Chapter 5: Enslaved

"Ugh...." Van muttered as he woke up, the events before he got knocked out still fresh in his mind. "Shit. Where am I?"

He asked himself before scanning his surroundings. He was inside a dimly lit room, his two hands and feet tied by a strange chain with intricate symbols.

He tried to muster any strength to try and break the chain through brute force, but as if all of his strength has been sapped away, he failed. His whole body felt so weak, even sitting up was very taxing for him. Next, he tried to create a hand out of Mental Energy. But as soon as Mental Energy slipped away from his head, it was absorbed by the chain binding him.

He frowned. The intricate symbols on the chain makes him physically weak and absorbed his Mental Energy, might as well the same for his Lightning Elemental Energy. Recognising the all of his attempts to escape would be futile, Van tried to stop resisting. He would only waste his Energies, so he decided it would be better to just store them up instead of wasting them.

Van began to hate himself. He was too weak, way too weak that he was easily captured. He was also a coward, instantly freezing at the sight of danger. He needed to change. His gaze were filled with determination, the determination to change. But that too quickly dissappeared. He was confined, thinking about getting stronger and braver would do nothing at his current state.

He want to become strong like his father, who was at the King Stage 6th Realm Mind Cultivator. His father had once demonstrated his abilities, being able to cut down tall trees into a hundred pieces with a single gaze. His father also crushed a beast and turned it into a meat paste in a matter of seconds. His father had always encouraged him to get stronger, maybe even surpassed him.

Clang~!

The sound of a metal bar door quickly got Van's attention. He was in a cell, with a metal bar door. Now that the door has been opened, an armored person walked in. Van knew protesting was a futile effort and would only mean death, so he just watched as the armored person put a black collar with runic symbols on Van's neck.

'A slave collar!' He widened his eyes in shocked. Getting captured and restricted was already bad enough, he was even enslaved! He looked at the armored person with extreme hatred.

On the outside, he was raging with extreme hatred and anger. On the inside, he felt so hopeless. His freedom has been taken away while he watched as everything was taken away from him. Enslaving someone means taking away everything that person has.

The armored person, sensing Van's hateful gaze, raised its arms and slapped Van's right cheek. A red palm was left imprinted in his swollen cheek. The armored person took Van by his left foot and dragged him outside of the cell room. Bruises quickly filled up Van's body as he was forcefully dragged away. The other slaves captured in the other cell room looked at Van with pity.

Four cell room away from the cell room Van was taken away from, the armored person stopped dragging him. It raised its arm again, repeatedly slapping Van's pitiful face. "All of you will suffer a fate even worse then him if you disobey me!" The armored person spoke in a deep, masculine voice.

The armored person then kicked Van in the stomach, sending him flying for a few meters and rolling on the hard ground. "Argh....." A weak pained voice escape from Van's lips. He was slowly losing consciousness but the pain from his two swollen cheeks kept him awake.

The armored person approached him and removed his chains. "You, go back to your cell and don't even try to get out." The slabe collar in Van's neck glowed in purple hue as Van slowly rosed from the ground. His body moved on his own, defying even Van's mind. It's as if he lost control over his body, Van could only watched himself walked back inside the cell room.

Clank!

The cell room's metal bars were locked again, while Van regained control over his own body. Without the chains binding him, Van felt his strength slowly come back. Van sat inside the dark cell room pondering what he should do next. While he might be in pain, it was still tolerable.

An imaginary light bulb lit atop his his head when he remembered the Elder's gift. "Book of Attribute." He muttered quietly, a thin book materialising in front of him. The books cover were colored brown, on the front center a circle with two distinct colors- purple and blue.

The Book of Attribute has over a hundred pages, but only one page has contents written on it.

—— Book of Attribute ——

: Dual Awakener

( Mind Path Awakener )

1st Realm Expert

( Magic Path Awakener ) ( Lightning )

1st Realm Expert

Unique Abilities:

- Creation

————