Chapter 66

When the Blades Fall (III)

Everyone sat around in a circle in front of the massive gates, in the Palace’s courtyard, mostly resting. The gates hadn’t yet opened, and they saw no creature or monster anywhere, not even a shadow of one, prompting their stretched nerves to calm down slightly.

Cain nibbled away at some beef jerky, trying to map out as much of the Palace’s complex labyrinth system in his head as possible so that they don’t get lost. After all, there were so many passageways, dead ends, blind hallways, and loop-back rooms, that it was rather easy to get lost unless people paid attention to where they were going.

On the video he watched, the party, despite losing themselves numerous times, had been quite lucky all things considered as Cain heard it was even possible to loop all the way back to the entrance from the very end of the Palace.

"Alright, everyone ready?" he asked at around the two-hour mark, guessing it was enough rest for everyone.

“Yup.”

“Ready.”

“Me too.”

“Yeah.”

The barrage of answers arrived right after as the other four stood up and faced the massive gates. As soon as Cain walked up to them, they shuddered and quaked for a moment before slowly beginning to cave in, opening up into the inside.

A bright surge of light blinded the party temporarily as the gates opened wide, somewhat rancid stench of the eons past assailing their nostrils and nearly forcing them to keel over. A few coughed, but Cain quickly charged Wind and dispersed the stench as even he was having a hard time with it.

“Be careful, now.” he warned as he took the first step in.

A wide hall sprung open before them, rundown pillars and columns barely holding up the upper floors, and what once must have been a majestic, tiled floor was now a mess, broken apart everywhere, strange, sharp-seeming grass rising from the crevices.

The hall itself was eerily empty, though amazingly well-lit as virtually every one of its corners was clearly visible from the entrance itself. On the other end, roughly fifty yards from the entrance, was a set of passages -- thirteen in total -- each exactly the same in design, arched and dark-appearing.

Cain had everyone stop the moment they entered, his eyes scrutinizing the world around him. He knew there were at least four pitfalls on the way over to the passageways, yet he couldn’t locate even a single one of them. However, strangely enough, after a few moments of focus his Skyeye activated as the world shifted in its hue, turning faintly lime in color. Thin threads swirled around and connected rapidly, shaping up the entire model of the hall and dulling it. It all looked as though he had switched from ‘textured’ into ‘wireframe’ view while modeling, seeing into the depths of the hall.

He noted the nine pitfalls scattered about at random; they weren’t manmade, but merely the natural byproduct of erosion where the structure beneath the floor began giving in over the eons of not being maintained. Noticing his Mana being depleted, he quickly etched the four holes into his memory and ended the Skyeye, the world returning to its normal appearance. Why does it work if it’s not an attack? Cain frowned, somewhat confused as this was the first time Skyeye ever activated without any skill in sight. Is... is the entire place considered a Skill or something? At the moment, as he knew very little, he could only shrug and put it off for the future.

“Follow right after me,” he warned again as he took a step forward. “There are quite a few pitfalls around.

“I... I count nine.” Diya said, causing Cain to nearly stumble over.

“H-how did you know?” he asked.

“Uh... I, I’ve studied geodesy a bit, as well as engineering in construction,” Diya replied. “So, I notice some signs...”

“... oh,” Cain nodded. “Good. Keep an eye out for anything else out of the ordinary, then.”

“Will do!” Diya nodded hardily, gripping her staff in determination.

Cain chuckled inwardly at the gesture, focusing upfront and leading everyone through the massive hall. He mostly maintained the straight line, only shifting twice to avoid the edges of the pitfalls. Luckily, they weren’t all that wide, barely a few feet across.

He led the group to the other end within a couple of minutes, occasionally looking around the hall and seeking anything out of the order from his memory. Everything appeared the same -- the walls were rundown, full of spiderweb-like cracks, windows smashed, dust gathered on top of the surfaces from the upper floor’s decay, and no decorations to speak of. From what he remembered of the lore of the place, it was raided at least a dozen times until everything from the relatively safe areas was stolen.

“This place... must have been breathtaking,” Emma commented, looking around with a saddened expression. “Such a shame...”

"Yeah," Jamal nodded. "Shit, imagine living here. I might genuinely never have left this place."

“Yes, because being locked up in one place all your life sounds so great.” Senna scoffed coldly.

“What’d you--”

“She’s almost half your age, dude,” Cain interrupted Jamal, sighing. “Can’t you just, I don’t know, ignore her?”

“...” Jamal mumbled something incoherently, turning toward the front.

“Do you think,” Diya asked Cain suddenly. “World... will be like this. If we fail.”

“Fail what?” he glanced back, asking.

“The Tower.” she replied.

“...” Cain turned mute for a moment, chuckling inwardly. “I don’t know. And I’d rather not find out. So, let’s make sure we don’t fail, eh?”

“Y-yeah...” Diya nodded, smiling lightly.

“Which passage?” Emma asked as they reached the other end, standing in front of the gaping darkness of each passageway.

Cain knew that at least two of these were safe, and he wasn’t about to tempt fate by trying any others. He quickly moved to the second passage to their left and entered without hesitation. The light immediately vanished, and the group found themselves in a dark and chilly hallway, sounds of the dripping water echoing out against the crumbling, bricked walls.

The trek through the dark passage was fairly short, and the group emerged into yet another spacious hall, though not nearly as large as the previous. A pair of stairs, on both sides, led to the upper floors, but both were crumbled, debris piling up beneath them. There were several, visible gaping holes present everywhere across the floor, and greenery had nigh-completely swarmed the room, with vines coiling around the dozen or so half-crushed pillars, acting as their solitary support.

A beam of golden light lit up the hall, one coming from yet another gaping hole in the wall to their left, bleeding over against the frames of jagged and splintered rocks.

“Kinda looks like Lana’s room,” Emma said.

“Yeah,” Cain nodded. “If we look hard enough, I bet we’ll find candy wrappers stashed in every hole in this place.”

“Good God, right?” she added, glancing at him. “I kept finding them in socks, in goddamn pillowcases, everywhere. I’m surprised she’s not like 400 pounds by now...”

“Keep letting her get away with it and she will be.”

“Oh, suck a dick. Who is it that feeds her ice-cream for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every time he sees her, huh?”

“Those are the moments she’ll cherish forever.”

“Can you two not have your weird, non-marital marital fight right now?” Senna interjected with a grumble.

“Khm, yeah, sorry,” Emma smiled apologetically as Cain turned toward Diya.

"Can you see a way through that doesn't have us trapped in a hole? Or, you could say, the palace's a-hole.”

“Uh...”

“Could you stop making weird jokes all the time?!” Jamal grumbled. “Seriously! Do you think you’re a comedian or something?”

“Yup.”

“Wow, no hesitation... that’s kinda sad, not gonna lie.”

“Diya?” Cain asked again.

“There is,” Diya nodded. “But... something else is strange.”

“Hm?”

“To our right,” the young woman pointed. “That wall, I think, is hollow.”

“Hollow? As in, there’s a secret room?” Cain asked, arching his brow.

“Maybe...” Diya replied uncertainly.

“Alright, I’ll check it out,” Cain said, already having charged Wind and Body, lifting himself up. “Stay here and be ready to duck back into the passageway if shit starts breaking down.”

He flew over slowly and cautiously to the wall, noting the signs of age all over its surface. Approaching closer, he also noticed a faint draft, confirming that, indeed, there was some hollow space beyond it. He mulled over the best way to undo it for a moment, as just blowing it up would likely cause the whole place to completely collapse.

In the end, he walked up and gently placed his palm on top of the wall, charging Creation and Earth slowly, sucking the wall in, so to say, and using it to form a ‘skill’. The process was extremely slow as he didn’t want to rattle the foundations too much. He didn’t need the entire wall gone, just a hole wide and large enough for a person to hop through.

As more of the wall disappeared, and more of the world beyond it got revealed, Cain began to realize that it was likely a dwelling. He saw a bed in the corner, wrapped in leaves and vines, a tattered and old cupboard, a table, a chair, and even a hearth sitting in the other corner.

What surprised him, however, was that the floor appeared extremely sturdy and barely aged, especially compared to the one just on the outside.

When the hole got large enough, he stopped and dispersed the skill, slowly and carefully bending himself through the ‘doors’ he made, making sure he didn’t touch the wall. As soon as he stepped into the room, a notification popped up in front of him.

//Congratulations on discovering a secret room!

The dwelling of the Sword Trainer U'dur, it was sealed after his death in the same condition that he left it in as a form of respect.

+1 to Wisdom//

Pleasantly surprised, Cain continued hovering as he explored the room, not daring to land despite the floor appearing extremely sturdy. Outside of the basic furniture, there was little else to see. Though he tried to look for the secret compartments, both in the furniture and the walls, he didn’t find anything even after nearly five minutes of search.

Shrugging, he turned around and walked out; though it yielded little, it was still a good sign.

“Ggghaaha, wait, Human Thief!” a grating voice nearly caused him to ram directly into the wall due to the surprise, barely holding himself back in the end. Before he had a chance to scream, however, Te’gha leaped out of the inventory, his home-restored after the Sword Spirit left, and floated over to one of the corners of the room, digging at the wall for a little while before pulling something out. It was a pearl of sorts, Cain realized, a shocked expression on his face. “Geheghehe, Te’gha the best!” the cat grumbled as it floated back over to Cain and, strangely, just handed the pearl over.

“How’d you find it?” Cain asked, taking the pearl.

“Eyes! Te’gha has best eyes! Kekekeghe!”

“...” ignoring the cat, Cain brought up the item’s window, inspecting it.

//Calming Pearl(D+) Accessory

Increases resistance to Mind Element by 5%

History: a pearl of coalesced, naturally energy formed over the course of thousands of years.//

Though on the surface it appeared absolutely worthless, Cain's eyes shined like stars. Anything -- anything -- with resistance to the 'Mind Element' was practically a gold mine. Though he and others may not need it, as the 5% increment wouldn't really mean much to them, to others who did not train against it, it would practically be a life-saver as, in many scenarios, it was a difference between living and dying.

The look in his eyes as he glanced at Te’gha changed slightly. Though he still found the cat annoying, a little of that annoyance had thawed off, replaced with appreciation.

“Good job,” he said. “Keep an eye out and lemme know if you find anything else.”

“Kekekehehe~~ Human Thief, better feed Te’gha! Proper! Kekekhee~~”

“What the hell do you even eat, anyway?” Cain asked as he slowly brought Te out of the room.

“Items! Kgheeheh~~”

“...” Cain’s little appreciation immediately vanished, his mood souring. I have a bad feeling about that...

“Hey, Cain! Dammit, why didn’t you answer us?!” what welcomed him back in the spacious hall were Emma’s angry shouts and her worried face. Glancing back and forth between the small room and the hall, he realized that the sound must have been shut off by some invisible formations.

“Uh, sorry. Didn’t hear ya’,” he replied. “Anyway, come on over. We’re moving on.”

“Oh, hell no!” Emma hollered as she led the charge of the party, guided by Diya. “You aren’t getting away from it like that! We will have the talk! Come back here! Hey, don’t run away! Come back here, you hear me?!” with the angered cries pushing his back like the wind, cold sweat ran down Cain’s forehead as he speedily made his way across, dreading ‘the talk’. Aah, crazy woman... no--wait. This is the result of her calling me every night at 2 AM and me never replying... damn. My stupidity has created her! Aah, sorry world... it's all my fault...