Early in the morning, Cain, Calbot, Jared and a dozen knights of Sun Knight Order departed for Hanearian’s Rest. They only brought a dozen of knights to easily avoid the beasts on their way and to make the trip faster. Also, they were the finest of the Order.

When the group arrived at the temple area, it was already dark, only moonlight gave them a faint vision. They made a stop at the trees near the temple area. Then, two men with light armor came to the group.

“Sir, reporting!”

Jared nodded. They were scouts that Jared sent ahead.

“We’ve scouted the entire area of the temple. Like it has always been, it’s manifested with beasts. From low to medium danger category beasts are spotted. Such as Twisted Horn Rhinos and Rednight Locust," said the scout.

“Any sign of undead skeletons?” asked Jared. Jared only worry was the undead skeletons, because their numbers wouldn't decreased even after they cut down so many of them when they tried to recapture the temple in the past.

“None sir, we only found beasts prowling in the temple yard.”

“That means they never step out of the temple, huh," Jared speculated.

There were many attempts to retake the temple, but they never succeed because the endless undead skeletons would attack anything that entered the temple. But what odd enough was that the skeletons never went outside the temple, like they were just guarding it.

“Alright, We will deal with the beasts first. Prince, you stay here with some of the knights. The rest, come with me to slay those beasts," said Jared.

“You ready?” Jared looked at Cain.

Cain nodded confidently.

With Jared’s hand signal, an archer shot up a flare arrow to the sky. When the flare lit up the dark sky, all the beasts' eyes were on it.

Then, the second arrow flew up to the flare. It blew into a blinding light when it reached the flare’s high. Whoever or whatever saw the flare would get flashbanged by the light.

“Now! Charge!”

With Jared’s command, the knights emerged from the bushes. They rushed to attack the beasts.

Most of the beasts helplessly took the blows because they couldn’t see after they saw the flash in the sky.

Few of them were immune to the light because they had no eyes, such as Short Legged Giant Ant.

But even they were no match against a coordinated attack from the finest of Sun Knight Order.

Cain got his share of taking down some beasts with a sword he borrowed from the knights.

When Jared glanced at Cain, he realized Cain's swordsmanship was incredible.

The assault ended quickly with many beasts were slain or fled from the area.

They regrouped in front of the temple entrance.

The temple was old, molds were everywhere. Thorny vines entwined some of the crumbled pillars.

“No one’s hurt? Good, because that was warming up, fellas!” Jared proudly pounded his chest.

“Yeah!” the knights raised their weapons.

Two knights came out from the bushes with Calbot.

“Good job, knights!” Calbot walked to them. “Come, let's not waste our time," he said.

Jared nodded.

They entered the Temple of Hanearian’s Rest. Two of the knights were ordered to burn the bodies of the beasts, so the smell of blood won't attract other beasts. They also stood watch at the entrance if something were to happen.

Inside the temple, they walked on a narrow corridor, Jared and Cain were on point, while Calbot was in the middle among the knights. They brought some crystal torches to navigate their way in the dark. They also reburned the torches on the wall. Clearly this temple was built before the lumines crystal was discovered.

Cain’s face filled with excitement, this was the kind of adventure he always dreamed of.

“You seem to enjoy this?” Jared asked Cain while being careful on what's ahead.

“I am! This is fun!” Cain smiled. “Oh yeah, by the way, is it wise to leave Meira at the camp?” Cain a bit worried, they wouldn’t know when the Knights of Farferis might sniff out their hiding place.

“No worries, Sun Knight Order is the finest knights in Farferis, just like the infamous Arozora’s Kingsmight! Though I can say, if we were to compete between the two, Kingsmight would trample us, The Silvers are monsters after all," Jared smiled bitterly.

“Besides, we have a natural defense system outside the camp anyway, those Farferis knights won't be able to get through it," Jared added.

“Huh? You mean that pitch black cave?”

“Correct, there are actually beasts dwelling that cave, Terrapede," said Jared.

“Ah! Now that makes sense!”

“Huh? Do you know about Terrapede?”

Cain nodded.

Terrapede was a pitch black cave dweller beast. Coming from a rare family of giant centipede species, its length was about 5 meters long with two pairs of legs per body segment. It hunted anything that came into their cave. They were vicious beasts that would stab their prey in the back with their big razor sharp fangs. They were very proficient at hit and run tactics, they hit their prey quick and hard then they went back into hiding and did it again until its prey was dead.

Terrapede hunted from the sound of their prey, but that was also their weakness. If the sound they heard was constant, like footsteps. They won't react. If it’s an inconsistent voice, like talking, they would mercilessly hunt the source of the voice.

Of course Cain got this information from the Book of Gomara. But he kind of forgot until Jared mentioned Terrapede.

Jared was impressed at Cain’s knowledge. He did not think this young man would be knowledgeable about rare beasts.

“Wait!” Cain suddenly stopped the group’s movement.

Jared also realized what's ahead. He signaled his men to move slower and quieter.

They reached into a great hall. Some of the ceilings were collapsed. Moonlight made its entrance by the hole, illuminating a portion of the hall.

As expected, enormous amount of undead skeletons were swarming the place, they armed with different kinds of weapons. They hadn't noticed the group yet.

Jared scanned the area, looking for the hole Calbot’s great grandfather made. He found it fast, because the hole was quite large and the moonlight illuminated half of the hole. About 3 meters tall and 6 meters wide. Undead skeletons were concentrated around there.

“It became a tunnel! I believe it's not as wide as that before! Must be because of the skels!” Jared clicked his tongue.

Jared looked behind at Calbot. The Prince nodded in response.

“Prepare our battle formation, we will move slowly towards the tunnel while defending. I’ll be the spearhead. Cain, can I trust you to guard the rear ranks?” Jared unsheathed his greatsword from his back.

“No problem," Cain nodded.

One of the female knights cast a Spirit Beast magic, she summoned a Yellowback Great Bear. The bear was about 2.5 meters tall on four legs. Then it stood on two legs and roared. A loud voice echoed in the hall.

The undead skeletons were alerted with the intruder presence. They were moving towards the bear.

“Advance!” With Jared’s loud voice, the group started to move towards the tunnel.

Undead skeletons attacked the Yellowback Great Bear only to be blown back by its front leg sweep. The skeletons were also attacking the group. They easily fend off the attacks while moving.

The Yellowback Great Bear presence really helped the group by a lot, it became the target by most undead skeletons. The summoner went with the group, because she would just become a burden against that many undead skeletons if she were to stay behind with the bear.

When the group almost reached the tunnel, more skeletons appeared from the tunnel.

Two knights took point with their tower shields. They used Moving Rook technique. They dashed forward instantly to the tunnel, any skeletons along the way were crushed by the shields.

“Let’s go!” The group hurriedly catch up with the two knights at the tunnel while maintaining their formation.

Undead skeleton didn't have any combat abilities to pose a threat. Their number did the action instead.

When the group reached the tunnel. Jared took the point again and swung his greatsword. With one swing, countless skeletons in front of him were crushed to pieces.

One of the knights cast a fire magic. Three flame balls were floating in front, middle and rear ranks, so they could see clearly ahead without having to rely on the crystal torches because now they had to focus their hands on their weapons and magic rather than to hold torches.

With this, they entered the tunnel. Because the tunnel was getting wider as they ventured deeper, Jared could easily swing his greatsword without worrying it would get stuck.

Cain also fended off the skeletons from the rear ranks, but their numbers were already few because the Yellowback Great Bear held its ground at the tunnel entrance.

“Hey! There!” Calbot saw a light at the end of the tunnel.

With Calbot’s discovery, they sped up the pace.

When the group got out from the tunnel, they found themselves in a huge room with a structure like it was an isolated part of the temple. This room was also filled with undead skeletons.

In the corner of the room, Hanea’s family crest was painted on the wall. Below it, there’s an altar with a skeleton lying on it. That skeleton was full of dust and cobwebs. It seemed more “dead” than the other skeletons. What’s more, it was holding something, a staff.

The staff was as long as a full grown man, with a blue jewel on its tip, and some runes on the grip.

Strangely, there were two torches that were already burning with blue flame on the wall above the altar.

“Is that!?” Calbot squinted his eyes.

“That’s the staff!? Prince!?” Jared shouted while handling the skeletons.

“Looks like it! It’s real!” Cain also got excited.

The knights also got excited, seeing the legend was true.

“!”

“Look!” one of the knights pointed at the ground far from the altar.

The skeletons were emerging from a rune circle on the ground.

“That’s where the skeletons came from! But how? There’s no magic trace in here!” said the knight.

Usually, when summoning magic was performed, there would be magic aura or traces of it. But there was none in the room.

“Doesn't matter! We have to stop it!” Cain stepped up to the front.

Then, suddenly the ground trembled with a terrible roar.

“Wha-what was that!” Calbot was holding onto one of the knights to keep his balance.

When the roar and tremor had stopped, the undead skeletons became more aggressive. They moved faster and fiercer.

“Guh!? This is!?” Jared parried the skeletons attacks. Their attacks got heavier.

“I’ll handle the skeletons on the emerging ground! You guys should get the staff!” said Cain. He leaped through the swarm of the skeletons, then made his way to the skeleton emerging ground.

“Holy shit!” he just leaped like that!?” said one of the knights.

Cain swung his sword skillfully while dodging. His speed on cutting down the skeletons reduced their number greatly.

Calbot’s group was also steadily moving towards the staff while dealing with the skeletons.

Cain arrived at the rune circle. “(Now, how do I stop it?)” thought Cain.

Another roar made the ground trembled. The skeletons movement were stopped with that roar. Then, after the roar was gone, the skeletons were moving towards into one direction, where Cain held his ground.

“Huh?” Cain realized the skeletons were gathering into him.

“Hey! This is a good chance! Grab that staff!” Cain shouted while slashing the neverending skeletons.

Jared nodded. “Prince! let's go!”

The group took the chance to rush towards the staff.

Cain cut down the skeletons and held his ground. But not his sword, the sword was getting more cracks by each slash.

Knowing his sword was already at its limit, Cain took a stance, he held his sword downward with two hands, a small flame snake appeared from the sword’s hilt and entwined the blade.

Cain pierced the ground with the enveloped flame snake sword to the ground. Then, an explosion made the room trembled. Some ceilings even crumbled. Skeletons around Cain had been reduced to ashes. A giant serpent silhouette also appeared in the dust.

Because of the explosion, the Sun Knight Order looked over Cain’s direction. Seeing the silhouette, they were astonished. Spirit Beast magic was a very rare talent after all. Now, Jared was more convinced of what Calbot said, Cain was strong. Beside his top tier swordsmanship, he had a Spirit Beast magic!

The knights shifted their attention back to the staff, they shouldn't prolong this battle after all by dividing their focus.

When the dust cleared, The rune circle on the ground had been destroyed.

The serpent revealed its form, a 10 meters long and huge serpent that was enveloped by burning flame. Cain stood beside it, his hands were on his knees, gasping for air. He seemed out of breath.

Cain didn't use a Spirit Beast magic, he used a long lost Elemental Spirit magic from the Book, the Northfire Serpent Spirit.

Spirit Beast magic didn't take toll on the body of the beast’s owner because they were different entity. It had its own energy. On the opposite, Elemental Spirit magic took heavy toll on the caster, because to summon an Elemental Spirit, it had to borrow the caster’s energy, and they were draining the energy from the caster as long as it's being summoned.

This was the first time Cain used the Elemental Spirit magic. His body felt so heavy, like days without rest and food. The book warned him to have a proper preparation. Clearly he underestimated the toll.

Cain looked around, skeletons around him were gone.

“Haah… haah… go," Cain ordered the Northfire Serpent to destroy the remaining skeletons in the room. Their number had been greatly reduced because of the explosion.

But the Northfire Serpent was only intensely staring at Cain. It looked at its own body then at Cain again.

Then it spoke with an imperious hissing tone.

“Pathetic! Look at you! You’re not even sssstanding properly after you sssssummoned me! And what’sss thissss tiny body your energy sshaped me asssss!? Tiny little sssnake! Me!? The greatessst of all sserpentesss! You’re not fit to command me!”

“Huh? Wha-what?” Cain was confused, he never thought the Elemental Spirit could speak like that .

With a long hiss, Northfire Serpent dived into Cain, attacking him.

"Crap!" Cain dodged by rolling his body away from the Northfire Serpent.

The Northfire Serpent crashed to the ground and turned into a blazing fire then vanished.

“That’s why the word ‘properly prepared’ is underlined on the book! I can't believe it attacked me… damn!” Cain clenched his fist.

That moment, Cain realized he was not strong enough to handle the Elemental Spirit. Not only he underestimated the heavy toll of summoning the Elemental Spirit, but he also overestimated his own capabilities.

He got up and dusted off his clothes.

He saw Jared’s group was already on the altar. Thankfully this happened while they were busy with the staff, so they didn't see what happened.

“Ugh! Why this staff won't budge!” Calbot was trying to take the Staff of Mgre from the skeleton on the altar, but he made no progress at all.

“You guys help the Prince!” Jared swung his greatsword to fend off the skeletons.

The knights helped Calbot, but the result was nil.

When Cain was about to go to the altar, suddenly a wide rune circle appeared directly under him. Then a huge skeleton hand made of rough shaped bones emerged from the circle and grabbed his entire left leg.

“!”

“What a big-!”

The ground where the skeleton hand emerged was cracking and spreading fast. Then, the ground crumbled, about 10 meters radius. Cain fell and he was pulled down by the skeleton hand into the darkness below.

Because there were still many skeletons remained between him and Sun Knight Order. His fall wasn't noticed by the knights.