The location the Consortium indicated was more than a day’s worth of travel away from us, thus we had our work cut out for us. I couldn’t help but believe that getting to such a place was a test in and of itself for the Phenom Candidates.
We’ve met a few other teams along the way. We killed three unprepared groups, but after them, we didn’t see any of the others until we came across an entire battalion of humans. They had thousands of people in the group, and some were high-level, older people acting as guards and guides.
We didn’t dare walk close enough for me to hear what they were saying, but my theory is that these people were from the Consortium. Consortium members could also participate as long as they met the criteria, and many elected to do so because it let them bypass decades of grueling work to climb the ranks.
Vesper Phenoms were more or less equal to Lunar Adepts, the third rank of the Consortium. I say more or less because even if their current rights were similar, Phenoms could climb the ladder all the way to the top while non-Phemoms would struggle more and more to reach each newer rank. From what I could tell, Shadow Vanguard was the rank at which non-Phenoms tended to plateau.
As for ranks, it went;
Dawn Initiate
Twilight Apprentice
Lunar Adept
Eclipse Enforcer
Shadow Vanguard
Veil Walker
Obsidian Circle Member
As for the group traveling in such numbers, they must’ve been made up of some rich kids as well as ambitious riffraff. Maybe even Cedric and Selene, that red-haired mage woman were also amongst their ranks. The reason why I believe that privileged members were also present was the existence of the high-level guards.
I’m sure they wouldn’t go out of their way to protect ambitious, no-name youths to this degree. Most likely the high-ranked people these guards serve ordered them to protect their children on the way to the Trials.
But it could also be that these were the organizers of the event, at which point a mighty entourage also made sense.
Anyhow, we didn’t wish to camp in the dark forest, well, besides Seraphiel, so I gated us back to the inn for the night.
As for the elf, she asked to be allowed to stay in the woods for the night, and I happily obliged. If she felt happier there then, by all means, she should go ahead. It’s not like she could run away or something, her contract was airtight.
We could also communicate through my Master’s Link if she ran into some trouble.
Even though I revealed a few stuff about myself that should be logical fallacies, the elf kept to herself, asking no questions. I suppose she decided that I would’ve revealed my secrets if I wanted to.
Anyhow, we retired to the inn for the night. Before resuming our journey, the next morning I gave a swift visit to my construction slaves to check on them.
Sadly it’s safe to say that most of them weren’t in a happy mood at all. If they weren’t chained to me by magic, I would’ve already had to begin fearing a rebellion. Not only were they all sentenced to eternal slavery for one reason or another, but I worked them hard in the middle of a forest, away from civilization. They had no entertainment, no goals, no women.
The only female in their midst was Iselda, but since she was above them in the established slave hierarchy, a simple word from her would be enough to prevent any rape attempts.
If that failed she could just inform me over our link and I would settle things in a way the perpetrators wouldn’t appreciate.
The food available to them was also bad, with beef jerky and the other preserved foods making their diet up.
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Naturally, for Ronan and Iselda I provided a private tent and also left them with better meals and drinks, as well as hygiene products. The general slaves shared 5 shabby tents, with 5 men in each. The smell must’ve been lovely, especially because there was no river nearby.
I did bring them some water barrels and rags to wipe their bodies down, but after a grueling day of construction work, it likely wasn’t very much enough.
I didn’t make any promises to them thus far, I didn’t even introduce myself properly. As far as they knew, they would be worked to the bone in inhumane conditions, without ever getting to see their loved ones, enjoy good food and drinks, and the warm embrace of a hot woman.
I planned to postpone speaking to them until we finished the trials, but seeing how bad the morale was already on just day 2 of them being my property I couldn’t keep it as it was.
I had to step up and be the master they deserved. Expecting complete, unadulterated loyalty from my forced slaves was unrealistic, but if they could at least know that I appreciated their work and that good work would be rewarded would help alleviate their rapidly blossoming depression.
For now, all they knew about me was that I was a tall, rich (I wish) man who could open scary, magical gates and that I had a cute lover in the form of Ayame since she was with me when we acquired them. That’s it.
It’s time to change this sad reality. I went back to Cratol, the nearest city to the stronghold, and went on a selling spree where I liquidated the newfound assets that we got from murdering our Phenom competition in cold blood, then began buying some stuff.
– Pov: David –
David awoke to the suffocating stench that filled the small, makeshift tent he shared with four other men. The odor of sweat, dirt, and unwashed bodies clung to the air. His nose wrinkled in disgust, but there was no escaping it. His throat felt dry, and his body ached from the previous day’s labor.
The hard ground beneath the thin blankets offered no comfort, and every muscle screamed in protest as he shifted to sit up.