17 The Temple

Once again, Stanis felt a yearning inside of him for the temple, it was almost as if he was being controlled by another being. He began walking forward, and finally reached the grand stairs. Each stair was about 600m wide and about a metre long. There were hundreds of these stairs rising towards the temple; it was beyond an ostentatious display for just a staircase. But Stanis didn't think that, instead he felt the glory and show of power from the staircase. It was as he placed his bare foot on the first stair that he noticed the texture, silky smooth and yet not slippery.

After being lost for thought at this euphoric texture for a short while, Stanis began trekking up the stairs. He looked at his surroundings as he walked, speechless at everything he saw. On the roof of the sky were multitudes of dark purple gems that shone light on the world, whereas surrounding the staircase was a sea of lava. However, it wasn't hot whatsoever in the cave, a feature that was attributed to the heat-absorbing stone.

Eventually after hours of walking, Stanis reached the Deer-shaped statues that acted as a gate between the staircase and the Temple. He should have been fatigued, both mentally and physically, at this stage, and yet he couldn't think of a time in his life when he had been more energetic that he was now.

As Stanis had seen from a distance, the deer-shaped statues had large torches in their mouths that burnt with intense heat. He took a step forward, only to notice the heat of his surroundings exponentially increase. He was still hundreds of metres away from the statues, and yet he could still tell that those torches burnt hotter than lava. Thankfully the two statues were at the very edge of the stairs, and so he could pass through the centre without any serious burns. He had also seen the statues bleed from a distance, and now closer up, he could see the ruby-red blood flowing down into the lava below. There was a continuous sizzling sound as the blood burnt into the lava.

Now finally past the stairs, he could see that the temple was not actually exactly like a Greek one. The multiple pillars did hold up a roof, but in the centre of the temple was a large closed off structure, almost like a separate room. Coursing across the floor of the temple were myriads of amorphous, dusky-coloured lines that continuously changed shape. It was like being on a high-tech sci-fi ship that shone bright neon, only he could tell that this was far more impressive than that.

The fear that Stanis had felt in the tunnel was once again completely gone, he was solely controlled by the desire for this temple as he absent-mindedly walked across the ground. It seemed the distorted lines across the ground had no other function than appearance, as they did nothing even as he stepped across them.

Now in front of him was the closed-off room. Unlike the marvellous design of the rest of the temple, the closed-off room was purely black and a cube shape. In fact, Stanis didn't even know if it was a solid cube or actually a room. He circled it twice, before realising that it had no door whatsoever. It was as his fingertips touched the dark cube that he felt a strong suction force, causing him to be flung inside through the solid walls of the cube.

What he had seen so far was completely novel, things that Stanis had never even seen before, not even in fantasy art. But it was as he opened his eyes that he felt a familiarity with the inside of the cube, but not a good sense of familiarity. Instead, he felt his hairs instantly stand up on their end, goosebumps pop-up all across his arms, and a heady rush of adrenaline into his blood.

The invisible floor that he stood on, the invisible sky, the absolute nothingness of this area. This was where the tutorial had taken place…

He was ready for the entity to once again speak directly into his mind, and so fell down in surprise as he heard a voice. It was clear and melodic, despite being monotonous.

"Welcome Human. You will be put through to a King at once. Please wait here."

The voice disappeared after telling him to wait there, although Stanis didn't have much choice in the first place as he didn't even know how to leave. It wasn't a long wait as the soft, melodic voice was quickly replaced by a ball of purple flame that appeared in front of Stanis. From it was projected a voice completely different to the first one.

"I am surprised that you found the Temple so quickly, Human."

The voice was hoarse and intimidating, one so menacing that Stanis's flesh crawled as he heard it speak. After a short pause, almost as if wondering what to say to Stanis, the voice then carried on.

"How are you enjoying your new life Human? Pleasant, no?"

Stanis was lost for words, and also far too frightened to actually respond. So after an awkward pause, the voice carried on having understood Stanis's affliction.

"That's normal.

Let me tell you a bit about your new world. All the land has been forced back together, forming one large mass of land surrounded by sea. It is similar to what was once called Pangea by you Humans.

However there are differences, the main difference being that you are the prey. You are nothing more than prey for us, Human, nothing but pathetic food for us to harvest. Or you would have been, but in an unfortunate turn of events, some sympathisers got to this Gold-mine of a world before we could.

That meant that the rest of us could do nothing, but invade this World under those sympathisers' rules."

Stanis could hear the obvious build-up of anger and found his knees weak as he fell to the ground.

"Luckily there are still ways around that. The most direct being that we can pick representatives for our race. Doesn't that sound nice Human? If you work for us, the rewards are endless!"

It took a moment for Stanis to take in all the words, before he understood that this new voice wanted him to be an insider for them: basically a spy for them, maybe even a backstabber to Humanity.

This went against the intrinsic values inside every Human being, and it was no different for Stanis as he realised this. Despite not having the courage to say no to the voice, he also refused to say yes.

The voice, almost as if reading his mind, continued speaking after his decision.

"You might think you are betraying your race by doing such, but let me tell you something. Right now, only the weak are on Earth, but it won't stay that way. Soon the stronger beings will start invading, and you will crumble under them. You yourself are disabled, a one-armed human. Do you think you can contest these beings, nevertheless survive?

All of Humanity will soon start running towards the other species' banners, there is no other way to survive. Those sympathisers might have already might have already put their mark on you, but they are now out of the playing field.

Unlike the other races, we will only have one representative. In fact, you should be eternally gracious that you received such an opportunity from our race, the Zelaro. Choose now human, or go back to your old life, and die tomorrow due to your weakness."

Stanis stood there, contemplating his choices. In fact, everything the Zelaro person had said was true, and things he had previously thought. He doubted his survival as a cripple unless he managed to get some kind of magical skill. Wasn't this opportunity even better than that, aligning himself with a greater race? Stanis had no idea about the Sympathisers it talked off, perhaps that was the entity that had placed him in the tutorial, but Stanis felt no pain in betraying them.

"I accept. Allow me to your representative!"

It was as he spoke he realised how pip-squeak his voice was in this place, especially when compared to the Zelaro.

"Exemplary! Accept it!"

[Gahlnym wishes you to become a representative of the Zelaro race. Accepting such a request will force you to lose your allegiance to Hu. Do you accept?"]

Stanis willed Accept, as he braced himself for his loss of humanity.

[The request has been broken. The Hu has fully forced their will onto Humanity and that cannot be changed. However, you can still accept the request, only that you will not lose your allegiance to Hu.]

Stanis once again willed Accept, surprised at the turn of events.

Gahlnym was not ignorant of the change of events as Stanis heard a blood-curdling laugh.

"HA-HA, of course they would not give up their lead so easily. This is to be expected, it is fine either way."

[You have not lost your allegiance to Hu. Therefore you have kept the multiple traits given to you by the Hu.]

In his mind, Stanis read through all the multiple traits as they flashed past. This ranged from massively increased levelling rate to natural resistance, and even stuff like a hardened body and the ability to safely eat and drink what they couldn't before, such as sea water or poisonous mushrooms. Stanis felt like he had been lead into a trap by Gahlnym; he had almost voluntarily let go of so many traits without even knowing that they ever existed.

However, his anger disappeared within the next second.

[You are now also allegiance to Zelaro. You have gained these traits.

Basic night vision

Basic transformation

Basic darkness manipulation

Your allegiance to Zelaro now allows you to take missions from the Zelaro, in return for rewards.]

Stanis didn't have time to check his new traits as Galhnym began talking again.

"You are now part of the Zelaro, know that we have no weaklings within our ranks. The traits that I have given you are merely the surface level ones, you will gain several more powerful ones as long as you complete our missions.

Also, remember to find the representatives of the other races, and always be on guard. You will have to kill many of your race in the future, whether you want to or not. I cannot think of many races daring to move against us directly, but that doesn't mean that they won't here on Earth.

Make sure you survive Human.

Otherwise...

Well, you don't want to know!"

The purple ball of flame in front of Stanis disappeared, alongside Gahlnym's voice. Stanis had no clue about the Zelaro, other than the fact that they seemed evil due to the temple decorations and how Gahlnym acted. But it sounded like he would find out in the future anyway, as Gahlnym implied that they were one of the stronger species.

Stanis forced his mind away from this thought-track, as he opened up Status. After all, he had new skills to look at!