Molting the Mortal Coil

Rock grinding on rock was not the most pleasant of sounds.

Sage didn’t mind it too much, since at the moment he was suddenly elated. Was this the legendary tomb of treasures? What sort of gaming nerd wouldn’t know about dungeon raiding. Some powerful old guy dies and leaves all his treasures in his burial tomb, then generations later the hero goes in and retrieves them. Usually it’s some evil guys house and you have to defeat all the monsters he left behind to guard the treasure. He’s technically a member of the Lang Clan, it won’t be too wrong to go in, right?

After the door swung fully open the darkness within suddenly lit up. Glowing stones powered by arrays illuminated the path ahead. A stone staircase descending in front of him. Still oblivious to the dangers the tomb would hold for anyone but those of the Lang Clan, Sage walked in fearlessly. Step after step, down he went. The sound of stone on stone rumbling again as the door closed itself once he’d walked out of view of it. Too far away to rush back through it even if he tried, Sage could only shrug.

It opened for me from the outside it should work from the inside, right? It’s not as if I wasn’t just trapped underground before.

Not dwelling on the possibility of being trapped again, Sage focused on where the path ahead would lead. After counting out more than three hundred steps, he realized each landing was exactly a hundred steps and so he just started counting every time stairs hit a landing and turned a corner. When he’d hit ten of them the stairs finally stopped. One thousand steps and now he was in a small entranceway. In front of him there was a pair of man sized Mantis statues. They were flanking a set of double doors, and as Sage looked around the room he noticed there were more arrays practically covering every inch of the floor, walls, and ceiling.

“Whoa. Arrays.”

There were so many of them, Sage couldn’t help but exclaim out loud. Slowly walking around the room he examined all the crazy symbols. He could vaguely sense repeating patterns and symbols, but he had no idea how they were arranged or what they meant. When he made his way around to the Mantis statues he nearly jumped. Looking up at their faces, he felt like they had been looking at him for a second. Chuckling at his own jumpiness, Sage called out his own Mantis and had her fly around the statues.

“Look, these are your ancestors, Mantis!”

He made it a point not to name his Mantis, the Spirit Insect would at best only live a dozen years or so. He didn’t wish to get attached too much, then he’d be far more hurt when she died. Just like the rule for livestock where he was from. Funny enough, the Lang Clan didn’t even have to teach such a thing as they were somewhat indoctrinated to treat them as nothing more than living puppets. When someone did name their insects it was either for entertainment, like a ventriloquist, or that clan member was sent into a special unit for the mentally ill.

They never said, but probably hitmen. You can always use a good crazy as a hitman.

Walking up between the two Mantis statues, the door suddenly lit up. The symbols lighting up in some sort of unknown order before this set of doors also opened up for him. Before him, Sage’s imagination came to life. The room past the doors was the classical mausoleum. A massive Hall opened up before him. Huge columns seemed to hold up the ceiling in that overly large room. That underground room was as large as a jumbo jet hangar and seemed quite empty for its size.

Walking forward, Sage saw something in the distance, heading over to investigate he found that within the hanger were a half-dozen stone caskets. Each was resting on a huge dais with a dozen steps and surrounded by tables, shelves and racks.

This must be the tombs of the important people. I wonder what’s here?

Walking towards the closest Tomb, Sage started to climb the steps of a dais but when he reached the top the stairs lit up. His foot smashed up against an invisible wall, which upon being touched lit up. A dim blue wall of translucent energy lit up in front of him, blocking his path. Feeling around on the blue wall, Sage walked around the wall, doing a lap around the top of the dais, finding no obvious entrance. He couldn’t see anything different at all, and decided to head over to the next dais. A blue wall appearing again when he climbed up to the top of that dais.

He continued on, walking around the top level of each dais. Three separate daises blocked him, Sage had already started to get discouraged, but there were still three more daises to check. Not giving up he went on to the next dais and reached his hand out. Ready to start feeling around on the wall as he’d done three times already. Expecting a wall he suddenly stumbled forward half a step.

No wall!

Amazed, Sage walked forward. This time far more cautious as he was able to approach a casket of what he assumed to be a Lang Clan ancestor. It was quite an elaborate casket, it actually looked like there was a person lying atop the lid of the casket but it was just a stone sculpture of what he presumed was the person buried in the tomb. The man seemed quite regal even in death, his facial features seeming almost sharp and imposing. Pointed eyebrows and a well trimmed mustache. He was sculpted wearing a very elaborate set of robes, he could even see the embroidered outlines of many Mantes.

“So shameful. My Lang Clan has been nearly wiped out.”

Sage had been admiring the craftsmanship and detail of the statue on top of the casket, when he was jolted by the sound of a voice. Startled he looked around quickly, trying to find the source of the speech. Seeing no one, he turned towards the casket, which is where he realized the sound came from.

“Don’t be so surprised boy, we Great Ancestors of the Lang Clan enter our tombs voluntarily while we still have a bit of life left in us. We’re supposed to protect the clan in a time of need. It’s a shame we were only awakened when you entered just now. The ones in charge died too quickly to come here to call us.”

The voice truly seemed to be coming from the casket in front of Sage and it spoke with a deep sense of regret. Sage understood, this Ancestor seems to have been a very great and powerful man when he was alive and now the clan he left behind had been almost completely annihilated. Just now understanding what was going on, Sage dropped to his knees out of respect for the Ancestor. Given he wasn’t from this world, he still felt it was a bit weird, but he didn’t wish to get discovered and so he followed all the proper rules and customs. In this case, kowtowing to one’s ancestors was a very important thing to do. After touching his forehead to the ground seven times for the ancestor, the voice rang out again.

“At least one of you still remains. I’ll have to ensure you can revive our branch of the clan. Go to the second shelf on your left, there is a book, a bag, and a ring. They will help you. If you can form your Golden Core then return here. The other Great Ancestors and I will give you other gifts so that you can restore the Lang Clan.”

Sage walked over to where he was told, reaching out and picking up the three objects. He tried to grab for another but a glowing wall appeared to block his hand. He tried for a different one and same thing happened. Knowing he could only take what he was given he turned back to the casket and bowed low.

“Thank you Great Ancestor for your support.”

He didn’t mention how he had tried to take more, since it seemed ancestors in the caskets had the power here. With the three items in his possession he took a look at them. The ring was a silvery color with no gemstone setting, but when he looked closely there were tiny array inscriptions engraved on the inside of it. The bag was made from some sort of leather and was about six inches by six inches like a large pouch. It had loops so it could be hung from a belt, and a simple toggle button to secure the top flap from flipping open when it bounced. Finally, the book. The title made Sage blink.

‘Insect Immortal Index’