"Oww..." Teo groaned in pain as he slowly woke from his slumber. His head hurt as if someone had knocked him out.

No, someone did knock him out... he remembered now! The alley, the pain, Jack...

"Jack!" he cried out panicked. He could not see anything. Though he could still feel the stinking sack covering his face.

"Not so loud, I'm here!" a familiar voice beside him responded in a hushed voice.

"Where are we? What is happening?!" Teo's heart was racing, sweat pouring down his back, his throat was parched and dry like a desert, this was going too far for a practical joke.

"Calm down! We can't get more attention on us now than we already have! I think we were kidnapped," Jack responded in a voice that did not seem to reflect the gravitas of his words.

"Kidnapped! Are you freaking kidding me?!" Teo cried out aghast.

"Shhhh!" his friend tried to quiet him down again.

"Kidnapped?! Who would want to kidnap us? This is crazy!" Teo articulated in a forced whisper.

"Well, this is my first time as well, but my dad does have many enemies." Somehow Teo imagined his friend to be smiling right now from the way he said that.

"Don't worry, he will get us out of here in no time!" Jack said optimistically, definitely smiling right now.

"Are you serious? You just want to wait here for somebody to come and save us?" Teo was apparently not a big fan of his companions 'plan'.

"Well, do you have any better ideas?" Jack said, his words oozing with sarcasm.

"Yes, I do. We need to get out of here!" Teo squeezed out through gritted teeth, forcing himself to keep the volume down as much as possible.

"Wow, what a brilliant idea. Wish I had come up with that," ridiculed Jack, not taking the notion seriously.

"There is no need to be sarcastic now... Just use your brain for once, we need to get rid of these sacks and shackles first!" said Teo a bit annoyed and rattled at the chain that bound his cuffed arms.

He still could not see anything as the dark sacks seemed to inhibit even his Mana Vision, all he could feel was the cold, wet, stone floor and the heavy shackles binding his arms.

"I already tried. They are totally fireproof. I can't burn or melt them at all..." Jack said dejectedly.

'Goliath, we need your help. Can you hear me?!' Only now did Teo think of the ancient Golem that he usually carried around with him and reached out to him with his thoughts.

But he did not reply; even worse... he could not feel the familiar coin purse around his neck at all, now that he thought about it. The rest of his pockets seemed to be rather light as well, but this was not the time to worry about his lost allowance, this was bad!

'Great idea, putting your secret weapon into a coin purse... No one would think of stealing that...' he thought while heaving a depressed sigh.

It seemed that he would have to think of something by himself. At least, blindly waiting to be rescued was not a viable option for him. They often loitered around town or trained till the sun went down, did anyone even notice that they are missing yet? Even if they did, how was Jack's dad supposed to find them, when they did not even know where they were themselves.

Just like his friend had said, the tools that confined them did not seem to be made from common cloth or iron, they were incredibly tough. If Jack had failed already, Teo could forget about melting the shackles with his meager Fire Magic.

Physical strength was also not an option, as even a grown man would have despaired in the face of the thick metal chains.

Mana, however, was even less useful than Fire. It was not very destructive in its nature and even if he tried to burst his restraints apart in a large explosion, his body would be the first to give in.

He tried to hack and saw at his chains with compressed Mana, but could not even leave a mark on its surface; it was a futile effort.

Mana Bolts, drills, spears, even the occasional scythe; Magic of various shapes, properties, and velocities was hurtled against the joint, connecting the thick chains to the wall, without visible, or rather, tangible progress.

Teo had to admit, this cell was really well built, impossible to break out of... much to his regret. He silently cursed the competent architect responsible for this under his breath.

They needed to get out of here and alarm the town guards as fast as possible! Who knew what they were going to do to them here?! They had no time to lose!

Teo sat down beside his unusually calm friend, who sighed softly, seeing (hearing) that even Teo had given up.

But instead of crying or wallowing in self-pity, Teo just sank into deep thought. Silently sitting on the ground and putting together all the pieces he remembered and all possible escape routes he could come up with.

The metal used to forge their restraints was unusually hard, fireproof and even Mana-resistant, unable to be damaged in the slightest by the two boys. No doubt about it, this was some kind of alchemical alloy.

Teo had seen dozens of unique alloys during his Enchanting practice with his uncle. They usually boasted unique strengths and weaknesses, that could improve the quality of equipment dramatically when used wisely in blacksmithing or Enchanting.

If he knew one thing about them though, then that they were crazy expensive! The one he had encountered here was probably not a very high-quality product, but with this amount of metal, it must have cost a fortune anyway.

Most probably the chains were the only real obstacle they had to overcome in order to get free. No one would expect them to manage even that part with how unbreakable they were, impervious to all attacks.

There was a real chance, that their captor had not invested another fortune into an even stronger plan B.

They just had to come up with a way to break those shackles and they would be a good deal closer to seeing the light of day again — or night, which it probably was by now.

Luckily Teo had an idea, even if it was more of a guess than a real plan.

If he could not destroy them from the outside, then how about destroying them from the inside?

The alloy had reminded him of his gruesome Enchanting practice and the hundreds of failures he had to endure over the years — beautiful weapons and valuable alloys crumbling in his hands.

Exactly! Just a while back he had messed up an Enchantment on a steel dagger and made it disintegrate into metal dust with barely a touch! Maybe, just maybe, he could use this experience to his advantage.

Teo did not have Goliath with him at the moment, severely limiting his prowess in the craft, but carving a few Energy channels and having his Mana run amok in there should not pose much of a problem.

His mind made up, he quickly focused his attention and got down to business. A thin string of compressed Mana soon entered the cuffs through his wrist and slowly tunneled through the thick chains.

It was a Mana-resistant alloy and working on it felt a bit like taking a swim in a pool of pudding, but with his far above-average control over Mana and large Mana Capacity, he made significant progress in a short time.

With swift motions, he carved thick channels through the material and let them gather around a small amplification Rune, before finishing the second half of the circle. Now the Mana would travel around and around the Network, becoming more violent with every circulation.

It was quite dangerous, especially when the item in question was literally tied to your own hands, but what choice did he have?

"Better take a step back, Jack. I'm going to try something," Teo said as he stood up from the ground.

After a moment, he began to channel his Mana into the new 'Enchantment' and carefully positioned his arms far away from his body.

A rapid torrent of Mana rushed through the tight channels becoming faster and more compressed by the second.

Soon the material could not bear the increasing strain anymore and small, hairlike cracks began to spread from the walls of the Mana channels.

A crackling noise could be heard, like a fresh piece of meat in a pan of oil. Small arcs of energy discharged from the shackle and burned Teo's skin, even through the protective layer of Mana he had wrapped himself in. After a few seconds, the sound stopped and the cell was covered in eerie silence once again.

The shackle was still fastened around Teo's slightly injured arms.

In a final attempt to struggle free, Teo pulled back his arms with all his might... and it broke. The cuffs crumbled around his wrists like dried mud and fell to the ground, much like Teo, who landed on his butt with a thump due to the sudden absence of resistance.

He had broken free at last.