There was a squall. Heavy rain poured hard on the ground, accompanied by strong winds blowing the trees around. While above, the night sky was covered by low-hanging clouds.

Isaiah wasn't too sure how, but by the time he realized it, he was lying on the wet soil below. Darkness surrounded him compounded by the heavy barrage of rain while his ears were filled with the howling sound of the wind. He was wet all around, even behind, however, there was little he could do to alleviate himself as his body felt so sore that he was unable to move an inch of his muscles, it felt like he was encased in stone.

He closed his eyes to rest his body while contemplating his current situation, as he was wallowing on his thoughts he began to hear slow and heavy footsteps approaching him. Opening his eyes he saw a man standing not too far from him, but as his sight adjusted to the darkness he suddenly realized that it was not a man but rather something else entirely that had found him.

It had a human-like body structure, but its egg-shaped head was too big for its small body. It carried large blue oval eyes on its face, while its lips, which resembled a simple black line, flashed a smile. It had no visible ears or nose in its plain face and was hairless from top to bottom. Its body was simple in design, just a stomach, a large foot, and small arms with three triangular claws on its edge, with a short tail to top it all off. Isaiah noticed that it somewhat resembled a certain fire-tailed lizard of a certain game,

It did look cute, but the creature carried a powerful aura.

The creature took a few steps towards Isaiah before it stopped, its head covering its face from the rain above.

“Not again...” It opened its mouth, and a slightly high-pitched voice went out. “This sorry state.”

He was more perplexed by this creature in front of him and couldn’t give a reply. Well even if he wanted to speak the pain in his head prevented him from forming any kind of response,

“I do not understand why... I've tried my best to help, but...” The creature sighed, there was clear sadness in its voice, but Isaiah continued to stare in his mindless state of being as the creature crouched next to him, “I am tired. Eight have already died, I do not want a ninth.”

The creature then raised one of its hands and suddenly, Isaiah felt a strange feeling. As he looked around, he saw tiny droplets of water frozen in place. Time had stopped. And he had a strange feeling that it was this creature that made it stop.

"Should I let you live, no, do you wish to live?” The creature asked him.

‘What do you mean live? What the fuck are you!’ Isaiah screamed in his mind, but then he realized, his head no longer ached. Gone were the mind-numbing pain waving around his head, instead it was replaced by such clarity that Isaiah felt like he was in a state of Nirvana or something.

Isaiah, shocked, looked at the creature. His body was still too heavy to move but he felt his mouth unloosened.

“Who... You?” He asked with difficulty, only broken words escaped his lips.

The creature shook his head, “I do not have time for that, you are dying... Tell me, do you wish to live or do you wish to rest in eternal peace?”

“I... Confused... What... You... Want?”

"To help you decide."

"Live... I... Want... To... Live." Isaiah readily agreed, as the creature said he was dying and Isaiah did not want to die yet.

"You are not the first I aided, many have died before you from many great dangers... I can guarantee you the same, a life filled with problems and tribulations and horrors beyond your imagination, yet you still wish to live?"

"..." Isaiah stopped, he wasn't sure why the creature seemed to discourage him from living however Isaiah did not care, life was already hard how much worse could it be? "I... Want... To live."

The creature paused for a while, as if contemplating about his words then nodded.

"Then, if that is your wish... Good luck, Isaiah, You will need it."

The creature covered his eyes as Isaiah fell into a deep slumber.

...

The soft sound of fire cackling awoke him as Isaiah found himself inside a rather dim room. He closed and opened his eyes as he let his eyesight adjust itself to the darkness while he let out a mighty pain-filled yawn.

The suddenness of the change from what he saw a while back and today did mess with his mind.

'But who was that guy, think...' He squinted his eyes as he recoiled in pain, 'Is... Jail...' In front of him were metallic bars formed in a way similar to prisons 'Why am I in jail...' He thought to himself when he looked down and saw the black tattoo on his chest, 'So it wasn't a dream.'

Isekai.

The act of being transported from one world to another.

He had never thought it would happen to him, mainly because the idea of being transported to another world was contained in the realm of fiction. But that was the only thing that could explain his current situation.

'How... No, why? Like...'

His head started to ache, and a myriad of questions began to pour into his mind. He took a deep breath as he adjusted himself, having now felt the unbalance on his foot. He was atop a slanted platform which made it difficult for him to stand straight unless he was constantly straining his knees, this in turn produced much stress on his foot. Though his legs were also chained, the lack of proper balance made stating still very uncomfortable.

He groaned in pain, as he moved his legs as much as he could to alleviate the rising static numbness on his foot while scanning his surroundings.

He was contained inside a small cell, being that the outside was only two short steps away from where he was and he could feel the heat from the torch just outside. Underneath, the cell was carpeted by sickly-looking hay which stank so much that his nose felt like it had sinuses. Just outside the bars was a clean hallway while directly opposite of them was a similar cell as theirs but empty.

To his side was a figure suspended in the same way as he was. He had long unkempt hair and his body was particularly hairy, upon closer inspection however he did not look like the old man from the carriage as he wore only a loin cloth that covered his groin.

“Ah... Hello?” He called out but there was no reply, “Are you alright sir?”

The cell was too dark to be able to see things properly, though he could see the man’s outlines and body shape his face was shrouded in the dark. He couldn’t tell if the man was asleep or awake, or even if he was a man in the first place.

“Sir?”

Cough Cough.

A response. Isaiah felt delighted, being alone in this kind of location would give him goosebumps,

“Are you alright?”

“Who is there?”

A rather old tired voice replied, he spoke in that language that Isaiah didn't know but was somehow fluent enough to understand and speak. 'This thing is trippy.'

“I-Isaiah Peter Dragovitch, sir...”

“Isaiah...” His cellmate pronounced his name as Eesayah, not I-saiah.

“Y-yes sir...” Isaiah decided not to correct him, there were more pressing matters than proper pronunciation, “Are you the man beside me?”

“Beside you?”

“Yes...”

“You are in the center? But you died some time ago?”

“Center sir? To my left is a wall. Are there three of us here?”

“Yes... Me, and this other guy who died... So you are new?”

Isaiah paused for a while as he looked at the figure to his side, “I-I believe so... I came a few days ago.” He was shocked to learn that it was a dead body that was beside him.

“I see... What a shame, you sound young.”

"Is the man..."

“Dead.” Came the reply before he could complete his sentence. "I remember him dying."

“Right...” He looked at the dead body to his side, his nose stung as if he had since so, thankfully, he couldn't smell any of its foul smell, “How long has it been, are they not gonna clean it, and we might catch whatever sickness it is bringing.”

“The sergeant usually arrives to clear the cells and feed us... I forgot when they should be here... There are no windows, I cannot tell if it's even night or day.”

Isaiah nodded quietly before looking around when his cellmate asked, “Were you captured or sold? How did you get here?”

“I am not sure sir... My memories seemed foggy.” Came his reply, though he knew that he came from another world, there was no need to tell anyone.

“Ahh, so it's like that huh... Anyway, you are perhaps young, and since they only place mages in this place you should have a great, if dangerous, future ahead of you... If you find a master quickly that is.”

“Wait what sir?” Isaiah interrupted after hearing the word mages but the man continued to speak,

“I’ve been here for ten years and have already grown old, this man beside me couldn’t speak our language so I never spoke to him and well he died some time ago, I-I don’t even know what my name is anymore. Though I can use fire-type magic, I doubt anybody would buy me out of this place hahaha.”

“Wait, sir, you said magic? I have magic?”

“I wish I could die,” The man ignored Isaiah’s questions, “I've been provoking that guard here, but that man was calm, he never fell for my taunts.”

“Right, sir... But about what you said, I have magic?”

“Yes... Why else would you be here in the first place?”

“Ehh... I don’t understand.”

“Well... Those without magic are packed inside smaller cages at the bottom floors. Us mages are more valuable goods and many would pay a pretty penny to buy us up, so our captors would put us in a more elegant display. You see those chains covering your hand kid, those are mana-inhi... Inhibicor was it? I-it sucks up mana so to say.”

“Mana...” Isaiah looked back and started to notice the strange feeling he had with his hands, they felt somewhat numb and damp and he could feel an air-sucking feeling at the tips of his fingers. “But... I can use magic?”

“You can wait... You don’t know what your element is? Aha, you're just like me then!”

“You sir?”

“Yes... I didn’t even know I could use fire magic until they tested me out. Seems like they have a mage who could tell if you could use magic, but not what type of magic. Had I known I could use fire I would have been able to fight back then, but alas, it is my fate to be enslaved. That said, at least treatment is slightly better than those down below. No overcrowding, it isn’t too hot, and they feed you better stuff as well... Ahahahaha.”

“Magic...”

Well, that somehow made sense. Using being isekai'd as his starting point, he should have magic provided this world also had a magic system.

'Right... They also mentioned I could use electric magic or something.' Suddenly his mood went up a couple of notches, 'Then all is not lost, I can still escape...'

“So uhm... How do I use magic?”

The answer came late, “I am not sure... All I know is that you are... Hmm, was it... Wait, I may be, I... Err, I am not too sure.”

“I see...” Isaiah nodded, but he didn’t feel too conflicted. "Magic is part of a person right?"

"Err... I am not too sure of the philosophy behind it all, but I guess so?"

"If that's the case..." Isaiah looked down, "Magic should function similar to how we move by using mental stimulations, so therefore it should be easy. The many books I've read as well do state something similar. Imagination and mental images."

"R-right."

Isaiah chuckled. The thought that fantasy books would have some kind of real-world application was funny for him, still he cannot discount their worth as he might need them to survive.

'But first, I gotta know what kind of magic I have... They did say electricity but that could be different, and like how does magic work what are its functionality and mana.'

For Isaiah however, this too wasn't that hard anyway. After all, almost every media dealing with the scenario he was in always pointed out some kind of an indicator, whether it be a status page or something else.

‘So... How do I open my status page? Wait, does it even exist in the first place?'

Fear began to grow in his heart, but it was quickly replaced with joy when something appeared right in front of him.

[Restarting System]

It was blue.

It had words.

It was semi-transparent.

"Yes!" Isaiah celebrated when he saw what had appeared in front of him, he did not expect this to work, "Yes, yes yes!"

“I... I am sorry for not being of much help Isaiah.”

“It's alright sir... It's alright, oh by the way, what is your name?”

“Me... Hmm, the guards call me Porridge, I don’t remember my name even... Ahaha, how useless have I become.”

“Is that so... Ohh." Isaiah who was about to continue saw that the status bubble disappeared and what appeared next was something straight out of a fiction manga.

[System Activated.]

The smile on his lips widened as he read his status page.

=============================
Name: Isaiah Peter Dragovitch
Level: 14

HP 32/32 MP 0/208

STR - 17
AGI - 15
INT - 52

Talents (Passive Skill)
[INT Boost II]
[Holy Blessings I]
[Taming I]
Abilities (Active Skill)
[Manipulation]
[Electric]
===============================

...