88 No one ever made it out alive (2/2)
This was supposedly the tomb of the Troll Hero, the smartest one to have ever lived. Unlike the rest that was only capable of hunting and creating some basic stuff, he was capable of reading the paper things of the humans and even use spells. Because of this, every tribe dispersed around the planet were training their offspring to reproduce that exploit. Mountain trolls, ice trolls, sand trolls, forest trolls. All the races were yearning to see another troll worthy to be called King.
Because Târlakh was an ice troll, this tribe was tasked to guard his tomb and never let anything escape from it. Ymir was nodding his head, understanding that it was important to protect the tomb from potential thieves and tomb raiders. But then, he realized that a word was weird, did he truly heard escape? Was it not enter, the right word to use? As he pondered, he saw the troll shaking his head.
Ordering two hunters nearby, he asked them to throw a piece of meat inside the hole in the ice wall. Even if they were in the middle of the day, they could not see very far inside the tomb, even with their extremely good vision. Leilade scanned it with her magic and realized that it was not working normally either. But she could feel that something was lurking beyond the range of her spell.
SKRIEEEEEEECH
Barely a minute after the large piece of meat was lost inside the shadows, a terrible noise resonated. Because they were in a crevice, the sound was reverberated, prompting some children to use their hands to close their ears. The hunters were trying to look relaxed, but still, their hands were gripping tightly their spears.
”Empress, what is present inside this tomb? I can't see beyond the initial aperture. But, something is present.”
”Well, it's hard for nothing to create such a huge noise. But you don't have to worry, it is not something that could even injure you. Not that we necessarily need to enter, we can send some skeletons to scout that tomb.” She won't admit that she is as clueless as him, she had to uphold her reputation. At the same time, she saw him satisfied by her explanations, good thing it was not the calculative Davion in front of her.
However, when Ymir asked what was inside this tomb, the chief said that the relics of the Dark God and the Troll Hero were present. Also, a huge amount of mana stones was probably formed after all those years, since even a few were harvested inside this very crevice. After hearing this, Ymir couldn't help but question if someone ever entered the tomb, if it was so rich in resources.
The troll looked at him with horror, like the Akûl just confessed that he killed his only son. Asking the demon to lower himself, he murmured a few words in his ears. Words that were instantly retransmitted to Leilade.
”I asked if someone ever entered the tomb. He answered that no one ever left this place alive. From the looks of it, it is truly dangerous, to have such a high death rate after so many centuries. I mean, they are still capable of hunting animals and monsters alike to survive in such a harsh environment. But they can't even manage to conserve their lives inside this tomb.”
This made Leilade frowned. It was right to say that a location could be deadly, and have an absurd amount of death. But to not have a single being capable of even surviving and escaping was very weird. Normally, fleeing was a relatively easy task to perform, compared to fighting back. And she was sure that the trolls were not stupidly proud, meaning that they still possess a certain sense of fear and self-preservation.
”We still don't know how many people died. Maybe it was only their champion, meaning that they were acting weirdly and unwilling to back off even in spite of the danger. We don't know the reasons for such a terrifying rate of casualties, so ask him about that.”
Seeing Ymir also murmuring something to the ears of the chief, the latter was visibly surprised. Like he didn't expect such a question, but he was not feeling sorry or pained at all. It was not matching his position as chief. Normally, he should have looked saddened, to think about all those trolls that died meaninglessly. But when she saw Ymir straightening his back and staring at her, she was even more perplexed.
”I may have made a mistake while translating. He definitely said that no one left the tomb alive. But apparently, it was because no one ever entered it in the first place.”