Chapter 364

John strikes the ground, and the lightning that had started gathering at the edge of the array suddenly dies. He gives three more strikes to three specific spots, and the artifacts come out of the stone of their own volition. They had been sealed there by people with stone-shaping Skills, but they emerged as if they had been carrots pulled by their leaves.

“What is happening?” A man frowns, seeing that the array has lost all its power.

At this point, Elder Ognev doesn’t even have the heart to announce what everybody can see with their own eyes: that the array somehow has indeed been defused, not destroyed. It almost looks like this John Cabbage guy is the greatest Trap Master of all time. And more importantly, the artifacts making up the Ten Thousand Lightning Death Array are invaluable. To make a trap such as this one, it takes a very specific combination of extremely rare materials.

I’m ruined, Elder Ognev realizes.

But John Cabbage is already walking into the third array when the elder jumps in front of him from the other side of the trapping hall and says, “Mr. Cabbage, stop right there.”

“Is everything okay, Elder?” John Cabbage says, frowning. “I thought it was three arrays, too.”

“What three arrays? Have you gone insane? Do you want to bankrupt me? No. You will get your damn Mithril Rank Trap Master token. But step back from that array!” Elder Ognev shouts, as if just by proximity John Cabbage might suddenly steal the artifacts present in the third trap array.

“But Elder, are you sure? I don’t wanna be targeted by the others because I was favored by you.”

Favored? Elder Ognev thinks. What favored? I tried to kill you in the worst way possible. Any other Trap Master would have filed an official complaint against me. Why are you saying that I’ve been favoring you? Have you lost your damn mind?

But since the elder cannot say those words out loud, he’s forced to smile and say, “I’ll make sure that nobody will harass you for this little favoritism.”

And yet the crowd is already going wild, laughing.

“What favoritism? That kid is the best Trap Master I’ve ever seen. He’s a lunatic. He just used a damn pickaxe to destroy two arrays that would have killed everybody else in here.”

“Yeah,” another person shouts. “If I don’t see that kid on this Stone Golem Dungeon list, I’m gonna riot. I’m gonna complain to Zamorye’s branch that we have all gone insane.”

Elder Ognev walks back toward Ruslan, and his son complains in a pitiful voice.

“But Father, are you sure? Maybe the other array—”

“Shut up,” Elder Ognev snaps. “Do you want to see me ruined? Do you have any idea how much money I just lost?” The elder hisses between his teeth. “It doesn’t matter. We have two free spots. It’s not going to change anything,” Elder Ognev explains to his son.

“But Father, they are clearly lovers,” Ruslan whines.

“What lovers? This Mr. Cabbage,” Elder Ognev says, as he sees Talia Carrot give him another kiss on the cheek, and all the other adventurers surround them and congratulate them on his achievement, “this Cabbage is a virgin. He clearly has never felt the touch of a woman in his entire life. Rest assured, the girl will be yours. You will just have to have some patience, Ruslan. Put some trust in your father. And now, go get changed. You still reek of alcohol. It’s not like this that you’re going to make a good impression on Miss Carrot.”

The chapter belongs on NovelPhoenix as the author's publication, but this copy was taken without approval; the source helps support the creator.

- - -

Jacob and Taya spend some time being congratulated by all the members of the Adventurers’ Guild for their resounding success. But they soon leave, because they’re being offered food and drinks, and they have already eaten and drunk. Plus, Jacob still has to go to the bathroom.

After Jacob uses the facilities at the Adventurers’ Guild, they are notified by Elder Ognev that they have been added to the list of participants for the Stone Golem Dungeon, which is apparently the most famous Dungeon of Kamengrad.

They reach a tavern. Taya is looking at the map, and then looks up at Jacob, who’s clearly immersed in his own thoughts.

“Penny for your thoughts?” she asks.

“I was just thinking that the traps in this world are actually easier. Or at least they developed quite differently from the traps in my world. Where I come from, a Mithril Rank trap is way more dangerous, because it’s usually already active. Like, here, you trigger the trap. Which means I can step into a trap, and even if I can take even one blow at Mithril Rank, I can still deactivate it. It gets stronger later, because it also has the element of surprise. But it’s possible for me to deal with them. Whereas back at the Academy, when I was studying, some of the traps are active the moment you step into them. So you have to dodge the blows of the trap — whatever it’s throwing at you — and then fix it.”

“This Academy… is that where you learned about traps?”

“Also there,” Jacob replies.

“Is it fun?” Taya asks with a melancholic look.

“It is,” Jacob replies, a little weirded out by the question. “But there are also a lot of nasty people in there. But I made some friends, and it’s cool. I have my own clique. The Champions. I am the Leader of Champions. So, you know. Not a big deal.”

Taya laughs at that and asks, “So you have many friends?”

“Yeah,” Jacob says, and then finally gets where she’s getting at. “You don’t?”

“I grew up mostly around older people. Family friends. And, well, I learned from the best, and I know many things. But I didn’t really have much, um, structured instruction. It’s, uh… I…” She starts stuttering, and then goes silent.

“I mean, if you’d like to join the Academy, I am pretty sure that the Headmaster would love to have a world-ending weapon on his side.”

Taya snorts when Jacob calls her that.

“It’s not that bad. And you know it.”

“I know. But I’m not joking. I’m pretty sure the Headmaster wouldn’t say no. Especially if I asked.”

“You would put your reputation on the line for me?” Taya asks with a raised eyebrow.

“You already risked your life to take me out of that time-freezing spell.”

“Yeah, but it would be insane if they didn’t let you in the Academy. Well — that is, if you want to come.”

“I— I would love to. Once we leave, it’s not like I would have anywhere else to go. I would probably want to be reunited with Liuthkrav. But other than that, well…”

“Then it’s decided,” Jacob says with a smile. “Once we’re back, you’ll come with me to the Academy.”

Taya smiles. “It’s decided,” she says as well. “But anyway, I found the Dungeon.”

Jacob looks at the map that Taya was using and asks, “Is it the one we are scheduled to go in, in a week?”

She nods.

“Karma,” Jacob says.

“Karma,” Taya echoes.

“In the meanwhile, we can find a Dungeon or something like that to get more materials. Those artifacts we got at the Adventurers’ Guild are extremely, extremely powerful. We are not that far from being able to message Liuthkrav.”

“Well, I heard at the guild that there’s going to be a beast hunt. It’s apparently a yearly event, because there are many hidden Dungeons whose entrances keep shifting around, and that means around this period of the year, hordes of beasts swarm the valley near Kamengrad. And they have to be put down. They’re mostly Imperium Rank, too.”

Jacob raises an eyebrow. “Really?”

“Yes. Imperium Rank. Apparently some of them are Early Adamantite Rank. They were telling me back at the guild.”

“Oh. Then we should check it out.”

“Yeah. I think that there were groups of adventurers gearing up to go there today. That’s why there were so many people at our test.”