A large stone in the form of a door was present before them, with vines and mosses covering it. However, the door was well-shaped with rectangular edges and strange patterns all over it.
The leader of the mercenaries, Brock, ordered one of his subordinates, "Hey, you go and try opening this door."
The subordinate looked at him with a hesitating expression but didn't dare to refuse his order and slowly walked forward as he reached his hand out.
Finally, he pushed his hand against the door and…
*CREAKKK~*
To everyone's surprise, the stone door slid open as dust blew off from its sides, making the subordinate stumble back.
"That's it?" Brad couldn't help but mumble, seeing how such a sturdy door had only a simple mechanism for one to open it.
Beyond the granite-like door laid a worn-out hall with mysterious carvings on its walls. The whole hall was covered in moss and broken stones.
However, the caryatids that looked like wolves and supported twelve marble pillars on either side astonished everyone since this was definite proof that this was man-made!
"Holy shit...I can't believe it...how is this possible…" Dina murmured as she looked around in awe and shock.
"I knew it! I knew it! This is our biggest hit ever. To think that we uncovered something so ancient and impossible. Can you guys imagine the treasures we could find here? Even the dust in this hall could make us multi-millionaires!" Rick said as greed shone in his eyes.
Brad rolled his eyes and said with heated passion, "Rick, are you dumb? Can't you see the big picture here? We just discovered something that humanity never did. This could be a turning point in our history and discover our hidden past. According to history, the earliest civilization came into the picture barely a few thousand years ago.
"As for before that, we were no better than cavemen. But this...look around you...does this seem like something built by cavemen? Even the architecture of this hall and how it lasted all these millions of years is proof enough that whoever built this was more advanced than us in terms of knowledge at least."
"That's true. Rick, when will you stop thinking that money is everything?" Dina said with a scoff. She shared her husband's sentiments, and inwardly she couldn't contain the excitement of the most exciting find of her life.
This was the reason she and Brad set out on these adventures. The idea of plundering riches was only secondary to them. Instead, they cared more about the thrill and excitement that came along with these adventures, especially the interesting things they could learn of ancient times.
However, Coby, with a mentality similar to Rick, said, "Oh, please, you two. We should leave the boring part like history and stuff to those scientist nerds. Who cares about who lived here and when, if treasures in these ruins can make the rest of our lives easier?
Their torches and flashlights allowed them to see a broken statue part of a fountain, tattered and devoured by time itself.
The walls had a strange mirror-like property that reflected the lights of the torches perfectly, just enough to lit up the whole hall.
Further ahead was a long passage with many trails leading towards some sealed rooms. But what caught everyone's attention was a vertically positioned silver coffin at the far end of the path.
The coffin had various white runic-like markings on it, making it look mystical and beautiful, somehow untouched by time and the elements. And another astonishing thing was the four two-meter tall black wolf statues that stood 'guard' around the coffin.
The statues looked very lifelike and ferocious, as if they were really wolves who got turned into stone. However, the group of twelve felt that it was just their imagination. After pushing away their fear, they instead felt more fascinated seeing them, especially the couple Brad and Dina.
They felt that whoever sculpted these statues must have possessed heavenly skill and talents, and not even the greatest sculptors in the history they knew could match such artistry.
However, the other ten were thinking how much wealth they could make out of these exceptional-looking statues, especially the beautiful coffin, which they felt was priceless.
But as they walked closer, all of them were shocked to see something inside the coffin vaguely.
They saw that the insides of the coffin were covered in an icy layer, and beneath that thin layer, they felt as if they saw a human!
"Holy shit! I-Is there someone inside that coffin??" Rick shouted in surprise, sounding a bit apprehensive as he stepped backward.
The rest were gawking at the silver coffin, ignoring Rick's question since they were equally shocked to see a human lying inside upon closer look.
Some even rubbed their eyes and knocked their heads, wondering if they just imagined it. After all, the human lying inside seemed to be in perfect condition without any traces of aging or decay.
They couldn't see the person's face or his figure completely due to the icy layer, but they were sure it wasn't skeleton and bones underneath since they could see the person's obscured pale skin and figure.
"Is this some kind of tomb of a king belonging to an ancient civilization?" Dina mumbled in a fascinated tone.
"Tomb? Are you serious? Even if it was such, how could a corpse not decay? Even ice can't slow the decay process for millions of years. I thought mummification was the best preservation technique of the past but to think that…" Brad trailed off as just like his wife, he was also extremely curious to find out how a corpse was preserved for so many countless years, which would be impossible otherwise.
The coffin was just twenty meters away from him, and they were unconsciously slowly moving forward to take a closer look at it.
*Crack*
However, the moment they came within fifteen meters of the coffin, they felt the ground slightly shaking and the sounds of something cracking from the four wolf statues.
Everyone's eyes became wide as saucers when they noticed that cracks were appearing on the four wolf statues, and their stone-cold eyes were moving!