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After a quick chat, they decided to investigate.
Almost immediately, they found a pair of guards who launched attacks at them at first sight.
Matt rushed forward and used his sword to swat away the [Water Dart], and Susanne cut apart the [Water Net] that was flying at them. That didn’t stop the guards from screeching and summoning another pair of monsters to their defense.
Aster immediately jumped at the lobster and chewed at its eye stalks, causing the beast to try and beat at her armored and ice covered back. Splinters of ice flew, but that only let Aster spread her element over the monster’s body faster. Its joints were the first targets, and Matt knew that the monster would soon fall.
Liz was busy thrusting her spear at a floating shrimp that was trying to grab at her. Its shell deflected the first thrust, but it lost an arm when she sidestepped and leveraged her power.
Matt stopped paying attention once he saw that they had the clash under control and focused on his own incoming fight.
The leftmost guard raised a trident, and with swirls of water, the prongs glowed with a spell that Matt’s spirit whispered was dangerous.
Blocking the first thrust, Matt ducked the next attack and lashed out at the Fishman’s leg.
The armor did little to stop Matt’s Tier 14 blade as he flared the sharpness and durability enchantments he had personally placed into the blade before they entered Minkalla.
With just the faintest trickle of Genesis Energy super powering it, flexing the enchantments proved to be the most efficient way to defeat the guards. They had an array of spells, but were slow in casting them, and their bodies were fragile for Tier 14 monsters.
As his blade was about to land, a [Water Bubble] appeared and blocked his s***h. His blade bounced back, but Matt flowed with the motion and punched out, activating [Cracked Phantom Armor] for a second.
The spikes he shaped over his knuckles pierced the monster’s shield and caused the spell to shatter.
The Fishman guard tried to thrust at him with its enchanted trident, but Matt had already slipped past the head of the weapon and brought his longsword around in an arc.
This time, the Fishman wasn’t fast enough and fell to the ground in two halves.
Susanne had run her monster through and was turning to help Liz and Aster, but they too were done with their own kills. Aster stopped to eat the hearts, but grumbled as she didn’t get another permanent stat increase from [Heart of Power].
With the monsters dead and dissolved, they opened the next door and found an armory.
Sending their summon through the door, Matt couldn’t help but whistle. The place was packed with weapons and armor. If this was a rift, the only value of the items would be as scrap. But in a ruin, each and every one of the weapons and armor pieces had the possibility of being not only valuable, but also useful. In theory, they could have stripped the guards they had fought as well, but as part of the monster’s gear, it dissolved like the monsters themselves if not gathered quickly.
Seeing that their elephant remained unmolested, they entered the armory and started looting everything.
Armor and weapons, many loaded with potent enchantments, were shoved into their spatial bags as they picked the shelves clean.
The only things they kept for immediate use was a set of vambraces enchanted to create a [Water Bubble] around the caster. Susanne took them after Matt gave the item the all-clear.
They were about to move on when Aster paused and started sniffing.
“I smell fruit.” Aster sat back and breathed deeply a few times before shuffling around the wall.
Matt walked over and inspected the wall with both his spiritual sense, his Concept, and his five mundane senses.
Everyone inspected the floor and walls, but none of them found anything despite Aster’s insistence.
Matt patted her back and offered some condolences. “We still have some fresh fruit if you’re craving it. But I don’t think there is anything there, Aster. Not even our manipulation skills can find anything but wall. I believe you smell something, but if we can’t find it, it might as well not exist.”
Aster whined at him after hearing his words. “I can smell it! It’s not my fault your stupid human noses are bad. I know what I smell!”
She paced around as Matt went back to testing the wall. He even went as far as to pull out a hammer and bash down the shelves and stone wall.
There was nothing. Just the hard ground that was impossible to interact with.
Aster inspected the wall before shaking her head and returning to her pacing.
After a few minutes of that she paused and ran back to the elephant and the treasure chest, opening the lid with her Concept and withdrawing a mirror.
Matt stiffened as he remembered what the mirror did.
It revealed illusions.
He really should have thought of that before when she was so instant about there being something hidden.
Aster scampered back and reflected the wall that Matt had battered with the mirror.
Instead of a wall, the mirror showed there was an inset stone pillar and a cornucopia with fruits spilling out of it.
Fresh fruits, just as Aster had smelled.
Vindicated, Aster’s tail wagged as Matt pulled the cornucopia out of the now revealed hole and inspected it.
If he was reading the runes right, it would take mana and essence to create fresh food.
“This seems wildly impractical to hide behind an illusion in an area that’s only accessible to a group who carried this heavy-ass treasure chest around.” Matt took a bite of an apple after he inspected it. “The food’s good…but not that good.”
Susanne and Aster both inspected the cornucopia but found nothing else. Aster grabbed a bushel of grapes and started munching away while Susanne peeled an orange.
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