Chapter 7: The Treasure Room Reeks of Danger

Chapter 7:
The Treasure Room Reeks of Danger

 

DORY SEEMED FINE after everything that had happened the last time we met, which was a relief. While we were chatting, we started playing a game.

“Uh…ngh, Noir, not there.”

“Do you want me to stop?”

“No…I mean, that spot drives me crazy…ngh! I-I’ve never felt like this before!”

“All right, I guess I’ll do it more then.”

“Aaaaaah!”

Dory collapsed in a puddle, and I stopped my assault. I looked down at her panting at my feet and felt a little…strange.

Of course, I would never do anything creepy! We were just having a tickle fight.

“Now it’s my turn.”

“He he he, eh he he…ha ha ha ha! I-I give in!”

She got revenge. This time I was the one who lost it. It was too much! The way things were going, I thought I might just drop dead there and then.

“Your neck is so smooth, Noir!”

“Yours is, too!”

“This is kinda embarrassing!”

“I do wonder what someone would think if they saw us like this.”

It was just as well there was no one there. There was no way I’d come out of that looking good. I had no idea how old Dory was—probably much older than me—but she looked like a kid.

“Oh, will you wait a minute?” Dory asked suddenly.

Before I could answer, she dashed off. Maybe five minutes later, she came back with a huge beaming smile on her face. Really made me want to spoil her, you know?

“I found some treasure a few days ago. I kept it hidden so I could give it to you, Noir.”

“Oh, you didn’t have to go to all that trouble…but thanks, Dory.”

Her sincerity made me smile. She handed over a simple metal cane. It was quite heavy—way too heavy to be gilt wood or anything. I wanted to know if it was something special, so I used Discerning Eye.

 

Blaze Cane (Grade C)

Skills: Fire

 

Yesss! I was desperate to try it out, so I swung it toward a patch of bare earth. I wasn’t disappointed. A huge gout of fire roared out of the end of the cane. It was undoubtedly badass, but it seemed a little weak. My Holy Flame ability was much stronger, and I didn’t need to swing a cane to use it, which also made it inconvenient. That said, it was a gift from Dory, and I loved that.

“I’m sorry it’s not more interesting, Noir.”

“No, it’s great! I’m still happy with it. I mean, it’s a present from you.”

“You can sell it if you want, I don’t mind. So long as it’s useful to you, I’m happy.”

“Dory…”

She was such a good person. If I ever had kids, I wanted them to be just like her.

“Okay, well maybe I could convert it to LP?” I asked.

“Yes! That would be wonderful!”

I already had plenty of cash, but I’d used up quite a lot of LP down on the eighth floor. I gave it a go. The cane vanished instantly, and I earned 1,200 LP. Not half bad! That put me back over 3,600.

“I’ll come back again soon, Dory.”

“I’ll be waiting, Noir.”

We said goodbye, and I made the trek back down to the eighth floor. When I reached the fork, I found that Huck was gone. There was no one standing at the entrance of the righthand path, but the handsome Auck was still waiting in the middle branch, and treasure hunter Uuck was on the left.

“Oh, you came back, huh?” Auck asked. “Why don’t you take a thrilling trip with me?”

“Hey, why don’t we go and look for treasure?” said Uuck.

They were both incredibly enthusiastic. It seemed likely that all three paths would lead me to the stairs eventually, but going with Uuck would probably make it more difficult to find them, and taking Auck’s path would certainly be more dangerous. But then, I could always use the Dungeon Elevator and try again if I needed to. Ultimately, I decided to go with Uuck.

“Yay! That’s the spirit! Let’s go!”

We headed off together, and Auck shot me a frustrated glare.

“You made the right choice picking me,” Uuck said happily. “Huck was totally wrong, wasn’t he?”

“Um, well…yeah. The path was reeeeeeally long. But the real kicker was that he’s a total jerk.”

“That sure sounds like him. He’s a jealous one, and he doesn’t know when to stop.”

“I can’t get along with guys like that,” I said. “My father can’t either. Maybe it runs in the family.”

And yet somehow, despite all that, my father had decided to woo my mother—possibly the most persistent person I’d ever met.

“Auck sucks too,” Uuck said. “He’d betray his own family if it gave him a rush.”

“So why do you even hang out with those two?” I asked.

“……”

Uuck fell curiously silent. The longer I spent with these three, the more convinced I was that they weren’t real people at all—just manifestations created by the dungeon. After all, there was no way a party of real adventurers would split up in such a dangerous place. I’d never seen humanoid monsters before, but I was pretty sure that was exactly what these guys were.

“I smell treasure,” said Uuck. Her eyes shone with excitement.

We turned a corner and found a hallway with four doors leading off of it, two on each side.

“Now which do we pick?” asked Uuck. “Let’s start here.”

Uuck opened the closest door and walked straight in. That was far too risky for me. I hung back near the entrance and waited. Who knew what kind of awful trap was on the other side? This was exactly how Olivia had ended up stuck in the dungeon forever.

In the end, I needn’t have worried. There was a single treasure chest in the room and nothing more. Uuck laughed with unsettling delight and dashed toward it.

“C’mere, you juicy treasure chest. Look how big it is! I bet there’s something good inside.”

She was right. It was a simple wooden box, but it was at least five feet square. Even so, I used my Discerning Eye on it, just to be sure.

My heart slammed up into my throat.

“Watch out, Uuck! That’s no regular treasure chest.”

 

Name: Dark Box

Level: 44

Skills: Prison of Darkness; Three Questions