The guard lunged at me with a swift movement. Despite the weight of the gold on his attire, it must have weighed several kilograms, he moved surprisingly fast. A hail of strikes rained down on me from all sides; he executed all the techniques expertly, just like in that book, leaving me with no choice but to defend myself. I blocked his attacks with both blades, but it wasn't enough. When the guard struck me in mid-air, it felt like he weighed a ton.
"Come on, respond to the attack! Your predecessor was much swifter!!"
If this continues, he'll crush me. Seizing the moment, I sidestepped and regained my stance, calming my breath. Those techniques wouldn't work; he knew them by heart. I had to come up with something new and fast.
"I didn't give you a break!"
The guard attacked again, and I tried to block his strikes. His blows were incredibly strong, akin to a dragon's. And then it dawned on me; if he's so powerful, he must have corresponding inertia.
Once again, I jumped back from the guard and assumed a new stance. I twirled the blades in my hands and held them in reverse, with the edges along my arms. I brought my hands closer to my body, so the blades covered all vital points.
"Krito! What are you doing? You won't be able to attack like that!!" Algo seemed to be the only one who understood my style somewhat.
"Just watch."
"It's getting more interesting!"
The guard lunged at me once more, but I didn't block his blades. Instead, I parried them, deflecting them to the side. It reminded me of fighting inexperienced dragons, but this was far more dangerous. My opponent could attack me from two sides, so I had to parry with both blades simultaneously. However, in this situation, as Algo correctly noted, I couldn't attack. I gradually retreated, parrying all the attacks, and though it didn't drain as much energy, my opponent didn't seem tired either.
"And is that all?"
"You'll see more!"
Retreating, I reached the nearest column. The guard made a strike at neck level, and I leaned back, pressing my back against the column.
"That's the end!" The guard aimed both blades at me, crossing them like scissors, but at the last moment, I raised my hands, and the blades grazed by a couple of millimeters from my head, embedding into the column. Neither I nor the guard could free our blades. "Could it be the first tie in so many years?"
"You're mistaken." I grinned slyly and deliberately looked down.
The guard followed my gaze and lowered his head, only to encounter my approaching knee. Taking advantage of his momentary stillness, I delivered a powerful knee strike to his mask. He clearly didn't expect it. Reeling from the blow, the guard released his swords and flew several meters away. The mask slipped, revealing long chestnut hair underneath. "Damn, damn, damn. Sly rascal."
Whatever kind of instructor he was, he had a penchant for cursing, and I liked him already.
I smoothly pulled the guard's blades from the wall and handed them back to him.
"So, what's the verdict?"
"Darn it! You won, no doubt about it. Take whatever you can carry in one go; you have only half an hour. This is the first defeat in so many years; I guess it's time to wrap things up. Tell them at the Academy that I'm closing this tomb. I'm not interested in it anymore."
The unusually swearing tomb guard, after making a few more remarks, saw us off to the treasure hall and stood by the exit.
It was a genuine tomb. In the center of the room stood an enormous sarcophagus, surrounded by scattered household items, musical instruments, weapons, a couple of rather unpretentious pieces of jewelry, and other trinkets.
"Is this really a tomb? Are we allowed to take these things?" Katrina seemed concerned.
"Don't worry, they belong to my brother. These items may not be very valuable, but they hold a great history," I assured her.
"OOOOOOH, this is such a rarity!!" Vin's enthusiastic cries interrupted our conversation. "These items are thousands of years old!! I could sell each for thousands, even tens of thousands!"
According to Vina, all these items were worth a fortune, but the problem was their size. We could hardly carry more than one thing on our hands. There were staffs, antiques, even some ancient chest of drawers that Vina was unwilling to leave behind. I decided to take a closer look at everything in the tomb.
These items seemed more like household artifacts than true treasures, and the fact that they remained untouched was likely a result of a powerful enchantment. According to Vina, they all dated back to the same period, around five thousand years ago. I examined the walls, covered in inscriptions resembling the ancient dragon language, but they were thickly coated with dirt and dust, and I had no desire to spend time cleaning them.
The floor was adorned with small black stones of identical shape, suspiciously resembling scales. Near the sarcophagus, I found two stones that stood out from the rest. They were similar to each other, but one was slightly larger than the other. I thought they might be black diamonds, but I had never heard of stones of such size.
"Excuse me, Mr. Guard, can we take everything from here?" I inquired.
"Yes, yes, take everything you can carry among the items lying here," he replied.
That gave me a couple more ideas. I picked up the stones from the floor and looked through them into the light. I couldn't determine what they were, but they seemed transparent on the outside, yet completely opaque inside, as if a black mist swirled within. As I stared into it, I even thought it started to form some shapes.
"Krito, did you find something valuable?" Vina interrupted my visions.
"Hmm, not sure, but it's not something so large. I'll take it with me."
"Well, that's great. We need your help to carry some things out."
"I have an idea. Grain, help me carry something very heavy from here."
"Cough, I told you not to touch the sarcophagus!" the guard failed to anticipate my intentions.
"Don't worry; it's not the sarcophagus," a wicked smirk crossed my face.
Soon, we also left the tomb. Asura and the others were amazed at our catch.
"Krito, did you manage?" Katrina asked.
"Definitely," I replied.
The guard followed us outside.
"Wow!! He's here!! I thought he was guarding the entrance," exclaimed Katrina.
"Calm down, I lost, and I want to be done with this. I'm closing the tomb." Drawing two blades from his back, the guard struck the columns that guarded the entrance, and the passage collapsed. "Rest in peace, brother. I couldn't leave your tomb for so long."
Paying our last respects to the departed, the guard turned to us.
"I suppose we need to go back to the Academy. You have a place to stay, I hope?"
"Yes, of course, we're returning. Vina, how much time do we have left?"
"Hmmm, one more day on the road, then we'll sort all the treasures, and the last three days for meetings with buyers and signing contracts for sales. By the way, you don't have to sell everything; the most important thing is to negotiate the price. We'll have three days in the Academy to settle everything, but the competition will be significant."
"And I'm hearing this from the best trader in the Academy?" I teased.
"Hah! And what do you take me for? With me, only the Trading Guild can compete," Vina boasted.
"Oh... Sorry," Asura timidly inserted into the conversation, "Vinila, can I ask for your help?"
"Sure, you don't have any traders with you, so the number of treasures won't matter. Hmmm, I'll help you for a modest five percent of the profits."
"Thank you so much."
"I'll do my best! The more you earn, the more I'll get for myself."
"Ragni, will you bring everything to our guild in two days?"
"Everything?! That'll be tough."
"And can't you ask for help from someone?"
"Hmmm. My mom was planning to come to the ceremony anyway, so I can persuade her."
"I'm counting on you," I whispered to Ragni, turning her away. "And you can bring me what I set aside separately, to my room. I want to try something."
"As you wish. I'm off," Ragni transformed into her winged monster form and flew into the air. "See you at the guild in two days."
"By the way, Krito, where was the storage?" Katrina asked.
"Well, you remember what the driver told us about the two underground roads leading from Leira's house, through which the products were taken out of the city on special carts. Now they only trade with Leran and use only the western road, so I asked the count to hide our loot in the eastern one. No guards, just piles of junk lying in old wagons locked up. No one will suspect it's our storage."
"Cunning. Well, we still need to find out how the others are doing."
Upon returning home, we entrusted our treasures to Vina, who negotiated well and sold everything for quite a high price. The numbers on our storages increased significantly.
I left all my loot for the last day. I had a plan, and only true connoisseurs could appreciate it. On the final day, not ordinary collectors were supposed to come but the wealthiest nobles from Leran and Verania, including royal families. Vina wisely saved all the most valuable items for the end, but the key was not to overdo it. Each guild was allocated a specific time for selling, and many tried to go first when the wealthiest buyers hadn't yet spent their money. But at the end of the ceremony, there were still three hours left for selling what we hadn't managed to sell before. Few bargained during these last hours because many collectors had already spent their money, and you could only sell truly unique items.
Slowly but surely, the last day was coming to an end.