The group checked the area past the statue, just to be sure that there wouldn't be any unwelcome surprises. Luckily, after the statue, there weren't any more tombs or any buildings. It was odd since the last crypt seemed to be for the first emperor of the naga, but yet, it was like this place still had space for new structures.
Hera kept wondering if they had messed up the order. Maybe that naga with a pompous look would be the first emperor, or perhaps the naga had some way to shift the structures back. She also considered the possibility that the narrow path could be changed, but following the size of each tomb, there would be enough space for maybe a single structure in there.
Going back to the statue in the middle of the valley, the group took a better look at it. The stone was weird. It was greenish and humid to the touch, almost as if they were touching something inside a cave by the beach. Another odd thing was that looking at the statute, it seemed to be granular, but when they felt it, it was a perfectly smooth surface. Even after whoever knows how long, the statute didn't show any signals of being assaulted by the elements. Sure, water might be something rare here, but the wind itself was enough to leave marks in all the other statues and even some of the metal adornment. Yet, this one statue without any flair, of a simple naga touching the ground, was in a pristine condition.
"This has something to do with the elements, right?" Blue asked while pointing at the elemental symbols on the ground.
"Most likely, the most obvious answer is that one needs to use the same elements that are showing in that rune around it to activate the statue. Before doing that, we just have to make sure that this doesn't have a specific order or something. I don't want to risk triggering a trap," Shane replied.
"Didn't you say that a trap wasn't something that should be in a crypt?" Alex turned to the explorer.
"Yeah, that's for a tomb. It's a place that's open, and many people can come and go as they please. Now, this is something that's hidden. If someone random comes by, they might just see the statue. Let's say they know that this is the statue of a hero as we are assuming it is. They might just come here and see this rune as something that the hero would use. If there really is a secret to this, it might be rigged so that only the right combination will open, and we can even have traps if we get the wrong combination. That's not a guarantee though, this can not have any traps or not even be anything, but in these situations, it's best if we are being safe," Shane explained.
"What about that journal? Can you just scan it for any mentions of a statue?" Hera suggested.
"I could, but let's leave that for if we can't find anything here," Shane nodded.
Hera turned back to the statue, trying to find some hidden details about it. The figure had both its arms on the ground, touching the entire palm of its hands on the rune. Its tail was coiled around its body, with the tip of the tail right in front of its face, pointing to the same direction the statue was facing. Lastly, there were its bracelets. They covered most of the naga's forearm and seemed to have a large oval jewel on them. Saying it was a jewel was just a guess. The shape was still the same color as the statue, and there weren't any lines showing that it was a cut gem or something. Nothing stopped them from being actual eggs, although Hera found that highly unlikely. The runes surrounding the effigy had nine distinct symbols. A few were easy to tell, while others were... Confusing.
The easy ones should be fire, represented by the drawing of a flame. Cold, represented by some lines and moving like wind and a couple of snowflakes. Earth, or ground where the symbol was of a crack on the floor. Lastly was the nature symbol, represented by a tree. The other four, however, would be an issue. One sign was of a fang dripping something, it could mean blood, but they were naga. Maybe they meant poison. Another was of a circle with a dot in the middle and what looked like a spike with two spiral lines coming out of its size. There was also one with a diamond with a dot in the middle, one that was a circle with a square inside it, with a triangle inside it. Finally, there was one with what looked like a boat's wheel, but only three of its six points would come out of the circle surrounding it.
Hera took a picture of each symbol and noted down her suggestions about what each would be. When she finished, she turned to Bonnie and Helena, "I got this from those symbols. Any ideas about the rest?"
They looked at the tablet and started discussing possibilities. Shane and Silah joined, and a few moments later, everyone was giving their ideas.
"Ok, so we all agree with cold and fire. Earth and nature also seem like a good shot. I agree with Hera about the fang thing being poison. Some naga are known to be venomous. Silah said that the circle with the weird spike thing is a symbol for gold, and honestly, I trust the blacksmith's knowledge about metal. The boat's wheel means strength. I've seen that before with the naga. This last one, I don't know. A circle with a square and a triangle… geometry?"
"Maybe shapes? Something that creates a form," Mylo suggested.
"I mean, that makes as much sense as anything," Shane shrugged.
"What about the order? Any ideas?" Blue asked.
"Bonnie and I were looking at this rune. If we treat it as a spell circle, there would be an order in which they would be activated. It should start with the poison, or blood, and then go counterclockwise," Helena explained.
"Really? I thought they would be pinging around in random directions," Silah said.
"More often than not, no. A spell circle is already complicated enough without making it activate in a weird order. If we have to trigger the parts of the spell in a specific way, we usually set up the circle to already be in the right order, unless there is a very specific reason why we would do it differently," Helena continued.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
"Ok, that might solve one problem, but we still have another one. What does a circle square triangle mean?" Alex sighed.
"Yeah, not to mention, do we have all away to trigger all the symbols? I'm assuming we need to put some mana of the element on each of them," Hera said.
"Well, You have poison, fire, and earth. Bonnie has ice, I can use some vines to make the nature. Silah, do you have something that could be used for gold?" Shane turned to the blacksmith.
Silah stopped for a moment, "I think so. I can use the golden carapace as the metal that I toss around, that might trigger it."
"I have a buff for strength and for the shapes. Are flowers shapes? Could that work?" Mylo asked.
Shane sighed, "That idea works just as well as anything I can come up with. Then we have them all right?"
"We are missing one," Alex chimed in.
"Which one?" Bonnie asked.
"This," Alex pointed to the diamond with a dot in the middle.
"Oh, right. Holy crap, I completely forgot about that one," Blue gasped.
"Me too," Mylo nodded.
"Me three," Silah was staring at the symbol.
"That's… weird. It's one thing for one or two of us forget the symbols but all of us…." Helena started to think, "Hera, could you look away from the statue for a moment."
"Sure," Hera turned around.
"Ok, now tell me how many symbols are in the spell circle," Helena asked.
"Nine."
"Can you name them?"
"Fire, earth, nature, ice, poison/blood, gold, strength, and the one we don't know."
"That's eight, sweetie," Helena replied, still thinking about what this could mean.
"What? Then I guess I counted the symbols wrong," Hera turned around and noticed the diamond with a dot in the middle, "What the…."
"Yeah, you see the problem, that symbol must have something. We can only remember it when we are looking at it. If we look away, it is gone," Helena nodded.
"Are you guys being serious right now?" Alex asked.
"We are. Can you remember when you look away?" Shane replied.
"Of course I can. What kind of weird symbol makes you forget that you saw it!" Alex gasped.
"That's what we are trying to find out," Bonnie scoffed.
"Could it be related to being an assassin? That's why Alex can remember it?" Silah asked.
"That's a good point. Maybe it's like, the symbol for hiding, or sneak," Hera turned to Alex, "Do you have any spells that increase your hiding ability?"
"I do. But they are very expensive, and I can't use it without looking at the formula," Alex replied.
"Can't you just call it through the system?" Blue asked.
"I can, but then I can't tweak the spell. I'm trying to memorize it so I can use it more often."
"First things first. We need to test if this circle gives any response to magic at all," Shane said.
"Ok," Bonnie replied and threw a tiny fire fist at the fire symbol.
When she did that, everyone jumped away, worried that it would trigger some sort of trap. Blue created a cloud armor to protect her while Hera and Silah created two stone barriers pulling the rock from the ground. After a moment where nothing happened, the group looked up at the statue and the researcher. The flame symbol was now glowing red, and parts of the magic circle had a soft blue glow.
"Are you crazy? That could trigger a trap!" Blue yelled.
"If there was a trap here, it would be something too big for us to run away from. Besides, even I was getting annoyed with all that talk and no action," Bonnie shrugged.
"Are you fucking serious!?" Blue yelled even louder.
"Blue," Hera just stared at her friend. She understood why the controller was so angry, but she also knew that she tended to only make things worse when Blue got like that.
"Still, Bonnie, that was way too reckless, and we can't have someone going rogue on us and doing their own thing. I want you to be on the back of the group and don't do anything unless someone asks. If you don't follow these rules, I won't give you a pass on the order's test," Shane spoke in a calm tone, but the way she talked was almost like the principal of a school scolding a student.
Bonnie opened her mouth and then closed it again. She took a deep breath before replying, "Ok, I'm sorry for rushing this."
"Good, well. Either way, good work, at least we know how this works," Shane scratched the back of her head, "Anyway, let's try to light up the next one."
One by one, they managed to light up the symbols. Silah was right about the gold symbol, and the fang was indeed poison. The only two who were still a bit off were the diamond with a dot and the circle with a square and a triangle inside. Unfortunately, every time they missed the element, the entire circle would turn off, so they had to redo everything in order. After a few minutes, Mylo figured out what was the symbol of shapes. In fact, it was thanks to his flowers that it worked. The sign seemed to represent an illusion, and in hindsight, it made sense. Illusions would create shapes and make something that, when broken down, were nothing but circles, squares, and triangles. However, the one representing hiding or stealth was an issue. The group spent hours trying to figure out, and even when everyone was tired, they had no choice but to set up the bunker one more time to sleep. Shane refused to go back now that she felt she was so close.
During the night, Shane kept translating the journal. Trying to find a clue about what the last symbol could be. Until she finally reached a page and went over to where Hera was sleeping.
"Hera, Hera, are you awake?" Shane shook the explorer.
"I am now. What do you want?"
"You are a conceptual mage, right?"
"You woke me up to ask that? Yeah, I am, now let me sleep," Hera rolled to the side, but Shane pulled her back.
"So you can make a spell as long as you understand what you need to do, right?"
"That's what a conceptual mage is. Thanks for the lesson now. Good night," Hera tried to go to sleep again, but Shane shuffled to the other side to stay face to face. Hera looked to the explorer with a sigh, "Shane, what the hell do you want?"
"I need you to make a spell for the last symbol."