Chapter 21 - Golden Chest!

In the dark room where a huge panel was displaying different scenes, four people was watching with solemn expressions.

A small part of the huge panel displaying a scene of the gloomy mansion, suddenly went black.

"What? Is there a secret zone on the mansion?" Dylan asked as his eyes widened from suprise.

As he sat near the panel, he was the one who noticed it first.

"There has been no record about that, I think It's just a technical error. It happens from time to time." An old man wearing a golden black Daoist robe said while stroking his beard.

Dylan soon calmed down and said, "Well if it persists, the Guardian should take care of it. Any news about the city?"

"Well, nothing special is happening now," Ling Tian waved his fan and replied as he yawned, "The major families haven't made any move. In fact it's so peaceful that I find it scary."

Nameless glanced at Ling Tian and sighed, "Let's hope nothing happens. The higher ups are keeping a tight lip on my side. I can feel something is brewing."

"Tsk, tsk, you youngsters are overthinking about things," Zai Zen said with his wizened eyes.

"Forget it, let's just focus on watching, there are two stages left. After that I'll finally be able to go outside and continue to cultivate." Dylan said as he turned his head towards the huge panel.

Nameless raised her eyebrows as the katana on her blue hair glinted, "I thought you're focusing on leveling up?"

"..."

Dylan's face twitched and helplessly replied, "Guess, I'll do that as well."

"But how can you do both if you still haven't payed your debts? The Guild isn't as merciful as the Pagoda Corporation."

"Fine, I'll be your slave for the next few months." Dylan sighed as he replied.

Nameless crossed her arms and smiled with satisfaction, her eyes were cold as she turned her gaze on the huge panel. She was looking at a girl wearing a green scholarly robe giving orders to several people.

*

A figure suddenly emerged from the collapsed middle floor of the staircase backdrop.

His eyes were cold as he swept his gaze around the interior of the mansion.

His movements were swift as proceeded to open all the doors that were slammed shut after the white door with golden inscriptions opened by itself.

Then as he was about to enter the right door on the ground floor, a violent gust of wind raged inside the mansion.

Dust flew everywhere as he reeled back from the wind.

The front door of the mansion swung open as a figure was swallowed from the outside.

When the surroundings soon calmed down, he saw a man dusting off his red hoodie.

Dae Kyung-Sam scanned the interior of the mansion as his eyes suddenly looked towards a familiar man wearing a black face mask.

His lips curled up and said, "I guess it's fate that we met again."

He drew his broadsword and immediately darted towards the man wearing a black face mask that had no weapon on his only arm.

But as soon as he thrusted his sword, he hit nothing but air.

Dae Kyung-Sam immediately swung leftward as he felt danger coming from that direction.

"Die!"

But his sword missed again as the figure before him was bobbing and weaving. The figure's movements was like a veteran who had gone through numerous battles, an experienced fighter who was swiftly moving efficiently.

The figure in front of him suddenly threw a feint step forward as Dae Kyung-Sam instinctively swung his sword.

The moment Dae Kyung-Sam realized that he made a mistake, the man before him disappeared from his vision.

As the man duck down, Dae Kyung-Sam reflexively moved his chin when he saw out of the corner of his eyes a fist coming from below towards him.

But he was dumbfounded when the world suddenly tilted before him. The next thing he knew was he was lying on the floor.

He propped himself up several times before he was able to wobbly maintained his standing posture, wondering in his groggy mind what just happened.

As the reality gradually became clear to him after staring dazedly at the man picking the sword that fell from his hand, he gradually realized that the man before him hit his jaw with a hook. The uppercut was just a feint!

He staggered back as soon as he saw the man picked up the broadsword.

Without any hesitation, he immediately ran mindlessly towards the staircase backdrop, he didn't even care as he fell from the middle floor as the death looming on his back sent chills down his spine.

He wasn't like that before! Dae Kyung-Sam screamed in his heart.

As soon as Dae Kyung-Sam disappeared and entered the white tunnel, Jeemin darted towards the right door.

".... Wasted my time," his voice was hoarse as he muttered.

The same damp narrow tunnel greeted him, after reaching the end of the tunnel, he turned his head from left to right as his eyes roamed around the tunnel's wall.

Beads of cold water dripped down from the ceiling as he dropped the sword and let his hand wandered around the uneven surface of the damp wall.

His hand soon became moist from patting the damp wall on the tunnel.

Then, as his hand made contact on a specific region on the surface of the wall, a golden light suddenly shimmered from his palm.

A faint rune extricated itself from his palm and disappeared as it went through the wall.

The sound of series of gears turning resounded in the entire mansion. After the rumblings subsided, Jeemin suddenly collapsed on the ground.

*

His vision was cloudy as the sensation of something moist startled him. His back was cold and the uneven surface of ground made him feel uncomfortable.

As soon as his senses came back to him one by one, he caught a whiff of the familiar smell of the narrow damp tunnel.

"What..."

He muttered dazedly as he sat up while supported by the wall behind him.

The coldness coming from it gradually made his mind clear.

He forced his stiff neck and turned his head left as he saw a faint golden hue beside him.

His eyes soon widened in shock as he was taken aback from the sight of the golden chest beside him. It took him several seconds to register what it was.

When he was about to touch the golden chest, he felt a cold metallic feeling coming from his hand.

With his head slowly turning towards his right, the silver broadsword shone in gold as it reflected the color of the golden chest beside him.

He was immediately stunned when he saw the sword on his hand.

"What the hell just happened..."

He brought the sword closer to his eyes and examined it.

"Who's sword is this?"

Clang.

The sword fell from his hand when he was suddenly attacked by a migraine.

He held his head firmly as he shut his eyes from the pain.

What's these?!

Foreign memories playing like a film cascaded on his mind. He felt like he was having a dream and those memories felt like it was naturally from him and yet not at the same time.

When the film stopped playing he gradually recover and made a dumbfounded expression.

He slowly lifted his hand up and slapped his face hard to jolt himself awake.

'Haa, huff, haa, huff.'

His mind soon calmed down as he breathed through his mouth.

I'll deal with these strange memories later.

He cleared his mind and started to organise his thoughts and the event that transpired.

"I lost consciousness when I went inside the white tunnel..."

He looked left and right, his eyes calmly scanning the narrow tunnel; his ears perked up as he listened closely to any minute sounds coming from the outside of the tunnel.

"So I'm the only one here."

He thought for awhile while staring at the broadsword on the damp floor, he then picked it up as he stood up.

His brows furrowed while examining the golden chest before him.

The golden hue surrounding the chest gradually subsided. He then lifted the broadsword up and warily prodded the chest.

His other foot was placed a distance away from the chest, prepared for anything that might happen.

Thud, thud, thud.

He even inserted the tip of the sword on the keyhole and rotated it several times. When nothing unexpected happened, he heaved a sigh of relief.

Suddenly, his eyes flashed with greed. He soon dropped his calm pretense as his heart pounded from greed and joy.

I'm rich. Definitely rich! Is this what they call heaven-defying luck?!

He rapidly turned his head back and front and shivered, like a thief who suddenly got ahold of loads treasures, afraid of being caught.

As he walked forward with unsteady gait, he almost slipped from nervousness and accidentally dropped the sword in his hand.

Clang. The sound of the sword falling was louder than earlier as it fell from a higher height.

His heart skip a beat as he froze. His stiff neck turned back again and waited if any people would come and take away the treasures from him.

Numerous thoughts and schemes clashed in his mind as he concocted ways how he would deal with the person who might have caught a whiff of the treasures behind him.

When several seconds has passed that felt like forever, he spat out a mouthful of air and knelt down.

He rubbed his hands vigorously - with his imaginary left hand - like preparing for a once and life time feast. His eyes lit up from excitement when he was about to wipe the nonexistent dust from the top of the chest.

Suddenly, the hair on the back of his neck stood up. His pupils dilated when a huge palm appeared out of thin air above him.

The surface of the huge palm was in the shade of black and violet with visible pulsing veins all around it.

What was striking was the vertical straight line on the center of its palm.

As fear gripped his heart, the slit on the palm suddenly opened. A huge reptilian vertical eye emerged from it. Its sclera was bloody red, the iris was yellow, and the pupil was deep black.

It stared at him as a formless pressured descended making him unable to move. The open palm with its eye intently staring at him grew closer.

Its huge frame flew around him while parts of its body pass through the walls from time to time.

It then fixated its eye on his chest, specifically his heart.

Several minutes has passed but the palm was still unmoving. Beads of sweat trickled from Jeemin's forehead as he too didn't make any move.

Suddenly, the black-violet palm 'spoke'.

[BE]

[BEE]

[GONE]

[GONE]

Jeemin reeled back from the booming voice reverberating inside his head. He felt like there was something inside him shaking. His heart shook violently, he can feel his soul being dragged away from his body.

An emotion deep within his heart was stirred as he suddenly felt an intense emotion welling up inside him.

The raging emotion coming from his heart appeared and disappeared abruptly, making him confused momentarily.

But as soon as his heart calmed down, the palm was already nowhere to be found.

He could only gulp in fear from the strange series of things happening before him.

But when he discovered that the chest was still there, his eyes shone from happiness as he breathed a sigh of relief.

I don't care anymore, the most important thing now is collecting the treasures before me.

He steeled himself and lifted up the cover of the golden chest.

The chest opened without a hitch as his eyes shimmered when he saw the items inside it.

He saw several bottles containing different liquid, golden pouch, silver ring, pair of black earrings, an ominous black face mask, black leather robe with veins on its surface, a bronze spear, and a golden bar.

He reined in his excitement and immediately took the golden pouch.

Afterwards, he decided to examine each of the items and waited for the information bank to appear.

The first item he took out was the black leather robe with veins on its surface. He clicked his tongue when he found it to his liking.

[Information bank]

Robe of Thalos

Grade: H-1

Class: Warrior

Type: Armor

Durability: 100/100

Attributes: None

Effects: Slightly increase defense according to the user's stats.

Weapon Skill: (1)

(Art of Berserker - Rage)

Feeds on the user's flesh and blood to increase the user's power and speed. Overusing the skill would gradually corrode the user's mind.

He hurriedly wore the black leather robe with an ecstatic expression after seeing the description.

But then, he felt several needles pricking all over his body. When he noticed it, the pain have already vanished.

Huh?

[New Skill Acquired]

[New Skill Category is Acquired: Equipment's Skills]

[Art of Berserker: (Very Low)Rage]

When he saw the system notice, he thought for a moment before activating the skill.

[Activation failed!Insufficient mana!]

His eyelids drooped down as soon as he saw the system notice.

When he saw the remaining several items inside the chest, he thought for awhile, brushed off the thought of examining them all, and stood up. He then begun putting them inside the golden pouch.

After seeing the available space inside the golden pouch, he was shocked. He couldn't even begin to imagine how huge the space available was.

Several ideas popped up in his mind as he grinned with a crafty look in his eyes.

I should try them if I had enough time, I can't let other people suddenly eyeing my treasures if I took my time here.

After rapidly putting all the items inside the golden pouch, he stood up and was about to leave the damp tunnel.

His footsteps faltered as an irresistible idea suddenly bloomed inside his head.

He immediately ran back at the end of the tunnel.

With all his might, he shoved the golden chest inside the golden pouch as he thought, "I should have done this in the first place."

A few splashes of water rang out as he headed towards the exit of the tunnel.

He patted the golden pouch on his pocket to check if it's still there.

Thud, thud, thud, thududud...

As he was about to exit the tunnel, consecutive sounds of people falling on the wooden floor reverberated in the entire interior of the gloomy mansion.

His heart sank immediately as numerous thoughts melded and clashed inside his head.

He unconciously put his hand on his pocket and thought of several ways to deal with these newly arrived people.