Sean’s POV

A month had passed since Elendria had that odd day where she said she could see my soul. I still didn’t know if I believed her, but she seemed sincere so I would give her the benefit of the doubt for now. What mattered most was how close I was to finishing what I hoped would let me escape. It was just in time too, as we had left the heavily forested area yesterday, and I got the first glimpse of the human area.

They had plains that would put the central United States to shame, and the roadways would be right at home with the Romans. Since the grasses were so high and often hid packs of predators, the roads were as straight as possible, and the grass was magically cleared at least a half a mile on each side of the road. That gave the caravan guards plenty of time to prepare for an assault should someone be desperate enough to attack. Permanent campsites were also erected at regular intervals, near water whenever possible. There were also signs at each one letting travelers know whether or not the next station had water.

“Good night Elendria.” I said after our terrible supper.

“Good night Sean.” She replied, curling up in her blanket and putting her back to me. Her calling me by name was starting to feel a lot more normal, and I liked that she was comfortable enough to turn her back to me. I had given a lot of thought to her offer, and I wanted to free her. She had gone above and beyond trying to teach me, even unlocking my mana when it would have been incredibly dangerous to do so, and had kept my secrets for a long time.

Half an hour later, the entire camp was asleep and I was free to finish up my spell, hopefully earning myself a class. I started out with a ball of mana to represent the sun. Mercury and Venus were simple to add, as they didn’t have any moons of their own. Two more orbs appeared, each spinning as they orbited the sun. Earth and her moon were next, and the added satellite had increased the difficulty as I was going through this by quite a bit. Mars and its two moons didn’t cause much added difficulty once I had spent a few days mastering Earth, and the asteroid belt was a simple addition of shards of mana.

Jupiter was the major problem child. When I was originally starting this project, I had to stop and do Jupiter as its own portion because of all the moons. I knew there were a ton of them, and I decided that I was just going to go with the ones you can see with a telescope from Earth. I wasn’t sure exactly how many that was, but it seemed like the system was willing to help out with this. I got a good feeling in my stomach when it reached eight moons, so that’s what I left it at. Each of the remaining outer planets got the same treatment, and I went with the gut feeling on each one. Saturn got seven moons, Uranus got five, and Neptune ended up with seven as well.

Adding twenty-seven orbits around four moving objects was brutal on my concentration. Adding in each new planet one at a time took about a week before I was comfortable enough to try the next one. Taking a deep breath, I added in the last planet and let everything move. It took half of my mana just to summon everything, and maintaining the intensity of each orb was draining my mana twice as fast as it would recover. That let me run my little solar system for around 25 minutes before everything would fall apart. I watched nervously, as everything started moving. Several tries before had let me know that I was moving things too slowly. Five seconds was all Earth took to reach a year. Mars wasn’t quite double that. It was the outer planets that were holding me back. Jupiter was passing a revolution per minute. Two and a half minutes and Saturn passed its first year. Uranus was the biggest jump in time, taking a whopping seven minutes to complete one year. And we finally came to Neptune. The slowest year. I was getting a headache when Uranus completed its year, and Neptune had only finished half a rotation by that point. At ten minutes, the sweat was pouring down my forehead. Twelve or thirteen minutes, near enough to the end it didn’t matter, and I could feel blood flowing from my nose. My vision was starting to tunnel down, and I dug my fingernails into my palms in a last ditch effort. It paid off. As soon as the last planet finished a year, my breath exploded from my chest and I let it drop.

Wiping the blood off with the back of my hand, I took come calming breaths. The flashing notification let me know that I had done something, but what it was could wait a few minutes. I didn’t want any distractions. I looked around to make sure I hadn’t woken anyone up, and froze for a second. The camp was quiet, but Elendria was pressed up against the walls of the cage with her blanket pulled up to her nose. Eyes wide, she was staring at me.

“Sorry if I scared you.” I apologized quietly. “I need to check some things, but I’m done practicing for now. Do you think you can go back to sleep?” She slowly nodded, curling up again against the sides of the cage. Not ideal, but I could work with it. Tomorrow was my escape anyway, I had one more thing I needed to finish. While she calmed down, I looked over my gains.

Spell completed: Otherworldly Solar System

Spell difficulty: Grandmaster

You have completed a spell of obscene complexity. Multiple orbits within orbits, while maintaining as much accuracy as possible. Each planet, along with its major moons is represented accurately enough that this could be used as a scrying location.

Classes acquired!

Due to the difficulty of spell you just created, several classes have been automatically accepted on your behalf.

Class

Level

Completion bonus

Novice sorcerer

5 of 5

+1 Int, +50 mana

Apprentice sorcerer

50 of 50

+2 Wis, +100 mana

Journeyman sorcerer

500 of 500

+2 Int, +1 Wis, +2.6 mana recovered per minute

Celestial sorcerer (master level)

650 of 10,000

N/A

Skill upgraded!

Old skill

New skill

Completion bonus

Mana manipulation (50/50)

Mana Control (25/500)

Spells cost reduced by 5%, chance of spell backlash reduced by 10%

Name: Sean O’Carrol

Age: 32

Titles:

Slave

Chosen of Ariana (hidden)

Blessed by Lokir (hidden)

Otherwordly traveler (hidden)

Summoned Hero (hidden)

Attributes:

STR – 6

AGI – 5

DEX – 7

INT – 14

WIS – 15

CON – 6

END – 10

Health: 80/80

Mana: 15/270

Health regen: 0.057/min

Mana regen: 4/min

Class: Celestial sorcerer (650/10,000)

Available classes: slave

Secondary class: none

Profession: none

Available professions: none

Secondary profession: none

Level: 0/25

Exp to next level: 0%

Wow. I had more than doubled my mana pool, but the increases in mana regen let me refill it in just over an hour. But what’s the deal? Shouldn’t I get some sort of spells? I completed three levels of the mage tree! They should come with spells or skills damnit! I pulled up the information for celestial sorcerer, looking to see what that was about.

Celestial sorcerer

Sorcerers are mages that have created their own master level spell or higher. Once they reach master level, they may choose a specialization. Celestial mages encompass the movement of celestial bodies. Gravity, light, and void magics are encompassed by the celestial school.

Well, that explains why I was a sorcerer instead of a simple mage. I guess it really only gives bragging rights, but that was fine with me. The magics listed all seemed a bit advanced though, so I doubted that I would be able to cast them with my limited mana pool. I really needed to level up.

I relaxed for an hour, letting my mana recover. The next part was crucial for my escape. First, I found a rock on the ground. I was amazed at the ease with which I could now extend a tendril of mana down, using it to envelope and pick up the rock. Once it left the ground, I felt the strain start draining the mana much quicker than I wanted, so I hoisted it up in a hurry and grabbed it before it fell back down. Shaking my head at the close call, I saw I had dropped over 120 mana, dropping me down to just over a hundred left.

Skill acquired: Telekenisis (1/25)

Skill allows for the use of mana to lift distant objects. Consumption depends on distance of object and weight.

A good skill, but not something I was seeing myself use a lot. It would be easy to grind, maybe it would give a decent bonus should I max it out. Putting that aside, I started with the next phase of the skill I would need for escape. I slowly let my mana flow around the rock, exploring it with my eyes closed. Slight dent there. This portion is smoothly rounded, possibly from time spent in a river. Notice the rough patch, though it is mostly dirt stuck on the outside. Gently, I brushed it off with mana. Aside from the initial expenditure, unless I was actively doing something with it I could match the spell cost to my regeneration. Once I had everything surrounded, I opened my eyes. I smiled as I looked at the rock, as it matched up perfectly with what my mana told me.

Skill acquired: Magic exploration (1/30)

Extending your mana, you can gain information on what it contacts. Initially you will only know the shape, but skill increases can give you information on makeup as well as magical affinities.

Perfect! Just what I needed for the next step. I quietly moved over to the cage door, and used my new skill. Time to see just how primitive these locks actually were. Two pins kept a roller from moving, and they were simply solid pins. To get the cylinder to roll, they had to be lifted the same amount. I suppose that would be simple enough to prevent most slaves from escaping, especially when moving around in the tail end of nowhere. Annoyed with how simple things were, I had one last thing to check.

Outside of the cage, I made a blade of mana. Keeping it simple, I made it a double edged dagger. Focusing on it, I tested it by slamming it into the ground. Just as I had hoped, there was no sound. The blade also left a razor thin hole, exactly what I would need. I read through the designation of my new spell as I recharged my mana. With as much time left as I had tonight, perhaps the escape should be accelerated?

Spell acquired: Mage’s dagger (1/10)

Apprentice

Cost: 15 mana

Summon a dagger made of mana to do battle for you.

It was pushing midnight by the time I had my mana fully recovered, leaving me six hours to escape. Deciding that was plenty of time, I got down to work. My first step was to wrap both of the prongs of this blasted collar with mana, making it dense enough that shocks wouldn’t make it through. That done, I used magic exploration on the lock. Seriously? I nearly wept when I explored it. There was only a single pin holding it in place. Concentrating, I used telekinesis to lift the pin and spin the cylinder. With a slight click, I felt the lock disengage. Hurrying, I removed it and looked around.

Free! I was free! It had cost me nearly 80 mana, forcing me to wait for 20 minutes before the next step. Taking a deep breath, I summoned fifteen of my mage’s daggers, one for each of the guards. As one, they plunged downward into the eyes of the unsuspecting guards, getting a twist for good measure.

I grunted when a wave of energy slammed through my body. Arms shaking like an addict needing a fix, I fought through the energy rush. What the hell was that? I ignored the icons, as I was now fully committed. Over to the lock I went, and another bout of magical lockpicking had the cage unlocked, though I had to wait for my mana to recharge again. I waited the full hour, figuring I would need it. It was still only 1:30 in the morning, so I had a few hours until sunrise. This next part was the part that could break everything. I knew the cage door creaked. Everyone knew. It was annoying as all get out to have to hear it in the morning and night. It also made the guards a fine alarm. Well, guards that were alive would have a great alarm. Using mana exploration, I slipped tendrils through the two hinges. Dirt and rust was removed, and everything got a lovely casing of mana to ensure silence. I gave the door a slight tug, exhaling in relief when I realized it had worked. Time to speed things up.

Slipping down out of the back of the cage, I smiled as I reached back in to grab my former collar. Making my way past all the dead guards, I slipped inside my former master’s tent. A small orb of mana gave me just enough light to see by, though there wasn’t much in the tent to trip over. A small desk with a chair was the only thing between me and the sleeping slob. I slipped up silently, looping and locking the collar around his neck before he could wake up.

“Your new master orders you to keep silent.” I spoke clearly, feeling a bond slip from my chest to the collar and tighten around him. “Sit up. You will not make any attempts to escape. You will answer my questions with clear and concise answers, neither omitting nor obscuring important information.” I could feel the hate in his eyes as I spoke to him, and I thought about what people could do with these collars or just magic in general. Too many times had someone been interrogating a prisoner, only for a curse to kill them when they tried to answer a magically compelled question. “If there are any oaths or curses that will prevent you from answering a question, you will reply with ‘I cannot answer at this time.’. Do you understand my orders?”

“Yes, master.”

“Excellent. First. Where does your tent go every day? I’ve seen you break it down but never load it anywhere.”

“I store it in my storage ring.”

“Tell me the important information about the ring.”

His glare told me that he really didn’t want to, but he was forced to by the building pain from the collar. “It can hold up to 500 pounds of weight and is soulbound to me.”

“If you die, can anyone claim it?”

“Yesssss.” He hissed eventually.

“Are there rules to what people are allowed to be enslaved?” I switched subjects, hoping to keep him off balance.

“Yes.”

“Was my enslavement against these rules?”

“I don’t know.”

“What are the rules allowing for enslavement?”

“A person may be enslaved if they break certain laws or owe a certain amount of money. Prisoners of war that aren’t ransomed. Children may be sold by their parents.”

“Is there someone that oversees enslavements to make sure they are legal?”

“The Slaver’s Guild holds all slave masters accountable.”

“Can slaves own property?”

“No.”

“Is your property now considered mine?”

“Yessssss. Soulbound items are not transferred.”

“Are slaves registered?”

“Yes. At the end of each run, a slave master must give a list of newly acquired slaves and their reasons for enslavement to the guild.”

“Is there a way to remove the slave title from a status?”

“I cannot answer at this time.”

“Is there a way to remove Elendria’s collar?”

“I cannot answer at this time.”

“How many of the slaves in this caravan have been illegally enslaved?”

“To my knowledge, none.” He answered that last question so smugly, I knew it had to be a bit of malicious compliance. All he had to do to get around that was to have the guards enslave them and tell him a lie that it was a legal enslavement. Slimy bastard.

“Is there a slave guild hall in the next city?”

“Yes.”

“I see you have a ledger here. What’s in it?”

“Dates of enslavement, names and reason for enslavement. Projected price of slaves at market.”

“The others in this caravan with you, are they slavers?”

“No. They abhor slavery. The only reason they allowed us to come along is the price I pay and the extra guards.”

“Thank you for your cooperation. Step outside and remain silent.” I ordered, following him out. Once we were a few steps away from the tent, I slit his throat with a mage’s dagger. As the light slowly left his eyes, I took the ring from his finger and claimed it as my own. I also took a look at my status sheet.

Name: Sean O’Carrol

Age: 32

Titles:

Slave

Chosen of Ariana (hidden)

Blessed by Lokir (hidden)

Otherwordly traveler (hidden)

Summoned Hero (hidden)

Attributes:

STR – 6

AGI – 5

DEX – 7

INT – 11 (+3)

WIS – 12 (+3)

CON – 6

END – 10

Health: 76/80

Mana: 270/270

Health regen: 0.057/min

Mana regen: 4/min

Class: celestial sorcerer (650/10,000)

Available classes: slave

Secondary class: none

Profession: none

Available professions: none

Secondary profession: none

Level: 7/25

Exp to next level: 35%

Available attribute points: 14