SSSSS-Rank: Negative Leveling

'First a Beast King, and now this, what the hell is wrong with my luck?'

The cage, which had been jolting along for what felt like hours, was finally still.

It was night, and through the iron bars Luthra could see the five bounty hunters sitting around a campfire.

"Hahaha, seriously, the little rat just cried and led us right to him!"

"She sure did, all it took was one little tap from you, boss."

The man called boss took a long drink from a bottle and wiped his mouth with his arm, "Yeah, well, a wounded hunter is a big prize, the Mines will pay a fortune for fresh meat like him, we really hit the jackpot this time."

"To the jackpot!" another one shouted, and they all drank.

Inside the cage, the other captives were huddled together, shivering from the cold. The girl who stole his cores was asleep in a corner, and even in the dark he could see the bruise on her face.

'Tch, fucking animals.'

His gaze shifted to an old man who was sitting against the opposite bars. The man was so thin he looked like a skeleton, and his breathing was faint.

'Fucking hell, how long has this old geezer been here, he looks like he's about to fall apart.'

He shifted a little closer, the movement making the chains on his wrists clink together.

"Hey, old man. Are you still breathing over there?"

The old man coughed, a dry, rattling sound that shook his entire body. "For now, yes. Though I am not sure for how much longer."

"I heard those guys talking about the Gorgon Mines, what is that place?"

"It is a slave mine, run by a group of bastards who call themselves the Gorgon Syndicate," the old man wheezed, his voice thin and raspy. "They buy people like us to dig for mana stones deep underground. It is a place you do not come back from."

'A slave mine, huh, just my fucking luck.'

"What about the Association? Don't they do anything about this?"

The old man let out a sound that might have been a laugh if he had the strength for it. "The mines are in the lawless territories, far beyond the Association's reach. Once we arrive, they will brand us with a mana-suppressing sigil. Then we are no longer hunters, we are just property."

He coughed again, a bit of blood appearing on his lips. "I was a D-rank hunter once, you know, a long time ago. Look at me now."

'A D-rank hunter ended up like this. This is worse than I thought.'

He looked down at the heavy iron cuffs around his wrists. 

'I am guessing these are meant to suppress mana? Lucky for me, they don't seem to be working. I could just burst out and attack but that's risky and dumb, I don't even know how strong they are.'

He needed a proper plan, and to make one, he needed more information.

'I need to know what I am dealing with, I can't just fight them blind, that is a sure way to get myself killed.'

He decided to ask the only source of information he had available at the moment.

'Hey, System. Analyze those five guys that are sitting outside by the fire.'

[Analysis of human targets is not possible with the current skill set. The skill [Appraise] is required for this function.]

'Appraise? Of course, it is another skill I do not have, how convenient for me. And where would I get that from?'

[The skill [Appraise Lv. -1] is available for purchase in the Unranked Shop. The cost for this skill is 500 NP.]

'Five hundred?! Are you kidding me right now? I have zero! This is a complete and utter scam!'

He let out a quiet sigh. 

He looked over at the bounty hunters, they were laughing and drinking around the fire, getting progressively louder. He then looked at the girl in the corner of the cage, she was awake now, hugging her knees.

He shifted closer to her. "Hey, you."

The girl looked up. "What?"

"Those guys outside. Have you seen them fight before?"

She shook her head. "Not really. Only the big one, the boss. When they caught me, he got mad at a tree for being in his way and he kicked it, the whole thing just fell over."

'He kicked a tree down, so he's at least a E-3 rank in raw physical strength, this is going to be more troublesome than I thought.'

Just then, the man they called the boss got up from the fire. He stretched his arms and yawned, then he walked over to the cage, stopping right in front of the little girl's section.

He grabbed the iron bars and shook them. "Hey, you, little rat. Wake up. I'm bored, and you're going to provide some entertainment for me and my men."

The girl tried to make herself smaller, pressing herself against the back of the cage, trying to make herself disappear into the shadows.

The man unlocked the cage door and reached inside, his dirty hand grabbing the girl's arm.

"Come on out, rat. Don't make me come in there after you."

The girl screamed. "No! Please! Let me go! Somebody help me!"

Luthra watched without saying a word.

He watched the bounty hunter start to drag the crying girl out of the cage. He saw the dark bruise on her face, then looked over at the other four men who were laughing by the fire.

'I've seen enough of this crap.'

He looked down at the cuffs around his wrists, then he just pulled his hands apart. The thick metal snapped in two and fell to the ground with a quiet thud. He stood up and walked to the cage door, kicking it once. 

The entire door flew off its hinges and crashed into the dirt.

The bounty hunters all stopped laughing at once. The boss dropped the little girl, who quickly scrambled away, and turned to face him.

"Hey! What the hell do you think you're doing, you piece of shit?!"

The other four men got to their feet, drawing swords and axes from their belts. Luthra did not say a word, he just walked right past them, ignoring them completely.

He walked over to one of their horses, where his broken chain was tied to the saddle. He untied it and slung it over his shoulder. Then he turned around and started walking back toward the campfire.

The boss's face was red with anger. "You think you can just walk away from me?! After you get that rusty piece of junk, I'm going to beat you to death with it!"

Luthra kept walking, his steps slow and steady. He stopped when he was about ten feet away from the boss, the firelight flickering off the cracked metal of his chain.