I struggle. I still only have less than an hour each time, though it is steadily growing. I can barely move and use all my strength to try. Sometimes, I try new things, like using heat or force or cool on the metal, but it doesn't change much. Maybe it becomes a tiny bit more malleable with heat, but I am betting on bestowal instead.

I die, I wake up, I die rinse and repeat. Sometime I give, resigning myself to my fate of being trapped forever, but I can't stay that way, so most time I struggle.

I die and I wake up so many times I can't keep count. I must have been in here for years.

My sense of time is completely out of whack. I notice this, because one day, I am suddenly still awake when my power activates. I try holding my breath. I don't think I need to breathe anymore... First sleep, food, water and now air is unnecessary for me.

I no longer die, but each day seems to flow into the next at breakneck speeds if I think back, though the moment itself feels long and unbearable.

I suddenly become aware that progress is being made. I can move a little. I definitely remember a time I could hardly move at all, so the shuffling I can do now feels incredibly liberating.

And empowering. Shit I will get out of here and I will kill that fucking Wiyam guy with my own two hands. I was clearly imprisoned he because my words spooked him, maybe Atna is still alive?

I struggle each day now, with a newfound passion, but still many days pass. I tried to keep count but gave up after a thousand, not being sure where I was, and realizing it was impossible.

I sometimes feel like I am going insane. Maybe this whole thing is going to turn out to be one bizarre dream. Maybe I am going to wake up in my bed, with my father and mother... Or maybe in the clan house, going for a morning run and finding a request with whoever is willing to join me that day. But such thoughts do nothing. I struggle on.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Weird, this part my hand is pressing against was definitely cracked, a nice certain sign of my progress, but it disappeared. Almost like it grew back, but I can't fault that. I struggle on.

It definitely is growing back! What the hell? How is that even possible? But fortunately, it seems my strength is forever growing, since I think I notice the progress being made faster and faster. Though that may just be a trick of the mind, since so much time and yet none at all seems to have passed since I got trapped in here. It is difficult. If I try to mark a day, just a few days after, if becomes difficult to know if two or three of four days have passed, since there is nothing to distinguish one day from another. I struggle on.

Though it is small, I feel progress is tangible day-by-day now. It won't be long now. I will get out.

Suddenly, one day while pressing against the metal with all my might, a crack forms. Large. In front of my face. I can't see it, but I heard the snap and could feel debris falling on my face. This is it.

I channel bestowal at the highest power I can, as much power as I can hold in my being. I can feel it coming apart. My arms are actually feeling their movement forward through the metal in real time. Large snap and cracks are heard all around me as I finally break free.

Pulling myself out of the small metal crater, something is off. I was definitely in some dungeons before, but this place is... creepy and weird. Large green stones make out the walls now, there is rope hanging around, and as I turn to see the stone it is covered in weird talisman-like things, with line of rope around the metal clump seemingly having held them up, now strewn across the room. I am clearly still underground, and I couldn't see anything if it wasn't for a source of light. I look at a young women, on her ass on the floor, visibly shaking. Next to her is some kind of lantern. She has a bucket and and a mop close by, and she is clearly in a pool of liquid, though I don't know if that is water from the bucket or... a more natural source. She is clad in a dark, long robe. Doesn't look like a maid.

"Greetings, young lady" I say to her, ignoring the fact that I am completely naked and trying to put on a nice demeanor. "Would you be so kind as to tell me where Wiyam is?" I don't think I am in the dungeon of the palace anymore, but he was a known character, I should be able to be pointed in his direction.

She shook visibly as I talked to her. Her mouth is flapping, opening and closing quickly in succession, but no words escape her lips.

"Are you alright?" I ask.

But as soon as she seems to get a grip on herself, she gets of her ass and down on her knees, bending over to the point her face must be rubbing against the cold stone floor. "Please don't kill me!" She exclaims. What in the hell?