“I don’t believe I’ve introduced myself. Name’s Weaver, and no, it's not my real name but everyone calls me that so it basically is.”

“...”

Sol really didn’t know how to deal with this man, Weaver. He acted at his own pace, but after being tricked by him once, Sol didn’t let his guard down. After meditating his new spells, Sol had a spell he believed would be a great counter against Weaver’s strings, at least before he hardened them.

“This is the part where you introduce yourself, you know? Well, I already know who you are so it doesn’t matter, just know we are gonna go over combat techniques these next few days.”

‘He is going to teach me?’

“Why?”

“It's to raise your value, silly.”

Though he didn’t like being treated like a commodity, if what he said was true then wouldn’t this be a pure benefit for him? At least up to the whole being sold part.

Trying to find out more, Sol prodded for more information, “Who am I being sold to?”

“Couldn’t tell ya. The highest bidder who wants you, I guess. But maybe the boss decides to keep you if he finds you useful, but I doubt it, you don't seem to have any covert skills.” Weaver turned back to the door. “Just wanted to check in on you. I’ll be back in two hours, don't have too much fun without me, darling~.”

The heavy metal door creaked back shut as darkness enveloped the room once more.

“Two hours, huh… Good thing I only need one.”

While meditating, Sol came up with a few possible plans and with this two hour window, he had more than enough to execute the one he believed had the highest chance of success.

Sol used [Burrow] as he sank into the ground below him and using [Mana Perception] to avoid any people, he traveled upwards to the surface. After giving one last check to make sure no one was near, he ascended through the dirt and popped his head out of the ground.

The light of dawn basked in his face as he looked around to see where he was at. Shoddily constructed homes littered the area with badly maintained roads full of holes and cracks. Sol was in the slums of the city. Taking one last look to remember where the base was located, he dove underground and headed towards the adventurers guild.

No matter the hour, the guild was always rowdy from the constant flow of adventurers either starting or ending their day. Sol looked for Trevor and saw him casually conversing with a few other guild receptionists at a table. He briskly walked towards him as he had no time to waste.

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“Yo Sol. You're a bit early, give me a minute to clock in.”

“We need to talk, it's an emergency.”

Catching on to the severity of the situation from Sol’s tone, Trevor's face hardened as he followed Sol to one of the meeting rooms. It was only now Trevor noticed that Sol’s clothes looked scuffed and torn with a fresh bruise surrounding his neck.

“You good? Where did that bruise come from?”

“You were right, they came for me.”

A look of surprise was shot back at Sol, “The rookie kidnappers?!”

Sol nodded, but he wasn’t here just to inform Trevor what happened.

“I need you to inform the guildmaster. I know where they are located.”

“Holy shit, alright man. Wait here. Should I also bring a healer?”

“No. I'm fine, just hurry.” Sol needed that bruise to stay there for now with the plan he had in mind.

“Okay, okay.”

Trevor scurried to report this matter as fast as he could. Maybe it was the level of urgency or that it involved the rookie disappearances but Trevor returned quickly with a tall woman in tow. The woman was easily half a foot taller than Trevor and had straight laced silver hair rolling down to her waist. The way it perfectly covered her back sort of resembled a silver shield. Trevor stayed by the doorway as the woman moved closer to Sol.

She sat down on the opposite side of the table and asked, “Is it true?”

Sol gestured towards his cut and burned clothes, his bruised neck, and overall dirty appearance.

“Is this enough proof?”

“Not really, but I will take any chance I get to finally solve this. Tell me everything you know.”

Obliging to her request, Sol narrated how he and another young girl got kidnapped.

“Both of them were strong, I would say mid to high B-Rank in terms of strength.”

“I see the girl you described… sounds a lot like Rebecca. Now I’m sure you aren’t lying to me. And you're telling me you defeated these B-Rank kidnappers?” While she knew that Sol wasn’t lying she found some parts of his tale suspicious. Sure he had been climbing the guild ranks much faster than normal but that didn’t mean he should be able to square up against B-Rankers just yet.

He shook his head, “I had an advantageous matchup against the red-cloaked one, while she was much faster her attacks and poison didn’t do much to me. The weird man who is called Weaver is a completely different story, he defeated me in a second. He could control near-invisible strings and I stupidly let him set up a trap while he was talking. I was then captured and taken to the underground base in the slums I told you about.”

“So you escaped? How?”

Not planning to hide [Burrow] anymore, he answered, “I have a skill that lets me travel through the ground, and their base is located underground.”

“Interesting…”

“Now I need your help.”

Assuming what Sol was going to ask, she waved her hand dismissively, “Sure, I’ll send a squad of B-Rankers and two A-Rankers on the case.”

“No, not that. I want you to rescue me and Rebecca. Oh and to get my stuff back, I don’t want any of the adventurers who raided the place to claim it was theirs.”

The Guildmaster was befuddled, “Rescue you? Are you going to sneak back in?”

“Yes. I thought about it and I know nobles have to be involved in this somehow. I don’t want to attract the ire of an angry noble who had his base destroyed so I just want to be treated like someone rescued in the raid. That way I won’t end up being targeted by whoever orchestrated this.”

Hearing his reason, the Guildmaster smirked. Not many knew the involvement of nobles in this case and the fact this young man figured it out so quickly put a smile to her face. If he truly did plan to go back in, there may be more he could do than just sit and wait to be rescued.

“Sure, both requests can easily be accepted, but if you plan to go back in I actually have a proposition you might be interested in.”