Chương 24: Chest Container

Lloyd slowly stepped into the strange room. Every step was cautious—he crossed the threshold as though stepping over something potentially dangerous without knowing what it actually was. His knife was at the ready. His gaze constantly swept across the room: first the chest, then the walls covered in damp stone, then the high ceiling, and finally the floor coated in the familiar gray sludge. Over the past few hours, he had learned one lesson all too well—danger could come from anywhere. From the darkness.

From the water. Even from what seemed to be nothing more than an ordinary stone. Thoughts flooded his mind one after another, refusing to leave him alone.

"Could this actually be luck?"

"Or is it a trap?"

"Maybe there's another monster waiting for me inside that chest?" But there was one thing Lloyd was absolutely certain of—walking past it would be the worst possible choice. Whatever was inside, he had to find out. After everything he had gone through—hours of wandering through these stinking tunnels, a dozen monsters slain, an empty stomach, and legs that had long since gone numb—simply turning around and leaving without opening the chest would have been an insult to himself. The room greeted him with silence.

Not the oppressive, threatening silence of the tunnels, where every second you expected something to leap out of the darkness. This silence was different—dense, calm, and strangely majestic. It felt as though it had existed here long before he arrived and would remain long after he was gone... if he managed to leave at all. Even the smell was different here. The stench of decay still lingered in the air, but it no longer overwhelmed everything else.

Beneath it was the faint scent of damp wood, cold stone, and something ancient—so ancient that Lloyd couldn't find anything to compare it to. It was as though the room itself belonged to another era. Somewhere beneath the ceiling, drops of water slowly fell. They splashed into the sludge with soft, barely audible plops that only emphasized the silence surrounding him. Every sound seemed to dissolve into the air without leaving behind even the faintest echo.

The green glow surrounding the chest pulsed gently and steadily—not aggressively, not ominously, but almost soothingly. Tiny glowing motes circled around it along paths known only to themselves, sometimes gathering more densely around the lid before slowly drifting apart again. They moved gracefully, as though carried by an invisible current. For a few seconds, Lloyd didn't even realize he had become mesmerized by the strange sight. It was beautiful. Far too beautiful for this filthy labyrinth reeking of death.

He slowly stepped closer. The sludge lazily parted beneath his boots, every step accompanied by a quiet squelch. Normally the sound irritated him, but now it felt like the only proof that time itself hadn't stopped. Another step. Now the chest stood directly before him. It looked incredibly old. The darkened wood was covered in deep cracks, the metal corners had long since been coated with green patina, and its surface was scarred by countless scratches and dents.

Yet despite its age, the chest remained remarkably solid, as though time itself had failed to damage it. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. His heart was beating far too fast. Every beat echoed in his ears so clearly that it felt as though no other sound existed in the room. His palms had grown damp—not from the sludge, but from nervousness, which felt strange in itself.

Only a short while ago he had fought monsters and nearly died several times, yet now he felt more tense than he had in any of those battles. The unknown was always more frightening than an enemy you could see. He slowly placed both hands on the lid of the chest. The wood was unexpectedly cold. Even colder than the surrounding air. Beneath his fingertips, he felt the rough grain of aged wood and the icy metal of the hinges.

At that very moment, the green crystal above the chest seemed to shine just a little brighter. Just a little. So subtly that anyone else might have dismissed it as a trick of the light. The green motes surrounding the chest stirred. They slowly drifted apart, as though making room for whatever was about to happen.

"I hope I won't regret this..." Lloyd opened the chest. The instant the lid lifted, he jumped backward, raising his knife in front of him—the reflex he had developed over the past few hours reacted faster than thought itself. He froze. Waiting. His fingers tightened around the knife's handle. His eyes remained fixed on the open chest. But... Nothing happened. No monster climbed out, eager to feast on human flesh. At least, not yet.

For several seconds, Lloyd remained in a fighting stance without taking his eyes off the chest. He didn't trust this silence. He didn't trust the room's calmness. Too many terrible things had happened after moments just like this. Yet nothing changed. The green glow disappeared completely. The crystal continued shining steadily. The room remained perfectly still. Lloyd slowly exhaled and cautiously stepped closer.

"What is this?" At the bottom of the chest lay a small crimson sphere. Perfectly round, about the size of an apple, its rich deep-red color was so vivid that it looked completely foreign in this place. Everything here was gray, green, or black, yet this sphere seemed to belong to an entirely different world. It lay perfectly still. It didn't glow. It didn't move. It simply waited. Lloyd slowly reached out and picked it up. The sphere was warm. Not just warm—pleasantly warm.

Its heat sharply contrasted with the cold stone, the damp air, and his soaked clothes. For a brief moment, Lloyd even felt as though he were holding something alive. A familiar purple window appeared before him, and a calm, stern female voice read the message aloud. [You have obtained a Relic: Fire Bomb.] Lloyd's eyebrows shot upward. He slowly shifted his gaze from the window to the crimson sphere resting in his palm.

"A bomb?!" Before he had the chance to examine it more closely, the crimson sphere suddenly crumbled in his hand into countless scarlet sparks that scattered in every direction before instantly fading away, as though they had never existed. Lloyd shouted,"Where the hell did it go?!" He quickly looked around the room. Then he glanced down at his feet, peered inside the chest, scanned the walls, and even looked up toward the ceiling, hoping to spot at least a single spark. Nothing. Not a single trace of red.

Nothing at all. It was as though the sphere had simply ceased to exist.

"My very first Relic, and I already managed to lose it. I never doubted you, Lloyd." He looked inside the chest once again. It was empty. Completely empty. Nothing remained except the old darkened wood at the bottom. Lloyd slowly sank onto the floor, leaning his back against the chest. His legs stretched out into the sludge—by now he had become so accustomed to the dampness, the filth, and the unbearable smell that he barely paid them any attention anymore.

They had long since become just another part of the world around him. He tilted his head back and looked up at the green crystal embedded in the ceiling. It continued to shine calmly and steadily, as though everything that had just happened meant absolutely nothing to it. For several seconds, Lloyd simply sat there without moving. Listening to the silence of the room. Listening to his own breathing.

Somewhere far beyond this strange chamber, deep within the endless tunnels, came the slow, rhythmic sound of dripping water. Drip.... Drip.... Drip. Each drop seemed to remind him that time continued to move forward. Then, in an exhausted voice, he forced out five quiet words.

"What should I do next?"