Chapter 124 - Gathering Intel

Rynold ordered Axiom to open the door from the outside.

As far as Axiom's scanners go, there wasn't anybody around. No guards were freely roaming the halls or checking up on the captives. Essentially, Rynold was free to go as he pleased.

Unfortunately, now was not the time to roam around and explore.

Closing the door behind him, Rynold was aware of his surroundings. With Axiom within his sphere of influence, he could easily detect whoever would come near him. The Accord Sphere was essentially another pair of eyes and ears.

Having fully remembered the plans of the dungeons, Rynold easily found his way into an open hallway that connected the dungeons with the main building.

Rynold found it lucky that there wasn't anybody around. It had seemed that the entire castle was deserted. He could easily move without fear of getting caught. But, of course, Rynold was still careful.

He weaved through rooms, corridors, and hallways with complete silence. Rynold wasn't as stealthy as Oliver, but he was getting pretty damn good at it.

Turning the corner, Rynold finally spotted the first two guards he had seen on patrol. Well, to be more accurate, the first two guards he had seen were completely and utterly drunk.

Instead of being on his toes, Rynold couldn't help but feel sorry for the people living inside the castle. He was sure that not all the guards were like this. But, being on the job completely drunk was too much of a depressing sight.

Shaking his head in deep disappointment, Rynold decided to sit and wait for a little while. He could easily kill the two of them. In fact, the guards may be so drunk that he could slip by unnoticed. So long as they didn't turn the corner that Rynold was currently in, he didn't have to do anything.

Rynold crouched at the corner that led to the corridor. The surroundings were dark. The only source of light was from a light bulb in the middle of the dim corridor.

"Whaaaat are you talking about?" Rynold heard one of the guards drunkenly talk, "the Prince is a nice guy! I even saw him watering the plants once."

The other guard stopped where the light was and burped. "Go hooome, man. You're drunk!" the other guard responded in a very slurred voice, "the Prince doesn't care about ussss. Have you even seen how he acts when we're around...?"

'This is an unexpected conversation,' Rynold thought as he listened in on the two guards.

"Nooooo! Yoooou'reeee druuunk...," the first guard answered back before vomiting in the middle of the room. "The Prince is such a good guy...!"

'Both of these guys are clearly drunk. Leo's adequate at best,' Rynold shared his opinions from behind the corner.

"You're mistaking him for Wilfred...!" the other guard drunkenly disagreed, "Wilfred is the one who acts like a Priiiince. He's better than Prince Leo ever wassss..."

'Right. Well, this is getting me nowhere,' Rynold audibly sighed to the point that both guards have heard it. However, the two guards were too drunk to properly respond.

Seeing as how nothing was directly happening at this point, Rynold moved and approached the two guards. Instead of immediately drawing their weapons, their drunkenness had gotten in the way of how they would respond. So, seizing the opportunity, Rynold immediately knocked them out with relative ease.

From there, Rynold left the two guards behind, one of them being covered in their own vomit. It wasn't a pretty sight, but Rynold had neither time nor sympathy to clean them up.

Rynold sneakily moved from one corridor to another, having no problems or obstacles in his way. There were the occasional patrolling guards, to which Rynold knocked them out or slipped past them unnoticed.

He was moving with purpose because he had a goal in mind. Rynold knew where he was going and what he was going to do. It was as simple as finding Wilfred and eavesdrop on their goals. How easily would Rynold find him is a question that seemed to have no answer.

Until...

Hearing the footsteps and voices getting closer, Rynold tried to find the nearest object he could hide himself in. He was currently in the middle of an open room, the one that Wilfred had stayed in for the past few nights. Rynold got inside the room by jumping from the outside balcony.

Rynold wanted to snoop around while Wilfred wasn't around. Getting caught right here could put a lot of things at risk. Or, perhaps, it was an opportunity to kill the kid.

He didn't have the time to discuss his possible options right now. Rynold had to hide.

'Crap,' Rynold decided to jump off the balcony that he had used to get in the room in the first place. From there, he pulled something out of his inventory. Something that he didn't expect he would use until shit hits the fan.

Throwing out what looked like a long piece of metal, Rynold activated the device. The machine whirred to life and, surprisingly, produced a familiar sound.

===

[Miniaturized Floating Platform]

Magic Tool

A smaller version of the Floating Platform developed by an aspiring smith. It had the same components as the larger one, but its smaller size makes it much more mobile.

Cost: 3 Mana per minute

===

Rynold had finished making this just before he had left the Tree of In-Between. It was one of the most barebones things that he could have made. Using the same components as the ones he used in the Tree, Rynold didn't even need to test the thing. He just calculated the proportionate size of the materials for the smaller frame.

Controlling the small Miniaturized Floating Platform, Rynold managed to move to the side of the building. In the hopes of not getting caught, Rynold had to stay completely still.

"Rally the troops," Wilfred said as he entered the room, "We strike at dawn."

As the guards left after Wilfred's orders, Rynold stuck as close as he could to the room in the hopes that he won't miss out on any important details.

"The plan tomorrow is to start the attack from underneath the castle. Opening all the cages at once would let all the monsters out without a hitch and cause a fracas," Wilfred started a monologue, to which Rynold thought was odd.

"From there, we use the confusion to our advantage and have our troops start the siege on the town," Wilfred continued without hesitation. "We attack the people while the guards are preoccupied with the monsters rampaging."

'Manslaughter?' Rynold thought as he focused on what Wilfred was saying. 'What the hell is the point of that?'

"And," Wilfred's voice got louder as he walked to the balcony, "We'll start the culling of the weak. But..." Wilfred suddenly stopped speaking.

Rynold could sense the Mana in the air started to dense and condensate at one point. Wilfred was doing something, something that Rynold could sense from underneath the concrete balcony.

"I can't have you interfering, can I?"

Wilfred slammed his foot on the balcony floor, causing it to rupture open and crash down. Rynold had no choice but to move the Miniature Floating Platform to the side to avoid the crumbling debris.

Wilfred stood on one of the chunks that had separated from his attack. For some reason, the entirety of the chunk that he was standing on floated mid-air without any structural support.

'Wind magic? No, earth magic?' Rynold thought as he stared directly at Wilfred.

The two matched gazes, one on a machine that he had made while one stood on a chunk of rock. Rynold and Wilfred stared each other down, gauging each other's strength.

"Not bad for someone as insignificant as you," Wilfred said, intimidatingly. "Did you honestly think I won't find out? I sensed your Mana even before I walked into the room."

"Insulting me like that is getting old," Rynold responded as he closed his fist. "You do realize that I don't care what some D-tier Mana User has to say, right?"

"And I suspect you know what a real Mana User looks like?" Wilfred responded with a rather angry tone, "I doubt someone from the backwaters would actually know what real magic looks like."

"Enough of this bullshit," Rynold pulled the two Accord Spheres out from his inventory, "Better tell me what the hell you're after while you still can."

"Oh, scary," Wilfred sarcastically answered, "I don't have to say anything to the likes of you. You're nothing compared to me!"

"Shut up," Rynold spoke in the calmest tone possible and ordered Maxim to shoot small light beams towards Wilfred.

The guy had no problems using smaller stone chunks to block the shots. Wilfred was, obviously, unamused.

"You dare?!" Wilfred's arrogant face turned full-blown anger by Rynold's below-average attack.

"Really?" Rynold sly smile, "That's all it took to piss you off? I thought a guy like me isn't worth your time?"

"Enough of this!" Wilfred shot out rock spears toward Rynold with the wave of his hand.