"Wake up Maggots! It's breakfast time!" The guard grumbled as he walked down the isle of cells.
When number 22 got up out of his cell and into the cafeteria he overheard 2 others talking about the guards mood.
"Hey, did you hear? Apparently there's gonna be an insanely strong person coming to inspect the place before the slave warriors auction! I hear that it's a soldier from the blood clan too!" the man behind him whispered to the elf on his left.
"Really? Man, no wonder the guard seemed so grumpy today."
"But wouldn't this be a good chance to advance?"
"What do you mean by that?" The clearly confused elf responded back as he then later states,
"Wouldn't that mean we have to be extra careful around the Guards to avoid their rage and not be killed?"
"No, what it means is if we do a good job and impress them then we might just get better treatment."
The elf now suddenly brightened up and realized their chances of possibly being labeled as a favorite slave.
"You're right!"
However, the boy thought to himself and realized that the chances of that ever becoming a reality are slim. He got up from his seat and on his way to District 3 he heard the oh so familiar voice behind him.
"Hey, did you sleep well today?" Inquired Nathan.
"A little bit rough." 22 said as he grabbed his pickaxe from the pile of pickaxes.
Nathan, a Human who was 6'3'' and like a father to 22. He was one of the few slaves that was a special case requiring the guards to use the memory sealing magic.Although he still remembers, he keeps it a secret. Despite being in his 40's, he still had quite the set of muscles. Supposably he was a soldier that was captured and despite the memory alter magic, he still remembers most of his past. He was a kind man, always looking after 22 all this time. He was also the only one who knew number 22's age and that he had come supposably from a clan but he could never quite remember what clan 22 came from.
"You worried about the powerful soldier coming today?" he replies in a rough voice as he shields his Green eyes from the incoming dust with his calloused hands.
"A little" the boy grunted as he swung his pickaxe at the rocks.
"Well don't be. From what I hear the soldier is only doing an inspection of the guards and of the auction house. Unless you were to make a commotion... You'll be fine." Nathan reassured as he struck copper.
"Hey! Get to work!" yelled a Guard as a weird woman walks by him and he tenses up.
"Yes Sir!" They replied and went back to mining
They continued to swing their pickaxes for an hour.
THWACK!!!
"Huh? That's weird." The little boy said to himself as he heard an unusual sound. "Must just be copper. Better swing full force into it."
As he prepared himself to swing full force into the thin layer of stone, he briefly saw a blow glow. Before he had realized it, he was already swinging down into the oddly colored rock.
"What Th-"
BANG!!!!
[Transfer into guards perspective 1 hour and 10 minutes before incident]
"You nervous?" said the clearly nervous noob guard in front of the front gate.
"Naw, not really, it happens every year after all. And I ain't afraid of no soldier for when I was young we had to... and then..." The veteran guard started rambling on.
He was so busy bragging about his times fighting against monsters that he didn't see the women that stood in front of them. Her Bright Red hair the color of blood and blue eyes. Only when she came a foot away from them did they notice her uniform.
"Wow, this chick is a total babe!! she's gotta at least be a D Cup!!" Screamed the noob guard inside of his head. Clearly the veteran guard noticed the noobs slacked posture and gazing eyes as he elbowed him in the stomach.
"Ahem! For what purpose do you come here as of today?" The veteran guard demanded trying his best to keep his eyes from wandering. Yet he just couldn't help it.
SWISH!!!
A sword came out of nowhere and stopped right at the veterans crotch.
"Look again and I will chop your balls off. My name is Helewise Molt of the Blood guild and I am here for the inspection. Obviously you don't want to be fired or worse... Killed due to uncertain circumstances... Am I right?" Helewise sinisterly remarked
"R-R-Right! Quickly Open the gate and let her in!" The veteran guard fearfully said as he scrambled away to tell his superior that Helewise was here.
Suddenly a short and chubby man stepped out of a door to greet her.
"Ah. M-M-Mam, Why aren't you in your carriage? You're also 3 hours early... H-How come?" the man questionably yet carefully asks as to not incur her rage.
"The carriage was too slow. It was faster to run here and get this miserable job done." She said it in a bored manner.
"Right this way mam" as he gestured to the entrance.
The two walk down a luxurious hallway with 100 warrior slaves lined up
"As you can see these are the slave warriors participating in tomorrow's arena fight. They come from a wide selection of races and are trained killers." The man then points to a certain buff Demi-human with goat horns on his head. His muscles bulging through his shirt and spear in hand.
"Alright, I think I have seen enough of the warriors. Now lets see how the guards are. I expect them to be at their peak and not slacking. Or else..." she motions her thumb over her neck to symbolize the man's head being chopped off.
"gulp"
As the two were walking by they heard some chatting on their left. It was a small boy and a middle aged man. The Helewise noticed the slacking guard and shot a quick glare at him before she walked by him. 30 minutes later, Helewise and the supervisor had already left district 22 and entered District 23 when she suddenly paused. The supervisor was at first confused as to why they had stopped until he saw as to why. A guard in front of them was sleeping, thus allowing some slaves to goof off. He could barely get out a word before Helewise disappeared before his very eyes. Without a moment's hesitation she already had appeared in front of three slaves that were leisurely lounging about. In one clear yet smooth motion, she had lobed off their heads and collected them into her hands. She walked over to the still sleeping guard and placed the heads on his desk loudly.
THUD!!
He jerked awake to find three heads on his desk while a bloodied short sword was currently being pointed at his eyeball.
"Ah!" He shouted in shock as he fell back in his chair
"Do try to stay awake when you are on the job" as she smiled.
"Y-Yes Mam!"
"I'm so sorry about this Mam is there anything you want me to do?" The supervisor
"It's alright, I think I have seen enough. Nothing is too out of the ordinary. Lets head back." She replied as she glared at the still recovering guard. On the way back, she passed by District 3 and passed by the still very tense guard when suddenly behind them...
BANG!!!
The once 9 year old kid who had been mining away was violently blown back into the tense guard who was 12 feet away. The supervisor gave a sudden (Oh dear) look on his face as he slowly turned around to see a huge dust cloud. However, that wasn't what Helewise was worried about. She saw for a brief moment weird blue crystals embedded into the boys body but when she went to go check... They were gone...
[Kneels]
"That's odd, I could have sworn that there was shrapnel in him. Yet, there's not even a single piece of metal in the boy." Helewise thought to herself. "Maybe the shrapnel wasn't in his body?" She pondered for a second before telling the supervisor to treat the slave boy and the guard.
"Mam, I understand the guard but why the slave too?" The chubby Supervisor inquired
"Do you defy my orders?" She shot back at him as she stood up.
"No Mam. Not at all Mam." he instinctively replied with.
"Besides, young and healthy slaves like him become far more useful than these old hags."
"Understood Mam. NURSE!!" he yelled out as a team of Demi-Humans came out and placed them on stretchers.
"Seems like they will be alright" said the lizard doctor in charge as the team started to walk away.
The supervisor rushed to her side before greedily asking,"so, is there any chance we could make this whole incident disappear?"
He pulled out his money bag and started taking out gold rose coins until...
"One steel Rose Coin and this will go away." Helewise replied
"What?! One Steel Rose Coin!! That's 10 gold rose coins!! Why so much?!" The astonished supervisor responded with
[The coin system in Thorton is as follows. Coin system
10 copper - 1 silver
10 silver - 1 gold
10 gold - 1 Steel rose coin
10 Steel rose coin - 1 fire rose coin
10 fire rose coin - 1 ice rose coin
10 ice rose coin - 1 withered rose coin
10 withered rose coin - 1 amethest rose coin]
"Well, you did just have an explosion in your district." She laughed out
"Well how about having the slave..." He leaned to his left and saw the boys number."... Ah, I see now why he needs treatment. Maybe he can be yours after he's sent to floor 5?"
"No, i'm fine. Let's go back if you aren't going to pay up." She replied cupidity
"Fine, let's go to my office and I will give you the money. Let's go." He grumbled as the two went off.
[Transition into main characters view]
"Whe-Where am I-I-I? What is this Place-Place-Place?" His voice echoed throughout the darkness that he was experiencing. He would have thought that he was in a void of death except for the blue crystal in front of him. The blue aura oozing out of the weird looking rock was calm. The boy reached his hand out to touch it when suddenly the blue aura turned to black and latched onto him like a parasite latching at their host. It was so violent that the boy couldn't help but to scream but his voice could no longer be heard. He was getting engulfed by the darkness that by now was up to his neck. He tried to scream but nothing came out and then... Blue again... The once black aura had turned back to blue and was warming him. As if it were a dog accepting its new owner. Then, a set of words came out in front of the boy. The words in bold letters with a white backdrop stating,"Please wait for calibration to be finished."
"Calibration? What the hell does that mean?" The boy was trying to make sense of what was happening when... "Calibration complete. Welcome Player to THE GAME. Most features are locked. To unlock more access to THE GAME, you will need to complete the 5 TRIALS."
"Trials? why does this seem like a bad thing?" He started to ponder whether this was good or not when he saw. "Waking up in 3"
"2"
"1"
Darkness
"nnnggghh" He groaned as the boy opened his eyes.
"What happened?" He thought about it for a brief second before remembering the incident before. The force of the explosion slamming him into the guard. The look of horror on Nathan's face as he watched me be back back like a soccer ball being punted across a field. He looked around the room to find many empty white beds along a wall. The occasional blood stains on the white marble floor that he would spot before it was mopped up in quick haste. He could smell a stench of blood and rot as he observed his surroundings. A headless body suddenly chucked into an incinerator in front of him. He suddenly realized that he himself was moving towards an incinerator.
"UMMM!!! I'M STILL VERY MUCH ALIVE!!" He yelled clearly distraught by his situation.
He was getting closer and closer to the incinerator when suddenly he was grabbed and yanked off a conveyor belt moved by magic. With such ripping strength he was pulled and placed on a bed like it was nothing. The lizard looked down at the boy with an apologetic expression on his face.
"Sorry about that, the others must have mistaken you for dead due to all of your prior injuries. Do you still feel any pain?"
"No, other than feeling a little toasty I'm fine" 22 said with a clear look of disdain.
"Haha, I'm glad you are well. You should consider yourself lucky to even be alive!" He roared out with laughter.
"What happened and why am I here? Isn't the nursery only allowed for guards, soldiers or unique/special slaves??" The boy questioned.
"Well, good news for you young boy! A certain powerful someone made an exception for you!"
"But why would they make such an exception for me?" The boy questioned.
"Who knows." The izard shrugged. "Anyhow, you are free to go to District 16. You were out for quite a while and the time now is 2p.m. You have about an hour to relax before you have to go back to work. Now shoo already, I ain't getting paid just to talk to you." The lizard impatiently said before shooing 22 away. The boy walked out of the nursery still in quite the daze before heading to District 16. However, there was still one thing bothering him... That would be the huge annoying set of text that was constantly in front of him. It seemed that no one could see it. Guards would pass right through the text like they were a ghost. "Great, I have gone delusional." The boy sighed while rubbing his forehead. "Calibration complete. Please press continue." The text kept nagging at him. "Fine, Fine. Guess I'll go along with it. See what happens." When the boy touched the continue button the text then sent directions. "It seems this system is leading me to District 12 instead... Alright fine. Let's see what you got." The boy then casually walked towards District 12 when a guard spotted him. The guard saw the boy's number and checked his collar by looking at the "Detector" This Detector will tell someone if the slave is supposed to be there or not. The detector went red and the buff guard smiled. He nudged the guard next to him and whispered"Hey, what if we trick that boy into eating some bad berries?"
"Come on man, you know the supervisor will have our heads if he finds out that we let a slave eat a berry. Besides, what happens if he dies? Then we will definitely have our heads on a pole!" Replied the more cautious guard.
"Relax, he's not totally stupid. He'll probably throw up the second he eats one berry and it will be funny!" Snickered the buff guard
"I'm not too sure about thi-" Before he could finish, the buff guard had already yelled out to the boy and ordered him to eat a nazur berry.
They watched as the boy hesitated at first but then obliged in picking a sour berry and eating it.
BLAUGHHH
The boy had puked it out almost immediately.
The two guards started to laugh loudly and then the cautious guard who was now more oblivious to the situation ordered the kid to eat a Bliz berry. One that is used in mana potions but never used alone. The boy obliged and shoved one in his mouth. Suddenly, the boy stopped... Looked around and picked up a blazing berry. "There is no way this kid is gonna eat that berry. It's super poisonous and everyone knows that." The now slowly weary buff guard thought. Yet before their eyes they saw the kid grab a handful of them, throw it into his mouth and swallow. The now stunned guards rushed over to the kid and said "spit it Out! spIt IT OUT! SPIT IT OUT!"
The kid lost consciousness before the originally cautious guard had now said." Wasn't he the slave that Helewise sent to the Infirmary?! OH God we are DEAD!" "Calm down you fools. Just send him back." A voice from behind. It was Sheila. She had watched the whole thing unfold and started to wonder. "Why DID you eat those berries?"...
"CONGRATULATIONS ON PASSING THE FIRST TRIAL. STATUS UNLOCKED!"... That was the first thing the boy had seen. But the last thing he now saw was "LET THE GAME BEGIN!!" In blood red letters...