Chapter 66. Cell Key Retrieval

Her tone put heavy emphasis on the last word in her sentence. Jack ignored her. He went back upstairs following the footprints. They should be the warden's tracks. If he found the warden, he should find the keys.

He was just worried that the warden was among the Acolytes around the altar. How would he get to him without alerting the other acolytes and that over-leveled priest then? He would worry about it later if that really was the case. For now, he would just focus on following the footprints.

Luckily, his worry did not prove to be the case. The footprints took him to a lone red dot not far from where the other group of red dots was having their communion or whatever. The footprints stopped at a door.

From the layout of the other rooms, Jack was pretty sure that this door opened into a small room. Jack's assumption was that it was a restroom. The warden must have taken a piss break during his watch.

As he was considering the possibility, Jack heard a click from the door. He quickly hid against the wall as Peniel vanished back into her hidden dimension. A person wearing a black robe came out and walked away.

Jack inspected him and found out him to be another level 12 Acolyte.

They were pretty close to the main hall where the Priest and the rest of the Acolytes were still chanting away.  If a fight broke out here, it might alert them. Jack stayed in the shadows and tailed the warden. He expected that he'd go back down to the basement.

Luckily, the warden didn't disappoint him. As the warden walked down the stairs, Jack took out his sword and magic staff. If he fought down there, the noise shouldn't reach the main hall group. Nevertheless, he knew he needed to finish the fight quickly to avoid complications.

Jack knew he couldn't walk as silently as a Ranger could. As Flame had demonstrated, a Ranger could come behind another person's back undetected. That's why, when he had decided to shorten the distance to the warden, he abandoned all his stealthy maneuvering and just ran down the stairs. The warden was caught off guard by the hasty footsteps coming from behind him. Jack jumped off the last few steps as the warden turned around, He executed Power Strike as he leapt down upon the warden.

The warden was slammed down hard onto the stone floor as a damage of 142 appeared. He had not had the time to take out a weapon before Jack followed the ambush with several successive slashes. Damage numbers continued to appear above the warden's head. After some struggle, the warden managed to kick Jack and pushed him away. He scrambled to his feet and took out a mace.

Jack cast Mana Bullet, not giving the warden a chance to attack. But the Warden was quite nimble and evaded the Mana Bullet by side stepping. However, another five Magic Bolts then reached him. He could not evade this second magic attack; all five of the Magic Bolts stabbed onto him, each dealing damage ranging from 48 to 53.

Jack moved to the warden's side while he was still disoriented and sliced him with several rapid slashes. The warden's HP quickly fell to a critical level. He made a desperate swing in an attempt to free himself from the barrage of attacks. Jack ducked and the mace whizzed past his head. The warden took this opportunity to make a run for the stairs.

'He must be thinking of warning his fellow acolytes.'

Jack couldn't let him do that.  He used the same tactic as he had against the sentries, sending a normal staff range shot towards the warden's legs. His first try missed, but the advantage of normal attacks was there was no cooldown, so he could fire another attack immediately after the first one was done.

Jack's second attack fortunately hit the mark and the warden stumbled and rolled back down the stairs. He shouted in a final attempt to draw the attention of the people above.  Jack shut him up by sending another Power Strike as soon as it came off cooldown which scored a critical.

The warden finally stopped moving, its body soon disintegrated, leaving behind a few coins and a key. Jack watched his radar as his body tensed up. He didn't know if the warden's last shout had reached those above. He exhaled a relieved sigh after seeing that the red dots remained in their places. He then picked up the loot and identified the key as Cell Key.

With the key in hand, he went towards the left door. When he inserted the key into the key hole, he had an irrational fear that the key in his hand was still not the key that would open this door. But the lock in the door released with a click as the key turned. The door opened and revealed a dark room.

There was no illumination inside. As the door opened wider, the light outside exposed the interior of the room. There was a shadow sitting in the corner of that dark room. It was a woman; her eyes showed fear but there was also determination in them. The fear in her eyes turned to confusion as she looked at Jack who was not dressed up like those acolytes who had taken her captive.

"Samantha?" Jack said to the woman. Amy had told him her mother's name before he left her shop.

The woman's eyes widened as she heard her name.

"Who are you?" She asked.

"I am Storm Wind. Amy sent me," Jack said.

Her eyes glistened as she heard her daughter's name. She rose up and went to him. "How is she? Is she all right?" Samanatha asked nervously.

"She's fine," Jack replied. "You're the one she is worried about. She suspected the Cult had something to do with your going missing, so she asked for help from the Adventurers Association. She was right about it apparently."

"That poor girl," Samantha cried. "They threatened to harm her if I tried anything funny. I'm glad they didn't do anything to her."

"What's this about anyway? Why were you held captive by this cult?"

"I have no idea. I was delivering bread to one of my regular customers in the slum. Before I knew it, those cult people came and took me and my customer away."

"Your customer?" Jack thought of the other dot next door. "Is he being held here as well?"

"Yes, he's in the other room," Samantha answered.

"Let's free him too then," Jack said as he went to the other door.

Jack hoped that the customer would have some information about the cult that would help him with his other quest to investigate the cult. Up to now, he still didn't know what they were doing here, so he needed to find out more.

He unlocked the door. When the key turned, he noticed the dot inside the room moved and approached the door. A silhouette was then formed in his monocle's view, showing the shape of a person behind the wall right next to the door.

Was he trying to ambush me? He thought.

He pushed the door open but didn't step through. The silhouette maintained its position besides the door opening.

"Why didn't you enter?" Samantha asked.

Hearing Samantha's voice, the silhouette moved. "Samantha?" An aged voice called out as a bearded face peeked out from the door opening.

"Mister Gilbert! Are you all right?" Samantha responded when she saw the elderly face.

Gilbert glanced at Jack suspiciously.

"He's okay," Samantha said when she saw Gilbert staring at Jack. "His name is Storm Wind. My daughter sent him. He is from the Adventurers Association."

"Really?" Gilbert said as he came out of the room, but he still maintained his distance from Jack. "May I see your Adventurer Badge then?"

Jack fished out his badge and showed it to the old man. Gilbert squinted as he scrutinized the badge. He then nodded, "it seems real. Forgive me. The cult has been trying to trick me once they learned that they couldn't force me to give them what they want. I thought you were their latest attempt to deceive me."

"What are they after?" Jack asked. If what the old man said was true, then he might know the reason the cult had appeared in this place.

"I would rather not talk about it," Gilbert replied.

Jack frowned. What's the old man hiding? Was he still suspicious of me?

"Could we have this talk somewhere else? I can't stand being in this place any longer," Samantha interfered.

"You're right, let's leave this place first," Jack concurred. He waved at them to follow him, but as he was about to step onto the stairs, he froze. The cluster of red dots that had been gathered in the main hall had now dispersed and spread all over the warehouse, cutting off their path of retreat.