Chapter 66: The Place Where the Stars and Silver Moon Intertwine
Using the principle of reflection on water, Serie conjured a mirror-like barrier around them. She couldn't cast a proper invisibility spell, but this was the next best thing. It was more than enough to fool the unintelligent magical beasts, and they were all currently asleep anyway. As long as they didn't make too much noise, they should be able to pass by unnoticed.
Rhodes, for his part, strengthened their presence-concealing spell, making them completely undetectable to the beasts.
"Everyone be quiet. Our spell doesn't muffle sound. We have to be silent," Rhodes warned.
"Stay close. And stay within the barrier," Serie added.
The other three nodded, understanding the gravity of the situation. They held their breath as they moved through the horde of spiders. The sight of the giant creatures, so close they could almost touch them, made their hearts pound in their chests. But as they moved deeper into the cavern, the spiders remained undisturbed, and they began to relax.
You know, after a while, these spiders are actually kind of cute, Eirik thought to himself. He wanted to say it out loud, but he didn't want to make a sound, so he kept the thought to himself. If Rhodes had heard him, he would have surely said, this boy is seriously ill.
At one point, Norne, not paying attention, nearly stepped on a sleeping baby spider, which was no bigger than a thumbnail. Rhodes saw it just in time and pulled him back.
The most nerve-wracking moment was when one of the giant spiders suddenly woke up and stared at its own reflection in the barrier. Its compound eyes were only a few dozen centimeters from Rhodes's face. He had even been prepared to attack. But then, with a flick of her finger, Serie sent a small ice crystal flying into the distance, completely silently. A small spell like that, she could cast without any detectable fluctuation. The spider was drawn to the sound and slowly crawled away, and the other spiders that had woken up followed it. Thanks to her mirror barrier, none of them saw the party. Rhodes gave her a thumbs up.
They passed through the spider's nest and encountered a few more groups of monsters, though each one was smaller than the last. Using the same trick, they managed to pass through them all and finally reached the core of the dwarven ruins without any trouble.
In a large, open area in the core, Rhodes let out a long sigh of relief. "Finally, a chance to breathe. That was a close call."
"I can't believe there are still so many monsters here. I thought most of them would have left," Norne said, still a little shaken.
"This is nothing," Serie said coldly. "Most of the monsters are in the outer areas. You'll barely see any in the core."
"Well, that's good news." Now they could explore the core of the ruins in peace. Their first target was the treasury of the Dwarven Kingdom. The holy sword that could harm a god, and the stone slab relic, should both be kept there.
"But what did Dural mean by 'the place where the stars and silver moon intertwine is where the treasury lies'?" Norne had been pondering the riddle for some time. The Dwarven Kingdom had once housed countless treasures, but the king at the time had not intended to keep them all for himself. Instead, he had presented a riddle, with the promise that whoever could solve it could take one item from the treasury. And the riddle also ensured that, in the event of the king's untimely death, someone would still know the location of the treasury. Even the method of opening it was hidden within the riddle.
"They say the dwarven treasury was built with a special ore that blocks all magical detection," Somme said. "Even the dwarven craftsmen who built it had to be blindfolded. Other than the king and those who could solve the riddle, no one knew its true location."
"Heh! Did it not occur to those dwarves that if you build your treasury out of a magic-blocking material, all I have to do is cast a detection spell, and the place I can't detect is where the treasury is?" Serie sneered.
"You're a genius!" Rhodes said, and subconsciously reached out and ruffled her hair. "How did I not know that my Serie was so smart?"
"Don't touch my head, you detestable creature!" She swatted his hand away, annoyed at his use of 'my'. This insufferable human is getting more and more audacious, she thought.
"But if we do that, wouldn't the demons detect us?" Norne asked, a little worried. There was no telling if there were still any demons in the ruins.
"It's fine. I'll just limit the range to this area," Serie said, and immediately cast her detection spell.
After a moment, her face darkened.
"What is it?" Rhodes asked.
"Hmph! Those dwarves are a clever bunch. This whole area is made of that special ore. I can't detect a thing."
"In that case, it means the treasury is somewhere in this area," Rhodes concluded.
Her method was almost foolproof. The dwarves, in their attempt to hide the treasury's location, had ended up revealing its general vicinity.
"But this area is huge," Norne said, shaking his head.
Even if the treasury was here, there were no buildings in sight. If it was underground, they would have to do a lot of digging.
"The stars and the silver moon..." Rhodes said, looking up at the cavern's ceiling. "Could it be up there?"
They all looked up. The ceiling was just rock, with a few glowing crystals here and there. It didn't look anything like a place where the stars and the silver moon would intertwine.
"You can't see it like that," Rhodes said.
He cast his levitation and presence-concealing spells and began to fly towards the ceiling. He saw that the glowing crystals were arranged in the pattern of a constellation. That must be the "stars". All that was left was to find the "silver moon". Just then, he noticed a silver vein running along the stone wall, a vein that ended abruptly at a certain point.
"So it's here," he said with a smile.
Those cunning dwarves. If he couldn't fly, he would have never noticed the "stars" and the "silver moon". He flew back down and told the others what he had found.
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