Ascendance: The Rebirth Of The Unknown Gamer

Laura was in the far away city of 'Insert City Name Here' and Aura simply couldn't be bothered to figure out anything about said city beyond the existence of a high end slave dealership that was located in the merchant's district.

A vampire needed humanoid blood to survive.

Was a total myth, they fed on blood for fun.

They, like all other monsters, fed on void energy, which Aura would happily provide for his new slave.

The slave dealership was certainly high end, but it still screamed shady to even the most untrained of eyes.

All these places screamed shady actually, it was kind of hard to get one to look decent giving that it was a place that sold living sentient individuals.

Not to mention that the dealers always acted like snake oil dealers.

And as Aura walked in and took a look around, it looked kind of like a branch of the tamer's guild, with a nice reception and cages all around the room.

Just that those cages were filled with poorly fed humanoid whose bodies were slowly deteriorating.

After speaking with the receptionist, Aura was guided down into the bas.e.m.e.nt, where damaged goods were stored.

The slave in question was apparently in an even worse state than Fiona when Aura found her.

And when he arrived in front of her cage, he could see why.

Vampires have extraordinary strength and vitality, so apparently the solution they came up with was to cut off all her limbs and cap them in holy silver.

They even staked her to the wall with a silver spike.

Her 'important bits' had been left intact, likely to be used as a helpless toy by whatever master picked her up.

Her mouth had been locked open using the same holy silver they'd bound her with.

Her teeth had been removed and her eyelids had been sewed shut, likely due to the fact that her eyes had been removed.

In Ascendance it was actually quite ordinary for captured women to have their eyes removed, since the ones who wanted to 'play' with them didn't want their victims to know their faces.

And there was also a standard way of getting around the system's punishment for f.o.r.c.i.b.l.y taking a woman.

These criminals would torture the woman until she said yes.

It was a huge loophole in the system, but one that was taken advantage of quite regularly.

When Forgotten Industries was questioned about why they didn't fix the loophole they responded like so:

"Fixing this loophole would require us to read the minds of our players to determine how they came to the conclusion that they would give consent. That's a major violation of privacy, and while we understand that the loophole is a problem, we can't figure out a solution that isn't as invasive as the crime it allows to be comitted. And since straight up removing s.e.x fron the game would cripple the freedom that we try to allow our players, we can't do that either. We're looking for a solution to the problem, but don't hold out hope."

And thus this massive loophole remained.

Laura had been tortured into giving consent to anything that they wanted to do to her, then they'd removed her ability to speak, or to do anything at all really.

And that was why it was common to find illegal or war slaves in similar states to Fiona and Laura.

For monster slaves like Laura though, this was pretty much the only way you'd find them.

The only reason that humanoid monsters would be kept alive is if some pervert wanted a new toy.

And when they were tossed aside, the slave dealersh.i.p.s sweeped them up.

Laura's price was just as humiliating as the position they had trapped her in.

Eight copper coins for a damaged exotic beauty.

Aura made that purchase in a heartbeat.

He may act heartless, but he hates the idea of people being forced to live such tragic lives.

It made him angry.

And when Aura was angry, he got very, very angry.

His childhood had left its mark on his temper, and while he was very good at holding back the rage in his heart, it would continue to burn until he let it out.

He never let go of a grudge.