After dropping the Abyss Ember off, Sydra went to find the others. It was going to take a few days for the cannon to be finished, and he wanted to figure out what they should do over the next few days.
"How long did Gail say it was going to take to finish the cannon?" Erich asks as the group sits down for lunch.
"He said it would take around five days, which is pretty good considering all that needs to be done," Sydra says while pointing some items out on the menu to the waiter, "What should we do while we wait for him to finish?"
"I think we should join some of the exploration teams and explore the sunken cities of Seasoul Haven. Captain Smith did say that there were a lot of underwater temples that we could search through if we wanted," Robert says as he pulls out a folded paper and hands it to Sydra.
"What's this?" Sydra asks as he opens the paper and looks at a picture of a decorative ship.
"That is the island's auction house that people sell things they find in the sea ruins at. I heard that even though the temples have been searched multiple times, people are still finding new items to sell," Cidre says as he glances at the paper. "It is supposed to be a really fun time, and some people get a lot of money from the items they find,"
"Interesting, it sounds like a good idea for us to do over the next few days," Sydra says as he puts the paper to the side as their food is set on the table.
Later that day the group travels over to the island's guildhall and sings up to explore the underwater temples. After signing up, Sydra checks on his ranks growth and is surprised to see he is only one star away from being B-rank.
"It seems that I have finally become A-rank, what about you Erich?' Robert asks as he pulls his insignia out of the runic tablet.
"I'm a few stars away from it, but I should be there soon," Erich says as he walks over to the group. "Anyway, are you guys ready to go? If we want to make it on an exploration team, we have to leave now,"
"Yup, we're all set to go," Sydra says as he swings his backpack over his shoulder. Following behind Cidre, the group makes their way over to a private harbor and shows their insignias to the exploration team.
"Ah, it's good to see some new faces join us. My name is John, and today we're splitting up into teams of five to explore some new areas. Since it is all of your first time doing this, we are going to place each one of you on a different team," John says as he points to a large group of people standing at the harbor, telling the group what team they were on.
"Hey, what team are you on?" A man asks as Sydra walks down the deck.
"I'm on team three," Sydra says as the man nods his head and points to one of the teams farther down the deck. Thanking the man, Sydra walks toward the group and introduces himself.
"It's nice to meet you, Sydra. My name is Lorey and I'm the leader of this group," Says a tall woman with long blond hair. Behind her were two guys with brown hair, that look like twins and another girl with short navy blue hair. "This is Sam and Gram, and her name is Haley," Lorey says as she points out the group.
"Cool, I'm glad to be here," Sydra says as the group gets onto a boat and starts sailing away from the island. "So how do we get down to the temples?" Sydra asks as he is curious if people dive in this world.
"It's not too difficult, a while back someone from the island created an air bubble around the temples, and we can just walk around down there. Getting inside is the fun part, as we get to go in through a whirlpool," Lorey says as she points ahead of the boat where the water is spinning in a vortex. As the ship gets closer it begins to be pulled into the whirlpool, and soon disappears under the water.
"Woah, this is cool," Sydra says as he looks around the giant tunnel of water that is on a slight descent to the bottom of the sea. Once the ship reaches the bottom of the tunnel, the ship comes to a stop and the team hops off.
"Did you bring any armor? Although it is rare, there are still some sea creatures that make their way into the temple that we might encounter," Gram says as he and Sam pull out matching sets of blue armor and start putting them on.
"Yeah, I have my armor," Sydra says as he calls forth his bone armor, and pulls the Void Shadow cloak out of his backpack. Hooking it around his neck, Sydra tosses his backpack in his Arbor Sanctum and pulls out four of his daggers.
"So you're a dagger user, huh?" Sam asks as he straps two short swords to the back of his waist. "But why do you have so many of them?"
"That's because they each have different powers. One can petrify, one can poison, one can erode, and one can cut through incredibly tough defenses," Sydra says as he pats each of his daggers.
"Hey, we're headed out now," Lorey says as she finishes strapping on a red breastplate, and pulls out a map of the surrounding sandstone temples. "Today we are exploring some recently uncovered buildings in the north corner. We should be able to find some good items there," Lorey says.
"How much of the temple ruins have yet to be discovered?" Sydra asks as he glances at the map Lorey is holding.
"No one knows yet, as we continue to discover more and more buildings underneath the ones we can see now. What we do know is that we are at least seven stories above what used to be these people's ground, as that was the distance a building completely uncovered went," Lorey explains as she points toward a large building in the center of the ruins.
"We were actually the people to explore that building too, and we even uncovered some remains of the people who once lived here. They seem to have been humanoid crabs, as they still had a blue exoskeleton after all this time," Sam says as Gram nods his head in agreement.
"Yeah, the thing was at least six feet tall and had a great sword strapped to its back as well," Gram says as he pulls out a drawing he had made of the crab warrior and shows it to Sydra.
"Crazy, do you think we'll find anything like that today?" Sydra asks as he looks at the drawing in curiosity. 'I wonder what these people were called, it'd be interesting to meet something that looked like that,' Sydra thinks as he remembers a cartoon he had watched as a child on earth.
"Not sure, but Haley is the one that usually uncovers these things. Her ability is great for exploration, but doesn't do much while in battle," Sam says as Haley looks back angrily.
"At least I know how to use my weapon, and don't jump at every little thing," Haley says as she hoists the green trident in her hand forward. "My power is vibration, and I can use it to sense hollow points behind walls and things," Haley says as she looks to Sydra.
"That doesn't seem like a weak power, and I'm sure it is incredibly useful in these types of situations," Sydra says as he looks at Haley, who is wearing an aqua set of armor trimmed with golden waves.
After walking another hour, the group stops outside a sandstone wall that is twenty meters tall. Stepping back, everyone turns to look at Haley who walks up to the wall and presses her hand against it. Sliding her hand back and forth, Haley sends vibrations through the wall to locate any openings.
"I sensed something over here, so there should be a doorway nearby," Haley says as she pulls back her trident and launches it at the wall. As the trident leaves her hand and hits the wall it begins spinning in a circle and drilling parts of the wall away. A few seconds later, the trident pierces through the wall, and several chunks of sandstone fall to the ground.
"Good job looks like you found another building for us," Lorey says as the dust clears and an opening in the wall appears. Behind the wall is a spacious room filled with items sitting behind glass boxes. "And it looks like we might have stumbled upon a museum, or something similar," Lorey says as the group slowly makes their way into the room.
'I thought you said there was a doorway?" Sam asks as he steps over the debris.
"Well, there is one now," Hayley says as she huffs and turns to look at some of the glass cases.