Chapter 42

God damn it! We are done for…Thinking about it we were lucky enough to have survived that long, it seems that it is our time now…

After leaving the fortress that day, we ventured into the swamps. There was nothing of great threat in it at first, but it gets quite creepy at night, thankfully the Soul fragment made it possible for us to escape the notice of ghosts and otherworldly beings. This was the case for most of our journey, until we reached an exit point, it was a dirt road that led directly to a mountainous area. And right after the road was an enormous forest.

We didn’t take the road but we traveled near it. We don’t need to meet any of the demonic race here. As we need to confirm the intention of said race towards us, if it is hostile we will be needing to find an exit out of this place and back to the human kingdom…

Quite the dilemma, no one seems to like the idea of us being within their borders, the humans will kill us because we are ‘traitors of the kingdom’, and the demons will kill us because we are humans…stuck between a rock and a hard place we had only ourselves to rely on, we need to become strong, strong enough that no one in their right mind will think about challenging us…and that is most difficult, especially with how dangerous this world really is…

After few hours of walking near the road we noticed a fading flame that was within the tree perimeter. It seems that someone one is camping there, now this is what brings the question, should we introduce ourselves, try to know our position, or play it safe and keep going…neither option however is risk free, if we decide to talk, we will be risking exposing our nature, and we might find enemies, however if we blindly go forward without information on our whereabouts or where is our direction then we will probably end up in a bad position.

“Let’s check things out, I will get there and see what is up, if things go south you girls should run, I will follow suit right afterwards.”

“Don’t go!” said Haruna, she was probably worried about my safety “it’s dangerous, we need to stay together, we don’t need to risk being discovered!”

“There is no helping it, Haruna, we need Intel, and food. Otherwise, we won’t last here in this place…”

The girls remained silent, yet displeasure still was showing on their eyes

Sigh, what a messed up world we ended up in.

Walking slowly behind the shade of the trees I got closer to the camping site. Four men, or humanoids, they had dark skin, almost red in color, yet one of them had a white skin, they all however shared something in common, they had horns and a tail. They were around the flame while some sort of boar was being roasted on the flame. There were some bags here and there, probably provisions, and near where they sat were cages…inside them were other humanoids so I inspected them

Jurani Vish

Demonkin

Slave trader

Level 232

Shit! The worst outcome. We need to get away from this place first, their level is ridiculously high for us to challenge, and the damn things are slave traders…if we are caught or noticed then our already messed up situation will be even more messed up…

Taking a step back

I tried to get to the girls, making sure I don’t step on any stupid loud cracking branches, like all the clichéd Mc do in this kind of situation. Thankfully there was nothing of such here.

Yet to my dismay

“You there, stop hiding and show yourself.” said one of the four without even bothering to turn to face me.

God damn it…

I exited the hiding and faced the four.

They all had a frightening look on their face, as if they had find the prize of their lives, their barred teeth could only speak greed as they salivated from a mere look.

“You seem to be lost, ‘Human’ why don’t you hang out with us a bit? We can show you various things…” said one of them while slowly rising from where he sat and playing with a small dagger that looked quite ominous.

I brought my sword from my sheath and prepared for battle, creatures with such high sensing abilities will be on our tail the moment I try to escape, I can’t guarantee the safety of the girls if I am to run so I need to make my stand here…

The first came towards me, and so I dodged, or at least tried to, the bastard was fast enough to know where I will be moving and struck at me with his dagger, I hastily put my sword up to block the incoming attack yet the form was weak and that only led to me feeling disoriented as I received most of the blow. This thing is strong…

I took a step back and fixed my form, this time I waited for him to engage so I would retaliate, yet they didn’t seem to be fair fighters.

Two joined the fight and I knew I was disadvantaged, I have to run.

Yet before I could turn a hulking beast of a man appeared behind me. Holding the unconscious girls, each in an arm

Jinra Shaom

The barbarian

Giant

Level

400

What the hell is this! A level 400!

“Drop the weapon woman…its futile to fight, you lost.”

…

I dropped my sword and prepared for the worse, there is no way out of this, especially with something that high level, remembering the salves on the cages I cursed my luck to have made us meet these people first…

“What do you want from us?” I said trying to escape the obvious

“Your bodies.” Said the giant to which I shuddered imagining weird things…

“However, due to you being Summoned heroes, you will get us quite the price at the slave market…”

“What! Summoned heroes! How lucky can we even get! This is the jackpot Jinra!”

Said one of the demonkin to the giant…

“Yes it is, once we sell these girls we will no longer be needing to do this shitty work…it’s time for us to retire.”

“You are god damn right, and three of them, and they are all girls, the gods must be most pleased with us to have given us such gifts hah!”

God damn it…they are speaking about selling us into slavery like if we have no rights of our own…fucking backwatered world and its stupid rules…but I have a trick up my sleeves, if they put us into those carts, I can escape using some of the items I have in my backpack.

“Strip them from their belongings, and give them some of the slave rags, also place the slave choker on them, we don’t want them to cause any trouble for us”

Fuck!

The first demon, the one with the dagger, Jurani was his name, came closer, with a lecherous look on his face, he played with his dagger a bit, licking it, before making a vertical strike at me, I thought he was going to attack but the hit only served to cut off my clothes…

“What a beautiful looking body…can we not have some fun with them first, Boss?”

Honestly this is the worst situation…we are doomed, our journey will end up short, I would rather bite my own tongue than let anyone touch me without my consent

“No, don’t damage the merchandise, they must stay as fresh as new. It will get us more gold. It seems that they are still young, probably all virgins, don’t ruin that. some of the nobles like it that way and will pay a lot for an opportunity to fuck a virgin summoned hero…nobles and their fantasies…”

I can’t run, as he has the girls…and I can’t fight back…even though I became this strong…I am still helpless…what a cruel reality…

“Don’t cry, little girl” said one of the demons

“It will all end soon, it’s just a bad dream, Hehehehe” added while he creepily laughed…

A choker was put in my neck and some rags were given for us to wear, brown dirty rags that seem to have belonged to someone that recently just died in…

The choker, once placed upon my neck raised a notification

Slave choker

Your level has been set to 1.

All of your stats are changed to being equal to 10% of your master's

You are unable to escape, run or work against the master.

Any attempt at the life of the master will instantly kill you.

All your abilities have been sealed.

It’s hopeless…

“Get inside!” said one of the demons, as I got into the cart, the two girls were also stripped naked and were made to wear the rags…I swear that the moment I am set free I will surly rip these demon’s balls off and feed it to them…

Once inside one of the carts, one of the ones already imprisoned here spoke…

“Don’t try to fight, just act submissive, little girl, it will hurt a lot less like that…”

She had golden hair, she looked to be in her twenty. She had long ears…I tried to inspect her, but the ability refused to work…

“Don’t try magic…it’s useless, I am Sabrina…one of the elves from the elven kingdom to the far-east. I was caught the same as you for wandering this place, we girls need to stick together if we want to survive, our race has been object of slavery to many races due to our natural beauty, but let me tell you one thing little girl, no matter how difficult, how hard or painful it is…make sure that you never give up hope…one day, no matter how far or how long, a chance will present itself, don’t give up…” she said and then silently went back to the shade.

She didn’t speak a single word after that and just stayed put.

I have no idea why she said those words, but she is right, struggling against the odds might prove to be difficult and would probably result in a chance of escape, but giving up is no chance at all…I didn’t come all this way to give up…a chance will present itself, sooner or later…