I lay in a fetal position, wracked with pain. I was dying. So much effort undone. I could feel my bloodflow lessening. My heart beat slower...and slower…

My hands grew cold and numb. I wouldn’t last much longer.

Why had we come here? To this cursed place! Why?

A light flared and shone in the darkness. I heard scrapes and scratches as someone approached. What was coming for me? Was it one of our enemies? Damn them! Damn them to hell! I would never give in! My liege lord had promised...he had promised…

I sobbed. With the strength of my body almost gone, the sounds of my grief and regret were soft and almost inaudible.

The light paused and slowly drew near as I lay on my deathbed, here in what would be my tomb. I was tempted to grab the knife from my belt to make one last gesture of defiance before I was gone, but it seemed pointless.

I was dying. What did it matter? I had been promised divinity, but that promise was shattered, here in this eldritch place where even gods could be slain.

I blinked away the remnants of bad dreams and brushed the sleepy dirt from the corners of my eyes.

Good morning, Paol.

“How long did I sleep?” I asked.

Roughly four hours.

“Okay. Are the socks dry?”

See for yourself.

I grabbed them, and they were dry, just as she had promised. It took some doing, but I was able to get them on my feet with just one hand. I took a few quick bites of bread and cheese and stood.

“All right, Veritas. I guess it’s time.”

I was plunged into shadow, even as I commanded Darksight from my helmet. Once again I looked up into the midnight sky above me. A strange circle of darkness drifted through the air, and it took me a little while to realize that I was looking at whatever served as the sun in this terrible place.

What I had originally taken for a dry riverbed had been revealed to be a crumbling road. It meandered down the middle of the valley, and I followed it patiently, keeping an eye out for anything that might threaten me.

As I walked, I came upon a few more bodies which I quickly rifled, in search of more loot that might help me survive. I had blinked in and out of existence to the Realm of Shadow enough times now that the awful dread that had threatened to unman me the first time a Shadow Bat attacked me was just a faded memory.

Ring???

Belt???

Bracelet???

Knife???

Short Sword???

“You say that the monsters here are powerful. That the Shadow Bats were among the weakest.”

My eyes roved back and forth constantly, watching for threats that would demand light from Veritas.

Yes. Your strategy for defeating those creatures was impressive, but it will not be so easy against other monsters in this realm. The bats were small with little health, which is what allowed you to disable them by positioning yourself properly. Against a larger monster? Maiming or killing such a creature with a couple of well-aimed blows will not be so simple.

Small with little health. Those disgusting flying rats had had a wingspan that matched or exceeded the length of my outstretched arms, and their health had rivaled my own. What was I going to be facing?

“Why wouldn’t I be able to deal with other monsters the way I did with the bats?” I questioned softly.

Imagine you are attacked by a beast twice your height and three times your weight. Its skin is covered in either scales or fur that protect it like steel armor, and it moves so quickly that it can dodge a blow in mere instants. It has five times your health, and claws the size of daggers protrude from its hands. Their tips drip with virulent poison, and a single slice across your body can remove half your life.

I was silent for a while with this terrifying image stuck in my head.

“Uh, that’s just a hypothetical, right?” I squeaked.

That is actually a fairly accurate description of an adult Shadow Troll. It might have thirty levels or more, and it can regenerate in the midst of battle. Anything short of beheading or complete incineration will allow it to recover and attack again.

I gulped.

“And these Shadow Trolls....are they common?”

No. Not common.

I breathed out in relief.

But in this realm, not rare either.

“So I guess fighting something like that would be a bad idea.”

Yes, that would be unwise. Finding a gate and sneaking out of this realm is our best bet.

“So to be clear--I should avoid combat as much as possible.”

Yes. That is the better course of action in this case. There is no shame in retreating from an impossible fight. Stupidity is not bravery.

“What exactly should I be doing now? It’s great that my little trick kept me alive against those awful bats, but how am I supposed to escape this place?”

I bit my lip in worry.

We need to find an exit. A Gate of some type. I don’t know how we’ll find one, but it’s all I can think of. Hopefully, it won’t take us months or longer.

Months? I shuddered. I couldn’t imagine trudging through this dark world for months. Was there even enough food in the Bag of Holding to sustain me through such a trek? Clearly, my benefactor had been well equipped, but would he have stored enough food to last for months? Somehow, I doubted it.

The valley was deep, and the mountains surrounding me rose high in the air. Nothing grew in this desolate place. The realm had animals so I would have assumed that there would be vegetation of some type, but I saw none. The weather was cool but not cold. A light wind blew against me, smelling dusty and stale.

After trudging for an hour or so, I began to get bored. Now that I was not in the midst of life-threatening danger, the monotony of all the gray around me and the unchanging nature of the landscape was mind-numbing. My mind began to drift, puzzling through the happenings of the last couple days.

The original dungeon, though frightening, had been easy in retrospect. Veritas had been correct. After dealing with those Shadow Bats, even the Zombie Knight was unimpressive. Or maybe I was just more confident now that I had been victorious in so much combat. Clearly it had been meant to be easy to complete. A quick, simple three fights and then clear directions that led to a Gate.

But that defaced image...it had been a trap. Someone had known about it, too. Someone who had wanted to keep future adventurers safe. In fact, the entire dungeon was a trap. Who wouldn’t have tried to trigger both Gates? And the way the dark Gate had reached out and grabbed me...that had been a malevolent act. Someone or something had created that dungeon to capture people.

Who created dungeons? Was it this Paraclete that Veritas kept talking about? That would make sense since she seemed to think it controlled everything, but she had never suggested that it was evil. I wanted to ask her, but she didn't seem to want to talk about it.

This entire world...it made no sense! How could a person be summarized as a bunch of numbers? Somehow I knew that that wasn’t how the world was supposed to work. And the way these “skills” and “abilities” affected interactions...that just wasn’t right. And why did words keep popping up in the air before me? Would that have happened if I didn’t know how to read?

Most important of all, who was I? How had the man in brown known me, and why had he sacrificed himself to save me? I spun Veritas around with a quick yet complicated motion. I knew that if that move was performed at the correct moment against an unprepared swordsman, my opponent would likely be disarmed. Knowledge of swordsmanship seemed to come naturally as my Swords level increased, but there had been those strange exercises I had performed. Somehow, I knew that those had not come from the Swords skill. And Veritas had recognized that.

I was rounding a couple of boulders and a large hillock while following the road when my wandering mind was pulled violently out of its musings and into crisp awareness of the landscape around me. The hairs on the back of my neck seemed to stand up straight, and I froze, somehow knowing that danger was nearby. My tense body was wound tight as a bowstring, and I found myself drawing Veritas and grasping her white-knuckled and two-handed in readiness for battle.

Once again, my head swivelled left and right and all around, searching for an attacker.

Ahead of me, I saw the rocky road peter out in between two large stone pillars that thrust up from the ground like fangs in the lower jaw of a bloodthirsty beast. Between the two pillars was a black that my Darksight couldn't penetrate. The hills swelled up around me here at this juncture, and the two pillars were clearly some kind of entrance.

I remained completely still, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Nothing happened. After ten minutes, my legs were getting sore, so I flexed the muscles in my legs and took a small step forward. Again, nothing happened except that a small puff of dirt fluttered up from my footstep. Another footstep. And another. Still nothing happened. I was perhaps forty strides from the stone pillars when I heard a snort behind me.

I rotated my head and my upper body to get a look at what had made the noise.

At first, I saw nothing--just the dry, barren road as well as a couple boulders that were nestled into a small hillock. My Danger Sense was working overtime, building dread in my stomach and leaving my mouth and throat dry with a lack of saliva.

What was it? What was it!

Suddenly, the two boulders each split in half, a large horizontal crack appearing in the middle of both of them and slowly opening. Bits of dust fell from the large stones, and then they were rising up into the air. Higher and higher they rose while the cracks in both of them grew larger and larger.

Now the rest of the land around me was moving as well. Dirt slid down from the hillock to reveal a head that was larger than a house. The boulders were revealed to be eyeballs that stared steadily down at me, reptilian and unblinking. The creature's head rose higher and higher, showing itself to be a monster that dwarfed me in the fullness of its size. Soon, it was twenty...thirty...forty times as large as me--maybe more--and a tail flipped out from behind it to slap against the ground with a thunderous CRACK!

My hands on Veritas’s hilt shook as I saw the creature rear up to its full height, seeming to cover half the sky. Desperately, I screamed in my head ANALYZE!

Shadow Dragon. ???

This was much, much worse than a troll.