His almost depleted stamina was rapidly recovering at an astonishing rate, his fatigue disappeared and his face turned bright and rosy again.
He also felt that his wounds were healing and they were scabbing rapidly and eventually started to feel itchy but did not scratch it fearing that he might interrupt the healing process.
He received these wounds when he was unable to dodge the sudden attacks of the water snakes, he wasn't perfectly able to deal with them as he was still accumulating fighting experience with them.
He always tried to at least minimize the damage done to him though by tightly protecting the fatal parts of his body.
He was even caught off guard earlier that should've critically injured him at the very least thus he had no choice but to reluctantly sacrifice his least frequently used limb which is his right arm.
It bore the brunt of the attack and it immediately became limp after which was quite unfortunate but wasn't life-threatening to him because he was born a lefty person thus it didn't do much to him other than limiting some of his hand maneuvers.
He survived all of the sudden attacks from the Water Snakes until he eventually learned their attack and movement patterns completely, which gave him a much easier time when it comes to dealing with these pesky creatures.
His wounds had almost recovered completely when he received a notification.
[ You are now eligible to enter the Temple of the Water Spirit. ]
He frowned for a moment when the dark cave suddenly became brightly lit that made him close his eyes in pain due to the sudden changes of what his eyes were seeing.
He recovered from his temporary vision loss though as he still had the recovery buff effect applied on him.
He slowly opened his eyes until they completely adapted to their surroundings.
He could now finally see the true appearance of the dark cave which bought him quite a surprise as the slightly rocky surface of the caves were colored in blue that made it look like small sparkling blue crystals which completely mesmerized Mirage.
'What a beautiful sight to behold.'
He involuntarily thought to himself when there was a sudden movement of the space in front of him.
The space became turbulent and unstable as if something is coming out of thin air which bought him quite a bit of dread but his thoughts did not come true as what manifested in front of him was a swirling milky blue portal.
He frowned and was about to take a step back when his expression suddenly due to the intense sucking motion that it bought to him.
He couldn't prevent himself from being pulled towards the portal as its pulling motion slowly grew in strength thus he could only give up his needlessly useless struggling and let himself fly towards the portal.
Then if one carefully looked at the ground one could see that the shadow of Mirage slightly moved and flickered with low dark light.
Mirage successfully entered the portal it then slowly shrank in size until it completely disappeared, it looked like it left because it had managed to complete its task of bringing the human back to where it came from.
The blue cave slowly became dark and empty after Mirage left using the blue portal earlier.
***
Mirage slowly opened his eyes and immediately felt sick due to the turbulent movements of space when he teleported.
He took a deep breath and took his time to recover from the motion sickness until he finally felt better and went to examine his surroundings with curiosity and vigilance.
It was an unfamiliar place after all and he did not know if there are dangers that were hidden around the place.
It looked like he was bought into some kind of an underwater place as the place was surrounded by a circular and large dome barrier that prevented the water outside from entering the place.
There seemed to be a tall building not far from him thus he walked towards it until he could finally see bits of its shocking true appearance.
He discovered that it was a magnificent and large palace that had a sapphire blue surface that shone brightly like a large blue star, the castle looks quite exotic and strangely attractive at the same time.
He subconsciously continued walking towards the castle as he got entranced by the beautiful sight.
'This must be the Temple of the Water Spirit but it's more of a royal castle than a humble worshipping temple.'
He suddenly thought to himself which made him chuckle a bit.
There were large golden blue castle gates in front of the 'temple' that made him gape in awe due to its massive heights that almost covered the temple completely.
There were no creatures around even after walking near the gates thus he lowered his vigilance a bit but he was quite hesitant to open the gate as he did not know if there were restrictions placed on it and even if he knew, he couldn't possibly push this huge of a gate can he?
While he was still hesitating the huge castle gates in front of him suddenly produced a loud clanging and sharp creaking sound that made him retreat to a distance while covering his ears in pain.
He was a few meters away from it when the gates had already opened completely and it looked like it had no plans of closing until he entered the temple.
He frowned in doubt but still entered and passed through the huge gates.
When he arrived at the front yard of the temple he could vaguely see a huge statue of a tall human not far from where he was.
He was quite curious about what and who the statue depicted thus he went towards it to look.
Then he was given quite a shock after he had finally seen its true appearance.
The statue was completely made out of water and it looked lifelike despite it looking solid yet soft at the same time.
He avoided touching the statue as he feared that it might crumble apart with slight touch which would be a pity if he indeed ruined it with his own hands as the person depicted on the statue was a beautiful woman beyond compare.
The unknown woman in the statue emitted an otherworldly elegance like a beautiful fairy that descended to this world.
She had long wavy hair and on her head laid a beautiful round tiara which made her look regal and dignified.
She had a pair of attractive phoenix eyes that looked serenely calm like still water which also shone with bright intellectual lights that looked like they could see through anything.
Mirage faintly noticed that hidden behind those calm eyes was a piercingly sharp gaze that made him feel numb and fearful as if his secrets were all seen through with just a single glance.
The woman's thin and attractive lips were slightly uplifted to form a graceful and beautiful smile, she wore a long and gorgeous dress that covered her down to her knees that made her flawless legs exposed for anyone to see, she also wore a pair of exquisitely tall sandals that paired up with her dress perfectly.
Mirage was entranced by the woman's outstanding beauty while he silently thought to himself in shock.
'How shocking... her beauty isn't the least bit inferior to that of the known most beautiful woman back on Earth... in fact, this woman is even more beautiful because she had this kind of peerless temperament that the other doesn't have.'
He was silently examining the statue when he suddenly received a notification.
[ Her peerless beauty is like that of a peaceful and still lake but beneath that seemingly calm surface is an unfathomably fierce and dangerous torrents. - ?? ]
[ You have discovered the shocking masterpiece of an unknown legendary sculptor. All stats + 10 ]
"Umm..."
He was taken aback by the first notification as it was the first time that he had received this kind of poetic notification, nevertheless, he was still in a good mood because of the sudden increase in his stats.
He wasn't expecting to receive anything when he was examining the status but how could he say no when he had already received the free 40 points in his overall stats?
At the rate of the attribute point that the game rewarded him per level, he would've needed at least 40 level-ups before he would be able to get that amount of points.
The number of points rewarded was good but the aftereffects of gaining a sudden increase in stats were not so good.
He felt a swollen feeling on his body particularly his arms and legs while he also felt a dizzying feeling assaulting his head, there was also the sudden feeling of lightness in his body that made him wobble to his feet.
Finally, he felt as if his whole body was bloating up due to the unprecedented increase in his stamina to the point that he felt an urge to shout and run around the yard.