Lowering a rope down from the large stone I was standing on, Fras and I braced ourselves while Isamaar made the climb up, Kira standing on the stone below with Trennel waiting their turn.

We were almost at the top of the temple having replenished our resources fully before making the climb up the staggered stone side of the massive structure.

Once we were all standing on the same stone, Fras bent his knees once more, exploding into a powerful jump to the lip of the next stone ten feet above my head.

Hauling himself over the edge, he lowered the rope again, pulling me up to join him as we repeated the climbing process for the other members of the group.

After another ten minutes, I was pulling myself over the final stone onto the landing of the roof.

Looking around I found that we were alone amongst a dozen small Altars made of cracked marble and spaced evenly in a circle in the center of the roof.

“Alright, so we’re here. What now?” Fras asked, gripping Trennel's arm and pulling him up the rest of the way.

“Kira, do you sense any of the creatures close by?”

She shook her head. “Not close, no.”

“Alright, we find the queen and the Relics and get them on their Altars as fast as possible before the rest of the creatures realize we’re up here and come for us,” I said, continuing to survey the area.

I noticed something sticking out from behind one of the Altars on the farthest side of the roof from us.

“Everybody alert, there is something over there.”

Fras pulled his sword and shield off of his back and Isamaar unsheathed his two short swords.

Kira gripping her staff stayed close to Trennel at the rear, as we all slowly moved to investigate.

As we got closer I could make out the familiar extremities of the Getra Queen.

“It’s the queen,” I said telepathically. “Trennel Fras and Kira, take the left. Isamaar you’re with me. We’ll surround her while she doesn’t know we’re here.”

The others broke off without a word as the Dwarf and I made our way to the right.

The queen did not move as we got closer and I was able to make out more and more of her body as we swung wide around the Altars blocking our view.

The first thing I noticed was a pool of the oozing black ichor that seeped from an open wound in her chest. I had noticed that in the Numliques their blood did not dry as humans did, but rather continued to stay as a liquid for hours after the creature's death, so there was no way to know if this had been recent or not.

“What happened?” Isamaar whispered next to me.

“Nothing good.”

Getting closer, I was able to make out the rest of the queen’s corpse. Her head had been smashed in repeatedly, exposing brain matter and broken chunks of her skull that hung attached to her tough skin.

Around her lay an assortment of trinkets and treasures. Several small statues, jewelry, and a painting were propped up against a pillar near the queen’s body. I spotted the statue I had seen in the trapped room on the first floor of the temple, its hands raised in prayer.

Walking up to it I got a better look at its face and was struck by the resemblance to Isamaar.

Placing my hand on it I got the prompt I was expecting.

Sculpture of Rightues Belief

(Relic)

An important piece of art crafted for one who has an overwhelming belief in their heart for justice to be fulfilled and wrongs to be righted to preserve their soul in this life and the next.

The others made their way around the far side of the Altars, approaching the queen.

“Are these the Relics?” Trennel asked, bending down and placing his hand on one of the busts of a woman with long flowing hair and a silver tiara resting on her head identical to Kira’s.

“It would appear so,” I said, standing and moving over to another of the items.

“Is it just me, or do these all look like us?” Trennel said.

He was holding a necklace in his hands, turning the flat surface over in his palms.

I walked over to him and peered down at the medallion at the end of the golden chain.

His face was etched into the metal with a veil carved over his face, and his mouth wide as if he were screaming.

On the back, there was a strange symbol that did not look like any Rune or character I could recognize.

Looking around I saw that there was a matching mark on one of the pillars of the third Altar to my left.

Turning back to the pile I found a tablet with a very familiar silhouette.

It wasn’t of me but I recognized it nonetheless.

“Is that-?” Mel began.

I think so.

I stared at the grey stone with the outline carved into its surface of a being I had seen very recently in the Library.

It was the entity that had trapped me in one of my memories and possessed my body.

Picking it up I read the description.

Tablet of Boundless Fury

(Relic)

An instrument developed to contain the raw energy of those whose souls have been tarnished by grief and irrevocably damaged.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

“What do you think did this?” Kira asked, breaking me out of my stupor.

She was still several paces away glancing between the direction of the stairway in the center of the floor and the corpse of the queen.

“Whatever it is, we better hope it’s distracted long enough for us to get out of here,” Fras said.

“We should hurry and finish this up in case whatever it is decides to come back,” I said grabbing several of the Relics that did not appear to be any of the ones from our objective. “Everyone take a few of the Relics and match them to their corresponding Altar. Leave the ones that look like us for last.”

I began placing the Relics on the small podiums in the center of each Altar before moving to the next.

After I had unloaded all but the tablet, I found its Altar and waited for the others to get into place.

A few moments later everybody gave the signal that they were ready, and I stepped forward placing my Relic on its Altar.

Without any warning, the world around us shifted and we were suddenly standing a thousand feet in the air above the temple looking down.

Fras yelled out and Kira let out a sharp scream from the unexpected movement.

“What the hell is going on?” Fras exclaimed.

“It’s fine,” Isamaar said calmly. “This is the end of the floor. Just be patient.”

With the words of reassurance from our veteran Adventurer, Fras, and Kira both visibly settled, looking down on the temple far below.

An audible gurgling noise began echoing throughout the oasis, growing progressively louder.

I looked around for the source of the noise, before spotting a small geyser of water erupting from beneath a patch of trees to the east.

“There,” Trennel called out, pointing to another spout of water bubbling up from the soil.

A few moments passed with several more appearing throughout the area, growing larger and louder until there was a continuous deep roar emanating from the ground in every direction.

“What’s going on?” Kira asked.

“It’s possible that the area is returning to how it was depicted in the murals inside the temple,” Trennel said, rubbing his chin while he looked on with fascination. “Replacing the Relics to their Altars might have completed some kind of Array that was put in place by whoever originally built the temple in the first place.”

The geysers were now shooting jet streams as tall as the temple, flooding the oasis as the water level rose high enough to begin covering up most of the underbrush.

Looking out I could see a similar sight happening around the dunes just past where the treeline ended.

Do you think this has something to do with why the soil was damp? I asked Mel.

“Possibly. There is no way to know for sure, but an underground spring would certainly explain a lot,” she responded, also floating in the air with the rest of us.

We waited there, floating in the sky while the landscape around us was slowly submerged by the rising water.

Fifteen minutes later, we watched as the top of the temple fully disappeared, and a chime accompanied by a System message greeted us.

Ding!

Completed!

Objective: Recover one Relic and place it on its corresponding Altar. This area has been corrupted by the creatures who have invaded this holy ground, upsetting the balance that the Temple of Apofratese had once brought to these lands. Enter the temple and locate the stolen Relics: Statue of Endless Grace, Bust of Peerless Resolution, Amulet of Forgotten Souls, Tablet of Boundless Fury, Sculpture of Righteous Belief. Find their Altars and reunite them to restore power to the temple.

Reward: Variable

Failure: The Relics or Altars are destroyed before you successfully complete your task.

Relics placed:12/5.

Without any warning, our surroundings shifted to a white void, similar to the one we had been in when we entered the Dungeon originally.

The familiar pressure inundated my head once more and I began feeling nauseous.

“Where are we?” Fras asked, panic in his voice as he looked around frantically.

I looked up surprised that I wasn’t alone this time around.

Before any of us could answer, another window appeared in our vision.

Task completed: Experience awarded.

Bonus objectives completed: Experience awarded.

Peaceful resolution: Failure.

Enemies killed: 1,436: Experience awarded.

Floor completion timer completed: Experience awarded.

Handicap: Group makeup smaller than 10: Loot awarded

Would you like to continue to the next floor?

Y/N

Looking towards the others, I nodded as they gazed at me with a questioning expression.

“We’ll exit here,” I said. “I’ll see you on the other side.”

Selecting “No”, I braced myself, as the world flashed around me, changing to the familiar trees of the Therinil Forest.

Looking behind me, the imposing tower of the dungeon stood as it had when we had first entered.

Within seconds, the other members of my team popped into existence at my side, wobbling slightly from being transported so violently.

“What the hell!” Fras said, gripping his stomach and falling to his knees, the others in similar predicaments.

“It’s normal,” Isamaar reassured him, also looking a little pale behind his beard. “It’s just what happens after completing a scenario floor.”

“Well, why didn’t you warn us?” Fras asked, looking at the Dwarf at eye level.

“I've only ever been once and it slipped my mind. I will say it wasn’t as bad as I remember, so maybe it gets better with prolonged exposure.”

Fras grumbled something inaudible under his breath but Isamaar seemed uninterested in asking him to repeat himself.

“Alright, take a breath then we’ll head back to the village where we can go our separate ways until morning,” I said, slowly pushing some Mana into my armor to activate the self-cleaning Enchantment.

“Holy hell!” Fras yelled, startling all of us.

Isamaar and I both took defensive stances, while Kira gripped her staff in front of her. We glanced around but didn’t see any sign of a disturbance.

“Don’t do that,” Kira chided him.

“I gained eight entire Levels!”

Everyone else’s eyes seemed to glaze over as they checked their own progress.

Their faces quickly changed from one of annoyance to one of pure glee.

“Aye, I too gained a decent amount of Levels,” Isamaar said. “Five of them.”

“Only two for me,” Trennel added. “That is most likely from clearing the floor directly since most of the monsters were several Levels below me.”

Even Kira seemed ecstatic as she told us about her increase. “I gained ten! It took me almost a year after my advancement to get the six levels I had in Novice. This is crazy.”

“I wouldn’t get too used to it,” Isamaar said. “Pretty soon you’ll be higher level than the enemies we’ll find and it will slow down considerably.”

“Wait a minute,” Fras says incredulously. “How did you get more than me?”

Kira’s face fell for a moment before she schooled herself. “I must have just killed more of the creature than you.”

“Did you catch that?” Mel asked.

Yeah, I did. Do you think-

“It’s possible, but I don’t know her wheel enough to know for sure if she would do something that reckless.”

Turning to me Kira quickly changed the subject.

“Congratulations are in order for our fearless leader. Good job on getting into Novice, but why are you only Level fifty-two?”

I stared at her confused before realizing that my amulet would no longer mask my true Level once I made it out of Beginner.

“I think we should have a talk,” I said weakly, not seeing any point in lying to them now that I was officially a Novice.