The Paladin in the Abyss-Chapter 699 - 723: Thief’s Stone

Chapter 699 -723: Thief’s Stone

Lancelot looked curiously at the Thief’s Stone that the Dwarf handed over. The gemstone in front of him was as big as a quail egg, with an inner glow like a liquid rainbow—it did indeed look very beautiful. However, his Spirit Perception did not sense any magic power fluctuations, and it hardly contained any of nature’s spiritual energy. It seemed indistinguishable from an ordinary gemstone.

“It’s called the Thief’s Stone?” he asked, looking up at the dwarf who wore a proud expression, “Why does it have that name? Is it related to the Wanderer profession?”

“Wanderer? No, no, no, it has nothing to do with them; this thing is used by those Mages,” Bruto shook his head repeatedly. “I’m not clear about its specific use; it should be some kind of spellcasting material… All I know is that a Thief’s Stone the size of a fingernail is worth five thousand Gold Coins, and it can be found in any vein.”

“The most important use of the Thief’s Stone is to cast the spell ‘gemstone leap,'” Tanya suddenly spoke up. “That is a Seventh Circle magic, a Spellcaster can attune to a Thief’s Stone through the spell, and as long as they are on the same plane as the Thief’s Stone, they can teleport to its vicinity with a preset trigger word. This is a very high-level teleportation effect; area-based dimensional barriers or anti-teleportation Arrays are ineffective against it. Direct countermeasures have to be set against the gemstone itself to prevent a Spellcaster from teleporting through the Thief’s Stone.”

“That effect sounds somewhat familiar,” Lancelot said, rubbing his nose and recalling the Twin Bridges Town Emblem that Tijana had given him. “But why is it called by that name?”

“Because you can initiate the teleportation just by uttering the preset trigger word. Even if someone’s hands and feet are bound, as long as they can speak, they can still use it to escape. It’s well-suited for those who like to sneak into treasuries or forbidden places,” explained the half-elf with a shrug. “Moreover, this gemstone has a unique property: each Spellcaster can only attune to one Thief’s Stone, but a single Thief’s Stone can be attuned with countless Spellcasters, and a new attunement doesn’t override the existing ones. A widely circulated story is about a guy named Phalos who sold a Thief’s Stone to the Red Robe Mages of Sel. After the gemstone was delivered to Sel’s treasury, he used it to slip in, reclaim the Thief’s Stone and all the Spellbooks he could find, then made his getaway with Transfiguration.”

“I see,” Lancelot nodded thoughtfully. “In a way, calling this thing a ‘Stolen Stone’ might be more fitting…”

“Indeed, if you’re not an experienced Spellcaster, it’s best not to keep a Thief’s Stone that you come across accidentally with your other treasures. Nevertheless, this item is still better suited for escaping. There have been plenty of fools who wanted to replicate Phalos’s feat— their endings weren’t particularly enviable,” Tanya pointed at the skeleton on the ground. “Here’s a perfect example.”

Lancelot looked at the skeleton thoughtfully and suddenly realized he had overlooked an important detail.

“Bruto, take a look at those handcuffs.”

“Handcuffs?” The Dwarf turned with a puzzled look. “What handcuffs?”

“Everything around us has rotted away, but those handcuffs are still intact; they must be special,” Lancelot stroked his chin. “And this body could use Seventh Circle magic, which means he was a high-rank Spellcaster. What kind of handcuffs could restrain a high-rank Spellcaster?”

Bruto finally got Lancelot’s point and hurriedly stripped the handcuffs from the skeleton. At first glance, the dirty black shackles seemed worn-out and perfectly belonged in such an environment, but when the Dwarf blew away the dust on their surface with his formidable lung capacity, everyone discovered that the handcuffs were actually made of some sort of black crystal and were emitting an eerie black light.

“If I’m not mistaken, these should be a pair of anti-magic handcuffs,” Alamir said with a furrowed brow. “There might be some other effects, we’ll need to have Kalalin examine them closely.”

“What I’m more curious about is when these handcuffs were put on his wrists,” Lancelot turned to Tanya and asked, “Is it possible to perform a gemstone leap while wearing anti-magic handcuffs?”

“It’s possible,” the half-elf with white hair and red eyes nodded confidently. “The spell is already complete when the spellcaster synchronizes with the Thief’s Stone; uttering the activation word does not involve manipulating magic power, so it wouldn’t be restricted by the handcuffs.”

“I suppose the story goes something like this,” Alamir crossed his arms and shared his view. “Visuvius, or whoever was the owner of the Volcano Fortress at the time, did not treat this Thief’s Stone as a treasure but tossed it into this cell. The skeleton over there was captured for some reason while he was alive and the handcuffs restricted his spellcasting abilities. As a last resort to escape, he spoke the prepared activation word, only to find himself transported into this very cell…”

“I agree with your latter hypothesis, but there’s another possibility for the former,” Lancelot gently shook his head. “Perhaps the person whose remains we see here once conspired with the Lord of Volcano Fortress to plan a theft, and meant to use the Thief’s Stone to escape afterward. However, the Lord had prepared for the betrayal, and placed the Thief’s Stone in the cell beforehand. What happened next is quite apparent; we are now looking at the skeletal remains, accompanied only by the handcuffs that symbolize betrayal and the ironically placed Thief’s Stone.”

Bruto and Alamir exchanged glances, tacitly maintaining silence. It was hard not to draw parallels between this skeleton and the relationship between the human knight and the Succubus Lord, but now was probably not the right time to discuss this topic.

“I know what you’re worried about,” Lancelot said with a light chuckle. “If we disregard her race and only look at her actions, do you think Tijana is trustworthy?”

“Although the boss’s cut is a bit hefty, she’s been pretty solid so far,” Bruto shifted uncomfortably. “But how does that saying go? A betrayal has not occurred because the price isn’t high enough yet…”

“There’s nothing wrong with that principle; it’s just a matter of how much is considered high enough,” Lancelot patted his companions on the shoulders. “Even if all the wealth of the world were laid before me, I wouldn’t consider betraying any one of you, and I hold the same confidence in Tijana.”

“Eh… ah…” The dwarf made a disgusted noise. “That’s so cheesy… Elf, your turn!”

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“What’s there for me to say? Of course, I support him,” Shuni, the priest, spread her arms. “True love is the greatest power in the Multiverse; it can inspire the most shameful demons to perform the noblest acts. It might seem crazy to you dwarves, but I certainly don’t see anything wrong with it.”

“Absurd,” Bruto sighed, giving his final verdict, “Let’s go, there’s nothing left here to excite me…”