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Dawn Traveller - Chapter 08 - The Time of The Raging Storm Part III
“Over here.”
“It’s larger than I thought.”
As they progressed deeper into the tomb, the evidence of monsters lurking became more and more obvious.
Monsters are often found in large tombs and caves.
To tomb raiders, monsters and the amount of tracks they left were useful tools in indicating the value of the cave or tomb's contents.
Small-bodied but highly intelligent goblins know how to use tools and to use the things they find.
If they possessed gold coins, there was a high probability of the rest of the treasure being close by.
When Rendal heard news of this tomb from an information guild, he had researched the surrounding area thoroughly, to analyze it and predict where the tomb was; and it led right to this cave.
A place that would not be discovered by people easily, and a place large enough for a group of goblins to live in.
Of course, it would have been hard to find the tomb with only this much evidence, but he had eliminated the other options one by one, by looking at the landscape.
“I- Intruders!”
The goblins screamed and tried to attack, but to the experienced tomb raiders, they weren’t much of a threat.
Rendal stood in his light leather armor and held his sword in his hand. Behind him, Nedhand stood with an axe in each hand, ready to back him up.
Even with those two it would have been impossible for the goblins to defeat them, but with Hersey’s magic and Grona’s arrows, defeating them was a breeze.
“Eckkkk…”
Rendal did not let the goblins live.
The easily-scared goblins had a tendency to flee during a battle if they were scared.
Rendal killed them because if a goblin possessing a piece of the treasure ran outside the cave, there was a very high chance that it would bring more dangerous creatures into the cave.
“Only 14 of them.”
Nedhand grumbled in disappointment, muttering that he didn’t get to use his axes properly.
It wasn’t every cave that was life threatening for them.
Magicians usually wanted to hide their research, so they made complex mechanical traps to stop intruders, but they didn’t stop there, they set various kinds of magic traps as well.
It is very difficult to raid the tomb when such spells are still intact, and doing so has many difficult steps to follow.
But it also has a lot of amazing rewards at the end of the raid, because magicians usually think of their lairs as final resting places for all of their research and treasure, even if they had a student or heir to follow in their footsteps.
Raiding parties can obtain rare magic research material, magic potions and ingredients through raiding tombs like these.
Compared to magicians’, knights’ tombs were simple. Some of them were just made by digging a hole in a nice spot. Usually, all they could find in those tombs were just old weapons, amour and a few antique belongings that they had owned.
The painfully ordinary Knight Gargosa’s tomb just happened to be in a cave, and no other monsters except the occasional goblin could be found.
“Considering how fast these creatures reproduce, I’d say they haven’t been living here long.”
Stated Hersey simply, after looking around for a while.
“In a big place like this, they would have multiplied to hundreds after just two years.”
After destroying all of the goblins and searching the cave’s interior they found quite a sum of treasure.
“A few gems, and about 630 gold pieces.”
“It’s still too small for a noble family. Let’s search further in, since there might be more hidden treasure.”
The dwarf Nedhand started to search.
He looked, in detail, around the ground and walls. Even though dwarves tended to be rowdy when drinking beer, they were a race known for executing their jobs meticulously.
He paused in front of the pile of fallen rocks and dirt.
“This is the most suspicious place. I didn’t find any other.”
“Do you think the cave collapsed?”
“Well, since it’s been quite a long time since Gargosa was buried. But looking at this, the dirt is fresh. The goblins might have knocked it down, but the nobles might have done this in attempt to hide their treasure.”
“Do you think it’ll collapse in on us?”
Nedhand carefully inspected the ceiling and the walls.
“I don’t think so. It’ll be difficult since the ceiling here has fallen down, but working around this area, I think we can make way.”
Nedhand pulled out two hoes from his backpack and handed one of them to Rendal. Then he started digging the ground.
There were a lot of different situations that could occur during raiding, but you could say that digging is a basic.
They didn’t have to go back to the village since they had quite a lot of food, and not many villagers came down to the gorge anyways.
Grona stood at the entrance, keeping an eye out for any bandits or monsters.
She called out an earth spirit to support the ceiling so it did not fall on them.
And after four long days...!
“It’s the nobles’ treasure!”
They found the nobles’ treasure, piled next to Gargosa’s casket.
There were gold coins, gems, and expensive looking antiques crafted by the hands of artisans.
There were quite a lot of antiques from the Bientin Kingdom, but more than half of them were damaged or destroyed by the fallen ceiling.
Hersey tutted.
“It’s a shame. If magicians had been involved, they would have done things properly. Well, I guess they would have stolen these by now if they weren’t faithful knights.”
Grona spoke after counting the treasure.
“Counting only the coins, it would be more than 1000 gold. If we sell the gems on the black market, it would be 3000 gold at the very least.”
Hersey disliked the way he spent his time, doing nothing significant. Except his time teaching magic to Jys, his life was a tedious one.
“After all this work, we deserve this much. Still, it’s still too small for the wealth of a noble.”
Rendal agreed to that point.
He thought that there would be at least 300 000, even 400 000 gold, since it was owned by a noble family that had actively earned money for so many years.
“I think either they hid some of the money somewhere else, or they weren’t as wealthy as they were said to be.”
“Anyways, let’s go back.”
The experienced tomb raiders tried to collect their once-again quite successful profits and return to Teres, but when they moved to the nearest city, they saw soldiers moving in groups.
There was no one to be seen outside...
“Something must have happened… Grona, let’s investigate.”
“Alright.”
Rendal, along with Grona, returned with information from the bar after booking rooms in a lodge.
“They say that there is a civil war. There is a huge battle with military support going on between the crown prince and his brothers after the king fell unconscious.”
A long time had gone by since the Gratez kingdom’s main cities were attacked by invading countries.
The scariest thing about a civil war was that it could happen anywhere in the country.
Hersey groaned.
“It was bound to happen. I know the crown prince and the third prince are abundant in military power, so this could last pretty long. A lot of cities could end up in ruin.”
“There are rumors of the fourth prince bringing soldiers from foreign countries into this as well.”
“Well, it’s good for us since there would be more nobles’ tombs to raid later on. Wait, now it would be quite dangerous for us to move back to Teres.”
It was better to hide quietly in a place far away from the capital or on an island during a civil war, because after all authority has failed, the danger of ambush from the soldiers was even higher.
Riley voiced her opinion.
“How about living in the elves' forest again? This could last a year or two like last time.”
There was a huge forest within the Gratez empire where elves dwelt.
The elves’ military power was so terrifying that they were safe from any attacks and from the country’s laws.
Riley could visit there any time since she befriended the wood elves after healing some of them.
“That’s a good idea. There’s not much chance of facing soldiers since we only have to go through three mountains on the way.”
“Let’s go to the elves’ forest.”
Jys’ home changed from the town of Teres, where he grew up in, to the elves’ forest.
-
Translated by Hannah Kim
Proofread by Janowicz
This chapter was released on Tuesday the 31st of January, 2017.
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