Epilogue

He opened his eyes. It was dark, so dark, that he couldn't see his own hands. He didn't know where he was. All he remembered was that he was in his home just recently. In the little brown house, that he always returned to after a tiring day in school. A warm home with his family. His mother, father and his brother. As strong as he tried to remember their names or even their faces, he couldn't do so. Also, his friends and everyone from school, he forgot them all, their faces, their voices and names. It almost was as if something tried to force him, to forget them. Despite everyone he forgot, he still recalled his own name: Ryan. Ryan also knew that he was 19 years old. He then stood up and immediately felt dizzy. He regretted, standing up so quick and fell down on the ground. Ryan sat on the ground for a short time waiting for his eyes to get used to the darkness surrounding him. But as minutes passed, and nothing changed he made up his mind a stood up again, he needed to find out where he was. This time he didn't felt the dizziness and walked around step after step. He was extremely carefully because he couldn't see anything around him. After he took a few steps, he saw a little shiny thing. Happy to see some light, he ran towards the light source. The light seemed to have noticed something approaching it and flew away. He knew that he now had two choices, to chase the light source, that maybe led to even more light or to further explore this dark place that may contain great danger. Caused by the light to slightly disappear he had to choose quickly. He then chased the light, hoping it to guide him to a bright place. The light became faster every second Ryan chased it until it was too fast for Ryan to chase it. He was thinking about all the things happening to him and how unfair it was. He was angry. Angry at himself for being so slow and angry because he didn't remember anyone. Ryan still felt the warm embrace of his family but though all that, he just couldn't remember them. He was completely alone in this dark place, that he had no knowledge about. He then tried to sped up even more, and it worked. For a brief moment he was so fast, that he could keep up with the light. But after running like this for 10 seconds, he fell on the ground and lost the light. He desperately tried to get up but felt an enormous pain in his right leg. As he touched it, he felt that something poured down his leg. It was blood. He then panicked and screamed all of a sudden. It was just too much for him to handle at this moment. So many things happened that he couldn’t comprehend it at all. He was scared. Scared of the unknown he didn't know at all. He was on the brink of losing his mind, when all of a sudden a terrifying sound shook the silence. Ryan was unable to move, all he could do was to turn his head to the sound. But due to the darkness, he wasn’t able to make out, what has been creating such a terrifying sound. Ryan panicked and ran away from the sound, ignoring the pain in his right leg. All he could think of right now, was to quickly escape the direction the sound came from. While running, he thought of what animal could be able to let out such a loud scream. After not being able to come to a conclusion he had a dull feeling that this creature was nothing else than a monster, he knew so much about from books and games. He inwardly hoped it to be no Monster. After running for 4 minutes his leg started to hurt again. The pain he forgot caused by the adrenaline returned once again. He clenched his teeth and limped away from the screaming Monster that was continuous coming closer. But the monster was faster than the limping Ryan and caught up after a few steps. He was very pale and couldn't contain his fear, regarding the monster coming closer. He then thought of a way, to escape his faith and came up with the only way: to fight the monster. Ryan then searched for a weapon. Because it was so dark, that he couldn't find anything, he fumbled with his hand on the ground. The only things he found, were stones that slit open his fingers. Sensing that there was nothing else he took a few stones and stored them in the pockets of his jacket, that he wore because it was winter. Christmas was nearing. He already had bought presents for his whole family, but that was all in vain now. After he took as much stone as he could fit in his jacket, Ryan stood up and waited for the scream to be close enough for him. He was determined to kill the monster. Because there was no better weapon for him, he chose the stones. He knew that stones probably would not deal enough damage, to kill or even hurt the monster that could scream this loud. His plan was to throw the stones at the monster, once it was in range of his ability to throw the stones.  He stood still for almost 1 minute. He felt like this minute was the longest minute in his whole life. In his situation, who would not be nervous and scared? Ryan at least was very scared. Ryan then heard a noise in front of him and prepared himself. He closed his eyes to hear the sound even better. He had to determine the distance between the monster and himself. 20 steps….15 steps…10 steps…. But suddenly there were no steps to hear anymore. Ryan was anxious and opened his eyes, just to remember that it was pitch black. So he took one step forward. He threw a stone at the monster and hit it. The monster gave a ‘screech’ noise but didn't sound so monstrous anymore. He threw another stone at the monster. The monster was angry and ran at Ryan. Ryan then could smell a terrible odor from it. Ryan took another stone and threw it at the monster, before it reached Ryan. He had 10 Stones left and knew that he wouldn't be able to kill it with just stones. He now had found out, that the monster wasn’t bigger than he himself because the screeches didn’t come from above but the front. Based on the monster’s height and the terrible odor it had, he presumed it to be something like a Goblin or similar creature. Ryan thought so because he had fought these creatures in some computer games just yesterday. There were monsters just like this one… They sound extremely dangerous, so one is afraid or even might be so desperate, that one wants to die but if they appear they are just small monsters – all bark no bite. He took out three more stones and threw them on after the other. The monster couldn't be fine, Ryan repeatedly said. It might be that he had fought goblins in games, but this was reality…he could die for real. He threw another two stones, this time both at the same time and both hit their target, the goblin’s head. The goblin screamed in agony at rushed forward. Ryan wasn't fast enough to avoid the attack and got his waist damaged – blood poured out of the wound. He gritted his teeth and threw a stone in the goblins face or at least where Ryan thought that it was located. He failed, the stone flew one meter further to the right side. Ryan never has been the best in sports, and because he also wasn’t the brightest he never got a girlfriend. But that was not the right time to think about this at that crucial moment. He still had four stones remaining. He took another stone and threw it in the monster’s face and this time, it hit the target.  The monster was stunned, that was the opportunity Ryan has been waiting for. With a stone, that he thought of as the most sharp, he rushed to the monster and beat it as hard as he could at the monster’s head. One hit, two hits three hits…. After 6 hits the gobbling finally was beaten to the ground, but it still defended itself. Ryan hit and hit. He lost count of the strikes he executed. He only stopped after all his strength left his arms. That was also the time when Ryan heard a “ring”. After that a message appeared in front of him. [Welcome to the Dungeon - You cleared the tutorial][You killed your first enemy and received the Dungeon system] [You have slain a goblin - gained 34 xp and 9 copper]. Ryan was dumbfounded. What was this? Was this one of these systems he had read so much about in light novels? Was this a game? Did he cross to another world? What happened?

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