I wake to the unbearable ache of a body compressed and a mind again in comprehension. Something feels off, [different,] like a dense fog has been lifted off of my mind. While yesterday I had felt little but amusement at my current situation, now it seems to fully hit me.
[I am a slave. I was brought to life in another world only to be enslaved to another. Furthermore, today I will be set with a mark of some sort that will force my obedience. What's going on? I haven't been acting like myself recently; I was always cautious and focused, yet recently everything has felt so off… could it be the Madness skill? It seems like it got worse since being brought back to life… how did I stop focusing on that, moving on so easily? But if the Madness skill increasing in level led to my strange behavior, why would it change now?] I check my skills: Master Madness Lvl. 1. [My Madness skill leveled again, I see. Could that be the cause for my seemingly cleared mind? But that doesn't make much sense; why would madness leveling up increase my mental acuity?]
With how recklessly I've been acting recently, it is a miracle that I've not died yet. And so, wanting to break that reckless behavior, I don't simply dismiss my various questions. I ponder [why] an increase to my level of madness would lead to greater mental clarity. And yet, no matter how long I contemplate, I come up with no answer.
[Gah! I don't know! I don't know anything! Instead of taking the opportunity of learning from that one girl that I never bothered learning the name of, I wandered aimlessly in my own chaotic thoughts, pondering on how to shut her up! Oh, what a fool I have been!]
[Perhaps my little information window could provide me with some information?] I open it up and, instead of simply looking over my skills, I focus in on the skill Master Madness Lvl. 1. I acquire a new skill, Lesser Analysis Lvl. 1, and at the same time a skill description becomes visible on the strange screen that I had previously ignored as something that I would never understand.
Master Madness Lvl. 2.
So it's already leveled up, huh?
Description: Lessens the negative effects of the previous level. As its level increases, so do the bearers' negative emotions. The bearer may still be prone to erratic behavior.
Negative emotions. Honestly, I'd take negative emotions any day to not being able to think clearly. I had lived through many years of negative emotions in my previous life, after all. To be human is to have negative emotions, or something like that.
How bad could negative emotions be?
[BAD] shout my negative emotions. Oh, hello there Mr. Pessimism. I'm not surprised to see you here.
Well, no matter how bad my emotions become, I'll just have to push on.
Just as I resolve to push beyond any negative emotions that this stupid skill artificially drums up, I hear the creak of the dungeon door. The slight murmurs that come from a few of the cages completely cut off, plunging my room into even more complete silence.
[Please, this way. My entire body is being crushed!] Heeding my silent cries, the footsteps approach my cage. I try to turn, to see who it is, but the cage obviously prevents such freedom of motion. The door opens behind me, and my body, like a gas, expands to fill the newly available space, causing me to tumble out of the cage.
I groan upon smashing into the rough stone ground about three feet below the opening of my cage. [I really wish that I knew how that stupid "pain resistance" skill worked. Actually, I know how to check that now, don't I?] While I push myself off the ground I open up the info sheet and look into my Greater Pain Resistance Lvl. 9.
Greater Pain Resistance
Severely dulls the nervous system (off)
Well that explains it! It's been off the whole time! But I'm a little worried about that description, as it says that not only pain but all feeling will be dulled…
My thoughts are interrupted by the guard that came to fetch me. "This way, [product]. The boss is waiting."
I take a step to follow, but my stiff legs cause me to stumble and collapse to the floor. "We don't have time for you to mess around, lazy slave. Well, if you don't want to walk on your own then I'll have to drag you."
I try to stand again, but I am apparently too slow as he grabs hold of my hair and begins [dragging] me along behind him. My scalp cries out in pain as my hair is pulled from its roots, so I take this as an opportunity to activate my Greater Pain Resistance. Now that I know that it simply needs to be activated, activating it is as simple as a single thought.
The pain in my head is completely nullified, replaced by a sensation so soft that it feels like something only gently touching the top of my hair. The rest of my body feels… [nothing.] It is quite terrifying, a feeling reminiscent of the void between my lives. I'm not sure what terrifies me more; the memory of the void that it forces me to recall, or the strange desire to sink into the absence of pain, a world that I know will allow me to forget this wretched one in its entirety.
Whichever terrifies me more, I am not sure, but I know that the sickening and irrational [terror] is too much to bear, and so I quickly deactivate my ability. [That will only be for emergencies; I would much rather feel most pain than experience the void.]
I let myself be dragged out of the room by my hair, not wanting to initiate conflict with the guard that seems to derive such pleasure from inflicting pain. At the entrance to the room, he lets go of my hair causing my head to crack back against the floor painfully.
"Get up lazy slave; and you better apologize for making me do so much work on your behalf."
I force myself up, and this time he allows me to continue to my feet.
"Now, apologize."
I feel an unnaturally strong urge to punch him, which I credit to my strengthened negative emotions. I suppress them, insisting to myself that I will be able to overcome any artificial emotion implanted by a skill. "I apologize for forcing you into a position where you had to exert yourself on my behalf. Again, I'm very sorry." I say, all the while avoiding eye contact.
"Hmph. Now, let's put these on." He pulls a set of manacles out of a deep pocket in his uniform, and puts them on me. He then opens the door and says "Follow me" as he exits the room.
I follow closely behind, through a maze of dark and sparsely furnished halls. Dread slowly rises up in me as I know that I shall soon be locked in to being a slave for life, unable to avoid even the most repulsive of commands, dead at a whim of my master no matter how powerful I may become.
We eventually come to a stop before another door, which the guard opens and pushes me through, causing me to stumble in. Within the room is the auctioneer and a main clad in dark robes that simply scream [sorcerer] . A long gray beard tied together at the end and obscenely thick eyebrows complete the look.
"You're late," says the auctioneer, looking at the guard behind me.
"The product was being difficult," he replies.
"Well, that will be an issue no longer," interjects the sorcerer. "After I'm done here disobedience will be an issue of the past." I want to reply that I hadn't been disobedient at all, that the guard was simply unreasonable, but I remain silent.
"Now, sit [there] ," says the sorcerer, pointing at a chair reminiscent of the one that I had sat in yesterday, various cuffs placed around in order to hold me down. I sit as ordered, expecting to be fully locked in, and am surprised to hear "The manacles you're already wearing should be fine. Just hold still."
He takes out a needle and, in a single fluid motion, pokes deep into my skin and withdraws again. He then summons a black swirling cloud above his hand and mixes in the blood. The mixture then splits, with half entering my body and the other half entering a wooden panel covered in buttons that he's holding. All of this happens in a matter of seconds; I know nothing about what he just did, but it's clear to even me that he is a master in his field.
He then pushes a button, and I can no longer breathe. I grasp at my neck, my brain desperately sending signals to my lungs to expand, but they refuse. Realizing that this must be a result of a button on his panel, I try to calm myself down. [Panicking will only use up my oxygen supply faster; I need to calm down. Surely they wouldn't want to kill a valuable product such as myself!]
My logical reasoning proves to be true, as shortly thereafter my lungs are again able to take in the sweet air. I gasp in, over and over, to the point where I begin to worry about the risk of hyperventilating.
Eventually, I manage to get a hold of my breathing, to slow it down to safe levels. "Now you should understand the type of power your owner will have over you. And your owner will be able to do much more than that. Setting your nervous system on fire, stopping your heart, forcing obedience; all will be possible. So, my advice is to follow commands well." He then turns to the auctioneer "I'll be off. Call me again if you have any further use for my services."
"I sure will," says the auctioneer, handing the sorcerer a small bundle of what I can only assume to be coins. The sorcerer then nods and wordlessly exits the room.
I'm hoping that I'll get to spend longer out of my cramped cage, but the auctioneer turns to the guard that brought me here. "Return the product to storage. And we'll discuss the issue of you being late later."
The guard then escorts me back to a cage, which is noticeably smaller than even my previous one. He then proceeds with kicking my back, trying to force me into the cage that clearly does not have a volume larger than my body's. While I have been managing not to be angry at my treatment, as soon as my anger is sparked a seemingly endless wrath tries to pour out. I quickly regain control from the madness-enhanced negative emotion, but not before my foot lashes out to the guard that's kicking my back to force me into the cage. I don't see what happens to him, but from the crash it sounds like he flew over twenty feet before crashing into another cage.
Before I can feel the triumph of my small victory, however, my breathing is cut off. [He must have used the control panel.] I begin to feel worried as the length without air increases, but I then remind myself that they would gain nothing from killing me. Even when my vision fades to blackness and my thoughts fade to unconsciousness, I am still not worried, still confident in my value.