Missing Golden Finger

It's gone! How is this possible?!

His golden finger was missing. Although it didn't play a seemingly prominent role in his life so far, Pro knew that the book was his reason for survival.

It assisted him with many tools such as appraisal, self inspection, and spell model upgrade. It also let him balance his negative energy, preventing it from going above his pain threshold. Finally, it was his hole card for destroying dungeon cores.

Losing all of this turned him into a normal traverser. No, he wasn't even close to other traversers in strength. Even with a god seed, his strength wasn't too different from a 'stronger' descendant.

For the first time, Pro felt a tremor in his heart as a suffocating sense of weakness doused his body like cold water. His heart palpated as all sorts of worries regarding his future clashed in Pro's mind.

This simply came too suddenly! Pro always believed that his golden finger is omnipotent and would stay with him no matter where he goes. However, now it seems there are exceptions.

Pro didn't know what situation would cause his current predicament. He only knew that he couldn't rely on his Negative Chronicles in this dungeon until he found a way to get it back!

"Calm down, Pro. Calm down. You are still in a dungeon. Even without it, you can do your best to survive."

Pro calmed himself as he gripped his hands to stop them from trembling.

Taking deep breathes one after another, Pro eventually firmed his mind.

He was a man determined to walk the path of a god. He can't become a wimp here just because he lost his golden finger!

Plus, he's immortal. There's no need to worry about dying. This game can still be played!

Pro's eyes sharpened as slowly stood up while maintaining vigilance. With a glance, the interior of the temple revealed itself to Pro.

In front of him was a long, wooden altar table. There were various offerings laid on the table, from unknown, magical fruits to gleaming artifacts.

When he saw these, Pro's eyes gleamed with a hint of greed, but he resisted reaching out for now.

Sweeping his eyes forward, Pro locked his eyes on a large, strange statue sitting on the box-shaped, stone altar behind the wooden table.

It seemed to be a statue of some unknown goddess, dressed in an ancient robe while thousands of hands waved behind her back. Her eyes were closed while her emotionless face turned towards the left side.

It was unknown if the statue was made of bronze or copper, but what attracted Pro's attention was the gilded-gold nails on each of the goddess's hands. Pro didn't understand what mysteries or reasons for this, but it simply gave Pro a weird, out-of-place feeling.

Turning his attention to the rest of the temple, Pro noticed some murals depicted on the walls to the side. There were scenes of a faceless goddess, depicting creation possibly and battling an unknown army of red, humanoid creatures.

Pro had no experience with archaeology nor did he have much knowledge regarding myths.

So, Pro didn't really understand much of the murals, but he could probably guess it was the story of this goddess.

As for gaining some enlightenment or discovering some secrets or skills from the murals?

Sorry, that's easier said than done. Do you think a normal, average man can suddenly get an arbitrary pie from the sky after staring at incomprehensible doodle?

Yeah. Time to hammer another nail into the coffin. Pro wasn't the protagonist.

Or at least that's what Pro thinks.

Turning around, Pro located the only entrance and exit to the temple. Except, now it was completely sealed by a giant boulder.

Quietly stepping forward, Pro came up to the boulder with a frown.

"Is this one of those ancient boulders, used to seal places permanently, mentioned in certain martial arts stories?"

The corner of Pro's lip couldn't help but twitch. He didn't want to be trapped here along with a strange statue. Although she was a goddess, she was clearly not one Pro could discuss poems with.

Raising his hand, Pro focused his mind as he did his best to recall the corrosion spell model.

Although it took way longer than casting it through his book, a familiar spell model was slowly built within his spiritual realm.

With a thought, negative energy was channeled into the spell model as a familiar, faint red mist appeared on Pro's hand.

"Phew. Fortunately, I spent some time to familiarize myself with manually casting this spell model as a hobby. Well, it was the only spell model I had ... so, it was the only thing I could enjoy learning for fun. Glad that I did. Still, the spell is a bit downgraded, but better than nothing ..."

Raising his hand wrapped in red mist, Pro pressed it against the boulder.

Sizzle. Sizzle. Sizzle.

At the point of contact, Pro felt a strong repulsion force pushing against his hand as mysterious, golden runic symbols lit up on the boulder.

Under Pro's shocked eyes, this phenomenon gradually extended outwards, covering the rest of the temple including walls, floors, and ceiling. Even the statue had lit up with symbols, giving it a holy, golden glow.

Pulling his hand back in shock, Pro canceled his corrosion spell. A frown appeared on his face as he watched the runic

"It seems that my corrosion spell won't be able to help me dig a way out unless I can exceed the strength of this temple's barrier."

Pro felt a bit helpless inside as he observed the fading runic symbols.

The hint revealed in the dungeon description was to escape from the temple. So, it is clear what Pro had to do.

However, this strong barrier seemingly prevents all ways of escape through brute power. Perhaps other traversers may have a way if they were strong enough, but Pro was clearly not an exception.

"So, there must be a way to open up a way to leave. Perhaps, there is a hidden puzzle that needs to be solved in here. I just haven't discovered it yet ..."

Glancing back at the interior of the temple, Pro swept his eyes over the murals and lost hope. So, he could only set his eyes on the altar.

"According to wuxia novels, there is usually some switch or hidden compartment somewhere in these cases ..."

Time to get searching. Pro still held three points of vigilance as he carefully searched around the altar.

Placing his ear against the stone altar, Pro knocked repeatedly at different spots.

Tapping here and there, Pro scratched his head in frustration as he knew he didn't have any experience with deciphering the difference between the sound of solid stone versus the sound of a hollowed inside.

Although this didn't sound hard to do, do note that even this was a skill that many average citizen in modern society unfortunately lack. He was an average college student in an English Major, not an experienced construction worker nor did he have much experience as a handy-man.

Circling around the altar a couple of times, Pro suddenly froze in place as he turned the corner towards the back of the altar.

A switch had unknowingly appeared on the back of the altar!

Pro's heart lurched as he vigilantly backed away as he stared at his surrounding. How did a switch suddenly come out of nowhere? He clearly didn't see any when he walked through here a couple of times!

Is there something ... here?

Gulp. Pro tried to calm his beating heart as he tried to find a logical reason to explain this situation.

Recalling all his steps before, Pro then gradually calmed down his beating heart as he buried his head like an ostrich.

"I was walking counterclockwise the first few time, so I came through the back from the right. Now, I walked clockwise and came from the left, which is the direction that the goddess statue was facing. Puzzle solved."

Pro inwardly brewed his confidence as he strolled up to the switch.

Click. Rumble. Rumble.

He could hear the sound of something grating on the stone as it slid. Walking back around the corner, Pro saw that a small stone pedestal had risen up in front of the goddess statue. On the pedestal laid a familiar looking red orb. It was a dungeon core.

"So that's how it is. It seems this is just a simple dungeon puzzle mechanic. I'm scaring myself thinking that there is other things here ... I'm so smart! Hahaha ..."

Well, even if he was 'smart', Pro knew that he should play dumb when needed.

Although his heart was shivering, he still did his best to not look up. He clearly noticed that the face of the statue is now facing forward!

Its eyes were still closed, but the faint downwards tilt of the goddess's head made it seemed like the goddess was staring down at the dungeon core!

It was clear what Pro had to do next. Although Pro truly wanted to back away and stop the plot from proceeding, his danger senses had began to tingle slightly and it was gradually growing stronger as if some danger was approaching!

Pro knew he had no choice. He was too weak. His fate wasn't in his grasp, and he had no choice but to follow the other's command and be its plaything.

His book that helped him survive was gone. He knew if he disobeyed here, there would be nothing that could save him.

Gritting his teeth and bowing his head, Pro stepped forward towards the altar.

Reaching out his hand towards the core, Pro's eyes happened to land on the items laying on the table in front of him. His hands paused as his eyes rolled around.

"Ahem. I'm sure you don't mind me cleaning off the unnecessary junk littering your offering table. With them gone, there will be space for new offerings. This should be my duty, there's no need to say thanks."

As he cheekily muttered to nobody in particular, Pro's hand swiftly stashed away the items into his pocket space.

Then, Pro's hand shot forward and quickly took the dungeon core off the pedestal lest there be changes due to his 'piety'.

Tremble. Tremble. Tremble.

Pro felt the entire temple shake as he heard the grating stone rumbling behind him.

Turning around, Pro's eyes lit up! The boulder that was blocking the entrance was now rolling open!

His exit was here!

Suddenly, Pro felt his danger sense's tingle rapidly strengthening!

Gripping the orb tightly in his hand, Pro hopped towards the exit as he began to build the corrosion spell model in his spiritual realm.

Turning around, Pro vigilantly stared at the trails of red mist that was snaking out from the murals.

These red mist settled onto the nearby ground of the temple and Pro could see a faint humanoid silhouette being born in the mist!

"Nope. Like hell am I waiting for you to be born. Eat sh*t!" Pro hollered as he sent a bolt of his corrosion spell at the manifesting humanoid creature.

Fwoosh! The spell struck spot on and seemingly obliterated one of the creatures! Pro's eyes lit up with excitement. Maybe he can do this-

Oom! As if responding to Pro's provocation, waves of red mist came crashing out from the murals and down onto the temple floor. Humanoid figures rapidly generated within the mist.

Moments later, a small army of glowing red eyes lit up within the mist and locked onto the only prey in the temple ...

Pro's heart trembled as cold sweat oozed out of his forehead. He raised both hands up in surrender as he slowly backed out ...

"Haha ... ahem, would you believe me if I said that was accident?"

OOK-OOK! Eeek-aak-eek! Thump! Thump!

Hearing the mix of menacing growls and seeing thick, furry red arms stretching out from the red mist, Pro chuckled weakly as he briskly stepped back, "Okay, guess not. Guess it's time for me to-"

Run!