A unpredicted outcome

Jay left Kendra's office once he was done and went back down the Hallway towards the lobby. From there he rushed into Norris office again, doing the same as with Kendra's there as well.

In no time Jay made a complete mess in the room and only fetched a log and some books with their trade histories before he left to the lobby.

From there he went into the park like garden and ignited the smoke signal.

It took only a minute for the first agents to arrive and start climbing down on ropes, just as Jay carefully closed in on the shop again. Just as he reached the door, he heard loud noises of things breaking inside the building. From how it sounded, it was the agents rushing in from the front door upstairs.

A few seconds later, some of the agents reached him from behind and asked him to point out where possible targets could hide. Jay nodded toward Norris office and it got stormed by the two agents at the front.

The Agents from upstairs had also reached the stairs and some of them came rushing down, reporting to the one in charge that had whispered with Jay some seconds before.

Just as one of the men from Norris' office came back and asked exactly that man to follow him, a loud bang sounded from outside.

Throwing each other a short glance, all men together with Jay ran out to the garden. What they saw there was the two giant bouncers that had seemingly come in to check on what was happening. A bit further back Jay spotted a sturdy agent he had seen somewhere before, but those thoughts had to be postponed when one of the bouncers ran towards his group.

For some reason his eyes were glued on Jay, but the three men surrounding him went to intercept the bouncer. That gave Jay enough time to analyze the man and learn he was of level 40.

Without knowing more, Jay understood there was no chance to fight him alone, as well as for most of the agents.

The one in charge caught the bouncers first fist and the other two went in from the sides, giving Jay enough leeway to circle around them. With his legs and arms boosted, as well as his fists charged with lightning, he got two hits in that dealt quite some damage but were far from enough for the bouncer.

Jay was reluctant to take out his swords as it possibly would hint the agents that he had a means to store items.

This way he had to use his fists for some more attacks, while the agents attacked with their swords and daggers.

After a few clashes, one of the agents got severely struck by one of the bouncers attacks and hurled over to Jay. He caught the man and pressed out a short heal to get him out of danger, then grabbed the mans simple sword and reengaged combat.

This time, when he got another chance to attack from a dead spot, Jay loaded the sword with fire and went all out.

With a slash at the bouncers throat he managed to completely cut it, having the man stop moving and giving him the chance to ram the sword to the hilt into the big ones torso.

Pretty much at the same time, the other bouncer got defeated by the group of agents that had still been outside, together with those that rushed out from upstairs. Looking at his log, Jay got surprised by how much XP he had gained from the kill.

When everything had settled down and the wounded had gotten their treatments, they made their way into the slavers shop again. Once back in Norris' office, Jay explained that he had found it like this when he first entered.

The whole process of him sending Eloise away and searching the rooms had only taken less than fifteen minutes. As he had hurried on his way there, Jay was pretty sure they wouldn't suspect him having anything to do with this.

Like this he went on and explained that he wanted to make sure no one was watching when he lighted the smoke signal. For that he had entered the lobby but found no one and then proceeded to the only other room he knew.

His guess had been right and not only did the agents in charge believe him, they even asked Jay to help them out as they were a bit short on hands.

To his surprise, Nara came down from the mansion some minutes later. She apparently had led the group coming from the nobles district.

It was just at the moment when one of the agents had managed to pick a lock at the only other door in the dead Norris' office.

What they found behind it after they passed through, was a relatively wide room with brick walls and sturdy pillars. Along the walls were wooden benches placed and metal chains mounted. It looked to be some presentation room or storage for slaves, just that it was nearly empty.

Only a somehow human like lizard sat chained at the far wall. Jay had the chance to analyze him when the agents opened the chains and were about to carry him out. It stated it was a Lizardkin of level 20 called Rash'kna.

"Noo! Leave be! ...stay here…" R.

It was a strange voice the Lizardkin spoke with, somehow rough but at the same time hissing. Jay of course had directly understood what the slave implied. If his orders were the same as the ones on Eloise, it would prohibit him from leaving the grounds.

Not to expose him knowing, Jay stepped in and asked the slave if he knew if there are other slaves. Rash'kna blinked two times with his sideways closing eyelashes, then shook his head.

"Rash'kna don't know. Other one told come from cellar… Please, leave Rash'kna here!" R.

"Other one? You mean other slaves?" J.

The Lizardkin nodded to that and so Jay could go on and inquire if there had been other slaves and if he knew about this mentioned cellar.

Rash'kna didn't know the location or if there were other slaves left, but finally explained in his broken language that his orders would kill or at least hurt him if he got brought out of there.

The agents send word to the headquarters to bring some slaver there and free him. But the real reason was that the Lizardkin had stated there had been human slaves with him in the showroom and he therefore had become a witness.

Not having anything to fear as they never had met, Jay toughed Rash'kna's shoulder and played like he was trying to calm the man down. What he really did was opening the slave menu and setting him free, as like Kendra had stated, all her slaves had gotten transferred to him.

Not knowing if the previous owner could somehow be read, Jay wasn't willing to take risks and having to explain. There was no real use for the man anyways, so gifting him freedom was the best choice for both.

Of course there was no way Jay would tell him or the agents that he could leave.

Done with this, the next search began.

This time it was the so called cellar that all the agents kept looking for. Jay went with Nara to the slavers office that some men had already searched.

It had stirred quite some trouble when they found out the safe was gone completely, but Nara and the other agent in lead concluded that it could have been some internal conflict or a rivaling business.

After a long and thorough search, Nara had left the office out of boredom and Jay already read through some books he found interesting as well as secretly stored some, an agent came rushing in. They had found something interesting and he had to come to Nara.

Back in the hallway, Jay saw her standing next to a dark passage that hadn't been there previously and learned it was her that found a secret mechanism hidden with some books there.

One of the walls with a picture had apparently been a secret door, hiding a dark staircase downwards.

Without wait the two of them took it to check what lay at it's end, followed by three more agents after Nara called them over.

What they found down there in the dark and wet cellar shocked even the thee veterans.

Rusty cages stood unorderly around, most of them the size a human could barely stand inside with not even six feet square. In between were even some smaller cages and only dim light shone from two lamps next to the stairs.

Most of the illumination came from the torches they lighted once the visibility went close to zero.

In the first cage they found two beastkin man, one looking a bit like a boar with the typical pig nose and tusks, the other one had dog ears and a bushy tail. They were both way to big for the cage and could barely move inside, even though they looked overly gaunt.

The agents ignored the two men to that point and proceeded deeper in as the cellar was big. And the thing they - on the one hand wanted to find, on the other would have welcomed if they hadn't - showed in the next cage:

Two human men were kept held in two more of the bigger cages, both emaciated and dirty. They were of middle age, so Jay guessed this was the reason they hadn't been sold.

One of the agents soothed them that they would free them in a bit but they had to keep silent, what they did to their surprise.

In the cage next to them but still carefully placed out of reach, they found female looking a bit like a lizard. Her skin was scaled and she had no hair, but the size, figure and facial features had something of a mature woman. That one didn't even have any reaction to the group of agents passing her cage.

Next to hers was a cage with another woman, though this one was a human again. The middle aged woman with brown hair and a normal, probably average face started to plea to the female agent that was with them other than Nara. Latter decided to let her help the woman and they proceeded with four people.

What they spotted next first had them think there were some cages stacked on another, but as they got closer they understood it was one single big cage. Inside was a small Ogre, still over ten feet tall, but missing most of the typical fat and leaning powerless against the cage as he couldn't lay down in there.

While the cages had been rusty and the slaves gaunt, none of them was too shabby and even the lamps had still been shining.

With most of the cages empty, the agents discussed how to proceed. It was then that Jay and Nara noticed a bad smell wafting over and started looking around.

At the far wall where they had reached, they found another door. It was a wooden one reinforced with metal and a lock on it. In the time Nara used to order the agents on how to proceed, Jay had walked over and started to pick the lock.

Just as Nara had reached him and asked if he needed help, he finally had managed to open it.

The moment they opened the door, both of them nearly vomited. A smell of feces, pee, blood and rotten flesh clashed into their noses and they could even hear the dog beastkin whimper further behind them.

While the last room already looked bad, that one they were looking at was even worse.

Again there were cages inside, but none was bigger than those sometimes used in his old world for dogs. Glad that they at least seemed empty for the most part, Nara and Jay spotted one some steps further containing a chained up man that looked nearly dead.

Hadn't he moved a tiny bit, Jay wouldn't even have checked on him. But his life was not in danger like his health bar showed, so the two of them left him be until they had searched the room.

The same applied to the cage a bit further on the opposite side. This time it was a woman that lay lifeless inside, looking more like a skeleton.

Nara checked on her but only shook her head as she seemed to have been dead for quite a while.

In the dim light of their torches, they could make out another big cage at the end of the room. While checking on the four left cages on their way but finding them only empty, the two walked over to the big cage.

Even a few steps from it, Jay could make out a small figure hanging inside.

Only as they stood directly in front of the cage could the two of them discern a thin person with messy black hair hanging midair with the arms wide and suspended on chains. The cuffs where the chains got affixed cut deep into the skin at the wrists and below was a puddle of pee and feces from the smell.

Keeping his stomach in check, Jay was about to use (Analyze) on the emaciated person but didn't manage as Nara got in his line of sight as she directly went to pick the lock to the cage. Once the door was open they jumped inside and asked if that slave was still alive.

Jay had seen the health bar was pretty low and they needed to hurry, but Nara did not have such a method.

Ripping off the chains with brute strength, Jay had Nara catch the nude figure and pull her out of the cage.

What he saw as she lay her on the ground was an emaciated girl with her hair sticking to her body. The lingering mana and the few health points left showed she was still alive, but even without the big gag in her mouth, Jay was sure they wouldn't have heard any reaction from her.

As he was kneeling next to her, Jay directed a quick heal directly to her heart while Nara was looking for something to cover her bare body. She only found a shabby linen cloth that lay behind one of the cages and once she threw it over the small figure, Jay lifted her in a princess carry and carefully went towards the exit.

Even before he reached the stairs, when the way only led straight, did Jay use [Analyze] on the small and very light girl in his arms.

The result surprised him for multiple reasons but he soon had to stop looking at the screen displayed when they reached the end of the stairs. The for her relations bright illumination of the hallway stirred the girl awake and Jay heard a small sob.

__________

Vellara Remoir (Eternal Slave)

Base LVL 22

*Pantherian*

HP 246/987 * Mana 15/962

[Dagger LVL 3]

[Martial Arts LVL 2]

[Etiquette LVL 3]

[Haggling LVL 2]

[Mana Manipulation LVL 2]

[Pain tolerance LVL 1]

[Image training]

[Intelligence]

__________

It hadn't been the abundant skills and very unorthodox constellation that got him surprised though.

Looking at her again, Jay couldn't find any ears on her head or a tail, so he wasn't sure what to think of her race.

But looking at her closer, Jay saw she even was missing some of her fingers and her left eye was matte. A scar running across it had most certainly blinded it.

All together she was in a horrendous state and so Jay guessed she simply had been missing her optical traits for the same reasons.

The real surprise though was her being an eternal slave.

While passing the agents still searching the slavers shop and all around, Jay used his slave magic and concentrated on the small pantherian to check if he could have her leave this place. She dearly needed treatment, and if possible from someone way better than him.

The first thing he read in status sheet was the line: State – ownership pending

Dismissing the screen again, Jay looked at the poor small female in his arms. She really must have endured quite a lot and he wanted to help her, but for that to happen he had to take advantage of her and the situation.

A bit reluctant he decided to ask her first, even though he had not much hope to really get an answer from her. Leaning closer down to her, Jay began to whisper:

"I might get you out of here and have you survive this situation. But for me to change your orders, you will have to become a slave of mine. I promise to not take advantage of that, but I need your consent please…" J.

Like he had anticipated before, Vellara was to weak to answer. Jay hadn't even been sure she had been able to hear or understand him.

But then, without her opening her eyes again, Jay felt and saw her slowly nod.