A Warlock's Ascent

SPLASH!!!

Sanjay abruptly woke up in a dimly lit room, the cold water had waked him up thoroughly. His head felt very heavy. He could feel his legs and arms being restrained, he looked forward and saw an old man standing in front of him with an empty bucket.

The old man was wearing a sliver color knight's armor, he had a long beard and a bald head. That old man was glaring at him, eyeing him up and down, scanning him like a predator. Before he could make sense of what was happening, he heard a whimpering sound from his behind. He slightly turned his head around and saw Suzie and Soo-Young sitting behind him, restrained in the same manner as him.

"Now now as all of you are awake now, let's start the demonstration shall we?" the old man said and then he moved towards the side. It was then the brick wall behind the old man changed into transparent glass. Behind the glass, they saw Dave being restrained in the same way as them. And two soldiers were accompanying him…

***

KA-POW!

Dave woke up when someone punched him in the face. He abruptly opened his eyes, his left cheek was stinging and he was sitting in a chair in a small lightly lit room.

"Wakey wakey princess." Came a gruff voice. It was then he saw two men also present in the room.

These men were wearing weird armor same as the knights used to wear in ancient times. Both of them weren't wearing their helmets and had their face exposed. These men were middle-aged men and looked like crooks that one could find in the back alleyways…

"Bron look at this… Princess is awake." One of the men said while staring down at Dave.

"Let me see" one the man named Bron said as he came in front of Dave. He then grabbed his chin and made him look up.

"Little princess looks ugly. I think she needs a little touch-up." Bron said. And he made a fist and punched him straight in his jaws.

KA-POW!

The punch broke four front teeth of Dave, the blow of the punch pushed the chair to fall back, with him. The soldiers acted quickly. They picked the chair up not giving any time to him to recover.

Then one of them went behind the back and held the chair with his hands so that it could not fall back again. Then the other soldier started punching and beating the shit out of Dave…

"Sto!!! ..... NO!!" Dave screamed for mercy, but the soldiers didn't stop.

***

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"STOP! YOU WILL KILL HIM! STOP IT!" Sanjay yelled.

"Don't worry. This is just the beginning. He won't be alone, every single one of you will go through this. Think of it like a coming-of-age ceremony." The old man said nonchalantly.

"WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM US?" Suzie yelled while crying and terrified of what she was witnessing.

"I want you guys to feel the pain." The old man replied.

"WHY? WHAT DID WE EVER DO TO YOU?" Soo-Young yelled.

"That is right, you never did anything to me. You are right." The old man said. Then he went to the glass wall and knocked on it two times. This signaled the soldiers to stop beating Dave. He then turned towards the three…

"Now listen carefully. I will ask you some questions. If your answer doesn't satisfy me, then I will resume beating that guy. Not only that, but one of you guys will also join him… Also, ladies, you should know those two guys are well-known perverts in our division…" the old man said with a sly smile. "Now question number one-1, were you in any way involved in the attack on Ravenshade."

"I don't know what is Ravenshade," Sanjay replied.

"Wrong answer." The old man said. He then knocked once on the glass wall, and the soldiers started beating Dave again. This time his screams and yells became louder signaling that the soldiers may have increased their beating intensity. The trio could hear his screams, crying, and begging, but the soldiers didn't bat an eye at his cries.

"Please I beg you stop… We don't know what Ravenshade is. PLEASE JUST STOP THEM!" Sanjay yelled.

"Yeah, we don't know anything. We were bla blah blab lblo blo bla blod bla bla and then found ourselves there. Believe us, sir, we are good people…" Soo-young said while crying.

"Look at this bitch's audacity. Boys, take her and give her the taste of some of your medicine." The old man barked and soon, two soldiers came in. Then they started dragging her.

"AAHH!!" Soo-Young started panicking and screaming.

"NO STOP! You son of a bitch! STOP!" Sanjay yelled. With him, Suzie also started yelling.

The soldiers didn't listen to them nor did the old man. And when everything was lost, the door of the room was flung open once again and a woman hurridly barged inside. The woman in question was quite young and had red hair. The trio of Sanjay, Soo-Young, and Suzie recognized the young woman immediately as she was the one who ambushed them in the forest. That woman was the one because of which they are stuck in this place.

"Stop." The woman said and hearing her command the soldiers stopped.

"What is it Carlin?" the old man asked.

"Stop that!" Carlin said while pointing towards Dave whose fingers were about to be cut. The old man then knocked on the glass panel and made the soldiers stop what they were doing.

Carlin then walked up to Soo-Young and knelt. She smiled at her and wiped her tears. She then politely and softly asked her.

"What were you guys doing in the forest?"

"We… we were kidnapped. And then we woke up in the forest." Soo-Young replied while whimpering.

"Where were you kidnapped from?" Carlin asked.

"I was at bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla. And then we were here." Soo-Young said. But the old man was pissed as Soo-Young behaved like this in front of Carlin. So he stepped forward and…

SMACK!!!

"Insolent woman!" the old man barked.

"No, this is not her fault. She is an Earthian." Carlin said.

"She is? Nah! I don't believe it. She is just acting." The old man said.

"No, she isn't. I don't know a lot about them, but I have heard that they are not allowed to speak the knowledge about their world because some sort of ancient magic is cast on them." Carlin said.

"How do we know that these guys are not acting?" Brock asked.

"Look at them. These guys are very weak. And I don't think that this kind of job could be pulled off by people of their caliber."

"So what should we do now?"

"Well, let's just patch them and keep them up locked for now for observation. I need some time to think what our next step should be…"

"Alright…" the old man said.

***

AAH!!!!

Sonia yelled a loud battle cry. She raised her great sword and started running towards the Croc-man standing in front of her. The croc-man was injured by her team and it was now time to annihilate the creature. It only took a swing from her sword and the head of the creature flew away.

Sonia looked at the body of the strange creature lying in front of her. This creature had red blood like hers, but they were pretty different. The creature when alive stood on two legs and had a body structure just like that of a human. But this creature was nowhere smart and resourceful like a human.

The creature had a green color scaly skin and a face of a crocodile. Like many of the strange creatures found in the dungeons of the great city, this creature was valued for its body parts. So before the body of the creature vanished and turn into ash, Sonia bend down towards the croc-man and started dissecting his body.

She took outs the creature's skin, liver, head, and nails. Her work was amateurish when compared to the dissecting skill of the people of this world, but she can't complain. After all, it had been only six months since she came to this world…

Sometimes Sonia still couldn't believe that all of this was real. She used to be a waitress at a small restaurant back in Moscow. She didn't earn much and had planned on moving to America in a few months. She had contacted a guy that could sneak her into America and would also help in getting fresh new identification for her. All she needs to do is prepare $20,000 as his payment and she would successfully enter the land of dreams.

But alas she was never able to realize her dream. In a quest of getting another job, she came across a job that wanted her to pursue god's work. She thought that she would be doing some charity work for a church or something. But instead, she got kidnapped and now she is stuck in this world…

"Все сделано?" came a voice from behind. Sonia turned back and smiled at Igor, he was a fellow Russian that was sent to this world.

"Yes, I am all done. And try to speak Common Tongue Igor. I don't like when people weirdly look at us because we are speaking another language." She said while standing up.

"Bull shit! We should be proud of our heritage." Igor said.

"I am not talking about forgetting our heritage. It is just that we are not in Russia anymore. Hell, we are not even on Earth. And people here are racist as fuck. So it would be better if we just lay low."

"Well, we shouldn't be afraid of these mongrels."

"Yeah, we shouldn't be…" Sonia mumbled and then she came back to her party.

After hunting some more Croc-man, Sonia and her party came out of the Dungeon. She and Igor usually form a temporary party with other adventures when diving in the dungeon.

Due to the strange language that they speak, the people of this world don't like them too much. That is why they had to operate through temporary parties. Operating like that is not very beneficial for them as temporary parties are usually made up of either rookies or dead-weight adventurers. But there is nothing else that they could do as the racism of this world doesn't let them operate freely…

***

"You know I could kill for some alcohol," Igor said while staring at the greenish liquid that he had his cup filled with.

"If you don't like it, then why do you drink it?" Sonia asked while taking a bite of the meatloaf in front of her.

Currently, they both were in a lowly tavern and were having dinner. The tavern was packed with adventures who had just earned their daily wage. Some of the people were celebrating a good hunt while some were in remorse for a comrade that they had lost. But overall the atmosphere of the tavern was still very lively.

"I don't drink because I like it. I drink because I need it. There is a difference." Igor said while emptying the cup fully in one breath.

"Don't drink too much…" she said while ignoring Igor's ranting.

But it was then she heard a scream. Normally a scream would go unnoticed in a noisy tavern like this one. But for some reason, this scream gathered the attention of all of the people of the tavern. And soon a pin-drop silence ensued in the whole tavern.

It was then with heavy steps some soldiers walked into the tavern, fully armed and with serious looks on their faces. Normally soldiers don't come to taverns where adventures share meed and bread, but this day was something different. The soldier leading the band of comrades came forward and glared at people.

"I am looking for Sonia and Igor. Who amongst you know where I could find them?" the soldiers asked.

Hearing his remark every single one of the adventurers in the tavern suddenly twisted their necks and started looking at the couple...