I watched National Treasure and I thought it was pretty good, so this story takes some elements from that.

Ever since Ajax had gone to the End and come out a heroic dragonslayer, he’d been as famous as anyone could wish to be, and yet, he was unhappy. Ajax never wanted fame. To him, it seemed intangible, fickle, and ultimately worthless, so he did what any rational fame-hater would do, and slipped off the grid, which wasn’t difficult in those days when the known world was still very small, and news sometimes took years to travel from one side to the other. In the excitement that followed the dragon-slaying, Ajax had taken his reward, bought a ship -The Intrepid-, hired a crew and sailed out into the sea, hiding from fame and searching for fortune.

There was one valuable find that Ajax hoped to find more than any other: The Imperial treasure room of the city of Spartos. Two thousand years ago, the city of Spartos had been flooded by the rising ocean, and only a small portion had remained above the water. One of the city’s earliest emperors had built a fabulous hidden treasure room, Where the Emperors of the city had hoarded their riches for many hundreds of years. Its location was unknown, but the ancient writings of Mises the record keeper, who had lived around the time of the terrible flood, gave valuable clues to modern treasure hunters. Since Mises never revealed the meanings of his cryptic clues, people tried for centuries to decode them and find the secret treasure room.

Ajax stood on the deck of The Intrepid and considered all of this. If no one had ever found the treasure room, then how did he expect to find it? The answer was simple: Ajax believed that all the other treasure hunters had been overthinking Mises’ writings. The section of his writings that disclosed the treasure room’s location translated to:

“Regarding the hidden Imperial hoard, it is located below the highest seer. It can only be found by he who forgets to look.”

For centuries, all who read the section assumed “the highest seer” to be Tiresias, a wise prophet of Spartosan myth. It was known from other written works, by Mises and others, that the Imperial Palace had once proudly displayed a large statue of Tiresias, though this statue had been lost to the ages as well. But Ajax had a different idea, one he would test once he arrived at the town of Spartos, which had been reduced from a city to a village by the ocean rising and remaining over the lower part of the island.

After a few more days of sailing, The Intrepid docked at the Piers of Athus, which were part of Spartos and were modeled after the older Piers of Spartos. When the sea level rose, the island had been about halfway submerged, with the lower portion being sunken, and home only to fish, and day-to-day life continuing in the upper portion. The Imperial Palace was now in ruins, but it was likely that there were still many secret chambers and passages under the island, some possibly containing treasure.

Once The Intrepid docked, Ajax got off and began to search for a potion vendor. He needed potions of water-breathing for this, because he believed the treasure to be hidden underwater. Ajax believed the highest seer to be the northern watchtower of the city, since north was at the top of most maps, and the city’s four watchtowers once helped guards to see ships approaching from many miles away. All the towers had collapsed now, but their foundations remained beneath the sea.

Ajax paid for his water-breathing potions with five emeralds each. He bought four potions, and strolled through the busy village to the north side of the island, where the foundations of the north tower would be close at hand. When Ajax dove under the water, he was amazed at the level of preservation that had been inflicted on the old city. Except for the wood, which had long become crumbled and soggy, everything was still there. Whole houses and buildings had been preserved beneath the waves, as if they had just been abandoned last year. There were aquatic plants and corals enveloping the structures, and only some detritus from the town above had been littered in the old streets. But when Ajax reached the north tower, his spirits sank. The forces of the sea had reduced it to nothing more than a pile of rubble. Ajax tried to dig through the enormous heap of crumbled bricks, but it was no use. Dejected, he returned to the surface of the island. That night, as he slept in the town’s inn, he remembered that south was traditionally on the top of Spartosan maps.

That morning, Ajax set off to the south side of the island. he still had three potions left, More than enough to explore the south tower, and any flooded chambers that might lie beneath it. Ajax dived beneath the sea and quickly found the south tower, which unlike the north tower, had its foundations almost perfectly intact. Ajax swam inside and pulled out his pickaxe to break up the floor and search for a hidden tunnel. He hadn’t been digging long before he found a deep flooded hole below one of the blocks in the floor, stretching deep into the darkness below.

Slowly and cautiously, Ajax swam down the vertical tunnel. He took great care not to disturb the walls of the tunnel, for any of the bricks there could be a hidden button, which might have released a flood of suffocating sand, or a piston to flatten him. At the bottom of the tunnel, Ajax was met with a sizeable hallway, lined with eight statues, four on each side, and presumably emperors or other important people of ancient Spartos.

At the end of the hallway of statues, Ajax found a plaque on a pedestal, likely giving instructions on how to enter the treasure room. The only word on it he knew how to read was Monikos, which meant ‘name’. Following the logical course of action, Ajax said his name aloud, though he knew it would be muffled by the water that surrounded him. Unsurprisingly, Ajax’s voice wasn’t recognized. He could tell by the way the eight statues lining the walls of the corridor behaved. Their eyes glowed deep red, and they all turned their heads to face Ajax in a rather unfriendly manner. As they stepped off their pedestals, Ajax realized that they were moving in slow motion. They were over 2000 years old and surrounded by water, so this wasn’t surprising, and this seemingly small weakness could give Ajax an important advantage in fighting the hostile golems. Ajax had depth strider boots so the water wouldn’t slow him down, and he still had his iron pickaxe, but it was very close to breaking, so he would have to use his sword after that.

Ajax defeated the squad of eight golems in about fifteen minutes and started for the door-shaped patch of stone in the wall, which he had soon cleared out of the way with his nearly broken pickaxe. Just in time too, as the pickaxe shattered just when he broke the last block. This revealed another room to get through, and Ajax realized there would be no breaking past this one.
This second room contained a wall with six buttons, labeled with the letters I, V, X, L, C, and D. Ajax knew these to be the first six components of the Spartosan number system, exactly like the Roman Numerals in our world. The wall had to be a combination lock, but even if the redstone still worked, Ajax had no idea what the combination could be. Then he remembered the significance of numbers in the Spartosan religion, and one number in particular. Ancient Spartosans believed that the meaning of life, the universe, and everything could be summed up in one number- 42. Ajax pressed the buttons in the order X,L,I,I, and the door slid open, revealing a large heap of gold, diamonds, emeralds, and other valuable items. It took several trips to transport the treasure from the old storage room, and once it was out, Ajax took 25% for himself, 25% for his crew to share, and left 50% for the people of Spartos, which had been on hard times recently. Everyone was happy with the arrangements, and Ajax continued his days of seeking fortune at sea.