The new batch has arrived

"Uphmm!"

Inside a pitch black room, a young man in his twenties is struggling about.

His hands and legs are chained to the ground and inside of his mouth laid a gag.

He tries his best to wriggle about to release himself, but to no avail.

The man then peers around the room at maximum speed, trying to make sense of the situation.

"Where am I?"

The young man thinks to himself.

Just moments ago he was strolling around the streets laughing and singing with his drinking buddies, but now all of a sudden he's trapped in a dark room surrounded by stone walls with all his movements restricted.

"Have I been kidnapped?"

The young man continues to squint at his surroundings, trying his best to make out anything that could be of help in this situation. But there was nothing he could see, it was total darkness.

He thinks long and hard to figure out the perpetrators' motive behind committing this crime.

"I haven't offended anyone, have I? No that can't be."

Just then, he recalls the words said to him the night before.

"Be careful out there, I heard a rumor that mages from the slums are getting kidnapped."

The young man was from the slums.

Despite being a fifth rate mage, he had lived his entire life in poverty because of his ill little sister. Her medicine was extremely expensive, and because he couldn't leave her alone for too long, the young man could not even take up more missions to cover the large costs.

But recently things have started to change. Unlike the young man, his sister had talent for magic. She recently reached fifth rate despite being bedridden.

The young man was ecstatic when he first learnt about it.

He dug up old memories and kept on replaying them as he stayed silent in the pitch black room.

When he first heard it, the young man thought it was ridiculous. I mean who would even think of kidnapping mages?

But now that he's in situation, he has no choice but to accept reality.

"Shit! I gotta break out."

The young man thought anxiously while looking down at his chains, trying to gather surrounding mana to cast a spell.

"Brea-"

"?!"

"What?! I can't gather cast the spell!"

The young man became alarmed. To his horror, he couldn't cast magic. His nervousness quickly turns into hysteria as he realizes something.

It wasn't that he couldn't cast the spell, it was that he couldn't even gather an ounce of mana.

"Shit! Shit! Shit!"

The young man got the fright of his life after grasping that fact. He struggles around in dismay, causing the clinking and clanging of his chains to become louder.

"Is there some sort of spell that is preventing me from casting magic?"

[Tap Tap Tap]

The sound of steps could suddenly be heard. The young man instinctively recognized the sound of heels.

Just then, the door to the room opens to reveal the shimmering moonlight.

A figure with long hair walks into the room with a candle light, illuminating his surroundings. It takes a few seconds for the young man to adjust his eyes to the new light.

Long scruffy purple hair, white coat, black leggings and heels. He eyes the woman in front of him that just opened the door.

"Hmm? Oh one's awake."

The woman who walked in was none other than Orchid, disciple of Spencer.

Orchid walks over to a nearby desk and sets the candle on the table along with several other equipment she took out from her large coat pockets.

From his angle, the young man could just about see the items being set on table. There were black orbs and several sheets of paper.

The young man immediately turns to the left side of the room. For the first time since he woke up, he finally got to see his surroundings.

There were about twenty other people beside him. Men, women, teens and even the elderly. It seemed like the kidnappers didn't care about their age or gender. All of them chained up just like him. The only difference was that they were sound asleep.

He had his suspicions that there were living beings beside him due to the slight breathing noise. He could somewhat hear them due to the previous pin drop silence.

"Are all of them mages? Just what is her goal?"

The swings his neck back towards the lady before turning back towards the other hostages.

"Uphmm!"

He tries his best to let out a noise to wake them up, twisting and turning even harder than before.

"It is no use. They have all been injected with a sleeping drug. No matter what you do, you won't be able to wake them up."

A slight snicker could be heard after Orchid delivered those words.

"However, I wonder why your drug wore off faster than the rest."

She turns to eye the man who was still insistent on trying to make a noise.

"Enough!"

Annoyed, Orchid lands a front kick on the young man's stomach with her left leg, causing him to be thrown back. He writhes in pain as he tries to pick himself back up.

As the young man's eyes met Orchid's, he no longer made a single sound.

"That is right. Keep it down while I sort these documents."

She gazes at the young man in disgust, before turning away to the table.

"Is this the end? What'll happen to my sister? Will she be okay?"

The young man sheds a tear as he closes his eyes.

[Click]

The door to the room opens again.

This time, it was an exceptionally tall middle-aged man with a short white beard that entered the room. He wore spectacles and also bore a white coat just like Orchid.

"Master."

Orchid greets Spencer while a bow as he walks over to the center of the room.

"Are these part of the new batch Noel sent? Is this really all there is?"

"For now, yes. Mister Noel said that he had been having trouble getting new batches because of some rumors. He's been trying to quell them."

"Hah. Can't that kid do anything right? He even asked me for that favor."

Spencer lets out a sigh of disappointment as he closes in on the table. He suddenly stops in his path after noticing the first man chained up to the right side of the room.

"This one is awake?"

Spencer pries while glancing at the man before making his way to the table.

"Yes master. He was noisy just now so I thought I would quieten him down a bit."

Spencer takes off his white gloves and sets them aside on the table.

"Hmm. Interesting."

He squats down and lifts the young man's chin with his right hand.

The young man stares at Spencer with both fear and unease in his eyes.

For a moment, his mind went blank from fear after thinking about what was about to happen to him. It was understandable in his situation, These people had the power to even kidnap mages after all. They can't be your ordinary kidnappers.

The young man stayed silently still. After the kick from Orchid, he knew that if he were to act up against the woman's superior, he would face irreparable consequences.

"So? Shall we begin soon?"

"Yes master."