A Little Treasure Hunt

Lying on my bed and gazing at the ring, I discovered a cipher that seemed to indicate where treasure was hidden.

This meant we had no choice but to go treasure hunting.

――The next day.

After breakfast, Primula was carried to the city on Nyamena's back as planned.

"Nyamena, what a shame you can't come treasure hunting."

"Well――I'm in the young lady's employ, after all. Show me the treasure when you find it."

"Of course."

After seeing Primula and Nyamena off, Myaree, Anemone, and I climbed the scaffolding toward the top of the cliff.

Beside the scaffolding was the huge hole where I had mined the rhodonite.

"Kenichi, isn't there any stone left in that hole?"

"There seems to be some left, but digging any deeper would be difficult. Even if we spent money and effort mining it, there wouldn't be much to show for it."

If only I could easily blast it open... Explosives?

Come to think of it, that old man had used Explosive Magic—Explosion when we defeated Shaga.

I wonder if it was possible to use magic for blasting?

There were all sorts of things I wanted to try.

"I'm not good with calculations, nya~."

Well, a beastwoman who wasn't good at math probably wouldn't understand things like the break-even point.

She was carrying a bow on her back. It was a small bow that could fire rapidly. The large compound bow I had lent her was too powerful and shot straight through birds.

With just enough power to lodge an arrow in a bird, we could recover the arrows and use them again.

These arrows were handmade by the two of them as well. They apparently couldn't be treated as disposable, since they had required a fair amount of time, effort, and skill.

Even though they couldn't calculate things like the break-even point, they instinctively understood that too much waste would mean losing money overall.

We passed through the grass covering the top of the cliff and entered the forest.

Like the forest below, it was dark between the trees, and no undergrowth grew on the ground covered in leaf mold, but there were no giant trees in sight.

All the trees were short.

There was a hole above the area where the cave spider we had killed had been.

Maybe there was a hole hidden under the leaf mold like a pitfall. I walked carefully, probing the ground with a stick.

"Kenichi, you're so cautious, nya."

"Say what you want, but it would be a disaster if there were a hole. We'd die if we fell from this height. Don't you come here to hunt without watching where you're going?"

"I'm fine, nya."

Beastfolk physical abilities might make it okay for them, but... After proceeding through the dark forest for a while, we came out near the cliff again.

Myaree came here all the time, so I followed her lead, but... beastfolk walked fast too.

But I couldn't bring out the off-road motorcycle here. Well, I could, but... I was afraid of holes.

Muttering to myself, I reached the edge of the cliff.

Here, the cliff jutted out like a cape. If there was anywhere closest to Astrantia from which you could look over the city, this had to be it.

In fact, I could see all of Astrantia from here.

"All right, this must be the place! Search around here for something."

"Something? What something, nya?"

"I don't know. It says to put the ring into an eye, so maybe it's a stone statue or something."

"Okay, got it!"

We started searching for something, but the deep grass, as tall as a person, completely blocked our view.

"Anemone, watch out for the edge of the cliff. And snakes."

Even on top of a cliff like this, there were snakes and mice, though I had no idea where they had come from.

Maybe a fissure extended from somewhere like the cave where the spider had lived all the way up to the top of the cliff.

But Myaree, who had heard Anemone and me talking, jumped.

"A snake?! Where is it?! Where, where, nya?!"

"Wait, wait, calm down. I said to watch out for snakes."

"Fnyuu~"

I had known since we were in the Dalia Forest that beastfolk apparently hated snakes. It wasn't just her; the men hated snakes too.

We continued searching for something, parting the grass again and again.

"Hey, find anything?"

"No."

"Nothing, nya~."

"Damn, should I cut down the grass...? Then we'd see everything at a glance. Hey! I'm going to use a magic tool to cut the grass, so stay back."

"Okay!"

"Got it, nya!"

I took a grass cutter out of my Item Box and started the engine. To be safe, I had chosen one with a retractable nylon trimmer line.

It cut the grass by whirling the line around. The grass around here was soft, so it was more than sufficient.

I cut down the grass covering the entire area with a deafening, rattling roar.

The cut grass could be used as fertilizer, so I had Anemone and Myaree bundle it up.

After about an hour of cutting grass, we finally found it――a fifty-centimeter-high stone statue. It looked a bit like a totem pole.

But it wasn't modeled after a person. It was probably modeled after a bird of prey, perhaps an owl.

"Is this it, nya?"

"Probably."

"I wonder what's going to come out! I'm so excited!"

"So I put the ring into its eye? Maybe there's a small magic stone set in the ring, and it'll react as a key."

For now, I fitted the ring into the hole in the statue's eye... and the statue began sliding backward from its pedestal.

Huh, this was just like an RPG fetch quest.

"Whoa! This is pretty high-tech. We could make an automatic door with this."

"High-tech? Automatic door? What's that?"

"Um, a door that opens without using your hands."

"Ah, I've heard of things like that, nya~. Apparently, they have them in mages' homes or something, nya."

So they did exist here after all. People really did think alike.

I took an LED light out of my Item Box and shone it into the black opening left by the statue sliding aside. I also poked around with a stick.

It would be a disaster if there were a trap.

"Seems safe."

"Kenichi, you're so worried, nya."

Ignoring Myaree's comment, I cautiously reached my hand into the black hole. There was something inside――a box?

I pulled out the box-like object that had been standing upright, and sure enough, it was a box painted brown.

It was fairly heavy...

"What's this brown stuff?"

Myaree sniffed it.

"Probably dried tree sap, nya."

"Something like pine resin..."

"Nya."

It was probably coated with it to protect the box buried in the ground from moisture.

I took a knife from my Item Box and scraped away the resin.

"But this is pretty heavy. If it's not stone, it might be gold coins."

"Nya-nya!"

Unlike Myaree, who was delighted, Anemone gazed at the box with interest. Her expression suggested she was hoping for something other than gold coins inside.

I inserted the knife into the gap in the lid and pried it open.

"Now, I wonder what's inside."

"I'm excited!" "Nyaa~!"

"Hrrrraaah!"

I threw open the lid, and inside was a book――and something in a bag. The bag was surprisingly heavy, so maybe it contained gold coins.

But the book...

"Is this a grimoire?"

"Really?"

I opened the pages. There was all sorts of writing, and at the end, there was a spell.

"O edge of the abyss leading to the hollow void beyond――this is Explosive Magic—Explosion."

The old man who had blown away the fortress gate when we attacked Shaga's hideout had chanted the same spell.

I handed the grimoire to Anemone, and she read through it intently.

"O edge of the abyss leading to the hollow void beyond――"

"Whoa! Wait, wait! Let's try the magic somewhere safer than here, okay?"

"Got it."

Whew... Once she began chanting a spell, she entered a trance and couldn't be stopped.

I really would have had no choice but to punch her to stop her.

It would be bad if she let it off here and caused the cliff to collapse.

The bag that had come out with it contained gold and silver coins. Ten gold coins and twelve silver coins. That was an extraordinary haul for half a day's work.

And as usual, Myaree said she didn't need a share.

"You really don't want any?"

"I don't, nya~. It would've been better if the treasure chest had a more interesting gimmick, nya~."

"What kind of interesting gimmick?"

"Something where a golem activates after you take the treasure, nya."

"That would be even worse!"

But then, blue light suddenly spread from the spot where the statue had stood.

"What?"

We gathered in one place and looked around as the earth began bulging and churning.

Something like a white rod emerged from the ground, gradually revealing its form.

It was covered in dirt, and I couldn't make out its shape well, but... bones? Yes, bones rose to their feet and began shambling toward us.

"Is that a skeleton?!"

"Walking bones, nya! Magic is making this move too, nya."

It was a mystery how something consisting of nothing but bones, with dubious joints and no muscles, could move, but move it did――and it was even clutching a rusted sword.

"Mmm!"

"Wait, wait! If you use Flames of Wrath—Fireball here, it'll set the cut grass on fire!"

"Arrows won't work on bones, nya!"

It moved slowly, so maybe we could just run away? ――Just as I was thinking that, the skeleton swung its sword down at us.

"Look out!"

It was surprisingly fast! I figured Myaree and I could get away on the motorcycle.

The bones came clattering eerily toward us――but it would be bad in all sorts of ways if we left something like this wandering around the forest.

It would interfere with hunting and gathering medicinal herbs. If that was the case, we had no choice but to fight!

"Summon Yu○bo!"

I sat on the steel partner that appeared before me and started the engine.

The skeleton was striking the bucket with the rusted sword in its hand, but I ignored it and worked the lever to raise the steel claw.

"Yu○bo Attack!"

The bucket slammed down and dug into the ground, pulverizing one of the skeletons into white fragments.

Skeletons gave me the impression that they could revive if they weren't destroyed thoroughly, but if it was smashed this completely, that shouldn't be a concern.

"All right! Go on and rest in peace!"

I pulverized the other two in succession and crushed them to pieces beneath Yu○bo's tracks――the battle ended anticlimactically.

"Whew..."

"Kenichi's summoned beast is too strong, nya. Normally, fighting walking bones would be much more difficult, nya."

"Yeah... Do flames work on them? Electricity probably wouldn't. If you don't destroy them thoroughly, they revive."

"Exactly, nya. Kenichi knows a lot, nya."

They didn't feel fear, so threats wouldn't work on them either. There were only three today, but it would be troublesome if dozens of these things came shambling over.

"But if we blew them apart with Explosive Magic—Explosion, wouldn't that work?"

"If you use Explosive Magic—Explosion this close, we'll get caught in it too, nya."

I see... Of course. When using powerful magic, you had to keep a reasonable distance.

Once things had settled down, Myaree forcibly kicked over the stone statue. A hole opened in its base.

"What are you doing?"

"Since this moved and the walking bones attacked us, there must be a magic stone inside, nya."

Now that she mentioned it, that made sense.

Myaree thrust her hand into the hole, pulled out a smooth black stone the size of her fist, and handed it to me.

"Oh, it really is a magic stone."

I held it up to the sky, then tried to return it to Myaree, but she said she didn't want it. In that case, I put it in my Item Box.

Oh, right. This statue might be valuable too. I put it in my Item Box and decided to have the old shopkeeper appraise it.

Before putting the owl-like statue in my Item Box, I retrieved the rings set in both its eyes.

"That was close—I almost forgot."

It was technically being held as collateral for the Crotton couple's debt, after all. I had to keep it in my Item Box.

The gold coins were a substantial haul, but the real jackpot was the grimoire of Explosive Magic—Explosion. It had to be worth dozens of gold coins too.

Besides, apparently there were grimoires that couldn't be bought even if you piled up gold.

But the old shopkeeper had said grimoires had to be registered.

Well, once Anemone learned the spell, I could put the grimoire in my Item Box and no one would find out... probably.

Unlike Myaree, I had found what I was looking for so easily that it wasn't even noon yet.

Should I try out Explosive Magic—Explosion after lunch――or wait until everyone was together, since Primula and the others might want to see the magic too?

We had safely obtained the treasure and were about to return home, but I realized something.

"Ah! We should have just smashed the statue with Yu○bo from the start, or dug up the ground! Then the trap wouldn't have activated."

"Well, I guess so, nya. But people don't normally do things like that, nya."

Gaaah~ Why had I ended up following the fetch-quest instructions so carefully for some reason? Still, if it says to insert the key here, you naturally do that before smashing it, right?

But what had the mechanism been for? Since only a mage could make something like that, had they made it as some kind of game?

According to Myaree, she saw mechanisms like this fairly often, but their purpose seemed unknown.

Even in my original world, there had been rich people who scattered treasure maps and ciphers around to make people go treasure hunting.

So I guess it was some kind of game after all?