Volume 3, Chapter 20 – Going Deeper

“Gah!”

As the barrier stone struck him in the chest, the man holding a crossbow and firing downwards was sent flying.

That leaves three.

Based on the feedback from [Wind of Exploration], Fia weighed the barrier stone in her hand. The bandit fortress appeared to be on the ground, but its main body was actually located inside the mountain peak. This was the conclusion Fia had reached after diving into the stronghold.

As for where Fia’s barrier stones had come from, the answer was, of course, that she had bought them at the Mage Association in the evening. Barrier stones were usually used for camping. The foul odor they emitted could repel many monsters, and if enough were deployed, they could serve as a ward. Due to their low price, they were an essential item for the wilderness.

It was worth mentioning that because the barrier stones were incredibly smelly, Fia was not actually holding them, but using her Spatial Hand to do so.

“M-monster!”

Seeing his companions fall one by one, the overweight bandit blocking the underground entrance had a look of terror on his face, his legs retreating uncontrollably. The person beside him screamed hysterically.

“W-who are you! We paid the patrol team! You can’t kill us!”

So they’re in collusion with the officials.

But that had nothing to do with her. She was here only to clean up the mess, to prevent the bandits from venting their anger on the villagers.

“Don’t worry, I won’t kill you.”

Hearing this assurance from the person under the mask, the two bandits breathed a sigh of relief. However, Fia’s next sentence made their expressions turn grim.

“I will tie you up and send you to Baron Khesa to be miners for the rest of your lives.”

“Bastard, go to hell!”

The overweight man threw a black crystal at Fia, but she simply caught it with her Spatial Hand. Then, with a shockwave invisible to the naked eye, the two bandits fell to the ground. As for the bandit who had been playing dead on the ground, intending to escape after Fia went underground, she used her Spatial Hand to swiftly tie him to a pillar with a rope.

She had left him alive to get information about the situation below. Fia could, of course, blow up the entire mountain, but if there were hostages inside, she would have done a bad thing.

Fia held a torch close to the bandit’s buttocks and simply said, “If you don’t open your eyes, I’ll make sure you can never have children.” After this threat, the short bandit immediately opened his eyes in a panic, his face full of sycophantic flattery.

“P-please ask! I will tell you everything I know!”

“How many people are in the stronghold?”

“Excluding the group that went out and hasn’t returned, there are still fifty or sixty people in the stronghold!”

Fifty or sixty people? There are too many of them. Fia complained inwardly. With fifty or sixty people defending the fortress, it would be impossible to take it without sending several hundred troops.

“Are they all underground? Is there anyone else down there besides your people?”

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Fia moved the torch a little closer. The warmth of the flame made the smile on the man’s face look uglier than if he were crying.

“Yes! They’re all underground! Besides our people, a few beautiful women whose names I don’t know also arrived this afternoon. The boss is very respectful to them. They must be magic casters! Right, they also… also brought a white-haired girl with terrifying eyes, saying they were going to use her to make a magic potion!”

“A white-haired girl with terrifying eyes?”

Fia instantly thought of Milu, but Milu was at the inn with Anastasia; it was impossible for her to be here. She frowned.

“Where are they? Are there other hostages down there?”

“At the very bottom… there are also some wo… women who haven’t been sold yet…”

When he said “women,” the short man’s gaze shifted to the side, and his voice became softer. It was clear that the women were not treated well. Fia could roughly guess their fate—long-term abuse, reduced to the bandits’ playthings.

I should just kill these people after all.

Sensing the surrounding temperature drop and the killing intent from Fia, the man’s face contorted, and he begged for mercy with chattering teeth.

“I’ve told you everything! Only the officers can touch those women! I-I’ve never touched them!”

“Hmph, you’re lucky.”

“Ugh—”

With a cold snort, Fia knocked the man out with her Spatial Hand and then headed straight for the underground entrance.

The underground space excavated by the bandits was not as complex as the one beneath the temple in Aurora City, but the passage was very narrow, giving Fia a very oppressive feeling. The glowing stones on the walls that served as a light source were extremely dim, reducing Fia’s visibility to only three or four meters. If it were someone with claustrophobia, their scalp would be tingling so much by now that they would have turned and fled.

After descending for about ten meters, Fia cast [Light]. A dazzling brilliance instantly filled the cramped passage. However, what startled her was that the ceiling about a meter away from her suddenly twisted violently, and then, a slime-like mass fell from it.

“Which blind fool is this! Put out the light, you’re blinding me!”

A slime can talk!

Fia was quite shocked.

However, when Fia got a clear look at the slime’s appearance, her earlier shock turned to disgust.

The talking liquid was not a real slime, but a creature with the shape of a slime but with a human face, a sight horrifying enough to star in a horror movie. If not for Fia’s high tolerance for scary images, an ordinary person would have already screamed and retreated.

“You’re not one of us!”

The human-faced slime quickly realized Fia’s identity.

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A few barrier stones were its welcome.

The thumb-sized, foul-smelling stones whizzed and sank into the human-faced slime’s body. Although they had enough force to send an adult man flying, when they hit the slime’s body, they only splashed up a bit of slime.

“Gag, bleargh!! What did you feed me… bleargh!”

So it’s highly resistant to physical damage. Watching the slime tremble violently and vomit white foam, Fia had no choice but to follow up with a [Mental Shock]. The mental attack instantly made the slime let out a scream of “Ah!” and dissolved into a pool of colorless liquid.

What a strange creature. She wondered if turning it over to the officials would count as a kill—judging by the fact that it couldn’t hold a pickaxe, probably not.

A worthless thing.

After the encounter with the human-faced slime, Fia’s subsequent actions became more cautious. No one wanted to be attacked by a slime falling from above. Even if it couldn’t harm her, it would be troublesome if her clothes were dissolved.

Alternating between [Wind of Exploration] and [Mana Vision], Fia eliminated several human-faced slimes with [Mental Shock] along the way and dealt with a few bandits blocking the path with her Spatial Hand before she stopped.

On her right was a wooden door locked from the outside.

The door was camouflaged to look exactly like the wall; one wouldn’t notice it without looking closely. As for what was behind it, [Wind of Exploration] reported that there were a dozen humans locked inside. They should be the female hostages the short bandit had mentioned.

The guards and traps on the way have been dealt with. I can release the hostages and have them go find Renee.

With this thought, Fia placed her right hand on the lock and squeezed.

With a harsh creak, the iron lock broke into several pieces. Fia easily pushed the door open and entered.

“Eek! They’re here again!”

“L-let me go! I’ll have my father give you money!”

The smell of spoiled food, sweat from days without bathing, and excrement, mixed with the damp, musty smell of the darkness, rushed to greet her, making Fia frown.

Nearly twenty women were lying or sitting in this thirty-to-forty-square-meter room. Everyone was haggard and thin, and some of their clothes were tattered, clearly not having been changed for a long time. Seeing someone open the door, some of the women lowered their heads and curled up, while others, who seemed to have been recently locked up, hurriedly came over to beg for mercy.

“Go to hell!”

Just as Fia was about to say something, a woman’s shout suddenly came from behind the door.

This level of sneak attack was, of course, no trouble for Fia. Considering that the other party might have mistaken her for the bandits who usually assaulted them, Fia simply raised her hand to catch the iron chain swung at her, then gently pulled forward. The woman who had attacked her was thrown forward, and Fia caught her just as she was about to fall.

She felt a full, soft touch in her hands, but since they were both women, it didn’t count as sexual harassment.

“You, bastard—”

Because her chest had been touched, the full-figured woman, who was facing down, immediately began to struggle. Finding it troublesome, Fia pushed her away and warned her coldly.

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“Calm down. I’m getting you out of here.”

Hearing Fia’s words, the women in the room, who had been downcast a moment ago, all looked up at the same time. Their haggard faces were filled with disbelief and intense hope, especially after noticing that Fia’s formal dress indicated she was a woman. All of them stood up.

The woman who had attacked Fia stiffened for a moment. It was only now that Fia realized that this woman was slightly different from the others in the room. Although her chest and thighs were exposed, there were obvious signs of metal armor in other places, and the muscles on her shoulders also indicated that she was a warrior.

The female warrior asked, embarrassed.

“Uh, are you here to save us?”

“I’ve dealt with the bandits outside. You should get out quickly. Someone will be at the entrance to meet you.”

“Thank you for your help, but we are locked in chains and have no key. We can’t leave.”

As she spoke, the female warrior held out her hands to show Fia the iron chain she had just used to attack. And besides the handcuffs, these women also had shackles on their feet. Some were even chained to iron rings on the wall.

“That’s easy.”

Fia walked forward and, under the shocked gazes of the women, tore the iron chains apart one by one.

“Such a small girl is actually a berserker…”

“Get out quickly. I still have to go down and find the others.”

“Alright! We will definitely reward you when we get out!”

There’s no need for a reward, just get out of here quickly.

Fia waved her hands repeatedly. However, the women here had been locked up for too long, and some were in a state of starvation, too weak to walk. Just as Fia was about to carry them out herself, the female warrior directed the other women who still had some strength to support their companions, while she herself carried two women on her back and walked out of the room, not causing Fia any trouble.

It was worth mentioning that these women harbored an extremely strong hatred for the bandits. When they saw the two bandits Fia had knocked out at the door, almost all the women who still had strength chose to vent their anger on them, such as taking a bandit’s sword and stabbing it into their mouths and lower bodies, or picking up stones to smash their heads. Although each person only did it once or twice, there were too many of them, and the bandits soon stopped breathing, their bodies as limp as mud.

From the women’s words, it could be heard that these two bandits had committed many evil deeds and were the ones who had abused them the most. Fia did not stop them. Evil begets evil. It was better for such bandits to die sooner rather than later. They deserved it.

Amid the tearful thanks of the women, Fia continued to descend.

One bandit after another.

In general, the further down she went, the stronger the bandits became, but only from the First to the Second Rank. Along the way, Fia also found two magic casters who could use incantations, but unfortunately, their casting speed was too slow, not even comparable to Liti’s. Fia solved them by throwing barrier stones into their mouths from a distance.

Although she had smashed several of their teeth, since they were magic casters, they should be able to heal themselves with healing magic.

The advance was like crushing dry weeds. Fia soon reached the end of the passage.

The door in front of her was different from the leather-wrapped wooden doors she had seen along the way. This one was made entirely of metal, and Fia even saw the incompletely smelted patterns of mithril on it. Mithril was a magical metal, its composition different from any metal Fia knew.

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It had excellent strength and mana conductivity, and since it was difficult to mine, a tael ¹ a weight used in China and East Asia, of varying amount but fixed in China at 50 grams (1 3/4 oz.). of 70% pure mithril could be sold for a high price of several gold coins. An ordinary iron weapon mixed with mithril would have the hardness to not chip even when clashing with other weapons.

Using mithril on a door, what a luxury.

Complaining inwardly, Fia approached the door step by step. Along the way, she had adopted a strategy of making as little noise as possible, so the people inside had not noticed her approach—a normal attack was usually accompanied by the clash of weapons and people’s shouts, and even explosions from magic. For example, the fat bandit at the entrance who had thrown a black crystal at her—if the crystal had been triggered, it would have exploded, creating a huge noise. But unfortunately, because of [Mental Shock], the bandits had often fallen before they could make a sound.

“Lady Witch, do you mean that if we use this ominous thing as an alchemy ingredient, we can get a potion of immortality?”

A conversation came from the other side of the door.

“She is immortal. If we use her blood as an alchemy ingredient, we can obtain a magic potion that can make one young again.”

“Does a Lady Witch also need a potion of youth…”

“Hmph, we witches have shorter lifespans than ordinary people because of the witch’s ritual. A high-grade magic potion that can make one young again is something that money can’t buy, not to mention that most witches have no money. If I succeed, my status in the Witch Hall will surely rise to the same level as Lianne’s. Then I can use the potion to command the other witches and take control of the Witch Hall.”

“But this ominous thing is so small. How much blood can we squeeze out?”

“I’ve said it before, she is immortal. Every time she dies, she will reappear in Byrne City. I’m afraid that even if we grind her flesh and blood into mud, she will still be perfectly fine the next day.”

“Isn’t that a bit too cruel? Although she looks terrifying, she’s just a child…”

“Have you done a few cruel things? Hurry up, it’s almost time. You’ll get your share when it’s done.”

“Alright.”

There were five people in the room: two Third Rank, two Fourth Rank, and the remaining one was First Rank. At this moment, a Third Rank man was walking towards the tied-up First Rank person.

[Wind of Exploration] reported that the First Rank person had the body shape of a child.

Taking a small step back, a golden glow symbolizing [Strength Boost] flickered on Fia’s body. Then, she poured all her strength into her right leg and kicked the iron door hard.

The door instantly deformed, and then the entire iron door flew off its frame like a runaway horse, straight into the room.

“Gah!”

The person standing behind the door was the first to be knocked down. Fia did not stop, heading straight for the girl opposite the door.

However, before Fia could reach the girl, the face that came into view made Fia’s eyes widen.

Terrifying, bewitching vertical pupils, dirty white hair, and simple clothes covered in mud. Although the white hair was not long, but short, just reaching her earlobes, the other features all pointed to a girl Fia knew.

“Milu?!”