The devil Lady stopped and frowned. “Did you now?”, she purred and cast a swift spell with an elegant, but swift flick of her long index finger. A black mist appeared on the tip of her carefully tended, long, black nail. It slowly enveloped Dargan and tried to enter his body. Another black mist radiated from the horrified orc’s skin. The two similar mists battled and the Miaras slowly drove it away after a brief struggle.

“Now, I wonder what that knowledge hoarder will do,” she smirked. Then focused on the ritual again.

“Ple…” Dargan tried to plead but his brother silenced him with a firm hand over his mouth.

“Brother, let's not interrupt our lady,” he whispered into his brother’s left ear.

The ritualistic hexagram was mildly glowing pink. She beckoned and the former gladiator dragged his brother inside.

“Strip!” She ordered, mixing magic with her word and the brothers' clothes incinerated in a flash. Including the steel armour and weapons.

Their bodies were in direct contrast. Kulgar had bulging muscles without an ounce of fat, while Dargan had a flabby stomach, showing his decadent lifestyle.

Dargan focused on his love for gold, and prayed to Staumaz and Ssirze, hoping somebody will save him from the certain doom. He was never into submission.

The devilish woman just smiled, her beauty enhanced by magical ritual, and grabbed Dargan’s jaw. “Don’t struggle too much or it will hurt,” she purred again, “or, struggle even more,” lust and morbid hope filled her voice, “we have all of the day before us,” she ended the sentence. Dargan’s body went rigid as the shiver went through his spine. He prayed for the last time and then his mind was clouded by mist of lust.

⌬⌬⌬⌬⌬⌬⌬⌬⌬⌬

They were locked behind the smooth wall the whole day, only brought the daily meal to them. Vladimir briefly wondered why there was no training today but was glad for it. His whole body ached from yesterday's challenge, even his toes were not excluded.

He decided to not practice Bhh technique today as it augmented that pesky cancer. As another day went by, the vitality went down.

Vladimir D. Svoboda

Age: 229

Race: Homo Sapiens Sapiens - Earth origin

Level: 1

Essence: 0.00%

VIT Vitality: 5.60 (decreasing by 0.09 per day) / 11.00

CAC Cell Activity: 1.10 / 1.50

ISS Immune System Strength: 1.00 / 1.50

NSS Nervous System Speed: 1.05 / 1.50

MPA Mental Processing Ability: 2.00

Ailments:

Dissociative identity disorder (mind)

Pancreatic cancer (4th stage - 123 days left) (body)

Magic-less (body/soul)

Resistances:

Serum F7 10,04%

Cutting Trauma F10 99,99%

Blunt Trauma F10 99,99%

Mental Disorder E8 21,10%

There was a drop in the [Essence] and the resistances were still missing something to advance. The skills did not change at all. To advance them he needs the magic or ki. Divinity was out of question. He would need to pledge himself to some god.

He had to remind himself that he was here for a mere 15 days.

Another thing that worried him was the sudden silence of the Loony Voice. He felt it was still there with access to his emotions and memories. He will have to do something about this, but not today.

Both of them were woken up and Vladimir was restless, tense and uneasy. He already exercised and then practised, but the bad feeling did not leave him. First, he thought it was just agitation before the escape, but something…

“Onyx, log,” He wished, just to be sure. The world was filled with beings he could not even imagine and the existence of divination magic was already confirmed.

[Log:

Attempt to enter dreams of a nearby being named Kulgar detected.

Due to the proximity and knowledge about the user, UI Assist automatically consumed 12% of stored Essence to intercept the attempt.

Attempt to scry the user’s location by… Unknown. Stopped by the automatic anti-divination system without energy expenditure]

“Damn,” he swore aloud. Now, he knew the reason. He hoped that the one who tried to divine him would not know the reason why he, or she, wasn’t able to. However, he doubted it.

“Onyx, please, next time, ASK!” He yelled in his mind, while his face went rigid.

[Confirmed]

The lonely screen before his eyes flashed. He annoyedly dismissed it and returned to the practice. A little bit of yoga never hurt.

Meanwhile, the goblin played with his fake choker in his hand, waiting for the rescue with a large grin and ignoring the strange human.

His natural powers mostly returned. His body was strong again. He could not wait to test it out again. This time he will kill on sight. No longer trying to save the orcen kid from his abusive father. Not like he would ever admit he tried something so foolish. After all, he was supposed to be greedy, stupid and arrogant, as any other goblin, who was not under the heel of orcen masters. The innate ability of his helped him in that matter.

He was much smarter than his brothers and sisters and his emotions were subdued. The Mind of the Sage was the name of it. Increased intelligence, self-control, emotion repression when needed were just the tip of the iceberg of this innate talent. He first scoffed at it, who ever heard about goblin sage, but then he understood he could be the first one.

When he went to the church as an unaffiliated goblin they accepted him, even made him their inquisitor after he proved himself. Innate talents were not that unusual in the goblins, but most of them were leaning to a more corporeal side.

The only thing that threw shade on his happiness was the god of steam, Staumaz. He sighed at the thought of him. So many things he had done for him and for the revolution and yet he was abandoned. He did not ask why as he already knew. What happened, happened and now there was only a single way ahead. Revenge! However, revenge against a god…

He gazed upon the human, who exercised his strange dance. He will help him and the goblins.

Nobody probably told him, but training using the orcen breathing technique damages the body of other races.

And yet, he was fine. He observed the human while he was expunging the filth out of his pink skin many times in the last week. There was no damage and he was able to use it effectively. Even more than the orcs themselves. The human, Vlad, had to adjust it for humans. Somehow without experiments, research or resources at all. Something like that was completely out of the goblin expectation.

He wanted that. Not for himself as his training was given to him by the shady church of steam quests, but for the revolution. The goblins were for far too long abused and used. Tens of thousands of years, countless generations, and still, he was the first. Even god Staumaz agreed. At least, he thought he did.

The decadent orcs underestimated his conviction and his two deaths at the hands of the human next to him only made him stronger. The orc and the devils… They needed to fall.

The wall opened and two shifty goblins entered the cell, interrupting the cellmates in their activities. One of them had an inconspicuous bronze case on his back, hanging at him by hooks over his shoulders.

One of them looked outside, checking if there was someone around and closed the wall behind them.

“Bossa, Za’Dek ordered,” he said, while the second goblin opened the case. He pulled out a human-sized diving-suit. It smelled all over the cell. Vladimir grimaced but did not say anything.

“Orcen kiddie diving-suit for sewers. The fumes woulda kill you, weaka human,” he said and the fallen inquisitor laughed.

“Hurry upa, the boys are almosta here,” the goblin threw Vladimir the reeking diving-suit. It was just a rubbery material that would not impede the orc’s movement as it would stick to his, or her, skin. The feet were covered with a metal sheet and a large layer of vulcanized rubber. The face was covered by something similar to glass. At first, Vladimir thought it was plastic, but on closer observation, there were small runes on the connection between the rubber, metal and glass.

‘I invoke the hidden energy to amplify the strength of the glass’

‘I invoke the hidden energy to allow air to flow freely’

Nothing fancy, but efficient. Another two full sets of runes were recorded. He already had one before from the illumination crystal, still laying on the prominence at the wall.

“Hurry upa! We don’ta have the whole day!” The goblin nervously urged.

The diving-suit was too big for him even though it was just for kids. Or teenagers, which would explain the smell.

He continued to grimace as the front closed. The rancid smell was… disgusting. The urge to throw the breakfast out was strong, but he subdued his revolving stomach. The diving-suit was freely hanging on him, fortunately, the height was right

The fallen inquisitor laughed as he saw the human struggling, but his face went suddenly rigid as the other diving-suit landed before him. This one looked like it was made by hand from several pieces. The enchantment to make the glass stronger was missing but the truth was he did not need it. His body was strong enough to deal with the sewer’s fumes for some time if it came to it. It would not be the first time he went down there, even more under the city.

This time it was Vladimir grinning with glee as the goblin put it on with a deep scowl. It did not smell as bad as Vladimir’s one, but still, it was nothing pleasant.

“We willa go now. Gooda lucka!” The goblins said and opened the wall. They grabbed the empty bowls, checked if the hallway was empty and left, leaving the metallic case behind.

Vladimir took it. It weighed around 10 kilos and if a person did not take care he could even hurt himself. The hooks were adjustable so he changed to his width and put it on.

“Now what?” Vladimir asked, curious. Before the fallen inquisitor could answer, the floor started to vibrate.

“Hmm… Is it just me, or is the floor shaking?” Vladimir asked, fearing the answer. He never liked heights. Especially when he was falling from them.

“No, and prepare yourself, human. This will be a wild ride,” Sou’Rek madly grinned, showing all of his pointy and sharp teeth.

“Oh, for fucks sakeeEEE!” Vladimir yelled as the ground cracked below him and he fell right through it. The goblin just shook his head and jumped right behind him. He noticed two goblins, who wore similar diving-suit as him and holding drills connected to tubes on their back, pressed to the sides of the hole waiting for them before he rapidly moved towards darkness.

⌬⌬⌬⌬⌬⌬⌬⌬⌬⌬

After a 10 metres long drop, landing into a septic tank and subsequent cursing, Vlad finally calmed down enough to listen.

“Are you done, human?” Sou’Rek asked with a bored tone. Three minutes he waited for the human to finish calming down. The man nodded and calmed his quivering knees. He really hated heights. Maybe after he learns how to fly… However, that was only food for thought.

They landed directly in the middle of a large septic tank.

The diving-suits worked perfectly and they did not even feel the rancid atmosphere.

“We have nota enough timea. Let’s movea,” their guides urged them. They landed in the water right after Vladimir was brought to the tank’s edge by the grumbling goblin. His opinion of the human race went again a little lower.

They moved through the maze.

The sewers were immense. There were mostly bronze pipes all over leading to rooms with colossal boilers and mechanical pumps, all working on the immense amount of steam. It was a technological marvel. Vladimir melted on the steampunk atmosphere of this place.

They suddenly stopped before a large circular hall with another even bigger septic tank in the middle. The hall itself measured 50 metres in diameter. There were four ways, each leading to their opposite direction. The middle was connected with robust, 4-metres wide catwalks.

And right in the middle were twenty large rats, battling over scraps of goblin bodies.

Sou’Rek sighed, took the drills from the goblins, yanking it from the energy tubes and ran towards the rats. The two guides hid behind Vladimir, slightly shaking. He felt sorry for them and decided to let Sou’Rek go wild as he protected the small ones. Still, he analysed them for completeness.

[Giant rat

Level: 8

VIT: 17.6 (CAC x (3+1)) {Racial bonus + evolution bonus}

CAC: 4.4

ISS: 5.6

NSS: 5.1

MPA: 0.8

Rancid

Hungry

Enraged]

“A single rat… and is already around five times stronger than humans. Those rats at the arena… when mom and I… must have been either young or from somewhere else,” Vladimir reflected and came to conclusion. So much to learn.

Meanwhile, Sou’Rek reached the rats. The large metallic drills went straight through the first rat’s head, making a large hole. Then he moved left, evading another rat with ease and executed it with a drill in its spine and with a large grin. This was what he wanted. Finally, fight as he wishes.

They fought, rats falling right and left in a flash, holes in their bodies. But there was another twelve, no longer battling against themselves but rather, against the new threat.

The fallen inquisitor stopped grinning as he realized his precarious situation. He was too enamoured in the battle, something that should not happen under The Mind of the Sage.

Meanwhile, as Vladimir observed the unfolding battle between fallen inquisitor and pack of rats he frowned. He decided to help.