Lone was sitting in the slums of one of Felron's border cities - Asteroth - which had yet to be hit by the mass-kidnappers.

He had a strange-looking flute to his mouth and he was playing it horrendously as Greed happily danced about in the basket in front of him which he'd put her in to act as a little show.

Hazel was milling about at his side silently reading the minds of everyone that stared at them for too long. It was hard to read specific thoughts in this big of a crowd, but she was trying her best, as fruitless as it was.

While it was a border city, Asteroth still boasted a population of over 300,000 and in this particular section of the slum district there were easily 7,000 residents.

A lot of people laughed at Lone for trying to beg here with his little snake show. If he wanted to make any money doing something like that, he'd have to do it elsewhere like the market district or the noble district, but as a demi, he'd no doubt get arrested in those places, so they couldn't exactly fault him for trying his luck here in the slum district.

As it stood right now, Lone looked like your everyday one-tailed Amber Foxkin refugee. His sole tail and hair were both a dazzlingly bright yellow, though they were covered in muck and general filth.

His rags only further aided him in hiding his conventional attractiveness.

All of a sudden, the people listening to Lone's atrocious attempts at music perked their ears up. It sounded like... he had improved slightly.

The host has developed the passive skill: Pungi Mastery. The host has developed the passive skill: Flute Mastery.

Lone arched his brow in intrigue but kept playing the instrument while he checked out his new skills.

Passive Skill: Pungi Mastery

A skill that boosts the host's understanding of how pungis work as well as how to properly use them.

Makes all pungi 5% easier to play and 5% more pleasing to the ear when played by the host.

Cost: N/A Mastery: Beginner Level 1 Passive Skill: Flute Mastery

A skill that boosts the host's understanding of how flute instruments work as well as how to properly use them.

Makes all flute-type instruments 5% easier to play and 5% more pleasing to the ear when played by the host.

Cost: N/A Mastery: Beginner Level 1

'Oh, cool. I wasn't really expecting anything from doing this but I'll certainly accept it,' Lone thought as he watched Greed's wiggling intensify a bit while she hissed happily.

Let no misunderstandings take place, Lone's flute still sounded like the victim of a horrible accident involving a horse, viagra, and far too little lubricant, but still, it was now 10% less grating on the ears.

Well, that was assuming that the percentages for skills that affected the same things were additive and not multiplicative, but Lone had far too little data to have confirmed which of the two possibilities was true.

'We've left the area now. We're staying in an inn in a village called Frantstead,' Soph said via The Summoning Room's telepathic link very frankly.

'... Thanks for letting me know, Soph... I, uh, I love you,' Lone replied in an apologetic tone.

'I love you too,' Soph replied immediately, though, after a short pause, she added, 'I still don't forgive you.'

Lone sighed as he put his pungi down, much to the gratefulness of the other homeless people and common slummers nearby. Greed slithered out of her basket then up Lone's body before settling around his bicep now that the music was gone.

'I wonder if she'll ever forgive me?' Lone thought as he willed his sole tail to move in front of himself so he could stroke it. 'Maybe if I make some pillows out of the severed eight? Maybe a mattress?'

Hazel frowned. "That's morbid."

Lone smiled. "I've done scarier things with body parts before."

"Oh, I know, trust me," Hazel replied. "Anyway, done making yourself a target?"

Lone nodded. "Yup, we're done here, plus, it's starting to get late. Let's head to our shack. With any luck, we'll get to meet our 'friends' tonight."

"Here's hoping. I personally don't want to be regressed more than once. It feels horrible, plus, I want a shower," Hazel justifiably complained.

Lone chuckled faintly. "I could personally go for having my fur brushed."

Hazel shot him a funny look.

"What?" Lone asked. "Get it brushed for almost three straight years every night and soon it becomes a habit you almost can't live without."

The two siblings joked around for a bit longer before they finally returned to their current home, a pile of wood held together by rusty nails, or, as the people of the place would call it, home.

They spent a short amount of time cooking what little food they seemed to have just in case they were being watched.

Neither of them had any skills that could be used for sensing such things, so they were trying their best to just play the part of poor refugees that had lucked their way into owning just enough coin to buy the shack and a week's worth of horrible food.

Lone could, of course, feel every soul within the slum district, however, unless he focused on each individual one, he'd never see their souls colour and determine whether they were good or not. Even if he could, he suspected that half of the people down here were only here as a consequence of their own foolish actions or as a result of wanting to hide from the city's authorities who avoided the slum district like the plague.

Considering that, Lone never bothered being vigilant with his Soul Sensing and Hazel didn't put any effort into filtering the hundreds of thoughts all around them.

The two ate their dinner if you could call two slices of slightly mouldy bread and a bit of boiled carrot water soup dinner. After that, they went to bed.

"So how do you suppose an Amber Foxkin came to be with a human? Think she's his wife?"

"Who cares? I'm more surprised he's not been enslaved. We're lucky to have found him, to be honest. He's a prime candidate, after all."

"Right. Who knows, tomorrow he could have been some fop's sex slave or something. A lot of these nobles are fuckin' perverts."

"Hey, ain't your da a noble?"

"That's how I know."

Lone's eyes were closed and his body was unmoving, however, unlike Greed and Hazel who had both been put into a deep sleep via illusion magic, Lone resisted the effects and even managed to gain the skill used on them, which was always a nice bonus.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Illusion Magic Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 7. The host has developed the active illusion magic skill: Blissful Sleep.

'Fuck me, I hadn't expected them to use any magic... I guess it makes sense since they've kidnapped so many people,' Lone said to himself internally. 'Good damned thing I resisted it. I'm lucky the 5% bonus from Illusion Magic Resistance was enough, otherwise, my other tails would have started to regrow.'

One of the men that had entered the shack picked up Hazel while the other picked up Lone.

"Damn, this guy's heavy. How dense are his muscles? By the way, what should we do about the snake? Looks like a pet, but its still an H-ranker. Thing must be quite old."

"It doesn't matter. So long as it's under G-rank, bring it too. Maybe the towermaster can use it to improve the strains? If it's asleep then leave it that way. Could make for a good familiar maybe if the towermaster doesn't need it."

"Right. Sure thing."

The two quickly left the room and, as far as Lone could tell, started running through alleyways before they expertly climbed over the city wall.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Illusion Magic Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 8.

'Fuck, the longer I keep my eyes closed, the more I want to just... drift off,' Lone thought. 'I need this to reach intermediate-rank, stat. 15% will be far more helpful than 5% is.'

To distract himself, he pulled up the information on his new illusion magic skill. It was a wonder how you could see the system notifications and screens with your eyes closed but not when you were unconscious. Lone assumed this was to facilitate the blind using them, but regardless, it still interested him.

Active Illusion Magic Skill: Blissful Sleep

An uncommon application of the illusion magic school where the caster focuses the element of illusion to induce a deep sleep.

Only works on those at I-rank.

Has a 70% chance to fail.

Cost: 5,000 MP Mastery: Beginner Level 1

'Ah, okay. That explains a lot. I assume it allows more and more ranks and is less and less likely to fail the better its rank is, so, like, maybe at intermediate-rank it can put H-rankers and lower to sleep at a 50% success rate?' Regardless of if his guess was correct or not, he continued to distract himself by theorising.

Maybe an hour later the two men carrying Lone and Hazel stopped running.

Lone had to hand it to them, they had moved a great distance in such a short span of time. By tracking the souls of the animals and monsters in the wilderness that they passed, Lone was able to tell that they had travelled at least 40-miles.

Luckily enough, he had gained plenty of levels, and not only for his Illusion Magic Resistance.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Illusion Magic Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 9. Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Illusion Magic Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 10. Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Illusion Magic Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 1. Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Illusion Magic Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 2.

And, of course, this skill had changed the way Lone had expected it would upon ranking up.

Passive Magic Skill: Illusion Magic Resistance

A skill that allows the host to resist all forms of Illusion Magic.

Illusion Magic used on the host will be weakened by 15% [+10%].

Cost: N/A Mastery: Intermediate Level 1

The thing that was unexpected, however, was that his Acting skill had levelled up.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Acting] has levelled up! It is now Advanced Level 9.

Apparently, pretending to be asleep counted as acting. Lone wasn't one to complain. That skill had helped him a lot over the years, so he wasn't going to scorn any chance he got to level it up.

'There must be... what, about 8 or 900 souls here?' Wherever they'd been taken to, it was very far away from Asteroth and clearly, they had not been the only people abducted.

After taking a few minutes to actually count everyone, Lone tallied up a total of 822 souls. 'Odd. With Greed, shouldn't the number be odd if everyone only kidnapped one person each? I can't sense two souls next to only one, so none of the kidnappers have two people slung over their shoulders or anything... I guess the soul in the centre of the circle they're all standing in is the boss or something?'

Lone mentally clicked his tongue. 'It's a damned shame I can't tell how strong anyone is. I'd be able to know in an instant if, say, all of the kidnappers were B-rankers and the central person was an S-ranker or whatever.'

Luckily for the curious foxkin, the central soul's owner silenced the murmuring kidnappers with a wave of their hand.

Not a beat later, a young female voice filled the air. "Thankfully, I see that you all succeeded unimpeded. Those adventurers snooping around have certainly made things difficult, no? You'll certainly be given a bonus for working with such a misguided and dangerous threat looming over your heads."

Happy responses met her words.

"Well, since everyone is ready, as per usual, step onto the teleportation formation one by one. Algred already has meals and hearty drinks prepared for you all back at the tower," she said.

'Teleportation? Algred? Tower? Also, the way she spoke about us... This almost sounds like a cult... This is getting rather interesting, now isn't it?' Lone thought.

He patiently played the sleeping fool and about 10-minutes later, he felt his body get... disjointed. It wasn't that unfamiliar of a sensation. It was, in fact, very similar to the many times he'd teleported up and down from the trunk to the crown of the eastern world tree.

Groans and sickly moans surrounded him.

"W-Where is this?!"

"Who are you people?!"

"T-This isn't my home!"

"By the Primals... I've been kidnapped by necromancers!"

"No! T-This is all just a dream..."

Lone opened his eyes to see the rest of the slummers and beggars that had been taken in the night. Everyone, without question, was panicking. Well, besides himself and Hazel.

Hazel and Lone were the only two not wildly shouting or expelling their guts onto the floor. 'This room... It's massive and kinda... luxurious?'

Regardless of what was to come next, Lone, Hazel, and Greed, had all successfully infiltrated what was presumably the main headquarters of the people who had kidnapped over 5,000 innocent citizens.

A stunningly gorgeous woman dressed in more elegant robes than her assumed-colleagues stepped forward while everyone was gently let go and lowered to the floor. "Please, we're here to help you, not hurt you. Take some time to get your bearings back. Eat some food, rest," she said as she gestured to the many comfortable beds and the long dining tables filled with feasts fit for kings, "Our intentions for bringing you here are pure. We have great expectations from you all."

After saying that, she and all of the other robed kidnappers left the room from its only entrance, a massive set of steel double-doors.