Rebirth: Rise of the Slave Master

Chapter Twenty: Six Days

“Go! Block it!” Theo shouted the directions to his slave.

Slave [Princess Anastasia Therasa Bolevolo XVII] has used unique ability [Blessing of the Stonekin]. Defense increases by 80; Movement Speed reduced to 25% for 120 seconds.

“Ack! Stupid humie! Protect Gobthnora better!”

Waves of scaly flesh crashed into the petite woman’s battered shield as she intercepted the attack. She was knocked back a couple of meters, but she had successfully taken the brunt of the damage for the squishy Goblin behind her. With a sturdy Meatshield in front of her, Gobthnora had only received shock damage from the attack, which was quickly restored by the passive healing spell [Lesser Regeneration].

This useful magic was like the reverse of poison, restoring a small percentage of HP every few seconds and effectively boosting the target’s passive health regeneration. Gobthnora had picked up the ability when she reached level 10, which allowed Theo to confidently bring his slaves into the lair of the [Desert Serpent Queen].

Although [Lesser Regeneration] wouldn’t be able to serve the group’s needs forever, it worked well with Theo’s usual strategy of taking as little damage as possible. In addition, Meatshield’s massive HP pool would see more benefit from the percentage based healing as opposed to static values. The only downside was that Gobthnora had to split her MP between damage, healing, buffs, and debuffs. She spent every fight constantly chanting her spells while Meatshield protected her.

For the time being, Theo didn’t need to rely on his tank to absorb damage for him. The passive healing was enough to negate the dangers of the shock damage.

“Watch out for falling rocks!” Theo didn’t allow his slaves to grow complacent during their fights.

When he had branded them, it was essentially freeing the pair from the enslavement of the system and putting them under Theo’s control. The only real difference was Theo was much more of a taskmaster and perfectionist! How could the War God possibly allow himself to raise up subpar servants?

Although it could resist the effect somewhat, the [Desert Serpent Queen] was significantly easier to handle under the speed debuffing effects of [Bogwarp]. Theo was hacking away at the boss’s HP bar in a relaxed manner. His attack value was lower than it had been the first time he fought her, but he could focus less on dodging and more on damage. The [Rampage] ability was useful for speeding through the early part of the fight, and the second phase was handled easily with Meatshield’s tanking. This was already the fourth time this week the party had killed the boss.

In order to avoid any mishaps, Theo had tackled the monster alone the first time and allowed his slaves to watch from the safety of the entrance. He spent the battle pointing out the strategies and weak points while ordering his slaves to watch the timing of the attacks carefully. The fanaticism in Gobthnora’s eyes had increased by a measure after watching this display. Meatshield seemed unimpressed, but then the only thing that truly appeared to grab her attention was the thought of carving up the boss for its meat. At least they were both intelligent enough to grasp the proper rhythm when it was their turn to try.

Meatshield carefully parried a chunk of debris that was careening towards the Goblin with her shield. Without missing a beat, the shaman launched a smoldering [Fireball]. It crashed into the [Desert Serpent Queen]’s massive head and tore off a good chunk of her HP.

A [Lunge] pierced the thick scales on the boss’s neck, and she finally hit the ground with a cavern-shaking roar.

“Keekee! Gobthnora is true queen of desert now!” the Goblin celebrated their victory with her usual excessive boasting.

Meatshield eyed the snake with a greedy gleam in her eye.

Theo only dismounted the beast and dropped to the floor of the cave. His stern expression immediately informed the slaves of what was to come. No amount of pride or gluttony could conquer the cold bucket of water that was their master’s calculating glare.

“We’ll start with the princess,” Theo said soberly, “Although you can manage to the fend off the boss with your blessing, you can’t rely on that. The [Desert Serpent Queen] can hardly be considered a proper enemy. You won’t have the luxury of wasting your powers on this kind of opponent. That habit of taking hits when you should be dodging isn’t gone, either! How many times did I need to save you from the infant snakes this time? Don’t just focus on defending. You should always be watching the battle and finding ways to disrupt the enemy’s movements. Offense is defense!”

Theo watched as Meatshield nodded her head, and he sighed.

“Gobthnora, you’re too distracted by the monster’s attacks. You need to trust in Meatshield to protect you while you're casting. What’s more, the timing on your spells is still off. You have to work harder to sync up the final words of your incantation to align with the time when the target reveals a weakness. Think ahead! Always!”

The Goblin was already in the dirt groveling after the word ‘distracted’ was spoken, “Gobthnora is not worthy of master’s guidance! Gobthnora thanks master for sparing her pitiful life!”

Theo stifled his annoyance at the little performance.

He said, “Alright, go ahead and start dismantling the corpse, but reflect on your mistakes while you do. If you’re this sloppy in the next fight, it’s no dinner and three strikes each!”

Theo collected the loot from the [Desert Serpent Queen] and looked at his overflowing inventory. Although it wasn’t guaranteed to get runes and weapons from the Elite enemies, the boss would always drop at least one thing. The first run of the Withered Ash Hollow wasn’t so lucrative, but in the second and third he was quite lucky. This time could be considered average.

Although he had collected a few pieces of equipment that could increase the power and abilities of his slaves, Theo had kept all of it himself. He couldn’t afford to spoil them and have them become overly reliant on gear. It was a problem that all too many players fell into as they rose in level. There was a fire in Theo’s eyes as he foresaw his plans slowly coming together.

“I’ll need to head back to town now, the [Steel-Edged Partizan] is low on durability, and it should be time for frontrunners to be hitting level 10,” he said as he organized the loot in order of value.

It had been almost six days since the incident with Mary Ann. Theo managed to avoid a rather embarrassing conversation when she woke up the next morning by sleeping inside of the Lucid Lock. He wasn’t sure what kind of expression the woman would have on her face, but it was probably a once in a lifetime sight for him. Too bad…

Mary Ann presumably left without too much of a huff, since she didn’t bother to wake him up. Theo wasn’t sure which one of them should be feeling cheaper after the whole affair. At least he discovered an interesting fact in the process. Mary Ann was just as strong willed and thick skinned as he’d thought, and it only took her a single day to text him.

The apology was pretty much as expected, but she went a step further and made it clear that what had happened was her fault and he shouldn’t feel bad about it. It was clearly a bit sloppy and sent in a rushed manner, but it showed that she wasn’t going to hesitate and overthink things. Rick informed her that he didn’t consider it a big deal, and that she didn’t have to worry about it affecting their relationship. It was the simple truth.

Half a day later she got back to him, and seemed to be pretty much over it, at least on the surface. Theo mentally commended her, and the two had shared a slow, sterile correspondence ever since. To his own surprise, Mary Ann had stopped calling him diminutive names and started speaking to him like an equal.

“Did she still feel a bit bad about the whole thing?” he wondered.

There was a noise coming from the body of the [Desert Serpent Queen].

Meatshield had proven to be especially talented in the field of dismantling monsters, and she quickly put her [Goblin Shortsword] to work. Although it didn’t increase the amount of essences and loot he received, it had started producing more crafting ingredients after her [Beginner Monster Harvesting] skill leveled up a bit.

Once the job was done, Theo led his slaves back to the cave they had turned into their base of operations. The pile of food had continued to grow, showing that the pair were going out and hunting on their own when Theo wasn’t around. It wasn’t like he expressly prohibited the initiative, but he also didn’t want them to get into any trouble. He still remembered the forum post that popped up after a few days of Gobthnora’s ‘auto-looting.’

Gathering Players to Take Down Goblin Field Boss! This Menace Must be Stopped!

Thankfully, they had yet to put together the fact that she was a PvP entity, since the finer points of the system were still unexplored. If the players had paid attention to the fact that their experience wasn’t falling, they would have realized that the ‘Field Boss’ was considered player controlled. Since Goblin wasn’t one of the races you could pick, Theo was worried that they might link her status to the only Slave Master in the game.

At least he had managed to make a small profit out of it, and he had even picked up the [Mercenary’s Abandoned Shield] for the princess. It was a subpar piece of equipment that dropped from random chests that occasionally spawned around the ruins that dotted the desert. Theo hadn’t bothered searching them because the loot was pretty random and rarely of any value. He already had to toss the junk to make room for more valuable supplies.

“Although slaves can carry cargo, it’s a pain that they don’t have an Inventory. Maybe if I level up the [Slave Master’s Brand] a bit more…” Theo quietly wished as he inspected the mark.

His brand was unchanged, even after getting Meatshield to level 8 and Gobthnora to level 10. The progress was quite good, but it only slowed over time. At this rate, it wouldn’t level up until both of his slaves hit level 15.

Theo himself had reached 11, putting him only one step ahead of the other diehards. Too much time had been wasted raising the slaves, and he had to split the experience from all of the boss hunts with them as well. He could only hope that their grinding speed would increase as the slaves grew more competent, or he would soon fall behind the crowd.

The First Journey Cape was still empty when they left the Withered Ash Hollow, but it would soon be overflowing with players. After that happened, it wouldn’t be a safe place to grind anymore.

“We’re heading into the city,” he spoke after a few minutes of contemplation, “Gobthnora will stay behind and watch the cave, and before you say anything, the town guards will kill you on sight if you try to follow me. I’m not going to make an enemy of the entire city for your sake.”

The Goblin sulked, but said nothing. This might have been the first time in her entire life she was regretting her various acts of Evil.

He turned to Meatshield, “You’ll be following behind this time. I need to buy a cloak to cover your face in the future, so the money for that will be coming out of your food storage.”

She cocked her head to the side. This was a gesture Rick had taught her to inform him when she didn’t understand something. He could have chosen anything, honestly, but this was simple and he liked the cuteness aspect. What’s more, other NPC’s might be able to understand her this way if they ever got separated. For a girl like Meatshield, it would be equivalent to being her social [Block] skill!

“Just follow me,” Theo said.

The city of Oasis looked as splendid as always. The grim-faced guards standing outside the city gates were dressed in shiny brass armor and holding glittering pikes. Despite the ornamental nature of their dress, these guys were far stronger than any of the adventurers, and even Theo had no confidence in his ability to deal with them at his current level. Hundreds of fellow players flooded in and out of the city, breaking into groups and planning out their activities for the day.

Theo flipped his hood up.

As the top level player, Theo was still something of a public icon, but his inability to raise his level more than once in a week’s time had put a damper on much of the gossip about him. While the rest of the playerbase caught up, more and more names were being thrown around with a sense of celebrity. It might have become his calling card, but black hoods would always remain fairly innocuous as long as there were plenty of teenagers in the game. With the [Steel-Edged Partizan] safely tucked away in his Inventory, there was little to no chance of him being recognized.

The tattered looking Meatshield who followed a step behind him, on the other hand, attracted plenty of looks. Her wild appearance mixed her with adorable, lackadaisical charm caused many of the other players to flash a weird smile. Some of them even seemed to consider approaching her, but looked to have reconsidered when they noticed how close she was standing to Theo.

“Maybe I can make use of this…” was the only thought on the Slave Master’s mind.

The first stop for the day was the bank. Progress halted a few times due to Meatshield’s slow pace. It seemed she wanted to stop and take in the sights. After dragging her along, Theo finally managed to work his way through the crowd and reach the front counter. He consolidated the stock of sellable loot for a final time and left anything else for later.

After a trip to the blacksmith, Bryan, who still remembered Theo and regarded him with an air of cautious deference, the duo was ready to visit what had become the most bustling location in all of Oasis.

The Auction House was no less expansive than the complex surrounding the Adventuring Guild, and the design was similar in many ways. True to Oasis fashion, it was an open air building with few doors, and massive sandstone columns supported its domed roof. A towering golden spire rose above the building, sporting the crest of the Merchant Guild for all to see. Although the Auction House was technically run by the Merchant Guild, all of the real proceeds from the transactions went to the game developers. Now that more than 10% of the players had reached level 10, they were finally starting to see that sweet income from the currency exchange.

It was unthinkable how much money had already changed hands over the past few days, and more and more governments around the world would be seeking to get involved once they discovered the potential profits.

There were dozens of private rooms, NPC appraisers, and women in skimpy outfits wandering around and showing the arriving adventurers' their highest form of hospitality. Of course, all of these benefits were there for the big spenders or those with a high reputation in the Merchant Guild. Most of the players were unable to take full advantage of this place in the current market. Theo only needed to use the simplest feature of the Auction House for now, and that was to put his goods up for sale.

Without their [Mercantile] skill reaching a high level, it was impossible for a player to set up their own shop. While the trade function could be used for player to player levels of interaction, there was no way to properly advertise your goods this way. Dream World Online didn’t come with any kind of world or city chat functionality, and you would have to pay out of pocket to have advertisements posted around town. Theo certainly wasn’t willing to go that far just yet, though it would be to his benefit to acquaint himself with a proper merchant in the future.

“If I enslaved one, I wouldn’t have to pay a percentage of the earnings,” the gears in Theo’s head could be heard turning.

Theo chatted brusquely with the receptionist at the Auction Counter, before placing the entirety of his inventory up for sale. The initial fees were waived thanks to his unique status as D-rank adventurer, though he would still owe a percentage of any money made from selling his goods, and would be charged an additional sum if the items failed to sell within the standard three-day time limit. Theo couldn’t afford to have them up for any longer than that, but he had complete confidence that everything he posted would sell.

Stacks of crafting supplies, Lesser-quality essences, and rare equipment soon flooded the market.

While he was there, he bought a pair of cloaks, two of dozens of identical cloaks that hopeful Beginner tailors were trying to sell. The price was next to negligible due to the lack of demand, but Theo still made a note of it in his mental ledger. Why should a Slave Master be expected to pay for all of his slaves items and gear? Well, everything they owned belonged to him anyway, so perhaps it was a bit excessive.

His errands complete, Theo had one last order of business that required his attention.

The three shady figures that had been following him since he set foot in the bank still needed to be dealt with.