Chapter 86: The Grave of Dreams V
As they moved into the building, it welcomed them with a gruesome sight. There was no longer any doubt that a terrible battle had taken place here. The first few rooms, the raid moved through, were covered in battle scars and remnants of fallen combatants. “Who or what did they fight against?” Carlos asked inspecting the remains of armor and weapons on the ground. “Monsters? The ones we have seen?” was Achara’s idea. Marcus was not sure about that “It is possible, and even most likely, but somehow this looks not…” he tried to find the right words looking at the damage. “I doubt it was monsters. Or at least any kind of monster we know.” Rita said, pushing over some broken armor with her foot. “This looks more like a conflict between class holders to me. Although one side got crushed badly.”
Class holders? Was this an internal struggle or did alien class holders attack them, Marcus contemplated. “Why do you think that?” Alistair asked and Rita looked around the room. “For one there are no signs of monster bodies, and for another the damage to the armor and weapons looks nothing like monsters. Of course much has degraded by time but I have seen several armor pieces that got cut into halves and some had massive holes in them.” she said and added “I’m not saying I can prove it but my experience and instincts tell me, this here was not a battle with monsters.”. “I agree.”, “Me too.” was the reaction from Hammond and Carlos.
They moved deeper into the building and the signs of carnage reduced until corridors and rooms looked as bleak and dead as they looked all over the ruins. They split into the teams and followed the larger hallways in the hope to find the more important parts of the building. The team with Marcus had better luck this time. They found a broken reinforced door and behind it “This looks like a proper armory.” Rita said, using her torch to illuminate long rows of shelves. Last time they had found something like this Achara had gained her black blade, Marcus remembered. They called the rest of the raid over and started to scrounge through the remnants of weapons, armors and other equipment. “It is all rust, dust and garbage.” Grace said after a few minutes.
Marcus laughed and continued his search “You have never played an ARPG, Grace?”. “Why, what has this to do with anything?” Grace said honestly confused. “99% of the loot in those games is garbage. You have to grind, grind, grind your soul away to finally find something good. A rare drop, a unique. You can not just give up because most stuff is garbage.” Marcus explained and Kou nodded in agreement. Grace grunted something like “boys” and they continued the search.
After half an hour they had searched half the armory and Marcus stepped up to a large shelf in the center. It had collapsed and the broken remains of various armors covered most of it. He pulled the broken pieces away and moved more unidentifiable material with his hands. Then his light reflected from something shiny and he exclaimed “EUREKA!”. In seconds everybody was next to him, and watched how he freed a large box from dirt and grime. It had the size of a large suit case and was made of a weird material. It looked somewhat like metal but felt different, and most importantly it was nearly untouched by the passing of time. It had some kind of locking mechanism at the front that needed a specially formed key to interact with it. “I have the key.” Grace said holding her sword up.
They put the box down and Grace used the glowing point of her sword to slowly cut through the lock. After a minute it was done and everybody stared at the box as Marcus opened the lid. Inside was a singular object. A hand sized icosahedron (a d20 dice) made out of the same weird material as the box. “Is that…” “It can’t be!” “But it is!” IT is a Portal Stone! Marcus realized like the rest and they screamed and cheered their find. “A Portal Stone!!!” Grace shouted. Laughter and spontaneous hugs went around while Alistair bent down and carefully lifted the object up. “It is in perfect condition.” He said after turning it around for a bit. “Has anybody an idea what the current market price of a mint condition PORTAL STONE is?” Kou said holding Achara in his arms. “Around 120 million dollar.” Hammond said with a dry voice. “For real?” Marcus asked. “You can trust Hammond on things like that. He is sort of an artifact nerd. Comes in handy when you have to decide what stuff to carry back home and what not.” Carlos said with a wide smile.
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“SEE! This is why you continue to grind Grace. Because the rare drop is waiting for you somewhere.” Kou said and Grace laughed “I will keep it in mind.”. From one moment to the next the whole raid had turned into a full success. The value of Portal Stones had only gone up over time. The ability to copy a portal or basically move a portal to a more advantageous position, is worth a lot to large clans or nations.
A painfully loud whistle hit them unexpected and everybody turned to the source, Rita. “Okay, nice find but this is not the time to lose your heads. We are still in the middle of dangerous ruins. There are monsters around and another raid group. We can all celebrate once we get home.” She said with a stern voice. Marcus calmed himself and the rest also went back to the business at hand. First they put the price back into the box and used rope to bind it. They put the box into one of the Mules and continued to search the room but nothing good was found.
“A serious question. Should we go back?” Kou asked. It was a good question and everybody looked at lord Cromwell “I would say no. It was a great find but we have more days in us and this raid is not only about wealth. Gaining EXP is also important. Besides we do not know what other treasures wait in this place. The existence of a Portal Stone raises the expectation a lot.” the old man explained and Marcus agreed with him. “We have more than enough provisions, ammunition and no injuries. Going back now would be a mistake.” Rita added and everybody agreed to move on.
After they finished the large room they methodically moved through the large building and found rooms that looked like barracks and also some fancy room that must have been a command room or belonged to somebody important. Given the large piles of degenerated material, the room had been filled with fancy furniture but now it was worthless. Candis, of all people, found a small golden figurine in the remains of a cupboard. It was a mix of lines, circles and letters and must have had cultural or religious meaning. Collectors payed a good amount for something like this Alistair explained and Candis looked rather happy.
The building had given them more than enough and eventually it was time to leave. They went back to the entrance and walked by the signs of the hopeless battle. As they passed the last large room Janette stopped and walked over to a large pile of broken and forgotten things. Marcus watched her drag something from the pile and a second later she let out a shriek and dropped it to the ground.
The whole raid went into combat mode and Marcus jumped to her side. He looked at the thing on the ground and in the first moment he did not understand what he saw. Under the grime and dust of eons was something bright and shiny, a piece of crystal covered in a strange gray mass. Then it hit Marcus and with shaking hands he picked it up and cleared off the dust. “HOLY MOTHER OF GOD!” Rita shouted.
It was an arm, cut off near the shoulder. The bones looked like crystal and the flesh was made from some weird gray translucent material and all of it looked completely pristine. While everything else here had turned to dust and rust, the arm of the Undead had not changed at all. Marcus turned the thing in his hands and watched how the light reflected of the sinister bones. Nobody dared to say something or to even breath too loudly until Marcus spoke up “I think, we now know what killed these people.” and he looked up to Alistair “We need to take this back and inform the UN.”. The man nodded in silence but Marcus could see the terror in his eyes. Every encounter humanity had with these beings only reinforced the fact that they are incredible strong and hostile. The implications of this find were obvious.
“That means the Undead have been around for eons and they also must have the numbers to take a place like this down.” Kou said and his voice was strained. “And look at it, it has not aged at all.” Janette said and Marcus nodded. “I don’t know if anybody had a chance to analyze a part of those horrors yet, but no matter what, great find Janette.” Marcus said, she gave him a short smile but her eyes were glued to the arm. “The arm… it still has a tiny amount of aura. This is how I found it in the first place.” Janette said and Marcus was speechless. “I think, in some way that arm is still alive.” she said and now even Marcus felt cold dread running through his veins. He cleaned the arm with alcohol and carefully wrapped it with cloth, and stored it in the Mule that did not hold the Portal Stone. You never know.
