I was continuing my trek through the dungeon and cleaning up the corpses of the golems. I had past the first 2 floors and was on floor 3 where there was the remains of a dozen stone golems and 2 iron golems. The third floor was where iron golems started to appear more often so it was more dangerous to be at, but I was confident in my own abilities. Besides there was so much free loot I couldn't say no and leave.

I walked around a corner into a large room with a pond in the middle. Surrounding the lake were dozens of stone and iron golem corpses as well as around 8 human corpses. They were all in the same condition as the previous one I found, with rags and tattered leather armour. These people looked rather malnourished and beaten badly. What confused me was the fact that there was cuts as well as bruises. Golems dont have claws, at least not this early into the dungeon so that confused me. I just left the bodies as is and continued on my way after saying a silent prayer for them.

This scene was far more common as I went further into the dungeon. In every large room where there were signs of large battles there was at least 1 human casualty amidst the golem casualties.

I was walking down a hallway as I saw another human corpse and got concerned. "Alright this is getting plain wrong. What party loses over a dozen people and doesn't bother retreating? Were they that desperate for money? But they didn't take the iron or the golem cores... Strange." I kept travelling but now gripped my sword properly and made sure to prepare for combat. Whatever was going on was strange but I didn't want to die because I was careless. I was in a dungeon after all, and anything could happen.

I took a breath and said "Alright. Let's do this. No being caught off guard. That could be deadly.". As I was walking forward I heard the sounds of someone moaning in pain. I gripped my sword tighter and carefully head forwards. As much as I wanted to help them I wasn't going to risk my life and bum rush forwards. Thats dumb and moronic, so I crept forwards and readied an ice shard spell as I rounded the corner.

I saw 3 iron golem remains as well as a man lying on the ground, bleeding from the mouth and clutching their stomach. I made sure there was nothing else in the room before heading towards the person and asking "What happened? Here, drink this potion." I tried to give the potion but the person wasn't responding and was just clutching his stomach and coughing blood. After I waved my hands in front of him and repeating my question he finally noticed me and stared intently at the healing potion. I moved it to his mouth and poured it in slowly.

He drank a few gulps before coughing out some blood and potion. He looked in less pain and weakly said "Thank y-you." I nodded and moved to give him some more but he said "I-i can't pay you back for that.... I have n-nothing to give." He looked a bit afraid but also as if he wanted more.

I just sighed and said "Dude it's fine, I'll take a golem core and we're even alright? So start chugging." I made him drink the rest and he looked far better than before. He wasn't able to get up but he was at least not dying anymore. He should be able to get up in 2-10 minutes depending on the severity of his injuries. He did drink one of my more expensive health potions. I had decided to buy a few medium health potions before coming here. They were more expensive but also did a far better job than the bargain bin potions I bought from earlier.

The man like he was already on the path to recovery as the potion did its job and remembered that I had asked him a question, so he finally told me what happened.

"What happened here was master Erabalt's slave raid passed through He bought a hundred or so slaves to clear the dungeon. I don't know how many there were actually but it was a lot of people. Anyways we met some iron golems and I was injured far too badly to move. I was forced to stand using slave magic but collapsed soon after, so they left me here for dead."

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I was a bit stunned by that news. Slaves? Was that even legal in this world? There wasn't slaves back in the game so I was completely thrown for a loop. I just asked him "Slaves? Isn't that illegal? Also why would he just leave you here? Isn't that a waste of his money? He did pay for you so why leave you to die."

The man growled "Why would he care about slaves? We come dirt cheap and as for legality? Slaves have always been legal in this country. Where have you been living? Under a rock?" He chuckled as he said that last bit. He looked far better and would probably be able to move soon.

I was thinking about what I just learned. Slaves were legal in this country? Moreover someone bought a hundred or so to clear this dungeon? Isn't that wasteful? Why not just hire a party of adventurers to do it, or is slave labour far cheaper? I thought for a bit more and got up, dusting my clothes off I looked to the man and said "I'll be heading further in. You get well and just leave I guess. I'll pretend I didn't see you. I don't get anything out of handing you over to the authorities anyways."

I tossed 3 stone golem cores at the man and left to keet travelling deeper into the dungeon. As a modern human I thought it was wrong to infringe on someones human rights and enslave them like that so I just did what I could for the man and left. I didn't know if there was some sort of slave seal or magic or whatever so I just left kept travelling further into the dungeon, only this time I had a new goal. I was going to see what this Erabalt was doing raiding the dungeon with a bunch of slaves. That and see if I could earn some more free loot as well as experience.

~~~

It had been a few hours of silent travelling and moving past corpses, both human and golem. Only 2 others were left alive as I met them, but 1 died from his injuries while the other recovered with a lesser healing potion. I left him a few stone golem cores and continued on. He didn't have any more information besides the fact that Erabalt was not aiming to clear the dungeon but was in fact wanting to farm resources from the 15'th floor. Copranite Golems appeared on the 15'th floor and were rather tough. Not only was Copranite tougher than regular iron, it was also magically attuned. This meant that it could be enchanted easier than other ores, making it valuable. The golems were obviously very tough to deal with but I was wondering why didn't this dude just hire some adventurers and went this roundabout way of using slaves. It was both cruel and inefficient. Lives would have been saved and he would have gotten his task done so I was thoroughly confused.

I just walked on and shook my head. I was on the 12'th floor and being distracted could get me killed. "I really need to get rid of my bad habit of getting distracted at the wrong moment. Someday I'll get killed if I don't stop."

As I was walking there was sound coming from a pathway heading off to the side and towards a dead end. "Move! Hurry up you morons! Sir Erabalt wants to be on the 15 floor by tomorrow! If you want to live then hurry up! Anyone not working hard enough will be punished! We are already lagging behind the main party as it is! Why did I agree to clear up the side paths... Ugh the slaves are useless as it is and I don't want to be punished for dawdling." I heard the same man scream out to hurry up and finish clearing the side path they were on as well as hammering noises.

I crept silently as I moved towards the side path. "So some of the slaves are here. What should I do? Should I ignore them and continue collecting look, turn back and leave or help them?" I almost instantly went for the third option but decided to think on it more. It would be suicide to head in and try to liberate the slaves. What was I going to do, fight an unknown amount of possibly high levelled guards to free some people I didn't know? Thats dumb.

As much as I tried to think of reasons to not help I felt too guilty not even trying. I knew I would get into some shit if I tried to do something but I wanted to at least see who the hell was doing this slave nonsense. I would get info on Erabalt when I head back but for now I wanted to catch a glimpse of these assholes who treated human lives like disposable napkins. It was decided, I was going to get a glimpse of the asshats and probably leave after that.