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Chapter 1192: Sand
🕑 Added 2024-08-06 14:55:27 +0000 UTCUsing the Portkeys distributed by the Egyptian Ministry of Magic, the group arrived at the city of Pi-Ramses where the Ruins of Amun Ra were located.
This was a lost city of wonders, a place that ancient Egyptologists and adventurers dreamed of.
Amidst the vast, undulating yellow sand, Evan saw a massive city ruin unfold before him.
They were standing on a section of a wall-like structure, and several wizards were retching from the discomfort of Portkey travel.
At their feet, countless broken walls and ancient ruins stood in the desert.
Magnificent and mysterious huge stone pillars and granite sculptures could be seen everywhere. Time had left obvious traces on them, as if they were telling the world about the past glory in silent language. In the blink of an eye, a gust of wind and sand blew by, covering everything in front of them again, making it seem like a dream...
"Pi-Ramses," said Rawya, walking to Evan's side. She was also looking at the city ruins in front of her. "It means Palace of Ramses. Magnificent, isn't it? This city was the capital of ancient Egypt during the reign of Ramses II. It has countless palaces, temples, and treasures left by ancient wizards. However, less than one-tenth of the area has been discovered so far, and most of the buildings and treasures are still buried under thick sand."
"Then why not excavate them all?" asked Evan.
He felt that there was a strange magical reaction here, which was interfering with the operation of his magic.
Evan had encountered this situation before, which meant that there was a powerful magic or magical item at work in this area, affecting the magic power.
"Because this damned sand itself is a kind of curse," Hearing Evan's question, the goblin Pendulum said in a sharp voice. "It is said that after the death of Ramses II, the yellow sand covered the city. This is a magic. Until the pharaoh returns from his slumber, his capital city will not see the light of day again. Alright, Rawya, hurry up and pack your things. Saeed has started complaining again. We still have a long way to go. Apparition doesn't work well here."
Rawya went over to help, and Evan followed the others down the broken city wall.
As Pendulum said, the sand here was very peculiar, giving an extraordinarily unreal feeling when stepped on.
He had only taken a few steps when his body began to sink.
The descent was swift, as if into a bottomless swamp or the mouth of a terrible monster.
Evan hurriedly pulled out his wand, but before he could use any magic, he was pulled out of the sand.
"Be careful, little one!" A burly dark-skinned wizard shook Evan's body easily, as if Evan had no weight.
His name was Benny. He was in charge of the excavation team's logistics and was currently carrying supplies down there.
This guy was almost as tall as Hagrid, and Evan was sure that he definitely had giant blood.
"Thank you!" said Evan breathlessly, motioning the other party to put him down. This guy was shaking him so much that he felt dizzy.
"Never mind; everyone makes that mistake the first time they come here. But you have to be careful not to make the same mistake again. Many people die in the sand every year," said Benny, pointing to the rocks on the ground. "This is not a place where you can go wherever you want. You can only go on these reinforced roads."
The ground was paved with large stone slabs, extending far into the distance.
"Oh, sorry, Evan, I forgot to tell you!" Noticing the situation below, Rawya ran down from the city wall. She was now carrying a large backpack. "These sands are magical. People who step on them will keep sinking. This is why the excavation work in Pi-Ramses is progressing slowly. From the surface, it's hard to know what lies beneath the sand or pinpoint the exact location of valuable ruins. Clearing these sands is also difficult because they keep reappearing. By the way, are you okay?"
"I'm fine!" said Evan. He was just a little dizzy from being shaken by Benny. He looked at the endless yellow sand. "Hmm, these sands have a special magic. Quicksand curses have a similar effect."
To cast a Quicksand curse on such a large city and maintain it for so long, the power of those ancient sorcerers was terrifyingly strong.
Evan squatted on the ground, placed his wand on the sand next to him, and cast a spell.
In the blink of an eye, the sand solidified rapidly, but soon disintegrated and turned back into sand.
"Yes, they can be solidified into stones like the one we are standing on now, but it won't last long. Someone needs to reinforce them regularly. In order to maintain the entire Ruins of Amun Ra and such a road, the Ministry of Magic and Gringotts hired three hundred wizards just for this task," Rawya explained. "And reinforcement is of no help in knowing what is under the sand. No detection magic works. If you want to know what is underneath, you can only dig a hole while reinforcing the sand. Those ruins are usually buried very deep..."
Evan nodded. Coming to think of it, the process of discovering the Ruins of Amun Ra was indeed not easy.
In order to find ancient magic treasures, wizards and goblins had paid a great price.
"Move it!" said Mr. Saeed, the deputy leader of the excavation team, coming down from the city wall with a sullen expression. "We're not here in this damned place for you foreign wizards to study the sand."
"Ignore him!" Rawya whispered, pulling Evan to his feet.
Following the reinforced path, the excavation team began their journey towards the Ruins of Amun Ra.
After walking forward for about twenty minutes, a huge square appeared in front of them. The ground here had been reinforced and was crowded with other excavation teams waiting to enter the Ruins of Amun Ra, adventurers, some scattered wizards who came here to make a fortune, and even quite a few Muggle archaeologists and excavation teams.
"Hey, those Muggles..."
"Gringotts needs the help of these Muggles. They are very good at handling ancient Egyptian history and common artifacts. Don't worry, the Muggles' memories have been modified, and they won't remember anything related to magic," said Rawya. "The Ruins of Amun Ra are right below here. We don't have to queue; we can go straight in. Mr. Pendulum just said we'll head to the Hall of the Gods first, which can help you have an overall understanding of the Ruins of Amun Ra."
"Wait, where exactly are the Ruins of Amun Ra?"
Evan looked around, but saw nothing except the square and the people on it.
In the distance, there was an endless desert, no buildings, no plants, nothing but sand.
It was not an exaggeration to describe this place as desolate.
"I just said that the Ruins of Amun Ra are right under our feet!" Rawya explained. "It is almost impossible to completely remove these magical sands, so the wizards used magic to reinforce the upper layer of sand over the central area of the entire Ruins of Amun Ra, which is where we are standing now, and then, they dug down little by little, breaking through several paths. One leads to the Hall of the Gods, and the other to the area our excavation team is responsible for. The goblins seem to be studying new excavation routes. There is no sand inside the ruins, so as long as we can get in, we can start excavation work..."
