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Zaran glanced over his shoulder at the bed, just as the pot of hot water started boiling on the shabby stove that he built so long ago.
The kid sitting with his back against the wall and under a heavy blankets shied away from his gaze, probably trying to pretend that he was looking over his status. Zaran sighed internally while pouring water from the pot into a prepared wooden cup. Maybe the hot tea would help the boy’s recovery more than his own icy demeanor.
It has been more than an hour since his body recovered from the frostbite, but so far it appeared he was mute. His eyes were wide with curiosity back then, but now all he did was try to be as quiet as he could possibly manage. Zaran had no idea if he was born like that, if it was some kind of mental trauma, or... if the Frigid Woods actually damaged his inner space. Perhaps just a loss of the translation system could have explained the baheviour, but somehow he felt that there was more to it than that.
He turned around slowly, as to not to scare the boy any further, and offered him the cup with a gesture which he hoped would be easily understood no matter the circumstances. He suspected that the kid would require a dragon’s amount of patience to get through to, but ultimately, there was no harm in that.
He would surely not give up on such a rare opportunity either way.
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The room was very sparsely decorated, but every single detail stood out on it’s own, making Jai's vision crowded with information which he felt obliged to process. He had to focus so that his eyes didn’t dart around as if he had a panic attack.
It was difficult to adjust to say the least. He experienced sensory overload a few times before, but this was on a whole other level. The amount of things he felt, heard, saw and smelled was so overwhelming that he could barely think straight in the first minutes after waking up.
By the time he calmed down, the tall man had stopped trying to talk to him and went about his daily chores, or so it seemed. Jai felt guilty about ignoring his attempts at conversation, besides being awfully curious about where he was and how he got there.
Yet he still wasn’t in a good shape. Regardless of the void being either real or fake, he still felt how it changed him. Even closing his eyes to blink felt like a sacrilege after what felt like an eternity without sight. He wanted to feel. He needed to. The sound of a pot heating over the flames beckoned him to listen, the blankets draped over his lap and shoulders caressed him with their rough but warm fabric, the stale air tinged with faint bodily odor tickled his nose, and every single one of those things felt like a whole world which he could immerse himself in.
After living in a desert, a veritable ocean of fresh water was pouring onto his head, and Jai greedily drank every physical sensation so generously offered.
The weirdest thing was his body though. Instead of the familiar, slowly aging pale skin and creaky bones, he was noticeably younger. There was no mirror to compare, but he could easily feel the absence of wrinkles and the altered shape of his jaw. The palms of his hands had no callouses at all, and seemed almost gentle.
Then, he heard the sound again, transforming into words right before his eyes.
-Chore skill formed - {Comprehension}. You have struggled to sense your surroundings with a ravenous hunger unbefitting a regular human. Increases the effectiveness of Intelligence in processing Perception by 10%.-
‘What?’ Jai could only think to himself as he read another mysterious message. Somehow, it looked like a game prompt, but he was pretty sure that everything around him was quite real, not some virtual reality simulation. Or was he hallucinating?
He glanced around for anything out of place, anything at all that might suggest that he was just seeing things, but he could only grow more perplexed as he found it far easier to process what he saw. Even after being practically blind for what felt like forever, now he was almost comfortable with his sight again.
'Oh, wait... the prompt.'
He frowned. His eyes slowly rounding the room as he took in all the details that had been too much to handle before. The shabby wooden furniture smoothened by age, the round and slightly mismatched logs forming the walls, the coarse blankets he was under, and finally the man who was tending to the steaming pot of water. His skin was a lot darker than Jai’s own basement-dweller complexion, looking vaguely latino, yet coupled with light blonde hair reaching to his shoulders and blue eyes.
Jai had to concede that it was a peculiar combination, not helped in the slightest by the rest of his clothing and visage. All in all, he looked like a homeless person.
Suddenly, the man turned his head and looked back at him.
Altogether too quickly, Jai turned away to study a very interesting spot on the floor. He wanted to slap himself for being awkward, but he guessed it made some sense. He was even less used to having company than he was to having a body again.
The man took a wooden cup, now filled to the brim, and gestured for Jai to take it. Somehow, Jai got the impression that he was a former soldier. His back was straight as a ruler, his movements deliberate, and a certain kind of pressure hung in the air, giving weight to his otherwise forgettable features.
Or maybe he was just being paranoid, since his host didn’t look threatening at all in any objectively recognizable way. Perhaps his stern expression coupled with Jai’s own social anxiety did the job by itself.
After a moment of hesitation, Jai took the cup with utmost care, and caught a faint, yet pleasant scent of tea. It was not one he was familiar with, but tea none the less. The man nodded.
“You look a little better. Can you talk now?”
Jai frowned ever so slightly. ‘Can I?’ He mentally shrugged at himself. ‘I might as well try it I guess…’
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“Yee-eas..?” he replied, tasting the sounds on his tongue as he made them, still getting used to controlling is body. It wasn’t too close to what he intended, but he hoped he was understood.
“Good. Your translation system works, so your inner space should be mostly fine,” the man said, probably trying to sound reassuring. “There is nothing to worry about for now.”
“Woaaad?” Jai cringed at what came out of his mouth.
It was the man’s turn to frown “Your translation system. Or is it damaged somehow? Check your status and tell me, because if it is, we have a problem. Can you understand me right now?”
The man spoke with a flat tone and in a steady rythm, almost like a text-to-speech program, or a regular bureaucrat.
Jai simply nodded, since trying to say anything would probably lead to an accidental insult at that point in time. He started feeling out his throat with a hand, hoping to get used to talking soon.
What did he mean by status though?
Just as Jai thought that, the now familiar sound returned, filling his vision with slowly appearing text.
Name: Jaine Meriann
Race: Human Revenant
Class: n/a
Attributes:
* Physical Strength - 8
* Endurance - 8
* Vitality - 8
* Dexterity - 8
* Mental Strength - 12
* Wisdom - 7
* Intelligence - 13
* Perception - 15
Titles: Revenant, Soul Manipulator
Chore Skills: Ice Resistance (1), Soul Perception (2), Soul Manipulation(2), Comprehension (1)
Effects: Frostbite of the Frigid Woods (minimal, diminishing), Sensory Overload (weak, diminishing), Seedling Dispersion <11:16:40:05>
There was a lot to digest in that text for sure. First off, the man knew about it, meaning that what Jai was seeing was most probably as real as he was. Second off, he had a game stat screen!
The sheer absurdity of it took him a few minutes to shake off, but the man had thankfully understood that he was somehow busy and kept silent. Still, the occasional glance made Jai nervous. He wanted to get back home and figure out what to do next there, not in some kind of wooden hut with a stranger.
He tried getting up, but in a moment his strength faded and his arms buckled under his weight, prompting a slightly annoyed response from his host.
“That is a bad idea.”
Jai sighed, shaking a little. As he slowly got over the weirdness around him, more important questions surfaced in his mind, ones that made him afraid to even ask about. He consciously controlled his tongue and lips to form the proper words. “Did you kidnap me? Who are you? Where are we?”
The man inclined his head slightly to the right and scrunched his brows. “You do not remember?” he asked before scratching his nek. “No, I am not kidnapping you, I am saving your life. If you go out now, you will not survive longer than a few hours. As for my name, it is Zaran. And I am not sure what plane you think we are on, but this is none of them. We are in hell.”
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Bright red tongues of flame danced above Zaran’s naked palm, and his fingers cast shadows over the walls of the dimly lit room. Compared to the simple candles around them, Zaran’s spell produced far more light. Jai swallowed heavily. ‘Magic…’
“You are from one of those isolated mortal collectives, are you not?”
Jai steered his wide-eyed gaze away from the flame, being reminded that he just spent half a minute unresponsive in the middle of a conversation. He opened his mouth to respond, but hesitated. He was quite sure he never met any such cult-sounding group, but then again, he was clearly out of his depth here. He shakily set the empty cup on a nearby table.
The corners of Zaran’s lips tugged upward ever so slightly. “I mean places with none or limited connection to the outside world. I figured that would be your case, nobody else would stare at a chore spell like this. The status screen you were used to and the average abilities of your kin were a little different, were the not?”
“I… Yeah, I guess that’s one way of putting it.” he said. “Uhm… Look, I’m really thankful for being saved, but what do I do now? When can I get back?”
“Hardly,” Zaran slowly shook his head. “Even considering that someone probably wanted to retrieve you, that dog could have only served the purpose before entering here, and tamed Biters like that one aren’t used to catch someone in one piece. I would vager whoever you were running from did not have good intentions.”
Jai pursed his lips, slowly digesting what he heard. “I thought hell is more like… lava and flames and brimstone, you know?”
“On your own plane, perhaps. On this one, there is the Frigid Woods. A hell full of lava doesn’t sound too efficient, but I have seen a few perplexing things in my time already. It would not surprise me too much. What does surprise me is that you survived. I am quite sure there are only two living humans in this whole place, the rest is wraiths and other kinds of spirits, so you can see how rare this is.”
The fact that his host was a denizen of hell was unnerving to say the least. However, Jai also got there in one way or the other while leading a peaceful life before, and Zaran seemed nice enough, so perhaps neither of them deserved it. Besides, did he have any other option than to trust the man who could summon flames on a whim?
“So you’re telling me that I lost some of my memories after running away to literal hell from someone who sent a monster dog to catch me, and now I’m in place with magical screens, and people who can conjure fireballs?”
Zaran sighed “In short, yes. You are not the first to experience this. The Laruun military integrated several such places after discovering them. Their planes tend to be artificial, small and unstable, created by a madman or extremists. Keeping the overlay system at bay also reduces the quality of life, and as far as I know, most civilized nations consider them to be inhumane. Rescuing your kin from such a place can be considered a favor.”
The flames still flickered playfully over his hand, slowly losing some of the magical flair in Jai’s eyes, and instead looking surprisingly mundane. It was as if Zaran was just spinning a pen or squishing a stress ball out of boredom rather than using magic to defy natural laws.
Again, it felt like there was something missing. Wasn’t it the case that he should have been distraught at not being able to get home? Perhaps the whole earth was already ‘integrated’ by someone while he was stuck in a reverse version of hell, yet all he could think about was how to learn magic. Wasn’t it weird?
‘No… I don’t really have much to return to, do I? Maybe I just want to feel safe again. God knows that would make some sense, especially now. I'd feel much safer with with my arm as a flamethrower...’
Jai returned from his musings, but didn’t voice them. Nothing good would come out of acting impulsively, and as much as he didn’t have a choice, trust didn’t come easily. He smiled meekly and spoke up, “Thank you for everything. I think I need a while to process… this. All of this. I’ll get off from the bed and sleep on the floor, I think I’m feeling a bit better now.
His savior only held up a hand “No need for that. I will not need sleep for a few weeks at this rate, so there is no need to worry. Rest and recover your strength, Jaine.”
Jai pursed his lips “It’s Jai, not Jaine. How do you know my name anyhow? I never told you.”
“I inspected your status when I found you, Jaine Meriann. You ought to cherish the name given by your ancestors more."
There was no reply as Jai simply turned away and draped the rough blankets over his shoulder, fully intending to fall asleep then and there.
‘Of course he doesn’t need to sleep for weeks and knows everything. AND can use magic…’
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