// Chapter 2; Enslaved

MORTAL REALM, BINGYUN PLANE, FIRE PALACE CONTINENT, BLUE MARSH FOREST

YEAR 6723 OF DRACONIC ERA, 8TH MONTH, 20TH DAY

(Disclaimer; we are still in Dante's flashback, I will title these in future chaps for clarity. there is a quite a bit of world building in this chapter.)

As Dante woke up for the first time from his encounter with that strange middle aged-man, he realized that he was in deep shit, because the situation that he was observing around him, was something only found in cultivation novels.

Dante currently was standing in, to be exact, inside of his head.

In some incomphrehensible fashion, he was now in a toddler replica of himself, but in soul-form. He stood on a platform, in what looks like to be in the middle of a dry lake-bed around him. Taking account of his surroundings, with a slight guess, he knew from light novels that this was his soul, and he should be inside of his so-called conciousness or wherever his soul resides.

'Ok, First question we need to solve, is how the hell am I inside of my body right now, and how can I still be operating on the outside world without being in control of my body or actions whatsoever? I can feel myself moving but cannot control anything or hear anything outside of this space.'

'Well considering the situation now, there is a good chance im in deep shit.'

As Dante's mind began operating at full power trying to comphrehend the situation at hand, the first logical thought he had was that, before he attempted to escape from the middle-aged barbarian-cultivator, he remembered the man saying the word 'slave'.

As he feared the worst immediately, anxiousness, fear, and unease took over him until it was unbearable. For what felt like hours he was in a state of fear and panic until it was repressed by some odd feeling that spread throughout his current soul-body. A feeling which he did not experience ever whilst being on Earth or in the new toddler body. After this sensation passed through him, the negative feelings were dispersed as if they were never there and his eyes became resolute and calm once more.

What Dante did not notice during this time, is that in a small corner of this 'lake-bed' it was sprinkled with some unknown golden liquid the same moment his eyes became resolute, before seeping into the ground.

On the elevated stone platform, Dante was thinking.

'There is not enough information here, its feels like all of my senses are repressed. I need to access my current situation'

Closing his eyes, he focused on the feelings that he was getting, he could feel himself walking and moving around places.

'It seems atleast, my body was taken to some form of civilization, hehe, of course from my knowledge all protagonists start out start out in a shit enviroment but, end up getting the cheat skills right? I know that the third time is the charm for all things. The third encounter, this must be the sacred third auspicious encounter and the one to give me a cheat power. I feel it'

As Soul-Dante was now looking around inside of himself, he began to try to inspect the surroundings of his conciousness, he realized that he was actually standing on a raised island type platform in the middle of a small, barren, and dry lake bed.

Finding it quite dark here since there was no sun besides the low-light illuminating him from behind the platform, and he began to become curious to see what was creating it inside of here. But as he turned around to see the source, what he saw made him slide into despair once more.

In the depths of Dante's soul, was a gigantic Imprint of aura, purple aura, creating a dome over a golden ball of light, and then also creating a larger dome over the lake bed as a whole. This purple aura was the same aura of the barbarian-swordsman man who slew brother Divine Stag.

As he stared at the massive ball of purple light he considered his options,

'Well, I'm fucked. It's as good as done now right? What sort of horrible situation is this? Soul branding if my guess is correct, even if it isnt, this is definitely a seal or method to control me. Ugh, how horrible, the fate of this Father, being isekai'd into a trash toddler midget, losing my Sacred Rod, then got slaved up by a physco cultivator in the span of less than a day.'

Soul-Dante spewed out a heavy sigh and tried calming himself,

'In order to have any chance of escape from this, I need information about my body's current situation atleast'

After calming down once more, Dante attempted to manipulate the surroundings on his little platform using his mind, in the novels he read, most cultivators had the ability to enter this area control their soul if it was their own miniature world to some degree, and even scan objects along with people using something called Divine Sense.

'The soul is the human and the world is conciousness. Was the quote I think?'

As he never got tired in this enviroment, he slowly began to feel a tugging sensation over his entire 'body'. This was a new discovery and he was currently trying to form objects inside of his conciousness based on this tuffing sensation sensation.

'Hmm, It seems I am the overlord of my conciousness hehehe, with my thoughts and trying to impose my will upon different this space. It appears I have to convey my intent and will through my thoughts and it will automatically happen using this soul air or whatever it may be...

It seems that everything is the surroundings was this type of 'air' that could be used for manipulation inside of my conciousness, but there is not much of it and it takes a long time to gather'

'On this island I should try to create a command center to try and counter-command myself from whatever that man and this purple aura are making me do. I dont want to risk it and touch any of the purple light as it seems dangerous even from this distance'

Dante quickly decided to create a small desk, and monitor to look and hear the outside world.

Time flowed quickly while he was focused, Dante did not know how long he had been trying to craft the setup in front of him, but over time he witnessed the 'air' congealing into the shape of the object that he wanted. After what felt like years, he saw that he had suceeded in his task.

Relishing in his new creation, in front of him was a glorious command center.

Sat in front of him was a elementary school desk and a montior, on the screen it said two words

'!MUTE!' 'UNMUTE'

The word mute was blinking, meaning it was currently muted.

As Dante went to sit down at his new 'command center', he readied himself quickly to focus up and find out about whats going on.

With nervous fingers, his little hand tapped the unmute button

As soon as he tapped the button, he heard a voice that gave him shivers even in his corporeal form,

'What is the abomination speaking to me outside? Her voice sounds like some grandmother who chain smoked tobacco for fifty-years straight...'

"So little beggar, you have been enslaved by Master for five months now, I was expecting your conciousness to wake back up so we could finally erase it, how odd. Master says it must have something to do with your unique soul, even after extracting information from you he could not find out much besides your interesting knowledge. Who would have known you could create fire without using qi, using natural wood! Common wood! So intriguing, its better for me that you have not woken up net, it means that I can see you more, it makes me so happy, even Lord Diego's slavery magic makes everyone his just for the time you are under my supervision you can be mine...hehehEHEHEH"

Her monologue was cut short by the pain.

Actually, when Dante unmuted himself, he felt more pain than he has ever experienced in his entire life. Yes, pain, real hurting pain. His soul form crumpled and fell from the little chair, and he spazzed out on the ground. He felt as if his entire body was being stabbed with endless blades, for some unknown reason, the sounds of this cigarette lady's voice sounded more like whisperings of the devil, he yearned for death in this state. This feeling continued for what seemed like hours until that same refreshing unknown feeling washed over him once more.

With bloodshot eyes, somehow even in soul-form, he stood up and sat back down in his command center,

'These sick fucks, whatever they have done to me has nearly rendered me a cripple, that torturous pain I just experienced was like my heart was being torn out. This was the second time my will collapsed since arriving here. I must harden myself to even stand against these sick monsters. I had next to no feeling left in my entire body, numb with pain and injury'

What he did not notice however, was when that sensation came over his soul form and cleansed him again, golden liquid was once again sprinkled over his lake bed, albeit in a different corner of the realm.

When Dante took composed himself and took a moment to think about what the Cigarette Woman just said, his heart sunk, unknowningly, to create a single unmute button took 5 months of his time, and that was not the worst part. Slavery Magic. Slavery magic.... these were the key words of this Cigarette Woman and the final confirmation about him being enslaved by these people.

'These sick bastards. They are all absolute scum, Im only 11 years old, What did I even do to deserve this from them? Calm down. Calm Down. Now that our mute button is activated, I have the best chance to gain information without being noticed since they believe my conciousness is still sleeping, until I can escape, its better to lay low and understand every aspect of this world, during this period, my main goals should be

A) Establishing my surroundings, basic intelligence, and common sense of this world, The middle aged barbarian man- Diego, spewed some bullshit about me being a trash, my age, and qi. I need all information similar to that.

B) Create a written log of all actions taken by myself during this time - What commands this so called 'Lord Diego' is sending me. A command log or a diary would work.

C) Inspecting the lake bed and purple aura, To escape a prison you must know the inside of the prison, thank god for all those prison documentaries Sav would make me watch...

Whooooo.... Let us begin.'

As he readied himself to create a diary for himself in here, Cigarette Woman interrupted his concentration.

"My dear precious Beggar, oh how it pains me to see you flayed for experimentation at the medical chambers, I don't know why they use you, My precious little mortal slave for all the most painful procedures.."

As he was listening to the her voice, he also heard noises similar to someone undressing massive clothing and discarding them.....

"Hehe.... It's time for your daily check-up, let Elder Sister come try a small taste of you... Ahnn"

Immediately after hearing the last part of the sentence and feeling his body shuddering from fear and disgust on the outside, he smashed down the mute button so hard it nearly cracked the monitor,

' !MUTE! '

'What is this world even!?!? That was no beauty with the sounds of those clothes she must be 400 pounds! Shes seriously a physcopath! Im only 11 and shes trying to eat me! Wait, I've been out cold for 5 months, SHES BEEN EATING ME?!?!? '

After what seemed like an eternity, Mini-Dante finally composed himself sniffling still, he looked up again. The experience he has had in the last two days for him, has left a deep impression on him about what type of world he was brought into. He has not been able to make a single decision by himself, being cold, scared, and lonely. He pooled all of his knowledge of relevant cultivation novels into his head, and tried to think of the future path he would take in this world, if he was lucky enough to survive.

"This world is where the strong rule over the weak, there is no law, but only law in strength, to decide your fate here you must be strong enough to take it. Even in these last two days, every detail points me in the direction of a dog eat dog world! No matter how hard it is, I must get past this challenge, This world is a cultivation world! I must see it, I wish to see the highest peaks, the most beautiful women, the strongest battles! I yearn for adventure!"

Whilst Dante was yelling inside of his conciousness making odd these odd vows to himself, in the real world, large storm clouds gathered above the area his true-body was located in, the residents of the settlement didn't seem to notice or care, since it often rained in Blue Marsh Forest.

'Unmute'

'The sound of storm and rain could be heard, I guess I'm back in my sleeping quarters after what that beast of a woman did to me.

Well since I wont be assaulted again, lets make the diary during this storm.'

On the right side of his Control Center desk, he used all of his concentration and effort on creating a notebook. All information is good information at this point. Without noticing, Dante fell into a state of concentration, the storm outside kept getting stronger and stronger. Unbeknownst to him, in the corner of his conciousness, golden liquid raindrops were sprinkling all over his dried up 'lake bed'.

In this state, Dante felt some form of 'barrier' blocking his connection to the 'air' around him. He kept trying to pull and tug on the 'air' on the other side to come in. It was like calling his lover to return home after a long time. After some time, the 'air', began to penetrate the barrier blocking their meeting, Dante finally popped that wall.

Immediately after breaking past the mind barrier, Soul-Dante felt as if he had infinite power, and instantly created the notebook along with a pen.

'Mute'

As silence returned once more, Dante inspected himself

'Hehe, this feeling is not so bad, this should be a called a breakthrough right? God this feeling is amazing, its like im the incredible hulk inside of here also the thin purple layer of film surrounding my 'lake bed' disappeared! However, the one that is still on my golden ball is even darker than before? Whatever, atleast I got rid of one of the problems'

However, on outside, things were not so great for others.

During this time, the storm outside was beginning to become chaotic, thunderbolts and lightning crackled, and some settlers got hit and turned into ash, some homes also collasped into rubble. The men who lived at this settlement were getting worried a powerhouse was going through tribulation and wanted to kill everyone with him since he was not powerful enough to overcome it alone.

However while their thoughts were racing, when Dante brokethrough that his mind-barrier, the clouds receded and the storm went away like it was never there in the first place, which struck the people who witnessed it as an act of a powerful person taking care of the problem.

As Dante sat down and inspected his surroundings, he saw that his 'lake-bed' became less cracked, and started to look as if the soil was beginning to turn damp and muddy. Not knowing how that happened, or why. He began to focus on the newly created diary.

Not knowing the date he decided it was best if he just began to write the first entry based on the information he had, but before doing so he wanted to collect all of the information he has learned so far.

'Hmm, Since my so called master, I believe him name was 'Lord Diego', mentioned a few things during my first encounter with him, he said that I was 11 years old, something about having no bloodline or talent, and not a single strand of qi or opened meridians. Meaning its impossible for me to cultivate, or so he says. With the information that Cigarette woman gave me, I can tell im currently around, 11 years 5 months old. Also, about Qi, and bloodline, I have no clue what those are so that will be high on the list of information needed. Cigarette lady told me that I'm im some form of slave camp, or child torture area. Regardless, they all suck and I don't have enough info. Only time can help me now.'

With a long deep breath out, Dante picked up the diary and pen. Pushing his small hand forward once more to unmute his surroundings.

'Unmute'

'Let me check one thing to make sure'

As he picked up the pen and attempted to write a name on the cover of the diary, he realized that it costed him 'air' to write as well.

'Well it seems everything has a cost here, but I can work with anything at this point, let us begin our reconnaissance!'