Chapter 8

After crossing the hard wooden floors, we proceeded to our next challenge, which took us to a room with pillars lined up in the center and a statue of a lion's face secured to the wall in front of us.

It was difficult to overlook how ancient but opulent the room appeared, and we were all in awe as we couldn't stop ourselves from wandering around, enjoying its beauty.

Minjoon approached the lion's head, captivated by how it was sculpted. Its eyes were red but gleaming, as if they were made of diamonds. Assuming the design was intended to intimidate invaders, it was not intimidating to him, and he could only see the beauty in it.

Yuto hurriedly grabbed his hand as Minjoon reached out to touch the sculpture. "Don't touch it. It might be a trap or something," he advised.

"We're in a game, Minjoon Hyung. We have to be cautious at all times," Seungjae added.

"I completely forgot. Sorry."

I was looking around on the opposite side for hints as to what to do in this chamber, but no matter how hard I looked, I couldn't discover any.

"Do you think we entered the wrong room?" I questioned, giving second thoughts to our progression.

"I think so. Let's go outside and che—." Heric attempted twisting the door, but it wouldn't budge, so he banged it with his shoulder, but the door was absolutely locked. "Well, I guess we're stuck in here."

Jeongmin, who was deep in concentration while glancing around, saw some scriptures written on the wall. He dusted some dust off it, revealing the gold plate and making the scriptures much clearer and easier to read.

"Hey guys! Check this out!" he exclaimed, as everyone crowded around him to view the large scriptures.

They admired it for a long time, but they couldn't understand the language. It was weird since they could read, speak, and understand the language of this realm, but they couldn't manage to read and understand the scriptures.

Jiho inquired, "What language is that?"

Heric recognized the written language after a thorough examination and said, "It's an ancient language that existed a long time ago."

"How do you know that?" I inquired, surprised.

"I remember seeing this before on a mission with Angela, when she hadn't decided on working in the Poffice Guild yet."

"Can Joseph Hyung read it?" Yejoon inquired.

"Nope."

"But you have linguistic power, which you can use," Jun explained.

"That power is only for animals, not human languages."

Heric remembered Angela being able to read and understand the letters, so he photographed the scripture and emailed it to her to assist him, to which she replied, "Kiss my muzzle and kiss it twice; feed thy power; blue would suffice."

She also explained her solution to the puzzle, saying, "Kiss its nose twice and feed them your power until it becomes blue."

We were all perplexed as Heric delivered the details as to what the riddle meant by feeding it their power and how. We all gathered in front of the sculpture, trying to figure out how to follow the instructions, beginning with Heric.

He stood in front of the lion and kissed its nozzle twice. That caused it to open its mouth, which Heric assumed meant putting his hand on top of its tongue. The lion's crimson eyes changed blue a split second later, and a secret door beside him opened.

We all followed in after Heric because we thought one person would be enough to open the door. But as soon as he walked in, the door slammed shut, startling us all.

"I guess we'll have to do what he did individually," I remarked, going first as the others waited in line one by one.

Fortunately, no one was left behind, and everyone was strong enough to complete the third task, which, when you think about it, was more of a test. After everyone had passed the third round, we all rushed to the next, which I hoped would be our last.

We hurried up the winding steps until we reached the top of the structure. We entered another room and found only an empty, semicircle space covered in pristine white. It was as though we were all brought to purgatory, a place for sinners to be cleansed before receiving paradise.

"There's no one here," Jiwoo pointed out.

"Did we fail? Or do we still need to find something?" Joseph inquired.

Just as we were going to move and glance around, a woman's loud voice boomed throughout the room.

It asked, "Who dares to enter the top floor of this Holy Land palace?"

The voice stunned us all, and we were all mute as we shivered in horror. But we couldn't just leave the woman unanswered, so I mustered the bravery to speak, my voice trembling.

"We're here to get our own familiars!"

"I see; you've passed all of the tests I've devised; you're all quite impressive."

"Well, it wasn't that difficult to do," Jaeseong whispered, but the room's spaciousness could make a whisper loud enough for everyone to hear, and unfortunately, the voice heard his remark.

"My tests given were not difficult, you say?"

Our pulses pounded rapidly as we were terrified by the odd, booming voice. Joseph slapped the clown on the shoulder as Seongho chuckled nervously and placed his hand on his mouth to silence him.

"Haha, please don't listen to this clown," pleaded Joseph.

"He was just joking! Haha, you know how clowns are." Seongho giggled nervously but stopped when he realized nothing he said was humorous and the harm had already been done.

"May I inquire as to who you are and where we can receive our familiar?" I asked, changing the subject, but this appeared to irritate her even more.

"Who am I? I am the greatest ruler of this palace, and you are asking who I am?"

I've never regretted asking in my entire life, and as a result, I've decided not to talk again. I then grasped Seungjae's arm, the person I was standing next to, and silently asked for his assistance, which he understood.

"Please forgive us, your holiness, but this is our first visit to this place. Of course we have no idea who you are," he said.

"Silence!" screamed the voice, causing the floor to rumble. The booming voice and the sensation of the ground shaking terrified us all, prompting us to close our mouths and refuse to speak another word.

"Sorry, ma'am," Seungjae said, bowing his head and hunching his back cowardly.

"You've proven your strength by passing the previous challenges; now, since you claim these tests weren't difficult for you—"

"Oh no," Milton whispered dreadfully as he imagined what would happen next as the voice proceeded.

"I will put you all to the ultimate test, and let's see who is the strongest among us!"

Hearing that, Jaeseong felt a surge of regret, wishing he hadn't said anything unnecessary, then chuckled nervously.

"Haha, y-your holiness, I was joking around when I said that. I really didn't mean any of those, I promise..." he added, hoping his message had reached her but was met with silence.

Just as they thought the voice had vanished, the ground suddenly rumbled violently, as if a giant were running at full speed. As the momentum grew, the wall to our left blew up, revealing yet another large opening.

I promptly built a boulder for us to hide behind during the explosion and ensured that those who are allergic to dust were protected. We peered in and saw two massive, powerful-looking T-rex robots arrive, and their appearance was spine-chilling.

"Oh sh*t, what are we going to do?" shouted Sujin, beginning to panic.

"They're out of our league; we can't beat those!" exclaimed Jeongmin.

"Remain calm and don't panic!" Heric encouraged. The T-rex:A roared when they noticed us, and I have to say that it made me freeze in place for a split second out of fear.

"F*ck that, I'm out!" exclaimed Seungjae as he backed away in dread.

"Everyone split up, youngest to oldest, move it!" I cried, which everyone did as T-rex:B leapt on top of us, splitting us in half.

T-rex:B is now the target of Team A, whereas T-rex:A is the aim of the opposite team. We need to figure out a way to fight these robots as soon as possible, or else we'll be the ones defeated.

Jaeseong instantly aimed his string at its leg. He then pulled, causing the T-Rex to collapse to the ground. The tail then heavily swung, striking Jun, Joseph, and myself before painfully crashing onto the wall.

We all groaned in pain but swiftly rose to our feet. Jiwoo promptly chose three Pakemin to assist him with this fight during our minor hit and recovery. Since we're dealing with a robot, it's constructed of metal.

What can compete with metal? Fighting, fire, and ground.

"Chirazar, Blazape, Cilyndera! All of you, do Blaze!" He ordered.

The three obeyed their master's command and utilized their blazing power to set fire to the robot, damaging it.

Yuto and Heric from the other squad ran towards their T-rex and attempted to sever their metal bodies. Unfortunately, it did not work, allowing the robot to shake them off. Fortunately, the two climbed down safely and avoided another attack.

"Swords don't work!" exclaimed Yuto, alarming the others. Milton attempted his arrow, but it couldn't stick when he shot.

"Arrows, too," he said as the rex's tail lashed towards him, knocking him against the wall. Fortunately, he was still alive but severely injured.

"Milton!" shouted Seungjae as he saw his friend get hit and fly across the room. He shouts angrily at the rex, attacking with his vocals and successfully knocking it down to the ground, somewhat wounding it.

Sujin rushed to Milton's aid, using his healing abilities. "Heal," he softly chanted.

Minjoon attempted to utilize his x-ray vision to locate the monsters' hearts, but he was unable to see anything. There were only a few metals and nothing else.

"He doesn't have a heart or anything," he informed them frantically, then clicked his tongue in annoyance.

When everything seemed lost, Jiwoo's Pakemin Monsters kept using their blazing power to injure their T-Rex. He smiled in delight as he witnessed this.

"Everyone, fire damages it!" he cried as his Pakemin continued to inflict fire, causing their adversaries to lose half of their lives.

Everyone with firepower utilizes it swiftly. Yejoon, Jeongmin, Jiho, and Yumi devised and employed fire-producing weapons against their foes. Jun employed his firepower, while Sujin employed his red fire.

T-rex A and T-rex B were both roaring in pain as they were cornered. They attempted to attack, but Seongho and Seungjae utilized their protective abilities to form a circle of protection around them, protecting everyone while they attacked and eventually defeating them.

A few seconds later, the malicious and terrifying robots they fought have melted and are unable to move. This means that our squad has won the battle. Everyone applauded as they hugged and clapped each other in a mini-celebration of their accomplishment!

The mystery voice's owner was covertly observing them from afar and couldn't believe they had won the war. It was irritating to think that a group of hunters were stronger than her and could defeat her creation.

"No! That can't be! No one is capable of defeating my monsters—that can't be!" it exclaimed, disbelievingly and fearfully. "I can't accept this! You—"

The voice suddenly got interrupted as you could faintly hear the sound of crows cawing from afar, and then all of a sudden, you could hear the voice struggling, yelling the birds to go away as it quickly faded and vanished.

It was like hearing someone being pulled away from the microphone in the school's broadcasting room. It seemed strange to hear it. But Joseph exclaimed with delight, knowing his plan had worked. "They found her!" He whispered to himself.

Then, all of a sudden, a swarm of crows carried an elf woman into this room, entering through the damaged wall to our left while still struggling to be set free.

"Let me go this instant! I said let go, idiotic birds!"

And, as the woman demanded, the crows dropped her 2 meters to the ground. We all winced as we saw the woman fall heavily on her bum as she hissed in pain.

The crows flew to Joseph as the youngster approached them and complimented them with open arms, while the crows rubbed their faces on his cheek in delight, earning their master a chuckle.

The elf’s aura got more hesitant when she noticed we were looking at her and were aware of her existence. I assumed it was because we were taller than she was and she was scared of coming face-to-face with our kind.

Not until Joseph spoke as he greeted her with smugness, "It's nice to meet you, your holiness."

Everyone raised their brows in disbelief. Was that voice from a while ago coming from this elf in front of us? It never occurred to us, and we were taken aback.

"You were that voice?" Sujin inquired, surprised.

"You're the one who tried to kill us, huh?" snarled Seungjae.

Some were upset by what she had put us through and took the information seriously. Those who were upset approached her angrily.

When she observed their enraged attitude, the elf bowed in dread, and tears welled up in her eyes. She quickly knelt and begged, begging for an apology as tears streamed down her cheeks.

"Cut it out, guys," Seongho said as he and Jaeseong moved up to the elf and blocked their route.

"But hyung—!" Jeongmin argued.

"Give her a break; we got through it, so there's no reason to be harsh on her," Jaeseong added.

"She was just doing her job as ruler," I explained as I assisted her up. As I did so, the five lads put down their weapons and tried to calm themselves. It was difficult to argue because our point was valid.

"Thank you," she said as she rose to her feet.

"What's your name?" I inquired.

"Elvina, Elvina Jury, one of the kingdom's guardian elves."

"So, Elvina, about our familiars?" I questioned again, and she nodded in agreement.

"Yes, you've all demonstrated that you're worthy of having a partner," Elvina said, pausing before continuing, "Follow me." She opened an invisible door opposite where we had entered and led us down a long, dark hallway.

The room where we obtain our familiars is right behind that opulent-looking door ahead of us. Walking towards it made me reflect on everything.

Getting my own familiar is both nerve-racking and thrilling. And if I were telling the truth, I would never have succeeded this far without these boys.

I know Heric feels the same way.

Guilt washed over me as I remembered how I used to respond whenever I watched these boys on TV. I used to think about how bothersome they were, but the idea of loathing these boys solely because my friends kept mentioning them has now settled and altered.

Even though I only spent a brief time with them, these boys aren't so horrible after all.