Chapter 94: Two entrances
To conserve oxygen in the basement, on Ian's orders, the mercenaries had left only a single torch burning as a warning to the enemy. It was placed near the barricaded entrance, nearly five meters from where Ian sat.
But even in that dim, flickering light, Ian could still see the hope in everyone's eyes.
Perhaps his previous performance had been so miraculous that many of them truly believed he could conjure another miracle now.
*How could I possibly create a miracle?* Ian thought with a bitter, internal smile. *We're trapped in a basement with the only exit blocked by an enemy that far outnumbers us. What am I supposed to do, dig a hole and get out like Bronn said?*
A hole?
Ian's head snapped around. He looked at the stone wall behind him.
The Stranger was the seventh of the seven gods of the Andals. His shrine would be at the very back of the temple. The wall he had been leaning against… Ian reached out, his fingers approaching a crack between the stones. He held his hand there, feeling for it quietly.
Though the men in the basement didn't know what he was doing, they all fell silent, their breathing the only sound echoing in the chamber.
One second. Two seconds. Three.
There it was. It was wind. Ian finally identified the faint sensation on his skin.
This wall was the easternmost boundary of the entire chapel, and this was the basement. In other words, there should be nothing but solid earth behind this wall.
But there was wind. Or perhaps not wind, just a slight movement of air.
More than a dozen men were crowded into this narrow chapel with a torch burning. The temperature in here was much higher than it was outside. The temperature difference was causing the air to flow.
The space behind the wall was empty.
"Everyone, stay silent! Listen to me," Ian whispered, then raised his voice to an urgent command. "Light a few more torches and check this wall, carefully. There may be a tunnel behind it. Move! Quickly!"
Without a moment's hesitation, the men relit the torches they had extinguished earlier and began inspecting the stone wall.
In less than a minute, Dorian the Black Falcon discovered a loose stone in the center of the wall. He gave it a hard push, and the stone tumbled out, leaving a gaping hole.
Light from the torches poured into the opening. Everyone could clearly see that there was indeed a tunnel behind the wall.
"How did you know there was a tunnel here?" Bronn asked, astounded. "Where does it lead?"
"The Dragonpit." Ian showed a self-deprecating smile. "The Sept of Remembrance was the headquarters of the Warrior's Sons in King's Landing, and this was the headquarters of the Poor Fellows. This must have been the tunnel they used to support each other."
"So the exit is in one of those crypts we were clearing out before?" Bronn was beginning to understand.
"Now isn't the time for that. The entrance to this tunnel was obviously sealed on the orders of the lord who demolished this chapel. Fortunately," Ian said, looking at the thinness of the wall in the hole, and motioned for Case to smash it open with his hammer.
Case did as he was told, bringing the hammer down with his full strength. The thin brick wall shattered, revealing the full entrance to the tunnel.
"Fortunately, whoever sealed this just used simple brick. If they had built a proper wall like the ones on either side, we'd have truly been trapped," Ian said, touching one of the giant stone blocks of the main wall. He then waved his hand, motioning for Case to pick up the treasure chest.
Of course, Ian wouldn't actually burden Case with such a heavy load during an escape. Just before Case lifted the box, Ian had secretly spent ten points to expand his system backpack to four times its size, transferring all the gold into it. Having Case carry the empty box was purely for show. If they ran into danger, Case could abandon it at any time.
Before they set off, Ian checked on Rohr. Seeing that his condition had improved significantly, he breathed a sigh of relief and ordered a strong Black Falcon mercenary to carry him on his back.
Then, the group entered the tunnel, finally escaping their tomb.
After they had put some distance between themselves and the Stranger's Sept, the mercenaries visibly relaxed. But Ian knew it wasn't over yet.
Of the two sept crypts in the Dragonpit they had yet to inspect, one had been cleared by his men. The other was still buried under rubble.
In other words, this tunnel only gave them a fifty percent chance of survival.
As he walked, Ian couldn't help but entertain a ridiculous thought.
If Bronn hadn't stumbled upon that player, and if they had never found the Stranger's Sept, could he have found this tunnel from the Dragonpit side? Could he have slipped away with the chest without the Gold Cloak player ever knowing?
The answer was obviously yes. If a tunnel existed, it had to have two entrances. And the other entrance had to be in the Dragonpit.
How could he be so sure?
It came down to the style of the game's designer. Judging by the entire game's mechanics and the traps he laid for players, the designer was most likely meticulous but also loved to show off his cleverness. He had used the 'First Blood' bounty to cleverly fracture the pre-formed alliances of most players, giving them a way to hunt each other right from the start. He was flaunting his skills.
Would he pass up the chance to show off again in the second bounty? Of course not. There were only three bounty missions in total.
The designer's most impressive flourish with the King's Landing treasure was that both entrances—the one in the Dragonpit and the one in Flea Bottom—perfectly fit all four clues sold in the shop: [Underground], [Death], [Ruins], and [Holy]. And both pointed to the same piece of history: the Faith Militant uprising.
Even with his critical eye, Ian had to admit the design was worthy of a 90 out of 100. He was docking ten points purely because he had suffered for it. When he had first heard of the Stranger's Sept, he had never imagined that the crypts beneath the Dragonpit were also a correct answer.
*But even if I had taken the box from the Dragonpit first, I still would have run into the Gold Cloak player eventually, wouldn't I?* Ian thought again.
His original plan, after all, was to secure the chest and then go to Flea Bottom to hunt other players, including the group from Pentos. He would have walked right into the Gold Cloak's web.
In that instant, he saw his greatest flaw.
Greed.
His pace had been too frantic. He had gained so many resources so quickly at the start, but he had never paused to properly digest his gains. Instead, he had thrown himself into one struggle after another, often juggling multiple schemes at once, hoping to reap several rewards simultaneously.
The most frightening part was that he had never once felt there was anything wrong with his behavior. Wasn't that the very definition of recklessness?
*Don't be greedy for victory,* Ian recited silently in his heart. He vowed that if he survived this, he would treat that sentence as his family motto.
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