Starting as Cipher-The Flame-Chaser Identity System(Honkai Star Rail)

Douglas, glowing faintly with his innate radiance, naturally took the lead. Aria followed closely behind, with Cipher third and Feidric bringing up the rear.

Unbeknownst to the group, about a hundred meters away, someone peered out from behind a tree, silently watching them enter the tomb.

Cipher's Super Hearing was directional. Since she wasn't consciously focusing her attention in that direction, she remained unaware of the watcher's presence. Her focus was entirely on the ancient tomb ahead.

The tomb's entrance was narrow, forcing the two-meter-tall Douglas to stoop awkwardly as he passed through. The air hung thick with the stench of decay.

After advancing about ten meters, the passage gradually widened and leveled out, revealing clear signs of artificial construction on the walls and floor.

A partially open stone gate, roughly three meters tall, came into Cipher's view. Two torch sconces flanked the gate, embedded in the stone walls. But this wasn't some game world with eternally burning flames; the torches had long since burned out.

The stone gate was only slightly ajar. Aria and Feidric might be able to squeeze through, but it was clear that Cipher and Douglas wouldn't fit.

Douglas, with his bulky frame, was an obvious case. Cipher glanced down at her ample chest, then back at the narrow gap in the gate, her conviction hardening. No way! Absolutely no way I'm getting through!

Her gaze then drifted to Aria, whose chest was as flat as her back. Truthfully, Cipher envied her.

Douglas stepped forward, took a deep breath, and gripped the stone gate with both hands. With a heavy scraping sound, he slowly began to pull the massive gate open.

Beyond the gate lay a stone corridor approximately three meters high and four meters wide. Burned-out torch sconces were spaced roughly five meters apart along the walls. Without any light source, Cipher couldn't see what lay at the corridor's end. She could see more clearly in the dark than most, but she didn't have X-ray vision.

Douglas's luminous radius extended ten meters, and the others' visibility was limited to the same distance. Cipher, however, could see roughly twenty meters ahead, beyond which her vision plunged into impenetrable darkness.

"Let's move on," Feidric said. After a moment of silence, Cipher realized none of the three had budged. Instead, they were all staring at her. Startled, she pointed at herself with a golden-nailed index finger, poking a small dent into her cheek. "Me first?!"

Feidric was speechless. "Isn't that obvious? When exploring terrain like this, the Thief always goes first."

The tomb appeared vast, suggesting its occupant had likely been no ordinary person in life, and likely buried with lavish grave goods. To deter grave robbers, it was reasonable to assume traps and mechanisms had been installed.

This was precisely the Thief's domain: detecting and disarming traps. Such skills were practically mandatory training, as most who dared to enter such tombs were, after all, thieves.

But Cipher was clearly no proper thief! She had no idea how to do any of this!

Seeing Cipher's utterly bewildered expression, Feidric paused. "You mean you don't know how to disarm traps with thief's tools?"

Cipher looked embarrassed. "Thief's... what?"

Feidric stared in disbelief. "?"

Douglas stared in disbelief. "?"

Aria tilted her head. "But what exactly are thief's tools?"

Feidric sighed and rubbed his forehead. "It's a general term for a kit containing lockpicks, small mirrors, thin hooks, files, tweezers... basically anything a thief would carry to handle various situations. They usually keep their favorite tools together in a box for emergencies."

After a moment of silence, Douglas tentatively suggested, "So... should I still go first?"

Before he could finish, Cipher declared, "No need! I've got this!"

What could possibly go wrong? she thought. The Flash doesn't step on his own traps, does he?

If anything went wrong, she could be tucked safely in bed at the Stone Pine City Adventurer's Guild inn in the blink of an eye.

Besides, what if Feidric was just being paranoid? What if there weren't any traps at all?

"Wait a moment," Feidric said, stepping in front of Cipher before she could set off. After chanting a brief incantation, he instructed, "Extend your right hand."

Cipher complied. Feidric touched her palm with his index finger, and a blue, intricately patterned circular symbol materialized on her glove.

"This is a Triggered Shield Spell," he explained. "A 1st-Level spell from the Abjuration School. It will automatically generate a temporary shield around you when you're about to take damage."

Cipher gazed at the mark on her glove, her eyes wide with wonder. "How amazing~!" she exclaimed.

The path of magic was vast and profound. Many mages spent their entire lives barely scratching the surface. To better organize their studies, they divided magic into eight distinct disciplines, known as the Eight Great Schools. Rather than dabble in multiple areas, mages often specialized in a single school. Feidric, for example, was a master of the Abjuration School.

With preparations complete, Cipher finally entered the Stone Gate. Her eyes fixed on the ground ahead—a dusty, slightly uneven stone path. It didn't look like it concealed any traps or mechanisms at all.

Just as Cipher was thinking this, the heel of her right shoe landed on a slightly raised stone. With a faint grinding sound as the stones rubbed together, the stone beneath her foot gave way slightly.

"Huh?!"

In the next instant, small holes appeared in the stone walls on either side of Cipher, and dark arrows shot out with a sharp whoosh.

The entire sequence unfolded in the blink of an eye, but Cipher's reflexes were lightning-fast. Her cat ears twitched imperceptibly; she had already heard the gears grinding before the traps were fully activated.

Prepared for the attack, Cipher relied on her exceptional dynamic vision to track the incoming arrows. With a subtle twist of her body and a minimal backward lean, she allowed the projectiles to graze past her chest and waist, missing her by less than a centimeter.

Cipher could have easily dodged further, but there was no need. A mere adjustment of her posture was all it took to render the arrows harmless.

It was a fortunate coincidence: her slender waist was narrower than the gaps between the arrows. By positioning herself centrally, the arrows were guaranteed to miss completely.

However, it was precisely because of her voluptuous figure that Cipher had to lean back slightly to avoid being struck in the side by an arrow.

Though she'd never experienced it firsthand, Cipher knew instinctively that being hit by an arrow would be excruciatingly painful.

Cipher couldn't help but sigh inwardly, If I had Aria's slender figure, dodging these traps would be so much easier.

Only after all the arrows had embedded themselves in the opposite wall did Aria and the others realize Cipher had just triggered a trap. From Aria's perspective, a hail of arrows had streaked past Cipher's body, yet Cipher herself, standing amidst the deadly barrage, remained completely unscathed. The sight left her stunned.

"Sister Cipher?" Aria stammered in disbelief.

Cipher turned to Aria, tilting her head slightly. "Hmm? What's wrong~?"

At that moment, a faint click echoed through the chamber. Likely due to the trap's aging mechanism, a single hidden arrow suddenly launched, aiming directly at Cipher's tail.

Without even glancing back, Cipher subtly curved her tail into the shape of a reclining question mark. The arrow sailed cleanly through the loop formed by her tail, missing completely.

Feidric and Douglas, witnessing the same scene, were equally stunned.

One moment they were astonished: A thief stepping on a trap? How careless!

The next, their disbelief intensified: Dodging every arrow in that hail of projectiles without a scratch? How is that even possible?

Having triggered the first trap, Cipher quickly realized the mechanisms were nothing special. With newfound confidence, she strode forward with even greater boldness.

Click...

Click...

Click...

Roughly every ten meters, Cipher triggered another trap. Whether it was arrows darting from the walls, objects dropping from the ceiling, or sections of the floor suddenly giving way, she effortlessly evaded them all.

She didn't even need to use Divine Speed. Cipher's exceptional physical prowess and reflexes alone rendered the traps utterly harmless.

To Aria and the others watching from behind, Cipher appeared to be dancing through the dungeon, bouncing and skipping her way through the corridor, evading every hazard with balletic grace.

Feidric muttered, "So that's how she 'disarms' traps?"

But something didn't feel right. Any other thief would have been roasted to a crisp by now.

Boom!!!

Just then, Cipher triggered another trap. A deafening explosion shook the corridor, and Feidric looked up to see a searing inferno engulfing the passage ahead, flames raging fiercely.

Before he could speak, Cipher's voice came from beside them. She stretched her tail forward, inspected it carefully for burns, then patted her chest with a relieved sigh. "Whew, that was close! My tail almost got singed."

Feidric and Douglas froze in disbelief. They hadn't even noticed Cipher returning. Feidric realized the Triggered Shield Spell he'd prepared for her hadn't activated. The explosion had been instantaneous, yet Cipher had retreated even faster.

As the flames from the explosion subsided, Cipher continued onward. After triggering so many traps, she had begun to discern certain patterns. For instance, the traps were never placed too close together; a safe zone always existed around each one.

Secondly, although the uneven ground appeared random at first glance, she discovered that stepping on every protruding stone roughly ten meters after triggering the last trap would almost certainly set off another.

Cipher didn't know how to disarm the traps. To protect her teammates following behind, she now deliberately sought them out, triggering them preemptively to clear the path.

A few minutes later, the first intersection appeared—a four-way junction. As Cipher scanned the corridors ahead and to either side, she found they were identical stone passages, indistinguishable from one another.

"What now? Which way should we go?" she asked, turning to the others.

Feidric replied, "There are no clues here. Just pick a direction at random. If we choose wrong, we can always backtrack."

"Right it is!" Cipher said casually. After changing direction, they hadn't gone ten meters before a wall blocked their path, clearly a dead end.

Yet at the end of this dead end sat a dust-covered metal treasure chest, immediately capturing their attention.

If this were a game, Cipher would have rushed forward to open the chest without hesitation. A treasure chest at the end of a dead end? Perfectly normal!

But this was reality, and she paused to consider. Would someone really place a treasure chest in a dead end within their own tomb?

It made no sense at all.

Still... even knowing the chest was likely a trap, what if it wasn't? Cipher was overwhelmingly curious about its contents.

Or, more precisely, she wasn't truly after any treasure inside; she was simply fascinated by the act of opening it.

It reminded her of her past life, when she played Genshin Impact. She knew the chests rarely contained worthwhile rewards, but she still diligently explored every map, opening every single one.

The Eight Great Schools are:

Abjuration School: Masters of defense, their most renowned spell is Counterspell, a 3rd-Level spell that can interrupt an enemy's spellcasting at the moment of activation, causing it to fail. Preventing enemies from casting spells is the best form of defense.

Conjuration School: Experts in summoning a wide range of entities, both living and inanimate, such as earthen walls or even entire buildings. They also excel in teleportation magic, allowing them to summon themselves to distant locations, effectively achieving teleportation.

Divination School: This school requires little explanation.

Enchantment School: Specialists in mind-manipulating magic.

Evocation School: Masters of elemental manipulation, responsible for spells like fireballs, ice cones, and wind blades.

Illusion School: As the name suggests, they specialize in creating illusions.

Necromancy School: Researchers of positive and negative energy. The former can heal, while the latter can kill and reanimate corpses. Surprisingly, healing magic falls under the domain of necromancy.

Transmutation School: Experts in altering the physical form of matter, such as turning a person into a sheep. They are also skilled in potion-making, also known as alchemy.