Chapter 64: A Tomb Raider’s Methods, Step 1 (2)
Translator: miraclerifle
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The artifacts screamed and screamed some more.
They probably never expected this. They considered humans to be a lesser race. How would they have ever expected to face such humiliation from a mere human?!
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Aigoo, aigoo.
Someone please teach this arrogant human a lesson. Please show him the greatness of artifacts.
The D-Grade artifacts prayed to the high-grade artifacts as they screamed in pain.
Honestly speaking, they could not understand this at all.
Why was this human b.a.s.t.a.r.d handling them so roughly? Human b.a.s.t.a.r.ds should treasure them a lot or run away in fear.
Why were they being handled like this instead of being respected?!
The artifacts were screaming.
But Ju-Heon continued to self-destruct them one after another regardless of their screaming until they made it inside the tomb. He finally stopped his mercilessness once the tunnel was connected to the tomb.
“We finally made it out.”
They were inside a tomb and not actually outside, but anyway, they could go into the tomb now.
The tomb was an underground type.
It was not a boulder cave but looked more like ant tunnels. Based on how sunlight was visible in certain spots, there had to be a spot connected above ground as well.
‘I don’t see those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds.’
The TSOF and the Turkish soldiers should be running around here as they pleased right now, but he did not see any of them.
That was why Ju-Heon motioned for the other two to get inside.
“Come in. There’s n.o.body here.”
A relieved Irene cautiously followed Ju-Heon. However, Yoo Jaeha was pouting as he entered.
“d.a.m.n it, how can you mercilessly make the artifacts self-destruct like that......”
It might have been too much for a restorer to handle. It felt as if Ju-Heon was melting gold and sending it down the sewers to Yoo Jaeha.
That was why he continued to grumble.
“Why didn"t you detonate the copies if you needed to detonate them. What a waste!”
Ju-Heon scoffed at that comment.
“Hey idiot. You can’t make the copies self-destruct. They need to have a conscience to self-destruct or do anything.”
"Tsk.”
Yoo Jaeha just stiffed and decided that he would just try hard to restore the sc.r.a.ps he had collected on their way. He was acting like a bag carrier who was restoring artifacts in real time because of this d.a.m.n man who carelessly used his artifacts.
It wouldn"t make much difference to add a few more to that list.
However, it was at that moment. Something long wrapped around Ju-Heon’s arm like a koala.
“!”
It was the rope artifact he had ordered to block the tunnel entrance. It seemed as if the rope had taken care of all soldiers who tried to follow them as he had ordered.
However...
[#$_$#[email protected]*@#!]
Master, I"m in pain. I"m in pain.
It had dutifully completed its mission, but its condition was not good.
The soldier b.a.s.t.a.r.ds must have had some artifact weapons as the rope was ripping in many locations. They must have used their artifact swords to saw away at the rope that was binding them.
The rope artifact whimpered as it stuck to Ju-Heon’s arm.
Ju-Heon got annoyed and said something.
“Don’t stick to me, ask that hottie oppa over there to heal you.”
The rope artifact started to place Yoo Jaeha in a BDSM rope harness as soon as Ju-Heon said that and started to shout.
[#$_#_#&*!]
Human! Hurry up and heal me! Heal me!
Of course, Yoo Jaeha who instantly felt as if he was being choked by a snake was dying.
“Kek, kek, kek! Let go of me! You little punk! Why do you act all cute around the Captain-nim but treat me like this?!”
The rope wondered if there was even a need to explain why.
“To repeat myself, don"t try to waste your time getting friendly with any artifact. No matter what happens, only focus on dominating the artifact.”
Irene nodded her head at Ju-Heon repeating his warning. Her gaze looked as if she was a student full of desire to learn. That was why Ju-Heon smiled with his eyes.
“Good, you"re a good student.”
Irene started to smile.
It was because she thought that Ju-Heon seemed like a rough person but he wasn"t as scary as she thought he was.
She thought his lessons would be scary when he said that he would teach her how to use artifacts, but he was surprisingly gentle and delicate.
Irene was about to say something in response when Ju-Heon stopped her.
“Mr. Ju-Heon?”
“Shh.”
Ju-Heon shoved his hand over Irene"s mouth as if he was telling her to shut up.
And lo and behold.
“They"re not here!”
"d.a.m.n it, we got a report that they found an underground tunnel!”
“They said it was headed toward the tomb! Search thoroughly!”
The information must have spread as the soldiers were thoroughly searching the inside of the tomb. They were certain that the tunnel was revealed because of the noise of the explosion.
The hiding Ju-Heon finally started to speak once they disappeared.
“Tsk, I should make them self-destruct a little quieter next time.”
Yoo Jaeha pounded his chest in frustration after hearing his Captain say that so calmly.
‘No, you shouldn"t make them self-destruct in the first place!’
However, it wasn’t an issue even if they were discovered. This wouldn"t be the first time something like that has happened.
Of course, they still had to be wary as this was a Divine-Grade tomb even if 50% of it was not working properly.
The system message warned him as well.
[The tomb"s chaotic aura has been detected.]
[It is faint but present all around.]
Ju-Heon scrunched his face after reading that.
‘I need to hurry up and find the River Pactolus in here.’
Irene’s eyes started to sparkle as they heard some soldiers getting close to interrupt them again.
“Should I make all of them suddenly have diarrhea?”
Ju-Heon quickly stopped her from using her dest.i.tution artifact as if it would be terrible.
“That would help but don"t do it. I don"t want to be the victim of a stink terror in this small area.”
“Ah......”
“Don’t worry about it, I just need both of you to look for something that looks like hieroglyphics on the wall.”
‘Hieroglyphics?’
Yoo Jaeha suddenly recalled something.
“You"re talking about the Toombglyphs, right? I think I saw it over there earlier...on the ceiling!”
The moment Yoo Jaeha tried to take a step!
‘That idiot!’
The sensitive Ju-Heon seemed to have felt something as he quickly kicked Yoo Jaeha.
Pow!
“Aaaaaah!”
Yoo Jaeha screamed and went flying as if he was an empty can on the street.
Boom!
Something shining that had detected Yoo Jaeha flashed before light shone down from the ceiling.
It seemed to be gold in color.
The golden light instantly turned everything it touched into gold, including living insects.
Yoo Jaeha who was on the floor dropped his jaws after seeing what happened.
“G, gold?”
Ju-Heon who was looking at the ceiling where the light was coming from started to chuckle.
‘I found it.’
The thing that had released the golden light was none other than the Toombglyphs on the ceiling.
‘This really must be Midas"s tomb.’
He wasn"t sure even after they came inside, but now he was sure. This should most certainly be Midas"s Hand of Gold tomb.
It was the same tomb that turned the hand of gold into the cursed hands.
Ju-Heon looked around before smiling after finding something on the ceiling.
It was the specific part of the Toombglyphs he had been looking for.
“You still did a good job, Number 1. I was able to find the location of the river thanks to you.”
“Ex, excuse me? The location of the river?”
Irene and Yoo Jaeha also looked up at the ceiling. It definitely looked like something was written there, but how do you have to read that thing to know it was talking about a river?
That wasn’t the only thing.
Ju-Heon chuckled as if he was able to figure out most of this tomb from the Toombglyphs.
But the soldiers must have heard Yoo Jaeha’s scream as they could hear them running over toward them.
"Are they over here?!”
“Intruders!”
The Turkish soldiers and the TSOF had appeared. They attacked Ju-Heon"s group with modern weapons without any fear.
Tang tang tang!
Their weapons were fine inside the tomb probably because the tomb could not function properly. That must be why their weapons and their communication devices were all working.
And lo and behold, they found Ju-Heon’s group and quickly reported through the walkie talkie.
“Intruders located. They are suspected to be civilians!”
“Located!”
“The General-nim said it was fine to kill any intruders! Fire!”
Yoo Jaeha urgently shouted as they pointed their guns.
“Captain-nim!”
Ju-Heon started to frown with annoyance.
"Ah, these annoying little bugs.”
‘I was trying to take care of things quietly for once.’
“Hey punks. Did you all get permission from the owner of this tomb to come inside?”
“What is that Asian guy saying?”
Ju-Heon grabbed Irene’s right hand instead of responding. Irene was shocked to feel Ju-Heon tightly grabbing her hand, but Ju-Heon just grabbed her hand and put it against the wall.
Ju-Heon"s eyes then glared viciously before he mumbled something in a language she could not understand.
[Gold brings forth destruction.]
“!”
He sounded as if he was playing some percussion instruments.
What Ju-Heon was speaking was none other than Toombglyph, the language of the artifacts. It was an odd language that only Ju-Heon should be able to read right now.
Something amazing then started to happen.
Boom!
Shining Toombglyphs started to float out from the wall with the location that Irene’s hand touched at the center.
Gold lights started to shoot out from the ground and ceiling, causing the soldiers to panic.
“What is this?! What is going on?!”
‘What else would it be?
The true owner of the tomb has arrived.’
“Please become rich, everyone.”
People started to scream as Ju-Heon smiled.
“G, general-nim! We received an emergency SOS from the tomb in Turkey!”
“What?!”
Keira’s eyes flashed after receiving the report in Macao. It was so scary that one of the soldiers next to her flinched.
The female soldier who brought the message over urgently shouted.
“We suddenly lost contact with some of them and the message received didn"t sound good either! T, the message said...”
“Speak.”
The female soldier gulped after hearing Keira’s cold voice before continuing to speak.
“S...suspicious people have infiltrated the tomb! Do you think a nation that is not part of Pandora is trying to steal the tomb?”
Keira started to frown.
‘The people we dispatched to Turkey......it must be that tomb in Cappadocia.’
She had dispatched people to investigate as it was a large tomb with the entrance open.
They had a large number of people search seven times but they had not found any artifacts, so she had withdrawn the troops little by little and only left a few to look for any secrets about the tomb.
‘But someone is trying to infiltrate that tomb?
Are they maybe the radical Islamic Sunni militants?’
The subordinate shared more information.
“The intruders are supposedly two men and one woman.”
“Two men?”
Keira started to frown again.
‘Perhaps.’
Now that she thought about it, there was that incident when she tried to ask the Macao government for help and sealed the airport. There was a private plane that had still left as if it was sneering at her.
She had heard that it was headed for Turkey after digging up some information.
A vicious smile appeared on Keira"s face after putting two and two together.
"Seo-Ju-Heon.”
“Excuse me?”
Keira then slammed her hand on the table.
"Seo Ju-Heon, I"m sure it’s that b.a.s.t.a.r.d.”
“Excuse me?!”
“Tell them to wait. Tell them I am headed over.”
“Excuse me? But it’ll take at least 10 hours to get to Turkey from here!”
Keira clicked her tongue.
‘They’re bound to be gone by the time I get there.’
“Umm, umm. Should we leave it to the soldiers there for now?”
Keira snorted and took the communication device from her subordinate.
“Hand it over. I will lead them myself!”
However, the people who should be receiving her command were dying inside the tomb.
“Ugh, that d.a.m.n yellow monkey! Ugh!”
Puuk!
They were ruthlessly being defeated by Ju-Heon. The US TSOF were attacking Ju-Heon with weapons but they were the ones spurting blood and falling down.
Ju-Heon was ruthlessly stabbing their necks with the Hwandudaedo.
The sword that was running wild inside the tomb was attacking the enemies’ vital points with each attack.
It would be one thing if they were outside the tomb, but Ju-Heon was not the type to be nice to people aiming for his life inside tombs.
Boom!
Yoo Jaeha who was peeking at this while hiding poked his head out after the last one fell to the ground.
“Umm, Captain-nim, is it okay now?”
“Yes, I pretty much took care of them. You can come out.”
Yoo Jaeha looked relieved as he came out with Irene. Yoo Jaeha had gulped after seeing Ju-Heon"s freakishly strong movements.
‘I better not act foolish in front of the Captain-nim anymore.’
He knew that Ju-Heon was skilled but had not expected him to be this skilled. Of course, he was using a possession-type artifact that helped him fight, but those could only be used if the person"s basic foundations could support it.
‘I wouldn"t be able to do that.’
They then arrived at a small pond, no, an underground lake that was slightly too large to be called a pond.
It was surrounded by boulders and looked like a waterfall that had been created underground.
This was the place to remove Irene"s curse.
This was the River Pactolus.
Ju-Heon put his hand in the lake to confirm there were no issues before starting to speak.
“It should be fine since there are no traps.”
“Then, what do you need me to do?”
“First.”
Ju-Heon recalled the myth before looking at Irene and continuing to speak.
“I need you to strip naked.”