"Yeah, I’d really like this Three-Path Root" Klaus said, pointing to the distinctive blue-tinged herb with root tendrils that looked almost crystalline. The woman behind the counter smiled at him warmly, her expression pleasant and helpful.

"Oh, I really like this herb too!" she said enthusiastically. "Meditating with a leaf of the herb in your mouth will allow your mental energy to soar quite a bit. It’s very good for spell focus and mana circulation."

"I’ll definitely need it," Klaus said. "You can add it to my basket."

She nodded and dropped five of the herbs... each one with several large leaves still attached to the root system into his already substantial basket of various medicinal and magical plants.

"You’ve already bought so much," the woman said, eyeing the overflowing basket. "Will you be able to pay for all of this?"

"I will," Klaus said simply.

He had the gold. Between the guild rewards and what he had, money wasn’t the issue right now. He was stocking up for the long term... herbs for mana recovery, mental energy enhancement, physical conditioning.

Everything he’d need for sustained growth.

"Do you have any other kinds of herbs?" Klaus asked. "Anything for stamina recovery or wound healing?"

The woman’s expression shifted slightly... something that might have been nervousness if Klaus had been paying closer attention.

"I do have some," she said, her voice dropping to a whisper. "But you should lean closer. These are... specialty items, not for general sale."

Klaus’s eyebrows knitted together in mild suspicion, but he took a step closer and leaned over the counter.

The next instant, something formed in the woman’s hand... a small club wrapped in cloth, crackling with some kind of magic and she swung it directly at his head.

Klaus barely registered the movement before it connected with his temple.

BAM!

The impact made him stagger backward with his vision going blurry immediately as the shop spun around him. His legs buckled.

The woman’s pleasant smile twisted into something manic as her eyes gleamed with desperate madness.

"I’m sorry," she said, though her tone suggested she wasn’t sorry at all. "But if I deliver you to the Cult, they’ll free my baby. They promised. So you have to understand..."

A wide, crazy grin filled her face as Klaus’s vision blurred out completely, darkness creeping in from the edges. The last words Klaus heard before unconsciousness took him were spoken in a reverent whisper.

"Be sacrificed to the Evil God."

...

’And that’s how I got here...’ Klaus thought, looking at the young boy at his side.

The kid had blue hair and gold eyes, and he hadn’t stopped talking about his older sister for the past twenty minutes until Klaus had finally told him to shut the fuck up.

’I can’t believe I forgot about these events from the game.’ Klaus thought with genuine frustration.

As for what was happening... it wasn’t strictly mentioned in the main storyline of Artemis Online, but in the background lore and side quests, there were references to disappearances in Rivera City. This happened within the two months before the Entrance Exams to the Royal Academy. People went missing throughout the city, including the younger brother of one of the side villainesses of the game.

The villainess in question had very good magic stats for her age considering she wasn’t a member of the Royal Family or one of the overpowered beings like the Saintess. Her power came from raw talent and obsessive training.

These missing people were eventually revealed to be sacrificed to the Evil God, their souls serving as nourishment for some kind of summoning ritual. It was described as a very painful process with the souls being consumed piece by piece while the victims remained conscious and aware.

When the villainess discovered her brother had been killed in the ritual, she’d completely crashed out, became one of the major antagonists in the second act and tried to destroy the world in revenge.

’She’s just a massive bro-con...’ Klaus thought with a mental shake of his head.

Now he was among these sacrificial victims himself. Tied up in some underground cavern, surrounded by unconscious people and waiting to be fed to an eldritch horror.

’I’m not sure if there’s any way to escape here, but I’m sure as hell going to try,’ Klaus thought grimly. ’Now I regret not bringing Taula along with me.’

It was also his fault for falling for the dumbest trick in the book. "Lean closer so I can tell you a secret" and then getting clubbed in the head.

That was embarrassing but at least he wasn’t defenseless. His storage ring was still on his finger...

’Should I bring this dumbfuck with me or not?’ Klaus wondered, glancing at the now-silent boy beside him. If he didn’t, it would be far easier to escape. One person moving quietly with no dead weight to slow him down.

But if he did save the kid, he’d have nobles owing him a favor. The Arlain family was one of the happiest, most stable noble families in the kingdom before their son disappeared.

’I guess I will take him...’ Klaus decided. ’However, if he drags me down, I’ll dispose of him the first chance I get.’

This was actually pretty good strategically, he had live bait now if he needed it.

The other people in the cavern... probably fifteen or thirty of them were still unconscious and slumped against the walls but Klaus wasn’t going to save them.

Hell, he didn’t give a flying fuck if they got consumed by the Evil God. Did he look like some kind of saint?

There was the sound of footsteps echoing through the tunnels... they sounded like boot heels clicking against stone. One of the members of the Death Cult walked into the cavern, though she didn’t have her hood up. Klaus and the blue-haired kid could clearly see her face in the torchlight and Klaus recognized her immediately.

’That bitch...’ he cursed internally.

It was the same woman from the herb shop. The one who’d knocked him out with the magic club but she’d said her baby was being held hostage by the cult, that she was being forced to help them. So why was she walking around freely like a member? Why wasn’t she tied up like the rest of the victims?

"I see two of you are awake..." the woman said, pausing thoughtfully with a hand on her waist then her face broke into that same crazy grin from before, it was the manic expression of someone who’d long since abandoned sanity.

"You were probably able to wake up from the sleeping spell because your souls are just filled with life," she said, almost admiringly. "Which will make you an excellent feast for this ritual. My god will savor you longer."

She raised her hand, and black flames began converging around her fingers... the signature magic of the Death Cult, flames that consumed life force rather than physical matter.

"Don’t worry," the woman continued as her voice took on a singsong quality. "You won’t wake up until my god starts feasting upon your souls bit by bit until there’s nothing left. I really wish I could have caught a person devoted to the Goddess... someone with holy affinity then my god would have had even brighter nourishment but I guess you two will do."

She kept rambling and Cedric, who was on the ground beside Klaus, was terrified. His breathing had gone shallow and rapid.

He swallowed hard, trying to control his fear.

He’d been ranting about his sister earlier because that was how he handled stress... by yapping constantly about anything and everything. It wasn’t something he was proud of, but it kept the panic at bay.

He’d been in this cavern for three days already, having woken up earlier than the others, and the fear had been building the entire time but after seeing another person wake up... someone older and someone who seemed calm, he couldn’t resist trying to connect.

’I want my big siste—’ Cedric thought desperately.

"Hey, could you stop talking?" Klaus asked, cutting through the woman’s rambling. "Your voice keeps grating against my head."

The woman turned to Klaus with an incredulous expression.

"You’re the one that fell for the oldest trick in the book, right?" she asked with a mocking laugh. "But that doesn’t matter anymore because your soul is ripe and will be consumed by our god. You need to abandon your earthly desir—"

In an instant, the iron binds behind Klaus’s back shattered.

He’d been using Magnetic Field this entire time, slowly bending and weakening the metal while the woman talked.

The ground below him formed a small crater as he activated both Magnetic Field and Iron Skin simultaneously, coating his entire right hand in solid metal that gleamed like polished steel.

In that singular instant, Klaus charged forward with explosive speed and the woman’s eyes barely had time to widen before his metal-coated fist connected with her face.

The impact was devastating. Her head snapped back with a sickening crunch of bone. Klaus followed her momentum forward, grabbing the back of her skull with his other hand and slamming her head directly into the rocky cavern wall.

A small explosion of force happened caused by metal meeting stone at high velocity.

Her head splattered like a watermelon dropped from a building. Blood, brain matter, and fragments of skull sprayed across the stone in a grotesque pattern and her body went limp immediately, dropping to the ground in a heap.

The black Death Magic that had been gathering around her hand vanished completely, dissipating into harmless smoke.

’Cool...’ Cedric thought, his eyes sparkling despite the gore.

He didn’t mind blood or violence... he’d grown up in a noble family where duels and executions were fairly common but seeing someone move that fast, that efficiently, was genuinely impressive.

Klaus turned toward him with blood splattered across his face and dripping from his metal-coated hand. He kneeled in front of Cedric with a serious expression.

"So kid," Klaus said. "If you want to get out of here with me, then we have to set some rules. And you should be aware that I will drop you if you become baggage with no use."

He locked eyes with Cedric.

"Are you ready to listen to me?" Klaus asked. "We’re the only two that are leaving this place, as long as you trust me."

"I would touch your hand, big brother," Cedric said, managing a small smile despite the circumstances. "But I’m still tied up."

Klaus snapped his fingers.

The iron bindings around Cedric’s wrists and ankles bent and twisted under Magnetic Field’s influence, falling away like broken chains.

Cedric rubbed his hands around his wrists where the metal had chafed the skin, then looked up with genuine joy in his eyes.

"So big brother," Cedric asked eagerly. "What’s your name?"

"Big brother?" Klaus asked, raising an eyebrow while casting Cleanse to remove the blood from his face and hands. "Do we look like we’re related?"

While he wouldn’t mind being nobility, he was stuck as a commoner, the class divide was pretty clear.

"Regardless, my name is Klaus," he continued. "No surname since I’m a commoner."

"That’s alright!" Cedric said enthusiastically. "You’re my savior. I’m Cedric Arlain, the youngest son of the Arlain family."

Klaus turned around, still on one knee.

"If you think that you being a noble will curry favor with me, then you’re solely mistaken," Klaus said, his tone cool and detached.

Cedric’s eyes sparkled even more at that response... someone who didn’t care about his family name or status was rare and fascinating.

"Regardless, climb onto my back..." Klaus said. "You can’t run as fast as me, after all."

And with that, Klaus looked at the storage ring on his hand.

’These people hadn’t even taken it...’ Klaus thought with contempt. ’Such noobs.’

He pulled out the Compass of Truth... the Tier 0 item he’d gotten from the gacha and focused on it.

’Find me the exit.’ Klaus thought. The brass needle spun wildly for a moment, then stopped, pointing toward one of the tunnel exits. The compass was unreliable normally, but in desperate situations it worked better and this definitely qualified as desperate.

He also summoned one of his swords from the storage ring, using Magnetic Field to make it hover beside him. Cedric climbed onto Klaus’s back, wrapping his arms around his neck carefully.

"Hold on tight."

Klaus stepped onto the floating sword, using Magnetic Field to control its movement like a hoverboard. He accelerated out of the cavern with the sword carrying both of them through the darkness, following the compass’s direction.

’Let us...’ Klaus thought as they shot into the tunnel, leaving the unconscious sacrifices behind. ’...pave a way out of hell.’