Chapter 183 - The Temple

Claire sat on a tree trunk that fell down after her two 'companions' fought a huge ass monkey. 

The area around them was covered with monster corpses, again slew by her two companions, and the ground was drenched in monster blood and body fluids. 

It was totally disgusting.

'Why am I here?'

She had asked that from herself countless times since coming here and she knew well why she was here, but she couldn't help but question her life choices every time she saw the disgusting scene before her eyes. 

She was only here to move these two people around. 

She is nothing but a free and fast vehicle.

'But is this how you should 'secretly watch' people?' 

These two crazy men went around killing any single monster in their way. At first, they only killed the ones who they encountered in their way, but then they suddenly started to go around and slaughtered anything they saw as if they were competing with each other.

Claire wondered exactly in which dictionary and in what language was this action called 'secretly'.

"Pufff!"

THUD

Another corpse of a monster fell down at that moment.

"Wow newcomer, you are really something."

The First put his sword into its scabbard and looked at Mr. Hey as if he could finally approve that he was quite strong.

"Thanks."

A cold and formal voice replied to him.

The First pushed back his blonde hair and walked to a tall tree and then jumped up. Grabbing a tree branch, he twisted his body and wheeled around the branch before letting go of his hand and landing on the branch with a thud. He then jumped once again and grabbed another branch. Going like that, he climbed the tree like a monkey and finally settled on a thick branch on top of tree.

"You can see it all from here."

He pointed at a spot in the distance. There stood a beautifully made building with tall walls and thick pillars. 

"Newcomer, don't you want to see as well?"

"...."

Mr. Hey looked up at the man who was on top of a tree before turning towards the place where he was pointing.

Even though he was on the ground, still some parts of the temple were visible as the ground was higher than the place where the temple was built.

"Sir!"

"Hmm? Yes?"

Mr. Hey pointed at a place on the other side of the temple.

"Let's split. I go there and you stay here."

"Why?"

"We can watch every spot if we do that."

The first swang his feet.

"That doesn't sound bad, but stay in a place where I can see you."

He pointed at his navy-blue eyes.

"I can see everything with all of the details if I condense my aura in my eyes. But if you want to, you can go. I will still be able to see you even if you are far away."

Mr. Hey nodded his head.

"I'm coming with you!"

Claire stood up and ran towards Mr. Hey while avoiding the corpsed and the blood on the ground. The two of them walked away from The First and headed towards another part of the jungle.

The First looked away from Mr. Hey and went back to staring at the temple. 

"They should be here soon."

. . . . . 

"We are here!"

After hours of walking in the jungle and killing monsters, the group finally could see a building in the distance.

'It looks so different...'

The temple in the jungle and the temple they saw in the Stlinct Mountain range looked the same, but different at the same time. 

The structure and shape of the building looked the same as the one they had seen in the Stlinct Mountain range, but contrary to the Temple of Rift that only had a few broken pillars and the rest was intact, this one here was... a mess.

The pillars were broken. The walls had crumbled. Plants had grown and wrapped their branches and leaves around the whole building and the white marble was not seen that much on the lower parts of the building. There were some damaged parts that looked to be done by monsters and also some cuts on the walls that almost looked like aura slashes. 

The whole place was in a completely damaged state.

"Are we heading in?"

The gate was crumbled to pieces. The only thing that made them understand that this spot was one the gate were the two damaged snake statues that were placed in the two ends of a crumbled wall.

Kairen looked at the two snake statues with fear and gulped. 

'They won't suddenly come to life like those eagles, right?'

Seemed like all the other members of unit 5 had the same feeling about the statues as they all halted as soon as they arrived at the temple and looked at the statues with wariness. 

The members of unit 6 looked between them and the snake statues with confusion, asking why are they suddenly glaring at some old statues like they'd seen some kind of an enemy.

"I guess I know what we should do!"

Said Darren as he strode over to the statues. 

And then-

CRASH

He kicked the statues with his foot.

With just a small force, the statues broke to pieces and shattered everywhere.

"All done!"

He said with a proud face and walked back to the others.

"Well done, Darren!"

"Right! I was thinking about doing the same thing!"

"Kill them before they attack you!"

"Yeah! Those damned statues! Learn your lesson!"

The members of unit 5 cheered and rejoiced all together.

"...."

"...."

"...."

The unit 6 members looked between the poor shattered statues and the members of unit 5 with blank faces. 

What were these people doing, destroying some statues then cheering?

"Should we head in?"

Kain, the deputy team leader of unit 6 and the current leader of the small unit, stepped forward and asked, making unit 5 members stop cheering and turn to him. 

"Yes."

Team leader Dains also stepped forward.

"But we have to be cautious."

He looked at the temple, seemingly thinking about what might happen this time when they go in.

"What do you-"

"Sorry, sir..."

Kairen raised his hand, interrupting Kain and the team leader's conversation. When the two of them turned to him, he started to talk with an awkward face.

"Can I please... stay outside?"

"...."

"...."

The whole group turned to him.

"You know nothing good happens when I'm around... so..."

Kairen didn't want to be caught in another red light blast. That one experience was enough for his whole life.

"Okay!"

surprisingly, team leader Dains accepted his request easily. Team leader Dains didn't stop there and continued to talk.

"It would be best if we could divide into two groups."

"Divide in two?"

"Yes. One team stays outside while the other searches the temple. The first team can also search the areas near the temple."

"Should my unit stay outside?"

Team leader Dains shook his head.

"I'll leave some of my members here, some of you should join my team to fill their empty spot."

Kain looked at his unit. The agents all nodded their heads in agreement.

"Alright."

. . . . . 

Just like that, the group was divided into two teams. One would go inside while the other would stay or search outside.

The first team was mostly consisted of unit 5 members except for Kairen and Asa. A few unit 6 members joined unit 5's team and they walked inside the temple. 

While the first team went inside, the second team also was divided into groups and started exploring the yard and the outside area.

Obviously, Kairen was going around with Kain and Asa. 

Unlike the Temple of Rift which was built on top of a mountain and didn't have a really big yard, the temple built in the jungle had a fairly large yard. As a result, three small teams were currently moving around in the vast yard and looking for anything useful. 

"So it was because of that red light blast?"

Asa, who had to go through team leader Dains and then Glenn's barrage of questions regarding Kairen, asked him about what had happened to him as soon as the three of them were alone. 

Kairen was seriously tired of having to explain the same thing to everyone, and more than tired, he was ashamed, but he explained anyway as Asa deserved to know. 

"It seems that way."

"Hmmm...."

Asa hummed and closed her mouth, thinking about their conversation.

"Hey... look at that!"

Kairen turned to where Kain was pointing. There, he could see a small area that looked like a worship place or somesuch, except it was built exactly behind the temple. 

There were some large pieces of stone placed in an orderly matter as if they were benches. There were 7 large stone lines that made the area look like a heptagon. Then, seven other stone benches that were smaller than the first ones were placed in a way that the overall shape would look like a small heptagon was rotated a little bit and was inside a larger one. Just like that, there were several other stone benches. The whole thing looked like seven heptagons were inside each other. 

And then, there was a big heptagon-shaped platform in the center.