“It’s not a simple trap that will stop me,” Marc stated.

He then took out his sword, hold it firmly in front of him, took a big breath, and slashed it at the wall. A faint line of energy actually came out of the sword, that line cut three centimeters deep gash for three meters on the right wall before dissipating. Marc got visibly paler, with panting breath, that stroke took a lot out of him. Clearly, it wasn’t something that he would be able to execute several times continuously. His wound opened again, and blood stains became visible on his torso through his clothes.

On the wall, several green lines were cut with that sword strike. The lines that were cut weren’t giving off any more light after the cut. The corridor dimmed significantly, and the symbols on the right wall switched off.

I was going to ask why he didn’t use that move against the wolves yesterday, but seeing him like this I think I can understand why he will get exhausted after only a few strikes. This guy is so annoying, on one hand, he is a complete jerk who treats us like trash, and on the other hand, we will quickly die without him in this expedition. If he dies our only hope of survival will be to manage to cross back to the forest without alerting the beasts in it. If we encounter that huge wolf or another beast of this caliber on the way back we are dead for sure.

Marc looked at the guard who confronted him. “You go first.” The guard clenched his teeth, but he knew Marc would probably kill him if he didn’t comply, left without a choice he advanced slowly in the corridor. He hoped the trap was disabled with the damage done to the wall. Luckily for him, the trap was indeed damaged enough to stop working. The guard was able to cross the corridor safely.

Of course, he has to make those who annoy him go first in the dangerous area. Why am I even surprised at this point? Edward internally rolled his eyes.

But it seems Marc was right, those symbols were indeed powering that spell. If I get the occasion I should learn to engrave a spell like that. It’s a good way to secure a hideout. If I want to travel alone in the wild I will have to find safe places to sleep, engraving some spells like those ones would be very useful to secure such places. I doubt a simple snare will be able to trap a black wolf, at least not with a regular string. Well, it’s not like I know how to do a snare in the first place… I still have many things to learn if I want to be able to roam freely in the wilds.

Edward came near the wall, to look at the symbols more closely.

Even if I’m not able to learn those spells yet, I should try to remember those symbols. If I can identify them I may be able to avoid another trap like this one.

Several symbols had been cut. Edward didn’t know if only one of those symbols was enough to activate the trap or if several were needed. He decided to try to remember all of them. He would have gladly taken a few sketches, even though he wasn’t good at drawing, but he didn’t have any pen or anything to write onto.

One of the symbols was a circle with a blooming flower inside, at the center of the flower was an opened eye looking at the beholder. The next one was a square inside a circle, the angles from the square were touching the border of the circle. Inside the square, several drawings of the two moons could be seen in different phases, from two full moons to two dark moons. The last symbol was formed from two intersected triangles. From the center of the triangles, different vines were coming out in all directions. Edward committed those symbols to memory.

The trap being disabled, the rest of the group progressed to the end of the corridor. They stopped before the door, it was a stone door without any decorations on it, instead of a handle the door was having a button that could be pressed. There weren’t any strange symbols on the door however there was a drawing of the sun above it. Marc asked one of his guards to push the button with a nod. The door opened, sliding into the floor without a noise.

A big room was revealed, there was a long rectangle table in the middle of the room with enough chairs for about forty people. Once again the lighting was provided by the green lines. They were everywhere, from the walls to the ceiling, depicting several different sceneries. The ceiling was showing a night sky with various stars, all with the same green light, which was a little destabilizing to Edward. There was too much green for him.

Ok for the forests in the green light, but even the stars are green now. Isn’t it a tad too much?

On the walls, lush forests were depicted, except in one place, where there was a clearing opening on a lake. It was quite beautiful, but it felt a bit chilling after having to cross a trap made with the same green lines. A symbol for a trap could be hidden anywhere in those drawings.

It looks like a dining room, with the size of this room there should have been a lot of people here when the place was still in use.

Several doors were accessible from this room, they were just like the one they used, it was the same stone doors with a button instead of a handle. The place was orderly, the resident hadn’t left in a rush.

Marc took his time to look around the room. While he was looking at the room, the door behind them came back from the floor and closed.

Neat, it’s an automatic door, I hate it when people enter my room and leave with the door still open. At least this door doesn’t seem to be trapped, there is a button on this side too, and we should be able to open it from this side too. The last thing I want is the door to close behind me trapping me inside with an ominous sound.

One of the guards had the same thought and pressed the button once more. The door opened again without complaints. The guard relaxed visibly.

“We stay together. Don’t go close to the walls. We will walk on the table to avoid any possible traps. Then we will take the closest door.” Marc announced.

The group followed Marc’s idea and went through the room by walking on the table. While on the table they were around five meters away from each wall. They didn’t encounter any problem, this distance was enough for the traps not to activate, or maybe there wasn’t any trap in this room, to begin with. However, nobody was silly enough to test this hypothesis by walking along the walls.

When they reached the door, they saw another symbol on top of it, this time it was depicting a quarter of a moon. Once more a guard pressed the button to open the door, but nothing strange happened.

There are symbols everywhere, symbols for traps, symbols as decorations, and symbols above the doors. I wonder what kind of significance they had for them.

This door was leading to a small corridor with lots of doors on each side. The green lines were kept to a minimal here. There was no decoration, and the light came out slightly subdued. The expedition opened the first door on the left. It was a simple room, with a bed and the equivalent of a cupboard, grave into the stone. There was nothing left inside, apart from the bed, the room was completely bare.

It makes me remember the university residence, just the bare minimum.

They opened all the doors from this alley, all the rooms were identical, they were situated in what looked like a dormitory. ”There is nothing here, we will go back to the main room and open another door.” Marc ordered.

Back in the main room, there were two other doors left, one was having the symbol of stars above it, and the other had a strange fruit that Edward had never seen before. “It seems that even at that time they liked turnipoes.” One of the villagers joked. ”My mom used to make soup out of it, it was the best.”

“Then, it must be the kitchen. They are using those symbols as indications. We will go to the other door.” Marc said.

The group once more used the table to go near the door. Once they opened it, they saw a small corridor leading to spiraling stairs leading down. Just like in the main room, the walls were heavily decorated with green lines. As the group was about to advance, Edward spotted one of the symbols he saw in the previous corridor. “Wait!! I recognize that symbol with the blooming flower, there was the same on the previous trap.” Edward exclaimed pointing at it with his finger.

Everybody looked at him. “Good eye,” Adrien told him. Marc took his sword and cut that symbol with his sword, once more sending a small line of energy to destroy it from a distance. This time the line was a lot shorter, and only that symbol was destroyed. Marc’s face paled, but his breathing was still okay, to destroy this trap he expended a lot less energy, and the move was less taxing on him. “You go first, from now on you stay in front of the group.” He told Edward.

Only the symbol was destroyed on the wall, however, the main green lines were passing through it. The green lights after the cut dimmed immediately before flickering off. The group was plunged into semi-darkness, the light provided only by one side of the wall.

Great, if you don’t destroy those symbols you die, and if you destroy them, the light is turned off. How am I supposed to pick up the symbols hidden in the decorations if I can’t see them? And now, I’m at the forefront of the group, if I miss one I will be the one to die.

The group slowly descended the stairs, being careful not to miss a step, and Edward was watching the walls closely to avoid missing a trap symbol.