THE TEMPLE OF DRAGONS

THE TEMPLE OF DRAGONS

"Please do not kill me", the Skeleton King pleaded with us suddenly.

The Skeleton King's arrogance and anger was gone all of a sudden after he realized his situation. He lost.

"This skeleton is a coward, unlike the other one", Sara told us.

"Tell me why I shouldn't kill you and your entire city?" I asked the wannabe Skeleton King.

"I'll give you all our treasures. Just spare me", he replied to me and pleaded.

"You don't have shyte in your palace. You are poorer than me", Ratatouille told the king.

"I have something valuable that my father gave to me that his father gave to him for generations. It is a treasure of untold worth and value", the king told us.

"What is it?" Cassandra asked the skeleton king curiously.

"A map to the Temple of Dragons. Adventurers and even the apostles have been looking for this place for a very long time but never found it. I have the map to the Temple of Dragons", he told us.

"Alright, give us the bloody map and I will spare your life", I told the Skeleton king.

The Skeleton king brought out a parchment and gave it to us immediately.

"This is just so bloody convenient", Sara commented and looked the other way.

The Skeleton King wannabe kept the map to the Temple of Dragons on him which was more than convenient and a coincidence.

"This is just an ordinary map", Ratatouille said as he looked at the map that the Skeleton King gave to us.

"The location is inside the map, I promise. Although I couldn't find its secrets. The map is obscured by powerful magic that only those who know it can unlock its secret", the skeleton king told us.

Sara took the parchment and inspected it. After a while, she discovered its secrets.

"He is not lying. There is a magic code inside the parchment hiding the location", Sara said to us.

"Can you decode the magic map?" Rinna asked her.

"Yes, I've already gotten the location. This is just too easy", she replied to her without the need to study the map further.

Sara could send her nano-bots into any magical device to extract the circuitry and language of their magic. She easily discovered the hidden map inside the parchment.

"Will you spare me now?" the skeleton king asked me.

"Yes, I, Conjurer Ivior of the Conjurer Court of Drachia shall spare you", I replied to him as my friends smiled at the title and introduction.

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We left Melling city without killing the skeleton king as we promised to him.

But we didn't leave the Valley of Death alone. My Malevolent Slaves went out scouring the valley for several days to capture all the bone magic in and on the ground.

All the dead and deceased in the Valley of Death shall rest in peace after my Malevolent Slaves were done.

"It is quite a coincidence. We are looking for the Temple of Dragons and the skeleton king gave us the map to it", Cassandra told us with amusement.

"That's what I said, earlier", Sara added.

"Coincidences don't happen often. We should be wary about it", Rinna advised me.

"It is too much of a coincidence but is there a problem with the map to the Temple of Dragons? Is it genuine?" I asked Sara.

"There is no problem with the map although we won't know what will be waiting for us in the Temple of Dragons when we go there. This whole thing with the map stinks", Sara replied to me.

"The smell won't harm us if we can smell it. It is only a problem to us if we didn't smell it at all", I replied to her.

"Next time bring a dog here. Don't ask me", Sara replied to me.

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We had finally reached the northern reaches of the mountain range, just beyond the borders of Melling city, guided by our mystical map.

Our quest was to find the Temple of Dragons, a legendary sanctuary whispered about amongst adventurers far and wide across the Ten-Kingdoms.

It was said to harbor untold riches within its ancient halls, yet its very name carried with it the weight of peril – powerful and dangerous dragons.

Few who ventured within the temple ever returned to share their tales.

After an exhaustive search, we stumbled upon the concealed entrance to the Temple, nestled within the craggy embrace of a small mountain cave. Without the aid of our enchanted map, this discovery would have remained elusive.

The entrance, though, was sealed by some form of powerful magic.

Before us stood a circular dial, an arcane mechanism that served as the gateway to the Temple's doors which was also undoubtedly the key to unlocking it.

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"How do we get through this door to the temple?" Rinna asked us.

"We don't have to worry about that if we have Sara around", I replied to her.

In my past life, Sara was my AI controller. She could unlock any puzzles or combinations that protected entrances to magical places. This magical door was probably no exception.

"There are many runes around the dials to the door. Turning the dials according to the proper direction is the way to open this door to the temple", Sara told us about her assessment on unlocking the door to the Temple of Dragons.

There were many different runes on the dial around the magic door. It would be almost impossible to guess the correct combination by randomly turning the dial.

"Must we try each of these runes to find the correct combination? There are too many of them," I asked her.

In our previous life, that was the frequently used method to unlock magical doors.

"That is unnecessary. I have deduced the code", Sara told us to our surprise.

"How did you deduce the key to the door?" Rinna asked her.

"I have a library of all the recorded history of the Temple of Dragons and the meanings and interactions between ancient runes. I've calculated several combinations that can unlock and open this door", she told us.

So, Sara started turning the dials on the door to the temple to try to unlock it.