The rest of the trip was uneventful as far as his captors were concerned aside from another few questions from the Truth stone. He was

  mostly silent and he didn't cause problems. He did however slip back into meditation whenever he had the opportunity, and began

  making a hybrid mana core in each of his limbs and at the base of his skull. He also created pathways between them using nerve

  bundles and blood vessels as tracks. Caloric completion helped him fall asleep every night. Soon enough the road went from dirt to

  cobble then to some sort of blacktop. When that happened the ride got a lot smoother. Somehow all of the modifications he was making

  in his body helped heal whatever was broken inside of him. The day before they were slated to arrive in the city with the slave auction

  Shade regained access to his spatial storage, he tried to apply his affinities to his perception. He discovered then that he could apply

  one but not both, and he was still incapable of applying time to his body. His will as he started internally referring to the force he used to

  manipulate things inside his body was getting more precise. And then he realized that he hadn’t had a single skill pop up since he

  awoke with the collar on.

  Soon enough they entered a small town’ the buildings struck him as modern. The roads were paved. There were concrete sidewalks

  and people had smartphones. This juxtaposition was almost maddening. He expected a medieval town or village with stone buildings

  and peasants, not a modern city with cell phone clothing that looked machine spun with bright colors. Shoes and boots seemed modern

  too; there was a smattering of armed and armored individuals that spoke of adventurers or bodyguards. No modern vehicles though.

  Everything was beast drawn; one of the creatures in front of us dropped a load and a sigil lit up on the road and it and the waste

  vanished in a pleasant smelling mist.

  As Shade watched, the modern town rolled by as they headed towards their destination. Another thing he noticed was that people were

  reacting with positive interest. That's when Shade noticed that several of the groups of people had a number of individuals with more

  discrete collars and that is when Shade saw that this was a modern slave society.

  The carriage jolted to a stop. Shade stood, long since having grown used to his nudity and tried to peer around the part of the caged

  wagon that blocked his view of the drivers area, but he couldn't see around, so he applied his spatial affinity to his perception and then

  he could see the outline of a large man gesticulating and pointing towards the wagon, he also noted people stepping closer or zooming

  in with their smartphones. When Shade saw the form he knew to be Charlie stand and begin to step down; Shade canceled the

  technique. Soon enough Charley walked into view, A tall older man in a nicely Tailored suit with long white hair with a majestic beard and

  mustache.

  “No no no…” Charley was saying. His voice suddenly became clear and intelligible. Was there a sound obfuscation enchantment?

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  That's when he realized all he ever heard was the wheels and creak of the wagon. Never birds or even the murmur of bystanders. “We

  found him knocked out on this side of the ravine from the goblin fort at the mouth of Dungeon Valley. We checked him with a system

  stone. He's a null. We also questioned him with a truth stone. He thinks he was poisoned and has no memory of anything before he

  woke up near the fort and barely escaped with his life. As you can see he's in excellent physical condition. He has all his teeth and no

  physical disabilities, pardon my saying but he hangs dong like a champ. We just need to take him to a skill house and have him sorted.

  But something tells me he's got gladiator in his future.”

  It was so strange being broken down like a product. He glanced down at his manhood. Rather than embarrassed he felt annoyed at

  Spark. He paused mentally. He associated the name Spark with that ball of light that he first met upon awakening in this place.

  Something about his ‘dong’ being referred to gave him the sense that he was currently the butt of a joke that he couldn't recall.

  “Very good, if you will follow me I can get us onto Madam’s preferred skill house. She always wants the first run of new products. That is

  how her stable stays high on the Arena leaderboards. How is his temperament? Madam does not enjoy crass ruffians.”

  They both turned to look at him. Charley seemed nervous like he didn't want to mess whatever this is up. Shade also belatedly noticed

  he wasn't wearing his fur and cloth piece mail armor. But an ill fitting button up shirt that was just slightly too small for his gut. And a pair

  of boots and cargo pants that Shade recognized as his own. Which wrankled him, but he had several identical pairs in his spatial

  storage. That reminded him that he was only a tourist here who could leave whenever he wished and thus; what were minor seeming

  injustices to him would be way worse for people that didn't have his advantages.

  “He's quiet and observant, doesn't talk much but he doesn't really resist either. The only time I ever had to threaten him was when he

  first woke up after we found him n’ that was more to be safe. I will say I've never seen fear in his eyes at any point while we've had him.

  See even now he's just listening to us. He's alert but not bothered. The few times he spoke seemed intelligent and thoughtful…”

  The butler fished a truth stone out of his pocket and with no warning it streaked through the air to slap into Shades' palm that was

  somehow now up in front of his forehead. His eyebrow quirked slightly in that understated way that butlers had. Charley paled as the

  butler who was collared suddenly felt heavy like those orcs had, maybe even more so . “What is your full name?” the butler asked

  Shade, his eyes locking in.

  Shade was aware of the pressure, and he felt like his will was far stronger. He could push it aside and completely ignore it if he wanted

  to. “Shane Richards, but I go by Shade.” The stone stayed dull in his hand. Somehow the stone must cross check with the system

  because that was his system name. “Shade, hmmm… alright. Do you belong to any organizations or suffer any diseases, curses or the

  Heretic status?”

  Shade shook his head. “No, not to the best of my knowledge.” Again the stone stayed dull.

  Charley shook and trembled in a flop sweat on the edges of whatever the butler was doing with his pressure. “That is a very specific

  answer. Can you elaborate?”

  Shade shrugged, and made sure the truth stone was visible. “I have absolutely no memories of my life before I woke up. But I have

  cultural knowledge of somewhere called Earth, I can speak, fight, remember books, movies and other pop culture references. I have a

  sense of self but no foundational memories of a family or life before I woke up.”

  The butler’s eyes widened and some instinct had Shade to switch to Time perception. That was the only way he saw the butler's hands

  dip into his vest with both hands and pull out eight razor thin wires connected to pull rings around each finger. And dash around the

  Charley and the bystanders. A few of the body guards reacted slowly which was still insanely fast by normal standards as the butler

  Diced them alongside everyone else, leaving floating sections of people in the air before he whipped through the wooden bars of

  Shade’s cell and landed lightly in front of him. For a moment they made eye contact and Shade saw surprise in the butler's eyes as he

  realized he could perceive him. The butler froze briefly and his pressure vanished before Shade ended the Technique, and the eye

  contact resumed. Shade focused on the butler but he couldn't ignore a sound like a barrel of water balloons all hitting the ground.

  Without a word the butler grabbed Shade. He had to slip back into time perception to see that the butler ran and parkoured through this

  town to an upscale part of town with a decent sized manor before everything froze again ands he dropped the technique. The butler

  stared at him as they stood on the lawn.