Why wasn’t that classified as an accomplishment? It was a battle that I did in order to escape, but the fight with Dramatics was also in an effort to get somewhere. Was it because this time they were blocking the only exit and that time I could have just as easily gone around?

Reto was currently sitting against a wall with their eyes closed. Their original plan was to leave immediately, but decided that if something would have made waiting around for five minutes an issue they would have likely noticed it already.

I should go now, really. Don’t want to end up getting cornered down here, though I probably have a lot of time because I don’t see any way they could have sent a message. Unless the mage could have sent it that is, she does read minds and that’s pretty similar to telepathy. It’d have to be expensive to not use it to talk with the party down here though.

They pushed themselves off the floor and walked the short distance to the stairs, pausing at the bottom with an uneasy expression on their face and looking to the top. Ordinarily it would hardly look to be an issue however the lack of any sort of handrail compounded with their injuries makes it into quite a daunting task. Fortunately, their Health and Will are making it much easier for them to stomach the discomfort it would cause.

At the top of the stairs was a wooden door. At first they were worried it may be locked but as they approached they could see that there wasn’t even a handle. There were a few conclusions to be drawn from this, but they just assumed that it locked through some sort of spell, hence why none of the cells had locks or the guards had keys.

Surely someone else has the ability to destroy spells though, right? That crystal thing was able to regenerate itself though, maybe all spells are able to do something similar? That wouldn’t explain it either because I can still destroy them regardless of that. It could be that I evolved it from an AOE spell and can as a result target the entire spell, or maybe because being a {Mage Adept} provides other benefits aside from just giving away my capabilities.

They shook themselves out of their musings and, lacking a handle to pull, gently pushed the door forwards. It moved only half a centimetre before impacting the door frame on the other side, and they were forced to pry it in the other direction using a knife.

The door swung open and revealed a small room, with large open windows allowing sunlight to stream in. Based on the light level, it was approximately early morning, meaning they had been kept there a minimum of eight-ish hours. They trailed their hand along the doorway as they walked further into the room, noticing that what they assumed was the doorframe was actually a plank of wood nailed to it, a precaution if someone managed to break the lock from the inside.

They wondered if it was there for them specifically, possible implying their aura could stay active whilst unconscious, or if it’s standard precautions against mages when lacking guards. And they really were lacking guards, not only was the room empty except for two bunk beds at the far wall and some wooden furniture, but the windows showed an apparent ghost town, with no-one in sight. Admittedly, the glare from suddenly being faced with sunlight could have been making something difficult to see, but it doesn’t seem likely.

The door to this building doesn’t have a lock either, though it may not have been an issue in the first place. The windows make that somewhat useless, though if there were anyone around there would have been no way they could avoid detection when leaving through this door.

They circled the building, the guardhouse presumably, in an attempt to find some way to get to the roof and scope out the area. It is separated from the other buildings by a decent margin, but the closest two had large windows pointing towards the front of the guardhouse, so if there was a breakout they would either be the ones to confront the escapee, call for help, or both. The rest of the buildings were at least twice as far away as those two, and though they looked as though they could be in a regular town, they seemed far closer to the military housing near the lair back at the floating mountain than anything average people would live in. To the right, a copse of trees blocked their vision of the rest of the town. There wasn’t anything that would allow them to get on top of the guardhouse.

If I were to design the inner defences of a town like this, I would consider having a massive grove of trees near the prisons to make them think they’re at the edge of town, and then have guards living deep inside of it. I don’t know that it actually is a good idea, but given the rest of the architecture seems to encourage similar things it’s a distinct possibility.

With this in mind, they chose to head in a different direction at random, which ended up being behind and to the left of the direction they left facing. In this direction, it looked like it could be somewhat residential, with tiered housing similar to what they’ve already seen, only up two stories rather than three.

There was a smooth road that on a close inspection was just made out of regular rock of some kind, and had patterns similar to lava covering the surface. Seeing as purposely creating those patterns so intricately doesn’t seem to match the design philosophy of this whole place, it’s entirely possible that they poured actual lava in order to make the roads, though the unnatural smoothness is still quite strange.

As they went further down they road, the houses seemed to get closer together, some even being three storied or more elaborate. On occasion, there would be roads crossing over this one, or more like paths because there wasn’t any hint of vehicles or horses or anything similar. There also were actual people milling about, most of which gave Reto strange looks because of their torn, bloody clothes.

This is clearly not the direction I want to be going then. I wonder if these people know that bandits have set up in the same town as them? Though, city may be more accurate. Not much of one if they can’t watch their prisons though.

Given the amount of people around the place is increasing, this must be where the majority of them lived. That also means that this town used to have substantially more people, with over around half the available housing going un-used, or was expected to be more popular then it ended up being.

When they started to turn around to try another direction, they noticed two people in identical armour and holding spears as told as they are approaching. The armour covered every centimetre of their body, leaving even their face unexposed.

Between them and the guards was a right turn, which Reto started towards. Seeing this the two picked up their pace, confirming their intentions.

Didn’t know walking around covered in blood, only some of which is mine, was a crime.

They were able to reach the turn before the guards could catch up, and were halfway to another before they were anywhere close to them. Their escape was, however, stopped in it’s tracks by a single word from one of the pair.

“Halt!”

Retos legs locked in place and, no matter how hard they tried they couldn’t move them at all, they couldn’t even get themselves to fall over to drag themselves by the arms. At first, they tried to use Riven Spell to remove it, but it reapplied itself quickly. Presumably the guard that spoke was able to have it automatically reapply itself, a theory which was confirmed when he walked into their range and the spell immediately cut out. They considered running, but new that even were they to try there was no way they could outrun even mundane trained soldiers, never mind these.

They were caught.

----

Zki was the leader of an organisation of slave traders, and though recently she had fallen on hard times they still had a bit of luck on their side. With people leaving by the droves with rumours of Vermillion showing up property has never been cheaper. Just a few days ago she was able to buy all of the buildings surrounding one of the city of Frostcaster’s prisons, albeit one of the lesser ones, and the prison itself. Not to mention the alien she had managed to capture, it was going to make them all so much richer.

But, she may have been presumptuous when she saw the low level of it. Surely, something that’s only level three couldn’t escape a group of guards who’s level averaged double that, excluding the newbie mage? Of course, looking through her history she saw that she may have neglected to remember that it was not only Adept, but a Mage Adept. The circumstances to gain access to that trait are frankly impossible, a legendary sort of thing. Of course, as powerful as it is, the trait would only ever be called that because of the requirements, it doesn’t tend to help that much once skill with a Skill starts to take a backseat compared to doing it yourself.

Regardless, it had not only escaped during the groups drunken stupor, but killed three of her best fighters, leaving the mage and Tiff alive, and the latter only due to one of her Skills, and the former left completely catatonic. Tiff was in fact doing quite well, based on how verbal she was currently being.

“If you’d have bothered to show up when I asked for help, at the very least the thing might have been caught, and we might have been able to spare the lives of at least one more person, but no! You were too busy partying and getting drunk, as per usual, to notice my message! You could have at least kept it close to the prison, rather than out in the forest where no-one could notice anything leaving it! And another thing…!”

As the leader, Zki felt that she should probably not be getting berated at by one of her subordinates, but she wasn’t really paying attention. Rather, she was thinking. As she does, when she isn’t celebrating.

----

Reto is in another cell. City guards don’t seem to be too appreciative of people covered in blood, as much as they do have very good reason to be. At the very least they were given a change of clothes, a white tunic and trousers. Somehow they don’t have any stains, which means it must be an ingrained enchantment. They could probably get use Riven Spell to get rid of it, though doing so doesn’t seem like it would be very fruitful

“Alright, you can come in for questioning now.”

A bored looking worker unlocked the cell with a wave of a small pink rock, and ushered them over to a door in the centre of the small block of cells. At first all the locks were automatically disabled, but by shifting Riven Spell entirely inwards, it couldn’t effect anything outwards.

Behind the door was a stone desk with a single man sitting behind it, and no chairs on the opposite side, and the worker closed the door as Reto entered, leaving them alone with him. He stared at them for a few seconds before starting to speak.

“I understand you’ve come under suspicion for unlawful killings. I’ve already got the perspective of multiple witnesses, so now all I need is your perspective. Let’s start with why you were wandering the streets covered in blood, shall we?”

When did he get any witnesses in? And how am I supposed to talk to him?

Despite their reservations, they attempted to sign at him, hoping he had some skill to comprehend it.

‘Well, I had just escaped from being kidnapped you see. I wasn’t sure where I was, and couldn’t think of anything else to do except go to the city. I didn’t murder anyone though, most of the blood’s mine.’

Not entirely true, and some of those statements are based on ambiguously true facts, but it’ll have to do.

“Non-verbal are you? I’d love to ask more, but I doubt I have the time. {Clear Communication}. Try now.”

Reto repeated the message almost word for word, with some tweaks now that they’d had more time to think.

“Could you elaborate on what you mean by ‘most’?”

‘Well, I had to fight my way out obviously, but I didn’t attack anyone unprovoked. There were only five people, in that prison at the end of the road I walked in on.’

“The prison, hmm? Interesting. And what of the Sealing Runes on your neck and ankles?”

‘They were placed on me by the people that kidnapped me, it stops me from using some of my magic, and I’ve not been able to get rid of them myself.’

“We have a Specialist of sealing in right now, not that it’s a surprise, it’s standard protocol. He shouldn’t be too busy to do a small job such as this. But anyway, I didn’t register any falsehoods, so I think I’ll have to let you go. Though, be aware that we have our ways of tracking you, even with your unusual {Sunder Spell}. Have a good day, and speak with the receptionist about the Specialist.”

That.. was much faster than expected. And what was that look on his face, like he just discovered something massive. I mean, I do know exactly where they were hiding, but it was only five people. And why didn’t he pick up that I killed people, if he actually can detect lies? Unless the circumstances under which they died wasn’t illegal? Nonetheless, I’m glad to finally have actual clothes, as much as I don’t like the way they look at all.

The only colour on them was a stark white, which would not only make stealth more difficult, but is also both distinctive and sort of ugly, so that they can find anyone who tries to escape much easier.

In the lobby, there wasn’t even a desk for the receptionist, she just has an admittedly comfortable chair by the door, and a symbol on a sign over her head. They wouldn’t be able to ask directly about it, but hopefully there won’t be a problem.

As they were approaching the receptionist, she looked off into the distance, a large rock in her hand glowing as she started, and then turned to Reto, speaking with a tone that emanates boredom.

“Follow me, you’ll meet with Specialist Ri in this room over here. Afterwards, you can just leave the building immediately.”

Is Specialist a title? It doesn’t say what anyone specialises in though, except for when the guard captain mentioned the full thing. It must be the shortened version, maybe of the classification system the whole RPG thing uses.

The room they had entered was a simple wooden thing, not even any windows due to being in the middle of the building, with eight wooden chairs around the outside. They opted to sit in the one closest to the door on the right because they were next to it at the time.

After a few minutes, Ri quickly entered the room and immediately waved his hand over Retos neck and ankles without preamble, muttering all the while. He then said the name of a skill too fast for Reto to catch, something similar to Heal scar, and left as abruptly as he entered with few parting words.

“Sorry about the pace, I’ve got lots to do!”

He seemed to have left the room completely before the words could even leave his mouth, and Reto was left sitting, stunned into inaction. After taking a few seconds to collect themselves, they promptly left the building.

Specialists must have a lot of work, though why could he heal scars if he was a Sealing specialist? Unless it’s specifically about the type of sealing method that was used on me. And if he’s the only one he would be doing anything he would be quite busy.

Regardless of ponderings on the results of inherent classifications, they looked outwards finally feeling as though they can relax for a while, and not worry about fighting for the lives of themselves and others. Though it had hardly been a few days, they were starting to worry a pattern was forming.

Their next step is to find some decent clothes.

[Reto Mason – Mage Adept – Lv.3]

Health – 1/20

Will – 24/30

Mana – 55/55

Power

: Physical – 1.10

: Mental – 1.05

: Magical – 1.35

Durability

: Physical – 1.10

: Mental – 1.25

: Magical – 1.20

Speed

: Physical – 1.10

: Mental – 1.30

: Magical – 1.55

{Desolate Survivalism} – {Mana Feeding} – {Riven Spell}

{Anti-hero}

{Cursebreaker*}

{Adept Mage}

{Army of One}

{Dungeoneer}