The door opened with surprising ease. No wood scratching the stone or hinges groaning under its weight. Instead, the thing worked as if it was put up yesterday and was oiled earlier today. Well, now that is weird, Ethan thought, shoving his newly acquired light source ahead of him. A stone tunnel with smooth grey walls greeted him, stretching out as far as he could see.

Let’s hope I will not catch some ancient fungus down here, Ethan thought and carefully entered the tunnel, closing the door behind him. He immediately noticed that the air in the tunnel was fresh, and a slight breeze tickled his feet. The air flows freely? he thought, and started walking ahead.

After ten minutes of walking at a moderate pace, Ethan started questioning how far the thing stretched. Given the slope, he felt the tunnel lead him upwards and deeper into the mountain. The good news is that the angle is upward-facing rather than downward. I am not ready to explore a secret army base or anything.

Ethan chuckled at the thought of invading a secret laboratory like the spy movies he used to watch on the old grey TV they had back home. His smile vanished as he remembered his predicament, the cold of the walls penetrating his soul. After a while, he noticed the walls around him were getting colder and damper.

Feeling relatively safe for the first time since waking up in the mud, Ethan caught himself questioning the things happening to him. The forest, while alien, was somehow comprehensible, trees being the trees. The cat-like monster he saw, on the other hand, was not. He was not sure if the thing was even real in the first place or if he was hallucinating due to being dosed with something.

Then came the strange grey windows he started seeing. Witnessing something like that in person was bizarre. An intangible object that could hang next to him as he could not touch or interact with it. He recognized that if not for the fantasy novels he had read, he would have freaked out.

Ethan had read multiple apocalypse-themed novels with world-ending events, the main heroes gaining otherworldly powers governed by the so-called system. He could not accept, however, that he was experiencing something of the sort. What were the chances of an apocalypse taking place, me not noticing anything? he thought.

Was he dead, and his consciousness transferred to a game? No, he did not believe that either. After all, the scientific world had yet to discover decades of sought-after immersive VR technology that would allow the wearer to travel to a fantasy game world. Something else was afoot.

If this is not a game, what is going on? he questioned, continuing his ascend, noticing that the air around him was gradually getting warmer. It may be a lucid dream. Or a coma? I do not remember what happened before I woke up. So why does it feel that there was something important before that? Ethan tried to wrap his head around the puzzle.

He stared ahead at the shadows his light crystal cast and slowed his walk, trying hard to remember the last thing he could recollect, finding his memory fuzzy and incomplete. The last thing he recalled was waking up, training with Mr.Yashida, and then going somewhere. After that, nothing.

He thought, frustrated, When is this damn tunnel going to end? Then, after a few steps, he saw something metallic glisten a few meters ahead, the light from his crystal bouncing off something. Walking forward, he saw a gate made of shiny metal resembling steel. To his surprise, it looked undamaged and untouched by the passage of time compared to the things below.

How is this thing still standing? he thought, walking up to it, touching the gate, and noticing it was closed. “Great. Just when my luck turned for the better,” he said and kicked the thing, trying to vent the frustration of the past hour on something that was not trying to kill him.

Immediately something red flashed in the left corner of his vision. Nice, even this thing damages me, he admonished himself and noticed his foot started hurting, only then remembering that he did not have any boots. Dammit.

How much damage did I take from a simple gate? he questioned the void, and his thoughts were immediately answered by the ever-helpful grey window, which filled his vision with information he had not seen before.

Action log

You kicked something denser than your head. Slight damage is taken.

…

Your stamina has reached critical levels. Rest to recover more stamina.

…

You have heard the cry of a mighty beast. As a result, you are paralyzed for 5 seconds.

…

Mark of the Legion has been accepted. Initiating transfiguration.

…

.̨̩̟̪̦͈.͏͙̦̩͉̯͔̱u̡̪l̙ ̟͓͝r̺̟a͚f̹̻͓͙̥̮̫e͡r̸ ̯͠t̩̰̰̜̘e̼d̹̼.̞ ͖̦̤̜

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Ethan read through the notifications from top to bottom and found them as unhelpful as other parts of the series of windows he had checked. Paralyzed for 5 seconds? I did not even notice it, he thought, shuddering at the memory of the beast.

As he got to the last line of the log, his brain started to hurt, and he immediately waved the window away. Dammit, he thought, rubbing the sides of his head. Where are the abilities, though, if that was the log? The map I already checked. Is there an inventory as well? Nothing happened as he waited for another window to pop up.

Storage? Immediately, a window showed up with a grey grid of empty boxes with twenty slots in total. Excellent, so I can shove things here if I come and find something worthwhile. Wait, there was this other thing. Clarity?

Another window replaced the previous one with a vague icon of a man, next to which various items were listed.

Ethan Jorgeson

Bloodline: [Reborn]

Titles: [none]

Aspects:

* Soul: [locked]

* Mind: [none] (0%)

* Might: [none] (0%)

* Agility: [none] (0%)

* Recuperation: [none] (0%)

“That is it?” Ethan asked the box in front of him, the sound bouncing from the cave walls as he pushed the gate again in a familiar outburst from his childhood. The gate came undone with a creak surprising him. “Huh?” Ethan breathed, looking at the doorway suddenly free of obstruction. He put his light source before him and went through, waving the grey window away.

Ethan saw that slightly warmer stone bricks replaced the cold stone walls behind him. They looked weathered but carefully carved, resembling a basement of sorts. Moving along, he continued ascending the tunnel before encountering a stone staircase leading upward. Nice, maybe I am getting out of this damn tunnel after all.

Going up what seemed to be three stories in total, given the number of steps, Ethan arrived in a small room. Immediately he heard birds chirping from somewhere in the distance, making him believe he had resurfaced. The room, however, had nothing of note as it was empty, only walls made of smooth brick meeting the light from his crystal.

Ethan walked to the only door in the room and continued through the dark and narrow corridor until he saw the light a few steps ahead. Shortly, he walked out of the stone corridor into what seemed to be an unkempt castle courtyard.

Stepping out in the open, he immediately the air was thick with moisture as if it had rained at the same time he ascended through the tunnel. His bare feet landed in the mud, and not a single strand of grass grew in the yard as far as he could see.

The grey walls around him were high, giving off an uneasy feeling, as they were almost tall enough to block the sun above. Ethan looked around the yard and could not find a single window in its walls or another exit out of place. Then, finally, he noticed another doorway at the far end of the courtyard.

“I will be damned,” he said as he stepped further into the courtyard looking around in amazement, not having seen a real castle made of large stones. However, his reverie was cut short by a grey window popping up in his vision again - the message cutting him out of his reverie.

Quest: [Escape Castle of the Gloom]

Escape the Castle of the Gloom alive and live to tell the tale.

Reward: [Stone of Space]

Quest: [Cleanse the taint]

Cleanse the taint of ??? plaguing this realm.

Reward: Varies

“Quests? Seriously?” Ethan murmured as he reread the contents of the messages, an uneasy feeling creeping up at the back of his mind. “These things do not make any sense,” he mused as he looked around the courtyard. “Sure, it is gloomy, but to call the whole castle like that? This place better has some footwear.”

The other quest got him thinking. If the quest system was anything as he had seen in the games, then the cleansing of the taint would not be anything good. The quests he got mentioning the realm or taint almost always involved him running around with his character through the whole game world and dying multiple times. Sure this will not be the case? he thought, hoping for the best, being as enthusiastic as possible in his situation.

Ethan waved the windows away and looked up to the sky. It was overcast, and the sun started to hide behind a thick sheet of grey clouds. The wind picked up, and a breeze blew through his clothes, a sudden chill catching his skin as he shivered.

“All right, this is not spooky at all. It is all right! You were in the forest naked an hour ago. So calm the fuck down,” he said to himself and looked around, in a dilemma.

Do I go back down or explore this place? The smart move is to escape a place named after the darkness. But, on the other hand, nothing good is waiting for me down there. After a few seconds of contemplation, Ethan decided to take his chances and explore the castle, hoping to find something useful in his grand quest of self-preservation.

He quickly crossed the courtyard and entered what looked like a hallway that would lead him further into the castle. Darkness enveloped him as the light from behind him went away. He got the light crystal out of his pocket and in front of him again, forgetting to test his storage power.

He walked further in the hallway and turned a corner, hearing a loud hiss. He pointed his crystal slightly downwards. Around ten meters ahead of him, he saw a rat staring back at him. This rat was not the usual kind he might have seen once running over a street in Reykjavik. He froze, his heartbeat speeding up as his brain tried to process what it saw.

The rodent was the size of a german shepherd, with wet grey fur, yellow teeth, and white, milky eyes. What stood out was the yellow pus coming out of its side, leaking on the floor, and giving off a foul stench.

Ethan felt disgusted as he observed the creature in disbelief, a grey window popping up next to it.

[Tainted rat] (unranked)

A rat affected by the taint.

The sight of the beast filled him with a deep sense of revulsion and disgust. Yet, despite his fear, Ethan stood his ground, determined to protect himself despite the lack of weapons besides his fists and naked feet. Then the monster charged him with a loud shriek.