Chapter 502 Behind the Bars

As the party of five descended the stairs, a crude underground dungeon came into view, exactly as Xia Nan had guessed.

Long deprived of ventilation, the air that rushed into their noses carried a foul, rotting stench.

The dungeon was small enough to see straight to the far end by the flickering torchlight. The ceiling sat barely one and a half times a man's height, forcing the squad's half-orc, Hogk, to constantly duck his head as he moved.

The ground was loose, slightly packed dirt. A deliberately cleared path stretched from the entrance to the far wall, flanked on both sides by locked metal bars.

These grates had clearly gone without maintenance for a long time. Their surfaces were covered in rust, and many joints were warped with obvious signs of deformation. Some of the iron doors couldn't even close properly, forced shut instead with heavy iron chains.

Nineteen people were locked inside these iron cages.

Their beds were filthy piles of straw tucked into the corners. Food and water were stored in iron basins—much like the way livestock was fed in his past life—and radiated waves of stench.

Men, women, the young, and the old—they were crammed into this narrow, underground space like cargo. They wore tattered rags, and their exposed skin was covered in wounds that had either scabbed over or remained raw and bloody, to say nothing of the extensive bruising and festering sores.

An old man sat alone in a shadowy corner untouched by the firelight, his body completely stiff. His head drooped at an unnatural angle, and his bruised left leg was hideously twisted. An empty sleeve hung limply from his shoulder, and his unopening eyes were forever buried in the deep shadows cast by his brow.

A mother tightly embraced her child, her eyes hollow. Even though she lacked the strength to speak, she rhythmically patted the toddler's back on pure instinct, silently comforting her offspring who was equally on the verge of death.

There was no angry shouting, no wailing.

Long-term imprisonment had slowed their minds. Driven only by a raw will to survive, they sat or lay motionless in their spots, eliminating every unnecessary expenditure of energy.

Despair. Exhaustion.

Even when they saw Xia Nan's group come down the stairs—people whose aura and attire were completely different from the pirates—the prisoners initially showed no reaction at all.

The dead silence dragged on for five whole seconds before the people locked in the dungeon began to realize the situation seemed to have changed. A faint stir rippled through them.

Looking at these emaciated, scarred ordinary humans behind the bars, Xia Nan frowned.

Silently, his Perception expanded to its absolute limit.

Judging by their similar clothing, demeanor, and honey-colored skin, they were very likely locals of the Southern Archipelagos.

But...

Why were they cruelly locked up here like criminals in such a desperate, tragic state?

As Xia Nan pondered, combining this with his recently accumulated experience, a few ideas began to take shape in his mind.

"Clang!"

Perhaps their distinctly different attire from the pirates outside gave them hope. Gradually realizing that Xia Nan and the others didn't seem to be part of the Ebb Tide Gang, these tormented civilians mustered the last sliver of their fading courage.

By the wall near the exit, the least injured among the prisoners—a young man covered in mud but with his limbs intact—threw his body against the iron bars so hard it startled the half-orc Hogk.

Completely ignoring the intense pain flaring from his forehead and chest, he produced a loud crash of metal that echoed through the underground space.

"My lord!" His voice was incredibly hoarse as he pressed his face between the iron bars, all ten fingers locked onto the grate. "Save us, my lord!"

In response, the reactions of the Shield of Iron Rock Squad were exceptionally cold.

Captain Habik gripped his one-handed Faceted Hammer, his vigilant gaze sweeping over the figures behind the bars.

Despite being a fellow human, Seli acted as if she hadn't heard him. She stared coldly at the young man pleading for help, her thoughts unknown.

The gnome Rogue, Agu, stayed hidden in the deep shadows, acting as if everything happening here had nothing to do with him.

Hogk had the most intense reaction of them all. He was angry.

But his anger wasn't on behalf of these abused humans. He was annoyed that the young man's sudden movement had startled him, and he glared fiercely at the prisoner with his round eyes.

Under normal circumstances, facing the glare of such a strange and powerful adventurer, an ordinary civilian like the young man behind the bars would likely have dropped to his knees begging for mercy the moment that gaze swept over him.

Now, however, it was as if death had numbed his nerves. He only clung to the bars, calling weakly for help.

As a human with a normal moral compass, there was no way Xia Nan could act as aloof as the members of the Shield of Iron Rock Squad.

His keen Perception allowed him to confirm that the people locked in the dungeon right now were all ordinary humans without Transcendent Tier power. They posed no danger.

He immediately took two steps forward, arriving at the iron bars.

"Shing!"

Accompanied by a sharp whistle tearing through the air, a flash of sharp pink light flared and vanished.

Possessing the "Greater Toughness" effect, his Short Dagger, [Honey Tangerine], flashed out of its sheath and returned to his waist in the blink of an eye.

Clatter—

The rusted iron chain, along with the lock that tightly bound the metal bars, was cleanly sliced in two and fell to the ground.

Gripping the freed iron bars, Xia Nan pulled with just a fraction of his arm's strength, dragging open the tightly locked grate.

He reached out and steadied the young man's shoulder, helping him find his balance after he nearly toppled over from the sudden jerk of the gate.

Xia Nan's deep, pitch-black eyes looked at the young man's mud-covered face.

"Where are you from?"

"Ta... Talo Island." The opened iron gate seemed to fill the young man with unprecedented hope. His increasingly weak voice unconsciously rose, and his despondent mood grew excited.

"Elpha Island, and Silver Reef Fishing Village... We... we were all captured and brought here, my lord!"

Xia Nan had heard of the places the man mentioned. They were all remote, small human settlements similar to Cliff Rock Island.

"You mean, you were all abducted from your home villages by these pirates?"

"Yes, my lord..."

The brief burst of excitement seemed to have exhausted the last bit of energy in the young man's body. His state withered visibly, yet he still answered Xia Nan's question.

But just a second later, his head snapped up and he screamed, "Fishmen! My lord, watch out for the fishmen!"