That was not the answer any of us were expecting.
“What do you mean?” I needed more context. "How can you be helping us and not be on our side?” I motioned in the direction I thought the lift was. "I thought you wanted Sipher stopped?”
“While we may want the same thing, that does not mean that I will try to protect you or even work with you.” Glima touched the tattoo on her right arm. "As I said, I can not help you work against him, but I can give you information to better arm yourselves.”
Gesai opened her mouth, but Glima waved her hand to silence her.
“I can not give you your weapons outside of your training.”
“So what can you do?” I couldn’t stop the smirk as Gesai crossed her arms and sank into her chair.
“I can tell you that he goes around collecting bunkers like this to store his illegal goods. That he keeps a wife that is bound to each one.” The way she said wife made it sound like an insult. "And that he works with the Nobility to help them maintain power through kidnapping, extortion, and murder.”
“Sylph…” Justia looked like she was about to cry. "Where are you from?”
“Juel is where my family is from. Sylph’s father was a merchant and our caravan was attacked shortly after she was born. We had Tier Four Adventurers guarding us, but at Tier Five, none of them were a match for him. He agreed to let my daughter live if I would marry him and maintain one of his bases.” She shook her head. "He killed everyone else except us. That is how he tried to level, by doing the shady work for the Nobles so that Hunters would never be sent after him.”
“That explains how he’s been wanted for so long and never been caught.” Gesai looked around. "Just how far does he operate? I can’t imagine the Hunters on the other side…”
“The whole globe.” Glima cut her off. “He has bunkers in Desolations all over the globe and he has mapped out which dungeons are connected, so he can travel quickly anywhere in the world.”
“Wait, it’s all connected?” That news shocked me. "I mean, I knew that some of the dungeons were connected to each other, but they all are?”
She nodded. "I have seen his map a few times. He has over a hundred on it.”
“That map would be worth a lot of money…” Gesai let the thought finish in everyone’s head.
“No one knows that he has one.” Glima shook her head. "And those who do know are kept prisoner like me.”
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“So what can you do?” Oz rephrased her original question again. "How does any of this help us or stop him? We’re just as trapped down here as you are.”
Glima touched her tattoo again. "You can leave. I can not.”
“Okay, so you’re trapped down here, but again, what do you want from us?” The raven-haired woman leaned forward as she tried to restructure her question again.
“I want you to know that I am not your enemy.” Glima looked at each of us. "And I want you to find a way to escape so that he will be stopped.” She stopped at Gesai. "Trent Vowler is strong enough to win. But once he becomes Tier six, he will be unstoppable.”
Gesai nodded. "So we just have to find a way out of here and get a message to Trent, who is probably in the fifties of some Dungeon that we don’t know exactly.” She shook her head. "Even if we found a way out, there’s no way to get a message to Trent with these cuffs over our bands.”
“I can disable the cuffs while you are training.” Glima offered. "Though any messages you send will be duplicated to him.”
“Could we leave during training?” Justia looked hopeful.
“No.” Glima shook her head. "I have to reactivate the cuffs if you ever leave the training area.” She held up her hand before Gesai could speak. "And I am to collect your weapons even if I have to use force.”
I had an idea of exactly how effective we’d be against her ‘force’. I turned to Rix. "This was originally supposed to be a bunker. As in a place for Gar to hide if her city was ever under attack. I find it hard to believe that there’s only one way in or out. Have you found anything?”
Rix shook her head. "Not so far, but there is a lot of space to cover.” The redhead looked at our host. "Is there a second entrance?”
Glima shook her head. "If there is, then either Sipher does not know about it or he did not tell me.”
Gesai snapped her fingers. "So that’s our way out. We find the backdoor.”
“Do you have to tell him if we leave?” I wondered how much time we’d have if we found a way out.
“I have no orders about that.” Glima looked around the table. "I do not have to inform him even if none of you show up to the fighting pit. My assistance there is a luxury and if you do not wish to partake in it, then why should he be bothered every day?”
“Alright then…” Gesai tapped her fingers on the table. "Is there anyone else here that would work with us?”
“There is no one here that I would trust.” The bald woman shook her head. "In order to be in one of these, you must receive a similar brand.” She shook her head. "I do not know how compelled the others are to report to him. Which is why I cautioned you. He can not know about this.”
“Rix, can you get around without raising any suspicion?” Gesai looked at the other redhead.
There was a part of me that was a little sad that our Shooter didn’t look at me for approval before she nodded. Though thinking about it, it shouldn’t have surprised me. Rix almost never asked permission before doing her thing, but somehow she was always around when I needed her. There was one more piece of information that we needed that I could think of.
“How often is he coming back?”
The rest of my team looked at me, except for Jord who had been very quiet the entire time. The other man in the room was still looking at the floor like he wanted to be anywhere but here.
“Unless there is an emergency, he is not.” Glima’s face was full of concern. "They are going to be staying in the dungeon and Farming straight through until he reaches Tier Six.”