The panel that appeared was a new one, it was a Quest Log like from any RPG game he had ever played. At the top a list of Active Quests and beneath it a list of completed quests.

Quest Log

Active Quests

Escape!

Complete Quests

CREATE LIGHT

Okay, he supposed that would be useful for keeping track of things if he got quite a few quests, but he should probably try to be more specific, “Quest, Escape.”

Quest: Escape!

You have been captured by the Gilded Empire, The empire of the High Elves, They have you imprisoned in a research facility underground in their home province, The Gilded forest. For the last two months they have been experimenting on your Soul with Magic, trying to ascertain the nature of a Spirit that had bonded itself to your soul, they made little progress until one of the other prisoners volunteered to help them separate the spirit from your soul. Using a complex mix of Light Magic, Dark Magic, Soul Magic and Alchemy, they succeeded. The tattoo on your arm is the result of their efforts.

They are not finished however, they plan to have a high-class servant of their Deity come and use high-level soul Magic to read your memories, and understand your origin, something the spirit had been preventing until this point. This will likely break your mind permanently.

So you must escape!

The object that summoned you to this realm is also held within this facility, it is one of the other primary aspects of the research being done here and shouldn’t be too far away, it can be used to either leave this realm or to escape this facility, the choice is up to you.

You will find aid and further information from the prisoner in the cell across from yours.

Rewards:

The Class system.

The Plunder system.

Not being invasively mindread until you are a vegetable.

OR

A possible way home.

The last line gave him pause, A possible way home, so he could opt out of this mess? Why hadn't the AI mentioned that sooner? He looked at the floating screens in front of him, the status page and the Quest Log, he looked at the floating orb of light that he had made with Magic. Would leaving be worth loosing this? Probably, considering it seemed he had entered this world with less than ideal circumstances.

He shook his head to clear it, no time for that now, it was a decision for the future. The Quest had said that the prisoner across from him would help him somehow.

He stood, needing to put a hand on the wall adjacent to him to get enough strength. Being in a coma for two months wasn’t a joke.

Once on his feet, he turned around to look through the small barred window in his door. The cell across the hall and its occupant were very different from this one.

The cell had no front wall, instead, it was lined with metal bars, much like a jail cell from Earth. He could see the whole cell form his little window and sitting cross-legged directly across from him was a man. He had black skin, not like people on earth had black skin, it was pitch black, his entire frame was narrow and lithe, even more so than Mike's almost emaciated form, though it didn’t seem to be due to lack of nutrition. His eyes were wide, the sclera black and the Iris crimson red. His hair was white, both the tightly cropped hair on his scalp and the rather unruly beard that was growing around his jaw. Most notably of all though were the long thin ears that came to a point as they tapered back.

“An Elf,” Mike said in surprise and wonder. The AI had mentioned them continuously, but this still made it feel real, in a way that the explanations didn’t.

“A Dark Elf,” the man replied, his voice deep and with a strange accent. “It is nice to finally meet you young one, though perhaps that is inaccurate, as I have been helping the gilded ones untangle the mess that was your soul for more than a month.”

"So you are the prisoner that volunteered to help them?" Mike didn't know what to think, if he hadn't done so then maybe the others would have been more forceful in their experimentation, or maybe he would simply not have woken up.

The Dark Elf man raised a pale eyebrow, "Oh? So you know of that do you? I suppose the other young one has managed to communicate with you then, such a strange creature, very curious, especially about Magic. I did not know if it was doing so to give you aid or just to satisfy its own curiosity, but it seems to have given you some information somehow.."

Mike tried not to cringe, he shouldn't know anything of what happened these past months, immediately speaking of something he shouldn't know about was a pretty good indicator that he had a source of information and he felt like it would be prudent to keep the exact nature of the AI under wraps for now.

“What do you know of me? My memories are fuzzy,” Mike responded deciding to ignore the questions, for now, his memories were fine but he didn’t need to tell this man that, and it seemed credible that amnesia could be a side effect of invasive soul surgery. He felt a pulse from his arm, he glanced down at it, seeing the lines shifting again but before he could read them the Dark Elf man responded.

“I know only what the gilded ones have told me; that you have a very unique spirit tattooed into the skin of your right arm, and rather tightly tangled with your mind and soul. I know that the spirit is likely new to the Mortal realm and seems to be very curious about just about everything, though especially Magic. During the procedures I did my best to inform it of what I knew, I believe it was also able to learn from the minds of the High Elves with me.

"That is almost all I know of you, though I am curious to learn more. So that brings us here, you, finally cognizant again and I back in a cell. Perhaps I should introduce myself, I am Ishare, Dark Elf Chaos-seeker, what is your name young one?”

Mike looked at the man as he spoke, something was off but he couldn’t tell what yet. The Elf seemed to know quite a bit about the tattoo and even participated in its creation, having spoken to the AI in enough detail to attribute it a personality that Mike wasn’t sure it still had, based on the messages it had left him. This man seemed to be the likely source of most of the information that Mike had been receiving from it so far, him and the High Elves who helped make the tattoo.

“I’m Michael Sven, that I remember, it's nice to meet you Ishare, though I wish it was under better circumstances. The other one told me that I am in quite a bit of danger if I stay here, apparently the High Elves are awaiting a VIP who can use magic to read my memories, I need to get out of here as soon as possible, because apparently, that would have much more adverse side-effects than amnesia,” he explained.

“I may be able to aid you, though not as much as I would like, our captors have done a good job at making me unable to escape, but I don’t believe they expected you to wake, so I might be of some help to you, I should be able to cast a spell that would let you walk through that door, would you like me to do that now?” Ishare responded narrowing his eyes at the mention of a VIP.

Mike nodded, eager to be out of this cell and on the way towards his escape. “First, can you tell me about another one of the research topics here, one possibly related to myself? It is my ticket out of here, it should be nearby.”

Ishare tilted his head and seemed to be thinking, “If this thing is a person it should be down the corridor to the right, in one of the cells, if it is an object it should be to the left, in one of the storerooms or labs, I think I heard the gilded ones discussing a rather large object that had some relation to you being studied in one of those labs. Be careful though, much of this place is guarded by beasts tamed and controlled by the Light Weavers and Soulsears of the High Elves, I can cast another spell to make you harder to detect but that will be the last I can do for you, I'm afraid.” He explained then he closed his eyes and Mike saw the air around him change.

Darkness leaking from his hands and forming a shape in front of him. It was mana, the same that Mike had seen in the corners of his cell, he couldn’t sense it in the same way he could the light mana in his cell, but he could see it.

As Ishare was doing his thing Mike looked down at his arm, finally reading the words that had appeared earlier.

MENTAL SKILL UNLOCKED: LANGUAGE

The words shifted again the second he finished reading them.

MENTAL SKILL UNLOCKED: ACTING

That’s what had been feeling off! How had he been talking to an alien species from another dimension as if it was nothing?! He had a Language Skill, it seemed to help him communicate, he would need to ask the AI about his Skills soon.

As he looked up and through the bars again Mike saw that Ishare had finished whatever he was doing with the dark shapes in front of him, time to escape for now.