The sea breeze was cool on his skin, canceling out the heat from the scorching sun that shone down on his face. Lucien took a deep breath with his eyes closed before forcefully exhaling to conceal his excitement. However, his hyperactive legs gave his heart away to the surrounding people on the boat. They looked in his direction with smiles in their eyes and laughter in their mouths. One of the men stood up and walked up to him, hitting him on the shoulder familiarly. The strength of a big burly man was no joke, but he had to refrain from crying out to keep his pride.

“Mr. Morte! Calm down, a little would ‘ya? We’re all excited about this too, y’know?!” His thick country accent accompanied his husky voice, and his words garnered acknowledgement from the others. They all talked about how enthusiastic he was, just focused on the work ahead without honoring the sea view and the lovely food on the table.

It’s not like they were wrong though- the newly discovered ancient pyramid occupied his thoughts. This pyramid was found underwater. An underwater pyramid that had been standing all these years. How was it built in those times? What secrets could be stored inside? There were so many things waiting to be uncovered!

“Well, would you look at that? He’s gotten even more excited. What’s going on in that head of yours?” A woman with short red hair asked as she walked over and sat beside him. She stuffed a large piece of sandwich in his hands before digging into her own food, making Lucien realize he hadn’t eaten lunch yet and was getting a bit hungry. “Kiara, what do you think we’ll find in those pyramids?” He asked, somewhat in a daze, while putting the sandwich in his mouth.

“Hmm... Some ancient things belonging to ancient people? Haha.” Her lips parted with laughter at his question, like she was looking at an excited puppy given a chew toy. “Tch.” He ate the rest of the food with a pout, dusted himself off, then went over to the front of the boat.

“Our destination should be far closer now.” He mumbled to himself, going to his backpack and giving it a good third rechecking. His glasses slipped off his eyes, probably due to sweat, but didn’t fall off his body because of its holder around his neck. However, his vision instantly blurred.

His hands took up the glasses and raised it to his face, but paused when he noticed something at the edge of the boat. He immediately quickened his pace and rushed to look over the edge, spotting a pair of goggles floating on the water. His brows furrowed slightly as he reached out to pick up the goggles and inspected it, finding that it seemed quite new. With that thought, his head turned to look around, but all he could see aside from their boat was the enormous expanse of the sea. He took the goggles to the others and asked if it belonged to any of them, but no one on the boat acquiesced to the apparel being theirs.

“Where did you find it?” Kiara asked, taking the object from him to do her own inspection. “It was just in the water over there.” He answered, pointing in the direction he’d found it. “Eh. Someone might have accidentally dropped it there. No biggie.” She shrugged and threw the goggles to the side before suddenly ruffling his hair.

He was quite tall, standing at 1.92m, but she was also tall too, at about 1.80m, making it quite easy for her to do.

“I’ve told you to stop touching my head.” He softly swatted her hand away.

“And I’ve told you, I don’t care.” She gave a close-eyed smile before chattering on. “Your hair is so long and fluffy, it’ll be a shame not to touch it, no? Like seeing a samoyed and not fawning over it. Is that even possible?”

“Whatever, go away.” He dismissed her and walked off to smoke, but she took his cigarette away and handed him an apple. “I’ve said no smoking. Have an apple instead. An apple a day keeps the doctor away; but smoke every day, and young in the graveyard you shall stay.”

“I’ve never heard of the second part.” He retorted.

“That’s cause I just made it up, ah.”

Lucien, “........”.

He shook his head at her antics and was about to say something else, when his eyes caught sight of a faint image on the horizon. His body instinctively leaned forward, his hands clenched the railings tightly, and his mouth couldn’t decide between smiling or biting his lower lip with his teeth. At that moment, as if reading his mind, the boat driver announced;

“We’ve arrived at the submarine docking area. Please prepare yourself to descend.” There was a slight laughter in his voice that Lucien knew was directed at him.

He turned to talk to Kiara, but saw that she’d already disappeared to the inside of the boat. “Hah, I thought I was the overexcited one.” Of course, he couldn’t let himself be beaten to it, so ran for his backpack, picked up other necessities and laid in wait.

After a little while, they got off the boat and made their way into the submarine. Murmurs from his colleagues filled his ears. He could hear their running excited voices as they talked about what they would find inside or how much fortune and fame they could get from it. A smile formed on his lips as he looked at the underwater life from the window. Different coloured fishes and other aquatic lifeforms swam and swayed past, looking a lot like the wallpaper of a friend of his.

A few feet away from him was a man in a simple white shirt, blue jacket, jeans and a pouch wrapped around his waist. He had some beads of sweat rolling down the side of his face and spoke in a language Lucien wasn’t too well versed in yet. If he remembered correctly, this person’s name was Yize, a Chinese and well-known figure in this field. To be honest, he used to be a little envious of him. It took Lucien a long time to get to where he was at his current 27 years of age, but Yize had already almost surpassed his status at just the age of 23.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

He’d even already been able to accept a disciple, yet here he was, still pending.

Lucien turned away and sighed, successfully catching the attention of Kiara, who’d already appeared behind him like a ghost. “What are you sighing for?” She whispered harshly in his ear and he immediately pushed her head away, alongside the slight surprise he felt. “Quit sneaking up on me like that. I’m sighing because I have something on my mind. Now, leave me alone.”

“I haven’t left you alone since we were kids. Do you think I’d do that now?” She flung an arm around his shoulder and he let her be, refusing to be bothered by her deliberate antics.

Soon enough, the submarine that had already sunk slowly arrived at their final destination.

Following their descent, he noticed the murmurs getting louder. When paired with the announcement resounding from the speakers, Lucien couldn't help but excitedly run to the front. From here, the underwater pyramid came into view, leaving him even more shocked than he was expecting to be.

“What the hell? It’s huge!” Kiara’s voice rang loud in his ears, but his heartbeat rang louder, pounding against his chest. The closer they got to it, the bigger it became- that by the time they got close enough to ‘land’, they could only see the entrance. Funny enough, they couldn’t see the bottom, as the entrance to the pyramid was just halfway down its peak.

The ratio of the submarine to the strangely jet-black coloured pyramid was like a measly ant to a large dollhouse.

“Woah... How big is this thing? Much less built underwater? How?? HOW???” Kiara asked incredulously, the pitch of her voice going higher. If not for the fact that they’d be killed by the water pressure even before drowning, Lucien was sure that almost all of them would have wanted to swim directly to the walls to take a look. Unfortunately, they could only come out to the tube-like bridge that connected the entrance of the submarine to the entrance of the pyramid. Bright lights lit up the corners, and the tube resembled any other building walkway, apart from the visible marine life if one looked up.

Asides from their submarine, there were two others connected to the tube of the tomb’s entrance- those looked particularly different from theirs, in that they were a lot more militaristic. As usual, those were only here for their security, unlike those who had discovered this place and had already gone somewhere else. It’s been three months since they sent the Information to the archaeological community. All they could do was continue their work in another location, while leaving this place to them.

Halfway through the tube-hall, they spotted a man in a military uniform. It would seem that the National military had gotten involved in this particular mystery, because of its strange nature. Lucien didn’t care about any of these ‘outside affairs’ however, all he wanted to do was go in and harvest secrets.

“Welcome, esteemed archaeologists. I am Lieutenant Castleford. I’m here today as the chief of the security squadrons. We were tasked with handling your safety, so some of my comrades and I will be your escorts.” With that, three other people strode down, two men and one woman, each with cold, serious expressions. After more formalities, they were finally allowed to head into the anticipated place.

“Calm down, you’re twitching.” Kiara said as she strode next to Lucien. Meanwhile, stars almost came out of her eyes as she looked at the entrance. “Are you talking to me or yourself? Because I’m certain you need that advice more than I do.” Lucien laughed. Although, despite saying that, he knew deep down in his heart that he really was probably the most excited about this than anyone else here. His hands refused to release its clench, his eyes darted from one end to the other and its focus could pierce a hole through that large stony door.

“I can’t wait to see what’s inside.” He said to her as they finally reached the entrance. The ‘door’ was over four meters tall and looked like an enormous slab wedged against the walls without handles.

At first glance, it was certainly different from the norm.

“We were planning to blow it open or find another way to enter forcefully, but refrained from doing so. We have left such a decision to the ‘experts’ such as yourselves.” The lieutenant said monotonously, as if waiting on them.

“You think there are any secret switches?” One of the surrounding archaeologists asked, purely out of curiosity. “Aii, you think this is some kinda movie? But who knows, it might. I honestly don’t want them to blow up the entrance yet, lest they destroy something meaningful alongside it.” Another responded before they seemed to go into thought.

Lucien, on the other hand, was too distracted by the outer walls to follow their conversation- all he did was walk over and touch the stone. The walls seemed to have words written on them, like runes, but with alphabets he’d never seen before.

They shared a resemblance to the dribbles of a toddler, yet each stroke still seemed meticulous and deliberately carved.

Lucien’s fingers trailed down the letters, brows furrowed and lips pursed slightly. Other people noticed his actions, and some began to follow in his footsteps, while others were still discussing how to get through. Honestly, none of them planned on fully diving into the exploration today, as they all needed to rest; but they still wanted to at least get a glimpse of what to expect.

“Oh look! I found something!” Someone called the others’ attention to a particular part of the wall. The voice wasn’t particularly masculine nor feminine, nor did it sound like someone he knew, but it was loud enough for everyone to hear. They all rushed over and saw the inconspicuous hole in a perfect circle- having a pale silver light shining from its depth. One of the men spoke.

“I was just feeling around when I accidentally touched this part. It felt more like sand instead of stone, so I couldn’t help but check it out more. But all the sand suddenly poured out! Then... Then I saw this.” He pointed to the hole.

“What do we do? Do we reach in?” Someone else asked. There were around sixteen or so archaeologists here, and they were all cramping close to the silver light. “Does anyone have a stick or something close to that?” This time, the person who spoke was Yize, who, like him, was closer to the hole and could see some sort of mechanism inside.

“Let me go ask,” someone answered, rushing off to the military personnel standing by. While they were gone, the rest began to discuss amongst themselves.

“Do you think it’s some kind of lock?” A lady asked curiously.

“If it is, doesn’t that mean we’d have to find a key?” Kiara followed up with another question.

“Let’s first see what we can do with the stick first. If it doesn’t work, or we can’t find anything stick-like, we’ll think of something else,” Yize responded, his voice without a ripple of excitement, something quite different from the rest of them.

Lucien, as usual, was less focused on what the others were saying, and more on what was in front of him. His green eyes peered through his glasses at the familiar strange letters that covered the inside of the hole. It was obviously sandy in there, but the words weren’t smudged at all; which was quite strange, considering the amount of sand that had just poured out of it.

It looked as though the words were written after the incident had occurred.