Slaves

Mike had finally moved all the boxes out of the corner they were in. It took him a long time to do it by himself with his low strength but he still finished it after an hour of hard back-breaking work of moving them. There were a lot of goods in them such as grains, cheeses, wine, and other such items which he happened to take and eat as he was hungry enough to eat them that were inside of the crates and barrels that he moved. Those that he wanted to take were put into his inventory such as a crate of imported wine and some cheese as well. The items he took from the room only left him with ten more slots to hold other interesting items that he found worth keeping later on.

These things were not that much but he still could not take all of them since the system inventory now limited how big an object was so he was not able to take that many items from the items that were available to him. After the crates were moved to a different place the floor that they were covering is no longer stone but was in fact a wooden trapdoor with a rope on one side. It was a wooden trap door and Mike knowing how this would go decides to go behind the door and grab the rope that was on top of it. With a good yank, the door opens, and just as Mike was expecting an arrow was shot out of the trapdoor and struck the ceiling before it fell to the floor. With that Mike opens the trap door fully before he uses the torch to see that there is a set of wooden stairs that lead down into darkness. Mike sees that there was a crossbow that was stuck to the door that shot out the arrow.

With the crossbow there if anyone found the trapdoor and did not disarm it they would die or be crippled from the shot as crossbows in the medieval ages were great armor piercers in the day. Mike takes down the crossbow and takes a look at the arrow that was shot to see what its condition it is in after being shot. Surprisingly the arrow did not shatter when it hit the stone ceiling but the arrowhead was bent in an odd direction after hitting the ceiling, but it was still usable at least that is what Mike thought.

So Mike places the torch on the ground for a second before he takes the crossbow stands on its limbs, grabs the bowstring, and cocks it before leveling it and placing the arrow that was shot before in the groove. With the crossbow armed Mike realizes how hard those things were to load as it took a lot of strength out of him to just load the thing. Once done he puts it into his inventory to be used as a surprise attack in any future battles that he takes part in. With that done Mike grabs the torch from the ground and with his shortsword in his other hand descends the stairs into the darkness.

***Dike/Daniel***

Dike was worried for Mike as he had not contacted him with the token that he had been given and that it had almost been 24 hours since Mike left the tavern the day before. The bright side of this gloomy predicament was that Dike had put on a tracking spell on the token as well since he assumed that the people of The Mystic Mind would be too tough for Mike to face. Currently, Dike had used his authority as a Royal Wizard to call upon the local guards and city wizards to help him take them down and save Mike if he was still alive that is.

Dike was currently leading the captain of the guard and everyone into the slums to across the street of a crappy tavern that he was getting pulled to by his magic. The guards would go around to block off the streets and surround the place while Dike and the other three wizards that were with him would go in to search for Mike and capture the people of The Mystic Mind or kill them if needed.

Still, this would take a lot of time to set up and if Dike was right then there would be someone keeping tabs on him, and with the presence of the captain of the guard and the wizards that were in the city, it was certainly going to attract attention from the wrong people. So they all hole up in an empty house across the street for the time being as they wait to come up with a plan and see if they can see Mike coming out of the place or anyone suspicious.

"What have you got in the place?" Dike asks the captain of the guard who was discernable by the red feather on his helmet

"Well we believe there to be some sort of slave trafficking happening in that establishment but all we have found are just rumors and nothing solid but rumors," The captain says

"Why has there been nothing found yet?" Dike questions

"Erm... well sir this is the slums so the guards that patrol here and do inspections tend to be a bit lazy and accept bribes from time to time," The captain says obviously worried about the truth he is telling

Dike just ignores the captain and looks back across the street at the tavern that he is feeling the connection coming from.

"Hold on Mike"

***Mike***

Mike yet down the set of stairs which did not lead that far down before reaching the dirt floor bottom with plenty of headspaces for him to stand up straight in the tunnel with the wooden support beams not making him feel like he was boxed in the tunnel. The place was a bit stuffy and very dark but Mike was not worried about it since his sword was out and ready to stab anything that came at him out of the darkness of the tunnel. Still, Mike checks the ground to make sure there are no more booby traps that could kill him and if possible he would avoid them. So Mike slowly advances down the tunnel with wary steps and occasionally checking the ground for anything that looked like a trap or an indicator of something.

20

Two 20's in a row damn that is lucky. Mike saw no traps on the ground or wall but he did notice that the dirt of the ground had some weird tracks in it that differed from the occasional half boot print. It looked like either the people down here were odd enough to cover their tracks or that something was dragged behind them while they were walking to wherever it was that he was going. After a few minutes, though he did find something interesting on one of the wooden support beams with the 20 roll, he saw that the beam to the left seemed to be a bit crooked for some reason.

The change was almost unnoticeable to anyone but to Mike, it stuck out like a sore thumb and when he looked closer he saw a dried up bloody handprint that was at the bottom of it. That was not it Mike saw a small piece of cloth that seemed to have caught on the pillar as well. These signs showed that people were down here against their will just like him so Mike decides to go further down but this time a bit faster. He avoided one trap though as he was able to see at a fork in the tunnel one on the way was a dud that was meant to cave in and trap the person there. So Mike continues down the tunnel for a long while at the same level of the ground neither going up nor down which was a bit weird but Mike thought nothing of it.

When Mike was starting to wonder if he was going the right way he ended up at a wooden door that was actually apart of a stone-packed wall. This was interesting so Mike puts his ear on the door to hear what is going on the other side of the door and figure out if there is someone there.

8

Mike can't hear anything but with the fact that the dice rolled inside his head and got such a low number he still had to be careful so he gingerly opens the door as it did not seem to be locked from what he could tell. As he opens up the door a crack he hears some sort of commotion on the other side and Mike hears someone running towards the door. So when he judges that they are close enough to the door Mike moves to the side and kicks the door the rest of the way open.

Thwack!

Mike hears the thwack and then someone falling to the ground and Mike quickly goes inside the room and closes the door behind him as does not want anyone to rush him from behind or run away from the room and alerting anyone. When mike enters the room he sees that unlike the rest of the places that Mikes have been this place was actually lit by lanterns and was well lit. This place seemed to be some sort of checkpoint from Mike could tell as the person that hit the door was actually a well-armored individual in plate mail who was now lying on the floor groaning as he slowly got up.

Mike took this opportunity to stab the man where the armor was not protecting him in between the visor that was allowing him to see. The stab went in easily and the man fell to the ground dead.

'Ding'

Mike has killed an Armored Thug, +200 exp

With that, Mike was now one step closer to leveling up again and improving his stats. If he met a few more of these thugs then he might actually level up here.

However, as Mike looked at the thug dead on the ground lying in his own pool of blood on the now stone floor Mike was actually starting to feel a little queasy as the smell and impact of actually taking the life of another person hit him hard mentally. Still, Mike knew that this was the only way and that he should continue moving after he looted the corpse of the guy of anything valuable or that Mike could take to some relatives to help ease his conscience.

Unlike in the roleplaying games where Mike would just say the action and it would be done end of the story Mike had painstakingly check to see what he could take from the corpse. The first thing was the sword that the guy had sheathed in his scabbard that could be sold for some coin when Mike got back. It was a longsword but was in decent condition as it seemed like there was very little to do here while waiting so cleaning might have been the only pass time the guy could have had while passing the time. Mike also took off the guy's plate armor and put it in a pile while Mike checked the guy's pant pockets for some spare change or anything.

The armor he put into his inventory and showed up as a full set of plate mail armor so at least that saved him inventory slots. The armor he would sell as well since he was not very big on heavy types of armor and preferred to have a non-impaired vision with a helmet on that limits him. The guy only had a few silver coins on him and a picture frame with a woman and child in it which Mike put into his own pouch that he kept in the inventory as well.

After robbing the dead Mike continues before he knows it he starts hearing some noises coming from further ahead which Mike cannot make out. However, as Mike gets closer he can discern that what he hears is crying and sobbing coming from further ahead down the tunnel. Moving carefully Mike brandishes his sword gingerly as he sees a corner ahead which is the first change in direction for the first time he has been down in the tunnels. As he rounds the corner his sight is greeted with people clapped in chains that were stuck into the stone wall preventing them from running away and all of them were crying and sobbing from what Mike could see.

As Mike rounded the corner some people noticed his entrance to the room and stopped crying as they looked at him with red eyes from crying and sobbing.