I entered the astral realm while dreaming and found a portal so beautiful that I felt called to it. I opened the portal and immediately snapped back into my body, but this time I wasn't lying on my bed. I found myself suspended in a viscous green liquid, with needles in my veins that fed me some sort of black serum through fine tubes. Floating in that strange capsule I felt numb and my vision was blurry, until after a short struggle I was able to see more clearly and move my arms and legs. Through the glass I saw figures pacing back and forth, looking and pointing at me, talking amongst themselves. I was a lab rat. They were experimenting on me, doing who knows what! Little by little, I began to feel the tingling all throughout my body as it began to wake up. I was afraid, but I felt strong. And I was angry.

I began to pound on the glass, and the figures on the other side looked stunned for a moment. After several punches the glass didn't break and the shadows on the other side seemed to relax and carry on. I could still hear the remnants of their voices through the thick liquid. How had this happened? Was this part of the dream? I had no oxygen mask, but I wasn't running out of breath and the more time passed, the better I felt. After the better part of an hour, and by the way things were going, I realized they had no plans of letting me go. Was this some form of medical treatment? But what kind of illness makes you feel this alive? The black liquid flooding my veins didn't look too promising for medicine, that much was certain. I considered for a moment that instead of pumping something into me, they might've been sucking my blood out; at least that'd explain the color. Would pulling the needles out kill me? One thing I knew in the back of my mind: whatever their purpose was, they had no use for a corpse floating in green oil, so if I tried to kill myself, they'd try to prevent it.

Thinking that way, I removed the needle from my left arm and held it tightly, leaving a trace of black liquid that slowly fused with the rest. The figures on the other side got restless, but they shouldn't have worried so much. After all, I was going to join them soon. With the needle in my hand I jabbed at the glass, and a visible crack appeared. I struck again, and by the third strike the cracks became so large that some of the fluid began to pour out. I leaned with my back against the rear of the capsule and kicked the fractured front using my entire body until it exploded forward with a gush of green oil. No longer being suspended, I suddenly had to support myself and the confusion made me stumble for a moment while I cautiously crept out of the capsule. I stood and tried to look around, but my eyes hadn't adjusted to the change of environment yet. I rubbed my face and a sudden cough sprang up from the bottom of my chest, a cough that made me spew more of the green fluid through my mouth and nose. In that moment I heard one of the voices like an echo: "Hold him! Use the sedative!" Oh, if there was one thing I didn't want, it was to be held and sedated like some wild animal.

One of them snatched an injector from a nearby table and lunged at me. I threw a punch while trying to dodge, but my balance was off and the tubes that were still attached to my body hindered my movements. My fist missed the target and in the next moment I felt the injection in my chest. It must've hit a bone, because the pain was sharp and almost made me crumple over; the good part was that the sedative had no effect. With my right hand I grabbed the guy who'd injected me by his robes, and with the left I swept away the tubes from my body while the other two guys were still standing a few paces away. One of them suddenly snapped and ran through a door screaming for help, and the other scrambled to find another injector. I clocked the man who was trying to escape from my grasp and his entire head spun around before he collapsed. The other gave a squeak and stumbled backward trying to reach the door, but I ran up to him and pushed him against a wall from behind with all my weight. He fell, and before he could get back up I kicked him in the chest and the impact made him hit the wall with the back of his head. When they were both laying on the ground, I closed the door and examined the room.

Aside from the huge broken capsule, the room had a long table full of different containers with blue and purple substances, a few bowls with powders and two sets of needles, scissors and knives. Beneath the table were several sets of drawers, and a few paces away was a desk with a thick book open on top, along with a pot of ink and three quills. On each side of the desk were two large bookcases almost filled with similar books. The only sources of light in the room were four jars full of glowing yellow balls hanging from the ceiling, two near the capsule, one above the table and one above the desk. I ran toward the desk and tried to read the open book, but couldn't understand anything. It had strange writings, charts and several diagrams, as well as sketches of human body parts with notes around them. A lab rat, I knew it!

I had a feeling that more guys would be coming to recapture me, and there were no windows to jump out of. I dragged each of the unconscious men and placed them on the ground blocking the door to gain a little more time. I grabbed one of the scissors and prepared myself, but nobody came. In the meantime I checked the drawers and found a few folded robes like the ones being worn by my captors. It was better than running around naked, so I put one on and waited a bit longer. It felt sticky against the mixture of blood and green oil that covered my skin, but since the bleeding seemed to be minimal, I forgot about the discomfort quickly. Still, nobody came, and it couldn't be blind luck. They must've been waiting for me somewhere else, perhaps implying that there was only one exit. This looked like an underground structure, seeing that the ceilings were made of wood while the walls and the floor were stone, which meant I'd have to climb some stairs to escape. The stairs would be where they'd set the ambush, then. 

I climbed onto the long table and unhooked the glowing jar from the ceiling. It wasn't hot, so my plan of throwing it in someone's face wouldn't be as effective as I thought, but the broken glass might still be enough to distract an enemy and having a source of light could be useful, since I didn't know whether it was night or day at the moment. Thus armed with a jar of glowing balls and a pair of scissors I decided to venture out, especially because I wanted this part to be over so we could get on to the good stuff. After unblocking the door and peeking out I saw nothing more than a long hallway lined with doors that extended to my right and left, at least fifteen of them. There was nothing to signal the way out, so I took to the right and did my best to walk silently on the cold stone floor. At the end of the hallway was another door. I tried it, but it was locked.

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After a few seconds of thought, I went back to the initial room and searched the unconscious bodies for the key, which I found in one of their robe pockets. I opened the door and found several wooden crates, shelves and pots full of assorted materials. The ambush could wait, so I picked up some of the items to see if anything was useful. One of the flasks had a pale green-yellow liquid, much closer to water than oil, which released a strong smell when I opened it. Something about it made me suspicious, and I decided to test it by pouring some of it onto a box. When the first drop touched the box, it immediately turned brown and released a faint white smoke. After a few seconds the small surface of wood became a dense black foam, and shortly after there was a hole in the crate where the drop had been. Some sort of strong acid; certainly useful. I put it in one of my robe's pockets and left the storage room.

It was clear by now that the exit would be on the other end of the hallway, so I carefully walked across it holding the scissors ready to defend myself. Another door, this time unlocked, and immediately afterwards a small empty space with a winding staircase going down and up. This got me confused, but I'd already committed to the idea of going up, so that's what I did. As expected, I emerged into an open space where the light of my jar only showed several trees, two flowerbeds and a water fountain. The stars were bright, but I couldn't see much further. Also as expected, four guys in leather armor were waiting for me, accompanied by the one who'd taken off running when I broke the capsule. The guards were holding clubs and torches, and one of them had a net like you'd see in a gladiator movie, and they all gave me strange looks for a moment, as if my robe had made them unsure of who I was.

With little intention to stay and chat, I took just a second to look around and started running. Soon I saw a huge wall of stone in front of me, but instead of stopping I changed direction and charged toward a gate where a single guard was posted. As I approached, I noticed the gate was held shut by a beam of wood across the two pieces. The guard saw me coming and started toward me, but I kept running and simply slammed him in the face with the glowing jar when he was close enough. The jar broke into shards that cut him up and the glowing balls fell to the ground and scattered in all directions as the guard fell to the floor. I must've stepped on some of the broken glass, because a sudden pain ran through my entire leg as I made for the gate. 

The other guards arrived only seconds later, and one of them came swinging at me. He struck me in the back and I turned around on reflex to stab him with the scissors. I got him in the neck and he stumbled back before collapsing slowly to his knees and then onto the ground. The others were stunned and seemed unable to believe what had just happened. I braced myself as one of them finally regained his composure and came down with a swing of his club. I blocked some of the impact with my free arm, but the pain was intense. I tried to stab him in response, but his leather armor got in the way and he was able to retreat before I could attack again. In that moment I grabbed the wooden beam and threw it off to unlock the gate, then turned back around just in time to defend against another attack. The guard exchanging blows with me shouted at the two others behind him: "come help, you cowards!" and the strangest thought flashed into my mind. How could I understand what he was saying? It didn't sound like any language I'd heard in my life, but I was certain of the meaning as I had been back when the robed guys tried to sedate me. Couldn't be just intuition, right?

The only way to know for certain would be to get them talking, so I tried something of my own: "back off. Back off! Let me leave now, and I won't have to kill you." I said it in my native language, and they didn't seem to catch any of it. What a strange set of circumstances, huh? Killing strangers in some sort of castle as if it was easy as a mere throw of dice. Back in my world I would've been shocked and terrified, regretting my choices in a shivering bath of my own cold sweat as the idea of being jailed for murder dawned on me, but here it felt so unreal, almost like a playground, that I felt only wonder and a slight worry for my life.

One of the guards announced that he was going to fetch reinforcements and ran off into the darkness while the other two remained in place. The aggressive one must've wanted revenge for his comrades or something, because he lunged at me again with visible strain on his jaw. I evaded in time and picked up a club from one of the corpses. Pushing my back against the gate yielded no results, which made me think it must've opened inward. If I didn't manage to open it before more guards arrived, it'd be my doom. But how, if the guys in front of me would bash me in the back of the head as soon as I turned around? 

At that moment I remembered the flask in my pocket and what it had done to the wooden crate. The gate was made of wood, but I assumed it'd be too thick to be melted quickly, and even then I'd risk getting burned trying to pass through the black foam. That meant I'd have to add more violent crimes to my already surprising list. I exchanged the scissors in my hand for the flask in my pocket, uncorked it with a flick of my thumb and began to fling the nasty liquid onto the two guards, aiming for their faces. As soon as the liquid touched their faces, faint strings of smoke appeared and their flesh turned black and bubbled. The two men screamed and dropped their weapons to rub their eyes, but it was no use. While they were writhing and stumbling backward, I tossed the flask away and opened the gate in a hurry.

The outside was dark, but thanks to the starlight I could make out the shapes of distant buildings below. I ran without looking back, trying to figure out where to hide. They were going to chase me, no doubt about that, so I'd need to get as far away as possible soon. The night would make it harder for them to find me, but it'd also make it impossible for me to travel in this unknown land of dreams. While running I tried to discern where exactly I was and what paths I could take. At first it was a downward incline with a clear view of a city below, but after a few minutes I reached the base of the hill where there was a large square paved with cobblestone and surrounded by elegant buildings. I chose a direction based on my gut alone and continued at a slower pace until I reached an area with much smaller buildings and tighter streets.