Translator: miraclerifle
Bang!
A loud explosion could be heard through the darkness as the chaos died down. That was the sound of people trying to destroy the tomb.
“Oh! We made a hole!”
“Won't we be able to enter if we blow it up a few more times?”
The civilians had evacuated long ago and the soldiers were focused solely on destroying the tomb.
“Things look fine, we will try it a few more times.”
They were using weaker explosives because they were in the middle of the city but it seemed to be working.
“We will carefully enter once we make a large hole.”
[Roger.]
They believed that they would soon be able to enter. However, there were some anxious people among them.
“Damn it!”
They were Abe, the excavator from the JSDF and the CIA's Linda Walker. Abe was especially annoyed.
‘Why is the entrance not appearing even as they blow it up?!’
That was the case. You must use the < Entrance > to enter into the tombs and Abe and Linda were looking for that entrance.
‘It’s already been 30 minutes.’
The seer with Prince Shotoku’s artifact had said that the entrance would appear if they destroyed the tomb. In that case, the tomb entrance should have appeared by now.
‘It should be about now according to the researcher's findings...’
Linda was also looking around nervously.
She was looking for the entrance because the tomb entrances always appeared nearby whenever they found a tomb in the past.
‘What is going on?’
However, there was someone sneering at them.
‘You idiots. Try blowing it up for 100 days, see if you can get inside.’
That person was Ju-Heon.
Ju-Heon knew why they were trying to destroy the tomb. It was basic belief to think that the entrance would appear if they started to destroy it.
However, they were completely wrong. Tomb entrances did not reveal themselves because people did their best to destroy it.
Why?
‘Tomb entrances are always hidden.’
There were times the entrances appeared in visible places, but they were generally traps created by hostile artifacts.
There were even artifacts that would open the entrance on purpose to swallow everyone who enters into the tomb. There were many foreign soldiers who had died because of such situations already.
However, you needed to find the entrance and enter through it in order to acquire the artifact in the safest manner.
But there was a problem with this.
‘You definitely need that thing to find the entrance.’
It was at that moment.
“Ju-Heon, what have you been looking for this whole time?”
The pitiful young man who had almost been beaten up by a soldier, no, Ju-Heon’s roommate, found Ju-Heon's actions to be odd. However, Ju-Heon did not respond.
There was nobody in this era who would know what he was looking for even if he told them.
It was at that moment.
“The world really must have gone crazy. Now weird things like that is popping up too.”
Ju-Heon who detected something after hearing the people mumble quickly started to move.
‘Did that come out?’
The place he was heading for was the complex’s outdoor parking lot that was filled with both crying people and spectators.
“Just what is that? How unlucky.”
“Aigoo, the prices of our homes are going to go down.”
Once Ju-Heon made it through the crowd, he could see an ominous graffiti. The parking lot's wall was filled with red demonic looking text.
It looked like ancient Chinese characters or even Egyptian hieroglyphics, but it could seem like graffiti to regular people.
“You sure someone didn’t just do it as a prank?”
“No! It just suddenly appeared! It's that thing that's been in the news these days.”
“Nevermind that! What are the soldiers doing not wiping away things like this?! The housing prices will fall if there are things like this around the apartment complex!”
“Hey old lady, did you go crazy?! What nonsense are you spewing in such a situation?!”
“Please step away! It is dangerous! Please step away!”
The soldiers were there in case people started to riot. People started to get scared as the text started to blink like a ticking time bomb.
“Kyaaaa! What the hell? The text!”
Once the text flashed, the soldiers started to push the civilians away as they started to shout.
“Damn it, I told you to step back! It might really explode!”
“Aaah! It’s going to explode!”
The scared people pushed each other as they started to run. Ju-Heon was the only one smiling in this situation.
‘It’s not going to blow up, you idiots.’
The name of this text was Toombglyph. [1]
They could be considered tomb text of unknown origin that appeared with tombs. This had been what Ju-Heon had been looking for this whole time.
This was required to find the tomb’s entrance.
‘They are slowly appearing around the tombs as expected.’
These were things that told you information about the ruins. You would use this to find the entrance to the ruins.
Of course, it was not something anybody could do. Ju-Heon was probably the only one in the past and especially now who could decipher Toombglyph.
‘I have a pretty good idea where the entrance is located.’
It was the moment Ju-Heon read the text.
[You received the < Talented Decoder > title and a skill has been revealed.]
[Tomb Raider basic skill Linguistics(F-Rank) has been awakened.]
[Linguistics (Awakened)]
Level F-Rank
Increases ability to learn, speak and understand all languages.
Increases fluency in all languages.
Can hear the voices of artifacts and discussion becomes possible.
Control over Toombglyph (ruin text) increases.
Tomb Raider Basic Skills (2/4)-
Spy(F-Rank)
Linguistics(F-Rank)
‘Oh?’
A new message appeared and a skill was revealed. Ju-Heon was shocked after confirming the details.
He had never received a title and learned a skill as a result.
‘So, this is how I earn skills?’
If the Spy skill was an active skill, Linguistics should be a passive skill.
Ju-Heon smiled after confirming the details and moved away from the crowd. He had no reason to stay there now that he confirmed the details.
“Dong Hyun. You stay here.”
“What?”
His roommate turned his head toward him in shock but Ju-Heon was already gone.
The place Ju-Heon moved to after leaving the area was a nearby river without many people.
There was a tall bridge that could cover the sky located in Dorimcheon that cut through Seoul’s Gwanak-gu. He could hear noises of cars every so often but it was mainly quiet around here. This was less than five minutes away than where he had been.
‘Is it around here?’
The Toombglyph that Ju-Heon read in the parking lot had been pointing to this river. There were many Toombglyphs in the area, as if to confirm that this was an area of a Tomb Appearance.
However, Ju-Heon was looking for some specific words.
‘I found it.’
He found a red (U) that resembled a union symbol. Ju-Heon took out the Egyptian knife artifact after confirming it.
This was necessary for what he was about to do. He was about to start the < Unsealing > of the tomb.
This process was necessary to open up a tomb that had been tightly sealed.
That was why Ju-Heon activated the knife artifact.
And then!
Slash!
He slashed the knife toward the union symbol. A gust of wind appeared and the symbol was broken.
It was at that moment.
Boom!
There was an explosion and the ground started to shake. Ju-Heon's body started to shake from the shock that felt like magma was exploding from the ground.
“Ahhhhhhhh!”
He could hear screams from nearby at this sudden earthquake. It was at that moment.
An urgent message appeared in front of Ju-Heon who quickly found his balance.
[A strong force is exploding through the ground.]
However, the warning lasted only a short moment.
‘It’s coming.’
A bright light flashed as the ground cracked open.
Bang!
Of course, there was nothing to be shocked about. He had experienced this many times in the past.
The opening of the tomb.
During the Era of Artifacts, it didn't matter if it was day or night. This phenomenon happened all the time once people learned how to unseal a tomb.
The red light shooting up to the sky announced the opening of the tomb. It was as if it was announcing that the tomb entrance was located here.
Ju-Heon didn’t care as he jumped into the light.
It would be too late by the time someone else saw this and came over.
Bang!
People screamed at the sudden explosion. They were all looking at the same spot.
The red light shooting up from the river about 100 meters away seemed to reach the stratosphere.
“Now what?”
“What is that light?”
The civilians grumbled wondering if someone was doing some type of laser show, but there were two people who recognized that light.
They were naturally Abe and Linda.
‘Is that perhaps?’
‘The entrance?’
They were certain. Although they weren't certain about this phenomenon, they were certain that it was related to the tomb. There was a high chance that the entrance was opened.
Lo and behold, Linda and Abe started to receive messages from their subordinates.
[It looks like the entrance has been opened.]
[Shall we go take a look?]
Both Linda and Abe started to run as soon as they saw the messages. Of course, they didn’t forget to give orders to their subordinates.
“Tell the baka-chon to hold their position because there might be a strong aftershock!” [2]
His true nature seemed to have come out because he was in a hurry. Linda sighed after hearing Abe shout into his cellphone.
‘What? Dangers of an aftershock?’
“You’re doing a great job imitating a geologist!”
‘You should control your lies!’
However, Linda did not say anything about it. It was also disadvantageous for the US to have the Korean troops follow them now that the tomb entrance had appeared.
‘The artifact will be ours.’
It happened as they both arrived at the location of the light with greedy hearts.
There was a large sink hole there, with an immense light energy shooting up into the sky.
“This sinkhole, that must be it! That’s the entrance!”
Although they had not seen it many times, it matched what they had seen in documents.
Linda threw a rock into the dark hole.
Tap, tap.
Splash!
The rock eventually fell into water.
‘Is the bottom water?’
Linda confirmed that and threw a rope down. However, Abe just jumped in without any fear.
“Hey!”
Linda shouted in shock but she heard a loud splash along with a ‘くそ(shit)’.
“Cough, cough! Damn it! Cough! This water’s rotten! Is this some shit water or something?”
The condition inside the tomb did not seem to be great. It was fine that Abe jumped in knowing there was water at the bottom, but he was actually making a terrible mistake.
Rotten water was one thing, but Abe’s annoyed voice echoed through the underground tunnel.
Maybe that was the reason.
Ju-Heon who was already deep inside the cave could hear Abe’s voice.
“The morons must have arrived.”
He knew they would come at some point.
Of course, Ju-Heon had no plans on doing a stupid race with them to get to the artifact first.
That was why Ju-Heon laughed as he touched the wall. Something happened after he made that suspicious motion on the wall.
1. The author put it in English so I will keep it as is even though tomb looks like it is spelled wrong...
2. Baka-chon is a historically racist term used by the Japanese which is a compound comprising baka ("stupid") and chon (an abbreviation of Chōsen, a term for Korea), a once widespread term for simple things, so easy, even ‘stupid Koreans’ could do them.
