Chapter 4

A figure wreathed in shadows stood over him, disdain in their eyes as they spoke.

“How long do you want to lie around and do nothing?”

“You’re a murderer now.”

“Insane, completely mad.”

Another figure stepped into the room, a nurse holding a longsword and wearing a knight helmet.

“She’s right, why don’t you just die?” the voice was soft and calm.

She walked to the bed and started slashing, blood spraying from the unconscious people lying on it. She finished and stepped over, her nurse outfit stained with blood.

Adrian looked at his arms and found himself bound to the bed.

“It’s ok, Adrian,” he heard the voice again, looking up to find the longsword angled at his neck.

The nurse slowly pushed it forward and into his throat.

Adrian woke with a start, shooting up in the darkness before he hit his head on something hard. He heard something clattering to the floor.

Another dream. A knight?

He hazily recalled the dreams, hoping it hadn’t been his phone that had fallen down. He couldn’t afford a new one at the moment.

His whole body was sore, tired and weak. And he was cold. I forgot the heating, he thought. At least I’ll save some money.

He remained in bed, moving his hand to turn on the small lamp before his eyes opened wide, his heart starting to pound and his mind reeled in terror.

A hand of his shot to his throat and the other one to his chest. He looked inward and focused on the numbers still displayed. They were real, they were him.

It took a couple minutes to calm down, to shake the feeling of his dream and focus on his new reality. He had realized already that this wasn’t merely a dream but a part of his mind had not quite yet come to terms with it.

My name is Adrian, I work in tech support and I’m alive. I died and yet I am alive. I drank a potion and fell asleep in the most uncomfortable bunk bed I have ever seen.

He grinned and cupped his face with both hands. There was a royal bed just two rooms over. His stupidity seemed to know no bounds and now he would have to deal with a sore body all day. If I survive that long, he thought with another smile.

Something about his hopeless and unrealistic situation seemed comedic to him. Humor had always been a way to cope for him but years of grief had turned to apathy. Now at least he had some new unfair shit to laugh about.

My throat wasn’t slit in the night, he thought, determining that this room was at least safe to sleep in. It was cold like a motherfucker and he chastised himself for not at least getting all the blankets to cover himself. He wasn’t even wearing a shirt.

His teeth clattered as he lay there. You will get a cold if you stay here. It’s a wonder you didn’t freeze to death already.

What’s the next step? He asked himself and decided that getting warm was a top priority. Then to check on his wounds and look through the rest of the room. He was thirsty and hungry but neither had jumped to his top priority spot quite yet.

Adrian had struggled many a morning, to get out of bed and get dressed. Something a hard plank barely counting as a mattress and a pillow as supportive as a brick remedied in an instant.

Perhaps it hadn’t been the worst decision to sleep here compared to the royal bed. He first had to get oriented in the now near completely dark room.

A little light came in through the cracks in the door frame, mostly below. Not exactly enough to give him a good picture of what was around him, even with his quickly adjusting sight.

He carefully checked the floor with one hand and found the dagger, of course the thing that had fallen down before. Adrian was aware of the dangers of sleeping with a weapon but the decision had been simple anyway.

The oil lamp was out of course but he was sure there were more around. With the absence of other light sources, there had to be. I can probably just refill this one with more oil, he thought and carefully grabbed both items before sitting up.

He shivered, glad for his two pairs of pants and the slippers at least, especially because of the glass shards and blood still on the floor. He looked through the keyhole of the door but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Neither were there any noises coming from outside. The only things he heard were his heartbeat and an occasional drop of water landing in the pool that remained inside the copper sink.

Gingerly, he opened the door and made sure not to present an obvious target to any waiting monster. When nothing happened, he peeked out and found the corpses lying where they had been left the previous day. All three of them.

He gulped, remembering how it had felt to stab them. “What the fuck did I do?” he asked himself, looking down at the half dried blood. The door would definitely stay open, and any windows if they weren’t locked. The cold was one thing but the smell nearly made him puke, as well as a lot of other things.

If it hadn’t been for the exhaustion, he most certainly couldn’t have slept in that rancid room.

Another shiver went through him, his clenched stomach growling for some food at the same time. Basic needs he usually didn’t have to worry overly much about. Money was an issue, yes but even with social welfare alone, he could probably survive on boring and basic meals.

The dog would have been out of the question in that case. Well now he is anyway, he thought and walked silently to the royal bed chamber. He opened the door carefully and hit it with his dagger. Nothing growled or came charging out at him.

There were game like elements here but it seemed respawning enemies weren’t a part of it. Or it might just take longer. How the fuck would I know any of this.

He had a tiny bit more confidence in his chances of survival, now that he had confirmed the existence of potions. Or perhaps simply magical or insanely effective medicine. Penicillin would be a magical substance too for any medieval doctor.

Of course on Earth the concept of magic wouldn’t be seen quite as favorably in the middle ages as it would today. Who are you kidding, there’s plenty of people selling tinctures and snake oil.

Adrian noticed the weird tangent he was getting to, realizing that he wasn’t in pain anymore. There was no mirror in the hallway but looking down, he found his chest mostly healed. There were fine lines where the nails had scratched and the wounds had festered but other than the slight scars, his body had healed.

What made him wary was the fact that there was a very light mark where the knight had pierced his chest. A reminder that it hadn’t been a dream.

The royal chamber had remained the same way as he had left it, just as stuffy and full of dust.

He had made the mistake of leaving the dresser open, some of the dust now clinging to the clothes.

He put on another three shirts and checked for a lamp nearby.

Adrian didn’t find another one but what he found was oil. Right below where the lamp had sat. It took him a couple minutes to figure out where to open and fill his own lamp but it was set alight again a moment later.

He closed the door and moved the sheets to the side, checking the blanket on top. The quality of the mattress, pillows and everything else in this room was worlds apart from the bunk bed he had slept in all night. Still shivering, he decided to warm up for a moment at least.

There was no hearth in any of the rooms he had explored so far, except for the one he would never ever enter again.

A bed was the next best option other than just standing in the sun. Shouldn’t these rooms be just as cold as outside if there’s no heating? He figured the walls insulated a little and kept some of the sunlight’s heat inside. Or there was heat coming from below, be it a heating system or something else.

Really not a major concern right now, he thought to himself, making sure he checked every corner of the bed carefully before he slipped under the blanket.

I have a lamp again, oil for at least another three or four uses, so probably around eight to ten hours of light. I have water if I can find a way to cook it first. All I really need is a pot.

I have fire and enough wood outside, or furniture and in the worst case books. I really don’t want to go there.

He had clothes too. Another five or six shirts even. A royal’s dresser knew no limits it seemed. He himself had two pajama pants back at home and just used whatever shirt wasn’t completely disgusting.

Food was a problem but right now he was warming up in his rather small royal bed.

The silver lining of this whole shit situation is that I didn’t suddenly wake up in the forest. Surviving inside a castle with lamps, medicine, weapons and supplies has to be much easier than hunting in the wild.

Ten minutes passed as he once again thought about the past day and what had happened to him. There were no answers to his why questions. There was however a lot more practical progress he had made between waking up in his sleep wear next to the white tree and lying in a royal bed with a dagger in hand and scared but ready to fight.

Am I ready? He didn’t know really. He knew now that he could, if his survival depended on it. That he could kill whatever these humans had become. He had frozen up, sure. He had been scared, was scared even in this very moment but he had prevailed.

You literally died!

That memory made him nearly freeze up again but he focused on the good things, the useful things for his task, his problem.

For now, that was very much still survival.

And so he got up, warmed up a little from his own mostly trapped body heat under the covers.

He glanced at the corpses before he went to the still open door leading out onto the terrace. A fresh breeze welcomed him when he stepped out, surprised how clean the air felt to him even though the door had been open all night.

Guess that’s what corpses do. I should get rid of them, he thought. Outside would be a good place, especially with them potentially standing up again. It hadn’t happened so far but if any of Baxter’s games and shows were any indication, the chance was there.

Adrian looked at the white tree, a near serene feeling filling him as the air brushed against the yellow leaves, their silver sparkling in the early sunlight.

This scene is pretty weird, he thought, for the first time looking at the terrace with a more sober mind. He had either managed to calm down somewhat or the stress was so overwhelming he had reached a state of apathy. Not too uncommon in his job.

There was a single white tree standing amidst twenty to thirty gnarled noticeably mundane and leafless ones. Was it sucking out the energy from the others? Was it the only tree made to survive in the cold air?

There were no dried leaves around either. As if it stood in defiance of winter itself.

He felt a shiver go down his back and noticed he needed to pee. Checking behind himself, he made sure nothing was around before he walked over to the edge of the inlaid earth. He relieved himself with eyes focused on the open door that led into the castle, occasionally looking up to see if some magical bird was about to swoop down and attack him.

Most of the warmth he had gathered was already leaving him but moving around was good too. He finished up, the last few drops landing on the earth before he pulled up his pants and grabbed the dagger and lamp. Even in a situation like this, he wouldn’t piss with a dagger in hand.

Adrian checked some of the trees, cutting into them with his dagger but finding little purchase. It was a dagger after all. He could probably shave off small pieces that would help start a small fire but not enough to actually fuel one.

Furniture then, he thought, unsure if treated wood burned as well as that cut directly from a tree. He would find out soon enough.

Adrian took a moment to walk around the large terrace and more importantly the stone parapet lining the edge. In itself beautiful in design, it guarded what lay outside.

An expansive and complex architectural marvel that Adrian couldn’t describe as anything else than a castle town. It led downwards, dozens, hundreds of small towers, windows, archways and houses visible until a large and imposing wall separated everything from the outside world.

Distant hills and mountains dotted the landscape beyond, gray forests visible as well as a river that flowed away to his left. This truly was a view worthy of a royal. A king over a large and expansive land. It just seemed they were on vacation and the servants had turned into monsters.

He took a deep breath, feeling a little bit of the stress and horror leaving that he had experienced in the past twenty odd hours. He hated to be here, hated whatever had happened to him. He hated having to survive in an unknown place and really just wanted to go home and see Baxter again as well as Marco and Steve.

They’re going to think…, he didn’t finish the thought, focusing for a moment on the most beautiful panorama he had ever seen. Baxter had been right, castles were truly imposing.

He felt the cold creep into his body and focused inward for a moment.

Soulbound:

Essence – -76

Level – 0

Vitality – 10

Endurance – 10

Strength – 9

Skill – 8 [15]

Intelligence – 12 [17]

Wisdom – 11 [16]

Soul skill – Slot 1

So it really was killing them that awarded Essence. Sixteen from the two, and eight from the one. I wonder if that knight would award the same. If we went with game logic, he would likely award more.

And yet he had killed three people, nearly dying to the infection caused by their wild attacks. Not that he had been particularly graceful in the fights anyway. It had been a matter of survival and he had prevailed, mostly because he had a weapon and was vastly more coordinated than them, even in his untrained state.

The task seemed impossible. Even getting back to zero Essence would mean another ten of them. Servants likely, the way they had been dressed and where they had been located.

He glanced down once more, seeing no movement in the massive castle city, no noise reaching his ears but the wind and the rustling leaves behind him. What the hell happened here?

His stomach rumbled, reminding him once more of important business. I have to take cues like that more seriously now that food isn’t easily available to me. It can very easily become an issue.

He silently walked back through the earth and trees, his slippers brushing against the dry ground. Adrian wondered what kept the tree alive, touching its white bark before he went back to the entrance. It was obvious that there was something magical about it and not only because he had woken up right next to the thing.

Adrian decided to check out the rest of the room he had slept in now that the light was a little better. He opened the door wide and was immediately hit with the iron smell of blood and a rancid smell he couldn’t quite place.

It really was a mystery how he hadn’t been bothered at all the previous night. Abject terror and terrible exhaustion, he replied to his own thought with the obvious answer.

Baxter had always said that humans were just house plants with more complicated emotions. Simple needs and simple results. Water, food for both body and mind and most importantly, sleep.

Adrian had been in enough situations to know what a lack of any of those things meant to his cognitive and physical abilities. This was the same, just multiplying the intensity, danger, and adrenaline by a thousand.

The water was still there and with the light a little more visible. He was glad he hadn’t taken even a sip of it.

Shards of glass, some of them bloodied, were lying on the floor from his break in the day before.

Adrian carefully approached and placed his lamp down. He grabbed one of the sheets from the beds and moved away the shards, pushing them under one of the beds.

The cabinet he had opened held another flask with a dark red color, as well as one with a dark blue one. They looked expensive. Should I not have used it?

The question was silly, he could have died if he didn’t. Or at least he would have continued to be in incredible pain and discomfort. The infection would have racked his body by now and he was really glad the medicine had been there.

He saw the empty flask still in the bed, having rolled to the wall adjacent.

I mean, should I take these now or leave them here? The actual question was if he wanted to stay in the servants’ quarters or another room.

The more comfortable bed in the royal room made the decision easy. Neither room had a key but in the bedroom there was at least some smaller furniture he could push in front of the door.

Went through enough shit already, the least I will do is claim a king’s bedroom as my own.

Soulbound:

Essence – -76

Level – 0

Vitality – 10

Endurance – 10

Strength – 9

Skill – 8 [15]

Intelligence – 12 [17]

Wisdom – 11 [16]

Soul skill – Slot 1

Equipment:

Helmet –

Chest – Royal Faenhold Silk Shirt [High]

Intelligence +3

Light Magic Damage +2

Arms –

Hands – Royal Faenhold Silk Gloves [High]

Skill +4

Rogue Soul Skill Damage +3

Belt – Royal Faenhold Belt [High]

Intelligence +2

Light Magic Mana Cost +2

Legs – Faenhold Knight Pants [Adequate]

Skill +2

Boots – Royal Faenhold Slippers [High]

Wisdom +5

Lightning Resistance +2%

1h Weapon – Letter Opener [Adequate]

Skill +1

2h Weapon –

Off Hand – Oil Lamp [Common]