While Silah was gathering what she could from the Golden Scarab's body, the rest of the team was looking at the massive statue. Besides that, there was a pearl white gate and another statue of the same naga in an even more obnoxious pose. Whoever was the owner of this tomb clearly had an ego.
"Before going there and checking what else is in here. Can we double-check if there aren't any more monsters in the passage?" Bonnie asked.
"That's a good idea. I don't see that spider with weird eyes in the middle of all those bugs," Helena nodded.
"Yeah, if they are still waiting around setting up a trap, or worse if they are just waiting for another chance to come here, it's better if we know," Hera said.
"Ok, so it's better if we send the sneaky people. Alex is the obvious choice, but I'm not very good at hiding, so I can use my radar. Are you ok with going, Hera?" Shane looked at her.
"Sure. We are used to scouting ahead like that," Hera nodded.
Alex sat down on the ground, "Can you give me a minute. That run was harder than I expected."
"Sorry, she was half carrying me during most of the time," Helena gave Alex an apologetic look.
Shane looked around and saw how aside from her, Mylo was the only one who wasn't drenched in sweat.
"Yeah, let's take a break here. It's a good defensive position, and we can feel more at ease," as Shane said that, the group slumped back and collapsed on the ground. Everyone was exhausted, and this was a deserved rest.
While everyone waited, Shane and Mylo walked around the nearby area to see if there were more monsters on this side. In reality, the explorer wanted to see if there were any other crypts nearby, but securing the area was a good excuse to do so. Hera got closer to Silah and gave her a big hug.
"Are you ok?"
Silah nodded, "Yeah. Is it always like that?"
"Not at all. Usually is much more like what we did in the Wooly Plains. Methodical hunting with low risk and against few creatures. All this is… well… a special circumstance," Hera replied.
"So… when it's your turn to go after a legacy, it will be like that too?" Silah asked.
"Well… maybe. At times, yeah, but I promise that I will ask the guild for help before we have to deal with so many monsters again. I voted for us to keep going, but I kind of regret it now," Hera chuckled.
"You can say that again, my lungs are burning," Bonnie gasped from the side.
"I'm not complaining. Not really, at least," Silah chuckled and gave Hera a kiss, "But let's try to be more careful when we are looking for your clue."
"I promise," Hera rested her head on top of Silah's.
They waited for a few minutes until Hera and Alex felt rested enough to check what was going on in the narrow path. Activating their [Hide] skills, they moved into the path, climbing over the small mountain of corpses that had formed in front of their fortified position.
"You know, it's a real waste to leave all these materials here," Hera sighed.
"Yeah, but they might be there when we are going back. Maybe we can try to get some of the materials," Alex suggested.
"Yeah, maybe. Let's focus on seeing if we are clear of monsters here," Hera turned around and kept sneaking through the narrow passage.
Moving this slowly took a while, and Hera periodically had to stop and use her pulse spell to check the surrounding area. They were about halfway through the passage when something that felt like an earthquake hit. Hera and Alex jumped to the middle of the path. Hera used her pulse, forcing the spell to stay out so she could see any rocks that could be falling from the top of the area. Thanks to that, the small boulders that fell missed the duo, and they kept moving to the entrance of the passage.
"Do you think a light is a bad idea? Staying in the dark is kind of hard," Alex asked.
"I can make a dancing light, but we probably won't be hidden from any monsters if they are around," Hera replied.
"I think that's better than staying in the dark. We can move around faster if needed."
"Ok then. Be ready to run if things go south," Hera created two dancing lights and made them float around them. Without moving just yet, Hera and Alex got ready for an attack. If there was a monster nearby, this would be the best moment for it to strike. Thankfully, nothing happened.
Walking for another couple of minutes, the duo finally arrived at what was supposed to be the exit of that passage, but they were met with a gigantic silver wall blocking them off. Using the light, Hera noticed that this wall seemed to have been slammed against the passage, almost like a truck that tried to pass by a corridor too small for it to fit.
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"What the…" before Alex could say anything, two large silver antennae came out of the wall, and two dark beady eyes appeared. Pincers started to claw at the walls as if they were digging the ground and trying to reach the humans.
Hera and Alex jumped back. It seemed like the silver giant was trying to dig this passage but struggling a lot to do that. With a roar, the monster used its mandibles to push against the walls trying to move back, but it seemed to be struggling.
"Is it… stuck?" Hera asked.
"It seems like it. Can your pulse see if there are any monsters on the other side?" Alex didn't look away from the Silver Giant.
"Give me a second," Hera closed her eyes and focused for a minute, creating a pulse that would be both wide enough to go across the monsters and strong enough to still give her a signal after passing through such a massive beast. When the spell went off, all mana that touched the silver giant vanished. However, the mana that hit the walls kept going until it left on the other side. Hera could still sense dozens of monsters there, including one odd spider, but the spell fizzled out before it reached the end of the swarm. There was too much interference going on.
After telling Alex what she found, the two flung a couple of spells at the Silver Giant, but they all were dispelled before hitting the creature. It seemed to have some sort of natural defense against magic, and its physical defense shouldn't be anything to scoff at. Knowing that there was nothing else for them to do here, Hera and Alex went back to the group.
Moving at a regular pace, it only took a couple of minutes for the two to get back. Alex forgot that there was a hole right after the entrance and tripped, but Hera was quick enough to grab her.
"Are you ok?"
"Yeah, thanks," Alex felt her cheeks getting red. How could an assassin trip in such an obvious trap?
"Are you two ok? We heard what sounded like an explosion," Silah rushed over to Hera.
"Yeah, that giant silver bug slammed against the entrance, it seems to be stuck now, and there is a bunch of monsters behind it," Hera explained.
"Do you think they will try to attack us again?" Bonnie chimed in.
"Maybe, maybe not. They seem to be holding back for now, and I'm not sure if they even can climb over the silver bug. It has some weird effect on its shell that dispelled our magic. Maybe that also affects the other bugs' climbing ability," Hera added.
"Well, if it's stuck, we might have some time. We can also block off this passage, and I think we'll be ok for a while," Helena walked over to the rest of the group.
"Yeah. Silah, can you help me with that? I'll toss some lights as high as I can," Hera was looking up, trying to see how much of the passage she could block off with her walls.
"Sure. We can even make a staircase to the side to go high up. If we close off enough of the passage, maybe the monsters won't even try to cross up," Silah started blocking off the passage. Worst came to worse she could easily open that path again.
"Yeah, I mean, couldn't we even get to the ceiling? We are on the bottom floor, right?" Hera asked.
"We are, but we can see the sky. I have no clue how that works. There is a floor above us, right?" Hera scratched her head.
"I think so. I mean, we came down to get here. Maybe this is a part of the valley that goes all the way down? But then again, even when we came out of that spiral passage, we still could see the sky, and I think we came out on the same side we went in," Alex said.
"Oh, you guys are back," Shane gasped as she returned from her small exploration mission.
"Yeah," Hera explained what was going on while still working on blocking off the path, "And what about you? Did you find anything interesting?"
"Oh, we did!" Shane said with a big smile, "Unlike what the other crypts, these one seem to be placed only one at a time. Like if there is one on the right, there won't be another right in front of it. They are also alternating sides. We saw two more aside from this one. One had a naga covered in armor and wearing lots of weapons, and the same naga standing on top of skulls. The other one had a naga that seemed to be farming and then doing some alchemy, maybe? It's hard to tell. That one was weird."
"There weren't any names?" Helena asked.
"I couldn't find any, at least not on the front of the tombs," Shane sighed.
"I had to stop her from going inside," Mylo squinted at the explorer.
"Give us a couple more minutes, and we can go check it out," Hera was already a couple of meters above the ground, in the makeshift staircase that Silah and her were making.
"Ok, we can take the time to make some food. We have enough meat," Shane was staring at the corpses. There was a lot there.
"Yeah, I'll stay with the ration we still have. Thanks," Bonnie walked away from the pile of bodies.
During the next hour, Hera and Silah kept working, blocking off the passage while the rest of the party set up a small campfire so they could make some food. They used the spiders' legs as a kindling while Mylo started cutting the monsters for their meat. In the end, they had blocked off around 20 meters of the passage. There was still more ground for them to cover, but being this high was making them feel uncomfortable. After that, the group gathered around and had a nice warm meal. Spider meat was surprisingly tasty, it felt like eating seafood, but the scarab was too tough, not to mention too small. Now that they had time to properly see the monsters, it was odd. All the spiders were much larger than the scarabs, but they were also much heavier.
Since there didn't seem to be any more monsters around, Mylo put some of the meat to dry, so they could have some rations before the group decided to keep going. It had been a long day already, but no one wanted to rest now that they had found these large crypts.
As they walked, Shane was going through some internal struggle. On the one hand, she wanted to enter every single tomb to understand more about the naga. On the other, everyone was here because of her legacy, and if she brought a team of archeologists, learning about this ancient civilization would be much better. They passed by 5 different crypts. The first, which was just by the entrance, had a smug-looking naga that seemed to be proud of itself, following that, one that the group was calling the warrior since it seemed the most combat-related one. Next, there was the alchemist, then the saint since there the statues were covered in holy symbols and the naga seemed to be wearing ceremonial clothes. Finally, there was a statute of a simple-looking naga that didn't have any unique features. Both statues were completely made out of stone, and there wasn't any gold or jewels aside from the emerald crown on top of its head. Still, not a single one among them felt like the tomb of a hero.
The group kept walking forward since this wasn't the end of the valley until they reached something. In the middle of the path, there was a naga statue with both hands on the ground. Around the figure, several symbols of different elements were carved in the stone. It was simple, solemn and the statue itself seemed to be made out of a different type of rock. Something that wasn't native to this room.
"Something tells me this might be it," Shane said with a big smile.