- At night.
Rei layed on the small sack of hay that's supposed to be his bed with a contemplative expression as he gazed aimlessly at the dark ceiling of his prison cell.
Of course there shouldn't be a way for him to tell if it's day or night considering this prison is literally underground but he could...
And that's because of his attribute.
[Attribute: Moon bound]
[Attribute description: Your soul is bounded to the soul of a higher Great being that possesses the blessing of the moon, as a result you can see better in the dark, and your overall strength doubles at night and triples at a full moon, truly what a great honor for such an unworthy wretched being.]
Not long after he got back to his cell he suddenly felt a strong rush of power running through his body.
It felt great, he can instinctively tell that his body had became twice as strong, fast and resilient as it had been before and that he can do all the things he was able to do with double the speed and efficiency.
' I'm so so damn thankful to that great being guy that I'm bounded with!'
Feeling a sudden impulse Rei checked his status again…
[Name: Rei]
[Age: 16]
[Blessings: None]
[Curses: None]
[Oaths: None]
[Rank: mundane]
[Class: F+]
[attributes: Transmigrator, Prisoner of hope, dormant curse, Moon bound]
[Title: Worthless wretch]
And although most of them didn't change, there was a particular one that did.
[Class: F+]
His class had risen from(F) to( F+).
He blinked...
'Huh… well that's unexpected. '
One of the only things that Rei actually cared to remember about the game of this world is it's power system because of how unique it is, but he's pretty sure that an attribute broken enough to raise one's class even a little bit shouldn't exist unless your on the last parts of the game.
'seriously who the hell is that great being?'
thinking that he won't be finding out anytime soon Rei decided to put it aside for now...
'More importantly how strong am I now exactly?'
Deciding to test his strength he mustered his courage and punched the wall.
"Ouch!"
The result was that his hand hurts.
well there was a small crack at least.
'Guess I'm still mundane… just around the athletes level.'
But there was one thing that wasn't mundane about him.
Gazing at the key cell that's hanging at the waist of the sleeping guard that's supposed to keep watch at night he reaffirmed his thought...
'Yup i definitely can see better in the dark... probably even better than when there's light.'
He sighed as he thought about his actions throughout this day...
'Did i do good enough?'
After becoming determined to kill the dragon and survive no matter what, he did the obvious strategy he learned in the outskirts...
'Face the biggest and strongest looking rat out there to show the others that your not to be underestimated.'
It's a matter of reputation, a matter of pride and keeping face… if you don't wanna be stepped on, never show weakness.
If you back down from a fight, people will think your weak... that you can be stepped on and you'd become a laughing stock for them, you'd become the one they can bully without any consequences.
And as a man who's home was in the outskirts Rei knew very well what he had to do once he realized he's in prison...
Just as he went to the cafeteria he had decided to afirm his position in the prison hierarchy by not showing any fear while facing the biggest and strongest looking prisoner, Thomson... that's also why he had taken the considerable risk of showing his soul fragments in the open as if asking people to try and steal it.
And just as he expected things went as he planed and Runar stepped in just as things were starting to get heated between them.
He wasn't sure if it would actually happen but he had betted that Runar would step in after observing him for a bit in the cave… and knowing that Runar didn't feel tired after the mining he was sure that he'd show a good chance of winning against Thomson but...
He definitely didn't expect that Runar had already affirmed his position as the strongest fry between the prisoners...
'But isn't that still a good thing for me anyway?'
It's true that Rei hadn't expected Runar to have already established his position as the strongest, but Rei wasn't sure he would've been able to take that position let alone keep it in the first place...
That's why Rei had offered one of his fragments to Runar.
It wasn't only because he wanted to ask him questions, most of his questions could've been answered by anyone between the prisoners anyway...
So it didn't really need to be Runar that answered his questions.
But it needed to be Runar that Rei gave the fragment to... because Runar is the strongest.
'If you can't beat them join them.'
Once Rei realized that Runar is the strongest prisoner he decided to make connections with him somehow.
And in a place where fragments are the most valuable thing a prisoner can get what better way was there to build connections?
And that too…worked well for Rei.
In fact it worked way too well even...
It worked spectacularly well that it became a problem.
'And these two my dear friend Rei... '
'Are the two people i want you to help me kill...'
Rei thought again about the words Runar said to him...
Apparently Runar seem to have seen something in Rei… and that something that he saw was good enough for him to lower his guard enough just so that he can get Rei into his plan.
And oh… what an insane plan it was.
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- The second day.
Waking up Rei groaned from the jarring sound of metal hitting metal and the feeling of pain in his back from practically sleeping on the cold floor of his prison cell.
"Wake up bastards it's time to work!"
An annoying guard shouted making the prisoners wake up.
'yeah that checks out… guess this hell hole wasn't a dream...'
Rei wasn't sure if he would've wanted it to be so...
Regardless, the rest of the day went quite smoothly this time.
The prisoners headed to the mines and Rei went to the same dark corner he and Runar were mining at yesterday.
"Hey Rei, had a good sleep?"
Runar asked as he held his pickaxe with a bright smile looking as dashing as ever.
Rei sighed already starting to strike his pickaxe with a tired expression.
"Not particularly... I had quite the sleepless night thanks to a certain someone's proposal... "
Runar chuckled.
"Is that so…?"
Then as if it's always been there his smile turned twisted.
"So did you decide if you would join in on my plan?"
Lowering his head Rei bit his lip...
"You told me you'd tell me your full plan if i agreed to fully cooperate but…"
' I've already decided to kill the dragon and survive…'
'But can i kill a fellow human being for that reason...?'
At the end Rei shook his head.
"I need a bit more time to decide… your plan is still way too risky and we need to make sure we know as much as we can before moving based on it, we're not even sure what's the extent of Kane and Warden's abilities… you only said that they're Curse users."
Runar looked at Rei for a solid second as if contemplating his answer before nodding.
"Alright, I will give you a bit more time but we might not have a lot of it..."
Blinking Rei asked:
"Why is that?"
Runar sighed.
"I'm not certain about it… but i have a hunch that Kane and Warden are up to something..."
Starting to dig aimlessly too with his pickaxe Rei frowned.
"Well, that's not ominous at all... any reason you think so? "
Breaking a certain huge rock with his pickaxe Runar replied.
"well, the peculiar rising of the incidents where the guards kill prisoners without any reasonable explanation is quite concerning for me..."
Turning his head towards him and raising an eyebrow Rei asked:
"Is it really that rare for things like this to happen? I feel like unjust corrupt guards abusing their power and killing prisoners without explanation is quite common though."
Making a bitter smile Runar shook his head.
"It's true that such a thing happens quite regularly but not to this extent... you don't know because your new here, but Kane already killed ten prisoners just this past week, the prisoners are panicking."
Rei's frown depend.
"Wait wait! isn't this way too bad? panic under an unjust ruler… this smells like the perfect recipe for disaster!"
Smiling as if pleased with how fast Rei connected the dots Runar nodded.
"Precisely, that's why we don't have a lot of time... with the current situation i estimate that we have one or two weeks at best before something irrevocable happens."
Rei's expression hardened.
"I see..."
Unbeknown to Runar there was another reason for Rei to hasten his decision about this matter...
'If i don't decide quickly everyone around me might die without even realizing because of the [prisoner of hope] attribute's life and hope draining effects...'
----------------------------------------------------
At the end Both Rei and Runar got one fragment that day and bought themselves the same tasteless poriddge from yesterday...
Also Rei became sure that his reputation as the friend of the strongest prisoner had been affirmed by the rest of the prisoners after they paved the path for him to skip the line when ordering his food.
And the three days after that went smoothly as well but on his fifth day in prison...
Kane killed another prisoner.
And he did it again in the sixth day as well.
And in the seventh day...
Something unexpected happened that forced Rei to abandoned his caution and make his decision.
Because in the start of the seventh day in the morning...
The prisoners didn't awaken to the familiar sound of metal hitting metal and the shouts of the usual annoying guard.
-ROARR!!
But they awakened to the terrifying roars of an angry dragon.
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