Victor''s eyes changed while his body began slowly approaching Apollo; the latter, on the other hand, was calm and didn''t seem to be bothered.

    "Mr. Victor your expression tells me that you aren''t simple researchers"

    "Something also tells me you''re not just simple pickers either," he said quietly. "We might be here for the same reason."

    Apollo exchanged a glance with Lothar, then turned back to Victor. "We might be," he admitted. "However our aim is different from yours, we are simply here to find something very precious, a legend that seems to be buried in the snow"

    Victor''s tension visibly lessened, though he kept a wary look on his face. "Ah, so it was really like that and here I thought we needed to meet some enemies, turns out you two are genuine pickers"

    "Genuine? Why, Victor, were there any people posing as resource pickers here in the mountain?" Lothar asks despite having an idea what it is.

    "Well, as you know, pickers are known mountainers that travel through the shelf and beyond it to find any resources that could be sold in the market. Before we came here, we received a warning of fake pickers lurking on the inside and outside layer of the shelf; we worry that we might be endangered since they are known for robbing people like us," Victor explains while Apollo wonders if that was the reason why dozens of people were sent here.

    Enjoy new tales from empire

    "They are planning to capture the fake pickers since they might be from the church, but aren''t they afraid of failing since they send way too many people"

    While Apollo is deep in thought, he suddenly receives a report from Jeremiah that immediately changes his expression.

    .

    .

    .

    While the north was filled with coldness the other Apollos shattered across the continent and are experiencing things differently. One is currently in a vast desert, and his aim is to find any traces of an artifact that he once saw from Jeremiah''s data.

    The previous mission of finding and entering the church''s headquarters suddenly came to a halt. Instead, the other Apollos currently search the entire empire, hoping to get a hold of any dungeons and artifacts inside. From the most foreign dangerous lands to the most hidden underground organization. He began to lurk gathering any information he could gain about his target.

    [I hope our enemies won''t catch wind of what''s going on] Jeremiah was worried since their sudden inclination toward artifacts might cause some eyes to gaze at them. Their identity was merely artificially created for a short-term disguise; anyone could figure it out as long as they tried to dig deeper into his history. So he needs to be very careful not to stir too much attention. He needs to wrap up everything without causing too much suspicion like what they did at the warehouse.

    .

    .

    While Apollo continues his objective of staying inside the subjugation army, another one currently suffers from a sandstorm.

    "Damnt it, I got sand in my mouth," the boy said in a very annoyed tone while clusters of sand accompanied by a stormy wind hit him.

    [Then should I remove them, Creator?]

    "We might attract unwanted attention if we do that," he declined as he covered his mouth with a cloth.

    [Attention? However, Creator, we are the only ones here. I don''t sense any life force in this wasteland, only us]

    Even with the great strength of the storm, he continued walking. It didn''t really hurt, but it did cause his patience.

    Apollo was here since this sandy region was one of the lists Jeremiah had given to him the night he created him. It''s one of the areas with massive magical energy, and since that is one of the conditions for a dungeon to manifest, he decided to check them out.

    "This seems more like an abandoned tomb to me rather than a dungeon," the boy mutters as he arrives at one of his supposed destinations.

    Right below him, while a violent gust of sandy wind hits him, an underground treasures quietly rest underneath the sand.

    [Creator I detected a very potent amount of mana underneath, it must be coming from the core of the Temple of Elias]

    The Temple of Elias is a well-known place in the empire as the sanctuary of magic a thousand years ago before it was struck with a tragedy. The master of the temple, Elias, died defending the temple against a demonic corruption.

    The desert was filled with powerful magical beasts, and due to their great mana, failing to ascend to another rank caused the golden sand to be dyed with black and red. The mages at the temple put their all to stop the corruption from spreading. However, the great darkness continued to spread, killing every hope that was present; that is when a powerful spell was cast to cleanse the area, but that magic was so great it cost many lives. With such magic, the corrosion still continues until Elias uses the remaining spark of his life to seal the corroded mana inside the broken walls of the temple. The bustling city of magic disappeared in just one day leaving not even its shadow.

    Now the temple is just a myth, a story from the past that some people treated like a legend. However, for Apollo, this place is no myth or just a story. It is one of the places inside the tower'' RED list, a catalog that contains names of places that are labeled dangerous due to the secrets they hold. The empire usually put strict supervision to them though for Apollo he can definitely bypass it.

    "Well even if this place didn''t turn into a dungeon the magical equipment there could still be powerful artifacts"