After several minutes, they were both finally able to breathe.
"Hah. Shit, that bastard almost scared to death."
"I thought I was going to die..."
They both finally sat down on the floor to rest from the pressure they had felt.
"Are you okay? I pulled you pretty hard just now."
"I’m fine," Jenna replied, smiling a little and looking around to avoid thinking about what had happened earlier.
"What is this?" she asked, looking at the walls with intricate details dating back to an unknown era.
The walls were adorned with hieroglyphic-style drawings of the famous ancient ruins among the great deserts of High Earth, reflecting an unknown and ancient language.
It was no secret that many of the dungeons and ruins that had erged with the arrival of the System on Earth had brought with them unknown languages and drawings dating back hundreds of thousands or even millions of years...
In addition to bringing intelligent races whose language did not belong to Earth, it also brought the places where they lived, filling the surface with strange, unexplored ruins.
In front of them, there was surely sothing like that.
Elliot didn’t know what it was, so he looked at Jenna. "Do you recognize these hieroglyphics?"
She shook her head. "No, but I recognize that." She pointed to an area on the wall where the hieroglyphs were complented by what was surely the writing of a language.
"Do you recognize the language?"
"Yes, it’s the language of the Nurotaurs."
"Huh? The half-horse, half-bull race that’s said to be incredibly wise?"
"Yes. That’s the Nurotaur language. My father told ."
"Can you tell what it says?"
She shook her head slightly, as if regretting what her answer was going to be, but then she seed to bite her lip.
"I can try to decipher it," she replied, regaining so confidence.
"Okay, give it a try. Knowing what it says could give us a clue to get out of here. Anyway, going deeper into this ruin with that griffin lurking around doesn’t seem like a good idea."
"You’re right. I’ll try." She finally plucked up her courage, took out so paper and a pencil, and began writing.
anwhile, Elliot began to look at the hieroglyphics and drawings on the walls.
There were drawings of people in strange clothing in different poses.
’Standing... Kneeling... Lying down. Several are Nurotaurs... Is that a dog? No, dogs aren’t that big.’
There were also weapons, and sothing that looked like... Battles? Or weapons clashing?
’Weapons at rest?’ He tried to turn around, trying to make sense of these hieroglyphics, until he finally understood.
’I see, weapons at rest on strange things, like tables that... Are they burning? They also seem to have lightning bolts...’
As he looked, the minutes passed, and he couldn’t make sense of anything. So he decided to wait for Jenna to finish, maybe they could find so answers.
Ten minutes later, she stood up and looked at the paper on which she had written down several things she knew about this language, as well as what was written on the wall.
Then she tried to read it.
"Weapons... Tomb? Tomb... Weapons." She frowned as she tried to read it and returned to check if she had done it right.
Elliot frowned as he listened to her and looked at the hieroglyphics for a brief mont.
Jenna then felt that she had done it wrong, since when she checked, it said the sa thing she had read before, or sothing similar. So she went to sit down to do it again.
"Wait," Elliot said suddenly, stopping her. "Weapons and tombs, you said?"
"Yes,’ she replied. "But I think I did it wrong. I’ll do it again."
"No." Elliot shook his head. "You said it right."
"Huh? What do you an?"
"They’re not Weapons and Tombs. This is... A Sarcophagus of Weapons!" He exclaid.
She looked at him strangely. "Sarcophagus of Weapons?" She tried to speak again, but suddenly fell silent.
She rembered sothing.
Nurotaurs are world-famous for being incredibly wise and few in number. There may only be 100 Nurotaurs in the world; if there are more, there are no more than 200. They don’t live in dungeons; they ca into the world through ruins like these.
The thing is, they don’t live off wisdom; they live off other things: the creation of weapons.
Nurotaurs are specialists in creating weapons of all kinds, using a wide range of minerals. In addition, being so wise, they are incredible "Imaginers", which allows them to enchant their weapons with all kinds of magic, which then beco special attributes.
It was rembering this that Elliot was able to connect the dots.
The ’lying’ weapons he had seen before, which seed to be combusting but also had rays, were actually weapons on top of sarcophagi, weapons enchanted with magic created by the Nurotaurs.
Jenna noticed it too.
"That’s right, now that you ntion it, my father once told that the Nurotaurs are specialists in creating this type of ruin." She nodded and finally understood sothing. "That’s why the Griffin ntioned items that could disturb his senses."
"If this is a Weapon Sarcophagus, then... It must have protectors."
"Protectors?" Jenna looked at him strangely.
Elliot frowned.
’They usually have them, don’t they? I also rember my father telling that if I ever found a place called ’Sarcophagus’, I should run away if I wasn’t strong enough...’ He frowned, trying to think of what to do.
But then a strange noise entered his ears: "Hehe, a human." It was a weird voice. A little high-pitched, but slightly hoarse, which made him turn around with a punch backward.
His fist found nothing.
"Elliot?" Jenna was startled by his sudden movent. "What’s happened?" She imdiately pulled out her sword, just in case.
Elliot moved back a little, closer to her. "Didn’t you hear that?"
She tilted her head, feeling afraid. "Hear what?" she asked.
But suddenly... "Oh, a human woman. Worthy of my King."
Jenna imdiately jumped toward Elliot, falling backward into him. "Who is it?!" she shouted, but once again, no one was there.
Finally, they both stood guard, back-to-back.
"Elliot..."
"I know. It’s not human."
"A beast?"
"No... I don’t think so." He hesitated at his answer.
"W-what is it?" she asked, trying to speak as quietly as possible, but her fear made her stutter a little.
Elliot had no answer to that question. He was asking himself the sa thing, so he remained silent.
As they felt an invisible pressure created by the fear of not knowing what to do, they instinctively moved away.
But then the voice sounded again.
"Welco..." It echoed in Elliot’s ear.
"To our..." It echoed in Jenna’s ear.
"Beloved ho." It echoed in Elliot’s ear.
"Our beautiful..." Jenna.
"Kingdom..." Elliot.
"Built by..." Jenna.
"Our King." Elliot.
"Soac." Jenna, the last words to be heard.
Although both were in shock, as they were not listening properly to what was being said and did not understand the scattered words, they assud that the other had heard it, so they looked at each other.
"To our... Our beautiful... Built by... Soac."
"I see." Elliot nodded. "It says: Welco to our beloved ho. Our beautiful Kingdom built by Our King, Soac." He completed the words he had heard.
Jenna nodded softly. "I see... Why doesn’t it speak to us so we can both hear? Does it take turns?"
"Maybe it can’t? It could be limited."
"I see."
There was no further response after waiting a while with their guard up.
"Did he leave?" Jenna asked.
"..."
Elliot wanted to answer, but just then the voice echoed again.
"Let’s play..."
"Let’s play..."
"There’s a ga to play."
"Let’s play sothing."
"Co in."
"Keep coming in."
"The ga is about to begin."
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