DOTM: Chapter 313/314

Chapter 313: Logan Not Noticing His Footsteps

After returning to the Goddess of Dawn, Ethan didn't immediately activate the teleportation.

He first took a stroll around the ship, then brought out a deck chair and lay in the sun for a while. He ordered the Goddess of Dawn to sail leisurely across the vast ocean, as if he had completely forgotten his plans. He looked more like someone on vacation.

"Are you planning to relax a bit?"

"No."

Ethan lay back comfortably, wearing sunglasses.

"Just thinking about the next course of action."

"Haven't you already decided which world to go to?"

Ada was very curious about how Ethan obtained information about the target world. No matter how she investigated, it seemed only Ethan had access to this secret. No one else knew a thing.

"Yes, but the specific steps require careful thought."

The Mummy world didn't seem particularly dangerous. Imhotep was indeed a powerful priest, but as long as he wasn't resurrected, that era—right after the end of World War I—was relatively backward.

They were heading to Egypt, which at that time wasn't at the center of global civilization. Compared to the world powers, it lagged far behind.

A backward place came with many inconveniences, but also some benefits.

No one would care about Ethan's identity. As long as he had money, almost any problem could be solved.

Hamunaptra was located in a remote desert. No matter how much noise he caused, it wouldn't matter. There were no military satellites in the sky back then, so he didn't have to worry about being photographed and becoming a person of interest to any country.

With his current abilities, Ethan wasn't afraid of being targeted, but dealing with the trouble would be annoying. That's why he had remained restrained in most worlds.

"So, what have you come up with so far?"

Ethan smiled but didn't answer. A lot of information was not suitable to reveal, especially to Ada, an elite spy.

It was probably in her nature to want to get to the bottom of things. Since boarding the ship, she had been trying hard to figure everything out. Ethan had long noticed that she was particularly concerned about how he knew so much about other worlds.

As for this secret, he might share it with truly trustworthy companions in the future, but not now.

The plan for the Mummy world? He had been recalling the entire plot of that world.

Although his mental strength had been enhanced and he could recall memories from his past life clearly, if not actively used, these memories were like clutter stored in the corner of a warehouse—they took time and effort to retrieve and organize before they could be put to use.

The story of The Mummy wasn't complicated. That was typical of commercial blockbusters.

A relatively simple main storyline, clear character relationships, and dazzling special effects.

Given Ethan's current situation, the benefit was that he didn't need to waste time sorting through complex plots or character relationships. He just needed to analyze which parts of the story would be most useful to him.

In simple terms, what was going to happen in the Mummy world was this: Evelyn Carnahan, a female archaeologist, received a key and a map from her brother Jonathan Carnahan. This led her to set her sights on the legendary City of the Dead, Hamunaptra. In search of this mythic pyramid, she embarked on a miraculous adventure.

Initially, Ethan thought that as long as he intercepted Jonathan and took the key and map in advance, Evelyn would become irrelevant. After all, she didn't contribute much in the entire plot aside from causing trouble.

But then he embarrassingly realized a problem: he couldn't do without Evelyn. Both of the scriptures he needed were written in ancient Egyptian.

Ethan knew many languages, but ancient Egyptian wasn't one of them.

When he had prioritized language learning, he had taken into account that he might travel to multiple worlds and had focused on the ones most likely to be useful.

Later, he even prepared to learn the magic of Kamar-Taj, which required studying more obscure languages—but even those didn't include ancient Egyptian.

Not only had he never learned it, but his collection didn't include any books related to ancient Egyptian. Even if he wanted to study it now, he didn't have the materials or textbooks.

"So Evelyn still needs to come along."

Alternatively, he could find Evelyn in advance and pay her to teach him ancient Egyptian. With Ethan's current learning ability, it wouldn't take too long.

The difficulty lay in not knowing the exact time of his arrival. If it was a bit earlier, it would be fine—he could intercept the key and map ahead of time.

But if it was later or just as the plot began, then it would be too late to learn the language. Stealing the key wouldn't be hard, but who would teach him ancient Egyptian then?

"There seems to be an archaeologist in that group of Americans."

Ethan lay there, analyzing the various possibilities. After a while, he got up again, stretched lazily, and looked at Ada, who was standing beside him.

"Get a good night's sleep. We're leaving first thing in the morning. Once we get there, there won't be another chance to rest comfortably."

Only Ada was going with him this time. After fulfilling Old Charles's request, Logan finally relaxed. The burden on his heart had lifted, and he felt much more at ease.

At the same time, he didn't want to travel again, especially after hearing the next world was Egypt. He wasn't looking forward to suffering in the desert, so he said he would stay on the ship.

Loki wasn't coming either. He was just waiting for Ethan to finish handling all these small matters and take him home. He was looking forward to giving his father and brother a big surprise upon returning and didn't want to waste time in these messy worlds.

Selene had no interest in a year-long desert trip, and Annette even less so. What she cared about was whether Ethan would bring back anything fun. Unfortunately, last time in the X-Men world, Ethan hadn't brought back any mutant genes.

After a good night's rest, the only ones setting off with Ethan were Ada—and someone who claimed he wasn't coming.

"I hope this trip will be worthwhile for you."

Last time, Ada had done almost nothing, just stayed in the mansion feeling dazed. Her abilities had no room to be used, and she'd been completely miserable.

This time should be better, right?

Looking at the surrounding environment, with its dryness, sand, and scorching heat, the difference from the humid atmosphere on the ship was stark. She felt like a large portion of moisture in her body had instantly evaporated.

"No wonder Selene didn't want to come."

Even normal people wouldn't like the hot, dry, dusty desert environment, let alone a vampire. Cairo at this time wasn't a clean or modern city either. The mixed smells in the air were far from pleasant.

"But Logan, didn't you say you weren't coming?"

Logan's sense of smell was sharper than a normal person's, so the strange odor in the air made him feel even more uncomfortable. He lit a cigar to ease the irritation. Maybe that's why he always smoked cigars—his sense of smell was too sensitive?

"I really didn't plan to come. I just didn't notice where I was stepping and accidentally stood inside the magic circle."

Ethan shook his head, speechless. Logan might not have intended to come, but when he heard it was Egypt and Ethan mentioned possibly facing powerful priests, he must have gotten a bit uneasy and decided to follow.

Even if he couldn't defeat a supernatural priest, he believed he could help Ethan by relying on his immortality.

Whether to delay the enemy or help Ethan escape, Logan figured he could manage.

Compared to Ada, who had just joined and clearly had her own agenda, Logan believed he was far more reliable.

Ethan knew why Logan had followed. He patted this oldest companion of his, then looked around carefully.

"Seems like our luck's not bad. We didn't land in ancient Egypt three thousand years ago."
(Note: Previously mentioned "3000 years ago" was inaccurate. The correct timeline should be over 1700 BC, which is indeed more than 3000 years before the plot begins.)

If they had ended up back then, they would probably have had to go up against the Egyptian dynasty directly—Ethan couldn't think of another way to get his hands on those two scriptures.

Stealing was certainly an option, but it would inevitably lead to conflict.

Landing in 1923 meant he didn't need to confront an entire country. His competitors were just a troublesome archaeologist, a combat veteran, a greedy thief skilled in stealing…

Ethan asked around briefly, got directions to the Cairo Museum, and then headed there with Logan and Ada.

Although he knew it was 1923, it was still hard to pinpoint exactly when in the year. He'd only know after meeting Evelyn.

What he hadn't expected was that when he finally found the Cairo Museum and reached the curator's office, he saw Evelyn and her brother Jonathan kneeling on the floor, frantically patting out flames on a burning map.

Ethan was speechless. How could the timing be this coincidental? He had just been thinking about finding this pair ahead of time to take the map and key, thus avoiding the need to find Rick O'Connell as a guide.

And yet, as soon as he found them, he witnessed the most crucial part of the map going up in flames.

Of course, he knew the museum curator had deliberately burned the map. The curator, Terence Bey, was also one of the Pharaoh's guards. His duty was to ensure Hamunaptra, the City of the Dead, was never discovered by outsiders.

Looking smug at having just destroyed the map, Terence Bey noticed Ethan and the others. He asked their purpose with a self-satisfied smile, only to hear the exact words he didn't want to hear:

"I want to go to Hamunaptra."

(To be continued.)

Chapter 314: The Speechless Brother and Sister

Terence Bey's expression turned quite strange. He felt something was off today. Evelyn, who was always making foolish mistakes, had suddenly announced that she wanted to find Hamunaptra. Now a few strangers had appeared, also claiming they were searching for Hamunaptra? Was Hamunaptra some kind of tourist attraction now? Or had someone been actively promoting this place everywhere?

"I don't know where you heard about this place," he said. "Hamunaptra is just a legendary city, not a place that actually exists."

Though mentally cursing, Terence Bey still stuck to his duty—to keep the secret of the City of the Dead as much as possible, preventing anyone from entering or even approaching that legendary place.

"It really exists!"

Evelyn, who always gave Curator Terence Bey a massive headache, jumped in again, waving the map in her hand.

"I have a map of Hamunaptra," she said, "but the part showing the location was burned."

Evelyn completely ignored Terence's displeased expression. Instead, she glared at him angrily, feeling that his carelessness had destroyed a very important map. This map might have proven the real existence of a historical period and would be of great significance to archaeology. As an archaeologist, she believed it was her responsibility to search for Hamunaptra and prove its existence.

"What do we do now?"

Jonathan looked at the burned map, ignoring both the curator and Ethan. He lowered his head, thought for a moment, and came up with an idea.

"Maybe we can go find someone."

"Find someone?"

"I got this thing from that person," Jonathan explained. "Maybe he knows something."

Upon hearing this, Evelyn became excited as well. Ignoring the surrounding onlookers, she urged her brother, "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go find that person right now."

"Ahem."

Ethan cleared his throat to emphasize his presence. Evelyn finally noticed their group and looked at Ethan with a slightly dazed expression.

"We want to go to Hamunaptra," Ethan said. "We were wondering if we could join your... adventure team?"

Evelyn stared blankly at Ethan, then turned to look at Logan beside him and continued to stare. In Cairo at this time, it was hard to find men who fit her aesthetic standards. They were either ugly... or just plain ugly. Even women liked to look at handsome men for eye candy. In this environment, suddenly seeing two men above average, it wasn't surprising that Evelyn was momentarily smitten.

Fortunately, Jonathan didn't fall into a daze. When he heard that Ethan and his companions also wanted to go to Hamunaptra, his first reaction was, Someone wants to steal my treasure!

Just as he was about to refuse, the young man across from him said, "I'm not interested in treasures or anything like that, so you don't have to worry about me competing with you for the legendary gold."

Upon hearing that Ethan wasn't after the gold, Jonathan's attitude immediately improved.

"Let's talk outside."

Evelyn had also come back to her senses by this time. Hearing that Ethan and the others also wanted to go to Hamunaptra, the academically driven woman didn't think too much about it. She simply felt that having a few more people on the trip was no big deal.

At the same time, she noticed Ethan and his companions' clothing. It was clean, neat, and clearly expensive, suggesting that they had come from elsewhere. Could they be archaeologists too?

"Hello, I'm Evelyn Carnahan, and this is my brother Jonathan."

"My name is Ethan. This is Logan, and this is Ada."

The slightly dazed Evelyn had no guard up at all, which saved Ethan the trouble of fabricating a backstory. Just a few simple introductions, and he had smoothly "joined" the small group formed by the siblings.

"Isn't that a bit too easy?"

Logan found the situation a bit unbelievable. With all his years of experience traveling across different worlds with Ethan, he had never met someone so naive. These were complete strangers who had just appeared out of nowhere, and this woman had absolutely no defenses?

Everyone ignored Curator Terence Bey, who was left speechless and depressed. They left the museum chatting, and Evelyn even brought them back to her place without any hesitation, asking her brother to entertain them while she packed and changed.

She had already decided to find the person Jonathan mentioned. As for Ethan and the others? They were just a few more companions. Having more people to talk to during the journey didn't sound like a bad thing.

After Evelyn left to change, Ethan also began to feel a little absurd. Evelyn was a bit naive, but wasn't she a little too unguarded? How had she managed to live safely to this age without being sold off? Egypt at this time was not exactly safe.

"Let me confirm one more time," Jonathan said. "You really don't want any of the gold inside?"

Jonathan was also quite the oddball. He didn't care where Ethan and the others had come from. All he cared about was whether they'd be taking a share of the treasure.

"Yeah. That stuff's useless to us."

Jonathan glanced at their clothing. As an experienced thief, he had sharp eyes. Though he couldn't quite tell what made their outfits unique, he could tell they were expensive—definitely not something ordinary people could afford.

So he reached a conclusion: these people were loaded.

"So what exactly do you want?" Jonathan asked. "You're not just going to see the legendary pyramids, are you?"

"I want to find the two legendary books," Ethan replied.

Ethan didn't hide his goal. Maybe he felt a bit guilty about taking advantage of the siblings?

"You mean the Book of the Dead and the Book of the Living?"

Evelyn, who had changed her clothes, rushed out of her room. Her place wasn't large, and the soundproofing wasn't great. Ethan hadn't spoken particularly softly, so she had overheard everything.

"Do those two books really exist?"

"If Hamunaptra exists, then why wouldn't the two books exist?"

Evelyn nodded. Ethan's reasoning made perfect sense to her. But after hearing that the two legendary books might really exist, she became even more eager. She wanted to head to Hamunaptra immediately.

"Let's go find that person now."

"Now?" Jonathan hadn't expected Evelyn to be in such a rush. He still wanted to have a proper chat with Ethan and see if he could get some money out of these 'rich folks'.

"Of course now. Where's the person you mentioned?"

The person Jonathan had referred to was Rick O'Connell, the male protagonist from the movie. His unit had discovered Hamunaptra during his military service, and they had found a small box with a map inside.

That item was actually a multi-functional key, though no one knew that yet. Jonathan had previously stolen this key, and it was now in Evelyn's possession.

Now that the map was damaged, Jonathan thought of finding O'Connell again, hoping he could give them the exact location of Hamunaptra.

That male protagonist was currently locked up in Cairo prison.

Cairo prison, naturally, was dirty and chaotic. The warden could decide at will whether a prisoner lived or died, or when they would be released.

Just like now, he decisively agreed to release O'Connell.

Unlike in the original plot, where O'Connell was already hanging from a rope before being saved through negotiation, Ethan wasn't sure the protagonist in this real-world version could last that long. If the hanging began, he might really die from a broken neck.

If that happened, Ethan would have no choice but to obtain the location of Hamunaptra from the curator, who was also a guardian. That would be much harder, since these guardians were completely willing to sacrifice their lives to keep the secret.

To make sure nothing went wrong, Ethan directly proposed taking someone from their prison as soon as he met the fat warden.

"I don't care why you locked him up," Ethan said. "And I don't care what you think. Right now, you have two choices. Hand him over to me."

"Or?"

The warden didn't believe he was the type to be swayed by a little money or a few threats.

"Or I'll take him myself," Ethan said. "In that case, you won't get any benefits—and you might end up with more trouble."

Words alone weren't enough to convince him. But when Ethan followed up by conjuring a flaming fireball in his once-empty palm, the situation changed.

As the fireball drifted closer and closer to the warden's face, the terrifying heat it gave off made his thick beard begin to sizzle. The scorched smell reminded him that this definitely wasn't an illusion.

"I'll release him immediately."

If it had been a threat of force, the warden might have temporarily given in, only to take revenge later.

But now, the threat came from a mysterious sorcerer. The fear of supernatural power extinguished any thoughts of retaliation. Even if someone gave him extra courage, he wouldn't dare. He even had the urge to leave Cairo and hide somewhere remote, afraid this sorcerer might come looking for him again.

As the panicked warden personally went into the prison to release O'Connell, Ethan turned back to find Evelyn and Jonathan staring at him in stunned silence, their eyes wide with disbelief.

"What's wrong?"

Evelyn was the first to recover, though her expression was still dazed. She shakily raised a finger and pointed at the fireball in Ethan's hand.

"It's just a simple little spell," Ethan said. "Just a small display. No need to be so surprised."

He lightly closed his fist, and with a soft poof, the fireball vanished, leaving only a wisp of smoke curling from his fingers.

(To be continued.)