***
In the massive underground laboratory of The Arcaneum, 'Sir' Daveth & 'Sir' Jory were monitoring the summoning devices required to bring other-worlder humans into this world.
This, the lowest level of The Arcaneum was a massive open spaced chamber with huge square pillars ten stories tall. The pillars were made of stone, with crystal running up the entire length. The crystals glowed with an eerie green light, bathing the entire underground laboratory in their strange radiance. At the bottom of the pillars were large containers with heavy iron lids built directly into the massive structures. Each of the pillars had a number painted on its side in white paint.
In the center of the laboratory where Daveth & Jory were standing near, was a large summoning circle carved into the smooth grey stone. The circle comprised of spiraled concentric rings filled with enchanted magic numerals. It pulsed with purple light - as it always did when summoning the mana-rich humans from the 'Other World'.
All around the circle was metal & crystalline equipment used to monitor and stabilize the summoning process. At the top of the equipment were ringed metal antennas that occasionally sparked with electricity when the mana fluctuated.
"Alright, get ready for another one..." Daveth sighed exhaustedly.
He had been working in the Lab all night.
"Oros dammit - How long is this shift gonna take! I want some damn Ale!" Jory complained angrily.
Daveth couldn't blame his partner in misery for wanting this damn shift to be over. Working the Summoning Lab was the worst job in the entire Arcaneum, reserved for the lowest of the noble class. They were responsible for stocking up The Arcaneum's supply of mana.
"There's just two more coming in thankfully." Daveth applied a little mana to the ignition device and the Summoning Crystal off to the side did all the work for them.
Absentmindedly, he kept an eye on the monitoring device, while snacking on a pouch of fried bread-root skins.
"Thank fuck, best news i heard all night" Jory sounded strained, he probably wasn't gonna last too much longer here. Daveth had gone through six 'partners' before Jory came along.
Most didn't have the temperament for this work.
Sooner or later they all crack.
The pulses of the circle became more and more frequent, strobing the two men in purple light.
Turning to face the circle, Daveth throws his pouch of fried bread-root on one of the machines spilling crumbs all over it. Absently, he brushed some excess crumbs off his thick white labcoat with a black leather-gloved hand.
The pulsing light in the summoning circle reached a blinding crescendo that Daveth and Jory looked at through the shade-goggles hanging from their necks.
Finally, the light disappeared, leaving a human body to painfully drop a short fall onto the stone floor.
Keeping an eye on the newest summon, Daveth grabbed his Shock-Stick and a long cart with wheels he called his 'juice hopper'.
It was a female this time. Skinny. Fair haired and skinned. It was unconscious, like almost all summons.
"Alright, you know the drill. Strip it" Daveth told Jory. The clothing of other-worlders was worth a good amount of money, even with damaged clothes, tailors would pay a premium for it.
The two Lab workers peeled away the layers of clothing from the unconscious female with practiced efficiency.
"Alright... Let's see what your mana level is..." Daveth spoke to himself, dragging the summon over to the Mana-Tester.
"A little help partner?" Daveth quipped sarcastically.
Jory jerked his head up in surprise at the comment, he had been staring at the summon... Quickly, he rushed over to grab and drag it to the Mana-Tester.
Shoving its arm in the tube of the Mana-Tester, a large metal box with a crystal sensor inside, the men waited for the crystal to resonate. Slowly, the colored bars on the Tester started to light up one by one, until finally it stopped.
"Six!! It's a SIX!!!" Daveth said excitedly. "With this, we can make our quota for two whole weeks!"
"Hahah! BY OROS! Its about damn time we caught a break!" Jory hollered out.
"Uuungh..." A soft voice broke them out of their celebratory mood.
"Erehw ma-i..." The summon groaned in it's heathen foreign tongue.
"Shit, it's waking up. Hit it with the Shock-Stick." Daveth commands Jory in an annoyed tone. The ones with more mana seemed to recover faster.
Jory grabs the two-foot long metal stick with a fork at the tip. At it's base is a tiny mana crystal. Jory injects a small amount of mana into the Stick, and electricity arcs between the prongs of the fork.
With a casual motion, Jory presses the tip against the confused summon's neck, and electricity flows into it.
"Ack!!-" The summon makes a high pitched grunt as the Shock-Stick does its work, and zaps it back into unconsciousness. The summon starts to fall forwards, but Daveth catches it, not allowing it to accidentally kill itself by smacking its valuable head on the stone. The summons were worth far less if they were dead.
Moving to grab his cart - the 'juice hopper', Daveth asks Jory to give him a hand throwing the summon up on the cart. Picking the unconscious summon up, they hoist it onto the hopper with a grunt.
"Alright, you know what to do" Daveth said while wheeling the summon over to a large machine 30 yards away.
Opening the heavy iron door of the Mana Condenser or the 'juicer' as Daveth liked to call it. He attached the front of the cart to the condenser, the top part of the cart could be removed, shoved into the condenser, and replaced for convenience.
All of a sudden, he feels a hand on his arm.
"Wait." Jory says with a grin "Seems a shame to just throw a girl as pretty as this in there without at least gettin some use out of her dont you think?"
Unbelievable.
Daveth's eyebrows drew down in anger. "This is a Level-Six. A SIX!" Daveth says in disgust "If you want to get your dick wet and plough a summon, then that's your choice. But not this one! It is too valuable to risk killing it."
"Alright alright, lets just throw the bitch in and we can get on with our shift" Jory grumbled
Calling it a 'girl'... This 'partner' definitely wont last longer than half a year... Daveth made a mental note of the date.
Together, they slid the top of the cart with the summon on it into the 'juicer'. Pushing the cart back, Daveth starts to activate the condenser while Jory hurries to close the heavy door - locking the summon in.
With a vibrating hum, the condenser activates. Inside the Iron machine, heavy blades slice and mulch and grind the summon into a watery paste.
Death by juicer is a relatively quick death. The summons are made unconscious while inside and don't feel a thing... most of the time.
Why is it that they lose three quarters of their mana if they are killed outside the juicer? Daveth idly wonders to himself for the thousandth time.
After the summon is made into a paste, it is then drained into the condenser part of the juicer where it will be filtered then mixed with Eather liquid thoroughly, and then magically compressed, compressed, compressed - Until finally Daveth moves to the battery compartment of the juicer and opens it up revealing a series of heavy crystal-glass and metal containers about the size of buckets - attached to the machine. The bottom three are filled with a glowing green substance.
"Look at this Jory! Three and a half!!! This ONE summon gave us THREE & A HALF BATTERIES! We can take it easy for the next two weeks" Daveth excitedly said while gesturing at the batteries.
Jory had a grimace on his face.
"Yeah... It just seems a shame that a girl that pretty had to..." The oaf said while looking at the floor.
Again, he referred to it as if it were a person. Daveth cut the estimated time in half for Jory's continued work here. He was going to wash-out in three months, Daveth was sure of it.
*sigh*
"Come on, lets record this and get these batteries to Pillar number 42..."
After doing their paperwork, the Lab workers loaded up the batteries into a cart and wheeled them over to one of the massive pillars: Pillar 42. Opening up one of the heavy containers at the bottom of the huge structure, they shove a battery into a large metal indentation. They do the same thing for two other containers.
The pillars provide mana and power to The Arcaneum and the entire city of Tos Annat.
Walking back to the circle, the men prepare for the final summon of the night...
The circle pulses. Purple light strobing faster and faster until all of a sudden-
*Crash*
A small explosion of dust and debris crashes down on the summoning circle.
"What in the name of Oros!?" Jory yells out.
Daveth puts a hand to his Shock-Stick, prepared for trouble - sometimes a summoning could go awry and an other-worlder might arrive awake and violent.
*cough-cough*
The idiot Jory accidentally breathes in a little bit of dust and coughs.
As the dust clears, the duo slowly see a figure of a man lying face-down on the stone floor of the circle come into view.
This one is pretty big. Daveth thinks as he looks at the large summon. Its tall, with a good physique. Short blonde hair. It looks like it's wearing some type of workers garb with heavy boots, so this one must have been a serf in its world. Around the large male is rubble strewn about, chunks of some light grey stone, and a large hunk of white metal. This was new... Summons weren't supposed to be brought with random items... Unless... WAIT! The CIRCLE! The explosion of debris has cracked the summoning circle!
"Jory." Daveth says through clenched teeth "Did you forget to calibrate The Summoning Crystal's power output?"
"Uhhh-" The Fucking Oros Damned idiot!!! The damage to the circle was going to come out of their pay! All of their luck from summoning a Six was going to go down the sewer pipe. The summoning circle was NOT a cheap piece of equipment!
"Oros Damn your worthless brain! Do you know the cost of that circle! YOU WORTHLEes-
*Cough*
Daveths tirade is cut short as he hears a heavy cough from the big other-worlder in the circle. This one was waking up fast too...
"Dammit, shock him already Jory!"
Fumbling for his Shock-Stick, Jory takes too long to incapacitate the large male. It begins to pick itself up off the floor while groaning.
"Tahw -Tahw eht lleh si gniog no..." Speaks the large other-worlder in its vile tongue. It looks around in confusion, blinking repeatedly.
Jory - the idiot drops his Shock-Stick.
Ugh, if you want something done correctly...
Grabbing the Shock-Stick from his belt, Daveth strides toward the big other-worlder.
"OHW-EHT-KCUF-ERA-OUY-DNA-TAHW-ERA-" The other-worlder's words are cut short as Daveth jabs it in the neck with his Shock-Stick and electrocutes it. Surprisingly, it did not pass out immediately. Daveth felt fear briefly as the other-worlder's hand grabbed onto the Shock-Stick. Daveth however just intensifies the strength of his mana feeding into the Shock-Stick.
Still he doesn't go down!
Finally, The idiot - Jory came to help, and jabbed his Shock-Stick in the other side of the man's neck, dropping him.
*huff*
*huff*
Daveth takes a moment to catch his breath. Jory is looking wide-eyed at the other-worlder.
"Heh... hehehe That was a dangerous one wasn't it?" Daveth nervously laughs at Jory, who shares in an anxious chuckle.
*huff*
"Well uhh - Help me get its arm in the Mana Tester. Surely a specimen this vigorous must have a high mana level..." Maybe he could recoup his losses if the big other-worlder turned out to be a Four or higher...
Jory looked like he didn't want to even touch this other-worlder... Flatly, Daveth stares at him until he moves his portly body to help. Slowly, they drag the big specimen to the Tester. Shoving its arm in like they have done many times before, Daveth activates the Tester...
And...
Nothing.
Adding more mana, Daveth feels the tester activate, but no lights come on.
A Zero!
A worthless Zero! No mana to speak of!
A broken circle, and a Zero. This worthless creature wasn't even worth the cost of the mana used to summon it...
"I'm not seeing any lights..." Said the idiot.
Rubbing his aching temples Daveth replies "That's because it's a Zero... It doesn't have any mana"
"A Zero... This is the first time I've seen one..." Jory the idiot looks fascinated, too dumb to comprehend that they wont get paid for it.
Wait.
Thats it! Bigg-Uncle Lee, The slave trader. I may not make a profit tonight, but I can at least break even! Thought Daveth
"Jory! load the other-worlder into a disposal crate, but don't kill it! We are done here for the night. We might make up for the circle you broke with your idiocy tonight. I have a plan... "
...
As Daveth and Jory load the big man into a heavy crate used for disposing bodies and cart it towards the exit, they leave the laboratory in disarray. They didn't bother cleaning up for the next crew that would have to take care of their mess. They left the otherworldly hunk of metal where it lay, forgetting it existed...
And they left without doing any maintenance on their equipment.
In particular disarray was the Mana Tester, which cannot work with a shattered crystal sensor...
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