My New Life as a Leviathan in Another World

Chapter 11: Entering the Temple! Part 2

As we descended the staircase, the cold, damp atmosphere continued to worsen. I worried it would soon become too cold for humans to endure, and Penelope may...

Before my thought could finish, Penelope stopped in her tracks before giving me a quick glance, then proceeding through the entrance in front of us.

As we passed into a giant cave, straight in front of us stood a pile of gold bigger than you could ever imagine.

I saw Penelope's face light up in ecstasy as she ran towards the pile.

I carefully looked around the cave and found pockets of unprocessed coal lining the walls.

Looking back towards Penelope, then the pile of gold, I quickly came to a conclusion.

"You might not want to be so happy just yet." I warned.

"What, you gonna tell me it's booby trapped or something?" Penelope asked sarcastically.

"No. It's fake." I replied.

Her eyes changed instantly I said those two words.

"That's ridiculous. How could all of this? Be fake." She gestured to the pile of gold.

"Have you ever heard of a term, Fool's Gold?" I asked.

Her face told me she had.

I didn't have to say more to her, she already knew what I meant.

The gold she was so giddy about earlier, was Pyrite.

I had to do a science project about caves once, although I didn't end up going through with my plan on Pyrite, I did still remember the info I had gathered from the web.

I noticed that along with coal, there was a gold-like ore strewn across, only some minute differences between it and real gold.

Penelope, after giving the pile beneath her a better look, she quickly slumped down into it.

I ran closer to her, but stopped once I heard the sounds of sobbing.

"My men, my ship, even my treasure, all of it gone, all of it!" She screamed at the top of her lungs as she smashed her fists to the ground.

I approached her and gently placed a hand on her shoulder, before saying.

"There is still-" Before I could finish speaking, Penelope shoved me aside.

"Don't even start!" She yelled, before looking at me.

Then, as if something had snapped inside her, her anger became directed towards me.

"This is all your fault!" She crawled towards me before smashing her weak and bloody fists on my body, screaming and cursing me in her grief.

I merely looked on with a stinging pain in my heart.

"Why?! Why did it have to end it like!? We were supposed to become rich! This was our big break away from being mercenaries and finally becoming real pirates! So, then, tell me, why? Why did it end like this?"

After she had finally calmed down enough to let me talk, sat her down on my legs, before calmly telling her.

"There is still one more floor we haven't explored yet." I calmly whispered into her ear.

She looked deep into my eyes, and as we both stared, our faces grew closer to each others, until the sound of dripping water interrupted our senses.

"Why is the cave dripping water all of a sudden?" I asked, looking towards the source of noise in the otherwise quiet room.

Then I noticed the dripping became more intensified, slowly over time, but ever so quickly.

Realizing what was about to happen, I quickly grabbed hold of Penelope's arm and ran towards the area near where the hidden door to the next floor would be.

After mindlessly searching around for what felt like an eternity, I finally managed to discover the switch, and threw Penelope into the room before the room's ceiling burst apart flooding the entire cave.

I took one last look, before quickly shutting the door behind me...