Chapter 4: Plunderer 1
"...Plunder?" the succubus had just revealed her plan to steal somethings to the sprite and understandingly it was a bit confused.
Every single creature imprisoned down here had some idea of what was happening up above, as limited as that information was it was more than enough for anyone with a bit more than half a brain to understand that things such stealing in this place would be difficult if not suicidal, which raised the possibility that the sprite was talking to an idiot, a potentially suicidal one.
If a Sovereign were to need more than a single thought to kill a Commoner, especially a sprite and/or a lesser succubus who are not exactly known for being physically strong, then that Sovereign might as well die of shame. From what the sprite heard there were quite a few Sovereigns around which increased the possibility of dying to a stray thought.
"Are you truly prepared to be a slave for the rest of your life?" asked the succubus but seeing that the sprite had no intention of answering decided to change approach.
"You do know what happens to captured sprites, right?" seeing the sprite ignore her she continued to elaborate. "You might become a materials farm, just think of it, you wake up in the morning just for someone, most likely one of your master's servants, to neatly cut out your heart dry it up and then dry it to dust. You'd probably be given a healing potion to make sure you have a heart they can farm tomorrow. And before you deny them healing you up we both know what type of people are upstairs, they wouldn't struggle to produce a veritable amount of high quality Commoner stage potion, which should be more than enough to keep you alive until your life span runs out after a couple of decades if you're lucky."
The succubus was speaking from experience right now, a few sprites have begged her for death in the last few years. Sure she couldn't keep them alive for as long as she would have liked but she still got more than a few litres of blood each from a creature around the size of her palm, a good harvest as long she's concerned.
Looking at the sprite it seems as if her little speech had some effect, debating on whether to let it sink in or drown the poor sprite in what she could do to it if she had the necessary resources, she decided to leave the sprite to its thoughts for a minute or two, which should be enough for the imagination to exaggerate a few things if not make up some impossible scenarios.
Sensing that the sprite had cooked enough she offered a light hope, a little reminiscent of an angler fish.
"My offer still stands, if you steal the Oculux Stone for me we'll work together to steal a key to these damn collars," lightly tapping the collar in question for emphasis, "Then I teleport you out of here. After that, you don't know me and I don't know you."
Thinking about the offer for a while, the sprite eventually decided an almost guaranteed death was probably better than being harvested for decades on end. But there were a few issues that the sprite decided to get clarification on before verbally joining.
"What makes you think I can get the Oculux Stone? I get it I'm small so better for sneaking around but I don't where the stupid thing is, I don't have my magic right now so I can barely fly which means my movement is limited and most importantly," signaling to the back of its neck, "The enslavement seal makes it impossible to act against my master."
The succubus considered this a good sign, it seems like the sprite's help was almost guaranteed now, all she had to do was to answer its questions, "For the first question, you'll track your master not the Oculux Stone, the hosts wouldn't hold on to it unless they want to piss off the guests which means that they are likely to deliver it to your master's room. Since we are most likely dealing with high level Nobles if not Sovereigns, the celebration upstairs is unlikely to pause just because it's the middle of the night but the servants which should be much lower-leveled and careless would be limited."
"As for the second question," she pulled out the blood that had taken the shape of a sphere after the inscription process and looked at bit like a garnet, "This 'item' has a few functions which should help, the first is that it roughly refines mana which, being a sprite, you should be able to use. Secondly it suppresses your aura which should help to go undetected. And thirdly it has a shift spell which should collapse after around three uses."
The sprite looked at the object in question, it smelled of iron but besides that couldn't tell what it is. It obviously had a bit more than a few doubts about the succubus' claims. It was a succubus after all, more than a few man have died shortly after listening to a succubus.
"Why are you trying to escape. The only reason to buy a succubus is to have a sex slave, which isn't something most succubi would complain about, especially considering that's when it's most advantageous for you," the sprite was curious about the succubus' motivations, they're cooperation would hinge on the answer.
The succubus grumbled at that, as lustful as she was she wasn't a hopeless slut.
Taking a deep breath she pointed at her scaled skin, "I'm most likely in the same boat as you, it seems like I'm a rare variant which basically means I'll be experimented on. And, once I get bought I'm going to have an enslavement seal forced on me which would make it impossible for me to rebel."
Looking at the succubus the sprite had to agree, her skin wasn't the normal smooth skin but it had scales of different sizes, from what it could see the scales on her arms were the largest with those on her face being the smallest. She also didn't have the typical ram horns above her ears but she had two short, black horns around 2 cm in length found on her forehead, the horns didn't have grooves like those of a goat but had a fine texture and reflected a bit of light.
Having given the sprite a somewhat believable reason and thereby securing their cooperation, the next problem was leaving this floor. The succubus knew that the guards entered by a magic gate somewhere on the outer wall, all she had to do was find it. Sending out her spiritual energy she looked for any spatial formations which, it seems, there were a lot of. From what she could understand the space around here had been stretched out a bit, there weren't any formations to stabilize it but it wasn't necessary because both prisoners and guards here were weak and the space wasn't stretched by that much.
Eventually finding the formation she carefully examined it. It seemed as if the gate needed a magic crystal to release a specific mana signature in order to activate. Examining the gate once more she found out how to temporarily make it more efficient and need less of the mana signature. She had the sprite scan the leftover mana signature in the formation and had it collect whatever bit had contaminated the immediate area. She then concentrated on the formation in front of her, since she didn't have any materials she could only use her spiritual energy as she had done for the blood crystal. Identifying the all the loci she'd need to consider, that mainly meant making sure that the formation wouldn't out a pulse of mana which would attract all of the guards. But she couldn't do anything to prevent them from noticing the bright magic gate from opening so she had to make sure the gate gets damaged after it closes, the fact that she could break it gave more freedom when it comes to the alterations she could make. After she had improved the sensitivity of the locus that was supposed to detect the mana signature all she had to do was wait for the sprite to be done.
After a while the sprite had collected all it could into a dull, orange mist that was glowing slightly and was concentrating on making sure that it doesn't dissipate.
The succubus wasn't sure what was on the other side, it could be a quiet hall designated for gates or it could be just beside a busy passage, she wasn't exactly conscious when she was brought here after all.
Taking a deep breath she signaled to the sprite to move the mist to the necessary spot, she used her spiritual energy to help out and a short while later the gate opened. The demon grabbed the sprite and jumped through before it could say anything.
Looking around the demon could see that it was in a small room that seemed to be a jail cell if the absence of the doors were ignored. She turned back to the gate which should be closing soon, backing up a bit since she wasn't sure how violent the breakdown would be and how this side would be affected. Feeling the space congeal a bit just before the gate started fizzling out after which the space returned to normal.
With that over with she let go of the sprite in her hand before going to door, peeking slightly she saw no one around. Releasing a sigh of relief she turned to the seemingly pissed of sprite.
Ignoring that, "I need a bit of your blood if you're going to piggyback on the teleport formation."
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