A New Beginning

"What is this?" William muttered with his frowned eyebrows and squinting eyes.

He was lying on the ground, in a room full of hieroglyphs like symbols on the stone walls and floor. A faint breeze could be felt, tickling him to wake up. A moldy scent of rotting assailed his nostrils.

'I last remember studying that newly discovered Egyptian papyrus in my tent... So sleepy... Maybe I am dreaming? However, this is all too real for a dream. Haaah... All these days in the desert have taken a toll on me. I should just enjoy this moment.'

With this thought in mind, he roused himself from sleep and stood up from the hard floor. What he did not expect, however, was that there was an ancient wooden door before him. It was already rotten door with a single doorknob on it. The symbols on the walls and floor seemed to converge to this door. Although he was a young genius archeologist, he could not decipher every symbol around him, but he could more or less infer there meaning.

'It says...'Where everything began...' but i can't understand the other part. Well it's just a dream so why should I not see what is behind this.'

He made his way towards the door and turned the doorknob. Immediately, he was engulfed in white light and disappeared form the room, and the last sound he heard was the clacking of the door, leaving the room to its former tranquility.

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"Aaaaaaaaahhhhh..."

A panic-stricken voice shouted pitifully as a silhouette fell from the clear sky.

If William considered it a dream earlier, now he was fully awake! He felt the most awake at this moment in his entire life!

It was a sea of yellow under him and scorching hot air blew on his face. Tears were forming at the corner of his blue eyes and he flailed his arms and legs around in a useless effort to slow down.

"Is this how I am going to die?! I am still so young!" William cried out and closed his eyes.

Fortunately for him, god had other plans for him, as just before he touched the ground, he was gently lifted up by an invisible force.

" Am I not dead?" William asked himself fearfully.

He opened his eyes and discovered that he was standing on a dune of sand. There was sand everywhere. He was right in the middle of an enormous desert! The blazing hot sun was shining brightly in the cloudless sky.

He checked his body all other and was relieved to be in one piece. His brown hat, leather jacket,khaki trousers and leather boots were all here; even his pendant, which contained his parent's photo, was firmly attached to his neck.

'I wonder where I am. Is this even real?' William had not yet understood how he could arrive here.

He, William Lincoln, was leading some excavations near the Nile with a team of archeologists. Although he could have lived like a king with the Lincoln family inheritance, he decided to abandon it as he did not want to entangle into an inheritance struggle with his siblings. Instead, William Lincoln wanted to accomplish his dream of discovering the lost city, Atlantis, before anyone. When he got a lead that it could be linked to the Old Egyptians, he rushed to try to discover a hint. After months in the boiling hot heat, he found a buried temple where he obtained a key shaped gold antique.

Suddenly, he looked at his left hand and discovered the exact same design as the antique he had. It was a golden tattoo with a circle over a cross, shining inconspicuously. As he was focusing on it, William got the feeling of being sucked into it.

He had again come to the ancient stone room. However, there was now only a line of inscription of the wall. This time, it was Egyptian and it went:

'You are the first person to discover our inheritance. The world you were in previously was the hidden world, Atlantis, an entire world much more vast than the world you lived in. After millenias of isolation, the inhabitants have lost any sense of civilization and they have regressed to nomadic lifestyle but we hope that you can lead our children to make a prosperous empire.

-Jupiter'

There were no more words after that.

"What? Do you believe that I will accept it easily like that? And how do I return to Earth?" William asked disbelievingly.

'Guess I can only rely on myself.' He thought as he received no answer. Seeing that there was nothing else to see, he exited the room, but this time, there was no free falling and he felt as if he regained possession of his body. Nothing had changed. This was the same old desert he fell into. However, he noticed a flashing blue exclamation mark at the bottom right corner of his eyes. He focused on it and a pop-up appeared.

'Notice: Goal of host is to acquire subordinates to make an empire. As energy levels are too low, only the level of affection of a person will be displayed. No more help will be given.'

As William finished reading, the text automatically disappeared.

'Such helpfulness! Looks like I should give a good 'reward' to the guy who made it.' he said sarcastically.

Well, I just have to follow my grandpa's words:

"United we stand, divided we fall."

William took a deep breath and started his adventure in Atlantis.