Maria shared informations about the place they were heading to.

"This is a crypt of an old ruler from the times of the old kingdom. It is approxly 2-3 thousand years old. It should house the body of a noble. These places are not that dangerous. Apart from some traps there should be nothing to be affraid of. Also we should try not to damage it, if possible. We need the place intact!"

Joseph shrugged.

"Seems easy enough, but you said something. It could be multy layered?"

"Yes. It is not rare for these kind of ruins to be just a decoy for an actual treasury or some secret place. Those places are a lot more dangerous. They have rooms just for traps and magical creatures to stop anyone who enters."

"Have you ever cleaned one out?"

"Not really. I've only worked alone, so I did not try to finish one myself. I'm not sure, that we should try it if we find one."

Catherine laughed.

"Don't worry. We can take care of things like traps and mobs."

Maria smiled bitterly.

"I've heard that many times."

"Do you think it will be one of those ruins?"

"I would bet on it. Out from the twenty some ruins I've explored, only found one or two that had no secret places."

"Nice. Then we will be able to get something nice."

Maria shrugged.

"If we find one, I won't be following you."

"It's your choice, but you'll get less payment for it."

"I don't mind it."

Theyleft the city and headed into a forest not far from it. It looked like it was part of the one they found the elfs in. They travelled for 2 days, before arriving to the place.

As they left the carriage, they saw a small stone building with one door. It was overgrown by many plants and moss. They mostly saw the door and some part of the building. A few people in armor and an old man with a book in his hand was standing in front of the building. The mand had a cloak on that hid his whole body. he had a long, white beard and bald head. He was looking at the book and the door in turns.

When they got closer the people in armor noded to Maria. She walked to the old man.

"Good to see you old man!"

The man turned around.

"Who do you call old, youngling?"

They hugged eachother.

"I miss you gramps! Why did you not come home in the past month?"

"I was on the way when someone from the phoenix family found me travelling and asked me to come here and take a look."

"I see."

"But that about me. Who are your new friends?"

Maria turned around.

"This is Joseph and Catherine. I'm helping them explore this tomb."

He narrowed his eyes.

"It is nice to see young ones trying to learn history. I'm Leonard, a historian."

Joseph smiled while greeted him.

"It is a pleasure."

Catherine casually looked at him, then to the door.

"Same here."

"So grandpa. Do you have any idea how to open this door?"

He looked at it and then stroke his head.

"I can't say I have. I've tried to translate all these symbols from the stone, but it does not make any sense. These are just different letters and numbers."

As Joseph looked closer he saw that there were different things written on the door. All of them were in latin letters and arabic numbers. They did not make any sense for him either.

Maria looked at him. He just shrugged.

"I don't see anything either."

Leonard turned around.

"You can understand the old language?"

Joseph noded.

"Wonderful! After this tomb can you help me with something?"

"Sure? But first let us find out what is going on here."

They looked at other parts of the place. They took of the plants and moss from it, but it was just letters and numbers all around the whole place. Joseph looked at it a few times before he saw something.

"All the numbers are even..."

Maria looked at him questioningly.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that, they are even numbers, just 2,4,6,8. No odd numbers."

"There is something like that?"

Joseph looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes? It's one of the basics of these numbers."

She and Leo looked at each other. They pulled out a book and wrote it down.

"This is very helpful for us young man. But how does this help us here?"

"I'm not sure yet!"

They looked at all the numbers, when Catherine waved at Joseph.

"This one looks different then the others."

She pointed at a number. It was an 5, Leo found a 19 and Maria found a 25. After a few more minutes looking at the numbers they have found an other 5.

"So a 5, a 19, a 25 and an other 5. Are there any other numbers different?"

Catherine shook her head.

"We looked at all a few times, but no more."

"Then let's see the letters."

He started to look at the letters, but there was no luck. He found all the 26 numbers multiple times.

"This is strange. There is no difference in the letters."

They sat down to rest a bit. Meanwhile Joseph taught them how to write down the abc, and what is the difference between odd and even numbers.

Maria wrote down the numbers they have found on a paper, then the alphabet on an other. Then she put them down next to eachother. That's when Joseph had an idea.

"These numbers... Could they represent letters?"

They counted the letters and selected out the ones with the numbers they've found. Maria read them all up.

"E, e, s, y? Eesy?"

Joseph laughed.

"What you said sounds like easy!"

She shouted at him.

"This is not easy!"

"No! But then what does it mean? Let's write it down in different forms."

They changed it a few times. Then they got the answer. Eyes. They looked at each other and then at the tomb. Leo walked up to it.

"There are no eyes on it. It is a smoothe stone building..."

Maria started to look for letters.

"Maybe we have to touch the letters in order!"

She touched them a few times, but nothing happened.

Catherine walked up to it and put one of her fingers on one side of the doors. Her finger lit up and she burnt one eye on one wing and an other one on the other.

They waited for a moment, then heared a loud scratching sound. The doors opened up.

Leo walked up to her chuckling.

"Good job little girl."

"It wasn't that problematic."

She walked into the room and turned around smiling.

"Also... I'm older than you. Young lad!"