Gleam [Karma Cultivator Isekai] - Chapter 96: Traps

With the Essence Eater gone, the island was far more relaxing to explore. That said, there was a long stretch between relaxation in the comfort of a home and wandering the purple vine-ravaged fragments of a fortress.

Chanc’ wasn’t nearly as on edge as he had been, but the island was still eerier than he would have preferred. Still, it was leaps and bounds better than before. He and Bella scoured through the island, combing every building and investigating every brick that looked out of place.

For the first hour, they found absolutely nothing. That baffled Chance, as he could have sword the island should have been mostly untouched with the Essence Eater guarding it. But, finally, their search came to fruition.

Chance’s foot caught on a protruding stone and he tripped, grabbing for the wall to catch himself. His palm pressed into a dull grey stone, identical to all the others around it. It slid inward with a faint click.

He froze as a distant rumble shook the island. Dust sprinkled from the ceiling as a section of the wall beside them slowly ground back, revealing a passageway that led into the heart of the island below them. Chance exchanged a glance with Bella.

“Was that intentional?” Bella asked.

“If I say yes, would you believe me?”

“Not for a second.”

“Was worth a shot,” Chance said with a grin. He squinted into the darkness. Even with the light coming off the golden mist surrounding him, he could barely see more than ten feet into the passage. It was just stairs leading to pitch black.

“Well, if there’s anything worth taking, I’ll bet it’s down there,” Bella said.

“Either that or this is a really clever trap. I mean, everyone thinks the secret passage has the loot, right? Wouldn’t it be really nasty if you stuck the worst trap you’ve got behind a secret passage like this one so any would-be thieves waltzed into it thinking they’d found the treasure trove and ended up getting caught off guard?”

Bella shook her head and let out a slow whistle. “Are you sure you aren’t evil? I was expecting you to finish that off with a diabolical laugh while you stroked an invisible moustache.”

Chance laughed. “Is that a trope here too? I thought that was an Earth thing.”

“No clue. Maybe it’s shared? There are a good number of Earthlings in Centurion, so it’s possible someone just brought it over. I’m not sure where the stereotype started myself, but you’re well on your way to becoming it. You better shave, I’m starting to see the beginnings of that moustache coming in.”

Chance touched his lip, then scrunched his nose. “Liar. I couldn’t grow facial hair if my life depended on it.”

“Keep up the psychopathic plans and you’ll surprise yourself.”

They fell silent for a few seconds, staring into the darkness. Bella cleared her throat.

“Do you actually think it’s a trap?”

“No. Who would do that? It’s crazy.”

Bella glared at him, and Chance had to fight to keep from bursting into laughter again.

“I’ll go first, then.” Bella stepped past Chance, a thin veneer of glittering Essence washing over her skin before she hesitantly lowered one foot to the stairwell, keeping her weight on the other leg and only putting the end of her shoe down.

Nothing happened. Bella leaned more onto the foot, then finished the step. She took another. Chance crept after her, providing light as the two of them headed deeper.

Their footsteps echoed through the thin hall, bouncing off the walls and reverberating around their heads. It was warmer than it had been above ground, but mostly because there wasn’t any wind or open air.

Unsurprisingly, the air was stuffy and thick. Neither Chance nor Bella mustered the desire to speak in the uncomfortable environment, so they just continued on with only the sound of their movement to keep them company.

After what was truly a minute but felt like ten, the stairs came to an end before an open archway that led into a room. At least, Chance suspected it was a room. It was too dark to get a good look at anything, so all he saw was a wider area to walk and a lack of stairs. Chance and Bella stopped at the entrance and squinted.

“Can you see anything?” Bella asked.

“No. I could try to direct my Essence in there to light it up,” Chance offered. “I’m not sure if that would set off any traps, though.”

“I doubt they’d have a trap just waiting to get set off by Essence, it would be too much of a pain in the ass to deal with day-to-day. If there are traps, then they’re probably on specific things rather than just waiting to pounce.”

Chance nodded. He extended a hand and tendrils of golden Essence swirled away from his fingertips, snaking through the room and rising up like a hazy hydra.

It was a room. A large one, with a high ceiling supported by old metal beams. The walls were sparsely dotted with weapons and armor hanging from hooks, and more than a few of them laid on the ground where they had fallen – years ago, judging by the thick layer of dust covering everything.

“It’s an armory,” Bella breathed. “It’s not big enough to outfit an entire fortress, though.”

“Not big enough?” Chance asked in disbelief.

“Think about how many soldiers would be needed to defend an entire island. This place was pretty big.” Bella pointed at the wall. “And look, those are all short swords, but just a bunch of different styles. It looks like a personal collection.”

Chance’s eyebrows lifted as he caught on to what Bella was implying. “You think this belonged to one dude?”

“Well, maybe a few.” Bella shrugged one shoulder. “I see more than just short swords. Either way, if it’s not the general armory but rather a specific one given how much the swords vary, it’s really likely that they kept any relics or important weapons down here.”

“Would one trap an important weapon?”

“Depends if they thought they’d need to collect it quickly,” Bella replied with a smirk, but her voice wasn’t nearly as confident as her words. “I can check them myself. I’m the most likely to survive getting hit.”

“And I’m the least likely to get hit at all. Besides, there probably aren’t any traps.”

“But what if there are?”

“I’m lucky,” Chance said. He cleared his throat. “But, in case luck isn’t enough, I’m also pretty light on my feet. I’ll be careful.”

Bella pressed her lips together but gave him a small nod. Chance slipped past her and pulled on more of his Essence. As he gathered it, a strange feeling welled in his chest. Chance frowned, halting before he stepped off the stairs to investigate. The last thing he wanted was to be distracted while walking through what could be a minefield of traps.

His senses brushed across his Gate first, but there was something else that he’d never noticed before. Just to the left of his Gate, right in the center of his chest and behind his solar plexus, was a new mote of energy.

Chance could feel the invisible lines of energy that ran between his Gate and the new mote. He followed it with his mind. As soon as he was focused on it, the world shifted.

Hues bloomed, dancing through the air and illuminating the room. Chance flinched as his skin suddenly turned a dull shade of gold – similar to that of his mist, but deeper and far more solid, almost like a shell.

“What the hell?”

“What’s wrong?” Bella asked urgently.

“Are you not seeing this?”

“Seeing what?”

Chance waved his hand through the air. “All the colors.”

“No,” Bella said, the frown evident in her voice. “Are you okay?”

Chance went to answer. Then he closed his mouth and slapped himself in the forehead. “I’m an idiot. It’s my aura. I forgot that I reached Knight rank.”

Bella let out a snort of laughter. Then she cleared her throat. “I kind of did as well. That’s embarrassing. What’s it feel like?”

Chance turned his hands over. He tapped his skin curiously, but it didn’t feel any different. “I’m not sure. Not that different, to be honest. I’m just more colorful now.”

He lifted his eyes from his skin, looking out over the room. Almost immediately, his eyes were drawn to several weapons on the walls. They shimmered with faint light, so dim that it barely formed an outline around the weapon – but in the pitch black, they stuck out like a sore thumb.

For that matter, they were the only things he could make out in the room. Everything else had gone so dark that it might as well not have been there. Even the floor directly before Chance was just black nothingness to his eyes. He looked to Bella, who was outlined in a faint blue glimmer similar to his.

Chance released his hold on the new node in his chest. The dull greys of the room returned and the auras faded once more. Chance shook his head.

“Okay. That’s useful. I think I can see the weapons that have Essence attached to them. I can’t see anything else, though. It’s some sort of pure aura-sight. I can either see things with aura and nothing else or vice versa.”

“That’s odd,” Bella said. “I never heard anyone say they had to swap between the two modes. It’s probably something you learn to merge.”

Chance nodded. He swapped back to his aura sight, focusing on a nearby short sword that shone purple, and let it drop again while keeping his eyes on the weapon. The blade didn’t look any different than the other ones on the walls.

“I’m gonna grab that one,” Chance said, pointing at the sword in question. “It’s purple.”

“What kind of aura is purple?”

“How should I know?”

“Oh, yeah. Duh,” Bella said. “Okay. Just be careful. Make sure you don’t actually touch the weapon with your skin in case it’s sentient or something. They usually need direct contact.”

Chance rooted through his travel bag to try and find his backup handkerchief. He’d had two, but he’d given one of them to a doll weapon that he’d cut into pieces about five minutes afterward.

A moment later, he remembered that the handkerchief in question was currently in Bella’s pocket, where it housed the ring they’d found earlier on that island. He grimaced and pulled his shirt off, wrapping it around his hand before taking a cautious step into the room.

He wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting, but his foot touched the ground just like it did any other ground. Chance paused for a moment, then edged further into the armory. He made his way over to the sword he’d had his eye on and examined it closely.

Beneath the thin layer of dust was a fairly plain looking sword. It hung from its hilt, suspended by two hooks that jutted out from the wall. And, running between them, was a thin strand of wire.

Chance swallowed, his eyes tracing the wire into the wall where it vanished. He slowly backed up until he was standing on the stairs with Bella again.

“What is it?” Bella asked.

“I was wrong. I’m pretty sure it’s trapped. There’s a tripwire on the sword. I’m not sure what, but if we take anything out of here, I get the feeling that it won’t be for free.”