21 21 An Altar

When Jerouch entered the left passageway, his first thought was that he would walk in complete darkness.

However, immediately after he entered, he was greeted by another corridor.

The walls here were pitch black, and they were dozens of meters apart. They had engravings in a language and symbols that Jerouch failed to understand.

The floor, however, was crimson and many large dead skins of snakes were scattered all over the place.

Squinting his eyes, he could see two figures that coiled at each corner. Their glowing red eyes were looking at Jerouch with no shred of friendliness.

They had been guarding this place meticulously for a damn while now, so seeing a human figure and another beast infuriated them.

They must not let them pass, lest their leader kill them.

Spoosh!

A thick dark ball of about thirty centimetres left the mouth of the snake at the right corner and moved at a tremendous speed, locking on Jerouch's position.

Woosh!

Jerouch jumped and did a double front flip in mid-air, evading the corrosive ball just in time.

He smacked his left palm on the ground and muttered'' Tremor. ''

The ground vibrated around Jerouch which threw the two slithering figures off balance.

They were D rank monsters, though. Hence, their reaction time was velocious.

The one on the left compressed itself and then sprang forward like a rubber. Its mouth was wide open, and whatever was in its mouth, Jerouch didn't want to clash with it head-on.

He dodged to his left, but as though they were expecting him to do that, a fire phantom of a snake twisted its tail in full force and smashed it on Jerouch's chest.

He was caught off guard as he quickly raised an earth wall.

Too bad for him, he was too close to the phantom, so the force sent him flying backwards until he smashed his back on the wall several meters behind him.

' Heal. ' He gritted his teeth as he felt light-headed from the impact.

They were not planning to give him a break, however. Another corrosive ball closed in from twelve o'clock and the fire phantom of the second snake approached from two o'clock.

'' Hmph. '' Jerouch scoffed in annoyance, as he finally decided to stop playing around.

He knew for sure that what was pulling him lay behind that door as the feeling had grown intense.

If he had a mirror, he would've realized that his eyes too were glowing like the snakes.

He sent two fireballs against the dark corrosive ball, and he used earth wall to stop the phantom. Since he wasn't too close now, he came out unscathed.

Jerouch had one wooden dagger on him, and as soon as he left the pincer attacks, he threw it forward with powerful force and precision.

The wooden dagger hit a wall close to the entrance that the two snakes were guarding. However, since it was wooden, it couldn't pierce the wall, and it simply bounced back falling on the ground.

The snakes' attentions were first drawn to the dagger as they saw it fly past them. However, as soon as they saw it drop to the ground, they were unable to hide their derisive looks.

'' Not too soon. '' Jerouch muttered with a sneer.

'' Swap. '' His lips arched as he felt a slight spatial disturbance.

As he regained his vision again, he was directly behind the two snakes. The wooden dagger, on the other hand, returned to jerouch's initial position.

'' Tremor. ''

'' Earth spikes. ''

'' Wind blade. ''

'' Fire arrows. ''

Jerouch began by making them imbalance with the first skill, then trapped them with spikes, before ending them with wind blades and fire arrows that synergize each other power.

What was left of them were their charred corpses and the sweet notification from the system.

The '' swap '' skill was a skill he got after healing the roc. It was an unexpected skill, as he was only expecting the chance to make him his familiar.

That, though, the system had yet to mention anything about it.

The roc was once again surprised at Jerouch's display of power, and actual respect for him grew in his heart.

Not only would he get a powerful healer, but also a strong fighter. He thought as he followed Jerouch into the place that hid behind the large, well polished stone door.

The door had no knob, neither was there any mechanism to open it.

Jerouch was mesmerized by the engravings on this door as it illustrated various monsters, and figures of different races.

As Jerouch looked at the door more, he began feeling a splitting headache, which forced him to rest his hand on the door to support himself as his vision was already getting blurry.

Kreak!

The sound of a rocky substance gliding on another resounded in his ears, and he raised his head with a frown.

All he needed was to touch the door for it to slide open by itself?

He was amazed by how simple the mechanism was. Well, according to him.

He stepped forward together with the roc, and his heartbeat was in utter chaos. He and the roc both had their eyes glowing at this point as his breathing became rough.

What lay behind the door was a large hall. It was a massive hall that spanned a hundred metres in width, length, and height.

A red light enveloped the entire hall, showering it with its crimson radiance.

Pillars were aligned right from the entrance to the adjacent wall at the extreme, and they reached high in the roof forming arches.

Gargantuan earthen statues of monsters, humans, and some other races that he didn't know of spread out across the hall as they also bathed in the crimson light.

At the extreme of the hall was an altar that neared half of the height of the building.

Wide rectangular stairs connected to the altar from the ground, making it possible for people to reach it.

At the centre of the altar was a shining orb that was responsible for the sanguine brilliance that enveloped everything in this hall.

As soon as Jerouch saw the orb, the glow in his eyes intensified as he eventually went hell bent on getting it.

He was quick to talk though, as he soon saw one of the things he thought to be a statue move.

Its glowing red eyes gazed at Jerouch as it unleashed its murderous pressure.