Chapter 11

"Ooh, my head."

When I regained consciousness, I realised that I was lying on the floor.

The first thing I realised when I woke up was that I was missing one arm and both legs.

Perhaps because I was exhausted, the recovery of my wounds was also slower than usual.

While waiting for my wounds to heal, I looked around me, and I could see the monster's body parts scattered all over the place.

From the looks of it, I had only lost consciousness for a few minutes.

After my wounds had fully recovered, I got up and walked to the centre of the altar, where the monster statue had previously stood.

I could also see that the bottle of tea I had placed on the side of the altar had disappeared, leaving nothing behind.

"There goes my tea. Great, now what?"

I still didn't see anything there, I thought I would get a clue after defeating the monster, but nothing appeared.

Well, I guess it's time for me to go back. I'm tired anyway, and the sun might as well go down.

I promised to come home for dinner, I don't want Sarah to scold me again.

It's a bummer, but this hunt wasn't that bad.

*Creak*

However, right at my first step to leave this place, I heard a cracking sound from below me.

"Oh, bloody hell."

The altar floor under my feet broke and I fell down.

-----

"Oww, again?"

I looked up and saw the hole where I fell.

It looks like I fell quite far, but despite that, I'm sure I can climb out of here.

After I recover a little, of course.

At least now I don't have to worry about getting out of here.

"Alright, where am I?"

It looks like I'm still in a cave, but unlike the previous cave, this time, I can see many strange carvings on the walls.

I also saw a large door or may as well i say gate, not far in front of me.

That means this place isn't a natural cave, this whole place was man made.

I wasn't sure if this place was what I thought it was, but the only way to find out was to open the large door in front of me.

"Here we go."

Without wasting any time, I walked towards the large door to open it.

And just as I expected, inside, right in the centre of the room, was another statue.

Only this time, I recognised the statue.

It was the statue from my dream.

"So does that mean, this is the place in my dream?"

"No, boy. This is a different place."

"Yeah, why am I not surprised?"

The statue suddenly spoke and it's a familiar voice.

"Is it you again, old man?"

"Yes, it's me. And congratulations boy, you find one of my sacred temples."

After saying that, he stopped talking. I didn't speak either because I thought he still wanted to continue talking, but he didn't say anything.

The silence continued for a few seconds.

Okay, this is awkward.

"Am I supposed to be impressed or clap my hands?"

"Forget it. Anyway, just like last time, I don't have much time to talk to you."

I already see that one coming.

"But why?"

"In short, because I'm already dead and all that's here is the remnants of my power. These remnants of my power will disappear once the gate opens."

"Oh you must be joking, so this time I won't get any explanation from you either? I have so many unanswered questions!!"

"You don't need an explanation, you will know everything someday."

"And why do you think that?"

"Because this place is not my only temple."

Does that mean he wants me to find all his temples?

"And why do you think I want to find all your temples?"

"Because of this."

In the statue's hand suddenly a flame appeared, just like before.

Except this time the flame was not white, but blue.

"You will get a new flame every time you find my temple. And this time, your reward is the soul flame, this flame allows you to control animals, monsters, or even humans. But you must already know this, before you can do all that..."

"Let me guess, I have to feed it, a lot?"

"Exactly, for now the flame can only control creatures with low intelligence. But that should be enough to solve your current problem, right?"

What? What problem?

"You mean like, controlling Sarah's mind so she didn't scold me every time I come back late?"

"No, no that idiot. That's horrible, it's like your saying Sarah has low intelligence. I mean the Trench Keeper."

"Oh.."

Trench Keeper? Ah.... That fish monster!

"Wait... how do you know about that?"

He did not answer and for some reason, I could imagine he's grinning.

"'Alright, boy. This is the end of our conversation, if you want to know more, go find my temple. Of course, you can just give up here, but I'm sure you don't want that, right? Hahaha!"

Yeah, he's right. After I found out that I would get a new power every time I found his temple, I just got even more excited.

I mean, who doesn't want power?

"But, can we talk for a minute? There's something I really want to ask you. There's a lot actually, could you just answer one question?"

"No, i can't. Goodbye, boy. And good luck."

I suddenly felt a blinding light from under my feet, and I realised that there was some kind of magic circle activating under my feet.

I didn't recognise the spell written on the magic circle, but I was pretty sure it was teleportation magic.

"Oh, seriously. At least tell me who in the devil are y-"

And I was forced to close my eyes because the light from the magic circle was too bright.

The next thing I knew, I was in the water.

Bloody old man, why did he teleport me down here?

Couldn't he have just done it on land?

I couldn't breathe, I had to swim to the surface, but I didn't even know which way was up and which way was down.

My surroundings are too dark!!!

Panicking, I accidentally let water into my nose and....

Wait...

I can breathe?

I don't know why, but when the water entered my nose, I feel like I was breathing.

I tried once more, and it was real, I could breathe.

My panic slowly dissipated, looks like thar old man already know about this.

But there was one other problem, I couldn't swim.

I may not be able to see now, but I can feel my body slowly sinking.

If it continues like this, I'll sink to the bottom of the sea.

This sucks, I don't even know how long I can breathe underwater, but I'm sure it won't be long considering I'm already pretty tired from the fight earlier.

So I had to get to the surface.

I lit my flame, not just for light, but I also used it to create bubbles so I could figure out how to get to the surface.

After all, bubbles always go upwards. That's what I read in a book, at least.

Following the bubbles created by my flame, I moved my legs and arms with all my might to follow it.

Although I didn't know how to swim, I could feel my body slowly moving upwards.

It was probably because of my physical strength.

Slowly but surely, I continued to swim to the surface until I could faintly see light.

At the same time, I could feel something coming.

Well, what did I expect?

Lighting a fire under the sea would definitely attract attention.

From the darkness below me, I could see that there were 4 fish monsters swimming very quickly towards me.

They swam much faster than me, so out-swimming them was impossible.

I stopped swimming and summoned my armour with my spear.

Come to think of it, didn't the old man say that the new flame I got from him could control them?

I have to try it.

Stretching my left hand forward, I summoned the blue flame.

I don't know how it works since that bloody old man didn't tell me, but I'll try to burn them when they reach my attack range, or basically, I have to touch them directly.

When one of them got close enough, I held its attack with my spear and burned it with my other hands.

And for a moment, I feel like our minds are connected.

It was hard to explain how it feels, but I feel like I can understand what it's thinking. And it wanted to eat me.

I immediately told it to stop, and it worked, it stopped like a trained dog.

It just looked at me. Although it didn't have eyes, I could feel that it did that.

Unfortunately, its three other friends were still attacking me, so I had to subdue them one by one.

But with the help of the newly subdued monster, it didn't take me long to subdue the rest.

This was harder than I thought.

Maybe next time I should just subdue their leader, so I don't have to take them down one by one.

Not to mention, this flame might have a limit of how many monsters or individuals it can subdue.

I better use it carefully next time.

Anyway, I need to get to the surface. I feel that I won't be able to breathe underwater for much longer.

Without delay, I ordered the four monsters to carry me up.

It feels a little strange riding on them, but it also feels rather fun.

Well, at least with this, the problem with these monsters was almost over.

I just need to find their leader.

I'll do that later, I'm too tired to do that right now.

Besides, from the light above me, it's probably a moonlight, and that means it's already night.

I'm gone for almost a day, Sarah must be angry by now.