He half expected Reacher to tie all of the miners up and send them to the Slaughterhouse at the same time. Fortunately for him, the knights didn’t address the slaves at all. They were caught up in a conversation about some “No man’s land”, whose presence pissed Reacher off. The knights carried a sack each, which turned out to be full of vegetables. They even left them a dead pig before they left, although they dropped it into the dirt near the fireplace, all the while never talking to the slaves. He looked at the surplus of food they got that day. The pig was bigger than the one they got for the twins’ birthday. Guess their holidays are more important.
Reacher’s appearance gave him an idea. As he made his way through the slave camp, he started to [inspect] the slaves. He read the names of the three men that had attacked him, PP and Montgomery some time ago. They were busy carrying the food to Cadmun. The one with the broken nose was called Titor, a [Weapons Master] from the [Duelist] class. The others, a Michael and a Smith, were both [Weapons Master] in the [Ranger] class. The three of them were [LVL] 10 just like PP and they originated in [Cavon]. What struck out most to him, was that they were affiliated with the [Goblin Hunters]. Goblin hunters? More like human hunters.
He took a look around starting to have fun with his power. Most of the other men were affiliated with the [Factory] and their [LVL] ranged from 20 to 24. He quickly got the hang of how to inspect a Status and didn’t even need to say the word “inspect” anymore, when he checked out Cadmun’s Status upon returning to the now lit fireplace. Sir Cadmun Frost was a [Warrior] in the [Knight] class affiliated with the [Factory]. He originated from a place called [Pridtur]. Cadmun was- [LVL] 30? That’s way higher than Reacher!
“Dozing off at work, Recruit?” Cadmun asked.
He snapped back to reality. “No, I was just thinking if I should get some more water to get the pig clean.” I must have been staring.
“Stop wondering and start doing!” Cadmun ordered.
He emptied the buckets into the cooking pot and quickly returned to the well for another water run. His mind raced with the possible implications of Cadmun’s LVL. Even though he had no idea what a difference those numbers meant, he knew it had to be significant. If the strongest people around here are LVL 50, then a difference of 6 LVLs must be a huge step up. He could probably take on Reacher by himself!
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He started to think about how a fight could play out. There were a couple of prerequisites that had to be met. First, they’d have to split up the knights in order for Reacher and Cadmun to fight alone. Second, they’d have to disarm Reacher or get Cadmun a weapon. Third, Lydia and the Lords would have to be out of harm’s way for Cadmun to act. Getting the Lords out of the Manor would have to be their top priority, really. There had to be an escape plan in place. For that they needed a distraction that gave them enough time to outrun the horses. But what if we had horses ourselves?
He was so engrossed in his thoughts that he hadn’t noticed Cadmun staring at him.
“I said the pig’s over there!” Cadmun said pointing at Titor on the other side of the camp.
Before he knew it, he was standing back at the fireplace with two full buckets of water in his hands.
Startled, he said: “Yeah, you’re right.”
“You alright, Recruit? You hit your head this morning?” the bald man asked.
“Yes, no. I mean, yes I’m fine. Thank you.”
The bald man didn’t seem convinced, as he exchanged a doubtful look with Michael, who was cutting up the vegetables over the cooking pot beside him. Still, he reassured Cadmun that he was fine and went over to Titor. As the slaves prepared the breakfast-lunch meal, he tried to come up with different plans to orchestrate their escape. It would have to be a plan that involved as few moving parts as possible and require a minimal amount of key personnel. This has to be airtight. The fewer people involved in its success, the better. We only need a few high LVLs in case of an emergency.
“Hey, Recruit! Concentrate!” Titor scolded him.
He nearly dropped the clean pig they were carrying. They were on their way to Smith, who would turn that carcass into lean steaks.
“Even with the dull knives we’re allowed to have, he can make the perfect pork medallions. The man was a mean cook back in the day,” Titor had explained earlier.
But now Titor’s face was less nostalgic like when he reminisced about Smith’s cooking a couple of minutes ago and more annoyed that his ruminating might make them drop the pig and start cleaning it all over again.
“You need another head bashing?” Titor joked, but he didn’t feel like laughing.
His head was so preoccupied with how to break out of their enslavement, that instead of concentrating on today’s tasks at hand, he over-analysed every little thing around him. He inspected the former [Goblin Hunters] cutting up the carcass with inconveniently small knives for the second time today, however the two of them would be useless in any kind of fight with them being [LVL] 10. Not like those blades can do anything to even dent the Adventurers’ armour.
“If all you’re gonna do is stare, then do it elsewhere,” Smith told him.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” he said as he awkwardly took a step back. I should stop inspecting people. How embarrassing.
But the moment he turned around to return to Cadmun for new instructions, he bumped into the man with the scruffy beard sending him falling on his backside. When he looked up to the old man, he couldn’t believe what he saw. He rubbed his eyes to make sure, he didn’t read anything wrong, but the window containing the statistics of the twins’ protegé revealed an unmistakable truth: Sir Shadis Moore is [LVL] 33!