When Mike regained his senses, all he could feel were his pained wrists. With the complete darkness surrounding him, he could rely only on his touch and hearing… Or he could have if not for the rope tightened around his hands!

Only when merchant tried to move around did he start to feel the pain all over his body. With his head slowly clearing up, he noticed an annoying itching coming from the bruises that he obtained before getting knocked out.

With both his legs and arms bound, Mike could only slowly crawl around until he stroked his head on the metal bars. Even with this small bump, his skull made him remember that it wasn't treated gently previously.

The merchant managed to climb up and rest his back on the metal bars only after the assault of the pain subsided. This slight movement sapped the young guy energy. Resting his head on the blockade, he focused on his hearing.

Sadly, there was no one around. Not even the greatest assassin would be able to hold his breath out of sudden. Thanks to the absolute silence in the place he was kept, Mike could at least ascertain that he was all alone. While that gave him the opportunity to escape, it also meant that Xyenna either died or was held somewhere else!

After waiting for a bit to let his body have some rest, the young man started tightening and relaxing his wrists. Setting himself free from this ignorant bidings didn't take much time. With as much as three minutes, the ropes fell to the floor as Mike got to unravelling the knot on his legs.

With all his limbs freed, the young man could finally straighten himself and pace around the room he was held in. While one would say it didn't bring him any closer to breaking away from the location, Mike knew he had to devise a plan to rescue his friend and escape from the daring hands of the nobles.

Curious about the size of the room he was held in, Mike strolled along the wall of his temporary prison to gauge its dimensions. With his short walk completed, only a single conclusion surfaced in his thoughts. He was in some sort of the basement of castle dungeons.

For some, this thought would be enough to lose all the energy. This kind of place was used to hold prisoners even in ancient times. With such a long tradition to it, there was no way one would be able to escape from it, isn't it?

On the other side, Mike couldn't stop the corners of his mouth from curling up. His kidnappers either didn't know who he was in the end, or they outright underestimated him!

Biding his time to let his body rest, the young man noticed a very slight background noise, coming from somewhere up top. Focusing his attention on this slight sound, the merchant still needed some time to make up its origins.

There was no way to ascertain it, but from the sudden ups and downs in the volume, Mike assumed that the noise was, in fact, a distant cheering. It would make sense because cashing on ninety-six red goldens probably meant a great bonus for those soldiers pay.

The fact that he could barely hear the cheers meant a world for Mike. If they were celebrating, everyone was bound to put their guard off! Additionally, the fact that he was able to hear them, meant that there was no one else in the dungeon!

Turning around to face the bars, Mike held one of them with his right hand. With his eyes closed and mind cleared, he focused on the small iron tube, held in his grip. With the enchantment part of his gift activated, he started pouring his energy into the metal.

With every drop of his inner power leaving his body through his hand, he could kind of see the structure of the bar in his mind. Rust covering the small fractures and holes, impurities in the metal that were left after the smithing process… All of it flooded Mike head, making him unable to think of anything else.

As the drops of sweat started to fall from his face, young man tightened his grip. At first, he had to clear the rusty sediment from the iron pole. Cutting it away part by part, it took him almost an hour to finish this task!

With the bar now seemingly flawless on the outside, its internal structure was a wreck. Full of holes and fractures, it seemed like with just a little pressure, the bar would break. But the reality was disappointing. While Mike could give it all and break the weakened part, not only it would take his entire strength, it wouldn't leave any real results! He was far too big to squeeze through such a small hole.

After taking a short break to stabilise his breathing and recover some of his energy, Mike got back to work. Holding the cleaned part of the metal bar again, he focused on recovering it to its perfect state!

Contrary to how stupid it would sound to a hypothetical observer, there was a meaning in his action. His ability to restore the things to their perfect state was a part of his gift, but he assimilated it only when he broke through to the second level of his gift. He couldn't break or affect the basic law of the world! He couldn't create something from nothing!

Closing his eyes yet again and focusing on the repair, small drops of the metal started flowing down from the metal bar, filling the holes in the cleaned part of it. With every flaw resolved, the upper and bottom parts connected to the bit Mike was fixing became thinner and thinner. Sadly, it wasn't enough!

Taking another short rest, the merchant started to purify the metal that the bar was made of. Feeling the impurities emerge from the pole with the palm of his hand, Mike could watch various elements flow down his fingers and fell to the ground. Only when the part he was holding was finally restored to its absolute peak did it's neighbouring parts thin enough to be broken out.

While some would consider it a great job, Mike wasn't done yet. Even if he managed to remove one bar, he had to repeat the whole process at least two more times to make a hole big enough to fit through!

After another two hours of arduous work, the merchant was able to leave his cell. Almost entirely sapped dry from his internal energy, the darkness all around influenced his mind. Too tired to think rationally, he felt as if some kind of membrane separated him from the entire world. Enclosed in his own state of mind, Mike started to discern the outline of the corridor.

It was filled with holding cells just like the one he escaped from. While all of them were empty, just by swiping his fingers on the metal bars he understood why he was here all alone. There was no way those people would hold someone in a place that could be broken open with just a slight push!

Done with assessing the unknown territory, Mike randomly chose the direction to walk. Even while trapped in his weird state of mind, it was simply impossible for him to find any hidden clues. In a situation where he had no idea where to go to, choosing at random was the best choice.

Travelling through the multiple corridors and staircases took him quite a while. Only after he climbed up four floors did Mike heard steady breathing coming from the shadows in front of him.

As soon as the noise became discernable, the young man stopped. While his killer mode enchanted his senses, he couldn't tell if the person he heard was sleeping or just resting.

Moving as slow as the turtle, merchant got to his knees and crawled forward, one inch at a time. Even if this was excess trouble to go through, wasting a few minutes of his time in exchange for ensuring that no alarm would be sound was a worthy trade.

When he finally reached the corner and peeked around it, Mike saw a guard sitting on the floor, with his back resting against the wall. From his lowered head and steady movements of his chest, the young man understood that he only wasted his time. With a bottle of booze lying beside the guard it became obvious that he was dead drunk!

Approaching the man, Mike quickly searched him for any sorts of weapon. Retrieving a used up sword and a knife from his belt, he covered guard's mouth with one hand and placed the knife's blade on his throat. With a swift swing, the blood started flowing down the guardian's neck.

Using the light of the nearby torch, Mike made haste while stripping the guard's corpse from his leather armour. When he was done changing his outfit, the young man dragged the naked body to the lower floor. While the trail of blood was an obvious clue to what happened, there was a chance that whoever would discover it, would try to find the body before sounding the alarm. While the probability of that happening was as low as princess ending up as a prostitute, this kind of small possibilities and advantages were the baseline of Mike's famed works back in the times.

Donning the formerly guard's helmet, the young man straightened himself, took the torch off the wall and followed the corridor. I took him only one more staircase to reach the ground floor. Looking through the first window he spotted, Mike saw the courtyard littered with corpses.

With no blood oozing in the moonlight, it was obvious that those were the victims of the persona well known amongst warriors community going by the name of booze.

There was simply no way he could risk going out in the open now. While he was dressed as one of them, with the blood of the former owner of the suit still on his chest plate, showing up in front of the people would instantly alarm them. If he wanted to leave, Mike had to ensure that the numbers of possible pursuers would be as low as possible. Taking how small the surrounding buildings appeared to be in comparison to the tower he was in, a considerable number of soldiers were bound to be inside.

With no information about Xyenna whereabouts or even her physical state, he had to take care of all the possible enemies before even attempting to rescue her!

Following the circular pattern of the corridor, Mike passed the doors and arrived at the staircase. The closer he got to it, the better he could hear the talking taking place upstairs. While he was going right into the lion's mouth, instead of tightly gripping his weapons, Mike relaxed and trekked on the stairs as if this was the natural thing for him to do!

Reaching the upper floor allowed him to see seven people sitting in their deep chairs around the fireplace embedded into the tower wall. Just this small insight made Mike wonder about the architectonical skill of the designer of this tower. Adding a small fireplace like that, which could only serve as a comfort zone for the tower inhabitants required a lot of complicated work at the projecting stage! Including the chimney, smoke vents, holes in the structure… All of it had to be done even before the first brick got laid out!

"The guard down there fell asleep. I wanted to discipline him at first, but don't want to do it without the order. What should I do?"

Still pretending to be one of them, Mike asked while approaching the soldiers. Using his voice to mask the slight sound of pulling out the knife from his belt, the young man felt as if the membrane distanced him from the world even farther.

"Just kick him in the balls. I'm not paying him for sleeping around!"

Not even bothered to turn his head to the newcomer, the man in the centre laughed and took another sip from his cup.

Hearing this answer, Mike's eyed lit up. Giving away his position in the first word the man spoke, could there be a better chance for him? He moved to the right side as if heading for the stairs. After judging the distance, he stood in a perfect position. Mike placed his right hand on the grip of his sword and readied himself.

"Could I ask for a cup…"

He attacked in the middle of the sentence. Considering the classy glassware those people were using to drink some smelly wine, they had to breastfeed all those stories about brave heroes and evil villains. While it was obvious that as soon as they came to realise what was going on, they would attack. Using that fact, Mike pulled their attention and stroke when they were about to refute him!

Pulling his sword out, the young man continued it's motion horizontally. While the long blade was cutting through the spine of the man sitting at the rightmost end of the line of chairs, he plunged his knife deep into the throat of the man in front of him. As the feeling of resistance in his right-hand subsidised, he pulled his arm around his head and slashed vertically at the man sitting next to the leader. Stabilising himself for a fraction of the second, he moved forward two steps and kicked the leader's chair into the fire.

Only then, the remaining three soldiers managed to shake up from the shook and reach for their weapons. Unfortunately for them, Mike didn't give them the necessary time to prepare. Using the forward momentum on his leg that knocked the leader's chair, he stepped on it, leaned forward and swung his sword yet again, making a shallow but lethal cut on the throat of the next man in line.

The remaining duo finally managed to arm themselves. Rising up from the chair, the one closer to Mike tried to slash him with a sword. Kicking the ground with his right leg, Mike jumped forward, closed the distance rendering enemy sword useless and pressed his knife right into the enemy heart. While this simple stab was unable to penetrate the soldier's hard leather armour, when a young man fell on him and used the weight on his body the press on the knife's handle, even this fine piece of protection failed its purpose!

Sensing the danger, Mike slashed with his sword outwards, knocking the blade that was rushing at him away. Pushing himself off the knife, the young man stood straight with his sword along the line of his leg. Excluding the leader crying out from the burns he obtained after getting pushed into the fire, only one enemy was left.

"Now, should I kill you or can I expect a few answers to some of my burning questions?"