Inexorable Chaos

Chapter Three: Summoning a Hero

*Jingle*Jingle*

My feet, bloody and dirty, stomp the ground in rhythm to the sound.

*Jingle*Jingle*

My eyes carefully roam the dirt, making sure that each step avoids sharp rocks and branches.

*Jingle*Jingle*

The sound of chains rattling can be heard in rhythm to my step... or are my steps to the rhythm of the sound?.

*Jingle*Jingle*

My eyes rise from the forest floor and look to my right. Slaves, cuffed and collared, walk forward in tattered clothing.

*Jingle*Jingle*

The chain's connecting them to one another rattle with a saddening reminder of what they are.

A [Slave]... one of the most common classes in the world is also one of the most abused. A class that is gained when you are treated like a thing for an extended period of time. A class many are born to... a class I have been lucky to not have obtained.

*Jingle*Jingle*

I turn my eyes away from the slaves, looking back down and forward... only to be greeted by the sight of my bloody and bruised legs once again.

Maybe the class wouldn't have been so bad, I think, remembering the skills that slaves gain as they level.

[Thick Skin] or [Pain Tolerance] would have been useful skills to have had for the past year.

Yes, I have been a slave for only a little over a year... sold by my own monastery.

A monastery devoted to the Valkyrie Goddess Eir. A goddess of healing.

Tears start to form as I remember the [Mercenaries] marching into my room and forcefully collaring me.

They dragged me out of bed in only a nightgown.

My hands move to my neck, touching the enchanted collar still firmly wrapped around it.

*Jingle*Jingle*

No chains are needed for this collar as the enchantments are more than enough for my obedience.

*Jingle*Jingle*

*thump*

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhh."

I stop and quickly turn towards the sound, fearing maybe a monster or predator had ambushed us.

What I find is that the slaves had all stopped. Their eyes are focused on a young girl with cat ears and a long slender tail.

A cat demihuman, one of the most common slave commodities. The catkins are stronger than a human physically and have far better senses. Unfortunately, their inability to utilize large amounts of mana is why they are considered the lowest kind of slave.

Hooded figures which have been leading the procession quickly converge towards the location where the line had stopped.

All of them are [Mages].

The [Mage] class, common in the central continent... but extremely rare in the borderlands, is one of more dangerous and diverse classes to obtain with a great many diverges in the upper levels.

One of the older [Mages], possibly also a [Slaver], looks away from the girl on the ground. His eyes roam until they meet mine.

"[Priestess]," he yells out loud with an authoritative tone and then points at the girl on the ground,"heal her." he orders.