How to become trash (Pt. 3)

I opened my eyes and found myself in a spacious room. For some reason, this place felt somewhat familliar.

This seems to be the place where we first appeared when we were summoned to this world. The reason why I didn't recognize the room at first glance was because this time there was a strange pattern that covered a large portion of the floor, in the shape of a circle.

Oh, right. That must be a magic circle, just like the one which was used to summon us here. Hm, so that would mean that they are going to teleport me. Hehe, so this is my shortcut straight to the dump. I just want them to activate it now, but I can't seem to see anyone in this room. Do they expect me to activate it on my own somehow?

It wouldn't make sense for them to wait until I activate it on my own, because who in ther right mind would want to teleport themselves to a place like the dump? With that logic it would make sense to consider myself mentally ill, but that isn't the case. I think.

Anyways, I need to figure out why I'm alone in this room.

"Okay, that's the door." I located the door through which I left last time, with the princess, and started walking towards it.

"Oi, who did that?" Something hit me in the nose, and I immediately looked around, but there was no one here, at least not that I could see.

Well, I won't figure anything out if I just stand here, so I guess I'll just act like nothing happened.

Again, it was like a bashed my face against an invisible wall.. Oh, that could be it.

"Let's see.." I reached my hand out, and surely enough,I felt like I placed it on top of something. Glass? No, it's probably some sort of barrier magic.

I walked around, trying to figure out the shape of the barrier and I soon realized that the barrier went around the whole perimiter of the circle. I tried to climb over it, but either it was really high, or just had unlimited height and depth. Sounds about right to me.

This is a great time to test something out actually.

[open status]

[Name: River]

[Level: 68]

[Race: 98% human, 2% ?????]

Health: 789/780

Mana: 775/780

*Level up or use a status plate to see more information*

"Oh, so I need to level up a whole bunch of levels to be able to see my whole status without a status plate." What's good is that I can see my mana and health, at least.

But when did I use mana last time? I was pretty sure that my manapools is supposed to be full. Also, I'm missing a bit of health, but I think that's just because I smashed my face against the barrier.. twice.

Ahem, anyways, it looks like my mana is being sued for something right now. Could the barrier be powered by it? I punched the barrier and my mana decresed by another two points.

I sat on the floor.

Since the barrier is powered by my mana, If I keep punching it until my nama wears out I would be able to escape, but there is a problem with that plan. You instanlty lose consciousness when your mana reaches 0, therefore I am trapped here until I die..

..Is what the princess thinks, but I just came up with an ingenious exploit.

~~~

I kept punching the wall, and once both of my hands hurt too much I started bashing the wall with my knee.

"Okay, 3 mana left. That's two more hits." I leaned against the wall and kicked it once more. Now I should only have one mana left.

So, what exactly am I doing? Betting everything on luck, pretty much. As you know, If my mana runs out I will fall to the ground and stay unconscious until my mana is restored. The barrier will also go down unti my mana is restored, so the second I wake up the barrier will appear again.

But what if, when I get knocked out, I fall far enough outside of the barrier for it to dieactivate it? Of course, that also means that if I don't fall far enough, the barrier will appear right where my body is and I will get sliced in half.

"I'd say it's a 50/50. Eh, good enough." Well, it's better than certain death.

I kicked the wall one last time and instantly blanked out. This time, however, I didn't appear in the white space where I usually go when I'm knocked out. I guess being out of mana is different. Also, why am I still able to think despite the fact that my brain has clearly shut down?

If I can still think, that means that so far I haven't died. Thing are looking promising, if you ask me.

~~~

"Oh, I'm alive!! YES!" It was a horrible feeling, just waiting for my mana to return in hopes that I don't get cut in half by the barrier. Luckily, my body decided to be nice and fell right where I needed it to.

"Great, now that I can move it's time to risk my life once more, but this time everything will depend on my skills and not luck." Oh well, rather than dreading on about what's to come, I need to get going.

I found lever which had the words "Trash only" written on the side. Yep, that one's for me.

After pulling the lever, a door opened up leading into a dark room with damp air, similar to the one where the princess kept her slaves.

In the room was a mana-powered switch, and after giving it some mana I heard a buzz go off in the main room. The magic circle on the ground was now lit up very brigtly, indicating that it's ready to be used.

I wish I could take the princess down into that hellhole with me, just to see her scream in fear, but since she is not here, I will do that on a later date.