The first two attempts to open a game menu were failures, but even those failures were interesting. The fact that a system message had appeared meant something in and of itself and let him know he was on the right track. And the fact he had no access meant there was something to access. The quick burst of pain that came with each attempted was worrying though and indicated that he was trying something that he probably shouldn’t.

Nonetheless he had to keep trying after this small amount of progress.

His next two attempts were far more successful, albeit a little underwhelming. The inventory screen showed nothing, which was to be expected since he wasn’t carrying anything; that screen would probably be useless unless you were too lazy to check what was in your pockets, but it proved that some menus could be accessed.

The status menu was similarly devoid of information right now, but possibly it could be used to give a diagnosis if something was wrong? Maybe it would give a list of injuries if you were hurt or let you know if you caught a disease or were poisoned.

In any case, he had discovered something interest. Being bolstered by his success, and already forgetting the pain he experience earlier, Jacob decided to continue. [color=f49ac2]“Open… character screen?”[/color] Maybe this would be as lacklustre as the others, but Jacob was hoping to see a full character profile with a list of skills and hopefully an experience bar. If he could prove that experience was actually a thing in this world he would be a little more on board with Mourningstar’s idea.

The result was a little bit more than Jacob expected.

[color=f49ac2]“ARGH!”[/color]


A sudden explosion of pain sent his head spinning. Jacob clutched his head and bent double in the air, the fluttering of his wings slowing down as he began to sink towards the ground. His vision blurred and he felt sick to his stomach as images from the moment of his death extending backwards though his entire life to the moment he was born flashed through his mind in an overload of information.

And then he was back in that white expanse. He heard the Demon King’s voice again as he relived the events of one week ago in real time, all leading up to the moment he selected his new species and was thrown headlong into this new, terrifying world.

He came to his senses as the vision, memory, whatever it was ended and he felt himself being shoved aside by the Wisp. Thrown off balance and unable to regain it Jacob began to sink even faster as his wings started to falter; it was only Digbie grabbing his arm and pulling him into the crevice that saved him from a long drop.

It took him a moment to remember where he was or what he was just doing. Between the rush of old memories and the throbbing pain in his head it was hard to focus but after a moment it all began to come back. He stayed there for a while, sitting on his hands and knees and waiting for the pulsing pain in his head to fade even a little bit; it might just be his imagination but it did seem to be getting better slightly. [color=f49ac2]“Open… open status screen.”[/color]

[quote=System:Oberon]
You have an extreme migraine.
[/quote]

Great, as if he didn’t know that already. But at least he was able to prove that the status menu worked the way he expected.

Turning around so that he was sitting normally, Jacob positioned himself so that he could face out of the crevice. He could hear Digbie nearby, though through his blurry vision all he could see of the Goblin was a vague green outline against the dull brown backdrop of the cave wall. The duelling Wisps outside were a little easier to see, two bright points of light whirling around in the air as one tried to fly away and the other chased after it; he had to look away after a moment though, as staring too long at the dancing lights set his already unsettled stomach heaving.

Something needed to be done about this migraine; he couldn’t afford to be this helpless when everything seemed to want to kill them. It was possible a healing spell might work, though the description suggested something like this was beyond its power, but he was completely out of MP to even try and he had used up all of the mana crystals nearby over the past week. Diverting his eyes downward Jacob began to scan the floor of the cave far below, blinking rapidly to try and get his eyes to focus even if it made his head spin even faster.

Jacob hadn’t really explored very far out of his crevice yet and sure enough, near the base of the cavern wall he could make out a small point of light that may just be a small cluster of mana crystals. Shimmying himself over to the edge of the crevice Jacob carefully moved out into the open air and let himself fall, using his wings to slow his descent to a safe speed. He still hit the ground with a thump, landing hard on his knees and skinning them. However, he had managed to land right next to the mana crystals he had seen from above. Reaching out Jacob snapped off a piece of the cluster, squeezing it in his hand until it crumbled and he absorbed its energy.

[quote=System:Oberon]
You have used a Mana Crystal. MP is fully restored.
[/quote]

With his mana restored he already began to feel a little better and now he could try and do something about this pain. Jacob placed his hands on either side of his head and cast Minor Heal, his hands glowing briefly with the magical energy which was then dispersed as it was released into his body. As expected it did nothing to alleviate the pain or the nausea he was feeling, the only change being the slight stinging pain in his knees disappearing as the abrasions were healed.

Undeterred Jacob tried again, this time taking it slower and trying to focus the healing energies to go where he wanted it to. It wasn’t hard to focus on the pain when it was the only thing he could feel; hopefully all it required in order to direct the healing spell to fix a specific problem was willpower as that was all he could really muster at the moment. Jacob burned through the rest of his mana with no success.

Come on, this migraine was basically a status condition right? It was like he was inflicted with confusion or something. Surely if he could heal injuries he could cure status effects right? He was sure from its description that the healing spell worked by speeding up the body’s natural healing process; it didn’t actually heal anything itself, that was why it didn’t work on tumours and just made them grow faster instead. Couldn’t he use it to make this migraine burn itself out faster or something?

Well, if he could he had a stack of mana crystals and hopefully enough time to figure it out.