Hera and Alex made their way up the passage. Seeing the mural from this direction made much more sense. The story it was telling seemed to be about a group of nagas who embarked on a quest and all the dangers they overcame during that journey.
"How come we are getting this tired?" Alex gasped, they weren't running here, but even so, both she and Hera were feeling tired from the climbing.
"I don't know. This floor is weird. We went down without a problem, but now I keep slipping," Hera looked around, the ground didn't seem to be made out of a different type of rock, yet the way it behaved was like the stone behind a waterfall. To make this even weirder, it only acted like that when she was trying to move up. If she took a step down, it was just like regular stone, "Do you think this is kind of like a test?"
"What kind of test?" Alex asked.
"I don't know. Something to prove you are strong or just worthy of learning that story."
"Why would someone need to be worthy to know a story?"
"I don't know. Old civilizations were weird. Maybe it's some custom they had," Hera shrugged.
"You say that, but we have some weird things in life too," Alex chuckled.
"For instance?"
"Without going in the whole class issues. Why is a bikini fine to wear in public but underwear isn't? Or why do we like things that try to kill us? Like coffee or pepper."
"I mean, that's not something from today, right? Old civilizations also drank coffee or pepper and stuff like that," Hera slipped and started to skid down. Alex quickly turned around and grabbed Hera's hand to stop her.
"Are you ok?"
"My arm almost went out of its socket, but yeah," Hera pulled herself up with Alex's help.
"Well, it's better than letting you fall. Also, toilets."
"Toilets?" Hera looked at the assassin with a confused expression.
"Yeah, toilets. We shit in perfectly good water. Ancient civilizations would fight wars for water while we just use it to clean our asses," Alex said.
"That's a bidet, not a toilet, but I get what you mean. I never realized how weird that was," Hera kept moving up with some difficulty.
"Yeah, everyone is weird. Oh," Alex gasped while looking up, "Did we see that one before?"
Hera looked to where Alex was looking at. It was a new mural, showing the naga reaching a temple. They kept going up and found more paintings. After that, they fought against a massive golem and finally reaching an altar with an emerald crown. The last part of the mural showed the naga group apparently returning to a city. At the same time, Hera heard a voice in her mind narrating the story.
'The naga people have a unique tradition among its royalty. They don't have a single ruler unless their civilization is going through a time of need. When a moment like that arrives, each member of the nobility puts their name up for the role of the emperor. A small tournament is held to decide the order in which each naga will attempt the Emperor's Trial. Lantra was one of the said nobles. When his turn came around, he gathered a group of warriors to assist him and departed on the journey, searching for the emperor's crown.
His first task was to find the ancient altar used by the previous emperor many generations before. Lantra followed the hints left by his ancestors and reached a room in a jungle where he expected the crown to be located. He ventured deep inside the forest and found a hidden passage leading to the trial along with his party. The previous emperor had changed an entire room to be part of his trial. First, the challenger must prove their courage by diving into a seemingly bottomless pit, then they would have to prove to have the required intelligence to lead the naga and pass through a series of logical challenges. Following that, he would need to prove their ability as a leader and guide his warriors through a passage where only Lantra could see the path. The next test was a fight against a mighty predator, a golden lion. After finishing that test, Lantra and his band of warriors arrived at the emperor's lost city.
The last thing they had to do was to find the crown in the middle of the buildings. It took some time, but Lantra finally discovered the location of the emperor's crypt and his final resting place. This, however, had one final trial waiting for him. To prove that he was willing to make the hard choices. Lantra had to pick one member of his group to sacrifice themselves to release the crown. With a heavy heart, he explained the situation to the warriors. One of them agreed to be the one who would sacrifice themselves, and he stepped into the chamber who would be its grave. Fortunately, this was just a trick set up by the previous emperor, one had to be willing to make the sacrifice, but the sacrifice itself wasn't required. Glad that the warrior survived, Lantra walked up to the emerald crown and returned to his people as the new emperor of the naga.'
"Hera? Are you ok?" Alex was in front of the explorer, waving her hand in front of her eyes.
Hera didn't even see the assassin there. While the narration was going on in her mind, the images in the mural passed by, showing the history that is told.
"Yeah. Sorry," Hera rubbed her eyes, "Was I out for long?"
"A couple of minutes. What happened?"
"I learned the story of the mural. Kind of like what happened in the Underground Forest, but this was more… real? I guess."
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"Really? What's the story?"
Hera explained the story as best as she could. It was hard to remember exactly how the narration told her, but she got the gist of it. While speaking, Hera tried to check if there was anything above the end of the mural, but the path simply stopped. The passage itself would still go up for a few meters, but after throwing a dancing light up there, it was clear that there was nothing around.
"I guess that's that," Hera sighed.
"Really? I mean, it was nice to find the story and all, but that's it?" Alex asked.
"I guess. Unless you found something else."
"I got nothing," Alex sat on the floor, "At least let's take a break before heading down."
"Sure. Do you wanna talk about anything?"
"Nothing comes to mind. Well. At least not right now. I mean, this isn't exactly a private place. I'm pretty sure if we talk loudly enough, people can hear us downstairs," Alex said.
Hera focused for a moment. The sound of voices coming from downstairs reached her ears after a few moments. There was also a light at the bottom of the passage where she could see Shane, Bonnie, and Mylo moving around, "I guess. I mean, we can hear some noise downstairs."
"Yeah. I do have a thing that I want to talk to you about now. It's not the time or the place."
"Is it anything serious?" Hera asked.
"Sort of… do you remember what we talked about in the Kobold Battlefield?"
"About how you weren't sure about yourself?"
"Yeah…" Alex looked away.
"I'm sorry. I hope you know I wanted to help you with that," Hera said.
"Oh please, I know that. Don't you dare apologize for what happened. You are the one person that I never blamed about everything that happened."
"You even blamed Blue?"
"Yeah, she was the one who got too close to the catapult, but anyway, don't worry. I might have figured some stuff out. Quinn helped a lot with that," Alex said.
"Oh, that's good. She was the first person that I thought about while you were telling me all that. I mean, there was only so much that I could do to help. I don't have any personal experience with those doubts."
"I get what you mean, but she actually went through the thing. I'm not even sure if that's what I want. Anyway, like I said, that's not the time nor place for that. Ready to go down?" Alex got up.
"Yep. Let's see if they found something there," Hera got up, and they headed down. It took a few minutes, and when they arrived, everyone was around the stone coffin.
"Is everything ok?" Alex asked.
"Sort of. We found something," Silah replied.
There was a long pause while the group just exchanged glances until Hera rolled her eyes, "Ok, we can't read minds. What did you find?"
"It seems like the naga hid this place out of shame, or anger, or something bad. We had to go around that stone you found, and on the other side, there was just some writing saying 'here lies the emperor that must be forgotten,'" Silah explained.
"Really? That's so weird. The story the mural tells is very different."
"You found out the story? How?" Shane asked.
"Have you ever found a place that told a story about how a dungeon started or something?" Hera turned to the explorer.
"Yeah, then a voice tells you what happened."
"Exactly. If you reach the top of the passage, you can hear the explanation. I think this emperor was called Lantra. The story is… well, there was a competition to be the emperor, and the naga only had a ruler when in times of need. I don't remember all the details, but it was basically that," Hera nodded.
"You have the treasure map skill, don't you? Check the mural on the map. You should have the transcript of what you heard. There might be some details that we need to know."
Hera opened her treasure map and tapped the mural icon. Just like Shane said, the entire transcript was there. She also noticed that there was something else. Before the transcript, there was a small description about the mural that read.
'This mural, painted inside the tomb of the forgotten emperor, was created before his crimes were revealed to his people. When that happened, the tomb was sealed off, and Lantra's name was forgotten to the ages.'
"Oh… this is weird," Hera said and followed that up by reading out loud the entire story, adding that description so everyone would have the same information.
"I wonder what he did to be written off the history books. He was supposed to be around only in times of need, right?" Bonnie asked.
"I guess. I mean, I'm not entirely sure if we could believe that. Not to say that the system is lying, but what if the story itself is a lie?" Hera replied.
"Either way, we have more information than we had before. I don't think the court legacy will be inside here, but I'm still curious about that locked thing behind the coffin. The stone is there doesn't match with the rest of the structure. Are you still willing to use those coins, Hera?" Shane asked.
"Yeah, what else would I use them for?"
"I mean, you can find something else later, but I won't complain. Here, you do the honors."
Hera walked behind the stone coffin and placed two of the five Dead Man's Gold coins she had on the slots. They didn't fit perfectly, but it ended up being enough. She pressed the coins in the sockets and, with a small click sound, the stone plate shifted, revealing a hidden compartment with what looked like a book wrapped around in some cloth.
"Let me see that. There is something written on that cloth," Shane moved closer to Hera as she pulled the bundle from its hiding spot.
"What does it say?" Bonnie asked.
"Give me a minute," Shane started translating, and after a couple of minutes, she revealed the contents of the writing.
'Your brother is a hero. We respect him, so did his bidding. But you don't deserve him. He asked us to keep his journal on you. We hope that by hiding it, you will suffer for all time.'
"What does all that means?" Mylo asked.
"The translation is a bit rough, but I think it means that his brother, who was a hero, asked them to place this journal here. Since they were angry with the emperor, they placed it near the coffin, but not inside as his brother wanted, hoping that it would make the emperor suffer in the afterlife," Shane explained.
"And what about the journal? Can you translate it?" Bonnie asked.
Shane unraveled the cloth and took a look at the journal, "I can, but it will take time."
"Do you have to keep the physical journal? I feel kind of bad for the emperor and his brother. Couldn't you just take pictures of each page?" Hera suggested.
"I can, but we can also come back and put the journal here after I translate it. For now, let's get out of here. We still have to find the legacy," Shane put the journal inside her bag, and the group moved to the exit that Silah, Blue, and Mylo found.