It was good to talk about old times. McCalister was picked up by Georg's party after the Demon Lord summoning and they went to the north to delve there while Lonid recovered. The [High Elementalist] didn't press for more information, instead, he let the conversation flow.

Between bites of delicious monster stake, we talked.

"Why did you follow me?"

He magicked some gravy off of his beard before answering, "You were observing the children very intently. Then I saw the couple you were guarding against. I knew it would become a fight and you had no weapons on you. The flow of magic from your wellspring is also very easy to see once you know what to look for."

I had {Hidden Wellspring} activated. "It shouldn't be possible. How did you track the wellspring?"

"Simple. I let my MP pool fill, then I followed the tendrils of magic as they went toward you. Once they reached you, I could see the others."

I had to keep that in mind. It was a weakness of the wellspring. My concern must've shown in my face because he chuckled.

"It took me three years to research a spell able to find you. There are no written records. I vow to never teach it to anyone."

"That's good. I'll trust you. If you are lying, I'll just fix the problem later. Now, onto another subject. What can you tell me about this ring?"

The storage ring the aldoen halfling had is a grade-three ring. Meaning it cost one hundred and forty-five enchantment points to make. My {Appraise} told me this ring could sell for twenty platinum coins. An absurd amount of money.

"That's a storage ring. They are rather new and very expensive. That one you have can go for up to fifty kingmetal coins in an auction."

Scarcity. I don't think the System accounts for that with its {Appraise} data.

"So, you found me, what did you think?"

At first, I thought you were one of the rare emergency activation cases," He confessed. "But you had no Status and I can see almost everything about anyone. I'm was a [Diviner] for my first two Classes. I saw the peculiar way you cast Force magic without a chant and thought you could be Rosewise. Windemere never announced your death officially. Their stance was that you went out on leave."

"Yes, that's not entirely wrong. Wait. Did you say Emergency Activation? What is it?"

"When a child is in dire straits, the System can activate for her. It usually requires an extraordinary feat."

"Would you dig more information regarding the conditions for that? I'm very interested in it."

"One thing I can guarantee you is that it won't happen if another awakened that's friendly to the child is nearby."

Awakened might be a term for people with System access. I asked and he confirmed.

"Find me a reliable way to trigger an emergency activation. I won't use it on any child but I must know. Find me that and I'll consider your life debt paid."

We finished our dinner and he paid. I tipped the waiter with a gold coin and poked my tongue at the old mage.

"You should think about coming to the Academy. You can use magic, but I think a formal education will benefit you," He finished.

"I agree. Education is always good. But I don't see me attending classes."

He rubbed my fox ears. "Think about it. I'm going to use some spells to locate the slavers in Windemere. I believe you have other resources to use as well. We'll meet in a week, then we compare notes. How does that sound?"

"That's fine by me, McCalister. Good luck with your work," I said before I ducked into the crowd and vanished from his sight.

----------------------------------------

I met with Kazuyran in a safe room his spies use in the city to interrogate the ghosts. Contracted, the specters of the slavers quickly and willingly gave out all the details on the operation. They smuggle people out through a tunnel in the Dungeon and there are about thirty operatives in the country. I get a list of names and descriptions as well as their contacts outside Windemere.

"I'm going to pick up each one of them," I told the dark elf. "I can do that before the sun rises."

That will be child's play. Windemere is too small for someone that can fly from one side to the other in fifteen minutes. Invisible and ethereal, I find, kill, and collect the souls of each one of the slavers in the cities. The last group is on a farm near the border with Lonid. I was wearing my full-body silk suit. It was level one hundred-fourteen.

I do the same as usual. Fly around the target, noticing the people, monsters, etc with my detection Perks. The farm is unused. It was either abandoned or the [Farmers] suffered the same fate as the other slaves. Or worse.

I find fifteen sentient people inside the barn, a hell of an odd place for that many people to stay. I dive inside and find some beast-kin, werewolves, humans, and eleons wearing slave collars and sitting on straw inside the animal pens. Most female. Only one of the werewolves and humans are males. Upon close examination, one of the humans was a half-elf.

I land and materialize. The slaves all start to yell once someone notices me, "Help! An intruder!" I can see in their faces they don't want to do that but they were probably ordered to do so. It raised an alarm and the people in the farmhouse were coming our way.

I seal the barn with Force and Wind magic to stop anything from entering and sound from leaving. Then I carefully slip a band of Force magic between each collar and the neck of the wearer. That will prevent the collar from choking the victim if they disobey an order.

"It is fine to stop shouting. You're safe now," I tell them.

They don't. The slavers outside start to slam on my Force barrier. I leave the slaves and go outside. A few Force javelins later, they are all dead. This group was a bit stronger than the rest, all of them well into the sixties or seventies. But it felt like I was bullying them.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Storing the bodies left three rings on the ground. Storage rings. I pocketed them to check later. But what the fuck is the deal with these slaves and the storage rings? Who was bankrolling them?

I secured the ghosts with a contract, leaving me with zero Exp to earn as I passed twenty contracts. I looted the farmhouse with everything inside. Browsing the contents in my {Item Box}'s directory showed I'd captured some documents and letters.

I went back inside, phasing through my force wall at one-hundredth of the normal speed and they started to scream again.

"Calm down. The slavers are all dead," I soothed them.

"Then there's no hope for us," one of them said and then added, "Help! An intruder!"

I reached out for one of the beast-kin women, she had spotted brown rabbit ears and a pompom heart tail. She was absolutely stunning. In fact, there was no ugly person here. Probably they were going to be auctioned as luxury slaves to deranged nobles elsewhere.

I held the woman and approached my mouth to her neck. She panicked and struck me. I just soaked the damage and did my business. I drained the collar and received a message.

> Enchantment learned: Slave Collar

>

> Base cost: 20.

A slave collar could only bind a person with a species rank below its own. So a rank 1 slave collar could bind people up to level thirty-nine as people usually neglect their species levels in favor of stronger Classes.

I devoured the magic in the collar and broke it, removing the Force band afterward. The rabbit-kin woman was rubbing her neck. Once she didn't find what she was looking for, she started to cry. I couldn't comfort her, I had to free the others.

The second-to-last collar didn't feel right. The human was still shouting "Help! An intruder!", but his voice was far from hoarse like the others. That gave me enough to suspect foul play. I strengthened the collar of Force that was keeping the collar from touching the man's skin.

I asked the contracted ghosts of the slavers.

"Yes. He's our bodyguard. Should any attempt to rescue the slaves, we will let them go. He'll then kill that person and bring back the slaves," The ghosts told me. Only I could hear them unless I spent SP to materialize them.

Good. I pointed at the last slave, a half-elf. His collar too felt odd to my senses.

"Yes."

The ghosts couldn't lie. Yet, the "me" in Lily's body felt like waiting for confirmation. So I played a little prank. I reinforced all spells on them but changed the anchor from their location to their bodies. This way the spells would move along with them. I could fix them back in place with a thought.

"Sorry, you two. Your collars are of a higher rank, I need to get help from my superior to break them. I'll lead the others outside, you two wait here."

I checked if the others were trying to open the barn door. As it opened to the outside, it wouldn't move unless I removed the Force wall on the other side. I whistled to call their attention.

"Okay, listen up. We are going to wait outside for rescue. Everyone out."

The two followed. Once they were outside and saw that the others were rubbing their collar-free necks, they asked me to remove theirs too.

"I can't break your slave collars," I said. That was because there was nothing to break, they had just a dummy aura. "We'll wait for the guard here. Let me signal them."

I tossed a hundred thousand SP light ball up to shine a kilometer above the barn with a tether of light connecting it to the ground. It rose with a pale glow that grew in intensity as it reached a greater height.

A werewolf approached me. "Put the same barrier around their necks as you did to mine. I'll break these collars with my claws. I got a Perk, {Antimagic Claws}."

I asked the ghosts. They denied any association. This werewolf was just very loyal to his group.

Without moonlight, this Age of Eclipse was a time for the were-kin to flourish. They no longer have to worry about the inner rage or a forced transformation. Many of them just stay in hybrid form all the time.

I leaned on the barn door, holding it open. As the werewolf was about to pass past me, I raised a hand. "Before you do that, can you listen to what my prisoners have to say?"

"Which prisoners?"

I materialized the entire slaver gang. "These guys. Please tell my werewolf friend here, who are the two still wearing their collars behind him?"

The ghosts answered, "Our guards. Infiltrated in each slave group to guarantee we can recover the merchandise if you are rescued."

I pointed at them, "There you go. These two are in cahoots with the slavers. Their collars are fake ones."

They exchanged a few glances as the tension rose. The other noncombatants took some distance from the trio.

"You're a [Spiritualist]?" The werewolf asked. "My name is Talbain, by the way."

"Call me Blossom. Yes, I'm a spiritualist."

He approached me and snarled, "You bear the scent of an ancient moon-bound. Which animal did they fuse you to?"

I grinned and whispered, "Black Jaguar."

The werewolf looked between the ghosts and me. He sniffed me one last time and fell down on a knee. "Matriarch."

All signs of aggression disappeared. He looked like a puppy eager for a treat.

I ruffled between his ears, "You've done well, cub. Your loyalty to the pack is commendable. Now, do what your heart wants. I'll back you."

He growled and howled. His claws took on a faint green glow. The next moment he was upon the two slavers. They each drew two hidden long and thin daggers. By the sheen of the metals, one of them was made of silver.

Talbain swiped at the human slaver. He blocked with his dagger but at the last moment, the claws shifted and sliced the man's forearm. He was stabbed in the thigh by the half-elf silver dagger.

"{Healing Water}!" I threw a blob of water at Talbain's thigh, closing the wound. He kicked the human away and lunged to bite the half-elf. he rose his dagger to defend and missed the werewolf's claws coming from his blind spot. Talbain scored a critical and sliced a half-dozen deep gashes across the half-elf's stomach.

The slaver gasped and jumped backward. Talbain snapped his fangs and grazed the slaver's wrist, causing him to drop the silver dagger as he withdrew. I sent the dagger to storage now that it was "unattended".

The human recovered and leaped a short jump with both of his daggers in an icepick grip toward Talbain's back. The werewolf reacted by doing a judo forward roll.

No wonder he knew about the ancient moon-bound. This guy or his parents are from Theiria, the nation of were-kin, elves, and fairies in Pekothas. The birthplace of the beast-kin as the were-kin bred with both humans and animals, diluting their bloodline.

The roll ended with Talbain crouching right next to the half-elf. The guy was bleeding from his stomach wounds but they didn't go deep enough to reach his organs. The werewolf sacrificed his shoulder to the half-elf's hastily thrown stab. That left the slaver wide open. Talbain shoved his glowing claws into the largest gash in a knife stab as he snapped his fangs to intimidate the half-elf.

The slaver fell for the same trick again as he was stabbed by the werewolf's knife-hand. This time, Talbain's claws sunk in the guy's stomach to the knuckles. He ripped his hand off, tearing a huge gash and showering the ground with gore.

But Talbain's judgment was clouded by his bloodlust as he brought his bestial side to the fore. The human slaver stabbed his kidneys with the silver dagger, causing the werewolf to crumple in pain.

The guy gloated and kicked the werewolf. "I'm going to kill you, beast!"

I had a {Force Javelin} ready. I'd only fire it if Talbain died. I could bring him back once the slavers were dead but I wouldn't steal his vengeance.

Talbain rolled away and stood on all fours. He was almost completely lost to the rage. "{Boiling Blood} {Second Wind}!" He growled and I heard something hissing and popping as a small plume of smoke rose from his back.

The two charged each other. Still holding his daggers in an icepick grip the human went all-out to take the werewolf before he too became a bleeding heap like his colleague. Talbain's stance was odd. When the human brought the daggers down, I understood why.

"{Sunder}!" The werewolf [Warrior] shouted. His glowing claws sliced the weak silver dagger near the guard, sending the blade spinning away. Surprised, the human hesitated but he was too committed to the attack already. He stabbed Talbain over the collarbone, driving his steel dagger deep into the werewolf's chest cavity. Talbain ignored the pain and bit the slaver's nose and cheeks.

The two backed away from their engagement. I tossed Talbain another {Healing Water} spell. The human was screaming on the ground and Talbain spat his nose away. He grunted as he drew the dagger out of the wound, a spurt of blood gushing out. It had pierced his heart. He fell down on his knees with a claw pressing on the wound. The half-elf expired from his bleeding debuff. I stored all unattended objects, including the weapons and the corpse. A few minutes passed. Talbain got on his feet and walked toward the human, still on the ground whimpering.

The werewolf spat on the man and walked past him to rejoin the group of freed slaves. I released my javelin, aiming it at the slaver's head.