Volume 3 Episode 2: Light

The expedition resumed shortly afterwards, and everyone packed up their things to venture deep into the tombs. The SET members walked in front, leading the group, while the students stayed behind the archeology team. The tombs were deep underground and there were times when passages were narrow in size due to ceilings and walls collapsing, but the archeologists were already ready for such incidents as they had an earth magic user alongside them who helped move the infrastructure to the shape they desired.

There weren't any sort of pathways for sunlight, but the whole tomb seemed to be lit with some sort of magical blue flames that illuminated its surroundings. It was one of things that the archeologists were deeply curious about. The magical blue flames weren't something that could be seen in the outside world, but as soon as they went near it, the flame exploded, leaving no traces of it ever being there. It was truly mystifying.

They walked even further and reached what seemed like a large palace like infrastructure. A palace deep underground. Nobody had expected it, but they couldn't deny what was right in front of their eyes. Mr. Gregory stepped forward, and everyone moved their gazes on to him. Whenever Mr. Gregory stepped forward, he usually had something to say. The students had learnt that in the past two months, so they too instinctively turned their heads in his direction as well. But unlike the times before, Mr. Gregory just stood there, staring at the palace without speaking a word.

Seconds passed by, and a member moved closer to Mr. Gregory to remind him that he was spacing out, and he seemed to snap back to reality, awkwardly bowing towards the group as a form of apology.

'What is his deal?' 

Lin had been extremely curious about the identity of Mr. Gregory. He didn't believe that Mr. Gregory was just some archeologist that was part of a partially famous expedition team funded and supported by the government. From the looks of it, it seemed that he had some personal stakes on this particular expedition.

'I better be extra cautious.'

Lin knew that he had to be careful after being betrayed by Richard, someone he knew from childhood, so he made sure to keep an eye on the group, in case they meant harm. Mr. Gregory already got back to his usual attitude, and opened his mouth to speak.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I believe we have finally reached the main resting place of the Emperor of the Malkian tribe. I can feel like we're getting closer and closer to the truth, and this might be the final destination."

The group members were ecstatic, while the students had faces of indifference. Mr. Gregory grinned at the excited faces of his fellow archeologists and continued.

"Now, let us enter the palace. Please don't forget to be extra careful while touching artifacts and whatnots as they might be extremely valuable. Do remember, that even though you might be excited, do not lose control, because having no control leads to mistakes."

The members of SET nodded and Mr. Gregory looked over to the students, who also nodded as a sign of confirmation. He smiled, and gestured to follow him, as he moved forward up the stairs to the palace. The rest of the team and the student followed close behind him as they marvelled over the sight of the Malkian palace, something they had never seen before.

The palace had a large door in front of it, which was opened forcefully by the magic users in the group, as cold and dusty air rushed outside. The whole interior of the palace had an eerie feeling to it, like something was off. Some students were fearful of entering, while others seemed to be excited.

They moved inside the palace, and Mr. Gregory organised into separate groups to search the place quickly and more efficiently.

Lin had already sneaked away from the group by then to investigate the tomb by himself. Just before entering the palace, he realized that his information hint that was dormant the whole time once again started buzzing heavily, which meant that whatever he was looking for was probably close by.

He walked around the huge palace, looking for anything unusual. Oddly enough, the place didn't look anything like a tomb. It felt more like a medieval royal palace than a tomb. 

Was this really a tomb?

Questions arose in his mind, but he chose to ignore them for the time being and focus on finding what the information hint was leading him towards.

He then reached what looked like the personal study room of someone important, and suddenly his information hint once again went berserk. Before Lin had any idea of what was happening, his palm started glowing with a bright orange light. He stared at his hands, astonished at what it was doing. 

"What's this?" 

A surprised Lin found out that his illuminated was somehow showing an interior view of the walls, sort of like an X-ray gadget. He looked around and found that there was a hidden room hidden behind one of the walls. 

'Is there some kind of a way to open it?'

Lin looked at the surroundings, searching for what could be the key to open the room, but unfortunately he couldn't find any.

'Dammit, what do I need in order to open the hidden door?'

He had thought about just blasting through the wall, but something told him that it wouldn't be a good idea. If stuff like floating blue magical flames can exist millions of years ago, there was no saying what kind of security measures existed to combat that sort of forced entry. There might be no security at all, but he definitely didn't wish to take that chance.

'Surely there has to be something that I can use, right?'

Lin wasn't going to give up after reaching so close to his goals. He wasn't someone who would walk away easily. Suddenly, something clicked for him and he looked at his hand which was still glowing orange, and then back at the wall.

'It can't be that easy, right?'

Lin walked towards the wall with his palms facing forward. He then pressed them close to the wall, and the glowing light flew out of his hand into the wall, making some weird sounds, and opened to show a pathway in front of him.

Lin looked inside the short and slim pathway to find out where it was leading, but it was too dark to see anything.

'Entering a dark and small pathway in an ancient and mysterious tomb definitely seems like a huge death flag.'

Lin laughed bitterly thinking about whatever was waiting for him on the other side of the pathway, and whether it was good or bad. Regardless of what he felt, it was where the information hint was leading him, so he entered anyways.

Luckily for him, the pathway was in fact extremely short, opening towards a large chamber filled with statues of what appeared to be deities of ancient times. The whole chamber was illuminated by the blue flames as soon as Lin stepped in it, which helped him to view things a bit more clearly.

Lin gazed at the large statues made of stone. They seemed so lifelike that one would almost think they were real people upon first glance. 

'Weird.'

Lin walked towards the statue in the centre. It was a statue of a young man with six arms. For some reason, he felt as though the statue was calling for him. His information hint also started buzzing rapidly as he got closer to the statue.

Lin stood in front of the statue, staring at it for quite a while. He seemed to be in some sort of trance, unable to hear or see anything. His hands moved slowly and touched the face of the statue, softly caressing its cheeks.

[Connection established with the 'Gatekeeper'. Loading hidden files for the host.]

The voice of the system snapped Lin back to reality, but he had no time to figure out what had happened to him as a bright light entered his eyes, blinding him. All he heard was someone whispering close into his ear.

"You must seek out the answers by yourself. If you are indeed 'The One', you would either be the key to resolve everything or destroy it all. But I have no choice but to trust you. I hope you shall not fail me."

Lin did not know who was whispering in his ears, but he couldn't see anything due to the bright light. Suddenly, his whole body started feeling light. He felt as if his energy had all been drained, and he closed his eyes as he lost his consciousness.

The bright light still didn't disappear, but instead spread all over the chamber. The whole room was enveloped in bright white light, making it unable to see anything.