“How are we going to find if there really is a secret passage in this chamber then?” asked Fang Chu.

“We’ll have to poke around. The treasure table is a trap. That leaves only the sarcophagus and the mirror as the other suspicious elements in this room. Do you have a pole or a spear in your ring somewhere?”

“I do. You can use this spear, it’s no biggie if it gets destroyed too as I got a few more. If it’s a weapon you want, chances are I have it stored on my ring!”

[The mystery of a woman’s purse holds true even in another world!] marvelled Ben.

“Thanks. Then, let’s start!”

Grabbing the spear with her two hands, Liza approached the mirror from the side. She traced the end of the spear around the entire filigree frame of the mirror. For a moment, only the sounds of wood scrapping on metal could be heard inside the chamber. This mirror was real at least, and the frame seemed safe. The spear didn’t catch on fire, nor there was any strange residue on the part that touched the metal frame. Liza continued to poke and prod at the mirror, going so far as trying to insert the spear behind it to move it away from the wall. Yet the mirror didn’t budge. It was as if it was one with the wall.

Encouraged by all the testing Liza had done, Ben concluded the mirror was safe and stood before it in contemplation. What was the purpose of this grandiose mirror? What could it be hiding? The moment he saw his reflection however, he froze. Superimposed where his head should be, he could see the image of a ghostly face. It looked at him maliciously and gave him a creepy smile. Ben wanted to scream, but he couldn’t. He tried to close his eyes and back off, yet his body didn’t respond. The only thing he could do was keep staring at that apparition as he felt something inside of him being drained. This only lasted for a brief moment before he felt dizzy and collapsed. As he was falling to the ground, Ben could swear that the apparition had a surprised look on its face.

While Ben was standing in front of the mirror, Fang Chu had felt a slight disturbance on the local mana and closed her eyes to concentrate. Just as her vision had gone dark, she heard a thud followed by the surprised shout of Liza.

“Ben! What happened? Are you alright?”

Ben was lying on the ground, his face pale and filled with perspiration. Liza’s shout surprised not only Fang Chu, but also Eliot who was pouting back on the corridor. He rushed back at lightning speed to see what had happened. Seeing Ben collapsed on the floor, Eliot walked around him in a frantic manner, his face filled with worry.

“Are you okay Ben? Did something attack you? Tell me and I’ll crush it!”

“I’m fine. I’m just feeling a bit weak right now, nothing to worry about. There’s something strange with that mirror, you shouldn’t–”

“What? This mirror?” asked Eliot as he turned around.

“Eliot, no!”

The same thing that had happened to Ben occurred to Eliot. He could see that ghostly face looking at him maliciously and feel the energy inside him starting to drain. Eliot was startled, but he wasn’t one to turn down a challenge. He stared at the apparition and began to fight back the best he could. It wasn’t a conscious effort, but a pure instinctual response.

The flow of mana that was going from the young man to the mirror slowed down considerably, surprising the apparition yet again. This time the amount of mana involved on the transfer was on another level, so Fang Chu promptly perceived what was going on. Without needing to be prompted, she covered Eliot’s eyes and moved him to the side. Surprisingly, she’d to spent quite a bit of strength to do this. The connection between the young man and the mirror was thus broken and things returned to normal. Eliot felt a bit tired, like he’d undergone a strenuous task, but besides that he was fine.

“There’s a ghost in the mirror!” shouted Eliot in surprise.

“I was about to explain that when you acted!” complained Ben.

“Let’s get away from this mirror!” exclaimed Liza.

They helped Ben up and gathered at the center of the room. Eliot and Ben explained to the others what they’d experienced, leaving everyone puzzled. Nobody had ever heard of an evil mirror like this.

“How come I was fine when I was inspecting it?” asked Liza.

“I was also reflected on the mirror multiple times,” added Fang Chu.

“I don’t know. Maybe it only works when you’re standing right in front of it and look at your reflection. I felt like something was being drained from me. It was terrible,” said Ben.

“That was your mana. I could feel it when Eliot was the one standing in front of the mirror. Large amounts of his mana were being transferred into the bloody thing.”

“That’s another deadly trap then. It must be terrifying to have your mana drained while the only thing you can do is stand and watch. Ben is probably fine because he wasn’t born with mana to begin with. You said that the apparition looked surprised right? It must have been confused why you had so little mana and didn’t die. Anyone else that was completely drained of his or her mana would end up dead.”

[What? He wasn’t born with mana?] thought Fang Chu. She wanted to ask more about it, but decided against it in the end. This revelation was probably a slip of tongue by Liza, and now wasn’t the time to probe for their secrets.

“Thankfully, I’m an abnormality,” Ben sighed.

“Can I smash that bastard then?” asked Eliot. After experiencing the trap first hand, he’d finally understood why Liza and Ben were nagging at him all the time. What if I triggered a trap that ended up killing Ben? He’s so fragile!

“We better leave it alone for now. We haven’t looked at the sarcophagus yet. I was hoping we could’ve avoided it, but I guess we can’t. We need to find a way out of this place!”

Liza took the front and began her safety procedure once again, poking with her spear at anything and everything. She only approached the sarcophagus when she was sure that the steps were safe and that the statues wouldn’t pounce on them out of the blue.

“Looks safe, at least nothing I did spurred a reaction.”

“Should we open it?” asked Fang Chu.

“Isn’t it dangerous? Tutankhamun’s curse an all that?”

“What?”

“Nothing. I know it’s bogus anyway, yet it still makes one worry.”

“Again, what are you prattling about?”

“Nothing. Shall we do it?”

“You’re really annoying when you do that! Let’s open it!”

They gathered around one side of the stone coffin and pushed its lid with all their strength. The large cover moved with a rumbling sound as it was being opened. Inside was a humanoid skeleton with its arms crossed against its chest while holding a rusty sword. A blue fire lit on the skeleton’s eyes and his jaw snapped open with a cackle.

Everyone reacted differently. Ben jumped back with a scare, Eliot’s and Boro’s eyes sparkled with interest, Liza was surprised and went for her weapon, and Fang Chu slammed her fist against the skeleton’s head. A crunching and satisfying sound filled everyone’s ears as the skeleton’s skull was crushed to pieces. The redhead patted her hands casually, getting rid of the bone dust that lingered on her knuckles and shrugged.

“Guess there was nothing in it too.”

“Ah! You were so quick! Why didn’t you let it leave the coffin first?” asked a disappointed Eliot.

Liza and Ben gasped. Those two simply defied common logic. After the initial shock passed, they took a second look at the sarcophagus. It was now obvious that it was a fake one, a decoy left to fool those who entered the mausoleum. The owner of this tomb couldn’t possibly have let himself become an undead, much less such a weak one. They unceremoniously tossed the destroyed skeleton aside and inspected the inside of the sarcophagus. The interior was made of smooth stone and there was nothing worth noting inside.

“This can’t be! There must be another way out of this room!” said Liza.

“We checked the table, the mirror and the sarcophagus. What’s left to do?” asked Fang Chu.

“Let’s search the walls! It’s got to be here somewhere,” said Liza uncertain.

Everything pointed at this not being the last chamber in the mausoleum, yet no matter where they looked, they couldn’t find the entrance for a new room. They spent the next two days carefully combing through each wall and stone tile, but they ended up with nothing.

“How is this possible? We must be missing something!” exclaimed Liza. Her hair was untidy and all over the place. She looked like a coffee addict suffering withdrawal or one of those crazy conspiracy theorists.

“Can I smash the ghost now?” asked Eliot.

“Yeah, just go for it,” she responded absentmindedly.

Liza continued lost in her own thoughts when she was assaulted by a terrible sound that shook her soul. It was the high-pitched, nerve wracking, shrill sound of something scratching glass. Amplified by a thousand times. At least, that was what it felt like it. She dropped to the ground, covering her ears with her hands and agonized for a few seconds until the torture was over.

Everyone gathered around Eliot while complaining and holding their ears. The young man had swung his sword with a lot of strength, resulting in that awful sound, yet there wasn’t a single scratch in the shiny surface of the mirror. This left them more than startled. They did another round of experiments, but it didn’t yield any results. Left with no other ideas, the group dispersed around the room. No one was in the mood for conversing right now.

In this somber atmosphere, Ben was getting restless. Knowing they were trapped and with no clear objective to work on for the past three days, his anxiety was kicking in. That in turn gave him a type of reckless courage. He decided to recheck every element of the room, going from the safest, the sarcophagus, to the most dangerous, the treasure table.

Hours on end were spent with Ben walking around the stone coffin, trying to find secret buttons, orifices, cryptic codes and anything of the like. He only stopped when he inspected the whole thing three times over and ran out of ideas. Next was the mirror. Before he could stand in front of it however, Liza grabbed him by the arm.

“What are you doing?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Testing things. Don’t worry, the mirror won’t hurt me. How much more mana can it get from me?”

Liza was surprised by his change of attitude and decided to keep quiet. She silently positioned herself to his side, ready to break his contact with the mirror the moment things went south.

The strange ghostly face appeared once more. For a couple seconds, Ben felt something drain from him. He’d low mana to begin with and after being drained a couple days ago, there wasn’t much left to be stolen. Seeing that there was nothing else it could do to the human standing in front of it, the apparition was enraged.

Ben was relieved to see that he was safe and calmed his mind to look at the reflection. That ghost only appeared when you were standing directly in front of the mirror, so perhaps there was something else that could only be seen from that specific spot. He combed the image carefully from top to bottom. As he expected, there was something different in the low corner of the reflection. It was the image of a barely visible hourglass by his feet.

“I found something!” exclaimed Ben.

“You did? What is it?” asked Liza.

“There’s an hourglass in the reflection!”

“What? Where?”

“By my right foot! Can you see it?”

“No, there’s nothing by your feet! Not in the room, nor in the reflection! What’s going on? This must be it right?” she asked expectantly.

“I don’t know! Time is running out, let’s wait and see!”