Cthulhu Gonfalon

No one could expect that Ruhr had actually saved so much money.

Although, in a long distance it could not be seen how much money was there, you could see that it was not a small pile of money judging from the light of gems.

A pile formed by gold coins glistening.

“I have never thought…golden coins could also be classified by ‘pile’,” Muttered Palin, gazing at the money.

“This guy must have swallowed most of the money he has snatched,” Gerrard said.

Ryan was relatively the calmest one of the three. Perhaps out of the professional habits as a thief, he immediately looked away from the pile of gold coins and looked at the ground nearby.

Then he took out a magic wand used for lighting.

This simple magic product could provide a stable long-term cold light source, which neither consumed air nor caused suffocation nor was subject to water. Except for its somewhat high price, it was almost regarded as a perfect lighting tool for adventurers.

Under the slightly bluish cold light source, the old thief carefully examined the ground and quickly found several traps.

Yes, a few traps, and there would be more ahead.

“Ruhr the “Bloody Hand” is really cruel! Having locked the entrance to the treasures with a magic formation, he also made traps inside the place of treasures!” Gerrard angrily said, “Evil! Too evil!”

“It was not strange that many treasure hoarders have this problem,” said Ryan, indifferently, “When I was taking adventures, I found in total a hundred traps in a Necromancer’s place for hoarding treasures.”

This understatement made Gerrard and Palin astonished.

There were actually a hundred traps in a place for hoarding treasures?! If so many traps were activated, not to mention one’s life, even the body wouldn’t remain!

“What happened then?” Palin asked.

“Only the two teammates died and the traps were dismantled,” said Ryan, still indifferently, “We divided the money, and I retired.”

The discussion went cold. Instead of hurrying to dismantle the traps in front of him, Ryan fixed the magic wand on the wall next to him and turned back to look for something where they were transferred from.

“What are you looking for?” Gerrard asked.

“The gear for leaving here,” Ryan said, not raising his head, “Entering and exiting here should be achieved through the transmission magic. Let’s first find the gear for leaving here and make sure that it can be activated at any time. We may still have time to escape in case of incidents.”

The rich experience of the old adventurer made the two respectful to him. However, they were a bit embarrassed, with traps ahead and no exit behind, they could only stay in this small area.

Palin was fine. He took out a book and read it with the help of the stable and mild cold light of the magic wand. Gerrard was uncomfortable, he had a huge body so the space was very narrow for him to stand. But he could not move, it was somewhat embarrassing.

He wanted to pick up an axe and break some of the rocks around him, but he was afraid that the rocks would collapse and bury everyone alive. He finally had no choice but sit down, holding his knees. And then he quickly started to yawn.

As time went by, Ryan was still working in an orderly fashion. Palin finished reading a book, put it back in his backpack, and took out another one on magic. While he was reading carefully, he used his fingers to sketch the lines of magic in the air and did some basic research.

As for Gerrard, he was asleep because he was too bored.

No one knew how much time had passed, but suddenly a green light flashed. Ryan exclaimed loudly, but his body was covered by green lights and disappeared in an instant without leaving a trace. Then the magic formation of transmission that had inflicted on him for so long flared fiercely before it burst. There was also a crimson-colored gas rising and it dispersed in a blink of an eye, enveloping Gerrard and Palin.

Gerrard, while asleep, breathed in a lot of the noxious gas which made him suddenly cough violently, abruptly choked him and woke him up. He opened his eyes and saw that in the cold light of the magic wand Palin was curled up on the ground with his face in pain. He had scratched his throat with his hands, making his throat bleed which did not help his predicament.

This young mage, a teenager who loved reading, died.

Gerrard was stupefied for a moment. He turned around and looked for Ryan, but did not found the traces of the old thief.

“What’s going on? Where is Ryan? The trap again…”

The noxious gas filled in his trachea and lungs, so he could not help but cough fiercely. An uncomfortable feeling, not violent, interrupted his thoughts and spread from the nose and mouth to the throat, then to the trachea and alveoli.

Surviving the highly noxious gas and being alive now without being fatally injured again demonstrated the superiority of the strong body made by Sui Xiong himself. However, Gerrard did not think of it at that moment. His mind was full of doubts and anger, he was even more dazed and ignorant of what went on.

“Your Majesty…” He tried to pray but did not know what to pray for.

As he prayed, Sui Xiong, who had been concentrating on research, was awakened. The clue of the soul spread along the bone bracelets and he clearly saw the situation there.

“What’s going on? Weren’t they going to hunt for treasures? How come only one out of three is left? One dead and another dead without leaving a corpse?”

As he spoke to himself, he pushed the magic into a breeze and dispersed the noxious gas.

However, this gas was very strange. It did not dissipate when blown by wind but got thicker. The entire cave of treasures was filled with red gas, where almost nothing could be seen.

“Shit! I even encounter a haze in the space travel. The world’s environmental protection is no doubt a holy shit!” Sui Xiong muttered and made a detailed analysis of the composition of the noxious fog. Then his magic suddenly shook and turned into a circle of soft green light that slowly spread.

The power of the green light just offset the magic power of the noxious fog. Wherever the green light arrived, the red noxious gas disappeared.

Like a magic performance, the green light circle swept the cave of treasures and the red noxious gas disappeared without a trace as if it never existed.

“Gerrard, what’s going on?”

“Your Majesty, I…I do not know, either…” Gerrard said nervously, “I just slept and it was like this after I woke up.”

“…You fell asleep when you were on the treasure hunt. So indiscreet you have been!” Sui sighed, “Then I have to ask someone else.”

“Anyone else that could be asked?” Gerrard was shocked.

A mysterious black gas was emitted from the bone bracelets that slowly dispersed in the air. An atmosphere of gloomy obscurity dispersed, making people feel mentally heavy.

A moment later, numerous tiny light points rose from the body of dead Palin, slowly gathering into a vague human form.

“Your Majesty, is this the spirit of Palin?”

“No, it’s just the thoughts left on the body,” Sui Xiong said, “His soul has traveled to the kingdom of the dead, but memory is not only in the soul but also in the body. Now I activate the rest of the thoughts of the body and then reinvigorate him. Thus…”

“Will he be resurrected?” Gerrard asked excitedly.

Sui Hung hesitated, not knowing how to answer.

If on earth, a man’s body regained its vitality, his mind will be revived, and of course, he will be resurrected. Even in the face of a Nobel Prize laureate of medical science, he also dared to hold up his head to declare so.

But in this world, life was not only a matter of mortal body but also the soul was more important. Palin’s soul had gone to the netherworld. Unless he pulled the soul from the netherworld and re-plunged it into the resuscitated body, the body could not be considered “resurrected”.

Now Palin, strictly speaking, was actually a corpse without a soul.

When the fuzzy figure was slowly condensed, Sui Xiong maneuvered a green light to envelop the dead juvenile’s remains. The wounds on the whole body rapidly disappeared and he completely recovered his health. A more vigorous life burst from the body so that the pale cheeks restored a sanguine complexion.

An invisible force grasped the human form that was formed by the remained thoughts and plunged into the body.

In the next moment, the juvenile opened his eyes.

At first, his eyes were a bit puzzled. After a while, his eyes gradually restored focus and his thoughts gradually became clearer.

“Haven’t I been…dead?” He hesitated, “I remember…I was killed by the death cloud…”

“You were dead, but also are resurrected,” Gerrard said with a smile. “Things like life and death are not to be considered by us mortal people. Tell me first what happened.”

So Palin gave up thinking about some philosophical problems and fell into memories.

“I had been reading when I suddenly heard Ryan exclaiming. I then looked up, just saw him being sent away, then saw the trap erupt, and the red clouds of death permeated. I had not had time to run away and was covered by the death cloud. I felt extremely painful from the throat to the chest and then I lost my consciousness – until the resurrection.”

“So, did an accident happen to Ryan while he was unlocking the trap?” Gerrard muttered, “You do not know what happened to him…I hope he’s okay.”

This time, Sui sneered.

“Do not worry, he’s fine, he’s very good now!”

A blue light was projected from the bone bracelet and changed into a transparent screen in the air. The screen showed the landscape of the forest where the treasures were hidden.

Ryan was busy shoveling soil into the pit that Gerrard dug. Sui Xiong gave a close-up of his face: smiling, triumphant.

His expression displayed what had happened without any explanation or careful consideration.

“Damn!” Gerrard roared angrily, “This mean old thief! I will not spare him!”

“It turned out that…he plotted against us…” Palin shook his head incredulously, “Why did he do this? Was it for the sake of the entire treasures?”

“Why did he do this? Continue and we’ll know,” Sui Xiong’s voice echoed in the air, “Let’s just put aside our anger and see what this despicable old man wants to do.”

“I believe all antecedents and consequences will soon appear before us…”