Rastel was confused. The villagers clearly had no way to defend themselves. If they did, they would have gotten rid of the intruders long ago!
And there would be definite retaliation when the syndicate finds out about the missing prisoners. How were they planning on dealing with it? Or did they have a way to escape already and now wanted to save their loved ones being imprisoned?
"That would be no problem at all" he smiled as he accepted the mission.
"Great, you have my personal gratitude." Marilyn smiled back.
"The villagers are in great distress about the entire thing so we they would be happier if you could free them as soon as possible, there are husbands, sons and daughters among the people captured." She added.
"Let me have a meal and some sleep, I promise to be on my way as soon as I wake up" rastel reassured her.
At this moment, Anna came downstairs in a hurry and waved towards rastel.
"Your room is ready, I'll lead you to it and bring up breakfast in a minute." She spoke quickly.
Rastel nodded at Marilyn before heading upstairs to his room following Anna's lead. She opened up the room that's was facing the stairs as she gestured.
"There's a bathroom at the end of the corridor if you want to wash and there's the wardrobe if you want to keep anything important. It has a key so it should be safe. I'll be up quickly with breakfast." she took off before rastel could even put a word in.
Shaking his head lightly with a smile, rastel unequipped his robe and stretched. He then looked at the simple room with the long wardrobe, wooden floors, small bed and bedside drawer with a small mirror attached. It was very neat at least.
He opened the one window facing the door and looked outside. Judging the distance between the window and the floor, he nodded lightly and gently jumped down using his natural agility to land as quietly as he could.
He brought out the mage from where he hid him only to see that he had regained consciousness and was trying to loosen his binds.
'What is your head made of? Weren't you unconscious a few minutes ago?' he thought wide eyed.
With a few more well placed hits with lightning blast, he knocked the mage unconscious again and secured the ropes more tightly.
With a lot of effort, he heaved the mage onto his shoulder and used a closed lower window of the inn to scale onto his open window and pushed the mage's body into it with a grunt.
THUMP!
The sound of the body landing echoed loudly. Knowing that Marilyn and her daughter definitely heard it, he quickly entered the room, picked up the mage and pushed him forcefully into the wardrobe locking it securely with the key and keeping the key in his inventory.
Anna walked into the room with a tray as soon as he sat down on the bed, acting like nothing happened.
She looked at him weirdly like she was about to ask him what the weird sound was but she quickly dispersed it as she dropped the tray on the bedside drawer.
"Your breakfast, deer stew, fresh bread and some cider. Mama said it's on the house, you don't have to pay."
"Thank you" Rastel smiled as she introduced the breakfast.
"Here, for your wonderful service." He tossed her a kryt.
She caught it happily and left the room with a smile
"Sigh" he sighed deeply as she left.
'That was too close, imagine if they saw me hauling a body in through the window!' he sighed again as he picked up the tray and immersed himself in the smell of fresh bread and cooked stew.
'Cooked food really hits differently' he remembered all the buns he had in his inventory that he was planning on travelling with and laughed mockingly at himself.
As he ate the meal and drank down the sweet but sharp cider. He thought more about the quest. At the end he didn't care much as it went with his plans to figure out what the syndicate was. He already knew their base thanks to Marilyn's quest so he didn't need to question the mage anymore. After he met up with old man Oron and Mary, he will try to infiltrate.
There was also Gai and his team, maybe he could use their help. Sharing a quest with other players was allowed and the quest rewards would be shared based on the original owner of the quest.
'Wait this seems very wrong!' rastel just realized a problem, or a big hole to be exact. Why was he given the quest!?
'There are a significant amount of players in laron, players have been around since when the syndicate came in. The inn likely sees a lot of players visiting every day. Why was the quest never completed? Was it given to some players before and failed or was it never given at all?'
Thinking about it for a while, he finally thought of a possible blunder on his part, the robe! The mage was an important figure in the syndicate that much was sure and he always went out to handle matters. Which means he would be well known among the villagers who were his prisoners!
He had practically waltzed into the village wearing such a robe, it was a miracle Marilyn didn't think him as one of them and refused him her services in the first place.
"Ah... I'm such an idiot….." he face palmed deeply as he mentally slapped himself. He decided to take note and not wear the robe within sight of the villagers. After he left laron he would be free to wear it anywhere.
After eating his meal, he laid down on the small bed with the tip of his toes sticking out because of his tall frame as he decided to log out for the day.
While stretching and yawning deeply, Reo scratched his back as he shook off the stiffness from laying down while on the SVN for a long time. He rubbed his face as he looked outside, it was well over 10 o'clock on a Saturday morning. He had missed breakfast.
Walking sleepily past his bed, across the carpet and into the bathroom, he took a quick shower, brushed his teeth and put on some black shorts with a large grey T-shirt for comfort. He then sat down at his worktable and shifted all the junk aside as he opened up his laptop and quickly checked out on a few ideas that were spinning around his head to try out.
"A glove that can shock the living shit out of people with the intensity controlled by muscle grip, I'm pretty sure there's something like that out there. Making it shouldn't be hard but the programming might be a bit..." he murmured aimlessly as he continuously clicked on random things on the screen.
He was still rambling when his sister Hana, opened his door and stared at him from the doorway.
"You finally woke up, you missed breakfast." she said leaning casually on the door frame.
"Hmm…. What was it?" he asked absentmindedly as he glanced at her, she was still in her pajamas.
"Bread with egg sauce" she listlessly replied
"Hah….." reo sighed deeply at the missed meal
"I can cook some for you if you're hungry"
"For reals?"
"Sure"
"Thanks sis"
After a while, Hana came back with a plate of sliced bread and egg sauce with a cup of mint tea, Reo's favorite. Dropping the plate on the edge of the worktable that was positioned near the door, she picked up a slice of bread from the plate and made herself a sandwich with the egg sauce and sat on the bed while slowly nibbling on it as she looked at Reo.
"Tell me what happened when you were online" she asked with a bright gleam in her eye.
Rastel first took two slices of bread and made himself a sandwich first, after two bites and a gulp of the hot refreshing tea. He closed the lid of his laptop as he started telling his sister of his latest escapades.
He told her everything from acquiring his unique sub-class, his battle with the elven ranger and the shield warrior, saving Gai and his friends, up to his meeting with Marilyn and Anna in the inn. All the while, Hana just listened quietly and wide eyed as she imagined the scenes playing out in her mind.
In the village of laron, it was nightfall already and the residents were retiring to their beds. Even the ever active players were mostly out of the village so the village had a quite peaceful aura surrounding it.
A shadow moved quietly on the streets as a man wearing a hooded cloak entered a more deserted part of the village. He took large strides as he moved quickly towards one of the few houses in the area. There was nothing special about it, it was a four cornered wooden building with a door and 4 windows just like the rest around.
He knocked three times, one loud, two quiet and waited. After a few seconds, he heard a latch and lock turning as the door quietly opened. He quickly entered and the door shut behind him.
There were four other figures beside him in the small living room, all heavily cloaked and hooded. The only source of light was from a dim oil lantern which only cast large shadows in the fully occupied room.
"You are late!" one of the voices said irritably. The voice sounded like it came from an old man.
"The wife was getting suspicious of my late night movements, I had to calm her down" the man answered.
"I hope you didn't spill about what we are doing here?" a soft voice that came from a woman asked.
"I would not dare risk it! We have come so far already" the man replied indignantly.
"It's okay now, we trust you fully. Where are we with the final preparations." Another voice that sounded deep spoke out slowly.
"I found an interesting fellow today, I suspect he is a summoned. He boldly walked into my inn at dawn wearing the mage's robe" the woman's voice chuckled.
"All summoned are stupid! Damn bastards are the cause of all our problems!" a high pitched voice sounded out.
"If he was strong enough to take the robe from the mage I think he would be able to rescue the chief and the others, I tasked him to it and he promised to get on it as soon as possible. He has been in my inn for a day now but hasn't come out" the woman ignored the comment as she continued.
"Well at least that's an obstacle out of our path, I met with our helper today, he said we should notify him when we are ready. He would be there to lend his strength" the old man's voice sounded out.
"I was able to notify some of the men, they would spread the news at my signal and have the villagers ready to move quick and light when it's time" the first man said.
"Very good, things are going smoothly. With the help of the gods we will not see the next white moon still in captivity." The man with the deep voice said.
The members were silent for a while before the old man finally spoke out.
"Can we stop worrying now? The sooner you people leave my house the sooner I can give my old bones a rest."
In consideration of the old man, the members of the secret meeting soon left the house one after the other to their respective homes, each with the thought of freedom on their mind.