Build an ancient-level power in the nightmare world

Professor Stephen, hearing Cole's reply, remained silent. He slowly turned his head to look at a hand-drawn map in pencil on the table in front of him, and said softly as before:

"Then give it your all tonight. I'm going to the excavation site at Bertbury tomorrow, and I'll be back in about three days."

As he spoke, Professor Stephen turned to look at Cole again, his tone becoming more formal: "You'll need to write up the report on the third phase of the excavation of the Bertbury site in the next few days. It should be similar to the previous two reports. I need to report to the college next week."

"Yes, Professor." A hint of bitterness flashed in Cole's eyes, but he still answered quickly with a smile.

Upon hearing Cole's answer, Stephen nodded in satisfaction, put his hands behind his back, and turned to walk out of the storage room.

Cole watched Professor Stephen leave, and once he was sure the professor was far away, the smile on his face gradually disappeared.

He calmly glanced around the storage room, skillfully avoiding the haphazardly stacked wooden crates, and walked to his temporary workstation.

As a postgraduate student in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Entinas, this is his second year studying and working under Professor Stephen.

In fact, he was not interested in archaeology and artifact restoration.

What truly interests him are the extraordinary powers displayed by heroes and gods in myths and legends.

Cole lived in a single-parent family; his father had been a sheriff.

Later, the Im Empire reorganized the Security Bureau into the Ministry of Public Security, and the police station replaced the grassroots security posts. His father was retired early during that reorganization and then began to believe in the Holy Spirit Church of the Weaver of Life and became a devout believer.

Cole read many myths and legends when he was a child, but he wasn't interested in the gods themselves. Instead, he was very interested in why these gods possessed such powerful abilities.

During his university years, he joined several interest groups that studied the occult.

He also witnessed some mysterious phenomena beyond his understanding by chance, but most of them were later proven to be just magic tricks.

But there are exceptions.

Cole majored in Visserl in linguistics during his university years. Visserl is a less commonly spoken language that originated from the Visser Empire more than a thousand years ago.

Very few people still use this language today. It is only known that some regions in a few small western countries still use this language and script, so not many people learn it.

At that time, there were fewer than 20 people in their department. Several people changed majors and left during the course of their studies. In the end, only nine people graduated and received their diplomas.

Among their graduating class, some continued their studies in linguistics, others went to work for foreign trade companies that did business with small countries in the west, or became freelance translators who traveled around.

He was the only one who switched majors and went to the archaeology department.

Although the Visser language is a minority language, it has its place in archaeological work.

Even during his university years, he was often assigned by his teachers to translate Visser script rubbings from archaeological sites for the archaeology department next door.

It was precisely because of this opportunity that Cole was able to switch fields and become a graduate student under Professor Stephen.

However, as a student from a different major, Cole needs to learn the basics of archaeology from scratch, so Professor Stephen has not taken him to any archaeological sites yet.

Cole did not express any dissatisfaction with this.

He wasn't interested in archaeology itself.

He joined Professor Stephen's team simply so that he could have easier access to the artifacts left behind by these ancient civilizations.

Most of those myths and legends took place more than a thousand years ago, or even further back in time.

To find out if these legends are true, the best method Cole could think of was to start with artifacts from those periods.

……

late at night.

Inside the dimly lit storage room for cultural relics.

Holding a short white candle, Cole quietly opened a storage box with a three-finger-wide crack in its dim light.

He slowly reached his hand into the box and, based on his memory of the location, found a square box without looking inside.

After taking it out, looking at the dark brown wooden box in his hand, his breathing became more rapid, and his heartbeat involuntarily quickened.

Cole didn't open the wooden box immediately. Instead, he found a secluded corner in the storage room that was completely hidden by the storage shelves that were taller than a person.

He sat cross-legged on the floor of the storage room, placing the candle in his hand about thirty centimeters in front of him.

Only then did he pick up the wooden box in his hand and carefully open it.

In the dim candlelight, a palm-sized, irregularly shaped, pale yellow piece of cloth, which looked like it had been torn from somewhere, lay quietly in the middle of the box.

These artifacts were excavated from the Bertbus ruins at the foot of the Great Cliffs of the Aurora Heights.

Berthes was the capital of the Simmel Kingdom.

The Kingdom of Simmel was a small country that existed for less than a hundred years during the chaotic 600 years, and there are not many records about this country in the various historical materials that have been passed down.

His mentor, Professor Stephen, and other professors at the college concluded that the pale yellow scrap of cloth was likely a fragment of some kind of yellow fabric used by the royal family of the Simmel Kingdom to decorate the palace.

The material is similar to silk, but perhaps due to its age, this fragment does not have the smooth sheen of silk, nor does it have any patterns.

Overall, this piece of cloth is not of much research value.

But after all, it is an artifact from more than a thousand years ago, and it is truly remarkable that this fragment has been preserved. So it has been kept in a box in this storage room.

But Cole doesn't think so.

Instead of taking the piece of cloth out of the box, he simply unfolded the box and placed it about twenty centimeters in front of him.

Then, Cole took out a plain brass pocket watch from his pocket, with no patterns on its surface.

He gently pressed the circular mechanism at the top of the pocket watch with his thumb, and the watch cover immediately opened slightly. He skillfully used his thumb to fully open the cover and carefully stared at the second hand.

After confirming that the second hand was not moving, he held the pocket watch by the chain and suspended it in front of him, then slowly brought the pocket watch close to the box in front of him where the rags were placed.

Even when the pocket watch was suspended above the box, less than a centimeter away from the shredded cloth inside, the hands of the pocket watch remained completely still.

Just as Cole lowered the pocket watch further, and the watch case barely touched the pale yellow rag, the second hand inside, which had been still, suddenly began to turn.

Moreover, the speed at which the pointer rotates is visibly increasing.

Seeing this, Cole quickly lifted the pocket watch, and the hands on the watch stopped turning almost simultaneously after the watch was removed from the rag.

He carefully put away the pocket watch, and looking at the piece of cloth in front of him, a hint of excitement involuntarily appeared in his eyes.