The entrance to the cave was quite narrow, and it wasn't long before their feet were covered with water.
"We're going to have to dive in up ahead," the man said. "Luckily there are some plants that illuminate the place, so we won't have any trouble finding the right spot."
William had no idea how this man knew so much about that tomb and what it was like. He even knew he would have to dive, and who knows, maybe he even knew the right way.
'Has he been here before?' William thought.
Despite having that question in his mind, William said nothing. He just followed the man. The two of them dived in and swam inside that cave.
The seaweed did indeed allow him to breathe underwater. William felt much more at ease because of that. If he didn't have the seaweed to help him, surely the feeling of being underwater in that narrow cave would drive him crazy. It wasn't something easy to endure.
The man went ahead, and William just followed him. They had to swim for about 30 minutes, changing direction several times. But eventually, they got out of the water and arrived at a kind of stone structure.
"I think the tomb starts here," the man said. "At least it seems to be because of these different stones."
"And why did they create this tomb underwater? The access is crap," William said.
"Well, I don't know that. Maybe to protect the treasure? And another thing, from what I know, this person died a long time ago. What if this place wasn't underwater before?" the man said.
He had a point that made sense. The passage of time was capable of changing places, and William couldn't be sure that place had always been that way.
William, of all people, should know well what time was capable of causing.
The two followed the stone structure, entering the tomb of the mysterious person who had died.
The tomb was very large. William and the man walked slowly, trying their best to avoid stepping on traps or the like.
"We're lucky they're going ahead," the man said. "This will make them step on the traps first, and explore the place for us. But we must be careful not to let them see us."
Considering that the fish-men were having the greatest difficulty avoiding the traps and also exploring the place, William had to go slowly, otherwise they would meet quickly.
They tried to focus on marks or the voices of the fish-men, as it would be easy to hear the voices in those corridors. It wasn't long before they started to hear voices.
"You said you knew how to get past all the traps. What the hell is this?" a gruff voice said.
"Yes, I know, but this one takes time," a man replied.
"We don't have time! The mermaids are already ahead. We have to catch up with them!"
William could discern that the gruff voice belonged to some fish-man, and the other voice to a human. Could it be Luke, one of the pirates, or someone else?
"It seems they have someone who understands the traps of this place," William whispered. "In that case, they have an advantage compared to us."
"Yes… But if we follow them, we won't have a problem."
They continued walking until they reached a more open area with several different corridors. In the middle of this room, they saw a statue, and around the statue were the fish-men and the pirates!
William couldn't just walk straight ahead and go there in the middle. They would easily notice his presence. Although the fish-men had terrible senses out of the water, it wasn't the same for the pirates who were there with them.
So the best thing to do was to stay away, and make sure no one noticed their presence.
The problem was that the room was open, meaning there weren't many places to hide. Because of this, William and his partner decided to go back a little and wait.
"Let's wait for them to get past this trap or riddle, and then we'll follow them," the man said.
William agreed with him. That seemed like the most sensible thing to do.
They waited for a good few minutes until they heard a noise coming from the room, and the celebration of everyone who was there.
"Good, finally. Let's continue."
William waited a bit and then went to the room again, and there he noticed that the statue had moved, opening a staircase that led down.
"They went that way," William pointed. "Let's go."
But before they could get there, the statue moved and returned to its initial position. In other words, the passage they were going to use was blocked again.
William tried to run to the place, but he didn't arrive in time. The statue returned to its initial position in less than a second.
He tried to push the statue or even break it, but it was as if it were made of a different kind of material, and not stone. It seemed to be much more resistant, and no matter what William did, nothing happened.
"It won't be possible to break or force our way through this," the man said. "This statue has a strong aura of magic. They must have made a magical formation a long time ago, something that would transform this thing into something indestructible."
The first thing William thought was that the man with him understood a lot about magical formations, and maybe he could somehow get past that riddle.
"Do you think you can figure it out?" William asked. "I think between the two of us, you must be the person who has the most understanding about these things."
"I can try… But before that, let's explore the place, maybe we can get some clues," the man said.
Besides the statue in the middle of the room, there were other corridors that led to other places.
If the fish-men and the pirates ignored these corridors and went straight for the passage under the statue, well, that meant they already knew a lot about that tomb.
Maybe it was a waste of time to explore the other corridors, but they had to try. William and his partner chose a corridor and moved on.
The corridor was different from the others that had nothing. That corridor had several paintings, and judging by the name written below the paintings, they were made by the same person.
But that's when William froze. The name written below the paintings was familiar to him.
The first name was Jinra, the same name as his master in the past, and the person who helped him.
This wasn't the first time he'd heard of the name Jinra in the present, and wondered if it was the same person he'd met in the past.
"This Jinra, have you heard of him? Could it be the same guy famous for magical formations and his powerful enchantments?" William asked.
The man seemed surprised to hear that. "So you know him? Yes, I believe it belongs to him."
"So you knew who was buried here? Why did you lie?" William confronted the man.