美国18一19DOCKER

"Very well, I will inform the lead coachman." Alvin said, before leaving to do as he had said.

Ingrid returned to the coach that was to carry her and Aldritch. Everything had been readied now and they were just about to leave.

The entire street outside the slave market was completely covered, filled with several carriages that were of the largest size. If anyone was to see this, they would thing that the royal soldiers were back from a great war and were on a parade.

After counting all the slaves, 50 gold coins was able to get Aldritch not less than 10,000 slaves. In just one night, he alone had emptied all the slave markets within the entire outer wall, buying out all their lower priced slaves and those within that range.

Aldritch himself was quite surprised that they could pull off transportation of such a number from all around under just two hours, but he wasn\'t complaining one bit.

Just like last time, Aldritch had all the slaves hypnotized so they wouldn\'t try to escape later on. This time, instead of using his eyes as normal, he found a better way that was more suited for a crowd, which was hypnosis through sound.

The major reason why he had been using his eyes was well, because he had no idea he could also use other means, and that was chiefly due to the specifications for using \'minor compulsion\', which required eye contact. Because of this, he grew accustomed to using his eyes, as he always used both skills simultaneously, but this time, he could bypass that.

Also serving as a form of training for Ingrid, she was tasked with conducting a kind of pre hypnotism through \'minor compulsion\'. Even though she didn\'t know she could do such a thing, she turned out to be a quick learner and had soon gotten the hang of using the skill.

Aldritch requested for a hall that could fit as many people as possible, and it just so happened that the slave market had such a place that could hold around 200 people if they squeezed themselves in a little.

After making sure that they were left alone, Aldritch practiced using his voice, which was easier than he had thought initially. Instead of having to induce a hypnotic state first by eye contact before giving the command, Aldritch utilized the age old hypnotic trick to make things work.

Using a simple word, "sleep", he was able to put everyone who heard his voice in a trance, and the rest of the process would happen from there on. Once he was done, he could just have them awake and then they leave.

Once all that had been done, that was when the slaves were all packaged into different carriages to be taken to the middle of nowhere.

Inside the carriage Aldritch was on, the man from before was also inside, though, unlike Ingrid who was sitting opposite Aldritch, he was lying face up on the ground with his back on the floor.

After the incident from before, Aldritch requested for him to be put into restrictive shackles again, though, he wasn\'t putting much faith in its effectiveness. (A/N: the shackles don\'t have any chains, just the parts that go around his neck, wrists, and ankles)

After the shackles were put on him, Aldritch didn\'t take off any restriction even after the man woke up, shortly before they were to move out. Being unable to move, he was carried into the carriage where and Aldritch and Ingrid would be on board, as per his request.

The carriage soon rolled off, headed towards the destination as specified.

Aldritch wished to talk to him obviously, after all, he had him logged into the same carriage. Following the same process as before, he lifted the restriction stopping him from talking, returning free speech to the man.

"What is a vampire, doing in a lower world?" The man asked. He was laid on the carriage floor looking at its ceiling because he couldn\'t shift his eyes downwards enough to look at Aldritch whom he was talking to.

"You are calmer now, that\'s a better start. First off, why don\'t with names?" Aldritch said.

Since he had already stated his back in the VIP room when introducing himself, there was no need to do so a second time.

The man stayed silent for some prolonged seconds before finally speaking, "my name is Lodestar Gragnor of the proud family of The Dragons\' Blest."

\'Is that a thing amongst these guys from the other side?\' Aldritch thought to himself.

"Seeing as you\'re a vampire, I now understand why you would know of warworld, but then, what is a vampire doing here in a lower world? You monsters haven\'t come to conquer this world, have you?" the man\'s voice was filled with skepticism, and Aldritch could feel it.

Well, if there was one thing Aldritch got from what he just said, it was that he wasn\'t the only vampire around, at least not in other worlds that is.

"You are mistaken, I am not from your world. Also, you keep referring to this world as a lower world…"

"It is because it is." The man responded.

"How so?"

It took a few seconds for him to answer, but when he did, Aldritch didn\'t get a definitive answer, since the man couldn\'t explain how exactly it was. The important thing was that this was indeed a lower world, and in fact, there were several such worlds, though, not a lot had living beings of such intelligence or even life in general.

"-this world was apparently discovered a while back, and many mages have been trying to open a steady portal that connected both worlds, since this was the first world that had been discovered that also had humans in it. Normally, it shouldn\'t be so difficult, after all, this isn\'t the first time, but for whatever reason, a stable portal cannot be maintained.

Well, the mages have their ideas and hypothesis on how that is possible for humans to exist on a lower world, but I wouldn\'t know much about that, so I can\'t tell you a lot in that aspect." Lodestar explained.

"If you truly aren\'t from our world, then how do you know of warworld?" he asked, still curious.

Aldritch paused for a bit, pondering on how to answer the question. He then casted a glance at Lodestar who was trying to look at Aldritch by rolling down his eyes, though, he couldn\'t quite do it.

"I learnt of it from a god…"

"A GOD??"

"…originally, I thought this was the warworld, but I quickly found out that it wasn\'t. Your world doesn\'t appear to be it either." Aldritch said. He chose not to hide the influence of a god in his knowledge of warworld, but then he didn\'t make it clear what exactly his relationship was with the god, so it was good.

"Wait wait wait, hold on a second, did you just say a god? The only time gods contact those from the mortal world like that is when they pick an envoy… but to select someone from a lower world… I see… but no, this isn\'t warworld, and you\'re right, my world isn\'t either.

You see, the WarWorld is said to be a secluded dimension, even for the gods, an ancient test ground, that is the place where those qualified to advance to the next stage seek. From what I\'ve heard, those who make it to warworld undergo a single test, to survive and stand as the last ones alive. Those who pass this test are then qualified to ascend the boundaries of mortality into godhood.

If you have been selected by a god, then your chances of making it to warworld and even through are quite high, at least, your advantage could be said to be 10 times that of a normal person."

"I never said I was blessed or selected by any god... You seem to be quite knowledgeable about this topic." At this point, Aldritch had come to the conclusion that this was common knowledge in Lodestar\'s world, since he was sure that anyone could advance in strength, and main for those heights. Then again, there was a possibility of that not being the case.

"Well, I am also a candidate chosen to enter Warworld, you see." Lodestar said in a serious tone.

"Ohh?" Aldritch glanced at him. If everyone in warworld had to try and kill themselves, then wasn\'t knowing those who were also going to enter there an advantage? So you could kill them earlier before they became trouble?

"As you may have figured out, the information about warworld is not something everyone knows. Well, almost everyone knows, but all they know is that it is a place where you go to ascend to godhood, the other details are only obtained naturally as one\'s strength raises and they meet more informed people." He explained.

Even though Lodestar couldn\'t see Aldritch\'s face, he could tell he was being stared at, and not in a good manner.

"You can relax, I am not your enemy in the competition of warworld, that is as long as I can\'t find the solution to my problem. It may sound simple to just get stronger and enter warworld, but strength doesn\'t come that easily… trust me." Lodestar said in a somber voice.

Aldritch could tell that his words came from a place of hurt, or someplace similar.

Thinking about what Lodestar just said, Aldritch could relate, \'I wonder just how much blood I would need later on when increasing my stats start becoming even more difficult?\' he wondered to himself. Certainly, the path ahead was not in any shape or form an easy one.