Chapter 28

  The following morning, Theo took care of his business and got ready for the day. He went downstairs and saw the lizard kin bartender attending the bar. Walking up to him and sitting at the bar, Theo ordered a meal. When he was done eating, he asked if the bartender knew where Lucy’s group was. After receiving directions, Theo headed towards the wall on the north side of the town. Theo saw a four-story-tall building that looked like a warehouse, with many people around it and guards at the entrance of the building. Theo walked up to one of the guards.

  The man asked, “How can I help you today?”

  “I heard that your group is going to go after the people who have been enthralled, and I’m here to help,” Theo replied.

  “How... what is your class and profession?” the man asked.

  “Healer and Warden,” Theo replied.

  Once Theo replied with "Warden," everyone in the immediate surroundings slowed down or stopped what they were doing to listen in.

  “Based on what the system helpers said and the information we have found in the library, they say that your profession is one of the only ones that can help these people. But on how, that hasn’t been clear. Do you care to elaborate?” the man said.

  “No, I’m pretty sure your name is not Lucy, and I’ll just be repeating what I say to her. I’d rather not explain myself twice, so how about we set up a meeting or something with her?” Theo said.

  The man grumbled something underneath his breath and then said, “Fine, wait here. I’ll let her know that someone with a Warden profession has arrived.”

  After a while, a young, pretty woman came and guided him up to the fourth floor and into a spacious conference room. There was a table, and sitting at the head was a woman in her mid-30s, with brown hair and green eyes, wearing leather armor. Around and on either side of the table were men and women also in leather armor, full plate, and robes. Theo was directed to sit at the other end of the table.

  "My name is Lucy; what is yours?" the woman at the other end of the table said.

  "My name is Theo," Theo said.

  "So I've been told that you have the Warden profession, and by everyone's account, and also what we could find in the library, you can help the people who have been mind-controlled by Tim. But the question that no one can answer is how. Would you care to elaborate since you have the Warden profession, apparently?" Lucy said.

  "I think this goes with all professions, but one of the skills that I acquired was Warden’s knowledge. I gained a basic understanding of the various prison types in the multiverse. What's relevant to our situation is that these prisons are similar to those in America, operating for profit. What I mean by that is mana and karma can be extracted from the prisoners and be sold for profit. Supernatural prisons are built to contain people’s power, and the easiest way to do that is to drain them of their power. For mortals, we collect mana to strengthen our bodies through the help of the system or other means, and the prison siphons that, making a person mortal again. But what is important to our situation is how a supernatural prison drains a God. Gods rely on karma, and karma connections to gain power. When you’re at a certain rank, a name or the actions you do affect the space and reality around you, and some prisons are designed to siphon that karma that is collected through faith and other means to weaken the Gods. So what this means for mortals is that a supernatural prison can take away the karma that was accumulated over the time that a person was under mind control, thus breaking the mind control and freeing them of it,” Theo said.

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  “That’s all well and good and all, but how are we able to do it? We’re stuck in the tutorial, after all,” Lucy said.

  Theo smiled. “All wardens are given the knowledge of creating a ritual to send people to a supernatural prison—think Tartarus. Since we’re sending them there, we dictate the contract that the prison will abide by. So, for example, we can set it that..." they’re there to be healed, the negative karma that was collected underneath the mind control taken out of them, and the prisons can keep the karma as payment for their stay. The person, after they’re healed, is sent back to Earth when the tutorial is over, or to another planet if they don’t want to fight anymore. The supernatural prison is willing to abide by those terms, will take them.”

  “That would be acceptable, but of course, show us your system screen to prove that you are a Warden, as you say you are,” Lucy said.

  Theo read about this the other day that you can pull up system messages or your system screen and share it. Since he has no desire to show his full stat sheet, he thought of sending them an old system message of the description of the Warden class, and also the old description of Warden’s knowledge, not his new one.

  Warden: The profession of a warden acknowledges the fact that you are the warden of a mortal prison or a supernatural one. The stat points per level are 1 intelligence, 1 willpower, 1 wisdom, and 2 free stat points.

  Wardens’ Knowledge: This grants the warden from a newly integrated universe the knowledge of how mortal and supernatural prisons operate and how to manage one in the multiverse.

  “Will this suffice to prove that I do have the qualifications that I am claiming?” Theo said with a smirk.

  “It does, but I have another question for you. I haven’t seen you around the city before, and no one seems to recognize you. Are you from another city in the tutorial?” Lucy asked.

  “No, I just got here a couple of days ago. Originally, I was in a solo tutorial,” Theo replied.

  Lucy perked up and asked, “That’s interesting. What type of goodies did you get from there, and how was it?”

  “Miss Lucy, I am willing to work with you when it comes to the mind control issue because I believe no one deserves that. But with anything else, you’re not the four F’s, so I have no reason to answer you on those questions,” Theo replied.

  She frowned, and Theo could see apparent confusion on her face.

  “What are the four F’s?” Lucy asked.

  “We’re not friends, family, and you’re not financing or fucking me. I have no reason to answer you,” he replied.

  Several men, along with some of the women, began to laugh at the expression on Lucy’s face.

  “Well, Mr. Theo, a simple no could have sufficed,” Lucy said in a clipped tone,

  suppressing a smile. Theo asked, “When will we capture the rest of Tim’s victims?”

  “In four more days. The logistics of communicating and coordinating multiple groups from five different cities with no cell phones is hard,” Lucy said.

  “Fair enough. Should I meet back here in four days?” Theo asked.

  “No, come here on the third day. We will be heading out to a staging point close to Tim’s old town, and on the fourth day, we will mop up this mess,” Lucy said.

  “I do have one request,” Theo asked.

  “Oh, and what would that be?” Lucy said with a raised eyebrow.

  “Could you ask all the other cities to bring the victims that were spies in their cities to the staging point so I don’t have to go to each city to do the ritual?” Theo asked.

  “That is a good point. I will bring it up. Do you have any other concerns?” Lucy said.

  “Nope, I will take my leave and come back here in three days,” Theo said.

  With that, Theo got up with a wave, exited the room, and headed down the stairs out of the building. And with that business done, Theo went back to training with Ty. He thought about his experience of going to the city that was controlled by Tim and not wanting to deal with more complications. After he was done sparring, Theo went and bought a new short sword and armor because his cane sword was too flashy and attention-grabbing, and Tim remarked that his armor was a cut above the rest. So, the same thing, Theo didn’t want to deal with thieves. Theo spent the next two days training with Ty and also getting his ass beaten in the so-called spars.