44. Practice

After sorting out his curses, it was time to train but as Orion looked around the hall, he didn't find an empty place anywhere. The hall was packed with soul forms of various ages.

'There are so many people here. I should look for some other place to train. But are there more areas here in the temple?'

Scouting the whole hall one more time, he didn't find one.

Helpless, he walked towards Feran, who watched over the training of Runo's team and the group of transmigrators.

Feran noticed him from the corner of his eye.

"What do you want, kid?" He asked, his voice appeared somewhat cold.

Orion didn't care about that. He simply stated what he wanted.

"I want to train my skills but I can't seem to find a place with all these people here."

Feran frowned at the kid, thinking that he hadn't practiced what he had been told yet still wanted to improve his skills.

Although he felt disappointed by that, he still decided to help him in the hope that the kid could kill the third guardian. He felt the same for all the people who came to the temple this time, for he knew his time to turn would come soon and there was nothing else he could do other than hope.

Sighing about it, he turned to Agnar.

"Agnar, give this kid a separate training room." He asked him to help Orion.

Agnar didn't question anything and simply tapped the ground with his staff. Almost instantly, the ground near Orion trembled and before he could react he fell down and found himself in a staircase.

Standing up, he saw that in front of him lay a door that appeared to be made of rock.

"Go down through the door."

At that moment a shout sounded and Orion could tell it belonged to Feran.

'They could have nicely done this.'

He complained to himself as he walked down the stairs and arrived in front of the door.

Pushing it lightly, the door automatically opened. Seeing the cue, he stepped in and found himself in a small square room.

The whole room appeared to be made up of stones of various sizes and torches were placed at either side of the hall, illuminating the whole room in an orange shade.

'Let's start the training.'

He thought as he delved into his darkest nightmares.

***

A day passed peacefully as Orion trained. In the meantime, many events unfolded.

Both Runo and the captain of the pirates succeed in defeating the second guardian, but they didn't hastily go for the third one.

Knowing very well the strength of the second guardian, they had some ideas about how strong the third guardian would be, and considering the repeated warnings from the three old men, they didn't rush.

Talking about the three old men, when they learned about the fate of Walric, they felt devastated—not for Walric but for their own fate if they were to fail in defeating the third guardian.

It was particularly true for Runo, who happened to be responsible for all his teammates. If he were to falter here, then not only would he doom himself but also his teammates. This increased the burden on his shoulders even more.

As for the captain of the pirates, he felt the exact opposite. He didn't care about his crew of pirates anymore and only thought about himself at this point.

Although Runo and the captain of the pirates had succeeded in defeating the second guardian, not a single soul form revealed any joy, as if their ability to smile had been sucked dry by the constant threat and despair they felt every day in the temple.

Meanwhile, the crew of pirates had also come back after defeating the first guardian, and not a single one of them looked injured. It appeared they had defeated the first guardian rather easily.

While all this happened, some things remained unchanged, like the group of kids meditating and Feran supervising over them.

At this point in time, two days had passed for Orion and the others, and they were left with only five more days before their time ran out.

***

As everyone was busy with their own things, a silhouette climbed up from the only staircase present in the hall.

The silhouette belonged to Orion. He had been training the whole day down there and felt something odd while he had been there.

He didn't feel any sleep, nor did he feel hungry. It felt as if his body didn't require those things.

'Probably because I am in the soul form.'

He gave credit for this peculiar situation to his soul form.

Arriving back on the hall, he looked around and was surprised to see Runo and the captain of the pirates there, because, as far as he remembered, he hadn't seen them when he went to train a day before.

'It seems they defeated the second guardian.'

He thought while looking at them.

But at that moment, he caught sight of Runo slowly making his way towards him.

'What does he want now?'

A frown appeared on Orion's face as he saw that. He didn't forget what had happened last time between them nor did he want to forget.

He wanted revenge for that. As much as it sounded naive and idiotic in the face of the situation they found themselves in, he couldn't deny the anger he felt in his heart.

He didn't know if it was because of how he had lived his life on Earth or if something had changed in him since he occupied someone else's body. He felt that he couldn't accept people stepping down on him.

Therefore, after seeing Runo coming towards him, the anger that had been buried deep inside his heart reignited.

Before long, Runo arrived in front of Orion and looked him in the eye.

"Why aren't you training like the others?" he asked, his voice tinged with gloom.

Orion didn't back down, as he also stared straight at Runo.

"Because I don't want to," he replied calmly.

This interaction between them attracted the attention of all the soul forms in the temple, including the two old men—Feran and Agnar.

Meanwhile, Runo frowned at Orion's words. He felt that everyone was giving their best out there, and this guy had just been doing his own thing.

Seeing Runo frown and do nothing to him, Orion walked past him and headed towards the portal. He wanted to fight the first guardian.

But just as he walked past Runo, he felt a hand grip his shoulder. Turning around, he saw Runo looking at him, his eyes narrowing.

"What do you want?" Orion asked impatiently.

Looking at Orion and the direction he was headed, Runo understood something.

"Nothing," he said, smirking at Orion. "I just want to show you how powerful the first guardian is."

A look of understanding dawned on Orion as he heard his words.

"Alright, then show me," he said, smiling at Runo. "I also want to know what the difference between us is."