“So we’re done?” Jonathan asked in between large, crude bites of chicken breast, or at least that was what Jonathan hoped it was. The trolley Augus had brought had a lot of meat on it, most of which looked like beef but had an extra texture Jonathan couldn’t identify. To be safe, Jonathan took only the meat that looked like chicken.

Jonathan wanted to ask about what he saw on Augus’ status, but he remembered one of titles he saw being [Unwanted], which made Jonathan cautious. He had no idea how Augus would react to Jonathan viewing his status, making it unwise to take such a risk while Augus still held so much power over him.

“Yes, it is your final day under my care.”

“Hah! Care, my ass.”

“Are done yet? I have to deliver you in the next hour.”

“Not yet, you brought a lot of food, a few fruits could have been nice though.”

“I’ll get right on that. Would you also like a bejewelled carriage led by the most beautiful courtesans in the Empire?”

“Yes I would, but we don’t get what we want by wanting it.”

“No, we do not.”

“So…the others, are they rejects, like me? I mean, Florence said they were but are they like me?”

“You mean laughably weak? No, you are an outlier in that department. They are relatively normal. Most of them are extra slaves the Empire has no use of, some simply have deformities that the Empire does not wish to associate themselves with, regardless of use.”

“I like this place less and less as time goes on.”

Augus shrugged his shoulders.

“Is that so? Fortunately, today will be your last day here.”

“You mean, it’s my last day here as long I am bought tomorrow.”

“No, either way it’s your last day here, alive I mean.”

“You have a wonderful way with words, you know that?”

“So how do you feel?”

“Ready.”

“Good.” Augus said as he pulled out a syringe, and injected its contents into Jonathan’s neck, this time with no resistance from Jonathan.

“This should keep you asleep long enough for us to get there.”

“You know what I hate? Stories where there’s no real distinction between any of ’the chosen ones’ and any other character. You’re telling me that a dude is the main character just because he was born under a star or chose a toy over the other, which frankly, is bullshit.”

Jonathan and Eddie looked at each other and silently laughed. Ralph and his brother Kevin were from the same street as they were, but they had only recently started to become friends with Jonathan and Eddie. They were waiting for Kevin to get ready for their trip to the movies when Ralph had started one of his tirades against plot devices.

“Th-then you have side characters more interesting than the main character dying, just to inspire a guy we never really cared about, to do a job he was already supposed to do.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean.” Eddie agreed.

“It’s just lazy, man”

Jonathan and Eddie were glad that Ralph had calmed down, they agreed that they enjoyed his company, but they also agreed that he was a strange individual. Usually before joining him in his tirades.

“And another thing-“

Jonathan and Eddie looked at each other again. This time, they groaned.

Jonathan awoke to find himself on a cold floor. No surprise there. He tried to get up but his limbs still felt limp. No surprise there. He tried to roll over to get a good look at his bearings. What he saw surprised him.

“Hey, mate. You’re finally awake! Guys the new guy is awake!”

“I didn’t hear you. Maybe you should say that louder.”

Jonathan looked around the room. It was well lit and had one door, no windows. There were 6 people in the room including him, all of them were male. The guy who seemed excited to see him awake was a blonde boy, he looked like he was in his early twenties or late teens. From his accent Jonathan assumed he was Australian.

The sarcastic one was a dark haired man who looked like he was in his forties. They both were wearing a dirty looking brown shirt and shorts which Jonathan realised he was wearing the same. There were three others, one was an angry looking bald dark skinned man in his twenties, one was a tall red headed man who looked to be in his thirties and the last was a olive skinned brunette boy sitting in the corner. He looked like he was in his teens and gave off a ‘devil may care’ attitude.

None of them had any scarring on their face or arms.

The loud boy, walked over to Jonathan and offered him his hand.

“You alright? The names’ Brian. The old fart over there is my dad, Brandon. The guy in the corner is Tom. The redhead is Peter and ‘Mr angry’ over there is Gary.”

“I’m Jonathan.” Jonathan said while extending out his hand.

“Jonathan, huh. Nice to meet you, Johnnyboy.”

As their hands met for a handshake, Jonathan used the Appraise skill on Brian.

Name:

Race:

Gender:

Title(s):

Class:

Level:

Traits:

Brian Smith

Otherworld Human

Male

[Trickster] [Chosen] [Braveheart]

?

?

[Racial] Tenacity [Character] Suicidal Overconfidence

Attributes:

Strength:

Attack:

Defense:

Agility:

Magical Power:

Magical Mending:

Magical Defense:

Luck:

??

??

??

??

??

??

??

???

Skills and Magic:

Skills:

Magic:

?????????

??????????

Abnormal Status

Slaves’ Curse Collar

Gods’ Displeasure

Unable to directly rebel against captors without being paralyzed in pain. Can be ignored through willpower.

Due to your status as an otherworldly human, you have earned the being in charge of Arda’s displeasure. You have no ability to use magic as a result and your luck decreases. This may change if you earn gods’ favor.

Jonathan felt faint. The description of the [Appraise] skill said that any stat that he couldn’t see, meant that the owner was too high above him to read. He had expected Augus to be out of his league, but not his fellow prisoners.

Feeling dismayed from Brian’s obviously superior status, he let go of Brian’s hand before it became awkward.

From his titles, he should be the leader of this group, and from what his character trait tells me, I should avoid him. Jonathan thought to himself. The collar doesn’t affect him as much as it does me, and he can lose the second status condition, while it looks like its permanent for me. Even if it looks like there are conditions he has to fulfil for that, I should steer clear of this guy if I wanna survive.

“Whoa mate! You have so many skills! How’d you get them?”

“I came here with them; I have no idea how I actually earned them.” Jonathan hoped that such an obvious lie wouldn’t be noticed, but if the others noticed; they didn’t show it.

“That’s pretty crazy, you’re weak but you have a lot of skills. Most of us had 3 or 4 skills when we got here, so you can imagine my surprise.”

Ignoring the comment about his strength, Jonathan tried to change the subject.

“So how long have you guys been here?”

The man in his forties, Brandon spoke up;

“Nobody knows. There’s no way to tell time in this dump. I’d estimate it’s close to a week though.”

“Yeah that sounds about right, so was there always five of you?”

“Why would you ask that?” This time it was the redhead, Peter.

“When I got here, the asshole who chained me told me that we got taken in groups, I was the only person in mine because of an ‘experimental technique’ and that there were more people that got taken at the same time as me, which made me assume that the group I would be thrown into would be large. Plus there are no women here, which would seem strange to anybody.”

Brandon spoke again. Jonathan started to doubt his hypothesis, maybe Brandon was the leader.

“Hmm, well you’re right kid, when we got here, there were 30 of us. Twenty guys, 10 girls, in this big hall. They told us where we were. They told us why we were here, that we were slaves; mere merchandise. The women were separated from the men and all of us were told that we had to fight each other as part of some sort of test. We all refused. “

He slowed down and rubbed the back of his neck before continuing;

“One of the guys, Jeff I think, got hit with an arrow in the chest. We were told that this is what would happen to us if we refused to fight. We refused again; after all, Jeff was still alive and we were determined. Then he started screaming, the arrow was poisoned. He screamed for a while and then he started begging for us to kill him. We refused. He pulled the arrow out of his chest and tried to stab at Brian. I broke his neck. A big guy, one of those bodybuilder types lost it and started a melee. Six of us survived.”

“What happened to the sixth guy?”

“He died. After the melee ended, and everybody calmed down and saw the results of their actions, a few men in armour beat us down and threw us into this cell. He didn’t survive the beating.”

The boy in the corner, Tom spoke;

“In fact, the stench of his body still fills the room.”

“He died in this room.”

“It took them until the next day, when they threw bottles of water and plates filled with gruel, to discover him.”

“So!” Brian shouted. “What happened to you Johnnyboy?”

Jonathan related to them the story of how he got there; omitting the interactions with Augus besides those that explained the situation he was in. He did not trust any of the people in the room, so he was careful not to mention his skills and how he had gotten them. Even if Brian saw them, the chance of him remembering all of Jonathans’ skills after a single glance was slim. The others were interested in what Florence had told him about the Empires plan for him and them by extension.

“In a few days, are you sure?”

“Yeah, maybe more. I’m not really sure if a weeks’ gone by yet.”

“Selling us would mean that we would have to be moved to open areas, even if it’s just in transition. From what you said, we aren’t even that special so security won’t be that tight.” The bald man, Gary, chimed in. He started to look excited.

After some discussion, they turned to Jonathan and Brian spoke;

“So Johnnyboy, are you ready?”

Jonathan had an idea as to what they meant but decided to ask the question, in some form of weak defiance.

“Ready for what?”

Trouble, he told himself, and a large possibility of death.

Brandon answered his question, all of the others smiling;

“An escape.”