The Gamer's POV-Chapter 253: Kleshas and Kushalas of Karma [1]

’I can restore the temple?’

His jaw dropped slightly in disbelief. Then he subconsciously whipped his head to look around the ruined temple.

’How do I do that?’

The moment he had that thought, his ring shone faintly causing him to raise his hand and look at it.

Instinctively, he suddenly felt that he could restore the temple because of it. He also instinctively knew exactly how to do it. Slowly, a surge of anticipation and excitement began to build up within him.

’Should I try it out now?’

At that moment, Aika’s voice interrupted him. "Hey Ced. Could you come here for a sec."

Cedric looked up to see her standing opposite him at the end of the chamber. She was looking at the wall in front her intensely.

He dropped the tablet on the altar, then began approaching her. Along the way, a slab of limestone fell to the ground thunderously, causing him to flinch and nearly jump back.

’Jeez... I can’t believe I nearly screamed. That’s so embarrassing.’

He checked to see if Aika had seen him nearly lose his cool, and when he noticed she had not, he straightened and cleared his throat, then he continued onward.

Stopping beside her, he looked at where she was looking, but all he could see was the wall.

He turned to her, then looked back at the wall, then looked back at her again. "What are you looking at?"

Aika did not look at him and instead began tapping the wall. "I think this is the entrance to the inner sanctum."

He arched a brow, then returned his gaze to the wall. There was nothing special about the wall, but then, her hand suddenly stopped right over a small, circular section of the stone that had been weathered into a faint indentation.

"Ah, here it is." Aika turned to him with a bit of excitement in her eyes. "Touch this."

Cedric looked away from her eyes and as he leaned closer to where she was pointing at, he could see a chipped and cracked image of a heart wrapped in thorns.

After a few seconds, using the hand that held his ring, he reached up and touched it.

Suddenly, the entire temple trembled and the walls began to groan. Dust fell from above and it really looked like the temple which was already on the verge of total collapse was going to collapse entirely.

While he was looking around, something happened that took his attention back to the wall.

A large crack ran across it from the center and then, the wall began to recede, after which it parted until it fully divided, revealing the inner sanctum of the temple.

The room in front of him was dark, so he subconsciously reached to the side to take out a gas lamp from his inventory. But then, he noticed that his inventory didn’t open up.

’Huh?’

He tried again and when it still did not open up, he called mentally. ’Gamer Privileges?’

Still, nothing happened.

That caused him to frown.

"Hey Aika. Is it just me or is Gamer Privileges bugging?"

Aika, who was already taking steps forward, halted and turned. Then she shrugged her shoulders and said, "I tried it a few seconds ago but it didn’t open. So I tried to connect using the eyes of one of our ravens in the real world and it worked. I think... it’s still active. It just doesn’t work in here... Maybe."

Cedric arched a brow.

’It doesn’t work in here? That’s strange...’

But then something she said caught his attention.

’I didn’t know we could still view the real world through our ravens. That’s kind of cool.’

He was practically boiling with excitement and would have loved to connect and share his perception with his ravens in order to check his new exclusive skill. But he knew that there was no point in doing that at the moment, because to even register a summoning ability, he needed to see the beings first and have them submit to him.

While he was still stuck on that thought, Aika had resumed walking inside the inner sanctum and as she did, the candles on the numerous iron sconces mounted to the walls suddenly lit up as if by magic.

He dove out of his thoughts and followed her into the inner sanctum. The moment he stepped in, it felt like he had entered a holy place. There was an air of sacredness here and unlike the other parts of the temple that were falling apart, this part was perfectly intact.

The room was not as large as the chamber outside, but it was more concentrated. There were lots of runes on the floor and lots of magic circles as well. In the center of the room was an elevated altar that was more intricate than the one in the chamber behind.

But what caught Cedric’s attention were the statues lining the perimeter of the round sanctum.

There were exactly ten of them, carved from pale, creamy white limestone that looked as fresh as if it had been quarried yesterday. Each of them looked completely different from the others. Some looked humanoid, while others looked like monsters from a nightmare and all felt equally terrifying.

If he had seen them anywhere outside of here, Cedric would have probably tensed up warily, but looking at them now, for some reason he couldn’t help but feel that these were the most beautiful beings he had ever seen.

After a moment of staring at them in awe, Aika muttered, "I think... these are our subjects."

Cedric swallowed and nodded slowly. "I think so too."

Without asking her, he quickly tapped his into his knowledge from the game.

If he could remember correctly, the rings on their fingers were called Insignias of Authority. Every Dominant received that upon becoming a Grade three.

It served as a symbol of their authority and also granted the wearer insight, wisdom and knowledge about their subjects born of their sanctuary. It was also the source of the instinctual knowledge he had of how to do things.

Raising his hand slightly, he asked mentally, just to confirm.

’These are our subjects, right?’

In response, the ring shone faintly and black smoke began to appear in front of Cedric. In the next instant, the smoke coalesced into a large tablet visible to only him and Aika. When it fully formed, writings in gold etched themselves into the dark shimmering surface.

~~~~~~ Lord’s Eye ~~~~~~

[Granting life to these ten Kleshas and Kushalas of Karma would make them the first borns of the Lord of the Karmic Manifests]

~~~~~~ ======== ~~~~~~