Main Protagonist and the Current Working Title

Chapter Four

Main had been impressed when he walked into the makeshift vault outside the dungeon's entrance, made out of logs from the surrounding forest. But here, standing in the Emperor's legendary vault, probably containing the largest collection of magical artifacts anywhere in the world, Main was speechless.

The massive room was lit by shining crystal balls set into the wall every few feet. The ceiling was at least 30 feet high, and the walls to Main's left and right were about 40 feet apart.  From where he was standing, Main couldn't tell how far the room extended. His view was blocked by shelf after shelf standing in neat, careful rows, filled to capacity with more magic items than Main could ever count. To his right, chests of gold, silver and copper coins sat open next to the vault door. Obviously they had been placed there for ease of access, though they were by far the least valuable things in this room.

Just like in the temporary log cabin vault, the scent of ozone hung heavy in the air and orange sparks appeared and disappeared in the air. There was even the occasional zap of orange lightning, like a static charge leaping from one object to another. For a moment, Main wondered if he was dreaming but he immediately quashed the idea. There was no possible way that his mind could imagine something like this, even in a dream.

On the wall just a few feet away from Main hung a staff carved from a single piece of sapphire. Swirls and curves studded the surface, invoking the image of waves crashing into each other. The surface appeared wet and little drops of water fell to the ground, evaporating immediately. Next to it hung a whip made of flexible ice and blue fire. The air around it distorted and shivered like the air above a hot fire, and the wall behind the whip was flecked with both ash and frost. Next to that hung a coat with pictures of different weapons pinned to the sleeves. It appeared to be made of plain brown fabric and Main wouldn't have noticed anything odd about it if he'd seen someone wearing it on the street. Then there was a belt in the shape of a centipede. Looking at it gave the strange impression that the centipede was only asleep, and that it could wake up and start crawling around any second. And next to that, on a plain silver stool, sat a snow globe filled with what appeared to be flittering silver fairies.

This was only a fraction of the wonders that Main saw in the imperial vault.

"All right everyone," Baylin said, unslinging the pack from his shoulder. "Everything you can grab goes into the bag. The weirder it looks, the more powerful it probably is."

Baylin, Hadson and Cassius immediately started dumping things into the bag, which Main quickly realized was much bigger on the inside than on the outside. Seeing them drop the sapphire staff in the bag reminded Main of watching Mary Poppins.

Then Main remembered what he was supposed to be doing and rushed to find where the magic rings-

Slam.

Main, Baylin, Hadson, and Cassius all turned to see a closed vault door.

"Ha!" Doug said from the other side of the door, his voice slightly muffled. "Take that, jerks!"

They all went over to the closed door. They pushed, but it was shut tight and there was no latch or keyhole on this side.

"We're trapped," Cassius said

Baylin nodded. "I know."

"The guards can take their time and corner us in here!" Cassius said.

"I know!" Baylin said. "Give me a minute to think!"

Silence for thirty seconds. Baylin stood with his eyes closed, occasionally muttering to himself.

"Main," Baylin said. "You said that ring you're after can teleport?"