'Where... am I??' darkness still surrounded me but I could clearly tell that I was still breathing, which left me at a loss 'Didn't my Health hit zero??' I remembered reading the message, yet here I was alive and breathing, wherever here was in any case.
The air was stale and had quite a bit of dust mixed in, 'A dungeon??' the rest of my body was still quite numb, so I couldn't move, I couldn't even tell if all my limbs were fully intact.
'Regardless, I somehow managed to survive... so that means' I began laughing inwardly 'Ha!! Just you wait, little Gorgo-' but a stinging pain caused me falter, I felt my body convulse and the numbness I'd been feeling since the beginning, slowly began to recede.
My back felt cold and stiff, I concluded that I was probably lying on a stone floor, uneven and hard.
I also made another discovery, the blackness I saw around me was because my eyes were closed, I struggled to open them, hoping against hope that my sight wasn't impaired. Though I wouldn't put it past them to poison me, just out of spite.
It took a few tries, and no small amount of effort but I finally managed to get them open, only to stare blankly at the ceiling above me. It made of rough unpolished rock and was covered in cobwebs, 'Those damn snakes!! They had the nerve to-' I grit my teeth, the pain from before had suddenly magnified tenfold, almost as if someone had dropped a Warhammer upon my head (not fun, I speak from experience)
It took me a good while to reign in the pain, which simultaneously drove out the numbness from my body. I shakily brought up my arm to my head, from where the pain originated, and my fingers brushed up against a warm and sticky liquid 'Blood... Must've been quite a hit, if I'm still bleeding this ba-' I frowned, glancing at my now darkened fingertips.
Something was wrong here, but it took me a while to realize what 'What in Helheim is going on?!' I cursed, my fingers and my entire palm for that matter, was smaller than I knew them to be and they were shaped differently as well. There were too many variables 'Why was I brought here?? What happened to me?? And where exactly am I?!'
Add to all of this the constant throbbing of my head, and it was all I could do to keep myself from screaming out 'It wouldn't do to draw attention... When there's so much I don't know' I repeatedly told myself, taking in a few deep breaths.
The air around me was manaless 'Figures..' I grimaced. Now I had an additional thing to worry about, I was injured pretty badly, I didn't know where I was nor did I know who my captors were, not to mention their motives (though I would venture a guess, that it wouldn't be good for me) and to top it all off, I couldn't use my abilities.
So I had no way of healing myself, talk about an impossible situation, I grimaced 'No... moping will do me no good!!' I pushed such thoughts from my mind, secretly glad that I'd ranked up my resistance to pain, which was the main reason why I was able to maintain such a rational train of thought.
'Okay, first things first' I needed to know how badly my current condition was 'Status!!'
Nothing happened...
"What the-!?" I failed to note the change in my voice "Status!!" still noting, no familiar blue screen appeared in front of me. I won't lie, I was freaking out at this point, I'd been through a lot of tough situations, but none where something like this happened.
"Status!! STA-ahhgh" the pain suddenly magnified, and my head felt heavier for some reason, so much so that I almost passed out 'STATUS!!' I inwardly yelled, ignoring all else.
This wasn't happening, something like this couldn't happen, I'd never heard of such a thing 'STATUS' I yelled again.
A few nervewracking milliseconds later, a blue screen popped up, I sighed in relief.
NAME: Balthazar RACE: Wood Elf AGE: 654 years HEALTH: 5/1345 STAMINA: 1/1205 TITLE: ????? MANA: 0/735 STRENGTH: 3/875 SKILLS: ?????
'Huh??' before I could even go through the entire screen, let alone begin wondering about the question marks, a crack formed on the lower edge. I watched in open shock, as it rapidly propagated and could only stare blankly when quite suddenly, the screen shattered.
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Another screen popped up a few seconds later.
Error...
"WHAT!!" that was when I noticed the change in my voice but I dismissed it, there was a much more pressing issue at hand "Status!!" I tried again.
Luckily, the blue screen appeared once more, but there were even more question marks now!!
NAME: ????? RACE: ????? AGE: ????? HEALTH: 5/????? STAMINA: 1/????? TITLE: ????? ?????: ????? STRENGTH: 3/????? SKILLS: ?????
This was as far as I got before the screen shattered again, and the same message appeared once more.
Error...
"What the FUC-" another message popped up just then.
Compatability issue, reconfigure?? YES NO
I hardly had any time to think it through, half the screen was already covered in cracks by the time I was done reading and something told me it wouldn't appear again, call it a hunch or simply just a 'bad feeling' either way, I didn't want to take any chances 'Yes!!' just as the screen shattered yet again.
Reconfiguring (1/3) - Inputting remnant memories
'Made it...' I grinned, only for my eyes to widen 'Wait, wha-' a series of images played through my mind just then, leaving me disoriented (Gave me quite the headache too)
The events seemed to span over a few years (well, few by my count anyway) and they were all from the perspective of the same person 'Donovan Greystone...' I abruptly began laughing.
The body of a once proud Elf named Balthazar, was probably being marched around the city of Duraben in shame while his consciousness, my consciousness (or soul, for lack of a better word) had somehow transferred itself into the body of a human who had coincidentally, passed at around the same time!! If I were able to move my body, I'd probably start rolling on the floor!!
I had almost laughed myself hoarse, by the time the next 'notification' popped up. I had come to terms with the fact somewhat and was thus, trying to incorporate some of their more convenient words, though a few mirthless chuckles still escaped me.
Reconfiguring (2/3) - Removing all unusable Abilities and Skills
'I guess that makes sense' I was mentally praying that 'Pain Resistance' wasn't one of them, a few tense minutes passed in speculation 'Safe...' I reasoned, when there was no viable change, the pain would have otherwise proven fatal, even for an Elf like me.
The original owner of this body had passed with barely any pain, and for that I was thankful, he was barely a fledgling by my standards. He had been trying to outrun a few of his kind, though from my understanding they were of a subspecies he identified as 'Bullies' quite the troublesome bunch to deal with.
They hunted in groups and primarily targeted those that refused to make the regular offering of 'lunch money' every day (money was the term these humans used to refer to their form of currency) and I say 'these' humans because they clearly differed from those I knew from Midgard, they wielded no magic and hardly had a tenth of the strength an average Midgardian possessed. The planet they lived in was similarly called the Earth, to these humans 'science' and 'technology' were what 'Mana' and 'Magic' were to the Migardians well, more of that for another time.
Coming back to young Donovan, he failed miserably at trying to outrun the group. So in a last-ditch effort, he sprinted into the nearby forests surrounding the 'school' (a place of learning) heading for an old abandoned villa, that was rumored to be frequented by a specter, but my thoughts were interrupted by another pop up...
Reconfiguring (3/3) - Modifying all usable abilities and skills to the current plane
The notification left me wondering what I'd be allowed to retain, I knew that I wouldn't be able to use any of my mana and magic-related skills and abilities. But hopefully, I'd be left with something that would help me out of this situation, time trickled by as I waited with bated breath.
You have learned an additional skill: Scan
'Wasn't expecting that' I checked the skill's description, this was a skill I'd never hear of, though I suspected it functioned the same way as one of my previous skills called Appraise. But once I'd skimmed through its description, I knew I was wrong.
'This... could just be what I need!!'