Chapter 355: Ancient Reward
Five sets of curious eyes, and one set of carefree dragon eyes, gathered around the singular ruby chest as they stared at it with expectation. A single brush of the chests owner caused the vessel that had been impossible to open to simply crack and disintegrate into a pile of sparkling dust.
Their eyes widened more, and a few held their breath in anticipation as the dust slowly blew away to reveal the treasure within.
Belladonna took it into her hands, lifting it slowly and carefully, just in case she broke it. Her care was not ill placed, as the item in her hands looked truly ancient.
The item in question was a bundle of pages, each page brown and weathered with cracks along the edges. It looked like it belonged in some cursed and forgotten tomb, and that it was ready to crumble to dust the moment the sun so much as glanced in its general direction.
These ancient pages were bound together by simple strips of leather, although from what it was impossible to tell. It was amazing that it had survived this long.
"A tome?" Belladonna muttered, turning over the item in her hands before gazing closer at the first page.
The pages crinkled with every touch, making her worry she was going to shatter it, but it withstood her touch and allowed her to parse its contents.
Each page was dedicated to a different subject matter, all of which were written in a language that Belladonna had never seen before. Not only had she never seen it but even the system, which usually translated everything they saw, was completely helpless in the face of the language.
And yet even without that, Belladonna found herself able to understand it. Well, parts of it.
From what she could see it was a language that had been directly descended from the language of runes, and was perhaps even the first language the world ever had beyond that of the language of magic.
They held many similarities, although there were also many differences. Yet there were definitely words that she recognised, such as those referencing the four elements of Air, Earth, Water and Fire.
She knew that was what it was talking about, because alongside these ancient texts, were diagrams. Multiple pictures of the same individual in a variety of stances, as they performed a series of martial arts moves.
Delicately flipping through the pages, Belladonna scanned each one and the titles they held at the top of the page, until she found one she could properly translate.
"I’m like rubber? That can’t be right." She muttered, before looking at the small writing next to it that gave a better title, "Oh, Elemental Reflection."
Below that strange title, was a complete instructional manual on carrying out the technique written at the top. From the right poses to make, to diagrams showing the flow of mana through her body, and what she could loosely translate to be more complicated and in-depth instructions for the details of the technique.
From what she could make out, it was a technique designed to take any elemental spell that was thrown at her, and throw it back at the original caster.
Such a technique would turn her into an absolute demon for any spellcaster that she faced. Their best advantage on her was range, and the attacks they could lob as she closed the gap. But if she could throw their own attacks back at them, it would break their feeble morale before she broke their bones with her fists.
Flipping through a few more, Belladonna’s eyes widened and her smile stretched out as she marvelled at the wondrous things contained within these ancient pages. ’Earth Splitting Kick’, ’Death of a Thousand Blows’, ’The Seven Inch Thrust’, ’The Strike that Breaks the Heaven’s and turns the Gods into my Servants!’
Some of them had names that made her question her translation, and of the sanity of the type of person who would name anything such an absurd name. But regardless of their idiotic names, every single technique was incredibly powerful and could easily change the tide of battle.
She must have been far too excited about getting these techniques. Because the more she was looking at the ’Elemental Reversal’ technique, the more she could almost swear that the figures in the diagrams were moving ever so slightly. Like they were... breathing.
"What is it? Come on! Stop staring and tell us!" Vestra shouted excitedly, clinging to Belladonna’s arm as she bounced slightly, with Figg practically vibrating with excitement on her other side.
She snapped out of her thoughts, glancing at the two before laughing. Briefly looking over the item description the system gave her, she simply read it out as it was not too long.
"It’s an ancient tome of Martial Techniques. A relic of the first people to combine might and magic, known as the Divine Body Sect. It contains some of their most sacred techniques, that made them formidable opponents that came close to ruling the world.
A tome thought lost when their sect was exterminated and burned to the ground." She read aloud.
"Huh... Couldn’t have been that formidable if they got beaten in the end. But can you really read that? It just looks like scribbles and doodles to me." Figg scoffed.
"Yeah, some of it. But it will take some work to figure it out. Still, just these two things alone are absolutely perfect. Armour I can’t break and more techniques to add to my arsenal? What’s not to love.
Honestly, I am happy to take just that and give up any other share of this rooms loot."
"Oh really? So you don’t even want the gold? Well more for me then." Saige teased with a smug smirk, turning around to grab two of the five bags of gold. But before he could get close, a firm hand clamped tight around his wrist, squeezing it tight enough that it would definitely leave a bruise.
"Now now..." Belladonna said with a strained smile that was more threatening than friendly, "Why would you say something so rash? It’s split so perfectly, we might as well just keep it like that, right? Besides, haven’t you already got enough from this dungeon?"
Belladonna said, glaring at the knife he had bound to his other hand using a roll of bandages. If he hadn’t done such a thing, he would have definitely lost it in the last battle. It was just a miracle that he didn’t accidentally gut himself when he was being thrown around.
Once they had actually sorted out the rest of the loot, and divided it equally, the group moved to the exit door of the Boss room and had their muscle push it open.
They were chatting amongst each other, a few smiles on their faces as they joked between themselves. But those smiles quickly faded as the door opened a crack, and a chilling wind brushed across their faces.