Mystery(3)

No.777 Macairo’s Storage Box.

It was one of the very few consumables numbers item.

Although it was a consumable item, it was completely different to things like the Nameless Sculpture or Dragon Blood Wine.

Those are one-time-use items that either heal everyone in range or grant a powerful combat buff when consumed.

This one is different, though.

‘In a way, it’s similar to the No.7,777 Garpas Necklace.’

Makairo’s Storage Box gives you either a random item or a permanent buff — assuming, of course, that you ignore the very small chance of getting nothing at all.

Anyway.

“We’re really finding quite the treasures on this expedition.”

Starting with the collection of valuable by-products, then the Siege Slaughterer, and now this Mystery Box.

In a normal labyrinth run, getting even one of these items would be incredibly lucky, but we kept getting them back-to-back.

This was what made people want to explore the unknown.

“Since the result is random, it should be fun, right? Come on, let’s roll already!”

The only downside was that, as I was now working with Baekho’s team, we had to compete for every piece of loot we found.

If I had brought my clan members here, I could have distributed the loot as I pleased.

“It’s been a while since I rolled the dice. This is actually kinda fun.”

“Baek-ho… How about we each roll our own this time? I want to roll too…… Besides, Baek-ho, your luck isn’t usually that great, is it?”

“…Me? My luck is bad?”

“……”

“Fine. Let’s each roll our own this time.”

Once it came to that, we just rolled the dice without hesitation.

And…

“Pff— hahaha! If we were going for lowest number, you two would’ve gotten 1st and 2nd place!”

Baekho and I both rolled 5.

Yes — combined we rolled 5.

“The total is 11… th-that means… I win!”

In short, GM won the roll and got the Mystery Box.

“Well? Aren’t you going to open it already?”

“H-Here? Right now…?”

“Wow, look at his manners! Were you planning on opening it in secret or what?”

“Hahaha! Sir Havelion! Don’t be like that, don’t hold out on us. Open the box, let us have some entertainment!”

The GM clearly wanted to open it privately, but everyone pressured him until he reluctantly nodded.

“…Then… I’ll open it.”

Nervously, he placed his hand on the box. A moment later, the black box slowly rose into the air.

「Yurven Havelion has used No.777 Macairo’s Storage Box.」

As it hovered in the air, the sides of the black box began to open one after another, unfolding outward.

Soon, the ‘item’ hidden within the box was revealed.

Moments later, the object inside the box revealed itself.

“…Armor?”

A piece of armor came out.

“Was… was there a numbered armor like this?”

I’d never seen it before.

「No.???? Aegis’ Dragon-Scale Armor has been created.」

It was just a plain, jacket-type armor—nothing fancy about it. The material was a muted gray rather than steel, and it lacked any ornaments, engravings, or gems.

But maybe because of that…

It looks like it belongs to a set.

It matched No.3 Aegis’ Barrier perfectly.

Even placing them side-by-side, the colors aligned exactly…

And honestly…

I was due for an armor upgrade anyway.

I was currently wearing a Litium Breastplate.

It worked fine for now — it had decent stats — but I was planning on replacing it eventually with something more suitable.

But now…

Gulp.

For some reason, my mouth is watering.

I still don’t know what this armor is yet… but there’s no way something from a ‘Mystery Box’ is worse than a Litinium breastplate worth several million stones.

“W-Why are you staring at me like that…?”

What? What’s wrong? I’m just looking at it.

“Can I try it on?”

“…Pardon?”

“None of you even wear armor to begin with.”

“N-no? After hearing what Jayna said, I was thinking I’d like to have one set of armor for emergencies—”

Huh? What kind of mage wears plate armor? Mages should wear cloth armor or something.

As I stepped closer and stared him down, the GM reluctantly nodded.

“We need to test the armor anyway, right?”

“…Then… p-please… only try it… just trying it, alright…?”

“Have you ever seen me lie?”

This might look like robbery, but actually it benefits him too.

It was a strange piece of armor to begin with. Someone needed to put it on and check its abilities.

‘And if my combat power increases, it’s a benefit for the team too, right?’

Besides, I’m the only person who can wear heavy armour here.

Aures can’t wear armor due to his class mechanics, that leaves only one eligible candidate.

「Character has equipped No.???? Aegis’ Dragon-Scale Armor.」

Oh. It feels amazing.

「Total Equipment Item Level +13,600」

Yeah, I definitely feel stronger.

「You are now wearing at least 2 Aegis Relics.」

「Fragments of the Soul resonate. (2/3)」

「All regeneration rates have greatly increased.」

「The equipment is now bound to the wearer.」

…Huh?

The armor suddenly clung tighter to my body.

“Not bad.”

Anyway, even though it’s my first time equipping it, it doesn’t feel unfamiliar at all.

It felt like it was part of me the moment I put it on.

“Wow, the Baron really just equips things without checking if they’re cursed. What if it was cursed?”

As I stretched like doing calisthenics, Baek-ho shot me a look of disbelief.

But honestly, I couldn’t disagree.

I didn’t feel even a hint of hesitation. The moment I saw it, I just thought:

This is mine.

“Anyway, you can check the item stats later. Let’s keep moving.”

“Yeah.”

Personally, I wanted to test the new armor right away, but making the whole party wait would be selfish.

“Alright, let’s go. If this place has a time-limit mechanic, we’ll be in trouble.”

I decided to check the armor later and took one final look around the room. In the end, we found nothing and simply went back down the stairs we’d climbed.

Although it had taken hours to climb the stairs, it didn’t take nearly as long to descent.

After stepping off the last stair, we entered another narrow passage, and at its end was a golden stone door.

“…The Golden Ruins?”

GM also seemed to recognize the place when he saw the golden door.

“Why are the Golden Ruins here…?”

“What are you surprised about? Has anything so far made sense?”

“Well… fair enough…”

“Honestly, I wouldn’t be shocked if the next room was a completely different region. That’s what being an explorer is all about.”

Baek-ho stepped forward and pushed open the gate.

And—

“…What the..?”

He froze in place and let out a startled exclamation. I stepped forward to see what was wrong, and I couldn’t help but flinch either.

“Why is everything already open?”

Beyond the stone door, there was nothing left to explore.

***
The clearing sequence for the ‘Golden Ruins’ is very simple.

It starts in a dense forest. After completing a few missions, a temple appears. Upon entering the temple, the staircase section that we had just been in becomes visible.

And

‘This is the next part.’

Once you open the golden stone gate and enter the main hall like this, the real rift clearing begins.

Being a fourth-floor rift, it was a low-level one with a straightforward clear condition. You enter through the stone gates on the left and right from the entrance, activate the devices, a guardian appears in the main hall, and clearing the guardian opens a sealed treasure room.

But now—

‘Even the treasure room is already open.’

Normally, when you open the stone gate and enter, golden light should pour down from the ceiling and illuminate the room, but that visual effect didn’t happen either.

Also—

“Wow… look at all this dust…”

“Feels like we’re exploring an abandoned ruin!”

Dust had piled up everywhere and the golden walls, which should have been gleaming, were cracked, broken and eroded.

“First, light up the area. It’s too dark to see properly.”

At Baek-ho’s request, the GM summoned several light orbs into the air and we began to carefully search the area.

“As expected, the treasure room’s already been completely cleaned out.”

The first place we searched was the treasure room that opens after defeating Calpion, the rift guardian.

Originally, three Numbers items were sealed here, and you can use the key obtained during the rift clearing process to choose and take one of them.

But by the time we arrived, it was completely empty.

“Which should we check first, the Snake Room or the Mummy Room?”

We began our investigation with the rooms on either side, starting with the one on the left—the one that had the snake-type mid-boss.

‘…The hidden pieces are all gone.’

The “Golden Orb” hidden under the lion mural, the “Eagle Candlestick” hidden in the trap room—everything was gone.

We walked through the maze-like path, checking every nook and cranny, but found nothing.

The mid-boss’s lever mechanism room was the same.

“This is kind of eerie, now that there’s nothing at all……”

The lever was already rotated, and the mid-boss was nowhere to be found.

And the hidden pieces in this place were gone as well.

The Mummy Room on the right side was no different.

“Looks like we’ve checked everywhere then……”

“It’s kind of eerie… seeing nothing here at all.”

Even after searching the entire ruin, there was nothing.

And this was a very big problem.

Because, well, we need something to come up for us to defeat or do anything, right?

The original game is like that too.

It’s not the difficult trials that truly get you stuck.

Rather, it’s when you don’t know what you’re supposed to do next.

That’s when gamers lose their grasp of the situation and waste time.

Just like now.

“I’ll… go look at the stairs again…”

“I’ll check if there are any hidden passages between the walls.”

As top-level explorers, however, they didn’t lose morale and continued searching for something to do, but it didn’t amount to much.

One day, two days, three days, four days…

As time passed, there were literally no more places left to search, and because of that, anxiety and unease began to spread among the party.

“…We’re not going to be trapped here forever, are we?”

“Maybe this place was meant to starve us to death.”

“I didn’t think they’d break us mentally like this…”

Everyone recalled their lowest moment, but unexpectedly, the one who reacted the most strongly was Baekho.

“Damn it, what is everyone doing? Instead of resting, shouldn’t we be looking for a way out? Huh?”

Lee Baek-ho sharply glared at everyone and snapped at people with his sharp eyes and voice.

‘Why is this guy’s mentality so weak?’

Still, it was fortunate that he didn’t show that kind of attitude towards me yet…

But that also ended after a few more days passed.

“Baron, give me the armor.”

“…What?”

“Think about it. That armor is the only thing we got from here. If there’s some escape method, it’s going to be tied to that armor, right?”

His tone was unpleasant—

But if you removed the emotion and just evaluated the logic:

“…It’s not unreasonable.”

It did sound plausible.

 

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