By the time he finished extracting all the monster cores and limped up the stairs back to his starting position, most of his wounds had healed. Only his arm was still healing and that one, he had wrapped up tight with bandages after taking off his bracer. He would have to adjust the bracer, push the leather back into place and add some duct tape on the inside just so that it didn't bite into his skin any longer after the alpha's mouth had pierced and driven the leather into his hand.
Terrible.
Pack back on him, Arthur made his way two thirds of the way to the door cautiously. Ready to drop pack and back off if something came out, but he found nothing. Eventually he dropped the pack on the outside near the door and slipped in, not wanting to be burdened when he was attacked.
He needed to move fast. The sun was beginning to set and when that happened, he would not be exploring the inside of the temple. Right now, with the low hanging sun shedding light, there was actually quite a bit more illumination than when he first arrived, just from the angles.
Not great if he had to rely just on his mortal eyes, but Keen Sight was, once again, coming in clutch.
He poked his head in quickly, pulled back almost immediately after. Thought about what he saw and noted nothing tried to kill him. Still, he stuck his spear in ahead first just in case whatever was waiting was smart. Still nothing troubled it so he stepped in, stepped left immediately and put his back to the wall against the door.
No hanging around the fatal funnel and highlighting himself in the door. It might work for gunslingers in old and bad Westerns but he neither had a gun or wanted to be like Rick. He much preferred not to die, no matter what people might think of him. Inside, spear pointed within, he waited for his eyes to fully adjust to the gloom.
Soaring walls, satggered inwards and held aloft by pillars. To his surprise, rather than multiple levels, it was just one giant pyramid. Nothing at all within, but the pillars and an altar right in the center of the thing. Exit on the other end, a few shafts of light coming in from high above, just enough to illuminate things a little and not leave the place entirely gloomy.
He noted small figures right at the top, realised what the soft and slightly mushy footing was from. Not that the smell of guano was that hard to mistake, not once you smelled it a few times. Surprisingly, nowhere near as pungent as bigger mammal droppings which, considering just how much there likely was, was a good thing.
No other Santu Sakai that he saw, at least not immediately. No mewling pups or grieving female monsters. A good thing, for a variety of reasons, none of which Arthur intended to interrogate. That way lay, well, a lot of grief and moralising and whining.
He stalked in, pushing for action. Searching for their lair, for the place the Santu Sakai had slept and ate and done other things. Nothing within, though after a while, he began to pick out tracks in the earth. Not enough light in here for much greenery to grow which made picking out where the creatures walked before easier.
Not much variation, mostly a circling pathway though a rather pungent smellin one corner spoke of a lack of hygiene. But everything else, all the tracks, they led to the altar. An altar, he realised that had been consistently cleared, even though droppings must have fallen on it.
That really didn't give him a good feeling.
Inch by inch, foot by foot he crept closer. He drew a deep breath, slowed down as he came near. Grimaced when he saw the bones, stared at the type and kinds. Some were rather concerning, tibias, rib cages broken apart, even a skull. He couldn’t tell if they were real, loss Climbers or something the Tower had created to mess him up.
He looked away from them, walked the rest of the way to the altar. Saw how it had been set-up, the channels cut into them all over the top. He stared at the way they collected, the way they dripped under the floating top. Arthur frowned, scanning the surroundings again and made his decision.
A quick spin around of the weapon, driving the tip of the spear into the soft ground. He reached over, dug deep into the side of the table and along the cracks. Fingers beneath the table, strained upwards with his knees and back and arms. It stuck, hundreds of pounds of stone refusing to move and he eventually released it, frustrated.
Something was under there, he knew that.
He waited, pulling at the energies deep within him and began the Heavenly Sage’s Mischief. Once he felt it fully activate, he reached again and gripped it once more. He surged upwards as hard as he could and felt a sucking, tearing feeling course through the table itself as what was sticking and gumming up the works gave way. Strands of dried blood and gum sap tore apart, pulling at the table top as he lifted and then threw it over, watching it flip over the edge.
Within, dark and dried black blood had pooled beneath. Gum and tree sap congealed, multiple tiny columns all across the surface to hold the table top aloft and offer a space for the blood to gather and flow. All leading into a central area where a dark heart lay.
When it beat, Arthur couldn’t even say he was surprised. Not happy to see it, of course, but not surprised.
“That’s rather messed up.”
The heart beat again, dried blood moving in and out. He stared at it, wondering what he was meant to do with something like that. It was obviously an enchanted item of some form, but what it was, what it did, what it was meant for…
Well, nothing in the wikis had ever mentioned anything like it.
“Okay. Think this through. Enchanted item. Sucking in blood, using it because it’s a heart. Will it die if it doesn’t have blood? Will it die if I don’t feed it blood? Do I have to bleed on it?” Arthur started speaking out loud, and then jerked to a stop, realizing what he was doing. He reached sideways, grabbed the spear and scanned the surroundings.
The bats rustled a little above, but none of them were coming down so far. That was a good thing, so he turned his attention back to the heart. He couldn’t figure out what he needed, if he wanted the heart. Well, no. He was definitely taking it, no matter how gross it was. The question was how to store it.
"My kingdom for a jar," Arthur said. Nothing in his backpack, he knew that much. He had his water flask but it wouldn't fit. He didn't carry glass, because he got beaten up too often. Without a choice, he wandered around the building hoping to find something. In a corner, a rather grotesque corner, he found what he was looking for.
"Amphora. Pretty sure that's the word..." Arthur picked up the clay jug with its cork stopper somehow still firmly sealed. Used to store the organs of priests in Egypt or so he recalled. Again, like so many things in his life, it came from glimpses and vague memories in thirty second clips shown to him while he browsed social media or watched someone else do it.
Stupid ass way to learn, though it did leave weird nuggets of information scattered through his brain.
He popped open the seal with the aid of his kris, managing to unseal the gum and pour out what was, thankfully, only sand. No weird splotchy organs within. He grabbed the other two intact jars anyway, just in case they were useful or he ended up breaking this one and returned to the heart.
After a few minutes of gross handling, he had the heart stored and using the gum and dried blood, sealed away with the entire thing filled to the brim with the still gummy blood. Hopefully that was enough because he would not be feeding his own blood. Or even opening the damn thing.
Water on his hand to clean it and after checking that the other amphora had nothing but sand, he took the filled and one empty over to his backpack.
All this, for a single magical item.
As he stood up after storing the jars away inside the shreds of his clothing, he pulled up the notification again that had appeared when he'd grabbed the heart. Wondering if it was worth it.