CHAPTER 40: PHAROMIN’S TOMB

Grey approached the lake’s surface. With his eyes of omniscience activated, he peeked at the lake.

The depth was far more than what an oasis should have. Tens of meters below, he saw the glowing outlines of a pyramid shaped structure, standing at the floor of the lake.

Grey sighed. There’s nothing he could do if the tomb really was below, except going with what the system probably designed the path for him to follow.

Grey pulled the underwater breathing pill out from his inventory. He gazed skeptically at the pill rested on his palm.

"Am I really dancing at the tunes of the system? I get the pill right at the moment before completing the map, as if it knew everything already, that I’d definitely need the pill to explore the tomb."

Grey paused his speculations and skepticism for the moment. He crouched down, arms reaching for the lake water. He didn’t hesitate anymore.

He swallowed the pill with a gulp of water scooped from the lake’s edge, then plunged into the depths.

The water was shockingly cold, a welcome jolt that cleared the sand and exhaustion from his mind.

The pill quickly took effect, the skin at his neck parted to form two pairs of gills; his lungs expanding with unnaturally clean, cool air drawn from the water itself.

Grey kicked deeper, the faint crescent moon’s light dying quickly above him. The lake was far deeper than any oasis should be. The pressure mounted, and the silence became absolute, broken only by the rhythmic churn of his own swimming.

The water was clear and dark, until a faint, angular shadow appeared below. It was the massive, obsidian pyramid tomb, its stones fitted together with ancient, impossible precision. Its base rested firmly on the deep silt, and its peak lost in the gloom above.

Grey finned towards the front face, and after some search, located the lock, a perfect, circular depression etched into the center of the wall.

He produced the key out from his inventory. He brought it up to the lock and, with a shuddering friction that echoed in the silent water, inserted it into the hole.

A low subterranean rumble began, vibrating through the water. The section of the wall around the key began to glow with deep crimson light. Two massive, interlocking stone slabs hissed apart, revealing a dark, vertical shaft.

Grey didn’t get a chance to swim through. An immediate, violent force, like a colossal vacuum, erupted from the opening.

The water in the immediate radius was instantly sucked into the tomb. Grey was caught in the irresistible current, slammed against the ancient stones, and hauled into the lightless tunnel.

The last thing he felt was the terrifying rush of displaced water and air before everything went black.

He reappeared seconds later, coughing and gasping, deposited onto a cold, dry, stone floor.

The tunnel had been a short portal. He was inside a huge, echoing chamber, its air dry and stale, scented with dust and ozone.

He was completely drenched, water streaming from his hair and clothes, forming a rapidly dissipating puddle around his boots.

Grey pushed himself to his feet, water squelching in his boots. He took a few deep breaths of the stale, ancient air, letting his senses adjust.

He was in a large, circular antechamber, the walls bare obsidian, and directly across from him, dominating the space, was a set of massive, sealed double doors.

They were crafted from a dark, petrified wood and bound with strips of tarnished bronze that depicted coiled serpents.

Though he was still adjusting himself, Grey knew he couldn’t linger. The underwater breathing pill had a time limit. He had to deal with this tomb fast and move out before its effects vanish.

Aura covered his palms as he placed them on the doors, his legs planted firmly on the floor, he pushed forward. With a groan that sounded like a thousand years of complaint, the heavy doors shunted inward.

Grey stepped through, bracing for another trap or portal, but found himself in a long, terrifying hallway.

The chamber was immense, stretching into the gloom with no visible end. Along the obsidian wall, spaced roughly every twenty feet, ancient flambeaux sputtered and flared, casting erratic, dancing shadows that made the corridor seem to breath.

But it wasn’t the shadows that seized Greys attention, it was the silent soldiers.

Lining both the sides of the hallway, standing at unnatural attention, were dozens of mummified soldiers in brittle, desiccated armor. Their helmets were stylized animal skulls, their weapons dust-caked but still clutched in shrunken, leathery hands.

They were packed shoulder-to-shoulder, a silent, macabre honor guard frozen in time.

Grey’s footstep on the stone floor, dampened as it was, echoed loudly in the stillness. The moment he crossed the threshold, a sickening, low hissing sound filled the air.

One by one, starting nearest to the door and rippling outwards down the long lines, the soldiers began to move. Their desiccated heads cracked as they tilted towards him.

Then, impossibly, their vacant eye sockets were filled by pinpricks of cold, sickly yellow light. The first rank of mummies opened their eyes.

[Soldiers of Pharomin’s reign]

RACE: Undead

LEVEL: 21

STAMINA: ∞

STRENGTH: 22

INTELLIGENCE: 1

AGILITY: 13

The undead, they were the most troubling monsters. No matter how much you beat them down, they rise again, until the one with the pulsating heart dies.

They have to either be burned or the undead core withing their body was needed to be destroyed. And the core is always at different location for each undead.

But for Grey, this was not a problem at all. His eyes of omniscience were already showing him the dark, smoky, cores within the undead soldiers.

The light in their eye sockets intensified, fixing on Grey, and the shuffling, rasping sound of ancient leather and bone rubbing against the stone began as a few soldiers raised their weapons, their bodies reanimating with jerky, terrible speed.

"Let’s put you all to rest for eternity now." The aura surrounding Grey’s fist flared as he rushed forward, leaving a trail of red light in his path.