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"I\'ve probably heard the same things as you, that he\'s a big shot archaeologist called in here by Walter Works himself to decipher the carvings." She replied as she tinkered with the equipment on her heavy looking backpack. It was a machine similar to Phlox\'s recycler, but instead of recycling it had different purposes ranging from communication to navigation and utilities.

"I could care less if its a big shot or not, all I want is to get done with everything here and go back to my wife." He sighed as he took a sip out of a suspicious canteen that contained some sort of liquid, but certainly not water.

"Don\'t say things like that! Can\'t you see it\'s a red flag?"

"Yeah, right... I can\'t believe an engineer like you would believe in such things."

They were both trained combatants who belonged to the Mapple corp, they were tasked with the protection of the VIP who was supposed to arrive on site weeks ago so they had been idle most of their stay at Chichén Itzá and were very resentful towards Uriel before even meeting him. They thought Uriel believed himself to be some type of \'rockstar\' and didn\'t even consider the possibility that the reason he didn\'t come before was because they hadn\'t found him yet, all they knew was that since their asset was not on site they were the laughing stock and were treated like errand boys.

"I\'m a medic you know, a pretty respectable one at that, why do I need to be on watch duty?" The man sighed and then took another gulp from his suspicious canteen. It wasn\'t long until they noticed a group of people on their way to the archaeological site, judging by their attire and equipment they had to be from the Mapple corp too so they quickly stood up to keep appearances, yet everyone in the group ignored them except for a single young man who seemed to be of college age who waved at them with a smile. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Upon reaching the settlement located at the borders of Chichén Itza, Uriel noticed how neat and orderly the archaeological site was. It was a complex site with different structures and ruins, all of which had been properly marked and protected so people couldn\'t get close without authorization.

"I see they\'ve been taking good care of the ruins." He gasped at the sight of all the yellow tapes covering even the smallest structure, the high end equipment and the way people seemed to walk by with respect towards the ancient ruins.

"I\'m glad you see it that way, I made sure to keep those annoying warmongers far from the valuable remains." A man on his thirties walked in from behind, he was wearing khakis and an explorer\'s hat making him look like a stereotypical archaeologist.

"He\'s professor Schlieman, an archaeologist just like you Mister Sage." Nika introduced the pompous man.

"Mister Sage? Not doctor or professor? So it\'s true what they said, that you\'re only a college student after all." Professor Schlieman said out loud, deeply embarrassing the young student in front of those present. "Oh! I didn\'t mean it like that, I\'m actually impressed that someone so young managed to identify an unknown language."

Of course that was a lie, the minute he heard a college student was getting invited by Walter Works himself he already planned to humiliate him at every possible chance.

"Thanks, I guess..." Uriel replied scratching the back of his head.

"So, do you think you can provide us with a codex so we can start translating the carvings?" Professor Schlieman blatantly asked.

Thanks to the presence of the glyphs inside his museum Uriel thought he would be able to do that and even more. Not only he figured out the alphabet, but he somehow was able to understand the meaning behind the words. Still, that didn\'t mean he was willing to share any of that information because he knew the minute he provided a codex, his presence would be made redundant.

"I\'m sorry professor, but I was under the impression that I was brought in here to translate, not to share my research." Although Uriel had a lot of blank spaces in his common sense and knowledge of modern society, he wasn\'t as naive as to share his research without putting up a fight.

Noticing professor Schlieman\'s intention, Nika glared at the man in silence until he couldn\'t take the pressure anymore and apologized for his \'mistake\'. After that short interaction, Schlieman muttered an excuse and went out to do his business leaving them free to settle in the camp.

It was getting late already and despite the excitement of being inside one of the most important archaeological sites in the world, Uriel decided to call it a day. There was no point in rushing to the investigation and he wanted to do it with daylight to fully appreciate the sight.

After spending a couple days in the luxurious zeppelin, sleeping in a regular tent was disappointing for Uriel who expected a lot more from the Mapple corp. Still, he wasn\'t going to complain about something like that because every single Mapple corp employee had similar if not worse accommodations. What bothered him, though, was the presence of Nika on his tent.

Dutiful as ever, Nika wouldn\'t part from Uriel and slept on his same tent. Uriel didn\'t appreciate it in the slightest, it was one thing to know she was able to pop in his room at any time she wished but what truly bothered Uriel was that ever since Nika was assigned as his bodyguard he lacked all sense of privacy. Even when she wasn\'t around, he still felt someone was staring at him because of the unsettling nature of her trait. To add insult to injury sleeping by the side of a beauty like her made him really anxious and he had trouble sleeping. However, the next day he realized it wasn\'t as bad as he had expected.

\'At least now she didn\'t hide in the shadows under my bed.\' He yawned as he got up in the morning. Nika didn\'t snore or did anything to upset him.

By the time Uriel came back from washing himself, Nika was already awake and waiting for orders, her sleeping bag already rolled and placed in a corner. Instead of bossing her around or asking her to roll his sleeping bag, Uriel knelt down and did it himself. He wasn\'t that used to camping and he wanted to enjoy every part of the experience, but Nika took it as him being responsible.

"so, when will you be visiting the ruins?" She asked in a hurry to go back to civilization as soon as possible.