Sitting on the floor and wondering when the pain will surge through his body again, Jake looked around and tried to search for anything that would probably give him a clue as to how to leave where he currently was – his mind.
'If this is my mind,' Jake thought, 'then technically the system should still work since it is connected to my mind in the real world. Only one way to find out.'
Thinking about the system and trying to access it the way he normally would, Jake saw the usual system screen appear directly in his line of sight and was glad to see it.
He still didn't know how he was going to leave his mind but seeing the system screen showed there was at least a tiny bit of hope because it could appear in his mind and in real life too.
[Jake Cayden]
[Level: 28]
[Health:600/600]
[Species:Human*]
[Strength:87]
[Speed: 86]
[Endurance:88]
[Mental Moxie:70]
[Mana:79/79]
[Magic:74]
[Element: None]
[Ability: Magic mimicry]
[Exp: 16400/50000]
Swiping to the second system screen, Jake was normally supposed to see the magical abilities he had mimicked but right now he could see only the number of stat points he had.
[Stat points: 94]
'Rheya made contact with me for more than five seconds when she touched my forehead and held my neck.' Jake thought. 'But apparently I didn't mimic whatever magic those true mages have. That means there's a way they are nullifying my magic.'
'So right now my magic is useless until I can figure out how to disable whatever it is they are doing. Guess it's better for me to focus on my physical attributes like strength, not my magic.'
Looking intently at the system screen with his physical attributes, Jake was trying figure out how best to distribute his stat points when he felt the surge of pain once more.
He groaned in pain as he gritted his teeth and tried to withstand the ever increasing pain he felt and as suddenly as it started, it was gone but this time was not like the previous ones.
He could no longer feel his left leg and when he tried to move it, nothing happened. He could feel and move the rest of his body but his left leg was completely without motion.
On closer inspection, he realized that it had become slightly smaller than usual. Almost as though it had withered. Shriveled. Wrinkled.
"What the hell?!" Jake exclaimed in horror. "I need to get out of here."
Looking back at the system screen and focusing his attention on it, he decided he needed to focus on speed if he was to escape the true mages but he also needed enough strength to break out of the vines and possibly deal with any trouble he may encounter.
[Jake Cayden]
[Level: 28]
[Health:650/650]
[Species:Human*]
[Strength:110]
[Speed:125]
[Endurance:100]
[Mental Moxie:80]
[Mana:79/79]
[Magic:74]
[Element: None]
[Ability: Magic mimicry]
[Exp: 16400/50000]
With the amount of change Jake had just undergone in a matter of seconds, he felt a surge through his body but it was not pain that was surging through him.
It was a feeling that was sensational and could quite possibly be described as addictive. It felt like he could do anything at that moment as the muscles in his body adapted to the changes he had made but it only lasted for a few seconds.
Checking his stat points, he saw that he had only five stat points left and he had intentionally left it that way. He didn't want to have zero and he reserved a bit for later when he wants to improve his magic.
[Stat points: 5]
'I feel different.' Jake said, enjoying how strong he felt all of a sudden, despite him still lacking any form of movement or control in his left leg. 'It's time to get out of here.'
Thinking silently to himself about how he could possibly hope to leave, something Cat said to him began replaying in his head over and over again.
"We're in your mind Jake." she had said.
Your mind. YOUR mind. YOUR mind. The more it replayed in his head, the more emphasis there was on the word 'YOUR'.
'YOUR mind.' Jake thought. "I'm in MY mind." he said aloud. "That means I have the power in here, not Rheya or any of those true mages. So I should be able to get out."
Closing his eyes while the fog swirled continuously and furiously now, apparently somewhat reacting to Jake's new discovery, Jake concentrated on the fact that he was in his mind and tried to control what happened around him.
After applying great effort and focus, the fog around Jake stopped swirling which is exactly what he was trying to achieve first.
"Baby steps." he said. Closing his eyes again, he concentrated on his body outside his mind and in the real world. His senses and the feeling of the vines that were wrapped around his body before he left.
Trying his best to will himself back into his body and out of his mind, Jake began to feel the environment around him moving and possibly changing before he opened his eyes to see a bare floor.
Looking up, he could see the walls of the building he was in before Rheya sent him into his mind. The vines were still making him immobile and there were now three true mages in the building with him.
They had been talking amongst themselves but when they realized Jake was awake, they stopped immediately.
"I thought the elders said he was not supposed to wake up until at least after a few days." an acolyte said in shock, maybe fear.
"He was out for only a day and half."
"He is the Harbinger so it should be expected. Let's knock him unconscious again before alerting the elders."
Immediately Jake saw the three acolytes, he had received a system notification.
[True mages encountered]
[System Quest: Defeat the true mages]
[Reward: +5 Stat points, +3000exp]
'It's been a while.' Jake thought and smiled.