Before long, Felix and the rest had finished harvesting every natural treasure in the garden, which resulted in destroying its breathtaking beauty.
Only Felix and the girls felt that it was a pity for the garden to be turned this way.
The rest? They were too siked by the tens of natural treasures inside their spatial cards to care about anything.
"What's the total?" Felix asked.
"35 natural treasure." Malak read from a hologram with a joyful tone, "We have 25 B grades and 10 A grade treasures."
Felix wasn't surprised that B grades were dominant since the first time they harvested the garden, he ordered them to prioritize only A grades.
Though, B grades were still great as they could be sold in auctioned with 10 Billion SC at least.
"Good work everyone." Felix clapped his hands and said, "But let's leave the treasures for later and head to the 3rd treasury, we don't want to waste too much time here."
The squad listened obediently and formed a line. Then, they followed Felix outside the bald garden and into the unknown.
…
15 minutes later…
Felix and the squad had reached a decorated staircase that was leading to a wide-open gate.
Some of them received an injury or two during the journey due to activating some traps.
But nothing that couldn't be healed by rejuvenation potion.
"Should we go up? I feel uneasy about this." Malak asked with a worried tone from behind Felix.
It wasn't just her who wasn't liking the fact that the gate was open. They would rather have it closed and for Felix to open it by solving riddles.
At least, there wouldn't be this sense of forthcoming doom if they dared to enter the gate.
After all, who would leave a gate to an important place wide open unless he was fully confident that whoever stepped inside wouldn't see the daylight again?
"I will go take a look. Don't follow me." Felix said as he climbed the staircase, fully confident that nothing would happen to him as long as he remained outside of the gate.
The squad was worried about him but they listened to his order and stayed put and silent.
When he reached the peak, Felix was greeted with the same sight as the one he saw in the documentary.
A humongous rusty statue sitting on a throne while surrendered by tens of guardians in armor suits and holding different types of weapons.
All of them seemed to be made out of normal rocks instead of Strucrase that never get affected by the environmental hazard or passage of time.
The statue on the throne had the head of an alligator and the body of a human. He had his right palm extended forward like he was begging for money.
The rest were standing in the same posture…Straight and upright.
Besides those statues, there was a spacious wide hall and a monolith with the height of a bus in the center.
Nothing was written on it. Hell, it actually appeared like a piece of smooth gold capable of reflecting light.
Felix ignored the monolith for now and focused on the ceiling that was pointy and sharp.
He knew that they were currently standing right in the middle of the golden pyramid, straight below its peak.
They had gone a long way from walking below the pyramid to reaching its heart.
'The exit, is it possible that we can still use it?' Felix wondered while narrowing his eyes at the golden peak.
In the documentary, the pirates had escaped through the peak after they got too close to it.
It happened so fast, Felix didn't know if they had stepped on something to open the peak or it was based on sensory.
Whatever it was, the pirates got super lucky since the instant they stepped inside, the gate had closed behind them, leaving them trapped with those statues.
"Before I trap my squad inside, I need to try and understand what's the purpose of this hall and why is it so important to be placed in the heart of the pyramid."
Felix rested his chin on his palm and began pondering on the mysteriousness of the room.
He already had analyzed the information given to him by Asna multiple times, yet he could never understand what's the meaning of this room.
Why did the owner of the temple build a humongous statue and make it sit on a throne with guardians beside it?
Why was he extending his palm like that? What's the purpose of this empty giant monolith that was placed only a few meters behind the peak instead of right below it?
So many questions that needed to be solved before Felix could even think of stepping inside.
'The guardians are placed five meters away from each other exactly, creating a sense of order and harmony.' Felix thought while surveying the area around him, 'Yet, the Monolith wasn't placed in the center of the hall? It somehow broke this sense of order. It's a bit odd.'
'Why do you think so?' Asna inquired in intrigue.
'Think about everything we had gone through in the ruins.' Felix knitted his eyebrows, 'First, we needed to walk at the same time in a triangle shape. Anyone off step would result in failure. This implied order and harmony. Then, we have the riddles that are always written at the sides or center of the gate in a straight precise line like a ruler was used.'
'Let's not forget how the hives and the gardens whether illusionary or real were positioned precisely in the center of the rooms.' Felix started tapping his elbow, 'Those small details speak volumes about the owner of these ruins being a meticulous person. So, how could he make the mistake of putting this golden monolith a few meters behind the center?'
'If you put it that way, it indeed doesn't make much sense.' Asna agreed to his doubts.
For a meticulous person, it should be impossible to make such a mistake and even in a hall that was built in such an important part of the pyramid.
This implied that the monolith was meant to be placed few meters back. But why?
'Since we established that it was intentional, we need to find out the relation between the monolith and everything inside the hall.' Felix moved on to focusing on the pyramid's pointy peak.
'I have no idea how did the pirates open it up but I am more inclined to believe that it opens automatically if someone got near it too close.' Felix reasoned, 'That what happened with the pirates. This meant the peak wasn't meant to be a secret escape route in the first place.'
'Hehe, If it wasn't an escape route then was it a window for light to come through?' Asna joked.
Just as Felix wanted to scold her for joking in such a serious moment, his eyes widened after he came to a sudden realization!
If the peak was meant to be a window for light, this entailed that in ancient times, this temple was supposed to be above the surface!
So, when the dawn arrives, the light would come through the peak and land on the monolith due to its positioning!
Looking at the reflecting smooth surface of the monolith made Felix realize that the light would be reflected somewhere instead of absorbed!
'Where?!'
Felix looked at what was in front of the monolith and couldn't help but drew a deep breath in agitation when he saw that it was the extended palm!!
The first thing that the light would hit would be the statue's palm!
Felix had no idea what would happen if the light touched the palm but his intuition screamed at him that it was going to be what he was looking after!
The Treasure of The Empty Hall!
'Boss, did you get enthralled by the treasures or what?' Erik sent a telepathic message after waiting for a couple of minutes without a response from Felix.
Everyone was getting antsy and Felix's silence wasn't helping much.
'No treasures here but I believe I found a method to bring them to light.' Felix murmured while glancing at the peak, 'We just need to find a way to bring out the light…literally.'
Felix knew that was going to be extremely difficult due to the temple being buried under the sand and broken pillars.
He didn't forget that the entire ruins site had been utterly destroyed by the pirates and them.
'We need to expose the peak before we even step inside the hall.' Felix decided to take it slow and safe.
After all, he couldn't have his squad inside the hall while others try to dig the peak out.
That's just suicidal since the digging process might last days to weeks!
'It's not going to be easy, but it had to be done if I want to see what secrets this hall hides from me.' Felix narrowed his eyes at the alligator head of the statue and thought, 'The only thing I am certain of, is that this hall isn't meant for worship.'
That's to be expected since Lady Sphinx's statue wasn't the one on the throne!
