Looking over the vortex with his new [Mana Vision] skill, Cain can see that it is missing something, and that missing something is what is making it unstable. For now, he doesn't know exactly what it is though, so fixing the vortex is beyond him. The principles of Spell Crafting say that it can be modified though, which means he will eventually be able to fix it, or at least stabilize it and hopefully remove the people that are trapped inside.
If nothing else, maybe he can modify it a little and turn it into a dungeon.
At the moment, the best he can do is an experiment. The damage looks to him like the vortex has been pulled apart, leaving it in barely attached pieces. The obvious first thing to do is separate them and see if the whole thing collapses. Cain pulls at the strings of runes, trying to break them at a weak point by destroying the runes, but the harder he tries, the stronger they get. Once he stops exerting pressure, they seem to relax back to their original form though.
That's an unexpected result, but maybe the opposite is true. If he tries to mend the closest bits together, perhaps they will weaken even further?
Cain attempts to attach portions, together again, but only finds a few small spots where he can attach a single rune. The spell isn't just torn, entire sections of it are missing, and the remaining portions won't bond to each other.
Today, they don't have unlimited time to experiment, soon the fog from the Ice Breath on lava will dissipate and a lot of awakened adventurers are going to show up here looking for answers. With their images posted all over the building, it's best if Cain and his companions are not here for that part.
Without mana vision, even those who find their way into the hidden catacombs of the basement won't find the vortex and nobody will stumble into it, so as long as they don't actually destroy the entire region to get rid of the newly created temple, it should be relatively safe to leave things as they are.
They lingered too long though, and by the time the group reaches the top of the stairs, faint voices can be heard as transfers make their way through the rapidly thinning fog.
"Play it off like we were simply the most adventurous group and reached here only a few seconds ago," Cain whispers, moving to stand just inside the main doors and look over the black stone splendor of the main room of the Temple to the Laughing God.
It is complete, but it is definitely missing something. There are no adornments of any sort, only the building itself. Cain hopes that won't be an issue, but then a great idea comes to him. He got an exceptionally worthless item last night, dropped while the Echoes were fighting the Crazed. A staff that boosts magic damage done by 40 percent, but can't be used by anyone who can use Mage, Cleric or Warlock books.
There is a tall recess in the wall, where a statue might go, if there were any in the building, so Cain stands the staff up in it with a smirk, just as the first group to reach the temple opens the doors.
"Hey, you! Stop right there. Don't you dare loot this place dry before it can be catalogued." A voice calls.
"Fear not. There wasn't anything here but the building to begin with, so I am leaving the Laughing God an offering." Cain replies, his smile not shrinking at all.
The leader of the group, who is wearing a cloak that marks him as a member of the local archaeology department comes over to inspect the staff that Cain left on the shelf. He looks it over with laughter in his eyes, and then reaches out to grab it, intending to inspect it more closely, to see if it really were a relic or if the Wrath Demon had been telling him the truth.
The moment his hand touches it though, it flashes with blue light and he is thrown to the ground in a heap. Embarrassed but not injured.
"Well, that was unexpected," Cain says, turning the staff so that the better-looking part of the carvings is facing out.
"You are able to use mage-type books, right? That must be why you can't recover the relic from the shrine." One of his companions suggests.
"Hmm, I wonder." Another one mutters, pulling a pair of gauntlets from his inventory. They are plate gloves, with a bonus to all physical damage done, but can't be used by warrior, ranger, or hunter subclasses.
The Gnarled youkai, with bark-like skin, places them in a suitably shaped alcove with a smile and steps back to admire his handiwork.
"That's just about right. They are very very good gloves, but I don't know if anyone alive can and would use them." He explains, and the rest of the archaeologists begin to understand his and Cain's logic in their offerings.
One of the warriors reaches for the gloves, getting the same blinding flash of blue light that the mage did before being thrown to the ground, but the youkai who offered them can pick them up without issues.
"So whoever makes the offering can take it back, but otherwise only those who can make good use of it can." Cain theorizes.
None of the others have an item suitable to the theme, but looking around at the way the building was carved, there are thousands of places to leave tributes. The echoes are looking at them with great curiosity though. They didn't carve these alcoves into the walls, and they weren't there when the group went downstairs, so they must have formed sometime in the last ten minutes.
More and more adventurers are making their way into the enormous building, designed with the Ancient's body size in mind, as Cain pretends that all this is new to him and continues his exploration. The echoes really did a number in here, the place is beautiful, and there are carvings everywhere. But he is certain that it isn't the same layout as the first time he looked at it. For one, it is bigger, and there are upper-level balconies, with human-sized floors off to one side. Those definitely weren't there earlier.
The two relics on the wall garner a lot of attention from the dozens of new arrivals, and every few minutes a new item is placed, as the amused adventurers donate back the most laughter-inducing items that they have come across. There seems to be a criterion though, and one offering is immediately rejected, throwing both the item and the donator across the room with a flash of light.
"Looks like the Laughing God doesn't like trash drops." One of the transfers laughs, looking over the item. It is class restricted, but otherwise useless. Cain can see that the restriction isn't the point though, there is a beautiful and delicate mage robe hung beside a lower floor window that has no class restrictions at all but adds damage to unarmed hits and adds a [Bleed] effect. Perfect for that rare subspecies of Mage that can cast Fist.
