Owen's Esper System

Owen was a surprise to Elmo. Shortly after they'd gotten Kim situated, Owen came in almost in a clinical manner. He looked at Kim briefly before looking at Elmo and Elin. Then without saying anything, he moved past them and walked around the corner to look at Heather, Sonya, and Jonas.

When he came back, he walked over to Leon. "Let's help bring them back to our camp. We can use the torches the goblins were kind enough to light for us, but I can't be sure more goblins won't appear if we stay in this room," Owen said, making Elmo feel like he didn't think much of him and Elin.

"Will you lift those who can't walk on their own or will we need to carry them?" Leon asked.

Owen chuckled. "I'll bring them. I should have enough power left for that although, I will be helpless afterwards until I recover. So, I'll be counting on you, Elwin, Bart, and Michelle to keep me safe," Owen replied. "Besides, they don't need any healing, or at least the swordswoman doesn't, since I assume this girl probably used a skill of her system to heal her."

"No problem," Leon said as he quickly walked over to the room.

"Where's he going?" Elin asked.

"He's going to let his brother know what I just said as well as to see what there is that we can get from the goblins," Owen answered, turning to them. "But lets first see what we have here."

Owen walked past Elmo and Elin to look around the corner. Elmo quickly followed, wanting to make sure Owen didn't do anything underhanded.

Owen merely put his hands on each person's neck, apparently checking for a pulse before stepping back and sighing.

"I hope their weight doesn't make a difference with my power," Owen commented, though Elmo suspected that it was towards himself.

It didn't look like anything was being done right then, but a moment later Elmo noticed that the three people in front of them started to float off the ground. When he heard Elin gasp, he glaced back at her and saw that Kim was starting to float as well.

"We're not going to owe you anything for this," Elmo said flatly as he picked up Kim's bow. Even though he and Elin would be in trouble if they tried to move Kim and Jonas, let alone the two girls they'd just saved, he also didn't want to let their group fall into debt over something like this.

Owen merely smiled. "Helping others is always reward enough for me. In this place, I personally think that we need to help each other as much as we can, even if we don't all work together through this whole experience," Owen replied.

Elmo wasn't sure what to make of that response, but he could at least accept that it wasn't a hostile one. Which let him lose some of his own hostility, but he still didn't let go of his suspicion. While Owen and his team might not be hostile towards Elmo and his team, they still might not really be there to help them in the way it appeared at the moment.

Then he also needed to keep an eye out for Elin, because he couldn't be sure that she was safe herself. He could tell that she was still rather sheltered and hadn't woken up to some of the harsh realities of life and would likely trust these new people without a second thought. Which meant that she could get herself into trouble without being aware of it with this group.

Although, he suspected that he needed to at least wait until Kim recovered, as he didn't think that she would be able to do much when she came around until her wounds had fully healed.

Elmo sighed and wished that things had turned out at least a little differently at the moment.

"You realize I can read your thoughts, don't you?" Owen commented to Elmo as they started walking towards the room, the floating bodies following behind them. "I mean, I did get the Esper system."

Elmo couldn't help but be startled. He couldn't remember if he'd heard the term 'esper' before, but with some of the systems, he couldn't put it past various abilities from being possible. Especially with the tutorial thing that wasn't very helpful past the very basics.

"Uh, no I didn't know that," Elmo said, carefully, not sure what to say in response.

Owen merely laughed as Elin fell in step by them. "Not sure exactly what an 'esper' is, but from what I saw on couple anime, I have to assume it's like psychics. Unless whoever named it didn't know what an esper was either and liked the name more than 'phychic' and named it that," Owen commented.

As they entered the room, Elmo was able to look around and was shocked at how many dead goblins there were. While he had seen then from the hallway, he wasn't able to see just how many there were. Many had clearly been taken out by Owen's team rather than all having gone into the corridor where Kim was slaughtering more of them.

Which brought to mind something he hadn't realized. With how Kim was killing the goblins all around her, she had hardly gotten any of the goblin blood on her. Elmo couldn't say how she was able to do that, but also couldn't argue with how things turned out.

What pulled Elmo's attention from the carnage around him, was when he saw Elwin, Leon and what looked like a kid around twelve or thirteen carrying several bags full of something Elmo couldn't see.

"I can't believe they had this much food with them," the boy said as they walked over to Owen.

"Was there only food with them?" Owen asked.

"Nah, we got a few pieces of jewelry or metal coins, but mostly we found food," Elwin said. "Not sure how valuable any of the jewelry or coins are."

"Well, we can sort it all out when we get back to our camp," Owen said. "Just keep in mind, we're going to have to split everything we found with the team that save the hostages."

"Why?" the boy whined.

"Because they killed the larger amount of the goblins, including the ones that would have been more problematic for us," Owen replied, smacking two of his fingers on top of the boy's head.

"Ow!" the boy cried.

"So, let's get going then," Owen said picking up one of the torches, leading the way with the four bodies he was holding in the air following him.

+++

Elin couldn't help but feel worried. She didn't know why Elmo was being so rude or didn't like them, but didn't take it to heart. She was more worried that he would do or say something that would make these people to stop helping them. She was also vaguely aware her dress had changed to a lilac color.

Even though she understood Elmo's position about why they couldn't be fully relaxed around them, she still didn't see why they couldn't be friendly towards them. You never knew when you might need an ally, even one you didn't have before or after whatever you needed the ally for was taken care of.

Then there was Kim. Even though she'd taken care of Kim's wounds, she couldn't help but worry that she might have missed something or that there was damage that she couldn't heal that would affect Kim more than Kim would like.

She also worried that Kim would have expected her to have been able to do more than she had done. Whenever she thought of disappointing Kim, she felt the same whenever she learned that she had disappointed her father. So, until she was able to talk with Kim again, she couldn't help but fret about that point.

"Any idea how long they'll be out for?" Elmo asked her as they followed Owen.

"Can't really say," Owen answered. "Kim went unconscious because of blood loss, I think, so that could be a few hours, but also last until morning. Jonas I think went unconscious because of fatigue. I think he'll probably be out until morning.

"However, the girls are another matter. Even if they do regain consciousness, I can't say they'll be coherent. I mean, they were held captive, raped repeatedly, and couldn't do anything about it. If they're catatonic after they wake up, I'll try to section off the memories of what happened to them, but I can't say how well I'll succeed or if it'll even work."

"Why would you do something like that?" Elmo asked. "Wouldn't therapy be a better approach to something like that?"

Owen nodded. "Probably. However, right now we're short on time, and we can't afford to let them remain catatonic. Otherwise we'll be bringing with us a liability. It may be cruel, but the block could always disappear on their own or be removed later on. Right now I would do that so we could at least have them move under their own power," Owen answered.

"You make it sound so complicated," Elin remarked offhandedly.

"Maybe, but this is the best I can do," Owen answered.

"Any idea of what direction to go in order to get out of this dungeon?" Elmo asked, wanting to change the subject.

"Not yet," Owen replied. "There's a few corridors I have yet to explore. Although, I suspect there's a few others that will come up that might cross each other. I have a rudimentary map of this place in my mind, but I can't say where all the passages go where yet. I think I should be able to get it done later on."

"How many hallways do you have left to explore?" Elmo asked.

"We have three left," Elwin answered, joining the conversation. "One that goes by a room with some minotaur in it, and a couple that we just haven't had time to explore."

"Do you have anything you can use to draw the map out?" Elmo asked.

"Now that would be nice if we could," the boy remarked. "Only problem is how we don't have anything to write with, other than monster blood, I mean."

Elmo shook his head at that thought. While he'd like to get going on with the challenge they probably would need to take care of before they could leave the dungeon, he'd rather not use monster blood to make a map to work with. That just felt… barbaric and flat out wrong to him.