by Paul Kite
While I was trying to find a way to divert their attention, I didn’t immediately notice Ra-Lam who was heading in my direction. He walked past me and walked on, grumbling irritably about something.
That’s when it hit me, and it was under my nose the whole time! Ra-Lam was a monk of the council!
A completely new plan was forming in my head.
Before he could get far enough away, I caught up with him and activated the Shadow class skill. Invisibility immediately subsided and, turning in the opposite direction, I hurried to the temple. Now it was important that the real Ra-Lam went about his business, and was absent for at least half an hour.
I went to the entrance to the temple and, nodding to the monks and the warriors stretched out my hand toward the door handle.
“Elder,” suddenly one of the warriors inquired cautiously, turning to me, “Why did you return? What about the two archers, for whom you went to the barracks?”
I froze, my brain was working frantically, running through the possible answers.
“I met one of the novices on the way and ordered him to find the captain of the guard urgently and take not two, but three people!” I finally managed to say at least something.
“You’re right, two people won’t be enough. When they come, how many people should I send to the central tower?”
“Four,” I blurted out quickly and opened that damned door, intending to get to the temple before the timer of the skill activity ran out.
“Wait, please, Ra-Lam,” the same warrior hastily uttered. “You aren’t supposed to go inside alone. I’ll give you my man.” He gestured to the swordsman. “Follow the elder. I hold you responsible.”
The warrior nodded in agreement and joined me, following slightly behind me.
“You needn’t worry. No one will harm me in the monastery of Airnas,” I tried to abandon the intrusive guard.
“It’s my duty, elder,” the man shook his head. “There’s a set of rules that clearly state what and how to do in such situations. And we must follow them strictly.”
“Very well,” I agreed, watching the Shadow countdown timer nervously, and went into the temple.
Chapter 10
I had less than twenty seconds. The skill, of course, was very good, but it lasted only a pitiful minute after activation. There was little I could do within that time, and I needed to think quickly.
Having ordered the warrior who accompanied me to close the door, I quickly looked over the list of Ra-Lam’s skills. I tried to find the most suitable skill to stun the enemy immediately. When the man turned to me, his face met with my two big fists. Each of my hands was surrounded by a brightly glowing sphere. A series of blows to the chest followed the kicks, and finally, I struck him in the neck with my elbow. The warrior passed out and collapsed to the ground.
I was quite impressed by the skills of the high-level monk
It was surprising that no one had heard the noise of the short and quick fight and didn’t come rushing into the temple. Sound insulation was great there, thank the gods.
The shadow effect time expired, and I returned to my appearance again with my own level and skills. I tried to block the door hurriedly, which, as it turned out, had special brackets for bolts. Well, the bolts themselves weren’t around. I didn’t have time to look for them, so I used the warrior’s sword for that purpose. In addition, I also took off his belt and wrapped the door handles with it, just to be safe.
I didn’t bind the warrior. The description of the skill said that the stunning time of the enemy was almost five minutes.
Then I took out the map, checked the landmarks and ran towards the stairs leading to the central tower of the temple. The room of the high priest was nearby. I hoped he wasn’t in his room. It would be difficult for such an elderly and respectable monk to catch a successful thief, but
I had decided to try to go without killing. I just needed the key — the amulet and nothing else.
I tried not to look at the statue. I was sick and tired of the damn patron gods. I still remembered clearly what sensations accompanied their attention to my personality.
I stepped into a wide, empty corridor with only three doors. One at the very end led to the stairs of the central tower. I needed the door that was to my left. It was the high priest’s chamber. I activated the invisibility, opened the door and found myself in a long library with tall cabinets reaching the ceiling. They were full of different books. I would have loved to stay there and explore all the books. There was a lot of interesting things in all those ancient volumes. It would have given me the opportunity to pump my intellect. Unfortunately, I was pressed for time, so reading was out of the question.
Passing through the library, I ended up in a small room with a single bed and a table, over which a brightly burning magical lamp in the shape of a ball was attached. I froze, trying not to disturb the senior priest who was lying on the bed with his face to the wall. The old man was dressed in a simple linen shirt and warm pants with a pair of pockets. A warm blanket was lying at his feet. I had no way to know if he was sleeping or not.
I tiptoed along the bed straight to the table. Some papers, books and various objects lay there without any order as if someone had dumped all those things in a pile. The amulet wasn’t among the things on the tabletop, and there was no place for it to be hidden in the table. I looked around the bedroom. It was unlikely that the old man hid it in the library. The only thing left was to inspect the priest. I was hoping that he was dead asleep so that I wouldn’t wake him.
However, the old man wasn’t asleep. He wasn’t even breathing. He had a chest wound, directly at his heart, inflicted with something thin and very harp, a dagger or a stylet. So, I wasn’t mistaken about ‘him being dead asleep’. The priest was dead.
Cursing rudely, I searched the pockets of his pants but the key wasn’t there. Then my eyes caught the glint of a silver chain that flashed under the collar of the blood-spattered shirt. I pulled it, tearing the fragile chain links, and removed it from under his clothes. It was what I was looking for! A small golden amulet in the form of an open human palm was in my hand.
I covered him with a blanket that lay at his feet and left the room. I felt sorry for the old man. I didn’t know who killed him and why, but I was more than sure that the murder would be blamed on me. Judging by the amount of blood that had leaked from the wound, he’d been recently killed. I would even dare guess that it had happened about ten minutes earlier, max. I hoped the meeting with his killer wasn’t in my cards. Let him have do own business, I had my own.
I checked the first flight of the stairs going to the very top of the tower. Judging by the map, the entrance to the secret passage was somewhere nearby. It led to the lowest level of the prison.
However, the wall looked completely smooth and even. It was solid cast brickwork, only the thin seams of the bonding mixture were visible between the stones. The masters had created the building for the ages! I looked over the whole wall, in breadth, and in height, as far as I could reach. There were no cracks or hidden stones that might hide a secret mechanism, knocking at the wall with the dagger’s handle.
I had to have missed it. I took the map out again and re-read everything written in the footnotes carefully.
Unfortunately, there was no information on how to open the secret passage.
I decided to try something different. I put the artifact to the wall in the most appropriate, in my opinion, place for the door. I turned it over with the palm towards the wall and ...
At the same moment, a slight tremor shook the wall. The stones began to move toward the neighboring blocks one by one, starting from the middle, as if it was some kind of a magic mechanism. The process was accompanied by a soft rustling. The opening widened to the size of an ordinary person so that I could pass without bending down, and the wall stopped moving.
I slipped inside, taking the potion of night vision on the move, although there was not much left of it. I found myself in a dark
, gloomy corridor. There was a rustle behind my back, but I didn’t turn around to check it; it was clear that the wall had returned to its former state.
I was moving slowly along the slanted dark corridor lower and lower. At the same time, I didn’t make a single sound, stepping gently over the stone chips that littered the floor. I tried to breathe evenly and measuredly, taking soft deep breaths and exhaling noiselessly. Dazrael would have been pleased with me. I wasn’t behaving like a bull in a china shop. To be honest, I needed to learn to walk in the forest as quietly as I did now. Then I would become the master of stealth.
Soon the corridor finally leveled off and led me to a dead end, ending in a blank wall that was covered with droplets of moisture. Well, it was damp there, but that was not surprising; the prison was also cold and wet.
Thankfully, I already knew what to do with the wall. Placing the inner side of the palm of the amulet to the stone, I waited for the passage to open. I looked out carefully. It was empty and quiet as in a crypt.
Darkness’s a friend of youth, as well as thieves and murderers! I smiled to myself, pleased with my stroke of luck.
My nerves were on edge, so I was trying to distract myself a bit. I had to climb quietly to the very first level of the prison and find the keys to the cells. I would either have to take them away from someone by force, or just steal them. I couldn’t free the wizard without a key. All that needed to be done extremely carefully, without making unnecessary noise, and most importantly — I had to avoid being caught by the guards.
I crept towards the stairs that lead to all the levels of the prison, from the first to the fifth. I checked every cell through the special windows in the doors of all the cells. They were cut right into the rock. There were six cells at a distance of twenty steps from each other along the right wall. I had to check if the wizard Lsaeros was behind one of the doors. Zorkhan made me memorize his appearance. After all, if I knew exactly which cell he was in, I’d be able to release him quickly. I doubted that his appearance didn’t change during the time of his incarceration, though. You never knew the boundaries of the imagination of the local investigators and torturers. They could have burned his hair off or disfigured his face or something.
No one was in the first five cells. The body of a very thin young girl, practically a child, hung on the wall in the last room. Her arms and legs were chained. She was wearing scraps of a once beautiful and expensive dress. The girl was so emaciated that she looked more like a living skeleton. As soon as I laid my eyes on her, her eyes snapped open and stared at me with clarity and intelligence.
“Help... me... please...” a tired, trembling voice spoke slowly in my mind.
I clenched my fists furiously and turned away from the window hastily.
“Forgive me, but I can’t help you! I am so sorry!” I whispered, without worrying at all that someone might hear me. Then I almost ran to the stairs.
Midway up the stairs, I stopped and sat down on the steps, trying to forget about the girl, to expel that horrible image from my mind and focus on what had to be done... However, I couldn’t do it. It was beyond my power. The terrible vision of the girl from that chamber still lingered before my eyes. Poor child!
I was infuriated. What could a child have done to be treated in such a way? Even if she was a wizard, which was clear from the fact that she was able to penetrate into my mind, she was still just a child.
I managed to calm down with great difficulty. I shook my head and continued climbing. I was getting too invested in the game, forgetting that it’s only a game, or ... maybe the game was getting too accustomed to my mind… That was a scary thought… Well, the main thing was not to go crazy!
The second level was an exact copy of the first and glory to all the local gods that there were no more children in the cells. There were only adults — men and women, elderly people. Nevertheless, none of them even remotely looked like Lsaeros.
I climbed down to the first level and immediately faced the first and almost insurmountable barrier at the entrance. That room was like a triangle, its walls gradually expanded and ended with a long wall. Two guards in full steel armor and a wizard stood five steps down the corridor. The wizard was explaining something to the warriors. Loud sobbing cries, interrupted by shrieks and howls of pain, were heard from behind the door, near which they stood. It wasn’t difficult to guess that it was a torture chamber.
I returned to the stairs quickly, leaned against the wall, and listened attentively to their conversation, mentally pleading with the tortured person to shout a little less loudly.
“Where’s the investigator?” The wizard’s voice sounded.
“He’s interrogating another bastard,” the guard said through his clenched teeth.
“It’s not a good time,” the wizard said.
“What’s happened?”
“Well, a thief got into the monastery. He stole something from the room of the council head. Therefore, they raised everyone. We were ordered to find and capture him alive.”
“Got it. What shall we do, then?” The second guard added hoarsely.
“You need to block all entrances and exits from the prison in case the thief gets here. There’s no time for interrogations now”, the wizard said in disgust. “Send the prisoner back to his cell, and let the investigator return to his office.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And where has your commander gone? Why isn’t he present now? Where are the other six guards? I need two people to stand guard on every level.”
“They went downstairs to the fifth level with the younger priest. One of the wizards has died. He took all the free people with him. You know yourself how dangerous the personalities sitting behind bars can sometimes be.”
“But they have the magic blockers! And the doors are charmed!”
“Well, you never know,” judging by the creaking and clanging of metal, the guard either spread his hands in resignation or shrugged.
“Then as soon as he returns, tell him that I'm waiting for him in the room near the stairs leading to the barracks.”
“But wouldn’t it be easier for you to descend...” the guard with the hoarse voice tried to suggest, but he was immediately interrupted by the wizard.
“No! I’m not going to be involved in such shit. Let them solve their own problems!” The wizard turned and headed towards the end of the corridor. Judging by the fact that the sounds emanating from the torture chamber became louder, the guard opened the door.
I looked out into the corridor to make sure that the coast was clear. The wizard was already gone, and both guards had entered the room, so I got off the stairs.
All of a sudden, the door to the torture chamber opened again. I jumped into hiding, away from the torture chamber, and waited for the warriors to lead the poor exhausted man away, and for the investigator to return to his room. I needed to take a look at the torturer, and decide what to do next. I didn’t doubt at all that I’d be able to determine at a glance whether I could cope with that NPC. After all, he was unlikely to be of the same high level as the Ardal monks and guards. He was just an investigator. He didn’t need a hundredth level to torture people. It was enough for him to pump the appropriate skills and specialties. I was sure that such professions were available in the game, but I hoped that only the NPCs could cultivate them.
Chapter 11
The guards dragged a man roughly out of the room. He was drooling and was covered in blood. They headed for the stairs. The investigator himself appeared after them in the doorway. He was a plump little man with narrow, slit-like eyes. The sleeves of his shirt were rolled up to the elbows. Droplets of dried, not completely washed away blood were visible on his palms. His voice was firm and domineering, but it didn’t exactly match his appearance. It was unlikely that he was a person of noble blood. He was probably just used to getting the required answers from the poor fellows that underwent his questioning techniques. Judging by his movements and gait, he wasn’t a warrior. He seemed to
be a great master in using assorted torture tools and devices, but not a sword.
The fat man didn’t notice me and passed by at a very close distance. I was invisible, and the investigator wasn’t skillful enough to notice me as wizards or warriors could. He was grumbling something in annoyance. I followed him slowly.
He opened one of the doors at the end of the corridor. Fortunately, it wasn’t the door that the wizard was hidden behind, and I managed to look at the large room with all its amenities. The main thing was that it was empty; there was not a single person inside. Apparently, it was the investigator’s office, a richly arranged cabinet.
The door began to close in front of my very nose, but I managed to reach out and stop its movement by grabbing the handle.
“What?” The fat man spoke in surprise and began to pull the door towards himself.
He jerked once, twice, and at the third time, I let go of the doorknob. A loud bang, a crash, and violent swearing sounded from the room. The investigator tripped and maybe even fell and hit something.
I materialized the dagger in my hand, and until he came to his senses, opened the door and burst into the office. The investigator was sitting on a soft shag carpet, and, muttering something angrily, he tried to get up, propping himself with his hands.
I approached him swiftly and pressed the sharp edge of the dagger to his thick sweaty neck. My invisibility immediately disappeared, and the man shut up in mid-sentence, staring at me.
“Where’s the wizard named Lsaeros?”
“What Las…” the man tried to move away, so I pressed the blade against his skin harder, though not too much, of course, because I still needed him alive.
For a moment, the numbers of the damage I had caused the man, appeared at the edge of my vision, but the system immediately removed the extra data routinely.
“If you move again, I’ll cut off your ear,” I whispered with a threat. “Don’t lie to me!”