Chapter 150

150 Make a rescue plan, please! part Risa was disappointed after the show in front of her got interrupted by Veronika, but she still had many things to worry about.

Her top priority was to rescue Ryu from the beasts that held him captive, but at the same time she knew it was an impossible task with such a small and weak group. Goblin villages were easy enough to find, at least for someone with her abilities, but raiding them was an entirely different matter.

Even an A rank adventurer could fall at the hands of goblins if he wasn’t careful enough, that is why the kindgom had been pondering on eliminating the goblin village for a while now but the risk was too high and the reward too low. Not only that, despite being considered ugly mindless beasts, they were peaceful if left alone and even kept more dangerous beasts at bay.

WhiIe Bob and Luke were taking a bath Risa took it upon herself to create a plan to invade the goblin village as safely as possible. But making plans wasn’t her strong suit at all and so far she had only figured out they needed more people.

When Bob came downstairs, still drying up his short hair, he found her muttering to herself with her hand on her chin making it clear she was trying to think of something.

“Mis Risa, you’re still here, don’t you need to get prepared for the trip?”

“Can’t you see I’m making a plan to raid the goblin village?”

“Luke and I got that covered, we just need to grab a few things...”

“Like what?”

.....

“Spare weapons, food, water, bigger backpacks, better gear, camping equipment, rope and...”

Risa felt embarrassed for not planning ahead while her former pupils knew exactly what they needed and she blushed lightly.

“Fine! I get it! you’re smarter than me, so what’s the plan?”

“First we’ll go rescue Sera”

Luke said as soon as he got there, he took a little longer than Bob getting ready because he always took great care on his appearance.

“This isn’t the time to think with your dick, we need to move quickly and rescue Ryu or else...”

“I’m thinking with my dick uh? then how do you expect to break into enemy territory by ourselves? Are you capable enough to fight endless beasts by yourself? The reason we need to rescue Sera has nothing to do with my crush on her, she’s a mage and as such she’s really good at fighting multiple enemies”

“That makes sense but Ryu might be in danger as we speak!”

“Tsk! That guy is near unkillable, I’ve seen him kill beasts ten times stronger than him without so much as a weapon”

“So he’s always been that strong?”

“Haha, no, but even a wolf was ten times stronger than him so...”

“What Luke is trying to say miss Risa is that he won’t die that easily and you already told us the goblins treated his wounds, but if we don’t do something about Sera she will soon get out of our reach”

“That’s true, but why didn’t you guys attempt to rescue her before? didn’t you think it was kind of obvious she was being falsely accused?”

“To be honest, It was precisely the part about her killing her companions what made us believe it was all true. She’s pretty and all but she’s a bit deranged”

Luke shrugged.

Risa couldn’t agree or disagree with Luke’s statement, he certainly knew Sera better than her, but it amazed her that Sera’s own friends thought bad of her like that.

Sera woke up un the guild’s dungeon, it was a cold and damp place and there wasn’t a single lightsource, which made her think she was being held underground. Her hands were cuffed behind her back but her legs were unhindered. Most people would freak out if they woke up in a place like that, but Sera was cold and composed. As soon as she was caught she knew she would be put in a place like this.

What she didn’t expect was the awful similarity with the dungeon beneath Bianca’s brothel.

Just remembering the state in which they found the people she had held captive for her own amusement struck fear into Sera’s heart and the only thing that kept her from screaming was her calm mind skill that allowed her to think rationally.

It wasn’t a coincidence that the place was dark and damp, capturing an adventurer was difficult, but imprisoning them was a challenge. In this world where a single person could defy an army, where the elements would bend to a mage’s will and even the strongest materials could be broken with brute force, they needed to take every security measure to make sure they wouldn’t be able to escape.

It was a good thing Sera didn’t panic and started to move around carelessly because the place was completely covered in traps of physical and magical nature. She didn’t know that, but she was smart enough to realize how dire her situation was.

As days went by she realized they weren’t going to feed her, it was most likely a strategy to weaken her and keep her from trying to break out. Being left alone in the dark meant she had all the time in the world to think about her situation and she did so by thinking the same way their captors did.

If they wanted to weaken her then it also meant that they were going to move her. She didn’t know this for sure, but instead of spending her energy trying to escape in vain, she kept her eyes closed the whole time and focused solely on her mind.

Thanks to that she gained a new skill called meditation which reduced her need for food and water and enhanced her mystical abilities. It was the best thing that could have happened to her because the last time she ate something was the day she arrived back at Celarent, but just like with anything in life, there was a downside to it.

She lost track of time.

When the guild’s guards came in to transport the F rank prisoner to the city of Baroco, they found her much more healthy than they thought she’d be. They were adventurers themselves, but they couldn’t figure out how did she manage to stay in good shape after all the time she had been imprisoned.

Sera kept quiet when they opened the door, she didn’t resist when they restrained her even more and she didn’t say a word the whole time she was being transported through the underground tunnels.

Because the guild kept Sera’s transport a secret, no one knew when or where was she being sent to, and thanks to the tunnels being underground, they were able to take her out of the city without no one noticing.

Only a few adventurers were able to enter the dungeon and unfortunately, Risa wasn’t one of them and the group didn’t know anything about it and they had to spend a week or so trying to gather information.

Luke’s thief skills proved to be really helpful in such matters, not only was he able to spy on people without being noticed but he also was able to pick locks and detect traps.

Unfortunately, by the time Luke realized Sera wasn’t in Celarent anymore it was already too late. Sera was escorted out of town by two adventurers and she was put into the city soldier’s custody.

Soldiers were nothing like adventurers. Instead of being ranked by the level of quests they could take, they were ranked by power and responsibility. It could be said they were weaker than adventurers, at least in raw power, but they had two advantages over them. The kingdom provided them with everything they needed, food, shelter, gear, transportation and also they were trained daily.

If a soldier and an adventurer with the exact same level of power were to be compared, the adventurer could take on a much stronger beast than the soldier could by himself, but on the other hand if they fought each other the adventurer wouldn’t stand a chance.

Kingdom issued gear was no laughing matter at all and it made a huge difference.

Sera was now being escorted by no less than five soldiers, every single one of them at least as strong as Risa.

“Hurry up, we need to catch up to them as soon as we can!”

“Miss Risa, I think it’d be better if you let Luke take the lead”

Bob said awkwardly. In the few days they spent preparing Luke was able to gather information and make a plan for rescuing her, meanwhile Risa spent her days leisurely resting on the couch on Bob’s house freeloading.

“I’m a higher rank than him and I could defeat the both of you with a hand tied on my back, why should I follow his lead?”

“It doesn’t matter who is the strongest, you need to think things through. Leading is not about sheer power, but about strategy”

Luke said this completely aware that he had been just like her before. He was reluctant to follow Ryu’s leadership for a long time, until he finally realized that Ryu was more suitable to be leading them.

Bob chuckled at Luke’s words, but then he faked a cough to cover it up.