For the next couple of days, Liam continued racing from one floor to another while also giving a small amount of time for each floor to look around and search for anything valuable that he could use.
However, the only floor that was remotely useful was the one where he had to work as an herb picker and harvest the herbs grown in the mountain to the noble lord who was his employer.
In fact, he had to use a villainous back-handed attack even to get that advantage. Liam had first submitted the herbs to the noble who seemed decent enough but by the time the golden glow managed to envelop him and teleport him, he had already killed him and tossed some of the valuable herbs in his mouth.
The fruit embedded in his heart took care of the rest and quickly absorbed the essence of the herbs and stored it away in the same chamber.
Liam still did not know how exactly this worked. He did feel some amount of essence absorbed by his body so he guessed that the abundant overflowing essence gets tucked away in the fruit.
This was something that he had to figure out later. In the meantime, he continued combing through the floors. It took ten more floors when Liam finally stumbled across something that could be beneficial.
Or on second thought perhaps not.
Liam frowned when he saw the setup in front of him. He was currently standing in the ruins of some sort of temple and around him were the dead bodies of the dozens of men he had slaughtered.
While they were weak individually, they had put up quite a fight against him using some sort of group attack.
It should have been difficult for any group to achieve that sort of synergy but looking at the clothes these guys were wearing Liam understood things immediately.
They were all wearing the same type of robe with the same weird symbols. They had to belong to a cult of some kind which would also explain their coordination and group attack.
He was still in the outer part of the ruins so there should be more of these cultists in the main building that seemed to be located under the ground. Depending on the number of cultists in there, things could potentially get extremely dangerous.
However, Liam's concern at the moment was something else.
He looked at the three figures on the ground who were staring back at him anxiously and nervously. Of course, there was the fourth person who seemed to be neither afraid of him nor interested in the proceedings, choosing instead to examine a piece of rock on the ground with an intensity that suggested he found it more intriguing than the current situation.
The three anxious figures were apparently prisoners of the cultists, bound by some sort of energy shackles that dampened their abilities. Liam could see the remnants of fear and exhaustion on their faces, but there was also a flicker of hope now that he had arrived.
The fourth individual, however, was an enigma. His indifference to the chaos around him suggested he was either extremely brave, foolish, or powerful.
"My Lord, please hear us out. The cultists have something extremely valuable. Every full moon, they pray to their god and perform their rituals, even sacrificing other living beings to obtain the blessed flower." Hatred was etched on the man's face as he continued. "We are the last batch of sacrifice. They had already killed many men before. They have been doing this since last night." "So you don't need us. Instead, if you kill them all, you will be able to get the blessed flower. I am sure someone like you would be able to extract many benefits from the flower." "We have heard rumors that these wandering cultists belong to an immensely powerful group. This flower is definitely how they are gaining their power."
"Tell me more about this flower. What does it look like? And where is it kept?" Liam asked, his interest piqued.
The man hesitated for a moment, his gaze flickering to his companions before returning to Liam. "The flower is said to bloom only under the light of the full moon, emitting a soft, ethereal glow. It's a rare sight, one that's deeply revered by the cultists. As for its location, it's kept in the innermost chamber of the temple, heavily guarded and sealed with powerful magic."
And this was what was bothering Liam. "You seem to know a lot about this?" He asked the talkative guy. Chances are that there was no such flower and these guys were probably sending him on an errand to finish off the rest of the cultists either for revenge or to eradicate the group who were probably harassing their village or town on a regular basis.
If this was the case then he did not mind being used. But on the other hand, if this guy was a plant of some sort to keep the other prisoners in check and he was essentially leading him to a trap, then shit would hit the fan real soon.
While Liam was confident in dealing with some of these cultists, a whole slew of them would be difficult for him. Well, that is if he did not bring out his soul army. If he let his soul blood beasts run amok then things would be a lot easier. Maybe. Things were heating up now that he was in the third segment and he did not want to underestimate anyone.
"Alright. I will go down and check it out." Liam started walking further into the ruins. Trap or not he had to check this out. Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to clear the floor. At the same time, two of his minions silently materialized and hid behind a broken wall to keep an eye on the prisoners. Liam also hadn't freed any of them yet so there was that additional safety measure. Apart from this, the elf was also stationed outside along with another soul minion in case there was any emergency. Keeping his eyes open, he headed downstairs deeper into the ruins.