The Gate Traveler

When Rabban crossed the Gate, a metal cage dropped from above and locked him in. He tried to get a weapon but had trouble accessing his Storage. Something was blocking his mana usage, and he sensed a field of some sort. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get into the Archive. And he could not Identify the cage to understand what was happening. He tried everything he could think of in a desperate attempt to glamour himself, yet none of his efforts yielded any results. He couldn't access his mana. A peculiar fog started to permeate the chamber, causing Rabban to experience a growing sense of lethargy, and eventually, it lulled him into a deep slumber.

Rabban woke up in a white room. He lay on a bed, the white walls appearing to be padded, as did the floor. There were no windows and two doors. One door appeared heavy and made of steel, while the other was slightly ajar, revealing a faucet and a strange bawl that he suspected was a toilet. There was a box hanging on the wall that contained moving pictures. He felt very weak, and his mind was foggy. It took him a few minutes before his mind started working again. Once more, he attempted to use his mana to cast Minor Heal on himself to ease his physical discomfort, but the spell failed. He attempted multiple times to access the Archive, but found himself completely cut off. He tried to access his Storage, and it didn't work. Neither did conjuring identifications or casting glamour.

A voice, speaking in a language he couldn't comprehend, filled the room. Rabban strained to understand and activate his [Local Adaptation: Spoken language], but his mana remained out of reach. The field, whatever it was, was interfering with his powers, and he was at a loss for how to overcome it. The voice continued, but Rabban shook his head, and it quieted down. After a few hours, part of the wall moved aside, and there was food and water. As he ate and drank, the foggy feeling returned to his body. He felt weaker, and his mind was sluggish. He realized that the water and food were drugging him. The box on the wall continued to display moving images.

Rabban went to sleep, and when he woke up, there was food and water waiting for him. Initially, he refrained from touching it because of his aversion to drugs, but after a day, he succumbed to the temptation and drank the water, which brought back the woozy feeling. Even before he drank the water, he still felt really weak, like he didn't have control over his body. Since there were no windows, he couldn't tell the time.

Since Rabban had nothing else to occupy his time, he would often find himself fixated on the box that displayed moving pictures. As he continued to watch, he even began to understand a few words through repeated exposure.

One day, the chamber began to fill with the strange fog, and Rabban felt himself falling asleep again. When he woke up, he found himself strapped to a metal table. People around him wore white coats and masks that covered half their faces. As soon as they saw him open his eyes, they began talking excitedly, and one of them inserted something into his arm, causing him to fall back into a deep sleep.

Again, he woke up in the white room with the picture box. The voice again said something to him, and Rabban even understood three words: "what," "where," and "why," but nothing else. Without the ability to learn languages, it was useless.

That's how Rabban spent at least a month, but it might have been longer; he did not have the means to determine the passage of time. Since starvation was not an option, he had already resorted to eating, drinking, and feeling drugged. He primarily focused on the box containing the pictures. Although he didn't learn the language much, he understood bits and pieces.

Occasionally, the box displayed animated, drawn pictures, which he found funny and thoroughly enjoyed. It's likely that those observing him understood his fondness for the drawn animations, since his box began to feature a variety of animated moving pictures, such as a rabbit performing funny actions, a bird sprinting swiftly and evading a strange dog, and a bird laughing hysterically and pecking on a tree. He also found the moving pictures about a black duck to be quite funny. He really enjoyed those drawn pictures. Well, at least he had entertainment.

One day, he woke up because he felt like his bed was shaking. He opened his eyes, and the entire room was shaking. He thought it was an explosion or a volcanic eruption, but then he realized it was probably an earthquake. The lights flickered and then went out, leaving him in total darkness. The force field that he felt around him all the time was absent. Immediately, he tried to access his Storage and succeeded. He took out his sword and hid it under his bed.

He immediately accessed the Archive and posted a message:

The lights and force field returned, cutting off Rabban's access to the Archive. But at least now he had his sword and successfully sent a message to his friend, hoping for his help.