Supreme Magus novel Chapter 3546

"Is this really over?" Shasa asked.

"No." Kugoh stared at his friend with determination. "This is just another cave. We’ve been trapped before and came out of it alive, Shasa. This time it will be no different."

It had been almost two years since the day Shasa, Kugoh, and their late friend, Igord the Vagrash had dug their way down to the remnants of Hatorne’s lab in Kandria. They had hoped to find something precious enough to buy them an apprenticeship under an Awakened master.

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After all, Hatorne had been a Magus-level fake mage with a talent for Alchemy that rivaled Manohar’s for light magic. She had crafted countless wonders that still baffled the Awakened community.

Even if the three Emperor Beasts found only scraps of her research, selling them should have earned them enough money to build a good magical lab. Shasa, Kugoh, and Igord were around seventy years old and nowhere near Awakening.

They had been born Emperor Beasts, enrolled into the academies to learn specializations, and then spent their lives looking for guidance and enlightenment. They had never bothered saving money in the past and to settle down they needed a lot of it.

Igord and his bloodline ability had allowed them to go deep into the ground, deeper than the Kingdom had ever dug, and away from the site of the explosion. Hatorne had bought the entire city block and the Emperor Beasts presumed the explosion had weakened before reaching the fringes of her massive lab.

On top of that, unlike humans, they didn’t need stairs or a safe passage. The ground opened in front of the Vagrash and closed behind him, keeping the tunnel stable as they crossed it.

After days of digging, Igord had found the mother lode. An entire room almost undamaged and filled with sealed vials. There was no way to open them safely but the three Emperor Beasts had no reason to.

They just stored everything in their dimensional amulets and moved on.

With Kugoh’s strength moving rubble or pebbles was the same thing. Igord dived past the blockages, scouting the nearby rooms to check if clearing the way was worth the effort. Shasa and his Life Maelstrom were insurance.

Whatever obstacle they encountered, a spark of silver lightning was enough to clear it.

While exploring the ruins of the labs, Igord had found several experimental potions, Alchemical devices, and then a library. It was then that tragedy had ambushed them, disguised as an opportunity.

Emperor Beasts feared no human trap. When they met a lock, they just broke it.

Hatorne was dead for years and without a master, the arrays had long since faded. As for the mechanical traps, there was nothing that could harm a Behemoth covered in enchanted Orichalcum.

Or so they thought until Kugoh forced one of the drawers of one of Hatorne’s many work desks open, triggering the release of a thick stream of anti-mana toxins. Hatorne could always use new specimens and when someone reached so deep in her house, she liked to capture her intruders alive.

Not out of curiosity, but to learn from them what weakness they had exposed and fix it. She was certain that once the anti-mana toxin stripped her uninvited guests of their magical abilities, they would be trapped, and she was right.

The three Emperor Beasts still had their physical strength and abilities but had lost their powers. The toxin Hatorne had used for her trap was the kind that didn’t self-destruct and permeated the air for a long time.

Not only were the Emperor Beasts soaked with it, but it also was absorbed through their skin. From there, it spread to the rest of their bodies. Cursing their bad luck, Kugoh and the others were trapped.