After Liam cooked up a rough plan on the spot, the self-proclaimed draconian princess started looking at him in a new light. Could this man perhaps be a genius?
Even she couldn't have thought of something so convoluted and devious. Little did she know that Liam hadn't cooked up anything on his own. He had merely borrowed a page from the playbook of a cunning and petty tower master.
The two of them discussed the ins and outs of the plan for roughly fifteen minutes, and then the woman took her sweet time to mull over various things and give the green signal.
The most important part of this entire thing was not to attract too much attention. The woman might be nervous about this, but Liam was more than sure it would work out.
After all, the damned tower master created an entire event just to steal from him and, of course, kill him in the process. So technically, they should also be able to do the same thing and get away with it.
Finally, after a couple of hours, both of them were in agreement, and the prisoner confidently grinned. If everything went well, this could even give her a better chance of recovering her complete strength.
"Let's begin." She muttered and lifted her hand up. Liam as well nodded and tossed the dungeon crystal in his hand inside the hall. The next instant, the mana in the fort started roiling like the waters of a stormy sea.
The scenery around them started rapidly changing, and Liam felt a wave of dense mana sweep across his body.
The fort, which was originally a simple structure akin to a temple, was now transformed into a fiery and dark, with lava bubbles cracking in every corner and hot air hissing from the red brick surface.
"Master!" Luna growled from the other side, extremely wary of what was happening.
As her shout resounded throughout the tower, the woman momentarily opened her eyes and stared in confusion, there is another powerful creature right here in the fort?
Liam's expression immediately faltered. "I don't think so. You are mistaken. If there was another creature, it would have already come here to attack me. See, nothing is there."
He somehow tried to explain it, and thankfully the woman nodded, returning to the task at hand.
Liam also sighed in relief. It looked like the barrier guarding her was truly strong, limiting her powers on the outside. However, what was going to happen when this was no longer the case?
He had a feeling that he needed to make a backup plan of his own. If not, he wouldn't be surprised if this princess ended up putting her claws on him or Luna when everything was over.
After a while, the complete transformation was soon finished, and the fort now had a new look. Coincidentally, Liam also received a notification.
<Ding. You have entered the dungeon Fiery Pit>
<Ding. You are the first to discover the dungeon Fiery Pit; All experience points gained are doubled for the next hour; There is a higher chance to obtain item drops for the next hour>
"He He. All done!" The woman grinned, and Liam nodded with a small smile. He swiped the notification away, seeing that everything was indeed completed to perfection.
In fact, there was a boss monster glaring at him right this instant from inside the hall. Naturally, normal players would rush inside to defeat this monster without doubting anything.
And while they were busy fighting the boss, their souls would slowly be snacked upon by the other boss in the room.
"Are you sure that normal players wouldn't be able to see you?" Liam asked, rubbing his chin. In reality, even if they saw her it wouldn't be a problem as thanks to the popular games in recent times, rescuing the princess prisoner was a common theme.
But the woman firmly shook her head. "They shouldn't be able to see me at all. To be honest, I don't completely understand how you were able to see me. I am only a fragment of my past self, with only my soul barely remaining and everything else already gone into nothingness."
Liam nodded. He knew the answer why. It was probably because of his soulmancer class and his soul sensing skill, but he did not plan on explaining those things to her. He needed whatever edge he could get in case the woman decided to turn against him.
"So, everything is done? Shall we begin?" The woman emphasized her words once more when she saw Liam was still considering something else. She was impatient to recover her strength.
"Sure." Liam smiled, but he did not move an inch. His smile widened as he added one small detail that the person seemed to have conveniently forgotten. "Just a small thing before I leave and set things in motion."
"Huh?"
"How about you remove this damn curse you placed on me?"
Cough. Cough. The woman awkwardly cleared her throat. She immediately knew what curse Liam was talking about. The only surprise here was that she didn't expect him as well to be one of her chosen ones, or rather the lambs groomed for sacrifice.
"Well, the curse should leave you as soon as I recover my strength." She shrugged.
But Liam firmly stood his ground and shook his head. By now, he knew a great deal about the person chained up in the corner. She was a very cunning person, and almost everything that came out of her was a lie.
"That was not our agreement. When you recover your strength, you will help me with my condition. As for this curse, you need to remove it right now."
The two of them then entered a staring contest with no end, with neither willing to budge. However, in the end, the woman sighed and once again relented.
She could see that the allure of one promise was enough to handle the human being in front of her. Besides, her curse was a very weak one. It was not that much of a leverage.
So she acted as if she were being generous and trustworthy and mumbled, "Okay. Since you are requesting it, I will comply. You better not go back on your word."
Liam chuckled. "Of course. The second you remove this curse, I will set everything into play."
The woman nodded and lifted her hand to draw something in the air. Blackish purple runes immediately appeared in front of her. She then suddenly snapped her fingers, and all the runes she had drawn exploded.
At the same time, Liam felt a chill crawl down his spine. The next second, he felt somewhat lighter, freer. There was no notification that popped up, but he could tell that the curse was no longer there.
However, a small doubt still remained. Since when did beings of draconian lineage use curses? He had only heard about witches and practitioners of dark elements using such magic.
Liam did not dwell on it too much. After all, his knowledge of the matter was microscopical. There were still so many things that he knew nothing about.
"Good. I will check to see if the curse has really been released. Otherwise, there will be no deal." He said.
"Do whatever you want." The woman sighed and leaned back.
Liam did not linger around any longer, and he calmly left the fort after taking Luna with him. The duo flew above the numerous mobs and bosses in the dungeon and even got the dungeon exit notification when they walked out.
"Master, what happened?" Luna worriedly asked. She could sense that there was a lot on Liam's mind, and she wanted to help.
"Nothing. We just have a lot of work to do." After they were a good distance away from the fort, he quickly logged out.
