The last time Alex had used Soul Sight, it’d felt as if the connection between his body and soul had been severed entirely. His sight and hearing came with him, while the rest faded into memory. Now, with Sixth Sense active, part of that connection remained, the skill feeding him information about his body’s surroundings even as he floated up and above it. Alex had hoped the skill would provide additional benefits while he scouted, but figured this was better, as it allowed him to bypass the projection skill’s main restriction.
Dismissing Soul Sight for the moment, Alex moved as close to the cell door as he reasonably could, back still facing the entrance. Since two of his senses would leave with his soul, the skill’s omnidirectional bubble would disperse as soon as he separated from his body. Still, even with the skill only receiving a single point of mana a second, his enhanced sense of touch would catch the vibrations of anyone near his cell entrance, giving him a bit of a heads-up. Waiting another half-minute for the mana he’d lost to replenish, Alex checked over the relevant information on his stat sheet.
Unable to level these last four days, his mana pool still sat around 1400. That, along with the diminished mana absorption rate, left Alex an absolute maximum of thirty seconds before he was returned to his body. Being on such a short timer would make it difficult to get a proper mental map of the place, but it would be possible if he was exact in his planning and exploration. If Alex was being honest, he was more worried about the headache that would come with bottoming out his mana pool multiple times in a row. Part of him realized it was a little silly to dread some minor discomfort after the hours upon hours of torture, but he was glad he did. It meant the pair hadn’t managed to change him; to break him.
Reactivating Soul Sight, he found the planar shift to be as simple as ever. Besides the loss of three senses, which Alex felt was less noticeable than it should have been, he could barely tell the difference between being in his body and out. Doing a quick circuit around the room, he again marveled at the ease of movement that came with this form. Unlike back at Anise’s house, he felt no resistance when trying to leave the gated room, the cuffs seemingly the only preventative method against the use of mana, and skills in general. Knowing the clock was ticking and not wanting to waste time on thoughts he could contemplate back on the ground, Alex put his full focus into the task.
Since everyone who entered his cell approached from the left, he decided to head down that passageway first. While the hall wasn’t particularly long, it did provide a key bit of information, namely that he was underground. Alex had been fluctuating between a cave and a sub-basement, but he now knew it to be the latter; the moisture in the air and complete lack of vegetation assuring him. He passed a few more holdings similar to his own, expecting to spot the healer in one, but all were empty. As the cells ended, Alex opted to keep left at a three-way fork in the tunnel, knowing he would have plenty of time to map out everything if he kept to a strict system.
This offshoot tunnel led to a few common areas, a kitchen, library, barracks, and bar, all of which, to Alex’s luck, were empty. He reached another fork soon after, which turned out to only contain personal quarters. Quickly darting in and out of each individual room, his soul form immune to the physical barriers, Alex saw most were empty. In fact, it wasn’t until he finished an entire row that he found his first signs of life in the form of grunting. Taking a metaphorical breath, as Alex was pretty sure he didn’t breathe in this form, he entered into a scene his mind would never let him forget.
Trevor was there, completely naked, with his fur laden back facing the door. The man was so hairy, Alex hadn’t initially been sure the man lacked clothes, but the dwarf picked that moment to bend over and confirm it for him.
“Oh yea,” he moaned, his accent thicker than normal, “You like that.”
The words acted like an alarm, snapping Alex out of his stupor as the woman began to howl. He couldn’t tell if it was with pleasure or not, nor did he particularly care, at least until a morbid possibility reminded him of the missing healer. Knowing this run would be up soon anyway, he moved closer to the pair, letting out a breath when he confirmed it was a different person, this woman one of short stature similar to Trevor. Hoping she was there by choice, as her enthusiasm suggested, Alex quickly turned away. He didn’t make it out the door before he was back in his body, head pounding.
During the interim between activations, Alex worked on connecting his mana pool to more of his pathways. It was easier with his body doing the heavy lifting when it came to pulling in mana, allowing Alex to focus solely on guiding the energy. His method of escape was still up in the air, but if Alex couldn’t find a set of keys by morning, he’d have no choice but to fight the pair when they arrived. The odds were not in his favor, especially with how the last fight had ended, but surprise would need to see him through if it came to that. Dodge sat in his torso relatively close to his pool, but Silent Strike was further down in his legs, while both weapon mastery skills, along with Thorn’s Touch, were in his hands. When the four minutes were up, Alex had made little progress, but there were still hours left, plenty of time to recover the necessary abilities.
His reserves full, Alex reactivated Soul Sight, following the same path he had before and arriving back near Trevor’s room in a matter of seconds. Having already spotted one of his targets, he examined the other nearby rooms. All of which were unoccupied, though two did show signs of use, one for Greyson and another potentially for that woman in Trevor’s bed. Checking behind the wall the last hallway dead ended with, Alex decided to make a quick trip to the surface. It wouldn’t do much to add to his map, but backtracking would use most of his remaining time, and noting where he was topside was still important.
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Counting the distance in time, he was about three seconds underground. Alex had never measured the speed his soul moved, but he estimated the compound to be around fifty feet deep. He was somewhere in the forest, the space looking the same as any other strip of wilderness. Tall trees cut off most lines of sight and while he didn’t see any people, it was tough to make out anything with the lack of proper light.
As the initial spike that came with the headache faded, Alex began consolidating what he knew into a structured map. It fascinated him what he could do mentally by this point; every hall and room holding in his mind’s eye as if on paper. The layout, and his recent prompt reading, reminded Alex of a dungeon, leaving him to hope there wouldn’t be any traps, or monsters. The latter was doubtful with the lack of noise the structure seemed to produce, but he would need to be on the lookout for the former when it got time for the real thing.
On the next run, he went down the middle passage way. There were more common rooms here, some linked to both sides of a corridor. He spotted a gym, a sparring arena, cafeteria and more, all empty; some caked with dust suggesting years of disuse. It was obvious this place could house many more than the two it did, but Alex held hope that no others remained. Flying through each section, he tried to grasp the gist of the rooms, most of them lacking anything he felt worth noting.
By this point he’d fallen into a rhythm, first sorting his map, then, as the headache faded some, diving back into his pathways. Once his mana pool was refilled, he finished up with the hallway, the section proving to lack anything important all the way through. Next, he flew upwards once more, doing his best to gauge how far this corridor was from the other. The forest in between made it impossible to tell and, even after having passed the prerequisite class, Alex was no astronomer. From there, he flew as far upwards as he could, but failed to make it above the trees before he was cut off once more.
The trip through the right wing proved to hold the most interesting details. This hallway lacked common spaces entirely, seeming to have been designated solely for offices. There were single rooms much like the private quarters, but each held desks and empty book cases, some with their own bathrooms. Alex was starting to think these might be empty as well until he entered one with two people speaking, Greyson, and a woman who looked so different, Alex didn’t initially recognize her. Rather than dirty on the floor of a cell, the “captive” healer was sitting on a lush chair, speaking to his warden as if they were equals. Unsure how to react, Alex did his best to focus on their words for the moment.
“-shit wouldn’t work. “The woman was saying, her cadence different, deeper, than when she’d spoken to him in the cell. “I already talked to Eric, he was pissed to find out about Larry and the mage. The fact that you lost people on a little shit like him is showing incompetence beyond an acceptable range.” Greyson looked ready to interrupt, but the healer raised a finger, and he remained silent. “Beyond that, we’ve been hiding him for a week, and you still have nothing. That’s expected from the dwarf, but not you. Time’s up, boss gave me full authority.”
Seeing she was finished, the slim man began his counterpoint, though it was more of a thinly veiled plea. “Just give me until the morning. We’ll go now; I can break him by morning.”
She shook her head at the request. “You had your chance, the operation’s mine now. Leave him for the day, I’ll go in tomorrow night, convince him I found the keys-”
“It won’t affect your plan, I only need-”
“No,” her tone terse as she cut him off. The woman’s indifference was quickly turning into exasperation, something Greyson and Alex both sensed. “You may question him, but no further damage will be required.” Then Alex was flung back towards his body before either could say another word.
Heart racing, Alex tried to make sense of what he’d just witnessed. The healer working with them was new information, but not entirely unexpected. Still, the way Greyson acted so subservient to her set him on edge. Alex had seen her heal him, but supposed it reasoned anyone could be strong in this world, no matter the class. It just begged the question of how much more powerful than him was she. Unable to focus on anything else, Alex sat staring at the rising mana bar while he waited for it to fill. He deactivated Sixth Sense since he knew no one would visit his cell, hoping the removal of the minor drain would speed up his recovery some.
After a minute, Alex wondered if he’d activated Battle Trance on accident, the time seeming to move so slow he considered just flying back with his mana half-full. Knowing it would be pointless to rush back to the room, only to be removed a couple seconds later, he forced himself to wait, instead activating the skill the moment his mana maxed. This time he flew straight through the walls, the more direct path revealing a few interesting rooms he’d missed on the standard route. Arriving through the wall opposite the door, Alex spotted a safe behind a painting, but disregarded it as he listened to Greyson’s words.
“-meet around midday. That’s why it needs to be before then. But even with her promises, unless we can get a guarantee of at least the estimated losses, it won’t matter. The partnership is beneficial if everything works out, if not…” he let the statement trail off with a shrug, to which the healer nodded.
“Good. We still need to cover what the exacts of what this alliance would look like, but if she offers something better in the present, boss says to take it. Promises of the future, however, are useless.”
Alex didn’t know what that was about, but at the very least it seemed the two had shifted topics. He continued to listen until he was pulled back, lacking the context needed to make sense of the conversation. Alex debated whether to go back, eventually deciding against it. Information was good, but it would be pointless to repeatedly rush to hear a couple dozen seconds of severely disjointed conversation every few minutes. By the time he made sense of one topic, they were likely to be on another. It was possible he managed to hear something else important, but it was more likely to end up as a waste of time.
Still, he’d managed to learn something relevant, the healer was one of the people holding him, and she had a plan to do something tomorrow, potentially alone by the sounds of it. Odds of them knowing about Soul Sight were incredibly low, so it shouldn’t be a trap. If Greyson didn’t convince her to green-light more torture, staying an extra day would only benefit him. Alex definitely needed the additional time, but there were so many unknowns he couldn’t be sure of the right decision. Acknowledging for the hundredth time just how in over his head he was, he got back to work. No matter what he decided, Alex had plenty to do before the night was over.