There was a sudden squall. Heavy rain poured hard on the ground, accompanied by strong winds blowing the trees around. While above, the night sky was covered by low-hanging clouds.

Isaiah wasn't too sure how, but by the time he realized it, he was lying on the wet soil below. His face was barraged by the rain while his ears were filled with the howling noise of the wind. There was a burning sore on the back of his body while his head felt like it was beating in pain.

His body was so sore that he was unable to move an inch of his muscles, it felt like he was encased in stone.

And as he was contemplating his current situation, a shadow emerged from the left. There, a man approached slowly. His eyes moved towards the direction of the shadow only for him to see that it was not a man, but something else entirely.

It had a human-like body structure, but its egg-shaped head was too big for its small body. It carried large blue oval eyes on its face, while its lips, which resembled a simple black line, flashed a smile. It had no visible ears or nose on its plain face and was hairless from top to bottom. Its body was simple in design, just a stomach, a large foot, and small arms with triangular claws on its edge, behind it was a long tail. Isaiah noticed that it somewhat resembled a certain fire-tailed lizard of a certain game,

It did look cute, but the creature had a strange aura.

The creature continued to approach Isaiah before it stopped, its head covering Isaiah's face from the rain above.

“This sorry state.” It opened its mouth, its voice was quite high as if filled with helium but was not annoying to the ears, no it felt rather cute. “Jealousy.”

He was more mesmerized by this creature in front of him and couldn’t give a reply.

“I do not understand why... I have worked hard.” The creature looked away for a while before looking back at Isaiah “But was not rewarded...”

There were clear lamentations in its voice, but Isaiah continued to stare in his mindless-state-of-being as the creature crouched next to him,

“I am tired. Eight have already died, I do not want a ninth.” The creature then raised one of its hands and suddenly, Isaiah felt a strange feeling. As he looked around, he saw tiny droplets of water frozen in place.

Time had stopped. And he had a strange feeling that it was this creature that made it stop.

“Do you wish to live?” The creature asked him.

‘What do you mean live? What the hell are you!’ Isaiah screamed in his mind, but then he realized, his head no longer ached. Gone was the mind-numbing pain waving around his head, instead it was replaced by such clarity that Isaiah felt like Nirvana or something.

Isaiah, shocked, looked at the creature. His body was still too heavy to move but he felt his mouth unloosened.

“Who... Are... You?” He asked with difficulty, only broken words escaped his lips.

The creature shook his head, “I do not have time for that, you are dying... Tell me, do you wish to live?”

“I... Confused... What... You... Want?”

“Your consent.”

Well, that sounded strange in Isaiah’s mind. Is this creature asking for breeding rights or something? As a man, there was no way in hell he would do something like that.

“No... Hell... Me... Man.” He replied.

“You misunderstood me... I only...” The creature paused before resuming its words, trying to rephrase its question. “Do you wish for revenge?”

Isaiah could not even reply. As the word reached his ears, he felt his body shake as his emotions began to well up in his heart. He could feel something within him desperately trying to climb up.

It was hate.

There was a great amount of hate welling within him.

But why? He couldn’t tell... The creature sensed that unbridled amount of hatred in his mind. It probably knew why Isaiah was harboring such dangerous feelings, but it offered no hints to Isaiah himself.

“Hatred. Such a powerful motivator, but an empty one...” It then turned its eyes back to Isaiah, “Do you wish help?” Time was suddenly resumed and the rain beat once more to the ground.

Isaiah looked at the creature, but as he gave his reply, the strong wind carried his voice. He instantly forgot what exactly he replied.

The creature nodded and covered Isaiah's eyes.

“Survive...” Isaiah felt his body relax under the warmth of the creature's hand, “And forgive...”

*

The soft sound of fire cackling awoke him as Isaiah found himself inside a rather dim room. He closed and opened his eyes as he let his eyesight adjust itself to the darkness.

'What a strange dream...' Isaiah thought to himself as he relaxed his aching head, ‘Is that... Bars?’ in front of him were metallic bars formed in a way similar to how prisons would have. ‘What... Huh... Right, isekai.’

He tried to move his hands but it didn't budge, only producing the sound of chains moving. He turned his head as much as he could and found his whole wrist covered by a strange glowing cast.

‘Okay... But damn this.’

Isaiah looked down. He was in a rather tough position as his foot was standing on top of a slanted platform which made it difficult for him to stand straight unless he was constantly straining his knees, which in turn produced much stress on his foot. It also didn't help that his body was slanted due to this platform. Though his legs were also chained, the lack of proper balance did make the whole affair very uncomfortable.

He groaned in pain, As he moved his legs as much as he could to alleviate the rising static numbness building up in his legs while he scanned his surroundings.

He was inside a cell that was rather short, being that he was only two short steps away from where he was. Underneath, the stone cell was carpeted by sickly-looking hay which stank so much that his nose felt like it had sinuses,

Just outside the bars was a clean hallway which was lit by a distant torch while directly opposite them was a similar cell as theirs but empty.

To his side was a figure suspended in the same way as he was. He had long unkempt hair and his body was particularly hairy. His clothes looked like he had just survived an attack from a rabid animal.

“Ah... Hello?” He called out, but there was no reply, “Are you, alright sir?”

The cell was too dark to be able to see things properly, though he could see the man’s outlines and body shape, his face was shrouded in the dark. He couldn’t tell if the man was asleep or awake, or even if he was a man in the first place.

“Sir?”

Cough Cough.

A response. Isaiah felt delighted, being alone in this kind of location would give him goosebumps,

“Are you alright?”

“Who is there?”

A rather old tired voice replied,

“Isaiah Petre Dragovitch, sir...”

“Isaiah...” His cellmate pronounced his name as Eesayah, not I-saiah.

“Y-yes, sir...” Isaiah decided not to correct him, there were more pressing matters than names, “Are you the man beside me?”

“Beside you?”

“Yes...”

“You are in the center? But you died some time ago?”

“Center sir? To my left is a wall. Are there three of us here?”

“Yes... Me, and this other guy who died... So you are new?”

“I believe so... I came a few days ago.”

“I see... What a shame, you sound young.”

Isaiah remembered a certain word that the old-sounding man said and asked, “Is the man at the middle...”

“Dead.” Came the reply before he could complete his sentence.

“Right...” He looked at the dead body to his side, his nose stung as if he had sinus so, thankfully, he couldn't smell any of its foul smell, “How long has it been, are they not gonna clean it, and we might catch whatever sickness it is bringing.”

“The sergeant usually arrives to clear the cells and feed us... I forgot when they should be here... There are no windows, I cannot tell if it's night or day.”

Isaiah nodded quietly before looking around when his cellmate asked, “Were you captured? How did you get here?”

“I am not sure sir... My memories seemed foggy.” Came his reply, though he knew that he came from another world, there was no need to tell anyone.

“Ahh... But you are young, and they only place mages in this place so you should have a great future ahead of you...”

“Wait what sir?” Isaiah interrupted after hearing the word mages but the man continued to speak,

“I’ve been here for fifteen years, and have already grown old, this man beside me couldn’t speak our language and I don’t know what my name is anymore. Though I can use fire-type magic, I doubt anybody would buy me out of this place.”

“Wait, sir, you said magic? I have magic?”

“I wish I could die,” The man ignored Isaiah’s questions, “I've been provoking that guard here, but that man was calm, he never fell for my words.”

“Right, sir... But about what you said, I have magic?”

“Yes... Why else would you be here in the first place?”

“Ehh... I don’t understand.”

“Well... Those without magic are packed inside smaller cages on the bottom floors. Us mages, are more valuable goods and many would pay a pretty penny to buy us up, so our captors would put us on more elegant display. You see those chains covering your hand kid, those are mana-inhi... Inhibicor? It sucks up mana.”

“Mana...” Isaiah looked back and started to notice the strange feeling he had with his hands, they felt somewhat numb and damp, also he could feel an air-sucking feeling at the tips of his fingers. “But... I can use magic?”

“You can wait... You don’t know what type of magic you know? Ahaha, you are just like me then!”

“You sir?”

“Yes... I didn’t even know I could use fire magic until they tested me out. Seems like they have a mage who could tell if you could use magic, but not what type of magic. Had I known I could use fire I would have been able to fight back... But alas, it was too late. That said, at least treatment is slightly better than those down below. No overcrowding, it isn’t too hot, and they feed you better stuff as well... Ahahahaha.”

“Magic...”

Well, that somehow made sense. Using being isekaid as his starting point, having magic himself would make a lot of sense.

'Right... They also mentioned I could use electric magic or something.' Suddenly his mood went up a couple of notches, 'Then all is not lost, I can still escape...'

“So uhm... How do I use magic?”

The answer came late, “I am not sure... All I know was that you are... Hmm, was it... Wait, I may be, I... Err, I am not too sure.”

“I see...” Isaiah nodded, but he didn’t feel too conflicted. "Magic is part of a person right?"

"Err... I am not too sure of the philosophy behind it all, but I guess so?"

"If that's the case..." Isaiah looked down, 'Magic should function similar to how we move... By using mental signals... The many books I've read as well do state something similar... Imagination and mental images...'

Isaiah chuckled. The thought that fantasy books would have some kind of real-world application was funny for him.

'But first, I gotta know what kind of magic I have... They did say electricity but that could be different. There is also the question of how magic functions.'

For Isaiah however, this too wasn't that hard anyway. After all, almost every media dealing with the scenario he was in always pointed out some kind of an indicator, whether they be a status page or something else.

‘So... How do I open my status page? Wait, does it even exist in the first place?'

Fear began to grow in his heart, but it was quickly replaced with joy when something appeared right in front of him.

[Restarting System]

It was blue.

It had words.

It was semi-transparent.

"Yes!" Isaiah celebrated when he realized what had just appeared in front of him...

“I... I am sorry for not being of much help Isaiah.”

“It's alright sir... It's alright, oh by the way, what is your name?”

“Me... Hmm, the guards call me Porridge, I don’t remember my name even... Ahaha, how useless have I become.”

“Is that so... Ohh." Isaiah who was about to continue saw that the status bubble disappeared and what appeared next was something straight out of a fiction manga.

[System Activated.]

The smile on his lips widened as he read his status page.

============================

Name: Isaiah Petre Dragovitch

Level: 14

HP 148/148 MP 0/198

STR: 24

AGI: 24

INT: 47

Talents (Passive)

[INT Boost II]

[Holy Blessings I]

[Taming I]

Abilities (Active)

[Manipulation]

[Electric]

============================

His eyes sparkled. His excitement rose through the roof as he scanned the contents of this strange semi-transparent blue bubble now floating in the midst of his eyes. To him, this was the living embodiment of all his hidden fantasy, his secret desires.

After all, what man would pass up the opportunity to be the wielder of a status page, acquiring all sorts of magic defeating monsters on their way, and becoming the greatest of all time using cheat-like abilities and modern knowledge. Saving the princess and that one village girl, forming a harem of the best and greatest women, and living a life of luxury and respect that would make Mansa Musa blush.

For a while, his current situation no longer mattered. No, in his eyes it all disappeared, in front of him was a huge marble hall with gold pillars on both sides. Women stood by his side, their loving eyes looking at him whilst men from all around the globe knelt before him in a show of respect.

He was hungry, thirsty, and in a very uncomfortable position. But for a while, he daydreamed...

That was until his eyes saw his mana points go from 1 to zero almost instantaneously. It constantly happened, again and again, whenever his mana had refreshed by one, it would go back to zero without hesitation.

'These chains are pretty annoying huh...' He tried moving his hands here and there and pulled himself down as hard as he could, but no matter how much he strained, the chains didn't budge. "Iron is still iron... Even with 24 points, it still doesn't matter huh."

He had always been the calm kind of guy, whereas everyone around him engaged in some kind of athletic event, he would usually just remain coop-ed up in some quiet room reading whatever book he happened to pirate that day. Strenght was never his forte in the first place, and even in this world that remained true...

'My strength and agility are the same, but my intelligence is twice more? Am I that intelligent? No wait, intelligence mostly means magic not how smart you are...'

Isaiah continued to look at the double-digit numbers on his status page when his eyes wandered towards the top and here he saw his level.

'14?'

He found that strange...

'Why am I level 14?'

Wasn't this technically his 'first day' in this world... Should he have started in the first level instead...

'Yet somehow, I am level 14 already?'

He wasn't that disturbed anyway, if anything he felt rather thankful that he was already at a higher level from the 'start' and not at a pitiable level 1. It would make his eventual escape later much more manageable,

'That said, why am I at level 14?' He began to ponder for a while 'Maybe only my soul got transferred... That would mean I possessed someone else's body... But I don't have his memories, plus my body feature looks like what I do have...' He looked down and saw the hideous mark that the branding left on his chest, 'But wait, didn't they say I was a 'goods' to be collected? Wouldn't that mean I had spawned somewhere else entirely and somehow leveled-up 13 times throughout my journey here...'

He shook his head,

"That doesn't make sense... No, nothing makes sense."

"What doesn't make sense Isaiah?" Porridge asked,

"Ahh, sir, nothing..." Isaiah chuckled nervously, he found it embarrassing that somebody heard him mumble out loud, but then a thought came to his mind, "Ah sir, do you mind if I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"You said that you didn't know you could use magic before right?"

"True..."

"Why?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"Like... How come you don't know you could use magic when you could just check your status page for it? Or is it that status-"

"Wait, wait... Hold on? The what now?"

"Status page?"

"Status... What is that?"

"Wait huh?"

"What did you say again?"

Isaiah was very confused. How come they didn't know what a status page looked like?

"Status page? Do you not have one?"

"No... What is that? Some kind of book?"

"Indeed it is... It's like a paper that appears only in your mind that tells you how strong you are and what magics you have... Mine here says electricity and... Manipulation? Wonder what that is."

"A paper? I-I don't understand what you mean by that... What kind of paper appears in your mind? Also, what is a mind?"

"Brain, you know... Ah, wait... Let me rephrase it. A status page is some kind of paper, that is somewhat invisible..."

"Okay?"

"The paper, only you could see it. By mind, I mean your brain, you know, where you think?"

"I think I get what you mean."

"And in there, you could see your status page."

"But the brain is inside the head? Do I have to cut open my head then?"

"No... You just have to say status page in your mind, like just think of the word and it should appear."

"Okay... Well, status page?"

Silence...

"Status page? Huh, status page? Hmm..."

"Is it not there sir?"

"I don't see any... What does it look like?"

"..." Isaiah paused and was dumbfounded... 'I have a status page, yet this guy doesn't... What?'

He began to dig into his memories but couldn't exactly figure out what is the cause.

'Could it be that there is some kind of item required for it to show up, like a physical card? Or maybe it's a racial thing? Huh...' As he was pondering his thoughts, an idea popped up in his mind... 'Could it be...'

"Look, kid..." Porridge opened his mouth after a while, "I know you want to escape, but trust me... In the many years, this mansion stood, not one person managed to escape, not one... Give it up, and just wait... You are young, and based on your voice, you should look good. There will be many who would buy you."

"No, wait..." Isaiah turned to Porridge "Just forget about that, we can still escape... Hmmm," Isaiah began to look around, "Nothing I can see here huh, anyway, sir, when do the guard come?"

"Why? You want to seduce them or something, ahahahaha!"

Isaiah's cheeks turned red but he ignored him, 'No... I am going to level up...' He told himself, 'After all, if what you said was true, then only I have a status page...'

And just like that, he felt really excited. After all, the implications of this were too much for him to just ignore.

It meant that only he could level up. Whereas people outside would take years and years of constant effort in order to get stronger, he only needed to level up in order to be stronger.

That was a cheat if anything.

That said, if he wished to escape, he needed to figure out how... And as the saying goes.

'Know yourself, and your enemies...' Isaiah opened his status page, 'A status page is a clear indicator of a person's capabilities. From strength, attack damage, defense, agility, speed, and magic-related properties. It would contain detailed information about all those factors, to allow the person to acquire the most efficient way to reach their limit.'

That said...

'Is this even a status page?' Isaiah asked himself.

Unlike the many other examples he had seen on video games and novels, his status page was rather empty. It only contained three attributes, that being strength, agility, and intelligence, and contained no other information about his other more important attributes like attack power. That said, he could definitely see that his strength and intelligence stat is affecting his HP and Mp respectively, but how exactly, wasn't clear.

No matter how much he divided or subtracted, he couldn't figure out how one works with the other. Even worse he couldn't even tell if his three attributes actually affected the other attributes that should have existed.

'What is here? Hmm, is there a help button?'

He began to look around but found nothing more than what was being shown. His name, his level, his HP and MP, his stats and skills... That was all.

His eyes continued to scan his page, and when it reached the skills part, it was here he saw something new.

'Ah... Here it is, descriptions...'

[INT Boost II - +10 INT points per 1 attribute]

[Holy Blessings I - +20% Damage dealt to Demons]

[Taming I - +10% Stats to monsters tamed (0/1)]

'Okay... What is this?'

The descriptions provided were not exactly what he had expected, though the skill themselves were pretty straightforward with their titles, their descriptions on the other hand looked like a shady legally-binding contract that was chock-full of many traps to the unsuspecting eye. Or that's how he felt.

'One of them should be my cheat skill right? 'At least I can open and close it using my mind, that's constant.' He asked himself as he rescanned his status page but only found those three description bubbles, even his 'active' skills produced none. That worried him even more, Isaiah was always the perfectionist type of person, someone who had OCD, and seeing something that is lacking made him somewhat pissed.

'Maybe it's only limited to my status page... Maybe the system is more straightforward than I think and so other things require no status page instead?'

With that thought in mind, he calmed himself and began to look around, only to be rather annoyed.

'Not even the things outside huh...' He was looking at the bowl of soup that a few cockroaches were busy feasting on but no matter how hard he stared it didn't produce a description about what the bowl was, not even the rats gave some kind of indicator... 'But shouldn't there be descriptions, or maybe its a skill issue, like I need to find or buy something... Wait, shop... Hmm?' He looked down and focused his attention on the chains holding his foot, 'Can I just store the chains in my subspace?'

He grinned and focused himself on the action...

"Store!"

...

“Store? This isn’t right... Do I need mana to store things in my subspace? But my mana gets constantly drained, right? No wait, maybe if I just constantly say store without stop I may use my mana before it gets sucked away.”

He looked to his front to allow his neck to rest and then took a deep breath,

“Store, store, store, store, store, store, store, tor for tor tortortortor.”

“Shut up, can't an old man sleep here?”

“Sorry...” Isaiah's cheeks burned red as he lowered his head. Porridge seems to have calmed down as there was no other voice left. ‘So wait, he was sleeping? But why isn't it working?’

============================

Name: Isaiah Petre Dragovitch

Level: 14

HP 148/148 MP 0/198

STR: 24

AGI: 24

INT: 47

Talents (Passive)

[INT Boost II]

[Holy Blessings I]

[Taming I]

Abilities (Active)

[Manipulation]

[Electric]

============================

He rescanned his status page but found no mention of any kind of storage system...

'Storages are a staple in status pages but I don't have one, not even a shop? Wait, wait, wait... I have no help menu, the system lacks descriptions, and there is no currency indicator or a storage subspace... What useless system this is?'

He sighed heavily,

'Fine, whatever, have it the hard way then... At least I have some skills, and my three passive talents are somewhat supported for magic-based combat, and looking at my abilities, it is magic...'

Though most of his skills titles are clear on how they worked, the only problem was,

'Manipulation, what does it mean? I can use electric magic, but what is manipulation? Hypnotism? Reality bending? I may be overpowered and should have some cheat skill but reality-bending should be way too overpowered... Maybe hypnotism.' He deliberated further with his mind as he tried to find out what his powers meant, 'Manipulation meant control of some sort... Override, hijack... I guess hypnotism or wait... Hmm. Electricity... Four elements, fire, earth, water, air... Electricity is definitely a fire element, so maybe... I can control the elements?'

Being able to control multiple elements is indeed great, but it's not really 'powerful'

'Am I the avatar or something?' Isaiah chuckled, 'But only time will tell... Still gotta be able to use magic, but my mana is always 0... So how do I increase this?'

As he was thinking about his situation, he heard the loud sound of a metal door opening from somewhere down the hall,

"Wake up, wake up, wake up you schiese..." A loud rough voice boomed from that direction followed by the banging of something metallic, of course, many were annoyed by this, Porridge even, but the soldiers didn't care, "Time to eat..." Announced the bearded individual, behind him, a tall but skinny soldier carried a wooden jug that was riddled with dried marks of some kind of soup.

"Shut up! Shut up!" A prisoner from another cage Isaiah couldn't see shouted back but the bearded man took out his sword and banged it on their jailcell, shutting the prisoner up from complaining,

"And you there... Hurry up, boy..."

"Yes... Yes sir," The tall soldier hurried inside the room and placed the jug onto a table, retrieving the many bowls that were hanging on his net, he began to fill them in one by one.

'I can use this...' Isaiah thought to himself as a plan formulated in his mind.