After much swearing, grumbling, and complaints the chains were finally removed. Adam only experienced minor pain during the procedure, but afterwards was quite the different story. The number of chains on him meant that at least some of his circulation had been impeded, and the resulting pins and needles of the blood flow returning had him squirming for some time. When it was all said and done it had taken over an hour, and the time for sleep was growing near.
Martin, directed Adam into the nearby building, one of the top inns of the city, and into the guards quarters outside the duke’s room. There Adam finally got to eat after having gone without for the several days he was unconscious, while the man explained the ins and outs of being a slave. The boy had seen a number of slaves before, probably even more than he had realized, in the market and about the city, but he didn’t quite understand everything that went along with it.
Slavery was accomplished through a magical brand applied somewhere on the body. Most of the visual aspects of the brand were determined by the owner, allowing them the ability to change colors, shapes, and locations with a skill activation and a small amount of mana. In the case of a run away, or escaped slave, the brand would function as a tracking device as well as moving to cover the most visible portions of a slaves anatomy; face, hands, whatever wasn’t covered by clothes.
The slave brand also had a number of other functions. Through the use of the same skill that could change the visible aspects of the brand, an owner or their representative, could issue orders, commence punishments, or even free a slave if such a thing was ever desired. Punishment was the most notorious, but Martin assured him that the duke and his family rarely enacted this function. They preferred instead to simply treat their slaves fairly, so that it was unneeded. Orders was the main use of the brand for the DeVille family. Martin himself had once been a slave to the duke, but had saved his life and been freed as a result. He now worked as a guard, instead of being the coachman as he had been before.
Martin explained that there were different levels of slavery, and as a debt slave Adam would be spared most of the truley heinous things that could make slavery such an abhorrent existence. He was more akin to an indentured servant, albeit one that had been indentured against his own will. Debt slaves simply had to work until the debt was considered paid by their owner, earning their freedom. As long as he did what was required of him, he would be more like a servant that was paid in room and board.
It certainly wasn’t the life Adam wanted, but it would do for now. He suspected that his debt would be paid when the duke’s children no longer needed him. He would have asked Martin how old the children were, but his non stop eating was finally being interrupted by enough yawns that he was having trouble doing anything else. His surprise at being so tired after having slept for whatever number of days inspired a round of laughter by all the guards who had been through similar experiences.
They all bedded down, and Adam was asleep in seconds.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Morning came quickly, and Adam was roused for breakfast. Some basic clothing had been laid out for him to change into. The clothes were a little large and the wrong colors to match with everyone else, but better than the prison rags he had been wearing from before. It appeared that someone had even washed him while he had been out.
Changing also gave him the chance to inspect his slave brand. The Duke and his family might not feel the need to declare him their slave to the world, but the brand certainly wasn’t hidden from his own sight. Martin explained that the Grifpheonix over his heart was the symbol of the DeVilles, and merely a portion of the slave brand. The rest of it wrapped his torso in reds, blues, and golds, a colorful wreath of fire to match the colors of the Duke’s heraldry.
A large bowl of porridge for each of the guards, and two for Adam, and they were out the door to prep the carts and carriage. Adam had no experience with horses or carts, but was eager to learn. It was unlikely that he would be doing anything along those lines at the duke’s home, but he was excited to see what things had changed for him with a class. It wasn’t that he was happy to be a slave, but there were apprenticeships that were similar in style.
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Shortly after they finished, the duke walked out the door and into the carriage, and they were off. Adam rode in one of the carts next to Martin who drove. Even though he was no longer the coachman, Martin, like the rest of the guards, took turns driving the carts. Apparently the duke preferred to have extra guards who also could drive a cart, instead of extra cart drivers who couldn’t do much else.
Their journey to the duke’s home would take five days total. As he maneuvered them through the city streets, Martin explained that the duke had been combining some political meetings with a shopping trip to find gifts for his family for an upcoming festival. They lived in the lands of the Sun King, which meant the journey would be free of most trouble as the two regions were allied. There were possibilities of bandits, but monsters would be the most likely difficulties on the journey.
Adam was mostly excited to leave the city, something he hadn’t done since his parents had died. The reminder hurt, but the sights were worth it. The enormous gates were wide open, framing the Blue Sea Forest, and the Mountains of the Moon behind. The fields of the farmers hadn’t changed since he had left them for the orphanage, but the allure of running through the golden fields was gone. The wind blew down from the mountains, stirring the trees of the forest into moving like the waves of the seas they were named for, and setting the golden fields of grain to shimmering like a dragon’s hoard in torchlight, bringing forth the beauty of a living sunrise.
They would be cutting through a portion of the forest, but miss the mountains all together. The Eastbound River would be to their right, as they followed its companion road. There were waystations and towns in their future, but it promised to be an exciting change for Adam at least. The guards smiled to themselves at seeing the boy’s excitement at being outside the city once again. They hadn’t been sure what kind of state the new kid would be in when he woke, so they were quite happy he was proving to be easy to deal with. There was some exchanging of money and jokes as bets over the kid were resolved, Adam oblivious to their actions. Martin let him enjoy himself for about an hour before his training began.
“Adam. It’s time to show you the ropes.”
“Hmm? Oh, right! So, what do I need to do?” He still wasn’t exactly excited about the eventual reveal of what his class was, but no matter what happened he would still need to know how to at least see the information.
Accessing the system was both easy and difficult at the same time. Meditation was the main training tool to teach people how to find the door in their mind that allowed access. Martin explained that the writing board he had already seen in his mindscape was how the system information was first accessed. Much, much later, as in after evolution, there were other ways to work with the system that were more active and didn’t require retreating into the mindspace. The mustachioed teacher refused to elaborate.
Abilities and skills could be engaged at any time, provided the activation conditions were met. Resources were the main constraints on activations, but there were others. Counter attacks, certain types of terrain, weapons, positions, and distances were all fairly common restrictions. The difference between abilities and skills was resources. Skills needed them, and abilities didn’t. There were also passives, which were always on, but generally cost nothing.
Some people got fussy and insisted that there were also spells, which in Martin’s opinion were just skills that used mana. He was convinced that it was just another way for wizards and mages to sound important, a conviction shared by his fellow guards. They all had a mana skill or two, but calling them by a different name just because they used a different resource made no sense to them.
Some of the guards, but not Martin, had crafting skills as well. Technically, they were passives, but behaved more like categories. Each of the crafting skills also had a number of actual skills that worked under them. Things like Rhythmic Strikes for Blacksmithing. The skill was part of the craft, as it could only be learned through actually using the crafting skill, however it could be used for any kind of strike. The guard who had it pointed out that while he could use it in combat he never did so because its rhythm made it easy to counter by an intelligent enemy, and using it too often against non-intelligent enemies risked making it part of his habitual combat style. The other guards also shared a number of tips and tricks with the newbie while they traveled.
Eventually Martin decided it was time for working, instead of teaching. With meditation being a requirement at Adam’s level to access the system, he would be limited for the time being. Meditating on a moving cart was hard for masters of the non activity, but for newbies it would be nearly impossible. Martin insisted he practice anyway, suggesting that the rhythm of the cart or repetitive noises could actually help him. Neither expected him to succeed while the cart was moving, but there really wasn’t much else to do. They were approaching the forest, so the guards he had been chatting with needed to focus on keeping an eye out.