Two weeks later, I had a look at my System screen during another beating-free evening.
Attributes:
Strength 17
Dexterity 9
Toughness 18
Perception 8
Skills:
Assassination 5
Martial arts 11
Athletics 12
Stealth 24
Block 1
Dodge 7
Heavy Weapons 4
Laboring 20
Lockpicking 10
My attributes weren’t really going up anymore from fighting the guards, although stealth still ran away with it. My lockpicking had also become stagnant, along with my martial arts skill. Some new developments had occurred though. Consistently bashing the guards with my shackles had unlocked the heavy weapons skill, although it went up slowly. Managing to parry with the manacles gave me a single point in the block skill too. Last but not least, successfully sneaking up on a guard, once my stealth skill got high enough, graced me with assassination.
I should’ve killed the bastard. He looked pretty dead in a pool of his own blood with a cracked skull. So my objective shifted to sneaking around and figuring out everything there was to know about this place. At least until someone caught me and delivered the usual beating. But the dude showed up completely healed the next day. There was still too much I didn’t know about this place.
Robeep was the epitome of that fact. After ‘assassinating’ a guard for the second time, I’d let him out of his cage and had him wear both our shackles while walking in circles. Somehow, that actually made him stronger. It was a shame he refused to fight me for practice. We repeated this every night. Sneaking around, running in circles, carrying weights and alternating in hopes of raising both our stats. He even learned how to pick locks. Having him fight for real seemed too dangerous since he lacked the ridiculous healing factor though.
“C’mon Robeep. It’s time.”
“Once again, we will descend upon our foes and rivers will flow red with blood.”
“Actually… That’s pretty much the plan, yeah. Sort of.”
“Excellent. I look forward to hearing the helpless cries of their meatbag children.”
Tonight was going to be different. We were getting the hell out of here. After delivering another dose of brain damage to the night watchman, I stripped him of his clothes and baton. They were a poor fit but wearable and better than my rag. Somehow it had escaped my notice that I was like seven feet tall. Admittedly that included my horns, but still. They curved out to the front from the top of my forehead and then slicked backwards like a weird greaser haircut. Head-butts were my new go-to move, using them had weirdly become my favorite thing after passing ten martial arts.
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“Here, you can have my old threads.”
“Thank you for this great gift, Susawa. I shall wear them like we will soon wear the entrails of our enemies while they stare in despair as the light slowly fades from their eyes.”
“You do you, just stay quiet.”
The people here were idiots. There were two entrances to the strip mine. The nearby one they brought me through and another at the opposite end of the labor camp. That one housed the barracks, supplies and armory. The close one and our destination housed all of one special slave, a little storage shed and nothing else. There was only one guard on duty at nighttime and he diligently looked outwards. I’d already knocked him out once to try it. The daytime guards were much scarier but this guy’s job was to ring an alarm bell and then probably die.
“Okay Robeep, we’re going to sneak up together and then bash his head in at the same time, alright?”
“Understood, Susawa. I desire to see his wet brain leak out unto the sands so I can dance in it and paint his last moments with my footsteps.”
The plan went off without a hitch, even though I held back. It unlocked Robeep’s assassination skill. Indulgence overtook him and he kept bashing until there was nothing but pulp left but whatever, it made him happy. He even squealed quietly for a good two minutes and muttered about having seen the light. We shifted clothes. Robeep got mine again along with his own metal stick. He named it Brainseeker.
This guard had been a little bigger. His leather shirt fit me, barely. We’d also snatched a pair of wooden Japanese style sandals for each of us from their previous owners and proper pants with belt and all. The real prize was genuine armor, sort of. It was mostly rags wound around my arms honestly, but two metal plates with straps covered my upper chest. It left my stomach completely exposed but it wasn’t like I had any better options.
It wasn’t quite time to leave yet though. The storage shed didn’t contain much besides random useless junk and hilariously old and rusty industrial components the size of a chair, some pickaxes, shitty slave backpacks and the grand prizes. They were the repair kit the engineer lady used on Robeep and an amphora of oil.
After Robeep filled his own oil to the limit, I gave him the kit and some encouragement.
“Take good care of this, alright? Don’t lose it no matter what. With luck, you’ll be able to get up and kill even more meatbags with its help.”
“Thank you Susawa, your dedication to ceaseless genocide is admirable! Together, we will end history itself.”
Only one more thing remained. Robeep slowly taught me the language and I picked up on it surprisingly quickly. It’s funny how things like that happen when you have no other choice. My vocabulary wasn’t perfect but I suspected it was better than using my buddy as a middleman. After sneaking up to the only properly sheltered cage in the Great Womb, I whispered. “Hey, hey. You want leave? I help.”
The bald engineer lady with skin the color of mahogany started for a moment but quickly replied, “Yes! Yes! Let me out of here, please.”
She spoke slowly, clearly thinking me some kind of halfwit. I unlocked her cage and we rejoined Robeep in some deep shadows right outside the gate. Robeep followed my previous order to stay absolutely silent at least.
The engineer lady didn’t however, “And what now? There is nowhere to go and they will soon hire the ryoshi to come after us. If we don’t get far enough, they’ll bring us back and remove our legs to make sure we can never escape again. We will work the wells forever.”
They’ll what? Fuck it, never mind, stick to the plan. “Look, woman… Wait, what your name?”
“I am called Ruza.”
“Okay, look Ruza. I need you repair Robeep legs. Fast. Do now.”
She shook her head but continued anyway. My suspicions proved correct, her catlike yellow eyes saw just fine in the gloom. Tense silent hours passed until Robeep’s legs reached maximum health, or durability. What does it matter? We’re good to go.
“Ruza, you trust me? Okay?”
“I don’t have a choice. Fine, yes, you could have left me behind, so I trust you.” Her eyes wandered to the gently swaying rope bridge ahead. “I know what you are planning… I’m not sure I have the courage.”
I cracked a joke, “Hey, no worry. Lose legs anyway.”
Her laughter echoed slightly in our dark little cubby. She spoke after the giggle sputtered out, “Thank you, truly. This was the first time I’ve laughed in a decade.”
There was something genuine in her voice and it brought up a System notification.
Ruza has joined your squad.
Before I could examine anything, shouts went out. Bells rang and left us with no choice.
“We run, now!”
And that’s how we escaped the eternal slave mines, by sprinting towards the middle of a rope bridge while some asshat nearly hit me with a crossbow bolt in total darkness from fifty paces away. Unfortunately it severed a piece of rope along the way and pitched one entire half of the bridge to a side. We didn’t even get close to the middle. Ruza screamed and dropped down together with Robeep while I reflexively grabbed hold of the netting.
Robeep yelled as he fell, “We shall build a bridge of skulls all the way to Cor’Athoz!”
Another bolt slammed into a wooden step, inches off my face. Gathering all my courage, I let go. There’d been some remaining sway and instead of diving straight into the water, the momentum sent me off to the side. I slammed against the stone cliff and slid along it for a few seconds until a protrusion smacked me in the ribs and a bone shifted badly. A cry emptied my lungs, but the pain never got a chance because I belly flopped into the frothing river first.
Disorientation wasn’t a problem however, because within moments my head slammed against something and knocked me out. Upon waking, I wasn’t even soaked or cold. It was a little warm in fact. The System screen shook away the grogginess because of what it said.
Status: BEING EATEN ALIVE!!!