Gratefully the pathway I was led through was not as inhabited as the path I first came. It seems they have a separate entrance to the fields from back here.
We stopped at a gateway checkpoint, and met with a guild attendant whom was standing next to a veteran guard. The attendant was petite in size, compared to the lumbering statue keen on deeply sizing me up from the depths of his eyes. The rod that held my shackles taught to my wrists forcefully positioned me within this man's sword swing range. His blade was not drawn, but I could feel by the stillness in the air that it didn't need to be.
The attendant saw us approaching and came out to meet us with some unfolded papers in hand & a stamp. "M'lady Rudra, Sir Holtz here came with this document. I need your confirmation before I'm allowed to instruct our new recruit. It seems there's some special circumstances with this one."
Rudra nodded and while still holding me in place with one arm. Like this was an old procedure, the guard reached and temporarily took hold of her spiked mace, while she confirmed the authenticity of the script. Rudra smirked and stamped the corresponding note with her free hand, and afterwards received her weapon back.
Rudra then jerked the latched stick holding my wrists to force my arms overhead again, and easily lifted me off my feet. I was cranked a half turn and landed on my feet again now facing her. 'Not like I'm using these wrists right now or anything.' It wasn't the pain that bothered me, so much as being able to tell that she's toying with me on purpose.
Without missing a beat, she untwisted the chains loose which allowed my arms to drop back down. I felt the full return of my bodyweight reappear at my ankles, and I waited curiously as she dragged the rest of my chain towards a wall.
She walked and attached the end links of the chain on her latching stick to a newly fashioned wall hook and attached rung. Securing the lock before releasing the latch in her hand, she left me bound to the rung and returned to us. 'Out of the Dragon's maw and into the Tiger’s Den.....'
'There were a handful of hooks lined along this wall so maybe there are other slaves selected for this kind of treatment. Maybe I won't be in bad company.'
Rudra walked up the the guard and gave a firm salute. "Sir Holtz, I'll be leaving Mr. Densu in your care. Report back to me once you are finished with the field work."
"Thank you for your time M'lady Rudra", Holtz spoke with sincerity in his voice. "It'll be interesting to see why we've been put on duty for this man". He looked beyond her shoulder to glance over at me again.
Rudra lightly smirked again and hummed in amusement as she turned to look to me as well "... Consider him, lucky...." She nodded to the attendant to give final assurance, then made her way back to the office area.
The attendant had the notes in hand as she walked closer to me. I barely got a glimpse of a sparkling sheen of low arching mana-light and immediately felt a corresponding knuckle imprint connect surprisingly sharply to my lower left ribs, which produced a solid thud and some gristle sounds. A voice of strength not fitting the body bellowed out from this petite and lithe figure.
"LISTEN HERE TOUGH GUY- IF YOU EVEN THINK YOU'RE GONNA TRY ANY FUNNY BUSINESS ON OUR PROPERTY OR OUT IN THESE WILDS, YOU ARE GOING TO BE IN FOR A WOOORRRLLDDD OF HURT!!!"
She had been grinding her knuckles in and up into my ribs at an uncomfortable angle the entire time she spoke, as if she was trying to lift me by force. When she retracted her fist, I saw thick metal rings equipped with protrusion points facing out beyond the knuckles. 'No wonder why that stung so deeply.'
She didn't show it but she felt like she had punched a stone wall. She took a step back after the introduction and held her wrist behind her back, now suddenly smiling.
"Aside from our prescribed warning, Welcome to the fields of Indossus!!!" Her voice inflection raised a lot as if she was opening a new performance act, demanding for my attention.
"Our fields are host to the flora and fauna and various treasures of our land. Your job in particular will be to harvest various resources from the fields until your debt is paid. Don't hold back from what you can collect, because the countryside itself is alive, as is everything in this realm (to some extent)."
"Out on these fields, everything from mana stones to animal life the size of pipsqueaks to mighty beasts of all forms, size and quality of life force, all preside in these wilds. All of these happen to manifest spontaneously in this world as a matter of the abundance of Mana concentrated in Indossus." She waved her arm that held the notes to emphasize the grandeur of her speech.
"So there's no need to fear from harvesting an area dry!" She said it confidently but then immediately corrected herself, "That is, unless you encounter a specified 'Barren Zone', in which case- contact us immediately! Because any creature that can leech our wilds dry of mana, is a serious threat to our ways of life.... We don't allow that here....."
"In fact there are even certain zones that are richer in content than others! Special events also take place at random, like Stampedes or the Titan Monstrosities that also appear in the war tides that require the Colosseum to send out our elite guards to help quell the opposition that threaten to strike at our people. These are all far a few between, however special rewards can be accumulated by defeating these special zone monsters, and periodically.... heh... Let's just get you out there first and we'll deal with this all if you survive any such encounters..."
Shifting her bodyweight and taking her leisure with me, "Generally speaking, for the commoners it is suggested to stay simple and dig the earth for mana stones. Finding them will be easy because you will also encounter mana motes inhabiting them, like the ones you encountered at the summoning test. Careful though because they like to sleep and there are wild motes that are extra talented at surpassing all defenses, no matter how strong the recipient is...... Those ones are my favorite....."
Hearing all of this, I comprehended more of their daily lifestyle and can understand that all of this is a common procedure for these people. 'Even if summoning and training up special recruits is a plausible reason and means to make up for the lost soldiers from these 'event' battles...... Kinda harsh, to be summoned for such a lonely purpose though..... Biggs... Wedge.... Damina.....'
She took out a bright green pendant she wore from underneath her collar. "This one I'm wearing is a common mana stone out in the fields, so it's resale price isn't much"
She winks and leans forward playfully. "Buuuuuuuut- forged into this pendant form, it has increased value! Aaaaaaand if you get the right enchantments syncing your mana to them, you might even get a boost to your abilities or lifeforce and wellness"
I am trying to follow along to the wealth of information being given to me, and I think I'm seeing an even bigger economic pattern being made here...... This all might take a while....
She held on to the pendant for a bit longer than she wanted while debating something in her mind, but in turn she persevered and continued speaking. Holtz noticed this hesitation, but I was still in thought until she spoke again.
"My name is Arady and according to theeeeese, I'll be the only guild attendant you'll be seeing for quite a while, sooooo get used to it". She waved the papers around in my face and I couldn't tell if it was a subtle threat from her towards me, or one from the higher ups' unto her. But by the tone of her voice and attitude she was clearly not pleased.
She suddenly stopped the facade and pretenses once she was finished with her intro. The atmosphere got very solemn as the echoes of her cheery voice died down in this echo chamber of a gateway tunnel.
I felt her mana fluctuate towards my direction as I watched her pull out her hand with the rings on them from behind her back. I saw and felt her mark glowing with a silvery sheen as she held the back of her fist in my direction. I started seeing the silvery mana motes fluctuate like a glistening blaze with my second sight kicking in again, and I witnessed as she radiated brilliantly before my eyes.
"The harder you concentrate on your mark- the more likely you are to trigger the key to personal spontaneous events out there. As I mentioned earlier there are many types of events that can occur in the fields as well as in Kingdom Safe Zones. Triggering this charge effect is a gamble for most people out there in the wilds though. The likelihood of being attacked in a rampage also goes up too because of the fluctuations of mana these marks produce. In town it's not soo bad, however it's a bit of a public nuisance to be spreading your mark on other peoples properties- It's considered highly trashy to not keep your mana to yourself out in public...."
She intensifies her mana pressure as she steps closer to me again. Holtz has an eyebrow curiously raised as he watches her walk into my personal space. She takes me by the shackles and holds up my wrist causing her mana to fluctuate around and intermingle with the Dark purple mark on my hand, like how the badge first bit me before. "....Especially from anybody with a reputation deserving of a mark like this!"
Suddenly I felt a deep personal invasion of my inner spirit take place and felt greatly vulnerable as if either a violation or a deep inner soul bond could be formed by this type of connection with someone.
I wasn't initially ready or aware to be prepared to perceive this all so abruptly, so this left me stunned and speechless for an instant, before I relaxed and accepted her presence upon mine, calmly. I gently observed through my sensory perception with stillness as if my heart was being examined as she probed and prodded a very specific set of my more sensitive emotional points within my mana body.... 'hhmm... It's good to know that my emotions have an interactive quality with this mana....'
I was reminded of the many times I had felt raw and exposed to the Spirit that breathed fire into my soul, long before I came to this place. Back then I had eventually learned how to inflect and examine myself like this, to tend to and address my own mental callousness and emotional scars in my previous existence during my times of prayer. I valued the deep and intimate connection I developed with the Spirit in this manner of prayer and seeking of His presence. At many points I remember a difference transforming within myself, and each time I was then able to pass on the healing I had received, to others afterwards.
Being forced to dig deeply, Arady suddenly glanced at me meaningfully. As if her expectations had been proven wrong, I felt her presence and mana pause and withdraw itself back from me. This ended up drawing my attention back to the present.
Holtz felt what took place too, while standing so closely- but kept silent about it to let Arady continue what she started. Arady now spoke from a different sense of understanding, and warned me by pointing at and drawing attention to my deep purple mark.
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"I don't know what you did to deserve any of this but THIS is going to haunt you inside and out of the Colosseum. It's my job to teach you how NOT to die out there, but if you go and get yourself killed, it's no hair off my head, the way things are now....."
She relaxed her mana flow and let go of my wrist too. I watched her right hand tremble slightly and I noticed her wrist was now a bit swollen. She took a step back from me and clutched her pendant again. This time the green mana within it glowed and flowed around her injured wrist like cascading mini showers of emerald green radiating lights flowing back and forth in a circulating pattern with a few motes dancing also around her shoulders and neck.
Holtz spoke up with familiarity to Arady "is your neck still bothering you? I heard there's a good Bone Mason that's been helping some of the guards recently... I can have him come by to visit later if you like"
Arady's voice was matter-of-fact and blunt "Yeah, do that. Its from all this damn paperwork they've been pushing on me lately. They can't just let me play with all the shiny things these guys bring back. I love sorting this stuff out, but nnooooooooo....... I can't just be happy and do my job too"
She looked at me and casually remarked, "I don't mind doing my own work out in the fields or counting and cataloging these bounties brought in, but when they throw the back log of the people in the office at me, 'because you're just out back playing around all day'...... Yeah.... Kinda sour about that crap". She made a pouty face, and I found myself smiling at her as she did.
She noticed the warmth in my eyes and my calm demeanor, and in that moment it reminded her of something as she looked back at me. "And besides... Holtz, you've got a point... Something about this doesn't seem right... Rudra doesn't just smile like that for any simple reason."
She looked over to Holtz again, while still holding on to her glowing pendant for healing. "For all of us to be assigned to him, as well as Densu being handed over to Blanchard as a Breaker....... Like...... Immediately out from the summoning assessment......."
She lowered her voice to a whisper and looked back at me sizing me up again and holding on to her wrist in thought.
"I know Baka'ru is worse than poison slime. But what actually happened over there...." She paused for a moment and shook her head, "No... don't answer that, I don't really want to know yet......"
She was still transfixed on my eyes but she let go of the mana pendant and with the most impressive sleight of hand I have ever personally experienced! She disassembled and took my shackles off and had gracefully unlocked and freed me, then grabbed the healing stone again before it fell out of the air, all without looking away from me once.
I was surprised again. It was real that I showed concern for a second, looking between her and Holtz. They both now silently stared at me quite mysteriously..... I couldn't help but ask..... "Is.. This okay?"
Arady cracked a chuckle, handed the shackles to Holtz and turned away to walk back to her gateway office box, casually leaping back in from over the counter. "Yeah you're good Densu... You ARE lucky..... Anyone who can vex that dirty old lech Baka'ru, gets a pass in my book...." She started gathering some items together and assembling a few portable boxes as if she had forgotten to finish working on something.
Holtz finally smirked at that statement and stepped to the wall to set my loosened shackles on the bottom rung underneath the one holding the end-links to my chains. At least the organization standards are well thought out all around this facility.
He turned to look back at me, still smiling. "Don't worry too hard kid, you'll be putting those back on once we get back in from work. Besides, you'll need to carry your own gear. That's not part of my job description." He pointed my attention back over to the room Arady leaped into.
I took the hint and walked over to her booth countertop and saw what looked like an attached shopping tent at a bazaar, extending to the back walls once I got a clean look. The room extended pretty deeply into the walls and even had 3 extension rooms in the far back on each of both sides.
She set before me a sturdy sack that could fit a back's worth of material in it at first. She then took a deeper look at the notes that were handed to her regarding about what to afford to me. Suddenly she had a bewildered look as if processing what she was reading.
"Weeeellllll nnnnooooooooowwwww..... Doesn't this beat all..... Looks like you're ACTUALLY gonna be filling two of these 'other' big bad boys, instead of just one medium bag....... AAANNNNDDD you also Don't get to bring one of these....."
She already had a stick she had pulled out earlier to be ready for this, and it looked very much like the handle of the mace & chain latch set, that Rudra pretty much carried me with before.
Before I arrived, Arady had set herself to act ahead of time to be readied for me from the moment she first received the letters about a newcomer- but she didn't get around to reading the fine print yet by the time that Holtz showed up. Then Rudra and I soon appeared thereafter. But she now raised then furrowed her eyebrows, thinking into why she was having to put the standard digging gear back on the display holder.
This digging stick had a flattened and slightly rounded spade head like a spatula style scooping lip, with a curved but dense point at the end. It looked suitable for breaking through tough soil and scooping large swathes of soil away with each swing.
"Yeah about that.... According to the statement, it reads- 'subject will be using his bare hands for the first 7 sessions before being allowed to use regularly provided tools.'......" She mumbled a bit more before being surprised again. She turned and walked deeper into the room reaching to grab two distinctly larger bags.
"Hey Holtz, you also got your work cut out for you... Says here that if you see him start fashioning his own tools during this period that you are to confiscate them and bring them back for personal resale........ wait...... HAAAAA you also get to keep half the cut we make from when I resell them- hahahahaha, lucky contribution credits for you!"
A visible look of curiosity appeared on Holtz's face as he stepped closer from the chain wall with inquisitive pep in his step to take a deeper look at the stamped notes. He breaks into laughter himself when he sees that fine print in detail.
Now standing next to me, He pats me on the back "lucky lad indeed! Your hands will learn many things this day hahahaha"
I suddenly felt like a wellspring of loot for everyone around me, where everyone else lives a life of luxury at the fruit of my labor. 'hmmmmm..... Well- I will experience an increase in abilities the more I practice......'
'......what you set your hands to will grow'.....echoed in my memory recall........ 'What a day...... What a future to behold......'
I shook my head clear from the thoughts and went to reach for the bags, when Arady practically shoved the body sized canvases at me over the counter, to distract herself from feeling pity.
"The medium bag is now 'just in case' for you Holtz.... Oh, and here's some extra food for you both too, I'll just put it on your tab Densu. Let me see your badge...." She handed me a composite box with a handle made of 4 removable layers packed with various foods and then held her hand out to take the badge.
I remember seeing a credit and debt rating on the badge before and nodded as I handed my Crystalline badge to her. She received it and activated her silver glyph again which flowed mana to interact with the badge and adjusted some of the numbers. This seems like a very efficient means of keeping track of long term information.
====================
Name: Densu
Rank: Creature (Growth)
Marks: Dark Purple (Slave) - Breaker
Zeni: 0
Debt: - 2,500,000,020 (Colosseum Zeni) [-$5 x4 lunch box = -20 Zeni]
- *10% work tax to all earnings will be automatically redirected towards paying this off. Advanced payments can be made to clear debt sooner. Penalty subject to earnings from previously owned and all Inheritance properties.
- Restriction: Cannot purchase property while in a state of debt.
- Restriction: Cannot purchase slaves while in debt.
- Restriction: Cannot restore Freedman state until debt is cleared. (Does not apply if already marked as Freedman, unless status is revoked)
--------------------
State of Being:
STRENGTH: 700
LUCK: 892
SPIRIT: 1
Abilities:
Metal Craft: 1
--------------------
Property: (0)
Work force: (0)
Special notes: *Guild workers are to report all updates and receipts of transactions to the Red Administration Office and receive a stamp of confirmation when filing reports.
====================
It was a casual exchange, until it was suddenly not. The silver mana flowing around her wrist and my badge dispersed like shattered ice that hit the stone floor dropped from a roof. She sucked in air so fast her lips stuck, and she literally stiffened and turned pale after the numbers adjusted. It was like she had waited to see what the numbers were till after the transaction and then what she saw vividly terrified her.
Her mind was trying to calculate and it broke her mind temporarily. There were too many factors taking place here. Too many repetitions to occur...... too many 0's.... sooooo many 0's after a negative ....
I swear I heard her eyelids creak as her eyes trembled and shook with all of their might to pry away from the badge when she was done and look at my again concerned eyes.
She still couldn't speak, but her mind was screaming "WWWWHHHHHHOOOOOO AAAAARRRRRREEEEE YYYYYYOOOOOOUUUUUUU?!?!?!?!?"
She heard stories of the spending habits of the wealthy merchant families, but most of them didn't even have this kind of savings to protect them from not paying off such a serious debt enslavement.
Lucky?!?!?!.... What a horrendous joke, this man truly is cursed... He didn't do anybody else wrong, he wronged HIMSELF dirty.......... no...... not himself........
She suddenly matched the dots and a deep seeded anger overwhelmed her. Her countenance darkened from stiff and sickly pale, to a livid dripping boiling black.... "Baka'ru........"
She recomposed herself still in awe of the seesaw effect on her mental state and settled down enough to start making new calculations and project plans. She handed back the badge after apologizing for the delayed hic up.
Arady was immersed deeply in thought and now understood why Rudra was smirking, and why someone of Holtz prestige had been assigned to Densu. Even how Blanchard was specially ordered to this man's case......
All of them would do their job, understand the magnitude of the situation and keep their mouths shut about the whole ordeal. At least under normal circumstances.....
Usually this hush work attitude, suited the guild elders favor. Something about this was different though.... for the stats already on this guy before he even made it out to the fields, this wild card might just be their own curse reflecting back at them at some point sooner than later....
'It's okay..... I'll have some time to sort out some details..... ' ran through her mind. All these new things considered, the backlog of papers sent by her colleagues was trivial and would never bother her again. In fact this backlog is the real joke of these morons out front.....
She considered more about the current situation as the men itemized their gear and said goodbye, then watched silently as they began to walk away to the fields with empty bags folded and carried by attached tethering straps.
She sat at her booth deeply in thought, and gripped the pendant again tightly. It started glowing anew to induce a mana flow that now spread widely and weaved manamotes around her wrist, her heart, her scalp, shoulders, and her gut. She still felt sick to her stomach seeing that debt value.
This man hasn't complained a single bit at all of this negative treatment. He even showed concern for me, even after I tried to punk him out. He didn't even flinch when I said no shovel.
A thought flashed in her mind and she thought. 'maybe....' So she called out to me before I was completely out of the gates. It was worth a shot.
"Heeeeyyyy Densu! If you find a green manastone that looks and feels like this pendant, but better. Bring it back for me special, would ya?"
I heard Arady call out and ask that of me on the way out to the fields and thought about having to fill these bags before having to come back. The odds of probably finding at least 1 green manastone larger than what was in that pendant by the time I was done with this payload, seemed pretty decent. Uneducated guesses though on my part....
And besides if the green ones are good for healing, I'm gonna want to find a stack of large ones anyways.... "Yeah sure I'll do my best!" And I smiled back at her and waved, before turning forwards and following Holtz out of the main gate.