Five energy balls rushed out from his staff and sped towards the three sentries keeping watch at the back fence of the warehouse. They were still unaware when the bolts hit them. As an ambush, the attack produced extra damage.
When they came to their senses, a Magic Bullet whizzed by and hit the one further away. While the closest one saw a shadow suddenly appear in front of him. The shadow slashed him three times, taking his remaining life which had already been damaged from the ambush.
The middle sentry saw the shadow right in front of him shooting standard staff attacks at his other comrade. He pulled out his hand axe and tried to cut the shadow, but the shadow brushed it aside with his sword. He then felt as if he was struck by an ox. His body bent as it flew backward and crashed against the sturdy fence. The body bounced from the impact and landed, lifeless, on the ground.
The third sentry, who had been continually blasted by magic attacks, was so disoriented that, by the time he could get a better view of his assailant, two of his comrades had already fallen. He panicked and turned tail and ran.
Jack couldn't let the guy notify the grunts at the front of the warehouse. He used standard magic attacks and shot at the running guy's legs. Luckily his shot was accurate; it hit the guy's leg and made him trip. As he fell to the ground, Jack caught up to him. He then thrust his sword into the guy's exposed neck. Blood spurted from his neck as the guy lost his life from the thrust.
After all three of the sentries were dead, the fight ended and the three bodies conveniently turned into dust, erasing away the gore and leaving only a few coins on the ground. Jack picked up those coins.
He then checked his radar to make sure the sentries at the front weren't making any moves. They weren't. The ambush at the back had been completed in an instant, leaving the sentries no chance to warn the others. Those at the front were unaware of the disturbance at the back.
Jack checked out the rest of the compound with his radar. There was a heavy concentration of red dots in the center part of the warehouse. But the area between the fence and the warehouse was empty. They might be having a meeting - or a communion or whatever the hell a cult did - at this moment. This was good, the fewer people wandering around, the less chance he would be spotted.
He went to the small door in the fence. If it was locked, he would have no choice but to jump over. The fence was rather high, but he thought it should be doable with the degree of strength and dexterity this game body provided him. But his luck was holding; the door wasn't locked. He would leave the testing of his fence jumping skill to another time.
As his radar had indicated, the space inside the fence was devoid of sentries. He proceeded to sneak to the side of the warehouse building. Many windows lined the side of the warehouse; some were slightly open. He scrambled over to one of them and made sure the room inside was empty. Jack opened the window wider and climbed inside.
The interior of the warehouse had several side rooms formed by wooden partitions. When he came through the window, he came to one of this room. He could hear chanting and talking not far away. He slowly approached source of the sound, stopping behind the room partition. Outside the room was a hallway. There was a large opening in the partition on the other side of the hallway which opened into the central portion of the warehouse. The voices came from there. Jack silently edged nearer to the opening while staying close to the partition, and peaked inside.
There were several people in black robes kneeling on the floor facing an altar. Behind the altar was another black robed person wearing a deer skull headdress, giving him an eerie vibe. Jack used his God-eye monocle to scan the guy.
*
Priest of Phobos (Elite Human), level 25
HP: 24,000
*
'The heck! Level 25?' Jack was flabbergasted. There was no way he could survive fighting that guy. But then again, the point of the quest was to investigate the cult, not eradicate it. Now that he had confirmed that the people here were indeed part of the cult, he could look around to try to find out more information. He also scanned the kneeling cult members.
*
Acolyte of Phobos (Basic Human), level 12
HP 1600
*
The acolytes' levels were more reasonable, but there were too many of them. This was definitely not the quest where he could simply barge in and kill everyone. Stealth was an absolutely crucial factor here. As he continued observing the ritual taking place inside, he found that there was not much going on really. They were just chanting in an unintelligible language.
After a while, Jack decided that he couldn't get any more information just by watching them doing their ceremony. He backed away and decided to check the side rooms one by one to see if he could find any more clues about the cult and their purpose. After spending several minutes going from room to room, he came out empty-handed.
He was at a loss, not knowing what to do next, when his God-eye monocle picked up traces of footprints again. He approached and found that they were a continuation of Amy's mother's footprints that he had followed on the street outside. He followed their trail once again. The footprints led him through the hallway, to the other side of the warehouse. There, they brought him to an opening with stairs going down.
He descended the stairs to a large basement room. There were three doors on the wall across from stairs. From his radar, he could see that two of the rooms behind these doors had one occupant each. Interestingly, they were represented by white dots, indicating that they were neutral NPCs. Also interestingly, the footprints went to the left door, which was one of the two rooms that had a white dot.
'Now we're getting somewhere!'
Jack walked carefully towards the door, afraid that fast movement might trigger a trap or alarm. Once he arrived at the door, he twisted the door knob.
'Shit, it's locked!'
'Maybe I could try breaking the door?'
He was a floor away from the guys around the altar and they were chanting quite loudly, so they shouldn't be able to hear noise from down here. Resolved to take the risk, he brandished his Storm Breaker, and sent Power Strike to the door. The strike crashed onto the door, but he was pushed back by recoil force. The door was completely fine.
"Dumbass! With how weak you are, you can't break the doors and chests in this world with brute force," Peniel mocked him as she reappeared.
"Thanks for telling me! So what do I do?" Jack asked.
Peniel flew around observing the door. "There is a keyhole. You don't happen to have Lockpicks, do you?"
"No, I don't. Are those an item we could have purchased?"
"Yes, and we should make that a priority when we get out of here. Well, if you don't have Lockpicks, then the only option left is to find the key."
"Where?" He asked.
"How should I know? Don't just expect me to give you all the answers. Try searching around the room!" She said as she flew to look around the room.
Jack also started walking and observing the basement. It was a simple rectangular room. The stone floor was half-covered by hay. Probably the room was used in the past to store farm products or to keep small animals.
Jack saw a small desk with a lone chair in one corner of the room. He went over to search it. The desk was empty, but on the wall by its side, there were several hooks that might be meant to hang keys or coats, but they were also empty. From the look of the setting of this room, this basement was probably where the cult held their captives, and this desk was where the warden was supposed to be while watching the cells. But where was the warden?
As the question surfaced in his mind, his monocle again lit up. It appeared to be analyzing the hangers. Some text appeared saying 'key for cells', and then it highlighted another set of footprints going from the desk and back up the stairs.
Peniel, whose soul was linked with his, could see the footprints as well. She flew up to him and said, "I'm not going to comment anymore. Let's just go and follow the footprints, cheater."