Taking down the four guards took no effort to speak off, their low levels, relatively shitty gear compared to Jack's standards and clearly not cool heads working even more in Jacks favour as he wasted them, his fists connecting with their shields and bodies like a hammer striking heated metal in the forge again and again, quickly rendering them all unconscious. Worse yet was the fact that he was not the initiator of the hostility, only responding when provoked. The obvious difference in power also scared the women quite a bit, the six of them huddling together and trying to look as small as possible in hopes that they would not earn his ire for just being within his line of sight and clearly together with the guards that had started the whole thing.

  "You, translator girl, get over here." Jack spoke calmly, his voice even as though he hadn't just taken out four, mid level guards like they were nothing.

  "Chop, chop I don't bite, unless you want me to that is." Jack added a moment later when he noticed Sindu was still frozen in place, a shark like grin on his face that unfortunately remained unseen as his hood obscured the entirety of his face. 'Could it be that damn collar then? I doubt they would just sit there and risk pissing of an entity like what I have displayed so far. Let's solve that possible issue then.'

  "Don't move." he then said, clearly in an authoritative manner and moved towards them, his steps slow but measured, his eyes and ears tracking the slightest of movements and sounds among the six women. Soon enough, he was right in front of Sindu, his larger frame towering over the blonde, malnourished woman. His right hand moved with deceptive speed, one moment gripping the collar around Sindu's neck, the next moment resting back at Jack's side, the collar that was grabbed just a mere moment ago now crumbling into dust.

  "Tphu." Jack spat to the side "Vile bastards whoever made this atrocity. We will get to them soon enough. Just you wait." he murmured under his breath, his eyes darting towards the remaining five women, all equally malnourished and with the same collar around their necks. In the next few moments, his figure blurred, reappearing next to each of the remaining five, his hand repeating the same action it had taken with Sindu, followed by the same crumbling of each enslavement collar. When the last of the collars scattered like dust, Jack spoke again.

  "I have questions and I need answers. I believe it is the least you can do in exchange for your freedom. Firstly, tell me about Avalente. Who rules it? What kind of government system is in place? What are the laws you have to abide by? How do they treat human and their kind there?"

  Before any useful information began to flow from the lips of the six women, one of them fell properly to her knees, dropping the pots of water and prostrating towards Jack, her forehead pressed in sand as she spoke.

  "Pleas lord, take me as your servant. Slave even, just don't send me anywhere on my own." she too spoke english, though it was noticeably more broken than what Sindu spoke.

  Jack turned his head back towards Sindu expectantly, though noticing that the blonde woman was still absentmindedly touching her now collarless neck, he spoke up. "Earth to Sindu, respond."

  That seemed to have drawn her out of her stupor, the woman quickly bowing her head towards Jack as she tried to process what was happening, the last few minutes being in something of a haze for her.

  "Why does she want to be my servant, slave even?" being the kind man that he was, he threw Sindu a bone, a light of understanding dawning on the womans face.

  She pulled back one of her sleeves, revealing what looked like a firebrand on her hand and explained. "We have been marked for life as slaves. If caught and the mark is seen, something that anyone around these parts will look for the second you are cornered, a quick death would be the best outcome any of us could ever hope for. We must always have a master, the slave collars or not."

  "Why me then?" Jack asked, having something of a guess formed already.

  "Might makes right. That is the way the people of these plains live by for the most part, with the rules being a bit more strict within the largest cities that are controlled by particularly powerful warlords. For all intent and purposes, we were the property of those four while outside of the city walls and now that you have taken them down, we either become your property or are captured by whoever comes upon us next where the punishment part comes in."

  "And the chance of you getting out of these lands in time is non existent I assume?" Jack asked, once again more or less already aware of the answer.

  "It is as master says."

  "So, I either take you as my slaves or basically leave you for dead. Those are my options." Jack realized.

  "That would be the gist of things, yes master."

  "And how would anyone realize you belong to someone, earned by right of conquest or whatever it is called out here?" he asked.

  Sindu stretched her hand with the brand toward once Jack had spoken, pointing towards the now clearly pale center of the brand and spoke, her voice now slightly shaky as she looked at the mark properly herself, as if noticing a certain aspect of it that was not quite as she thought it would be. "The mark in the center pales as the one owning us grows weaker and weaker, with the central mark dissipating entirely upon the death of said owner. Ownership is often transferred from the master to his overseers as each such mark puts a slight strain on ones spirit, though to ensure slaves always know who their true owner is, the collars are then placed on our necks. It is those collars that ensure our obedience and subservience to the real master while the mark gives the overseers a lesser control over us."

  ----------------------

  Sindu looked at the cloaked man before her, a whirlwind of mixed feelings raging within her mind. For the first time in years she was free- even if only in theory and no doubt for just a moment. She could have used this small window to finally end her suffering, to pass on to the next life if there was one. How she wished she could finally run away, only for the reality come crashing down on her. It was this moment- the removal of the blasted slave collar that the same damned item had instilled a compulsion in her mind- she had been desperately clinging to life for, so how could she then end her life now that it was real? Like a perpetually thirsty and dehydrated human, she had finally found a lake where she could drink her fill, to finally slake the metaphorical thirst. And with it all crashing down on her, a small, uncertain voice had began whispering at the back of her head- It is fine now. I must keep living. Things can only get better from now on.

  Was it some sort of a remnant remaining in her mind from the damned collar? Or was she already too far gone and changed? She did not know, but had acted as on instinct, though not nearly as seemingly desperate as her sister right next to her who had prostrated like some fanatical and desperate sinner, begging for forgiveness and a path forward from some saint.

  "Is that so? Well then, Seems I have to take at least some kind of responsibility for my own actions, provoked as they were by those retarded muts." the cloaked figure replied finally, momentarily turning his head towards the clearly only unconscious four guards scattered around. The next moment, he was towering over one of the four, a large sword appearing in his hand from nowhere. Then, a quick sound of the clearly sharp blade slicing through the wind followed, accompanied by an explosion of red of sorts as the first of the four was split in two, his blood gushing from both parts of the body.

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  It took just a blink as Sindu had done for the hooded figure to now tower over the next guard, his hand once again raised with the same, though now slightly bloodied, blade in hand, only to then repeat the previous motion, with the sword descending and robbing the second of the guards of their life, a blink later followed by the third and one more blink later finalized with the fourth ones death, their blood seeping out of their split bodies and forming a small river tributaries as they somehow reached the same point and joined into one and streamed further down until it reached the river, as though finding its place.

  It was then that Sindu was shaken out of her half stupor, her class once again informing her of what was clearly the worst case scenario. She reacted immediately, stammering to warn both her sisters in slavery as well as her- most likely to be- new master.

  "The blood!" she pointed towards the small river of red liquid that was now joined with the enormous river "A Kraiko is coming! Run!"

  It immediatly stirred her sisters into panic, their arms and feet pushing them up in a desperate struggle to get as far away from the river as possible- their only hope of surviving the encounter.

  "STAND DOWN AND DON'T PANIC!" Jack's voice thundered like a shot of cannon, momentarily stopping their desperate escape. "it's just an overgrown snake. Should taste good though. Stand back and watch."

  With that said, he turned towards the river, his head turned precisely towards the location the Kraiko was coming from, as though he was waiting for it to get close and personal. What followed could be described as nothing but both breathtaking and terrifying at the same time, in as positive a way as one could assume.

  The large. light blue snake head the size of a carriage shot out of the water, a maw filled with razor sharp and enormous teeth opening as it zeroed in on the cloaked figure, only for the snake to slam into empty sand. The cloaked swordsman had spun his body, avoiding the snakes attempt to swallow him whole while at the same time using the momentum of the spin to deliver a devastatingly powerful cut with the large sword he held in his hand.

  The sword seemed to pass through the beasts side, its nearly two meter long blade cutting just as deep a wound in the neck near Kraiko's head, causing a large amount of blood to spill out and throwing the snake monster into a convulsing fit. Clearly, the strike had been devastating and excruciatingly painful. Then, using the momentary distraction of the pain filled monster, the cloaked man

  used his sword to deliver more and more similar cuts on the body of the enormous snake, creating a feedback loop that locked the Kraiko in a doomed pattern until its body slowed down more and more, until finally, some ten minutes later, it stopped moving entirely.

  "Livelier bastard than I had expected it to be. Still an easy kill." the man spoke, swinging his sword and removing all the blood from the blade with the motion, making said sword disappear into thin air as it had appeared mere moments later. What came next however, was no less surprising and confusing, creating more questions in Sindu's mind than she could answer. Shadow like wings sprouted from the cloaked man's back, seemingly digging into the snakes flesh, likely cutting it apart. Was he searching for something? A question formed in Sindu's mind, quickly reaching the conclusion that the man was likely seeking the monsters core. That made perfect sense. Something as massive and terrifying should no doubt have one.

  More and more blood seeped onto the ground as the man kept cutting and based on the sheer size of the Kraiko- no less than twenty plus meters- he would have to spend a considerable time if he was going to go through the now dead beast as he was now. Thankfully, the six women did not have to sit there and wait for the long and arduous process to come to a completion, as approximately ten to twenty minutes later- if Sindu's sense of time did not lie- the cloaked man stopped his search, with the enormous Kraiko body soon after scattering into small amount of dust and being carried away by a light breeze of wind that blew just then.

  "Wha?" was the most either she, or her sisters in fate could utter as the cloaked man turned his attention back on them.

  "So then, how do I claim you as my 'slaves'?" his words brought Sindu out of her who knows which moment of stupor in the short while she could claim to have known this cloaked man.

  "S-since we have no owner right now, just touching it should be enough." she replied, trying her best to calm herself.

  ----------------------------

  True to Sindu's words, the moment Jack touched her hand at the place the brand was burned into her skin, a notification popped up in his mind as the system responded to the unclaimed slave marks on the hand, asking if Jack wanted to claim Sindu as his slave. It mattered little to Jack himself, what form of servitude his maids took- be it paid servants or slaves in the eyes of the rest of the world, the way he treated them would be all the same- assuming no betrayal and wrong loyalties were at play. With a single mental nudge, Sindu became his first official slave in this world, soon followed by another five women.

  Arasha was the second to be claimed by Jack. She had auburn hair and hazel coloured eyes. Standing at around one point six meters, she was the shortest of the six women, equally malnourished and having led quite a harsh last few years at least. Just like Sindu, she wore baggy, worn down clothes that obscured her figure. Whether out of accident or intentional- Jack could not be sure. Her class was hunter(uncommon), clearly acquired before she was enslaved, just like Sindu. The twenty five year young woman looked at Jack with slight reverence when he claimed her mark, no doubt the recent murdering of the oversized snake doing wonders for her condition.

  Lita was the third of the six to become Jack's slave, at least as far as the system and this continent were concerned. With dark gray hair that began showing some paler ones that came from either her age or stress she had experienced during her life as a slave, she was the oldest of the six, with system marking her age at thirty six. Even her class spoke volumes just how long had she carried her cross, it having changed to something as degrading as Slave-maid(uncommon). Still, for all the no doubt harsh life experiences, her brown eyes still held a spark of life- be it because of the slave collars or something else, Jack did no know.

  Vika was the fourth. She stuck out like a sore thumb among the other, somewhat regular women. Jack could still not decide though, was it her dark blue hair and eyes that did the trick, or her point ears. Whichever was the case, it was clear she was no human, at least pure blooded one, confirmed by an in depth appraisal of the woman.

  Valente(30)

  Race- fae

  Class- Apprentice mage(uncommon)

  Level-8

  Unlike the rest of the girls, Valente seemed just a bit better of in regards to her physical state, less malnourished and overall just a bit more healthy. Was it because of her race, or class and as such her ability to more easily manipulate mana. Jack could not tell just yet. And despite her just as ragged and baggy clothes, Jack could see the contours of a rather sizable bust straining the clothing just a bit.

  'I wonder how well will the girls look when they recover and don proper maid outfits.' Jack mused, his maid team apparently starting its formation with this unexpected acquisition.

  Virgo and Nesta were the last two. Both rather similar in their builds and apparences. With straight, if quite messy black hair and eyes just as black as their hair, they seemed be a mix of caucasian and asian bloodline, though Jack could not rightfully guess if they had some dormant non human blood mixed in as well. It was one of them- Virgo to be precise- who had been the one to prostrate before Jack and beg for him to claim them as his. At a closer look, past the dirt and their disheveled states, Jack realised the two were twins. The fact they both had the same class- Lancer-as well as level- 8- spoke of just how inseparable they must have been before they were made slaves, though it seemed that at least in that regard, fate had shown at least a modicum of mercy towards the sisters.

  "Well then." Jack spoke once he had claimed the six as his own "now that the morbid part is taken care of, let's get to the good stuff- namely you telling me all I should need to know about this Avalente and what not. Do note that you should explain it all as though speaking to someone who has fallen from the sky and knows nothing but the language you share. No customs, laws. Hell, even common sense of his might be entirely different. And while you do that, I will start on fixing the most egregious of crimes that has been laid before my eyes."

  With his orders delivered, Jack beckoned them to follow, moving the group away from the shore, lest another Kraiko decide to swim by and disrupt what he had planned next.

  Jack Raja(?)

  Age- 27

  Species- human(?)

  Level- 30

  Class- Awakened twin aspect of Creation and Destruction(Ex)

  Stats unassigned: +4

  Attributes:

  Strength- 24 (14+7+3)

  Vitality- 23 (12+8+3)

  Dexterity- 21 (15+6)

  Intelligence-15

  Spirit- Spirit- 30 (20+10)

  Skills- Wisdom of Creation and destruction(EX), Choice of the creator(EX), Eyes of procurer(EX), Matter storage(EX), Arukain language(C), Spark of inspiration(EX), Origin of matter(EX), Unbound by laws of the lessers(EX), The end made manifest(EX).

  Spells- none.

  Titles(unlocked): The real Monster, Big Game Hunter, The brilliant rookie, The insane Solo. Monster debugger.The actor. Executioner. Survivor. Pioneer, Record breaker.The new champion supreme.

  Gear: amulet +2 vit: weapon- Gundao+3 str. Rings- spatial storage,