Chapter 188 (2/19): The Three Gates
Since he became a captain of an A-rank party, Beitra had never felt such humiliation before. With the exception of the lord of the city the Regalius Litha was based in, everyone had to show him some respect. His only superior was the leader of the party, and his equals were the other captains.
So when his leader told him to lead the First Division and complete this mission, he thought that he’d be in charge as he always had. At most, he’d have a person that was his equal, another captain-equivalent from another A-rank party, that he’d be able to discuss things with.
Who would’ve thought that some people from a puny C-rank party would dare go up against him? They were strong, yes, but they were only three, compared to the half-hundred elites he brought with him.
That was before he knew of Ismelda’s identity.
Beitra could only swallow his anger from being humiliated and resume his duties as the captain of his division. Through that mess of a situation, his status in the overall coalition dropped from the de facto leader to a clown. He wasn’t sure if he was imagining it, but even the way his own subordinates looked at him seemed off.
The worse thing was, Ismelda didn’t even care about him after putting him through something like this. Even now, she was talking as if nothing had happened at all.
“Alright, so now that we’ve confirmed that nothing’s wrong with the mana wall,” Ismelda said, raising her voice so that everyone could hear, “let's continue on. Stone elementals, please proceed, but be careful about any dangers. The mana past the wall is extremely dense and can possibly hide some dangers.”
The only thing that made Beitra feel better was that the stone elementals all looked toward him for confirmation. Although he didn’t want to go along with Ismelda’s plan, he still had his dignity as a hunter. He couldn’t just order his party to abandon the mission because of some personal grudge.
Scowling, he nodded. “Go on.” And then he sat back, clearly not about to personally tunnel anymore. The seven stone elementals moved out from the ranks of the Regalius Litha hunters and crossed the mana wall with barely any hesitation. Beitra nodded at their discipline.
Soon, the tunneling was well underway once more. Although the tunnels that his subordinates made were not as strong as his, and they worked slower as individuals, there were still seven of them, so they moved along at a respectable speed. The tunnel was wider too.
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Camilla moved back to stand with Kagriss, walking behind the tunneling team. “Do you think we went too far this time?” she whispered. “He totally deserved it, but he’s probably fuming. I’d be angry too.”
Kagriss shrugged. “He should’ve known who he can mess with and who he can’t. He probably just thought that even if Ismelda is beyond his reach, he can still get back at her through us, and that she couldn’t do anything about it since they had more people.”
“Heh. And in the end, it backfired on him.” Camilla nodded with satisfaction. “People who bully others using their status really are the worst, aren’t they?”
“…Yeah.” Kagriss didn’t bother pointing out the times that Camilla did it too.
“By the way, don’t you think something feels off?” Camilla asked, looking around. “I feel like something is abnormal, but I don’t know what.”
Kagriss nodded. At that moment, Ismelda, who had been listening in to their conversation, chimed in. “What you’re feeling is spatial magic,” she said. “Ever since we passed the mana wall, space has been stretched. It’s taking longer for us to travel a certain distance than it normally would.”
Camilla's eyes widened. “What?! Why didn't you say anything? Isn't that bad?”
Ismelda shrugged. “Not really,” she said. “Many dungeons have altered space in order to take up more or less area, or to guide any invaders toward areas of higher density mana, so it's not surprising that this dungeon would be the same.”
“…I see…” So in the end, she was just being a bumpkin? “I thought spatial magic was rare?”
“It is. You usually only see it in natural structures like dungeons. In all of vampire territory, there is only one mage that can use spatial magic. She’s the one that enchants our teleporters.”
“Okay… Is that why no one said anything? Because stretched space is normal here?” Camilla asked.
“Once you’ve been to a few places like this, you don’t get surprised anymore. Not to mention most of the people here are from B-ranked parties, so they’re quite experienced. You and Kagriss are probably the only people not aware of basic knowledge like these.”
“Well, I’m sorry for being new to this line of work,” Camilla muttered. It wasn’t like she was going to be in it for much longer. Once all this is over, she’s going to find a steadier job as a teacher or tutor in magic, or something, in some place out of the way.
Before long, the tunnelers broke through something and light shone in through the hole. The elemental stopped immediately and peered through the hole. “Reporting! We found a chamber of some kind ahead!”
Ismelda looked at Camilla, as if to say, “I told you so.”
Camilla didn’t think that they’d be so lucky as to accidentally chance upon a chamber either, so it was the dungeon’s spatial magic at work, guiding them toward the chamber. Although according to Ismelda it was as simple as taking someone from a location of lower mana density to higher mana density, it still made her uncomfortable to know that her actions were being influenced by something. It was almost like the dungeon was gathering prey.
“What do you see?” Beitra asked, shoving between the tunnelers and Ismelda, not giving the latter a chance to speak.
Camilla rolled her eyes at the obvious attempt to steal back power.
“It looks to be a circular chamber that’s maybe twenty meters wide,” the elemental said. “There’s three sets of doors on the other side.”
“Doors? Do you see any mana beasts or people? Like the ones that disappeared before us.”
The elemental shook his head. “No threats sighted. I don’t feel anything either. The doors are blocking my senses from passing through.”
Beitra nodded. “Alright then, let's go through.” The stone elementals scrambled out of his way and Beitra personally molded a huge hole in the wall, baring the chamber for all to see. The coalition filed into the chamber, looking around with equal parts curiosity and caution.
Far from being interesting, the chamber looked like it was a natural cavern, with uneven ceilings and walls. The only thing artificial about it was how the cavern looked almost like a perfect dome, as well as the three huge gates of black iron sitting quietly at the other side of the chamber.
“There’s nothing here.”
“Nothing except for those doors, at least.”
The hunters quickly began to discuss their surroundings while Camilla kept her mouth shut and listened. Since she was so ignorant about the profession, she might as well listen to what the people more experienced have to say.
“I guess the real dungeon starts here. I wonder what’s beyond those doors. What kind of dungeon is this anyway?” One of the hunters scratched his head. “I don’t feel any kind of special mana. Just raw, and some trace wind mana.”
“Same here, but I just feel fire. Not a lot, though, so it’s probably not a dungeon of fire.”
“It might be earth. That mana is quite abundant, and plus, we’re in the middle of a mountain,” a stone elemental said. The other hunters nodded in agreement. If none of the other elements were likely, then it could only be stone.
Right as the hunters were becoming satisfied with their conclusion, another dumped cold water over their enthusiasm. “Even if we know what kind of dungeon it is, so what? We’ll know anyway once we begin. The only real question is which of the three doors to choose…what’s the difference?” The hunter looked troubled by the choice. “I have a bad history with choosing entrances…”
Another hunter winced. “Same… you never know which one is the right door. Last time I went into a dungeon, it turned out that the one we picked was by far the most dangerous, but the beast inside ate all the valuable plants so we had nothing to show for it except for the actual beast. The entrance my mates picked was pretty much completely safe and they collected a bunch of herbs and sold them for a good amount of money.”
He received a bunch of sympathetic looks, as well as a few sighs. Evidently, his experience wasn’t unique and was quite common too.
Which brings up the question of which of these gates was the correct one? Camilla grimaced as she investigated them, but she couldn’t make heads or tails of the formations. “Kagriss, did you get anything?”
“No. As far as I can tell, all three gates are the same. They’re made of the same material and have the same formations that’s focused on blocking detection from this side. I know that there are other formations, but the blockers are disrupting me.” Kagriss’s mouth twitched in annoyance.
As expected, Kagriss was so reliable. “So from here, there’s no way to tell, right? The doors look plain too, so I don’t think they’re offering any hints.” Camilla sighed. “I guess we’re just going to pick one at random?’
“Normally, yes, but we’re not working alone right now,” Kagriss said, pointing behind her. Camilla turned to find Beitra staring at the two of them and Ismelda. His eyes were narrowed, and he didn’t even bother to hide that he still bore a grudge against them.
Camilla rolled her eyes at him. “What’s he getting up to now?”
“Who knows?”
Soon, another meeting was called, with the subject being the three doors. There wasn’t much to discuss about the doors themselves, but like always, there was disagreement.
“I think we should all go through the same door. Strength in numbers!” one of the B-rank leaders said.
Immediately, someone dissented. “That’s a dumb idea. We’re here to investigate the magic and hopefully save the hunters that came before us. How can you guarantee that what we need isn’t in one of the other gates?”
“Yeah! Plus, there’s two hundred of us here. Will what we find in one branch be enough to go around?” In the end, what there was to gain was always first on some people’s minds.
“We can always clear one and then move back,” the first leader said.
“Normally, I’d agree with you, but these are gates, not open caves. Who knows if they’ll close behind us or not? What if the opening mechanism is in only one of the gates and we pick the wrong one? We’ll be trapped forever!”
“Please, this is a dungeon, not some kind of manmade fortress. What kind of dungeon would include that kind of complex mechanism?” someone from Trista said. He looked younger than the others.
“Dungeons often copy us, especially if they were located on an old, abandoned settlement. You’d never know.”
The other leaders nodded in agreement and the Trista party leader flushed in embarrassment.
“Since that kind of trap may very well exist, I guess it’s decided that we’ll split our forces into three.” Beitra spoke up, looking around at everyone except Ismelda. “No complaints, correct?”
What can anyone else say? Did Beitra really have to state the obvious conclusion and act like he was in charge? Who died and made him boss when there was a vampire lord sitting right there? Despite the dissatisfaction that the leaders not from Trista had with Beitra, they said nothing because Ismelda wasn’t complaining.
Beitra smiled in satisfaction. “In that case, let's split our troops. There’s a bit less than two hundred of us here. Seventy of us are from Trista, of which I’m leader, so I’ll take the middle path for us.”
The other leaders frowned. Many of them had been eyeing the middle gate. It was a basic instinct to want to go the middle route, yet Beitra claimed it without discussion. They looked to Ismelda, hoping that she’ll act as a voice of reason.
However, Ismelda shrugged, seemingly not caring. “Celrantis has forty people. We’ll take one or two more parties from another city and take another path. That leaves the other cities forming a coalition and taking the third path.” She stopped, as if ending her speech. But then she turned her sharp eyes toward Beitra. “That said, I don’t think you should decide on your own which path you want.”
Beitra’s smile froze on his face and he gritted his teeth. “First come first served.”
“We were all here at the same time,” Ismelda said. “So we should draw lots. Everyone agrees?”
The other leaders almost applauded Ismelda’s words. Without her, they’d have to suffer in silence under Beitra’s tyranny and bias, but now… was there anything fairer than drawing lots?
“Well, how do you propose we draw, then?” Beitra crossed his arms. “Who knows if you’ll cheat.”
“I do have an idea,” Ismelda said. She extended one of her nails and knelt down on the ground, drawing three lines into the stone. “The rules are simple. Each of us here adds a horizontal line, and then each coalition sends one representative to choose a starting point. Finally, we trace a line down, following each horizontal line, matching the destination with the starting point. Does that sound okay?”
The leaders looked confused, but they nodded anyway.
With a smile, Ismelda added the first line and moved aside. One by one, the other nine leaders drew a line. After the three representatives picked, Ismelda, in front of everyone, matched the starting points with the destination.
The process was shown to everyone and there was nothing anyone could point out that things weren’t fair. At the end of the lots, Ismelda and the Celrantis team took the right gate. Beitra and the Trista team took the left gate. The remaining teams formed a coalition and took the center path, and each of their faces was filled with glee. Meanwhile, Beitra’s face was stormy gray.
Camilla hugged Ismelda when she found out how Ismelda ruined Beitra’s plans. “Good work!”
“I just did what was right,” Ismelda said before looking smugly at Kagriss, who was looking just as upset as Beitra. “Alright, let’s get ready.”
The leaders each lead their teams and coalition to stand in front of their assigned gate. “On three!”
“Two!”
“One!”
“Go!”
The three gates were pushed open at once and the mana within flooded out. A wave of heat washed over Camilla as she beheld the glowing red rocks within the right gate. At the same time, she felt a wave of holy magic coming from her left. She snapped her head toward the source, only smelling the earthy scent of earth magic coming from the gate that the Trista team stood before.
Camilla’s eyes widened. Although the gate that Beitra stood before was filled with earth mana, the holy mana that accompanied it could not be more obvious. Yet, she was once again the only one who could feel it.
She tugged on Ismelda’s sleeve. “Switch with Beitra!”
Ismelda glanced at her, full of confusion. “What? Why?”
“There’s holy magic coming from that gate!” she hissed. Ismelda’s brows furrowed at that.
The middle gate coalition had already entered and Beitra looked like he was about to go as well. Ismelda hurriedly stopped him. “Wait! Do you want to switch gates?” she called.
Beitra sneered at her. “Oh, now you want to switch. This gate suits me just fine, though. Too late!”
Ismelda glared at him, flaring her mana. Beitra paled. But before Ismelda could summon her weapon, Camilla stopped her.
“Wait, what if you just let me go with you? Beitra?”
The stone elemental looked at her with suspicion. “You? Why?”
“I have a feeling that something’s important there,” Camilla said honestly.
“Then all the more reason to not let you go.”
Camilla frowned and let go of Ismelda’s arm. That curved blade appeared in her hand. “Two choices, Beitra. You can fight us here and the winner goes, or you let Camilla go with you and I’ll pay you ten thousand bloodstones after we’re out.”
With a carrot and a stick presented in front of him, Beitra chose the carrot without hesitation. It totally wasn’t because he was afraid of the stick. He averted his eyes and coughed. “Well, if it’s ten thousand bloodstones, then I suppose.” He looked at Camilla and a small smile graced his lips.
Despite knowing that she was stepping into a wolf’s den, Camilla nodded toward Ismelda and walked toward Beitra’s gate. Kagriss followed a step behind her. Camilla looked at her but didn’t tell her to go back.
She knew it was an exercise in futility. Just like how she wanted to protect Kagriss, at the same time, there was no way that Kagriss was ever going to let her head into danger alone. She could only take comfort in Kagriss’s reliable, steadfast presence.
Without another word, Beitra turned and led his team into the gate. Ismelda took one last look at them and disappeared into the fiery right gate. As Camilla entered the gate, trailing the Trista team, she couldn’t help but wonder if this was the same sight that Lavitte’s party saw, if he and his party went through the same gate they did.