A damp smell permeated the area. Sol’s chest rose and fell fast as his body was unused to such humid air. That in turn roused him from his slumber; he rose and looked at his surroundings. The room was almost pitch black, only illuminated by the light that escaped from under a metal door. Everywhere else he looked was a solid stone wall with no windows except for one that had a full metal door.
Sol’s hand passed over his throat, still feeling the fresh bruise from being choked unconscious. Taking into consideration his fast health regeneration speed, he surmised he wasn’t knocked out for long. After gaining a better feeling of his surroundings, he checked whether he had any of his personal belongings. As expected, everything of value was gone, including the spatial ring.
To most people, this would be a hopeless situation, but the moment Sol saw the stone walls, roof, and floor, he actually felt reassured. He activated [Burrow] and watched as his hand easily submerged into the cold hard floor.
‘At least I can easily escape, but even if I do, I would no longer be able to stay in this city. They will chase me to either silence me or capture me for whatever they wanted in the first place.’
Sol didn’t immediately escape, not only because he didn’t want to go into hiding or leave until however long it would take to fully crush whatever operation they had going here. He wanted to stop them now permanently, but he wasn’t sure how. So he decided to wait a bit and see to gain a better understanding of what he was up against while he planned a way to stop them from doing this again.
‘Trevor said they have been doing this for years… Kidnapping people who simply stood out amongst their peers were taken to do god knows what. That other girl too… I can’t just abandon her…’
Sol wasn’t the type of person to leave someone behind. Even if he didn’t know a single thing about them, not even their name, now that he knows they are in trouble, he will save her while trying to prevent this from happening again.
‘Unfortunately I lost all my stuff but I can get it back soon enough if I play my cards right.’
Sol used [Mana Perception] to gain an understanding of his surroundings outside of his room. Though hard to make out based on just mana signatures, there was one he recognized, his spatial ring.
Sol had noticed this from his repeated usage of this skill that everyone and everything had a slightly different mana signature. Initially, Sol believed that mana was just mana, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Mana existed mixed into everything and in turn slightly changed and in a way polluted the mana. People, for example, would have different quantities, shapes in the way it's stored in their body, they pulsate in different ways, and even their colors can vary. The same applied to items, and Sol remembered the colors and shape his ring gave off. There is a chance it could just be another spatial ring, but the way it pulsated reminded him of his. Sol memorized the location he saw it for later and focused on trying to find his other belongings.
‘Nope, the rest look unrecognizable. Though it seems the girl who was kidnapped alongside me is right next to me.’
Sol saw the mana signatures of a few people moving out and about above him, some moving into his range of perception and others leaving it. It seemed that wherever he was held, there was a good amount of traffic. Next to him, he saw one long mana signature of a light purple that darkened the further it left the center of the body. It looked rather dense compared to the ones above and on top of that, they seemed to be lying down on the same level as the ground next to him.
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Using [Burrow], Sol poked his head through the wall, and his suspicion was proved right. He saw lying on the ground the same young woman that got taken along with him. At the time, he didn’t get a good look at her, and even in this darkness, it made it a bit hard to see, but he could barely make out her general features. Her hair started light brown, but as it passed by her shoulders, it changed to a really light orange. She had an average height slightly below 6 feet and looked to be around 18, similar to Sol. The young woman was still alive, evident by the gentle rising and falling of her modest chest.
Sol pulled his head back from the wall and returned back to his room. At least he knew she was fine, for how long still remains to be seen. Having nothing to do in the empty room, Sol moved to one of the walls of the room and sat down using it to rest his back. He then opened his status page to see if there was anything he could do while waiting.
Name: Sol
Race: Human
Talents: [Siphoner]
Level: 35
Exp: 14,380/165,000
HP: 1000
MP: 500
Str: 40 (+60)
Vit: 30 (+70)
Agi: 30 (+20)
Int: 30 (+10)
Wis: 40 (+10)
Talent Skills:
[Siphon] Lv 3, [Analysis] Lv 4
Passive Skills:
[Intermediate Swordsmanship] Lv 5, [Basic Trapmaking] Lv 7, [Silent Steps] Lv 9, [Counter] Lv 1, [Quick Cast] Lv 7, [Agility Up] Lv 4, [Nature Sense] Lv 1, [Intermediate Throwing] Lv 1, [Intermediate Unarmed Mastery] Lv 1, [Gargantuan Strength] Lv 1, [Basic Bowmanship] Lv 7, [Intermediate Axemanship] Lv 2, [Iron Stomach] Lv 5, [Pursuit] Lv 1, [Endless Vitality] Lv 2, [Increased Mana Regeneration] Lv MAX, [Physical Resistance] Lv MAX, [Mana Perception] Lv 6, [Natural Armor] Lv MAX, [Wisdom Up] Lv 2, [Increased Health Regeneration] Lv 3, [Intelligence Up] Lv 2, [Basic Spearmanship] Lv 9
Active Skills:
[Cross Slash] Lv 3, [Ground Shrink] Lv 1, [Basic Wind Magic] Lv 6, [Intermediate Fire Magic] Lv 4, [Snap Punch] Lv 4, [Blurry Steps] Lv 1, [Harden] Lv 9, [Power Shot] Lv 4, [Concealment] Lv 4, [Wide Swing] Lv 8, [Basic Water Magic] Lv 6, [Intermediate Earth Magic] Lv 1, [Earth Hammer] Lv 5, [Rock Throw] Lv 4, [Burrow] Lv MAX, [Heavy Blow] Lv 8, [Crippling Strike] Lv 8, [Charge] Lv 7, [Rage] Lv 6, [Meditation] Lv 2
‘Practicing skills won’t increase any of the skill levels, but maybe meditation can be useful.’
[Meditation] Lv 2: Calms the mind and enters into a state of peaceful meditation. Increases mana regeneration by 10%. Increases concentration by 6%.
It was a skill he gained when siphoning from the bodies at the fort. Feeling like giving it a try, Sol changed to a cross legged position as he activated the skill for the first time.
Sol found his senses dulling, and the slight pain from the bruise on his throat disappeared completely. He also found it much easier to think and used this time of calm to reflect on his skills and spells. He hadn’t had much time to analyze his skills and especially spells on how best to use them. For example, when he was fighting the assassin, he spent too much time coming up with a proper plan. If he simply had a better acquaintance with his spells, he would have been able to solve the fight much faster.
Starting from the element he knew the least spells for, wind, Sol contemplated the usage and applications of each spell. Time passed as he gained a better understanding of each spell beyond simple memorization; eventually, Sol saw a mana signature heading towards his room and stopped practicing. By then, Sol was already done with wind and was in the middle of water spells.
A light knocking sound came from the metal door.
‘Why knock? I'm the prisoner…’
“Come in?”
The door creaked open, flooding the room with light, and in walked the flamboyant man. His outfit had changed from his blue suit to a leather polka dot jacket and green pants.
“How you doing sleepy head?”