Assimilate All Talents

Sol saw as the mature man focused on whatever he was writing and found this an opportune moment to use the memory crystal given by the Guildmaster. He sifted through the spatial ring and took out a black box with a crystal embedded on one side. While he had never used a memory crystal before, luckily there were instructions on how to use it included in the ring. Sol moved through the wall near the roof of the study as he saw a shelf that he believed he could hide the recording device on.

Silently activating the memory crystal, Sol's hand slowly appeared from the wall as he gently placed the device on top of the shelf, angled to get a view of the entire room. The man still writing didn’t notice his actions, and Sol was able to retract his hand back into the wall without any problems.

Just as Sol finished placing the device, the door to the office swung open. It took Sol completely off guard as he forgot to pay attention to his surroundings while he was planting the memory crystal.

“Hiya boss~!”

Weaver strutted into the study as he approached the desk of the man. He sat on the desk as he continued talking, not caring if he was busy at the moment.

“Soooo~. Just finished today's training with the sword boy. He is learning much faster than I anticipated. Soon he will have all the basics and be ready just in time for the auction~.”

The mature man put down his quill as he looked up to Weaver with a strong gaze.

“How is his mental state?”

“Hmph! Better than it should be. Even with the lengthy training, poor food, and total isolation, that kid still seems to be going strong. He might have a skill that improves his mental fortitude.”

“Do you think he will be able to resist it?”

Weaver paused for a moment to think about the question but shook his head, “Doubt it, even if he has skills that improve his mind, it would eventually be worn down by the combined factors.”

The mature man nodded, “What of the other one?”

“Her? Don’t know, that's Sandy’s problem, not mine.”

Weaver froze as he felt the sharp gaze of the mature man.

“What did I say about calling her that? It’s Red Sands. And I asked you, so find out now or else…”

Sol saw through the wall as the usually carefree and mischievous Weaver became silent as he trembled hearing the man’s threat. Weaver struggled to talk but was able to eke out a reply.

“... Yes sir.”

“Then go.”

“Yes sir.”

Weaver then scurried off to find Red Sands to get an answer regarding the other prisoners' progress. Sol also took this chance to leave as his mana was slightly over 100 so his [Burrow] time was running short. He decided to head back to his cell as he didn’t want to explore while low on mana.

Traveling back through the floor, he quickly arrived in his room and thought back on the conversation he overheard between the older man and Weaver. There were many questions that had arisen from that conversation, but only one stood out to him the most.

‘Why do they care about my mental state? It’s not like obedience collars need that…’

Obedience collars were the common method to handle prisoners and slaves. Although it had obedience in the name, it didn’t actually control the actions of the collared party that well. The collars would be connected to a controller which could send a signal to shock and even incapacitate the wearer, making it near impossible to resist their owners. It was still possible; they could not control the speech of the wearer so it was possible to ask others for help and if they somehow escaped the control of the controller then they were essentially free.

Sol had already found it weird he hadn’t been collared already, but based on what the Guildmaster told him, the kidnapped adventurers weren’t found after sifting through all the slaves in the city and the surroundings.

He tried to think of what other possibilities it could be, but there were simply too many. Talents were as abundant as fish in the sea so maybe they had the help of someone with soul magic to bind them to their owner or maybe a special crafting talent that can make improved versions of the obedience collars.

Not able to come up with any answers, Sol decided to contact Trevor and ask for his opinion.

“Honestly, I don't know, man. Talents that have the possibility to control other humans are tightly monitored and as far as the guild knows only three such people are in the city. One is in the craftsman guild while the other two work directly for the kingdom, and they only came to this city two years ago so it couldn't be them.”

“Well… what should I do? I’m not sure how they plan to enslave us, but I don’t really want to find out when they actually do it… Is the memory crystal I planted enough for evidence?”

“Sadly, no. Unless it catches them explicitly naming the noble or the noble themselves appear in that study then we can arrest them. We can’t check the memory crystal until we retrieve it, so it's a gamble if the raid happens and the crystal doesn't record any hard evidence.”

Trevor was also stumped; it was a risk for Sol to stay for too long. Based on what they learned from Weaver, the auction was happening on the weekend. Sol had three days before then. If it was up to Trevor, he would just do the raid tomorrow; he wasn’t happy with risking Sol’s life, especially when this was a problem the guild should have solved years ago.

“Wait. What if I get that book the old man was writing in? I couldn’t read it from where I was, but it could be a ledger or some other kind of documentation.”

“You're right! But are you sure you want to do this?”

Sol nodded even though he knew Trevor couldn’t see him through the communication gem.

“Yeah. I want to see this through; I also don't want them to have any chance to ever recover and rebuild.”

“Okay… I will let the Guildmaster know.”

The communication gem stopped glowing, Sol put it away, and he laid on the stone ground with his arms crossed behind his back as he stared at the ceiling.

‘When my mana recovers, I will go back to that study and see if I can steal the book. There also might be other incriminating evidence I should keep an eye out for.’

With a plan in mind, Sol waited for a minute as his mana quickly recovered, and he used [Burrow], traveling beneath the stone to the study. Knowing exactly where to go, Sol made it there in less than a minute and kept an eye on not only the man in the study but also the mana signatures outside just in case Weaver or anyone else headed to his cell.

…

Sol spent over three hours cycling between hiding in the walls, watching the man go about his day, and heading back to his cell to recover his mana. Over this period of time, Sol had found out a bit more about the man. While everyone called him Boss, one over-enthusiastic subordinate called him Boss Cane.

Cane didn’t just run the Mystery Box auction but also had his hands in a few underground markets. From what Sol could gather, he was well-connected and could obtain a total of 10 unique items for this auction. Apparently, the auction didn’t only consist of Sol and Rebecca as the only products, but they were the main draw for these bidders.

Unfortunately for Sol, the man never left the study. Whether for work or rest, Cane did it all in the office. At one point, a subordinate came in asking if he wanted to eat, and Cane told them to just bring it to him.

After another cycle of going back to his cell and recovering his mana and heading back, his luck finally turned around. Cane was writing in his book as a subordinate came into the study with an urgent message.

“Boss! We have a problem! The Street Wyverns broke into one of our safe houses! We are holding them back, but I think they want to steal one of our auction items.”

“What?!”

Cane stood up as he left with his subordinate to teach the Street Wyverns not to mess with his business and territory.

Sol, who saw this all happen, silently celebrated as he waited for them to get further away. Once he was sure they wouldn’t suddenly turn back, he entered the room from the back wall and immediately pocketed the book in his spatial ring. Sol gave the hidden memory crystal a peace sign before going back into the wall.

…

Back in his cell, Sol cast [Candlelight] as he pulled out the book from the spatial ring. He looked at the book, hoping this would be all he needed to finally put an end to all of this. Sol opened the first page of the book as his expression went from serious to bewildered as he read the first lines.

“This… isn’t a ledger, but a diary?”

Although it wasn’t what Sol expected, he wasn’t discouraged and instead thought it could be even better than a ledger. If his personal thoughts are written down and they date back to when the kidnapping started, this could be all the evidence the guild needs.