My Isekai Fantasy Is All Wrong!

Chapter 11: Easy Pickings

“What,” I was so surprised that the intonation of my confusion did not come out as a question.

“Like I already mentioned, I’m not exactly feeling my best,” The Griffon said in between bites of a plate of food I had brought out of my Inventory for her, “With this space-time magic, you’ve convinced me you’re the real deal. So,” she licked her lips and smiled in a deceptively human way that just barely failed to trigger an uncanny valley response, “I was thinking of following you and helping.”

“You want to fight?” I took a glance at her and then the Diamond Dog that was still unconscious a couple steps away from us.

She shook her head and swallowed the piece of steak in her mouth before saying, “I really can’t with my body in this state even if I wanted to. Sorry,” she looked genuinely remorseful until she saw me wave her concerns away. I’d observed her Status, so I’d been expecting her to leave this place the first chance she got.

“I’ll help you by talking to the other slaves. If they’re like me and you can’t understand them unless you’re touching them, I can talk on your behalf.”

“Right, right… I hadn’t thought of that,” I admitted.

I’d already told her how I planned to liberate this encampment. But just to reiterate before jumping back into action, I said, “Alright then. I guess, after you’re done eating, we’ll start with the Barracks. That could be either the most or least dangerous part of the operation, so if the plan crumbles at that point, don’t hesitate to run for the exit. I feel pretty good about my chances of either fighting my way through all the Diamond Dogs here or running away if I need to, but not while also simultaneously protecting you.”

When she nodded and turned back to her meal, I made my way across the room and over to the desk that presumably belonged to the torturer I’d knocked out. On top of it and spilling off towards one of the desk's sides was a mound of chained manacles of various sizes. While I’d been looking for the keys to free the Griffon, the manacles were among the first five things I spammed my Observe on.

[Observe]
[Name: Unkempt Pile of Magic Suppressing Manacles]
[Description: Made up of 83 different sets of Magic Suppressing Manacles, all rated for C Grade threats, there are various different size accommodations ranging from XS that were made to capture young foals to XXL that were made to contain even the largest of adult Diamond Dogs. Once these Magic Supresing Manacles are installed, they feed off their target’s magic to fuel its enchantment array and prevent any spellcasting or internal magic manipulation. Any attempt to bypass this effect simply wastes that accumulated magic gathered if it is in small quantities or delivers a powerful shock fueled by the target’s own magic.]

I stored the manacles away in my Inventory as they would be instrumental in limiting the number of lives I took. The plan was to use Subdue on as many Diamond Dogs as I could before resorting to likely life-or-death combat. Every Diamond Dog I knocked out would be restrained by these Manacles, left considerably weakened, and easy enough to contain even for a slave like the unfortunate Griffon. I knew as much because I’d put a set of manacles on the unconscious torturor and watch his Status nosedive to a fourth of most of its original Stats; its Intelligence and Wisdom outright dropped to zero.

When the Griffon finished her meal, I gave her a bottle of water — which she somehow managed to deftly drink out off — before we set off from the Detainment and Torture Room. After reaching the end of the hall that splintered off into the Mine, Barracks, and Exit, I gave the Griffon a look that she nodded back towards before we headed over to the Barracks.

She kept a solid ten-meter gap between us and took as much care as I did to stealthily sneak over to the Barracks. When we managed to reach the door that would lead to the Diamond Dog’s resting area, I took a second to give her another look as if to say, “this is your last chance to bail before the shit hits the fan,” but she just smiled and nodded with a determined resolution.

I reached over to the door handle and slowly turned it before opening up the door ever so slightly to take a peek inside. There were eight Diamond Dogs, lying down on… not beds, but carpets or fur rugs on the floor. My first thought was that this was too good to be true; way too suspicious to not be bait.

So I cast Observe on every single Diamon Dog in the room and was pleasantly surprised to find that all of them shared the same “Sleeping” Debuff. Curiously, their Perception Stats were still pretty high, reaching up to 9 at the highest, which was odd because the torturer's had dropped to zero once I’d knocked him out. Then again, that also made sense because I knew light sleepers could be alarmed or alerted in their sleep, but not if they’ve been rendered unexpectedly comatose.

I made a quick prayer to an unnamed God that I didn’t believe in, mostly out of habit, before I entered the room and cast Subdue on a sleeping Diamond Dog. The Skill made my body move on its own, with preternatural stealth that I didn’t think I could achieve without a lot more manual practice on my own. It positioned me over the Diamond Dog I was targeting and had me drop a forearm right into its windpipe.

[+6 Exp]

Aside from a scarcely perceptible thud to my enhanced Perception of 16.5, my actions made no noise. Thus I continued on to the next target, and the next, and the next, and…

[+6 Exp]
[+6 Exp]
[+8 Exp]
…

In less than two minutes, I took out five Level 6s and three Level 7s, fully clearing out the room without a single misstep. The “Knocked Out” Debuff I left them in would last for half an hour, so took a moment to breathe out a sigh of relief and nearly died of a heart attack when multiple screens flashed in front of my face.

[Skill Level Up!]
[Name: Sneak Lvl 1 → 2 | +20 Exp]
[Description: Makes you blend in perfectly with your surroundings… If it's fully dark out… and you’re wearing the right camouflage… and there’s a heavy fog lowering visibility.]
[Active Cost: Level 1 - 8 Stamina per Second | Level 2 - 20 Stamina per Second]

[Level Up!]
[Full Recovery!]
[+3 Stat Points!]

My panic left me as quickly as it was instilled. Like a jumpscare I’d fallen for, but for a movie that wasn’t all that scary to begin with. It left me disgruntled for a moment before I got over it and went back to business, bringing out several Magic Suppressing Manacles to restrain the unconscious Diamond Dogs.

As I went about placing them, I took note of the physical differences between my targets. Even with them being a totally new and different species to me, I could easily make out the characteristics that differentiated them.

To make a callback to my initial description of the Griffon, these were also certified Rank 4 Furries on the Lando Scale, only instead of trending slightly over 4 like the Griffon did, these guys were slightly lower if only because they were considerably more anthropomorphized. On a closer inspection though, it became obvious that they were literal dogs as their wildly different proportions and coat colors liked them to my favorite pets back on Earth.

The Diamond Dog I was currently restraining was obviously a kind of Pug breed while the one next on the chopping block was shoe-in for a Greyhound. The fact that they might as well have been literal dogs made me feel bad for them… until I remembered that they were intelligent and sentient yet complicit and engaging in slavery.

My nascent compassion for them died a swift and unceremonious death as I quietly finished putting all the subdued Diamond Dogs into a set of Magic Suppressing Manacles. When I was done I left the room and approached the Griffon.

“I didn’t hear any agonizing screams, so I can only guess that everything went off without a hitch?” The Griffon said.

“Yep,” I flashed her a thumbs up and pointedly ignored her macabre comment. “There were eight of them there, so roughly 25% to 30% cleared according to your estimations.”

“You ready to hit up the Mines?” She asked.

“Ready as I’ll ever be, I guess,” I sighed.

We left for the Mines with the same amount of caution as we took to get to the Barracks. It paid off almost immediately when I picked up the barely audible pitter-patter of footsteps approaching from around the bend in the hall. I put up a hand to signal the Griffon to stop and after a couple moments passed for me to confirm that I was hearing footsteps getting closer, grumbled lowly curse before ushering the Griffon back to the Barracks.

“It sounds like there’s just one coming our way. Let’s ambush them in the Barracks right after they open the door,” I said to the Griffon.

When she hesitantly nodded, we picked up our pace slightly and closed the door to the Barracks to lie or trap. It took a couple minutes which felt like hours, but eventually, the target got close enough for me to hear them through the wall. Then, the footsteps stopped and the door began to creak open.

Grr?

I waited precisely for the Diamond Dog to cross into the room and be taken aback with confusion before I used Subdue on it. It managed to just barely make eye contact with me before I twisted its head to the side while cutting off its circulation of blood to the brain; that was the goal, at least; if its biology worked in any way similar to a person’s, anyway.

[+7 Exp]

“Welp, that’s nine down. Twenty-ish more to go,” I lamely said before looking at the Griffon who looked back at me neutrally as I put a set of Manacles on the Diamond Dog.

“Are you like special forces for… whatever it is that you are? That’s twice now, that I’ve seen you bust out crazy ninja moves that are straight out of Neighpon films.”

“Special forces, Ha! That’s hilarious,” Nothing could have prepared me for that kind of question. It cut through all the tension that had been building and made me involuntarily let out a belly laugh. “To answer your question, though, I’m definitely not nor have I ever been part of a military group for Humans or otherwise.”

“Human? Is that what you are? Even without the armor covering your entire body, I doubt I’d be able to recognize what kind of creature you are.” The Griffon tilted her head again as she muttered to herself, “I could have sworn I’d heard something about that term once, but I can’t seem to remember. Guess, it doesn’t really matter right now, huh?”

“Yeah, probably not,” I said as I got up from crouching next to the Diamond Dog after restraining it. “Let’s just get this over with, yeah?”

When she nodded, we left for the Mines and actually managed to make it there on the second try without further incident.