Island on the lake, now the purpose of the trip has been determined! New searches for the forgotten, buried. This always beckons adventure seekers to slightly open the curtain of the secrets of the past.
Or maybe find a real treasure and become a rich man in a minute. Everything in the world depends, although a lot depends on luck.
The gathering was short-lived, with Fang driving the jeep, Shir Ali and Dara in the back seat. Jeep with a trailer, where all the necessary equipment was located.
These are the main metal detectors, a search magnet for 200 and 1000 kg. Winch. Action cameras. Quadcopter with laser scanner and camera with high spatial resolution. Required special software for thematic decoding of images from a copter on two field laptops.
And also a couple of drones, one underwater to study the bottom for the detection of precious metals and iron the other is ground-based, to search for voids - geodetic equipment. With data output to a laptop.
And also "AFB". Interestingly, they were collected in a rural technopark in Guangzhou province.
But anyway, they were prepared for this trip.
"But where do we find the boat?" Shir-Ali remarked anxiously.
Dara looked at Fang questioningly.
He just smiled and pointed to AFB.
"AFB" ???? "What is it"? the cousins declared in amazement with one voice.
Fang, smiling broadly, waved his hand and pulled off part of the tent.
Below it was a small boat that looked like metal.
"This is what it is - AFB is a folding landing boat"!
"It can carry up to 12 people and weighs up to 1.5 tons, weighs only 25 kg, is a special material assembled, I bought it in my native village". Puffing out his chest proudly, Fang remarked.
"Lucky"! flashed through the heads of the cousins.
They even wanted to whistle but remembered that there would be no money from this.
"Well let's go," Fang remarked as he got into the boat.
The lake was located on a foothill plain, purple eremurus, a green carpet of grass, and in some places, red poppies rose. Against this background, the blue lake stood out brightly. Small. Not very deep. It used to be bigger and deeper. But with the advent of extensive agriculture, the waters of the lake were used to irrigate fields in the plain. Previously, the depth of the lake was about 7 meters, but now it barely reached 3 meters, there was a lot of silt. The island itself was small, but there were remains of rocks that remained from the last glaciation.
"One, two, three, one, two, three", monotonous voices rang out. It was Fang and Shir-Ali who worked with oars.
The boat flew quickly towards the island. Dara was sitting at the bow of the boat.
As if a moment passed, but the keel of the boat was already firmly sitting in the sand. Dara was the first to enter the island. Under his weight, the sneakers went into the sand by two fingers.
The island was small.
Therefore, each took his site and began to work on it. Fang focused on researching the island's underwater coastal area and soil. Using a water drone for this. The water was muddy, the depth was shallow. There were snags, old treads from tractors, parts of iron plows. All sorts of rubbish.
Having connected a metal detector, Fang did not see any signals of non-ferrous metals on the scanner, only iron, a lot of iron. Fang hoped it was over, to find something. However, he understood that the treasured trip does not always have to be crowned with success. This is how lucky. But all the same, such trips were exciting, what if a treasure awaits them ?!
Shir-Ali went to the hill, hoping to find there the remains of the legendary fort, the fortress about which their great-grandfather wrote. Using his powers, he did not feel anything beyond natural.
A quadrocopter took off. Having circled over the area, it was constantly blown to the side, a strong wind was blowing on the island. However, Shir-Ali was able to get the picture. On it was visible rectangular forms, foundations of some buildings. But whether they were ancient or modern is not immediately verified. You need to look in place. Which is what Shir-Ali was going to do.
As for Dar, he preferred to use his intuition and metal detector. He combed the island from the coast to the beginning of the rocks. Here he digs, then there. The numbers 44, 88, 99 popped up on the display screen. These were signals from non-ferrous metals. But more and more rubbish, brass bottle caps, duralumin bolts, some old coins of the beginning of the second northern empire, silver. But they cost only a couple of dollars on the market.
Nothing valuable, much less ancient.
On the other hand, it would be naive to expect that the island in the very center of the steppe, which for the past 60 years has been used for agricultural purposes, that something could remain there.
Still, there were sometimes exceptions to the rule.
Three hours of searching gave nothing more or less sensible.
Fang found a pair of old axes, some plows, a wheel from an old Ford tractor. Not much. You cannot make money on this, and it cannot recoup the cost of the trip. Is that to donate funds to the local museum of local lore?
Shir-Ali was more fortunate, he found a dozen lead bullets from a flintlock, a pair of forged nails with the master's mark, several spearheads, two copper coins.
Dara, however, was more fortunate, he came across a good signal, 44 between the roots of an old tree stump. At the depth of two blades of a bayonet shovel, there was a small copper box.
Shaking off the sand from the box lid, Dara lifted the lid with an effort. There were two metal balls, with the symbol for "mountain" in Chinese.
Dara, as a historian, knew that in this region of the "Mountains of Light" in 600 AD, the Chinese monk Sun Tsan passed. Then Small-An and China had close economic and trade ties. But of course to think that this monk was the one who could leave these balls would be extremely naive.
Taking the balls in his hands, Dara felt some kind of warmth in them, at that moment a system appeared in his mind.
"You are lucky! You have found an ancient artifact called Liquid Metal!
Dara, I was taken aback, everything somehow turned out ridiculous, incomprehensible, unexpected.
What is this artifact? he asked.
"This is a crafting artifact, it can take any form at the request of the owner, you just need to pour your power into it, imagining how you mentally transfer your power into the balls, this is how it works".
"This is one of a large number of ancient artifacts that contained alien viruses. This is the Earth exploration tool carried by our representatives ".
"Take it, it will be useful to you"!
Dara, I thought "well, let's try" ?!
He mentally imagined an island in a 3D model of the terrain, indicating all the hidden treasures on it.
And ... nothing appeared. Only the scarf started to get hotter.
The voice of the system "Idiot! This is not how it works"!
"And how then"? Dara asked.
"Think for yourself, dumbass!" the system responded immediately.
Dara, again presented the model of the island in his mind, as he imagined it, saw it, dreamed it.
Loudly pronounced "Reconstruction"!
The metal balls began to melt before our eyes, but the hands were not hot. Liquid metal began to form the 3D surface of the island's terrain. On top of which there was a small fortress. And there were farm buildings near it.
The model, fits in the palm of your hand, spun around on its axis. Dots appeared on the model, they sparkled with silver, disappeared. In a moment, only three luminous points remained on the model.