(31) Successful raid and the cellar

"You bastard....! Give me the antidote, you piece of trash! How can you do this to me..?!"

The Man, Herlky began spewing curses looking at Mangrel ignoring him, once he spoke of the whereabouts of Jwarlen's treasure. 

Just as he thought of cursing again, Mangrel's leg smashed into his throat, directly blocking the windpipe. He tried resisting somehow, but in no time his body went out of his control. Slowly, his eyes turned up, dying with resentment. 

Mangrel turned to Veneir. 

Unfortunately, Veneir's question had fallen on Mangrel's deaf ears. He turned towards Mars. 

"Set them free and then clean all the blood off yourself, using the clothes and water in the house. But before that, remove these two corpses outside." Instructions left Mangrel's mouth monotonously. 

"And you can take your time to howl back the body of the man we killed in the street." 

Mangrel wasn't planning on hiding his deed of killing these people, however, he had to hide the existence of the poison. 

The two people Mangrel experimented on, were pulled to the deeper part of the alleyway too. Unless someone investigated it, they wouldn't find anything in-depth.

'I will need to dispose of all of them by tomorrow morning.' Mangrel narrowed his eyes in contemplation. 

The raid was successful in every sense of words, only the after-clean-up was pending now. 

Taking a piece of cloth out of the two corpses, Mangrel walked toward the specified place, where all of Jwarlen's resources must be hidden. 

Exiting the room, Mangrel turned to the right, walking toward the end of the corridor. A simple room greeted him there. 

Entering, Mangrel found himself in a storage room, with old clothes and wooden boxes placed everywhere. A thin layer of dust could be seen covering the floor and the items there. Cobwebs spread across the room too.

Dust entered through Mangrel's every breath, Making him squint his eyes.

'He did not tell a lie, so most likely the opening to the cellar must be around here. If I had tried to ask for the specifics, the man would have objected anyway, so letting him die is for the best.' 

Not to say that, it was a mystery whether the Herlky knew the exact whereabouts of Jwarlen's treasures.

There was a limit to how much a person can be fooled, the man, named Herlky, would demand the cure first if Mangrel were to dig deeper. No one was a fool, it was just that they wanted to believe and keep hope in their hearts. 

It was a foolish act, but at the same time, it could not be helped. Humans are just such creatures, they can't help but support their mind's stability with other factors. 

Looking around with a hand covering his nose, Mangrel searched for anything suspicious in the room. 

'There.' Mangrel's eyes sharpened. 

Near a wooden box, the dust was shaved off to the side and appeared in lower density compared to the surrounding. It was apparent that the box was moved recently.

'Belvan must have been brought here as I expected. With his personality, the leader of this criminal gang would never place him at arms away.' Mangrel had a deeper understanding of Jwarlen, thanks to all the interactions a while ago. 

"Umph!" Mangrel pushed the box to the side, it took a little effort to fully move it away. 

After sliding the box to the side, Mangrel saw the door to the passage leading to the cellar. 

"Hey...." Veneir walked into the room all of a sudden. 

"Go away before I kill you." Mangrel didn't bother turning back and started unlocking the door to the cellar. He was not a homicide, however, he never showed any mercy to anyone getting in his way. 

It wasn't compassion that led Mangrel to let the friends of the past host of his body go, disposing of their bodies would just cause him inconvenience in the future. 

"My brother...." 

"He is in the main base of this gang, that's where they usually keep the slaves. If that's all, go away." This time, killing intent appeared in Mangrel's eyes. 

Veneir had many things to say, but she swallowed it all and moved away. She was smart unlike others, she knew that Mangrel might claim her life if she didn't leave. 

Mangrel's gaze returned to the lock on the cellar's door. 

'This might pose a problem....' Mangrel took out the new dagger from his clothes. Instead of aiming for the metal lock, he began destroying the area around it. 

Bang! Bang! Bang!!

Mangrel thrust the dagger into the floor again and again. 

The floor of the room was made of wood anyway, it couldn't withstand the dagger for long. But in the process, Mangrel felt his wrist going numb from the effort. 

"Huff...huff...huff..." Mangrel took long breaths calming down.

In the end, a circle was made on the wooden floor, around the lock. Holding the lock, Mangrel pulled. 

Creak~! Bam! 

"....." The lock, along with the piece of the floor and cellar's door, came out. 

Placing it aside, Mangrel opened the door of the cellar carefully. Seeing that nothing happened, He breathed a sigh of relief. 

'It would be quite troubling if he even set traps in the cellar. Fortunately, that was not the case.' Mangrel climbed down the cellar through the ladder. 

The inside of the cellar was not dark, due to the lamps lit on the wall. The dampened atmosphere in the cellar was cold, and clean, unlike the storage room. No dust could be seen in the room. 

Walking in deeper, Mangrel saw dozens of rag bags. With a few plain wooden boxes, made of light wood. 

The cellar was not big, not even 4 meters wide. The ceiling was around 3 meters above the ground too.

The interior of the room was covered in bricks, placed clumsily. 

Finding a long bag, Mangrel walked before it first. It was possible to make out the object within the bag, from its shape — a corpse. 

Opening it, Belvan's face popped out of it immediately. It was a bloodless face, appearing pale like paper.

'Not getting any food, he died instantly. The corpse of the life force physique is all that matters, but that is the case only after it has fully awakened. This one has only half awoken its physique, their knowledge is shallow as I expected.' Mangrel felt disappointed. 

If it was a fully awakened life force physique, Mangrel could have benefited more. 

'I can make up for it using the black miasma deep within the alleyways. Will I have to make another trip to the alley?' Mangrel's eyes grew dim.

Mangrel was an array master too, he could set up an array using origin essence. 

With that in mind, Mangrel turned to the other item in the cellar. He did not hold back desires at all, this instant greed rose like surging tides.