“The basement?” Mina frowned. “Is it dangerous down there?”
Isolde fell silent.
She looked as though some terrible image had just surfaced in her mind. Even the fingers clutching her skirt began to tremble faintly.
“…Yes.”
“But I don’t have any other choice.”
After saying that, she lowered her head.
Tears clung to her lashes, making her look even more pitiful than if she had actually cried.
Rowan rolled his eyes.
“Classic rescue quest. Enter the dungeon, go down to the basement, open the treasure chest at the end. They didn’t even bother changing the template.”
Isolde looked up at him.
Her eyes were still misted with tears. Embarrassment pressed down in them, but she forced herself to endure it.
“If you don’t want to help, that’s all right.”
She managed a weak smile.
“I can wait a little longer. Maybe… another group of brave heroes will pass by.”
The meaning was obvious.
If they didn’t go, the opportunity would go to someone else.
Sure enough, the moment she said that, all three of their expressions shifted.
Grant had been examining the castle gate, but when he heard “another group of brave heroes,” his grip tightened around the iron axe.
A hidden quest was right in front of them.
Were they really supposed to turn it down and wait for someone else to claim it?
Mina said nothing more.
Her gaze moved from Isolde’s pale face into the depths of the castle, then quickly returned.
She wasn’t completely without suspicion.
But an unknown reward, a special location, and an NPC asking for help, when those pieces came together, this didn’t look like an ordinary side quest at all.
More importantly, this game wasn’t like the old dead programs where all anyone did was click a mouse.
The greater the danger, the better the loot.
Rowan hated nothing more than letting others get ahead of him, especially when the advantage was sitting right in front of him.
“What next group?” Grant suddenly sneered. “The quest is sitting in our lap. We’re not letting someone else pick it up.”
Mina glanced at him and didn’t argue.
She only lowered her voice.
“We go in and take a look first. If something feels wrong, we pull out.”
Rowan snorted.
“You say that like you’d actually be willing to leave.”
Mina’s face darkened.
“That’s better than someone staring at every piece of junk the second we walk in.”
“Enough.”
Grant cut them off impatiently.
His gaze returned to Isolde, his tone carrying the edge of an order.
“You. Lead the way.”
Isolde’s eyes brightened slightly, as though she had finally grasped a lifeline.
“You’re willing to save me?”
Grant waved her off.
“Cut the chatter and move.”
Mina softened her voice too, putting on a comforting act.
“Don’t be afraid. As long as what you said is true, we’ll help you.”
Isolde nodded gently, her eyes full of gratitude.
“Thank you.”
She turned toward the castle gates.
From an angle the three of them could not see, the corner of her mouth pressed into the faintest curve.
In her previous life, they had used a bowl of hot soup and the words “stay with us” to trick her into the mines.
In this life, she used a fragile face and the word “heroes” to invite them into a grave.
Greedy people were exactly as expected.
The moment they smelled even a hint of profit, they had to reach out and touch it first, no matter whether blades or flames waited behind the door.
The inside of the castle was even colder than it looked from the outside.
The high vaulted ceiling disappeared into darkness. The candles along the walls had been burning for who knew how many years, their dim light leaving the portraits around them blurred and indistinct.
The moment Rowan stepped inside, his gaze stuck to a silver candlestick on the wall.
Dust covered it, but its edges still gleamed with a faint cold light.
Even without an appraisal skill, anyone could tell it was not ordinary scrap metal.
“Can we take this thing?”
He asked the question, but his hand had already reached for it.
Rowan gave it a hard pull.
The silver candlestick came loose from the wall, taking a small drift of dust with it.
The next second, dark red runes on the wall flared to life.
Behind them, the castle gates slammed shut with a thunderous boom.
Mina startled and took a step back.
“Why did the door close?”
Grant immediately turned around, his eyes fierce as they locked onto Isolde.
“What’s going on? Did you do this?”
Isolde stood at the edge of the shadows and said softly,
“I’m s-sorry… I forgot to warn you, brave heroes. The things inside the castle shouldn’t be touched carelessly…”
Grant’s face darkened.
“Why didn’t you say that sooner?”
“I thought… great heroes wouldn’t simply take things that belonged here.”
Rowan choked.
Her voice was soft, but if one listened closely, it sounded like a slap to the face.
Mina frowned.
She knew her teammate’s greedy hands were at fault, but she still said,
“Forget it. A lot of NPCs are like this. They won’t give hints until the trigger condition is met. If you’re really that annoyed…”
She glanced at Isolde, moved closer to Rowan, and lowered her voice.
“We can deal with her after we get the loot.”
Rowan understood at once and felt she had a point.
Once they cleared the “dungeon” and claimed the rewards, wasn’t this NPC theirs to handle however they wanted?
At that thought, his expression eased a little.
There was even a hint of another kind of anticipation in it.
Grant, still sour from being embarrassed, turned his anger on Isolde.
He raised a hand and shoved her.
“Move. Lead the way.”
Isolde staggered half a step from the push.
She steadied herself against the wall, lowered her head, and walked at the front.
None of the three noticed that the moment they stepped into the hall, a dark red mark appeared beneath each of their feet.
[Castle Blood Banquet, Marked]
[Current Number of Prey, 3]
Isolde glanced at the dark red glow from the corner of her eye.
Valen’s banquet mechanism had activated faster than she expected.
This was probably the dungeon mechanic those players had once talked about.
The master of the castle could use [Castle Blood Banquet] to mark prey and trigger enhancement array lines.
As long as the prey bled in fear, a small portion of that blood would be fed back to the castle master through the arrays.
In other words, it was Valen’s healing mechanic.
In her previous life, players had brought stacks of high-grade healing potions just to stop his health from growing thicker the longer they fought him.
She had no idea how many rounds of Valen’s attacks these three pieces of trash could survive.
If they got lucky and wore Valen down, she could use the methods she had prepared to deliver the finishing blow.
If they died anyway, then to her, it would be a free test run.
She would get revenge along the way, so there was no loss either way.
Led by Isolde, the group walked deeper and deeper inside.
The portraits on the walls shifted with them, like dead people hiding behind the walls and pressing their faces against the frames to watch.
Mina grew uncomfortable under their stare and instinctively moved closer to Grant.
Then she called to Isolde ahead of them.
“Hey! Is there anywhere in here where we can get something good? I mean… if we’re going to save you, we need decent gear, right?”
“Yes,” Isolde said.
Mina immediately asked, “Where?”
Isolde seemed to think hard for a moment before answering.
“The duke used to have a storeroom. It once held swords and shields for his knights.”
The moment Rowan heard that, his eyes lit up.
“Weapons?”
That was exactly what Mina wanted.
Their current gear wasn’t great. They had robbed quite a few people on the way here, but it still wasn’t enough.
Especially after entering this cursed place, none of them knew what they would run into later.
If they could get a batch of weapons first, at least they would have a little more confidence.
Grant looked at Isolde.
“Where is it? Take us there.”
“But… no one has gone into that storeroom in a long time,” Isolde said. “I don’t know what it’s become.”
Grant scoffed.
“Here we go again. Aren’t you an NPC? Just lead the way and stop talking so much.”
Isolde trembled lightly, as if frightened by his sharp tone, then nodded.
“I understand. I’ll take you there, brave heroes.”
Of course she knew exactly what the storeroom looked like now.
The original Isolde might have been twisted, but her memory was terrifyingly sharp.
Every corridor in the castle, every door, and every array line that could trigger a mechanism had already been checked carefully by Isolde and stored in her mind like a list.
They wanted weapons.
Naturally, she would give them weapons.
Whether they could hold onto them was their own problem.