"Woah, what the hell, a warning please?!" Vian exclaimed as the head of the researcher exploded from the force of the small pebble thrown by 6.
"Alright, now that I've established that I am willing to kill, and don't like unnecessary words and flattery, someone please finish his statement for him." 6 said.
Watching the actions of 6 from the ethereal realm, The Untraced quickly explained to the Sor Acan to reassure them.
"He is likely just establishing control, making sure they are too afraid to try to trick him or lie. Otherwise, he would just kill all of them without caring about who is in charge."
The Sor Acan nodded collectively, then said, "That seems likely. If things are as you say, then all should be well. Once we end the connection, We, the Sor Acan, will discuss amongst ourselves what our next steps will be."
"Very well. We need to ensure that we find a way to exclude Trivrium's children from the selection."
"Indeed. We thought it an unnecessary distinction, but we must amend the clauses of the agreements."
"Who would expect her to take in such a weakling to begin with. Truly an oversight on all of our parts. We are lucky that she is embroiled in the war and cannot focus her efforts here."
The two stopped speaking to continue watching 6's actions.
The researchers in the room all pointed to the dwarf-like researcher, selling out their colleague with no hesitation.
"Very good. Okay, short dude who probably hates all of his buddies at the moment, step right over here." 6 said, beckoning with his knife to the spot next to him. "Take a seat."
The dwarf-like researcher somberly walked to 6, knowing he had no choice.
He brushed the blood from his dead colleague off of his face, doing his best to not wretch from the fear and disgust.
Silently, he sat down in the chair that 6 was pointing to, his knees shaking as he struggled to keep calm.
"Scaredy cat," 6 mocked. "If I wanted to steal something here, what would be the most valuable thing? In the entire place, not just this room"
Calming himself, Avin slowly began speaking. "The most expensive things here are the...the equipment we use. Probably."
"No, no. Don't limit yourself that much. Think bigger, if you went rogue and want to auction off something that you took from here, what item would you choose to take."
Avin's eyes dropped to the floor, as if he was too ashamed to say the answer that was on his mind.
In response, 6 picked up another piece of rubble from the floor, tossing it into the air so that he could catch it on the way down, to intimidate the researcher with it.
When the pebble left his hand, though, it flew up, piercing the ceiling and showering the floor with dust, leaving 6's hand entirely empty.
"Uh. I meant to do that." 6 stuttered. "Just fucking say the thing, dammit."
Trying to play it off, 6, patted the dust off of his body, frustrated at himself for forgetting he was on another level than he had ever experienced.
"The air elemental." Avin said.
Turning to where 6 assumed Vian was standing, he said, "Vian? Thoughts?"
"I'm over here, moron. Air elementals are rare. You could probably sell one if you tried." Vian's voice came from the other side of 6.
"I knew you were there. I just wanted to make sure you knew that I cannot see you, as a confidence booster." 6 said. "Okay, that's a strike. I've already got the air elemental, gimme something else. And don't say Delithe."
Stammering, Avin said, "We-Well, there's not much else. Most of the prisoners are worthless, you could sell our research, but it's not stored here, the researchers submit their findings every day and we can only access it from our communication network. And...its down right now."
"Oh, so I can just sell you then."
"No! He dies! I don't care what you do with me or any other damn thing here but I will not let any of these monsters live." Delithe struggled fruitlessly at his bonds.
"That's well and dandy and all that, but you're literally stuck in a chair." 6 said. "How much of the research material do you remember? I'll just kill you if you're worthless, so don't lie."
"A lot! I can remember most of what's important, and much of what I remember are replicable results, I can easily repeat those successes and if given time I can repeat many of the valuable discoveries we have discovered with minimal costs!" Avin said.
"I have perfect recall!" Another researcher said.
"I can remember as much as Avin but I also came up with the theories behind many of the recent discoveries here!"
"They are both telling the truth, but neither of them has ever had full access to our findings, and they lack the abilities to create the kind of valuable results that are worth anything." Avin said, trying to cement his spot as the most valuable researcher in the room.
Delithe was seething in his chair, struggling in his bonds as he attempted to break free, knowing it was meaningless.
"And you have both of those things?" 6 asked.
"Yes."
"Okay. Sounds good then. I'll take your word for it, but if you lied at all I'll kill you."
"Yes sir."
"I wouldn't trust a single damn word they say. They'll lie even when their lives are not threatened, and they'll feel no remorse for it. He was an assistant when I arrived here, and he laughed when they ripped me apart." Delithe spat towards Avin. "My 'success' is why he is where he is now. He profited off of my life."
"You still have your life." 6 pointed out.
"No, my life has been gone ever since they did this to me." Delithe said, trying to use his hands to motion towards his restrained body.
"God you're dramatic." 6 said.
"You literally just said he might be a sealed ancient evil, and you're calling the prisoner who was tortured and experimented on dramatic?" Vian said.
"I don't wanna hear it from a guy who can't even feel pain." 6 said. "Wait, can you feel pain?"
"You're a moron."
"Young man, these people would have squeezed out every possible bit of profit from your body if you were not strong enough to stop them. Are you so pathetic that you'll just let them get away with that?" Delithe said.
6 squinted his eyes while staring at Delithe, all of the researchers in the room now hoping that 6 would kill him for talking back.
If Delithe was dead, with no one telling the truth about the terrible things they had done, there was a chance that most of them could survive this.
The air elemental was still around, but out of all the prisoners, the air elemenetal was the one that should hate them the least.
It had barely been experiemented on, not for no want of doing so, but because they couldn't.
Who would even fathom that a species with such a unique and special physique could produce a beginner adventurer? There was no way that this facility equipped to deal with beginners would be able to do anything with him.
Most elementals could expect to become intermediate adventurers directly.
6 began walking towards Delithe, giving all the researchers, especially Avin, hope.
He bent down, bringing his face near to Delithe's ear.
Vian wanted to step forward to listen in, but the second they moved, Delithe's eyes shot toward them.
Delithe could clearly see Vian, unlike 6.
Vian decided it was in their best interest to remain still, not risking eavesdropped on their savior who they didn't actually know very well.
They were only lucky to have been given the same cell as him.
After speaking between themselves with hushed whispers, 6 stood up and returned to the chair Avin was sitting in.
Delithe no longer spoke, keeping his mouth shut with a look of anger and contempt on his face.
Putting his hands on Avin's shoulders carefully, 6 said, "Is there anything else you can think of?"
"No sir, that's everything of value here. We aren't allowed to keep too many things, even our equipment is low-end cheap stuff, just enough to get by. Our research, the prisoners, and the equipment are the only things worth anything."
"What about the equipment from the other adventurers, the ones who have died?"
"The dead adventurer's bodies are stored for study for some time, but once an adventurer is unsuitable for fighting, their belongings are stripped from them and incinerated. If there is anything one of us wants to keep, we can, and any intermediate or higher equipment is turned over to our superiors."
"Ah, I figured you'd say something like that. There goes my hopes of a quick payday." 6 said.
The researchers were all confused at his words, not understanding why someone as strong as him would care about that useless equipment.
"Hello, 6. I hope you're proud of yourself, you have successfully managed to need an entire 10% of my presence while you're only a beginner. I'm not sure if I should be more embarrassed for me, or for you."