Underground Caverns, Troug, 13th.

Olea Munroe

“This is the best ever, Olea.” Came Quinn’s voice from beside me as she helped me kill my second meat pie, I was still debating on whether to save the other two when another piece of information was brought to my attention.

“Olea?” asked Mouse.

“Yes, Minny?” I said in reply, knowing the depth of the comment would be lost here but wanting to add some small amount of levity for my own mental well-being.

Mouse scrunched her face up as if thinking about what I had said before shrugging her shoulders and continuing, “I like the food too, but is it not a little strange to be enjoying a hot meal while we are this close to that.”

She pointed to the corpse of my past assailant.

I had to admit that I had fully lost track of things, or maybe my mind was still working through its own little bout with shock. Either way, Mouse was correct.

It was a little strange to be eating a fresh, hot meat pie this close to a figure who had momentarily filled me with dread and was now decomposing near the outer edge of our cell.

It was also strange that I had forgotten one particularly important fact as I had been tending to the wounds of my fellows. One thing most people back home would have screamed at me for, especially if they were in a world like this, a world of gamer logic.

The Loot!!

Not wanting to acknowledge the act I intended to be committing lest I were caught somehow, as I hated having to answer pointed questions, I mentally projected my desires to the still form of my little rock-buddy.

It took long enough for me to think I was being very dense before the tiny golem-like creature rumbled on over to the body began moving about in the blood and other fluids as he set about taking loose objects from the partially removed belt of the fallen man. Included in the loot was his club, a small jar, a belt pouch of jingling coins, and a key.

After some exploratory pushing at the edges of my consciousness I found a way to encompass my little minion of granite in a shell of my own spirituality.

What this looked like, I had no idea. My Detect Magic spell was not currently active, though thinking of it now, I had best get into the habit of renewing spells when I had the mana.

“Detect Magic” I said the words in a low whispered rush of exhalation and felt my senses tingle.

Mana: 187/214

I could now see the very magic of the world, though somewhat confusing at first as all the colors of the rainbow were blending and mixing without ever becoming one, I found I could somewhat filter the aspects that I saw.

I shunted away the ambient magic in the air and even the waves of magic that were slowly pushing up from under the rocky ground beneath us. I toned down as best I could the visible field of mana that was glomming onto my cellmates and the surrounding people in the distance, while making a note to relax this filter later.

I did not want to miss some super-secret key detail later just because I was not willing to think about the specifics now.

I was now focused on myself, my immediate surroundings, and the golem that was currently taking a gold filling from the corpse of the man on the ground, I saw that the colors and patterns of mana on the little rock man were quite similar to mine, though lacking in the speed of movement while also having hints of a solid gray and green that my own aura, for lack of a better term, lacked.

My fellows were still eating their pies, though Mouse was still pointedly ignoring the corpse and looking away, I do not think she even noticed my little friend taking his time removing the effects of the fallen fiend.

What I found to be useful information, as well as being the entire reason for renewing my little spell, was the fact that my spirit-bound earth spirit could access my Soul Vault skill.

Yes, as I was happily sitting here and eating my meat pie, I had a proper little soldier looting the fallen foe. I had remembered the wording of the skill.

Soul Vault – This ability allows the user to store indefinitely any item of their choosing. Time shall not pass for the items inside. Item storage limit is determined by the level and power of the user’s Soul. Space available is equal to the accumulated level of Linked Souls cubed. The same space is shared amongst all people and creatures linked to the User.

It would seem I could extend its use for my summoned creatures, which opened several avenues for future experimentation. I could have probably been snagging corpses from the water spirit I had sent exploring earlier, though I had absolutely no use for another corpse in our cell.

Back to the train kids. Stay on topic, no derailments.

Derek had cast a glance or two at the rocky warrior as he went about tugging on various parts of the man and seemed genuinely uninterested in the proceedings. Maybe he was just relegating the goings-on to the same portion of his mind he would send images of his parents dressing a farm animal at the butcher’s. Again, I grew up rural-adjacent, so my knowledge of the proper ways and means of farm life was very skewed and unorganized.

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Quinn was just sitting there now, and pointedly ignoring the whole scene of the corpse as if her mind had shunted that bit away and was pretending that the only terrible thing in life was her current incarceration.

Malory was eating the piece, the small piece, of pie I had given her almost reluctantly as she came near to us after the guards had followed the man in red away. She was watching the golem poke at the body for some time and seeming to grow more confused as time passed by.

I will admit, had I not known that the golem was tossing things into my storage space, that I would have thought the little guy was somehow consuming the things he harvested from the body.

The elemental would tug something free and then grab it between his hands fixing it with an almost obsidian glare before the item vanished entirely.

Now, I knew our captors could not be bond villain smart, nor would they be stupid enough to not realize it if I had allowed the golem to completely disrobe the fellow. This is why I had ordered my conjured elemental to stop the looting after he had shown his willingness to go to town on this man’s mouth for a gold filling.

I was not a pirate!

Well, not yet at least.

A girl could dream.

“Olea…”

I looked away from my industrious elemental to follow the words of Mouse, and then followed her gaze as she looked out beyond the bars of our small jail.

Not a hundred yards away, passing several other caged in people, came two people in loose gray clothes carrying a pair of frothy buckets each. One of the non-descript people even carried a mop.

The cleaning crew was here.

I mentally commanded my little friend to make himself scarce, fully expecting him to have done so afterward.

The two people approached our holding cell and beckoned over another guard to open the door.

The guard fumbled to fit his oversized key into the mechanism before stepping aside to allow the crew to get to work.

They removed the body, wrapping it in a layer of cloths that had been in a backpack carried by one of the attendees, before getting to work on mopping up the blood and bagging some of the other less than acceptable bits.

When they had finished their little cleaning tasks, and without saying a word, they left. They lugged their wrapped-up body in the direction of the same are that we had been using on our twice daily visits to the potty.

I was quite sure I knew how they handled corpse disposal at this point, I was also thankful that the water was flowing at not a stagnant pool or just some pit with a big pile of muck at the bottom.

The guard locked the door quickly after the crew had left, glancing only for a moment at the property within.

It was the closest any of the guards had come to acknowledging us after the incident an hour ago, they may have been concerned about collecting bad karma from the mere vicinity of our cell.

That suited me just fine.

I both heard and felt the tension leave my fellow cellmates as the outsiders made their way away. It was nice not to have a new conflict to throw on the pile.

You have killed: subterranean sturgeon [Level 11]

Total Experience Gained: 495, Experience till Next Level 3,265.

More good news.

I was tempted to test Shared Senses with my water elemental right then to see the size of the fish that had just sacrificed itself for my growth when I was distracted by something new; something much less pleasant.

A man in red had entered from the tunnels at the far end of the cavern. A man that was easily recognizable from the other guards in the place.

Yes, the man in red was back again, and this time he was not alone.

I noticed that we were not the only ones to notice the entrance as many of the local population had been roused into attentiveness at the earlier disturbance, though most had remained quiet for fear of attracting the kind of attention we had gathered.

The man in red was making his way in our direction once again. Behind him followed several burly guards dragging some type of structure behind them.

A large, blocky, wooden thing. It was quite long and seemed to be very heavy, the guards were straining to maintain the pace set for them by the man in red.

Behind them were a few more people dressed in the garb worn by the medics employed by Avery.

I was beginning to get a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach.

We waited and watched as the procession made its way to the center of the prison area. By this time, it was a little clearer as to what was going on and I did not like it, not one bit.

There was indeed nothing I could do as Reginald stepped forward after surveying the erection of the structure at our cavern’s center. It was a wooden pole anchored with a large wooden base, heavily weighted to remain upright once placed.

A crossbar had been installed near the top to make it almost resemble a crucifix.

Strapped to the pole with their arms stretched and secured to the crossbar was Matilda.

A gasp escaped Mouse and Quinn as they simultaneously recognized the figure of the unconscious, or dead, woman trussed up like a draining carcass.

I found myself unable to do anything but seethe as I saw the slave trussed up like a sacrifice to the old gods of a different world.

The man in red, Reginald as he had said he was called, stepped away from the proceedings and faced outward surveying the many caged denizen of this new hell.

He turned about and began to pace in circles around the structure that was now solidly placed, stopping to glance outward after walking nearly a quarter around before continuing his theatrics.

He walked two full circles, probably giving time to his entourage so they could get things settled before he made some silly speech or committed to an over-the-top monologue.

At the end of his second passing, he stopped facing out from the spectacle he had created, staring in the direction of our cell, at me, as he began to speak.

“We have been made aware that certain people may have been playing favorites, and currying favor. We have investigated this allegation and found certain parties have been plotting to place everyone here in danger. You poor souls shall no longer need to worry as we have rooted out the source of this problem and taken actions to remedy the malediction.”

“This sickness ends here, let this woman be a reminded of what happens when you jeopardize the safety of our endeavors. My lady wishes for you to all to find a new place in life, free of your past impoverished states in a home of wealth and prestige.”

My ears must have been playing tricks on me as Reginald spun out his tale of salvation to the future slaves held in their cages around me. I could see the hate burning in a few eyes scattered through the audience, but what surprised and confused me most was the fact that some of the people here were openly seething at Matilda as she hung limply on the wooden cross. What the hell was wrong with these people, was this some new form of Stockholm syndrome?

“You may rest easy now as we address this issue and be assured that nothing will sway our commitment to have you all established and safely away to your new homes in the next three days. I shall be following up on these matters, and you can rest easy knowing that nothing will stop us from making sure you find a place to belong.”

Reginald gave a small nod of his head to the crowd of domed cages before he turned toward the tunnels leading from the cavern.

It did not escape my notice that a small group of men were making their way to our cell with a familiar anklet in hand.