Jen wanted to sneer in disdain at the low-quality enchantments the Black-Card caravan was using to protect its perimeter, but she kept her guard up and was thinking, these pathetic traps and alerts could be for misdirection. That’s something Sam would do. There might be a nasty trap enchantment just waiting for me to get too confident and move too quickly.
She’d been surveilling the Black-Card caravan for about an hour, when just after the sun set, a short thin man ran into the caravan leader’s tent. A few minutes later, the caravan camp looked like an ant bed that was stepped on. Jen was sure they were preparing to leave as fast as possible.
Jen was too far out of town for her soundwave to work, but her Ear-loop allowed her to easily message Sam. She whispered, “You there?’
Sam, “Yea, what’s up?”
Jen, “They just started packing up in a frenzy to leave. Get Tamako, and head this way.”
Sam, “We’ll be there in 20. Wait till we get there before you do anything.”
Jen, “O.K.”
Damnit! Where are the rest! Jen thought to herself, as she looked at the small tent where she was sure some of the slaves were being held. There was only one single female guard on the outside of the tent. Jen marked its location and information with her AI, so that Sam and Tamako would know exactly where it was located. She’d already sent out two of her lizards and was using them to look for more information, but was about to go herself and continue searching for where the other slaves were being held, when a man ran up to the guard, and said, “We’re screwed, we’ve got to leave now!”
The female guard said, “What happened?!”
The man replied urgently, “I don’t know all the details, but the Double Down gang is coming after us. I’ve been sent to grab Prince Clubs and the bagged girl, and then you need to collapse the cavern.”
The female guard frowned, are grumbled, “But I’ve been enjoying my little play things so much.”
The man frowned and looked a little green from her words, but then the female guard continued, “High and Low are inside. They will help you with the Prince and the bagged girl. DO NOT get in a hurry with the bagged girl. NO slip ups with her!”
The man nodded in reply, and then moved the tent flap to the side as he quickly walked in.
After hearing the conversation, Jen no longer imagined the woman was a simple guard, and after hearing her comments regarding her play things, she decided the woman was going to be her first human test subject. Jen used her psych skill to weave her mana though the woman’s natural mental defenses, but instead of trying to take over the her mind, and controlling her like the lizards, she overloaded the woman’s mind with her mana.
Jen thought to herself, Fuck you! You evil bitch, as the woman’s brain was mostly fried and she was now standing there frozen like a mindless carrot. Jen would’ve like to have sent one of her lizards into the tent first, but they were too far away, and she also needed them to keep looking for the other slaves. Jen ran over next to the now mindless woman, paused for a second to see if she could hear any noise inside the tent. After hearing nothing, but with no extra time to waste, she pulled out a couple of Sam’s all-flash-no-bang stones, tossed them through the tent door, and quickly entered a second later. Unless the men inside just happen to have their eyes closed, Jen knew from her and Sam’s testing, anyone inside would be disoriented and rubbing their eyes like they’d been staring directly into the sun for 10 seconds.
As Jen stepped through the tent door, she noticed three men at the entrance to a gated and sloped tunnel that led into the ground. Sam’s all-flash-no-bangs worked perfectly, and they never even saw the throwing daggers that killed them. She then left the tent and pulled the woman back inside. After killing the woman and looting all the bodies, she quickly removed the looted keys that The System had placed into her storage ring.
Opening the gate to the tunnel that was dug down into the earth, Jen slowly started making her way down the tunnel. When crushing the woman’s mind, she’d sensed some type of earth skill, and now as she walked down the tunnel, she guessed the Black-Card Caravan must have used her skill or other earth mages to build these tunnels for hiding their loot and keeping their foot-print small. She’d only walked about 20 feet when the tunnel turned slightly to the left before opening into a giant cavern. Jen moved slowly around the curve of the tunnel looking for anymore guards, but found what looked like nearly a hundred slaves packed into the cavern and chained to the floor. She also noticed a young man chained to the far wall away from the other slaves, but he’d been provided a bed to sit and sleep on. Last, Jen looked at the little bagged girl, the guard referred to. She had chains holding her to a post from head to foot, with a bag over her head, and enchantments carved into the chains. She’s locked up like Hannibal Lecter, Jen thought.
As Jen fully stepped into the cavern, everyone turned to look at her. None of them made a sound. The slaves chained to the floor tried to make themselves look invisible, the young man just looked at her with disgust, and the bagged girl did nothing.
Jen heard Sam though her sound wave, “We’re two minutes out.”
Jen replied, “I’ve found the slaves. As soon as you are a little closer, my AI will update you and Tamako with my exact location, and the location of the Caravan Chief’s tent, and everything else my lizards have observed. Make a distraction away from me, so I can get the slaves out.”
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Sam confirmed, “Will do. Expect a 30-second count down on the distraction in less than five.”
Jen hesitated on who to let go first, but then she noticed that the mass of slaves was actually in four lines. Each slave had a collar around their neck attached to a chain, and that chain was attached to the main chain running down the line they were in. Jen looked at the keys on the ring she’d looted from the dead guards, and guessed the different keys probably matched up with the different groups.
She approached the first line of slaves. Noticing the terror in their eyes, she used her psych skill and hypnotic ability to infuse her voice with power, and announced, “Everyone stay calm. I’m here to free you. The caravan is packing up to leave, and we must move quickly to get all of you out of here. If we don’t get out of this cavern, they are going to collapse it on all of us.”
The young man began, “Why are they going to …”
Jen cut him off, infusing her voice with more power, and said firmly, “No questions. My colleagues are going to start a diversion in a few minutes. I need to get all of you unchained and ready to run.”
The slaves were still terrified, but were mumbling amongst themselves as Jen opened the lock on the first row’s main chain. As she checked the lock on the first slave’s collar in that row, she found that the same key opened it.
“Thank you!” cried the woman as she was freed from the collar.
Jen ordered her, “Take this key and start freeing everyone else in your row.” She then reminded and ordered everyone else again, “Don’t leave the cavern until I tell you to!”
She then found the keys to the other lines of slaves, and had them start freeing themselves, before heading over to the young man.
As she approached the man, he said, “I’m Prince Ace of Hearts, I'm sure there is a significant gambling quest for freeing me, but if you free me, they’ll hunt you down, even if they have to hire an elf to do it.”
Jen cocked and eyebrow in surprise, but said, “Thanks for the warning, but if I don’t free you, you’ll die here.”
The Prince nodded, held out the chains around his wrists, and said, “Then by all means, I am happy to accept your help.”
As Jen unlocked the Prince, she asked him, “What do you know of the bagged girl over there?”
The Prince replied, “She just arrived a week ago. All I know is that our captors are absolutely terrified of her. If I were you, I would either leave her here, or keep her constrained until you get her somewhere that’s very safe for you to question her.”
Jen noticed a timer pop-up in her onboard display, and announced to the slaves that were all mumbling with fear and anticipation. One large slave, a man, was blocking the cavern tunnel. If it wasn't for him, it was clear that several of the other slaves would’ve already run out of cavern.
Jen pushed through the crowd, making her way to the big man. She pulled a basic spear from her storage ring, and said to him, “This is for you.” She then started pulling out spear after spear handing them to the slaves, around 40 spears in total. The Prince finally pushed his way to the front of the cavern near the big slave, and said to him, “Potluck, with these numbers and the spears, it’s time we take our revenge.”
Potluck handed the Prince the spear he was holding, and replied, “Yes, sire.”
Jen announced to the group, “Fifteen seconds! Follow me, and I’ll lead you back to the City.”
The Prince shrugged, and announced to both Jen and all the slaves, “We’ll be taking our revenge, and any who comes with me will be rewarded!”
Many of the slaves now had the desire of revenge in their eyes, and looked at Jen for permission, and she replied, “Do what you want, you're free! Raise your hand if you want to come back to the City with me.” None raised their hand.
At the surprise in Jen’s face from their response, the Prince informed her, “The City did nothing to protect them, nor anything to rescue them. Going back there doesn’t really help them.”
Jen started to reply, but realized they were out of time, “Get ready to go! Five, four, three…”
The Prince commanded, “Let’s kill them all! Follow me!”
That’s when Jen heard power in his voice. It wasn’t controlling power, but motivating power. She then focused on the video in her AI, as all hell broke loose on the surface, as Sam’s catapults were dropping logs, boulders, and flash-Bangs everywhere on the other side of the caravan camp.
Jen initially planned on sending the slaves out towards Tamako's location before returning to the bagged girl, but now with all the slaves following the Prince, she ordered Tamako to keep up the distraction, and instead for Sam to make his way over to her.
Tamako wanted to object. She didn’t think a strange, dangerous, weird bagged girl, was worth the extra risk. However, Jen was the boss leading this assault, and it wasn't the time for giving feedback or input.
In the confusion of the fighting, Sam was able to make it to the tent in just a couple of minutes. He said to Jen as he ran past her and down the tunnel, “I know, I know. Bell told me. You’re going to keep watch while I try to free the bagged girl.”
Sam hurried over to where the girl was secured, and tried to talk to her or get her attention, but she didn’t move or respond to him in any way. He took a closer look at the bag and noticed it was also interlocked with enchanted chains around her body and could not be removed. Sam used his words of power skill to start breaking out the meaning of the enchantments on her chains. His mana began to run low as he continued to split off each portion of the enchantment into his multi-focus skill for decryption with his words of power skill.
Sam said, "I don't know if you can hear me or not, but I'm trying to figure out how to get your free from these chains. Just hold on." He then frowned as the girl still made no sound or acknowledgment of his actions.
Sam messaged Jen, "Breaking the enchantments is going to take too long. I'm going to see if I can break the post out of the ground and just carry her, the post, and the chains altogether out of here."
Jen ordered, “Do whatever’s necessary to get her out of there, unless your gut starts telling you otherwise.”
Sam replied, “Will do,” and after noticing an arrow from his evolved luck stat pointing out of the cavern, he knew they needed to get out of there ASAP. Sam soon realized that the ground around the post was turned into something as hard a concrete. He then bent down to take a closer look around the back of the post and get a view of its base. Her hands were locked in place around the back of the post and were encased in thick gloves. Sam on seeing the strange gloves realized on second look that the girl's body was completely covered. Not even a slither of her skin was visible. The bag around her head was chained down over her arms and around her waste. He could clearly see special utensils over off to the side of her post that they must have stuck up the bag to feed her.
"We're running out of time. If we don't leave in the next few seconds, we're going to be completely surround and have to fight our way out of here!" messaged Tamako.
"Damnit! Maybe he girl knows something!" Sam thought as he just grabbed the bottom of the bag to try and pull it up far enough to find out if that would allow the girl to talk to him.
*****
Jen felt the evil a breadth of a second after Sam grabbed the bag.