I created my own system

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.

"Hoo..." Apollo slowly breathes while covering the wounds he sustained from battling a very powerful demonic beast. He let this happen to look like a normal warrior to the other soldiers in the army.

"Why am I still stuck here" he added while wiping the tainted blood off his face.

After being killed fifty times, Apollo decided not to increase himself and just use whatever bodies he had spare to divide the workload. One which remains inside the subjugation army to slay more demons.

[You were the one who decided to stay here to gain more stat points and now you are complaining because you are bored]

"I wasn't really bored but I haven't seen any demons that really interest me"

Then a sudden thought came to his mind as he remembered the mage he respected the most.

"Big brother Astro," he mutters as he looks up at the blue sky.

"Just how did you die? You were so strong that I am certain these demons won't stand against you," he continues to say as he remembers the usual pair of sapphire eyes that warmly welcome him. Apollo can't help but close his eyes as he vividly remembers the warm hands that used to hold him. The voice that guides him towards the deeper realms of magic and the words he still values up until now.

"What kind of demon did Brother Astro encounter?" He continues to wonder as he recalls how none of the tower mages ever told him what happened; at that time, he never questioned and didn't pry any longer. He thought they were simply protecting him from being further hurt, but now he thinks that they might be something he doesn't know about.

[What are you thinking Creator?]

"Nothing I just thought that demons are normally weak against lightning element since it could bypass some of their skill, and knowing Brother Astro's knowledge about that element he should have the greatest advantage against them"

[Does the Creator want to investigate the matter?]

"No, we can't, not this time; we can't take any more things to investigate since we haven't even figured out the lab's whereabouts. And seeing the current situation even the duke's people don't seem to know anything either"

[I'm sorry Creator I haven't been much use to you]

Apollo couldn't help but shake his head, then gently he spoke, "Believe me, Jeremiah, you have helped me more than enough, and to be clear, you are not the only one that is being restricted. It is the same for me. I have been feeling that something had been pinning me down like a huge boulder had been on top of my shoulder"

The sunlight warmly touches Apollo as he continues talking to Jeremiah; he doesn't know that while he continues his talk, a looming danger already surrounds him.

.

.

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]n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

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"