The Author's POV

'How long has it been?'

I wondered to myself as I dully stared upwards.

By now, all I could see within my vision was empty darkness. Nevertheless, I continued to keep my focus on my body.

As long as I could move my body...

'The body strengthening method requires me to suffer quite a bit in order to practice it, and at the moment it is of no use to me. However, the very first part of the exercise does not require me to do anything of the sort, since all I need to do is feel my muscles in order to feel the nerve connections to my body which might actually be able to solve my paralyzing problem...'

Focusing my attention on the muscles of my body, I shut my eyes and thought about the martial manual Han Yufei had given me.

With the aid of the chip inside of my head, I was able to somewhat recall most of the most important points of the first technique, body hardening.

'This is my only hope.'

There was only one goal I had at the moment, and that was to move my body again.

Only that way could I figure out what was actually happening to me.

'Now that I think about it, what exactly happened?'

My memories were hazy since all I could recall at the moment was seeing the portal swallow me up with Jin. Everything was sort of a blur as, after that, I had no recollections of anything.

Actually, thinking about it, there was indeed something else.

'I do faintly remember having my body carried somewhere. Did I perhaps pass out during the incident and got taken prisoner by the demons?'

Suddenly, different scenarios began to appear in my mind as my heart slowly sank.

'If that's truly the case, it makes sense as to why I'm here and my mana is sealed.'

Not only that but to have also taken my dimensional space…

The situation was a lot more precarious than I had originally thought.

'What happened to Jin?'

When my thoughts paused there, I suddenly recalled that Jin was beside me right before everything happened, and my eyes immediately darted to my right and left.

I was only able to see darkness at the moment.

I didn't give up though.

As I closed my eyes, I tried to focus on my hearing to see if there was anyone else nearby.

'If I can hear his breathing…'

Drip— Drip—

After a few minutes, I realized I was all alone inside of this space as the only sound I could hear was the sound of the liquid dripping from the side of the room. Its rhythmical drops messed up my concentration several times as my face contorted.

Struggling to hear for the next minute, I eventually gave up.

'Fuck, just what in the world is happening?'

I became frustrated once again as I stopped whatever I was doing and concentrated on practicing the art Han Yufei had taught me.

An impending sense of danger washed over me.

***

"Ugh…"

Jin's mind was currently in a haze at the moment as he could hardly think straight. While his stomach churned, his head throbbed.

"...Where am I?"

his eyes, all that

as he

"Hm?"

was then that found that he was unable to

wide open eyes, his mind immediately became alert. However, that did not last for long as

"Ren! Kevin!"

the top of his lungs as he

him as he remembered the events leading up to his

bastards fucking drugged me, didn't

you guys do to me!? Let me go this instant before

again shouted as he lied

going to get mad if they didn't let him

I get out of here! I'll fucking kill you

out were greeted with silence, as he felt

"Bastards!"

his face reddened. He could even feel some of

with no response...forcing Jin to calm down and

his eyes a couple of times, he took

"Haaa...haa…"

wait you

cursed as he finally calmed down and observed the area

to be a small, rocky room that was covered in some

there was a small section where water dripped

Drip— Drip—

the water falling

knit of his brows, Jin wondered to

'What's going on?'

"Huh? My mana?"

no mana inside of his body. Closing his eyes to see if there

couldn't feel his dimensional ring

rang inside of

This…

would pull. Maybe not for Ren, but knowing Kevin well, Jin knew that something was up

go

on him that this perhaps

eyes he stopped speaking and focused all of

need to do is make my

***

'I can feel something.'

electric current flow through my body, my eyes

reconnect with me. It wasn't long before I could finally

rejoiced inside of my mind as I waved my hand in front of

cant finally move my

my face as I took notice of

"Thank god..."

quietly murmured d to

me a total of four hours to get my arm moving again, but instead of being annoyed by the

as I focused all of my attention on the

as

"Ugh."

the process was anything but easy as a weird tingling sensation circulated around my body, creating a wave of

wasn't anything painful about it, but I felt as though a thousand feathers were tingling all

'This sucks.'

as I fell in and out of concentration

adjusting to the darkness around me, enabling me to get a

appears that I am in a small room. The size shouldn't be too big considering the sound coming

midst of my thoughts, I heard an unexpected rustic metallic

Clank—!

"Ukh!"

mucus-like substance fall all

"What's this!?"