Chapter 686

Finding the treasure room wasn’t that hard, after all, I had Detect Treasure as part of my Dungeon Diver abilities. Although it wasn’t nearly as sensitive as Sense Life, and it wasn’t until we were deep in the keep that I finally found where the treasure was. Just because I knew where didn’t mean I knew how to get to it. In the dungeons, I had to backtrack numerous times to find some treasure stashed at the end of a dead-end. This was a treasure room though, so the entrance was probably hidden. There might be traps and guards as well, but that was nothing a Dungeon Diver wasn’t used to.

I guessed that the treasure was located under the throne room, but that only came from gaming and years of lazy game design. As we explored more of the Map, I was able to confirm that the throne room was indeed on top of this trove of treasure. I didn’t get too excited or greedy. After all, ransacking the treasury was only our third goal. First, we found Lord Reign’s room.

As the girls went through it, looking for any incriminating evidence, the smile on my face started to slip. I started getting a bad feeling as I realized something was off. While it was true that I was avoiding the guards with pinpoint accuracy using my Sense Life, it stood to reason that someone on the other side would have a similar ability. They’d grow suspicious of our erratic movements and send someone to investigate.  Furthermore, there were far too few people in the castle.

We should have had a much more difficult time moving around, but we were able to get into just about every area of the keep without too much struggle. Even with Lord Reign out and most of his Knights sent out of the city to search for the notorious Reign’s End, this still seemed extremely suspicious.

With a sinking feeling in my gut, I decided that it was time to leave. We had explored a good portion of the castle at this point. If Lord Reign’s room didn’t contain anything incriminating, then it was likely somewhere we couldn’t reach. As for the heist where we would attack the treasury room, that could be planned at a later date when we were more prepared.

“Everyone,” I announced, “We’re going to go back now.”

“Really?” Miki asked. “We’re having luck though. I found some letters. I just need to read them and see if they have value.”

“Take them with you.”

Technically, stealing documents would alert him we were here, but the bad feeling inside was growing worse.

I lifted my hands and began to cast the Portal. Just as the Portal was about to form, the spell suddenly winked out.

“Ah? A counterspell?”

It wasn’t that my Portal couldn’t form, like with that artifact that Alysia used. Instead, I had cast the spell, and it had been interrupted by a counterspell that prevented the magic from working. This was the first time I had ever encountered the thing, but I knew what it was instantly.

“Don’t leave so quickly, we have things to discuss.” A dark and malevolent voice seemed to fill the corridor.

I spun around to see a man standing at the end of the corridor. The girls behind me all gasped at the same time as if they hadn’t even noticed him despite facing his direction until the moment he spoke. He was wearing a black cloak with the hood up, and just looking at him I started to feel fear.