I stayed for a few moments to think on what I should ask him.
Should I ask him how I could free the witches, even though he said he couldn't do that?
Or maybe I could ask him to give me whatever information their ancestors had on dimension research?
There's also a safe choice of asking about the process of creating Undying totems, and if that won't work I'll just ask for a few of them instead.
They were all valid questions that I could ask but in the end, I chose something else.
"How do you plan on defeating the System?"
He looked at me with a smile before coughing loudly, at first it was subtle, then it got worse even spitting some blood.
That made me alarmed, so I raised my shield looking with worry for an unseen enemy.
Suddenly Violet teleported beside the man and punched him in the gut which took the air out of him.
Just as she disappeared, she reapers beside me with a satisfied smile on her face.
What just happened?!
The Mad Scientist was now on the ground trying to breathe, and I was still confused about how this had happened.
After about five minutes he seems to recuperate enough to hold himself on his feet without help.
"So can you explain what happened?"
"*huff* can you explain why your monster friend just punched me?"
I looked at Violet and she just raised her shoulders and crossed her arms.
"She doesn't like to be seen, and you kind of forced her to get out of her comfort zone."
I just told that without thinking, and I think I'm right with it as well.
"I see *huff* as the reason I started to cough blood, is because the potion effects run out, and I had to suffer the backlash."
"What do you mean? Potions don't do that from what I remember."
"System-made potions don't have this problem, but since we, the Piligeres don't have access to the System at all, we can't use that."
They don't have access to the System skills? That means they're worse than the witches, at least they become a grandmaster in the brewing skill, but they can't even craft a stick?
No wonder they kidnap so much, they literally can't survive without them.
That's a sad thought, but an idea I can use against them.
"But I've seen people and even Witches with potions that are not made with the help of the System, and they seem fine."
"Pfaa, the Stone Kingdome only has potion with small side effects, but that means they're not that powerful, as for the witches, they are the worst people to compare me to, they have a sixth sense that helps them at brewing new potions, I can only recreate what the others did and try by trial and error."
So they're punished by the System, no wonder they hate it so much, they can't have a life because of it.
Or more exactly they can't have life on easy mode, since my planet doesn't have a System either.
"Well you still haven't answered my question, how do you plan on defeating the System?"
"Sorry, but the aftereffects of this potion are still taking a toll on me, so I can't gather my thoughts. Why don't we meet another time?"
What? He found out so much about me and I bearly learned anything from this interaction, I can't leave empty-handed!
"How do I know you're not bluffing and just waiting for me to let my guard down and gather some soldiers to hunt me?"
"That's a very good point, which is why I'm going to give you a token of trust, here take this."
He reached his arm towards me, and I could see it held something made of gold, and then I recognized it.
It was a golden statue in the shape of a villager with wings and emerald eyes, I could feel it cold to the touch similar to soul lamps.
It was an Undying Totem.
"Ar-are you sure about this?"
"Good, looks like you know the value of it. As you can see that totem is named. If you think you've been betrayed you can show this to the General which would prove that I betrayed him, resulting in my execution."
That was a lot of power in my hands, and not talking about the second life I got...or the third, but who keeps counting?
"Solomons Key, is that your name?"
"Yes, and that's the first totem I made successfully so please keep it safe."
"What if I take this and run away? This would be enough to set me up for life no matter where I go."
"That's true, but I'm just putting myself at risk as you're putting yourself by staying here. Plus, a man that knows so much like you doesn't settle just for this, and even if I'm wrong, the Witches would be the ones to suffer."
That was enough of a statement to not push my luck, and I intended to keep it.
"Sure I accept this deal, only if you fulfill two requests of mine."
He narrowed his eyes In displeasure.
"If they reasonable."
"Don't worry, I think they're reasonable, I want to meet up with you tomorrow night, but I'll mention the place with a note that would appear on your desk an hour before the meeting. "
"A little inconvenient on my part, since I have to move my skedual for that, but how do you plan to leave me the note without raising suspicion? The only reason you're even allowed in here is because you came to work with me, otherwise, you'll be instantly recognized by anyone from this floor and get in trouble."
"Don't worry, I have my ways."
And those ways include my Enderwoman friend doing the job for me.
I only need to convince her to do that.
"OK...what's the second request then?"
"I want a golden bell."
"I'm sorry what?"
"I want a golden bell, the item that makes noise when you punch it."
"I know what a bell is! I'm just confused why would you need it?"
He truly was, but I intended on getting this item no matter what, I could even give up on my first request to get it.
"No reason, I just like the sound it makes, and it's hard to find one nowadays."
His eyes narrowed down even further as he pressed the same button that barricaded the door, but now the block was back in the floor.
He slowly walked towards the door and opened it enough for his head to fit in.
"Hey you! Yeah you, go fetch me a bell....Yeah, that kind of bell... I don't know just check the storage, there's always trash thrown there....yes this is an urgent matter now hurry up!"
I could only hear half of the conversation and it was amusing to say the least.
In the end, I managed to get the bell without saying what I needed it for, no matter how many times Solomon asked me.
Soon I was back in the garden working my 'job', until night was almost here.
That was my que to get out of here and meet with Froggy to discuss what we discovered.
I walked on the streets where the citizens kept their distance and the soldiers ignored my presence. I couldn't ask for something better as a spy, blend through the crowd and nobody knows about me.
In the end, I arrived at the poorer part of the outpost, where I took out an iron shovel and dug the dirt block beneath me, making me fall into a small room.
This was our base of operations, the surface was two blocks away and the room was so small that only two beds fitted in there, but it was enough for what we needed.
I sat down in my bed and rested until Froggy would get back.
An hour later I heard the dirt block getting broken at a slower rate than me, Froggy fell down the hole as well before quickly covering the entrance.
"Hey Trader, how did your day go?"
"Ehh nothing much, I just got caught by one of the most important people in the outpost."
"You did what?!"
Froggy yelled with a panicked voice.
I then proceeded to tell him what happened in the past day, except when we talked about my home dimension and Violet.
I'm already wired by the standards of this world I don't want my friends to think of me like that as well.
Actually I think they're already thinking that but I don't want to push the boundaries of Violet, she seems very violent when she's forced out of her invisible form.
"You talked with one of the most dangerous men in the whole place and managed to live! Not only that you demanded him to listen to you, do you know what the soldiers call that man? The man of death!"
"Why would anyone call him that?"
"Because if you're called to work for him there's a 50% chance you'll be dead! What do we do now? Do we try breaking out the other Witches from the prison, or should we leave and come back with reinforcements. No that wouldn't work as that man warned you that they would suffer, what do we do!?"
"Froggy, calm down, it's not like we don't have a plan!"
Froggy was walking around the small room nervously while I tried to calm him down.
"What kind of plan do you have in mind?"
"I'm going to use the bell for this plan."
He looked at me waiting to say that I was joking, but when he sawni wasn't, he got back to worrying.
"How do you plan on using a bell? That stupid thing only knows how to make noise, the opposite of what we're trying to do!"
"Calm down, it's not that simple, you see whenever I hit a bell I can see all living beings in a certain radius, and I plan on using that to find out the infrastructure of the prison."
He stopped once again and looked at me.
"Are you sure that would work?"
"Yeah, I can even see invisibility entities."
"So that's how and you saw the rougue witch when he turned himself invisible. I always wondered how you did that."
Oh yeah, that happened as well.
"So we're going now, since we don't have a lot of time to work with."
"True, I also think we should use the invisible potion for this."
"Sure, it's not like we need to hold them for long anyway."
Both of us drank the invisible potions and got out of our hidden base.
We walked along the streets until we arrived at the walls of the castle, and after checking out so nobody was there to hear us, we broke through.
We were already familiar with this place, so we went directly at the outside part of the prison where I broke the silence.
"I'm going to dig here, be on the lookout so nobody would accidentally find us."
"Sure, be careful."
I slowly started to dig, trying to keep as close as possible to the main entrance to quide me where I should dig, finally I arrived at the long hallway where the two guards stood.
I contained digging three blocks away from that place since I didn't know if they had super hearing as well, and 15 blocks later I dug towards the structure and I saw obsidian blocks instead of brickstone.
"Jackpot!"
I quickly went back and called Froggy as well, then covered the tunel we came so no sound would get out, then I contained mining until I arrived at the point where the obsidian tunnel became an obsidian room.
After I dug around some more, I put the golden bell down and took a deep breath before gently hitting it.
The noise suddenly traveled along the tunnel but what I intended was already happening, as now I could see the glowing outline of the people inside the prison.