DMS Chapter 2

  One of the men who was fully clothed, wearing some camouflage uniform, looking like a soldier, tried to run outside the circle, and everyone was surprised when the man bumped back. It was as if he bumped into some sort of force field. This added to Flinx's theory that they might have been transmigrated. He supposed that they could just have been transported to some other location on Earth, and the things that he was seeing were the result of some advanced technology, but he did not want to form assumptions, even though he was already doing so because of his desire for some magic in his life.

  The soldier stood up and was brave enough to feel the force field that caged them inside the circle. Based on the man’s reaction, Flinx thought that the forcefield didn’t have any negative effect and was merely blocking them from going outside the circle that was drawn on the ground.

  Most of the group’s reaction was a bit extreme in Flinx’s opinion when they saw some sort of magical or otherwise force blocking them from leaving. Some became more hysterical, and some even lay down on the ground, clutching their hair. He rolled his eyes at them and kept on observing the surrounding area.

  Most of the people in his group were in the same age bracket as he was based on their appearance. Mostly around the early twenties to late twenties. The races were diverse since he saw that there were Asians, Blacks, Whites, and even an honest-to-goodness Native American wearing a full-blown Native American costume.

  When the Native American saw Flinx’s stare, the man who was impressively calm simply said to him, “I was at a costume party,”. That comment made him laugh, which alleviated some of the stress that he was feeling because, to be honest, even though he was a fan of the isekai genre, the fact that all of them were caged in some sort of magic circle didn’t bode well for any of them.

  There was a time when Flinx felt a little frustrated about his name, especially when he was very young, but when he entered middle school, he became a bit proud of it. It was unique but not weird enough that people would find it off-putting. He felt that his name was charming and began to like it, especially when he could use it as a topic of conversation and an icebreaker in a group conversation.

  The group of men and women near him consisted of people with mixed emotions. Some were calm, like the man in the Native American costume, and some were wailing and crying, which he found annoying. One of the women who was totally nude kept on screaming so loudly that the other groups began looking at them. Some of the other women tried to console her, but she wasn’t responding, and Flinx thought that maybe there was really something mentally wrong with the woman.

  Flinx wondered how long they would wait for something to happen. He was about to open a conversation with some people there out of slight boredom and curiosity when a man floating on top of them suddenly appeared.

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  The man was handsome with dark hair like his and blue eyes like his as well. Flinx thought that one could even think that the floating man was his cousin. The handsome wizard wannabe was wearing the stereotypical wizard's robe, but it was black, which made him look like some sort of evil-worshipping cultist one would see in movies and games.

  The drawn circle that was caging Flinx’s group of ten people disappeared, or rather, it enlarged to encircle three groups numbering 30 people. When Flinx looked around, it seemed like there were other floating wizards, and they too seemed to be in charge of up to 30 people.

  The look on the floating man’s face was something Flinx didn’t want to see in a person who might be in charge of him. It was a combination of disgust, glee, and expectation one would typically see in a bully who was tormenting his nerd. The floating wizard waved his hand, and Flinx suddenly felt a collar on his neck.

  The appearance of the collar on his neck filled Flinx with dread since it was a sign of them being treated as prisoners or worse, as slaves.

  The floating man started speaking, but suddenly stopped because the woman who kept on screaming got louder, probably when she felt the collar encircling her neck. The screaming got so loud that Flinx had an urge to put his hands on his ears.

  Flinx knew that something bad would probably happen to the woman since the wizard, or whatever he may be, didn’t look like someone who would tolerate the screaming, and he was right.

  The floating man waved his hand again, and the screaming woman’s head exploded. Everyone in their group gasped when they saw the brutal ending of the woman, and maybe because everyone suddenly thought that it was crucial for their survival, nobody uttered a word, and even those who looked like they wanted to faint took hold of themselves and kept themselves from moving.

  “Much better. As you’ve seen, I’m now in charge of your lives. I can kill all of you with a wave of my hand, so don’t test my patience. All of you are now slaves, and I’m in charge of you. First off, you are not in your world. All of you have been “transmigrated,” which was a word that was used by one of you when we investigated your people. According to the person whom we tortured for more information, it’s a concept familiar to those who have consumed a lot of novels and shows. If you’re not familiar with it, ask your fellow slaves since I don’t have the patience to explain it,” The man said while looking at all of them.

  The man paused briefly, then continued explaining their situation.

  “Each one of you will be assigned a particular floor in a dungeon to mine mana stones. Mining mana stones meant killing the creatures on that dungeon floor and taking the mana stones from their bodies. Once you’re assigned to a floor, you can never leave, or else your collar will cut off your head. You will have a quota of mana stones per day, and if you fail to meet your quota five times in a row, you’re dead.” He paused again, possibly for dramatic effect, which he hardly needed since Flinx thought that all of them who were wearing collars were already terrified, then the man continued.

  “All you from your planet will have the so-called “transmigration gift,” which is a system, and it’s a very powerful one, but your collar will lock your system, and you will only have access to 3 cantrip spells. All of you will be level 1 of the class or profession that your system would indicate, but again, your “experience points” will be locked, and you will not “level up”. You will be grouped with veteran slaves, and that means 3 new ones will be grouped with a veteran slave. Regarding your so-called gifts, the old slaves will explain them more to you.”

  The man paused again, then he waved his hands, and the circle caging them disappeared. The man asked all of them to follow him, so they did when the wizard floated somewhere.