Archaeological Excavation (Kirahunter) [CLOSED]

Job Info:

Spoiler:

"Aight looks like time is no longer on my side. Time to get my shit together" Simon sped over dunes pouring his power into his super speed magic. Normally people would sink and tumble and fall when running through sand, but Simon had an advantage since his feet weren't in contact with the ground long enough for them to sink at all he could run across like it was normal ground. Simon had recently completed his mission with Mari and Hikari to save a poor damsel in distress and after he recovered from his severe beat down he found himself feeling the need to be stronger. He had always told himself that everything was going to be fine and that since he was young he would have pleanty of time to get strong, but his last mission proved he wasn't going anywhere, this undoubtedly lit a fire up under the light mage and as soon as his body would let him he grabbed a job and started running.

His client was some old professor guy who needed help excavating a giant skeleton or something, Simon wasn't sure yet how he was going to pull this off but he knew he would find a way; heck maybe the manual labor would help him get stronger. The blazing sun might have been a problem for other mages, but Simon had already deployed his partial mirrors all over his body making him into a shining mosaic to reflect the light and heat off of him. It didn't take him too long to find the dig site the professor had mentioned, the archaeologist had made a very easy to spot camp. He hurtled a large dune that stood in his path and landed in front of the professor's tent. "YOOOOOOOO PROFFESOR I'm here!"

The professor a young and strong looking man came from the tent wearing a tan button up shirt and dark green cargo shorts and a stupid looking sombrero like hat. The man immediately jumped a the sight of Simon, who was still a gleaming mosaic of a person, Simon realized the reason for the man's confusion and raised his hands up "Hey now, don't be alarmed. I'm the mage you hired, this mirror skin is just my personal protection from the sun. So what needs doing?" The man composed himself and began speaking "Oh alright then. Well you see I've been looking for a way to get started in the world of archaeology, you see I only recently began my quest to discover the past so I need a big find to start my career off with a bang! So anyway I came out here searching for anything I could when I found this large alter in the sand, and on it was a skeleton of a never before seen creature! You can probably imagine how I felt when I saw this fantastic discovery alas when I returned to the archaeological community to tell them about my finds when I returned it had all been buried in sand with a vicious sand storm. So that's where you come in!"

The professor pointed to a large sand dune "Under there somewhere is my find, I need you to unearth it before the others arrive or I shall be made to be a laughing stalk! Please I implore you help me clear away the sand! You can use any of the many tools I have at my disposal." Simon looked over the mountain and looked over the professor again, he saw a man that reminded him of himself just a guy with a lot of potential trying to get started in the world "Alright I'll help you out, where are the digging supplies?" The professor showed Simon into his tent where there was a pile of shovel and buckets and brooms and just a bit of everything. The archaeologist grabbed himself a shovel and a bucket, Simon on the other hand was hit by inspiration and grabbed two buckets with a gleam in his eye. It was going to be quite a day.

The two approached the sand dune with their tools of choice in hand "Alright let's get started, by the way my name is Solluxander Ramses most of my friends just call me Ander, and you are?" Simon nodded "I'm Simon Baggon nice to meet you. Okay anyway I've got a plan, stand way back for a moment." Simon jumped to the top of the dune and looked down at Ander "Would you say the skeleton is fragile?" the professor shook his head "Far from it, it's an ancient beast from a eat or be eaten time frame where savage magic ravaged the land. Monsters like this couldn't afford to have weak bones, even after hundreds of years of decay." Simon grinned, this was going to be easier then he originally anticipated.

He squatted down and rubbed his hands together, he sent all of his magic rushing down to his legs "EAGLE SWEEP!" in one solid fluid motion Simon swept his legs with great speed and force across the top of the sand mound, the result was a great demonstration of the power of gravity and inertia. The force of the kick sent the top of the dune cascading down it's own slope, almost a quarter of the pile was instantly cleared away and a bit more was brought down with it by the minor avalanche of sand. Simon and Solluxander let out a synchronized whoop of exhilaration. While it was a great success there was still a great bit of work to do, for on closer examination Simon couldn't see any of the creature protruding from the pile.

Simon slid down from the hill to where the professor was "So how was that?" Ramses broke out laughing "That was fantastic, a terrific start, but we have much more to do, let's keep at it!" Simon nodded and looked at the hill "While I'll need a minute or two before I am ready to do that again, so I'm going to take a slightly different approach for a little while." Simon took a moment to take a deep breath and he noticed the professor was watching him with earnest anticipation, Simon hadn't seen anyone impressed with his magic before; it was a nice feeling. Refocusing on his work Simon grabbed the two buckets from earlier one in each hand, and stood on the bottom of the hill's slope dug his feet into the ground and started running.

Simon couldn't put as much power into his magic as he had with his original kick because he had to be able to keep doing this for a while to get a good effect. With the two buckets he scooped up sand as he ran around the base of the dune just by folding them close to the ground they would fill with sand he could then throw aside. But the real force was the running it self, the speed and impact of Simon's foot steps sent the sand spraying outward, slowly unearthing whatever was below. He could hear and catch glimpse of Ander laughing and clapping at the display of magic, Simon was beginning to love being adored.

Ever so slowly the dune began to whittle away, as Simon ran the sand at the bottom was sent flying as far as 50 meters away and sand higher up was shifting down the hill to replace the sand that had just been kicked away. Some people may have been discouraged by the sand filling up it's own holes, but Simon knew it was a sign that the dune was getting smaller. It didn't take long for Ander to realize that even with Simon's extreme speed the dune wasn't going anywhere fast and had started trying to help dig away the sand, while he appreciated the attempt Simon knew the professor's work was a rain drop in an ocean compared to the sand he himself was clearing away.

Getting really bored really fast Simon tried talking to the professor "Oi Ander! What exactly is this thing anyway?" The archaeologist looked up from his work "It is a an ancient desert roller. They were once proud beasts who roamed the deserts in violent times. We have reason to believe they had the ability to curl up into huge balls and roll around with incredible speeds! Rumor has it they could get as big as a house!" Simon nodded in acknowledgement "If we already know so much about it, why do we need to dig this one up?" Ander looked stung "Well you see this is to my knowledge the largest specimen ever found and it is not only almost completely intact but when I found it, it was on an alter of some sort the like I have never heard of! There is probably a great deal of historical information that could be salvaged from it!

After a good while of working in the beating sun clearing away sand Simon could see the skeleton protruding from the top of the dune of sand, but he knew they still had a fair bit of work left to do, after all under the skeleton was supposedly a large alter that needed to be excavated too. Simon's legs were feeling heavy at this point, and he had long given up with the buckets, they simply consumed more energy then they were worth just running was easier and more efficient. But soon even that became too tiring and Simon collapsed on the hill "Shit, this is getting a bit annoying." He tried to struggle to his feet and keep running, but the professor ran up to him and stopped him "Woah there kid, you've done enough for now. You don't want to push yourself too hard out here, I don't care if those mirrors are supposed to protect you from the sun, dehydration is still a hazard out here. Simon struggled again him "No I can go on, Aniki wouldn't have stopped and neither would anyone else in Fairy Tail. I can finish, we are still on a time crunch remember?"

Ander grabbed his shoulders and looked him in the eye "Listen kid you aren't doing me any favors dieing out in the sun, let's just go back to my tent; we can both use with some water and a quick rest." Simon grunted and looked down at the ground, but submitted to his request and the two walked back to his tent. When they walked in side Simon felt an instant wave of relief, the tent was so much cooler then outside he wiped his brow and tried to savor the moment of rest. Ander walked over to a lacryima powered fridge and retrieved two bottles of water, he threw one to Simon and kept the other to himself. Simon accepted the water happily so the two just sat on a pair of stools and silently rested and refreshed their worn out bodies.

After a few minutes Simon took his half empty water bottle and put it in his pocket, he stretched for a little bit then looked at the professor "You ready to get back to work?" he stood up and looked down at Simon "Of course, been ready for a while. To be honest I thought you would take a lot longer to rest then this considering how fast you were running." Simon grinned and walked out the tent with the professor at his heel "Fairy Tail mages, especially me, are made of sterner stuff than that Ander." He laughed and they returned to their excavation site.

With a renewed determination Simon resumed running around the mound, rapidly clearing it away. With his energy restored clearing away what was left of the sand wasn't much of a problem. After several minutes of hard work, sweat and effort the ruins were clear of sand. "Alright it looks like my work here is done professor." Solluxander laughed "Far from it, this is where the fun part begins." He grabbed a suit case from his tent with a devilish grin and approached the large sandstone alter, and the massive armadillo appearing skeleton that was pinned on top of it.

Ander set down the case by the foot of the alter produced a number of brushes and cleaning rags from the box. He threw a brush to Simon "Alright I'm going to go clean off the skeleton the best I can. I want you to dust off the alter it self so we can better analyze the gliphs on it." He went on to climb up onto the alter and began dusting off the skeleton. Simon shook his head and sat down at the base of the large alter and started brushing off dirt, sand and dust. Closer inspection revealed that the alter was covered in all kinds of carvings Simon tried to read them but they made no sense to him they didn't resemble any runes or lettering he had ever seen.

Getting bored of starring at the wiggling shapes and lines as he cleaned Simon tried to start talking to Ramses "so what are these carvings on the alter thing. I can't tell what they are, they look like really poorly drawn runes." the young adult called back "Well you see along time ago there were mages too but they used different runes because of how different magic was back then. It's fascinating really!" Simon shook his head, it was dead dull boring is what is was.

Time ticked by at a mind numbing pace as Simon brushed off inch by inch of the alter, it seemed like the work would never end. He silently wished he could have kept running around instead of this lame chore he had been stuck with. Fortunately Ander made for some good conversation on occasion, he would go on and on about ancient history and magic older then time Simon tried to listen and remember what he was being told there were some interesting bits of information in there, but at the same time it reminded him of school. He shuddered at the thought of school he was so very glad he dropped out to become a mage instead. When Simon had felt he had gotten half way done with the alter Ander asked him a question that hit him right in the gutt.

"You mentioned an 'Aniki earlier. He sounds like an interesting person can you tell me about him?" Simon froze "He's no one. Forget about it." he tried to keep working but his hands were shaking and he couldn't get any progress. "So he was one of those kinds of people?" Simon bit his tongue "Don't try to make any assumptions about Aniki!" Ander's voice sounded like it was moving around up on top of the alter "Relax I didn't mean anything bad. I just meant he was irreplaceable right?" Simon picked up his brush and kept cleaning "...Yeah."

The two didn't talk much after that and Simon was okay with that. He was upset that Andar had brought up Aniki and he really didn't want to disclose it with anyone, especially not a complete strange like the professor. After a little while Andar claimed he saw some people coming from a distance, at that point both of them really sped up their working pace. Simon had finished dusting off the ruins and started sweeping the uneven sand piles flat when the approaching people finally arrived. Simon stood back as the professor went to talk to them after a few minutes they came over and inspected the alter. There were five of them, all males who dressed very much like the professor and they all seemed very excited by what they saw. The sight made Simon feel good he was happy to excite all these people and to help the professor like he did.

After the men had captured images of the alter and the skeleton with photo-lacryima and set out some kind of markers they handed a scroll to the professor and they went with him into his tent. Simon had to sit out side for what seemed like forever listening to them talk about how they were going to move the find and all kinds of things Simon couldn't follow. All he was sure about was that they were very excited about all of this and apparently this was a really big deal which was just fine with Simon. After a while Simon heard the professor tell them about his contribution he couldn't help but mutter "About time." before allowing himself to enjoy the indirect praise. After what seemed like a hellishly long time, Solluxander came out of the tent and went over to Simon "Hey thanks for all your help today Simon. You saved my future, the rest of the guys will set up camp here while the rest of the excavation squad comes along so we can see about moving the alter to a museum without damaging it. You did great work here today, I'll make sure you get mentioned on the plaque in the museum." Simon grinned "I think I'd like that, thanks." So with an elated spirit, Simon set off for home his work completed.