Eli’s groan punctuated how he felt, opening his eyes to the worst hangover. His head was pounding with unlocalized pain as if his entire skull was on fire, yet at the same time stuffed with cotton. He tried to shift around but immediately winced at the aches that sprang up all over, wondering if he’d somehow simultaneously strained every muscle and joint in his body. With some effort, he rolled over onto his side with a groan and coughed wetly, the metallic taste making him check his hand, only to pull back at the deep red liquid coating his palm.

His body crying out in pain at the sudden movement, he still tried to climb to his feet to get some tissues from the bathroom, but his hands wouldn’t support him. Smacking hard against his shoulder, he barely managed to save himself from a nasty faceplant. Another flash of pain in his head warned him against such quick movements, and he slowly rolled onto his side again, noting that he rested on a couple of blankets tossed over a stone floor. A few more coughs erupted but without more blood this time.

Where am I? This isn’t my home.

Slowly and carefully, he moved his head to look around the big stone-walled room with high ceilings. There were a couple of wooden desks against one wall and a big stylish stone door nearby, but otherwise, there were no clues to where he was. Idle thoughts of whether the door would work in his home splashed a bit of cold reality in his face as his recent memories flooded back, recalling that he was in a magical world, somehow transported from Earth. He remembered Guide, the scary ghost-spider thing in his head, the horrible dreams he’d been having, and the reset he’d just tried.

Okay, that sucked rotten eggs covered in manure. Holy hell.

He read through a string of system notifications.

Initializing……

ERROR Primary Operating Program not found

Please reinstall to remove fundamental parameter limitations

Basic protocols installed

User Settings found

User Settings installed

Please wait

Loading...

Okay, at least my settings worked, but gods, I hope the rest of this plan works. Come on, Guide, latch onto that process command.

1 of 1 programs found

1 of 1 installed

Executing

Error detected

Repairing…

I hate those dots.

Sighing as the dots disappeared, he was confused that there were no further notifications. He’d expected some sort of progress message or something, so he wasn’t sure if this was a good or bad sign. Laying there on the blankets, he continued his controlled breathing exercises while his pain soon lessened to a more full-body ache.

It took him two tries and a bitten lip, but he managed to roll onto one elbow. Laying weakly on his side, he reached for the mirror he’d dropped earlier when he’d knocked himself out. He fumbled to grab the frame’s black metal edge, his right hand trembling, and was finally able to snag a corner between his shaky fingers and find a solid grip. Toggling Lifesight, he focused on his ability and stripped away the skin and bone layers to get a new look at Guide to see that the grey color and dark striations from before were gone. Turning the mirror a bit, he slowly checked from slightly different angles, a mixed bag of hope and fear vying for his attention. With Lifesight’s highlight feature, the little shiny metal pebble stood out even more, now surrounded by light pink brain matter.

Trying not to relax too much, he steeled himself with a slow breath in and out, toggling Manasight. A rush of excitement flooded him when he couldn’t find it, but it was tempered by a new mystery. The spider thing was gone, and in its place was a mesmerizing fountain of white energy surrounding the back of his skull. Delicate lines of light in a halo of bands crossed and crisscrossed within his head. He didn’t know what they meant, but at least they matched the color of his core and were a lot better sight than the previous horror lodged inside his skull.

“Holy hell, it worked,” Eli whispered to himself. Smiling, he rolled onto his back to bask in the sense of accomplishment and relief but winced as a wave of pain struck him like millions of tiny stabbing needles rolling through his body. Unsure how long the torture lasted, it felt like an eternity before the sharp pain lessened to tingling and back to only a full-body ache. “Ow, what the shitballs?” he gasped when the feeling finally passed.

He toggled Lifesight again, a bit confused by all the pain. With his high health, mana, and stamina regen from all the magic food blocks he’d eaten earlier, he would have thought he’d be more healed by now. On top of that, he still felt far too weak. Holding up his right arm to focus on an aching bicep, he peeled back the layers and turned his arm in different directions, but the muscles and joints looked fine as far as he could tell. There might be some swelling in a few places, but the flesh looked like what he remembered, and there were no apparent wounds or tears.

“Why does it feel like I bruised my whole arm,” he muttered. Toggling on Manasight, he immediately magnified his ability in surprise, noticing more of the crisscrossing white bands he’d seen inside his skull. “What did I do?” Eli whispered, unsure what he was seeing. From up close, the lines looked more like glowing shattered glass. It wasn’t only along the surface, and as more muscle tissue peeled away before his focused will, only more spidery white lines were revealed radiating throughout his arm. Pulling his focus back to take in the whole limb, he found the glowing lines were everywhere.

Bweeeeeoooooweeeeeooooo!

“Shit!” He flinched violently when a loud sound blared seemingly from the very air, the walls vibrating slightly in time, and a fresh wave of pain erupted throughout his body. Gasping, he looked at the ceiling, then around the room, trying to understand what was happening. There was some sort of alarm blasting loud enough to hurt his ears, but it was different from when Wolf activated the defenses. The siren had been joined with a deep buzzing sensation that seemed to rattle his very bones.

Did I do something while I was unconscious? Shit, is this my fault?

With some sort of problem happening overhead in the manor, Eli didn’t screw around anymore and imagined flooding his tissues and cells with more energy in an attempt to will his body into healing the damage. There wasn’t any time to waste figuring out what he’d done to himself, as long as he could just heal himself enough to get up the stairs.

Feeling strangely glad not to have any witnesses, he crawled the few meters necessary to reach the door while the siren only added to the pain inside his head. Each careful movement sent jolts of pain into his arms and legs, but he finally made it. Staring up at the door’s metal handle, he scowled, realizing he hadn’t unlocked the damned door controls.

“Fuck,” he spat out, the vigor of the outburst sending more agony through his joints. Turning around, he looked across the room, thinking it seemed a lot further than he remembered. Wondering if he should try walking it over crawling, he settled for what had worked and wouldn’t risk him falling over. “No biggie, just about forty meters,” he said with false confidence.

Steeling his resolve and angling his body towards the metal panel, he focused on a point just in front of him on the floor. Leading off by planting a hand on the stone, a pulse of hot pain shot up his arm. The opposite knee coming forward elicited a similar torment, but he kept moving, trying to push through the pain. Each careful movement of hands and knees renewed the soreness like tapping a sprained joint, yet he continued. Somewhere along the journey, the siren finally shut off, bringing a bit of relief to his aching head and ears. So lost in the rhythm while pushing away the pain, he barely caught the edge of the wall in his vision and stopped just before smacking his head.

Sighing with relief, he glanced up at the panel on the wall. He could reach it from his knees but decided to try and stand since it wasn’t like he would crawl up the dozens of stairs outside. Clenching his teeth against the wave of agony, he braced his hands on the floor and wall while carefully levering himself to his feet, somehow without falling over. Happy with the small victory and breathing through the pain, he studied the panel for a moment, trying to clear his thoughts enough to remember which one to push. Deciding it didn’t matter, he pressed both.

There was a clunk behind him as the lock released, and he stared across the open room, dismayed by the renewed expedition ahead of him. Still, the aches and pains were slowly ebbing, and it wasn’t like he had a lot of other choices. Taking a deep breath to calm his thumping heart, he slowly and deliberately crossed the space, his body protesting with every step. By the time his fingers were around the door’s metal ring, he’d promised himself a smaller lab next time.

He opened the door and looked around the outer office but didn’t see anything amiss. Just as he wondered what was happening, Ethen, one of Eli’s guards, appeared at the foot of the stairs outside.

“Tal Tiodelak, an behail thu ar do thoirteackah?” Ethen said, the words sounding a bit harsh and throaty in a way Eli couldn’t hope to replicate.

New Language Detected

Processing…

Language not recognized

Please increase sample size

Momentarily confused by the gibberish his guard was spouting, Eli couldn’t help but smile at the notifications, realizing that he’d guessed right with the programs. Since he’d wiped the old language program in the reset, Guide would have to relearn the languages again, but it was a small price to pay for getting rid of the spider construct.

“Abale thuair do goirteachad?” Ethen continued, his professional mien changing to one of concern as he stepped closer.

Language origin detected

Lurran derivative recognized

Installing projected updates to the existing language set

Please note that certain irregularities are possible

Continued exposure to this language will improve data and extrapolation

“What?” Eli asked, keeping it simple until the program had a chance to learn more. Apparently, even the single word didn’t translate well, judging by the weird look on his guard’s face.

“Did you bhuail thu do head?”

Puzzling through the translated words like the day he met Dara, back when her accent had been hard to follow, he took a stab at what Ethen was asking. “I didn’t hurt my head, or at least not directly,” Eli replied, conscious of the headache thumping away at his temples.

“Are you sure? You don’t heljo good.”

“Yeah, but I’ll be better momentarily. Just me doing something dangerous, and likely stupid, in my lab. One second,” Eli finished as he straightened up from leaning against the door jam.

Guessing that the language would settle down soon enough with enough exposure, he focused on the more immediate need of getting up the stairs. Taking a breath and bracing himself, he took a couple of careful steps and almost looked down in surprise as his body responded as if he hadn’t been forced to crawl across the floor only minutes ago. His aches and pains had lessened a good bit, though the exhaustion was annoyingly persistent.

“I don’t know what triggered the alarm,” Ethen continued, his calm voice conflicting with his look of worry. “We should get you safe upstairs. Jurg is in the basement, holding the door if necessary.”

Eli simply nodded and walked past, beginning the long ascent up the stairs. Keeping his head down to focus on each step, he methodically climbed while mentally promising himself a mage tower next time – much better to go down a bunch of stairs after a mishap than climb up.

Just as he wondered again what was happening, a thunderous explosion shook them before a slight breeze tickled his face. A moment later, a roar of sound and distant yelling carried down to them, and a strange unease passed through Eli, his hair standing up from the sensation. It felt like someone was watching him, but they were alone in the well-lit stairway, and he glanced at Ethen, seeing a matching concern in his eyes as they picked up the pace.

It wasn’t long before the two reached the top of the stairs, only to find a dark room with a distant light shining out from the exit stairway at the other end. There was dust choking the air, but Ethen made a strange windmilling gesture with both hands, and a breeze suddenly appeared out of nowhere to push the particulates away.

A cough from down the dark corridor brought both men around to face it, just as Jurg emerged into the dim light. Eli stepped closer as he triggered Lifesight, with Ethen only a step behind. Loose stones and bricks were strewn across the floor as Eli stepped around to examine Jurg, who looked pretty roughed up with a few tears in his armor. He had a bloody wound along one cheek that looked like a clean slash, likely from flying debris.

“I’m fine. Just a little battered,” Jurg said, even as he leaned against a wall. “Let’s get upstairs and see if we can help.” So saying, he turned back towards the light shining out of the far doorway.

With a glance and shrug thrown at Ethen, both followed Jurg. The strange sensation of something watching increased as they ascended, and Eli couldn’t help feeling like they were walking into an ambush, but only more choking dust greeted them as the stairway opened onto the first floor. After another whirling of Ethen’s hands, the air soon cleared to show a corridor filled with fleeing people.

“Eli!” Wolf’s shout brought Eli around to find the man moving towards him. A small group of elites trailed Wolf in heavy armor as the group traveled in single-file along one side of the corridor. At the same time, the fleeing people took up the other end as they moved in the opposite direction.

“What’s going on? How can I help?” Eli asked as Wolf reached him and his two guards. He looked up and down the corridor, careful to stay partially in the stairwell so as not to block the way. A few people that passed him had obvious cuts and abrasions, but no one was stopping.

Wolf was dressed in a mismatch of clothing and armor as if he’d been wearing his usual casual attire and thrown on whatever he could find on the way here. He carried a long spear made from some dark metallic material. One end had a narrow metal spike, while the other had a pointed blade the length of a short sword.

“There’s some kind of attack,” Wolf responded while his serious expression examined Eli and his two guards. “Don’t you feel that monstrous aura? I heard some creature bellowing a minute ago.”

With dawning realization, Eli focused on pushing energy into his aura to strengthen it, just as Dara had taught him the other day. In only a moment, the weird sensation almost disappeared.

He jumped as a new alarm erupted, and his hands flew up to ineffectually block the sound of what could only be the world’s largest foghorn. The fear on Wolf’s face just before he disappeared at a sprint up the corridor sent a spike of adrenaline through Eli’s body. He turned to catch up, all thoughts on his sore ears forgotten.