Part 3
There was a squall. Heavy rain poured hard on the ground, accompanied by strong winds blowing the trees around. While above, the night sky was covered by low-hanging clouds.
Isaiah wasn't too sure how, but by the time he realized it, he was lying on the wet soil below. Darkness surrounded him compounded by the heavy barrage of rain while his ears were filled with the howling sound of the wind. He was wet all around, even behind, however, there was little he could do to alleviate himself as his body felt so sore that he was unable to move an inch of his muscles, it felt like he was encased in stone.
He closed his eyes to rest his body while contemplating his current situation, as he was wallowing on his thoughts he began to hear slow and heavy footsteps approaching him. Opening his eyes he saw a man standing not too far from him, but as his sight adjusted to the darkness he suddenly realized that it was not a man but rather something else entirely that had found him.
It had a human-like body structure, but its egg-shaped head was too big for its small body. It carried large blue oval eyes on its face, while its lips, which resembled a simple black line, flashed a smile. It had no visible ears or nose in its plain face and was hairless from top to bottom. Its body was simple in design, just a stomach, a large foot, and small arms with three triangular claws on its edge, with a short tail to top it all off. Isaiah noticed that it somewhat resembled a certain fire-tailed lizard of a certain game,
It did look cute, but the creature carried a powerful aura.
The creature took a few steps towards Isaiah before it stopped, its head covering its face from the rain above.
“Not again...” It opened its mouth, and a slightly high-pitched voice went out. “This sorry state.”
He was more perplexed by this creature in front of him and couldn’t give a reply. Well even if he wanted to speak the pain in his head prevented him from forming any kind of response,
“I do not understand why... I've tried my best to help, but...” The creature sighed, there was clear sadness in its voice, but Isaiah continued to stare in his mindless state of being as the creature crouched next to him, “I am tired. Eight have already died, I do not want a ninth.”
The creature then raised one of its hands and suddenly, Isaiah felt a strange feeling. As he looked around, he saw tiny droplets of water frozen in place. Time had stopped. And he had a strange feeling that it was this creature that made it stop.
"Should I let you live, no, do you wish to live?” The creature asked him.
‘What do you mean live? What the fuck are you!’ Isaiah screamed in his mind, but then he realized, his head no longer ached. Gone were the mind-numbing pain waving around his head, instead it was replaced by such clarity that Isaiah felt like he was in a state of Nirvana or something.
Isaiah, shocked, looked at the creature. His body was still too heavy to move but he felt his mouth unloosened.
“Who... You?” He asked with difficulty, only broken words escaped his lips.
The creature shook his head, “I do not have time for that, you are dying... Tell me, do you wish to live or do you wish to rest in eternal peace?”
“I... Confused... What... You... Want?”
"To help you decide."
"Live... I... Want... To... Live." Isaiah readily agreed, as the creature said he was dying and Isaiah did not want to die yet.
"You are not the first I aided, many have died before you from many great dangers... I can guarantee you the same, a life filled with problems and tribulations and horrors beyond your imagination, yet you still wish to live?"
"..." Isaiah stopped, he wasn't sure why the creature seemed to discourage him from living however Isaiah did not care, life was already hard how much worse could it be? "I... Want... To live."
The creature paused for a while, as if contemplating about his words then nodded.
"Then, if that is your wish... Good luck, Isaiah, You will need it."
The creature covered his eyes as Isaiah fell into a deep slumber.
...
The soft sound of fire cackling awoke him as Isaiah found himself inside a rather dim room. He closed and opened his eyes as he let his eyesight adjust itself to the darkness while he let out a mighty pain-filled yawn.
The suddenness of the change from what he saw a while back and today did mess with his mind.
'But who was that guy, think...' He squinted his eyes as he recoiled in pain, 'Is... Jail...' In front of him were metallic bars formed in a way similar to prisons 'Why am I in jail...' He thought to himself when he looked down and saw the black tattoo on his chest, 'So it wasn't a dream.'
Isekai.
The act of being transported from one world to another.
He had never thought it would happen to him, mainly because the idea of being transported to another world was contained in the realm of fiction. But that was the only thing that could explain his current situation.
'How... No, why? Like...'
His head started to ache, and a myriad of questions began to pour into his mind. He took a deep breath as he adjusted himself, having now felt the unbalance on his foot. He was atop a slanted platform which made it difficult for him to stand straight unless he was constantly straining his knees, this in turn produced much stress on his foot. Though his legs were also chained, the lack of proper balance made stating still very uncomfortable.
He groaned in pain, as he moved his legs as much as he could to alleviate the rising static numbness on his foot while scanning his surroundings.
He was contained inside a small cell, being that the outside was only two short steps away from where he was and he could feel the heat from the torch just outside. Underneath, the cell was carpeted by sickly-looking hay which stank so much that his nose felt like it had sinuses. Just outside the bars was a clean hallway while directly opposite of them was a similar cell as theirs but empty.
To his side was a figure suspended in the same way as he was. He had long unkempt hair and his body was particularly hairy, upon closer inspection however he did not look like the old man from the carriage as he wore only a loin cloth that covered his groin.
“Ah... Hello?” He called out but there was no reply, “Are you alright sir?”
The cell was too dark to be able to see things properly, though he could see the man’s outlines and body shape his face was shrouded in the dark. He couldn’t tell if the man was asleep or awake, or even if he was a man in the first place.
“Sir?”
Cough Cough.
A response. Isaiah felt delighted, being alone in this kind of location would give him goosebumps,
“Are you alright?”
“Who is there?”
A rather old tired voice replied, he spoke in that language that Isaiah didn't know but was somehow fluent enough to understand and speak. 'This thing is trippy.'
“I-Isaiah Peter Dragovitch, sir...”
“Isaiah...” His cellmate pronounced his name as Eesayah, not I-saiah.
“Y-yes sir...” Isaiah decided not to correct him, there were more pressing matters than proper pronunciation, “Are you the man beside me?”
“Beside you?”
“Yes...”
“You are in the center? But you died some time ago?”
“Center sir? To my left is a wall. Are there three of us here?”
“Yes... Me, and this other guy who died... So you are new?”
Isaiah paused for a while as he looked at the figure to his side, “I-I believe so... I came a few days ago.” He was shocked to learn that it was a dead body that was beside him.
“I see... What a shame, you sound young.”
"Is the man..."
“Dead.” Came the reply before he could complete his sentence. "I remember him dying."
“Right...” He looked at the dead body to his side, his nose stung as if he had since so, thankfully, he couldn't smell any of its foul smell, “How long has it been, are they not gonna clean it, and we might catch whatever sickness it is bringing.”
“The sergeant usually arrives to clear the cells and feed us... I forgot when they should be here... There are no windows, I cannot tell if it's even night or day.”
Isaiah nodded quietly before looking around when his cellmate asked, “Were you captured or sold? How did you get here?”
“I am not sure sir... My memories seemed foggy.” Came his reply, though he knew that he came from another world, there was no need to tell anyone.
“Ahh, so it's like that huh... Anyway, you are perhaps young, and since they only place mages in this place you should have a great, if dangerous, future ahead of you... If you find a master quickly that is.”
“Wait what sir?” Isaiah interrupted after hearing the word mages but the man continued to speak,
“I’ve been here for ten years and have already grown old, this man beside me couldn’t speak our language so I never spoke to him and well he died some time ago, I-I don’t even know what my name is anymore. Though I can use fire-type magic, I doubt anybody would buy me out of this place hahaha.”
“Wait, sir, you said magic? I have magic?”
“I wish I could die,” The man ignored Isaiah’s questions, “I've been provoking that guard here, but that man was calm, he never fell for my taunts.”
“Right, sir... But about what you said, I have magic?”
“Yes... Why else would you be here in the first place?”
“Ehh... I don’t understand.”
“Well... Those without magic are packed inside smaller cages at the bottom floors. Us mages are more valuable goods and many would pay a pretty penny to buy us up, so our captors would put us in a more elegant display. You see those chains covering your hand kid, those are mana-inhi... Inhibicor was it? I-it sucks up mana so to say.”
“Mana...” Isaiah looked back and started to notice the strange feeling he had with his hands, they felt somewhat numb and damp and he could feel an air-sucking feeling at the tips of his fingers. “But... I can use magic?”
“You can wait... You don’t know what your element is? Aha, you're just like me then!”
“You sir?”
“Yes... I didn’t even know I could use fire magic until they tested me out. Seems like they have a mage who could tell if you could use magic, but not what type of magic. Had I known I could use fire I would have been able to fight back then, but alas, it is my fate to be enslaved. That said, at least treatment is slightly better than those down below. No overcrowding, it isn’t too hot, and they feed you better stuff as well... Ahahahaha.”
“Magic...”
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Well, that somehow made sense. Using being isekai'd as his starting point, he should have magic provided this world also had a magic system.
'Right... They also mentioned I could use electric magic or something.' Suddenly his mood went up a couple of notches, 'Then all is not lost, I can still escape...'
“So uhm... How do I use magic?”
The answer came late, “I am not sure... All I know is that you are... Hmm, was it... Wait, I may be, I... Err, I am not too sure.”
“I see...” Isaiah nodded, but he didn’t feel too conflicted. "Magic is part of a person right?"
"Err... I am not too sure of the philosophy behind it all, but I guess so?"
"If that's the case..." Isaiah looked down, "Magic should function similar to how we move by using mental stimulations, so therefore it should be easy. The many books I've read as well do state something similar. Imagination and mental images."
"R-right."
Isaiah chuckled. The thought that fantasy books would have some kind of real-world application was funny for him, still he cannot discount their worth as he might need them to survive.
'But first, I gotta know what kind of magic I have... They did say electricity but that could be different, and like how does magic work what are its functionality and mana.'
For Isaiah however, this too wasn't that hard anyway. After all, almost every media dealing with the scenario he was in always pointed out some kind of an indicator, whether it be a status page or something else.
‘So... How do I open my status page? Wait, does it even exist in the first place?'
Fear began to grow in his heart, but it was quickly replaced with joy when something appeared right in front of him.
[Restarting System]
It was blue.
It had words.
It was semi-transparent.
"Yes!" Isaiah celebrated when he saw what had appeared in front of him, he did not expect this to work, "Yes, yes yes!"
“I... I am sorry for not being of much help Isaiah.”
“It's alright sir... It's alright, oh by the way, what is your name?”
“Me... Hmm, the guards call me Porridge, I don’t remember my name even... Ahaha, how useless have I become.”
“Is that so... Ohh." Isaiah who was about to continue saw that the status bubble disappeared and what appeared next was something straight out of a fiction manga.
[System Activated.]
The smile on his lips widened as he read his status page.
=============================
Name: Isaiah Peter Dragovitch
Level: 14
HP 32/32 MP 0/208
STR - 17
AGI - 15
INT - 52
Talents (Passive Skill)
[INT Boost II]
[Holy Blessings I]
[Taming I]
Abilities (Active Skill)
[Manipulation]
[Electric]
===============================
His eyes sparkled and his excitement rose through the roof as he scanned the contents of this strange semi-transparent blue bubble now floating amid his eyes. To him, this was the living embodiment of all his hidden fantasy, the status page.
After all, what man would pass up the opportunity to be the wielder of a status page, acquiring all sorts of magic defeating monsters on their way, and becoming the greatest of all time using cheat-like abilities and modern knowledge. Saving the princess, forming a harem of cute girls while also amassing so much wealth that it would make Mansa Musa blush. He could re-enact his favorite mangas but this time he is the main character.
For a while, his current situation no longer mattered. No, in his eyes it all disappeared, in front of him was a huge decadent hall with a design focused more on showing opulent wealth rather than beauty filled with glitters and sparkles from rare metals and precious gems. Women stood by his side, their loving eyes looking at him whilst men from all around the globe knelt before him in a show of respect.
He was hungry, thirsty, and in a very uncomfortable position. But for a while, he daydreamed of a fantasy that once only existed in books and novels...
That was until his eyes saw his mana points go from 1 to zero almost instantaneously. It constantly happened again and again, whenever his mana had refreshed by one, it would go back to zero without hesitation.
'These chains are pretty annoying...' He tried moving his hands here and there and pulled himself down as hard as he could, but no matter how much he strained, the chains didn't budge. "Metal is still metal... Even with 17 points in strength, it still doesn't matter."
Strength was still his problem, even back on earth he had always been the type to go quiet during PE class hiding inside the cubicle. To think that it even translated the same on this planet amused him.
'My strength and agility are rather poor, but my intelligence is twice, no, thrice more... Was I that smart? Though my grades were somewhat average except for history... No wait, intelligence I believe mostly means magic, right?' He glanced over his MP stat and it did show a rather large number, 'Right, it's magic, no way it's gonna be how smart I am, cause if it was then I should be rather average, I don't exactly get good grades anyway. That said, what does it mean to be smart in the first place?' Isaiah wondered but now was not the time to engage in deep philosophical thoughts as there was one thing that made him curious
[Level: 14]
"Eh?" He tilted his head, '14?'
He found that strange, after all, shouldn't he be at level 1? It was his first day here, so how did he already acquire such a high level?
'Yet somehow I am level 14 already...'
That said, he wasn't too disturbed by it, if anything he felt more thankful that he was already at a higher level from the 'start' and not at a pitiable level. It would make his eventual escape much more manageable,
'But why level 14?'
He began to ponder the question for a while, 'Maybe only my soul got transferred? That would mean I possessed someone else's body, but I don't have his memories also I still look like what I look like back on earth,' He looked down and saw the hideous mark, having settled down right at his chest, 'They did say I was a special good... Wouldn't that mean I had spawned somewhere else entirely and somehow leveled up 13 times throughout my journey here?'
He shook his head,
"That doesn't make sense, no, nothing makes sense."
"What doesn't make sense, Isaiah?" Porridge asked,
"Ahh, sir, nothing..." Isaiah chuckled nervously, he found it embarrassing that somebody heard him mumble out loud, but then a thought came to his mind, "Ah, sir, do you mind if I ask you something?"
"Sure."
"You-you said that you didn't know you could use magic before, right?"
"True..."
"Why?"
"What do you mean by that?"
"Like... How come you don't know you could use magic when you could just check your status page for it?"
"Wait, wait... Hold on? The what now?"
"Status page?"
"Status Page... What is that?"
"Wait huh?"
"What did you say again?"
"Status page, do you not have one?"
"No... What is that, some kind of book?"
Isaiah was very confused. How come they didn't know what a status page looked like?
'Maybe they call it differently here, there is no way that doesn't exist if I have it.'
"Indeed it is, somewhat like that... It's like a paper that appears only in your mind that tells you how strong you are and what magic you have... Mine here says electricity and... Manipulation? Wonder what that is."
"A paper? I-I don't understand what you mean by that... What kind of paper appears in your m-mind? Also, what's a mind?"
"Brain, you know... Ah wait... Let me rephrase it. A status page is some kind of paper, that is somewhat invisible..."
"Okay?"
"The paper, only you could see it. By mind, I mean your brain, you know, where you think?"
"I think I get what you mean."
"And in there, you could see your status page."
"But the brain is inside the head, do I have to cut open my head then?"
"No... You just have to say status page in your mind, like just think of the word and it should appear."
"Okay... Well, status page?"
Silence...
"Status page? Huh, status page? Hmm..."
"Is it not there sir?"
"I don't see any... What does it look like?"
"..." Isaiah paused and was dumbfounded... 'I have a status page, yet this guy doesn't... What?'
He began to dig into his memories but couldn't exactly figure out what is the cause.
'Could it be that there is some kind of item required for it to show up, like a physical card? Or maybe it's a racial thing, but were both humans though, and same skin color too? Huh...' As he was pondering his thoughts, an idea popped up into his mind. 'Could it be...'
"Look, kid..." Porridge opened his mouth after a while, "I know you want to escape, but trust me... In the many years this mansion stood, not one person managed to escape, not one... Give it up, and just wait... You are young, and based on your voice y-you should look good. There will be many who would buy you."
"No wait..." Isaiah turned to Porridge "Just forget about that, we can still escape... Hmmm," Isaiah began to look around, "Nothing I can see here huh, anyway, sir, when does the guard come?"
"Why? You want to seduce them or something, ahahahaha! Well I mean it might work one of them is into fa-"
"Just asking," Isaiah said before he could finish
'No... I am going to level up...' He told himself, 'After all, if what you said was true, then only I have a status page.'
He felt excited after hearing of that possibility since the implications of this were too much for him to just ignore. It meant that only he could access the status page, and the systems that go along it including the concept of leveling-up, and if only he could level up then he could get stronger at a much quicker pace compared to others who will have to bring in years upon years of constant effort only to gain a fraction of what he could accomplish in a day.
However, if he wished to escape, he needed to figure out how to overcome the issue of his mana disappearing. Based on previous indicators, if he leveled up his statuses should be refreshed and by that point, he could use his magic to break the chains, even if the window for this was only a few seconds it was still possible.
That said...
'Is this even a status page?' Isaiah asked himself, rather unimpressed by the lack of information the status page had, 'Like... Is this even supposed to be like this?'
Unlike the many examples he had seen in video games and novels, his status page was rather empty. It contained only three attributes, his three talents, and two skills. But that was all.
He couldn't even see his attack power, his defense, his speed, or his magical capacity, three rather crucial statistics. The three attributes of strength, agility, and intelligence were way too broad when used in gamer terminology. Though he could see that the strength and intelligence stat is somehow affecting his HP and MP respectively, he wasn't exactly sure how or if it affected any other stat. No matter how much he divided or subtracted, he couldn't figure out how one worked with the other. Even worse he couldn't even tell if his three attributes actually affected his other stats or are they independent, reliant on something else completely.
'What is here? Hmm, is there a help button?'
He began to look around but found nothing more than what was being shown. His name, his level, his HP and MP, his stats, and his skills. That was all there was.
His eyes continued to scan his page, and when it reached the skills part, it was here he saw something new.
'Ah... Here it is, descriptions...'
[INT Boost II - +5 INT points per 1 attribute]
[Holy Blessings I - +20% Damage dealt to Demons]
[Taming I - +10% Stats to monsters tamed (0/1)]
'Okay... What is this? This feels... Odd.'
The descriptions were not descriptive, that said the names of the skills are very straightforward but what exactly they do, apart from those numbers, is questionable. The more he read and reread them the more he started to feel like he was staring at a contract chock-full of legal traps to the unsuspecting eye.
'One of them should be my cheat skill right?' Though the status page itself might be a cheat, there was nothing wrong with having one more and Isaiah wasn't content with having just one. 'At least I can open stuff up just by using my mind.'
He rescanned his status page, checking every corner to see if there were any hidden buttons but alas it was all for naught. Apart from those three description bubbles, nothing popped up, not even in the 'active' section of his status page. As a person with a hinge of OCD, it bothered him to an extent that he couldn't just help but try to fix it. He always hated seeing the lack of something. Especially when he knows exactly if it has something missing but not what is missing.
'Maybe it's only limited to my status page... Maybe the system is more straightforward than I think and so other things require no status page instead?'
Hunger and thirst were making his mind weird. He decided to change his focus and look around, only to be annoyed.
'Not even the things outside huh...' He was looking at a semi-empty bowl of soup that looked like it had left that way for days, a few cockroaches were busy feasting on its contents, yet no matter how hard he stared it didn't produce a description of what the bowl was, not even the rats gave some kind of indicator... 'But shouldn't there be descriptions, do I have to hold it with me, or maybe it's a skill issue, like I need to find or buy something... Wait, shop... Hmm?' He looked down and focused his attention on the chains holding his foot, 'Can I just store the chains in my subspace?'
He grinned and focused on the action.
"Store!"
"..."
“Store? This isn’t right... Do I need mana to store things in my subspace? But my mana gets constantly drained, right? No wait, maybe if I just constantly say store without stop I may use my mana before it gets sucked away.”
He looked to his front to allow his neck to rest and then took a deep breath,
“Store, store, store, store, store, store, store, tor for tor tortortortor.”
“Shut up, can't an old man sleep here?”
“Sorry...” Isaiah's cheeks burned red as he lowered his head. Only when silence returned did Isaiah look up. ‘So wait, he was sleeping? But why isn't it working?’
=============================
Name: Isaiah Peter Dragovitch
Level: 14
HP 32/32 MP 0/208
STR - 17
AGI - 15
INT - 52
Talents (Passive Skill)
[INT Boost II]
[Holy Blessings I]
[Taming I]
Abilities (Active Skill)
[Manipulation]
[Electric]
===============================
He rescanned his status page but found no mention of any kind of storage system. Heck, there was no mention of anything at all.
'Storages are a staple in status pages but I don't have one, not even a shop? Wait, wait, wait... I have no help menu, the system lacks complete descriptions, and there is no currency indicator or storage subspace... What useless system this is?' He sighed heavily, 'Fine, whatever, have it the hard way then... At least I have some skills, and my three passive talents are like supports for magic-based combat, and looking at my abilities, it is magical.'
Though most of his skill names are clear on how they worked, the only problem was,
'Manipulation, what does it mean? I can use electric magic, but what is manipulation? Hypnotism? Reality bending? I may be overpowered and should have some cheat-skill but reality bending should be way too overpowered, like not something I should be given... Maybe hypnotism.' He deliberated further with his mind as he tried to find out what his powers meant, 'Manipulation meant control of some sort... Override, hijack... I guess hypnotism or wait... Hmm. Electricity... Four elements, fire, earth, water, air... Electricity is definitely a fire element, so maybe... I can control the elements?'
Being able to control multiple elements is indeed great, but it's not really 'powerful'. It does give him lots of flexibility but weakens his overall impact as a jack-of-all-trades master of none type.
'Am I the avatar or something?' Isaiah chuckled, 'But only time will tell... Still gotta be able to use magic, but my mana is always 0... So how do I increase this?'
As he was thinking about his situation, he heard the loud sound of a metal door opening from somewhere down the hall,
"Wake up, wake up, wake up you schiese..." A loud rough voice boomed from that direction followed by the banging of something metallic, of course, many were annoyed by this, Porridge included, but the wardens didn't care, "Time to eat..." Announced the bearded individual while behind him a tall but skinny soldier trailed along, carrying a wooden jug that was riddled with dried marks of some kind of soup.
"Shut up! Shut up!" A prisoner from another cage Isaiah couldn't see shouted back but the bearded man took out his sword and banged it on their jail cell until the prisoner stopped complaining. "Okay okay okay, stop it! Fuck!"
"And you there... Hurry up, boy..."
"Yes... Yes sir," The tall warden hurried inside the room and placed the jug on a table, retrieving the many bowls that were hanging on his net, he began to fill them in one by one in a clumsy manner. "Son of a bitch." The warden sighed and shook his head prompting the other to shake,
"Sorry."
"Just... Be done with it, we still have plenty more to deal with."
'I can use this...' Isaiah thought to himself as a plan formulated in his mind.