Ruins

My main goal in this universe for now was to become strong, even more than understanding how I had been transmigrated. 

I had no ambition to become the most powerful man in the world, but I needed to be strong enough to protect the warmth of the family I had found here.

To do that, I needed to level up, evolve my skeletons, and gain new abilities. The only way to do that was to kill monsters and collect their Soul Fragments.

Although the Forest of Thorns was a place full of monsters, it would be difficult to deal with them in such harsh terrain and with so many people around who would likely reduce my EXP reward.

Furthermore, I felt that since two people with important surnames had been assigned to this mission together, what awaited us at our destination might not only be Angelica Roots. 

If I was right about this, a detour would be good both for me to level up and to perhaps throw off an ambush.

Fortunately, most of the group believed me when I took the map with such confidence and pointed out the path we should follow.

Consequently, I was now the one leading the formation. But I was not alone, my Skeleton Soldier was practically shoulder to shoulder with me.

"Young Oneal, are you sure this is the right way?" asked Hawklight, scratching his chin. 

He looked around with a frown.

Rosella, who was just behind Hawklight, quickly replied to the instructor.

"You're in no position to question him, Mr. Hawklight. You had the map the whole time and got us lost."

Hawklight felt something like an arrow piercing his heart, figuratively speaking, and put his hands on his chest.

"Why do a woman's harsh words always hurt more?" he said in a poetic tone.

Hawklight was not a character I was familiar with, so I didn't even recognize him when we sat side by side on the electric tram.

However, in the four hours we had spent together, I was already able to deduce a few things about him.

The first was that Mr. Hawklight was not an experienced Climber, at least not the combat-oriented type. He seemed to be more of an academic and had therefore been assigned to this job.

Whether the choice of someone so inexperienced had been intentional or not by the Church, I did not yet know. However, I knew that Hawklight was definitely not the ideal instructor for this mission.

"We're probably on the right track. The terrain is getting more difficult," Kyle Barlow pointed out.

"Tell me about it," Anton replied before cutting a vine that had caught his left leg for a moment.

Kyle was right. The terrain was getting increasingly difficult, but that was because we were approaching the center of the Forest of Thorns, where the Ruins of the Temple of the Sun were located.

Rumors about this place suggested that the entire forest originated from the temple because of some curse or magic.

It wasn't impossible; after all, the Thorny Trees only existed here.

Using my Skeleton Soldier to clear a path through the dense forest with his sword, we continued for about half an hour without encountering any major problems.

The forest was quiet and peaceful — too quiet. We should have encountered two or three monsters by now.

This made me worried and tense, but those feelings disappeared when my Skeleton Soldier cut a bush in half and I saw the Ruins of the Temple of the Sun.

It was a structure that architecturally resembled Mayan ruins, filled with blocks stacked on top of each other and mortar made from clay found on the riverbank. Since this clay was often mixed with various materials, it dried into a color similar to sand.

And the reason for the name "Ruins of the Temple of the Sun" was obvious at first glance.

'Ow... Everything looks so bright...'

Unlike the rest of the Thorn Forest, in the area of the Sun Temple Ruins, the long shadows created by the tangle of Thorn Trees did not linger because the sun's rays that reached this area were captured by a large crystal atop the temple, which then dispersed the light throughout the ruins. It seemed magical.

However, I wasn't the only one who noticed the brightness.

"What? Where are we?" Rosella asked, looking over my shoulder.

I looked back and saw the surprised expressions on everyone's faces. At that moment, I put a hand on the back of my neck and gave a nervous laugh. 

"Guys, I'm sorry, but I think I took a wrong turn. Somehow, we ended up at the famous Ruins of the Temple of the Sun."

"There was a place like this hidden in the middle of this map?" asked Anton, breaking formation completely to step forward with curiosity.

Sun, Anton's shadow, followed him as he passed me and my skeleton to enter the ruins. As he passed me, Sun glanced at me out of the corner of his eye.

"Well, I knew something like this would happen if someone uninformed took charge of our journey," said Hawklight. He then walked over to me and held out one of his hands.

"Please, young Oneal, give me back the map of the region."

I did exactly as Hawklight asked and looked at Rosella, who was massaging her temples.

"If we are in the Temple of the Sun, the region of the trees that protect the Angelicas must be..." Hawklight traced a new path on the map, but I was suddenly interrupted by Kyle.

"Excuse me, Mr. Hawklight, but it would be best not to use the Temple of the Sun as shelter tonight," Kyle said, pointing to the crystal at the top of the temple.

"If that crystal doesn't have its own light, as it appears, it's clear that the sun is already setting, and it would be dangerous to wander through this forest with even less visibility."

Hawklight looked at the crystal Kyle was talking about and also noticed that the light was orange. Judging by how long we had been in the forest, it was clear that dusk was approaching.

"Even if we use Anton's powers to make torches, we'll be like gas lamps, and the monsters will be like insects attracted to the light. We'll be attacked repeatedly."

Hawklight put a hand on his chin. "You're right, young man. We should spend the night in the temple, but..."

"The temple has monsters," I added.

The middle-aged instructor looked at me and nodded. "Yes, many monsters. There are several places in the Tower of Babel with a very large concentration of them. Some call them dens or nests, but the best definition would be 'dungeon'. The monsters inside places like the Temple of the Sun are different from the wild monsters we find here in the Forest of Thorns. It's as if they're trapped inside."

Rosella politely raised her hand to speak. "But what if we just stay on the surface of the temple and don't go down? It's possible we'll find a safe place."

"That would be ideal," I agreed with Rosella and Kyle, leaving the responsibility of choosing to Hawklight so that he would feel he was in charge again. After all, I didn't want to get a bad evaluation.

"All right, let's do it," Hawklight said. "Let's find a safe place inside the Temple of the Sun."

So we all did as Anton and Sun had done and crossed the threshold of the forest to officially enter the area of the Temple of the Sun Ruins.

The place was not even half of what it had probably once been. Although trees did not grow here because of the brick floor, there were still plants growing in the cracks and crevices between the bricks.

As we began to make our way toward the temple entrance, Anton, who was confidently already exploring the place, got close enough to the temple to see something under the crystal that illuminated the area.

"Look, there's a chest up there!" Anton exclaimed, pointing to a large wooden box with iron or steel details. Thanks to the sunlight, the chest seemed to gleam as well. 

Immediately, Anton started running toward the temple to get there before anyone else. I don't even need to tell you that this was obviously a trap, right?

"Wait!" Sun and I exclaimed simultaneously, trying to stop Anton Wilxes.

Anton completely ignored our warning and kept running until he felt his feet press down on something. He looked down and saw that he had stepped on a brick with some kind of symbol marked on it. Startled, Anton took a step back and looked behind him at all of us.

It was at that moment that the symbol on the pressure plate he had stepped on began to glow yellow, and a magic circle appeared under his feet.

Normally, seeing someone as self-centered as Anton get screwed, I would smile and thank the gods of karma, but the Temple of the Sun forgave no one.

Under the feet of everyone in my group, including me, identical magic circles appeared — just like the trap Anton had activated.

The yellow glow filled everyone's vision, and a moment later, there was no clue that we had been in the Ruins of the Sun Temples.