30: Lucky Find
It wasn’t as though Aidan developed a new sense for figuring out traps with Sense Vibrations. If anything, it was his expectations and the feel of the room around him that gave it away.
Normally, treasure chests that were hidden away, like the first one Haley found, would not have any traps. The fact that it was hidden behind a series of walls of the maze with no apparent way to get in was proof of that. Despite that, it still contained a nasty bullet that almost took Van out as a trap.
So seeing a chest out in the middle of the open like this was pretty easy to figure out that there would be a trap. If anything, there might be even more traps contained within this very room. In realization of this, he found himself backing away a few steps in response.
“What do we do?” Van asked. He looked at Aidan for an answer. “I could go up to it and–”
“Van, just because you got yourself some new fancy armor doesn’t mean you can just get yourself hurt again,” Haley argued, her hands on her hips as she stared daggers at Van.
“Then what do you propose? Just ignore it and move on?” Van asked back. Haley didn’t have an answer to that, but she kept glaring at her brother in response.
“I’m also not a big fan of letting Van go in again,” Aidan said, prompting Haley on the side to let out a tongue at Van, to which he rolled his eyes at. “I got an idea for something. Hold on.”
Aidan ordered the siblings to back up as far away as possible, getting out of the dome room through the exit. With this much space between them, Aidan pulled out his Harmonious Shortsword and let it float in mid-air. It flew straight towards the center to where the treasure chest was and hung right in front of it.
“Are you going to open it with the sword?” Haley asked. “Wouldn’t that be difficult?”
“It’s better to try,” Aidan said. “I can probably wedge it open and see if it’ll work.”
In truth, Aidan wasn’t sure if it would work at all, and he was already thinking about a solid way to heal Van with his Heal spell after sending him despite what he said earlier. That would be the last option to consider as Aidan made the sword hit the chest in odd angles, the blade hitting against the wooden surface and metal ridges.
It was a surreal sight to see, something that even the siblings watched with raised brows, but Aidan was trying to see if he could open the chest with just his sword. After multiple tries of hitting against the chest, Aidan eventually slid the tip of the sword into the ridges of the chest. It smoothly went in, and with a flourish, Aidan swiped the sword across the chest.
The lock on the chest came undone and broke apart, falling to the ground. Aidan let out a small whoop of excitement as he lifted the blade off the ridge, lifting the top of the treasure chest and revealing the contents inside.
In that same instance, everyone heard several twangs of metal ring out in short intervals, and the walls surrounding the room shifted to reveal small holes that opened up one by one.
Those holes shot out what looked like arrows that were expelled with great force, enough that the arrows hit the ground with enough force to create small craters the size of wagon wheels. The room became submerged in a rain of arrows powerful enough to shoot off an entire head off one’s shoulders, pounding the ground with relentless force. Even the Harmonious Shortsword was hit, often getting hit across the room from the forces of the arrows. Aidan tried his best to save his sword, making it float around to avoid the arrows.
But he knew in an instant that this room was an instant-death trap. The arrows came too hard and fast, knew full well that his Agility stat wouldn’t be nearly good enough to avoid every one. At some point, the arrow would hit directly into some poor soul’s body part, and that single hit would be the start of a long drawn-out death sentence that would eventually lead to a horrific death.
The arrows finally stopped launching from their slits in the walls, the entire room finally returning to its empty silence. But the state of the room was utterly demolished. The ground was crumbling apart in places, small holes littered everywhere and arrows scattered like broken armaments in a bloody war. Even if Aidan miraculously avoided each arrow, the floor would’ve been uneven, making his footing terrible which would eventually lead him to fall and just get pelted more and more as time passed.
Only around thirty seconds passed since the onslaught of arrows, but it left an impression that would probably stick with Aidan for years to come.
“...Well, who’s glad Van wasn’t there?”
He said it as a joke, but he saw how the siblings had their jaws hung open like the hinges were loosening, their eyes popping out of their skulls at the sight. He’d certainly answer that he was glad Van wasn’t there.
No amount of powerful enchanted armor was going to save Van’s life in that barrage of arrows. He also noticed how Van kept having his hands across his chest, probably imagining how many arrows would hit him before his Health ran out.
Wanting to make sure, Aidan pulled the shortsword into the air, noticing that it was battered beyond belief. The guard was badly damaged, and the blade had pricks and dents that looked terrible on it.
“Ah man, that looks bad,” Aidan muttered, wondering if maybe he could fix it up with Craft. He had never tried repairing equipment before, but this felt like a good time to test it out. “I think it’s safe to get out there, guys.”
“I-I’m fine staying here,” Haley answered, raising her hand. Van answered with an eager nod for her to do just that.
“I’ll go first, just to be safe,” Van said, stepping out into the room before Aidan could say anything else. Thankfully the room was left quiet even as Van walked forward straight toward the chest. He avoided most of the craters and arrows and even had to jump to a few places before reaching the chest.
Aidan followed suit, and eventually Haley followed once the two men were inside with no apparent traps activating. After reaching to the chest, Aidan was surprised to see that it was completely fine. Most of the arrows that came flying only landed around the chest rather than on it, making him wonder if perhaps there was some kind of mechanism on hand.
If he had found it, perhaps they could’ve avoided the trap altogether. It’s possible that, like in most fantasy works, the Thief Class would have an ability that allowed them to disengage traps. While Van knew about that, he was still a Warrior, focusing more on taking hits.
Aidan stood over the open chest, and was amazed at the contents inside. There was a bow made in white wood, with golden filigree on the top and bottom parts of the bow. He picked it up, surprised at the heftiness despite its short size, and scanned it.
Holy Bow of the Ascent (Rare)
A bow made out of pristine wood that had been harvested within the blessed forest of the once standing religious empire. It is charged with holy energy, allowing the shooter to create an arrow made of holy power with mana to shoot at their foes. It works incredibly well against those of dark-alignment or demonic fiends and creatures.
Holy Arrow–Mana Cost: 25
Requirements:
Level 5+ Archer Class
“Hot damn,” Aidan whistled. “Now this is what I call decent loot.”
The thing was, he had no intention of keeping it for himself. He can already attack from afar, and it looks like outside of its enchantment, it really is just a bow. He had no experience on using bows, nor did he ever have much of an interest in them beforehand.
“Hey Haley, I think I found something for you.”
“Really?!”
Haley immediately ran up to Aidan, spotting the bow for herself. Her eyes widened at the sight of it, then tilted her head.
“A bow?”
“Yeah, you’re an Archer, right?” Aidan asked, considering her Class literally said Archer when he scanned her before.
“Well… yeah, but I never used a bow.”
“What?” Aidan hung his head back in surprise. “Seriously?”
“Well duh. I only picked the class to get those sweet abilities they give for tracking and good perception based skills. It’s perfect for foraging in the forest. But I never used it for hunting.”
“Either way, it’s good for you to have it,” Van said, pointing at the bow. “As long as it’s a bow, your Class would give you a good boost to its damage output.”
Huh, so it works like that, Aidan thought, putting that little tidbit into the back of his mind.
“But are you sure?” Haley asked. “This is a pretty good looking bow. If you sell it–”
“I’ll tell you the same thing I told Van–it’s only worth using inside this dungeon. You can give the sword to Van so he can have some ranged options. Plus, you don’t have to use the enchantment, just look around you.”
Aidan pointed out, making the siblings notice an extreme surplus of arrows surrounding them. What would’ve been a death sentence for an average party now became a good supply of ammunition for their budding Archer.
“Ah… welp, guess I can’t turn down a free gift,” Haley said with a smirk, taking the bow for herself. She fiddled around with it, and Aidan completely forgot how she could easily handle hefty items like this with ease with her higher Might stat compared to his. “Thank you.”
“Like I said, it’s thanks to you that we keep finding good stuff, even if it did try to kill us every chance we get,” Aidan chuckled, thinking it was a half-decent joke. He looked back down at the chest and exclaimed. “Oh, shit, there’s another one here.”
He dug into the chest, finding an obsidian band just on top of the plushy bottom. When he picked it up, he scanned it immediately.
Arcane Ring (Rare)
A band made of Vel Iron that meticulously gathers particles of mana to its wearer, allowing them to restore mana at a slow rate. It is enchanted with this in mind, improving the caster’s rate of magic for anything that they might come across
Mana Gatherer
+5 Wisdom
+5 Perception
Requirements:
Level 5+ in Any Class
Now Aidan was even more glad to give away the other enchanted items. Because if he kept it all to himself, he would really feel like a loot goblin when he had every intention of keeping this ring.
“Now that’s definitely rare,” Van said, turning to Aidan. “And perfect for you.”
“Maybe it’s because you were so nice in giving the other items away,” Haley teased, holding onto her bow as though in recognition.
“Hehe, I’m definitely keeping this. Nina doesn't have to know about this little beauty.”
Aidan easily slipped the ring on, and immediately noticed the difference. Along with Channel Mana, his mana was recovering at an even faster rate than before. He wondered if having the Arcane Ring and Channel Mana would stack on top of each other, granting him an even further boost.
For now, he was going to have to experiment exactly how much later. Thanks to the ring, he saw that his stats had an increased number beside them.
Name: Aidan Munez
Race: Humanoid (Spirit Variant)
Talent: Path of Harmony
Class: Mage
Level: 10
HP: 90/90
MP: 280/280
STR: 10
(Might 10, Toughness 13, Endurance 7)
INT: 25
(Intellect 22, Wisdom 23+5, Perception 21+5)
AGI: 13
(Speed 11, Reflex 10, Dexterity 19)
VIT: 11
(Lifeforce 9, Vigor 15, Charisma 9)
Points: 0 AP, 0 SP
Compared to how he first landed here, he was getting quite a few upgrades, though admittedly his Intelligence was starting to get a rampant boost lately. He’d have to find ways to boost both his Strength and Vitality without sacrificing too much potential gains. If he keeps finding rare equipment like this, he might not have to spend so many points and instead focus on his highest and second stat.
The same could be said about finding equipment exactly like the Arcane Ring. Was it a good idea to boost his lagging stats with equipment, or boost his highest stats further? That felt like a question that needed more studying considering it’s going to affect his reality from now on.
Just to be sure, he took another peek into the chest, but no matter how much he dug around, there was nothing else but empty air. Would the chest just disappear or would it stay empty like that for some poor fool who finds this room later on?
“Hey, what’s gonna happen to the chests once we pilfer them?”
“They just disappear into the dungeon,” Van answered. “They’re made by the dungeon, so it gets filled up with the excess magical power to call in more people to kill.”
“And it’s a pretty return on investement, since it would kill anyone else other than us,” Haley said, who was already trying to take as many arrows as possible. Despite how embedded each arrow was, she managed to pull them out with ease. “Hey, can I borrow your spatial bag for these arrows? It’s gonna be a pain to hold them all in without a quiver.”
“Oh, sure,” Aidan realized, snapping his fingers. It wasn’t as though Haley would do something dumb like take off with the spatial bag, especially since it came from Nina who was her master at the moment.
Plus, it would be pretty uncool if Aidan gave her the bow for her to use, only for it become an absolute burden on her person if she had to carry so many arrows by hand. Van and Aidan helped out in recovering the arrows too, leaving the room completely bare and leaving it in its trashed state.
Soon they left the dome room to return to the second floor of the dungeon and continued down their path. The party practically made off like bandits from their last treasure hunt, and Aidan eagerly looked forward to more to come. Though he first pulled up his sword.
Seeing it in its damaged state, he called up the orb from his Craft spell and put it inside. He directed his attention to the nicks and tiny cracks shown on the blade, and tried to fix them up in his imagination.
A few seconds later, he pulled the sword out, completely unblemished as if it wasn’t pelted hundreds of times by super fast arrows. However, Aidan could also sense through his own soul that it diminished in quality a little. Perhaps just a few percentage points, but it was barely noticeable.
“You can fix equipment too,” Van said, this time sounding entirely exhausted. “You’re just full of tricks, aren’t you? You’re perfect for any adventurer party.”
“He can pretty much solo this place too, can’t he?” Haley added. “Is there even a need for us to join?”
“Well, I couldn’t have been able to find any treasures without you,” Aidan said, pointing at Haley. “And it’s always nice to have somebody to watch my back in battles like Van.”
Though he still planned on doing exactly that with just his sword for his experience grinding later. He was already looking forward to that thanks to his recent increases in his Intelligence.
It was only after a half hour of traveling where they hadn't spotted any monsters around so far where Aidan felt that something was off. He felt something change in the air, leaving him to stop the party and stand perfectly still within the vast halls of the maze.
They entered into another large area, but this time there were many different entrances to different pathways around the room. If anything, this looked like a giant lobby where there were furnishings around that seemed dated and old, like discarded sofas and overturned chairs and tables. Was the dungeon perhaps some kind of underground fortress that then became a dungeon in time?
Putting that thought to the side, he turned to the siblings and placed his finger over his lips to silence them. Then, he cast Vanish, turning them all invisible.
“What the–”
Aidan quickly hushed the shocked Van and pulled him to the side, Haley following in tow. She already knew about the spell when they first met, so she wasn’t that surprised. Their faces were hard to see thanks to the invisibility but he could tell from their souls that they were pretty shaken up. Once they got to the other side of the room, placing themselves near a wall, Aidan whispered his thoughts to them.
“I hear multiple people coming in at once,” Aidan said, the siblings listening intently now that they were aware. “And you know who are the only ones able to be here, right?”
When he sensed the multiple beings, he immediately knew that they weren’t monsters. Yet at the same time, there was that strange ill-intent that he felt multiple times from the ruffians that would harass his shop and make trouble.
As soon as he finished, multiple people did indeed come up through a single entrance at the northern side of the room. It was a party of six, two men lightly wearing leather armor, and one wearing full plate armor. Another wore robes while wielding a staff, with another wearing the same kind of robes but with a wand strapped to his belt.
The lead one wore a red coat with an equally red bandage covering his head, a braided ponytail whipping behind him as he took a cursory glance around the room.
“Alright, it’s clear,” The lead man said, waving his hand to the group behind him. “Let’s take a break.”
“Thank fuck,” One of the leather armored men shouted in exhaustion. “Now come on, let’s look at the loot we got from those morons.”
“Hehe, can’t believe we found a party stupid enough to enter our turf. Didn’t even realize what’s going on until everyone dropped dead!”
“Shut up already and just split the loot!”
Aidan cursed under his breath as the group of adventurers started clamoring for the loot that one of them was carrying behind his back. Hearing their words just now, and noticing the red coat on that lead guy, it was clear exactly who they were.
“Of course the Red Riot would be here looking for something…”