"Alright, it's time for me to leave," Aariv said to his father.
"What! why? do you want to leave so soon?"
Chandragupta asked, he thought that his son would want to experience war.
"This is your war father, if I wanted to fight I would
have already ended their whole army by now," Aariv said while looking at the enemy camp.
Chandragupta nodded his head in agreement, from what he knew, he was sure that Aariv could really destroy the enemy camp in seconds.
Aariv wasn't really worried about his father as he knew that he would win, he had also checked the enemy camp and their strength to confirm his thought.
He looked towards his father and said "Ok, I am going to do my personal work now, I'll see you back in the capital."
"Alright, take care son," Chandragupta said, giving a bear hug to Aariv.
Aariv jumped off the elephant's back and walked away from the army, after an hour he had come far enough that no one would be able to to see what he was doing.
He took out a compass and headed towards west. The lost city of Dwarka was just offshore the coast of Saurashtra.
He ran at full speed for 2 days and 2 Nights and finally on the third day he reached the coastal city which was also called Dwarka but it was the fake one, the real well was submerged underwater.
He went to enter the city e but stopped before the long line of people. He saw many pilgrims going in and out of the city he looked into his memories and found out that the new city of taka had a big temple dedicated to the God Krishna.
Krishna who was the ruler of Dwarka (the submerged one).
He knew that his identity local token of the prince of the Mauryan empire would not help him to get into the city. He needed to go through the line of commoners.
He thought that it would not take much time so he went and stood and in the last of the long line of people.
But even after one hour, he noticed that the line did not proceed even a little bit. he decided to ask the guy in front of him.
"Hello brother, this is my first time coming to this holy city, so can you tell me how much time does it take to enter," Aariv asked politely
He looked at Aariv and said "well, it could take days because there are so many people who want to enter,"
Aariv got annoyed, he didn't have so much time to waste here.
"Is there any other way to enter the city, fast?." He asked.
The guy looked at Aariv suspiciously and said. "yes, there is a way. You see that other line, you can go through that line but you will have to pay one gold pana. That line is reserved for wealthy and nobles."
Aariv was pretty delighted to hear that.
~I guess just like in the future, money does solve everything~
He left the long line and went to the shorter one, he had a sword on his back and was wearing weird clothes, so he stood out among others.
The guards looked at Aariv suspiciously and when he reached the gate he took out one golden pana and gave it to the guard but instead of letting him through they asked him to follow them.
They took Aariv inside a room to interrogate him, five of them surrounded him.
State your name and purpose of coming here. one of them asked impolitely.
"I am a traveling pilgrim," Aariv said, acting like a calm pilgrim,
"Then why do you have that sword on your back? tell us the truth." the guard asked.
"Well traveling around the country is is not really safe, so to protect myself I use that sword." He said
The guard didn't have anything to refute.
"OK, then you can go, but you will have to give your sword to us." The guard said looking at the sword greedily.
Aariv frowned hearing that. He needed the sword as he didn't know what dangers lied ahead and he also knew that he wouldn't be able to buy a new sword in the city, as it was just a pilgrimage site.
"Come on gentlemen, I am sure we can work this out in some other way," Aariv said cheekily and took out 5 gold panas.
All of the guards had stars in their eyes looking at the money.
Their leader laughed and said. "of course, of course, should have done that earlier, hay newbie
show this kind Sir the way to the city."
Arya was shocked with the 180-degree turn of attitude. he was sure that these guys harass pilgrims and collect money from others too.
He didn't want any trouble for now and he was sure that soon the Saurashtra Kingdom would also come under Mauryan jurisdiction and he decided that when he would return and punish these men later.
~Agh, I think I have jinxed to always have trouble with city gurads~ He said to himself.
he got into the city and headed to the docks. he needed to hire a boat to take him to the location of the lost city.
But soon he found himself in another problem, he asked many boat owners but they all refused to take him to that place.
he was confused why they were not agreeing so he asked about boatman and found out that that region was constantly under storms and whoever went in there never came back.
"Well can you at least take me near that place," he said as he took out 1 gold pana.
The man seemed uninterested as it was not worth risking his life for just one gold pana. Looking at that, Aariv took out two more gold panas.
The man hurriedly snatched the money and said "I will only take you near."
...
After 3 hours of boat ride, Aariv finally saw a region of the sea under a heavy lightning storm.
Just looking at it made his body Shiver he had a hunch that his exploration was not going to be smooth.
Alright this is as far as I can take you, and now that you have seen it, let's go back.
"Wow... who said I was going back," Aariv said as he jumped off the boat.
The boat driver was shocked seeing that and rushed to catch Aariv, but couldn't do it.
...
After jumping from the boat Aariv swam towards the eye of the storm.
The closer he got to the storm the worse the waves got.
"Maybe, you should go underwater Aariv, and use energy manipulation to create an air bubble around you," Juno suggested.
Aariv was happy to hear Juno's suggestion and went underwater. He increased his speed and reached the bottom of the sea.
He was surprised to find many remains of buildings and sculptures.
After looking at the remains for a while he headed towards the center and in his way, he found more and more remains.
Soon he saw a big structure ahead of him. It was a building but it didn't have anything openings like doors and windows and it also didn't look damaged.
He went near the structure to examine it.
It was fully covered in algae so he used his hands to clean it. he then noticed that it was made of gold.
Aariv was shocked beyond belief because the whole structure was at least 60 meters high and 40 meters wide.
He was busy cleaning off the algae that he didn't notice the changes around him.
"Oh my God, Aariv, don't be shocked there is something behind you," Juno said in a scared voice.
Aariv instantly looked back and his jaws dropped. It was a goddamn giant snake with more than 100 heads.
"How dare you enter my master's sacred place." A loud voice resounded in Aariv's ears.