They were eventually led into a cell. It had iron bars with a weak enchantment on it.
"From the looks of it, it has a spell dampening effect" Rhamn quickly analyzed. I don't need magic to get out of here.
Myra was hesitant at first, but seeing Cyril bravely march in with no issue, she followed after.
The mage nodded in satisfaction and closed the cell door. The lock closed automatically based on some magic.
"Wait here for now. When needed, you'll be called. It won't be long." He left after saying this.
There was no jailer in this place; at least Cyril didn't see one.
Soon Morpho flew in after them; she was a bit dusty.
"She found a ventilation shaft and followed after us... How brave!"
The butterfly landed on Cyril's shoulders and started cleaning herself.
"Hello, they've got you too, huh?" Said the voice coming from the neighboring cell.
Only now did Cyril discover that they were not the only ones in this room.
It was a man with dark, messy hair that almost covered his black eyes.
He was sitting on the ground with his arms on his knees, wearing a helpless smile.
"Hello, my name's Jack. What about you?" His voice was quite friendly.
"Cyril." "I am Myra." They introduced themselves with no issue.
"How can we be so unlucky? Here I thought collecting mushrooms in the woods was safe this time of the year haha." He quietly laughed.
"You don't look that nervous," Cyril said while observing the man.
"Eh—am I? I guess I've accepted my fate to some degree; no use panicking." The man scratched his head.
"Besides, a part of me hopes this girl here can save us all." Jack pointed at someone in the same cell with him.
It was a woman wearing a multilayered loose robe with wide sleeves. There was even an intricate flower embroidered on it. It looked expensive.
Her face was elegant and beautiful, not quite to Rhamn's level, but still good. "That's right."
She was currently sitting in a lotus position with her slim upward-slanting eyes closed.
"Doesn't she have some kind of expert air around her? Like, 'I am the real deal' type," Jack said in wonder.
Despite her being the center of attention right now, the woman with the long, flowing hair did not react in any way, keeping her face empty.
"I'd tried talking to her for a long time before you came, but she didn't respond." Jack added with a shrug.
"Anyways. What about you guys? How did you come here?" He switched his attention to them.
"We are here to investigate this place. Can you tell us anything about it?" Cyril decided to find out if this man knows something first.
Jack made a silly face before speaking, "You are not very good at investigating to get caught like that..."
Cyril's eyebrow twitched for a moment before the man laughed. "I am just joking! Hehe."
"This guy is asking for it!"It's no big deal...
"I've heard a few things while here." Jack made a mysterious face and leaned in closer, whispering, "The scientists here talked about combining man and demon!"
"What!?" Myra exclaimed in surprise. "I never knew anything about this! What kind of madness is that!"
"Are you some kind of all-knowing being girl? I am sure you don't know plenty of things." Jack said while looking at her with pity.
Myra's face reddened slightly, and she shut her mouth.
Cyril was also surprised but not to the extent Myra was.
Thinking about it some more, mages are curious creatures, so maybe he shouldn't be surprised.
"So they are kidnapping people to experiment on them... Is the Arken family behind it? Or maybe Lapis?" Cyril said it out loud, partially on purpose, to gauge the reaction of others.
"Arken? Isn't that the famous family from the city? Why would it be them?" Jack said with confusion. "I could see Lapis doing it, I guess."
For now it looked like he genuinely didn't know what was happening.
"Where are you from?" Cyril asked with curiosity.
"I am from the Aloe village! Though I am more frequently in the city lately... I am a traveling salesman of sorts, you see! Recently I decided to visit my family back home, but on the way I was stopped by bandits!" Jack said with emotion.
"Didn't he say he was mushroom picking?"
"What's wrong with the guards lately? How come thugs kidnap people in broad daylight?" Jack grumbled.
"Alright. It's time we get out of here." Hearing all he wanted to, Cyril came closer towards the cell door, put his hand on it, and started applying some force.
"Are you trying to break the door? Ha! Don't bother, brother. I..." Before Jack finished this sentence, the door was directly ripped from its hinges and dropped on the ground with a sound.
"Ah!?" Jack opened his mouth in shock. "But it was enhanced... No magic worked..."
Cyril calmly exited the cell, followed by Myra, and wanted to leave the room.
"Hey, brother! Do you want to do a good deed today? I always knew you were a man among men when I first looked at you" Jack raised his voice.
Cyril turned around and was about to say something, but he noticed that the mysterious woman was staring at him with her yellow eyes.
"You are strong." Her voice was fresh and pleasant to listen to.
She slowly got up from the ground and came towards the cell door.
Taking a breath, she shot out her palm forward; its speed didn't seem that fast to Cyril.
But when it landed on the cell door, it flew out from its hinges like a cannonball and flew into the wall with a boom.
After this, the woman elegantly exited the prison and walked up to Cyril. "Do you want to get stronger?"
What the hell? Everyone was surprised by her sudden movements, staring at her with shock, but the woman herself didn't care.
"Who are you?" Myra quickly said.
She prided herself on knowing quite a lot of strong warriors in the Empire, but she had never heard of anyone like her.
What she did was not rare among the strong mages of this world. But she did it without using any magic.
Hearing these words, the woman nodded with realization and opened her mouth. "My name is Selene."
Saying this, she once again looked at Cyril and said in a confident voice, "Do you want to be my disciple?"
"Disciple? What are you talking about?" Cyril wasn't sure how her mind worked. "Just say no!"
At this moment several mages ran in. They did cause quite a bit of noise.
"What's going on here!" They ran into the room, and upon seeing the escape, one of them activated a spell.
Immediately an alarm began playing loudly.
"Couldn't you be more quiet!?" Jack complained.
One of the mages cast a spell, and Cyril started to feel his hands constricting again. It was the same one from before.
He flicked his hand and destroyed the flimsy shackle before it was fully formed. He then dashed towards the first mage and hit him hard on the chest, knocking him out.
Myra was closer to the other scientist; she ignored the shackles appearing on her hands, ran over, and made a spinning kick right into his head. The mage fell and the spell was interrupted.
"What is your answer?" Selene wasn't perturbed by the events and continued staring at Cyril.
"I don't need a teacher" Cyril said in contempt.
"It's not good to make a decision this hastily; I'll ask you later." Selene said in an understanding tone.
She walked up closer to Cyril and stopped. It was clear she wanted to follow him for now.
"The more, the merrier, I've heard. Let me join you; who knows? You might even require my help," Jack said with optimism and went after him as well.
With this little party ready, Cyril sighed and exited the prison room.
They started walking deeper into the facility. "Hopefully it's not too big."
When they made a turn, 4 soldiers with weapons faced them.
A tough-looking soldier at the front approached and attacked with his long sword.
Just when Cyril was about to move, someone flashed by his side.
Selene grabbed the incoming blade with her bare hand and pulled it.
The soldier didn't let go of the sword and got pulled alongside it.
After this, Selene hit the guard in the chest. He fell on the ground, unmoving.
"Allow me to demonstrate," Selene said with confidence.
The rest of the soldiers weren't scared and attacked her all the same time with fury.
Selene dodged all of the weapons with a single elegant movement.
Next, her hand was coated in a layer of light blue, and she shot her palm forward with great momentum.
There was a wave of energy released from that attack, enveloping all of the guards.
They immediately fell to the ground with no additional movements afterward.
Selene stood straight with slightly furrowed brows.
After a second, she turned towards Cyril. "Disregard that. It was not a good showcase." Her voice was tinged with dissatisfaction. "We should proceed and hope the leader of this den would offer a better opportunity."
Still, this was enough for Cyril to get an idea of her power.
He turned towards Myra and discovered that she was also looking at him at this moment.
Both of them caught the same thought behind each other's eyes. She is dangerous.
"Guys, you know what I've heard about?" At this moment Jack interrupted, staring at Selene with some vigilance.
"Apparently there is an archdemon using a peculiar martial art. The way it's described, I would say it's similar to yours." He kept his hands behind his back.
Selene turned to look at him and immediately answered, "There is no crime in learning from another. Like humans have learned fire magic when observing a Phoenix, can we not learn from the demons?" Her voice was still elegant and calm.
Jack made a thinking face for a few seconds before a smile returned to his face. "Yeah, you are right. I shouldn't be so narrow-minded; demons have some convenient spells after all."
Both of these people were incredibly suspicious.
What did Morpho see? While they were staring down each other, Morpho was flying around and got a good look at them both.
"Jack is hiding a dagger behind him." Rhamn translated.
I see. he raised his vigilance one level higher in his presence. There is no telling why he was here for real.