Chapter 11: The True Treasure

The third layer was the Concentric Cipher Rings. It had four rotating rings of pure mithril, featuring three hundred and sixty hidden alignment notches that had to be turned to exact mathematical angles.

The fourth layer was the Elemental Heat Latch. An internal fluid chamber filled with mercury that expanded when heated, keeping secondary steel deadbolts jammed shut if anyone tried to cut the door open with a torch or fire magic.

The fifth layer was the Harmonic Acoustic Lock. A delicate chamber of floating silver tuning forks that would only release their hold if struck by a precise musical chord.

The sixth layer was the Spatial Shear Mesh. It was a network of mana threads woven directly through the inner frame and designed to destroy any spatial spell or teleportation magic attempting to bypass the door.

And finally, the last layer was the Star-Iron Cylinder. The true heart of the vault. It consisted of twenty-four central lock cylinders made of star-iron, loaded with anti-pick spool pins.

Silvester opened his eyes and let out a quiet sigh.

"Goodness, seven layers," he grumbled, shaking his head. "To some normal person, these seven layers sound unpickable. But to a locksmith, seven layers just mean seven different systems that have to work together without failing."

He stood up and stepped up to the center of the giant door.

"Alright, genius Master Smith," Silvester said, a faint smile touching his small face. "Let’s see how well your seven layers hold up."

Silvester flexed both wrists.

SNICK.

SNICK.

The Adamantine-Mithril tension wrench popped into his left hand, and his curved diamond pick deployed into his right.

"All right. First layer it is."

He didn’t waste time trying to clear the three-inch star-iron front plate.

Open.

Aperture Shift.

Silvester opened a very small spatial hole directly inside the first layer’s keyway, bypassing the outer faceplate completely.

His diamond pick slid through the seam and touched the twenty star-iron pins inside.

Locksmith’s Eye showed him the exact height of every pin.

Click. Click-click.

Three pins set instantly.

Click. Click.

The fourth through eighth pins snapped onto the shear line.

Silvester worked his pick with effortless speed. His eye showed him which pin was binding first, second, and third in real time.

Click-click-click-click!

Pins nine through nineteen were set instantly.

Silvester applied a small touch of pressure to his tension wrench.

Click... CLACK!

"Ta-da! Layer One clear," Silvester said. "Moving to the second layer."

Silvester placed his left palm against the brass casing of the second ring.

Locksmith’s Eye.

He found the main pressure-relief valve hidden deep inside the hydraulic lines.

Open.

Aperture Shift.

Silvester opened a tiny spatial hole inside the hydraulic fluid line. Instead of trying to push with physical force, he used Aperture Shift to bleed a small cup of the mineral oil into a storage pocket.

Without oil pressure holding them forward, the heavy brass pistons pulled back.

HISS-THUD!

"Yay! Next is the third layer," Silvester noted.

Four rotating mithril rings sat in front of him. To align them manually without the code would take a team of mathematicians weeks of trial and error. That would be a total disaster.

Silvester didn’t even touch the outer rings.

Open.

Aperture Shift!

He opened four spatial holes simultaneously and reached directly into the internal cipher housing behind the mithril rings.

Using his pick, he reached straight into the internal catch levers.

CLINK-CLINK-CLINK-CLACK!

The four mithril rings locked into perfect alignment. The layer fell in under ten seconds.

"Layer Four."

This was the mana-mercury core. It was designed to keep the secondary deadbolts jammed shut if the door was subjected to extreme heat.

Silvester placed his right hand against the elemental fluid line.

"You want cold? I’ll give you cold. Now feel it."

He didn’t use ice magic because he didn’t have any. Instead, he used the Close skill.

Close.

He discharged a concentrated pulse of golden mana straight into the mercury chamber, sealing the molecular movement and trapping the cold temperature inside.

The liquid mercury instantly cooled, shrinking back into its lower storage within three seconds.

CLUNK.

Silvester wiped a tiny bead of sweat off his forehead with the back of his sleeve.

"Okay. Now for the tricky ones," he murmured.

The fifth layer was the Harmonic Acoustic Lock, and it required an exact sequence of sound frequencies to release.

Silvester didn’t have a tuning fork or a musical pipe.

What he had was Open.

"Acoustic pulse," Silvester whispered.

Open.

Aperture Shift.

He opened a spatial hole straight into the acoustic chamber, placing the tip of his Adamantine-Mithril wrench inside.

He used Open to transmit a high-frequency ultrasonic vibration straight through his wrench.

HUMMMMMMMMMMM... VZZZZZT!

The tiny metal forks began to vibrate in perfect harmony.

PING-PING-PING-PING-CLICK!

"Whoo. I need to breathe." He stepped away from the vault to calm himself, returning to work after a minute.

Now came the sixth layer.

This was the part of the door designed to counter any spatial magic. A tight web of mana threads was woven through the stone frame, designed to collapse and slice through anything trying to teleport through the door. This looked like a laser trap from his previous life.

Silvester looked at the glowing mana threads through his Locksmith’s Eye.

"Someone wove these threads too tight," Silvester observed calmly. "When a mana thread is too tight, the tension holds the whole knot rigid and makes it easier to pick."

He didn’t try to break the mana threads.

Open.

Aperture Shift.

He slid his diamond pick right between the threads at the top of the mesh.

Click.

The tension released smoothly, the dangerous mana web unraveling like a loose thread on an old sweater.

WHIRR-SNAP.

The sixth layer was cleared.

Silvester stepped up to the center of the door.

Surrounded by six disarmed rings sat the last layer.

No magic could bypass this cylinder, and no spatial trick could open it from the outside.

It had to be picked by hand and pinned using pure mechanical skill.

Silvester took a deep breath.

He closed his spatial holes and relied entirely on his physical hands and his Adamantine-Mithril tools.

"Just you and me now, bro," Silvester said to the central keyway.

He inserted his tension wrench into the keyway, applying a light, steady rotational force.

He slid his curved diamond pick into the narrow channel.

Touch.

Click... click... CLICK.

The first pin was done.

CLICK!

Second and third pins were set.

Counter-rotate.

Lift...

CLICK!

Fourth pin done.

Click... click... CLICK!

Silvester worked with absolute concentration. There was no dungeon, no floor 15, no eight-year-old body, and no magical world. Just him and the huge vault.

Fifth pin. Sixth pin. Seventh pin.

Click. Click. Click.

Sixteenth pin. Seventeenth pin. Eighteenth pin.

Click-click-click.

Nineteenth pin...

And so on...

THUD.

The central cylinder suddenly rotated clockwise and caught on a false set!

An ordinary thief would have cheered and thought that the lock was open. But Silvester knew better. If he pushed the wrong pin now, all twenty-four pins would snap back, resetting the lock completely.

He closed his eyes, feeling the tiny feedback through the metal handle of his diamond pick.

He touched several pins. No feedback.

He touched the third pin. The tension wrench vibrated slightly.

"Gotcha."

Silvester gently eased back on his left hand, lifting the third pin with a super-light touch.

Click!

For a second, nothing happened.

Then an earth-shaking rumble echoed through the entire floor.

RUMBLE-RUMBLE-RUMBLE-CLUNK!

The vault door split down the middle.

A bright, warm golden light flooded out of the vault, illuminating the marble hall.

No space break.

No unknown entity.

No bad magic.

Silvester stood in the center of the doorway, putting his tools back into his magic pouch.

He stepped across the threshold of the vault.

The vault was magnificent, made of polished white stone with gold trim. Displayed along the walls were hundreds of legendary weapons, ancient armor, and brilliant stacks of rare metals—pure mithril ingots, star-iron bars, and glowing magical gems.

But Silvester ignored the gold, the weapons, and the gems.

In the very center of the chamber, resting on a pedestal of solid obsidian, sat the true treasure of the vault.