Burt was in terrible shape. It was evident that he had suffered greatly during his time in that prison. And he hadn’t even been there for very long!

William was truly relieved that he had found Burt before things took a turn for the worse. He slowly approached the cell, and when Burt saw him, he seemed to want to speak, but he didn’t.

There were other prisoners nearby, and the bandits might overhear them. They couldn’t let anyone realize they were friends.

They searched for the keychains to open Burt’s cell. The keys were hanging on the wall, a large assortment of them. Each key opened a different cell, each one marked with a different number.

Just as William grabbed the key that would unlock Burt’s cell, a bandit appeared, coming down the staircase they had just used.

It wasn’t the same bandit who had been guarding the stairs earlier.

“Hey,” the man said, “I’ve heard you’re the torturer who came to get us the answers we need.”

He was addressing William.

“That’s me for sure. And you are?”

“Just one of the guards. I’ll be watching you get the answers. You know, it’s always good to learn new things.”

This was problematic. William wasn’t there to torture Burt but to free him, and with someone watching him like that, well, that would make things considerably harder.

In that instant, William realized he had to find a way to knock out that man, or even kill him. He had no other option.

“Why do you want to learn how to torture?” William asked the man while approaching him, “it’s not a skill most people want to learn.”

The bandit shrugged. “I honestly don’t know. I feel like it might open new doors for me. You know, a good torturer certainly makes a lot of money.”

He wasn’t wrong about that. Wealthy individuals always hired the best torturers to extract the information they desired from their prisoners, and a skilled torturer commanded a small fortune.

Of course, William wasn’t there as a torturer, and he certainly wasn’t getting paid to free Burt…

“You’ve convinced me,” William said with a laugh, “watch and learn.”

By the time he said that, he was very close to the man. William attacked. He could sense that the bandit wasn’t weak, so hitting him with a ‘normal’ bare-handed attack wasn’t the best approach.

William decided to use his sword, Asura, to cut the bandit’s throat. It all happened swiftly. One moment the bandit was alive, and the next he was dead.

The prisoners—the ones who were still awake—saw what happened, and it filled them with hope!

Was William there to free them? He wasn’t initially, but when he saw so many prisoners in the cells, a plan formed in his mind.

He looked at Rena and said, “It might be a good idea to free everyone. They’ll distract the bandits for us.”

That was his plan. After freeing Burt, they still had to find the portal the bandits had mentioned. If the prisoners were outside, drawing the attention of the bandits? Well, that would allow William, Burt, and Rena to move through the city unnoticed for a while.

It was impossible to know if that would buy them enough time to find the portal, but there was no harm in trying.

Most of the prisoners were beaten up and weak, so it wasn’t as if they would stand a chance against William in a fight if they wanted to fight him. Besides, why would they?

They were angry with the bandits, not him.

Rena liked the idea.

“Let’s free everyone. You take care of Burt, I’ll free the rest.”

William nodded. He moved to Burt’s cell, opened it, and unchained him from the walls. Burt collapsed to the ground, but William helped him to his feet.

“Thank you for saving my ass,” Burt said, “again.”

Burt truly appreciated everything William had done for him since they met. They hadn’t started off on the right foot, but things were much better now.

“We need to get out of here,” William said, “you can thank me later. We must find the portal to the next dungeon floor.”

When William said that, Burt smiled. “I know where the portal is. They wanted me to go there to see if I could go through!”

That was excellent news! William wouldn’t have to wander aimlessly through the city, searching for the portal’s location.

Rena, meanwhile, continued to free everyone. She opened all the cells and let the prisoners leave. A strong thirst for revenge burned in many of them. They wanted to find the bandits and make them pay.

Not all of them, though. Some simply wanted to find a way out of that place. Others were too beaten to even move from their cells.

William didn’t concern himself with them. What mattered to him was leaving with Burt and Rena and finding the portal!

They went upstairs again, and when William arrived, he saw the body of the bandit who had been guarding the staircase. The escaped prisoners had killed him.

As for the rest of the bandits inside the barracks? They had stopped their card game and were now fighting against the prisoners. No one understood what had happened.

“How are these motherfuckers out here? They should be locked in those cells!”

“I don’t know, but we need to get help. We can’t face them all!”

The number of prisoners far exceeded the number of bandits inside the barracks. It was only a matter of time before the prisoners overwhelmed them all.

“This way,” Burt said.

They leaped through one of the windows and left the barracks, not looking back.

Burt knew exactly where to go, so he was the one going in the front. The city was in total chaos!

There were bandits coming from all directions and moving toward the barracks to help in the fight against the prisoners.

William was really glad his plan worked. No one was even glancing at them. They were all focused in the barracks and the prisoners.

So, they easily found the place where the portal was.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep