The party searched the town, collecting all the bits and baubles that they could find that may be of any worth. There was only the 4 groups they could make and there were hundreds of homes and other assorted buildings to go through so it took the rest of the day and even then, there were still places left unsearched, but the twilight came ushering in the end of the day and their salvaging of the remains of the former dungeon. They gathered together in the center of the city for bedding down near each other. There were enough homes that each of them could could find their own place to sleep, but they organized everything from one house, discussing what they had found and what it all was worth before they took their leave to their beds. They had found more than enough salvage to sell or trade for even the most expensive slave several times over and the land itself was likely worth more than most people on Debris would ever come to possess.

In the morning they set off for Gondaluke, a fair ways away now. They had traveled several weeks on their journey to where they were now and it would take just as long to get back. Along the way the group came upon several Apox and Lady Apisis took her leave, heading back to her hive. She assured Jason that when he came back the treasury in his town would hold the results of their trade. It wasn’t much longer after that Duk decided that it was time for him to leave the party as well. There many more dungeons for him to explore and defeat. He left them with his information to contact him if they ever found another dungeon to explore and then he too took his leave. Of course, they all thought that Duk would be long dead before any of them needed to take such crazy risks again. They had only come this far for the sake of Jason’s friend and with the win fall that they’d just obtained, it was unlikely that Jason would ever desire to go out on another adventure. It was far more agonizingly dangerous to experience in real life than he’d ever imagined while playing games back on Earth. And now that the thought of his old life crept into his head he realized that he hadn’t really thought much of earth the past several month since his world turn upside down.

It wasn’t like Earth was all that common of a thing to think about to begin with, but he had thought that he would have thought about it a bit more now in his situation. It was likely that he got that idea from movies and books where some lone adventurer who had been stranded far away from their home would become homesick. They’d dream of the day that they’d return, triumphant over what kept them away, passionately emote in some way about their return, whether by embracing their long lost loved ones or just for love of their home. Maybe it was that it hadn’t been long enough. Maybe all of those stories had special protagonists that had some extra special connection to their home that made living far from it weigh heavily on their mind. Or maybe Jason just didn’t care about Earth or his particular home. Perhaps it was that he didn’t fit in and never would, but on Debris he had been given a new chance. One that wasn’t bogged down with family or rules that he could never live up to, not because of his innate ability, but simply a clash of his natural personality. That is how evolution worked to some degree. Throw in crazy curveball traits that when expressed lead to an individual doing better or worse. The better adaptations lived, the species was made better and thrived. Adaptations for the worse, on the other hand, may live out full lives or die without ever achieving anything early in life. They’d likely not pass on their mutations and their line would die out. Jason thought, maybe he was just a bad mutation for Earth and human society as it was. But being a bad mutation in one context could be one that let the species thrive in another. So far as he could tell, of all the Humans brought to Debris he was one of the few that were doing exceedingly well.

It was even more apparent how well Jason and Rina were doing as they entered Gondaluke. Almost all of the Humans that they had arrived with were huddled outside the city walls in makeshift huts. If they had clothes they were dirty and wore through in many places, but most didn’t even have that after several months of living on Debris. It wasn’t clear what they ate either. The ones that hadn’t figured out how to make their way up from the barracks had become cannibals. They had to be dead, or close to dying, by now. But the ones on the surface should have access to the rations and more than enough to keep them going for a bit longer if they hadn’t been tricked out of their credits or foolishly used them which could always be the case. It was hard to imagine that the situation could be much worse from that information alone, but it was. With them unable to make good living arrangements and not having access to utilities to maintain their cleanliness lead them to stink. Worse, the entire town had begun to be able to reek of the wretched stench of Human filth and waste. In turn, this meant that Humans were avoided and looked upon with disgust. And still yet worse, the alien species all began to believe that Humans were of a lesser stock. No other species introduced had such a difficult time incorporating into society. Maybe the Thisin, but they’d been brought to heel before they were introduced as their legends go. Humans willingly let these people go. One would expect that they’d be more prepared for living in a different culture. Humans must just be inferior the thinking went. And that would have been fine, but Humans looked like the revered gods of the J`nk. So a feeling of evil beings mocking the J`nk with Humans came over the J`nk. In the end all this meant that not many wanted to, nor could stand to, deal with Humans, at least not those Humans, not the ones who needed the most help.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

On the other side this created resentment. How dare they treat Humans like some animal not fit to live. The humans didn’t know that these aliens had little to do with setting them up in their current situation and people of Debris had no idea that the Humans had been thrust into the situation without any warning or preperation. That would make such a transition hard for any being, but it was much worse for Humans. Not many of the aliens could understand what had happened to Humans. The everyday technological level of the world of Debris was much the same as the world they came from or more advanced. For Humans it was like being transported hundreds of years into the past and expected to adapt. After a lifetime of sitting at a desk and entering information into a program that would automatically do almost everything for you how could one be expected to suddenly find the muscles and awareness to live in a world where most things relied on the physical rather than the mental. Even if this weren’t the case Humans still faced the problem of simply not being all that adept at survival for survival sake. It had been more than 3 generations since most Humans had been accustomed to a life that their labor had a one to one relationship with their ability to continue to draw breath. On Earth, if you didn’t work, in much of the world it didn’t mean that you’d go hungry. You might live at a reduced level or have to beg, but you’d still be able to survive. On Debris, if you didn’t work it was unlikely that you’d last long and the longer you went without working the less likely it would be that you could do an appreciable amount of work that would allow you to get anywhere, whether that be getting food, shelter, or basic freedom. In sense, this meant that Humans that were free yet stuck in these ramshackle huts were beneath slaves, because slaves ultimately were productive, had food and shelter, and were clean. If things continued as they were it wasn’t much of a stretched to predict that Humans on Debris would cease to exist within a generation.

The extinction of Humans on Debris and being regarded as lesser beings didn’t really concern Jason directly, however, he thought that one day he might wish that he had done more to keep that from happening when he needed to be around those who could understand him, or to help alleviate some homesickness, if he ever felt it, by being around his own kind. That was a secondary concern. The real problem lay in that those in Gondaluke had begun to look down on Humans in general, and thus, on him. Before his trip no one shied away from him. No shops had signs stating that they did not wish to deal with Humans. Now there were dozens. He even overheard several people calling Humans a plague that they hoped the rulers of Gondaluke would deal with soon as their stench of was becoming unbearing and impossible to live with. To his dismay, with his senses that were undoubtedly less sensitive than theirs, he found himself in agreement. Something had to be done about them soon. The question was what to do, but this was not his question to answer and even if it were, certainly it was not the time for him to deal with it. He had more urgent and, he felt, more important business to attend to.

It took the entire day, but eventually Jason did places to sell off a substantial amount of wares to accrue enough capital to not only acquire the credits to buy even the most pricey of slaves, but an entirely new set of equipment a few ranks higher. It wasn’t much better but Xev guaranteed that the special abilities made it worth it and since he hadn’t upgraded through the lower ranks the quality differences were still better than what he had before. They hadn’t put much thought into the selection as Xev had suggested that he pick up some upgrades while they were shopping anyways just in case he found that later he couldn’t for some reason. It seemed like a good idea to him so Jason took her advice. It’s not like it mattered all that much as they’d hire Mittana later if need be. Ultimately, he chose to replace his sword, dagger, and basic armor. There was more that he could likely do, but didn’t want to spend ages trying to figure out a good way to equip it all and how it all meshed together. This gave him three abilities and that was more than enough to get used to before adding more. He knew that too many options would prove a burden so there was no reason to put himself in that situation.

Rina meanwhile had gone back to the inn to inform the Tik`rs that she had returned and tell them of her adventures. She was excited and, unlike Jason, had not paid attention to the things that were being said about Humans nor the disgusted glances that were being shot her way, sometimes from people whom she had only weeks ago served at the inn, even those that had called her cute and praised her for being such a good hostess.