Hidden

On that face, weathered by wind and marked by scars, almost no emotional fluctuations could be seen. Those scars spanned his skin like seals carved into time, firmly locking away the joy, anger, sorrow, and fear he had accumulated over decades, preventing even a fraction from easily leaking out.

In fact, one could even say that his current calmness was somewhat too deep—so deep that it faintly carried an abnormality that could not be ignored.

Only that sharp, single eye gave him away—

As it scanned the entire main burial chamber, especially when that gaze slowly slid past the sarcophagus and finally landed on a spot half-hidden in shadow behind it, a nearly scorching light suddenly flashed in the depths of his pupil.

That was not the ordinary excitement a typical adventurer felt upon seeing wealth.

It was more like a long pursuit finally touching the edge of its goal—a surge of desire and trembling that broke through layers of suppression from the deepest part of the heart. It was a long-held obsession that had been buried for far too long, finally seeing the outline of the finish line and unable to stop itself from shuddering.

The hand he used to grip his weapon had turned slightly pale at some point due to excessive force, the skin over his knuckles pulled taut into clear curves.

Even the rhythm of his breathing, usually so steady, grew slightly heavy for a moment—like a precision machine whose gears had suffered a brief but real malfunction after a core component was touched.

However, he concealed all of this exceptionally well.

Those subtle abnormalities came and went quickly; unless one were intentionally and intensely observing, they would be nearly impossible to detect.

On the other side, Herbert did not show much surprise at their nearly eerily smooth arrival. He simply surveyed everything in the main burial chamber with composure, his grey-blue eyes slowly and calmly scanning the stone pillars, niches, the sarcophagus, and the lingering mana traces on the surrounding stone walls. His demeanor remained consistently cool, as if the grandeur and mystery here were merely a verified calculation to him rather than a shocking surprise.

It was as if all of this was already within his expectations.

Yet, if one were careful enough, a fleeting and minute change could still be found—the corner of his lip twitched upward ever so slightly. It was not a smile and did not count as an outward display of emotion in any sense; it was more like a quiet confirmation of “as expected,” like someone filling in the final answer in their mind and then closing a ledger that only they could understand.

Especially when he recalled that seemingly helpless but ultimately final choice made at the fork in the path, a faint trace of smugness—nearly impossible to capture—quietly flickered in the depths of his grey-blue eyes. It was not boastful; he even intentionally suppressed it. But that hidden confidence from having his judgment validated by reality once again still seeped out quietly from the depths of his gaze.

Whether it was the acquisition of that earth golem core earlier or the smooth arrival at the main burial chamber now, it seemed to continuously prove, time and time again, that his experience, his intuition, or some deeper, nameless method of judgment was indeed far more reliable and precise than that of others.

Herbert slowly exhaled, his breath steady and long, exuding a sense of composure as if he were always standing behind the chessboard and had never truly lost control.

Matthew, meanwhile, took all of this in silently.

He never spoke, remaining as quiet as a complete bystander. Standing slightly toward the back, his gaze first swept inconspicuously over the grave robbers who were full of wonder and greed—the emotions of those people were simple and real, not worth much of his attention.

Then, his gaze flickered past Herbert’s well-hidden but momentarily leaked smugness, silently noting it in his heart without comment.

Finally.

His gaze slowly and imperceptibly came to rest on Sutton.

And for a long time, it did not move away.

Sutton’s moment of excitement had come unexpectedly and vanished just as quickly...

It was like a flash of lightning piercing a heavy night sky, gone in an instant without even leaving an afterglow. However, that brief moment was captured by Matthew without omission.

That was not ordinary greed...

Combined with Herbert’s expression, Matthew’s heart stirred, and he thought to himself, “Could it be that this tomb is not what I thought?”

But it was important to remember that Matthew had a rough map of the tomb in his mind.

From what he could see, there didn’t seem to be any problem.

In fact, one could even say that there were almost no treasure points in this tomb.

Aside from the massive main burial chamber before them, the other rooms were scattered like tiny dots, not looking like treasure points at all...

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