Run

Mike was booking it and because of the archer on the roof, he was staying more towards the sides of the streets and near the alleys so that he could jump in them so as to avoid the arrows if needed. However, Mike had been in plenty of chase scenarios in the role-playing world to know that anything can come out from a random alley such as a drunk man stumbling into his path to a heavy set wagon full of goods trying to move through the city. If Mike got caught on something or slowed down even a bit he would be captured and subjected to torture just for the fun of it and as a sort of punishment for causing them so much trouble.

Still, mike was not running away like a mad man without seeing that so far only one of the figures was attacking them while the other two were still missing. Mike expected them to wait for Mike further along the road so that is why he generally tried to go down different roads to help through them off and going down other roads. It was risky, to say the least, but Mike had no other choice so he had to take risks to stay alive and protect Dike as best he could for as long as possible.

If Dike always has Mike's back who will have his? So Mike wants to also keep an eye on him as well to make sure he stays safe as well in this whole master and apprentice thing they are in.

Still, that was why Mike needed to run as hard as he could and as fast as he could without any worry of running into someone or something which is why he did not activate his magic boots due to his concerns of abruptly dodging or stopping from running headfirst into something and getting caught. Abbey had been counting how much time he had before his body was taken over once again and he had about 43 minutes left, but he was still stuck in the slums and was almost out of it. Their people might help him out of the goodness of their hearts and if need be he could use Dike's mone- generosity to get people to help him out.

Mike saw another alleyway up ahead and assumed that the archer on the roof was taking aim once again so Mike makes the decision to jump on into the alley and follow it till it looped around back to the road. That was Mike's mistake.

The alley went on for a little bit but eventually ended up and a dead-end so Mike had accidentally cornered himself. Wanting to head back Mike turns only to see that the two other robed figures were blocking his path, seeing no other option Mike once again takes the token out from his system space so he can attempt to use it to call for help. Before Mike can say anything an arrow embeds itself into his arm.

Mike has taken 21 piercing damage

Mike is now bleeding and will lose 2 health points every minute until necessary treatment is given

"AAAUUUGGGHHH!!!" Mike of course like anyone else would yell at getting an arrow embedded into his arm

What was either better or worse was that the arrow went clean through his through the arm shattering both his Ulnas and Radius bone. There was now a big hole in his lower arm and it was bleeding heavily with all the damage that he had taken he would die in a few minutes due to blood loss. The pain was unbearable due to having his bones shattered in his arm and being pierced with an arrow that tore through his flesh.

This was real life and Mike would not be saved by a kind Dungeon Master or out of the goodwill from some random person passing by who can easily kill these guys before him. Seeing no way out now Mike was feeling despair as the figures came further towards him before one of them picked up the token that he dropped when his arm was almost torn in half by the arrow.

The last thing Mike sees is a blunted arrow streaking from the roof and knocking him out.

***Unkown location***

Mike finally woke up and he was strapped to a chair tightly restricting his movements to virtually nothing except for him being able to move his neck around to see where he was. He was in a dark room and Mike could not see much except that the room was decently sized and that he was in the middle of it alone. Mike's arm still hurt but with only the dull throbbing pain as a reminder of what happened in the alleyway where his arm was shot.

Opening up the system with his thoughts he saw that his arm had stopped bleeding but now his health was at 17 health points which was not that much. With that out of the way and nothing to do Mike just closes the system interface and just sits there in the darkroom waiting for something to happen while he just held his head low.

Eventually, after an unknown time, a door was opened and the three figures from before entered the room with a singular lantern showering light into the dark and dreary place. Mike had entered a weird state of being awake and asleep at different intervals as the amount of blood that he lost was affecting him and the rope binding him to the chair was constricting his blood flow which was not helping the situation at all.

The door is closed and Mike looks up at the three of them. Now that there was light he was able to see the room around him and its contents. There was a table that Mike could see off to the left on the wall of the room which was bare of anything except dust. The one holding the lantern puts it on the table before moving behind him and since Mike was constricted in the chair he could not really look behind him even if he wanted to.

"Let me guess... you are going to torture me for the fun of it?" Mike asks

"Nailed it, kid, you caused us quite a bit of trouble so we might as well return the favor," One says

Mike just slunks his head further down as he took solace in the small fact that they had to keep him alive and relatively intact in order for the other guy to use him once he came back.

'Abbey how long has it been since I was knocked out?' Mike asks

"About three hours since then Mike..." Abbey says with worry evident in her voice

"Can I least make a request before you three start?" Mike asks while craning his neck back towards the guy behind him

"Hahaha alright, kid what you want before we start? We will hear you out before we start," Three says while taking out his dagger and showing it to Mike expecting to get some sort of reaction from him

"Can I have a drink of water? My throat is parched so my screams will probably sound unpleasant to you guys," Mike says

"Oh really well then of course you can have some water right guys?" Three says in an ominous tone

With that says Mike starts to feel his body start to fall backward as the chair gets pulled back by Two apparently who went behind him (They all look the same so Mike can only identify them through their voices). Mike was originally scared as this is not the first time when his chair had been pushed back far enough to the point where he would fall onto his back. Mike wanted to catch himself but could not and when the chair fell so did Mike just jolting him a bit but causing no harm to him physically.

With Mike on the ground in confusion a rag gets put over his head and before he realizes what is happening water starts pouring down onto his face. Mike was being put in a very torturous process called Waterboarding from when he was on Earth. It was a method of torture that was used to make people feel physically and psychologically what it is like to drown with a rag over their head while water is continuously poured onto their face. Usually, the unfortunate soul who was partaking in the process had their nose and mouth completely covered until the people administering it would stop the torture or in rare cases dying through the process as it seemed to lifelike and the body dies from shock or actually drowning.

This was going through Mike's head as he was subjected to a similar method but since they only put a rag on his head Mike was able to flick it off of his face a few seconds into it.

"Three continue to refill the bucket and Two hold him still," One says while checking Mike's bindings to make sure that they were still secure after Mikes struggling

Mike feels Two's hands grab his head and jolt it back into position with an almost inhuman strength coming out of them that is restricting him tightly.

Mike could do nothing as they continued to waterboard him for around thirty minutes of pure torture of feeling like you were drowning and could do nothing about it as Mike struggled against his bindings time and time again in the vain hope he could break free with his meager strength. It was useless and his mind knew that it was pointless to resist but his body still tried to regardless of what his mind was telling it. Natural and instinctive reactions would be reason hands down unless one was trained to not allow them to happen through training.

When Mike was finally done with his drink of water he was tired, scared, and drenched in icy cold water from head to neck and as he was propped back up from his position on the floor Mike was able to see that now the true torture would begin.

Over the next few hours, Mike was subjected to numerous forms of torture ranging from having his nails and teeth pulled out to getting stabbed by Three's knife in almost every place imaginable on the human body while screaming the whole time in pain and agony. As to how Mike survived the ordeal it was Two who healed him over and over again but that only brought him back to full health while leaving scars on his body that would not change from when he was on the door to death before he was yanked back to safety only to get there again from numerous forms of torture that those three wanted to put him through.

When it was all said and done and those three sadistic creeps had their fun Mike was finally left alone in the room once more in the dark of the room with only the constant smell of blood lingering in the room and the phantom pain that Mike's body was going through over and over in his mind and body. It was torture pure and simple but it had been warped into something even more twisted than Mike's ligaments just a moment ago as torture being done just for fun was a demon more powerful and evil than anything else in the world.

'Ding'

Mike has gained [Intermediate Pain Resistance]

With the introduction of the skill, the pain immediately starts to lessen considerably but Mike knew that no matter what skill he got the pain of the memories he just experienced would continue to stay with him no matter what.

...

[Intermediate Pain Resistance] - Passive

Reduces the amount of pain felt from most forms of physical torture and forms of damage taken in combat

50% pain reduction to physical torture and forms of damage

...

With the skill, the three figures that subjected him to torture would have to get more creative than stabbing him than to get a reaction from him. Through this endeavor, Mike felt something break in his mind as he himself wanted to personally subject those three to the torture that he went through, and more so when he was done they would be begging for the sweet release of death. While those thoughts were going through his mind he did not know that his mana had now increased from a measly 4 to 15 in an instant.

***One***

After the three of them had their fun with torturing Mike they went back up a set of stairs and were now at the ground level of a tavern. The place was a bit run down and not many people came for food or drink only for the barmaids that serviced them in a multitude of ways. Getting control of the place was easy as everyone has their demons that they are hiding and were now were using it to hold Mike in the cellar where the owner used to hold his wares and other questionable goods from others.

"With that done what now?" Three asks

"We celebrate getting into the group," One says while calling over a few barmaids for their services and drinks