After hearing his title, Hydra stood there dumbstruck. If it wasn’t for the fact that he had heard a little about his past he wouldn’t have thought such a title suited him. But now that he heard his past he was for sure that anyone willing to cut ‘that’ off was definitely suited for it. Hydra kept staring at Cline until Cline finally felt awkward and spoke out.
“….Young man?”
“Ah! Sorry, I was just surprised that by your title it surely doesn’t suit you. So I imagine your arm is what caused you to retire?”
“Haha No not at all! Tis but a scratch this is. The reason I had to retire is I beat the crap out of the General overseeing the defense at the time. He made a terrible call that lead to thousands of deaths. Alas in my anger I cut ‘it’ off of him.”
‘Holy crap I should never piss this guy off!’
“But young man you still haven’t told me your name?”
“Right… I’m Hydra, sorry when I didn’t mean to delay I have a bad habit of having one track mind if something bothers me.”
“Haha no worries as we are about to head to our deaths it is no big deal Hydra.”
“Actually… I have no intentions on dying here.”
“Hm? What do you mean? How would you be able to escape this cell?”
“That…. I don’t know yet.”
“Well….. that.. isn’t helpful.”
As Hydra gave hope to Cline, it was immediately crushed upon hearing he didn’t have a plan for escaping. Although Hydra kind of felt like he shouldn’t have mentioned anything yet, he did in fact have full intentions on escaping.
‘I just need to figure out how to get out of here…’
While Hydra was racking his brain over on how to escape he finally managed to find the door. It was only possible after fully adjusting to the dark environment. Which was why originally he wasn’t able to see the door. After inspecting the door for a certain amount of time, he found that the door wasn’t nearly as complicated as he originally thought it would be. He then remembered that [Second Saga] was set in a magic and medieval period, and thus the structures of the world also represented that.
The jail door actually had a portion of it which was barred. This barred window had a slit just wide enough to stick an arm through. It just so happened that the slit area was right beside the keyhole that, thus it was about waist level high. But this sort of information was useless unless you had a way to open the keyhole and seeing how convicts were stripped of their item bags and searched for any lock picks, it would be impossible to escape.
Unless, you were Hydra who was teleported with his items. But Hydra himself knew he didn’t have a lock pick but he did have something that would work just as well. The only problem was being able to utilize it effectively.
“Okay I got it!”
“Got what?”
“The way to escape this dreaded place!”
“Really?!”
“Yes… But I don’t know how long it will take…”
“That’s okay is there anything I can do?”
“Thanks, but there is nothing you can do to help. I just need some time!”
“Alright.”
If Hydra could see Cline’s eyes right now he would be able to see the life in them restored. After all Cline had given up hope after being sent here. It was a fact that no one had have successfully escaped Yorula. Even if they managed to escape from their cell with some unknown methods it was still very likely to be captured. This was after all a city of prisoners and to keep it under control there was massive amounts of guards to control any situation. The scariest part of it was that the [Reaper], himself, guarded over the city.
It was easy to describe as a simple bringer of death but the reality was much more terrifying and as a knight naturally Cline knew more about the situation than others. Thus while the life in his eyes were restored it was only a glimmer that could be extinguished with a passing breeze.
Hydra who was oblivious to everything in Yorula didn’t care about potential threats at the moment. He was definitely due for death if he was trapped here for his entire life regardless. He might be able to use stealth indefinitely here, but what did that matter? If he couldn’t escape he was as good as dead anyways. He could use the chance when they take Cline to his ‘Drop of Salvation’ but that relied on the sacrifice of Cline or Hydra would have to fight with the potential threat of the guards. The moment he fought the entire city would be under lock down.
Hydra himself didn’t know how strong they were and he was slightly worried to ask, as he had never faced a hopeful situation with monsters, or enemies, the same level as him. It might seem cowardly to others but Hydra simply liked the idea of living over fighting pointlessly. Only when he knew he could win would he be confident in himself and rush without hesitation.
Now that Hydra had finally found a solution to the escaping, the next problem was putting that solution into practice. Hydra had planned on using his [Transmutation] skill on [Mercury] to make a temporary key. The problem was he had no experience making anything with [Transmutation] before. He didn’t think that it was a problem making a key with his current level 1 [Transmutation] because a key could work even if it was rather crude, thus it would take time in order for it to be successful.
Hydra sat down and pulled out the [Mercury] from his bag. He immediately activated [Transmutation]. Then two complicated circles with many different runes floating in harmonization formed on either side of the [Mercury]. As the [Mercury] denying the laws of gravity too started to float, Hydra had the instant feeling inside his head that he could control anything within these two circles as he willed.
The process of creating something with [Transmutation] did not require any movement of the hands yet Hydra was still using his hands as a physical aid in order to mold the [Mercury] into a key object. Hydra, although he didn’t know the exact structure of the keyhole he did managed to fit his pinky inside and feel around.
As he guessed the key layout wasn’t exactly overly complicated. However, the use of [Transmutation] was a lot harder than he originally thought. Every time he managed to create a portion of the key it would collapse as it wasn’t solid enough to keep its form. Turning back into liquid, Hydra could only bite his tongue and repeat his actions once again.
Time and time again it would fail and he would repeat. The time had passed and nearly 12 hours had passed. During this time Cline hadn’t bothered Hydra once as he only stared in fascination towards the sheen of the complicated rune circles Hydra had created. During this time it was already nearly as long as Hydra had been together with the [Shadow Lurkers].
Hydra concentration was approaching his limits after each failure. Even though he failed 100’s of times with each error he saw noticed a flaw each and every time it broke apart. Thus he started to find out how to prevent these flaws in the key by observing his own mistakes.
‘Practice sure does make perfect. After practicing martial arts with the Old man for so long, I’ve learnt no matter how bad you start at something you can always master it with enough effort. [Transmutation] must also be the case, after all even if it’s only a slight improvement I am in fact improving.’
Even though he was perspiring all over causing his clothing to be soaked in sweat, he continued to fail and reconstruct the [Mercury]. Although after failing once more, Hydra felt confident to completing a fully solid key on his next attempt. He stared without batting an eye. Hydra felt if he blinked for even a second he would fail, as the liquid slowly started to meld into a proper key shape. The process this time had already long past any of the previous attempts. With each passing second the process reached a critical point. It was the final and hardest portion for Hydra, which was the actual extension part of the key. The liquid looked as if it was about to drip and fall off but every time Hydra would control it and slowly solidify it. Finally Hydra had completed a the key and a window then popped up in front of him!
[tdA key made through [Transmutation] and can open a door of cell. Whether or not the key works is unknown until the user tries it. Because this key was made from [Mercury] it is poisonous to the touch and the user will be immediately poisoned after holding the key.[/td] Jail key A [Transmutation] Due to large amounts of trial and error and focus experience acquired over the time has doubled.(Current experience 44%)
‘Let’s hope this works. Otherwise I might die before I even get out of this cell.’
Hydra grabbed the key and quickly rushed over to the door. Even though he tried to be quick before even arriving another window popped up.
You have been poisoned! [Mercury] is a highly toxic substance to the touch and will seep into the skin through the pores. This poisoning does not have a known cure and only when the user dies will it be cured. The user will lose 1 health point every 5 seconds until death.‘Damnit! This is a lot more serious than I originally thought.’
As Hydra started to worry over being poisoned to death. Even though he had multiple health potions that could heal him, he had just over 1 hour to escape the cell and investigate the area. Either way Hydra’s death was certain but he couldn’t risk the death of Cline as well without knowing the layout, and because convicts came in blindfolded, they would naturally not know the layout.
Though before Hydra could even think about finding out about the layout he would have to make sure the key actually worked. At this point Cline was watching Hydra with a slight nervous expression. He saw the hard work Hydra had put into this one key and it would be too disappointing to see it fail now.
As they both prayed deeply in their hearts, one to the Goddess of luck, the other to the Bread God, they both hoped for success. Finally Hydra inserted the key and with no obstructions, it passed the first test. Hydra then slowly, as if the key was made out of fragile ice, turned the key.
Click!
“Yes!”
“It worked!”
The two shouted in unison over the opening of the door.
“Cline! I know you might want to come with me. But the reality is I will die in just over an hour. I have to get the layout of the keep before hand. I know this is risky but if you come out now it’s definitely going to lead to your death faster. I can only hope that you are still here by the time I return.”
“Don’t worry Hydra. Even if you don’t make it, it was nice to have a person to talk to before I depart. I will not blame you regardless of what happens.”
As Hydra opened the door and made sure there was no guards around, he left and closed the door behind him. As he closed the door and stared at it for a moment with conflicting feelings in his heart, he set off as he used [Stealth].
At this time Cline could only patiently wait and hope his death sentence was delayed enough until he came back!