The Ultimate Sage Who Faked Incompetence and Was Disinherited Just Wants to Enjoy His New Life! - Episode 91: Treasure

Episode 91: Treasure

Just like Lilia said, a Kobold jumped out from the corner of the passage. 

Kobolds have a good sense of smell. 

It seemed they noticed us by our scent. 

But it was the same for us. 

Jill quickly cut down the Kobold that jumped out.

Ardan blocked the Kobold’s attack with his large shield. He then slammed his spiked mace onto its head. 

In an instant, the Kobolds turned into magic stones. 

Since the dungeon is narrow, they seem to use maces which are easy to handle in tight spaces. 

Now that I think about it, the sword Jill uses also has a short blade.

I shot a Fire Arrow at the last one and wiped them all out.

“If we’re not ambushed, it’s an easy win.” 

“Right. Since we have Analyze, we probably don’t need to worry about that.”

Lilia always keeps track of the surroundings for us. 

It’s nearly impossible to slip past her eyes. 

Thanks to that, we can move forward without worry.

“Alright, let’s keep going. If anything happens, don’t hesitate to say so.”

After walking through the dungeon passage for a while, we reached a fork in the path. 

There was a small room at the end of one of the paths. 

But we couldn’t tell what was in it.

“There’s a small room ahead and it’s a dead end.” 

“Let’s go check it out! We’re probably the first ones to visit. So the treasure should still be there.” 

“Yeah, let’s go.” 

“Got it. Be very careful about traps.”

As we walked along the fork, we noticed something strange along the way. 

I immediately stopped everyone.

“Wait a second. There’s something off ahead. I don’t know what it is, but…”

There was something hazy. 

The ceiling, maybe? 

Looking closely, only that spot had a higher ceiling. 

I couldn’t see what was above it. 

Everyone looked up as I did.

“This is a falling ceiling trap. It probably has tons of spikes attached to it.” 

“It’s a common trap. If you only look forward, it’s easy to get caught. Also, if you cheap out on lighting.”

“Thanks to Small Light, the trap is fully visible.”

When Elise lit up the ceiling, we saw several dull, shiny spikes glinting.

Small Light shines in all directions. So it clearly shows the ceiling too. 

But a lantern that mainly lights the front probably wouldn’t show the ceiling. 

So scary.

“What do we do?” 

“The usual method is to activate the trap from a safe distance. There must be a trigger mechanism somewhere on the path. We’ll use that smartly.”

Saying that, Ardan stared down the passage. 

I couldn’t see anything, but something must have been visible to Ardan’s trained eyes.

“It’s over there.”

He said that and threw a rock that had fallen on the ground. 

In the next moment—*CRASH!* 

With a loud sound, something fell down in front of us. 

It looked like this was the falling ceiling trap. 

It was the first time I saw one in real life.

“If this had dropped from above, we wouldn’t survive.” 

“They probably intended to kill with this. There’s no mercy.”

After checking the fallen mechanism and confirming it was safe, we moved on. 

There were no monsters along the way, and we reached a small door.

“Hey, do monsters not activate traps by accident?” 

“They’re designed so that doesn’t happen. This passage is probably also set up so monsters don’t enter. Proof of that is the lack of monsters.”

“True.”

If that’s the case, then it should be easy to find traps. 

Places with no monsters probably have a high chance of having traps. 

That’s how it seems.

“Well, there are traps that only activate when certain conditions are met. So we still need to be careful.” 

“Really?” 

“Yeah. Like if there are more than a certain number of people, or a certain amount of weight. There may be other conditions too.”

Ardan really knows a lot. 

He probably studied to protect the two of them. 

That’s so like him. 

Even while answering my questions, Ardan was checking the door.

“I’ve got a bad feeling.” 

“You mean the door has a trap, right? You’re pretty cautious.”

“If that’s the case, then maybe there’s something inside the room.”

Just by looking, I couldn’t see anything strange about the door. 

As I tilted my head, Lilia beside me did the same. 

So I wasn’t the only one who didn’t get it. 

That made me feel relieved.

But a trap on the door… 

How do we disarm it?

“Alright, should we break it?” 

“Yeah, I guess that’s what we’ll do.”

Ardan gave a wry smile. 

In our party, there’s no one who can disarm traps. 

So naturally, this kind of outcome can’t be helped. 

That’s what I was thinking—until it turned out not to be the case.

“I can use a spell to disarm door traps, you know?” 

“Eh?! That’s the first time I’ve heard of that…” 

“Well, I just never had a chance to use it until now.”

Lilia said it calmly. 

Apparently, the mischievous Fairy can not only open doors with magic, but also disarm the traps set on them using magic. 

She’s really talented. But since she uses it for mischief, I couldn’t feel purely happy about it.

“Alright then, let’s leave it to Lilia. I’m counting on you.” 

“Leave it to me. I’ll give it a try.”

Saying that, Lilia approached the door. 

She mumbled something, and it looked like it was over. 

Wait—maybe she’s not going to teach me the spell to disarm door traps?

“It’s fine now. Probably.” 

“Probably…?” 

“There’s no such thing as a perfect trap disarm.”

Lilia said that like it was the most obvious thing in the world. 

Yeah, maybe that’s true. 

To be as thorough as possible, we should still be cautious. 

In the end, we decided to destroy the door anyway. 

So this is how dungeons get destroyed. 

For some reason, it felt kind of emotional.

“Fel, destroy the door with your magic. Just in case, make sure everyone stands back from the door.” 

“Got it.”

Once I confirmed everyone was far enough from the door, I shot a Water Ball at it. 

With a crashing sound, the small door fell inward into the room. 

Looks like it worked. 

Good thing the inside of the room didn’t get flooded.

The trap on the door seemed to have been completely disarmed, and nothing happened.

“Nice job, Fel. Now then, I wonder what’s inside the room?”

Jill walked into the room happily. 

I followed him in with light, feather-like steps. 

But—however. 

There was nothing in the room. 

Seeing that, Jill visibly drooped his shoulders. 

I probably had the exact same expression.

“There’s nothing here.” 

“Totally empty.” 

“Most of the rooms in dungeons are said to have nothing in them. So it can’t be helped.”

On the other hand, Ardan didn’t seem to be bothered at all. 

Is this the difference between someone who knew that beforehand and someone who didn’t? 

Since this was our first dungeon and we were all hyped up, the letdown was intense. 

Lilia saw how down I was and gently patted my head to comfort me. 

I really appreciated that.

Just to be sure, we thoroughly searched the room. But, there really was nothing. 

No matter how much we searched, there was nothing to find. 

Let’s give up and move on. 

There’s still more ahead. 

Surely we’ll have another chance.

“Hey, isn’t it possible that the person who made this dungeon already came and took whatever was hidden here?” 

“From what Pii-chan said, that could be the case. Ah, so that’s the reason why some dungeons end up being a dud.”

Ardan nodded as if he was convinced. 

Wait—no way, is that really a thing!?

“Guwaaah!” 

“Nooooo!”

Jill and I yelled out without thinking. 

No way. 

A dungeon with no treasure waiting inside? 

Could this be one of them? 

What if we make it all the way to the final area, beat the boss, and there’s nothing there? 

That would be a terrible joke.

“Well, it’s just a possibility. There’s no way a dungeon has *nothing* at all, right? Even if there’s no final treasure, there should be at least some decent loot along the way.”

Ardan was laughing. 

He probably didn’t expect us to scream like that. 

Honestly, neither did I. 

Oh—maybe the reason Lilia brought it up now was so we wouldn’t get too crushed if it actually happened later? 

If that’s the case, then she made the right call. 

If that really happens, I might not recover for a whole day.

“Come on, you two, let’s go. It’s fine. I’m sure there’ll be at least one magic bag or something. Apparently, magic bags weren’t all that rare for ancient people anyway.”

Elise raised both hands to shoulder height and looked back at us. 

Seems like Elise doesn’t care much about treasure.