Chapter 562: The Journey Home

To evade pursuit by the Olog-Hai, Tauro and the others sealed the entrance with the stone sarcophagus, then retraced their route through the cave without letting down their guard and safely returned to the surface.

Even then, they didn’t know when the Olog-Hai horde might resume the pursuit. With their employer, Blue Thunder Beast, leading the way, they took only brief rests and little sleep until they had escaped the Antas Mountain Range.

Five days after withdrawing from the ancient ruins, Tauro and the others finally reached a hill overlooking the city of Swen.

“Phew… Silver Twin Mages, Black-Gold Wings—I’m sorry things ended this way. Of course, I’ll pay the completion reward, so don’t worry. As for the performance reward, though, we had to withdraw in such a hurry that we barely recovered anything valuable. Please don’t expect too much on that front,” Jack of Blue Thunder Beast said apologetically.

The withdrawal from the ruins hadn’t gone the way Jack wanted, and his regret was obvious.

“It couldn’t be helped, Jack-san. When that enormous Olog-Hai horde attacked, retreating was our only option. But why were those monsters so interested in the ruins? That’s the one thing I kept wondering about on the way back,” said Gemma, the older twin and leader of Silver Twin Mages, tactfully changing the subject for her senior adventurer.

“…Why would monsters fixate on ancient ruins…? Tauro-kun, what do you think?” Jack asked, turning to Tauro, who had probably understood the situation at the site better than anyone else.

“Well… As I mentioned before, besides the roughly two hundred Olog-Hai silhouettes that swarmed the ruins, there were around fifty different silhouettes moving as though they were commanding them. I think that group of fifty may have been the ones truly interested in the ruins.”

Though merely speculation, Tauro’s guess was strikingly close to the truth.

“You did mention that. After fighting them, I could tell the Olog-Hai were highly intelligent, but I still can’t imagine them taking an interest in ancient relics. If the group of fifty you noticed were actually ‘people,’ though… then everything would fit.”

Jack felt a pang of regret.

If that were the case, it meant they had competitors.

If Tauro was right, then they had a rival group—and as A-rank-band adventurers, Blue Thunder Beast had effectively been beaten to the discovery.

“But I believe the decision to retreat was the right one. If we had stayed, we might have been wiped out.”

Tauro said this out of consideration for Jack.

Then he continued.

“Besides, we recovered the relics from inside the sarcophagus, so there should still be a worthwhile performance reward.”

With that, Tauro took some of the recovered treasure from [Magic Storage] and displayed it before everyone.

It was, quite literally, a hoard of gold, silver, and jewels.

Inside the sarcophagus, fitting for the resting place of the “last king,” were a gold crown intricately decorated with gemstones and magic stones, necklaces, rings, gold and silver tableware, gaudily ornamented ceremonial swords, spears, knives, armor, shields, and more.

There were also a broken magic tool and shattered magic stones.

“I think this broken magic tool maintained the anti-theft and anti-appraisal magic and the traps inside the sarcophagus. Once it broke, I was able to recover the contents safely.”

When Tauro first stored the stone sarcophagus in [Magic Storage], the entire sarcophagus had been treated as a single item.

It was probably an anti-theft mechanism that forced the huge sarcophagus and everything inside it to be recognized as one item, preventing someone from simply extracting the contents with [Magic Storage].

However, Tauro possessed [Magic Storage] (Extreme), whose retrieval capability was even greater, so he had been able to store the entire sarcophagus anyway.

Still, with traps active, he couldn’t open it carelessly.

When Tauro later dropped it on the Olog-Hai as a weapon, the impact broke the internal mechanism, allowing him to recover the contents as individual items.

Apparently, even the ancient people had never imagined someone reckless enough to smash open the sarcophagus by dropping the entire thing.

Jack and the others’ eyes sparkled at the sight of the treasures—though none dared touch them.

Or rather, they wanted to—but preferred to have experts evaluate the priceless relics first.

Of course, some would need to be distributed to Gemma’s party and Tauro’s group as a reward for their performance.

The members of Silver Twin Mages gazed in awe at the dazzling gems.

“I’ve been an adventurer for a long time, but I’ve never seen so much treasure at once…!”

Gemma said this with the delighted expression of a young woman seeing such treasure for the first time.

Her twin sister Gemis nodded enthusiastically. Their companions, Jimin, the one-handed sword-and-shield user, and Budar, the ranger and pharmacist, repeatedly nodded in agreement.

“There are plenty of gemstones here. Aside from items like the crown that might serve as research material, each of you may choose one thing you want.”

Jack generously made the offer.

Fores, Blue Thunder Beast’s forest priest, was startled enough to consider stopping Jack, but after remembering what everyone had endured on the expedition, decided the offer was reasonable.

“Really!?”

The members of Silver Twin Mages all scrambled to choose gems as large as a baby’s fist, raising them toward the sky with satisfied smiles.

Aeris and the others were more composed, observing first before calmly making their own selections.

“As a performance reward, Black-Gold Wings contributed the most to defeating the Guardian Stone Golem, so each of you may take two items,” Jack added.

Tauro briefly wondered how Silver Twin Mages would react—but seeing no objections, he felt relieved.

Even their outspoken leader Gemma seemed to have acknowledged Black-Gold Wings’ strength after witnessing their performance.

After Aeris and the others each selected two rewards, Tauro quickly chose his own pair.

“That’s all you’re taking?” Jack asked in surprise upon seeing Tauro’s choices.

“Yes. To me, these are more appealing than gemstones.”

Tauro smiled, satisfied to receive the broken magic tools as his performance reward.