Once Rowan and Riela stepped into the portal, their visions blackened as they were being transported to a new and unknown destination.
Their visions only returned after they fully arrived at their destination and afterwards, they were greeted with a pretty bizarre sight.
"So many people." Rowan and Riela muttered almost at the same time.
The place they were in right now was very big, according to Rowan's estimation, it should be as big as two football stadiums combined.
The view here was almost similar to the place they had just left, as it was still within the confinement of a cave. However, unlike that place, there was light here and also a lot of people numbering up to a thousand or even more.
Also unlike that place, there weren't metallic beds and chains to hold them down, instead, there were countless small swimming pools on the ground with a strange liquid.
It was majorly quiet in here, the only sound being the movement of the numerous swimming pools.
Everyone in the place, aside from both of them, was soaked in these pools, some of them were meditating while others who weren't meditating at the moment looked at both of them with strange looks on their faces.
The looks ranged from confusion to visible disgust as though their eyes had just landed upon a stinking, naked lunatic.
Of course, Rowan wasn't bothered by these gazes on him.
But the same could not be said for Riela, who wasn't used to such intense gazes, especially from so many people. She moved closer to him and held his hands even more tightly.
Rowan, who had watched movies with scenes similar to these, could only see this place as a breeding room. The only difference was that they weren't in transparent cylinders, but in small pools instead.
After taking a better look at the place, Rowan proceeded to observe the people in these pools who were diverse in many orders including age, appearance, skin color, etc.
When Rowan checked their character status, he discovered that more than ninety percent of them possessed light magic affinity/skill.
There were only a few with dark magic affinity.
Rowan even spotted one with blood magic affinity.
He immediately felt a strong urge to copy and acquire the affinity for himself, but he quickly shook his head against it as he could still remember the words of Xandros.
'If I should merge with a new affinity now, I would only get myself into bigger trouble with the cult. The last thing I want now is drawing more attention to myself,' Rowan made up his mind.
If he could keep a low profile and observe this place even more, he might find a clue to break himself and Riela out of here.
"What do you feel about your new homes? Lovely, right?"
Xandros's voice sounded from behind them.
Rowan frowned and turned to Xandros.
"What is this place? Why did you bring us here?" Rowan asked.
"You have already witnessed the scene, I believe both of you are smart enough to at least understand the reason why you are in this place."
Although Rowan already had a hint of the reason why, he still wanted to get the answer directly from Xandros so he replied that he didn't understand.
Xandros gave Rowan a strange look for a brief second — he had been with him for quite a long time and had witnessed how fast Rowan grasped and understood difficult situations, thus he was pretty uncertain at this point if Rowan clearly didn't have an understanding of the situation or was pretending.
Nonetheless, he shrugged and provided the answer both of them wanted to hear.
"Everyone of you needs to be at a certain level of magic cultivation before you can be useful for the dark seed ritual, this place was created to make that easier and faster."
"In order words, a breeding ground for your sacrifices." Rowan commented.
"If you say so.." Xandros did not refute his words.
Rowan scoffed lightly, though he wondered why the cult didn't just exercise patience and wait till they had reached their desired levels before capturing them and bringing them here.
As if Xandros could read his mind, he replied, "Each pool contains powerful potions that supply a unique form of mana in case you're wondering. For someone like you two who come from a place with weak mana, here is a treasure house."
'Well he is not wrong.' Rowan kind of agreed.
If Riela had pools with this quality of mana at home, her magic cultivation would definitely improve way faster than with mana stones.
While Xandros and Rowan discussed, the others in their designated swimming pools who weren't meditating were confused.
'I thought this devil doesn't speak to humans at all?'
'He is speaking to that guy? Who might he be to cause a devil like Xandros to discuss with him?'
'Strange, I have been here for years, I have witnessed more than five hundred people get added to this place but Xandros never speaks to any of them.'
If Rowan could hear their thoughts, he would be even surprised.
Amongst the thousands of people in this place right now, only 20% know Xandros' name, and they only knew his name was Xandros when others referred to him, he didn't actually introduce himself.
Some of them only knew Xandros as the cold-hearted devil who felt extreme disgust at the sight of weak mages and human beings.
So they wondered the identity of Rowan, especially because he was significantly weaker than most of them.
Xandros and Rowan unknowingly spoke for five minutes which was the longest time Xandros had ever spent in this place!
"You've known everything you need to know, now it's time to begin your new jobs. Follow me."
Saying this, Xandros began strolling to the back where some vacant swimming pools could be seen, Rowan and Riela had no choice but to follow him.
'He is even leading them to their swimming pools? Who are these two?'
The onlookers barked in their minds before shutting their eyes and falling into their meditative state before Xandros could fish them ou
t for lazing around. They knew very well the penalty of those who lazed around in the past.