Chương 69: (B2 Chapter 20)

The corner of what was unmistakably a chest was glinting from within the sand. I excitedly got up and moved towards it. The group noticed my sudden movement and looked around in alarm, gripping their weapons and standing up ready for combat. I idly thought about how the system had changed us; just two weeks ago none of us would have ever been able to react this way and be alert so quickly. Now, it was a necessity. Still, I needed to diffuse their tension.

"There's nothing attacking us, relax. I think I see a reward chest, so I'm going to check it out," I said. My words immediately changed the atmosphere, and Omar dropped all pretenses and came bounding towards me, excitedly asking where the chest was. Before I could answer, he had spotted the chest and was speeding towards it cackling excitedly. The others also hurried towards him, as he bent down and dug up a silver-coloured chest.

It didn't look like the chests I had gotten from elite monsters or even the boss chest from defeating the ogre. Those chests were wooden with different coloured glowing swirls on them based on their rarity. They were also small, about the size of an opened laptop, whereas this one was significantly larger. It looked to be about the size of a small trunk or a large suitcase, and it was completely silver in colour.

"It says it is a mini-boss dungeon treasure chest!" exclaimed Omar excitedly. I winced a bit at his loud voice and took a glance around the cavern to make sure nothing was attracted by him. I couldn't find it in me to berate him, as he had improved a lot in keeping his voice down. Besides, I completely understood his excitement. I found nothing but the same, gloomy cavern as before, and made my way over to Omar and the chest to confirm his words. I reached out to touch it, and a system screen came up.

Would you like to open the Dungeon Treasure Chest (Mini-boss)? It was a mini-boss then. No wonder the fight had seemed tricky and difficult, but not impossible. Even without Omar's massive spell, I think we may have managed to whittle it down with time. The others had also gathered around the treasure chest by now, and apparently that was the limit of Omar's patience. As soon as Madelline, who was trailing everyone else, arrived at the huddle around the chest, Omar immediately opened it.

The lid opened smoothly and without any fanfare. The inside of the chest was inlaid with a dark-red cloth, and the chest was majorly full of coins. Most of them were bronze and silver, but there were a few gold coins inside as well. I felt the excitement fade away from everyone, as these coins had proven to be absolutely useless so far. However, Omar refused to admit that there was nothing else inside. He put his arm inside the chest and rummaged through the coins before letting out a jubilant cry.

He retracted his hand and I could see he was clutching a truly exciting object – a skill scroll! Omar's eyes glazed over as he presumably read the system screen about the scroll, before a disappointed expression flashed through his face for a split-second. He then wordlessly handed the scroll to Madelline before he started rummaging back within the chest. Madelline's eyes then glazed over for a few seconds before, in a sharp contrast to Omar's reaction, she let out an excited shout.

"It's a hex!" she declared happily, bouncing a bit on her feet and shaking the hand that wasn't holding the scroll side-to-side in excitement. She looked like how a small child would react on getting what they wanted on Christmas. It was very endearing, and I was happy for her. Though like Omar, I was also a bit disappointed that it wasn't something I could use.

"What's the hex about?" asked Lucas, a kind smile etched on his face.

"It's called a 'Snapping Hex', though I have no clue what it does. I'm going to learn it now!" said Madelline, still excited about her new spell. Without wasting a second more, she used the scroll. It turned into a green light and rushed towards Madelline, disappearing into her chest while the scroll vanished. It was exactly the same sequence of events that had played earlier when Omar had learned Mana Sense.

Speaking of which, Omar had finally stopped rummaging in the chest and had stood back up, letting out a long, forlorn sigh. On the other end of the spectrum, Madelline shouted, "It's done! I have a new hex now! Let's go fight something so I can test it!" She actually looked prepared to turn around and walk towards the hallway right this instant, but Lucas calmed her down and asked her to be patient. She obliged, but I could see she was trembling ever so slightly and rearing to go.

Mentally shaking my head at the two conflicting expressions on my companions, I looked at Lucas, who was thoughtfully staring at the coins in the chest. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

"We should split this evenly. Perhaps they will become important in the future," he said, raising his head to look at all of us.

"Is there a way to split all this through the system? Because otherwise it will take a long time to make equal piles for everyone, and I'd rather use that time to progress in this dungeon," Marcus said, making a very good point. Not that I would ever say that to his face…

"I actually don't know… why don't we try it out?" suggested Lucas. Over the next few minutes, all of us tried different ways to try and get the system to distribute the rewards evenly to us all. However, it didn't matter what we did, as the system refused to do anything. It was ultimately decided to let Lucas hold onto our newfound 'wealth' for now, and we would just divide it after the dungeon was done. It wasn't even a lot. It added up to 8 gold, 3 silver and 6 bronze, so just over 1 gold each for us.

It had seemed like a lot more, but the majority of the coins were bronze with just a handful of silver and gold coins in the chest. Done with the chest, we spent a few minutes digging through the surrounding sand in case there was another reward we missed, but after the umpteenth bone had been dug up, we simply decided to move on. Marcus had already healed those of us who needed healing, and the three of us had topped up our mana with mana potions.

Our stamina had also recovered, and we moved on to the hallway we had seen earlier. The tension rose with each step we took closer, and this time Lucas was the first to reach it. He must have remembered how I had bumped into an invisible barrier earlier, so he pushed ahead with his shield first to see if the boundary to the hallway could be crossed or not. The shield passed through without facing any resistance, and we all stepped through.

This new hallway was slightly different than the ones that had all those crawlers earlier. The difference was mainly in the colour of the walls and the floor, which were much darker than the paleness that was evident in the walls earlier. However, that was all I could make out in the dim light from the mana crystals. Probably because I was observing the hallway carefully, my eyes caught a small glint of something right in front of Lucas, who was still in the lead.

"Stop!" I yelled out in alarm, reaching out and grabbing Lucas by the shoulder. He immediately stilled, and I pulled him back carefully. Lucas didn't resist at all, and soon he was out of what was probably the first trap I had seen in the dungeon. I bent down low and saw an extremely thin wire hanging about a foot above the floor.

The wire was about the thickness of a hair, and I believe the only reason I even saw it was due to a combination of my high perception and the light from the crystals in the ceiling shining off it at the exact moment I was already looking in the direction. I pointed out the wire to Lucas and the others and asked them to step back. At my suggestion, we stepped all the way back and exited the hallway, going back towards the cavern.

I wanted to see what this trap was so I at least could have an idea of what to expect, and I wasn't going to take the risk of having anyone in the hallway when I triggered the trap. Everyone took cover on either side of the opening, their bodies shielded but their heads stretched over the opening to see what would happen in the hallway. Hannah meanwhile kept an eye behind us just in case our exiting and re-entering the cavern meant the shades had re-spawned.

Once we were all in position, I bent down and as I couldn't see the wire any longer, I released two wind bolts at slightly different heights to where I remembered it being. One of the bolts must have hit it, as in an instant, about seven or eight large spikes rose up in a line from the ground and rose up to a height of at least ten feet.

Each individual spike was about two feet across at the bottom and sharpened to a deadly point at the top, and anyone impaled by them would surely either be dead or seriously injured. With the dungeon halting any health regeneration, anyone hit by the trap without a healer present would surely bleed out even if they managed to survive the initial hit.

The sounds of gulping could be heard beside me as the spikes disappeared back into the ground, and it was unanimously agreed that Hannah and I would lead the way in this hallway, as we both had higher perception compared to others. I also forcefully volunteered a reluctant Omar to move with us, periodically using mana sense to see if he could spot any traps that were magical in nature.

Sam had a long spear in his inventory that he had looted from one of the hobgoblins in the tutorial, and I was walking with it held in front and tapping the ground constantly. We started cautiously making our way forward, and came across a number of different traps. The wires were the most common, with them placed in different places and at different heights. Some were placed diagonally from the wall to the floor, while some were close to head height.

We deliberately triggered them all, resulting in a variety of results. Apart from the spikes, there were bolts that flew from the walls, mist that rose from the floor, and a greenish gas that was released from both the walls at high pressure. There were also pressure plate traps interspersed between the wires, but luckily these were easily visible as they were a bit lighter in colour.

We had to wait a long while to make sure the mist and gas had cleared before we progressed, but we couldn't take the risk of not triggering the traps as more than once we had had to backtrack in this dungeon, and running away from something with traps remaining in place was a sure death sentence. Our slow progress allowed me to think about some of the missing roles in our current group. With Sara's death, we no longer had an attacking vanguard.

Moreover, Ben had been more of an offensive tank while Lucas was a defensive one. Now, Sam had taken Ben's place, but he was similar to Lucas as a defensive tank. As a result, our front-line damage dealers didn't exist. Hannah was too weak to contribute at the moment, and we didn't have an archer or someone who could buff us. I'll have to speak with Lucas about making the people back at base start becoming stronger. Enough is enough. My musings were cut short suddenly by the dungeon.

Once again, our walk through a hallway transitioned to us arriving inside a cavern without warning. This cavern was much smaller than the one earlier, with it being just about half the length of a neighbourhood block in diameter. It felt much smaller than that though, as something was already waiting for us in the middle.