1869 Fire Heart
Sam, Mitra and their new captive.
All three of them disappeared from outside of the rendezvous point.
"So, what now? Are we going to interrogate him? What are we going to do?"
"He is fairly strong and he has a decent level of strength. I am thinking of using him for something. But for that, we need to get some information.
From all the info that I already gathered with my companions, the only thing I can confirm is that they are here on the orders of the young master. The person who is most likely in charge of the nearby camp.
They are searching for something and this area is its most probable location. Based on their conversation they are searching this item based on some traces related to a mine. To proceed further with the plan, we need to know what exactly are they searching for and how important it is. Finally, we need to know who else is searching for it."
"Why do you need so many details? It is a waste of time? Don't you think if we just win the war, we can just extract the memories with that little trick of yours? Things will be lot less complicated."
Sam sighed once again. He didn't even bother replying.
Soon they reached a cave.
"I need you to make sure that he is unconscious We need to break his mind and we need all the information without killing him. "
"I am not good with torture. I can't control my strength. I will end up killing him."
"Don't worry about it. I have a way. Anyway, he is not going to see who we are. Just let me make some preparations first. It wouldn't take long."
With that, Sam started laying out a formation and a bunch of inscriptions were laid down at a rapid pace. A stone chair was also arranged and finally, he took out a helmet.
He placed the leader on the chair and then placed the helmet on his head, before activating the formations.
The formation is created to completely distort all the senses of the leader. Right now, he wouldn't even know if someone were to piss on his face. His sense of pain, sense of touch, smell and sight are taken away. Even his spiritual senses are gone.
Only his sense of hearing is left. He cannot even speak actually.
Soon, Sam started operating the simulation machine. It is an improvement to the previous version. He activated a minor inscription on the chair giving out a small pulse.
The guy woke up immediately.
He wanted to yell out loud. But nothing came out of his mouth. No matter which direction he turned his head, he couldn't see anything but darkness. Then only he realized that he couldn't move either. He felt like some very powerful force is suspending him in a void.
"Hello, my dear friend."
At this moment an ethereal commanding voice appeared out of nowhere. It is actually Sam's voice but it was tuned in a certain way.
'Who are you?'
That is what the captive wanted to ask, but the words didn't come out.
Meanwhile, outside the formation, on a large screen, these words appeared.
Sam smiled at this and spoke.
"You might be wondering who I am. I am open to tell you about me, but for that you need to answer a few questions of mine."
'You better leave me now or you will regret it for the rest of your life. I will kill you in the most gruesome way possible...'
A bunch of curses appeared on the screen. The other guy was unable to voice it out no matter how much he tried.
"Anyway, it is still early for our conversation. You can rest for a while. I will come back to you in a few minutes. Meanwhile get used to the current situation you are in."
Sam shut the communication down.
Meanwhile, the captive is feeling anxious. He couldn't understand what is happening around him. He tried to use his spiritual energy and divine energy. But that didn't work as well.
He wanted to check his own condition with his senses. Still no use. He tried to take deep breaths and calm down.
"Okay, let's leave him be until morning. You stay here keep an eye out. Don't cause any commotion and don't do anything stupid." Sam said and got ready to head out once again.
"Wait, wait. What do you mean? Why do you want me to stay like this until morning? Until a couple of hours ago, you were whining about how we don't have time and we have to do this shit immediately.
But now we have time? That too until morning?
Didn't you say that you would get back to him in a few minutes?"
"It is part of the plan. For this to work, we need to mentally break him down. But we cannot use torture, abuse or force to make him do it. We cannot kill him. But we still need that information.
This is the best way possible."
"How is this the best way?"
"Listen, I don't really have enough patience to explain every minor action of mine to you. It is hard for me to focus and work like that. Please leave it alone."
With that, Sam didn't even bother waiting for his reply. He took off on the harbinger immediately.
He went around to get an idea about the actions of this exploration team. Even though the team leader is in charge of the operation, he is not getting live updates of the progress from his teams.
That information could be helpful.
Also, if he could get some behavioral points of different squads in the team that he could take advantage of, the rest of the plan would go a lot smoother.
The whole night he spent his time looking around in the forest.
Meawhile, the absence of the leader has been noted by the rest of the exploration team. At least the people at rendezvous point noticed his disappearance very quickly and they started panicking.
News went to the base camp where the young master who is in charge of the whole operation was staying.
An exploration team captain is a direct subordinate of the young master. So, he felt that something went wrong. After all, a Middle stage Divine Plane Initiation cultivator disappearing without so much as a sound is something hard to imagine for them.
The only possibility they could immediately think of is that it is done by a cultivator of a higher level which means the higher level giants of their rival tribes have gotten involved.
He fell into a dilemma. Not many people know that he is searching for a specific thing within that area. Even people from his own tribe are kept in the dark since he has rivals there too.
He already had an inkling that the water tribe was on to something and now his team leader disappeared all of a sudden. He doesn't know how to proceed forward. All he could do was send people to search for this team leader.
Sam came across many of these search parties overnight.
The next morning.
Sam came back to the cave.
"You didn't disturb him right?"
He asked Mitra doubtfully. Mitra felt a bit insulted for some reason, but he just shook his head.
Sam then connected to the formation again and spoke.
"Hello my dear friend.
I hope you already got adjusted to the situation now? Shall we talk?"
As soon as those words were heard, the image on the screen changed.
In that image, the captive is imagining himself being in the middle of a large void and a string of words appeared out of nowhere.
'Who the hell is he? Why did he hold me captive for so long? What about the operations of the camp?"
These questions kept on repeating themselves as they appeared and clouded his mind.
"Don't stress yourself so much. It has only been few minutes. Why are you overthinking things and making everything complicated for yourself?"
'Only few minutes?'
The captive was dumbfounded. His heart almost stopped. In the void where he couldn't sense any time and had no concept of his surroundings. He could have sworn that he spent more than a few hours in that void.
But now, someone just said that it has only been a few minutes.
His brain went into a panic mode immediately. Many chaotic thoughts are being played in his head.
Sam smiled and asked.
"So, let's start with an easy question. What were you searching for with that useless team of yours?"
And the screen changed. A few words appeared.
"Fire Heart."
Along with the words an image a giant sitting on a luxurious chair with a very serious and condescending expression appeared.
As soon as Sam saw those words, he couldn't help but smile widely.
Just from those words half of the problem is easily solved. He could easily deduce many things from this.
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