Klein noticed something magical on a stone wall. There were dozens of runes carved into it in some formative system, each of them possessing a form of magic he was dying to figure out.
Siona and the other elf slowed down, noticing that he had stopped near the wall. She turned to say something before coming to stand beside him. Noticing the runes on the wall, she pressed her palm against it.
Essence emitted from her palm and entered the wall, the runes coming to life, lighting up with a sapphire glow, twisting together before a tremor ran through the stone.
Siona took a step back, and Klein cautiously followed.
To his surprise, nothing ominous happened, other than the stone wall shaking for a few seconds and opening up a chamber.
Klein whistled. Siona nodded towards him and entered the chamber. It was wide and empty, with nothing of note except for scattered pieces of stone, but what caught their attention was the small heap of glowing gems in the middle of the room.
She took one of the gems and stooped down to carve something on the ground. The handsome-ass elf snorted, looking at her writing, before picking up a handful of the gems and tossing them into the mouth of his pet beast. The white tiger ate the glowing stones eagerly, as though it couldn't wait to devour them all.
Siona said something to him, gesturing towards the heap of gems, which he took as a green light to pick more.
Klein had already noticed the extraordinariness of the gems. As far as he was concerned, each stone seemed to contain a sizeable amount of unrefined essence. The essence within the dark sphere inside him literally churned, sensing it.
He felt like he should take them all into his storage, but he was pretty sure the elves wouldn't appreciate that. So, he began putting handfuls of the gems into his satchel quickly, while sneaking glances at Siona, wondering when she might lose patience with him.
She let him take a bag full of gems and gestured for them to leave, while most of the unrefined essence gems remained in the chamber.
They found a couple of other similar chambers, each with heaps of gems. Siona didn't even consider taking them, and in repose, they left them as well, except for the white tiger, who had a belly full of the gems and lay down with no intention of leaving the spot.
The handsome-ass elf tried his best to dislodge the beast from its place, going so far as to push it until veins bulged on his gorgeous face. Unfortunately, all his effort went to waste, as the huge white tiger didn't budge from its place.
For the first time, a smile crept onto Siona's lips as she watched the handsome elf struggle uselessly. His shoulders slumped as he shook his head.
Klein patted his shoulder with a reassuring nod. "Clearly, that's not your white tiger," he said. "But you're the tiger's elf."
Even though the elf didn't understand his remark, he glared at him, shoving aside his hands.
Siona chuckled, patting the elf's shoulder before saying something. From the way Siona gestured to Klein, he guessed she told him to stay with the pet beast while the two of them scoured the eerie place for no particular reason.
No particular reason, because she wasn't taking anything—just uncovering treasures and leaving them open for others.
Right, she's royalty, Klein thought. Maybe this much wealth was an insult to her presence.
Nothing changed for the next couple of hours. Siona wound her way through the snaking path of the catacomb, which descended further into a subterranean region. She finally stopped in a wide underground chamber with strange murals on the walls.
Klein inspected the murals, which depicted different scenes, like people having sex, people undergoing magical rituals while also having sex, and other kinky stuff involving chains and objects designed to hurt people... while also having sex.
He couldn't say he was bored by the inspection, but some of the images definitely irked him. So much so that he moved away from the pictures to watch his elven companion. For the time being.
She was sitting on the ground serenely meditating. His new spatial senses picked up thin strands of essence swirling around her form. It wasn't slow either; with each moment, the speed of the swirl seemed to increase. He didn't think he had noticed anything like that around Elowen, though back then he didn't have his Spatial Sight.
[Spatial Sight (F) → (E-)]
Klein quirked his eyebrows, unsure how such a brief examination was enough for the skill to level up. Wondering how far his senses could now extend, Klein spread his ability all around him. Previously, he had trouble seeing through obstructions, but now his Spatial Sight was phasing through the thick stone walls with ease.
He managed to see far beyond the walls from all directions, except one. Naturally, he pushed harder in that direction, but no matter how much he tried, he couldn't make any headway. And needless to say, it was the wall carved with hundreds of runic marks, very much like the other entrances Siona had opened, but far more complex in scope.
Well, she was sitting just in front of it now, so there was no chance she hadn't noticed it already. But what was she waiting for?
Suddenly, his senses picked up on a few people approaching at great speed. Klein quickly turned to alert the girl, but she didn't even twitch an eyebrow in response.
In no time, the group arrived, and it was none other than the ones they had left behind, Elowen included. The white tiger and its handsome-ass elf were still missing.
I guess it is time for the showdown, Klien thought, quickly looking around to make a fast escape.
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Thanks for the review Braidenovel... I can appreciate some more, if you guys take some time to write one. Thank you.