Chapter 225: Two Artifacts

"It is good that you know!" Settra said as he raised his hand to summon a mummy wearing a scorpion-shaped crown. Judging by the attire and the mummy's form, Sinuoli determined that he must be a Tomb Technician.

If it were a Tomb King or a Tomb Prince, he would be wearing noble ornaments and have received finer preservation. If it were a Liche Priest, he would not be in the form of a mummy.

Tomb Technicians are not ordinary laborers, but ambitious master architects whose aspirations could not be fulfilled even over the course of an entire lifetime.

In life, Tomb Technicians once supervised laborers under the scorching sun to build cities and pyramids, and after the pyramids were completed, they would also be killed and buried as sacrifices to ensure the secrets of the mechanisms within would not be leaked.

After giving two instructions, the Tomb Technician turned and left, and soon he returned carrying a golden tray. Sinuoli saw that two items seemed to be placed upon it.

"Little Dwarf, step forward!" Settra the Imperishable beckoned. Sinuoli responded by walking up the steps.

"Do you recognize these two things?" Following his master's intent, the Tomb Technician presented the tray before Sinuoli; on it were an exquisite pendant and the head of a pickaxe.

The Artifact Vault in Sinuoli's mind reacted; both of these items were extremely extraordinary. The former was a component of Gazul's Gift, an item originally bestowed by the Dwarf God of Death, Gazul—the strongest among the lesser ancestor gods whose strength was second only to the three main gods—upon his chosen one.

The warrior who received the token lost contact while on the path of eradicating undead evildoers in the world, and this token was lost along with them. If it could be reforged, it could be used as a medium to summon an ancestral spirit back from the Ancestor Hall managed by Gazul.

As for the latter, it was the head of Grungni's Pick. Just as the name implies, it was once an artifact belonging to the Dwarf Father God, Grungni. The Father God relied on it to mine ore and carve out the dwarves' initial fortresses in the Qunshan.

This artifact itself was extremely sharp, cleaving through mountains and splitting rocks as if they were rotten wood. More importantly, once it was joined with the pick handle, the ancestor Grungni Rune engraved upon it would be restored.

That rune contained boundless power, capable of protecting dwarves within its effective range from any harm for a limited time, while simultaneously enhancing their strength and fighting spirit. This was also a necessary condition for Sinuoli to perform the Ultimate Grungni Rite.

"Gulp!" Sinuoli could not help but swallow a mouthful of saliva. He almost could not control his hand from reaching toward those two items.

"Answer, answer His Majesty!" the Tomb Technician urged.

"They should both be, be treasures left behind by the ancestors." Sinuoli certainly would not tell the truth, but he dared not spout complete nonsense either. Unlike the three artifacts he had collected previously that hid their own nature, the extraordinary nature of these two components was very obvious.

Settra the Imperishable himself had seen countless rare treasures and possessed extraordinary spellcasting abilities—yes, he was not just a warrior on a chariot, but also a Priest King, and he even knew some of the spells of the Liche Priests.

Settra and his subordinates must have the ability to identify magical items; since they had picked them out, trying to muddle through would undoubtedly be asking for humiliation.

Upon hearing this, Settra's soul fire flickered strangely. This superior being, who only served as a master and never as a subject, perhaps saw that Sinuoli was not telling the truth, but he did not point it out. After all, he knew that only dwarves could utilize these two items, so as long as they had value, it was enough; as for what value they had, it was not important to him.

"One of these two items was contributed by Prince Paimon, whom I enfeoffed to Vulture Mountain, and the other was seized from the rebels of Lahmia!"

Settra fell into memories of his own achievements. In history, he was the first to unify Nehekhara while alive, and after reawakening, he defeated the kings of later generations to unify it again; describing it as "unprecedented and unrepeatable" would be most appropriate.

"For every volume of the Nine Books of Nagash you find and present to me, you may take one item!" Settra took back the tray, handed a scroll of papyrus to Sinuoli, and signaled that he could leave.

Sinuoli did not say much; bargaining with a Tomb King would likely not have good results. After he and his subordinates walked out of the pyramid, they stepped onto the Kuluoma carriage again to return to the riverbank. Along the way, Sinuoli remained silent, thinking quietly.

"Where should I go to get the Nine Books of Nagash?" The only thing Sinuoli could be certain of was that Arkhan the Black had them, but he did not want to go find this Lich King to test the sharpness of the Tomb Blade and the Staff of Nagash in his hands.

One must know that this body of his was chopped down by an axe from Grom the Paunch, and Grom, after his Waaagh! on Ulthuan, fell at the hands of the Prince of Yvresse, Eltharion the Grim. But during the End Times, Arkhan turned the High Elf prince into dust with a single Age of Death curse.

Such dark scrolls did not possess the ability to hide their own nature, leaving no possibility for Sinuoli to pick up a bargain. Any living creature, whether it had intelligence or not, could feel the dense dark power within them.

"Perhaps the Sigmar Cult might have them preserved? Or maybe the progenitor of the Vampires has some?" Sinuoli barely thought of two possibilities; his system was not of the Tomb King variety and could not provide information about the Nine Scrolls, so he could only rely on himself to investigate.

Walking out of Khemri, Sinuoli looked at the Passage Permit stamped by Settra the Imperishable with great satisfaction; with this thing, his future shipping and transportation would be guaranteed.

The Dwarf fleet set sail again. The Great Mortis River served as the boundary for Khemri, and further east, it was renamed the Jin Liu He. Sinuoli's next stop was Quata, which guarded the entrance to Coffin Canyon.

Because not every king of Nehekhara could afford the expense of building a pyramid, many Priest Kings carved burial chambers into the cliffs of Coffin Canyon to house their noble remains.

As time passed, a magnificent burial complex formed there, and many huge colonnades and temples for sacrificial purposes were also built. Quata was therefore also known as the City of Corpses or the Eternal Way.

The flow rate of the Jin Liu He was much faster than the Great Mortis River. Panuosen tied the sailing ship behind the Dwarf Ironclad to tow it upstream. Although the speed was limited, the Steam Engine would not rest at night. They spent only two days on the five-hundred-kilometer journey.

As a white stone city appeared in his field of vision, Sinuoli knew they had arrived at Quata. In front of the main gate of Quata stood two Hierotitans, as tall as giants. These constructs were first activated in Quata to guard the kings buried in Coffin Canyon.

Their faces were carved in the image of the God of Death of Nehekhara. These statues exuded an evil magical aura; it was said that those who stood in their shadows could hear the cruel laughter of the ancient gods. It was believed that they would become the guides for the souls of fallen monarchs, leading the souls of mortal kings to the realm of the dead.