Slimes & Magic

17. Zonia's temple

They stand on the edge of a large clearing, looking at the ruins of an ancient civilization. Broken down stone buildings covered in vines and plants built all around one central structure, a large temple towering over the other buildings. The temple itself is shaped like a stepped pyramid, with steep stairs leading to the top on one of its sides, large doorway halfway up its side visible above the roofs of the ruined buildings. The group stands stunned as they take in the sights of actually having found the temple. Breaking the silence Carl is the first to speak "*I can't believe we actually found it...*" Elvan breaks out of his stupor and checks out the strange looking pillar that they are standing next to, seeing more identical pillars lining the outside of the clearing. "*Seems like there is some text type something scribbled on these. Do you sense any magic coming from these Alex?*" Looking at the pillars with skill; magic sense they see that the flow of magic that they had been following to reach here is connected to a large flow going under each of the pillars in a large circle, as well as some sort of magic coming out of these pillars. Explaining what they see Elvan replies, "*I bet its got something to do with why no-one has found this place before.*" May steps forward out in to the open towards the ruins, "*Guy's, now is not the time for analysis, we have to explore!*" As the other two run after May, Alex turns in to a falcon and flies up and over the ruins. From above they are able to discern several streets all merging together and leading to the temple in the centre. Just the sheer size of the ruins and how far they spread gives the impression that this civilization was well developed for its time, now about the size of a small city with a couple hundred buildings. Flying down to the group Alex reports on their findings and leads them down to one of the roads back in their wolf form. As they walk down the overgrown road they take in the sights, May looking side to side checking all the little side streets and passages, "*This is much cooler than I thought it would be!*" Alex leads them around a bend, running forwards, "*Lets go check out that temple too, has to be even better than the town.*" Excitedly they run after Alex, turning on to a plaza where steps lead up the side of the temple to the large doorway they had seen before. Alex bounds up the stairs waiting for the others to catch up when they reach the doorway. Holding on to their knees the others catch their breaths. Elvan looks up at the closed doorway, "*Those are the same symbols I saw on those pillars, any idea what they could be?*" May steps up for a closer look, "*Kind of looks like it might be writing...*" The symbols carved in to the stone above the doorway also appear on the side on a plate, almost like an information board.

[Skill universal language is activated]

Looking at the symbols Alex is suddenly able read and understand what is written there, "*GUYS! I can read this!*" The others amazed, push Alex to read and translate the writing for them, "*Welcome to the Zonia temple*", then reading from the information board stone on the side, "*Our civilization is in decline, so we leave our legacy behind for you to find. Those who wish to find this place alive have to be highly skilled magicians and fighters. Those who wish to read and understand our texts must be intelligent creatures. And those who wish to gain access to our knowledge must be all three for they must pass the trials we have set out within the temple to test their ability. Any party members of the creature that possesses the abilities we described must all be above level 25, or they will not be permitted to enter.*"
"*Phew, these seem like some harsh conditions. Seems like we got really lucky coming across you Alex, seems like there would have been no way for us to find this place without you.*" May says to Alex as they finished translating, "*How are your levels looking guys? I'm at 27.*"
"*28 here*" Carl says pulling out his guild card. "*27 for me too*" Elvan says doing the same, "*Though I think we should rest up for the night before we go on inside.*" Elvan interjects with May's words of protest, "*Yes I want to find out what's inside too, but we don't know what kinds of trials there are, so we should prepare as much as we can before going in. Which is largely a good nights sleep.*" With that Elvan commandeered them all down to the bottom of the steps and they made camp in the plaza. With the first warm meal in a while they agree that there wont be a need to keep watch tonight, relying on the protection of the ancient civilizations magic.

Being woken up by the sun for the first time while in the jungle the group gets up bright and early in the morning ready to face the challenges set out for them by the ancient civilization. Standing all prepared in front of the door Carl asks, "*So how do we actually get in*", trying to push the doors open. Alex nudges Carls leg with their nose, "*Let me have a look. Here, some small writing, it says; The first trial, cast magic and say "unlock" while speaking in our tongue.*"
"*Well seeing as you are the only one who can read and speak any language this one is up to you*" Elvan says looking at Alex. While the others take a step back Alex prepares to cast a magic spell just like any other time. This time speaking the incantation in the ancient language, "*Unlock*", Alex releases the magic and they hear some mechanism inside the door spinning and clicking, then slowly swinging open for the group to enter. Along the dark corridor torches are magically lit by themselves, lighting up another stone panel on the wall. Reading out loud again for the others Alex translates, "*You have passed our first trial, proving that you are a creature able to read and speak our secret language, while also being able to control magic. You may continue on to the second trial.*" May starts skipping ahead of the group and waits at a corner in the tunnel, "*Come on then guys speed it up a bit, there is a room over here.*" As they enter the room, there is a deep pit on one side, too wide to jump over. Reading the information again, "*The second trial, control over magic. Destroy the wall on the other side of the pit without breaking the candle placed behind it. then light the candle. Elvan, this should be you.*" Alex steps back making space for Elvan to stand in front of the pit. As he concentrates Alex is able to sense his magic gathering and releasing at the wall, he cut a gap in to the wall along the top and the sides turning a thin bit of it in to sand, then some sand at the bottom of the wall falls out leaving a wedge shape. Slowly the wall slides towards them and tumbles loudly in to the pit breaking apart as it hits the walls, revealing a small room on the other side with a table and candle. Without breaking his concentration Elvan creates a small fire arrow and launches it to strike the wick of the candle lighting it on fire. Next to them a door creaks and opens up for them to pass through in to a second room. "*Turning some of that wall from this distance took quite a bit of my mana*" Elvan says slightly out of breath. With praise being given to Elvan, May peeks in to the next room, "*Ooh there is a long range with targets here, come come.*" Walking in there is indeed a long tunnel on the side of the room, blocked off by a bit of low wall, holding another plate of writing. "*The third trial, Long range attacks. Accurately hit all the moving targets within 5 minutes of hitting the first, otherwise the door will not open. Targets must remain intact for you to pass.*" May excitedly jumps on the spot, "*seeing as we aren't allowed to fireball all of them its my turn to shoot with a bow!*" She steps up to the wall and takes aim at the small moving targets some 15 meters away. Easily within a minute all the targets had an arrow sticking in them, only having missed once. With the last arrow hitting the target the door leading in to the next room opens. "*Good shooting*" Carl says as he steps in to the next room as the first. This time the room has a second room attached, lowered down by a meter with steps going down on the side. In the middle, a training dummy standing ready with a sword in hand. "*The fourth trial, close combat. For 5 minutes, you must defend from the attacks of this training dummy, or land a killing blow on it. Carl, your time to shine.*" Carl pulls out his sword and walks down the steps while the others stay on the high ground to watch, "*My time to shine, Come at me!*" As if responding to Carls callout the dummy begins to move just like any other human, striking down with its sword. Easily blocking the attack with his sword Carl knocks the sword to the side, the dummy quickly recovers and twirls swinging the sword at Carls side. Just before the sword would hit him in the side the dummy pulls the swing down towards the legs. Noticing the feint Carl is able to block the second strike on time as well, this time moving forward on the dummy with several quick strikes. Exchanging blows with the training dummy on the defensive Carl is able to outmanoeuvre it and trike its head off with a backhand slash to the neck. As Carl takes a bow, May and Elvan clap with grins on their faces, another door opens. Waiting for Carl to jump up to join them they walk trough the door together. This time they find themselves entering a large hallway from the side, in the end A large pair of intricately designed stone doors. "*Wow*" May says as they approach the doors, accurately describing how they all feel. By the right side of the door, again there is a plate of writing. "*All trials are completed. We deem you fit for us to pass on our knowledge and collections to. Everything in this vault, as well as the city of Zonia, is yours to keep.*" With a quiet scraping noise more symbols are carved in to the stone floor by the front of the doors. Curious they all turn and move to stand in front of the doors, "*It says; To those who inherited our knowledge, Alex, May, Elvan, Carl, Zonia is yours.*" May gasps holding her hands over her mouth, both Carl and Elvan eyes wide and gaping, the massive doors slide open revealing the inside of the vault.