Chapter 197

Although Jack didn't recognize the woman by her appearance, when she was walking past, he did recognize her smell. She was the same person who was at the tavern with Berg. The person who had made a bet with Gary over the sword. "I wonder what they are doing here?" Although Jack wasn't the type to sneak about, his curiosity got the better of him. He tried his best to move forward without being scene and eventually found a good place for cover. The only problem was there was a guard at the top keeping watch. Jack waited until the guard was looking in the other direction then bolted across as fast as he could. Jack was now directly under the guard while leaning up against the wall of the outpost, located just around the corner from the cloaked people they had met in the tavern. "Hah, wait until Gary here's about this." Jack thought, "It seems like I'm not so bad at sneaking myself." The truth was Jack was a little upset that he couldn't go down to the cellars with the other two, he felt a bit left out and hurt. Regardless Jack was now close enough to hear in on their conversation., "Miss Lilly! What brings you here at this hour." The guard said. "My father has asked me to check up on the criminal that had been caught today." "Yes please, right this way you two." The guard said as he escorted the two of them into the outpost and towards the underground cellar. "Dam this is bad." Jack thought, judging by their conversation Lilly was planning to speak to the same person Ray was looking for right now. Just as Jack was about to send a message to inform the other two, the guard directly above spotted Jack. "You, what are you doing here!" The guard shouted from above. "Dam!" Jack ran as fast as he could straight into the forest but as he turned around, he noticed some guards giving chase. "Maybe I'm not cut out for this sneaky business after all." **** Back in the cellar, Ray and Gary were moving around cautiously, every so often there would be a guard stationed in between the prison cells. Even though the shadow skill was effective in them not being seen, it wasn't a 100 percent. The shadow skill was similar to casting a type of illusion, moving in and out of spaces at the right time. It took immense concentration and if you were off by a little bit, it would cause a ripple in space that was quite noticeable. Then Suddenly Ray saw a message pop up in front of him from his system. "taven cominnnngnn" "What the hell!" Gary said, "This is unreadable." "Maybe something happened outside," Ray said, "We shouldn't worry too much Jack knows what he is doing." The two decided to ignore the message and continued to move forward. Finally, after walking ahead for a while, they had reached the end of the room and at the same time could see the man they were looking for.

Behind the man was a blazing hot furnace spewing flames. The curly-haired man was only dressed in ragged trousers and had each of his limbs changed down into the ground. The heat from the furnace was so strong that Ray was surprised the man was still alive, but instead, he just stood there smiling. On one of his hands, was a Hammer, but it wasn't held in his hand like Ray originally thought. The hammer itself had become the man's hand as if they had been fused together. Ray started to step forward to get a closer look at the man and the hammer, then suddenly, the sound of footsteps could be heard behind them. "Someone's coming." Gary said, "What should we do?" Ray quickly looked around the room and to the right of them, there was a prison room with iron bars. Ray walked up to the room and using only his hands he pulled two of the iron bars apart until they had bent and made a gap big enough for a human to fit through. "Get in!" Gary quickly rushed into the room and Ray followed, then bending the bars behind him once again making it seem like no one had tampered with them. "Is there anyone inside?" Ray asked. Gary looked around the room and noticed one inmate covered in a thin sheet asleep. "I don't think he's waking up anytime soon." "Good, keep him that way." Lilly and Berg had arrived in front of the man with two guards as escorts. Gary and Ray were close enough to see the whole thing and that's when Gary spotted the girl. Lilly had short brown hair that went down to her collar bone. She also had tanned skin and always brought her trusty wand with her attached to her belt around the back. "I know her, and the guy as well, they were both at the tavern." Gary said, "What are they doing here?" As soon as the chained man saw the female in front of him, he started to speak. "It looks like you brought me a young lady to have fun with while I'm down here." The chained man laughed. "Why is he chained next to the furnace and not in one of the cell's," Lilly asked. "We do not torture our prisoners." "You are mistaken, Miss." The guard said, "The man looked like he was slowly dying, he kept pleading us to bring him closer to a flame. Under your father's orders, he was placed here to be kept alive." Gary looked at the flames behind the man, wondering how on earth someone was able to withstand something so strong. His body seemed even stronger than Jack's. "How can a human survive those flames." "Because he's not human, or at least he's not anymore," Ray replied. Maybe this man was once human but right now through his Dragon eyes, Ray could only see a beast but this was a first for Ray. He had never heard of a weapon turning a human into a beast but if Ray was able to be turned from a beast to a human, why wouldn't it be possible for the other way round.