Chapter 8 – A Deeper Conspiracy

As soon as they entered the base of the Demonhead Gang, they found themselves in a short corridor leading to a huge hall with countless gang members preparing to go out to hunt for them.

Sam received a notification in his head

[Mission: Eliminate Demonhead Gang. Reward: 1 Karma Point]

"One Karma Point? What is that?" he wondered.

[Karma Points allow the user to have one wish that can grant user a special ability or weapon, or even change the system]

"Huh?" Sam scratched his head. That was too vague. "We'll cross the bridge when we come to it" he mumbled to himself.

Suddenly, he and the other two girls noticed that they could not move another step as if they were stopped by an invisible wall. They could walk up to the end of the short corridor but no further.

Sam figured that this was the limit of his view from his earlier vantage point, so in order to move any further, he would have to exit the Nexus first, in order to enter it again and go further.

However, there were literally a fifty or more gangsters and bandits around them. And all of them looked like they will be using the corridor to head towards the exit.

"What should we do then?" Tauriel asked after Sam explained the situation to them.

"If we rush them, we will alert the whole base. We could also just wait here, let them pass through our intangible bodies in the Nexus" Sam suggested.

"Or... we could exit the Nexus here, attract their attention, then slip past them in the Nexus. From here, you can see that corridor over the other side of the hall right? We can exit there!" Mindy said

"That's a great idea" Sam agreed

"By the way, what level are you now? Can you summon more fighters? The odds are not looking good for us regardless" Mindy said.

Sam checked his stats. When he was Level 9 before, he summoned Tauriel, reducing his level to Level 8. Then they fought several more teams of bandits increasing his level again, leaving him currently at Level 10.

"I'm a Level 10 now. I can summon probably one or two more people." he answered.

"Ok then, here's the plan. We will exit the Nexus here and generate as much attention as possible, then disappear again into the Nexus. We then move over to that corridor on the left over there, as that one looks more empty. Then we try to find a empty room and I will summon another one or two familiars." Sam instructed.

Both girls nodded.

"Ok, ready? On the count of three. One...... Two.... Three!" he yelled

All three of them exited the Nexus and Sam immediately fired an innumerable number of Magic Missiles at as many bandits as he could see.

Tauriel also fired multiple arrows, hitting the most dangerous looking or highly ranked looking bandits as she could see.

As for Mindy, she suddenly took out two handguns and started firing indiscriminately, killing many bandits and causing a huge ruckus.

They all then just disappeared into the Nexus and ran towards the agreed corridor running in an intangible state through the bandits. They hid in the shadows and exited the Nexus so that they could take the next jump into the Nexus if needs be.

"Mindy! What... I didn't know you had guns on you. Why didn't you use them earlier?" he asked in a whisper.

"Earlier? We were in the jungle trying to shake off our pursuers. Loud firearms will only attract more attention than your bright glowing Magic Missiles" she answered factually.

Sam was exasperated. She was right, but knowing that she had unlimited supply of firearms would have changed his plans.

"Wait, what is that?" Tauriel asked, pointing at the bandits they passed. While many of them died, there were a group of them that were not only injured, but healing at a fast rate.

Not only that, they all started going berserk and their bodies were physically growing and hair was sprouting all over their bodies.

"Lycans. Werewolves!" Sam mumbled.

The werewolves tore open their tops and were only dressed in their pants and disregarded their weapons as their hands became deadly looking claws and their faces grew canine snouts and fangs.

They all started howling and sniffing around before turning around and faced the hall, growling.

"They can track us. Run!" Tauriel said as she fired an arrow that pierced the nearest werewolf between the eyes.

They ran down the corridor as 20 or so werewolves chased after them at a superhuman pace.

While Tauriel could outrun them, Mindy was only peak human and was losing ground. Sam was even worse as his body was nowhere near as fit or fast as Mindy, let alone Tauriel.

They turned the corner and found an unlocked door. They quickly entered it and barricaded the door shut before turning around to look at where they were.

As the werewolves attacked the door, Mindy turned around and gasped

"What the hell were they doing here?" she said

Sam and Tauriel looked around. There was a stone staircase from the door leading down to a dungeon. There, they found hundreds of dead and rotting bodies, all with their heads missing and their hearts removed.

There were naked bodies of men, women and children of all ages and races, but all were killed in some sort of ritual sacrifice.

There were several empty cages there, where it looked like the prisoners were kept. Then nearby was a executioner's chopping block where the victim was decapitated.

In fact, there was still a naked female body rotting on the block and the lady had her heart removed while on the block too. Sam guessed that they would tie the naked body down facing upwards, then remove her beating heart and then finally chop her head off.

The piles of bodies looked like they just dumped the body aside after they removed the heart and head, and there was no attempt of cleaning up the place or even burying or burning the bodies.

"These cruel bastards. What they hell are they doing?" Mindy asked while grinding her teeth in anger.

"It would appear that they weren't kidnapping people to sell into slavery or for ransom. Unbelievable...." Sam thought out loud.

"These are human sacrifices..." Tauriel answered

"To who or what?" Mindy asked.

"I think that is what we are here to find out and eliminate" Sam sighed. So much for a simple mission of eliminating human bandits. This was turning out to me much more complicated.

Tauriel stared at the door with a hateful glare. The werewolves won't take long to break the door down as the door was already cracking bit by bit.

"Sam. You enter the Nexus and summon another warrior. I don't feel like hiding in the Nexus right now" Tauriel said with righteous anger blazing in her eyes.

"I am with Tauriel. I want to vent my anger" Mindy said, cocking her large rifle.

"Alright then. Protect each other and please don't get killed" he said, placing one of his hands on each of their naked shoulders.

"Take care" he said as he entered the Nexus and found a clean space on the ground to lie down and commanded:

"Nexus! I want to summon another familiar!"