The Rise Of A Porter

"And... Done." Alice mumbled, "I did what I could. The wound has been cleaned and sealed."

"Thanks for the help," Arnold replied while Alice began gathering the bandages soaked in his blood. 

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He thought the loss of an arm wouldn\'t bother him too much but he was wrong. He felt like shit. The only good thing about the entire ordeal was... Well, he\'ll get a new and better arm... Maybe? He wasn\'t too hopeful. After all, how could a mechanized arm replace one made by nature? His main concern at the moment was regarding his abilities. 

You see, even if he gets a prosthetic arm, Arnold wouldn\'t be able to cast any of his abilities using that arm. Which was his biggest concern among everything. However, it wasn\'t all gloom and doom for him. He was a creationist. So having a mechanical arm was a blessing as well. Maybe, if his luck favours him, he\'ll be able to use blood runes on himself making him stronger. As usual, his imagination was the only limit he had. 

"Alice, if you don\'t mind, please keep the bandages in the vault. I might need them later." Arnold stopped her from discarding the bandages. Both Alice and Nina gave him a weird look but obeyed him. Alice knew Arnold wouldn\'t unnecessarily ask her to do something, thus she obliged his request. 

\'Since I already have the blood available, why waste any more blood for blood runes?\' He thought, \'The HP potions have already topped my health to the top too. It\'s the ideal time to quickly make some blood runes, but first I should pay a little visit to my guest. It\'ll be... Impolite to not do so, right?\'

Thinking so, Arnold quickly got up and lazily pulled a shirt over himself, before walking out. Nina didn\'t know what else to do so she accompanied him. Outside, Talos was patiently waiting for his master. 

"Talos, where is he?" Arnold asked. 

"In cell number B2, master." 

"Ok. Get Natasha and follow me there." 

"As your wish," Talos replied and left to fetch Natasha immediately. 

"What do you need her for?" Nina was a bit confused, "And who are you talking about?"

"Devon. I knocked him out and threw him in... Just like you." Arnold mumbled, "And as for calling Natasha over... You know what she\'s capable of better than the rest of the family."

Nina recalled the infamous incident once again. How couldn\'t she remember that? Back when the white wolves attacked the family, Arnold put Natasha in charge of interrogating the captives. Nina had volunteered for the same and she regretted making that choice ever since. The screams she heard that day send a chill down her spine every time she sees her. 

"So you\'re going to interrogate him?" Nina asked. 

"Um... Something along those lines."

Arnold wasn\'t even sure if what he was planning would be successful or not. But he had to give it a try at the very least. Killing Devon was out of the question. No matter how much Arnold wanted to kill him, the immense knowledge he had about monsters and various technologies forced Arnold to calm his mind. Killing Devon would be the worst mistake to make, for now. 

So why not use him as a slave? Use him for his knowledge. Once he had nothing left well... Then Arnold would hand him over to the syndicate. Until then, Devon was presumed to be dead in the nuclear explosion. It was possible as Arnold only told them about Devon\'s plan, not of what he was planning on doing with him. 

Talos was back in a flash along with Natasha, who was flaunting her voluptuous body as usual. Wearing next to nothing. However, unlike earlier, she was extremely respectful towards Arnold and even Nina. She did so because she knew, her master\'s heart belonged to the lady in front of them. Which indirectly meant, she was supposed to serve Nina as well. You could say it was a part of her professional commitment. It was a bit weird, but what wasn\'t weird in their world? 

Arnold acknowledged her bow with a short nod before turning to Talos, "By the way, where\'s that snake queen? What was her name again?"

"Alleiah."

"Right, where is she?" 

"I don\'t think she made it through the explosion, master," Talos replied. 

Back when Arnold had opened the portal leading to his domain, not all of the monsters under his command made it through. And Alleiah was one of the few who didn\'t. She got obliterated when the first neutron blast hit her. 

"Did you have any use of her?" Talos asked Arnold, curious as to why his master was inquiring about a useless monster. 

"Nothing. I was about to tell you to kill her, had she made it through the explosion." Arnold replied without any hesitation, "The only use I had of her and her weak nagas was to act as cannon fodder during the battle. Now that her loyal nagas were gone, she wasn\'t of any use to me either. So it was better to get rid of her. Well, now I think I need to thank Devon for reducing your workload."

Arnold continued, "Also, I wanted to ask you about the progress with the ogres. It\'s been a while since you\'ve been feeding them beast crystals, am I correct?"

Talos nodded before responding, "The experiments, so far, have been successful. However, I\'m trying not to force them or something as we know what happens when a being gets overdosed on crystal cocktail."

"Right, right. If everything goes well then Devon can also help you with that. But before that, you gotta make an arm for me. I can\'t live the rest of my life like Shanks."

At that moment, the four of them arrived at the location. The prison cell was barely six feet by four. The walls were the same thick grey stone as the rest of the basement. All in all, it was a hollow cube of concrete, one way in, no window. Thanks to the darkness of the void, In there one could have no idea how much time had passed or even if it was night or day. The isolation was absolute and the stimulation was zero. No sound to hear, no light to see. Nothing.

The only piece of furniture the cell had was a chair on which Devon had been chained. There were numerous wounds on his body. Wounds which Arnold didn\'t give him. But he knew the one who did. He looked at Natasha who immediately apologized to him. Saying she became enraged after she saw Arnold missing an arm. 

Although Arnold understood the sentiment behind her actions, he reminded her, that she was not allowed to do as she pleased with anyone. Until he told her otherwise. She was about to apologize again but Arnold stopped her. 

"Don\'t sweat it. He more or less deserved it. But next time ask me before doing anything like this." Arnold sighed, "Alright let\'s do this."