So, I Transmigrated Into The Heavenly Realm

49. Finding a Temple in a Field

That they weren't currently crushed under tons of gravel and had found somewhere safe in the chaos of falling.

Where they had been excavating only moments before, had been directly above a flat deposit of gravel. Now there was only a gaping maw of a giant sinkhole. It extended so deep that even the sunlight that was brightly shining overhead could not give them any glimpse of what lay at the bottom and the fate of their fellow archaeologist.

~~~

After what felt like hours, but could only have been several seconds, they could hear her shouting from the bottom of the hole.

"Professor!" She shouted. The sound seemed to echo as if she was standing in some gigantic cave.

The professor knelt as close to the edge of the hole as they dared and shouted their response down into it. "Are you injured?"

"No but you've got to see what's down here!" The junior replied, echoing up from the hole. Her voice was filled to the brim with excitement and they could hear her walking around somewhere down there. The gravel crunched so loudly beneath her feet that even that echoed its way up to them.

She wasn't trapped, that was good. It was very good.

Maybe getting her out wouldn't be too hard.

"What is down there?" The professor asked, trying to peep down into the darkness of the hole as they lay flat along the ground at its edge. Two other members of staff tightly holding onto their feet to ensure that they didn't take a nosedive over the edge should the sides of the sinkhole prove to be less stable than expected.

"Some sort of building!" The fallen archaeologist answered, "It's white marble!"

Marble was not a stone that was found in the local area. It had to have been transported hundreds of miles. It seemed the stone found previously hadn't fallen from a passing trader's cart at all. It had been intended for or was part of this mysterious building metres below the surface.

They were all relieved that the member of staff at the bottom of the hole had the forethought to carry a small torch with them today and that it too had survived the fall. At least she wouldn't be accidentally falling even further down by accident due to stumbling around in the dark.

Someone that had run off back to the camp to get some rope came running back with it streaming behind them like a gymnasts ribbon. How he hadn't managed to trip over it or get it tangled beyond all hope of undoing in the process they collectively had no idea. It had taken three people grabbing the rope as he raced past them to prevent him from plummeting to the bottom of the sinkhole too.

His momentum had been hard to stop on his own even seeing the current size of the sinkhole laying directly in his path.

They tentatively lowered one end of the rope into the opening with a weight tied to the end to ensure it wouldn't get caught on the sides of the hole. Everyone worked together to pull up their coworker at the bottom, once they tied themselves securely to it. The whole team celebrated once she was untied from the rope and they were standing far enough away from the edge that it was safe to jump up and down.

It had been hard for her to get a grasp of how large the building was. It was mostly buried beneath the debris and her torch light wasn't strong enough to illuminate much. It was however apparent that there was something very special and forgotten by history down there and it was made of this precious well travelled white stone.

Just finding the one stone on the surface was enough to make an archaeologist's career. An entire building and whatever secrets it housed within, was beyond everyone's wildest dreams.