Rise of the Eromancer-Chapter 352: Greed

"...It really is a hand."

The large leaves rippled away from Rhys's feet as he moved closer to the pedestal; his eyes, not leaving the pair of severed hands at all. He initially thought that it was some sort of incredibly detailed sculpture with how white and pale it was, but no—it truly was just a pair of hands. He could even see the bones, and the flesh curling around it was almost as dry.

By all means, the hands should have already decayed, but not at all. Even though it was pale and even looked powdery, it still seemed filled with life for some reason that Rhys could not explain at all.

"Hm…" Rhys then looked up again at the trail of light leading to it. He would have probably thought that the pedestal was the treasure the light was pointing to, if it wasn't for the fact that it narrowed and truly just focused on the severed hands, "...So, we went all this way for a pair of limbs… interesting."

And of course, Rhys was a little hesitant in just grabbing the pair of hands—how could he not be, when the last time he had anything to do with a severed hand, it was his own—and his latest memory was Dr. Dhani being absorbed by whatever was inside him.

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He wasn't going to take any chances here—what if this was his father's hand? After all, Hades' has told him that his father was somewhere here—and since all the roads and prophecies led him here, then this would surely mean something important to him…

…or was his chronic overthinking just once again clouding his mind?

"...Hm," Rhys just let out a small but very deep sigh as he finally decided to grab the pair of hands.

"!!!"

But as soon as his fingers were only inches away from it, however, he felt a chill just suddenly crawl on the back of his neck. He quickly backed away from the hand—his instincts as if telling him to just step away and never approach.

And it was then that he finally realized that something was incredibly off—there were leaves and all sorts of other fauna on the bottom of the shallow pool, surrounding the pedestal completely, some of them on top of each other as if they stacked and fell… almost as if they bounced off the golden pedestal.

He also noticed that the pedestal wasn't really gold all the way; its base that was under the water was still marble. It might just be nothing, of course, but Rhys could not help but feel it to be a little ominous.

"You, step away from the gold!"

"Hm…?" And before Rhys could actually decide what his next course of action was, he heard several loud voices approaching him from behind. He looked, only to see the people who Clio rescued walking toward him, a dozen of them—and Clio was with them, but she was completely tied up while being pushed and dragged by the men,

"...What's going on here?" Rhys's eyes narrowed as one of the men placed a knife next to Clio's neck.

"I said, step away from the gold!" The man repeated his words as he planted the knife deeper onto Clio's skin.

"Huh…" Rhys could really only blink in confusion as he looked at Clio, who just had an awkward expression on her face, almost as if she didn't know what to do. But of course, perhaps the most confused out of all of this was Rhys himself.

Clio was already strong enough to lift entire boulders the size of an entire car by herself—she could deal with these men and snap their necks with a single hand. These men are so close to death and they don't even know it.

"What… are you doing?" Rhys's eyes narrowed even further as he looked Clio in the eyes.

"I…" Clio awkwardly chuckled, "...I didn't really want to hurt them."

The other men could not help but look at each other as they heard that, but before they could react, Rhys raised both of his hands in surrender and just started stepping away from the pedestal; his steps once again caused the plants to ripple away. And soon, he was out of the immaculate pool of water.

"Okay, I'm already far away from it," Rhys sighed, "Just let the woman go."

"Heh… I don't think so," the man holding Clio just let out a scoff before he gestured to the others to move toward Rhys. And as they did with Clio, Rhys also ended up being bound by several bundles of rope.

Rhys didn't really do anything while they were tying him up. Instead, he just stared at the golden pedestal and the dried pair of hands the entire time, wondering what the chill he felt was.

"Someone guard these two!"

"...Shouldn't we just kill them?"

"Are you stupid? The woman looks wealthy—if that gold turns out to be fake, we can still sell this woman. As for the man…" The man who seemed to be the leader of the goons looked at Rhys from head to toe, "Well, we can sell him as a slave—look at how big he is."

"...But didn't he just kill the hydra? Shouldn't… shouldn't we let them go?"

"Are you stupid? Do you think any normal human could kill that thing?" The leader of the thugs clicked his tongue while shaking his head, "Look at the corpse, it clearly died fighting something else—maybe the god of spiders has blessed us and permitted us to take the treasure to ourselves…

…now someone guard these two!"

And with that, the leader of the thugs and some of his men all stepped over the immaculate pool of water—not even wondering at all why the water was so clear.

As for Rhys and Clio, well, the both of them were forced to kneel as a single man was left to guard them.

"Rhys…" Clio leaned closer to Rhys and whispered, "...Are these people imbeciles? Did they truly not see you vanquish that beast?"

"I wouldn't know, you were the one who was with them, Clio," Rhys sighed, "I—"

"Who permitted the two of you to speak!?" The man who was tasked to guard them stomped Rhys on the back… only for him to be the one to almost trip backward as he did so. But of course, he acted like nothing happened; just clearing his throat and then focusing on his group who was now nearing the gold pedestal,

"We…we're going to be rich."

"Hm…" Rhys could not help but let out a small whisper as he heard that, but the man did not seem to notice at all.

"That… that must be pure gold, it must be," the man almost salivated as he saw the size of the pedestal—a chunk of that would be enough to feed him and his family for a lifetime, if not more. Even though it was hard to see from afar, just the glimmer of it and the fact that it was almost the same size as his comrades made him sure enough they were, in fact, truly rich.

"Is… it really just gold, Rhys?" Clio asked, "Does that mean we wasted our time here?"

"...There's a pair of hands."

"Huh…?" Clio narrowed her eyes at Rhys, "What do you mean a pair of hands?"

"I meant what I meant," Rhys shrugged, "There was a pair of hands on top of the gold pedestal—but there was also something weird about it. The plants that were near the pedestal, they… were also gold."

"A pair of hands, and go—wait…" Clio's eyes quickly widened as she stared at the golden flint from afar. She then turned back to look at Rhys, her lips now suddenly quivering, "...I've heard of a legend before—King Midas."

"...I don't know who that is," Rhys sighed, "I'm new here, remember?"

"Well, legends say that anything he tou—"

"Pantares!?"

And before Clio could even start her story, a loud scream whispered from the distance.

"W… what the!?" And the man who was guarding Clio and Rhys was the first to notice what happened—how could he not, when he was so focused on what was happening?

"Did… Did Pantares… did Pantares just turn into gold!?"

"Oh…" Rhys breathed out, "...I think I might know what the legend is now, Clio."

"I… I can't believe something like that is here," Clio gasped, "It's… often told as a story to scare children and adults alike that greed… greed harms and would result in your very own destruction. And now…"

Clio and Rhys continued to watch what was happening—only for the rest of the men to start grabbing the pair of hands even though they already knew what it did to their friend. But alas, perhaps it did not matter at all… as even the man that was supposed to be guarding them also rushed toward the pool; his breaths filled with greed.

"Well…" Rhys sighed as he casually ripped the rope wrapped around him, "...That was entertaining."