Chương 12: 11. The Loot Vault

A participant in my previous run once told me that it takes gold to make gold. The man had been an angel investor before getting pulled into the Grand Arcana. Supposedly, he knew every trick the financial system had to offer and made use of it rather well. That hadn't helped him survive the trial during which we met. Even so, that single piece of advice had proved invaluable, though not at all in the way he thought it would. Reaching the bank was relatively safe.

Now and again, we'd spot a small group of goblins aimlessly roaming the streets. Since there was no leader to direct them, I was content to let them be, though not Cathy. Each time she'd spot a creature, she'd kill it with a precise shot from her bow, after which she'd go to check the body and retrieve her arrow.

"You've gotten a lot better," I noted.

"Just brushed off the rust," Cathy replied. Is that what you're going for? I wondered. Catherine Shaw Level: 1 Cards: Paladin, Two of Chains Special: Vigor Patron: Diana Weapons: Goblin Hatchette (x2), Diana's Bow Getting a sponsor this early on was rather impressive. Half the people who claimed it were liars; the rest were monsters in the making. I had seen what Cathy would become, but scoring a pact so soon surprised even me. Furthermore, Diana wasn't just some minor deity.

Although not exactly in the big leagues, she offered real power. Maybe that was why she had made her move this early. Frankly, I was more surprised that Cathy had accepted. In her place, I would have waited a few more trials for a better offer. At the very least, she could have asked for a divine card. The entrance to the bank was locked, as expected. Thanks to the buster's card, I grabbed hold of the handle and crushed it with ease. That proved sufficient to convince the lock mechanism to let us through.

"No alarm?" Cathy sounded surprised.

"The goblins already know where we are." Thanks to you killing their scouts off, I added mentally.

"We're robbing a bank," Cathy insisted.

"There has to be an alarm."

"There aren't any people." There never were.

"I'm sure the goblins won't mind." Cathy gave me a look that expressed it all. Maybe I had gone a bit too far with my sarcasm. Stumbling through the darkness, I felt my way to the back of the room. I didn't know a thing about bank layouts, but I knew loot caches. Regardless of the door plan, there had to be a door that led to the loot vault. Disguised as part of the environment, it would be the only thing that refused to open unless a condition was met.

Just like with the elephants during the training trial, it required coins to budge. Higher-level vaults additionally required specific Arcana cards, but I strongly doubted that would be the case here. If I were wrong, all of this would end up being a huge waste of time.

"Try all the doors," I whispered.

"We need to find the one that doesn't open." One by one, I crushed any handle I came across. From what I could hear, Cathy was being a lot gentler in her approach, opening the doors like a normal person. All of a sudden, a handle I gripped refused to bend.

"Here," I said as I took a step back. Reaching into my pouch of containment, I took out a tube of silver coins. Squeezing it open, I placed a coin in the keyhole of the door. There was a flash of light as the coin was consumed.

"What was that?" Cathy asked, attracted by the flash.

"You need money to make money," I replied as I kept feeding the lock. Five coins vanished without any response. It was only after I inserted five more that the lock clicked. Ten coins again? Depending on what I found, the entry would either be ridiculously cheap or prohibitively expensive. Behind me, I heard Cathy ready her bow.

"Don't," I said.

"There's no need for that." The woman didn't respond. With a firm action, I pulled the door open. Warm yellow light came from inside, illuminating the main room of the bank. A flight of winding stairs descended further.

"You won't be able to shoot, so just put it away." I went down. The fast pace of the woman's steps behind me suggested that she had done as I asked. That was a first. Back when she had become powerful, she wouldn't obey anyone without serious consideration, not even Avon. Torches flickered on the walls, tempting us to grab hold of one. It was natural for people to seek relief from the surrounding darkness. That was a trap. All that light did was attract monsters.

"Don't touch the torches," I said, just to be on the safe side.

"I didn't plan to," Cathy replied. Soon, we reached the main chamber of the vault. Like the rest of the trial, it had been styled like a large bank vault. An imposing round door stared right at me with no key slots or combination dials. It was all a matter of strength. Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. Looking closely, I could see the faint bronze glow within the metal itself. My pulse hastened. I was right.

"Stand in the corner," I said as I went to the vault door.

"Why?" Cathy asked.

"Planning to do something weird?" I didn't reply. Instead, I took out the crimson sphere I had gotten from the goblin. While Arcana cards granted their owners specific skills and abilities, there were only two real ways to permanently boost one's physical and mental characteristics. One was through divine favors, which included gambling between trials. The other was through monster spheres. There was no exact science why a sphere dropped and why it didn't.

The only things known for certain were that it had a limited lifetime. Miss your chance to grab it, and it melted away like a chunk of snow in summer heat. Swallow it, and you gain a huge advantage. Of course, it wouldn't be the Grand Arcana if there wasn't a bit of pain involved. Collecting my thoughts, I looked at the item. It was red, which meant it would increase my physical strength. Of course, that wouldn't prevent it from shredding my throat on the way down to my stomach.

After consuming ten or more, my body would gradually become accustomed to the sensation. Back in my old run, I could swallow monster spheres like candy. This was a new body, though, and so would be the sensation. Here goes. I shoved it into my mouth and swallowed. First came the sensation of slime, as if I had swallowed a very large, old chunk of jelly. The moment it got further down, the pain began. I could feel hundreds of tiny pins scraping the sides of my esophagus.

As excruciating as it was, it indicated the sphere being consumed. Mentally, I hummed a tune. If there was one thing the bard card was good at, it was calming people down. I didn't have any instruments, but if the target was myself, I didn't need them. Even if I just managed to take the edge off, it would be worth it. Strength surged through my body as the effects spread. Now! I grabbed the vault door and pulled. As a rule, each sphere only rose a characteristic by a small amount.

Once this was over, maybe I could bench ten pounds more, but that would be about it. People needed to accumulate a lot more before the changes became noticeable. However, there was an exception to the rule—a temporary loophole that a goddess had shared. During the initial consumption, a massive surge took place, making me as strong as the goblin buster for several seconds. As long as the moment was timed correctly, a person could achieve feats way beyond their current capabilities.

Solid metal creaked and screamed as I tore the door out of the vault. It felt easier than pulling a cork off a bottle. As an added benefit, it helped me focus the pain I was feeling on a specific object. Bronze light flooded the room. I pulled the metal door further back. The surge of strength was rapidly decreasing. In less than a second, even holding the massive chunk of steel would become too much, so I let go, quickly jumping towards the walls. A loud metal clang resounded as the door hit the floor.

Moments later, there was only silence. Unfortunately for me, I still felt echoes of the pain.

"How?" Cathy asked, looking at me in awe.

"Monster spheres," I replied.

"They give you a boost, but are painful pieces of shit." There was no doubt that she'd ask her deity for more details later. For the moment, the only thing that was important was retrieving all the loot. I stepped up to the opening and looked inside. The room was no larger than a broom closet. Stacks of gold coins were neatly arranged on the floor. There was a lot less than I expected, roughly fifty in total. The really interesting thing was what lay in front of them. It wasn't a card, of course.

That would have been too easy. Given our current situation, it was a lot better. Boots of Swiftness, I thought, picking up the iconic footwear. Calf-length, they were crimson red, displaying a simple, moderately elegant design.

"Okay if I take these?" I asked, more as a matter of fact than expecting an argument. BOOTS OF SWIFTNESS (Item - Exceptional) Boots with perfect traction that preserve the wearer's stamina while running or walking.

"We'll split the gold," I removed my current shoes.

"Just who are you?" Cathy asked.

"I told you. I'm Greg." I had no doubt that she would ask her deity about me. Even then, the answer would be the same. Other than Harlequin's Sight, there was absolutely nothing extraordinary about me. Naturally, deities were forbidden to share such information with their followers and champions.

"Better hurry up, there's still a boss to kill." The nudge did the trick. Cathy walked up to the vault and grabbed two of the five stacks. I was expecting her to take half of another, but she chose not to. Even someone as pragmatic as her was still affected by misguided principles of generosity. Not that I was one to talk. I had fallen for that trap for years before finally putting an end to it. There was no place for charity in the Grand Arcana.

Unless serving the interests of a deity, being too nice or too nasty always came at a cost. Once the final piece of gold was removed, the vault went dark. I filled what was left of my silver coin tube with gold, then emptied another one, placing everything left inside. One thing was for sure: I'd rather have silver in my pockets than gold at any point.

"Ready?" I looked at Cathy. There were no obvious signs that she was carrying coins, either. More than likely, her sponsor had extended another small favor.

"What now?"

"Depends." While we were getting goodies, Marcus had probably dispatched the initial waves of goblins. I wouldn't be surprised if he were fighting the boss this very minute.

"We can take the goblin on the skyscraper, or we can tackle someone closer." I took the city map out of my pocket and unfolded it.

"Doesn't really matter. I expect Marcus will end things soon enough." Two goblin leaders remained relatively close to the bank. With a bit of effort, there was a chance that—"He won't end the trial," Cathy said, interrupting my train of thought.

"The boss isn't in the sewers."

"He isn't?" Must be nice to be guided by a deity this early on.

"He's in the skyscraper. The goblin on the roof is just a lookout." That sort of made sense. The tallest building was the perfect place from which to direct all other goblins and observe their progress. Then again, goblins adored heights, for whatever reason.

"How do you know?" I did my best to act surprised.

"I also have dreams," Cath replied as she went towards the staircase. We made our way back to the tallest building. In the process, Cathy kept shooting at any goblin we came across. By now it was obvious that had to be part of her deity's condition: shoot any enemy you see and get stronger; don't and suffer Diana's disappointment. Meanwhile, I tried to remember the best ways of storming a goblin fortress. It had been quite a while since I had dealt with that sort of setting.

The current trial's setting couldn't be called medieval by any stretch of the imagination, but the principle was the same. The skyscraper was identical to a tower. That meant that both the outside and the interior would be heavily guarded. The boss himself would likely be found in the equivalent of a throne room, which in this case probably meant the boardroom, the penthouse, or the presidential suite, depending on the nature of the skyscraper.

If there wasn't less than an hour until daybreak, I would gladly have waited for Marcus to join us, but as things stood, I had to do it myself with Cathy's help.

"What floor?" I asked.

"Huh?" The woman blinked, unsure how to react.

"The boss," I clarified.

"Which floor is he on?" Cathy gave me a long stare. Now she got an idea how I felt. I didn't have to read her mind to know that she was convinced I had made a pact with a deity, the same as her. Probably she was wondering which deity was sponsoring me and what its relation to her own would be.

"Eighteenth," she replied.

"Three floors from the top." That cleared things up a bit. It also put us at a serious disadvantage. Shafts and elevators were deathtraps when goblins were concerned, and climbing so many flights of stairs would tire us out before the fight.

"Two stops," I said.

"We pause on the tenth and the fifteenth. After that, we head straight for the boss."