Justin looked around him.

The last thing he remembered was killing the leader of that invasion camp. He’d slammed his sword through her and she’d just… smiled, as though that had been her plan all along.

Then he’d been teleported straight out of that camp. Now, he was sitting inside a prison cell of some kind. The woman’s corpse had come with him. It was sitting on the other side of the cell. Three of the walls were made from stone—or something more than stone, as his sword wasn’t able to pierce it.

Strong as he was now, and strong as his sword was, he should be able to cut through stone easily enough.

Not so here.

The last wall was all bars. It was dark down here. The only reason he could see at all was likely because of his stats. A normal human likely wouldn’t be able to see a damned thing in a place like this.

The bars, too, were strong. Hacking away at them with his sword had done nothing but hurt it—and his arm. Fortunately, he was able to repair the sword with his Spirit Energy.

He wasn’t able to bend the bars them, either.

Clearly, this cell was made to resist someone far stronger than an F Grade.

Justin didn’t like enclosed spaces. It wasn’t that he was claustrophobic—or hell, maybe he was.

I certainly will be after this.

But he didn’t like being trapped somewhere.

Well of course I don’t like being trapped. Who in the hell would like that?

Once he’d discovered he couldn’t cut through the walls or break through the bars, Justin had expected someone to come for him. He was pretty sure he wasn’t on Earth. Whenever he tried to bring up his mini-map, all it showed him was the very cell he was currently sitting inside.

A great help, that.

He could be on Earth… but he sincerely doubted it.

The moment he’d appeared here, a quest log update had popped up in his vision. He’d looked at the quest. It had been the most simple quest he’d ever seen, simply telling him to escape. It didn’t even offer him any type of reward.

I guess the reward would be my freedom… not to mention my life.

The fact that there was a quest at all actually felt somewhat promising. Justin figured that if there was a quest, it meant that whatever the quest told him to do was possible. Without that quest there, he wondered if he would have any hope left within him at all.

A small part of him had told him that he needn’t worry. That Xavier was incredibly powerful. A True Progenitor whose help was sought out by the strongest entity in their entire sector. Once Xavier found out he was missing, he would come save him…

But how would Xavier be able to locate him? How would Xavier even know where to look?

How would he know Justin was on another world at all? Justin didn’t have a Portal Stone. A Sector Travel Key. A Communication Stone. Nothing that would help him get out of here or talk to the other members of his party.

He was trapped. Alone.

Allegra…

That woman was the only one who knew what had happened to him. But she… she might be dead. Or, even if she wasn’t, she wouldn’t be in a position to help him, either.

She wasn’t strong enough.

Besides, we agreed to fight the camp together. We said nothing about breaking the other out of a prison cell on another world.

His thoughts threatened to spiral him into a dark mood, but he wasn’t going to let them. He still had tools at his disposal, and he was going to use every single one that he could.

He touched the ring on his finger, the one Allegra had lent him. He’d promised to give it back to her after the fight.

Don’t worry, Allegra. I’m going to fulfil that promise.

Justin looked over at the corpse of the woman he’d killed. The one who’d gotten him in this mess. He sighed, walked over to the other side of the cell—which was only two strides away—and knelt by her.

He’d looted plenty of corpses in his time. Hell, he’d even become accustomed to dismantling the corpses of beasts to get materials for Xavier, back when they were tackling the Endless Horde. But that didn’t mean it was something he looked forward to doing.

I’d be pretty damned weird if I looked forward to doing this.

He crinkled his nose at the smell coming from the wound he’d inflicted on her, then pulled her Storage Ring off her finger. A leader of an invasion force… perhaps she would have something valuable on her.

Maybe I’ll be able to find a way out of here with whatever she has on her.

There were several weapons, pieces of armour, some bits of furniture—why so many of these people carried furniture in their Storage Rings, he would never know… then again, at least he now had a plush chair upon which to sit.

He placed it in the opposite corner to where the corpse was, then he stood back, putting his hands on his hips, tilting his head side to side. “It really doesn’t make this place any better…”

He continued searching through the contents of the woman’s Storage Ring and came upon what looked to be a few keepsakes.

Justin frowned. One of the keepsakes was what appeared to be a photograph. It wasn’t made from a type of material that he recognised. Not like any photo paper he’d ever held in his hand before. It felt more like metal.

The photo was of the commander. The invasion leader. Except she wasn’t wearing her armour. She was wearing casual clothes, or what passed for that on another planet. She stood beside a man. Between them, they were each holding the hand of a young girl.

Justin looked over at the corpse. “You were a mother. A wife.” He felt a twinge of guilt. He didn’t regret killing the woman—except for the fact that it had got him in this damned cell—but that fact did make him sad. The fact she’d left people behind.

The feeling disappeared as swiftly as it came when he remembered he’d found the woman taking slaves from Earth.

“You got what you deserved.”

The words were callous ones, but he didn’t care. The despair he’d felt moments ago was still there, even if he was pushing past it. And with it, anger was balling up within him.

He’d been trying to do something good by freeing those people from that camp, and now it felt as though he was being punished for it.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

I might have just gotten them all killed. I might have gotten Allegra killed, too. She should have just stayed invisible and kept on walking past me…

Justin shook his head, looked away from the woman, and kept searching through her items.

That’s when he came upon the three Communication Stones that were in her possession. He picked one of them up. Justin had the Identify skill—they all did, as Xavier had told them it was a good thing to get—but it wasn’t terribly high rank.

He used it on the first Communication Stone he picked up.

{Communication Stone - Restriction: 100 miles}

A Communication Stone has the ability to form a mental connection with two people, allowing them to communicate telepathically over distances both great and small. Once a connection is established, the stone can be used while inside spatial storage.

A Communication Stone is useless if not paired.

Justin’s shoulders slumped.

A one-hundred-mile restriction? That was nothing! He couldn’t even tell if the stone had been paired already or not.

He sighed, took a deep breath, then placed the stone on the cold hard floor in front of him. He looked at the next stone.

The exact same description appeared.

He gripped this stone tightly. Had the sudden urge to throw it against the wall, but managed to stop himself.

He placed it next to the first one, then picked up the last of the three Communication Stones.

{Communication Stone – Restriction: Sector}

A Communication Stone has the ability to form a mental connection with two people, allowing them to communicate telepathically over distances both great and small. Once a connection is established, the stone can be used while inside spatial storage.

The power of this Communication Stone is restricted to a single sector and does not allow users to communicate with other sectors.

A Communication Stone is useless if it is not paired.

Justin’s eyes widened.

Jackpot!

He grinned as another notification popped up—identifying the item had given him another rank in his Identify skill.

The only problem was, he still had no idea if the stone was paired, and if it was paired to someone…. who would it be paired to?

He touched the ring again. He didn’t need someone to let him out of this place. All he needed was for someone to open the damned cell.

Then he could get out by himself.

Justin communicated through the stone. The moment he did, something stopped him.

Communications in this area are blocked.

Justin swore. Of course they were blocked. He was in a prison.

In his frustration, he tossed the Communication Stone at the wall. It made a loud crack sound—though the wall and the stone were both undamaged.

The sound echoed down the halls. He winced.

God, that was stupid!

Justin froze, becoming completely still. Though he could see easily enough within his own cell, he wasn’t able to see very far into the prison’s hallway. Across from his own cell was another, yet this one was empty. If he pressed his face right up against the bars, he could see the cells next to the one directly across from his own, but he wasn’t able to see any more than that.

Which meant he had absolutely no idea if he was alone down here.

As he waited in the silence following the echoing crack, Justin touched the ring on his finger. The ring that Allegra had given him. The invisibility it offered was amazingly powerful. He hoped it would be enough.

He glanced down at the corpse in his cell.

If someone comes and sees nothing but this corpse lying in here, will they open up the cell? Or will they just leave her to rot?

The ring still had a good amount of time left for its ability to function, but he had no idea how to get out of this place even if he did slip out of his cell.

One step at a time.

He wondered if, perhaps, he should make some noise. That would be a surefire way to get someone to come down here, wouldn’t it? But then they’d be looking for the source of that noise…

I’m overthinking this. How long did I spent slashing the bars with my sword? If someone was going to come, they would have come by now! Clearly, that wasn’t enough noise.

He sighed and stepped back over to the bars again, gripping one in each hand. The metal was cold. He rested his head on it and closed his eyes.

This was not the kind of adventure that he’d been imagining, when he’d left the base on his own in search of his mother, and the city of Fronton. Not the kind of adventure he’d wanted when he’d gone after that camp of invaders.

He took a deep breath, then he shouted at the top of his lungs. “HELLO? IS ANYONE OUT THERE?”

The sound was louder than the Communication Stone cracking against the wall. Louder than his sword slashing against the stone and the bars. Hell, it was louder than he’d known he could shout.

It echoed down the hall, stretching farther than he knew this place extended. Then, finally, the echoes became quieter and quieter until they stilled and all that was left was silence once more.

Until a voice called back.

“WHO’S THERE?”

The voice echoed, just as his had, until it reached Justin’s ears.

Is this a captor, or another prisoner?

He bit his lip, wasn’t sure what to call out. Then he heard footsteps approaching.

The footsteps were soft, at first. Then they steadily grew louder, and he was able to discern how many there were. Shutting his eyes, he focused on his hearing. His heartbeat thudded loudly in his chest. His breathing was unsteady. He calmed himself, pushed past his own noises, and concentrated on the sounds.

Three sets of footsteps.

He could hear a slight clink, clink, clink along with the steps. He wondered if that was armour, or keys jangling off a ring, like the guards always wore in movies and TV.

Justin opened his eyes and stepped to the back of his cell. He took a deep breath, remembering that the ring masked the sounds his body made, but did not block them out completely. Not wanting to waste a single second of the ring’s time, he waited until the footsteps were as close as he dared.

Then he activated the ring’s invisibility.

Nothing much changed for him, except the fact that he could no longer see his arms. It was a odd sensation, raising his arms in front of him but not being able to see anything. Not constantly being able to see his nose in the bottom of his vision, even if that was something the mind generally blocked.

He hadn’t had much time to get used to the feeling when he’d been attacking the camp. Though then he’d been too busy to notice its strangeness.

Focus.

The footsteps were one or two cells away.

Justin glimpsed the loot from the invasion leader’s Storage Ring, sitting out on the ground for all to see. He swore inwardly then hastily touched the most valuable of the belongings, returning them to the ring before the guards finally reached the cell. He managed to get everything—everything except for the plush chair he’d been sitting on.

God, I’m an idiot. Maybe I deserve to be in this damned cell. All stupidity comes with a price…

Xavier never would have gotten himself into something like this, would he?

Three warriors came into view. Justin felt a hint of pride at being right about how many there were. Then he berated himself.

Congratulations, you counted footsteps. That’ll help you get out of here.

The guards paused at the cell. The one who reached it first had a deep frown set into his face as he looked through the bars. “Is that… Commander Valian?” He scratched his head, looked around the cell. “She used a Death Trap… Shouldn’t there be someone else in the cell?”

“Not if whoever killed her didn’t get caught up in it,” another guard said, this one the shortest of the three. He had a bald head, and scratched it just like the first guard had.

The third guard, the tallest of the three, stepped right up to the bars. The look on his face was one of intensity.

He reminded Justin of overly serious mall security.

Justin scanned all three of the guards.

{Human - Level 100}

{Human - Level 100}

{Human - Level 100}

He swallowed silently. Three E Grade guards.

Xavier might have been able to take down E Grades when he was only F Grade, but something told him such feats were only possible for a chosen few, and as powerful as Justin might be against the average Denizen of an equivalent level, he wasn’t a Progenitor—let alone a True Progenitor.

But he didn’t need to take them out. He just needed to get out of here.

The tall, mall-security-serious guard with his face pressed up against the bars sniffed. Then he smiled. “Someone else is in there.”

The first guard crinkled his nose. “Tell all that from a smell?”

“Got a skill. Decipher Odour. Boosts my olfactory senses.” The tall guard gave the other guard a serious look. “Knew it would come in handy. That, and someone shouted down here.” He shrugged. “Makes sense. This is the only cell that’s changed.”

“Then whoever is inside is… invisible. The power of invisibility… that’s a strong spell,” the short guard said. “But something tells me it won’t last forever.” He nodded at the first guard. “Rufus and I will stay here. You inform the warden.” He rubbed his hands together. “Commander Valian, rest her soul, may have just bagged us the one responsible for taking off Commander Alden Trellot’s head. Something tells me his father is going to want to see this.”

Rufus, the first guard, grunted and ran back down the hall, boots thudding against the stone ground, keys jangling from a ring on his belt, the noises echoing off the stone.

Commander Alden Trellot? Didn’t Allegra say something about that?

Justin sunk down into the plush chair. He touched the ring on his finger. He’d achieved nothing except alerting the enemy of his presence here.

This invisibility will only last so long. I can’t waste it. Not on this.

The hope, as infinitesimal as it had been, dwindled even more. He might have a quest get out of this place, but he didn’t see how something like that would actually be possible.

I should have just stayed with the others.