After consuming the leftover stew for breakfast, the young duo resumed their castle adventure on the second floor. They first came across a room once filled to the brim with awe-inspiring artwork, but it now remained a hollow reminder of its former glory. The artworks that were left in the room were mostly destroyed. Some charred, some torn, some smashed into pieces. There was only a type of art that was untouched. Two magical, three-dimensional paintings that look straight out of virtual reality. Like Microsoft Paint, but in the air. Green was utterly enamoured with the piece, hopping around like a little puppy. Ryder was less impressed, thanks to the internet, but he still appreciated the work.
The duo stopped at a guard post to admire the desolate view of the valley for a moment. They imagined what the place was like before the siege, perceiving echoes of a once peaceful past. Abandoned castles and war-torn valleys were not an uncommon sight, yet the young duo found themselves hard to ignore the ever-present melancholy in lands drenched in crimson violence.
The next room they visited was one that displayed magical items and relics, though only a few were left unstolen. From the holographic-ish descriptions of the items that remained on the displays, Ryder was jealous of their current owners. There were items that could flash-freezed any body of water smaller than a lake, destroy mountains by uttering a long chant, replace a lost limb with a deadly mechanical alternative, and many more. An unusual scribble caught the human's eye when they were inspecting one of the broken cases. On its wooden base, someone left a clue: a symbol and a broken poem. Green noted that it was not the only display case with those two things. So, they went around the room collecting all these clues and attempted to piece together the puzzle. Unfortunately, Ryder has no context whatsoever as to what the poem means.
When they were about to give up, Brown passed by the room, so they called her in to help them solve this mystery. She revealed that it's a popular children's poem in the continent she once resided in. It tells the tale of how six primordial gods merged one part of their souls to create the sun, and the symbols represent those gods. After a series of intense deductions, they pushed and merged the displays to form a rectangle according to the symbols. They then patiently waited for the midday sun to get into the position and illuminate the rectangle. And it worked! The displays transfigure into one big chest which, when they opened it, revealed an insanely intricate amulet made of various precious metals. They could almost taste the ancient history carried within it. Brown suggested they should keep it even though none of them had any idea why this was so carefully hidden.
When the duo arrived at the library after parting ways with Brown, they were slightly shocked that none of the bookshelves or books were harmed. Ryder just assumed that whoever attacked the castle probably wasn't all that interested in papers with invaluable knowledge. They also saw Purple reading behind a desk stacked high with books. They greeted their comrade and wondered if he knew anything about the amulet that was now on Ryder's neck. The demigod smirked when he saw it, but chose to shoo away the duo and continue reading. Green was really annoyed while feeling stupid for hoping Purple would sate their curiosity. When they stumbled upon a cookbook, they decided to try the recipes out for lunch and head for the kitchen.
The recipes became Ryder's hubris as he did not account for the fact that the measurement in ages past may not mean the same thing now, even if the "unit" of measurement retains the same name. Thankfully, Purple was engrossed in his books or he'd be throwing a temper tantrum for even daring to try and serve him such a terrible meal. Brown had to leave the castle and dump the leftovers far enough so as to not attract hungry beasts.
The adventure continues! The duo found themselves inside the offices of high-ranking officials, as well as a giant magical door leading to the treasury that was nearly pried open. From the large pile of black ash sitting in front of the door, there was clearly a mechanism that would incinerate anyone who dared to forcefully open it. The duo investigated the walls of the treasury to determine if it was possible to find another way in. Ryder's magic sense concluded that it was not possible, not unless they wanted to send themselves flying in an explosive manner. And since the door mechanism has been damaged, it's unlikely that it'll function normally even if they could find the key.
Ryder held a meeting in the office, against Purple's wishes, and discussed how they could break into the thing without blowing it up sky high.
Green first suggested he could make his vines so thin and small that it'll slip through the cracks between the door and the wall and.... Green wasn't recruited for his superior intellect.
Ryder suggested Purple could just teleport everyone in and out of the treasury, but demigod smartly pointed out that if it was that easy, there wouldn't be a treasury anywhere in this realm. He also sneaked in a sneer and insulted Ryder's intelligence.
Brown calmed the duo down sternly and suggested that they could try 'tricking' the door's mechanism by making it 'think' that they opened the door legitimately with illegitimate methods. They all agreed, and a plan was formulated.
Time passed and the plan was ready. Brown's hardened mud held up the door and restored it to its original position while Green's vines seeped into the gap between the door and wall. Ryder placed his hands on the door's round 'handle' and gave the ready signal to Purple. The demigod pushed his hand against the door, masterfully emitting a subtle mana flow into the magic-circuit inside the treasury. This was done so to get a 'feel' for the correct mana frequency that acted as the key without triggering it, which Purple handily did so within a minute. When his countdown reaches zero, he pumped a stupendous amount of mana in the right frequency and temporarily short-circuited the whole thing. Ryder used his draconic strength to turn the 'handle' as Green's vines ensured all the physical mechanism retracted properly. Right before the magic circuit kicked back in, they opened the door in time, ending the heist in success.
Ryder and Green cheered loudly when they saw a shit ton of treasure inside the room. Purple went straight back to the library while Brown continued to make sure the heavy door appeared unbroken to the magic circuit inside. As everything was still kept neat and tidy, they faced little trouble carrying all of it out. Once Ryder was 100% sure there were no secret compartments or doors inside the treasury, Brown sealed the door shut and then carried all the loot back to the royal chamber while the other two continued their tour.
They passed through several other rooms that were rather mundane, but did stay longer in the infirmary to grab what little useful items were left within before reaching the final room in the castle. It was also one of the largest and isolated rooms in the entire structure as it belongs to an alchemist. Or perhaps a mage. Or more likely, both, because the room had vastly different equipment on each side. The left side had more solvents in bottles while the right had more scattered papers and scrolls. One corpse wearing a robe was pinned to the wall with a sword in its chest. The rest of the corpses, though, were suspiciously lying around a fancy-looking table with large parts of their bodies cleanly cut off.
Green pushed one of the corpses closer to the table.
Nothing happened.
He thought for a while, then summoned his vines to touch the table.
Nothing happened.
Ryder was still skeptical, so his draconic arm slowly reached the table and touched it.
Nothing happened.
Conclusion? Either the magic guarding the table had expired or there was something else going on back then. The human opened up its drawers and found a couple of books. The content was written in ciphers. The duo have no idea how to crack it, but Purple might. After an additional hour of exploring, the duo gave up searching for anything interesting and decided that they'll just get the demigod to check this room later on by himself.
As the second day of their adventure came to a close, the duo headed towards the kitchen again to prepare dinner. They wanted to recreate some of the dishes that Ryder loved back in his world with the available ingredients. There was a lot of pastry, mushrooms and meat left, so the best they could do was beef wellington without beef. He saw a video of it before on Youtube, made by a bald guy with a beard, but he couldn't recall the whole recipe. He still did his best as Green watched curiously. Brown joined in halfway through when they were figuring out how to wrap the thing neatly. What would otherwise have been a frustrating experience, Ryder found himself thoroughly enjoying this moment. It was something he longed for so desperately before landing in this world---having fun with a group of friends. It's not the first time it happened, nor would it be the last for now, but it won't stop him from feeling grateful.
They made three of it with meat, and one with the remaining mushrooms, all in different shapes. It didn't come out of the crude oven perfect, but the smell alone was a sign of victory. Ryder called for Purple telepathically and they all carried their meal to the banquet hall. As they dined, Purple agreed to investigate the alchemical room during the night. Ryder and Green really hoped that he wouldn't try to hide his findings when they asked him about it tomorrow.
The gang also took this opportunity to discuss what they should do with all the loot they've gotten, including the books from the library. After all, they couldn't possibly haul everything on their back to the nearest town. Comparable to a miracle, Purple astoundingly allowed the loot to be stored within his little, personal pocket dimension. The only condition he had was for Ryder to make him another steak like last night. Ryder was reallyyyy bitter about the condition because not only was he denied the taste of that meat, again, it would also easily cost half of the money they've gotten these two days. But, it was better than the alternative. Perhaps it was a mistake to have accepted that slab of meat as payment for their last gig.
The trio had one last good night's sleep in the castle while Purple was doing his thing.
The sun rose up from its abyssal grave. They woke up, cleaned themselves, had sausages for breakfast, and prepared to leave the castle. Ryder cut out a chunk of the royal bed and made it into his new sleeping bag as Brown and Green gave the castle one last look. Purple emerged from the room just as the duo were about to call him out.
Once again, they stood outside the castle. With their supplies tightly secured, Ryder and Green bid the castle farewell, and the gang resumed their journey to save the world.
