Chapter 25: Desperate Measures
After some unknown time passed.
Josh slowly opened his eyes. His left jaw hurt like a bitch and he was sitting on the floor.
'Where am I?'
He noticed that he was somewhere like a basement and the light was on. There was a steel chair near the door and nothing else.
His memory was still a little fuzzy.
When he looked at his sides, he saw Sarah and Rick who were unconscious.
He noticed they were wearing nothing but their underwear. But most importantly, just like them, his hand and feet were tied, his mouth covered with duct tape, and the four of them were tied together -- he finally noticed that Erica was behind him.
That's when he finally remembered everything.
Panicked, he checked his surrounding to see if their captor, Nathan, was around.
Seeing that their captor wasn't around, he decided to wiggle around and make muffled sounds to wake up his companions.
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After 10 minutes, the first to wake up was Rick. Just like Josh, it also took him a couple of seconds before remembering what happened.
After that, they both tried to wake up Sarah and Erica.
Another 10 minutes passed, all four subjects were awake. There were now trying to break free.
At first, they tried using brute strength but that didn't work.
After that, Sarah decided to user her [Fireball] skill.
But before doing so, she tried to tell them. Despite their mouth covered with duct tape, they could still make muffled sounds. However, it took her about 20 minutes before all of her companions understood was she was going to do.
Don't all four of them have magic spells? Unfortunately, only two of them have magic spells: Sarah who has [Fireball] and Rick who has [Sword Stab].
The reason why Erica and Josh don't have any magic spells is because they were saving their skill points for a useful skill to make themselves a well-balanced team that could adapt to any situation -- Sarah as the mage, Rick as the vanguard, Erica as the healer or support, and Josh, well, it was still undecided but he wanted to be a hitter.
They also considered the possibility that they may not be able to reset their skills. If they just randomly learn magic spells and found out later that they couldn't reset their skills, wouldn't they be in a disadvantage when they reach higher levels?
But thinking about their current situation, they started to wonder if it was worth saving their skills points.
The four of them stood up, their backs against each other.
Sarah invoked [Fireball] and aimed it to the floor at the center.
The [Fireball] exploded when it hit the floor.
Boom!
Its explosion was like a firecracker, making it sound weak. But the true power of the [Fireball] lies with its burning effect which spreads and lasts about 2 seconds.
The flames of the [Fireball] spread and attached to all four of them. In Josh, Rick and Erica's case, it burned the lower half of their body up to the chest. The ropes were burned as well.
'"Ahh!" The three screamed in agony as they were burned alive.
Only Sarah stood there unharmed.
Sarah stood there with a horrified expression as she looked at her companions lying on the floor motionlessly. They looked like they were barbecued starting from their feet up to their chest area.
She checked her body. The only thing that was burned away on her were the ropes.
She realized two things: One, attack type magic spells of the System doesn't hurt the caster. Two, she clearly underestimated that power of her [Fireball] spell.
Her hands were trembling as she slowly removed the duct tape plastered on her mouth.
She looked again at the three burnt bodies in front of her.
"Josh? Babe? Can you hear me?" she called out her boyfriend.
There was no answer.
She then called out to the other two.
"Erica? Rick? Can you guys hear me?" her voice was quivering.
When no answer came from them as well, she dropped down to her knees and wrapped her arms around her chest.
"I'm sorry... I didn't know... I didn't mean to do it... I... I..." she said as tears started flowing from her eyes.
It was then the door of the basement opened and a male voice asked, "What the hell happened in here?"
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Nathan was dumbfounded by the sight before him.
There were three burnt bodies lying on the floor motionlessly and Sarah on her knees mumbling to herself like a crazy person.
'Fucking hell! Seriously?! I just left you guys for a couple of minutes and you guys are already here killing yourselves? Even if you guys have a death wish, at least wait till the experiment is done. Do you guys know how hard I tried to look for the keys to the holding cells and rush back to this place as fast as I could? Try putting yourselves in my shoes. Geez!'
He was already in a bad mood that it took him more than 30 minutes to find the keys. He found them outside of the police station building a few meters away from the entrance. It was a miracle that he even found them.
He closed his eyes as he massaged his forehead.
Although he knew these test subjects had magic spells which is why he knocked them out before leaving, he wasn't expecting them to be this suicidal.
'Note to self: If the test subject has magic spells, be sure to cut off their arms if you plan to keep them alive for a long time.'
He activated [Coward's Way], got behind Sarah and hit the back of her head with the pommel of his [Grade D] Scimitar, knocking her out.
'Hmm... I think I'm gonna need chloroform as well. If I keep knocking my test subjects like this, who knows what damages I could cause to their brain. I need healthy subjects.'
But he was going to cut off their arms? What?
He duct taped her mouth and handcuffed her wrists and ankles.
But before leaving, he stabbed the three burnt bodies on the head just in case. He didn't want any potential revenge plot stories.
The three didn't give him any exp.
'Interesting,' he thought.
But what he found more interesting was that these three were his first human kills and he didn't feel anything.
Perhaps because in his mind what he did was euthanasia?
<Author's thoughts: So this is the 3rd chapter for May 19 - 25, 2019. I will be releasing the chapters for May 26 - June 1 within this week. I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter.>
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