Picking up Girls With My System

Chapter 36

A voice called Arthur during the night. He did not know what it was, but made him curious. If he was still the old weak Arthur, then surely he wouldn’t go out alone in a dangerous place like that island.

The thing is, he’s not weak anymore. Arthur is a mighty dragon, and there was no way common magical beasts would scare him. With that in mind, he stealthily left their improvised shelter and followed the mysterious voice.

“Don’t worry about me. I’ll be right back.” thought Arthur. Kai and Sully were in deep sleep, tired of the 7 day trip, especially Kai, who was not a fan of ships, so they did not sense Arthur’s departure.

The forest was so dense it almost had no lights. Even the moonlight couldn’t touch it. Only crazy people would go out alone during the night, and people with night-vision, like Arthur.

He walked through the woods carefully to not draw too much attention, or the beasts that hunt during the night would get to him.

It was as if someone was right in front of him saying something, but there was no one. He kept following the strange voice until he arrived at a place with multiple rocks. These rocks had different shapes and sizes, and looked like they were part of the environment and not man-made.

The voice lead Arthur to one of these huge rocks, and then it stopped. He could no longer hear this strange voice, but he was sure it had to be something.

“Well, let’s move this rock, then.”

Arthur got closer to the rock. He bent his knees and grabbed the rock. All the strength from his body came to use, yet the rock stood still.

“I can’t lift this shit. Fuck. Let’s pushed it.”

He returned to his normal position, and instead of trying to grab it from beneath, he put his hands at eyes height and tried to push the rock. Sweat dripped from his forehead, and his legs went numb after pushing too hard, but he did it.

The huge rock moved, and Arthur had his mouth open after seeing what was beneath it. A staircase leading to an underground area. It was presumably the place where the good stuff was, and that voice was the one who led him there.

.

“Is it a trap? I don’t know, but we must enter either way.” He thought for some time and headed back to his improvised shelter. On his way back, Arthur carved the trees to remember the path the next morning. It was almost a straight line, so there was no way he would get lost, but he marked just in case.

When Arthur returned, he saw both Sully and Kai were still asleep. Well, Sully noticed Arthur’s arrival, and asked him what happened.

“Lord, why are you up this late?”

“You will not believe me.”

“Try me.”

“I woke up in the middle of the night with a mysterious voice inside my head. I couldn’t understand a single thing it said, but I followed the voice. And by doing that, I found the place where the treasures are.”

“What? Hm, maybe you ate a mushroom around here? I should warn Kai to be careful.” Sully fell asleep again…

Arthur also tried to sleep, but the anxiety of exploring that place made him unable to do so, at least not before staring at the roof for two hours.

~~~~

Morning came, and they were up. A new day of exploration would not start, because Arthur already knew the way.

“Wait, you were serious? I found it was a joke or the effect of mushrooms.”

“Do you think a mushroom would cause hallucinations to me? A dragon?”

“Now that I think about it…”

Kai found the voice strange, and could only think it was a trap. Arthur had also thought about that, but it was worth the shot. Rewards only came at a high risk. The place could not be ordinary, or else it wouldn’t be beneath a rock almost impossible to move.

“Lead the way, boss.” Kai said.

Arthur took the lead and returned to the place he had been the night before. It went smoothly, and no beast attacked them on their way. In fact, Sully and Arthur sensed that there were no beasts around.

It looked like this strange area filled with rocks was a dangerous or prohibited place. Perhaps it was the territory of another powerful beast? Who knows?

“Look, this is the rock, and that’s the staircase.” Arthur said as he pointed to the huge rock he pushed. Kai went near it and tried to push it, too.

“Damn. How did you even move this thing?”

“Workout my disciple, workout.” He flexed his biceps to show off, but no one understood what he was doing.

They stared at the staircase for a while, thinking if it was a good idea to go down, and in the end, they did. Arthur went in front, followed by Kai. Sully could not fit in the staircase, so he returned to Arthur’s pockets.

It was a narrow staircase, and they had to walk in line. A single misstep could make all of them to fall, so they descended slowly to prevent that. Both the stairs and the walls surrounding them were of rock. The walls had moss hanging on it, and a few holes from time to time. It was a proof that the place was old.

The staircase lead to another corridor, but this one was way larger, and could fit all of them. Everything was pitch-black. It was not a problem for Sully and Arthur, but Kai could see nothing.

Arthur saw torches hanging on the walls. They were old, and it was strange the wood was still around after who knows how long. He grabbed it and asked Sully to shoot a small bolt of lighting, to light up the torch. It worked, and now Kai could see as well.

“Thank god. How did you find this torch, anyway? Maybe you can see in the dark? Haha, that’s impossible, right?” Kai said.

After that problem vanished, they continued forward to explore more. The corridor was not long, and they quickly arrived in an open room.

This room was far different from the corridor. It had some statues for decoration, as well as some furniture. There was also a strange symbol on the ground, as well as two pillars.

“What is this?”

It was the only room. There was no way they could move forward after that. Arthur quickly understood this room had some sort of secret they needed to solve in order to keep going.

“Typical dungeon. Now we have to solve this mystery to continue.” thought Arthur.

Behind these two pillars, there was a wall. Just by looking at it, Arthur could sense it was a hidden passage. The pillars and also the mysterious symbol in front of it gave it away.

The only problem was, how would they activate the hidden passage? Arthur knew they would stay there for a while, so he grabbed more torches and lit them all up to light the place properly.

“Hm, where should we start?”

~~~~

Claridge and his men were searching the woods during the day, but could find nothing out of the ordinary. There were already some casualties, and two of the people he hired died to the beasts.

Differently from Claridge, who couldn’t find a thing, the people with masks and tunics reached the rocky area Arthur found. The leader scanned the place and noticed the huge rock who was not in the place it should be.

“Our information was correct. The demon told us the place would be beneath this area, but why is the entrance not hidden? Did someone find it before us? This is impossible.”

Another high-ranking member who was with the leader said, “It looks like it. We need to look.”

“Yes, we do. The entrance is too narrow and the low-ranking members will only slow us. Gather only the strongest, and tell the low-ranking members to hide the entrance after we go in.”

“Leave it to me.” The high-ranked member bowed and left.

“Who could it be?” thought the leader, who was still in a daze.

~~~~

“It must have something to do with these statues. What do you think, Kai?”

Arthur was looking for ways to unlock the hidden passage, and the only thing he could think of was these strange statues.

“I mean, it has to be. It wouldn’t make sense to open a hidden passage by moving this old rusty table or chairs.”

“Yeah, wait.” Arthur noticed how the symbol in front of the pillars had squares with similar sizes of the statues’ bases. It couldn’t be a coincidence, and it was actually quite obvious.

“And here I was thinking this was a clever puzzle. What a shame!”

Arthur pushed the different statues into the squares around the symbol. Each one of them fit perfectly, and once all of them were in place, the room trembled.

The wall behind both pillars opened, showcasing a new corridor. But it was not all sunshines and rainbow. As the room trembled, the roof came down to crush them. It had spikes as well, and would kill them instantly.

“Fuck, run!” Arthur yelled. He grabbed Kai, who wouldn’t make it by himself, and ran towards the door that had just opened.

It was getting closer and closer, but they reached it just in time.

“That was close, damn.” Arthur laid on the ground, and Kai was near him.

It was a trap that activated after they unlocked the hidden passage. The roof, who just had gone down, went up, and then down again.

“At least this will slow the treasure hunt party once they find this place. Let’s keep moving!”

~~~~

“What just happened?” The leader of The Doom Order heard the noises coming from down there and felt the ground tremble.

“We have to go down there to look. I think whoever found this place is getting near the treasures. We can’t let this happen.”

A party of 6 high-ranked members and the leader went down to explore the place.