"Morning Hector"

"Oh, Mike… And the beauties too, of course, good morning ladies"

Hector greeted Mike and the ladies with a smile on his face, after chatting for a bit the caravan eventually started moving after the numbers were counted by the head merchant, the caravan moved through the countryside in peace and quiet, on the 3rd day Mike was riding on Serina while his mind wandered

"...So far everything"s peaceful, I wonder what we"re escorting..? Probably monster cores or crystals… But still, I have this funny feeling… Meh, it"s probably nothing"

On the 6th day a small group of monsters attacked but were quickly wiped out, Mike started looking at the clouds on the 8th day and finally on the 14th day they arrived at the capital, the walls were much more imposing than any Mike had ever seen before, they were engraved with runes that let out a soft hum and they were clean, way too clean. Just as Mike was staring at the walls the head merchant called out

"We"re almost there, after we pa.s.s the gates we"re heading the n.o.ble districts were we"ll directly hand over the cargo to the n.o.ble that brought it, then you all will get paid for a job well done"

The adventures cheered, Mike and Julie included, after the caravan pa.s.sed the inspections they made their way through the busy streets for about half a day, the capital was truly ma.s.sive with ma.s.sive water towers as the most iconic features Mike saw, as for the five stories tall buildings? Mike was used to those from his past life, after making their way through a very wealthy area which Mike a.s.sumed was the n.o.ble district

"Every palace of the n.o.ble district has its own walls… Almost Like they are their own small towns"

Soon they arrived at their destination, a grand marble wall with a giant gate made of pure gold

"Kind of bad taste…"

Mike sat atop of Serina as the gates slowly opened, pushed open by a bunch of missable looking slaves

"Yup… Bad taste alright"

Mike kept quiet and so did Julie, soon the group made their way past the grand marble walls into a giant courtyard that was tiled with bright white marble tiles that had gold lining in between them

"Really bad taste…"

The caravan parked and a group of people walked out of the inner gates and greeted the head merchant, their eyes were cold and looked at the convoy with satisfied expressions, Mike suddenly got a chill down his spine and looked around, he quickly noticed that the golden gates were closing behind them, Serina began to let out a low growl before she quieted down and laid down on her belly

"What"s wrong girl?"

Mike patted her on the side but she didn"t stand up so he climbed off her and walked over to Julie that looked towards the head merchant and the people that had walked out of the inner gates, Mike took her hand and suddenly noticed that she was cold, Mike looked at her face and noticed that she was pale

"Julie, what"s wrong?"

"Mike… Run!"

"Eh..?"

Then it happened, all at once.

An oppressive feeling descended on the courtyard as runes lit up on the walls, Mike was forced to kneel then he collapsed face first on the white marble tiles

"Seize all the new product!"

Mike forced his head to the side and looked over, there he saw Hector shaking hands with the head merchant and then with the group that came out of the inner gates, he had a wide smile on his face as he looked over the courtyard where all the adventures were laying on the ground, other than the Hammer party of course

"What..?"

Mike was confused, but suddenly when a group of people walked out of the inner gates pulling carts with furnaces on it then one of them took something out of the furnace, a long poker with a glowing red metal emblem on it, a slave crest

"s.h.i.+t..!"

Mike struggled to move, but alas it was futile

"Move..!"

"Move..!"

"MOVE..!"

"Oh h.e.l.lo there Mike"

Mike struggled to move as Hector walked over with a slave emblem and kneeled down next to him as he spoke

"Mike, oh Mike… Never saw it coming did you now..? Well, whatever, now your harem is my product, actually, I think I might keep Elina for myself you know?"

"f.u.c.k… YOU…"

"Now, now Mike, you are going to be sold and traded around and eventually sent to the mines where you will die a lonely death and you know what the best part is..? You"ll make me fifty rich!"

Mike was about to curse at Hector once more when he heard a weak voice behind him

"Mike… I… WIll.. Always… Lov--- AAAGGGHHH!!!"

Behind him Julie"s scream echoed out in the courtyard as the smell of burnt flesh interred Mike"s nose, from there things turned blurry

"Oh, you"re crying now? That"s just adorable! HAHAHAHAHA!!!"

Mike suddenly calmed down before Hector brought the red hot slave poker down on his back over his heart, Mike then felt his mind go blank before he pa.s.sed out…

When Mike woke up again he found himself on a stage with a red carpet draped over it, it seemed like a theater with a ma.s.sive crowd that looked very wealthy, then he blanked out again... The next time he was conscious he was in a mansion carrying an expensive looking bottle of wine on a tray while someone was yelling at him, but it all sounded incoherent… Next he was on a battlefield, the scent of blood was all around as he wielded a sword to cut down an enemy soldier… Then he was in a dark cave swinging a pickaxe at rock wall before picking up the raw ore and putting it on a cart and pus.h.i.+ng it up a slope when suddenly someone yelled and a loud rumbling sounded out along with the sound of wood snapping as the mineshaft suddenly began collapsing around him and a sharp rock hit his back, coincidentally hitting the slave crest that by now had turned into an aged scar a scratching part of it off along with a large chunk of flesh, Mike screamed in pain, something he had not done in so long, in fact he felt his voice was hoa.r.s.e

"Wait… I feel..?"

Mike collapsed like this feeling like he had just woken up from a very long dream…

"Wake up!"

Something stamped on his stomach waking him up with burning pain, what entered his eyes was a small shed with an intense heat that came from a furnace that was heating up a poker

"d.a.m.n it… Of all the useless pieces of s.h.i.+t to survive, why does it have to be the one without any skills? And to make matters worse his slave crest gets damaged too… My luck must be bad..."

Mike clenched his fist before he relaxed it again and lay very still, he could feel that his hands were bound

"How long are you going to lay around for!?"

Mike felt a kick to his stomach before another command was yelled

"Stand up!"

Mike struggled to stand up and slowly stood up before he looked at the man that was yelling at him, besides him there were two other men, one working the furnace getting it hot enough while another was applying a coat of paint to the poker, Mike then looked at the overweight man in front of him that was yelling at him

"Finally awake you useless piece of s.h.i.+t!?"

Mike then suddenly gave a smile and before the fat man reacted Mike headb.u.t.ted him right on the nose, the fat man staggered backward and fell on the ground, the other two men rushed over and restrained Mike that had a blank look on his face, the then the fat man exploded

"WHAT THE f.u.c.k! YOU ARE JUST A USELESS PIECE OF MINING EQUIPMENT, YET YOU DARE HEADb.u.t.t ME!?"

Mike suddenly laughed hysterically

"WHAT"S SO FUNNY!?"

Mike then suddenly stopped laughing and a red light flashed through his eyes

"You are bleeding"

"SO WHAT!?"

A red light flashed in Mike"s eyes as he spoke

"Well… [Blood diabolism]"

The red line of blood that flowed down from the fat man"s nose suddenly froze before it shut up into his nose, the light quickly disappeared from his eyes before the frozen piece of blood flew out and swiftly buried itself into the neck of one of the men that were restraining Mike

"AAAGGGHHH!!!"

Blood sprayed out from the wound on his neck before it quickly froze and turned into small needles that buried themselves in the two men killing them near instantly, Mike looked around and made sure no one else was in the room before he gave a smile, then he controlled the blood that had splatted around the room and gathered it in a sphere of blood, quickly draining the three corpses of blood as the sphere grew larger, then he looked down at his body, it was riddled with scars and old wounds, his chest was deformed and it hurt to breathe… but he was alive

"Well then, this is going to hurt… [Drink]"

Quickly the sphere of blood started shrinking as the sound of bones breaking sounded out in the room, then an inhuman scream sounded out in the room