"Alright, we'll be handing him over and our job is done." The fire warrior who managed to escape with his new buddy was covering his face.
"Took you long enough, it's been months! Where is he?"
"He's right here, payment up front." He didn't bother telling them that their target was underground with his buddy. Their client brought 2 Lightning Burstbowmen along. As for precautions for them? They were just a joke, even the third grandmaster hiding behind the mountain was not hidden well, although to be fair with his buddy around it was hard for something on land to hide from them.
Their client tossed a pouch onto the ground.
"Do you think we're beggars?"
"That's way above market price already!"
"I'll break it down for you, I'm a professional after all. Journeyman with a full set of movement, perception, high tier enhancement, 120 Blues. Oh and I'm not sure if you noticed but he's a meditator, so that triples the price. From our background check, he didn't have any background so to say. But oh ho~what do we have here, the only known Journeyman Xeng in our current records beside him at all times? We'll have to add 500 Blues in the bag." He changed his tune from formal to sarcastic to playful.
"What!? You might as well extor-!"
The fire warrior closed the distance between them instantly and lifted their client by the collar with a single hand.
"Don't think I didn't do our research before I came here. You withheld crucial information from us, didn't you? The couple of branches your company has lost, those that just disappeared? An elling space mage, and not just any space mage. A grandmaster Xeng! YOU BETTER WISH WE ARE EXTORTING YOU! Oh yes, and that adds 12 Purples to the price.
Funny thing, you're not about to tell me you didn't know you requested us to…appropriate, a Xeng are you? HE'S HER ELLING BROTHER! And that means he has a massive background, the associated risk pay would be, let's see, we are definitely one of the first to kidnap one of theirs. That tallies up to a grand total of…25 Purples and 2000 Blues. Oh we don't mind giving a 15% discount on Blues if you have more Purples, those are hard to get and we have an internal increase in demand for those." The fire warrior was trying his best to keep his anger down but seeing as they were practically sent on a suicide mission without his knowledge he couldn't help raising his voice or pressure the poor client with his aura.
"We…I didn't bring that much. You'll have to take that as a deposit and come again tomorrow."
"Of course. See? I'm a very reasonable man. In exchange, if I don't see you here with our pay, tell your fatty 'He's going to lose way more than two or three branches'. Understood?" Although he was a user of fire magic, his overflowing Vitality and Wisdom weren't hot like many mages' tend to be but it didn't lessen the threat his client was under.
The man in his hands nodded enthusiastically so he put him down gently.
Their target rose to the surface and he passed him over to the Grandmaster wielding those sticks with holes.
"See you tomorrow!" He waved off happily.
One of them flashed away with the target and the client while the other backed off with them but still faced him. At the same time, he grinned and took aim with that stick of his.
A huge flash of lightning in front and behind him devoured the spot where he stood. The ground around him already softened and enveloped him before he could get hit. His buddy was truly not too bad.
"So you want to play it this way huh?" The fire warrior grinned back. He really wanted to blow off some steam anyway.
❅❅❅
Ebony opened his eyes to an unfamiliar place.
Earthen floor and walls together with a metal door in front. The metal door had a thin slit at eye level and it let some air into the unventilated room. His arms locked behind his back, they were clamped within a wooden plank, those wooden shackles he had seen the guards use. The wooden plank was attached to a thick metal chain to the wall. He was sitting upright with his legs crossed. Only left in his underwear.
The 'room' he was in was very small, only about 3 by 2 metres and his head almost hit the ceiling when he stood up. There was a heavy stench from a hole in the ground a step away from him.
A few things he noticed.
He was woken up by getting Poison Resistance and it even levelled to 12.
Poison Resistance (Passive) - Extended periods of exposure to the poison allowed your body to develop a resistance to the poison. 1.0% more resistant to poison per level.
He learnt that resistance to poison was more widespread and useless, there were too many types of poison and the resistance would usually be a lot less effective than the said level of poison resistance if he were to be inflicted with a brand new type of poison his body is unfamiliar with.
Since he was stripped down, he didn't have his myriad bracelet or callstone to call for help.
The other thing he noticed was that his mana and stamina were being drained away but his mana pool was full while his stamina was bone dry. His muscles feel a little stiff as if they were overexerted for a few days. Nothing new.
He found himself as calm as ever.
As if getting imprisoned was none of his business.
"I thought you would be asleep, Rimestone. Well, it's better that you're awake." A pair of puffy eyes looked through the rectangular hole in the door.
'Rimestone. People who know me by that name. If I woke up faster than he thought then I might have just gotten locked up.' He did not recognise the voice or pair of eyes but tried to think of anyone that wanted to imprison him. As for how long he had been asleep or locked up, he could only guess.
"You won't be getting out any time soon. I'll drain you till I recuperate all my losses. How do you feel!? Powerless!? You can forget about breaking out without any strength. I won't treat you too badly, you'll be fed once every two days. You can do your business right beside you. If you're smart you'll get to meditating as soon as possible." The man left in anger, stomping his feet.
'Recuperate losses. Someone who lost something because of me? Rimestone. Tournament. Bets. Hmm, there are many people who lost mana ores because of that but only the lightning pistol and rifle one sent grandmasters after us. Sister Jing even destroyed some of their shops.'
Ebony easily pieced together the information he got, there was a high chance it was the company who sponsored the lightning gunmen or the lightning gunmen were their employees.
'Well. whatever.' Ebony sat down and let Mental Arithmetic work a little.
The mana drain was pretty impressive, he estimated his mana was being drained away at 350 mana per minute. But the real problem was the stamina drain, it was well over 2100 per minute as that was how much he was regenerating in a minute.
He heard from Ning Xin that some of the more crazy Xeng would wear something to drain their stamina as they jumped into a dungeon. Training their exhaustion resistance to the limit while putting their lives on the line. He thought it was a good idea to train exhaustion resistance that way but they weren't able to obtain something like that. He originally wanted to ask Sister Jing if she had something with the same effect but hadn't met her in a long time.
Perhaps because there are way more warriors than mages so the technology for draining stamina was more pronounced or perhaps it was just easier to drain stamina.
He was wondering if he should freeze the wooden board and break himself free but an odd feeling kept nagging him. Ning Xin's mask kept appearing even after he tried to push it away and clear his mind.
'Well, if this is a prison there will be guards outside right? I don't even have information on the surroundings. If I get caught again they might place harsher locks on me and I'll really be stuck here for good.' He tried to think about the situation logically. A very strong gut feeling was telling him not to free himself immediately.
'Did I really get caught by the 2 ninja-like people and the earth mage? Hmm.' He thought it was unlikely but the truth was that he was locked up. He could sense that he had a small injury on his head, it was probably worse but healed quite a bit already. He would have noticed he killed some people if he tried to call up some notifications or that his Slumber Survival Instincts had levelled.
'Forget it. No point thinking about that. I just got a little more Natural Potential, Everlasting Tranquillity should be able to level once or twice. Maybe my manipulation could get some levels too. oh, and I needed time to train Reinforced Mana Chassis anyway.'
His mind finally cleared up and he felt that it was a nice and quiet environment. His only complaint would be the stench. He didn't have any problems with the dim lighting and the best part should be that the earthen room was dry.
He found himself not caring about who caught him, how they caught him and just closed his eyes.
❅❅❅
"We really don't know! You caught all of us, how could we have succeeded?!" The man dressed in black had his face uncovered.
Kong Jing didn't look at the group of 5, one with a cut arm, one with legs slowly thawing out and 3 other relatively unharmed men. They weren't tied up and neither were locked in, kneeling on the front porch. She was in her own house that she placed out in the open, staring at her little sister intently. The worry in her heart kept intensifying.
She managed to put her to sleep but all she could do was let Ning Xin's mask do the work. None of them could use healing magic. Ning Xin's heart was beating normally and even Kong Jing herself was unable to remove her mask to check her complexion. People could rip their heads off and the mask wouldn't come loose unless the wearer themselves wanted it to come loose. Well, with the healing capabilities of their masks she didn't want to remove it anyway.
Her chest rose back to normal but her ribs were clearly broken but that wasn't the worst part. Her skin was purplish black. Kong Jing didn't know much about injuries but she didn't even dare bring her around with space magic because she might injure her further. Since she was a space mage herself, she never spent much time or effort making anything that helps with travelling fast.
She had no choice but to find a healer, as much as she wanted to barge into the Royal's that was too far without space magic.
"We were hired by an associate but he really isn't with us. We aren't capable of going against a Grandmaster."
"I know you're not capable of doing so. Find out who caught him and where he is." Kong Jing said simply.
"Why sho--" The hot headed one armed man's head disappeared and it was silent again after the kneeling body fell limp.
"We'll do it!" The rest nodded fiercely at their boss's words.
"Think carefully. I'm not forcing you but don't think you can hide from me if you agree."
"Of course! We'll find him as fast as we can!"
They found themselves sent a distance away from the house that the scary masked one pulled out.
Their leader screamed in rage. They took a job they would regret for years to come.
❅❅❅
"THOSE USELESS FOOLS!" Mr Rumble smashed his new table at the news that all three of his Grandmasters had been hospitalised with broken limbs and burns bad enough to scar them for life.
He still couldn't afford to lose them and was bound by contract to pay for their healing fees. Each of their contracts was more beneficial to the employee due to their strength and status as a Grandmaster so he had to give them the best treatment he could.
Catching Rimestone had cost him a lot more than what he originally lost and he was furious but quickly calmed down when he got reports that Rimestone already filled a couple of Blue's worth of mana in less than a day he had been locked up.
As a businessman that hastily had a containment cell built in secret, he wasn't aware that the chains or locks he ordered had a draining speed limit. His supplier was…seedy at best and didn't know the draining speed. The only way the meditator could regenerate so much mana was that he was meditating and that soothed his anger a bit.
He assumed that with so much mana drained out of him, there was no way he could break free with magic. He was surprised since he bought one that focused on draining stamina but he couldn't get his hands on storage for stamina and since those weren't really worth much for most people the current draining only releases the drained stamina into the surroundings.
Since he was going to drain him dry, he was pondering on which associate he had that was interested in stamina or where he could obtain a method to store it without getting attention from the nobles that he had a secret prison. Although he had a good relationship with the city's lord, he needed to be careful.
Mr Rumble actually agreed with the unreasonable price that was extorted out of them. He saw things differently, this was a long term investment.
"Damn ban on mana slaves…it would've been such a nice passive income. Should I expand into this business…" Mr Rumble mumbled to himself at the great investment possibility. It would be diving into shady business but with how much a single person brought him, he began to ponder on the risk and the reward.
There weren't many meditators around anymore and Rimestone seem to be the only young one that could be found but he could still get some random mages.
'Is it necessary to go into shady business. I could contract as many mages as possible who are required to meditate and supply me with mana ores but what would make them go into a contract to give me what they can keep themselves? Not feasible…and meditation is usually a generic skill I would require too many mages."
"Mr Rumble, if I may be allowed to cut in on your thoughts." His assistant was surprisingly faithful to him.
"Speak."
"The people we hired, they are indeed highly skilled. I see no reason to believe that they are unaware of the value of keeping…mana slaves. Much less the value of Rimestone, for them to 'give' him to us would mean they themselves do not dabble in this source of revenue. The risk is too high even with Rimestone alone."
"...We'll do as you say. I'll leave Rimestone to you."
The assistant clenched his teeth, if taking care of Rimestone was left to him a lot of blame or evidence would be pushed to him if anything were to happen. This crafty fatty!
"You did well this time, you can have 5% of whatever he produces for as long as you are in charge of him." Mr Rumble knew he needed to reward such a risky job and he was pretty generous with it. He picked up the container of strain relievers that fell from the broken table and lit himself a stick.
5% was more than the assistant could hope for. He knew how much 5% was after he made the report and he had no choice but to agree.
❅❅❅
Ebony didn't know how long it had been since he went full on meditating and bloating himself with mana at the same time.
At first his poison resistance levelled twice more, over time. Then it just stopped, and he had to assume he wasn't poisoned anymore. His health fully recovered when his head injury healed but his poison resistance levelled up after. He guessed it was some kind of sleeping poison and not a killing one.
Since he hadn't needed to relieve himself yet, it shouldn't have been too long. A week maximum, taking into account that he wasn't really given a lot to eat or drink.
There was actually a pretty seamless small door at the bottom for them to slid a tray in. A large bowl of water a day, a hard loaf of bread and cream meat stew. They probably cooked a pot and fed him the same thing all the time. From the third meal onwards, he could smell the sourness.
The guy who came to give him food was a different person, he could sense it through the small gap even though that person never spoke or even looked through the hole. He was taller and much skinnier than the first guy who came to talk to him. Perhaps he wasn't informed that he should be fed every two days because he brought food once a day.
Well, his sense of taste was completely gone again and he believed it was helpful this time. Maybe he could only taste her food now.
Today, something changed. Another person was here along with his caretaker who never spoke. The person's overflowing essence could be felt through the door.
"Please calm down! We need him in a good condition so that he can meditate well." With his Vibrational Gravity Sense, he knew it was the one who fed him who spoke.
"I won't kill him. Just rough him up a little. Here, for your trouble." The man with the stronger aura tossed over a single Blue. Ebony's senses were already good enough to differentiate the quality of mana ores just from their density.
"...I said you won't be getting any closer." His caretaker actually didn't catch the mana ore and moved in front of the larger man with a limp to stop him. The man with a limp also had one arm in a sling.
He was casually slapped aside. The slap resounded through his small room.
Ebony had his eyes closed the whole time, even after the man took a key from his caretaker and barged into his room.
"Stand up."
He remained crossed-legged with his eyes closed.
"He's deep in meditation, he can't hear you." His caretaker rubbed his swollen face, powerless to stop the stronger man.
"Then I'll have to wake him up don't I?" The man used his uninjured hand to drag Ebony up by the hair.
Ebony stood up but didn't bother opening his eyes, the two thought he was still in meditation. It was not unexpected, they knew the details of a 'normal' meditation skill that reduces perception, the higher tiered meditation almost completely shuts off perception.
"Let's see you take this!" A fist drove into his belly but the attacker cried out in pain instead.
'He doesn't know how to punch. Not a close combatant. Low strength, low constitution but his aura is strong.' Ebony preferred calling overflowing essence aura.
"Ell! How much Constitution does he have?" The man saw that Ebony didn't even flinch from slamming into the wall. His eyes laid on the sculpted body, perfect was the only word he had for it.
Ebony vaguely sensed the lightning mana infused in the next punch. He had an extremely weak affinity for lightning magic but his senses were already heightened after getting zapped by Ning Xin so much. Perhaps after his evolution, he would be able to manipulate lightning a little.
"This is for shaming my brother!" The lightning-infused punch rammed into him but the lightning mana dispersed awkwardly. He obviously never or rarely infused lightning mana into his punches.
'Brother, lightning, not a close combatant. High chance it's really related to the lightning gunmen from the tournament years ago.' Once again, he was pushed against the wall but his eye remained closed and there was no change in his facial expression.
It irritated the injured man even more and he continued walloping into Ebony's belly. Only stopping after seeing the scorched skin and thick bruises on his belly. After more than half an hour, not once did he even elicit a reaction much less a scream of pain while the attacker's own knuckles were red with skin tears.
Ebony only listened to how his caretaker was trying to stop the man, even throwing his body and wrapping around the attacker's good arm but he was too weak and only got flung aside.
The injured man stormed out, more pissed than before he arrived even though he was here to let off steam.
"I..I'm sorry I couldn't stop him. I'll get some ointment for you, I have a pretty good one."
"It's okay, no need for ointment but can I have a pair of pants and a shirt? It's a little uncomfortable being almost naked." Although it might be troublesome to take off his pants should he need to relieve himself, he was wearing underwear and adding a pair of pants wouldn't really add to the difficulty. The wooden cuffs still let him have some mobility with his arms.
The caretaker also assumed that he was still deep in meditation and was surprised to hear him talk for the first time. He was already impressed how anyone could stay in meditation but more frightened than impressed by how absolutely no reaction came from him during the beatings when he wasn't deep in meditation.
The caretaker was careful and had his face covered, he couldn't help but take a step back when those pitch-black eyes stared into his.
"...I'll see what I can do." He saw the meditator sit back down with wobbly legs. The stamina drain on him was definitely doing its work.
The caretaker, assistant Mason only had one thought as he left the tiny cell and locked the gate.
'This man wouldn't be locked in here for as long as Mr Rumble likes.'
Mason wasn't able to place his bets on Mr Rumble with the current odds.