Swords, magic, and martial arts

"What did you find?" the knight asked as he approached.

Rhodes told the knight about his discovery. The soldiers and adventurers found nothing on the ground. The knight felt that even if Rhodes was lying, digging down was the only option now.

The knight ordered all the soldiers and adventurers to gather together and dig down into the ground. Without any digging tools, the soldiers, wearing leather gloves, dug directly with their bare hands into the frozen, somewhat hard ground.

The adventurers objected. One of them angrily said, "We'll all be trapped here until we die of thirst and hunger. Why should your grandpa have to take your orders and put up with your whims?"

The other adventurers, who were initially angry but dared not speak out, began to murmur amongst themselves after hearing his words.

"You can insult me, but you can't insult my grandfather." The knight drew his longsword from his waist and pointed it at the adventurer. "If you apologize now, I might spare your life."

The adventurer burst into laughter. "Did you hear that? My grandson tried to kill me. Well, let's see who kills whom today!" He suddenly stopped laughing, picked up his greatsword, and charged at the knight.

A purplish-black orb of light rose from Rhode's hand, and the adventurer was lifted up by Rhode's control before being slammed heavily to the ground.

"You all better behave yourselves!" Rod roared.

Most of these adventurers had only ever seen low-level spells like Flame Tongue and Frostbite; they had never seen a bizarre spell like Rhode's that could lift someone up from a distance and then slam them down. Out of fear of magic and the spellcaster, they obediently began digging again.

The adventurer was then dragged to the knight by the soldiers beside him and made to kneel before him. The knight then took up his one-handed sword and beheaded him as a warning to those restless adventurers.

With the efforts of the group, they dug to the stone dome above the tomb in less than half an hour. The knight ordered the adventurers with hammers to go up and smash the stone.

After a few hammer blows, a large hole appeared in front of everyone. Rhode used his mental power through the mage orb to check, and there were no traps below.

The knight arranged for ropes to be hung up, and several soldiers volunteered to go into the cave, but the knight ordered them to stay put.

"Who can break the traps?" the knight shouted, but no one answered. Basically, every adventurer had some experience dealing with traps in the tomb, but they were all afraid of being killed by strange and unusual traps after going in. Rhodes could understand their thoughts.

Rhodes hesitated. If he went in first, he could use the Mageball to break through many traps and reduce casualties, but Aya was still nearby. It wasn't safe to take her down with him or leave her up there.

"The first adventurer to go down will receive a hundred gold coins." As soon as the knight finished speaking, a group of adventurers rushed to jump down.

"Haha, I'm the first one!" one adventurer laughed loudly after descending. "When are you going to give me the hundred gold coins?"

"Keep going, I'll give it to you once we get out," the knight replied.

"You broke your promise. You only said you'd pay the first person to go down a hundred gold coins, but you didn't say the first person to go down would have to move forward," the adventurer said, before being knocked to the ground by the soldiers below.

"You are breaking your promise!" the adventurer shouted, before his mouth was gagged by the soldiers beside him.

If it were a group of adventurers who knew each other well, they would definitely rush into the tomb without hesitation after discovering it. However, the adventurers present each had their own ulterior motives and wished that others would go to their deaths first so that they could take all the treasure for themselves.

"I'll go down; I can break the traps too," Ella said.

After arriving in southern Nord, Rhodes clearly felt that the atmosphere among adventurers in the south was not as harmonious as in the north. In the north, even if adventurers did not know each other, they would unite in this situation and even entrust their backs to each other.

This reminded him of the family motto of the Grand Duke of the Far North Province: "The harsh winter unites us."

"Let's go down together," Rhodes said. Right now, the only people he could trust here, besides Aya, were the female hunters who had helped him.

That chivalric romance novel says: when you're in danger, those you've helped may not help you back, while those who helped you are very likely to help you again. If anything happens, the huntress is the only person he can rely on.

Rod ran down the rope and, by the faint light of the torches in the soldiers' hands, he discovered that they were now in a circular hall.

There were many closed wooden doors on the edge of the wall. He roughly estimated the size of the hall and felt that the size of the upper circle was the same as that of the circular hall. No matter where you dug, you would end up in this hall.

Rhodes used the Mage Ball and found no traps in the hall. However, the ground under each wooden door seemed to be able to rotate, just like the rotating bookshelves in old movies. He tried to use his mental power to pass through the wooden doors but found that everything behind them was a blur.

"How's the situation down here?" the knight shouted from above.

"There's no danger here, but there are many doors, and each door seems to lead to a path," Rod replied loudly.

"How many doors are there exactly?" the knight asked.

"There are about eighty doors!" a soldier next to Rhodes shouted as he was counting.

"The number is about the same as ours. Since there's no danger down there, I'll go down and observe before making a decision." After saying that, the knight climbed down the rope.

The other soldiers followed closely behind him. The adventurers looked at each other for a long time before one of them took the lead and the others followed suit and climbed down.

There were places to hang torches on the wall. After the soldiers went down, they hung the torches they were carrying on the wall, which made the whole hall much brighter. Rhodes noticed that there was a semi-circular crack in the floor under each wooden door.

"I need a warrior to lead the way for us," the knight shouted.

Several soldiers knelt down simultaneously and said in unison, "Please bestow this honor upon us."

The knight nodded in satisfaction. "You all go through that door together and try it. If there's any danger, come back."

As the first soldier stepped into the semicircle in front of the door, a white light curtain rose from the crack, keeping the other soldiers outside. The soldiers inside the light curtain opened their mouths as if to shout, but no sound came out.

He slammed the light screen hard, only causing ripples to appear on it.

The floor, along with the soldier and the wooden door, slowly rotated halfway, leading the soldier inside, but the white light curtain did not dissipate.

"The three of you go to the other door, and this time you all step on that semicircle at the same time," the knight commanded.

The three soldiers did as instructed, walking to another wooden door and stepping on the semicircle at the same time. However, this time there was no reaction. They stepped into the semicircle and pushed the wooden door with all their might, but the door did not budge.

They turned to look at the knight, waiting for his next command. The knight thought for a moment and said loudly, "One person backs out, leave two people up there."

A soldier stepped out of the semicircle, but the wooden door still didn't turn as before. The knight shouted, "One more out!"

After only one soldier remained on the semicircle, a white light screen quickly rose, and the floor moved the soldier behind the door.

"It seems that only one person can go in through each door, and perhaps only one door can lead out. Whether we survive or not now depends on our luck." After saying this, the knight ordered each infantryman to choose a wooden door and walk through it. He himself also chose one and walked through it.

Fearing that all the wooden doors would be looted, the remaining adventurers all chose one and rushed towards it...