17 The beginning of a new beginning

Arne scraped his bone hands against the floor dragging himself forward. Arne thought, "Those small green little shits sure as hell like crawling don't they?" It was pitch black, only the smell of shit and the walls lead him forward.

Shadow travelled through the tunnel a lot quicker than Arne. Arne felt his hands hit up against a wall. The tunnel split into two. He froze. He tried to gasp air. He didn't know what path Shadow took.

"Shadow!" He thought, but got no response.

"Shadow!" He shouted, but he got no response.

"+10Xp"

His bones began shaking. Shadow was fighting. He had to pick a direction. Left or right. Fuck! Why was this decision so hard. He focused and focused harder... his mind was blank. He was forced to make a decision, the most difficult decision he's ever made. Fuck! He didn't choose and stopped thinking, he crawled towards the left side.

He crawled quicker than before. He felt joy when the tunnel began opening up. He could eventually crawl on fours, and then he could walk with his back bent over. It was still pitch black, the walls were still the only thing leading him.

"+10 Xp"

"+ 10 Xp"

"Quest has been completed."

"Rewards are giv..:##!#!¤!¤#"

"Error!"

"Error!"

"Transportation to the under-world will begin in 3, 2, 1."

The world twisted around him. He heard himself being submerged deep in water, dragged out to the air, and beaten. The darkness was replaced by a faint yellow light. His back was no longer pressed up against the tunnel, he felt spacious.

"Pet too far away. Link has disappeared."

That feeling disappeared quickly. Arne received pushes and shoves, he looked around, noticed that he had to look up: They were tall. He stood in the middle of a street, they moved through it with the unrelenting flow of a river. Arne had never seen anything like it.

Giants with red horns, carrying heavy slabs of stone. Ugly, eye-wretching, witches floating high above, cockroaches the shape of a man collectively walking by. The sights caught his attention, made him stop thinking about Shadow.

He was pushed to the flow of the stream. He fit right in among the chaos of shapes, a human would draw more eyes than a skeleton. His head peered up. The clouds had been replaced by a stone ceiling covered by shining yellow vines.

Arne couldn't stop looking around. He was surrounded by creatures he'd only heard myths about. Creatures that were vastly dangerous. It felt like he was at a zoo, inside the enclosure with a group of wild dogs.

He heard a cacophony. Slime men's feet squishing against the slated red floor, huge mosquitos buzzing in the air, conversations of every sort happening all around him. Arne focused on the conversation closest to him.

"So Greg, are you excited?"

"Yeah man I am really excited."

"Yeah it's going to be fun, it's like starting a new chapter of our lives you know.

The under-world existed in another realm completely, it had gotten its name from after its underground like appearance. It was the home of all civilized monsters. Insanity and chaos was normal here.

Violence is the nature of the citizens here. The citizens here love the colosseum, it is by far the largest building. The citizens here all know how to be courteous and polite, if they didn't all hell would break loose, like it once had. The citizens here think strength is beauty.

The river froze. Arne had been too caught up in peering at the other creatures to realize that he was now stuck in a giant room. The murmuring died down, silence spread all over the room. A small man, with the head of a fly, stood on a platform in front of the crowd of creatures.

"Hello students! I am merry at the thought of new classes joining us at this prestigious academy. This will be a new chapter in your lives, and it will begin today. At this academy you will flesh yourselves out to become fuller and purer monsters!"

"I love the silence that comes with a new beginning. The nervous atmosphere, the curious gazes, for a lot of you this is an uneasy experience. This right here… is climbing out of your safe zones."

"Enough with the speech. Shortly, you will all be transported into your randomly assigned home classroom. You will meet your mentors, they will further explain your assignments and show you your own respective room. You will live, train, work, and love here for the next three years. Good luck"

Arne's reality twisted again. He heard himself being submerged beneath water, then a rhythmic beat increasing in tempo played. His head hurt and ached, a nail pierced the middle of his head. He wanted to bang his head against a wall.

Arne was in a new room. A smaller room. He was seated behind a table. In front of him, he saw other students, some of which looked silly seated behind a table. To some the table looked way too small and to others the table looked too large.

The teacher floated in the front of the classroom. He was a ghost. A covered in a white blanket, see through, black eyed ghost. Arne felt the teacher's gaze scan him. Arne would describe the teachers accent as incredibly douchey.

"Helloooo! My name is Midol. I have been working here for years and I will be your mentor." He floated through the students seated on the front row. They coughed after he floated through them.

"I am as you'd call it a ghost. I am the amalgamation of scaring the shit out of humans." The class gave him a small chuckle for that. He floated through Arne, he felt his mind go blank for a second. There was more to the teacher than fright.

"I will also teach you about different creatures. We will have one lesson together every single day, and once a week you'll meet me as your mentor. Today is the day you meet me as your mentor."