Building My SSS-Rank Universal Empire: From Trash to Cosmic Overlord-Chapter 50: A strange place

They searched the room for any entrance that would lead to other places, but they found none, except for a black door that opened without resistance. It would have been pitch dark, but the red light still continued to burn, illuminating the stairs that led down into darkness that seemed never-ending.

"I don’t like this," Arvas said with a low growl. "This is obviously a trap. Trying to lead us down into an unknown, one-way place? It’s a trick that’s played out through the years."

Kren didn’t share the same gloomy mood as his partner. "So what are we going to do now? We’re going in, right?"

Arvas turned to look at Kren and then looked past him toward me and the others. "Prepare yourselves. Don’t make any unnecessary moves, and stick together."

He didn’t say more than that and followed his own order by twisting the ground with a key he brought from his pocket. A stone shelf rose out of the ground, groaning and creaking. But unlike before, Arvas whispered some chants, and the shelf glowed with white light, becoming translucent. Then he picked it up as if it weighed nothing.

Arvas placed it on his back, and the shelf merged with him, overlapping with his shadow like a cloak. "I’m ready. Are you, Kren?"

Kren was ready, along with the two other alchemist Squires. They all had their shelves of instruments overlapping behind them like a pair of shadowed wings.

’So there’s something like this, an enchanted tool specialized for alchemist Knights. Impressive. And I was wondering how they’d fight with their instruments...’

"Are you ready?" Slya whispered beside me.

Tiber nodded on my other side. "We decided to stick close to you. You’re the strongest Knight we can have near us right now."

With my hand on my sword, I nodded. "Don’t get in my way," I warned. My first priority was to keep my own head, and I didn’t want anyone or anything, making it harder.

Slya rolled her eyes. "Alright, Sir Vale."

With that, we began to walk down the stairs. It was too narrow for us to move as a group, so we descended in a file of five and four, all behind our team leader, who followed the Captains.

The stairs were made of the same black stone as the walls, and there seemed to be no end to them with each step we took. At first, I thought the walls might break into doors, but only smooth stone met my eyes.

Suddenly, Kren stopped and looked at the wall, his eyes shining intently behind his glasses. "Well, well, well. We’ve been caught inside a loop."

’A loop? Is that why we’ve been descending downward endlessly? So that’s why we haven’t reached the bottom...’ I knew I’d eventually notice, but not as fast as Kren.

Arvas grunted. He didn’t say anything but reached behind him and brought out a small glass bottle glowing with white, flashing light, as if it contained lightning.

He injected his essence into the bottle and then threw it down to the bottom of the stairs, where the dark seemed impenetrable. The bottle shattered midair, releasing twisting energy with a ripple and roar, and the space around us cracked like glass before shattering entirely.

’Wow’ I thought. Instead of the endless darkness that had loomed at the bottom of the stairs, there now appeared to be another room.

Arvas nodded in satisfaction. "A simple trick like that isn’t enough to stop us. We go on."

And we did.

"Wow," Slya blurted. "This place is big. Is this some kind of workshop?"

Nobody answered her; everyone was too busy staring. The room was massive, far larger than any we had seen before. The ground and walls were painted red and black, with pillars of solid black holding up the ceiling.

Large metal shelves lined the walls, filled with jars and bottles. The ground was littered with chairs, papers, and various instruments, as if the owner had just stepped out momentarily.

’There’s no dust here’ I thought. ’Everything might be just as the owner left it. What a strange place’

At the end of the room, a raised platform stood, and behind it were three doors.

Kren made his way toward them. "Yes! See the alchemist symbol on that? There must be numerous resources behind that door."

Arvas glared at him before turning to the others. "Don’t touch anything." He hurried after Kren, caught up with him, and the two began whispering. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

"How many things do you think we can take out of here? No matter how small my share is, it should be enough to get myself a construct, even if I wasn’t given one," Slya said, her eyes lighting up as she whirled around.

I nodded, but my mind wasn’t on the conversation. I was looking at the doors Kren and Arvas were studying. My attention was drawn to the one in the middle, the one with the deep purple circle and darkness in its center. The Forbidden mark.

"Huh? Vale, are you listening to me?"

Tiber’s voice sounded distant in my ears as I began making my way to the front. I got close enough to catch snippets of the whispered argument between Kren and Arvas, and that was enough to jolt me back to my senses.

"...It’s time! I’ve checked the door, and it’s just like we expected. That one is for alchemists, and it can only be opened that way!" Arvas hissed.

Kren snorted. "Let’s leave the alchemist door behind for now. Let’s check the one with the Forbidden mark!"

"Why? We’re here for the alchemist door! We talked about this earlier! You’ve been acting odd for months now. Focus on why we’re here. If there’s still some blood remaining after we open the alchemist door, then you can try the others," Arvas growled.

A chill ran down my spine, and I shivered. ’Blood? So they had an idea of what’s inside here? What’s going on?’

Kren stared at Arvas for a moment before turning slowly toward me. He smiled and said very calmly, "No. We are opening the Forbidden mark door."