“Lapis, you didn’t forget why we came here, right?”

“Of course not. I’m looking for it right now.”

In the same way Loren and the others were scanning the area, Lapis was doing the same, except she was actually looking for the part of her body, which was what she and Loren had come here for.

But still, whether it be one of her arms or legs or eyes, if the actual thing was just sitting around there somewhere, she would have to explain it to Klaus and the others somehow, so she was trying to think of a good explanation.