During Kai’s free fall, he unknowingly lost consciousness.


    He felt a white noise reverberating throughout his head, stinging his ears, before passing out.


    When he collided with the branches, his collarbone shattered and his ribs cracked. The wounds on his body made it seem like he had fought a bear for hours.


    ***


    As the sun dipped below the hills, the chill of night emanated throughout the forest.


    Sounds from the increasing activity of the monster species reverberated throughout, causing a whole different type of atmosphere.


    “Human… wolf… pet… like… eat… gruk”


    “Agree… hold… bring… storage… food… gruk”


    A goblin scout clenched his teeth and groaned, “human… heavy…”


    “Should… gut… him… here…”


    The goblin''s companion fell to anger as he saw the goblin brandishing his rusty knife.


    “Shut up… boss… demands… alive…”


    ***


    “What is this hard floor? Was that just a dream?”


    -Argh


    ‘It hurts, my whole body hurts’


    ‘The smell of metal?’


    As I put my hands on my cheeks, I felt a gooey sensation.


    “… Is this blood?”


    ‘It wasn’t a dream.’


    I looked around my surroundings and saw others in ragged clothing in malnourished conditions.


    There, I spot an old man slumped on the corner of the cell. His lips were dry, his skin was crusty.


    Trying to sit up straight with tons of broken bones, I muttered, “Who are you guys? Where are we?”


    A man behind me, with an unkempt beard and frizzy white hair, replied, “J-ust g-give up”


    Opening his mouth a couple of times, the man struggled to continue his sentence.


    “O-once a week, o-one of us is f-fed to the d-demonic beast…” His hand was over his head, fingers trembling like leaves in the wind. With a hunched frame, a shudder ran down his spine, and visible sweat tumbled down his temples.


    Staring at the scar streaks along his cheekbones, I asked, “Do you mind explaining further?”


    “D-emonic b-b-beast..! Noo! Don’t come closer!”


    Gazing back at the others, with no hope for a clear answer, I checked my clothes thoroughly.


    ‘Codex, check, Snakeroot leaves, check’


    ‘At least they didn’t take anything away…’


    ‘Judging by the old man''s words, it seems one of us becomes the beast''s food once a week. I should prepare for the worst.’


    The mana density here was surprisingly high.


    ‘Is this because of the demonic beast? I can definitely make use of this’


    I immediately started gathering mana to heal my broken body.


    Although I didn’t feel instant pain relief, I feel I can get myself up and running within a few weeks.


    A dim yellow light emanated from the center of my palm, resembling the light of the holy church. I placed my palm on my chest and chanted a spell.


    [Lesser Healing]


    ***


    -Krrrrr


    A muffled dragging sound entered my ears.


    ‘Are the goblins here again?’


    “Food… boss… will… be… happy… gruk”


    It has been weeks, and I’ve already seen three people dragged out of the cell, presumably fed to the monster.


    The other people in the cell seemed to have gotten used to this. They sat still the whole day, with no hope for freedom. Their eyes lacked color, and their pupils were undilated.


    “I still haven’t gotten a glimpse of it… the monster,” I muttered under my breath.


    -Thump Thump Thump


    I could hear the footsteps of a goblin walking towards us. It was carrying a large, dirty bag on its shoulders. From its small stature, anyone would expect it to collapse under the pressure of the bag.


    The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    Indifferently looking at us, the goblin set the bag down and shoved its crusty green hands inside the bag.


    -Thud


    -Thud


    -Thud


    Pieces of bread flew in, dry and hard.


    ‘I''ve been eating stale bread and water for the past 3 weeks, sometimes we even eat cooked rats, how long do I have to keep this up?’


    Missing the food and life I had taken for granted at home, I hoped Father and Edward were doing well and not worrying about me.


    The old man was the only company I''ve had during the past few weeks; everyone else didn''t even utter a word.


    ***


    “Hey, Omar, have you ever thought about leaving this place?”


    “Of course I have, but it has been too long. I''ve been stuck here for years, and this dim underground setting isn''t helping.”


    ‘[Lesser Healing] over these past few weeks did wonders, he can even speak coherently now’


    I have never used [Lesser Healing] on anyone other than myself, but I tried it on the old gentleman as an effort to get some information on this place.


    During these past 3 weeks, I’ve learned that this old gentleman’s name was Omar. I’ve even begun developing empathy for this man. ‘Is this the Stockholm syndrome the Mage Association recently discovered?’


    Slicking his hair back, Omar showed his surprisingly handsome face. His hair had covered his defining high cheekbones and wide jaws. The scar on his face, accompanied by his darker complexion, made him into a man oozing testosterone.


    “We’ll get out of here as soon as we are fully healed, I promise.”


    I pitied him.


    I can''t begin to imagine the suffering he went through all this time.


    “Sure”


    “So… what did you do before arriving at this place?”


    “I worked as a mercenary for the mercenary corps, I tried to slay the very beast that we are being fed to every week”


    Despite the tears that drooped down Omar''s face as the words came out of his mouth, he held a stoic face without any sniffing of the nose.


    “The only reason I survived this long was purely because of luck.”


    In a way, Omar was a lucky man, despite being in a very unlucky situation.


    ***


    [Lesser Healing]


    Three more bodies have been taken away as another 3 weeks have passed.


    During this time, I’ve fully recovered. The sound of shattered bones and pain of ripped muscles was no more.


    I didn’t know I would miss my family this much after a month and a half without contact… I hope to catch up with them soon.


    Likewise, I glanced at the old man, now with a brighter look on his face, and tried to strike up a conversation.


    “Hey Oma-”


    -Grrrr


    My stomach''s growling stopped me mid-sentence.


    Eyeing the unappetizing bread, I thought to myself, ‘I’m going to murder every single one of these bastards for feeding me this garbage for the past 6 weeks!’


    ‘The first thing I''m doing after leaving this place is eating something delicious.’


    But putting that aside for now, I have more important matters to attend to.


    I pull out [Mortal Arts] and begin examining my best course of action in order to escape from this place.


    “Weaknesses


    Goblins: Blunt force


    Orcs: Piercing


    Wolves: Poison


    Serpents: Fire


    Slimes: Fire…”


    If goblins are vulnerable to blunt force, earth magic could work well against them.


    ‘But there is still a problem, how am I supposed to beat this many goblins?’


    ‘What if Omar fights with me? He did say he was a mercenary before… and if he had the guts to face the wolf, he must have been a decent fighter’


    “Hey, Omar, how are your injuries looking?”


    “They’re pretty much all healed up now, I’m full of energy”


    Deciding on the time of attack is crucial, if there are any hiccups, we will both die.


    Remembering the location of the beast he tried to slay, Omar tells me important information.


    “Kid, the goblins keep their monster in a cell, at least when I first arrived here.”


    “Oh, that''s news, we won''t have to worry about the beast then!”


    If we really fought the beast, escaping might be close to impossible.


    Trying to remember what kind of beast the monster was, Omar told me, “If I remember correctly, the monster was a Blood Striped Wolf, if its still alive, it must be very old now.”


    “I see, then it won’t be as dangerous as we thought, this is good for us.”


    Readying for the fight ahead, I decided to prepare a hidden weapon if things were to go south.


    [Lesser Earth]


    Brown dust rose from the ground and combined, a rock formed, about the size of my palm. It hovered above my upright palm for a moment before dropping down.


    Grabbing the snakeroot leaves from my bag, I ground them up with the stone and wrapped them all in a larger snakeroot leaf.


    ‘This might be useful if we’re in a pinch later.’


    ***


    It was nighttime, I opened my eyes and pushed myself up to a sitting position. I felt an intimidating tingle down my back.


    ‘What is this bloodthirst?!’


    [Shield]


    Instinctively, I cast defensive magic, hoping I would be safe from harm’s way.


    I couldn’t feel anything. As time passed, I grew confused. With all the candles burnt down to their bases, I couldn’t see anything. It was dark.


    -Surge


    ‘What was that noise?’ I thought to myself, preparing a defensive spell again.


    “I can feel my strength returning to me."


    Omar stared at the dimly glowing aura surrounding his sword.


    Held in a horizontal position, Omar traced two fingers along his blade.


    “Omar? Is that you?”


    “You know, kid, I used to be a 4-star swordsman, cutting through these bars is child’s play for me.”


    “These bars? What bars? Oh, the cell bars”


    -Crrrr


    As Omar’s sword approached the metal, I couldn’t help but feel amazed at the smoothness of his sword.


    -Clang!


    Omar’s blue sword aura cut through the bars like butter, splitting each bar in half.


    Even though my father was a renowned swordsman, I never had the chance to see it for myself. To imagine 4-star swordsmanship was already this amazing, I wonder how great my father’s aura would look. He is known as the Iron-Blooded Duke, after all.


    “How was that, kid?”


    “Haven’t seen anything like that before, have you?”


    “No, that was really impressive”


    “This was all thanks to you, Kai.”


    ‘Wow, he called me Kai, instead of kid”


    -Bulge


    -Creeeek


    The cell bars curved sideways as Omar yanked them apart.


    -Huff


    “There we go.”