Chapter 450: The Emperor
A day after beheading his minders, Rain, Myrti, and Sahaja were finally rested enough to explore the room above the stairwell. Sahaja had spent most of her time catastrophizing, while Myrti near-silently resumed her training.
Rain ignored their discomfort, thoroughly looting their dead handlers before tossing their bodies into the preceding room, where something dark was forming over the corpse of the chimera they’d killed.
He’d forgotten to take out its heartstone, and he wasn’t going to risk it now. So while Myrti trained and Sahaja rocked back and forth holding her knees, Rain started to ferry the worthwhile treasures upstairs for sorting, leaving behind mostly copper coins and mundane equipment.
While he was sorting, he heard a clang from below as further items were deposited, but investigating proved nothing useful. That time, when he looked up, he saw something strange around the dark hole in the world as dungeon denizens stalked toward it. The first to touch it was a giant, corrupted raven like the one he and Myrti defeated earlier.
The moment the ravenoid poked its beak into the darkness, it was sucked in with a cry, but rather than scare off the others, the creatures leaped into the void one by one, and each time the shadow in the world flexed and bulged until at last a new chimera sprang forth, along with a wall of force that blocked the treasure room off from the monster.
It was fortunate the wall of force came to be, as Rain was so mortified by witnessing the birth of the monster, he didn’t quite register when the beast saw him until it was pecking and clawing at the barrier.
After observing it for a time and learning the barrier was quite impenetrable even to a chimera at full strength, Rain collected a few silver coins he’d missed and returned to the top of the stairs.
He’d already given two of the three new dimensional bags to his companions, and he decided to store the enchanted swords and knives in his. Additionally, he kept a pair of bracers and boots.
The former seemed designed around using mana to produce grappling wires, which would come in handy for tripping things so he could help Myrti practice finishing opponents. The latter were made of monster hide and had a simple self-repairing function while also being able to automatically size themselves to his feet, though the leather grew a bit thinner as a result.
Janice’s whips he gave to Myrti, and the rest he left for Sahaja to choose from, which meant her storage bag wound up containing far more valuables than his and Myrti’s.
He didn’t care though, and perhaps the value of the goods would help her keep her mouth shut when it came time to return to the city. Her only weapon thus far, a mace, she replaced with a glaive and shield, able to wield both thanks to having four arms.