After wiping his tears, Fairwind looked up and asked, "Once we step into the treasure room, won't my father be alerted?"
Then he turned to Ethan and asked, "By the way, what were you looking for again?"
Ethan replied calmly, "Skills. Something useful. Especially life-saving ones."
Fairwind nodded. "Oh, got it."
With the tension momentarily lifted, Ethan took a few moments to examine their surroundings. The room was compact but well-lit. The walls were all metallic, giving off a cold and fortified feeling. In contrast, a simple wooden cabinet stood quietly against one side of the room, almost out of place in this high-security vault.
The cabinet had a unique design—its upper half was decorated with carved wooden patterns and packed with skill books, while the lower half was tightly shut, hinting at more secrets beneath.
Ethan stepped forward and watched as Fairwind opened the cabinet. Surprisingly, no traps triggered.
Clearly, Fairwind had never been in here before. His expression said it all—uncertainty, curiosity, and nervous excitement. With no particular goal in mind, he began scanning the skill books one by one.
Ethan joined him.
The first book he picked up read:
"Charged Power Slash (Green)."
He grimaced. "Yeah, no thanks."
Next up:
"Windward Slash (Green),"
"Slash with the Trend (Green),"
Ethan sighed again. All seemed basic.
Row after row, the names continued:
"Blazing Fireball (Green),"
"Rapid Wind Blade (Green)."
All green-level—nothing rare, powerful, or even remotely interesting.
Growing slightly frustrated, Ethan asked, "Fairwind, is there anything else here besides skill books?"
Fairwind nodded and opened the lower part of the cabinet. "Yeah, some items and materials down here too… wait—what the heck is that?"
Ethan turned around and froze.
A hand had pierced through the metal vault door. A distorted, grotesque hand—thin, pale, and twitching—began to grope along the inside of the door, feeling around as if searching for a switch.
Then, before their eyes, the hand returned to a normal shape. It was freakishly smooth in motion—too smooth, too unnatural.
The image was nightmare fuel. A single hand creeping through the reinforced door, like something straight out of a horror movie.
Fairwind panicked. He hadn't been watching the door—he'd been crying and caught off guard.
Reacting instinctively, he grabbed his gold-ranked broadsword and brought it down in a wide arc on the invading hand.
CLANG!
It was like striking solid iron. The impact sent a violent shock through his arms, numbing his hands and vibrating all the way up to his shoulders.
The gold-tier broadsword buzzed loudly as if screaming from the blow.
When Fairwind looked at the blade, his heart sank. The edge had dulled.
"This... this blade took down monsters for two whole days without a scratch!" he gasped.
He didn't believe it. With rage and disbelief fueling him, Fairwind struck again. And again. And again. Each time harder than the last, until the skin on his palms split and blood trickled down the hilt.
But no matter how hard he hit it, the arm didn't even show a dent or a scratch.
"This can't be human," Ethan muttered.
Fairwind turned, still panting. "How do you even know the butler's working with them?"
Ethan frowned. "Do you really think now's the time for questions?"
Fairwind blinked, but Ethan went on, voice calm but firm.
"Think back. When those two intruders appeared earlier, did the butler do anything?"
Fairwind thought for a second—then his eyes widened in realization.
Ethan nodded. "Exactly. If it were a normal situation, wouldn't he have shielded you instantly? He didn't move. That's when I knew something was off."
Fairwind was silent.
Ethan turned back toward the door. The arm had stretched further inward—now a whole forearm was through. At this rate, the whole body would squeeze in within minutes.
Ethan's heart dropped. "Fairwind's going to die if we don't act soon..."
---
Meanwhile, outside the vault...
The Bearded Master, one of Ravenshade's elite intelligence officers, watched the monitor intently.
The screen had gone static shortly after the three of them—Ethan, Fairwind, and the dwarf—entered the treasure vault. That meant only one thing: the intruder had disabled the security feed.
That made him anxious. Not only had he lost sight of them, but both Fairwind—the mayor's son—and Ethan—the victor of Ravenshade's recent tournament—were inside. If either of them died, it would trigger a political disaster.
Without wasting time, the master quietly headed toward the last known location—the City Lord's Mansion.
Using his mask's internal HUD system, he accessed the architectural layout of the mansion. "They're headed for... the vault?!"
He found it. The treasure room. And the scene before him was strange.
Through his special binocular lens, he could see the entrance—specifically, a dwarf halfway melted into the vault door.
Not standing next to the door.
Not opening it.
Half fused into it.
"What kind of madness is this?"
He crouched in the shadows, eyes sharp. Just then, he overheard a conversation that immediately escalated the situation.
The butler was speaking in a low, rushed voice: "Hurry! Forget everything else. Those two boys know my true identity—they must die."
The master narrowed his eyes.
But before he could even process it, a voice answered:
"Oh, sorry. That makes three of us now."
"What?"
Suddenly—screaming. The butler cried out in agony.
The Bearded Master stood up immediately and stormed out of the shadows.
"Ethan's in danger. No more hiding."
---
Back inside the vault, Ethan stared at the creeping arm, now at shoulder length. They were running out of time.
Fairwind, shaking and bleeding, gritted his teeth.
"Any ideas?"
Ethan didn't respond right away. He was thinking. Planning.
They had no heavy artillery. No high-tier skills. No way to disable the monster's body from inside the vault.
And worse—
They had no escape route.
"Fairwind," Ethan finally said, "if I distract it... can you find a trapdoor, tunnel, anything in the lower cabinet?"
Fairwind hesitated. "You want me to leave you?!"
"Don't argue," Ethan said sternly. "If you die here, the mayor will raze the entire mansion. Ravenshade will fall into chaos. Just find us a way out. I'll hold it off."
Fairwind nodded, reluctantly, and began tearing through the items below—scrolls, potions, strange artifacts.
Ethan turned back to the intruder. The shoulder was now visible. Then the neck.
And just as the creature's face started to peek in—
BOOM!
The vault wall exploded behind them.
The Bearded Master had arrived.
He stepped through the smoke, weapons drawn, and shouted, "Back away from the door!"
Without hesitation, he launched a powerful chain hook straight at the creature's neck, yanking it violently and knocking it halfway back out the vault door.
"Fairwind! Ethan! Move!"
Ethan grabbed Fairwind's arm. The younger boy still clutched a scroll he'd just found—something sealed in a crystal casing.
"Could be useful later," Ethan muttered, dragging him out.
They ran. Behind them, the vault collapsed with a deafening roar as the Bearded Master activated a trap meant for intruders.
And as the dust settled—
The creature's body was nowhere to be seen.
---
End of Chapter 57
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