29 – You Know… It’s the Level Gap
CRACK!
THUD!
The floor gave under both of them after the blast ate them up; they dropped through it together, falling through timber and stone, into a wall of dust and heat that swallowed everything. Crow hit the lower level and rolled a little, then stopped. His ears were screaming. Something above him was still settling, almost making him sneeze, small pieces of the ceiling raining down in the dark and falling onto his head.
Crow was lying on his back on the cold stone; it looked like some kind of hidden facility down there, and he couldn’t hear Tuesday anymore; the explosion had split them up. The tavern lights above trembled through the hole they’d made, throwing just enough light to confirm the obvious, crafted walls and a finished floor oddly similar to an underground bunker.
Through the hole left by the explosion, he caught sight of a figure in the dim light from above. “Crow, what happened? Well… I guess it doesn’t matter anymore. Should I come down too? I’m sensing a bit of mana… I think someone’s heading your way.”
To be honest, I think I can handle this alone, but it’s better if she is close to me for both our sakes, so I can make sure she is safe. If things go wrong, and the poison on her body gets worse, at least because we are close, we can just escape together. Yeah; wait, now that I am looking at this place... A hidden facility in the underground of a gang hideout, when the Hero’s main quest of invasion is active… this is probably the one that the little girl they call “Furnace” is confined in... Normally I would say that I need to confirm a little more, but in this city, there are only 3 underground facilities, and all of them are too different from one another, so I am sure; this is the one she is in. I remember it because it’s the one with that “blessed” labyrinth puzzle. Ah… “good memories.”
Footsteps. Two pairs, metal on the soles, coming from the left.
Sharon was making some type of signal with her arms; it was almost like a person lost on an island waving as a plane passed by. He didn’t understand a thing.
Right… I need to solve this first.
Crow gestured with his hand to Sharon, motioning for her to follow, and pressed his index finger to his lips to signal silence. Then he closed his eyes, let his breathing go shallow, and let his body settle against the stone floor. His elbow still ached from the fall. His head was at the wrong angle. He didn’t adjust.
This’ll be fun…
The steps stopped.
“What was that noise?” First voice, rough, irritated.
“The bar floor.” Second voice, younger. “Finally gave. There’s one down here.”
“Alive?”
A pause. Torch heat near his face.
“Breathing.”
“How’d he get here?”
“He fell. Obviously.” A beat. “Unless you think he found the stairs.”
“If he found the entrance... that’s a big problem.”
That wasn’t the plan, but… never mind. I'll just have to change the order of things now. If they take the bait... if they fall for it, I can skip the labyrinth puzzle, it will be almost a speedrun.
Crow kept still.
“Kill him now,” said the rough voice. “While he’s quiet.”
Or not…
A pause.
“If he’s here… then he found the stairs... but that hole up there… I don’t know; my head is hurting.” The younger voice, patient. “Nobody was supposed to know the base was underground here. If we kill him without knowing how he got here, Mama is gonna kill us for wasting the opportunity to get information.” Then he muttered something. “Definitely not because Mama said I would receive a gift if I captured someone for her…” After saying this, he looked at some drawings he had.
“You’re an idiot,” responded the rough voice. “But it makes sense… I think.”
“No, you are.” He looked at the drawings again. “If there’s someone else upstairs, killing this one will solve nothing; remember Mama’s instruction book...” He moved to the next drawing. “Now it’s… yes, yes. Let’s take him to the interrogation room, wait for him to wake up, and ask properly.”
The rough voice went quiet for a moment, then nodded frenetically. “Properly.” His tone gave off the feeling of a secret code.
The younger one put the drawings in his pocket again, then responded, “Properly… finally, heh... I always wanted to USE IT! Oh, sorry, I forgot he was sleeping…”
What am I hearing? This almost feels like a comedy.
Three hands grabbed his coat and hauled him up. His arms got dragged across the stone, boots scraping the floor.
Thanks guys, I’m definitely a professional at being kidnapped now... at least I can skip the puzzle, all thanks to this duo.
[CONGRATULATIONS! Passive skill acquired: Victim of Kidnapping level 1]
No comments…
He kept the body loose and his breathing slow while they walked him.
One corridor, right turn, another longer corridor, a few steps down. No, never mind, I just need to be there, then I leave after asking “nicely” for the exit…
1 minute later.
“This guy is too heavy, what has he been eating?” said the younger one.
The other responded, sweating. “Maybe it’s because of the swords. If we fence them, we can make good coin.”
The air is a little different now, less dusty and warmer than before… I can smell something like heated metal. Jackpot… To think I would find the secret forge so soon, thanks to this duo… Hm, now that I think about it, I don’t need to go there. It’s a good place to loot for some crossbows, but I don’t use that type of weapon. I need to help the abducted escape, so I will try to be stealthier. I remember this quest; if you don’t bring the Rogue when doing this side quest with the Hero, they kill some innocents, the game doesn’t show what happens, but I can imagine what they do, probably use them as meat shields, so I need to be extra careful and make them feel like things are working well.
Another corridor down, Crow continued to be dragged straight; the torchlight becoming more consistent now and voices somewhere deeper in the background of people working in forges.
A distant tired voice said, “Did you see Billy? Mama is mad and wants to ‘talk’ to him because it’s already been more than 11 times just this month…”
If I am not wrong, she stays in this hidden facility, or should I say factory? It is full of forges to make crossbows, so this must be the place. I remember her staying here until midgame, when she becomes a teen and burns the place to the ground before escaping. In the game she was a hidden character that could be hired in the future by the Hero. At this point in time she must be a child… Yeah, I can rescue the other NPCs too... No, this is real life now. They aren’t NPCs anymore. After that I will leave this place… Tuesday, you… It’s a shame, but you don’t want to join the party anyway, so I’ll just give up on you...
A short time later, they found the door and the younger guy knocked on the frame. “It’s me… Jimmy, and it’s Pizza time.”
The door was opened. “How much time do you need?” he asked, dragging a still-breathing body from inside that room.
“It will be fast, tell Juice that the bottle was compromised; I think this guy fell from up there and found our base—”
“WHAT? And you just casually tell me that you need to conduct an interrogation… a pizza, when our base is compromised? ARE YOU DUMB? Mama will kill you!”
“Relax, it’s only this guy that fell from the bar—cough—bottle, and we’ll find everything out. Just tell the other one to stay at the door; we’ll handle this,” said the younger one again. His partner was quiet, cracking his knuckles.
“You… ugh, never mind. After the brick that fell on your head… never mind… just… never mind,” said the guy, now carrying the person on his shoulder like a trash bag. Then he put his free hand on the shoulder of the other guy who was cracking his knuckles, and said, “Why do you always let this guy talk?”
The guy stopped cracking his knuckles. “Pff… He didn’t say anything wrong this time. Why so much hate?”
“Never mind, I forgot you were there too when it happened…” He took his hand off the guy’s shoulder. “To think you guys almost had things falling on your heads twice while checking the bottle entrance… definitely luck isn’t on your side.”
“Luck? What does it have to do with this?”
“Never mind…” said the guy, walking away in a hurry.
What am I listening to? It’s almost a soap opera...
The duo approached the center of the room with Crow “unconscious” on their arms.
They dropped him in a chair. He let himself slump sideways, keeping up the unconscious act. Rope at his wrists, more at his ankles. Then the search, hands going through every pocket and fold.
“This ring,” the younger voice said. “Enchanted, looks like.”
“Take it to the weapons depot or something like that...”
I didn’t want to make it easy for them to take my stuff. However, if I try something now, it will be bad. There are at least 3 guys at the door; I need to make sure there aren't too many people here. If they find out I’m a problem and spread the word, then the abducted person will probably die—
“And this in the boot?”
“Everything. Leave nothing on him… heh”
The ring came off his finger.
He didn’t react.
Footsteps toward the door, then it shut.
11 seconds of silence. Then a sound that settled it, heavy metal sliding on a rail; it sounded like a lock built for a door that doesn’t open from the inside.
After delivering Crow’s things to a guy, the older one said, “Billy will take them there for us.”
Right… now only 2 there outside the door.
The younger one replied, “Great, but Billy lost my things the other day; maybe it’s not a good idea to trust him with more things…”
“Are you dumb? Billy is slow like us, but he’ll definitely find the items he lost. He found half of my things that he lost the other day; he just needs time.”
“Huh? Maybe you’re right… The old man said we were unlucky when we told him about the bottle… but, like you said, Billy found half of your things, which proves that we are lucky after all, because the other day, I do remember someone saying that Billy lost all their things.”
I am… almost feeling pity for those guys. No, they are the worst in this city, enslaving people and much more.
A moment of silence from the goofballs. Then the punch came without warning, straight to the jaw. His head went with it. He let it.
This…
Another one, to the ribs. He exhaled through his nose and held still.
Seriously?
“Wake up,” the rough voice of the older one said.
A pause. Another hit, more weight behind it this time, lateral, across the jaw.
I knew it… but… this is too much.
“What’s wrong with this guy’s face?” the rough voice muttered. “It feels like I’m hitting stone.”
Crow opened his eyes.
The voice belonged to a broad man with a red face and knuckles that were already slightly swollen.
Crow looked at him. “It’s the level gap.”
The man blinked. “What do you mean? Are you crazy? Level ga—gapy?”
Crow stood up.
The ropes at his wrists went first, then the ones at his ankles like they were old paper. The broad man was still processing the fact that the person tied to the chair had simply gotten up when Crow picked up the chair by the backrest and corrected the guy’s posture with it.
The younger one, looking at his friend sleeping on the floor, said, “This doesn’t make sense. How are you so strong?”
“I already told you, it’s the level gap.”
“Levil, cap?”
Short sound; then he went to sleep too.
He stood in the center of the room looking at the two on the floor. Breathing once, he ran his hand along the side of his jaw and tested it.
Nice. The worst part was the labyrinth, and I just skipped it thanks to those clueless guys, now only 1 is outside the door; seems like he didn’t hear what happened; better for me.
Crow approached the smaller and younger guy he had hit more gently and softly, lifting him up with one hand. Then, with the other, he slapped him. “Wake up, gatekeeper, you need to get this open for me… or else.”
For some reason, that line feels a little embarrassing… Never mind, I don’t have time to think about it.
The gatekeeper woke up. “huh? HUH? Wait, you are—”
Slap!
“Quiet... I’ll put you close to the door, you know the rest…” Crow said with one finger to his lips and the classic make a sound and you die face.
The locked door was built from heavy metal, reinforced like the entrance to an old bunker.
“I-I will… say the code ok… can you promise me you are letting me live?”
“No, now say it.”
Crow dropped the man to the floor, spun him around with a shove to the shoulder, then grabbed the back of his neck to hoist him up, forcing him against the door before whispering, “Say it now…”
“G-guys… we have a problem… open the door hurry! We need—”
Crow closed his hand a little tighter around the guy’s neck.
“I-I mean, I need some help with this fellow here, he just don’t… doesn’t want to talk, the pizza is late.”
The door made some sounds, then it opened.
“What—”
BAAAM!
Now the 3 of them were sleeping. Crow had slammed the guy’s head into the other one… brutal, really, and stepped outside the room.
The corridor was empty.
Right. I just need to find where the weapons depot is, and that Jimmy? No, Billy? I don’t remember, but the guy who took my things. And, of course, rescue the girl they call “furnace” from this place. Tuesday… maybe I’ll just give up on him.
He looked at the dark corridor ahead. Torches spaced too far apart. Work sounds somewhere deep inside it. The forge running steady underneath everything.
Seems like no one noticed; better for me. I knew this was probably their base, close to that other gang area, but below a bar? That was news. In the game, you go a long way underground through the sewers to deal with... no, I don’t have time to think about this.
He started walking toward the sound of the forges, trying not to make any sound.
To think getting to the center would be this easy... Now, I just need to find the main furnace where the girl is, help these people, and somehow recruit her. The Hero is already too strong; if he gets new allies, I’m cooked. Besides, in the original timeline, she died in the kingdom after they found out she literally roasted the people from here during her escape... So, saving her might actually be a good thing. Well... no time to overthink this, let’s just do it…
Somewhere deep inside this hidden facility…
BANG!
Crow started to run toward the forge.
Yeah… of course the guy would use his gun here. Now I need to be fast before the girl gets into danger; no, wrong phrase. Before she roasts someone innocent by accident.