What managed to wake the good man up, was a constant throb that was isolated right on the left side of his head. It took that whole area hostage, and each throb felt like it knocked more than the other.

But right now, a gut feeling encouraged him to rub this headache away; it should fiddle away after a bit of effort, at least that was what he felt sure of.

Yet regardless of how much he tried to rub the pain away, it was impossible. Not because a good rub wouldn't work, it should have worked like a charm if he tried it out.

This became the main problem, he couldn't even try to rub his head! Simply because he still could not move his arms!

After Steve's consciousness and vision returned a bit more, he managed to figure out what was the cause behind such immobility.

In short words, this unfortunate soul had his arms shackled between some rusty metal.

These shackles kept one of his arms away from the other, likely for the sake of preventing any funny ideas.

Upon further observation, the frogezoid figured out that he was chained to a narrowly placed plank. This piece of wood was positioned at a seventy-degree angle, possibly?

Steve also noticed that his ankles, were put under a pair of similar cast iron shackles as well. Apart from that, there was a chain across his stomach too.

So whoever has done all of this work to tie him up, had for sure aimed to render him out of any opportunity to escape!

The nice frog man wasn't quite sure how to feel about this situation. Stress was the leading emotion right now, that was for sure.

Anger twirled somewhere in the middle of his consciousness, and embarrassment was there to seal everything together.

Steve was especially uncomfortable, thanks to that fact that his whole body had been stripped naked! This was not a favourable position to be in. Just why would an obvious kidnapper, take away his clothing?

The best guess he could come up with, was that the kidnapper wanted to abuse him in any intimate way. His body seemed like that of an adult's; even though it was puny and dried out of meat.

He was almost just flesh and bone, but surely had some use in some way? Kidnappers weren't exactly picky, so to say.

After such a thought was considered, he began hoping that this kidnapper didn't have some sort of team.

And if she did have one, Steve sure prayed that there weren't any men in that same team.

Simply because he was in the middle of a barbaric land right now, so it wouldn't be a surprise if any gender got some funny ideas!

But...

Intimacy became a problem that he forgot to worry about, once a mildly high pitched scream, echoed from a mild distance!

There were many guesses regarding just why would anyone scream like that, but intimacy was not one of them!

That scream had noticeable pain merged between it, along with an unholy amount of fright! Worse yet, it sounded like the scream came from a man!

So if a man had been scared that much, in these barbaric lands where nature itself, would force everyone to be tough; then just what could have steered that man towards so much fright?

These thoughts were tremendously perplexing on their own. But Steve began sharing a healthy amount of fear, once he acknowledged the horrid stench that had coated, whatever room he was currently in.

This odour felt like a punch against his nose holes. Its effects felt like a sting, and it was impossible to escape the stench itself; one would think that a rat had died in a bag of rotten onions!

The system acknowledged the waves of discomfort, that her guest was experiencing. So she thought it to be the best time, for a deal of some sort to be introduced.

But first things first, the feminine tone in his noggin pointed out. [You've got yourself into a sticky tar-pool my friend. This is a bad place to be in,]

Sass was something that Steve had struggled a lot with in his past life. He couldn't quite control it before, and tended to unleash its fractions in every situation possible.

Eventually he learned to reduce such forms of self-expression, for the sake of not hurting the people around him.

But right now, he couldn't help asking. "Really? What was your first clue?"

[My first clue were the three dead bodies at the other side of this room, can't you see them?]

"No, I can't!" Steve answered right away, as streams of panic forced him to skip a heart-beat.

[Your vision is up to level-three, you will see them eventually. It's only a matter of adapting to this darkness]

Before the topic about corpses could have been developed, she swiftly added. [Anyways, I have an opportunity for you]

While trying to reduce stress, he followed along. "Let's hear it. Anything's better than this!"

[Obviously you don't want to die again, right? So if you manage to escape this room and the lady that kidnapped you, there will be a decent reward]

"How could this possibly motivate me? A reward won't do me any good if I'm dead!" He had an urge to point out, and stress dawned with the aid of this very sentence.

[Yes, but wouldn't it be amazing if you both escaped this hell-hole of a room, and attained a reward for the success as well?]

Such a question was quite conflicting. It has urged the frogezoid to think about this situation a bit thoroughly.

And after a bit of contemplation, he expressed. "You have a good point."

[Of course I do,]

[However. After you manage to escape, I will reward you with one-hundred-and-fifty system points]

[It should be a good start for you, most guests waited weeks before they attained any points]

In a bit of a rush, he agreed. "Okay, okay."

And motivation came knocking too, enough to convince him. "I will try to get out of here, shouldn't be too hard right? That lady is just a frog, how strong could they be?"

And afterwards he tried to gain a better comprehension of what this room featured. The idea itself was good, but the most he could make out of this place, was the utter darkness that covered it.

Sure there were a few rays of moonlight that pushed through a metal-barred window, but that was about it.

As for what this room contained, he could only acknowledge a few random figures that stood still, they were likely furniture.

He also saw a couple corners that belonged to this room ~ but that was about it, everything else was a dark blurr.

So the idea of observation didn't prove to be any help whatsoever. Which was why the good man began struggling against the chain instead.

He wiggled across the plank, and tried to put some man power against the shackles as well, but it proved futile.

He was especially motivated to stop, after the few wiggles pushed his back wound towards a new layer of pain! It was simply unbearable.

Blood was dripping out of his wrists a little bit too, because of the shackles; so that had managed to lower his motivation as well.

After a couple of heavy sighs, he mumbled. "At this point I'd be happy if they choose to rape me, instead of doing anything else!"

[Although a sexual assault doesn't sound impossible, that should not be the case here]

[It is true that you are a somewhat healthy, twenty-one year old man in this frogezoid body. But in a situation like this, that might not be your use here]

"I'm beginning to feel that this place is just some weird realm of hell." He followed along, muttering through a sentence that sounded out of line.

There was quite a bit of sass hidden behind those words too, but he still tried to behave.

Sure the system was being a bit too direct. But could this intelligent voice in his head, really be blamed for this kidnapping?

[Although demonic galactic dimensions are plentiful, this is not one of them]

[However, that should not be considered your main problem right now]

[You have been kidnapped by an alchemist of some sort. So the use she might try to get out of you, should relate to that branch of Arcana art itself]

[So you can guess how severe this situation can become,]

Before such wise statements could have been pondered thoroughly, he heard quite a loud squeal coming from the other end of the room.

It didn't sound like the approacher was in pain, but she was experiencing genuine joy instead.

And that was confirmed when the same feminine tone, questioned. "Are you ready, my beautiful test subject number thirty-six?"

After that question had been lightly shouted out, the good frogezoid's eyes were pinched by several sources of illumination!

These bits of light, spread all across the wide room. But he still wasn't given the opportunity to figure out the odds and ends of this place.

Simply because after putting in half a minute to visually adapt these changes, a bunch of conflicting emotions had stricken him once more.

Apart from the discomfort of being chained; he also noticed that the same lady who had kidnapped him, was approaching from the middle of the room.

The main problem that surrounded that particular scene, was the sight of which featured this same lady. She was almost entirely naked!

Specifically, the only bit of clothing that managed to cover just a tiny bit of her intimidating curves: was a clean and expensive piece of bear fur.

But yet, that bit of clothing only managed to cover her belly and lower back.

Every other body part belonging to this woman, was exposed to this room's elements!