“Everyone up! If you aren’t awake in…”, silence reigned for a few moments as I got out of my make shift bed as quickly as possible, “ten seconds I’ll drown ye’ in Pork Chop’s intoxicating ambrosia fit for the… what were they called again? Right! Gods.”, Abs started laughing loudly.

Psycho.

I had no doubt that he would splash us with his alcohol given the chance. I would rather not have my nice clothes ruined, so by the time he said five I was out of my tent and packing it up. He didn’t seem so pleased by this but I didn’t care.

Drifa, on the other hand, was still very much asleep. She was sprawled on the ground with a couple clumps of snow covering her.

Something I had noticed after the parasite had been given a ‘hair cut’ was that everything was much less painful, well, more just stayed in one place, and it was easier to concentrate on what was around me. I didn’t really know why, but it was.

Wading through the heavy snow, Abs stood right next to Drifa with his flask ready.

“Seven!”

She just laid there.

She could probably get drunk from the Abs’s ‘ambrosia’ being close enough to her.

Walking over, I pushed her with my boot.

She finally pushed herself up and looked around before waving at Abs tiredly.

Abs glanced at me and mumbled something about “being no fun”.

Clapping his hands the big hairy man said, “Okay, walking time.”

“Will we eat?” I said.

Abs’ demeanor changed immediately.

“Yes. Food.”

Sitting down he wrote ‘FOOD’ in the snow and then watched Drifa like a hawk like it would just appear. I was also looking forward to eating, but I took a more active approach by starting a fire.

“Don’t waste the wood we have!” Drifa piped up as she scrambled over to the small flames, “I need to get the meat ready before I cook it.”

Oh.

I looked at the small fire.

Y’know…

scooping the snow beneath the fire and then lifting it up so I was holding the fire I stored it in my inventory.

I wonder if I can just stash fires, or small ones at least and then have an instant fire later. That could come in handy.

I glanced at Abs.

You could probably throw them at people too. I wonder if the air around him would ignite…

I was still ticked from the last time we ate along with, well, as just Abs being Abs the whole way over here. It was exhausting and frustrating.

A few minuets later Drifa was done preparing the sausages. We didn’t have a cutting board available so she just used her writing rock. Once she was done with it she scraped off all the frozen bits and blood making it look good as new.

She hardly used her injured left hand the entire time with the exception of placing it on something to hold it still. It wasn’t too noticeable and Abs seemed focused on the meat itself more than the person making it.

She looked over at me and imitated cooking something in a pan.

Here goes.

I pulled the small fire out of my inventory and it was just the way I’d put it in, small, wispy, but still burning.

We need more heat to cook the sausages in a decent time, right?

I threw a few handfuls of toothpicks at the fire and watched as the flames climbed higher and brighter.

That should be good.

Drifa turned her bowl into a pan and then flagged Abs over.

What’s she doing?

Brandishing a giant smile Abs took took the pan and held it above the fire.

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

He’ll probably burn the sausages somehow or just eat them off the pan as soon as their ready.

Drifa frowned, “Does anyone have a spatula?”

What is that?

Abs voiced the same and I crossed my arms.

Looking between the two of us and seeing no item she said, “Nevermind. Do you have something I can use to move the Sausages around that’s long? A stick or something would do the trick.”

She looked between us hopefully.

It should work.

I gave Drifa the Bowie knife that I’d lent her in the last dungeon.

“Thanks!”, she said then turned all of her attention on the food.

For the next few minuets we were all tortured by the delicious smell wafting around the camp fire. Unlike last time, Drifa decided to just place all of the sausages on the pan at once. It’d probably be quicker that way and time was of the essence.

Seeing that we didn’t have plates of any sort, Drifa made three piles of the large sausages on the snow that was starting to melt and make the food wet. Her pile had two and a half sausages, mine had four and Abs had six and a half. She had made more than that, but the extra were being stored away in my box’s storage. I had told Abs that I had a special food compartment in my backpack to keep it warm and he seemed to find that acceptable, mostly because he was too focused on eating.

Right before I grabbed a my last sausage Abs took it and shoved it in his mouth. In response to my death glare, he just said that he ate all of his and carried on without a care in the world. By the looks of it, Drifa cared but couldn’t do anything about it. As soon as he was done chewing loudly next to my ear, Abs elbowed me to get my attention. I ignored him as I stomped out last bits the fire.

He frowned, and placed his mask back on his face.

“We’re going down!”, he said as he walked over to his shelter.

“There’s no down to go to.”

He spun around and looked at me and tapped his head once, “Ah, but that’s where you’re wrong!” Instead of elaborating further he just disappeared inside of his fort. I waited for a bit but he didn’t come up.

Better find out.

After I got Drifa’s attention I moved over to the fort. Before I was even inside I was hit by the strong smell of Abs. From outside it looked like the thing was empty.

I guess I’ll have to go in.

Holding my breath, I army crawled in. It didn’t have the largest entrance, but the inside was much larger. Nothing stood out at first, that was until I noticed the outline of a trap-door.

He better not be leading us into a trap or something.

Opening the lid, which the snow was apparently stuck to, I found a vertical tunnel with a simple looking ladder leading the way down.

Here goes. At least it’s not the same hallway.

As soon I was going down the ladder Drifa followed from above and made some snow fall.

Taking one final step down, I hit solid ground for the first time in a while. I had been walking on snow like solid ground, sure, but it wasn’t the real deal. I didn’t have a mobility advantage over anything that might sink in the snow anymore.

Suspended from the ceiling by metal ropes, there was a rack of metal beams arranged in a circle with unnatural, glowing glass attached.

* * *

DRIFA

Looks like they got light bulbs attached to some metal racks you’d use in a theater. I haven’t seen any actual technology so far… it’s probably only escaping the System siphoning its electricity because it’s in a dungeon. I don’t see it working outside of here.

I looked around a bit more.

Looks like they have a WWE boxing ring setup in too. It has the ropes and everything. Maybe we’ll be able to watch a fight? I’d prefer that. We aren’t going in there, right?

* * *

ISMUND

Maybe I can harvest the metal hanging from the ceiling.

The rest of the room was full of empty seats covered in dust with plastic and paper bags littered everywhere. But everything pointed towards the centre of the room where there was a giant cube with poles sticking out of the corners.

I think I may've heard of these in some of the folk stories mom told us about from a time before the System. The progress we make with our skills now compared to then seems more unnatural but…

I looked at the copies of chairs all arranged in a perfect circle.

…everything being mass produced seems even stranger.

The whole atmosphere of the place was cold and impersonal.

What do we do here?

I looked at Abs. I didn’t like looking to him for guidance, but I didn’t have much of a choice.

He just stared at me without blinking.

“What are we doing here?”, I said as my eye twitched.

Why does he only give us information we don’t need? Is it on purpose so we don’t get any actual information?

Abs took several more moments of staring blankly before he responded.

“What’re we doin in a dungeon?” he slurred. He took a swig of his favourite drink before talking like he was sober, “We’re in a dungeon: a place where trials that set one man apart from another reside, the place where your either killed or given a new life, the place where you’re either Absinthe Hapsburg Hardcore or you aren’t,” He flexed his bicep and looked proud, “What else would we do in a dungeon?”, he seemed to raise one eyebrow below his mask.

I let out a slow breath through my teeth pinching the the bridge of my nose.

Why are you like this? You could not.

I was seething.

“I’m talking about this room. You led us in. There isn’t anything here except for that strange box.”, I waved in the direction what I thought was called a ‘ring of boxing’, at least according to the older folk that were in the town.

He just laughed at me.

“Oh my stupid, stupid boy,” he slapped me on the back emphasizing ‘stupid’ each time, “You just go into the, uhm, centre middle thingy. Y’know,” he pointed at it vaguely, “that.”

My lips were a thin line, “How was I supposed to know that?” and I raised my eyebrows.

Abs crouched down so his massive frame was almost level with my own, “Because it has magical sparkly light shining on it,” he wiggled his fingers like he was tickling the air.

Giving me a salute he pushed me towards the stairs, “Go forth young one!”

Finally. An excuse to get further away from him.

Drifa went to follow me but Abs caught her by the collar of her shirt and pulled her back while miming holding binoculars. She seemed unsure, but did what he was showing.

Shrugging I entered the middle of the ring.

A man appeared in front of me. He had straight, salt and pepper hair and a thick, curly, waxed mustachio appeared in-front of me with a sort of ancient dress coat giving me and the empty seats a big fake smile.

Are there people stuck in here?

> [No, there are no humans in dungeons. However, there are several creatures and technologies that have the ability to have human-like appearances.]

>

> Noted.

“Lady and man! Up there in the stands,” Drifa looked around a bit flustered as he pointed at her before spreading his hands, “Welcome to The RIng!”