*THUD*
"We are here, buttercup."
With a thud, Crow jumped off the carriage as they arrived at their destination and stretched his back, arms spread wide.
This was followed by multiple such sounds as the rest of his crew, along with now named Buttercup, touched the ground.
As soon as he landed, Buttercup, whose real name was Marvin, started to look around in hope, but all he could see was sand and a rocky cliff.
Turning to Crow, he said, pointing at the cliff, "You said that the dungeon would be here, but there is nothing but sand here."
With a tired sigh, Crow explained in a dry voice.
"Don't get yer' panties in a twist, eh?
First, I did not say it, the map said it. I read the map.
Second, if it was so damn obvious to see it, then that place would have been ransacked long ago, and everyone would know about it.
Like that wall, it might be buried behind this cliff or under the sand. I say sand, because the rumor wouldn't be a thing if it was hidden behind the cliff, now would it be?"
"Then how are we going to find it?" Marvin asked impatiently.
"Horan!" Crow said, cupping his hand, at which a man with a thin but firm build stepped forward, with his grimoire containing diamond insignia on it, and shouted.
"Earth Magic: Detect Wave!"
Though there were no visible changes, Horan, who was standing in his place with his eyes closed in focus, tried to sense all that was buried in the earth.
For a while, all he could sense was mostly sand with some bones, spiders, scorpions, snakes, and very few rocks. In that time, Marvin could not help but ask, "What is he standing in place for?"
But Crow and the rest of his crew chose not to respond, which angered Marvin, who was once again about to ask, when suddenly Horan snapped out of his reverie and shouted, pointing at one of the dunes 32 meters away from them at a distance.
"There, below that doone." He said the last word with his accent showing. Nodding at it, Crow followed along with the rest of his crew to the place when Horan once again said, "This one."
"Got it Horan. Nice work. Now, Duran, dig it up." Crow said at which one of his crew members with a visible tan on his skin stepped forward in coarse cloth, brought his hand with his grimoire floating, and shouted, "Steel Magic: Drill Lance!"
At his words, a drill made entirely of steel of radius around 1.5 meters materialized into thin air, and started to dig into the ground by spinning really fast, throwing sand in all directions all along.
"Ah…it got in my eyes…" Crow drawled out as he started to rub his eyes, an action followed by everyone else as well. The rest of the crew decided to sit a bit further due to the sand spewing everywhere, while Crow leaned near the wall and whispered to Marvin.
"So now 're ye going to tell me what is inside it? We are already near yer destination."
This time, Marvin did not react and started to throw the words around in his mind, and decided to give as little information as possible.
"Family treasure buried by my great-great-grandfather to escape the looters who were running at him. He had dungeon creation magic."
"Then why did he not get it back himself?" Crow pressed further.
"Fell sick due to running away in the hot desert. Found him a month after he died, mostly bones. We only recognized him due to his clothes."
"Must h've died due to heat. This thing is far too cruel to us." Saying this, Crow stopped and thought for a bit.
'He is not doing this much for some change of gold. The treasure must be huge, but then his grandfather must h've hired help to protect it too. Something doesn't add up.'
Marvin's words caused the doubt regarding him in Crow's mind to only grow, but he did not push any further.
Then, he continued to wait for about half an hour, when Duran shouted, his voice echoing from the hole he had dug underground.
"BOSS! FOUND THE ENTRANCE!"
Hearing his voice, the rest of the crew went towards the hole and…
"THE HELL!!"
…gawked at the depth of the hole.
"How deep is it, eh Horan?" Crow asked, at which Horan replied, "Must be something around 40-45 meters deep."
At this statement, Crow turned towards Marvin and asked with an incredulous look on his face, "Did yer' great grand whatnot buried his treasure in a damn lost city?"
But he received no answer, at which he said, "I'll be charging 30 gold more." Then he shouted to Duran below, "Duran! Create 5 beams of steel till the opening!"
Without dispute, the beams were created when Crow turned to another member of his crew and said, "Rowan, support these beams with wood. We never know when the goddamn wind blows and covers this hole. Keep it high."
"Hear hear." He said as he used a spell and created a structure around the beam, giving it a cone shape at the top so that sand would not settle. He also created stairs that spiraled down to where Duran was.
After it was done, Crow leaned forward a bit and said, "Let's go, get this Buttercup his treasure, take our part, and drink ourselves to death."
"YEAH!!"
"TO BOOZE!!!"
With cheers that bolstered the morale, they made their way down, and when they reached the place, their eyes fell upon the door that looked to be made of stone, but was far too shiny.
"Why didn't ye break through the door, Duran?" Banjo asked, to which he replied, pointing at the drill that stuck near the door.
"I tried to, but it wouldn't budge. My drill got flattened."
As he was explaining this, Marvin went forward under the gaze of all and suddenly brought out his pendant that looked like a sun and…
*THUCK*
…it flew from his neck and got embedded into the door, which soon started to open with a rumbling sound. This caused Crow to tense against Marvin, who looked ecstatic.
"Quick! We are near!" Marvin said in barely contained excitement as he bolted inside, leaving behind a crew who looked suspiciously at him.
"Stay alert. Buttercup knows more than he lets on." Crow said, at which rest gave signs of agreement in their own way.
Then, the group followed inside, along with Wilhelm, who had sent a clone of himself back to the place where they came from to continue the mission he was assigned. While this was happening, Wilhelm, too, was noting the surroundings.
'I had almost forgotten that there were any things like dungeons, that after spending so long in this world, I had an encounter with a single one only. Now makes it my second time.
Also, this one does not seem anything like the previous one. It is somehow able to prevent Spatial Magic, though with Al-Meissa Mercury, I can still use it.
And then there is this guy…' He thought as he looked at Marvin with an expression that hid no doubt that was in his mind.
'…he knows what is inside, something worth more than menial gold.'
As he thought this, Marvin stopped as they were walking in a long and narrow passage.
"What gives?" One of the crew members asked, while others scrutinized him, but ignoring it all, Marvin kept on tapping the bricks on the wall, when Wilhelm suddenly widened his eyes, and teleported behind Marvin, still invisible and covered a small portion of ground above where he stood with a hard diamond.
'This guy gives me the feeling of someone who could trigger a trap to kill others to prevent them from getting whatever he is after. No way that I am staying away from him.'
With this thought in mind, Wilhelm watched Marvin intently, and so did Crow, who had prevented his crew from saying anything because he, too, was getting bad feelings from Marvin.
Just then, Marvin tapped a brick that…
*SLLLRRR*
…slid inside the wall, and suddenly the wall parted, giving way to another path, that was not available to them before.
"Keep up." Marvin replied as he walked inside the room, with his steps resounding in the place, when Crow looked at Garrick and whispered, "If you see him being over smart, take him down. Consequences be damned."
In response, Garrick nodded in affirmation, and then the crew once again started to follow behind Marvin, who was moving his head like a chicken and staring intently at everything.
Then, in this similar fashion, going from one secret passage to another, they finally arrived in front of a door, seeing which Marvin became ecstatic.
"Who the hell uses a door this huge?" Duran exclaimed at the size of the door, which seemed to be made for a giant from the stories he had heard when he was a child.
"HAHAHAHA!! THIS IS IT! THIS IS IT!!" But instead of responding, Marvin started to cackle like a madman, throwing himself on the ground and slamming his hand on it, with unfocused eyes.
"Did he go mad?" Horan whispered to Garrick, who shrugged his shoulders in response.
"Beats me."
Then, Marvin's hysterical laugh started to rein in a bit, though he still had that expression of madness marred on his face. He stood up and said, "Hahaha! This is the place we were looking for! The treasure."
At those words, the mood of everyone changed drastically. Finding that the dungeon they were finding actually turned out to be a real one was a dream come true for them. If the kingdom heard about it, they would ransack this place clean.
"Then what are you waiting for? Open it!" One of them shouted hurriedly, which immediately put Marvin in motion as he moved towards the door carrying the same pendant he had used to open the entrance.
Walking to the door, where a gigantic and grand mural was, he found a place where there was a depiction of a man on a horse, most probably a soldier, seeing how many identical figures there were.
But the thing different about this man was that, unlike the rest, he was missing a shield.
A shield in the shape of a sun.
Unlike before, the piece did not automatically attach itself to the door as Marvin brought it closer, but when he placed it…
*CLICK*
…it clicked into place.
*RUMBLE*
With a large sound that shot tremors through the ground and caused many of the crew to fall on their back, the gigantic door opened. The door behind which lay piles of gold, gems, jewels, and whatnot, but there was one more thing.
A sword buried in rock.
***
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