Chapter 150

Kyon and Juno were going past some slaves.

When the men saw Juno, they were fascinated by her angelic beauty, worthy of a goddess. Women rarely visited the mine, and there was all of a sudden, such a cutie!

Juno squeamishly held her skirt tighter to her hips. The environment with slaves gave the girl nausea feeling as if she was in a swamp with vile monsters.

Soon Kyon noticed the discreet, narrow cave that led to the place where it all had begun.

«Go first.» - He ordered Juno.

«There?!» - She saw her assistant's stern face, bent and looked inside the opening. Then she crawled out.

«It's very dark inside! Why should I go there?!» - She protested.

«I order you to keep going.»

Juno obeyed, speechless. Kyon followed her. She was getting more and more scared, but there was something else... She felt a weird desire inspired by the guy from behind.

Juno guessed its nature, gasped and crawled faster.

«The pink ones suit you.» - Kyon grinned, rejoicing at any occasion to shame the wicked girl.

Juno's cheeks turned red. Now she understood why he made her go first!

A little later on, they got into a larger cave and went ahead.

When Kyon first appeared here, he was exhausted. A faint light from the helmet flashlight illuminated his path. Now, with his modernized eyes, he could make out every grain of sand. However, he lit a flame in his hand, heeding to Juno's complaints.

The girl hated him more and more. Why did they come to the mine? Why on earth did they need to get into this strange cave?! The very fact that she knew absolutely NOTHING was driving her nuts. If she were free to do as she wished, she would gladly beat her silent assistant to a pulp... She was used to being treated differently.

Soon their path came to a dead-end.

Kyon squinted at the far wall. It was covered with inscriptions. An idea flashed across his eyes: {The entrance to the tomb?!}

He touched the wall, reading the inscription.

Juno did the same.

«It can't be… A TOMB!»

«Don't scream, fool. A stone will fall on your empty head.»

But Juno couldn't restrain herself. She was unstoppable!

«It's a tomb! The Stones have been controlling the mines for years as well as our predecessors... But we did not find anything! And you got into a damned invisible cave and found it?! It doesn't happen like this! How can you be so lucky? Why don't heaven throw some treasure right on your lucky head?!»

Kyon chuckled softly. In Juno's eyes, he really was the son of Lady Fortune. In fact, the castle under the estate opened after he had solved a math problem. As for these catacombs converted into mines, there was a shallow tomb long ago. They dug it many kilometers deeper, searching for something they shouldn't. A little cave ran directly to its entrance. It just happened so that Kyon had appeared in this world next to this small cave. Even more so, he was firmly convinced that his appearance near the tomb was specially staged! It was someone's plan. Kyon had no idea whose or what it was all about because he had no memories of the period when he was 22 years old. Someone must have set the fixed coordinates for his appearance next to the tomb. What could be the reason for that? There must be a treasure in the tomb, and the boy had been sent closer to its location to give him a good start in this world. However, he nearly died of exhaustion and ended up in the damned shaft! The scientists of his world had chosen the wrong landmark. They must have counted on a different outcome.

«You are a damned monster!. Where did you get so much luck? Tell me! Or my head will explode with questions! Ahhh!» - The shocked girl exclaimed.

She refused to accept what was happening. Heaven must be blind if bestowed a filthy slave from the mine with inexhaustible luck! For hundreds of years, the Stones had been trying to open the castle, and then a rootless kid appeared and did it at once! Her family had been rummaging for many years in the catacombs, and then this cunning fox came out of the blue, got into the first cave he came across (kind of sort on purpose), and found it! And now he was mocking her!

Kyon sincerely rejoiced at the girl's suffering. To mock her even more, he pointedly ran his finger over the inscription on the wall and said in an ominous voice:

«It says here that the passage will open if you smear the wall with the blood of someone you hate.» - Then Kyon turned slowly to Juno. Frightening dangerous lights danced in his eyes.

Juno's shock and anger gave way to fear. She swallowed and backed away. Then she said in a trembling voice:

«Master, are you kidding? It's not funny...»

Kyon smiled viciously and came up to her.

«Don't worry, I'll take just a couple of glasses of your blood. You will not die... Probably.»

«You are my master, after all! А-а-а-а-а-аh!» - Juno screamed and rushed into the darkness. Soon the little fool stumbled over the first bump and banged her head on the wall. When Kyon grabbed her by the scruff of her neck, her heart nearly jumped out of her chest. – «No-o-oo-o-oo! I don't want to! А-а-аа-ааh!»

«I was joking, stupid! Stop screaming, or you'll get some rocks on your head.» - Kyon said laughing. He was trying to calm down. In fact, it would be great if he could fill the core of darkness with Juno's negative emotions!

Juno turned around, pale beyond recognition. Her emerald green eyes were burning with cold rage and a desire to beat up the hated enemy. She was shaking with indignation.

Kyon lost all his interest in the wretched girl and continued to study the wall. Soon he found a small hole. It turned out to be a sphere-shaped one by one cm notch in the rock. The dimensions were the same as the mind key in his head. The ball seemed to have been teleported from nowhere directly to the foundation. Kyon concluded that those who had sent the key in this cave had no exact "aim." His theory about the treasure-landmark located in the tomb had a more chance to be true.

{Here it is! Hmm... The key was inside the wall, and then it appeared in my head. How?} - Kyon remembered the key of light that had nearly killed him and tore his heart. He assumed that the mind key got in his head in the same way, tearing his flesh and bones. He could survive only with the help of Synergy.

Kyon made a list of events in chronological order: {So, the previous owner of this body had wandered here. He saw a sphere that glowed blue, just like Synergy. Otherwise, he would not have noticed her... When he touched it, the sphere sneaked into his brain. Sounds reasonable. But when I woke up, I did not have any broken bones or torn tissues in my head... On the other hand, Bob said that I was absent for three days. It was enough for Synergy to cure me using the resources of the body. My previous life was sealed in a small ball? Did Synergy erase his personality and rewrite the soul of that guy? Did it all happen in the illusory world when he was saved? All right... but how did my entity end up in the sphere? What happened to me when I was 22 in my past life? Who sent me to this world? The scientists? My masters? What for?!}

Kyon could not find any answers to the most important questions. However, even if he hadn't found this tomb, he would never regret revisiting the mine.

Kyon returned to the inscriptions that he could hardly read and continued to study them.

Juno approached him, but he pushed her back with a yell:

«Fool! There are traps everywhere. I won't save you again. Don't touch anything.»

Juno opened her mouth in amazement. Was he taking care of her?! No... He just didn't want to have trouble with her.

Kyon had been studying the wall for clues for quite a while. He was ready for all any difficulties when he accidentally touched the wall... And... It opened, revealing the passage to the underground tomb.

{What the heck?! What about the riddle?!} - Kyon's pattern of thinking had broken to pieces. It just opened! No riddles or puzzles, no difficulties! The gamer's instinct warned him about all kinds of obstacles and trials, and all he had to do was to push the wall! It wasn't easy to accept this fact and he felt ashamed for being prejudiced.

«It opened just like that?» - Juno sighed woefully, not really surprised. Why is heaven so ruthless? Why couldn't her family find the open tomb for many years? The Stones could have risen with the help of this heritage! And now it would go to her lucky assistant, just like the heritage of the other tomb.

Common sense whispered to Kyon that local tombs didn't open so easily to the first guy. There must be a reason.

He moved forward with a thoughtful look, carefully examining everything for traps.

Juno's startled voice came from behind:

«Master, I won't go with you! Last time was enough for me.» - Juno shuddered at the memory from the other tomb when she snuggled up to the master to get warmer.

«I order you to follow me.» - Kyon said calmly.

«You… You're after my death!» - Juno protested.

Kyon strolled across the large hall. He saw dilapidated statues of different creatures and cracked columns… The atmosphere of antiquity and merciless passage of time reigned in the room. No one had stepped here for several thousand years.

Kyon had a weird feeling about this. It was impossible to just get into the tomb with precious heritage! Suddenly, he noticed a sarcophagus in the center of the hall. The lid was ajar.

{Damn, of course! It's already been looted!} - Kyon was delighted, but then he got instantly upset. In this case, they had taken everything away.

He could no longer worry about traps, though. They had long been deactivated. As Kyon was going to the sarcophagus, he saw a shriveled skeleton lying nearby. The bones had the structure of a humanoid creature.

Another skeleton was lying inside the sarcophagus.

{The looter died? How?} - Kyon assumed that a trap had worked. Most likely, he died of hunger. But it was stupid to take on faith the very first idea that crossed his mind.

Kyon looked around and noticed dusty broken nephrites of ancient heritage scattered around the room. The looter seemed to realize the futility of his attempts to get out and threw away everything in anger as if he had lost interest in them. However, the nephrites were scattered evenly from a single point. More likely, there was an explosion, and they flew around the hall. The blast wasn't even a powerful one...