Jen wanted to sneer in disdain at the low-quality enchantments the Black-Card caravan was using to protect its perimeter, but she kept her guard up and was thinking, these pathetic traps and alerts could be for misdirection. That’s something Sam would do. There might be a nasty trap enchantment just waiting for me to get too confident and move too quickly.

She’d been surveilling the Black-Card caravan for about an hour, when just after the sun set, a short thin man ran into the caravan leader’s tent. A few minutes later, the caravan camp looked like an ant bed that was stepped on. Jen was sure they were preparing to leave as fast as possible.

Jen was too far out of town for her soundwave to work, but her Ear-loop allowed her to easily message Sam. She whispered, “You there?’

Sam, “Yea, what’s up?”

Jen, “They just started packing up in a frenzy to leave. Get Tamako, and head this way.”

Sam, “We’ll be there in 20. Wait till we get there before you do anything.”

Jen, “O.K.”

Damnit! Where are the rest! Jen thought to herself, as she looked at the small tent where she was sure some of the slaves were being held. There was only one single female guard on the outside of the tent. Jen marked its location and information with her AI, so that Sam and Tamako would know exactly where it was located. She’d already sent out two of her lizards and was using them to look for more information, but was about to go herself and continue searching for where the other slaves were being held, when a man ran up to the guard, and said, “We’re screwed, we’ve got to leave now!”

The female guard said, “What happened?!”

The man replied urgently, “I don’t know all the details, but the Double Down gang is coming after us. I’ve been sent to grab Prince Clubs and the bagged girl, and then you need to collapse the cavern.”

The female guard frowned, are grumbled, “But I’ve been enjoying my little play things so much.”

The man frowned and looked a little green from her words, but then the female guard continued, “High and Low are inside. They will help you with the Prince and the bagged girl. DO NOT get in a hurry with the bagged girl. NO slip ups with her!”

The man nodded in reply, and then moved the tent flap to the side as he quickly walked in.

After hearing the conversation, Jen no longer imagined the woman was a simple guard, and after hearing her comments regarding her play things, she decided the woman was going to be her first human test subject. Jen used her psych skill to weave her mana though the woman’s natural mental defenses, but instead of trying to take over the her mind, and controlling her like the lizards, she overloaded the woman’s mind with her mana.

Jen thought to herself, Fuck you! You evil bitch, as the woman’s brain was mostly fried and she was now standing there frozen like a mindless carrot. Jen would’ve like to have sent one of her lizards into the tent first, but they were too far away, and she also needed them to keep looking for the other slaves. Jen ran over next to the now mindless woman, paused for a second to see if she could hear any noise inside the tent. After hearing nothing, but with no extra time to waste, she pulled out a couple of Sam’s all-flash-no-bang stones, tossed them through the tent door, and quickly entered a second later. Unless the men inside just happen to have their eyes closed, Jen knew from her and Sam’s testing, anyone inside would be disoriented and rubbing their eyes like they’d been staring directly into the sun for 10 seconds.

As Jen stepped through the tent door, she noticed three men at the entrance to a gated and sloped tunnel that led into the ground. Sam’s all-flash-no-bangs worked perfectly, and they never even saw the throwing daggers that killed them. She then left the tent and pulled the woman back inside. After killing the woman and looting all the bodies, she quickly removed the looted keys that The System had placed into her storage ring.

Opening the gate to the tunnel that was dug down into the earth, Jen slowly started making her way down the tunnel. When crushing the woman’s mind, she’d sensed some type of earth skill, and now as she walked down the tunnel, she guessed the Black-Card Caravan must have used her skill or other earth mages to build these tunnels for hiding their loot and keeping their foot-print small. She’d only walked about 20 feet when the tunnel turned slightly to the left before opening into a giant cavern. Jen moved slowly around the curve of the tunnel looking for anymore guards, but found what looked like nearly a hundred slaves packed into the cavern and chained to the floor. She also noticed a young man chained to the far wall away from the other slaves, but he’d been provided a bed to sit and sleep on. Last, Jen looked at the little bagged girl, the guard referred to. She had chains holding her to a board from head to foot, with a bag over her head, and enchantments carved into the floor all the way around her. She’s locked up like Hannibal Lecter, Jen thought.

As Jen fully stepped into the cavern, everyone turned to look at her. None of them made a sound. The slaves chained to the floor tried to make themselves look invisible, the young Prince just looked at her with disgust, and the bagged girl did nothing.

Jen heard Sam though her sound wave, “We’re two minutes out.”

Jen replied, “I’ve found the slaves. As soon as you are a little closer, my AI will update you and Tamako on my location, the Caravan Chief’s tent, and everything else my lizards have observed. Make a distraction away from me, so I can get the slaves out.”

Sam confirmed, “Will do. Expect a 30-second count down on the distraction in less than five.”

Jen hesitated on who to let go first, but then she noticed that the mass of slaves was actually in four lines. Each slave had a collar around their neck attached to a chain, and that chain was attached to the main chain running down the line they were in. Jen looked at the keys on the ring she’d looted from the dead guards, and guessed the different keys probably matched up with the different groups.

She approached the first line of slaves. Noticing the terror in their eyes, she used her psych skill and hypnotic ability to infuse her voice with power, and announced, “Everyone stay calm. I’m here to free you. The caravan is packing up to leave, and we must move quickly to get all of you out of here. If we don’t get out of this cavern, they are going to collapse it on all of us.”

The prince started, “Why are they going to …”

Jen cut him off, infusing her voice with more power, and said firmly, “No questions. My colleagues are going to start a diversion in a few minutes. I need to get all of you unchained and ready to run.”

The slaves were still terrified, but were mumbling amongst themselves as Jen opened the lock on the first row’s main chain. As she checked the lock on the first slave’s collar in that row, she found that the same key opened it.

“Thank you!” cried the woman as she was freed from the collar.

Jen ordered her, “Take this key and start freeing everyone else in your row.” She then reminded and ordered everyone else again, “Don’t leave the cavern until I tell you to!”

She then found the keys to the other lines of slaves, and had them start freeing themselves, before heading over to the Prince.

As she approached the Prince, he said, “I’m sure there is a significant gambling quest for freeing me, but if you free me, they’ll hunt you down, even if they have to hire an elf to do it.”

Jen cocked and eyebrow in surprise, but said, “Thanks for the warning, but if I don’t free you, you’ll die here.”

The Prince nodded, held out the chains around his wrists, and said, “Then by all means, I am happy to accept your help.”

As Jen unlocked the Prince, she asked him, “What do you know of the bagged girl over there?”

The Prince replied, “Nothing, except that our captors are absolutely terrified of her. If I were you, I would either leave her here, or keep her constrained until you get her somewhere that’s very safe for you to question her.”

Jen noticed a timer pop-up in her onboard display, and announced to the slaves that were all mumbling with fear and anticipation. One large slave, a man, was blocking the cavern tunnel. If it wasn't for him, it was clear that several of the other slaves would’ve already run out of cavern.

Jen pushed through the crowd, making her way to the big man. She pulled a basic spear from her storage ring, and said to him, “This is for you.” She then started pulling out spear after spear handing them to the slaves, around 40 spears in total. The Prince finally pushed his way to the front of the cavern near the big slave, and said to him, “Potluck, with these numbers and the spears, it’s time we take our revenge.”

Potluck handed the Prince the spear he was holding, and replied, “Yes, sire.”

Jen announced to the group, “Fifteen seconds! Follow me, and I’ll lead you back to the City.”

The Prince shrugged, and announced to both Jen and all the slaves, “We’ll be taking our revenge, and any who comes with me will be rewarded!”

Many of the slaves now had the desire of revenge in their eyes, and looked at Jen for permission, and she replied, “Do what you want, you're free! Raise your hand if you want to come back to the City with me.” None raised their hand.

At the surprise in Jen’s face from their response, the Prince informed her, “The City did nothing to protect them, nor anything to rescue them. Going back there doesn’t really help them.”

Jen started to reply, but realized they were out of time, “Get ready to go! Five, four, three…”

The Prince commanded, “Let’s kill them all! Follow me!”

That’s when Jen heard power in his voice. It wasn’t controlling power, but motivating power. She then focused on the video in her AI, as all hell broke loose on the surface, as Sam’s catapults were dropping logs, boulders, and flash-Bangs everywhere on the other side of the caravan camp.

Jen initially planned on sending the slaves out towards Tamako's location before returning to the bagged girl, but now with all the slaves following the Prince, she ordered Tamako to keep up the distraction, and instead for Sam to make his way over to her.

Tamako wanted to object. She didn’t think a strange, dangerous, weird bagged girl, was worth the extra risk. However, while she initially thought Jen had simply shrugged off her killing Lady Domino, Sam privately told to her that he was on team Jen, and if Tamako wasn’t careful, she might not be on the team much longer. He’d said that while he might complain or do something different if he was in charge, Jen was the boss. He then reminded Tamako that Slim had looked to Jen, and Jen gave Slim permission to respond to Lady Domino however he wanted. Sam had explained, that yes, Jen quickly learned she’d made a mistake thinking Slim would do nothing. However, unlike Slim, Tamako didn’t ask, and Jen didn’t authorize Tamako to kill Lady Domino. Ever since Sam's talk, Tamako had been riddled with guilt for breaking her promise to follow Jen’s lead, and so just kept her mouth shut as Sam ran off to help Jen with the bagged girl.

In the confusion of the fighting, Sam made it to the tent in just a couple of minutes. He said to Jen as he ran past her and down the tunnel, “I know, I know. Bell told me. You’re going to keep watch while I try to free the bagged girl.”

Sam hurried over to where the girl was secured, and tried to talk to her or get her attention, but she didn’t move or respond to him in any way. He noticed that the enchantments were actually not engraved into the rock floor, but into a tile platform upon which the board she was chained to was bolted. Sam used his words of power skill to start breaking out the meaning of the enchantments on the platform. His mana began to run low as he continued to split off each portion of the enchantment into his multi-focus skill for decryption with his words of power skill. As he continued to work on decrypting the enchantments, he noticed a long thin enchanted pole almost hidden by a crack in the stone wall. He was only a quarter of the way around the tile platform, and over 5 minutes had passed. This was an eternity in their situation, as he thought, I don’t have enough time or mana to do this the safe way. He had a gut feeling about the pole, and went to the wall to inspect it.

Sam didn’t try to decrypt the enchantments on the pole, but noticed a hook on the end that would fit perfectly through what appeared to be food and bathroom containers near her on the platform. On the other end of the pole was a slot that looked like it would hold one of the keys Jen gave him. He also noticed small tubes going from the containers up inside of the bag covering her upper torso. Sam shivered at the horror of a life the girl must be living.

He brought out a large shield, stood back, and tossed the pole towards the platform, so that part of the pole would cross the enchantments, and the rest of it would remain outside of the enchantments. Sam hoped it wouldn’t explode and hurt or kill either him or the girl.

Sam let out the breath he was holding, when nothing happened. He quickly pulled the pole back, slotted the key into the pole, and extended it towards the lock securing the girl to the board. As the key bumped against the lock, the girl’s body jerked and spasmed against her chains. Her sudden movement caused Sam to jump back. Then he shook his head in chagrin thinking, she scared the shit out of me. He moved the key towards the lock again, but this time he was prepared for when she started jerking against the chains, and he turned the key releasing the chains that were holding her to the board.

The girl was still fully bound in chains and covered with the bag, but she was now able to roll off of the board. Sam watched with worry as she rolled herself towards the enchantments, and he pulled out his shield again as the enchantments crackled with electricity when she hit them. The girls body jerked as if in pain, but Sam didn’t hear a sound from her. Sam messaged Jen, “Damnit! I don’t know what to do. We’re running out of time, and I don’t think I can get her out of here without taking the bag off of her. What do you want me to do?”

Jen ordered, “Do whatever’s necessary to get her out of there, unless your gut starts telling you otherwise.”

Sam replied, “Will do,” and after noticing an arrow from his evolved luck stat pointing directly at the girl, he redirected the key towards the lock on the chain holding the bag around her head and upper shoulders. As he inserted the key into the lock, the girl’s body stiffened and twisted as if surprised at what was happening.

As soon as the lock “clicked,” the girl violently shook, loosening the chain and bag. Eventually, between her scooching around, and Sam using the pole to snag the bag in place, she shook her upper body free of the bag. He was hoping to see another lock for the chains around her body, but it looked like a continuous link of chains that had been welded around her body permanently.

The little girl looked in terrible shape, and Sam thought the girl looked between 10 and 12 years old. He was raging inside, and wanted to find out who was responsible for doing this to her and make them pay. Focus!! he ordered himself. She was gagged, but without the bag over her head, she heard Sam and nodded her head vigorously when he said, “We’ve freed all the other slaves. There is a battle going on outside, and I need to get you out of here as quickly as possible. I think that if you roll on your side, I can wedge this pole under your chains and lift you out of that circle. It might not work, and I don’t know how badly the enchantments might hurt you. Do you want me to try?”

Sam could see the rod was hurting the girl as he jammed it between the tight chains and her body. From what little Sam had decrypted, and from how the rod worked, he thought he knew how this was going to turn out, and he said, “I have a very good healing spell. I’ll do my best to take care of you, but I think this is going to hurt a lot. You ready?”

The little girl’s eyes were tearing, but she was resolute as she nodded for Sam to lift her out of the circle with the pole.

Sam yanked her through and past the enchantments as fast as he could, but the girls body jerked violently in pain as the electrical currents scorched her body, and then a blast of fire enveloped her form as she passed through the last enchantment.

Sam’s healing tattoo was already pumping all its stored mana into healing the little girl before he even lowered her to the ground. He removed the poll from under her chains, kept his healing tattoo focused on the girl, picked up her unconscious body as carefully as possible, and started running to meet up with Jen.