Kyle frowned feeling the weight of the situation, carefully assessing the black-haired man's position from behind a nearby wall. They were standing slightly far from each other, completely blocking the entrance of the underground stairway.
'I can't sense their ranks they are probably stronger than me.'
He clenched his fists and gazed around with narrowed eyes. After scanning for a few seconds, he noticed a stack of crates placed a few meters away from the underground stairway and formulated a plan.
With a swift and precise movement, he approached the crates filled with strange-looking grass and pushed one of the crates to distract the guards.
The black-haired guards looked at each other with frowns and one of them approached the crates to investigate the noise.
Seizing the opportunity, Kyle swiftly approached the remaining guard from behind, he summoned a thunder arrow and delivered a swift strike on the back of the guard's neck that rendered him unconscious.
Before the guard fainted he released his aura and Kyle sighed with relief because the latter wasn't as strong as he expected. The guard was (D+)-Rank, only a sub-rank higher than Kyle.
Kyle was a little anxious when he didn't sense the guard's auras but now he felt confident looking at the other black-haired man who was looking through the stack of crates.
Kyle looked at the unconscious man lying between his feet and bent down to remove the storage ring on one of his fingers before grabbing the grey steel spear present between one of the guard's hands.
He gazed at the spear that wasn't even close to his precious (S)-Rank sword and gave a reluctant nod.
'This will do for now.'
Kyle silently tip-toed toward the other guard who was looking around the crates.
The guard wanted to turn around when he felt a large palm grabbing his neck from behind, he wanted to shout but before he could a jolt of lightning coursed through his entire neck, making his entire body tremble with pain and he lost consciousness within a few seconds.
Kyle rubbed his hands and checked the black-haired man's body for a storage ring but to his disappointment, he didn't find anything.
With a sigh, he silently dragged both of the bodies and carefully hid them behind the stack of crates.
He looked through the only storage ring he found and his disappointment increased.
"They are so poor."
Kyle shook his head silently, first the storage ring only had a few meter space and second it didn't have anything precious. The only things present inside the ring were some clothes, a handful of mana stones, four low-grade healing potions, and the square-shaped device he was looking for.
He clicked his tongue and made his way toward the Array present outside the stairway. The two guards didn't have anything related to this Array, he was sure if he passed through it without any preparation the one who made this Array would know instantly.
Kyle's eyes narrowed as he focused on the mana movement around the stairway, the bright invisible mana particles moved and swirled around the Array gently. With the precise gestures of his fingers, Kyle tapped on the air touching various parts of the Array.
After a minute, a hole appeared within the smooth Array and Kyle entered the hole hurriedly descending the stairway with large strides.
On the other hand, inside one of the prison cells. Alec was sitting on the cold ground with a serious expression, he lifted his head and gazed at the others who were silent for a while now.
"It's been 15 minutes, what do you all think Kyle is doing right now?"
Blane perked up his ears with a chuckle. He moved his body and looked at Alec.
"He was dragged like a rag. Just pray those men don't bury his body ten feet underground."
Mia looked at Alec and showed him her hand.
"Now it's 16 minutes."
Jenny who was sitting in the same cell as Blane looked at them with annoyance.
"Why are you all fucking counting each second like your life depends on it?"
She massaged her temples.
"Even if he somehow got the chance to flee from those men it would take him a while before he returned."
The prison cells turned eerily silent again with everyone contemplating what to do next but it's not like they could do anything while being tied up like this.
Professor Oliver stood up with a frown. He didn't sense anything but his eyes were locked on the black shadow descending the stairs. With a serious expression, he pointed at the stairs.
"Someone's coming."
The chains around the students' wrists clicked as they stood up with vigilant expressions, locking their gaze on the approaching shadow.
Their eyes widened with shock and disbelief when the shadow owner appeared in their vision. They all looked at each other with a familiar question written on their faces, It's only been sixteen minutes and he was back already?
Alec suppressed the urge to laugh and called out Kyle's name.
"Kyle?"
Kyle waved his hand at them with an emotionless face and hurriedly approached the cells. After witnessing that strange room he was not in the mood to smile.
He took out the square-shaped device from the storage ring and first opened the chains around the Professor's wrists.
With a click the chains dropped down and Professor Oliver sighed with relief.
"How's the situation outside?"
He spoke to Kyle who proceeded to enter another prison cell.
"There are a lot of guards patrolling. A few rooms on this floor, and many stairways leading upward but I didn't see any exit or window on my way here."
Kyle spoke with a serious tone and removed the chains hurriedly. The students were practically beaming with joy as Kyle removed the chains around their wrists.
At last, he entered Alec's cell and removed his chains.
Alec rubbed his wrists with a hiss but he stopped and he noticed Kyle's deadly pale face.
"Hey, are you feeling alright?"
He stepped forward and wanted to touch Kyle's forehead but the latter flinched away.
"I am fine. You all should find the exit and leave with the Professor. I am going to find Bia."
