[Higher Demon Sikonoth was slain, Demon Core Obtained.]
Luke knelt down, threw some of the demon's ashes aside with his right hand, and picked up the core. In his big hand, that thing felt so small and fragile. He looked at Hazor and then at Meredith, they both seemed to agree that it belonged to him, after all, he was the great protagonist of the battle.
As Luke didn't expect to get the core either, he thought better of it and put it in his pocket to ingest later, after all they were still in the presence of an enemy.
"Later I'll see what I'm going to do with it. Now, before we talk, let's finish our main quest." Luke said and looked at the Bishop, who was still being held back by a magical barrier created by Hazor.
Deeply wounded and looking scared now, the Bishop might try to beg forgiveness with his crooked mouth, that the half-wolf would still choose to kill him. However, Luke had other plans in mind before executing him. Luke approached him with an evil grin, grabbed him by the collar and lifted him with one hand like a bag of vegetables.
"Point the direction of the safe." Ordered the Half-wolf.
The Bishop swallowed some saliva and pointed to his back, where the stone throne was. Immediately, Luke looked at Hazor, who got the message and went to the throne to check.
As Hazor approached the throne, he realized how old it was. The stone was already a little chipped due to age, the mold had already dominated the feet and the smell of sulfur was impregnated in the place. Despite all this, there was something even more striking about the throne, something that could only be seen up close. There was an almost imperceptible square-shaped bump on the back, and Hazor felt he wouldn't have noticed it if he hadn't been looking for something.
The old man ran his hand over the relief and it moved a little, but nothing happened. 'Maybe I have to apply a little more force?' He theorized and pressed the relief well.
The moment the relief on the throne was pressed down, the entire common room shook, and something began to drag in the open area of ??the throne. As dust fell from the ceiling, Luke and Meredith approached the throne after seeing Hazor's signal calling them.
"What did you do? Triggered a trap?" the half-wolf asked, walking up the stairs.
"Something much better." Hazor promptly responded.
As the two half-beasts reached the top of the stairs, their eyes widened. There was a hatch to a place where there was so much treasure that the golden glow of the coins practically blinded them. Immediately, the three looked at each other and jumped into the safe without much thought.
Inside, the vault was even larger and astounding. There were mountains of gold coins and various other treasures, such as crowns, jugs, swords, chalices, necklaces and various valuable objects.
"Oww!" Meredith exclaimed excitedly. As she was a former wagon thief, facing a treasure so vast that it could easily have belonged to an entire nation made her feel like she was in a dream. "Luke, is this all ours now?"
The half-wolf didn't even bother to answer that, he crossed his arms, nodded and repeatedly said, "Without a doubt, we'll take everything we can carry."
Soon, Luke removed the bags of food from his inventory, handed one to Meredith, and together they looked at the piles of money with so much love they could drool. However, before they could start grabbing everything they could, Hazor grabbed them by the collar.
"Wait a second... You're going to help me look for the Cursed Item before anything else." he said strictly.
"Alright..." The two had to agree.
Hazor smiled in satisfaction, though the two half-beasts were dismayed, and continued, "You must look for a flashy item. The ten cursed items are very different from each other, but there is none that is a sword, nor a coin, nor a necklace, otherwise, it may be all there is here. Pay close attention to the energy that each thing emits, through that we get to know the history of each object."
Luke and Meredith didn't quite understand the old man's explanation, but they agreed and they split up. The Bishop was still trapped by Hazor's containment, so there was no risk, after all, the Church's underground was already empty.
Inside the vault, the entire floor was lined with gold coins and Luke was stepping on them with great pity, at the same time looking at things of interest and putting some in his bag without letting Hazor notice. The place was shaped like a circle, and there were some really nice columns supporting the ceiling, which was actually the floor of the common room.
'What did he mean by feeling the energy of objects?' Luke reflected after taking in his hand a crown decorated with sapphires and emeralds.
Certainly, there was something different about the cursed items, Luke felt it each time he picked it up and touched each of the three he collected in the vaults protected by corruption. However, each time he felt something different, sensations similar in some ways, but definitely very different.
'I'll definitely notice when it happens.' Luke shrugged and concluded. He was tired and not in the mood to think for long.
A minute later, he found something that caught his attention, a trunk. This chest was iron and larger than most, not to mention there was a lizard around the keyhole. The moment Luke found this chest, his pupils turned to two gold coins, and his heart raced.
'A cool chest inside a vault full of riches, this can only mean extremely valuable treasure.' He thought and bent down to see the lock.
The half-wolf was never lucky enough to find a chest in such a mysterious place, not even in his days as an adventurer in Vasconcelos Dungeon.
After meticulously looking at the lock, the former thief realized that it wouldn't be a challenge for his skilled hands, however, he didn't have a lock pick at the moment, so he would have to force it open. He placed one hand on the trunk lid, the other on the lock and began to pry both sides simultaneously.
As the lock on the iron chest burst, the sound alerted Hazor and Meredith, who ran towards the burst.
"Hey, Luke! What was this?" Meredith had her purse full of gold coins and objects.
Hazor looked at her, looked at her bag, shook her head and also looked at Luke for an answer.
The half-wolf was practically with his entire back inside a metal trunk, so his voice was muffled when he answered them. "I'm looking for the Cursed Item inside, but there's nothing, go back to your business."
Both Meredith and Hazor frowned but understood that Luke wanted to be alone and respected that.
After hearing his companions leave, Luke took the body out of the chest and with this same movement he removed a part of the items that were in the chest. The item he took out was an enormous jacket whose black steel shoulder pads merged magnificently with the bracelets, using steel plates ordered in size to ensure a more refined finish. The fabric of this jacket was also very good, it was thick, but Luke managed to feel soft to the touch, indicating that it was also cool for warmer times and would warm up in colder times. There was also a kind of wolf fur scarf around the neck and shoulder pads, which served to protect during cold weather.
Luke was impressed by the beauty of that reinforced jacket. During intense battles like the one against the Tenth Servant, the half-wolf usually missed the security of armor and that jacket perfectly fit the requirements he wanted, moreover, it was quite a stylish component.
Lucky for Luke, inside the chest was also the rest of the armor set. The lower part had an all-black pants whose fabric was even more reinforced than the jacket, knee pads, boots, belt and thigh protection all made of black steel, one of the strongest ores available for forging.
The moment Luke thought about putting it on, he felt a sudden shiver and he immediately knew the Cursed Item was nearby. He looked into the dark chest and noticed that there was a thick ring with a dark green jewel glowing at the bottom. It was not possible to see such a ring before because it was under all the clothes.
"Meredith and Old Man, come here!" he exclaimed.
"Without a doubt, this is what we were looking for." Hazor declared upon seeing the item in the half-wolf's palm.
The aura of danger that the ring emitted was unique and gave all people who approached it the order not to approach.
"Okay, we found it, but what do we do with this ring? Can we put it on?" asked the half-fox and boldly reached out to take it.
"No, never do that." Hazor warned her, then he sighed and looked at the half-wolf. "During the battle you learned about my relationship with the First Servant, didn't you? I will reveal not only this to you, but everything I know."
The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l