Cael’s everything hurt, and if possible, he thought he may have been even more thirsty.
At least that’s what he thought when he first awoke.
The whole ‘getting up’ thing hadn’t seemed so appealing at the time, so Cael didn’t, instead opting to roll back over and try to take shallow breaths until he had managed to fall back into the least restful sleep of his life.
Considering his luck, it wasn’t going to be getting much better going forward.
When next he stirred, he felt dangerously dehydrated and begrudgingly opened his eyes. It was at this point he noted that he had spent far longer asleep in this new life than he had spent awake.
Over the course of— Cael checked his age in the System box— three days, Cael had only really been conscious for four hours altogether. Maybe five.
Even worse than all that, however, was one of his newest System notifications.
Congratulations, [Pain Tolerance] has forcibly evolved into [Spirit of Darkness].
[Pain Tolerance] cannot be regained.
He had read it before passing out, but now that his thoughts were more coherent, wasn’t that really bad for him?
Cael had kind of been relying on the rapidly leveling [Pain Tolerance] when the elemental had been flaying him. At least he thought it had been rapidly leveling. The System didn’t seem to be notifying him about individual skill levels, but the pain had certainly been decreasing over time. Not nearly fast enough, but definitely decreasing.
Well, there was the possibility that his nerves were being extracted individually. Or that he hadn’t had enough blood left to sustain the operation of his nerves…
Anyway, back to the point. There was practically a guarantee that Cael would be forced to deal with… similar situations in the future, and the lack of the [Pain Tolerance] skill, or the ability to regain it, meant he was going to have to deal with the pain of every cut and bruise wholesale.
For obvious reasons, Cael didn’t think this was an ideal situation.
But speaking of situations… Cael sat up and looked around. Despite there being a newly vacant jail cell they could have put him in, it seemed somebody had decided to take him in. Like a stray puppy that someone took pity on and brought home to take care of. He definitely wasn’t complaining. He was mostly just curious how he was still alive.
He flexed the fingers of his miraculously restored right arm. Despite a twinge of pain, the fingers twitched slightly. With a bit of effort, Cael might soon be back to his full capabilities, as lackluster as they seemed to be against the elemental… Was Cael forgetting something? When the elemental had popped up, hadn’t he been-
Wait, the hedgehog kid!
Cael tossed the blanket to the foot of the bed and rose to his feet. For half a second. The next moment, he was sprawled out on the ground, groaning into the rug.
At least the rug had been gentle on his face.
Trista barged into the room, which more or less answered the question of who liked taking in strays.
“Oh, uh.” Cael waved awkwardly from the floor “Hey there, do you know what happened to the hedgehog kid?”
“The what?” Trista helped him back to his feet and sat him back on the bed.
Well, they probably weren’t actually called a hedgehog in this world.
“When the elemental attacked me, there was someone else there.” he explained, “I was hoping they were safe.”
“The baixian?”
Cael had no idea. “Yes, definitely.” he deadpanned.
“He’s alright, just a bit out of sorts after the whole ordeal. A bit paranoid too. You did scream pretty loudly.”
“Sorry about that, I was… startled?” Cael had lost an arm, but somehow, Trista had succeeded in making him feel guilty about it. He didn’t even think she had meant it in any malicious capacity but was only chastising him for scaring the baixan boy.
“It’s fine, you helped us find the elemental a bit more quickly. How’s the arm feeling?”
Cael had just checked, but he wiggled his fingers again anyway.
“There’s a bit of pain, but nothing I can’t deal with. Thank you for healing me.”
Trista waved him off, “Mercy patched you up. Healing is her thing, but I’ll let her know you appreciated it. Anyway, I’m making breakfast. Feel free to come down in a bit if you’re hungry. If not, then try to get some rest.”
Cael kind of did want to go back to sleep again, but he needed to properly check his System before something else happened, and where was safer than the house of a magic police officer? Probably a lot of places, now that he was thinking about it. Like, what if a magic criminal came by seeking revenge for being arrested?
Whatever. If he didn’t do it now, he might not have the chance later.
“System, please show me my full information box.”
Cael
General Information
Attributes
Classes
Gender
Male
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VIT
1
PER
1
Fairy Tale
1
53%
Species
Changeling
STR
1
INT
1
Age
3 days
END
1
FOC
1
Health
10/10
DEX
1
LCK
0
Titles
Mana
10/10
AGI
1
Extraplanar Reincarnator
1
0%
Stamina
10/10
Free Attribute Points
20
Condition
Spellbound
[Fairy Tale] Skill List
Class Skills
Progress
[Read]
6
36%
General Skill List
Skills
Progress
[Mana Sight]
83
74%
[Spirit of Darkness]
8
58%
“System, where did all these levels come from?” Specifically, Cael meant [Mana Sight], but the others seemed a bit anomalous as well.
The System didn’t feel the need to make a box to tell him about these. Instead, it chose to shoot the information directly into his brain, which almost made him fall off the bed again.
Supposedly [Read] was a skill that leveled passively and was responsible for his understanding of the local language, which was pretty great. [Mana Sight] was only cited as ‘previous experience’ which didn’t quite make sense. Did The System mean to say that he had seen mana before? He didn’t remember it, but who was he to argue with an omnipresence?
[Spirit of Darkness] had carry-over levels from when it had been [Pain Tolerance].
He didn’t know what any of them did in practice.
Cael queried the System again. This one did get a box.
[Read] (Passive)
So long as a language Skill in your vicinity is above level 40, you may borrow an understanding of that language.
[Mana Sight] (Active)
First Tier: Allows you to detect and follow the flows of mana around you.
Second Tier: Mana takes on color and expression in your senses.
[Spirit of Darkness] (Active, Passive)
Darkness exists within and without. Shadow magic affinity is increased by 10%. When the shadow elemental familiar exists in the material plane, shadow magic affinity is doubled.
Cael stiffened. The dark elemental? He’d thought it had been killed.
“System, how do you use skills designated as ‘active’?”
Another direct info dump. Active skills had to be activated by intent. They consumed resources such as health, mana, or stamina until the user stopped channeling the skill.
Cael got out of bed for the second time. He definitely needed to ask Trista what she thought of the [Spirit of Darkness] skill.
He looked down at himself.
Wait, these weren’t his clothes. He rolled his eyes, because, of course they weren’t. The elemental had totally shredded those, which was a bit embarrassing, but he bet there was too much blood for anyone to see much of anything.
Oh.
Who had cleaned him?
Cael forcibly turned his attention to something else. Like his new outfit. For a medieval- esque fantasy-world, the clothes here sure weren’t what he would expect. For the most part, they seemed to be the kinds of things you would see if you were to walk around a city in his old world.
For example, he was in a t-shirt and shorts, all wondrously comfortable, and unlike Rocaren, they hadn’t skimped on extras. When Cael checked underneath, he was wearing a pair of fitting boxers… did they get his size for all the clothes too? Cael shook his head and opened the door.
A wooden rail sat right outside. He looked over it and found an apartment. Like, a modern one. Cael was getting really confused about why some things he saw were modernized while others looked like they came straight out of a museum exhibit for the dark ages.
A living room filled the space directly below him, with cloth couches and a coffee table on a brightly colored rug. It even looked like they had a television set up on the far wall, some sort of glass sheet that was playing… the news?
Now that he thought about it, the underground city had appeared much more modern than its topside counterpart. From the jail cell, it hadn’t been clear enough to see, and when he was finally there, Cael had been too busy looking for a shelter to actually notice, but the contrast between the above and belowground cities was a bit too much, wasn’t it?
Cael shook his head. He didn’t know enough to judge that for himself.
Off to the right of the living room, was a busy kitchen. Trista was, of course, cooking as she had said, but Cael was surprised to find that Mercy was right there beside her, pan-frying something that looked and smelled like sausages.
He turned left and followed the guardrail to the far wall, where the stairs were.
Cael took them slowly at the urging of his knees which felt like they might fall off if he moved too quickly.
When finally Cael reached the bottom, he sighed in relief. There was another flight leading even further down, but thankfully, he didn't need to take it.
“Oh, hey there sleepy. We’re having breakfast in five. You can wait at the table until the food is ready.” Trista directed him to a table and returned to cooking. He felt bad that he hadn’t offered to help, but in his defense, everything still hurt, and he realized he didn’t remember how to cook. Not really, at least. He could probably hard-boil some eggs, but that didn’t count.
Cael collapsed in a comfortable wooden chair at the dining table and wondered how he should ask them about [Spirit of Darkness].