Chapter 3: The Guide, The Book, The Artifacts
Once we finished breakfast, curiosity finally gripped us and we opened the ancient journal from a time long gone, opening it and then flicking through the pages of ancient Elven scribbles and old Elderenian runes. Arimia was curious and began reading the Elven on the pages.
"Old Snow elf, you can tell how each letter is lined at the top and bottom. It also is known as 'Broken Ladder' and you can see why."
I nod with a small laugh. "Yeah, so, what does it say?"
"Load of nonsense from a professor... I need some interesting shit." She flicked through the pages and then finally points to an interesting page in the journal before showing it to me and then pointing to an image of a rather strange and abstract-looking sword. It looked like something from the Island kingdoms' Art Deco period.
"The Sword of Kazidix-Zern, the hero of the ten blades, slayer of Deneren dragon-folk clan. Ruled the Dresdiden People For a Century before his passing, known for his battling years as a wise and fair man who essentially made the principles of proper healthcare and education for all, he took care of those around him." Ari explained.
"Sounds like my type of bloke, a fighting and fair man."
"Mhmm... Oooh, now this Artifact and heroine is likely my snow elf ancestor that my grandmother talks to me about. Aeryhn Iceborn, The hero of the Ten Valleys, her voice able to part the skies and her magic able to part the seas. Her Artifact is a rather futuristic-looking suit of armor. Damn, according to this, her barrow is hidden in one of the Ten Valleys on the Fjords north of Kjelensberg village, which is about a hundred and odd miles down the road from Neydren city."
"So, visit the tomb of your ancestor first before we head to the other tombs."
"It makes sense: I am pretty strong with magic, even though I rarely used it. Remember when I parted that massive river so we could escape that counterattack from the Orc Eighth Division that wanted us gone?"
"That was a river though, not a massive sea that divided continents and countries,"
"Alright good point but still, it was a big river and quite deep and I parted it without giving a shit."
"You are such a strange person to understand Ari, you really are."
"That's how we became best mates, Joe, you are about as abstract as me."
I looked at the suit and noticed it was like something out of a future utopia novel; Someone elegantly decorated the breastplate with many pipes and rivets holding it together as well. The helmet was the same, as well as the gauntlets, and leg armour.
These people must've either got gifts from the gods or they were very advanced. According to further explanations from Ari, the armour is also likely capable of enhancing magical abilities tenfold, meaning that Aeryhn was not only an incredibly powerful mage, but the woman was also the strongest mage in history, thanks to that armour, most likely.
Looking through the book proved valuable insight into a lot of the artifacts we planned to recover from the tombs and then take them to a museum. The image of the sword I looked at formerly belonged to the king, and hero Kazidix-Zern, also the grandson of Aeryhn.
His sword could give insight into everything and has the ability to cut down the many crowds of dragon-folk. The sword could give great knowledge, meaning that the blade was serving the purposes of being mightier than the pen.
All these artifacts were made for heroes and I quickly came to understand that I'm just some two-bit explorer capable of cooking an MRE and making a cup of tea and shooting guns. I'm not made to be a hero or the descendent of one, which led me to question.
"So, how are we going to take these artifacts out of the tomb safely without any of us collapsing under the weight of the metal and such?"
"Good question, Joe! We could hire or buy an industrial truck or something of the sorts."
"We didn't think this through very well, did we?"
"I'm just wanting an adventure, Joe, I wasn't wanting to go for all the artifacts."
"Fair enough, even so, we need to understand what artifacts we have to take out of the tombs... after all, I heard the orcs might be interested in ancient and powerful items, use them against our boys on the front once they control the power of the artifacts that are usually to do with bloodlines."
"We'll worry about the orc shit later, Joe. The lowest of the concern list had enough of the Greenies being stuck in the frontlines. If we see some orc spies or whatever in the neutral country of Elderen, we'll shoot the bastards where they stand."
"Sounds like a plan. Alright, well, let's just enjoy our adventure." I say before finally going back to relaxing against the seat, making the odd order for a cup of milky honey tea as we converse about artifacts and ancestors before it hits the afternoon, then we ordered our lunch and ate before finally leaving the dining hall and then onto the upper decks below that titanic balloon and the massive engines that growled in the distance like a beast that was hungry for the fuel it was constantly fed.
Ari and I took our time to find a free chess table and they taking a seat to enjoy a game, moving our pieces back and forth on the board as eventually, a stranger that was a dwarf came to our table with a chair he borrowed from another table in the centre of the massive upper deck and then politely asked with his gravelly but posh voice
"Can I join you? I want to converse about things that you have in that old book."
Naturally, we were suspicious of a random man suddenly taking his time to walk up to our table and then asking about our book. After all, those old propaganda posters on the wall of one of our troops holding a finger to his lips at an elven allied soldier who looked quite terrified said in the big letters "Be careful who you speak to! You could handle the death of your friends!"
In our case, we could handle the death of a ton of troops!
I then inquired, "What old book, mate?"
"The one you were conversing over in the dining hall." He replied.
"Yeah? Well, snooping around in other people's business isn't exactly what a gentleman like you should be doing, should it?" Ari said, slightly angered at this man's sudden arrival and questioning.
"How the bloody underworld do we not know you're not some orcish spy?"
"Because I'm not..." The dwarven man in his suit then shuffled his hand under his beard and pulled out a leather booklet thing and showed us his Identity papers and an ink stamping of his face "I'm a member of the Isle Archaeological Division ancient artifact bureau. I believe we might be working for the same target and I was curious. If you wish for any other information, troopers, I have plenty, so you know I'm a man of my word." He then pulled out passports, work papers, and all sorts of pictures.
We accepted him but still had a lack of trust in him. He felt off. But then again, he wasn't a soldier like us and we never grew up with him and Ari then pulled out the journal and showed it to him before going over the details of each artifact. He seemed very much interested and then also said something that could be either a burden or a blessing.
"I have a lot of money from investors from our country to hopefully discover the artifacts before the orcs do. I may not have an archaeological team or anything like that, but I have sizable sums of money for required resources to make sure the expedition goes smooth-." The dwarf being interrupted by Ari who then said.
"Us and the book are not for sale, sir. We bought this book and the tickets. This is our adventure and we want to make sure at least the artifacts are brought safely to a museum back home. At least I know they're safe there." Ari states firmly.
"well fine, but may I at least be a companion in this adventure?" He asks, trying his best to win us over.
"You can be a companion, of course, but your money is coming out of your pocket and we're keeping ours."
"Very well, that is a deal. Also, to put a name to a face: I am Harold Drangadzun, I'm an archaeologist and researcher at the Isle Kingdoms' historical and archaeological institute, at your service."
"I'm Joseph Terrens and this is my longtime best friend, Arimia Cryendel. We're former soldiers and conscripts of a scout battalion, we did five years of conscripted service and now we are hoping to discover these artifacts and recover them for not only the sake of historical insight but also our troops."
"A pleasure to meet you both. I hope our companionship will be fruitful."
We nod, hoping this guy isn't a bloody traitor. Then again, we have the guns, and he doesn't.
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