CHAPTER SEVENTY-SIX: LORD OF LUCK

Mouse nervously paced around the jail cell, feeling the time tick by, as he tried to think about what he could do to get himself out of his current situation. The cell was only big enough for a grown man to lay down, with his touching the wall and his feet meeting the bars of the entrance. He made his way to the front of his cell and gazed around at the other occupants of the dungeon. The jail room had open air cells lining both sides. Each cell was made up of hard iron bars, that looked to be enhanced with some kind of strengthening magic, going of the slight magical shine they admitted. There was a thick stench of mildew and iron in the air. The cold stone floor, had a layer of moisture on top due to the damp. Meaning if one laid down on the floor, with only the thin tunics they were allowed to wear, you would feel the cold seep into your bones within moments.

Mouse could peer between the bars to the cell that was next to his on the right, it had one man and one woman. They were dressed in the tattered under tunic of an Imperium soldier. Their skin was filled with no small number of cuts and bruises. The male of the pair was sitting in one of the corners, his feet splayed out like he was asleep and back leaning against the opposing bars to the next cell over. The female was sitting cross legged and held a broken rock in one hand. She was slowly dragging it on the hard stone ground. ‘Looks like she is trying to make a shiv.’ Mouse thought to himself as he looked over at the woman. The woman must have felt his gaze and looked up. Her dirty strands of brown hair covered majority of her face but the ferocity of her eyes scared Mouse, forcing him to take a step back. The lady prisoner put a finger to her parched and cracked lips, in a ‘Shhh’ motion, before gazing back at the rock and continuing her methodically sharpening.

Mouse shuddered at the lady and turned to the front of his cell that held the entrance. Walking up so he’s face was touching the bars, Mouse gazed down the rows of cells and noted a couple other cells held Imperium soldiers in various states. The rest contained what appeared to be malnourished villagers. There was a man and a woman across from his cell with three children of various ages. The man, even though looking weak from hunger, still had the appearance of a muscular ox. ‘Probably a Northmen Blacksmith, those are rare from what I have read on the forums.’ Mouse guessed. The man had a shaved head, with multiple tattoos on it, his square jaw ended in an orange platted goatee-styled beard, that hung down to his barrel like chest. Mouse looked at the woman, that the man was holding within his arms in a comforting way. She appeared to be typical Imperium citizen, with a small frame and bob style brown hair. In the large man’s grasp, she appeared tiny and frail. When Mouse’s eyes met hers though, he saw nothing but pure grit. ‘Reminds me of Grandma. Tough old goat, especially when she wields her slipper.’ Mouse thought, slightly shivering at the memories of his grandma wielding a shoe to tan his behind for being naughty.

Mouse slightly pulled on the bars but felt them not move and inch. ‘I don’t know what I was thinking would happen. I’m not the Hulk and strength isn’t my main attribute anyway, even though I am a Dwarf. Aren’t Dwarves suppose to be naturally strong?... Stop getting side tracked! I Need to think of something that could help me. But what...what...’ Mouse started pacing his cell again in thought, while he looked over his status screen and current skill list for anything that could help him. Mouse was LVL 17 and without his gear, his attributes were all just average, even somewhat below. The reason for this was, he had one attribute that was almost triple what it should be for someone of his Level. He held a permanent blessing called [Lord of Luck], which gave him two things. It gave him a straight increase of 30 to his Luck stat and the ability to use Attribute points to increase his Luck, which was not possible for anyone else, unless they received a similar blessing or special piece of equipment. Due to that, Mouse had put some of his AP in Luck when he leveled, which was also a recommended action by his Goddess, making some of his other stat's lag behind. His base luck stat was a high 38 now.

“Lady Fortuna said that once I get past 35, fate will begin to twist in my favor but I don’t see how. I have been nothing but unlucky all day. I was almost set on fire by that crazy Sergeant, lost my way in the forest, got captured and now in a cell awaiting to be tortured. Lady Fortuna was probably just tricking me, like everyone else does.” Mouse complained to himself as he paced.

Mouse knew that to avoid torture and this imprisonment entirely he could of course just log out but that would make him fail the quest and when he logged back in, he would spawn back inside Roma with a penalty for abandoning the raid. Mouse couldn't think of anything, so he decided to get some information out of one of the prisoners instead. He looked to the soldiers in the cell that joined his own but the scary lady soldier made him hesitate. He decided to try the prisoner family across from him. Mouse made his way to the front of his cell again and put his face between two bars.

“Hey... Hey... Psssstttt.” Mouse tried to whisper out to the bald Northmen across from him.

The large man looked up to Mouse and made a ‘Shhh’ motion, then pointed with the same finger to the Jailer Witch near the entrance. Mouse nodded in understanding and made a ‘come here’ motion to the Northmen. The Northmen sighed before he released his wife who was also cuddling with her three children and walked to the front of his cell.

“What do you want Dwarf? If you disturb that old hag from her reading, she will come down to take a piece of skin, so be quiet.” The Northmen warned in a rumbling whisper that was no better than Mouse’s.

‘Jesus, what’s with these Witches and taking people’s skin? I wonder if her book cover is made out of skin, like the Necronomicon.’ Mouse thought before shaking his head of the unnecessary thoughts and addressing the Northman. “I’m [Mouse]. I came with the Imperium army, we are currently attacking this place, I just wanted to know if...” Mouse was cutoff as he received a Quest update notification that appeared to open on its own.

[Warning! You only have one hour and thirty minutes remaining before you fail the updated quest, “remove the [Mana field]”]

Mouse was utterly confused and held up his hand to the Northman to pause the talk. Before he quickly scrolled back through his recent notifications to the one regarding the updated quest he missed while being captured. ‘Oh Shit.’ Mouse turned back to the Northman.

“This is a long shot, but do you know where in the manor the Witches would be keeping a conductor or something that powers a force fie... no, I mean a [Mana Field]?” Mouse asked in a rush, his words unintentionally getting louder near the end.

The blacksmith gave Mouse a slightly surprised look but before he could answer, the noise of the Jailer standing up was heard. The sets of keys hanging around her neck made a jangling noise when she stood. The already fairly silent jail became even more quiet, Mouse felt like he had just been dropped in the unending space above. The Witches eyes locked onto Mouse and then she hobbled over towards him. Mouse backed off a step when the Witch reached the front of his cell and peered at him with her slightly dead eyes, filled with red veins like she hadn’t slept in weeks. The Northman was still in the same position at the front of his cell, Mouse could see over the hunched Witch that the Northmen was giving him a look of pity, as his wife was reaching out to her husband to return to her.

“You’re lucky little skin bag. Lucky that sister will be here soon to torture you and she doesn’t like anyone touching her playthings before she gets to them, however...” The jailers said to Mouse in her raspy voice as she followed where Mouse was looking.

The Jailer looked behind her to the Northmen and his family’s cell, she then turned back to Mouse and gave him a smile filled with broken and rotting teeth.

“I will have to punish them in your stead for all the noise you’re making, that will work.” The Jailer informed Mouse while she gave him a thin lipped smile.

Mouse’s face paled, as the Northmen’s stoic face slightly cracked in worry once he heard what the Witch said. The Witch took a step back as she was looking at Mouse’s scared face, she appeared to be enjoying the look of terror and guilt that washed over Mouse’s face. She was enjoying it so much as she stepped backwards, she didn’t notice a smooth round rock at her feet. As she took another step backwards, her foot landed directly on this oddly spherical rock, making her loose her balance as her foot slipped out from under her. Her old hunched body rocked backwards as she stumbled/slipped. The Jailer appeared to trip on her feet as well, but did not completely fall over as her back slammed into the Northmen’s cell. Ultimately halting her fall. Mouse froze for a second, as did the Witch and the Northmen, who still hadn’t moved from his position at the front of the cell. Everyone in the cells around the vicinity looked over to the half-fallen Witch, before a look of delight shined on Mouse’s face.

“Grab her!!!” Mouse shouted; the Northmen that was still standing in front of his cell, appeared to wake up from his moment of surprise at the sound of Mouse’s shout.

The Northmen wasted no more time and before the hunched Witch could push herself away from the bars, his thick arm snaked out from between a set of bars and around the Witch’s throat. Pressing her back against the bar in a choke hold. The Northmen was trying to strangle the Witch for all he was worth, but due to the awkward hold from his large arm, or lack of nutrients from being in the dungeon for an unknown period of time, he couldn’t choke her out quickly. The Witch lifted her left free hand and appeared to be conjuring a spell. Mouse panicked and looked around for something to help before he looked to the lady soldier and the rock shiv in the cell next door. Mouse ran to the side and put his hand between the bars, reaching out to the lady soldier.

“Quick! Give it to me!” Mouse shouted, froth almost coming out of his mouth, as his face took on a thunderous expression that brooked no argument.

The lady soldier with the fierce eyes, flinched at the sight of Mouse’s contorted face as she quickly put the sharpened rock into Mouse’s hand.

“Thanks Lady!” Mouse gently thanked, his face returning to the simple and honest looking one he had before, leaving the soldier to look even more startled.

Mouse ran back to the front of his cell and shouted. “Catch this!” Mouse tossed the rock shiv over the Witch's head, the Northman reached out to grab it but missed as it dropped behind him. “Shit!” The Northman cursed, as he ignored the shiv and tried to reposition his arm to choke out the Witch who was struggling vehemently.

The shiv spun in the air for a moment before it finally landed into the out stretched hand of the Northmen’s wife. Who happened to have her hand outstretched, as she was still stuck in the position from when she was entreating her husband to return to her, with hand raised towards him. The woman had a lock of shock and worry on her face, at the current predicament but the moment the Rock shiv landed in her hand, her look turned fierce. Mouse saw the look and thought, ‘Oh, Oh, someone is about to get the slipper.’

The Northmen’s wife, released one of the children she was holding and got to her feet in a flash before almost teleporting to her husband's side. She didn’t want to waste a moment to pass the shiv to her husband, as she instead snaked one of her arms out of a gap between the bars and slammed the sharp point of the rock into the Witch’s throat with a back handed grip. The Witch that had almost finished conjuring her ominous looking spell, had it forcefully cancelled from the shock of the shiv entering her throat and her putrid smelling black blood leaked down her dirty brown robe. The witch lifted her hands and attempted to staunch the wound with the shiv in it with one and the other snaked into a pouch at her waist, attempting to retrieve an item, Mouse guessed was a HP potion or something. The Wife noticed this and with a clenched fist, brought her hand down to strike at the shiv that was in the Witch’s throat. Like a hammer meeting a nail, the rock knife went further into the soft skin of the throat. Almost burying the rock completely. Blood started to purr out like a waterfall, as the Northman held onto the dying, choking Jailer Witch. The Witch only lasted another few seconds before she stopped struggling and finally passed.

The whole dungeon regained its silence, except for the heavy breathing of the husband and wife duo, all the other prisoners who were concious watched the scene with wide eyes. One of the raggedy villagers near the front most cell’s whispered to his cellmate, “Didn’t that seem awfully easy? The amount of people who have tried to catch that Witch off guard in the last week was easily in the teens but all failed.” The cell mate appeared to still be in shick, as all he did was nod in agreement.

“Hun, grab the keys off her neck.” The Northman’s tired voice finally rumbled out, breaking the silence, as all the other prisoners broke out into excited whispers.

The small brown hair lady who just shived someone, prison style, nodded at her husband and retrieved the keys from the Witch. The Northmen dropped the Witch and she face planted forwards, blood slowly leaking out and mixing with the multitude of blood stains on the dungeon floor. The Northmen grabbed the keys off his wife and unlocked his jail cell, before walking over to Mouse’s cell. Mouse was staring at the encroaching Northman with his signature goofy smile. The Northman unlocked his cell and looked at Mouse up and down.

“I don’t know about anyone else lad, but I think you may be our lucky charm. Every other time we tried to break out something went horribly wrong. So, what do I call you little Lucky Charm Dwarf?” The Northmen asked.

Mouse stepped out of his prison cell and looked around the floor for a moment, before answering the question he picked up the smooth, fist sized rock from its place on the ground, that was next to the corpse of the Witch. He chucked the rock into the air once before catching in its decent with a smile and a soft chuckle as he looked back to the waiting Northmen.

“Just call me the Lord of Luck.” Mouse proclaimed with a toothy grin.