Nearly 2 years later, Sam wakes up and brushes his teeth. He looks around at the small little room that he has, it’s not much but it’s his in this trash heap. He walks outside and spots someone standing near the gate, Sam yells out.

“What are you doing here? We had an agreement.”

“You said that you wanted to be warned when a new shipment came in, well one did but I heard something better so I was wondering if you’d like to hear it.”

Sam fishes out a large cube from his pocket and throws it at the man, “I heard they’re looking for volunteers”, the man says as he pockets the cube.

“What for?”

“Dunno.”

Sam throws another cube, the man catches it and flickers a long snake-like tongue.

“I don’t actually know what for, I only know they’ll be taking people off site and releasing the suppressors.”

“Is that really it?”

“Yeah, the only other thing I heard is that they expect a load of new trash to arrive after all this.”

“Where is it happening?”

“I think they’ll start from the workers pool.”

Sam throws the man another cube, he catches and quickly shoves it in his mouth.

“Benny is there, watch out.”

“Thanks Snak.”

“I told you to call me Slithers.”

“I told you, that makes you sound like someone’s pet. I am not calling you, a grown man looking like you, Slithers.”

“Come on…”

“No, now I’m going to check that out. I think someone owes Benny some credits, or they’d be over there too.”

Snak slinks away quietly, Sam shakes his head and returns inside to grab his gear.

This place is a work camp for people that have life sentences, it’s a free-for-all place where you have to eek an existence which Sam managed to do after some time, between that you are required to complete work on site.

This will earn you credits that are just like credits on the outside, yet at a much slower rate.

0.01/c per tonne of trash.

It’s not just sorting it either, no this is actually ensuring the end product is used in something. Each worker is required to complete 130 hours a week, but this can be transferred and that’s what a large part of the conflicts inside are about.

Sam at the start had to sort out trash for people, but he quickly found out something.

His stop ability works perfectly fine out here, the devour ability too.

The environment was almost perfect for the devour ability as he set about to work. Food waste was one of the most annoying things for people to deal with as it’s so smelly and complicated, yet Sam could deal with it with a snap.

The worm was having a great time, Sam was to sell his services and build up a small little business that let him hire people to do his work for him instead. Now he’s ‘retired’ and just doing whatever he wants.

Truly, he’s just waiting for his chance to escape, yet today's opportunity may be the chance he has been waiting for without being considered missing/escaped.

There has been no contact from Sam’s parents yet, outside contact is possible but slow, yet there has been nothing.

Sam walks towards the worker’s pool while inspecting his body’s condition to push those thoughts out of mind, he hasn’t let up doing his exercises which have only continued to get stranger and stranger. If he could look at the manuals, then he might recognise many of the forms that he has been performing, but he’s unable to see them so he blindly trains in them.

The result being that his body’s condition has continually improved, even beyond the point that most normal people would consider possible. He feels his body able to naturally adopt the poses laid out in the exercises, proceeding into the next most natural one.

If he were able to look at the condition of his own body, Sam would find that over 349 mana points have been lit. The mana-cloud purity has reached over 80% with no signs of slowing down.

The ancient devourer beast is quite content to eat its fill of food, every day like clockwork it’s able to eat a feast of strange little energy cubes but this has also resulted in the beast’s size growing larger.

It seems well-behaved so far, never misbehaving or requiring a slap but it’s still weak, Sam needs to reach stage 2 to contract it before it gets stronger. He finally turns his attention to the mana-cloud that was his monster, the little blob of cloud has solidified into an egg-shaped orb, it’s still pulling his energy and feeding back purified energy but that link is well and truly gone.

Sam returns his attention to the rest of his body.

His physical strength has increased a lot thanks to the exercises, they’re toning his muscles in all sorts of ways constantly giving him the strength of someone at stage 1, yet he’ll still be weaker than someone at that stage due to not having the energy behind it.

Each of the conditions are prime for him to undergo the shift for stage 1, yet he cannot for two reasons; the suppressor on his neck limiting mana flow around the body and his lack of opportunity.

This might be his opportunity.

Sam walks down a road surrounded by trash that has many worn out old buildings, this is the remains of an old town that was encased in this large structure. Most of the buildings are burnt down, if not they’re filled with people's meagre living space where constant fights occur.

Sam walks towards a large supermarket, behind it is an old school that serves as the workers’ pool. The gathering point for anyone that wants to work for the day, he hasn’t been here for several weeks so many people notice him as he walks up.

Sam nods at the people talking about him before spotting some outsiders, “Who are they?” he asks the people nearby.

“They’re asking questions about people’s strength here, we’re meant to go up and get tested.”

“Is there a queue then?”

“Benny is selling access, they’re allowing it to happen under the guise of Benny being well respected. It’s just cause everyone is afraid of him.”

“Alright, I’ll handle Benny, you organise some sort of queue with people we know.”

The young small person nods to Sam and runs away, Sam looks at the crowd and spots the familiar face of Benny. A pimply, scarred, red-haired man. He has a menacing face, but Sam has gotten to know him well over the months.

Sam walks through the crowd, most people know him by now so they part way for him allowing easy passage.

A crowd slowly builds up behind Jack, he smiles at this while approaching Benny only a short distance between them now. The crowd is now silent, yet Benny has his back to the crowd sucking up to the outsiders, not knowing the changes behind.

“You promise me several spots, right? I’ll find you the best people and weed out any weaklings. You can be sure of that” Benny’s nasally voice speaks.

“You have said that several times, we need to get on with it. We need 500 by tonight.”

“Yes, of course, the warden has told me to take care of it. You—

“BENNY!”

Benny’s interrupted, his face twists as he turns around to face the newcomer. Rage is in his eyes, yet a smile is on his face.

Sam returns the smile, “Benny, I heard you’re hogging the attention of the new people.”

“Sam. I am only assisting them with what they need. If you were here before me, they’d ask you too.”

“So why don’t you tell me what you’re doing?” Sam smiles and stands before the crowd that is watching the exchange take place.

“These lovely guests are here from the higher ups. They have been permitted to test people and offer a job if they test well enough. I don’t have any control over the process.”

“Really? Benny helping out from the goodness of his heart, that doesn’t sound like the red-haired Benny I know,” Sam smirks and raises his voice, “hey does anyone think this Benny is an imposter? I think the real one escaped. We should report this.”

A voice comes from the crowd, “The Benny we know would try to scam us out of our food and credits, then if after that tried to get us to work his hours.”

“That’s right, we took all my food one night and then told me to work the next morning to replace it, as if I owed him.”

Benny glares at the crowd causing them to quieten down, Sam clicks his fingers.

“I’m over here, don’t look at them. So why don’t you tell me? Are you really Benny or is there something else?”

Benny glares at Sam, a deep hatred of a glare as if he would like to attack Sam right this very moment but he holds back his hand and smiles baring his teeth, “They have at most 500 spots free” he speaks through clenched teeth.

“Ah, so that’s how it is, well I trust you’re letting everyone get tested, right? There won’t be any favouritism going on, right?

The outsiders are now paying close attention to what’s going on before them, Benny is able to see that he’s losing control of the situation.

“No, in fact I was about to ask if some people would like to take the test, if the guests are ready that is,” Benny turns to redirect the conversation to the researcher.

“Well… we are ready… 1 at a time thanks….” his voice has a nervous stutter looking out at this crowd of people, all of them looking meaner than the other. 

All the people here are under a life sentence or similar, some death penalties that were commuted. Each of the people is tougher than the last, and there’s nothing shielding the outsiders from these criminals before him.

“You heard him Benny, you were handling it right so I trust you’ll do a good job.”

Benny stares daggers at Sam, “Of course… Please line up–

“The line starts behind me, can’t have you playing favourites. I see your goons over there.”

“Of course, anything you say…” Benny glares furiously at Sam, yet handles the job responsibly employing his goons as underlings to help organise the queue which starts with Sam.

Sam smiles at the crowd behind him. The people that followed him early on are now at the very front of the queue. Somehow over time Sam has managed to eek out a modicum of respect amongst these people.

Even hardened people like Benny are deferring to Sam, which is all thanks to his training that was undertaken in this place, that and the ancient devour beast’s ability. No one has a counter to its power here, and given everyone has their power flow shut off, it makes it even more lethal.

It still has all the flaws unable to kill directly or harm, yet deploying traps is particularly effective to unaware people. It will become less so once they have stronger bodies and can use mana, for now though it can solve everything.

“Ok, come forward.”

Sam approaches the outsider who is standing beside a large blue crystal, the researcher holding two armbands that are attached with wires to several devices.

“Put these on please.”

Sam takes them and puts them around his bicep, “What are they?”

“They’ll measure your muscle strength including a few other data points.”

A faint vibrating feeling comes from the armband as they flicked a switch on the table, the crystal begins to faintly shine.

“Please strike this.”

“How hard?”

“As hard as you can.”

Sam frowns and looks at the crystal before him, he cannot tell what’s going on but if it’s just physical strength then that’s something he can do. His strength should reach above stage 1, yet he hasn’t truly tested it.

He steps before the crystal and looks at it, it’s about the size of a car and floating above the ground. A soft blue glow comes from it somewhere.

“Go ahead.”

Sam nods and readies himself. His body is pushed to its limit in an instant as he strikes out.

*BANG*

He pushed all of his strength in that strike, yet the crystal remained stationary with a slight change in the glow.

Sam looks at the outsiders, they’re all talking amongst themselves quietly. He takes off the armbands while waiting for one of them to approach him. Everyone is watching on as the crowd is silent, even Benny is curious to hear this.

“We can offer you a spot.”

“For what?”

“You are just required to come back here later, we already have your identities.”

“Nice, well how strong did the reading come out to?”

“We cannot disclose that… sorry.”

Sam smiles, ‘Stop’

The world shimmers around him and everything freezes, he walks over to the outsiders and looks over some of their paperwork. He takes a screen from someone’s hand and reads it before placing it back.

He looks over a few more pieces of information that the outsiders had before returning to the spot he was at, ‘Stop Stop.’

Everything comes back into motion, “I see, well I hope the operation tonight will go smoothly.”

“Us too, next!”

Sam smiles and walks away, the young small person who helped him when he arrived here walks up undertaking the test. Sam doesn’t stick around to watch it as he walks to the back of the crowd where some of the stronger people are congregating.

Snak is there too sucking up to them fawning over them, they notice Sam walking up greeting him in their own ways.

Sam returns their greetings before standing before the small group of people, “I have some info.”

“I’d hope so, you were the first one up there. Spill.”

Sam frowns and looks at this person, it’s an older person named Victor, he tries to show off his strength that was great at one point but now he’s stuck in here, he’s a weak short old man with a bad temperament.

“You’re going to go through it too, so why don’t you get in queue and find out.”

Victor turns up his nose and turns away, someone else speaks up.

“What happened?”

Sam looks at who’s speaking when he notices a multi-coloured cube travelling to him.

He catches it and looks at who threw it before nodding at them, it’s a silent person who somehow has lots of riches on them.

“I just had to punch a crystal, they took some readings and offered me a spot. You guys should get a spot fine as long as they haven’t filled the spots.”

“That’s it? Useless.”

“If you don’t like it Victor, find out the info yourself. I’m speaking to our friend over here,” Sam turns away from Victor and towards the one who asked the question, “I did find out what they’re gathering people for.”

“What?”

Sam rubs his nose, “An operation, a big military operation. They’re launching an assault on somewhere.”

“Do you know where?” 

“Alysian Mountains, somewhere called Lake 2.”

The group falls into silence, a few of them walk away while Sam is left confused.

“You guys know of it?”

“Yep, it was once a thriving lake town. It was a reclaimed lake turned fish sanctuary. It sustained a large human population and exported food everywhere.”

“What happened?”

“Well, beasts caught wind and moved in. There was only so much that could happen, now I heard that it’s home to a mega-lair.”

“That doesn’t sound very good. Why would they attack it now?”

“Who can tell what goes through their minds. We wouldn’t be here if we knew.”

Sam nods and frowns, it’s troubling news, but it’s a chance to get out of here and do something else. He pushes the thoughts out of mind and decides to forget about it for now.

“They’re taking about 500 people from here.”

“Alright thanks, if you go then you best watch out.”

“Are you going?”

“Despite being stuck in here, I’m not going to waste my life on this. You’re young so you might survive. It’s a great way to earn credits, you might even get your sentence commuted,” an older man pats Sam’s shoulder before walking away.

Most of the other people have gone to stand in the queue by now, leaving behind only the silent people.

Sam gives a nod towards everyone else and heads towards his place, his walk is silent and alone yet his thoughts are going over everything in his head. 

‘This entire operation is confusing, and they didn’t care about my strength, just my stamina… Why would they take a bunch of prisoners and let them go? life sentenced prisoners… It’s crazy and stupid unless they want to get many people killed and cause chaos…’

Sam returns to his house and enters his usual routine of exercises and more exercises, he needs to ensure that he’s ready to hit stage 1 as soon as it’s possible and keeping his body in top shape is most important.

The time passes by; it nears the time when Sam needs to head to the gathering point when he hears a sound, a clawing at the wall before a quiet hissing noise.

‘Stop.’

Sam quickly looks for the noise and spots a new hole in the wall, a small metal tube is sticking out of it. He bends the tube and returns to where he was sitting. His motions are precise, as if this isn’t the first time he has done this.

‘Stop Stop’

Sam closes his eyes and waits, it doesn’t take long for something to happen.

A window opens quietly, and a person jumps through, Sam cannot see them but he waits for them to approach closer.

Heavy footsteps stop behind him, Sam hears him sniff the air.

‘Stop’

Sam turns around to look at who it is, it’s Victor the old man is in a dark set of clothing wearing shoes that quieten their step. The old man is holding a metal pipe above his head.

Sam stands up and walks to one of the nearby corners and adopts a pose.

‘Stop Stop’

The world shimmers back to life, Sam hears a quiet screeching in his mind but he ignores it.

The old man has raised his pipe when he suddenly notices Sam is missing.

Sam clears his throat, causing Victor to turn his head towards him.

“You’re quick. Did you hear the tube?”

“Yeah. So talk, why shouldn’t I use that pipe to do what you planned?”

“I’m here…”

Victor clutches something on his chest, he seems to cut off his words each time he wants to speak.

“Speak. I don’t have all day.”

“I signed up for the mission tonight.”

“Oh, that’s great. I’m going there too. I don’t think that’s why you were trying to beat me with a pipe after piping gas into my room though. Keep going.”

“I did all that as a test. If I disabled you that easily, then I would have broken your legs and stopped you from going tonight. You’re still too fresh for that sort of battlefield.”

“Why do you care? You’ve been hostile to me the whole time you’ve known me here. In fact, I think you’re responsible for a large source of my problems recently.”

“I…,” Victor pulls something from his chest, “I have a daughter.”

Sam blinks at him, “Congratulations. What’s that have to do with me?”

“I know you’re planning something, I know you have the skills for that. If you’re able to escape this place, take this,” Victor passes something to Sam.

Sam takes it from Victor, who seems very reluctant in letting go, forcing Sam to take it from his hands.

It’s an elongated crystal cube, the insides delicately etched in all sorts of configurations. Almost beautiful in a way as Sam peers inside it.

“What is it?”

“It’s something I found while out relic hunting. If you’ll look up my daughter and ensure she’s doing ok on the outside, I’ll give it to you.”

Sam frowns, “Why would I want this? How old is your daughter?”

“She’d be slightly older than you. I’m sure she’s doing fine so just check in,” Victor has a smile on his face talking about his daughter, it turns solemn as he looks at the key, “I lost a few friends getting that key. I know the complex it belongs to but that’s it.”

“Where?”

“High-Lands Plaza.”

“What? Isn’t that somewhere legendary? How do you know this is from there?”

“I saw the location on some documents when I found it. The computer confirmed it before it screwed me over.”

“Do you know where it is? High-Lands Plaza?”

“Several weeks away, it’s a dangerous trip that I would have done myself but I couldn’t prepare in time.”

“Can you just fly?”

“Fly that far into the wildlands? Ha. You should really rethink about going tonight if you still think that’s possible.”

“So do you know where it is?”

“You can find maps everywhere, it’s the cliff in the bay on the Alpichina Peninsula. Few know that High-Lands Plaza is there.”

“Ok, well… I guess I can do that. I’m interested in what these places are. Do you know what’s in High-Lands Plaza?”

“All that come back from there are rich and powerful, so it has to be something good” Victor lets out a sigh.

“Is it dangerous?”

“Of course.”

“Ok well I’ll check on your daughter if I can, what’s her name?”

“Natasha. Natasha Dalial’e. She’ll have black hair and brown eyes, her left eye has a scar under it.”

“Alright, I’ll look her up when I can. I cannot promise anything. You better not be planning on dying.”

“Never, this old man will never die but you’re the only one here that has a chance of surviving in the end. ”

Sam stands up from the wall, he places the crystal away securely, “Don’t think so negatively Victor. It can’t be that bad.”