A Warlock's Ascent

Sanjay's eyes were still wet from crying, he couldn't help but ask "Are you alright Dev?"

"My body feels like shit. But other than that, I feel fine." Dave said slowly.

"Where did they keep both of you last night?" Suzie asked.

"They kept us in a room last night. It had two beds and a small reinforced window." Soo Young replied.

"Same with us," Suzie replied.

It was then Dave raised a pretty good question. "Is it me, or is anyone finding all of this very weird? Like these people were torturing us for some sort of information just a day ago. But then all of sudden they stopped, they fixed me up and now we are all invited by the City Lord. And the gal that invited us is the same ginger that captured us in the first place."

"It is indeed very weird." Suzie chimed in.

For another few minutes, they all shared theories or explanations about what they could expect while meeting with the City Lord. None of them thought that something good would happen to them, listening to all this negativity, everyone started weeping, except for Dave…

When they first started their journey, they saw they were held captive in a very big manor-type building. When they left they started their journey in grasslands which were spread to the horizon. And after a few more minutes, they were finally able to see glimpses of the city in the distance.

Sanjay was the first one to notice that they were approaching a city. Every one of them glued their heads through the small windows, surprisingly they all has just forgotten about the weeping and crying they were doing moments ago.

Dave's body was still aching, so he was not able to see for himself the magnificent walls in the distance. He was just happy as he heard the commentaries of his friends. …

After half an hour's journey, they finally entered the big walls surrounding the city. From a distance, the big walls of the city looked very majestic. Looking at such a majestic structure, they all created a mental image of a magnificent city, hidden behind those ginormous walls. But what they saw inside was beyond their expectations of this place.

The place looked as if it was hit by a hurricane. Most of the houses and buildings were destroyed. People were roaming in the city with bandages and clutches. People were still working on removing the debris left behind, and then there were smudges of black tar-like stuff all around the place.

Looking at the black stuff, Sanjay and Dave instantly recognized it, they had come across it once before. And it was then he started to understand the motive behind their abduction and their torturing.

'It seems like someone had either lured that Dragon of the forest to the city. And it had decimated most parts of the city. And the ginger was looking for the culprits behind the incident when she found them' Dave thought.

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The whole city was in a very terrible shape. Looking at the place reminded Dave of the photos that he once saw of war-stricken places back on earth. There was death and despair everywhere one could see. Children crying while medics were running from here to there, with blood covering most of their uniforms. It was just terrible.

Soon the carriage came to rest at a huge manor in the city, it was very grand and looked very old. The carriage door was opened by one of the guards of the manor. Then all of them were let out. After that few guards escorted them inside the manor…

The guards left them in a huge room. In the center of the room was a big table on which cutlery of all sizes and shapes. The room was filled with antiques and statues which made them feel like they were in a museum of some sort. As they were not supervised every one of them started looking around the room, inspecting the artifacts kept around.

Dave wasn't interested in those artifacts. He was more interested in the big landscape size map that was hung on one of the walls of the room. And this map was nothing like he had ever seen before.

The map itself was very weird. The map was divided into 5 different areas. The interesting part was that the map wasn't divided into 5 parts by imaginary borders, but instead, it was divided by 5 rivers that were spread all across the map.

In the center of the map was a red color island, which seemed like the source of the rivers. That island was marked and named Death Valley. At the north-southern corner of the map was a forest, which was marked as the Roghorth's Domain. At the edge of the Roghorth's Domain was a river, then came the part of the map which had two cities in it namely, Barcelma and Infragillis.

After these two cities came a river, then started the domain of the city of Vecrus. The domain of the city is Vecrus ends by another river and then starts the domain of the city of Cloudhold. Then their domain ends with a river as well and starts the domain of the city of Ravenshade. As soon as the domain of the Ravenshade ends, another river comes into play and then the Roghorth's domain starts once again…

<A.N- If confused check the map in auxiliary volume.>

CLUNK

Dave then turned around to see the door of the room flung open, and with it came a group of maids and butlers. They were all carrying large dishes of food with them, they could identify any of it, but it smelled very appetizing. And it was the smell of the food that reminded all of them of how hungry they were.

He pushed his wheelchair towards the table while the rest of them also joined him by sitting on the chairs around the table. The servants one by one came and started putting dishes on the tables. Sanjay who couldn't stop himself tried to grab something that look like roasted french fries. But as soon as his hand went to the dish, one of the butlers who was standing by the table quickly slapped his hands.

PATT!

"Ouch!" Sanjay exclaimed.

He looked at the butler for an explanation but the butler remained expressionless. Soon all the dishes were laid out, ready to eat. Everyone present at the table had their mouth watering because of how appetizing the smell was. It was then the door of the room was flung open once again and the ginger who invited them walked in.

The woman had a smile on her face when she came.

"Welcome to my humble aboard. I am sorry I was late, you see my duties as a City Lord held me somewhere I was needed. Please start your meal, I know you guys must be feeling very hungry."

On her cue, the butlers and maid that stayed behind in the room started doing their work. They started preparing plates for each of them. They served a little portion of each of the dishes that were present on the table. Ginger also joined them.

Dave was getting suspicious, something was wrong. He can't put a finger on it, but he knew that something wasn't right. The way that lady behaved last night, then the torture and the destruction caused by the city. All of these events were obviously connected. But in this grand equation where do, they lie? He could tell for sure that this woman wasn't being generous because of guilt. She was being generous because she wants something from them. But the question was, what?

As soon as the food was served, except for Dave, every single one of them started moving their hands towards the food. But before anyone could take a bite, Dave stopped them all.

"Stop! Do not eat the food." Dave said in English. Hearing him exclaim everyone stopped at their track, even Soo-Young stopped even though she didn't understand English.

Dave remembers the description of his skill, Common Tongue. According to the skill, this skill enabled them to speak the local language spoken in Midgard. So he insinuated that this meant that no one would be able to understand English in this world except for them.

"Why? Do you suspect something is wrong?" Suzie asked in English.

"Yes. Soo-Young doesn't know English, right? Make sure that she doesn't do anything stupid before my talk is over." Dave said in English to Suzie who was sitting next to Suzie.

"What happen? Is something not right?" Sanjay chimed in broken English.

"Let's find out," Dave said as he turned towards the ginger who had also stopped eating when she heard Dave speak.

By just looking at her expression it was very hard to tell whether she was able to understand anything that Dave just said. But from her reaction, it could be interpreted that she didn't understand what they were talking about…

"Don't worry. The food is not poisoned." Ginger said.

"I didn't stop them because I thought that the food is poisoned. I stopped them because I don't trust you or anything that you give us." Dave said it.

"Well, let me assure you. All of this is just a form of an apology."

"That ain't the truth and you know it. And I am pretty sure about it. You see I recognize that smile that you giving us. I know that smile all too well. Before I came here, I had a mentor who taught me how to cook. The poor old bastard died of cancer. But after he was diagnosed, his children whom he hadn't met in years came running to him. They treated him to expensive meals and always use to smile in his presence just like you are. They did all of this so that the old man would change his will."

"You think I want to kill you have an inheritance?" she sarcastically.

"We don't have anything valuable with us. Yet you are still treating us this well. This could only mean one thing. And that is the fact that you want something from us. And me and my friends are not eating your food until I know what is that you are after." Dave said. Hearing this, ginger could stop smiling.

"Very well then… You see you guys are not the first Earthians that we came across…" she was saying when Sanjay butted in…

"Earthians?" he asked.

"Yeah… I don't know either. Some people from your world coined the term… As I was saying, I am being this generous to you guys because of a certain quality that you guys have. And I could use some people like you."

"Hah! Do you really think we will work for you? You are out of your mind." this time Soo-Young chimed in.

"As I said, I was 'hoping' you guys would work for me. This food is sort of an apology. But I do want that you guys to settle in my city. We will provide you with food, a good house, and some money from time to time so that you could live a comfortable life here."

"What quality is that we possess?" this time Dave asked the question.

"Well, this world is ruled by powerful people. I don't know what kind of world you guys came from, but here strength reigns supreme. And Earthians possess the highest grade of potential that we had ever encountered. In simple words, you guys can level up faster than anyone that was ever born in Midgard. That is why I want you guys to live in my city and work for me."

"And what kind of work you are thinking that we would do?" Dave asked.

"There are many sorts of works that you guys can do. You could go dungeon diving. Or you could work for City guards."

"So you want us to do work where we would constantly risk our lives?" Suzie asked.

"Well, these are the highest-paying jobs out there in this world. When you guys were coming here, you saw the destruction. Do you know what caused it? It was the oldest creature of Midgard. And just like him, there are plenty of other dangerous creatures lurking around every corner of this world. People are needed to protect the cities from those creatures. That is why usually these jobs are so high paying."

"What if we want to leave?" Dave asked. Hearing this, the smile on her face turned into a mocking one.

"You could leave if you want. If you can survive the onslaught of the creatures that are out there then you may be able to make it to other cities. But believe we are the best option that you guys have. There are 5 cities on Midgard that could choose from. Clouldhold and Barcelma are poor cities that only make money by farming. Thus it is not safe. The city of Ravenshade with the cities of Infragillis and Vecrus are the three most secure cities out there. All three have their own dungeons. You could go to Vecrus, but Yureka, the city lord of the city is a very vile woman. I don't think you guys will be happy under her rule. While you could go Infragillis. But it is so far away, that you guys will be killed before you could even take a step inside the city. So the only option that you guys are left with is Ravenshade. We will take very good care of you."

"Can we think about it, before answering you?" Suzie asked.

"Of course, please take all the time you need."

"If it is alright with you, I had a question," Soo-Young asked.

"Ask away."

"When you said that Earthians have terrifying potential, what exactly do you mean by that? I am very new to this leveling thing, so I understand it properly" she asked.

"To put it in perspective, think of it this way. A fellow Migardian would start at level 0 at birth. And then by the age of 30-35, they could reach level 45 to level 50 if they start training since they were kids. But an Earthian named Sonia who came to this world just 5-6 months ago was able to jump from level 5 to level 47 in the span of 5 and a half months. That is how terrifying the potential of Earthians is." Ginger said.

"But we are not fighters. He is a cook, I was a butcher, she was a nurse and that girl right there was a student. We cannot fight." Sanjay added.

"Well, you guys can learn how to fight. From what I have heard, Earthians are very fast learners… Think about it. You want to earn a lot of money, don't you? Make a decision fast, so that you could join the other people from your batch." Ginger added.

"What do you mean by batch?" Dave asked.

"What? Did you guys think that you were the only Earthians that came here yesterday? Well, guess what, you guys weren't alone. We have captured some more people who are fellow Earthians just like you. And their training would start from tomorrow." Ginger added.