The second floor was a huge dining hall. The light they saw from the outside was because half of the soldiers inside this fort were here enjoying drinks during their time off.
Luckily, no one was sitting near the stairs and the stairs had solid wood deck railings so Paytowin and Clearsky could duck and keep themselves out of sight while they made their way to the ground floor.
The ground floor was mostly empty. The few soldiers who stayed within the fort were mostly at the dining hall while the rest were on the walls outside, so they had no problem sneaking. Still, they searched carefully. All the while avoiding the front entrance because there was likely a guard there.
Since the white dots on all floors were jumbled together on his radar, Paytowin couldn't be sure if the rooms on the ground floor were empty or had a captive inside them. They carefully opened the doors they passed through, just to make sure Drograr was not held behind those doors. With the soldiers mostly upstairs and outside, their acts went unnoticed.
After searching for some time, they finally found stairs that went down to the basement of the keep. They took those stairs and came to a door by the end of the stairs. It was locked.
"Let me try lockpicking it," Clearsky sent a message to Paytowin.
"What is your lockpicking level?" Paytowin asked.
"Intermediate expert," Clearsky said proudly.
"Move aside, newbie," Paytowin replied. "Mine is Basic Master."
Clearsky gaped at the message. Was this guy telling the truth? Then his mouth turned even wider when he saw a special lockpick Paytowin took out from his inventory.
That lockpick was the Eternal Lockpick, a unique-grade tool. Jack had also seen this tool before when Wilted lent it to him. This lockpick had one hundred lockpick counts. Each lockpick count needed one hour to replenish after usage. This tool also increased his lockpicking success chance by 20%.
Paytowin received this eternal lockpick from Ghost Callan as a prize for completing a series of tasks.
Aside from that, Callan always granted him a bronze treasure chest for every completed task or a silver one if the task was hard. Paytowin practiced his lockpicking skill by unlocking these treasure chests. This was how he was able to steadily increase his lockpicking skill to an even higher level than Jack.
With the eternal lockpick and Basic Master lockpicking skill, Paytowin unlocked the door before exhausting the one hundred lockpick counts.
After coming through the door, they found themselves in a dungeon with several jail cells. The lighting was dim, they couldn't see clearly, but they saw some shadows behind those cells. They looked around for a warden, ready for a confrontation. After looking around, they confirmed no one was outside the jail cells. There was no warden.
Clearsky cast illumination to help them see clearly in this dim lighting. Clearsky was a level 69 reaver. She bought the illumination spell from the magic association shop as Jack did. With the increased radiance, Paytowin and Clearsky moved forward to take a better look at the prisoners inside the jail cells.
*
Grace and David took the stairs directly to the top. The keep was rather huge. It would take them lots of time if they had to search every floor. It was better to start searching from a place where they suspected the most to have a captive.
Just as they were coming up to the topmost floor, Grace gave David the sign to stop. They didn't have God-eye monocle, but Grace had mana sense. She sensed someone not far away from the stairs. That person was moving. The person soon moved away from the scope of Grace's mana sense. She couldn't sense anything anymore.
"Someone is up there. I don't know how many. I only sensed one person," she messaged David.
The top part of the keep became smaller into a tower, so the topmost floor wasn't as big as the floors below. If they went up, that person would surely see them.
David was currently closing his eyes. Grace received a message from him, "There is only one person."
"How do you know?" Grace asked.
"I have good hearing. I hear his footsteps," David answered.
"He?" Grace asked.
"The footsteps were faint but they were heavy. The dwarf is most likely a male."
"Female dwarf can be heavy as well."
"I guess you are right. That's why I said most likely."
"Are you sure there is only one?" Grace asked.
"Unless there are others who are staying still," David answered. "Oh, he stops moving now. He probably sits down or does something quiet."
"What should we do?"
"I will take a peek."
"Isn't that risky?"
"Unless I am awfully unlucky and he happens to be looking in my direction, it should be okay," David said. "Or do you want to just head back down and search the floors below?"
Grace thought for a bit. The fact that someone was staying at the top here had to mean something. It was not for lookout. There were tall towers on the fort's outer wall for lookouts. This one here was stationed for something else.
"Okay, let's take a peek," Grace said to David.
David crept silently to the end of the stairs. He moved his head very slowly out of the stair's railing. His head stayed out for only a second before returning to cover.
"The top floor up there is an open hall with one separate room. One male dwarf is sitting beside the door to that room. The dwarf is a level 80 rare elite," David reported his finding.
"Level 80 rare elite…?" Grace was dismayed. There was still such a strong soldier in this fort. She was hoping that all the strong ones had left with Boron.
She was level 75. She was able to fight against a few same-level rare elites. This one was five levels higher than her. Even if she could fight him with David's help, it would take some time. The other soldiers would surely be alerted by then.
"That dwarf seemed to be guarding the door, which meant there might be something or someone in the room," David said.
Grace nodded. She had the same thought. At that time, she received Paytowin's message.
"Grace, we are in the basement. There are jails down here with some prisoners, but no Dograr."
Hearing that, Grace said to David, "Let's take the chance on the door upstairs."
This 𝓬ontent is taken from f(r)eeweb(n)ovel.𝒄𝒐𝙢