I crashed to the ground, my legs and arms caught in the glowing wire. I strained against it, but it held fast.
“Nice shot, Angela!” the swordsman called out again. “Seems like we have a scavenger in here!”
I tried to reach one of the knives tied to my thighs, but the ropes didn’t budge.
“Don’t bother trying to resist; these ropes are an upper tier 4 skill. Without a physical amplification skill, you won’t even be able to wiggle.”
What the hell were they talking about? Skills? Tiers? Did they play a few too many video games?
Three more people entered the clearing. A lithe, tall man in dark-coloured leather armour that seemed to bend the shadows towards him, wearing a cowl pulled over his head and holding a dagger. A dark-haired girl in white robes, wielding a wand. And finally, a shorter blond-haired woman in blue robes, wielding a staff similar to the shaman’s, though more intricate.
The blond-haired woman’s hand was outstretched towards me, and with a flick of her wrist, I was suspended several metres above the ground.
“Really thought you could steal our loot? Who let you in here? How did you sneak past the security?” she demanded angrily, her words pouring out.
“Hold on, Angela,” the swordsman replied. “She can’t answer your questions if you don’t leave any space for her to speak.” He turned towards me.
“Sorry about that. She's had some bad experiences with scavengers.” His eyes narrowed as he stared me in the face. “Now, mind explaining how you got here?”
I tried to calculate the risks in my head–either this was some sort of corporate project that I had run into, and they would silence me no matter what I said, or that portal had brought me somewhere very strange. I decided that there was no harm in speaking the truth, since even if this were a rival corporation to Teltech, I’d have a better chance with them than trying to stay silent.
“I came here through a portal from Teltech, although something went wrong.” I steeled my nerves and tried to project authority; hopefully, if they thought that I was important, I wouldn’t disappear into some corporate interrogation room.
He looked at me, face filled with disappointment. “Really? Teltech? I understand you probably want to keep some secrets, but if you don’t tell us, we’ll have to bring you to the association.”
Whatever this “association” was, I definitely didn’t want to be turned over to them. These four at least seemed to be decent people who didn’t try to kill me instantly, no matter how much one of them was glaring at me. I thought back to my Teltech pack, with the branded surveillance probe and rations.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
“I have some proof in my bag, but I can’t reach it when I'm tied up like this,” I quickly said, “If you let me down for a second, I could show you!”
He seemed to consider it before waving to the tall man whose face was obscured by shadows.
“Use Identify, we have to make sure that she doesn’t have any invisibility or escape skills that she can’t use while tied up.”
The cowled man looked at me before his eyes lit up with a blue glow. I felt a strange sensation, as if my entire body was being examined, cell by cell.
“Seems like she doesn’t have any skills, Eli. I can’t even detect a class. Either she hasn’t specialized yet, or she hasn’t awakened yet.” He said after a short time.
“Alright, we’ll let you down then,” said the newly named Eli, “but we’ll keep your legs tied, so don’t get any ideas about trying to run away.”
He nodded to the mage. She did another flicking motion, and I was lowered to the ground, the rope twisting around my body, wrapping fully around my legs. My arms were now free to move, but I still couldn’t reach my knives.
I reached into my bag and started rummaging around, letting them talk in an attempt to gather some intel on who they were.
“I still think we should just hand her over to the association and be done with it,” states Angela, showing signs of irritation, “We're wasting time! Since that was the last goblin camp, we only have around a day to get back to the exit.”
“It's fine, we’re close to the exit anyway,” Counters Eli. “Besides, what if she was in an abnormal rift event? You know how the association can be when people get sent between rifts.”
“She’s no threat. She lacks any skills to harm us,” adds the cowled man, voice monotone. “Our projected risk does not increase.”
“We should trust Eli! We only managed to reach rank 5 thanks to him!” interjects the final member of the party, the dark-haired girl.
After a short moment of rummaging around inside my bag, I withdrew the Teltech mapping beacon, along with removing the miniature air purifier, revealing the large logos that were present on each of the devices.
“Sooo…you are saying that you are somehow in the employ of Teltech, and came here through a malfunctioning portal?” questioned Eli, “Seems like we will have to bring you to the association, although under different conditions.”
“What is this association you keep talking about?” I questioned.
“Their full name is the Abnormal Rift and Awakened Management Association. Do you have something different where you are from? From your accent, you don’t sound foreign…”
That was a strange name for a corporation. Did they have some sort of sleep technology that became their brand name?
“I don’t remember having any corp by that name or similar. And I'm a Dresidon native, born and raised in the city.”
“Well, we entered this rift from Dresidon, so we should be close to your home when we leave.”
Something was telling me we weren’t talking about the same city. This portal had sent me somewhere rather different, a verdant land without any indications of civilization. It seemed like all my questions would be answered once I travelled through this rift they were talking about. However, before I travelled to this Dreisdon, I had one more thing I had to do.
“Hey, could you untie me real quick? I have a rather important thing I have to do with my mapping beacon. I don’t want to get fired.”
