Dom soon arrived at the broken down mausoleum with Gan Ning and Tomoe beside him, his guards also followed as they arrived. The journey had been swift as a clear path had been created from the waters edge at the river, and cut through the Red Woods to the entrance of the Ancient Underground City. In front of them Dom could see the amount of work that had taken place since he had last visited here, with small temporary housing having been built, as well as a temporary warehouse that had been set up beside the small lake.
Dom noticed that their were a few legionaries gathered, as well as some villagers who were busy moving goods from an entranceway that had been dug at the top of the small hill that the waterfall came from. Dom had been informed that they had dug a tunnel that travelled down and headed straight in to the vault that they had arrived in originally when they discovered it.
"How has the excavation been going?" Dom asked Gan Ning as they dismounted from the Red Hare Horses that they had swiftly travelled on, reducing the couple hour walk to less than twenty minutes.
"Almost complete, we have one tunnel left to go which we believe will lead allow us to have fully finished this mission." Gan Ning replied, "We have a couple of key areas that we have discovered, and are in a great place with our removal of useful goods and materials. Once we are finished we then plan to deconstruct all of the glowing stones so we can use them as lights within Riverside."
Dom looked around and noticed that there were a couple of carts full of more ancient weaponry. The carts were tied to Ox who were ready to pull them towards Riverside when their drivers where ready.
"Lights would be great at night." Dom agreed, coming back to the conversation, "It is something that we definitely need to invest in."
"Hopefully we can find out how to build them ourselves." Gan Ning replied, "Please follow me."
They walked around the small lake and headed up a temporary wooden staircase that had been constructed that took them up to the top of the hill. A ramp and pully system had been installed beside it so that goods could be brought up through the tunnel and easily sent down the hill for storage in the warehouse. Gan Ning lead the way as Dom and Tomoe followed, with Gregorios and Trojan behind them.
As they reached the entrance to the tunnel a Villager appeared, a backpack on his back full of some tools and other goods. He emptied his backpack in to a box at the top of the pully system and shouted down to another Villager who was at the bottom who acknowledged and started pulling on a rope that pulled the box down to the bottom of the hill. The Villager at the top noticed Dom's arrival and quickly bowed.
"You don't need to bow to me." Dom said to him, "Thank you for the hard work."
"I'm happy to be able to help." The man replied, "My son is helping build the wall and we are all working hard to get as much weaponry and materials back to Riverside to help with the defence. Commander Gan Ning has led us well and we are nearing the end now."
Dom thanked the man before heading down the staircase behind Gan Ning that had already disappeared down the stairs. The stairs were surprisingly spaced out as Dom had expected them to be much steeper, the staircase wasn't overly wide and Dom wondered how they moved the bigger things up.
"Gan Ning." Dom said loudly to his commander who was just ahead of him. "How do you move the larger items?"
"They go through the underwater passage." Gan Ning replied, "We created a pully system there, it's not as quick, but it's much smoother."
Dom accepted his answer as they appeared in the now empty vault room. All of bodies, gold and jewels now gone. The room was now more of a storage room and there were plenty of items stored neatly in piles, ready for the next Villagers to come and move the items through one of the systems they had installed. Dom noticed that there was a small pile of parchments and tomes and he wondered what was inside those as he hadn't seen any other than those in the Mausoleum. He also noticed a large crate that was sealed near the entrance to the corridor.
"Come have a look at this." Gan Ning said with a large grin, as he approached the crate, lifting the lid.
Dom looked inside and saw that there were more red eggs inside, similar to the snake eggs that Gan Ning had found on their first visit. He noticed that there must be at least another six inside and Dom wondered if they could still hatch.
"How are your eggs?" Dom asked as he looked inside.
"They are good, I am looking forward to them hatching, I was wondering if we got another stables if we could attempt placing the egg inside." Gan Ning replied, "Imagine having red snakes to ride in to battle on."
"I mean, it's definitely something we could try." Dom replied, "If the original spawn isn't great of course."
"Could we try and do it with the Sabre Tooth Tiger pups?" Tomoe asked from behind Dom. "It would make taming them much easier, and we could ride those in to battle."
Dom wondered this himself and decided he would definitely try that when they next received a stables. Gan Ning closed the lid and started to head down the corridor towards the Ancient Underground City centre. All of the bodies had been removed and all Dom could hear was that the clunking of Tomoe's armour as they headed down.
"It looks a lot better now doesn't it." Gregorios mentioned, "It's a shame Leonidas isn't here with us, it's like walking down memory lane."
"I'd be more than happy to have you both help us clear this out." Gan Ning replied as they reached the end of the corridor.
"It's a shame I can't. I'm too busy protecting the Lord." Gregorios replied.
"I'm pretty sure the Lord would be safer without your protection." Trojan said from the rear, causing a smile to appear on everyone's faces.
They reached the central Atrium and Dom was impressed to see that a lot of the fallen pillars had been moved to the side, with wooden reinforcement structures having been installed to reduce any risk of collapse whilst the members of Riverside continued their work. Dom was also excited to see that all of the routes had been cleared and there were markings on them that signified what they were.
"So Lord Lazarus, as you can see we have been very busy!" Gan Ning laughed, "We have cleared all of the routes except for this one, which I have purposefully left until last."
Dom looked at the route that Gan Ning pointed at, it was clearly the widest of the corridors and he could see from the floor markings that it was the least dusty and therefore the last one to have had the pillar blocking it removed.
"We have so far explored the Blacksmiths, Barracks and Housing, Kitchens, Vault, Throne Room and Warehouse." Gan Ning explained, "I believe that this Underground City was used as a fall back or secret city that the Royal Family used in need."
"So what do you think we will find next?" Dom asked.
"Based on what we have experienced since the founding of Riverside, I believe we will find the Town Centre." Gan Ning replied, "I remember you mentioning that after we had taken the Gluttonous Chief's Village you had the opportunity to claim or relocate it, creating a secondary town. I believe this is what this Town Centre could be."
"I never realised you were so intelligent." Tomoe said from behind with a laugh. Gregorios and Trojan both held in their laughter, not wanting to annoy the Commander they both respected.
"That actually does make a lot of sense." Dom replied, also surprised at Gan Ning, his Commander normally being known for his trust leadership and not his intelligence. "Let's head down and take a look then!"
They headed down the final corridor, that was darker than the rest, it's glowing stones having been damaged severely over the years due to the collapsing that had taken place in this corridor. Gan Ning explained that their would be some Legionaries ahead who were clearing the pathway but had found three doors at the end of the Corridor which they had been clearing before he was recalled to Riverside to deal with the unknown enemy situation.
As they reached further down the corridor, they saw that there was light again from the glow stones and Dom could see that there were three doors as Gan Ning had said, beside the doors stood a couple of Legionaries who were moving some final large stones out of the way of one of the doors, visibly sweaty from the work. As soon as they noticed the arrival of the group, they stopped what they were doing and saluted by hitting their chests with their fists.
"Stand Down." Gan Ning said kindly, "Thanks for getting this all cleared, have you found anything good?"
"We haven't entered any of the buildings yet as ordered." One of them replied, "But everything is cleared and they are all accessible."
"I think we will all be grateful to have finished clearing this and get back to supporting the rest of the century back home in Riverside." The other added.
"Soon." Gan Ning said to his men, "We'll show the rest of the Commanders that Gan Ning's unit is the best!"
The men saluted again and stood to the sides, where as Tomoe, Gregorios and Trojan all just rolled their eyes at the comment. Dom looked at the doors to the three rooms, interested in what he saw. The end doors were huge and sturdy with elaborate swirls and patterns, the image of a Crown placed in the centre. The door to the left had the image of strange creatures that Dom had never seen before and the door on the right was engraved with images of fighting warriors with large swords.
"Which door first?" Gan Ning asked.