Calen spent most of his day attempting to fix the walls of the temple, and since he had a lot of free time on his hands, he experimented with turning mans to divine power and vice versa.
The results were mixed - he had no problem reshaping divine power into magic, but he had no idea how to do it the other way around. Still, considering what he was doing it was at least a helpful discovery.
He couldn’t fix everything because he lacked the architectural knowledge needed to fill some parts, but he managed to restore a significant portion of the temple and make it look somewhat presentable.
More importantly, he managed to find a few hidden things when he was cleaning it - the first and perhaps the biggest one were the stairs, which apparently weren’t actually destroyed by the Krakee, but rather remained hidden.
Each of the staircases could be mechanically retracted using a lever on the ground floor, making them virtually invisible. Once he found it, he and Isara dispelled their own rather ugly constructs, and used the levers to open the proper ones.
His second discovery was smaller, but no less interesting - there was a statue behind the temple depicting a faceless man holding a sword.
Normally it wouldn’t be that intriguing, as there are many statues representing the idea of a warrior rather than a specific individual, but Calen was certain that this one was dedicated to someone - they were just shown without details on purpose.
The thing seemingly confirming this theory was the plaque beneath it, there was a quote:
If you don’t fit in then change the world, or yourself.
But there was no name of who said it, not like someone didn’t put it in, but rather there was a blank space where the name was supposed to be.
He didn’t know whether the person sculpted here was one of the priests, a legendary hero or the god the temple was dedicated to, but he had a feeling it was important.
His last discovery was very peculiar - he found a stone trapdoor hidden beneath some boxes on the ground floor, leading gods-know-where.
When he was done with his restoration efforts he called everyone to show them his findings.
"Do you think we should open it?" Isara questioned.
"I don’t see a reason why not, the Blight was destroyed by the altar, and there’s no enchantments on this thing." Calen shrugged. "I called you all here to ask who wants to go down with me, actually."
Everyone lifted a their hands.
"Okay, we’ll all go I guess."
Calen grabbed the trapdoor and opened it with relative ease despite the fact that it was a massive and made of stone - perks of super strength.
The air that flew from inside was stale and slightly mouldy, and the stairs leading down were very long and disappeared into darkness - even if there was no Blight down there, the chances that the environment was nice were rather slim.
"Last chance to back out." Calen looked at the rest of the group, but no one said anything.
He grabbed his trusty lantern and began descending into the darkness.
They walked for a long time - much longer than would be reasonable for a basement or even a secret chamber.
It was a bit difficult to tell exactly how far they walked since the entrance disappeared some time ago, and they became surrounded by darkness from every side.
"Something’s wrong." Isara stated and stopped. "Don’t you feel it Cal? The magic here is all messed up."
Calen closed his eyes and felt the space around him with magic.
"You’re right - we’re in a pocket dimension." He clicked his tongue. "I don’t think we can get out by simply going up, this is a trap for thieves."
"What are we supposed to do then?" Elira frowned.
"If it’s a trap then there’s a way to disarm it - after all there has to be something at the end of this tunnel."
"It could be only available from the outside though." Cassian pointed out. "What do we do then?"
"Isa and I will just disassemble the spell holding the dimension together. It won’t be easy or quick, but we should be able to do it."
"Have you been in a similar situation before?" Alfred raised an eyebrow.
"Not quite, but our master tested us on something ."
"A test where we got C- might I remind you." Isara snorted. "We’re hardly experts in this field."
"We passed and got out on our own, it’s all that matters in this case." Calen stated. "Anyway, it won’t be necessary if we find a way to dispell the trap the proper way - look for anything out of place, a hole, a drawing or even a crooked stone."
Five minutes later Alfred whistled to get their attention.
"I’ve found something."
On the wall in front of him was a regular keyhole drilled into the stone.
"We need a key..." Calen paused. "Wait, do you guys think what I’m thinking?"
"Yeah, but do you have it with you?" Cassian asked.
"Sure I do." He pulled out the fancy key with a rune. "I was running around the whole temple, it made sense to take it with me."
"What are you waiting for then? Get us out of here."
Calen put the key into the hole.
"Please work." He whispered and twisted his hand.
Instantly the darkness around them disappeared, revealing the real size of the staircase - it was maybe ten meters long from top to bottom.
"We’re free, but there might be more traps, this is your chance to back out." Calen took the key and slipped it back into his pocket.
"Why do you need that? I hope you’re not planning on reactivating the trap onnce we’re out of here." Cassian said.
"Nope, the trap was a one-off - normally the key would disappear with it, but this one didn’t, which means it opens other things as well."
"Hopefully not other pocket dimensions..."
"I guess we’ll see - we have a whole new floor to explore after all."