A 16-foot-long giant of a man came into view behind the reception.
'Why is he here?' Sasha thought. She would have turned on her heels and walked out if he had not sensed her.
'Please don't ask questions!'
She walked to him and bowed. "Greetings, Your Excellency. Here is the Application For Ruin Exploration," she handed him the papers.
Just then, three more people entered with pale skin and red lips. They froze upon seeing who was at the receptionist desk.
'Why is he here?' They too noticed he saw them and walked to him nervously.
Elias by the side felt unusual attention from the giant man directed at him despite the man not looking at him.
The reception hall was small and with over ten doors that led elsewhere, people were constantly coming and going.
"Sasha, you are going deep inside the ruins. You need a bodyguard." The man's deep voice shook the reception hall, pausing everyone before they resumed their work as if nothing happened.
Sasha and the other three were shaking more than the rest. His attention alone had weight and they were carrying it all alone.
Sasha forced herself to answer as she pointed back, "My brother sent him to protect me!"
The man's gaze shifted from the papers in his hand to Elias, and—man, Elias froze. Literally his body stopped working. It was like he was being watched by a pinnacle predator ready to pounce on him.
Three seconds later, the man looked away and Elias' knees buckled and he almost reached the ground. That was the most terrifying he had ever felt.
Sasha finished with paperwork and dragged the wobbly-legged Elias deeper into the building where she collected two permits, one for him and one for her.
"Who... is that titan!" Elias forced out.
"Haha. Titan... he is the one you saw last week. The one that blocks the sunlight with his presence alone!"
"Shit. And why am I targeted?" Elias asked before he answered it himself, "To feel if I'm a strong bodyguard!"
"Yep."
If Elias failed to hold his gaze within those three seconds, he would have been disqualified immediately from being a bodyguard to her as an Explorer.
They passed rough stone walls, decorated with many cracks and patterns that made no sense, but Elias could feel the vibration of them as if it was improving.
They came to a room filled with different relics made of different metals. A man behind the counter gave them a gaze before he went back to his work.
"Relic Stone reacts to all Talent Energy but different metals enhance certain Talent Energy reactions. For example, relic copper and silver enhance my lightning conductivity."
She picked up a relic stone book and began reading, "We are here to know what metal might enhance your Talent Energy!"
Gazing at the book's writing felt like smelling the fresh earth used as ink, as if he was feeling the meaning with his mind.
Various talents were listed and next to them were metals that were good for them. Sometimes it was an alloy of multiple metals. Also, there were different lightnings listed, but he didn't see Sasha's lightning.
"Where is Thunderspark!"
"We are under Thunderlight Lightning," she showed him. "But we are subcategories of Combustion Light. We need an alloy of iron, copper, gold and silver in this proportion to be very effective. Gold is expensive so we settle with copper as the best!"
After going through five pages they came across Grimhammer Gravity and Worldbender Gravity. They need diamond, iron, copper, bronze or orichalcum.
"Ah. That's expensive."
She dragged Elias out as she explained.
"Different relic stone hands came with different metals adorned. Now we know iron, copper, bronze and orichalcum metal adornments are best for you!"
"What is Orichalcum?"
"Fancy bronze that almost dethroned Gold!"
"Eh?" Elias was surprised but she left no room to ask more questions until they came out into a clearing.
A humongous broken gate stood before them, revealing a spacious path that led deeper into the ruins. It loomed like the gaping maw of some ancient, slumbering behemoth. The jagged edges of the fractured stone caught the light, casting long shadows that seemed to beckon them forward into the unknown.
"You feel it right?" She said, her voice trembling with a mixture of fear and exhilaration. Her eyes were wide, drinking in the sight while her hands fidgeted at her sides. "This feeling is the rush of the unknown that all explorers crave. Once every ruin on this path is excavated, the feeling will vanish."
Elias swallowed hard as a chill ran down his spine. The air around the broken gate felt different—heavier, charged with something primal and mysterious. His heart pounded against his ribcage as both dread and curiosity washed over him in alternating waves.
At the door then came a few uniformed people watching them. Elias glanced at them; their gaze was questioning but they didn't say a thing.
"Let's go?" She sauntered forward after taking a deep breath, squaring her shoulders as if physically pushing away her doubts.
"Wait. You know where we are going?" Elias asked. "This place looks like it can easily get us lost!"
"I know well. I'm prepared well. Look at this device..." she began to explain herself in a hurried manner, her words tumbling over one another as she tried to mask her nervousness with excessive detail.
"Good. Who am I to you?" Elias asked.
"Ah..." confused before she said, "a bodyguard!"
"Good. As my client, you don't walk in front of me. You direct our path and I take us!" Elias articulated slowly and seriously.
She blushed, "Okay, Mr. Bodyguard. The path is deep inside, following some cracks and caves. It's a long way!"
Elias had trained regarding Bodyguard and Escorting. One of some extracurricular activities he took for fun.
"Good. Now come and sit beside me!" Elias sat on the soft ground and she hesitated before she sat too.
"What's some star reading for...!"
Elias' book settled before him. The earth and rocks rolled toward them, filing and making a wall around them.
The ground they sat on hardened. She could feel the gradual shift of it from soft to solidification. While around them, thin hard walls rose before encasing them into a small stone room at their sitting height.
The condensation increased until it was smooth and reflective. Spikes rose above the stone roof in an arranged manner from all directions. Sharpened until they glinted under the sun.
It took ten minutes for that to happen but to her it felt longer as she followed every change with passionate scrutiny.
Then the whole stone craft floated up from the ground.
"Amazing!" She exclaimed and she buckled as it drove forward into the giant broken door path.
"AHH. Haha?" She released an excited scream as a result of the shift in atmosphere and the world.
"It's like we are in another world?" Elias commented. His forehead was strained, leaking sweat. The Noble Skill was hard to fine-tune.
They weren't far inside when a rock bigger than their craftstone fell on them, fast, and they were at a tight spot, couldn't dodge.