A happy welcome
It was cold, freezing cold.
And it was dark.
Even before he could open his eyes he knew he was surrounded by pitch black Darkness. But what woke him up was the the hard and rough surface he was lying on.
He was in pain.
Not the light one from lying uncomfortable.
Every fiber and tendon in all of his limbs hurt.
His Muscles had this stinging pain like after a sudden growth spurt he experienced all those years back in his past.
All Bones in his body felt like they had broken or at least chipped.
As if that agonizing pain wasn't enough, he had a piercing headache accompanied by a strong nausea.
'Was there some kind of really good bachelor party? Wait a Moment, where am I?' were his first thoughts.
As much as he stained his eyes, he couldn't even see his hands before the eye, let alone make out any structures.
Not even the slightest light seemed to reach his location.
The next thing he noticed were his surrounding noises, or more precisely, the absolute absence of said noises.
'I should find out where I am and what happened to me. Me...' what came to him shocked him to the core.
Forget this strange location or this surging pain.
He had no Idea who he was.
'First things first. I gotta leave this place. ...and hopefully sober up fast.'
As he tried to sit up, he noticed two things.
First, his head didn't spin around and he was easily able to move, second, his body felt light.
Very much so.
As he tried to stand up, he staggered.
It seemed to him like he lost the feel for the dimensions of his legs.
If that wasn't going to subside by sobering up, he would have lots of trouble leaving this place and finding out where he was.
So he had to move.
He slowly took his first step, just to stride for what felt like meters.
He tilted to the front and crashed face first into the floor.
Ouch.
Rubbing his Arms, which he tried unsuccessfully to use stopping the crash, he slowly sat back up.
'Seems this place ain't that cramped' he thought to himself. 'No Walls touched so far...'
If it didn't work out at first try he had to keep going until it did.
So he got back up again, readying himself for another try.
This time he tried to not halt as abruptly as the last time. So he stepped forward, again striding for at least 5 foot (1,5 meters).
Then another Step.
Missing the moment to stop without him risking to fall over again he took another step, ...and crashed heavily against a concrete wall.
The throbbing pain in his nose bridge, forehead and left shoulder which hit the wall first and without slowing down, at least lessened the still rocking pain in his body.
He sat up and rubbed his forehead.
Not feeling any Blood or tasting iron, he started to feel his nose.
Still not finding any problems he was dumbstruck.
He should at least have a broken or bruised nose. Maybe even a dislocated shoulder or a lacerated forehead.
There were no issues to be found after thoroughly checking himself up as good as possible.
The total darkness and numb fingers, thanks to the cold, made any examination pretty difficult.
So he got up and prepared himself for another try.
As this place seemed somewhere of at least 15 foot (4-5 meters) in diameter, he tried to soften his steps.
This time he took his first step a if trying to sneak, slowly but steady.
As he sat his foot to the ground it felt like it got softer.
It was different to the hard an rough ground he felt waking up but still concrete floor.
His foot connected an he could take another step.
His arms stretched out to the front and slowly advancing in fear of hitting any obstacles, he probed through his dark prison.
When his hands touched another wall, he crept along its stony surface.
He found no edges or corners as he slowly walked along the Wall for quite some time, so he assumed the Room to be circular.
Crossing the Room again, now with more normal steps, he crossed it in about 7 careful steps. Calculating to about 17 feet in diameter, he searched for any clues for what his confinement was.
While walking through the room to confirm the circular shape he felt grooves on the floor. They lay in different directions and shapes, but he couldn't find any pattern.
But there seemed to be one more important discovery.
As he slowly learned to walk again, there seemed to be something swinging to his steps, slapping from thigh to thigh.
Thinking about his actions until now, not remembering the feel or sound of clothing, it dawned to him:
He was naked.
Having lost his feeling of touch to the cold and gliding over rough walls, he couldn't tell any details, but he knew he had not the slightest bit of fabric on him.
As he felt himself up, he at least got reassured he wasn't missing any bodyparts, as far as he knew, though his measurements seemed to be a little off.
Not that he knew anything detailed, considering his now obvious amnesia.
As he had no way to change this condition, he went back to exploring his surroundings.
The idea of trying to probe for the ceiling crossed his mind, but remembering his first steps let him fast dispose of that thought. How would he know how high or low it was? Hitting the roof skull-first or spraining his ankles by jumping in the darkness seemed idiotic.
After what felt like hours of probing and slithering his hands along the wall, he found a untypical cavity.
Pondering if it was safe to stick his hand into it, a sudden nervousness and a slight fear overcame him.
He simply had no idea how long he had been in this room.
He knew he had to leave this place, where ever this may be.
And he had to do so fast, otherwise he could starve or dehydrate. Or maybe he got abducted and his captivators may return. They could still be around, but who knew...
Slowly inserting his right hand, he felt a handle. He was slightly relieved, not getting any cuts or electric shock.
It was a smooth metallic handle, vertically fit in the round cavity.
He felt he would go crazy staying any longer in this pitch black darkness.
So pushing his fears out of his mind he pulled the handle.
Nothing happened.
.
.
.
.
.
Panic crawled into him as he rattled on the handle, ready to scream his lungs out for help.
Just then, the handle let itself turn to the left and easily pull.
Cursing himself for stupidly panicking, he heard a mechanical clicking sound from inside the walls.
Slowly a crack started to form on the wall to his left side, only visible through the dim light blue light from behind the door.
Not trusting that whatever may lay behind the door would be good to him, he pushed himself flat to the wall where he stood.
All the while the hidden door slid inside the wall to either side, slowly illuminating the circular room more and more by the second.
A cold shiver ran down his back, glad not having given in to his idea of jumping for the ceiling.
He couldn't see it clearly but guessed it to be at least 16 feet high.
Had he jumped at full power, he could have broken his legs at landing.
The next thing he noticed were the grooves on the floor.
As he saw them reflecting the blue light, they resulted in a circular pattern, combined with runes.
Some lines ran up the walls to end in one point on the ceiling at the highest point in the center.
Holding his breath and still not hearing any sounds, other than the beating of his own heart, he decided to peek out of the door.
The separating Walls where the hidden door slid in were about 10 foot thick.
What met his eyes was a stone paved hallway.
He went forward through the thick wall surrounding his temporary prison.
Before he could step into the hallway though, he passed through some invisible barrier.
It felt like Spiderwebs but more resilient and without the typical adhesion.
He felt his pain and head ace instantly subsiding to a more manageable degree.
Though still there, it was reduced to a light stinging and a dull lingering pain.
What happened next left him staring blankly...
________________________
unbound Mana available.
... initializing System ________________________
A pale white, half transparent Screen popped up out of nowhere.
„What the f...?" he blurted out holding his mouth shut mid-sentence.
Panic came up the next moment fearing to have alarmed someone of his presence.
The hallway he was now standing in was circular. It seemed to run parallel around the room he had been in and ended in staircases.
Torches burning with light blue flames were mounted on the walls, illuminating the surroundings in their eerie light.
It was as cold as in his dark prison, the burning torches not giving off a speck of warmth.
_____________________
Integration System initialized
_____________________
A new Window appeared, replacing the first and floating right before him.
To his surprise that was all that happened.
No signs of audible footsteps or ringing alarms.
Only then did he notice there actually where absolutely no sounds.
But that was nothing to worry about now.
The main subject in question was floating slightly aslant before his chest, keeping a distance of about 16 inches.
He instinctively tried to touch the screen, but his hand went straight through without any feel of touch.
'What the Hell is wrong with me...?'
______________________
System Skill granted:
Integration – passive
______________________
As the next window popped up it overlaid the previous.
Not sure how to close those light-screens, he thought about how he would have to live with those screens blocking his view.
Inspecting the light-screens closer he noticed a small button with a cross in the upper right corner.
Trying to touch the button, the first window closed.
Repeating the action with the second window he got his free vision back.
'Well, that was easy. Now I feel stupid.' he thought to himself.
Now that he had some light, he inspected himself again.
As he already suspected he wasn't missing any limbs, nor did he find visible scars or anything else that was off. Though it somehow felt off to him.
His memories were still missing but he felt like his body had changed drastically:
He had the feeling he got taller, how tall he had no idea.
He was very athletic and ripped, but had not a single hair on his body.
And it seemed pretty young.
But most importantly:
He was HUNG.
His little buddy was in the league of shaming any adult video star.
And he was still in this freezing cold Hallway!
Impressed by himself he focused back to his surroundings.
As he took his first steps forward in the hallway it happened again.
______________________
Starting Quest-line:
A new Life
current Object:
flee your Prison!
______________________
A new Window showed up.
Even the System urged him to leave his current position.