Liz was woken by a drop of water landing on her neck. Not quite awake she wiped the drop away. 'I really can't afford a plumber right now.' With that realization, she startled awake and was greeted by a surprise. Instead of her small and cozy bed, she was lying on some hard and damp stone. 'Where the hell am I?'

Trying to orient herself she sat up and took in her surroundings. She was on sitting on the stone floor of a small room with a single high sitting and barred window. On the opposite side of the room was a door frame with a rusted cell door. 'Ok, so I am in some kind of dungeon. But how the hell did I get here? The last thing I remember is drinking with Dana. Did I just drink too much or did someone drug me? Is this a prank? But where are the cameras?'

"Ok, I get it. Very funny. You can come out now!" Liz shouted into the empty room and hallway.

"I haven't had anything to eat in the last day. Now is not the time to play games with me" she added.

The only reaction she got was the sound of startled bats taking off somewhere to the right of her room. 'God no, I. HATE. bats!' Frozen in fear she remained on the ground. After the sound didn't get any louder in the ensuing minute and eventually settled down Liz's racing heartbeat slowed down as well and she unfroze. Her focus shifted back to her immediate surroundings. Since sitting on damp cold stone definitely wasn't the best for her health, Liz decided to stand up. This was also when she realized that she was wearing her pajamas, which were way too thin for the cold air, her pale skin already covered with goose bumps. 'So getting drugged is unlikely! And I usually don't drink to the point of going blank! Then how the hell did I get here?'

Sore from the uncomfortable sleeping arrangements she staggered the first few steps towards the door. 'Seriously, where am I? The nearest castle is Oakdale Castle. But the last time I was there the dungeon was still buried and under excavation. And even then it should be bustling with tourists on a Saturday. So either I am going insane or someone went to great lengths to get me an early Halloween scare. But nobody, except Dana, knows about my chiroptophobia and Dana wouldn't do such a thing! Or the bats are just a coincidence. Let's hope there is a way out without meeting the bats'

On the other side of the door was a hallway which on the bat-side ended in darkness but in the opposite direction curved upwards and was illuminated by the sunlight coming in from the different cells lining both walls.

"Hello, is anybody there?" Liz called as she strained to hear any more of the bats and carefully made her way over the sharp rubble in the illuminated direction. After a slow upwards curve in the cell-lined hallway she ended up in front of a pile of rubble completely blocking the hallway. Decidedly unhappy about this circumstance Liz returned to her starting place, on her trip inspecting every cell on the way in hopes of finding a way out, that didn't involve murderous bats. 'Would have been too good to be true for one of the windows to be below 3 meters and unblocked' she thought after arriving back at her cell. The only find along the way was a long forged rod of unknown origin. All the while her stomach had reported that it was high time for breakfast and something to quench her thirst was also more than necessary. Not to mention clothes that weren't as flimsy as her pajamas and isolated against the chilling air around her. 'Seems like I need to enter bat territory if I want to get out of here. Ughh, I hate those bugs. Whoever is behind this will wish they never met me, when I get my hands on them! At least they had the decency to kidnap me on my day off. Wait that reminds me of something! Why do I feel so angry about this? Did something happen at work that my subconsciousness doesn't like? Is that even a thing?'

After removing most of the dirt caked onto the iron rod she slowly tiptoed into the darkness. Deliberately keeping on the wall and feeling her way along she didn't encounter any lifeforms, which was a relief to Liz. After moving about twenty meters into the darkness she reached what felt like an intersection. Deciding to take the new hallway on her right, she realized that she just found a wooden door and no corridor. Fumbling for a means to open it, she found a handle and tried to open the door only to end up with a still closed door and a definitely rusty handle in her hand.

'Just my luck. At least I didn't cut myself' she sighed and tried to open the door anyway. Of course, the door was still latched firmly. Frustration and anger at whoever orchestrated this, caused Liz to hammer against the door with her palms. The hinges fortunately were rusty enough to present results to her fit of anger.

The door crashed to the floor on the other side. The following boom again startled the bats in the hallway to her back and caused Liz to abandon all caution and sprint across the door and crash into the stairs that lay beyond. Falling face-first into the upwards spiral staircase elicited a sharp pain in her right arm which had still held onto the end of the iron rod. 'Shouldn't have said that about not cutting myself'

After inspecting the small wound on her hand, where the iron rod had pierced her skin, as best as one is able to in near-complete darkness, Liz concluded that it wasn't life-threatening but was everything but sanitary and should be washed as soon as possible.

With the risk of contracting an infection, Liz inspected the now dimly lit stairway curving upwards. From above, dim light was visible and illuminated stone stairs which were carved into the stone, visibly worn from decades of use. Liz made her way up the stairs with a little more speed than before.

After about 4 rotations, each ever so slightly more illuminated than before, the stairs ended in a circular room with a diameter of about 10 m. The constructed stone wall was lined with multiple doors. The light which she had seen before was coming from the ceiling which used to be a wooden roof that was now mostly littered across the floor in rotting pieces.

Beyond, a nearly cloudless sky with the faint outlines of two moons was visible.. 'Wait a moment. Two moons?' Moving slightly to confirm that this wasn't just an image she continued ''This definitely isn't Oakdale. Or Earth for that matter...'

"Where the hell am I? And how did I get here?" Liz inspected the room further, hoping to find a window to see her surroundings. Aside from the doorway to the dungeon, there were two doorways, one open and one closed off with a door. The openings were spaced out evenly. Before she could go any further, her stomach notified her of its needs by cramping. 'Oh shit, before I go investigate wherever I am and how to get back home, I need to find food and water urgently!'

The open doorway to her left led into a small rectangular room filled with amphora and what used to be barrels and a small window not unlike the cells below.

Hoping to hydrate her parched mouth, she inspected the still sealed containers. The first one she opened had an easily recognizable scent of fermented juice. The following two proved to contain something similar. Only the fourth had no strong smell. Liz concluded that this must be water. Only after lifting the small amphora and tilting it to drink did she question her action. 'Wait. I am stupid. I can't reasonably just drink the first thing I come across in some ruin. A real stroke of genius, Liz'

'I should rather try to find some fresh source of water. I'm not desperate enough yet to drink some stale bacteria-riddled water. Foodwise however I will take anything. Why am I so starved? I have eaten just yesterday. Or was it even yesterday? I am definitely still missing some memories' With the hope of finding non-stale water, she returned to the circular room and went to the remaining door to her left. This time the handle proved sturdy enough and since the door wasn't locked she continued into the hallway beyond. This time there was also a bright light at the other end which turned out to be the hallway opening up into a small courtyard.

The area was framed by high castle walls on two sides, a natural stone wall to one side and ground-level battlements to the opposite side. Her hallway exited the wall right next to the battlements and on the opposite side, another passage was in the wall next to the battlements. In the center of the courtyard was a quietly gurgling fountain. The rest was covered in high wild grass and vines. Over the surprisingly well-preserved battlements, Liz was able to see a view that took her breath away.

Behind the small railing of battlements, was a steep drop to rocky ground, and beyond it she was able to see a sprawling valley filled with a dense green forest only broken up by the occasional blue lake. The valley was lined to all sides visible with high-reaching mountains that were covered in snow at the tops. 'Seriously, where am I? Am I alone here? Besides the fucking bats? Or is there even edible food?' At that moment a roar came from the forest, causing a flock of birds to take to the skies. The roar was deafening even from far and Liz panicked and ran back to cover. 'Of course, there has to be some dreadful predator'

After she calmed her racing heart a little, she slowly peeked out again. 'Liz, you are stupid. Whatever that was, was nowhere near you. Why did you cower like an idiot?' She returned to the inspection of her surroundings, finding that she really seemed to be in some castle. Above the high walls of her courtyard, ruins of two towers and one surprisingly intact tower could be seen. Beyond the towers another mountain loomed in the sky. The fountain was still quietly gurgling, and after a closer investigation was decorated with text, that seemed to burn when looking at it. 'What the hell is this? Why do my eyes tear just looking at text? Am I so dehydrated?'

"Now. Can I drink water from this or is it dirty? I mean unlike the amphora it is much clearer."

'Fuck it, I need to drink!' Liz scooped a handful of water from the fountain and immediately dropped it back since her still aching wound from the rod began warming. 'Oh fuck, of course, it's poisoned. Fuck. Fuck.'

'Wait a moment? Wasn't the wound bigger?'

While Liz watched, her wound got smaller by the second and after half a minute closed completely. 'Of course, there is healing water on this fucked up planet. Or is it another dimension? Realm? Whatever. I need to drink.'

With that thought she began drinking from the fountain with eagerness, completely ignoring the bits of dirt from her hands she swallowed, arguing that if the water is capable of healing a wound it can deal with a bit of dirt.

The water caused a warm feeling in her whole body and seemed to even lessen the hunger that had been gnawing at her. 'This is amazing! Bottled this could sell for millions'

Eager to get more of this incredible feeling, she gulped down more and more mouthfuls of water.

Until suddenly the warm feeling turned burning, her entire body heating up. The burning intensified in her throat and stomach to the point that Liz simply screamed in agony, further irritating her throat. Unable to give the pain fraying her sanity a fitting voice, she simply whimpered while her small body trashed on the ground.

After what felt like ages, but was closer to a few minutes, the pain lessened, causing Liz to gulp in a breath of air. Only for the pain to come back tenfold. Liz tasted blood in her mouth and felt it running from her nose and ears before passing out with a whimper.

Liz screamed, having awoken from a nightmare of dungeons with bats and burning from the inside. It took her only a moment to realize that she was still in said dream, the fact eliciting another scream.

'What the hell is wrong with me? Can't I just wake up already? And shouldn't I not feel pain in a dream?'

Pinching herself, Liz found that, despite the little bits she knew about brains and pain perception, she was feeling pain and still she was currently sitting in a foreign courtyard, two moons visible in the sky, dried blood crusted on her skin and her dark blonde hair stained with dirt, grass and blood.

'Or is this reality? Am I really on another planet? But how did I get here?'

While she questioned her sanity, she felt a presence at the edge of her consciousness. Trying to find out what it was, she mentally poked the presence, causing text to appear in her consciousness.

-- Congratulations, your mana density has reached the breakthrough point and a mana soul tether has been created! You now have access to your status and may select a class should you meet the requirements --

'Fuck... No'

'Classes? Status? That sounds like the RPGs Dana liked to play! Am I in a simulation? An unwilling test subject for some high-tech VR thing? Then maybe I can leave?'

'MENU!!'

'EXIT!! I want out!' Liz screamed at the presence in her consciousness, only for it to fade to an almost non-perceivable amount.

"Okay, you win. Show me my status, oh great simulation" Liz relented. Only for nothing to happen.

'Status?…' This caused a new presence along the fading one to enter her mind.

Name: Elisabeth Larson

Class: None

Titles: Wanderer

Status:

Health: 96/96

Stamina: 77/77

Mana: 208/208

Vitality: 8

Endurance: 7

Strength: 8

Dexterity: 9

Perception: 11

Wisdom: 13

Intelligence: 12

General skills:

Eastern Plains Common - lvl 8

English - lvl 7

Pain Tolerance - lvl 4

'Really?'

The former presence congratulating her was now even more faded. 'So they are a kind of log?'

Recalling her status, she now inspected the elements. 'Okay, this sounds like a normal RPG, except I can only guess regarding the meaning of some attributes. I think they are split into 4 physical and 3 mental ones. If I assume that 10 is average for starting, I'm not sure whether I should feel insulted by the physical attributes. The general skills are nice to have too, though I have no idea what they do. But I especially wonder what the wanderer title means. I am not exactly a person for long meaningless walks. Alright let's see what classes are available'

'Class selection!'

'Classes..?'

-- You currently do not meet the requirements for any class --

'I mean it would have been too good. Why should a meager human like myself get a class after just a few hours? Do I have to be a certain level? Do I even get to level? Or do the classes have levels? No matter what I do, new questions pop up everywhere! Maybe if this is some simulation there is a guide'

'GUIDE'

'Help!' Nothing happened.

'Or maybe not, but that begs the question: Am I really in a simulation? Technically there are messages in my head, but if I were to design such an extreme VR game I wouldn't let the players go through to hell just to unlock my fancy-pants RPG system... Yeah, the current working theory is an alternate realm, no matter how irrational that sounds.'

'And yet none of those questions will get me any food. I need to search for some or else I won't get answers to anything'

Standing up on shaky legs, Liz continued exploring the ruins. She was especially interested in getting to the intact tower as it seemed like the only place for anyone to still be living, hopefully with a stocked fridge if there was such a thing in a medieval-looking castle and for that matter this world. She already missed having her phone, even acknowledging that she would have no signal, just checking the time would be nice.

Continuing on the walkway along the battlements she ended on the bottom floor of what seemed like one of the defensive towers. The wall of the circular room was lined with vertical loopholes. Whatever used to be the furniture in the room had since rotten into indistinguishable shapes. Liz continued through the doorway opposite her entry. She moved through the fortifications, passing through multiple similar rooms, some with additional staircases which were filled with rubble to the point that they weren't passable. Eventually, she found a staircase with minimal rubble and left for the floor above.

She ended up in a hallway illuminated by windows overlooking the castle ruins. In front of her was a sprawling fortress built on the side of a mountain, sporting dozens of small buildings and courtyards in between. From her vantage point, she was able to see a gate opening up to a road snaking down into the valley. 'But where are the former inhabitants? Why was this small city of a fortress abandoned?' Pondering these questions Liz took a closer look at the ruins 'Not all rubble seems like it's coming from erosion. Some buildings look like something bombarded and scorched them. So the fortress was attacked and abandoned? But why am I here now? And is whoever or whatever destroyed it still here? Was it whatever roared earlier?'

Liz continued to investigate the different rooms along the hallway. Most of them were sleeping quarters, at least the rotten pieces inside looked like bed frames. But at the end of the hallway, she found a kitchen. And in the wall of the kitchen, she found a jackpot: A pantry with walls lined with runes similar to the fountain and filled with fresh food. From bread to vegetables, everything was there and looking as if freshly baked or harvested. 'So these magic runes can preserve food as well and not just cause pain? At least it seems I will live...' She once again abandoned all caution and her feast began.

After devouring two loaves of bread and multiple whole cabbage-like vegetables Liz finally stopped, regretting her action. 'How did I eat so much? Was my stomach flushed empty? And do these runes also poison the food?' After two minutes devoid of any soul-deep pain, she sighed. Combined with the exhaustion from the traitorous healing water, her full stomach caused her eyelids to drift shut, only to blink open again. 'No, I can't seriously sleep here. I am underdressed in some dead fortress in some strange world with predators nearby. Who says there isn't one inside the walls?'

And so Liz continued through the castle, in search of thicker clothes and a place safe from anything preying on humans in this game-like world.

She wandered through multiple halls while her thoughts strayed to the enchanted fountain and pantry. 'If this magic text can preserve the food, maybe that is also the reason why the one tower is still standing. Maybe it contains a dresser and the enchantments also keep out any monsters.' With this hope, Liz oriented herself in the general direction of the tower. Along the way, she passed a blacksmith, multiple quarters, a kennel, and a training hall judging by the racks of weapons along the wall. That is also where she decided to trade her rusty iron rod with two rusty daggers after failing to lift a sword. 'That sword must weigh at least fifty kilos, how can any human lift this? Or is magic the answer?'

Finally, she found a door that unlike all others she saw so far, was in pristine condition. Additionally, the whole door frame was inscribed with the runes she found so far but unlike before they weren't painful to look at and seemed to just be plain carvings in the stone.

Deciding that these must be inactive defensive enchantments Liz decided to try the door. Fortunately, the door was neither locked nor was she suddenly struck by lightning. Behind the door was another spiral staircase. But this time there was an intact wooden railing.

Cautiously climbing up the stairs, Liz fully focused on the walls and floor in hopes of spotting any more runic text that might actually smite her. After multiple minutes of tense stair climbing the staircase opened in a big circular room filled with worktables and bookshelves. Liz took in the messy workspace of what seemed like some kind of scholar until she heard something clicking and spotted a skeleton lying on a table along the wall. Liz ducked back into the staircase in fear of an undead skeleton rising or some other trap. After nothing happened for a few minutes she cautiously returned to the room.

This time she slowly neared the skeleton, frantically looked around looking for traps, and awkwardly held the daggers in front of her. Once close enough she was able to see silver runes etched into the pristine-looking bones. 'Are they animating the skeleton? Or just preserving it? But for what purpose?'

She now stood next to the table and nothing had happened so far, so she began inspecting the bones in more detail. The runes snaked along the surface of all limbs and ribs. None of the text was painful to look at. What stood out was the skull which was completely clear of any runes. Besides the bones, multiple implements were strewn across the table.

One of which suddenly clicked once again. Liz recoiled and thrust her daggers towards the object emitting the sound. After a few seconds in which Liz stayed rigid in the stiff pose, she relaxed and inspected the object. It seemed to be a pendant with a clasp to open it. It was approximately hand-sized, gold in color, and all-around adorned with runes more sophisticated than any she had seen so far. She reached for the locket and inspected it further. The weight spoke for pure massive gold. Careful of any surprises she slowly opened it. Inside were more runes and a portrait of an older man with disheveled white hair and beard.

"Who are you and how did you get in here?"