-Callen-

  Before getting to work with the slave box, I emptied the vaults of any valuables. There's no such thing as too much loot. Callia also tied up the boss and left the room to search for other employees. Leaving me alone in the room with the slave guards, who were just kind of awkwardly standing around the edges, unsure what to do.

  “You guys can wait on the couch; I’m going to be busy for a bit.” I bent over into the corner of the room where the metal container holding the earthkin sat. It seemed to be a kind of removable unit with various output points. The whole design seemed very official, and it even had a mana output rating, which was just an awkward number slapped onto the box that likely reflected the occupants' total mana and recovery rate.

  Now as for the explosive functions, I noticed they were twofold in nature. The room itself was rigged to explode, but so was each box. Then there was the concealment of the box’s contents. Anyone with most inspection skills over 50 could easily figure out that the box is holding a person, but that's because its runes were focused on hiding the unique surprise built into the runic structure. While the skill level wasn’t as clear-cut for identifying this level, it was my sense that mana combined with my runic lore were both near or above 90. On second thought, no wonder that vice captain guy was so alarmed to hear about this function. I don’t think I’ve ever seen runework this high quality since the hands that were gifted by the grandmasters.

  The idea that a previous council was responsible came to mind, but Grandmaster Slate has been on the council for nearly 500 years. While I wasn’t skilled at judging the age of runic constructs, especially works that had been frequently maintained for many years. If I had to guess, this box was nearly 300 years old. Maybe Slate was a much different person back in the day compared to the friendly old man who visited us. It would make sense; my experience in human communities easily showed how essential high levels were for leadership.

  However, if my suspicion of this being an earthkin design was correct, that meant I might’ve just opened Pandora’s box of political consequences. I had assumed this was some kind of backup revenge mechanism specially ordered by the slavers. Now it was the kind of issue that would make sense to spark a war. For now I was the only one who could identify the issue with these boxes, but now that I called out the issue, that meant people would be able to brute force test them. Anyone with a decent knowledge of magic knows that exploding into fire isn’t the default effect of uncontrolled but concentrated mana. Mana concentrations tended to be a bit more random but were shaped by whatever mind and will took control before it dispersed. Usually the consequences would be dire if whoever encountered it lacked the will to control the mana.

  My musings were disrupted when a knocking occurred at the door. I barely had time to look back into the room when the door swung open. The sudden guest was greeted by the sight of the slave boss hanging in the middle of the room like a chandelier by a vindictive Callia. Nothing short of violently silencing the lady would’ve stopped the piercing shriek that followed after I hesitated to act.

  The lady ran out into the bar without hesitation, screaming and making it known that the psycho foreigner had butchered the owner and was robbing the bar. Well, the milk was spilled. I quickly came to the two options available to me: either A: I use the confusion to escape the bar and hopefully evade any pursuit until the vice captain clears my name, or B: I barricade the room and wait for the same. With a closing window, I reached over to Callia, who had already caught on to the commotion. Running could cause all kinds of problems, but people only knew about me, so Sis would go clear my name while also evacuating Hew and the freed slaves. I would wait here and try not to make the situation worse.

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  I look over to the guards with me and give an order.

  “Head to the lower floors and follow Callia’s commands.” It would be best to keep unrelated people out of the mess. Now I needed to plan how to defend a small room against the town guard as well as every opportunist who would volunteer for a share of the boss’s loot. I shut the door and made a basic runic seal. That should hold out interference until guards show up. Now the next step was making myself less guilty. If I didn’t have the money, I couldn’t be held accountable for money-inclined motives. Though with the tall people racism, it might just be marked as a tall person hate crime. What a world. Then again, maybe I’m jumping ahead on the consequences and responses.

  Now I needed to channel my inner Nixie but with nonlethal deterrence. However, first was overriding the explosive runes that had been installed alongside the isolation runes in the room. Whoever installed them was likely associated with whoever made the sealed boxes. Still, having the building explode while trying to hide in it wasn’t a great choice. Luckily these runes were far less complex and didn’t threaten to activate if overwritten. Taking inspiration from the gatehouse, I altered the runes to generate gas. Unfortunately, I wasn’t familiar with any nonlethal gasses that could be deployed en masse that were fast-acting. That didn’t mean I had no options. Since we were sealed in the center of a building, using carbon dioxide to safely and slowly suffocate enemies would deter reckless action but also give plenty of time for the guards to remove the affected safely. I only needed to account for my own air.

  I started using material from my storage to build another shelter in the center of the room, using earthshaping to fuse spare boulders into an isolated chamber inside the room. Outside, the sound of panicking patrons quieted down as an authoritative voice took control. Looking over to the still suspended slave boss, I was faced with handing him over to the authorities to calm them down and holding on to the man because we had arrested him. Considering the guards who dragged me and Sis straight to this place to be turned into slaves, it felt reasonable not to trust the first responders. Still, I needed somewhere to keep the man while the confrontation occurred.

  I blink in thought, and then, looking at his helpless, unresisting body, I open a void gate to see if it would let me deposit the man. Seeing him slide into the void space, I smiled in satisfaction and turned my attention back to the guard outside, who was now firmly hammering against the door with what sounded like the hilt of a sword. I created a small shock rune on the other side of the door to discourage further attacks. I called out to the man outside.

  “Don’t attack the walls of this room unless you are willing to accept consequences!” I heard some angry shouting, but some of the isolation runes I hadn’t altered made deciphering words a much more challenging situation. However, I didn’t need to understand them as long as they weren’t attacking the room. I got back to work altering the runes to resist impact and release CO? to suffocate/deter continued assaults.

  Urgent Report

  Eland ran back to the office with the documents in hand. It was common knowledge that the earthkin regularly sold criminal earthkin in boxes to the capital to support their faction in human politics. However, that boy who casually disabled the “nearly unbreakable” slave mark just happened to mention the boxes were rigged to explode. This was an issue beyond mere black market slave trading; it was a national crisis in motion. Entering the imperial guard office, he offloaded the paperwork onto a subordinate before making his way to the captain.

  The captain was already an older man and knew of his deal with his uncle. They had gotten along quite well throughout his time in the force, and the old man had even agreed to join him when he started his new city. Eland and the captain had deep trust, and without in-depth explanation, the captain moved with the authority and urgency the situation demanded. Soon agents collected both a newer and older model of mana generator and had them taken to the outskirts to be dismantled under observation of a team of mages.

  The old generator exploded violently, ripping the slave who was ordered to dismantle it into bits. The explosion matched the description of recent incidents that the guards had written off as a terror attack by radical southerners. The mages immediately started debating amongst each other while ordering the second generator to be opened up. Mana was inherently unpredictable, so the first generator explosion might have been a coincidence. The second blast was all the confirmation they needed. Everyone was grim in realization of just how much damage this could’ve been. Thousands of mana generators had been sold to humanity, and the damage would’ve been catastrophic. Immediately the orders were sent to identify every box and have them removed quietly without disturbing the populace.

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