Chapter 267: Treasure Hunters (2/2)

Austin groaned, holding his hands up into the air, “Baron you fucking idiot. Oh well. One more then. Yea alright. Alright. On the condition that you help us fight.”

Ilea shrugged, not having a problem with that. Identifying the man, she was surprised to find him the highest of the group.

[Ranger – lvl 210]

“You’re human.” Ilea stated after they had walked in silence for a while, the three of them staring at the dozens of roach corpses on the ground. The sound of Baron stepping on them was so unpleasant, Ilea had started to walk ahead, moving them out of the way with an ashen wedge hovering in front of her.

Austin looked her way, checking something on his crossbow. The weapon he had picked up from further down the tunnel, before Ilea had even shown up. “Yea, red blood and a single heart pumping in my chest. You’re one as well? Did an expedition actually manage to get this far north?”

Ilea shook her head, “Came here alone. You’re the survivor of one?”

He nodded, “Got slaughtered a week in. Feynor. Probably on an expedition to explore the south. We killed a ton of them but they had the numbers. The blood attracted one of those massive snakes and that was that. I loosed a couple shots and then advanced through the north until I came here.”

Baron snorted but didn’t comment on it. Ilea had an idea about what might have actually happened but she had no desire to get him on the defensive. “Where are you from?”

“Virilya, born and raised.” He said and grinned, “Lovely, the empire.”

Ilea laughed, not quite believing anything coming out of his mouth. His green eyes were sparkling, similar to the king she had met earlier. His jawline was smooth and his grin not unattractive. Still, there was something sleazy about him. The way he spoke, looked at the others. “It can be.” She simply said, the group advancing through the dark tunnel, a torch and Baron's floodlight illuminating the way. “So what's that treasure you have on your map?”

The man nearly stumbled upon the mention, flashing a glare at the dwarf and then the healer, “Alternative way into the warded section of the fourth layer. Nobody has been able to crack it from the outside so now we're going in from the other side.” Austin said with a grin.

Ilea was pretty sure the dungeon had been there for at least a couple decades. To think there was a known section closed off and not yet broken into. “Are you sure nobody's been in there before?”

This time it was the dwarf who spoke, “Of course there might be but the red church was crazy, they enchanted nearly every room and hallway. To even get past a single section you'd have to work for years and whatever was found hadn't really been worth it so most people have stopped. The traps and monsters don't really help with this.”

Ilea wondered if Terok had been there, tried to get in. Maybe working with her allowed him to dedicate himself to the work. “Red church?”

“You're new here. They're the only name we have of whoever ran this city and the Heroes' Descent. Obsessed with the relics found within the deeper levels. You'll find enough writing and left over books and records if you're interested. Most scavengers don't care.” Ilea would at least have a bunch of history to trade with the elf.

Austin held up a hand, “Trap ahead.” Ilea couldn't see it yet through her sphere but she smiply kept going, the other three looking at her a little confused, “Hey, I'm a ranger, I can take care of it in a minute.”

Finding the enchanted plate, Ilea checked for the connection and found a spear waiting to be shot out of a dug out section in the wall. She activated the trap, catching the spear that soared towards her a moment later. The others just looked at her, Baron chuckling while Seath just shook her head in disbelief. The thing wasn't even coated in poison, a simple wooden shaft tipped with a sharpened stone. “Were the goblins always here?”

“Yea, bloody plague. No money to be gained in hunting them down either. Especially with how extensively they booby trap their dens.” Austin explained.

Ilea just nodded. She wasn't interested either if the one she had met was an indication of their overall strength. May the roaches and goblins kill each other in this world of dirt. Reaching the end of the tunnel, Baron looked at Austin. A dead end. Ilea knew there was something waiting behind the wall but she waited with saying anything.

“Now wait a minute before you smash me to a pulp Baron, I told you I'd pay you back. Show some trust.” Austin said with a grin, taking the bow from his back before he selected one of the arrows out of his quiver. “Should do the trick...,” he said to nobody in particular. Drawing it back, he loosed it, a whirlwind of air smashing into the earth and mud, digging deep and taking quite a bit of mass with it. The passage was revealed and he bowed. Seath actually clapped at that but Ilea wasn't sure if sarcastically or not.

“And the map says to go down there?” Baron asked, looking up to Austin who didn't seem quite as confident anymore. Ilea stared down the stone shaft, the thing long enough for neither her eyes nor Sphere to reveal anything about the bottom.

“Well I didn’t draw the bloody thing. Just didn’t seem as big of a deal on paper…,” The ranger said.

The thing was barely big enough to fit the dwarf in his massive armor. Ilea looked at Seath, “You and me go down first.” The cat person looked around but it seemed neither Baron nor Austin were about to offer help. “You can heal, come on, don’t be a wuss. Third layer down there?”

Austin got out the map form his pack, “Yea… well not really. It’s supposed to pass through the third layer entirely. Only way to get where we need to go.”

Ilea nodded, appearing next to him and grabbing the map, “I’ll be taking this with me as collateral should this be a trap in some way.” Ripping it out of his hands, she rolled it and handed it to one of her ashen limbs.

“Hey what the fuck?! Give that back lady, you wouldn’t want to anger us, right Baron?”

The dwarf looked at him and then back to Ilea, “I’d rather deal with you Austin, no offense.”

Ilea appeared next to Seath and grabbed her with three ashen limbs around the waist and back, “Just follow a minute or two later.” She said and spread her wings, jumping down before they could delay any further. She wanted to get to the fourth layer, likely the place where monsters in her needed range resided. Whatever treasure it was they were looking for, she couldn’t imagine a lot of things being particularly useful to her. At least here in the north. Gold was always welcome of course. Free falling into the hole, Ilea was surprised Seath didn’t so much as yelp at the dangerous maneuver.

Her sphere would inform her about anything long before it would be too late to react. She could of course not blink due to hanging on to the healer but it seemed like a sure way to know if it was a trap or not. The map was really just to irritate Austin. They fell for quite a while, longer than she had expected. Should’ve thrown down a pebble. The thought passed through her mind when the ground suddenly appeared at a very high speed below her. Ilea’s wings spread out, magic surging as they came to an abrupt stop, hovering a meter or two over the stone floor that had carvings etched into it.

Seath groaned, Ilea sending some healing mana through her. The sudden stop had bruised some of her muscles and she was about to puke before a combination of her and Ilea’s healing calmed her down. “Know anything about those?”

“What do you mean?” Seath groaned, still held up by Ilea’s ashen limbs.

“The etchings on the ground. Might be enchantments of some sort.”

Seath looked at her, “I can’t see well in the dark. Austin will have to have a look.”

I thought cats didn’t have that issue…, They waited for a while, Ilea trying to make sense of the etchings. A couple minutes later the others joined them, the sound of Baron grinding down the chute unmistakable. Austin was simply sitting on one of the dwarf’s massive shoulders with an annoyed look on his face. “Stop guys!” Seath spoke, grinding growing louder before they came to a stop right above them. “Don’t want to get squashed…,” She said, looking at Ilea with an accusing look.

Ilea was somewhat confident she could’ve stopped them with a hand but this worked as well. “We’ve got etchings in the ground. Your passage is closed.”