Chapter 36: The Whisper from the Coffin

As we walked down the stairs, the air got colder.

The staircase seemed longer since I was counting my steps as we went down.

Thirty-five steps.

Forty steps.

Fifty steps.

Sixty steps.

It felt like a walk that took forever, and my patience grew short. We should have already reached the end by this time, but unfortunately, no.

I stopped for a bit when I noticed something peculiar. The stone walls were distorted. Some spaces were stretched, while others were intact.

The man stopped when he noticed that I had stopped walking.

"This place... it’s distorted," I said while staring at the walls.

"You finally noticed. Yes, I distorted it to keep my things safe. Just try to keep up, or you’ll get lost, Silvester."

He continued to walk, and I followed.

I activated my Locksmith’s Eye to confirm my thoughts.

By his appearance, this man seemed like a normal person, but the gray mana that fully embraced his entire body disproved that.

He was a powerful mage. A mage who specialized in spatial magic.

Our journey continued for several minutes until we finally reached the bottom.

A massive block of stone stood in front of us. It was perfectly carved, and the edges were perfectly intact.

I thought it was a vault, but it was definitely not. It was a coffin. It was at least triple my height and made of granite.

I also noticed some unfamiliar symbols carved around the edges. A circular keyhole was at the center, covered in a bit of dust. One thing I was certain of: it was ancient.

My heartbeat skipped. The air around the coffin felt familiar. I was sure I had already encountered this.

I reached out to the edge of the coffin. I felt a small spark of mana on my fingers, but it quickly disappeared.

The man watched me as I immediately pulled back.

"What do you think?" the man asked while staring at me.

"Who made this? Where did you find this?" I asked in quick succession.

"Woah! Okay. One question at a time." He sat on the flat rock in front of the coffin. "To answer your question, who made this? I don’t know. Next, where did I find this? I don’t know. Are you satisfied?"

I chuckled. "Not satisfying at all. It’s odd that you know everything, but you have no idea what this thing is."

"I just know fragments of everything, Silvester."

I looked back at the coffin. The lock at the center was far different from Duchess Silvia’s secondary lock.

But the principle was the same.

I moved around the coffin and noticed a small crack behind it near the bottom. I crouched down to examine it carefully.

The crack wasn’t from erosion, even though it was old. Someone had tried to force the coffin open, but they failed.

"How many locksmiths?"

The man paused, looking confused.

"How many people tried to open this coffin?" I asked, turning my head toward him.

"Is it important for you to know?"

I did not speak and just nodded at him.

"Seven. You’re the eighth person now," the man slowly answered.

"Where are they now?" I asked, turning my eyes back to the small crack.

He did not respond or say anything.

"I see. Now I am wondering whether you hired me or if you want to kill me," I said, gently touching the circular keyhole.

"You’re brave." The man stood up and walked over to my side.

"No. I am not ready to die yet," I muttered and looked at him.

The man laughed softly.

I returned my eyes to the coffin. Those previous locksmiths... I wasn’t sure what happened to them. Were they dead or missing? The man beside me definitely wouldn’t say a word.

That information alone was enough for me to stay alert.

I reached for the pouch on my waist and pulled out a star-iron lockpick and other tools.

"The other locksmiths tried using those things. They won’t work." The man frowned.

"I know. I just need to understand the lock."

Locksmith’s Eye.

The internal patterns of the lock became visible in my eyes. I tried to look around the coffin, but I couldn’t see what was inside. My golden mana threads couldn’t even get through the spatial distortion inside.

The lock had layers, and it was very complex. The inner layers needed physical lockpicking to move the pins.

Open.

A small space opened on my left and right, just enough for my hands to fit through.

"How are you doing that?! Are you sure you’re a locksmith and not a spatial mage?!" The man lost his composure and was completely shocked.

"Will you shut up?! I am concentrating, you know?" I said, focusing on what I was trying to do.

I inserted a thin pick into the inner edge of the keyhole, but nothing happened.

I tried again and moved it slowly.

Click.

The pin pushed up, and the mana inside the vault reacted strangely.

We felt a faint vibration move through the edges of the coffin.

I stopped for a moment, then continued. I tried to move the other pins slowly.

Click.

Click.

Click.

The inner layers were unlocked. I let out a long breath and continued.

I could now see the hidden layer and tried to slowly move the pins.

A vibration of mana came out again, and this time it was stronger. The dust on the keyhole shook and fell to the ground.

I stopped and waited for the vibration to fade. The man was already beside me.

"Why did you stop? You’re almost done, Silvester!" he said desperately.

My eyes narrowed at him.

"This isn’t just a simple spatial coffin." I paused and stood up. "It’s a prison."

The man suddenly fell silent and did not utter a word.

"So you already knew, huh?" I turned back to the lock in front of me.

"What the hell did you lock in there?" I asked in a serious tone.

The man quickly answered. "I didn’t lock anything. It was sold to me."

His voice became colder and somewhat different.

For the first time since I entered the underground tunnel, I felt fear. It was not from the man beside me or the lock in front of me.

An unknown mana was trying to leak out from the inside. It was weak and almost impossible for normal mages to detect, but thanks to my Locksmith’s Eye, I could see the mana threads on the outside trembling.

It resembled the weak mana I had once noticed on the lower floor that I had ignored.

I focused on the pins. I tightened my grip around the lockpick and carefully lifted the pins.

Click.

The coffin vibrated even more. The stones around the coffin shook violently.

The remaining pins lifted themselves. I was puzzled because I had not touched them.

Click.

The masked man behind me stepped back as his mana lantern flickered.

Click.

The sound of another pin clearly echoed in our ears. I quickly stepped away from the vault.

The keyhole began to glow with a thin line of gray light. The man behind me grabbed something in his coat, but I didn’t care what it was.

BOOM!

The coffin shook so violently that dust from the ceiling started to fall.

My eyes widened as the crack at the bottom of the coffin expanded. Something was opening the coffin from the inside. The keyhole glowed brighter than before.

My breath caught as black mana threads started to leak from the keyhole. The threads moved and twisted like fingers.

I stepped back, and the man moved to the front, drawing his sword.

The threads extended farther, and the coffin shook even more.

BOOM!

The mana lantern exploded, and the room filled with darkness. The glowing coffin vanished, and the vibrations suddenly stopped. It was completely silent.

Then a voice whispered from behind the coffin. It was a deep, cold, and terrifying voice that made my hair stand on end.

"You... You’re... alive..."

I used my Locksmith’s Eye to see what it was. My eyes widened as the black mana threads moved quickly toward me.