AH -CH3- (Patreon)

“Ah, the little brat’s awake,” a shadowed man said from the doorway.

Another silhouette passed in front of the first one to come over to Rene.

He couldn’t quite make out details as the light from the hallway was doing a fair job of blinding him. He’d been in the dark too long for any type of light to do much good for him.

“Behave. Don’t do anything stupid,” hissed the man. Reaching behind Rene the man cut his bonds and then turned and walked back out without another word for Rene. “Feed him, give him water, and a pot to shit in.”

The first grumbled and did as instructed, setting down a plank in front of Rene. A loaf of bread and a canteen of water were dropped unceremoniously on the wood. 

Rene said nothing, acting the part of a fear stricken young man and waited for the man to leave.

The man threw a metal pot that clanged and bounced across the stones to settle in the corner before exiting the room.

Standing smoothly Rene immediately went to the door as stealthily as he could and checked the handle, the lock, and the hinges. He needed to know what he was working with.

Each was rusty and seemed brittle to Rene. They didn’t seem old, just not cared for. The hardware were all victims of the moisture and inattention that seemed to plague wherever he was.

This wasn’t made to be a cell. It was converted. Look there, the hinges are simple pins. We could have them out in under ten minutes with that canteen. Well, if we flatten it and turn it into a prybar.

“Well aren’t you accommodating today,” Rene fingered the hinges and found them to be exactly as the voice had said.

Course. We’re without the need to feed, to slake our thirst of blood, the ache of to taste the red flood.

“Still crazy, though,” Rene muttered, pressing an eye to the keyhole. It was a silly thing to do but he might see something.

Says the guy talking to himself. Didn’t you hear the god? I are you, you are me. We are we.

“Then stop rhyming. It’s annoying,” Rene sighed and crept back to the loaf of bread. He hadn’t seen anything other than a hallway but he didn’t want to give the impression to his keepers that he was mobile.

Your skill in Sneaking has increased (2)

Rene stopped moving and stared at the message that had popped up in the corner of his screen.

Video game indeed.

“Right?” Rene whispered. Moving again Rene began walking in circles around the room.

Your skill in Sneaking has increased (3)

Your skill in Sneaking has increased (4)

Your skill in Sneaking has increased (5)

Pausing again Rene mentally focused on the word “sneaking.” Then a window popped up in front of him. Reminding him of his previous life and when the Internet first came about. When pop-ups would flood you without warning.

Sneak: The ability to escape detection.

“Huh. Do I have a skill list?” Rene asked aloud.

No sooner than he finished asking then a single line window popped up.

Sneak: 5

“So, I guess this is what he meant.”

Apparently.

Rene sat down in front of the board and picked up the loaf of bread. Pulling off a chunk he focused on the colored bars in the top left of his vision.

Health: 100/100

Energy: 100/100

Stamina: 100/100

Frowning he looked to the three icons below that as he chewed up the mouthful of bread.

Lightly Wounded

Hungry

Thirsty

Swallowing he lifted up the canteen and washed the bread down. Both the Hungry and Thirsty icons fell off. Focusing on the Lightly Wounded icon by itself he concentrated on it.

After a second a window popped up.

Lightly Wounded: Currently suffering from minor injuries. This condition will clear in 2 hours and 37 minutes.

Spiffy.

Yes.

Handy and dandy and ever splendid it seems we’ll be quite easily mended.

A strange and odd change, to be sure. From human to video game, a fantasy pure.

Rene glared at the bread and water in contemplation. He hated hearing the monster but it wasn’t wrong.

He’d played video games in his youth. They’d help curb his mind at times. From what he could tell this seemed like it was lining up with more one of the old style RPG’s than anything.

Like something out of a bad TV-show.

“Inventory?” Rene asked aloud.

Then an inventory screen opened in front of him. Next to that was an avatar of himself.

Every small box of his inventory was empty and the clothes on the avatar was listed as “rags.”

Picking up the bread he pushed it into one of the boxes. It vanished from his hand appeared in the window instead.

Picking up the water he did the same thing and had the same result. Both the bread and water were now in the inventory pane.

Rene highlighted them with a thought.

Bread: Consume to restore Health, Energy, Mana, and Stamina. Four more uses.

Water: Consume to restore Health, Energy, Mana, and Stamina. Four more uses.

Rene briefly considered taking the piss pot and adding it to his inventory but decided against it.

Going through his options he was left with few that offered him much of anything worth while. His best bet was to work on the door.

Walking over to the chamber-pot he picked it up and flipped it over. Wrinkling his nose he inspected it as carefully as he could while touching it as little as he had to.

Chamber Pot: Use to provide status boost: Relieved.

Putting it on the ground Rene pressed on it with his unshod feet. The metal creaked and buckled, folding in on itself.

Rene grimaced at the noise but figured it was worth it. Picking up the crumpled metal he started to work it into a flat piece of steel, no wider than two of his fingers and as long as his forearm. Bending, folding, and snapping pieces off as he went.

When he reached the size he wanted, he began to work the front end of the ugly chunk of metal back and forth across the bricks.

Ten minutes later he held up the nasty looking thing with a sigh.

“Only as good as your tools…”

Your skill in Crafting(General) has increased (1)

Your skill in Crafting(General) has increased (2)

Your skill in Crafting(General) has increased (3)

Your skill in Analyze has increased (1)

You’ve created a Long Handled Shiv

Item Name: Long Handled Shiv

Description: Forged from a chamber pot, this crude weapon could kill. Especially if you used it to cut your food with.

Damage: 3-10

Functions-

None: 

Attributes-

None: 

Pushing the disgusting thing into a slot between the bricks in the floor he leaned on it heavily one way, then pulled it back the other. Stressing the metal.

With a pop the back two thirds of the shiv broke off. 

Your skill in Crafting(General) has increased (4)

You’ve created a Shiv

Picking up the other piece he folded it once over and then flatted it against the bricks.

He’d use this for his pry bar. To slide the pins loose from the hinges and prepare his trap.

Moving to the door he pressed the rear of the shiv into the bottom of the pin, and then slipped the pry bar into the top.

With a single shove the pin came out cleanly. Catching it before it could hit the floor Rene flung it into his inventory screen.

Moving down along the door, Rene popped the other two pins free without an issue, flicking them into his window as well.

The torch. Put out the light, so we might put out their lights. In the dark we thrive; our shiv into the mark’s eye.

“Do you have to rhyme?” Rene asked as he pulled the very long and odd looking torch from the wall. He considered snuffing it against the ground before simply shoving it into his inventory.

We enjoy the sound of a rhyme, for it was once a game. We played it to pass the time, when we were punished by the dame.

Rene froze in place at the thought that dredged up. Locked in a cupboard for hours with nothing but his thoughts. Darkness and quiet, alone in the dark.

Shaking himself free of the quagmire of those long dead memories he moved to the door.

Pressing his back to the stones he felt his mind slither into a corner. It coiled itself up and prepared his body for the inevitable strike.

It’d be swift and sure.

Soon we’ll dirty our hands once more. To stain our clean soul forevermore. What of the god, that nasty man. Would he condone this, such a bloody plan?

Rene pressed his lips into a grim line and ignored the voice. Mostly because it was right. His plan was straight forward. Murder whoever came to check on him, and get out.

Was killing a kidnapper good or evil?

Letting his mind turn that thought over and over, he retreated into his head. Letting his thoughts slowly turn inward even as he remained poised to strike.

Your skill in Meditation has increased (1)

Your skill in Meditation has increased (2)

Your skill in Meditation has increased (3)

Your skill in Meditation has increased (4)

Snapping out of his reverie he could hear someone on the other side of the door.

For all intents and purposes, the door would appear as if nothing were wrong. Until you pushed on it to open it. At which point, he hoped it would fall inward, into the cell.

All he needed was a second.

The door creaked and the handle turned. The interlocking brackets of the hinge kept the door in place for a second before the whole thing tumbled forward away from Rene’s guest.

Following the door in, having been leaning against it to push it open, was a man in dark clothing.

Tumbling to his knees the man dropped a platter that clattered to one side.

Rene leapt forward toward the back of the man. He slammed his knee into the base of the mans skull and lifted his chin up with a jerk. Rene felt no resistance in the man, his knee having rung his bell quite firmly.

With his right hand he drove the shiv home into the mans throat and ripped it to the side, leaving a jagged fleshy mess of his neck that was anything but clean.

Your skill in Daggers has increased (1)

Your skill in Hand to Hand has increased (1)

You’ve developed the Throat Slash ability

Your skill in Throat Slash has increased (1)

His Glauca wouldn’t be this messy.

The body dropped to the ground and a torrential red flood spread out quickly. 

No appetite to whet, no driving need. I’ll take the regret, you handle the deed.

That is my job as it ever was, my duty and desire to support the cause.

Escape. Retreat. Plan.

Rene couldn’t disagree or hesitate now. He needed to be done with this place. He needed to break contact, regroup, and redeploy.

Exactly like the monster said.

Looking down to the corpse, Rene considered checking his pockets for the keys.

A small glowing window popped up before Rene, startling him.

Inside of that window looked like a small inventory square. And in it was everything the dead man had on him.

Including his clothes.

Not really sure about that. Would we just steal his clothes without undressing him?

Tapping the “loot all” button in the corner Rene then opened his inventory. Everything had been transfered into his own inventory.

Leaving a very naked dead man on the ground.

Standing up Rene looked at the platter the man had been carrying. Food and water much like what he’d been given earlier.

Picking up both items he pushed them into his inventory. Then the platter as afterward as he peered into the hallway beyond the doorway.

They’d have heard that, when the door fell flat.

“Yes. Yes. What would a young nobleman do? Ah,” Rene slid to the wall and pressed up against it again. Cupping a hand around his mouth he called into the hallway.

“Help! The door broke and he’s been injured! Help!” Sinking low in his crouch Rene felt the tension in his lower body.

“What happened?” called a voice back to him.

“Help!” Rene responded unhelpfully.

“I swear I don’t know what happened but I’ll-what the fuck?” Hurried footsteps filled Rene’s cell as the man came closer.

Reaching the naked corpse the newcomer bent down to check him.

In that moment, Rene launched himself at the man, his knee catching him in the jaw. Blown to the side with the force of the attack the man’s head bounced off the door frame with a clunk before collapsing as if he were boneless.

Your skill in Hand to Hand has increased (2)

Landing atop the man Rene considered letting him live.

An enemy left behind, is destiny pressed and signed. Kill him.

Rene grunted, he couldn’t disagree. Anyone left alive would only be a problem for him down the road.

Pressing the shiv to the mans throat he made a quick slit from one side to the other. To make sure there was no waking to this situation, which he felt would be a small mercy for the man, Rene lifted the man’s head and bashed the back of it into the stones.

Your skill in Daggers has increased (2)

Your skill in Hand to Hand has increased (3)

Another loot window flashed before him and Rene emptied it exactly the same as he had the previous one.

“Hope that god isn’t watching,” Rene crouched low and entered the hallway.

Covering his eyes with one hand he approached the only light he could see ahead of him.

Pulling the oddly long torch off the wall as he passed he pushed it into his inventory, dropping this area into darkness as well.

Moving ahead he reached the end of the corridor. It split into a T-intersection to the left and the right. Peering around one way and then th eother he found no one, except more doors and torches.

I wonder if the torches are long so they burn for longer.

Like candles.

Your skill in Sneaking has increased (6)

Rene couldn’t feel any of his senses screaming out to him at the moment.

His instincts. The only thing that’d kept him alive through more encounters than he wanted. The primal beast that lived in his mind was needed for times like this.

Entering the intersection he ghosted to the left and moved down it towards the doors. The one on the left ran parallel to his cell, which meant it was probably another cell. The door on the right was on a separate wall.

Probably the exit.

Checking the handle with a light touch he found it unlocked. Further down this hallway was a door on the right.

Pursing his lips in thought Rene eventually decided to clear the building. There was no telling where he was and at this point, he could use any and every resource. Those taken from rapidly cooling bodies would be ideal right now as it was likely to be intelligence gathering at the same time.

A two for one sale only for today; so come on down to the jail without delay.

Swinging the door open with ease he kept it smooth and flowing. He couldn’t feel anyone in there even before the door fully opened though.

It felt empty.

Your skill in Awareness has increased (1)

Though behind the door at the end of this hall he could feel something. Or someone.

A tickling sensation at the back of his neck. Moving down this new hall quickly he took the torch as he did so. There was no reason to leave light for anyone.

Your skill in Sneaking has increased (7)

Your skill in Awareness has increased (2)

Reaching the next room, he could feel someone inside. In fact, he didn’t need his senses to know they were there.

The inhabitant was rather obvious. Rene heard soft sobs and quiet sniffles.

Rene felt his heart lurch at the thought that it could be his sister. With a breath caught in his lungs he fumbled with his inventory and pulled out a keyring that he’d looted from one of the kidnappers.

Sticking each key in and giving it a twist he tried to open the door. Eventually one of the keys worked and the lock popped open. Then the door creaked inward.

Light from the cell spilled into the darkened hallway, blinding Rene.

“Stay back! I’ll k-kill myself. You’ll not sully me.” Came the brave and shaking voice.

Unable to see clearly with the torch light blinding him Rene squinted into the cell.

Sitting in the corner sat a young woman. Rene knew it wasn’t his sister immediately.

Wrong build, body type, not the same hair, voice isn’t her. It’s not her.

Turning away from the cell Rene glided back down the other way. Entering the intersecting hallway again he moved to the other side and then performed the same function for the third cell.

This one however was empty and looked like it hadn’t been used recently.

Last was a door that could only lead out. There were no other exits that he could determine, and no other doors.

Thankfully the woman in the other cell hadn’t left it. He didn’t really want to deal with her. Deal with whoever she was, why she was here, or being responsible for her.

Pressing his ear to the only door left, he listened.

He heard not a sound.

Setting his eye to the keyhole he peeked through.

Darkness and nothing visible to the naked eye.

Opening the door and entering the room he shut it behind himself as quietly as he could manage. Looking around he found that the room seemed more like a common room. It had the look of a break room, or a waiting room, in fact.

Simple table, battered chairs clustered around it. A low counter top on one side with food in various stages of being devoured.

Passing the counter top Rene analyzed each item and selected things that had been untouched. Everything he selected was tossed into his inventory window he was holding up with his other hand.

It was as easy as if it were throwing things into a shopping cart.

He’d moved the inventory window with a thought and casually flicked items in, leaving nothing of value behind that was worthwhile.

Food, utensils, bowls, anything that could be used later or sold went into his magical inventory window.

If I was a thief, this’d be as easy as going out for a grocery trip.

Your Analyze skill has been upgraded to include Appraisal.

Your skill in Analyze has increased (2)

Your skill in Analyze has increased (3)

Exiting without making a sound, Rene ghosted into an adjoining room. A man slept on a cot fitfully, otherwise there was little of note.

Your skill in Sneaking has increased (8)

Creeping up to the sleeping man Rene actually felt torn. He didn’t actually want to kill this man, but he felt he had no choice.

This karma problem is rough, noxious and… ugh.

We have to kill him. We can’t leave him.

His monster almost sounded tired. Drawn out.

Rene chewed at the inside of his cheek and then did what he had to do.

Reaching forward he grabbed the man’s head. With a quick jerk Rene slammed his knee into the man’s temple twice.

Your skill in Hand to Hand has increased (4)

Rene then drove the shiv into the unconscious man’s neck. Twisting the hilt he made sure to sever everything and then pulled the blanket up over the man’s head.

Accepting the loot he began to empty the room of anything useful, or worth a coin.

With only one door left to him Rene listened for a moment with his ear pressed to the door. Then opened it and stepped in.

Or out, as it were. He found himself standing in the middle of a stone street.

Glancing around he did what he could to memorize this building, the landmarks nearby, and the feeling of the area.

Knowledge was power, and knowing this building belonged to the wrong people could be useful.

There was little he could use to determine where he was in the broad sense of the idea but even now Rene knew he wasn’t in Laetus.

True night would be coming soon he guessed from the sky above It looked like it was late evening right now.

And it was getting darker by the second.

Deciding to find a place to hunker down for a bit he turned left and moved down the street, keeping to himself. He’d have to get out of the city first light tomorrow.

First he had to get far from this place. Break contact completely. Then settle in somewhere and regroup, count his resources, and plan.

As he turned a corner he nearly missed a step with what he saw.

Floating above people’s heads was text. He had no idea how he hadn’t noticed it previously but he hadn’t.

The text seemed to be names. Names and titles.

Promising to look into it later, he felt ill at ease. His world was suddenly very different. It made him ask a lot of big questions that he didn’t want to.

For now, Rene avoided everyone, as at this point, everyone was an enemy.

Off to the side he spotted a large building in a different sector of the city. To his eyes it had similar architecture to the library back home.

A library would be a pretty good place to spend the night.

Providing he could get in unnoticed and remain hidden.

Sliding into a crouch Rene moved into the alleyways and made for the big gothic building.