Chapter 12

Carefully entering the room where Jaune assumed they would face their final obstacle. The mage was surprised to find it empty, almost surprised enough to drop the arcane bolts he was holding on too.

Almost.

Not able to bear the silence, he commented, "Seems empty." He looked around again to confirm it. Nothing here, just untold amounts of dust, which was weird, considering there had been none before.

"Not entirely empty," Jain waved his sword in the direction of one of the corners, where after concentrating hard the mage was able to discern a pile of rags.

"Should I blast it?" Jain tilted his head, thinking, then nodded.

The arcane bolt, packed with more power than really needed made a hollow sound as it struck right through the pile instantly turning it into dust and hitting the wall behind it.

Jain scratched his head, "Could be that the boss wasn't able to weather the power of time, if it was an automaton it would make sense for it to run out of gas sometime."

Jaune couldn't help but ask, "Gas?" Jain seemed startled that he had used the word. Then hummed.

"It's a type of fuel source, what I'm saying is that the construct ran out of magic."

Jaune nodded.

"Could be, no magic lasts forever." he looked around the room, swords depicted everywhere. The thought, especially magic created by swordsmen, went unsaid. He looked around the room again, no way to go forward in sight.

He sighed, "Technically speaking, if there is no more magic, then the entrance to the next area won't open." They looked at each other. Then Jain shrugged.

"Just blast it?" Jaune stroked his chin and answered.

"You know, I like the way you think." Spreading out his senses to the maximum, he was easily able to find where the entrance was, mostly due to the fact the space behind it was empty, which was a pretty big giveaway.

Tapping the wall to conclude, like his senses had already confirmed, yes, it was several feet thick. He turned to the swordsman.

Gesturing to the wall behind him he spoke, "This here is the entrance, I don't have enough firepower to blast through it, so just use some sword attack." Backing away as to not be hit by the consequent 'wall breaking attack' he watched as Jain walked up to the wall, drew his sword.

And anti-climatically, slowly, stuck it into on the the cracks. Jaune rolled his eyes at the theatricality, and as expected the sword started to emit a greenish glow.

The blade was corroding everything around it, and a few minutes later the wall was no more. Walking over its remains Jaune grimaced over the green goo that was splashing around on the floor. Following Jain, he noted that the torches were still working, despite the boss being unavailable. You had to have your priorities, after all.

The walk was serene, no murals to fawn over, though some anticipation in the air, they were about to enter the treasure chamber after all, presumably. Maybe a treasure chamber would be too greedy.

This was an educational building in the end, at least that is what Jaune had concluded. Or likely a museum of swordsmanship.

Treasure was debatable, considering these facts. It was probably just some more advanced sword techniques in the form of statues.

The thoughts made his surprise even more evident when he entered the last room, only to find it empty.

Well not entirely, there were some stone tablets on the ground, and a few rusted swords strewed about, but otherwise there wasn't much to see.

He vaguely heard Jain curse behind him as he stepped forward to examine the stone tablets, there seemed to be some words written on it. Sadly, in a language he didn't know. By the way the dots and lengths were curved towards the right and then towards the left after every paragraph, it was most likely Old-Dil.

He sighed, an extinct language, but there were definitely ways to translate it in the capital, probably in the capital library. Could be useful, you never knew.

Jaune rummaged through his pack for some paper and coal. Swiftly putting the words to paper, he stashed it away and wandered over to Jain, who was rummaging through the pile of rusted swords angrily, flirting with tetanus.

"Nothing worthwhile, I guess?" Jain shook his head causing Jaune to sigh, as expected. They weren't the first people here, and why would their predecessors leave anything valuable behind?

Walking around the room, he noticed a slight vibration from his pocket, his heart froze for a second wondering what it was, then his face spread out in a grin.

Laughing out loud, he turned to Jain, "Don't give up yet! The compass is reacting!" Jain looked at him confusedly but then also smiled when Jaune pulled out the sword needle compass. The sword was spinning at a very fast speed.

Jaune was almost afraid it would fly away, the spinning becoming faster and faster. Not able to hold it any longer due to fear of injury, he set it on the ground in the middle of the room where it stopped spinning and sat there.

Jain walked over to look at the thing over his shoulder. "Seems inert." As if to contradict his words, the thing glowed brightly and started shaking, causing the stones making up the room to vibrate in place.

Just as Jaune was about to suggest that they run, fearing a collapse, a few stones in the wall closest to the compass fell out, revealing a small space inside of the wall.

Rushing over without thinking, Jaune used his senses to discern what was inside. A chest, although he wasn't able to feel inside of it. Pulling it out swiftly he tried opening it, but failed.

His excitement finally dying down, he laid it on the ground for Jain to see as well. It was a plain thing, made out of brown lacquered wood, with a simple latch on the front, the latch that he had previously tried to open.

Squatting down beside him, Jain stretched out his hand towards it muttering, "Let me try it." After some fiddling the latch sprung open. It probably hadn't worked for him due to the fact he was a mage, the box was most certainly meant for a swordsman.

After opening it and seeing what was inside Jain froze up. Wanting to know what had him so surprised, Jaune looked inside as well. Only to see an oddly glowing crystal orb. He didn't know what its function was, but it certainly felt powerful, he didn't even need to use his sensing ability to feel it.

Jain suddenly spoke up in a solemn voice."Jaune, this is very important, we need to never speak of what we found here." He took the orb into his hand and held it up reverently, almost lovingly. "If others find out we had access to this," he gulped, "it's over."

The mage nodded solemnly at the serious atmosphere."I will listen to you on that, but what is it?" He looked at the thing curiously.

Jain rasped out," A memory orb, a skill only available to ascended people, or terrifyingly powerful magicians. They store experiences inside of it, you can 'enter' the orb, and witness the events from the eyes of the person living it. You can feel everything as if it was your own body."

Jaune's eyes widened, "And since it's in the Sword Gods Pyramid, this orb," he looked at it, trying to contain his greed, "might contain memories of the one known as the sword god."

Jain nodded," Yes, and I don't think I have to explain how useful it is for the development of a skill, if you can experience even a minute of someone higher leveled at it than you using it."

Jaune sighed,"You use it," Looking at Jain's surprised face he shrugged," I led you here to repay my debt, it would be weird if I insisted on taking the reward." Unseen to Jaune, the hand that the swordsman had been inching ever so slowly towards the sword retreated back to its original position.

Jaune gained a contemplative look to his face,"It is only for one use isn't it?" Jain nodded and answered,"Yes sadly, unfortunately the thing drops like loot from your body after death if you use it, which is why I don't want anyone to know about it."

"I understand, it's not like I came out empty handed though," Jaune clenched his fist, "I can feel myself being close to a level up of my swordsmanship." Noticing Jain wasn't even properly listening anymore he sighed.

"Just use the thing already, get it over with."

Jain nodded in agreement.

Putting the orb before his head he said, "I won't be courteous then." He tapped the orb lightly onto his forehead, causing the magical artefact to disappear, and for his body to crumple to the ground unconscious.

"Sad I couldn't use it myself," Jaune muttered to himself, "But he'll get more results out of it." Suddenly he started moving towards the corner where the tablets had been stored and pushed them aside. Tracing his finger along the ground he slowly and carefully edged it into a crack and pulled out a stone.

"But I still have this." It was a hidden compartment he had noticed with his dimensional comprehension while examining the tablets. Due to the fact it was very well hidden, and Swordsmen like most melee classes had no sensing ability, (except detect bloodlust and sixth sense which were only useful for fights, but fights only), there was a big chance that the compartment had been undiscovered by all who came before him.

Reaching into the hole he pulled out the book which he had sensed previously, and muttered to himself, "Now what do we have here?"

A skillbook, but there wasn't any discernable difference to normal books, you just knew. Like the tingling at the back of your head when you were using a skill, or the head splitting pain when learning a new one.

The title was unoriginally named 'Swords'. How... creative, Jaune thought to himself. Maybe it was simply the branch of magic or skills that this book belonged to. A skill simply named swords would be too vague and broad to actually specify anything.

But before he opened it, he found himself hesitating. Was it the correct choice to open it? He didn't know how skillbooks functioned he was worried would end up using it by just looking at the first page. Behind him he saw that Jain was still in dream wonderland. He sighed and flipped to the first page, where there was indeed a skill listed, with a name that told the user what kind of skill it was.

"Sword return" It seemed pretty self-explanatory. It returned a sword to its user. How, he didn't know, a strange skill. Undoubtedly useful if used correctly. He licked his lips in anticipation and then froze, his face scrunching up in confusion.

Wait. How do you use a skillbook? Maybe, just, read ahead? He flipped to the next page.

Empty. Next one, empty. Jaune frowned. With the reasoning that the skill was meant to end up in his head at the end, he lightly held the book to his forehead. That's when it started dissolving almost making Jaune panic before he got himself under control.

The pages were rustling like there was some invisible wind moving them about, the book slowly started to disperse into small lights, flowing to his forehead where they gathered in a big ball. When the book had fully dissolved, the sphere of purplish light paused for a moment and then faster than Jaune could follow disappeared into his forehead.

The pain was, honestly not as bad as he'd expected. Enough to have him writhing on the ground clutching his head while the magma settled into his brain, but he'd had worse. Once it was finally done transmitting something, that could only be compared to a soothing rain washed over his overheated brain.

Chasing away all thoughts giving him the peace of mind to inspect his new skill. As expected it returned the sword of the wielder in his hand if he were to lose it.

Now the question was, had it worked?

Well, Jaune drew his sword, there was only one way to find out. He threw the weapon aside, it clanged on the walls and fell to the ground.

Then he activated sword return, and he felt, with his dimensional comprehension, how the sword disappeared from its lying position.

And reappeared in his hand.

Sheathing his weapon again, Jaune stood up and turned around to look at the dishevelled looking Jain, cringing at how bloodshot his eyes were. His shabby appearance in great contrast to the huge grin on his face. It almost looked like his head was being split in two, causing Jaune to raise an eyebrow.

"I assume it was an," he looked at Jain again, noticing the change of his posture, more straight with the arms hanging languidly at his sides, his right one stroking the sword pommel, "illuminating experience."

Jain chuckled and agreed, "Quite. Also while I was experiencing the memories, I found the perfect sword style for you. I'll show it to you later." He looked around the gloomy room, now that they knew there was no treasure here anymore, it looked even more hollow and grimy than before. "Let's get out of here first. I want to sleep in my tent and by the tiredness I'm feeling it will be night soon," he looked down at the spot where he had absorbed the memories, "lying on the floor isn't really a comfortable experience."

As they were walking back towards the entrance, Jaune kept pestering the swordsman about his experiences with the orb and whose memories he had absorbed until his companion relented.

Jain grimaced and started speaking, "The memories in the orb belonged to one Kelayak Arkos, a knight in the times of some war," At Jaune's confused look he shook his head, "Never heard of him either, he must have been famous back in whatever time he lived in if he was ascended, but time has the habit of grinding away even the most memorable events."

He continued while waving his arms around enthusiastically, "Well that's not important. The events he included into the orb was basically how he fought in a war," he shook his head, "I don't even know why they were fighting, but the war was brutal and so was Kelayak's swordsmanship."

"It is an undebatable fact that the man was a genius, but the way he swung his sword was just unsightly. All efficiency, no finesse, the only thing Kelayak seemed to be able to think about was going from point A to point B in the quickest and least demanding way possible, which makes sense, since battles can take quite some time and you need to conserve energy."

"I didn't really learn any fancy techniques," at Jaune's doubtful look he added, "he had them, but he preferred not using them, a testament to how much better he was than anyone else, sadly there are only memories of him before he ascended."

He fingered the pommel of his sword again, "I didn't really learn much of what to do, but I have been," Jain grimaced as if the next words hurt to bring out, "enlightened to some mistakes I have been making in the way I fight and use the sword."

Jaune, meanwhile, was deep in thought. He knew he had heard the name Kelayak Arkos before, he was sure of it, but he couldn't remember where. He shook his head it wasn't that important.

Jains story sounded, well, 'interesting'. He had expected the orb to grant some amazing skills, since it did stem from an ascended, but apparently it had only helped him shore up on his basics. Which was perfectly fair the basics were the foundation of any fighter.

That's why they were the basics.

But Jaune knew that would have been pretty disappointed about the lack of earth shattering skills.

Jaune suddenly halted and held his hand up to stop Jain in his tracks, before this one could say anything he put up his finger to his lips, the universal sign to be quiet. They had been nearing the exit of the pyramid, but he had sensed something that didn't quite fit.

Crouching down he extended his senses. They were close enough to feel the campsite that they had left behind. Their former campsite that was. It seemed to have been infested with a few people who really shouldn't be there.

"There are people in our campsite," He scrunched his brow and tried to discern more, "Don't know if they're friendlies or enemies, they are armed."

Jain scratched the back of his head, seemingly unconcerned, "Any heraldry you can make out, flags, colour of tents?" Jaune shook his head in response, his skill didn't let him make out colours, only vague shapes.

"No flags, all I'm able to make out are their shapes." He was getting worried, with their only way out being blocked by who knows who, and his tiredness, the situation was starting to look grim.

The swordsman grimaced as if agreeing with him, "They are probably enemies, trying to rob us after we come out." He gained a curious look on his face, "maybe they are even from Sanshu, and followed us here."

Jaune glanced at him, "I thought the people of Sanshu thought this place was just a myth?" he asked.

Jain sneered.

"They only say that to make themselves feel better about the fact they were never able to find it. Most adventurers in the town are those kind of failures." he said causing Jaune to think for a moment.

"Could be that they followed us here somehow, after all you seemed pretty fed up with trying to find the pyramid, yet you set out once again with a new person in tow, they might have thought you would finally be able to find it."

The swordsman barked a laugh, "More like we stumbled upon it." Jaune put his head in his hands.

"Please don't remind me." But he grew serious again after these words, grimacing, "What exactly are we supposed to do here?" He reached out with his senses, "I feel four people, but a rogue might be using a skill that makes him undetectable."

Jain waved him off, "First try to discern their weapons, we need more information if we want to make a plan with any chance of success." Jaune nodded in agreement, sat on the ground, and focused on his ability, giving regular updates on their position while trying to make out any weapons.

A few minutes later he stood up again, "One mace wielder in what looks like semi metal armour, two guys with swords, one with a bow, and the rogue came into range, has two daggers." he looked worryingly at Jain, "What are we supposed to do? We're outnumbered, and I'm not really, uhm, the most useful in a fight against adult adventurers."

Jain waved him off, "Don't worry about it, the solution is pretty simple." Jaune perked up, hope in his heart. If Jain was this confident, maybe they would survive this after all!

"We run away faster than they can catch us."

Maybe not.

Jaune queried further, "Can you elaborate please?" Jain stretched his head in response and answered.

"Well, If we run, I'm confident we can leave behind at least the mace wielder, he is most likely a blunt weapon specialised warrior." He shook his head, "I don't believe he will have many stats in agility, therefore if we run long enough we will only be dealing with four people, not five."

"If they're actually hostile and will chase us." Jaune added, causing the swordsman to shake his head at Jaune's optimism.

Jaune opened his mouth again, "Also one thing you're forgetting, I'm not nearly as fast as you. Hell," he sighed, "I'm probably slower than that warrior."

Jain grinned sinisterly, "Don't worry about it, I have a plan," he looked around the barren corridor, " but first let's get some rest."