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"Atlantis, we know because that\'s where we found the first piece." Nika cut him short.

"But that means..."

"That Atlantis was found, I thought you knew about the Mapple project." Nika interrupted him again but Uriel wasn\'t even mad. Instead, he was speechless and his mind struggled to keep up with the speed of his thoughts.

If Atlantis had been found already but its discovery wasn\'t made public, it could only mean that either it wasn\'t profitable to do so or they screwed up. He had heard Nika mention before that they attempted to break into an underground structure before by nuking it and he remembered her say it was classified information.

"Then it means, the one behind the \'the arrival\' of cryptids must be the Mapple corp." Uriel covered his mouth after he finished speaking. It didn\'t take much time for Uriel to finally connect the dots, it wasn\'t like they simply didn\'t mention the existence of Atlantis, it was only obvious they also covered it up \'silencing\' people who found out about it.

"Well... yes, but also not." Nika replied.

"What do you even mean by that? It can\'t be both."

"It\'s kind of difficult to explain, I don\'t understand much of it myself but now that you know the truth..." She lingered for a few seconds, but that gave Uriel enough time to pull out his gun and take a few steps backwards trying a place where Nika couldn\'t use her trait properly.

"Stand back! all of you!" Uriel shouted in fright, but everyone calmly complied. The only one who seemed to be scared was the engineer who didn\'t expect Uriel to turn against them.

"What are you doing Mister Sage? This isn\'t the time for jokes!" Nika said in the most sweet and charming voice she could muster.

"I\'m not letting you guys silence me, I won\'t stand obediently while you stab me in the back." Although no one had made a move against him yet, he was under the pressure of being surrounded by enemies, each and every single one of them stronger and faster than him.

"Silence you? Why would we do something like that? we\'re on the same side! Besides, even if I wanted to betray you, it\'s just not possible for me. It was you who signed my contract, not the Mapple corp. Right now I\'m not here as a Mapple corp. employee but as your bodyguard and personal assistant, if anyone attempted to hurt you I would kill them even if they\'re from the Mapple corp." Nika\'s words seemed to reach Uriel and he settled down a bit, this time the one who flinched this time was Flanagan who feared the might of his boss.

"So, you\'re telling me that you weren\'t about to say you\'ll kill me now I found out the truth?" Uriel asked, still hesitant to let go of his magnum.

"Of course not you silly!" Nika giggled and then continued. " I was going to say that now I can fully explain you what it is that happened. If Walter asks I can honestly tell him that you figured out most of it on your own. After the activation of the Mapple corp. mapping project they found all sorts of archaeological remains, but you know that already, what you don\'t know is that it also helped them find nodes of a supposedly mythical metal with incredible properties, orichalcum. This isn\'t even a secret though, most big corporations had known about some rare metals for a long while but, obviously, they kept it hidden from the public in the name of profit. The nuke incident has nothing to do with \'the arrival\', scientists believe it was because of the increasingly high presence of orichalcum in human society."

"Yeah, you say that like it explains everything but I\'m not following." Uriel shrugged in reply.

"Let me explain, orichalcum was the first metal ever discovered to be able to channel flux energy. You may not know this but Flux energy has always been present, it had been theorized by scientists for a long time. Whenever any movement or chemical reaction occurs there\'s a percentage of energy that goes to \'waste\', for instance, if you bend a metal bar it will also get heated. Energy can transform but it never disappears, this is one of the laws of physics but, every measurement always indicated there was a small percentage of \'waste\' energy that couldn\'t be accounted for. This is what we now call Flux energy and, as far as I know, we can\'t use it directly and, instead, it allows us to manipulate other types of energy. That\'s how our batteries work, they store and channel electricity thanks to a small amount of flux energy, every engineer knows about this. Anyway, thanks to Mapple corp it was made available at a greater scale than ever before and, apparently, that\'s what lured cryptids out from wherever the hell is it they came from." The female engineer stood forward and explained in full, but Uriel was discombobulated by the complicated subject. It was one thing to learn and understand the ways of ancient civilizations, but even an item as common as a battery was a complete mystery to him.

As much as Nika enjoyed the flabbergasted look on Uriel\'s face, especially since it was usually her the one with that face whenever he spoke about archaeology, she knew there wasn\'t any time to waste and clapped her hands.

"Alright everyone! We need to head back to the settlement, if I miss my lunch because of your lazyness I\'ll do some ass kicking!"

"What are you waiting for, you already heard the boss, pack it all up and bring it to camp!" Flanagan commanded, but before they could even lift a finger they were stopped by Nika.

"As per contract, my client is allowed to take first pick on any item he desires, we\'ll go back as soon as he inspects the treasure. Mister Sage, feel free to claim any artifact you desire."

Uriel became ecstatic and really excited about the treasure thinking that maybe he would be able to store some artifact inside his trait, only to be left disappointed after testing each one. He was also grateful towards Nika who reminded everyone about the clause that allowed him to claim any artifact and then have its price deducted from his payment and he thought that maybe, just maybe, she really had his interests on top of the Mapple corp.

Every time Uriel hovered his hand over the jeweled bracelet Flanagan seemed to get anxious and started sweating cold, showing that he feared the young student might choose the most expensive artifact for himself. But that wasn\'t the case, instead of the flashy jeweled bracelet he chose to keep the dagger.

"All the incredible treasures in front of you and you pick a knife! and a small one at that!" Nika facepalmed, more than stunned by his poor choice. "You could have picked the bracelet, or at least the big vase. Anything made of orichalcum is bound to be incredibly expensive!"

"Artifacts aren\'t valuable for the material they\'re made of, but for their cultural value. This is a sacrificial dagger, its name has been lost to time, and although the Aztecs named them Tecpatl I\'d love to be the first one to find out its true Mayan name." As Uriel picked the dagger up, he noticed it was hot to the touch and it gave off a strange feeling. It was nothing like the sensation he had whenever he picked an item he could store in his museum, it was a nostalgic feeling that gripped his heart and clenched his throat for a glimpse of a second. n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

As soon as the Mapple corp. employees finished packing up the treasure, they left the place with the satisfying sensation of a job well done. Even though they weren\'t able to enter the underground structure as Nika expected, at least they found what seemed to be the entrance, and that alone was a huge breakthrough, nothing short of the discovery of the decade. Now they only needed to figure out what steps did they need to follow in order for the entrance to be revealed.

All in all, they were in a cheerful mood and took their time enjoying the walk back to camp across the Amazon rainforest.