Archeological Excavation (Decayuss)

"Remind me, why are you taking a D rank job again?" Deniel walked on the sands of the Forgotten Desert with his sword Nidhogg in his hand. He had taken on a very simple D rank job, something that he might have done earlier as a mage, but now as an A rank, it was weird for him to do it. Deniel merely shrugged at Nidhogg. "Well, I'm not looking for a challenge. I guess some easy jewels and a way to kill time is why I'm doing it." "Right..." Deniel was on his way to the professor's dig site in the Forgotten Desert. It had been a while since he had been here, and last time, it's were he obtained his black cloak. He was wearing this same cloak right now, with the hood cast over his head and part of it over his mouth. He did this to make sure that sand didn't get in his eyes or mouth. Inside of his cloak he held on to his sword, Nidhogg, in case anything had come out at him. Since this was a D rank job, he didn't really expect any challenge from creatures at all, but you never knew. Plus Nidhogg was the only company Deniel ever had, and the two had a very close bond. In fact, their bond was so close, that Deniel had almost finished his personal training to obtain magic using Nidhogg. "Oh, and guess what, Nidhogg?" "What?" "I've already got another job picked out after this one. It's a little bit more exciting, though. There's a killer in Hargeon Town, and there's a bounty out for him."

This somewhat intruiged Nidhogg, but there was one slight problem. "Deniel...if there are lives at stake, why in the world are you OUT IN THE MIDDLE OF A DESERT BEFORE CATCHING A KILLER!?" Deniel should have seen that question coming, but he already knew the answer to it. "Because there's no way I'm going to catch a killer in the daylight, Nidhogg. Which is why I'm out here; I'm killing the time with one job, and as soon as this one is done, I'll go over to Hargeon Town, and kill that killer." There was a higher reward on the job for capturing the killer alive, but Deniel didn't see any reason to let such a person live, or even take another breath of life. He brought upon tragic wastes of life, and it was time for this to end. Deniel began to hum a small tune while he walked in the desert sands. "Hmmm-hmmm. Hm-hm-hm. Hm-hm-hm-hm-hmmmmm." It only took Deniel about another five minutes until he finally saw ahead of him a large hole in the ground; the professor's dig site.

When Deniel reached the edge of it, he looked down to see the professor inspecting very closely a group of rocks that was right next to the entrance of what seemed to be a cave. The professor was looking away, so he didn't notice Deniel. Deniel was thinking about giving him a bit of a jump scare, but decided not to. All it would do was make Deniel chuckle a bit, and get the professor to probably slightly dislike him. Deniel merely jumped down from the edge of the dig site; the professor heard him and turned his head away from the rocks. "Who goes there!?" Now that Deniel was way below the sands in the dig site, he was able to remove his hood and part of his cloak that was covering his mouth to show the professor who he was. "I'm Deniel; the one who accepted your job request." The professor got somewhat of a delighted look on his face. He had been at his site all day, and he didn't make much progress in what he needed to get done by the hands of a mage. "Ahhh, excellent! Now that you're here, I have an extra pair of hands!" Deniel raised his eyebrow at the professor, who walked inside of the cave for a few moments. What did he mean by an extra pair of hands? What did he want Deniel to do that he could have done himself? In just a few moments, the professor came out of the cave with Deniel's answer.

He was holding on to two shovels, one of which he extended out to Deniel. "It is time for us to dig, mage! With your strenght, we should be able to do in just a few days!" A few days? Deniel didn't have a few days. He had a few hours at best. But if they needed a few days to dig for something, then that means whatever the professor was looking for was deep within the cave. Deniel walked past the professor without taking the shovel and inside of the cave. The professor was confused for a moment, but followed Deniel anyway. Deniel saw that the cave was only a few yards in, and that a person could still look behind themselves and see outside. There were a few torches to light up the place, but overall, it wasn't very far in. No wonder it was going to be a few days. "So....are we digging or what?" Deniel approached the end of the cave and lifted his hand that wasn't carrying Nidhogg out of his cloak and on to the rock. He pressed against it to test its strength and hardness. It wasn't too hard, but the professor was right; if they used shovels it would take them a while. Deniel put his hand on his chin and thought about what he should do next. There's no way he had that much time, and he couldn't really abandon a job like this. Deniel thought about how he could get through this as fast as possible. Suddenly, an idea burst into Deniel's head.

He turned around to the professor, and stared down at the man. "Professor, do you have a pickaxe?" The professor nodded. Deniel didn't need to tell him what to do next. The professor left the cave right away, dropping the two shovels. In just about a minute or two, he came back carrying a pickaxe. There was a reason why he didn't use it, though. It wasn't necessarily easy for him to carry. Deniel, under his cloak, handed Nidhogg to his left hand and then held out his right. The professor handed Deniel the pickaxe, and Deniel took it with one hand. He turned back to the wall, and raised the pickaxe up. He swung it down at the wall, already creating a huge crack in it. Deniel smacked again, and a lot of the wall shattered to pieces, creating a few centimeters of space to move forward. The professor was impressed by Deniel's work and speed. Deniel swung a few more times, and with every swing, another centimeter or two was added to the space available for walking. The professor liked the progress, but Deniel didn't. Even at this rate, it was going to take far too long for Deniel to finish the job and be able to do the other mission on time. He needed another method, but what? Deniel swung while he thought about what to do. The profressor kept his distance behind Deniel to make sure he wasn't hit in any way by the pickaxe, but he was happy that everything was going along steadily, and he didn't really have to do anything.

Deniel, on the other hand, wasn't happy with his progress. Suddenly, an amazing idea came into Deniel's head. He swung at the wall one last time, and after that, he dropped the pickaxe. "What are you doing, Deniel!? You're making excellent progress." Deniel smirked at his body began to glow a red color. "I'm about to make a whole lot more progress, professor. I suggest you step out of the cave for a few moments." The professor didn't argue with Deniel. In fact, he hurried out of the cave since he didn't want to know what he was going to do. Deniel was glad, too. He wanted to keep the fact that he was a Nephalem a bit of a secret. He held both of his near each other, and the glow on his body exploded into his Black Devil Form. And in his palms, he charged up his Heaven's Demise Spell. Outside, the professor didn't hear anything. All he heard was silence, and then all of a sudden, a loud rumbling came from inside the cave, followed by a huge explosion and the sound of rocks crumbling. "What in tarnation!?" Deniel deactivated his Take Over just to make sure the professor didn't see it when all of the dust cleared. The professor rushed into the cave, and saw that Deniel blew it about a hundred meters deep. ".....WHAT!? DENIEL! YOU COULD HAVE DESTROYED THE FOSSIL I'M LOOKING FOR! YOU IDIOT! NOW I MIGHT--"

The professor was running through the cave while he yelled at Deniel, who wasn't there. Deniel was at the very end of the path that he created. And as soon as the professor saw him, he also saw what he was looking for. There, right on the stone, was a fossil inside of the wall, waiting for the professor to dig it out. "Deniel...you're a genious! Hahahahahah! Now I can get my work flowing again! Here, I want you to have this!" From out of his pocket, the professor pulled out a bag containing Deniel's reward of 750 jewels. "It's not much, but please, take it." Deniel took the bag of jewels, and started to exit the cave. He left the professor to do what he wished with the fossil, since he had done his job. Once Deniel was out of the cave, he took a breath of sandy air and looked up at the sky. The sun was starting to set, which meant that he had a few hours to get to Hargeon Town. "One mission down...one to go."