Chương 63: Chapter 62: Your Luck Improves...

Watching all six of them tumble into the pit together, Owen rolled around the stone platform in the Core Chamber again and again.

"Bet you didn't see that coming! A real trap needs one layer to lead into the next!" After saying that, he rolled around smugly one more time before drifting leisurely back toward the light screen.

"So the next time you're adventuring outside, make sure you're even more careful!" Owen was not particularly worried about them. The pit was not very deep, and he had even covered the bottom with thick turf and soft soil prepared specifically for the occasion. Harlan and the others would probably be left dazed and aching all over, but they should not suffer any serious injuries.

"Still, I can't believe the very first white orb they encountered turned out to be a trap." Owen studied the six people on the light screen, then tilted his core in confusion.

"That's strange. There isn't anyone named Tyren in your party." Owen could not help letting out a silly chuckle. The next moment, his core jolted.

"Wait. You might not have a Tyren, but you do have a Tessa, and they're both rangers..." The more he thought about it, the more suspicious it seemed. His entire core unconsciously drifted closer to the light screen.

"Could you two really be sharing some kind of weird luck?" Owen thought about it carefully. Among the white-orb encounters he had originally designed, roughly thirty percent led to something bad, another forty percent yielded nothing at all, and only the remaining thirty percent provided a reward. Yet somehow, the very first white orb the group encountered had landed them the "jackpot."

Owen shook off the thought and shifted the light screen's view to the bottom of the pit to see how they would handle what came next. ◆ ◆ ◆ At the bottom of the pit, Harlan shook his head groggily. He soon realized that something heavy seemed to be pressing down on him. Harlan forced his eyes open. Doro's face was right in front of his. Her eyes were tightly shut, and she lay motionless on top of him. But her breathing was suspiciously steady, and there was not the slightest sign of injury or pain on her face.

Harlan's expression changed slightly. He instinctively tried to sit up, only to discover that he could not move at all. He started to raise both hands to push Doro away, but they froze awkwardly halfway up. He had no idea where he was supposed to put them. In the end, he could only force a stiff smile.

"Miss Doro, might I trouble you to get off me first?" Doro gave no response. Harlan waited several more seconds. Just as he was about to call out again, she reluctantly cracked open one eye.

"... Couldn't you have stayed unconscious a little longer?" Doro sighed and slowly crawled off him. The moment the weight disappeared, Harlan hurriedly sat up. That was when he noticed everyone else was already standing nearby, checking themselves for injuries. Harlan paused, then looked thoughtfully at Doro. So she had clearly woken up a while ago, yet had continued lying on top of him without moving... Could she actually be interested in him?

A smug little grin had barely surfaced on Harlan's face when a cold laugh sounded beside him. He turned toward the sound and found Doro lifting her chin slightly, glaring at him with an unfriendly expression.

"Narcissist. Anyone could tell what's going through your head just by looking at you." She walked up to Harlan, extended one finger, and jabbed him hard in the chest.

"I just didn't feel like getting up and working so soon. You happened to be fairly comfortable to lie on." Doro jabbed him hard again.

"Thanks to you, I couldn't keep resting. I'll remember this." Without giving Harlan any chance to defend himself, she turned and headed toward one of the nearby passages. She soon disappeared around the corner, apparently intending to scout the area at the bottom of the pit first. As Doro spoke, Mirelle instinctively lowered her gaze to the necklace in her hand. On a strange impulse, she activated [Lie Detection]. She paused when the result appeared on the light screen.

Mirelle did not raise her head again until Doro had turned away and disappeared into the passage. Her eyes curved into amused crescents. Her gaze lingered on the dejected Harlan for a moment before drifting toward the passage Doro had entered, while she struggled to keep the corners of her mouth from rising. Colvin noticed something unusual about her and gave her a puzzled look. While Harlan was still immersed in his misery, Mirelle lifted the necklace and gently waved it at Colvin.

Then she secretly pointed toward Harlan and covered her mouth as she laughed silently. Colvin blinked, then realization dawned. He turned toward the completely oblivious Harlan, and a trace of pity appeared in his eyes. Just then, Dane and Tessa emerged from two other passages. Seeing that Harlan was awake, Tessa raised a hand and waved casually at him.

"Hey, kid. Finally awake?" She noticed his dejected appearance, then turned toward Mirelle and Colvin, who both looked perfectly normal.

"What happened to him this time? Did he actually hit his head too hard?" Harlan abruptly raised his head.

"What do you mean, hit my head too hard? I-I'm fine!" He straightened in a fluster, then seemed to remember that he was still the captain. He hurriedly put on a stern expression and asked,"Never mind that. Tell me what you found." Tessa spread her hands helplessly, then pointed toward the passage she had just emerged from.

"Dead end. It's blocked by collapsed rocks, so there's no way through." Dane nodded beside her.

"Same on my side. I reached the end before long." Harlan rubbed his chin and lowered his head in thought. There were three passages in this underground space. Since the two explored by Dane and Tessa were both dead ends, the only route that might lead somewhere else was the one Doro had chosen. Harlan then turned his attention to a brazier set into the nearby wall. Several pieces of black charcoal were piled inside it, while orange-red flames burned brightly above them.

That fire was also the main reason they could see their surroundings at the bottom of the pit.

"Was this fire already burning when we fell down?"

"Yeah." Tessa nodded.

"It was burning when we woke up." Harlan froze. Wasn't that a little too strange? What could possibly keep a fire burning for so long in an underground space like this? He slowly approached the brazier and cautiously extended a hand. The instant his fingers neared the flames, a wave of heat hit him, making him yank his hand back.

"Fuck! It's real! That burns!" Everyone stared at him with slumped shoulders, the light completely gone from their eyes. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

"Don't look at me like that!" Harlan protested while shaking his stinging hand.

"I thought it might be some kind of magical illusion!" Dane ignored his excuse. He drew an ordinary arrow from the quiver on his back, approached the brazier, and used the shaft to stir the charcoal several times. Then he tossed the arrow into the fire. The shaft was quickly swallowed by the flames. A faint crackling sound followed, and the fire burned a little more fiercely. Dane observed it for a moment before saying calmly,"At the very least, the flames are real, and they burn wood just fine." Harlan frowned.

"But the problem is, it must have been burning long before we fell down here, right?" He looked around, his expression gradually becoming strange.

"Could something have been hiding here the whole time, then run out to light the fire just before we fell?" ◆ ◆ ◆ Owen was already rolling around the stone platform with laughter, nearly tumbling straight off the edge. He never would have imagined that the scene lighting he had casually installed would be treated by Harlan as a suspicious phenomenon worthy of caution.

"H-Harlan... If only you'd put some of those points into another skill tree." Owen called up the earlier observation footage and repeatedly replayed the moment Harlan reached toward the brazier, burned himself, and started shouting in pain. Every time it played, Owen rolled another lap around the stone platform.

"Your observation skills are great! Just stop wasting them on things that don't matter!" Owen's uncontrollable laughter echoed through the Core Chamber for a long time. ◆ ◆ ◆ Some time later, Doro came hurrying back from the passage. Her face was covered in sweat, and her lips had gone faintly pale. She was bent over with both hands braced against her knees, panting hard. It took her quite a while to recover enough to speak.

"That passage... It just keeps going. I couldn't reach the end, so I ran all the way back..." The others exchanged glances before deciding to let her sit and rest first. Harlan hurriedly removed the spare waterskin from his waist and held it out to Doro.

"Drink some water first. I haven't drunk from this one yet." Doro looked up at him. Her pale lips pressed together before she gave a slight nod. She accepted the waterskin, tilted her head back, and drank in large gulps. Once Doro's breathing had steadied, Harlan turned toward the others again.

"We'll move together. Since the other two paths are blocked, it looks like this is our only option."

"Oh, right. Doro, can you still walk? Should we have someone carry you on their back?" Doro initially looked ready to nod, but then hesitated. She simply stared at Harlan in silence. Tessa was already raising a hand to volunteer when Mirelle gently caught her arm. Unfortunately, Harlan had already noticed the movement. Tessa's hand froze in midair. She gave an awkward laugh and hurriedly pointed toward the quiver on her back.

"I was just thinking that I'm still carrying my quiver and the rest of my equipment, so it might be difficult for me to carry anyone." Harlan gave her a suspicious look before turning toward the others, only to discover that everyone had their own excuse. Dane wordlessly pointed at the quiver on his back. He could not even be bothered to explain. Colvin immediately grabbed his lower back, lightly pounded it with one fist, and coughed several times for effect. Mirelle was even more outrageous.

With a perfectly straight face, she claimed that carrying someone would put pressure on her breathing and prevent her from properly singing her battle songs. For a moment, Harlan genuinely wanted to drop the captaincy on the spot and never pick it up again. Just as he was considering whether they should simply wait until Doro had rested enough to continue, someone lightly kicked his shin. Harlan looked down. It was Doro. She had turned her face aside and refused to look at him.

Her voice remained cold, but a faint awkwardness crept into it.

"Why aren't you crouching down already...?" Harlan barely hesitated before crouching in front of Doro. Once she had climbed onto his back and he had confirmed that she was holding on securely, Harlan reached back, slipped his hands beneath her knees, and slowly rose.

"Colvin, I'll have to trouble you to scout ahead from here."

"No problem." The group checked their equipment. After confirming that nothing had been lost or damaged during the fall, they prepared to set out. Naturally, they did not leave behind the old Freyland silver coins scattered across the bottom of the pit. There were not many of them, but at least they offered some small consolation for the emotional damage everyone had suffered. At regular intervals along the stone passage, alcoves had been carved into the walls.

Each one held a brazier identical to the one they had seen earlier. The blazing flames illuminated the entire passage. Harlan was beginning to get used to the sight. This was a dungeon, after all, not the outside world. That was all he could tell himself as he struggled to suppress his lingering unease. The party had followed the passage for nearly ten minutes when Colvin, who was leading the way, suddenly stopped.

"There's wind." Harlan stopped as well, closed his eyes, and stood still for a moment, feeling the air. Sure enough, a faint current was drifting toward them from ahead. There was probably an exit up ahead, or perhaps the passage opened into a larger space.

"Good. Keep moving. We should be close." Harlan opened his eyes and tightened his grip beneath Doro's knees, his wary gaze fixed ahead.

"But don't lower your guard." When they finally reached the end of the passage, they found the exit blocked by a wooden barricade. It had stood there for a very long time. Most of the wood was weathered and rotten, and cracks covered its surface.

"This is far enough. Put me down." Harlan hesitated when Doro spoke beside his ear, then slowly crouched. Doro held onto his shoulder as she lowered herself to the ground. She stood still for a moment to regain her balance, then let go once she was sure she could stand on her own.

"Thanks, Harlan. I guess you're useful sometimes."

"Haha, I'm glad I could help." Harlan stood and glanced back at her.

"But if you haven't fully recovered yet, don't push yourself later." Doro gave a slight nod before returning to the middle of the party. Once he saw that she no longer showed any obvious problems, Harlan stretched his aching arms a few times before drawing the longsword at his waist.

"We still don't know what's ahead. I'll take the lead. You handle the flanks."

"No problem." The others answered one after another. Once he had their confirmation, Harlan stepped forward and cautiously kicked the barricade blocking the exit with the tip of his boot. The rotten wood was far more fragile than expected. With a rapid series of sharp cracks, the whole barricade toppled outward, scattering splintered wood across the ground. Harlan tightened his grip on his longsword and peered through the newly opened exit.

"Let's go. Let's get out of this damn place." The passage beyond the exit showed clear signs that people had once lived there. Tool marks lined the stone walls on both sides, and several crude chambers had been carved directly into the rock along the way. Each chamber contained a stone platform shaped like a bed. But those traces were very old. The stone platforms were coated in dust, and there were no signs that anyone had been active there recently. Harlan could not help recalling the description on the necklace.

"So that woman lured people out here, then handed them over to the bandits hiding inside... That couldn't really be it, could it?" Not long after Harlan and the others entered what appeared to be an old bandit hideout, the rocky ground beside them suddenly stirred. Dust burst into the air, and the ground beneath their feet trembled faintly. A bone-white hand abruptly broke through the soil, its five fingers digging firmly into the ground.

Within moments, the skeleton had hauled half its body above the surface and was struggling to crawl free. Harlan was startled at first, but he quickly recovered and charged forward, kicking the skeleton's skull clean off. He assumed that would end the fight. Instead, the headless skeleton continued slowly crawling out of the ground. It tightened its grip on the dagger in its hand and staggered toward Harlan. Harlan's expression changed. He hurriedly backed away while shouting a warning to the others.

"Careful! Knocking their heads off doesn't stop them!" Harlan looked around and discovered skeleton after skeleton crawling out of the surrounding soil. Without realizing it, they had already been surrounded by the damned skeletons.

"Damn white orb! If I ever follow you again, then call me a pig!" Harlan roared and swung his sword at the bandit skeleton lunging toward him. The longsword slammed into its chest. The force of the blow shattered a large section of its ribs and broke its spine along with them. Once he saw the skeleton collapse into pieces, unable to rise again, Harlan immediately turned to support the others. For most of the party, though, the skeletal monsters proved surprisingly troublesome.

Dane and Tessa's arrows often passed straight through the gaps between their ribs. Doro's crossbow bolts and Colvin's dagger also struggled to inflict any meaningful damage. Harlan could smash the skeletons apart with his longsword. Mirelle was the only other one who could reliably bring them down. After extending her short staff back into a spear, she used wide sweeps and blows from the shaft to knock them apart.

Once the others realized their weapons weren't much use against these enemies, they quickly came up with other methods. Dane bent down, picked up a chunk of stone, and hurled it at the wrist of a bandit skeleton holding a dagger. With a sharp crack, several finger bones broke apart, and the dagger slipped from its grip. Dane caught the falling dagger and shattered the skeleton's collarbone with a backhand slash. Tessa began aiming for their skulls instead.

Although losing their heads could not completely stop the skeletons from moving, it caused their movements to become crooked and unsteady, exposing far more openings. Doro pulled out her steel wire. She sidestepped a skeleton's swinging dagger, circled around it, and quickly wrapped the wire around both its legs. The moment the wire snapped tight, the skeleton lost its balance and crashed heavily to the ground. As for Colvin, he gradually seemed to be enjoying himself.

He nimbly evaded the skeletons' attacks while repeatedly driving his dagger into the points where the bones connected, including the shoulders, elbows, and knees. Using the blade as leverage, he pried the joints apart and dismantled the skeleton in front of him piece by piece. Before long, the party cleared away all the bandit skeletons that had emerged around them. The fight had taken a considerable toll on them. Two knife wounds now marked Doro's arm, and blood had already soaked through her sleeve.

Dane had also been stabbed in the left shoulder. Although the blade had not reached the bone, raising his arm still sent a sharp pain through his shoulder. Tessa had twisted her ankle while dodging an attack and was still limping. Harlan and Mirelle had also suffered several scrapes and bruises, though fortunately none of the injuries were serious. By comparison, Colvin, the middle-aged rogue, had come through the fight in the best shape. There was not even a single obvious wound on his body.

While Harlan trudged around the area, checking whether any other bandit skeletons remained hidden nearby, the floor beneath his feet suddenly began to tremble.

"What now?" Harlan retreated several steps warily. The rocky floor in the center of the passage slowly split apart. A treasure chest glowing with faint violet light rose from below and came to a steady stop in front of them.

"What the hell is that supposed to be?" Harlan's expression changed, and he hastily backed away. The others did not hesitate for even a moment before hiding inside the stone chambers along both sides of the passage. They peeked out from the entrances, staring warily at the treasure chest. The group waited for quite a while. When nothing else happened, Harlan cautiously leaned out of the stone chamber.

"Hey, Doro. Do you think that thing is trapped too?"

"How would I know?" Doro glared at him.

"I haven't even gone near it yet." She sat on one of the stone platforms while Mirelle bandaged the wounds on her arm. On the other side, Colvin was treating the knife wound in Dane's shoulder. In the end, Harlan gathered his courage and inched toward the violet treasure chest with his body nearly pressed against the ground. He picked up a wooden stick and kept as much distance from the chest as possible while carefully pushing open the lid. To everyone's relief, this chest contained no further traps.

This time, it held a genuine reward. [Bandit's Amulet] [The personal amulet of Bari, leader of the bandit gang. It is said that Romila gave it to him and that it could bring good fortune to whoever wore it.] [Effect: While worn, your luck improves...] Harlan stared at the final line for a long time, his expression gradually twisting.

"What kind of vague nonsense is this? My luck improves? What the hell is that supposed to do!?" If the chest had not also contained a small pouch of genuine old Freyland silver coins, Harlan swore he really would have lost his mind on the spot. After everyone had finished resting and patched up their injuries, the party continued along the passage. After walking a little farther, they spotted a stone staircase leading upward. Harlan's spirits lifted, and he hurried up the steps.

He shoved open the wooden hatch at the top, and bright daylight poured through the widening gap. Beyond the hatch lay the forest path they had traveled earlier. Harlan climbed out of the tunnel and slowly sank to his knees, looking as though the last of his strength had drained away.

"Next time... Next time, I swear I'm never following that damn thing again!"