The castle had been built on top of the ancient ruins of a fortress from ancient times, from the same era of the crypt or the passage through which he had gotten there. And in the foundations of that old fortress there were still secrets unknown to most. Among them, a network of tunnels, many of them demolished, but not all. And which was accessed with the same key.
Eldi walked through the tunnels trying to make as little noise as possible, following the path he had traveled in the game. Nothing had changed there, so it was still marked on the map. He sometimes climbed the rubble that had blocked many other routes, and which was silent witness to the events of a distant past.
The door before him had led to a pantry in the game, but he couldn't know where it would lead now. He opened it carefully, and once again the door gave way without a sound, closing behind him as if it had never been there, as if it were only stone.
It wasn't a pantry. Several magical platforms of leather, alchemy, blacksmithing… were occupying the room. It was obvious that it wasn't their original location, and that they had been moved there, which were making them lose their power little by little. In fact, a couple of them no longer worked, since they had used up the mana that, under normal circumstances, they would absorb back from the environment.
Eldi had heard in the tavern that some magical tools had been moved to the castle, but he hadn't been able to imagine such nonsense. Some of them wouldn't last more than a week and others only a few months, which meant that whoever was gathering them there didn't know what he was doing.
He moved slowly and found open jail bars that didn't make much sense there. The corridor to the right led to some stairs, while to the left was a long illuminated passage. He pressed himself against the wall while a pair of apathetic soldiers roamed the corridor, and soon he lost sight of them on the side.
Eldi waited a while until they appeared again on the other side, which meant that there was another path. When they disappeared again, he hurried to investigate what they were watching over.
There, sleeping in better than cells but worse than normal bedrooms, he found dozens of people, all of them with a greater or lesser level in some of the magical crafts. That finally allowed him to put two and two together, and to relate it to the room he had reached before. As some people had explained, the count had gathered artisans and kept them as slaves, and where he had entered was their workroom.
He wanted to free them, to get them out of there through the tunnels, but he had nowhere to take them later. And if they returned to their places of origin, they would be at risk of being captured again. He wasn't even sure if getting them out of the county would be enough, or if they had relatives on whom retaliation could fall. So, with a heavy heart, he decided to retrace his steps and climb the stairs, hoping to help them later.
At the end of these, there were a couple of soldiers watching over. The security wasn't that of a prison, because it lacked jail bars or magic security systems, but enough to monitor the artisans.
Eldi didn't want to attack them, because he may kill them, and that was something he wanted to avoid at all costs. Besides that, it would be very difficult to do it in silence, to avoid raising the alarm. He needed to get them out of there, and he could only think of one idea.
"What happened? Are you okay?" exclaimed one of the soldiers after hearing the screams of those who were making the round.
They went down to see what was happening, and they found both soldiers on the ground, sore from the fall. They had slipped because of the ice that Eldi had created there. And while the soldiers were laughing at their companions, who looked at them from the ground with a sour face, a shadow wrapped in a black cape came out from behind a wall, and climbed the stairs.
The corridor he reached was brighter than the area he had left behind, which made his black cape much less effective. He hid behind a column, in time to avoid another pair of soldiers who had approached to check what was happening. And as soon as they left, he went to where he remembered that the kitchen was.
It was night, and there were only a few soldiers watching, and some other servants doing their work, nothing compared to the activity of the day. The kitchen was empty, and the fires were extinguished so as not to consume the wood and magic they would need. In the game, he had sneaked through a kind of forklift that was used to raise and lower the food, and he intended to do the same now.
It was still in the same place and its appearance was similar, so he climbed as he could to it, despite the discomfort. Eldi injected some mana, as he remembered what he had done in the game, but it barely moved. So he decided to inject a larger amount.
The platform shot up, going up several floors before crashing with rumble, and then going back down to its initial position. Eldi, in pain from the impact, had managed to stay hanging on the top, with his feet and hands pressing each of the walls to avoid falling.
Some servants approached to see what had caused the rumble, but they didn't look up, so they didn't see who was hanging over their heads. Not knowing what to think, they let it be. They preferred not to know anything about what had happened, since they didn't want to risk receiving a punishment from the counts for something that was none of their business.
The man sighed in relief as he descended carefully, and Regenerate was healing the bumps and pain. He waited a while before leaving, listening, trying to make sure that there was no one around. Then, he opened the hatch and set foot on the floor where the count and his family were supposed to be.