Kyle awoke an unknown amount of time later. He did not go to the black space, or as it was called before Oblivion, and he did not see Asura. Unlike the previous times he was unconscious, Kyle had a general idea of how long he was out for. It was less than a day, probably half an hour at most.
Kyle could see around him. The walls of whatever room he was in were made from stone and had moss growing on them. The surroundings were moist and a strong smell filled the air. In the distance, the faint sound of water running could be heard, but even closer were two voices.
"Damn, Drunk Fox is taking too long."
'That's the right order!' The first thing that Kyle thought when he heard the voice was that it came from a civilized man. The words were more or less in the right spots, not like the people of Thornberry who got it totally wrong. Kyle remembered when he was first reborn not knowing what people were talking about because their sentence structure was completely different from the human language he remembered, but the man who kidnapped him was only 2 words out of place.
"It will only be a matter of time before he gets back, so just be patient."
'Two of my people!' Kyle was happy to have two people who could speak normal human language in front of him, but it was a shame he was going to have to knock them out and rob them.
"How can I be patient in this shit hole?"
One of the two men in the other room was angry about having to be where he was, so Kyle could assume they were also in a room very much like the one he was in. There was very little light, and it was coming from the window of a door to Kyle's right.
"This is a good chance for us to move up in the organization. These towns in the west have plenty of kids to take back east and sell."
Kyle would have made his way for the door, but his hands were tied up. He would still be able to use magic, but a normal person would not have because there was also a rag in his mouth to prevent chanting.
'What spell should I use....?' Kyle could not think of what spell to cast. First of all, he did not know for sure what was tying his hands together. It could be metal that had been on his skin for a while and was now warm, or it could be simple rope. Kyle went with using earth magic to create a blade to cut the bindings with.
"But why did Drunk Fox grab this kid and then leave him with us? Couldn't he have taken him to meet the transporter?"
The knife Kyle made with earth mage was able to cut through the rope binding his hands after a few minutes of rubbing. With this hands free, Kyle took the rag from his mouth and stood up. Kyle walked over to the door that lead to the room with the other two people in it and he looked inside.
"Hey, the brat's looking at us!"
One of the men in the other room saw Kyle come to the window and informed his partner who was facing the other way. The two men in the other room had dark cloaks on and ugly faces, half from dirt and half from the face they were born with.
"Don't you know not to go walking around the 1st district?"
"Honestly, who let's a kid this small go outside by himself?"
"Would make sense if he is from some whore here in the district."
"Nah, that kid is from the 2nd."
The two men in the other room did not seem to care much about Kyle seeing them. They had bound his hands, but not his feet. The two men continued as Kyle looked at them from the other side of the door. Only Kyle's eyes and forehead were able to be seen from the window, so they did not know that he removed the rag from his mouth.
Kyle took a step back and thought about how to handle the door. There was no way to open it from the inside, and it was made from metal. Metal could be moved with earth magic, but it was extremely hard and the most Kyle could do in his past life was bend it a little. He might be able to hit it with a strong enough [Blast] earth spell, but if it was not enough it would bounce back and hit him.
Metal that was made with earth magic would be moved easily with the Transmute spell, so it was not used for things like weapons, armor, or anything used to lock people up. Metal made by a blacksmith was stronger than metal made by an earth mage, and it would resist earth magic. Kyle had a feeling this door was made from ordinary metal.
Just to make sure, Kyle placed his hand on the door tried to use [Transmute] on it, but when he did it only made a dent in the center of where he cast.
"He's kicking the door."
"I knew we bound have tied his legs too."
"Too late for that. Let's just wait for Drunk Fox to get back."
Kyle thought of more things he could try, but would be left with the Wolf Fang Fist. It was a martial technique strong enough to punch holes in steel, and would easily break down this door.
'Wolf Fang Fist!' Kyle made the necessary movements of his internal ki that the old man on the mountain taught him, and he thrust forward at the door. The result was the door staying in place.
'OH FUCK THAT HURT!' Kyle was only 3 years old and had internal ki paths much different from his other body. He might have known the martial technique, but he did not know his own strength. Not only did Kyle not know how to get out of the room, his right hand hurt.
'[Heal]' Kyle cast a healing spell to make the pain on his hand go away.
"Stop kicking the door!" One of the people yelled in at Kyle.
'Maybe I should train my body instead of learning things at the library...' Kyle now needed to decide how to do things. It was not ordinary for a 3 year old to be finding trouble like this, but he brought it on himself. Kyle knew he could not handle a sword like he used to, so he should have known the Wolf Fang Fist would be a little harder to use too.
'No, I have to get out of here first.' Kyle thought of another spell he could use, and he walked up to the door and cast it.
"Hey is that his hand?" One of the men said, but it was too late for him anymore.
'[Zero]' Kyle used a high ranking ice spell that instantly spread very low temperatures around him. The door froze, the floor froze, the people froze. This was Kyle's own ice, so he was not affected by it and could touch the door without being cold.
'[Form]' Kyle made a hammer with earth magic and started to hit the bars on the door. It was extremely cold, so after a few hits they broke off. It was probably a spot for a glass window that was broken and replaced with iron bars. Kyle could not break the hinges to the door though, and he was scared of using too much mana to make it cold.
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'[Form]' Kyle then made a cube of stone for him to stand on and try to open the door from through the window. Kyle reached his arm inside, but as much as he tried he was unable to reach the lever on the left that locked the door.
'Damn, if only my arms were a little longer!' Kyle thought as he tried to reach the level but was unable. For a second, Kyle could feel that he was touching the lever though. It was a strange sensation though, like even though he was touching it he did not feel the normal cold metal, or the texture. He only knew that something was in his hand now.
'Did I really get it?' Kyle thought as he moved the lever into the unlock position, but when he moved his arm he could not feel resistance from the level. The door still unlocked though, and Kyle opened it and walked out. On the outside of the door, Kyle looked at the door and saw that he certainly would not have been able to reach the level.
'I guess my earth magic got it... somehow.' Kyle did not know how to explain him moving the level, but Kyle now needed to leave before Drunk Fox got back.
Kyle used [Erupt] to heat the room and used [Sleep] on the two men just to be safe, then he searched their pockets. The heat was not needed for Kyle to be comfortable, but in order to search the pockets of the clothes of the men what were frozen stiff.
'gees these people were poor.' Kyle thought as he looked at what the people had. Each had a small knife, about 800 coins all together, and one of them had the bottle with somno herba poison. Kyle took the 800 coins and then left the second room.
The next place Kyle was in was the sewers under Thornberry. It was a little brighter than the past two rooms and water was running in a canal with a 2 foot wide path on both side.
'Whoa this place stinks.' Kyle smelled the smell of human waste and various other things in the sewer. It was a disgusting place. The walls were even more slimy and the floor too.
'[Flame] [Frost]' Kyle used two spells at the same time and created a stream of water. Kyle directed the water at the ground and walked forward. He did not have any other pair of shoes, so he wanted to keep them clean. Kyle thought about burning the sludge, but did not know how effective that would be, and he also thought about freezing it, but he did not want to slip and fall into the bigger problem.
Kyle went down a few paths before finding an exit of the sewer by way of later and he went out. On the surface, it was probably around lunch time. Kyle quickly made his way home, which was easy because his home was in the south side, 2nd district. It was even easier when his house looked different from all the others in the 2nd district, except the 8 or so other houses that looked like it.
'I should probably go home.' Kyle thought as he went home for lunch. It would reassure Elena that nothing happened to him. Kyle did not enter the 1st district the same way that he came out, but he found his home about 30 minutes later. He passed many poor people and beggars, but he was not stopped again. 800 coins richer, Kyle was home.
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"Oh Kyle your back!" Elena hugged Kyle as he came back home. She did not say it when he left, but she was still very worried about him and did not want him to leave.
"You shouldn't be gone for so long next time."
"But mom, I got money for the library." Kyle put his hand in his pocket and produced 100 coins. He had the other 700 coins in his socks. The 100 coins was a jumble of copper 10 coins pieces and iron 1 coin pieces, but the coins in his socks were 100 coin bronze pieces.
"You... Where did you get the money from Kyle?" Elena stepped back and looked at the coins in Kyle's hand. That could feed the family for a whole day, maybe even 2. It was Kyle's money though, so she was not going to take it.
"I went to the north district and asked people for money so I could get a library membership." Kyle tried to act proud, but begging was not something he liked to do. He hoped that Elena would not look down on him for doing something like that, but he was sure the reply 'I purposefully got kidnapped by slave traders so I could rob them' would not go over too well.
"Oh... Well, you can buy the library membership them." Elena was happy for Kyle and they both walked into the house.
"Kyle, why are your clothes so dirty?" Elena just noticed that her arms were dirty from Kyle's back, and now that she looked at him his pant legs and the back of his shirt were very dirty.
"I got tired so I took a nap." Kyle made up this lie and quickly thought back to what was on him. He cleaned the ground of the sewer before walking through it, so what was on him now was probably from the room he was kept in. The room was far enough from the sewer that it was face to say it was not sewage. Probably just rat poop and normal grime from being in such a moist environment.
"That is probably why you got so much money. Go take those clothes off and take a bath." Elena frowned as she looked at Kyle and thought about what other people might have thought about him. If anyone saw him walking around with her now, she would be thoroughly embarrassed.
"Yes mom." Kyle went to the bathroom and got a bucket, then went to the back behind the house and got some water from a well.
The back behind the house was nothing special. There was a well in the center of 8 similar log houses and paths to each of the houses for the people to get the water from. Anything that was not a path had overgrown grass. It was not the place for children to play.
Kyle got the water and returned to the bathroom and shut the door. There was a bath like area that Kyle cleaned himself in, and when he was done he made some extra water with his magic to rinse himself off with. There was no lock on the door, so Kyle held the bucket over his head as he cast the magic inside it.
That day or tomorrow Elena would clean his clothes like every day, and tomorrow Kyle would go to the library.
'Tomorrow I enter... The labyrinth of words."