I woke up in a gray room.
Again.
Technically, I did teleport this time; I wasn’t quite fast enough to see the guy who punched me in the face. How did I know I got punched in the face? Have you ever been punched in the face? If you know, you know. I slowly rolled over and rubbed my face while looking for the tag number of the bus that hit me when I saw him.
Across the room was what looked like a younger version of Mord. By younger, I mean in his fifties. If I could be as fit as young Mord in my fifties, I would be happy. He wasn't wearing a shirt or shoes, just a comfortable-looking pair of loose yoga pants—or maybe martial arts pants, given that he hit me like a 747.
“What the fuck, man?”
“Oh, it’s awake, and it speaks.”
“Why did you punch me in the face?”
“So you would learn.”
“Learn what?”
“Learn”
He came at me again. I lasted longer, a whole two seconds.
I woke up in a gray room.
Young Mord advanced on me as soon as my eyes opened. I snapped to my feet and put my hands up in a peaceful gesture.
“Wait…..wait… wait,” I said, backing away.
“Wait? Why wait? Must learn”
“What do I need to learn?”
“Learn.” I saw the fist coming this time.
I woke up in a gray room.
I woke up in a gray room.
I woke up in a gray room.
“Wait”
I woke up in a gray room.
I woke up in a gray room.
I woke up in a gray room.
I woke up in a gray room.
I woke up in a gray room.
I woke up in a gray room.
I woke up in a gray room.
I woke up in a gray room.
I woke up in a gray room.
I woke up in a gray room.
Gray room, me pleading, gray room; the cycle continued for. For a while.
And then it happened. I ducked. He looked shocked. He looked more shocked as one of the blades entered his stomach. What can I say? I’m no saint. Ok, fine, I’m an asshole. I wanted to kill him from the first punch. I finally got fast enough.
Young Mord collapsed on the floor, his red blood pooling on the gray floor. I stepped past him to return to the entry door and teleport out. I was just about to grab the handle when I heard it.
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“Good. Learn”
I spun quicker than I expected, pulling both blades from their sheathes, which did not help stop the over-spin. I was way out of position to deal with the perfectly healthy Young Mord. There was no evidence of me stabbing him, nor any of the blood on the floor.
I thought back to all the face punches. Despite all of them hitting me in the same space, they were never worse than getting hit once.
“This is a training room, isn’t it?”
“Yes, Learn….now go.” he made a shooing motion with his hand.
This time, the port-o-fall emptied me into a dark cave. Dark is not the best word. As my eyes adjusted, it became dim, and then I smelt it. It wasn’t a horrible smell. It smelled exactly like a cave, like a standard semi-damp hole in the earth. What hit me was that it smelled at all. I didn't realize that, in going through Mord’s rooms, there were no odors. Hell, I had been here for at least a day, and I never even smelled myself. I wasn’t always knocked out by Young Mord right away. Sometimes, I lasted long enough to break a sweat. Not from fighting; that was a lost cause. No, from trying to run back to the door before he KO’d me. I ducked my head a little to sniff. There is a little body odor, but not bad.
My eyes adjusted enough for me to see that, in true magical world fashion, the walls had both lightly glowing rocks and equally glowing mushrooms. At least things were familiarly unfamiliar.
The narrow passageway appeared to be a natural formation but a dungeon. At the far side of a flat entryway with the door was what, in the gloom, looked like a staircase.
After the first thousand steps, I fucking hated it. After the second and the third? Whew, buddy….hate. I finally saw the light in the proverbial tunnel somewhere around four to five thousand steps. It was a door. A glorious door.
It was a door that was locked. It was a door with no handle. It was a door that wouldn’t move. After hours of searching and trying anything and everything, it was a door that I just sat down and gave up at the base of. I was tired, sweaty, and hungry. My stamina bar was empty. Even my vitality had dropped a little. I sat on the little landing and rested my head against the door. I was out in seconds.