"Fvb'yl aol uld nbf ypnoa?" Said the voice behind me.

When I turned around, I saw a man with Jet-black hair and glowing red eyes. He was slightly taller than the elves, but still nowhere near my height. He also had a black tattoo with intricate details running around his neck.

"Sorry... I... I don't know what you're saying." I motioned to my ears and shrugged when I said this, trying to let him know what I meant.

His eyes widened a bit and he sighed slightly, when he did this, he bit the tip of his finger, and wiped it off on a leaf he picked up from the ground.

He then handed me the leaf, and I couldn't tell if it was from the low light or not, but it looked brown. I just stared at it and back to him.

He made a drinking motion with his hands. Which gave me enough of a hint on what I should do. But last time something like this happened, It wasn't exactly pleasant.

Readying myself for the burn, I licked the blood off of the leaf. To my surprise, It wasn't as bad, but it still felt like I had just ate a really spicy pepper. After a bit of burning, I looked back at the man.

"Can you understand me now?" He said, His voice was slightly raspy, but I could tell what he was saying.

"Yeah I can understand you... What was that?" I ask, confused on the situation at hand.

"Not sure I follow, It was just a blood translation. Though, it didn't look to fun for you." He said, half answering my question.

"Anyways, you're the new guy right? What's your name?" He asked, I assume this was what he was asking at first.

"Yeah, I guess I am, I'm Gen. Who are you? If you don't mind me asking." I try to lighten the question after remembering what happened when I tried asking earlier.

"Well Gen, pleasure to meet you, the name's Kulvit. But yeah, those elves can be real asses when it comes to introductions." Kulvit said, making this the first 'conversation' I've had since I've been here. Wait, Elves?

"What do you mean elves?" I ask, trying to get clarification.

"Those people that flung you in here? Did you already forget?" He asked, Kulvit's voice had a hint of concern in the latter question.

"No, never mind, I'm okay." I said, trying to reassure him.

"Well still you look pretty beat up, follow me, I know someone who can give you a check up." He said. He began to wave his hand for me to follow him.

It sounded like he was insisting, and it's not like I was in the best physical condition, so I decided to follow him.

I used the short walk as a chance to gather my thoughts, elves, blood translations, being a slave... It's a lot to digest, and this walk isn't long enough for all of it. eventually Kulvit spoke up.

"Here it is, let's go on inside." He said, while standing in front of the door.

This building was nicer than those surrounding it. Inside was a few chairs along the walls and what looked like an examination table in the middle of the room. There was also a desk in the corner, littered with paper that was covered in scribbles.

"Hey honey, I brought the new guy people have been yammering about." Kulvit said, towards a curtain covering a doorway near the desk.

"People have been talking about me?" I ask.

"Oh don't get your hopes up just yet, it happens with every new 'recruit'." He reassured me it wasn't anything to be worried about.

"Sorry! Sorry! I was just going over some stuff from the patient I had in earlier." A voice rang out from the curtain, then a person emerged from behind, It was a woman.

She had pure white hair with a familiar set of glowing red eyes, she also had the same neck tattoo as her husband.

"This here is the missus, I promise you she's the best doctor here, well, only doctor really. Honey, this is the new guy, I told him you'd give him the OK." Kulvit said, half to me and half to his wife.

"Really Kulvit? You know, you're awfully generous whenever it's me who has to do all the work." Kulvit's wife said.

"I know, I know. But you didn't see him when he got here, he couldn't even speak Elvish or Demese, the guy could use some help." Kulvit responded.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

I assumed that Elvish and Demese were languages, for elves and... demons? I had to clarify with them.

"Sorry, but when you say Demese... what is that?" I asked, mostly towards Kulvit.

"That's the language for all us demons. I'm surprised to hear you didn't know it, what have you been speaking this whole time?" Kulvit's wife answered for him.

"Oh no, sorry for the confusion, I'm not a demon, I'm Human, I speak English." I clarified.

They both looked puzzled for a moment, and exchanged a quick glance with each other.

"Hey Gen, that ain't the sort of thing you should joke about." Kulvit said, in a surprisingly serious tone.

"You're a demon, might be on the taller side, but that's what you are, don't go trying to convince people otherwise." Kulvit continued, his wife nodding in agreement.

"No but I don't look you guys, I mean, look, my eyes are green!" I retorted.

"Here take a look at this..." Kulvit's wife said, as she was saying that, a glass shard materialized and floated around her hands.

"WOAH! What was that?!" I said while stepping back.

"It's my observation magic. It's quite useful in my profession." She said while wearing a small smile.

The glass shard floated over towards me, and when I looked at it, I saw my reflection. But something was different. My eyes were the same glowing crimson red I saw on Kulvit and his wife.

I was shocked, everything else looked normal, but my eyes almost made my face look like someone else's, I also noticed a familiar looking tattoo around my neck.

"Sorry, I guess I've just been stressed out about my circumstance lately..." I said, trying to explain away my strange remarks earlier.

"We get it, being forced into a life like this can be... a lot. come on, let's check you out and see if there's anything I can help with." She said, directing me towards the examination table.

"Honey, can you go check on the little one?" She said to Kulvit. He nodded and left through the curtain door.

"Oh by the way, I don't think I ever told you my name, It's Octavia." She said.

"Hello Octavia, my name's Gen." I returned the greeting.

"Well it's nice to meet you Gen, alright then, off with the shirt" she said. I did as instructed and took off the uncomfortable shirt the elves had given me.

When I did she materialized a circular device, that turned, opened and closed like a camera shutter.

"Oh, old battle wounds from the looks of it?" She commented, flicking her eyes to the scar on near my stomach.

"No, that's more... recent, but hey what's that little round thing you just made?" I said, trying to change the subject.

"It's a device that let's me see the flow of manakyte, but it's slow to start up, so it's only useful for these types of examinations." Octavia explained.

"Manakyte?" I asked, confused by the term, it sounded like something I had heard in a video game before.

"You must've really been in the wilds if you don't even know what manakyte is..." She responded.

"Yeah, I was a bit of a sheltered kid, I guess you could say..." I told her.

"Well, put simply, manakyte is a material that actively outputs mana, which is the source of life. It is found in most living things or things that give life." She continued to explain the term.

"It can be found in things like the air, water, plants. But, It has a very high concentration in blood. When someone is born, the manakyte in their body stops replicating the mother's, and instead forms an affinity for an element of their own, the blood then adopts that color, because of how much manakyte there is."

"Oh okay..." I said. Most of this sounded like complete nonsense, but it would explain a lot of things that had happened up until this point. After my comment, she continued to go into depth.

"Most of the time, the manakyte in someone's blood is the same or similar to their parents, like my little Lilith, she has clay magic, which is similar to her father's earth magic."

I guess the brown blood wasn't a trick of the light earlier...

"Wait, why can I suddenly understand you all when I drank his blood?" I asked, this was what had been confusing me the most.

"Oh you mean blood translation? Well... manakyte is extremely good at storing and copying information. That's what makes it so integral to life. But it doesn't just store hereditary information, like hair or skin color. It can store experiences, and even memories."

"Like a language?" I asked, trying to finish her thought.

"Yes exactly, but blood translation doesn't just stop there. Given enough stimulation, that manakyte in someone's blood can alter and change, giving way to a change in their magic, or even augment their body in extreme cases. That's the main reason why people limit blood translation to a few drops."

"Wow, that's a lot to take in." I said, slightly dumbfounded at this change in world view.

"Yes, I'm sorry about that, but that was all pretty basic and important stuff to know, but anyways I'm almost done with my examination." She said.

Apparently she had been going through the steps of the checkup while talking, I was so engrossed I hadn't even realized.

"I'm going to need to draw some blood, I can't find your manakyte flow with my magic, but it's been a long day, I'm not exactly in the best state myself." She told me, I wasn't scared of needles or anything so I didn't have a problem with that. I nodded and told her to go ahead.

"Alright then, let me just make a small prick right here and... oh my." Her voice changed tones drastically when she saw my blood. After hearing her explanation on manakyte I think I finally understood why...

"You're blood doesn't have... any manakyte... at all." She solemnly told me.

"Oh so I won't be able to use magic? That's fine I haven't been able to use it anywa-"

She cut me off.

"No it's not just that, manakyte flows towards anything lacking in mana. But because you have no manakyte at all, your blood acts like a magnet for any mana inside an object." She worriedly told me.

"So what, I'm like a mana sponge?" I asked her, confused at to what was such a big deal.

"No, the reaction for transferring mana can be quite, violent." She said this and pulled out a small pebble from the desk's drawer.

"This is a lesser manakyte stone, and when I bring it into contact with your blood..." As she touched the two together, there was a loud bang, and the manakyte stone, along with my blood... Popped...

"You need to keep any open wounds away from manakyte at all costs. Otherwise... something bad would happen." She warned.

She didn't need to tell me what she meant, I had more than enough clues as to what would happen. I'm not a mana sponge... I'm a walking, talking...

Time Bomb.