Nathan woke with a start looking with wide eyes at the stone room around him. The dim orange glow of torches hanging on the walls the only light to see by.

‘Where am I, and how in the blazes did I get here?’ he thinks as he looks at the room ‘one hell of a dream this is’ “Hahahaha” he laughs self-deprecating.

‘Feels a bit too real for a dream, but it still does not tell me where I am?’

‘The last thing I remember is walking home after stopping at the corner store not far from my apartment’ calming down he feels the stone cold floor below him.

Standing up he dusts himself off and picks up his sack of goods from the floor.

‘Did I get hauled off to some old church or castle? That is the only things I can think of that would be made of crude stone bricks that look like this. Well if I am in some castle this must be the dungeons cause I don’t see any windows and is rather cold and dreary down here’ he thinks as he chuckles to himself.

‘At least there is a door to get out’ he thinks as he walks over to the only door leading to the room.

The door is made of wood and creaks as he opens it, a blast of cold air greets him into the dark exterior. He takes a hesitant step outside only to freeze in his tracks and promptly walks back into the room and the slam the door behind him as he goes. He walks over to one corner of the room sits down pulls up and hugs his knees and rocks back a forth with his eyes sealed shut for what little good it does, his bag of goods dropped and completely forgotten about outside the door for what he sees even with his eyes closed.

[Leaving Safe Zone]

“Hahahahahahahaha” he laughs with a hint of sadness and insanity.

Nathan had read enough online stories to have a good idea of what had happened to him.

“Hahahahah, I have been whisked away from my home to some godforsaken planet with a bloody system. Hahahahaha, guess that idea of this being a dungeon may not be far off, Hahahahahahahaha” crying a bit on the inside he tries to calm down as being upset will do him no good.

“Damn bloody hard that is, these stories always have two ways they go either the main character is overpowered and or has death-defying luck or just plain good luck or they are stuck in some blood-drenched world where everyone and everything is out to get you and have you for lunch. Hahahahahahaha” from nonacceptance to acceptance to sadness to rage his emotions cycle seemingly without end until he has no energy left and the only thing to do is to accept it and move on.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

If this were another time he might just go on and forget about his little episode but the acceptance with facts literally staring him in the face brings Nathan nothing but dread. The dread of what the future holds, dread of how he is going to die, and dread of all the shit he is going to have to do if he does not want to die and by god he does not want to die.

Having lost all track of the time he looks up at the message and wills it away, the message obeys. Drying his tears on his shirt he gets up and shambles over to the door opening it up to be met with another blast of cold air. Peeking outside he looks into the darkness with apprehension. He looks for anything that may be lurking in the dark and seeing nothing he snatches is bag and hauls it back inside before slamming the door.

Leaning on the door with his heart pounding and breathing heavy he opens the bag and takes stock of what he bought at the store. A soda, a bowl of packaged dry ramen, a few candy bars, toilet paper, and a key chain of a cool looking sword he bought on a whim. Not much to live on if he was being real with himself. He pulls a pocket knife and wallet out of his pant pockets along with a pen.

‘Dad always said to never go anywhere without a pocket knife, I am so happy I followed his philosophy. The pen, money, and everything else in my wallet won’t do me much good, especially the money it might as well be useless paper now’ he pulls out a picture of the last time the family was all together ‘at least I will have something to remember them by’ he smiles but it does not reach his eyes.

With a sigh he puts everything away and walks over to a torch on the wall ‘ can I just take these? They look slotted in so might as well try.’ he grabs the base of the torch and pulls it free of its mount with a smile. ‘At Least I now have light, so that is good’ he sighs again ‘might as well get it done with’ he had been putting off testing one thing the thing that would right and truly prove that either he was absolutely insane or this was all real, he needed to check his stats.

“Stats” the moment he had the thought it showed up but he wanted to say it just to put home what he was doing and how crazy this all was.

[Name: Nathan Vellenger]

[Age: 21]

[Class: None]

[Health:86]

[Stamina:78]

[Mana:120]

[Strength:11]

[Endurance:10]

[Vitality:12]

[Agility:9]

[Dexterity:13]

[Wisdom:12]

[Intelligence:14]

[Skills: None]

[Titles: Otherworlder]

With much frustration, he tries several times to focus on the different stats to get a popup telling him about it, but it does not work until the last one the title Otherworlder.

[Otherworlder: A being not of this world]

‘A fat lot of good that does me!’  frustrated with the stats he closes it and faces the door.

‘I am going to have to leave this room sometime, and now that I have something to light the way I might as well get on with it, but damn if I don’t want to. I am sure there is nothing good out there but I need to get out of this place and find some food and water or I am going to die of dehydration and or starve to death. Maybe a friendly monster or something will kill me before that.’ “Hahahahahaha. I would rather starve to death than be eaten alive,” he says with a deadpan tone.

He grabs his bag and does the best he can to tie it to his belt and pulls out his pocket knife. Knife in one hand torch in the other he screws up the courage and walks out the door into the dark unknown.