Cage could feel he was surrounded by liquid, it was a very calming sensation and it felt like he was in a warm bath. He just wanted to stay there and keep feeling the warm sensation. Cage opened his mouth to let out a content sigh, but began to have a fit. His eyes shot open as he tried to get the liquid out of his lungs, he wasn't suffocating due to the nature of the liquid but no one would like having liquid in their lungs.
Sitting up abruptly from the liquid, he startled a woman in a red robe and began to have a coughing fit. After coughing constantly for five minutes, he finally got most of the liquid out of his lungs. He would have residual liquid in his lungs for probably another day or two and he would cough every so often but he was more or less fine.
Wiping the liquid off his face, cage looked at him self. He didn't have a shirt and was only wearing some brown trousers. He was no longer an infant, if Cage had to estimate his body was that of an eight year old. That meant that he had probably been asleep for at least more than a year. His tail was also much longer than when he was an infant but he couldn't really tell what it would look like because it was wet.
'Seeing the tail that I have really hammers it in that I'm in a fantasy world now... Also my tail looks like a f*cking rat because it's wet, I hope it looks nice when it's dry at least...' Sighing inwardly, Cage thought about his old home and how he would miss some of the commodities that he probably took for granted.
Upon further inspection he realized that he had a lot of muscle mass. He had expected for it to be deteriorated due to lack of movement. Cage guessed that it was because of the liquid he was in.
Cage looked up and observed his surroundings. There was a lot of instruments in the room. 'I seem to be in a medical room. Presumably because I am half naked and I am still alive after a long time of being in a coma-like state. it has a lot of weird stuff here... Hmm?'
looking at the entrance to the room, the woman in the red robe, whom he hadn't even noticed left, returned with a man in a white coat and graying, black hair. He was also wearing thick gold framed glasses and was relatively short.
The man in the white coat walked over to Cage, took out a lens with two handles, and began observing him. After about a minute, the man said to his assistant "To be expected of Tricia's son... Due to his soul reformation, his physical condition could put some trained soldiers to shame."
Turning to Cage, he asked "Hey kid, can you understand me?"
Cage tried to respond but couldn't, what noise did come out was very quiet. Realizing that his vocal cords weren't developed, he just nodded his head.
"Ah, my bad. I should have realized that you can't talk, it is surprising you are able to understand me though. Anyways, it's good that you understand me. I'm Dr.Gramm by the way. Hmm, how do I put this..." Pausing for a moment, he continued "Kid, you've been asleep for four years."
"..."
Cage's eyes slowly started to open as wide as they could to express his shock.
'I've been asleep for how long?!? What the hell, I spent four years in my soul-scape!?What for!'
Dr. Gramm adjusted his glaces a little and wore a serious face. "I'm also afraid that isn't the end of the bad news, your mom also left a year ago. Due to certain circumstances she was sent somewhere else. It's not all bad though, four years is a small price to pay for what you have gained."
If it was due to certain circumstances, there was nothing he could do. He wasn't mad at his mom, it was probably an order so it wasn't her fault. He wasn't strong, he was only a child at the moment. With this being the case, Cage didn't dwell on it too long. Why waste energy on something you can't change.
The assistant cut in, "Doctor, we need to go to the next patients. There is an influx of beast attacks."
"Ah yes, thank you for reminding me".
Turning back to Cage Dr. Gramm said "I need to get going now, you will just be doing rehab for a few months and will have tests done every so often. After that... you will probably go back to mining the soul stones."
Dr. Gramm turned around and left the room. The assistant stayed behind and helped Cage get out of the container and used water magic to rinse off the fluid in a shower area. The assistant then got a walking stick and shirt for Cage. Both items were very basic. Previously when Cage tried to walk without any support, he wasn't adjusted to his center of gravity and promptly fell on his butt. The only way to fix this unfortunately was with time and practice.
'I'm gonna be in this facility for a while aren't I...'
The assistant guided Cage to another room, although it looked more like a prison cell. It only had two beds, a chair, and a bucket which Cage could only guess was for using the bathroom. He was also fortunate enough to get a blanket. Compared to the other rooms though, it was luxurious. the other rooms only had a bucket and some straw. Of course Cage didn't know this, and of course it didn't stop him from thinking the room was bad.
Once inside, the assistant locked the door and left. With this, he had a better opportunity to observe the room. There were a lot of markings on the wall, if he had to count it would be more than 300. Cage guessed it was for counting days.
'Actually, now that I think about how do they count the days down here? we are underground. Is it with a magical device or their internal clocks?'
The officials in the mine had devices to tell time, the slaves used their internal clocks. Of course their internal clocks weren't 100% accurate, but they got the job done for saying if it was day or night.
Cage also was wondering if he would get a room mate or something because there was two beds. Pondering for a moment, Cage realized that he wouldn't know until later. With nothing better to do, he decided to get a better understanding of manipulating his energy.
He had only scratched the surface of energy manipulation. He would later learn that the "energy" he was trying to manipulating was mana, but he was ignorant of the world and didn't know this. All Cage could do at the moment was release his energy, he had no control. It was like he was opening a dam that held water but couldn't control the amount or speed of the water.
Sitting down on a bed, he began to tune our his surroundings. He tried sensing the energy around him, and to his surprise he realized he could sense it much more clearly than before. It was like the difference between seeing only black and white compared to seeing full color.
Cage thought it might be because of his soul, but didn't dwell on it for too long. Seeing that he could sense better, he decided to move on to the energy in his body.
'I think that my soul is like a spongy muscle. Back on my original world when people were practicing meditation, they would take deep breaths. I should try the same thing but instead of just only releasing air, I should try putting energy in it.'
He envisioned all the energy in his soul moving to his lungs. Letting out a deep breath, he felt the energy leave his body. He then tried to breathe in energy. To his dissatisfaction, it didn't work as well as he hoped.
'I think I'm going about this the wrong way...'
Before Cage could continue his train of thought, He heard the sound of footsteps. Looking through the gap in the door, he saw two others wearing similar clothing to him going to a room across from his. He couldn't see them well because it was dark, he could only make out their silhouettes. They entered and began talking, "Damn, did you hear? I head from a guard that the Agrius Kingdom has been active and making movements."
The other person responded with a hint of worry, "Really? what are those bastards planning..."
With a look of contempt on his face, he looked and stared into space. "I don't know, but whatever it is it probably won't be good."
Cage was intrigued, he was clueless about the outside world and was curious about the other powers and situation outside. He walked over to the door hear a little better. He had to hand it to his rapid growth, having a body that wasn't as soft as an egg shell was convenient. Him moving to the door was not unnoticed by the two people.
They observed each other for a little until one man looked to his friend, "Going by his looks he should be less than six, maybe five". Turning to Cage he asked, "Hey, what's your name? I'm Andrew."
Cage opened his mouth to say something but no sounds came out. realizing his blunder he quickly closed his mouth. He shook his head side to side and gestured to his throat.
Andrew realized pretty quickly what was going on and asked "Can you not talk?"
Cage nodded his head to say yes.
"What should we call you then?..."
Cage remembered that when he first went down to the main camp, he got a tattoo on his arm. He didn't know what it meant because he had only learned the language's words, not the numbers. He lifted his sleeve and revealed his ID.
Andrew nodded his head, "Nice to meet you, 0301..."