After eating the food that kept reappearing every time the loop reset and a shower, I made my way into the streets with my shield down, only placing it up when I noticed I was in a random alley. The moment my shield was up, I felt something heavy impacting the back of my head. Thankfully, I knew what was coming and was able to keep the shield from breaking.

I used the momentum to fall forwards, pretending to be knocked out but still watching through [Magicule Detection]. It was a little weird, being able to sense things around me without actually seeing them, but it was manageable.

"Not so tough now, huh?" I heard a male voice coming from directly behind me. I could sense his magicules standing near me and felt as how they coalesced into his foot and moved with it as he delivered a kick to my stomach. Thankfully, my shield was able to absorb the impact, but I was still thrown a meter away from where I was.

It was very hard for me not to attack him in self-defense, but I managed to keep pretending I was out cold. I heard him spit near me, which I was thankful for because if he had actually spat on me, I would've lost it.

"Get him to the cells," he said. I watched as another person came closer and grabbed me, putting me onto their shoulders like I weighed nothing, although I could sense from the quantity of their magicule they were weaker than the guy who tried to knock me out.

After about half an hour of being dragged around, feeling all the magicule around me past by as I tried, but failed, to keep a mental map of where I was being dragged to, I heard a cell being opened and the next thing I knew I was thrown inside it, the door being closed and locked after.

I stayed put for two minutes more, to be sure no one would be around when I made my move. When I opened up my eyes and confirmed I was in the same cell they always placed me, with my shield blocking the anti-magic effects of the cell itself.

I pulled [Magical Programming Language] after what felt like an eternity. It took me a moment to refamiliarize myself with the interface and the code. It was months after I last was able to use the skill, but in the end, I reworked my water jet spell into an improved version.

Casting it was a bit more demanding than I imagined, as I had to overcome the anti-magic field with pure [Magicule Manipulation], keeping the spell stable. I wasn't that knowledgeable in actual magic circuits to know how they worked outside of my skill, but I was able to create a bubble around the spell that the anti-magic field didn't reach.

As the spell finished forming, a water stream shot out of the focal point of it, going into a straight path for a few centimeters before curving and feeding back on itself. I had created a ring of high-pressure, high-speed water.

I pushed the ring of water into the cell's lock. I could hear the metal being eaten away slowly as the water cut through it with sheer pressure alone. After five minutes, I had cut through the entire lock, and with a simple push, the door opened up.

I stepped out of the cell and looked around. There were more of the same types of cells around me, and I could hear the faint sounds of people on them. The idea of helping them crossed my mind, and I was taking a step towards the closest one, but I remembered that when I restarted the loop, they would all be locked up again, so I stopped.

I turned towards where the lion person came from and saw a set of stairs going upwards. I moved to start sprinting but paused. If they saw me, they would immediately rush me and probably beat me up by sheer number of people, even though I didn't know what was beyond the stairs.

I looked over at my status screen and grinned.

Earthclaw Weasel - Iron Claw [Disables all racial skills (except Passive Growth) ]

It had been a while since I used [Genetic Dysphoria] to change to anything but this cat person form I was using and my true form. I wondered how it would work out, as I was massively bigger than the weasel form from the last time I used it.

I was used enough to the dull pain from the soul burn when transforming, so it didn't bother me much when my body started to change. I felt pressure wash over my entire body and saw myself shrinking in size until I was smaller than when I first woke up in this world.

My entire body felt pressurized like an overfilled balloon, but unlike one, I knew I would not pop if I took a hit. If I were to guess, all my extra mass had been compressed until I was the correct size for the transformation.

I shook my head, trying to shake off the feeling of wrongness that clung to my body from the transformation. It was somehow even stronger now, but nothing I wasn't already used to.

I quickly made my way to the stairs, only making a stop inside another empty cell when I heard people coming over.

From the stairs, two humans came and walked towards the other end of the hallway, only stopping once they saw my cell door, which I had left open, a mistake I made.

"Dude," one of them said. "You think…?"

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"We better tell John," The other answered. They exchanged quick glances and darted back to the stairs.

I waited a few seconds before sprinting behind them. The stairs proved to be more of a workout than I thought they would be, but I guess it made sense, I was, after all, a tad smaller than the steps themselves.

It was a long set of stairs that led me to an empty hallway. I could hear the fast steps from the two humans rushing to my left. Wanting to at least explore the place a little, I made my way to the right, running until I saw another corridor going to the left and to the right.

The faint smell of blood reached my nose from the corridor to my right, while the one to the left, I could smell something being fried.

I now had a choice: go to the obvious torture room or go to the kitchen and probably find the mess hall. I wanted to go left, towards the kitchen, I even started stepping towards there, but I stopped myself. I needed to confirm. I already knew it in my mind, but I needed confirmation.

I turned right.

The corridor was smaller than the other I was in, and at the end of it, there were a couple of doors. The smell of blood was stronger here, and I could also smell cleaning products coming from one of the doors.

Jumping high into the air with the help of a simple gravity manipulation, I reached the handle and turned it open, revealing a small storage room filled with cleaning products and– I quickly closed the door. I didn't need the image of torture devices burned in my memory.

I opened up three more doors before I found someone else. In each of the doors, there was only a chair in the middle of the room with metal shackles tied to it and dim lighting all around using magic crystals. On the third room I found someone tied down to the chair.

It was a dog person, and they looked worse for wear. I could see patches of skin where their brown fur was stripped away, some were still bleeding, and their ear looked freshly cut. I couldn't see it because of their fur, but I was sure they were covered in bruises.

I could hear their ragged breath, gasping every five or so seconds. I felt pity for them, and, although I knew it would result in nothing once I restarted the loop, I couldn't just ignore someone in such dire need of help like this.

I approached the chair. Their face was down, and I could see the swell on one of their eyes. Their good eye saw me and widened with surprise, but they made no movement to acknowledge me.

I reached them and cast the improved water cutter spell, cutting away the chains locking them, and cast a few healing spells that only worked to stop the bleeding from the various cuts on their skin.

I wished I could do more, but I still didn't understand how healing spells worked and why mine just did the minimal, and I couldn't drag them with me…could I?

I was torn between continuing my goal of beating everyone inside here and at least helping this person to escape…

I triggered [Genetic Dysphoria] again, transforming into my black cat person form. I couldn't just leave them here where they would continue their torture of them.

I saw their eyes widen again when I transformed, but again, made no movement to do anything about it.

I knew I was naked, but I didn't care. I extended my hand to them, waiting for them to look at my hand and then at me.

"I'm here to help. Can you walk?" I asked, but the person said nothing.

I approached them and touched their arms, and waited for a response. When I saw that they didn't flinch or anything, I pulled their arms and placed them around my shoulder and helped them upwards.

It was awkward when the person was double my size, but they didn't resist me and followed me when I started walking out of the room.

"It will sound a bit strange, considering I said I'm here to help," I started. "But, do you know the way out?"

The person just looked at me for a few moments as if unsure what to say, but eventually they pointed towards the corridor with the cells. I prepared an illusion spell that would make us invisible if someone were to come too close.

As we approached the door to the cells, I could hear yelling coming from down there. I quickened my pace as much as I could, trying to keep the person who was using me as support didn't fall.

The moment I heard rushed steps coming from the stairs, I stopped and used the illusion spell around us. I could see the air bent and twist as everything outside turned into a blur. I just hoped that, from the outside, nothing was amiss.

I saw someone running past us into further down the path we were going and sighed in relief when he didn't stop to look at us. Then I felt a poke in my shoulder from the person I was helping.

When I looked over, they showed me the metal shackles that were still on their arm. I had cut only the chains so they wouldn't make noise when we moved, but I kept the shackles themselves because I wasn't that precise when cutting and could cut into their arms by mistake.

I looked at them, a little confused, but they pointed towards where the chains were and then at the shackles once again.

"I can't," I said. "I might accidentally cut you."

They shook their heads and pushed their left arms towards me, as their right was still holding onto my shoulder for support. I looked over at their face and saw their eyes filled with determination.

I sighed. "Ok. I'll try my best not to hurt you."

Keeping the illusion spell active, I helped them to sit down on the ground as I cast the water cutter spell and went to work.

Keeping both spells active was draining me faster than I'd liked, considering my limited magicule reserves from the soul burn, not considering the fact that trying to cut only the shackles and not hurt the person I was trying to help was eating away at my mental energy as well.

It took a lot of concentration, so much so that I had to drop the illusion spell, but I had finally managed to cut through the shackles on their left arm. The moment it fell to the ground, I heard a voice coming from the stairs.

"Who the fuck are you two?" It said. Before I could react, I saw a shimmer in the person's left hand, and something very quick brushed against my cheek's fur, leaving a cold feeling on it. When I looked at the source of the voice, I saw a guy enclosed in an ice crystal, frozen solid with wide eyes.

I looked back at the person I was helping, and they looked back at me with a fierce expression.

"We were getting out of here," I heard a rough feminine voice from the person, it was filled with an emotion I couldn't quite express, but it left no doubt that I was going to help her leave this place.

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