I stopped my forward motion for a moment, looking back at the sunlight behind me.
"What is this place made of? I've felt material like this before. It blocks me from using mana... Is this—"
Monk turns around and, placing a finger over his lips again, motions for me to walk further into the dark hallway.
"Hold your questions a little longer."
I try to activate my status window to see if anything works, but the only two things that seem available to me right now are my demonic energy manipulation skill and my red hydra's rage buff. None of my items are giving me any buffs, and even my base stats from leveling up are negated completely. I feel just like I did in those cuffs a few weeks ago, weak like a normal human.
However, the exit is near, and I'm not restrained. The fact that some skills that don't need mana to operate still function is a little bit of a relief too.
I continue to follow him down the hallway. Whatever he can tell me would be the biggest lead I've had yet. So far, no one wants to say a word about this city. Even the legacy fighters were pretty tight-lipped while drunk, or they just didn't have the information I was looking for.
We make it to the end of the single hall, and the two younger men that stood at the front of the open door previously now stand in front of a solid wall. It's the only thing this place leads to...
They both step aside as Monk presses his hand on the black wall and pushes it forward. A white light pierces through the darkness on all edges as we step through and the door closes behind us.
Fluorescent lighting that seems as though it's not powered by mana at all hangs from the ceiling, giving off a small amount of heat and filling the small room with light.
The walls and floors are still made of the same black stone, but now I hear chatter from many people. The sound of music and even laughter sounds like it's coming from below me.
The only thing in this small room is a handrail on both sides that leads to a hole in the floor spiraling downward with a narrow staircase.
Monk doesn't slow down one bit; he just begins walking down the stairs and finally speaks.
"We're contained now; we may both talk freely. No one but us can hear or record us."
I scrunch my eyebrows at this statement, and am about to ask who exactly we should be worried about here, but the sight in front of me as we take steps off the spiral staircase makes my eyes widen with awe.
Easily 50 men, all between 18 and 30, are in a large open room underground. Every one of them wears the same orange clothing as Monk. There are about 2 dozen circular tables, and many of them are eating food together, reading books, and sharing conversation.
Half of them wear transparent wristbands, deactivated just like mine. Others don't even have wristbands on at all.
There are many rectangular door-shaped slits in the walls all around the room that look like they could be pushed in just like the one Monk pushed forward to bring us down here.
He walks forward through the crowds of people.
Some of them stare at me for a moment but look over to Monk, and their expression changes; most smile or bow as we walk by and go back to minding their own business.
One very young man comes close and bows very low, speaking in a relaxed voice.
"Welcome back Elder, your travels have concluded faster than expected. Shall we continue mid-day training without you as scheduled, or now that you're back, do you have other plans?"
Monk pauses and smiles at the younger teen, while I contemplate why he's calling a man no older than 25 an elder.
He responds, stopping his steps and clasping his hands.
"Yes, continue training without me today. I believe I'll be busy with a private session for quite a while."
He continues walking forward until we make it to the back of the room. The man in the orange robe places a hand on one of the rectangular doors and presses on it with an open palm to open it up again.
Just like before, it opens slowly and another narrow hallway appears behind it.
I follow him through and down the hall again before he turns to another door on the wall.
"This is the last one, thank you for being patient with me."
The door opens silently just like all the other ones, and we walk into what seems to be a training room.
It's almost as large as the recreational dining hall we just passed, but this area is almost completely empty.
On the left side, I see some wooden spears and metal weapons. Some of them look jet-black as if they're crafted from the same stone this fortress is made of. By all the gear, there's a table and a few comfortable-looking chairs too.
Monk walks over and sits down in one on the far side of the long wooden table.
"Please, take a seat."
I do as he says, sinking into the chair and looking out at the dark black open room dimly lit by the white lights surrounding the gear and over the entrance door.
There's a long pause of silence before I break the awkwardness.
"I understand you've brought me here to be much more discreet and out of the eyes and ears of anyone listening, but why? What have you brought me here for? Is it the soul energy technique? Is it because I brought up the mercenary guild to those guards? Is it another reason?"
He looks at me with a curious yet indifferent expression again before responding.
"The simple answer is; I've come to ask for your help. Your soul energy is not your own, yet you're able to control it with ease to take down soul bound opponents. It's power like this that may help us finally defeat our enemy."
I raise an eyebrow, thinking very carefully about what he just said.
"This enemy is... who? The Galeheart guild?"
He pauses again. The room is eerily silent.
"Yes, but no... the man you are trying to meet with, Lith Galeheart is the reason we're in this situation to begin with but he isn't my main concern."
I gulp, but Monk continues.
"Technically they're the ones we've opposed ever since they took our land and built this fortress on the mountain, but the mercenary guild is not the enemy I wish to ask for your help to defeat. If anything, they could be an ally in the battle that may unfold."
There's another awkward pause of silence. Everything that was just said makes no sense... It seems like Monk knows much more about the inner workings of this place than any of the legacy fighters knew, so I might as well dig for more and give him some information about myself in return.
From what I understand, Monk has no reason to harm me. He's the one asking me for help. I finally respond.
"I don't know much about this city, but I do know from talking with the legacy fighters that things have changed a lot over the last year or even a couple of months."
Monk nods as I continue.
"I only came here originally to find my teammates. They're supposedly in the inner walls with the leader of the mercenary guild."
I lean in and whisper under my breath.
"They're also able to wield the same soul energy, if that makes things any clearer for you."
His eyes widen.
He covers his mouth with his hand and thinks to himself for well over half a minute before responding again.
"If this is the case, I believe the guild leader already knows you're here and chose not to put your ID on the green list for the inner walls. Your showing in the arena made you a direct threat to our common enemy. Just like me, you have a target on your back, and Lith does not want to jeopardize whatever he's planning to publicly allow a soul energy user into the inner walls."
I respond.
"So, who is the enemy...?"
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Author's Note:
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