Finding the Tomb

As the lizard bodies were looted, everyone was careful to preserve everything possible. The meat would be great for future meals, the bones could be sold as ingredients for crafts, and the skin was great for making quality cloaks.

What intrigued Jack the most was the neurotoxin, even asking everyone if he could have their portions of neurotoxin. Brunar turned him down and Troni did as well. Slivia wasn't given many corpses as her share to begin with, so she also said no.

Funny enough, the two with the highest kill count both willingly gave him all the neurotoxin they harvested. Including the small share of bodies he was allotted and with Rydel's gift of vials, Jack was able to fill fifty-seven vials with neurotoxin; one for each corpse. This was a lot if he wanted to sell them because they were worth about eight silvers each, but it might not be enough for Jack's plans.

Storing the other materials gathered from his three corpses, Jack mulled over a few ideas to use the neurotoxin. After a couple of minutes, a wicked grin speared on his face and he finished his thoughts.

Looking at Bowser, Jack asked, 'Are you okay?'

'Me okay, just tired,' replied Bowser. After activating his bloodline ability for the first time, Bowser was exhausted. He would need to rest until the next morning, incapable of getting up on his own until then.

Jack let Bowser rest, not wanting to disturb him further. He called to Rydel and Maynard, 'Let's get going, we need to hurry up and find that tomb. Bowser needs to rest so we won't have his help avoiding danger till maybe tomorrow.'

They nodded and called everyone together. Within minutes, they were following Rydel like before. Now that the lizards were gone, there was nothing in the surrounding area to threaten them. Taking advantage of this, the party rushed further until the cavern narrowed and they reached a dead end.

"Is this it?" asked Brunar, doubting that there was a tomb in the first place.

"It's here somewhere. We just need to find a way to enter it," said Jack.

"Got any ideas on how to make that happen?" Rydel asked the question everyone wanted the answer to. It was pointless to journey here if they weren't able to do that much.

"Hmm…" Jack began to feel the walls and examine them closely as his achievement junkie senses were tingling. Pulling out the dagger, he dragged the tip along the wall.

When they saw the dagger, the three young adventurers were filled with jealousy. The dagger was found here and it was a high tier weapon, yet the weakest person got it.

Not caring what they thought, Jack started banging the ornate dagger against the hard rock walls. Everyone was startled and some wanted to stop Jack from ruining such a valuable item. However, Jack continued to do so regardless of their reactions. After a minute of banging and clanging the knife against every part of the rock wall, Jack was stumped.

"What, that's it? No tomb?" mocked Brunar.

"Just wait." There were no holes or hidden slots on the wall. Nothing was activated when he brought out the dagger. Now, he could only resort to more unorthodox methods.

Without hesitation, Jack slit the palm of his hand with the dagger. Everyone was baffled as Jack let the blood ooze over every inch of the blade.

"Jack!" Slivia yelled in shock as she ran to his side.

"Trust me, this works all the time," said Jack, meeting Slivia's gaze.

Taking his word for it, everyone all remained silent. Rydel and Maynard were very interested in what was happening, wondering if this was some trick from ancient times. They all gave Jack their full attention, not daring to look away for different reasons.

With a now paler face, Jack smiled when he had lost enough blood to rub over the entirety of the dagger. He retrieved a bandage and covered up his hand immediately, not daring to lose a drop more than he would need.

"I command thee, show me thine owner." It was a simple recitation that every player in "A Hero's Tale" knew. It was a way to find the owner of fallen items, in the case that they might return the gear.

In the end, this was more common for the opposite reason, as a means to avoid the previous owners. That way they could visit a town and get a master of the item's respective field to unbind it from the previous owner and bind it to themselves, like having a master blacksmith unbind a weapon from the old owner and bind it to themselves instead.

The dagger lit up, surprising everyone further. Jack was also surprised; he had no clue what would happen after the recitation. The previous owner was dead, and he didn't expect a small window to appear on his screen for ten seconds like in-game.

Glowing red, the dagger trembled in Jack's hand and absorbed all the blood on its surface into the blade within seconds. After absorbing the blood, the red glow intensified and nearly blinded everyone for a second. The light then died down and faded away as if it had never existed in the first place.

Staring at the dagger, Jack wasn't sure what to do next. He checked his surroundings, but nothing had changed.

The others present were all in a weird state of mind. Jack could've done anything, no matter how strange, and they wouldn't bat an eye. It was like their expectations were overloaded and they no longer had room to process or question anything else.

They all stood there for a couple of minutes more, but nothing happened. Eventually, Brunar spoke up, "So, is that it? Is there anything else?"

This time he wasn't mocking Jack, Brunar was genuinely curious if Jack had anything else to try. Jack was far more mysterious than he had originally judged, and Jack demonstrated a lot of weird knowledge that wasn't normal for newbies to know about. Brunar had begun to reevaluate Jack, slowly but surely.

"No, I got nothing," answered Jack with a sunken smile. Out of habit, he threw the dagger away, like he had always done in-game when an item failed to bring him something. But when Jack threw it at the wall, it started to glow again. It was dim and almost nonexistent, but they could see it in the dark cavern.

Jack's lips twitched up as he picked up the knife and pointed it at the wall. When facing the dead-end nothing changed but facing the blade to the left side wall made the blade glow brighter. Inching closer, Jack determined the entrance to the hidden tomb with unwavering precision.

He approached a spot about four meters from the dead end and pressed the dagger against it. That spot on the wall began to glow and vanish in front of everyone's eyes.

As the wall vanished, an entrance carved from stone appeared behind it. With a narrow entrance, it would only fit one person. The stone it was made from was completely different from the mine walls, striking a resemblance to carved marble. In big print at the top of the entryway, there was a sign proving Jack's success.

"G0blin_Sl4yer"

Not waiting for the others, Jack ran into the tomb energetically. No one blamed him, only following him in one-by-one.

The tomb wasn't too spacious, but it was big enough for the six of them to walk around comfortably. Unlike most of the party had hoped, there wasn't a mountain of riches waiting for them inside. Instead, there was a sepulcher in the center of the room and a few chests to the side of it.

What shocked everyone was how fast Jack was able to loot the chests, storing all their contents before the others had finished entering the tomb.

Jack had an idea it would be something like this because this was a common hero's tomb from the game, a place where players always visited and plundered on a regular basis. There was no mountain of wealth only because the entombed player didn't have one. Maybe he had been killed and looted or he was just too low leveled to amass that much.

No matter the case, Jack was fixated on how the ancient hero was entombed here after he had died. This led him to wonder how a practically immortal character in a fantasy game could die in the end. It's true that G0blin_Sl4yer was low leveled, but that wouldn't keep him from respawning at the last cathedral or church he had visited. There were too many plot holes in the story that was unraveling before his eyes.

"Hey! You can't just take it all!" Brunar yelled.

Jack's wandering thoughts returned as he looked to Brunar and tossed him a coin. "Fine."

"Hey! I said you can't just—"

"Brunar!" Maynard interrupted his disciple, but he did so in awe, not anger.

Pausing due to his master's interjection, Brunar looked at the coin in his hand and his jaw dropped. "Platinum!"