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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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However, unlike him, his companions were all wide-eyed with excitement.
It seemed that the opinions of the group and their leader had diverged.
Of course, they were probably only thinking about it internally for now.
“That…”
I looked in the direction Kayla was pointing.
There was a symbol engraved on what appeared to be the entrance to the temple.
‘It’s something I’ve never seen before, but…’
It was strangely familiar.
“It’s the symbol engraved on the Minotaurs’ shields.”
“Ah.”
During the battle there were many other things to pay attention to, so I didn’t immediately recall it.
In contrast, Kayla, who had directly engaged in the melee, seemed to remember it relatively accurately.
“It seems the Minotaurs were also trying to conquer this place. The shields are among the spoils of war.”
“Does that mean they’ve finished conquering it?”
“It doesn’t seem so.”
Kayla subtly pointed to a spot.
There were traces of scraping and bloodstains.
“These are relatively recent marks. It seems they were still in the process of conquering it.”
This was a bit better.
It might end sooner than expected.
‘While it’s true the temple is large, it’s not so big that we’d need to examine it for days on end.’
The fact that the Minotaurs were still in the process of conquering it meant…
“…Could there be a guardian?”
“That’s highly likely.”
A guardian protecting the ruins.
It could be called a kind of protector.
“This isn’t an ordinary place…”
Usually, in ruins with guardians, the rewards were rarely ordinary.
The higher the level of the guardian, the more true this was, and judging by the fact that the Minotaur tribe hadn’t finished conquering it yet, it probably wasn’t weak.
“Should I go check it out?”
At that moment, Athena stepped forward.
“Judging by the traces of them coming out, it doesn’t seem to have a structure that traps you inside, and honestly, if the Minotaurs could challenge it consistently, I’m confident I can survive coming out.”
It wasn’t a bad idea, but there was no reason to send her alone.
“Let’s go together.”
I instructed Baldur and Cereo’s party to set up a base camp, then led Kayla and Athena into the temple.
“The divine power is a bit stronger here.”
“…More than that, the interior is too dirty.”
I clicked my tongue as soon as we entered the temple interior.
Even from outside, a faint divine power could be felt, but it was stronger inside.
Moreover, it was a mess everywhere, showing how many times the Minotaurs had attempted to challenge it.
Bloodstains, corpses, even piles of bones…
Perhaps because this was the entrance to the temple, it seemed to be in a terrible state.
‘It doesn’t look like they’ve been challenging it for just a year or two.’
There was a possibility that the tribe had been larger.
‘It’s amazing it went undiscovered for so long.’
Usually, the larger the scale, the higher the chance of it being discovered…
Well, the territories of monsters and humans were always in flux.
Moreover, there were almost no attempts to expand domains towards the Monster Forest in this area…
‘To begin with, it hasn’t been that long since the Doriem Viscounty became this large.’
From what I understood they’d been raising their reputation based on the power they’d accumulated since the previous two generations.
That reached its peak in the current generation.
Before that, it was just at the level of a common rural domain, and expanding their territory against the Monster Forest was like a dream.
Because of this, there were few instances of humans coming to such deep places, and at the same time, the location of the cave was so terrible that it seemed to have avoided detection.
The space visible upon entering was connected to several rooms.
We began by searching the areas the Minotaurs had already conquered.
“Hmm… This seems to have been a warehouse. It looks like most of their equipment was taken from here.”
Of course, there were only traces left, nothing remained.
Most of the other spaces were human living quarters.
‘No gold or silver coins either…’
Rooms without any particular value.
We roughly scanned the temple interior, but thanks to the Minotaurs making a mess of everything, there was no harvest.
“…This is all that’s left…”
It was a single story with no basement discovered.
Since all the areas had been conquered, scanning through them once wasn’t difficult.
A detailed search could be done later.
More important was what remained.
“…I feel strong divine power.”
Perhaps because I dealt with magical energy, the divine power gave a rather unpleasant feeling.
Of course, it wasn’t too severe.
If it had been, I wouldn’t have been able to have normal conversations with Tildi.
However, the concentration here was too thick, and as the concentration increased, it became enough to feel slightly uncomfortable.
It wasn’t severe, just a feeling like when you see a slightly creepy insect.
Perhaps Tildi felt this way when looking at me.
‘No, the feeling a high priest gets when seeing a Warlock might be a bit different.’
I couldn’t know for sure since I had never become a high priest.
It could be the same as mine, or surprisingly, there might be no particular feeling at all.
“Is this the center of the temple?”
Everywhere except here had been conquered.
Therefore, there hadn’t been much achievement.
But…
‘This must be the real deal.’
Even if there had been no harvest elsewhere, a place with this much energy concentrated couldn’t possibly be ordinary.
‘Guardian…’
The closer we got, the more we could feel it.
Something containing strong divine power was situated in the central hall.
Moreover…
‘It’s not… just one.’
We could sense two of them.
“Remember. This is just an exploratory mission.”
“I know.”
“Safety is the priority. We’ll focus on confirming the internal situation and the capabilities of the guardians.”
Kayla and Athena nodded.
I put the undead at the forefront and headed towards the center of the temple.
The interior was extremely spacious.
It was in the form of a huge hall, which was clearly once magnificent.
But not anymore.
“…Bones…”
Countless bones were piled up.
Judging by their size and shape, they all seemed to be Minotaurs.
“…How long have they been targeting this place?”
Looking at the quantity of bones, at least hundreds must have died here.
We had discovered numerous Minotaur bones while exploring the temple, but the scale here was different.
Kuguugung.
At that moment, a golden knight began to rise from one side.
‘As expected…’
There were two of them.
“…Living Armor?”
“It feels like divine power, unlike those things…”
At first glance, their appearance was indeed not much different from Living Armor.
More precisely, they were not much different from Living Armor in that they were walking suits of armor.
But that was where the similarities ended.
These moved with divine power, their size appeared to be three times that of my Living Armor, and the quality of their armor was incomparably superior to mine.
This was despite mine being made by Mutre, a dwarf.
Golden light leaked through the gaps of their ornate armor.
“…Those things look intact?”
Judging by the surrounding bones, they must have taken down hundreds of Minotaurs, yet there wasn’t a single damaged part on their armor.
‘It seems they can self-repair as well.’
Indeed, ancient technology was superior to modern in many ways.
‘It’s because their lineage was destroyed.’
There was once a Dark Age.
After that Dark Age, most ancient technologies had their lineages destroyed and vanished.
It wasn’t for nothing that modern technology was inferior to ancient technology.
Hundreds of years had passed since the Dark Age, but even so, modern technology hadn’t caught up to the ancient.
‘Living Armor moved by divine power…’
It was something I had never even heard rumors about.
‘Well, if rumors had spread, the originator would have been branded a heretic.’
Living Armor was better known as undead used by black magicians.
But a priest being able to create Living Armor?
It was a story worthy of sending an inquisitor from the Holy Empire.
‘Looking at the patterns and shape of the armor, it was undoubtedly made by humans, but…’
It wasn’t a holy water summon, but Living Armor.
-Intruders.
-Magic user detected. Exclude.
“…It speaks? Living Armor?”
It was even in a language we could understand.
The two guardians each drew their weapons.
Sword and shield.
The most basic armament of a knight.
A faint golden light overlaid them.
“…This is insane.”
Holy aura.
If mana users had magic and aura, those who used divine power had holy magic and holy aura.
Holy aura was a power mainly used by holy knights… but here a mere Living Armor was using it.
Moreover, looking at the concentration…
“…It’s at an advanced level. It’s dangerous. We need to retreat.”
I immediately began to withdraw.
The guardians probably couldn’t leave the central hall.
Even if they could, they likely wouldn’t be able to remain active for long.
They might be able to move a little within the temple, but outside was a different story.
‘They were receiving divine power from an outside source.’
I had enough sensing ability to determine that much.
I glanced at the hall as we retreated towards the entrance we had come through.
In the center of the hall, the most concentrated divine power was flowing from there.
However, I couldn’t confirm exactly what it was.
Some kind of cloth was covering the center.
‘Not cloth, but a robe?’
Just as we were about to leave the hall…
“Master!”
Kayla suddenly called out to me and immediately blocked my rear.
And then.
A beam of light shot from the guardian’s eyes struck Kayla’s shield.
Crack.
The instant explosion was enough to push Kayla back a little.
Fortunately, there was no major damage, but it was a chilling moment.
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