Chapter 56: Weapons and Relics

A vast room filled with gold and riches, items, treasures, unforeseen items that do not make any sense. This place was filled with all those things.

The walls were made of golden elements which were more precious than gold itself: Dark gold, as they called it, being more precious than gems or the finest weapons of the current age.

A single piece of that old metal could buy a mansion in this era, but there was no pebble or small piece of it in this place. The walls of this vast room were made of that precious metal, and the price that one would pay for even a piece of that wall was enough to collapse the economy.

There were also all kinds of special things here: rings with flight magic, weapons imbued with the powers of mythical creatures, there were magic tomes here with records of some of the oldest spells, and there were art pieces here more detailed than what the world had seen in the last thousand years.

This place was the true treasure house of the tomb, and true to it’s name, this was truly a tomb.

[ “You were right, huh. The boy has his value.” ]

The voice that had been speaking to Arcos all this time was more clear here, more vivid and more dark than what he had heard in the passage.

The source of the voice, a tomb suspended on the highest level of this vast room, surrounded by what seemed like wooden boxes made of different coloured wood were floating around the golden casket made with such fine details it could hypnotise someone who dared to look at it for long enough.

The boxes floating around the tomb were the reason they had come here. The relics of the forgotten civilisations that they had gathered from all over the world.

“I told you so. The Pygmies had always been a troublesome pair. They wouldn’t have chosen him for nothing. Besides, I know the worth of a star when I see it.” Andrew almost bragged before the invisible demonic spirit.

The eyes carved on the golden casket in the sky, however, glowed with a distinct green light at the response of the damned bastard.

[ “As if anyone would question that! Hmph!” ]

Even an evil spirit like this knew the kind of eye Andrew had for things. After all, the only reason the spirit had let them use this whole place as their personal storage space was because of a near impossible deal that they made.

The spirit wanted something, something seemingly impossible, something that had tied its grudges to the mortal world, but they helped him with it.

They gathered materials from the far end of the world, created things that had never existed before, and they challenged the very world to get some of those things.

They fulfilled his request, and through them he was liberated.

So, this tomb now belonged to them as much as it belonged to the final element connecting the spirit to this world.

“Haha. Well then, when do you think he’ll wake-. Oh, talk about timing.” Andrew was laughing when Arcos, now healed of all wounds and free from all pain, started opening his eyes.

He had fought well. They saw all of it, and they were proud of him as much as they were proud of each other when they first cleared this trial.

The things that one faced out there in that darkness were the worst nightmare one can face individually.

There was no certain way to overcome the fear, the dread, or even the helplessness that one felt in their first try.

The passage is a challenge that one should challenge multiple times to see just how much they have grown… but the four of them didn’t find it as fun as they did in the past anymore.

Back then, everything was thrilling for them. Fighting demons, skinning angels, tricking gods, eating dragons… they had done all kinds of crazy things in their younger days.

That time was different. They lived to prepare for something that wasn’t going to happen for a long, long time.

They knew their limitations but a single tragedy changed everything for them and their group.

And even though the world continued moving, a young man’s pure heart was no longer as simple as it used to be anymore.

“Ugh…” Arcos slowly opened his eyes and sat back down on the silky bed that he had been on for the last few minutes.

Outside of the darkness, what greeted his eyes first was the blinding light present all around him.

First he felt the warmth of the four who surrounded him, but then he couldn’t see for a moment because of the dazzling lights.

Thankfully, his eyes regained vision soon, but when they did, his mind almost lost it’s sanity.

“W-w-w-what?” His voice cracked when he looked around himself.

The Gold and gems were one thing, but what stunned him more were the golden walls of this place, the weapons that were lying around as if they were wooden sticks, weapons that can kill an (S-rank) on their own, and then there were the thing above him.

The casket was floating still, but the different wooden boxes exuding different energies, boxes of different shapes, sizes and colours were something that stood apart from everything around him.

He was looking at them for a moment, or at least, what seemed like a moment.

He watched them circle around the casket in a unique pattern.

He noticed how they changed their paths in different manners, he saw how things were for them, how different they were, and how well they were positioned.

Then, unconsciously, he started calculating the paths that the boxes were moving in.

He noticed the way they passed by each other each time. How they had their own spins, how they were moving differently from one another.

He fell into a state of trance as his eyes widened. He was there in that room but his mind was floating in a vast sky.

He was watching the creation of a universe.

The birth of stars.

The way demonic life came to be.

How angels gave birth to new life.

How dragons used the authority granted only to them, the power to use the primordial text.

There were so many things he saw in that moment, so many things that he comprehended in that short period, truths that he obtained about the world that he could not believe in himself.

For a moment, he thought of assimilating with the world that he was seeing, with the vast sea of knowledge that was present before him. He wanted to dive deeper, [Question] the knowledge that was sprayed at him, go further and comprehend the meaning of each and every particle of knowledge that he obtained in that moment, and more.

More than anything, he wanted to consume all this knowledge and create something new. Something that did not exist… something that-.

His concentration was broken completely by a set of thunderous voices that tore through his head, shattered his concentration and pulled him back to the reality that he belonged to.

“…”

He felt a new kind of pain… a kind of emptiness that didn’t make sense to him right at that moment.

“What…?”

It was as if someone took away the memories of something that had happened just now. As if he had forgotten something that he experienced just now.

It wasn’t natural. Someone else did it. He knew it for a fact that someone else was behind this… but, who?

“You aren’t ready for what you were doing just now.” Andrew shook his head when the boy sitting before him blinked at him, his eyes, nose, ears, and mouth leaking blood.

“You could have died just now.” Sammy was almost angry as she pulled out a handkerchief for the boy.

Beth, on the other hand, looked around for any healing items. He needed to get treated first.

“The trance state was fine, but you looked too far. You cannot ‘question’ nor ‘comprehend’ before you are at the level of ‘enlightenment’. Go too far, you die.”

Lily placed her hand on his forehead as she channeled a cool energy throughout his body and mind.

It calmed him down, but at the same time, it made him question want had just happened to him even more.

“Sorry. You must be confused.” Andrew put his red dagger away when Arcos did not even know when he had pulled it out.

In fact, why did he pull it out? What did he do with it, he wondered.

There was no answer to the question, however. He wasn’t going to know all of it today. They did what they did for him. And he… had experienced something new.

Something few even among the enlightened ones get to experience.

[ “It just shows you’re one of the Creation’s Chosen, young boy.” ]

The owner of the tomb had a delighted voice just now.