Getting back to the general location where I exited the caves was easy enough, but there was an unexpected problem. The under-water cliff face was absolutely riddled with cave entrances. It practically looked like a beehive. I was pretty confident that there would be more than one eel living in such an extensive network. Going in blind was not an option, especially if I wanted to find my way back to the pen before dawn.

Jumping back up to the surface let me gulp down a fresh lungful of air, then I got geared up for battle. First I equipped my mana regeneration ring and Lapis Circlet. Then I took out my speargun. It felt unwieldy in my hands and I remembered that I had foolishly abandoned that skill. In a test, I fitted the bolt onto the rail. It immediately slipped from my fingers. No dice. I’d have to do this with magic.

At least I had the circlet. Mana surged through me and into my Sage’s Cloak, ballooning it up from two mana all the way to eight! That should give me a little defense, now to shed some light on the situation.

Focusing mana into my palm produced the same tell-tale blue-white glow as always. It felt a little dangerous though, like holding a lit firecracker. I willed a small shell around the glowing mana and pushed it through one of the entrances. The moment I set it in motion I began refilling my depleted cloak. The slow-moving bolt passed a third of the way through the cave, illuminating the space well enough before a sinuous shadow darted towards the glowing intruder. The mana-bolt detonated and darkness imposed itself again. The shockwave was strong underwater and I felt it in my chest like the bass at a rock concert. Luckily, most of the blast was contained by the cave. Still, there wasn’t any notification that I killed the monster.

I formed another mana-bolt as quickly as I could and sent it into the cave. The Eel was there, but it wasn’t moving. The thing was only two feet long and it was the mottled dirty green-brown color of old boogers. The only exception was an electric-blue line of diamonds running down it’s back. As I watched it twitched, then writhed, then it shot towards the new mana-bolt. This time it died.

Congratulations! You have vanquished

Lightning Eel Lv 3

+12 exp

I resurfaced for air before settling back onto the sea-floor for a good think. I sat cross-legged, hair waving back and forth in rhythm with the waves above. The Eels were pretty stupid it seemed. They were pretty territorial too considering the way they immediately attack intruders. Hopefully, I would only have to deal with one per cave.

This was all good news but the two magical attacks cost almost 7% of my total mana. I’d need to get a lot more efficient if I wanted to explore the dozens of entrances. The regeneration from my ring should help, but not by much.

Thinking back, the Eel was stunned for a little while after I hit it the first time. I could use that. Something else occurred to me. When I tested the force-wand, the mana-bolt exploded on contact with water. Why could I use the same magic underwater now?

I shrugged, guessing that it was the same reason the bolts didn’t explode on contact with the air. Creating a bolt in a certain medium could let it ignore that medium. As curious as I was, I wasn’t about to start experimenting with my limited mana. I had to satisfy myself with being happy that it didn’t blow up in my face. Not only do shockwaves travel through water faster, water is much more efficient when transferring force into the mostly-liquid organs of living bodies when compared to airborne shockwaves. The bolt could have blown up in my face and even resulted in internal bleeding.

After resurfacing for more air, I got to work, systematically checking each cave for monsters. I could rule out the entrances that were wide enough to let me through comfortably and the ones that were too small for me to squeeze through. After that, it was a process of elimination.

Experimentation showed that I needed to invest six mana into the bolts to reliably stun the Eels. Then it was a race to squeeze through the entrance, brace my feet against the wall, focus enough mana from my cloak onto my forehead to make a temporary head-lamp, and lunge at the stunned monster with a dagger.

Thankfully, my Streamlined ability aided with the killing thrusts, basically turning my body into a giant speargun bolt, easily slicing through the water and the monsters. I didn’t bother collecting the bodies, assuming that they would be rendered inedible by my poisoned knife.

There were a few times when I was too slow but my enhanced Sage’s Cloak was enough to hold the electrical attacks at bay until I could put my dagger to work.

The experience kept rolling in and I lost myself in the process until finally, I sent a mana-bolt into a cave and it sailed clear through to the other side only to detonate on the far wall. After carefully entering the cave, I found a sliced-up Eel carcass, partially stripped by a half-dozen little fish flitting about the carcass. A little more exploration yielded an entrance to a nearly vertical shaft with the dim flickering of lantern light shining faintly from above.

I was almost sad to leave the caves. After figuring out a safe way to hunt the Eels I started looking at the caves as an experience gold-mine. I had nearly collected enough to advance to level 4 already! The experience would still be waiting for me if I succeeded with the breakout though. There would be plenty of time to hunt the Eels at my leisure.

After leaving the water I removed my jewelry. The silver had begun to tarnish in the saltwater as expected, when I inspected the circlet though, I wasn’t expecting it to have transformed. The silver was turning a dusky color while the Lapis Lazuli gems glimmered ever so slightly with an inner light.

Lapis Circlet of Hidden Depths

Durability: 12/18

Increased concentration +0.5 Water Affinity until the gems dry -1 durability per hour until the silver dries

It was a shame that the boost essentially ate away at the durability of the circlet but I’d never heard of equipment that could boost affinities before! Granted, I hadn’t asked but this could be a game-changer. I didn’t know how to use an affinity yet but I knew it would provide a substantial boost to mana regeneration on its own. No wonder I could keep up the hunt for... 6 hours? Had it really been that long? I chuckled to myself. It was just like me to stay up all night grinding experience. Some things never change.

The jewelry disappeared into my inventory where it would be safe from the corrosive water. It can’t lose durability over time in a dimension where time and entropy don’t exist, I reasoned.

By the time I made it out of the tunnel the adrenaline was wearing off and I felt like a wrung-out dishrag. I didn’t even give a thought to passing out in the midst of the gang. The straw felt like the softest down comforter after scraping past stone and barnacles all night.

All too soon, the guards were banging their cudgels on the rocks, waking us for another long day. My head swam as I sat up and my first thought was of the poison. Then I coughed up a gobbet of phlegm. That wasn’t one of the symptoms of poison. The good old common cold had come to pay me a visit. At least I hoped it wasn’t pneumonia.

I nearly walked out of the pen without my chains until Jordy stopped me, returning the shackles. I shivered at how close I had come to blowing it. Shivers weren’t that uncommon among the slaves in the morning so it wasn’t that hard to play off.

“Thanks Jordy,” I said before sniffling loudly.

I was slightly mollified to count ten guards at breakfast rather than the usual complement of 12. I even heard some of them griping about the sissys laying in bed with nausea and dizziness. The day dragged on forever. I didn’t even earn any feats from the hard labor. My cold worsened throughout the day too but at least I got a point in Endurance for pushing through it. Not that I had much of a choice.

While I told myself that my preparations would ultimately save lives, I still had to watch as another three slaves were mercilessly executed when they weakened too much to carry their loads. It wasn’t my fault, but I could have started the revolt last night. Their deaths galvanized me, reaffirming that I had to act, and I had to do it tonight. They also reminded me that things could always be worse. That was barely enough to get me through the day.

When night finally forced a halt to the work, I was completely drained. Delaying the plan would only weaken me further but I needed to recover some before going into a life and death struggle. Bodrin agreed to wake me after a couple hours of sleep. I made meaningful eye-contact with each member of the gang. The one I had slapped didn’t meet my eyes. There was an odd sense of relief in knowing that I didn’t kill him. As vile as he seemed, we were in this together and I would need every strong arm I could muster.

Sleep came easily that night. Wakefulness, not so much. Not being able to shout or splash me with cold water, Bodrin decided that the best option was to nearly tear my ear off.

“Mmph” I startled awake, my shout stifled by Bodrin’s hand. It took me a few seconds to remember where I was, then I relaxed and nodded to my compatriot. There was steel in his gaze. It was time.

I handed him a knife and my force-wand. Then I unlocked our shackles. I pointed at myself then to the right of the entrance. Next I indicated for Bodrin to take the left side. Without a word between us, we stalked towards the flickering light of a brazier. Ten feet around the guards was well lit, but they were facing the fire and warming their hands, effectively blinding themselves to the two slaves closing the distance, creeping from shadow to shadow. In truth, I was more worried about the slaves. I stepped over one slumbering form after another, doing my best not to wake them until I made it into position.

Bodrin took a little longer but when he was settled I held up 5 fingers, then dropped one, then stood, hands in my armpits, shivering. I boldly walked into the light. The guards reacted instantly.

“Oy, back in the pen!”

“I gotta piss” I snapped back angrily, continuing to walk to their right “You expect me to piss where I sleep? Even dogs know not to do that.”

“What makes you think you measure up to dogs? Back in the- Urk!”

Bodrin used my distraction to sneak up from the other direction. One hand over the guard's mouth pulled his head back, the poisoned blade bit deep into the guard's neck, spraying gouts of blood with every heartbeat. Before the other guard could do more than reach for his hand-bell I whipped out my wand of stunning. Mana surged through my arm and into the wand. Five snaps sounded out, each one accompanied by a tiny lightning bolt. It looked and sounded just like a taser but the lightning had no trouble jumping the distance between me and my target.

The guard’s muscles locked up and he began to tip over like a felled tree. I quickly summoned my spare clothes and threw them under the guard, keeping the bell from sounding against the rocks. The bell’s clacker struck the metal but between the stunned guard and my clothes, the sound was effectively muffled. A second later, I was stooping over the man, opening up his throat with my own dagger. Blood sprayed over my hands and got into my eyes. There was so much!

I furiously wiped the blood out of my eyes. The other slaves who woke at the brief argument started to panic.

“Quiet” came a low rumbling growl. Silence reigned in its wake.

“Any of you fools want to ruin our chance at freedom and I’ll make sure you don’t survive long enough for the guards to get here.”

I squinted at the scene. True to their word, the gang was quickly taking the prisoners into hand. Their leader turned to me.

“So, are you going to let us in on your grand plan yet?”

Congratulations! You have Vanquished

Imperial Guard Lv 5

+20 exp

An intangible light faded from the guard's eyes. I couldn’t tear my eyes away as the person, with a family, hopes, and desires turned into a corpse. I vomited, just barely missing my victim. The smell mixed with the coppery tang of pooling blood. Why was there so much?

Bodrin clapped a hand on my shoulder.

“There’s no turning back now. Let's see this through to the end.”

Looking around at the terrified slaves corralled in by the gang, I wiped my mouth and straightened.

“I know a lot of you are scared. I am too, but I refuse to die on this island. We can stay here, cower, and rely on the Captain’s mercy. Or we can fight back. I’m going to fight.”

“You’re going to die.” One of the slaves said. Judging by the murmuring, that was a popular opinion.

“We all die eventually, but none of us have to die tonight. I have a plan to get all of us off of this rock. Step one is to get those chains off.” I produced a handful of skeleton keys in one hand.

“Then we feast,” I said producing a steaming meat pie in my other hand.

“Then, we fight.” The food disappeared to be replaced by a crossbow.

Silence held sway over the group as they watched the blood-drenched man pull keys, food, and weaponry out of thin air. That was when they began to hope. They remembered the lives that had been stolen from them, and they finally let themselves crave those lives again. I had my army.