Lament of the Slave

This guy was aware of his appearance and took advantage of it. I really had to give it to him. He was very handsome. But if the Braves, his company, had sent him here or whether it was a spur of the moment on his part, I could only speculate.

His offer was not that different from the ones I received previously. Even so, to be the damsel in distress he considered me to be, it would be a tempting offer. After all, he promised me treatment free of charge, and of course, equipment and support to conquer the first floor and so on. 

Though, his offer would have been much more sincere if the healing of my wounds was not conditional on written consent to join the Braves. To his dismay, I was not a naive slave girl trying to become a seeker and not at all in distress and need of treatment. Yeah, I was hurt, looking awful, but with enough time, my wounds will heal, and a bath with new clothes will do the rest.

That is why I was grateful to Mr. Daniel Fernbough, even though I didn't get the information I wanted from him. When I asked him about horned rabbits and where I could sell them, he enthusiastically referred me to his company. Of course, I would have to be a member to be able to do that.

Likewise, when I asked him about the possible disappearance in the labyrinth if I couldn't find a way back. Instead of the answer I wanted to hear, he assured me I did not have to fear anything like that with the Braves. I don't know if it was his smile when he told me, his devotion to his company, or a weird feeling on the back of my neck I have had since I came out of the labyrinth, but it gave me shivers.

So why was I grateful to him?

Well, because while he was trying to convince me, I stood still for over half an hour, recovering my injuries, and I didn't look like a complete loser doing it.

He wasn't completely stupid either, and when he saw he wouldn't convince me on the spot, he gave up. But he did so with grace and a disarming smile on his face.

I wish I could do that. Half an hour was not enough to heal the tendon in my knee completely, so I still limped a little as I headed for the merchants' stalls. I didn't smile like him either, but my face was no longer twisted in pain anymore.

The stalls themselves were one big surprise to me. There were more of them in Labyrinth Square than I had first assumed. They had a better range of goods than most stores in the city, and its quality was comparable or better. At least, at first glance. The downside was the price which differed greatly from the prices I saw in my search for weapons and armor in Castiana.

Speaking of weapons, there were tons of stalls with them. Besides selling, they were also repairing damaged weapons or bought weapons found in the labyrinth from seekers. I saw a merchant who focused only on the sale of swords. Needless to say, these swords looked amazing. Regrettably, with a price tag that I wasn't sure I would ever be able to afford.

There were stalls with armor, potions, accessories, or jewelry. The last one caught my eye because of my spatial ring. I wondered how much it cost. So after I rubbed my neck to get rid of the strange feeling on the back of it, I went to the jewelers stall, where an old woman in a chair was sitting behind a counter with exhibited goods.

[Jeweler: lvl 134]

Her class and level was the reason I approached her. Most of the stalls were owned by [Merchants], [Dealers], [Sellers] or [Traders]. The crafters owned only a few. In addition, this old woman underwent class evolution. Meaning she should know her stuff.

"Your hand, girl," she told me, urging me to show her the ring after I spoke to her.

As soon as I reached out with my hand, she grabbed it and pulled it closer to her, almost dragging me into her wares. I had to suppress a scream because I wore the ring on my left hand, where my torn muscles had not yet completely healed.

"Hmm...ordinary brass, shoddy enchantments, one cubic decimeter of storage ... a standard spatial accessory issued by City Hall or City Guards ...," muttered the older lady as she was examining my ring. When she finished, she looked at me, "Ten silvers, that's the standard price."

Wow, that was much less than I expected. Given that I received 40 silver from the City Guards and the price of weapons I saw, I estimated the price closer to one gold. I was probably wrong in my assumption of how rare such spatial tools were.

"Thank you, Madam," I added with a nod, pressing my aching hand back to my chest.

"... You should replace it ..." she remarked after leaning back in the chair she was sitting in.

Her words stopped me. One day I planned to replace the ring with a better one, but now I wondered why she told me.

"Why?" I asked, ready for the old lady to try to sell her jewelry.

"It's a piece of crap, that's why," she said with a smirk, pointing to my ring.

"Okay ...?" I said, unaware of what to say. My knowledge of magical tools was almost non-existent.

The old lady threw up her hands and looked at me sharply, "For Traiana's sake, are you stupid?"

She then stopped and shook her head, mumbling, "... no, that moronic master of hers is to blame for this brainless woman..."

I don't know if she thought I couldn't hear her or if it was some form of senile dementia, but her unflattering naming didn't escape my ears. The old lady looked at me then as if she had said nothing, though.

"This brass is as impure as it can be. It can barely hold enchantments. A little more impurities, and it would be a piece of worthless metal. The work on the enchantments themselves is really sloppy, not to mention the size of the spatial storage itself. It's pathetic ... Trajana's tits! What is such a tiny storage space even useful for?" the old woman got angry, raising her voice.

"Grandma, is everything okay?" asked the young man, who peered out from behind the canvas of the tent that was part of the stall. From his annoyed look, I figured this wasn't the first time the old woman had been so upset.

"Nah ... don't mind me, boy. It's just that cheapskate lordling who makes my blood boil, again," she explained and waved him off.

The young man just sighed and retreated back to the tent. I was confused, glad it wasn't me who pissed her off, but unaware of who she was talking about. Lordling? Did she mean the City Lord?

The old woman leaned toward me, pointed to the ring, and then looked at me, "The late Lord Egerton gave people like you spatial rings on an entirely different level. Slave, terran, human ... it didn't matter who it was. But if they applied for citizenship in Castiana, they got a ring with one cubic meter of spatial storage and one gold. It was still just brass, but a good quality brass and the enchantments lasted for years."

"Wait," I said, stunned by this information. "Enchantments can stop working?"

As soon as I said that, I remembered the unmaintained enchantments on the city walls and that some no longer worked. I cursed myself for not thinking more before I spoke.

The only consolation for me could be that the old woman already thought I was a brainless woman. It couldn't have been worse.

"That ring of yours ... two months, three at the most, and the enchantment will collapse," the old jeweler told me her expert estimate.

This time I was shocked. "Just three months?!"

"If you're lucky," she nodded, making me speechless.

In my mind, the spatial rings were something ancient and eternal. They were something rare that could only be found in dungeons, labyrinths, or ancient ruins. That the knowledge of how to make them was long forgotten by all. I guess I was again carried away by my imagination, driven by the books and novels I read.

Apparently, spatial tools were something that anyone could produce, at least cheap copies of it. That was the impression I got from what the old woman had told me. Well, not just from that. When I got to Castiana, it shocked me when Travis gave me the ring with the money. But then I was so overwhelmed by everything that happened around me I had quite forgotten about the rarity of what I had on my finger. I got used to its usefulness very quickly, even if it was just a trash item.

But now I was worried. Concern about what will happen to objects when the magical storage space collapses. Will they be destroyed? What about the ring itself? I didn't want to lose my finger, even if only temporarily.

"Silly girl," said the old woman, shaking her head. "Your things will simply be thrown out of the collapsing space. In your case, I wouldn't worry. If my spatial tools collapsed … I would die under piles of junk." the old lady laughed.

A little embarrassed, I laughed with her. This old lady was one of those people who could say what I thought, based only on my body language. It was very awkward, frustrating, even scary, and sometimes helpful like now. I didn't have to ask the question.

Anyway, I needed those lessons on my body language from some terran. Maybe Ria? Was the kid a good idea? It would be weird to ask Razso, though.

I sighed in my mind and looked at the jeweler, "What happens to the ring when the enchantments stop working?"

"Nothing, it's going to become a piece of useless metal again," she said, shrugging. "But yours could crack."

The thought of having an unpredictable time bomb on my finger was not exactly reassuring. That's why I was glad when the old lady told me that the ring would just crack in the worst case. In fact, I was grateful that she was so willing to help me and answer my questions.

I glanced around at her wares, looking for some spatial rings, "What ring would you recommend? Though I don't have much money ..." I warned her.

"Don't say," she laughed. "The cheapest I have is made of brass, like yours, better quality, of course. Half a cubic meter of storage, enchantments on it are decent. It will last five years. Eighty silvers."

Currently, my hoard consists of just over fifteen silver coins. That ring was out of reach for me.

"Don't worry, girl. I see the determination in your eyes ..." the old lady told me, smiling. "If you don't find death down there, you'll eventually be able to afford much better rings or other spatial tools. Remember me then..."

"Oh...I will, I promise. Thank you very much for everything," I said with a slight nod.

"Good," said the jeweler, smiling contentedly. But then she frowned and looked at me, "Before you go, let me warn you. Don't look around, but there are eyes on you. Be careful."

I paused and straightened. My ears pricked up, and Sage stood to attention, but I resisted the urge to look around for the people the old jeweler was talking about. It was hard, though. The first thing that came to my mind was if these people who were watching me were the cause of that weird feeling on the back of my neck. 

I wanted to thank her for the warning, but she just waved me off. Grateful but leaving her alone, I left her stall. 

With thoughts of a trash ring long forgotten, I was wondering who might be watching me. Were they City Guards? Maybe they wanted to make sure I didn't leave the city, or that no one would try to kidnap me again. The kidnappers? Mind mages! At the thought, my guts clenched with anxiety. 

I wanted to believe that Captain Rayden would not let another mind mage get into the city. Still, even if she didn't, there was a chance that the prospect of easy money would lure someone in Castiana.

Wandering the square between the stalls, not looking where I was going, and lost in dark thoughts, I came to a stall I did not expect to find here. I was looking at lingerie and underwear. The stall in which I bought what I was wearing was, say, very modest. It had just a few basic types. This stall had almost everything that could be found on Earth. Old-fashioned pantaloons, knickers, more modern boyshorst, and they even sold g-strings. I honestly couldn't imagine fighting in them but to each his own.

The same could be said about bras. They had quite a range of types of them, even some of whose functions were questionable.  

Well, the bra was not a necessity that I had to have. So, due to my poverty and lack of need, I had nothing under my shirt now.

But even if I wanted to buy one, it wouldn't be in this store. The cheapest I've seen cost sixty pieces of silver. Not much less than an ordinary spatial ring. It made me wonder how they differed from the cheap ones that were sold in the city for a little more than one silver.

I would imagine they were made of higher quality materials, better sewn, more comfortable. I would not rule out some extra functions given where I was and the price on some pieces.

Enchanted underwear and a new spatial ring were not the reason I went to the stalls, though.

I limped here to see if it was possible to sell a horned rabbit or parts of it. So, concentrating on my original goal and trying to ignore whoever was watching me, I tore my eyes away from the black lace cheeky panties costing two golds and set out to look for the butcher.

It was not difficult to find one. There were dozens of them in Labyrinth Square. What was difficult was finding someone to buy horned rabbits from me. This time it wasn't my fault, it wasn't because of how I look, mostly. The merchants weren't simply interested in horned rabbits.

It took me so long that my knee healed to such an extent that I stopped limping. Even my hand stopped hurting me. I almost gave up, accepting that I would not be able to sell the rabbits here in the square, when I came across a stall that caught my eye.

It wasn't a hidden stall tucked somewhere in the corner. That wasn't even possible in this square. It didn't look shabby, either. But for some reason, there weren't as many people in this part of the square as elsewhere. I wondered if it was because the owners of the stalls here were mostly terrans.

I looked at a man and a woman of the same race, most reminiscent of bears.

Butcher: lvl 54

Merchant: lvl 48

She was a butcher, he was a merchant, but they were both carving meat on the counter when I approached them. Their low levels were not something to discourage me. I was just looking for a place to sell those damn rabbits, and I didn't care to whom.

"Excuse me, may I ask a question?" I asked both of them carefully.

The woman didn't even lift her head from her work. The man looked at me, frowned, and growled, "Horned rabbits?"

"Yes," I blurted out with such enthusiasm that even a terran woman looked at me. "Are you buying them?"

"What floor?" the merchant asked, nodding.

"First," I said quickly, hoping I had found what I was looking for when he didn't turn me down right away.

"Level thirty to forty-five," he muttered, glancing at the woman, and after she nodded, he looked back at me, "Five silvers."

"For the whole rabbit?" I asked to make sure I heard well. I couldn't help but be a little surprised by the low price. The beast was massive.

The man sighed lightly, "Look. The most valuable thing from a rabbit is the meat from his hind legs, then his fur. The rest is not worth the work. If you bring me only that, I can give you up to twice as much according to the quality of processing."

Okay, that sounded reasonable. After all, dissecting such a beast could not be easy. If I could do it, I would do it. Well, thinking back, probably not. Cutting flowers differed greatly from carving a beast, and I didn't know how to do skinning at all.

"Will it matter if it dies of poisoning?" I asked, fingers crossed, wishing it didn't matter.

"What kind of poison?" He asked me without being surprised by my question.

If I wanted to earn something and not kill anyone, I had to tell him, "Nerve poison. It doesn't transmit by touch. You have to inhale it."

"Hmm ... three silvers for such a rabbit," he said after a moment's thought.

"..." I sighed inwardly.

"The cost of detoxification," he added to explain the reduced price to me.

Yeah, I was afraid of that, but I was glad they were willing to buy a poisoned beast from me. All I had to do was figure out how to get rabbits to these terrans. I didn't see seekers dragging their catches across the square.

I had time to think it over, though.

It was not my intention to return to the labyrinth today. My plan was to finally buy a second shirt and shorts. I kept putting it off, like a lot of other things, but I needed a second pair of clothes very badly now.

Unfortunately, my plans were in question again as I could not get rid of the unpleasant feeling that made the hairs on the back of my neck tingle.