I nearly lost consciousness from the pain, but I was able to get my hands free. ‘If growing hurts this much… I’d rather just stay small… I take it all back… Being tiny isn’t so bad… I’m still taller than most dwarfs…’

As I slipped my other hand from the shackles anchored to the ceiling I fell to the ground. The shackles around my ankles forced my legs apart though, so I had to land in a split. Normally it would have been fine, but with the magic effecting me the way it was I froze stiff, loosening my breath and letting out a short muffled whine.

‘Almost done… Almost done…’ I moved my hips back to at least try and lessen the feeling of the muscles tearing. ‘Ok, time for a little magic.’ “I folded my broken hands. “Plutia…” Warm divine energy covered my body and I used heal to at least semi-mend my broken bones. My magic was still only strong enough to loosely set them and heal the outside, but that was enough for the next step.

I pulled a lockpick I had hidden in my underwear, admittedly a bit conflicted by how I was punishing my captors for leaving me with a bit of dignity, and I bent to the side, barely still flexible enough to reach my ankle chains.

A couple more minutes later I was free from the shackles. When I finally broke out I was so tired and sore I didn’t even want to move anymore. Laying on my stomach hurt, for obvious reasons, but laying on my back wasn’t much better, if at all. At least I was able to let my muscles somewhat relax, but it wasn’t like that took the soreness away from how they were being constantly stretched.

I let out a whiny groan, again forcing myself to muffle it to a whisper. ‘I should at least try and reverse some of this magic. I should be able to do that before I stand up.’

I focused my mana using Platinum magic, an advanced magic that requires gold silver, and arcane magic in order to use. Naturally, I was only capable of tier 1 spells, just like with most things… But that would be enough.

‘Magic reversal.’ I felt my bones slowly shrink, sending shivers through my whole body. The spell reversed what she had done, turning the spell back into its original components of mana and energy, or mana and that strange potion.

It took twice as much mana to reverse the spell than it took to cast it though… Because of that I only ended up reverting half of the spell for the time being, having to siphon mana from the air as it separated from the spell in order to buffer my own casting.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

I was able to move around without my muscles feeling like they were tearing, so it was good enough even if I didn’t fully shrink back down, any other pain I decided to just fight through for the time being.

What little magic I had left I used on recovery, accelerating my metabolism, but for healing, rather than shapeshifting. That took care of my shoulders and legs, and helped my stomach, considering how heavy that tar I drank felt sitting in it.

‘That’s better. Now all that’s left is to break out of here… The prison is made out of stone, so rather than messing with the front door, it might be better to just tear down the back wall with earth magic right? I wonder where I’ll end up.’

I sat down and meditated to try and regenerate my mana as quickly as possible, voiding all thought, and letting myself fall into a trance where I was only conscious of my own body. Staying in that state for a few minutes, I was able to not only gain a good understanding of my new balance, but also recover enough mana to at least be relatively capable.

‘If I wait too long that girl will be back, better to get out of here before that. She didn’t look tired at all after using her magic on me, so I’d guess she’s at least a tier 6 mage overall from how much manna she used. With that in mind, I’d rather not fight her. Although it does explain how she was able to use so much magic… If I couldn’t absorb the manna as I dismantled the spell, I wouldn’t have been able to revert hardly any of it… I’d much prefer to fully reverse her spell, but I’ll worry about it later, for now, I should get dressed.’

I quickly put on my spare set of armor, pulling on the baggy pants and wrapping the mage robes around my waist to give my legs extra protection, at the moment they didn’t fit very well anyway. Then I wrapped my chest as tight as I could with the extremely long bandages I had saved from when my hip was injured. It was a pain, but keeping my mind off it helped, so it wasn’t something that held me back. ‘Honestly I’m grateful… If she cut off a finger or something that would have been so much worse…’

Finally, I pulled my sword from storage and tied it to my waist, along with my ax, and a few knives. Then I brought out the greatsword I had received from killing the minitour. It was so long and broad that it almost doubled as a shield, and it was enchanted. A weak enchantment, but good enough to make me confident in hiding behind it. ‘The enchant rune for durability really is my favorate.’ I stared at it for a second flicking the complex triagnular shape and seeing the flecks of solid manna shutter off the blade, bringing my eyes a soft comfort in the otherwise dark dungeon.

Just for fun, I used my earth magic to break the walls that the shackles were anchored to and threw them in storage as well. They were enchanted, so they were most likely fairly expensive. I attempted it out of curiosity… But I did find it a bit odd that the antimagic shackles fit in my magic storage space.

‘Right, I guess the next step is the hardest.’ I flipped the great blade onto my shoulder and spread my stance wide. As I slowly raised my hand I could feel my mana connecting with the earth, and when I was ready the back wall of my cell opened up, and a person-sized doorway extruded outward, shifting the earth in an instant. ‘It’s good I learned how to shift earth quietly.’

Stepping out I found myself in a large hallway, with various paths branching off and several iron doors reinforcing nearly every path. Everything was lit by magic, and I had no sense of how far underground I was, or which way was out.

‘They could have been nice and at least given me an exit sign… Then again… I don’t look remotely like the girl that was their prisoner, and that girl that tortured me was the only one that knows what happened… Can I just… Ask for directions?’’