"How do I place the rune System?" Standing in a dark alley near the tavern, Michael questioned the system.
[Place your right hand on the wall before you. A prompt will appear]
"Alright," said Michael, placing his right hand on the brick wall in front of him.
[This is a suitable place for a teleportation rune. Does the host wish to mark this area and add the location to runic teleportation locations?]
"Yes"
The very next second he agreed to the system's prompt, a dim golden light appeared from his right hand. The dim light then transformed itself into an orb of light before it disappeared into the wall.
He opened the teleportation locations in the system to see the name Flamefair tavern among the list. Looking at the list, he only needed to focus his gaze on the name Abyssal as another prompt appeared.
[Does the host wish to teleport to the Abyssal?]
"Yes and equip my Lucifer armor"
An unearthly humming sound rang in his head while everything began to turn dark around him.
*********************
"Fuck!" Michael stumbled on the wall as he felt like throwing up. The world was spinning around him as every muscle in his body ached.
Teleportation was not a new experience for him. Regardless, using this function was a whole new experience for him.
[The host is feeling the aftermath of the teleportation. Your body will soon adapt to the new experience and next time you teleport, you won't be feeling like this]
Michael's legs trembled as he leaned on the wall, waiting for his body to feel better. After taking a few deep breaths, he looked around and realized that he's standing in his room in Abyssal.
The fancy bed and sofa Gaya forced him to buy was a dead giveaway.
"Uwak!" Michael heard something hitting the ground as he turned to see Nightmare throwing up on the floor.
"Uwak!" his shiny crimson red scales lost their glow. Nightmare tried to speak but all that came out of his mouth was the meat he ate yesterday.
"Stay in this room. Don't come outside"
"I wish... uwak" Nightmare threw up again. Michael steadied himself before leaving the room. Navigating through the dark halls and corridors, Michael reached the throne hall.
"I should put lights on this place"
It was a place built by the order of the death for the dark lord but it didn't mean the place to be dark. He wanted to put some lights on so Abyssal could feel less gloomy and dreary.
Considering Gaya left the Abyssal to go to the sect, the throne hall was empty. Instead of calling Dular to ask where Aria is, Michael walked towards where the rooms were located.
After entering the corridors, he could feel the energy fluctuations around Dular's room. It was obvious that the orc was cultivating and he had no intention to interrupt Dular's cultivation.
With the help of Environmental scanning, Michael sensed a life presence in one of those rooms before him. The life presence was accompanied by two faint life presences. He knew they must be Aria's brothers.
When he got closer to the room, he could hear a muffled sobbing sound coming from the room. He didn't ask or knock on the door, but rather directly opened the door to enter.
"Ah!" He saw Aria jump back in sudden shock seeing him suddenly enter the room. If Michael wasn't wearing his Lucifer suit of armor with a mask, she wouldn't have been jolted like this but his black mask and tall bulky figure freaked her out.
Instead of looking at Aria, his gaze was drawn towards the two figures lying on the bed. Both of them had neither legs nor arms, they were limbless. On top of them, he could see stitch marks and deep scars all over their bodies.
They might have looked handsome before except they were now anything but handsome. He could even see that someone had burned their hair.
"They were tortured and then experimented on," He thought to himself while walking towards them.
"She...she said...you...can...save them" Aria mustered up her courage to walk closer to Michael. She stuttered as her body shivered. It was a sign of anger and helplessness.
Aria stared at him expecting an answer yet she got nothing. Her eyes welled up slowly, losing the last bit of hope she had for saving her brothers.
"System, can we do something about them?"
After looking at their state, he realized that even his alchemy skills weren't enough to save them.No matter how hard he thought, he couldn't find a potion or pill that would help them grow limbs.
[The system requires 500 badass points to scan their bodies]
"Take it" a layer of light covered their bodies before vanishing. Aria couldn't see the light layer as Michael did.
[Besides the lack of limbs, organs such as kidneys, pancreas, and energy veins were removed from them. They were removed while they were still conscious. On top of this, they were tortured to the point that pieces of their souls had already departed from their mortal bodies. The system also found residues of various chemicals in their blood and brain which could make healing them difficult]
"You can heal them right? Healing them will ensure her absolute loyalty. Plus, I have a feeling that these two will also be valuable subordinates to me in the future"
[The system can heal them for a price]
"No shit"
[50,000 badass points for healing the body and 25,000 badass points for growing legs and arms for each]
"Fuck" He cursed in his heart.150,000 badass points were not something Michale could spend leisurely. He could upgrade his spells and use the points to become stronger. This made him think that whether healing them would be worth it.
He knew that only Aria could give him the answer. Given her ability to completely hide the energy radiation from her body, if she could become a deadly assassin by training and cultivating, her loyalty would be priceless to his cause. The way to earn her absolute loyalty was by healing her brothers.
[Healing them is the best course of action] the system said but he knew the system was saying this to make sure that he would heal them thus giving the system his badass points.
Michael always trusted his guts and currently, his guts told him that Aria will be a worthy subordinate. He turned his gaze away from the bed to see Aria staring at him as tears were rolling out of her bloodshot eyes. Her parents were killed, she lost her brothers,sold to another continent as a slave, saw her best friend burned alive by a noble, served under a clown to kill nobles and when she thought she's going to reunite with her brothers, her world was yet again turned upside down. Looking at Aria, even Michael felt pity for the girl.
"Besides the lack of limbs, organs such as kidneys, pancreas, and energy veins were removed from them. They were removed while they were still conscious. On top of this, they were tortured to the point that pieces of their souls had already departed from their mortal bodies. I can also sense residues of various substances in their blood and brain which could make healing them difficult" he repeated the words of the system to fan the flames of her emotions.
First, he wanted to feel so helpless before giving her a ray of hope. Aria's legs failed her as she dropped to the ground after hearing his words. Anger and helplessness started to cannibalize her soul.
"Healing them is not impossible. However, it will take time" her heart skipped a beat as she looked up at him. Her mouth kept opening and closing without uttering a single word.
"Your absolute loyalty is my price for healing your brothers" Aria had nothing to give him except her body and she was ready to give herself to him if he could heal him and required her to do so.
Yet, he didn't ask her body but loyalty.
"If I have to be a slave to him to save my brothers, so be it," Aria said to herself before kneeling in front of him.
"I will die for you if it would bring my brothers back"
"Do you accept to be my subordinate?"
"Yes, master"
[Does the host wish to accept Aria as a subordinate?]
"Yes"
Subordinate: Aria
Cultivation Level: Body Refining stage level 2
Race: Human
Status: Healthy
Trait: Assassin
Loyalty towards the host: 28%
Her loyalty level did not surprise him, after all, he hadn't healed her brothers yet and she barely knew him.
[The system recommends the host to keep injecting them with the 90% pure healing potion to prevent any more pieces of their souls from departing]
The system's voice sounded in his mind as he retrieved a healing potion he specifically made for him and Gaya from the system storage. He then handed it over to Aria before gesturing at her to stand up.
"Inject this to their bodies. This will keep your brothers alive and give their bodies the strength to withstand the healing process as starting the process now would kill them" Aria clenched onto the healing potion like her life depending on it.
"Meet me at the throne hall in ten minutes. I want to know more about you and the slave mine where you found your brothers" said Michael before leaving the room.
He was very curious about what kind of experiments were going on in the slave mines and who was doing these experiments on the slaves. Infiltrating the mines would give him more information before deciding what to do with the mine. Besides, it would always be a great help for him to kill bad guys and earn experience points.
Whoever running the experiments on the slaves had no idea that they just drew the attention of someone they shouldn't have, Lucifer.