The site beyond the door was covered by the dust cloud, which drafted inside the Treasury, covering the four of them, causing them to cough loudly and cover their faces.
"That's disgusting!" Gregorios commented. The smell was stale and musky, with the dust cloud covering their wet clothes that hadn't dried whilst they had been exploring the treasury.
Soon the dust cloud settled around them, allowing them to see what was beyond the door. Beyond it were several more large Skeletons, wearing armour or fabric remains. They were stacked to both sides of the door as it opened, with their weapons by their side in the places they died.
Leonidas took the first steps outside the door, which led in to a long corridor, with purposely built walls, rather than the natural cave like ones from the tunnel they swam through. Gan Ning followed directly behind him, inspecting the Skeletons that littered the floor.
"After you Sir." Gregorios nodded to Dom, planning to take the rear of the formation. Dom accepted and headed out after Gan Ning.
"Looks like they though a defensive battle back to the Treasury." Gan Ning commented as Dom reached him. The corridor was thick with dust and some of the Skeletons looked like they would crumble if they were handled to vigorously.
"To push them to this limit, their foe must have been strong." Dom replied.
"I expect if we inspect the Skeletons inside the Treasury some more, we may find an important figure or something amongst them." Gan Ning added.
"Possibly, but with the age of these Skeletons, it would be hard to tell who or what." Dom commented.
Leonidas had continued down the long corridor, soon reaching the far end. On his journey he had walked past several more Skeletons that dotted the journey, however all of the Skeletons that he had travelled past were of the same large human species and there didn't seem to be any bodies from their foes. The corridor was well lit with the same glowing stones that were in the Treasury, and Dom was confident that they would discover the source of these and take the technology back to Riverside.
Dom and Gan Ning soon reached Leonidas who was at the end of the corridor, crouched down looking at one Skeleton in particular.
"What have you found?" Dom asked him.
"This Skeleton's Sabre has a jewelled hilt, unlike the others." He commented, "I think he must be one of the leaders, leading the defence from the front."
"I would agree, we found similar Sabre's in the Mausoleum." Gan Ning replied.
"An honourable way to go then." Dom commented, "I haven't seen any other Skeleton types."
"There isn't any." Leonidas replied, "I have checked, there are two arrow types in use, the ones that are dotting some of the Skeletons armours with the jagged tips, and then the style that are in some of the quivers that have a much more diamond shaped tip."
"I doubt who ever they fought didn't take any losses looking at the amount of Skeletons here and the way they are lined up." Gan Ning commented, "They must have taken their bodies with them."
They looked outside the end of the Corridor, seeing that it led in to an open atrium that was underground. It was made from a similar architecture structure to the Ancient Mausoleum that they had been in outside an hour earlier. Pillars had fallen every where and rocks from the ceiling had crumbled, showing that this place had been abandoned for a very long time.
The atrium was large, and led off in to multiple directions. Most of the corridors that came off it were blocked or collapsed by the different levels of rubble that covered the place, however there were a couple of exits available to them. There were also some glowing stones, most had been smashed and broken, but there was still enough to give the Atrium some light, even if it was eerie.
There were also some Skeletons dotted around the Atrium, however time had been less kind, and most had crumbled to dust or been crushed by the rubble that laid everywhere. In some places there were pieces of armour, but no Skeleton to wear it.
Dom looked around the large atrium, wondering if he could get more information.
"Game Support, please show stats."
[This is a man made Atrium by the owners of this Town. It does not have any stats, and can not be moved or claimed.]
"Interesting," Dom mumbled. "This is definitely the adventure I was hoping for"
"I'd have rather been above the surface personally." Gan Ning replied, taking a seat on a Pillar that had collapsed on it's side and broken in to multiple pieces.
"We need to make a decision on our next course of action." Dom commented, "I was hoping we would be heading to the surface, but I feel we are heading lower as we go. At some point we need to return."
"I do agree." Gan Ning replied, "If we had a large squad, we could explore much further as well. I will ask Subutai for more Hoplite to join us next time."
"And Spartans!" Leonidas added from nearby, looking towards the open corridors and planning a scouting route.
"Yes, and Spartans." Gan Ning laughed.
Whilst they discussed this, Gregorios was knelt down, looking at some carvings on a damaged piece of stone. The majority of the carvings had disappeared, but he used some of the water from his satchel to clear away the dust, showing more of what was available.
"Let's do one more corridor." Dom announced, "Then we need to head back, we can make sure the route is well marked and you can explore it more over the next few days. It's a shame it is so far from Riverside that we can't easily transport things from it."
"It's been a strange day." Gan Ning lamented, "Who knows what else we will find."
"Which corridor looks best?" Dom asked Leonidas.
"I'm not sure." He replied, "Of the ones that we can easily access, there are two that I think look the safest for an initial inspection."
"I think we should take the first one." Gregorios added.
"Why is that?" Leonidas asked fairly.
"I think this is a map that has been broken at some point." Gregorios replied, "This image here looks like a collection of Coins, which could be the Treasury we have come from. Of the two corridors you have pointed out, one has no end on this map due to the damage, where as the other has the image of an anvil."
"I suppose it is safer to travel somewhere if you have a map." Gan Ning commented, heading over to Gregorios and looking at the piece of stone that he was still trying to clean. "Let's go inspect this Anvil then."
Dom agreed and headed up towards Leonidas who started to make his way down the corridor. This Corridor was well lit, and there were no Skeletons lining the walls as there was on the way to the Treasury. The corridor also seemed in a better condition, with the glowing stones clearing their way. The floor and walls were still dusty like the rest of the Town so far, but less so.
They soon reached a metal door, not to dissimilar to the one on the Treasury entrance. It was shut closed and it was an impressive sight.
"Gregorios, can you give me a hand?" Leonidas asked.
Gregorios made his way down the side of the two large man wide corridor and reached the door in front. He braced his shoulder against the door, whilst Leonidas did the same thing next to him.
"On three, we push!" Leonidas ordered, whilst Dom and Gan Ning held swords ready and waited.
"One!" Gregorios said, "Two."
"Three!" Leonidas shouted as he pushed heavily, as did Gregorios.
Unfortunately for both of them though, the door wasn't locked, nor was it as heavy as it looked. As they pushed the door fell from it's ancient hinges on the floor of the room within. It fell with a loud crashing noise, as Leonidas and Gregorios landed on top of it.
"Ha!" Gan Ning laughed, as he stepped in to the room with his sword held out in front of him.
Dom however reached down and helped the two Hoplite up, who both laughed at their own error. Especially Leonidas who had relaxed massively since spawning in to Riverside this morning.
"Beautiful." Gan Ning was heard mumbling to himself.
"Jackpot!" Leonidas added.
Dom looked up and saw that the room was glowing bright from the stones. At the edge of the room were three large domes, with big holes in the front of them. There were also six gigantic shining metal anvils in front of them. There were large boxes full of tools and hammers beside them, where as on the left wall to them were outlines of moulds that could be used to pour metal in to them.
On the right hand side were more boxes, as well as a wall full of hooks. Both the boxes and the hooks were filled with weapons, both large Sabre's, thick Axe's and heavy looking Spears.
"Game Support, please show stats." Dom asked.
[Unknown Ancient Smithery
Building Grade - Unknown
Building Level - Unknown
Building Perks - (Heavy Metal - spawns an array of forging materials daily dependent on building grade and level)(Unknown Perk - More information needed)(Unknown Perk - More information needed)]
Dom hadn't bothered asking Game Support if he could take this building, as he knew he still needed to try and locate the Town Centre. Even if they couldn't take the building, they could take everything that was inside. First however they needed to find a much easier way to travel and transport the goods, otherwise this was like having access to a star, but you couldn't look at it as it would burn your eyes.
"This looks like a Blacksmith workshop!" Gan Ning said as he headed around the room, "If we can take this stuff back to Riverside, we could start forging our own weapons and spares. We do need to set up our own mines first though."
"Yes we do, we need to explore the mountains to the west." Dom agreed. "Let's head back for now, Leonidas please leave markings as you have done the rest of the excursion."
Leonidas accepted the command, drawing an arrow on the dusty wall, before quickly grabbing one of the heavy Spears and giving it a twirl.
"Not the right style for me." Leonidas commented.
"Nor me." Gan Ning laughed, not even attempting as Spears weren't his weapon type.
"Give it a go." Gregorios said to Dom, who was eyeing up the weapon haul they had.
"Sure!" He agreed, before heading to the heavy Spear that was on the Smithery wall, rather than in the box with the others.
This spear was around two metres in length, with a long metal edge that was almost like the tip of a lance. It felt heavy to touch, but was extremely well balanced. Dom felt it was the perfect spear for him, as he did not currently have a preferred weapon in World Conquest Online currently, other than the sword he got from the tutorial mission. The wood on the spear was a dark red, with the metal tip being a stunning white. There was also two silver pieces of fabric that were tied below where the tip met the shaft, that had somehow not faded away with time like most other things in this Ancient underground town they had discovered.
Suddenly there was a system notification that chimed in his ear, catching him of guard.
[Congratulations Player Lazarus for claiming a legendary weapon, King Arthur Pendragon's Spear Rhongomyniad]