Mike looked through the barred window in his door at Ishare, more specifically at Ishare’s open mouth. He had asked simply asked what had happened since he had been caught? how much time had passed and why he was awake again.

Ishare had only responded by opening his mouth wide enough for Mike to see inside. Which is why Mike was currently looking in horror at Ishare’s lack of a tongue. He staggered back after only a few moments, tearing his eyes away from the empty mouth. What? Why? Was this the punishment for Ishare helping him try to escape?

Mike looked down at his own body, finding it unhurt and unmarred, he was hyper-conscious of his tongue in his mouth. Had they punished him similarly somehow? In some way that he couldn’t detect, or just hadn’t noticed?

He tried to think of ways they could have done so. Reaching up to feel his face, his mouth, eyes, nose and ears. All accounted for. His eyes widened as he quickly reached down for the waistband of his trousers. He let out a deep sigh of relief, all good down there too.

He was distracted from his relief by the sound of ringing metal outside. Mike once again approached the window, looking through it at Ishare.

Ishare’s hand was raised with his knuckles out, obviously having rapped the bar. It crossed Mike’s mind to wonder how hard he would have to tap solid iron to make it ring before he could continue that thought, Ishares hands started moving in an intricate pattern.

“Do not worry,” the motions of the hands meant.

Mike blinked, he needed to look up the descriptions for his skills, the language skill seemed to be pulling its weight hard here. He focused as Ishare’s hands started moving again.

“I do not believe this punishment is intended to be permanent, I believe it shall be restored once you leave, as my ability to speak is too important to be taken away so casually.” the gestures read.

“So they can heal you?” Mike asked, it seemed that Light magic was their thing, so that made sense. Well, it made sense in a video game, if someone asked him to use Light Magic to heal he wouldn’t have the slightest idea how to go about it.

Ishare nodded, his hands moving in those specific patterns again. “It is good that you understand me, I believed you might, as you were speaking my language quite well before. You asked questions, I will answer them as best I can.

“It has not been long since they caught you, though such is hard to judge down here. Though as you can tell, much has happened, they were not pleased that you managed to escape your cell, they seem to value you quite highly, and that you got out scared them.

“They brought you back here after you had been.” For the first time, Mike didn’t understand the meaning of a gesture, it felt like a hiccup in his mind as if he had been reading one language and suddenly it switched to a different language mid-sentence. Ishare continued, not noticing Mike’s sudden confusion and the Skill seemed to understand what he was saying again.

“You were injured, large bruises on the backs of your shoulders, they took you into your cell and healed you I do believe, though I cannot say why. Then they tried once more to examine your mind but were once again thwarted by your companion. They were confused as the spell they used to put you to sleep was similar, and worked.”

Reading hand signs like this was disorienting, Mike hadn’t known any form of sign language on Earth and was having trouble adapting to trying to watch the movement of Ishare’s hands and look at his face for expressions, so he felt like he was getting a truncated version of this, without Ishare’s feelings. The fact that he never paused to breathe was exhausting too, Mike had to follow the movements and it felt like reading a run-on sentence.

A pang of guilt hit Mike, Ishare only had to do this because he’d had his tongue cut out, for trying to help him. Ishare continued to sign and Mike followed as best he could. “I think they now believe that it only protects you while you are unconscious, it may be beneficial to learn how to assume such a state at will.” Ishare paused in his signing to look up at Mike.

“Thanks for the tip, but I feel like protecting myself by putting myself entirely at their will is a bit of a double-edged sword,” Mike replied, he tried to notice himself speaking another language, but it didn’t feel like he was, all his thoughts were in English, and the sounds he was hearing seemed like English, just off slightly, perhaps the AI was prioritising for him. Learn how your weird translation skill works after out of immediate danger of mind rape and experimentation.

Mike nodded at Ishare to continue and he did so. “After that they came to ask me how I was involved in your escape, I told them that I helped you out of your cell and distract the guardian, it seems they value the contents of that room quite a lot to have...” another sign that Mike couldn’t understand, “...so well.”

He took a deep breath then, “They punished me, which I would prefer not to go into more detail on. It does not bother me too much, even if they do not heal it themselves I can get the damage reversed at a temple in my homeland. This is not the only problem however I have been restricted further in my ability to cast, none of my mana can leave this cell now, they did not do so before as it was difficult and requires constant maintenance for me to not be able to break it, they thought me compliant.” At that Mike was able to see a sneer on the friendly man’s face. No definitely not compliant.

Mike furrowed his brow at that, thinking, how on… well, not Earth, was he supposed to escape without Ishare’s assistance, he couldn't even get out of his cell without his help.

Mike thought to the most recent set of notifications, Dark Magic. He needed to do some questioning of the AI again. Mike looked to Ishare, "If I could use dark magic myself, could you teach me what you did to the door?" He asked, face serious. The AI had said that humans on this planet couldn't use magic, but Ishare seemed to think him capable of it.

Ishare's eyebrows rose, "Dark magic you say, I suspected you of being able to do some Light magic from what I felt from your cell before we first spoke," he signed. He tilted his head thinking, then started to sign again, "I imagine your method of using magic is vastly different, as you do not contain any internal mana, but if you can indeed use Dark magic I will teach you as best I can in these rather unideal circumstances, though I don't know if we have the time, that is not a simple spell." He signed.

Mike nodded, grateful. He didn't know what these elves thought of magic and how it was treated by their society, but he could still be grateful for this one teaching him so he could save himself. "Thank you Ishare, I will be back soon, I need to ask some questions of my companion, I'm not entirely sure how all of this works myself, but I will work it out."

He nodded to Ishare once more as he turned to walk back to the bed. He felt his legs strain from the simple effort of moving after standing still for so long.

The ever-useful ‘Ding’ sounded as a new window appeared before him.

Physical aspect Level up!

You have gained 2 Distributable Physical Stats.

Physical Statistics

2

Level

2

Exp

0%

Strength (STR)

8

(+/-)

Endurance (END)

6

(+/-)

Agility (AGI)

9

(+/-)

Dexterity (DEX)

9

(+/-)

Well, standing around chatting was training when you had the endurance of a 60-year-old.