Jacob looked at the person behind his back and heard the first shouts.
“What the f*ck, what is this?!”
A man was looking straight at him with pure hatred as if Jacob had killed these people himself; the man was probably angry someone exposed him to reality.
“The people who are now inside the temple backstabbed these people. Look at the wounds. Their necks and backs have mortal wounds. The rest – broken bones and limbs – have happened after their death or while they were dying. Whoever did this was out for blood, not for a fight. And not just that, they betrayed these people.”
Jacob was not sure that honesty would be the best approach here, but he had to make clear what kind of threat they were now facing.
He saw Geneva’s dark gaze roam on the body, one of the few who had not thrown up or started screaming.
“We are now racing against time since the wound is fresh. If those people get their hands on the weapons before we do, we are dead.”
“Who the hell is sick enough to do something like this?!” the same man as before shouted as if he did not hear one of Jacob’s words.
“The only town close enough to the ruins is Fort Mountain,” Jacob stated.
A woman stumbled forward, with eyes fixed on one of the bodies.
“Judith?” she whispered.
The others parted and let her go forward.
Jacob knew what was next and went straight for the man who would ignore the poor woman's pain and start shouting again.
“Have some respect, please,” Jacob told the guy, ready to punch his teeth out in case he didn’t understand. Instead, the guy swallowed his protests and just watched.
The woman had now kneeled beside a body and was shaking it softly with one hand while the other rested in front of her mouth.
“Judith, Judith,” she chanted.
Some people have family in Fort Mountain.
Jacob saw the woman get up after a minute and use a napkin to dry her cheeks. Their gestures had dignity and composure, unlike what you would expect from someone who just saw a loved one dead.
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“My sister, Judith,” the woman stared at the crowd and pointed at the body. She wanted someone to look at her sister, to recognize she once had been a human being, not a cattle to slaughter; she needed people to acknowledge her before saying the last goodbye.
This woman was in her thirties and had a short blonde pixie cut. Her gaze was steel, and not one muscle on her body was twitching. She brought a medallion she had around her neck to her lips and kissed it.
Jacob got close to her.
“Excuse, miss?”
“Marina,” she said, slowly turning toward Jacob.
“We will bury your sister and all these other people after making sure those bastards will not hurt anyone else. Is that okay?”
Marina nodded calmly.
Jacob feared that the idiot who had just stopped screaming would soon resume, but no one was saying anything anymore when he turned. After seeing the woman's countenance, it did not feel right to whine, scream or shout.
Marina had just established a precedent, a code of conduct.
Jacob turned toward the crowd and spoke a few words.
“We’ll go inside. I’ll take care of traps in front of us, but I need you to walk in line and not step aside. I cannot disable every single trap, so if you step out of the line for any reason, you will most likely die. If you want to wait outside, I have no problem with it. There will be fighting once inside, and we have no guarantee we will not suffer casualties. I recommend to everyone who’s not sure of this to step back now.”
Geneva and Marina stepped forward in silence.
The man who had been shouting a minute before took a step back.
Out of the twenty-something people, only twelve decided to enter the ruins with them. A similar-sized group had just chosen to stay outside.
“Well, let’s go,” Jacob was done with speeches.
Juliet was right behind him and Frederick at the end of the line, closing it. He was at the 3rd level of Qi and Mana, apparently; this meant that he was strong enough for whatever human threat they would face. Juliet had reached the 4th level in Qi and the 3rd in Mana. She was also quite close to the 5th level in Qi now, from what Jacob gathered. She had been cultivating non-stop both with her Cultivation Technique and Body Technique. The Sacred Phoenix Body Technique made her body even stronger than Helena’s, who was probably nearing the 6th level of Qi cultivation already.
Jacob was still sitting at a grand 2nd level of Qi cultivation and the 0th level of Mana Cultivation.
Everyone in his group had a cumulative level higher than him, but not one of them should cross his path, especially now. He was always ruthless in fighting, but never like once people start behaving like rabid beasts.
The threshold had the same flavor some Roman Catacombs gave off. Then, people started staring at the atrium, big enough to fit at least a hundred people. He knew that there were around 8 rooms to this complex, plus two secret ones from his memory.
Every room had some treasure, but the sword he was after was in one of the two secret rooms. He had not been here during the expedition in his past life, but he had visited this place later on.
“Ok, the next room has standard pressure plates that will trigger arrows even if you hear screams, even if someone were to toss a stone at you, do-not-move. If you are courting death and want to take a stroll on the pressure plates, bring your chin to your chest and hope no arrow goes through your skull.”
He knew he was giving away a bit too much of his expertise, but he seriously did not care much for it. These people were conspiracy theorists with a massive kick of adrenaline in their bodies right now, so Jacob wondered if they could even analyze his behavior.
“Let’s go, first room is waiting for us.”