Chapter 67: Breaking the Seal
Serie chuckled. "The entrance to the treasury is on the ceiling? These dwarves are a clever bunch."
Most people would have never thought of it. When they heard the riddle, their first instinct would be to search the ground. And while this area looked like a grand hall, the ceiling was solid rock. They couldn't see any stars or a moon, so they wouldn't have even considered it as a possibility. And even if they had, they would have never thought to look for the entrance on the ceiling. Cunning, indeed.
But did such a complex design really merit this level of security? A hint of doubt crept into Serie's mind.
"But how are we going to get up there?" Eirik asked, looking at the ceiling, which was over twenty meters high. This wasn't a cliff face with handholds; there was no way to climb. Unless Rhodes could carry him up, all he could do was stare. "Rhodes, can you carry us up?" he suggested.
"No need," Rhodes said, shaking his head. He pointed to a spot on the ceiling. "The 'intertwining' is right there. All we have to do is get to that spot." He then looked at Serie. If she were to use her ice magic, she could probably create a kind of ladder.
"Yes. That height shouldn't be a problem."
Serie knew what he was thinking. The two of them had often experimented with her ice magic, and they had done something similar before. With a wave of her hand, a spiral staircase of ice rose from the ground, reaching all the way up to the spot Rhodes had indicated.
"Very impressive," Rhodes said, genuinely impressed by her precise control over her mana. He could have done the same thing, but it was better to conserve his own mana. It was the same reason they had climbed the cliff instead of just flying up. Serie could achieve the same effect with a fraction of the mana.
"Let's go."
Though she was pleased by his compliment, she didn't let it show, and did her best to keep the smile from her lips. They walked up the staircase.
At the top, at the point where the 'stars' and the silver vein intersected and disappeared, they examined the wall closely.
"Where's the mechanism?" Eirik asked, staring at the smooth stone wall.
"Well? Can you feel anything?" Rhodes asked Serie. He had already looked it over; there were no protruding stones. Clearly, the dwarves hadn't used a simple push-button mechanism.
"It seems to be an ancient seal, the same type as the one on the black box that held the Eternal Ore. And it's very strong. The highest level, I'd say."
"Well, that's a problem. Don't tell me we have to find a key."
To have found the treasure, only to be stopped by a locked door... it felt like a forced side quest from an old RPG.
"I can break it. But I'll need your holy sword."
"To replenish your mana, right? No problem, take it." The seal on the dwarven treasury was bound to be much stronger than the one on the small black box. Serie would have to use a lot of mana. The 'Light of Ersten' had been forged with this very scenario in mind. It functioned as a kind of power bank. She could draw out the mana stored within it to quickly recover her own, though the conversion rate was only about a third. Still, it was more than enough for an emergency.
"So we're just going to break it? We won't be able to carry everything out." Even with his permission, Serie didn't immediately begin. She looked at him, asking for his final decision. This was, after all, the dwarven treasury. Once she broke the seal, there would be no way to protect it. It would have been fine if they could take everything, but they couldn't. All they would be doing is leaving it for the demons. She didn't want to see a demon army equipped with master-crafted dwarven gear; that would be a terrifying thought.
"Let's break it. We can't have come all this way for nothing. How much mana will it take? If it's a lot, we can do it in stages."
"No need," she shook her head. "This seal hasn't been maintained in over a hundred years. I can handle it myself."
"Then let's begin."
She then began to cast her spell, forcibly breaking the seal.
After some time, with a sharp click, the seal on the dwarven treasury was broken. A section of the wall began to move, revealing a narrow passage, just wide enough for one person to pass through.
Rhodes handed her the holy sword. He had had Dural add some weight-increasing ores to it when it was forged; only by constantly infusing it with mana could you reduce its weight. But he had also thought of this situation and had added a special safety feature. If you infused it with enough mana the night before, it would remain light all through the next day. That was why Somme had been able to wield it so easily earlier.
Serie took the sword and began to draw on its mana to replenish her own.
"If this were the golden age of the Dwarven Kingdom, we'd be intruders, wouldn't we?" Norne said with a self-deprecating laugh.
"It's fine!" Rhodes replied. "We'll just take a few of their lost treasures back with us. The current dwarven king might even thank us!"
His joke made them all laugh.
They walked down the passage. It was a long walk, but they finally reached the end. A stone door, inlaid with star-like minerals, stood before them.
"It's a bit small," Rhodes said.
He had imagined the door to the dwarven treasury would be massive, dozens of meters high. It wouldn't have been difficult for the dwarves to build such a door and operate it with a mechanism. And given the legendary amount of treasure inside, it would need a huge space, and a huge door to match. But the door before them was only about two meters high. It might have been tall for the one-meter-twenty dwarves, but to Rhodes, it was just... average. Even the doors of some warehouses in his old world were bigger.
"Indeed. This isn't the dwarves' style." Somme, being a dwarf himself, knew their love for grand architecture. This door was definitely not their style.
"We didn't go the wrong way, did we?"
"Let's go in and see."
Serie was the first to push open the door. It moved easily; the dwarves hadn't put a second seal on it.
And a space, not too big and not too small, opened up before them.
~~~
Get early access to 20+ advanced chapters on Patreon!
https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Hollowborn
~~~
Every 150 Power Stones = 1 extra chapter