Maria took out the emergency light lamp she always kept in her inventory. It was a necessary item in the system barter shop and Maria had decided to exchange for it without thought.

Now she was glad that she had because the light allowed her to be able to see through the darkness.

The light inside her lamp was holy light used by knights of the ancient and had been rekindled in the fires of hell. It would burn eternally and would purify any space. It was purifying the darkness around Maria.

But the flame Maria had was a small piece and would go out sooner or later due to corruption. Maria also held no precious items to exchange for another lamp from the system. She would have to go on the hunt for more later.

“Let’s see. Suna should be alright since she was able to contact us. I should focus on finding Nao first” Maria made a decision and turned around. Nao could be anywhere in this darkness but it should be no problem.

Maria had bugged Nao for this reason and now she could see her location on the map.

The darkness made it so that Maria could see nothing on her map. No living signatures showed up except her trackers and it now made sense how she had missed the kid Suna mentioned.

He was only halfway toward Nao’s location when she felt the ground shake. A terrible magical impulse flew through Maria and it left her off-balance.

Maria looked into the darkness and felt like she saw something move through it at an alarming rate. It was fast and only happened to be at a place for a second. But it held enough pressure to worry Maria.

It was not coming close to Maria, only hovering around her radius of the holy lamp which made Maria certain that it could not enter as long as she was in the light. She was safe for the time being.

But Nao was not. Nao had no source of holy light with her and that made her the most likely target for the monster to attack.

Maria willed her magic to power her up. It allowed her to dash through the darkness and her speed made her hand brush against scaly skin and her eyes met a reptilian pair before she was running past that thing.

There was an angry roar behind her and then Maria felt the thing give chase after her. It was fast, faster than Maria if she had not been actively using her magic. It also felt hungry and it wanted to eat Maria’s magic.

The thing was psychic, portraying his thoughts of hunting and hunger onto Maria to weaken her.

It would have worked on a weaker mind but Maria held her own against that feeling. Her system and the holy light in her hand also helped in that regard and made Marai keep on running.

Her refusal to give in just made the monster even angrier and he gave chase after Maria even herder.

It was a race toward Nao and Maria knew she had to be the first to reach her partner. The monster was right on her heels and Maria knew it was looking for an opportunity.

Maria ran past Nao’s location and did not even realize it till she felt a hand on her arm. Her body was yanked back into a hard but familiar chest.

“Maria? Was something chasing after you? You looked spooked” Nao asked with a worried voice. Her words made it seem like she had not heard the thing chasing after Maria.

So, was the darkness a rouse to keep the monster in place? Was this the reason this place did not need guards to protect it? Maria could see how such a trap would be more efficient than hiring a lot of guards

And she also remembered where she had heard about such an arrangement before. It was in the Book of 1000 traps vol 2. But since she had never seen the practical application of such a trap, it had taken her by surprise.

“Shadow house. Need to find Suna” Maria panted as she caught her breath. Her lamp was still burning right but it had started to wilt away little by little. The timer for them had just started.

“Shadow house? In here? Did the underground arena really have such resources to be able to buy one? They must be loaded” Nao looked surprised as well and Maria understood why.

Shadow trap was a technique frequently used by the adventurer’s guild to hide their treasure behind the strong force. It was to prevent people from thieving their treasures away and it could only be turned off by an active member who held an activation key with them.

Well, that and by sheep brute force.

“Let’s head toward Suna first. It seemed as if she had someone who could tell more about this palace and what is going on here” Maria replied. She knew she should have never trusted that guild master to begin with.

There was no mistaking this shadow house to be anything else than a death trap to keep them occupied. Had the guild master anticipated this theft and prepared anti-theft measures?

“I don’t think this trap was for us. Not with how much better it would be for us to get caught alive and be returned to the royal guards. I guess our questions will be answered once we reach Suna” Nao hit the arrow right on the mark. Her words were exactly what Maria had been thinking.

This trap was not for them but for another pair of thieves. But it did not answer the question of why? Why go so far and spend so many resources for a prize they were going to give away anyway?

Also, why had the undergournd deployed the adventurer’s guild to guide thier treasure when they had traps of thier own. Did they really have that much money to spend? Or was there something bigger brewing behind the scene.

“Suna, we will arrive at your location in next minute. Do be aware and do not attack us. There is a monster out here which would kill us all if we are not careful” Maria talked into her connector.

The heavy breathing from the other side made her aware that Suna was there and listenning to her. It was safe for Maria to take the risk now.

“Alright. But how did you get away from the monster? Alester, I mean the kid I found here told me that the monster killed eveyrone in his party. Are you sure you are not inhured?” Suna aksed the questions one after the other.

“You’ll know once we arrive. Keep talking till then so that we can know you are alright” Maria asked and braced herself for Suna’s talkking. Nao just looked back with a suffering expression.