Astartes of the Bear School

Chapter 1759 1731. The Tomb of the First Champion
There was a sound of friction on the grass ground above the circular patio which was more than three meters high. Phidias looked up quickly with lingering fear.

But only a cat's head was exposed.

"Boss, it's done meow! Ah, Phidias! Why are you here?"

When the great plague hit Athens, Lane and Cassandra showed up in Athens without any reason. The first person they chose to find out what was going on was Phidias.

So the fluffy ball that went with Lan En at the time also met the sculptor quite a few times during that period.

"Hey!"

The fluff ball jumped down lightly and easily.

Lan En didn't smell any fresh blood from its body or weapon. He guessed that the calico kitten deliberately used its fists to deal with the two enemies on the opposite side to increase the challenge and difficulty of the exercise.

Seeing that the patio was quiet and Lan and the ball of fluff were still by his side, Phidias finally relaxed.

The sculptor, famous throughout the Greek world, sat down on the marble floor of the patio with a 'pop'.

He held his head and sighed, lamenting his bad luck.

"I just can't bear to stay in Athens!"

With Lan's comfort, Phidias confided his troubles to his old friend.

"You also know, Lan. When I was in Athens, those people of the Order tortured me. If you hadn't saved me, I might have become a suicidal lunatic!"

That was when the demon hunter first met Phidias. The sculptor was being emotionally oppressed by the Cult of Order through means such as 'stalking and threats', and he was on the verge of a mental breakdown.

Later, Lan killed the member of the Cult of Order who was responsible for this incident, and he was finally freed.

But even so, the mental trauma made Phidias fragile. He became suspicious and easily startled.

For someone who has suffered mental torture, this result is actually not bad.

However, the city-state of Athens is undoubtedly the center of the Greek world. It is a mixed bag of people, and organizations like the Cult of Order will certainly continue to pay attention to this place and invest their strength here.

Coupled with Phidias' nightmare memories of Athens, and the fact that even his friend, patron, and sponsor Pericles was almost killed by the Cult of Kosmos during the Great Plague of Athens, he had to give up all his relationships and interests in Athens and flee overseas.

He was understandably frightened and fled Athens.

After all, he is a master sculptor who was able to carve such an exaggerated red copper statue of Athena in the city of Athens. So where can't he show off his skills?

This was indeed the case when he was invited to the Temple of Zeus in Olympia to maintain and repair his former work, the statue of Zeus.

The people of Elis built him a workshop directly in Olympia!
Large blocks of high-quality marble, cranes, and other things are all available, which is not much different from his workshop in Athens.

This is obviously an attempt to retain the master sculptor.

The people of Elis were able to develop the sports industry and cyclical tourism industry before the Christian era, so they must have had a lot of business acumen.

"I understand why you left Athens. But I still don't understand," Lan listened to Phidias's chatter while sticking his head into the hole he had just created to look around, "Why are you here?"

"Don't mention it!" Phidias stood up from the floor and sighed, "Hey, this is the tomb of the first Olympic champion, the Elis, Croesus. It was buried more than three hundred years ago."

Phidias opened his hands and pointed around.

"This patio is where people commemorate and worship him, but not long ago, a hole appeared in the wall of the patio, exposing the tomb behind. When the people of Elis saw me here, they wanted me to repair it."

"Now Elis is under the actual control of Athens, so a small group of Athenian soldiers came to protect me and the Tomb of the First Champion, which is under renovation."

"But today, I just came out of Olympia and was about to start today's work. Then these three robbers broke in."

"Fortunately, these soldiers can't help me when I'm working. They usually just wait on the patio. I'm the only one down there. They don't have time to look down when the robbers come."

"I heard a chaotic commotion upstairs, and when no one could see what was happening below, I quickly hid in the breach, and blocked the hole with random wooden boards and rubble... I didn't even dare to breathe! Fortunately, you came!"

Lan was speechless about his friend's luck, and finally could only say: "I don't know whether your luck is good or bad, Phidias."

The sculptor smiled painfully: "Who said it wasn't?"

"By the way," the demon hunter asked as if he was just mentioning it casually, "Renovating the First Champion's Tomb, this should be very well known in Elis, right? Has anyone come to see your renovation process?"

Phidias didn't seem to care much about this and waved his hand.

"Someone wants to see it, but first he has to speak to these Athenian soldiers before he can enter the camp and stand by the patio to take a look."

"But there's nothing to see here. At the beginning, there were still people coming. But now that the repairs have been completed, everyone has had enough of the excitement." "Just this morning, I was repairing the wall downstairs, and I heard someone coming upstairs. But the person didn't even want to stand at the edge of the patio and look down. He must have just known those Athenian soldiers and came over to chat."

"Really?" Lan En sighed.

On the surface, it seemed like he was lamenting how quickly people's enthusiasm faded. But in fact, Lan En felt that the man should be Kalias.

A former Olympic champion, but he is not from Elis and does not live in Elis often.

Why did you become interested in the tomb of the first champion as soon as you came here? So interested that you would run across the wilderness to get here?
Kallias's action made Lan En begin to take some interest in the tomb of the first champion.

"But there seems to be something different from what you said, Phidias." Lan En suddenly changed the subject and said with a teasing smile.

Phidias's distressed expression froze at the same time: "Uh...what did you say? No, why don't we go back to Olympia first?"

"Don't leave in such a hurry." Lan En was not in a hurry at this moment. "Look at the lighting brazier in the gap, as well as the hammer, chisel, and tablet! I don't know much about repairing ancient tombs, Phidias. But these things..."

"Will it really be useful when repairing the wall?"

Lan En pointed at the things placed in the gap.

To put it bluntly, it was just a broken marble wall that sealed the tomb at the back.

How could Phidias, who was able to build the Great Statue of Athena, the Statue of Zeus, and the Parthenon, spend several months on such a small problem?
Moreover, Lan En could see that these braziers and tools had been placed in the breach long ago, instead of being thrown in all at once when Phidias took refuge just now.

what's going on?

Did he want to seal himself in the tomb while sealing the breach? Accompany the first Olympic champion?

The sculptor's already distressed face now looked like a bitter gourd under Lan En's teasing and implicit questioning.

He sighed and rubbed his face with his hands in despair.

"Okay! Okay! Then I won't hide it from you!"

He raised his hand and pointed to the tomb inside the gap.

"You know, Lan, I'm a carver, and I'm curious about those mysterious patterns and carvings with deep meanings! And this is an ancient tomb! It's filled with things I want to know!"

"Of course, I know that destroying and sneaking into other people's tombs is an immoral crime. But I really don't want to take the burial objects inside! I just want to see the ancient architecture and sculptures!"

Phidias, an ancient Greek who lived more than 400 years BC, said he wanted to "see ancient buildings and sculptures."

This is indeed a bit difficult for Lan En, a man who lived more than 2,000 years ago.

But from Phidias's perspective, this is very normal.

After all, what is in front of us is indeed an ancient tomb from more than 300 years ago, plus the technological crystallizations and fragments left by the previous civilization of this world, the Isu people.

——There’s no guarantee that they’ll find any advanced gadgets during their archaeological excavations!
"I don't think tombs are sacred." Lan En patted the dust on his shoulder that was on his face when he just poked his head in. "But you want to explore this tomb by yourself? This idea is a bit dangerous, Phidias."

If it were a magical world, scenes like tombs would certainly be objectively sacred or dangerous, and Lan En also acknowledged the special nature of such places.

But although the ancient Greek world looks a bit supernatural, it is actually a science fiction world.

Lan En doesn't think a cemetery is so special here.

When Phidias heard this, his face was stunned, and then he showed a surprised expression.

He had forgotten that vandalism and breaking into tombs is, of course, an immoral crime in a normal social context.

But people like mercenaries basically have no taboos about this.

"Yes! My idea is too dangerous! But you can help me!" The sculptor stepped forward and patted the witcher's arm warmly. "I can pay a large sum of drachma as commission for the mission. How about it?"

"I'm also curious about what the inside of the ancient tomb looks like," Lan En had no intention of refusing. "Of course it would be better if I could earn drachma."

"So what are we waiting for? Let's just go in!"

Phidias walked towards the gap in the wall, muttering to himself as he walked.

"Let's go in and take a look, if it weren't for the carvings inside the ancient tomb, I could actually fix this hole in one day!"

(End of this chapter)