Man I can't believe we took so little damage, Thomas thought.
Max has gotten incredibly powerful. His aura slashes were too fast. Not surprised the monster got hit with a few.
While thinking, Thomas accidentally rolled a red carpet with his foot in a hallway. He stumbled and saw something wooden. The floor was out of stone though. In fact, this carpet was the only carpet in the entire temple.
Curious, he moved the whole carpet away and inspected the wood.
It didn't have any protrusions that would give it away.
But it did have a gap that one could put their fingers into.
So, Thomas did just that and tried to open it. And it worked.
A spiral staircase was beneath it.
***
"It's crazy how all of us got the wings," Max said with a smile.
Manuel smirked back. "I mean, the bird did have six wings, so..."
"Makes sense."
Max sat down with the wounded Manuel. They fist bumped.
"We definitely got much stronger," Manuel said.
"Yeah, though the wings and the amount of projectiles is smaller."
"I really think no player party on the first floor can beat us now. Not that it matters."
"Definitely not. I'm pretty sure Awakened monsters are mostly on floor two. It's just that some are scattered on this floor here and there," Max said.
Manuel nodded. "You know, I'm ready."
"What?"
"For the next floor. We can do it. If you want. We could catch up."
"I wouldn't go yet, but man, I can't wait to drink at a pub again," Max spoke as he leaned against the wall.
"Hah, we'll fly off the mountain and over the forest straight to a town."
"By the way, what else did you get?" Max asked Manuel.
"I got its hide and its tooth."
"Awesome." Max cracked his neck.
The duo sat in silence a bit before Max decided to equip the Titan's core to inspect it more.
"What's that?"
"The only drop I received from the Epic boss."
"What about the sword and necklace?"
"Picked it up off a corpse."
"Okay...Well, then it must be something insanely good."
"No, I mean...I don't know. It's a key."
"That's strange."
Max held it in his hands and looked at every side of it. The core was black and white, ruined and uninteresting but he realized that at the bottom, there was a small, white protrusion. Its shape was oddly specific and complicated. It was uneven. But it didn't seem damaged. It looked like it was carved this way. Like a key?
"You think Thomas found anything?"
"Let's see. THOMAS!"
No answer.
They looked at each other and Max got up.
"Thomas?!"
Max called out again.
Worried, he began to look for him.
"Guys!"
"Thomas?" Max said worriedly.
"Come check this out!"
Max followed the source of the voice and arrived at the staircase, meeting the lively archer.
"Wait for me!"
Manuel came along as well. They went down.
After a minute, they stepped off the stairs onto a hard and flat surface.
The torches immediately activated once Max stepped on the floor.
They glowed blue and bright. The players were stunned for a second.
It was a hallway leading to a closed door. A somewhat wide but long hallway.
"Watch for traps." Max said.
The three players carefully walked forward. Even the possible existence of traps wouldn't stop them and their curiousity.
They encountered eight cubes that reached their chests in size placed orderly and in line with each other. They had a three ring sigils facing in various directions. The rings were of varying colors. Four were connected to the ground, while four levitated. One cube was missing on the middle left.
There was a stone slab on the floor. Max inspected it. He started reading out loud.
"The levitating cubes can be rotated. I shall assign a number to the cubes. Yellow is one, green is two, blue is three, and red is four. Rotating them in the four cardinal directions changes their color. The cubes which cannot be rotated, add 4 for each of them, and then add the amount that corresponds with the ring color. The missing cube will be the number nine. The solution to this puzzle is to make the sum of the numbers along the horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines the same."
He took a long exhale.
"North is yellow, which is one.
East is green, which equals two.
South is blue, that's three.
West is red and which is four."
The trio was silent for a dozen seconds.
Thomas broke the silence with a smile.
"This is a magic square."
He crouched closer, pointing as he organized his thoughts.
"It also says if we don't solve it in time, there will be consequences," Max said.
"Like?" asked Manuel.
"I don't know, but we have three minutes."
"Alright. Let me map it properly," said Thomas.
He pointed to the formation.
"Middle-left is missing. That's nine."
"Top-right is fixed. Green ring. That's six."
"Center is fixed. Yellow. That's five."
"Bottom-middle is fixed. Red. That's eight."
"Top-middle is fixed. Blue. That's seven."
He paused, recalculating in silence.
"That leaves the four rotatable cubes."
He looked at them carefully.
"Yellow equals one. Green equals two. Blue equals three. Red equals four."
His eyes narrowed.
"If we rotate them correctly, every row, column, and diagonal must equal fifteen."
[ ? ][ 7 ][ 6 ]
[ 9 ][ 5 ][ ? ]
[ ? ][ 8 ][ ? ]
Thomas approached and spun one cube. Then another. This went on for a couple minutes. He rotated, moved to another cube, paused, spoke to himself, then kept going.
More seconds passed.
"That's it."
A door in front of them rose up into the ceiling after he solved the puzzle.
"Thomas, you're a goddamn genius," Manuel said.
"Good work man."
"It's not that hard, trust me."
They proceeded, wary of traps. Weapons out.
However, nothing attacked them and they safely reached another large door. It was made out of something black and metallic.
There was a small pedestal in front of the door.
"Let's try to break it," Manuel said.
Max grabbed his new Hero sword, infused it with his powerful aura and slashed at the door.
BIIIING! It almost seemed like the attack did no damage. As if the two metals canceled each other out. Max's sword fell out of the strong grip of his hand. He went back to pick it up and decided to look at the small pedestal.
It was so small that you could say it's used as a source of light. Max inspected it carefully.
Carvings were on the black stone. In fact, the entire hallway except the door was made of black stone.
Once Max put his eyes on the top he realized there was a small hole.
[The Core is reacting!]
A thought appeared in his head after this notification.
"No way...It's too lucky."
Max equipped the Titan's core and tried to insert the white protrusion at the bottom into the small pedestal.
And it worked.
The heavy door started opening and his friends took a few steps back.
"No fucking way."
[You have received a title: Cursed or Blessed?]
[You have discovered a secret of this world!]
The vault was lit up with torches as soon as the trio stepped in.
Rows of pedestals stretched into the darkness, each one holding something carefully preserved—too carefully for a place that was supposed to be abandoned.
The metal from the door was also the material for the walls, floor and ceiling. No one could break into this.
Books, gems, equipment and things they don't know what to call were displayed.
"We're getting way too much." Manuel chuckled.
"I can't believe this shit," said Thomas with a smile.
The books were the closest to the entrance so Max went to check each one out. "Us and the Stars" and "The Otherland". Max took all of them with his friends' consent.
They kept looking. "Glad there wasn't another monster waiting for us," said Thomas. "I'm still shook from that fight."
"I don't know about you, but I'm feeling more alive than ever." Max picked up a gem with a smile.
After checking its description, he realized that it can be engraved into a weapon. It gives an attribute to aura that is in the weapon. This was something that many nobles and royalty used with their weapons. It was an Attribute Gem.
"An Attribute gem. Wonder what kind of aura it has." Max laughed with excitement.
Max's friends split the other things between them and he went to the end of the vault.
He looked at the final treasure.
It was an armor. Blue, lusterless, with a white cape showing a blue sigil Max didn't recognize. The leggings were of the same color. The boots were black. The helmet was also purely blue in color.
"Guys, may I get this armor?"
Thomas didn't really care as this armor wasn't fit for him.
However, Manuel...
He was hesitant to let it go.
But eventually, he resigned.
"The next treasure we find is mine, Max."
"Of course. Thank you and I'm sorry. If you don't find an armor or shield I'll buy the best for you myself."
"Guys..." Thomas called out again. Max and Manuel went to him in response. He was holding an opened scroll. It was a map.
"Wait, what?!" Manuel showed shock after inspecting it for a few moments.
Max looked carefully and realized that he doesn't recognize anything.
"Look!" Manuel pointed a finger at an island. Maybe a continent.
"Doesn't this look like the world on our maps?" he asked.
"Yeah..." Max agreed.
But then, what was the other area?
[You have discovered a major secret of this world!]
[It is not recommended to visit this area until you become an Elevated human.]
"Yeah, we won't check that out anytime soon," Max said.
"I wonder if any player was ever there," Thomas said while rubbing the back of his head.
"Probably not. All of the spawn points were on this continent," Manuel answered. "The real players who killed bosses early on went to higher floors immediately after the main boss was killed."
Soon, the trio left the emptied vault.