The blue holographic screen hovered before Eon's eyes, a silent witness to his rebirth. He ignored the damp stone and the stench of the cell, focusing entirely on the numbers.
[ - STATUS - ]
Race: High Elf
Age: 96 Years
Strength: 10
Stamina: 30 |
Agility: 12
Mana: 3,000 / 3,000
Insight: 18,000 (+2,000)
Skill Points (SP): 5
'Insight'... Jin-ho mused. It had jumped after his conversation with Elsa.
'And 5 Skill Points. If the Skill Shop unlocks after I master the basics, these will be my currency for god-tier abilities, I guess.'
He turned his focus to his first weapon.
[ - SKILL: MATTER MANIPULATION - ]
Level: 1 (1/1,000)
Element Gained: None
Description: The host can manipulate matter within range using mana. Allows for the shaping, movement, and restructuring of physical objects.
'So, in other words, To level up, I need to use it again and again. Repeatedly.'
Jin-ho shifted his position, hiding his hands behind his back so the other elves wouldn't see. He focused on the iron shackle biting into his left ankle. He didn't use a chant. He didn't mutter a word. He simply projected his mana into the cold, rusted metal, visualizing the iron atoms sliding past one another, softening like wax.
Click.
It wasn't a loud sound, but to Jin-ho, it was like a gunshot. The iron didn't break; it stretched. It widened just enough for him to slide his hand out. The relief was instantaneous. For the first time in what felt like a decade of Eon's stolen memories(completly blurred), his body felt light.
He didn't remove the collar. 'Not yet.If I break the collar, the magic signature might alert the keyholder. I need to be a ghost until I'm ready to take them on my own.'
***
For the rest of the night, Jin-ho practiced. He used his mana until his head throbbed, shaping small clay dolls from the dirt on the floor, forming perfect water spheres from the dampness on the walls, and hardening pebbles into "bullets."
[Skill Progress: 101/1,000]
[Mana: 20/3,000 - Warning: Critical Depletion]
'100 uses is my limit for now, I guess', he noted, leaning back against the wall as the world spun. 'But 100 uses is not that bad, considering nobody in this cell can use a single magic spell.'
***
As the moon reached its zenith, the heavy iron door at the end of the corridor groaned open. The sound of polished boots on stone echoed through the dungeon.
"Quiet! The Young Master is here!" a guard barked.
A young man stepped into the torchlight. He was dressed in fine silks, his blonde hair perfectly coiffed, but his eyes were filled with a bored, casual cruelty.
This was Julius Edger, the son of the house.
He stopped in front of a mother and daughter Elves, huddling in the corner of the cell. The mother, an elf whose beauty had been dimmed by years of filth, didn't scream. She didn't plead. She simply stood, her movements were mechanical, and she took her daughter's hand. They walked toward the bars as the guards unlocked the gate.
Julius didn't wait for them to exit. He reached out, grabbing both of them with a proprietary, sickening familiarity, whispering something into the mother's ear that made her flinch. Then, he led them away like his prize cattle.
Jin-ho's blood boiled seeing the scene. Back on earth, one can't imagine a scene such as this in the modern world. But seeing this, the casual cruelty toward these elves ignited a rage in him, which he hadn't known he possessed.
'Calm down, Jin-ho. You can't fight them yet,' he realized, and hated his helplessness, his nails digging into his palms. 'If I kill Julius now, the mages will swarm this place, and we'll all be executed. I'm deep in human territory. I need more than magic. I need a plan.'
He closed his eyes, his mind racing through the logic of his new world.
'Why do they keep us?' he asked himself. 'It must not be different to the slavery system which used to exist back on earth too at some point in history. We aren't just workers to them. We're stress relievers. They torture us, they use us, they humiliate us because it makes them feel powerful. It's a drug to them. Pleasure through pain.'
A dark, predatory thought began to take shape.
'If they want pleasure... I'll give it to them. But not the kind they're used to.'
Back on Earth, Jin-ho had seen how addiction destroyed people. He had seen how men would sell their souls for a feeling they couldn't find anywhere else.
'Humans in this world are primitive, compared to modern earth', he thought, a cold grin spreading across his face. 'Their idea of 'pleasure' is basic, physical, and cruel. They don't understand psychology. They don't understand the chemistry of the brain. But I do. I will play with their brain first.'
He looked at his Status Screen again. Stamina: 30. His High Elf body was a literal engine of endurance. And his modern mind was filled with a library of "techniques" and "knowledge" that this medieval world couldn't even dream of.
'I won't be their toy,' he decided, something on his mind. 'I'll be their dealer. I'll make the noble ladies of this house so addicted to me that they'll turn on their own husbands to keep me. I'll make them dependent. I'll make them desperate.'
'They think they're the ones playing with us, right?' Eon's ears twitched, a low, dark giggle escaping his lips.
"Whoever sent me here... thank you," he whispered to the dark. "For the first time in my life, I have a purpose. I'm going to break this house. And I'm going to enjoy every second of it."
He settled back into the shadows, his eyes glowing with a faint, golden light. He was no longer the victim. He was the architect of their ruin.