Getting my nerves back under control was made a lot easier by a few things. The first, maybe most important of all, was that most of the blood that had splattered my face quickly despawned, leaving only a few spots that were only visible in one of the mirrors in the room. The next was that the body of Witch Face quickly did the same, leaving behind a chalk-outline and a small bag sitting in the middle of it, marking the location of her demise and giving me the spoils for my kill.

And lastly, the fact that Greasy Face started to groan, the impact on the table had obviously only stunned him for a few seconds, not killed him. But I was committed now, so I knelt down and delivered punches to his back until his health bar was depleted. It took a few, but punching him into the back lacked the visceral effect of ripping a woman’s throat out with your teeth, so I was fine.

A blue few windows opened, adding information.

New Quest offered.

Leave the Arena - Escape!

You have killed your owner, earning you a horrifying punishment, if caught. Escape from the Arena and the ensuing pursuit.

Success: Freedom Decline: Not an Option Failure: Death

Unknown

Quest failed

Leave the Arena - Kallendra’s Favour

You can no longer earn Kallendra’s Favour in the Arena. Result: Title: Escaped Slave

New Title: Escaped Slave

Some slaves manage to escape their bond, either with help from others or by themselves. But the experience leaves a mark on them, while also making them harder to magically compel in the future.

Slaver’s and Slave Owner’s have increased hostility towards you.

Your Willpower counts as 25% higher for the purpose of resisting magical compulsion. When selected, your Willpower counts as 200% higher for the purpose of resisting magical compulsion.

New Ability acquired - Unarmed Combat

Your Ability - Unarmed Combat is now at level Novice I (12.02%)

Before there were weapons, conflicts were settled with your fists.

I quickly glanced over the various messages, noted that I had gained some EXP, two-hundred forty to be exact, bringing me roughly a third of the way to level two. That was positive, but I had no illusion that fighting my way out was a viable option. No, I would have to go to stealth-mode.

But first, there were spoils to be looted, the first of which was the rod that I had smacked away. Picking it up and focusing on it told me little, just that it was a Rod of Control with three different active uses, none of which I could access, as I lacked the appropriate skill, “Use Enchanted Object”. One of the three uses, I knew, it was to control the wearer of the collar, I hoped one was to unlock the collar but I feared that the last might be something along the lines of “Kill the wearer of the collar” so I simply put it into my bag, deciding that I would need help with it, someone I could trust not to use it against me.

Next was to check the remains of the Greasy and Witch-face, conveniently organised into two bags waiting in the middle of their chalk-outlines. The loot was slightly disappointing, a few coins, 47 small, dark coins called Rappen and two slightly larger coins called Witten, some miscellaneous papers that could be sold to a vendor for a small price and a metal rod called Manacle Key with the added information that it was a single-use item that unlocked a set of Manacles.

Looking around, I spotted a dagger nearby and decided that a small weapon was better than no weapon, so I grabbed it, equipped it and had to grin when it automatically added a sheat to the rope that functioned as the belt of my rags.

I might have found more, but there was only so much time I could spent on going through the room and I had already spent too much time here. I was quite sure that nobody had heard the commotion, or there would be someone here already but I was on a timer. Listening at the door told me nothing, either the door was too thick or there was nothing to hear.

With memories of the Mission: Impossible theme playing in my head, I carefully opened the door, first looking towards the direction I had seen the sky before but instantly discarding it as a viable option, the shadow of at least one guard was clearly visible on the wall. No, if I wanted to get out, I needed to be sneaky and i needed a distraction.

Stepping slowly and trying to muffle the noise of my bare feet on the stone as much as possible, I moved deeper into the arena, trying to remember the various twists and turns while hoping to find something aiding me in my escape. Maybe I would even manage to free the two that had been brought here with me, it would help to have some contacts, otherwise, escaping the Arena would be just the first step, I would still be in the middle of a hostile city.

But before I got to the tunnel that led to the area they were held in, at least according to the guard earlier, I heard the heavy footfalls of at least two guards heading towards me, so I instatnly ducked into the first door I could, finding myself in a storage room. Sadly, it was not filled with weapons or maybe a nice set of armour, but with large red-oak barrels. But the barrels wouldn’t call out an alarm, so I was safe for now and stood at the door again, listening to the guards walk past. I noticed a strange smell in the room but pushed it out of my mind, thinking about plans for my escape.

Once they were past, I waited for a solid minute listened again, hearing nothing, and opened the door again, taking a careful peek. Not that peeking would actually help, if someone saw me, they would know that I shouldn’t be in the storage-room. But there was nobody to see, so I slowly continued my movement, making my way back towards the tunnel where the two other should be held.

Luckily, I didn’t run into more guards on the way, so I was able to find the hallway the guard had mentioned and started to make my way down there. I heard strange, muffled noises, loud enough to overshadow the soft noise of my footfalls. When I got to the lower floor, I saw a few holding cells and a single guard who was currently mocking the bound dwarf, telling him how he would shave his beard and things like that.

With a wide smile on my face, happy that the guard was distracted by his sport, I continued to sneak, now going towards him, slowly drawing my dagger. The guard never knew what hit him when one of my meaty paws went over his mouth, muffling any screams, just in case. But considering that I was in what amounted to the dungeon, I doubted screams were uncommon down here. Just that now, the guard would scream.

Not knowing how to effectively cut a throat, I simply started to stab his back, repeating it until his health-bar was empty, getting 50 EXP for killing the guard. I took off the Dwarf’s gag, letting him breathe freely.

“Thank you kindly, Orc. It looks like you intend to escape but I’m afraid this is the wrong way to get out here.” he grinned, looking amused despite the fact that he was bound in a dungeon.

“Help, help me!” another voice called out, the one of the horse-thief. He was bound nearby but apparently, he had the wherewithal to keep quiet before, or maybe he never noticed me before I started stabbing the guard.

“If you get me out of here, I have contacts in the city, they can hide you, if you only get me out of here!” the thief continued his tearful plea.

“Orc, if you get me out of here, my people built this city. I should be able to access their old tunnels. That way, we can get out of here.” the dwarf offered and I realised why the key I had found earlier was only one use. I had to make a choice.