The Agitated night passed and early in the morning the bandits came towards the cells.
-Wake up you damn weaklings because a friend of yours made us lose big time no food shall be served today let that teach you a lesson.
Now get up and start mining.
Everybody woke up fast and moved because they knew that if given the smallest chance the guards would make their life a hell beating them up until half death.
John woke up as well his body was still hurting pretty badly he didn't plan to approach his siblings yet and wanted to observe first. John moved with the crowd and started mining in a corner with less guards. As the time passed he approached one miner.
-Hey friend do you know where the keys to these chains are?
With a scared look the miner responded.
-Shush, don't speak so loud if the guards hear you they will tie you up and throw you to the wild beast. I suggest you abandon your idea at least three guys tried already and all of them were killed
-Just tell me where the key is please. Said John looking firm in the prisoners eyes
-Ok it's on you, you see that tunnel in left if you go that way a cabin can be seen there were the chief of the guards is staying. In his office in one of his drawers the keys can be found, that's what an old prisoner said before being brutally beaten and then killed in front of us.
-Do you know the schedule of the chief?
-Hahahaha, you are insane little one. Listen here the chief never leaves his cabin beside the time a red gem appears here, or some kind of incident.
-Shit.
It seems that it will be quite tricky to get out of here.
Back at the town the bandits were found dead in the morning and the guards assigned to their cell found unconscious. Conrad was still imprisoned and was staying calm in his cell.
-DAMN IT, how could they escape time and time again. It was probably their leader they for sure hide something great and wanted to shut their mouth. Those guys weren't for sure the type to commit suicide with a little bit of torture I'm sure we could find everything.
Robert was massaging his forehead.
-Ah well, let the bitches from the council solve it, I'm going to drink.
A few days passed after that John was still searching for his opportunity on these days since he came here only once they found a red gem and the chief appeared instantly to collect it and disappeared. He was for sure a master rank expert so how could the knights report that the strongest force here was only an advanced expert rank. If the chief here was a master rank for sure the leader was even stronger. Something was really wrong.
As John could tell he can't use the moment the red gem appears because the chief was too fast. So he thought of creating an incident he was trying to collapse a part of the tunnel. The only bad part was that people were everywhere so he couldn't find a moment to be sure that nobody is hurt. If he collapsed the tunnel on his siblings he wouldn't forgive himself. So John was caught in quite the tricky situation for the last days. The work here was quite tiring and the meals barely nutritive so he needed to find fast a solution otherwise he is sure that his siblings will collapse sooner or later.
New people were still brought every day it seems that the town knights were not doing a good job even now.
Back at the town Robert freed Conrad.
-I hope you won't put me in this kind of situation again.
-Yes, sir.
The guards were looking with animosity at Robert this guy even thought people were still disappearing he knows only how to drink he never helped even once. Without caring about people's stares he headed again to his inn but this time even the owner refused to serve him, so Robert found himself a patch of grass and slept. Everybody was watching him stunned how did this guy reach the master rank if you could achieve it by drinking and sleeping wouldn't everybody in the world be a strong fighter.
Conrad restarted his work and continued the patrols at night.
A new passed and back at the mines John heard an interesting conversation between the guards,
-We still need a couple of those red stones for that lord to appear it is expected that in the fallowing week to complete everything required.
"A lord? Hmm they want to make a portal? Is that stone really that precious ? only high grade mana stones and above can be used to make portals. So even the actual leader is just a subordinate here how strong can be that lord? For sure our town won't survive if that terrifying existence appear. I need to move fast and take everybody with me a bloodbath is coming for sure." John was really contemplating if it should really collapse a tunnel even thought some people may be hurt as long as it's not his siblings the ones hurt everything is fine. "No, that's really wrong thinking everybody has the right to be happy I shouldn't be egoist.".
John was really caught in a big dilemma If he didn't act fast that lord would appear trough a portal and probably kill everybody in the city as the Blood Skull Bandits were known to almost never let survivors, but if he acted rashly he would take the lives of a lot innocent people a price he wasn't that eager to pay. As he was deeply in thoughts'
Boom!!
A loud collapse could be heard it seems that at the back of the mines a new tunnel was revealed then screaming.
-Spiderssss!!! , giant spiders are attacking.
Guarddsss!! take your weapons. The bandits mobilized fast as the miners were running for their life.
The spiders were simply horrifying with the size of a normal human and in the back even bigger ones could be seen.
Shiing. A mana beam could be seen slashing cleanly at least twelve spiders the chief of guards made his entrance. That's truly the horror of an master rank with a casual hit a dozen monster disappeared.
"That's my chance, he would take at least an hour to clean all the spiders. But I need to escape this chains." Then an idea came to his mind "A fuck it, it's do or die anyway now I hope my body will listen to me" John sprinted towards the direction of spider and as he threw a rock at his head he spider had his full attention on him. "Good first step complete, now let's put this big guy to work"
As the spider fixated on him his beastly aura was flowing like rivers on John. "Damn this thing is even more dangerous than I thought, I'm getting numb only from his stare." The spider jumped toward John ready to cleave him in half and with all his power and determination John managed to move just in time for the spider to hit his chain and break it."HUFF, HUFF I almost died damn it,
first step complete."