"How far are they?! No, just don't! You just go and sit there idle. We'll take care of this." Aaron had a baleful hunch that anything Adam taking as an initiative would end up dragging everyone into a hellhole. Thus he rebuked the earthling while maintaining his verbal calmness.
Yet, Adam felt a powerful sense of disagreement emitting from sources indiscernible to him.
The place they were holing up now was nothing more than a medieval barracks. It was clearly not built for cosy and comfort but for imprisonment. The independent building stood away from the other constructs and this isolation gave them an advantage over territory.
But all these facts cannot justify Adam's unreasonable act of killing every single demon in the vicinity, thus causing a tear over their veiled existence.
'Nevermind.'
Adam shrugged off the feeling and walked to the survivors. He gestured whether they're alright, to which they gave a thumbs-up and a smile. The little act of kindness of giving away his potions had obtained him of their gratitude.
'Detect.'
A wave swept away from him instantly and the feedback entered his mind the next instant.
Apart from the figures of Thalia and Aaron, 3 Spectres were roaming around aimlessly. Just as how Thalia described them, they bear a very vague resemblance to typical souls. Their milk-white complexion and the blurred facial features were their prominent details.
Two broken fragments of the large beast crystal slipped into Adam's mouth and they were churned well before swallowing. The restoration of mana was evident to him through the status.
'Which one should I use?'
Adam was having a tough time choosing between 'Dissipate' and 'Projectile' glyphs. If he was to use the former, it should work according to the fact that these spirits are born in the atmosphere, just like that. Since they don't have any physical links, they should dissipate at once.
But the latter sounded more powerful. Adam also found it slightly improbable for the intimidating Spectres to dissipate just like that. The only deterring factor was the consequential shape and sound.
"It's decided then." After selecting 'Projectile' with 'Stealth', Adam sat somewhere not too far away from the crowd.
The execution was swift and nobody felt even the slightest fluctuation in the mana. As Adam feared, the 'Projectile' glyph's materialisation had a distinct lustre. The very humming it produced upon manifestation confirmed that it'll blow up the cover.
At once, the Stealth glyph was veiled on it. Instantly, the colour vanished and the sound went silent. After finding the final product satisfying, Adam launched the projectile.
The camouflaged arrow dashed and disappeared from his sight. The 'Detect' was executed once more and Adam found two apparitions looming stationary and surprised as to where the third one go.
Aaron and Thalia were no exception. Since a spectre vanished before their eyes, they immediately narrowed their eyes and scanned the vicinity with utmost care.
'Again.'
A smile crept upon Adam's face as he executed the 'Stealth' and 'Projectile' twice. The result was precise and rewarding. Furthermore, the flawless Arcane Glyphs didn't spare any room for fault and detection.
Adam was about to stack a few 'Detect' glyphs together when he suddenly remembered something.
'Status.'
/◄▫◆▫◇▫◆▫◇▫◆▫◇▫◆▫►\
...
▹ Level: 19 [2,932/7,600]
...
\◄▫◆▫◇▫◆▫◇▫◆▫◇▫◆▫►/
A deep frown appeared on his face as he saw an unbelievable rise in the XP. Was the program indeed faulty? He was on the verge of declaring the verdict.
'But it's a good thing that I got a faulty one.' Feeling grateful to his fortune, Adam patted his chest in relief and dismissed the interface.
"Hey, can I talk to you?"
A voice came from Adam's side and he turned his head to see a man in his sixties in rags. He was the oldest prisoners they've encountered so far. Despite his lanky figure, he was a Mythril-class adventurer.
Adam scanned his from head to toe and nodded in agreement. The figure slowly placed his rear on the ground and spoke, "I heard that you have Auto-healing skill."
Adam nodded.
"It's pretty easy for young people to get agitated and wreak havoc."
Adam had a sudden urge to correct this guy but kept silent.
Young?
Boy, I'm older than you.
Adam kept his mental dialogues veiled while the man continued. "The Stygian Realm is a treasure trove for someone like you. XP is all over here and you can harvest it if you have the skills.
But I noticed that you fight barehand."
Adam only nodded in agreement.
"My knowledge about these otherworldly beings are rather unfounded. But I do have some information I have collected over the years.
If I'm not wrong, we are in a stronghold."
Brow knitted as Adam repeated his words. "Stronghold?"
The man nodded and continued, "The beasts are savage and wild in nature. But that doesn't mean that they are underdeveloped. They know how to defend and hide in plain sight in the Stygian Realm.
Likewise, they even loot their prisoners and stash away the belongings. The weapons and armours are also an ingredient in sacrifices."
The old fellow took a break and heaved a sigh. "And every fiend stronghold has a storeroom somewhere in the premise."
What's this guy's point? Isn't he melodramatic?
Adam stared at the man clueless as he stared into the distance. The old man's eyes were fixated on the horizon of the crimson sky.
"That means..." After a couple of minutes, Adam asked hushedly.
"That means every single armour and weapon that these brutes have collected are stored somewhere nearby. Since you have Auto-Healing skill, you can get a decent set of armours from there so that you can conserve mana and prevent unnecessary injuries." The man spoke in a slightly displeased tone after finding Adam's dense skull uncomfortable.
"Oh..." Adam's brows shot up when he understood the good intentions of the man. He immediately thanked him for the precious information.
Thus he stood up and walked to the entrance of the prison building.
Tiptoeing, Adam found Aaron and Thalia hiding behind a rock and scouting the area. The love for their lives and desire to return home alive have prevented them from acting on a whim, even if the enemy was within their arms' range.
'I shouldn't act recklessly. I might be able to escape but not everyone has Auto-healing.' Recalling and pondering over Aaron's words from previous, Adam decided to use the glyphs to exterminate the enemies.
Crawling to where they were, Adam gestured. 'Is everything okay?'
The response was a confused frown. But thalia nodded and covered up her perplexion.
"This appears to be what explorers call a stronghold. We have very little information regarding this setup so we need to watch our tracks. The patrol pattern of beings is irregular. We can only move one step at a time." Aaron whispered.
Adam poked his head out for a sliver of a second and pulled it back inside. From the glimpse he caught, the walls of the stronghold lie beyond his vision range. The multiple fiends and spectres roaming around are definitely a nuisance.
Gesturing at the duo that he's retreating, Adam went back by a few steps and hid in the dark.
'Detect, Detect, Detect, Detect,...' Multiple glyphs overlapped and reinforced to produce an effect that covered an entire 2 kilometres radius. At once, Adam was enlightened regarding the positions and of the hostile entities in the vicinity.
'Earthspike for fiends and stealth projectile for spectres.' The rate of crystal consumption was astounding but Adam didn't bother to be concerned by them.
At the moment, he had two objectives; find the storeroom of the brutes and snatch some quality items and take these rescued to safety.
I'm unsure about the second objective, but the first one, that's easy.
About a minute went by after the glyphs vanished into thin air and Adam executed Detect again. His mind was elated as he saw every single hostile entity skewered and dissipated.
With assurance, he walked to Aaron again. "I'll be back."
Adam walked past the duo and they were scared shitless.
What the hell is he doing? Come back here.
Aaron leapt to get a hold of Adam's clothes but he froze midway. His eyes swung around and saw the punctured bodies of the fiends. The fiends he previously got a glimpse of, were non-existent in the air.
Dumbfounded, he could only stare at the fleeting back of Adam.
Thalia was also confused af.
While the duo was trying to stepping out of the hiding spot cautiously, Adam had already walked to the nearby buildings.
'Detect.'
"Not this one." Adam turned around and walked to the next building.
'Detect.'
"Wrong again."
The stone structures that were crudely constructed with cut-stones had a coarse and unkempt interior. These single-storey buildings were scattered around in a large area.
Roaming around from place to place, Adam finally came to a halt in front of an inconspicuous black stone structure.
"There you are."