Rumble!!
The ground shakes, the staircase was filled, slowly all of the hostages that were previously captured began to step on the surface again, they ran out of the house, one, then two, until all of them were out, then came Heimfher and Bentley.
Just as the house was about to collapse and fell into the basement, Duskiell came out of the wardrobe and ran, at the last moment before the house ceiling fell, Duskiell jumped out and was caught by Bentley and Heimfher.
Crash!
Two houses were destroyed, one that they entered, and another one from the nearby houses which thankfully only half of their structure collapsed, the house resident survived and was only lightly injured.
In the end, all of the hostages inside the basement had safely been freed, all of them broke into tears the moment they realized that they're still alive and was free again, some prayed, some cried, while others thanked Heimfher and his colleagues.
"—Is everyone okay?.." Duskiell asked, he glanced at both Heimfher and Duskiell along with all of the hostages.
When they all nodded, Duskiell then sighed in relief.
"Good.. We'll bring you to the bureau shortly."
The scared hostages then smiled for the first time ever since they were kidnapped, they all sighed simultaneously and whispered among each other, expressing their gratitude and also hope that they would be able to meet with their family again.
"I have a question though." Suddenly, Heimfher approached one of the hostages, that hostage was the only person that seems to be calm and collected among the others who were always in a panic.
"What is it?" The hostage said, he was a man in his 40's and has a lot of scars in his face.
"How long have you all been there?" Heimfher asked.
The man soon answered.
"Not long.. Probably 3 days" He said.
"I see.." Heimfher nodded.
'There should be more than fifty hostages based on the report this morning, yet we only found 33.. Where's the other half—
'Bentley's magic led us here, that means the necklace owner was among these people, that doesn't solve the problem though.. Now that these people have been located, we won't be able to locate the rest of the hostages since Bentley doesn't have any item that belongs to one of the hostages that were in the other place.'
"Then, do you know why you're kidnapped?.."
"We don't have an idea.. However we do heard the kidnapper sometimes say something about.. For their god and some plan." The man replied, his face was visibly afraid.
"Whatever their plan might be, we're sure that it's not going to let us live.. That's why we all thought that maybe we're going to be some sort of a sacrifice.. If it weren't for you, who knows what fate awaits us in that place.."
As Heimfher frowned from the pitiful state of the hostages, he was thinking about what he should do next with the info he just received, that is until he was startled by a voice calling for him.
It was Duskiell, who had been staring at the hole that was created by the collapsed house.
"Hey kiddo." He said.
For some reason, hearing Duskiell calling Heimfher a kiddo again made him a little angry.
"What is it?" Heimfher approached Duskiell as he also glanced at the massive hole.
"That." Duskiell said, he only said one word, yet Heimfher could tell that it meant something as moments later, he moved his eyes to the same place that Duskiell was looking and found a tunnel crevice that was almost covered by the rubbles.
"Is that.." Heimfher was skeptical with what he was seeing, but Duskiell quickly cleared up his doubt.
"A tunnel." He replied.
"It was probably covered by the walls and those robed men is planning to destroy it later."
While Heimfher was observing the tunnel crevice, looking if what he was seeing were true or not, Duskiell suddenly leaned on his shoulder and gave him a thumbs up.
"Good work kiddo, you're better than i thought, summoning that many fireballs– If it wasn't for your monstrous mana veins, you would've fainted in an instant." He praised, giving Hemfher a smile straight from his face.
"Haha.. Thank you." Heimfher gave a smile back to Duskiell as he brushed off his hand from his shoulder.
Seeing as how their work wasn't over yet, Duskiell then took a short glance at Bentley, he noticed his fatigue starting to hinder his movement and decided to order him to rest.
"Bentley." Duskiell called.
"Lead everyone in here to the bureau, after that you should rest.. I don't want to see you die infront of me, so go die in your bed– And resurrect when you feel like it."
Bentley saw Duskiell, even if the two of them were all injured, Duskiell still care about his well being more than himself.
"Thanks.. Then i'll take my leave, please come back alive.. Duskiell." Bentley replied solemnly, his lips vaguely smiled before his body turned and he spoke to the hostages.
Now that there was only two people left in the mission, both Heimfher and Duskiell then chose to rest for a few minutes before they continue.
While all of the hostages were leaving along with Bentley, Heimfher and Duskiell sat at the edge of the sinkhole and pondered to the sky.
"After all of this is over, we still have the Dead Deity Order case.. Goddamnit, i've never been this busy ever since becoming an awakened." Duskiell said out of nowhere, his fingers gestured as if he was smoking even though there was no cigarette in his hand.
"I think its all due to you."
He then turned his head towards Heimfher.
"What?" Heimfher responded, tilting his head in confusion.
"After you joined, we suddenly have all sorts of troubles.. Almost as if you were a main character in a story." Duskiell jokingly said, he lightly pushed Heimfher's shoulder to cheer him up.
"How's your injury?"
"It's bearable." Heimfher replied.
'To be honest, i feel like i want to scream right in this moment.. But i can't do that now that i've chose to act as the strong willed Heimfher—
'Haahh.. A normal guy from earth to an officer in another world, you really can't guess what's going to happen in your life—
'There's still a lot that i need to do.. But for now, i need to tackle the more trivial things before i move on to my grand mission.'
Heimfher then accidentally remembered the notification in his phone right before he was reincarnated.
'...Achieve Godhood– As if i can do that, i don't know why i said i'll become a God back in the academy, in the first place.. I don't know how to become a God—
'Oh yeah—'
"Duskiell, when we were back in the basement, i remember you saying something about artifact.. What is that?" Heimfher abruptly asked.
Duskiell fell into silence for a few seconds, as if he was trying to remember his own words, then he hummed.
"Aaahhhh.. That, no one told you about it huh.. Well i figured that'd be the case—
"An artifacts, is similar to potions, are things that have been imbued with magical or godly properties, take the robes from those kidnappers earlier.. Those robes was most likely an artifact that can erase their presence, making them practically invisible to everyone—
"Other than that robe, we also have a few artifacts that we've collected, though they're all mostly useless.. Like the Endless Coffee Grail, and.. It's as you would expect from the name, its a grail that produces unlimited coffee—
"Believe it or not, artifacts are usually created by the Gods themselves.. They bestowed the mortal world with magical items that can either bring prosperity or ruins, but there are also ways to make an artifacts as a human, and that is.. Through the sacrifice of an awakened—
"Prepare something precious to you, acquire an awakened heart, no matter what God power they have, then with some other ingredients that relates to the God, mix it with water and drown your precious items in it– Wait for a few says and your items shall become an artifact.. Mostly."
Duskiell ended his explanation while he stared into the starry night.
Heimfher was left intrigued once again, the new knowledge he got was more precious than anything, especially for the future where he would certainly be stronger and met with stronger opponent. If he can't beat all of his opponent with magic, then he can always use the advantage of using an artifact, the same goes for his opponents.
That's why knowing about artifacts, even to the knowledge of how to make them was important.
"I see.. Thanks for the knowledge." Heimfher said, he felt glad that Duskiell was his colleague, and maybe friend.
A few minutes passed by, and soon, Duskiell stood up before he stretched his body for the second time.
"Let's continue, kiddo.. You're coming okay? If you don't i'll cut your monthly wage." He said to Heimfher.
"What!" Heimfher panicked when Duskiell mentioned his wage, as the least thing that he wanted in this world was a cut from his income.
"You bastard!"
And with that, Heimfher jumped down the sinkhole with Duskiell, together they scrapped off all of the rubbles that covered the secret tunnel until there was enough space for them to fit inside.
The tunnel was deep, it seems to be stretching farther than what they had expected, Heimfher then lit up a fireball to see where they were going, he walked along with Duskiell, getting closer with the end of the tunnel. step by step.