A way up
One thing was clear to him by now.
Something major happened to him.
He didn't know how, but he could remember stories he read and games he played.
Things like light-screens popping up out of nowhere, Quests and even his surroundings with Runes on the floor of his prison and those eerie torches, were like some fantasy-game.
Those annoying isekai-novels and some of his favorite online-games came to his mind.
What the hell did happen to him?
And why didn't he remember?
Those questions couldn't be answered standing naked in some cold passage, so he cleared his mind again and pushed them to the back of his mind.
He turned to the right and walked towards the stairs.
After quite some Steps, he reached the top of the stairs.
The heavy looking iron door was closed so he listening for some noise from the other side. Not hearing anything, he reached for the handle in hopes the door wasn't locked, an pushed it down.
The door screeched loud as he pulled it open.
Behind the Door was another Hallway with stonewalls and five doors to each side, as far as he could see.
At the other end he could see another staircase turning upwards to the right after some stairs.
Watching the doors carefully he sneaked forward.
The doors were open except the two last ones.
And then he heard some scratching from the right-first door. It sounded like an animal.
As he closed in on the door and took a peek inside, he saw it.
It was a rat.
Some kind of dog-sized, skinny rat.
And of course it sensed him.
Instead of fleeing, this one turned around and charged him.
In panic he jumped back but in the blink of an eye the rat was before his shin and tried to bite his stressed left leg.
Out of instinct he kicked it with his right leg as hard as he could.
The rat-ball hurled towards the opposite Wall just to smash on it and blast.
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killed 1 Skeever
15 XP
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He had no idea how or what happened.
It seemed one kick was enough to kill a dog-sized animal.
Thinking about Games, he was sure this only applied to some low-level creatures.
And he had to assume being in some kind of game as he just now got a notification saying he gained 15 experience-points.
A little less anxious, he went to inspect the next cells.
He seemed to have been locked in some Dungeon as the chains on the walls indicated. He did try to open the two closed doors but they were locked, as he had expected.
Going up the Stairs, turning right two times he entered a large room with a single pillar in the center.
He could only assume it to be a torture chamber seeing the mounted devices and tools.
On the right wall he spotted another passage. To the front was another door and in the left rear corner was a big cage, reaching until the pillar. Inside the cage he could see two skeletons lying on the ground.
Another one could be found in a cylindrical hanging Cage to his right.
He scanned the room for anything usable, be it clothing or a weapon.
And he found just what he was looking for.
On a shelf in the left rear corner he could see some cloth, presumably linen and a big hammer on the table next to it.
Slowly, he sneaked towards the corner, always peeking to the open passage to his right. To his surprise and relief nothing happened.
As he closed in on the shut door, he could hear scratching noises behind, presumably another skeever behind the door.
He quickly put the linenrags he found on and took some bandages and a small rusted knife in a bag he also found on the shelve and desk. Picking up the hammer he went to the door, ready to smack whatever was behind that door.
It was locked.
Glancing towards the open passage on his now left, he noticed bloody dragging tracks. Collecting what little spirit was left, he sneaked toward said passage.
This passage led to more prison cells and turned to the left.
On the right stonwall he could see lattice gates, leading to small, mostly empty cell rooms. Only two held a skeleton each.
The leftmost was a big cage again, holding about half a dozen skeletons.
In the outer corner, in the turn left, he saw the only metal door. It looked quite heavy and he thought he could hear clattering noises behind it. Of course he had not plan to find out whatever was behind said door.
Swiftly sneaking towards the door at the end of the passage, he kept his vigilance up. Reaching the door he gripped the handle, pushed it and pulled the door open.
Slipping to the door as fast as he could, he found himself back in complete darkness.
Hearing multiple scratching noises quickly approaching from either side, he knew he fucked up.
High on adrenaline he jumped back through the door inside the torchlit prison block.
As the door crashed open three skeevers rushed for him.
The first one jumped towards him giving no chance for a kick. With a wide swing from the right he hit its flank with his new hammer.
The Skeever was hurled towards the cage on his left side.
It squeaked as it crashed into the iron lattice, but neither did it splatter like the first one, nor did some Notification pop up.
Not giving him any time to think about the initial attack, both other skeevers arrived at his location.
He was in a awkward position after his unskillful first swing.
Reacting to the skeever lunging for his legs, he turned his body rightwards to kick it with his left leg.
A stinging pain assaulted his shin as the skeever was shot through the wide open door like a bullet.
He had kicked it right inside it's wide open maw.
______________________
killed 1 Skeever
15 XP
______________________
Glad that he got rid of at least one of his enemies, he was also annoyed by the notification before his eyes. It would only block his vision in a fight.
And right he was.
Jumping through the notice that blocked his vision, the next skeever attacked. Defending himself he raised his right arm holding the hammer.
Pain shot through his lower arm as the beast bit into it.
The handle of the hammer parallel to his arm was protecting him from a deeper wound.
Having no chance to reach for the closing button on the window blocking his vision he cussed and wished for it to vanish.
And it did.
It quickly faded away leaving him with his original view.
Right on time to see the fist attacker of the bunch getting up and rush towards him.
With his free left hand he reached for the then still biting skeevers tail.
Not daring to touch the clawed limbs he pulled on the tail. Lucky for him the skeever lost his bite.
Spinning the skeever by its tail one full circle, he aimed to smack it on the last of his enemys.
With a bursting noise the two skeevers turned into meatpaste.
______________________
killed 1 Skeever
15 XP
______________________
______________________
killed 1 Skeever
25 XP
______________________
This time he immediately wished the windows to vanish.
As he could see unhindered again he took a peek on his fresh wounds.
Inspecting his arm he could see the bitemarks closing visible to the naked eye.
The pain had also strangely subsided.
He still took one of the bandages and wrapped it around his right arm.
His leg seemed unharmed, so he picked up the hammer he dropped and went to the Wall to take one of the torches from its stand. Those ones had a more normal looking, but still cool flame.
Back in the dark hallway, he turned to the right side.
After some steps he could see the end of the passage and a slightly open door on the right side. Not daring to get attacked from the back he peeked through the gap. He saw a cave-like wide room with a roof high columbarium, stretching from his left all the way to the rear right corner. Bones and linen-scraps lay on the floor. The skeevers seemed to have done quite the job.
Turning around he walked down the hallway. Passing a big closed door, diagonally opposite to the one he entered through, he arrived at a left corner.
Straight ahead was a lattice gate and a rough walled passage leading slightly downwards.
Around the corner he could see a heavy door. It looked like the one from the torture chamber.
Next to it on the right side was another heavy door. Both were locked, so he turned back.
On his way back he checked the lattice gate, which was also shut tight.
Arriving back at the big door he pushed it, in hopes it would open.
Luck was on his side as the double-door swung open and he saw the spacious, round hall behind it. Pillars forming a circle with a diameter of over 20 feet supported a gallery. Strange altars where placed in each space between the pillars and he could see gourds on the ground and a drainage in the middle.
Skeletons of different sizes lay on the altars.
As he saw none of them wearing a single piece of cloth they might have been offerings.
Above each of the Offerings, he saw a strange crystal mounted in the ceiling and one really big crystal hanging above the drainage in the middle.
It was affixed to the ceiling at one end but supported by a metallic ring, hung on four chains from the ceiling.
As he walked in and his hands left the doors they swung back and closed with a bang.
He immediately turned around and saw the door neatly fit in the wall, not even having a handle.
Of course there were no other doors except the one he came through.
Once again he inspected his surroundings and noticed the flame of his torch having turned to the same blue he saw at the first ones.
The torches mounted on the pillars had the same flame.
Finding no staircase for the gallery, there had to be another entrance.