Nearly raising a hand to shake, then thinking better of it as his eyes fell to the captive’s restraints, Alex debated freeing the man. Unlike the near unbreakable shackles he’d been subject to while imprisoned, the lizards had a more 1950s psych ward theme going on. A metal table with buckled leather straps to keep their subject in place, and a workbench full of horrifically rusted “tools” that looked ready to crumble from the slightest pressure. But appearance was only half the story, and it was obvious their setup held up better than it looked.
He didn’t know if the captive had been drugged or was being subdued some other way, but it only took a moment of focus to feel the man’s aura had more depth than his own; suggesting he was a higher level than Alex. Not to the point the assassin turned savior couldn’t win if it came down to a fight, but enough that it raised his estimation of the reptiles’ equipment. Making a mental reminder to grab a couple of the tables when he got the chance, Alex decided it would be best to have a conversation with the prisoner before completing his role in this jailbreak. Things were a bit less cut and dry here than they’d been back on earth, so getting some more information before acting seemed like a good idea.
With the beasts dead, and the man’s screaming having subsided, the room was near silent as Alex approached. Watching through his one good eye, gaze surprisingly steady for someone who’d just been screaming his lungs out, the man didn’t budge as the gag was removed from his mouth. A bit surprised to find the piece of cloth had been almost entirely chewed through, Alex kept a metaphorical eye on the man’s restraints to verify their continued effectiveness. As a recent escapee himself, he wouldn’t fault the guy for any attempts he made, but that didn’t mean he would simply stand there if the man decided to lash out at him.
Prepared for another confrontation, Alex was caught off guard as his introduction was returned by neither words nor an escape attempt, but instead a round of deep dry coughing. Thirty seconds passed as the man tried to distance himself from his lungs, the entirety of which Alex spent standing awkwardly as he dodged the rapidly discarded saliva. Pulling a bottle of water from his inventory as the fit came to an end, he prepared to pour it into the man’s mouth himself, but the prisoner denied the drink with a shake of his head; instead clearing his throat as he prepared to speak.
“Are-” he began, before clearing his throat more aggressively as it cracked from the lack of moisture. “Are you going to kill me?”
For a brief moment, Alex considered going down the mysterious badass route. The personality type fit the direction his abilities had been evolving pretty well, but decided against it as he was forced to fend off another yawn. Acting the part would be more trouble than it was worth.
“Saving you just to turn around and finish what those lizards started seems like a lot of unnecessary work.” The silence hung as Alex gave the man a moment to think over his words. “But no, no plans to. Just saw someone with a problem I could help solve. You don’t attack me; I won’t attack you. Fair?”
“Well I don’t know about that first bit,” he chuckled harshly, his tone gaining a bit of levity, “but seeing as I’m at a disadvantage I’ll just have to take your word for it. Is the water poisoned?”
“No. But why would I tell you if it was.”
Not straining his voice further to respond verbally, the man only leaned back and gave a shrug before opening his mouth, leaving Alex to do the rest. Uncorking the bottle as he approached, he was surprised to find the captive didn’t attack, only laying still as he drank for a few seconds before making it clear he was finished. Retreating a few steps, Alex placed the bottle on a nearby table rather than store it, before continuing with the introduction.
“You have a name?”
“Sure do,” the man smiled, a bit of water dripping from his face. “Jason, nice to meet you. I’d shake your hand, but I’m a little tied up at the moment.”
Letting out a friendly chuckle at the attempt of a joke, Alex waited for more, but it seemed Jason was in the habit of only answering direct questions. So, with a cordial smile of his own, he asked another, this one a bit more open-ended.
“Well Jason, as I said, name’s Alex. Mind telling me what was happening here so we can wrap this up?”
“Well those fuckers,” he motioned his head toward the now dead lizards, “were torturing me. You stopped them. Something I’m quite grateful for.”
The room went silent as he stood waiting for the man to continue, but the stretch became awkward before Jason did. Alex felt the urge to break it multiple times, but an important principle of one of his lesser used skills reminded him he wasn’t the one currently chained up. Their conversation had become something of a negotiation and no matter how uncomfortable the situation became, Alex had all the leverage, so he steadied his emotions and waited.
As the minute mark came and went, he considered just heading back to his hideout. If Jason felt safe enough to waste time like this, the man was clearly less in need of help than he’d initially assumed. Able to tell his savior’s patience had worn thin, as Alex hadn’t attempted to hide it, Jason sighed dramatically before speaking once more, this time giving more than a sentence or two.
He told of his party, a group of four not including himself, that he’d been separated from while fighting. They were also somewhere in the dungeon, but the space was large and the beasts had knocked him unconscious multiple times while in transport, so the man had no idea where they were or how long it had been. He continued on for another few minutes, answering some follow-up questions Alex threw his way, but they were more for information than to determine the man’s character.
Jason and his party seemed like a capable bunch, current circumstances notwithstanding, so Alex figured his work here would be complete after freeing the man. He might even be able to palm off the other prisoners Sixth Sense showed him on the man. Though, he would need to get to releasing them before proposing that idea. However, as Alex was preparing to free the man and head to the next cell, Jason’s closing words piqued his interest.
“Look, I’m not weak, and from what I saw, you’re not bad yourself. I don’t know if you’re normally a solo diver, but with all the shit going on down here, I figure we’re better off going at it together, so how about this. You help me get back to my party, and I’ll not only pay you, but we’ll also help you look for yours if you have one. And just so you know, the majority of my funds are with my group so no point in trying to rob me for them now.”
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Jason’s final statement earned an honest laugh from the planestrider as he began working on the restraints, though mentally he was still prepared to rebuff a surprise attack. Finding the buckles surprisingly difficult to undo, Alex worked slowly, a portion of his mind debating Jason’s offer.
He didn’t really care about the money. Sure gold was nice, but it was also what had gotten him into this whole situation, and for how much trouble Alex had gone through to gain his considerable wealth, he’d had very few chances to spend any of it. Pulling up the currency tab from his inventory, he gave it a quick scan.
***
Currency
Platinum: 72
Gold: 4584
Silver: 345
Bronze: 138
Total Currency Displayed in Gold: 8,190
***
He’d earned well over a thousand gold from his partial clear of the Rebos dungeon, so it was safe to say his wallet was heavy enough for the moment. The more appealing part of the offer was the partner to fight with. Alex was still up in the air about battling his way through these tunnels, but it couldn’t be denied that the creatures in this dungeon were much better experience. If he could get the man to his party, then back to his landing spot within the day, it might be worth the temporary exhaustion; but how could he verify that.
“Actually, I never planned to do this dungeon.” Alex stated honestly. “There’s a Rebos Hive a couple hundred meters upward I was clearing when I sorta… fell down here. I might be open to helping, but I plan to be back up there within the next twenty-four hours.”
Jason let out a brief chuckle of his own as Alex got the last of his restraints undone, then winced as his injuries express their displeasure at his action. “I think I know the spot,” he hissed, the smile never leaving his face. “Near a forked path with a hole in the ceiling, right? My team and I passed it maybe six hours before I got captured.”
Knowing better than to get himself caught in a lie, Alex gave a non-committal answer. “Couldn’t tell you if that’s the one. I was pretty disoriented after landing and kinda just got moving, but as long as it takes me back to the hive, I don’t really care where it leaves me.”
“Then how about this,” Jason groaned, as he forced himself upright. “You try to help me find my party for as long as you can. If we don’t find them within,” he continued, dragging the word out as he considered, “say twenty hours, I lead you to that tunnel. If we do find them, then my whole group helps you clear your dungeon, rewards and everything will be all yours.”
That was generous, if not outright suspicious. After a quick check on his quest to verify he didn’t need to do the whole thing alone, Alex stated as much.
“Not generous, just honest. You saved my life. I might have escaped given enough time, or my party might have found me, but you got here first. And truthfully, I need the help, they took all my gear before strapping me down here, so a bit of protection till I get my stuff back would be nice.”
Nodding, Alex pulled a potion from his inventory and handed it to the man. He was running low on the live saving elixirs, and even though it wouldn’t do a ton to heal the man’s injuries due to the level differential, he anticipated the gesture of good will would pay off in the long run. Flowery words were nice, but they were still strangers so Alex doubted the man held that much trust in him, this would hopefully help on that front.
Another few minutes passed as Jason got himself sorted. Alex did end up taking the torture table, and received a raised eyebrow from his new companion in return, but the now free man decided against prying. Which was a bit generous when considering it was stained with his still wet blood.
“Do you want to come with, or wait here?” Alex asked, the question ending their earlier discussion. He had told Jason of the other captives as they waited for the potion to take its effect, though the man had made obvious his lack of concern for their plight. When Alex expressed his desire to help them, however, he’d gotten a bit more of an animated response. That had led to a mostly one-sided discussion where Jason tried to explain why they didn’t need to do that, which Alex spent about a minute ignoring before interrupting with his most recent question.
It wasn’t because he wanted to be some symbol of justice or any of the other grandiose titles Jason threw out there, but for the same reason he’d intervened in his potential employer’s own case. Watching as the man pulled a hand through his red hair in a gesture of obvious frustration, he avoided pointing out the hypocrisy. The more he spoke, the more Alex could spot some of the same tendencies Benjamin had exhibited, suggesting Jason was likely a noble. So he instead raised an eyebrow as if to ask the man if he was done.
Worst case scenario Jason would decide to go off on his own, in which case Alex would be back to Plan A. Letting out a suffering sigh that had clearly been trained for the express purpose of alerting the recipient to the degree of the user’s annoyance, he refused Alex’s offer to join him; but interrupted the assassin once more before he could get through the door.
“Wait. Like I said all my stuff got taken when I was captured. If you’re going to leave me here alone, can you at least give me something to protect myself with? A sword would be ideal.”
A brief vision of being stabbed through the back with his own weapon passed through Alex’s mind, but in the end, he acquiesced to the man’s request. Withdrawing a mostly sharp blade he’d acquired back in the tiger’s den, he handed it to Jason and immediately relocated into the hallway, leaving no room for further discussion. Watching as Sixth Sense showed the man retreating from the door after his departure, Alex shifted his focus elsewhere.
What followed was closer to a page from a Lovecraft novel than any of the more romantic scenes Jason had imagined for him. Alex could only see into the seven nearest rooms from his current vantage, only two of which were currently in use. A few others had dead bodies, multiple in some instances, but he ignored those. All the people inside had already gained some level of relief, and though his sensory skill had shown him the gist, Alex had no desire to look upon the grim sight with his own eyes.
Walking a couple doors over he entered into a scene similar to the one he’d found in Jason’s room; however it was clear this woman had been here for much longer than the noble. He managed to finish the fight rather quickly, but one of the Kidree, in an act of pure spite, stabbed the captive in the neck before it died, causing her to bleed out before Alex could use a potion to heal the injury. The loss hit him pretty hard, more due to how close he’d been to rescuing her, rather than any sense of fault on his own part. But Alex could only take his anger out on the next set of reptiles, so he did just that.
Forgoing any attempts to loot, he immediately rushed over to the next room. With a sense of urgency only potential death could grant, Alex entered the chamber with a vengeance. Rather than focus on the assistant as he’d previously done, he sprinted directly to the torturer’s table to initiate the fight. That resulted in a similar two versus one as his first bout with the reptiles, but it immediately drew both the beast’s away from the prisoner, so Alex felt the action was worth the additional effort.
Scanning the cells once more as he poured a potion onto the unconscious man’s wounds, he found he had missed one, though this time it wasn’t some person strapped to a table. Behind the last door on the hallway’s row was a room filled with cages. Some looked able to easily fit a fully grown bear, while others were more suited for much smaller animals. That second group was where Alex spotted a singular tiny moving creature. It was the only living thing left in the room, with corpses of all sized surrounding its tiny cell.
He debated leaving the beast there, but knew he couldn’t do it. The Kidree were clearly vile creatures, and while Alex couldn’t claim to have been kind to the beast populations, he wouldn’t allow the creature to die like this. Checking on the now unconscious man once more before exiting, though opting to leave his restraints on until he returned, Alex headed to free the final prisoner.