Chapter 450: Temples

"Hahaha. Found another one." Auric cheerfully rushed toward a big tree and dug up the soil. He then took out a big root that didn’t seem to be a part of this big tree. This was yet another artifact.

"..." Song Xue blinked her eyes in disbelief. She had been carrying a mountain of artifacts with both hands, but Auric showed no sign of stopping. "Are we not done yet? Also, why am I the only one carrying it?"

"I’m a bodyguard. I shouldn’t carry anything in case I need to use my own body to protect him." Mathias shrugged.

"I’m also his bodyguard." Stella raised her hand playfully.

"I’m his secretary. I have to log everything he has found, so no one can cheat him." Katarina lifted up her tablet.

"Because it’s fun." Maya was the only one who gave an excuse without any filter.

Song Xue was speechless. They definitely could help him, but at the same time, she was indeed supposed to be the one carrying everything.

After all, she was the one who wanted the artifacts.

"Well, you can go back first and put everything down." Auric waved his hand. "We’ll wait. I promise."

"..." Song Xue’s eyebrows twitched. There was no way that promise would work as intended. The moment Auric escaped from her watch, he could basically do a lot of other things, including pocketing his own artifacts.

In other words, she had no choice but to keep carrying the artifacts like this as they kept piling up.

"Is it too late to call someone for help?"

"To see all this?" Auric chuckled.

Song Xue couldn’t exactly refute it. This kind of information shouldn’t be shared easily. She was probably the only person here who witnessed how easy it was for Auric to find all these artifacts. It was an invaluable experience.

"Then, let’s go!" Auric excitedly climbed up, finding yet another artifact. When he reached the peak, Song Xue’s face was no longer visible because she was carrying too many artifacts.

"Haa... Ha..." Song Xue panted. She couldn’t exactly use her own energy to lift them up because her energy might end up damaging the artifacts.

While Song Xue was catching her breath, Auric looked at the entire hill.

’This kind of hill really looks quite good for a temple. I mean, I understand why people in the past would have built a temple in this place, but where is it? Will we find something if we dig straight down?’ Auric asked.

Lindwurm answered, "No. You probably won’t find anything. You can think of it as meaning that those structures might have collapsed and disappeared. That’s the magic of nature."

’I mean, they can’t exactly make all these structures disappear, right?’

"Not if we’re talking about the temples. You can try to look at the reports. How many ruins have collapsed? How many temples have been discovered?"

Auric recalled the information. There were a total of six ruins that had collapsed, but there was no information about the temples.

If not for the Kaufa family and the Delimore family, he wouldn’t have known about temples.

At the same time, he couldn’t exactly look at the flow of energy within this mountain, which made him wonder how the energy actually rushed out to form a barrier.

’Hmm...’ Auric crossed his arms, wondering what he should do. ’If that’s the case, does that mean the gods living here possess the earth and plant elements? Two elements? Or maybe there are two temples or two gods?’

"It’s the other way around."

’Do you mean it’s because this place is abundant in plant and earth elements that they’re using this place as a temple?’

"Exactly."

’Wait. There was actually a gathering technique in the past?’ Auric realized something. If they chose this place as their temple, they must want to utilize the energy here.

In other words, they wanted to actually absorb the energy from this area to strengthen themselves. Of course, they could also utilize the energy in this area to release a strong technique, but in a peaceful situation, they would focus on the former.

’Don’t tell me... You taught me how to create a gathering technique. While I did master the process of its creation, my father should be the one to create it. However, he might not actually create it. Instead, he discov... no, rediscovered it.’

Auric never thought about this before. Did his father really create the gathering technique? If the gathering technique was the norm in the past, then his father could simply rediscover it.

In other words, there was still a place where the temple was preserved well enough for his father to find a record of it.

His eyes made it possible for him to master the creation process.

Lindwurm didn’t answer him this time, but his silence was the answer Auric was looking for.

It seemed he wasn’t far from the truth. The ruins had temples in the past. That’s a fact.

However, not all the present ruins still had their temples.

’The temples are not eternal. However, the energy is eternal. No, since they’re establishing temples where the energy is abundant...’

Auric crossed his arms, finally figuring out the key to the ruins.

’So that’s how it is. The energy here is abundant, but the temple is created to monopolize or utilize it. Normally, the energy will simply float up into the air, but with the creation of the temple, it will actually change the flow and contain the energy within the temple.

’The barriers of the ruins might not be walls meant to stop people from entering them. They’re meant to stop the energy from dispersing.

’But the ability to create a barrier, fuse multiple elements of the same category, and even create the temple... no, wait. You’re not going to tell me that the book my father has given me is actually another piece of the clue.’

Auric originally thought his father gave him the book about magic items because he wanted him to create a magic item.

He did, but he realized that the magic items he created weren’t normal. Then, he took another look at the ruins.

’The temples... are they actually magic items?’

Lindwurm stopped speaking.

Auric’s train of thought was already flowing in the correct direction.

If he assumed that the temple was actually a magic item, he could figure out the principle of the ruins.

In this piece of land, energy was leaking through the ground in abundance. If it was oil, they would have created a production line or added a pump on top of it to regulate it.

Instead, they used a temple to regulate the energy.

They first needed to find a way to block the energy from leaking out, so they formed the barrier. Then, the temple was there as the core to manage everything.

Its function was similar to that of a magic item, but the creation process of a temple was still a mystery to them.

If he could create something similar to a temple, he could probably create his own ruins.

He could create a barrier as long as he fused his own elements from the same category. He still couldn’t do it, but he might be able to do it in the future.

’Doesn’t that mean the gods were like me? They didn’t possess an avatar. As a result, they could have multiple elements?

’I don’t know if I’m overthinking this, but if I consider everything my father said or gave me as a clue, doesn’t that mean the bloodline or Rank 8 is also a part of the clue?

’If humans reach Rank 8, they will have a bloodline, so that means the element isn’t random anymore. What if it’s not just about randomness? What if becoming a Rank 8 is like planting a seed of an element in their child’s body? Then, that child will also have his own element, which means that child will have two elements from the same category.

’The process of forming a god does not happen in just one generation, but across many generations. After they manage to gather all the elements and create a working system, we will know about those gods.’

Auric still had a question about Rank 9, not Rank 8. Rank 9 was supposed to be stronger, but he didn’t know if his father had actually learned about it or not.

However, if this was actually the scenario, he might be able to figure out how to create a temple.

’In a way, I’m quite different from the gods in the past. However, if I assume that the gods also have their own avatars or something like a system that regulates their elements, my theory makes sense. I’m still weird by the standards of the Age of Gods.’

This was a plausible theory in Auric’s eyes. He had made a magic item that could use one’s energy and amplify it. He had made another magic item that could use the surrounding energy to strengthen their power.

He might be able to make a magic item that traps the surrounding energy by fusing multiple elements from the same category.

’There are a few things that I can’t do yet, such as combining those elements permanently and creating the perfect system for a temple. However, if my theory is correct, I might be able to create a temple. For the people in this era, I would basically be creating ruins."

Auric closed his eyes for a moment, finally figuring out what he was supposed to look for in the Dead Village.

"What’s wrong?" Song Xue asked, worried about Auric. He had been standing and looking into the distance for fifteen minutes.

"Just take your time to catch your breath. He’s often like that whenever he’s in deep thought." Katarina shrugged.

Auric suddenly shifted his gaze to her. "Nothing. I’ve found all these artifacts, so I’m wondering how many artifacts I should find and how many of them will be enough to give you a hard time?"

"..."