Kyros was now sitting in his masters chamber, being healed.

“So Kyros, are you number one this week?” His master asked.

“Ah... No master, I dropped back to second because of the training.” Kyros said with guilt. He knew his master was still hoping for Kyros to earn his freedom and then receive proper tutelage. However, Kyros was already planning on escaping with James. This was weighing heavily on Kyros’s mind, because he felt he owed his master.

“Oh... I see.” His master had a hint of disappointment in his tone. “When do you think your training will finish?”

“We decided on a month, so three more weeks from now.” Kyros stated.

“Well than, it’s not that bad. If you’re ranked second while mining a couple hours less than the others then you’re sure to keep the number one spot when you get back. Haha have patience my boy, think of it as practise for training, a main part of being a magician is patience.” His master tried to lift his spirits, however, he mistook Kyros’s guilt for impatience.

“Yeah.. aha..”

Maybe I should let master in on the plan… However, it’s not just me but James who would receive the backlash if anything were to happen.

Kyros had been struggling with these thoughts for the past week already, and will probably continue for the next three weeks until he either figures something out or just leaves. If Kyros was escaping by himself he’d let his master in on his plan, but Kyros had to think about James’s position in this. Putting the thoughts to the back of his head, Kyros decided to change the subject.

“Master, have you ever travelled outside of Callux?” Kyros asked.

“Who do you think you’re talking to, of course I have.” His master said smugly.

“Do you think you could tell me about it?” Kyros asked. Kyros would’ve preferred to ask about the Callux kingdom, since that was where he was stuck. However, it would sound pretty ridiculous to ask about your own kingdom.

“I suppose I could. What would you like to hear about? The Holy Athearan Empire or The Great Republic of Mercenaries.”

Kyros struggled with a decision as both sounded pretty amazing.

“The Holy Athearan Empire.” Kyros decided.

“Ahh good choice, much more graceful people than those barbaric mercenaries…” His master seemed to hold a grudge of sorts. “Well, The Holy Empire is much more a religion than an empire. A religion that gained so much power that it can rival that of many kingdoms and empires.”

Kind of like christianity on Earth I suppose, they had their own state.

“Well how to describe it… It’s a very beautiful empire. A lot of artists from around the world go there to practise their abilities, and in doing so the streets are filled with art. The empire is run by the Church of Piety, meaning instead of an emperor they have a Pope. The empire is split into seven provinces, each ruled by an arch bishop except the province that holds the capital city; Exdarr which the Pope runs. What else… That’s right, just because it’s a religious empire, don’t underestimate their military. A prerequisite to be a priest is to be proficient with light magic, and they also have the order of the Templar’s and above them are Paladin’s.” His master went into lecturing mode.

“Wow… How many Popes have there been?” Kyros asked out of general curiosity and it would also give him an estimate of how old the empire was.

“One.”

“Sorry?” Kyros couldn’t believe what he heard.

“Just one.” His master repeated.

“Then how old is the religion?” Kyros couldn’t believe that an empire could be formed in one persons lifetime.

“No one knows how old the religion is, but the empire is a couple of thousand years old.”

“Then how could the pope still be alive?”

“Kyros, what is the World’s Presence?” His master suddenly asked of him.

“Ah... It’s everything.” Kyros answered.

“Exactly! the World’s Presence is the very essence of the World. Through absorbing it, we are actually extending our life.” His master lectured.

“Wait, then how old are you master?” Kyros asked.

“Well I’m 148, however I still have quite a few more years in me haha.” His master returned to his smug self.

“148…” Kyros was astonished not only because of his masters age clearly defying human life expectancies, but it also said something about the Pope’s power.

“Ahahaha you’re finally realising how impressive your master is, aren’t you?”

“Well, that’s one way of putting it.” Kyros replied.

After a couple of more minutes of talking with his master, Kyros left for dinner otherwise he’d miss it.

Back in his room, Kyros was lying on the floor. He had just collapsed practising Shadow Step. Muscles he didn’t even know he had were aching. He had been ecstatic when he finally saw the status screens he was waiting for though.

New Skill Acquired - Shadow Step

Skill Name:

Skill Rank:

Skill Level:

Skill Experience:

Shadow Step

Disciple

1

2%

By moving your legs in the unique way of Shadow Step, it is possible to greatly reduce sound and to improve speed.

But he collapsed shortly after seeing this status screen, because his legs truly couldn’t hold up any longer.

After a couple of minutes of lying down he finally found the energy to roll over and get into a seating position to start meditating, for which he would do for two hours until he went to sleep.

Another week had passed by, apart from his training and levelling up a few skills and stats; nothing of importance happened. James was still the cheerful guy who didn’t suit the spy persona and his master was still being smug yet caring. Kyros had come to the conclusion that even though he was currently a slave, he was happier than he ever was when he was alone playing his games in his previous life. He himself had yet to notice, but slowly he was changing. Sometimes he would have a joke with James or other times he would let an expression show on his indifferent face.

It was about 1:30pm and Kyros was in a different part of the mine, digging out a tunnel for his plan. It was tedious work, just digging. However, he had experience with tedious work, his old self use to spend hours farming on monsters to raise his level.

Actually he had grown to appreciate the mining part of his day; it was the only time he had a break from all the training.

Kyros swung his pick as he routinely did, however, his pick broke through the wall of rock and interrupted his rhythm of mining. Pulling out his pick, he could see a hole with light permeating through, illuminating the dark tunnel he was currently in. Kyros peered into the hole and saw a large tunnel with glowstones along it, however the tunnel seemed different from the ones he was use to. It didn’t have the organised look to it, it seemed as if it were a naturally formed tunnel.

Well I guess this is the tunnel James was talking about, which means the plan is ready. So now we’re only waiting on whatever James has to do.

Suddenly the sound of a rock skidding along the floor broke Kyros out of his reverie.

“Who’s there!?” Kyros shouted.

“..”

“..”

There was no answer so Kyros backtracked up the tunnel, trying to find the culprit of the sound. Unfortunately, Kyros didn’t have glowstones on him as he dug out the tunnel so it was pitch black and he couldn’t see anything. He tried really hard to see through the darkness for any signs of life as he ran.

+4% Perception

“SO YOU FINALLY NOTICED.” That voice which Kyros associated with danger rang out in his head.

Kyros felt like his head was about to split open.

“PLANNING TO ESCAPE, ARE YOU SURE YOUR PLAN WILL WO.. ” Kyros shut off his perception just as quickly as he activated it, he didn’t want anything to do with whatever monster that voice belonged to.

However he could still feel the aura of it, that feeling that made him struggle to breathe.

How? I’m not even near the hole, surely it can’t sense everything in this mine… can it?

After a couple of minutes, the aura no longer felt threatening but he could still feel it. It was as if there were giant eyes watching him everywhere he went. He ran to the spot where he meets up with James.

“James!” Kyros called out.

“Hahaha well aren’t you early, starting to look forward to my training?” James responded cheerfully.

“Hey, do you ever feel as if you’re being watched?” Kyros asked with a pant in-between, ignoring James's question.

“Don’t tell me, do you think someone has caught onto our plan?” James asked seriously.

“Ah no, it’s just that, I get the feeling that whatever is down that hole is watching everything we do.” Kyros said. Kyros felt close to James so he had nothing to hide.

“Hahaha so even a smart person like yourself can fall for that fairy tale. Don’t worry lad, The Mavis family purposefully had that story spread to the slaves and guards to instil fear.” James responded.

“Seriously James, there’s something down that hole. I swear.” Kyros said seriously.

“Okay, maybe there is something down there. It could be a prisoner of the Mavis family or something similar, either way it doesn’t affect our plan. Don’t worry about the hole, and focus on the plan.”

“I guess you’re right...” Kyros still had a bad feeling about it, however he felt glad James believed him. “Oh that’s right James, I broke through into the tunnel. It’s ready to go whenever.” Kyros had suddenly remembered about it.

“Hahahaha I had my doubts you could get it done, but you even finished it 2 weeks early. If that’s the case, we can start using more time for training.” James laughed.

Maybe I should’ve kept quiet about it, and just used the extra time to relax… Kyros had instant regrets.