Chapter 17 – The Sealed Treasure Room

At LV44, Evan felt that his level ought to count as fairly high.

Why had everything chased him since he left home?

After some thought, he realized that the same environment was far more dangerous for him than for an adventurer.

Monsters wanted to eat him. Humans wanted to kill him.

The adventurers clearly possessed a guide to the Teleportation Maze. How else had they crossed it while Evan remained hopelessly lost?

He had no idea how many days had passed. Based on the earlier pace of travel, Elara might already have escaped the maze.

Every corridor led to a teleportation circle. Beyond each circle waited monsters, and beyond those monsters lay another branching corridor.

The current route was no exception.

Evan fired one last shot and blew apart a Corrofang Hound that stood barking at him without daring to approach. It joined the remains of its companions.

Then he selected a corridor at random and chose another teleportation circle, either along the way or at the end.

At least no monster on this stratum exceeded LV40. Most fell between LV20 and LV30.

When surrounded, Evan’s high Dodge and Rolling Charge could usually carry him to safety.

He could not continue forever. First he had fought three adventurers. Then he had wandered the maze for days. His mana reserves were running low.

In simple terms, he was starving.

For some reason, ambient mana was extraordinarily thin on this stratum. Even if Evan rooted himself in place, he could harvest almost nothing.

Decomposing monster carcasses provided another source, but it was unreliable.

Finding monsters was easy. Almost every teleportation circle led to a few. Transporting the corpses back was another matter.

Was he supposed to become a nomadic mushroom, rooting and feeding wherever he went? Establishing the hyphae would probably consume more mana than he recovered.

He had no choice but to search for the exit, or at least a place with enough mana to sustain him.

Soon he found another teleportation circle.

Even the unluckiest gambler could not lose forever. Sooner or later, he had to find a way out.

Green light rose from the circle.

Oh?

This color was different.

Drip.

A droplet fell from an inverted stone spike into a small pool.

The concentration of mana was incredible.

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Even without spreading a mycelial mat, the prime Puffcap began slowly recovering mana simply by standing there.

It felt as if Evan were swimming in it.

No. He had to remain alert. Teleportation was usually followed by a mon...

Gray-blue stone walls surrounded a clear pool beneath a low, enclosed dome.

There was not a single monster in the small chamber.

Instead, Evan saw something surprising yet entirely appropriate.

A treasure chest.

It was made of stone, with unusually delicate patterns carved across its surface.

Evan could not explain who had placed it there, but a dungeon did not feel complete without treasure chests.

He checked again. Aside from one stone door, there was no concealed space where a monster might hide.

Once certain the room was safe, Evan rushed to the chest.

[Native monster: Treasure Access Denied]

A familiar message and an equally familiar invisible wall.

The dungeon’s discrimination against native monsters extended everywhere.

Evan refused to give up. He pressed tightly against the barrier.

Soon enough, another message appeared.

[Hero: Restrictions Lifted]

He had assumed the Hero title was exhausted after granting him [Greed]. Since entering the upper strata, it had been useful at every turn.

Very well. The title was worth having.

Evan jumped and kicked open the stone lid. The instant he landed, he hopped backward twice to escape any trap.

Nothing happened.

Time to see what he had found.

He pulled out a high-collared cloak of blue-green cloth.

Equipment was exactly the sort of treasure he had expected.

Unfortunately, it was designed for a human. On a Puffcap half a person’s height, half the cloak dragged across the ground. The cap flattened the high collar into a ring.

Evan checked the Puffcap’s Stats. Its Agility had risen from 42 to 47.

The result felt underwhelming. It was useful, but not remarkably so.

Did the cloak possess an active skill?

If it did, how could he activate it?

Evan channeled mana into the fabric. The air blurred on either side of him, and two identical cloaked Puffcaps appeared. He could direct them.

Clones?

At his command, the Puffcap on the right used Rolling Charge against the wall.

Pop.

It vanished like a punctured bubble.

Illusions, then.

That was still good. The cloak had cost him nothing, and five Stats plus a skill was more than enough to satisfy Evan.

He only hoped the trailing fabric would not become too dirty.

The cloak was an additional prize. The true treasure was the chamber’s dense mana.

Mana Sense showed that the small central pool held the greatest concentration. The rich mana in the air was merely a fraction escaping from the water.

Drops saturated with mana continued to fall from the ceiling, though Evan could not tell where they originated.

He had discovered an extraordinary resource. If he harvested all the mana here, he might be able to build another force of 400 Puffcaps.

With hundreds of bodyguards, nothing could prevent him from fighting his way out of the dungeon. What adventurer could withstand several hundred Spore Cannons?

The chamber itself was too small for 400 Puffcaps.

Evan looked at the only stone door. What lay beyond it? Was there room outside to store his army?

He pushed lightly. The door did not move.

He pushed harder. Nothing.

Rolling Charge.

Dazed by the impact, Evan stared at the stone door. He had not even chipped its surface.

What did that mean? Could the door not be opened?

Or could it be opened only from the other side?

Was Evan supposed to wait here until someone arrived?

He decided to search the chamber.

This was probably one of the Teleportation Maze’s traps. Other people must have entered before him. Perhaps they had left a clue or discovered a mechanism.

Evan soon found something.

It was not a clue left by the previous visitor. It was the visitor.

He pulled a skeleton from the grass, half-buried in the soil. It had been dead so long that the leather clothing hung in rotten scraps.

Looking at the bones felt like looking at his future.

Still, Evan was a mushroom. As long as mana-rich water continued dripping from the dome, he would not starve.

He had already arrived, so he might as well remain optimistic.

The dangers of the journey had exhausted him in body and mind. With food and water available, he could treat the confinement as a holiday.

Perhaps travelers passed nearby. One might discover the room eventually.

Or Evan could produce several dozen Puffcaps and blast through the door himself.

A tendril extended beneath the prime Puffcap’s cap and removed Evan’s true body from within. It set the perfectly ordinary-looking mushroom beside the pool.

Spores drifted outward. In the mana-rich chamber, hyphae multiplied at astonishing speed.