The temple underground was dark.
If not for the torch Sorath had brought from the first trial, Sorath would have had difficulty navigating through the maze-like layout even if he had the map.
Every step he took produced a sound that echoed throughout the corridors, giving a sense of life to the quiet, dead place.
In this darkness, where the light source was only the torch, and the noises filled this eerie place were coming from Sorath's breath, steps, and occasional finger-flickering, a nostalgia enveloped Sorath.
It brought him back to his soul realm's days.
Back then, he was alone. The only person he could talk to was himself. However, everything changed when a talking snowflake conversed with him. And when he realized, he was suddenly in a different soul realm.
Well, no one could tell or see the difference between soul realms as every one of them was only a void-like place. But the souls could feel it when they were transitioning from one realm to another.
In a different soul realm, Sorath had someone to talk to. And that was the Guardian of Time.
On top of that, he also had the entertainment to color his lonely life, including reading various stories and books, watching the life of the Author that possessed his body, maintaining his techniques, and so on.
Sorath smiled as he reminisced about that stagnant life.
The journey to the marked location was an uneventful one. Sorath found nothing notable as he navigated through the underground.
However, it would change soon.
...
A few hours later...
After walking through the maze-like corridor, Sorath finally found a staircase leading further deep into the underground at the end of the road. According to the map, that would lead him to a large circular room.
Looking down, he wondered how long it would take him to descend the hundreds, if not thousands, of stairs.
'I can already feel my legs screaming at me.'
Sighing at the discovery, Sorath decided to have a break, resting his legs before descending those straight-to-the-hell stairs.
Once settled, Sorath checked his trial progress.
[Sorath Shedever, you have completed one trial. You are currently taking the second trial.]
[The requirement to clear the second trial is to bring the "essence of the tree spirit" to the altar on the highest floor of the Velniz Temple.]
"This trial should be the easiest if not for the guardian guarding the highest floor," he mused. "Well, I won't have to worry about that though."
After taking enough rest, Sorath immediately descended the stairs.
However, the stairs were far more challenging than he had expected. In the end, it took him a whole hour to reach the bottom, and his legs ended up in tremors.
"Sure, there's no enemy here. But hell, that staircase is far more terrifying than the guardian of the highest floor!"
Sorath spent some time resting again. After he recovered from fatigue, he continued.
"Is there really nothing here? Not even an enemy, guardian, or anything?"
And that... would be his famous last word before the misfortune befalling him.
Everything was going as usual. The only liveliness of this place came from Sorath. The darkness and weathered walls of the straight corridor, too, were still the same.
However, as soon as Sorath crossed the invisible barrier between the large room and the corridor, the atmosphere suddenly became heavier. He felt as if something had taken a portion of his soul.
The large room drawn on the map turned out to be a vast open space with dozens of colossal pillars spanning along the straight path from one end to another - from the starting line after leaving the corridor to the grand door a few hundred meters ahead.
Sorath took in his surroundings in awe.
"It almost looks like the Syndicate base..."
But before he could finish examining that place, a few noises of clicks echoed throughout the room. Following that noise was something that sounded like a well-maintained engine, producing a smooth, consistent hum.
At first, there was only one sound of it. A few moments later, inaudible noises of dozens of engines resounded simultaneously, assaulting Sorath's ears.
Surprised, Sorath directed his gaze everywhere. He noticed many red glints in the dark side of this room, where the lights only attached to one side of the pillars, illuminating the path in front of him while leaving the other side to be devoured by the darkness.
"Shit!"
His instinct told him to run as fast as possible the moment he saw those red lights, and so he did.
Creaaakk!
Huuummm!!!
The moment Sorath dashed and ran toward the other end, where the grand door stood majestically, the glints behind the darkness moved and lunged out of the dark, standing in Sorath's way.
"Automaton?!"
Before him, they loomed, each one a formidable sentinel of stone might, emitting a strange energy. The runic symbols etched into their surfaces pulsed with a soft, eerie glow, lending an otherwordly aura to their presence.
'I remembered now...' he thought as his eyes darted from one to the next, feeling the weight of the automatons' collective gazes.
'...the reason I couldn't recall what was happening in the second trial's underground treasure hunt was because there was no treasure hunt in the first place!'
'That Julian was only telling through his monologue what was happening in the underground temple without actually seeking the treasure himself. He instead stole it from the person who managed to acquire the relic from the underground temple!'
Sorath clicked his tongue. 'That bastard.'
Putting that thought aside, he focused on what was present before him.
The automatons, whether those that were blocking him or those that were chasing him, moved with a grace that belied their massive size, joints gliding with a fluidity that seemed almost unnatural.
Sorath didn't stop. He kept running forward. His gaze set on his destination while meticulously observing the automatons in front of him morphing their hands into swords made of strange energy. The same happened to the bunch that chased him.
Sorath squinted his eyes at the sight of the energy sword.
'That energy... is that arcane?'
Unfortunately, he had no answer to his question in the meantime.
Throwing whatever questions he had in his mind, Sorath launched himself forward, ducking and weaving between the towering figures as though they were merely obstacles for his parkour session.
Having passed through the number of automatons, each with an arcane energy sword swung at him, Sorath laughed wholeheartedly, feeling proud of himself for being able to perform that cool manoeuver.
'That's a whole different feeling! I never thought being able to move my body this much could be this fun!'