In the Cloak of the Night 1

More than seven days had passed since Max was slammed into the dungeon by the two guards, but to him it felt more like a year. Instantly changing his environment from the twenty first century Earth to whatever this place is was quite a shock, but fortunately the human mind was quite resilient. At first Max felt restless as he was locked up in the cell for almost all of the day, all alone with his thoughts and his status panel, but that changed on the fifth day. Once again someone came to talk to him, but as expected, he didn't understand a single word the person was saying.

The man who came to talk to him was wearing a fancy blue robe covering all his body , and had a calm and confident demeanor as he tried to communicate with Max. He first tried to talk to him in multiple different tongue's, but Max didn't understand either of them, so he started talking but using hand signs. This is when Max learned the man's name was Leir, and from the sudden appearance of the ball of water above his hand , he seemed to be some kind of magician. This of course didn't make him free as he was bound with shackles and brought out of the cell he was in , only to be given a shovel and crudely be instructed to open up some trenches.This was considered backbreaking labor by normal standards, but it was a good way to not think, anything but thinking about his situation. 

Also, besides getting out of his cell he also met with some of his co-workers, other people digging a trench. Some of them were human, some others were something close to human besides the animal traits , but all of them were male. At first they looked at Max with fear and confusion, but after a day of him not talking to them and ignoring them, they also ignored him. This of course was the best course of action as he didn't want to get involved with any of them. After each day he would return to his cell accompanied by the guard's on duty and contemplate his situation, and of course how to level this place.

........

Five months passed by and Max was still seen digging up a muddy trench with his trusty rusted shovel. That thing hadn't changed, but other things had, especially his looks as Max seemed to have aged several years and his body had lost all amounts of fat. He also appeared to be more relaxed as he seemed to be used to this place, especially when a bell rang and all the others digging the trench around him stoped and turned their attention towards one place.

"Hey, it seems that today is our lucky day Max." called a deep voice as a big and callused hand slapped Max's shoulder. This made him wince a little as he roughly understood those words and turned to look at the one who spoke. What appeared in front of his vision was a tall, about 1.8 m tall man with black feline ears and teeth like a wolf. This was a beast man according to the language of this place, and he was a war slave.

"I see....Gus." slowly answered Max as he moved his rusted shovel from the dirt and got ready for the show. Another person not taller than 1.5 m positioned himself next to Max and followed his vision also. Not two seconds later more than 3 stones that should weight about one tone whizzed through the sky and impacted the earth heavily.

*Booom*

The earth shook as the boulders fell, and the distance was quickly filled with the sounds of fighting. Sounds of metal against metal and screams of agony filled the surroundings, but this didn't seem to faze the one's digging the trench , including Max. Several more big boulders flew through the sky once again hitting the ground with force as more than fifty heavy armored men hastily marched towards the commotion. Max wouldn't have minded staying to watch  for a little while more , but the crack of the whip made them immediately straighten up.

"What are you looking at?!" yelled a plump man wearing chainmail while cracking his whip in the air "Move your asses, move it! Do you want to die here?! If you don't , then move!" 

The man continued to shout at the top of his lungs as spittle flew everywhere, but he seemed to have got his point across as all of them retreated to the inner camp. They passed several crude wooden bridges that helped them pass the other three 3m deep and 4m wide trenches and finally arrived at the campground. Several tents , wooden shack's and several depilated stone building's riddled the 1km² clearing. Numerous people were buzzing around, some getting equiped for battle, some gathering the equipment, and some were just getting out of the way.  All this created a heavy buzz that hurt one's ears , but in that commotion no one gave the slave workers that much attention. This would be a perfect opportunity, but it was not an ideal one. So with his head low, Max returned to the cell he had spent the last five months in and immediately opened his status.

Level: 3

HP: 45/50

MP: 42/45

Class: N/A

Physique: 7

Vitality: 5

Soul: 4

Skills: Internal Mana Sight Lv 2

Inborn Talent: Enchanting Touch (A)

Titles: Demon Slayer; Demon's Mark

Compared to five months ago his status hadn't changed much besides his level rising to 3 and his stats having a little bit of fluctuation. He had also gained a new skill, but it served little to nothing except for slightly feeling the Mana residing in his body more, and nothing more. The real treasure of Max wasn't in his new skill, or his new stats, but in the new items produced by his talent ' Enchanting Touch '. 

It was a skill that made him both cry in joy at it's unique creations, but also cry in sorrow at the 3 day cool down period and useless abilities is sometimes bestowed upon his items. Of course these discoveries have come at days and months of experimentation and failure, until something valuable came out. He often felt like a mad scientist as he enchanted his few items.

*Krrrk...krrrk*

Slowly but surely, after confirming no one was behind the door of his cell, Max removed a palm sized stone from one of the walls of his cell to reveal several seemingly random items. A crude knife, several red berries, shoelaces, a stick, and several small crystals. If one looked at it , he would think that this was the stash of some lunatic and he wouldn't be wrong, but if one who possessed the ability to sense Mana came across them , he would be definitely shocked. Everyone of those items Max had hidden radiated Mana in small dosages, clearly showed the item's magical nature.

"Hmmmm.....I guess I will need  some more provisions. If I escape , I'll need to travel for a long time." thought Max as he went to one corner of his cell where the window was, and discovered some uncleaned entrails of an unknown animal. Without a second thought he picked them up , took a red berry in his hand and immediately activated his skill. As soon as he did that he felt the usual cold feeling running through his body, but that was nothing compared to what was happening to the entrails. They rapidly shrunk and deflated to half their previous size, and the berry on the other hand seemed to have a slight shimmer to it now.

You've successfully enchanted an item .

Energizing BerryEffect: Satiation +2

Max smiled at the result as he put the berry with the other items, and went to sleep. A tiring day awaited his today also.