He pulled the ring out of his finger and stared at it angrily before raising it to throw it on the floor.
But just as he was about to swing his arms, he realized something. He looked inside the ring and saw symbols inside it that looked similar to the ones in the puzzle.
He raised the ring and compared it to the puzzle.
"I-It's the solution!" Lawrend exclaimed in disbelief.
It was a stroke of luck. The answer was given to them from the start. They just failed to see it. He couldn't help but wonder what the faces of his predecessors would look like once they heard about this.
"Aha, ahahahaha! I didn't die… I'm glad…" Lawrend fell to his knees..
He gripped the ring tightly in his hands. It saved him in another way when it was supposed to teleport him outside.
"Let me see, Lawrend," Daisy said.
Lawrend opened his hand, and Daisy's soul shard floated towards it. She inspected it and compared the symbols on the ring to the symbols on the puzzle.
"One-Lucky-Man?"
Daisy read the words in the ring. She never would have guessed that that was the answer to the puzzle. It seemed so random and without any rhyme or reason.
Nevertheless, Lawrend walked towards the puzzle confidently. Since they already knew the correct answer, what was there for him to fear?
He rotated the rings to their proper places. He looked at the statues behind him and saw that their eyes weren't glowing anymore.
"It seems like the statues were also a clue. If you choose the wrong symbol, their eyes would glow red. I wonder how they weren't able to clear it with that," Lawrend muttered in thought.
What he didn't know was that there was a limit to how many times you can guess. After a certain number of wrong guesses, the statues would attack.
*Clang!*
The door started shaking after Lawrend solved the puzzle. It was honestly more like a lock.
The door parted towards the left. Lawrend was able to see what's inside.
It was a long hallway that seemed to go on endlessly. There were numerous rooms inside.
"What the…"
Lawrend was awestruck. This ancient temple isn't simple. It looked like there was a whole massive operation here once upon a time.
Lawrend grabbed Daisy's soul shard.
"Woah! Lawrend!" Daisy protested.
"You'll be safer in my pocket," Lawrend said before he placed her inside his pocket.
He then walked inside. Slowly, the door behind him closed.
He checked the first room. It was closed with a dilapidated wooden door. Lawrend only had to push on it lightly before it crumbled.
He stepped on the crumbled door and entered the room.
There was a long table inside that had already collapsed on its own weight. Lawrend guessed that this was an office before.
He left the room after seeing nothing valuable inside it. He then entered the adjacent room. He expected to find something in here, but it was the same. Nothing but an ancient office.
"What are these offices even used for?" Lawrend wondered.
He entered the third room.
This time, it was different. There was a round table inside. It was surprisingly intact.
"What material is this made of?"
Lawrend knocked on the surface.
*Thud* *Thud*
"Stone?"
That hard thud could only mean that it was made of stone. Though, he couldn't help but notice the bits of broken paper all over the place. They were on the surface of the table, on the floor, and some were even stuck on some cobwebs on the ceiling.
"I guess there's nothing useful here…"
Lawrend left the room, disappointed. He expected to find something since it was different from the previous two rooms. It seems like he was hoping for too much.
He then entered the fourth room. It was very spacious.
It was at least 4 of the previous rooms he visited combined. It was that big. There were broken wooden shelves. Their contents were all over the place.
"A bottle?"
Lawrend lifted a round bottle. It looked similar to a potion bottle. It still had some murky liquid inside it.
"Don't tell me this potion is 10,000+ years??" Lawrend guessed with a wry smile on his face.
That would mean that whatever is in this potion bottle had already expired several times over. He grabbed the stopper, but it was hard. No matter how he pulled, it wouldn't pull out.
"Daisy, do you know this place?" Lawrend asked.
"No. I don't remember this place," Daisy replied.
Her condition isn't similar to someone with amnesia. She spiritually cannot remember her memories as they were separated from her. While someone with amnesia still had those memories locked away inside their brain.
Lawrend thought that she would remember things since she's in a place that had a connection to her.
"Master Lawrend, this place… It seems familiar," Jasmine said. [AN: Since she pledged her allegiance to Lawrend, that's what she should have been calling him. I kind of forgot about it.]
"What?"
Lawrend raised an eyebrow and stood straight. He was baffled by her answer.
"Y-You…"
Daisy was also shocked by Jasmine's words.
"D-Didn't you tell me that she's not your soul shard??" Lawrend asked Daisy in disbelief.
"I-I don't know anymore! Maybe she's really one of my soul shards…" Daisy replied in a stutter.
"This place is the storage room… They store consumables and weapons here," Jasmine said.
Lawrend threw the lightning ball towards the edge of the room. It illuminated various staffs and swords littered on the ground.
"Y-You're right!" Lawrend exclaimed.
Excitement built up inside him. That means Jasmine can help him navigate this place! She would make it very easy for him to find that book.
He walked to the staffs and swords. The swords were already corroded, but the staffs didn't look like much happened to them.
Lawrend picked up one, but it quickly snapped in half. It was very brittle.
"F*ck! I thought I got free staffs. My excitement was all for nothing," Lawrend said angrily.
"Is there anything else here, Jasmine?" Lawrend asked.
"Nothing. All of the consumables should be expired by now," Jasmine replied.