"Great solution, Rose. But Emi had an even better one: I'll use a storage talisman to cover the opening of the bore you dig. It will continuously absorb the fumes while preventing the oxygen inside the barrier from escaping into the bore and being consumed by your laser, which would otherwise deplete the levels faster," Ace explained, praising Dame Wasp for her creative thinking but highlighting Emi's ingenious fix. Emi, as the Talisman Master, had devised a clever and efficient solution to address all the issues raised by her senpai without consuming much curse energy.
"We can use a storage talisman like that too?" Dame Wasp asked in astonishment. Her surprise was understandable—such a practical application was something only Emi, with her extensive experience in creating and using talismans, could have conceived so quickly.
"Alright, Rose. You ready?" Ace asked, summoning a 'Storage' talisman from Emi's toy space and kneeling beside the dig location, ready to deploy it as soon as Dame Wasp started laser boring. Since her laser was generated using curse energy, ventilation wasn't necessary as long as there was a outlet for the fumes to move into.
In her 1/100th form, Dame Wasp nodded, "Ready!" With precision, she began boring into the predetermined spot using her laser. Ace immediately activated the 'Storage' talisman and placed it over the borehole, ensuring it functioned as intended: one side absorbed the fumes, while the other side kept the air inside the barrier from entering the bore.
Dame Wasp directed her laser with precision to create a main bore 3,100 feet deep, targeting the center of the fault where the majority of the treasure was concentrated. Thanks to her futuristic cybernetics, enhanced by curse energy, navigating underground was effortless. After reinforcing the main bore to ensure it could be used multiple times, she began boring into its walls to extract the larger treasures first—primarily old wooden and iron trunks filled with gold bricks.
Dame Wasp: Master, recall me. But watch out, I'm bringing something huge.]
"Recall," Ace muttered, his eyes widening with anticipation as a rusted old iron trunk materialized at his feet.
Dame Wasp grew to her normal size and, with a swift motion, broke open the trunk. A dazzling sight greeted them: neatly arranged pure gold bricks, their radiant hue untarnished by time.
"Holy shit!" Ace exclaimed, running his fingers slowly over the smooth surface of the gold. But his amazement was fleeting. With a determined expression, he closed the trunk. "Let's get back to work. Once we're done, we'll have all the time in the world to admire it."
Dame Wasp nodded in understanding. She shrank back to her 1/100th form and disappeared into the main bore. Her laser resumed cutting through the earth with renewed vigor as she worked her way toward the next big treasure. Meanwhile, Ace stored the rusted truck in the 'Storage' talisman, making space for the next haul.
This time, Dame Wasp returned with a petrified wooden trunk. Buried underground for centuries, the wood had undergone petrification, deforming into what now resembled a rectangular block carved from peculiar rock. Ace didn't bother checking its contents, trusting the list Dame Wasp was compiling with descriptions of everything she unearthed. Time was of the essence, by three in the morning the lake would be swarming with boats of those visiting the lake for crabbing. So, every minute counted.
After a few rounds of rusted iron or petrified wooden trunks filled with gold bricks, Dame Wasp began retrieving trunks containing rubies, jewels, and diamonds—some cut, others uncut. It was during this process that Ace noticed markings on the boxes: "KK Jewelers." The origin of the buried treasure was clear now. Much of the wreckage appeared to have belonged to KK Jewelers, who from the look of the haul Dame Wasp dug out appeared to be a prominent jeweler of the time in this region.
Dame Wasp also unearthed trunks of silverware and jewelry, though most had succumbed to rust and decay. Thinking the gold, jems, and diamonds in the jewelry could still be salvaged, Ace stored the viable pieces. As for the heavily damaged silverware, he decided to toss them back into the lake, hoping to stoke the treasure-hunting fantasies of anyone lucky enough to stumble upon them in the future. However, he kept select items that might fetch a good price as antiques.
As the operation progressed, Dame Wasp began surfacing less frequently. When she did, it was mostly with trinkets scavenged from corpses buried or valuables scattered throughout the fault. It appeared she had already retrieved all the significant treasures, leaving only scattered remains and personal items. These were widely dispersed, making them time-consuming to collect.
Ace, finding little urgency in storing these smaller items, amused himself by examining them as Dame Wasp worked. It was a way to pass the time as they neared the conclusion of their midnight fortune dive.
During this, a small, deformed rock-like box caught Ace's eye. On closer inspection, it turned out to be a square wooden ring box that had been deformed and petrified after spending over a century buried in the fault beneath the lake.
He waited for Dame Wasp to return, and this time, she surfaced with a rusted sword. Realizing they were now sifting through less valuable remnants, he gave a firm order: "Rose, don't waste your time on these junk items. They won't fetch much even as antiques. Focus on bringing up anything containing gold or diamonds. Leave the rest."
Dame Wasp nodded in understanding. Ace then held up the petrified ring box in his hand and asked, "What's in this?"
"Master, that contains a 21-carat, flawless, round-cut diamond ring with a gold-platinum alloy band," Dame Wasp replied, referencing the list she had compiled. "Based on the current market value, it could fetch close to $2 million. But as an antique, it's worth even more. Back then, many mistook platinum for silver, so for a jeweler to use platinum, thinking it was silver, was both rare and not unusual. It's one of the most valuable items we've retrieved so far."