William stared at his status page for what felt like hours, though he knew it was only a few minutes at most. He was hoping to unravel its mysteries somehow. Maybe the system would self prompt? It was unlikely, but he had to try. Staring for another dozen minutes would only take him so far. It was a good feeling to see himself visibly grow in different metrics, but it would not help him escape this place and return back to Earth.

  Living in a possible ruined city filled with monsters was not his idea of a good time. Even if it involved unrestrained growth and power. Necessity more so than a vacation if he was asked.

  He stood up from his seat and began testing his newfound powers; jumping, doing some exercises, and even jogging around the cell with the armor and weapons on. All in the hopes of getting comfortable with their light, strange weight and how powerful each burst of action was now. The difference was considerable considering he had gained so many points into his attributes through his leveling and his new looted gear. He had seen progress in almost all of them except for intelligence and wisdom.

  Though he did have to wonder what [Arcane] did. There was no way to figure it out without some way to test it considering how broken the system was. It didn’t help that the attributes were not self explanatory except for the most basic one.

  William finished his stretching as he thought about the possibilities of [Arcane] giving him the ability to throw fireballs like some fantasy mage. All the while he enjoyed feeling like a new person entirely. He couldn't have imagined being this strong or this capable just a few days ago. Well, maybe more to him and not anyone else, but if time was still since he first arrived during the loops, then he'd only been here for a couple hours at most. Dying again and again to the corrupted guardsmen and restarting the clock.

  Eventually, he had enough of the flexing and stepped out of the cell, finally resolving himself to moving on to a different area. Sitting here in the cell would not be a productive use of his time now that he's finished going through all the notifications, allocated his stat points, and preparing himself by wearing the armor and equipped himself with the shield and weapon.

  They all fell into place perfectly in his hands and on his body.

  He looked left, then he looked back right towards where he had fought the Corrupted Guardsman. It was a dilemma on whether he wanted to go in either direction, though he did remember the guard only activating when he passed by it towards the far right side of the hall. As though it was either guarding or watching against something. Or maybe was it trying to prevent anyone from coming towards the left side of the hall and releasing whatever stayed there. He had no clue which side would be safer considering he was only at level two, but he had to choose. So he chose the left side.

  Less bad memory in that direction.

  William took his time as he walked down the hall, making sure to keep a quiet step every time he moved. He prepared for an ambush, if there ever was one and walked down the long hall until he reached the bend where he peeked past the walls to check for any dangers. It was only a smaller copy of the hallway he was in that ended in an intersection that gave him another choice he had to make.

  He stepped into the small hallway, freezing the second he took a few steps in. Almost instantly did he notice a cell that had been hidden by the indentations of walls. William approached it slowly, noticing that the gate was missing there too, a very close replica of his own. It seemed like there was one cell per few halls. What was the point of such great separation unless this was the highest level of solitary confinement?

  A shiver went up his spine at the thought of being locked up with monsters who were Jack the Ripper types. Serial murderers that are now out and about looking to kill anything they found in the most gruesome and painful way possible. William was far more worried about an intelligent killer when compared to a thoughtless monster like the Corrupted Guardsman. An intelligent killer could plan and plot his death. Set traps and funnel him into dangerous areas.

  There was no rhythm or rhyme to a thoughtless monster's attack patterns, just an intent to destroy and satisfy whatever evil urges they had. Something he could prepare for once he had faced and died to them a few times. Creating his own plan to counter their attacks if they had any movesets at all.

  He put his back on the wall and peaked very slightly into the cell. Slowly surveying the area in case there was an ambush. There was nothing but stone, no dripping water, no items that he saw immediately and no clothes to be found. Just an ordinary cell that had been vacated only God knows how long. William wondered if anything or anyone had been in this place in the past century? The Corrupted Guardsman would not have been there had anything made it this far.

  The flames flickered and swayed back and forth.

  William caught a shimmer of what could only be metal or stone.

  He entered slowly, making sure that he had not missed anything on the ceilings or hidden in one of the corners.

  Nothing happened as he approached the shimmering stone.

  The system dinged.

  Loot Found! -

  1 Earthly Realm Rune Shard [1] (75)

  William picked up the shimmering stone. It looked pretty average in his hands. He looked back into his inventory to compare it to what he had there and found them to be quite similar, though they were not exact duplicates of one another. Now that it was made obvious to him, none of the [Rune Shard]s looked like the other one. Each was unique and strange in their own way. Kind of like snowflakes.

  He shrugged his shoulders.

  More loot never hurt anyone, especially if he was the one acquiring said loot. He had enough [Rune Shard]s that he could level up once more. It was a good feeling to have options and the possibility to make decisions whether right or wrong. Having lived a dead constant rhythm and rhyme life, these minor things felt heavenly. William considered using them this instant to add another level, but decided against it just in case. Maybe he found another [Skill Shard] at the (F+) rank or maybe got lucky enough to find something special. He doubted it, but the hope was still there.

  The moment he found another foe he would use the [Rune Shard]s to level up to give himself the best chance possible, until then it was good to be patient.

  William left the cell and continued down towards the intersection. He stuck to the left walls tightly the entire time in hopes to not get lost if this was a labyrinth or maze. That was a dangerous possibility he needed to account for as well. Being stuck inside of this place for months without food or water would be a more brutal death than dying in the hands of a monster. The path kept winding left and right without anything new until he happened upon a few locked doors that he tried to open but could not. They were all locked from the inside. Wooden doors that did not seem like they would budge even if he made an attempt to break them down.

  It wasn't until he found a kitchen that he located any door that could be swung open.

  He cringed as it screamed, creaked, and shrieked like there was no tomorrow. If there was anything indoors or inside, it would have noticed him and prepared a counter attack to his lacking skills and the workings of ancient hinges. There was no chance for subtlety or anything close to sneaking into the room. William prepared himself for battle, just in case there was something in there.

  The tension in his limbs melted away when he surveyed the kitchen. There were no monsters, just tables and chairs, a pantry with a broken door hanging on a single hinge at the bottom, and a dozen drawers to the other side. He went towards the pantry in hopes that there was any extra food he could add to his small source of meals he had gained from the system as a reward. There were only five days in total within his inventory. William could not find anything satisfactory, just dust and cobwebs.

  The drawers that lined the other side of the kitchen were filled with pots, pans, ladles, spoons and a lot of other pieces of metal that he could have taken with him.

  William would have looted the entire place from bottom to top if he had full access to his inventory. Alas, he had only a quarter of his original, twenty seven percent to be exact. The system never did explain how much that was. It did little of that actually.

  He ended up taking the most essential parts that he could think of; One pot, one pan, one ladle, one bowl and one spoon. There were knives that looked usable, but he decided against taking any of them. They weren't throwing knives, and he didn't plan to get that close to cut any monster with what he considered as an inefficient blade for stabbing or slashing. Either way, he preferred longer distance management weapons. More space for mistakes and separation. He did not want to get close enough to be grabbed by anything if he could help it. While the looping ability was available to him, dying was not a pleasant thing, more so when he was being torn apart into shreds.

  Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  Otherwise, he picked up nothing else in the room. It pained his heart to leave so much loot just sitting there untouched. Maybe he could return to it if he ever came back in this direction. It just felt wrong.

  Loot Found! -

  1 Ordinary Pot

  1 Ordinary Pan

  1 Ordinary Ladle

  1 Ordinary Bowl

  1 Ordinary Spoon

  William continued his search of the leftmost side of the intersection. There were other cells that were without any gate, a couple of rooms that were empty, and even a large hall with nothing but dust and a distant small window that let in clean air into the area. He was thankful for them, he did not want to end up suffocating due to a lack of oxygen. There was nothing in any of the areas he explored until he happened to come near the very end of the entire left side of the intersection. Right before he would have needed to return back and explore the other area.

  There he found a slightly cracked door and nothing else. William peeked in and noticed what had to once have been an armory. Within it was a stash of weapons, though most of them looked rusted and beat down like his original blade. They were all trash and he was not about to pick any of them. He entered and explored a bit, checking through the piles of ruined weaponry. There wasn’t much there, though he did find a couple of swords that were Imperial Standard, the exact copies of the one he had. He grabbed both and put them in his inventory.

  They would be good replacements in case his own sword broke, or if he needed to, he could sell them for food, water, or any other resource that he needed, he was sure. Any blade or weapon that provided them with stat points would be worth a lot when he eventually returned back to earth. Hopefully in time before the advancement in technology pushed them further along, whether it was through engraving or inscription, to eventually reach that stage.

  Loot Found! -

  2 Guardsman Enhanced Swords (Imperial Standard)

  William paused as he considered what he should do next. Should he continue to explore empty rooms and hope he found something or the other, or if he should attempt to go where the Corrupted Guardsman had been activated from. He shook his head. He was already in the area, the other side should not be that much larger than this one.

  He considered breaking down the locked doors that he couldn't access on his way back, but ended up deciding against it for multiple reasons. The primary one was due to the loud noise and potential of another Corrupted Guardsman being in there waiting to ambush him. He did not want to search all the cells and halls again after dying when stumbling face first into a hacking, slashing, death dealing monster that would end up decapitating him.

  There is also the possibility that he wouldn't be able to break it down anyway. If the torches were anything of an indication at the sturdiness of things around here, then he had no hopes at all. He made another attempt at breaking one of the flickering flames off the wall just in case he had grown strong enough with this increase in stat points. He failed miserably once more.

  It took a quarter of the time exploring to return himself back at the first intersection just before the bended to his cell. He cleared the entire area and found a little bit of loot, which was great. Who didn't love loot? William sure did. He was not about to be ungrateful at the new weapons, kitchen items, and blades he had gotten without any hassle at all. No monster to accost him or anything else.

  William pushed on towards the right side of the intersection, sticking to the opposite wall of his previous plan. He explored the one area that he had not checked yet. The entire path, including multiple bends, were filled with either empty cells or others that were with dead occupants. Nothing alive. He poked a few to get a reaction before resolving himself to decapitate every corpse. None of them moved, nor did they suddenly jump in an attempt to catch him off guard. Yet, William did not care. There was no way he would allow himself to get ambushed another time.

  He had died twenty some odd times to that very same tactic.

  It was an insult to himself if he allowed it to happen again.

  William could return to being idealistic once he was strong enough to defend himself from them. When everything became mobs he could swipe away by the dozens, then he could worry about the morality of cutting dead bodies apart to prevent them from becoming corrupted versions of themselves and trying to take his life in the process like the Guardsman.

  He was on the twelfth corpse that he just finished his gruesome task on—

  “Shakil ar vit Larm it narp—”

  System Language Adjustment -

  Learned to decipher New Common (Balfiemethian)

  It happened faster than he could react. Both the voice and the system notification. William started, jumping in his spot. He pulled his blade out and shield, whipping his head around towards the deep masculine voice that seemed to rumble from within the owner's chest.

  “—think to see a sane, whole, thoughtful individual that so happens to enjoy defiling corpses.”

  William got into a prepared stance for battle. He snapped his head left and right to find the owner of the voice that was speaking to him. The darkness of the shadows seemed to grow more pressing the longer he failed to find them. He took a few steps back. Placing his back onto a wall to prevent anyone from backstabbing him. Was the person invisible? Or were they hiding in one of the later cells?

  “Clearly not military or learned of any battle art. Yet armored in full Imperial regalia. Such an odd person to find snooping in the heart of the once mighty city of Balfiemeth.”

  William watched as an old thing stepped towards the light from its cell a few gates down. Just out of his direct line of sight. His eyes widened as he noticed faded red skin, but otherwise very human being. An ancient man made himself clear in the light of the torch. Large white eyes, a white beard, and a bigger nose. Wearing rags for clothes, but corded and looked like he was carved out of stone.

  The system dinged him again.

  Congratulations! -

  Safe Zone Found

  Code BLACK (Loop) System re-Location Adjustment

  “Oh?” The red skinned senior said as he tilted his head back and forth. Studying William as though he was a new person entirely. “You definitely are not meant to be here. So low leveled, you couldn’t have made it past level five yet. You couldn't have gotten to me if you arrived on this…?. But you are…? I see. I see.” The old person's face morphed, eyes widening and mouth opening slightly. He began to shake his head as a remorseful look filled his expressions. “Another world, forced into the slaughterhouse, I guess. Tell me, stranger doing quite strange things: What brings you to a [Dungeon World] that you have no hope of ever surviving?”

  “Dungeon World?” William said, he had no clue what the man was saying.

  He never had a tutorial to teach him the basics. Thrust into the horrific place without any source of assistance or help.

  “Oh? Oh! Oh, you are so screwed. So screwed. Haven't you analyzed everything around you yet? How the hell did you end up so deep without having a clue where—”

  “I can't use analyze. The syst—”

  The red skinned man raised a calloused hand with thick fingers, silencing William. His face was dead serious. William took a couple steps back. He knew without a shadow of doubt in his mind that he had no chance of surviving an encounter with this person, if it ever came to it. He just hoped that the system was correct in this place being a safe zone for him. Otherwise he was as screwed as the old man made it seem like.

  “You, newly initiated being, are a ball of unraveling mysteries. Strangeness, one after another happens to appear before me. Thousands of years have I been in decrepit solitude of my own choosing. A thousand more have I forsaken my past and its horrors. Yet here you are standing before me, a newly initiated being that could not have arrived here through your own strength. This is not coincidence, young man. This is not chance. Not when there are a trillion, trillion stars and planets in the universe. This was intentional. I do wonder who would have enough access to the system to throw you my way. A trap maybe? Make me grow to love you as a disciple only to rip my heart out with your death?”

  William watched as the man tapped his chin dramatically. His face morphed into a serious, thinking, and focused expression. Only for the old man to break into hearty, boisterous laughter, slapping his thighs, holding his belly, and struggling not to tumble on the ground. Only holding the cell bars prevented him from falling face first into solid stone. William did not know what the hell he was supposed to do or say.

  “A conspiracy, then?” the old man said in between breaths, wiping the tears from his eyes, and struggling to keep a straight face.

  William had no clue where the joke was supposed to be. “Not sure what to tell you old man, but I was thrown into and given a syst—”

  “Don't ever say it's detestable pseudonym child. You will attract its attention. Forces beyond your understanding will be sent out to kill you. Not for any fault of your own, but rather, just for your proximity near me. Strange man with strange powers with the express purpose of keeping the status quo. If my theory is correct. You would be murdered the second they find you, quicker still if they get a chance to discover that you have a broken status. The liabilities and cheats that you may have gained are beyond what I can guess at the moment. There are too many possibilities. Many too dangerous to keep you alive if the detestable one plans to keep its reign intact.”

  William stared at the old man with wide eyes. Unable to figure out what the hell was going on and what it had to do with him. He had tripped into a portal face first and was thrust with a strange system without any explanation. Not that he would have done things differently had he known. Living in potential danger was already a given fact after having died so many times already.

  Having another nearly impossible to defeat foe to contend with did not seem so overwhelming anymore.

  The red skinned old man spoke as he approached closer. “What’s your name, son? We are now stuck together for some time, at least until I grow bored of you or, more likely, when you die prematurely considering the lowest level trash here is above level thirty.”

  “My name?” William considered himself for a few seconds. He was no longer the same William he had been before arriving here. His identity was different. “My name is William.”

  “Just William? No last name?”

  He shook his head negative. He was nothing but William now. The rest would be carved out through his own actions and hundreds of deaths he expected.

  “You are a strange man, William with no last name. So very strange.”