195 chapter 48
Currently Leonard was within the vault of treasure to pick out a piece of valuable, courtesy from his grandfather, the emperor for the major breakthrough after taking in the water from the well of power that was the secret of the empire and the royal family itself.
His grandfather, the emperor- lead him through a long spacious hallway after they left the underground complex where the well was stored.
The entrance to the vault of treasure was basically a long hallway filled with deadly traps and finally topped it all off with a door that required a special type of key to open- this is where his grandfather come in, the old man just pushed half his arm into the large hole-presume to be the keyhole and twisted it a little- trying to find that one perfect spot, the moment he found the spot, his face grimaced and he bit his lip in pain.
"What happened, grandfather?" Leonard asked him, seeing that he's somewhat in pain.
"No, it's nothing- just a scratch… the lock itself require my blood and a bit of power to open, that's all, don't worry too much about it." he told Leonard as he tried to pull something out from the keyhole and cranked it hard before pulling his hand out with a bloody finger as a bonus.
The door slowly opened itself, letting out a chill airs and some dust- showing that the place itself hasn't been cleaned in quite some time already for it gather so much dust.
"Just go right in, if anything caught your eyes, just take it and bring it out to me." the old man told Leonard.
Leonard nodded his head and headed further into the vault while his grandfather waited outside of the vault at the door for him to come back.
Deep inside the vault, it was dark and cold, the only sound was that of Leonard foot step as he headed deep into the storage area that was located at the end of this final hallway.
When he reached the end of the hallway, the path opened up to a large dark chamber- which immediately lit itself up the moment he entered it, revealing the content that was within.
Pedestal lined up all over the entire circular chamber, on top of each pedestal was an artifact.
Some were weapons, while other are piece of armor and of course other bit of trinkets such as rings existed as well.
"So… these are the artifacts that can possibly buy off a country?" he raised his eyebrow as he looked through the items that was displayed, sure the items were tempting- but not to that point where he would go crazy over it.
He walked around the chamber, browsing each item that he passed through, trying to figure out which could do what, he discovered that each of the item displayed had some rather, unique perk installed on each of them- such as the space ring which act like his inventory, a chest piece armor which can absorb magical spell from the enemy and converted it into the host mana reserve to fuel them in a fight.
"The old man actually trusted me to just pick one of these?" Leonard thought as he was technically- the only human within the vault itself.
"No… there must be more to it… there's no way in hell something like these can be left… unguarded… maybe there's some mechanism here that could oversee the entire chamber itself, preventing me from taking out more than one treasure?" he thought about it as he continued to roam the entire chamber, looking at many other unique items that was on displayed.
"Huh? What is this?" finally something caught his eyes, the last pedestal in a corner, if he wasn't paying attention as he walked around, he would not have discovered it.
On top of that pedestal was a steel box which seen to be locked when he tried to open the thing but it won't just budge at all, even when he had to forcefully used a bit of his strength.
"Since physical strength won't work on you...I guess I have too relied on a more...magical means." Leonard eye twitched as he looked at the stubborn box before sending a bit of his magic into the keyhole of the box and tried to look through the mechanism that was hidden within before trying to duplicate a key.
The moment his magic went into the keyhole, he felt as if a black hole was stationed within- sucking up his magical power at a racing pace.
"Fuck!" he cursed as he notices his reserve was draining rapidly and the headache started to kick in due to mana deprivation sickness- the draining process stopped right before his reserve were fully drained and he would fall unconscious, he dropped the box.
"What the hell… what kind of box is this? Who could have made such a devilish thing!" Leonard cursed out loudly as he looked at the box in fear while struggling with a bad headache.
Just after he cursed out, he heard a clicking sound from the keyhole- which he presumed that the box had been unlocked and went to the box and picked it up with his hand after he headache he had been suffering for sometimes now subsided.
Leonard slowly open it up the box, what revealed from within, shocked him to the very core.
"You...gotta...be fucking kidding with me… how can something like this be… here?! Hell no!!! Tell me that this isn't true! Almighty being X are you fucking playing me for a fool?!" Leonard screamed loudly which echoed through the chamber.
*****
A while later, the old Emperor who was waiting outside of the vault was walking back and forth- trying to waste as much time as possible, until Leonard came out from the vault.
"What's taking that kid so long… did he somehow triggered the defensive mechanism and gotten himself killed? No no no, must not think of the bad thought… he isn't that dumb to try and steal more treasure right?" the emperor walked back and forth in worry.
It was until he heard the footstep from the dark hallway that the stress that was on his shoulder was relieved- that footstep belong to Leonard.
The old man saw Leonard walked out from the dark hallway, with eyes that tell others who see it- is that Leonard was dead and empty inside.
"What the hell happened to him?" the old Emperor was curious, normally anyone who had the chance to venture into the vault to withdraw a piece of treasure would come back with a dumb or stupid smile of ecstasy plastered all over their face- he say that from experience as that was his initial emotion after his father gave him that chance to venture into the vault.
"Leonard...what happened while you were inside? I heard...some...disturbing noises...did something horrible happened? Example… suddenly zapped by lightning…?" his grandfather asked him with a worry filled tone of voice.
"No...grandfather…" Leonard replied in an emotionless voice and looked at the old man with his dead eyes- which no longer golden in color, but returned to their initial azure blue.
"Then what happened?" his grandfather asked him.
"...I just...got lost in the road of life." he replied before slowly walked away, leaving his grandfather standing there… stunned speechless.
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Omake
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"what is this shit?!" Leonard exclaimed loudly as he opened and peered his eyes into the box, trying to discover what secret that could be held within, he was shocked as to discovered what inside of the box, actually- the word shock could not fully describe the experience that he had to went through as his eyes were now scarred, his hand lifelessly dropped the metal box which then spilled the content within onto the floor- it was a note that read.
[Don_Mekhmesy Futas and Trap collection]
As the note said... the content was best left to perish into the passage of time, never to be seen the light of days again.
