Aimless Ascension

"From the look on your face, I can see all of you can understand me," the man continued, addressing them. "I was in your place once. My number was 72, but look at me now." The earthling lifted his head to know his bare neck. "There\'s no slave collar, as I have earned my name and my freedom back. It took me a long time and incessant enduring work to get to this point."

\'Well, congratulations to you,\' Gale almost barked that aloud.

"But I\'m sure any of you can stand where I am standing now. You\'ll see that the Lords and governing bodies here are fair and keep everything professional. So you can rise and strive to earn back your freedom like I did."

All the new slaves listened to him carefully, including me. But I couldn\'t help but frown as I listened in.

"I\'m not known by the number anymore," the man continued, discovering he had our utmost attention, "but my real name. You all can call me Joseph. And that is not all."

Joseph lifted his hand before everyone else in a gesture of demonstration. A crimson flame blazed from his palm, fazing all three of us utterly. It wasn\'t some weak flame either, but a crimson fire burning with intensity. Joseph looked proud as he showed us the fire.

I couldn\'t hold back anymore and clapped my hands. Joseph lifted his head to turn to me, diminishing the fire. I lifted my hand like a kid in the classroom.

"Yes?" Joseph asked.

"That\'s a neat trick," I said. "How many birthday parties did you have to perform to be this good?"

It seemed Joseph wasn\'t a fan of that joke, as he gave me a stare of disapproval.

"Come on, bloke," I said again, "that\'s just a joke."

The disapproval turned to utter displeasure as Joseph rebuked me, stealing a glace at the fat man, who was already annoyed and couldn\'t wait till this end.

"You\'ll keep your mouth shut till I finish, 309," he demanded of me in a stern tone.

I made a gesture of zipping my lips. He had the cold look in his eyes as well, very similar to the guards that had beaten me to pulp the last few days.

Joseph continued, gesturing towards the fat man. "This is your lord Pen Aculas. You\'re all deported under him, but Lord Pen hardly has time to look after lowly slaves. So the duty fell on the backs of the men under him, which included me and a dozen others. We don\'t have more time to introduce more things, but once you think you must get into your block head."

Joseph looked at all the three of us, though his stare seemed to remain on me for an extended moment. Good for me, I already stand out in the crowds of three. Although one of the other two was insane and the other was worn out to no end.

"There is no escape," Joseph told us in his most hard voice. "You can try all you want, but I\'ll promise you this: I\'ll find you and get you back to your post. You\'ll never be able to remove the collar from your neck that way. It\'ll only put you under more scrutiny and stress.

"From now on, you\'ll work on the mines from nine to five. It\'s a couple of hours more than that, this world day is longer. But that\'s not the point. I expect no issues from you three, as it was under me to look after the earthlings. Don\'t take me. Take us as fools. Failures."

As he finished, they brought the three of us into our home and left us to our devices. The new home looked much more like a prison, to be honest.

It wasn\'t as spacious as the other place where I was so far. Thankfully, I have a little room all to myself. It had a little bed hardly enough for one person, a few wooden cups and pots. There was a blanket too, although with the room temperature nearing that of a desert, I didn\'t think I would need that.

Apart from dirt and debris, my room had nothing else to take note of. The same was true for my neighbours. My neighbour on the right was that insane man. He didn\'t speak all that much, other than grunting and shouting. However, the other one, the newcomer, who had the room on the right of the Insane man, was a much preferable company.

He came back to greet me as I was cleaning my house.

"I didn\'t know how to open up in a situation like this," he said from the door of my new room. "I still can\'t believe all this to be real? Alternate dimensions, magic and all."

"A good beating would have done you some good," I couldn\'t help but say.

That earned a confused look from the man. He was in his mid-thirties, a decade and more older than me. He should have taken good care of his body and had a neat life before this, as one day into a different dimension with all the injuries wasn\'t enough to make the signs disappear.

"Do you have a name, mate?"

"Cameron," the newcomer said and came forward to shake hands. "Cameron Banks, I was a chartered accountant before whatever happened to me and I was dropped here."

"Gale Carpenter." I introduced myself, shaking his hand slightly with my right arms. Although I\'m left-handed, the left hand wasn\'t in any state for movement. "Well, I was majoring in psychology, along with a few other things like freestyle rap, sports and documenting, but looks like those don\'t matter anymore."

"I wouldn\'t say that," Cameron said. "Although this is an unfamiliar world, you never know when those skills will come in handy. Besides, save for the rap, I think studying the other two would give you a broad perspective of the world and human nature. That\'s something most people lacked in the world."

"What about rap?"

"Uhm, you can diss the slavers, although I don\'t think they\'d understand you."

"Hmm," I hummed, considering. "That seems like a good idea, though I would need a better place than this to bring out my inner poet."

______

Monthly privilege chapter goal: 705/1000

I\'m adding another bonus reward to the 5 chapters mass release. I\'ll put a whooping 69% discount if we make it to 1000 this month.

Also, I\'m in the middle of changing the book title. What are your thoughts on changing the book to Maidenless Farmer? XD.