Chapter 328 Mysterious CasketOnly a second after Lyrian, Alten said, "I think I know it as well," Before backing up slightly.
Lyrian turned around, "If you think you know it... let's do it and finish the puzzle."
Alten nodded, and as everyone stared at him, he put an arrow on his bowstring.
He stretched it only slightly, before launching the arrow forward.
It hit the center of the circle map, and as soon as it did, a golden energy traveled through the carved lines in the stone.
The once dull map lit up with a golden essence as the arrow fell to the floor and the four separate pieces moved around.
Finally, one chunk out of the four got surrounded by the yellow energy and moved to the top left.
All the others were still in their lopsided, odd arrangements. But this one was now in its correct position.
It just so happened to be that this part of the map was also the part that they were currently in right now.
"Perfect!" Alten exclaimed in excitement as he ran over to the pedestal.
"The V represented an arrow, and the circle represented the map. It was quite obvious from the start." Lyrian said as Geld followed up.
"That's right. An arrow, which has been getting fired at us constantly, and which has already attacked us once in this room. That, and the specifically circular shape of the map should have given away the clue."
Jackson also added, "What about the three other parts of the map though? What do we do about those?"
Lyrian took a look and answered, "It seems... that is not our responsibility."
As he said this, the others also took a look at the map.
"We came from this side, and have unlocked this part of the puzzle. Now, it is up to the others to unlock the next parts. Our job in the construction of the map is over. All we have to do now is reach the middle of the graveyard, which all paths lead to. Right here."
He pointed to the southeast corner of their part of the circle, where the center was.
At that moment, the golden aura also poured out into the map into that blurry area of stone, revealing what it truly was.
Another box of golden formed, signifying another room. Just then, the stone to the left of the room opened up to form a passage.
"It worked out quite easily," Alten said, smirking at the open passageway.
"Easily? Who knows how lucky we got. If we got that wrong too many times, there may have been far more dangerous traps and punishments laid out for us." Lyrian said as everyone made their way toward the passage.
Before leaving, Lyrian took one last glance at the room in case he forgot anything or didn't notice something that he should have.
In the end, he was mostly satisfied and turned to follow the students into the passage.
The passage was slightly smaller than the long one they traveled through to get to the map room.
However, it was short, since it turned toward the left once, and then again—simply going past the wall of stone that the door was blocking.
They entered the next room with ease and quickly noticed the iron door on the other side.
As soon as they stepped in, the door abruptly opened. It seemed that their footsteps triggered a spell for it to unlock.
They could see the previous room again and had easy access to the map.
Right in front of this door, which was to the left of the passage, there was a series of pillars moving forward.
The room was rectangular and elongated forward from where this door stood.
In length, it stretched over 100 feet, but in width—from where the passage ended and where the opposite wall was, it was barely 30 feet.
After walking to the iron door, they all began walking forward.
The pillars were each spaced about 15 feet apart themselves, leaving a few feet on their outside.
Some pillars were cracked, which showed just how old the place was.
Finally, they made it to the end of the room where a series of flat and long stairs led to a large casket at the very top.
The casket was laid horizontally from where Lyrian and the others stood and was closed shut.
Before Lyrian, who was leading the group, could ascend the flight of stairs up to the casket platform, Alten clutched his hand and held him back.
"Wait! There might be traps ahead."
Lyrian didn't utter a word, as Alten continued, "And... what if that's actually the body of Orion."
Leon retorted, "So what? Is he a threat to us even on his death bed?"
Alten paused, not knowing how to articulate his words for a second.
"No... but this just doesn't feel right. Why would his body be in this random room, inside of a dusty and old casket—instead of in the center, where treasure and inheritance are said to be?"
"Hmm... you're right. That does make little sense."
After Lyrian agreed, Alten didn't really know what suggestion to give.
"Good job on noticing that. For now, how about everyone stay back here, and only I go to check out the casket."
"Wait! What if there's a trap though?" Alten retorted, slightly worried.
"If there is a trap, then me going alone would still be the best option, rather than all of us going. Plus, I will be able to avoid any traps... at least, more so than anyone else here."
This explanation was unbeatable. There wasn't anything Alten could say in retaliation, so he decided to agree with Lyrian.
As everyone backed up, Jalern exclaimed, "I will only do this once. Count this as a favor," As he backed up with the students.
"A favor? Pfft." Geld teased under his breath, but Jalern still managed to hear it.
"What did you say!?" The boy began to taunt, as Lyrian blocked out all of that noise and focused on the task ahead of him.
He calmly walked up to the casket and slowly lifted it. It opened with a loud creak before falling back on its hinges.
Inside lay a mummified body covered in a cloth wrap, where barely even a single inch of skin was shown.
The cloth was brown and dirty, and the eyes shown in between the fabric were closed.
At that moment, Lyrian noticed the dead figure holding something with both hands on top of its stomach. Sᴇaʀch* Thᴇ N0vᴇlFire(.)nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.
It was a wand with several gems and valuable stones encrusted into it.
'Hmm... Scan.'
┏━━━Item Scan━━━┓
Name: Orions Grandeur Wand
Description: The wand of Orion The Great; a powerful magus of ancient. This wand is quite powerful but mostly depends on the strength of the user. Its value exceeds many luxurious items of this time.
┗━━━━━━━━━━━┛
At that moment, a smirk appeared on Lyrian's face.