Chapter 18: Ether

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'What's happening? Where am I?..'

Jen slowly opened his eyes, exhaustion immediately flooding his mind, even though he had just woken up.

His last memory was of escaping from that pale man, running for miles at top speed before losing consciousness at the edge of the inner area.

That air cannon was no joke; he was sure he had internal bleeding and vaguely remembered being carried.

It felt as if his eyes had turned to stone; it took him nearly a minute to open them with the help of his hands, covered in some strange substance.

Another thing, his body structure had changed significantly... very significantly.

'How!'

(First-person perspective: Jen)

Out of the corner of my newly awakened eyes, I noticed my yellow hair flowing almost to the bottom of my forehead.

My hair definitely wasn't this long; I made sure to cut it regularly... How long had I been unconscious?

In any case, I hadn't trained for half my life for nothing; I quickly gathered myself and calmed down in less than a minute.

I wasn't inexperienced in such matters; I had been in strange situations before.

But I must admit, this is the strangest...

And I don't feel the pain of my injuries anymore, as if I had been healed a long time ago, as if I hadn't been wounded in the first place.

I had mana poisoning after Octavius's direct hit, and I would've died if I hadn't drunk a potion.

Mana now flowed wonderfully through my body, even better than it did before the injury, my skin tone changed slightly but was still similar.

My clothes had also changed; from the traditional shadow cloak, I now wore a white shirt with puffed sleeves and black pants that fit me perfectly.

Aside from my hair and slightly different skin color, everything was fine, even my status screen showed the same numbers.

Except for one thing...

<Body of Pride: A+>

I didn't have this skill before... I'm quite sure.

I tried to activate it to verify, but it seemed to be already active, a passive skill.

I tried to deactivate it, but I couldn't.

Realizing I couldn't do anything, I sighed and began to look around.

It seemed I was in an abandoned hospital, the white light above me flickered strangely - constantly emitting an eerie atmosphere.

The hospital walls were white and peeling in many places, with mold covering the floor.

A TV screen fell below me, some wires connected to it, causing it to work oddly.

It displayed the names and numbers of patients who were once here, now probably forgotten.

'There's electricity here..'

That was the first thing I noticed, as having electricity means there's no shortage of civilization here.

I tried to pull out my swords from the storage ring, but it seemed everything had been taken from me, stripped of everything completely.

I walked slowly through the hospital corridors, wanting to get out of here as soon as possible.

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