Aisrin opened his eyes to a wooden ceiling and the stench of fish and salty air. The uneven tossing and lerching further told him that he was on a ship. Aisrin tried to sit up, only to discover that he had been restrained and unable to move.
"This doesn't look too good." Aisrin stated outloud.
He would remain in that position, on that shop, for another three weeks. He was constantly beaten and fed moulded bread and cheese. Salt water was his drink.
When the ship made port, he was bound and then a sack was put on his head. It was only then that he was finally allowed to stand. He was marched to the deck, where he finally felt the warmth of the sun.
He was prodded further until he stood on solid ground. The sounds of wooden wheels and the cloppingbof horse hooves where the first sounds to greet his ears.
"What have you got for me today then?" A man asked. He sounded like he was a little on the heavy side.
"Twenty from the United Continents. We have twelve humans, all in pristine condition. Four monsters, a little on the young side, including a goblin, a Minotaur, a ghoul, and a slime. Three Demi humans, one from the beast tribe, an elf and an orc, all three are young females." Another man said.
"Hmm, all sounds excellent. I'll obviously take the Demi-Humans, as they are in such high demand... but... that's only nineteen." The heavy sounding man stated with greedy anticipation.
"Hehehe, I knew that wouldn't escape you Master Neru. But, our final product is... a bit special, and very expensive." The gruffer fellow replied.
"Oh come now, tell me. You know money is no problem, I'll make twice to thrice as much as I pay." The heavy man bragged.
"Hahaha! Of course! Then, let me introduce you to this.." The sack was ripped off of Aisrins head and he was kicked down to his knees. A gap resounded from the heavier man, and he was way on the heavy side. He wore very colorful clothing that barely fit him.
"A half Demon offspring! Now this is such a rare treat!" The heavy man clapped his hands gleefully, a malicious smile adorned his fat face.
"We made sure that he was in the best condition." The gruff man, dressed in a blue and white uniform with a a matching cap that told Aisrin he was of higher status in a military organization.
Aisrin, on the other hand, was still wearing his boots and pants, although now soiled from his many weeks of laying on a slab on a ship, and only being rinsed by freezing ocean water occasionally. He had also thinned out significantly and become more skeletal his hair color had even faded to grayish with pinkish streaks instead of black with red.
"Oh indeed. Hmm... let's get to business. I'll offer you say... twenty lesser gold tablets for all four." The greedy fat man offered.
"Hmm... that would fetch you just the Demi human girls... I cant let them all go for less than forty five lesser gold tablets." The gruffer man was greedier, and countered the offer.
"No, no... I can't pay more than twenty seven." The fat man countered the counter.
"I see... that is simply too low though. You and I both know that forty is the best price we can agree upon for such amazing specimen." The gruff man bartered.
"Hahaha! Come now! You cant be serious my friend! All together they are worth no more than thirty!" The fat man laughed with yet another counter offer.
"Hah, since we're such good friends, I'll part them to you for a special price of thirty seven lesser gold tablets, and I'll buy you a drink later. This is my final offer, as I sadly cannot go lower." The gruff man sighed and held his hand out for the final price.
"...Hmm. Yes, I think that's a good deal." The fat man nodded and then took the gruff man's hand in agreement. Moments later a pouch was handed off from the fat man to the gruff man, and Aisrin along with three others were moved to the back of a caged wagon.
From the port, the slave cart traveled to the west and out of the city. The meals were a little better on this leg of the journey. Consisting of stale bread scraps, drinkable water, and the discarded bones with some meat left from the mercenaries that traveled with the Fat slave merchant.
Aisrin was treated worse by the mercenaries on the other hand compared to the sailors. Quite often he was dragged out of the cart and used as a personal punching bag. once during the journey did Aisrin enter berserker mode. He was quickly restrained and further beaten, even stabbed and cut multiple times.
One night, Aisrin sat awake, watching over the young demi human girls. A couple drunk mercenaries came to the cart and opened it. Thinking they came for him again, he just sat and waited. But instead, they grabbed the young elven girl and tried dragging her out.
"I suggest you avoid that level of trouble." Aisrin stated from where he sat. A dangerous look in his eyes as he glared murderously at them. The young elf was crying in fear.
"Hah? Did you just say somethin?" One of the mercenaries let go of the girl and got in Aisrins face and spat. Aisrin continued to glare.
"Be a good little demon, and watch then, hahaha! Your race should enjoy this kind of thing... right? Hahaha!" The mercenary laughed as he punched Aisrin as hard as he could, bouncing Aisrins head against the bars of the cart.
The two mercenaries dragged the girl out and started stripping her and preparing to defile her by raping her. Aisrin stood up and jumped put of the cart, much to the surprise of the two mercenaries. In his current condition, Aisrin knew he stood no chance, but he also couldn't back down.
"Tch. Guess you need taught a lesson!" The two began beating Aisrin, no holds barred. Aisrin collapsed and spat blood, but stood once more. This stalemate continued until near sunup, when the chief mercenary jumped in, beating not only Aisrin half to death, but actually killed the two mercenaries.
When asked by the slave merchant, he simply replied;
"They breached the contract by attempting to defile the product we were meant to escort."
The beatings got worse for Aisrin from that point until they reached their destination and transferred to the slave compound.
There was a process that the slaves had to go through. The first was a cleaning. Aisrin was washed a given a good freshening. Then he was moved on to examination. Every part of him was examined and graded.
The second to last of the process was having his PSI forcibly extracted to het information. It was extreme and caused Aisrin paralyzing pain.
"This one's defunct. I can't see any information. It's all scrambled. I'll put him down as level one." The examiner stated, and the PSI returned back into Aisrin, relieving the pain.
The final process was far worse though. A cloaked man approached Aisrin with a small pot and dipped his finger in said small pot. When he removed the finger, it was dripping a black liquid. The cloaked man put his finger to Aisrins chest and began drawing some swirling design and then ran mana through it.
A burning, agonizing pain blossomed from the point, like a million flaming bees were stinging him repeatedly. When the pain stopped, it was well into the night, and Aisrin was transferred to a holding cell. He had officially become a slave to an unknown Empire.