The jaguar moved its paw casually onto the red dot but the dot was now on the back of its paw, its head tilted the other way in confusion, then the dot moved to slide off its paw to about a metre in front of it.

Mike grinned as the jaguar’s eyes narrowed, then a growl started to come from the throat of the jaguar, and Mike froze, the bass of the growl deep enough that Mike could feel it from almost three meters away. Immediately pivoting his head to look down the other hall to see if anyone was coming in reaction to the noise. It was clear so far.

He turned his head back to the more immediate threat, the jaguar had started to stand, moving smoothly into a crouching position, all of its legs folded beneath it and its torso low to the ground.

He jerked his arm and the dot slid away from the huge cat, moving along the floor. The jaguar responded fast, almost faster than he could see, it blurred to the new position of the dot and Mike moved his hand again sliding the dot further down the hall, this time onto one of the walls, the jaguar moved again, though not as fast this time leaping forward to press its front paws over the red dot.

Thinking that he should probably get moving, Mike started to take slow steps towards the door that the jaguar had been guarding. He moved backwards with one hand against the wall, his other hand still raised to direct the movement of the red dot as the jaguar continued to jump around the hallway, getting slowly further away.

After a few moments of walking he reached the door, putting his back to the wall he inspected the door. It looked like an ordinary set of thick wooden double doors, two doorknobs at the centre. He couldn’t see a keyhole anywhere, were they not locked?

Glancing back down the hall he saw the jaguar still distracted by the random twitches of his hand directing the laser pointer. Looking back to the door he reached out with his free hand to firmly grip the doorknob. Before he could even turn it to see if it was locked he felt his field of vision go white. He staggered back, Blinded by what he thought must have been a flash of incredibly bright light.

Then he felt something slam into the back of his shoulders and carry him to the ground on his front, pain running through him first from his back then the entire front of his body. He hadn’t even had time to put his hands down to brace himself as he fell, given his current state though that may have just made it worse.

Then he felt hot breath on the back of his had and he was too afraid to focus on the pain. His vision was finally starting to clear as he heard a new voice. “Aaah, I see our guest has finally awoken from his extended rest.”

Mike tried to turn his head to get a look at who had been spoken. As he did, however, he only saw what looked to be the top half of a set of huge needle-sharp teeth. So that's where that breath was coming from. He felt as a tremor of terror ran through him as he imagined that huge golden cat crouched on his back and its huge mouth open to contain his skull between its jaws. He wasn’t particularly surprised to start feeling a warm puddle forming under him.

“Back.” The voice commanded and the weight of the jaguar and its breath on his back vanished, as well as its teeth from his vision.

Now standing less than a few feet from him. Looming over his pathetic form was a tall man in clean white robes, wrapped around him in an intricate fashion, embroidered in gold along seams and edges of cloth. As he looked up further to the man's face he saw a stern expression looking down at him from eyes slitted like a reptile’s, set in a face of golden skin, and framed by golden hair with two sharp-pointed ears.

“You shouldn’t have been able to escape that cell, I imagine you had the help of that Dark one. Well, nothing for it now. SLEEP.” The last word was accompanied by a shining wave of white mana emanating from the High Elf's mouth that sent soothing and calming waves through Mike’s mind. In less than a second, he was asleep.

***

Mike awoke, blinking his eyes as if to clear them. He tried to understand what his senses were showing him, he was in a hard bed, laying on his back, a thin sheet the only thing between him and what felt like stone, he tried to think about what he was doing before he went to sleep…

The escape!

Mike sat up, deja vu brushing over his mind. He looked down, once again seeing his thin and shirtless form. Looking around he knew he was in the same dark cell as before.

He took a deep breath. He had failed. Even with the Magical assistance of an actual Elf, he had failed. He felt a shudder of fear run through him at the memory of the jaguar's jaws stretched around his head. From what he knew about the creatures on Earth, they killed by simply crushing the skulls of their prey, instead of seeking a week spot.

He kept his eyes tightly shut, he wouldn't cry. He still needed to escape and sitting here crying about how badly he had fucked up the first time wasn't going to get him anywhere. After sitting and just breathing in through his nose and out through his mouth for a few minutes, he opened his eyes.

He needed to focus, the AI seemed to want to help, even if it also seemed drastically unstable and rather contradictory in its methods. It was something to focus on though, the system the AI gave him was a life raft of familiarity in this new world. He hadn't been sent to a world that inexplicably ran on its own game system, but he had brought one with him it seemed. It would provide just as much detachment as he needed to cope without letting him forget the stakes, or so he hoped.

He needed some light. He focused on the white mana around him and imagined the same ball of light that he had before. “Lumen,” he spoke, and he saw the mana shift at the same time as felt it with his attunement sense. It seemed to not just change into colour but shift from that overlapped space that it existed in into the world as it transformed into the glowing orb.

Still feeling the wonder of using magic, and glad that the High Elves hadn’t done something to him that prevented it, he looked around the illuminated room. It was just as barren and boring as he remembered. He then looked down at his tattooed right arm, there was now a 6 in the circle next to the bell symbol.

He lifted his left hand and tapped the Icon. There was a ding and a new window appeared.

1/2

You have unlocked Magic the Skills:

Dark Magic

Dark Magic Resistance

Light Magic Resistance

You have discovered the spell:

Shadow Camouflage

Magic aspect Level up!

You have gained 2 distributable Magic stats.

Magic Statistics

2

Level

2

Exp

10%

Affinity

16

(+/-)

Attunement

6

(+/-)

Control

7

(+/-)

Resistance

6

(+/-)

Next

Well at least he had gotten something out of that disaster, turns out getting turned partially invisible and magically put to sleep is a great way to gain experience in magic. He immediately put the points in control, not having to speak or wave his hands around to do magic would be great.

It seemed as if that wasn’t his only notification though. He hit Next and watched as the window changed.

2/2

Congratulations!

You Have Leveled Up!

Your Average Level is the sum of your total aspect Levels divided by three, It is a more accurate representation of your total capability than the total level.

For Gaining an Average Level you receive:

2 General stat points that can be distributed into any stat.

Spoiler: Status window

Name

Mike Sven

Age

22

Sex

Male

Height

180cm

Weight

59.2kg

Average Level

1

Physical Statistics

0

Level

1

Exp

80%

Strength

8

(+/-)

Endurance

6

(+/-)

Agility

9

(+/-)

Dexterity

9

(+/-)

Mental Statistics

0

Level

0

Exp

65%

Intelligence

15

(+/-)

Wisdom

11

(+/-)

Perception

9

(+/-)

Willpower

7

(+/-)

Magic Statistics

0

Level

2

Exp

10%

Affinity

16

(+/-)

Attunement

6

(+/-)

Control

9

(+/-)

Resistance

6

(+/-)

General Points (GP)

2

Well, that was even more questions, it appeared he had actually Leveled up this time. He was buzzing with questions and wanted to spend those points immediately, but they weren’t going anywhere, for the moment neither was he. He still needed to escape.

He had royally fucked it up the first time, he should probably actually think about it for more than a few moments this time.

He stood, first he needed to talk to Ishare to find out what had happened while he was asleep, and find out why they had let him wake up at all.