I was looking at a place where a fight must have taken place. The ground and trees were charred, deep grooves on the forest floor. However, I saw no blood or corpse of the beast. Apart from people's footprints, I didn't see anyone else on the ground, so what were they fighting with? The animal must also have been strong when it could escape three hunters.

"It could have been Shadow Tyger," I whispered.

I still couldn't believe that the animal hadn't tried to attack me again.

After a few minutes of searching, I was able to find clues leading from the battlefield. Well, it wasn't just a few minutes. It took me a long time to find them, but it was clear where the hunters went, and I followed the trail. The longer I followed their footsteps, the more nervous I became. I had countless questions on my mind. Will they help me? What will they think of me? Will I be able to talk to them at all?

As I said, I'm not exactly a social person. It was challenging for me to meet new people. That's why I only had a few friends. But they were on Earth. I tried not to think about it as much as possible, but I still had a stomach clenched with nervousness, and my hands were sweating. I haven't even seen anyone yet.

But I couldn't afford to miss this opportunity. I needed help.

(ding) You have learned new skill [Keen Eyes lv 1]

"Now, I get it?" I retorted to the system. Why couldn't I get this ability sooner? I could save hours of searching time. Probably that's why I didn't get it till now. From what I could say, it was a passive ability, and thanks to it, I saw better. For someone who wore glasses since childhood, my current vision was like a gift sent from heaven.

Finding tracks in the woods wasn't that easy, but it was easier now. The world was suddenly sharper.

Soon I was on my guard because I heard a noise in the forest in front of me. I was ready to fight, but I was slowly moving forward, watching every shadow, and waiting for the tiger to jump out at me. I was much stronger now, so I trusted myself far more against it. Over time, the noise changed to voices.

My heart jumped with joy when I realized that. At the same time, however, I was far more anxious with very mixed feelings. I had to meet them, but I didn't want to.

Yet, I crept very quietly ahead. First, I wanted to see who I had the honor of meeting with before shaking hands with them. Maybe it will be a paw or a hoof instead of a hand?"

I didn't care.

If they were intelligent creatures to help me, I didn't care.

I finally found them. They sat around the fire and talked. It brought tears to my eyes, but I forced myself not to cry. Firstly, I would reveal myself right away, and secondly, I didn't want them to see me that way. I forced myself to concentrate. There were four around the fire, and three were sitting nearby. It was very difficult to hear them, but I was able to recognize individual words. Yet I had no idea what they meant.

My fears came true. They didn't speak English.

But I didn't want to give up. It was just a small obstacle. I'm sure we can talk with hand gestures.

"Wait," I whispered.

The three of them sitting nearby were only in their underwear? Even with my limited ability, I could see that. They were too far away for me to recognize more. I had no idea if they were people, men, or women. But what this situation reminded me of were slaves, and I didn't want to meet those. The thought of ending up as someone's slave gave me shivers. It wasn't in my adventures that I dreamed of as a little girl.

Well, I started to move away slowly.

Then I felt a sharp pain in the back of my neck and the world before my eyes blackened.

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

"% & $ # @ Μ # α% & $ # @."

„[$ # @% & Μ #! α% & $ # @." said a male voice.

What happened? Why does my head hurt so much? Maybe a migraine? Before my operating system booted up, I received a severe blow to the abdomen. Of course, I screamed in pain, but my reflexes also began to work. My mind was telling me to stand up in a defensive position and face the enemy.

But I didn't quite succeed. As soon as I tried, I found that my legs and hands were tied behind my back. So my attempt only resulted in a strange wriggling on the ground like a worm. When I opened my eyes, I saw five laughing people from my position. Three men and two women. All dressed in something resembling medieval armor. More precisely, armor from fantasy books, novels, and games. But, it was a disparate collection of armor and weapons. Something these people collected overtime when the opportunity arose. Like adventurers or bandits.

Slaves! My memory began to return. The people I came across were slavers.

I looked at them again in horror. They kept laughing and talking between themselves. I felt that slavers spoke about me and that it wasn't pleasant. The largest of them was a man who must have been over two meters tall. Broad shoulders, arms like my thighs. He had a body like a rugby player. Bald head, no beard. He also wore the most metal armor of all the others.

[Tank - ???]

Damn, three question marks. The tiger had only two and almost killed me.

The other man, also tall, was half a head smaller than Mr. Tank. Not such a distinctive face, long hair on his head. His armor was lighter in character, more leather than metal.

[Mage - ??]

Just two question marks?

The third man was a smaller, short haircut, a mask on his face. Maybe Covid 19, or his magical offshoot, was also raving here. He played with a dagger in his hand, which matched his description.

[Rogue - ??]

The two women on their team didn't look any friendlier.

[Fighter - ???] A freckled woman with her hair pulled back in a ponytail, as tall as a mage. Her profession was similar to mine, but she had a dangerous-looking sword at her waist, and I had only a toothbrush. The last member of this group was a woman of lower stature but round shapes. Decently said. [Healer - ??]

It was a diverse group of occupations. But it would be difficult to tell by the clothes. The healer didn't have a white robe and a staff, the mage didn't have a pointed hat and cloak. This wasn't like classic games, where women wore metal bikinis instead of armor that mysteriously managed to protect them. Slaver's clothes were practical.

I perk up because they stopped having fun. Apparently, they were tired of making fun of me. The tank came up to me and grabbed my hair. Then he picked me up. It may have looked very spectacular in the movies, but it hurt like hell. Screaming, I tried to kick him. But with my limbs tied and a gag in my mouth, everything was in vain.

While he was holding me in the air, a healer came up to me with a metal ring in her hand. I immediately realized it was a slave collar. I stepped up my efforts to free myself, but the result was just more shaking and headaches from hanging in the air by my hair.

However, the healer was too short and couldn't reach my neck. It earned her laughter from the others. Mr. Tank lowered me to my feet, grabbed me by the shoulder, and made me kneel. As my legs were tied, I landed hard on my knees.

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He said something to the healer, and she just cut him off.

She turned to me and put a collar around my neck with a smile on her fat face. The collar was formed by two semicircles that could be separated and reconnected. How? Don't ask me that. I closed my eyes and waited for what would happen, but nothing happened. I felt no urge to listen to my master. That's why I opened my eyes again to see what was going on.

But the slavers were not as confused as I was.

The healer stepped aside and left the place to Tank. He clenched his right hand into a fist. I expected to meet my creator. His fist was almost as big as my head. But he didn't hit me. Instead, he touched the collar with the ring on his hand.

Probably he still had to activate the collar. That ring on his hand? Oh, isn't it the one who rules them all? Jokes aside. The idea that this barbarian should be my master was against everything I believed in. After all, when I got into this world, I stopped being a corporate slave, and now I was to become a slave again. Even in this world?

The only answer was the sharp pain that went through my body. Yet, it was not one impulse but a whole series. Like sharp knives digging into my body. Deeper and deeper. I shouted at my gag, calling for help. But no one came to help me—just more pain. Eventually, I stopped feeling the pain in my body. It was as if it had stopped entirely and concentrated only in my head. It pulsed with my heartbeat. Pulses even echoed in my ears. Despite all this, I heard notifications from the system. But, at this moment, I was not able to open and read them.

As soon as the pain came, it stopped.

My head was clear, and the pain was gone entirely. My eyes were full of tears, but I saw and heard what was happening around me. I felt my body and realized that I was lying on the ground again. However, no one held my hair or stood around me. Five slavers sat by the fire, arguing.

"We shouldn't have given it to her," the tall woman, Fighter, shook her head.

"Why not, we'll get paid for it, and we can change the collar when we get to camp," the mage said sharply.

Fighter snapped. "If she survives!"

"If she dies, we won't lose that much. You saw her. Skinny, burnt in the face, small breasts. Trevor, you say we'll get paid for her, but I see it differently, "said Tank.

"Every copper counts," Trevor shrugged, smiling at Tank.

"If we get one at all, it looked like the collar was burning her brain," Rogue smiled.

"Idiots, I told you not to use it, that it was too strong for such a noob," Fighter said.

"Yeah Sil, you said it and what? It was my decision," the tank growled. Probably the leader of these scoundrels.

"Then you can explain to the boss too, why we used the legendary collar on someone who's level 21. Not even noob. Honestly, it's a mystery to me how she got here in that outfit." Said Sil.

"It's my job, don't worry about it," the tank growled.

"If she survives, Suzan can cure her. We'll get more," Trevor suggested.

"Dude, I can cure enough, but if she's crazy, I can't fix her brain," Said Healer.

"Well, we can find out now. She's been listening to us for a while," laughed Rouge.

"Zach, why are you telling us this now?" Tank growled at him.

"Sorry, boss," Zach shrugged, smiling. At the same time, he was tossing fondly with a dagger in his hand.

The bald man rose from the fire and walked over to me.

"Get up," he ordered me.

I stood up immediately. That brought a smile to his face. But then he grabbed me tightly under the neck and began to examine the collar.

"Everything seems to be as it should be, name!" Asked the tank.

"Kirra…?" I said quietly.

"Just Kirra, no middle name?" He asked me.

"I…"

"It does not matter. You won't need it anyway," he replied, letting go of my neck.

"How many fingers do you see?" He asked, putting a hand in front of my face with three fingers raised. What kind of question is this? Test?

"Three?"

"Now?"

"One"

"She's okay in the head," he said suddenly aloud. So that his other partners can hear it.

Zach laughed. "What was that supposed to be?"

"Do you have any comments?" The tank asked irritably.

"No, it's just that a three-year-old could tell you that. It doesn't prove anything," he objected.

"The collar works, so what?" Said Mr. Tank

"You're the boss here"

"Exactly, we're leaving in ten minutes," he turned back to me. "Go to the other slaves," he ordered.

"Huh where?" where is that?

"Over there." he pointed angrily at the place where two women and one man in underwear were sitting.

Ok. I strolled to other slaves. It was the first time I had seen the trio up close, and despite the situation I was in, I was thrilled. A human woman was sitting on the ground in front of me, next to her two humanoid cats. I had no idea what race they were, but they were definitely beast-man. Their whole bodies were covered with fur and their faces too. They had animal ears on their heads, and I could see their tails. It was the ears and tails that reminded me the most of a cat beast-man. But I didn't want to call them that, it could offend them. I had no idea what was allowed here and what was not.

"Hello …."

"No talking !!!!" shouted the tank.

Apparently, that was not allowed. I winced and waited for him to grab my hair or my neck again, but he remained seated by the fire. So I rather sit in silence next to the trio, who were looking at me in surrender. But none of them spoke.

Were they banned like me? Did those collars not allow them to talk? I didn't feel like I couldn't speak. I was just so scared and preferred to listen. I definitely didn't want to experience the pain I felt a while ago. One hundred times worse than a migraine. Nevermore. But I didn't want to end up as a sex slave for some fat sweaty pig. Yet what were my options? What could I have done to get out of this situation? What chance did I have?

I sighed softly. "Zero"

I felt someone push into my leg and looked at the trio I was sitting next to. All three had wide eyes and looked at me questioningly. Why? Oh. I shouldn't talk. Thank you for the warning. I thanked them in my head. I smiled at them and bowed my head. I hope they understood. I wish I could ask them something. I had so many questions.

You may be wondering why I don't go crazy? Why am I not devastated and crying? I was really freaking out. The prospects for my future were terrible. At the same time, however, I was excited to be in the presence of humans and beast-mans. For more than two days, I survived in this forest, hoping to find civilization—someone to help me. But, not everything turned out as I imagined. I found people here, a society. Just not very friendly. Not that kind I wouldn't want help from.

"We're leaving, we've been here longer than planned. We still have a long way to go before evening," Tank ordered.

Their group began to move immediately. Slavers basically didn't have to pack anything. They just stopped for food. Delay was probably my fault. But I will not apologize.

"Hey, noobs get up. You will follow us and no loitering," he ordered us.

The other slaves rose from the ground and set out for the slavers. I followed them. The slavers apparently did not worry too much about the danger in the forest. They walked casually, having fun with each other, and not watching their surroundings too much. They were probably so strong that they were not afraid of the local fauna.

But my group was deadly quiet. Of course, we were forbidden to speak.

Wait! Wait, wait, wait !!!!

I understood them. I understood what they were saying. Why did I realize it now? My stupid brain. I was so excited and scared that I completely missed this detail. But what was the cause? Only now did I realize that I didn't speak English when I answered the slaver. Even so, I understood everything they said as if I were born with this local language. When I answered them, I had no problem with it. It was so natural for me that I didn't realize what had happened until now. But how did it happen?

I immediately opened my System Log.

(ding) You have learned language of your master - new skill learned [Standard language of Elaaden lv 10]

So that explains a lot. So if I understand correctly, when they put the collar on me, it taught me the language spoken by slavers. I should thank them. But it caused me incredible pain. I was sure that this skill was the cause. The reaction of the collar itself surprised them. At least I understood that from their debate. Another question on my list of questions was what Elaaden was. This planet, a continent, or just a local kingdom? The list grew longer and longer.

I intended to explore my log system more, but my attention was drawn to the three slaves in front of me. I stared at their feet and quietly envied. They had shoes. Even though the slavers took everything except their underwear, they left them shoes. Can I have some shoes, please ?! I almost shouted it out loud. It was so unfair…

Please, some worn-out and smelly ones are enough. A little food wouldn't hurt either.

My hunger grew so much that it broke through my mixed feelings and drew attention to itself. I haven't eaten anything since morning and was regretting it now. My chances of getting something to eat from these people were not great.

I didn't focus on what the slavers were talking about, but I perk up for some reason. Probably a hunch they'll talk about me. Sixth sense or something.

"Hey guys, something's been bothering me since we got up," Rouge told his companions.

"What is this time, Zach!" The tank sighed.

"Which one of you untied the crazy girl because it wasn't me!"