'Could it be I'm the only one who can sense the strange fire-elemental flucatuion from the other side?' A thought crossed his mind.
'Humph, do you think of yourself as some mighty divine being's child? Quit dreaming, kid. The reason Rilos stopped going to the other side might be due to Aliza. If I'm not wrong, he doesn't want to endanger that child. Once he met with the other necromancers, he will leave Aliza in their hands and return here to take that treasure.'
'What about that auburn-haired guy? Shouldn't he have also noticed that strange energy?' Abium couldn't help but ask.
'Do you really think he cares for that treasure? The treasure hidden in that place might be of some use for you and Rilos. But to that auburn-haired guy, it's nothing more than a trash. The only thing that fancies him in this pocket dimension is the chaos energy hidden in the atmosphere.'
Upon hearing her words, Abium nodded and continued searching for an easy route to the other side of the volcano.
After some time, Abium started using his [Seer's Intuition] spell and finally entered the volcanic mountain range. He then roamed for two days, avoiding all the dangers, and eventually crossed the volcanic mountains.
In those last two days, he had met many Rank-1 fire-lizard magical beasts and almost got killed by them. If not for his Mind freeze and blink spells, Abium might have already lost his life.
He braced for any possible dangers up ahead while crossing the final mountain and looked at the other side with expectation.
But unlike before, his face looked younger.
His amber eyes and pointy ears were visible due to the bright light, and he gave off an aura of dominance. He wore the academic black robe with a first-tier defensive spell inscribed on it and normal leather boots. His blonde hair was shining brightly due to the golden light coming from every direction, making him look more handsome.
As Abium reached the peak of the final mountain, his lips arched upward.
What greeted him at that moment was not some random lava pool but a large 200-meter-tall temple! Moreover, that temple covered around a one km radius and looked enormous. Abium also saw many beautiful red plants at the entrance gate and was captivated by the beauty.
He quickly hung the short sword on his waist and climbed down to the base. As he walked closer to those strange ornamental-like plants, he noticed the plants' leaves were thicker in size and had a peculiar star pattern. Abium instantly guessed they were magic plants and stopped his footsteps.
'Somehow, I feel I will need these leaves in the future.' He was stunned by the strange precognition and began collecting more than hundreds of Red leaves.
After that, he quietly walked towards that entrance while glancing around warily and soon saw a big magic array-like diagram placed at the front.
'What is this place?' He didn't think much about that magic array and walked near it.
At the same time, Azolla suddenly shouted inside his mind as she finally analyzed the magic pattern.
'Don't go-!!!'
But it was too late!
The magic array started to flicker as Abium's foot touched the array, and soon a crimson fire enveloped the whole temple.
'What kind of spell is this?!' Abium stared at the crimson fire that had already enshrouded the large temple with shock and astonishment.
'It's not a legendary spell.' Azolla said consolingly, but Abium could feel something was amiss.
'Look at the spell model inside the magic array. It's unprotected.' Azolla said in his mind.
Abium gazed at the magic array and started studying the spell model.
After a few minutes of studying, he confirmed that more than twenty thousand runic letters were inscribed in that magic array!
'This must be a third-tier spell, right?' Abium asked in shock. He had already seen the second-tier spells and knew each of those spells only had around two thousand runic characters. But once he analyzed this spell model, he instantly guessed it must be some Third-Tier defensive fire type spell.
'Yes! It's called Sun's Glare. Although this spell's defensive capabilities are less than other defensive spells, this Sun's glare could hold on for much longer. Well, you will be much safer inside this temple, so utilize this opportunity and concentrate on rune learning.' Azolla replied solemnly.
Abium also thought for a bit and nodded in agreement. After discussing with Rune mage Ubius earlier, he realized he was nothing more than a novice in every field.
If he wanted to shine in Alchemy, he must memorize all the books he got from Ubius and Zivior and start doing practical experiments. But before that, he needed to do one last work.
"Azolla, I'm going to memorize this spell model now." Saying so, he moved closer toward the Magic Array and concentrated his full attention on the spell model hidden in the magic array circle.
He quietly sat down while activating the [Eiditic Memory] and memorizing all 20,000+ rune characters.
Once he memorized the third-tier spell model, he quietly stood up from the entrance and shifted his gaze toward the temple's two-meter-tall golden door.
He then quietly stepped towards the door and soon saw a scarlet-colored bird symbol at the center of the gate.
'This looks more like a real phoenix bird!' Abium nodded inwardly and pushed open that gate calmly. He entered the hallway, filled with thousands of circular red pillars supporting the blue ceiling, and looked around with curiosity and shock. Multiple window holes were opened on the sides, letting crimson lights from outside illuminate the grand hallway. The floor was well carpeted with silk clothes and looked more beautiful. Alas, the smile on Abium's face disappeared as he further inspected the hall.
Instead, his face turned grim.
Because what he saw wasn't an empty hall but one filled with thousands of humanoid skeletons. Most of the skeletons remained worshipping, while only a few scattered here and there.
'They are not humans!' Abium's amber eyes widened as he noticed a strange horn-like structure on every skeleton's forehead.
After a short pause, he bent down his waist and touched one of the humanoid skeletons.
The next instant, all those bones started to fall and turn into white powders! Even their clothes and ornaments became turned into dust, leaving nothing behind. Although Abium knew warriors' bones would take much longer to decompose fully, he was still somewhat surprised.
'Kid, these guys seems to have died more than seven millinium ago.' Azolla spoke with a confused tone.
'More than seven thousand years?! How strange.'
Abium slowly moved towards the nearby skeletons and checked if anything valuable in the dust. Soon, he noticed that even the spatial rings began to disintegrate into powders due to some strange corrosive effect on them!
Three hours later, he finally checked half of the skeletons and became utterly stunned.
He couldn't even get one single artifact!
Finally, he shifted his gaze towards the other side and soon noticed something was amiss.
At that moment, he saw some skeletons had already turned into dust!
'Someone had already come to this place?!' That was the only answer Abium thought as he saw those disintegrated skeletons. He soon saw a few human footprints on the dust and gripped his sword tighter.
After calming down his thumping heart, he followed the footprints quietly and soon noticed that it was leading to the sanctum sanctorum at the center of the temple!
Only then did he notice that there were four entrances to this temple and guessed this person must have gotten here through another door.
He pondered for a moment and then moved cautiously towards the sanctum sanctorum.
As he walked closer to the entrance, he noticed that the entrance door was already unlocked and turned grim.
'There is a high chance that an enemy might be waiting inside that hall!'
He soon arrived in front of the entrance gate and stared at it for more than a minute. First, he cast [Seer's Intuition] spell and checked for any danger ahead.
Once he got no reaction from the spell, he breathed a sigh of relief, pushed the door open, and entered inside. But a moment later, he couldn't help but freeze in shock.
Inside the sanctum, an altar was placed in the middle, and above that altar was a giant Phoenix Bird statue.
But that didn't make his heart freeze in shock.
Instead, he saw something else standing before Phoenix Bird's statue.
It was another skeleton!