Where am I? Derek opened his eyes feeling sore all over. His body ached with deep, bone-weary exhaustion, and his mind was a fog of confusion and pain. For a second, he forgot everything and reached for his phone on the side table by his bed, only to find something was horribly wrong. There was no bed, no side table, and certainly no phone. Instead, Derek’s hand brushed against something cold, wet, and unyielding. Panic surged through him as his fingers traced the surface—hard, smooth, and metallic like the bars of a window. No. It was a cage.

His eyes snapped open fully, and the harsh reality of his situation came crashing down on him. He was not in his room, not in the safety of his home. He was trapped, confined within a small, claustrophobic cage, unable to even stand up and stretch his limbs. What the fuck?

Derek's breath hitched as the cold realization set in, his heart pounding wildly in his chest. The cage was cramped, the metal bars pressing against his aching limbs. The air felt heavy, oppressive, and damp, with a strange, briny scent that clung to his skin. He blinked rapidly, trying to clear the fog from his mind, but the disorientation only grew as he took in his surroundings.

[Ding! You are currently afflicted with mana exhaustion]

The system’s notification slapped him awake and the recent memories came flooding back into Derek's mind like a tidal wave. The Razorfin fish, the frantic battles, his pitiful attempt at hunting those fishes to gain power, and the desperate swim for his life. The last thing he remembered was fleeing from the school of devil fish, pushing his body and mana reserves beyond their limits, and then… that face.

Derek shuddered. Maybe that was a hallucination? He laughed at his own thoughts. He was currently imprisoned in a cage like an animal. How could it be a hallucination? Where the hell was he? He craned his neck to look around but his vision was blurred, and the dim light around him offered little clarity. His head throbbed with a dull, persistent ache, making it difficult to focus.

Derek’s fingers curled around the cold bars, gripping them tightly to ground himself in this strange, disorienting reality. He tried again. He could make out the rocky walls that enclosed the area, forming what appeared to be a cave of some sort. There was some algae or fungus clinging to the rocks and the faint glow emanating from them was the only source of light in the cramped space. As he struggled to focus, a soft swishing sound reached his ears, growing louder and more distinct.

Derek frantically searched the dimly lit cave for the source. The shape of a figure began to materialize. The creature was bigger than him, not by too much, its scales shimmering with a blue-green sheen. The lower half of its body tapered into a powerful, finned tail, propelling it gracefully through the shallow waters. Derek looked up to see the familiar face, the same one that he had seen before. This was the same creature that had captured him, the mermaid or rather the merman from his nightmare.

The merperson circled the cage slowly, its gaze never wavering from Derek. Its eyes bore into him with an unsettling intensity. The soft swish of its powerful tail echoing in the confined space amplified Derek's sense of entrapment.

Derek knew he was in a bad position. He was currently helpless, weakened by mana exhaustion, and at the mercy of this strange, underwater being. He knew something like this was going to happen sooner or later which was why he decided to hunt more razorfin and become stronger. But he still ended up in this situation. Well, at least he was not dead yet.

He silently adjusted his breathing, trying to regain his calm and steady his mental state. He had no idea what was going to happen next. Naturally, he had some guesses. It was just that none of them ended in him leaving this place alive.

While Derek tried to remain calm, the merman finally stopped directly in front of him, its head tilting slightly as it regarded him with a look that was almost... contemplative? The merman's lips then curled into a semblance of a smile, though there was no warmth in it—only a chilling satisfaction. It reached out with one webbed hand and grasped the bars of the cage, its long fingers wrapping around the metal as if testing its strength.

The merman's eyes narrowed, and it leaned in closer, its face mere inches from the bars. For a moment, Derek thought it might say something, but instead, the merman hissed softly, a sound that was both menacing and strange, before turning away and swimming out of sight, leaving Derek alone once more.

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The silence that followed was deafening, broken only by the faint drip of water from the ceiling of the cave. Derek’s head slumped forward as he tried to gather his thoughts, the situation becoming more surreal by the minute. He didn’t understand what the merman wanted, why he was imprisoned, or how he could possibly escape this nightmare.

Exhausted and overwhelmed, Derek let out a shaky breath. What the hell was he supposed to do now? Not that he had the ability to do anything. His body felt like a frozen pretzel twisted and turned and his head hurt like it was about to explode. He closed his eyes and let out a breath, trying to relax once again. He was not exactly lying sprawled on a soft bed with a comforter over him but sleep came quicker than he thought it would.

When Derek woke up again, he was still in the same spot, still crumpled like a paper inside the small cage. But he felt better. Well, somewhat better. He quickly willed his status screen to open, showing as little emotion as possible in case someone was watching him. Health full and mana full. Perfect. He looked at his body and all his bruises and injuries seemed to have healed completely. Exactly how long was he asleep? The corner of the system screen gave him the answer.

42 hours!

He had been out cold for nearly two days. His body had healed, and his mana reserves were replenished, but the thought of being unconscious for so long unsettled him. Anything could have happened in that time. His surroundings were eerily quiet now, and there was no sign of the merman.

He shifted uncomfortably in the cramped cage, his muscles protesting as he tried to stretch. The bars still pressed coldly against his skin. "I need to get out of here," Derek muttered to himself. He was already pushing his luck as it was. Sure, he might have recovered completely but he had that much less time to plot an escape route from here. He needed to act fast.

Derek spent the next few minutes trying to break out of the cage but he quickly found out that he needed a new strategy. He craned his neck and observed the cave he was currently in. There was shallow water surrounding the cage, and one narrow passageway leading out of the chamber. That was pretty much it. The water lapped gently against the stone floor, filling the space with a low, rhythmic sound. The cave was larger than he initially realized, and the ceiling stretched higher than he could reach. But there was no obvious way out.

Frustration welled up inside Derek as he assessed his situation. His chances were getting slimmer by the second. Also was he under the water by any chance? Even if he escaped, what the hell was he going to do? Suffocate and die?

Derek closed his eyes and let out a sigh. It took him a while but eventually, he was once again calm and composed. He needed to think practically about the situation he was in. It might look impossible but he simply couldn’t put his hands up and wait for death. He opened up his status screen and stared at the section at the end, the list of his skills. This was it. He now had new skills in his arsenal. He couldn’t think like before anymore. He had to think differently. He had to… scratch an itch on his fucking nose and he just couldn’t reach it.

Fuck! Fucking nuts! Derek muttered in annoyance. He closed the system screen with clenched fists as to what use was that anyway. He had no idea how to manipulate water or mana. He only had two chances to use Water Fist before his mana ran dry and he preferred to save it as an element of surprise for the assholes who had caged him. Otherwise, all of his cards would be exposed and there was a good chance that the cage still might not crack. Even if it did then what. He might have to face more enemies on the other side of this cave.

No. Breaking out right now was not an option. He needed to improve. He needed to genuinely become better and stronger. Unfortunately, this was also impossible as he was not currently in water at the moment. How was he supposed to figure out anything in this situation? Even his chances of making a lucky break were slim.

Derek sat still staring blankly at the cave wall before closing his eyes. He did not know if this was going to work but he decided to try anyway. Trying to forget as much as he could about where he was or how he was, he focussed only on the stability of his breath. This was a technique he used when he trained every day from morning to night. It was a visualization technique in a nutshell and he started by visualizing everything that had happened ever since he got stranded in the middle of nowhere. He left out the irrelevant parts of it all and simply concentrated on the water and the feeling he had gotten every time he interacted with the element. Before he used to do this and imagine the way his arms, his legs, and his torso moved and the ways he could improve himself to get better times but now he imagined the skills he had used and how his body had responded to each.

Time ticked by and soon minutes became hours. Derek couldn’t keep it all up for hours together considering that he was in a certain amount of pain and discomfort at the moment but he went in again and again. Giving up was not an option here.

And soon he received a notification.

[Ding! You have learned a new skill: Meditation]

[Meditation: Focus and attune yourself with the flow of mana, allowing for faster recovery and greater control over magical abilities. The effectiveness of meditation increases with practice, aiding in mental clarity and mana regeneration.]

[Ding! You have gained experience points]