Chapter 4

Jax showed up to the inn and waited in the dining area. Eventually soldiers rushed in and ruined his perfectly good nap time! They even dragged Naofumi out a moment later! Then they told Jax he had to go to the castle for something important!

Jax was dragged to the castle against his will and forced to watch at bitch - I mean Myne and her father made a mockery of the justice system.

"I DIDN'T DO IT!" Naofumi cried out in anguish.

However, everyone just stared at him in disgust and Jax didn't say anything.

Eventually Naofumi left the castle alone and angry.

The spear hero comforted Myne who was crying while the sword hero, Ren, gripped his sword in anger as he stared down Naofumi.

Ren then looked over at Jax angrily. "I heard you weren't doing anything yesterday either. What the fuck is up with that? I'm already level 5 and Motoyasu is level 6! Get your shit together! Losing the shield doesn't matter but the bow has to pull its weight!"

Jax looked at him dumbfounded and pointed at himself. "Dude… I was learning how to use a bow. I spent all day practicing."

"That's useless! The legendary weapons have an auto aim function! Dumbass!" The spear hero called out.

"Sure when you don't aim properly it corrects your aim… but it is like 1/5th the power. Listen, even if it has an auto aim, you should still learn how to fight. Trust me, even if you have auto aim that doesn't mean anything against someone who knows what they're doing." Jax replied.

"HA! Who told you tha-" Motoyasu was cut off when he felt a shiver down his spine and a cold feeling on his throat.

Jax held the tip of an arrow to the side of Motoyasu's neck and a line of blood trickled down. "I'm speaking from experience, dumbass."

Motoyasu took a few steps back as he realized what happened. "Wha- but my agility is 22 already. How? To a level one?! … Hey! You bastard! Just try that again! I just wasn't ready!"

Jax shook his head and stored the arrow away in his bow. "You're an imbecile. You'll never learn. Ren, I hope you got something out of this at least. Don't be a dumbass and train. Or you'll die."

Jax walked out without another word. Shocking everyone in the room.

He made his way around the castle before putting on his cloak and activating stealth.

"I wonder what goodies I can find around here." He said as he started wandering the hallways.

Jax eventually found a guards room that was empty… so he helped himself to the ring of keys on the table.

He continued around the castle and mapped out the layout.

After exploring for a while he was getting bored, until he found a gate with two locks and two guards surrounding it.

Jax tossed a rock far down the hall on the opposite side of himself and slowly snuck his way near the guards.

Both of them looked in the direction of the noise for a couple seconds before ignoring it and continuing to watch the door, more on guard than before.

However, Jax had already made it to a pillar right next to the guards.

Jax peeked around the pillar and waited for the guard to be looking in the other direction. Eventually he looked the other way. In that moment Jax lurched forward and stuck him in the neck, rendering him unconscious.

"He-" The other guard couldn't even finish his first word before Jax had done the same to him.

Jax quickly fiddled around with the key ring he found earlier to unlock the door. He set the guards in a position where they would look like they took a nap on the job before he tried to unlock the door.

5 minutes later Jax had tried about half of the keys but only unlocked one of the locks.

He heard voices down the hall that were growing closer to him. He quickly fiddled with one last key that happened to work! He quickly rushed inside and shut the door behind him quietly.

"Hey! What are you idiots doing?! What if Miss Myne saw you! You could have died! No more sleeping on the job!"

Jax heard a commotion on the other side of the door but ignored it and snuck even further in.

He looked in front of him and saw a damp and dark spiral staircase leading downwards. The only dim lighting was provided by the torches that lined the walls every 15 feet. Jax slowly and silently walked down the stairs fearing there were more guards ahead. Eventually the torches disappeared and he had to rely on his feet to feel the steps while he used his hand to guide him along the wall.

One step he took rendered a slight shock through his body as he heard a splash and felt his leather shoe dampen and weigh him down. He was standing in 2 inch deep water and took off both of his shoes which were getting too heavy due to the effect of the water soaking them. His feet splashed around in the water and echoed through the pitch black corridor. Luckily there were no guards around as his footsteps would have instantly alerted anyone around.

At the end of the hallway Jax could see a freight light source that he was making his way towards at the moment. By the time he finally reached it he could tell it was another torch. Jax grabbed it and took it out of the wall before shining it in the direction of the corridor he just passed by.

Dozens of small lights shone back at him in the darkness from either side of the room. After taking a moment to adjust to the brightness again Jax realized that these were eyes staring at him.

"A dungeon?" Jax mumbled aloud as he walked back into the cold water and to one side of the hallway. He only just noticed that there were no walls on the sides but iron bars lining the sides of the corridor.

Jax took a look inside one of the cages, shining his light through a crack of the bars. Suddenly he saw a dark shadow lunge at him from the corner of the room. Jax jumped backwards away from the cage and a loud bang rang through the halls as the person inside hit the bars full force. Jax heard the sound of steel hitting rocks a second later. He shone the light back and saw a man looking at him with deranged eyes. He peeked behind him and saw two chains that were drilled into the wall with handcuffs on them still ringing around on the floor.

"Those don't work very well." Jax commented offhandedly before moving on to the next cell.

A similar event repeated itself often as Jax looked into each cell. He eventually came to one cell where he could see the outline of a figure lying on the floor, clearly still cuffed to the wall. It was actually the only cell he had seen where the prisoner was still in their handcuffs.

"Is this one dead?" Jax muttered.