Chapter Seventy One - We find treasure!

Leon couldn't help but remain nervous as he watched Caelus hurry off to find their team mates. He'd never been the sort to think that he was some sort of hero, a protagonist of his own book, he didn't even think he was someone to add colour to it. In his last life, he'd been one of the many salmon in the school, trying to make their way up the river rapids for a secure future, but he'd not made it very far, though that was no fault of his own. His self esteem was not low, but not high, his confidence tended to fluctuate depending on circumstance. Right now, it was definitely at a low point; he had no confidence about heading into this dark tunnel that may or may not have traps and succeeding to plunder its potential treasures.

Look what happened last time he went exploring alone in dark, underground spaces!! The corners of his lips curled upward slightly and his heart beat calmed to skip to a different rhythm. Ah, his man really didn't leave the best first impressions. He understood more now; Jin Li had awoken battered and beaten in a strange place with no memory of how he'd arrived there, his confidence and ego that had been tempered over seventeen years and allowed to swell due to his excellent innate abilities had taken a hit. The secure future path set out before him on which he'd been guided by his parents (occasionally in brutal ways, or at least brutal in the eyes of outsiders, they would have considered it lessons in reality, which unfortunately was also true) had vanished from sight and he lashed out at the first person he saw once he woke. Plus, his temper was always sharper on an empty stomach.

That said, if Jin Li had had the chance to calm down, say if Leon had not been there when he awakened, he'd likely have figured things out and not latched onto him like a chick imprinting on the first thing it sees. In theory. His heart ached for a moment as he thought of not having that chance meeting and of not meeting Jin Li. Thinking back, such really only happened due to the bully Caprian, beating him to the point where his body experienced spiritual deviation in which memories he should have had were lost and memories of a past life were awoken, setting him on his current path. Like fate. Him and Jin Li could be considered fated.

The smile upon his face was like first rain in the desert after a relentless heatwave, very beautiful and welcoming. It was this that his team mates witnessed as they all broke through the array together.

Actually, things for Caelus and the team had proven quite smooth. As the mage had stated, he'd hurried back to meet with Velana and they'd sent Volune on to pull back the team, not knowing how deep into the array they'd travelled. But despite how long the road forward was, the road back was always short so they'd appeared after not much time had passed.

What would prove a little more troublesome was breaking the array, not as they now had no clue to how to do so, but closing ones eyes for a couple of seconds wasn't enough. One had to step forward (or fall, in Caelus' case) a few paces with their eyes shut for at least six seconds. But through some trial and error, they made it through.

"What I want to know is why Roman never slipped through," Troy voiced his question as they recollected themselves a few minutes later and began to explore that which had been revealed.

Pike's arm was currently draped around Leon's shoulders, thinking the youth had been very glad to see them, having been stuck alone and uncertain for sometime and wanting to reassure him. He'd taken a liking to the youth from the moment he'd seen him late in the spring, this cute little brother with a clean face. Those little brothers who'd shared even part of his blood really hadn't been cute at all. Now he did not call them brothers, but instead had friends who he considered his true family along with his Master.

"It probably had something to do with the timing," Pike suggested in response and Roman close by nodded.

"It's natural to glance ahead every so often, make sure that you aren't going to lose your footing on the steps," he added, thinking he'd done just that as he'd sidled along the walls looking for clues in vain. The trap of the array was so simple, yet so ingenious. Very few would close their eyes for more than it took to blink while stepping down even shallow stairs. And six seconds might seem short but without sight could seem quite long.

Their hearts had raced as they'd blinded themselves taking tentative steps forward down the steps, willing themselves not to fall and of course cheating by opening their eyes a squint would not help nor would looking at their feet. Not moving forward also was no good. It was by luck that Caelus had fallen far enough that he'd slipped out of the array and Leon had been too drowsy to think about accidentally falling as his eyes had closed while continuing on forward, automatically trusting his feet.

This part of the tunnel was not as long as first glance. Caelus poured his spiritual energy into a few of the ancient mage globes, shattering a couple of the more fragile ones accidentally, lighting up the corridor to ease the oppressive darkness. The tunnel curved making what seemed long actually not so. There were no traps, just a locked door, but even the thickest, hardiest wood could not stand for an inordinate amount of time and it crumbled to the touch making the enchanted lock useless.

Inside was a single chamber and a second locked door. Along the sides of the chamber were fragments of wood and dust, tiny pieces of cloth parchment that had become nothing due to time. There were also pieces of shaped porcelain, not unlike the shape of Leon's jade bottles, hinting what they may have once held. But while the jade might have survived, the porcelain proved much more fragile. There was no sign of their previous contents. Also, on the opposite wall were remnants of rusty bolts, hinting that they might once have supported something and what that was could have something to do with the oxidised mess beneath them.

The table at the centre was made of the same hard stone that had first caught Roman's eyes. There was a thin fracture along one side of the table top, but otherwise it remained mostly intact. A pity it was too heavy and large otherwise Roman might have wanted to take it with him; the carved piece was quite stunning and unique of flavour.

Upon the table was a chest.  The wood was similar in quality to the door which had held for so long, but it didn't collapse when fingers gingerly touched it, hinting that it was enchanted along with its lock.  But the spells were too weak to hold up against the force of Pike jimmying it open and the chest's lid fell backwards and off of its hinges to reveal its contents.  The men and woman clustered around it.  It was mostly filled with blackened coins, the denominations of which were not familiar, but Roman declared them as silver.  There was the odd gemstone, ruby and sapphires for the most part, the largest the size of a thumbnail.  As wealth in itself, this was quite the find and was worth some points if not as much as rarities.

Hidden amongst them, however, were three rings.  Two were made of gold, which had tarnished only a little, protected as it had been for the many millennia by the mage spells upon this chest and likely once this room.  The third was made of silver.  Of the gold ones, one held a large emerald and two tiny diamonds, all framed by scrolling patterns not unlike those on the table and on the coins.  It was the least valuable ring.  The second gold ring was more simple and inset was a piece of mutton fat jade, which was circled by tiny mage crystals.  Caelus felt a hint of a faded array on it, but chose not to activate it in case it was a curse or a trap.  The last ring, the unassuming silver ring, was black from age and held a dark grey shard that had not been cut to a stylised shape.  The shard was only small, split slightly into a v formation and in that hid a little mage crystal.  Roman drew in breath, sharply as he picked up the unattractive piece from its hiding place in the coins.

"This..." he murmured, slightly in awe of the find.

"What is it?" Troy asked, brimming with curiosity.

His expression was without jest when he declared; "I may be wrong, but I think that this is an interspatial ring!"