6 Preparation

As he looked through his house, he noticed they took everything that was not bigger than a chair and was of some value.

They ransacked his living room of his mother's china collection. His father's WW2 souvenir collection. They cleaned out the kitchen cupboards entirely and even managed to remove the built-in hot plate. His microwave was missing too.

He opened his fridge, and there was still food inside and some sodas. So he took one. He opened it up and checked the other rooms and with trepidation came to his workroom.

As he opened it he just let out a sigh and closed it again. It was completely empty except his chair and desk.

His two laptops. Digital camera. Workstation and three displays were gone. Also his NAS with backups of his projects.

Jack sat on the stairs with a soda can in his hands. He called the police and awaited the countdown. He wondered who will come first his insanity or the police officers.

As the police car parked in front of his car, Jack was already outside of his house sitting on the stairs and looking at his phone counting down the minutes until his insanity kicks in.

He had 14 minutes left. The officers asked him if he reported the break-in and Jack confirmed. They asked him to make a detailed list of what was stolen and if anything was especially distinguishable.

Jack could not think of a single thing besides his mom's jewelry. He found some photos of his mom wearing the stolen jewelry and gave it to them.

Soon another car with two technicians came to search for prints and other physical evidence.

As they passed Jack the scenery flashed and he was transported into his insanity or as we would call it the level two room.

It was not empty like the first one. There were a dagger and spear on the floor. Other than that it was the same as the first one except this one had two doors. On top of one was a sign that said level 1 and the other one had level 2 on it.

Jack had nothing except his clothes, so he first tried to go to level one. He passed the door smoothly and as he walked towards the first room he passed the two dead bodies.

In front of the first room, he stretched out his hand, and he was not blocked. He passed inside, and he could see the stuff he scavenged as he was passing level one littering the floor. He took two quick trips to bring everything to room number two.

He took a deep breath as he looked around on the scattered spears and daggers. Jack was not looking forward to going ahead through the door number two, but considering his experience in the first one, he was forced to go.

He left all the spears and the rest of the gear inside and walked out. It was still more of the same shrubbery only the trees, and the cliff seemed a bit more distant.

He walked forward, and suddenly the green kobold from before repeated the same movements as in the first room as if the author was too lazy to think of something new.

He quickly killed it by grabbing its spear turning it around and jamming it up his throat. As he pulled out the spear and the green blood started spewing from its throat, he swiftly turned around in anticipation of the shadow. To his surprise, there was no movement.

He crouched and took the dagger from the kobolds waistband and stuck it on his hip between his belt and pants. He moved a step forward, and suddenly three green kobolds appeared.

"I guess this time it's not speed but superior numbers," Jack thought.

Jack knew if he dealt with the middle one he would get pinched by the other two from both sides, so he moved laterally until the kobolds were in a neat row and charged towards them.

He was not big but compared to these kobolds he was a giant and had significantly longer reach and weight. As his spear pierced the first one in the stomach, he dodged to the side, and the other two rammed into the leader. All three of them were on the ground, and Jack was holding his spear which he pulled out when he dodged and impaled the closest one on the ground through his back to the ground.

As the last kobold picked himself up, he used the same straight spear poke tactic as the first one and Jack made short work of it.

He picked up their daggers but left the spears since he had enough of them. He just took one as a spear had a lot longer reach than the flimsy knife.

He walked ahead, and nothing happened, and he almost had a feeling of disappointment. He was slightly in disbelief how easy level two was compared to the first one.

He reached the door at the cliff, and he immediately walked through.

What greeted him was a floating sign saying Congratulations on passing level 2. Inspect awarded.

Exiting in 60 seconds. Commencing level 3 in 24 hours.