Frank bent down to check Bill's vitals. He still had a pulse. Frank motioned Rina and Maria over.

"He's alive." Frank said with a degree of relief. "Help me turn him on his back. Maria, can you stabilize his neck?"

With a little bit of maneuvering, they got Bill on his back, neck in a safe position. He lay motionless. His right ear leaked blood, as did his nose, which was broken. There was a large goose egg taking shape right above his bleeding ear.

Frank frowned at the sight. A blow like that could turn a man without sufficient constitution into a vegetable.

"Rina, I need you to keep his head raised slightly so he doesn't drown in his own blood. Maria, can you run back and grab a sleeping bag?"

Both women hastened to follow his directions, eager to do anything useful in the moment. Frank just waited, his thoughts running over what had led up to this. It was obvious Bill was not taking this seriously. Frank had let him risk his life anyways.

It was a shitty feeling, knowing he could have directly prevented this outcome, and fairly easily too. The justifications he had for putting the other three in harms way still remained, but they were scant comfort. He knew that Bill would get himself killed, if he didn't figure it out and start looking at the situation without his convenient fiction. But it wouldn't have been right now if Frank hadn't led him to this point.

He'd made the decision. Not someone else. He wasn't following orders, executing someone else's plan. Start to finish this was on him.

Rina cradled Bill's head, keeping it just elevated enough the blood from his busted nose didn't run down his throat. She was on the verge of tears. That was on Frank too.

He tried to talk to her. "Rina."

"Yes?" she responded, voice wavering.

He paused for a moment, unsure of what to say. "Bill put his stats into vitality, he said. That means there's a good chance he'll recover since he survived the strike itself."

Rina broke down into sobs. Frank really had no idea what to do, or if he should have said anything. He'd never had to comfort someone in her situation before. By the time he was the one in a position to do it, it had been years of struggle for everyone still alive. What to say to someone who wasn't insulated from the horror of it by repeat exposure? Frank was at a loss.

He let her finish crying. He remembered when the loss of another was more than an empty feeling and a day or two of melancholy. Time had been the only remedy available. Building up an immunity had taken a long time.

Her crying died down, her energy spent. Maria arrived at the tail end, bringing her whole pack along. They carefully placed a folded portion of the sleeping she brought bag under Bill's head. Both of them looked to Frank, unsure what to do next.

Frank looked down at Bill's unconscious form. "All we can do is let him rest until he wakes up."

Maria stared at the floor sadly. Rina struggled to not keep crying.

"If his condition doesn't change in the next hour or two, we'll move him back to the starting room." Frank told them. "Otherwise, he'll have to stay here."

Maria asked Frank in a soft voice. "What are we going to do now?"

Frank thought for a moment. "Regardless of whether he wakes up, we have a limited supply of food. I don't want to waste time here. Once we see how the next little while goes for him, I'm going to keep exploring. Not really much of a choice since we can't reset the instance anymore."

He could see his response made neither of them feel happy.

"I don't want this." Rina said, half crying. "I don't want any of this. Why is this happening?" She started sobbing again.

Frank had no words he could offer to help her. He sat down. Maria took the first aid kit from her pack and started cleaning up Bill's wounds. When she'd finished removing the worst of the blood and bandaged his head, she sat down a few feet away. Rina's sobbing subsided, and the three fell silent.

Frank let the time pass listlessly. Eventually, two hours had elapsed. "Bill hasn't changed much, we should move him to the starting room so he'll be safe."

Frank made a makeshift sling out of the tent that was strapped to Rina's pack. He used it to carefully drag Bill back down the hallway. The smooth stone was a huge boon, preventing any bumping. After making it back, he carefully arranged Bill, and then put together a very small pack of essentials. Everything else was left behind. He addressed Rina and Maria, who'd followed him back.

"I'm going to search the dungeon. Hopefully I can find a health potion. If I do, I will return immediately. Otherwise, expect me to be gone for a couple hours."

He took his sword and shield in hand and left the two girls with Bill. He passed the room they had fought in, heading straight across along the main path. Another hallway greeted him, and he followed it until it became a crossroads. A single suit had blocked the way, but he made short work of it.

He skipped the side paths, continuing onwards. The further off you went, the worse the odds of finding something useful. Going deeper meant a commensurate increase in danger, but since Bill couldn't leave without being conscious, he'd exhaust this floor before he ran out of food anyways. The best option was to bet on the best odds of getting a potion.

His second enemy was a suit of armour. It wasn't the agile variety, and so it too fell before him. His first strike onto it was so forceful it almost took its arm off at the elbow.

Nothing stood in his way as he passed through halls and rooms. Gradually, the featureless surroundings filled in with detail. Stone floors went from completely smooth to tiled. Regular marks started appearing on the walls, deepening first into patterns, then into full on scenes carved in relief. Most of them were seemingly unconnected scenes, but a few seemed to form a rough narrative.

They depicted figures prostrating before a flame. Then, a cloaked man stealing a portion of it. The stolen flame transferred and expanded to furnaces and torches. The carving of the flame got shallower and shallower as it got spread out over more things.

A suit of armour, wreathed in faint flame. Other things; clothes, a carriage, a forge. The cloaked figure, wreathed as well, bent on the ground and wracked in agony. The armour cutting down fleeing people.

The carving was somewhat crude, but even with the simplicity of the art, Frank could tell they weren't human. All the figures reminded him of the goblin leader he’d slain not long ago. Sometimes things related to each other like that. An entire region could have a network of narratively connected bits of the system. Generally, such regions were more dangerous, and more rewarding. Frank continued, meeting one more armour, which he dispatched.

It was unfortunate. His companions would be far better off in a normal area, where they could fight inherently less dangerous things. He thought about them. Rina had reached a critical moment. If she could get herself together while he was gone, there might be a hint of potential. It was a hard ask to try and get her to figure out the sling in a short timespan, but with her frame and size, she’d always be at a disadvantage in melee combat. Either she could learn to use it, or there was little Frank could do for her besides leave her with equipment he didn’t need and wasn’t going to carry.

Bill was the bigger question, mainly because he had more ability. Just the way he moved, his reaction speed, obvious experience with martial arts. Combine that with the fact he was friendly and easygoing, he looked like a potentially reliable partner, were it not for his delusions. Hopefully the blow knocked some sense into him. Otherwise, he’d be left behind too. Frank had some hope he would wake up eventually, given that he’d been stable for a few hours. It had to happen before they ran low on food though.

Maria was simply unsuited. Frank didn’t like her, and there was no way he was tolerating someone he disliked when he would have to train them to be helpful.

He walked into a very small room. It was maybe ten feet by fifteen. There was a fountain coming out of the opposite wall into a small pool. A bench covered the rest of that side. To his left and right were exits. He’d reached the halfway point. Frank emptied one of his waterskins, drinking deeply, and then refilled it. The others would need water too. He’d have to make a trip for it.

Frank kept moving. He took the left route. There was a hallway which gently curved, at first heading forward and away from the central path, but gradually looping back. He didn’t see any more carvings that looked related to the series he’d noticed.

The hallway opened into a very large, round room. Flooring, seven foot wide, extending from the walls, ringed a large pit in the center of the room. Frank could make out the bottom, but it was definitely not a survivable fall. On the opposite side of it, a staircase began to descend, spiraling around. It was very narrow, enough that a larger man might be unable to walk normally.

On the far side of the pit, two rapier wielding suits stood waiting.

Dapper Two Piece Suit Animated by a Forgery of the Flame of Constitution

Level 2 Dapper Two Piece Suit Animated by a Forgery of the Flame of Knowledge

Level 1

The two suits started walking towards him only when he stepped out into the room, each heading around the opposite side of the pit. Frank immediately beelined for the lower level one, taking the path to his right. It had the advantage of leaving his sword arm pit side, letting him swing freely. The suit was right handed, allowing it to also freely attack. Frank lead with a swing right at its collar, which the suit stepped back to avoid.

At the same time, the other enemy sped up, breaking into a run as it tried to flank him. Frank didn’t give it time. Without the ability to maneuver, the first suit could only move backwards. Frank rapidly overwhelmed it. He swung three times in succession, his shield blocking its attempts to counterattack with ease. An opportune shield bash staggered it, and before it could recover Frank neatly sliced it in half at waist level.

Frank turned to face the other suit, which had yet to reach him. He kept moving away from it, keen on getting to the hallway on the other side. Rapiers were better in situations where you didn’t have room to swing, and facing the opposite way his sword was constricted by the wall. It soon arrived to clash, stabbing at Frank repeatedly. He gave ground, but unlike the enemy who he’d just defeated, he stayed controlled and his defense remained strong.

It took a while, slowly backing away, but he made it to the hallway, consequently regaining the full motion of his sword. Immediately the battle shifted, and the suit was hard pressed. Several blows landed on it, but only damaged it mildly. Its name was not for show, apparently.

It retreated before Frank’s onslaught, which meant it stepped back into the circle, once more constricting Frank’s attacks. He chose to break off and back down the hall behind him, drawing it further in so it couldn’t retreat and restrict him as easily. When he pushed in for the attack the second time, he was able to get a lot more work done.

A rapier blow knocked aside by his shield led to a slash from Frank’s scimitar. The suit had no choice but to step back rapidly, which meant that to avoid his followup it had to throw itself off balance in a desperate looking dodge. Frank didn’t let it recover from there. Its reinforced body only helped so much, and a few blows later its arm was crippled. From there, it was just a matter of finishing it off.

Dapper Two Piece Suit Animated by a Forgery of the Flame of Constitution(Level 2) defeated. Dapper Two Piece Suit Animated by a Forgery of the Flame of Knowledge(Level 1) defeated. Frank awarded 500 EXP. Frank awarded a dictionary of a lost tongue.

A small book lay on the ground in front of him. He picked it up, looking it over. It was a very primitive looking volume, made of sheepskin, with pages of parchment that had started to warp and bend from neglect. He tossed it in his pack for later. There was still more to explore.