Emptiness. True nothing—the absence of light and darkness, of heat and cold, of matter and energy. This is what the doorway held.

  I was suspended in a place beyond places, a time beyond times. And it was there that I heard it. It was a voice… and yet not a voice. It was vast as the stars and quiet as scampering mouse. It encompassed the entirety of meaning all at once in two words.

  Welcome, my son.

  And then I was there.

  1st Floor: Basecamp

  The transportation between the outer world and the dungeon was instantaneous. It was though I had blinked and ended up in a completely different world. A bit disorienting, but what could I expect? It wasn’t as though I would walk through a dark corridor and stride triumphantly into the light of a glorious civilization, right?

  Right. Anyway, the view on the other side was not at all what I was expecting. Instead of tall buildings and skyscrapers, there were wooden shacks. Instead of cars there were carriages. Instead of people in business suits, there were people in armor.

  Ding

  That would be my system interface updating. I pulled it up to look at it, only to find a disappointingly empty screen. There was only my name and stat points to be found.

  Felix Bernadon(Lvl 0)

  Str 4

  Def 6

  Agi 4

  Hp 5

  Int 3

  Underneath that, there was a single disappointing line of text. I mean, I had expected it, but it still hurt to read.

  Reach level 10 to receive a class quest.

  Everyone knew you didn’t get to choose your own class, the system chose it for you. But it had to get to know you first. That is why the level ten requirement was there. It gave the system the chance to analyze you, your strengths, your weaknesses, and your character before deciding on a class. That class was always perfect for you, no matter what you thought of it. Your wishes were also taken into consideration by the system. It just disregarded them sometimes.

  I looked around for my new friends, but didn’t find them anywhere in sight. Had the system separated us somehow? Maybe.

  My musings were cut off by a quartet of people who approached me. They wore different colors of clothing, two white with blue stripes, and two with gold stars on a black background. They walked with a purpose, and kept a decent amount of space between the two sides.

  “Welcome, my friend.” The one on the far left, a man with the blue stripes. “We saw you appear just moments ago. How are you doing this fine evening?”

  Evening? I looked up in the sky and sure enough, it was evening out. That was a curiosity for sure. The dungeon had a different time schedule than the outside.

  “I’m alright, thank you.” I said. “I’m looking for Roland Gables. Have you seen him anywhere?”

  One of the gold star people shook shook their heads. “There hasn’t been anyone by that name around here today as far as I know.”

  I grumbled to myself. Stupid dungeon mechanics I didn’t know about. Now how was I supposed to learn anything about what gear I needed? He was the one with all the information.

  Putting on my best customer service face, I thanked them for the information and made to go around them. But when I did that, they closed around me in a semicircle.

  “I’m sorry, my friend,” the blue stripe guy said, “But we really need to ask your input on something.”

  I held up my hands. The best way to survive getting robbed was to comply with whatever the robber wanted you to do. So, I smiled. “What input could you possibly need from me? I’m brand new to this place, and I don’t know what’s what yet. And I don’t have any money on me.”

  One of the gold stars chuckled slightly. “Oh we don’t need money. We just need you to decide.”

  “Decide? Decide what?”

  The second blue stripe dude spoke up. “Why, decide which side of the war you’re on, of course. What else?”

  I put my arms out in that gesture people use for various different things such as feeling for walls in the darkness, doing push-ups, and inviting a professional boxer to shatter your arms. Or, you know, signaling your confusion.

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa, what? A war? Don’t we already have one going on outside? Why would there be one in here?”

  The second gold star dude spat in the dirt. I swear, why do people always send the big tough guys to do their the dirty work? It makes them look like thugs.

  Anyway, he spat in the dirt, then motioned to the two blue stripes. “These blue [Rude and inappropriate litany of names that we’ll just replace with ‘numskulls’] are trying to steal our artifact.”

  “How were we supposed to know it was yours? The thing was just sitting there out in the open for anyone to take. It wasn’t like there was a sign on it saying ‘Property of the Useless Space Boys.”

  “Only because we couldn’t touch it and were going back to fetch something to carry it in. And there were signs that we had been there, if you knew where to look.”

  I held up my hands to stop myself from getting the second headache of the day in the past half hour. “Alright, alright. It seems as though you both have a reasonable side in the dispute. So who has it at the moment?”

  The two sides glared, less daggers and more mountain sized javelins, at eachother before one of the gold stars said, “Neither of us. We can’t touch it, and we won’t let them get to it either.”

  “So which is it,” the first blue stripe guy asked, “The Royal Badgers or the Useless Space Boys?”

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  “That would be the Intrepid Explorers to you, boy.”

  I cleared my throat. “I choose neither. I’ll be on to the second floor and out of your hair in a few hours. Now, if you’ll let me by, please.”

  I was very much not in the mood to be mixed up in a squabble between two competing guilds. Especially not on my first day, nor my first level. That would be incredibly hazardous to my health. It would really suck to end up spitted on the wrong end of a sword. Not to mention painful.

  The second gold star smirked and slid a nasty looking dirk from his belt. It gleamed nastily in the waning light, like an evil tooth from some forgotten demon of carnage and blood-thirst.

  “You don’t get that choice, bucko,” he said, “Its war or death for you.”

  That was the last straw for me. I turned and ran as fast as I could in the exact opposite direction. It was startlingly easy, like I had just gained the abilities of a highschool track star. I veritably flew down the street with the wind at my back, barely avoiding tripping on the uneven cobbles. It was a glorious feeling, and I was getting away from them.

  That is until the violent gold star appeared in front of me.

  One second he was far behind me and I was leaving him in the dust. The next, he was standing five yards in front of me, dirk held loosely in his grip. Just how high was his level? The difference between the early levels was large, yes, but it shouldn’t have been that large, right? Right?

  I took a sharp right as the man laughed. It was a deep laugh with the slightest hint of sadistic madness hidden inside. You know, like every serial killer ever? This guy was crazy.

  The alley turned out to be the worst possible idea I could come up with. It was small and dark and completely unmaneuverable. So, when that madman appeared in front of me yet again, and the other gold star appeared behind me, I was stuck.

  A long second later, the two blue stripes stood side by side with the gold stars.

  Vicious, as I had taken to calling the guy with the dagger in my head, stepped forward. He walked up to me and gently tilted my head up using the tip of his knife. Our eyes met, and I unsuccessfully tried to keep myself from flinching at the half-crazed look in his gaze. It was downright creepy.

  He chuckled, malevolence dripping from his words as he drawled, “Waddaya say, boys, wanna let me have some fun with this one? I promise I won’t break him too much.

  I flinched again. I really, really needed to stop doing that. What was it with the involuntary fear reaction being to flinch backward? It was the worst possible move you could make, and it removed your ability to make decisions for the critical split second you were actually in danger.

  One of the blue stars stepped forward and examined my face. “This one’ll be useless in a fight. He just doesn’t have the training. Might as well let Dom have him. Any objections?

  The other two men shook their heads, and Vicious brought out a length of rope. He snapped it a few times, for dramatic effect, then pulled my arms together behind my back. I struggled, of course, but what was I supposed to do? These people were ten times faster than I was and ten times as strong. Before I could so much as yank one of my arms out of his grip, if at all possible, I was already trussed up like a pig. It happened that fast.

  Vicious, or Dom as his friends called him, tenderly stroked his knife down the center of my chest and belly, causing a shiver of fear to run down my spine. His half-cocked smile, his crazed eyes, his faster breathing, all added up to say that this person was not sane. Not by half. Maybe not even by quarter.

  “Where should I cut him first?” Vicious asked his friends, putting my torment up for the vote. In any other situation, perhaps in a movie or a book, I would have found this behavior extremely amusing.

  But now that I was on the receiving end of it, it was decidedly not funny.

  They argued among themselves as to whether my right ball or my spleen should go first, finally deciding on my spleen. Which, I had to admit, was a bit of a relief. I wasn’t ready to part with my masculinity just yet.

  Vicious brought his knife to my upper left belly, just beneath my floating rib, and began to slowly make an incision. It burned like the fires of hell itself, and I cried out in pain.

  “Is there something wrong here?” A voice called, causing the four guys harassing me to freeze.

  “Oh no. It’s that guy. Scram! Get out of here!”

  And all of a sudden, the alleyway was clear. It was just me, all trussed up and bleeding from a small cut in my body, and the guy who had spoken.

  The man in question was dressed in full quarter-inch thick plate armor with a massive broadsword slung over his shoulder. He wore no insignia, and there was something about the way he carried himself that caused me to relax. I don’t know why, but it did.

  He jogged over to me and knelt, pulling out a small carving knife and sawing away at the ropes. They took a few seconds to cut through, as the knife wasn’t as sharp as it could have been, but it was a relief for my wrists and ankles. They had already been feeling the lack of blood.

  “Are you alright?” He asked? “Did they hurt you?”

  I groaned softly, shook myself, and sat up. “Only a small cut. They had just started when you intervened. Thanks, by the way. You saved my spleen from a very unfortunate and early demise.”

  The man shook his head sadly. “Yeah, that boy’s like that. I would love to get rid of him, but I just don’t have enough evidence to prove that his actions warrant death. In this world, the strong rule. But I am the strongest here, and I do it by the book. Which means, I can’t string him up just yet.”

  “What about prison?”

  “Prison’s useless. All it does is preserve criminals in their current state until they are let out to work their mischief again. You’re better off putting them to work or fining them than locking them away in a den of fellow felons. And we have powers now. They’d just cut themselves out. Higher tier prisons are too expensive to maintain for long periods of time.”

  “Well, thanks—you know what, I forgot to ask your name.”

  The man smiled. “Name’s Matthew. Call me Matt. You?”

  “I’m Felix. Thanks Matt. I should probably be heading to floor two now. There isn’t much to do here on floor one as I don’t have any money on me.”

  He held his hand out to me and hoisted me to my feet. “Nice to meet you, Felix. By the way, did you check the floor quest yet? The dungeon gives a reward for completing the floor quest before continuing on up.”

  I hadn’t. I didn’t know that was a thing. But I pulled up the quests tab on my interface. Sure enough, there was the floor quest. It wasn’t a hard one either.

  Floor Quest: Kill your first monster.

  That was a fairly simple quest, easy to complete. If it weren’t for the people keeping the first floor mostly clear of monsters. At least, that’s what Roland had told me.

  “Do you know where I can find a monster on this floor?” I asked Matt.

  Matt shrugged. “Just go to the Sanctuary. You’ll find plenty there. It’s just down the main road.” He pointed down the alley back the way I had come. “Want me to show you? It’s pretty easy to find.”

  “No thanks. I’ll find it.” I said. I didn’t really want the company at the moment. I was still new to the dungeon and didn’t really know anybody around here. And given my first experience was a gang of thugs claiming to be from two different sides of a war trying to recruit me and then torture me when I refused to choose a side, I figured I’d pass on traveling with anyone else for a while. Until I was at least level five.

  The level was arbitrary, but the rule wasn’t. If I didn’t feel safe at level 5, I’d wait until level ten, and so forth. There would come a time when I would need companions to keep me alive in the dungeon, but that wouldn’t come for quite some time. And it was better to be safe than sorry.

  Matt shrugged indifferently, and I got the notion that he’d anticipated my feelings on the matter. “Just don’t be afraid to ask for help if you need it. The dungeon is a brutal place, and you need good friends if you’re going to get out alive.”

  I nodded and reached out my hand. “It really was nice to meet you, Matt. I hope we run into each other again in the future.”

  We shook hands, then went our separate ways. He was gone before I’d even turned around. That was a bit unnerving, the way these high-level people just seemed to vanish from sight. I knew it was just my low speed stat, but still. They really were a cut above the normal human, weren’t they.

  Still pondering these things, I turned and headed back out of the alley and onto the main thoroughfare. It was time to find this Sanctuary place. I hoped it would take a while to get there. I still needed to get myself into the right mindset. There was a quest that needed completing, and it was quite possibly the most dangerous thing I had ever done so far.