Chapter 101 Forgotten Temple

Chapter 101 Forgotten Temple

They were standing in a lush green valley, as he had guessed from the sound, surrounded by mountains, with a massive golden pyramid temple in front of them.

The steps up each side pulsed with magic that he could feel even from hundreds of metres away, while between him and the temple stood thousands of glowing crystal golems, the same rainbow hue as the crystals that they had come here to recover.

"I'm going to guess that there was no warning about not touching the crystal with your bare skin. But wherever we are, we might be in trouble." Karl informed the others, who were a bit slower to adjust than he was.

"How did we get here? And holy hell, are those Golems? I want one." Dana gasped, shocking Karl with her unexpected language.

The Golems were beautiful, and they looked powerful, but if Thor's guess was right, they were far from friendly.

Thor activated his lightning barrier, ready to fight, but the Golems didn't move at all. They just stood there, watching the group of intruders from a distance.

Karl stepped forward to calm the nervous Cerro, not wanting to start an incident before everyone was recovered, and they had some idea what was going on. If touching the crystal brought them here, then doing it again on this side might send them all back.

That would likely be for the best if it was possible. New novel chapters are published at novelhall.com

But when he got a few steps forward, a message appeared in the air in front of them.

[Welcome to the World Dragon Temple's Trial Instance]

"Do you see that?" Dana asked from behind him.

"I do, and I would rather that I didn't if it means we've got to fight those golems." Karl agreed.

"I think that we stepped into an ancient holy relic. The crystals must have been the ruins of its activation array before it was buried under the cavern, and now we're in some sort of trial ground that the World Dragon Church set up for their members." She added.

"That's not reassuring at all."

Though most of the holy relics from those ancient times didn't lead to death, a trial ground might, especially if it was damaged by time.

Approach the temple and speak the side you wish to challenge. Each visitor may challenge one side per day. Every day you remain on a chosen side, the difficulty of the other sides will increase.]

All the students stared at each other in shock. What sort of trial was this? They just had to walk up the stairs, and it would test them somehow?

Then, Thor disappeared, and reappeared a second later on one of the staircases to the temple.

[Nothing is stronger than a Cerro.] Thor announced proudly in Karl's mind as he stepped onto the first stair and a crushing weight seemed to descend upon him.

[See, nothing at all.] He gloated, then took another step and the weight doubled.

One more step and he began to reconsider his position.

[Except maybe these stairs.] He amended when he was forced to a stop.

There were a thousand steps, by Karl's estimation, to get to the top. Thor was struggling at step three and had come to a stop at step five.

"Well, that's how it's done, I guess. Just will yourself to the trial you desire, and see how that works out for you. We will stay here as long as we can, at a very minimum, we will stay four days, so we can try all the routes. We have enough resources for that in our packs, and it's only half a day to the train tracks." Karl informed the group.

"I like the way you think, team leader. Now, let's go do the trial before the clerics start crying in joy." One of the warriors laughed.

"Have you two taken the Divine Injection yet?" Karl asked the clerics as the rest of the group began to move forward.

They shook their heads. "Not until next year. We're still trainees at the Seminary School."

"Then this will be quite a day for you. Just do the best that you can, and maybe start with the magic route, since you've got some skill with holy magic already."

Karl let Hawk and Rae out of their spaces, and Hawk immediately vanished from sight, going to one of the tests that they couldn't see from their position.

The mages and warriors all seemed to still be visible, so it would be willpower and fate that were on the far side of the temple.

Rae went to join Thor on the strength training side, as she wasn't confident in her magical abilities, while Karl considered what route he should try first. The Golem said one route a day, so he would try willpower first, as that was one that he was more confident in.