I groan, and slam my picaxe into a wall, more stones falling to the ground along with a roll of the shoulders. I huff, glancing around as I pick up my cart, heading towards the tables. I smile at an older slave who giggles softly.

"Well it's good to see you Uru, though I have to say it's still a little worrying to see you moving around carts like that." The woman chuckles slightly as I laugh a bit.

"It's no worries, I'm strong." I state as I finish setting the marble down. A pair of guys walk, one with sandy blonde hair and the other with black hair, over to the two of us; I raise an eyebrow as one of them scoffs as he looks at me.

"Is this really the kid?"

"You saw how he picked up that cart! Plus it was full of marble." the blonde guy says before they both look at me. They're both roughly teenage looking, though the taller guy (who's name is Jonah (via the name above his head, and level 13, not bad) seems to have had more food then all of us together.

Jonah scoffs silently before looking down at me, sighing a bit. "Look I'm sure this kid is strong, but still he's too young." He sneers at me, as I simply raise an eyebrow, crossing my arms slightly. "Not only that, I don't like how he looks."

"Ok I'm out of the loop here." I state plainly, as Matthew, the blonde guy (Level 8 again not that bad for a slave), looks at me as I look at the pair. "Why are you talking about me like this?"

Matthew looks at me and laughs nervously. "Oh sorry Uru. You see" He leans closer to me, and whispers. "Jonah here was a thief turned slave because he was caught." This causes Jonah to swing his arm at Matthew, who skips away from the attack before continuing. "Well, he found a small tunnel while stealing, and it can lead us straight to the heart of the mansion." My eyes widen as he says that before they narrow.

"So you want my help to make sure your plan goes off without a hitch."

Jonah looks at me surprised before smirking, a dark look filling his eyes. "Yeah. The tunnel leads directly to the library. Using that, I know the layout pretty well since I wanted to rob this place." He looks at me, a deranged smile on his face. "We can kidnap Cecelia and force Mobius to let us go."

Detect Bloodlust Level Up

I internally flinch, his bloodlust echoing off of him. I glance at Matthew, he's obviously disgusted, but he doesn't say anything. I then glance at him again, as I growl out. "And what of the guards?"

Jonah shrugs and points at me. "That's where you come in. You're probably stronger than most of the guards. Especially since you took care of a few of those assassins." He then gets a sneer on his face. "Though maybe it's a fluke. After all you're just a kid." He growls out, leaning down at me.

I could feel my pride flutter, calling what I did a fluke. However I take a small breath, letting Gamer's Mind calm me down as I look up at him. "And then what? If you fail, he'll send you straight into Sallos." I point out, and make sure to emphasize the 'you fail' aspect as Matthew snorts.

"That's why we're recruiting you." He states, seeming to get over his friend's earlier words. "Again you're strong, plus I heard that Fanalis have pretty good senses. With your help we'll be able to sneak around easier."

I think it over for a bit, before I say. "You're right. It is possible we could get out of here with that idea."

"That's great then let-"

"But you're making a severe mistake." This makes the pair jump as I look up at Jonah, who seems to freeze a bit. "I'm not the only Fanalis here. While Kai's a half Fanalis, he's still strong. Hell he's stronger than me." I then wave my hand, walking away from the pair. "Besides, even if I do come along, all that'll happen is my family gets hurt." I glare at the pair. "Because you have no real plan."

The two look at me, and my finger twitches. I tilt my head to the side as a piece of rock flies past my right ear, while I continue to walk on. I look and jump a bit, as I see Borros around the corner. He looks down at me and smirks a bit. "That's some wise words for someone so young."

"Well yeah. If I did, they'd probably punish everyone as a whole if we were captured." I blush a bit at the praise as I try to continue walking. However I get a hand on my shoulder, Borros sighing a bit.

"Still though, I think you should look towards becoming free."

"Yes and we've already talked about this." I look up at him, with a bit of a glare. He simply sighs again, patting my shoulder again as he walks off.

I was snoring, having a relatively good sleep on the rock floor, but then I was rudely awakened by someone shaking my arm. "What?!" I groan and look up seeing Matthew over me, his face scrunched up in concern.

"Sorry." He hushes hard, putting his hands on my mouth. "I woke up earlier and Jonah was just … gone! I-I don't know what to do." My eyes widen as he starts to shake. "H-he may have shown up a while ago, but he's still a friend of mine." He looks me in the eyes as he gulps a bit.

I look up at him sternly, nodding my head a bit, grabbing his hands. "I understand … damnit if this idiot gets someone killed I swear." I pull away from him and nod my head, while he leads me towards the entrance of the tunnel.

We head near the elevator shaft, and he pulls some stones out of the way revealing a relatively bleak looking tunnel. I breathe slowly as I close my eyes, activating my enhanced senses. My ear twitches a bit as I hear a far off scratch in the tunnel. I look at Matthew, motioning for him to follow me as I start to crawl through it.

I crawl as fast as I can through the tunnels, trying to make as little sound as possible as I continue to follow the far off scrapes. My eyes widen as we finally get to an upward ramp. I look at Matthew, who is panting but keeping his hands over his mouth to keep the sound down. He looks at me and shakily gives me a thumbs up, causing me to grin slightly as I go back up, a creaking sound echoing from where we are. My eyes steel up as I look at him and whisper. "Stay here." I state, not missing his look of relief, before I go up the ramp.

At the top of it, a hole in the wall letting some candle light through, welcomes me. I slip through, keeping an ear out as I glance around. Books upon books upon books surrounding me, but I don't take much time to dwell on it as I sniff the air. I quickly caught Jonah's scent, which stunk of tobacco by the way, and started to follow the trail. I slowly crept, through and growled slightly as I spotted him in front of a room.

Upon hearing me, he looks over and his eyes widen. I go over to him as he pulls out a small knife. "What are you doing here?" He hisses out, holding a knife in hand (where did he get that?!) and holding it along with a small stick.

"To get you out of here before you do something stupid."

"Stupid?! I'm trying to be free."

"By kidnapping a little girl? By abandoning your friends?" I growl out before my ear twitches. My eyes widening, as I quickly grab Jonah, put a hand over his mouth, and pull him underneath a table, as a couple guards walk by. They're talking about nonsense as I hiss softly. "Damnit."

Jonah wriggles a bit against me, as I try to keep us both silent. The pair of guards walking right past us as I let out a soft groan. I then look at the older kid and slip off him. He grunts and shakes me off, growling a little.

"Get off me. I want to be free, you idiot." He pushes me off of him as I shake my head, growling as well. He groans a bit and glares at me, looking at the door.

"So do I, but they'll send hitmen after you if you kidnap her. Besides that, do you really think that anyone will take you seriously if you just do it through pure brute force?" I growl out as he looks at the door again. My ear twitches again as I just grab him by the collar of his shirt, pulling him back into the library.

I grunt and basically wrestle him to the tunnel, as he gives me two cuts across my cheeks for barely 100 damage.

When I toss him down, with a bit of a dull thud, someone comes into the room. I look back and almost let out a sigh as I spot Kai standing there, a hard look in his eyes. "What the hell is going on?"

I breathe slowly, before I look him in the eye. I didn't need observation to tell he was pissed as I gulped audibly. "Now you are probably pissed right now but before you decide to decapitate me or do something stupid let me explain myself please." I tell him in my best calming tone hoping that he will listen to me.

*Sigh* "You have a few minutes to explain yourself and if I don't like it I will be forced to do something, now what in Solomon's hell is going on?" Kai said to me while pinching the bridge of his nose. To which I nodded my head and started to explain why I am here with as much detail as possible to make him see what I am going through.

He stood there listening for a bit, his face slowly going from pissed, to annoyed, to just plain done. He glances at the door and sighs. "Get out of here. I'll make sure no one knows that you were here and I'll try to do something about that tunnel so we don't have a repeat of this shit okay.*Sigh* I don't get paid enough for this shit." Kai said while massaging his temples but making sure that no one else comes through.

And with that I turned around to go back into the tunnel but with one thought in mind 'Kai is so pissed! You know what, I am too tired for this shit. I will let tomorrow me handle it'.

I crawl through the tunnel and get towards the cell. After a few seconds, and a somewhat confused look from Noona, I collapse into my 'bed'. I groan and glance at the panel that popped up when I went to stop Jonah.

Stop the kidnapper

Objective: Stop Jonah from kidnapping Cecilia

Sub-Objective:

[x] Stop him from breaching the door

[-] Do not be caught

Rewards:

200 EXP

+20 REP with Borros

-30 REP with Jonah

Failure:

-50 REP with Kai

I sigh a bit, my eyes drifting close as I finally pass out, having been awake longer than I wanted.

Early the next morning, having recovered easily from the few cuts I had gotten from last night, I got to work, Borros giving me a slight smile. I rub my head a bit, grabbing a chunk of marble, and take it to the sorting table.

[Warning! Bloodlust detected!]

My right hand twitched as I turned my head, trying to see what was causing it, until a bottle smashed into the right side of my head.

HP: 1036 → 1006

The stone and marble tumbles out of my hands, crashing against the ground as some blood builds up on my lip. I growl slightly, luckily Rage State was put in locked down, as I turn to the aggressor. My eyes widen slightly as I see Jonah and three other slaves next to him. I spit up a bit of blood (and I think alcohol) out of my mouth as I stand up, glaring at the four. "What are you idiots doing? Do you want to get us all in trouble?"

"Shut up!" Jonah growls, though I could see the smirk on his face as he and his goons tower over me. "If it wasn't thanks to you, I'd have enough power to get anyone I want out of here."

"Yeah! We could be free, you bastard!" One of the grunts said, surprisingly muscular.

"That brat could probably get us a fortune as well." Another says, scrawny looking and a complete creep.

I breathe out slowly as I just look at the older guys, my eyes narrowing as I glare at Jonah. "Kai was right behind us, you would have-" Another bottle smashes into my head, forcing me onto my knees as a guy behind me chuckles nervously.

HP: 1006 → 976

"It doesn't matter, if we could jump him as well as we did you he'd be dead in a second, just like you're going to be." Jonah growls out, grabbing a picaxe.

I sneer slightly at that as I growl again. "Yeah fucking right. The guy wasn't busy with anything, I could tell when I was talking him out of reporting us." I huff slightly as I ball up a fist, shaking a bit. "But if you want to fight, I'll give you hell." And like that I twist around, elbowing the guy that hit me last in the stomach. He crumbles easily as I stand up fully, glaring at Jonah.

Out the corner of my eye, slaves were on the edge, congregating to watch us. 'Thanks a lot guys! Just a bunch of rubber necks and watch these guys get their butts kicked.' I inwardly roll my eyes as I spot Noona and Borros looking on in shock and concern. I sigh a bit and step on the guy I knocked out, growling more.

Jonah froze as he stared back at me, before he huffed. "Get him!"

I tilt back, dodging a picaxe swing to where my head was. I cock my fist back, and slam it into the chin of the scrawny guy, sending him sprawling backwards. I then duck under the fist of the muscular guy. I kick upwards, barely missing his jaw, while Jonah brings a picaxe down towards my chest. I manage to catch the blow, tossing it to the side.

I twist my body, hopping back to my feet as I bounce in place, my form loose while the muscular guy comes running at me. I leap upwards, slamming my foot into his face, which leaves him crashing into a wall. I step down, while the scrawny guy gets up, rubbing his jaw. Jonah frowns and runs at me. He wildly swings the picaxe, while I just focus on dodging. "You know, I don't care that you tried to attack me."

The scrawny guy comes at me again, swinging his own picaxe, which I dodge as well. I flick my foot out, catching the guy in the ribs this time around. "And I'm not really mad that you tried to kidnap Cecilia, even if it is a shitty thing to do." The guy I knocked out first manages to get up, huffing all the while as he runs at me, trying to punch me uselessly. I block each of his strikes, before I punch his nose, sending him sprawling once more.

I roll my neck a bit, as I glare at Jonah, who screams out bringing the picaxe down knot my head. I catch it at the last second, the metal rubbing against my scarlet hair as I look up at him. "What pisses me off is that you're acting like you care about others. After all, you would have been caught easily." I tighten my grip, as the wood starts to splinter under my hand, as I growl out. He tries to yank the picaxe out of my head, or to drive it into my skull, but I hold it still.

"So what! I don't care about a guy who willingly gives up his pride so that he can stay golden." Jonah rebutts as his goons start to get up.

"Who said I gave up my pride? I'm just doing this so no one will get hurt. As I said, Kai would have caught you a second AFTER you opened the door. Because of that" My right ear twitches slightly as I leap up, dodging another bottle that would have smashed into my head. I then quickly give the attack a sidekick to the face, sending him flying into a wall. I then look at Jonah, sneering. "You would have brought down a whole lot more down onto our heads then just a few more pounds of marble."

"You insatiable brat! You don't know anything at all, I would have gotten my freedom, money, and power to decide how to live my life." Shouted the idiot swinging the pickaxe at me again but I leaned back a little bit to the side before hitting his elbow with my left hand with enough force to stun the arm while trying not to break his bones.

I then kick his face, sending him spiraling away as I sigh softly. "Yeah, and an ass kicking that would have left ya for dead. You should be glad I don't want your useless blood on my hands." I state before turning around, hoping to leave the guy knocked down. Borros looks at me with a half sorry face, and half impressed.

"You know, more people are gonna be against you." I look up at the old man and sigh a bit.

"Yeah I know … at least I made sure he wouldn't try anything … I think." I laugh half heartedly as Noona runs up to me, tackling me. I grunt softly as I hug her. For a moment, neither of us speak, as she shakes, sniffling against me as I sigh. "Did I really scare you that much?" She doesn't say anything, just mumbling and nodding her head. I rub the back of my head as I rub her back before I say. "I'll buy you anything you want in the black market." I state, trying to reassure her.

She grumbles for a second before she looks up at me. "I don't want you to get hurt." She whines out as she hugs me tighter, while I laugh awkwardly. She then hits my face, a small weak slap as I look at her. Her face is red and scrunched up as she bops me again. "I-it scared me when I saw that b-bottle get slammed into your head. Why didn't you just say sorry?"

I sigh softly and hug her tighter against me. "If I said sorry, they would have done something dumb again. At the very least I stopped them from doing that." I just hug her to me while rocking her slightly.

She just grumbles as she rubs her head against my chest, while Borros laughs slightly, patting my head. "Come on, I think that's enough excitement for one day." I nod my head a bit, as I pick Noona up. I carry her along as she just keeps hugging me, I bump my head against hers.

"It's ok, I'm ok." She giggles a bit from the head bump before looking up at me with big eyes, red from tears.

"I want lots of food from the stalls." I laugh softly from hearing this, though an older part of me feels a horrible sensation,feeling like a wallet would get lighter like mad if she were around in my previous life.

Borros chuckles as the three of us move on, Jonah left behind, glaring at the three of us. I could feel the hate in his eyes, and with a twitch of my hand. I sneer to myself a bit as I sigh, not stopping. I could hear multiple footsteps, as some guards came to take out the injured guys, though the footsteps echoing behind me.

Jonah finds himself in a cell, grumbling to himself as he huffs in place. Bandages along his arms, shaking in rage. "I'll kill that little shit. Humiliating me like that." He huffs, shaking in place as some people walk through the cells.

A pair of keys jingle slightly, the cell door opening as Garo steps through, huffing a bit as he sneers at the ex thief. "To think, a sneaky little rat like you managed to get your butt kicked by a little brat. I'm surprised." Garo states, before he notices people filtering out, his sneer growing. "Not only that, but they found out about the tunnel. Can't you do anything right?" He growls, which would be intimidating, if it didn't cause his fat rolls to shake.

Jonah huffs, sneering at the guard as he groans. "I didn't expect that brat to come and get me alright!"

"Then why did you tell anyone?"

"Cause Matthew was a good friend of mine long before either of us got thrown into this hell hole!" Jonah replies, scoffing at Garo.

Garo bangs his hand into the cell bars. "Don't talk to me like that! I only told you because of our lasting deal. Now I'm changing things up! Especially since you couldn't even break that kid." Garo grinds his teeth, again looking just ridiculous as he moves.

Jonah scoffs, glaring up at Garo. "Well give me another chance with an actual weapon, and that kid'll be dead in minutes!"

Garo seems to think it over for a minute before shaking his head. "No no. I think you need a chance to learn that you should just stick to my plan." Garo starts to cackle, walking off, leaving Jonah behind.

The prisoner's eyes widen, as he starts to bang on the cell bars, screaming about how Garo owes him. Garo just leaves him behind, chuckling to himself before sighing. "Damn but at least that ties up one loose end." The fat guard mumbles to himself. When he gets to the entrance, he turns to the fellow guards. "It seems the prisoner is being rather violent. I suggest no one goes near him." Garo states, pulling out gold coins.

The two guards look at each other, before shrugging. They take the coins as they stand to the side, letting Garo walk off.

The whale of a man grumbles to himself, sighing a bit. "Well I was planning to get rid of that kid anyway. Might as well do it sooner rather than later. And then Cecilia." He chuckles to himself darkly, a small black bird flying from his direction.

AND CUT!

God it's been a while hasn't it … please don't hate me! I've been opening this up every now and then, slowly updating it. Not only that, Salamander has been going through some tough shit. However it's out!

Now I have a promise to make with you guys, for the next few chapters, I won't be putting a lot of grinding in the story from now on. I get that it can get incredibly boring, so I'll only be putting a few references to it, and maybe jumping in media res with it if it's important to the story. That's a promise that I want to make to you guys since I don't want to bore anyone with that kind of shit.

So how did you guys like this? Hopefully a lot. So leave a review if you did, or you think I have any more areas to improve on!

Now a friendly word from our own Salamander: Hello everyone again sorry that it took so long. I was going through some tough times especially when both of my dogs passed away not that long ago, but I want to give a huge shout out to King for helping during my darkest times. Thanks man you are a true friend.

I hope you like the chapter. Me and King have some big plans for future chapters that I can be 100% positive on till next time.

Thanks Salamander. Anyway, I appreciate all of your patience. I'll be giving Ascent of the King two chapters next so be on the lookout for them. King out!