Chapter 22: The Treasure and the Guardian Part 3

The malice of a lizard does not last long.

Soren knew that as well.

Normally, one would use a cat, a dog, or even a human.

A mere lizard could hardly carry a powerful curse.

The total amount of malice was simply too small.

‘It won’t last long.’

For now, he had to be satisfied with this much.

Soren shook off his hand after placing the curse stone inside.

Sticky blood splattered down.

Skinning a lizard was a difficult task.

Doing so without killing it, ensuring it felt every ounce of pain, was even more delicate work.

Still, this time, the results were quite good.

Even if it was just a lizard, the resentment and malice it held were greater than expected.

“Aaaargh!”

The first to fall under the curse was a warrior from the party across the way.

The warrior, who had blocked a poison barb with his shield, was now clawing at his own skin like a madman.

The sound of flesh being scraped raw was loud enough to reach Soren’s ears.

Blood flowed from the deep scratches left by his own nails, and soon his forearm was drenched in crimson.

The mage and the archer beside him were no different, though the severity varied.

“Kahaknal.”

Without hesitation, Soren aimed his staff.

At the tip, poison barbs split apart and shot forward.

The warrior, still frantically scratching himself, belatedly raised his shield.

Two of the barbs embedded themselves in the shield.

However, one found its mark in the warrior’s wounded arm.

He was unable to react properly.

The warrior winced and tried to pull the barb out.

‘Got him.’

It was useless.

The moment the barb pierced his skin, the poison had already entered his bloodstream.

The warrior would now die slowly.

Based on how previous raiders had perished, he probably had about a minute left.

“Everyone, deal with them first!”

Soren shouted.

The three party members, who had been dazed, snapped to attention at his command.

“Quickly!”

“…Bork!”

“Understood!”

Leaving the crumbling golems behind, Bork charged forward.

Veins bulged along the arm gripping his axe.

Soren leapt out of the passage after him.

There was no need to worry about the golems for now.

He had already placed the strongest curse on them.

For instance, something like snapping their legs, just like the lizard.

Thunk!

At last, the weakened legs of the golem gave out, and it collapsed.

Even as it crawled on the ground, it still reached toward Moss, unaffected by the pain.

They needed to finish this before the golem recovered.

“Loreia!”

At Soren’s shout, Loreia, who had been scratching her neck, sprinted out.

She aimed her crossbow at the staggering archer.

It made sense to take out the archer first, who had been annoying them with detection runes since the start of the fight.

“You’re not getting away!”

The warrior, whose body had not yet been fully overtaken by the poison, blocked her attack.

The crossbow bolt was stopped by the shield.

Clicking her tongue in frustration, Loreia retreated.

They could only attack once in a single breath, but they had four people on their side.

“Uooohhh!”

“Uh, uh…!”

Crash!

Bork’s hand axe struck like lightning.

The axe ripped through the metal edge of the shield, cutting into it deeply.

Then Moss swung his flail.

The warrior, pinned by his damaged shield, hurriedly raised his right hand to defend.

Soren had no intention of missing that opening.

He aimed his staff once again.

“Kahaaknal.”

Three more poison barbs shot forth.

They veered past the warrior and targeted the mage and the archer.

The archer, reacting quickly, fired an arrow in return, but Soren had already dodged away from his previous position.

“Ugh?!”

One of the poison barbs embedded itself in the mage’s neck, though the archer managed to dodge.

The archer was nimble, practically like a buzzing insect.

Soren lowered his staff with a grimace.

‘The poison runes are all used up… Now all I can do is…’

All he could do was cheer on the others.

“Ghuh! Grrrk…”

Thankfully, both the mage and the warrior had been hit by poison barbs.

The warrior who had been struck first began gasping for air.

His breathing grew labored, and his complexion turned a sickly shade of blue.

Dark, spidery veins spread grotesquely across his neck.

As the warrior, groaning in agony, dropped his shield, Bork’s axe came flying straight for his forehead.

Slash!

The nameless warrior collapsed without even managing a scream.

Blood, brain matter, and shattered skull fragments poured from the gaping wound.

There was no time to marvel at the gruesome sight.

The mage, struggling to aim his staff, was next.

“Kehack!”

But it was no use.

Thanks to the poison barb lodged in his neck, the mage could not even complete an incantation.

He fumbled at his throat in panic.

And if he had the luxury of doing that in the middle of a battle, it also meant he had no way of dodging the flail that Moss swung straight at his head.

***

Thunk!

The flail crushed the mage’s skull with a mighty blow.

The small frame of the female mage was flung half a foot into the air.

One of her eyes popped out and rolled to Soren’s feet.

‘Oh. Nice.’

A human eyeball made for an excellent offering.

In particular, Kun Allak favored them most.

Soren quickly scooped it up, planning to store it safely in a glass jar for later use.

“What about the archer?”

“She ran away! That way!”

Seeing their side utterly crushed, the woman who seemed to be the archer abandoned her comrades and fled into the darkness.

Soren stared silently after the retreating figure.

“Chase her!”

“We can’t! It’s too dangerous to pursue recklessly!”

“Agreed.”

Given how swift she was, chasing her down was unlikely.

And with only one of them left, she posed little threat.

Bork, still brimming with adrenaline, finally lowered his axe.

Loreia, who had reloaded her crossbow, also relaxed slightly.

But there was no time to rest.

“Everyone, get up.”

“…Kid, what are you trying to pull now… Ngh…”

“We have to finish those off.”

Soren pointed at the two golems lying on the ground.

Their stone skins had been stripped away, and their hulking forms had shriveled to nearly half their original size.

They looked utterly pitiful now.

Their previous, overwhelming presence was completely gone.

Seeing this, Bork once again raised his axe.

“Yeah, we still have these monstrous things to deal with.”

“Hold on. Since we’re here anyway… Let’s extract their cores.”

Moss suddenly proposed.

The golem’s core certainly seemed useful.

Its smooth exterior and the way it glowed when absorbing mana were impressive.

“The core is a rare magical material. Even magicians can’t get their hands on it easily.”

And being rare, of course, meant it was hard to obtain.

First, fighting a golem was no easy task, and extracting its core intact without shattering it was an extremely difficult feat.

However, if the golem was crippled like this one, the story was different.

Moss grinned as he tightened his grip on his dagger.

“If it’s a golem core, even that picky Mage Tower will pay a high price for it.”

“……Pull it out now.”

“Hmm, should I just use force?”

“Bork, please keep the golems under control. The three of us will try to extract it.”

Loreia held her dagger in a reverse grip, and Soren pulled out a small pocketknife.

The battle was mostly over now, and it was time to settle accounts.

***

“My body itches……”

“……Come here.”

Before anything else, though, treating their party members took priority.

The golem guarding the treasure met a far more pathetic end than expected.

Soren’s curse worked far better than he had anticipated.

‘Honestly, I didn’t expect it to be this effective.’

Even though the golem’s skin was made of stone, the curse had worked wonderfully.

With its body severely weakened, even Bork could subdue it easily.

Thanks to that, the extraction work went smoothly.

Bork held down the struggling golem while the other three carefully dug out the core from its forehead.

“Phew…”

“That was harder than I thought. But at least there are no scratches on it.”

After sweating profusely, they finally managed to pull it out and place it carefully onto their palms—two glass-like orbs, each about half the size of a fist.

Soren picked up one and inspected it closely.

Its surface was smooth, and a faint blue glow shimmered deep inside.

The orb, which had once gleamed brightly, had now lost much of its light.

It wasn’t surprising.

A few fireballs wouldn’t have been enough to power it, and removing it from the golem’s body must have affected it too.

“How much do you think these are worth?”

“Probably… about four or five drachma silver coins each.”

“Each?”

“Yes, four or five per core. I’m not sure how many golem cores are circulating lately, but there’s always steady demand.”

If they sold both cores, it would be close to ten silver coins.

Ten silver coins!

Soren and Loreia gaped at the figure.

Ten silver coins were almost worth half a gold coin.

“We’re finally… escaping poverty?”

“Room rent…”

Even split four ways, they’d each get more than two coins.

They couldn’t help but grin from ear to ear.

Soren tucked the core safely into his bag.

Just in case it broke, he even tore a piece of Bork’s still-twitching clothes to wrap it carefully.

‘This is insane.’

It was an unbelievable haul.

With just this one dungeon trip, Soren had earned more money than his entire net worth.

Whoever said money couldn’t buy happiness was a liar.

Of course money could buy happiness—sometimes, just having money was happiness itself.

The elation lingered, soaking into every corner of his being.

Even swallowing dry spit felt sweet now.

***

“The golem cores were a great find, but there’s still something else left,” Moss said, snapping Soren and Loreia out of their daze.

Soren quickly pulled himself together.

Right, there was still something even more exciting than the cores.

“The treasure chest…”

“Here, let’s open it together.”

Half-buried under a pile of rubble, the treasure chest finally revealed itself before them.

Loreia, her eyes wide as saucers, immediately looked around warily.

“What are you doing?”

“Keeping watch. You can never be too careful about thieves.”

“…….”

Soren exchanged a look with Moss.

Moss simply jerked his chin toward the chest.

“Is it cursed or anything?” Soren asked.

“I’ll check with a purification stone.”

Soren pulled out a white purification stone, different from the usual black curse stones.

He placed it on top of the chest.

The stone remained calm, showing no signs of darkening.

If there had been a curse, the stone would have turned black.

“It doesn’t seem cursed.”

“Then, what about traps?”

Bork asked, lowering his booming voice.

Loreia patted and shook the chest for a moment, then shook her head.

“None… Seems safe.”

“Good. Then…”

Moss stepped back, letting Soren have the honors.

Soren didn’t refuse.

He placed his hand on the chest, and everyone’s eyes locked onto it.

The chest, adorned with silver decorations, looked impressive at a glance.

It looked so valuable that just selling the chest itself would fetch a good price.

Naturally, Soren’s expectations soared.

“Alright, I’m opening it.”

“…Yes.”

“Hurry up, kid. I’m dying of excitement here.”

Click.

***

The chest wasn’t locked.

Soren unfastened the latch, and the lid creaked open slowly.

All four leaned in at once.

“This is…”

“Silver coins… and even jewelry.”

Inside the shadowy chest was the very image of a classic treasure trove.

Piles of silver coins and copper coins filled it halfway, with intricately crafted necklaces and rings scattered among them.

A smile tugged at the corner of Moss’s lips.

Soren smiled too, though he also felt a slight pang of disappointment.

‘Is this… really what you’d call a treasure?’

It was treasure, no doubt.

It wasn’t easy to find this much loot even in a treasure room.

There were no gold coins, but exchanging the few silver coins and the bulk of copper coins would still net them a hefty sum.

No adventurer would turn their nose up at this.

Especially not Soren and his party, who were practically broke.

As they dug through the piles of coins, Soren’s hand eventually scraped the bottom of the chest.

“Looks like this is it.”

“How much do you think this is? It’s no small amount.”

“We’ll need to take it to a moneychanger. And… it’s too heavy to carry the whole chest.”

“Just dump it into bags. I’ll watch over it.”

“I’m not a sneak!”

Bork and Loreia wandered off to scavenge the bodies of the fallen adventurers they had defeated earlier.

It wasn’t a bad haul, but now that the initial thrill had worn off, the excitement quickly cooled.

Moss, left behind, started scooping the coins into a separate bag.

Soren helped him, the clinking sound of silver and copper filling their hearts with satisfaction.

Clink clink.

“Hmm?”

As Soren continued scooping, something caught his fingers.

He casually stirred the pile of coins.

It was probably just another ring or necklace.

No need to get his hopes up…

“Ah.”

Something came out of the coin pile, and Soren’s eyes narrowed.

He brought the lantern closer to get a better look.

A translucent, ominous purple, tetrahedral gem gleamed in the light.

‘A rune.’

It was the second rune he had found in this dungeon.