Ryu glanced around him, straining to find the source of the voice but the wind disappeared there was nothing around them but the chasm caused by the earthquake.

“Ryu, are you coming?”

Ryu turned back around and caught up with the group.  At the questioning look in Kai’s face, Ryu just nodded.  “I thought I heard something but guess I was just imagining it.”  

Kai seemed like he was about to ask further but the group ahead reached the entrance to the pyramid.

“What’s with another riddle?  He’s got to be toying with us.”  Zion groaned, sitting on a flat boulder while Gia and Zariah read the script on the door.

Notice.

What belongs to you but is used more by others

“Your name.”  Ryu answered immediately, recognizing the riddle during his research earlier in the week.

Zion clapped a hand on his back. “Eyyyy, good catch my friend!”

Zariah glanced at the script.  “Hmm, now which name should we use.  Do we all try our names?  Or maybe the Gods name? What was it again?”

“Ptah.”  Gia offered, while Kai knelt on the ground before the door.  He brushed away the sand, revealing a circular groove carved on the floor.  In the middle there were a few hieroglyphics but they looked like they were re-arranged incorrectly.

Kai picked up the pieces and corrected them to spell out Ptah’s name.  The rest stood back and waited.  A few moments later, the door began to shudder open and the group sighed in relief.

“Well that was easy.”  Zion cheered.

“Too easy.”  Gia smirked.  “This is supposed to be S rank.  And so far besides almost falling off the face of the earth back there, we haven’t encountered any creatures.”

Zariah knocked on the door.  “Hey, there is a saying among our people.  Do not borrow misfortune.”  She chided.

Zion touched his nose and tongue back and forth and crossing himself before entering.  “I do not have a good feeling about this place.”  

Ryu hid a smile at the suspicious gesture but found himself knocking lightly on the side of the wooden panel as well as the last one to enter.

They walked down the spacious dimly let hallway, with no sign of traps or any creatures.  After a few minutes, they encountered a dead end but the wall was covered in hieroglyphics.  To the far right were four levers all raised up.

“Don’t tell me it’s another riddle.”  Zion made a face as he too a knife out of its holder and began to spin it around his fingers.  “Give me an honest fight any day.”

Zariah rolled her eyes at him and scanned the wall with Kai while Ryu and and Gia watched the hallways for anything suspicious.

“Seems like it’s more a story than a riddle.”  Zariah confirmed.  “Something about the God Ptah housing dwarves and often appearing as one himself.”

“Maybe more of Brock’s people are around here somewhere.”  Zion suggested, taking a look at the levers with interest.  “I don’t suppose they built these?”

“Don’t touch those just yet.”  Kai warned, still scanning the wall with Zariah.

Zion saluted, spinning the knife and eyeing the levers.  “This God seems more like the God of Tricksters.” He joked, whistling and scanning other parts of the wall.

“I hear something to my right.” Gia announced.  Ryu turned to his left, hearing distinct footsteps down the opposite end.

“Same here.  My screen tells me there’s maybe ten on either side heading our way.”  Ryu added.

Gia swore, unhooking a deadly looking knife while Ryu activated the armor on his body.

“One of the levers should open this wall and lead us to another section of the pyramid.”  Zariah called out.  “Or it could be a trap. Not sure yet.  Still trying to decode everything.”

“Buy us five minutes.” Kai scanned faster while Zion moved to help Gia and Ryu.

Notice.

Heavily armed soldiers approaching both directions.

Estimated 20 per side.

“Make that 2 minutes.”  Ryu said over his shoulder.  “I’m picking up twice as many creatures now.” He readied a ball of mana energy, wondering if the structure can take it.

“I’ll slow them down.”  Zion announced, heading down the hallway past Gia.  

Gia swore and went down the opposite hallway.  “See if you can help the others with the levers.  We got this.” She ordered, passing Ryu.

He nodded and ran up to the wall where Zariah and Kai were at opposite ends, frantically trying to decode.

“I don’t see anything here but more stories about Ptah being a great God of metalsmith and creation.”  Zariah kneeled and noticed there were other engravings in between the images.

Notice.

Warning.

All levers lead to traps.

“Well that’s not helpful.”  Ryu muttered, frantically trying to get the stat screen to scan past the wall but it was refusing to budge.  He scanned the text again but the screen repeated the same warning.

“It might be multiple levers in a specific order that will do the trick.”  Zariah offered, brushing faded script on her side of the wall.

“Good, let’s see if we can narrow down the clue for the order.”  Kai ordered, still scanning his side but finding nothing.

“Try the engravings between the images.”  Zariah helpfully added.  “There seems to be clues.”

Ryu closed his stat screen in frustration and moved to the levers.  He noticed they were heavy metal with intricate patterns along the side.  There were grooves and swirls repeating across the lever, each with a different design.  Upon closer inspection, the patterns weren’t exactly the same and he moved to see if there were other clues.

He thought back to his research that Ptah was a part of a triad.  A triad of other Gods in unity.

“Three.” He murmured to himself.  

He went with that trail of thought while looking at the patterns.  Ptah was also thought to create the world.  He created the world….

“With his heart,” He quoted. “And his…”

Tongue.

His eyes widened as he realized the patterns looked incoherent on the left side but on the right, the shapes were more defined.  On the second lever was the heart and the fourth was a snake with its tongue lashing out.  He glanced at the third lever and saw the mark of what looked like a metal weapon.

“I think I got it!”  Ryu called out, pointing to the patterns on the levers.

Kai and Zariah looked up.

“It’s the three levers that represent Ptah.  The metal, the heart and the serpent tongue.”

Zion and Gia could be seen from the entryway, fighting off creatures with spears.  They were steadily being backed into the room, despite fending off the attacks.

“We need to go!” They shouted.

Kai nodded to Ryu.  “Do it.”

Ryu took a deep breath and pulled the levers in the order.  At first nothing happened but then there was a loud rumbling sound.  Gia managed to defeat the soldiers on her side and moved to help Zion push back against the remaining creatures.

They were steadily being pushed back into the small room with the creatures pressing in on them when the rumbling stopped.  Ryu was the first to notice cracks along the floor and he shouted at Gia and Zion.

“Hang on to any holding you can on the walls!”  

The group immediately gripped the closest thing they could find and not a moment later, the floor crumbled underneath them.  The creatures cried out as they were swallowed below.

“We can’t hold on forever!”  Zariah cried out, gripping a torch while Kai was balancing himself on a small ledge beside her.

“You definitely jinxed it.”  Zion managed to joke at a time like this, glancing at Gia who was holding onto a small ledge beside him.

Before they were about to lose their grip, the wall with the script abruptly slide down into a cleverly crafted hole in the floor and a strong gust of wind sucked them into the hallway.

“Ahhh!”

Ryu landed roughly on his back while he heard Zion wheeze as he caught Gia and Zariah land on top of him.  Kai grunted as he also landed on his back nearby.

“Oh my, this is a first.  We have visitors.”  A voice spoke a few feet ahead of them.

Ryu peered up, still laying on the floor to catch his breath and could see two pairs of short legs.

“Oh my, yes Gorin. We do have visitors.  The first in a long time.”  Another voice agreed.

Ryu glanced up and saw two dwarves peering back at him, their faces smudged with dirt.  One looked curiously at him while the other flashed him a friendly smile.

“Hello, adventurer!  Might you be the chosen one perhaps?”

Ryu sat up and saw the others do the same.

Notice.

Name: Gorin Thaes

Age: 625 years old

Clan: Thaes Clan

World: Galaxy X-173

Class: metalsmith

Affiliation: ****

Name: Dorin Thaes

Age: 425 years old

Clan: Thaes Clan

World: Galaxy X-173

Class: historian

Affiliation: ****

“Whoa, I think we found Brock’s people.”  Zion exclaimed.