Spirit Taming

Chapter 607: Just Break In?

This idea went over well. It also distracted Ella's curiosity. She was definitely not going to relax any time soon since there was so much she wanted to learn about this place and whatever Clark knew.

This also left Clark alone for his own chance to search. He knew that the others would find a lot and he trusted them, but he had a gut feeling that something just wasn't right here.

The system had called this the exiled elven temple. It meant that the elves had been exiled for some reason. Whether it was because they were criminals or otherwise, it was a risky idea to barrel in to ruins that were sealed for a reason.

However, this thinking brought him elsewhere in thought. He was wondering just what the elves had made this place for. If the elves sent here were exiled because it was a dangerous jungle, then so be it. That was what humans did sometimes too.

There were plenty of rich and powerful that would amuse themselves by throwing the weaker people that offended them in to the wilderness. That was called exile just the same. Therefore, it was easier to expect that the elves sent here had been sent because they offended someone.

The elves were not different than other races that the humans know of. All races seemed to have some hierarchy of strength. For humans, it was the powerful families that could control an entire city by themselves. Therefore, if the elves were the same on their own world, then it must be that they had been ousted and attempted to survive here.

"Hmm, if the ancient elves sent their people here without thought other than this being some dangerous world connected by a dungeon, then that means they later learned of a way to come here and build a city." Clark was talking out loud as Devi and Crim moved around him.

The two had been a little on edge since Shy had fallen asleep in the darker parts of eden's end taming space to fully absorb all the shadow crystals and attempt to grow stronger.

But Clark's mind and instincts told him that he might be on the right train of thought. "Then it means that they were sent here during a time of unrest of some sort. That means that the modern day elves might not even remember sending their exiles here." This felt right. Clark had barely used much other information other than what the system offered and the little he had actually read.

With this in mind, Clark wondered if this entire temple would have just been built by the ancient elves for safety. A dangerous place with many of them present would mean that they were able to use their teamwork to build a safe haven. But then, why would they seal it and not allow anything nearby. why would it be defeated and crumbling now?

In theory, if the ancient elves survived, they should live long enough to be able to allow their descendants to meet the humans growing elsewhere in the world at the time. But there was clearly no evidence that had happened. Especially before the elves had made their way through another dungeon and set up their own singular city.

This left Clark more confused, but he was already over that. He had the skill to read the ancient elven language. Therefore, he could keep working on how to get in to this place. The area around the temple was not as large as many would think. Jerold had already reached the edge and was making his way back.

But Clark was already tracking patterns and reading from them. Even the simplest of ruins had directions of some sort. Every race would name their streets or their homes in some way for others that visited. The ancient elves were not an exception to this.

"Ha! They just tried to break in to a bathroom." Clark had read the ancient elvish and realized that the space that the group had found was the remnants toa  blocked off portion of the temple for relieving themselves. It was blocked most likely because the entire temple was sealed up, but that was just coincidence.

With a slightly harder time keeping a straight face, Clark found many more signs. Small words like, food storage, or beast pen. These spots were with stone markers carved with the letters he could read. Otherwise, he managed to find one single word that said, upwards. When he ran his hand over it, he could barely understand the remainder of the sentence to create, upwards to our king.

"So you found something?" Isa surprised Clark while putting some herbs away in their spatial ring. She pointed at him and his face which was still bolding the smile from when he had found their last blunder. Regardless, he responded.

"It says upwards to the king. I have a feeling that this might be what was left of elves that were exiled here during unrest. But the ancient elves must be forgotten since we don't have any records of it all. I bet that the entrance is upwards."

Isa glanced at the structure and sighed. The temple was larger than most would think. The jungle trees towered over the temple and the group. But that didn't mean that the temple was at all short and close to the ground. She knew that they would have to climb the crumbling outer rocks to get inside. It would be tougher for them.

'It will be good training." Clark watched as Crim began using his claws to dig in to the stone. He was able to easily make grips while stone crumbled under his grip. Devi just floated alongside Clark while Clark took the lead.

It was only a few minutes before the others came back from checking the perimeter and seeing them climbing. Clark sensed them behind him, but after just a few moments, he found that the stone was slightly tougher.

"The jungle grew a lot but it must have always shaded the top. Without winds, it survived more than the lower edges that are always covered in mist and dampness." Isa calmly decided this while struggling to keep up with Clark's pace. She was not looking at this as annoying any more. Just a small challenge to keep up with Clark and ahead of the others.

As they climbed, the group began to realize that they were losing energy. That there were small lines of metal that were running along the harder stone above the softer stone that they were breaking away as they climbed.

'Nature forged iron- ultra rare

The nature forged iron is iron that was dug out of places high in natural energies. These ores often are found beneath forests or very large grassy plains. This is due to the many energies that flow through the area over time.

When the ores are found and forged over many years of being exposed to these energies, they take on the very unique ability to channel multiple energies. While very brittle and weak, if they are protected, they can be used to transfer energies to certain points at a very high efficiency.

The art of creating this takes over three years consistently since the steps to make it can not be taken before more natural energies have moved across, around, and through the metal being forged. Therefore, only those with extreme patience can possibly create the proper forged, nature forged iron.'

Clark could tell from this that it was not necessarily here to create a trap. They were losing energy because they were in direct contact with it. But just the same as they lost energy, Clark noticed that when he pressed his hands on the slightly silver metal, it crumbled away. This meant that just putting too much weight as they climbed was breaking the metal underneath.

"Avoid touching the lines of metal, they are drawing away your energy. And Ralph, stop trying to gather the dust while climbing, it is too brittle and can't be reforged." Clark looked downwards at the last section of stone to find that he was being glared at. But he also realized something as he took the next step up.

"The temple was made so that beasts climbing it would be easily attacked from above." Clark pushed himself up higher and noticed that there was a significant ledge just a few stones higher. This was the real entrance. A place where the ancient elves could hide and fire at jungle beasts when they were attacked.

"Bastard doesn't think I am a real blacksmith. Telling me that I can't reforge some metal cause it's old." the grumbling of Ralph snapped Clark back out of his head before he pushed up to the ledge and looked at the broken stone that he had to clear to even get to this proper entrance.

With a heavy sigh and the future of heavy lifting, Clark began to prepare himself to move the crumbling stones. That was until he heard Ella gasping in shock at the ledge and the real entrance.