After that, White and I waited the day to night, while the moonlight shines the path, we headed to Castle Libra
Castle Libra was located at the northwest of Town Allure, it was a one-hour trip to that region, there, trees are barely visible to the environment, some of them are decayed or left in tree stumps, this is likely occured by a huge fire in the rainforest,
"Roxy" White said while I barely clinging in her waist
"What is it?"
"Welcome to Castle Libra"
At the peak of the mountain, there was a huge castle that was stood atop of the valley, There, a infamous organization known as the Bronze Coin Guild resides in this palace, it is home to bandits and criminals that scattered at Andromeda, it is one of the three guilds that have a criminal residency , Castle Libra was among of them
There, White and I hid at the abandoned houses in the walls of Castle Libra, patrolling criminals and bandits are usually strolling there, protecting the place like a sacred sanctuary, We managed to bypass the guards and defenses, And soon enough, we hid one of the last houses in the gates of the castle
"Roxy, you do the job, I'll be there in a second, Whatever you do, don't get spotted"
After that, we seperated, leaving me alone in retrieving the guild carriage, On the other hand, White will manage the communication stone that she gave me earlier that day, she will gather some of our intel from the Castle Libra,
I stored the communication stone around my pockets, whenever White is contacting me, I can feel the vibration from my pockets, Enabling quick responses from her, I immediately sprinted towards the entrance of the castle
As the light of the moon rose it's peak, I saw that there are several armored guards waiting at the front gate, I can tell that they are mostly stone-ranked or bronze-ranked adventurers, from which I can annihilate these guys in an instant, According to the plan, my main goal is not to get caught,
Because of my all-black outfit, the guard didn't caught my eye, I wore the standard black hoodie and a viable mask for my operation, I sneaked undercover in the shadows
I could get to the walls of the castle, but as expected, heavily armoured guards were stationed at each gate, I need to find another way in, there were exactly eight watchtowers that was guarding the castle, I looked up the high walls that marked the border between two corners There, with the help of the moonlight sky, I can clearly see a visible gap between the walls of the castle
Then, my communication stone rang, it vibrated through my hips, like a massager that is both uttering and relaxing at the same time, I reached out my pockets and responded to her
"Roxy, I will head to the manor for a while, I needed to gather reinforcements" White said through the communication stone
"Bring a lot of them, some stone-ranked ones on the manor"
"Are you sure?"
"I'll be fine, I can handle this on my own"
After that, the communication stone stopped, the vocal silence paused from a moment, I knew that White will call some backup from the guild, in order to maintain my safety, considering that the Castle Libra was home to dangerous criminals in Andromeda
One of my guildmates wasnt suited to stealthy work, so I asked White to gather reinforcements from the guild, the guild was only built from offense, Everyone from the guild lived under the rule of their leader, Nobody could get away with herdling hundreds of money from personal gain without it's say-so
White left and gathered the backup that I would personally need, To be frank, she just wasn't any good at stealth, Her tactics begin and end with smashing through the main gate and slaughtering everything she saw, Plus, with her offense role, we would be spotted right away.
"Well" I muttered "Let's get past this wall at let's see what things look on the inside"
There, I kicked gently off the ground and sprang skillfully onto the face of the wall, landing at top of it without getting spotted by the guards
Where I glanced at the castle's outdoors, I saw buildings towered neately side by side, I saw several criminals were out there, enjoying the night whilst drinking bears and handling their weapons as battle-cry, Not only that, some of them were drunk, so I can easily get past from them,
"Huh, these guys seemed drunk, as well as the guards patrolling the area, I can already tell the easy part of this mission"
I snuck around more guard patrols, and eventually, a main door leading to the castle came into view, Emblazoned upon it's wall was the guild crest, it's symbol was no other than a skull, There, I carefully studied the place as I crept closer
"Just as I expected, the security is tight, of course they have strengthen their security detail, they stole a million dollar carriage" I muttered
As I surveyed through the shadows, I saw one of the guards were sober, they didn't drank the night before, I instantly knew that it is a risk to enter inside the facility, it's eyes were deeply focused on their surroundings, Luckily, they didn't saw me,
"Damn, risking it is enough"
Several patrolling guards who are sober could only break my focus, I needed to be sharp of I wanted to sneak inside without being seen, I slipped through the shadows to a blind spot in a security patrol, and without losing momentum, I leaped up the wall, all thanks from my agility stats,
I managed to get past on the watchtowers from the walls, and the gleaming light beyond those towers is casted entirely from light magic, the same magic that White possessed
As I bounded up, I noticed the pristine smoothness of the facility walls, Not a scratch to be seen, and no seems and signs that the cobblestone had been constructed or interconnected plates or bricks, it is brand new, there I grabbed the ledge between the bricks hoping to climb at
I landed at the rooftop without a sound
"Bingo, no guards up here"
I sneakily at a nearby ventilation shaft onto the castle, It was eerily similar to Earth, ventilation shaft are used to provide a coolant inside of the castle, expelling the fresh air and sending it inside the facility
The wind of the roof blew fiercely, probably due to the ventilation shafts expelling the heat produced by the wind itself, No wonder the hot summer reigned in Andromeda, up to the roof was windy, I shivered my body
I unsheathed my blood sword through my palm, I cut through the wore mesh that covered the ventilation shaft, making a large opening just large enough for a person to get through, I crawled my way through the ventilation shaft,
"Damn right, it fits perfectly" I muttered
Then, a sudden vibration was swimming through my pockets, I can already tell that this is no other than White, I picked up the stone and dialed it
"Roxy, I managed to get to the manor safely, more than nine adventurers will be joining today" White said
"Woah, that was quick"
Whilst I was crawling through the ventilation shaft, I hurried my stone through my lips, I told White everything that happened
"White, I entered the facility by guilding myself from the ventilation, can you tell me where the guild carriage is?" I said to White while communicating via stone
"It is located from the underground of the castle, where the jewelry are mostly stored, Luckily, few guards was guarding that area, you can handle them easily"
According to White, the guild carriage brought to Castle Libra were taken underground, In other words, i had to head to the basement myself, Whatever was going on down there…I want to knew what the guild was preparing into
"The farther we fall, the more mesh openings there are, there are four floors in this castle, correct?"
"Indeed, Roxy, It's a big castle, it's not odd that the ventilation system was a mess, Make sure you need to find more spacious to land, or you could be in all night trying to find the basement"
"Yeah… yeah"
I did as White said while talking through the communication stone, I found a large opening to continue our fall through the next floor, the fourth floor of Castle Libra
As I dropped to the ventilation shaft, a scent caught my nose and enveloped me, It smelled raw… Fleshy. I didn't like it at all
"It's the stench of rotten" I muttered
I landed on more mesh at the bottom of the ventilation shaft, where air from inside the facility, Below me stretched an enormous room, the floor from which I couldn't see, instead a pool of water spread out below, over were a few foot for people to pass over, The water was stained red, It brought to the mind of fresh blood, I cut through the mesh and advances to the fourth floor of the castle
"Well, this was creepy" I said to White via communication stone
"Well, what did you see?"
"It reminded me of one of my nightmares, floor stained in blood is not normal"
"Well, just don't get caught"
I gripped the communication stone through my chest, hearing White desperate questions towards me, There I headed toward what looked like an exit, a steel door with ridges from the side, It was no doorknob, In surprise, it was unlocked
I peeked out the past doorway to check if anybody was on the other side, but it was eerily quiet,
"Hey, were not finished," White said
"Okay, okay, you're always useful, all right?"
"You bet I am, I your trust founded leader,"
I crept forward into the passageway brilliantly illuminated by the lights in the ceiling, Not candlelight either, I can already tell that this is the source of light magic, It reminded me one of those fluorescent light bulbs back on earth, they directly copied it back on Andromeda, instead of using fluorescent, they applied it with light magic, which is eerily similar from my past life
Then the next passage turned a corner, I felt a presence of humans and stopped in place
"Be quiet, White, something was approaching" via communication stone
I peeked carefully around a corner and spied a group of men in guard uniforms pushing a huge metal box on a trolly down a hall, They shoved it through a corner and out of sight, Whatever lay in that box, it was so heavy that it took all four guards to move it, Once sure that nobody else was in sight, I slipped into a room they just left,
There I found more large boxes, so many that they nearly filled the room,
When no one was around, I drew close to study one, the lip around the lip was smeared in rusty, oily and sticky fluid
"This… no way" I whispered, my mind was filled with an image I couldn't ignore, I moved my hand toward the lid of the box
I pried the lid off anyway, I seen four men transporting one of these horrors as if they were performing a mundane household chore, I wanted to believe the boxes couldn't possibly contain what I have imagined…
"White..this.. how is this possible.."
With shaking hands, I set the lids back down on the box stained rim