The Caravan continued to move through the town as everyone gazed at Alphiues. Feeling a bit embarrassed at the sight, Alphiues hid behind Azaworth. Azaworth allowed and continued gazing around the city, although the murmurs about Alphiues annoyed him a bit as he could hear all types of remarks made, some vile and lustful remarks. But another part of him was glad when he heard the good remarks made by the civilians about Alphiues.
"Alphiues, don't worry too much, your friend has got your back."
Azaworth turned his head a bit to look at Alphiues behind him, which caused Alphiues to smile gratefully. However, the ordeal didn't last long as the caravan began moving again and began heading down the streets of the Oasis. Soon to approach a tunnel.
The caravan stopped at each tunnel which seemed to be a slave pen, and soon after, the guards began to dismount from their horses. cages opened and soon opened the caravan ramp came down and hit the floor.
"Alright, slaves! Get in the slave pens, you'll be here for a bit until we need something from ya! So chop chop!"
The guards from each caravan yelled, and soon, other guards assisted in getting the slaves into the cages, but those who didn't comply were whipped by the guards and forcefully put inside the slave pens. Despite giving them food last night, it wasn't due to kindness. They were still slaves in their eyes, and they needed consumption to keep working for later.
Soon, Azaworth and Alphiues were put into a cell, separated from the slave children that they protected. They were inside with other slaves from different ethnicities. Before long, the remaining slaves were put in the slave pens, and soon, the cage closed down on them.
'Well, this is going to be a pain.'
Azaworth grumbled to himself, knowing that he can't stay here and needs to escape somehow. But the sudden realization came to his mind, came to his mind. How was he going to escape this realm, he thought about it multiple times, but yet never thought about where and when and how. He felt his stupidity going through his brain, but pushed it away and convinced himself that he probably didn't think of it before. He just sighed to himself in the end.
"Say, Azaworth, I never ask but where are you from?"
Azaworth turned his head to Alphiues, who sat beside him. Since he couldn't do much at the moment, it was best to rest for a bit and think of a plan later.
"Well, uh...I come from a far place from here. It's not a good place to live, and you probably never want to live there ever again. I also didn't get an education from any, so I wandered away."
"I see. I just wanted to ask since you don't look like a slave of Jamorchary to me at all. And yet you understand the language of Jamori without an education.
Azaworth was startled a bit by this revelation, and the realization hit him once more. How did he even speak to the slave who speaks Jamori? He doesn't know what it is or sounds like at all. And how did he even end up a slave here.
This many revelations consumed his thought and gave him more questions about who he was when he arrived here. It seems to him, he was a different person here and not who he knows he was. But yet, everyone sees his appearance as his regular self from where he was.
"Ah, sorry, I probably caused you to get a headache from my questions. Don't think too much about it."
After hearing this by Alphiues, Azaworth sighed for relief and eventually, the thoughts were washed away from his brain. He had many questions about this realm, and who he was. If he was able to understand the language of Jarmori, does that mean he was someone once here in this realm, or was it sheer coincidence that he understood it somehow.
Soon, Azaworth suddenly remembered the symbols on the UI system. He thought of the stats UI once again, and it displayed the symbol once more before translating itself into the language Azaworth was familiar with again. The symbol is likely the language of Jamori. Soon after, he noticed something new, a small dot at the top left corner of the UI.
He used his head to think of clicking the dot to see what happened, and soon enough, the UI changed, and it showed a map, which surprised Azaworth. And there were two dots on the map. One blue, which seemed to be on top of a cliff and a red dot which seemed to be in a slave pen house, and it likely indicated Azaworth's location.
Seeing this, Azaworth thinks for a bit and realized that the blue dot might be a sign that this was the way to escape. Feeling excited, he would be cheering in his own head. And now, the thing he had to do was escape from this slave pen but he didn't knew how to and the UI would disappear from his face.
Before anything else, suddenly, Alphiues' legs were trembling, even when sitting down. Azaworth noticed this and saw the horror look on Alphiues' face, which gave Azaworth a look of concern on his face.
"Alphiues, what's wrong?"
Alphiues' hands trembled as he faced Azaworth
"T-t-they're here..."
Before Azaworth could speak, suddenly a large roar was heard from the distance, and people were screaming from the outside of the slave pen. Confused and flabbergasted by that roar, he got the sudden chills down his spine. Nobody even knew what was going on outside.
Suddenly, the slave pen's back wall crumbled down as something was pushed themselves inside. Stones fell down and crumbled, dust scattered the cage and a growl was heard. Azaworth unlucky once again to be directly hit and flown in front of the cage and he too heard the growl.
Before anything else, someone suddenly screamed in pain, likely a slave, and there was a munching sound, and as the dust settled, a creature which was small and the same height as a human was spotted, and the slaves screamed in fear. Soon after, the creature finished chowing down on the first victim, it jumped onto the next slave. The first victim slave had his torso opened, and his rib cage was visible, and his organs were spilling out alongside blood.
Seeing the gore sight, slaves began to run out through the whole made by the creatures, and Alphiues grabbed Azaworth's hand and got him to stand up, and they both bolted out there. As they ran out along with the slaves, the creature, at a rapid pace, pounced on the slaves and began to consume them. Azaworth and Alphiues didn't have time to look back and kept running.
Soon after a bit of running, both took a detour route and onto the streets where they saw bodies of civilians and guards on the floor. Limbs ripped off or heads torn off, and organs spilling from their torso.
Alphiues continued to tremble at the sight before him and was about to collapse, but Azaworth helped and supported him up.
"Thank...you, Azaworth....these lives....they had a bright future...."
Before agreeing with Alphiues, a realization struck his head, he turned to his head to Alphiues.
"Alphiues, how did you know...that monsters were coming?"
Alphiues looked down on the sight before him and sighed to himself.
"I...do not know...I can sense the feeling of impending danger whenever it's near. It feels cold and sickening. I didn't feel it earlier when we were attacked by the Algamor yesterday. But it just appears whenever...I don't know how."
Hearing this explanation, he started to wonder for a bit before snapping out and getting both of them somewhere safe. They walked down the streets, and Azaworth saw the tunnel where the slave pens were. And inside, most of the pens were covered with blood or bodies. And even the children. Not wanting to disturb Alphiues anymore, they kept moving away.
As they moved, they also noticed many creatures roaming the streets and took detour routes to avoid them. Occasionally, they hear the same roaring sound, but was unable to pinpoint it's location. They also see soldiers of the Oasis fighting against the creature, but most died taking at least one down.
Before long, Azaworth had an idea in mind.
"Alphiues, would you trust me?"
Alphiues turned his head to Azaworth in confusion.
"I believe I know a place which can help us escape. But I need you to trust me-"
Before Azaworth could finish his sentence, Alphiues would just nod, indicating that he already trusts him.
Soon, Azaworth opened the UI in his head again, and they began moving through the streets. It took a while and a lot of detour routes to arrive there safely, but I managed to arrive at the staircase of the mountain. To his confusion, Azaworth saw that the steps were going down instead of up the mountain, but decided not to question it.
Before they could begin heading down, the same creature suddenly jumped on Azaworth in an ambushed state and prepared to munch on him.
'Shit!!'
Using the strength he had left, the creature punctured its face at Azaworth, but he used his bare fist to hold its head for a moment. The creature was much stronger, and if the creature wasn't that slow, Azaworth would likely have died in that moment.
In a surprised moment, Alphiues suddenly whacked the creature with a large club and sent it flying back a bit. Azaworth was surprised to see Alphiues holding such a heavy item with ease. He was stunned before snapping out of it and standing up for himself.
"Woah....thanks."
Alphiues, still trembling smiled at Azaworth. Before anything else, Azaworth instincts kicked in and suddenly took the club from Alphiues, despite it supposed to be light, he still felt his hand being weak, yet he swing at behind him and it wacked the same creature again.
The hit sent the creature flying back the same distance and hit a pillar of a structure. The creature stood up slowly and prepared to charge once again, but Azaworth didn't have enough strength, and Alphiues wanted to prepare once again.
Suddenly, the pillar that the creature hit, crumbled and the structure behind it collapsed on the creature. The creature noticed, but it was too late as the structure collapsed on it and now there is a pile of building that remains. It was the most anti-climatic ways to kill a beast.
[You have slain a Rapgor!]
[Item dropped: Rapgor Horn]
Hearing the words of the announcement in his ear, he was relieved that the beats was dead, and also received an item. But he looked at his hand and just saw a horn. He was annoyed a bit as he didn't know what to do with such thing but kept it either way.
"Come on, let's go quickly."
Azawrth began to climb down the steps of the mountain, and Alphiues followed behind quickly.
"Right behind you."
Soon, they venture down the dark tunnel of the steps and steel themselves for what's next to come.