Aunt did tell me, I should be the only one awake, after being teleported because it would be a huge stress on their minds, having several years suddenly be erased. I can’t stay here, because dad and uncle won’t remember me, and it will be difficult to explain they’ve been to the abyss for four years, and if I forcibly remind them, it will cause a mental strain on them. Well I can at least take the weapons of the bad guys, just in case they wake up first.

Seth stood around four unconscious adults, as tears fell down his face. Seth wiped away the tears, before checking the bodies of the two assailants. He found two pouches of money that was full of silver and gold coins, a necklace and bracelets with different flower insignias, a short sword, two daggers, a rapier, and a great sword. The flower insignias represented a clan in the dark elves forest, Seth already knew they were people sent to kill his mother, for having a child with someone that wasn’t a dark elf, and even being famous made it worse, they told Abyss so she didn’t kill them.

Seth summoned a portal, placed everything he got off the two dark elves in it. Seth created a dimension pocket, Abyss taught him how to use space mana, as it wouldn’t be strange for a half elf, to have an affinity with space, as the god of space and the goddess of love, worked together to give different races the ability to have offspring, so to get rid of the gap(space) between races, they used space mana to increase the chances of success. Even then, most races are still xenophobic, so half breeds aren’t that common.

After putting everything up, he started looking around the ruins that used to be Boboan. Seth found three silos, one with wheat, barley, and oats. The barley silo was destroyed while the other two been left in tact. Seth created a new portal, and stored as much wheat and oat as he could. The town has a well, but it was destroyed. Seth didn’t see a single corpse, so the monsters and animal most likely came frequently until there was none left. Seth also found some sickles, with the farm equipment, and thought they looked like cool weapons, so he secured two on his clothes, and stored in a portal

Seth visited the armory, half of the racks had weapons on them. There were swords, axes, spears, bows, and arrows. Seth created a portal, and put all the weapons in it. Seth had watch his dad, Darren, and other adventurers fight and hunt, like his dad, he wanted to mastery many different types of weapons, and his dad also shown him the basic stances to hold some of them.

Seth decided it was time to leave the town, as staying too long might cause him to meet his dad, and it would be difficult for him to have the will to separate again, if he was conscious, and he also wanted to test out his cool weapons. Seth wield a sickle in both hand, and swung one every time he took a step. In Seth’s excitement, he didn’t notice he was surrounded by people, and while he was playing with his sickles, he was knocked unconscious.

“This child will sell for a good price. He has silver hair, has elf ears, and has charming looks for a child.”

“That’s exactly why we can’t sell him. He appears to be a noble’s child. Even if it’s illegitimate, if we’re found responsible, we’ll be eliminated.”

“That’s our boss for you?”

“So smart”

“So what should we do with him?”

“We’ll send him to the mine”

Seth woke up, in a carriage, with two other people. A male looking like he was in his late thirties, and a woman who seemed to be in her twenties. These two were the ones who had the nicest appearances, they were the boss and lady who used to be a slave, and joined them. They wanted to confirm the kid’s status.

“Oh you’re finally up. Do you feel okay?”

“What a cute young boy.”

“Good morning sir and ma’am”

“So, polite. You must come from a noble family”

“So what family do you come from.”

“I don’t come from a noble family”

Seth was rubbing his eyes, as he stared at the two of them. They both let out a sigh of relief, but they were still curious about his identity.

“so what’s your name?”

“Isn’t rude to ask other people their name, before giving your own”

“You can’t talk to the b…ow”

“I can’t talk to the ba ow? What’s that?”

“She’s just speaking nonsense. And you’re right. My name is Flan Quincy. Her name is Sherry”

“Flan Quincy? You mean Fin’s brother? I heard he was a bad man who kidnaps children. Did you kidnap me?”

Flan had elbowed Sherry when she almost called him boss. But he was shocked that this kid, not only knew about him, but also his brother. He came from a noble family, but left after going astray, and his family eventually heard of what of him kidnapping children, and attempted to wipe him out for ruining their reputation, but they never caught him. Flan was scared that someone knew about him, and angry at the way the kid spoke to him. Seth had met Fin in the Abyss, and he often asked many questions to adventurers he met, and ended up remembering everything they told them.

“That’s right. I’m a bad guy. So you should tell me what I want to know. You must be from a noble family to know about my brother.”

“If you tell me a story, I will tell you”

“Fine. What type of story, do you want to hear?”

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“Tell me, what made you become a bad guy”

“I always been a bad guy.”

“That’s not a story.”

Seth had crawled into Sherry’s lap, and was kicking his feet in the air. Flan was starting to get unsettled, as this kid stayed calm, ever since he woke up, and was even leading the conversation. The kid was even making himself comfortable. Sherry didn’t seem to mind, and she was even playing in his hair.

“Just tell me what I want to know.”

“Just tell me a story!”

“There’s no story to tell”

“Well tell me about your past, and not stuff, that Fin would know.”

“Fine, I will tell you a story of my past. Just tell me your name.”

“Yay! My name is Seth. Now story time”

“You’re only gonna tell me your first name?”

“You didn’t even start telling the story.”

“Fine. When I was younger…”

“Stories start with once upon a time.”

“…Once upon a time, there were a second child in the Quincy family, a magician family. He was miserable, being compared to his older brother. His parents disciplined and beat him, when he messed up. His parents pressured him to learn advanced magic a young age, but he failed, and this made them mad. They often locked him up in his room, and forced him to eat in his room, and refused to let him eat with them. Then one day, they gave him a young butler, and he would take out all his anger on that butler. No one cared, and this kept on happening to the butler accidentally died, and his parents just swept it under the rug. They didn’t give him another butler or maid, and so the boy would kidnap children in the town, to abuse, and eventually it just became a habit, and he created an organization that kidnaps kids, the end.”

“So you had bad parents, and so you became bad? That’s so sad.”

“Oh, thank you for understanding. So, it’s your turn now.”

“My parents are adventurers. My aunt taught me how to read and speak.”

“So, how did you speak to my brother. He’s really arrogant, and he doesn’t speak to anyone who’s lower than him.”

“He was scared of my aunt. I met him at my aunt’s place.”

“That’s too bad for you. I guess I won’t have to show to much politeness. “

The carriage had finally stopped. Flan got out of the carriage first, and when Sherry got up, she was carrying Seth. Flan was lost in thought, as they headed to the hideout. He felt there was more to his identity, and still didn’t feel safe selling the kid, like he did with most of them. They arrived in the cave, referred to as the mines.

“Flan, can I get my weapons back?”

“You’re kidnapped, why would I give you weapons?”

“You are right. I would be scared of a four year old with two weapons to. Smart move. But I want to train.”

“Haha very funny. But why do you need to train?”

“I need to train, because I will be a really strong adventurer one day.”

“You’re gonna be a slave. How can you be a adventurer?”

“You’re a noble. How can you be a crime boss? I just want to get strong”.

Flan was starting to get irritated with this kid. The kid seemed smarter than his age, but the only he could fault him on, is how he antagonized him and how he called some farm tools as weapons. Even though they had blades, it would still be difficult for him to use it as a weapon, since the blade was on the inside and it was curved, it would be hard for a kid with short arms to maximize the lethality of that weapon. He would be in the enemy’s strike zone before the enemy gets in his, and he could on use it for cutting. But he wasn’t so dumb as to let someone bring a weapon

“You have to work hard in the mines, you wont have time to play with weapons.”

“But why Flannel? And I won’t be playing, I will be training. T-r-a-i-n-i-n-g!”

“Do you think I’m so dumb as to let you have a weapon?”

“Tsk.”

Flan, Sherry, and Seth finally reached one of mine watchers, and Flan introduced Seth as a new miner. The mine watcher placed shackles around Seth’s legs, the kids had normal shackles, while adults had iron and ball shackles. Even though they mostly targeted kids, some have been captured since they were a kid, some have become slaves after accumulating a large debt, losing a bet, or were criminals.

“You’ll be number 1719, remember it. We’ll be mining Black iron ore. It’s toxic, so cover your mouth and nose while mining.”

The mine watch gave Seth, a pickaxe and several white rags. They used white rags, because it was easy to noticed when the black iron accumulated on the rags, and it meant it was time to change them out. The watcher didn’t explain it to Seth, as he figured he wouldn’t understand. Seth silently followed the watcher, as he led him to other slaves. There was an old man, who seemed dispirited seeing such a child join them, there was seven teenage males, and a young girl who seemed to be a few years older than Seth. They all looked malnourished, the old man had a black rag covering his face, it was obvious it use to be white.

“Newbie, introduce yourself”

“Hi, my name is Seth”

“Your number, idiot!”

The watcher knocked Seth into the ground. Old man tried to jump up, but the watcher reached for the whip at his waste. The watchers had a whip for disciplining and sword to execute those who attempted to escape too many times, or those who were dying soon.

“Back down, or thing will get worse. Now introduce yourself!”

“I’m number 1719.”

“Good, 124 you watch this brat, and make sure he doesn’t die too early.’

The old man nodded, and pulled Seth to his side. He waited until the watcher was gone, and started examining Seth, to see if he was hurt or injured. Most of the miners rarely spoke, as the watchers would use anything as excuse to discipline them, and hearing voices would draw their attention. The old man let out a sigh of relief, when he saw Seth was okay.

Seth was surprised how caring this old man was, even though they’ve just met. Seth was smart beyond his years, even though he was just four years old, the time in the Abyss gave him ten years to grow mentally, even then he was still smart beyond his years, as before he reunited with his father, Abyss taught him how to read and write, arithmetic, some mana techniques, and most importantly how to understand and read people. Seth noticed no one was speaking and he followed suit, and when removed the old man’s black rag and handed him one of the clean white rags he just received. He understood the importance of having a clean rag to cover your face, and he was taught to repay kindness and respect the elderly.

The old man originally wanted to refuse, but Seth immediately gained his distance the old man touched the clean rag, and he suddenly started to watch teenagers, who had went back to mining the ore when the watcher left. The young girl just watched Seth, fascinated by the fact a kid younger than her had joined them, and he gave away one of his precious rags to the old man.

Seth placed a rag around his mouth and nose, than he carried his pickaxe, some distance away from the teenagers and started his first day mining.

This is irritating, but I guess I’ll be able to do some training here. Letting them catch me wasn’t so bad. I got away from father and uncle, with any awkwardness, and I didn’t have to worry about what direction to go. I knew they had thirty four people, but they had two people I couldn’t gauge strength. They weren’t as powerful as dad, but I wouldn’t be able to take them. Even then, if I showed off my strength, they might’ve grown even more interested in me, and either tried to make me trained assassin, or a fighting slave. So pretending to let down my guard, hiding all my valuables in portals, and pretending to be unconscious, saved some time and effort. Thanks to bathing in the dragon’s blood, his physique was strong enough to withstand the blow. Since they didn’t know my last name, yet I spoke politely and even met the boss’s older brother, led them to believe I was from a noble, so they wouldn’t sell me, as if I was a son of a noble, who knew the boss’s name, they would be in danger, and if they’ve killed me, they would be in even more danger, if that family found out. Escaping can wait, since I still don’t know my location and which way to go. I need a certain amount of strength to explore on my own. I guess I will try to learn metal mana techniques, using the black iron, and this black rag.