Here To Help

Mike had ended up at a place where people were chained up to the wall regardless if they were young or old, man or woman they were all chained up to the wall. The thing that struck Mike as odd was that most of the people here were elf while only a few people were actually human other than that those were the only race of people here in this place. There seemed to be an uneven ratio of male to female with females being the majority of the gender of people. Still, as Mike stood there he heard multiple footsteps coming from the left of the room that he had just entered.

Before Mike can even attempt to hide three men in leather armor enter the room and when they see all the people chained up to the wall looking in a certain direction and seeing Mike they immediately realize that he is not one of them and draw their blades and rush him.

Mike was his torch in his left-hand throws it at the first guy running at him. The man easily swipes the torch with his sword and it goes clattering away from him but before he can react an arrow was in front of his face and embeds itself in his skull. Mike had used the crossbow in his inventory to shoot the first guy that was rushing him so that he would have to deal with less of them and since the guy was so close and distracted it hit him easily that the dice was not rolled for Mike to hit.

'Ding'

Mike has killed Thug, +75 exp

The guy's corpse falls to the ground and before they can do anything after reeling from the shock Mike is now in front of the other two. He swings his sword towards the Thug to the right but before Mike's sword makes contact with the Thug's flesh his blade comes up as well and is able to stop Mike's blade. Seeing as that was ineffective he knees the guy in the crotch. Usually, fighting has some unspoken rules especially in the medieval and feudalist era but when one's life is on the line Mike would through those rules in the garbage for now as he needs to survive.

The guy that Mike kneed reels back from the blow but before Mike can go and finish him off the other one does an overhand strike against Mike who hastily moves to block it. Their swords clash and Mike is barely holding on in terms of strength this guy was definitely stronger than him by at least a dozen points. So Mike takes his blade and while the guy is pushing down on him he abruptly changes the angle of his blade causing the man's weight to press down and his blade just slides down Mike's.

The man surprised at mike does, can barely do anything now as he is falling towards the ground which is not the most advantageous for him as Mike takes his blade and goes to stab him in the neck. As Mike's blade almost decapitated the guy on the ground Mike left his back exposed to the other Thug that he kneed. So they took advantage of that and tried to stab Mike in back and kill him. Mike twists his body at the last second and the blade stabs into his left arm instead of his back. The pain was significantly less than what it should be and all it really did was just make Mike flinch slightly.

'Ding'

Mike has killed Thug, +75 exp

Mike has taken 6 piercing damage

Seeing as how Mike was stabbed by the guy it was only right that he returned the favor and stabbed him back.

19

Mike stabs the guy in the gut with his own blade causing a strangled cry of pain to emerge from his mouth.

Mike has dealt 6 damage and inflicted the 'Bleeding' effect on Thug

Mike got the status sheet of the Thug as well.

...

Name: None

Level 6 Thug

Race: Human

Health: 44/50

Skills: None

Weapons:

Short sword (6-10 piercing damage)

Dagger (5-10 piercing damage)

...

When Mike had stabbed the other thugs he was able to hit vital spots such as their necks, eyes, and other vital points and was able to kill them quite easily without even having to roll for some reason, but Mike was not complaining as it was just free exp for him to utilize later if needed. Mike then pulls out his blade from the Thug's gut and moves his arm out of the sword that was stuck in it.

Mike has dealt 5 bleeding damage to Thug and will continue to lose 5 hp every second due to blood loss

Mike has taken 3 damage and is now losing 1 hp every 10 seconds due to blood loss

That bit of damage was from taking the blade out of his arm and out of the gut of the Thugs which dealt him damage as the blade was preventing the blood loss from becoming too much. But now that the blade was out he was bleeding and taking a lot of damage than under the regular effects of a regular bleed effect. Mike was still bleeding but unlike the guy who was stabbed in the gut and kneed in the crotch, Mike was a lot better off physically.

Mike swings once more at the thug attempting to enlarge the wound that he made previously and finish him off and at least end his life faster for him.

5

The thug had thoughts of living apparently as he used his sword and blocks Mike's slash at his gut and seeing what Mike was doing decides to use his open hand to cover the wound and apply pressure to prevent Mike from attacking there again without hitting him in his arm.

"Alright then I still will aim for your gut though," Mike says as he pushes the attack

14 and 9

The fourteen stays while the 9 disappears from Mike's mind and with a quick swipe of his blade slices the Thug's neck, unfortunately, the swipe was shallow and did little damage to the Thug.

Mike has dealt 4 slashing damage

This amount of damage was not that much at first glance but the fact that the guy was dying at such a fast pace Mike knew it was only a matter of time and if need be he could just defend and let the guy bleed to death. Still actively attacking would be for the better as it could allow Mike to finish this earlier and he can get out of here quicker.

So with that mike goes on the offensive once more against the guy.

***Dike***

Dike was now walking into the tavern with the other wizards in the town right behind him. Most of the people in the surrounding area had been cleared of any people that might get hurt or in the way of what was about to happen. There were around 20 regular guards that were at the ready to swarm the place once the signal was given. Entering in Dike sees that there were two passed out old men on the floor with mugs in their hands empty of any sort of liquid. Evidently, those two were passed out drunk from drinking whatever this place called liquor. Still, Dike could see nothing that stood out that much to him on this floor of the building, so Dike just walks up the stairs with one of the other wizards behind him up onto the second floor which had some rooms for people to rest or do anything else that they can do within the crappy confines of the cheap rooms.

Moving up the wooden stairs to the second floor Dike really feels like this place should be closed just based on the state that the stairs were in such a ruined state that Dike believed that it would break if more than one person were on the stairs at the same time.

Still, Dike was not here to complain about a crappy tavern in the slums in a city, as he was still looking for Mike. Getting up the stairs Mike could see that there were only 4 rooms in the hallway and from what he could see three of them had their doors closed while one was open. Dike moves into the open room but soon leaves it as he does not see anything of use inside so he and the other wizard got to one of the closed doors and stack up to it. Dike puts an ear to the door he waits to hear if there is anything or anyone doing something that he should be worrying about.

'I swear Micheal if you are just here fooling around nothing is gonna stop my rage from beating you to a bloody pulp' Dike thinks as he puts his hand on the doorknob and gives it a gentle turn to see if it is unlocked

It was not so Dike decides to stop with sneaking around because if Mike is really in there he is definitely gonna scares the living daylights out of him. So Dike stands in front of the door before kicking it down and rushing in with the other wizard right behind him.

***Mike***

Mike was tired plain and simple. The final Thug died from blood loss and just like the other two from before he got 75 exp for his efforts which was not a lot in but still something that he could use eventually. With those three dead Mike and his cut bandaged up with some cloth that the dead Thug's generously donated as he was currently dragging the bodies away and looting them as any adventurer should do. As for where he was dragging the bodies he was just placing them around the corner that he came around to prevent the bodies from being found at least for a while hopefully.

After that Mike came back into the room and saw that everyone in there had stopped making noise and were staring at them. Mike sympathized with them because he himself was also captured and as a result would not want to let them stay down here so that they could be sold off to others or have something worse befall them later on. So Mike took out a key ring that was on one of the thugs he killed and started searching for the key that would release their shackles and set them free.

As Mike was about to start he realized something, if these people went up to the surface before him then that could cause a bunch of trouble as there would probably be more men that would swarm the tunnels before he even got out of there. So Mike was trying to figure out what to do now to allow him to escape along with everyone else.

Apparently, Mike's hesitation spoke volumes as the people chained were starting to get restless and agitated that Mike was hesitating to free them since they assumed that he was also a prisoner here as well so he should help them out as well. The elvish people were cursing him in or at least that was what Mike assumed since the human people were doing the same while others were begging and pleading with him to free them.

"SHUT UP!" Mike shouts

Instantly the room falls silent

"Listen and listen good I will free you all but you can't go the way I can from as there are even worse people than those three here that are that way! So we need to go forward and find another exit and you elven folk those that can speak common need to those that don't understand what I am saying now hear me!" Mike shouts out as he starts going on a rant for a bit

Obviously his shouting will attract a lot of attention in such a confined space but Mike did not care as the only problem that he needs to be concerned with is those three that captured and tortured him preventing him from escaping. With Mike's shout, he was able to hear some elves talking with the others of their kind, and soon enough nodding and tears of joy are starting to spring up. Mike gets back to what he was doing before and takes a random key and starts the process of elimination for the bindings.

Soon enough one of the keys works and the elf who was bound to them tries to hug Mike out of sheer happiness. Mike skillful dodges the attempt at a hug and hands the key to the elf to start unlocking the others.

"Oh sure you save the elf first you race traitor" Someone grumbles

Mike hears this as the room was generally quiet and his gaze immediately lands on a man who was bound to the wall with his chains with nothing but some torn-up pants to wear on his body. His hair was very disheveled and dirty, while he looked like he was surprisingly well-fed in these terrible conditions, Mike could see some scratches, bites, and other marks on his body showing that he had been attacked by something.

"What did you say?" Mike asks in a deadly cold voice

The man just looks at Mike but says nothing at first until the elf that Mike had given the key moves over to the man. The man slaps the elf's hand away from him and he starts moving away from him as if he had the plague and just his presence being near him would kill instantly.

"Get away from me you pointy-eared bastard!" The man yells at the elf who in turn looks more confused than anything else

Mike was also a bit confused but probably could guess why the man was acting this way. That man chained to the wall was probably a racist plain and simple. In a famously old campaign that was in D&D called Greyhawk, elves were a target of racism because they were immune to a disease that was called the Red Death. As a result, people tended to think that the elves were the ones responsible for the plague and that made them a target of racism.

Now that might be true in this case but Mike was about 75% certain that this man was racist towards elves, as for why Mike had no clue as to why. So without waiting for anything mike just goes up to the man and stabs him in the heart.

Mike has slain a commoner, +10 exp

Mike's actions caused everyone to be shocked at what he had just done. Silence pervaded the room until Mike hears someone talk, "Bastard deserved it if you ask me"

Mike looks at the person who said that and says that it was a mother with a child and a baby in her arms that was obediently staying quiet.

"Why do say that?" Mike asks

"Simple he was a greedy bastard and would take more than his fair share of food from all of us. None of us could stop him from doing it since when he came here he was a lot more fit than anyone else here at the time. if we fought him he would beat them to a bloody pulp to make them into an example. That was why those three you killed were over here as they were tasked with keeping an eye to prevent more deaths of their goods" The lady says while hugging her child

"Well then looks like he deserved it," Mike says before thinking to himself 'Plus I hate racists'

The elf that Mike had given the key to starts working at it again and while he is doing that Mike goes around the corner from where he came. Once there he takes out all the Thug's weapons from his inventory space and brings them back. If Mike were to suddenly conjure weapons out of the air it would lead to unessecary problems and questions from the people and knowing how his system worked he would have to roll to hide the truth.

With Mike coming back with weapons he starts distributing them to the freed people who looked decently well enough to fight if needed. In total Mike had about four people with some sort of sword and three people with daggers. If Mike and these people ran into a group of thugs then they would fight for their freedom and if needed Mike would be able to use them as a distraction to escape as a last resort. He did not want to do that but Mike's life came before anyone else's regardless of the situation as he was going to survive.

After a few minutes of waiting all the people were now freed from their chains and binding and hugging each other with tears of joy. With that settled the marching order [1] was going to be tricky to make since they had such a large group so Mike had to think carefully about how to distribute the fighters. Mike decides to have all the dagger wielders to be in the back with one of the sword users to protect the rear of the group while the rest of the fighters would be upfront with Mike leading them, and all the people would be in the middle of the formation to ensure their relative safety from anything that attacked them.

With the marching order in place, they starting moving were the three thugs came from. Mike and the other three remained ever vigilant of any sort of attack from the front since that is where the most danger would come from whether through traps or from other things. Now, this did not mean that the back was slacking off as they also had to be wary that they would not be attacked from behind resulting in massive casualties. As Mike and the group continued on them until they came upon what would be the Earth equivalent to a four-way stop with three directions that they could choose to go ranging from straight, left, and right.

Going off of most mazes mike decides to go left as the saying goes if you keep on going left you will eventually leave the maze or something like that.

Along the way, Mike starts arming more people with lose rocks on the floor and walls of the corridor to use in case of a fight breaking out with more guards since rocks were so versatile Mike designated those that could not use them as weapons to hold some spares for others to use as ammunition if needed. Eventually, Mike sees in the distance a wooden door from where they are in the corridor.

Seeing this Mike motions for the group to stop and he walks up to the door alone since a bunch of footsteps was quite loud in these lit corridors. Mike got to the door and put his ear up to it to hear if there was anyone inside.

17

A decent roll to say the least and it seemed like Mike was rolling high now which was always good for him. Most players in the role playing world would tend to put their dice on time out if they were not rolling high and try again later to see if the bad luck was now gone from it. If that worked Mike did not really know but he still did it as trying something that might improve his chances to kill a dragon or a god then he would take all the help he could get.

Still, Mike could no longer do that and had to just muscle through the pain of the rolling low and suffering the consequences. Still, Mike rolled high and was able to determine that there seemed to be no one inside the room from what he could tell as there were no sounds of movement or breathing for that matter.

So with confidence, Mike opens the door wide open. His sight is greeted with piles of glittering gold, the sight temporarily stunned Mike as he had not expected to walk into an unguarded treasury ever in his life. Still, there was only a small pile of coins which was on a desk with a bunch of papers and other items in the room. Seeing this Mike brought the front fighters into the room and discussed what to do now that there was some money involved.

Eventually, they came to the agreement that Mike would hold onto the money for now as they did not want the guards to take the money as 'evidence' of what happened. With that, Mike put it into his sack after counting that there were about 100 gold coins on the table which in the slums was enough to buy a street. After that Mike had to start looking through the documents and having Abbey help translate to understand what they were. Getting the papers translated brought a slight smile to Mike's face as these papers marked the transactions between the people who ran the slave trade in the city and some prominent figures in the city from Mike could gather. This was probably some dirt that the people here had been hoarding over the years to potentially blackmail the people or gain some sort of immunity if found out so they could hand it over to the authorities with the hopes of lesser punishment or getting out of trouble.

'Still, why was this unguarded?' Mike thinks to himself as he starts stacking papers into piles and into empty boxes that were in the room after that Mike had the others leave the room for a bit so that they could check the rear guard to make sure everything was alright and reinforced.

The people left and Mike was alone or at least that is what he was being made to assume.

"Come out now you really think I would not find it strange that this place was unguarded even though it is important," Mike says out loud

A few moments go by and nothing happens to cause Mike to rethink that this place was only unguarded because of some sort of strange reason. However, those doubts were cleared up when the door to the room was shut closed by an invisible force, and locks it shut.

Mike hears some noises coming from the other side probably from the people trying to ask Mike what was happening to him, but he could not be sure since the voices were surprisingly surprised and also there were multiple people talking at once so he could not make anything they were saying.

"Hold on for a bit I will be out in just a minute after I deal with this thing" Mike shouts back causing the voices to subside

"You sound so confident that you will be getting out of here alive human" A voice resounds in the room

"Cut the crap and just come on out if you can," Mike says

Silence pervades the room before Mike feels the room drop a few degrees from normal but before he can say anything else an ethereal figure appears from out of nowhere. The figure bared the vague resemblance of a female who was wearing some sort of clothing that resembled that of the Earthen Roman civilization with a sleeved tunic and flowing robe. She seemed to be elven at first glance because of her high cheekbones and flawless figure but upon further notice, Mike was able to see that she was actually a half-elf. Half-elves are half elf and half human breeds, there would be some sort of some racial enmity between the two on either side but Mike could not be for sure.

"Let me guess you are a spirit?" Mike asks

The spirit's eyes widen in surprise at the fact that Mike had been able to guess what she was just at a guess.

"Um... yes I am actually a spirit, but why could you not let me reveal that myself," she says while putting on a pouting face

Seeing this happen the image that Mike had of vengeful spirits that sucked the life force of their victims was totally shattered by the spirit that was in front of him.

"Sure get on with your monologue," Mike says

"Eh! Hem! Foolish human, you have dared entered the domain of the vengeful spirit Carinthia and now you shall face the consequences of your actions human," Carinthia says in a proud and intimidating voice

Mike however does not feel intimidated at her lousy speech at all as he had seen how she was so easily surprised by Mike's deduction of what Sarenthia was. Not only that she had also made a face that Mike felt was unbefitting of a vengeful spirit in Mike's mind.

"Now that you are done can I go now?" Mike asks impatiently

"Um... well I don't need you to stay and nor do I need the energy," Carinthia says that and the door makes an unlocking sound

"Well then I am going to be going then," Mike says as he puts the boxes into his inventory and turns to leave

Carinthia temporarily stunned that the boxes disappeared from the room that even she could not find them with any of her senses. Still seeing Mike heading to the door she panics all of a sudden and the door locks firmly once more according to her will.

"You are not allowed to leave!" Carinthia yells

"Huh? Why not you said you do not need me anymore?!" Mike says

"Um... well I..."

"You what?"

"I am lonely here..." Sarenthia says quietly

"What?"

__________

1. Marching order is the general order of a party stating who is where. For example, The Rouge can choose to be in the front of the group, followed by the Knight, and then bring up the rear would be the Ranger (This is used to determine who triggers what and who will be taking damage or attacked in certain positions when an enemy or trap appears)