We had cleared the chamber of monsters. They weren't interesting, but what was interesting was the large doorway with a mural on it and a runic inscription around the edge.
Dungeon features like this door were incredibly rare, but they occurred. The few recorded instances of them painted a picture of natural treasures or death. Often more deaths than natural treasures.
We were on the 12th layer, which had to be considered as well.
"What is it?" Lanner asked.
"A dungeon feature. They are rare. Rarer than Abnormals, but not as rare as demons. The mural is showing scenes of a battle between beastkin, flying humanoids with wings, and other races watching on," I said while looking over the doorway.
"I see that. What does it say?" Lanner asked.
"Patience, I am translating. Runes aren't like letters, but more concepts stringed together. The positioning and arrangement matter as well. Intrepid Spirit is the one whom this tomb or resting place memorializes. I think it's a proper name. It could also mean the people's spirit or will," I said while trying to translate the demonic runes.
"To guard or protect against all those who trespass or seek things that are forbidden. For all eternity or time," I finally finished. I was definitely missing some nuance in the translation.
"A tomb in the dungeon?"
"A dungeon feature. These things are rare. But also, dangerous and profitable," I replied while looking at the doorway and mural. The glowing figure with a spear plunging towards the horde of beastkin appeared to look quite heroic.
"Wouldn't the dungeon erase something like this?"
"Trying to understand the dungeon has been the lifetime work of many Professors. It is best to accept things as they are and deal with how things are. The question we need to consider is whether we want to enter."
"We seem to handle this layer fairly well."
I appreciated his current enthusiasm, but it wasn't that simple. The risk was much higher for a location like this than for the rest of the layer. In fact, the danger had a possibly of being completely divorced from the layer system of the dungeon entirely. Unfortunately, the information about such dungeon features was rare and fragmented over the centuries.
I also hadn't asked my mother about them either. They weren't something that was often discussed. Adventurers might mention them as a curiosity, but no one knew anyone who had found one, let alone explored one. There were only historical records and whispered stories about such things.
Learning about history was paying off, since I had some idea of what we were dealing with. While not immediately useful, it helped quite a bit in situations like this.
"It isn't connected to the layer, at least that is what the historical records say. What few there are. It is a tomb of some kind, probably for that figure that displayed in prominence on the mural," I said while pointing at the winged figure.
"And if we leave?"
"We are likely never to see this place again," I replied and went up to the large doors.
They were about twice my height. A light push didn't budge the doors. I pushed with all my strength; but they didn't move.
A slight bit of Mana flowed through the doorway. I pulled out my sword and left a scratch on the mural. The scratch quickly faded away.
"There are self-repair enchantments. We would have to break through to get inside," I said and Lanner pulled out a wand.
I rolled my eyes and waved a hand at him.
"We aren't going in?"
"We need to think. Actually, think and prepare. What if there is some super monster inside? The speed of the self-repair was quite high. Far faster than my sword. Probably tier 4. The fact that the Mana is so subtle is also concerning. They could hide anything."
"Tunneling."
"Tunneling?"
"If that door is too dangerous to go through, tunnel in and check the inside. My…well, I know about tunneling," Lanner said, not being able to mention his people, the gnomes.
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"How would that work? Do you have the equipment?"
"With Ozy's Alchemy, we can go in from the side. You can also take your time preparing as well in case there are traps or monsters inside," Lanner said, and I nodded at this.
"You good with that, Ozy?" I asked my pet, who was resting on my shoulders and pauldron.
Ozy lifted his head and gave me a nod and slithered off me towards Lanner.
I began preparing several stone plates to cover the doorway and to carve out more Mana cores to use as explosives. Lanner got to work directing Ozy, who slowly transmuted the stone wall off to the side of the mural covered doorway.
When it was time to stop, I went over to check on their progress.
"How is it going?" I asked, looking at the circular hole that was slowly being made.
"Taking it slow. No need to rush. The walls started repairing themselves as well. That is a known problem. Thankfully, Ozy here could create a thin crystalline layer on the surface, locking everything into place. It's also very thick. The big danger is the difference in air pressure."
"Air pressure?" I asked and Lanner nodded.
"Yes. It normally isn't noticeable since we walk between chambers. However, if two chambers connect, bypassing several others, many more variables may arise. That's why we are going slowly. Also to not alarm anything on the other side."
"Well, I am about to start dinner and Ozy is exhausted."
Lanner's instructions had worn my pet out and the gnome gave a nod at this statement.
The next day, work continued. While we could have easily bypassed this dungeon feature, I didn't want to. There was a lot of risk, but the chance at some valuable items was motivation enough to keep going.
It might have been the excitement from facing the Abnormal not too long ago. But fighting regular monsters in the dungeon seemed less exciting than it had previously. I knew I couldn't rush lower carelessly, seeking life or death fights. But each battle went the same way with minor variations.
"We are almost through; the wall is quite thick," Lanner said.
I finished carving a partial runic sequence on the red Mana core and made my way over. There was a tiny hole, with light, air, and a thick suffocating Mana coming out of it.
Lanner and Ozy made room as I crawled into the hole. It was a tight fit with my armor on, but I managed. I carefully looked through the finger-sized hole they had made at the end of the larger one.
Looking through it, I found it was quite bright. It took my eyes about a minute to adjust to the blinding light. I could make out a brilliantly lit tomb. There were also several statues standing about that made my Danger Sense quiver. The entire room was a trap, and the statues of winged humanoids were probably golems.
With my knowledge of traps, if the Mana in the room decreased too much, the golems would probably activate and deal with the situation and intruders. I pulled myself out with some help from Lanner.
"What do you think?" he asked.
"Ozy, can you seal up the tiny hole for now?" I asked and my pet nodded. "It's a trap room. If you saw those statues, they are clearly golems. High-quality ones. Probably tier 4 or tier 5 if I had to guess. Based on the layout, I would estimate there are seven of them, along with the central sarcophagus."
"Can we prepare for them?"
"They are tier 4 at least. Probably tier 5. That equates to them being at the same level as a legend. That tomb would wipe out anything less powerful than a legend,"
"Oh," Lanner said, and I nodded. "But if they trigger from lack of Mana, you could sneak in, and we close up the wall behind you."
"They might also react to foreign Mana. Entering the room itself is asking for death. Or doing anything inside of it with those golems present. There is a reason this place is still here even with beastkin around."
"What do you mean?"
"People speculate that the reason less of these dungeon features were found over time is that the Eldarin section of the dungeon plundered or cleared them. But here with the beastkin, if any of them reached this place, they were likely wiped out after entering."
"But with that much Mana, there has to be something powerful inside."
"Probably, but we would also likely be killed."
"Not if I tunnel in from below to the sarcophagus. We will enter from the floor and use the existing observation hole to accurately measure the distance.”
"If those golems twitch, we have to leave immediately. No questions. No hiding anything. If we make one mistake, those doors could open and kill us.”
Lanner nodded. "Not a problem. I know tunneling and measurement. I might not be that great at a lot of things, but I can do this."
"I will trust you. Take your time. Better to be slow and careful. No mistakes. You too, Ozy," I said, and my pet nodded.
While they began making another tunnel to bypass the protections from below to reach the sarcophagus, I continued to set up fallback points and other runic-based traps.
While it might be overkill and we might not even need it, it was better to have a lot of firepower on hand rather than too little. Anything that could make a dungeon feature was not to be underestimated.
I knew for sure that a person, and not the dungeon, had built this tomb. I could be mistaken, but there were only two other long-term structures here. The first being the Last Bastion on the 20th layer. Then the gnome settlement, which was hidden around the 5th layer or between layers.
The environment within the dungeon-made chambers was natural except for the natural treasures and anything that was hiding their location. That's why I didn't think it was the dungeon. It did so many other things but didn't seem to make actual structures. Perhaps it didn't make the natural treasures either.
The conundrum could only be solved by going to the bottom of the dungeon. At least, everyone thought the answers were down there. That's why a final descent mattered so much. It was a final quest for the adventurers to get the answers they had always wondered about.
In centuries, I would follow my mother's footsteps down and try to find the answers myself. For now, I have a dungeon feature to explore and hopefully get some answers from.
Once my preparations were complete, I also took time copying the mural with my Drawing skill. Normally I used to draw runes, but this time I was going to copy the mural. The College would gladly pay for this precious knowledge.