There is only one ironclad rule that is the same in any world, any universe, and that is that Strength is God. The stronger the fist, the stronger the connections, or the stronger bank account, it mattered not. Each of them were a type of strength, and if one had enough strength then they were god. 

This was the thought that was running through a young man's mind as he was chased from one village to the next by slavers.

He'd never committed any wrong doings, he didn't rape anyone, nor did he steal anything, the only wrong that he ever committed was the sin of weakness. It may as well have been the worst sin of all in a world like this one. 

Even in the safest of cities, laws will not protect you.

It was exactly because of this that if you saw bandits or slavers, you ran. 

Most people would be wary of merchants, let alone bandits. 

No one tried to reason with the bandits or bribe them because it was pointless.

Why would the bandits steal when you could rob?

Why kill when you could enslave?

The only thing that bandits cared about was profit. Unless your tears were filled with gold than the bandits wouldn't care whether you laughed or cried, whether you begged or died. 

This was just the way of the world. 

Our story begins with a young man with unkempt red hair and unique crimson eyes hiding in the back of the horse stables in a rural village. 

The most eye catching thing about this young man wasn't his eyes though, it was the rough shape he was in. 

His clothes were ragged and blooded, and his leg was in some sort of homemade splint. He finally made it into this town last night after over a week of being chased by bandits through the woods.

He thought he was safe, at least for a while. However this morning when he awoke to the villagers fleeing he knew he was anything but. 

'Fuck!! What am I going to do?! There is no way for me to escape or hide…' The young man thought in despair. With his bum leg it would be impossible for him to flee from them again. It was already a miracle that he'd made it to this village with his busted leg. 

In the distance he could already hear the voices of the bandits.

"Fan out and check everything! Leave nothing behind!"

The young man tried to hide himself underneath the hay, but with his bad leg it was almost in possible. 

~tap tap tap~

He could hear the footsteps of the men approaching, and his impending doom arriving. 

"We got a live one here boys!" Was the last thing he heard before he felt horrible pain on his head and everything faded to black.

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The young man awoke with a headache like nothing he'd ever experienced before. 

His vision was blurry and his thoughts were foggy as he tried to focus on what was before him. 

He looked down and noticed a slave mark on the back of his hand. He then looked up and saw hundreds of captives and a massive… thing?

He'd been brought into a giant cave that the Bandits had turned into their hideout. 

Even though the cave was massive most of it was taken up by a mass of purple-ish black energy.

He didn't know what to call it. It was like a massive ball of death that was just floating in the air. He didn't understand what it was but he could tell that it was extremely dangerous. 

He wasn't alone either. There were countless slaves in cages just like him, most of them were staring at the thing in fear. 

They were more afraid of that thing than of the bandits. 

After all, whatever was waiting inside of that thing was most likely scarier than death. 

He could hear the joyous laughter of the bandits as they bragged about their haul.

As the bandits entered the cavern they were in, one of them laughed gleefully when he saw the slaves, "Haha! 3,000! 3,000 slaves in a day is not bad!!" 

"Don't forget about all the loot!" Another bandit said, smiling from ear to ear.

"AND BITCHES! YOU CAN'T FORGET ABOUT THE BITCHES!" One exceptionally drunk bandit roared and every hooted and hollered. 

A few moments later the hall quilted down as a large mountain of a man approached. 

"Hmm, pretty good quantity for one day. Let's hope that quality is good as well."

He was known as The Slaver. Originally they'd been a small rag-tag group of bandits, not much different than any other group. 

However, that all changed when he found the portal.

"Well I guess we'll find out soon how much they're worth…" The Slaver was grinning from ear to ear. 

The Slaver was a massive man with a scar that took up most of his face, even claiming one of his eyes. 

He opened one of the cages and grabbed a slave, leading them toward the mass of energy. The slave fought with everything they had but was easily man hand The Slaver and thrown into the portal. Not even a moment later something came out of the portal. It looked like a large green crystal of some sort.

When he saw that the crystal was green The Slaver shook his head in disappointment, "Hmm, hopefully the rest of them are worth more…" 

One at a time The Slaver would send the slaves through the portal, and then different colored crystals and weird objects would come out in return. 

When they were white or green he'd always be disappointed and when they were blue or purple he would become excited.

Sometimes other things would come out of the portal, but the young man was too far away to see what they were clearly. 

The young man in the splint was watching numbly as the people disappeared, unable to comprehend what was happening. 

Were those people being directly converted into some sort of energy? 

Were they being sent somewhere? 

What was that purple floating energy?

The young man pondered numbly while waiting for his turn.

"Carry the cripple!" One of the bandits said when he arrived outside the young mans cage. 

"K" A bandit replied with a simple "K" and then picked up the young man. 

As he was being carried towards his death, he heard a commotion coming from the entrance to the hideout.

"Fuck! We're under attack!" One of the bandits yelled.

"Fuck! Throw them through the portal. Quickly!" Another shouted in a panic.

"Prepare for battle!" Another roared.

The young man watched as soldiers and wizards poured into the hideout. 

He then turned to look at the portal that he was quickly approaching and couldn't help but think, 'Damn, I actually almost lived too…'

What he didn't notice because of the fact he was paying attention to the entrance, was that the portal had changed from purple to red. 

When he entered the portal he thought he saw something out of the corner of his eye but before he could read it, he fainted once more. 

[Welcome to Reverie!]