It was another eight hours before I got out. I answered the same set of questions over and over again. I told the police, FBI, and eventually representatives from the DEA, NSA, and Army about being frozen by the dungeon monster. I gave them a rundown of my skills. I described the first few rooms of the Dungeon. I even complained about Gwen and the Government seizing it. I couldn't see what much of this had to do with the Monster who stole my car. And nobody was revealing anything to me.

Finally, Frank, my Lawyer, called it quits for the night. "I assume my client isn't under arrest and is free to leave." There were nods all around.

"We have more questions." Said the army general.

"No, you don't. You have just asked the same questions over and over again. If you have more questions, submit them to my office, and I will think about passing them on to Randy here." Frank got up and gathered some of the papers strewn across the interrogation table and said. "Let's go, Randy."

I got up, and Frank led me out of the interrogation room and the police station. "My car is over this way. Do you want me to drop you off at one of your friend's places? Since you have been evicted, that is."

"Take me to a hotel," I said.

"Gotcha," Frank replied.

Frank dropped me off at the local Holiday Inn, and I booked a room, took a shower, and then fell asleep dripping wet with the TV on.

I awoke from a dream about having a job as a local mall security guard, lobbing fireballs and electricity at raiders who refused to become paying customers before using the bathrooms. The raiders dropped crypto currency whenever I burnt them to crunchy goodness. This gave me mixed feelings. By the end, my dream let me know that I was supposed to turn the crypto into the Mall owners, but in my sleep, I kept a lot of it.

In the morning, I mentally texted Sid and Em. [I had some weird dreams last night. Please tell me yesterday was one of them." Not that I would have believed them since I was lying in bed in a hotel room.]

[Nope. That miserable bitch Gwen and the Government of Florida seized your house and kicked you out. I'm so sorry I brought her over to our table. Do you have any plans?] Em wrote.

[My lawyer said he would try to recommend a company from Tallahassee to Sue Gwen and try to get my rights back. Said it would cost a shit load of money. The word Millions was mentioned. I don't have that kind of cash. I was thinking about driving to South Carolina and using that Dungeon to return to my own Dungeon. Didn't Quimby's village give us a quest to destroy the goblin dungeon that kept raiding their town? Wanna come with?]

[How wonderfully bitter. I wonder if going into the Dungeon through the back door will prevent Gwen and her crew from entering. Not sure if we can come with you, though. Em, and I have been away from work for a while. Why not bring Annie? She was every bit as pissed at Gwen as we were. The whole thing took her by surprise.]

[Naw. I'm still angry with her friend and haven't known her long enough to be sure she wouldn't stab me in the back. Plus, if she does tell Gwen, there are no reasons why Gwen just can't send a DeSantos taxpayer-funded hit team into the Dungeon to take me out. Who will know if it happens in the land beyond the dungeon portals.]

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Though don't tell her that. I've soloed the Dungeon enough I should be fine. Or maybe I can find myself in a crowd of angry villagers with torches and pitchforks.]

[I'm sure she will use the fact that we had sex to guilt me into something I don't want to do later.]

I had the guy at the hotel's front desk call a cab company when I checked out. And the cab dropped me off at a car rental.

The drive to South Carolina was long and lonely, and only the music from SiriusXM kept me driving. I had to ask myself a few times if my actions were crazy. Here, I was planning on storming an entire gathering of monsters myself.

For some reason, I planned to go all out and challenge the entire Florida National Guard to do it. I will admit to having some pretty massive libertarian tendencies. However, even so, I still had to think twice about screwing with the lawfully elected Government of my own state. Not even when they had totally screwed me over.

I pulled over for gas and Cane's chicken in Georgia and almost turned around. A tiny voice kept telling me that I was taking things to an unhealthy extreme, that maybe I was going overboard. Still, as I sat in the drive-thru, I realized I would go through this.

Was I subconsciously buying chicken because I was, at heart, chicken? I was going to fight through the legion of morelipeeps, climb out of the well, and find my way back to Quimby's village. Equip me up and then do what I was beginning to think of as a suicide run through my Dungeon to destroy its core.

Eventually, I made it to Asheville, South Carolina. I booked a room in the same hotel I'd stayed in with Em and Sid. After a short sleep where I kept waking up from the nervous energy, I left my room and wandered over to the bar next door. There was a band of teenagers in cowboy hats, attempting at some sort of post-modern honky tonk.

There weren't many people in the bar. Some bikers playing pool. A couple biker chicks. A scattering of townies. There was a short blond with a pixie cut drinking a margarita by the bar, so I had the bartender send another drink over to her. When she got the glass, the bartender pointed to me, and I lifted my beer in silent acknowledgment.

I gave it a couple minutes, then walked over to the woman. "According to the sign just outside of Town, 'Asheville, Discovery Inside, and Out,' I almost didn't think there was anything to see in town, yet here we are together making discoveries."

It was a barely inspired line, but I was tired and didn't care if it succeeded.

"You are supposed to say something funny or clever." She said. "Regurgitating a tourist slogan barely counts as either."

I shrugged. "Saying you must be from South Carolina because you're the only ten I see seemed kind of lazy," I said.

"It is supposed to be Tennessee, not South Carolina. Besides, I'm from Delaware."

I took a sip of beer, "Everyone says Tennessee, nobody says South Carolina, but look… we're talking about it."

"Because you sound like a moron." She said.

I shrugged, held out my hand, and said, "Randy."

"Randy, if I had to guess, it sounds like you struck out, but thanks for the drink." She said.

"Oh well. No problem. Have a nice rest of your evening." And so I turned around and returned to my table, ordered another pint, finished that, and listened to live amateur country music until the band finished their set. And then I wandered back to my hotel room.

The following day, I dropped the rental off at the rental company and then took a Taxi out where we'd come out in the forest a couple days earlier.

The cave that held the Dungeon looked exactly like it had when we'd come out. I was convinced I would fight through the Florida National Guard to get in. Pushing the brush out of the way took no time, and I cast my light spell to illuminate the interior as I walked to the portal out of sight inside the cave.