Ackster had been too caught up in his thoughts and paranoia about The Hero, so when he saw something that wasn't an ant, his heart almost stopped. But he quickly realized it was just a figure etched on the wall as the tunnel curved before opening up to a small chamber with ochre-colored tiles covering the walls.
Ackster was more than curious about what he had just encountered at the bottom of the ant nest if this now was the bottom. But he didn't want to rush and miss any details that could clue him in about a way back to the surface. So, after taking a quick peek and observing the torch on the wall that was the source of the light entering the tunnel, Ackster focused on the carving in the wall first.
He grabbed the torch, amazed at how it was still burning. But he couldn't feel any heat from it, and the light was as steady as a mountain, so it obviously wasn't an ordinary torch that relied on oil-soaked cloth or whatever. It was a magic torch that had somehow remained lit or been relit after spending an unknown amount of time in the ground below the ants.
Ackster couldn't say more about the torch than that it was magical and handy. So, he moved on and focused on the knight carved into the wall on what Ackster realized was a door. He then looked to the side.
'Yep. Doorway.'
The ants definitely hadn't made this. Their nest just overlapped with some kind of room buried deep underground. And the tunnel led right into a doorway that had lost its door. Somehow, the door that even the ants hadn't been able to scratch had gotten removed from its doorway and ended up outside and slightly to the side, opening the way for the ants to plunder what was inside.
The knight's armor covered its entire body. Ackster couldn't discern any details about the person behind the depicted armor. But the armor itself was relatively simple without any excess decor. The shoulders and helmet were a little pointed, but it only added a slightly fearsome air to the knight as it stood shoulder-width with its legs and had its hands resting on the sword pointing straight down, tip piercing the ground.
There didn't seem to be anything special about the knight carved onto the wall. Maybe it was just an elaborate symbol of guardianship or defense to protect whatever was inside the room.
Ackster stepped into the room. From his previous glance, he knew it wasn't just an empty cube of yellow tiles. But it wasn't until he took a closer look that he realized that the two things he had seen earlier were coffins. They were on raised pedestals, and the upper rim of the coffins was at the same height as Ackster's waist.
Ackster went over to one of the two grey coffins.
"Empty."
Ackster wasn't surprised. Since the ants had already found the room, it was obvious they would have investigated it in detail. And whatever or whoever was inside the coffins had either been there long enough to become nothing. Or it had been turned into food.
Out of curiosity, Ackster tried picking up one of the slabs the ants had pushed to the ground. 'Tried' because they were way too heavy and cumbersome for him to lift with one hand. It was to the point where he wondered if maybe the ant general had been the one to do it with the cooperation of a bunch of lieutenant ants.
Or maybe Ackster was underestimating the power of infinite ants in comparison to his lone arm.
Ackster inspected the coffins some more, but they were even free of dust. There was nothing left inside that could tell him about what had been there originally.
But at least Ackster had got an answer to where the ant queen had gotten her Stone of Wisdom from. It was either from this room or another similar one that rested at the bottom of the ant nest. Ackster was practically convinced that this room wasn't the only of its kind, and it was the reason why all the tunnels sloped downward.
The traces of ants milling about and trying to dig deeper into the ochre-colored tiles also solidified Ackster's theory of the ant queen getting a taste for the contents of the construction at the depths of the Tenger Continent. The ant queen was trying to excavate the construction and get more treasures like the Stone of Wisdom and whatever had given birth to the ant general's independence.
"Wait a moment…."
A construction deep underground filled with treasures sounded familiar. And when Ackster finally saw a star with fifteen points at the center of the wall opposite the door, his thoughts clicked together.
His mind had been muddled by the darkness and depression, which was why he hadn't realized it at first. That, and the fact that he couldn't believe he had stumbled upon the Alchemist's Labyrinth by entering an ant nest. It wasn't just any old ant nest, sure. But it still wasn't where Ackster would have looked if he wanted to enter the Alchemaze, as it was also called, since some thought the Alchemist's Labyrinth was too on the nose and simple.
Ackster preferred the simplicity and straightforwardness of the Alchemist's Labyrinth as a name, especially since it was blatantly obvious that Alchemaze was just the words 'Alchemist' and 'Maze' mashed together. But Alchemaze wasn't as much of a mouthful as the other one was.
And it was different names for the same thing, so it didn't really matter. What mattered was that Ackster might have stumbled upon something that could help him regenerate his arm.
As long as this was an actual entrance and not just a fraction that had broken off from the main labyrinth, Ackster might really have a chance at becoming whole again. He might even find treasures and whatnot that could help him grow even stronger.
Ackster's eyes lit up with hope, which he tried to suppress. The more he hoped, the greater the disappointment would be once it became obvious that it was nothing but already looted empty stone rooms.