The last time Daniel had checked his group's number, they counted more than two thousand.. But now, they were less than fifteen hundred.
He knew none of the people missing, but he still felt anxious for his friends, as he didn't know if all those people had simply left the group, or.. If they were currently at war.
In the next two days, the number kept decreasing drastically. It lowered at a somewhat steady pace, making him believe that people weren't simply leaving.. But they were actually dying.
The decrease in number stopped only after a full month. It was only after that, that Daniel had managed to confirm that his group was in fact at war.
He was currently looking at the system's group window once again, and this is what he saw:
____________________________
Group of the Karmic System's Wielder.
Name: Group of the Karmic System's Wielder (Provisory)
Number of members (Details): 416
Overall Karma: 9,006,198
Karmic effects:
Karma X Luck (Group)
Karmic Aura Lv.35
Time is Precious Lv.20 (Group)
____________________________
Shared Karmic effects (Details)
Reputation (Details)
____________________________
The group's numbers had gone from 1496, all the way down to 416, while the group's karma had increased from 4,846,198 to 9,006,198, meaning that, that particular victory had earned them ten thousand karma points each.
Luckily, the names of all of Daniel's friends were still present in the current list of members.
After long a breath of relief, Daniel suddenly recalled something important.
He immediately thought about the Shared Karmic effects details, and right after, the familiar window appeared. However, it had been upgraded.
____________________________
Shared Karmic effects lv.2
Karmic Aura Lv.35 = 100,000
(Passive: When in the presence of the Karmic System's wielder or inside the group's ground, the group members will obtain a battle prowess enhancement of 1%. An additional 1% per level. Max Lv. 100)
Time Is Precious Lv.20 (Group) = 1,000,000 KP
(Passive: When in the presence of the Karmic System's wielder or inside the group's ground, the group members will obtain a boost in their speed of progression of 5%. An additional 5% per level. Max Lv. 40)
Karma X Luck (Group) = Purchased
Reap What You've Sown (Group) = 5,000,000
(Passive: Killing rewards 10% of the mirror amount of karma owned by the victim to the group.)
____________________________
Accumulate 100,000,000 Karma points to unlock Shared Karmic effects lv.3
____________________________
Daniel hadn't found much improvements to the shared karmic effect. Only a group version of 'Reap What You've Sown' had been added to the list of purchasable effects, along with an increase of the max levels of 'Karmic Aura', and 'Time is Precious (Group)'.
After a moment of thought, Daniel decided to spend five million karma points on purchasing 'Reap What You've Sown (Group)', and the remaining four million points in upgrading 'Time is Precious (Group)' by four additional levels.
While one would think that 'Karmic Aura' was a better choice due to the fact that his group had started to take part in what seemed to be major conflicts, the biggest limitation of that effect still remained.
Karmic Aura's biggest limitation was that the effect wouldn't activate unless the group members were in the presence of the karmic system's wielder, or within the group ground.. which was the pocket dimension within the ring.
Instead of an useless effect such as karmic aura, Daniel had deemed better to increase the group's speed of progression by an additional twenty percent, and help them increase in power faster.
Uncertain about the exact time, Daniel was sure that the change of the guard was about to come, so he waited quietly.
"Hey, my turn.. You can go home" Said the first guard in a low tone.
Right after the first guard stopped talking, a series of steps could be heard heard resounding in the air. They then stopped, and in their place a voice could be heard suddenly say "How's the situation outside?.."
The first guard, which was just about to start his turn, said "It's chaos.. Half the cities of the empire are now under the hands of those rebel scum.. There are rumors that say that the leaders of the various group will meet soon to plan an attack to the capital.."
"Fuck.." Responded the second guard in a dispirited tone, he then turned around in silence, and left the dungeon.
-----
Two years, six months, and twenty days after imprisonment.
Only two days were left before the end of the mission's countdown, and Daniel was counting each second.
He had stopped conversing with the rest of the prisoners, and instead started to design and to rehearse his escape plan thousands of times in his own mind.
"Guard change.." Said a young-sounding voice that Daniel and the rest had never heard before.
One of the usual guards said "Who are you?"
"I'm the new warder. The other guys has been sent to fortify the perimeter around the city." Responded the new guard before taking a slight pause, he then added "They'll send you there as well.. Probably.."
-----
Two years, six months, twenty two days, one hour, and nine minutes after imprisonment.
Daniel had never been more nervous than in this moment. He had no idea when the next chance to escape would be if he missed this opportunity.
The entire section was so quiet that even a fly would be heard buzzing in the air.
Suddenly, Daniel said in a loud voice, "G-GUARD!.. I.. I don't feel.. T-too well.." he then used the control over the muscles of his stomach to make himself puke his last meal.
"GUARD!!"
"Hey guard! Go check on Dan!"
"Warder there is something wrong with the kid!!"
After weeks of mental practice, Daniel had pictured this image so many times in his head that he had been able to even trick his friends.
The new guard shouted in response, "QUIET!" before walking towards his cell.
In it, Daniel was lying on the ground, with his face buried in his own vomit.
The guards had clear instructions for these kind of situations. Firstly, they needed to retrieve a ki flag from within their spatial container, and erase the ki left inside it.
The head warder would arrive in a matter of seconds, and with him present, the guard would be able to remove the limitations on the prisoner's body, so that they could feed them a healing pill.
The healing essence contained in a healing pill was, just like any other type of essence, mana. And the limitations would immediately absorb every bit of mana the very moment it entered the prisoner's body.
That was the reason why at least two of the three limitations needed to be removed during the treatment.
Thankfully, Daniel's masterful performance, along with the screams of urgency that came from the other cells, had made the new warder nervous enough to forget about one crucial step of the procedure.
He immediately entered the cell, and removed Daniel's wrist and legs chains. But when he was about to feed him a healing essence, he started to find breathing difficult.
He panted and breathed heavily for six long minutes, until finally, he passed out.
"Hey guard! Everything alright there?!" Asked roland with an extremely worried tone.
The first thing Daniel did, was to take the keys from the guard's body, and unlock his third and last limitation. Then, he took the guard's spatial ring.
It took him three full minutes to turn the common spatial container into an habitable pocket dimension. It of course lacked breathable air, but for now, he had to do without it.
In the blink of an eye, he was in Roland's cell.
At that very moment, Roland was grabbing his cell's bars and trying to listen to what was happening in the direction of Daniel's cell.
From behind he looked like a robust man in his early thirties, even though his long beard and messy hair made him look ten years older. His clothes, just like Daniel's, were in tatters.
"Roland.." Said Daniel from behind him.
"WHAT THE F.." Shouted Roland in response while immediately turning around.
Daniel approached him, and with a hurried tone he said, "Listen, there is no time to explain, we have to leave. You have to trust me, and allow me to teleport you into this pocket dimension."
Roland didn't think twice before nodding at him, and moving his wrists towards Daniel.. hinting for him to free his hands.
After freeing Roland, Daniel went to free the remaining four people.
The interactions had happened in such a speed that barely a minute had passed from the moment tha guard had lost consciousness, to the moment Daniel had teleported out of the dungeon and had reappeared a hundred meters in the air.
He was extremely worried that someone might have felt him or his control over the surrounding essence, and that they would appear to apprehend him in a matter of seconds.. Or worse.
Fortunately, just like the system had predicted, large columns of black smoke were elevating from various points in the capital.
Clearly, the city was in a state of chaos, and many fights were currently taking place within its streets.
Taking advantage of the situation, Daniel immediately teleported away.
-----
After a full minute of uninterrupted teleportations, Daniel finally stopped two hundred kilometers away from Krea. But that wasn't all, as he created a portal in the space right in front of him, and entered it.
As the portal closed back behind him, various high rank spatial cultivators appeared in the space were Daniel was standing a few moments earlier.
The reason why the spatial cultivators had reacted only now, was because of the method he had used.
To teleport from inside to outside the capital attracted much less attention than opening a portal only a hundred kilometers away from the city gates.
For all these cultivators knew, the portal might have been reinforcement to the army of rebels.. Brought near the capital by a master of space to join the attack.
At his current stage of cultivation, Daniel wasn't able to use long distance portals more than once before running out of spiritual essence, and even if he activated 'Time is Precious', he would consume five thousand points for each additional portal created. So, he stopped after only three portals.
Now more than six thousand kilometers away from krea, Daniel breathed in relief, and immediately let the other prisoners out of the pocket dimension.
The five of them appeared on the rocky ground one by one.
Each looked at Daniel with unbelieving eyes, and after taking deep breaths of fresh air, and looking, smelling and feeling how beautiful freedom was, they couldn't help but hug him.
The five of them were so excited, that they had even failed to notice that they were hugging a martial cultivator, which had previously teleported into their individual cells.
Roland was the first one to regain his calm, as he took a step back, and looked at Daniel up and down. He then said "You don't look like I pictured you.."
"You don't look like I've pictured you guys either.. You look like a bunch of middle aged men with those thick beards.." Said Daniel in response.
The names of the other four prisoners were Weiss, Rexx, Bonas, and Gens, and they were four very different looking man.
Weiss and Bonas were spiritual cultivators, while Rexx, Gens, and Roland were martial cultivators.
About their cultivation, only after removing their chains was Daniel capable of seeing their true cultivation level.
Weiss, Gens and Roland were at the peak of the seventh rank of cultivation, while Bonas and Rexx were at the mid seventh rank.
Daniel looked at the five prisoners he had just freed.. The people who had made the past two and a half years of his life a little less of a hell.. A little less lonely. He looked at them with the eyes of a friend, and said, "I know you guys probably have nowhere else to go, and your countries probably thinks you are all dead.. So if you want to come with me.. I have a clear idea of where to go."