It was probably because of my mentioning the Dragon's Tomb that I felt everyone's footsteps quickened. Following Princess Annie's lead through a series of twists and turns, we arrived at a place resembling the entrance of a dungeon. Princess Annie glanced around, then walked to a candlestick, grabbed it and gave it a pull, causing the adjacent stone wall to automatically slide open, revealing an entrance.

"Is this the entrance to the shelter?" I said, gazing into the pitch-black hole.

"Correct," Princess Annie confirmed, stepping forward and pressing a brick on the wall. With a sudden click, all the lights inside the passageway lit up instantly.

"You guys seem to have hired a very talented designer," I remarked.

"Even though talented, it was over 2,000 years ago. It's said to have been designed by someone named Lantolis, who was an alchemist. However, he only appeared for about twenty years before suddenly disappearing, never to be found again," Princess Annie explained as she led us down.

"Really? It seems like powerful people like to show off invisibly," I noted.

"Show off? What does that mean?" Princess Annie looked curiously at me, and I didn't want to give too misleading of an explanation, so I replied, "It means that very skilled people often pretend to be weak."

"So, Fir, aren't you pretending to be strong all the time?" she teased.

I nearly choked on my own breath. "Where am I showing off? I always go all out to defeat my opponents."

"With your strength, not to mention becoming a captain in the national army like Ona, I think you could easily become a legion commander or something. Why did you choose to become a teacher?" she asked.

"I..." I hesitated for a moment, then continued, "I yearn for peace!"

"See, you're showing off again," she teased.

"Oh, come on, I'm speaking the truth. Well, at least that's one of the reasons," I conceded.

"And what's the other reason?"

"Laziness."

"That makes sense, right?"

I couldn't help but feel that being a teacher was quite annoying... As everyone laughed, I began to question my teaching career.

Just then, we reached the end of the stairs. Before us stood a metal gate, showing clear signs of attack despite the lack of rust. But opening it wouldn't be easy. A magical lock adorned the gate, one I had never encountered before.

Just about right?

I took out the tool to unlock magical locks and aimed it at the mechanism.

"Teacher, do you really have such a thing?" Ona chuckled.

What do you mean? Does a Red Leaf Assassin like you have the right to talk? I guess I'm not that different, though.

I chuckled wryly, pressed the button on the unlocking device, and watched as the magical absorption mechanism on top of the lock started working, slowly drawing in the magical elements.

...

...

...

"I say..."

I turned to Princess Annie beside me.

"What is your lock made of, exactly?" After absorbing for several tens of minutes, the light on the magical lock suddenly went out and then lit up again, leaving us puzzled by the strange occurrence.

Until…

The unlocking device emitted a mournful sound and stopped operating. I lowered my head to look, only to see that all the magic stones used for storing magic were already filled!

"What concept is this? The empty magic stones I brought can absorb all the magic stones in an imperial city shop, so what's going on..."

"Probably, this lock was changed by someone from the Dragon Clan."

Isn't it obvious that it must have been changed? What is there to doubt?

I looked at her, shaking my head helplessly.

"So, our normal methods won't work. Should we just destroy it directly then?"

"Don't be ridiculous, a lock from the Dragon Clan can't just be casually opened."

Princess Annie gave me a disdainful look.

"Who knows, this isn't a dragon, it's just one of their tombs."

"But the magic mechanism inside is not simple, after all, it's from the Dragon Clan."

Just as we were discussing, a sword suddenly stabbed us from behind, directly into the door!

At the same moment, the magic lock on the door flashed and disappeared.

We turned around to see Kanaliya retracting her sword.

"Isn't this easy to open? What are you guys hesitating about?"

"..."

I glanced at the door, then at Kanaliya's sword.

"Your sword... could it also be left by your master?"

"Yeah, this is the sword my master used before becoming famous, it's said to have been left behind by another sword saint a long time ago."

I looked at the dragon carving on the hilt and said,

"Mind if I have a look?"

"Uh..."

After some thought, Kanaliya handed it to me.

Proud Dragon Slayer Sword

Increases damage to dragons by 80%, increases resistance to dragon magic by 80%

"This is even more useful than a key..."