SSSSS-Rank: Negative Leveling

Luthra descended into the mines, each step sending pain through his broken ribs. The tunnel sloped down at a steep angle, and the air got thicker with every foot they descended. It smelled like dirt and unwashed bodies and death.

Rebecca walked beside him, her hand glowing with a weak red light that barely pushed back the darkness.

"This place stinks."

"Yeah."

The tunnel opened into a massive cavern carved from solid rock. Wooden platforms and walkways crisscrossed the space at different levels. Mining equipment lay scattered everywhere, most of it rusted and broken.

But Luthra's attention went straight to the cages.

Dozens of them, built from iron bars thick as his wrist. Each one held people. Or what used to be people.

They were skeletal, their skin hanging loose on bones that showed through clearly. Most didn't even look up when Luthra and Rebecca entered. They just sat against the bars or lay on the stone floor, breathing shallow and slow.

'This is worse than I expected.'

A man in the nearest cage lifted his head slightly. His eyes were sunken so deep they looked like holes in his skull. When he opened his mouth to speak, Luthra saw he was missing most of his teeth.

"Are you... are you here to kill us?"

The question came out as a whisper. Like he was hoping the answer would be yes.

"I'm here to free you."

The man's expression didn't change. No hope, no relief. Just the same empty stare.

"They all say that at first."

Luthra walked to the cage and examined the lock. It was a massive thing, inscribed with the same symbols that had marked the slaves that he freed back then. The metal felt wrong when he touched it, like it was trying to drain something from him.

He wrapped his chain around the lock and pulled. The metal groaned but held.

'These aren't normal locks. They're enchanted.'

"Stand back."

The man didn't move. Luthra wasn't sure he could move.

Luthra lifted his foot and drove it into the lock. Pain shot through his leg as the enchantment fought back, but the metal cracked. He kicked again. The lock shattered.

The cage door swung open.

The man looked at the opening but didn't get up.

"I can't. The brand won't let me leave."

Luthra pressed his thumb against the glowing brand on the slave's neck. The man was too weak to pull away.

"Silas is dead. This mark doesn't work anymore."

The gray light in the brand's lines flickered and died. The symbol cracked like dried mud, flaking away to reveal clean skin underneath. The man touched his neck, his fingers searching for the brand that had controlled him for years.

"It's gone." His voice cracked. "It's actually gone."

Rebecca held out dried meat. The man stared at it, then at her, before taking it with shaking hands.

Word spread through the cages. Whispers became shouts. Hope replaced despair. Luthra moved from cage to cage, wrapping his chain around each lock and letting the weight crush them. Metal shrieked and imploded. Prisoners stumbled out, helping each other stand, passing around water from the supplies they'd taken earlier.

"Impressive work. What's your plan for them now?"

Misha stood at the tunnel entrance with Borris and Jako. They weren't threatening, just watching.

"That's Moria's problem. We had a deal."

"Moria can't handle three hundred starving people alone. You need logistics. Guards. People who know these tunnels."

Luthra turned to face her. "You offering?"

"Our contracts died with Silas. We're still hunters, and we know this operation. Let us help manage this exodus. In exchange, we take a share of the mine's assets."

Borris shifted his weight, hand on his mace. "This isn't friendship. It's business."

Luthra looked at the growing crowd of freed slaves. He knew how to fight, not how to lead three hundred people through hostile territory.

"Get them organized. Find supplies, distribute food and water. Get them ready to move. I'll finish freeing the rest. We will talk in more detail about this later."

Misha nodded and started barking orders. Her voice cut through the chaos with practiced authority. Borris and Jako followed her lead, their experience as hunters quickly turning the crowd into something manageable.

Luthra continued breaking locks. After the last cage in the main cavern, Misha approached him.

"That's everyone here." She pointed to a narrow tunnel at the cavern's far end. "There's one more level. Deeper. Silas called it his private collection."

The tunnel led down, air growing colder. Smooth mine walls gave way to natural rock shot through with black obsidian veins. The passage opened into a circular chamber with a single cage at its center.

This cage was different. Black obsidian bars hummed with contained energy, more artwork than prison.

Inside, a small figure lay curled on the floor.

Rebecca's light revealed details that shouldn't exist. The girl's skin was covered in iridescent scales that shifted from deep blue to emerald green. Two black horns curved back from her temples. A long tail coiled around her, ending in a wicked barb that scraped against stone.

She looked up. Her eyes were slitted, glowing like dying embers.

"Whoa." Rebecca stepped back. "Is she a monster?"

'No way... a dragon?'

[Analysis required.]

[Mana signature... error. Energy output exceeding measurement capacity. Classification: Dragonkin. Pureblood confirmed.]

Luthra's blood went cold. Not a half-breed. Not some distant descendant. The real thing, trapped beneath the earth.

He wrapped his chain around an obsidian bar and pulled, activating its weight. The chain groaned under impossible pressure. The bar didn't even scratch.

The dragon girl watched him, amused. When he stopped, she spoke. Her voice scraped like grinding stone, vibrating through his bones.

"You done staring, or are you going to get this collar off?"

His eyes found the thick obsidian band around her neck, inscribed with pulsing gray runes. Understanding hit him hard.

The cage wasn't keeping her in. It was keeping everyone else out.

"The collar." He studied the runes. "That's what's holding you."

"Brilliant deduction. Silas was paranoid. Couldn't kill me, couldn't control me, so he locked me down here with this thing burning into my neck every second of every day."

Rebecca moved closer. "How long have you been here?"

"Time loses meaning in the dark. Years? Decades? Does it matter?"

"Can you remove it?" Luthra asked, already knowing the answer.

"If I could, would I still be here?" The dragon girl's tail lashed against the cage floor. "The collar suppresses my transformation and most of my strength. I'm barely stronger than a human like this."

He examined the collar more closely. The runes were similar to the slave brands but far more complex, layers upon layers of binding magic woven together.

"These runes. They're tied to Silas's magic, like the brands were."

"So?"

"So he's dead. His power is failing. The brands already crumbled."

The dragon girl went very still. "You killed him?"

"About 30 minutes ago."

"Then why hasn't this thing fallen off yet?"

"Because it's stronger. More magic packed into it. But it should be weakening." He reached through the bars. "Let me try something."

"If you make it worse—"

"It can't get worse. You're already trapped."

Before he started what he wanted to try, he just had to ask, "You won't eat us right?"

The dragon girl looked dumbfounded.