In the middle of a large cave, a large purple crystal stands tall to the top.

And beside the crystal, there's a body of a boy without any clothes. The boy has a white, unkempt hair.

He didn't move at all, but after a while, his body suddenly spasmed.

His hand started to move and suddenly, he opened his eyes, brandishing its beautiful blue sapphire color.

"WHOA?!"

He shouted and sat up quickly. His breath was ragged and his face was as pale as paper, as if he just woke up from a nightmare.

"What just happened?! My wounds... they're all gone..."

There's no one to talk to, but the boy, Aonair, spoke loudly and frantically touched his body.

The swords that stabbed him were nowhere to be seen. Even the painful wounds are gone without trace.

Aonair let out a little relieved sigh, but his face turned stiff again.

"It's good that my wounds are gone, but where am I?"

Looking at his surroundings, Aonair is certain that he didn't pass out in this place.

But he unknowingly awoke in this cave with a large purple crystal as the only source of light.

(Hell, I should've been dead before. Just what happened here...?)

Confusion encroached his mind. Aonair tried to remember how he came here, yet nothing came to him.

The only thing he’s glad about is the bracelet that is still attached on his wrist.

(No use pondering. Let's find our way out.)

Since he couldn't remember anything, he decided to stand up and escape from the cave.

He went around the cave and looked for anything that he can use to get out.

The first thing he found were ragged clothes to cover his body near the crystal.

It's a real relieve for Aonair since he started to feel cold. Besides, he felt uncomfortable walking around naked.

Unfortunately, there's nothing else he can find other than the clothes.

After a long while, he finished looking around and there are three things he concluded.

Firstly, the cave has a roughly large space.

It has a large crystal standing in the middle of the cave. The crystal’s height almost reached the cave's ceiling.

One needs to know the cave is more than your average cave. Its height is more than a hundred meters, arguably as big as a little hill.

Secondly, he only found two places that could potentially be where he came from.

The first one was a weird round door made out of stone, and the other one was a large hole.

The round door was blending with the cave's wall. If it's not because of the mural on it, it will be quite hard to find it.

He was not convinced that he came from there. The door was too tight.

But he couldn't get it out from one of the possibilities.

The other way he found was the large hole, but it’s somehow blocked by iron cells.

He tried to open it up by force, but as expected, he failed.

But now he didn't feel at lost. Since the large hole is the most probable way he came here, he should be able to get out from there too.

Lastly, the third thing he found was the changes on his body.

He saw his reflection on the giant crystal. His black hair turned white, and his black eyes was dyed into blue sapphire color.

The tip of his ears grew pointy.

He remembered that his appearance turned into a monster before.

He didn't know what kind of monster it was, but the blue color and gills on his cheek striked him as scary at that time.

The gills were gone for now, but some parts on his body, like the tips of his ears, retained its blue color.

"It was not a dream at all."

He was sent out to war.

He got poisoned.

He lost his friend.

And lastly, he turned into a monster.

It all happened in less than a week.

And now, he is trapped in a cave with nothing else existing beside the giant crystal.

(I'm not a lucky type of person, but isn't this too much?)

Aonair thought about his luck so far... and it's really a bad one.

The only good thing is that his body got tougher and he felt fitter.

He could run faster and jump higher than before.

The monster transformation must have taken effect and has become his own characteristics at this point.

"I guess I'm not a human anymore huh..."

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Well, that's almost right. I suppose you're a half now.

Just as Aonair started to get depressed, a woman voice came out of nowhere and startled him.

"Whoa?! Who's there?!"

Aonair stood up and looked around. He seeked for the source of the voice, but he found no one.

You're half human... and half monster. I should say, you're a lucky human. You have a good skill inside you.

The Voice then continued.

But! It is I who saved you! You almost died, you know? This me found you and even treated you. Have anything to say to me, hm?

Aonair was confused, but more than that, he was very, very annoyed with her cheeky voice.

She sounded so proud and it pisses Aonair so much.

Nevertheless, he couldn't be rash. So, he decided to talk nicely to her, hoping to get a way out.

"Hey, um, I don't know who you are, but what do you mean saving me?"

You saw it yourself, right? Your body, I mean. I've erased those nasty wounds you had.

"Erased?"

Yeah. Gone. I can't undo all of the transformation effect, but it works on your ends too, right?

"What? Undo? Gone?"

The more she spoke, the more confused Aonair gets.

No, it's not like Aonair doesn't understand. It is exactly because he gets what she meant, he got confused.

(She didn't treat my wound, but made it disappear? And the transformation... was the half human thing she said about that?)

The more he connected everything the Voice said, the worse the confusion would get.

How is it? Have you recognized my awesomeness? Are you charmed by me? Oh no, I've done it again...~

Once the Voice arrogantly boasted, Aonair's confusion swept off and he got pissed again.

(This thing really pisses me off... Calm down, me. I have to find a way to go out.)

Aonair knew that the Voice has the key to go out from this cave.

He can't get carried away by his emotions and be locked up here.

He calmed himself and asked to the Voice.

"If you're the one who brought me here, can you tell me the way out?"

(I have friend to save here!)

Aonair screamed inside, but he composed himself and made a nice plead.

The Voice didn't say anything. It was dead silence until after a while, she spoke.

No.

A harsh, cold rejection struck Aonair hard.

I saved you. You have obligation to repay me, you know? I'm not going to let you free that easily~

The Voice said an egotistical thing with a playful tone.

(That's it. This bastard pisses me off too much!)

Aonair couldn't handle his anger anymore and let out all his pent-up anger to the Voice.

"Why you?! I don't care anymore! Who even are you, taking me and imprisoning me here?!

I don't mind thanking you, but you've gone too far, you bastard! Let me out!"

Aonair cursed until he ran out of breath.

He waited for the Voice's reply while stabilizing his breath.

Unexpectedly, the Voice didn't reply to him.

"Huh?! You ran out of words?! Don't tell me you can't talk just from that, huh?!"

Aonair pressed again while taunting the Voice to speak.

But that’s where Aonair is wrong.

Silence, you insignificant creature.

The Voice spoke again, and the pressure of the air pressed Aonair to the ground.

Aonair suddenly fell to his knees. It was just like being pulled by a strong gravity.

He put his hands downward to prevent his body hitting the ground.

Not only that, he couldn't speak nor breath. The air pressure was too strong for him.

"Un....!"

I want to make this easy for both of us. I saved you, that makes you mine from now on. You should have known your position here.

Perhaps I put my hopes too high on you.

The Voice's tone became deeper and every time she speaks, the ground trembles and the pressure gets stronger.

Do you think I will let something enticing to my eyes away easily like that?

The moment you will be able to escape from me is when you die.

Now answer me, do you want to die? Or do you want to be mine?

After she put out the question, the air pressure lessened, leaving Aonair with a little air to breath for a while.

Even though he became able to speak again, he doesn't dare to spit careless words anymore.

(She might kill me if I gave the wrong answer...!)

There's only two options for him.

Yield or die.

There's no other choice.

He could feel the pressure increasing slowly, as if to limit his time.

(Damn! I have no choice...!)

Thinking there's no other way, Aonair quickly shouted his answer.

"Fine, I'll do it!"

Ufufu, good boy. I like it.

With a giggle, she stopped the pressure as if it never existed before.

Aonair couldn't stand anymore and fell onto his knees.

"Ha... So, what do you want...?"

With a ragged breath, Aonair asked the Voice.

The Voice responded to him with a playful tone.

It's simple, actually. I'm bored because this world doesn't really change for a long while, you see...~

"Uh... then?"

Then, I want you to entertain me!

Aonair made a what are you saying face and let out an exasperated sigh.

"Are you serious? What should I do to do that?"

Of course I'm serious! To be honest, I'm a simple woman. I want you live in the outside world like before!

...Aonair couldn't feel but the owner of this voice is an idiot.

"Then why not let me out of here...?"

I'm not finished yet! You surely know I have reasons to not do that, right?

(Oh yes, I know you have plenty dumb reasons too, or even no reason at all,) thought Aonair, but he kept his mouth shut to not incite her anger again.

She didn't hear any complaint voiced from him, so she continued.

Your body is the main problem here. Your body has turned into a monster before and it messed up all senses you have.

I took you here for two reasons. First, I can't help you if you aren't in this cave. Second, I need you to be able to move your body like a normal again.

Contrary to his expectation, the Voice told him her reasonings in details.

The reasons were logical at first glance, but Aonair found something odd from them.

"What do you mean about my body?"

I told you before, your body is half-human and half-monster now. I couldn't extract every last bit of the transformation effect, so I made it half instead.

"Half... monster..."

Aonair remembered the tip of his ears and his bright blue eyes.

He shouldn't have those in the first place. It was the after effect of what the Voice did to him.

"But I feel normal besides having differences in some of my body parts appearance. See?"

Aonair stood up and showed that he was already fine, but the Voice laughed at him.

Ahaha! Watching your desperation to go out is amusing. I predicted you wouldn't understand with just an explanation.

The Voice chuckled again and told Aonair to stand in front of the nearest wall.

Alright! Now, I want you to run forward until you reach the other wall. Easy, right?

The Voice seems to have a good time commanding Aonair to go left and right.

"If I can prove I'm already good, will you let me out?"

We can talk about that after you prove it to me.

"For the first time, we reached an understanding. All right, I'll do this quick!"

Aonair fired up and prepared to run.

I'll count it for you~ One... two... three!~

Once the count reached three, Aonair ran as fast as he could.

It went smoothly for a while. He ran fast and it should take him a minute to reach the other wall.

Need to be noted that the cave was considerably large. For Aonair to run from edge to edge was a spectacular sight.

But for Aonair himself...

(Why am I running this fast?!)

He was bewildered with his sudden gush of strength powering his feet.

He estimated he will be able to reach the finish even faster if he push himself.

But when he put strength to his feet, he ended up taking a large step.

Because of the sudden leap, he couldn't stop there and ended up taking another leap and so on.

Without noticing, the wall was already close.

"Crap, this is bad!"

Aonair tried to stop his right feet when it landed, but the momentum made him lose balance and got thrown mercilessly to the wall.

"Gah...!"

The wall took a quite damage. A curve appeared on its surface. Meanwhile Aonair tried to stand up, only for his back to ache.

You understand what I'm saying now? You haven't adjusted with your body yet. Monster is different from human.

Monsters are stronger than the frail humans. That's a common sense.

But Aonair couldn't believe he really turned into a monster... at least, until now.

"So it's real... Me turning into monster... It has happened..."

Isn't that what I've been saying?! said the Voice, but Aonair was too shocked to reply.

He now can feel the unstable strength inside of him.

If he can't get out unless he adjust himself to his body, Aonair can't imagine how long it will be.

It can be only a year. But it's too optimistic.

Just like a baby, he has to practice slowly and daily for a long time.

It can be more than a year. Five years. Ten years.

He can even stay here for eternity.

The thought scared... and saddened him as well.

Aonair felt at loss after accepting his fate, until the Voice interrupted him again.

Um, listen here. I will feel like a bad guy if you're like that. I know how you feel, and I have the solution for your problem!

The Voice nervously comforted Aonair to the extent she went out of her way and offered her help.

You do remember your skill, right?

Aonair was still in daze, but his mind responded to the Voice and thought to himself.

(I do have a skill... I still remember the information transfer.)

After he saw his reflection on the puddle, he received a mysterious notice about his skill.

He remembered the static voice back then transferred every information about his skill directly to his mind.

Just by remembering the process, his head felt a slight pain.

"I get it... but what of it?"

You have to properly look at it! Remember its name and you'll know what I mean.

Skill.

One of the sources of his misery.

Beside of his status as orphan, loner, and overall very unsociable, he was known as a [level 0] skill user.

In the village itself, Aonair have never seen another [level 0] user beside himself and Laoch.

Aonair was quite bullied and got shunned by the other kids, especially when he was still a little boy.

The one who helped him from loneliness were Laoch and Deas.

Laoch is the son of the chief, so the other didn't dare to bother him despite Laoch having a [level 0] skill.

While Deas... She was known as a tomboyish girl and no boys were brave enough to pick a fight with her.

Both of them befriended Aonair and became his trusted allies.

And now, by the twist of his ironic fate, he has to use the cursed skill to save himself.

"Really..."

Aonair knew there's no other option.

Thus, he began to remember the information he got before.

(Wow, wait, wait! This... this is weird...)

Just by him thinking about his skill as a trigger, all information flooded his mind.

What made Aonair dumbfounded was that he's able to understand it as if he knew it from the start.

With that, he was able to sort the information and summarized it easily.

"My skill... [Adapt] is a skill that will allow me to adjust myself in every condition."

A simple type of skill.

[Adapt] literally works like its name.

"So, you're trying to say that I can use [Adapt] to make myself get used to my body, right?"

Exactly!~

It's not a bad plan. With [Adapt], the process will be fastened.

But how fast will [Adapt] work?

[Adapt] could be working slowly, but it could also work fast and exceeds his expectation.

The information didn't let him know how potent the skill is.

"It could take a long time, but I have no choice other than that."

Correct! It seems you have calmed yourself, huh.~

The woman voice seems to be amazed with how Aonair easily accepted the idea.

"It's not like I want to go along with your plan. It's just... I can't stand around and do nothing. I have to do everything to stay alive."

I see... I guess I didn't choose the wrong person then.

The Voice let out a soft sigh before she continued.

Well then, let me give you a present, since you are a good boy~

After she said that, the round door which was previously locked tight, opened by itself.

Alright, go inside.

Aonair still couldn't fully trust the Voice, but he had no choice.

He stood up and went to the opened stone door.