Just as Bray was about to focus his attention on crafting a divine sword from his imagination, he heard a knock on his door, causing him to abruptly stand up. His expression turned stern. Who could it be? Sloven? Or the guards that heard about Vin's death today? Wondered as he placed his shackles back with the help of the system and slowly stood up, heading towards the door.
Click!
As soon as the door opened, he saw Sloven standing there with his still slightly pale face, causing him to breathe out in relief inwardly. At least the guards don't seem to want to say anything about Vin's death for now.
Sloven turned to look at Bray, waiting for his response to enter. Bray shuddered his thoughts away and then gestured for Sloven to enter politely with a smile, after which Sloven stepped inside Bray's house and directly went towards his wooden bed, not standing on ceremony.
As Sloven reached the bed, he crouched down and then gestured at Bray, "Close the door and come closer. Lock it, let there be no accidents."
Click! Bray followed his advice, sensing the tensive atmosphere, and proceeded to lock the door with the system he already knew, right from the beginning that there were no cameras inside the rooms, so he knew that whatever he and Sloven were about to discuss was safe and there would be no leakages.
Crouching down, Sloven took out a piece of rectangular paper and then unfolded it. He then unfolded it again and again. After a couple of unfolding, the piece of paper now looked like a large map, which Bray recognized looked similar to maps as described on earth.
The map lay flat on the bed, following which Bray spread out his palm, and a dark pulse of miasma spread out from it. He spoke as he did this.
"In order to escape, there are certain things we need to know about each other," another black orb formed on Sloven's hand, and he tossed it towards the other end of the bed, to which it formed a shiny black stone and stayed firmly there, holding the map rooted at that angle.
"I am quite special, you see," he condensed another orb of darkness and tossed it towards the third angle at his right-hand corner. "I am stronger than most people, in fact, I can be considered a rare, special case in this world of awakeners."
Bray listened attentively as his eyes widened in shock looking at Sloven, his expression looked as though he was seeing a monster that couldn't be described in normal words. Of course this was all an act, Bray already knew the ability Sloven possessed with the system. All that Sloven was telling and showing him were things he already knew.
[Dark winged angel (S-grade)]—the ability to harness the divine essence. In dark angel mode, one is able to harness the power of darkness affinity. Strength x5000, agility x5000, physique x5000, endurance x5000, endurance x5000.]
Now underneath the ability, Bray noticed another line of words had appeared.
[An ability that uses the ethereal essence of the divine directly ignores all power levels and can be used at any power level.]
Bray looked at Sloven in surprise, although he didn't show it outward. If it was before, the system didn't show him the second line of words. Is it because I too have an S-grade ability? Bray was curious, but he knew that there was a pressing matter at hand, so he continued to listen to Sloven.
Sloven took a slight pause, after which he continued, "I don't know much about this world of awakeners, I only know some common information about it, like the fact that we are naturally not supposed to be here and someone or something is keeping us here."
For someone who looks timid and shy, Sloven sure is wise. Bray praised him inwardly as he looked at Sloven in a different light, he didn't know how Sloven got his hands on such information and was able to infer that much, but still, he should be praised for coming to such a conclusion.
"When you say someone or something is keeping us here, what do you mean?" Bray interrupted Sloven and asked, causing him to stop halfway.
"Oh that?" Sloven seemed as though he was thinking of something, and after a moment of hesitation, he finally replied, "I just assumed that from the information given, look at this."
Sloven pointed towards the piece of map on the wooded bed. "After asking around from some guards that care to answer, I have come to discover that most of this world's prisons are owned by big organizations, most of these guards are hired from their home planet to work here."
"What?" Bray was so shocked that he exclaimed. These guards are actually from another planet. And more importantly is the fact that there are people working under an organization. How can that be true? Let's say I believe what Sloven is saying. Does this mean that the master is the head of the combination of all these organizations? Bray didn't dare go down this line of thought, rather, he continued listening to what Sloven was saying.
"Exactly, when I came to this conclusion as well, I was surprised by my line of thinking." Sloven's eyes lit up, and Bray could see the brilliance in them. "Look at this, we are this close to the next-world prison nearest to us." Sloven pointed at a particular location on the map.
"From what I heard, some guards engage in something like a bet, in which they exchange world prisons in order to see who would win their individual bet."
"Are you saying?" Bray understood what Sloven was thinking.
"Exactly! The guards are our way to escape this world prison, we need to find out which guards would engage in the exchange within the next two months and how to impersonate those guards."
"From then on, we would be able to sneak out using those guards as a means of escape, of course, we need to increase our strength while we are at it so that we will be able to take out the guards when the time comes." Sloven spoke all in one breath before pausing slightly.
"Ah, yes… We also need someone that will handle the watch when the alarm goes off when a guard is taken out," he suddenly spoke up.
"Huh? What do you mean by that?" Bray asked Sloven, his eyebrows raised in a questioning gaze.
To be continued...