Chapter 7: The Mark of an Excellent Novel !
Brenn walked unsteadily taking one step at a time.
At last he reached his destination an unassuming chasm right beside the broken ruins of the tower .While the inside of the hole was too dark to be made out Brenn was still sure that he had reached the right spot.
He had enough faith in his abilities.
He gritted his teeth as he reached down and salvaged from the remains of his breeches which were even now hanging loose on his body all beaten and battered up.
A rope came out.
Thankfully the damage to it was very little his body doing the needful to shade it from the explosion.
He tied the rope to the nearest hold he could find which was a pile of debris jutting out just beside
He let the other end of the rope drop down into the depths.
After checking that the rope was firm enough he held on to it and after a deep breath plunged into the darkness.
The journey did not last long.
After what seemed like a couple of minutes he reached the bottom .
Luckily his rope had been long enough , another couple of metres of depth and he would have had to taken a jump and with his current state the prospects were not promising to say the least.
After his feet touched the ground the first thing he did was to secure the rope firmly ; although the likelihood of any trouble was pretty low he didn't wish to take any chances.
Finally he turned and observed the environment around him.
He was in what seemed was a vast cavern whose only source of illumination was the massive hole in the sky from which he had dropped down .
He could detect no other sounds other than those made by himself .
His breathing sounded incredibly conspicuous in such a silent environment.
His body was tensed up and all his senses were on high alert for the prospect of ambush or a trap of any kind even though reason told him that it wasn't possible.
He began to slowly make his way across the cavern floor towards a exit he could make out faintly with his heightened senses.
The exit led into a passageway hewed out of rock however unlike the ones he had been in before this one seemed completely natural and appeared to have predated even the foundations of the tower above.
The further ahead he went the more narrower the passageway become.
He didn't care about that all too much what he was worried about though was the possibility of cave-ins further ahead caused due to the explosion he had set off earlier in that case it would truly be a case of taking an axe to chop off your own feet.
Lady luck appeared to be on his side so far since he didn't encounter any untoward occurrence of that sort.
The passageway began to incline steadily downwards the slope turning steep at moments yet it did not pose any difficulty for Brenn who cleared tricky situations adroitly even in his wounded state , his dexterity telling of a large amount of experience .
At last he managed to reach the other end of the passage.
What lay in front of him was a gaping maw of darkness where no light of any kind shined.
Even with his enhanced senses Brenn couldn't make out anything beyond the entrance his probing no doubt being shielded by some special means unknown to him .
The fact that his senses had failed him did not raise any sense of alarm apart from a raised brow.
Instead he was marvelling at the wondrous architecture of the ancient era where such miraculous means could be employed something impossible in the current age even if the best of craftsmen in all of the Kingdoms came together.
Even so he remained cautious as he moved forward gingerly ready to react a moment's notice if anything happened suddenly.
It was lucky that he was vigilant
"Whoosh!"
Barely had he taken a step forward that a club came out of nowhere aiming for his head.
He managed to dodge of course , but it was a hit-and-miss scenario another second late and his head might have been brained Second Tier Knight or not.
Now that he was able to collect his senses he was finally able to see his attacker clearly.
The person attacking him was not a murderous Orc foul of countenance and speech but the exact opposite.
Staring at him with smouldering eyes was a woman of twenty odd with tattered dress and unkempt hair , in the dim light here face wasn't all that clear but from what he could see she was a fair beauty indeed.
Unfortunately he barely had the time to notice anything more for
"Whoosh!"
Another almighty heave and a club went racing past .
For such a fragile looking lady she was frightfully strong indeed !
To wield an Orc club with even two hands wasn't an easy feat .
He might have mistaken here for a Knight if it weren't for the lack of response her body made to the aura he sent plus Knights tend to be a bit more ..ahem.. perceptive of their surroundings.
"Whoa there ! Wait up lady ! No need to swing that at a friendly knight is there ? What if you hit something important ? The compensation wouldn't be cheap !"
"Whoosh !"
"Shut Up! I have no time for you Orcs who are as two faced as you look !"
Brenn hurriedly dodged an another attack although it was easy to overpower the over-excited woman causing collateral damage wasn't in his policy especially when the victim was one of his mission targets.
"First of all I'm not sure which Orcs you have been seeing although they are hideous to look and even more unpleasant to smell they really don't have two faces plus which Orc is capable of any speech ?"
"You have got a point ",the woman noted."But I'm still not going to take any chances !" .
She began to swing her club again but found surprisingly that try as she might she couldn't move an inch a hand laid on the other side of club had effectively wrested control of the club from her hands.
Even though she couldn't make out much with the darkness all around the barely visible outline of the hand didn't seem like an Orcs rather it was more slender like a human's.
"Wait a bit .I'll get some light in a while ",Brenn said .
Soon there was a sound of rustling and a sound of striking as if something was rubbing against another followed by a round of cursing at the worthlessness of tinderboxes .
Throughout all the Woman stayed silent evaluating this unlikely visitor .
His cursing would almost be regarded as polite language among the Orcs , she noted , Also Orcs intellect wise were certainly not noted for the capability of using Tinderboxes to light a fire
In that case there was only one possibility....
Flash !
"At Last ! ", Brenn's exultant voice came out as he held aloft the now lit torch that he had been carrying for emergencies .
Under the azure light of the sparkling flames the faces of the two were finally clear to each other.
She really is a beauty Brenn thought.
But he soon shook his stray thoughts away as he paid attention to her dress.
Although the color had faded and was indiscernible to the ordinary eye in this faint light to the improved eyes of Brenn the red color was obvious .
A very familiar red color in fact.
He reached inside his suit and carefully pulled out the crumpled string that had guided him all the way so far.
"This yours ? " .He asked succinctly .
"What ? Oh ! That !"
Clearly the woman was extremely surprised at being addressed to .
To her the moments earlier had been like a dream.
She had somehow managed to luckily escape and even had found a possible way through which she and her fellow prisoners could finally be able to leave behind this hell forever .
Yet the threat of the Orcs finding out had been like a shadow of gloom hanging overhead causing an increasing amount of panic and despair with each passing moment.
Her faculties had long been overloaded to the point that she saw and heard things that could only be seen or heard by her till the extent that her body had been left with only a single possible action iterating over and over.
The sudden arrival of the Knight felt that she had fallen into a trance once more.
But the Knight in her dream was in no way similar to one she expected for one thing he talked too much and cursed a fair bit too , weren't ideal knights meant to be of the stoic sort full of chivalrous magnificence ?
Especially so if it were in her dreams !
There was no way she was even remotely interested in a Knight like that !
And what was he holding now .. a string ?
Her mind collapsed under the strain of trying to untangle thoughts so messy she couldn't make head or tail of them soon her exhausted body followed her mind in the journey to blissful nothingness.
Brenn was astonished at the sight of the woman fainting .
He hurriedly rushed forward and caught her before she hit the ground.
Surely the sight of the string didn't warrant so much of a reaction , right ?
Was she that happy at the sight of something from her past or did it perhaps remind her of an unpleasant memory such as that of her abduction ?
Countless scenarios that he had learnt from reading the popular Knight novels flashed in his mind including and not limited to the parting gift among lovers, or a tearful message sent by a loved one and many others.
He had taken to reading these books after his former master had advised him ," Objectivity is necessary for completion of each venture yet even so true accomplishment is impossible to be achieved without true understanding of each who affect it ."
His aim had been to understand the thoughts and minds of the populace but the books seemed to serve no purpose other than making his messed up thoughts even more cranky and giving him a vivid imagination that had no basis in reality.
The last one pertaining to the time he had misdiagnosed an outbreak of flu in a village as a 'bioweapon' released by the neighbouring kingdom .
In his defense though at least the government would be ready in case of a 'real incident' and wouldn't be caught unawares like in the Novel he had read.
Never mind. Brenn felt his thoughts had digressed farther and farther away from where he was.
First things first.
The ideal course of action would be to wait till the Woman wakes up .
Blindly heading out on his own could pose some danger plus the Woman would only drag him down especially when she was in such a 'delicate' situation.
Although a detection using his aura confirmed that she wasn't in any danger and was only burned out due to excessive consumption there was no way to be certain in such cases which dealt with the fragile mind .
A little push either way and the trauma could be inescapable throughout her life.
He sighed and crossed his legs laying her head to rest in his lap .
He had a lot of question such as :
How had a fragile woman unable to even match the most ordinary of Orc scouts be able to escape from her secure bonds ?
Also a physical inspection had revealed no scars or otherwise to indicate that she had been 'touched ' or given any sort of treatment by the Orcs , How was that possible ? There was no way those rapacious orcs would have left alone a beauty like that .
The whole thing reeked of something fishy .
If he hadn't been sure that the girl held no threat he would have forced her to talk then and there after all regardless of how beautiful of a woman he was it was another matter when his life was in the balance which it very well could be.
As it was now , the ideal way to follow was to wait until the woman woke up after which he would get the answers to his questions.
There was no doubt regarding that.
He reached inside his breeches , searching .
He wasn't sure that it would be there after all that he had to endure.
Surprisingly it was .
Apart from being a bit battered it was in excellent condition.
Thank god , for he had to pay a couple of silvers and stand in line for a day to get this especially this signed version which had no more than ten copies in print !
He lifted the novel up till it was in a comfortable position and flipped the pages till he found the impression of his thumb.
He began to read engrossed making no noises except for the occasional clicking of teeth in undisguised admiration.
After all wasn't the mark of an excellent novel the ability to keep readers occupied ?
All other factors faded away in comparison.
— New chapter is coming soon — Write a review
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone