Hugo doesn't scream in pain. He doesn't act surprised. He simply jumps away and tries to stop the bleeding with his remaining hand. He then asks:
"Who sent you? What do you want?"
I put my sword back in its bead before grabbing the severed arm off the ground. I then show the brand now visible on the shoulder and explain:
"I freed you from the Architect's control."
"You..."
Suddenly, things seem to hit him. He stares in the distance for a bit before regaining his composure.
"So I take it you're trying to defeat him?"
"Exactly."
"Alright. I'll help. But is there anything you can do about the wound first?"
I nod and approach before casting a healing spell. He was told I was a Sword Fighter, so he's surprised to see me regenerate his arm with a spell.
"I couldn't re-attach the severed arm on your body since that would cause the brand to activate again. So I gave you a new one."
As he's moving his arm around and making sure that everything functions normally, I put the cut arm and all the blood that fell on the ground into a spatial bead. I can probably figure out what to do with those later.
"You can even make all that stuff disappear?"
Hugo seems deeply shaken by what he just witnessed.
"I sure can! Now, let's go have dinner."
In the restaurant, we bring Hugo up to speed on the situation and our plan. He agrees to help us without asking too many questions, which reinforces my feeling that building an entire human trafficking organization by robbing people of their free will is just a really bad idea. As soon as someone can mess with the mind control, it all topples down.
I then learn that Hugo is one of the level 100 adventurers from the Free Eagle company. They're smaller than Ouroboros, but still one of the major players in the country. He's going to participate in the Eternal City Dungeon raid.
Fortunately, he's also been invited to tomorrow's event, so I'll be able to sneak him into the Architect's room with Jeremy and Marian.
After eating, I make my way back to my dormitory, where my roommates appear to all be watching the news together. There's no room on the sofa anymore, so I just lean against the back and take a look at the TV.
Looks like they're showing footage captured during previous raids on the Eternal City Dungeon. The narrator explains:
"As you can see from the images brought back by previous adventuring groups, the monsters in the dungeon are rather fearsome. It's for this reason that the only adventurers allowed in are high-level ones with plenty of experience. The NAA hopes to avoid past mistakes with the raid scheduled for next week."
Andrew turns towards me and asks:
"Hey, you're level 80, right? Are you allowed in that creepy dungeon?"
"Nah. Even if I was level 100, I haven't been an adventurer for long enough."
"I see... Would you like to go in?"
"One day, maybe. They always get casualties in there, I'm not in a hurry to throw my life away."
"I guess that makes sense."
Cal then also turns towards me, but his concerns lie elsewhere:
"Are you going to get some rest this weekend? You've been pushing yourself way too hard lately."
"I'm busy tomorrow evening, but if everything goes well, I plan on sleeping for two days non-stop afterwards."
That gets a very slight, barely perceptible smile out of him.
I leave the living room and head to my bedroom. While I've managed to keep my emotions in check so far, I can't ignore the massive anxiety that's building up as my arena battle approaches. There's still so many things that could go wrong, and while I managed to get stronger since then, I'm clearly still below level 100. I'm also very early into the attunement process still, so while my powers appear impressive to ordinary adventurers, I would feel more confident if I had more control over them.
Well, I can probably relieve some stress by masturbating, but I haven't done it since I moved in with three other people. Ah, whatever, they're busy watching the news and my door is closed. I have plenty of privacy.
I make sure I have a box of tissues next to my bed, then I lay on my back and start browsing a couple websites on my phone. After a few minutes, I feel all ready, and bring my hand down to my penis. However... things feel different from usual. Unsure of what's going on, I sit back up and look at my genitals. There's no possible doubt, it's smaller than it used to be.
Is that an effect of the attunement process as well? What kind of joke is it playing on me?
I find it very hard to sleep that night. Not only am I going to fight other adventurers later, but my dick is also shrinking. How is that supposed to make me more attractive? I get that there is such a thing as "too large" when it comes to that subject, but I was just a bit above average. Why am I being punished like this?
I still eventually fall asleep and wake up later than usual the next day. I don't have any classes, so I unhurriedly get out of bed and make myself some coffee before sitting at the table to browse my social media timelines. Andrew and Anthony seem to still be sleeping, while Cal is probably gone to his Friday class.
Once my cup is empty, I head to the bathroom to take a shower. While I'm in there, I take some time to inspect my body. As long as it's flaccid, my penis seems to still be the same size. The rest of my body doesn't seem to have changed further since I noticed that my muscles went into hiding. This is equal parts relieving and frightening. Not changing further is good, but I'm worried about the future. I really have no idea where this power is taking me.
I leave the bathroom wearing only boxers, and see Andrew sitting at the table and eating breakfast. He asks me:
"Hey, why don't you get dressed in the bathroom instead of walking around almost naked like that?"
"I find it more comfortable to stay like this for a bit after a shower. We're all guys, I'm sure you've seen worse in changing rooms."
"I did, and it doesn't particularly bother me, but nobody else here does that."
"Maybe you should try it?"
"Ah! Good one."
He goes back to reading the news on his tablet, and I go back to my room.
As I'm getting dressed, I hear my phone vibrate on my desk. I finish putting my shirt on, then check the notification. It's a text message from Francis, and it reads:
"Help! My girlfriend went missing!"
I really didn't need something like that to be added on top of everything I'm already dealing with, but I can't just ignore him.
"I can be at the cafeteria in a few minutes, meet me there?"
"Ok."
I'm sitting at one of the cafeteria tables, waiting for Francis to arrive. I knew he had a girlfriend, but I never met her. As far as I can tell, he got with her after starting university here, so she might be a fellow student.
After a few minutes of waiting, he enters the cafeteria, spots me, and comes to sit at the table. He's clearly on edge. I speak first:
"So, what's going on?"
"A few days ago, my girlfriend went into a dungeon. I haven't seen her since."
So he's dating an adventurer. An idea sprouts in my mind, but I should ask a few more questions before jumping to any conclusions.
"Did she get injured or anything?"
"That's the weird thing. According to the rest of her party, everyone was fine when they cleared it. They left the dungeon after activating the disruptor, and everyone was accounted for outside. However, according to her mom, she never came back home. So something must have happened to her between the location of the dungeon and her house."
"And how do you think I might be able to help here?"
"I don't know, but you're an adventurer too, right? I'm just asking everyone at this point, I'm desperate and have no idea what to do."
He slumps on the table. This is clearly affecting him a lot.
"I can't promise anything, but I might have a lead."
Francis jumps up, causing his chair to fall to the ground.
"Where is she?"
"I don't know exactly where she is. I just have some information that might be relevant. On a related note, did anyone contact the police?"
He gets his chair back up and sits down before answering:
"Yeah, we called them, but apparently there's been a wave of kidnapped adventurers over the last two weeks or so, and their hands are full with that."
In that case, it seems likely that I'll be meeting Francis' girlfriend in the arena tonight.
"I'll do my best to find her. I can't disclose any detail, but if she calls you tonight or tomorrow, it'll mean I succeeded. Could you show me a picture of her?"
He looks confused by my words, but he still grabs his phone and shows me a selfie of the two of them together. Her face isn't familiar at all, but I commit it to memory.
"So... you really think you can find her?"
"I don't know. All I'm saying is that she might be where I'm going later."
"What kind of mess did you find yourself roped into?"
"I'll let you know when it's over. Talking about it now would just put us in danger."
