When I reappeared I saw the expected text.

You have been killed by several NPCs and players infected by @*#^%$# Elderitch Taint! Your current death penalty is: “Jethia Ravenborn will be informed of your location.

Since you were killed inside a prison, your respawn point is set to one of the respawn rooms within the prison.

While inside the room you have immunity to death for the next 15 minutes. Use this time wisely.

Right. Use the time wisely. The first thing I did was put my adventuring gear on. The second was to level up to 5. I’d long ago planned how I would spend the points so that was easy. I’d decide to leave the other levels alone for now since I had 7 days to look into it, and I didn’t think 4 more levels would help at this exact moment. So my current stats looked a little like this:

Strength: 6

Dexterity: 10

Athletics: 4

Charisma: 28

Creativity: 8

Social: 9

Constitution: 12

Armor: 8

Health: 5

Wisdom: 16

Intelligence: 8

Magic: 6

Then I decided to take a look at my new environment. The room was the normal stone walls with organic architecture that I’d been staring at since we entered the building but there were several doors to enter and exit this room from.

Unfortunately, those doors had been blocked by various refuse and detritus, such as chairs, broken tables, and a couple of twisted gates. Well, all except for one entryway. And that one had several of these tainted prisoners peering inside. They stood far too still and stared at me. Their completely black eyes did not blink.

It was as if they were dolls. But I was also able to get a better look at their tainted appearance.

While elves did have a variety of different skin colors, I could tell that their skin appeared unnaturally pale. Almost as if I was looking at them through a slightly grey white glass. Their fingertips though, were black tinged with purple, as if they could poison a person just with a flick of their wrist.

On each of their heads was a crown of driftwood. Instead of resting like a circlet on their head, this driftwood, like the horns of goats, grew from their skull.

I observed one.

Jenrick Greengoshawk “Tainted subordinate of Lord @*#^%$#.” Level 19. ?? HP. ?? Mana. Likes: ??? Dislikes: ???

After seeing their levels, I tried to think about what I could do to escape these people and came up blank. Granted, I still had some neat items from the heist earlier but, with those two guys staring at me, the chances that I’d be able to use them effectively was nonexistent.

If Mia were here... Well, then I would have to tell her we were bonded and that she could still teleport me even after my collar was destroyed.

Perhaps I should have told her about the bond.

If I had admitted the truth back then, she could have teleported us out of the room... No. There wasn’t enough time between them entering and stabbing me.

And I didn’t think she was ready to face something like a soul bond yet. I had also, desperately wanted to hide my deception from her. Because she hated liars and I had purposefully dug my own grave there.

But I thought that, if I could slowly get her used to being with me first... then I could ease her into the idea. And maybe the deception would be a little easier to forgive?

I sighed. The next time I saw her and we were in a safe location, like an Inn or in reality, I would tell her.

It would be for the best, even if she hated me for the rest of our lives... No. With the bond, she couldn’t hate me. Right?

My hands shook.

All of a sudden, facing these guys looked more appealing than facing my angry bonded.

I looked up just in time to see the several prisoners at the door step aside revealing a tall and thin prisoner who had the largest driftwood crown of anyone there. It practically reached a foot tall. He also had the least damaged complexion of any of these creatures.

He smiled at me, revealing shiny black teeth.

“Greetings young Lorevinel Silvercat. I am Vashee.”

So, this was the original tainted prisoner. The one who started it all, at least according to the records we’d found.

I observed him.

Vashee “Tainted Commander for Lord @*#^%$#.” Level 27. ?? HP. ?? Mana. Likes: ??? Dislikes: ???

Well, this was going to be rougher than I thought it would. Whoever said that this area was okay for levels 6 and above needed to fucking die.

I nodded. There was no point in not being polite, even if I was dealing with an insane tainted player. Vashee tilted his head, and examined me much like a predator studying his prey, “Did you find our little trap fun?”

Ah. That was why it was so easy to get into this place. They purposefully made it that way to encourage people to explore. I grimaced. “Yes, it was very exciting.”

He nodded. “Excellent. I’m glad you enjoyed that.” He grinned. “Now, we have some very pressing matters, I’m afraid.”

“And, what exactly are those pressing matters?”

He sighed heavily. “We are mere servants to our lord @*#^%$#!” The name must have been insanity-inducing since I only heard it as muffled noises. This just proved that my amulet was working. “He has instructed us to spread his gloriousness to other places, but we remain trapped here. This is highly unfortunate, and something that we need to fix. We were hoping that you could be so kind as to help us out.”

The corners of my lips twitched. “And how would I go about helping you?”

He beamed at me, which looked very disconcerting on that face. “How wonderful. You are much more cooperative than the last person who came here.”

It wasn’t like I had much of a choice. I couldn’t trust them either but if I could keep them talking, it might give Mia enough time to escape, maybe find someone to help. Fuck, no one would come here. Not even Jethia Ravenborn.

“Now, several decades ago we finally discovered the generator that is holding this awful barrier in place. We’d like you to try and turn it off for us. What do you say?”

“That turning it off seems like a bad idea, with no rewards.”

Vashee took out a dagger and straight-up stabbed one of his blank stare followers in the heart. They let out a silent scream and collapsed to the ground. Then their body burned.

He breathed hard for a few seconds then straightened his back as if nothing had just happened and smiled at me once again. “So right. I’d nearly forgotten that people playing in the PPVS need incentives. It’s been so long since I’ve had a good discussion with someone reasonable. So, what would be a good incentive for a bard like you? Hmm. You look like a man in need of power.”

I mean, he wasn’t wrong but... How did he go from murder to business discussion so fast?

“How about this. Our Lord @*#^%$#, can offer you a kingdom, once his cultists have finished politely compelling the others in this lower plane in the sim to be on his side.”

“That all sounds very nice, but I would prefer to keep my sanity and my countenance.”

“Right, Right. Our appearance is very strange to you, isn’t it? Well, You’re in luck, because, in order to turn off the barrier you need to go through a screening. So we need someone, not affected by insanity and someone untainted to turn it off for us.”

I nodded. “That makes sense. So where is this barrier located?”

He leaned forward, black eyes sparkling with excitement. “You’re going to turn it off for us?!”

“I’m considering making an attempt. I’ve heard that this barrier was put there by a high-level entity so there is a large chance that I won’t be able to do anything about it.”

“I understand. I do. Well, it is, of course, located at the center of this island. Directly inland from the docs where you left your little boat.”

I stilled, then I laughed. “Ah, my boat.”

“Which we sunk, of course. Can’t have you escaping the island without making a deal. But don’t worry. We have several people here who have been training in building boats so we can have a new one built for you in no time at all.”

Motherfuckers. I smiled at them. “I understand completely. It must have been rough, being trapped here for so long.”

“I just knew a fellow prisoner, even one lucky enough to be free-roaming, would understand our plight, though now we consider ourselves blessed cultists of @#$$%^&@.”

Fuck, That meant, even if Grace escaped, she couldn’t leave the island either.

“Then, what about my partner?”

He nodded. “You did have one of those when you came here. I believe she has escaped us so far, but, not for much longer. Since we only need one of you to be sane and untainted we were just going to show her the way of our Lord but if she keeps not cooperating with us then we might just throw her into the dark portal.”

A chill ran down my spine. I could not let him do that to my bonded.

This was giving him a huge chip against me, but, it might also be a chip against them. “She’s important to me. She’s my bonded, after all, and I won’t be able to help you if anything happens to her.”

He thought about it for a long moment then nodded. “This makes sense... Well, maybe we can have you work together on this project.”

I nodded. “Excellent idea.”

“But, if you both fail, then we’ll have to convert you... But at least you'll be together right?”

I raised my brow. “Of course. Otherwise, would you have agreed to let us go?”

He laughed. “Of course not.” Then he clapped, causing everyone to jump and stare at him. “Now. Let’s leave this prison for the Island’s center, shall we? According to our limited research, the best time to turn it off would be when it’s at its weakest, which will be in a few hours. And we have much to prepare”

“Lead the way,” I said, as I continued to act like an obedient prisoner. A way of life I was far too used to.