Laying down on the dirt, Minos breathed in and out heavily, recovering from his exhaustion. On his side, a massive hole was dug, revealing a large stone building.
Tinka didn't say anything about it, despite the excitement and anticipation bubbling in her heart. Instead she just sat silently beside Minos, fanning him off and feeding him.
"No need to act so reserved, I can tell how excited you are." Minos laughed as he ate another berry from Tinka's hand.
"How could you tell!" Tinka asked in wonder.
"Because I'm just as excited, and we're the same." Minos said with another laugh.
"Since you know, recover quickly, I can't wait!" Tinka said, no longer putting on her act.
Minos didn't say anything, just laughing at her excitement. After another half hour passed, he had recovered fully, jumping back up.
Seeing Minos good as new, Tinka was exhilarated. Grabbing by the arm, she dragged him down into the large hole, nearly having him fall on his face.
"Calm down, it isn't going anywhere." Minos said to Tinka, who could barely contain herself.
"Sorry, sorry, I'm just too excited!" She replied.
Brushing the dirt off his robe, Minos and Tinka began walking around the large structure, soon finding what seemed to be a door.
The door was made of stone like the rest of the structure, completely sealing off the inside. The only thing giving it away was the opening that ran along its edges, separating it from the rest of the building.
"Looks like a door, but it doesn't seem to have any handles." Minos said as he ran his hand down the structure in an attempt to find any sort of handle.
"Let's just break it down with force!" Tinka suggested, rolling up her sleeves as if she was ready to do it herself.
"We have no idea how fragile this thing is, so we better not." Minos said, stopping Tinka in her tracks.
It's unknown how long this structure has been down here, and Minos didn't want to take any risks and end up destroying the entire building.
Instead, he pulled a small dagger out of his spatial ring, and began slowly chiseling away at the large rock door, creating a hole he could grip with his fingers.
After doing the same thing on both sides of his body, Minos put the small dagger away. Telling Tinka to back off, he proceeded to stab his fingers into both holes, gripping tightly before gently tugging at the rock.
Rather than just using all his strength in one go, Minos gently moved from side to side. The stone door refused to budge initially, but as Minos slowly increased his strength, it eventually began moving.
Pulling it one side at a time, the large stone door began slowly shifting across the floor. Repeating this same strategy, Minos managed to slowly move the entire door aside, revealing a dark gap that led inside the structure.
Stepping back, Minos wiped the sweat off his brow. Despite how easy the process looked, it required the limits of Minos strength, and had he been any weaker, it may not have been possible.
"It's opened!" Tinka exclaimed in excitement as she pointed at the dark opening.
"I wonder what's inside!" She asked with wonder, restraining herself from just running inside.
"Who knows, but it may not necessarily be something good." Minos said, warning Tinka.
"Bad? How could it be bad!" Tinka asked.
"Simple. Maybe whoever built this thing didn't want anyone entering it." Minos said before continuing.
"Also, haven't you ever thought of the possibility that this building didn't slowly sink under the earth, but rather it was built under the earth deliberately?"
"You're right, I never thought of that." Tinka said as she scratched her chin, realizing that things may not be as simple as she initially managed.
"It's also suspicious how not only does this stone door have no handles, but it's as if it was purposely made out of extremely heavy material to stop anyone from ever opening it." Minos further explained.
"Based on my guesses, I don't think this is any sort of temple, but rather a tomb." Minos said, dropping a bomb on Tinka.
"T-Tomb! So you think there's a dead body in there?" Tinka said, suddenly feeling scared.
"No need to feel scared, whatever's in there would have probably been dead for at least a couple hundred of years, if not longer." Minos explained.
"But what about ghosts?" Tinka said, stepping closer to Minos and gripping him tightly by his robe.
"Ghosts? Do you really believe in those things?" Minos asked with a laugh.
"Don't laugh at me idiot, ghosts definitely exist! I've seen one before!" Tinka said, hitting Minos on his chest in rebuttal.
"Hmm, maybe you're right. If that's the case, there's almost certainly a ghost in there." Minos suddenly said with a gloomy voice.
"W-Wait, I thought you said they don't exist." Tinka said, feeling scared by Minos's sudden shift in mood.
"Wait, did you hear that?" Minos suddenly asked with a frightened look.
"Heard what!?" Tinka asked anxiously.
"Boo!" Minos suddenly shouted, causing Tinka to jump up in fright and land on her butt.
"You bastard! You're always bullying me!" Tinka cried out as got up and patted the dust off her rear.
"You just make it so easy." Minos said with a loud laugh.
"Hmph, if a ghost ever tries to possess you, I'm not helping!" Tinka said.
"Don't say that." Minos said as he looked at her with big round eyes.
Seeing Minos's puppy-dog eyes, Tinka couldn't stay angry no matter how hard she tried.
"Fine, I'll help you, but you have to say sorry."
"Sorry, I shouldn't have made a joke like that. How about a kiss to make up?" Minos suggested.
"No way!" Tinka said, making Minos laugh again.
"Alright enough playing around, let's check what's inside." Minos said, stopping with the jokes.
Despite making fun of Tinka for her ghost idea, the truth was Minos actually believed it to some extent. While he had never seen a ghost himself, he knew how miraculous this cultivation world was, so such an idea was far from impossible.
Raising his guard even higher, he slowly stepped towards the dark opening, but rather than just walking inside immediately, he pulled out a torch from his spatial ring.
Igniting the torch, Minos pointed it towards the opening, revealing a large chamber that had a set of stairs leading down, deeper into the earth.
The light couldn't travel that far, only illuminating a small portion of the stairs, leaving the rest in complete darkness.
Tossing the torch, Minos sent it flying directly down the stair set. As it flew across the air, it revealed more and more of the structure's inner-makings.
Eventually the torch hit the ground at the bottom of the stairs, letting Minos know its depth, however he couldn't see anything else from his current angle, meaning it was time to go inside.
Before doing so, Minos picked up a few rocks, pelting them all over the inside of the chamber, much to Tinka's confusion.
"What are you doing?" She asked as she looked on from beside Minos.
"Testing for traps. If this is a tomb like I think it is, it almost certainly has traps." Minos explained.
Not long after making his reasons clear, Minos pelted another stone, but this one seemed to activate something.
The sound of gears grinding went off, sending a chill directly down Tinka's spine. As the sound kept echoing out of the chamber, a small hole quickly opened on the floor, a large circular object rising from it.
The object was rounded at the top, and smooth on the sides. As it fully extended from the earth, a small slit opened up on its top, allowing a long slender tube to slowly extend from the opening.
The tube quickly extended to about a half meter, a red laser suddenly shooting out from its tip.
Despite how long the process sounded, it happened in only a second or two. Minos and Tinka couldn't help but look on with shock at the foreign device that suddenly appeared.
After looking on for a bit longer, Minos decided to toss another rock. The moment the rock entered the room, the device seemed to notice, quickly swiveling its rounded head, aiming its laser directly at the stone.
The second the laser touched the stone, the device activated, shooting out an arrow at a tremendous speed.
The arrow almost immediately hit the rock, shattering it into a thousand little pieces. Clearly the small stone wasn't enough to stop its momentum, allowing the arrow to continue unimpeded, only stopping after it sank deeply into the rock wall.
Despite Minos's current cultivation, he knew that if such an arrow was to hit him, he would likely be severely injured, if not killed.
It was likely that only those at the late stages of the Mortal Renewal Realm could possibly handle such an arrow, otherwise death was almost guaranteed.