Contrary to the facade he outwardly showed, Greyson was nowhere close to being a stable person. Objectively, he might have been even more insane than his dwarven partner, the shorter man at least, was true to his inner demons, disturbing as they were. Greyson, on the other hand, was like a domesticated beast, trying, and ultimately failing, to act against his baser instincts. He wanted Alex to scream, to plead, but it would have done just as well if the boy tried to resist him further. There was something about turning the defiant ones, getting those strong souls to crack, that filled him with unmatched pleasure. It was the reason he’d joined Eric in the first place. His brother had promised him all the pleasure he could ever want when he joined, and thus far the man hadn't disappointed. So when one of his charges, his targets, decided to let the silence hang, well it wasn’t acceptable.
For Alex’s part, it wasn’t like he’d kept quiet out of some show of bravado. The emotions on his face were a clear showing of fear, anger, and frustration. There was no point in acting tough when he’d be screaming his lungs out soon, but he didn’t speak. The outcome of the day had already been decided, and it wasn’t in Alex’s nature to argue meaningless points. He would not tell them what they wanted to know, and so they would follow through. Greyson didn’t appreciate that logic. Not even bothering to grab a tool from the table, the handsome man made a fist and brought it pinkie down on to Alex’s forearm, the crack of the bone as resounding as the accompanying scream. And so his first true day of agony began.
Keeping to their word, the pair did not let up after the first strike, nor the one after that. Trevor took over the work in quick order, alternating the sides of his body in which he attacked. There were no questions asked, nor respites given. The men went along methodically, breaking a bone every five minutes and letting Alex scream his pain away during the interim. It only took twenty minutes and four more breaks for Alex to nearly die.
Traumatic shock was not what he would have imagined. Pain Resistance had stopped being useful before his forearm had been broken, and Meditation was unreachable with the volatility of his mental state. As he disassociated, Alex felt like this was the first bit of relief he’d gotten since arriving in the tutorial. For the last few days he’d always been worried, about himself, his family, his friends, always stressing about one thing or another, but not at that moment.
Everything was still there, he could see the way his wrist bent the wrong way, hear his own voice’s non-stop screaming, taste the blood in his mouth, but there was no direct impact. Like hearing about something sad from a third party, it was sad but had no direct effect on a person. For these few seconds, fleeting as they were, he was filled with blissful relief. One that didn’t last long.
Coughing and sputtering, Alex’s screaming stopped as he began to choke on a liquid. Managing to get himself back under a semblance of control, Alex found his body spasming, and Trevor speaking.
“Now lad, you didn’t think we’d just let you disappear on us, did ya. The whole point of this exercise is for us to work out our differences together. You just tell us if you start to float off to no feely dream land, and I’ll give you a little of this pick me up juice.”
While the stocky man had been speaking, Alex begun to feel an effect he recognized. His bones had mended slightly, and his throat no longer felt sore, he’d been given a healing potion. It couldn’t have been much of one, with it having even been potentially watered down, but it had pulled him back into focus. Alex tried to consider how he could use this to his advantage, but a metal pipe connected with his tibia and pain replaced further thought.
***
Your skill [Pain Resistance] has advanced to Level Thirteen.
***
Alex didn’t know how many bones he had in his body, he’d never memorized that bone song, and he’d definitely never counted, but couldn’t imagine that it was enough to require hours. Trevor had stuck to his extremities, ignoring his torso while flatly stating that they were saving the quote on quote “good stuff” for another day. When the pair left, unhooking him from the chair and throwing him on the floor in a heap, Alex was barely holding on to consciousness.
He’d spent the last however long screaming and being microdosed with health potions. Sometimes Trevor would seem to accidentally give him too much before re-breaking a freshly healed bone. For Alex’s part, he experienced all of it. His mind tried to slip away numerous times, but the sadist of a dwarf never let him, always pulling him back from the brink only to double the pain that had put him there. Still, Alex refused to speak. By the end, it seemed the men hadn’t even expected him to, only asking him once before leaving.
Minutes later, Alex heard the creaking that symbolized the opening of his cell gate, but didn’t move to look, couldn’t really. The way he’d been deposited prevented him from doing so without aggravating near every injury. He hoped it was one of the men bringing him some water, the other buckets having been removed at some point. He wouldn’t have said no to more potions, but anything would have done with how dry his throat was. Some food would have also been nice. Part of him suspected they could poison him but, unlikely as it was, Alex figured his situation couldn’t be much worse than it was now.
***
Your skill [Pain Resistance] has advanced to Level Fourteen.
Your skill [Pain Resistance] has advanced to Level Fifteen.
Your skill [Pain Resistance] has advanced to Level Sixteen.
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***
“Uhm, are they alive,” a meek voice questioned; before Alex was unceremoniously picked up and reoriented to lie on his back. He groaned at the wave of pain it caused, and made eye contact with Trevor, who grinned at the noise. The man cleared his throat, readying to spit on him once more before glancing out of the prisoner's view and seeming to think better of it. That made Alex turn his head slightly, the pain in his back more from the uncomfortable chair than any direct attack, where he made got a glimpse of a bruised and battered woman.
“Aye, I told you he was still breathing. Get to it, don’t have all day. Make sure not to save him too good, or else you’ll be healing your own injuries next.”
She seemed to look over her patient before making looking into his eyes and nodding frantically. Kneeling down, she began to heal him, and Alex felt like he nearly died in relief. Most healing hurt in some way or another, but hers seemed to send waves of soothing energy out, the calming sensation masking the hurt below. Then suddenly it stopped and Alex wished for more. His bones had been mended, all back in working order, though he could still feel he wasn’t 100%, his status screen confirming as much a second later.
“Sorry I couldn’t do more,” the robed woman whispered, Trevor moving to drag her back out. With little more than a short yelp, the two were back outside his cell, the leer on the man's face hinting to what would happen next. Alex didn’t let himself focus on it, he had enough to cry about without the mind games the men were trying to play. Whatever happened to that woman was on them. He would help her if he could, but at the moment he needed it just as much as she did.
Taking a deep breath as he sat upright for the first time in what felt like hours, Alex got to work. His situation had gone from hopeless to very slightly less hopeless over the course of the day, and unbarring his inventory had become all the more important. Whatever the men had done to those potions left them extremely diluted, but if he could collect enough of the solution, he could heal back to full even after an entire day of torture. He’d have to manage it well, allowing some healing to occur on visible injuries while keeping others for that woman to do later in the day. That of course would mean more pain and less entering shock so Pain Resistance and Meditation, would need to level if he wanted to pull this off but, well it was something doable.
His hands still shook, but Alex didn’t try to still them. Memories of earlier in the day tried to fill him, but he let them gloss past. The aftereffects of his time here would be far from pretty, but he didn’t have the luxury of dealing with that fact at the moment, so he wouldn’t. Instead, he would concentrate on his goals, making them into reality; and it was with that mindset, Alex got to work.
He managed to spend two hours focusing on his inventory before he fell asleep. Honestly, Alex didn’t understand how he’d lasted that long, his head had started bobbing within the first fifteen minutes. His brain was just absolutely worn out and unable to resist, Alex fell asleep leaning against the stone wall. He woke up nearly six hours later, he didn’t know whether the men had been back but a check to his timer showed he was almost done with the third day leaving 59 others. He’d already been gone for over twenty-four hours, the likelihood of someone coming was only getting slimmer. His stomach growled, but the men hadn’t opted to leave him anything to eat or drink. Likely another method of torture, but Alex new where he had food, he just needed to access it.
For that night, he sat focused, only a single goal on his mind. It felt like he was making progress with his inventory, still the mana was just too erratic with these cuffs on. Alex wished he had experience to compare the mana efforts to, but alas, wishes were useless at the moment. He managed to gain another two levels in meditation before he fell asleep, mentally preparing himself for another torture session.
***
Your skill [Meditation] has advanced to Level Fourteen.
Your skill [Meditation] has advanced to Level Fifteen.
***
On his second full day of being a captive, Alex was up before the two men arrived, his midday nap allowing him time to prepare even as mentally exhausted as he was.
***
Tutorial Quest - Main
Allotted Time Remaining
58:21:49
***
It was around eight in the morning, so about two hours before they arrived the day prior, if that schedule held Alex had just over an hour before… Just over an hour to try to access his inventory. By this point, his throat was extremely dry, the thirst leaving him wishing he could drink more of the potion. Seeing as that only happened during times of extreme pain, Alex let the fantasy drop. His inventory also had drinks, he could focus on that for the time being.
With the exponential rise of Pain Resistance over the last day and half, Alex found himself faring better in terms of tolerance. It also meant he ended up drinking more of the potion, as the stout man tried to bring out the same exaggerated reaction from the day before, often pouring the concoction directly on a wound before targeting it again. On this go, Trevor didn’t shy away from his torso, intermingling previously broken bones with blunt force trauma, all in all it would be an understatement to call the experience unpleasant. By the end of the day, Alex had more internal injuries than external, the blood he coughed up wetting his throat as consistently as the potion.
When it got time for the questions, it seemed this time the pair did expect an answer. The methodical torturing turning more brutal as they moved him back to the ground and tried to beat the information out of him. Alex blacked out before the session ended, and was pretty sure he’d been clinically dead for at least a little while before being brought back.
***
Your skill [Pain Resistance] has advanced to Level Seventeen.
Your skill [Pain Resistance] has advanced to Level Eighteen.
Your skill [Pain Resistance] has advanced to Level Nineteen.
***
“Hello,” a feminine voice greeted, and Alex found himself blinking the healer into focus. The woman was slightly less abused than she had been the night before, and Alex was happy at least one of them was faring better. It took him three tries before he managed to croak out a response.
“Hi.” His throat had been healed with the rest of his body, but healing, it seemed, didn’t fix dryness. Still, he was thankful for the woman's help, and he took this chance to say as much.
“Oh, it’s fine,” she said cheerily, and Alex had to wonder how she could manage to be so excited in this place.
“They left me in here since healing you was going to take longer than normal, but he’s gonna be back sometime soon.” She made to turn around before lowering her voice and adding one last statement. “I don’t know what they want with you, but good luck.” She pumped a fist near her chest at the end, and Alex managed a nod, slightly confused.
As if on cue, Trevor returned to take the woman from his cell, and Alex found himself gathering energy to crawl towards the wall. Healed as his body was, it still felt broken, but he needed to try at opening his inventory some more. It took another two days before he finally had a breakthrough.