"So, do you think the entrance would be above or below?" Alex asked.
Shane was still looking at this hidden passage. It was hard to tell when it ended since the only source of light was around them.
"I have no idea. I guess it should be down, near the base of the valley. I mean, that's what it would make sense," Shane leaned over the ledge, trying to see the bottom.
"What about going up? Couldn't this start at the top?" Bonnie tossed a light up.
"I don't think so. If it did, we would've seen something. Unless the entrance was somewhere high up in the valley, but that wouldn't make any sense either. Why would they make a crypt that no one can find?" Shane scratched the back of her head.
"Maybe it was to protect a treasure. Or they wanted to make the travel here a trial," Blue chimed in.
"That's a possibility, I guess, but I doubt it. There wasn't anything about their culture that made it seem like they would have this type of trial," Shane replied.
"Couldn't it be something more exclusive like an elite group of warriors or something," Alex suggested.
"Like the special forces? Or a version of the king's guard?" Hera asked.
"Yeah. I mean, those groups usually have some weird test or initiation, don't they? Some are all secret and stuff," Blue shrugged.
"That… could be the case, although I doubt it. From everything I found about the naga, they don't have that kind of organization," Shane moved over to the edge of the tunnel made by Hera and Silah, "Either way, staying here will get us nowhere. We need to see what those things are."
"Shane. I'll go first," Mylo stepped forward and dropped to the central passage below.
There was a moment of tension, with everyone waiting for a trap to be sprung. It didn't matter if putting traps was something common for the naga or not. Just being in a place like this made everyone feel a bit on edge. Luckily, nothing happened. Mylo was able to start walking through the passage without any issues.
"You can come now. The ground seems stable," Mylo tapped his foot on the floor to make sure it wouldn't crumble under the weight.
One by one, the party members dropped to the passage built by the naga. Then, they started to carefully walk down towards what everyone assumed was the end of this structure. Hera noticed a few things while they were moving. First, the area didn't have places for torches or other types of lights. Sure, the naga seemed to be able to see in infrared, but even so, there were still candleholders, and such in all the crypts the party went to. Second, there was paint on the walls. It was hard to tell what the drawings should be. They all seemed distorted and even eroded, but someone had gone through the trouble of painting every single wall of this passage in various colors. The last thing was about the sculptures. Each of them was unique, with a different set of jewelry and a different position. They were so different that it made this place seem like a crypt for multiple people.
"Hey, that might be it," Hera gasped.
"What?" Silah asked.
"Maybe this crypt is for an entire tribe or group."
"That is a possibility. I also found that these statues are too diff…." Shane looked up to Hera, who was on the rear of the group, "Holy crap! Everyone put some light on the path behind us."
Unsure what Shane meant, Hera moved her light back, "Like this?"
"Yeah, but for you, it will have to be more up. Look up to the wall on the other side," Shane replied.
Blue, Bonnie, and Alex gasped while looking at Hera, which only made the explorer feel uncomfortable. Even so, she tried to ignore that and tossed her light up to the other side of the wall.
"Wow, this is amazing!" Silah gasped as the paint above them became visible. The passage was very wide, and only when you were on the other side, you could see the mural that was formed. It was odd. Each part of the painting would start in the middle of the wall and go up the rock passage until the middle of the next floor. It forced you to be on a lower elevation to see the full picture. Even the statues were a part of the painting. When you lined them up just the right way, the jewels and gold, as well as the shape of each sculpture, would fit like a piece of the puzzle revealing the complete mural.
"It really is. I wonder what this means," the part that Hera was looking at depicted one naga on top of some sort of structure with three other nagas below it. They were all with their backs turned to her watching the sunset or sunrise. It was hard to tell.
"Let's keep going down. This has to make sense at some point," Shane said.
As they moved, it seemed like the mural was in reverse. The first picture Hera saw was the naga on top of a building. The one that followed showed the same group of naga fighting a massive lion. Then they pass through several corridors, each with different dangers. A bit before reaching the bottom of the spiral passage, the first picture shows the group of naga lowering their heads and receiving something from a more imposing naga. Among the entire mural, two things showed that this was the same group of naga through all that journey. The leader had a mark on their shoulder, which looked like three spirals starting from the same spot. It reminded Hera of a triskelion, but the lines all connected instead of having a triangle in the middle. One of the other nagas also had a unique feature. Their hands were always painted in a different color, a color that seemed to match something in the background. It could be some fire, ice, or even the sunrise in the first picture Hera saw.
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"Any idea what does this all means, Shane?" Bonnie asked as they got closer to the bottom. In the middle of the passage, they could see now a large stone coffin surrounded by a ring of gold pieces and precious stones.
"I don't know. The naga shouldn't use coffins. They use the pyres and burn their dead. If this is an actual coffin, like for our standards, there should be a body here," Shane scratched her head.
"Soo… should we open?" Blue asked.
"Bad idea, do you remember that whole 'Pharao's Curse' thing in the pyramids? One of the possible reasons was due to bacteria that survived for thousands of years in there. That was back on earth without that much influence of the MAZE. Imagine what might pop out here," Bonnie said.
"That's fair. And what about the gold? Can we grab some?" Blue looked around.
"I mean… grave robbing is never a good thing. But let's be sure there aren't any traps around here before you start shoving gold in your pockets," Shane replied.
"Why would I put them in my pocket? Won't the gold vanish and go to my account like what we get in dungeons?" Blue asked.
"Nope. That only works with gold inside a dungeon or when it's dropped by a quest or a monster. When we find things like this, we need to drag it back to the guild to have the value converted," Shane explained.
"Oh, and how do they know how much is it worth?" Blue asked.
"By weight. Mana makes the coins weigh more, and if it has a lot of mana, it's better to make items with," Mylo explained.
"Really? I guess it's better not to pick any of this up until we are going back then," Blue sighed.
"Again, don't pick anything before checking for traps. If you guys have never done something like that, let Mylo and I look first," Shane was kneeling by the coffin, trying to see if she could find any information about it.
Taking a moment to look around, Hera noticed a passage right in front of the coffin. However, that corridor seemed to be locked. After a couple of meters inside, a large stone wall was blocking the path. Hera tried to use her stone shape spell to shift it but couldn't do it. It was like this particular piece of stone wasn't susceptible to her magic.
"Guys, I think we might not be able to leave through here," Hera walked back to the room with the coffin.
"Really? You didn't find a way out?" Bonnie asked.
"I kind of did, but it's blocked by something, and I can't make it budge."
"Let me check. No offense, Hera, but you are not that good when trying to find a path in a cave. I mean, you didn't even notice that we had opened a passage up there," Silah chuckled and walked to the corridor Hera just came from. Mylo and Blue went along with her to help if they could.
"Cave digging was never my forté," Hera shrugged and walked back to the coffin. She wanted to help Shane figure out what was going on there.
"This is weird," Shane said while looking at something behind the casket.
"What?" Hera and Bonnie walked over.
"This," Shane pointed at a corner of the wall. There wasn't anything painted there, but instead, there were two engravings of coins with snake skulls in the middle and an intricate pattern surrounding them.
"What is that?" Bonnie asked.
"I don't know. It looks like a keyhole, doesn't it? Like we need those coins to open something," Shane started looking around to see if she could find any coins with that particular engraving. Bonnie did the same, but Hera just kept staring at the marking on the wall. There was something familiar about that design.
After a few moments, Hera opened her [Tresure Map] to see if anything was there that could help her understand what was going on here. When she was in the Underground Forest and found that hidden origin, her map was updated with the information. Maybe this was something similar. Unfortunately, there was nothing special there. The hidden crypt was marked, and everything they saw here was described, but there was no other information. Hera sighed while staring at the map screen. It was a long shot, but she had to try. When she looked back at the coin slots on the ground, something finally clicked. When Hera got her [Treasure Map] skill, she also found some gold coins with skulls in the middle. She rummaged through her bag and pulled the small bag with the Dead Man's Gold. A notification popped up as soon as she picked the coins.
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Dead Man's Gold
A set of five golden coins with skulls engraved in the middle.
You can keep the coins as they are or turn them into currency.
Value: 1 000 gold
Do you wish to turn it into currency?
[Yes] [No]
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Hera pressed no and compared her coin with the slot in the wall. They weren't a perfect match, but it seemed to be close enough to maybe trick whatever mechanism into thinking that this was the right key.
"Hey, Shane? What would happen if we use the wrong coin to open this thing?" Hera asked.
"Most likely nothing. It would be like using the wrong key to a house. If there are any traps, they should trigger as we try to open them and not because we have the wrong key. Why? Did you find something?" Shane looked over.
"Sort of. Here I had these coins on me since forever, and I completely forgot about them. But look, I think they might fit," Hera showed the Dead Man's Gold to Shane.
"Humm… that might work. I mean, it doesn't match perfectly, but it could be enough. Hang on," Shane placed her gauntlet on the floor and used her sensor spell, "Ok, it doesn't seem to have any traps. Before trying to trick this lock, let's look around some more, just to be sure that the key is not somewhere else.
"Ok, I'm going to try to go up. Maybe there is something more above the tunnel we came in through," Hera got up.
"I'll go with you. Staying here is making me a bit crazy," Alex sighed.
"Sure, going alone might not be a good idea. We don't know if there are monsters up there or not," Hera smiled.
"Don't even try to give me hope. You know how bored I'm right now," Alex rolled her eyes before they started moving up.