"But he should just be at the 1st Origin, it would be of no use to put the suppressing shackles on hi-" one of the guards spoke in confusion.
"Just do as I say." The expression of the commander twisted into a frown, scaring off the guards.
'What the hell is that now?' Neil thought. Unfortunately, though, Nemo wasn't there to answer him.
"Y- Yes sir." Quickly, one of the guards brought two shackles which seemed to be made of steel and didn't look anything special.
The heavy and thick handcuffs were locked around both his wrists. At least they weren't connected through a chain.
But they weighed at least fifty kilograms each, which wasn't really a problem for Neil. However, the moment they were locked around his wrists, his essence was crazily sucked away.
A shocked look appeared on his face, but he couldn't do anything. Within moments, his body felt extremely weak and all his essence was gone.
Neil sat down. The commander gave a few instructions and finally left in a hurry. The door was locked and several guards stood outside his cell.
'Damn, getting out of here won't be easy. For now, I will have to wait.' Taking a deep breath, he relaxed.
Minutes passed in silence, only the faint murmurs of the guards could be heard inside the cold prison cell.
'Hoo, I should have worn warmer clothes. The temperature here is quite low.'
He glanced outside and saw that the guards were a bit more relaxed, but he decided to wait a little longer.
"Hello… neighbour." Just then, a voice sounded from the next prison cell, melodic and sexy.
"Hmm?" Neil's back was pressed against the same wall that was connected to the other cell.
He wondered if it was some Lizzard woman, but then how could he understand her?
Could another human be locked here as well?
Whatever might be the case, he wasn't interested in talking with a woman. Jane's emotionless words stabbed at his heart whenever he was reminded of that.
The Queen stared at the wall in front of her, clearly seeing through it.
"So it's a human… are you sure he is the one?" she mumbled, as the tattoo on her arm started glowing faintly.
"It should be him. Why don't you check his ability?" the rough voice sounded in her ear.
Cynthia Reid, the Queen of the snake men tribe, hesitated slightly.
The ability to check another's skill could only be used once a week, so she didn't want to waste it.
But in the end, Cynthia still decided to check it.
Though it would take a few minutes to correctly show her the details of his skill.
Seeing that by now the guards had completely relaxed, Neil decided to start.
He gave a mental command to the slimes present in the spatial storage in his bracelet.
The slime which kept the bracelet hidden had finally completed its task and disappeared.
Next, another slime popped out, which slowly began to move towards the prison cell.
It wasn't easy with the guards patrolling around the hallways, but by creating distractions here and there, the slime continued to move towards the prison.
Finally, as the slime arrived in the hallway, it melted and was replaced by the next one.
Neil rose to his feet and got close to the metallic bars. He looked at the guards outside and questioned,
"W- Why am I locked here? When can I get out? I want to go back to Earth."
The surrounding guards all listened to him and then burst out laughing.
They understood him, but Neil couldn't understand what they were talking about.
But using this chance, the slime safely slipped into his prison cell. If Nemo wasn't helping all this while, then this process wouldn't have been this easy.
The moment the slime was inside, he walked back and sat with his back facing the guards.
'Finally, it is here!' Taking out the bracelet, he put it over his wrist.
"Master, I am back!" Nemo's cheerful voice sounded instantly, though only in his mind.
'Good job. Tell me, did you find the location of the orb we need to destroy?' Neil really needed to hurry.
If he wasn't wrong, then that commander must already have informed all higher-ranked Lizzard men about his case.
By now, they would be discussing whether to keep using him or let his territory be claimed by someone talented from their race.
But he just didn't know how to create a big enough distraction, even if he were able to find that orb.
"Yes, master. I have already synced with the servers of this settlement and obtained complete access to the cameras and other systems." Nemo answered proudly.
'Good job. Show me the way to the orb and where we need to escape after destroying it.'
Without wasting a moment, Neil started working on his half-baked plan. There were definitely loopholes and many things he hadn't accounted for, but this was just his first try.
"Oh right, master. While I was going through their information database, I found some interesting news about the Phantom race."
Just as they had finished the discussion, Nemo spoke.
'Oh? What did you hear?' Neil first needed to remove the handcuffs. Thankfully, they were digital and needed a physical key.
Pulling out a slime formed with a thicker fluid, Neil began to try to open them.
'Open these handcuffs by turning into their key.' He commanded.
"I am not sure how correct it is, but I found information that Phantoms could build resistance to various things through the blood of different creatures."
His hardworking assistant even added an example,
"Maybe if you drink Magnar's blood, you can develop resistance towards fire? Anyway, you can also gain some amount of essence through blood."
Since his energy reserves were completely empty, Neil wished he had more of those energy regeneration fluids.
But it seemed the blood of others would have the same effect for him.
The shape of the slime kept changing as it tried to turn into the key, and before long, the shackles finally unlocked.
He thanked that commander for putting these handcuffs instead of normal ones and very carefully put them down.
The moment he lost contact, his essence began to regenerate, but the speed was far too slow.
He would need at least a few hours to completely fill his cores.
In the other prison cell, Cynthia waited as her skill finally presented the result.
A display popped up before her as soon as the count ended, appraising his skill.
'Analyzer?' With a slight frown, she read its description.
"What? The ability to examine and understand situations or fights in detail and do better next time? This is just a playback of his mistakes?"
A deep frown appeared on her beautiful face. Had she been wasting her time here in this wretched prison just for this?
"O- Oh, did we get the wrong guy?" The tattoo on her arm slowly turned dim, meekly going silent.
She had very limited slots for stealing skills, so Cynthia was very careful when choosing the skills she planned to steal.
This task turned out to be quite difficult. The Queen, famous for her short temper and kill count, was certain to get angry at this.
Instantly, a terrifying energy swept around. Now, the Queen was truly enraged.
Neil, on the other side, who had just freed himself, was startled. His body froze as he sensed the most terrifying presence he had ever felt.
He almost fainted.
BANG
Cynthia rose to her feet. The gate exploded into pieces as tiny particles of energy swirled around her body.
Cracks stretched over the walls, and all lights turned red as alarms started ringing.
She was at the 4th Origin. Who here could stop the Snake People Queen?
'What's going on?' Neil could barely keep his eyes open, extreme pain assaulting his mind even though he wasn't even the target.
But this was his chance. He was presented with a chance so soon.
Rising to his feet with difficulty, Neil slowly walked towards the door and saw the scene outside.
A woman more beautiful than anyone he had ever seen began the carnage in the hallway.
But in the next moment, her gaze turned to him.
❖❖❖
Thanks for reading...