After the wooden door was an underground staircase which Simon used.
"Hmm. Should I close the door?"
Simon stared at the wooden door for a moment, then he grabbed it and gently closed it.
Because of its weight, it was not an easy thing to do, but he did it.
Closing the door had its cons, but for Simon, leaving the door open had even more cons.
A beast, a candidate, or even anything or anybody might stumble upon this place and enter it.
Whoever or whatever that entered might be weak, and it could be the reverse that whatever entered might be extremely powerful for him to battle.
There were so many instances that could happen if he left the door open, and for him, the risks were too many and too dangerous.
If he left the door closed, the main problem could be that he was trapping himself inside underground.
But he’d rather trap himself underground, rather than him having to think of whether a beast or a demon found and entered this hidden space underground with him.
Simon kept walking down the stairs for nearly ten minutes before he found something different.
On both side of the stairs were just walls, and if not for his eyes which could see in the dark, he would have had trouble climbing down the stairs.
However, when he reached the bottom of the stairs, he stood before three caves that led to three different places.
One was to his right, another was to his left, and the last was directly in front of him.
Simon stared at each of these three caves, wondering which one he should choose.
There was no source of light around him, only total darkness, and though he could see in the darkness, he wasn’t so comfortable with it.
He looked at the three caves for a moment, then he closed his eyes.
He listened to the wind and perceived it.
’The right.’
He opened his eyes and walked to the right cave where he felt the warm wind blowing from.
’I might actually be walking into the abode of a powerful beast. I’ll have to be careful.’
Simon entered the cave while being extremely cautious.
He observed the walls and floor of the cave, making sure that there was no trap or beast using the darkness to hide, but he saw nothing.
He kept on walking and walking until he reached a dead end.
"What? There’s nothing here?"
He looked around, but he saw nothing.
There were no plants, no beast, no demon, just a dead end.
"This can’t be true. I didn’t perceive it wrongly."
He closed his eyes and perceived the wind again, then he looked to his left.
’Inside the wall?’
Simon approached the wall and touched it a few times, but he still saw nothing odd about it.
He knocked the wall, but the sound it made was not the sound of a rock but of wood.
Simon furrowed his brows lightly, then he bent and began knocking around the wall.
As he did this, he noticed a crack in the wall, then he pushed his hand inside and pulled.
The sound of a wooden door echoed in the cave, and Simon’s eyes flashed with relief and anticipation as he stared beyond the door.
He stepped inside after making sure that there was nothing dangerous inside aside from a creepy old skeleton.
’An underground room huh?’
Simon stood inside what seemed to be an underground bedroom.
There was a bed, a mat, a dried up pond of water in a corner of the room, and a furnace which was the source of the warm wind.
Simon stared at the flames in the furnace for a moment, and he could not help but wonder how long those flames must have been burning for.
However, his attention was mainly on the skeleton that was sitting in a cross-legged position and with a rusted sword on top of his lap.
Simon’s eyes shone for a moment when he saw the sword, and he had the urge to approach the skeleton, but he knew better than to be rash.
He observed the skeleton for a moment, and he hoped the skeleton was actually dead or would not come to life once he touched it or approached it.
He picked up a stone from the floor and threw it at the skeleton.
Thud
The stone hit the skeleton, and to Simon’s surprise, the skeleton broke and fell into pieces.
"..."
He froze and blinked in disbelief.
"I guess it’s actually dead then." His lips twitched slightly, then he approached the skeleton.
The first thing he took was the rusted sword, and he observed it.
But after a few seconds, disappointment flashed in his eyes.
"No good." He sighed as he looked at the sword.
Unlike what he expected, the rusted sword was not a hidden treasure or a sword that would come to life if the drank the blood of an enemy.
The sword was extremely old and dead.
It could no longer be used, and to be certain...
Simon held the blade and tightened his grip around it.
Crack!
The sword cracked and broke into pieces, and Simon’s disappointment rose.
"And here I thought I had gotten my hands on a powerful sword that just needed to be reforged or reused."
Simon shook his head, then he looked at the pile of bones on the ground.
"Is there anything useful here, or is my luck so terrible that I won’t even get a single treasure in a hidden place like this?"
Simon then looked at the bones, and a thought came into his head.
"Maybe I can use his or her bones as material to craft a sword. His chaos flame is gone, and it seems he or she has been dead for a very long time ago, so there’s no demonic energy in the bones."
"But maybe the bones can still be used?"
But just as Simon had this thought, he suddenly thought of another problem.
How would he take all these bones with him?
It’s not like he could put everything in his robe.
Sigh
He released a sigh of frustration and was about to check the room to see if he would be lucky to find a treasure or something useful at least.
However, he suddenly noticed something amidst the pile of bones.
"A ring?"