Dungeon Raider System

Chapter 56  The ancient ruins of Chichén Itzá

Now that Uriel's confidence enjoyed a huge boost from his first success, he wasn't hesitant to step into the Kukulkan pyramid anymore. If anything, he was more excited than ever because now he was being backed by most of the researchers on site and he was being treated as a full fledged archaeologist by them.

"I already figured out what's the Great jaguar platform's purpose which is good, but in order to find the entrance to the underground structure I'll need to study every single POI first. There's no telling as to what could happen if we rush things." Uriel had been attempting to explain the situation to the hangover Nika, but all she did was to nod at his every word with pretend interest on her face.

"I get it, I totally get it, so how long will it be? Do you think it may get sorted next week?" She asked, for the umpteenth time.

"Did you not listen to what I just said? It could be a couple days, it could be a few weeks or even years! Stop bothering me!" He finally raised his voice in annoyance causing Nika to pucker her lips out in a pout. "Fine, let's go to the great pyramid first."

"Yes! I knew you would fall for my charms in the end!" She waved her arms in the air and disappeared into Uriel's shadow with a gleeful smile without giving him the chance to rebuke. Not long after she came back along with Flanagan and four other bodyguards among which was the medic and the female engineer that had been previously treated like errand boys. They were so excited to finally be on the move that had already prepared gear, archaeology equipment and supplies for a week long trip.

"Isn't this a little bit too much? This site is not that big." Uriel's brow began twitching uncontrollably.

"One never knows, maybe we'll get to enter the hidden structure." The female engineer shrugged and led the way towards the pyramid. Although the way was clear and there were no cryptids on sight, the group of bodyguards still surrounded Uriel as if he was going to war.

They were skillful enough not to get in Uriel's way, but that didn't make it any less annoying. 'Is this how famous people feel? I guess it's a good thing I'm not famous, one week of this and I'd go crazy.' Despite his thoughts, he still felt a bit of a thrill thanks to the VIP treatment.

Once in front of the pyramid, Uriel finally had the chance to really take in its magnificence. It wasn't just a few bricks piled up on top of each other, it was made with thousands upon thousands of stones all cut to perfectly fit each other.

Climbing the long stairs that led to the top where the ancient glyphs had been discovered, Uriel pondered about the method the Mayans probably used to build it. Was it possible to build a structure such as these with the technology they had or was it built long before the Mayans even arrived at this place, such questions kept him distracted for a while.

Nika was the first to get inside the chamber using a lantern to light the way and Uriel followed closely behind, thanks to being an evolved human he wasn't tired in the slightest after the climb.

"Where are the carvings?" Uriel asked as soon as he stepped inside and Nika lighted up the whole place. The chamber on top of the pyramid wasn't that spacious and it was just a square made of stone, just like the rest of the pyramid, but there was a brick that seemed to be made of a different material.

It was as if the stone had peeled off, revealing a material that resembled something in between copper and gold.

"I see, so the carvings aren't in the stone, but on the material beneath it." Uriel said as he took a brush from the archaeology equipment.

"A brush!? I present to you THE hardest material ever discovered in the world and you pick up a brush to crack it!?" Nika facepalmed. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"It's not for opening the supposed door, you knucklehead, it's just to wipe the dust off so I can read better." Uriel explained as he proceeded to dust the carvings on sight and not long after they were clean enough for Uriel to read.

[Emergency exit]

'What!? For real!?' Uriel couldn't believe his own eyes. 'I can't let them know that the mysterious carvings in an ancient language say something so... mundane.' Uriel pondered for a while on how to tell everyone that the pyramid wasn't an entrance to the structure but the emergency exit. It wasn't just that the message carved on the pyramid was so simple it was anti-climatic, but also because it might allow other researchers to easily deduce the whole alphabet and make a codex of their own, just like he previously did.

"What does it say? Judging by the look in your face it seems you were able to translate it." Flanagan said out loud, forcing Uriel to give a prompt answer to avoid looking suspicious.

"It says something like 'For those who despair, for those who fear, one way is the correct way but this is not the way'." Uriel provided a complete made up riddle, like those seen on old movies about ruins and temples just to keep the researchers back at the camp distracted while he performed his investigation.

Flanagan swiftly jotted down everything Uriel said without missing a beat.

"Do you know what does this strange message mean?" Flanagan asked with excitement.

"I don't know for sure..." Uriel kept lying without blinking. "But I think it means the door doesn't open from this side." He then asked to stay for half an hour more just to keep appearances and pretended to attempt to figure out more about the ancient glyphs, when in reality he simply enjoyed being inside the ruins of such an amazing structure.

Going down the stairs carrying the delicate equipment was a bit difficult because of how steep the stairs were, but as ascended their physical capabilities were enhanced, including their sense of balance. Once they were down, Flanagan made sure to share Uriel's findings with the researchers on site and then the expedition party set off to the next structure.

Now that Uriel knew the pyramid wasn't the entrance to the underground structure, he needed to rule out each and every one of the remaining POIs. Such a task was as promising as entertaining and he found much joy in visiting the different structures. First came the priest's houses, but they were just old remains and nothing more, then he headed towards the tomb of the high priestess. There were also some carvings below the stone surface, but none of that was helpful in any way since they were damaged and impossible to read. When asked about the translation he simply stated that he wasn't able to translate it unless they found a way to restore the glyphs without damaging them, but that was a job for later.

"Why can't we do it now? We have all the equipment!" The female engineer was as excited as Nika to rush the investigation, only her interest wasn't to go back home but to show progress and achieve results.

"Because there's still one more point of interest we need to check out, but it's at a considerable distance. We can always come back later and study the tomb of the high priestess, but there's only so many hours in a day and we need to hurry up to the next place." Uriel too was excited for showing results, but he also didn't want to rush the investigation.

Although Uriel had been studying archaeology ever since he learned to read, nothing prepared him for what he was about to find in the next POI.