The Eternal Assassin

Asher spun around, shocked to find himself face to face with a young boy. The boy was absolutely covered in filth, and based on his emaciated frame, he looked as though he hadn't had a proper meal in weeks. Gripping the bars so hard his knuckles were white, the boy stared at him with both fear and hope in his eyes, clearly desperate.

[Human] - Immature

Looking around, only now did Asher realize that the room he'd fallen into was filled with tiny jail cells. The majority of the cells were empty, however, it looked as though three of them were currently being used. Other than the boy currently waiting for Asher to say something, Asher spotted the unconscious body of a woman lying in a different cell, and a blank eyed man sitting on a dirty bale of hay in a third. While none of the prisoners looked healthy, Asher at least couldn't see any immediate signs of wounds or disease.

"Are you okay?" Asher asked the boy as he returned the dropped potion to his bag and grabbed one of his bandages, wrapping it around his injured eye. He immediately cringed as he realized how stupid his question was seeing as the three of them were clearly prisoners of the same crazy wizard that stole him from his own world. Might as well ask a grieving widow at their spouse's funeral if they were feeling sad.

Thankfully, the boy's excitement at seeing another human not only show up, but take down the three imps guarding them, seemed to outweigh any potential anger because he ignored Asher's question entirely. Instead of getting annoyed, he pointed toward the unconscious woman.

"My sister Samantha… Can you make sure she's okay? She fell asleep a while ago and I haven't been able to wake her up no matter how much I shout. The monsters didn't seem to care, they just kept laughing and…" The boy started sniffling, rubbing away the tears welling in his eyes at the painful memories. "Please, we'll give you anything if you help us get out of here!"

"I'll see what I can do," Asher said, earning himself a look of reverence from the boy before turning and going to check on the boy's sister. One quick dip into the astral realm was all it took to bypass the bars of the cell, and Asher quickly found himself standing before the unconscious woman.

[Hunter] - 1/3 Elements - Unconscious

Huh, so Identify can give me that sort of information as well. I suppose that is useful for figuring out if someone is faking being asleep or not.

A quick glance was all it took to realize the woman was probably around his own age. Unlike the boy's simple clothing, her outfit was made out of tough leathers, almost like some sort of armor. Her breathing was shallow and her brown hair had some blood caked onto it, but based on the lack of wounds it didn't seem to be hers.

Asher wasn't certain if all morticians knew first aid, but as part of his own apprenticeship, his mentor had required him to learn the basics and then some. He didn't know where his level of knowledge fell in comparison to say an EMT or the like, but he certainly knew more than you'd get from a simple first aid class.

"The blood on the side of her head, that's not hers, is it?"

"No," the boy confirmed, wringing his hands together as he tried to see what Asher was doing. "When the monsters attacked us, she managed to shoot one with her bow before they cut it in half. It ended up getting blood on her."

Nodding, Asher continued his investigation. Checking her pulse, Asher realized it was dangerously slow and weak.

"How long have you three been down here? Have the imps been feeding you?"

"I don't know for sure, but it feels like maybe a week or so," the boy said, clearly distraught he couldn't give a more specific answer. "They've been giving us water that tastes nasty and this hard stuff that's barely edible. Samantha said she hated the taste and kept giving me her portion. She said one of her skills makes it so she doesn't have to eat as much."

Ah, there it is.

Getting to his feet, Asher shook his head. He thought about keeping up Samantha's lie for a moment before deciding the truth was probably the better idea.

"Either her skill stopped working for some reason or she doesn't have one in the first place. I'm certainly no expert when it comes to living bodies, but it looks like she's severely malnourished and probably passed out from hunger."

The boy stared at him in shock, his mouth gaping at the realization that his sister had been starving herself for him. Fresh tears began pouring down his face, and this time he did nothing to wipe them away. Asher turned away as the boy began crying, not sure what to do in this situation. He'd never been good with kids in his own world, and that fact certainly hadn't changed in this one.

Deciding to give the boy a few minutes, Asher turned to the final prisoner, slipping through the astral realm into his cell. Despite Asher's sudden appearance and the boy's sobs, the man continued to stare aimlessly at the floor. Even with the dirt and grime covering his outfit, Asher could easily tell that the man's clothes were of a higher quality than the boys. He didn't know what to make of the man, but his Identify skill was able to help with that.

[Alchemist] - 2/3 Elements

"Excuse me," Asher tried, waving a hand in front of the man's face. "I don't suppose you could give me any more information about what happened, could you?"

The man remained silent, not even blinking at Asher's question. Sighing, Asher pulled one of the potions he'd snagged from upstairs, dangling it in front of the man's eyes. The liquid inside was a dark purple with specks of orange, and it flowed slowly like molasses. "Could you at least tell me what this is?"

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For the first time since entering the room, Asher saw the man stir, some of his senses seeming to come back to him as his eyes focused on the potion. Slowly, his hands reached up, and he gingerly took the vial from Asher's grasp.

"Where did you get this?" The man asked, his voice rough as though he hadn't spoken in days.

"I found a workshop upstairs filled with things I'd never seen before," Asher admitted, handing the man the other two vials. "There were three potions that had already been made, and the imp I killed didn't look like it had any need for them. Do you know what they do?"

"Yes…" The man turned the potions this way and that in front of his face, his eyes squinting. "This one…" he indicated the purple potion. "...is a potion of Restoration. I've only ever seen potions of Lesser Restoration. Either the maker was especially skilled, or the ingredients were of extremely high quality."

Probably the latter, Asher thought, remembering the imp that attacked him. "What about the other two?"

"This one is a powerful, universal antidote," he said, indicating the potion Asher had thrown at the imp; a vial filled with an almost boiling orange liquid. "And this is some sort of highly caustic acid," he finished, handing Asher back the last of the vials, that one containing a deceptively serene blue liquid.

Figures. You stole a bottle filled with dangerous acid and managed to instead throw the one that cures poison at the imp. At least it didn't break.

"Thanks," Asher said, slipping back into Samantha's cell and uncorking the Restoration potion.

"What are you doing!" The man shouted, getting to his feet and staring at Asher like he was about to shatter a priceless vase against the ground.

"...Giving her a potion?" Asher said blankly, confused by the man's reaction. "I assume this Restoration potion will, you know, restore her?"

"That potion is worth far more than that woman's life," the man said, anger igniting in his eyes as he spat to the side. "Especially after what she's done. My wife is dead because of her!"

"It wasn't her fault!" The boy cried out, wiping away the last of his tears and doing his best to contain his sniffling. "You hired us to lead you into the forest in search of your herbs, and when she warned you we were going too deep, you threatened to withhold payment unless she listened to you! It's because of you we're here in the first place!"

"If she couldn't handle protection, she shouldn't have accepted the job!" The man roared, his unbridled fury silencing the boy and causing him to shy back from the edge of his cell.

Oh boy, what on Earth did that wizard pull me into.

"Look, it's my potion, so I get to decide what I do with it," Asher said, raising an eyebrow as the man stared daggers at him. "Once she's cured, we can try and figure out where to go from there."

Ignoring the man's threats and the comments about his mother's marital status, Asher carefully poured the potion into the woman's mouth, watching curiously as the specks of orange seemed to pop as the purple liquid mixed with the air before being swallowed. The moment he finished pouring the potion into her mouth, the woman coughed, and her eyes shot open as color returned to her face.

"Brian!" She shouted, shoving Asher aside and leaping to her feet. Frantically scanning the room, the woman's newfound strength seemed to leave her just as quickly as it came when her eyes landed on her brother. Leaning heavily on the metal bars, she gave him a weak smile.

"Hey there, private. How are you holding up?"

"Fine, sir," Brian sniffled, giving his sister a weary salute before wiping the last of his tears away. "Why did you lie about your skill, Sam? You could have died!"

"I don't know what you're talking about, I was just tired and decided to lay down for a quick nap," Samantha said, giving Brian a toothy grin before glancing at Asher. "And who might you be?"

"Someone else taken against their will by the wizard who owns this tower," Asher explained, nodding at her. "I'm Asher."

"Samantha. Based on the strange taste in my mouth, I'm assuming you actually gave me some sort of potion?"

"A potion of Restoration apparently," Asher said, noticing the woman stiffen slightly. "Your friend over there seemed rather against the idea, I have to say."

By now, the man seemed to have exhausted himself from all the insults, and he'd chosen to instead glare silently at the two of them as he caught his breath. Based on his sunken features and pale face, he probably wasn't in much better physical shape than Samantha had been.

"You honestly gave me a potion of Restoration? Not Lesser Restoration?"

"Yeah, it was all I had," Asher shrugged. "What's the problem?"

"The problem…" Samantha sighed, rubbing her eyes. "...is that I could maybe pay you back for a potion of Lesser Restoration, if given a few months. But I don't even want to think about how many decades it would take me to save up enough shards to pay for a potion of Restoration."

Shards? Is that the name of their currency? Damn that wizard and his lack of instruction manual. I guess I should just be happy that everyone seems to speak English for whatever reason.

"We can talk about that later," Asher said, waving a hand. "For now, why don't we focus on getting out of here?"

Samantha still seemed hesitant about kicking the issue down the road, but after a quick glance at Brian locked in his cell, she sighed. Putting on a strong face, she nodded.

"Sounds good to me. How did you escape your cell and get into mine anyway?"

"Oh, I was actually being held on a different floor, but I can't really be locked up thanks to one of my abilities," Asher said, slipping into the astral realm and walking out of Samantha's cell, grinning at the look on her face as he reappeared.

"Some sort of teleportation ability," she muttered, carefully looking him up and down as though reappraising him, her mind clearly whirling. "I've never actually seen one myself. Strange that there seems to be a delay in you vanishing and reappearing. I'd always heard that teleportation was instantaneous."

"Guess mine is just special then," Asher said, making an impromptu decision not to reveal too much about his abilities in case the wizard had his tower bugged or something.

"Well that certainly makes escaping easier," she grinned, gesturing at her cell door. "Can you go find the key to our cells? Once we're out, we can work together and get the hell out of here."

"Ah…" Asher said, thinking back to the large demon he was currently hiding from. And the key dangling around its neck.

"We may have a problem."