Zarin tried to recheck if he was in the right place, but he noticed that the drop of blood he last saw had disappeared. So he returned to the place where he remembered the one before that, and there was nothing there to see anymore.
Doubt started filling Zarin's mind, as he now didn't know if he had just imagined things.
The only clue he had left was that the blood drops led to Oriel's house, but he didn't know what to believe with their sudden vanishing. He knew that Oriel wasn't trustworthy, but why would she go after Eddie?
'Does she want his cows or something more?'
Eddie was the only source of milk in the town, but his prices were more than fair. Normally a Mayor wouldn't act on it. Still, Zarin knew that Oriel was very greedy, meaning it wouldn't be a surprise if she wanted to get the cows for herself to make a profit from them.
But Zarin didn't know if it was so simple after finding the existence of that mysterious chest. Even if he didn't know what it was, just the fact that Eddie had something like that meant he didn't have a simple background. Zarin knew that other than Lady Emlyn's kitchen, no other enchanted items were supposed to be in the village, which was why Oriel wanted to move that Mana Battery as soon as possible.
There was no notification for his Quest, which meant he hadn't made enough progress to receive one. So after taking a deep breath, he decided to check the building from every angle to find if there was a way to secretly enter it. Even if he had doubts, his guts told him that he was in the right direction.
As he went to the back of the building, he noticed a guard sitting on a small stool. It didn't take him long to understand that the guard was asleep, as he was letting out some snores.
Zarin noticed that there was a double basement door on the ground behind the guard. The door was chained, though, with a lock on it connecting the chains. Zarin's guts told him that this was where he needed to go, but he wasn't sure how to pass the locked door.
The guard wasn't hard to pass even without using his [Stealth], but he had no way to progress without a way to unlock the lock. Breaking it wasn't an option, as even if his attacks would break it, they would most likely awake the guard in the process of doing so.
'Could he have a key on him?'
Zarin knew that Oriel didn't trust the guards with many things, but she had the key to the lock and a chance to be something she did trust them with. After all, if there was any person down there, they needed to report how they would do so if they couldn't enter. That was, of course, if that place was somewhere other people went.
Still, Zarin hadn't any other clues currently, so he had to progress with what he had at his hand.
He slowly progressed closer to the guard, and when he was just a few steps from him, he activated his [Stealth]. He had only 18 seconds with it, and even if the guard was sleeping, Zarin wanted to be extra safe.
As Zarin came next to the guard to notice more clearly the details of his face, he actually recognized him. That guard from the other knight that he… put him through that nightmarish situation.
Seeing his face Zarin was ready to use his [Wind Rocket] right at his face, but he kept himself from doing so. This is because he had currently a little over half his MP being filled. Each use of [Wind Rocket] cost 30 MP. Even if his MP was full, he would be able to use it up to 4 times and will have to wait one hour to replenish enough for another use.
After taking a deep breath, Zarin examined the sleeping guard, and it didn't take him long to find something. On the side opposite where Zarin came, the guard had a slight metallic key chain with three keys. The circle was tied by a short rope at the guard's belt.
Zarin didn't have anything sharp with him, but he could try to just untie the knob of the rope of the belt of the key chain.
The knob wasn't that complicated, and with Zarin's current Agility, his hands were dexterous enough to untie it in a matter of seconds.
____________________
SKILL LEARNED
You have learned [Pickpocket] (C-Rank)
Description: Your hands can be used to take what others have at their disposal. The user's [Agility] and the awareness of the holder of the item affect the success of the use of the Skill.
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Zarin didn't take much time checking the sudden notification, as the duration of his [Stealth] was almost over. The guard hadn't been disturbed enough to get awake, but Zarin wanted to be safe no matter what. So he kept the keys carefully so that they wouldn't hit each other and make any noise as he went over the corner that he had come from.
He didn't plan to go unlock the lock yet. He wanted to have his [Stealth] out of cooldown before doing so, as even if he was confident he could open the basement door without it, he didn't know what he would encounter. As he waited, he opened up the status panel of his current mission.
He had a time limit after all, but there was no timer, and he didn't have a way to know when midnight was. So he could only know if midnight passed if he failed the Quest.
As his [Stealth] went out of cooldown, Zarin slowly made his way toward the basement door. He carefully examined it, making sure it was just a simple chain when he reached it.
After not noticing anything extraordinary on the chain or the lock, he tried the keys on the lock.
On the first try, he actually found a key that fit the lock, and after turning it, the lock was unlocked. A grin appeared on Zarin's face as Lady Luck had smiled at him once more. He slowly moved the lock to get it away from the chains, but since he didn't want to make any noise, that took him some time. Then he had to move the chains away; otherwise, they would make noise when he opened the basement doors.
Zarin wasn't impatient and treated every move of his utmost importance even if he was in a time frame.
As everything was down, Zarin started slowly examining the door itself. He also put his ear on it, trying to see if he could hear if there was anyone on the other side. He didn't hear anything, but he wasn't sure if it was because there was nobody on the other side or because the door was thick enough.
Having no other choice, Zarin slowly opened the door, and he was glad to find out that its hinges didn't make any noise. Instead, he saw stone steps leading down, and not far, there was a wooden door. Zarin passed the basement door and closed it, but he didn't put the chains back as it was impossible to do so from the other side.
Zarin carefully moved closer to the wooden door and put his ear on it, trying to hear anything from the room ahead.
This time he could hear something. It was a female voice speaking— Oriel's voice.
"You truly are a stubborn one. Same as that bitch that thought she was better than me. Where is she now, though, huh?"
At the end of her sentence, a whip sounded, followed by a voice in pain. Zarin recognized that voice to be Eddie's, even if it was the first time he heard him letting out that sound.
"You people think you can be someone just because you were lucky enough? Luck is nothing compared to true power."
Another round of similar sounds was heard but with more incredible tension.
"So what do you say? Will you reconsider my offer? It would serve us both, with us saving time and you suffering less. A fair deal, don't you think?"
There was a slight pause, which gave Zarin time to better understand the situation.
Oriel was indeed behind the kidnapping of Eddie, and she wasn't alone. Zarin knew that Eddie, as a half-dwarf had a greater physical defense than a human, and Oriel was just a 0-level character. That meant that there was no way she could harm Eddie with a whip unless she had an enchanted one, but even that would need her to pass some stats requirements that a 0-level no-class person couldn't do so.
Even if Eddie was also level 0, the benefits of his race weren't that easy to be ignored. Still, since Eddie let out shouts of pain, it meant that the hits of the whip passed his natural defense.
"I…I would rather die… than betray him," he heard the weak voice of Eddie saying.
"So be it then. Since you won't cooperate, just send my regards to that bitch and her family."
Zarin knew that he had to act, or it would be too late as he heard that.
So he opened the door, which fortunately wasn't locked. After seeing everyone in the room, he shot a [Wind Rocket] at the person behind Eddie. That person was holding the whip that kept hitting Eddie.
A ball of compressed air formed in Zarin's hand and flew at great speed towards the target. The person wasn't fast enough to avoid the surprise attack, and it hit him right in the face.
Then a bloody explosion happened, at the moment of the impact, leaving behind a headless person and a group of people with wide-open jaws.
Zarin was one of those people too.