33. Temple Of Souls

'Am I dead?'

This thought was the only thing that occupied Orion's mind as he gazed at his lifeless body lying on the ground.

He couldn't fathom that he would meet his end like this, especially after being transmigrated and given a system.

'I guess I am the worst transmigrator then.'

Though he didn't experience sadness, only regret washed over Orion—regret that he hadn't made the most of the second chance he had been given.

"Hey, look, another one!"

As Orion appeared to be absorbed in contemplation over his demise, a voice emanated from behind him. He found it rather peculiar that he could still hear voices even in death.

Despite his astonishment, he turned to investigate the source of the sound, and what he saw nearly caused him to have a heart attack.

To his horror, he saw that behind him there appeared to be around ten or so ghost like bodies hovering in the air. Ghost like as in, he could see right through them.

'These are the people who got attacked by the blue ball. But what are they doing here if they are dead?… What am I doing here if am dead? What's going on here? Are we not dead?'

He couldn't ascertain if this was how it really was when people died, but if it was, then why would they exist in their...soul form?

As Orion pondered this with his head lowered, he caught a glimpse of the blue ball passing right through Liira.

To his astonishment, her body, like his own, crumpled to the ground, and a ghost-like, ethereal version of her emerged from her body, floating in the air.

In that moment, a realization struck Orion that perhaps all those individuals struck by the blue ball didn't truly die but instead became ghosts or manifested themselves in their soul form.

Observing Liira, who remained remarkably calm despite the events, reinforced his belief that his theory was likely true.

'It's good that I didn't die; otherwise, the god who transmigrated me would definitely be cursing me right now.'

Sighing in relief, he waited for the remaining people on the ground to manifest in their soul forms.

***

A while later, the transformation to soul form seemed to be completed and everyone's body on the ground was being laid lifelessly.

At that moment, the captain of the pirates yelled to draw everyone's attention.

"Everyone."

Hearing the loud voice of his, the soul forms floating on the air turned their heads to him.

Feeling satisfied with this, the captain's expression turned serious as he went on to explain what was happening here.

"As you all know, this dungeon don't have a boss but... I happen to find how to summon the boss."

Runo, Liira, and everyone in Runo's team had their ears perked up, focusing on what the captain of the pirate was saying because they also didn't know how to find the boss.

Everything they knew about the boss, even the map that led them here, had been acquired by the deal between them and the pirates. However, even that knowledge was limited, as they didn't know anything about what would happen after this.

As for why the pirates knew more than them, who had been searching for this place for a week, it was because of that temple.

When they had been searching all over the island, the temple hadn't been there where it appeared to be right now. It recently came into existence and was first found by pirates. Hence, their current situation.

Seeing everyone paying attention to him, the captain of the pirates smiled as he continued.

"You see that temple over there?"

He pointed at the temple not far from them, which had also been enclosed by the red cylindrical like them.

"That temple is called the Temple of Souls, and the boss is in that place. But we can't go far inside the temple in our physical form because of the temple's rule. However, when I went into the temple last time, I found a book at the entrance that explained everything I needed to know about the boss, the dungeon, and the temple."

Runo's team understood everything from his words but they still remained unclear about what would happen to them in the temple.

On the side, Orion also understood some things he wasn't clear about.

'It seems that temple is the place where the boss is but why is it so complicated to get to a boss in the dungeon? Shouldn't the boss be in a place where everyone could get to easily?'

Although he didn't understand this, he thought maybe this world's dungeon worked differently to what he had read in novels.

Seeing Runo's team looking at him eagerly, the captain of pirates continued.

"But to enter that temple successfully, we will need about minimum twenty-five people in their soul form; otherwise, the entrance will remain close even if we have only one less. Now that everyone understand all of this, let's enter the temple."

As he finished speaking, the captain then took out a glowing red orb the size of his fist, from which rays of light emanated towards them like streaks of red flashes, and before anyone could react, these rays of light entered them.

For a moment, nothing seemed to happen but after a while, their soul form started to descend slowly and came down to the ground.

At that moment, Orion had a feeling like he was in his body again but that wasn't true as his body was still lying beside him.

'Whatever the captain did right now made our body solid and with this, we can walk like normal people... but can I use my talent in this soul form?'

He thought because if they encountered any problem inside the temple, then without their talents, they would only be courting death by going there.

Therefore, he wanted to see if their talent would work or not in this form.

Raising his hand, he tried to use repel and as a result, his hand started to glow in a bright red color.

'Thank god, it works.'

Seeing this, Orion sighed in relief.